Chapter Three: ...And We are Back Where We Started From...
School, the one word that teenagers dread to hear. And who can blame them, considering that one wastes the better part of their lives stuck in concrete buildings droning over proper grammar or scratching down mathematical problems. A waste of time? Most likely. But not for some, and as Yuki Hatake walked across the school's front gate a smile could be found on the girl's face. Strange, considering that they just finished the Language test yesterday. Or perhaps not so strange, for now she can set her mind on the more pleasurable thing in life. Whatever the reason was, only the heaven knows.
---------------------
"Hiya Yuki!"
Turning, Yuki watched as one of her classmate running to catch up.
"Sara, how was the test yesterday? It wasn't that hard."
Panting hard, Sara barked out a laugh at the question.
"You talk, I know I died the moment my pen touched the paper."
Yuki snorted at the girl's pessimistic ways.
"Well at least you are passing in Chemistry. I barely touch the half way mark!"
Heaving their bags and themselves up the stairs, the two continued their discussion over their test scores. Pushing open the door to their home class, Yuki and Sara took their respective seats beside each other and waited for the bell to ring. Turning to Yuki, Sara grinned.
"So, you getting a boyfriend anytime soon? Your in year 11 already, and has still haven't gone on a date once! That's just embarrassing."
Rolling her eyes, Yuki gave a long suffering sigh.
"Sara, how many times do I have to say this? No. You know my standards, and they are way too high."
She ticked the list off with her fingers.
"One, they must be good looking. Two, they must be tall. Three, they should have at least some money. Four, its best if they don't have any relatives. And finally five, they must have some manners and know how to treat a lady right. And off cause, they must be single and straight."
Holding up the five fingers, Yuki stared at Sara.
"Now you find me someone who can fit into all five (plus one) categories, and I'll definitely be going out with him."
Opening her mouth, Sara was about to retort when the class bell sang through the air. Students rushed into the room, dumping themselves into seats and waited for their teacher to arrive.
---------------------
The door slammed open and rushing into the room, Mr Sato gave his class an embarrassing grin.
"Sorry students, I didn't hear the bell."
Half of the class rolled their eyes, while the other half didn't even bother replying to the comment. It's always like that, every single day. He's always late, for one reason or another. Shuffling his papers together, Mr Sato smiled at his half awake class.
"Now today I have a special announcement. We have a new student in our class. She just arrived in Japan last week and will be staying here for some time. Her name is... um..."
Squinting at the paper, he tried to pronounce the name, but gave up in the end. Handing the paper to Yuki, who was closest to him, Mr Sato grinned at his student.
"Do you mind reading the name for me?"
Some students giggled at this, and Yuki sighed as she looked down at the name.
"Roviel...Windred?"
"Saiku, just call me Saiku."
A bored voice droned out from the door, revealing a tall figure leaning against the frame in apparent boredom. How long has she been there no one knows, for not one person noticed her arrival. Not moving from her spot, Saiku lifted one brow at the teacher.
"Well? Aren't you going to introduce me? Or do I have to wait until the sun sets?"
The question brought a few muffled laughs from the crowd, and Sato blushed slightly.
"Ehm, of cause, of cause. This is Saiku everybody. She's from England, so please excuse the accent. Since she is new here, would everyone try and make her feel welcome? And... What else was I going to say? Ah! Of cause."
Winking at Yuki, Mr Sato clapped his hands together.
"Since Yuki here was able to say your English name, she would be in charge of helping you familiarize with the school. How does that sound?"
"What!"
Staring up at her teacher as if he's grown two head and wings, Yuki shook the paper.
"You didn't say any of that to me before. That's not fair."
Out of the corner of her eye, Yuki saw that Roviel, Saiku, whatever her name was, was smirking lightly. Beside her, Sara whispered furiously, saying something about politeness and foreign students.
"...And anyways, its Wednesday already. You only got today, tomorrow and the day after to do this. Better than a whole week, don't you reckon?"
"Fine fine! I'll do it."
Glaring at the still smirking Saiku, Yuki's eyes narrowed in warning.
"But don't except me to mother you. I'm here only until the end of this week; you better make that point clear."
Saiku grinned, one hand twirling with a crystal pendent at her neck.
"Of cause, mother."
---------------------
The first class of the day; Chemistry. Why god why. Eyes blank, Yuki continued to stare at the blackboard, one hand automatically copying down what the teacher wrote. Beside her, dark honey eyes half closed in what seemed to be sleep, Saiku lounged in her chair. The teacher gave the girl permission to do nothing for the lesson, seeing that the whole class would be revising over their last and discussing the mistakes they've made. Stealing a glance over at her charge's book, Yuki was mystified at the strange symbols adorning the lined page. They don't seem like any language she has ever seen.
"Hey Saiku. What's that in your book?"
One hooded lid opened, and the light brown orbs danced with hidden laughter.
"That? It's Kimaries."
"... What?"
Saiku sighed, loud enough in the silent classroom for those seated around them to turn and glance.
"If you're not smart enough to know, don't ask."
The sides of her lips lifted as amber orbs absorbed Yuki's astonishment, then anger. She hates here, this pathetic realm of crude residents and even simpler standards of living. Her apartment, no, not an apartment even. A two roomed filth-hole by the road, one who harbors the most distasteful of scents. Not that a change of housing would help with that; everywhere she went the odor of burning oil chocked the air, mixed with the wafts of acidic waste and holding the occasional hint of heated grass. Humans are everywhere on this world, overfilling the place and yet still growing. Don't they know anything? And so rude, snarling at one another over the simplest of accidents. If it wasn't for the fact that she was specifically warned not to harm any humans, Roviel would have gotten over most of her neighborhood in the short one and a half days she's been here. She hated this place, with a fierce passion. Why the team even bothers to protect this place was beyond her understanding. If only her group was here... Syra would be poking at everything, items suddenly breaking or exploding as Lailos examines them. Veasniel would be running around, trying and failing to keep things in order. Zyril would be there, standing in the cleanest area he could find and sniffing in disdain at the whole scene. Musing over these thoughts, slim fingers brushed against a pocket hanging by her side. Well, at least she's got these. Silently Roviel thanked the heavens that when she was thrown into this realm that she still had her possessions intact.
---------------------
Lunch was here, and eyeing her sandwich with the same eye she used with the coffee, Roviel proceeded to dissect the layers of white skin from the pink flesh, glancing with bored interest at the veins of white mayonnaise flattened against the pieces of muscle. Her investigation complete, she proceeded to throw the whole thing into a nearby bin. Through all of this, Yuki never uttered a sound, focusing instead on her roll of chicken sushi she had to eat. As the sandwich slammed into the bin with a loud thud, the student sighed.
"Look, why did you throw that away for? It was a perfectly good sandwich, and by the looks of it, nicely made too."
Seconds of silence passed between them, and to her utter surprise, Saiku began to laugh.
---------------------
"School's finished now, so... you going home?"
Mentally, Yuki wished with every fiber of her being that the answer was yes.
"Actually, I was hoping that you could take me around this place, show me the town and its highlights."
The sun drenched eyes glimmered with laughter.
"Of cause, you can go now. After all, you only did this because that teacher told you to."
Her conscious bit into the girl's mind and after a brief but fierce battle of inside, Yuki gave in.
"Fine then! I'll take you around this place. But don't expect anything interesting. And don't try to bug me anymore. Geez!"
Marching off, Yuki was too busy mentally yelling at herself to notice the smile of triumph on Saiku's face.
---------------------
Gulping down a mouthful of cold refreshing iced peach tea, Yuki waited for Saiku to catch up. Something gnawed at the girl's mind. Saiku... She's different. Of cause Yuki realized that her charge was not someone living in Japan would meet everyday, but it wasn't the different culture background that stumped the girl. There was something else. Like how every time she makes a comment on how nice the building was or the delicious taste of some food, Saiku would just smile. Oh it's not a smirk at all, just a polite smile. But the look in her eyes, how there will always be that sense of some amusing secret that only she knew... Footsteps sounded behind her, and Yuki was about to reprimand strange girl on slowness until she realized that the person approaching was not Saiku. In fact, there wasn't one person; there were four, each of the men looking very intimidating and half drunk.
A desperate sweep of the street showed that she was alone, and this caused a sensation of fear in her body. Backing slowly away, she spoke loudly, in hope that someone would hear.
"What do you want? I don't have any money."
Still advancing, one of the brutes laughed at this.
"Now girl, if you don't have to pay with money; there are other ways, you know."
The other three snickered at their friends comment, and one stretched out a hand towards Yuki.
"Now now, no need to be afraid... much. We're not... WTF!"
An audible crack shot through the air, the sound of a skull smashing against hard stone. The remainder three stared in dumb silence as their partner collapsed onto the ground, moaning through a bleeding nose. Sighing up at the starlit sky, the dark figure of Saiku stalked out from the shadows.
"I leave for one minute, and this happens? Is that absolutely no cutesy in this world? It's like I'm living with a pack of prehistoric beasts whose only way of communication is to point and grunt! But then again, what can I expect from humans."
They all stared at her, each trying to process the strange statement that they heard just then. In the end it was Yuki who broke the lull.
"What the bloody hell are you standing there for? Help me!"
The shrill scream bounced off the walls, and everyone within the radius of one kilometer would have winced at the scream. Shaking her head, Saiku's right hand lifted to her throat, pulling her necklace over her head.
"Koenma gave strict rules about not hurting humans."
The necklace brightened, emerald mist covering the crystal pendent and the delicate golden chain. The fog grew larger, blowing out sideways from her palm. Then it was gone, and in its place a double ended glaive shone with an icy hue. The amber eyes narrowed, and her fanged grin grew wider.
"But that brat never said anything about self-defense."
---------------------
As the last body hit the ground, unconscious and bleeding, but definitely alive, Yuki's jaws worked soundlessly in some sort of sentence. Slowly, her trembling gaze turned to Saiku, who was now cleaning her weapon of blood. Feeling that she was being watched, Roviel turned to her audience.
"It was lucky that these filths came when they did. I was seeing blood already, having to live in this pitiful world and can't do a thing about it."
Somewhere in her numb mind, Yuki noticed the change in Saiku. Perhaps it was the moonlight, but she looked sharper, more real and lighter in a way. Both her hair and eyes were lighter and brighter now, the waves of blue flame shining under the moonlight as her golden gaze blinked in the darkness. Somehow that tiny piece of her brain knew that this was the real Saiku, and the person she knew before was only a mask, something put over her to hide her true identity. Finally her voice was back, restored, if not whole. Gasping down at the twitching bodies at her feet, Yuki Hatake, 17, year 11 student, closed her eyes, took one deep breath in and screamed.
"JUST WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?!"