A day at bakery ninja school

In the vast expansive ever changing city of Byako with its teeming mariad of random clashing locations and cultures, in a quaint little schoolery town of much learning of sillyness, within the bakery ninja school of the bakery ninja college students in the bakery ninja dorm rooms of love and justice sat two individuals.

They were sitting on a pair of ninja couches opposite of one another and bent over a ninja table of the ninja public room of their ninja dorm. (both of which were of course fully dressed as ninjas)  They had a dozen books on bakery ninja history opened up and were ninja tackling the one of the most vile and evil of opponents that a bakery ninja student must face along their road to the future…
Homework.

One of them, a reddish orange feline was hanging upside down off the head of the couch by his legs as he flipped through a large heavy battered tome in a gloom.
"I hate the ninja academic parts~ Why couldn't I just go through the ninja practical studies and get my diploma sooner?"
He whined, knowing the answer already but feeling the need to complain about it anyway.

His name was Danish and his questionable backstory aside, he was a very dedicated student in the bakery ninja arts. It's just that if you were to ask someone what his weakest subject was, ten out of ten people would be able to easily answer that it was the thought heavy subjects.

Now Danish graduated from the bakery ninja school of love and justice and had the basics down pat. He could deliver a rich speech with emotion and energy. He could move like a leaf in the wind and was noted for his impressive leaping abilities. He even mastered his schools approach to baking, able to produce a hundred brownies in less than an hour and toss them into the waiting mouths of his fellow pupils in the art of bakery ninjaing.

However, Danish hated all of the subjects designed around sitting in place. History, language, mathematics and suchness. It wasn't that Danish was bad at such things, oh no. In fact he showed a fair aptitude for economics. It's just that Danish was convinced that bakery ninjaing was all about fighting, preserving justice and saving those in need.  Spending his time sitting in one place doing nothing at all but listening and studying drove him to frustration and it took all of his will power not to leap out of the room in search of the nearest oven.

The girl opposite Danish sighed, glaring at her counterpart. She had a brown crumbly skin with black chocolate bits poking out here and there which upon closer examination would reveal she was a living cookie.
She wore the same white uniform as Danish, identifying her as a fellow graduate of the bakery ninja school of love and justice.
Removing a pair of reading glasses and rubbing her face, she sighed. "Because those courses are actually useful? Even if their horribly slanted and focus on the bakery ninja perspective." The cookie girl picked up the sheet of paper and brushed away some pencil shavings and eraser bits. "A report on the bakery ninja masters from the first to the present.~" She said with a touch of sarcasm.

Her name was Crumpet and unlike Danish the proud bakery ninja of love and justice, she was forced to enroll by her parents who were proud bakery ninjas themselves and honestly didn't care about bakery ninjaing herself but didn't dare say so to her parents.
So she channeled her frustration into negativity and accomplished her courses with disinterest while regularly voicing her dislikes and complaints about bakery ninjaing.

Oddly enough, this translated to the two at the table being close friends who would endlessly argue concerning the greatness/pointlessness of bakery ninjas and since they came to bakery ninja university at the same time and came from the same school, a friendship was born out of familiarity.

"Why cant we do a report on something useful like the rise of political stability in the region or the history of pencils." She said dully, spinning her pencil between two digits.
"Whats the point of studying about a bunch of old bakery ninja masters like Awaid treasurehunter and gawd savethequeen?"

Usually about this time Danish would be rising up in protest and pointing out the wonders and great things the founders of bakery ninjary had done and how they deserved awe and reverence.
However this time Danish who was bored out of his mind from studying did not take the bait.
"How about we take a break? I mean, we have almost half of it done already and still have another day to do it…" Danish suggested, wanting really badly to stretch his legs and escape the glumness that was this history report.

Crumpet considered it a moment, looking up at the ceiling of the dojo-styled rec-room. On one hand if she stuck to it, she might be able to finish it just before midnight and have all of tomorrow to herself. On the other….She sighed, realizing that she herself was going a little batty sitting cooped up in here non stop since breakfast.

The thought of food made her realize that they had skipped lunch and she was a touch famished.
"Alright, wanna join me at bamboozled's?"
Crumpet asked, collecting her papers and using the remaining scrap paper to bookmark the sections she was on, leaving the material lying on the table. Unconcerned since only the two of them (and an inanimate dummy) were using the dorm this year.

Danish plopped the open book on the table and folded forward from his upside down position and leapt into the air, doing a backflip and twisting in midair before landing to face his fellow bakery ninja of love and justice. "Sure thing!" Danish said, already in higher spirits at the thought of seeing the open sun.

"I bet the others are already there~" Danish added with some glee as he did a cartwheel past The neat and tidy Crumpet who slowly rose from the couch, both of them heading for the door.

Crumpet shrugged in response to Danish's statement.
"Its possible." She said, thinking the contrary. After all, if they were not finished then how could any of the others be?

--

A short while later, the pair entered Bamboozled.
Bamboozled was the typical sort of establishment you might find within walking distance of universities everywhere. A quaint café for the weary students and teachers to recuperate after the rigors of gaining/giving an education.

The reason for the name was obvious once you entered it. The interior of the shoppe was a forest of bamboo with tables designed with a 'far east' theme in mind. The café was already partly filled with students. Not just from the bakery ninja university but a few people from other schools in the area, no doubt popping up for the fresh bamboo tea and other treats Bamboozled was locally famous for.

"You get us a table while I order." Crumpet said, following a routine that they quickly grew into during the first few months in the college town.

"Alright, will do. Pick me up the soup of the day~"  Danish said. And with that, he ninja lept five feet into the air, caught hold of one of the bamboo stalks and shimmied up to the open aired second floor.
Once he reached the ceiling Danish, holding onto the stalk with his feet, bent backwards, catching the edge of the circular piece of wood serving as celing and letting go of the bamboo stalk, hauled himself up.

Surrounding Danish as he looked around was a number of circular bits of flooring interconnected by planks that left a large opening in the roof of the café  and giving a nice clear and cheery sky for the customers to enjoy.

Standing up, Danish pulled out a chair from the nearest table, raised his legs and leaned back with his arms crossed behind his head as he basked in the delightful warm summer day.  
'Ah, its so nice to be out of that stuffy room and away from those books…I think I will make some strudels today…' Danish thought to himself.

"Umm…" A small voice sounded across from Danish, causing him to jump (more on reflex than anything) and wound up flailing his arms for a few seconds before steadying himself.
Sitting up straight, Danish looked over to see who it was and let out a laugh in surprise.
"Onir~ This is a fine coincidence~! Did you see me sitting here and come on over?"

"Err…Actually I was already sitting here when you came to sit down…" He said, a green and red drink sitting in front of him alongside half a corn beef sandwich.

"Oh I seeeee~" Danish said, nodding. "And how is Yard?" He asked, receiving a silent wave to a figure on his left. The quiet fellow was  nibbling away at a quaint genoise sponge cake.

Onir and Yard were students of the Giblet school of aqua archery and konga dancing. A mighty institution and rival school of Danish's own bakery ninja university.

Onir entered the school this year and was shortly after paired up as is the tradition of aqua archery with a partner. From what he told Danish, the young fellow enrolled in order to follow his sisters footsteps, (A notable alumni in the past)
Onir had green skin and a number of spiky quills protruding from his body (particularly a large number of quills poking out the top of his head) He was a cactus and was probably a couple years older than Danish himself.
Also, he wore clothes in a lot of brown and grey tones and had sitting beside his chair a collapsible aluminum bow.


Yard was his partner.  A red Spanish dancer fish with specks of faint yellow across his body.

A quiet person who Danish had never heard say a word, He could easily be mistaken as a strange plant or a wadded up shirt. Yard was also enrolled in dancing classes and with his ability to swim through the air he had a wonderful talent for wowing a crowd. Unbeknownst to others, he was also secretly a member of the historical reenactment society and liked to ride on ceiling fans in his spare time.

In the aqua archer school, it was always a two person team with at least one of them trained in the art of archery between them.
Each duo was a little different from the others and true to form, Onir and Yard made for a unique team.
Onir was not a very skilled archer and it took him time to aim and fire. He made up for this with a number of fancy gadgets that he bought out of the 'masked vigilante monthly' catalog.
And Yard had a natural talent for poisonous chemicals, able to inject or coat dangerous substances on whatever suited his whim. This combined with his talent for disguise, flight and agile dance-like movment in the air made him impossible to touch.
Working together, the two of them relied less on speed and force but rather skill and deception.

"How are the Bakery Ninja classes?" Onir asked in an effort to make small talk.

The question caused Danish to wince in remembrance of his recent escape. In an effort to dress up his avoidance with bravado and to brighten his mood, Danish hopped up onto the table and struck an epic pose.
"We are in the name of love and justice celebrating our victory against an ancient and mighty foe of all bakery ninja kind!"
Danish proclaimed loudly, producing a croissant which he held to the skies.
"An enemy so wicked that even the greatest of bakery ninjas blanch at the sight of this wicked enemy!"

Onir stared wide eyed and open mouthed. "Gosh! What was this foe?" He asked in ernest interest.

Danish rocked backwards from the question in surprise. "Umm…It is so terrible that I dare not speak its name~ Umm…So how are your-" Danish began, only to be interrupted.

"Oy, feet off  the table, Im eating there." Crumpet said, walking up with a tray of food alongside yet another familiar face.

Danish climbed down from the table and grinned. "Oh~ So you met up with Tea, how goes?"

Danish said, referring to the person walking alongside Crumpet as she neared the table and sat down, passing Danish a bowl of tolrtia soup as Tea got a chair from another table and pulled it over.

Tea was a humanoid bakery ninja but unlike Crumpet and Danish, he was of the human bakery ninja school of nobility and proper etiquite. A bakery ninja school that preached a code of chivalry and honor.  To exemplify this, unlike the bakery ninjas of love and justice, the nobility and proper etiquite bakery ninjas wore blue bakery ninja attire with coat tails, cuff links, bow ties and proper gentlemanry headwear. (Tea himself wore a proper Kepi that matched his bakery ninja outfit.)

Tea was a student who was in the same year as Danish and Crumpet. He specialized in the art of baking and possessed a flavor far surpassing that of of his fellow bakery ninja students.
He was a very polite fellow who could always be relied upon to lend a helping hand when asked and like Danish, always did his best to represent his school's code to the fullest.

He sat down with a cup of tea and pulled out from under his hat a tray of fresh baked dinner rolls.
"Want some? I have plenty~" He offered, taking one and dunking it into his tea before nibbling on the moistened pastry.

"Oh thank you~" Onir said  in a sorta automatic parroty tone as Yard floated upward into the air and danced around the plates to pick up one of the small breads in its mouth before fluttering back to his chair to curl up and move between nibbling the bread roll and nomming his sponge cake.

"So how goes?" Danish asked again as he picked up a spoon and enjoyed the taste of fresh tortilla soup.

"Well I finished the history report this morning and decided to have a spot on the town. Ran into Rivalo a little earlier at the arcade too." Tea said, unintentionally rubbing in his wicked talent at finishing homework quickly by harnessing the power of 'all nighters'

"What?!" Danish said wide eyed, ninja-leaping to stand up on his chair and holding his spoon to the heavens.
"Rivalo defeated the foul evil that is a report on all the bakery ninja masters in history?!" He asked in open shock, unable to connect 'scholastic ability' with 'Rivalo'

It was a little unfair of Danish to think thus, Rivalo was not unlearned. Just…Simplistic and a bit direct. His studies were not exactly bad, in fact he could get very high grades now and then. Its just that…Rivalo the bakery ninja of the (insertnamehere) bakery ninja school of honor and stoicness was a very very loud individual who was obsessed with being the best at everything and would do this by picking a specific subject and working on it with his full unparalleled focus. Ignoring everything else. This meant that he could be counted on to get A good grade but if given multiple projects he would more than likely drop everything else for a specific score. Because of this, Rivalo had a bit of a reputation among bakery ninja students.

"Pfft. He probably hasn't even started yet." Crumpet said, taking a bite of a chocolate mousse cake.

"Umm…He said he was not going to rest until he got the high score at the arcade." Tea said, sipping his tea in a gentlmannery manner that had been drilled into him by the strict tutelage of his bakery ninja master, Human.

"What? Which game?" Danish asked curiously, wondering idly what had gotten Rivalo's interest this time.

"All of them." Tea said, with an expression that summed up his own thoughts on the matter.

"Eh? Really? Hes getting better then." Crumpet said, pausing from her cake to drink some warm coacoa with marshmellows. Crumpet it should be mentioned due to her unique physiology required lots and lots and lots of sugar to get through the day.

"Umm…" Onir started, feeling a bit left out of the conversation between the three bakery ninjas and their bakery ninja ways. "So…Why did you all enroll into bakery ninja school?" He asked, in an effort to change the subject to something the aqua archer could better relate to.

"Well…" Tea started. "For me it actually started when I saw the movie 'pin wheels in loondan' and saw…" He trailed off, his gaze on Danish who had set up a portable backdrop of a forest and was fiddling with a strobe light and a shadow machine.
"I think I will let Danish go first." Tea said, changing his mind.

Danish was the sort who was very big on putting on a show and the opportunity to give an origin story was one Danish could not pass up. Soon, Danish had turned the sky around them dark and had a orange spotlight shining down on him and picking up his bowl, he began speed eating the soup (so it would not get cold while he talked) leaving a small stain on the mask over his face due to sloppy eating.

Crumpet rolled her eyes at the whole scene and Tea grinned, ready to see an amusing show. Onir for his part was staring curiously, having not seen one of Danish's origin stories yet.

"In a time long ago in a land far away there was a young child who was orphaned at a young age by an evil cult of pastry haters and wandered alone most tragically until he was taken in by the great bakery ninja master Flan and taught the ways of the bakery ninja so I may avenge their deaths!!!"  

Danish declared loudly, pointing skywards as  a small collection of fireworks Danish had set-up went off overhead in a brilliant array of colors.

Onir stared wide eyed in shock at the whole thing, taking it seriously. "That's horrible! Did you manage to defeat them?!" He demanded to know

Crumpet rolled her eyes, having finished her cakey and coacoa. "Oh Danish, how is your dad doing at the cartographers guild?" She asked before Danish could wax his tale to the gullible Onir.

"Oh good, good. According to mom last time she called, he is mapping the outlying area surrounding one of those 'other world' doors." Danish said non chalantly before going back to his tragic story without missing a beat, leaving Onir very much puzzled.

In reality, Danish's parents were very much alive along with his siblings and his little dog too. Danish has a love of the theatrics. Well, all Bakery ninjas in one way or another have a love of theatrics but Danish takes it to whole new levels, willing to turn the simplest thing into an epic to wow a crowd. Even if it means embellishing the details.

In reality, Danish got lost when he was a wee child and was saved by Bakery Ninja Flan and since then, Danish had been like a fanboy enamoured by bakery ninjas in general and bakery ninja master Flan in particular, wanting to be just like her.
Course, Flan was also big on incredible stories of saving the world and fighting such great villains…But in her case it was true, Being known as the greatest bakery ninja of her generation.

However before Danish could continue his questionable origin story with flourish and wonder, a high pitched voice interrupted. "AHEM!"

All heads turned to see a bamboo stick with large googly eyes and a bow tie fluttering in the air. "Either turn off the special effects or you will be asked to leave." The Bamboozled employee said sharply. Speaking in a high pitched helium voice.

There were a string of apologies all around and the others helped Danish to turn off and dismantle the special effect, putting them away where they wont cause trouble.

--

Their small talk continued for another hour and the five of them had a ball of a time until Crumpet reminded Danish of their need to finish the project and bidding eachother adieu, they went their separate ways for the day.