Different Forms - Formal Rewrite

Hikari: Greetings. I feel it necessary to take this one specific story under my wing and start all over again. Thanks alot.

~*~

A great aura seemed to radiate from a hallway of an emptying school, as a girl's voice echoed loudly crying, "WHAT WAS THAT!?" The sound shook the walls and sent frightened underclassmen scurrying from the hallway to avoid whatever was happening in the office.

The headmaster pushed his glasses up, and tried to gather the papers the student's cry had sent scattering. His red face shook. "I said, you failed this course the second time. You realize Miss Hino that if you'll suspended from school for grades like this?"

The girls slammed her hands against the desk. "NO WAY!"

"We have been far to lenient with you, Miss Hino. While your performance was impressive in Junior High, as well as your entrance exams being of high calibur, we have been allowing your bad behavior and bad grades to slide past us for too long. We suggest before this year is over, that you get some serious help."

"B--"

"That is all Miss Hino." He gestured to the door, and before the girl could say anything more, the secretary was already leading her out into the hallway.

Her chest heaved in anger, as she pushed her firey bangs from her eyes. A snarl escaped from her mouth as she bared her large, sharp canines at the closed office door. It wasn't quite what she wanted to do, but it was the best she could do. Angerily, she threw her satchel against the wall, and watched it fall uselessly onto the linoleum floor. "Stupid," she grumbled, collecting her things.

It was obvious from the way she acted, this wasn't the typical female student they were dealing with. She had a cocky, almost masculine swagger, and she spoke and dealt with things like a ruffian from the streets. There was a shock of bright red, firey hair atop her head, bleached and dyed shades of orange and red for that flaming look. Although it was out of regulation, the school had given up on her after attempting to redye her hair black four times. Her hair wasn't the only thing disobeying regulation, after all her uniform was just as bad. She wore combat boots in school instead of slippers, kept her skirt high above her knees, never bothered with the tie, and left the jacket open. It was also typical of her to wear heavy, silver chains, hanging them from her skirt, around her neck, dangling from her wrists.

Alot of underclassmen were afraid of her. Upperclassmen too. They saw this girl and thought evil, terrible things... some of the time... they were right.

"Ooi! Kanshou!" a voice called from down the hall.

She looked up from her feet and saw someone running towards her. He was her counterpart. They were both foul looking students. He, on the other hand, was half chinese, with hair that seemed to be a natural shade of blue, and his uniform was just as bad as Kanshou's, if not worse, for he tended to forego the white button down shirt, and replace it with shirts that were a little less appropriate.

He recieved a punch in the shoulder for a greeting while she swore, "Fuck, Kouji, I'm failing again!"

"And that's news because...?" he offered, raising his hands and shrugging, attempting to feign innocence.

"Fuck you Mr. LIAO," she snarled, using his Chinese last name in an attempt to spite him. "You don't get it," she started as they walked down the hallway, "My damn ol' man said that if I started failing again, he was gonna force me to take some after school courses with some ol' bitch-lady." She started walking faster.

Kouji had to jog to catch up with her angry pace. "Ain't nothing more that sucks than that, no wait, at least ya don't gotta STOP working afterschool like I do."

She paused and turned to look at him. "You have to stop working?"

He shuffled his feet and replied, "Something about it disturbing my concentration. Ruining my school ethtics, all sorts of bullshit like that."

The duo stopped short. This was where they normally parted ways. It was a fork in the road. One headed deeper into the city, the other veered off towards the highend apartment complexes. "But ya'll know I ain't gonna stop working jus' cuz those asses at the school tell me too," Kouji added with a wry grin before he took off in a run, already late for his job at the newest construction sight.

Kanshou waved and started off at her own slow, calm pace. Her satchel thumped on her back, with each overexaggerated step, and she stared hard at her shoes, noticing that they were scuffed. Infact, she was so incredibly involved in her shoes that she barely noticed someone heading at her and soon the two bodies collided. "Watch it!" she snarled.

"I-I-I--" came the response from a tall girl on the ground. She was on her knees, clawing at scattered books and papers, stuttering as she spoke, trying her best to apologize. Kanshou got down on her knees as well and helped her collect the mess on the ground.

"Sorry 'bout that," she apologized, as the young woman snatched the papers from her hands and shoved them disorderly into her satchel.

"Sory, sorry, sorry," she apologized, not even bothering to look up. Her hair, a good shade of dark brown, fell infront of her eyes as she spoke, staring at the concrete. "Sorry," she repeated once more before running off, clutching the satchel to her chest like a lifeline. Kanshou wasn't quite sure how to react to that situation. Instead she blinked, shook her head, shrugged and continued to trudge, unexcited, towards home.

Just as she had expected her father was standing there at the door of their apartment, face slightly white, looking a little bit tired. Her nose flared slightly upon seeing him. She pushed past him, knocking her shoulder into his arm as she entered the apartment. "That's how you're going to greet me, after what you've done?" he asked.

She stopped in her tracks and stared at the ground.

"Nothing? Not a word? Am I that bad of a father? Kanshou, why can't you just understand what it's like to be me--"

The way he spoke was always much more collected than her. He never seemed to lose his temper, but he always seemed to talk forever. His speeches were long winded and pointless in her opinon, so she allowed herself to tune out his voice until she heard him bring up a brand new topic.

"--and, as you may already know, I've hired a tutor to come every night and help you get your act in order. DO you understand me?"

She shrugged.

"Starting tonight."

"What!? Yer kidding me!" She threw her satchel on the floor, before entering her bedroom, slamming the door behind her, mostly in irritation. She left the light off, guided only by the faint blue glow of her computer's power switch. The hum of the machine echoed within the confines of her room. Kanshou let out a relieved sigh and fell back into the computer chair, turning her face up towards the ceiling.

Outside in the hallway she could hear the sounds of her brother bringing home another girlfriend. She moaned and covered her eyes with one hand. She hated her brother with a passion. They never got along, and he was only one year older than her too. The noises seemed to grow dimmer before finally disappearing altogether. She sat up. "Dad?"

Silence.

"Aniki?"

More silence.

"FUCK YOU!?"

Nothing. She was alone. Her hand reached over and flicked on the lights, instantly drawing her attention to the keys that hung on the wall. It was her passion, car racing, and there wasn't anything she wanted more in the world than to grab those keys and leave.... and then she remembered.

The doorbell rang.

The tutor.

Kanshou didn't move from her seat, instead she began to click randomly at her computer, playing solitaire in an attempt to avoid listening to the doorbell, as it began to ring more. The sound seemed to grow louder and louder with each tone until it was clanging in her ears like a gong. She practically threw herself out of her seat crying, "FINE! I'm COMING!"

"Okay, ya old bit--" she stopped in mid swear as she threw the door opening, revealing a handsome young lady, with long brown hair that fell infront of her eyes. It was the last thing Kanshou had expected. She squinted. It was the same girl from earlier. She couldn't help but notice the way the loose blue dress clung to the young lady's form, almost emphasising the fact she had a perfect, round, female shape, the exact opposite of herself, which was lean and muscular.

"Hi," the girl said, bowing, as she clutched the satchel to her chest. As she rose, Kanshou got a closer look at the girl. Her one visible eye was dark red, almost mahogany, and her face was delicately formed, from the bridge of her small nose, to the curve of her pink lips. "Are you... Kanshou Hino?" she asked, in a voice that was slowly growing more confident.

"Yah," she replied, taking a step back, eyeing her new tutor with displeasure.

"My name is Chishiki Teijina, I'll be your tutor. May I... come in?"

Kanshou gestured into the apartment, noticing as the young woman entered, she moved with dancer-like grace, but the expression on her face seemed serious, even with the visibility of only one eye. "Ain't ya," she asked, "a bit young ta be a teacher?"

"Aren't you, a bit old to still be a junior in high school?"

"The hell are ya talkin' 'bout?" Kanshou snarled, eyeing this woman as she lingered by the front door.

Chishiki reached into the purse resting on her hip, and pulled out an index card, from which she read, "Kanshou Hino, 19 years old, Junior." She looked up from the card, her eyebrows raised just slightly. "Isn't that right? You're a junior? I got this information from your school."

Kanshou reached over and snatched the card angerily from the young woman's hands, tearing and ripping it to peices. The shreds of cardstock floated to the floor like snow. "Get out." Her voice was low, cold and laced with poison.

"What...?" Chishiki brought a hand to her chest in a conbination of surprise and confusion.

"Get. Out."

"Bu--"

"I said, GET OUT!" She slammed a fist into the wall, shaking the house, shaking the picture frame that hung from the wall on a single nail. It swayed back and forth slowly before suddenly falling from it's one support and shattering on the ground.

The young woman in the light blue dress jumped backwards, as the frame shattered at her feet. She let out a small cry, as a few shards bounced from the ground and cut her long, sleek, white legs. Her hands were clasped here near face, as if she were trying not to cry. "I'm sorry," she apologized as she turned to leave.

Kanshou felt a twinge of pain in her heart. "Wait!" She looked down, seeing small freckles of blood slowly dripping down Chishiki's beautiful, perfect legs. "Wait... you... Let me get some disinfectant.." she said slowly moving towards the bathroom. She took another step before looking over her shoulder and apologizing for being so rude before quickly disappearing into a room at the end of the hall.

She turned into the bathroom, and rested her back against the tiled wall, arms crossed over her firm chest. She had to admit that the young woman standing in the front hall was beautiful, delicate, a perfect specimen for a female, but it was still her tutor, and someone she wasn't willing to accept to willingly into her life. However, Kanshou wasn't heartless, and she knew it would be wrong to not apologize for hurting her. There was one thing she would never do, that would be hurting another girl. She pushed herself away from the wall and retrieved the bottle of alcohol and a bag of fluffy white cotton balls from behind the mirrored medicine cabinet.

She peered out the door carefully, watching Chishiki on the floor picking up the shards of glass. Her heart wrenched slightly. "Hey!" she exclaimed, "Don't touch that! Leave it alone!"

The young woman dropped the shards in surprise, falling backwards onto the floor. She let out a sound that sounded like a whimper of pain. Her light blue dress rode up high above her soft, white legs upon the fall. She struggled in place. Kanshou took her hands, noting the beads of blood that had sprung up on her fingertips. "Yer such an idiot, ya know that?" She dapped the areas of broken skin with the alcohol. What surprised her was that Chishiki didn't react to the stinging.

The long brown hair still fell, cast infront of her face. Kanshou couldn't see anymore than the edge of her small, perfect nose, and the curve of her pink lips. As she quietly tended to the cuts in the skin, she wondered what hid behind those long, impossible bangs. She drew back the last cotton ball. "There, ya? Yer all set." She spoke harshly as she rose to her feet and kicked the shards of glass further down the hallway. She paused, her foot hovering over the picture before grabbing it and carefully holding the thing to her chest.

Chishiki slowly stood up, fixing her hair just slightly with her delicate hands. "We've wasted alot of time," she commented, checking the silver watch around her wrist. "I'm only paid to tutor you for two hour sessions... if you would please get ready?" She spoke in a serious, buisness manner, as if the moments earlier had never happened.

Kanshou glared at her as she kicked the vacuum into on and set it upon the broken glass. "Whatever, I got a mess ta' clean up." She purposely took a long time, running the machine over the same spot on the floor at least three times before moving on. She did these things on purpose, take things slowly, annoying the teachers and now, in this case, annoy her tutor. However, as she glanced over at the thin, delicate form of Chishiki, she noticed a very plain, unchanging expression on the young woman's face. The only time she noticed the young woman's expression really change was when she had really snapped at her, pounding the wall with her fist... and of course, there was the situtation when she had bumped into her on the sidewalk. It almost seemed like two entirely different personalities....

She checked her watch again. It seemed she had undying patience, but she also seemed to not give up. After a moment longer, Chishiki began to make a makeshift study desk out of the kitchen table. From her bag, which seemed so small in the begining, seemed to come textbooks, workbooks, maps, calculators, and a notebook computer. She sat quietly at the table, hands folded as she waited. Kanshou moved the vacuum back and forth a few more times before turning it off. The loud roar turned into a hum just before disappearing, leaving the house silent once again.

"Are we ready to begin, then?"

As Kanshou slid into the seat across from her, she grumbled, "Why the fuck do you do this kinda shit, anyway?"

Chishiki seemed taken aback slightly. She looked away with a quick snap of her head. "Let's just get to work, alright?" She turned her attention to the books on the table, carefully surveying the matter at hand. She reached for a large history text and flipped open to the begining of the book. She cleared her throat. "The curriculum I have designed is targeted specifically towards your trouble areas: mathematics, world history and english. I will be arriving to tutor you three times a week: Monday, Tuesday and Friday for approximately two hours." As she spoke, her expression remained very stoic. " Your father has informed me of your activities at the track, and I have made my schedule open for adjusting if the case may arise. I expect us to work efficiently and productively, and I will not put up with reckless behavior during my time."

Kanshou blew strands of her dyed red hair from her face. "Yah, whatever," she responded carelessly.

A silence passed between them and Chishiki closed the book carefully. "Perhaps," she said, "we could introduce ourselves again. The more I know about my charges, the better I can arrange their lesson plans. Why don't you tell me your interests, or, you know, what you like to do."

She played with the heavy, silver chain around her wrist. Dragging it back and forth around in circles, avoiding the question.

Chishiki nodded, giving up and pushing the book towards her. "Forget it then, if you'd rather stu--"

"My name is Kanshou Hino. I have a father, three brothers - only one who lives at home - and no mother. She's dead." She shoved the picture that had fallen from the frame across the table. "I've been racing at the track since I was 14, my father doesn't approve of it, but he's pretty much given up on me." She raised her hands and shrugged carelessly. There, you happy now? N' it won't be fair if ya don't tell me about yourself." She glared across the table.

"I'd be happy to tell you about myself." She opened the text book. "I like to study. Now, let's begin."

~To be Continued~

Author's notes: well, there ya go. Different Forms, all redone, at least the first chapter. Notice how I changed alot of the attitudes, especially Chishiki's. She's become very serious. It fits better, now, I think. I'm hoping to really embellish the original story that I had written. Notice, also, how I already admitted to no mother, and that her brother isn't the ass he used to be. ^_^ Also, notice, how there is no longer any fans, nor any reference to their past lives... yet. Maybe eventually? Anyway review so that I'll get inspired to continue this rewrite!! Hey you fans out there, be glad I'm writing again??