Chapter Two! Yay! This is where the story will really start to deviate from the original. The chapters vary a fair bit in length, by the way. It was hard to decide how I wanted everything to fit together.
HITSUGI #1
Everyone crowded around the directory, pushing and squeezing to try and read the tiny print on the large route map. Pamphlets were available, but those had long since been taken by the pushier people. Hitsugi struggled to raise her head, only to have it shoved back down by an insistent girl in a navy seifuku. Why couldn't she have been tall?
At this point she wasn't sure if she'd ever get out of the mess of people. She tripped over someone's penny loafers and was about to fall flat on her face when she crashed into another girl's back instead.
"Ow, watch it!" the victim cried, turning abruptly and whipping the man next to her in the head with her long, high ponytail. She looked around in confusion before a small hand tugged on her striped brown skirt.
"Down here." Hitsugi looked up at her cutely. "Sorry about that, ma'am. I really need to get to school, but I can't read the map."
The taller girl laughed in a high-pitched voice. "What, elementary school? I can pick you up if you want. I might drop you, though."
The expression on her face told Hitsugi that the girl fully intended to drop her onto the hard pavement. She could giggle all she wanted, but the malice was visible in her grin, and the madness plain in her turquoise eyes. It was the kind of face a killer might wear.
"Hmm." Hitsugi put a finger to her chin. "Actually, I have a feeling we're going to the same place. Myoujou Academy?"
The tall girl blinked. "Whoa! Are you psychic?"
"Nope!" Hitsugi shook her head and grabbed the other girl's sleeve. She smiled like an innocent child. "I just know what the eyes of a bad person look like." Her own eyes glinted pale blue, and the raven-haired girl nodded in understanding.
"Gotcha!" she said, taking the girl by the hand and bouncing off toward bus number 16. "I think we'll have lots to talk about, then!"
Hitsugi spent most of the bus ride listening to the raven-haired girl mumble absentminedly to herself about who her dorm partner might be, whether Nakamura had seen her leave, how she hoped the target would be cute, and so on and so on. She switched topics and moods every thirty seconds, and the way she talked made Hitsugi wonder if she was a little crazier than the rest of them.
She tugged on the girl's sleeve again as they neared the next stop. "Excuse me," she said, "but can you tell me your name? Since we're going to be in the same class."
The girl's eyes widened. "My class? I thought you were just a relative or something!"
Hitsugi had gotten so used to being mistaken for a ten-year-old that she took it in stride. "I'm a first-year highschool student." She pressed her hands into the plastic seat and leaned over toward the other girl. "My name is Kirigaya Hitsugi."
"Jeez," the raven-haired girl laughed. "You're like a lolicon's dream. I'm Takechi Otoya."
That name was enough to make even Hitsugi falter. She would never forget the tingle of fear that had washed over her when she'd read that newspaper headline a year ago: "The 21st Century's 'Jack the Ripper'". Only those in the killing business knew who had committed those horrible murders.
Takechi noticed and grinned. "Heard of me, I take it?" She smiled and patted Hitsugi's head. "Yay, I'm famous!"
Her eyes darkened. "Actually, I'm too famous. That's half the reason why I came to Myoujou. I've got this old bastard on my trail, and if I can win this thing, I won't have to deal with him anymore." She played with one of Hitsugi's long blue pigtails. "I'm kinda surprised you aren't the target. I was looking forward to messing with you."
Infuriated by the way Takechi treated her, Hitsugi slapped the hand away. "I can assue you, I'm not the target. I'm about as far as you can get."
"Oh?" Takechi rested her chin on Hitsugi's shoulder. "Do tell."
She'd already said too much, but there was no taking it back now. Hitsugi lowered her voice to a whisper, which Takechi seemed to think was an invitation to move even closer. "I'm a well know killer myself," she said, smiling calmly. "I'm part of a group that specializes with poison. I was born into it, and I've become a prodigy of sorts. They call me Angel Trumpet."
If Takechi had ever heard that name before, she didn't show it. Hitsugi had expected that. Serial killers tended to be on the outer fringes of things. The assassins kept tabs on them, but not the other way around.
"Working with that kind of poison all the time stunts your growth," she continued, craning her neck to peer out the thick window. "That's why I look the way I do."
Takechi shrugged. "Well, I'm not complaining. You look cute the way you are." She followed Hitsugi's gaze out the window. "Hey, there it is! Holy cow, that's a big school!" Letting go of Hitsugi, she got up on her knees and pressed her hands to the grimy glass. "I can't wait to go in there!"
Hitsugi nodded in agreement. It was about time they arrived. Maybe she should have tried to catch the earlier train, but she had trouble getting up early. Or staying up late, for that matter.
"I'm so glad I caught this train," Takechi sighed, sitting back down normally. "I've been on and off trains since ten in the morning. I need to tease someone."
The little blue-haired girl glanced up at her wearily. "I'm guessing that's me, right?"
Takechi grinned. "Yep!" With one swift motion she had stolen Hitsugi's book bag from where it sat on her left.
"Hey!" Hitsugi cried angrily, reaching up to grab her stuff but being thwarted once again by her height. A few people turned to see what was going on. Some scoffed and turned away, others giggled at her.
She reached for the bag a few more times to no avail. The glee on Takechi's face grew until she looked positively derranged. "It's just a book bag," she said, dangling it ever higher above Hitsugi's small hands. "Not like you'll need it where we're going, right?" Laughter finally escaped her throat, and she pushed in the tabs on her bus window, letting it drop with a hiss. "Hmm, maybe I'll throw it out the window?"
Enough was enough. Hitsugi glowered at her before grabbing her skirt and pulling it down in front of the entire bus.
"Hey!" Takechi cried, blushing and letting go of the book bag, which Hitsugi caught and slid over her shoulder. Hitsugi wasn't a mean person, but she did believe in bad people getting what they deserved. Even herself.
She sat back down calmly and pressed her knees together, playing with the fabric of her blue dress. "Don't push me," Hitsugi said, wearing that same innocent smile she'd worn earlier. "Or I'll retaliate. By the way, you didn't need to freak out so much. You're wearing tights."
Takechi was busy getting over herself. "I know," she growled, crossing one leg over the other. "I just don't like having my clothes pulled off. Although…" Her grin slowly returned. "It was a nice move on your part. I didn't think you'd fight dirty."
"I'll do what I have to," Hitsugi replied, patting her book bag. "There are things more important than being politically correct."
Reaching into her own bag, Takechi pulled out a juice box. "I'll drink to that."
The bus came to a slow stop, and the two dismounted, ready for the most unexpected few months of their lives.
In case anyone was worried, no, this fic will not have Otoya x Hitsugi in it. :)