It's the day before Halloween/Samhain, and I just wanted to give you all a present. Yay! The first chapter of Intoxication! Woohoo. All right.
8010
in-tox-i-ca-tion, n. 1. inebration; drunkenness. 2. an act or instance of intoxicating. 3. overpowering exhilaration or excitement of the mind or emotions. 4. Pathology. poisoning.
He is like a deadly poison, slowly leeching your health and reducing your brain to a whittled form of something you can't quite put your finger on. His beauty is unveiled in every narssistic smirk as he looks down on you, and his persistant arrogance will make you trip over yourself trying to match it. His eyes seem to hold a spell on you, rendering you useless so that you are easy prey in his web of insults. He will make you hate him, much more than you would ever think to hate anyone else...
And you couldn't possibly love him more.
I am Satoshi, and I am in love with my greatest rival.
8010
"Teme..." I bit back an animalistic growl as I glared daggers at the boy standing before me. "Give it back!"
His cool gray eyes twinkled with amusement as he cackled, "Why do you need it anyway, freak?" He fingered the stolen object warily. "Hmm...perhaps your dear Otou-san gave it to you?"
White hot tears blurred the edge of my vision. I was aware my face was as red as his own flaming hair. No, not now! I'm not going to let him manipulate me now! "So what if he did?"
If possible, the gray eyes twinkled even more. "Then you know I have to confiscate this." He took a demeaning tone, one used as if speaking to a child. "Your Otou-san was a very bad man, Sato-chan. He did very bad things, and is now very much dead because of them."
"Stop it, you jerk!"
"Ah, but if you would only apologize to me, then you might get it back."
I weighed my options. Keep what was left of my pride, or get my pendant back. I sighed, falling to my knees in defeat. "I..."
"Hands and knees, Sato-chan."
I grit my teeth, and bowed down. "I am sorry, Shigeru."
"For...?"
"...For knocking into you in the hallway."
"There, now. Good boy. That wasn't so hard." A small object dropped in front of me. My pendant! I looked up at Shigeru, but he was already halfway to class. "K'so...That bastard." I unconsciously rubbed the angel pendant softly, then placed it back on my neck. As soon as I had gotten up, the bell rang. "Dammit!" I took off running to Physical Ed., praying that Nagase-sensei wouldn't be too hard on me.
Our school isn't like other schools--it's a school of sorcery. They say it's supposed to be the best, but I seriously doubt that.
Oh. Yes, I know, "how can humans do that?" It's quite simple, actually. Way back when, something happened to the Earth. You see, every natural catastrophe that could happen happened. Tornadoes and earthquakes all over the land, tsunamis and hurricanes over the seas...All the mountains turned into volcanoes and proceeded to erupt. Some say that the infamous Roketto-dan got hold of some kind of machine and caused it, and some say it was the Gods' wrath on all of mankind for disobeying their teachings. Whatever the case, it was devastating. Many died. The few that did make it through the three years of torture took a look at the land, and started crying. The legend goes that their tears remade the ocean, and their beating upon the Earth pierced the ground and created mountains that rose above the water to become land masses. Their cries became thunder, which hit the underwater plants that were now above ground and created fire. And then their deep breaths to control themselves created the winds. Those four people are now the Elementals-sama, and are worshiped in every culture.
Those born to this new Earth were an entirely new order of being. They were faster, more intelligent, and closely tuned to Nature. And that's how Mages came to be, those that were so close to Nature that they could bond with it and manifest their energies.
So...yes. That is the Creation story, and everyone has to have memorized it by the age of six or so. Depending on when you first go to NO-School. NO-School is a school where they find out just what your special skills are, and then sort you into schools that specialize in those areas. Me, well, I was sent to a Mage school, MO-sD. Very short for Mage Order-sector D. Each school has a sector they control, and there are many sectors, from D-12, F-49, to even Z-99. Never one-hundred, because three digit numbers are considered bad in our society, since there were three years of torture.
And there's more. A prophecy, in fact. The Elementals-sama will decide to reincarnate themselves into the bodies of four children, because there is supposed to be another terrible tragedy. Not as bad as the first, but still pretty bad. I don't know much about it, but I do know that they are split into two pairs of lovers. Earth and Water, I think, and Fire and Wind...
8010
As it turns out, he was too busy to notice me anyway. When I slipped him the forged sick note, he didn't even so much as glance at me.
"It looks like the goth is too afraid to change out today! Thank the Gods, that faggot."
I didn't even have to turn to know who it was. I sighed, too tired to even throw a glare at him. Insults aside, he was pretty much right. I'm not a goth, but most wouldn't know it. I usually dress in all black, but it's not really about any labels. I just don't like how colors look on me, and besides, black is my best color. Today I had chosen to wear a plain black t-shirt, a fishnet long-sleeved shirt underneath it, and some black fingerless gloves. I had finally found clean pants, and it sucked that the only clean pair had to be tight black jeans. What was I thinking when I bought that? ...Hm...maybe Oka-san bought them for me... Anyway, back to the point. And yes, I am gay. I finally told Kasumi yesterday. Apparently now it was all over the school. I thought I knew better than to trust her not to tell her sisters, those gossip freaks. I couldn't really blame her, that's how she is, after all, she is pretty close to them...
"Sato-chan!" The whisper came from behind the doorway, where I knew Kasumi was hiding.
"Time to go already?" I whispered back, looking at sensei. He was engrossed in the tackling of freshmen bodies in the game known as Football.
"I'm here, too," I heard Takeshi whisper from the same spot. I hummed, and walked up to Nagase-sensei.
"Nagase-sensei, may I please go to the bathroom?" I asked, a bit louder than normal so that he might hear me.
"Sure!" He yelled, making me take a step backward. "Take Shigeru with you!"
"Wha--But sensei, I think Satoshi is able to go to the bathroom on his own."
"Yeah, sensei!" For once in my life, I was actually agreeing with Shigeru.
"Nonetheless, the teachers aren't allowed to send anybody out without an escort, due to the number of increased skipping and some mumbo jumbo about percentages..." And Nagase-sensei was back on the field, blowing his whistle at some unlucky players.
"K'so..." I mumbled, walking to the spot where Hiroshi and Kasumi were going to meet me. I stopped and suddenly swiveled around. "Oi, bastard. You can stop following me now."
At seeing Kasumi and Takeshi, Shigeru smirked. "I knew it. Typical. Where are you planning to skip to?"
"You can go now..." I grumbled. Dammit. Now he was interested.
"No way. If I go back without you, sensei is going to catch on earlier."
Kasumi gave me a worried glance. "Sato-chan, do you think it was a good idea to...?"
I sighed, giving her a bright smile. A fake bright smile. "Na, na, Mi-chan. It's all right. He does have a point." Wow. Shigeru actually looked surprised that I admitted that. Almost as surprised as I was. I amended, "Besides, who knows if we can trust him not to tell sensei first thing?"
My friends just nodded, and Shigeru glared. "So where are you going?"
"To visit someone," I replied offhandedly. We started walking to our "getaway car", or so had it been dubbed in our plans.
8010
"So really, who are you going to see?" There was no mocking in his tone. He was actually curious. Wow. I'll give him a point for that. Plus, the fact that we were currently stashed in the cramped back seat of the small car that Hiroshi had borrowed from his friend.
"My friend." Seeing his none-too-satisfied expression, I sighed. "She lives in an institution."
"Why?"
"All right...just don't...Make fun of it, or anything like that," I grumbled. I didn't know why I was even telling him this--it took me years to tell Hiroshi and Kasumi. "She kept on trying to commit suicide. A few times she almost managed to take me with her, but someone always caught us. So...yeah.I've known her since I was four, and when I was ten, my parents moved me here to get away from her. It was later on I learned what happened."
"Wow..." Shigeru was actually speechless. Wow. That's more than three times he's impressed me today, and that's more than I can say for the whole five years I've known him. Just goes to show how much people change...
Heh, yeah, and purple monkies will crawl out of my ass.
"So, Shigeru..." Kasumi started. "What is your primary element?" I raised my eyebrow. What is she up to?
"Fire," Shigeru smirked. "The most powerful of the elements."
"Hm...well, I am Water, Takeshi here is Earth..." she giggled," and Satoshi here is wind. quite a coincidence, ne?"
I held my head in my hands. "It's just a coincidence, that's all."
"Why, is that so, Satoshi?" No, Takeshi, don't abandon me! "I thought you said you didn't believe in coincidences."
I buried even deeper, quite sure there was a bright red blush on my face. K'so. I always blush so easily. "W-whatever."
Shigeru didn't say anything. He was probably disgusted.
"Well..." I could hear the smirk in his voice and looked up..."Care to test that theory?"
And suddenly he was close to me, his arm wrapped around me and his head--and oh Gods, his lips!--way too close for comfort. My face heated, and I was sure that I was blushing profusely. Surprisingly, I didn't push him away. All I managed was a squeak of, "Shigeru!"
"Shigeru, stop teasing Satoshi," Takeshi, always the adult, interfered. Though I didn't like the way he was grinning, nor the evil gleam in his eye... Baka no Takeshi.
"Takeshi, saying that is like telling the rain to stop falling," Kasumi grumbled, but there was that same evil glint. That evil glint that screams, 'I am going to make your life a living Hell until you screw like bunnies.' ...Or something like that.
I looked at Shigeru, who was sneering down at me. "Hey, I don't see him complaining. Probably likes it, the fag."
I growled and roughly pushed him away. Immediately, I missed the warmth. What the hell was happening? How could I miss Shigeru, of all people, hugging me? ...More like seducing, really. "I do not." Even I knew that was the lamest comeback ever, but I wasn't in the mood to fight. I was dealing with a crisis here.
"Aw, is the little Sato-chan going to cry?" He sneered. I sighed.
"I'm not in the mood, okay, Shigeru?" I gave into the weariness and tiredness that itched at the features of my face. None of this made sense. "I'm going to go to sleep."
"You okay, Satoshi?" Kasumi asked, worry laced in her voice.
I nodded. "Mmhmm, just tired is all." I wasn't really tired--well, not in the sleepy way, at least. But nonetheless, I closed my eyes and pretended to fall asleep.
8010
To be continued...