CO-WRITTEN BY-DubhRi

ShizxNats, MaixTate, AkanexKazuya


"...Furniture warehouse where our prices are so low, you probably won't believe us the first time we tell you! We'll have to repeat what we just said! You can't find better quality..."

The radio's old speakers screeched the ad, alerting one crimson haired woman it was time to get up. She slid her hand across the night stand, positioned at the right of the bed, and proceeded in slamming down the on/off switch before she opened her eyes. She had no desire to wake up, and was fully considering the option of blissfully ignoring all responsibilities and continuing her much needed slumber.

"Damn it all..." She mumbled almost inaudibly, arising from the small, practically ancient, bed of her apartment. "Why the hell does this meeting have to be so early!?"

Lime colored eyes shot open as she leapt out from beneath her numerous sheets and onto the floor. Sugiura Midori shook her head violently in a vain attempt to wash away her drowsiness. She managed an apprehensive glance at her alarm clock; the thing was so old it may have sounded at the wrong time... again.

The last time this occurred she was three and a half hours late for an extremely important job interview. At that point in life she was out of work and the landlord was threatening to disconnect her power. Once Midori arrived her application was promptly rejected. This resulted in (had to have been the sixth time it had happened) her moving back in with one extremely pissed school nurse. Youko chewed her out for an entire month, non stop.

Midori sighed as relief swept through her. She had a good forty-five minutes before it would become necessary to leave. So with a slightly annoyed yawn she made her way to the bathroom.

Crumpled paper, empty beer cans, and all other assortments of trash littered the thick burgundy carpet. As Midori cleared the gap towards her destination, creating a path by sliding the articles away with her foot, she heard a low creak. Jumping slightly Midori whirled around. Murky green orbs met her gaze and a sly smile played across the intruders lips.

"Hm, did I frighten you Sugiura-sensei?" Yuuki Nao stood before the older woman, absent mindedly plucking at her fingernails.

"Gah! Don't do that Nao-chan!" Midori snapped, "Also... what's with the 'Sensei'?" The scarlet haired middle school girl shrugged, still staring at her untrimmed cuticles, "Well you are going to be my teacher one day, right?"

It was at that moment the memories of there previous night came flooding back to her. 'Heh, I'm guessing she's still mad.'


"Midori! What the hell are you doing?!" Nao shrieked, a look of pure rage plastered on the fifteen year olds face. Two women, who were beyond any doubt intoxicated, lay sprawled across the floor. "Heya Nao-chan! Why'r ya back so early?" The former HiME of justice managed to slur the question.

Violet-blue eyes snapped open as Midori spoke. Sagisawa Youko leapt to her feet, but immediately fell backwards into the floral pattern sofa. Her level of intoxication obviously surpassed the now hysterically giggling teacher on the floor.

Youko opened her mouth as if to speak then clamped it shut and flung her arm towards the fuming girl at the doorway. She seemed utterly at a loss for words. So she remained in that position, her brows knitting together in an awkward thought. "Y-Youko ya need ta lay off' a the drinkin! I don' think you can even talk right!" Midori began flailing her legs as another fit of laughter over took her.

A deafening growl silenced the scene and the two older women stared apprehensively at Nao. "Midori you trashed our apartment!!" She roared, pointing towards the ground. "T-trashed...?" Yellow-green hued eyes scanned the living room they now occupied. It took her a moment to actually comprehend the words but Nao was right.

The floor was strewn with garbage, there recliner had toppled over, the book shelf's contents were scattered every where, and the carpet was damp with spilled alcohol, its smell polluting the air. "Aww shit..." Youko finally sputtered. Nao stomped towards the mystified women.

"Get up."

"Uh, y-yeah, ok..."

The girl who was formerly known as 'Juliet' pulled her drunken roommate from the ground, shaking her head.

"I'm gunna have to clean this up, aren't I?"

Midori had a look of shock on her face, "Nuh uh! I'll do it!" As the promise was uttered she began to stumble over to the dark violet haired school nurse. "Youko, ya better crash here tonight! I wouldn't want ya driven now!" she smirked. Midori was answered with a simple nod and Youko rolled lazily on her side.

"So... what time is it?"

"It's midnight!"

"Oh... wow."

"Midori."

"Yeah Nao-chan?"

"Just go to bed."

"Ya sure?!"

"Yep, we will just have to deal with this in the mourning."


"Hey, about last night..." Midori started apologetically.

"Forget it. If you don't hurry the hell up you're going to be late." Nao finished, flicking her wrist as if to brush the crimson haired girl off. Midori sighed, shrugging her shoulders and opening the bathroom door. As she stepped inside, flipping the light switch on, she began to reminisce upon the events of the past few months.

Nao had begun sharing this apartment with Midori because she wanted to get away from Fuuka academy and the fact that her and her mother had practically gone broke. The twenty-five year old smiled, 'Despite everything we have become pretty good friends, since...' Midori shook her head; she didn't want to think about that. None of the former HiME did...

Undressing quickly she hopped into the shower, closing its plastic and cloth curtains. Midori shuddered at the initial contact between her feet and the freezing porcelain of the tub. With a slight turn of the knob, warm water fell from the spout. She ran a slender hand through her bangs, which now clung to her face. It had been exactly one year since the carnival and Midori still couldn't bear to even think about it. Every time the thought crossed her mind fear would well up inside her. Midori truly felt as though it wasn't over yet. No matter how many times she would tell her self, 'No, you're just being paranoid.'

For the second time that day Sugiura Midori let an exasperated sigh pass her lips. At that moment she made a firm resolve to focus on matters of much more importance. Such as what to wear in order to appear professional and still pass off the 'seventeen' look. Inwardly smiling at that, she continued her shower in peace.


Thunder clapped a crossed the vast sky, a white streak of lighting plummeting down to the earth. Kuga Natsuki glanced quickly toward the cause of noise. She was racing toward Fuuka Academy on her sleek crimson ducati. She wore a black helmet with sapphire strands of hair protruding from the back. To complete her outfit she wore a black leather body suit with blood red stripes running down either side. And finally a small, tight fitting jacket that covered the topmost portion of her torso.

The weather made it increasingly difficult to ride as she sped along the cliff side road that over looked the ocean. Rain droplets obscured her vision as they splattered violently against her visor. The street was also quite slick, as Natsuki rounded the bend, almost lost her balance and nearly slid into the rocky cliff at the right. Natsuki let out an inaudible growl of frustration at making such a stupid mistake. Usually, in weather such as this, Natsuki was an excellent rider; however, it didn't help much that she was lost in deep thought.

It was the first day of the school week and the night before she had angrily agreed to go to a movie with Mai (thankfully avoiding another karaoke party). Sitting not far from them she had noticed a couple that seemed extremely fond of each other. As time went on, Natsuki began to wonder if she would ever be able to be like that. With the festival being over and all there should be no reason why she couldn't.

Then, as always, when she thought about herself and relationships, Shizuru seemed to immediately come to mind. It wasn't as if she had tried not to to put it out of her head because she had many, many times. But no matter what, she still saw the smiling visage of her closest friend.

Natsuki seriously pondered the idea of her physically ever being able to be with another woman. To her it seemed absurd, until she thought of Shizuru. Once she did it all seemed to make sense. Still Natsuki's stubborn persona shook her back into her own state of normalcy and the girl attempted to ignore or banish her own feelings at that point.

And now was an intense moment of relationship pondering and Shizuru's face came up more clearly then most and it was extremely difficult to remove. In fact it was so difficult that she was concentrating on it more then the road and was slowly sliding into the opposite lane. The only thing that saved her from a bloody and tragic accident was the blaring car horn that awoke her from her reverie.

The emerald eyed girl quickly, veered into her lane as the young man in the car shouted as much profane language as he could at her until they were out of hearing range.

For the second time in less then ten minutes she cursed at herself for carelessly riding and letting her emotions make an everyday activity become dangerous.

But yet after another couple minutes she slowly slipped back into her bitter dismal thoughts of relationships that matched the weather, and slowly let it re-consume her.

Had Natsuki been more alert and her normal self she would have registered the black car behind following behind her at a safe distance. She may have seen the car and been suspicious but she was too lost in thought.

She still, however, would not have heard the man in the car mutter into his earpiece. Mutter words that would confirm any suspicion, words such as "Target One still on the move, destination: Fuuka Academy."


A/N: This took forever, haha. Please review and tell us what you thought!

(9/30) EDITING

Flyleaf799 and DubhRi