Chapter One: Arrival

I drank in the familiar scenery, guys and girls running or biking to school, the cherry blossom trees, the park Mizore and Kurumu almost destroyed fighting. This was all kind of nostalgic for me. In fact, it was sort of like déjà vu. I almost expected the bus driver to turn around and warn me about the academy. . .again. Thankfully he didn't, and before long, we were speeding through the tunnel that I imagine looks about the same as a drunken rainbow.

Eventually, we pulled out of the tunnel and screeched to a stop at the same, and slightly less creepy, spot as when I started here. I got off the bus and stood staring toward the school as the bus rumbled away behind me. I shifted my gaze to the pumpkin headed scarecrow with the sign around his neck.

"Still as ugly as ever I see." I remarked, laughing quietly to myself. I turned and began the long trek through the forest that only seems slightly less creepy than the last time I was here. I was only walking through the gnarled, barren trees for a few minutes when I came across a girl I'd never seen before. I mean, I'd recognize her if I'd ever seen her before. For one, she wasn't wearing the uniform; and I'm sure I'd remember such bright, red hair. Moka's little sister, Kokoa, was the only person who had hair this red. She was making noise and jerking around, flailing, and kicking her legs. As I got closer I was able understand somewhat the keening sounds coming out of her mouth.

With a wince, I realized she was trying to sing. . .and failing. Because of that, I guessed that the writhing and flailing was supposed to be dancing. She was no longer 'singing', but now she was humming. Needless to say, she was significantly better at it. As I got within ten feet of her, I noticed just how strange her clothes were. She was wearing a black shirt that seemed to be a couple sizes too small, and had swooping red lettering on it that I couldn't read.

It was in, like, English or something. I moved on to the rest of her outfit, which consisted of jean shorts that, honestly, didn't cover much and no shoes. Running around barefoot here was strange, considering all the roots and rocks and gravestones around. In the middle of spastically twitching and shaking, and generally looking like she was having a seizure, she tripped over a root protruding from the ground and fell face first onto the ground. She cursed under her breath and picked herself up off the ground, holding her nose.

She caught sight of me and jumped. Her ears were plugged with earbuds, which explains why she didn't hear me coming; she yanked one out and stared at me for a while. Up close, I could see that her eyes were a pale green that reminded me of the color of mint flavored gum, and her bangs were a bit long and hung just above them. She was chewing on her bottom lip, exposing the top row of her pearly, white teeth. Her mint colored eyes narrowed.

". . .how long have you been standing there?" I was startled by her voice, it was sort of breathy and low. I weighed my options. I could either lie and say: "Oh, I just came over here and you were lying on the ground." I could say nothing, or I could just tell the truth. I thought through the consequences of each, and apparently I waited to long to answer.

"Well?" She demanded. I sighed and opted for the truth.

"I haven't been standing here that long, but I could see you for awhile." She stared at me for what seemed like minutes, and then nodded. I let out a silent breath I didn't know I was holding. She brushed her bangs out of the way and smiled, I don't know why her smile was so infectious, but it was.

"Pretty good, huh?" She was referring to her 'singing' and 'dancing'. Now it's time to lie.

"Yeah, you were great." I forced a smile for emphasis. She snorted, and punched me playfully on the shoulder, grinning up at me.

"Don't lie, I know I suck." I grinned back at her. That's weird; I hadn't noticed that she was shorter than me. We stood staring at each other for awhile. Then she stuck out her hand, and introduced herself.

"I'm Arianna," her grin widened. "although, people seem to prefer to call me 'Ari' or 'Ri'. Either works." She shrugged. I nodded; it made a crazy sort of sense as a nickname. She stared off into the distance, distracted. Her head snapped back in my direction.

"So I decided to call myself Ari." I thought about it for awhile.

"Hmm, Ari-san." She wrinkled her nose at this.

"Ewww, don't add 'san' to it. It makes me feel old." She shuddered.

"Fine. Ari-chan?" I asked, grinning. She nodded. "Much better." Suddenly struck with curiosity, I pointed to her shirt.

"Huh?" She looked down.

"What does your shirt say?" She looked back up and smiled even wider.

'If she keeps that up, eventually her face will break.' I thought to myself.

"Bullet for my Valentine." She replied, still smiling.

"Ah, I see." I said, pretending to understand. She obviously wasn't fooled.

"They're an American band." She clarified. Oh, now I understood. We began walking toward the school, the topic shifting at random. By the time we arrived, we knew quite a bit about each other.

"So wait, you have a friend with split personalities?" She chuckled.

"Something like that, her Rosario seals her true personality. So there's two of her." She nodded.

"That's pretty friggin sweet. So one's Inner Moka and the other's Outer Moka?"

"Yeah, Ura Moka can be kinda scary sometimes though." She laughed and bumped me with her shoulder.

"Is she hot?" I felt my face get hot.

"What?! I'm not gonna answer that!" I protested but she just laughed.

"I bet she is. I hope you aren't a rapist or anything." She joked. I grinned at her. We continued walking through the mass of people, standing around .I glanced around dramatically, glancing over my shoulders, I leaned in and whispered.

"You should watch out, there are actually some of those here." She laughed again. "No, seriously, you should watch out." I reiterated, dead serious.

"Don't worry about me; I've trained to protect myself." I raised an eyebrow. "From rapists?" Her smile dimmed a few watts, and she looked away.

"Yeah." Her voice became soft all of a sudden.

"Oh." Awkward silence ensued. Then she was normal again. "Ah, well, I'd better go unpack my stuff." I looked up; I'd forgotten we were at the school. I turned to her, but she was already jogging off.

"Alright. See you later, Ari." I waved to her. She turned, still moving, and waved back.

"Kay. See you, Tsukune-kun." She disappeared around the building and I turned, looking forward to finding my friends. I smiled, thinking about my new friend.

Despite her being a wonderful person, something about the end of the conversation seemed weird, almost wrong. I thought hard, replaying the conversation in my head. It hit me and I stopped moving immediately. See you, Tsukune. Goosebumps rippled along my arms. That farewell unsettled me because, of all the things we'd talked about, I'd forgotten to tell her my name. So how did she know?

Yo peeps, Death Jr here. Just a re-upload. More chapters coming, and the girls are going to make an appearance next chapter.