Mountain of The Suns • Book 2

Chapter 5

Jun and I were shown the place a little bit more by Riku once we had gotten into dry clothes. He had apologized for rushing us into the ceremony, but I guess Midori was insistent we get it over with. It was definitely energy draining after traveling all morning and afternoon but after a shower and change of clothes I felt a little more refreshed.

We got a tour of the library and it was immaculate. I had spent a lot of time in my childhood library growing up because it was the one place no one really went. It was several stories high and filled to the brim with books. This one was just the same and felt even cozier.

We also got to see the dormitories and I could see they also had a different set up than Yabune. I had my own room back there and I only had neighbors on each side. Now it looked like everyone was assigned a roommate and each room had 2/3 beds.

I was worried about having to share my space with someone else, but Riku informed us we'd be sharing a room. Normally they didn't allow students to intermingle with other genders but I guess they wanted me to be with Jun as much as possible. He was my guard and protector so I guess I had to be at least near him.

I hadn't ever shared a room with a boy before but Jun was respectful enough. He wasn't one to make me feel weird or uncomfortable the few times we had shared a room. It was at least a room with two beds which was nice. I didn't exactly feel comfortable sharing a small bed on any normal basis with him, nor did I want to make him sleep in any more uncomfortable places.

Once we were seen to our room we were given a chance to decompress and breath for a moment. We had a small window that looked over the side of the mountain and down a towards the stream. I could even see the Wisteria forest Jun had mentioned next to a larger body of water. I was interested to go and see that forest but I'm sure today wouldn't be that day.

I was hopeful this place was going to warm up to me more than Yabune had. Though I still wasn't ready to see every aspect of this place so soon. I wanted to be able to explore it on my own time. Jun had mentioned this place was safer inside of the mountain. It only had two points of entry or exit so once those doors closed it was protected by a force field and physical entrance. There was windows in each of the dorms, but it had a master lock that was nearly impossible to bust from the inside or out.

It would be nice to wander the temple and not have to feel scared. They hadn't gotten a new student since this time last year so the chance of someone being a spy like Yami was minimal to none. The Oni had always been around, but they only joined sides with the Temple of Bishamon maybe just under a year ago according to Jun.

I of course wouldn't let my guard down, but as long as I wasn't alone with anyone excluding Jun, I'd be fine. I didn't plan on veering too far away from Jun anyways. He was the one person I knew here and other than the Masters he didn't know many others either.

I looked out the window standing on my toes to see the beach down below and all the people down there. There was about 20 or so people seemingly working and I could tell as the sun set their work day was coming to an end. I heard the sound of foot steps behind me and turned to see Jun who had just unpacked coming up. He stood next to me and placed his elbows on the windowsill next to me.

"You already unpacked?" He asked me.

"I don't have personal belongings." I said with a soft laugh. "I came to the temple with that same bag on my back. Only thing I've added to that bad is your goddamned textbooks."

"Fair enough." He said laughing softly as he watched the others down there. "I forget how pretty this place is at sunset, it's even cooler at night."

"Oh yeah?" I asked as I looked to the golden sunset far in the distance.