February 12, 2007

Dear Diary,

The lady in charge of this orphanage told me I had to do something besides squats all day long. She told me about a lot of things, so nao I will start this so I can keep track of what I do.

But first, I will write about myself. I am Tenebrous Crescent. (Pretty weird name for someone in Japan.) I have been in this orphanage ever since some lady brought me here when I was a baby, I think. She left me with a book, clothes, some weird gems, a ton of gold coins, a picture of my family, and my special ribbon.

The book is supposed to be in fancy English, but I can't understand it. At the end of the book, there is some writing in plain English. It just says my name, that I should be given a life outside a lab, not to take off my ribbon, and to keep the sword safe. Why would I ever be inside a dog? I don't know. Where is the sword? I don't know.

The weird gems and coins have been put in a bank. The bank person said that I will be able to get them when I'm older. She said something about knowing when and how to use them.

In the picture, there is a tall man with silver hair and green cat eyes. That man is carrying me as a baby. I think he is my papa. Next to him is a lady with red hair and reddish brown eyes. She is holding two girls, one has red hair and green eyes and the other has silver hair and reddish brown eyes. All of their eyes are glowing in the picture.

My ribbon is special. Whenever I wear it, I look normal. My hair changes from silver to dark purple. My pupils become round and not cat-like. Another thing that changes is that my skin doesn't burn and itch as easily. People sometimes think I am a girl because of my ribbon. I think it makes me manly.

Well, I'll go to look at the dojos and things I can do tomorrow with Kotaro-senpai. I hope there is a dojo that teaches about nodachi. For nao, I have to go to bed.

That was over a decade. Since then, I have been involved in many incidents. Now though, it is time for my normal life as a student.

I chuckle at that thought. I, who will cause so much death and destruction to an untold amount of lives, will be going to school as a student.

I quickly pushed down my thoughts and put away my old diary as I hear my bus arriving. Immediately, I notice as the door opens that the bus driver has strange eyes. They glow like a pair of fireflies. A half second later, I smell the stench of cigar smoke.

I glare at the bus driver who in response chuckles. He asks, "YoU hAvE bEeN tHroUgH a LoT, eH bOy? ArE YoU SuRe YoU wAnT tHiS? YoKaI AcAdEmY iS a Scary PlAcE."

Still glaring, I tell him that he should worry more about himself lest he wants unpleasant things to occur.

Unfortunately, the effect is toned down as my sunglasses prevent him from seeing my eyes. He just chuckles as I make my way to the third row and promptly sit down.

With a sigh, I pull out my LOVELESS and begin reading.

*7*7*

It probably wasn't much more than ten minutes that the bus stopped again. This time, a plain-looking young man wearing the same uniform as me except he wears a green blazer in contrast to my brown long coat boarded the bus.

The bus driver asks him the same thing he asked me. Instead of being annoyed like I was, he was creeped out by the old man. With a look that seems to have a lot of fear, he passes him silently.

The young man walked down into the row opposite of me and sat down. I would have ignored him and continued reading had he not started talking to me. However, that was not the case.

"So, is Bus Driver-san always so creepy?"

I responded without looking up. "I wouldn't know. I'm a freshman."

At this, the youth seemed to brighten up and continued to try to talk to me. "My name is Aono Tsukune, what's yours" He asks as he sticks out his hand.

Not taking out my own hand or even looking at him, I reply. "I am Tenebrous Crescent with Crescent as my surname."

So, not enjoying the awkward silence that came after the introductions, Tsukune tried to pry into my life and began asking all manner of questions from my date of birth to my favorite dessert. Mostly I would answer in short monosyllabic words without looking up from my book.

Eventually, the questions stopped and I was left to read my book in relative peace.

*7*7*

Soon after, the bus stopped and we were allowed to disembark. As I got off, I quoted Loveless.

Even if the morrow is barren of promises,

Nothing shall forestall my return.

Tsukune just looked at me quizzically. "LOVELESS Act V" I responded to the silent question.

With that, we both started our trek to the creepy-looking school through the seemingly dead forest, not even bothering to stop by the pumpkin-headed scarecrow.

As we walked silently through the seemingly dead forest, I heard something coming. It sounded fast. I lift my arm up to signal Tsukune to be quiet.

"Take this and go hide behind that tree."I ordered him.

He quickly snatched my bag and hid behind the tree. He will make an excellent tool. Some training, and he would make a very excellent tool.

Curse these thoughts! I am not a monster! I am a student now! I will be a student for however long I need to be before HE takes over.

Shaking my head, I prepare myself to fight some strange beast from hell. I did not expect, however, a beautiful young lady with bright pink hair to come crashing into me on a bike.

"Sorry, I couldn't see. I'm anemic." The young lady said as she tried to get off me while inadvertently grabbing my crotch.

I looked down at my crotch, then the young lady, and finally back to my crotch. It was then that I felt a weird burning sensation on my cheeks. I touched them and was surprised to find that they were warmer than normal.

By this time, Tsukune had come and tried to help the young lady up. I was vaguely aware of him introducing himself and him having a nosebleed. Tsukune needs to control his perversion a lot more around the ladies.

All of the sudden, she kissed him on the neck.

Tsukune let out a yelp and had a pained expression on his face.

With a gasp, the young lady detached herself from his neck. Her face of satisfaction and, dare I say, love quickly turned to one of nervousness. "I'm sorry… but…your blood smelled very good, so I… do you hate vampires?" The young lady asked nervously.

"Nope. I heard that vampires are individualistic." Tsukune said. If I didn't know any better, I would believe that he would be trying to charm the young lady. HA! As if that were possible; he is far too nervous to try that in a dead forest with creatures prowling about.

By this time, I had gotten up and dusted my coat a bit. "Hello, My name is Tenebrous Crescent. I came from a foreign country, so my name is different. If it makes you feel better, you can call me… Shadow or Dark. " I said as I took my stuff back from Tsukune.

"Why those?" Tsukune asked. I responded, "That is what my name translates to in Japanese"

Moka asked while fidgeting, "Ok, Shadow-kun, Tsukune, would you two mind being friends with me?"

Now then, part of me wanted to say something very insulting to her so that I can see her suffer for a bit. Another part wanted to use her for my own benefit. The last, and largest, part wanted to have as close to a normal life as I can before I lose myself to my darkness.

"Don't worry, we'll be your friends. Won't we, Crescent-kun?" Tsukune stated almost as if daring me not to befriend the beauty that stands before my very eyes.

Silently, I turned and quoted LOVELESS again for the umpteenth time today.

The infinite mystery
The gift of the goddess is what the three men seek
We are disquieted by our actions
But their fates are scattered by war

One becomes a hero, one wanders the land
And the last is taken prisoner

But the three are still bound by a solemn oath
To seek the answer together, once again

"If I were to be the hero, would you be the wanderer or the prisoner?" I ask Tsukune as I turn around to face them.

Both of them were very dumbfounded both by my quote and my question it would seem. "To clarify, LOVELESS is an epic poem that my parents left for me among other things before I was sent to the orphanage. It details three friends who bound by the oath and friendship embark on a journey. I liken us to those three friends. So I ask you again Tsukune, Moka, if I were to become the hero, who would be the wanderer? Who would be taken prisoner?"

Moka, still unsure, asked, "So, you mean, we're friends?" Chuckling, I replied, "Yes, that is what I mean. Why? Don't you want me as your friend?"

Tsukune rubbed his head, seemingly unsure what he should say until finally saying this:"You sure do say things in a roundabout sort of way. Honestly, it gets confusing." Moka nodded in affirmation.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Besides, shouldn't we be hurrying to school? We wouldn't want to be late for opening ceremony and whatnot. With a gasp, both realized that we all needed to get ready for that stuff. As such, it was silently decided that we should run…er, speed walk the rest of the way.

As we neared the dorms, we split up to get to our assigned dorms and classes in case we had different classes.

*7*7*

I found my class room without much difficulty. I entered and took a seat near the back. I could see that people were staring at me because I had the coat instead of the jacket, but that didn't concern me all that much. I wasn't in the mood to do anything but read LOVELESS for the hundredth time.

Unfortunately I was not give that solace as I became painfully aware of that a little girl, likely grade school age, was being bullied by three males. They were teasing her about being a witch or something like that. Sighing, I got up and walked over to them.

"If you want to hurt her you will have to get through me." I say as I try to glare my way out of a confrontation. The three bulies, unfortunately, were unaffected by my glaring.

It was at that moment that the teacher, a short Tarutaru mage walked into the room. "Now, now, class is in session! Please take your seat if you don't want to wind up burned meat!"

The bullies spoke silently that our fight will have to be put on hold until after school. As I escort the young girl who surprisingly sits in the seat next to me, she hugs me and introduces herself as Sendo Yukari. I introduce myself and tell her it is not good to keep the teacher waiting as I point to her. She promptly takes her seat and class begins.

Back in my seat, I mentally curse my luck as the teacher is none other than my old magic mentor from the Chaos-Cosmos War that I escaped not even a month ago, Lady Shantotto…

End of Chapter 1