Author's Note: Thought or Emphasis; Flashback; Thought or Emphasis in Flashback
I do not own K-ON!, but I do own this idea, probably spawned by watching anime over the years (and a certain couple fanfictions.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this different scenario for our favorite little band.
Read and review.
K-ON!: Hunters!
Part I
It was a Monday.
Some loathed the first day of a school week. To them, it promised new lessons to be bored with or outright sleep through in class, new assignments to spend all night on.
For others more optimistic, however, a new week promised new beginnings.
One such optimist was the girl on the roof, standing with an envelope in her hand and a heart fit to burst. On this shining spring afternoon, she had made her decision.
Today, she was going for it.
Today, she was going to tell Mio Akiyama she loved her.
After all, who wouldn't love a girl like Mio? From her beautiful hair, a raven waterfall cascading down her back and cut bangs framing the face; to her flawless, creamy skin; to her eyes, holding back a steel-colored strength like the clouds before a tempest; and of course, a body everyone in school envied—the girl herself looked down to certain assets much smaller than those of her love, and wondered if she was worthy to claim such a goddess.
Yet, all the beauty never got to Mio's head. She never demanded the attention of her classmates, merely attracting it with her brilliance, her self-assured nature, and her kindness. The last of those qualities once led Mio to walk the girl, a transfer student this year, to homeroom, telling her of the school's charms along the way.
She had been smitten ever since.
Now, after weeks of charting Mio's route about the campus, building up the courage, and writing the letter and poem in that envelope, it was time to make her move. She had already placed a note on her desk as the morning ended, sure she would pick it up and head to the roof.
Her friend Chizuru had always told her to speak up a little more often, and by the heavens above, Shizuka Kinoshita would start with this!
She'd tell her lovely Mio-sama the truth, they'd carry their beautiful bond through high school and college, get married (she'd figure that part out later), have a gigantic family (she'd figure that out too), grow old together, and unite their souls as they transcended to the next world...
And nothing would stop Shizuka's dream from coming true! Not even-
"KINOSHITA!"
At last, AT LAST! Her idol, her first and only love, was here!
"You really came!" Shizuka's hand gripped the envelope a little tighter, her fervent hold on the end almost bending her message. She turned around. "Mio-sa-"
Wait.
'Kinoshita'?
Not 'Kinoshita-san' or even 'Shizuka-san'?
Her Mio-sama was too proper, too considerate to speak someone's name without an honorific. The only exceptions were her inner circle, especially-
"T-t-t-Tainaka-san!"
Ritsu Tainaka was a bit famous, too; her hair marked by two tousled, light-brown locks reaching shoulder length, the rest barely tamed under a sun-colored headband none had ever seen removed; her eyes, amber globes with wild light trapped inside; and her figure, not as full as Akiyama's, but toned like an athlete's and dressed in an unkempt uniform, drew eyes from a different crowd.
Currently holding a familiar-looking note was another thing that often drew eyes: Ritsu's left hand, and the arm connected.
Despite her being able to use the limb just fine, everything from the fingers to the shoulder was tightly wrapped in gauze.
None of the general student body knew what it looked like under there, yet everyone had a theory, ranging from an embarrassing scar to the decaying flesh of a zombie. All Ritsu said when asked, though, was that she could never take it off... ever.
But there was yet more to the tomboy, and a smile paired with an incomprehensible aura reminded the poor Shizuka of this.
Despite all her planning, her love-struck gaze had only accounted for one of the couple who sometimes shared the hallways of Sakuragaoka. The first-year had neglected to research a more fearsome facet of Ritsu's famous, or perhaps infamous, reputation.
"Hey, Kinoshita..."
She was the one force that kept everyone's hands off of Mio.
"...Let's have a talk."
Everything, even a beginning, must come to an end, and a Monday was no different, the final bell ringing throughout the school. Hundreds of girls departed the building, crushing or picking up a few cherry blossoms along the way.
A few of them, however, had further commitments to the school—clubs. From gymnastics, to student council, to calligraphy, to light music, students found a group with which to share their interests.
Still, the school had a rule for every club, for all students in fact:
No one was allowed to stay on the grounds after sundown.
The famous and infamous found themselves once again heading to their afterschool activity.
"You know, Ritsu, you still haven't told me why you were late for lunch."
"I did tell ya, Mio. I was..." the bandaged brunette fought down her smirk, "...just taking care of something."
The ravenette's eyebrow raised. "And just what was that something?"
"...Something."
Mio sighed. She hated when Ritsu kept secrets from her. They had known each other for this long, and had been through so much...
Like that.
Things had changed so much after that day...
"Kill... AKIYAMA!"
It was small, but so fast... so full of rage... all Mio could see, could feel, was its rage... and her own fear, attacking her heart like the one before her intended.
Then, a cry.
"NO!"
With a sudden push, she fell.
A mess of limbs, and fists, and teeth thrashed about, friend from foe unrecognizable.
A scream not her own.
"AHH!"
A messy CRUNCH.
Then, a scream all her own.
"RICCHAN!"
NOT HERE!
Her mind quickly bailed out of it. There was no need to lose her composure on the way to the club.
Besides, I'm not that little girl anymore.
Slipping a bit forward to the present, Mio realized that Ritsu's disappearances hadn't really happened until high school, and especially this year. She never got a real answer the last eight times one occurred, though, and she had a feeling she wouldn't get one now either.
Besides, she had a bit of a secret of her own, one she couldn't tell Ritsu. It was... risky. For the team, for school...
They were close, but to tell her...
I don't think I'll ever be ready for that.
"Mio?" Ritsu nudged her friend's arm; sure, she figured her answer wasn't the best one, but the girl beside her didn't usually take it this hard. "You still here?"
"Huh?... I'm fine." She chose to change the subject. "Well, hopefully you'll take care of our next job a little faster than that."
Sensing the mood change, the brunette couldn't help but counter, her hands folding behind her head. "What're ya talkin' about? We handled that thing just fine."
'That thing' had three heads, a bit different from the usual arrival—and a lot more talkative at that. The three also had a bickering problem, not knowing whether to "gnaw on their flesh" or "remove their heads and eat the rest," only made worse with the option of "do them both."
The girls instead revealed the prize behind door number 4: oblivion.
"We did. But we would have gotten it done sooner if you hadn't have focused on that trick shot. You put two holes in the wall behind it." Ritsu's strong suit was power, not precision. Others in their little band were a bit better at that.
Admitting that to herself, she merely shrugged. "Well, it's always fixed in the morning, isn't it?"
"I guess..." It was part of the school grounds' charm—literally. Just another precaution.
"And last time I saw, you were still trying out that move of yours too. The Six-Gate... what was it again?"
"The Six-Path Strike."
"Yeah, that's it."
Mio sighed, her hand unconsciously reaching for something at her waist before she caught herself. "That was the last thing Megumi tried helping me with."
Megumi Sokabe was the only one in the club left until the others had arrived, and she and Mio quickly connected over their shared skill. She was a bit of a school idol herself before her junior took her place; smooth brown hair framing eyes of the same color and a soft smile presented a portrait of beauty and poise.
"Sokabe... yeah... poor girl."
Ritsu was never one of her adoring fans. Sure, the girl was cordial to the rest of the club (back then, only the four and a certain odd advisor), but Ritsu sensed something under the grins, even different from what she felt off of a certain blonde at times. Maybe it wasn't that kind of ability, but Ritsu was usually a good judge of character.
It certainly had nothing to do with how Megumi glanced at Mio during practice.
Nothing at all.
Whatever feelings were had toward Sokabe, the whole group felt her sudden loss. She was the only one to... "depart" from the club's activities in years—and in her senior year, at that. Mio hadn't held Elizabeth quite the same way since.
The ravenette suddenly had an urge to practice. Hopefully Azusa was willing to-
"Ah, senpai!"
Azusa Nakano was mere steps from the door to the club room. Her small stature, curves yet to truly reveal themselves, and the favored style of her dark hair, twin tails, added to the fledgling maturity in her garnet eyes. Like Mio before her, she respected her elders, and always kept her look tidy.
Her uniform was almost always frazzled after club, though, for a certain bubbly reason...
"Hello, Azusa." paired with "Yo, Nakano."
The junior reached for the sliding door, but seemed to hesitate.
Ritsu had quickly figured out why. "You know she's gonna smother you the minute you step inside." She chuckled. "Might as well get it over with."
The future victim sighed. "You're right." After a steadying breath, she opened the door.
The club's room had more space than one would expect from standing outside.
A lot more.
It had to be in order to fit a long table made out of collected school desks; a nearby rack for jackets and school bags, with an adjacent one for any club necessities; a fairly sizable cooler (courtesy of a certain blonde) tucked away from any potential foot traffic.
Other things occupied the space, things that were a bit strange for what was thought to be a music club. Sitting farther back from the desk-table was a circular platform about a meter high, a plateau one could guess to be a sparring ground. On the opposite wall of the rack was a long line-up of human-sized and larger dummies meters away from a line, including a few swinging from above on ropes. One could quickly surmise that the area was a shooting range.
At this shooting range, someone took aim. It was another teenage girl, her hair near Ritsu's length and of a similar shade, but straighter, a bang near her forehead pushed back by two yellow pins. She had not taken off her uniform jacket, the sleeves never seeming to be a burden.
She held an old-fashioned bow, the top easily surpassing her height when upright. Strapped over her back was a quiver, the colors blending from a near blood red at the opening and bottom of the pack, to an orange-yellow hue that covered the rest; it all seemed to match the various shades of a sunset. Out of the quiver sprouted feathery fletching the same color as her hairclips, brighter than the yellow on the quiver.
Her posture suggested focus: feet evenly apart, back straight, arm tensed as it held an arrow of wooden shaft and blunted head.
Her eyes, though, were something else. They did not focus on a target, they did not aim in front of her, they simply... looked.
It was as if the girl was waiting for something.
At this point in her high school life, she had seen this many times... but Azusa was still fascinated. This Yui Hirasawa, the one so steady and still in what she could only guess was a state of zen, was so different from the usual Yui, the girl who could swallow a cake in one sitting, the girl who (according to her sister) often needed to be yanked out of bed for school on Mondays...
The girl who had just sensed her favorite junior walk into the room.
"Azu-nyan!"
She released the bowstring's tension, but had already forgotten her shot as she crushed Azusa in a hug...
...just as the twin-tails expected. Sure, her senior's bow was poking her back, and some brown hair was smashed against her face, but she didn't pull away just yet.
She hardly even noticed when her own arms started to move near Yui's waist, until...
Am I... starting to like this?
"AHEM!" With a small shove, she slipped out of the hold, quickly smoothing out her jacket. She could hear Ritsu's barely-stifled giggle in the background (followed by an "Ow! What was that for?"), but chose to ignore it. "Hello, Yui-sen-"
The POP made the everyone jump, Azusa back into Yui, who cheerfully took advantage.
The arrow made contact with a small flash of blue light before it faded. The hit was perfect center... and about an inch deep into the target.
"Heh heh!" The absent-minded archer scratched the back of her head. "Sorry, everybody!"
"That was still quite impressive, Yui-chan."
Yet another girl appeared from seemingly nowhere. Markedly different from the others, wavy blonde hair fell down to her waist, her eyes sister sapphires. She held a plate with cups of steaming tea, already prepared for the others' arrival.
"Yo, Mugi." A bandaged hand waved at the resident medic, Tsumugi Kotobuki.
"Hello, Ricchan, everyone." A smile graced Tsumugi's face, its fair skin another sign of her foreign heritage. "I have Baumkuchen cake today." Sure enough, the ring-shaped cake sat in all of its chocolate-glazed glory. One glance at the dessert, and Ritsu was already at the table, fork in hand.
Mio's palm met her face. "Should've known by now we'd never actually start with practice."
"We'll get to it." Her oldest friend spoke with her mouth full.
She let it slide; Ritsu wasn't the one she wanted to spar with first anyway. "Well, Azusa, I guess it's just you and-"
"What she said, Azu-nyan!" The recent escapee of the Hirasawa hold found herself pulled along to a seat right beside her captor. "We'll get to it!"
The younger noirette wavered, looking at the elder standing alone. "I... I don't know..."
"Pleeeeeease?" Yui stroked Azusa's head, hitting two soft spots on the top.
To this day, Azusa never could tell if Yui just showed affection this way, or if she really knew what it did to her junior. In seconds, though, the question disappeared, as did the rest of her mind's thoughts. She released a soft purr she couldn't hold back if she tried.
The soft spots rose from her hair...
...revealing cat ears, real black cat ears that loved to be rubbed. Two cat tails sprouted from under her skirt, waving dazedly in the air.
"Okay."
The half-nekomata was a living example of the balance between the worlds: the world of the humans and the world of the yōkai, the creatures of supernatural form and power.
While each dimension was normally separate from and uncharted by the other, there were places where their boundaries blurred, places where man and monster could accidentally come face to face, their interactions the basis of legends worldwide. Unfortunately for humans, the portals were unstable, opening and closing like a wind-battered screen door; and many yōkaiwere quite unfriendly, angry, and, most importantly, deadly.
No one has ever been known to return alive.
One of these places had just so happened to be the site of a certain high school, the worlds meeting at night and parting by morning.
With the knowledge that there were creatures of another world among them, humanity would live in perpetual fear, or try to harness the other beings' strengths for their own purposes, even waging war to claim them. Thankfully, there were those who not only defended the secret, but defended their kind as well with powers all their own.
Some of these powers were the products of training, like Mio's or Yui's, allowing them to harness their latent spiritual energies.
Others were the products of accident, like Ritsu's—yes, accident, as she would refuse to call the events of that day a tragedy.
Still others, like Azusa's, were the products of birth; not all of the other world sought blood or power, but adventure or asylum, like her father.
Whatever the reason, five of these young ladies had found themselves banded together in Sakuragaoka's Light Music Club. It was a perfectly harmless cover, being a simple music appreciation group.
When asked why the school didn't use the Occult Club, their advisor Sawako Yamanaka explained simply:
"That would've been too obvious."
The girls found their skills grow sharper and their bonds grow closer with every sundown, with every enemy they faced...
But they were not prepared for what happened this night.
Indeed, the events of tonight, outstanding even for these supernaturally-strengthened students, would sink into their memory for years to come...
To be continued...
Well, that's the tentative first chapter. As with my other K-ON! story, I may go back and tweak the chapters if I find something amiss or feel like adding more. I don't expect this fic to be more than three or four chapters, but I do intend to make them eventful. Expect to see some classic anime cliches—you'll know 'em when you see 'em.
FYI, I got the name "Shizuka Kinoshita" from K-ON! itself. According to the wiki, she's friends with Chizuru Shima, both of which are classmates of the seniors. In the anime, Shizuka had helped out the girls during the Romeo-and-Juliet play (I wonder how many viewers were waiting for a kiss between the co-stars?). I figured, rather than make a name up, I might as well use the source material.
So, what do you think? Any predictions, hopes, dreams, things that made you cringe? Let me know, and keep your eyes open for the next chapter.