Chapter 4

Half an hour of unpacking later, Laura's tablet was sitting on her desk, attached to both it's keyboard and the Japanese charger she had bought in preparation. Most of the clothes she had brought were stored away in the closet, which looked off to the young woman without her pair of gambesons hanging next to the couple of dresses she had brought.

Checking the time on her phone, the German student immediately broke into a sprint, barely remembering to close the door behind herself. Slipping out of the slippers she exchanged them for the boots she had worn before, stepped into them and pulled the zippers up one after another, already walking to the door slowly.

"Sorry I am late." Laura half shouted as she stepped outside, just to see noone was waiting for her yet. Breathing a sigh of relief as she wasn't late, she kneeled down to retie the slightly loose lace to either side of the zipper on her right boot. As she looked up, she noticed a Tanuki eyeing her curiously from a few meters away as it nibbled on what looked like a potato chip, it's eyes appearing a flat brown covered in the building's shadow as they were.

"What's so interesting little one? Hm?" she asked it jokingly in German, a smile on her lips. Just as it seemed like it was going to respond, a pair of footsteps drew Laura's attention away.

"Don't try to get too close to it." Daiki said, as he noticed her kneeling on the ground after stepping out of the other Dormitory. "Either it's going to panic and scratch you up, or it has rabies and let's you get close just to bite you."

"I know that, but still it's just too cute sitting there and watching." She responded before visibly shaking for a second. "I've seen the aftermath of how it looks if people get careless with wild animals a couple of times." Seeing the confused looks on the young man's faces she quickly amended her statement. "Just pictures during first aid and paramedic trainings and on documentaries mind you."

"Well just be carefull." Daiki commented, still unsure what to make of that reply. "But let's get back to our tour of campus shall we?" he finished, and after a pair of nods from his charges, he lead them into the area encompassed by the two dormitories.

They couldn't see most of what was actually in that courtyard though, as a series of small huts build wall to wall blocked their sight, except for the path leading around them and the small green areas immediately next to the Dormitories. What lay behind them was quickly revealed to the exchange students when they stepped past the wooden huts, and they saw the university's swimming pool. At the far end of the 50m long pool was another set of huts.

"This is our pool, and outside the swimming clubs training times, everyone is welcome to use it if they feel like it." Daiki explained before turning towards the huts they passed. "These here are small changing rooms, while the ones on the other end are for storage for the maintenance and cleaning staff, as well as the swim team."

Seeing as neither Laura nor Gabe had any questions, Daiki lead the group past the storage sheds, where the Gym was located. Inside there were two small corridors leading of on each side, signs denoting them as the way to the changing rooms for Women and Men respectively. Straight ahead was a staircase leading up to the spectators areas according to the sign above it.

"Here we have the gym, if you were to walk around to the other side, either going back out or up and through the stands, you would find a second set of changing rooms, used by visiting teams or athletes during competitions." Daiki explained as he led them upstairs, where they could see the simple wooden benches for people to sit on as they watched whatever training or competitions they wanted to observe. Below them, two seperate halls could be seen, both set up and marked to allow for a variety of sports to be performed in them.

As they walked over to the other end of the Gym, Laura noticed a weird area covered in broad, diagonal lines near what seemed to be doors to the changing rooms.

"What's that for?" She inquired of Daiki, pointing towards it. "I can't think of any sport that would need those."

"That's because they aren't for any sport." Came the prompt response. "Those areas are marked to be kept free for any disabled watchers, as this building wasn't made with elevators for them in mind, so those are a compromise to let people unable to ascend the stairs watch without having to rebuild the gym."

"That sounds like a reasonable enough compromise." Gabe commented from the back of the group.

A few moments later they stepped outside again, this time right next to the Campus' back gate which opened to a small parking lot, presumably for the aforementioned visiting teams. On the other side of it was a small stadium, which seemed to be their next destination as Daiki was already on his way there. This time though, he did not lead them inside and instead had them all circle the outside, with an area setup for track and field on the other side of the path they followed.

"I can't show you, as the stadium is closed outside of trainings and games, due to some good for nothings vandalising it regularly before that rule was put in place. Inside is of course seating for spectators, and a grass field that can be used for soccer, Rugby or lacrosse." As they turned to cross the tracks, Daiki opened the can of tea he had taken with him earlier and took a sip before continuing.

"This here is, as you probably can tell, is where people in the track and field clubs do their things. On the rather rare occasion that they have competitions, there will be some temporary seating set up. And ahead of us is the last building on Campus you haven't seen yet, which contains the library as well as the cafeteria."