To Know Her

I do not own Another or its characters or settings. This is a short fiction about Aki and Anzu and when they first really met.

There was this girl. She always sat timidly at the edge of the classroom, and she never really spoke. Maybe she did, to a few other students, but she never looked too much like a social butterfly. Her hair was this dark shade of reddish-brown and so were her eyes. But those timid looking eyes were always cast down at her textbook, or focused on the teacher, never wandering too much.

Grade seven wasn't posing too much of a problem to Kanaki, Anzu. Well it had all the normal problems it might pose for a student, but as for all the extra stresses, the long haired girl really tried not to let them bother her too much. She wasn't mess with that often either. She was friendly, but it wasn't like she was the type of girl to test the patience of. After all, she never enjoyed taking that kind of crap from other people. Who would?

Anzu had some people she supposed she could call friends. She spoke to them, but she wouldn't call any of them 'close.' Now, this girl who sat a couple of rows ahead of her, by the wall of the classroom, she seemed interesting. She's never approached the girl before. What was her name again? Mitsui? Ugh, hm, that was all she remembered. Anzu drifted through the rest of class until the teacher eventually dismissed class, of course quickly met by the shuffling of students standing and rushing out to meet the remainder of their day. Anzu gathered her things, but she took her time. Actually, she was waiting for the other girl to leave first. She noticed that Mitsui didn't like to leave with the crowd, but waited for most of the others to have already left or busied themselves. Anzu's eyes followed her as she left the classroom. If she was aware Anzu was still in the classroom, she didn't stop to show it. What caught Anzu's attention was the gasp heard outside the classroom door once the girl had stepped out only to bump into someone else. The sound of a school bag hitting the floor was recognizable when Anzu stepped out of the classroom to see what had happened. Whoever had bumped into Mitsui and her belongings hadn't stuck around to help or even apologize. Sheesh, what kind of jerk...Anzu sighed and put her bag down by the wall and kneeled down, helping her gather the scattered papers on the floor. She seemed to startle the girl.

"That was pretty rude of whoever did this, if they didn't even stop to help you out." Anzu said, thinking it a better idea not to respond to the slightly startled reaction. After hesitating for a moment, Mitsui stopped fidgeting and kneeled down as well to clean up the mess that had fallen from her bag. Anzu already had most of it gathered up anyway. "Are you okay?" Anzu asked, glancing at the girl.

"I-I am..." She said quietly. Just from the way she spoke you could tell she was a really timid girl, if not all the time, then right now. But the voice was as gentle as her physical appearance made her look.

Anzu smiled a little bit to her. "My name's Kanaki, Anzu." She said, introducing herself as she handed the textbook and papers over to her. Mitsui stared at Anzu's hands nervously for a moment before nodding and taking them from her.

"Mitsui...Aki." Aki? What a...well that was a pretty name, actually. Aki put everything away and made sure her bag was securely shut before she stood up. Anzu pushed herself to a standing position, and examined the girl's face for a minute. She seemed kind of nervous about this whole interaction. Why, was she really that timid?

"Do you need any more he-"

"I r-really should get g-going..." Aki abruptly said, hurrying past Anzu. Having been cut off, Anzu turned to watch her leave, surprised to see her so eager to leave. She had this lingering thought though...that she wanted to try and get to know Aki if she could. If she could just get the girl to calm down enough to stop and talk.

Anzu tried on several occasions. She was starting to find out that getting the girl to feel comfortable enough to talk for more than a couple of minutes was really hard. Were conversations with new people that nerve-wracking for Aki, or did she just not want to talk to Anzu? She could stop trying, that was always an option. Just leave Aki be, and leave the whole issue alone. But there was more to her. She looked...small and fragile, easily un-nerved, but there was more to it. There had to be more behind those constantly melancholy eyes, right?

At the end of class, Anzu prepared to leave. Even Aki had already left, but Anzu was in no hurry to go anywhere. She really didn't have any plans today.

"Aw man, looks like they've got another..."

Anzu looked at the shut classroom door, hearing voices behind it. Was something going on? She used her free hand to slide the door open, and looked out. Scattered students stopped to take more interest in the scene two other students were making. They seemed like older students, maybe in grade nine? Older students with nothing better to do but pick on younger students, of course. The question was who was the student they'd scoped out? Anzu took a few steps closer, curious.

...Hm? ! Ugh, what? They definitely picked out what would be the 'weaker of the herd,' because they were bugging Aki. The poor girl looked frightened and out of her element trying to deal with bullies. The older girl had her school bag, and didn't look to have any intention to give it back. What the guy was saying didn't register to Anzu, who was still watching tensely. She needed to do something. Well, she didn't needto. She wanted to. She couldn't be the only one standing here thinking that something seemed really wrong with just letting these people push the girl around. But no one was doing anything, and where the heck were the teachers?

Aki seemed to decide that maybe she didn't need her school bag back after all. She closed her eyes and in flight of panic, turned to run. The boy moved to grab her arm and keep her from dashing off.

When did Anzu move her feet? She couldn't remember clearly, but the next thing she was doing, was throwing her weight at the older boy, driving her arm and shoulder into him in a tackle. Catching him off guard, she forced him to let go of Aki and caused him to fall into the other girl. She was pretty sure she heard an instance of cursing. Aki stopped and turned, watching the scene fearfully. Anzu pushed herself away from the boy and snatched the handle of Aki's bag before standing up and moving between Aki and the older kids.

"K-Kanaki-san..."

"Let's go." Anzu said. They wouldn't be interested enough to follow anyway. She grabbed Aki's hand and hurried through the hallway, leaving her own school bag by the wall. "Careful, let's head downstairs." Anzu told her. Carefully they rushed down the staircase and turned the corner into the hallway. Stopping, Anzu let Aki's hand go and exhaled, relieved to be out of danger at least.

She looked at the staircase, then smirked a little bit. "Like I thought, they'll push someone around but they don't care enough to chase them around." She handed Aki's school bag over. There was a hint of red on Aki's face as she took her bag back, flustered as she looked at the ground.
"Are you alright?"

Aki nodded. "U-um...thank you..."

"Ah, no need for that. I mean, you haven't done anything to anyone. It didn't seem right, that they were messing around with you like that." Anzu said, shaking her head.

"But...you didn't h-have to." Aki said quietly, that same slightly sad look on her face. Anzu stared at her, then sighed.

"I did though. I wasn't about to stand there and let them hurt you." Aki glanced at Anzu. She seemed a little surprised. Well, maybe it was strange to hear when they didn't know each other that well. But it wasn't a lie. But there wasn't anything wrong with that, right? She had this protective sense over Aki, and she hadn't realized up until now that she really didn't like seeing her so frightened or hurt.

"Y-you left your bag..." Aki looked at the staircase, and then back at Anzu.

"It's fine, I'll get it later...there's nothing too interesting in it." Maybe she was just hoping so, but it looked as if Aki wasn't as nervous at the moment as she had been before. "Would you mind, if I kept you company for lunch?"

For a minute, Anzu was afraid she wouldn't answer or leave. "...okay." Aki nodded. Anzu grinned, hiding some hint of relief that she was okay with the idea. If there was some chance to get to know what was past the girl's shy exterior, she'd be really glad to be able to be her friend and make sure that whatever fear or bother plagued Aki had to deal with her first.