CHAPTER 1

Classmates

“Nuh uh!! I swear!”

Sakura shook her head at Raion, who ignored her persistence.

“I swear! Tsuki said that!” Sakura grabbed his collar to make the golden-haired boy look her in the brown eyes.

“I find it hard to believe,” his suave voice mumbled.

“Look!” she released him and tucked a strand of light brown hair away from her ivory face. “It was late at night! And when she came in I woke up and asked her what was up! Then she said quote- and you can quote me on the quote- ‘I just killed some guys.’ Really! And she had blood on her!”

“Yeah, right. Like Tsuki would stride in with blood-”

“Blood?” Tsuki stared at them with a questioning face.

“Sakura here is convinced you committed a murder,” Raion said to their guest.

“Why do you think that?” the girl turned to her friend and classmate.

“But-” Sakura stammered. “Last night- you… remember? It was like three in the morning…”

“No. I was home by ten.”

“Oh, mmkay… well!” Sakura propped her hands on her hips. “That was one vivid dream!” She smiled and waved at a boy that walked by, then skipped away to join him.

Raion sighed, “So, Tsuki. Having a good day so far?”

“Oh, you know school,” she said, “it’s always boring. But besides that, pretty good. How about you? How’s that thing with Kokoro going?”

“Ugh. She’ so stalker-ish.” Raion looked over Tsuki’s shoulder and sighed again, louder this time. “Speak of the devil…”

“Oh Raion!” Kokoro chanted, waving a hand in greeting and beginning to run towards them. “I found you!”

Raion adjusted his backpack and began to walk away. He winked a light brown

eye at her. “See you at lunch, Tsuki. Try not to kill anyone by then.”

She nodded and watched as Kokoro dashed by in a flurry of light-red hair. “Raion!! Wait for me!!”

Tsuki laughed and turned, walking slowly to her next class. She waved greetings to a girl she recognized from science before striding inside Advanced English 1. She was one of the last, and consequently had to wade through the stares of her classmates to sit in her assigned seat, towards the front of the room. Reaching into her bag, Tsuki pulled out Les Mis, a novel about miserable people- in truth, it made her miserable to read it, too. Laying that on her desk, Tsuki grabbed her pocket mirror and observed her condition: her black-brown hair was long, reaching mid-back- and her bangs hung stubbornly above emerald green eyes that were framed with lush eyelashes. A green ribbon tied in her hair matched her irises perfectly, as did the bracelet around her left wrist. Tsuki closed the mirror and put it away, than straightened her clothes: the standard girl uniform, which consisted of navy shoes, white stockings that reached her knees, a navy skirt, white collared shirt, and- her own flair- a navy-white striped tie that hung loosely around her collar.

The girl beside her tapped Tsuki shoulder. “Hey, Tsuki,” Kira said. “How far did we have to read?”

“To page 175,” she replied.

“Crap!” Kira sunk down in her chair. “I went to 157. There’s no quiz today, though, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Good. Cross your fingers that that’s right.” The bell rang and everyone straightened in his or her seats, directing their attention towards the teacher.

“Now, everyone, let’s do roll call and then get out your agendas so we can review today’s assignment…”

After fifty-four minutes of discussion over one book, Tsuki and Kira walked from the classroom together, pushing their way through the hallway crowds and to the lunchroom.

“Yo! Tsuki!” a brown-eyed, black-haired boy ran up to them. “Wanna eat lunch with me?”

Tsuki shook her head. “No, Naito, not today.”

Naito frowned and ran a hand though his hair. “Aww, come on! You always say that.”

“Because it is never the day,” she retorted. Naito had shown liking for her for months now, well into the eighth grade, and Tsuki was getting tired of his constant attempts to make her show the same affection- she felt like Raion with Kokoro.

“Well, then. I’ll eat lunch with you. You don’t have to do anything.”

Tsuki’s scowl deepened and she pushed past the persistent boy, waving a quick good-bye to Kira.

“Good luck,” she heard the girl murmur.

Naito continued to walk beside her, his long legs keeping him a few steps ahead. “So…” he attempted to start conversation, “how was English?”

“Horrible.”

“That sucks. But maybe you can come over to my house after school and I’ll help you with your homework, I’m really good at English.”

“No, I have stuff to do,” Tsuki said quickly- God forbid if he got her alone.

“Oh, what about the rest of the weekend?”

She spotted her excuse standing in the lunch line. “I’m staying with Raion. We’re gonna go shopping and hang out with Sakura and Kokoro. Maybe you and I can do something another time, it’s just that I’m always so busy…” It wasn’t a lie, she really was always busy, and had this shopping trip planned for a while now. But Tsuki played things up by actually looking disappointed.

“Oh, okay. Then we have to go out sometime this month.”

“All right,” Tsuki seized the chance and sprinted away, to Raion. “Thank God I found you!’ she told him, then giggled upon noticing Kokoro clinging to his arm, talking rapidly.

“Save me,” he mouthed, careful not to have the other girl notice.

Tsuki nodded, then put on her “something needs to be attended to urgently” face. “Raion! Raion!” she said, grabbing his other arm and wrenching him away from Kokoro. “Hurry, someone said that your locker is getting vandalized! We need to go!” She began to run away with him, noticing the look of extreme confusion on Kokoro’s face. Raion laughed and slowed to a walk once they were off campus.

“Good thing it’s a half-day, Tsuki!” he chuckled. “Otherwise you’d put us in a couple weeks of detention!”

She laughed alongside him. “Well, I have my own stalker to avoid, too!”

“Yeah, Naito is such a prev,” he said.

“Tell me about it.”

Raion stopped walking and turned to her. “Say, why don’t you come over to my place? I’ve got nothing to do ‘til we go shopping, and it’s probably better than being at the Dorm by yourself.”

Tsuki thought about it. The Dorm, as everyone called it, was where students stayed if they were from homes far away for the school. It’s where her, Kokoro, and Sakura stayed, while other kids- like Raion- lived nearby, with their parents. The Dorm was simple, clean, affordable, but dull in an overall sense.

“That would be great,” she told Raion. “Do you think your mom will mind?”

“No. She likes to have the notion that I’m attempting to get a girlfriend,” he winked and gave her a teasing smile.

“Hey, I do not want to piss off Kokoro!”

“Neither do I!”

They laughed and continued walking. Tsuki looked up at Raion- even with his bad posture he stood four or five inches above her 5’2”. His skin was always sun-tanned to a perfect bronze, even in the winter, which made his overall appearance look lion-like, just how his name indicated. Raion was one of her favorite friends, he was so casual and a big change from the peppy girls she usually hung out with.

He looked down at her and smiled. “Something on your mind, Tsuki? You look deep in thought.”

“Oh!” she snapped her gaze away from his handsome face. “I was spacing out…” She followed him up his driveway and inside the house. His mom peeked her head out of the kitchen as they set down backpacks and took off shoes.

“Hello, Tsuki! It’s been so long!” she exclaimed. “You two just go upstairs and have fun! Do you want me to make you anything?”

“No thanks, Mom,” Raion said, making his way to his bedroom.

“Tsuki!” she called once more. “How has Sakura been lately?”

“Great, Mrs.--. So has everyone else.”

“That’s wonderful! Do you want anything? A sandwich? Some chips?”

“It’s okay, no thank you.” She trotted up the stairs to join Raion. He was lying on his bed, looking exhausted.

“Ugh…” he moaned. “School is crazy.”

“Yeah.” Tsuki sat down beside him and looked out he window, at the city below.

He clasped his hands behind his head. “So what was the deal with Sakura? With the whole murder thing?”

“I don’t know,” Tsuki shook her head. “I remember going home and going to bed- nothing about blood. It probably just was a dream she had.”

“Sakura doesn’t get carried away that easily, she’s pretty smart when the time calls for it.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey!” Raion sat up suddenly. “I just invited a potential murderer into my house!”

“Raion…” she groaned.

“Slay the demon!” he yelled triumphantly and wrapped his arms around her waist, dragging her off the bed. With a laugh, Raion spun her around once and then dropped her on the mattress.

Though giggles, Tsuki said, “Raion! Don’t do that! It’s scary!”

“A murderer, one who kills in cold blood, is scared of being dropped onto the floor?!” he laughed harder.

“You’re such an idiot!” she teased. “I don’t kill people!”

He leaned in close, so that their noses touched. “The female mind is much too delicate to commit such a fiendish act.” Tsuki’s smile softened, and she found herself placing a hand on Raion’s neck, pulling him just a bit closer…

There was a loud “BANG!” of a gun being fired and screaming erupting from the street. Tsuki and Raion jumped apart, both of them rushing to the window to see what had happened, they saw a man with a gun standing over two girls- Kokoro and Sakura.

“NO!” Tsuki yelled and dashed down the stairs, heading for the street.

Raion dashed down behind her. “Tsuki! Wait!”

Operating on pure instinct, Tsuki threw open the front door and ran towards the gunman, slamming into him with enough force to knock them both over. Tsuki fumbled with the man’s weapon, trying to wrench it from his grip, without success. The man fired, Tsuki could feel the bullet whistle above her head, Kokoro and Sakura screamed.

“Tsuki! MOVE!” Raion commanded.

She leaned back just in time to allow Raion to press his foot against the attacker’s throat. She saw the boy reach into his pants and pull out a golden pocketknife, extending it. Raion pressed his weapon up against the man’s cheek, and shoved Tsuki out of the way.

The man’s voice was hollow, “Test complete. Training success. Returning to Base.” Beneath Raion, the man’s body shone bright, then dissipated. Raion jumped to his feet and looked around searching, wondering what just happened, then knelt down beside Tsuki, cupping her cheek with his hand.

“Tsuki!” he scolded. “Why the hell did you do that?!” He looked side-to-side. “What is going on?!”

“I-I don’t know… I-I just….” she stammered.

“You could’ve died!” Raion said. “What if you were shot!?”

Tsuki found tears pool in her eyes, and she lunged forward to bury her face in Raion’s shirt. He tucked his pocketknife away and held her close, while telling Sakura and Kokoro that everything would be okay.

“R-Raion!” Kokoro gasped though tears. “You were s-so brave!!”

“Could you just shut up about me for a second of your life!?” he snapped.

Kokoro’s crying increased.

“Why did you two go after a full-grown man with a gun?! Even if we were in danger!” Sakura asked. Tsuki just shook her head and clung to Raion more.