With the flip of a coin the world turned upside down.
A single step through the door and everything lurched.
Blue hair walked in.
Auburn hair stepped out.
A smirk grazed her face, she knew the plan and was eager to put it to action.
Despite the fact that everyone should be asleep by now, the red-eyed girl was wide awake.
Step by step her foot hit pavement.
Step by step her smile got bigger.
Step by step she got closer to the gate. Closer to the green mansion that held a plethora of shadows.
Coffins surrounded her, yet she paid them no heed.
Her shoe stepped in a puddle of blood and yet she did not mind.
Auburn hair pulled back into a simple ponytail.
Crimson eyes that held a hint of bloodlust.
A glint of steel.
The entrance was reached.
A blue door to the left.
Clocks.
Alone she stepped into the tower.
Per-so-na.
Pink lips chewed on the edge of the pencil. Staring down at the infuriating problem that plagued her, red eyes narrowed in a fit of concentration. She didn't know what she did wrong! With less than five minutes until the end of the test she wanted to finish the last problem.
But what on earth was it asking? The question itself didn't make sense at all!
Her left hand fiddled with a coin in her skirt pocket.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and grabbed hold of the coin. Squeezing her fist ever so slightly before releasing and running her thumb across the ridges, across the indentation and over small little bumps that were words.
She slowly and tenderly caressed the coin, before turning it over.
Tails.
Exhale.
Red eyes opened. Scanning the paper she had in front of her before locating the error. A simple calculation error early on in the problem. Small enough to skip over yet big enough to change the answer. Tripping over the smallest things, how typical.
The auburn haired girl fixed the problem and flipped the paper over. With that, midterms were over.
With a sigh she leaned back in her seat, the last problem took a toll on her mind and the brunette was utterly exhausted. She could barely hear the teacher's speech on finishing midterms and just closed her eyes, relaxing and resting her sore writing arm.
Damn math problems. Always have to trip her up, and they were always the last thing she has to do! Fate seemed to be out to trip her just before the finish line.
Sighing once more the girl opened her eyes and took a glance around the room. Her fellow classmates had different reactions to the end of the test. Some were mad, some had happy expressions and some looked lifeless.
Her cap wearing friend looked to be apart of the last group, having an expression upon his face that could only be called despondent.
Glancing toward her brown haired female friend, the red eyed girl found that her expression was one of simple resignation. Neither happy nor sad. She had already accepted that whatever score she got, she would be stuck with.
The bell ringing broke the girl out of her thoughts. She supposed that she should be happier, the majority of the tests themselves were ridiculously easy. Science, history, Japanese and English were all walk in the parks while Math had maybe three problems at most that had tripped her up.
Damn, if only they could get their results faster.
Crimson eyes blinked. Scanning the list for her name from the bottom up, and she still couldn't find it. Yukari's and Junpei's names were already found, with Junpei's being around the bottom and Yukari sitting comfortably in the middle, however the further up she went the more nervous she got. She knew she did good, but now she was starting to get her expectations up.
Damn it, she was starting to get near the top ten and still was her name nowhere in sight. She knew she did good but there's no way she pulled that off was there?
Taking a breath, she decided to just go for it and take a look at the top spots. With a small gasp she found her name sitting nicely at the first place spot. The number 498 next to her name.
Huh, maybe she did do that good. Especially since it was out of 500.
And just like that she realized all of whispers around her, the looks of awe and the gazes coming from her fellow students.
"Hey, did you see the transfer student-"
"I heard she scored the top of the class!"
"How is that possible?"
"-transferred a month ago."
"Must be a genius!"
The brunette swallowed, her mouth felt dry and hands were shaking slightly. She was certainly used to people talking about her, she had made it her mission to be friends with as many people as possible, but having the spotlight shifted to her out of nowhere caught her off guard.
She flexed her fingers and stuck her hand in her skirt pocket. Feeling the cold metal of the coin that lay inside calmed her.
The sudden attention that fell upon her left her nervous and worked up. The redhead felt every little strand of hair out of place, the way her uniform was slightly wrinkled at the right shoulder, how her skirt felt ever so slightly too short despite being past knee length.
She squeezed the metal object in her pocket once more before flipping it.
The world became silent, the chattering of students became nothing but background noise.
Crimson eyes blinked.
A smile graced her face.
She turned away from the board and walked towards the school entrance.
Junpei and Yukari were waiting after all.
"Hamuko-chan! I saw the results! Who knew you had it in you to take the top spot!?"
Hearing Yukari's energetic voice the first thing out of the gate was a bit of a surprise for the red eyed girl but she responded with a bright smile.
"Hey Yukari-chan, and who could have guessed right? I guess paying attention in class really paid off!"
A new voice entered the fray. "Yeah, you spent as much time paying attention as you did sleeping in class. Must have really paid off."
Junpei, who was most definitely not there a second ago, had a slightly amused expression on his face. His signature hat on top his head and his goatee crinkling slightly as he spoke.
The red eyed girl at least was humble enough to look sheepish, knowing that the statement was in fact true. And yet, despite this, a smile still rose to her face.
"Oh? And how would you know that Junpei-kun, if I remember correctly then you spent just as much time asleep as I did. If not more." Hamuko responded with a teasing tone.
"Well at least my scores reflect that, it honestly doesn't make sense that you got the highest score with that much sleeping! Seriously, what'd you do, pull all nighters every day for each subject?" Junpei said, face looking as if he really believed that she did.
Hamuko, not one to pass up opportunities, took the chance and played along. "Of course! You really think it's possible to be top of the class without making a few sacrifices?" She laughed.
Yukari looked as if the auburn haired girl had grown another head, the goatee wielding student on the other hand, caught on quickly and joined in.
Junpei gave another smile. "If I didn't know any better I would have thought that you sacrificed a few people for the sake of a few good scores!" He thought for a second. "Maybe that's why there's been cases of students disappearing! It's been you all along hasn't it!" Junpei exclaimed, face completely serious.
The exclamation drew a few gazes from the other students who had been near the front gate. several chuckles could be heard while others just shook their head before proceeding onwards to their destination.
Hamuko shot a quick glance at the spectators before she returned her eyes to her friends. Giving a mental chuckle for what she was about to do she adopted the creepiest face she could, which was admittedly not that creepy, before saying "And the souls of the students will haunt everyone in the dorm as ghosts for not stopping me!" This time Hamuko actually did laugh.
A small sound from their brown haired friend alerted and reminded both Junpei and Hamuko that Yukari had yet to really say anything in the past couple minutes.
Not to mention that she looked really pale.
"Yuka-tan, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost?" Junpei said, cracking a smile at his own joke.
"G-Ghost?!" Yukari laughed nervously. "D-Don't be silly! "G-Ghosts aren't real! Y-You should joke around about stuff like ghosts!"
Junpei and Hamuko exchanged a glance.
"Ah, Yuka-tan. We were just joking. After all ghosts aren't real right Hamu-tan?" Junpei gave a small chuckle in an attempt to calm down the abruptly scared girl.
"No Junpei, ghosts aren't real." Hamuko tried to keep the amusement at the entire situation out of her voice but failed miserably.
Yukari gave a glare to both her fellow dorm mates. "Hmph! Well I was going to suggest that we all go out and treat ourselves for surviving midterms, but I guess that you two would rather joke around then have a nice celebration between everyone."
Junpei's eyes bulged. "N-now now Yuka-tan, I'm sure that all of us agree that a celebration is a necessity, especially since we never really got to celebrate after the incident with the monorail."
At the mention of the monorail, Hamuko's bright smile gradually turned into a small neutral upturn of the lips. One that betrayed very little emotions. There were things that happened on May 9th that only she seemed to notice, and they definitely weren't pleasant. So many things just seemed out of place. Like what on earth was that last bit with the shadow? It… Talked right before it dissolved into nothingness. She didn't even know shadows could talk! Most of the time they just scream at you or make-
"-muko! Hey Hamuko!"
"Huh?" Hamuko blinked, yanked out of her thoughts
Yukari sighed. "Geez Hamuko, for someone who's so smart you can sometimes be a scatterbrain you know? We have enough of that with Junpei. Anyways, we were just wondering if you have to do anything later today?"
"I…" Hamuko thought a bit, still slightly frazzled from being pulled out thoughts. "I do have something to do, rather soon in fact thanks for reminding me."
"Oh? And what would that be? Date with your secret boyfriend?"
"H-He's not my boyfriend! And it's not a date! We're just meeting up to talk!" Hamuko denied, face taking on a slight rosy shade.
"..." Both Yukari and Junpei stared.
Hamuko furrowed her brows in confusion before realizing what she said. Covering her mouth, her slightly pink cheeks bloomed into a full on blush.
"I-I have to get going, bye guys!" Hamuko rushed off, not meeting either of them by the eyes.
Yukari and Junpei both stared at the direction their friend had dashed off to. They both exchanged a quick glance.
"We're following her right?"
"Of course."
Despite their nonchalant attitude about following their friend on her not-so-secret-anymore-date, they found that Hamuko could be very quick and easy to lose in a crowd of she wanted to. Which is something considering that both her looks and her general aura just seemed to… attract people.
"Tch, damn. Where did she go?" Junpei muttered.
Yukari scanned the area. "How did we lose someone like her?"
"I know! I was just thinking that. How do we lose someone who stands out and attracts attention just by being there?"
Yukari sighed. "I really didn't think she'd be that good at maneuvering crowds. Definitely not a skill I expected from our happy go lucky leader." She sat down at a nearby bench.
Junpei sat down next to her, slumping down. "Ahh, I was really excited to see who captured our leaders attention."
"Why? So you can spread another rumor around the school?"
Junpei looked slightly sheepish. "Ah… Well aren't you a bit curious? After all, she's denied every guy so far! Who's the special guy who managed to land a date with a babe like her?"
Yukari had a slight look of disgust on her. "Honestly Junpei, is that all you think about?"
"Something like that…" Junpei trailed off.
Yukari looked over, confused by her friend's sudden change in mood.
"Junpei?"
"Ah…" Junpei shook his head. "I was just thinking that-"
"You? Thinking? What a miracle!"
"Yeah I know right?" Junpei smirked. "Anyways, I was just thinking that despite how good friends Hamuko is with everyone, how good friends she is with us, we don't really know too much about her do we?"
"Junpei what-"
"Like sometimes I feel that despite how friendly she is, she keeps us at an arms length distance."
"Junpei where is this coming from-"
"Do you know what Hamuko's favourite colour is?" Junpei looked straight into Yukari's eyes.
"Of course! It's…" Yukari blinked. What was it? It was probably red right? After all when they went shopping she looked so good in it. "...red right?"
Junpei shook his head. "That's what I thought too. But when I asked her about it she just looked confused and said that it wasn't."
"Well… What is it then?"
"I never got the answer out of her. She said that she had to do something and left. Kind of abrupt too."
Yukari looked around. The crowd had significantly died down by now and the space now had only the occasional person walking around, most of them being students like them. The sun cast a nice orange glow over the entire park, complementing the long shadows that were cast from the ever dipping sun.
Looking back at Junpei she said. "That's odd Junpei, and now that I think about it I do kind of get that feeling. But I'm sure she has her reasons! Everyone has their secrets." She took a look around the area once again. "Anyways, it's getting kind of dark and I'm kind of thirsty. Let's head to Chagall cafe real quick since it's close by and then go back to the dorm."
Junpei nodded. A drink sounded nice right about now. They wasted their time chasing down their friend who was more nimble than they expected and ended up just talking the entire time. Not that it was a bad thing, it was rather enjoyable.
"Yeah! Sounds good."
"Hey Junpei!"
"Huh?"
"You know, when you aren't talking about how to score girls, it's not so bad talking to you. Reminds me of old times!"
"Y-Yuka-tan… I didn't know you cared!"
"Don't let it get to your head. Baka."
Upon entering the cafe, both Junpei and Yukari scanned the room, a habit formed from their dwelling into Tartarus.
"H-Hey Yuka-tan?"
"What Junpei?"
Junpei elbowed her before tilting his head in a direction. "Is that…?"
Looking over to the area that Junpei motioned to, Yukari's gaze met with a mane of short auburn hair. Shaking her head slightly to make sure she wasn't imagining anything she confirmed that yes, the pretty girl with red hair was indeed their friend Hamuko.
"Of all the places… I guess it makes sense though. But where's the guy…?" Yukari trailed off.
"Probably just left, she looks like she's getting ready to leave too."
"Didn't even leave with her. Hmph! What a guy."
"Cmon Yuka-tan, don't be like that. I'm sure he had his reasons." Junpei said, feeling the need to defend his fellow male.
"There's no excuse for-" Junpei grabbed Yukari's hand, leading them over to their friend. "Hey! What are you doing? Junpei!"
"Why don't we just ask her then?" Junpei gave a small smirk, his goatee crinkling slightly.
"W-Wait Junpei you can't just-"
"Sure I can!"
"-and then he found out that his teacher was a maid!"
Blue hair shook slightly as he laughed. Silver eyes crinkling slightly from the smile that was apparent on his face. The tale that was being told wasn't exactly the funniest thing but the sheer enthusiasm and joy being radiated from the auburn haired girl was contagious, anyone would be hard pressed to not enjoy spending time around her.
"Oh? And what happened then? Did he steal her heart?" The blue haired boy asked.
"What? No! I told you that he only stole the hearts of the bad guys! Why would he-" She paused, thinking over what he said slightly. "Huh, I guess in a way he did end up stealing her heart. In a completely different sense of course."
The bluenette raised an eyebrow. "A teacher student relationship? Can't say I saw that coming."
"That got you interested huh?" She paused for dramatic effect. "Wait! No way! Don't tell me you want to be in a student teacher relationship yourself!"
"Now where on earth did you get that idea?"
A playful smirk appeared on the auburn haired girls face. "I could sense it! I could see it in your eyes! It's something that you've always wanted isn't it?"
A mischievous glint appeared in the blue haired boy's eyes. If that's how she wanted to go about it, then two could play at that.
"Ah. It seems that I've been found out. But wait! You were talking so much about a boy going about stealing hearts… could it be that you wanted me to steal your heart?"
Not expecting the tables to be turned so quickly, the girl was shocked for a moment before her face erupted in a bright rosy red blush.
"Wha-"
Not letting up, the boy interjected quickly. "That's a cute reaction. May I take it from that blush that I'm correct?" He smirked. "We only met yesterday and you've already fallen for me? I'm flattered."
The auburnette felt as if she could spontaneously combust at any given moment. Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly in an attempt to form some sort of response and yet no sound came out.
The boy chuckled softly, slightly proud at his work and ability to completely fluster the girl he was with. It certainly wasn't everyday that he was able to make someone speechless and it definitely made for something entertaining.
The girl crossed her arms and turned away from the smiling boy.
"Y-You…" Cursing herself for stuttering, the girl continued. "You wish y-you could steal the h-heart of someone like me! I'm way out of your league!"
"You know, you aren't very convincing with that stuttering."
Glancing at the boy out of the corner of her eye, the girl scanned him over once before turning back towards him and mustering up the meanest glare she could make.
Not at all fazed by the glare he was receiving, the boy met her gaze head on.
It was kind of cute actually.
The girl continued glaring. Maybe if she stared long enough, he would burst into flames? The thought of the boy across from her randomly igniting made her lip twitch ever so slightly. The more she thought about it the funnier it seemed! She could just picture his reaction, he would be so confused!
"Heh…" A giggle escaped her lip. She bit down. Hard.
"Hehe!" More giggles! No! Cmon! Stay in character.
The boy noticed the escaped giggles and let out a small giggle of his own.
Seeing this the red eyed girl couldn't take anymore. She laughed. The hilarity of the entire situation, the glares, the stories, and the flirting just got to her.
Chuckling alongside her the boy clutched the table in front of them with one hand in an attempt to contain his laughter, to no success.
"You-" the bluenette started, forcing his laughter down in. "Are quite the character it seems. It's been awhile since I've had a wholehearted laugh like that."
"I could say the same for you!" The girl responded. Still giving off the occasional giggle. "To think that yesterday and most of today you gave off such a cold air."
"I could see the futility in acting like that around someone as stubborn as you. I am assuming you would have continued pestering me had I not accepted your invitation?"
"Of course! Someone like you just screams 'delinquent' but on the inside you're just a big softie!" She nodded once, seemingly proud of her analysis before blinking. "Hey wait! I did not pester you, and I'm certainly not stubborn!"
"I'm surprised you can say something like that with a straight face." He smirked. "Then again, stubborn people tend to be really thick headed."
"H-Hey! I am not thick headed! I'll have you know that I scored highest in my year on midterms!"
"That's surprising. Are you sure they didn't mix up the names of last place and first place?"
"Ha! As if! You know I could probably teach you a few things. Like how to treat a lady and make friends!"
The blue haired boy pretended to look around. "Huh… I don't see anyone that could be classified as a lady anywhere…"
Looking back to the girl he feigned surprise. "Oh! Did you mean yourself?"
Red eyes twitched. "Look here bub-"
"Excuse me."
The arrival of a new voice caused both parties to blink in surprise. The waitress stood by the end of their table with a small receipt in her hand.
The newly arrived waitress gave a nod before handing the receipt to the blue haired boy. "Here's the recipt sir! Thanks for coming and have a nice day!"
The boy nodded in response. "Thank you, and you too."
The auburnette was silent throughout the whole exchange. It wasn't until the waitress left that she spoke up.
"When did you pay…? We didn't get the bill… Did we?" Utterly confused as to what just happened, the girl asked in hopes of figuring out what was going on.
The boy just gave a smile in response. "If you were wondering about not splitting the cost, then don't worry. I handled it."
"No, that's not what-"
"It is getting rather late though, so I must be going. Thank you for the evening, it was fun."
"Huh? A-Ah yeah… See you."
With that. The blue haired boy got up and left. The door made a slight jingle from bell attached to it as it opened before closing softly.
"What just… Happened?"
Confused by the abrupt ending of the date, the girl only stared at the door the boy left through.
Blinking once, she realized something.
"Wait a minute… I never got his contact info!"
With a sigh the girl checked her phone for the time before starting to pack up her things. Recalling the date brought a small smile to her face. He was definitely someone not used to other people, the way he responded to her early on in their meeting was a good indicator, but he slowly warmed up and even shocked her a little by how witty he could be at times. Not to mention his age, he said he was the same age as her but she neglected to get information about where he went to school. She would have remembered if someone like him went to Gekkoukan high.
"Ah well, I'm sure I'll meet him again."
Giving another sigh, something that had been occurring more frequently lately, the girl stood up from the chair she had been situated in. Turning around she-
-came face to face with a certain cap wearing student and his choker wearing friend.
Hamuko blinked. "Junpei? Yukari? What are you guys doing here?"
Junpei stepped forward and gave a grin. "Oh nothing Hamu-tan! We were just going to get a drink when we saw you and decided to say hello!"
"Is that really it, Junpei?" Hamuko gave him a blank stare, before turning the look onto Yukari.
Yukari fidgeted nervously from the stare she was receiving. "We… wanted to see who you were going out with."
"Oh, well if that's ALL you wanted then you could have just asked. Didn't have to go as far as stalking me."
Junpei sputtered. "We were not stalking you!"
"...or at least, not doing a very good job at it." Yukari interjected.
"What! Yukari! You can't just-"
"Junpei please, we both know that we lost her almost instantly!"
"Yeah but that doesn't mean you can just tell her that we were-"
"Yukari, Junpei."
Both friends were stopped from their bickering when their top scoring friend called them. The too-sweet-to-be-true smile that she was giving off exuded a foreboding feeling.
"Y-Yes Hamu-tan?" Junpei stuttered.
"Let's go back to the dorm."
"Of course"
"R-Right."
And that was the end of that.
The journey back to the dorm was a quiet one. Hamuko cheerily hummed along to the song she was listening too. Ears covered by her red headphones. Both Yukari and Junpei trailed slightly behind her in silence.
To an outsider, there would seem to be nothing wrong with the trio. A group of friends who simply prefer the silence instead of idle chitchat.
On the inside however, both Yukari and Junpei were slightly jumpy. Every time they tried to start a small conversation with Hamuko what they got was a seemingly normal response.
A normal response with a very obvious edge to it, one that dissuaded any ideas about furthering the conversation.
Their leader seemed to be still ticked off about the whole stalking thing.
Upon reaching the dorms, both Yukari and Junpei exchanged a look. Neither of them were really looking forward to the very near future with their leader in a mood like this.
Junpei idly wondered if there was a small chance she had cooled down.
"H-Hamu-tan?" He started.
"Hmm?"
"Are you uh… still mad?"
Hamuko smiled. "Now Junpei, why on earth would I be mad? Whatever have you done that could have possibly made me mad?"
"Nothing. Uh… It's good that you aren't mad."
Yep. Still mad.
She shut the door to her room, feet dragging along the floor before ultimately collapsing. Auburn hair sprawled out, covering her eyes, her nose, her face. Darkness filled her sight.
Who was he?
Who was that blue haired boy?
Why did he look so much so much like him?
Why?
Why?
She didn't show it, but ever since her meeting with the blue haired enigma it had taken all she had not to break out in hysterics
She took a shaky breath, hands trembling as she attempted to push herself up. The floor was so cold so cold but she couldn't bring herself off it no matter how hard she pushed.
The mirror in the corner of her eye corner of her eye looked so inviting, so warm so not cold.
She lay upon the cold ground as she stared upon the silver eyes silver eyes that stared back at her.
Silver eyes in the mirror.
With trembling hands she reached into her pocket, taking hold of the cold metallic coin. Slowly she taking it out, hand meeting cold air before creating a fist.
Maneuvering the coin to the top of her first, she dug her thumb under her index finger and then flipped.
Heads over tails it goes before softly landing in the palm of a hand.
The world lurched.
Out of the corner of the eye did Crimson irises stare back.
The person on the floor lifted their head, turning to face the mirror. Crimson eyes disappeared, replaced by silver orbs.
What was once auburn hair was now a midnight blue.
Where a beautiful girl once lay, a young man took her place.
Her yin to his yang.
Opposites who have come together.
Two sides of the same coin.
He took a deep breath. Hands steady and pulse calm. Pushing himself off the ground he stood, several inches taller than his female counterpart he was seated at a nice height of 170 cm.
Looking down he noted that he was still in her uniform. Despite the change appearance, their clothes stayed the same. Quickly taking off her clothes and putting on his that were stored in the closet, the boy walked towards the closed window parallel to the bed.
The moon was in its third quarter phase, half of the moon was brightly visible in the sky while half of it was shrouded by the surrounding darkness.
The now blue haired boy thought it was oddly symbolistic.
He waited, waited waited waited. Waited for the hour to strike midnight.
And it did.
Green spread throughout the landscape, water replaced with blood and the moon glowed an eerie yellow.
Finally.
He unlatched the lock on the window and jumped out, feral grin on his face and nothing but his clothes and a single evoker on his body.
Started: May 16th.
Finished. Jun 6th.
Words: 5,021
Theme for this story: Loving something you can't have.
Something I made on a whim. Took a while since I'm rather busy but it turned out okay I guess. The style of writing I chose for this story is kind of interesting in my opinion. I hope people can pick up on what kind of messages I'm trying to send.
I don't really like dialogue too much but it was kind of necessary for a story like this. Kind of overboard with what I ended up with.
If you note anything that could be improved please say so.
-FN