Anime All-Stars:

FIRST

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I feature here…and I say 'feature' because, for some insane idea of mine, I have decided to borrow just the facial (and maybe quite coincidentally, some personality) characteristics of the aforementioned anime characters.

Characters:

Cagalli Yula Athla (of Gundam Seed) as EULA GRAY

Zero Kiriyuu (of Vampire Knight) as RYUU SUMI

Yagami Light (of Deathnote) as TOUYA YAGAMI

Fuu (the green knight, of MKRayearth) as AYA MINAMI

Shinou (the first Maou, of Kyou Kara Maou) as SHIN WHITEHALL

Okita Souji (of Peacemaker) as NATSUME AMAKUSA

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CHAPTER 2- FIRST CLASS
(1st Half)

Eula appraised herself from her reflection on the mirror. She raised an eyebrow. "Humans sure have a weird sense of dressing."

As part of her royal training, starting today, she had to live in this world for a year and learn the necessary customs and ways of the people in it. Sebastian was the only servant she was allowed to bring, but it suited her just fine. In fact, she could not quite understand why she even needed to be guarded and taken care of even here, when she's supposed to be living like a normal human girl. It's not as if normal girls have attendants at their heels, right?

She sighed.

Ryuu ate a little, and then got in the car. He has no appetite today, as he had just learned that he would be accompanying the princess to and from the school in his car, every single school day. A little royal service? Yeah, right. As if the butler wasn't enough.

Speaking of which, he also learned just now that the annoying Sebastian wouldn't be tailing the princess after all. Well, he had some doubts in the first place, but he thought his parents could have ultimately convinced the principal to allow a private bodyguard in school premises. Apparently not.

He leaned out the car window for a moment and stared at the skies. He wasn't a philosopher or anything, but he just liked to stare at nature sometimes. The sky today had a barely noticeable purple tinge, and in the distance, he could see towering cloud formations to the east.

He pulled back again, and drummed his fingertips on the steering wheel. He checked his watch. He turned on his car stereo. Japanese pop music blared from the built-in speakers. He turned down the volume. Then, he bent down and fed a disc to the player. Distinct piano notes glided through his senses. He assumed a position of ease.

A minute passed when the front door finally opened. The princess glided through and down the short flight of stairs. When she reached the side of his car, she knocked at the window.

He stared for a while at her. Well, that was interesting. In school attire, she looked just like any other girl. Well, one with a distinct attitude permanently drawn in her whole body expression.

Her right eyebrow twitched in a barely noticeable fashion. He almost smiled. He finally opened the door to her side.

She immediately plopped down and put her bag on her lap. He was still glancing at her direction. Lucien cars are slightly different from the cars in Earth. They were called autos, and they worked in every sense of the word-automatic. The Lucian mechanics had embedded them with self-sufficient power sources, whose mechanism were derived from the difficult technique of mind-bending, one of the special types of gifts of their kind. It was like the driver feeding his will to the car, and the car intuitively reading every command and giving the appropriate output. Of course, it's more complicated than it actually sounds.

She turned her face towards him. "How do you adjust the seat of this thing?"

Huh. He pointed towards the side of the seat and explained it to her. She immediately fidgeted in her seat and tested it out. When she got to a more comfortable position, she got out a silk handkerchief and placed it over her closed eyes.

He raised an eyebrow. Amazing. He never expected this kind of action from such a highborn lady.

The drive on the way to school was uneventful. However, when he parked his car at his usual spot, he immediately knew of the danger of being seen with her company. This little problem was immediately confirmed the moment he and the princess stepped out of his car.

Whitehall was an exclusive private school, so naturally, most of the rich kids in this district attended. This meant that his flashy red sports car was relatively unremarkable compared to the equally luxurious cars the students here were driving. What caught the students' attention, though, was the sight of the top-ranked second year student, who was rumored to be totally unapproachable, driving to school with a mysterious new transfer student.

Oh, shit.

Eula glanced at the students watching them. She hid her curiosity in a veil of indifference.

She tried to reach a student's mind and tap into it. Ah, she could access their minds quite easily. "What's Ryuu doing with a girl like her?" the student thought. She glanced at another person and read his thoughts too. "Who's the new girl? She looks unapproachable like Ryuu. A sister, perhaps? They don't look related though."

She felt a tap on her shoulder.

"We're going to be late if we don't hurry. You still have to meet the principal", Ryuu said, barely moving his lips. Was he afraid to be seen actually talking to her? It didn't really make sense to her. Oh well. He's right, though. Have to get a move on.

She made a little curtsy at the gathered students and followed Ryuu inside the main campus building.

Touya Yagami locked up his locker, and then shrugged on his jacket. As he passed the hallway, he caught sight of his friend, Ryuu, walking swiftly with a girl right behind him.

He stared at the girl for a moment. A new girl, he thought. Ryuu's woman? It can't be. He can't imagine that guy messing around with ordinary women. The girl wasn't even that alluring. He continued to muse over this as he made his way to his classroom.

Aya Minami, ranked third after him and Ryuu, approached him with that ever-present serious expression on her face.

"Touya, could you please tell Ryuu to submit to the sensei the final seating arrangement for the first class already? It's been three days."

He gave her a cold look. She backed away a little, her eyebrows almost meeting.

"It's only been three days. Besides, I'm not Ryuu's messenger, so tell that to him yourself."

She bit her lip, turned her back, and marched back to her desk.

Geez, what a troublesome woman.

He plopped down on his seat, and stared out the window.

Eula glanced at Ryuu for a moment before entering the principal's office.

She was not really nervous, but it would have helped if he had some encouraging words to tell. Not that he looked like the type to do those unnecessary things.

She crossed her arms, bracing herself.

A blonde guy was standing behind the massive wooden desk, idly looking at the scenery below him. He didn't look like a principal, but then again, what did she know about how a normal principal should look like?

She cleared her throat.

The guy turned and studied her. As he did so, she tried to tap into his mind, but she found that she could not read him at all. She was a little confused about this, but then he smiled.

"It won't work on me. Just as I can't read you, you also could not read me."

"What?" she asked in surprise.

He came around the desk towards her. Eula stood her ground, even as he reached a hand out to her.

He smiled again. "It's customary for people on Earth to shake hands on their first meeting. Just as it is Lucien's custom for royalty to greet each other by touching their palms."

She readily took the outstretched hand, and she imitated his hand motion.

"Who are you?" she asked. She took another reassessing look of him. "You're not from Earth, are you?"

"My name is Shin Whitehall. As you can see, I am the principal of Whitehall Academy."

She shook her head. "That's not what I'm asking. You are a Lucian, am I not right? Tell me, who are you really?"

She reached out a hand to stroke a lock of his hair. "You're not a normal citizen. This golden hair…"

He grabbed her hand, and then he glanced at the door.

"Close your eyes", he whispered.

"What are you going to-", she began to ask.

He suddenly leaned down and kissed her forehead.

The moment his lips touched her skin, words formed and flowed into her mind.

Shin did not take his eyes away from Eula's back until she closed the door behind her. What an interesting new school term this was going to be, he thought.

He walked back to his desk and traced the fine carving on the hilt of a dagger that was purposefully thrust into the hard wooden surface.

Eula Gray… She didn't seem to find his aura disturbing, unlike all the other nobles he had met. Well, she was not any other noble; she was royalty. Her family was as powerful and influential as his was. Nevertheless, as he was also one of the most powerful of their kind, even his elders respected him. Yet she just stared defiantly at him with her golden eyes. What amused him most was that, after learning that he was royalty like herself, she welcomed his presence even more.

He sighed. Kyou, he thought with his eyes glinting, you have caught one of the finest jewels in our world.

"Hey, Ryuu."

Ryuu slid easily into his seat and glanced at Touya. "Hmm?"

Touya dragged his chair nearer. "Who was the girl tailing you earlier?"

"Ah. You saw her." He picked up a book and pretended to be engrossed in it.

Touya slammed a hand on his desk. "Oi!"

He looked at him calmly, and even gave a little smile. "You shouldn't concern yourself too much about it, since it's really not that important that you should know."

Touya gave a loud sigh. "Geez. You're always like this. You don't tell me anything."

"Ohoho. Is our Ryuu keeping something from us again?"

"Natsume-"he started to say.

Natsume Amakusa plucked the book from his hands. He grinned.

Ryuu sighed. These guys sure are lively today, he thought. How troublesome.

"Fine, I get it. She's a freeloader at my place, okay? So stop bothering me."

Natsume chuckled. "Oh? Really now…that's some interesting tidbit of information."

He snatched his book back. "Not really."

The door slid open and the teacher came in.

"I am pleased to announce that we have a special addition to our class. Everyone, I expect you to greet her properly."

Natsume glanced briefly at Ryuu. His mouth almost twitched. As usual, that guy is not showing anything.

He turned his attention back to the newcomer. She was wearing regular school attire (which, for girls consisted of a smart white blazer on top of a black silk shirt with a bit of ruffles on the outer collar, a simple white skirt that barely reached the knee, and a pair of almost translucent white stockings that goes with black shoes). He had the feeling, though, that she wasn't really used to wearing uniforms, and he wondered a bit about that. She had a golden shade of brown hair and a startling pair of golden eyes. She was standing perfectly straight, and she had a determined look on her that said she's not someone you can mess around with easily. He smiled a little.

She seemed to notice it, and she nodded in recognition.

"Good morning. My name is Eula Gray. It's a pleasure to finally be here."

The first class flew by, then the next one. And just as she was about to get up a smiling guy, with his long dark hair in a neat ponytail, approached her desk.

He held out a hand before her, and learning from her experience earlier, she shook it without further thought.

"Hi. I'm Natsume Amakusa. Would you like a quick tour around campus, Ms. Gray?"

She stole a quick glance at Ryuu. As expected, he was ignoring her. She felt slightly annoyed by it.

She gave a bright smile and replied, "Sure, that would be most helpful."

He offered her his arm, and she took it automatically.

Hey, the new girl is clinging to Amakusa.

What? I thought she was Ryuu's woman.

Huh? Why did you say that?

Ugh. She shut out the voices and gritted her teeth silently.

He was pretty efficient about the tour, and finally they came to stop in front of a greenhouse of a sort. At least, that was what she heard it was called from his thoughts. She couldn't really see how it was called "green" and "house", when it was really a circular dome made of glass. Well, she could see that it housed green plants with different flowers growing from them, so that must be it.

She touched the glass and tried to peer in. Natsume touched her arm and guided her instead around the building towards a smaller entrance at the back.

"This is actually something only a few people besides myself know about" he revealed. He grinned mischievously and took out with a flourish a small silver key from a slight bulge between two glass panes near the bottom of the door.

"Whoa. Then, why are you showing it to me then?" she asked as they walked inside.

She promptly forgot about the question as she beheld the sight before. Some of the flowers were bred in Lucien, but most of the species were unfamiliar. She looked at one in particular and examined it closer.

"Ah. Hydrangeas. Are they your favorite?"

"Uhm, no. I was just admiring it." Ah, so that's what how it is called.

"I can't help asking", Natsume said in a low voice, "what your relationship to Ryuu is."

She quickly whirled around to face him. She touched his mind briefly. Finding nothing but a touch of curiosity, her muscles relaxed and she smiled. "I'm currently staying at his place."

He scratched his head, idly looking up. "Well, he's already told me that. But I wonder under what circumstances a nice girl like you would willingly live with a guy under the same roof...unless you're relatives?"

She mused for a moment. "I could see how that would look inappropriate. However, as for my circumstances, I am not from around here, and staying at the Ambassadors' place is a matter of convenience."

He seemed to double back. "You're a foreigner?"

She smiled weakly. "You could say that."

He seemed genuinely surprised. "Well, you do have that atmosphere about you that says you're not used to being in a normal school" he mused out loud. "But your japanese is really good." He peered closely at her. She felt a little uncomfortable under his scrutiny, and it reminded her how she had scrutinized the hydrangeas earlier. Like viewing someone of a different specie, a different kind.

"Now that I see you up close, your hair color doesn't seem to be dyed on, and I'm pretty sure you are not wearing any contacts on either."

"Ahaha" she laughed a little nervously. "So you were wondering about that? It's pretty normal from where I came from, though."

Surprisingly after that, the mood began to lighten between them and Natsume escorted her back to their class.

The first half had ended, and the next class began.

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Well, that's it for now. I've decided to break this chapter into to parts, so the second half is up next...