Blosssom - Kusahana Hatsu - Flower Hearts

Bubbles - Ryouri Yorokobi - Cook Joy

Buttercup - Heru Kuromeru - Hell Black

Kusahana smiled as she closed the slider door behind her. She adjusted her bow tie that accented her uniform consisting of a red blazer and plaid red and black skirt. Her suitcase packed full of books and papers waiting to be filled with all the knowledge that the school year promised. Her first day of high school was beginning, and she did not want to be late.

She had spent the last several years locked away, reading in her room. It felt like years since she had last seen the sun. She had spent most of her time studying so she could be accepted into Komaka-Yashin Academy one of the most prestigious schools in Japan.

'Kusahana!' Her friend Rin, shouted from down the street she and two other girls from their class raced to catch up.

'Hey Myu, Orimi, Rin, what's going on?' Kusahana smield as the caught up.

'Nothing, just the usual.' Myu sighed,' Homework's done, no boyfriend, and no life.'

Orimi laughed,' Speak for yourself!'

Attention snapped Orimi's way.' I was asked out by Tylan Michusi, yesterday!'

Kusahana felt a pang of jealousy. She had a crush on Tylan well before Orimi knew he was alive. She just never found the courage to say anything in his presence. He was outgoing and smart, but way too out of her league. He could date a model if her wanted. Now he would be kissing Orimi under the old 'love willow.' She saw her fantasy shattering to bits. Kusahan sighed. Orimi was very pretty, but she wasn't a very nice person some of the time. she was very critical and picky. She hated rainbows solely on the fact she had never seen one.

'Kusahana?'

She broke free from the crushing trance;' What?'

'We were asking how you got you're sunrise red hair so silky and soft.' Rin rolled her eyes. Her long butt length black hair glimmered in the morning warmth as she shook it from her pretty face.

'What products do you use?' Myu asked, her wide brown eyes bright and peered out from her eye length bangs, her shoulder length sandy hair cleanly trimmed and well kempt.

'Oh um I think its called ' Sweet Shine.' Kusahana replied uncertainly.

'I use plum scented shampoo.' Rin declared.'It's supposed to volumize my hair.'

'It smells really good!' Orimi declared.' I need to get a new conditioner.'

Thier conversation continued on like that until they reached school grounds.

The front gate courtyard of the School, nicknamed the Weeping Sakura Gate, was the most beautiful of all the schools courts. It was elegantly decorated with young willows and cherry trees in full lush blossom. Pink flowers fell from the trees like snow and shimmered in the autumn morning sun. Kusahana had been soaking up the beautiful scenery when she spotted a blonde girl with pigtails; wrapped up warm in her red skirt and blazer.

'Look there's that weirdo Ryouri, playing with spiders again.' Orimi pointed out the blonde girl with pigtails. She was a petite girl with long hair that even in her pigtails reached her shoulders. She had wide, kind, baby blue eyes and a soft smile. It was well known she loved all sorts of animals, even snakes, badgers and spiders.

Rin scrunched up her face in disgust,' Gross! Who likes spiders?! I swear she's a freak!'

'Who in their right mind, lets a spider crawl around their arm?!' Myu demanded,' it's insanity!'

'I don't get it either.' Kusahana

'It could bite her.' Orimi pointed out.

'I hope it does. That'll teach her.' Rin scoffed,' I smash spiders.'

Myu laughed,' With you're huge butt!'

'You say somthin' about my Liu butt?' Rin turned up her nose laughing.

The four girls burst into a fit of laughter.

'Look there is Toyama, and his group of ding bats.' Rin suddenly stopped to roll her eyes.

'Their walking towards, Ryouri.' Myu commented.

'Probably to tease the bizarre broad,' Orimi laughed,

'Maybe it'll persuade her to stop loving spiders!'

Kusahana bit her lip. Toyama was a big jerk who lived to make everyone as miserable as he is. She knew it was never just simple teasing whenever Toyama was in the mix.

They closed a circle around Ryouri, who suddenly realized she was surrounded.

'Whatcha doin' by you're lone-some, Ryouri? Toyama began dangerously sweet.

'N-nothing, T-T-Toyama.' She barely stammered, her eyes widened.

'Playin with the insects again?' He bit out.

'T-Thier A-a-arach-nids.' She stuttered meekly.

'Ya hear that, fellas? Thier arachnoids!' He burst into laughter, that immediately was echoed by his goons; even though they probably did not get the joke at all, if there was one. He slapped the spiders from her hands and she watched in horror as he violently stomped the ground where the small spiders landed.

'NOOO!' She cried, her eyes welling with tears,' Stop it! Your hurting them, Toyama!'

'Shut you're trap Ryouri!' He snapped,' Be happy they didn't suffer!'

She stared down at the traces of guts that were ground into the cement.

'Gee, Toyama you didn't have to make her cry,' One of the smaller guys in the group looked like he felt bad.

'Shut up Myouru, unless you wanna be next?!' Toyama demanded grabbing him by the flannel caller and lifting him off the ground.

'NO! NO! Whatever you say, Boss!' He protested.

'Good.' He grinned evilly he dropped the smaller guy and turned back to Ryouri but before he could speak a voice broke in sounding annoyed;

'Alright, why don't you pick on someone you're own size, Toyama?!'

The group turned and saw a girl with dark hair and green eyes. She wore the boy's uniform, holding a skateboard under one arm, she grinned at their surprise.

'Well looke here fellas, we're in the company of Butch Heru, herself!' Toyama laughed

Kusahana stared at the scene in awe.

Toyama, as usual, was being the biggest jerk in the school, and now, Heru some tomboy from one of her classes had stepped in for some reason.

'Great, that tomboy in our sixth period is getting involved.' Rin grinned.

'She's not allowed to wear that uniform, but she does anyway.' Myu pointed out.

Orimi scoffed,' Could she look anymore like an effeminate boy?'

The three girls burst into laughter. Kusahana bit her lip.

Heru closed her eyes.

Geez, how did this happen? One second, I'm lazing about in the Cherry Tree of Dreams stirred by lousy ruckus. The next, I'm in Toyama's face for picking on some chick I'd probably seen around school.

'What a load of-' She mummbled to herself but was cut off.

'What are you gonna do, Kuromeru?' Toyama taunted.

'This.' She grabbed her skateboard with both hands and slapped Toyama in the side of the head with a vicious blow. Blood exploded down his shirt and across his cheek and dripped from the grip tape of the board as he fell to the ground yelling in agony, holding the side of his face.

'HOLY SH-!' the group shouted in shock and surprise.

She crouched down next to his head and grinned;' How was that?'

'BITCH!' He yelled, as she shot glares at the group, they took off running.

'You gonna leave the Princess of Spiders, alone?' She demanded glancing over at the frozen Ryouri.

'FUCK YOU!' He screamed, pulling his hand from his face to show her the damage she had done.

She Italian slapped his cheek and smiled sweetly,' Atta boy.'

'DID YOU SEE WHAT HERU JUST DID?!' Rin cried.

'She just- she just-' Myu stammered.

'HIT HIM WITH HER SKATEBOARD!' Orimi gasped.

''Truck slapped' him!' Rin confirmed,' I had heard about that, it's pretty brutal.'

'Look at all the blood,' Myu pointed out.

'I almost feel bad for Toyama!' Rin laughed

Kusahana's jaw dropped in astonishment. She could not believe Heru had done that. It was so... brutal.

So heartless. But the again so was Toyama. She studied Heru's annoyed eyes, her careless attitude and was awed by how she lazily surprised people. She listened to Heru's warning with growing anxiety.

'Next time, it won't be the Arachnids smashed into the pavement.' Heru promised.

Toyama still groaned in pain and bit his lip.

'H-Heru-chan?' Ryouri stammered,' Toyama- kun did not mean any harm.'

Heru shot an annoyed glance Ryouri's way.

'That's exactly why this asshole messes with you Ryouri, You're too soft.' Heru snapped.

She shook some of the dripping blood off of her skateboard and placed the board under her arm.

'Y-yes b-but..' Ryouri stammered.

'Whatever. You deal with the Aftermath, see ya 'round Toyama.. Ryouri.' She had emphasized Toyama to annoy him mostly then turned to Ryouri. She dropped her skateboard on the cement and stepped onto the board pushing off, she began to ride off of the school premises.

Ryouri crouched down and rested her delicate hand of Toyama's shoulder,' Toyama-kun?'

'GET THE HELL AWAY!' He yelled, swatting her hand away.

A teacher rushed out from the building,' WHAT HAPPENED?!"

Toyama's goons followed quickly after, the angry teacher,' Toyama-, no Ryouri, tell me what happened.'

The teacher was furious; he did not like having to leave his pre-lecture to deal with misbehaving students,' WELL?'

Ryouri looked down at Toyama and he glared up at her through his long spindly fingers, she gulped and stammered;' Toyama fell sir.'

The teacher rolled his eyes and glared down at the trouble making Toyama.

'So karma finally came around and bit you're rear, did it Toyama?' The teacher rolled his eyes.

'Well look at you now.' The teacher shook his old head,' Hurry and clean yourself up, you look a mess. And make it snappy, class is starting.'

Toyama's cohorts helped thier leader up and one smiled at Ryouri and mouthed,'Thank you.'

'Did you see that?' Rin smiled.' Heru isn't getting caught!'

'Well she escaped the crime scene on time.' Myu observe glancing at her friends excited faces.

'No one bothered to say Heru hit Toyama!' Orimi laughed reaching in her purse for her cell phone.

'Heru is certainly scary.' Kusahana murmured clutching her bag closer.

'A hell of a lot scarier!' Orimi protested,' I heard she killed a twelveth grader!'

'No way!' Rin rebuffed,' I heard she killed a teacher!'

They argued about who it was, the time and place but Kusahana wasn't listening.

She was thinking about what Heru had done. What she herself had wanted to do, but lacked the power to do it. She felt ashamed of herself. She could have said something but what would that have accomplished? She would have been harassed by Toyama.

She ran over to Ryouri and grabbed her sleeve. Her eyes widened as the Teacher had long gone inside with Toyama and his goons, Ryouri stood where Toyama had laid seemingly leaving a prayer for the spiders.

'I'm sorry, Ryouri.' Kusahana said,' I wish I had said something but.. but I couldn't.'

Ryouri stared at her with wide blue eyes but they became soft;' It's alright, Kusahana-chan.'

Kusahana went rigid not sure what to say. 'I-I,'

'Forget about it.' She laughed; she turned and ran off toward school, her bag flying in the wind. Ryouri was a puzzel.

'Kusa-chan?' Rin asked, 'What were you doing? Why did you talk to her?'

'Uhh no reason just curious, I have to get to class.' Kusahana laughed;

'Let's go!'

Heru closed her eyes.

Sure the run around school was longer than she expected, but she was back in the Cherry tree of Dreams and was resting in its cool twisting limbs. The only thing she had to worry about was the blood on her skateboard.

She laughed to herself, that was a sweet moment.

The board hung off a lower limb and dripped with the blood slowly drying in the sun.

A group of teenagers older than her, were suddenly walking by laughing over something one of them did in class and they were soon standing under the tree waiting for next period. One noticed the bloodied board.

'Hey check out this red wood.' He went to lift the board from the limb but instead wrapped his hands around the sticky nose of the board.

'What the hell?!' He demanded.

'What is it, Hanuru?' One asked

'It's not the wood! It's all sticky!' He exclaimed in shock, his hands damp with the red fluid. Heru lowered her foot and held the trucks to the limb to prevent removal.

Hey! Some ones up there!,' A girl cried out in alarm.

The group looked up at Heru who grinned riotorusly;

'It's blood.'

Heru had not been expecting their reaction to play out as it did. They shuffled off in a hurry, to get away from her as fast as possible. Not that she cared, she liked that reaction. Now she had the Cherry Tree of Dreams to herself.

'Heru?' A girl called.

Not bothering to look she closed her eyes.

'What are you doing up there?' She asked.

'What the hell is it to ya?' Heru replied lazily.

'I saw what you did.' She replied.

'You wouldn't be the first.' Heru grinned. She loved when people said that.

'Toyama could be seriously hurt.' She replied annoyed.

'Good for Toyama.' She replied, half listening, 'Maybe one day he'll turn his leaf over.'

'That's not what I mean.' She snapped.

'Then what the hell do you want?' Heru demanded.' You're nosing in on my nap time.'

'Well it should be class time!' She came back with that old line.

'Wow I'm suddenly having kindergarten flashbacks.' Heru would have rolled her eyes if she had them open but she knew even that would do nothing to ease her irritation.

'Mr. Nasagi is looking for you.' She said, taking a deep breath; like most teachers did when they tried to get her to do something that she did not want to do and they were losing patience.

'What are you, my mom?' Heru demanded

'Just another classmate.' She retorted sighing.

'Well look, Princess, I'm not learnin material, I wont be 'edjumakated' and I sure as hell aint dumb,' Heru replied; 'I'm a street wise rebel with a cause.'

'You're a no good, skipper, sociopath who intimidates others.' She replied.

'Comin from you, that's a compliment.' Heru laughed.