A/N: I posted a poll to decide who Rin should be paired with so please vote.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Shuffle! believe it or not. If I did Asa wouldn't have won at the end of the anime, and there would have been at least one fight scene.
"Speech"
"Thought"
Chapter 2: A Terrible Start
"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP ,BEE- CRUNCH."
"Damn clock... who the hell decided these things were a good idea?", Nero asked his ceiling. Deciding he wasn't going receive an answer in the foreseeable future he decided to take a shower not bothering to remove the black band that covered the tattoo on his neck as he stumbled into the shower in his half-asleep stupor.
After waking himself up with a quick shower he realized he was supposed to be at work by eight o'clock. That was five minutes ago.
"Shit, the boss is gonna chew me out over this.", Nero said, sighing to himself. Deciding that late was late whether it's five or thirty minutes, Nero made no effort to move any faster than he had been. Throwing on his uniform that he would lovingly refer to as, "the ugliest fucking thing he'd ever worn", he sighed again realizing what day tomorrow was.
"The old devil's 'experiment' starts tomorrow, can't believe he'd go missing right before it started... It can't be a coincidence.", Nero thought.
"Verbena Academy huh? Well I'll see what the old devil wanted to test tomorrow I guess.", and with that thought in mind Nero left his house.
"YOU'RE TWENTY MINUTES LATE YOU LITTLE BRAT!", a large, portly man yelled at Nero.
"I know.", was Nero's nearly emotionless response. It wasn't said in disrespect, it was merely the statement of a boy so socially awkward that it seemed like the correct response to the speaker. Nero's boss didn't realize this though.
"DON'T TALK BACK BRAT, YOU WANNA GET FIRED!", Nero's boss roared.
"No sir.", was all Nero could mumble out in his confusion. After all he was just agreeing with his boss.
"GOOD, THEN GET TO WORK!", bellowed Nero's boss.
"Yes sir", Nero responded.
It was Nero's job to man the cash register. If you asked him to rate the job on a scale from one to ten he'd respond confidently with, "this job is sucking away my will to live, please, have mercy and kill me right here."
Needless to say it wasn't what he wanted to be doing with his last day ignorant to the boring, mundane life of a high school student. However, Nero needed money now more then ever. With his guardian missing he would be forced to eat instant ramen for a long time if he didn't want to end up on the street again, and after discovering the wonder of modern appliances he would never go back to the street, no matter the cost. At this moment Nero's thoughts started to wander. He was currently thinking about the disappearance of his guardian.
"Hell of a way to find out you just lost the major source of your income. All I got was some letter from one of his lab assistants saying he had gone missing, and just a few days before the experiment was supposed to start too. What are you planning old man?", Nero thought coldly.
In truth Nero had never seen the old devil as anything more than a bank and someone to answer the questions he had about his origins, and the old devil never thought of Nero as anything other than a test subject. Before Nero could think further on the matter a cheery voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Hi, how are you?", asked a redheaded girl whose eye's shined with happiness and ears were pointed marking her as a god.
"Uh, good...", Nero answered clearly caught off guard by the girl. Then Nero remembered he was at work meaning this girl was talking to him because he needed ring up her purchases.
"Oh, sorry... I didn't make you wait with my daydreaming did I?", is what Nero said as he scanned the girl's purchases , but what he thought was, "leave me alone, I have to think."
"Not at all, I just got here.", was the redhead's response.
"Good... um are you having a party or something...? This is a lot of food... even for an entire family.", Nero asked. He wasn't actually interested in the girl's answer, but he was supposed to talk to the customers to encourage them to return to the store, but now that he thought about the question it wasn't exactly the best thing to ask a teenage girl.
Luckily the girl didn't seem to be offended because she laughed and told him that her dad had a huge appetite. After bagging the girl's goods he decided to ask something he had a genuine interest in, "Hey, um, do you go to Verbena Academy?"
The girl, however, was off in her own little world and with a comment of, "I need to hurry if I want to make it to that sale on toilet paper.", she left.
All Nero could do was sigh in agitation while ringing up the next customer's goods and think, "do I really have less importance than friggin' toilet paper. Ya know what? I should just stop talking, its not like anyone listens to me anyway."
"Would you like paper or plastic?", Nero asked the customer.
"Huh, did you ask something?", the clearly brain dead customer asked.
"WHY WONT ANYONE FUCKING LISTEN TO ME. IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I SAY?", Nero yelled at the now terrified, brain dead customer. Only after seeing the look on the customer's face did Nero realize that he had said every word out loud.
"I am so fired..."
"At least I wont have to wear that uniform ever again... what the hell am I thinking? I need that job to pay the rent... I. Am. Fucked.", this was the thought that had been going through Nero's head for the past hour or so. Although he didn't particularly like the job he could only survive on his savings for so long and he knew it.
"Let's see, I have enough money to be okay for about a month so long as I eat ramen once a day, every day, and a human can live for six days without food. If I can pull off eating once a weak I'll have enough money for six months, give or take. Damn it, I need another job.", Nero thought out loud, his scowl growing larger with each word. As he thought about his latest screw up Nero unlocked the door to his house. It wasn't a castle by any means, but it wasn't a refrigerator box. For that, Nero was grateful.
"Screw it, I'm to tired to think about this right now. Besides I have school tomorrow. I can't afford to worry about this all night long.", he thought as he slowly trudged his way to his bed. After throwing his clothes to the ground he lied on his bed, the black choker still around his neck, and stared at the ceiling waiting for sleep to take him. It never did.
"I just spent an entire night staring a hole into my ceiling, and I have school today. Somebody kill, please.",Nero thought in his sleepless desperation. When no one dove through the window with a gun pointed at his head he rolled out of bed. Making his way to the shower leaving the black piece of choker around his neck. After washing his exhaustion away he threw on his clothes for the day. He wore a red short sleeve shirt, a pair of black pants, black Converse high-tops, a black jacket with a single red stripe running down the left side, and the black choker he never removed. He wouldn't be caught dead in Verbena Academy's actual uniform. He had such an adverse reaction to the uniform that the principal had actually decided it was best for everyone if Nero wear what he wanted to school.
"I suppose I should get going I'm supposed to be there at eight", while thinking this Nero looked to one of his replacement alarm clocks, "and that was five minutes ago..."
"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT. WHY CAN'T ANYTHING GO MY WAY JUST ONCE?", Nero yelled as he sprinted to the academy. Shoving some poor unsuspecting students out of his way he made his way to the principal's office. In his haste he neglected to notice the many students he knocked over outside of the principal's office, all of them male. Nearly tearing the door off its hinges he made his way into the office and noticed five people in the room one of which was a redheaded god.
"You have got to be shitting me. One of the first people I see here is the one I lost my job over. Okay, just calm down, you lost your job because you don't have any self control... and because you're less important than toilet paper", Nero told himself.
"So nice of you to join us Nero-san, now please take a seat and we can begin this meeting. Uh, where is your guardian?", a short, balding man asked.
Nero took his seat next to the strange man wearing a kimono for no apparent reason, "He went missing a few days ago", Nero grumbled.
"Oh I'm so sorry, it must be hard on you...", the blue-haired red-eyed devil girl sitting next to the redheaded god girl said in a concerned tone. However, Nero had no idea why she was so concerned, especially when she didn't even know his name.
"Not really, the old devil never even told me his name, besides the timing is just too coincidental... he's probably just watching his experiment from afar", Nero told the girl in a disinterested voice. The girls gave him a sympathetic, yet sad look.
"What do you mean by watching his experiment?", the devil next to the blue-haired girl, most likely her father, asked.
"It's a secret, in any case why is my life suddenly the most interesting topic. Can we just get this meeting over with?", Nero asked.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX MEANWHILE IN A CERTAIN CLASSROOM XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Where is everyone?", a brown haired human asked when he took note of the complete lack of any male other than himself.
"They're all outside the principal's office trying to catch a glimpse of the transfer students", answered a girl that appeared to be human, had a chest as flat as a board and had mismatched eyes.
"Shouldn't you be there to Mayumi?", an orange haired girl asked the heterochromia-eyed girl.
"Well I already got pictures of the girls, but the boy never showed up. He must be some kind of delinquent if he's skipping his first day here. So Rin, you wanna see the pictures I got?", Mayumi asked the brown haired boy.
"No, if they're in this class then I'll see them when class starts anyway", Rin responded in a bored voice.
"I guess you don't have to worry about any romantic rivals, huh Kaede?", Mayumi asked the orange haired girl only getting a blush from her in response. At that moment the rest of the class made their way into the room, more than a few of them sporting bruises on their faces.
"All right, butts in seats", a voluptuous woman said on her way in.
"I know you're all excited, but please try to control yourselves, especially you Itsuki. Now come in you three", she said gesturing toward the door.
After hearing the signal to come in Nero made his way to the door, but was forced to wait behind the girl's fathers and stared dumbfounded at the door when they closed it on him and the girls behind him.
"Uh, your dad's do realize the teacher meant us, right?", Nero asked without turning around.
"Heheh, our dads can get a little overexcited sometimes", the redhead, who he had learned went by Sia, answered him.
"So, some coincidence that we all start school today", Nerine, the blue-haired devil, said, attempting to start a conversation.
"That word is coming up too much today, somethings not right", Nero said to himself more than anyone else.
"Are you sure you're okay Nero", Sia asked noticing his disgruntled expression.
"Yeah, just wondering what's going to happen next I suppose", Nero said with a reassuring, yet fake smile.
"Someone might get hurt if things go the way I think they will. If something does happen I have to be ready to intervene. I wont let what happened to her ever happen again", Nero thought while gripping the red of his jacket.
A/N: I guess I'll end it there. Next up is Nero and the girls meeting Rin, so it might not be as interesting as I wish it was. Or I could be lying and have a fight scene next chapter. In any case I would really appreciate votes for the poll on who Rin should be paired with because I honestly don't know who to put him with since Sia is going to be with Nero. Can you guess which girl I like the most out of the
Shuffle! Series?