Men and women alike were gathering. They came from all over Japan by old beaten up cars, cheap public transportation, or by good old-fashion walking. Most were weary as they approached the ominous and dark building that rose up from the ground. On its face, just above the huge warehouse doors, was a black banner with a single horizontal stripe painted in red. No one knew why they were meeting at the infamous and abandoned Takayuma Warehouse, but none protested as they milled into the structurally unsound building.
All of the people who were gathered had one thing in common; they wanted money. Posters had been plastered in all of the most poverty-stricken areas, advertising a new and enlightened path to wealth. And now the desperate and penniless were mobbing and crowding each other in the warehouse in front of the rickety wooden stage that had been built specifically for this event.
A man stepped up to the podium. He was tall, lean, and dressed in all black. Not an inch of his skin showed; his hands were gloved, his face covered by a red plastic mask that had two dark circles for his eyes and two oval slits for his nose. A black cowl over his long-sleeved shirt covered his hair and neck.
He spread his arms as he faced the crowd. Instantly, all chatter ceased and a hush fell over the people.
"Friends," He said, his voice high and gravelly. "Yes, that is correct. Just by coming here today, you have shown me that I can put my faith into you and your judgment. And for that, I call you friends."
He looked out to the hundreds, nearly thousands, of people. It was impossible to know whether or not he was pleased, but his tone sounded delighted as he continued to speak. "All of you have something of worth to me. It is something you will need if you are to become enlightened. You will be rich beyond your wildest dreams, living in the lap of luxury because each and every one of you has this—motivation. Drive, purpose, incentive; whatever you want to call it. And with this motivation I, Kyofu, will lead you. I will lead you to happiness and glory. All you have to do is join me."
Without warning, Kyofu snatched the microphone off of the podium. In one hand, he crushed it. The metal gave in to his strength as easily as if it were Play-Doh. Kyofu let the short-circuiting ball of plastic and metal fall to the ground, and with a voice that was louder than it had been with the microphone, he shouted to the crowd:
"Together, we will rise as Torinozuko!"
XXX
Chairman Suoh nearly jumped up when there was a knock at his office door. "Come in," He called a little breathlessly.
His personal assistant, Michio Kawazu, entered the office and closed the door behind him. He took off his hat and wrung it in his hands nervously. "Sir…"
"What is it, Kawazu? I'm busy." Suoh said, turning his attention back to the files he'd just pulled from storage. There had to be information on him in there somewhere.
"Sir," Kawazu said again, this time more urgently. "The Haninozuka's representative came back last night."
"As he was supposed to. Why is this important, Kawazu?"
"He was completely brainwashed, sir. He was barely coherent—babbling about riches and enlightenment. We've yet to bring him back to comprehension. They're afraid it could be too late."
Suoh looked up at his assistant with wide eyes. Kawazu continued to wring his cap, looking everywhere but at his boss. A full minute passed as Suoh processed this new piece of information. He stared down at the file on his desk. It held only a single frustrating piece of paper. Suoh slammed his fist down onto the picture printed on the page.
Kawazu coughed nervously, and Suoh glowered up again. "There's more?"
"Um, yes sir," Kawazu said. Everything about him was tired; his eyes, his stance, his voice. "The… the rumors have been confirmed."
The chairman's eyes widened as he ran a hand through his thinning hair. "Oh dear," He whispered. "Kawazu, you are excused." He said abruptly, getting up from his desk and hastening to his grey file cabinet. The assistant bowed and nearly ran out of the office.
Yoshiro Suoh opened the drawer and pulled out a manila folder that was almost as empty the first one. This one was home to a stack of newspaper clippings, blurry traffic-cam picture's, sketch artists' drawings, and eyewitness accounts complete with excruciatingly vague descriptions of someone who shouldn't exist. This file happened to also be very frustrating to Suoh. He sighed, running a hand over his face.
He pressed a button on his telephone that would put him through to his receptionist. "Fumi, get Ootori on the phone." Suoh clenched his teeth. "Tell him we need the Raven."
XXX
The Raven told everyone she met that her name was Riku Karasu. Things were just easier that way. No one needed to know her real name, and certainly no one needed to know that she was the Raven. Then again, it was pretty risky of her to choose a last name that actually meant raven, but so far, no one that didn't already know her had been able to put the pieces together.
Riku was squatting on the roof of the Ootori mansion. All of the lights were off, so she knew the family wasn't in yet. They were probably off doing some rich person thing, like horseback riding or buying fancy crap at an auction. Riku was mildly surprised. She'd clarified that she'd be there before seven o'clock that evening, and that if she wasn't inside the house by seven, she'd be gone. Now here she was at 6:55 and there were no Ootori's in sight.
Just as she was about to leave, Riku saw a limousine pull into the mansion's long driveway. She smirked and watched as the Ootori family spilled elegantly out of the vehicle, dressed in semi-formal designer clothes. The head of the family—the one who contacted Riku—was there; as well as his wife, their daughter and a boy Riku believed to the youngest son. The Raven took a moment to appreciate the fact that he was quite the looker. Hopefully she wouldn't have to end up killing him.
Riku was about to leap down from the roof to meet them, when another person caught her eye. Three persons, actually. Emerging from the limo was a man she recognized as Yuzuru Suoh; someone Riku genuinely liked, although the feeling was not mutual. Following behind was his mother, Shizue Suoh, and his son, who's name Riku did not know.
As the large group made their way towards the front door, Riku pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head and her domino mask down over her eyes. She was ready to say hi. All she needed was for them to get a little closer to where she was perched…
Riku hopped down from the two-story building, landing right in front of the group of socialites and effectively making all of them jump, with the exception of Shizue, Ootori, and his son. She dusted herself off of dirt that wasn't there and grinned at them all.
"Yoshio Ootori, my dear friend! And Yuzuru too. I wasn't expecting you to be here," The Raven pulled a handgun from its holster on her waist. With a disgustingly sweet smile, she cocked it and put both hands on her hips, still holding the gun. "Now tell me what you want, and give me one good reason why I shouldn't trap you in your home and set the place on fire."
XXX
"So wait, let me get this straight. This guy is forming a cult? He's brainwashing people and you think he's after all you Richies here in Japan? You're paranoid." Riku jeered. "Or full of yourselves. I'm gonna go with both, actually."
She, Yoshio, and Shizue were seated around a conference table in one of the Ootori mansion's many large rooms. Riku guessed that Yoshio held a lot of meetings in his home; otherwise he wouldn't need this whole office-y set-up. As for Yuzuru, he was up and pacing around the room apprehensively, like he'd had too much coffee.
"Yo Suoh, calm down. You're going to form a rut." Riku frowned at him from her chair.
"You pulled a gun on my son!" He shouted, pointing an angry finger at her. "Don't tell me to calm down!"
After Riku had drawn her gun in front of the house, two members of the Ootori's Private Police Force had appeared and aimed their pistols right at Riku's heart. Since he looked like the weakest of the bunch, Riku had grabbed Suoh's son and pressed the barrel of her gun to his temple, effectively using him as a human shield.
"Yoshiro! I thought you said no police." She had tutted, ignoring the Suoh boy's whimpers. "Dishonesty is such an ugly trait."
Ootori had hastily waived off his guards, and Riku had immediately released the boy. It wasn't her fault he had fainted.
"You should try not to dwell on the past so much, Yuzuru. It's bad for your skin." Riku said, unconcerned.
"Miss Karasu. This is a serious matter." Shizue said. "The mastermind behind all of this is called Kyofu. We know for certain that he has been planning to overthrow people of our social status for a very long time now."
"He is keen on the concept of anarchy." Yoshiro chimed in. "We don't know his plan exactly, but we do know that he's began training hundreds of civilians to fight against authority. It's been rumored that he plans on kidnapping relatives of wealthy businessmen and holding them for ransom. We believe Kyofu's ultimate goal is to take money from us and keep it for himself."
"So? What do you want me to do?" Riku yawned.
"We found out one of his targets: our very own Ouran Academy. That's where you come in." Suoh said sternly, having finally calmed down and taken a seat. "Your job will be to attend classes, and at the same time protect the children at the school. We have you there because you'll fit in with your fellow teenagers. You won't cause alarm like a team of men in uniform would. We'd like to keep this a secret from the students and their parents, for safety reasons. And it's unlikely that he'll send more than five men to the academy at any given time. We know you can twice that many foes at once."
Riku's jaw dropped. "You want me to attend high school?"
"Yes. But not to learn." Suoh leaned forward. "To protect."
Riku leaned forward too. "And what if I say no? Maybe I'm on this Kyofu guy's side. Maybe I want to overthrow the wealthy too?" She sneered.
"I do believe we have enough dirt on you to plant a healthy garden, Miss Karasu." Shizue said lethargically. "We've gone these past few years without informing the federal police of your whereabouts, but if you don't help us, we may have to forget about our little deal."
Riku chewed on her bottom lip. It was great, living how she did. Only a few people knew exactly where she lived, making it incredibly hard for the authorities to track her down for her crimes. The Ootori's and Suoh's were letting her do whatever she wanted as long as she stopped messing with their businesses. Did Riku really want to give all that up?
"Fine. I'll help." She sighed and stood up from the table. "But don't think I'm going soft for giving in so easily! I need something to do during the day, alright? That's why I'm doing it. Suoh, send me my school stuff when you get a chance. You know where to find me."
"Wait, Karasu!" He stopped her from exiting the room by putting a hand on her shoulder. "I have a favor to ask."
"What?"
"My son—the one you almost shot today—he runs an after school club every day. A Host Club."
"You want me to stay after school and make sure he's safe during his little club too?"
Suoh actually looked sheepish.
"Okay," Riku said.
"Okay? You'll do it?" He looked shocked.
"Sure. Whatever. Just send me the details with the school stuff." Riku gave the chairman a funny look before disappearing through the door, out of the mansion, and into the cool, dark night.