Ki Tamaida stood frowning in the shade of one of the trees that peppered the front courtyard of Dark Heart High. She was late. It was rather disappointing, really. If she couldn't keep a simple before-school appointment, how would she be able to- Ki's thoughts were derailed as a small pebble bounced onto the top of his head. "Fool." He blinked and looked around wildly. A peal of derisive laughter came from above, and he looked up, puzzled and angry. His cousin sat casually on one of the branches above him, kicking one leg back and forth and tossing another pebble up and down. "You are really dense, you know that?" she told him, shaking her head. Ki sighed. "Good morning, Midori." Midori swung her other leg over the branch and flipped gracefully onto the ground beside him. "Well, now that we've established that you're an oblivious idiot, what's this all about?" Ki coughed slightly, and looked away. "...I need your help," he said quietly. A vicious grin spread across his cousin's face, and she leaned in closer to him. "What was that, cousin dearest? I couldn't quite hear you..." "I need your help," he restated flatly. "I need you to make sure Yuri wins the final rounds for freshman Dark Princess." Midori rubbed a finger over her lips, valiantly trying to suppress a smirk. "Well, now..." "Don't...say it," Ki sighed, holding up a hand. "Why, say what?" she asked, her eyes innocently wide. "Anything about being weak. Anything about falling for her. I am using a means to achieve an end, and I am requesting your assistance. OK?" Midori sighed and rolled her eyes. "You do so know how to take the fun out of things...why?" "Huh?" "Why do you want her to win the finals? Hell, how do you even know she's *making* it to the finals?" Ki grinned at her. "Now, now...*that*...is a secret!" Midori narrowed her eyes. ********************************************** Dark Heart High Netherworld Educational Institution for The Universal Propagation of Evil crafted by Mads ********************************************** Part Eleven: Competition! by Sharyna Tran ********************************************** "OK, I'll adbit dat it was a bad joke, but did you really haf to go and do dat?" Ki asked, holding a hand to his bloody nose. "Quit whining," Midori told him, handing him a handkerchief. "It lacks class." Ki glared at her and would have replied, if a chestnut-topped blur of movement had not knocked him over, paused just long enough to say, "Oops! Gomen nasai!", and rushed into the building. Midori smirked. "My, she does seem to have a lot of...energy, doesn't she?" And with that last shot, she left, her snickering trailing along behind her. *** Yuri sat down, leaning her elbow on her desk and catching her breath. She'd arrived with nearly a full minute to spare this time, so perhaps she shouldn't have run quite so fast today. It had become a habit, lately. She really should have taken the time to help up whoever it was that she'd knocked down on the way in, though. She waved cheerily to Balabalalde and Leilei as they came in, and gave Ki, who entered right after them, a curious glance. His normal insouciant appearance was marred today by the light covering of dust he sported, and the now-bloody handkerchief that he held to his nose. Before Yuri could ask him what had happened, Kurosawa-sensei entered and the bell rang. Shortly afterwards, the intercom came to life. *** "Good morning, students," Amakusa said from the main office. "Yesterday, as of course you all know, the preliminary votes were taken for candidates for our Dark King and Dark Queen, and for each classes' Dark Knight and Dark Princess. However, the voting has resulted in a number of five-way and six-way ties." "As usual," Akurei muttered under his breath. Amakusa shot him a quelling glance. "Therefore, another elimination round will be held today at lunch to choose the three finalists, and the finals will be held tomorrow after school. The winners will be announced at the dance, as per usual. Preliminary candidates will be dismissed from class ten minutes before lunch, and will meet in the cafeteria. They are-" Amakusa looked down at the slip of paper in his hand, and began reading off names. Really, he wondered sometimes why the student council even bothered trying a two-round selection process every year, since in all his years of teaching and administration combined, it had never once worked. He neared the end of the list. "Freshman candidates for Dark Knight are Ki Tamaida, Sakazashi the Fifth, Doombringer, Balabalalde, Kenji Matsuhito, and Ryuji Seihachi. For Dark Princess, Yasuko Wareme, Ransha Yatara, Keiko Tsuzurii, Tatsuyo Akiyama, and...Yuri Mikagami." Hm. He would have raised an eyebrow at that last name, if he were at all surprised that she had managed to weasel her way into the standings. "In closing, I would like to say-" *** "-good luck to all of our candidates. That will be all." In classroom 10A, Yasuko Wareme barely noticed the principal's parting words, because she was too busy seething with anger. Her eyes bored into the back of the trollop's head, which would have been much more malicious and threatening if the tramp was not completely oblivious to it. She dared! Yasuko slid further back in her seat, thoughts of dark revenge and hatred flowing through her mind. *** "Wow, congratulations Yuri!" Leilei exclaimed as they left class. "And you too, Bala! It's so cool that you both made it!" "It's not as if we've already won or anything," Yuri blushed. "But thanks anyway." Bala blinked an eye in agreement. Leilei shrugged and grinned. "Oh, I'm sure you two will win!" "Thanks for the vote of confidence," Yuri said, ducking through a pair of hallway slackers and their conversation, "But I don't think the chances are too high for me. I barely even know anyone here, so it's kind of surprising that I even made it to the preliminaries." She shrugged. "It doesn't really matter to me, though. I mean, I wouldn't mind winning, but it's not that important to me." Leilei shrugged. "Well, if nothing else, you get to get out of a class early, right? What do you have right before lunch, anyway?" "Tactics and Strategy," Yuri replied, after a brief glance at her schedule. "Ah, with Feng-sensei, huh?" Leilei wrinkled her nose in sympathy. "Good luck." Yuri's brow furrowed. "Why would I need it? I mean, is it a really hard class, or is Feng-sensei a mean teacher, or what?" "Well, not really, but...well, Feng-sensei is kind of..." Leilei hesitated. "Well, he's crazy, to put it bluntly. Apparently when he first came here a lot of people made fun of him because he's Chinese, and eventually...I suppose he just snapped." "Oh..." Yuri put a hand to her mouth. "That's really sad." "It is, but it *has* been a lot easier for him to settle down ever since, so I guess there is a good side to it." Leilei dodged a group of people and looked around. "Well, Bala's class is just down this next hall, so...I guess I'll see you at lunch, then! Good luck, Yuri!" "Thanks!" Yuri waved and continued on to her next class. *** "Good afternoon, class," Lao Feng said as his students filed in, chattering excitedly. This period was always a bit restive, since after all the morning classes they were all looking forward to lunch. "Please, everyone take your seats quickly, we have much to go through today." Most of the students sat obediently, but a handful ignored him and continued their conversation. Feng-sensei's eyes narrowed, and he walked over to their group. Without warning, he grabbed one of the students by his collar and started to shake him like a rag doll. "I SAID TAKE YOUR SEAT! WHAT PART OF THAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU CRAZY FOOL?" He dropped the unlucky boy to the ground and nodded pleasantly at the other three who had been talking. They scrambled for their seats, needing no more prompting. "Now, class," Feng-sensei began calmly, picking up a sheaf of papers and passing them down the rows, "Today marks the end of the refresher period of the course. After this test, we will be covering new material, although of course you will still be required to remember that which you knew before. You should be receiving two handouts. One is the test, the other is a list of your assigned reading for this marking period. I solemnly urge you to get it done as quickly as possible, unless you want to be thrown into a pit of acid, which would not only be hazardous to your health, but also detrimental to your grade." Yuri blinked at this last sentence as she picked up a sheet of paper from each of the two stacks handed to her and passed them on. She then shook her head and looked down at her assigned reading sheet. Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" was there, of course, and Machiavelli's "The Prince," which she had heard of, but there was also..."How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People"? "7964 Strategies for the Wise and Noble Art of Tic-Tac-Toe, 76th edition"? She supposed this was why everyone thought Feng-sensei was crazy... "Mikagami-kun!" Yuri looked up, guiltily coming out of her reverie. "Hai, sensei?" "Answer me!" he demanded. "Ummm..." Yuri looked about wildly, trying not to look as if she hadn't realized that she'd been asked a question. "Ah..." "WELL, MIKAGAMI-KUN?!" Feng-sensei leaped in front of Yuri's desk and grabbed at his hair. "WHAT'S THE ANSWER?! TELL ME! HOW MANY QUESTIONS ARE ON THE TEST?!" Yuri blinked and looked down at the other sheet in front of her. "42, sensei." "Thank you, Mikagami-kun," Feng-sensei told her, all graciousness and smiles again. "Now, class, clear your desks and take out a pencil..." All right, Yuri thought, maybe there was more than one reason that people thought Feng-sensei was crazy... *** "Teachers, please send all preliminary Dark King, Queen, Knight, or Princess candidates to the cafeteria at this time." Yuri sighed in relief, gathered up her books, and walked towards the door. Feng-sensei gave her a brief nod, more occupied with the Rubik's Cube he was playing with than her. She entered the cafeteria, noting that the candidates already assembled were grouped by class and gender. Yuri looked around for Yasuko, the only female freshman candidate she knew, but didn't see her, and frowned in confusion. "Over there," Leilei told her, pointing at a group of three girls chatting quietly in a corner. "Yasuko's not here yet, though." "Thanks, Lei-" Yuri blinked, and looked again at the girl. "Leilei-chan? What are you doing here?" "Technically I'm still looking after Bala," she answered, "But he's in the bathroom right now, so I'm just standing around, at the moment." "Oh. Well, I'll see you soon, then!" Yuri smiled and walked over to the three girls. *** "-And so, yeah, it's kinda tough. I mean, do you have any IDEA how hard it is to get bloodstains out of carpet? But then again it's not that easy to clean fur off of all the furniture either, so..." one of the girls in the group was saying as Yuri walked up. The other two made sympathetic noises and looked at Yuri. One of them, with rainbow-striped hair, smiled. "Hi! You must be Yuri Mikagami!" "That's right, but...how did you know?" Yuri asked. "It's easy," the last girl snorted. "I'm Keiko, rainbow-hair's Ransha, she's Tatsuyo, and you're most certainly not that slut Yasuko, so there's really not that much of a choice left, is there?" Yuri blinked at the girl's bluntness. "I suppose not..." "Anyways. Hi!" Tatsuyo said, smiling. "We were just talking about who we're bringing to the dance. Do you have a date, Yuri?" "Not really..." Yuri shrugged, blushing faintly. "But someone's supposed to ask me." "Ah," Keiko sniffed. "Right. It's okay, Tatsuyo's going by herself, too." "I am *not* going by myself!" Tatsuyo and Yuri retorted in unison. "Right. Whatever," Keiko said, rolling her eyes. "The only people here who have actual dates are me and Ransha, and Ransha cheated." "I did not! Just because I asked a random guy at the pep rally..." "Yeah, and he couldn't speak to tell you he didn't want to go," Keiko taunted. "Her date's all covered in bandages, so she couldn't hear him when she tried to turn her down. And furthermore-" Keiko went on, but Yuri heard only her last sentence. Covered in bandages-it *had* to be Bala, but if Bala was Ransha's date, then who... Her thoughts were interrupted as Nurse Sybil, in chibi form, herded all the candidates into one group to prepare them to be presented. *** The finalists for the Dark Court were being chosen by general acclamation. Most people in the cafeteria had had enough foresight to bring earplugs, or in the case of some, to detach their ears, but some were looking slightly deaf by this point, as the last candidates, the freshmen, strutted along the raised platform. Midori mock-whistled as Ki stepped down from the platform and walked over to the Steel Thorn Clan's usual lunch table. Her cousin chose to ignore that. "I take it that you've already taken care of Yuri's votes?" She smirked. "But of course. It was simple, really." Ki nodded, not paying much attention to her. "Now...as for the matter of price..." "Price?" Ki blinked. "What else?" Midori shrugged. "You don't seriously think I'd do anything for you purely out of family loyalty, do you? I haven't spent three years in this school being stupid." Ki sighed and wondered how many possessions he'd have left before this was done. His attention was diverted, however, by the entrance of the freshman Dark Princess candidates. "...and finally, for freshman Dark Princess...Keiko Tsuruzii!" A half-hearted wave of applause swept the room. "Tatsuyo Akiyama!" A slightly louder wave this time, accompanied by some baying and screeching from the werewolf and vampire students, respectively. "Ransha Yatara!" Applause and cheers filled the room, as the rainbow-haired girl grinned and waved. "Yasuko Wareme!" As Yasuko stepped out haughtily, the cafeteria practically erupted in wolf-whistles and lewd remarks. "And Yuri Mikagami!" Midori, who had been walking casually towards the front of the room as the other candidates were being announced, turned as Yuri's name was called and leaned against the platform, idly cleaning her nails with a small knife. The threat did not go unnoticed, and those unlucky students to whom Midori had "spoken" before the vote began screaming and clapping. Nurse Sybil checked the sound measurer beside her, made some notes, and stood up. "And the freshmen finalists for the Dark Court are...for Dark Knight, Ki Tamaida, Balabalalde, and Ryuji Seihachi!" She waited for the resulting chatter, cheers, and boos to die down, and continued. "For Dark Princess... Ransha Yatara, Yasuko Wareme, and Yuri Mikagami! Congratulations, everyone, and finalists remember to bring a swimsuit and your homecoming outfits for tomorrow's round!" ********************************************* Author's Notes: GAHH. Major GAHH. If the last bit is a bit weak, it's because my computer stole more than two hours' worth of work from me during the last day. Wonderful, ne? Thanks to Ann and Nic for ideas, and good luck to Nic on his part. ********************************************* Yuri's face was pensive as she walked over to the lunch table. "What's wrong, Yuri?" Leilei asked worriedly. "You should be pretty happy, considering that you've made it into the finals and everything!" "Well, yes, but..." Yuri looked at Leilei, with an expression of absolute despair. "I have NOTHING to wear!"