Akio leaned against the railing to his balcony, smiling slightly as he surveyed the Ohtori Academy below him. Mine......all mine, he thought. And no one can stop me. Especially not Utena Tenjou.
His thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Akio quickly put his 'Chairman of the Board' face on and walked over to his desk, settling into the soft seat. "Come in," he called as he shuffled several papers, trying to look busy.
The door slowly opened, and Akio raised his eyes, curious to see who would come to him without being summoned. A girl stepped through the doorway. She was pretty----startling so. Her thigh length red-orange hair swirled around her; a fiery storm. Her eyes were an unusual color, Akio had never seen the likes before. They were a clear storm cloud gray. But her looks wasn't the most unusual thing about her. Like Utena, she wore a boys uniform. But this girl's uniform was completely different. Her shorts were black, as was her shirt. Even her shoes and ankle length socks were black.
She walked softly through the door, bowed to him, and took the seat in front of him without an invitation. Akio frowned thoughtfully. Something's different about this one......but I don't know what, at least not yet.
"And who might you be?" Akio asked, giving the young girl his most charming smile. Many girls before had swooned over that smile, and he expected her to do so as well. But all she did was tilt her head curiously.
"My name is Arashi Kenji," she replied softly, her head still tilted, surveying the Chairman absently. Your charmingness won't work on me, you baka, she thought smugly. It takes more than that to catch a fox........or, in this case, another spider.
Akio's smile dimmed somewhat when he saw that it had no effect whatsoever on the new student. "Ah, yes, Arashi Kenji. You've just transferred here, am I correct?" Arashi inclined her head. At that, Akio frowned thoughtfully. "If you arrange your name, surname first, doesn't it mean Fire Tempest?" For some reason, the word 'Kenji' seemed to set off warning bells in his mind.
Arashi giggled, the type of giggle she saw the infatuated girls surrounding Akio and Touga do. "Why Chairman of the Board, I'm surprised! Not many people notice that about my name! Yes, if you put the surname first, my name does mean Fire Tempest." And shows more about my personality than meets the eye.......
At this, Akio nodded. "That's nice...." he said distantly. I guess that I was wrong, she is like any other girl. Leaning forward he looked at her thoughtfully. "Tell me, Arashi, why do you wear that uniform? Have you seen Utena Tenjou and thought that if you dressed like her, you'd be popular too?"
Arashi shook her head. "No, Chairman. I haven't met anyone from the Academy so far. I wear this uniform because it's more comfortable. After all, if there was an emergency and I had to run, wouldn't it be hard to run in a skirt?" And plus too, it reminds me of..... "And that's why I wear this uniform."
Akio nodded absently, already more interested in his paperwork than this boring, dull girl. "It was nice meeting you," he said, waving a hand in her direction. It was an obvious dismissal. Arashi rose and extended a hand, intending to shake hands with Akio. Akio glanced up, about to dismiss her once more. But then he stopped, his attention caught by something.
A ring. It was gold, nothing extraordinary about that. Many of the female students had gold rings exactly like Arashi's. But it was the design on the ring that made Akio stare in surprise. For this seemingly ordinary gold ring had a silver rose design on the front. This seemingly ordinary girl was a Duelist. And neither he nor Souji Mikage had given her a ring.