hello again. this fic was written for a university AU contest on wattpad so i tried my best to research on tokyo university and law degree studies.
PLEASE READ: the most interesting thing that happened was that during researching about hongo campus because it had the law building, i found a very interesting piece of information about a stone lantern that was called 'The Snake Mound' about a woman that was sentenced for torture and death by snakes.
if that wasn't a sign from Matsui i don't know what it was so even if this is a very rushed fic i really hope you will like it.
enjoy and if you have any ideas on how to make this fic better please tell me because i really want my readers to enjoy my stories.
In the Hongo Campus of Tokyo University there is said to stand a haunted stone lantern possessed by an unknown lady-in-waiting who was tortured to death by snakes for her misconduct.
There is rumors that on some nights a small boy appear in front of the stone lantern and pour water over it, as if trying to purify it. No one knows how to describe the boy except for his eyes which are bright blue with slit pupils and that his aura reminds many of a snake.
No one who dares disturb the stone lantern escapes from the snake ghost's clutches.
No one.
~.~.~ The Snake Mound ~.~.~
~~~ Game Start ~~~
...
Karma walked down the street towards his new life's destination – a big building by the main gate in the Hongo campus of the University of Tokyo. Luckily, his dorm is minutes walk from the entrance so he could sleep in almost every day.
Since he wanted to become a bureaucrat he had to go to the faculty of law and work his way up to the top of his class so he can be one of the measly 40 people who out of thousands of people, will climb to the top positions with the most influence.
He passed the Kabuki-mon shaped gate when a soft voice caught his attention and he turned to see a short person with blue hair stand in front of him, wearing dark jeans and a simple long sleeved dark blue shirt. For some reason, the other was bracing their hands on their knees, breathing as if they had been running.
"E-excuse me!" The person exclaimed and looked up and Karma was met with slightly slanted bright blue eyes which had made him think of a female, but the slight sharpness of the other's face had him reconsider it.
"Yes?" He asked since he realized that the other was trying to get his attention. The blunet perked up and sighed in relief.
"Do you have any idea on how to get to the Faculty of Law? I was told that it is near the main gate, but—"
"Whoa, relax, there it is," He chuckled and pointed to a building on his left. The other student followed his finger to see the sign 'Faculty of Law' hanged atop of the door and his face turned beet red.
"I'm so sorry!" They bowed to the redhead. Karma simply rolled his eyes and strode away, heading to the same building he had pointed at moments ago. He heard scuffling behind him and smirked, perhaps he should mess around with the kid a little bit.
"Say-" He looked behind him only to find that no one stood there. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, he was sure the other was behind him since he heard him and he came pretty early that no one was really around.
"Yes?" He startled and this weird chill stabbed his stomach and phantom pain made him jolt and snap around once again in expectation of an attacker only to spot that same blunet with his finger reaching towards him and adorning an innocent smile.
"Are you okay?" The blunet inquired when Karma stared at them with wide eyes. The redhead quickly gathered himself and forced a smirk.
It probably was just his imagination.
"Sorry, just couldn't see you since you are so short." The annoyed groan made his smile turn into a genuine smirk and he ruffled the other's blue hair, enjoying the protests and quickly forgetting about the strange feel. "So since you are probably an undergraduate like me and you are going to the same building as me, we are probably in the same class so I should introduce myself," He extended a hand to the blunet, "I'm Akabane Karma, eighteen years old and from around."
The blunet regarded the hand in confusion for a moment before nodding and taking it, giving it a soft squeeze and Karma had to suppress his laughter. It's like the kid doesn't know what a handshake is.
"Um... It is very nice to meet you, Akabane-san, my name is Shiota Nagisa, eighteen years old as well and I live in the dorms here."
"Wow, you're too polite," Karma quirked a brow up, "Loosen up and don't call me Akabane-san, it makes me feel so strange. Just Karma is fine."
"Okay... Karma-kun," Nagisa smiled and they begun walking towards the building.
"Say, Nagisa," Blue eyes looked up in question and his lips stretched into a smirk, "Are you a girl?"
Karma's smirk grew bigger when the blunet sputtered. "I guess not?"
"K-Karma-kun!" The other exclaimed, face flushed in embarrassment, "I'm not a girl! I'm a boy!"
"Just had to check," He raised his hands in mock surrender, "You just look like a girl and all."
"Please don't say that," Nagisa grumbled and tugged on his chin length hair, "I thought that after cutting my hair less people would say that."
"Dude, it's longer than mine," He laughed. That kid is too amusing. Nagisa glared at him and pulled on his bag's strap as he pointedly turned his back to the redhead.
He snorted. Truly amusing.
"Oh, don't be mad," Karma patted the other's hair, dodging the swatting movements the other made. "I didn't mean to offend you."
"Unfortunately you did," Nagisa huffed and tried to walk away from him. Only he seemed to forget that one: they were going in the same direction. And two: Karma's legs were longer and therefore it was easy for him to catch on to the blunet.
"Leave me alone!" Nagisa lost all politeness and yanked the door open, swiftly going to one of the lockers that had 'Shiota Nagisa' written on it. Karma snorted and went to his locker, exchanging the outside shoes for the inner ones, noticing how Nagisa finished first and rushed away, disappearing around a corner.
His smirk turned mischievous.
It seems that he is going to have some fun this year after all.
...
~~~ Mistake Number One ~~~
"Please don't sit next to me," Nagisa grumbled when the redhead flopped on an empty space next to him. Karma cackled and went to ruffle the other's hair only for a pencil's tip to appear by his eye and a familiar chill to go through him. He dropped his hand, eyes wide and heart thumping quickly.
Nagisa, seemingly oblivious to the effect he just had on the redhead, poked his forehead with the pencil, "I'll make sure to introduce you to my pencil if you'll try that again."
Karma for the second time today forced a laugh, wiping his suddenly sweaty hand over his clothes, "But I would rather get introduced to you."
"Ha ha ha, very funny," The blunet kicked his shin and Karma winched, grabbing the throbbing limb, the incident, once again forgotten.
Satisfied, Nagisa grinned and returned to whatever he was doing before Karma sat down. Gold eyes followed the movements of the pencil and slowly registered what the other was writing.
"Is that a list of the students in our curriculum?" Nagisa tensed and covered the page with his arms, sending a pout at the redhead. Karma laughed, eyes turning to the front of the room when the professor entered.
...
~~~ Mistake Number Two ~~~
Nagisa felt like a fresh breeze, Karma had to admit. Two months into the year and the only reason he hadn't gone and killed someone up is because of the way the blunet managed to convert all of his frustration into studying and if that didn't save his neck once or twice when he was actually close to punching the professor. Nagisa averted his attention to a difficult question he was having a problem with, diffusing the anger in him.
He found that he didn't need to be on guard around the blunet and that even when Nagisa caught him once beating up some thugs, the blunet simply sighed in exasperation and helped him gather all the unconscious bodies into one pile and even managed to procure a rope and tie them together, doing all of that with a small weary smile.
Karma really felt in ease around the other young man. So why?
Why does he hear a hiss of a snake whenever Nagisa appears to be in a bad mood?
The first time it had happened, Karma simply thought it was a hallucination. He then decided to sleep in longer than usual as a cure. He didn't hear it the next day and was secretly relieved. Nagisa for some reason was frowning all day and when the blunet snapped at Karma for poking at his cheek at the end of the lectures, he heard once again the snake and had to suppress a shudder.
The next morning, he woke up to the news of a high ranked personal in the collage found brutally dead in his apartment.
He wasn't supposed to feel like he knew the person responsible to it. The only person he knew personally here was Nagisa and the blunet wasn't capable of violence even when he didn't discourage it.
That day, Nagisa seemed calmer and Karma had slowly forgotten for the third time.
He never made the connection.
Today, Nagisa seemed to be in a very good mood and that smile didn't waver even when Karma decided to comment on how his hair was becoming long enough to confuse people of the blunet's gender. Instead of the glare and the kick to the shin he usually got, he only got a jab to his ribs. Well, he thought as he tried to keep a straight face, maybe it wasn't 'only'.
"I'm sorry, but you were in the way," Nagisa drawled innocently and Karma gave him a stare that clearly stated that he didn't believe the blunet in the slightest. Nagisa chuckled and returned to his notebook.
That notebook.
That accursed notebook that had lists of any kind. The one time he managed to sneak a peek into it when Nagisa bent over to pick a pencil, he saw a list of the professor's 'weaknesses', mainly quirks and fears. How did Nagisa even manage to put his hands on some of the information? The man never told any of his students that he was scared of crocodiles or that he likes to go eat at one of the burger places in the campus.
Why does Nagisa even need this information for?
Deciding to test his luck, seeing that Nagisa was in a really good mood, he curled a hand around Nagisa and snatched the notebook away from the other's hands.
"Karma!" Nagisa turned with a horrified expression to the thief who was currently smirking mischievously and avoiding the hands trying to grab the notebook. "Give it back!"
"No way! This is too interesting!" Karma cackled and turned his back so that the blunet won't be able to reach for the notebook and opened it slowly, shoulders drooping in relief when he only saw lists of recipes. "I thought you wanted to learn law, not how to be a housewife."
"You annoying idiot!" Nagisa flushed and begun hitting the redhead on the head, Karma trying to hide the actual pain he is.
Nagisa is stronger than he looks.
"You're hitting like a girl," He commented and the hitting stopped. Karma mentally sighed in relief and turned to see Nagisa frown, eyes hidden by blue hair.
Then a big head of a snake opened his mouth and Karma stared at fangs and forked tongue.
A tail slithered around his neck and squeezed. The sudden pressure made him gasp and fight for air.
What's going on?
"Akabane Karma?" The redhead blinked and the vision disappeared and he realized that the notebook was absent from his hands. He slowly turned to the professor with unseeing eyes.
An angry gaze softened and the professor for civil law that Nagisa wrote had a secret soft spot for kids with lost eyes asked him if he was alright. Karma blinked and nodded, still unsettled from the sudden vision.
He stole a glance at Nagisa, half expecting him to hover over him with a knife, but in reality was simply twirling a pencil with practiced ease.
Nagisa is refreshing. Nagisa is unsettling.
Which one is the real Nagisa?
...
~~~ Warning Number One ~~~
They were doing a mock trial for a case between corporations. Karma stood as the prosecutor for the corporation that was suing one of the other students, Horibe Itona's 'corporation' for supplying him with flawed materials.
"I have here the contract that Horibe-san (they had to act as if they had never seen each other before, and that included the names. Karma really didn't like being to formal, but this was a mock trial and he didn't want to fail just because he was stubborn) had signed at the affirmed date of October the 12th, 20** that the specified tube would be fused with a weld of 5 centimeters to the transmission and would be made from SAE4130 which is an alloy steel for the judge who might not understand the terminology, and 20 centimeters diameter. But when my client checked the product they had been delivered, they had found that the weld was 2 centimeter and the tube had been made from SAE1340, which is manganese steel. Both those inaccuracies could have been seriously damaged my client's product and render it useless and even dangerous to the corporation's buyers."
The judge, which was played by one of the more enthusiastic students in the curriculum, Fuwa Izuki, took the slip of paper from Karma and skimmed over it, nodding to herself. The redhead smirked behind his hand and took a glance on one of 'Witness Mechanics' for the case, which was surprisingly Nagisa.
The blunet glanced at him and smiled nervously. He recalled amusingly how Nagisa protested about being the mechanic, preferring to be one of the lawyers or at least one of the bosses. At the end he was reassured that at the next round he will be something else and the blunet resigned to his role. Karma could see how skeptic some of the students were about Nagisa's ability to interrogate and act in a stressful situation so he tried to hide his cackles when the counsel rained questions on the blunet and was blown off when the blunet answered each question calmly (if not a bit emotionlessly), showing surprising knowledge of mechanics (that Karma knew Nagisa had been researching the night before the mock trial in case of those pop questions) and overall solidifying the case to his favor.
"Thank you Nagisa for making my claim easier," Karma ruffled the blue hair, laughing a bit painfully when the shorter student kicked his shin and walking off, fuming about a certain redhead.
"You two were really good," The 'defendant', Itona said to him when he was packing his papers. Karma raised a brow at him and the pale haired student shrugged. "I just didn't expect Nagisa-kun to be so knowledgeable about engineering. Do you think he would be interested in coming to my parents' electronics store?"
"Not a chance, Itona-kun," Karma shook his head and grinned when the other adorned a frown, "Nagisa isn't into those things. He just studied the subject for today's mock trial. There is a reason he is in the law faculty and not the mechanical."
"I... see," Itona sighed in resignation and turned on his heel and walked away. Karma chortled and quickly closed his bag and followed him out of the class.
_._._._
The next day, Karma thought he had seen the gates of hell.
They were having the second rounds of mock trials, and this time Nagisa got the position of the prosecutor and... Karma gulped as he saw Nagisa's innocent smile, let's just say that the defendant had never been more scared for his life than in this trial.
No one spoke to the blunet that day and for some reason Nagisa didn't seem too bothered by it, his usual small smile apparent on his face throughout the rest of the day.
Nagisa can be truly scary sometimes.
...
~~~ Warning Number Two ~~~
"How are you spending summer vacation?" Nagisa asked him four months after they met, several weeks before they will be released for the month long summer vacation. Karma thought over the question before smirking at the blunet, who deadpanned at his expression.
"It's the season for fishing thugs and you will make the perfect bait!"
"There is a season for thugs?" Nagisa sweatdropped and sighed. "Karma-kun is amazing as usual."
"Why thank you, dear Nagisa," Karma grinned and wrapped an arm around the other's shoulders, pressing his fist into the blue hair and grating the other's scalp. "You are amazing bait yourself."
"Would you stop it!?" Nagisa tried to swat the offending fist, but his awkward position only made things worse and Karma cackled at the other's misfortune.
Then a thought occurred to him. He released the blunet and Nagisa immediately took ten steps away from the redhead, trying to settle down the long blue locks Karma messed.
"Hey, Nagisa?"
"Yes?"
"Have you heard of the Snake Mound found in Hongo Campus?"
"Snake Mound?" Nagisa blinked, lost in thought for a long moment, but at the end nodded. "The haunted stone lantern where a woman was tortured and killed with snakes?"
"Yes, that one!" Karma exclaimed and got in reply rolled eyes and a shake of the head. "What!? I didn't say anything yet!"
"We're not visiting it," Nagisa said, straight to the point with an irritated tone, shoulders slightly hunched which Karma noticed but dismissed it as the blunet being scared.
"Why not?" Karma almost whined. He always wanted to visit spooky places and it seems like the perfect place for some pranks on passing students.
"Because." Nagisa seemed to be done with the conversation and strode away.
For some reason, ever since that conversation the blunet was on edge and hit Karma with an unusual ferocity when he tried to poke a joke at Nagisa.
At the end of the day, Karma cornered Nagisa in the library where the blunet went after lessons.
"Okay, spill." Nagisa tilted his head to the side in confusion, though Karma spotted the slightly dulling of the blue eyes, "What has gotten into you? Ever since I asked about the snake mound, you have been acting as if you expect to be attacked at every corner. It's only a rumor, you have nothing to fear."
"Every rumor has a grain of truth," Nagisa reminded him but then sighed and slumped in the chair, hands tugging on blue hair. "I... am not scared of it, if that's what you're thinking."
More like you are hiding something, he thought in concern. It wasn't like Nagisa to be so uncertain.
"Then what? Am I to think that you are wary of something else?" Nagisa flinched and he knew he had hit bull's eye. "What is it, Nagisa?"
"No-nothing," The blunet curled into a ball, hiding his unusually pale face from Karma, who was getting more and more worried about the strange behavior of the little rascal.
"Nagisa..." Knowing he won't be able to get anything more from the blunet, he retreated and left the other to wallow in whatever the blunet was wallowing in.
...
~~~ Warning Number Three ~~~
...
~~~ Soon You Won't Be Able To Turn Back ~~~
It takes Karma a whole week to find a free hour that he can wander by himself. It seems that Nagisa won't let him be by himself for long for some reason and it really starts to grate on his nerves.
"Want to come to the new shop that opened today?" Nagisa asked him in a nonchalant way but Karma noticed the urgency in the blue eyes and groaned. Another stupid attempt to stop him from going to the Snake Mound.
"No, I am going home," Karma kicked Nagisa's bag and watched in dark amusement the other fumbling to gather all the fallen objects, not noticing a strange looking snake framed mirror falling and cracking, nor the darkening blue eyes.
...
He did not notice the end.
...
~~~ Warning Failed ~~~
...
~~~ No Turning Back ~~~
"Finally~!" Karma broke into a swift sprint the minute he exited the building towards the rumored haunted stone lantern, occasionally peering behind him to check that a certain blunet isn't following him.
Seriously, Nagisa is hiding something and he must find out what is it. And if it's in a haunted stone – even better.
He skidded to a stop after a while of running, the adrenaline ebbing away and leaving him exhausted and sore from running with his casual clothes and sandals.
All of that paled in comparison to the excitement he felt when his eyes fell on the stone lantern, completed with the conical stone umbrella and the Hoju sitting on top of it.
It seemed very simple and after gazing at it for a while, Karma felt disappointed at the anticlimactic artifact.
"Boring~" He yawned and sat at the edge of the circle surrounding the stone lantern. "I thought for sure that Nagisa hid something in here."
A hiss of a snake startled him and he stood up, looking around for the source of the sound but found nothing. When the hiss echoed again, he turned his attention to the stone lantern, only now noticing a weathered engraving on the stone column. He squinted at it and somehow managed to make out a standing figure.
"What is it...? Hmm... I wonder," He mumbled and a cloud passed above him, shadowing the stone from his eyes. When the cloud passed, gold eyes widened in awe.
The engraving seemed clearer and words seemed to etch themselves above the figure.
"'Shi...ota... Hi... romi...'?"
"My mother." Karma's heart skipped a beat and he fell on his rear. Cold hands slithered on to his shoulders and squeezed them painfully. Karma looked up to see Nagisa hover over him with eyes lit with chilling emotion.
"N-Nagisa?" Karma stuttered for the first time in his life. "What's going on? Is that supposed to be a joke? This stone is hundreds of years old, it can't be of your mother."
"Oh, but it can," Nagisa said smoothly, honey lacing words and Karma shuddered at the dangerous aura emitting from the normally calm blunet. "You see... my mother was punished by snakes and before she was... well, before she died, she cursed this place that any one who dares come close to here... would be eliminated."
"What has it got to do with you?"
"Well, let's just say that I am the one fulfilling this curse of her," Blue eyes closed and Karma felt blunet sigh wearily, all earlier traces of his maliciousness evaporating away, leaving behind the familiar Nagisa. "For some reason I stopped aging when she was killed and since then, every time a person comes to here, I... get an urge to... well..."
"Eliminate them?" Now it all makes sense... if you believe in the supernatural. Karma personally doesn't, but Nagisa would never lie and therefore the blunet must be telling the truth. What a terrible existence.
Nagisa rested his forehead on Karma's back, hiding his face from Karma's.
"Yes. I didn't want my only friend to suffer the same fate but I couldn't tell you since you wouldn't believe me... I guess I was too late..."
"I crossed the line?" A nod. "You need to kill me?" Another nod. "You don't want to do it, right?" A sigh and a whimper. "Well, now that I know, I will just stop you when you attack me, okay?" Blue eyes shot up, wide with hope.
"You will stop me?" Nagisa sounded... hopeful. And Karma finally remembered.
All of the days Nagisa would be in a bad mood in class and the news which would appear the next day about a random person found dead in their apartment. The chill he got from the blunet and the snake's hiss.
All this time... all those centuries... he was shaped into the perfect assassin.
"Did you ever have friends before me?" Nagisa nodded and looked up with a faraway gaze, not particularly in a bad way.
"Some of them passed away peacefully. Some I had to eliminate. Some I don't know. You're the first one to know and not abandon me."
"Well, you are a pretty reliable kid," That earned him a confused frown, "and even if I don't believe in this mumbo jumbo, I believe in you so I believe in this story."
"You have no idea how happy that makes me," Nagisa's looked down, face hidden by long blue hair. Karma smiled and ruffled the blue hair.
"You need to get a haircut," He commented and watched in amusement how Nagisa looked up with wide eyes and mouth hang open in shock.
"Karma-kun!" He exclaimed, miffed.
"What?" Karma shrugged playfully, "You were too tense."
Nagisa huffed a snort and regarded him with exasperated but a happy face, "Really, Karma-kun. What am I to do with you?"
"Well, you can pay for my dinner for starters," Karma shrugged and chortled when Nagisa regarded him with blank eyes, "What?"
"You're unbelievable."
"Admit that you fell for my charms," Karma grinned and Nagisa pushed him away and stood up.
"In your dreams, handsome-san," The blunet laughed freely and pulled away the cackling redhead.
Karma felt warm seeing his best friend smile so brightly. Hopefully, he'll be able to do something about Nagisa's curse.
...
~~~ End Of Line ~~~
That night Karma fell asleep by his table. His dreams were filled with snakes and Nagisa's eyes changing from blue to yellow with slit pupils.
He was startled out of his sleep and looked up to meet bloodlust lit blue eyes with slit pupils sucking all life from him.
"Time is up~" Nagisa sing-sang with hissing sounds echoing his words, crouching on the redhead's desk, a gentle smile forming the ominous words.
Karma's mouth opened to protest, eyes wide with realization, arm reaching to stop the attack.
...
But it was too late. He had failed.
~~~ Counter attack blocked ~~~
A snake opens his mouth and lunge. Red explodes everywhere. A blood-chilling laughter resound as everything fades to black.
...
~~~~|GAME OVER|~~~~
...
~~~ Will You Restart? ~~~
[YES]/[NO]
...
~~~ Are You Sure You Want To Continue? ~~~
...
~~~ Well Then... Good Luck ~~~
...
~~~ Game Restart ~~~
'I am a snake in sheep clothes
who between the cracks lurks.
I am a predator.
Waiting for one fool
to fall into my web of wool.
For I am the hunter
and you are my dinner
Little fox.
Good luck next time
You will need it...'
The cop's brows furrowed as he regarded the slip of paper he had found next to the corpse of one of the law course students, Akabane Karma. He inspected the mutilated body and shook his head in pity.
Poor kid.
He looked at the open window and his knees buckled as he spotted two bright blue eyes stare at him and a mouth stretched to a kind and yet the most horrifying smile he had ever seen.
And then he understood.
He was next and there is nothing he could do.
...
~~~ Let The Game Start Anew ~~~