A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys. You've motivated me to write sooner! Not that I wasn't going to, but…you know. : 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Azumanga Daioh. Don't sue.

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Chapter 2 – Living Unleashed

"GUH-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Tomo backed away as fast as she could, but seeing as how small the bathroom already was, tripped over the hem of her towel and fell backwards onto the floor, her butt smacking painfully on the tiles. "Oof!" she cried, cringing a little.

From outside, Tomo heard her father toss down his paper. "What the hell did you break this time, girl?" he hollered, rather annoyed.

"N-nothing! I just…just tripped!"

"Be careful, dammit!"

Tomo gingerly picked herself off the floor, and chanced a peek at the mirrored side of the medicine cabinet again. Nope. There was just plain old stupid Tomo, staring back at her just as incredulously. But she could've sworn she'd seen something else behind her a few minutes ago. Something like a giant monster cat…

"Bah! That stupid Mayaa's getting into my head as well!" muttered Tomo angrily, ruffling her hair with both hands. "You'll have yours soon, you, you…you cat!"

Stepping out of the bathroom, Tomo examined the bandaid on the back of her hand, and grinned. After that spider movie, she'd seen a box of bandaids with the movie theme selling in the pharmacy. It had taken her quite a struggle to get the box, after Yomi held her back forcefully, telling her that it was a waste of money. How wrong she was, thought Tomo. They came in handy after all.

After putting on a fresh pair of pyjamas, Tomo slid under her covers and gave an almighty yawn. She wondered a split second later, if she had beat Osaka's old record. But that didn't matter now. All she wanted was to shut her eyes and get a good night's sleep, maybe dreaming of getting superpowers from animal bites…

Little did Tomo know that her dreams would soon become a reality.

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"Takino Tomo."

Tomo's eyes snapped open. Then she blinked several times, just to make sure that her eyes were indeed open. The stifling darkness still remained.

Fear gripped her chest, sending her into a panic attack.

"WAAAAAUGH! I'M BLIND! I'M BLIND! I'VE GONE BLIND, I CAN'T EVEN USE YOMI'S GLASSES FOR THIS SHIT- "

"SILENCE!"

Tomo stopped. "Well, at least I'm not deaf. Oh crap! That means I can't block out Yomi's horrible singing! Why! Why'd you -"

"I SAID SILENCE!"

Tomo shut up completely.

"The fates of two worlds hang in precarious balance. The final battle draws near. The hopes of an entire generation rest on your shoulders. What will you do?"

Tomo raised an eyebrow. "Wait. I'm in an RPG now?"

"No."

"Oh."

"As of today, you are no longer who you were. Taken, you have been, by a faction, as their own. The decision is yours to join the fight or detract from it. Should you intervene in the Great War, in any case, your fate will inevitably be intertwined with the souls of others who have pledged their souls to this cause. The outcome draws near."

"W-wait! I don't get it!"

"Change comes your way. No longer will you join the ranks of humanity. Welcome…Takino Tomo."

In the darkness, a piercing wildcat cry echoed in Tomo's ears. Another and another accompanied the cry, each cry coming closer to the girl than the one before. Tomo ran blindly, panicked, in the suffocating abyss that lay before her, but to no avail. She turned, just as the monster rose over her form, letting out an ear-splitting screech….

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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"KEEP IT DOWN, GIRL! YOUR OLD MAN'S GONNA HAVE A HEART ATTACK!"

Tomo sat up. The surrounding four walls of her bedroom greeted her eyes. No empty black masses or weird booming voices in the background. Wait. Minus her father's. She had been dreaming, granted, but what about? The last remnants of it had disappeared with her waking up. Whatever the case, she certainly needed to get a move on for school, even though she dreaded it.

Washing her face, she stared back at herself in the mirror. Her hair was slightly tousled. Somehow, Tomo thought that it actually looked…cool, to a certain extent. Almost instinctively, she grabbed her father's styling wax (which he used on his thinning mop) and applied a little of it onto her own hair, careful to keep it spiked. After a minute of it, she stood back and admired her creation. She really did look pretty awesome. Heck, she thought, with a smirk on her face, why not go the whole way? Ruffling her spiked hair, Tomo messed it up to the point of it being artfully done. Tomo grinned. Better than even Kagura's, she thought. Like some kickass RPG dude with a kickass giant blade.

Ready for school, Tomo swaggered out the front door, not even saying a word to her father as she left the house. It was a beautiful day. Heck, thought Tomo, smiling to herself again, why waste a beautiful day like this one cooped up in a classroom? She took a leisurely stroll along the way to school, kicking over dustbins whenever she came across one, just for the fun of it, as well as imagining the face of the unlucky cleaner who would be on duty that day, which produced an evil snicker from the girl.

Eventually, she reached school…about half an hour after classes began. Tomo cursed under her breath at the sight of a teacher still present at the school gate. That meant she had to get through him to get in, which meant getting into trouble. Which meant detention. Which, in turn, meant her father flipping out on her for getting into trouble. Again.

Not wanting to get busted for her tardiness, she took a running leap, ran up a fence and leapt over it in one unbroken move, landing gently into the school grounds. Smiling smugly to herself, she walked off towards class 3-3. But all of a sudden, Tomo stopped short, the smile morphing into an expression of utmost curiosity and confusion. She turned around and stared back at the fence, frowning.

"Did – did I just do all that?"

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Yukari-sensei's class had dissolved into a period of self-study after said teacher had fallen asleep at her desk yet again. The students in class 3-3 had already completed the assignment that had been written on the chalkboard for them, and were now busy doing their own revision. That was with the exception of the remaining Knuckleheads. Osaka had fallen asleep as well and was twitching (presumably due to a Chiyo nightmare), and Kagura was alternating between stealing glances at a particular girl in class, and pretending to keep herself busy with schoolwork, although making a rather unconvincing effort (her book was upside down). And strangely enough, Mizuhara Koyomi as well.

On any other day, Yomi too would have been preoccupied with her own revision when Yukari was having a lie-in during class time. Today, however, not only was she breaking this habit of hers, but she was also breaking a school rule – using her cellphone in the middle of class. The bespectacled girl had sent at least three messages to Tomo, who had not replied any of them. This was strange, firstly because Tomo would reply almost immediately to any text message on her own phone, and secondly, Tomo was always cluttering up her inbox with nonsense on top of that. Thus, it simply didn't make sense to Yomi that Tomo wasn't replying her messages (which broke the rules for a valid reason, mind you) asking why she wasn't in school. Which was another mystery in itself, seeing as how Tomo never got too ill to go to school (if she ever got ill) and although did come in late on occasion, was never this late.

The sudden slamming of the classroom's front door snapped Yomi out of her train of thought, and woke Yukari up, who let out a shriek. There in the doorway, was…Tomo?

Yomi's jaw dropped a little. It certainly didn't look like Tomo, what with the outrageous hair and cold scowl on her face. But after being friends for so long, Yomi could tell that it was indeed Tomo, even if she had been wearing a giant cat costume.

"You're late", growled Yukari grumpily, angry at having been woken up than anything else.

"We all have our days, Yukari-baby", replied Tomo flippantly, waving a hand. "'Least I get my games the day they get released."

Yukari grabbed a piece of chalk, ready to hurl it at the back of the girl's head (which was in full view), but decided against it due to her lack of energy and plopped back down again on her seat, tossing the chalk behind her shoulder. "Work's on board. Do yer stuff. Now lemme rest", she muttered in one breath, laying her head on the desk once more.

Yomi glared angrily at Tomo as she sat herself down. "What's up with you? I waited almost half an hour and you didn't show up! I was almost late for school! And what's with the hair?"

Tomo shrugged, not looking at Yomi once. "Just felt like it. Now stop your yapping and leave me alone." She then pulled out a comic book from her book bag and proceeded to read, leaning back in her seat.

Yomi was taken aback by this, but it wasn't going to deter her. Roughly pulling the other girl's comic book down, her eyes met with Tomo's, both girls flaring up in annoyance. "Look, if this was about yesterday- "

"I don't give a damn about yesterday", Tomo growled, snatching her comic book away from Yomi. "Why the hell d'you always have to be on my fucking case, Yomi? Trying to be some kind of mother figure or something? What, you think I can't fucking take care of myself? Just cause my mom couldn't doesn't mean I can't!"

A few students nearby overheard the commotion and turned to look at the bickering pair. Kagura, on the other hand, was staring down so hard on her textbook it appeared she was trying to make it burst into flames. Every word that came out of Tomo's lips roused her anger. How could Tomo say such things to Yomi? She thought. They've been best friends for so long!

Yomi was hurt by this sudden outburst, but didn't show any of it. "Look", she started, careful to keep her voice down, as more people turned to look at them. "I was just worried- "

"Yeah well, you're better off worrying about your weight, fatty", came the harsh reply, as Tomo snickered at her own comment.

That did it.

Yomi brought her fist down on her desk, causing Yukari to twitch in her sleep. Everybody in the class turned to see the commotion. "SHUT UP!" she cried, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Why are you acting like this? What's your problem?"

"YOU ARE! SO GET OUT OF MY FACE!" Tomo roared, storming out of the classroom.

All was silent.

"Hun…hundruhh…yen", murmured Yukari in her sleep.

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Yomi rushed out of the classroom after the person she called her best friend. In the corridor, she just caught sight of Tomo's skirt disappearing behind a corner. "Tomo!" she called after the girl, but no response came her way. "When I find out what's up, you are so paying for this", she muttered to herself in anger, picking up her pace.

Tomo clambered up the safety railing on the school's rooftop, tossed her head back and closed her eyes. "Damn, this feels good", she purred, a smile slowly spreading on her lips. The cool wind blew against her face. She made a sudden lurch forward, so that she was directly facing the ground that lay below. Tomo imagined herself hurtling downwards, the solid, cemented pavement eating up more and more of her vision until-

"Tomo! Get away from there!" a familiar voice called from behind. Tomo cursed under her breath.

Yomi ran up to the girl, who now defiantly sat herself on the edge of the railing. "Are you crazy?" Yomi cried, clearly panicking. "Get down now, or- "

"Or what?" challenged Tomo, leering at her from the railing. "You gonna sit on me, fatty?"

Yomi's hands balled up into fists. "Or you'll get yourself hurt", she answered, her voice quavering in indignation as she tried her best to keep a steady tone of voice.

"Who are you, my mom? She's dead, stupid."

"Tomo, please. I know"

"Stupid. Stupid Yomi, stupid", Tomo chanted, rocking back and forth, tipping precariously over the edge of the railing.

"No, stop- "

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…"

"Will you just- "

"Stupid Yomi, stupid Yomi, stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID YOMI…"

"Tomo, stop-!"

"STUPID YOMI, STUPID, IDIOTIC YOMI, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID MORON- "

"ENOUGH! Get down from there!" Yomi shouted, making a grabbing motion for Tomo's arm. At the same time, Tomo pushed herself backwards, away from Yomi's outstretched hand.

It was only then that Tomo realised that she had lost her balance.

Yomi watched in mute horror as her best friend slipped off the railing, falling backwards in slow-motion, her taunting grin gradually turning into a mask of utmost terror as she plunged downwards, picking up speed, the wind whistling fiercely in her ears.

I'm going to die.

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A/N: What's this? Tomo with an extra dose of reckless? I call it the Werecat syndrome. Well, I'll try to get Chapter 3 up and running as soon as possible. I get my college entrance results tomorrow, so it may take a while. Wish me luck!