Only A Fairy Tale (Round Two..... BEGINS!)

[Fai D. Flowright]

[size=8][font=Vivaldi]Only A Fairy Tale
[size=5][font=Felix Titling][i]A Mai-HiME RPG
[size=1][font=Tahoma][i]"...You'll have to put what's most important to you on the line..."
Link to Sign-up Thread

[size=2][font=Papyrus][i]Who are those little girls in pain,
Just trapped in castle on dark side of moon?
Twelve of them shining bright in vain,
Like flowers that blossom just once in years.
They're dancing in the shadows like whispers of love,
Just dreaming of place where they're free as dove.
They've never been allowed to love in this cursed cage.
It's only the fairy tale they believe...
~Yuki Kajiura

Long ago, in a land called Fuuka, twelve maidens were called to battle. Strange creatures not found on this world had terrorized the land for some time, striking fear in the hearts of men. But these maidens were unafraid for their own lives as they fought for those they loved. It was said that these maidens could see the red star, Ikusahime, and were given its mark allowing them to harness unimaginable powers in the form of weapons and beasts. Though their lives were brief, they were able to beat back these creatures, sending returning to whence they came.

Now, hundreds of years later, the Ikusahime star burns brightly in the sky once again. Twelve new maidens, twelve new HiMEs, must take up the mantle and fight against the darkness once more. But is that all there really is to the tale?

With this fable in motion, the twisted future that the star casts upon us all now set, it's only appropriate to call such a bizarre and ludicrous series of events a "Carnival." As the HiME begin to gather, unintentionally, in the land of Fuuka once again, they will be driven by fate to protect our sheer existance. Whether conscious or oblivious of their abilities as a princess of Ikusahime, only time can tell what destiny awaits them.

By one method or another, you, a HiME, have ended up at Fuuka Gakuen, a rather prestigious acadamy in Japan. As a student, new or old, or a member of the faculty, you have reason enough to be joining the fine staff of the school. What the curriculum holds for you this year is unknown, but what can be said for sure is that a sinister phenomenon is about to befall the land of Fuuka yet again. What dangers can be expected? What fate has Earth been bound to? And how can the actions of twelve young girls effect all of this...?

The Cast! (in order of Child)
*Saotome Emi, user of Duran: Roy Karrde
Setsuna Kiya, user of Miroku: Bulbasaur4
Uzaki Maiyuki, user of Kagutsuchi: Tsukasa
*Hanaaka Kami, user of Gakutenou: Weasel Overlord
*Yumi Terada, User of Julia: Malarkey
*Yugomuto Kitsune, user of Harry: Bulbasaur4
*Haruhara Kari, user of Gennai: Tsukasa
*Tange Aya, user of Vlas: Roy Karrde
Minamoto Izumi, user of Diana: Emotional Faun Chiko-sai
User of Yatagarasu: Unknown
*Fujiwara Kanna, user of Kiyohime: Emotional Faun Chiko-sai
Kaichou Tsuki, user of Kazahana: Nabooru23
* = HiME that have already discovered their abilities.

WITH
Prof. JB Wolf as Dir. Rokugan Koyuki
AND
EngiMatikul as Nagi

Here's my own form. Let's (re)begin this baby!

Name: Uzaki Maiyuki (She prefers to be called Yuki)
Age: 16
Physical Appearance: Yuki is girl of rather average stature, standing at about 5'5". Her hair comes down to the small of her back and is sandy blonde in color. (See the attachment for the style; it's the one with the red bow) Her eyes are a rich brown with a determined gaze that seems to say "I'm not afraid" in almost any situation. Her body is proportioned quite well, having a nice chest size and and slightly longer legs than her body. While she has the body for it, Yuki's not one to flaunt what she has. She wears a pair of earrings that look like this except the ball on the top is a diamond and the entire thing is in gold.
School Uniform: She wears Fuuka Gakuen's traditional Orange Uniform (Longsleeve and Sleeveless) with pure white stockings. She wears a red bead bracelet on her right wrist at all times. (A promise bracelet given to her by her friend Ami. Yuki gave her a blue one as well.)
Casual Outfit: On warm days, she can usually be seen wearing a halter top of a darker color that crosses in the front before tying behind the neck. Many of them have sarcastic or witty word/phrases written on the front in Kanji and show a couple inches of her midriff. Her pants are normally a pair of lightly faded, capri-length jeans that sit comfortable on her hips. She also wears a pair of straped sandles. During the colder seasons, her outfit changes to various solid-color sweaters and full-length jeans. She wears a pair of white tennis shoes instead.
Personality: Rather outgoing, usually saying aloud what's on her mind with little regard to other people, but she tends to regret those words later on... Although this may drive some people away from her, most appreciate it because they know that she is always being honest. She's not very good at keeping secrets, so this whole HiME thing is a real burden on her sometimes. She's light-hearted and usually pleasant to be around. Thankfully, she's not as energetic as most people with those traits. She doesn't exactly excel at school and learning, but she has a powerful ambition that just refuses to let her give up on anything. Yuki enjoys taking the time out to spend her leisure hours with friends or family, especially with her best friend, Ami Kazoe (another student at the Acadamy).
Element: Techigai
Child: Kagutsuchi
Location of Birthmark: Behind her right ear.
Yes or No: No, she does not.
Relationships: Childhood friends with Ami Kazoe (a rather peppy and loving brunette), the two of them have done and shared just about everything with each other. But a recent development has been the befriending of Aya over the last summer. More is expected to develop between them, but things are rather mellow now.
History: Yuki has lived in Fuuka since she was born. Her father is the owner of a nice size electronic's store downtown. Her mom stays at home with her grandfather and takes care of the housework. Since the Fuuka Acadamy is the closest school to Yuki's home, it was rather easy to decide on where she would be going to school as the time became appropriate. From time to time, depending on school and business, she will go and work at the store with her dad. There's no uniform, but the dress code requires her to wear khakis and a normal T-shirt.
Other: Ummm... *poke* ^_^;

[color=#339933]\ Uzaki Maiyuki /|\ Kagutsuchi //:
[color=#339933][size=3]The Day Before... (3rd Person)

[color=#EE9944]“Oh wow!” was heard aloud, followed by a squeal as three girls exited the theater, “I’m so glad that came out before school started!”

“No kidding, Yuki! That was an awesome movie!” Another girl smiled brightly, covering her eyes as the blazing sun on the horizon hit her eyes. “Ed is just soooo cute! <3” Her no-longer dilated eyes sparkled at the thought of the character.

“Hey, Ami! Do you remember that part when...” the two girls began to excitedly discuss major parts in the movie as the third slowly wandered behind them, yawning widely. Yuki then turned to her and questioned, “Aya, what was your favorite part?”

She looked to Yuki with a frantic face and began to mutter, “I liked the part where...... the guy with the armor... did that.......thing?” She glanced around quickly as they continued to walk down the street.

“You fell asleep again, didn’t you!?” Ami snickered, waving her hand in the air with disappointment, “You’re hopeless...” Aya shot her a frustrated look, but Yuki and Ami started to giggle as they wandered along the sidewalk.

Nearly halfway home, Aya alone caught a glimpse of a figure in tree. “Yuki?” She interrupted their intense banter, “I’ve gotta go... run an errand... Yeah! For school!” Yuki turned to her and gave a peculiar look, cocking her head to the side.

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Yuki replied, letting Ami walk ahead as they conversed.

“Yeah... Bye.” She trailed off, running back towards town. Yuki turned back to her other friend and they continued to walk in the direction of their homes.

“What was that all about?” Ami questioned Yuki as they strolled along.

“No idea... But I don’t really concern myself with what Aya does, even if some of it is a little strange.” Yuki shrugged it off, deciding it was no big deal.

“Some of it? More like all of it...” Ami mumbled, nearly inaudibly.

“Did you say something?”

“No, nothing...”

Arriving at Ami’s house first, the two said their goodbyes until their next meeting at the Academy’s Open House in the morning. Yuki, heading off alone to her nearby home, stretched tall, longing for her bed. It had been a busy day for the three Fuuka students, so sleep was welcome at this point.

Entering the front door, she announced to the rest of her family of her arrival. After a quick meal and some nightly preparation, Yuki collapsed into her bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

[color=#339933]~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~
[size=3][color=#339933]Day 1 (1st Person)

[color=#EE9944]The sky was dark, but clear; not a cloud to be seen for miles. Under the dimming lights of the sleeping city, the heavens seemed to grow bright with each star that revealed itself, causing it to look like a kaleidoscope. But one speck of light, hanging very close to the illuminating moon, made itself known: a dull, red star that would catch the attention of anyone who could see it. One might think it to be Mars, but anyone that knows the slightest bit about the night sky can tell you that it’s off in the southwest; no where near the moon...

As I stared at its profound glow, it seemed as if it was slowly growing larger. As it grew and grew, the light not only changed from dim to bright, but seemed to start splitting. With each passing second, three individual ovals became distinguishable from the once-solid star. “What the...” I mumbled to myself.

When it seemed as if they could get no closer, it could be understood that these were eyes, not merely stars. Around it, a large shadow faded in and out, revealing the outline of its body. My ears were suddenly filled with clicks, chirps, and whistles, like that from a dolphin. Squinting my eyes in curiosity, I reached out to touch it. “Kaguts-...”

A shrill whistle and a shake cause the visions to vanish. “YUKI! WAKE UP!” Someone hollered into my ear, causing me to vault upright.

“What!? I was having a dream!” I turned to the person that disturbed me. “Oh... Ami! It’s you! Sorry about that. It was just a strange dream...”

“Heh... I think Aya is starting to wear off on you.” She said and gave a little smile.

I gave a little laugh back at her, even though I was still half asleep. I then sighed, revealing my still tired attitude, “But can’t you come back in a half hour? I want to finish my dream!” I whined to Ami, wanting to know if there was any more to it. Plus, it also made a good excuse to get more sleep! I flumped back down to my pillow, pulling the covers over my head.

“No, because you’re already a half hour late!” She said, ripping the covers off of me, her eyes looking directly into mine.

“A half hour...?” I whispered solemnly back to Ami as everything seemed to freeze with the extreme concentration between us. She gave a subtle nod, never taking her eyes off of mine, not even for a second.

But after a few moments of tension, I couldn’t hold it in anymore! “AHHH! WHAT!?” I screamed into her face. Leaping out of bed, I raced around my room, collecting the different pieces of my uniform, and with a swift push, Ami left the room. While we were close friends, I still demanded some privacy.

Once dressed and decent for school, we both hurried down to the kitchen where my mother and grandfather had been waiting to see me off. “Here’s some breakfast, Yuki.” She handed me a generic cereal bar and I cringed back at her for it. “Well, if you would get up a little earlier, you could eat something better.” She crossed her arms and gave me that convincingly evil look mother’s have used for years against their children.

“I know, but we gotta go! We’ll be back later.” I grabbed Ami’s arm and yanked her out the door with me. “Can’t they ever pick better times to talk about that stuff!?” I grumbled as we scurried along the sidewalk towards the Academy.

[color=#339933]~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~

Upon our rather late arrival, to say the least, the Director of the school, Koyuki Rokugan, had already begun his commencement speech. We kept low along the back row in order to keep from drawing his attention. While a few other stragglers snuck in behind us as well, I peeked above the seated students to find some seats. Near the outside edge, on the right, I could see Aya with two empty seats next to her. “Aya saved us some seats.” I whispered to Ami we moved quietly along the chairs and to the ones left open for us by Aya. “And you said she was weird!”

Silently sitting in the chairs, Aya quickly noticed our presence and gave a lethargic smile. “Do you have any idea how many people I had to threaten to keep that spot open for you?”

“Yet again, I prove my point...” Ami added, sticking her nose into the conversation. Aya furrowed her brow a bit as she glared at Ami.

“Quiet, Ami! Dir. Rokugan is speaking...”

Pre-HiMEs: Please include your characters activities in the evening preceding the start of school, a dream which includes the HiME Star mentioned in my post (this is merely the red star in the sky, the other stuff with mine is Kagutsuchi seeming to appear out of it. You know, one of those weird things dreams can do!), and having your character get to the opening ceremony.

HiMEs: Please include whatever activities you character might do in preparation for the starting of school (Day-before scenes, morning stuff, etc.) and get to the school for the ceremony as well. (You do NOT need to have a dream about the star, but you can notice it in the real sky if you wish.)

Everyone: Unlike the previous version, there will be no classes following the Koyuki's speech (so you don't have to have you character bring a bag or any school supplies), but there will be Open House-like festivities afterwards, but we won't get to that until the next rotation! ^_^

[Roy Karrde]

Name: Tange, Aya
Age: 14
Physical Appearance: She stands about five foot, two inches, with light brown hair that she keeps combed despite her personality and attitude towards girlish things. Her hair is mostly combed forward except for two long thin ponytails that she has on each side of her head, each ponytail dips down to just above her elbows. She wears her hair like this since it’s the same hairstyle her mom had. Her eyes are a light hazel color, a small button like nose, and very light skin with out any real blemishes. The outfits she wears are supposed to hide her body structure, which in reality is pretty adult for her age. She has a thin waste and almost c-cup chest, yet she never really wears anything to let anyone know how she really looks.
School Uniform: * this has been okayed by Tsukasa * She wears a baggy orange male 15-18 top and white undershirt that she stole from an older boy, the top really doesn’t fit her but she wears it as like a trophy. Although she does wear the girl 13-14 skirt with white socks.
Casual Outfit: She wears a pair of her brother’s old pants meaning they are usually pretty dirty with holes and the knees and the bottoms frayed. She wears a very baggy dark green shirt that looks like it would more likely fit a fifteen-year-old boy than her. She also wears a old dirty silver locket that she keeps hidden underneath the shirt, and that is her most prized possession.
Personality: She never really was taught how to be a girl, everything she knows she learned from her older and very violent older brother. So now she will kick, punch, spit, fight, or bite anyone that will get in her way. She will seek out fights when she feels like it and can be seen as very violent. Inwardly she is very jealous of people with long term friendships, she wants one desperately but doesn’t know how to create one, and her very violent nature can sometimes be a deterrent to a lot of people.
Element: Longbow
Child: Vlas
Location of Birthmark: It’s a bit above her hip on her left side, about two or three inches above her hip.
Yes or No: Yes
Relationships: She considers Yuki her best friend, she also treats Yuki with respect which she does not do to anyone else. She sometimes has trouble expressing her friendship with Yuki, but she does try her best to keep Yuki happy.
History: She believes that her mother and older sister died when she was three, in reality they took off leaving her, and her brother. Her father was never around so that he could provide for them. So she has always looked up to her brother like a father, he in turn got into some fights in school and progressed to crime as he got older and got more and more dangerous friends. Her grandmother wanting to save Aya from ending up just like her brother, pulled some strings and got her into Fuuka Gakuen in hopes that she would meet some friends there that would help straighten her out.
Other: One of the hardest things right now in her life is trying to keep two secrets away from her best friend, her brother’s abusive nature, and the whole hime thing.

Tange, Aya

Vlas

A quick shot of lightning splashed across the night sky, the glimmer of electricity against the pale night sky, lit up the dark alley that I stood in. It brightened every piece of trash, and every droplet of rain that lay on the ground. The thunderous noise afterwards rattled the ground causing the trash and droplets of rain to shake and twist as they were kicked up into the wind.

The soft patter of rain filled the air as the sound of thunder quieted down. The same rain that dripped down off my hair, onto my brow, and slid into my eyes. Rain that began to blur the dark browns and rich blacks that the alley held. A quick flick of my wrist against my eyes seemed to wash the problem away and return my vision.

Yet it wasn’t the rain, or the trash, or the thunder that had brought me away from my friends’ just hours before and landed me in this alley. That honor went to two things, one of which was flying in the air just above the alley, it’s wings flapping in the breeze and sending giant gusts of feathers and rain down upon me every few minutes. The other honor belonged to a large ape like creature who at the moment was swatting away the rain too as we danced in the alley, each of us lunging and backing away. Going on the offensive and then the defensive. It was a dance that I had to participate in far too often, that was my curse of being a HiME.

“Haven’t I met you two before?” I sneered wiping the blood from my lip as I dropped into a crouch my bow at my side. The bird above me let loose another roar as it streaked again into the sky to gain altitude before turning to strike down at me. “Damn Orphans” I swore, with a quick twist of my leg I sent a empty garbage can rolling into the ape, that move stubbed my toe and hurt like hell but I would live.

With the momentary distraction of one Orphan, I went to work on the other. Flattening my back against the muck and sewage of the ground I angled myself so that the bird was heading straight down on me. The snap-hiss of a bolt sizzled to life in my bow as I brought my weapon into range of the bird. The Orphan roared in acknowledgement of my bow, it and I had an understanding that one of us were going to die here. I closed my eyes saying a silent prayer, and let loose a rush of purple arrows.

The flutter of reddish feathers fell to the ground as a rush and splatter of blood created a silent melody for the gore around me. Somewhere close the thud of a large body hitting a dumpster before slapping down onto the ground could be heard. I allowed myself a silent victory before the feeling of weightlessness over took me. My battle with the flying Orphan had cost me too much time, the Apeish Orphan lifted me into the air and allowed me only a second to realize what had happened to me.

I gasped in a breath before being hurled across the alley and slamming into a wall, I slid down the wall and fell to the ground in a sickening thud. Darkness began to creep around my eyes as something sticky began to drip down my face. “Damn..” I whispered spotting my fallen bow across the alley, next to the Orphan. “Fine, we will do this with out weapons.” I sighed, a quick check of my wristwatch caused me to realize that the ceremony was only a few hours away.

For a second I considered summoning my child to bring this to a hasty end, but quickly decided against it. I had never really been big on the whole summoning thing, and this would end one way or the other very soon. I reached down and grasped a steel pole that had fallen off the dumpster that the bird Orphan had landed on. The pole was already slippery from the rain and the sludge on it from the alley created a sickening smacking sound as I grasped it in my fingers. “You know, I have friends.” I glared back at the Orphan as I stepped to my left, it stepped to it’s right as we began our dance.

“Okay, I have a friend, the other is a bitch, but here is the thing, it’s fun being around them.” I spoke almost in a monologue as if I were telling him my life story. “The problem is, she thinks I’m weird because I have to go after things like you!” I growled at the orphan jabbing the metal pole in his direction.

The Orphan let loose a threatening roar as I sprang off of my back foot and charged in the direction of my bow. The Orphan was faster and sidestepped into my path to block the bow. I poured my weight into the pole and thrust most of it into the Orphan’s side. Fists came flying from what seemed like every direction as I ripped the pole out of the Orphan’s side. Blood and gore oozed from the hole in the Orphan’s side as it rumbled toward me in blind rage.

I released a primal roar, back at the monster as I charged toward it again. The monster swung at me in response of my charge. I dropped to my left and ducked the fist as the monster’s head loomed over me. I reversed the angle of the pole and with every ounce of strength I thrust the pole deep into the monster’s head. Gore dripped all around me as the Orphan collapsed onto the muck. As for myself, I ducked out just before the giant came crashing down.

The soft light of dawn began to creep into the alley as if God were to bless my victory. My shoulder’s dropped as the weight upon them was released, and my body began to sag. “I have friends.” I mumbled more to myself than to the two dead Orphans. “I just have to keep them out of the most important aspect of my life,” I added my voice shaking in sadness.

It was less than a hour before I was back at the school, there I kept a extra set of clothes in a small out of the way locker in one of the most out of the way hallways at the school. It was days like these where I would trudge into the school, my clothes soiled and dripping from sweat and gore, that I was grateful for these clothes. Even the cold shower in the girl’s locker room felt good as it washed the muck away. The softness of the school uniform was almost like silk as I slipped into it. These small things were the best part of my day.

The festivities for the speech and what ever else was happening this morning seemed rather small as I trudged through the chairs and found a set of chairs near the front. My body sank down into the chair as exhaustion filled every nook and cranny of my body. “Are these seats?” One student asked walking up to me.

“Taken.” I growled a response sending him running off. That set of responses was played out over and over as the hour went by. Finally the familiar sight of my two friends crossed my vision as they walked up to me.

“Do you have any idea how many people I had to threaten to keep that spot open for you?” I growled in annoyance and exhaustion. Ami shot me an angry look before turning to Yuki.

“Yet again, I prove my point..” Ami smirked, I clinched my fist in anger, and all I needed was one swing, only one swing. Yet my anger quickly became tempered when I realized that hurting Ami would lose me, my only friend. My best friend. I relaxed back into my seat and closed my eyes. I needed sleep, lots and lots of Orphan free sleep.


Name: Saotome, Emi
Age: 18
Physical Appearance: She has messy, dirty blonde hair that she keeps cut to about the mid of her neck, or jaw line to be more specific. She has very deep green eyes, she is almost always smiling or grinning which is her trademark feature around the school. She is about 5’8” with a very athletic trim from personal working out and gymnastic practice. She also has a small scar on her left cheek from trying to cheat at a poker game when she was younger.
School Uniform: She wears the typical green sleeveless Age 15-18 School uniform, along with white socks. She also wears some custom made dog tags that her father gave her when she was younger.
Casual Outfit: She wears a black sleeveless shirt, with a brown jacket over it that has her father’s captain pins on each shoulder. She also wears tan baggy military style pants that she wears loosely around her waste with an unbuckled belt.
Personality: She’s sarcastic and rude; she learned to have a very thick skin from hanging around older guys at the military bases. She’s not too big on fighting and really only does it for self defense. Secretly she wants to be one of the girls and holds a lot of self-emotion inside that she doesn’t let anyone see. Although she really doesn’t know how to act like a girl so she tends to hang around boys.
Element: Infinite Pistols
Child: Duran
Location of Birthmark: Right under her left armpit.
Yes or No: No
Relationships: She is very close to her father, and although he isn’t there with her, she still worries of him dieing due to his past military experience. It’s a fear that she had while a child and it still haunts her every night.
History: Her father was a part of the Japanese Self-Defense force, so she has moved from city to city for most of her life. She learned at an early age not to make any lasting friends. Her father taught her how to fight and defend herself with almost anything, while her younger brother and sister were her only real friends. After her father got out of the Self-Defense force, her parents decided to send her to Fuuka Acadamy so that she can learn how to get along with people and have friends that will last more than a month or two.
Other: She loves to play poker with the boys while in class and while she is sneaking away from class.

Saotome, Emi

Duran

The light pitter-patter of the mud splashing against my shoe, played as a symphony highlighting my run around the track surrounded the soccer field of the academy. It was a daily ritual of mine to be out here early in the morning and do laps around the field followed by one around the school. Old habits from being a military child die-hard.

“You’re insane!” A voice broke the silence coming from the general direction of the academy. I slowed to a short jog as the figure of an older boy came running toward me. He was dressed in the older boy’s uniform, the wavy hair and the boyish freckles was a tip off on who he was. “Two hours left until school starts and you’re out here running instead of getting any sleep?” He asked bewildered, I greated him with a large grin before kicking up the speed of my jog.

“You’re out here too Yuki, so that should make you, what a double idiot?” I laughed as he fell into step next to me. “Besides it’s not like I went home last night.” I grimaced slightly from the last vestiges of a hangover.

“You stayed here after the poker game ended?” Yuki asked in shock, I smirked and rubbed my temples before sidestepping onto a path that winded around and through the school. “I left around three, that means you and Ryo stayed here for the rest of the night?”

“I kicked his ass,” I smiled pulling the roll of yen out of my pocket before stuffing it back in. “That will teach him not to gamble against Emi Saotome and expect to win,” I laughed, Yuki smiled back while I slowed a bit to allow him to catch up. The truth was that the game did end around five and I did get a brief bit of half drunken sleep in a chair in the science class. I had a dream, if you could even call it a dream. The memories of it were as hazy as the alcohol that we were downing last night. The images of a bright red star were as vivid as ever in my mind, what consisted around that star was the hazy part, or even why the star was there. Yet in my mind, that red star was ever present since I woke up.

“Are you even listening to me Emi?” Yuki snapped me out of my trance and brought me back to Earth, I glanced over at him before noticing that we had doubled back toward the soccer field. “You’ve been in a trance for the last thirty minutes.” He noted, I flashed him a grin and apologized.

“We should head back, everyone is probably almost ready for the ceremony,” I suggest walking over to the backpack lying in the soccer field. Yuki looked away even though I was just pulling the school uniform over my work out top and not even bothering with the skirt. “Aww, Yuki is such the gentleman,” I teased walking past him, out of the corner of my eye I saw him blush as he raced to catch up with me.

“Ryo is going to want his money back.” Yuki pointed out as we jogged through each hallway of the school toward the ceremony. I shrugged in response as we were quickly approaching a large crowd of students.

“Make a hole,” I commanded, the students quickly moved out of the way as I pushed forward and out into the ceremony grounds.

“Emi!” One of my friends’s shouted. Ryo, Yuki, myself and a bunch of others were sort of a group made up of most of the preps at the school, from soccer players to just the regular brawny guys and girls that commanded respect.

“Bow before your champ!” I shouted running down the isle in an Olympic-esc celebration pose with my arms waving in the air to an imaginary crowd. “Yes, yes, please hold your applause.”

“Champ or cheater?” Ryo barked back from his seat as the rest of the gang stood to greet me. I flashed Ryo a smile knowing that he was suffering more than I was from the hangover. “Three straight twenty one’s in a row from blackjack” He glared at the mention of my luck.

“Oh Ryo, don’t be mad, just because I kicked your ass.” I laughed sliding in next to him, throwing a sweaty arm around his shoulder. “Besides, first rule of Emi Poker: Get your opponent as drunk as possible, so that he wont notice you cheating.”

Ryo recoiled backwards in shock; tossing my arm off of him he stumbled to stay upright. ‘It was just a game Ryo,” I brought up my best false smile to keep this situation from spiraling out of control.

With a bit of luck, the director began to speak and Ryo settled back into his seat. “You’re dead Emi.” He whispered in a tone that just radiated sincerity.

“You say that with such love!” I quipped back; he glared back in response and gripped my wrist. Squeezing it as hard as possible to prove his point.

“After this is done,” He threatened. “We’re settling this today.”

[Bulbasaur4]

Name: Setsuna, Kiya
Age: (Rather unknown, but she looks about 15 based on her body... although her mentality might show otherwise.)
Physical Appearance: The first attachment shows her basic overall appearance. Her hair is usually done up the same way, except it isn't QUITE that long... cut it in half and that's about the length of her hair. (Still pretty long.) However, upon her right arm she has a rather strange and mysterious tattoo... which is shown in the second attachment (it looks jus tlike that.) She doesn't know what it means nor why she has it.
School Uniform: Kiya wears the 13-14 outfit, short sleeved. The reason for this is being... even though her age is about 16, she's behind on her schooling and thus they put her in with the 13-14 catagory. Thus they make her wear the same outfits. Her outfit is a bit tight in the chest because of her 'growing' figure, but she doesn't seem to care nor mind much. Although her progressive body compared to the other 'younger' students causes a few rumors to go about her... even though she's rather oblivious to it at first.
Casual Outfit: Kiya usually wears the clothes she has had for a while. Slightly fadded and tattered light blue shorts and a black tank top. However, as the RPG goes on she'll gain better clothing, because I'm assuming some kind soul will help her out. ^^; (see history)
Personality: Kiya is extremely... unique, to say the least. Her bodily appearance and her personality and mentality do not seem to match at all. She has the personality and charisma of a young twelve year old at times, although she doesn't understand many things that even a 12 year old would. She's a bit shy at first around people she doesn't know... but once they gain her trust, she's extremely outgoing and friendly and can be quite 'clingy'. she's fiercely loyal to those who have earned her trust, to the point where she would defend them to the point of death and do nearly anything for them. She's also quite curious and likes food a lot. The only thing about her is that she doesn't understand many things... and it seems that she hasn't had much language contact with humans even. Its a bit of a 'mysterious' part of how she was allowed into the school.
Element:Obsidian Sword
Child: Miroku (Armor)
Location of Birthmark: It's located upon her back, just slightly below her shoulder blade.
Yes or No: No
Relationships: She just starts out not knowing anyone… but will eventually pretty much meet a lot. The first person she meets is Kanna. (chiko-sai’s character).
History:
Kiya's history is a bit messed. Kiya was born in a small village very far away from Fuuka. Her village was known quite well for their blood line... being that of many warriors in the Ancient times. However, a massacre happened (unknown to who was the source) in which everyone was killed, except Kiya. Kiya was strangely left untouched... although her entire family was destroyed [ as far as she knows of.] Being found, Kiya was ushered away into an Orphanage. This all happened to Kiya in a very early age... and remains slightly distant and only small visions or memories of the past come to her. At the Orphanage, Kiya was treated extremely poorly and was often abused or mistreated. Feeling trapped and pained... Kiya ran away. Kiya managed to survive in the wilderness... on her own, for many years. She lived in the forest outskirts for many years... occasionally journeying to villages to scavange for food when she couldn't harvest or obtain any food from the forest. She befriended animals- wolves being one of them- and basically acted completely animalistic. It wasn't until Kiya was about 13 when she was caught by villagers. They were far from being understand with Kiya's history or disposition... so they captured her and planned on putting her upon trial for stealing food and basically causing chaos in the village. However, a strange man came to the village and saw something in Kiya. He then made an offer to rid her for the village, and they accepted. Kiya was then brought near Fuuka... although not entirely upon Fuuka. The strange man gave Kiya to an elderly woman... telling her to teach Kiya. This was an interesting three years for Kiya... for she did manage to learn a few things (such as, human food is good... clothing is something that you need to wear...) and she learned a bit of human language and many stories. She actually understood most of the stories with pictures and foudn out that she had a knack for drawing as well. Yet, Kiya failed to learn much about manners... and she continued to scurry about on all fours most of the time, although she managed to walk upon two feet ocassionally when forced. The eldery lady died when she was 15 - 16 (around this time now), and she was burried. Kiya hid when the people came to take her body... and when she realized the old lady was gone, Kiya abandoned the house and now sorta roams about.
[At the beginning of this, I plan on Kiya being found and then being enrolled. ^_^ Mysterious maaaaaaan... ]




Setsuna, Kiya
.: F | Undiscovered HiME of Miroku :.

“I think it was a demon!”
“There is NO way there was a demon…”
“I’m serious! It came out of no where, stole the rice cakes, and disappeared!”
“What demon would steal rice cakes?”
“SERIOUSLY it-“

Kiya scampered off in the darkness, a nice plastic bag of rice cakes dangling from her clamped teeth as she did so. Leaping up onto a box, she managed to clamber over a fence and disappear back into her home- the forest. Kiya had found hunger late at night, and was lucky enough to find a food source relatively close to “home”. A young girl waiting outside of a house… a bag in her hand… a very delicious bag filled with rice cake contents. Kiya could practically smell them. So, doing the thing that Kiya did best… she simply lurked about the side of the house- much like a kitsune fox, and then dashed at the girl from behind. With a swift snap, she had latched onto the bag, jerked it from her light grip, and disappeared back by the house and into the shadows. It was easy, swift and very very delicious. (Of course, Kiya had no idea these ‘rice cakes’ weren’t for her. All food, according to Kiya, was for her.)

Scrambling up a tree after a brisk scamper through the woods, Kiya opened the plastic bag and immediately downed all the contents inside. Having a full belly, sleep was rather easy to come by… that, and the branch was well equipped for a sleeping bed.

***

A strange figure in the darkness came forth… the moonlight was shinning down so brilliantly that it hid most of the figure’s appearance. She… some how Kiya knew it was a she… smiled at her. It was an eerie smile- as if it was something that didn’t come by often – but yet reassuring. Pointing, she gazed upwards at the sky and Kiya did too.
There, in the sky… a brilliant red dot. Kiya stared up at the stars often, and she never…ever had seen such a star as the red one she saw now.
Suddenly a horrible monster seemed to erupt from the ground and the female gave a slight yell. Panicked, Kiya watched as she was immediately attacked… until suddenly a swiftly blurred object seemed to fly down from the sky, slicing the monster.
Rushing to the girl… Kiya glanced about and saw-

***


Sun. Light. Loud squawks.

Kiya’s eyes slowly fluttered open… blurred vision at first, until a few blinks allowed her to stare straight up at the sun. She gave a rather loud yawn, stretching her graceful figure slightly. The sun had awakened her… either that, or the loudly squawking birds who seemed alarmed at her close presence. Kiya had found a nice napping spot upon a fairly large and demented tree branch, which seemed to have been housing a nice little birdie nest as well. The mother and father were not happy.
“Gyeeahh…” Kiya yawned again, slowly licking her lips absently as she sat upwards, slinging her legs about so that she sat with her legs dangling off the branch. The day was nice- the type of temperature that wasn’t too hot and yet wasn’t too cool either. Kiya liked weather like this. However, Kiya had little time to ponder of the weather… for something far more fasinating was taking place.
People.
From her perched position, Kiya saw that she had fallen asleep upon one of the trees that were fairly close to the large building. Kiya knew of this building… faintly remembering the old lady telling her about some building that ‘taught’ things like she did, to other ‘people’. Kiya really hadn’t the faintist clue what it was or why people really went there. However, now…she saw a clear view of it, and saw a very clear view of some sort of gathering. Many people were sitting in seats… boys and girls… and they were chatting, many waiting for… something. Kiya sensed the waiting… although she also sensed something else.
Food.
The wafting smell of food seem to dance in the air… and immediately Kiya felt her mouth water. She was hungry.

Leaping off her perch, she landed upon the ground quite gracefully. She instantly dashed off, stopping only a brief moment to take a gulp of water from a stream before bounding off again. It wasn’t a long time before she had come into a slightly open area, fairly close to the ceremony taking place. Kiya tilted her head to the side, being fairly curious about what the heck was going on… but yet being faaar more interested in the smell of food. Still, it seemed that in order for her to get to this food that she smelled… she would have to go through this mass of people.
Yes, going around was an option… but going through was far more efficient.

Kiya was patient however… being a night stalker demon of food, required patience. So she sat upon the edge… waiting for the right moment to perhaps crawl under the chairs they were sitting on to get to the other side.
Then food.



[ Kiya is fairly close to the ceremony, so much that someone could notice her. However, Kanna is the only one who will MEET her first. ^_~ Unless she just chooses to charge straight underneath the chairs… lol ]




[color=grey]


Name: Yugomuto, Kei [ Real first name is Kitsune (yes, her name means fox. lol) ]
Age: 18
Physical Appearance: [See 3rd Attachment] She looks just like that... or should I say 'he'? Mwhahaha... yes, she looks like that! Just imagine that... with some added feminism to the overall look of the face while still looking male. (sorta like a pretty-boy bishie). Her eye color however is a bit more greener... but has the same striking appearance.
School Uniform: Kei wears the Male Uniform. She doesn't really tuck any of her clothing in... and she has a rather 'rogue' appearance while still containing a strangely elegant appeal.
Casual Outfit: Dark blue jeans with a button up white shirt. Simplistic!
Personality: Kei is fairly kind and quiet. She/he excells in many aspects at school... including martial arts, although she/he's more known for his superb singing skills. He/She tends to be quiet and doesn't seem very outspoken, although he's not so quiet and/or shy that he doesn't walk up and talk to people. Tends to have a good head on his shoulders and is fairly down-to-earth while containing a healthy dose of optimism. Also has the uncanny ability to uplift anyone from a bad mood usually.
Element: Dual Tonfas
Child: Harry
Location of Birthmark: Inner/upper thigh. Great place so no one sees.
Yes or No: Yes
Relationships: Kei has no living relatives. Kei's best friend is Kami, despite the fact that she has no idea that Kei is really a girl. Kami's boyfriend, Kira, tends to show a bit of jealousy at times or paranoia about this... but Kei's laid back persona usually can put him at ease if Kira questions anything. Kei used to be extremely good childhood friends with Izumi, but unfortunately Izumi moved causing stress on their friendship. Of course… Kei has always been a guy to all of them. Lol
History: You might have been wondering, why I kept going she/he and such. The reason is, while Kei IS in fact a girl... she pretends to be a boy and in fact is enrolled as a boy. She does everything the boys do and no one knows that she is, in fact, a girl. (Not even Nagi... yet anyways. And yes... this is all similiar to Akira from the real HiME story.) The only thing which can cause or DOES cause complications... is that Kei makes an extremely handsome guy, so there are a few girls who constantly hit on her/him. The girls also like to fantasize about some sort of strange love between Kei and Ken, although that type of relationship doesn't really exist. ^_^;; Little is known about Kei... but Kei did come from a wealthy family and transferred to Fuuka this year. So he's a "new" student, although quickly becoming quite popular for his looks and his singing ability. He sings in all the festivals and a few 'impromptu' concerts... in which he maintains a tenor male voice with a slightly feministic quality. ^_^
Other: Gotta love it!



(To make things easy, I will refer to Kei as a ‘he’)

Yugomuto, Kei
.: M (F) | Seemingly male HiME of Harry :.


Kei woke fairly early… precisely at the crack of dawn, like usual. His obnoxious alarm was easily turned off by the pound of his fist smashing into it. He then slowly rose upwards, stretching for a moment. Instantly he felt the tight wrappings about his chest squeeze into him slightly, but the fact he had little figure to hide beneath helped. Much of it probably came from the fact that he suppressed all possible female hormones. Slipping into some light weight jogging pants and a loose white shirt, he simply slipped on some tennis shoes and went outside.
Jogging was a relief to him. Kei was the sort of person who enjoyed waking up early, simply to start off his body and his metabolism as fast as possible. It also made him feel at ease and often put him in a relaxed state.
After his long run, he simply returned to the house and went about his normal routine. Showering, retapping, dressing, hair maitanance, cooking breakfast, eating, and singing for a bit. Kei was quite the independent person, mostly because he had lived on his own for a while now.
“Ceremony should be starting soon…” Kei said to himself, exiting his room where he was singing and slipping on some shoes.

The school wasn’t very far from where Kei lived, and he started to school early enough so he wasn’t late. Arriving, he gazed about, his piercing green eyes scanning the area for a moment… before he easily spotted several figures he knew. The first, was Izumi… who wasn’t looking his way, and then Kami and Kira. Kei had sensed some… uneasy feelings with Izumi as of late- of course, ever since they had been separated by Izumi’s move, things seemed to slowly fade away between them. That fact made Kei sad… and he was eager to renew their friendship, and he was rather hoping that his transfer to Fuuka would provide new opportunities between them. There also was Kami and Kira, whom he had befriend over the summer and a little bit before through contacts. Kei was extremely close friends with Kami, far more than Kira… mostly for the fact that Kira gave off a sense of ‘hostility’ at times from jealousy at the times Kami and Kei would hang out. However, it usually wasn’t detectable and very well monitored.

In anycase, Kei decided to wave to Kami. She saw him and nodded for him to come over, in which Kei sat next to Kami and bent forward to give a nod to Kira.
“Hey you two… nice to see you again!” Kei’s smooth voice floated upon the air as he smiled at them, content with being around his friends once again.

[Emotional Faun Chiko-sai]

Pictures of Kaname and Tsuneo - on the first entry, here.

Name: Fujiwara Kanna
Age: 16
Physical Appearance: About 5'7" tall. Has quite long, straight, black hair, that fades out at the tips to a colour approaching auburn. It's in a messy ponytail tied around with a thin braid and held in place with a jade hairpin. She's pretty enough, though you would think that it's not worth the effort to hit on her because of the uneasy feeling you get when she stares at you. Has a darkish, tanned complexion, and she's stronger in the arms than she should be. She's leggy and has average proportions otherwise. Her eyes are yellow.
School Uniform: The usual orange-colour high school one, and short sleeves during summer.
Casual Outfit: Kanna likes off-the-shoulder tops with the sleeves coming to mid-forearm in various shades of lavender (her favourite colour). You can usually see the top of her (black) bra straps; she also wears a black velvet choker. She generally wears khaki shorts in warmer weather, with a belt that is more decorative than practical. In the winter she wears turtlenecks and jeans, and a tan greatcoat, as well as a scarf striped in different hues of purple. She always wears black combat boots in any weather.
Personality: She's quite scary, and often called a 'demon'. She's passionate about everything, and can't hide her feelings well; shoots her mouth off at people she finds irksome. Kanna's a cynic and a feminist and non-romantic to the core. When the time calls for it, she can be surprisingly gentle. She tends to act like a housewife in supermarkets, as she takes care of most of the housework - housework and responsibility can also be considered her inborn talents. Also intelligent enough to find school a snap.
Element: Chain Spear
Child: Kiyohime *mwoahahaha...*
Location of Birthmark: In the hollow between her collarbones at the base of her throat.
Yes or No: Errr... yes?
Relationships: Her MIP (Most Important Person/People) are technically her brothers, Kaname (15) and Tsuneo (10). They're all at Fuuka. Kaname is the annoying-misunderstood-artist type of brother, and Tsuneo is the quiet-weird-but-cute type of brother. Kaname is obsessed with kabuki and the theatre in general; Tsuneo likes to read... anything. She is especially overprotective of Tsuneo. I'll, er, decide the rest later.
History: Her mother died while giving birth to Tsuneo. Thus, their father bore an unintentional grudge against him, refusing to see him as he reminded him of his wife, and Kanna and Kaname ended up becoming the surrogate parents of their little brother since a young age. Their father spends most of his time outstation due to this and also because he is a travel agent. They live within walking distance of Fuuka, and Tsuneo started going to school there, so the two older siblings transferred over as well. Kanna's the only female member of the Fuuka Karate Club, although she is more proficient in kickboxing (Thai style!) then true karate.
Other: They own (or rather, Kaname owns) a pet cockroach named Youzen (gender unknown but assumed to be male). Incidentally, Kanna does not 'appreciate the true beauty and grace of living creatures, great and small' (according to Kaname) and is constantly trying to get rid of it.
--------------------------
Fujiwara Kanna, Kiyohime
"...Wanna die?"
---------------------------------

"Anekiiiiiiii..."
"What is it, Tsuneo?" Kanna's head shot up from her breakfast, and she immediately darted into the living room at the sound of her little brother's voice.
"Niroushin Seigen Myodo Shinkun Youzen isn't moving..." said Tsuneo mournfully, holding up the immobile cockroach, cupped in his hands, for his sister to see.
Said sister responded by whacking the cockroach out of his hands to the floor, and raised her foot to get rid of the foul insect, a bane to her ever since the day it dared to run across the kitchen table on its sectioned feet. Kanna would have killed it then, butchered it wholesale, and smashed it to squishy little bits, had Kaname not rescued the insect from her righteous wrath and given it the ridiculous name of Youzen.
Youzen remained a fixation in the Fujiwara household. It lived in a plastic container in Kaname's room and was occasionally let out for walks.
Kaname materialized from his room and scooped Youzen up before Kanna could commit unlawful murder, returning it to its enclosure.
"Oh, Niroushin-sama!" he cooed, an expression carefully calculated to irk his sister to full capacity, "I beg your divine grace. My unworthy sister is an uncultured female, and she knew not of your august presence. A thousand apologies, Niroushin-sama."
"Stop doting on that damn cockroach and get ready for school!" snapped Kanna, temple vein twitching. She was not a morning person.
Kaname was. He was at his virtuoso annoying best in the morning - or so it seemed to Kanna, who was feeling that she'd gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. "Ah, dear sister, but I think that you will find you are the only one who has not finished breakfast."
Unable to come up with a suitable rejoinder, Kanna resorted to her multipurpose comment of "Shut up, okama."
It worked, as usual. Kaname was straight as straight could be; he just happened to be a kabuki freak, and he resented most insinuations about his sexual preferences. "You shut up, yama-uba!"
"Okama!"
"Yama-uba!"
Tsuneo, feeding Youzen with toast crumbs, remained happily oblivious to the actions of the rest of his household.

Running to school was a fairly commonplace happening for the Fujiwara siblings, the two elder ones being inclined to quarrel till the metaphorical cows came home. On the way, passing under the gates:
"It's all because of you that we're late now, yama-uba."
"What?! You started the whole thing! If you'd let me kill the cockroach like any sane person would undoubtedly do-"
"Niroushin-sama must not be mistreated!"
"The hell it shouldn't! It's a danger to the hygiene of the household."
Tsuneo hadn't the heart to stop them; they were visibly enjoying themselves ever so much.

They got seats at the back, against the carefully trimmed bushes. Kaname had wanted to join his friends, who had unfortunately not enough seats for the whole lot (some were standing) so he grudgingly got into the seat beside his sister, who was staring at something in the sky.
"What're you gawping at, yama-uba?"
Kanna blinked. The red star was larger... an ugly dot obscuring the brilliance of the sun. "Nothing. Why haven't you joined your weird friends?"
The youngest of them, however, had seen something more interesting than supposedly imaginary red stars, though. Tsuneo had seen a girl behind the bushes, staring determinedly in the direction of the food stalls. She looked just a little younger than his sister. He waved in an attempt to get her attention.

*Niroushin Seigen Myodo Shinkun is the full title for the cockroach's namesake, Youzen, who is actually a chinese god. ^^;
**A yama-uba is a mountain hag. A very ugly, man-eating one.
(gah.. mostly dialogue... can't do much till Director-san finishes his speeching!)

*

Name: Minamoto Izumi
Age: 17
Physical Appearance: She's about 5'3", with shoulder-length, spiky dark brown hair (think typical shounen hero style, just longer and, uh, more feminine). Izumi has dark eyes and ears that are slightly pointy. Her canine teeth are more pronounced than usual, making for a slightly carnivorous look when she opens her mouth. There are many burn scars on the backs of ehr hands and upper wrists. She is quite thin, and she has a habitual slouch. There are lots of piercings on both of her ears, and therefore lots and lots of earrings. (refer to picture in the outfit section..)
School Uniform: The 15 - 18 year old uniform in tan, with baggy socks; and although she wears the uniform shirt with long sleeves also in summer, she rolls the sleeves up to the elbow. (like Shizuru's... just without the bowtie and with rolled up sleeves) She wears an odd pair of black gloves, which she never takes off in public.
Casual Outfit: Picccccccture ~ here! Shaded parts mean dark colours.
Personality: Izumi is a 100% certified professional slacker. Her hobby can be said to be finding out ways to make other people do her work for her or to let it be resolved by itself. Her daily misadventures (or lack thereof) show her to be someone who's mentally acute and unafraid to use any method to get a desired result, including lying (in extreme cases, manipulating) and making herself out to be a worse person than she really is. She often notices things you think she doesn't. Fortunately, she's a kind-hearted pacifist at the core - while lazy, sometimes the prospect of helping others motivates her. She has odd priorities, and seems not to care about the consequences of her actions. Has a weird sense of humour (some call it a mildly vindictive nature *sweatdrop*). When she actually gets serious about something, it's time to run and hide...
Element: Mirrors
Child: Diana
Location of Birthmark: On her left palm.
Yes or No: No
Relationships: Seems to hold Kei in very high regard, as he is her childhood friend, and her first. They still maintain the friendship, although it is no longer as intense as it used to be once she moved away from their neighbourhood, and although they are now at the same school, since he now is best friends with Kami, well ^^; However, although Izumi hides it very well, she is still very concerned about him. She is one of the few people who have ever suspected that Kei is a girl: she doesn't know for sure, and for now has no cause to think that he is, though.
History: Due to a mishap in the kitchen when she was four, the backs of Izumi's hands and her upper wrists are covered with scars caused by boiling oil. (That's why she wears gloves.) She was constantly teased, and so was extra grateful to Kei for being her first friend. Both her parents are deceased due to a car accident that happened when Izumi was seven. Her bachelor uncle now acts as her guardian, and since he recently moved to Fuuka for work reasons, Izumi had to follow as well. Her parents left enough money to fund her education. Izumi holds the 'best' record in Fuuka for her entry exam results, that is, a perfect fail in every subject. This can be attributed to the fact that she did not want to enter the academy in the first place because she has an inherent dislike of most forms of 'prestigiousness', 'class difference' or what she terms 'snobbery', or you can take her at face value and call her just plain lazy. For unknown reasons, the director put in a word for her and accepted her anyways, much to her chagrin (HiME foreshadowing... kukukuku). It's a miracle she managed to continue her progress through high school within the usual timeframe. She usually gets slammed with lots of extra class.
Other: She tends to sleep in class... and in the library, and detention if she's doing any, as well. Eheheh.
--------------------
Minamoto Izumi, Diana (Undiscovered)
it's hard to say
oh well, okay
------------------------

On the evening before the start of the school term, Izumi was happily doing the thing she did best: nothing. People who knew her argued that her real talent lay in lying convincingly, making events turn out to the advantage of whomever she was helping at the moment, or merely dodging work in general, but Izumi knew she cultivated laziness as an art. She could relax right down to her very atoms.

She was up on the roof of her uncle's house, pocky stick in mouth, gloved hands behind head, and legs propped up comfortably, watching the blue sky turn into an orange sky and soon a dark one as the sun set. She wasn't thinking about anything in particular. Ahhh, the joy of slacking.

Not having many real friends was a problem Izumi had gotten used to over time. She didn't make them easily; most people were turned off by her inherent laziness, although she would help in matters other than paperwork. In such ways she was used, so to speak, but she didn't really care. And close friends were too painful, sometimes.

Much too painful to bother with.

Not that she'd admit it to anyone, least of all herself. Izumi pushed the remains of the pocky stick into her mouth and wondered idly why she was getting depressed so easily lately; she couldn't usually see anything negative beyond the latest stack of homework. Then she remembered that homework was at least two days away (one day for crappy speech and one more day allowed for settling in), and she brightened up again. A few more days in the blissful state of having nothing to do... except breathe... and sleep... and eat... Wonderful...

"Izumi! Dinner!" called her uncle from somewhere below. Often, Izumi had mused that Taiga, her uncle, was much better suited to the profession of housewife than accountant. He nagged her constantly about her indolence, and yet was surprisingly easy to wheedle into doing math projects for her, when she couldn't get anyone else in school to.

That night she had a dream. It was a weird, boring dream, but a dream nonetheless.

Red, all red. A while before she saw anything out of the ordinary, but then there was a stray glint, and then seven-eighths of the red were simply mirrors, reflecting the source of the crimson hue directly ahead of her. And her hands, they were gloveless. The red bled into them most where the birthmark was, so that the dark scars stood out like stains on red cloth.

An eye on a fungal stalk. And a star shining red.

The eye blinked at her, and the shadow below asked something of her.

"...I'm not the fighting type."

Someone poked her in the ribs, the only place where she was ticklish, and therefore the only way to wake her up when she was in ultraslack mode. She peeled open an eyelid, and sat bolt upright when her uncle poked her again. "Izumi? You're sleeping so much, you're beginning to talk in your sleep. You think it'll make me believe you're awake? Well, it won't, because I'm smarter than that, so-"

Batting away her uncle's nagging, Izumi slouched to the washroom and began her daily morning routine. Soak face in basin, fall asleep in water, wake up again when starting to drown with bubbles coming up nose, spurt out water from various facial apertures, rinse and repeat until properly awake.

Surprisingly, she got to school on time, despite stopping to watch an interestingly shaped cloud drift by. After two years at the place, she still did not really feel at home in Fuuka Academy, though she spotted a group of classmates almost instantly, and she sauntered over to them. Yukyo and Rie weren't anyone special, but her habits were known well enough by them for Yukyo to say, with a grin, "Hey, Izumi looks like she's just come out of hibernation. Yo, Izu-chan!"

"Ah, Kyo-chan, Rie-rin," Izumi drawled in reply. "I couldn't come earlier because I was picking all the cobwebs off myself, not having moved in months..."

While talking, her eyes swiveled towards a familiar back, who was chatting with a less familiar but nevertheless known face, and another male. It was Kei and his new best friend, Kami; and the boyfriend of Kami, whose name she chose not to remember because it wasn't a particularly outstanding name of a particularly outstanding person. Kei had moved to Fuuka over the summer; she'd gone over to see him a few times, but since he'd had Kami on those few times that she'd visited, Izui felt it better to phase herself out lest she be accused of Jealous Friend Syndrome.

She could do it. Alone. Yes. Better for him this way, he won't have to feel torn.

The good-looking director had by now taken his place on the stage, and Izumi was dragged by Yukyo and Rie over to one of the front seats, mainly because they were both great fans of his looks and mannerisms. She sat down and prepared for a long, long nap.

(Yeeesss... Izumi can multitask... quite efficiently )

[Arnen]

~Name: Kaichou Tsuki
~Age: 16
~Physical Appearance: Around 5'5", she's taller than some girls her age but not not exactly a giant. Weighs somewhere around 165 lbs., probably less. She doesn't really keep track. She has a moderately narrow waist and an ample bust, and a butt she thinks is a little too big, but because of the types of clothes she wears this is often overlooked. Her face is somewhat pale, with a couple freckles smattered across her nose and below her violet eyes, though her arms (usually pretty much the only other flesh visible) are lightly tanned. Her nails are enameled black with little white six-pointed stars on them, and when she gets the chance she wears black lipstick (the kind that doesn't come off unless you use a certain kind of removal stuff and you can hardly tell you're wearing it). Her earlobes are pierced, but she seldom wears earrings. However, when out of uniform she does wear a silver barbel in the piercing on her right eyebrow. Her raven hair is chopped short, falling in a slightly wavy fashion to around chin-length, the bangs curling almost into little ringlets.
~School Uniform: (Ok'ed by Tsukasa) She wears an orange girl's 15-18 top with a pair of guy's 15-18 pants, slightly baggy and borrowed from her friend John. She also has a skirt to go with her top, but she despises it and never wears it unless her pants aren't clean. She has a silver necklace of a dragon coiled around a sword that she wears all the time unless she's sleeping (under her uniform if she has to).
~Casual Outfit: She usually wears a random T-shirt (her favorite being black with a silver dragon going from the shoulder down to the chest), baggy jeans (her favorite pair are black with pockets on the legs and chains on either side, with zippers at the knee to zip off the bottoms of the legs), random knee-high toe socks (she prefers black, white, or grey ones), and boots that go halfway up her calves and have two silver buckles on the sides. She sometimes ties a black ribbon around her neck along with her necklace.
~Personality: Very random. She's normally quiet when she doesn't have anything to say, but when she does, she hates to be interrupted. She can be pretty hyperactive around her friends, and has a sort of sick sense of humor. She is very adamant in her opinions and tends to rant a lot. She's kind of a nerd, being into video games and liking to draw in anime style, but she also has gothic tastes (hence her choice of clothing). She loves to read, mostly favoring fantasy, but she also enjoys sci-fi and will generally read anything else thrown at her in English class. She also has a flair for writing and has the ability to throw out A-or-B-worthy essays in less than an hour. She generally acts tough, and insults tend to glance off her accompanied by witty retorts, but there are some things that she can't even stand being called. Tends to get confused rather easily despite her superior intellect.
~Element: Scythe
~Child: Kazahana (Demon)
~Location of Birthmark: At the small of her back, just above her tailbone
~Yes or No: No
~Relationships: Her best friend is John Baker (I know, original name ><), a student from America whose parents enrolled him at Fuuka upon moving to the country.
~History: An only child. She was recommended to Fuuka because of her high marks, and her parents managed to find the money to get her in. This is her first year at a private school.
~Other: She keeps a Swiss army knife and a lighter in her pocket, just because she feels like it. She doesn't smoke or anything, she just likes to play with lighters.


>-~Tsuki - Undiscovered HiME of Kazahana~-<

"Heeey!" I groaned, quickly snapping the control stick in the opposite direction just in time.

"What? That's what you get for not paying attention!" my friend John said with a shrug, blue eyes flicking over the screen.

It was the last day before school started, and we were both in my living room, playing Sonic Adventure Battle 2. I, of course, was Shadow, because he kicks ass, and John was being Metal Sonic, because Amy and Sonic are annoying. The stupid randomizer had chosen the Sky Rail level, my least favorite, so I wasn't doing too well. John's tendency to freeze me in place for extended periods of time and randomly attack me did not help the matter, and I was quickly getting frustrated.

"Damn!" I growled, ready to chuck my controller across the room as I was finally unfrozen -- right over the edge. And of course, it wouldn't let me move for a few seconds, so I ended up falling, and dying.

The good thing about versus mode is that, if you get killed, you're automatically taken to the furthest-ahead save point activated. This means that I was now just a short ways behind him. It took some doing, but eventually, thanks to Chaos Control, I caught up with him, and miraculously won the level.

The controller clattered to the ground as he stretched, yawning. "You got lucky," he informed me. "I'm tired though."

"Me too," I agreed with a nod. "I'm going to bed, then. Night." I reached down and turned off the 'Cube before heading upstairs to my room, leaving John to sleep on the couch in the basement. I had the sneaking suspicion that there would not be any leftover pizza in the box when I went downstairs in the morning.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

I dreamt of the sky. It was nighttime, I think; I couldn't tell for sure. It must have been, since there were stars in the sky. More precisely, there was one star: huge and red, looming overhead. I knew it was a dream, but I could feel something. A sort of throbbing was emenating from the birthmark on my back. I blinked, and the crimson light from the red scar appeared to pulsate, in time with the throbbing from my back. I blinked again, and when I looked at the star, I thought I saw a blurred shape flit across it. Squinting in an attempt to better see what it was, I found nothing. Nothing but the star, bright red in the black sky.

I blinked again, to find myself awake in my bed. I shuddered. The dream had seemed too real, like it had a meaning.. I looked at the alarm clock: 6:43. I sighed, figuring I may as well get up. The covers rustled slightly as I threw them off and started getting ready for school.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

It turned out I was right about the pizza. My friend had apparently gotten hungry in the middle of the night. It was a wonder that he'd left the cardboard box undevoured, and I told him so, much to his chagrin.

"I can't help it; I was hungry," I heard him mutter as I went about picking up the various boxes and cans strewn about the living room. I tossed them all into a garbage bag, intent on having the place spick and span before my parents got up. The bag was left next to the door to be brought out when we left for school.

"Hey, John," I called from the kitchen, "mind if I borrow a couple of your spare pairs of pants again this year?"

"Sure thing," came the response, as two or three pairs of tan-colored pants were tossed into the hallway by the kitchen.

"Thanks, man!" I cried as I grabbed one pair and put it atop the uniform I would wear that day. The rest were thrown through the door to my room, where they landed in the wooden treasure-chest like box I kept my clothes in. I didn't care if they got wrinkled -- after all, they were just clothes for school. I ran into the bathroom, hastily changed from the velvety pants and overlarge T-shirt had worn as pajamas into the evil, restrictive uniform they forced me to wear at that damned school. "Fucking restriction of my personal rights..." I grumbled as I adjusted the pansy-ass little bow on the top. At least it looked better than the guy's shirts, I told myself.

I threw my pajamas into the laundry basket, deciding to wash them when I got home. Wetting a brush slightly with water from the sink, I hastily dragged it through my hair. Then I left the bathroom to let John have a turn. I put a few bagels in the toaster oven and went to the door of my parents' room.

"Hey, mom, dad? We're gonna be leaving for school soon," I informed them, after rapping lightly on the door.

"Bye, then," came my mom's sleepy reply, as my dad said something that sounded like, "Mmf." I chuckled slightly and went to wait by the door for John.

"Fall in?" I joked as he finally emerged.

"Yes!" he said dramatically. "It was terrible! Almost got eaten by an alligator down there! I just barely escaped!"

"Oh no!" I laughed as I handed him one of the bagels I had prepared. He immediately shoved it in his mouth as I opened the door and headed out. John followed, closing the door behind him. He was keeping his stuff at my place till this afternoon, when his parents would come to pick him up. We started up the sidewalk, our shoes scuffing lightly against the pavement as we walked slowly, trying to prolong the time before we arrived at the giant torture chamber known as school.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

We were some of the first ones there, despite our attempts to delay our arrival. We picked a couple seats towards the back; all the better not to be noticed, we decided. I yawned and leaned back in my chair, thanking whatever gods there were that I had a guy friend to borrow pants from. Those skirts looked extremely uncomfortable and demeaning. I gently poked John in the arm, and he hissed, noticing that people were now starting to pour in through the doors.

"Any minute now..." I muttered, eyes flicking about impatiently as I waited for the commencement speech to, well, commence. With a bored kind of sigh I took my DS out of my pocket, motioned for John to do the same, and went to Pictochat so John and I could talk during the speech without being heard by teachers.


If anyone wants, they can go on Pictochat and talk too ^.^

[EngiMatikul]

Name: Nagi
Age: 25
Physical Appearance: If anyone knew Nagi from the show, then they would realize how much his appearance has changed. Instead of the short, messy hair given to him from the show, his lightblue/grayish hair is now fairly combed with long bangs combed to the left side (on his view), covering his left eye most of the time. He is taller, but still has a scrawny build; his eyes are his usual cunning, slit sized eyes. He now typically has a cigarette in his mouth and has small, square sized specs for the sole purpose of the "evil glare".
Casual Outfit: They are the same as his clothes in the show, as I think his outfit is fine and I am too lazy to make a writeup on it. tongueNEW:
http://circus.nandemo.gr.jp/common/m...r_event02.html
(Yes, I'm that handsome now, so everyone stop hating me >:O)
Personality: Quick witted and elusive, he is fairly hard to understand, though he seems to be helping the HiMEs out. He has taken the role of a japanese literature teacher at the school, but is very irresponsible at that role and usually has substitutes in his spots whereas he goes out to do... whatever. One thing is known for sure, though; he seems to understand the HiMEs and their purpose very well.
Element: Book!! Yes I get a book!! HAHA >:O
Child: He has no child, but has a unique ability to "detect" demonlike monsters called Orphans, which the HiMEs are usually called upon to destroy. Consequently, he also can warn people about Orphans and who's being endangered because of them...
Relationships: HE BOWS DOWN TO THE GREAT... oh wait you're not supposed to know that yet.
History: He's been popping up and around the school, and to redirect the suspicion that he might be up to something, he has taken the role of a teacher. Not much is understood about him beyond that he appears almost whenever a child is summoned and helps out those who do not have their child yet in obtaining their powers, whether they want their powers or not.
Other: For the pure reference of those who do not realize that I am not a HiME, Nagi is a male character. NEW: This time, Nagi will have a few more tricks up his sleeves. He can now cause minor memory lapses/alterations within "normal" people. HiMEs obviously are not affected by this skill, but whatever NPC you may have a relation with can possibly be affected if Nagi feels he needs to do so... tongue

Nagi
=====
It was a clear summer day... the red star shined brightly in the sky... "BAH!!" Nagi tossed the book down onto the ground, then leaned backwards, resting on a limb of a tree. Reading the same book gets quite monotonous after a while, even if the story was originally fascinating...
But there were other things for Nagi to do. Nagi gazed lazily towards the crowd of students waiting for the director to speak. He slowly and casually focused his eyes towards a trio of students lying at the edge of the crowd, and smirked. "Maiyuki, is it?" Nagi hopped a few branches to get in for a closer look at the group, while carefully still preventing his presence from being seen... or felt... by others.
"...thirsty, I'm going to get some drinks, any of you two want anything?"
"Yeah! Get me an orange juice will you? Aya, did you want anything?"
The third student did not reply. Slowly Nagi watched one of the students walk off towards the vending machines. Then, out of nowhere, he made his presence to the student.
"Hey there!!... Ami, was it?" Nagi greeted warmly to the schoolgirl.
"Hi!! Uh..." There was a short pause before Ami went on. "...who are you?"
Nagi stumbled a bit, as if surprised that she didn't know who he was. "Oh come now, surely it will come to your memory if you think long enough..."
"...Oh! Nagi, our new teacher!! Sorry about that..." Ami apologized sincerely.
"It's fine, just try to keep it in your head, as I might be one of your teachers next year," Nagi winked, then walked up to the vending machine and bought a few drinks. He tossed a couple towards Ami. "Your reward for guessing my name right, you were thirsty weren't you? That's why you came to the vending machines?"
"Yes! Uh... thank you very much!" Ami bowed to show her consideration.
"It's not a problem. However, you do you have anything else to do right now? I kind of have a favor to ask of you..."
"Actually I'm..." Ami stopped for a bit, and looked to the sky as if she was trying to remember something. After a while she gave up. "I can't think of anything I have to do right now, I guess it wouldn't hurt to help out a teacher..."
"That's great! You see, I have a list of books I want to look over." Nagi quickly took out a sheet of paper and wrote down several titles. "Can you goto the library and find these for me? I'd greatly appreciate it."
"No prob!" She exclaimed, took the paper, and ran off.
"No problem indeed," Nagi said darkly under his voice. He snapped his fingers and one can hear from a distance, a faint screech, but was muffled by the students attending the ceremony...

[Prof. Jb Wolf]

Name: Koyuki Rokugan
Age: Appears to be in his early to mid-twenties
Physical Appearance: Taller than most at the height of six foot with a fairly slender build that gives him a 'bishie' quality. He is deceptively weak, having trained for many years in the art of kenjtusu. Hair is fairly long, falling just between his shoulder blades and pulled back into a long ponytail. Eyes are an odd amber gold in color.
Outfit: Normally wears a black blazer and pants with a long sleeved crimson shirt underneath. A charm is always seen around his neck, a purple jewel set above a bell with a long feather beneath that. Also tends to wear a pair of glasses that seemed to be mirrored.
Personality: Calm, cool, collected. These three C's describe Koyuki perfectly. He seems to care deeply for his school as he always endorses activities that would in anyway better it or its students. He remains humble and seems to know everything going on at the school. He, like Nagi, has some knowledge on the Legend of the HiMEs.
Element: Katana
Child: N/A
Relationships: Many of the female students of Fuuka Gakuen have a crush on him and he seems to have firm trust in Nagi despite his teaching methods or rather lack thereof.
History: Koyuki comes from an ancient line that has lived in Fuuka for many generations. Though his family is quite rich, the young man prefers to live in the family compound on the outskirts of Fuuka rather than within the city. Upon graduation from Fuuka Gakuen, he was immediately given the job of School Administrator and seems to be doing quite a good job of it. He seems to also be inexplicably tied to the HiME Legend and may know a few things that even Nagi may not.
Other: Obviously, like Nagi, Koyuki is male and NOT a HiME.

Koyuki Rokugan ~ Fuuka Academy Administrator
=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
The director stood calmly at the podium, overlooking the sea of teens that comprised the student body of Fuuka Academy. A slow smile came to his face as he watched them, perhaps fondly remembering when he was once among them.

Clearing his throat, Koyuki tapped the mic a few times to get the attention of those still speaking. "Good morning everyone and a welcome to a new year here at Fuuka Academy. To those who are just starting here, I also offer my congratulations at being accepted and expect to see you do well during your time here at Fuuka. As many of your senpais will tell you, we here at Fuuka pride ourselves with being among the best schools in the country. Here you will learn many things, hopefully not just academically. They say this is the time of one's life where events will shape who they will become in life. This year, and in those to come, you will unlock potential within yourself that you you may not even know you have."

"To those returning students, I am sincerely glad to see you have returned to our doors once again. I have a feeling that this will be quite an exciting year for the academy and hope that you will continue to support the school in all its endeavors. New discoveries await you and for those in your last years here at Fuuka, life-altering decisions will be made. I have faith that you will have the strength to make those decisions and the fortitude to take any consequences that may come with it. Life is dictated by our actions and we must be sure that those actions are for the better."


"Now, on to more pressing business as I'm sure I've rambled on long enough. First, we have a new teacher here at the academy." Turning slightly to where the teachers were assembled behind him, the director noticed a certain blue-haired teacher was conspiciously absent. "But seeing as he is not here at this moment, I will introduce him to the school at a later time. His name is Homura Nagi and he will be taking over the Japanese Literature class. Suffice to say he will be quite an interesting teacher and you will learn much from him. As well, the library to the east of the dorms is strictly off limits to unauthorized personnel. Those caught will be suspended from all festivals and other student related activities for the rest of the year. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, my home is just up the hill and students are welcome any time." He gave the assembly a small smile. "And for those who send gifts, please send something edible as my home has more than enough flowers and ornaments to last many generations."


This earned a laugh from the student body as well as a few blushes from the young admirers of the Director. "Once again welcome to Fuuka and lets make this year one to remember." Bowing slightly to the crowd as they applauded, Koyuki took his leave of the stage.

[Bulbasaur4]

[color=royalblue]

Setsuna, Kiya
.: Undiscovered HiME of Miroku | Currently Near Ceremony :.

Kiya's dazzling eyes seemed to rest upon a young male who was waving at her. Her mood for the hunt of food was disrupted a bit, as she raised a brow and tilted her head to the side. He seemed to make a motion to usher her to come sit by him, but Kiya simply stood frozen in her crouched position. She mimicked him instead... raising her own hand and waving back- unknowing what it really meant, but figuring that if he was doing it to her then perhaps she should return the favor. Suddenly however, a booming voice seemed to waver in the air. Kiya's eyes widened- shocked- as she did a "spin around" move to see perhaps where the voice was coming from. There was a big black box near her... and she went towards it, discovering that this indeed was where the voice was coming from. She narrowed her eyes, growling at it slightly (since when did boxes speak?)... until she noticed that everyone at the ceremony was looking in a different direction.

This, was quite puzzling.

She then turned to see that they were staring at a male. He was standing upon an elevated platform, speaking into a strange object. He had a gentle demeanor about him... and Kiya made the connection that it was his voice that was echoing in the air. (Why it came from a big black box... well, that she had no idea.) She realized that everyone's attention was diverted, and to that she instantly remembered the smell that was whafting in the air. Crouching down low, she slowly began to crawl towards the food. Of course, to get there she had to cross the mass of chairs and people... so she simply ducked underneath the chairs, slinking like a hybrid of a snake and a wolf. She went under the chair of the boy who had waved at her, who seemed to think she was going to sit next to him... but was confused and surprised when she simply went underneath his chair. She crawled underneath the entire row of chairs... or well, got halfway before the speech ended. Already there were a bunch of disgruntled people, who had either felt her brush against the backside of their legs or somehow bump their chair slightly.
"What the HELL!" Someone roared, standing up as soon as the speech was over. Kiya froze for a second, realizing that people were now starting to stand up and move towards her food.
She then realized tha tsomeone tipped the chair that was over her, so that she was exposed to them.
"Why in the hell are you crawling underneath chairs like some freak'n pervert! BAKA!" A girl screamed, aiming to make a swift kick straight at Kiya. (She was very hostile.)
Kiya's eyes widened as she swiftly dodged the kick by leaping into the air. The girl then swung at Kiya again with a kick, (For punching was useless since Kiya continued to return to her crouched position..) but Kiya rolled to the side. Giving a snarling growl, Kiya narrowed her fierce eyes and swiftly whipped herself around in a circle, outstretching her leg so that she upswept the girl at the ankle. The girl gave a cry of dismay as she fell to the ground hard, to which laughter insued. Kiya then dashed away... pushing her way through many people who gave out disgruntled, "hey!" and "watch out!" and an occasionally groan of some sort if Kiya pushed hard enough. A few people tried to catch Kiya- as if her running meant that she had done something incredibly wrong. She didn't blend in too well either... being that her hair was long, her figure was something you couldn't miss in those rather ripped and tattered clothes, and the fact that she liked to run in a semi-crouched position and could do it very efficiently.

Her hard dash had paid off however.

Kiya had found the food area, and her eyes seemed to widen about the size of half of her head as she felt her mouth begin to salivitate. She gave a gleeful cry and immediatly approached one of the tables, snatched a steaming roll of some sort, and then dashed underneath the table to eat it. The people serving the food didn't notice, so she sat under the table with happiness in her eyes as she bit into it. It tasted extremely delicious, and it wasn't even a minute before she had snatched and inhaled about four of these rolls.

Kiya felt as if she had won the lottery.




(Just a note= Kiya caused much chaos. lol )

[Fai D. Flowright]

[color=#339933]\ Uzaki Maiyuki /|\ Kagutsuchi //:
[color=#339933][size=3]The Ceremony

[color=#EE9944]With only a few minutes to wait, the director prepared for his yearly speech to welcome new students that were admitted over the summer and old students that were returning for the year. One thing I had always admired about Dir. Rokugan was his ability with words and I was getting excited to hear. Before things could get started, though, Ami leaned over to me and questioned, “Hey, I’m a little thirsty, so I’m gonna go get something. Either of you want something?” She stood up, looking around for the refreshments.

“Yeah! Get me an orange juice, will you?” I turn the other way and nudged Aya, “Did you want anything?” She shook her head slightly as her eyes began to close and then flip open. I turned back to Ami and shrugged, signaling that she could go.

As she walked off, I turned to Aya again. “You gonna be alright? You look a little tired.” I teased, giving her a poke in the side.

“What are you talking about? I could probably do a couple laps around the school!” She said with a smile, but I could tell that she was exhausted by the dark circles under her eyes. I let out a little laugh and turned my attention to Koyuki, who was now standing at the podium.

“Where is Ami? She’s going to miss the speech!” I whined, looking around for her. At this point, the director had already begun speaking, so it would have been rude to leave and search for her now.

"Good morning everyone and welcome to a new year here at Fuuka Academy.” Dir. Rokugan announced. Suddenly, I felt a weight fall on my shoulder. In a quick glance, I found Aya fast asleep. I rolled my eyes with a smug grin and turned my attention back to the smooth-talking director.

[color=#339933]~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~

[color=#EE9944]As soon as the speech concluded, people began to move. I wiggled by shoulder a bit to wake Aya, who had drooled a bit on my uniform. “Ewww! Thanks for the... lovely present, Aya.” I said, wiping the wet patch where her mouth had been resting. She sat upright, groggily looking around at the moving people.

“Sorry, Yuki. Is the ceremony over already?” She moaned, followed by the wide yawn that she so often exhibited. But before I could respond, some chaos seemed to erupt from the other side of the audience from where we were. It seemed to draw the attention of some of the crowd, as it was rather unexpected.

“What do you think is going on over there, Ami?” There was no response. “Ami?” I looked to find her chair empty. “She never came back? That’s weird...”

“Who didn’t?” Aya questioned, trying to get a better view of the mess going on near the refreshment table. Then it clicked! Ami was going to get refreshments, so it was possible that she might have gone to the area set up for the Open House after the ceremony.

“Come on, Aya! We’re gonna go find Ami.” I commanded, grabbing her by the collar and pulling her along behind me. When she realized the direction I was dragging her, she quickly made her way to my side. “Maybe the staff working the snack stands will know where she went.”

Pushing our way through the crowd, we arrived at a table with rows of pre-poured drinks waiting to be taken by the now-settling masses. The one working here was Yumi Terada, one of the managers in the administrative office. “Oh hello, Yuki. Good to see you back again.” Yumi commented, “You too, Aya.”

“Same to you, Terada-san,” I replied, both of us giving a smile, “but we’ve got a bit of a problem.”

“Oh? Of what sort?” She crossed her arm in anticipation of some possible excitement.

“Ami’s missing. She came to get some drinks before the speech, but she never came back. Have you seen her?” As I explained, Yumi nodded her head at each new fact.

“Actually, she stopped by here, but I didn’t have anything ready yet.” She then pointed off towards one of the closer buildings with a concerned look on her face. “I told her the vending machines were working, but as she headed off, that new teacher, Nagi, caught up with her. Ami headed off towards the library, although I don’t know why...”

At the mere mention of his name, Aya seemed to tense up at Yumi’s reference to Nagi. “That’s enough info for me!” As if our roles had reversed, Aya was tugging at the back of my jacket

“Sorry, Yumi!” I chuckled nervously, “Gotta go!” Aya was yanking me away with great force now, nearly tipping me over. With my attention back on her we started to move towards the east library, but a thought occurred to me and I stopped. “Wait, Aya. Dir. Rokugan said that library was off limits to students! We can’t go there.”

She gave a sigh and turned to me. “Are you going to abandon your friend then?” I hesitantly nodded my head. Aya shrugged continued, “Well, I’m going anyway. Bye, Yuki...”

As she ran on ahead, I growled in frustration and chased after her. “Wait! I-I’m coming too!”

[color=#339933]~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~

[color=#339933][size=3]The Ceremony

[color=#EE9944]Chasing after Aya was a chore to do, but it got us to the library quite hastily. Subtle growls and rumbles could be sensed from inside and Aya seemed as if she were ready for the battle of a lifetime. “What are you so edgy about?”

“Maybe you should wait out here.” She commented with a fiery glare.

“I came this far, I’m going inside.” I protested, “What difference does it make anyway? All that’s inside should be Ami and some old bookcases, right?” Aya took in a deep breath and sunk in defeat.

“Fine... But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I raised my left eyebrow in curiosity, but brushed it off just as quickly as we purged the doorway. There, in the middle of the large hall, was Ami, collapsed in the center of a large clock-like device on the floor. “AMI!” I shouted, running over to her and crouching by her side. Aya entered the dark room cautiously, making sharp glances all around the room. "Are you okay? What happened?"

[Roy Karrde]

Tange, Aya

Vlas

My spine began to tingle as Yuki made her way to Ami, I did not like being in here, the old books, the dark areas of the room that could hide unspeakable horrors. Shadows danced and played upon shadows, wind rustled through the room from the outside door creating howling echoes that would scare even the strongest man. At the same time exhaustion continued to cling to my body, my steps were slow and somewhat messy, my arms ached in pain, and my mouth felt dry and weak.

“Yuki we need to leave,” I warned as she questioned Ami about why she was there. The sound of wind picked up as a breeze swept through the room sending pages fluttering. “YUKI!” I shouted running into a slide right beside her, I came up into a crouch with my back facing Yuki.

“I never thought you were scared of wind Aya.” Yuki smiled patting my shoulder as Ami rolled her eyes, I sent a serious glance back at her as the doors slammed shut with a thunderous bang. “Okay now that was a bit scary.” Yuki shuddered as she began to walk towards the doorway; I pushed my arm in her way to stop her.

Golden eyes seemed to peer out of the shadows one second before disappearing again; the eyes were slitted like those of a snake. “Yuki, Ami, I don’t have time to explain, just keep your heads down.” I warned as the bow materialized in my hand. I could hear both Ami and Yuki gasp in shock at the sudden appearance of my bow as the sound of something moving swiftly came from the other side of the room.

I closed my eyes and cried out for my child, Vlas! I could feel it’s familiar presence as it rose from beneath the floor, like a ghost it was semi opaque before it finally rose to its magnificent height. “Aya, wha-what is that..” Yuki gasped looking at me in horror, Ami was too shocked to even form words. I looked back at Yuki knowing full well that my life was exposed, my greatest horror would now happen. Yuki would call the cops saying I was some kind of witch and I would be taken away and be operated on. It was a fear that kept me from ever telling my best friend about what I was.

“I’m..sorry Yuki, please don’t be mad at me.” I pleaded; tears filled my exhausted eyes as I turned back to Vlas knowing full well what I had to do. “Vlas, Ami” I told my child, even though I had barely told it anything, he knew what to do. Its eyes glowed a deep red as Ami relaxed and went into a trance like state.

“Yuki, if something happens to me during this, I want you to take Ami and run.” I ordered my voice going stern as I entered into full battle mode. Behind me I could hear Yuki scream and tug at Ami’s shoulder trying to get her to snap out of it. “Vlas protect Yuki and Ami.” I told my child as I raised my bow.

With a snap a black tail whipped across the room slapping down at the place I had stood just a second before. “Aya.” Yuki cried out in shock as I jumped to my left side as the tail retreated again into the darkness.

“Oh no you don’t.” I sneered back at the monster as my bow lit up with the snap hiss of a purple electric arrow. Taking a second to aim at where the tail retreated to I released the arrow followed by two more. Books and wood lit on fire from the arrows as the whole bookcase threatened to go up in flames.

The Orphan let out a threatening roar as it moved toward the center of the room and away from the fire to reveal it’s full glory in the dimly lit room. The creature looked like a giant cobra with deep rich black scales, menacing horns towering out of it’s head, and pieces of it’s flesh rotting away or already gone revealing bone and tissue. “Ugly son of a…” I gasped, the Orphan taking no time to reply to my curse whipped its tail around again at me.

I dodged to my side, this time even slower than last time. The tail flashed to the left as I landed, and slammed straight into my ribs. I gasped as the air left my lungs as the tail swung me straight into a bookshelf. I coughed hard as blood began to fill and gush out of my mouth. I staggered to get up to my feet but my legs ached so badly from exhaustion, I wanted to go to sleep so badly. My chest pounded in pain from the hit I just took and my grip was slipping on my bow, I could barely even hold it in my hand.

Around me the snake’s tail slithered as it encircled me. I tried to side step it but it tightened grasping me in its trap. Helplessly I was lifted into the air as the tail continued to tighten, tighter and tighter. I moaned in pain as my arms were pressed against my ribs while my bow slipped from my grasp and clattered to the floor. I looked down at Yuki weakly as darkness threatened on the sides of my vision. Tears began to flood my eyes as I realized that I was about to die, and my best friend was about to watch me die. “Please,” I begged almost breathlessly at Yuki as the darkness began to engulf more and more of my vision.

“Please help me Yuki.” I begged down at her as tears flowed down my cheek. “I don’t want to die, please Yuki, help me.” I begged like a small child, I tried to draw breath again yet the darkness in my vision surged and I fell asleep, in my last seconds of thought I realized that I finally cheated Nagi, a HiME places her most important thing on the line when she becomes a HiME, I was about to die so I would lose my life, the thought that I beat Nagi gave me some satisfaction.

Saotome, Emi

Duran

Student Council, why did I have to ever join up in that stupid organization? Maybe it isn’t too late to resign my post at the student council so that I wouldn’t have to be the one to confront what ever it was that ran into the food area. Crowds were already beginning to gather in curiosity and in fear about what could have possibly caused such a ruckus during the speech. Luckily this thing did keep me from having to fight with Ryo for now, even though I wouldn’t really mind punching that superior ass hole.

“Alright guys make a hole.” I sighed pushing through the crowd and into the food area with tables upon tables lined with food. I quickly spotted her, hunched over one of the tables eating food like there was no tomorrow in her tattered clothes. “Hello, now please don’t kill me.” I whispered as I approached her, noticing my movement she turned to me and began to tense up.

“Don’t worry, I’m a friend, we’re all friends here, no one needs to be disembowel,” I smiled slightly holding out my hands to show that I didn’t have any weapons. She studied me for a second before turning back to the food. Getting her out of here and possibly into the student council room was the best idea I had right now. The last thing that needed to happen was anyone getting hurt.

I slowly walked around her toward the drink machines as a plan formed in my mind. “You seem to be really hungry, I bet you’re thirsty too” I smiled reaching slowly into my pocket and pulling a few yen out of the wad of bills I won. I slipped the bill into the machine and hit water, the machine rumbled and out popped a water bottle. The girl turned toward the noise again as I snapped open the water bottle. Small bits of drool began to form on her lips as I held out the water bottle.

With a bit of hesitation she moved toward me, she reached out with her arm revealing a very strange tattoo that ran down the side of her arm. Taking a second to study it, I barely noticed her snatching the water bottle out of my hand. I grinned back at her while shifting around uncomfortably while I bought another water bottle. Alright now if one of these idiots in the crowd could walk behind her to make sure she doesn’t run, or something, anything to help me get her to the student council room, it would be really helpful. “Some help would really be nice..” I whispered turning my attention from the crowd back towards her. “Got any friends that are willing to help me get you to the student council room?” I asked not expecting an answer. She growled back in response and I sighed. Yeah Emi, all this money you won from Poker, and your going to be killed before you can spend it.

[Emotional Faun Chiko-sai]

Fujiwara Kanna (et famille), Kiyohime
"Weirdos flock together."
--------------

After the speech, Tsuneo carefully woke his sister up - if you didn't do it gently, sometimes she would kick you right in the guts where it hurt most, thinking you were an assailant. He, of course, had not only stayed awake throughout, but had also memorized the director's speech, word for word, in his quiet way. In many ways, he was the exact opposite of his two older siblings, to an extent that people asked if he had been adopted.

Kaname had buggered off to catch up with his friends, so Kanna was spared the sight of him when she opened her eyes. She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand in some semblance of politeness, and stretched. Then she became aware of the discreet tugging at her arm.

"What, Tsuneo?"
"Aneki, I saw an odd person just now."
"This school is full of odd people, including among others the Director, that new teacher, and your brother."
"No, this is a special odd person that's making a lot of chaos over there in the food stalls area."
"Oh, really? How madly fascinating. Tsuneo? Where you going? Tsuneo!"

In hot pursuit of her younger brother, who could move surprisingly quickly for a scrawny little redhead, Kanna dodged, elbowed, pushed and bumped into various other people who were simply in the way. And skidded to a stop, as she tried to avoid running straight into a student council member in a green uniform.

"Excuse me," Tsuneo was saying, "do you know this specially odd person?"
The raggedy-looking, crouching girl clutching a bottle of water was sniffing him all over in mild curiosity, while the older girl was giving him the kind of look most people normally gave Tsuneo, ie. a 'ooookay-what-a-weirdo' look. "What do you want, kid? Oh, hey... do me a favour..."

Kanna took a deep breath. "What the heck is going on here?"

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow. "That's what I'd like to ask, anyway. Who're you? Who is this kid? Who is that other kid? We'll save the questions for the student council room, shall we? Come on, help me watch her so she doesn't just run away and terrorize more people."

Kanna eyed Tsuneo, who seemed to be teaching the ragged girl how to open a water bottle, and then returned her attention to the blonde girl. "Fine. Lead the way."

En route to the student council room, the strange procession gained many quizzical glances from the student population, but Kanna's glaring silenced most questions that were about to come. Once inside, the blonde girl locked the door and faced the other three. Her mouth twitched as she watched the ragged girl accidentally pour some water over herself.

"Okay, time for introductions. I'm Emi Saotome."
"Kanna Fujiwara, and that's my brother, Tsuneo. Who's the other girl?"
"Dunno. Hoping you'd know."
"Well, they say weirdos flock together..."
--------------
Hope that was okay...

[Bulbasaur4]

Kiya Setsuna
.: Undiscovered HiME of Miroku :.

Kiya’s hand clasped the now-empty plastic container that used to contain water. Her eyes were fixated upon the figures in the room… and she stared at them with a rather piercing and nerving gaze. She sensed virtually no hostility from the male, who had a pleasant face and a very nicely toned voice. He also had attempted to show her how to open the container, which she had learned swiftly (despite dumping the water upon herself.) The girl who had given her the bottle had a slight panicked voice. Kiya could sense the surpressed fear within her, and it made Kiya aware that the girl was in fact perhaps a bit afraid. Then… there was the other girl. She had dark raven-like hair which seemed to ripple with every movement she had. Her eyes were fairly stern and seemed to hold an annoyance with many things. Usually Kiya would feel threatened or disturbed by a person with such a strong and rather ‘hostile’ attitude, but Kiya didn’t feel that threatened. She was rather fasinated… for she hadn’t met a human who showed strength like that.

Still, Kiya was slightly bewildered.

They had led her into a room… Kiya had followed merely because the young boy was showing her how to open the bottle while moving and talking words that Kiya didn’t entirely understand. Now however, the door was shut and Kiya realized she was in a confined space. This, if anything, made her a bit uneasy. Still, her brilliant brown-honeyed gaze stared at everyone intently as if trying to figure this out. Deep down she was a bit nervous and tense… but for the moment, she didn’t feel as if her life was quite in danger. The people seemed to be either not hostile or not completely threatening towards Kiya.

Listening to their conversaion, she understood a bit of it. They had introduced themselves… the one girl was Emi Saotome, the other was Kanna Fujiwara and the boy was Tsueno. While Kiya perhaps wasn’t totally accustomed with everything in the ‘human’ world, the old lady had managed to teach her the basics of speech. (Even if she didn’t know language all that well.) They questioned her… and Kiya tilted her head slightly to the side.
“Kiya.” She stated, blinking as she leapt upon a table and immediately crossed her legs into a pretzel-like position on top of it. Silence filled the room, as all of them glanced at her direction. She offered a sudden smile, pointing at herself.
“Kiya Setsuna.”
Kiya, although not remembering how she knew… always had remembered her full name. Of course, Setsuna was the highest family name within her old ancesteral village, back before everyone was destroyed. Setsuna- strongest of the Samuari lines! However… she didn’t know that, nor did many others.
The one named Emi blinked and stared at her.
“You understand?!” She stated, perhaps dumbfounded. Kiya smiled.
“I know little language!” She chimed happily, to which Tsueno found a great interest in. Kanna however, seemed a bit agitated.
“So… how long are we going to wait? The festivities are going on and I really don’t think spending my time in a room with wild-girl here is going to match up to that.”

It seemed at that exact time, the door opened.


[ TAG! Well… I imagine it would be a head student council person or the principal to make some decisions or someone with some authority… ]

[size=1]Kei Yugomuto
.: HiME of Harry | M (f) :.

Kei gave an appropriate stifled yawn as soon as the director’s speech was complete. It wasn’t that his speech was boring- actually Kei found it tastefully done. Nothing less to be expected. Kei just realized that for once he seemed to have not ate enough to help him with his metabolism. He was in fact, perhaps a bit hungry.
“ Well that was fun. Festivities anyone?” Kami stated, standing up slightly as she glanced at her boyfriend and Kei. Kei offered her a very pleasant smile, standing upwards as he stretched.
“Yes… indeed, I’m extremely hungry.” Kei felt his stomach quiver at the mention of being hungry and the possibility of eating. Kira stood up as well, looking at Kei.
“I’m thirsty. How about Kami and I meet you up at the food tables? I’d like to get something to drink first.”
Kei, although hesitating with his mind, offered a continuous smile as he nodded.
“Of course.”
In truth, Kei didn’t understand the reasoning upon Kira’s behalf. They simply could have gotten drinks together and THEN progressed to the food table, but of course Kira always seemed to make illogical choices when around Kei. Kami had noticed it a bit too, and expressed that thought with Kei a few days ago. In any case, Kei respected both Kami and Kira, so he simply stood as he watched them walk off.
“More time to eat then.” Kei said to himself, as he glanced about and then suddenly his gaze fell upon Izumi.
Izumi was with two others, whom Kei faintly remembered. While they were talking… Izumi seemed to be thinking in outer space or some distant place. Ah Izumi… despite their time apart and perhaps ‘distance’, she was still the same Izumi he had remembered. It was enough to bring a gentle smile to his face, as he walked towards her.

“May I steal your friend for a moment?” Kei’s gentle yet smooth voice seemed to simply wash over the trio like a refreshing stream. The two of them instantly stopped chatting, and laughed slightly as Izumi seemed to blink- snapping out of her sleep-like state. For a split second, Kei perhaps saw a flash of uncertaintiny from Izumi- as if she didn’t want to be around him – but before he could register it, the look was gone.
“ Greetings Izumi, care to join me on a vast journey to the food table?” Kei said lightly, offering yet another smile as he absently scratched his head, just above his ear. His hair rippled slightly with the movement as his daunting green-hued eyes seemed to scan for a “No.” Izumi- either caught in a trap or perhaps some other mind set- stood up slowly.
“Yeah.. sure… why not.” Izumi stated, as Kei gave a nod.
“Good! I was hoping that you’d say that. Haven’t talked to you in a while and I feel a lack of Izumi in my life.”
Perhaps Kei meant the deep meaning with in those words that could have been derived from them- or it was just an innocent mistake. In either case, the way that Kei spoke those words still sounded earnest and smooth- as if it was rather a saddened and painstaking fact to him.
“Let’s be off.” Kei said softly, ushering Izumi towards the festivities.

[EngiMatikul]

Nagi
=====
"Well??" Nagi suddenly emerged, without warning, from behind Yuki. Yuki leaped up in surprise at the sound of another unfamiliar voice, in fear of another monster coming up against her....
"W-w-who are you??" She stuttered.
"Oh yes, I forgot, I never introduced myself." Nagi bowed down respectably. "I am Nagi, your new teacher. I believe I was introduced, but I had a few errands that I needed to run... Well maybe not 'I' in particular but..."
"Help...!!" The struggling hime's voice called out in the grip of the large elongated monster.
"She's!!! She's!!!"
"Yeah, those darn bookworms in the library..." Nagi sighed, then looked at Yuki. "Well? Aren't you going to help her?"
"Wait... how...???" Yuki asked, bewildered.
"Oh come now," Nagi shook his head in disappointment. "Surely you know what you have to do??? Just remember--"
"AAAAHHHHHH!!" Aya let out an urgent call of distress.
"AYA!!" Yuki suddenly forgot about the conversation and ran towards her friend, clutched in the arms (body???) of an orphan.
"...Just remember... what you put on the line..." Nagi glanced at the now-unprotected body of Ami...
"She's not a bad looking girl," another voice emerged from the hallways. "Nagi, you realize that it's against the school rules for bringing students to the library, don't you?"
"Sorry, director, slipped my mind!" Nagi bowed down, this time in a more playful than serious manner. "Don't punish these students! They're going through enough trouble already! Starting school... arguing between friends... fighting orphans... discovering their powers..."
"I will find a suitable punishment for you, rest assured," Director Rokugan scolded lightly, then turned his eyes towards the battling HiMEs...
=====
I'M NOT LETTING PJBW HAVE IT SO EASY THIS TIME >:O *kicks the heavy solid metal ball towards PJBW's... eer... I mean PJBW*

[Fai D. Flowright]

[color=#339933]\ Uzaki Maiyuki /|\ Kagutsuchi //:
[color=#339933][size=3]Battle in the Library

[color=#EE9944]“Just remember... what you put on the line...” Nagi told me, trailing off as his attention turned towards something else. I looked up at Aya to see her head bobbing as the last bits of full consciousness slipped from her grasp.

“No...! I’ll save you Aya, even if it means putting my own life at stake!” I hollered at towards her and the creature. I ran forward, attacking the beast head on, but before getting too close, it opened its large mouth and released a stream of acid at me. Raising my arms in a cross as a last defense, I was expecting to feel the intense burns of the venom against my skin. I winced as I felt a light impact, but there was no pain behind it, as to be expected from the attack. Instead, three small flames were spinning quickly where my arms intersected. “W-w-what is this!?” I cried out in total shock of the sight before my eyes.

“Oh, that? That’s your power as a HiME.” Nagi spoke, turning from his subtle conversation with the object in the shadows. “Just call his name, and he’ll come to your aid... Kagutsuchi.” He swiftly left into the shadows of the bookcases along with his conversational partner.

“Kagutsuchi, huh?” I mumbled, turning back to the zombie serpent. In a flash of light, flames began to swirl about my wrists and ankles, each transforming itself into a golden bangle that spun wildly in midair.

The Orphan lunged forward, Aya still in a tight coil of its tail. As it approached me, I held my arms out and then lifted them over my head. A stream of fire, like that of a whip, flung out, lashing the snake and tossing it backwards. I let out a small squeal of fear, remembering that I surrounded by books that could easily be set ablaze.

The creature attempted to attack again and again, only to be deflected away by the shield. It was difficult to maneuver due to the gyroscopic nature of the four bands that twirled; it reminded me of ice skating, except airborne.

By now, Aya had been thrown off to the side, between two bookcases, and Vlas was protecting Ami near the door. It was now that I realized that I had no other choice to save my friends. “K-Kagutsuchi...!”

The entire room seemed to jostle about as the floor underneath me began to glow red with power. Seeming to erupt from the ground, a large creature engulfed in flames rose from the ground, staring down at the Orphan. It turned it strange head towards me and tried to communicate using a series of whistles and clicks, like that of a dolphin.

“It’s...you!” I gasped, remembering the foreign beast from my dream. “Please, help me...” It bowed its head in agreement and turned back to the Orphan below, which seemed to be paralyzed in fear. Kagutsuchi opened its hinge-like jowl, revealing a mouthful of teeth, but the most notable aspect was the sword that pierced its upper and lower jaw; a giant yellow blade with a red hilt that sat between its eyes and nose. The generators on it wings lifted and began to rotate, gathering energy for an attack. A bulge quickly appeared and expanded its chest, moving upwards into its throat. In a final burst of energy, a fiery meteor exploded from Kagutsuchi’s mouth, swirling through the air at the serpent. The rock hurtled through the air, not only striking and disintegrating the Orphan, but crashing through the back wall of the library and colliding into the mountain close by.

I stood, or floated, completely speechless at the magnificent creature and its power that I had just witnessed. “Holy...crap...” slipped from my lips as I slowly observed the destruction left behind by the flaming comet: half-burned bookcases, a somewhat scorched and torn-up floor, and a hole in the back of the library that you could fit a full-sized vehicle though.

I ran over to Aya, fearing more for her than for Ami (since she was being guarded by Aya’s horse-like creature). I gave a tug at her side as asked, “You gonna be okay?” She didn’t respond, so I gave her a move violent shake. “Aya!?” Still nothing. As a last resort, I turned her onto her back from her fetal position to find her... asleep; completely out of it, to say the least. “WAKE UP!” I hollered into her face, giving her nose a long and hard pinch. Within moments, she started choke and gag, gasping for air and vaulting herself upright.

“Yuki, why did you wake me up!?” She whined, coughing more as I helped her stand. She suddenly turned rigid and glanced around the wrecked room.

“The Orphan’s gone now...” I spoke, shocked again by the devastation Kagutsuchi has caused.

Aya began to take in the condition of the room now too, as well as the ‘bracelets’ that continued to idly float about my wrists and ankles now. Kagutsuchi had disappeared, with Vlas quickly fading as well with Aya now conscious again.

“Wait... Does this mean,” she stopped slowly turning to look into my eyes, “that you’re a HiME, like me?”

I gave her a warm, but semi-oblivious smile, shrugged, and responded, “Yup! I guess so...!”

[Weasel Overlord]

[COLOR=#db7093]Name: Hanaaka, Kami
Age: 18
Physical Appearance: Kami has shoulder length hair that is dark red in colour. She wears it tied back in a plait tied with a golden ribbon, and she has a pair of bangs(?) that frame her face in ringlets. When down, her hair is curly and unruly, hence the tying back, and she wears a long bandana in gold and purple about her forehead which both lifts up her bangs and looks cool. ^_^
Kami is rather tall, standing at around 6 foot, and she has large hands, yet bizarrely enough, her wrists are slender and often hung with golden metal bangles that jingle merrily as she walks.
Her eyes are a deep green colour that compliments her hair, but they are often sad-looking and wistful, giving her a faraway look that leads people to believe that she is antisocial.
Kami’s right ear is pierced, and she wears a long, dangling earring that touches her shoulder, similar to Yuna’s, only with a bundle of feathers at the bottom. The earring is beaded all the way down with purple, gold and darkest red pottery beads, and therefore is quite heavy. The feathers are died red and tied with a thread of gold.
Across her nose, Kami has a smattering of freckles, which would imply pale skin; but instead, she has a honey brown complexion.
School Uniform: Kami wears the tan 15-18 uniform appropriate for a girl, in short sleeves. She doesn’t feel the cold easily, and so wears the short-sleeved version throughout the year, in snow or rain. In fact, she actually likes the cold…O.o
Casual Outfit: Outside school, Kami wears a baggy pair of linen pants, mainly because of her hatred of skirts. She pretty much lives in these pants, and has been quite creative with various pairs; dying them and adding patches of different materials until they resemble a motley parody of the pants they once were.
On top, she wears a variety of shirts. Yes, shirts, that she stole from her boyfriend. These shirts come in a variety of colours, but she prefers the pale blue ones.
On formal occasions, when her parents can pry her from her pants, she wears a long skirt, (to avoid showing as much leg as she can!) and a black wrap-around top-thing that is not easy to describe...it has buttons at the neck that progress diagonally down the front until they reach a sort of middling position, from which they continue downwards in a straight line. It is also embroidered with dragons, mythical creatures, anything odd or strange is probably on that top.
Personality: Often melancholy but with a bizarre sense of humour underneath, Kami is not the easiest person to get along with. She has a filthy mind and has been known to shock even the dirtiest boys in her year, and she has a deep little chuckle that rumbles round her throat when she is tickled by something.
Despite her melancholy nature, Kami is loyal to her few friends, defending them with her sharp tongue and seemingly endless wit should the need arise.
Deeply moral and passionate, Kami dislikes violence, especially if it is against weaker beings who can’t protect themselves, but she will stand up to anyone she sees as a bully, facing them down with her indomitable will and anger.
Kami is a great believer in love and the nature of love, and this is obvious by the way her eyes cloud over with happiness whenever she speaks of her love, Kira, whom she has known for two years and loved for an eternity. She believes in soul-mates, and that she has found hers, and Kira believes the same.
Element: A poleaxe! ^_^
Child: Gakutenou
Location of Birthmark: On the inside of Kami’s left wrist.
Yes or No: Yes!
Relationships: her love, Kira, is the most important person in Kami’s life and she would do anything for him. Besides Kira, she has a few good friends at Fuuka, one of whom being Kei. Not a clue that 'he's' actually a girl, Kami is bestest friends with 'him', to the occasional jealousy of Kira.
History: Kami had quite a boring background, really. (okay, so I’m not good at histories! Sssh…) Her parents own dog kennels, so she has always been close with animals, and until recently, she harboured intentions of going into veterinary practice, but these hopes were extinguished when she realised her aptitude for writing after being forced to join the school paper for a project. Since then, she has had entire career change ideas, ranging from novelist to journalist to filth-writer, (She has an astonishing talent for the latter…O.o) before finally settling upon novelist with fervour.
In her younger years, Kami moved around a lot, leading her to change schools often. Fuuka, however, has been the most successful of these moves, with Kami actually being able to make friends, quite a new experience for her.
Other: She really likes dogs, especially big, pointed-eared, boisterous huskies. Because of her parents’ work, she is very good with animals, especially ones of the canine variety; although she seems to have an affinity with any species.

[COLOR=#db7093]~|~ Hanaaka, Kami ~|~
[COLOR=#db7093]…Gakutenou…

Kira was being awkward. Again. He always seemed to get to edgy when Kei was around, and I had no idea why. But there we were, going for drinks before food, and heading in the completely opposite direction to Kei.

Not that he seemed to mind; he soon latched onto another friend and began chatting merrily. I glanced at Kira as we walked to the drinks table, hand-in-hand. He was scowling about something, his brow furrowed in an adorable fashion. Or maybe he was just concentrating.

“What’s up with you?” He shot me a sharp look and shook his head.

“Nothing. I’m just thirsty…” Lame excuse.

“You sure it’s nothing to do with Kei?”

“Um, well, maybe a little…”

“Come on, Kira! You know he’s only a friend. How many times?”

“Yeah, I know…” He grinned from under his mop of hair. “Not to worry. Let’s get drinks and head over to the food table.” He rubbed his stomach. “I’m bloody starving!” I smiled happily and grabbed the nearest ladle to scoop myself some juice.

“Grab me a cup will you?” Kira meandered off to another end of the table and came back clutching a pair of cups breathlessly.

“I got the last two!” He grinned triumphantly and passed me one. Ladling juice into it, I drank deeply and filled it back up again, raising the plastic container.

“To boring speeches that lead to nice food!” I clinked my cup to Kira’s, as well as a plastic cup can clink, and glanced over to the food table, which was fully laden.

Grabbing Kira’s spare hand, I yanked him over. There seemed to be some sort of commotion going on and I wanted to be in on it. And plus, that was where Kei had disappeared to, and I wanted to talk to him for a bit while enjoying the festivities.

To my annoyance, the commotion was over by the time we arrived at the tables, and a small group of people had been ushered into a mysterious-looking room. Scowling slightly, I prodded Kei in the back, maybe harder than I should have done.

He wheeled round angrily, but smirked when he saw it was me and prodded me back, right in the stomach.

“Oof!” I exclaimed, doubling over. “You sod! That hurt…” I kicked Kai in the shins, causing him the same pain, and we both dissolved into wheezing laughter, while Kira looked on, an expression of mild disgust on his face.

I elbowed him. “Come on, Kira love. Don’t be moody!” Shooting me a sarcastic grin, he turned on his heel and stalked out through the large double doors. Shrugging, I turned back to Kei.

“What did I do?”

“I think it might have been me…Don’t worry Kami, he’ll come round.” I smiled, he always did. Ah, but he was a moody sod.

“So, what was all the commotion about earlier? Did you get a looksee?” Kei shook his head ruefully.

“Nah, I couldn’t see through all the crowding people.”

“Oh well. Hey, where did everyone go?”

“I dunno, I saw someone heading off to the forbidden library a while back…” He frowned. “She was followed by a few others too. One of them looked like that new guy…you know, Nagi? The new teacher?”

“Oh, him. Yeah, I remember his name being mentioned in the speech…not like I paid much attention, mind.” I grinned, and finished off the last of my juice.

“So what shall we do now? Food?”

“Sounds good!”

Uh...yeah...TAG! snigger...I'm sorry for the absence...I've had SO much crap to do...*rolls eyes* Anywho, I hope that's okay for yous!

[Roy Karrde]

Tange, Aya

Vlas

To say that the walk back to the school was silent and uneventful would be an outright lie. With Ami asleep both Yuki and myself were responsible for carrying her back to the infirmary, later on when she would wake up we could make up a lie about the Orphan and Vlas along with my bow. In some ways I envied Ami, she got to sleep right now while I was working on almost a good forty-eight hours of staying awake.

“So that is why you ran off so many times.” Yuki exclaimed the realization hitting her that the reason I was gone so many times was to go and fight Orphans. I smiled and just nodded in reply like I had been doing most of the time since the library. “So are their more of us, can more people do what I just did?” She questioned.

I shrugged taking a second to contemplate my answer in my exhausted brain before finally speaking. “I think there is, I have seen glimpses of people fighting Orphans or maybe what may be a summoned Child off in the distance, but really you’re the first one I know.” Yuki was almost beaming in happiness at the response I gave her. To tell the truth I kind of was too. For so long I wanted a friend, well not just a friend but also one that I could tell anything to. Now I finally had a friend that I could trust telling her almost anything about my life through the bond we now share.

“We should start a club at school, you know one for people like us, a HiME club.” Yuki spoke almost gleefully.

“Bad idea,” I said rather quickly trying to nix the idea before it got too far. “There are things that you still don’t know about, and reasons why we have to keep our powers secret.”

It wasn’t too much further before we reached the nurses office, which lucky for us was manned for the opening ceremony. With a quick shove I placed Ami on the cot while Yuki walked over and talked to one of the nurses. I caught the tale end of the conversation, something about Ami eating some bad food. Although it was a lie, it could spark trouble if it leaked out that there was bad food or something at the ceremony.

“Well what do you want to do now?” Yuki asked cheerfully as she joined me outside of the nurse’s office, I continued to lean back against the wall allowing my body to relax for a minute or two in the quietness of the hallway.

“I don’t know, back to the ceremony?” I yawned, Yuki turned to take a step before taking one last glance at me, and something she saw caused her to recoil in shock.

“You have blood all over your uniform.” She stated in a very shaky voice. I glanced down and noticed the large blood stain that had dripped down most of the top half of my school uniform. “We need to go tell the nurse, you could have internal injuries or something.” Her voice became more and more shaky with each word.

“Yuki…I’m fine” I placed a hand on her shoulder confidently with as much strength as I could possibly muster. She took a second or two looking from my eyes down to my shirt and then back up again.

“Let me at least go and get you a new shirt so that you’re not walking around wearing a bloody shirt.” She suggest with a slight bit of force in her tone, telling me that it is useless to argue. I sigh knowing that I have no choice and nod with a slight smile as she leads me off out of the school and toward her house.

Our second walk was mostly in silence, each of us walking side by side, neither wanting to speak up or say anything. The energy that had been in the air from the battle was now dampened by the small injury that I had sustained during it. “Aya..” Yuki finally spoke up, her tone soft and gentle now, her voice a bit shaky as if she didn’t know where to place the words. “I’m sorry..”

I turned to her and tried to study her body structure as if it would give me any indication on what she was alluding to. Her shoulders were drooped and her eyes looking down at the ground, her eyes a bit glassy from held back tears. “For what?” I laughed slightly, it wasn’t one of those funny laughs, it was one filled with uneasiness and tension.

“When ever you would run off, Ami and I would just shrug it off to you just being weird, I never thought that you were actually…” Her voice broke, the line she was trying to say was ‘putting your life on the line’, but the wave of emotion and realization kept her from saying it.

I looked away only for a second before turning to face her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay,” I smiled weakly, her mouth wavered as if she didn’t know if she was going to laugh or cry, I leaned in and gave her a small hug to try and calm her down. She let out a small sigh as I pulled away and looked her in the eyes. “It’s okay.” I repeated, she began to smile a bit and wiped her eyes before leading me up the steps into her house.

Walking in I felt a bit out of place, almost like I was a stranger in my best friend’s house. To tell the truth I had never even been in it before nor met any of her parents. A female voice came from the kitchen yelling if Yuki had fun at school. “Yeah.” Yuki replied a bit impatiently before leading me by the hand back to her room.

That feeling of being out of place never really went away, I sat on Yuki’s bed with it’s burnt orange sheets while she dug around in her closet for something for me to change into. My eyes continued to droop, as I would close them and feel myself relaxing and then shake myself back into reality before I tipped over. “You’re really that sleepy?” Yuki asked suddenly face to face with me, a pink shirt clutched in her hand.

“Yeah…” I sighed rubbing the side of my head a bit sheepishly. She handed over the pinkish shirt and turned around, my eyes were so exhausted I couldn’t even read the letters on the shirt.

“It’s the only thing I really have right now.” She said as I slipped into it, it was a bit tight fitting for me; I had never been one to really show off anything so I wasn’t use to tight shirts. “You live half way across town don’t you?” She turned and asked, I nodded while yawning; I could barely keep my eyes open at this point.

“Why don’t you just take a nap here?” She offered, I wasn’t in any frame of mind to even argue and allowed my own body to just fall over on top of the bed. I barely felt it as Yuki took the comforter off from around me and slipped the sheets up to my neck. “There..” She said softly. I could barely hear her as I relaxed on the soft bed, the softness of the mattress, the warm feel of the sheets; it was so different from mine back at home.

As I began to drift off to sleep, the last thought in my mind was that: For the first time in a long time, I actually felt…safe.

Saotome, Emi

Duran

With my legs propped up on the desk and my fingers drumming lazily on the empty seat next to me, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch in the imagination for someone to believe I was bored. With a deep long sigh and a bit of a moan I rose myself off the desk and began to walk out of the Student Council room. They would probably debate what to do with the Beast Girl for the next few hours, and with my luck she would probably become a student at the school.

“I’ll be back in a few.” I mumbled to no one in particular after sliding the door open to the room and then leaving. I didn’t want to mention why I was leaving or where I was going since what I was about to do was against school policy.

Someone yelled for me to hurry back, I rolled my eyes in response to this before going over to my locker and digging out a small box. “Yeah like you guys need my opinion.” I mumbled taking the long way around the school over to the garden area in hopes to avoid not just Ryo but everyone else.

Personally I enjoyed keeping the money I won, and really fighting for it wasn’t very high on my to-do list, so trying to avoid him would be the next best thing to do. “What am I even doing here?” I asked myself while bringing a cigarette out of the box and up to my mouth. That question had been something I had debated several times in the last few months, Would I even graduate this year or be held back again? Did I even want to graduate? These thoughts continued to plague me as I lit up the cigarette with my father’s old silver lighter and inhaled deeply.

“The small things in life..” I chuckled idly to myself as I let the worries wash away and just enjoy the peacefulness of the garden. After a few seconds my eyes began to close as I enveloped myself in the chirping of the birds, the rustling of the trees, the snapping of twigs as something moved toward me from the woods.

I opened one eye expecting to see one of the boys, maybe an idiot that got lost exploring the school, maybe even a small animal. I was greeted with the sight of a beast that was a bit taller than myself, The only description that seemed to fit was monster born out of my nightmares. “Holy..” I gasped the cigarette falling to the ground from my lip.

I dashed to the right trying to make it to the door that led back into the school. The monster was faster, running straight into my path. “Okay…time to calm down,” I gasped trembling in fear. What was with this school, weird girls and crazy monsters, what was happening? I dashed to run in the other direction and the monster was already there in a heartbeat. It let another growl escape its muzzle as it began to walk toward me slowly, its claws clicking on the stone ground. “Some one HELP” I yelled out my voice mixed with dread and fear.

“HELP NOW PLEASE” I cried out as I backed up against the wall while the monster continued to advance toward me.

Tsuki asked for me to bring in another Orphan but I'm going to leave it open since Emi isnt supposed to get her powers till the next day, so Tag to anyone that wants it!

[Bulbasaur4]

Kiya Setsuna
.: Undiscovered HiME of Miroku :.

“So… the only logical explaination, is to admit the girl into the school.” One of the members of the council stated. Actually… there were only three in there- Emi had left. They had discussed what had happened, and eventually came to decide that the poor girl- Kiya, was a wild girl who must be tamed and taught. Why? There really wasn’t a precise decision as to … WHY… they wanted a rabid girl on campus, but there was some thing along the lines of ‘duty of educating everyone’. Especially rabid wolf-girls who seemed to cause chaos.
“ Oo.. maybe I can help tutor her?” The boy known as Tsueno said eagerly, smiling to his older sister who seemed to have not paid a heed to this entire thing. Kiya on the other hand, was sniffing the whole room… as if trying to discover a way out- or perhaps some food.
“Ah! Great idea!” One of the student council members stated cheerfully.
“Maybe Kanna here will be willing to take the girl in? Until we can find her a proper home from a willing participant?” She continued, a sly grin upon her face. (Perhaps she was not too fond of Kanna and found this as proper payback?)
“Great idea!”
“Excellent!”

….

And thus it was decided- all before Kanna could even oppose the idea. Kanna opened her mouth- perhaps to shoot out fire blast of some sort. However, Kiya narrowed her eyes and suddenly gave out a rather vicious bark-like growl. She immediately ran to the window, stared outside- perhaps at some invisible thing- and growled. She clawed at it madly.
Kiya could sense it. She sensed the darkness outside… she had sensed a lot of darkness as of late, and had even run into a few of the ‘monsters’ which caused this darkness. She had seen a few battles… a few others who had come to destroy the monsters, and for that she was thankful but she still felt a need to attack the monsters. She wanted to destroy them too.
Narrowing her eyes, she pawed at the window some more.
“What the heck? I have to… to… help out… THAT?!” Kanna said, pointing as if to prove a point as Kiya seemed to growl even more. As if echoing a response, suddenly Kiya backed up to the edge of the wall and then literally… plowed head-first into the window.
Windows are fragile when hit hard enough.

Immediately a spewing of glass erupted from the window. Kiya tucked and seemed to do a flip in the air, as she landed upon her hands and feet in a crawl-like open stance. The fall hadn’t been too high… well, at least not for her. A few cuts were visible upon her body from the glass, a few little blood droplets, but she didn’t seem to care. Giving a growl (she had broken through on the opposite side of the school, away from the festival), she ran towards another side of the school.
A large curse could be heard from the room where Kiya USED to be.

Kiya ran… ran until she came to the ugly, hideous monster. It reminded Kiya a little bit of a bird. It was nasty… it had giant, ragged wings with the head of a bird with enormous teeth. However, its body was a different story… having strange, worm-like tentacles and being rather bug-like all the same time. It even had a nice scorpion-like tail to match.
“You!” The girl known as Emi cried, as she huddled against the wall of the school. The monster seemed to hesitate for a moment- the arrival of Kiya being unexpected but really not pertaining any ounce of threat.
Kiya however, felt obliged to kill this creature.
How?
By being Kiya, and only that.

Kiya charged at the creature… leaping into the air as the creature made a move to lash at Kiya. It missed, and instead Kiya ended up landing upon its slimy back. She growled, and immediately began punching the creature- who seemed merely annoyed by this. Kiya even went as far as to bite the creature upon the back, which did cause a bit more pain for it gave a large and loud screech.
However, a yell seemed to echo slightly… as another figure appeared.
Kanna.

Kanna had arrived… looking positively peeved- probably by a lot of things.
This was not the monster’s lucky day.
“Watch out!” The girl named Emi yelled, as the monster suddenly seemed a bit too peeved at Kiya and it’s large tail suddenly swung at just the right angle. Kiya leapt upwards to dodge, but the underside tentacles of the beast flailed upwards and directly hit Kiya hard. Kiya was sent hurtling backwards, crashing into the wall right next to Emi and she fell to a heap to the ground.


[ Kiya will not transform either. ^_~ ]

Kei Yugomuto
.: HiME of Harry | Male! XD :.

[color=silver]



Kei had been talking with Izumi for a bit, before Izumi excused herself for a moment as a member of Student Council had approached her. Kei shrugged, until he suddenly found himself running into Kami and Kira. Kami immediately asked about what the ‘commotion’ was about, to which Kei really didn’t have an answer to either. Kei didn’t like having… no answers, but he accepted it for now. At the mention of food however, Kei’s stomach growled quite fiercely.
“Sounds good!” Kei commented with a slight smile, but he remembered that Izumi was about.
“Ah… wait one moment.” With that, Kei saw Izumi heading back towards where he was a split second ago. Kei ran over to her.
“Hey, Kami and her boyfriend- Kira, are going to get some food. Want to join them?” He offered a pleasant smile, to which Izumi gave a frown.
“ Actually, I’m supposed to take care of some Student Council business…” she grumbled, obviously not seeming quite content with this bit of news.
“oh..” Kei stated, blinking for a second before he offered a smile.
“Well, how about you take care of this business and then we’ll eat?”
With that, Izumi seemed to give an absent shrug and began to walk off. Kei turned about, “Hey Kami… I’ll be back in a second! I gotta help Izumi with some things first!”
Then Kei turned about and followed Izumi. She glanced at him and for a split second she seemed surprised.
“I thought you were going to eat.”
Kei shook his head, “No… I said we’d take care of this business first, and then eat.”
“You said I would take care of this business.”
“Right. You will, but I’ll come with.”
Kei offered a pleasant smile once again, which either annoyed Izumi or forced her to submit to his innocent antics. They entered the school and soon came to the student council room, just as a girl angrily stormed passed them, muttering something about a ‘wolf girl’ of some sort. Kei blinked for a second, then took note of a broken window.
Izumi immediately asked what happened, and Kei was able to hear a rough story of some wild girl, who was going to enter this school to be taught valuable lessons, Kanna being some keeper of this girl… and the girl jumping out a window.
Kei couldn’t help but laugh a bit… yes, this school was definitely already becoming quite interesting.

[Prof. Jb Wolf]

Koyuki Rokugan ~ Fuuka Academy Administrator
=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
The director's eyes narrowed beneath his flashing glasses as he looked at the aftermath of Kagutsuchi's attack. "Nagi...You do realize that her Child just destroy some very valuable texts that have been in Fuuka for generations..."

"Ah well Director-san...I didn't realize that her Child was that particular one...."

The dark look remained on Koyuki's face for a moment before it turned into a smirk. "Nagi, you have read every single book in this library yes?"

Nagi smiled sheepishly, "Well I had a lot of time to ki-"

"And I'm sure you remember every one?"

"Well I did get to read them quite a lot."

"Very good then," Director Rokugan turned on his heel and began to walk back towards the school. "Your punishment for sending studnets into a place without proper clearance, you will replace every single one of those books and repair the wall - on your own."

The mysterious man known as Nagi Homura gaped at the Director's back. "Ano, Director-san...."

"No excuses. Now I believe I need to deal with an enrollment issue..."

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=

The door to the school council room opened with a click as Koyuki stepped in. One eyebrow came up as he saw the pieces of littered glass along the floor. His gaze turned to the shocked council members and the Fujiwara siblings. "I take it, we had some trouble with our....applicant?"

One of the student council member's began to explain but the elder Fujiwara cut in. "That crazy wolf-girl started growling at the damn window before rammin' it!"

"Ah, Fujiwara-san, good to see you outside of my office." Kanna merely gave the director a very dangerous looking smile. "Was a decision at least reached before this happened?"

"Err...yes sir. We the student council believe that it is our duty to educate anyone who comes to our academy-"

"Including rabid girls from the forest."

The student council member shot a glare Kanna's way. "And that she shall be enrolled in one of the lower classes. Fujiwara-san has already graciously allowed Setsuna-san to stay with her during this time."

"Now wait a damn minute, I never agreed to that!"

Koyuki rubbed his chin and nodded. "Acceptable."

Kanna rounded on the director. "Hold on, I-"

"Fujiwara-san, the Academy will of course properly compensate you for taking in Setsuna-san. But if she truly become a problem, we can work something out." He turned to the other council members. "Now what do you say we go look for our new student so we can properly welcome her?"

[Fai D. Flowright]

[color=#339933]\ Uzaki Maiyuki /|\ Kagutsuchi //:
[color=#339933][size=3]Evening Reflections

[color=#EE9944]“...safe...” Aya mumbled in her sleep. I smiled, but deep inside, I didn’t feel truly safe any more. If I could summon a creature like Kagutsuchi at my own will, and Aya could summon Vlas, how many of us were there? So many questions raced through my mind that, for once, I didn’t have answer for a single one of them. Experiencing something as devastatingly incredible as what had happened to me just a short while ago is something that cannot be easily overlooked.

I moved over the window in my room and stared out at the sky. The sun was starting to set already, the sun’s orange and red hues filling the horizon with a blaze of warm colors. Just by looking, I could feel Kagutsuchi near me. I could see the battle in the library reenact itself before my eyes; the strange snake-like creature, called an Orphan, the large, flaming bird, Kagutsuchi, that fought by my side, and the heated comet that it fired to destroy the Orphan as well as do major damage to the library. “We’re gonna be in big trouble for that one, since Nagi saw us there too...”

”Yes... Nagi. What a peculiar man. And the words he spoke were just as bizarre...” I closed my eyes in though. He had reminded me about what I put at stake in battle. But why would he mention such a thing? If you plan to fight, isn’t it obvious that you would put your own life on the line? Why did he know so much? And really, why me?

[color=#339933]~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~

[color=#EE9944]This was too much for me to figure out on my own, and I knew I couldn’t disturb Aya. So, leaving her to rest in my bed, I changed into more comfortable clothes before heading out to the kitchen. Mom turned to me as I entered, taking her eyes away from the vegetables she was preparing for dinner. “I something the matter, Yuki?” I gave a scoff to myself, thinking ”If that wasn’t the understatement of the year...” as I sat at the table and slouched into the chair.

“What if...” I choked, biting at the inside of my lip, “...What if I told you something happened at school today?” Mom stopped for a moment, completely silent. She then reached for the towel on the counter and wiped her hands clean as she walked over to me.

“Is it a boy?” She asked, looking me closely in the eye, a glint of excitable intrigue sparkling in the fluorescent lighting.

“If only...” I sighed, wishing that really was case, “but that’s not it at all.” I lifted my right hand to my head and started massaging my temples with my index finger and thumb. Some many thoughts purged my mind that each one seemed to be a pang in my head. But one word seemed to bother me the most.

“Then what is it?” Mom prodded my thoughts, trying to get me to spill.

“There’s a new teacher at the school this year, Nagi Homura, but there’s something suspicious about him.” I explained, “He just seems to know...too much.”

“Well, he is a teacher for a prestigious academy. Of course he’s going to know a lot.” She stated, taking up the seat next to me.

“No... Not like that. Like there is something completely surreal about it. It’s hard to explain.”

“Hmmm... Well, I’m sure he is just trying to get used to working there. Give him a few weeks and I bet you will realize he is just as normal as the other teachers." Mom put her hand on my shoulder to help comfort me.

“It just seemed so weird. First, he’s not even at the ceremony when the Director introduced him. Next, he’s off talking to Ami, having her do who-knows-what by sending her to the east library, which is off-limits. Then-” I cut myself off as my words sunk in. I hung over the table for a moment in complete mental and physical silence; as if everything had stopped.

Then, in a jolt of motion, I went completely rigid, slamming my hands into the table. This startled mom and she tipped back in the chair, almost knocking it backwards! “OH NO! AMI!” I hollered as I shot out of the kitchen towards my bedroom like a bullet.

“Come on, Aya! Time to wake up!” I yanked the sheets back off of her and grabbed her by the arm. Pulling at her flaccid body, she flopped down to the carpeted floor.

“No more corn...” Aya mumbled as I drug her across the floor. I felt like I was dragging a two-year-old that refused to do as they were told. I shook my head, dumbfounded by her half-conscious comment.

“No, Aya, we’re not eating!” I jiggled her arm around, “We need to get Ami! We left her at the Academy with Nagi still around!” The mention of his name seemed to be key in restoring her full awareness. She jumped to attention before me and I pulled at her arm again. “Let’s go!” Within moments, we had flown out the front door with a shouted comment from mom about “being late for dinner.” It was the last thing I was worried about as we ran down the street, back towards Fuuka...

[Emotional Faun Chiko-sai]

Fujiwara Kanna, Kiyohime
"How troublesome..." Version 1
---------------------------------

If Kaname had been present, he would have noted that there was a considerable demonic aura surrounding his sister. Tsuneo, wiser from long experience, felt a little of it. Like watching Mount Fuji erupt in slow motion, the rage came slowly, surely, expected by everyone present, its true malignance yet to be unmasked...

Kanna had bolted out the door in pursuit of the wolf girl without stopping to listen to the rest of the Director's sentence, as she realized why the wolf girl had so quickly crashed out the window. There was an Orphan about. She could now sense the skulking slinking shadow of it, pervading the red haze of her rage and escalating it to greater heights. How dare it appear now when she had just been extremely pissed off by the Director, marvelously handsome slimy git that he was!

She barely noticed the two students that passed her with quizzical looks on their faces. Directly she reached the end of the corridor, her naginata materialized in her hands, battle-ready and spoiling for a fight. Kanna smiled broadly, although it wasn't a very nice smile. Someone was going to pay for this.

It seemed a long way to where the threat was, but when she arrived, a slightly unsettling tableau greeted her. There was Saotome, looking absolutely terrified; there was Kiya, wounded heavily and growling unconsciously all the while, and there was the Orphan, supremely ugly and about to swallow Saotome whole.

Kanna wasn't so much concerned about the heroics. She just knew she wanted to murder something, and murder it good.

The long whip-like chain of her naginata swung out as she wheeled around for all the world like someone doing a lion dance, and sliced some stray tentacles off the Orphan. Distracted, the hideous thing lashed out in her direction, missing her by inches as she dodged and slashed again, aiming at its eyes. The Orphan screeched, fending off the naginata's blade with its armoured tail, and tore about wildly, damaging school property and the girls at the same time. Kanna deflected a piece of falling masonry with her naginata as it threatened to flatten Saotome and Kiya, and pretty soon was growling herself.

"KIYOHIME!"

First one head, then two, then three, and four, and five. The serpents rose from the ground and pounced upon the Orphan mercilessly, the combined force of the five recklessly pummeling heads and acidic vapour making short work of it, and of the surrounding buildings as well. The tennis courts would never be the same again, that was for sure. Kanna's eyes positively flashed flames as she watched Kiyohime pound the Orphan into pulp. She grabbed hold of the cringing Saotome by the shoulder and stood her up roughly against a stray pillar.

Her Child and Element disappeared, just in time, as she turned around, looking for Kiya, and finding the Director striding past her instead, tailed by the Student Council, who jaws dropped as they viewed the destruction wrought by both Orphan and Child. Tsuneo ran ahead, and tried to wake the wolf girl up: her body stiffened all over at his calculated prodding, and slowly, her eyes opened. She gave a yelp, and bit the boy's hand.

"Owwww. Oops.."

Tsuneo's reaction was rather disproportionate when compared to his sister's, whose demonic aura had fired up to maximum level to the point where two dark horns could be seen hovering around her head. "WHY YOU!" She lifted her foot in the beginning stance for a drop-kick aimed at Kiya, but the Director said, in a calm yet meaningful tone: "Not now, Fujiwara-san. I'll take care of things from here."

"Aneki, it's not nice to kick people when they're down," said Tsuneo a little sadly, putting on his best puppy-dog expression. "We're bringing her home, right? Please?"
Kanna lowered her foot to the ground and gritted her teeth. It was true, Tsuneo was a good kid, he rarely ever asked for anything, and never for any sort of special treatment (that was lavished on him anyway). But when he did...

"Oh, fine then."

*Naginata: actually the 'chain spear' that is Kiyohime's element, known as a naginata (Japanese name) or kwandao (Chinese name); although naginatas don't have that lovely element's ability to elongate it's easier to type than 'chain spear'... *sweatdrop*

*

Minamoto Izumi, Diana (Undiscovered)
"How troublesome..." Version 2
---------------------------------------

There were times when Izumi found that maintaining a poker face was essential to continued mutual sanity. Now was one of those times.

Aoi, the girl practically hyperventilating in front of her as she described what had happened in lurid detail, ended her tirade with a heartfelt declaration of "Vice-President! It is your duty and ours to uphold the integrity of the school and the safety of the students! We must not allow such events to occur!"

Kei perked up momentarily. "Vice-President?"
Izumi twitched. "Yeah. You can go ahead and ask them why, because I really dunno. Low increment, no pension, no privileges, and the job sucks, too."
Her friend grinned. "I bet you're just loving every moment of it."
"Weren't you one of those people who were running for the post? I wasn't even nominated, you know."
"Well, I'm sure they saw the stellar qualities in you that were required in a leader of the people." Kei's grin grew wider, if possible, yet it was not bitter, simply amused. The equation [Izumi = Vice-President] didn't exactly hold water, so to speak.
"Pull the other one, it has got bells on. Hey, Aoi, get someone to sweep up the glass and stuff, and maybe you guys should, you know, be following that wolf girl, or whatever," said Izumi absently. She was thinking. Soon, she started grinning as well. "Why don't I resign from the post and nominate you as the next scapegoat- I mean, vice?" [Kei = Vice-President] made much more sense.
Kei goggled. "Huh? Me? What?"

Aoi poked her discreetly. "The Director is here, you know."
"Really? Oops. Hi there, sir," Izumi waved. "I hereby submit my resignation for the post of Vice-President of the student council and recommend this Yugomuto Kei as my worthy replacement." She shoved Kei forward into the Director's line of sight. "So, yeah, I don't need to write any more reports, be nice to new students, attend these council meetings-"
"Resignation rejected," said the Director smoothly, not batting an eyelid. "However, I believe Yugomuto-san will be a welcome addition to the council."
The look on Izumi's face could have melted a heart of stone. It was pretty much everything short of kneeling down and begging shamelessly. Unfortunately...

"Another thing, Minamoto-san," the Director said, pausing as he headed out the door they had both just entered. "I have to clear up a small enrolment issue over at the other end of school. Can I trust you to clean up the mess here and also, to be on hand to provide the new student with such information as needed?"

"Uh huh, whatever," replied Izumi. "Pardon me, but this is one heck of a violent enrolment issue you're dealing with, sir."

He was already gone, with at least half of the student council, presumably to deal with the new student. Izumi could only imagine how many kinds of chaos she would cause, and to top it all off, all three Fujiwaras, renowned troublemakers in their own various ways, were involved in this... Not a pleasing situation at all.
At least she and Kei were friends again. Sort of.

She nudged Kei. "Hello, new honorary member of the student council. Got a broom?"

[Roy Karrde]

Alright this will probably be a long post but that is what happens when you plot things out. ^^;; I hope to be able to get this done and maybe a Emi post tomarrow.

Tange, Aya

Vlas

Dusk settled over the school as the orange and yellow hues crept through the window of a setting sun. I stood there standing on the marble floor of the school, standing defiantly in front of ten figures. Some of which looked feminine, some it was hard to tell. Their faces were shaded by the creeping shadows of nightfall, leaving me with only their figures and with out any knowledge at whom these people were. To my side was my friend Yuki, standing as defiant as ever. One of the shadowed figures opened their mouth; it began to move with out any speech coming out.

Yuki stepped forward angrily, her step resonating in the silence and seemed to reverberate all around the room. She thrust an arm in front of me as if she were trying to protect me while mouthing something in outrage. “What’s happening?” I questioned, confused at what I was seeing. None of the people in this play seemed to react or even notice what I was saying. Another one of the figures started to motion angrily at myself and then at Yuki, the response to this action was to cause Yuki to release her bracelet. What was happening was spinning out of control.

Yuki turned back at me with a hint of animalistic anger and passion in her eyes before saying in a loud booming voice. “We need to get Ami! We left her at the academy with Nagi still around!” She shouted

My eyes snapped back into reality as I shot up like a bullet. Yuki pulled my arm again as I tried to get my bearings, with no other choice but to follow her we ran out the door and out into the road. The haze in my mind began to lighten as we jogged down the block, I slowly shook Yuki’s arm off and maintained the sprint toward the school. “I don’t think we really need to worry, Nagi isn’t the type to try and purposely try and place some one in a threatening situation.” I said trying to slow down her pace.

“He tried to send her to the library where one of those Orphans were.” Yuki shot back, I slapped my head trying to shake myself back to reality again, how could I make such a stupid argument, of course Nagi was mostly harmless, at least in my experience. Yet sometimes he did have a dangerous streak. “Hurry!” She yelled back as I slowed a bit to inspect the weird shirt I was wearing that seemed to cling to me instead of being baggy like my usual shirts.

“What the…?” I gasped while running forward to catch up to Yuki. “Why is my shirt pink? And here is a better question, why does it say ‘baka’ on it?” I questioned, baka being the Japanese word for idiot. Yuki suppressed a laugh as we turned the block that allowed us to see the school in the distance.

“It’s a joke shirt that I got for my birthday from my grand parents.” She laughed unable to hold it back any longer. I bit my lip to try and hold back a response that I knew would most likely get in trouble, and probably hurt Yuki’s feelings. “Besides you look cute in it.” She added cheerfully.

My pace slowed a bit as my cheeks warmed quiet a bit. She thought I looked cute? No one had ever told me that I looked cute. I didn’t even think I looked cute, I always just thought I was me, nothing more, nothing less. Not cute or pretty or anything. I quickly shook my head and sped up my pace, I couldn’t believed I had blushed, and at a girl on top of that. “I heard that..” Yuki frowned a bit as I matched her pace.

My blood ran cold at this point, I began to search the last few seconds in my head, had I said something, could she have thought I said something? “Heard what?” I chuckled idly trying to pass it off as if I didn’t say anything.

“What you thought…and it wasn’t very nice..” She replied her tone deep in seriousness. Did she get some power other than her weapon? Could she actually hear my thoughts? Why couldn’t I have gotten that power? Did HiME’s actually get more powers? We ran in silence for a few beats before Yuki almost doubled over laughing. “You should have seen your face.” She gasped between laughs as I began to relax, it wasn’t a power, it was just one of Yuki’s mind games.

We rounded the corner as I kept my fists from being clinched while Yuki continued to laugh. It was only a quick sprint to the nurse’s offices, after that Yuki went inside to get Ami while I sat outside grimly trying to wake myself up in the late hours of the day. Out of the corner of my vision I noticed a brown eyed boy wearing a older student’s uniform, his hair was a messy brown and he seemed to blush quiet a bit when he noticed that I was looking at him since he was obviously looking at me. I straightened up quiet a bit and became a bit rigid as I looked forward trying to not look in his direction. A boy, looking at me? Maybe he confused me with some one else, since no boys ever looked at me. All of them knew my history of beating them up, and no one wanted the damnation of being beaten up by a girl.

“Ready to go?” Yuki asked walking out of the nurse’s office with a very tired Ami in tow. “Aya?” She asked as my hands were sweaty and trembling, what do I do? Do I walk to him? Do I walk away? I couldn’t move.

“There is a boy…looking at me.” I whispered through a very tight mouth keeping my eyes focused at the wall in front of me. Out of the corner of my vision I could see Yuki raise up a bit on her tiptoes and make eye contact with the boy. “Don’t look at him.” I growled trying to get her from attracting too much attention and making a situation even more embarrassing.

“Oh he’s cute!” Yuki said in a very loud very booming voice that could most likely be heard in China. “You should go talk to him.” She continued as my cheeks flushed even more. I imagined that this is what hell would be like, maybe the sixth or seventh circle of hell where you receive the most pain. The boy slowly rose and with a bit of a tremble started to walk toward my direction.

“I think we should leave you two alone, c’mon Ami I gotta check out something that happened near the garden and then I can get you back home.” Yuki flashed me a grin, Ami grumbled something inaudible as they walked away. Yuki would surly die for this the next time I saw her for placing me in this situation, I wanted it to be very painful and very horrible.

“Hello…umm” A soft voice trickled past my ear as I froze up again. With all the will power that I could possibly muster I turned slowly toward him with a slight smile on my face.

“Hi..” I whispered back, I noticed he was just as flushed as I was. “Are you new here?” I asked trying to break the ice as my brain was begging me to just go on and say something, anything.

“Yeah, I moved here from another school, my name is Koyasu, Unshou Koyasu.” He smiled a bit bowing to me; I noticed he was just as flushed as I was. I got up and bowed back, trying to act as formal as possible.

“Aya, Tange Aya.” I said back my voice a bit choked up in fear; he still hadn’t ran away, was he not afraid? We began to walk together down the empty hallway, my hands tensed up in fear on what to say. “This is a pretty good school,” I added and automatically mentally slapped myself for saying something so stupid.

“I hope so.” He laughed a bit nervously; he bit the side of his lip while his eyes moved back and forth as he tried to decide something. “Hey, could you maybe, show me around town, sometime this week? I have no idea where anything is.” He asked, my heart began to pound in my ears as sweat collected on my brow and hands.

“Okay..” I breathed my voice trembling a bit. He instantly smiled which caused me to smile back as my body relaxed again. He quickly opened up his book bag and got out a pad of paper and a pen. He quickly wrote down his number and handed it to me.

“Here is my phone number,” He smiled as I took the piece of paper in my trembling hands. I quickly looked around trying to find a piece of paper before I remembered that I left my backpack in the locker that I kept my spare clothes. “Here,” He added handing me the pen and a sheet of paper. I smiled and thanked him, suddenly the realization struck me. I couldn’t give him my home phone number. My brother would find out about him and then he truly would be scared off. I quickly wrote down Yuki’s home phone number and handed it back to him.

“Alright, I guess it’s a date?” He asked as we came to an in pass one direction leading to the parking lot, the other leading to the garden. I nodded almost instinctively; he smiled one last time before walking off. “I’ll call you tomorrow after school then.” He added before fading from sight.

With almost inhuman speed I rushed through the remaining hallway leading to the garden and burst through the doors in a frightened pace. “YUKI!” I yelled with glee as I ran up to her and Ami, not even noticing the half a dozen people standing around. “He asked me out! I have a date!” I shouted jumping up and down in a frenzy.

Yuki smiled and jumped up and down with me while Ami gave an unenthusiastic ‘woo’. I stuck my tongue out before glancing around at my surroundings. “What happened here, it looks like a…” I caught myself before saying HiME in front of Ami and half the student council, who I knew all too well from my fights.

“Animal attack..” An older student council member approached me; I remembered her name being Emi. Animal attack? Sounded like the usual cover up for what ever happens with Orphans. I shifted my eyes over to Aoi and then up to the student council room window where I could see Izumi and a new guy moving around inside, probably doing some official stuff. Yet who was the new guy? Was he a new member on the council? or maybe he was Izumi's lover? I shook my head trying to shake the image away.

“Yeah sure..” I mumbled, I glanced over at Yuki and Ami, she would need to get Ami back home and I still had a long walk to go. “I’ll see you tomorrow Yuki, later Ami.” I smiled and waved good-bye before leaving.

It was past dusk by the time that I made it back home. The deep shadows from the trees surrounding my house gave it a very dark and deadly feel, like those houses that you see in the horror movies. With a bit of tiptoeing I slipped inside the front door and made it back to my room. I wasn’t expecting dinner, I mean we didn’t really have much money, most of it was going to just keeping the house and the car while Dad worked two shifts. I allowed my self to relax as I made it to my room, my hand slipped from the door causing the door to creek shut in the loudest way possible.

“AYA!” My brother’s voice boomed out from his room, the sound of footsteps could be heard off in the distance as he made his way down the hallway. At this moment I started to think about crawling under my bed, or hiding in a corner like I used to do when my brother was in one of his moods. With Dad almost never home, it was up to him to take care of me, which wasn’t always the best thing. I began to slink back in my room in fear as the steps got closer and closer, what was I going to do? How would I explain being away for so long?

“Yuki.. help me” I prayed, longing for the safe feeling that came from being in Yuki’s room. “Yuki..”

Saotome, Emi

Duran

With a slight shake of my head I glanced at my reflection as I walked past the classroom windows. That thing, it had to be a monster, not to mention that dragon thing that destroyed the tennis courts. An animal attack was the lie that I had told that one girl but I couldn’t even bring myself to even try and believe that. Now there was that thing with the Animal girl and her being in the school, but that was something to worry about at a different time.

Right now I was tasked with the responsibility of getting who ever was left at the school, out of here before another animal attack happened, who ever was left in the festival could possibly be safe. Yet anyone in the school alone could be in danger. I took another glance at my reflection nervously before rounding the corner to the cafeteria. The room was mostly empty except for a girl about my age with a boy sitting close to her, who I guessed was her boyfriend. “Time to go,” I said a bit forcefully with exhaustion just oozing out of my voice. Seeing that monster must have shaken me up pretty bad.

“I’m waiting for a friend..” The girl spun around to face me a bit bewildered, I quickly recognized her as Kami, I had never really been a friend with her, more friend of a friend of a friend. “Emi? What happened?” She asked rising to her feet along with Kira her boyfriend.

“A…animal attack” I glanced to my side, the lie was getting harder and harder to say every time I thought about the battle. Kami cocked her left eyebrow as if she were studying me; I kept trying to avert my gaze so that she wouldn’t know I was lying. “Anyway lets get you two out of here.” I quickly said trying to recover and get out of here. For someone with a legendary poker face, I was folding like a house of cards in front of Kami.

“What about Kei and Izumi? We were supposed to meet them here.” Kira spoke up; Kami nodded in approval as both took a stance that seemed to suggest that there was no way to talk them out of it. I sighed rubbing my temples in annoyance before shrugging.

“Fine, they are cleaning up the Student Council room, I’ll take you guys there.” I replied defeated even though there was never much of a fight.

The walk through the halls of this school seemed to get longer and longer, while all the while it was getting quieter and quieter as dusk approached. I arrived at the Student council room with the two in tow and slid open the door silently. “Visitors for the Janitorial service.” I grinned as I entered the room while Izumi and Kei were finishing sweeping up the glass.

“Kami! Kira!” Izumi spoke up in excitement before shooting me a glare of annoyance. I shrugged it off before moving over to Kei on the other side of the room.

“Welcome to the Student Council.” I shook his hand with the biggest smile I could put on in this condition. He seemed to hesitate only for a second before shaking my hand back. “So has anyone told you about the hazing ritual the new guy gets?” I joked; Kei’s eyes seemed to go wide a bit in shock and disbelief.

“Hazing?” He asked, raising a eyebrow in curiosity

“I’m just kidding.” I laughed trying to lighten the mood; he seemed to remain tense or at least what could possibly be tense, for a few more seconds before relaxing. “Don’t worry, you seem like you will fit right in here.”

[Bulbasaur4]

Kiya Setsuna
.: Undiscovered HiME :.

Fires burned and raged.
Screams echoed all about and it seemed as if hell itself had unleashed open upon the world. Children were crying all about, some lost and afraid while others were being pulled by mothers.
Kiya’s eyes scanned the area… she gave out a soft cry but she did not know yet how to speak fully. Cries continued… the sound of death, screams and wails filling the air like a chorus of demons. Stumbling, Kiya forced her way from the fire… trying to outrun it’s tangling grasps…
…..
Bodies. Dead bodies were everywhere as blood coated the ground like a blanket of death. The smell of rotted flesh stung at Kiya’s nose and the smoke that blew from the wind burned at her eyes. A man was escaping… but no… suddenly he fell- his head cut clean from his neck as he fell. Then… then the man’s body disappeared and the smell of burned death roared to life once again…

~*~~*~*~~*~

Kiya felt something poking her, and slowly her eyes fluttered open until she realized there was a human! Her mind was racing along with her heart from the flooding memories of the dream matching that of the occurance of the orphan. She didn’t think, but just instantly reacted by lunging and biting the boy’s hand.
Then it came back to her.
She remembered the nice boy and the strange lady… but before she could blink to remember fully, she saw the storming lady coming straight at her. Just when Kiya thought she was going to attack, another voice rose to the air to calm her. Turning her head, Kiya saw the strange man who had spoken earlier upon that strange platform. The strange lady- Kanna, began to talk with the little boy known as Tsueno. Kiya was interested in their conversation, but the man continued to speak to Kiya- forcing her to listen to him.

She slowly rose to her feet, but remained in her squatting position with her hands upon the ground as well. Behind the man were a few other humans, all who seemed awed or taken back by the devestation about.
Kiya was confused… where DID the creature go?
“Ah, you must be the new student now… what is your name?” The man said, smiling gently. Kiya blinked for a second, unknowing of what to really do because she was unaccustomed to some one of his mannerism other than the little boy named Tsueno.
“Kiya Setsuna.” Kiya said plainly, as the man nodded.
“Ah, well I am Mr. Rokugan, the director of this school.”
Kiya blinked- as if that was supposed to mean some thing? The director smiled again… realizing that perhaps the school was taking on a student who would be a rather… unique, person to this school.
“ We have decided to enroll you into the school here. You will be coming here every day with Fujiwara-san and her brothers and they will be taking care of you.”
Kiya frowned… she was unsure about attending this ‘school’ business. She knew very well that she had scented and seen many odd creatures about and she did not like these ‘creatures’. As if on cue however, Tsueno approached Kiya and the director.
“Guess what Kiya, you get to come home with us. Kanna might be a bit difficult at times… but she’s a really good cook so you’ll get some good food.”
Instantly Kiya’s eyes widened at the sound of food. She smiled and gave a nod.
“Food!” She chimed, and practically could have wagged a tail if she had one. Looking at the director, Kiya gave a nod.
“Kiya will go to school with Kanna-chan and Tsueno-chan… and stay at house.”
The director seemed to sweatdrop at her language, but gave a nod and rose.
“Good. I’m glad that’s taken care of. I assume I can leave the matter to you now, Fujiwara-san.” Mr. Rokugan stated, as the woman seemed a bit aggravated but having already been defeated by her brother, she gave a weak nod.
“Good. Go to the student council office tomorrow and receive her class list later.”

With that, the director walked off with the student council in tow as Kanna seemed to shake her head more dramatically then ever.
Kiya smiled and scurried over to her with Tsueno. She didn’t exactly know the full extent about everything… like what she had to do at school or about their house- but she had taking a liking to the both of them and didn’t seem to mind the situation at all. Emi still was about, seeming a bit dazzled and disgruntled about what had happened here.
“What…what…” She said, looking at the three of them but most importantly- Kanna. She seemed very confused and slightly miffed about the events of things. Kiya tilted her head at her, as if expecting her to suddenly reveal some food.

[Bulbasaur4]

Kei Yugomuto
.: HiME of Harry (Seemingly Male tho) :.

Kei watched as the events unfolded before him, and soon the rest of the Student Council seemed to exit the area and the Director left as well. Kei raised a brow as he looked towards Izumi, just as she handed him a broom. In a matter- a clean matter- of seconds, Kei had already become a student Council member. And he was new! The whole idea of it rather shocked him- although Kei rarely showed the emotion of ‘shock’- more like the emotion of ‘bewilderment’. Still, Kei figured that being upon the Student Council wouldn’t be bad. Not only would he get wind of things happening around school… but it also would help his intellectual aspirations. Student Council work looked awfully good upon resumes.

Giving a slight “I have no idea what I just got myself into, but I’ll accept it because I’m a push over some times” look, Kei grabbed the broom gently. Izumi and Kei began to sweep and picked up the various shards. While the window mostly had broken into large shards, a few minor ones proved slightly difficult.
“Hmm…” Kei said as they slowly began to finish up, picking up a large shard and analyzing the glass.
“What is it?” Izumi said, raising a brow.
“Oh… just observing the thickness of the glass. It’s actually quite thick… almost amazing that a girl could crash through it.”
Izumi gave a shrug, “Odder things have happened around here.”
Kei gave a slight nod, showing a sudden change of a serious expression- but it was only for a mere moment. The flash and remembrance of the last Orphan battle he had taken on. Kei had been lucky though… he had always battled Orphans beyond sight. Usually people never even knew there was any type of battle- and if anyone found out, it was far after the battle was over. Kei had to remain quite hidden in all aspects of his abilities. Of course… Kei knew a bit of who he was and what his powers were. Finding a few old books proved… quite useful, especially when no one caught you sneaking glance at them.

It was after a bit, that another member of Student Council entered with Kami and Kira. Kei soon found out about the one girl- her name was Emi, but she seemed very startled or ‘off’. Wondering what could be the problem, Emi seemed to know of Kei being a new member of the Council and introduced it a bit. She seemed like a pleasant girl, and Kei politely gave a smile to her and shook her hand with the meeting. Of course, both Izumi and Kei soon found out from her that there was an ‘animal attack’ outside. Kami seemed a bit ‘thoughtful’ about this, and Kei only narrowed his eyes slightly.
An animal attack?
Kei was new to student council… but he wasn’t ignorant. He knew what probably had happened and knew the damage of it. Of course… that means another HiME had disposed of the Orphan. While Kei knew a few of the HiMEs, it was merely because he had seen their battle but they hadn’t noticed him. (Of course… why should they have? If you’re attacking a huge gaping monster that wants to kill you… you usually focus upon that.) Girls… HiMEs had to be girls- Kei knew that. If anyone found out he was a HiME… it would only be a matter of time before Kei would be found out to his true identity.
And that… that could NOT happen.

Kei watched as Emi seemed to move away from Izumi, as Kami and Kira talked with her a bit. Izumi… well, she didn’t seem to be absolutely fond of Kami either.
Kei silently wished he didn’t “notice” people’s moods so much.
Still, the conversation with Emi was pleasant enough. He listened as she joked about hazing- for a second being slightly bewildered as to she was joking or if perhaps she was trying to hint at something relative to it. It turned out to be a joke, in which Emi gave a half-smile to him.
“Ah… good.” Kei said with a bright smile, “If there would be hazing… I would hate to have to eliminate the council in paranoia.” He returned a joke, glanzing over to Izumi as she seemed to finish her brief conversation with Kami.
“So… a girl jumped through the window?” Kami stated, bewildered as Kira also looked at the window.
“Yeah, guess so.” Kei said, absently brushing a strand of hair behind his ear- one of the longer strands.
“I’m rather interested in meeting her soon.”
“You’ll meet her tomorrow.” Emi stated and Kei nodded.

After a finishing resweep, they were done.
“Looks like we’ll need to order a new window.” Kei stated, looking to Izumi.
“I’ll let YOU do that… Miss. Pres.” He said with a hint of a smile, heading towards the door.
“Seeing how the festivities are ending, I believe I shall head home. If you would like Izumi… I would be happily obliged to walk you home.”
Izumi seemed to roll her eyes slightly, looking towards Emi, Kira and Kami. Kei glanced at them and then laughed.
“I’d gladly walk anyone home… if we need more body guards.”

[Fai D. Flowright]

[color=#339933]\ Uzaki Maiyuki /|\ Kagutsuchi //:
[color=#339933][size=3]Lies and...Asleep?

I was still giggling to myself a little as the automatic doors to the infirmary slid open “Go ahead. I’ll wait out here, Yuki.” Aya waved at me, pointing to a bench just outside the entrance. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, I’ll be quick!” I added, giving a nod as I made my way through the doors and up to the main desk. “Excuse me; I’m here to pick up someone I dropped off here earlier today.” The receptionist quickly turned to her computer and began typing.

“What’s the name?” She question, waiting for me to fill her in so as to search for which room she was in.

“Kazoe, Ami Kazoe.”

“Thank you,” she replied, typing more into the computer, “You’ll find her in room 29, down the hall, take the first right; the door is on the left.” I gave her a pleasant smile and made my way off. The layout of the building was simple, each numbered room properly leading the eyes down the hall. I made the turn and quickly found the room I had been pointed to. The shelf next to the door held a folder with Ami’s name on the front and medical records inside.

I pushed the door open to find a simply decorated room with a bed in the corner. There were no high-tech medical devices in the room, but they weren’t necessary, since Ami was merely here for passing out. I had given them the excuse of food poisoning to help cover up the incident at the library. Tip-toeing over to the bedside, I set my hand on Ami’s shoulder, rubbing it slightly. Her eyes began to flutter open as she let out a silent yawn. “Hmm... Oh, Yuki. Good Morning!” She spoke softly, her eyes dull in the setting sun’s rays.

“Heehee! Maybe, if only the sun were rising and not setting...” I said, turning my gaze to the window that looked out towards the western horizon. I heard Ami gasp a little as she realized what time it actually was. She began to wriggle her way out from under the sheets and sat on the edge of the bed with a glazed look.

“Wh-where am I?” she mumbled, rubbing her forehead and face out of its drowsy condition, “Wasn’t I at the library before?” Ami was puzzled at her new surroundings, which has hastily changed after she passed out under Vlas’ magic.

“You were, but you weren’t feeling well, remember? You passed out on the floor.” I said, lying through my teeth. This was something that I didn’t like doing, but if it was for Ami’s safety, then I would have to bare the burden. “We...think it was something you ate.”

She cocked her head to the side in wonder, adding, “...but what about those weird things?” I had almost forgotten that the Orphan had attacked her and that Aya had summoned her Child before Ami fell unconscious.

“They were probably hallucinations. Or something you were dreaming about.” I was thinking on my feet as I made this excuse to cover up the things she has seen. Fortunately, the statements I made were understandable, given the circumstances. I was almost starting to believe them myself, even though I knew it wasn’t true. “Bad food can do that do you, you know!”

She nodded in agreement, shaking her head to clear her mind of the strange happenings. “Well, just don’t tell Aya about it. She’ll never let me live it down!” She said with utter discontent towards herself in her voice. I turned to her and lifted a brow. ”What did she mean by that?”

“Uhh.... O-ok, then. Any reason why?” I stuttered, concerned with her comment.

“Heh... I’m still waking up.” she smiled and gave a shrug, “Anyway, let’s head home.” She started to stand, but teetered a bit, still rather disorientated from the long nap and fell back to the bed.

“Careful! Here, let me help you...” I sat down close beside her, draping her arm over my neck and shoulder, helping her stand once again along side of me. I could tell from her condition that she would still need some help getting home. She looked up and gave me a gentle grin.

“You’ve always been there for me, Yuki... Even since when we were kids.” Her words touched me at the heart and I could feel my eyes dampen a little.

“Of course I have! And I always will be, Ami.” I held up my wrist, letting her see the red bracelet that hung loosely from my wrist. She lifted her own wrist as well, revealing her own wristlet, which was blue in color. Light laughter came from the two girls as they slowly progressed into the hall and back to the main door where Aya had been waiting.

Upon exiting, I turned to the bench to see Aya patiently seated there. “Ready to go?” I questioned while approaching her, Ami still at my side, but standing on her own now. She stayed there, motionless and silent. “Aya?” I reached out and waved my hand in front of her face.

Her eyes slowly turned to me as she whispered through her stiff face, “There is a boy...looking at me.” Her eyes turned back to their attention-warding focus, but I could see a young man a bit of a ways off. I rose up on the ball of my foot to get a better view, yet this seemed to bother Aya all the more. “Don’t look at him!”

“Oh! He’s cute!” I said aloud, catching not only Aya and Ami’s attention, but the boy’s as well! “You should go talk to him.” I lowered my eyes to see Aya’s face turn white and then several shades of red. From his position, he stood upright and started moving towards us. “You know, I think we should leave you two alone. C’mon, Ami. I gotta check out something that happened near the garden and then I can get you back home.” I motioned to her, giving a sly grin to Aya as we hastily left the scene.

It wasn’t long before we reached the vicinity of the scene, but we crossed Rokugan-san before we could get the center of the area. “Konbanwa, ladies. Can I...help you with something?” He seemed intrigued with our sudden appearance.

I couldn’t help but blush from the direct attention he was giving us as we bowed to his presence; Ami obviously was as well. “N-no... I-I was just curious about what had happened...” I stuttered, embarrassed about asking the handsome director a question. Although, any normal girl on the campus would do the same in this situation, even if I wasn’t exactly on that list anymore.

“Oh, yes. It was an animal attack on a student, but it’s been taken care of.” He seemed to give me a look that said otherwise, but I didn’t dare question his integrity, especially not in front of Ami. I carefully peeked behind him to see a building that had been partially damaged; more than what any animal could ever do, meaning it could have only been one thing: an Orphan.

With the color back in my face, I gave him a nod and a smile. “Arigatou-gozaimasu, Director-san.” I replied, bowing to him again.

“Please, you don’t need to be so formal. Regardless, I must be on my way. I’ll expect to see you two tomorrow.” He replied, giving us that charming grin he was, almost infamously, known for. I blushed again as he made his way off. With the director gone, all I could think was, ”Student Council needs come up with a better excuse for the next disaster...”

Since we both lived close to the campus, it didn’t take us long to arrive at Ami’s house, even if the trip was rather silent. Both of us were rather exhausted from the day, each for a different reason. Leaving Ami to rest in the comfort of her own home instead of the hospital, we said our goodbyes and I made my way to my own home and bedroom.

“Yuki! I told you to be back for dinner!” Mom hollered to me as I entered.

“I know... I’m sorry! But don’t worry, I ate.” I replied to her, zipped past the living room where everyone was sitting around the television. “I’m going to bed though... Good night!”

I raced down the hall to my room and pushed the door closed. I took a deep breath, but the air was dry, causing me to choke. It was usually arid, though, because the evening sun would always beat through my window and since my room was the farthest away area in the house, it got little to no circulation. As I did on most nights, I lazily wandered to the window, cracked it open an inch or two, and then collapsed into my bed.

“...Kagutsuchi...”

Guess what!! Did you guess yet!?! Huh!?!?!

END DAY 1!!!

Which means..... Wrap up the end of your character's days in your next post, if you wish to do so. For after that, my next post will open Day 2! ^_^

[Roy Karrde]

Tange, Aya

Vlas

The early morning’s humidity clung to my hair as I walked down the street in the early morning hours. Illumination from street lamps were my only guide and even then they were fuzzy. The sound of a passing car every few minutes or so played off of the light grumble of my stomach to create the music. This was my play, the street my theater, I was the actor. “Home..” I mumbled clutching the two pictures in my hand, one of my mom, the other of Ami, Yuki, and myself from over the summer, and the pillow in my left arm. What home did I have? He had told me to get out! To leave and to never come back.

“Hey do you need any help?” A voice mumbled off in the distance, the ringing in my ears dulled out the voice to the point that it was almost a whisper. “Do you need a ride to the hospital?”

I continued to walk; the voice yelled out at me a few more times before shouting a few cuss words in my direction. My left hand which supported my pillow began to grow damp as I continued to walk, I glanced down at it as my eyes tried to focus. “It’s raining?” I asked to no one in particular. I moved my hand closer to my face to inspect the rain droplets that had fallen on my head. The rain droplets were red and thick.

“No sister of mine is going to go out dressed like that.” My brother roared taking me by my left arm and throwing me into the wall in a fit of rage. My head hit the side of a hanging picture frame causing a splitting pain for a second.

“The weather man didn’t say anything about rain.” I sighed as I began to walk again in silence, cars passed me and dogs barked, streetlights turned different and pretty colors. There was a time where I passed a shop window which had a display lit. I looked in to see the reflection of a girl I didn’t know, it was some one else reflection. It was the reflection of a girl with a weird color left eye that was barely open, and a bit of red along the left side of her face. “That must be some other girl..” That was the excuse that I used in my mind even though I had said it out loud.

I sat down on a park bench at one time, I had looked at my feet, and then out at the cars, I even laid down and tried to get some sleep. I didn’t feel safe, as childish as that sound I just didn’t feel safe. I felt safe at Yuki’s. So I got up and walked, I walked till my legs were tired, I walked till the sound of cars began to die down, I walked past the school and where Yuki had teased me just hours before.

I walked to the door and almost knocked, my hand came to rest softly at the door before I remembered that it was dark outside, they were probably asleep. I moved away from the door and proceeded to walk along the exterior of the house making my way to Yuki’s room. The window was cracked open, which I guess meant that Yuki knew I was coming and wanted to make sure I could get in.

I slipped the window open and slid in, the room was completely dark with the faint sound of breathing being the only source of noise. “Yuki?” I whispered. The sound of breathing didn’t change. It was faint and steady. “Yuki, I’m just going to lay down on the floor.” I added lying down gently onto the floor propping my head up with the pillow. This is where I felt safe. This was my sanctuary.

Yuki turned back at me with a hint of animalistic anger and passion in her eyes, her mouth moved as if she was asking me a question before turning back to face the shadowed figures. Flames illuminated the bracelets on Yuki’s arms and legs; light from the flames began to create shadows of horrible monsters all around the room.

I grasped Yuki’s arm in shock trying to reason with only an icy grip. She threw off my arm with one quick twist before turning back at the figures. Rage built in her face until thick blood began to trickle from the corners of her mouth from her biting her tongue. She roared out in rage and anger as the first of the ten shadowed figures began to dissolve in a flurry of green dust.

The face of the figure cried out in silent anguish as she disappeared, the one next to her began to yell and grasp at her clothes in fear as she began to dissolve too. Then the next and next, until it was only Yuki and I. Yuki turned to me with tears in her eyes, she smiled faintly as her skin turned to ash, green dust rose from her limbs as she dissolved away.

I fell to my knees in shock and fear, millions of emotions flowed down my tear stained face as pain racked my side. I held my hands up to my eyes, as they became ash in color. My heart began to beat faster and faster as green dust began to swirl around me, dust that flew from my skin as I dissolved. Disolved into nothing. Into Darkness.

Saotome, Emi

Duran

I grasped a rock between my two fingers, the smooth curved shape of it, the lightness in the palm of my hand. It was perfectly designed for its purpose. I reared back taking a second to make sure my trajectory was correct before flinging my arm forward sending the smooth rock air born. It’s destination: Kami’s window.

“Wake up!” I yelled reaching down for a second rock. The window sled open just in time for my arm to send it flying angled just past her head. “School is about to start!” I added smiling and giggling like a schoolgirl at the same time.

Kami let out a deep chuckle that seemed to rumble from the inner most reaches of hell as she let out steam from my personal version of an alarm clock. “You could have broken a window!” She shot back at me as I reached down to pick up another rock.

“But, I didn’t!” I shouted back up at her. “Yet..” I added quietly as I reached back to throw the next one. Kami ducked down for a second before finally getting the message.

“Fine fine, I’ll be down in a minute.” She sighed defeated before shutting the window as a sign that she surrendered.

I sat down smiling and trying to suppress a laugh before turning my attention to Kira. “See, told you my way was better.” I smiled, Kira shrugged a little bit probably worried about how Kami would come out after getting dress and formulating a way to get back at me. I had only really known Kami for a few hours since I walked her home last night to make sure that there wasn’t another animal attack. I figured it would be easier and safer if everyone were to walk too and from school with someone else just incase another animal attack happened.

I began to shudder as I remembered how that thing looked; it was scary, even horrible looking. Yet as quickly as the shudder came, I shook it off and stood back up, regaining my cute ‘nothing gets to me’ attitude as Kira came storming out. “You could have found another way to wake me up.” She sighed, I guess it was kind of fair for her to be mad at me seeing how one of those rocks could have broken one of her windows.

“Yeah,” I shrugged giving an apologetic look, I never really liked apologizing, words really couldn’t make the event go away; all I could do is show that I actually meant it. Kami smiled a bit before she began to chat away with Kira, I rolled my eyes in annoyance and walked with them at silence as we reached the school.

The bells for first period began to toll as I grabbed both Kira and Kami’s arms. “Hurry up!” I shouted impatiently as I began to run toward the school entrance. As a Student Council Member I could be held responsible for their tardiness. I began to pull them harder as we made our way into the school. As we ran down the halls all I could think about was that I hadn’t even made it to my first period class and I was already in trouble.

[Emotional Faun Chiko-sai]

Eheh.. this post would've been up earlier had I not got caught up learning mahjong (and losing money)... Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!
-----------------
Fujiwara Kanna (et famille), Kiyohime
"Home again, home again. Jiggetty jig."
---------------------------------

"Hey, Kanna," Kaname said, raising a finely arched eyebrow. "I thought you said we were having dinner."
"We ARE having dinner," growled Kanna, chopsticks trembling.
"No, SHE had dinner," continued her brother, dissecting the scene at the dining table sentence by noncommittal sentence. "WE sat here for approximately two seconds saying 'Itadakimasu' while SHE, I reiterate, had dinner."

The subject of their conversation was even now polishing off the plate of fish stew meant for the whole table without even pausing to pick out the bones. Any normal human would probably have choked to death, but Setsuna Kiya had probably inherited, along with her samurai lineage, an iron-lined stomach. Tsuneo was sweatdropping in the background. Every plate and bowl was licked clean, thus eliminating the need for washing up, although assuredly this was currently not on the mind of any of the Fujiwara siblings, least of all Kanna, who was the one who always complained most about washing up.

Kaname gave his sister a long-suffering look. "Tell me, why did you bring this girl home again?"
"It wasn't ME that wanted her to come home! That stupid Director ordered me to bring her here!"
"Of course, I'm not saying that she's not a babe or anything, in fact she's prettier than a lot of the female role actors at the theater which actually makes her very pretty-"
"Tsuneo wanted her here."

Kaname almost made a lewd remark about his little brother having advanced tastes. Then he looked at Kanna, and decided not to. Then he remembered his mother, and his father, and Tsuneo crying silently, and the beatings, and he set his mouth and said, "Whatever." Which was as close to an assent as he ever came to, whenever speaking with his sister. There was a wordless agreement between the two older Fujiwaras about Tsuneo. It was very complicated and had been in effect for ten years.

"So... what's for dinner?"

Kanna and Kaname had instant ramen, while Tsuneo made do with overnight onigiri. Later, Kanna tried to make Kiya take a bath, which was really the beginning of her association with the Fujiwara's recently deceased pet dog.

Kiya didn't like water when it was applied to her body instead of down her throat, and she liked soap even less. Kanna learnt this a few minutes after forcing her into the bathtub amid much thrashing, growling and bubbles; on the plus side, however, this meant that Kanna had no need to take her own bath later. For half an hour or more, loud cursing and unrepentant animalistic sounds could be heard throughout the house, until Kaname, curious though he would not care to admit it, tapped surreptitiously at the bathroom door, only to have it slam open in his face. A soaking wet Kanna emerged, right behind a sulking but clean Kiya dressed in one of the older girl's nightgowns.

She grabbed her brother by the collar. "I... am... going... CRAZY!"
Kaname removed his sister's fist from his shirt. "No, no, dear sister, you simply are not applying the right approach."
"What would you do, then, dear brother?" Some of Kanna's demonic aura began to assert itself.
Kaname smirked. "Watch this."

He produced a leftover piece of onigiri (apparently, from thin air) and waved it slightly in front of Kiya. The previously sulking girl, crouching in a canine manner, immediately became alert, her eyes following the direction of the onigiri intently.

"Kiya, do you want this onigiri?"
Kiya nodded enthusiastically. "Kiya want food!" She lunged at it, but Kaname dodged.
"You have to sit first before I give it to you..."
Kiya sat, and Kaname tossed her the onigiri. It disappeared down her throat in a single gulp.
"You see, my dear sister?" he said, turning back to Kanna. "Simple, really."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." A light dawned in Kanna's eyes.

Leaving his sister alone with her new charge, Kaname rolled his eyes and went upstairs to his room. On the way he passed Tsuneo, who was lost in yet another of his wordy, complex books. "Oi, Tsuneo. It's getting late for ten-year-olds. What you reading, anyway?"
"Kamen no Kokuhaku," replied his brother distantly. "You wouldn't like it, it's depressing."

Yukio Mishima's Confessions of a Mask - the most he had been able to comprehend of the great author's works were some of the simpler short stories and of course his plays, and here his little brother was reading the text that seniors studied in literature. Weird, his family was. Completely, utterly and hopelessly weird. Including the latest unofficial addition, the 'prettier-than-an-onnagata' Setsuna girl.

Kanna herself was thinking. She had seen the familiar red birthmark on Kiya's back while she was bathing her - did that mean that Kiya was also a HiME? If so, why hadn't she manifested her powers during the Orphan attack earlier? An unawakened HiME. And she didn't know much about HiMEs, anyway, except that the person to dig for information about it was Nagi (who wouldn't give away so much as a syllable if he didn't feel like it), and the Director also seemed to know more about these matters than he should...

She turned to her left. Kiya was already asleep, curled up in a ball. They were in her room, where she had set up a camp bed for Kiya.

More madness promised to ensue in the following days.
----------------------------------

*

Minamoto Izumi, Diana (Undiscovered)
"The Stargazer"
----------------------------

Izumi, unable to sleep, was doing some form of yoga on the tatami floor of her room. Health hazards be damned.

She was also thinking. Back and legs against the wall in a simple shoulderstand, (always) gloved hands behind her head, and a neutral, drifting expression. Maybe she was afraid to sleep, because of the dream that might come, and with the dream, responsibility.

Kei and the prospect of being best friends again. He'd promised to come by the next morning, although she'd warned him that she would have to get to school extra early because of student council business and the burden of being Vice-President. She had already made some backup plans to push more of the paperwork onto the President, as well as some half-realised schemes to implicate more council members like Saotome-san in the actual handling of school matters instead of her doing everything. (not like she ever showed up to receive her workload, but...)

Homework. The business of avoiding it, to be precise. She knew a band of girls in her class who had declared themselves fans of "Kei-kun!". She could use that. Signatures? Or basically, ask Kei to scribble something random on paper. It could work. Never underestimate the fangirlishness of the average Japanese high school girl.

Back to Kei. Somehow, she didn't think it wise to show her relationship to him too openly. It might turn off not a few people, but it was necessary. Not only because she didn't want any rumours going around about the Vice-President's new boyfriend, but also because of the nagging gut feeling that something bad was about to happen, and it was linked heavily to emotions. She'd been metaphorically acting offstage a good amount, in fact ever since middle school. Acting surprised, when not. Confident, when not. Careless, when not. And the only person who ever caught her out was Kei. She hoped he'd understand without her needing to tell him. He usually had, in the old days, but now?

She had turned her mirror towards the wall earlier. It was a comfort thing.

The next morning, Kei turned up as promised, and they were at school a good hour earlier than most students. Izumi slumped over the table in the student council room, finishing off the application for a new window. She was also coming up with a suitable list of excuses for collapsed walls and destroyed school property - seriously, animal attack? There were lots more things the student council could blame these on. Like minor earthquakes. Mislaid wrecking equipment. The misfired experiments of the chemistry club. Localized acid rain, too, come to think of it.

"He-ey, Kei. You ever wonder what actually causes the buildings of this academy to spontaneously damage themselves and make huge, expensive dents on the ground?"

Her friend tensed slightly, as he looked up from compiling class lists. "I don't know... animal attack?"
"Now, that's just lame..." Izumi smiled slightly, signing her window application letter with a lazy flourish. "I realize this is totally random, but I've been having horrible red dreams lately." She watched his reaction intently.
"You probably had something inedible for dinner. I know what your family's cooking is like."
"Yeah, yeah... as if you can cook."

There had been something there, for a moment. A little flash, a spark. He knew something, but wasn't about to reveal it. For her own protection, the impression was. Goold old Kei. The self-sacrificing type. And that was good enough for her.

You will possibly never know how much I appreciate you, old friend... and now isn't the time to know it.

[Bulbasaur4]

Kiya Setsuna
.: Undiscovered HiME :.

Upon all of the nights, this night perhaps was one of the best that Kiya could remember. Not only was she in a sheltered building- away from strange, demonic beings and rain- but she also was fed! At night, when Kanna had placed the food upon the table… Kiya instantly believed that the food was for her and for her only. Without hesitating (for hesitation caused one to lose out on many things), Kiya lunged upon the table and practically had inhaled every tiny morsel of food in existence upon the table. She seemed quite oblivious to the faces of … well, dismal at the loss of food. Kaname seemed the most irritated, although Kiya saw him glance upon her a few times with a strange sense of curiosity. Tsueno was the one who didn’t seem to mind… THAT much… although his stomach had let loose a small growl.

… but the water. The strange yet powerful woman had doused Kiya with water and some vile substance within the water! Kiya had protested instantly, wildly splashing waves of water about and struggling to escape the water-holding tub. Her long but wild hair had whipped Kanna a few times with her lashing about as well. Yet… Kanna eventually won, if you could call it winning, and Kiya had been washed. Her hair had even been combed and put into half-rolled ponytails by Kanna, when coaxed with food. It was rather intriguing… for Kiya’s hair had been quite the mess before, but her hair now seemed sleek and actually helped disguise her true inner manner at a glance. With the night however, Kiya felt exausted from such a long day and the act of the Orphan had caused her to head to ache still a bit. Sleep easily came for her, as she curled herself upon the floor and instantly fell into a heavy sleep.

Then, the morning came.

Kiya was up early, and she instantly had wandered about the house a bit before anyone had woken up. She usually woke up early, but it wasn’t long before everyone else rose either. Soon Kanna was making breakfast… and this time they made it very clear to Kiya that she could only eat the food upon her place.
“Only?” Kiya had repeated, her eyes watering as if the world itself had fallen down upon her head. However, Kanna had made seconds… thirds… and finally fourths for the wolf-girl, much to Kanna’s disliking. Then, of course, there was the matter of clothing. Kanna had washed Kiya’s clothes, and Kiya did wear her shorts but her shirt was in total rags. She finally managed to find a shirt she was willing to give to Kiya, which was an old and slightly baggy shirt of white. Then of course… there was the matter of, well, a bra.
“She’s going to.. um…” Kaname pointed out, making Kanna realize that Kiya need more clothing.
“Ugh…” Kanna withdrew an exasperated breath, as Tsueno pretended not to hear anything.
“We’ll go shopping after school today. She’s gone on long enough with out one… she’s not going to desperately need one now. Besides, the uniforms for the grade she’s going into… will… cover her well enough.”


Arriving at the school (Kiya surprisingly already was beginning to behave slightly better. She actually followed them and did not wander off. Probably because she knew Kanna had her lunch… but…), swiftly Tsueno and Kaname departed for their various classes. However, Kanna took Kiya to the Student Council room.
“Ahh… Kanna-chan and … the new girl.” The one known as Izumi stated with a hint of displeasure, perhaps because she had to clean the mess that Kiya had done. Kiya was oblivious, as she stared at the two figures. One was apparently male by appearance and the other female. In a matter of minutes, Izumi handed Kiya clothes and Kanna her classes. Kei had also introduced himself, smiling at the new girl who apparently stared at him.
“You’re going to have to show her where her classes are… and if you’re late to your own class, we have pardoned you in advance. Just have her change…” Izumi trailed off, and Kei gave a nod.
“And have a nice day.” Kei added, smiling as the pair wandered out of the room.

With that, Kiya followed Kanna into the girl’s room and changed. Kanna’s expression was one filled with exasperation and horror at the fact that the younger girl’s uniforms were… well, not fitting enough for a girl of Kiya’s age or caliber. The shirt was a bit too short, exposing a bit of her abdomin as well as her, defined upper body. The skirt was alright, perhaps a bit above the normal length but nothing that Kanna saw much to worry about.
“Just… one… day…” Kanna said through gritted teeth, slowly showing Kiya her classes. Kiya seemed to understand a bit, gazing wide-eyed at everyone who passed (and they pretty much shared the same expression).
“Class! Class!”

Kei Yugomuto
.: HiME of Harry | Male :.

[color=silver]


Kei watched Izumi as she went through some boring files. Scratching the back of his head, Kei had bag near him and boredly opened it.
“Ah… nothing like some nice new text books.” He said, and her glance was more than annoyance.
“Seriously… you and books…” She rolled her eyes, “I’ll never get it.”
Kei merely smiled, putting the book away. Of course… they had a bit of silence between their talk about the “animal attack.” He had played it casually, although he knew Izumi well enough. She might not know exactly what or how much he was hiding… but she knew he wasn’t telling the complete truth. Of course, their previous friendship… well, actually their current one… told her well enough that he was doing it for a reason. He wouldn’t ever lie to her on purpose to hurt her.
It’s best if she doesn’t know… she doesn’t need to know… Kei thought for a bit, lowering his gaze. I just wish I didn’t have to hide so many secrets…
Kei would have loved it he could share a secret with some one… any one of his secrets were good enough to share. One of them alone would cause a bit of chaos. But of course, he couldn’t share his secret with anyone. Not only would it endanger Kei… but it probably would be disasterious for anyone.
And hell if Kei was ever going to let Nagi find out. He didn’t trust the new teacher… and he had a sneaking suspecision that he wasn’t all he seemed. Any teacher sneaking about at night wasn’t to be trusted- in Kei’s opinion.

“Ah… good to see you two here.” Rokugan had entered suddenly, offering a welcoming smile. This snapped Kei out of his thoughts, and he instantly offered the director a light bow.
“Good morning.” He stated, as Izumi rolled her eyes but gave a nod. The director instantly revealed a piece of paper and some girls clothing.
“For the new girl?” Kei asked, and the director nodded.
“Yes… I was going to deliver them to her when she arrived, but I have some business to attend to. So if you two could kindly give them to her…”
“No problem.” Kei stated, taking the things and setting them on one of the desks. The director smiled and then soon exited.
“Gah… you’re too polite.” Izumi stated, flashing a glance a Kei as she began to finish some paperwork.
“Now we have to wait.”

And wait they did, but it wasn’t for too long. Soon the one known as Kanna Fujiwari and the new girl- Kiya Setsuna, so the paper said, had come in. Kanna didn’t seem to pleased at all… but Kiya- she was a different story. Her large eyes were glancing about everywhere, and her nose twitched about like an animal. Indeed, Kiya was animalistic… it was no surprise to Kei that she had become confused and crashed through a window. Things progressed quickly, Izumi took charge and gave the list of classes Kiya had to Kanna, and then handed over her clothes as well. Kei simply watched the two in silence, taking only a short time to introduce himself and then they hastily left. Well… Kanna left swiftly anyways, with Kiya trailing her.

“They make a fun pair.” Kei said as they left, smiling and looking to Izumi. Izumi shook her head.
“I almost feel sorry for Kanna… almost…” Izumi shrugged, “Of course, I have to deal with you so I don’t have it much better off.”
Kei smirked, “Say that next time you need help with homework.”
Izumi had been caught there, although soon the bell rang and classes were in full swing now.
“Well, I suppose I shall catch you at lunch!” Kei smiled, giving a wave as he excused himself from Izumi and headed out the door.

[EngiMatikul]

I'm going to make a pitiful attempt to start something.

Nagi
=====
"Given the task to rewrite several volumes of ancient text is rather tedious," Nagi thought as he balanced a book on his head. Whether it was a book he had just written or just another book he usually carries around it was not known, but considering that the book was hardcovered it was most likely another book... not like this information was of any significance. Nagi, in any case, seemed to wander rather aimlessly in the hallways, either in deep thought or just because he was tired of writing books, but whatever the case his state of being was abruptly interrupted when he spontaneously tripped and fell, landing on an unsuspecting student.
"Ah!!! I'm so sorry!!" Nagi quickly jumped back up and brushed himself off, then helped the student get back up and pick up his belongings. "I apologize for my clumsiness... I think I'm a bit out of it today, I might just tell our director to hire a substitute for me today... is that all? Uhh..." Nagi quickly glanced downwards on a pencilcase and searched for any scribblings. "Ah, is that all, Tsuneo-san?"
"Yes, sir..."
"Oh, you probably don't know me, I'm a new teacher here... you can just call me Nagi. That book you're reading..." Nagi picked up one of his books. "I know this book very well! But I seem to have lost my copy... well, more like I accidentally destroyed it..."
"Huh?" Tsuneo inquired, having missed the last mumbling parts of Nagi's speech.
"Nothing, nothing at all... do you mind if you show me where you got this book? It can save me a lot of trouble..." Tsuneo glanced at Nagi strangely... "Aha, yeah because, you see, I lost that book and several others, and I would like to buy a few more to get them back... saves me a days worth of work So lets get going, shall we?"
=====
Uh, maybe I'll do something more with this later. Maybe Chiko can do something with this. I dunno, if all else fails, maybe I'll spontaneously summon an orphan in the middle of school for the heck of it.

[Weasel Overlord]

[color=#db7093]~|~ Hanaaka, Kami ~|~
…Gakutenou…

Class class boring old class. I officially hated History, making a habit of falling asleep at least once per lesson. In fact, it had almost become a matter of honour for me to sleep during that lesson, head handily hidden by a large text-book, propped at the front of my desk.

It was only a good thing that I didn’t snore…

But now, lunchtime had finally arrived (after an hour of history hell) and I was due to meet Emi and Kira in the cafeteria for some food.

But, as per usual, my scummy history teacher let us out late, and I found myself rushing down the corridor, shoving past people as I went. Turning a particularly sharp corner, I came across Nagi.

Nagi? Oh, of course, he was a teacher here now, yet it was still a surprise t see him here, of all people. He was talking to a younger boy, whom I recognised as Kanna’s brother. Before I could stop myself, I screeched into Nagi, knocking him flying and falling to the ground myself.

Rubbing my head ruefully, I glanced up at the boy, who was staring in shock, before realising that poor Nagi was trapped underneath me. Scrambling upright, I brushed myself off and gave my hand to the messy-haired Nagi on the floor. Yanking him upright, I proceeded to dust him off as well, for good measure.

“Hey Nagi! Sorry for knockingyouover, can’ttalkgottarundinner!” And I sprinted off towards the cafeteria once again, leaving behind a speechless boy and an even more speechless Nagi.

Slamming through the door with my shoulder, I skidded inside to find Kira, looking peeved as usual, sitting with a very bored-looking Emi. Rushing over to the tills, I grabbed a plate of miscellaneous food, a bowl of something that looked like pudding and poured myself a cup of juice before shoving it all on a tray and whirling over to the table.

“Hey guys! What’s up?” I grinned between mouthfuls of whatever was in the bowl. On a closer look, it turned out to be fish. Joy! I hate fish… I rolled my eyes, but continued to cram food in my mouth until the dish was empty. Kira raised his eyebrow at me.

“What?” I gulped half of my drink and wielded my spoon. “I’m hungry, okay? History was hell!”

“So I can see.” Emi grinned in my direction and took a ladylike sip of her own drink. “So are you still coming shopping after school Kami?”

“Of course!” Kira glared at me. “Sorry honey, it’s girls only.” I’d already told him that he wasn’t allowed to shop with us, but he was still annoyed. “Lookit, I won’t be too long, okay?” I looked at Emi questioningly. “Will I?”
“Oh no, we won’t detain you too long, don’t worry Kira.” He was only irritated because tonight was usually our film-night and he had rented one out specially.

“We can watch it another day, okay? How about tomorrow night?” He nodded, appeased and then stood.

“I have to go now.” Giving me a peck on the cheek, he meandered out of the cafeteria. He had no more lessons today, so he always went home after dinner leaving me free to enjoy an afternoon of maths. I shuddered at the thought and turned my attentions back to my pudding. Which to my delight was chocolate!

“So, what are you planning to buy tonight? Anything nice?” I enquired, through mouthfuls of cake. Had intentions of buying a new game or something that wasn’t clothes-related, with the intention of irritating my parents.

“I presume we’re going to be travelling in packs again?” After the so-called ‘animal attack’, we had all bee advised to walk around in largish groups after school, so as to mob anything that came our way, obviously. I was never afraid at night, but lately, well, the star haunted the night sky again. Last time that happened…well, lets just say, my life changed somewhat. But I certainly wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone about that. I was just glad to have Gakutenou there if I needed him. He was like a comforting backup, ready to spring to my aid whenever I called, and I was particularly grateful for that…even with the price involved…

“I reckon we’ll be travelling in packs for a long time yet.” Emi grinned ruefully and applied herself to her own small piece of cake. I rolled my eyes and checked my watch.

“Crap! Probably better be getting back to lessons!” I scowled and shoved in the last bit of cake before grabbing my bag and leaping upright. “What time are we meeting?”

“Straight after school. We’ll go there from school, so don’t leave, okay?” I nodded and grimaced as a thought struck me.

What if an orphan chose that time to attack? Gulping, I waved, hiding my worry as I turned my back to leave.

All I could hope was that they chose this night to be peaceful. I didn’t dare allow others to know about my status as a HiME…

[Emotional Faun Chiko-sai]

Fujiwara Kanna (et famille), Kiyohime
"Wanna die?" Part 2 prologue
---------------------------------

Kamen no Kokuhaku was close to being shredded into pieces in the wake of Kanna's wrath. The book wobbled precariously in her shaking hands as she proceeded to lose her temper for the umpteenth time that day.

"YOU-!!" She would have flung the innocent book at Nagi, except that Tsuneo got it back just in time.

Naturally, Tsuneo and Kaname couldn't understand why she should be so enraged by the presence of a teacher, although admittedly Mr Homura Nagi was one of the weirder ones to show up at the school. Kaname attributed it to PMS and possibly an overload of homework from said teacher, promptly dismissing it from his mind to be worried about later if he yet again became the focus of his sister's anger. Tsuneo was quite puzzled, and even more confused at the very unteacherly smirk present on Homura-sensei's face.

However, Kiya seemed to be outwardly hostile towards him; she even growled a little when he asked her name. Kanna was fairly sure the wolf-girl hadn't met Nagi before. Earlier, she'd taught Kiya to attack males who looked at her well-developed form in an overly perverted way, as the wolf-girl was completely oblivious to whistles, stares and the like, but generally Kiya didn't make any unfriendly moves unless under provocation.

Maybe now she could train her to attack Nagi on sight. It was an appealing notion.

School had just ended. Kaname, in some cases having the uncanny ability to predict impending danger normally associated with animals, decided to beat it while his limbs were still intact and headed off in the opposite direction with a parting remark of "I'm going to the Kabuki-za, have fun shopping."

"Well now, Kanna-san, I never imagined that you'd have another brother," said Nagi, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "How remarkable that there should be no family resemblance whatsoever between Tsuneo-san and you."
"What do you want with Tsuneo?" demanded Kanna in return.
"Oh, I just noticed he was having a copy of Kamen no Kokuhaku, which I might mention is part of the senior literature component, and since I'm looking for a copy myself, I just want him to show me where he bought it."
Kanna gave Tsuneo a Look, at which her brother nodded to confirm Nagi's statement. "I know where he got it. Second-hand bookstore at the mall, first floor."
Nagi put on an innocent face. "I get lost so easily, you know... it would be better if you showed me the way there."
"So you can summon another Or-" Kanna started, than clamped her mouth shut abruptly.
"Exactly, so I can summon another ordinary bookseller once at the shop to help me with my enquiries," finished Nagi smoothly. "Shall we be going now?"

Her brothers didn't know anything about Orphans, red stars, or large, serpentine robots with squid bodies, and Kanna wanted to keep it that way. She wasn't the type that enjoyed saving people in any case, but it often transpired that she had no other choice but to help, destroying buildings and landscape in the process. If contractors that found their work coming mostly from the Fuuka area knew that she was the indirect cause of the damage, they would in all likelihood worship her as their patron saint.

At the mall, Kanna practically dragged Nagi all the way to the bookstore, and left him there while he cheerfully waved at them. (Tsuneo politely waved back.) In the hypothetical case that he was planning something, she didn't want Tsuneo anywhere near him, and to some extent, Kiya either, despite the all too telling signs that Kiya was also a HiME, obviously with her powers untapped. She'd get the ... underwear shopping over and done with quickly, and then go home. Too many potential casualties could happen at the mall.

Dangerous...
-----------------------------------------
Kabuki-za = Kabuki theater

Argh, short post! Go ahead, call an Orphan while you're book-shopping... or something ^^;; I think the other group with Emi and Kami are going shopping as well... plenty of Anti-Orphan corps to deal with it (or them). I'll post for Izumi when I'm not actually rushing madly to finish my homework.

[Fai D. Flowright]

Sorry it took me so long to get a post up... I've been going through some, well, 'stressful' issues as of late. Thanks for being patient and keeping things agoin'!

[color=#339933]\ Uzaki Maiyuki /|\ Kagutsuchi //:
[color=#339933][size=3]The Bloodied Surpise

[color=#EE9944]I was floating in darkness; nothing around me but the stars the surrounded me. It was peaceful and serene, like a beautiful dream. A dream... It was only another figment of my imagination. With all this new chaos in my life, this simplicity was something I could only enjoy in my sleep. Yet, no matter how much one tries, that serenity is always broken.

“Yuki! You need to get up!” Mom’s voice rang around, omnipotent to my senses. ”Leave me alone...” I responded to the voice, resisting the will to remove myself this world. “C’mon... Get going!”

“Nuh-uh...” I moaned, rolling over in my bed, “Mmm... Five more minutes.”

I could hear her sigh on the other side of the door. “You’re hopeless.” The shuffle of her socks on the hardwood floor of the hall faded as she headed back to the kitchen. Things were silent for a few minutes, but mumbles and whispers could be heard again after not too long, only as loud as my deep breaths. I assumed it was my parents, making small talk at the table, but it really made no difference to me; as long as they left me to sleep in my bed.

I rolled onto my back groaned, still denying consciousness. Again, I heard the sliding of feet across the flooring. The door opened silently, but I could see the light from the corridor through my eyelids. It would be mom again, invading my room to make another attempt at waking me. Sometimes she would rip the covers from my body, tickle my sides, or turn on my light to blind me. But this would be no ordinary morning...

As the figured entered the room, I could feel her eyes watching me. Then, a thought occurred: I would fake being asleep and when she got close enough, I’d ‘wake up’ and scare her! ”I can’t wait to see the look on her face!” I snickered to myself as the light footsteps grew nearer and nearer, ever so slowly.

I muffled sound came from somewhere and the footsteps stopped... In the void of sound a squeak hit my ears and a heavy weight suddenly landed on my abdomen, causing my body to vault upright. With the surprise of the event, I flipped my eyelids open. With no focus in my eyes, I couldn’t clearly see what had fallen on me, but it was definitely human. “AHHH!!! Who is it!?” I screamed, fearing whatever was laying over me on my bed!

As clarity returned to my sight, I couldn’t help but be taken aback by who it was. “AMI! What ware you doing in my bed?” She picked her body up from its collapsed position in my lap.

“I was coming to wake you, but I tripped over something on the floor and fell.” We both turned out gaze to the lump that lay in the middle of my room. The sight made us both jump as Aya lay there, unconscious, on a pillow covered in dried blood. “W-w-wh...WHAT THE HELL!?”

The noise seemed to be enough to stir Aya’s condition. In a matter of seconds, she sprung upright, inspecting each of her appendages, as if something had caused them to fade away. She turned to see me curled in the corner of my bed, still shocked about her appearance.

Before I could even react, Aya lunged at me, right from the floor! “Yuki! I’m so glad!” She gasped, hugging and clinging to my legs. It didn’t take her too long to realize that Ami was here as well, and quickly released me, exchanging harsh glares with each other.

“Um... You two okay?” I inquired as I crawled off of my bed and entered my closet, pulling out my school uniform.

“Yeah...” They replied in unison. Ami scoffed it off nonchalantly and headed for the door. She knew my rule, but Aya didn’t... “Come on, Aya!” Ami commanded, motioning for Aya to come with her.

“Why do I have to leave? I don’t want to!” Aya growled back, taking a firm seat, cross-legged on my bed.

“I’m sorry, Aya, but Ami’s right. I like my privacy...” I poked my head out the door and smiled at the two of them. Aya seemed rather upset, yet aggravated with it as she drug herself out of the room behind Ami.

It took me only seconds to swiftly dress and make myself up in the bathroom. Quickly making our way back to the kitchen, we walked in to have my mom jump a little. “Oh... I knew Ami was here, but who is that?” Mom questioned, leaning over to see Aya, who was standing behind me a bit. “And when did she get here?”

“Yeah... About that.” I mumbled, diverting my eyes as I tried to make an excuse. “Th-this is Aya! She, uh... she-” Aya cut me off, sliding around me to face my mother.

“I’m a friend of Yuki’s. I helped her take Ami home last night, but I must have nodded off after we split and I hit my head.” She motioned to the nasty cut on her hairline. “I don’t know what else happened. I guess I made my way here during the night...” She drifted off as she finished explaining. I was listening too, along with Ami, since we were all clueless as to how she had magically appeared on my floor.

“Oh my... Well, it’s nice to meet you Aya, but we really need to take care of that cut. It might get infected if you leave it untreated.” My mom informed us with a gentle smile and a sincere tone of voice. “Hang on. I’ll get the first aid kit and have you fixed up in a snap!” She hurried down the hall and into the bathroom to grab the small box from the cabinet under the sink, where the medical supplies were always kept.

Hastily returning, she turned a chair out from the table and had Aya take a seat. She wet a rag at the sink and used it to remove the dried blood from her head. Then, taking a cotton ball from the organized box, she opened the bottle of rubbing alcohol, set the ball on top, and tipped the bottle over, dampening the cotton with the disinfectant. Cautiously, she blotted the wound on her forehead. “Why were you so tired?” She interrogated as she cleansed the cut.

“I’ve been very busy...” Aya responded, wincing at the stinging sensation caused by the alcohol. “I haven’t really eaten in two days either.”

“You haven’t eaten in two days!?” She hollered, the statement seeming to surprise mom as she accidentally, yet harshly, slid the damp wad over the cut.

“GAOUCH! That hurts!” Aya’s entire body convulsed at the painful mistake.

“Eep! I’m so sorry, Aya!” She squeaked back, setting the cotton aside to grab some gauze and tape from the box. “You really should get some food in you, though! It’s not healthy to live like that...” Mom explained, strapping the folded material to Aya’s injury with the medical tape in an X-like shape.

As soon as the issue of resolution came up in the conversation, Aya glanced over at Yuki with a look of concern in her eye. “Thanks, Mrs. Uzaki, but we need to get going. Right, Yuki?”

“Yup! I’ll get your uniform and we’ll head out!” I stated, disappearing into the mud room nearby. The washing machine and dryer were in here and, thankfully, I had asked mom to start a load of laundry yesterday before we left to get Ami from the infirmary; I threw Aya’s clothes in with mine, so I pulled them out of the tumbler and ran back to the kitchen.

Handing the articles off to Aya, she rushed off to the bathroom to change. Upon her return, she returned the T-shirt she had borrowed from me yesterday. “Here, Yuki. I’ll take care of that.” My mother requested the shirt from me. “Now, you girls better get moving or you’ll be late! Oh, and Aya, you can call me Namiko, okay?” She gave us a smile, Aya nodded with a subtle smile, and the three of us hurried off to the Academy.

[Roy Karrde]

Tange, Aya

Vlas

The early dawn rays peeked through the buildings and reflected off their glass windows creating a rainbow of colors out onto the street and sidewalks. Morning cars buzzed back and forth down the road in a whirl of speed as people went about their morning routine. Everything about last night was a blur, I really had no idea how I got to Yuki’s house, or how I got so beat up, yet I had a pretty good idea.

“Could you lighten up?” Yuki asked as I stuck by her side, my eyes darting back and forth from alleyway to alleyway while the three of us walked toward the school. Ami glanced over at me in annoyance while Yuki shrugged back a reply. With a sigh Ami’s pace quickened as she moved on ahead. “Aya what really happened last night?” She asked after Ami was out of earshot.

“Did some one beat you up? If they did I’ll find them and summon Kagutsuchi and blow them away!” Yuki animated punching her fist in the air several times to simulate her fighting. I held back a laugh and smiled at the idea of Yuki blowing away my brother, I quickly shook the image away as Yuki began to laugh too.

“Usually I am the one protecting you.” I shot back as the image of Yuki stepping in front of me in the dream flashed back into my head. Blood drained out of my face as the image of Yuki dieing followed. My head began to pound again causing me to reach up and touch the area that Yuki’s mom treated.

“It seems some one forgot how we first met” Yuki retorted in a sing song voice, She was right, I had almost forgot how I had gotten in a fight way over my head a few months ago. I had expected to fight one guy and instead gotten four, Yuki had come out of nowhere and defended me even though she didn’t even know who I was.

I turned to her my eyes reflecting the early morning sunlight. “You’ve always protected me.” I smiled as Yuki threw her arm around my shoulder.

“And I always will.” She smiled back, I blushed slightly and picked up the pace as we both entered the school.

We both said our goodbyes as our path’s diverged, Yuki heading off to her classes down one hallway while I headed down the hallway designated for teens my age. I slid quickly into an empty classroom with a quick slide of the blinds I closed off the room from any prying eyes. I called out to Vlas from the bottom of my heart. The image of the Equine child vibrated into existence in front of me. “I need you to make me look normal.” I commanded my child. Vlas vanished in front of my eyes before I turned to look at my reflection in the window. Vlas was never really a talker, yet he could hide my wounds, which helped after a night of fighting Orphans.

“Thank you Vlas.” I whispered touching my left eye, which used to be blackened, now looked normal. The illusion could hold up for a while, yet all I really needed was to make it through the next few hours, and then I could drop it on the way back to Yuki’s house.

With a quickened stride I walked out of the empty classroom, and into the room marked for my first class. The noise and rowdiness of the class was almost instantaneous, the teacher wasn’t even in the room yet so the students seemed to have taken control. Desks were pushed over, paper airplanes were flying everywhere, and spit wads lined the board.

I let out a disgusting sigh and made my way over to the only person who seemed to remain in her seat. I took the seat in front of her and turned to see a look of confusion on her face. Even though she wore a younger student’s uniform, she looked as if she were fifteen or sixteen with a tattoo lining the side of her arm. “I’m Aya..” I spoke up after a minute as the girl just stared back at me. A paper airplane flew by causing her to jump up and snatched it out of the air with her teeth, munching on it for a second before spitting it out.

“Kiya..” She pointed to herself before glancing down at my backpack that I borrowed from Yuki. “Food?” She questioned nudging my backpack with her toe. My stomach rumbled and I shook my head wishing it did have food in it. Kiya shrugged and looked around preparing to snatch anything that came near her. I shuddered at the thought of what she did with spit wads.

Kiya crept forward and began to sniff my hair near the place that Vlas was hiding the bandage. “Smell blood....” She stated as students began to glance in my direction as Kiya began to more and more. “No wound…where blood from?” She asked as girls around us began to giggle. Blood flushed into my face as I shook my head trying to get her away from me.

“It’s not that ummm… uhh…you must be mistaken,” I said quickly trying to find a way to save the situation.

With three thick raps on the door, the students settled down as the teacher slung the door open and walked in the room with a look of annoyance plastered all over his face. I glanced back at Kiya to see her gripping her desk as if she were about to bound out of it and attack the teacher if he were to make a threatening move toward her. “That’s the teacher..” I whispered, Kiya began to creep down into her seat yet her body seemed tense just incase.

As the class continued on I began to wish more and more that Kiya had attacked the teacher since his lectures seemed to go on and on. Yet it seemed she was content with it, every time I would glance back at her she would be listening intently at his lecture. “At least some one is having fun..” I sighed as I felt a tug on my pigtails. With a quick glance over my shoulder I could see Kiya with a pigtail in each hand.

“Fun!” She cried in joy as she whipped both of the pigtails up and down in happiness. I began to say something only to get cut off by the sound of the bell for lunch. Kiya instantly dropped the pigtails and went into what I would guess would be attack position at the sudden sound of the bell.

“No, it’s okay that is for lunch, you know food.” I said motioning like I was eating a sandwich. “Here I’ll show you.” I began to get up as Kiya grasped my hand.

“Food!” She cried rushing out of the room with me in tow. “Kanna, Kanna, Food!” She cried out to some one else that she suddenly spotted in the very busy hallway. I quickly shook my hand out of her grip and allowed her to run off toward the lunchroom while I quickly made my way to Yuki’s table.

I slid down into a seat next to Yuki to see Ami scowl a bit at my sudden appearance as I snatched a cookie off of her plate. “Lets skip class!” I munched down on the cookie, the taste and texture of it sent my stomach into a frenzy.

“What? on the first day?” Yuki asked in shock as Ami began to object while I leaned over to whisper in Yuki’s ear.

“HiME self defense training, c’mon it’s only the first day nothing happens on the first day.” I whispered quietly, the truth was that I wanted to see what the extent of Yuki’s powers were. After yesterday’s mind reader trick I didn’t trust her to tell me everything until I tested her. Yuki seemed to pause for a few seconds as if she were considering it.

“Okay..” She finally answered causing Ami’s and my jaw to drop to the ground. With a quick recover of my wits I rose from my seat and walked with Yuki to the exit, with a slip of the door we were outside and bounded away into the woods near the school.

Saotome, Emi

Duran

With a flick of my wrist I waved Kami off as she headed off to class. I began to worry a bit that I was causing a bit of friction in her relationship with her boyfriend. I sighed and walked outside fishing a cigarette out of my pocket in a hope that it would take some of the edge of this day off. I began to light it up when I noticed two students heading off into the woods. “What the..” I began to swear as the cigarette dropped to the ground. Even though I was a pretty easygoing Student Council member, I still had to abide by the rules and bring the two in.

“Damn..” I swore noticing I had dropped my last cigarette on the ground, the thought of letting them go quickly vanished from my mind when I saw the ruined cigarette. With what had to be a record-breaking sprint I leapt after them following flashes of them to navigate my way past the trees until I reached a clearing where the two were standing. One I recognized instantly, it was a girl named Aya who seemed to end up in the Student Council room every other week for fighting. The other one I wasn’t too sure on who it was.

“Okay lets see what you got!” Aya spoke up as she clutched what looked like a bow in her hand.

“Get ready!” The other girl cried out from the other side of the clearing as bracelets rotated around her arms and feet. Both girls braced themselves as if they were preparing to fight when a figure leapt from the trees, landing in the middle of the clearing.

I shook my head in astonishment at the sight of the new teacher Nagi standing there his arms out like a traffic cop to stop both of the girls. “We cant have you two fighting each other, at least not yet..” He spoke his tone low with a sinister hint in the way he spoke. “My Hime’s..”

“You…” Aya let out a deep growl that seemed to have resonated down in her throat, as she tensed up at the sight of Nagi. Too many questions were swirling in my mind at the moment, what was happening here? What was a Hime?

“I remember you, you sent Ami to the library, and then you were there when Kagutsuchi appeared.” The other girl spoke up, Kagutsuchi? What was a Kagutsuchi?

“That’s Nagi, it’s okay to hurt him.” Aya barked out as she drew back her bow, the white flash of electricity appeared in the bow as an electrical arrow sprang to life.

“Oh what bad manners you have..” Nagi winced at the sight of Aya’s arrow almost as if he were remembering past memories. “Especially in front of a Chibi Hime” He spoke throwing an arm in my direction as if he were some kind of performer unveiling the main event.

“Oh, shit” I mumbled stepping back as both of the girls turned in my direction. I had no choice I had to walk out; both of them had already seen me. With a deep breath I stepped out into the clearing as I asserted myself into a commanding attitude. “What is going on here guys?” I asked striding up to Nagi.

Nagi smiled and threw an arm around my shoulder giving me a bit of a hug before backing away. “They are so cute when they are young, but children do have to grow up..” He laughed as he stepped toward the tree line. Black shadows began to rush past the trees as they began to encircle us. Unintelligible voices along with animalistic sounds began to emerge from every direction. “Now if you excuse me..I have to take care of something with Tsuneo-san and Kanna-san.” He grinned as he disappeared into the forest.

The name suddenly seemed to strike Aya like a truck hitting her straight on as her face seemed to turn white in shock. "Kanna? What do you want with Kanna?" She asked in shock. Nagi seemed to just grin as he disapeared into the forest.

“I think we should focus on our own problems.” I whispered back to her as the noise of the monsters grew louder and louder.

[Bulbasaur4]

[center]Kiya Setsuna
.: Undiscovered HiME of Miroku :.[/color]


Kiya had listened a tad bit to the teacher in the front of the class- at least, half way through she did. However, she was more fasinating with how the teacher moved his arms about and such… for human body language was quite odd. Of course, the smell of blood seemed to linger within her nose… coming from the girl who called herself Aya. That disturbed Kiya… for blood usually was easily seen but yet she could not see it but she sensed it was there. Kiya had wondered why Aya had hidden blood… and how she had gotten hurt.
The smell of darkness was upon her, however… which instantly led Kiya to instinctively believe it had to be one of the creatures of darkness.
At the sound of the bell, Kiya was jumped from her thoughts and instantly sank into her chair and released a growl. What was this loud noise? Yet, her confusion was subsided as Aya told her about food… and Kiya instantly remembered Kanna talking about where to go for food.
“Food!” Kiya had proclaimed happily, grasping Aya by the hand and tearing her out the door and towards the food area. Instantly Kiya picked Kanna out (in unnatural time) and ran straight towards her. Aya shook out her hand, which didn’t daunt Kiya for the thought of food consumed her mind. Instantly as she reached Kanna, she leapt into the chair and seemed to crouch perfectly upon it.
“Food! Kanna, food! FOOD!” Kiya chimed, as Kanna swiftly handed Kiya a bag roughly. Kiya instantly grabbed it and tore open the bag, looking at the delicious contents inside. In a matter of seconds (or so it seemed), the food had vanished and Kiya was licking her lips quite happily.
“Kanna make good food…” Kiya said absently, to which Kanna withdrew a sigh but seemed to accept the compliment. Tsueno simply giggled, and then asked Kiya about how her classes had been. With the limited speech capabilities, Kiya managed to get across that class was fun, Aya had fun hair and eating paper airplanes was not fun.

Lunch soon ended, and classes continued. Kiya had done well in her first few classes… and one of them happened to be physical education. Kiya did extremely well with running (as soon as they explained that she was to run around in a circle, not tackle those who took off to run.) and thoroughly proved she would do well in at least one class. The last class did not turn out to be well… for Kiya found one boy to be extremely irksome, which led her to bite his hand- which caused Kiya to get called to the student council office.

After waiting for a while… Kanna and the girl known as Izumi had come in. Izumi spoke with Kanna briefly, who sighed and grabbed Kiya roughly. It wasn’t long until Kanna met up with Tsueno and Nagi- and at the sight of Nagi, Kiya instantly growled with dislike. After a brief exchange of words, Kanna was going to a place called the ‘bookstore’. Having no where else to go, Kiya followed Kanna as she seemed to drag Nagi to the mall. When entering… Kiya was instantly amazed to see so many people and so many strange things about her. She occasionally would stop when a man or woman would talk about ‘magical items upon sale’ or food… but a bark from Kanna would cause Kiya to scurry upwards towards them.

Finally however, they reached this store and Kiya found it rather boring. Nothing but books… and Kiya disliked books for the pure fact that they did not look interesting nor did anything very interesting. Nagi however, seemed to talk quite a bit as he randomly began skimming through books and taking a few off the shelves. Kanna tapped her foot impatiently, as Kiya grabbed one of the thicker books and looked at it absently. She did not understand why Nagi was so interested in this ‘books’. Opening her mouth, Kiya attempted to bite it and sank her teeth into the cover. Kanna finally noticed this and gave out a yell, which caused several people to stare at Kiya- the strange, seemingly sixteen year old girl who was crouched like a dog and eating books.

At least Kiya thought the book tasted rather awful and spat it out swiftly.

Kei Yugomuto
.: HiME of Harry :.

[color=silver]
Kei Yugomuto smiled brightly as the last bell of the day rang- signaling the end of the first day of classes. He had found that he had organized most of his classes perfectly, although a few proved to be rather too easy in which he asked each teacher to give him a larger workload or to at least recommend that he excel to the next class. Withdrawing an easy breath, he wondered absently where perhaps Izumi or Kami was. Of course, Kei did not see Izumi at lunch… he assumed she had some important student council woes- which Kei did not have yet. Kami was at lunch, sitting next to Kira which was no surprise… and Kei had sat next to them and listened to the long rant of Kami about one of her particularly unpleasant classes. Kei had merely laughed at her, telling her to give it time and that if she ever needed help that he would aid her in her studies. Kira then chimed in to help as well, which only caused Kei to chuckle inwardly.
“Now… I suppose I could get that report done.” Kei said to himself absently, although the report wasn’t due for another two weeks. The teacher had mentioned it as a precaution… but Kei’s work ethic was too advance to let some thing like a report go to the last minute. He began to head out of the school, stopping at his locker to grab his bag when suddenly the sight of Izumi caught his eye. Izumi and his gaze met, and instantly she came charging straight towards him. Kei’s eyes widened slightly… half expecting her to yell at him for some thing he had done. But this time, Kei was quite positive he had not prevented her from fighting or irked her about school work. Kei also had not avoided any duties of Student Council either. So why…?
“Kei!” Izumi spoke loudly, going straight towards him just as Kei shut his locker and held his black bag.
“Yes, Queen Izumi of Student Council?” Kei said with a smirk, which was enough to earn a small but efficient whack to his shoulder which only caused Kei to laugh lightly.
“Never say that again.” Izumi glared, before continuing. “There’s some thing happening outside of school grounds… I heard some screams and … some other odd things.”
Kei’s piercing green eyes no longer held their playful gaze, but rather turned serious upon the spot. Before he could speak however, Izumi motioned for him to follow and Kei obediently followed. Upon exiting outside, instantly the two of them snapped their heads to a rather explosion-like sound of perhaps a tree falling. Not too far off in the distance, dust rose into the air.
“See? There…” Izumi started to charge off, but Kei hesitated. He already knew what perhaps was out there… and he didn’t want Izumi getting involved with any Orphans.
“Izumi! Wait!” Kei stated, rushing to her and grabbing a hold of her arm gently. “It’s probably just some construction… or some kids goofing off. It’s pass school hours, so Student Council shouldn’t have to get involved… it’s off school grounds anyways I believe. Let’s just… go home?” Kei said hopefully, wondering if perhaps he had successfully changed Izumi’s mind. Of course, Kei was worried about her… and the fact that he knew if she was in trouble, he might have to save her.

[Roy Karrde]

Saotome, Emi

Duran

[color=lightgreen]The three of us met in the middle of the field, each with our backs to the next forming a three-sided circle. The noise got faster and faster as the creature seemed to jump from one side of the area to the next. Its movement was erratic almost as if it were sizing us up. I could hear Yuki grimace in fear as we waited for the inevitable. “What ever you do, stay close.” I could hear Aya whisper to my left, I glanced over at her to see her bow at the ready.

The air in front of me seemed to waver and distort as what seemed to be a large horse/chess piece like creature materialized in front of me. “Vlas, hide us.” Aya commanded, the eyes on the creature glowed a deep red as a circle of air around us began to waver and distort only for a second and then returned to normal. “We’re hidden.” Aya gasped collapsing to her knees.

A bloody patch on Aya’s head that seemed to have been wrapped in gauze was now dripping blood down her head, her left eye suddenly black and blue when it was normal just a second ago. “You idiot.” Yuki cried in anger running to Aya’s side and touching the drops of blood on her cheek. “I should have noticed the bandage was gone, you’ve exhausted yourself and Vlas.” She stammered out, her voice shaky in anger and fear.

“Guys..” I mumbled backing up as the creature emerged from the forest. It looked almost like a tiger in nature; its fur lit and charged by the constant flames that raged on it's back. It's claws yellow and glistening in the mid day's light. The flames meeting and surrounding the spikes that lined it's upper back. The tiger creature sniffed the air for a second, almost as if it was trying to figure out where we were. Then with almost no warning at all it reared back and launched itself through the screen of air that had hid us. “Mother fu…” My jaw hung open in the shock and horror of what was standing in front of me.

The ground began to rumble as the monster’s eyes glowed a reddish color that seemed to mirror it’s own flames. With a split and a crack smaller creatures that seemed to number around four or five burst forth out of the ground. Each one a smaller version of the tiger that seemed to hover upright in the air. “I’ll be fine..” Aya said with a less than confident voice as she rose sloppily to her feet. Her body frame slouched a bit as if her left side was too heavy for her.

“No your not.” Yuki spat back at her, Aya shook her head and took a wobbly step toward the creature. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Vlas start to fade in and out before finally disappearing. Aya took another step forward before leaning almost falling over. Yuki quickly reached out wrapping her arms around Aya’s waste and pulled her away. Aya seemed to struggle weakly in protest yet Yuki’s resolve remained. “Vlas is already gone..” Yuki yelled in her face, Aya’s eyes seemed to snap back at the realization that there was absolutely nothing she could do.

The smaller creatures seemed to spin around the monster faster and faster as it paced around us waiting for an opening to strike. “Emi…I want you to take Aya and run as fast as you can back to the school.” Yuki commanded, her back to me.

“Yuki..” Aya whispered in protest. I walked over to her side and helped pick Aya up in my arms. It was times like these I was glad that my father had me start weight lifting when I was younger.

“Go!” Yuki yelled, I kicked a foot back and leapt forward taking the opening the monster had given me and charged forward my feet pounding away at the soft grass as fast as I could. Trees and branches whipped past me, everything was a tapestry of brown and green. The young teen struggled weakly in my arms as she tried to get away, yet I was clearly stronger than she was, and she was in no condition to put up a fight. I glanced behind my shoulder to see Yuki floating in the air, her body shifting rapidly as she moved to intercept every one of the smaller creatures that seemed to get past her and after us. Each time a creature got close she would hold her arms up and create a orange shield that would bounce the creature away.

“Take me back, please.” Aya begged her voice cracked and on the verge of tears. I glanced back down at her and then up at Yuki to see one of the creatures break past the shield, it’s claws scratching past her cheek leaving a small cut across her left cheek. Yuki spun around grabbing the creature by the tail and whipping it into the nearest tree. The small monster let out a squeak as it fell to the ground. “Take me back, all I have to do is rest a few minutes and I will have my strength back..” Aya pleaded drawing my attention back to her.

I rolled my eyes in disgust and ran to the nearest tree, sitting Aya down on the muddy ground. “Stay put!” I commanded her before turning around and watched as a fireball whipped past us. A loud roar could be heard back at the battlefield as the main monster entered the fray. “I’m so stupid.” I bit my lip before rising back to my feet and ran back to the battlefield.

“What are you doing here?” Yuki asked in shock as she hovered in the air, her right arm covered in tree sap while blood dripped from the cut on her cheek. “I told you to get the hell out of here!” She yelled, as her anger seemed to boil over.

“Well, I’m older than you!” I smiled, trying to think of the best excuse possible. Yuki’s mouth seemed to drop in shock at the sheer stupidity of my excuse. Another fireball flew past us from the monster as it reared back and charged at us. “Oh god..” I closed my eyes holding my arms out to try and deflect the beast. From the attack that seemed to never come.

After a second or two I peeked one eye open to see Yuki standing on the ground her hands out forming the shield holding the creature only inches away from whipping her apart. “Stand back, I’m going to summon Kagutsuchi.” Yuki spoke through gritted teeth as if she was placing everything she had to hold back the creature. I took a step back and felt as helpless as ever. Here both Yuki and Aya wanted to place themselves on the line, and all I had done to help was become a liability. Someone that Yuki had to worry about protecting instead of focusing on the battle.

“Well aren’t you going to help her? Or are you going to continue to stand around?” Nagi’s voice whispered in my head. My eyes shifted from side to side as I tried to spot the teacher yet he was nowhere to be found.

Nagi’s voice seemed to sigh in annoyance before continuing. “I have prior arrangements, just remember, what you put on the line.” His voice dropped to a sinister tone. I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts, now I was hearing voices.

My fists shook in anger at how I couldn’t do anything, how Yuki had this power and I was helpless. I hated being helpless; I hated not being able to do anything. I didn’t care if I had to die here and now, at least I would go down fighting and not some scared crying little girl. My hands began to tingle with energy that seemed to dance at my fingertips. In anger and shock I thrust both of my hands out in front of me as wind whirled around my fingertips, all of it coming together in a cyclone at the palm of my hand. Two pistols flashed into existence, both of them spinning before my hands claimed both of them, my fingers slipping into the triggers. Each pistol had a small ball connected to the top of them, neither seemed to have a slot to load ammo, yet at this moment it didn’t matter.

“You’re a Hime?” Yuki asked in shock as the barrier cracked and the monster lunged forward knocking Yuki to the muddy Earth. I angled both guns at the creature and fired off several rounds. The monster roared as flesh and burnt fur flew off its shoulder before it rolled to its side to dodge the weapon’s fire. “Thanks..” Yuki coughed rising to her feet, the back of her uniform caked in mud. A buzzing sound summoned my attention as three of the smaller creatures sped toward me, I leapt to my left as flames whipped out of Yuki’s bracelets to send to creatures flying away. She was finally going on the offensive instead of the defensive.

“You take the little ones, I got the big..” I ducked as another of the smaller ones buzzed past my head. Its claws only inches away from taking most of my scalp clean off. I angled my guns to return fire only to find it long gone.

“How about the other way around?” Yuki asked, back flipping in the air as flames again leapt from her bracelets to burn the ground where the monster had been standing just a second earlier. She growled in anger and fired another burst of fire at the creature and it leapt again.

I angled around for another shot at the smaller creatures when I remembered how Aya had called that one monster, Vlas. And then just a moment ago Yuki spoke about summoning something called Kagutsuchi. Did I have a monster that I could summon also? The answer came from a feeling, a calling at the bottom of my heart. I could feel it well up inside me, like honey pouring over my heart; it was a soft warm feeling. The feeling was followed by a name, a name that seemed strangely familiar. I closed my eyes and filled my lungs with air before shouting it as loud as possible. “Duran!”

Ice sprang forth in front of me; shards and shards of ice burgs broke forth out of the ground before shattering leaving a mechanical wolf in its wake. The wolf silver in color had large cannons attached to each shoulder, which looked almost like revolver pistols. It released a howl as it shook the ice away. “Damn..” I whispered in shock, even Yuki had to look back in twice in shock at the monster that I had summoned. “Yuki back away..” I yelled up at her running with Duran at my side as we made our way to the middle of the field.

Yuki nodded and rose back up into the air, doubling back to cover my backside. “Duran.” I commanded throwing my left arm over my right side and my right arm over my left side to fire off two shots at the smaller creatures coming at me from both sides. “Load: Silver Cartridge.” The words flowed out of my mouth as if I had spoken them a million times before. The rounds on Duran’s back turned before a bullet was loaded into both cannons, the hammer locking into place to fire.

I leapt forward to arrive at Duran’s side as the main monster charged forward. “Aim..” I prepared as the monster leapt into the air, it’s flames and claws outstretched to come slamming down on both Duran and myself. “FIRE!” I screamed, Duran launched both cannons with a thunderous bang; the monster twisted and roared in pain and horror as the force of the cannons shoved it back, it’s body twisting and breaking up in the air as it began to dissolve into green dust. There was nothing left of it by the time it should have hit the ground.

~*~*~*~

“Kami!” I waved running toward her, sweat and dirt clung to my uniform as I joined up with her in front of the school. “I’m sorry, Student Council business.” I wheezed out of breath.

“It’s…okay.” Kami replied reluctantly as she gazed down at my dirty and tattered uniform. “Did something interesting happen that I missed?” She asked almost afraid of the answer.

A sly smile crossed my face as I remembered the events of the last few hours. “Oh, you know how school can be, now c’mon lets get to the mall.” I grasped her hand and charged forward taking her a bit by surprise at my sudden burst of energy. I wish I were able to tell her about the day’s events, yet the image of her reacting in shock of seeing Duran and then calling the police flashed through my head. I knew she would never do it, but the fear I felt from that was so overwhelming. Maybe it was a defense mechanism to keep the HiME’s from telling everyone about their powers. For now I really didn’t care to dwell on it, right now I had some safe quiet fun at the mall to look forward to.

Sorry for holding everyone back, since Tsuki has mentioned that Yuki and Aya wont be at the mall till later, Nagi can go on and summon the Orphans if everyone wants to. Again sorry for holding everyone up.

[Weasel Overlord]

[color=#db7093]~|~ Hanaaka, Kami ~|~
…Gakutenou…

Ah, the mall. Full of bustling people...how nice. Crowds certainly were not my favourite pastime, especially not with all of these so-called animal attacks. I was still dubious about the truthfulness of the tale.

But I decided to give Emi the benefit of the doubt and I had met up with her and we were on our way to shop! I had decided that I would spend a little something on myself, perhaps a new book or something...

On the way to the mall, I’d had what could only be described as a forward-flashback... It was like a premonition...

An Orphan terrorises a building full of people...

They run, only to be ripped to shreds.

My blood boils...in the premonition and in real life. All those innocent lives, just taken. No shred of pity! Shaking, I hid my fury in case Emi noticed it and pasted a smile onto my face.

“So, anywhere you’re wanting to go tonight?” Emi shook her head.

“I’m not really too bothered, ya know. Let’s just have a look around.” I nodded in agreement and sauntered slightly ahead of her.

“Can you smell cookies?” I had a great nose for food, and I scampered off, leaving Emi shaking her head as she ran to catch up. I was standing in the queue, my eye on a juicy looking cookie as she poked me in the back.

“All you think about is food!” She panted. “And now I’m tired!” She did look tired. More tired than a normal school-girl had any right to be, but I kept my thoughts to myself, brushing my hair out of my eyes as I stared at the cookies again.

A cold feeling washes over me...

My blood boils again and my rage rises within me, controlled for now, but it is all I can do not to summon my element right there and then...

I look over at Emi to see her stood, fists balled and teeth clenched...

Is Emi a HiME too? I didn’t think it was possible...but her reaction mirrored my own. Only time will tell.

“Emi? I need to...um...go somewhere...will you hold my place?” I must have looked as awful as I felt, as she nodded instantly, white-faced as myself. I scarpered as quick as I could in the direction of that horrible feeling, hoping it would go away.

I rounded a corner, to find my premonition come true. An orphan! In the mall! I screamed my defiance at the creature, which resembled a large tiger and snapped my hands apart.

My element materialised in my open palms and I spun the poleaxe until the point rested on the ground. Right hand clenched on the handle, left hand flung in the air, I charged at the scum, blade trailing behind me.

I closed the distance quickly, swinging the polearm until the tip of the blade was in front of me, ready to pierce the hide of the scum who threatened innocents in my town.

My teeth gritted, I launched myself at the Orphan with an unearthly screech. Slashing down, I managed to cut flesh before the creature burst into flames, scorching my arms.

Leaping away, I threw off my coat, exposing my tattoo just as Emi came running round the corner. She gasped, a reaction I expected. But then she went into a fighting stance; an action I did not expect.

“Another?” She yelled at me, clenching her fists. I gaped at her, as she collapsed in a heap on the floor. “I’ve already fought one today...I’m worn out. I won’t be any help, can you manage?” I nodded, a confused look on my face.

“I guess you’re a HiME too then...?” My eyebrows raised. I hadn’t thought there were others here, and now here was Emi, as experienced as me, if I was any judge.

“Do you think you could get the people away?” Quite a gathering had arrived, despite the slobbering, burning, great tiger creature that was stalking the mall. And they were gathering round to look! I sighed, and turned as Emi got up, yelling at the crowd to follow her.

Narrowing my eyes at the Orphan, I swept my halberd into a protective stance as it closed, deprived of easier victims and really pissed now.

Spinning the blade in a circle, I charged once again, stabbing into flesh this time. The beast grunted in pain before flapping what looked to be wings and leaping into the air with a lick of flames.

I winced as the fire caught my cheek and turned my attentions upwards to my now airborne foe. Slashing up at it’s wings, I managed to make it falter, tipping to one side.

I took the advantage and leapt up, hitting out with my Element. The Orphan dodged, leaving me to tumble to the ground with a grimace of pain.

Levering myself up on my poleaxe, I decided that now might be the time for some help...

Standing upright, I spun my weapon in a circle above my head before bringing the blade down to earth with a crash.

“Gakutenou!!”

A tornado whipped up in front of me and my child appeared in a fury of wind, wheels spinning and roaring his hatred of Orphans.

Gakutenou’s head tossed, his long horn pointed up at the wonkily-flying Orphan as I leapt on his back.

“Gakutenou! Tornado Strike!” I screamed, blood running hot through my veins as the heat of battle and the closeness of my child intoxicated me.

Whipping his head around, Gakutenou conjured up roaring winds to truly match my mood and sent them flying at the tiger-hybrid. The winds collided, knocking it from the air to crash onto the ground.

Vulnerable to an attack, the injured Orphan struggled to rise.

“Tackle!!” I shrieked, as Gakutenou levelled his horn at the foe. Whirring his wheels, he charged at the helpless scum, dashing it’s head to pieces as we skidded over the remains.

Toppling off my perch, I fell to the ground, cut and scorched and tired to the point of exhaustion. Flecks of Orphan fell from the air, landing on my burned skin and I lay, head on my arms, Gakutenou sniffing my hair gently before disappearing again.

I raised my head slightly to find Emi crouched next to me, a smile on her face.

“You did good!”

[Emotional Faun Chiko-sai]

Minamoto Izumi, Diana (undiscovered.... yet)
"Hachiman", Exposition
--------------------

Izumi was pretty bucked. She'd successfully managed to con several members of the Student Council into running to the scene of the disturbance, and now she'd managed to fool even Kei - well, at least he looked as if he believed her. And he was surprisingly serious about it, though she found it weird that he'd try to dissuade her from doing work. She had been planning to skive off school after alerting him to the crisis and maybe bring him along as well (of course after having a good laugh at his expense when he found out that she was taking the council for a ride).

But now he was being weird. A little. Actually, very. Weird, that was.

"Hey, are you feeling okay?" Izumi asked, a little worriedly. "I was faking it, you know. I was going to send the entire Student Council there, you included, to handle the mess for me and then conveniently disappear while you were all gawking at whatever was happening. You know? Usually you can smell my conjobs from a mile away?"

Kei shook his head slightly, as if dismissing a thought. Then he said, in a bright tone: "Oh... well... You were just too convincing this time, I guess!"

"That is so totally put on. You are definitely having the first signs of a serious fever," she replied, not unkindly. "Ah, I figure I can take it if you suddenly faint on me or something. Come on, let's ditch them and take this golden opportunity to slack off."

"Actually I have this report to do..." Izumi shot him a Look. Kei laughed disarmingly. If his growing fangirl army had been around, they would have swooned. "Tell you what, I'll meet you at your house after school?"

"Sure, but I need to drop by at the mall to buy more Pocky. It's the only place that stocks the giant strawberry flavour. See you at four?"

"Okay. Don't hurt yourself *relaxing* too much." Kei waved goodbye.

"Whatever, fever boy."

Later in the afternoon...

Izumi had been hoping for a quiet loitering session in the mall. However, as fate would have it, this was not to be.

"Everyone! It's dangerous here! Get out!" Emi's voice, strident against the sound of falling concrete. What the hell is going on?

Panicking people were pouring out of the mall in droves. Izumi, usually the first to run, was compelled by some strange curiosity to see what was going on, and she sneaked past the mob (sneaking being one of her many dubious talents).

Her head was almost taken off by a chunk of tiled floor.

There was fire, and collapsing masonry. As another hunk of flaming floor threatened to brain her, she felt something smooth and flat materialize in her shaking hands. It was an ornate mirror, charming in its gilt setting. And it showed her that the source of the flame was a monster, a hideous carnivore, and it was battling... Kami? With a poleaxe? And a large mechanical creature...

Kami had a birthmark, just like hers. The observation hit her like a ton of bricks.

It was then that Izumi became aware of a presence beneath her feet. It spoke of foliage, insects, life: an inoffensive life led in stealth.

Dia...?

The name came, almost, and slipped away as Izumi broke her concentration to sprint out of range of the firey debris. She was now fully aware of the various important reasons why she should not be in the mall; mainly, that it was not safe to get involved in conflicts between monsters and poleaxe-wielding girls.

She wrung her hands nervously, and tried to stay cool. It was a bad habit that she had, that she could not keep from fiddling with her gloves when she was frazzled or uneasy; she could not exactly say why she was so mentally shocked at the sight of Kami's birthmark, similar to hers; nor why her psyche was so aroused at the prospect of the existence of such monsters (and how had she seen them in the first place? How?) and so she did the first thing that bobbed to the surface of her jumbled thoughts.

She stalked away from the mall. At the back of her mind something screamed indefinitely at her senses that crows were cawing in the bush, but her attention was turned elsewhere.

*

Elsewhere, Kaname comes down the street, heading home from the Kabuki-za to the rhythm of the tsuzumi drum (Yoshitsune Sembon Zakura Act II scene I Torii Mae in his head is looping over and over jumbling a thousand thoughts turning his mood). He walks as if in a dream. He sees not pedestrians on the sidewalk but actors on the stage. He nearly hits the lamppost, but is saved by a helpful little girl whom he thanks in a daze and immediately forgets afterward.

Suddenly his gaze falls on a crow. It is not a special crow. It is black. It is neither large nor small.

Nevertheless.

It is looking at him far more intently and intelligently than a mere bird should be able to. Cawing in an almost companionable manner, it flies off as he passes under the branch where it was formerly perched.

Kaname feels disturbed but he cannot place why. He is thinking he should be telling his sister about this but then his logic takes over and he is calm again and thinking now why am I so worried about a silly crow? my sister will just scold me anyway although in reality it is the opposite that is clutching at his heart.

In the end he keeps it to himself.

--------------------------
PS: The kabuki play 'Yoshitsune Sembon Zakura' will be referenced heavily in posts to come. basic overview is here if you're interested (not likely ^^')
PPS: Unabashed petition for HELP - Bulba-senpaiiiiii PLEASE help me to do Kanna/Kiya's lingerie shopping scene >< *begs shamelessly*

[Bulbasaur4]

Kei Yugomuto
.: HiME of Harry | M :.

Kei frowned slightly as he walked down the sidewalk, the sun slowly beginning to move towards the horizon. His vivid green-eyed gaze was staring intently at the sky as he walked, not needing to really examine the ground but at his surroundings. He really had a report to write… as long as a few new songs to learn for choir. The carnival was coming up… he had to prepare for the carnival, mostly because he was supposed to do a few solo pieces. Yet, he found it rather hard to concentrate upon any of these things. His mind was on Izumi, and how she had acted so strangely towards the latest Orphan attack. Of course, it wasn’t that she had any idea about these “Orphans” (at least, in his mind)... but the way she was acting to cover up the strange happenings slightly nerved him. He wanted to protect Izumi- he didn’t want her to get attacked or find out the truth of what really went on at Fuuka. Of course, Kei knew Izumi was fully able to take care of herself… she had more than helped Kei on occasion in the past- at least, socially. However, Kei had an obligation to her- he had to protect her because Izumi was more than just… well, your typical hard-nosed friend.
“Why do I feel the need to watch out for her so much?” Kei suddenly said softly to himself, as he found himself staring at the door to his house. Blinking for a moment, Kei withdrew a breath and made a few steps towards his door until suddenly it dawned upon him. Then his eyes widened and he found himself short of breath for a moment.
“… she’s more than a friend.” Kei whispered to himself, feeling numb to the fact that he had finally realized this. But it couldn’t be- Kei was not supposed to have this feeling towards anyone. He couldn’t… he couldn’t have these feelings because of the pure fact it was impossible. Kei was supposed to be a male, yes… but Kei was not. Closing his eyes, Kei withdrew a breath and entered his house. He could care for people, but not like that. It wasn’t mean to be… it wasn’t supposed to work that way.

Kei spent a few hours working on his report and singing a few notes. The entire time he worked hard to focus upon these basic things, but in reality his mind was on Izumi. Glancing at the clock, Kei saw that it was about 3:20… and he couldn’t take it anymore. Standing up and pushing is papers aside, Kei swiftly changed into different clothes. Slightly tight light blue jeans, a simplistic men’s white tank top and a black shiny jacket on top of it was what he wore. Grabbing some sunglasses for the glare of the growing dusk, Kei was out the door. Izumi’s house wasn’t that far away…
Bird.
Kei suddenly froze in his tracks. There was something definitely wrong… and while Kei wasn’t usually one for Orphan hunting- he couldn’t shake the idea that Izumi was in danger. Narrowing his eyes, Kei glanced about… decided upon the direction to head, and ran towards the mall. Kei could feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest as he ran, swallowing his sense of urgency. Perhaps it was a Kei’s uncanny ability to sense things, or his great luck with timing… but before he knew it, he was seeing Izumi walking upon the sidewalk. Her face seemed deep in worried thought, but she apparently seemed unharmed.
“Izumi!” Kei cried out, running to her suddenly as a huge roar seemed to split into the air. It was all a blur, but before Kei knew it… a huge bird-like monster of black had burst through the trees near the sidewalk. It was a huge bird, black in color with razor-sharp feathers and a beak that resembled a muzzle of some sort. The bird had instantly charged straight at Izumi, its jaws snapping at her like a rapid animal.
But Orphans were no animals.
“IZUMI-CHAN!” Kei screamed, suddenly charging straight towards her and tackling her directly to the ground. The bird managed to fly over the both of them, giving a scream but soon curling back over towards the two of them.
“Listen to me Izumi… you gotta run… run back to your home!” Kei yelled, getting up swiftly and trying to push her towards the direction of her house.
“Go! Just leave me here and don’t worry about me… please, Izumi!” Kei screamed, as he turned about and looked at the monsterous bird coming back towards him.
I can’t let her find out… I’m sorry Izumi, but I can’t let you find out. Please run away Izumi… run away…



(I’ll let you figure out what you want to happen Chiko-sai. Basically Izumi can run home, in which Kei then will summon HiME powers since no one will see. However, if she doesn’t leave… Kei will not release his HiME powers but he’ll try to protect her.)

Kiya Setsuna
.: Undiscovered HiME of Miroku :.

[color=royalblue]

Kiya was quite happy when finally Nagi left, and Kanna, Tsuneo and Kiya both exited the book store. Kiya was expecting them to leave and soon return to get some food. However, they instead went into an even stranger store. Tsuneo didn’t come in… he waited outside, and Kiya sniffed the air and gave a rather cry-like face. It smelled of perfume and strange articles of clothing.
“What store?” Kiya said, poking at a few of the hanging bras and wondering perhaps what they were used for. Kanna seemed absolutely mortified, as she withdrew a sharp breath and bit her lip. Grabbing a clerk, she instantly pointed at Kiya.
“She needs to be fitted for a bra.”
Kiya bit the clerk several times before she finally was restrained by Kanna, who held her as the clerk sized her up. It turned out that Kiya was about the same size as Kanna, although Kiya did not know that of course. Kanna seemed a bit disgruntled, as she pointed out a few bras to buy. She then also randomly grabbed a handful of panties, swiftly thrusting them on the counter as Kiya continued to ask why they were buying these things. Kiya grabbed one pair and put them upon her head, poking them absently as she kept pestering what they were. Finally Kanna seemed to snap, “Kiya, silence!” Kiya’s eyes widened, but she gave a nod.
As soon as their adventure was over, they rejoined up with Tsueno and began to head out of the mall.
That was of course, until Kiya smelled the wafting scent of food.
“FOOD!”
That cry was the only warning that Kanna and Tsueno had. They were busily talking, until both of them turned about and saw the back of Kiya as she reverted to rapid-wolf-girl-mode. Tearing off, she swiftly went to the food court and spent no time leaping onto the counter and devouring any food that was within a five foot radius. Girls screamed, angry managers chased and all chaos seemed to break loose in the food court. Everyone was either staring or chasing Kiya… and Kanna and Tsuneo almost seemed frozen and dumbfounded.
“KIYA!” Kanna suddenly roared, as everyone dashed and leapt to try to catch Kiya. It wasn’t until Kanna suddenly grabbed Kiya by the collar of her shirt, before the girl was stopped. (It was quite remarkable how precise Kanna was with her reach as well.)
“Fullllll…” Kiya said lightly, groaning a bit.

[Malarkey]

Name: Terada, Yumi
Age: 20
Physical Appearance: True to her name (which has the meaning of beauty) Yumi is blessed with great physical features. Her dark red hair falls to a bit past her shoulder blades and she usually keeps it down to focus attention onto her. She stands at 5’6" and has a body with the right proportions. Her curves are flattering and she works to keep it that way. Her skin is a little on the pale side though is free of the traditional freckles all too familiar with the stereotype red head. Her dark eyes are the most dominant of her features though. The ability to seem almost as if to bore into someone can make the weak hearted back down to her terms.
School Uniform: N/A
Outfit: She wears a skirt that falls an inch or two further then mid thigh. The skirt is usually a brown in tone and goes along with a white, slightly lower cut tank top for upper body wear. Covering most of the tank top is usually a thin, sleeveless vest in lighter hues. The vest is zipped only at the half way mark. She never did like jewelry, so she is never seen with it.
Personality: She is strong, and is in need of no one to take care of her. Others could easily call her cold. Arrogance, which is a proven weakness, is nothing new to her though she is reverent to those that she respects. Friendships are very hard to come by, and trust with respect is the two essentials of her approval. Yumi is used to getting what she wants and won’t stop until she gets it. It has never been put past her to use her looks as a helping hand to get what is needed. The best thing about her is her word. If Yumi gives anyone a promise, she will keep it or die trying. Liars and two-faced people will receive her full wrath, seeing as she sees such acts as signs of weakness. Her time is kept by watching others and evaluating them for her own pleasure, though if anyone has the lack of pride to ask for help with anything, she will gladly assist in their trouble. There may be a chance that she thinks lesser of them after the aid is given.
Element: Thread Claws
Child: Julia
Location of Birthmark: Under her left shoulder blade.
Yes or No: Yes
Relationships: Keeping her family life very secretive, not many people know about an older sister Naki. Even harder to please then Yumi, she is on a team of scientists for medical research. Along with the effort to achieve and equal status, there is also the rare drive to protect her older sibling. One of her more true friendships is with Kari, who is one of Yumi's only friends. Yumi would basically do anything for her friend, but is not afraid to voice her opinion even to her.
History: Growing up with her parents and sister, all three of whom were considered the top of whatever they attempted, made Yumi rely on only herself. This feeling of being alone made her able to bear having a lack of others to depend on. She didn’t really like her sister until she grew older and tried to forget the jealousy that she held for Naki. Both herself and Naki attended Fuuka in their younger years though even after graduating from the school, Yumi wished to be in the environment. She now works as a file manager for the school with easy access to anyone's history she wishes to view. She also appreciates the fact that she knows all staff and has seen most of the students whether in the office, or just walking through the school. She lives alone in an apartment not too far away from Fuuka
Other: Or lack of.


Terada, Yumi
//Jullia\\

Usually proud of my more strict work ethics, I wasn't so used to doing nothing on the payroll. Sitting at the computer in the main offices, I began to daze off into the blue screensaver that had replaced the filing that I had begun. The rumor about Nagi's influence in the library fire seemed a bit far-fetched in what the office staff was informed. Alarm bells had started off for good reason, but seeing as I had left for home as soon as the ceremony had ended…

Snapping back to reality, I looked at the computer screen and moved the mouse to bring the student file back up. Setsuna Kiya. Enrolling her into the school seemed easy enough, but it proved to be a ten minute hassle for the data base. Her background was almost too different, and what was necessary to filter into the system was questionable.

"Damn!" Was the curse that interrupted the rather quiet office, courtesy of Yumi, when the phone at my desk rang. Picking it up with ill intentions to whoever was on the other end, I didn't really expect it to be my sister. "Terada Yumi..."

"Yumi! Kari just called looking for you…" Naki urged quickly, as though she had more important things to do than to be my receptionist. "She said that you know how to reach her, and to do so immediately."

Rolling my eyes even though Naki couldn't see it, I knew that wasn't what she said. Only Naki could deliver something important so monotone and expressionless. Though it was odd that Kari had Naki's phone number and not my work number.

"All right. See you when I can." Hanging up the phone, I pulled open a drawer and pulled out a small piece of paper listing the number. Glancing over at the clock to make sure that I would have the ability to leave right after the call, I dialed the numbers and impatiently waited for the phone to pick up. After the fourth ring, I was about to hang up, but a breathless voice on the other end forced me to stay on.

"Yumi? We need to go to the mall today, there are things that we can start looking for the big day," Kari explained, though I could tell that she was smiling because of the phrase the "big day" was used. It made me laugh softly and look at the clock once more.

"Today? We have…two months to get ready," I added, teasing. I knew full well we were already pushing it by waiting this long to set things straight and she was there to inform me so.

"Two months! We should have started preparing twice as long ago! Now get out of work and meet me up there in fifteen minutes," she finished as she hung up the phone, giving me no time to argue back. How she got this free time, I would never know. She worked for the school as well. I guess computer diagnosis was a branch of better working hours than office managers.

After shutting down Kiya's file and logging off the computer, I quickly gathered my purse and pushed in my chair. A few people still remained in the office, but no one said anything about me leaving, As I knew they wouldn't. Taking the direct exit outside instead of through the school, I made my way towards the large shopping center that seemed to hold so many expectations. I hated it there.

----

In exactly twenty minutes I had reached the single story giant. It took quite a while to walk through the entire thing. I had only tried once before and fell out of interest. When I entered the glass doors near the front, I didn't have time to take in the surroundings as I looked around for Kari. Were there other entrances? There had to be. What if I had chosen the wrong one?

Beginning to step away from the doors, I glanced into the few stores through the open doorways and glass windows, expecting to see her somewhere inside. Nothing in this wing was really wedding oriented, so I didn't have high hopes.

Beginning to pace impatiently, I waited for Kari to show up. She better not lecture me about being late when I finally did find her.

[EngiMatikul]

Hrm... Well Tsu told me to post something since I haven't posted in a while... though I have to admit, it's very discouraging to have every character somehow not only know that I'm up to no good, but also already figured out I summon Orphans and think that they can beat me up at any time... D: Remember Nagi has presumed to at list tie Miyu in the anime, you guys shouldn't think I would just chicken out on your threats like that!!
Anyway, I'm going to steal the post sent to Chiko to fit me in somehow... I apologize in advance for taking away your scene!!!

Nagi
=====
It was a quaint and quiet bookstore, this store at the mall, but there was something strange about it. Not that Nagi sensed there was anything odd, but it seemed to have a lot of ancient literature that were supposed to be located and only be located in the library which had been destroyed; and yet, here they are, some books Nagi was certain there was only one copy to, some that even contained the history of HiMEs...
"FIRE!!!!" Someone yelled from outside. Ah, drat, it seems some of the leftover orphans had made their way to the mall, Nagi thought. Nagi quickly glanced over at the bookstore keeper, who appeared to be asleep and oblivious to entire calamity; well, it would be a pity if books like these were destroyed again, so Nagi quickly took a bag, stuffed a few of these literary relics and ran out the store, blending into the crowd of panicking shoppers.
----
It was not long until something caught Nagi's eye. Two students, a male and a female, were standing over outside the mall, one seemingly dazed and the other panicking to push her somewhere. Then, it appeared.

No, Nagi though. This was not good.

Immediately, he ran across to the students, dropping his bag of books and lept into the air. He leaped into the branches of the trees and quickly gave the black crow-like monster an aerial dropkick. He then landed right in front of Kei and Izumi, two students of the student council at Fuuka High.
"You two!!! GET OUT OF HERE!!!"
"You're..." Kei stumbled on his words a little, as if not quite remembering who he was.
"As a teacher, I have the responsibility of protecting all students at my school...Some more than others..." Nagi made a quick glance at Izumi before he made another leap and intercepted the flying bird monster as it was diving once more towards the girl. Parrying the bird's beak with one of his special hard cover books, he quickly broke the deadlock by doing a backflip, then a powerful slam into the monster's body. Nagi quickly looked back to see if they had ran away... then stopped his assaults as the bird disappeared from view.
"...and stay out of trouble, at least not until..." Nagi left his sentence at that. It was strange, Nagi thought. Not that the child had attacked the HiME, but rather... that it felt as if there were more than just Izumi-HiME at the scene... as if he sensed another HiME that stood right beside her...
The boy? Naaah, couldn't be. Must have been the crow messing around with Nagi's senses. Nagi thought not much more of it, jumped onto a branch, and fell asleep.
=====
Alright, since B4 says even Nagi doesn't know Kei is a girl, then presumably he would not expect Kei to be a hime. Consequently, I'd think that Kei wouldn't suspect Nagi of anything and more or less, that Nagi was just no one more than (at this point) a teacher that just kicked some monster's behind :p... So Nagi isn't evil!!!!!! >.> <.< See he saved your lives >.> <.<

[Fai D. Flowright]

[color=#339933]\ Uzaki Maiyuki /|\ Kagutsuchi //:
[color=#339933][size=3]Onward! To the...showers?

[color=#EE9944]The water dropped down off my hair, cascading down my sides and mixing with the blood from the still-open wound on my cheek before reaching its final destination at the drain below my feet. In my mind’s eye, I could see it all happening again; the small Orphans shooting at me every which way. My arms moving in rapid succession to try and raise the shield to block and bounce them back. Yet, it was never enough. The first one got away and then another and another. Each one that passed me put the lives of two people close to me in danger. One had even left this scratch across my cheek, its claw drawing blood across my face.

I gasped in a breath as the images faded, the sense and fear of death still there. Like a vice gripping the back of my neck, I could feel the pain and pressure I felt back then. I gasped in another breath, this time harder than the last, all in an effort to fight back the tears that threatened to fall from the edge of my eyes. “Yuki...” A soft voice echoed into my ear. I savored the comfort of it only for a second before I realized someone could see me naked. I jumped and spun at the same time to arrive, face-to-face, with Aya.

“Don’t do that! You know I like...” My voice trailed off when I got a look at her. Scars from open wounds littered her stomach, starting just below the breast line and trailing down to places that I didn’t dare to imagine. Was this what it meant to be a HiME? Was this my future? The blood seemed to drain out of my face at this realization.

“...privacy. I know.” She rolled her eyes before starting her own shower opposite of mine. My hands began to shake again as I fumbled for the soap and finished cleaning the tree sap from my arms.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked, surprised I had the strength in my voice to even talk now.

“Yeah, I was just using Vlas too much. It drained me and him.” She spoke, almost as if the matter was a normal event, like homework or going out on a date.

“Aya, did all those scars come from HiME battles?” I asked, a question to which I feared the answer. I could see myself in the reflection of the water that pooled on the tile floor. My stomach and back were covered in scars like Aya’s; my face bloodied and battered from countless battles. Was this my future?

“Yeah.” She answered back; I closed my eyes and shuddered as I slowly shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. Taking a towel off the rack I walked back to the locker room where Aya had set out our gym clothes to wear.

I began to dry myself off, resting my head against the lockers as the images of the battle came back. The fear of dieing, of my friends dieing, it all tightened the vice that gripped the back of my neck. “Hey, Yuki?” Aya asked coming out of the shower while drying off her hair. I turned off my cell phone and turned to her. “My brother and dad are leaving town for a week, and, well, do you mind if I…” Her voice trailed off as she tried to find the words to ask me.

“I don’t think it would be much of a problem. We can talk to my mom when we get home.” I stood up fully dressed as a huge smile crossed Aya’s face. “But first, we need to get you ready for your date.” The smile on Aya’s face fell away as a smirk grew on mine.

With my mind off the HiME business, the pain in the back of my neck began to loosen. “Onward, to the mall!” I shouted as Aya dropped her head. “I’m going to make you pretty, whether you like it or not.” I added, only to further torment Aya as she lagged behind.

I could have died back in that forest, yet, fortunately, I didn’t. There was no chance to turn back from my responsibilities now. All I could do was relish every day, every moment... Because they may not come again...



[color=#EEEEBB]Name: Haruhara Kari (also known as “Raine”)
Age: 21
Physical Appearance: Kari has a rather slim and nimble body, allowing her to get to and work in other places most people can’t. Not exactly the curviest woman, she still has a sleek and attractive figure. She stands around 5’6”, being nicely balanced between her upper and lower body. Her face is usually bright, considering it usually has a smile on it as well as deep blue eyes. Her hair is like that in the attachment, except dark brown with the tips on her bangs and long the back being done with caramel highlights. She consistently wears her engagement ring from Satoshi; a white-gold ring with a row of three small diamonds on each side of a large ruby.
Work Uniform: During her work hours, Kari is commonly seen wearing a sleeveless or short sleeve, vest-like shirt that zips up the front. The collar is tall, not made to worn with a tie, and fits comfortably around her neck, as she doesn’t usually fasten it to the very top. Along with this she wears a long skirt that extends down to her knees; a simple belt is worn along with it. The top is usually a darker color, with the skirt being either black or dark blue. To make this attire complete, she wears a pair of black, one-inch heels that also clasp around the ankle. During hours is normally the only time Kari is ever seen wearing noticeable makeup.
Casual Outfit: When she’s off work, she can usually be seen wearing a tank top or v-neck shirt with a sleeveless shirt overtop that is tied off at the bottom, showing a little of her stomach. She prefers to wear Capri-style jeans with some kind of flashy belt. Kari also wears simple tennis or street shoes along with the rest of this ensemble.
Personality: Those that know her personally would call her reserved, but to those that Kari has talked to and never met, she’s is a very friendly and outgoing person. Truly, she is as latterly described, her problem is with face-to-face conversation. Even during casual discussions, she is unable to make defined eye contact with the other people except when talking about anything she has a passion for, especially computers and technology. Usually going with logic over instincts, she can seem to be a pessimist, but her outlooks on most situations are awkwardly optimistic.
Element: Dual-Blade Dagger
Child: Gennai
Location of Birthmark: Just above her left ankle bone.
Yes or No: Yes
Relationships: She is deeply in love with her fiancée, Touma Satoshi, who she has known for several years and has been engaged to for five months now.
History: Kari has had vast interest in computers since childhood, starting when her parents gave her an old machine that could only read 5.25” floppy disks. This was her main source of entertainment as a kid, since her parents were around very little. Becoming dependant on them, she would even stay inside during lunch and recess in school just to be on the computers. With the lack of interaction, this becomes the root of her conversational difficulties when talk to people in person. In her more recent years, she met Satoshi at one of her jobs while in college. In helping her with her communication “problem,” the two fell in love and are currently engaged. Kari now runs an electronics repair shop near Fuuka Academy, with the school being a major client for frequent maintenance and repairs.
Other: The nickname, Raine, is the result of many people in college seeing a similarity between Kari’s obsessive nature with technology and Raine Sage’s, from Tales of Symphonia, obsession with archeology. While the original intention was to be cruel (in relation to Raine’s pessimistic and rather abusive personality), it stuck and she has grown to like it.

[size=5][color=#6666CC]-=:| Haruhara Kari |:=-
=_Gennai_=
[color=#6666CC][size=3]Technical Difficulties

[color=#EEEEBB]It was yet another day of work as I entered through the employee door to the rear of my shop. It was only a small computer store in the mall, but it was enough to pay the bills and keep my interested from day-to-day. Recently, I had to start working longer shifts with the beginning of the school year at hand; many of my summer, part-time workers quit due to classes and other busy work.

In the dark office, a room secluded from the open floor for the customers, I could see the red light blinking slowly on the answering machine. “Hmm... I wonder who called last night.” I stated, pressing the play button.

“Hello, Kari. This is Koyuki Rokugan, from the Academy. We’ve experienced some major technical...difficulties. Please come up to the network lab as soon as possible. Thank you. Good-bye.” He hung up with a click of the phone. I couldn’t help but to roll my eyes to the slight fret in the director’s voice.

“Geez... And on the first day of classes too!” I grumbled, seeing the marked date on the small calendar I had hanging from the wall next to my desk. Sighing, I knew the job that will set the mood for the day. I’d have to find a way to lighten things up later. Grabbing my work pack from the corner, I quickly locked the shop back up and left out the back door again.

Since the mall was within walking range of the academy, I decided to hike my way over instead of driving my car. In about twenty minutes, I had arrived in Director Rokugan’s campus chambers. “What seems to be the problem, Director-san?” I never had a problem talking with Koyuki, considering I was consistently working at the school ever since my shop had opened as well as being a member of the school’s alumni.

"We have lost almost all the control over our systems, one-by-one. We haven’t had time to back anything up and we need this to be solved fast." He seemed rather flustered as he briefed me on the situation.

“Hmm... Sounds bad. I’ll get started right away.” Confidently, I nodded my head and bid him farewell. Leaving the room and the building, I scurried over to the main network structure to get started. The computers in this building had private access to every computer and machine connected to the system across the campus and I was one of few that had open admittance to this equipment.

Sitting down at the primary database computer, I booted it up and began to rummage through files and search for programs and devices that had been newly added to the network. Within a few moments, I was able to discover the problem: a Trojan hidden as an instant messenger mirror. “Some student must have tried downloading the program and the virus invaded.” Hastily, I quarantined the system and removed the virus before it could do anymore damage. With a swift restoration, the error had been deleted. “Now, I’ll just check to make sure any traces are left.” Running a quick scan of the virus’ previous location, a new file popped up. ‘Rdvniyrtlm.exe’ was the file name. Of course, a program with a name like that could only cause problems, especially being so new and in the vicinity of the virus. Delete.

”Well, that seemed easy enough to fix.” I told myself, setting the machine back into its hibernation mode. Koyuki made it seem like it was some kind of dire situation that would require hours to fix. I looked at my watch to check my time. “12:50... That took me less than an hour... I guess I should head back to the store.”

The shop had been open since 10 this morning, but I always came and went as I felt. The few employees I had knew how to handle to store, so I took the road jobs, usually being for the school. Pulling the cell out of my bag, I used its speed dial feature to call the director. “Koyuki Rokugan speaking...” He answered.

“Yes, this is Kari Haruhara. The network issue has been resolved. Everything is working properly again.”

“Thank you, Raine. I’ll send payment immediately.”

“No problem Director-san.” I replied happily, smiling, even though he couldn’t see it. “I’ll see you next week about the full system scan and inspection.”

“Of course. See you then. Good-bye.” Relieved, he hung up his phone.

[color=#6666CC]~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~.|.~

[color=#EEEEBB]Nearing the mall once again today, I decided it would be a good time to make plans for the rest of the day. I pulled out the cell phone again and searched for a friend of mine’s number. “She should be finishing work soon. I’ll give her a call!” Having no luck finding the number, I turned to the only other one I had I could contact her with: her sister, Naki. Since she worked in the science labs, I talked with her every once and again. Hitting the key to call, it began to ring. Almost instantly she picked up and greeted, “Fuuka Science Research Facility, Naki speaking.”

“Hey, Naki, it’s Raine. Can you tell Yumi to contact me? I need to talk to her.” I was always far more friendly and excitable when I was talking on the phone.

“Oh! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. No problem, I’ll notify her right away.”
She responded, a little shocked to hear my voice. “Just hang on a second. I’m gonna put you on hold while I call her.”

I continued to walk as the phone went silent. The mall came into my sight as I held the cell to my ear, waiting for Naki to come back. As my focus turned to the mall entrance, all I could see was masses of people fleeing from the interior. “What the hell is going on here?” I gasped with no regard to the phone still held against my ear by my shoulder. I desperately forced my way through the crowds and finally made it inside. Out of breath from the effort of getting past the people, I could hear my phone ringing. Naki must have accidentally hung up instead of putting me on hold, but Yumi was already calling. Answering the phone, I panted a greeting to her.

“Yumi?” I questioned, gather my planned thoughts back together. “You need to come to the mall; there are things we can start looking for for the big day.”

“Today? We have....” she paused for a moment, possibly counting time, “...two months to get ready.” Prodding my impatient concerns the day I’d been waiting on for months already. The thought that such short time remain hit me hard.

“Two months!? We should have started preparing twice as long ago!” I hollered into the phone, fretting the amount of work that still needed to be done. “Now, get out of work and meet me up here in fifteen minutes.” Flipping the phone closed, I stuck it back into my bag

As I made my way to my shop, I got a decent view of a circle of people at the far end of the mall. Two girls seemed to be the center of attention; one, with small pistols in her hands, was leading people off towards the exits as the other fought a large, flaming cat with a strange axe. “More HiMEs...” I whispered as I slowed my pace to watch them. This made four girls that I knew about: myself, Yumi, and now, these two schoolgirls. How many more could there be?

Thankfully, it seemed like they had things under control as the creature faded from view. With the Orphan dead, crowd dispersed as medics came in, right on schedule, to help those who had been injured.

Dropping off my work materials back in my store office, I locked the room up again as I headed into the mall in search of Yumi. Making it to the central area, I could see her in the lowered portion where all the fountains were located. “Yumi! Up here!” I called to her, waving my arm in the air. She turned to the sound of my voice and waved back as she worked her way up the maze of ramps and stairs...