Hey, minna-san!
So, this story is a collaboration between me and CrimsonSkyTamer :3 Go check out her profile, she's amazing. This is set in TYL, and will be mostly a Varia-centric fic. I know I went way too overboard with the backstory, but hey…There are no OCs in Glass. Please review! Or send me a PM! Or send CrimsonSkyTamer a PM! Or all of the above ^^
Akuma's POV
I shrug my long, slightly wavy almost-black hair out of my face as I look up at the Varia mansion. It's huge. I try not to let my surprise show, but I'm positive my black eyes widen just a bit. My hand closes around the handle to my sword almost involuntarily as I glance to my right. A person here for the same reason as I am is standing next to me, but I'm not sure what to make of her yet. She could be my best friend and also my best competition.
We're both here to fill in for the Varia. Their normal Mist Guardian, Fran, has left on a mission with the Kokuyo and they've needed a new Cloud Guardian for a while, so I'm to be their Mist Guardian and Akai to be their Cloud Guardian.
She stands much taller than me, and is slightly more muscular as well. Her short hair is ink black in contrast to my dark brown, with steel gray eyes opposed to my pitch black. Her backpack has a handle protruding out of it and I'm sure it's a weapon; I just don't know what kind.
I was invited to be part of the Varia because of my success as a rogue assassin.
I've learned sword fighting at a young age, but I ran away from my home at eleven. My given name was Saito Ayumi, but no one could take me seriously with a name like Ayumi, so when I became an assassin, I changed it to Akuma. Devil.
And that's how I'm known now. Akuma, the assassin. The girl from Hell. The cold, clinical, emotionless killer.
Nobody sees me as anything past that, nor would I want them to.
Akai's POV
Staring at the mansion, I tensed slightly, ready to pull out my punching daggers - and rip my bag apart if need be - to attack. All because I felt a pair of eyes on me.
Saito Ayumi. The infamous assassin, Akuma. Her long, dark brown hair waved gently in the slight breeze as we made eye contact for the first time.
Pitch-black against cold, grey steel.
She was the first to look away, and I follow suit a heartbeat after. A rogue assassin, huh...but then again, no-one who had been tainted by the Mafia could hope to remain fully sane.
About a head shorter than me, she looks every inch a celebrity. She has that aura about her that so many wish they could have, an energy that draws people to her, but her unblinking black eyes show no hint to what she's truly feeling. She's wearing clothes that are from all the top designers, an indigo ruffled top with dark, skin-tight jeans that accentuate her slim frame. She's also sporting almost knee-high black leather boots, laced with extremely high heels. I'm surprised she can even stand. She looks like a daughter of the most high-class echelons of our city. Only her sword gave her away, though. An amateurish mistake to make.
Looking at her now, I almost feel that I could be too tall. With my hair framing my face in disarray, I could seem too wild, my body too muscular...but I know that can't be true. My fiercer beauty draws people to me as much as her more conventional looks do to her.
Akuma looks like she's never seen a day's hard work in her life. Her hands are soft and uncallused, her clothes as unfit for fighting as they are possible to be. Then I remember who I'm looking at and stop. She's one of the most famous assassins, but her past is as dark as it is possible for one's to be. Before she became so famous, before she could have designer clothes and have so much time to care for her hair, she had to fend for herself on the streets. Her story is well-known, and she is universally hated and loved by so many different people at a time. I'm still not sure what to think of her.
We're similar, but at the same time not. We have both turned to assassinations as a method of survival, but our pasts are so different. Hers is known well, mine is not. She used to be Saito Ayumi, a privileged and wealthy girl from the richest part of the city, going to an elite private school and a fencing prodigy. It was a big deal when she ran away as the Saito family were looking, putting advertisements to find her, calling the police, private investigators, reward money, everything. It was an event in itself. However, she was gone. Even with the entire city looking, they could not find that one child. Four years later, however, a high-ranking member of our government was found dead in his mansion, an ornate saber in his throat with a message.
I'm sorry, Papa.
I think she intended for this to be kept secret, but news got out and the contractors, the people who paid Akuma to kill her own father were found out and eventually, they told the world of the girl they hired to kill Saito Saburo, the girl they've heard stories about in the underground network that could kill anyone while leaving no trace, and the only name they knew her by was Akuma, meaning devil. They had no idea she was his daughter.
After that, the city went into frenzy. Half the residents were terrified of Akuma, the girl who killed her own father, and half wanted to find her. There was and still is a huge price on her head. It was impossible to locate her, and because of this, she was dubbed the name Phantom Saber.
That was six months ago. Ever since then, there was no sign of her besides an entire squadron of police killed in an alleyway, another pristine ornate saber in the center of the array of bodies and blood. This time, the message on parchment paper was different.
Don't even try.
Nobody knows where she is. Saito Midori, Akuma's mother, was - and still is - enraged. She has sworn in front of the cameras countless times that Ayumi is no longer her daughter, yet she is still paying huge sums of money for the government to find Akuma. It's said that if you see her and recognize her, she will either alter your memory or kill you.
Finding out the Phantom Saber's true personality will be pretty interesting.
I looked back at the dark, gloomy mansion that reeked of death and despair, long-forgotten memories surface in my mind.
Akai. Red.
Red was the colour of my past, and it would be the colour of my future. Carving my path with my own hands, straying from the only path available to my kind.
_Blood. Fresh, red blood stained the previously pristine white walls. A bloody corpse lay at my feet.
Revenge. That was all I lived for. After all, a bastard child could not amount to much, in this cruel world where power is everything._
I blinked, interrupting my own train of thought. In any case, I was invited to be the Varia's Cloud guardian, due to my fame as a hired mercenary. Assassinations, kidnaping, theft...I could accomplish with little to no difficulty. For a price, obviously.
Akuma's POV
Narrowing my eyes slightly at Akai, I'm thinking that it'll be better to get the measure of her before we go inside. Unlike my story, which is practically public information, I know nothing about her.
"Akai." I say lightly, smiling with my mouth while my eyes remain impassive.
"Akuma," She replies instantly. So she's done her research.
"Pray tell me, exactly how did you color your hair so beautifully? I've been looking for a color just like that for ages." I mock her gently. I'm expecting that she'll snap back a strong denial that her hair is natural, and I'm sure it is but I don't care about that at all. I just want to see how she will react.
I wasn't expecting her to smile dryly back and say in my exact tone, though a little lower than my more high-pitched voice, "I couldn't possibly come forth with that information until you tell me how you even managed to make anyone bother to train you with weapons." She slowly and pointedly lowers her head to look me in the eyes, making a derogatory comment about my height. I smile, truly this time. I wasn't expecting this from her.
I pull out a knife and send it spinning into the exact center of a distant tree. Knife-throwing isn't my best skill, nor is it my most practiced, but I want to save my real skills with sword-fighting later.
"Close enough," she says, smiling as well.
I've always been small, meaning both short and without muscles despite my years of fighting and training. Besides my sword, I know I look perfectly well the average high-school student and I've had to use that in my favor a couple times in the past.
In contrast to me, Akai looks like someone you would pull out of an action movie. I show people multiple personalities, the largest of these being looking harmless and being lethal. She is a work of pure power, in appearance at least. She's at least a head taller than me, with slightly layered, shoulder-length hair. She has a frame that's not overly muscular but looks like she could beat many people at arm-wrestling, to say the least. Steel gray eyes make her face look serious and impassive.
Instead of my high heeled boots, my many years of fencing training making it easy for me to balance, Akai is wearing tough combat boots. She's wearing a light jacket and denim shorts. If we're working together, I don't know how I can compete with her. I deal with mysteries and illusions, making the enemy think I'm something I'm not but she is the real thing. I trick my enemies to feel fear but she doesn't need any tricks or illusions.
I yank my scabbard forward slightly to be able to pull out my sword at a moment's notice as I ring the ornate doorbell, not sure exactly what to expect but being prepared for anything.
"Hi, hi! It's so nice to finally meet you two! I never expected you to be so beautiful!" A man with sunglasses and a red Mohawk gushes at us, blowing us a sloppy kiss.
Akai looks purely alarmed. I guess I'll have to do the talking, at least for now.
"I never expected you to be so… beautiful either. I'm Akuma and this is Akai."
"Oooh, you're Fran's replacement? I'm Lussuria! So glad that froggy is gone. You're so much better looking than he was!" He runs a white-gloved hand through my waist-length hair, but I don't feel like anyone is intruding. I just feel vaguely amused.
"Come in, come in!" he gushes again, taking each of us by the hand and leading us through a hallway to a huge relaxing room, where various other members of the Varia are arranged on couches.
"Welcome to the Varia!" he squeals.
I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe I was expecting all the members of the Varia to be as…overbearing and flamboyant as he was. But they're the opposite. They all don't really say anything, they're just looking us over.
Lussuria pouts. "Now now, that's no way to greet our new friends! Everybody, tell them their names with a sentence about themselves!"
They all scowl.
The first person to speak up grins like a true sadist and says, "My name is Belphegor. I am a Prince."
"We all just call him Bel!" Lussuria squeals.
"I'm Superbi Squalo. I use a sword." He glances at mine and I scowl. Damn.
"I'm Levi. I…" He trails off, uncertain.
"Keep going, guys!" Lussuria makes a duck face.
"I'm Xanxus. I'm the boss. You will obey me."
Throughout all of this, Akai's face was impassive but upon hearing this she glares fiercely. "Are you going to make me?"
"No, no, honey!" Lussuria screams and flaps his way near her. "Don't challenge the boss," he says in a very loud stage whisper.
"I will." He glares back at her and they remain like this, blood red on steel gray, fiercely glaring. Everybody is watching with varying levels of interest, and Akai meets his gaze for a long time, longer than I'm sure most people can, before she finally looks away in defeat.
I'm impressed.
"Storm trash, show them where they will be sleeping. Our meeting will resume tomorrow." He cuts off as he takes a sip of wine.
"Nighty-night! Don't let the bedbugs bite!" Lussuria blows us more kisses as Bel drags us up a huge flight of stairs into a hallway of what I'm sure are bedrooms.
"You'll be here," he points as a door and looks at Akai. "Goodnight," she says as she walks in, closing the door.
Bel looks at me for a second and grins. "You might be more fun than both Mammon and Fran. We'll just have to see."
I arch an eyebrow but he just laughs. "Shishishi….You'll be in here."
So, tell me what you think! Am I good at writing OC's…? Are my attempts at dramatic backstories interesting? I don't bite! Or attack with a sword like Akuma does. Well, I'm not as good as she is. :P
Please review! :D You're all amazing!