7A/N: After years of "improvement" in my English, I've decided to rewrite all the chapters so far. I changed a few details here and there, but overall the story is the same. I like it more now, I have to admit. But that's all I have to say. This is just a whim and nothing more.
Chapter one: Asuka
It was already afternoon, just right after classes, the high school students started the preparations for the festival they will be celebrating in a couple of days. Everyone seemed so excited about the big event. The hallways that were always empty by the time classes finished now were full of people walking back and forth with decorations items.
On the hallway, a girl was carrying a pair of big boxes full of supplies for the decoration of her class. They were really big in size and almost look like she was making a great effort to carry them, but she knew how light they were and that's why she didn't have trouble walking normally with them. The other students looked the sizes of those boxes and it almost seemed like they were the centre of the attention as they were being lifted throughout the hallway. But what they were watching was the person who was carrying it.
"Hey, look there she goes." A boy whispered to his friend, following the stunning girl almost hypnotized.
"She's sooo cute. She always looks so pretty and collected." His friend agreed with him, but his eyes looked what she was carrying so diligently. "But those boxes look heavy, maybe we should help her out."
His friend stopped him holding his shoulder. "No, wait. Maybe you don't know cause you're new, but that girl is pretty known as the unapproachable."
"Uh? Then why is everyone so aware of her? Are you content with just looking from afar?"
"Well, just have a look." He pointed with his finger the current scene.
"Asuka-san, let me give you a hand with that." Another boy friendly approached her, trying to looked good and dependable in front of her with a smile on his face.
"I'm fine. Thank you." She passed beside him politely answering and not stop walking.
The two boys from before witnessed how that other student got rejected so casually by the cold beauty who didn't even blink. She wasn't exactly rude, but her distant way to treat others got her the reputation as the unapproachable idol of the school. The two guys observed how the other boy got devastated as she just kept walking, and felt kind of glad to not had acted the way he did.
"That was scary." The guy witnessed shocked a scene that should be more normal, but somehow he could feel that poor student's dejection.
"That's why I warned you. That was Asuka-san, she doesn't like to be approached, so don't bother." The veteran explained the new one, moving him with him to walk back to their business.
Once in her classroom, the girl sighed, finally leaving the box on a table. "...So, do you need me for anything else?" She asked her classmate Kukuri while she was finishing moving all the boxes filled with stuff for the festival. She wasn't the type to neglect her job, but it was getting pretty boring doing the same think over and over, so she was hoping to do something different.
"Oh thank you, Asuka-san." The busy girl thanked her classmate and then started searching in her mind for something that she could ask her for. "Now that you mention it, we run out of a couple of things that we need for the decoration. Would you mind going to the city and buy them?" The girl with short hair asked with her hands together begging that Asuka could do it and hopping that this last favour wasn't too much to ask.
"Oh, yeah. I don't mind. Actually I was getting tired of going from here to there with boxes all around school." Asuka answered happy to be able of get out of the building.
"Oh, THANKS again Asuka-san, you're the best." She thanked the girl with a smile while she gave her the address where she should go, then she watched her off before going back to business.
Casually, another classmate watched the whole exchange and looked at the girl in charge with a puzzle look "Uh? Wait a minute, Kukuri-san. Didn't you sent Yashiro to do the same errand a while ago?"
The girl in question gave her classmate's warning a blank expression before reacting to it. "Wait Asuka-san!" She ran behind her classmate but sadly it was too late.
The teenager started her travel to Shizume city. The high school was located in an island, so it was a long way to the city, but the girl was willing to do it as long as she could change from scenario for a little while. 'Thank God Kukuri sent me to another place far away from school. I was getting so bored with the festival preparations. *sigh* I really need a break.' Contrary to the rest of the students, the cold girl seemed rather indifferent about the festival, she actually found it bothersome as she wasn't the type to enjoy the environment and thought the whole preparation was annoying. "I would rather be studying right now to be honest." She whispered under her breath.
She was aware of her reputation in school, but she didn't mind it, if anything she was glad that thanks to it she didn't have to deal with people in general. The school girl found her own indifference quite problematic, she knew it wasn't right for a teenager to think this way, and actually the people that she was seen everyday weren't bad people at all, but she had her own reasons to choose this life. And right now, she was going to use this special time alone to relax a little from the glee and joyful ambient she was going to face the next days.
After walking out of the train station, on the streets of the city, the people couldn't help turning around to look at her. The girl was so pretty with her school uniform, even when she was walking a little gloomy for tiredness, she didn't stop to give off an aura of brightness. She was a beautiful girl: long black hair, big blue eyes and a gorgeous silhouette. As she was walking, the wind was blowing and with her hand she was removing her bangs from her face to not obstruct her vision, while the other one was making sure the wind didn't lift her skirt.
Finally, she arrived to the shop and with all the things she needed in a bag she quickly got out of the store. 'Ok, time to go back.' She sighted, defeated by the inevitable scene that was waiting in school. She made sure to have all the things she needed, it would be a pain in the ass to forget something, and she was already tired just to think about doing the same thing again. She was ready to go back to school, but suddenly something caught her attention. "Uh? What's that?" Far away, in the distance, there was a figure moving at high speed, the white hair and the same uniform of her school, made her realize that it was her classmate Isana Yashiro.
'Uh? What's he doing here?' She didn't quiet get why he was also outside in the city, maybe he was also running an errand. 'Oh, well, if he's here, we might as well go back together'. The schoolgirl thought it would be nice to go back to school together, even tough it was unusual for her to approach someone because she preferred to be alone. But for some reason she felt the necessity of coming near to him like he was a good friend of hers, even when he was just been recently integrated to her class. However she didn't think for too much about that sudden change of her attitude and she decided to called his name. "Yashir-!"
But before she could do it, she noticed there was something strange in that scene, her eyes noticed why he was running: he was being chased by a stranger. 'He's in trouble!' Both of them were running very fast inside the crowd. Asuka didn't know what was going on but she felt she couldn't let her classmate alone when somebody was going after him so fiercely, it could be dangerous.
Her legs, instead of froze right there, started moving towards him without hesitation. She didn't give it much thought, Just started chasing them with all her might. It was very difficult to follow them, she didn't want to lose sight of them, she didn't want to bump into someone and she didn't want her skirt to lift and flash her underwear to all the people. But after a few minutes of persecution she reached them into an alley. "Yashiro!" She shouted worried with the little breath she had after running so much, as she was trying to get it back.
The white haired boy turned his gaze when he heard her cry. "Asuka-san!? What are you doing here!?" He asked surprised when he saw her classmate in the middle of his persecution.
"Um, I…" The student didn't know what to say, it was then when she came into reason and realized the situation she got caught in. She got panicked when she saw the scene: Yashiro was cornered by the skater, a guy that seemed to look like their age, but he looked very threatening and dangerous. He was wearing civilian clothes, so she assumed that he wasn't a high school student or maybe he was a delinquent. Her eyes that were examining him went down and founded what this guy had on his hand. He was caring a baseball bat in his hand.
'Yashiro, What the HELL did you do to get in this situation!?' She cursed her classmate inside her mind looking at him with confusion and fear.
By now, she was truly regretting getting involved, even when she told herself thousands of times she shouldn't get involved with other people, her mind couldn't ignore this kinds of situations. But now her feet couldn't move because of the fear she was felling, she knew she couldn't handle a fight with someone armed and that made her feel nervous. However, she knew that she shouldn't stay there doing nothing. Her classmate was in trouble and she was probably the only one who could help him out, so she tried to think a way of scape from this situation.
Even if the skater boy looked intimidating, they only needed to run away back to the street full with people and then they would get some help. If that didn't work, they could always attack him, after all they were two against one, so they couldn't fail.
Decided, the girl ran towards Yashiro's side to face the other boy, using a pissed expression and yelled "I don't know what Yashiro did, but I won't let you hurt him!" With those words she thought that by distracting him, they could run away the moment he'll answer. 'Ok, easy there. We just need to wait for the right moment, and then run away.' She showed a fearful glance on the outside, but on the inside she was very scared and uneasy. It was the first time she ever met with an armed person, so she needed to play her cards well.
She waited for his answer, wherever that will be, it wasn't important cause she was ready to take Yoshiro's hand and get the hell out of there, but she didn't calculate a fail in her plan. '...Um, w-what's going on?' When there was only silence, Asuka thought that she just screwed everything and they lost the opportunity to escape, but for her surprise the boy gave her an unorthodox reaction.
He stayed standing there with his face flushed with a confused look. 'Uh?' She didn't got Why did he reacted like that when he looked like he was about to destroy them both. Trying to discover why he responded like that was only going to slow them down, she had to act quickly now that they run out options. And so, the girl remembered that she still had the bag with the stuff she brought from the store before and her mind reacted immediately. If they wanted to get out of there, they had to act fast. So without thinking she threw the bag with all her strength to the boy's face and hit him with it's content, then she grab Yashiro by the hand and started running. "Let's go Yashiro, Run!" She said as she cursed herself for the stupid decision she made, but there was no time to think about that, they needed to get out of there as fast as they could.
She looked at her classmate while they ran and noticed a little cat on his shoulder and that brought more doubts to her, but she didn't pay attention to it.
A few moments after throwing the bag, the skater was growling and emanating a red aura through his body and seconds later he was chasing them with his skate at full speed.
"OI! Come back here, Isana Yashiro!" He shouted swinging his bat behind the white hair guy almost touching him. But just at that moment when the students thought they were going to make it. "Kusanagi-san!" They heard the boy shouting and didn't know who he was calling, but just in front of them there was a tall man with sunglasses and a lighter in his hand. He wasn't moving from his place, so they thought that was odd and they might scape from them, but just right then, he was throwing fireballs towards them with his lighter.
"Watch out!" Asuka shouted and threw herself to the ground while holding Yashiro. By fortune they dodge the attack but the two other men cornered them and they had no escape. 'Shit! What am I going to do now!?' She breaths heavily trying to think rationally what to do in the strange situation. 'Oh! I KNOW! I'll call the police with my cell pho-' And just when she search her pocket there was nothing inside. 'NOOOOOOO! I let it on my school bag in school!' She remembered falling in despair.
'Now what? I don't have any kind of weapon that I could use to defend us! What's going to happen to us?' The scared student got angry with herself for being so powerless, if only she had her bag with her at least she could use maze. But without any useful ideas she gave up, waiting for wherever may happen to them while shutting her eyes closed.
Suddenly a guy with a black ponytail fell from the sky just in front of them, making her look at him. The first thing that she noticed was that he was caring a sword. 'Cool, another dangerous guy arrived.' Was what she thought, killing her hopes that someone would rescued them. But she got a surprise when she saw that this person was fighting with the other two men. 'He's probably on our side.' She thought opening her eyes with hopes again, but before she could relax, their rescuer took Yashiro who was snuggled up next to her and held him against himself, only to jump to the top of the building leaving her alone with the most strange sensation of abandonment that she ever felt in all her life.
With everything that just happened, she was still catching up to all the events of this shopping trip: that that guy just leaved with the boy she was trying to save, abandoning her by her own luck in a situation where she had nothing to do with the most dangerous and weirdest guys in the world. 'They just left me behind! He took Yashiro and run away, he just leaved me here with this people and without any idea of what THE HELL was happening!' Her mind was blank, she was still processing the events on her head. But she was bring back to reality when she heard a noise behind her and jumped. Those guys were still there.
"What are we going to do now Kusanagi-san!? Isana Yashiro just escaped." Said the teenager that was about to go chase after them when his friend stopped him before he did.
"Don't worry. Let's go with the second part of the plan." The taller man said very laid back while pressing a button on his cell phone.
The schoolgirl didn't understand what was that for, but they seemed way more relaxed after everything that happened. She just stayed there on the ground without knowing what to do. She was exhausted from running and if she try to escape they will notice and will follow her even though she wasn't the guy they were after. Plus at that moment she didn't have any strength enough to escape from two guys when one of them had a skateboard and the other could throw fireballs. And maybe if she stays in her place, they will probably ignore her and go away, after all they were chasing Yashiro and not her. So she decided to bet on the safe and stay.
BIG MISTAKE.
"OI, Yata-chan, don't let the girl escape. She can be useful for us, she knows our target. Take her with you and go to HOMRA." The blond guy commanded while lighting a cigar with a smile on his face.
"What!?" Both the teenager and the schoolgirl screamed in unison.
"W-Why should I do that!?" The short guy asked with a red face.
"I have some things to do before going back to the bar, so I leave it to you." He explained before exited the alley and saying goodbye.
'No, what do I do now? What do I do?' The girl was trying to keep calm and analyse the situation, trying that the cruel reality that she didn't want to accept, doesn't hit her too hard. It was difficult accept it, but those men were members of the Red Clan she already heard about before. So that meant that Yashiro must have done something VERY bad to get them like this. But that didn't matter now, she ran out of ideas to scape, and how exactly could she do that anyway, she didn't stand a chance against a persona who could shot fire at her. She was screwed.
Alone, while she was looking at the floor lost on her thoughts, the skater boy fought with himself to force himself to look at the girl while his face blushed. He had to prepare his mind about what he was going to do, but at the end he decided it and started to get close to her.
Asuka's heart started beating faster, she didn't know what the delinquent was about to do, maybe drug her, numb her and move her to another location or even beat her with his baseball bat. Without many options to escape, she shut her eyes fearing what he was about to do. But while she was clenching her teeth and kept her eyes closed, she felt his hands grabbing her waist and with an impulse he lifted her off the ground, placing her over one of his shoulders. Asuka opened her eyes quickly to see the end of the alley from a higher angle and she understood that the boy was carrying her. He put his hand on the back of her waist and held her in place.
The girl turned around just to find an angry boy with his face red colour while walking to the exit of the alley. The situation was so bizarre for her that she couldn't react before processing what was happening.
When her mind started working again she realized what was going on, she felt anger and embarrassment for the boy that held her like she was a sack of potatoes with no regret at all as if she belongs to them. "Hey! What the hell do you think you are doing?!" She shouted at him while kicking and punching his back trying to escape.
"Oi, Stop it! People are going to think there's something going on if you keep doing that!" He shouted at her. Carrying her was already enough for him so if she kept doing that it was going to be a scandal. The teenager had to transport her like that because he knew that she was going to run away if he told her to follow him with no protest, and this girl was fast enough to reached them up to the alley. 'She's fast. I can't let her escape.' The boy looked at her sideways and held his skateboard and baseball bat with his free hand. The girl was surprisingly light and even though he felt embarrassment for carrying her, there wasn't much of a problem, except the whole protesting.
"Let me go, you idiot!" The black hair girl insisted while moving to break free. She was tired but couldn't give up, he was going to take her to who knows where and do anything but good things to her, she had to get away even if it was the last thing she did.
With all her fuss and mess, it was getting difficult carrying her around with just one hand. The girl was shaking brusquely and she almost make them fall, but the guy reacted fast dropping his skateboard and bat to held her stronger than before, and against his will, with both hands.
Frustrated by her fail, she ended up a little dizzy for the movement of almost falling and go up again. When she recovered her conscious, she realized that something was wrong with her new position and she felt an imminent embarrassment.
The skater, cursing what this girl was making him go through, stopped his thoughts for a moment when he felt something unusual. Now he had one hand on her waist but he felt something soft with his other hand. Nervous to look more than he should, he chose to find out what he was touching by moving his hand slightly. It was warm to the touch, but his fingers ran into a fabric and his inquiry was interrupted when he heard...
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TOUCHING!? PERVERT!" Her shout surprised him and immediately he realized that the soft thing he was touching was just right under her skirt.
"S-Sorry! I didn't mean it! Is just that you didn't stop moving!" He screamed trying desperately to clear the misunderstanding and quickly putting his hand away from that place, felling his face hotter than ever. 'Tch. I can't take it anymore!' He held her legs with the hand on her waist and with his now free hand he grabbed from the floor his bat and skate and began to run towards the base by the shortcut he knew, avoiding the crowded places and with the schoolgirl shouting and complaining.
After a horrible journey, they arrived to HOMRA and the boy put the girl down. He didn't want her to feel scared or misunderstand the situation and think he was taking her to a place were they would harm her. So he believe if he show her he wasn't going to force her to enter, then she could made it on her own. Sadly that was a bad idea.
"Ouch!" As soon as she touched the floor, she kicked him in his knee and ran off. "Y-You Bitch!" He grouched with hate on the floor holding his knee. She was running as hard as she could trying to escape once again, without paying attention to her surroundings. But as she was getting farther away, he finally got on his feet and ran after her with his hurt leg. 'Shit! She doesn't give up!'
And for the second time he catch her and was forced again to lift her over his shoulder and hold her in place. But this time he wasn't going to ask her nicely to enter, but do it by himself. Having to touch her once again was really embarrassing and taking her to their base was getting very annoying. He couldn't believe all the trouble he went thru to take a schoolgirl into a bar. It was frustrating. "AAggh! Look what you made me do!" He shout felling embarrassed.
"What I made you do!? Did I make you kidnap me!?" While she was being carried she shouted back his nonsenses as she kept making a bigger fuss to not enter the local. But there was no use, no one was reacting to her calls, and she was getting closer to that place.
Asuka didn't want to enter in that place, even if it looked nice on the outside there was the possibility that they would take her to a basement or used her as a hostage. She didn't forget that this guys wanted to hurt Yashiro, and when he disappeared with the other stranger boy, she was sure they will use her to extort him. For the time being, she was looking at the entrance door with an insecure expression and feeling very insecure.
He was getting more and more uncomfortable caring her around like that, but soon his mission would be over, however his anger stopped when suddenly the boy felt her shivering body and her shouts stopped. He deduced she was actually really scared for the circumstances they were in. Naturally, any girl would be.
Even when he finally got her to be quiet, he felt sorry for the situation, they got her in. He didn't like to make girls cry. This one wasn't doing that, but if she stopped her complains and started to tremble, it meant that she was really insecure. So, even if it wasn't part of his job, he tried to explain the nature of their intentions, to calm her down. "…H-Hey." The skater boy gathered courage to try to convince her that she was going to be ok, but on the inside that was killing him because he had to talk to a girl. Walking to the door he started talking to her. "W-We're not planning to hurt you, w-we just want to talk about something." He was hopping that effort will be worth it. He was speaking calmly, he supposed, so she shouldn't be frightened.
When she heard that, she snapped from her fear to an anger. "Yeah, Right! Do you think I'm stupid?! Like hell you're going to do nothing to me!" She felt rage that he thought that sort of lie could actually work on her. But the time ran out. When she heard the door opening, she shouted her eyes close, and her body started to tremble without knowing what to expect.