So. New story. Yeaaah. This is just the prologue, so um, enjoy?
A sigh escaped her as she gazed dazedly up at the bright blue sky. It's a beautiful day, she thought distantly, not really seeing. She just wanted to relax; to enjoy the weather while it lasted because she was sure that rain was going to come soon. Rain that washed away everything, and left her feeling raw and empty. But she couldn't think about it, because thinking was dangerous because then she would start to feel and she couldn't feel at all becausethen the images would explode in her head, bright and vivid and bad and she wouldn't be able to escape them because they were going to drown her and then she would reminisce on those horrible, awful days—
Stop. Breathe.
She inhaled slowly, her eyes closing to block out the world. But then the dark man was standing over her and he was sneering and she was trembling—her eyes snapped open and she focused on a lone cloud, hovering above her. Instinctively, she fell into a meditative state, her thoughts swirling around in a haze, not one idea grasped fully before slipping through her fingers. Her mind was clouded, those wonderfully dark and violent clouds blocking any light from reaching her, but also keeping the memories away. They would swirl around her, every fleeting wisp of a touch burned, burning away her empathy, and they would keep her isolated, away from those who cared about her and away from those—the men that she only remembered pain from—that didn't like her. She embraced the clouds, because they helped her, protected her when she couldn't even protect herself, and they were comforting. With the clouds she didn't have to pretend, didn't have to force herself to care, and she could be as indifferent as she wanted.
The clouds were her sanctuary, the dragon protecting its hard-earned princess—her little flame of hope—so she stared at them as they moved languidly across the sky.
Screaming woke her from her impromptu nap on the school roof. Jerking upwards, heart pumping, she leaned hastily into the fence surrounding the roof, drowning her blank dreams in the need for action. A young boy was desperately running from a small group of third-years.
Bullies.
She threw open the door and pounded down the stairs. She reached the courtyard where she intended to intercept the young boy in record time. Surveying the grounds, she quickly located the boy, seeing him surrounded by the older boys. Smothering the flash of too late she moved, taking the first boy out with a quick chop to the back of the neck. As he thudded to the ground, the others turned, surprise contorting their face before she took them out too. A few solid knuckle jabs to the area just above the backs of their knees and they landed on the ground, grunting. A punch to a temple, jaw and the back of the neck again assured that they stayed down.
She straightened from the reflexive defensive half-crouch, nodding in satisfaction. She turned to the small boy, who was cowering in a corner. "Oi," She said quietly, kneeling down a few feet away, trying not to scare him. He glanced up at her through the spread of his fingers on his protective hands, covering his face. "My name is Redin Elysia. What's yours?"
His eyes took on a slightly apprehensive sheen as he took in the bodies around them, but he answered the question, "S-Sawada Tsunayoshi."