Title: Of Murder and Magic

Author: me

Rating: PG-16?

Genre: Mystery, Supernatural, Romance

Characters/Pairings: England, Seychelles, America, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and others. US/UK, one sided France/Seychelles, one-sided France/UK, Spain/Romano and Germany/Italy if you squint.

Summary: Gakuen Hetalia AU. When a student is found murdered, and Arthur is named the next victim. Arthur takes it upon himself to solve the mystery. But will it take his life to solve it?

Warnings: AU, violence, boy love, human names, swearing

A/N: I was inspired by this MAD I saw on youtube of a Hetalia version of the Spiral opening and ending theme and thought, "Hey! This might make a good idea for a fanficition!" Although the MAD video was the inspiration for it, the plot for this story will not follow the Spiral storyline. There will be a few parallels between the two but not much so don't expect a Spiral fic.

Since this is an AU, I decided to use human names so beware of that.

Since Seychelles has no human name as of yet, I decided to go with Angelique Sechelles since Angelique is a popular female name in Seychelles (at least according to the website that I found) and her surname as Sechelles since Seychelles, the islands/nation, were/was named in honour of Jean Moreau de Séchelles*. She will be referred to as Sechelles so that it makes it easier for everyone.

*the minister of Finance of France during the reign of King Louis XV, when the French occupied the islands in about 1750.

I'm finally done blabbing. Enjoy the story now.

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Ch1 Of Inspections and Smells

That day had started much like any other school day. Students, both reluctant and eager, headed to Hetalia Academy, simply known as the Academy to most students and residents of Little Flats, the town neighboring the Academy. The Academy was the focus of Little Flats and most of the business it had was with the school and its students.

The residents awakened as well, to start to open their business or to head to work outside of Little Flats. Some waving to students as they headed on their way to school while others scorned the hustle and bustle that the students caused, more bad than good.

Angelique Sechelles, known as Sechelles to her friends, a student of the Academy, raced towards the institution, already tardy for her daily meetings with her boss. These daily morning appointments usually consisted of Sechelles receiving her daily assignment from her boss, the student council president. Her assignments had always ranged from day to day and had sometimes left her working late into the night. Such days, she would be escorted to her dormitory by the student council president, he insisting that it was not fit for a lady such as herself to be out at night alone.

This particular day was more important than the rest. Normally, Sechelles would not bother to show up on time to her daily appointments simply because she dislike- no, hated her boss. He was everything that she disliked in men; arrogant, cocky, self-centered, pompous, narcissistic, strict and demanding. Sechelles was well-behaved most of the time and she could get along with just about anyone. But she could not stand people like the student council president. She did everything in her power to make him miserable. Most of these efforts, however, had been in vain. The student council president was a determined individual, one who could not be deterred or discouraged easily. Most of Sechelles's efforts to annoy or irritate would only affect him for a short period of time, the rest of her efforts usually went unnoticed. The overall failure on her part to make the student council president miserable did not discourage or stop her efforts. She continued everyday regardless of the results of her previous attempts.

Yes, this particular day was different and more important than the others before it. For it was this day, much like the same day the year before, that was the start of the student council president's annual inspections. Now the student council president, being the person that he was, took these inspections very seriously and was far more irritable than usual if something did not go according to schedule.

Sechelles was already five minutes late for her daily appointment. At this point she stopped running. She was already tardy, what would a few more minutes do? She tidied herself up as best she could. The student council president took students' personal appearance to heart and expected everyone to be as tidy, orderly and neat as he was. Even the slightest wrinkle or single undone button would not escape his eye and would have him go on his usual tirade of the lack of respect students held to their uniform that would go on for what seemed like forever. Most students would rather take a few more minutes tidying themselves up than suffer one of the student council president's tirades.

Once Sechelles had arrived at the Academy's gates and presented her school issued ID to security, she briskly, yet not too brisk, walked to the student council headquarters. The student council headquarters, otherwise known as the president's castle of torture, was located in the bungalow nearest the gate, making it one of the first buildings students saw before heading to their respective classes.

Sechelles opened the door and stepped inside. Inside, already waiting for her was the student council president engaged in some paperwork. Sechelles closed the door as silently as she could. The student council president looked up from his work and frowned.

"Really, Angelique, how many times must I tell you to keep yourself presentable? Students look up to their fellow peers in the student council. Your rather ghastly appearance and tardiness make a bad example to the rest of the students. You really must shape up," he reprimanded, all the while going back to his paperwork and motioning her to take a seat.

Sechelles, under normal circumstances, would have objected and given him a piece of her mind but seeing as these were not normal circumstances nor was that day just any day, she held her tongue.

Sechelles waited for him to attend to her….and waited…and then waited some more. After losing whatever composure she had, she finally spoke up.

"Ahem"

The president looked up and frowned at her, slightly irked at being interrupted. He pointed to the wall behind her and returned to work. Sechelles looked back and saw a clipboard with a pen attached and numerous copies of the same form.

"And what am I supposed to do with this?" she asked, all politeness gone from her voice.

"Today, if you ever bothered to remember anything of even the slightest importance, is the day I start inspections. I have arranged for the presidents of all clubs to be at their respective club locations. You will ask them questions regarding their finances, how many members they have, what their activities consist of and how many have occurred so far and so on. You will fill out the form for each club and will then report to me when you have finished. Remember to ask them about what they are planning to do for the festival. That is of utmost importance. Any questions?" he said, not once looking up from his work.

Sechelles felt her temper rising. She hated working for the president. Hated being bossed around by him. Hated listening to him. Hated how little attention he paid anyone unless they had irritated him someway. Hated how haughty he was. Hated everything. And every time he spoke, he would infuriate her more. But she knew how important this particular day was and decided that it would be much better to hold her tongue and withstand insults than argue with him for who knows how long.

"And when do you want me to finish these?" she asked, her voice strained.

"Tomorrow, if possible. The festival is coming up soon and I would be glad to know which clubs should be prohibited from participating in the festival."

The festival was a yearly event in which clubs held games and sold food and drinks. Inspections were held for the sole purpose of preventing clubs that have broken rules or had inappropriate ideas for their booths for the festival. There had been an incident in the past in which a club had been handing out inappropriate materials to students. Parents complained and the Academy had since held inspections to prevent such an incident from occurring again. Normally, it was the president's job to hold inspections but earlier in the year, the president had taken on too many projects and had collapsed in the middle of a hallway from sheer exhaustion. The principal found out and forced him to take an assistant. That was when Sechelles, rather unwillingly, had become an unofficial part of the student council. The president was so adamant about her being his assistant that Sechelles felt no choice but to accept. She still had no idea about why the president had wanted her of all people to be his assistant. It was an issue that continued to bother her very much.

She sighed, knowing that no matter what she said she could never make the president understand how little time he had given her. She grabbed the clipboard from the wall and was about to walk out when she heard the president speak.

"There is one club that I want you to inspect first. They have proved to be rather troublesome in the past and would feel more at peace if their inspection was done and over with."

"And which club is that?" she asked, her voice conveying her curiosity instead of her usual defiance.

"You'll soon find out. And whatever you do, do NOT blotch this up for me."

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Ludwig had spent the morning setting up a model of what their booth would look like for the festival. He had even made an extra model, in case Feliciano got any funny ideas. The man was a complete mystery to Ludwig. He never knew what he would do next. But his enthusiasm and overall sunny attitude usually made up for whatever he did.

Ludwig had strictly told Feliciano that the inspections were only for the club presidents and that there would be no need for him to be there. He hoped the message got through. Although sometimes Ludwig would feel as if Feliciano didn't understand what he was trying to say. Not that he would mind if Feliciano was there. It was just that they had already made the student council president's black list. He wanted their inspection to go as smooth as possible. And with Feliciano there, it wasn't completely guaranteed. Feliciano had made his life more complicated and more interesting ever since the day they first met.

If he was honest with himself, Ludwig had actually not particularly cared whether they were prohibited from setting up a booth in the festival. It was just that Feliciano had liked those sorts of things. And Ludwig felt that it would make Feliciano heartbroken for not being able to set up a booth of their own. So Ludwig took upon himself to make sure that everything in their booth would be presentable, their finances in check and no other outrageous activities had taken place. He just hoped that the president could overlook that one episode and give them a second chance. He knew it was improbable that the president could ever overlook such a thing, let alone allow such a thing to go unpunished. Still Ludwig allowed himself to hope, despite the odds. It was something he had learned to do ever since Feliciano entered his life.

Glancing at his watch for the tenth time in the last five minutes, Ludwig began to get nervous. It was already 15 minutes after the time Ludwig and the president had agreed to meet. What if he decided not to show? What if he had already come to the conclusion that they did not need to be inspected because he had already decided that they were unsuited to present themselves in the festival? What if he was just making him wait and watching him squirm from afar? What if he deliberately decided not to show up? The possibilities were endless and the more Ludwig thought about, the more nervous he became.

He took one deep breath and sighed. The president had seemed to be in a good mood when they had arranged the inspection. He seemed willing to understand for once and looked as if he considered overlooking the unfortunate incident. Ludwig had to keep repeating that in his mind like mantra in order to calm down.

Ludwig was an orderly person who respected the rules and kept to a schedule and the president was the same. There should have been no reason why he would be late.

The sounds of rapid footsteps broke Ludwig out of his thoughts. The door was almost slammed open and in the doorway stood Angelique Sechelles, disheveled and panting.

"Are you alright?" Ludwig asked stoically.

"Oh yes, I was just running a little late. So, are you ready for your inspection?" Sechelles asked smiling.

Ludwig looked at her, baffled. She was conducting the inspections?

"Are you the one conducting the inspections?"

"Yes, I am. You haven't heard?" She looked almost skeptical as if why she was there was already known to all.

"Heard what?"

"The president collapsed in the hallway two months ago. Everyone saw it. Principal Rome made him take an assistant because he was worried about his health," she said dramatically.

"And now here I am, slaving away for our dear student council president and holding inspections," she added cheerfully. Although she had been cheery while she said it, Ludwig couldn't help but feel as if she didn't mean a word she just said. Almost as if she was resentful. And he couldn't blame her. Not many people liked the student council president.

The fact that Sechelles, not the president, was holding the inspection made him think that the possibility of being able to run a booth in the festival was much higher now. He smiled.

Sechelles dusted herself off and attempted to make her hair as presentable as possible. She liked to fixed herself up and look pretty every now and then. But lately, with all the errands she was running for the president, she just did not have as much time as before. She sighed. She had to sacrifice a lot in order to become the president's assistant.

She looked up and saw Ludwig giving her a strange look. He almost looked as if he was trying to smile. She shook her head. Smiling wasn't that painful.

"Yeah, so I'll be the one making your inspection. Forgive me if I stumble a bit. I haven't really done anything like this before," she said, looking down at her feet.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," he assured her with a solemn look.

"Thank you for saying so. Um for my first question: do you have an idea about what you were going to do for the festival?"

"Yes, I have a model set up. If you'll follow me." He led her to a large desk. Perched on top of said desk was a miniature booth. Complete with miniature people. Three of them to be exact, a blonde and two brunettes.

"This is too adorable," she said and she picked up the blonde figurine.

Ludwig opened his mouth to say something but decided against it, seeing Sechelles's look of admiration.

"I don't think we've ever been introduced properly. My name is Angelique Sechelles. But I prefer Sechelles," she said while extending her right hand and holding the blond figurine in her left.

Ludwig was about to introduce himself when he heard screams coming from outside the classroom. He frowned and was headed towards the door when a head peeked in. Red eyes looked in and spotted their target.

"Oi, West, you better come see this. This is almost as awesome as the time I mixed some chemicals in chemistry class and the beaker fuzzed and oozed and then there was these lights and everyone was basked in my awesomeness. And I could swear Roderich was just about to bow in awe of my five me-"

"Gilbert, what's happening? Did you cause this?" Ludwig frowned, concerned that this might another one of his brother's antics.

"I swear I had nothing to do this. Come see."

Gilbert gave Ludwig a what-are-you-waiting-for look and headed outside. Ludwig turned to look for Sechelles only to jump when he suddenly saw her standing right beside him.

"This doesn't sound good," she murmured, frowning.

"If you could wait here?"

"HECK NO! I'm coming, too! The president will kill me if I don't report this to him! I also want to see what's going. Sounds exciting."

Ludwig sighed. He followed his brother with Sechelles at his heels.

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The president was concentrating on his work when he heard screams and several footsteps outside "his office." He scowled and tried to continue his work. The screams and footsteps increased by the minute up to the point that the president could no longer concentrate. He would usually go out to find the source of noise and put a stop to it but he was already behind in some paperwork. Whatever it was, someone else could take care of it. He honestly wasn't expected to handle every single crisis in the school. He was only a student after all. If it was a serious matter, Principal Rome would handle, if incompetently, but he would handle it nonetheless.

"What in bloody hell is that racket?" he murmured to himself as he went through his cabinets to look for some ear muffs. He found a pair and placed them on his head, nice and secure. He hoped that it would be enough to drown out the noise. If not, he had some ear plugs stashed somewhere, a combination of the two will surely suffice.

He went back to focus on his work when there was a knock at the door. The president, with his earmuffs on, couldn't hear it and continued working.

Sechelles sighed. She figured that he found his earmuffs and had them on. She opened the door.

She, almost hesitantly, removed the earmuffs from the president's head.

"What the-"

"I'm sorry, sir. There's something you have to see," she said with a serious look on her face. The president could see that she was quite serious and the matter at hand was of utmost important. She knew better than to interrupt him for something that wasn't of the utmost importance.

The president sighed and stood up.

"This better be important, Angelique. I am behind my work as it. I would be very upset with you if it wasn't anything important," he told her.

"It is, trust me, sir. It is," she said with a look that said that it indeed was.

Sechelles led the president outside. Outside a group of students that was slowing becoming a small mob. The president was horrified. So many students at one place, he had never seen so many at once except when school let out.

What he couldn't see was the reason they were all clustered like that, like ants covering the remains of a crushed beetle. It must have been a fight of some sort. They usually only clustered like that when there was some unfortunate accident or when someone was getting beat to a bloody pulp. The president could never understand people's fascination with tragedy and violence. A bunch of barbarians, the whole lot.

Sechelles continued on, shoving and pushing her way in, the president following closely behind. She was pretty strong for a girl.

She led him to the edifice of the A-building, the building with all the counselors' and teachers' offices. No students were allowed in during school hours unless they had to see a counselor or if they were a member of the student council. All important decisions concerning the school were held there. And no student ever paid much attention to it before, excluding the president, it was his third home.

They had finally made it to the front of the crowd and the president could see nothing of interest. No students having it out, no pool of blood, no injured persons, no celebrity waving, no delinquent selling narcotics, no drunken hobo passed out on the floor. No nothing. There was nothing there.

Every eye of every student at the scene turned to the president once they had heard Seychelles's 'excuse me's and 'move it' s. The president's temper rose. Why was everyone staring at him like that? He was about to start shouting and screaming for everyone to head to class when he felt Sechelles tug lightly on his jacket. He turned to her as she pointed to up the wall. He frowned before he looked up and then gasped.

About twenty-five feet above ground level was the body of a student, a male judging by the uniform coat and trousers, pinned to the wall by five large spikes. Two spikes pinned his hands, two pinned his feet and one was in his heart. Blood spilling down from the wounds, cascading down the wall. The student's head hung down as if he were just sleeping, his dark hair covering the left side of his face. The right side was that was not obscured by hair revealed a wide open unblinking gray eye. Blood dripped out of the open mouth and down his throat. His uniform was drenched in blood and left it in shoddy mess.

What horrified the president the most was not the student himself but the writing on the wall next to him. It was red, either written by using the student's blood as ink or by some red graffiti. The words meant to be clear as day had become sloppy and blurred as if rainwater had washed it while it was still fresh. Their message, however, was clear.

Dear sir,

It has come to my attention that this student has misbehaved.

Consider this a gift, one of many to come.

I do hope that you enjoy it properly.

Enjoy the time you have left

For you are next,

ARTHUR.

The president gaped at the scene before him and wondered how this had come to be done, all the while everyone continued to stare at him.

Yes, the president had indeed been right. That day was no ordinary day.

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Forgive me for the terrible formatting. This is my first time posting something on so I don't really know what I'm doing.

So……what do you guys think?

I'm looking for a beta, so if anyone is interested. Please let me know.

Chapter 2 should be up by Saturday.