DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DEATH NOTE NO MATTER HOW MUCH I WANT TO AND I DO NOT OWN THE COVER FOR THIS STORY!
I have not abandoned my other stories. The muse just chose to speak and I listened.
I did a whole bunch of research while writing this first chapter and ended up learning Hiragana in the process so if you don't like it well... there goes three days of watching YouTube videos...
There will be a glossary in the Author's Note.
Warning: This story will be a bit more mature as it goes along. I'm considering on making this rated M for more adult content that will more than likely come up. I do not know how mature this story will get honestly so I'm letting all of you know that there is a possibility that this will get on the risqué side.
Chapter One: Life Sucks
Life sucks... was the only thing that rang through my head as I walked down the hallway of Daikoku Private Academy in my newly purchased school uniform carrying an over-the-shoulder school bag and a violin case alongside the school's principle that was going on and on about how wonderful the school was. I couldn't give two quiznaks about the school! I'm just here so that the government isn't breathing down my neck about going to school. Don't get me wrong, I want to go to school, just not high school. I'd rather be in college, but apparently, you need to have a high school diploma in order to go to college which blows. I'd rather go to school without all the high school drama that's involved thank you very much. It's hard to focus on my school work when people are trying to nitpick your lie for some juicy gossip to spread around the school which would cause my life to become even more stressful.
Oh, I forgot to mention why I'm walking down a hallway next to this old dude who's the principle of this 'oh so prestigious academy'. Pft, if this place was as prestigious as he said it was, why were there people talking and playing on their Game Boys? Anyways, our house in the next town over flooded due to pipe damage, but due to there being ongoing damage that had been occurring for years due to said pipe damage, the foundations of the house was unstable. We had to move to the next town over since there weren't any houses in our area that fit our needs (close to school, a good kitchen, enough bedrooms, a nice neighborhood, etc etc you get the idea). We had our stuff moved here last week and only just arrived two days ago. I enrolled into Daikoku this morning so I ended up missing the first class of the day.
And that brings us to my current issue.
As I continued walked down the hallway, all I could hear was the soft thudding of my indoor shoes on the linoleum, the clacking of the principles over-priced loafers, and the rambling that persisted despite the fact that he was starting to sound like Chalie Brown's teacher. He soon stopped in front of one of the many classrooms and knocked on it. I looked up at the sign hanging in front of the door and saw that it was classroom (1) C-1. Once the customary 'come in' was spoken, he walked in and announced my arrival. Knowing high schoolers, they all got over excited and started asking if it was a boy or a girl and if I was hot or not. It's the same no matter where you go.
"You may come in now." the principle stated once he was done talking to the teacher.
Well, here goes nothing... I thought before walking into my new brand of Hell. The minute I walked through the door, the whispering increased ten fold. Great... I have one of those classes.
"Class, we have a new student joining us for the rest of the year. Now, if you'll introduce yourself." that teacher announced as the principle excuses himself from the room.
I turned towards the class with a smile and introduced myself, "Hello, my name is Chino-Johnson, Amelia Emiko. It's nice to meet you." I said with a bow, some of my auburn hair forward as I did. Once I was upright again, I placed some of the hair behind my ear to keep it out of my face.
The entire class seemed to be enamored at the sight of me. I sweat dropped at this. Yes, I know I look a like a foreigner, but you don't have to stare at me like that.
"Chino-Johnson-san, there is a seat open near the back if you'll please take a seat." the teacher said as he gestured to a seat in the back of the room by the window in front of a boy with light brown hair.
"Thank you sensei and you can just call me Chino. All my teachers back at my old school called me that." I said with a smile.
"Of course." and with that, he began to start the lesson. I took that as my cue to make my way to my seat.
As I sat down at my seat, I placed the case that I was carrying next to my desk and hooked my bag on the hook on the desk while taking out my math notebook and a pencil seeing as the teacher was talking about mathematics.
I need to take extensive notes on this or else I'll barely pass like I did four years ago when I took algebra. I thought with a slight panic. For the next hour, I took note after note trying to keep up and understand the algebraic equations. Gah! This isn't making any sense even with all the notes I'm taking. I thought as I ran my hand through my hair.
Before I knew it, the class had ended and the teacher was packing up and I was nowhere closer to understanding what was just taught. I let out a slight groan. At least it's the beginning of the year and not half way through so I won't be completely lost if I get a tutor or completely.. if I can find it.
"Hey, Chino-san, are you okay?" the girl to my right asked. She was a rather tall girl with long black hair and brown eyes.
"Yeah... I just hate algebra." I said with a sigh, my brain exhausted from the stress it just went through.
"So I guess math isn't your strong point it it?" she inquired with a smile.
"No, just algebra. Put me in geometry, calculus, or trigonometry and you'll find me volunteering to go up to the board to solve the equation. Put me in algebra, you'll find that my brain has short-circuited from over-heating." I replied with a smirk.
The girl gave a soft giggle at this, "Perhaps you just need a tutor." she suggested.
"How do you think I barely passed the class in my last year of junior high? The problem is that the tutor I had that year is over in the next town over along with my old school. I think that falls under geographically undesirable."
Before she could continue our conversation, the teacher for the next class came in.
"Guess we'll have to continue our conversation during lunch. By the way, my names Ito Junko." she greeted with a smile.
I returned the smile with a smile of my own, "It's nice to meet you Ito-san."
"Likewise Chino-san." and with that our conversation ended as the class president had us rise and then bow before the Japanese Literature teacher began the class.
It wasn't until lunch that we got to talk again, but she wasn't alone. Practically the entire class, but mostly the guys, had decided to join me for lunch and play Twenty Questions with me.
You have got to be kidding me... I'm trapped! I thought dejectedly as I looked to the window behind me and then to the people that now encircled me. Like I said before... life sucks...
"So, why did you move here?" one girl asked.
"Well, the pipes in my house broke and my house flooded, but due to them being damaged for a prolonged period of time without us noticing, there was already damage to the foundation of the house so we had to move." I answered.
"What a bummer." another girl commented.
"Where did you live before you moved here?" another person asked.
"The next school district over." I replied before taking a bite of my food.
"(2) What club did you join?" someone immediately fired off as soon as I finished answering.
"O-Orchestra." I replied a little startled by the sudden onslaught of the question.
"Do you have a boyfriend?!" one of the guys asked excitedly.
"What?! No!" I answered, shocked by the question.
"Are you a foreigner?!" a guy shouted out after the question was answered.
"Sort of - well, I mean... my dad is from England and mom is Japanese, but her father was Italian. That's where I get the first half of my last name, Chino. Johnson is my dad's last name. My mom didn't want to drop her maiden name cause she thought it sounded cool." I replied honestly but was starting to become overwhelmed by the constant barrage of questions.
Who do they think they are? Reporters that are trying to get a scoop from a celebrity? In their minds, probably so.
"Wow! Are you related to the Italian mafia or something?!" one of the guys asked enthusiastically.
"What kind of question is that?!"
"Come on guys, lighten up will ya. This is turning into an interrogation." a male voice said to my right. That seemed to cause everyone to halt and as one, look over to the person in question. Out of curiosity, I turned to look as well to find who my saving grace was.
My saving grace turned out to be the boy who was sitting behind me in class who was still sitting at his desk. He had apparently been reading while eating his lunch. Now that I was actually looking at him, I could tell he was definitely by far, not lacking in regards to the looks department. He was by definition, a total hottie. He had sweeping chestnut locks, pale unblemished skin, and warm brown eyes that seemed to have a hint of amusement in them at the moment. The uniform he was wearing clung to his frame giving me a good view of his broad shoulders and slight muscle in his biceps that were probably from a sport.
"He's right you know." Ito-san spoke up from the back. Everyone turned to look at her now, "You'll have all year to get to know her so try not scare her off before you do." and with that, people began to back off and apologize.
"It's okay, but it was starting to get a bit overwhelming." I responded with a small smile.
Once the crowd had fully dispersed, I turned to the guy behind me. He had already gone back to his book and eating his lunch, "Hey," I called back to get his attention. He looked up from his book, his chopsticks in mid-air with his mouth partially open to take a bite of some rice, "Thanks for earlier. It really was getting out of hand there and I didn't know how diffuse the situation."
The boy put down his chopsticks and gave me a small smile, "No problem, it's the least I could do."
I returned the smile, "Nonsense, you practically saved my life. Those questions were started to get really weird. Next thing I know, I'll be asked what my three sizes are!" I said with a laugh.
He let out a chuckle of his own, "True this class is filled with those sort of people."
"I know right! I could tell the moment I walked through the door and they all started drooling all over themselves! No self-respect whatsoever!" I exclaimed.
This caused the boy to go into a fit of laughter, "Y-you've got that right!" and said in between bouts of laughter. Once he had calmed down, he closed his book and placed down on his desk, "I don't think we've ever properly introduced ourselves. My names Yagami, Light." he introduced with a (3) bow of his head.
"Chino-Johnson, Amelia Emiko," I greeted with a bow of my head, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasures all mine." he said with a smile.
The school day ended up passing by quickly and before I knew it, school was over and I headed over to the orchestra club.
The door was so I popped my head in, "(4) しつれいします (shitsurei shimasu)." looking around the room, I didn't see anyone in the clubroom.
Where is everyone?
"Hey," someone called out behind me. I turned and saw that it was a boy with black hair, blue eyes, and a no-nonsense look on his face carrying a small stack of paper. From what I could see from the stack, it was sheet music, "Are the new foreign girl I've been hearing about?"
"Words already got around about me I see..." I stated with a sigh.
"Pretty much," he said in a monotone as he walked past me and into the club room behind me, "The whole school's talking about how there's a foreign chick in class C-1 that has a (5) small face, nice boobs, and a butt worth staring at."
My face was immediately beat red as I rushed to cross my arms over my chest, "W-Who the frakk has the time to get that sort of thing around school?!"
"You'd be surprised..." he stated in a matter of fact tone as he sorted out the sheet music, "Despite this school having great teachers that know the material, they don't enforce the rules and the students are able to get away with the crap you saw today in class."
"Point taken..." I replied still covering my breasts.
"Anyways, what did you come in here for?" he said finally turning towards me.
"Oh, um," I said 'eloquently' as I taken my arms from my chest, placed my case on the ground, and riffled through my bag looking for the clubs forms I got from the principle, "The principle had asked me if I would like to join a club or not and I told him I wanted to join the orchestra and he gave me this form to have filled out by the club president." I said as I took out the form and showed him.
He took the form from me and took a look at it, "So you play the violin."
"Um, yes. I was wondering where I could find the club president?"
"Yeah, that would be me." he said in a monotonous voice never looking up once from the paper.
I blinked owlishly at him for a second before continuing, "Oh, okay. Well, am I able to join?"
"Your previous experience seems well of; especially considering the fact that you have been (6) First Chair since junior high and have been taking lessons since your third year of (7) Primary. All in all, this is a pretty good resume," I waited with baited breath as I waited for his judgment, "Consider yourself a member of the orchestra," he finally decided as he pulled a pen out of his pocket and signed the paper. I released a sigh of relief as he handed back the paper, "By the way, my names (8) Phantomhive, Vincent." he introduced with a bow of his head.
I blinked for a second before I grin appeared on my face, "You're a foreigner too?"
"On my father's side of the family. I'd rather not talk about my ethnicity at the moment." he said in a tone of finality.
From the way his shoulders tensed and the way his eyes shone with pain, I decided to avoid the landmine and continue as if nothing happened, "Anyways, where is everyone?"
"At home practicing. We each go home and practice the music for two weeks and then come back here and fine tune it. Unfortunately for you, you'll only have one week to do it," he stated as he picked up a stack of sheet music and held it out to me, "Think you can do it?" he taunted with a smirk as an evil mirth danced in his cerulean blue eyes.
I took the pages from his hand and looked through the music. Hmm... It all looks about college level; especially (9) Passacaglia, but that's a duet... I looked back up at Ito-san and saw that there was this hidden malicious glee. As though there was some hidden joke and he had yet to tell the punch line... and I was part of it. He probably has something planned with this piece in mind. No matter, I played this piece back in my third year with my mother. The other pieces themselves don't look too difficult tp play, but can the club? More than likely. Phantomhive-san doesn't look like one to mess around. He's probably testing me what with the look on his face. He must have been getting bored then if that's my guess. He looks like an intelligent person, but not only intelligent but the kind that has trouble finding stimulus for their brain because everything is too mundane for them. This brings me back to the fact that he is challenging me. He deliberately gave me Passacaglia. He's trying to see if I'm someone worthy of his attention and can hold his attention longer than others have. It's as if, in his mind, were playing chess. We probably are to him. Life is probably just one big chess board in his eyes. Well then, Phantomhive-san, let's see if I can keep up. Throughout this inner monolog, I had unconsciously started to bite my lower lip. A habit I had picked up over the years that I did when I was thinking in depth about something.
I looked back up at Ito-kun and saw that he had been staring at me the entire time, more than likely contemplating what I would do next, "I could probably get a rough idea of how the songs go by next week. They won't be perfect, but they won't sound like someone put a cat in a blender on puree."
His smirk seemed to widen and the evil mirth increase in intensity at this, "Excellent, I hope that you will be ready to perform next week on Monday in front of the entire school."
(10) And there's the gag...
I let a knowing smile creep onto my face, "Of course, Phantomhive-san, it would be my pleasure. I look forward to playing with you." Just you wait, I have my own punchline.
If possible, his smirk got even bigger and he was now radiating malevolent intent. He was all but shaking at the challenge that had been presented to him, "I very much look forward to the event," his eyes narrowed just slightly, "Chino-Johnson-san.~"
"If we're done here, I should be heading off," I said as I placed my new music in my bag, "I still have boxes to unpack." I finished saying as I picked up my violin case.
"Of course, by all means, go home. Wouldn't want to keep you from practicing either." he taunted once more.
"No, of course not. (11) （じゃ、）また（ね）(Ja,) mata (ne), Phantomhive-san." and with that, I left the room and made my way out of the school.
That was the most duplicitous conversation I've ever had in my life! Who was that guy?! I've never met anyone that got off on having those kinds of conversations with people and with him as my club president, this will not be the last time we ever interact. I swear... life sucks.
Thank you for reading this chapter.
This is the longest chapter I've ever written I think!
I honestly had fun writing this chapter. This will end up being one of my more mature works so I advise warning to all old and new readers of mine.
I did a whole lot of research on Japan to get this 80% or more accurate to what it is really like in Japan. I do the exact same kind of research for my other fan fictions, but so far this is the most I've ever done. I somehow started learning how to read, write, and speak Hiragana (first Japanese alphabet) along the way. It was quite easy. I have the notes if anyone wants me to send them a doc of them. Anyways, I got most of my research from the YouTube channel, Rachel&Jun, and from blogs, people have written about their experience in Japan. I hope it paid off. If I am wrong in some parts of my research, please let me know and I'll fix it.
Glossary:
1) C-1 = Originally it was B-1 because I was going to start this around the same time the series started and this what I could make out in the anime as their classroom number. Due to feeling relationships needed to have a more solid foundation before going into the series, this will be taking place a year before the series takes off. I plan on making it mostly canon with tweaks here and there.
2) What club did you join = Japanese students are required or strongly encouraged to join a club.
3) Bow = People in Japan bow to each other to say hello, goodbye, out of respect, and forgiveness. When you can't or just don't fully bow to someone, you just nod your head as a mini-bow if you want to call it that.
4) しつれいします (shitsurei shimasu) = "sorry to bother you" It is used by students when they enter a staff room or any other professional setting. You say しつれいしました (shitsurei shimashita) "sorry to have bothered you" when leaving.
5) Small Face = (Rachel&Jun) For some reason, Japanese people believe that the smaller your face is, the more beautiful you are.
6) First Chair = It refers to which seat you sit in your section of the orchestra (or band if you're in the band). If you sit in First Chair in your section in the orchestra (like me), this tells you that your conductor thinks you're the strongest player in your section. How cool is that?!
7) Primary = Primary School is basically Elementary School in Japan. It spans from years one through six (first through sixth grade) with Secondary School spanning from years one through three (seventh through ninth). Children are not required to go to Primary School but can enroll if they want to.
8) Phantomhive, Vincent = I based off of Ciel Phantomhive.
9) Passacaglia = A duet that can be played by many different string instruments. It is known one of the hardest songs to master which is where its pseudo name, The Impossible Piece.
10) And there's the gag... = I got this phrase off of the anime Fairy Tale from Happy, the blue flying cat, during the mushroom episode.
11) （じゃ、）また（ね）(Ja,) mata (ne) = "see you later" (informal).
Edited: April 9, 2017