SEQ CHAPTER h r 1Ayashi no Yuugi
Chapter 3 Peacecraft Academy
Kotori's POV
Sakura and I walked up the steps that led to the doors of the Peacecraft Academy. Ironic isn't it? Seven soldiers fighting for peace attending a school of pacifism. Bleah. Complete pacifism won't bring lasting peace. Maybe for a year or so, there will be peace, but then some idiot will start secretly manufacturing weapons, then a year or so later, they'll have enough weapons to stage a global takeover, and we'd all be powerless to stop it.
We went into Relena Peacecraft's office to discover that she wasn't in, so we went to her secretary and signed up to enter the school. We were accepted without question, and given our dormitory numbers and keys, and our schedule. Then we were dismissed with an overly cheery, "Have a nice year!"
Normal POV
Kotori and Sakura walked down the hall to their Chem Class.
Inside the class, Duo is bugging Wufei as usual and the other Pilots simply ignored them as well as the other students. (Note: This is a common occurrence). The door opens and two girls walked in.
The teacher looked up and said, "Class, we have two new students, please welcome them warmly," then he motions to the door, as two girls entered the class. One had waist length black hair with gray eyes and the girl next to her next to her had prussian blue-black waist length hair with amber colored eyes. Both girls somehow managed to make the horrible pink girl's uniform look wonderful.
"Girls, please introduce yourselves to the class," stated the teacher to the two whilst the two girls exchanged looks of amusement before answering.
"I am Kotori Tenou," said the first girl in a monotone, "A pleasure."
"Sakura Tenkou, it's a pleasure to meet you," said the second girl with a small smile.
Both girls ignored the catcalls and wolf whistles, and appreciative looks from the boys and the death glares from the girls. The teacher looked around and finally said, "Miss Tenou, you may take the empty seat next to Heero, and Miss Tenkou, you may take the seat next to Wufei."
Both girls nodded and walked over to the two seats beside the pilots. Kotori had to walk past Duo in order to get to her seat, and as she passed, she dropped a folded sheet of paper into his hands.
Duo raised an eyebrow and unfolded the note and read, "So you got help. You owe us big time Shinigami, my dearest little brother."
He groaned and smacked his head against the desk, earning amused looks from Kotori and Sakura, and confused looks from his friends as well as a few muttered, "Braided-baka," from Wufei.
The teacher began to lecture, and Kotori and Sakura shook their heads and pulled out their laptops. Neither girl paid much attention to the withering glare coming from Heero as he inspected them from behind the screen of his own laptop.
They opened their private chat room and began to discuss their newest and least liked mission.
Cosmos: Why the hell do we have to protect Peacecrap, anyway? She has five of the most elite soldiers ever trained protecting her.
Gaia: Because Shinigami and his friends can't always be there to protect her, and there will be times where they receive a mission where they won't be able to spare a single pilot to protect her.
Cosmos: Where in the Outer System did you get that?
Gaia: I'm not called the perfect assassin for nothing, old friend, and you know it.
Cosmos: Hai, hai. I know, but that doesn't mean that I won't loathe this mission. These uniforms are absolutely tasteless, and the Peacecrap bitch has absolutely no idea how a proper princess should act.
Gaia: Look on the bright side. Shinigami now owes us a favor, and we can make him do whatever we want to repay his debt.
Cosmos: Joy.
Kotori glanced up in time to see the teacher approaching them, and she quickly typed, Gaia: Pham at 1 o'clock and she looks pissed. and logged out and closed all windows but the notepad where she had been taking notes while chatting with Sakura. Two seats in front of her, between Wufei and Trowa, Sakura could be seen doing the same.
The teacher glanced at the screen of the two girls' laptops and glared at them. She had been sure they had been doing something besides taking notes.
She smiled slightly and said, "Since you've been so attentive, Miss Tenou, please determine how many atoms are in 2.12 mol of propane."
Sakura and Duo smirked, both knew that to be a part of the Agency required mastery over basic chem., algebra, geometry, history, and weaponry, not to mention that Kotori was the best of the best, and had finished all necessary schooling nearly seven years before and only attended school to avoid rousing suspicion. Kotori rose, flipping her hair over her shoulder, effectively flipping off the teacher behind the screen of her hair and glided over to the board and wrote the entire formula,and with flourishes.
Kotori gave Ms. Pham a death glare and whispered in a deadly voice as she passed, "Nice try but I know my chemistry. I suggest you don't try that again, because I can and will hurt you."
The teacher shivered in fear as Kotori sat down and calmly opened a new window and began to type. Sakura smirked cruelly and turned back to her computer as well.
Not too long after, the bell rang and the class formed a stampede that left the room, leaving only two people who took their sweet time packing and leaving the class and the terrified teacher.
"What's our next class?" Kotori said calmly as they left the lab.
"Room 282, American Lit with Acosta," Sakura replied.
The two entered the class and the teacher smiled and said, "Take a seat, I'll introduce you later when class starts."
The two girls bowed and sat next to the same people as the previous class, coolly. This time, Sakura dropped a note into Duo's hands. He blinked in surprise and opened the note and read, "Next time try not to get caught. By the way, Gaia and I may be calling on that favor you owe us soon, and needless to say, it won't be pleasant. Cosmos."
"You're both trying to blow my cover, aren't you, Cosmos, Gaia?" Duo said quietly, barely moving his lips.
"No, of course not, Shinigami," Kotori said even more quietly, her lips hardly moving at all, "That would mean blowing our own cover, and that just won't do."
"All we're trying to say is that you owe us a favor for helping you with mission X-498. We put our lives on the line, and you risked blowing your own cover, Shinigami, by calling the Agency for help with your mission," Sakura added, just as quietly, moving her lips as little as Dou or Kotori.
"You're trying to put me through hell then."
"You rule hell, Dou," both girls said simultaneously, before taking their seats.
The bll rang and the teacher smiled and said, "We have new students, Kotori Tenou, and Sakura Tenkou." Sakura and Kotori stood up and the teacher nodded. As Sakura and Kotori sat down, she continued, "Please make them feel welcome. Now, open your books to page three fifty nine and take notes about the Eve Wars. You may work alone or in groups of four or less. The assignment is due at the end of the class, and if you're working in groups, keep in mind that this is an individual assignment."
There was a quiet rustle of books and paper being pulled out of backpacks and Sakura and Kotori grinned at each other and pulled out their laptops again as the teacher stepped out of the room. Both girls typed away busily, as the class began to socialize quietly, the quiet murmurs blending together in the background. Soon, both girls' heightened senses caught the sound of the door opening and the sudden hush which signaled the teacher's return. Neither of them looked up, not even when the sound of a throat being cleared was heard. It didn't concern them, or so they thought.
A hand suddenly slammed down on the desk in front of Kotori who deliberately emailed her assignment to the teacher, and slowly closed her laptop and just as slowly, slipped it into her bag before looking up placidly at the girl in front of her. Her grey eyes were calm and her face expressionless as she studied the obviously enraged girl in front of her.
"May I help you?" Kotori's voice was quiet, gentle, and cool, bearing only the barest hint of politeness.
"Yes," the girl replied, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she stuck her nose into the air with a sniff. "You are in my seat."
"Are the seating arrangements permanent?" Kotori's voice remained level, though it had lost the hint of politeness that had been present earlier. Sakura and Duo shifted uncomfortably. They could feel the hitokiri in Kotori rising, her aura was beginning to settle from the warm amber to the icy silver.
"Yes, at least in this seat! Everyone knows that I'm the only one who can sit next to my He-chan!" the girl yelled.
Kotori raised an eyebrow, her eyes changing from the usual soft grey to a piercing silver hue. "Would this He-chan happen to be your boyfriend? Or is he simply someone that you're infatuated with?"
The girl screeched in anger and went off in a rant about how she and her He-chan were soulmates and had been destined to be married and that sort of thing. Of course, that sort of thing didn't interest Kotori at all, and all she did was glance at her laptop and raised a wry eyebrow toward Duo, asking him, 'How the hell do you put up with these insignificant pests all day?'
Duo grinned and mouthed, 'I just tune them out.'
Kotori rolled her eyes and watched as the girl continued to rant, her eyes half closed, and leaned back in her chair, bored out of her wits. Finally, having enough, Kotori opened her eyes, revealing that the piercing silver had become icy amber and said coldly, "Yamatte. You're acting like a spoiled brat." Her voice was level but venomous, and her eyes were hard, Kotori's aura had settled into a thin icy line, the aura of a hitokiri, an assassin, and she practically radiated ice. She continued, "Who do you think you are? The Queen of the Universe? Your so called 'beloved He-chan who loves you' hasn't spoken a single word to help you, out of embarrassment, no doubt. Just shut up, and go back to that nice white padded room of yours and leave us sane people alone, ahou."
Kotori ignored the snickers coming from the students around her, and studied the girl intently, noting with satisfaction that her face was turning red with humiliation and purple with rage. She grinned inwardly and put on a worried face and said, "Are you alright? Do you need to see the nurse? Seriously, you don't look too good. You look like you need help, and lots of it," her voice was still gentle, but she didn't try to mask the venom or amusement that she was sure could be detected in her voice.
"Why you!" the girl shrieked, leaping onto the desk, knocking pens and books off onto the floor.
Kotori plastered a mask of shock and terror onto her face and leapt backwards, keeping herself upright with Trowa's desk. Just then the teacher reentered the room.
"Miss Peacecraft!" he yelled, "What do you think you're doing? I'm trying to make the new students feel welcome, and I find you terrorizing one of them! You should be ashamed of yourself! Get off that girl's desk and sit down in the empty desk at the front of the room!"
Kotori's eyes flashed with triumph before disappearing beneath her mask. In front, Sakura and Dou gave her reproving looks for her antics. Kotori knew that she would be in for it when the class ended, but at the moment, she was enjoying her victory over Relena Peacecraft far too much to care.
Slowly, Relena got off the desk and stalked to the front of the class, and just as slowly, Kotori lowered herself off Trowa's desk and onto the floor where she began to collect her pens and books.
Dou and Sakura could sense the hitokiri in Kotori receeding, and it was true. The assassin faded from her eyes first, changing from amber to silver to the usual gentle grey, then from her face, and then her aura, which slowly expanded from the icy silver line back to the usual lake of warm gold. Both sighed in relief as the bell rang. There would be no more confrontations that could possibly blow their cover again, since classes had just ended for the day.