Marionette

Chapter two: Associating with Pain

Amaterasu walked in the front door of her house and was immediately greeted with the faces of her maids. Tori, a middle-aged American woman, took her bag from her and bowed lowly.

"Did you have a pleasant day at school?" The maid asked as the others scurried around her. Amaterasu made no intention to move, and made no motion to how she felt about the commotion. Glancing over at one of her favorite maids Meilin, an elderly chinese woman that had a knack for tying kimonos, and gave her a strained smile.

"It was great." She easily lied as she ran her fingers through her hair. Tori grasped at her coat and slipped it off her shoulders as Meilin started braiding her black hair into a braid.

"Your Father is waiting for you in the dinning room; another one of your etiquette lessons are today." Amaterasu nodded silently as she closed her eyes. The only comforting thing that she had ever felt was Meilin's fingers running through her hair and massaging her scalp, "I thought it wasn't until next week?"

"Mrs. Suzuki is leaving for America for her husband's funeral this coming week." Amaterasu only shook her head in acknowledgement, but didn't make a notion of apathy or empathy.

"Of course," Amaterasu stated as she clasped her hands in front of her and started to head towards the dinning room, "Are you coming or not?" She snapped, not turning around to glance at her maids. Tori and Meilin both bowed respectively and followed suit.

Once Amaterasu entered the dinning room, she saw the table filled with multiple foods. Some were Japanese, and some were even Romanian dishes that she had eaten before. She sucked in her abdomen after she felt the low rumbling in her stomach. Clutching her stomach lightly, she made her way towards her Father, who was standing next to her etiquette teacher, Emiko Suzuki. Between them was a scale and a perch for her to lay her clothes on.

"Daughter," Her Father greeted her with a slight nod of the head and scanned his eyes over her figure, "you're looking well." Amaterasu curtsied and didn't dare to look him in the eyes.

"Thank you Father. It's a surprise to see you back from Romania early."

He inclined his head only slightly and looked over towards Emiko, "Mrs. Suzuki, I leave my daughter in your capable hands."

"It is my pleasure." Her Father bowed to the both of them and left the room, but not without whispering to his daughter: "you better have not made gained weight, or displeased your Mother in my absence." Amaterasu didn't even flinch at the malice in his words, and when he left the room she began to unbutton her school uniform.

When she had stripped down to her underwear, she stepped towards the scale.

She was naturally skinny, and her skin was even paler underneath her clothes. She was cold as her feet touched the metal.

The digital numbers sprang up on the small screen: 110.

"Your Father will be pleased to know that you've lost five pounds, and are back on track," Mrs. Suzuki said as she marked down the numbers in her journal, "now please get dressed in that kimono over there and we'll begin with the tea ceremony."

Five hours later, Amaterasu relaxed into a warm bath, watching the steam roll off the water as she seeped her hands through the translucent liquid.

"Miss Konoe, remember we still need to prefect your homework when you're finished; your Father's wishes." Amaterasu didn't reply to her maid's command as she dove her head underneath the water. It was so peaceful; the noise was almost eliminated and her vision was blurred.

When she washed her hair, she did so with the special shampoo that was shipped from Thailand and lathered her body in the raspberry body wash.

Tori entered the bathroom, a fluffy white robe on her arm, and a towel in the other, "Come Miss Konoe, you've been in the tub for thirty minutes and it's already nine o'clock."

When Amaterasu stood up from the water, Tori's face flushed and she turned around, "It isn't very ladylike to be so un-modest Milady." Amaterasu stared at Tori with a deadpanned expression on her face.

"May I have my robe please, Tori-san?"

Not turning around, Tori shifted the robe towards Amaterasu. The high school girl slipped it on with easy and easily tied it together.

"Are you decent now?" Amaterasu brushed past her and sat down on the stool chair that was pulled in front of a full-length mirror. She could hear Tori sigh behind her as she rustled around withe some bed clothes and a clean towel, "What would you do without me Miss Konoe?" Tori pushed the towel down on her hair and started to dry it.

"I've been taught that I haven't had to lift a finger for anyone, even myself. What do you expect of me?" There wasn't a hint of anger or remorse. Tori had flinched back by the sudden reply and recoiled from her drying. There was no further conversation as Tori ran a comb through her Mistress's hair. This part was her favorite, for Tori, because she was able to brush the younger girl's silk like threads and calm down her Mistress.
Even if Amaterasu didn't express, openly, how she was feeling; you could always tell by her body language. When she was anxious, she gripped her stomach, and when she was happy, she didn't have to force a smile to grace her face.

However, Amaterasu and happiness never have seemed to mix before.

"Are you done day dreaming Tori-san? I wish to redo my errors on my homework and retire for the night."

"Ah, of course Miss Kotone." Tori set down the brush and walked, sullenly, to get her Mistress's school bag.

Amaterasu looked at herself in the mirror and traced her cheek bones with her finger, "Am I ugly? What does ugly even mean to me?" Her voice was still monotone as she began to look at her face, and then towards her body, and lastly she stared at her painted toes.

"Here is your bag Miss Kotone." Tori said, slightly startling Amaterasu. Her Mistress narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.

"What did I tell you about announcing your presence before you entered my room?"

"I'm sorry Amaterasu-sama, I'll try my best next time."

Amaterasu nodded her head and cleared her throat, "Now onto these errors my Father found?"

Amaterasu sat in her usual spot, trying hard not to drift off to sleep. She had stayed up until one o'clock this morning fixing errors her Father had found on her homework. Technically, she had finished at eleven o'clock, but her Father wanted to speak to her about her achievements and her errors. He had yelled at her for an hour, and the last hour he literally, sat there and told her how beautiful she looked and how much she looked like her Mother.

Her gaze shifted towards the window besides her, and she dazed suddenly as voices reached the room, and suddenly stopped. When she looked towards the door she noticed it was Kou and her friend from yesterday.

Her friend marched up to Amaterasu and looked her dead in the eye, "Hey before you go around calling people ugly, you should go look in the mirror!" Amaterasu looked indifferent to the ignorant comment.

"Every time you chastise me, or berate me, it just means I've won in the end." She simply stated with a shrug of her shoulders. Kou's friend didn't appreciate this, and slammed her hand down on Amaterasu's desk.

"Look here! Just because you think your better than everyone else doesn't mean you are! You're an ugly bitch that needs to know when to close her disgusting mouth."

Kou's friend went back to the young girl and simply put an arm around her shoulders, "And think twice before calling Kou ugly because she is defiantly prettier than you will ever be! Everyone in school thinks so." The two girl's walked to their seats, which were still behind Amaterasu, and sat down abruptly.

Amaterasu bit her tongue harshly and turned around, this was going to end badly.

"That's funny coming from the Haruna family whore."

Saya's eyes set ablaze as she stood from her seat.

The door of the classroom opened and people piled in.

That's when Saya's hand met Amaterasu's face in angry daze.

The classroom was cold as Amaterasu looked at her classmate in shock; she had never felt pain like this before. The pain swelled in her cheek and had started to throb. Every thing seemed to stop as Amaterasu reached her hand up to her cheek, she flinched away from her own touch. The voices swirled around the two girls, everyone wondering what would happen next.

It was unexpected.

Amaterasu turned around in her seat and looked forward, and not a moment later their sensei walked in.

"What did someone in here die or something?" He cracked the joke, seemingly embarrassed from the quietness.

"Just Amaterasu's dignity." Someone snickered almost enthusiastically. The sudden pang from yesterday was back again, and in full force. It felt like her heart was going to explode from the embarrassment. When she looked up, she caught eyes with the pair of perpetrators; the Hitachiin twins.

H & K POV

When we entered the classroom, our arms hung around Haruhi's neck, we watched as Saya Haruna's hand collided with Amaterasu Kotone's face. Everyone behind us froze, and even Haruhi froze at the scene. Saya had tears in her eyes, but they didn't seem real, at least to us. She shrieked something inaudible, and everyone waited for a response from Kotone.

He waited, excited to see if she wound pounce back with that feisty spirit she had. Instead, she turned around and looked down at her desk.

Everyone started to gossip.

"Well that was boring," Hikaru said loudly as he threw his hands up in the air, "I expected something more dramatic from the Ice Queen, or maybe she has melted after all these years."

"Oh, Hikaru, don't be silly; she's still a bitch." Kaoru said sourly and sat down in his seat.

-End POV-

Hikaru glanced back at Amaterasu as their sensei walked in. Their sensei was surprisingly young for being a lower grade school teacher, and surprisingly ignorant.

"What did someone die in here or something?" He cracked the lame joke since everything seemed quiet, almost too quiet. Kaoru looked at his brother and leaned over towards Hikaru.

"Just Amaterasu's dignity." He cracked right back, and Hikaru glanced back towards the Kotone girl. Her head abruptly snapped up, and Kaoru's jaw actually dropped down in surprise.

The Ice Queen was crying.

A tear slid down from the corner of her cloudy, grey eye. She looked confused for a moment, and then touched her cheek.

She pulled back her hand and rubbed the liquid that she found from her cheek. She scrubbed it away and stood up, "May I go to the nurse sensei?"

He looked confused, but before he could give permission, she had already left.

While she was going down the hallway, towards the nurse's office, more of the liquid seeped from her eyes.

"What did I react like this!" Amaterasu screeched loudly as she turned a surprised turn towards the gardens, "I am supposed to be a lady; not some weak simpleton." More liquid fell from her eyes as she rushed through the Gardens. Then she fell to her knees, grass staining her white stockings.

"And worse of all, I let those incestuous twins see these stupid drops of emotion!" She screamed as she slammed her fists down on the ground. They saw her break, they saw her weak, and now the ball was in their court. And she certainly wouldn't let them win.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you for the great reviews guys, I really wasn't expecting this much to come through! Imagine my surprise when I got home from school had saw I had 19 e-mails; 18 of which were about this story! Thank you once again, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

And don't worry the Hitachiin twins won't fall in love with her, yet, and vise versa. Amaterasu isn't going to be a Mrs. Sue, and the twins won't be OOC. They will still hate each other for at least a good ten chapters before they feel they can be acquaintances haha :-)

-PBW