Quite The Quirky Lot

Quite the Quirky Lot

James had just arrived into Knapford with an express from the mainland, his fireman had uncoupled him from the train and they were awaiting clearance to leave for Conrad's Bridge to refresh on water, so he was running a little hot today.

Passengers milled about from the train, amongst them a group of high schoolers, some of whom were making there way down the platform, one of them who had broken away from the group walked down alongside James muttering in Japanese, now James knew Japanese, he hadn't used in in awhile but he was fresh enough to understand what the young man was saying.

"We're late, and those stupid enclosed carriages meant the extras wouldn't shut up, who came up with all of this" He snarled to himself.

"Hey now, I'm not late," James spoke back, in near perfect Japanese, which unsurprisingly spooked the teenager, you don't expect to be spoken back to you in your native language, especially on the other side of the world, and by a talking train.

"There was simply a delay, not my fault that there was a special that had to overtake, no need to get angry," He spoke with a voice reserved for Customer service workers.

"You could have at the very least sped up a bit, it felt like sitting behind a group of slow walkers!" The blond hit back.

"Mate," He was getting angry now, the lack of water was making him feel unhappy, "I was running at the limit, I know where your from your used to expresses being faster, but trust me I was running at good speed!"

"Well you carriages are the worse with all there crapped space"

James burst out into English to get his anger across.

"Yeah well Puffball! I can't sit in those carriages I have no idea what there like, apparently those seats are made of horse fur! You can't get more comfy than that these days!" He snorted a jet of steam out his nose, "Maybe next time pick better travel partners!"

Several other students had been making their way down the platform to see what all the angry Japanese was about, and could only stand embarrassed as their classmate lashed out a train .

"Bakugou could you go an hour without yelling at something?" Came a croaky voice from James' side.

"Yes I can, but this big red sausage was late and I though he should know that!"

"I've told you, you sea urchin looking punk, I was on schedule!"

"Bakugou stop yelling at the train who is clearly trying to do his job" Came another voice.

"Right," James said with a grin, "Listen to your friend there, it sounds like he knows how to treat a steam engine"

"Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!" Came yet another voice as a young lad with spiked red hair hurried over to the blond who James had gathered was named Bakugou.

"He's not a big fan on enclosed spaced with a bunch of people, between this and the plane he's a bit antsy" He quickly said as he threw his arm around his friends shoulder, trying to defuse the situation.

"Ahh right, yeah that would probably drive me up the wall too, sorry about that man" James said with a look of semi understanding, he wasn't about to prolong the argument.

"Nice hair by the way, like the colour" He said to the red head, who simply smiled.

"Thanks man! Hey come on Bakugou I left my bag over with Sensei"

"You moron what did you do that for?!"

"So you didn't exploded on a train?" He replied as he lead Bakugou back down the platform, the blond surprisingly not making a fuss, James though he looked the type to.

"Sorry about him," James looked over at the young man that had chastised Bakugou earlier, "He's a bit much"

"Your telling me, woah, neat hair" James could finally see the young man, he had bright white hair on one side and a deep red on the other.

"uhh thank you" He replied in neat well practiced English.

"I was joking about you know how to treat steam engines by the way, you haven't meet a talking one have you?" James asked.

"No, I haven't exactly had the chance to meet any" he replied.

"Well if your here for a bit longer you'll meet plenty" James smirked.

"So we've been told" Said the croaky voice as a girl with large eyes and long hair appeared alongside.

"Yeah there are plenty of us here, how long are you staying?" he asked them.

"Just about two weeks," Came yet another voice, this one from a young man with a large yellow backpack and green hair, he was stood over by the bench with brunette girl and shorter boy with a large purple pompadour.

"Plenty of time to get a good show around, where are you headed?"

"We're staying at a hostel for the night, and then we should be heading up to, Har, har-" The Brunette stumbled on the word.

"Harwick? ohh yes it's quite lovely up there, make sure you get good seats, the run up the coast is quite charming" James was enjoying this they seemed like good company.

"Anything else on the schedule?" He questioned.

"Not that I know off, our class rep or our teacher should have that" The twin coloured boy replied.

"Well I think there's a concert at Arlesbrugh, this Sunday" He said with uncertainty, that got a yelp from down the platform.

"Hear that Jirou, there's a concert in town!"

"I heard that you dumbass, just because there is one on doesn't mean we have to go"

The other voice wasn't discouraged, "Hey your always saying that you'd love to meet some British Punk Rockers, maybe there will be some there?"

James would give the unseen guy some credit, he had some guts in him.

"I'm not sure about the artists, seeing as I can't go to concerts but that's a maybe on the Punks" James laughed.

There was a whistle behind him as a pilot drew the coaches out of the station.

"I guess that's my queue to leave, sorry I can't chat for much longer but I have to get going, you all have a lovey day now, I might see you lot around" He grinned as he whistled pulling out of the station in a cloud of steam, as the teenagers on the platform waved him out.

"Thanks for the recommendation!" Came a shout from a bright blond young man as James rolled past him and a girl with purple short hair.

"Anytime lad, take care"

James smiled to himself as he moved past the rest of the class making there way down the platform, but he had to double take, he could have sworn he saw one with the head of a bird, he blinked a few times as he passed the two boys from earlier standing along side a taller man with black hair who was speaking in an annoyed manner to the blond.

"What a weird lot" James mused to himself as the group of Japanese made their way to the station underpass.