(Let's start this Story!)
Ritsuka Tachibana sat up in her bed. It was 5:00am. She got up and did a few stretches, her yawn being the only sound in the quiet house. Normally she would be home with her mother, and her beloved step-brother, Lindo, but all had changed. From about a week ago, their only parent had mysteriously disappeared, after Ritsuka had watched their house be ransacked by 3 masked individuals, and they took her mother with them. That was the same day that the mysterious Student-Council president had told her to come to the school's library on the 3rd floor. She could still feel his frosted turquoise eyes burning into her mind.
(Scene-Change)
The Library was vast, and lit dimly with a long table down the center and a desk far behind. There sat "the Great Rem", the heir to the Kaganuki Fortune. He was even more handsome than she imagined, but Ritsuka knew better than to start getting dippy over a silly little group of boys with titles like "The Great…". True, Ritsuka had little to no similarities with him, apart from being gorgeous and smart. She had a wild mane of dark hair that curled past her shoulders, piercing amber eyes and a slim build. She may have been small, but she was a force to be reckoned with, and was known for her hot temper, her sharp tongue, and her excellent swordsmanship.
"Ritsuka Tachibana?", the Student Council President had looked coldly down at her from his golden, engraved desk.
"That is my name", she remembered scowling up at him.
"Rem Kaganuki, President of Shikou Academy's Student Council; glad you were able to meet with us". Ritsuka glared right at him as he got up, as she had better things to do with her time than to be lectured for skipping Geography again.
"Though I wish it were under better circumstances, we have received word that you have been violating school policies". Her anger simmered to the surface, and she immediately decided to deny whatever "rules" she had broken just to piss off this stupid, stuffy President.
"I haven't done shit! You must be hearing about someone else, there are tons of girls called 'Rika' at this school"
"Yet this note says otherwise", he produced a piece of paper from the pocket of his blue-velvet jacket.
"You deny it?"
"You bet I do! I haven't broken a single school rule in my entire life! Who wrote that note anyway, and what does it say I did!?" she yelled angrily, her fists clenched. The other school council members looked at her in awe, as if they had never seen a girl talk back to their leader before, and they were watching eagerly to see what he would do in retaliation. Rem merely glared at her for the first time and commanded,
"I will be the one asking the questions, understand?", he crossed the room and stood in front of her. Ritsuka noticed their height difference; she was small but undoubtedly fierce, and Rem contrasted as a tall, cold and imposing figure.
"Oh, you will, will you?", she folded her arms defiantly and glowered up at him.
"Watch out, this one bites back! She's got a mind of her own" a snide voice came from the other side of the room. A strawberry-blonde council member was gazing at her intently, while another very tough, very muscular white-blonde member put his fists together as if he was ready for a fight (Ritsuka was MORE than ready for that) and exclaimed "This got interesting!". The final member was a boy with inky-black hair, pale skin and blood-orange eyes that widened in sick wonderment at her. He spoke in a slithery, creepy tone, "Not to mention exciting!", his eyes leered at her. Ritsuka reached inside her sleeve to hold onto one of her blades (she always kept a throwing knife handy in case of a Vampiric encounter) when Rem began looking at her…intensely and started to speak to her in a different manner.
"You're very intriguing. You're not like the other girls, are you?"
She was startled, to say the least. Nobody had ever dared talk to her in such a patronizing and suggestive tone, most people at school usually avoided her, thinking she was odd and aggressive. She took a step back in shock. He stood still, like a cold statue. She stared into his eyes with slight fear, and soon became hypnotized. Her eyes became dull and heavy, she couldn't move, let alone look away and began to sway a little. Rem carelessly dropped the paper, revealing it to have been blank all along. He stepped closer to the girl, and ensured she was in his illusion. He reached out and touched her chin, moving it slightly and then went behind her to whisper in her ear something that he knew she couldn't (or at least wasn't supposed to) hear:
"To tell you the truth, I only had you summoned here for my own selfish curiosity"
He then wrapped his arm around her waist, and leaned in to kiss her. After he claimed her kiss, the Grimoire would become his and he would be able to make his mission a success.
It would be all too easy
Suddenly, a flash of blinding light struck him and the other devils backwards, and broke her trance. With a lingering instinct, the sliced her knife through the air where the President had been standing. She looked around, confused. Her head shook with nausea. She looked up to see that everyone in the room had their eyes on her. The room felt small, and her face felt warm. She wanted to leave right NOW.
"If that's everything, then I'll be leaving", and sauntered off, albeit a little shaky from her recent hypnotism. She pushed open the hefty door and slid down the staircase on the rails. Before leaving the wing entirely, she had cast one final, skeptical look at the room she had just left behind.
"It's certainly been an interesting afternoon" she thought to herself, making her way out to one of the massive school's corridors. She then had spied her best friend, Azuna, at the bottom of one of the school stairwell. She could recognize those blonde pigtails anywhere.
"Hey! How was the meeting with the Great Rem? Is he even more gorgeous in person?" she had giggled.
There had been something about him, as well as all of the Student Council members. They were all so…supernatural. When she had told this to Lindo, it had given him quite a lot of concern. See, Lindo was her step-brother, from her Mother's first marriage, and his Father left them when Lindo was only small. Her Mother then re-married, and had Ritsuka, but then her Father died and the 3 of them were left. Or at least, so she was told.
"But, whatever!"
Ritsuka didn't care that she was part of a single-parent family. She loved her fun best-friend, her doting writer mother, and she loved her cool and caring brother. She knew she was a rule-breaker, and she lived for it. No teacher had ever managed to control her, nor any youth-counselor guide her. She loved her wild ways, and would not change them for anyone. Not even her older brother who adored her.
Only one single teacher did Ritsuka feel regret for. In elementary school, Ms. Kobayka, a pretty young woman with a soft voice, was tasked to try and help the defiant girl stop her trouble-making. Ritsuka found herself spending many afternoon's in the teacher's office, for one crime after the next: skipping class, stealing, getting into fights, etc. But no matter how rude or defiant she had been, Ms. Kobayka had never raised her voice, never punished, and never spoke harshly to her. The only thing she ever did was ask Ritsuka about why she behaved like she did.
"So why did you strike Elika, Ritsuka?" Ms. Kobayka asked. The young girl sitting in front of her silently thought to herself.
"Because she said Kirie's nose looked like a pig's snout!"
"And did that upset you?". The question startled Ritsuka, never been asked this before.
"…no". She looked at the floor, not wanting to meet the kindly counselor's eyes.
"Then why did you do it?"
"Because! Because…." In truth, she was confused. Why had she done it? Elika was a bit of a brat. And Kirie was her friend; a quiet, shy girl who didn't have enough strength to look after herself. She told this to Ms. Kobayka, who listened in interest.
"But is it your responsibility? Of course, it is good to stick up for the people you care about. But in this case, you merely struck Elika, making her nose bleed, and didn't state a reason".
"But I was only trying to help- ", Ritsuka opened her mouth to interrupt, but the counsellor raised a single hand to shush her.
This had never happened before.
"If you really want to help people, then you must do it in a way that does not make you violent. Violence is never the answer, Ritsuka. Even when you are at the angriest you can be, you should not strike someone. Do you understand?"
It had been an average afternoon, but that message had been stuck to her for years. "Helping" people, was what Ritsuka did now, as a Vampire Huntress. She and her beloved brother Lindo, had tracked down hidden cults of Vampires that were terrorizing the world for years, and put an end to their harm.
"How funny", she thought. The one thing Ms. Kobayka had told her to not do was what she did for a hobby now. The thought struck momentary guilt in her heart. Ms. Kobayka was the only one adult at any of her numerous schools who really seemed like she cared. Sure, she may have been the regular adult with a "I-want-to-kill-myself-boring" job who prayed for Friday and got drunk at the weekend and showed up to their cruddy job each Monday with a wicked hangover, but Ms. Kobayka seemed like she actually listened to you. She seemed…different.
Just like that student-council President.
Ritsuka shook him from her thoughts, putting his icy-blue eyes in the back of her mind. She slumped back on to her rumpled bed and stared at her ceiling. Even though at this time she would like to go on an hour-long run about the town, and then make breakfast for her family, her world just didn't feel safe anymore; and safety had always, always been a big part of their family.
