In the kitchen of the Mikagami household, a teenage girl sat cheerily eating breakfast with her father, while her mother slept in, on this her day off. A perfectly normal scene, if one did not look too closely at the particulars of the situation. Oh, sure, the girl seemed normal enough, barring her rather unusual school uniform of blood-red and black, and the father seemed normal enough, for a dark, mostly-undefined mass of terror, but the breakfast...seeing as how father and daughter had been left to their own devices for the task, the breakfast was not normal at all. Yuri Mikagami had never been more than politely interested in the aspects of cooking that did not involve sweets and/or dessert in some way, and her father's culinary specialties tended towards Roasted Carcass of [fill in name of Defeated Enemy here] floating in bowls of cholesterol-raising Bat Blood (and perhaps some sautéed intestines on the side, if he was feeling fancy). So it was that this Monday morning, the repast of the Mikagami household consisted of Sautéed Cinnamon-Sugar Pig Intestines and Bat Blood milkshakes. Regardless of the, to some others, rather questionable nature of the food, however, both Troi and Yuri wolfed down their meal with enthusiasm. "So Yuri, I hear that the club signups and sports tryouts will be this week," Troi Mikagami remarked casually. "That's right!" his daughter agreed. "Have you decided what activities you want to go into yet?" A bit of pensiveness peeked into Yuri's otherwise cheerful expression. "I'm not really sure, Dad...there's just so much to choose from, judging from all the flyers I saw up on Saturday." "During the course of high school, Yuri," her father snorted, "You'll find out just how many of those are utter trash. I know you're enthusiastic about these things, but don't rush into too many things at once, all right? My freshman year at DHH, the only extra-curricular activity I was involved in was Debate." He paused. "Or wait...was it Model Greater Councils of Evil? No, no, I was in that sophomore year, that and Demon Club. Well...actually it might have been Demon Club in freshman year, and Model Greater Councils and Debate as a sophomore..." Yuri, tolerantly listening to her father's rambling between bites of pork intestine, spared an eye for the clock and jerked upright as she realized just how little time remained until school started. "Dad?" she asked tentatively, shoving on her shoes and grabbing her bookbag before wolfing down the rest of her breakfast. "Don't worry, I'll get it soon," Troi assured her. "Hmm...perhaps-" "Dad!" Yuri protested. "I'm gonna be late for school!" Troi's head lifted to glance at the clock. "Oh, I see. Well, have a nice day and remember what I said about not rushing into too many things at once, all right?" Yuri turned from the doorstop to wink at her father and blow him a kiss, which he dodged. "OK Dad!" ********************************************************* Dark Heart High Netherworld Educational Institution for The Universal Propagation of Evil started by Mads ********************************************************* Part Six: Commotion! by Sharyna Tran ********************************************************* "So Yuri, did you decide on which club you're going to sign up for?" Leilei asked as she, Balabalalde, and Yuri headed towards the cafeteria. Yuri shook her head. "I want to see all the representatives first, learn a little bit more about what they're like, first. The clubs, I mean, not the representatives." "That's a good strategy, I suppose," Leilei nodded approvingly. "What about you, Bala? Are you going to be in-" Yuri broke off as they entered the cafeteria. Never too calm in the first place, today it seemed to have exploded into a vast array of people, sights, sounds, even smells. The recruiters were out in force, and their displays and demonstrations were every bit as grand as Yuri had hoped they would be. Dozens of representatives' tables were set up around the cafeteria, some in prime positions, some...not. All were busy hawking the virtues of their club and vigorously denouncing any other clubs. The Chess Club and the Pollution Club vied for space, pelting each other with, respectively, oversized chess pieces and barrels of ooze, which added some interesting new decor to the large room. Yuri just stood there for a moment, mouth open and eyes wide in delight. "Yuri? Yuri, you all right?" Leilei tapped the taller girl on the arm. "Hm? Oh, I'm fine, Leilei. You and Bala go ahead. I'll just be looking around..." "You sure?" Leilei asked worriedly. Balabalalde widened an eye at her in question. "Yeah. Have fun." Yuri flashed a bright smile at them and walked off into the mess of beings, her face alight. Leilei shrugged and led Bala off to their usual table. *** Yuri walked around, looking at the club displays. They all looked so exciting; there was no way she could possibly choose between them. Drama Club, Chess Club, Forensics, Debate, Model Greater Councils of Evil...only a fraction of what the school had to offer, and that was not including the various cults and sports that would be available. Suddenly, a commotion arose outside the cafeteria, actually loud enough to be heard over the din caused by the club reps. People seemed to be running in hordes past the cafeteria, and screaming and yelling could be heard. A student poked his head into the room of puzzled people, and shouted, "Purity grenade!" Immediately, the assorted assembly in the cafeteria panicked, abandoning their lunches in favor of running out of the cafeteria. Yuri, confused, looked around for Leilei and Bala, seeing them just as they were swept up in the mob and carried out. Well, whatever a purity grenade was, Yuri figured, it seemed to be something awfully serious, to frighten that many students of Dark Heart High, so she began to run as well. Plus, by this time she had also been swept up in the crowd, so it was pretty much either run or be trampled by the masses. Yuri craned her head around, trying to at least catch a glimpse of their destination. Her concentration on what was around her distracted her from what was under her, and so it was that she tripped on something-or someone-and fell to the ground. She looked up in fear, expecting to be trampled at any minute, but saw instead the cool grey eyes of Ki Tamaida, who had lifted her from the ground and set her gently down after the crowd had p! assed. "Come, Mikagami," he ordered, heading in the direction the crowd had gone. "I...can't!" Yuri gasped, holding her ankle. Ki frowned at her. "Why not?" "My ankle...I think it's sprained." Ki closed his eyes. Just what he needed, another obstacle in the path of the fulfillment of his plan. "Here, let me-" "What's that?" Yuri interrupted, her brows wrinkling at a sight just behind him. Ki turned around and paled. The white glow which had steadily been progressing down the corridor was now almost upon them. Ki's mind, trained to be cold and calculating under all circumstances, froze in sheer panic. He began to run down the hall, then realized that he had forgotten Yuri and turned around to get her. He had gone through too much trouble cultivating her to lose her now. It was too late. Yuri lay in the white glow, still holding her ankle and looking at him, worried. Strangely enough, she seemed to be unharmed. Those were his last thoughts before the white glow enveloped him. *** Wet. Wet and soft. Those were the first sensations that entered Ki's head as he groggily returned to consciousness. That was, he realized, because the sensations *came* from his head. His forehead, to be exact, was covered with what he now identified as a wet compress. Ki frowned, eyes still closed, as he tried to determine the chain of events that had led to this. "You're getting weak," a familiar voice said disdainfully. Ki snorted softly. "And how do you figure that, Midori?" "If you hadn't turned back for the girl, you would have made it out with no ill effects." "She's too necessary for me to lose," Ki explained. "She's made you soft," Midori retorted. "She's necessary," Ki repeated in a quelling tone. A disbelieving snort was his only reply. A faint smirk came to his lips, and he finally opened his eyes. As he expected, his childhood...companion, Midori, sat beside him with a matching smirk on her lips, idly twirling a dagger in one hand. He was on a cot of some sort, in what looked to be one of the extra rooms in the nurse's office. He frowned again. His last memory was of Yuri lying in the glow of the purity grenade, and then...whiteness. Whiteness and a devastating memory of goodness and decency, enveloping, choking, drowning him in their wholesomeness... Ki looked at Midori, puzzled. "Do you know-" "-how you got here?" she finished. "I brought you, after that crippled but admittedly brave girl collapsed. It really wasn't wise of her to try and drag you all the way down here, but at least she got you out of the blast nimbus." "Yuri...tried to drag me here?" The idea of *her* rescuing *him* was...galling, to say the least. He blinked, trying to figure out how this affected his scheme. Midori nodded in agreement, watching him carefully. "She seems to think that she...owes you something, shall we say." Ki managed a shrug. "I've saved her on a few occasions." "I see." Silence. "I still think she's making you soft." Ki favored Midori with a glare. "She's not. She's part of my...plan." "Ah, so you have a...plan. That explains it," Midori said, deadpan. "Why do you care, anyway?" "If you'll remember, we have a battle coming up in a few years. I'd rather not fight a weak opponent." "I'm *not turning weak*. How could I, anyway? I'm of the Steel Thorn Clan as well, remember? I had my heart removed, same as you." Midori shook her head, rolling her eyes at his ignorance. "You don't know? When our hearts are removed, that's not the be-all and end-all of our emotions. It just makes things a bit more...difficult to get through. If you're falling for her, you might not even realize it until it's too late to repair the damage." "Why are you so convinced that I'm falling for her?" Ki asked curiously. "I'm just being cautious," Midori shrugged. "I've seen too many of us slip up horribly, convinced of our invulnerability, and I don't want you to die before we finish our...argument." Ki inclined his head, acknowledging her concerns. "Thank you for the warning. I'll watch out." "Good. I'd hate to have to fight an unworthy opponent." "Trust me," Ki grinned humorlessly, "I'll be more than worthy to defeat you when the time comes." Midori gave him a thin smile. "We'll see, shan't we?" And with that, she left. *** Yuri sat in the nurse's office, her bandaged ankle propped up with a stool and her new set of crutches resting next to her chair. She winced; it was not going to be fun explaining this to her parents, even though it hadn't really been her fault. It wouldn't have been so bad, she supposed, if she hadn't tried to bring Ki along with her while heading towards the clinic, but...when the mysterious white glow had touched him, he had at first stiffened, then fallen to the floor in convulsions, which quickly died away. At the end of five minutes, Ki Tamaida had been lying unconscious in front of her, unresponding to her upset calls and questions. After all that he had done for her, it would have been very unpolite of her to just leave him, so she had done her best to drag him along, putting what she was sure her father would call unnecessary stress on her leg. She didn't know what she would have done when she collapsed if that nice girl hadn't shown up and helped her along. C! ome to think of it, she'd never gotten the girl's name, anyway, although she'd looked familiar... *** Author's Note: I had much more grandiose ideas for this, but my slot falling right at the tail end of vacation time cut off my writing time a bit. :P My apologies. *** Liza lounged outside the clinic and stroked her satisfyingly heavy bag of inventions. The first batch of customers-er, patients should be on their way out soon, she thought, having calculated the time it took most scions of evil to recover from a Class 3 Purity Grenade, and when they left the clinic, she would be ready. She snickered softly to herself. A throat cleared behind her. Business already! She turned around, eagerly meeting the eyes of...vice-principal Akurei. Uh-oh. "Hello, Liza," Akurei grinned toothily. "Hello," Liza replied politely. Perhaps he was only making small talk? But none of the staff really made small talk... "I hear you have quite a successful business set up," Akurei remarked. Oh, shit... "Business?" Liza asked, faking puzzlement. "You do know, of course, that the sale of items within school grounds and not through official school channels is against our policy," Akurei stated, removing all chances for Liza to fake her way through. Damn, Liza thought, they've finally caught on. I'm in deep shit now...