"It's really no problem."

She leads him to the fencing salle, and then into the empty locker rooms, and hands him something from her locker (she's got the best one, right next to the door) that is distinctly not a fencing foil; it looks more like a broadsword. "Here, take this."

Zuko takes it. It doesn't seem like a kind of sword that's been optimized for nonlethal combat. But it is being kept in the school, so hopefully that's a sign that whatever is going on is school-sanctioned and he's not going to go to jail for possession of a deadly weapon. Zuko's not sure, however, if that means he can take an entire broadsword to his next class.

"Thank you," he says again. "Should I... leave this here until after school?"

The best chance to back down would have been hours ago, at least, possibly before he even came to school at all, so he might as well just keep going along with it.

Juri does not appear to think it's remarkable that she's offering him a non-blunted sword. "It's a good idea if you don't want people staring at you and asking why you have it. —which you don't."

Juri is right, Zuko absolutely doesn't want that, for many reasons.

"Okay," he says. "That's good to know." He offers the sword back to her. He's not sure if she wants the sword back in her locker, since that would mean she'd need to come open it again before his duel, he is dueling, it is very important that he be aware of the fact that he is dueling an upperclassman with a sword on his first day, but leaving it propped against the wall like a drying umbrella seems bad. So she can have the sword and figure out where it goes.

After a pause to think about the logistics here, the sword goes into a bag clearly labeled with Juri's name and the bag goes under the bench. She does not seem to consider it a possibility worthy of thought that anyone might go through her bag who wasn't supposed to. "Fencing club starts an hour after school ends, if you get here before that it should be empty. I'll walk you to your next class."

In Zuko's mind, Juri has become a Person Who Knows What's Going On, so he's mostly trying to follow her lead. He does not raise any concerns about the bag solution. He also feels like the duel will probably be entirely over before fencing club starts, so no concerns on that front either.

"I appreciate your help," he says. He sort of wants to ask her what to expect from a duel, if this whole situation is normal for Ohtori Academy, if Saionji and Anthy are married, but he also doesn't want to make it obvious how little he knows.

"Thank me by winning, Saionji's been insufferable."

(There are a lot of questions he could ask based on that, so many that he's incapable of mentally articulating them. And there's still the issue of not wanting to reveal his ignorance.)

"Hosokawa! You're late, that'll be—"

Juri clears her throat. She is, very pointedly, not looking at Zuko's teacher.

"—well, sit down."

"Yes, Sensei."

Zuko sits down.

Zuko thinks that it's a very good thing that Juri found him.

Zuko would very much like to thank her by winning the duel, and really wants it to be in any way possible for him to do so.

The rest of Zuko's school day goes by. It could almost be normal, except for how no it couldn't be.

The forest behind the school is very, very off-limits for students. There's a gate; it's not entirely obvious how it opens.

But when he takes the handle, a drop of water splashes up to hit the ring on his hand—

—and water crashes down around the steps, and when the mist clears Zuko is staring up at an open gate and an enormous carved rose.

And surely he should have been able to see those stairs from outside the forest, right?

Right?