Disclaimer: We DO NOT own Shakugan no Shana or any of its characters.

AN: Hello! This will be my second fic, but my first split story.

Why? I, B-chanz, will be doing Shana's parts throughout this story. Satiety will be doing Yuji's parts. And a few of the other characters in the Anime as well.

How will this work? We will each post up chapters for each character and if they need to interact within the story, we work it out.

I haven't seen much of these going on, but this will be like two stories meshed into one which makes a plot as an end result.

I don't know about Satiety's use for thoughts, but all thoughts for my chapters will be formatted in italics as well as any emphasis on words that they do. For example, "What do you think?"

For my flashback scenes they will be start and end with four X's, like so:

XXXX

And will also be italicized. And any thoughts while in flashback/dream scenes will be like this. Think of it as a vice versa legend.

XXXX

I guess that about does it on my part for an introduction. You could always read my other fic, but that chapter will go on later. And I know it's been a couple of months since I updated it, but College started and I had little time to do so.

Lov,

B-chanz

P.S. This is not based on the Japan school year.

Twisted Promises

Chapter 1

She muttered under her breath as someone accidentally bumped their backpack into her shoulder. She nodded silently as they apologized. Typical. Shifting the weight of the bag on her lap, she watched as the scenery changed from just an area full of houses to one of an area full of schools, malls, and other types of buildings.

This was her daily morning ride on the transit bus, but something was off. It could have been due to the fact that it was the first day of senior year. No, that wasn't it. It was the new bus driver. She had gotten used to the fact that the elderly man, whom she had gotten to know very well, would be driving the eighteen bus for a very long time, but it seems even he had to retire at some point.

"How long have you been riding the bus?" The new bus driver voiced his question out loud. It was early in the morning, about 7:15 am and since there were only two passengers, herself and the backpack kid, she figured he was speaking to her since she sat at the front.

"Um…since my pre-school days...?" She left her sentence hanging and the bus driver picked up on it.

He smiled. "You can call me Kantaro." The bus turned left.

She nodded appreciatively. "I've been riding the bus since I was young, Kantaro-san."

"Hm. Kantaro-san. I haven't been called that since I married my wife," he let out a hearty laugh and she couldn't help but smile, "so don't let her find out you're calling me that." He winked playfully and she nodded.

"Did you just start today?"

"Why, yes." He turned the bus right this time. "Yamada-san retired a week ago and since I know my way around the area, I decided to drive people around." Kantaro paused. "I didn't know I'd be having such nice passengers this early in the morning."

She missed his last statement as her thought was replaying that Yamada Manzo had retired not that long ago. Out of habit, she pulled the contraption to signal she was getting off. When she looked up, her school was in plain view. "I'll see you again tomorrow?"

"Same time, same place." He smiled as if to hold back a chuckle, pressing the breaks to halt the large piece of transportation.

"Akagi Shana." She gave a hint of a smile before getting off. Shana turned around briefly. "See you."

Kantaro watched her for a few minutes as she walked up to the school gates. He shook his head, closing the doors of the bus, and began driving away. Something about her last name joggled his memory.

The hallways were still empty, a few students here and there. They were most likely heading towards their new class of the new school year. It wasn't as if anything had changed from the previous start of the year. This was one of the few times the floor was actually sparkling clean with wax, but that will soon disappear once the usual hustle and bustle of students made their way through the school.

Over at the shoe lockers, one student spotted another and decided to make his presence known. "Yoshida-san! Morning!" Said girl turned on her heels after placing her outdoor shoes in her locker.

Yoshida Kazumi, a girl with light brown hair that reached an inch below her ears, bangs just reaching her eyes. And she was adorned with brown eyes. She was the average height of any girl her age. Her shy nature often brought about unexpected second looks of the male students at Misaki High; which she was completely oblivious about. She is currently a member of the Music Club and loves to play one particular instrument, but she knows how to play a few others.

"Morning, Ike-kun." Kazumi smiled, her eyes closing in the process. "How was your vacation?"

He gulped. Oh, indeed, Hayato was one of those male students that had an eye for her. He stood slightly taller than the average male, so he tended to slouch a bit. He had a darker color of brown hair with a few bangs covering his forehead. His eyes were that of a shade that was slightly darker than plain mauve. He is also in charge of planning the events that happen in their school year; such as carnivals, field trips, etc.

"It was…good." That and the fact that he was trying to build up his courage to finally tell her how he really felt all throughout the break. It was, after all, their senior year. Now was as good as ever. "I-…"

Kazumi suddenly gasped.

He pressed his glasses up on his nose and followed her gaze in the near empty hallway, until his eyes focused on one very familiar form. Is that...Akagi-san? He blinked, took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, placed his glasses back and blinked once more. "Akagi-san?"

Akagi Shana was slightly shorter than the average girl, with long flowing black hair, one trademark bang crossing over the bridge of her nose and curving to the left or right. And she had round, brown eyes. She was clad in the school uniform, but what really surprised the duo was the way she looked. Shana was known as one of the smart ones of their year, as well as athletic in some sense. Everyone knew of how she plans on taking over in Student Council since she spoke about it the previous year.

Kazumi couldn't wait anymore and ran up to the poor girl, engulfing her in a tight embrace. "Shana-chan! I missed you!"

The smaller of the two had to take in what was happening before hugging back. "I missed you too, Kazumi." Shana smiled as the brown-haired girl released her. "Please, don't cry now. It hasn't been that long, has it?" She pulled out her handkerchief and started dabbing at the girl's cheeks.

"A month is too long! Don't you agree, Ike-kun?" Kazumi's tears suddenly disappeared as she looked at the stupefied male.

He nodded silently. It was a wonder that Akagi-san and Yoshida-san were best friends. They had completely different personalities, yet they seemed to fill in each others weaknesses. Simply put, they were a dynamic duo. "You've certainly changed your style, Akagi-san."

Shana frowned. "Hayato, I told you to stop calling me Akagi-san! I've known you since Middle school." She crossed her arms in annoyance to emphasize her point.

"Gomen, gomen." He waved his hands in front of him, sweating slightly under her glare. "It's a force of habit. I'll be sure to get it through my thick skull of what your name is." Kazumi lightly laughed at the two, causing Hayato to blush outwardly and jump for joy inwardly. He had made her laugh! Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad year for him after all.

"Shana-chan."

"Hm?" Her glare dropped, Hayato sighing with relief, and turned a questioning gaze upon her best friend.

"How come you finally let your hair down?" Kazumi leaned in close so that their noses were touching. "And are you wearing contacts?"

A slight hue appeared on Shana's cheeks. "I am not wearing contacts!" She backed up a few steps, turning around so that they would not notice her blush. "For your information, they said my eyes have perfect vision again after all these years."

"That's great, Shana-chan!" Kazumi was really glad that things were starting to get back to normal again. She didn't want to see her best friend suffer once more; she didn't have the strength to prevent such ill-doings.

"Gomen, I have to go see our Sensei this year to ask about our special events." Hayato bowed. "I will see you in class, Yoshida-san. And I will see you at lunch, Akagi-san." He dashed off before an inanimate object collided with him.

Shana grunted. "Hayato! You get back here!" Her echo only bounced off of the walls and not into his ears. I'll get him at lunch. She studied her friend for a moment before responding to her earlier question. "I decided to start off the year with a new look, but for some reason I feel that I've done this before…"

The short-haired girl eyed Shana carefully as they walked together to the second floor where her club resided. Could she be remembering already? They rounded the corner and stopped to look out the windows. The sun was already peeking out over the horizon since it was now close to 7:30 am. "Déjà vu?" Kazumi offered.

"Yeah…"

She sensed the sudden change in Shana's mood. "Ano…I bet you'll win the election in two months!" Kazumi hurriedly blurted, but noted the smile that appeared on her friend.

"Arigato, Kazumi." And hugged the girl out of near necessity. Shana was grateful that she always knew what to say to lighten up her mood, but lately there was something bothering her. As if her best friend had something to tell her, but wasn't allowed. It was a strange thing seeing as how they told each other a lot of things, but this seemed to be something that she has kept a secret over the years. Shana would tell herself that she would find out when the time was right, so she never pressed into the matter. If it wasn't her business, she wasn't going to pry. "It's too bad they decided to split us up this year, huh?"

"Yes..." Kazumi scuffed her shoe against the floor. "We'll still see other at lunch and after school as always, right?" She needed to hear it directly from Shana as a sort of reassurance.

"That's right." Shana looked at the clock in the hallway and Kazumi smiled once more. "But I think it's about time we head to your Music Club. I'd like to see my favorite best friend play."

Kazumi rolled her eyes at that statement. "I'm your only best friend." Shana laughed and pulled the girl towards the room at the end of the hall.

"Yeah, yeah." She pointed to an instrument she always loved hearing her play and closed the door behind her. But just what aren't you telling me? Shana sat down on the piano's bench as her friend set up. I wish you would just tell me, Kazumi.

"And that's everything for you, Ike-san. Did you have any questions?" The teacher moved aside the folder to make room for all the papers he had made copies of.

"No, that's it, Inaba-sensei." Hayato placed them into his bag after making sure everything he needed for the year was there. "If there are any changes I will let you know. Thank you." He bowed slightly and turned to exit.

Inaba realized the folder that he had pushed aside was something important. "Ike-san, there's one more thing." The boy stopped and turned around with a questioning gaze. "You'll have to make a change in the student class list as there will be a new student coming in a month's time."

He walked back to his sensei and took hold of the folder that was now being held out to him. "A student after a month of school?"

"Hai. He will be transferring to Misaki High and I do not know why as of yet. This very brief description and photo was given to me an hour ago." They both looked at the clock and it was now ten to eight in the morning.

"I'll make sure to update it and look into it for you, Sensei."

"Thank you."

They nodded to each other before Hayato left the room. Now he was curious. He'd never heard of a case where a student transferred just after the school year began, but then again, there were students who transferred during the middle of the year. "Let's just see who this transfer is."

He placed his bag on a windowsill in the hallway and opened the folder in his hands. The first thing he noticed was a photo that was face down. Odd. He skimmed the piece of paper, but his eyes stayed glued to the first line. The student's name.

"No way." He hurriedly grabbed the photo and turned it around, almost disbelieving whom it was. "You've got to be…" He mumbled something that only he could hear before crossing his arms and going into thinking mode.

"It's best that I don't say anything. They will find out in one month, after all." He nodded his head. Silence was golden. If they ask him why he didn't say so sooner, he would just tell them to think about what good it would have done if he did.

"This is going to be one eventful year, Yoshida-san, Akagi-san…" He clipped the photo back, but face up this time. A boy with brown hair and blue eyes stared back at him, a few bangs going over his face.

"…Sakai Yuji."