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Chapter 1-A Flower In The Snow

Cross Academy, Japan

Three years earlier…

The snow crunched under the boots of the two hesitant teachers. They were never too happy when they were asked to patrol school grounds looking for missing students. It was the coldest it had been in more than 12 years too! What a night to be trooping around in the creepy forest behind Cross Academy! It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, even with lanterns! Even if you could see through this dark, the snow was swirling so fast you could barely breathe! The Chairmen insisted the students had simply gotten lost. The teachers weren't fooled. The girls had been kidnapped! Still, Chairmen had them look every night.

The only noise was the muffled sound of falling snow. Just then the taller of the two teachers swore he heard a cracking sound.. He whipped around and thrust his lantern out in front of him like a sword. Seeing nothing, he turned to the other teacher. "Akihiko, did you hear that?" the teacher whispered.

"No! Who would be out here? If anything, it'd be a missing student. But why would the students have come out here anyway? This is off campus borders! They'd get in some serious trouble! Why are we even searching here?" Akihiko replied, trying to sound nonchalant. His voice betrayed him, exposing clearly fear.

The other teacher sighed with relief, pretending not to pick up on the fear. "Yeah. You're telling me. I'm freezing!"

CRACK! "Kenta?" whimpered Akihiko.

"Yeah?" responded Kenta nervously.

"I heard it that time." answered Akihiko solemnly. A look of twisted fear was plastered firmly on his face. Even in the dim lantern light, that much was clear.

Kenta stared forward, his face was hard as always. But in his eyes was sheer panic. He spoke out of the corner of his mouth "Me too."

CRACK! A wave of determination rolled over Akihiko's face covering any trace of fear. "Kenta, these students didn't get lost. Somebody took them. Whoever he is, he's here right now. He's had enough students from Cross Academy. He's not going to take anymore! Let's stop him. We'll send him back to the hell he came from!" he growled.

Kenta gaped down at Akihiko with an astonished and exasperated face. "WE?" Kenta hissed aiengerly. Akihiko shot Kenta a stern look. Kenta felt confidence bubbiling up inside him. "Alright! It sounded as if it came from over here."

That area was the darkest thing either teacher had seen in their lives. Second thoughts ran through their heads. The confidence in their upturned faces was rapidly diminishing. "Are you sure about this?" Kenta asked to half Akihiko, half to himself.

Akihiko regained his confidence quickly. He gave one final nod before saying "Absolutely! This is for Cross Academy." His words were meant entirely for himself, but they made Kenta's spirits soar too.

They stepped forward and took a last look of the trees around them. Then, they headed off into the night. A blasting wind bite into them with all its might. The wind forced them to walk with their heads down just to keep their balance.

That's when Kenta really noticed the snow that lay on the ground in drifts around them. Red? he thought to himself ,But snow isn't supposed to be red! He could only think of one thing that was that dark of a shade of red. But it surely couldn't be…

"Blood!" Akihiko shrieked confirming Kenta's fear.

Where did all this come from? Kenta wondered to instantly started imagining gory scenes in his head.

Akihiko was much too sensible to stand there gaping at the snow like Kenta. He scrambled to get his lantern. He fumbled with the handle a second before producing it. He waved the lantern out in front of them slowly, scanning the area before where he stood. He would challenge whatever was there. This was a mistake they would regret for the rest of their lives.

Because that's when they first saw her , and her image still haunts them to this day. It was Akihiko's lantern that first caught that pale little figure in its eerie fire glow. He jumped back from the thing shrieking as loudly as possible.

Kenta remained blissfully unaware. He was confused by Akihiko's actions. Akihiko was usually a very level headed man. "Akihiko! What is it?" Kenta demanded.

Akihiko continued backing up with his mouth agape. All he could manage to do was point at the thing. Kenta's eyes followed Akihiko's finger. As soon as he saw it he panicked as well. They both stood there with snow whirling around them, too afraid to move. It seemed like hours before either of them dared to breathe. Then, they exchanged horror stricken glances. What had they just seen? They weren't even sure if what they saw existed. For a brief moment it seemed like she was a ghost! But when the two looked back she was still there. And it was not a sight you wanted to see. Especially if you were in a dark, snowy, silent forest, at night, after you had just heard a scary noise.

She was a scary site, that girl lying in the snow at their feet .Her skin seemed much white than the snow she lay on. This was not normal skin coloration at all. This was corpse, dead person white. Her hard face had ice clinging to it many places. The ice too, was red, it was blood. Her eyes were screwed shut and lined heavily with frost. Her lips were as blue as the sky in summer with a dot of blood on them. They were drawn into a slight frown. She really wore no expression on her lovely face. But there were hints of fear buried in her frown. She wore a silken white kimono. Well, at least, at one time it had been white, it must have been lovely. Now it lay tattered and soaked in blood, in rags around her slender frame.

She was a petite girl. Barely twelve by the looks of it. Clearly she was dead, as well. But scarier than her shredded kimono, her mangled body, scarier then even the fact she was dead, was her hair. It was a golden brown waterfall that cascaded to the lower back. This would have been gorgeous, except the lower half of the girl's hair shone red and wet. It was literally as if she had literally as is she had dipped the lower part of hair in a pool of blood. Gruesome as it was, it was the best explanation for this.

Finally after a long hallow silence, Kenta took a deep breath. He worked up the nerve to ask the question that ran through both their minds. "Do you think she was one of the students that went missing? Because, we all know they were murdered. "Kenta inquired gravely. He took another brisk look at the body. "Apparently they were raped as well. Because she's not wearing a uniform. She seems the perfect age for a pedophile to target her." he added sadly.

"I don't think so. She probably isn't one of our students." Akihiko disproved solemnly. At this Kenta gave him a mystified look. "Sad isn't it? That a creature so young took her own life. She did a messy job too." he clarified.

"It wasn't suicide. She doesn't have any weapons. How would she have gotten in SUCH a mess?" Kenta debated. He set down his lantern by the corpse's glinting red head. He shook his head sadly. "Something killed her." he declared fatalistically.

Akihiko drew in a sharp breath as the truth behind Kenta's words sunk in. Then, he thought of something incredibly important. "We have to report thus to Chairman Cross. He needs to know if something dangerous is in the area. Let's take her back for evidence." Akihiko suggested. But he meant this as a command.

"Of course. But how will we get her there? We don't have a coffin." Kenta agreed, but couldn't help being a little pessimistic as always.

Akihiko snorted. He was frustrated by Kenta's stupid questions. "You've gotta carry her, you idiot!" he growled.

Kenta looked offended. "Me? What about you? I mean you found her, you should get the credit" Kenta stammered, trying to talk his way out of it. He knew he would be the one to carry her though. The truth was he didn't want to touch her. She was bloody and reeked of bad luck.

Akihiko turned to look at his fellow teacher, with a look made to kill. Kenta got the message.

He crouched down to pick her up. He cringed as he slid his arms underneath her. She was drenched in blood. He winced as he realized that the blood was still dripping off of her, it was still wet, hot ,and fresh. "Ack…I don't wanna do this! I can't pick up a dead person! She's got dead people germs! I'm going to die from this!" Kenta complained.

It wasn't just that she was dead and dripping with blood. She had an air of…doom. Something about just being near her body made him feel unsafe. Like…they were being watched by something. The spying thing, whatever it was, Kenta could tell it wasn't nice. Kenta wondered if Akihiko felt it too. He turned around and asked "Hey, Akihiko, do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?"

Akihiko looked at Kenta with doubt and curiosity in his face. Kenta gazed back steadily. This was not like his friend. Kenta had never been a serious person. But Kenta's eyes said he was dead serious. "Well sometimes. But…why?" Akihiko inquired.

"Right now. Do you feel it now?" begged Kenta desperately.

"No." Akihiko responded shortly.

"Well, let's go then. The forest is affecting our minds!" Kenta ordered as he lifted the girl up.

When he did her frost bitten hand that had been tightly clenched relaxed. Something small that that looked like a snowflake floated out of her hand and settled on the ground. But it didn't melt. "Oh" he exclaimed. He couldn't do anything, for the girl in his arms made most movements impossible.

It was so odd…a minute ago he would've ran away from the girl. But…now even though she was dead, he held her in his arms as gently as if she were his daughter, and he was simply putting her to bed. He realized all of a sudden he wanted to protect her, well her body. Was she truly dead? Most likely. Still, he did want to know what the dead girl died with. Maybe she died to protect it.

Akihiko bent down and picked the thing up. "It's-it's a cherry blossom!" he gasped. Akihiko held the delicate thing up to the light of the lantern.

"Sakura? In winter, not a chance! Let me see it." Kenta snorted. He handed the girl to Akihiko, who took her reluctantly. He took the thing gently in his hands. Sakura was a delicate flower.

Yet, he held in his hands a pale pink cherry blossom. This was the most perfect thing he had ever seen. It still smelled of the Sakura tree. The flower was not even the least bit wilted. It looked as if she had just picked. Where had she found a Sakura tree around here? "Kenta…let's keep it! It's so perfect and beautiful! I bet the girl looked like that before this happened to her." Akihiko cried.

"No! You're not allowed to! Plus, she died with it! This flower must mean a lot by her! It would be very wrong to take it from her!" Kenta proclaimed loudly. He put the flower back in the girl's hand and reclenched it for her. He took the girl out of Akihiko's arms. Silently he turned and began to head back to Cross Academy. Now Kenta just wanted to get the girl inside Akihiko had to run to keep up with his comrade. What happened? thought Akihiko, He's acting as if he's in love with that corpse! It's wrong!

He gasped as Kenta brushed a strand of red hair from her pale face. "I'll protect you." Kenta whispered as they reached the outskirts of the forest. If Akihiko and Kenta had looked back they would have seen a pair of eyes watching them from inside the woods.

(A/N) Thabnk read review