Princess of the Cards

Chapter 1:

(dreaming) "Come on Arisu! If you don't hurry up we'll eat all of the cookies your Mom made us!" shouts a small boy with red hair. "No wait! Don't leave me!" A little boy comes up from behind with brown hair, "its okay princess. We would never leave your side."

Arisu falls out of bed, "Ouch!" She looks around her cluttered apartment and finds herself wrapped in her bed sheets with another huge headache. "Why does every time I have that dream I get one of these stupid headaches?"She gets up and sighs, "And why do I keep having that same dream? It's so weird." Closes eyes and tries to remember, but then the headache comes back even more painful. Arisu clamps her hands down on her head and shouts, "Okay okay! I stopped thinking about it brain! I stopped! I stopped!" Arisu realizes that her head starts to feel better after she stops trying to recollect her dream. She looks at her alarm clock on her desk and sees that it is 7:45am. "Crap! I'm going to be late again!" she screams while she quickly puts on her school uniform, grabs a bits of toast, and heads out the door.

(self introduction) "Hi! My name is Arisu Miyamoto! I am a second year high school student at Sakura High here in Tokyo, Japan. You're probably wondering why I am living in an apartment. Well ever since I can remember I have never met my real parents. I was given to an adoption agency and had different adoptive parents every other couple of months. One day I finally decided to leave the program and live on my own! I now live in my nice little run down shack of an apartment. I help pay the rent and my school tuition by having two jobs. One of them is working at a local fast food place and the other is working at a late night bar as a bartender. You're probably sitting there feeling sorry for me, but please don't bother. I enjoy my life! Every day for me is like a new adventure! But it does get kind of lonely. I don't really have any friends because my social life revolves completely around work and school, but that's okay."

Arisu runs into the front entrance of her school and quickly makes her way to her first class of the day; meanwhile she doesn't notice that a shady figure is watching her from across the school yard. Arisu gets to her class right before the bell rings and sits down at her seat. The homeroom teacher comes in and starts to prepare the class for the lesson. The classroom door slides open and a boy with red hair enters the room. Homeroom teacher points and shouts at the boy, "Shibata! You are late again! How many times do I have to tell you? If you're going to be late for my class then don't bother coming to class at all!"

(Arisu introduces the boy) "This is Takeshi Shibata. He is the local delinquent here at school. He doesn't try to be friendly to anyone. And even though he has a horrible personality, he still gets girls from school to confess to him almost on a daily basis. They call him 'The Red Blaze' in his local gang because he is so fast in defeating his opponent that it's almost like watching fire consume everything. The reason why he is so good at fighting is supposedly his father runs a dojo in town. Ever since he was able to stand up it is said that he was able to fight. But even though his fighting skills are great, he always uses them for the wrong reasons it seems, so I always make sure to never try to talk to him."

A very handsome boy with brown hair comes in and tells the teacher, "Sensei! Takeshi-kun was just helping me with some disciplinary issues this morning for the student council. Please don't yell at him for my wrong doing of keeping him from class." The teacher is shocked and stutters, "Of c-c-course Takeda-san! I will e-e-ex-scuse the tardiness if he was helping w-w-with your noble work of k-k-keeping this school safe!" "Oi!" Takeshi yells, "I was not-" "I would think twice before correcting me Takeshi-kun," Tatsuya interrupts while smiling in a devious way. Takeshi shrugs off Tatsuya and goes to his seat in the back of the classroom.

(Arisu introduces Tatsuya)"That, as you can see, is Tatusya Takeda. He is what is known as the 'Prince' of the school. He is the president of the student council and helps out with as many after school activities as possible while keeping his academic status as number one in the school. He is another one of those guys who are confessed to on a daily basis. It is rumored that Takeda-san lives with a very wealthy family that has big ties in the corporate industry, so he has always been considered almost royalty. I never try to talk to him because he is just too high maintenance for me, and I have enough stress in my life. I don't need an over-exuberant and glamorous guy to make my life even more hectic."

While the teacher is about to finish the lesson, the bell rings for lunch break. Arisu realizes that she forgot to pack her lunch and has no money for the cafeteria. "Aw man! I have to go without lunch again today! I better pack my lunch tonight before I go to bed so that I won't forget it tomorrow morning." Arisu looks outside and sees a man with a black cape and wearing a black fedora to cover his face. She notices that he is looking right at her and motions with his hands to follow him. Arisu is dumbfounded, but yet realizes her feet are walking out the classroom door on their own, "Whaaa! What the hell is going on?" She looks around her classroom to see if anyone notices her strange behavior and sees that everyone has stopped moving. "Why isn't anyone moving? How is this possible? WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Arisu screams at the top of her lungs. She tries to cling to whatever she can in order to prevent her from going outside, but it is no use as she ends up outside where she comes face to face with the dark stranger.

The man kneels down on the ground and takes off his hat. From what Arisu could tell he was well into his late 60's with his silver short-cut hair and glasses. "My name is Mamoru Sasaki. I know that you don't remember me Princess, but the time has come for you to come back to your kingdom," says the stranger. Asuri stares at him for a moment and then starts laughing uncontrollably, "Are you kidding me? I am no 'Princess' weirdo! As you can see I am a normal teenage girl who goes to high school. I don't have a kingdom." Mr. Sasaki stares at her for a long time and then states, "Your name is Arisu Miyamoto, right?" Arisu's eyes widen with disbelief, "How do you know my name?" Mr. Sasaki rises up off the ground and starts to take out a necklace that looks to have a small stopwatch on it. "This is not the place to answer the many questions that I know you have. It will all be easier if I just show you what I mean," he says while pressing the stopwatch's button.

All of a sudden the atmosphere starts morphing into a blur, and Arisu finds herself appearing in a whole different world. "Welcome my Princess," says Mamoru, "to your kingdom of Merveilles!" Arisu falls to her knees in amazement as she looks at an enormous white castle that looks fit for royalty.