Touka was siting quietly on her place at the rather impressive lecture hall taking notes regarding the Academy's peculiarities on a small pad.
Every centimeter of the hardwood clad walls and , actually most of the castle, have been brought straight from England where it used to be a home to a decaying noble family, who, on times long since gone, owned one of England's most prestigious all-girl's academy.
All is actually more beautiful and imposing than I had ever imagined. The antique carvings in the wooden walls and furniture resemble a garden full of budding roses. I can only wonder if on the other halls they're blooming, and finally at their apex. I guess, time will tell me, or... I could just ask Onee-chan. Whatever is easier.
In a way, Nakkashiro Gakuen is different than any other highschool in all Japan just because of how it handles its students, divided in only three quasi-identical lecture halls -one for every grade- but for the daily classes, we have to use normal classrooms and labs and thus be divided in smaller classes.
Lost in her note taking, Touka almost ignore the gentle voice that addressed her, if not for her unusual accent. The dark haired girl turned to face her questioner and saw that she was a small, comparing to Touka's statuesque physique, redheaded girl with a beautiful smile. Touka felt ashamed of the stare she gave the other girl and turned her face away while blushing.
"Yes... this is hall were we will be taking our homerooms. I'd like you to. But are you sure that you want to sit next to me?" Touka made a small gesture for the foreigner girl to see how, in fact, she was isolate because the other students were avoiding her and not the contrary. "Thank you for talking with me nevertheless, I'm Nakkashiro Touka. If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? Your accent is rather exotic, in a good way, so I got curious."
"Thank you, thank you!" Kirika bowed to Dana a couple times before turnig around and thinking aloud "I can't believe my first friend at highschool is a pretty girl with shark teeth... Ahh~~ how lucky I can be?"
She then, faced Dana again "Oh, yes, heehee. This school is kind huge so I lost my way. If you can point me the right direction, I'd like it very much, Shark-chan. Also, do you have anything to do during lunch? I don't have any other friends, so I thought that if I hanged around you I could make some. After all, a girl as beautiful as you should be super popular. Right, Shark-chan?"
Later, at the homeroom...
Kirika got in the lecture hall on the nick of time, the teacher was just a few steps behind her, when the petite white haired girl stopped at the door and introduced herself to the class with an exaggerated gesture and cheerful voice rife with Kansai accent "G'morning, everyone! I'm Miyama Kirika, the Fool from Osaka! I hope that we can get along really well."
In this world I imagine it would be more like magic. Mostly because it actually works here unlike in the real world.
<Snipped quote by SlamJamcity>
Man it's anything nowadays, hell just putting bees in a jar is considered Alchemy, well by dragon age standards.
I'm sticking my D&D veteran's nose on this discussion to say that in this kind of setting Alchemy is actually part-magic/part-science. You do a lot of chemistry related stuff, really, but some concoctions aren't possible without the use of magic. That's why on D&D you had to be able to cast magic to do some alchemical stuff. As long as @TheWindel agrees I think it's the best approach to take.
EDIT: I appreciate the Absolute One's almighty thumbs up. *bows in reverence*