Hi! This is the first fanfiction I've published. It's an Akuma no Riddle AU where things happen... differently. Some characters will also be a little out of character, but hopefully not in a bad way. The point of it is to make the longer with more characterization, more interesting and intelligent assassination attempts, and more real relationship development rather than just "Tokaku and Haru with out of the blue ChitaHitsu and ships". Yes, there will be romance in this. I hope I'm up to the task! :O
We begin at episode one, when Tokaku has arrived at the school. Enjoy!
TOKAKU #1
The Myoujou campus was enough to make Tokaku's eyes widen, which was a feat in and of itself. Students packed the massive complex of tall, futuristic buildings. Everything looked metallic and expensive and glinted in the midday sun. Tokaku shielded her eyes, annoyed.
As she made her way quickly down the concrete walkway to the highschool building, she saw several students clustered around what looked like a massive touchscreen map of the premises. Kaiba had told her this place was funded by the big dogs, but she hadn't realized how much money they would throw at one school.
She frowned and turned her eyes back toward the path in front of her, ignoring the laughing students who passed by unaware that anything strange was happening in their special academy.
"Stupid…"she mumbled to herself. "Even if they won't be involved, don't they have a right to know what's going on?"
"I agree."
Tokaku whirled around to face whoever had snuck up on her, her hand instinctively reaching into her sleeve. Her blue and black striped tie floated in the air for a minute before returning to its resting place.
"Who're you?" she demanded under her breath.
The girl now in front of her raised her hands in surprise. "Um… I'm Namatame Chitaru." Her expression was calm, but her eyes were locked on Tokaku's hand. "I noticed you were wearing a different uniform, so I assumed you were in the black class as well."
Eyes narrowed, Tokaku withdrew her hand but remained on her guard. The woman didn't smell too odd. "That would be a pretty big clue, wouldn't it?" She sighed and looked up at Namatame, who was maybe four inches taller than her with wild red hair and a boys' school uniform. Her blazer was black with yellow trim and completely unbuttoned. It would have to be, Tokaku thought, to accommodate her… assets.
"Azuma Tokaku," she said gruffly, not bothering to extend her hand for a handshake.
Neither did Namatame. Her expression darkened a little when she heard Tokaku's family name, but she was polite and said nothing about it. Tokaku was glad there would be someone like her in the class who didn't obsess over things like that.
When Tokaku didn't elaborate, Namatame pointed toward the high school building. "If we're both going to the same class, we may as well walk together."
Light glinted off Tokaku's ice blue eyes. "I don't want to get too friendly with any of you. With luck, this'll all be over soon."
"Once again, I agree." Namatame started walking toward the building. She looked back over her shoulder and gave Tokaku a quick smile. "But it can't be helped, can it?"
Unfortunately, Tokaku did need to walk along the same path to get to the building. Sighing, she jogged a little to catch up with Namatame, and the two of them set off again.
There was silence between them before Namatame decided to speak, much to Tokaku's chagrin. Really, she just wanted to get this overwith. Being overly personal would only make her mission more difficult, and as much as she hated Kaiba, she didn't want to incur his wrath.
"If it makes you feel better," Namatame said carefully, "I'm not here to kill the target."
"What?" Tokaku took her eyes off the smooth gray sidewalk. "Then why did you come here?"
Glancing around, Namatame lowered her voice. "I'm here to put my mentor's mind at rest. Someone here killed her daughter, and I've come to avenge her."
A classic tale of revenge. It was bound to go wrong somewhere, but Namatame looked so chivalrous that Tokaku almost believed she could pull it off. This fancy academy was already rubbing off on her.
"Sounds like a bad movie," she muttered. "Who's the assassin you're looking for?"
Namatame didn't meet Tokaku's eyes. "I don't know what she looks like, but you might know her as Angel Trumpet."
That name was familiar. If Tokaku recalled correctly, they were a group of assassins who specialized in poison from the angel trumpet flower. They were also incredibly secretive.
"If you don't know what she looks like," Tokaku asked, "how are you going to find her?"
The redhead's mouth twitched, and Tokaku took it as a bad sign. Hadn't that thought crossed her mind before? If she'd come all the way here without thinking it through even that far, she was already doomed to fail.
"I'll find her the way anyone would," Namatame replied calmly, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. "By looking for clues and getting all the information I can until I narrow down my suspects. I don't know what the rules of this competition are, but I'm sure there will be some less than honest dealings behind the scenes."
Couldn't argue with that. By this time they had reached the front of the high school building. Namatame pulled open the glass double door and held it for Tokaku, who grudgingly entered. "Thanks."
She got another perfect smile. "No problem." If Namatame's plan was to distract the other assassins with her princely aura, it was working. Luckily, Tokaku had never been weak to charm.
They climbed several flights of stairs and walked slowly down the hallway to their classroom, Tokaku scanning one side and Namatame checking the other. If they hadn't arrived first, someone might be waiting for them.
It was ironic. They were technically working as a team, even though they were supposed to be enemies. Tokaku wouldn't let herself be lured in by false friendship. If this girl made one wrong step, she would be ready.
But Namatame didn't, and they reached the classroom with no trouble. Was it just her, or were these hallways all a little dark? The bright light came in through the windows at an angle, lighting up the floor but leaving everything at eye level dark by comparison. It was the perfect spot for an attack.
"This is it," Namatame said, peeking into what would be their homeroom. "It looks like we're not the first ones here."
Tokaku poked her head under Namatame's, eager to see as well. The more she got to know about the others, the better.
In a desk at the front the room sat a single girl bathed in sunlight. Her bright magenta hair was in two pigtails on the sides of her head, and it shone brightly along with her eyes. She was looking over a sheet of paper and reading quietly. Tokaku realized it was the class roster.
"Number eleven, Hanabusa Sumireko-san."
If Namatame could hear her as well, she showed no signs of it. Both of them remained silent, as though this was important information they needed to hear.
"Number twelve, Banba Mahiru-san." The girl seemed happy and content, not at all like an assassin. And her scent… Tokaku couldn't place it. It was subtle, almost dusty, but… nice.
"Number thirteen, Ichinose Haru!" she said cheerily, setting down the paper. Tokaku noted the lack of an honorific. It was the girl's own name, then. It was also, she noticed, the only name not in alphabetical order on the list.
She stiffened up when she felt someone move behind her. It was just Namatame, and she relaxed. The tall girl entered the room with a smile. Apparently she'd heard all she wanted to hear.
The magenta-haired girl looked up with a start. "Oh, hi! You surprised me!" She giggled. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people are showing up to class."
"How long were you here by yourself?" Namatame asked, taking the seat next to her.
The girl Ichinose put her finger to her chin. "Maybe twenty minutes? I wanted to get here early, since I'm so excited. But I'm not the only one." She turned toward the back of the room, which was invisible from the doorway. "There's someone else back there. I feel bad because she won't talk to me."
Reluctantly, Tokaku entered the room as well. There was no point in standing outside all day.
"Hi," she said flatly. "I'm Azuma Tokaku. Don't address me as Tokaku."
Her cold demeanor seemed to frighten Ichinose a little, but she regained her composure and smiled brightly. "Hello! I'm Ichinose Haru. But just Haru is fine." She looked at over Namatame. "You haven't told us your name yet, right?"
The redhead leaned forward a little and introduced herself. "I'm Namatame Chitaru. It's nice to meet you."
"You too!" Ichinose replied. "May I call you Chitaru-san?"
Namatame seemed a little surprised at the familiarity. "Ah… sure, that's fine."
Ichinose bounced a little in her seat. "Great. And, um…" she glanced up at Tokaku, who hadn't taken a seat. "Tokaku…san?"
Part of her wanted to say no, but strangely there was another part that didn't. Tokaku shrugged, defeated by the girl's undying happiness. "Fine."
She got an interested look from Namatame, but the girl still said nothing. Tokaku had to admit, she was good at keeping her mouth shut when she wanted to.
Meanwhile, Ichinose was delighted. "Wow!" she laughed. "It's my first day and I already have two new friends. You came in at the same time, didn't you? Do you know each other?"
"No," Tokaku replied curtly. "We met on the way in, and none of us are friends."
The expression on Namatame's face was like a warning. "That's not nice to say, Azuma-san. We might not know each other that well, but we could still be friends."
This was obviously an act, but Tokaku couldn't help her own annoyance. She folded her arms. "For all you know, she could be-"
Namatame frowned and shook her head silently. Gritting her teeth, Tokaku shut her mouth. It was true that she didn't really believe Ichinose was angel trumpet. She did, however, believe that Ichinose was the target, and she didn't want to have to fight Namatame to get to her.
Wait… where had that idea even come from? Deferring to the target's side? Only an idiot would do that.
Ichinose clasped her hands together. "Jeez, don't fight already! Class will probably start soon."
Glancing up at the clock, Tokaku saw that she was right. There were only ten minutes till the bell.
"I need to use the restroom, actually," Namatame commented quickly. "I'll be back in a minute or so."
As soon as she'd said it, she was gone. Tokaku stared out the door after her. That had seemed like a lie. She thought she'd understood Namatame fairly well, but like all people, there was more to her than met the eye.
Now she was alone in the room with Ichinose and her scent, and it had only grown stronger since Namatame's exit. The sun was like a spotlight on the both of them, blocking out the rest of the world with its burning glare.
Turning toward Ichinose, she leaned against the side of one of the metal desks. "Why do you want to make friends so badly?"
"Eh?" Ichinose cried. "Isn't that what everyone wants to do in high school?" She leaned forward on her desk, and a sort of sadness washed over her face. "I haven't gone to regular school in a long time."
"Were you… sick?" Tokaku asked, watching her face change.
"You could say that." Ichinose tilted her head to meet Tokaku's bright blue eyes. "I'm surprised you care, Tokaku-san."
A gentle smile told her that Ichinose wasn't upset with her. For some reason that was a relief. Damn it, what's wrong with me? Tokaku yelled at herself. I'm going to kill this girl, for God's sake. I can't act like I'm friends with her!
Yet she found herself answering quietly. "So am I. But don't get used to it. We can't be friends, Ichinose."
The girl looked hurt when she said that, but undettered. "Why not?"
Answering that one was impossible, unless she wanted to give away the entire black class game. Then again, who said she couldn't? It wasn't as though the redhead could seek any refuge in a building full of assassins out for her blood.
"Because… I think you're different from the rest of us," Tokaku said slowly. "This isn't a class for making friends. You'll see what I mean in a few days."
Fear popped in Ichinose's eyes, then fizzled out like soda candy. "I guess I will," she laughed nervously. "Thanks for warning me, I guess."
Nodding stiffly, Tokaku sat down in the desk she'd been leaning on. For some reason she still felt like she hadn't done enough. Something in the back of her mind told her to keep talking to Ichinose. She tried to ignore it, and when it wouldn't shut up, she found herself absorbed in the girl's eyes once more.
"You smell nice," she said under her breath. It had slipped out in the midst of her other thoughts. Out of everything she had just witnessed, it was the one thing she could be sure of.
Ichinose's face settled into a warm but curious smile, and she leaned on her elbows. "You're a strange person, Tokaku-san." There was a hint of something in her voice, and her cheeks were just a little pink.
The two of them sat in silence until they heard loud footsteps at the door. Tokaku looked up and saw that it wasn't Namatame. This one was about as far as you could get from the princely redhead. She was a rude-looking girl with very long pink hair and confident orange eyes. Her school outfit, if it could even be called that, was a leather jacket that bared her midriff, a purple checkered scarf and miniskirt, and thigh-high leather boots. She didn't look classy enough to be in a bar, let alone at a school.
Everything about her said she was dangerous, and that included her smell. Rather than introducing herself or even acknowledging their existence, she sat down at the second desk away from Haru and laid her head on her arms.
All right, if she wanted to sleep, that was her choice. At least she wasn't pretending like the others. Tokaku didn't relish the idea of having to talk to the girl, but she knew she would at some point. Right now she was just angry at her for ruining that beautiful silence.
"Whatcha thinkin' about?"
A high-pitched voice that was not Ichinose's jolted her out of her thoughts. When she tried to find its source, she saw a short blonde girl wearing the Myoujou uniform perched on top of a desk.
"Hello~!" the girl laughed, kicking her legs back and forth. She was wearing very black tights that completely concealed her legs. Most tights would've shown some skin, but these didn't.
Tokaku wondered if this might be the girl Ichinose had said seen in the back of the room, but when she looked over her shoulder she still saw a mysterious girl seated in the final desk. This peppy blonde girl had somehow entered the room without her noticing, which should have been impossible.
"You gonna say anything?" the blonde hopped off the desk, her shoulder-length hair bouncing as she went. "By the way, I'm-" she made a V with her fingers "-Hashiri Nio! At your service!"
Tokaku couldn't help but wonder if this "Nio" was one of the regular students, but a single whiff dispelled that notion. She stank like a rotten sea.
"I wish everyone here would quit pretending," she answered angrily. "How can you all be so calm and happy?"
"Well, cuz it's high school!" Hashiri twirled around gracefully. "We all wanna have fun in highschool, right Haru?"
Addressing someone she'd just met with no honorifics! Who did this imp think she was, anyway? Ichinose herself looked uncomfortable, though more with Hashiri herself than with the name. "Yeah," she said. "I just want to make a lot of friends and have fun. And graduate, of course." Her face brightened. "Can't forget that!"
The word graduate felt like a knife in Tokaku's chest. "You're right," she replied. "That's what we all want, isn't it?"
The bell rang. Namatame returned a minute before, never having set foot in the bathroom.
Class started a little late that day. Their teacher Mizorogi-sensei burst in five minutes after the bell, apologizing profusely for being late. Aparently a staff meeting had run long.
"This is my first year teaching homeroom!" he said happily, looking out over his six students. "I'm Ataru Mizorogi. If you ever need help, just come to me! You can think of me as your onii-san."
The first girl to stand was the one who had walked in while Tokaku and Ichinose were waiting for class to start and gone to sleep. Needless to say, she looked much more awake now.
"I'll go first!" she said, one hand on her shapely hip. "I'm Inukai Isuke."
She put her fingers to her mouth and laughed. Her nails were lavender, and looked like they'd been done by a professional. "If you want me to do something, you're better off asking someone else." She smiled not-so-sweetly and sat back down, one leg over the other. Just looking at her was intimidating.
Hashiri leaned forward in her own seat wearing a goofy cat smile. "That's no good, right? You gotta savor the high school experience!"
"Excuse me?" Inukai tilted her head and smiled menacingly. "Take your damn turn, would you? Or do you want to die?"
"Ha ha!" the blonde didn't seem too phased by Inukai's murderous remarks. Instead she offered up her own sly grin and made the V over her eye again, like an idol would. "Woah, don't get mad!"
Mizorogi held up his hands. "Let's not fight, okay? We don't know each other yet, but I know we'll make friends soon enough!" This guy must have been related to Ichinose or something.
"Sorry, sensei." Fake apology was written all over Hashiri's wide, constantly-changing countenance. She stood and bowed. "I'm Hashiri Nio! Nice to meet you!"
Tokaku scooted out of her chair and stood, her short blue hair making waves around her face with the upward motion. "Azuma Tokaku," she stated, waiting for the reaction that always followed. "Call me by my surname only."
The pink haired girl looked over at her with a mixture of disgust and awe. "Did she say Azuma?"
From the desk to her left, Ichinose eyed Tokaku curiously. "What's so odd about her name? I think it sounds cool."
Normally Tokaku wouldn't have liked being defended by someone she just met, but Ichinose's remark had ended the whole conversation, so she let it slide. Her family name wasn't worth the praise, though. If anything, it was a curse.
Namatame was the next to stand, and her height did not go unnoticed by Inukai, who leaned over and whispered, "Seriously? She's not even wearing any heels." She received a neutral but slightly perturbed face for her comment.
"I'm Namatame Chitaru," the redhead said. As opposed to being kind or serious like she had been earlier, this Namatame was completely expressionless. "It's nice to meet all of you."
Since they seemed to be going in random order, Ichinose popped out of her seat and beamed like a child at an amusement park. "Hi! I'm Ichinose Haru! I'm looking forward to spending the year with all of you." She shoved her hands into her book bag and messed around for a moment before pulling out several charms. "I made friendship charms for everyone."
"That's wonderful, Ichinose," Mizorogi said with a nod of approval.
Ichinose walked around the room giving out her charms. When she came to Tokaku's desk, she smiled before depositing the object. Tokaku examined it thoroughly to make sure it wasn't mechanical, which of course it wasn't. It was just a pink plastic cat's head with beads coming off the end. And it had that same strange smell that Ichinose had.
From a few desks down she heard Inukai complaining about it. Did that girl ever shut up? Tokaku really, really hoped she wouldn't have too many dealings with her. Even if the life of an assassin didn't drive her crazy, being around Inukai and Hashiri definitely would.
They heard a tapping from the back of the room. The girl in the final desk had peeked up just a little, so that a sliver of her face was visible below her long, silver bangs. "I want one…" she whispered, extending a waifish hand beyond the boundary of her desk.
"I'm sorry!" Ichinose cried, rushing over. "I forgot you were sitting there. You could sit up at the front if you wanted."
Flinching at the noise, the silver-haired girl accepted the charm and held it to the chest of her white, black, and red seifuku. "Thank you." She put the charm down and made a few turning motions with her hands.
"Um…" Ichinose leaned over in concern. "What's that you're doing?"
The girl gave her a shy smile, revealing a scar that ran down the entire left side of her face. It was so prominent that Tokaku could see it from the front of the room. "I turned the lock," she said sweetly. She had gone from frightened to angelic in an instant, and it had been a terrifying transformation.
Without standing, she introduced herself. "My name is… Banba Mahiru." She bowed her head once more. "D-don't make me say it again."
There was no sound at all for a few seconds after she'd made her declaration. The atmosphere in the room had become uncertain. Tokaku frowned. This girl was possibly more dangerous than the other three, simply because she could create feelings in others.
Mizorogi cleared his throat. "Thanks, everyone," he said loudly, as though the volume could dispel the uncomfortable air. "We'll have some more students tomorrow, so today I'll just teach you the scientific method…"
Settling down on her elbows, Tokaku waited for class to be over so she could learn what she really needed to know.