In a bar, an eleven-year-old girl drops a glass. It hits the floor. It smashes. Shards fly like projectiles. Juice splashes everywhere. The girl hits the floor. There is blood.
Then there is uproar.
*_K_*
The visions hit her so suddenly it's like changing the channel on the tv. One second she is holding a glass of apple juice, sipping from it as she looks up at Mikoto in shades of grey and Mikoto's beautiful red, the next she is overlooking a battle, so many swords in the sky; crumbling red, shimmering blue, strong white, sun-kissed gold.
Perfect green. Pale green.
Mikoto's eyes.
Unexpectedly, without her marbles, she knows colour.
*_K_*
A sword falls. There is a crater.
A sword falls. There is no crater; there is a red hand, glasses, red stars in the sky.
A sword doesn't fall. The country is at war.
A sword doesn't fall. The country is at peace.
*_K_*
There is a flash of light. Swirls of red and blue mix and separate, combining with cool green, translucent white, burnished gold. Interchanging, intertwining. The red and blue always meet and divide, and as the green swirls around them, ever tightening its own spiral, the two fail to separate, eventually flying together like a helix. The green weaves around the two so completely, that even if the red and blue wished it, they could not be parted.
The white and gold form their own helix, floating nearby, in their very own wide corkscrew around the other three, but never encroach upon the apparently designated space.
It's so beautiful she feels like crying.
Other images flash into her head, varying in length, in colour, in emotion.
*_K_*
A large group is present in the HOMRA bar, the fighting men of the clan drinking with their friends. There are friendly arguments that occasionally become worse. Red flames flicker through the air. The arguments dissipate with the use of their King's power. The men are listening to music coming from a recently installed jukebox. It plays 'classic bar music', somewhat slow at times, with lyrics too low to fully comprehend.
Anna knows this image very well, it being a common sight to her eyes for many months now.
*_K_*
A large group is present in the HOMRA bar, the fighting men of the clan drinking with their friends, lovers, fiancés and wives about them. There are friendly arguments that occasionally become worse. Red flames and blue lightning flicker through the air. The arguments dissipate with the use of the Kings' power. Various people are singing along to the music coming from a recently installed jukebox. It plays recent music, things you'd heard not long ago on the radio or tv; Anna is vaguely familiar with the current one from hearing it from…somewhere. Pairs and trios are dancing in a cleared area of the bar. There are differences in dance styles between friends and lovers. She can't help but blush.
There are flashes of the bluecoats of SCEPTRE4 in her peripheral vision. Mikoto, wisps of intangible flame in his aura, is sitting on his couch; Munakata Reisi, the Blue King, sitting next to him, blue sparks zapping off him. There is a woman on the floor, sitting between Mikoto's left leg and Munakata's right, her skin glowing green.
All three are laughing. Anna doesn't think she's ever seen Mikoto look so happy.
They are a triangle. They are equilibrium.
*_K_*
The vision changes; running along the street, feet splashing through growing puddles, broken buildings all around her. It is thundering. It sounds like war drums echoing all around her.
There is a broken skateboard on the ground.
She stops hastily, skidding on wet pavement at the alley entrance.
Blood pools around her feet.
Yata-san is dead, eyes frozen wide. Fushimi-san is next to him, collapsed against the wall, deep pants escaping him as he clutches a hand to a wound in his stomach. His other hand is holding Yata-san's.
None of their enemies are left alive.
Fushimi-san dies with a smile on his face. In death, his body collapses towards Yata-san's. No-one from either clan arrives for another ten minutes. It's beyond obvious that any attempt at resuscitation it pointless.
She is standing at a graveside, a large crowd of intermingled red and blue auras around her. The coffins are beside each other, flowers coating the ground directly between and around them. The shattered pieces of a skateboard rest on top of one, the still blood-stained sword atop the other.
*_K_*
A distortion in the air, and suddenly she is running along the street, feet splashing through growing puddles, broken buildings all around her. It is thundering. It sounds like war drums echoing all around her.
There is a broken skateboard on the ground.
She stops hastily, skidding on wet pavement at the alley entrance.
Blood does not pool about her feet.
The alley is filled with colour, red flames shooting through the air in one direction as blue lightning slices in another. Green water forms a shield as the popping of gun-shots sounds through bursts of thunder. A splash of blood flies against a wall as a bullet grazes the right arm of a blue-coat, causing his sword to fall. Anger fills the air, then unadulterated Red, and bodies burn beyond cinders, beyond ash, as green envelopes the wound. The green fades, the wound is gone.
The only things occupying the alley now are the red, blue and green fighters. The metal trash cans, dumpsters, black rubbish-filled sacks, empty boxes; all are gone. Except the sword.
Yata-san shakes once, twice, and then his eyes roll back into his skull as he collapses forwards. The green woman catches him with surprising ease, picks him up, and slings him over one shoulder as she pulls Fushimi-san off the floor, letting him use her other arm as a walking aide. The dropped sword is collected, sheathed in its holster. The few remaining fragments of the skateboard, mostly the metal parts, are picked up with a scrap of fabric, glowing a faint orangey/red, too hot to touch with bare fingers.
A mixture of HOMRA and SCEPTRE4 members run up to them, meeting them not even a block away from the alley.
Then there is a bed, Yata-san in the middle, beanie flung onto a dresser top as the green woman curls into him on one side and Fushimi, blue-coat draped over a chair back and sword resting against the bedside table, spoons around Yata-san. All three are asleep.
Munakata, Mikoto and their green woman are standing in the open doorway; she rests her head against Mikoto's shoulder even as she intertwines her fingers with Munakata's.
Definitely a better sight than a graveyard.
*_K_*
For the next she-doesn't-know-how-long, her visions are paired up, lasting seconds, lasting years. Red and blue, then red and blue and green. In a rare few, the green only pairs up with one of the colours, and the other colour flickers, dies out; the two remaining colours are weaker for it, less vibrant. Once or twice the red and blue try to oppose the green. It doesn't work out well; only white and gold endure.
The clan lives, the clan dies, Mikoto lives, Mikoto dies. Everyone lives, everyone dies. Peace, war. Love, hate.
Red and blue and green, red and blue.
Weddings at temples, weddings at churches, hospital maternity wards, paediatrics wards. Red hair and blue eyes, blue hair and green eyes. Blessings at temples, first days at school, music lessons, dance lessons, combat lessons. Days at the fair, at the circus, the aquarium, the zoo. Picnics in the park, barbeques, lunch-time swimming sessions and family dinners. Jubilant laughter fills the air frequently.
Funerals at temples, funerals at churches, hospital morgues, intensive care units. Red hair and green eyes. Blue hair and blue eyes. Prayers at temples for the dying, for the dead. There are no first days at school, no days at the fair or the zoo, no picnics in the park. The only barbeques are the burning of the flesh of their enemies. Laughter is rare these days.
It's enough to make a girl bipolar.
*_K_*
But how? And why? Where was the split, the divide? Where was the separation in the trousers of time, when was it? What was the choice that gave them the Green? That made them lose it?
The air distorts. The scene is somewhat familiar to Anna, mainly because it's what had been happening before she passed out, mostly. The same song is playing, but she's on the floor, Mikoto-san turning her body over as flecks of blood fall down her temple and left cheek from implanted glass. The bar is frozen, then loud beyond comprehension as everyone rushes towards the pair.
This must be what an out-of-body experience feels like. Does she really look like that?
She watches for a few minutes as the bar is cleared by Kusanagi-san, as Yata-san brings over a basin of water as others follow behind him with various implements. Then Mikoto is slowly tweezing slivers of glass out of her face, dropping them into a bowl, and then wiping an alcohol-saturated cotton ball over the various marks. His face is stoic as she unconsciously winces with every wipe.
A few minutes pass whilst every piece is removed, a hand shaking her hair to loosen any potential hiding pieces. Anna watches, unseen, as the eyes of her body twitch as though she is waking up. It is most disconcerting.
The ghost-like Anna is the only one to see the woman enter the bar, piece of paper in hand. No, not the woman, but the woman. The green woman who sat so casually at the feet of the Red and Blue Kings.
Soon enough though, her Red Kinsmen catch sight of the newcomer, shouting at her to get out. She lets go of the paper in her rush to get away from the shouting, behaviour so different from what Anna has seen of her in all her visions. There is no sign of the warrior queen that both Mikoto and Munakata had addressed her as. No sight of the warrior queen Anna has seen her be.
Mikoto picks up Anna's own body, various clan members trailing behind him like ducklings as he takes her upstairs to rest. Someone picks up the folded piece of paper, depositing on the bar-top, before following the others upstairs without reading it.
Five minutes later, Kusanagi-san reappears, and is sweeping up the leftover glass on the floor before he notices the paper. She watches him read it and blanch, before dropping it back onto the wooden surface and running upstairs, calling for Mikoto on the way.
Well, with visions, she was practically designed to be inquisitive.
"Suoh, there is danger withing SCEPTRE4 currently. My superiors are most displeased with my efforts, or lack thereof, at diminishing the Red. The woman bearing this missive, however, is important; we believe her to be capable of becoming the first Coloured Queen. My superiors have made their…desires….for her most evident, but it is my belief that they would not be beneficial to either SCEPTRE4's or HOMRA's futures. Guard her well Suoh, whilst her power matures, for I fear the future of HOMRA and SCEPTRE4 may rest on her untested shoulders. There will be repercussions most dire for all of us if any ill happens to her.
Munakata."
*_K_*
She is barely two blocks away from the HOMRA bar. The woman is collapsed in an alley. Her eyes are glazed white, eyelids fixed open, sightless. Various bones are broken, shards of white poking up through blood-drenched skin. White fluids mixed with blood trickle down her thighs underneath her mostly raised skirt. A pair of red and black panties lies discarded by a rubbish bin. The men are zipping up trousers, collecting dropped weapons, chortling to one another. The green woman's broken body is thrown into a nearby dumpster, the lid closing with a final thump. A Queen, thrown away like trash. The sky weeps.
Anna cries at the sight, sliding unseen against a wall, then down to her knees, but through her tears manages to glare at the men, making sure to memorise their faces, what they're wearing. She'll make them pay, make sure they pay for this.
*_K_*
She blinks, and opens her eyes to darkness. There is shouting, yelling at someone to get out. Oh wait, her eyes aren't open. Her world fills with red. A tear falls from her left eye, down her temple, and into her ear and then her hair.
"Wait!" It barely escapes her mouth. There is mayhem as her sudden awakening causes the bar to erupt in noise focused in her direction. She doesn't hear the woman run out.
It takes a minute, dodging questions left, right and centre as her eyes look through trousered legs for those beautiful shoes that the woman was wearing.
"Where…." Her mouth is dry. "Where is she?"
"Who Anna?"
"The woman."
"Oh, don't worry about her Anna-chan, we got rid of her!"
"Yeah!"
"You fucking idiots!" The bar quietens rapidly; Anna doesn't shout, doesn't call names, no matter what she's picked up from them over time. She certainly doesn't swear. On a bad day, she might frown; heck, on a good day, she barely smiles.
"After her! Turn right, two blocks, alleyway. Help her! And bring them back here, alive!" The last word, practically snarled out, is accompanied by a push of red, her eyes turned into flame as glasses around the room explode dramatically.
The room empties hastily, men practically falling over one another to push themselves through the door to escape. Kusanagi absent-mindedly brings over a shot of vodka for Mikoto to drink. Before either adult can stop her, she grabs it and downs the shot with ease, to the raised eyebrows of both men.
"Anna-chan, what did you see?"
She stares at them with blank eyes, folding herself onto Mikoto's lap, face in the crook of his neck as she breathes in his scent, his warm aura surrounding her. Silently, his neck grows warm with tears and drops of blood.
He places a hand on her head, even as he looks towards Kusanagi with concern in his eyes.
What has happened to their Red Princess?
*_K_*
Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish I did, I don't own Project K. If I did, trust me, things would be very different. (Ignore my waggling eyebrows and suggestive lip licking, you know those boys are hot, and I don't mean temperature wise!"
Author's Note: I recently clicked on K whilst doing that youtube link thing you do, you know, the 'recommended for you' thing, when I was looking up another anime. Can I just say, fucking kickASS!
I have a problem with Mikoto dying, as you might be able to tell, and as I think Anna might have. Obviously there are little hints as to things I've seen happen in the anime itself, the 'red stars in the sky' being one of them.
As far as I'm aware, I've invented the whole idea of a green sword, of the possibility of a Queen. Obviously this is an AU, something that happens after the death of Totsuka, but before the death of another much loved character *cough*. And seriously, I do think there has to be something between Fushimi and Yata, that kind of 'I'm here, pay attention to me, let me pull your pigtails' kind of thing that Fushimi is always performing every time the two meet.
I don't quite know how old the characters are supposed to be, but as far as I can tell, the Kings are in their mid/late 20's, the seconds in their mid/late 20's, possibly early 30's, and their thirds, Fushimi and Yata, in their late teens/early 20's. I guessed nine for Anna, just because she's so small, but for some reason had the idea she might be as old as twelve or thirteen, although she might be small for that age. I've expanded on the idea of Anna's power, for reasons that might occur in either an additional chapter or a sequel, as well as the many different timelines that Anna saw/lived during her visions, and yes, I might even expand on just why she gets that vision there and then.
Maybe.
As always, please submit ConCrit, or flames, or whatever you think this may deserve; evolution as a writer requires taking in every word from the readers and learning how to grow and develop from it.
Author's Note 07/01/13: Following Charmane's review and a bit more in-depth research, I decided that yes, nine was the incorrect age, so it's now been changed to eleven.
Author's Note 15/12/14: This chapter has now undergone editing and has been divided into separate chapters, as well as having new parts added. Please enjoy.