Lizzie: Hi again. I'm back to writing some Rimahiko, as well as writing an Umineko fanfic and planning Little Busters! and Pandora Hearts FFs. I am happy to say that this time around, I have an actual plot, so go ahead and feel free to tell me what you think~ :) Sorry, for the past few months I kind of disappeared from the SC! world, but I'm back. Haha. (*has actually been procrastinating on her blog, using AutoShapes, making Banners, and etc*) I would love to know whether I sound cliche or not, but if otherwise, please enjoy!
For Their Sake: Chapter 1
~ Dance : 舞 : Mai ~
Nagihiko was in his room, doing homework like a good boy. Rhythm was lounging around somewhere. Probably doing something reckless, Nagihiko thought on that dull note. Temari was probably off trying to capture a rat, so Nagi had the whole afternoon to himself.
Or at least he thought he did.
"Young master Nagihiko-sama!" a maid shouted frantically. He sighed and got up, truthfully irritated at the fact he had been disturbed from his peaceful afternoon.
"Yes, Yunakawa-san?" he inquired politely. The kind, elderly lady beckoned to him and he was led into a room. His mother sat on a cushion in the center, her eyes closed and looking as if she was meditating.
"Mother, I have come," Nagihiko said clearly. She opened her eyes slowly, as though even the flutter of her eyelids must be graceful or a horrible punishment would come.
"Nagihiko," her voice was gentle, but underneath that softness, her voice was cold and stern. "You have been rusty over the past few days in your Kabuki training."
Nagihiko was embarrassed, but he continued to listen, remembering to heed what his elder said.
"Because of this, we're putting you back under special training," his mother announced. Nagihiko didn't want to believe this.
"You mean..."
"Yes, going back to being Nadeshiko. Being a girl," his mother said without hesitation.
"But mother!" he cried out. "I have a life underneath Kabuki trai-"
"Silence," she commanded. "I shall let you finish two more terms at Seiyo. Then, you are to pack up and leave for America."
"America..." Nagihiko murmured, his mother's voice only distant. He didn't want to leave his friends. Ever. He couldn't leave Amu, what would she think? She would suffer, from the loss of friends. He couldn't bare that thought. And after he was gone, Nagihiko thought grimly, Rima would probably think it would be safe to tell his secret. Then Amu would hate him forever, for all of eternity. But with a start, he realized that maybe things would be better that way. He would never come back. That would be the end of his life at Seiyo. He looked up at this mother with honest eyes.
"Mother. I accept," he said. She smiled coyly at him.
"That's my good boy."
"Nagi? Are you okay?" Amu asked worriedly.
Nagihiko snapped out of his daze. He smiled up at them. "Ah, it's nothing! I'm fine!" he tried for a laugh. Rhythm looked at him with a mixture of emotions: disbelief, fear, pity, sorrow...
Rima looked at him, trying her best to keep her face emotionless and unreadable. Truthfully, his strange behavior shocked her... but only slightly.
"Mou, Nagi!" Yaya whined. It was the second day of school. The old Guardians had moved up to the Middle School, leaving Yaya alone. She kept visiting them, complaining all the time about how lonely she was. It really sometimes got on their nerves. "TELL US!!! TELL US!!!"
He sighed and shook his head. This was very un-Nagi like, so the others weren't sure how to react. They let it go and Amu, Tadase, Yaya, and Kukai sped on ahead.
Rima and Nagihiko, however, stayed behind.
The sakura trees were blooming. They were a beautiful shade of pink. When they scattered in the wind, they looked like silk being spun.*
The silence was rather awkward to endure, so to loosen up the mood, Nagihiko tried to talk to her. "How are you, Rima-chan?" he asked politely.
She glared at him, silently seething. "Planning on spilling your secret soon, eh?" she asked. Nagihiko glanced at her, not sure how to respond to this.
Luckily, Amu and the others had stopped to wait for them, and they had caught up to them.
"Nagi and Rima are talking!" Yaya squealed excitedly. "What's gonna happen neeeeeeeeeeeeext?!?!?!?!?!"
"What are you trying to imply?" Rima said sharply, which caused Yaya to cower.
For the second day of school, it went incredibly slow as the former Guardians adjusted to their schedules. Despite this, they tried to remain as cheerful as possible to set a good example for the other students.
However, it later became harder for Rima to withstand school because of gym.
"Gym isn't that bad!" Amu laughed. Rima scowled, a grim aura surrounding her.
"It's horrible," Rima growled.
And what was worse: She had gym with Mr. Girl. (Nagihiko) The last thing she wanted was him to laugh at her poor athletic skills and for him to boast about his unnatural talent.
After Rima expressed her rage to Amu, her best friend merely shook her head. "I know that you hate his guts and all, but don't you think you should just give it a break?"
"Why?!" she snapped. "He's horrible! He's a hypocrite and a liar!"
"Hypo...crite? Liar? How so?" asked Amu, perplexed at Rima's insults. Then something clicked into her head. "Oh..."
Rima assumed that Nagihiko had finally told Amu. However, Amu, in reality, still hadn't realized anything about Nagihiko's true identity. Strangely, Amu's 'oh' had meant something else. In fact, Amu had just created a whole new scenario. She had thought that perhaps Nagi had asked Rima out, but maybe she had seen another girl kiss, hug, hold his hand, or whatever. Amu just assumed that her theory was true and silently giggled to herself. So she does like him.
Rima not only had gym with Amu and Nagi, but also had gym with none other than basketball star Kirishima-kun. He shyly said hello to her, and she answered back with a smile. Kirishima waved to Nagihiko, who waved back. Amu greeted him politely.
On the second day of school, leave it to the asinine gym teacher to make them play basketball on the second day.
A girl with light brown hair named Chihaya passed the ball to Rima. Chihaya was calm and sweet, and a very likable girl if not for the fact that she could be extremely stupid.
"Riiiiiiiiima~! Here you gooooooo!!!" and she threw the ball hard to her. It was an accident, but the ball hit Rima in the head and she started to whimper.
"You okay, Mashiro-san? Fujisaki, take her to the nurse," the moronic gym teacher commanded, choosing the person closest to her. Nagihiko looked slightly disappointed he would be interrupted from his oh-so-wonderful basketball game, but he reluctantly supported her and carried her out into the hall.
Of course, leave it to Rhythm to crank things up.
"Come on, Nagi! Make it cool!" Rhythm exclaimed, and without a warning, Nagi scooped up Rima in his arms princess-style.
"W-what the heck are you doing, pervert?!" she cried, flushing a dark shade of red.
"Come on, just trust me!" Nagi laughed in a very boyish manner. "Yeah!"
At the nurse's office, Rima was still suffering from her shock of being carried by Nagihiko that she didn't even notice the fact there was a bump on her head. Nagihiko, meanwhile, went to go and sulk about his rudeness, ditching Rima. School was almost over, so he changed back into his school uniform and got prepared to walk home. When the school day finally ended, Rima had to stay behind a little bit longer.
"Here, keep it on there a little longer and then it should feel better," the nurse said kindly. Rima pouted. "Ah, by the way, could you do me a favor?" Rima looked at her with innocent, questioning eyes.
"I would like you to deliver this to someone. That's not a big deal, so you can do it, right?" the nurse asked. Rima nodded yes. "Okay, he was just in the room about 10 minutes ago. Please deliver these papers to Nagihiko Fujisaki for me - they're extremely important."
The last thing Rima had wanted was to see the Cross-dresser again, however, due to unfortunate implications, she was now assigned to go to his house. It was her first time EVER being at his house.
She immediately regretted saying 'yes' to the nurse, despite her generosity and kindness. She grumbled at Chihaya for being a ditz, and stared up at the giant 'house' with contempt. Finally, her nicer side got the best of her, and she stepped up to the door and knocked.
The response of the knocking was very chaotic. There was yelling, shouting, and wailing all at once, until a girl yanked the door open and pulled Rima inside.
"Who's this chibi?" a girl who had a scowl on her faced demanded. Her hair was worn down except for a small barrette. Rima glared.
"Now now, Akane-chan (茜). Let's not be rude to our guest. Besides, Nagi is sleeping," giggled a girl about Rima's age. She was much taller, though. Her hair was in a ponytail with ribbons.
"Shuddup!" Akane snarled. "What are you doing here at this time of day, punk?!"
"If that's the case," Rima responded, trying to keep her voice level in order to sound more mature than this grouchy girl, "Then I'll just throw these papers in the trash since they're clearly unwanted." She marched up to a garbage bin and held the papers above it.
"WAIT NO!!!!!!" Akane leapt for the papers, knocking the garbage pail over. Two other girls came thumping down the stairs, one that was about Yaya's age and another about Hikaru's age.
"*Uryu~! We woke up! We woke up!" the smaller child cried.
"Shh, Kotori (小鳥)," the older girl whispered, smiling. "Nade-neesama, who is this?"
"I don't know exactly, but I think she must be a friend of Nagi's," 'Nade' informed her. "But Akane-chan attacked her, and now she's threatening to throw Nagi's important papers away."
"Uryu~! Akane-neesan attacked! Akane-neesan attacked!" Kotori wailed.
The other girl's eyes were now wide. "Nade-neesama! Don't you recognize those papers?!"
"Yes, I do. But I was enjoying the show~" she giggled. Akane glared at her.
"Hmph. I wouldn't have come here if I had known that the Mr. Purple has so many sisters," Rima snapped. She pointed her gaze towards Akane's direction. "And a violent one at the very least!"
"Shuddup! Hand over the papers, chibi, or your pretty face'll be ruined!" Akane snapped.
"No need to threaten someone who just simply knocked on our door, Akane-chan," 'Nade' said, this time turning serious. "Your name is...?"
"Rima Mashiro."
"Ah, I see. Nagi has told me a lot about you. He talks about you a lot, surprisingly," Nade giggled.
"Uryu~! Nadeko! Nadeko! Pay-pa! Pay-pa!" Kotori cried, pointing to the documents looming above the trash.
"Ah, yes. Those papers, please hand them over," 'Nadeko' requested calmly.
"Uryu~! Kotori and Chitose (千歳) not sisters!" Kotori whimpered. Rima looked quizzically at the little girl.
"Ah, that's right. We need to introduce ourselves!" But Rima wasn't interested in their names. However, she let them introduce themselves before she asked her question.
"Hmph! Fine then, my name is Akane Nakamori," Akane snorted.
"My name is Chitose Hayagawa. Nice to meet you," Chitose smiled. She said her 'I/My' as 'boku'. What a strange girl, Rima thought.
"Uryu~! Me Kotori! Fukuda! Kotori Fukuda!" the little girl jumped up and down.
"Ahaha~ Please call me Nade. I'm Nagihiko's twin," Nade smiled. Something told Rima that she was missing the obvious.
"HURRY UP AND HAND OVER THOSE GODDAMN PAPERS!!!" Akane snarled, and once again, she leapt for the papers.
"Wait! If you aren't his siblings, except for Nade, why are you here?" Rima asked, curious all of sudden about why the four girls were there.
"Hae~? Don't you know?" Chitose tilted her head and wore a puzzled expression on her face. Rima shook her head.
There was a rather awkward silence that occurred. Rima was dying of curiosity, but she waited patiently. Nade and Chitose glanced uneasily at each other. Finally, Akane turned around and glanced sharply at Rima. Akane's green eyes pierced Rima in a harsh manner. "Nagihiko hasn't told you he's leaving after the first and second terms are over?" All was silent.
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*Uryu = Sakutaro from Umineko's catchphrase. Used in here for boredom.
Lizzie: Not one of my better pieces of writing. I'll try to put more emotion into the ending part where Akane tells Rima. I'll try to avoid making my four (three?) OCs annoying. In fact, I bet I'll just push my OCs aside and focus on the real characters. Please review and tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is appreciated, just be nice. :) Thank you~
