Disclaimer: I do not own Barojou no Kiss.
A/N: This plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone. This is Barojou no Kiss with a slightly different twist to it. Expect AnnisxRoseKnights.
Inspired by Kirei Ai Tenshi.
"STOP!" Came the frustrated and out of breath shout, "Hold it right there you-!" The speaker had to stop shouting in order to catch her breath and continue chasing after the inexplicably fast pink figure.
"YAMAMOTO ANNIS!"
"There's no way I'd stop!" The pink figure chased in question turned around to answer but never stopped running, "Not as long as you're waving that thing around, thank you very much!"
And indeed, the chaser of Yamamoto Annis, a rather fast disciplinary committee member, was running after the pink-haired girl with what appeared to be a horsewhip (Where did she even get her hands on one of those?! Weren't they prohibited from being used in Japanese schools nowadays?!).
Now Annis wasn't particularly in the habit of halting when someone who was chasing after her told her to stop, but she especially wasn't suicidal enough to stop running when said chaser had a very painful-looking whip!
"OOOOOH NO! TODAY'S THE DAY, YAMAMOTO! THAT CHOKER OF YOURS IS COMING OFF!" The rather disciplinary committee member (who really had to be admired for her lung capacity) gestured threateningly with her whip towards Annis's neck, where a thick black chocker adorned by a single red rose was perched, "YOU KNOW THAT THING'S A BLATANT VIOLATION OF THE DRESS CODE!"
Annis was exasperated. They'd had this discussion a million times already. She was tired of constantly repeating herself! "But it won't come off! I've lost count of how many times I've told you that!"
"WHICH IS WHY I FULLY INTENTD TO TAKE IT OFF FOR YOU…" Annis could swear there was a dark aura around the disciplinary committee member as se shouted and thrashed her horsewhip around, "BY FORCE IF NEED BE!"
This girl was crazy! Annis was feeling some serious sadistic vibes coming from her!
Why couldn't the girl understand?! Annis wanted it off, too. Desperately, in fact. She would have taken it off a long time ago, if only she could!
"Listen to me now, Annis…"
A tall, dark man was crouched down in front of a small, pink-haired girl with rose-colored eyes as he spoke to her in soothing tones, "Do you understand? You mustn't ever untie this necklace, nor must you lose it. This is something precious that will always keep you safe, Annis, a 'charm of protection.'"
Lovingly, gently, he caressed the side of her face. He slid it over the light pink hair, hand gliding through the long tresses, before suddenly tightening his hold and pulling it sharply. It was all she could do for the six-year-old to hold back a whimper of pain as tears gathered in her eyes. Suddenly, the man's air shifted from caring to threatening, and the girl trembled in fear at his next, ominous words, "Should you ever lose it, a terrible, fearsome punishment will befall you."
The memory still haunted her to this day.
It was one of her oldest memories with her father.
It was also one of her only memories with her father. But amongst, them, it was by far the most vivid. Every time she recalled it, an intense fear would overtake her.
Annis couldn't help but wonder… What kind of "punishment" was he talking about?
In moments of rage against the power her absentee father still had over her, she had tried to remove her choker. No matter how many times she had tried to cut through the material, however, nothing worked. From scissors to knives to even fire, nothing would even damage the choker. It still looked the same as when she had received it all those years ago, as though it had simply grown alongside her.
To make matter worse, every time she tried, something bad would always happen afterwards. She had suffered from comedically being hit by potted plants from above to almost being hit by a car and killed. After the last incident, she hadn't tried again.
She resented the choker immensely. IN every school she'd ever attended, the teachers on the disciplinary committee always had their targets fully locked on her. Even gangs wanted to pick a fight with her about it, as though the choker was a symbol of, "Hey! I'm a thug! I'll be a bad influence on everyone around me and I wanna fight you!"
She didn't even think it looked good! She wasn't particularly into the whole gothic look. And the rose on the choker was just unnecessary.
She was broken from her reverie by the sound of yells from overhead.
"C'MON, ANNIS! YOU CAN DO IT!"
As she looked up, Annis saw her classmates cheering for her.
"Class is gonna start without you~! Steal the home plate!"
"You can do it! Just a little bit more! You're almost inside!"
"Good luck! I believe in you, Annis!"
"Haha! The disciplinary teach' is eating your DUST!"
"ANNIS-SAMA! YOU'RE TOO COOL! SHOW THE DISCIPLINARY TEACHER WHO'S BOSS!"
Annis was touched by the sentiment, truly (although that last one was a little too fangirlish for her to be truly comfortable with it), but she wished they'd stop! Comments like those only made the disciplinary teacher madder and more set on catching her!
Annis sighed. The worst part of the choker, perhaps, was how it made her stand out.
If this stupid choker really is a charm of protection, Annis thought as she continued running, Then I wish it would just let me live my life peacefully!
Just as the bell signaling the beginning of class rang, the door to the classroom slid open loudly, and in came Annis.
Another morning, another close call. Frankly, though she was barely winded. Having these daily races certainly kept her in shape, if nothing else.
"Chalk up another win for team Annis!" Cheered a bright, curly-haired girl who wore her hair in pigtails.
"We can always count on you for one heck of a morning race! Good work out there today, you were great!" Congratulated a black-haired girl who was altogether too cheerful for a school morning. Slyly, the girl looked over at Annis again, "I think you beat your last score. There's rumours that tomorrow your fanclub will prepare posters and a finish line to cheer you on!"
"Hilarious, Yumika, absolutely hilarious." Of course, Yumika was being absolutely serious, but Annis didn't know that. "I wouldn't have to run so fast if I wasn't being chased by a madwoman-"
She couldn't finish her sentence as someone bumped into her, sending her school bag to the floor.
"Hey! Excuse you!"
"It's your own damn fault for standing in front of the door when I'm trying to get through," Was the unapologetic and borderline hostile answer. As Annis looked up at the man who bumped into her, she was met with a broad chest and deep wine-colored hair. She'd have considered him to be handsome if it weren't for his crappy attitude.
While some girls might have been intimidated, Annis was not one of them. "What's your problem?"
"My problem is with how much noise you're making so early in the morning, Yamamoto Annis." He left right after, leaving Annis seething.
Yumika was quick to offer her two cents, "That's just kinda the way Kaede is, y'know? Ever since you beat him in that sports festival a while back, he's held a pretty deep grudge, Annis."
"Yeah, yeah," Another girl pitched in.
"But despite his totally bad attitude, you have to admit he's seriously hot," The pig-tailed girl exclaimed with a perverted giggle.
Annis ignored that last comment, choosing to focus on Yumika's. "The sports festival… But I only participated in the boy's race because everyone else made me." She shot Yumika an irritated look.
Annis remembered that day well, she had been cheering from behind the starting lines with the other girls. Suddenly, she heard the sound of thunder and before she could control herself she was racing off, high on adrenaline and fear.
She later found out that it was Yumika who had simply blasted the sound of thunder from a stereo, basically forcing her to participate in (and win) the boy's race.
The girl in question was unrepentant, "Awwwww, C'mon-! We only did it to see how fast you could run away! Like, take some impromptu measurements and stuff."
Annis sighed. She wasn't afraid of a lot, but there were certain things: earthquakes, thunder, fire… but nothing quite compared to her fear of her father.
If you remove it, a terrible punishment will befall you. Her father's voice reverberated in her head.
Annis squeezed her eyes shut, turning away from her friends so they wouldn't notice. She wanted to curse herself for her weakness. Why did her father still have such control over her when she hadn't seen him in years! Why couldn't she just forget him and freaking move on with her life!
She couldn't even clearly recall his face. Supposedly, he flew all over the world as part of his job, but she was fairly certain that no job kept a father away from their daughter for twelve years. That man was probably still out there somewhere.
I hope he stays and doesn't come back, She thought viciously. She'd feel guilty, but she was sure he felt the same way. She could probably drop off the face of the earth and he wouldn't care.
Tugging at her choker again, Annis frowned. Frankly, she wouldn't care as long as she took the damn thing off.
This isn't even a choker, Annis couldn't help but think. It's a collar.
She was nothing more than her father's dog.
"Okay guys, settle down! Homeroom's about to begin!" Itsushi-sensei called.
Annis slowly opened her eyes to find her homeroom teacher had just entered he class.
Class passed by quickly after that. As usual, Annis tried to pay utter attention to class. She figured if she focused on her studies she wouldn't be able to think of her father or her cursed choker. Inadvertently, this dedicated attention had turned her into a frighteningly good student.
Before Annis knew it, it was time for lunch and her friends were rushing out the classroom and dragging her with them.
"Annis, this way! It's a shortcut!" Yumika lead Annis.
"Class went over way too late!" Groaned another.
"C'mon, hurry up! We gotta get there before the bread vendor sells out!" A third hungry girl urged.
Yumika huphed, "You can go ahead get the bread, I've got a tastier treat in mind!" Yumika chuckled lecherously. As she skipped along the hallway, still dragging Annis behind her, she explained, "I hear that the third-years pass through here!"
Annis swore the girl almost swooned. "Oh, wouldn't that be great?" She sighed dreamily. All thoughts of bread and her growling stomach apparently forgotten.
"They pass through here?" Annis questioned.
Yumika responded with a creepy gleam in her eye, "Of course they do! I've been studying them!"
Annis sweat dropped. "Isn't that a bit much?"
"What? Nonsense!" Yumika rebuffed indignantly before her usual perverted grin took its place, "Besides, you know what they say! You can't call yourself a woman unless you've got the hots for the president!"
As though summoned by these words, a group of third-years walked by, a single man surrounded by several heavily made up girls.
Annis's friends couldn't contain themselves, "President Tenjou has arrived~!" Their eyes gave way to hearts and they collectively swooned.
The student council president, Tenjou Mitsuru-sempai.
Annis could admit she was attracted to the president. He was tall and lean, with the barest amount of muscle showing through his white student council uniform and hinting at a fit build. He had white blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He had the face of an aristocrat, and carried himself with an almost princely manner that she could not honestly say she was unaffected by.
The pinkette found herself trying to fight down a blush as the president passed her by.
She heard her friends whisper beside her once they recovered from their initial swooning, "Kinda sucks that we can't break through the throngs of third year chicks around him to get any closer than this, though." A brown-haired girl sighed, before recovering, "But he's sooooo cooooooollll!"
"Oh please, cool doesn't even begin to describe him!"
The fangirlism was strong in those two.
Annis couldn't really say anything, though. Even she admired him. Being "cool" wasn't the president's only good point. His grades were better than even hers and it was rumoured that he could to all sorts of sports. And at the same time, he was always nice to everyone.
Smart, athletic, kind. Could people really blame her for being swept along?
As Annis watched the president walk away, she giggled. It wasn't like she'd do anything about it. Besides, he was the type who was hard to approach.
One of Annis's friends squealed as she caught sight of something from the window, "Oh wait, wait! Liking an older guy is great and all, but personally, I really like him right now!" She gestured at someone outside and all the girls moved to the window to get a look.
"Asagi Seiran-kun of Class C!"
There, sitting on a bench under the shade of a blossom tree and reading a book, was perhaps the cutest boy she had ever met. His hair was a light blue and his eyes a molten gold. He was small and rather frail looking, and seemed to have a fixed dreamy expression, as though he were looking at things not of this plane. He was as cute as a girl! The pinkette felt the intense urge to go down there and hug him, then proceed to protect him from all possible harm.
She chuckled at the imagery. She'd be his knight and he her princess. What a pair they'd make!
Suddenly, Annis was bumped into for the second time that day.
As she turned around to yell at the perpetrator, thinking it was that rude Kaede again, she was shocked by a frightening glare from blood red eyes. It sent goosebumps down her arms. A tall man, taller even than Kaede or the president, with beautiful pale skin and inky locks glared at her ominously.
If he wasn't so scary he'd be incredibly handsome, She thought.
Recovering from her shock and reminding herself that no one intimidated her like that, Annis glared right back. Time seemed to stop as their gazes connected, neither of them backing off. She felt she could get lost in those blood red orbs. She thought she could detect a glimmer of surprise on the stranger's face, but she couldn't be sure.
At this unexpected confrontation, the air seemed to tense, as if waiting for something, before the mysterious stranger turned away and walked off, leaving Annis feeling oddly bereft.
As the frightening person walked away, Annis couldn't help thinking that this person was unquestionably dangerous.
"…Wha!" Was her delayed verbal reaction. "What was that?"
"That guy… Oh yeah, he's that second year. I've heard some pretty nasty rumors about him. His name is Mutsuki Kurama." Yumika explained.
"Nasty rumours? Is he some kind of delinquent?" Annis questioned. She could deal with delinquents, she'd been dealing with them all her life because of the damn choker and its provoking appearance.
"No, I don't think so." Yumika was uncharacteristically serious, "All ya need to know is that you shouldn't mess with him."
Rumours, huh? Annis thought. She kind of knew how that felt. She had rumour of her own going around as well.
Last she heard, she was the wealthy daughter of the largest yakuza syndicate in the area. Before that, she was a pampered young ojou-sama who begged her parents to let her go to a normal school and used the choker to make friends with the commoners. And before that, she was the leader of a gang of famous high school delinquents. It went on and on.
These thoughts stayed with her throughout the rest of the day, right up to after school cleaning duty that she – unfortunately – shared with Kaede.
"Quit slacking off, Annis." Ah, speak of the devil and the devil shall arrive.
"I'm not slacking off, you ass!" She scowled indignantly. Yes, she had been deep in thought, but she had been mopping up the floor just as efficiently as him! "Anyway, where do you get off calling me Annis?"
And with no honorific either! That sort of thing was supposed to be special.
"Who cares, it's just a name." Kaede huffed exasperatedly, "'Sides, we already have another guy named Yamamoto in our class."
She supposed that was true.
With a mischievous grin that oddly suited him, Kaede added, "Fine. I'll just start calling you 'the weird Yamamoto.'"
"Don't call me weird!"
She was distracted, however, by something red in the sky.
"Annis?" Kaede's voice seemed to be coming from far away.
Is it a flower petal? Annis was about to reach it, when a black bat like creature slammed into her.
"ANNIS?!"
She felt herself stumble and fall backwards.
Idly, she thought, I've been getting beat up way too much today…
She fully expected to hit the hard concrete floor, and was surprised to instead be caught by strong arms.
Kaede had reacted instinctively. All he saw was Annis falling down after being hit in the head by something, and before he knew it his arms were wrapped around her in an effort to catch her and her pink hair was enveloping them.
She smells like roses, he couldn't help noticing.
Momentarily stunned by his own action and the situation in general, Kaede could only hold her close. From this proximity, he could see how wide her dark pink eyes were, and the way they were gently framed by dark, thick eyelashes. He felt they could easily see into his soul. Her lips were full and just begging to be kissed. There wasn't a blemish to be found on her skin, nor any hint of make-up, but then he knew that already. Everyone knew that Yamamoto Annis was a natural beauty the likes of which had never been seen before. From her uncommon hair color to her mesmerizing eyes to her clear skin to her perfectly shaped body… Her soft body that he was still holding.
The spell was broken, and both students jumped away from each other, blushing heavily.
Wha- What the hell was that?! Annis screamed internally. Her heart was racing a mile a minute. Kaede's intense gaze (he was probably judging her and finding all her faults, the bastard) should have been unnerving, but instead felt natural. In fact, just being in his arms had felt natural.
Annis quickly pushed those thoughts away. She must have been hit harder in the head than she thought. That was the only explanation.
As she opened her eyes again, she found a red card in front of her, with a small red rose at its center.
What on Earth? It was such a pretty card, too. Probably belonged to a collector of some sort. Maybe Kaede collected them? He didn't seem the type, but then again, she didn't want to judge.
Just as she was about to ask Kaede about it, he interrupted her.
"…Hey, wait." He was looking at her intensely again and this time Annis did feel uncomfortable. "Where's your choker?"
A/N: The first few chapters or so should be fairly similar to the original Barajou no Kiss, but things should become more interesting soon. Please be sure to tell me your thoughts!