REVISED: This is a rewrite! I'm hopefully heading towards a sequel at some point. This is kinda short, just to set the scene. So please, leave a review :) Many thanks, Happy Reading!
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Tachibana Higuchi, apart from the obvious changes!
Prologue – The Secrets Of The Academy
There seemed to be very little that could shatter the peaceful air that surrounded Alice Academy on that warm summer evening, a light wind blowing softly throughout the extensive grounds, its inhabitants sleeping soundly, unaware of any disturbances lurking in the shadows of their school. Yet, on this night, out by the Western Woods, a small, blond – haired girl let out a terrible shriek, which pierced through the silence, shattering it like glass. She jumped to her feet, hidden in shadow, and ran. Her feet pounding against the grass below her, her heart rattling against her ribcage, her only aim to reach the academy's safety once more. There was no escape for her. Four silent pairs of hands taking her small body, a hand clamping over her mouth, halting her in her tracks and dragging her backwards as she struggled against them. Her efforts were futile, and the fear she felt only confirmed this, she knew she was not going to be allowed to leave. Actions such as this were forbidden inside the grounds, forbidden by the human spirit, cursed by the living to be suffered by the dead. These four fifteen year old boys were plagued and tormented, bound to do the same to those around them for eternity.
They were the hidden secret within the academy; those who had transferred to the academy seven years previous, where upon their arrival, women and girls had begun to go missing, perhaps for a week or so, turning up later with no memory of where they had been or what had happened to them. And of course, there were those who did not return. Only a few at first, the lesser or insignificant of the pupils, but now more were beginning to disappear weekly and it was being noticed. And it is here that the young girl found herself, harshly tumbling through the woods and thrown to the base of a tree, two boys eyeing her hungrily, creeping towards her body, which had frozen in fear, the other two staying further back, hidden close by. One of them, Ruka Nogi, a short and kindly faced boy with hair the colour of sunshine and electric blue eyes whimpered slightly, his stern façade broken as he surveyed the scene before them, breathing heavily, hearing the struggling girl panting and struggling against the advance of his comrades. Yet he made no attempts to help her, knowing its necessity, his own body pulsating hungrily at the sound of slurping and vicious, ravenous sucking. "Hey. Ruka. Don't look." Offered the other boy who had chosen not to participate in the feasting, raven hair fallen in front of his crimson eyes, glinting in the darkness as he himself watched feverishly. Natsume Hyūuga could barely stand to look himself, though he licked his lips subconsciously, aware of the desire within his best friends eyes, hating every moment his body ached for him to move.
It all was so natural to them, the taste of blood. But at the same time, it disgraced them. Natsume could barely cease his body from shaking, having declined to indulge himself for so long, refusing to accept the beast that he was and what he needed for survival. Being that kind of creature, he despised himself, loathed what he needed to survive, what needed to be done to satisfy his needs. The resilience required to deviate from such actions drained him, leaving him barely even able to activate his Alice, fire, another of the great risks to his health, something else that was slowly killing him.
He shivered slightly, noticing that Ruka had not stopped watching as he had suggested, but was indeed now turning from the scene as the other two boys stood, the pained girl now pale, still and unresponsive. Natsume glared at them both as they passed by where he stood, a wave of shame and humiliation passing over him as a trail of blood slipped by their lips, them barely looking fazed as they left the small girl alone, with not a soul to know where she had lain.
Japan's Arc Angel x