Disclaimer: I don't own them, what a revelation.....
A/N: All of your reviews are so encouraging! Thanks to all of you who have reviewed!
To answer Lizzie Black's question, I did get Miki's name from Marmalade Boy, but only because I needed a name, and that was the first one that came into my head.
~Crossroads~
By Burnt Rice
Chapter 7: The Preventors
Two girls ran down the empty hallway of Crossroads Academy, laughing, impervious to the world, stuck in their own shallow bubble of boys and gossip.
"Have you gotten a dress for the dance yet?", asked one.
The other girl nodded. "Yeah. I just got it yesterday. It's so gorgeous...."
Blah blah blah, thought Mr. Sengoku. There he was, sitting alone in his classroom during lunch hour, doing what else except grading hoards of tests. What a suprise. He smirked as he marked about half the answers on some pathetic student's paper incorrect, resulting in a failing grade. He glanced at the student's name. Kazuyuki Kamori. Seeing the name, Sengoku gained a new level of sardonic satisfaction. Kazuyuki hadn't really gotten those answers wrong; technically, they were right. On the other hand, if you looked at them from a different angle, Mr. Sengoku could twist the questions to mean something totally different. He loved giving out tests like these. As a result, Sengoku could tamper with whoever's grade he damn well pleased. Lately, Kazuyuki Komori had been whiney this past week. He had been bothering him after class for so many trivial questions, with that annoying voice of his. ('Mr. Sengoku, how high of a score should I get on tomorrow's test in order to raise my grade point average by fifteen hundreths of a point?') Stuff like that. Kazuyuki will be so broken by this, sarcastically thought Sengoku. He thought it with false compassion and sympathy. With a flourish, he scribbled a huge 54 across the top of Kazuyuki's paper. Mr. Sengoku also liked using big, thick, red markers to grade papers. It enhanced a student's feeling of failure when he saw his paper virtually covered in red. It did things to the student's morale.
Thinking about the dance that thse two girls were talking about, he decided to give a pop quiz on that same day. That'll teach them, he thought, laughing. Feeling very self-satisfied, he went on to the next paper. Grimacing, he saw that it was none other than Hayama Akito's paper. The satisfied look on Sengoku's face grew more sour with each question he scanned. Damn him, thought Sengoku. Once more, Hayama had somehow manged to get all of the questions correct. Even if Sengoku had twisted the problems, Hayama had managed to present both sides to each answer, gaining himself a perfect score. Again.
If only there was some way to catch Hayama cheating, or something similar to that nature. Mr. Sengoku felt old anger buring within himself. He hated the look of Hayama's eyes; the haughty, devil may care gaze that haunted Sengoku night after night. It made Sengoku even more furious because of the fact that Hayama was the Assigner, the symbol of the Vigils. Hayama had the same look of another Assigner, a person generations back, when Crossroads was first built. Back when the Vigils had first been formed.
As soon as Sengoku had first applied for his job as biology teacher, found out that the Vigils were still in operation, and that they were being led by Hayama, he vowed that he would have his revenge. Maybe not now, or tomorrow, but someday. A plan had been growing in his head ever since he was eighteen, when he was a senior at Crossroads.
Mr. Sengoku had recieved the first assignment ever given by the Vigils.
~~
"I want to join the Vigils."
Naozumi looked up with questioning interest. Tsuyoshi's mouth dropped open and half eaten shrimp fell from it unto his tray. The sidemost corner of Akito's mouth twitched, but he quickly hid his surprise. Naozumi was the first to speak.
"But....but why?"
Aya shrugged. "I'm interested in the work you guys do, and I....I have some ideas."
Both Tsuyoshi and Naozumi looked Akito's way, waiting for his opinion. Finally, he spoke. "Meetings are after school. You'll know when, because those are the days when the V on the bulletain board is turned upside down." He said no more, and returned to eating his lunch.
~~
Naozumi uneasily glanced from Akito to Tsuyoshi to Aya, the latter's eyes downcast, uncharacteristically concentrating on her lunch. First of all, Naozumi was taken by suprise. Who would've guessed that Miss Goody-two-shoes wanted to take part in the most feared group of Crossroads? To be frank, he hadn't really minded her hanging around the three of them, she eased the tension between the guys and directed their attention to other matters. But now she was showing an interest in the Vigils. Was that the reason she had started going out with Tsuyoshi in the first place?
Next off, Naozumi was little more than bothered in Akito's newfound interest in Sana. But then again, Akito had no weaknesses, at least, no outwardly weaknesses that he could see. Akito wasn't that bad-looking. In fact, Naozumi was willing to bet that Akito could have any girl in the whole school. So why and when, all of a sudden, did he decide that Sana was so interesting? Naozumi was determined to get Sana for himself, and keep her away from Akito.
On the flip side, it did show that Akito was human. Sometimes Naozumi had to question Akito's humanity.
And what about Sana's friend? Poor Fuka. Thinking back to how that sorry excuse for a person had called Fuka Matsui a "whore", Naozumi felt a surge of anger. How could Akito do this?, thought Naozumi. Now that he thought about it, a year or two of Vigil operations had conditioned himself to become numb and unaffected to anyone else's pain. Yet today, Akito had gotten goody-goody Aya to cross the line, and innocent Fuka to become the main topic of hurtful gossip. A month back, Fuka had already suffered from the Vigils just because her boyfriend wouldn't comply and do the chocolate assignment. But after about a week of Vigil....interference, Takaishi Yuta had finally broken down, and given in.
Another triumph for the Vigils, right?
Naozumi felt sick. No, he felt disgusted with himself. Why had he even agreed to become a Vigil in the first place? But Naozumi knew the answer to that question. As a freshman at Crossroads, he knew nothing. He quickly became a football hero, and moved through the social ranks. He was an honor roll student, and his teachers gave him praise after praise. Back as a freshman, Naozumi was so full of himself. And then he heard about the Vigils, the ultimate power, Crossroads's darkest secret. Back then, he only saw it as the perfect way to top his own accomplishments. He didn't know about the pain that they caused, the torture and fear that lay in every Crossroads student's heart. And Akito was interesting. A little cold at first, but he grew on you. He was cunning and clever. No one could match Akito's wits and intuition.
Naozumi hated the school, hated the Vigils, but most of all, he hated himself.
~~
Sana and Fuka walked out the door, and into the sitting courtyard outside. No one usually came out here because it was too far away from the cafeteria to walk, but Sana found it to be perfect for her purposes.
"You alright, Fuka?", asked Sana.
Fuka looked up, unshed tears in her eyes. "Yeah. Don't worry about me, I'm used to it."
"What do you mean, used to it?" But Sana had to stop there, for both girls had reached their destination. Sitting on the scattered benches throughout the courtyard, were students of various social groups and ages. They all expectantly looked up at Sana as she and Fuka sat down in the center of them all.
"We'll talk about this later.", whispered Sana to Fuka. Then she raised her voice so that all the other students, about 17 of them, could hear her. Some looked anxious, as if by simply being here they were committing blasphemy.
"We all know why we are here.", said Sana. "We're here because we want change. We want to protect ourselves, and our friends. We want to end the pain and suffering that's been plaguing this school for years. We want to put an end to the Vigils."
Murmurs started throughout the group of students. Sana cleared her throat, and they stopped. "I know I sound a bit melodramatic, but from what I've heard, the Vigils have gone too far."
One guy spoke up. "Yeah, I've heard that yesterday Ms. Haneoka quit her job."
"And last year they sold tickets to a fight between this bully and this other kid.", said a girl. "The kid got sent to the hospital."
"And they caused my ex-boyfriend, Yuta, to have a nervous breakdown and miss a whole month of school.", quietly added Fuka.
Taken by suprise, Sana looked up at Fuka. She had never heard this before. Fuka looked shaken, but unbeaten. Maybe a little revolutionary work would do Fuka some good. "We have to put an end to the Vigils, here and now.", said Sana. "First, I want you all to sign this contract. By signing this, you will be bound to keep this group a secret. But you will have the right to back out of anything that you don't want to do." Sana passed the paper to the girl sitting closest to her right. The girl studied the paper, looking for any catches that would make her fall into some sort of unknown trap. After a moment, finding nothing wrong with the agreement, she signed her name, under Sana's, which was already there. Her name was Mayu Tenou. She passed it on to the next person, a guy by the name of Gomi. He signed too, not taking as long to scan the contract. One by one, the remaining 15 sudents signed their name, conciously aware of the fact that if this paper was ever found by the Vigils, it would be the end of them.
At last the paper came to Fuka. Sana knew that this would be hard for her, having experienced Vigil treatment before. She held her breath. But Fuka didn't give the contract a second thought, and signed it as soon as she had gotten the paper in her hands. Fuka looked straight up into Sana's face, full of determination, and handed the paper back to Sana. This wasn't going to be easy. Sana looked up at the people sitting around, most of them having never spoken to each other their whole lives, yet all joined together today for one common belief.
"Welcome to the Preventors.", said Sana.
~~
A/N: (I got this from another author)
You + Review = Happy Me = New Chapter! (and maybe a bit more on Akito!!!!!)
A/N: All of your reviews are so encouraging! Thanks to all of you who have reviewed!
To answer Lizzie Black's question, I did get Miki's name from Marmalade Boy, but only because I needed a name, and that was the first one that came into my head.
~Crossroads~
By Burnt Rice
Chapter 7: The Preventors
Two girls ran down the empty hallway of Crossroads Academy, laughing, impervious to the world, stuck in their own shallow bubble of boys and gossip.
"Have you gotten a dress for the dance yet?", asked one.
The other girl nodded. "Yeah. I just got it yesterday. It's so gorgeous...."
Blah blah blah, thought Mr. Sengoku. There he was, sitting alone in his classroom during lunch hour, doing what else except grading hoards of tests. What a suprise. He smirked as he marked about half the answers on some pathetic student's paper incorrect, resulting in a failing grade. He glanced at the student's name. Kazuyuki Kamori. Seeing the name, Sengoku gained a new level of sardonic satisfaction. Kazuyuki hadn't really gotten those answers wrong; technically, they were right. On the other hand, if you looked at them from a different angle, Mr. Sengoku could twist the questions to mean something totally different. He loved giving out tests like these. As a result, Sengoku could tamper with whoever's grade he damn well pleased. Lately, Kazuyuki Komori had been whiney this past week. He had been bothering him after class for so many trivial questions, with that annoying voice of his. ('Mr. Sengoku, how high of a score should I get on tomorrow's test in order to raise my grade point average by fifteen hundreths of a point?') Stuff like that. Kazuyuki will be so broken by this, sarcastically thought Sengoku. He thought it with false compassion and sympathy. With a flourish, he scribbled a huge 54 across the top of Kazuyuki's paper. Mr. Sengoku also liked using big, thick, red markers to grade papers. It enhanced a student's feeling of failure when he saw his paper virtually covered in red. It did things to the student's morale.
Thinking about the dance that thse two girls were talking about, he decided to give a pop quiz on that same day. That'll teach them, he thought, laughing. Feeling very self-satisfied, he went on to the next paper. Grimacing, he saw that it was none other than Hayama Akito's paper. The satisfied look on Sengoku's face grew more sour with each question he scanned. Damn him, thought Sengoku. Once more, Hayama had somehow manged to get all of the questions correct. Even if Sengoku had twisted the problems, Hayama had managed to present both sides to each answer, gaining himself a perfect score. Again.
If only there was some way to catch Hayama cheating, or something similar to that nature. Mr. Sengoku felt old anger buring within himself. He hated the look of Hayama's eyes; the haughty, devil may care gaze that haunted Sengoku night after night. It made Sengoku even more furious because of the fact that Hayama was the Assigner, the symbol of the Vigils. Hayama had the same look of another Assigner, a person generations back, when Crossroads was first built. Back when the Vigils had first been formed.
As soon as Sengoku had first applied for his job as biology teacher, found out that the Vigils were still in operation, and that they were being led by Hayama, he vowed that he would have his revenge. Maybe not now, or tomorrow, but someday. A plan had been growing in his head ever since he was eighteen, when he was a senior at Crossroads.
Mr. Sengoku had recieved the first assignment ever given by the Vigils.
~~
"I want to join the Vigils."
Naozumi looked up with questioning interest. Tsuyoshi's mouth dropped open and half eaten shrimp fell from it unto his tray. The sidemost corner of Akito's mouth twitched, but he quickly hid his surprise. Naozumi was the first to speak.
"But....but why?"
Aya shrugged. "I'm interested in the work you guys do, and I....I have some ideas."
Both Tsuyoshi and Naozumi looked Akito's way, waiting for his opinion. Finally, he spoke. "Meetings are after school. You'll know when, because those are the days when the V on the bulletain board is turned upside down." He said no more, and returned to eating his lunch.
~~
Naozumi uneasily glanced from Akito to Tsuyoshi to Aya, the latter's eyes downcast, uncharacteristically concentrating on her lunch. First of all, Naozumi was taken by suprise. Who would've guessed that Miss Goody-two-shoes wanted to take part in the most feared group of Crossroads? To be frank, he hadn't really minded her hanging around the three of them, she eased the tension between the guys and directed their attention to other matters. But now she was showing an interest in the Vigils. Was that the reason she had started going out with Tsuyoshi in the first place?
Next off, Naozumi was little more than bothered in Akito's newfound interest in Sana. But then again, Akito had no weaknesses, at least, no outwardly weaknesses that he could see. Akito wasn't that bad-looking. In fact, Naozumi was willing to bet that Akito could have any girl in the whole school. So why and when, all of a sudden, did he decide that Sana was so interesting? Naozumi was determined to get Sana for himself, and keep her away from Akito.
On the flip side, it did show that Akito was human. Sometimes Naozumi had to question Akito's humanity.
And what about Sana's friend? Poor Fuka. Thinking back to how that sorry excuse for a person had called Fuka Matsui a "whore", Naozumi felt a surge of anger. How could Akito do this?, thought Naozumi. Now that he thought about it, a year or two of Vigil operations had conditioned himself to become numb and unaffected to anyone else's pain. Yet today, Akito had gotten goody-goody Aya to cross the line, and innocent Fuka to become the main topic of hurtful gossip. A month back, Fuka had already suffered from the Vigils just because her boyfriend wouldn't comply and do the chocolate assignment. But after about a week of Vigil....interference, Takaishi Yuta had finally broken down, and given in.
Another triumph for the Vigils, right?
Naozumi felt sick. No, he felt disgusted with himself. Why had he even agreed to become a Vigil in the first place? But Naozumi knew the answer to that question. As a freshman at Crossroads, he knew nothing. He quickly became a football hero, and moved through the social ranks. He was an honor roll student, and his teachers gave him praise after praise. Back as a freshman, Naozumi was so full of himself. And then he heard about the Vigils, the ultimate power, Crossroads's darkest secret. Back then, he only saw it as the perfect way to top his own accomplishments. He didn't know about the pain that they caused, the torture and fear that lay in every Crossroads student's heart. And Akito was interesting. A little cold at first, but he grew on you. He was cunning and clever. No one could match Akito's wits and intuition.
Naozumi hated the school, hated the Vigils, but most of all, he hated himself.
~~
Sana and Fuka walked out the door, and into the sitting courtyard outside. No one usually came out here because it was too far away from the cafeteria to walk, but Sana found it to be perfect for her purposes.
"You alright, Fuka?", asked Sana.
Fuka looked up, unshed tears in her eyes. "Yeah. Don't worry about me, I'm used to it."
"What do you mean, used to it?" But Sana had to stop there, for both girls had reached their destination. Sitting on the scattered benches throughout the courtyard, were students of various social groups and ages. They all expectantly looked up at Sana as she and Fuka sat down in the center of them all.
"We'll talk about this later.", whispered Sana to Fuka. Then she raised her voice so that all the other students, about 17 of them, could hear her. Some looked anxious, as if by simply being here they were committing blasphemy.
"We all know why we are here.", said Sana. "We're here because we want change. We want to protect ourselves, and our friends. We want to end the pain and suffering that's been plaguing this school for years. We want to put an end to the Vigils."
Murmurs started throughout the group of students. Sana cleared her throat, and they stopped. "I know I sound a bit melodramatic, but from what I've heard, the Vigils have gone too far."
One guy spoke up. "Yeah, I've heard that yesterday Ms. Haneoka quit her job."
"And last year they sold tickets to a fight between this bully and this other kid.", said a girl. "The kid got sent to the hospital."
"And they caused my ex-boyfriend, Yuta, to have a nervous breakdown and miss a whole month of school.", quietly added Fuka.
Taken by suprise, Sana looked up at Fuka. She had never heard this before. Fuka looked shaken, but unbeaten. Maybe a little revolutionary work would do Fuka some good. "We have to put an end to the Vigils, here and now.", said Sana. "First, I want you all to sign this contract. By signing this, you will be bound to keep this group a secret. But you will have the right to back out of anything that you don't want to do." Sana passed the paper to the girl sitting closest to her right. The girl studied the paper, looking for any catches that would make her fall into some sort of unknown trap. After a moment, finding nothing wrong with the agreement, she signed her name, under Sana's, which was already there. Her name was Mayu Tenou. She passed it on to the next person, a guy by the name of Gomi. He signed too, not taking as long to scan the contract. One by one, the remaining 15 sudents signed their name, conciously aware of the fact that if this paper was ever found by the Vigils, it would be the end of them.
At last the paper came to Fuka. Sana knew that this would be hard for her, having experienced Vigil treatment before. She held her breath. But Fuka didn't give the contract a second thought, and signed it as soon as she had gotten the paper in her hands. Fuka looked straight up into Sana's face, full of determination, and handed the paper back to Sana. This wasn't going to be easy. Sana looked up at the people sitting around, most of them having never spoken to each other their whole lives, yet all joined together today for one common belief.
"Welcome to the Preventors.", said Sana.
~~
A/N: (I got this from another author)
You + Review = Happy Me = New Chapter! (and maybe a bit more on Akito!!!!!)