As they sat down at their table, Ashlen couldn't help but feel extremely grateful for Yuki. Upon arriving just the other night the witch hadn't packed any means of food –Rexdeal had surprised both the girls with the mission, so she'd only packed the bare essentials when they were called. She and Stella had both brought Japanese money to use, yet due to the fact that she hadn't been thinking right in the early morning, Ashlen had left the money she had in her room. She had expected this school to run like the Guild, in the way that no agents had to buy their food –they only had to get what they wanted. Free food to them was a thank you for the hard work that they did. So, it's safe to say that without Yuki, Ashlen would have gone hungry. Of course Ashlen promised to pay the girl back the next time she could.
"So, how are you enjoying Japan so far, Ashlen?" Yuki's friend, Yori as Ashlen learned her name was, asked. Ashlen took a bite of her hiyashi chuka and shrugged her shoulders.
"To tell the truth it isn't my first time in Japan," Ashlen admitted carelessly. Yuki looked at her in surprise. Ashlen hadn't mentioned Japan when she was describing the countries she had visited.
"When were you in Japan?" Yuki questioned. She couldn't but be slightly suspicious.
"When I was a little girl," Ashlen shrugged and then turned her head to the side. While she told Yuki where she had travelled with Stella during her time in the Guild, she never mentioned her parents were dead –they had died in Japan actually. It wasn't something the girl liked to think about.
Both the girls were satisfied with the answer. Yori didn't know anything about the girl, and seeing as how she was a sensible and calm person she was able to tell that Ashlen didn't want to talk further in that subject. Yuki, on the other hand, had multitudes of questions –however, they couldn't be asked in front of Yori. The three continued to eat their lunches in peace, making casual small talk until a muttering disturbance reached their ears.
"Why does the new girl get to be a prefect?" a girl whispered to her group of friends. Her greasy, short black hair slipped into her face and she pushed it back behind her ear. The group of girls stared at Ashlen as they discussed her status.
"I don't know, but I don't think that we should get too worked up about it," another girl stated, her arms crossing against her large chest. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"She better not steal my Shiki-kun away from me," a third girl mumbled. Her friends nodded and then looked at Yuki.
"Yeah, Yuki Cross is already doing that. I would make a better prefect than any those two put together."
"No way, you'd totally jump all over Wild-kun," the girl with short hair sniggered.
"And you think you're better? You'd just attack Aido!" the girls laughed once more. At the laugh her comment received, the busty girl with glasses looked pleased with herself.
"Do you think we should confront her?" the short haired one asked.
"No way. Totes not coolio, Tomomi-chan," another girl, her hair loose and long around her shoulders said.
"Yeah," the busty one agreed as she looked at Ashlen warily. Usually, she agreed with Tomomi, but today… not so much.
Tomomi made a face, "Why aren't you siding with me, Akira? You always do!"
"Well, I just think it's a stupid idea to confront someone in the Disciplinary Committee. Plus, Yuki's over there too and Zero-san is like creepy protective of her."
"Whatever," Tomomi snorted at Akira. "I'm going to anyways."
The girls tried to dissuade the girl as she began to strut over to the table Yuki, Yori, and Ashlen were occupying. Akira turned back to her friends and they shared a worried glance. Even to the people she knew the best, Tomomi was a bitch.
Just as Ashlen was finishing her hiyashi chuka, she noticed that one of the girls from the giggling idiots was now coming over. Raising an eyebrow Ashlen lowered her chopsticks to the table and turned to fully face the girl.
"Can I help you?" Ashlen asked her, trained eyes darting over the girl's body. Apparently, judging from body language, the girl was only trying to impress her friends. She carried herself in a similar way to Melody back in the Elite. She didn't seem to have much self-confidence.
The girl made an ugly face at her. "Well aren't you a pool of sunshine."
"Excuse me?" Ashlen questioned, rather confused by the choice of name. Ashlen was rather cranky and just now fully waking up. She was nowhere near a "pool of sunshine". She honestly couldn't figure out what about her made the girl had thought equated to being a happy go lucky person. That's like saying Veles hates poetry.
"You think you're so cool, don't you prefect?"
Oh God, I hate this kind of person, Ashlen thought as she rolled her eyes before smirking. Hey, she might as well have a bit of fun with this girl.
"Actually yes I do, thanks for noticing," Ashlen replied smartly.
The girl was stunned for a second at the reply. The girl, while she had confronted Ashlen, was no were near good at witty comebacks. After the slight hesitation she went on to say, "Yeah, well, you're not!" It was the best thing that Tomomi could come up with. She wasn't a genius. That was Akira's job.
"Hmm, now let me see about that. I've traveled to many different places, pet a tiger and made friends across the world. So I think I'm actually am pretty cool," Ashlen said gleefully. She was enjoying showing this girl up. It had been a long time she'd gotten in a battle of smartass-ness.
"Yeah! Well… I'm… I'm… I'm rich! Suck it loser!"
"Good for you, maybe your parents can buy you happiness," Ashlen said and, even though she was actually having fun taunting this girl, turned her back on her. She wanted to finish her drink.
"Why are you a prefect?" Tomomi inquired rudely, not letting the dispute falter.
Ashlen shrugged and paused for a second, thinking of a reason to give the girl before coming up with the perfect response. This would more than likely piss her off but Ashlen was still a little cranky and didn't give a crap. "Because I promised not to rape any of them and I am not a shallow bitch who only cares about looks."
The girl blushed and then said, "Oh yeah?" but she hurried away before Ashlen could retort with anything. Yuki rolled her eyes at them, uncharacteristically annoyed.
"Don't pay any attention to them, Ashlen-san. They're just jealous because we're able to be closer to the Night Class."
Ashlen nodded, "I kind of figured that."
"Man, I'm really sorry though. I feel bad that she treated you like this on your first day."
"Seriously," Ashlen responded, "It is fine. I've dealt with worse." She then chugged the rest of her drink before checking her watch. "The bell's going to ring in about a minute. I'm going to throw away my trash."
Yuki nodded, "Yeah. Me too. Yori, would you like me to take yours as well?"
Yori shook her head, "That's alright, Yuki."
Ashlen stood and grabbed her used bowls and chopsticks. She walked to the trashcan that was conveniently close to the table they had been sitting at and dropped it in. She turned around, almost running into a girl she recognized as part of Tomomi's posse. She raised an eyebrow at the girl who bowed.
"I'm very sorry," she said, "I'm also going to apologize for Tomomi. I know that she seemed like a bitch, but don't take it personally. She's like that with everyone –even her friends."
Shrugging almost carelessly Ashlen gave her a friendly smile. "It's no big deal. I've dealt with girls like her before. Believe me there is nothing she can do that will bother me."
The large busted girl smiled at Ashlen. "Thanks. I'm Akira, by the way, Akira Inoue."
"Ashlen, Ashlen Baker. It's nice to meet you. Hopefully we don't have to end up hating each other when it comes to the Moon Dorms and my prefect duties."
Akira shook her head and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I don't think I'll hate you. I'm not like Tomomi -or my other friends for that matter."
"That is actually really good to know. I hate girls that are full of themselves and only care about looks. I knew some girls like that in my old school. Sadly a lot of boys in my old school only cared about pretty girls as well," Ashlen sighed as she remembered the other Guild members. A lot of the time girls only talked about cute members and the horny boys usually only tried mating with girls they thought were pretty.
Akira smiled shyly. "I don't really like girls like that either, but I grew up with Tomomi. I feel like I owe her something, but sometimes it's hard for me to be her friend."
Now Ashlen was curious. What is this girl talking about? "Would you like to walk with me back to class? If you don't mind I'd like to know what you mean by saying that you feel like you owe Tomomi something," Ashlen asked and quickly waved Yuki and Yori ahead to tell them to go on without her.
Akira nodded, but had a small hesitancy about her before she responded. "Well, when we were younger, I'd get bullied a lot and Tomomi always stood up for me." By the way she carefully chose her words -it was obvious that Akira was lying.
Upon sensing the lie Ashlen tried to convince the girl to tell the truth. "Akira, please tell me the truth. I am not going to judge you." She had a feeling she knew what Akira was going to say but she wouldn't be quick to say anything. She didn't want to offend the girl.
Akira shook her head. "I feel like I can trust you, Ashlen-san, but I don't want to talk about it in a place as public as this. I'd rather talk when we can be in private."
"Yes, I can understand. I have duties after school so why don't we meet up Saturday and you can tell me then?" Ashlen asked, understanding and concerned. This girl was giving off weird vibes. She could sense the girl was human but... there was just this aura about her.
Akira nodded, "Thank you." Then, resuming a happier air, Akira changed the subject. "So, how do you like Cross Academy so far?"
"It's a big change from what I am used to," Ashlen admitted, sighing tiredly. "My old school never started this early. I arrived here last night so I didn't get a lot of sleep," she said with a sheepish smile. As part of her mission Ashlen was allowed to keep some truth to her stories as long as it didn't give away why she was sent to the school in the first place.
Akira nodded. "I bet you must be really tired then." She paused and averted her eyes shyly, "Um, Ashlen-san... I sit right behind you, and I saw you reading a weird book. What was it? I've never seen it before."
Upon realizing that Akira could see through her spell, Ashlen's face dropped in surprise. This was something Ashlen had to talk about now. So, grabbing at Akira's arm, Ashlen looked back to see Yuki looking at her. Apparently she hadn't gone on when Ashlen told her to. "Yuki, can you tell the teacher I stayed behind to deal with ditching students?" the witch called before starting to pull Akira to a more private. She saw Yuki nod unsurely at her before going inside with the rest of the students as the bell chimed.
Akira gasped as she was pulled along. "Ashlen-san, what's all this about?"
Ashlen didn't stop pulling Akira until they were deep in the woods. In fact Ashlen didn't stop until they were both standing on the bridge that went over the pond. Once finding a place where they'd be safe from praying ears Ashlen finally let Akira go and turned to look at her.
"You're a witch," Ashlen informed her bluntly as she crossed her arms over her chest.
Akira's eyes widened and she stepped back, "Excuse me?"
"I said, you're a witch," Ashlen reiterated as she then grabbed the book that gave her away. "You saw through my spell. That proves it," she added, holding out the book for Akira to have a closer look at.
A crease formed between Akira's eyebrows as she looked at the book. There was the title A Collection of Offensive Spells for Nature Element by some guy with a weird name. "Why are you reading about magic? It doesn't exist."
Ashlen was starting to get the vibe that Akira didn't even know she was a witch. So, sighing, Ashlen put the book back in her bag and decided to use some of her more harmless nature magic. She made a nearby tree bend one of its branches like it was rubber. The smaller branches bent and stuck out in front of Akira like a hand ready to shake. "Akira, you are a witch, and so am I."
Akira jumped back from the tree and shook her head. "No I'm not. I don't believe in magic."
"Akira, are you an orphan? Or have your parents just never told you what you are?" Ashlen asked as she made the tree branch go behind Akira and hold onto her shoulder. She began interrogation mode –something that all agents were able to fall back on –without realizing it. In the Guild, the Elite was also in charge of interrogating prisoners before they were executed.
"My parents have nothing to do with this!" Akira snapped, tears forming in her blue-green eyes.
"Akira…" Ashlen said just above a whisper. She felt sorry for this girl. The older witch walked over to Akira and gave her the kindest look she could. "There is no reason to be scared. We are born this way. I was born a Nature wielding witch, my mother a Water wielder and my father a Fire wielder."
Akira shook her head. "They would have told me. They would have told me before-" her voice stopped and she lowered her head, taking off her glasses and cleaning the lenses on her school jacket. She shook her head as she performed this action, trying to clear her mind.
"Maybe they wanted you to have a normal human life," Ashlen suggested before shrugging. "Or they were keeping you safe from someone."
"No," she told Ashlen, "They would have told me before they left."
Ashlen sighed and pushed her hands in her pockets, shrugging. "I don't know what else to tell you, Akira. All I know is that you saw through the spell I put on my book." She said as she then turned her back on the girl and letting the tree release her in the progress.
"My parents were very secretive people," Akira began before stopping herself. She took in a shaky breath and then continued, "They left me when I was seven. Tomomi found me and she took me in, she talked her parents into letting me live with them. I-... I guess it's not that unreasonable that they didn't tell me... If they were magic."
Ashlen actually twitched and turned her attention to Akira. She felt that her parents may have not so much have left her rather than that they died. Though she only thought that because it happened to so many other members back in the Guild. Their parents left them for a while and tended to never come back because they end up getting killed. "Do you know why your parents left you?"
Akira shook her head. "They left me one day after some weird, creepy people came to visit. They were yelling at each other. A few days after the people left, my parents told me to go to my room and stay there for the rest of the day. They said they'd send their friends to come and check on me, but they never came. My parents didn't come back either. I think they said that their friends were visiting Japan with their daughter."
Yep, Ashlen's suspicions seemed right. It seems Akira's parents got into a fight with possible humanoid creatures and were then killed. However, even if Akira wouldn't give details on other creatures –the girl was freaked out enough about witches- Ashlen turned back to look at the girl again. "How were those people creepy? If you don't mind me asking that is."
Akira paused, remembering, "They had this ominous aura about them. They just seemed so cold. They also kept talking about "The Master." I don't know what that was about."
Akira's information made Ashlen tense. On the outside she was trying to keep as calm as she could, but on the inside she was freaking out. The Level-C vampires that had killed her parents years ago had also mentioned a Master. It was highly likely that Akira was talking about a Pureblood vampire. "I'm really sorry for you. I believe your parents loved you dearly and only wanted what's best for you. Now if you excuse me, both of us should get back to class now," Ashlen said as she began walking away from the younger witch.
God, another vampire attack? Why didn't the Guild find out about this one? Ashlen would need to tell Stella as soon as she could.
Akira nodded. "So, what element do I wield?" she asked, her interest piqued. When she was younger, she had always fantasized about having magical powers.
"I don't know," Ashlen said with a lazy shrug. "I don't even know if you are an Elemental witch. There are witches and wizards that can cast any spell or curse they wish, and then there are elemental witches and wizards. I am one of those. Our power is to control one element out of Earth, Nature, Water, Fire, and Air. When I'm inside, my powers are weakened because I am away from my power source. Also, I can only preform basic spells and curses," Ashlen explained to the girl, trying to say it in a way that the girl would understand.
Akira pursed her lips, "Alright. How do I find out?"
"You can try using basic Elemental magic. That kind of magic where you don't really need spells," Ashlen said as she exited the woods with Akira. "I'd let you borrow my book but I really need it right now."
"Maybe some other time then," Akira suggested as the two walked back into the cold building. "Ashlen, what should I do now?"
"For now just live like you have been doing for the next few days. We can still meet up on Saturday and I will help you out," Ashlen said, smiling. She planned to get Stella involved and maybe together they could figure out what was with this girl. Even though Ashlen just figured out she was a witch something else seemed off and to figure it out she was going to need the help of her partner. At least Ashlen's hope for action came sooner than expected. Things were no longer boring, that was for sure.
Akira put her hand on the doorknob to the room and then paused. "Thank you Ashlen."
"You're welcome," Ashlen nodded and smiled before joining Akira into the class room. Excusing herself to the teacher, Ashlen return the seat she had been sitting in earlier and took her book back out. She had more studying to do.
That's the end of the chapter! I would like you to review. I've also posted a poll on my profile –voting would be appreciated.
