Crimson Promises

Chapter Two

BEEP!

BEEEP!

BEEEEP!

BEEEEEP!!

Kokoro's eyes slowly rolled open as the insistent chirping of her alarm clock grew steadily louder. She let out a groan, followed by a long, drawn out yawn as she rubbed her eyes and looked around her room. The first rays of sun were just beginning to creep in through the blinds of her window.

It's too early to be awake…she thought to herself, finally mustering the will to crawl out of bed and begin slipping out of her pajamas and into her uniform.

Buttoning up her blouse, she slowly made her way over to the bathroom and clicked on the light. She took in her appearance in the mirror for a brief moment; her long black hair was disheveled, hanging in thick tangles over her shoulders, and her eyes still had sleep clinging to the edges. So far, it was shaping up to be one of those days.

After giving her unruly hair a well-earned brush, Kokoro was finally ready to face the school day. Or at least as ready as she'd ever be. She threw her books into her bag and slung the heavy parcel over her shoulders, heading downstairs as she did so. A quick "bye mom!" and she was out the door.

One train ride later, she stood outside the entrance to the Sakakino Academy.

If there was a place on earth that never seemed to change, it was Sakakino. She had visited only a couple of times when she was a child, but the place looked exactly the same. It was the exact same building, which housed the exact same classrooms, which seemed to be taught by the exact same teachers. The only things that ever seemed to change at Sakakino were the students.

Kokoro could remember the days when she was so intimidated by this school. When she was a little girl she had looked at the Academy with mixed feelings of excitement and apprehension. After all, it was so different from her elementary schools. But now she was a sophomore herself, and Sakakino had changed in her eyes from a dreaded place of transitions to just another aspect of everyday life.

She walked quickly through the halls, waving to people she knew and pausing every now and then to hold brief conversations with her friends before they all went their separate ways towards their classes.

"Katsura Kokoro?"

"Here."

Roll call.

Class.

Oh, joy.

It was an astonishingly mundane day, she thought. She took notes in class (a lecture on 'The American School'), and tried to get something out of it, but it just wasn't working today. Her detailed notes on the teacher's lecture soon trickled off into the doodled form of a cat. The doodle eventually stretched out to fill the lower half of the page, and class was over before she even realized it. If it weren't for the bell, she probably wouldn't have noticed at all.

She shoved her notebooks to the bottom of her backpack and made for the door. Finally the day was…oh, right. The Student Council meeting. She had completely forgotten about that…

She grudgingly changed directions, working her way through the throngs of lucky, homeward-bound students and towards the room that served as the meeting place of the Student Council. Hopefully this meeting will be a short one… she thought.

As it turned out, the meeting was anything but short.

An hour and a half later she trudged back through the halls, eagerly anticipating the warm bath she planned on treating herself to when she arrived back home. A few students still lingered in the halls, waiting to be picked up by parents who couldn't get off of work, but several of the classrooms had already gone dark.

She turned the corner to the main hallway, but stopped when she noticed an unfamiliar woman walking through the hall. Kokoro could tell she wasn't a teacher by her choice of attire, which was much too casual for the Academy's standards. Besides, she was already familiar with all of the teachers.

The woman had dark, greenish hair and brown eyes, which didn't even seem to notice Kokoro as they roved across the walls. Her walk was slow, with pauses every now and again so that she could look up and down the halls.

Her curiosity finally got the better of her, and Kokoro slowly approached the woman.

"Excuse me," she said. "Are you looking for something?"

At first the woman didn't even seem to notice her presence, but as soon as she looked in Kokoro's direction she froze. The book she had been holding dropped unnoticed to the floor.

"Ummm…" Kokoro squirmed beneath the woman's stare. "Is-is something wrong?"

At first she received no answer, but finally, "…Kokoro…Katsura Kokoro?"

She gave a start before hesitantly replying, "Yes…?" The woman was still staring at her, and it was starting to creep her out just a little bit. "…Do I know you?"

"You probably don't remember me," the woman said, "My name's Setsuna Kiyoura. I went to school with your sister a long time ago."

"Oh." said Kokoro, trying to work up a smile and only slightly succeeding.

"I haven't seen you since you were a little girl, but I recognized you right away." Setsuna said, giving a slight smile of her own. Her face didn't seem to display all that much emotion, but Kokoro could still tell that she was excited. "You're a freshman this year?"

"…Sophomore." She replied.

"Sophomore…" Setsuna echoed, rubbing her forehead with another tiny smile. "I can't believe it's been that long since I've been here…" she looked back up at Kokoro, giving her an apologetic grin. "I'm sorry, this must be awkward for you. You don't even know who I am, and here I am going on about the past…"

"No, it's alright." Kokoro said, trying a little harder to smile. It didn't work very well.

She studied her thumbs awkwardly as Setsuna continued to study her, trying to find a good excuse to leave.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" She finally demanded. "It's getting creepy."

"I'm sorry, it's just that…" Setsuna said, her eyes going somewhat misty. "You look just like your sister."

Kokoro went stone faced. "I think you should go now."

"Kokoro, I know it's hard for you to talk about her-"

"I said you should go now." Kokoro's voice trembled.

"-but sometimes we just have to accept the past and-"

"GO AWAY!!" Kokoro screamed. Setsuna's eyes widened, and words seemed to have failed her. She hadn't expected this kind of emotional outburst, especially after so many years. She looked around; the few students that remained in the hallway were staring at them, and a few teachers poked their heads out of their rooms to see what the disturbance was.

"…I see." She said, her voice never changing. "I'm sorry to have bothered you." She turned, and began to walk towards the door.

"Wait."

The word quivered as it escaped Kokoro's lips, and Setsuna paused, looking back toward the girl.

"You said I wouldn't remember you…" Kokoro said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "But I do. You were one of Saionji's friends, weren't you?"

Setsuna was silent for a moment. "Yes. I was."

"So can you…can you tell me…" Kokoro could barely get the words out, and she reached a trembling hand up to clear the still-flowing tears away from her eyes. "..why?"

"Why?" Setsuna echoed, with a questioning look.

"Why did it happen?!" Kokoro practically shouted again. "And don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about! Kotonoha never did anything to her! She would never do anything bad to anybody! Big Sis wasn't a bad person! So why?!" She sank to her knees, and Setsuna ran back to her. "Why did she…take my sister away…?" Her words trailed off, and Setsuna wrapped her arms around the girls shoulders.

"It's alright…" she breathed. "Come on, let's get you up."

"I'm sorry again about that stuff earlier..." Kokoro was saying, her face turning slightly red. "It's just that I haven't talked about…what happened…in a long time. I guess I kinda freaked out on you…"

Setsuna nodded in understanding. She knew how hard it had been for Kokoro back when everything had happened. A couple of months ago she had decided to go back through the details of the events, and she had stumbled upon records of the rest of the Katsura family. It had taken Kokoro several psychiatrists and years of therapy to get over the loss of her sister. So it wasn't surprising for her to react the way she had, especially considering how traumatic it had been for her.

"No, it's okay." She said. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn't have brought it up so quickly like I did."

The two of them were seated at an open air restaurant near the school grounds, and Setsuna had just finished ordering dinner for the two of them. Kokoro had already called home and explained that she wouldn't be home dinner, so that left them with plenty of time to talk.

"I know how hard it must have been for you…" Setsuna continued. "When I heard that Sekai was dead…I could hardly…it took me a while to get over it." For a moment the same misery that had poured from Kokoro's eyes not too long ago was visible in Setsuna's, but it only lingered for a moment before fading. "She was like a sister to me. So, I can understand the feeling of losing somebody so important to you."

Kokoro was silent, taking in everything that Setsuna was saying. "It was really hard…" she finally said. "First my big sis walks out the door and never comes back…and then the police start saying that she killed two people…" Setsuna could see tears beginning to form in Kokoro's eyes again, but the girl blinked them back and rubbed her face with one of her sleeves. "They started asking me questions. 'Did she show signs of depression? Did she ever yell at you or hit you?' I can't even imagine Kotonoha ever hitting anybody, especially me. They even asked me if my parents had ever abused her, or touched her in a wrong sort of way…"

Setsuna listened quietly, absent-mindedly stirring her tea and waiting for Kokoro to finish. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that." She said once the other had trailed off into silence. She took a sip of tea. "It must have been a nightmare."

Kokoro simply nodded. "So," she said, trying to change the subject. "What brings you back to town, anyway? Most of the kids that were here when you were have been gone for a long time, and there's not really that much exciting happening. So why are you here?"

"Well, that's actually what I want to talk to you about." Setsuna replied, pausing to take another sip of tea. "See, it's funny that I ran into you at the school, because I was actually coming here to find you."

"What?" that wasn't anything what Kokoro had been expecting to hear. "Why me?"

"Well, it sort of relates to my job. I work for an intelligence agency now."

"So…" Kokoro said, giving her an incredulous expression. "You're what, like, a detective now?"

"Something like that."

"So what does any of this have to do with me?" Kokoro asked, looking around nervously. "I'm not, you know, a suspect or anything like that, am I?"

"No, no." Setsuna smiled. "I'm off the record right now. This is technically supposed to be my vacation."

"Okay…I still don't see how I'm involved in this…"

"Well, a couple of months ago, I pulled up all of the files on everything that happened back then. When it all happened, I didn't want to know any of the details, which I'm sure you understand. So I didn't really have a clear idea of what all had taken place, and I finally decided that it had been long enough."

Kokoro nodded, waiting for Setsuna to make her point.

"Katsura…" Setsuna began, "I've been going over all the information and…I don't think your sister is dead."

…

…

"What did you say?"

End Chapter

HARK! One of my non-KH stories has gotten a second chapter! 'Tis a momentous occasion!

Anyway, I haven't updated too much lately, contrary to what I said I would be doing a couple weeks ago. School can be such a pest sometimes. That, and I haven't really been able to think of anything lately.

But finally, I give you chapter two of School Days: Crimson Promises. It's mostly dialogue this time, and I'm mainly just setting up the plot for the future chapters. And Setsuna made a surprise appearance! I wasn't really sure how I was going to include her in the story, but I kind of like the angle that I settled on. I have no idea if she would actually be detective/investigator material, but she always struck me as the kind of person who would do well in that field. I don't know why.

Updates on my other stories are forthcoming, and reviews are always appreciated!