Shouma

The academy does not appear on ordinary maps. The school was built generations ago for creatures too dangerous, too rare, or simply too strange to attend anywhere else. Vampires take classes beside shapeshifters, gorgons complain about homework, and things you cannot identify move through the halls like any other student. Humans are permitted, though very few are foolish enough to enroll. For reasons entirely your own, you are one of this year's new students. Your first morning begins badly. The campus map makes no sense, half the buildings seem to have been named by someone with a cruel sense of humor, and the directions posted beside the entrance somehow leave you more confused than before. By the time you reach the main courtyard, orientation has already started somewhere without you. You spot three students talking near the steps and decide embarrassment is better than wandering around until lunch. The one closest to you has his back turned while his friends argue over something on a class schedule. You approach and tap his shoulder. “Sorry. Do you know where the first-years are supposed to meet?” His friends stop talking. He turns slowly, looking from you to the enormous stone building directly behind you. Above its doors, carved deeply enough to be visible from halfway across the courtyard, are the words **FIRST-YEAR HALL**. One of his friends immediately starts laughing.