Anemone
By: oONekomataOo
Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue.
Warnings: OOCness, Maaya-bashing, AU-ish, mild language, and flirty bats.
Neko: You wanted stalkers, you got stalkers!
-Respose To Reviewers-
Neko: Thanks again to everyone who gave me support and feedback! It really helped motivate me during a time that could only be described as Meh…
Kuro: Oh, sure. You spend several months going 'Meh' I spend several months trying to get Caramell Dansen out of my head. That's fair.
Neko: Meh. And that was the reference to the O-O-Owah, Owah, Hana4262. That was my best attempt at sounding out the crazy nonsense word verse of the Caramell Dansen. Those who are familiar with the song should understand why Hiei fell to it so quickly.
Kuro: Don't. Mention. That. Song.
Neko: Nyah! Death101 – Fox Version, when "That Song" defeated Hiei, imagine it being blasted into your first, second, and (in Hiei's case) third sight cranked to maximum volume and sped up even more. That combined with cutesy anime characters dancing on an eternal loop, and you have yourself one helluva weapon. And oOKnightOo, I hope your PC didn't get the cord pulled!
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Let me be completely honest for a minute here… I'm a generally nice guy. People like me. My personality is laid-back and blunt. I say what's on my mind, and people are usually better off for it. And when that fails, I can fall back on my incredible good looks (just ask my fan club). For these reasons, I'm not used to people NOT liking me. Granted there's a few exceptions to the rule like the fire-rat and Fishboy, but overall, I'm pretty damn well-liked.
Which is why the faculty room was considerably more uncomfortable this morning.
Stepping back a bit, Kurama and I had been notified to go there directly before homeroom today. Apparently, the staff wanted each student council candidate for president and vice-president to state why they felt they were the best choice for the job.
Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem for Kuronue, Master BSer, but today I could especially feel the radiation from the glares Fishy and his advisor shot at me. My so called 'rival' did this on a daily basis, but I didn't understand what his advisor's problem was. He was the chemistry teacher, so I never even spoke with him before. Hell, I'd only been in his room once or twice to—
I blinked.
So that was it….he had found out about the Exploding Frog Incident. This was going to be fun.
Luckily, I had Kurama on my side to help me out with the pitch to the teachers. We were able to use his status as the residing God of the School to our advantage and mention a few of the things that would affect teachers like involving them more in activities, meeting with them to brainstorm ideas to help the school, and do something about the parking lot. That was mostly Kurama. I just kept saying crap about being so fortunate to go to a school like this and how no other school I had ever been to was a welcoming, advanced, and successful. I don't know; I just kinda went with it.
After we had to listen to Fishy's lame defense (he clearly had not put any thought into doing things for the faculty) the meeting was over before I knew it.
"Can you believe that Fishboy kept trying to say that I was a bad omen that would bring horrible changes to the school if I was elected?" I asked Kurama on our way back to class. "He made me sound like some kind of cult."
"Yes, that was an interesting transfer student analogy…" Kurama replied, but seemed deep in thought.
"What's up, fox?"
"I was just trying to figure out why Kaito's advisor seemed especially hostile towards you in there…"
I gulped.
"You didn't happen to pull a prank in his room, did you?" the redhead asked me as if he already knew all about my mishap with the giant mutant space frogs…which he probably did.
"I didn't mean for them to explode, Kurama!" I explained. "I really didn't…"
"Tell that to the frogs, not me."
"I only wanted an army of giant mutant space frogs!" I argued my perfectly reasonable point. "What good are they to me in hundreds of pieces on the floor?"
"Why were they on the floor?"
"I kinda let them out when they started turning funny colors…then they ran."
"They ran on the floor?" Kurama asked, definitely not excited about the answer.
"The floor…the lab stations…the teacher's desk…"
As predicted, my kitsune friend shook his head and sighed, no doubt warding off another headache.
"I don't want to hear this…"
"But it was successful after all!"
"And how's that?"
"I learned pop rocks, random chemicals, and youki don't mix well together; especially when you throw frogs in there too."
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The beginning of the morning went well, as it usually does, and then I found myself stuck in another one of Badger's business law spiral of death lectures. The signs were all there for another late to lunch lesson – time had slowed, Badger had begun to spew Badger drool all over the front row of students (he gets really excited when he gets to talk about recessions), and his lecture started to sound more and more like he copied and pasted it together from the textbook, a manic-depressive person's blog, and every post-apocalyptic movie script ever written. Yep, we're looking at 5 – 10 minutes late easy.
To take my mind off of the lack of subject matter, I reviewed all the clues I had about the creepy stalker I still had to deal with.
She has terrible handwriting.
She's seen me at the park at least once.
She has access to the Boy's Locker Room (or is very sneaky).
The line between admiring from afar and plotting to kidnap means nothing to her.
The line between fangirl and illegal does not exist for her.
She has several mental issues she really needs to work out.
Things were not looking promising.
I just didn't have enough to go on. I still continued to get the letters and they were getting progressively trashy romance. My stalker was now convinced that we were going to elope together and have many children on the coast of the Grenadines. And I don't even know where the hell that is! When I first read it, I thought my little over-obsessive fangirl just spelled 'grenades' wrong.
I won't even get started on the horrors of releasing a bunch of little Kuronues into the world. The thought alone freaks me out.
The only good thing about this whole ordeal is that it makes Kurama laugh, which makes him forget about minor lapses in good judgment I've made, such as set an annoying guy in Bio's homework on fire. I kept trying to tell him my eyes were naturally blue and that he was standing way too close to my Bunsen burner, but noooo he just wouldn't listen. If Kurama was unable to detect my youki manipulating the wind to change directions, he wouldn't have known any different either. Maybe I'll get another one that I can use to help my friend overlook the Exploding Frog Incident.
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Sure enough, there was another letter left for me in my locker as I stopped there before lunch.
I will caress your hard body with tropical oils and dig my nails in just as you start to—
Annnnd that's enough light reading for me. I didn't even want to finish that last letter for fear of losing my appetite.
Enough was enough. This imaginary life that my stalker was creating for me was sounding more and more like a bad fanfic. I had to figure out who was sending these stupid letters and stop them.
Running a few minutes late to Karate, I got my wish.
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For whatever reason, Tachibana let us out of Novel Study a little late today and I had to hightail it back across half the school to get to the freaking gym. This is normally the part where I would start cursing Ms. Frizzle, but I honestly hadn't been paying enough attention in class to rip on whatever random pieces of literature she was botching. She could have been preaching the literary wonders of Dora the Explorer: Finds A Sock and I wouldn't have known any different.
Anyway, deformed bilingual cartoon characters aside, I made it into the locker room later than everyone else, so most of the guys had already cleared out. Nobody ever wants to face the wrath of our super-lovable ogre of a teacher. I rounded the corner of the locker section that I used and stopped dead in my tracks.
There was my stalker caught in the act of stuffing another flower and freaky note into my locker.
It was the last person I would have ever suspected. The freak in front of me now was a skinny little white belt whose knobby little legs were now trembling against the locker frame. Creep-o's scraggly hair covered most of their face and was now drenched in sweat. I don't recall ever seeing this person before, but the scent of fear was heavy in the air….and oh, yeah—my stalker was a flipping guy!
"What in the name of hell are you doing?" I shouted, still hoping that I'd wake up from this nightmare of a situation.
"I-I-I-!" the twig of a kid stuttered. He had to be barely 13 years old.
"Is that what I think it is?" I cringed, pointing to the props in his hands.
"I-I-I c-couldn't help-p-p i-i-it…" he panted, still shaken up.
"Did somebody put you up to this?" I asked.
Please tell me somebody put you up to this!
"N-No!" the freak stammered. "I-I-I love you!"
Cue blank stare and major sweatdropping.
"E-Ever since I saw you beat up those bullies and help those two girls out at the park!" Mr. Stalker seemed to be regaining his confidence. "It-It was wonderful! I was swept off my feet! I had to have you!"
I felt a new wave of nausea coming over me.
"It took me forever to build up the courage to deliver my letters to you!" he paused. "The letters that conveyed my true feelings for you…"
He may be standing right here in front of me, but I still find it hard to believe that such a shy person could write such trashy letters.
"So…will you accept my feelings for you…Akatsuki-sama…?"
"NO."
It was heartless. It was mean. It was necessary.
Skinny's eyes began to well up with tears and he clutched his letter and flower to his chest.
"Sorry, man, but I'm straight," I got right to the point. "And I'm also turned off by stalkers."
"Stalkers? You had a stalker?" the white belt asked me, shocked.
"Yeah, you!" I replied. "Were you not aware that your methods were in any way stalkerish?"
Another blank look, this one coming from Skinny.
"Look, my advice is to go chase after somebody else who can return your…feelings," I held back a mental cringe. "And hold off on the love letters. You come off a little too strong in those…"
"R-Really?" he asked. "Are you sure that's how I can win someone over?"
"Trust me," I sweatdropped. "You stick to verbal communication and you'll definitely find somebody out there for you."
"Alright, Akatsuki-sama! I'll do just that!" beamed Skinny. "But call me if you change your mind about us. I can give you my number—"
"A-Actually, that's okay, I've really got to get going!" This time I was the one stammering. "Class is gonna start soon and all!"
My former stalker looked a little put out, but nodded and exited the doors to his class. One awkward conversation down, one to go.
"Akatsuki!" boomed Yukio's voice from the gym. "Move your ass! Class is starting in two minutes!"
Ah, Sensei. Right on time.
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I practically flew through Karate class today. Partially because it was cut short due to an assembly at the end of the day, partially because at that assembly they would be announcing the next Student Council positions.
So, no pressure.
We all lined up by class before walking to the assembly hall, which meant no standing by Kurama. Instead, I depended on my extremely resourceful sign language skills passed down to me by watching altogether too many military movies.
Unsurprisingly, the fox didn't notice. However the guy standing in front of him saw my wildly flailing arms and tried to decipher what I was trying to say…to no avail. After he gave up, he tapped Kurama on the shoulder and motioned my way. I could of sworn I heard something sarcastic about "baseball gestures" and "steal second base."
The redhead was not terribly shocked by my impromptu attempt at sign language and waved back at me. This wasn't the reaction I was going for, so I redoubled my efforts to get the message across to him.
I…know…who…the…stalker…is!
All this seemed to do was confuse my friend before both lines started moving forward. Curses! Foiled again! I just hoped I got a chance to tell him before the assembly actually started. All candidates were instructed to meet in an adjoining classroom by the almighty intercom system. Maybe I would get the chance to talk to him there.
….Or not.
The classroom for the student council candidates was alive and buzzing with previous members and the current advisors. I barely got to thank the former secretary for his good luck wishes before the Hairwoman practically stiff-armed me in excitement. My neck would never be the same. Neither would my ego…the crazy lady practically dragged me off into a corner of the room, while giving me "helpful advice" about standing on the stage and saying nothing while the principal spoke. I was still waiting for her to tell me about the restrictions placed on my victory dance once Principal Gan announced me the winner and Fishboy the Fail. My daydream had just gotten to the part about me dancing circles around Fishface, who had collapsed to the floor in tears; when Kurama joined us in the Real Life Thing.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, only to be interrupted by one of the faculty members ordering us to line up. Figures. I was beginning to wonder if I would even get a chance to talk to my friend while they paraded us onto the stage. The heavy red curtains were still drawn on us and I could hear Principal Gan speaking to the audience from the other side about the exciting election we had this year. Everyone else looked equally bored back here (except for Fishy, who was struggling to hear every word), so I leaned over and whispered to Kurama.
"I found out who the stalker was."
"Oh, really? Who?" The fox whispered back.
"I…don't want to talk about it," I winced, realizing how ridiculous it would sound.
"I'm sure Bakana-kun would be very disappointed to hear that."
"H-How'd you—?" I asked, wide-eyed.
"Since yesterday, when I saw him come to Karate late with a petal stuck to his gi," the redhead grinned.
"You bastard, I—!"
I was cut off by the student applause as the curtain rose.
Instantly, Vice Principal Tree Up His Ass started hollering at the crowd to call them to order. To his right, Principal Gan seemed to enjoy the applause. Sure, it wasn't for him, but it was probably the most excited he'd seen the entire student body in a long time. I hadn't been listening to Gan's speech at all, so I can only assume they were cheering for us or for Gan's mercifully short speech.
Vice Principal Akusei barked at the students onstage next, ordering us to line up in accordance to Student Council position. This was a bummer because I now had to stand next to Fishface. Which is a lot like standing next to that kid in your class with the hairstyle that died in the 70's and the B.O. to match. On the plus side, he seemed too distracted by all the eyes fixed on our line-up to notice his mortal enemy standing beside him. He was lucky we didn't have to give any more speeches today or I think he would have fainted.
"May I have everyone's attention, please!" Principal Gan stated. "I will now be announcing our next Student Council members! When you hear your name called out, please step forward!"
The audience suddenly got very quiet, several students bouncing in their seats in excitement. You'd think they were at the Academy Awards or something. Only with a lot less dance numbers. If only they let us have more dance numbers…
"Our new Student Coordinator will be…..Nakamura Kohana!"
A loud applause came from the senior class as a small girl skipped forward and bowed. I almost did a double take – she looked about 10 years old! Hell, my little sister was taller than her! Was she some kind of child prodigy? Weird.
"Our new Treasurer will be…..Hisakawa Kuchinashi!"
This time the underclassmen gave the most applause as a somewhat cranky-looking freshman stood forward and bowed. He must be another transfer student, as he had blonde hair and brown eyes. I can imagine all the 'dye your hair, you delinquent' lectures he already got from Akusei.
"Our new Secretary will be…..Yugasa Ayame!"
A polite amount of applause from all the grade levels echoed as Ayame stepped in front of a livid Itchweed and bowed to the audience. Her rival was also clapping but you could see murder in her eyes and hear the grinding of her teeth from all the way over on my side of the stage. I started to feel bad for Ayame, but then recognized her as the arrogant megane chick who was giving me a hard time during Orientation Week. I almost couldn't believe I voted for her, but with Itchweed as the other candidate, I suppose there weren't many other options.
"Our new Vice President will be…..Minamino Shuiichi!"
Shocker.
And with that, the students almost tore the roof off the assembly hall with how loud they got. Vice Principal Akusei went ballistic trying to calm them down. Eventually, Kurama was able to with a wave of his hands when he had finished bowing. I laughed; you can't buy that kind of power.
"And finalllllly, the moment you've all been waiting for…" Gan tried to build up the dramatic tension, apparently not noticing the nasty look his second in command shot him. "Our new Student Council President will be…..Akatsuki Kuroji!"
Again with the loud applause. I grinned at the Fishboy and proceeded to do every Final Fantsy victory dance I could remember on my way up to the front of the stage. I grinned again, this time to my loyal supporters and bowed to them.
When I stood up, the rest of the newly-elected student council had joined me center stage. Kurama and Kohana looked completely at ease with the thunderous clapping and cheering, while Ayame and Kuchinashi seemed more hesitant and only politely waved. Gan joined in clapping for us all while Akusei had furiously jumped down the stairs to attempt to silence the chaos that had ensued.
I carefully eyed the three members of the Student Council that I didn't know as well. I realized I hadn't paid that much attention to the other campaigns, so I didn't know jack about the newcomers. As the clapping had started to fade in my ears, I briefly wondered what they were like (besides Ayame, who I was already not looking forward to working with), but then shook my head and focused back on the audience.
There would be plenty of time to get to know them later, first I planned on enjoying the moment.
Kuronue – 1
Fishboy – 0
-END: Chap. 18
::A/N::
Neko: Hope you enjoyed the election/stalker revelation chapter. Sorry it took so long! Things have been kinda crazy, but are starting to settle down again.
Kuro: Yeah, we'll see for how long.
Neko: Quiet, you. Hopefully, I'll get another Anem chapter out soon! Next time, we get to see how Kuro interprets how a Student Council President should act…..but for right now, I'm taking a much needed nap!
Translation Corner-
I tend to include foreign words in my fics, so you can see definitions here. If you see something that's wrong or that you want to add on, let me know so I can fix it. (To shorten this, most of the character names that appeared and were defined in previous chapters, were left out.)
Koumori (Jap.) "Bat"
Kitsune (Jap.) "Fox"
Youkai (Jap.) "Demon"
Youki (Jap.) "Demon Energy"
Ki (Jap.) "Energy"
Makai (Jap.) "Demon World"
Ningen (Jap.) "Human"
Ningenkai (Jap.) "Human World"
Reikai (Jap.) "Spirit World"
Reiki (Jap.) "Spirit Energy"
-sensei (Jap.) Honorific for "teacher"
-kun (Jap.) Honorific to show familiarity with a boy.
-chan (Jap.) Honorific to show familiarity with a small child or a girl. Hazuki uses it with Kuro as a joke.
Bakana (Jap.) "That's silly" in Japanese. Technically not a last name, but I used it anyway for Kuro's stalker.
Kohana Nakamura (Jap.) "Little flower" and "Middle Village" respectively.
Kuchinashi Hisakawa (Jap.) "Gardenia" and "River" respectively. You can imagine the fun Kuro is going to have with his name.
Ayame Yugasa (Jap.) "Iris" and "Elegance" respectively. Ironically, all three of the Student Council members to join Kuro and Kurama have flower related names. This was unintentional at the time I developed them, I just kinda went with it.
Megane (Jap.) "glasses" this term can also be used to describe a person who wears glasses.