Chapter 1: Plump

I do not own Mai-hime/my-otome.

Summary: All Natsuki wanted to do was escape her parents fighting and the gang she had become involved with. So when the Garderobe Army of National Defense comes to the neutral zone of Aries to recruit solders, she jumps at the chance to leave. But trying to hide the dark secrets from her crimson eyed sempai may prove to be difficult.

A/N: To be honest, I was on YouTube watching a video someone made to go with the song "Hands Held High" by Linkin park. When I went to leave a comment, one that was in almost all caps caught my attention. I seriously want to Thai kick this person because of what they said. It seriously mocked every man and woman who has given their life. And not just for America either, any soldier of any country would take offence to what this person said. So I got this idea for a story.

R&R.

Emerald eyes stared at the paper in front of them. It was a light brown color, the edges dressed in the gold seals of the military. Natsuki stared at the paper, her right hand seeming to tremble as it held a ball point pen just above a line that said two simple words.

'Sign here.'

Why was it so hard? You could see it on commercials all the time, a young lad proudly signs their name on the sheet of paper, their parents in the back ground watching as they did so. The mother would be in her husband's embrace, lightly crying and saying how proud she was of her child. The father would nod his head with understanding as pride swelled in his eyes.

But for Natsuki, there was no proud parents in the back ground. She was sitting in her decent sized room, wolf and band posters covered the navy blue walls, a small dresses had wolf figures on it, some howling and others fighting each other. Hanging on her closet door was a leather motorcycle suit, black with red strips going down the sides. Natsuki moved her cobalt hair out of her eyes, a small bead of sweat going down her pale skin. This wasn't how she had planned her future. She would follow in her parents' footsteps and become a scientist that studied medicines. She wanted to save people, cure them of their pain. But what this paper offered was the opposite of what she had planned out, the life she had played out in her head many times before. It shook her to the core, the thought of watching someone die at her own hands. True she had seen people die before, being part of a blood thirsty gang had insured that, but the emerald eyed beauty could never bring herself to kill. She tapped the pen against the paper than slumped back into her desk chair, letting a drawn out sigh escape her lips. Natsuki rubbed the bridge of her nose. It seemed so easy at first, but she just could seem to bring herself to sign the contract. The recruit had been ecstatic when she had shown up and asked for a contract, it was no secret that Natsuki excelled in muay thai and thai boxing. She also, was captain of the track and archery team at her school. Okay, was, before I started skipping classes and all.

At first it wasn't so bad, but than she just couldn't bring herself to show up anymore. What was the point? The whole reason she ever bothered to show up was so she could bring home a piece of paper with seven red 'A' marks on it and see her parents faces. Much to Natsuki's dismay that had stopped when the fighting started. The cobalt haired teen didn't want to take out her family problems on her friends, so she did the only thing she could have to relieve the stress. Join the Otome, a ruthless gang know to think with their fist if they thought at all. There was not a single male member, only females were allowed. The Otome even had their own stocks to buy weapons, so needless to say they did not let anyone live on their raids. Natsuki had gotten in trouble countless times for not killing, but the leader seemed have taken liking to her so let it pass. But their last raid hadn't gone as well as they normally did. When not taking someone else's life had almost caused the death of the leader's right hand (wo)man, she had decided it needed to stop.

"Kuga this has gone on long enough." The ominous voice growled. Natsuki kept her head down, too nervous to look the enraged leader in the eye. It wasn't a gang were they simply let someone go. Once you're in, you stay till death. Even if it means they deal the black card themselves to the members that backed down.

"Tomorrow you'll be put in a ring with one of our prisoners. You will be armed with a pistol, them a knife. It's killed or be killed, Kuga. I will not risk this again." The room became pin drop silence, no one dared to say a thing. Natsuki swallowed but nodded, she was too afraid to say anything. Normally people thought of her as the Ice Wolf, badass to the T. The woman gestured for her to leave, which she gladly did so.

A frustrated sigh escaped her lips, the pen dropped on the desk. Natsuki snapped up when she heard a door slam loudly down stairs. The yelling started, glass shattered. The emerald eyed teen knew they would break things, but never hurt each other. Was she the cause of their pain? She had, after all been a mistake. Her parents seemed to forget that voices traveled in their house, especially when their friends were over talking about high school years. Another scream ringed through the house.

Natsuki picked up the pen without a second thought and wrote on the thinly printed line. The sloppy hand writing read,

'Natsuki Kuga.'

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So tell me what you think, the chapters will be longer but right now I'm out of time. Any ideas are welcome, and I do need a beta. Please review.