A/N: I had to up the rating slightly because of the scene between Reika and Nana. See silverbrilliance, I did include your *cough* interesting *cough*suggestion. Though I seriously have no inkling of whether that is how a 'romantic' scene should play out…
Warning - Some hints of one-sided shoujo-ai in this chapter.
Daytime - Part Three
When not concentrating on delivering her lesson, Reika had been eyeing Agatsuma Soubi discreetly for the last hour. For the first fifteen minutes of her lesson, she was quite sure that, wherever his mind was, it was not on her lesson. That, and the glances he had thrown at Jirou-kun, revealed to Reika that his mind was still on the previous evening's fight. Well, so was hers. She had been quite surprised to find that Soubi was every bit the Fighter that her annoying brother had described. If not for the healing abilities of the school nurse, Reika had no doubt that Jirou-kun would be lying in a sickroom for the better part of one month. She had no idea that Soubi could be that merciless…though perhaps that could be attributed to his Sacrifice's orders, judging from Jirou-kun's description of the pre-battle dynamics between Fighter and Sacrifice.
Just when she had decided to put a stop to Soubi's wool-gathering however, Soubi had returned his attention to her lesson. For the rest of class, no matter how she tried, she could not find any slip in his behavior. Even instructing him to answer the most difficult questions did not help – Soubi's forte was in languages and he was easily the best student in her class.
When class had ended, Reika had immediately stalked off, irritated and frustrated by the events of the morning. Deciding that she should rectify her bad mood by binging on food, she had proceeded to indulge herself in her favourite toriiniku bento and green tea ice-cream in the school canteen. After she had finished licking the last of the green tea ice-cream from her spoon, she saw a person who brightened up the remainder of her day.
By then, the school canteen was quite empty, for the students' recess had just ended. The lights had been switched off so that the canteen was illuminated only by natural sunlight. As her friend entered the room, Reika's eyes immediately turned to her. Pale hair tied in a high ponytail, oval glasses and smoky, mysterious eyes. Plain, simple clothes, which only served to accentuate her slender figure and pretty features, clothed her slender frame. Nana…Reika breathed softly, but she soon caught herself. It would not do to show Nana how affected she was by Nana's mere presence. Setting aside the last of her food, she rose and stalked towards Nana like a female panther.
Sleek, elegant and sexy…those were the only coherent thoughts Nana could form as Minami Reika sashayed towards her. Dressed in a white cropped jacket thrown over a tight leopard print blouse and straight-cut white pants, Reika's dress sense was, as usual, wickedly hot. The bronze-tinted make-up on her eyes and lips did not subtract from the overall effect either, Nana thought, frozen in her tracks as Reika approached. Nana's brain went into panic mode and temporarily shut down; it only managed to repeat one refrain over and over again mentally, Oh my, oh my, what should I do, what should I do...
"Hey Na-chan, did you miss me?" Taking advantage of her height, Reika maneuvered Nana into the closest wall and effectively pinned her down by placing her left hand on the wall besides Nana's head. A slight blush coloured Nana's cheeks as she stared up at Reika, her gaze helplessly captured by Reika's deep, intense grey eyes. "Reika-san…" Nana whispered softly. She froze: as slowly, Reika's right hand moved to remove her spectacles.
Looking into Nana's pale hazel eyes, Reika felt herself mesmerized by her beautiful orbs, hidden behind those unfashionable glasses. After removing the silver-wire framed pair of spectacles from Nana's pretty oval face, Reika tucked it into Nana's shirt pocket before returning her long fingers to Nana's face. Tracing her delicate jaw-line with one beautifully manicured fingernail slowly, Reika leaned in even closer, her ample bosom almost brushing against Nana.
"You've been avoiding me, Na-chan…Don't you know how much I missed you?" So saying, she leaned down further and pressed her cherry red lips against Nana's soft, pink ones, using her right hand to lift up Nana's chin.
The sensation almost overwhelmed Reika. The feel of Nana's plump, moist and delectable lips beneath hers was just…perfect. So much so that she did not notice the presence behind her, and so, she was totally shocked when she was abruptly pulled off Nana but a strong but surprisingly slender grasp on her left wrist. "Get your hands off Nana-chan!" Reika turned to see a furious Sagan Nagisa standing next to her.
When the bell signaling the beginning of recess had sounded, Soubi did not waste any time in packing up his stuff. Out of the corner of an eye, he watched as Hanayama haphazardly threw his books into his backpack before leaving the classroom by the back door. After allowing a pair of chattering female students to leave before him, Soubi too left by the back door.
Keeping a few students between them, Soubi trailed after Hanayama carefully, striving to keep his action casual. Much as he would like to use a spell to aid in shadowing Hanayama, he knew that the latter was too good a fighter not to notice a spell being cast in such close proximity to him. Although it did appear that he was much worse when it came to taking note of his surroundings…Soubi had decided on this seemingly foolhardy plan after some thought; he was sure that Hanayama would have to report the outcome of the fight to the person who had ordered it personally, for surely that person would not be content with an indirect report. So that meant that Hanayama would meet the person face-to-face, probably with Etou present as well…
Ahead of him, Hanayama reached the end of the corridor, rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. Narrowing his eyes slightly, Soubi paused. Corners were the bane of every spy or detective he had ever read about, since they represented an insurmountable blind spot for the person tailing the target. But there was no use worrying over it, was there? With normal strides, he followed after Hanayama…
…when suddenly, he felt a cold hand on his left shoulder.
"My my, where do you think you're going, Agatsuma? Sneaking around like a rat…" A voice sneered from behind him. Soubi turned his head slightly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two male students standing behind him. The taller one had long, straight raven black hair and a leanly muscled physique while the shorter teenager had the short, spiky platinum blonde hair and dangling ear ring typical of a punk. The one who had stopped Soubi had been the blonde, who was now smirking at him. The brunette was observing Soubi coolly with arms folded across his chest.
"And what, may I ask, do you want?" Soubi shrugged off the blonde's hand with a small flip of his own long blonde hair before turning around to face the two students. Both did not have those cat-like ears, signaling that they were both adults. The brunette looked slightly familiar; he was sure that he was a senior, in the same year as him, although he had never shared any classes with him. The blonde was Ikeda Jun, a person who, just two years ago, Soubi would have called a friend. And they were a Fighter Unit – that Soubi could sense. Had this been anywhere else, he would have marked them before they came within one kilometer of him, however, here at the Seven Moons Academy, fighters and sacrifices were aplenty, such that Soubi had barely even registered their presence.
The student with black hair pushed his rectangular spectacles higher on his nose. "Kimura Shouhei. I'm Jun's Sacrifice. We are Hopeless." Soubi allowed a small smile to blossom on his lips. "Hopeless? Well, I wouldn't go that far, I'm sure you have some redeeming qualities…" Ikeda Jun scowled at that witticism and stuck out his middle finger at Soubi. "Very funny, Agatsuma. Seems like you still lack the all-important organ…people call it a brain…Let me tell you what our name truly means – we cause in our opponents this feeling, this feeling of absolute despair."
Soubi's smile widened as he pushed up his oval glasses using his index figure. "I see. But I have no interest in that. Which brings me back to my question – what do you want?"
Original Characters:
木村翔平 – Kimura Shouhei, Sacrifice of Hopeless. Quiet and collected, he is the only person who can rein in Jun. Third-year high school student.
池田淳 – Ikeda Jun, Fighter of Hopeless. Hot-tempered, foul-mouthed and emotional. Was once Soubi's friend. Third-year high school student.
Character from the manga:
ナナ- Nana, a member of the Septimal Moon organization who feels that Nagisa is her only friend. Is extremely unsure of her feelings towards Reika.
Another chapter up, please tell me whether you liked it! :)
