"As all of you know," Kashin began in front of all of the fencing club
members, "the reason why we continue to have three weeks of school after
we've all completed finals, is to insure that those who deserve to
graduate to the next grade, will prove their worth to do so, by living
to begin in the new school year.  This is of course why a large bulletin
board was placed at the front of the school to show who have and haven't
passed the finals.

"This also gives the various clubs in our school a chance to elect new
club officers, if necessary.  As it stands, we originally had nineteen
club members at the beginning of the year, with three of them being
freshies.  For a while, Yuri Mikagami had left this fine club, but has
returned and proven herself to be a valuable member of our club.
Especially, in the match we had with the Zero's Academy just last month.

"Unfortunately, Ki Tamaida had left our school and my club, but with the
completion of the finals, was allowed to return back to our school.
However, as per the rules and procedures of our school and club, he is
not a member of this club, until he signs back up.

"Then there is Craig Maimsworth.  Who has been rather remiss about his
duties as the new equipment manager for my club," as Kashin finished
speaking, Tokiko wheeled in a rather large box into the center of the
room.

"Now, of the sixteen remaining members of my club, five of them had
rather unfortunate accidents, and are quite dead.  But of the remaining
eleven, only four of you will be remaining to be the new seniors of our
school during the next school year."  As an afterthought, he continued
and said, "That is if you live to the start of the next school year."

Glaring across the room to ensure his point is made, "The reputation of
this club is my reputation.  When the club wins, I win.  When the club
loses, I lose.  And I will not graduate from this school and discover
that with my absence, this club becomes nothing more then a joke.  For
this reason, and this reason alone, I had to personally acquire this new
equipment, which our incompetent equipment manager should have gotten
for our club months ago."

Walking to the center of the room, Kashin opened up the box and pulled
out a wooden practice sword that had rather arcane symbols glowing along
the entirety of the blade.  After gazing at the practice sword with an
unreadable stare, he began passing them out to the four upperclassmen
who will be the new seniors in the next school year.

After passing them out, he continued his explanations as he then removed
the box from the middle of the club room and proceeded to place it up
against one of the walls.  "Those practice swords that I just handed
out, are Ethinisian Pain Sticks.  I had to custom order these to insure
that they were made for my specifically for this club.  These pain
sticks are non-lethal, and with the varied enchantments placed among
them, will ensure that the most physical damage that anyone will receive
will be a light bruise.

"On the other hand, as their name suggests, these same enchantments are
capable of causing a fifteen-ton Darisian Tusk Beast to collapse
twitching on the ground from the pain alone for a good hour.  And, as
everyone knows, a Darisian Tusk Beast has no pain receptors in it's
body, so those pain sticks are of an incredibly fine quality."

Sitting down on top of the box that he had just moved, with Tokiko
sitting next to him holding a camcorder that was trained towards the
center of the room where the rest of the club members were, Kashin
motioned for the rest of the seniors to move towards the wall.  After
making sure that they were along the wall, he continued, "Now then,
because of Maimsworth's laziness, I was only able to acquire four of
these pain sticks, so you freshies will just have to make do without
one.  When I graduate, I expect this club to continue and be known as
one of the best fencing club's out of all of the schools!"

With a vicious look crossing his face, desiring blood and violence, he
continued and hissed, "For that reason we shall continue the tradition
that this fencing club has upheld ever since it's founding.  None of you
will be in danger of dieing, because I will not have this club be
weakened any more out of foolishness or stupidity.  This will be a match
for all six of you, a free-for-all, against each other.  There are only
two rules.  Rule one, you are only allowed to use Ethinisian Pain Stick
as your weapon.  Rule two, there will be no cheating and interference in
the match.  The last one conscious will be declared the winner, and
become the new Fencing Club President."

As one, all four of the upperclassmen turned a look of hunger towards
Crag and Yuri, the only two club members without a Ethinisian Pain
Stick.  With a pale face, all Yuri could do was stare wide-eyed, and
gulp in fear.

With the finality of guillotine blade decapitating a body, Kashin spoke,
"Begin."

Yuri couldn't help but agree with Craig's sentiments, as he spoke just
seconds before the violence began, "Dragonturds!"


***********************************************************************

                               Dark Heart High

                 Netherworld Educational Institution for
                    The Universal Propagation of Evil
                             crafted by Mads


*********************************************************
Part 57: Exagerations!
by CCMax
*********************************************************

***********************************************************************


Dinner at the Mikagami home has always been a bit strained, ever since
Yuri's grandmother decided to stay over for a while.  However, during
the months that she's been there, never has she ever seen Yuri sitting
at the dinner table looking so pale as if her blood had been sucked out
of her body.  Yuri's mom was also rather concerned, while her father was
merely thought she was simply trying for the pale seductress of the
night fashion statement.

Halfway through a rather listless dinner, Hoshiko asked, "Are you ok
Yuri-chan?  You've been rather pale ever since you got home."

With a half-hearted grimace, that looked more like a smirk, she replied,
"Oh, it's nothing."

"Well, if it's nothing then what happened after school today?  I think
you said you had a fencing club meeting."

Glad to finally talk about something normal, some color finally returned
to Yuri, "Oh yeah, today's meeting was to determine who's going to be
the new club president."

Taking a part of this conversation, to try and keep Yuri from looking
like the living dead, her grandmother spoke with a warm smile and asked,
"Oh really?  So, who did become the new club president?"

"I did," Yuri replied, but instead of being happy at her new position,
as everyone at the table would have thought, she instead drooped her
head in despair.

With a perplexed look on her face, Hoshiko asked, "Shouldn't you be glad
that you're the new president?"

"Oh I am," Yuri quickly said, "it's just..."  With a quiet sigh, she
quickly turned back down to her dinner and toyed around with one of her
dad's food, as it had quietly snuck away running for it's life.

Giving a quick glance of worry between each other, Yuri's mom and
grandmother tried to think of what to say next, as Troi decided to let
Yuri play with his food for a bit longer.  At least until it got away
from her, or when he finishes with the rest of his meal.

Trying to think of a way to distract her from her solemn mood, Mrs.
Ibuki asked, "So, how did you become the new president?  Was it because
you're very popular, or was it because of your swordsmanship?"

Happy to be distracted for a bit, she quickly answered with a small grin
on her face, "Umm, it was more for my swordsmanship, I think.  I mean,
today wasn't all too different then a normal club day.  Like on a normal
day, we all go around with our practice swords and knock the other
person out, but instead of it being me against like two or three people,
I had to fight against four other people.  And instead of using our
practice swords, we were using these Ethinisian Pain Sticks."

With a look of stunned horror, Mrs Ibuki couldn't help but stammer,
"Against four people... Ethinisian Pain... those torture devices!"

"Ummm, yeah?" Yuri quietly replied, not understanding her grandmother's
reaction.

"Well at least it wasn't like you were fighting against them unarmed,"
her mother quickly put in to try and calm her grandmother.

"Oh, no mom, I didn't get one, same as Craig," Yuri helpfully corrected,
"Kashin-sempai was only able to get four of them for the club to use, so
he let the upperclassmen have them."

"That's good," Troi quickly interjected, "now can I have my food back
please, I'd like to finish my meal."

Blushing, Yuri quickly stopped playing with her dad's food, and started
to go and play around with her rice in her bowl.

"Well then," Mrs. Ibuki said, after finally regaining her composure
several minutes later, "no wonder you're so pale Yuri, if you had to go
through such horrors."

As she looked at her grandmother with confusion, she said, "Umm, no,
today was pretty much like a regular club meeting.  Or like a regular
class during battle education/pe."

"Then what's wrong?" Yuri's mom asked, with a look of concern crossing
her face, "We're just worried, that's all.  Even your father is worried,
even if he doesn't show it."

As Yuri quickly glanced to her dad, Troi "Hellstorm" Mikagami quickly
began placing the last of his food into his partially other dimensional
body, while quicly moving his red glowing eyes away to the side.

Giving a quick grin at the humor of the situation, Yuri then shocked
everyone present as she then burst into tears, rushed forward and hugged
her mom and wailed loudly as tears poured from her eyes, "Everyone
thinks I'm a SLUT!!!!"

******************

"Now then Miss. Angeleye, I'm rather surpised to see you back here so
quickly," Mr. Ikari said as he sat behind his desk.

"But given from what you have told me about what happened earlier, it
does apear that you may have become a true evil magical girl," he said
with smile on his face.  "It would be extraordinary if it was true, as
there hasn't been a recorded evil magical girl in several centuries, at
least."

"Wait, I don't understand?" Amy said.  She had hoped that since Mr.
Ikari was so helpful before, that he would be even more helpful in
explaining what had happened when she was able to split in two and then
transform into an entirely different magical girl, as she had been
Feather Wing White White back at Sakura Art.  "What do you mean a true
evil magical girl?"

Giving a small smile, Mr. Ikari began has explanation, "It's really
quite simple really, there are evil magical girls, and then there are
the fake magical girls.  Now, what makes a magical girl a magical girl,
is their purity.  You see, all magical girls, in the beginning, are
virgins, and because they're virgins, their energy channels and the type
of energy that they use is that of purity and good.

"Occasionally, magical girls switch sides, for whatever reason.  They
become evil and instead of fighting for good, they fight for evil.
Unfortunately, they are not truly evil.

"One of the leading causes of alignment shock, would be when a magical
girl loses their virginity.  Even if a magical girl loses her virginity,
it is because of her youth and purity of emotion, that just about all
evil magical girls that you see and hear about nowadays are false evil
magical girls.

"A true evil magical girls, tend to apear after her alignment shock, and
that is because a true evil magical girl uses the power of evil for her
magical transformations and her magical attacks and so on.  It is
because of this, that they are so rare.

"In fact, the closest thing to an evil magical girl that I and my
colleagues have heard about, would be Tokiko Sanzenin.  Your sempai in
the school's Big Brother and Big Sister program."

She was shocked, the information about the evil magical girls made
sense, but what she just heard about Tokiko-sempai threw her for a loop.
"That's impossible!  Tokiko-sempai is so, so... evil!  I can't even
imagine her being a magical girl in the first place!"

"Hmm," with an amused smile, Mr. Ikari continued, "Her story is not for
me to tell, but as we do have some limited time tonight, I won't be
going into the more detailed explanation, as I have just given just a
small basic amount of information about evil magical girls.

"Now, I'll be speaking with an associate later today so that I may
schedule a medical exam, with your parent's approval of course, so that
we may conclusively determine one way or the other as to whether or not
you are a true evil magical girl.  If you wish, why don't you go and
speak with Sanzenin-san, perhaps she will be able to help you better
then I can at the moment."

******************

After letting Yuri cry herself out and then some tea to help calm her
down, the entire Mikagami family moved to the living room to try and
discuss the situation.  "Now then Yuri, why does everyone think you're a
slut," her mother asked as she held her sniffling daughter close to her.

"Yes," her father gnashed out, his words barely understandable as they
sound like the grinding and tearing of rocks and metal.  "Who would dare
to think that my daughter is a slut!"

Giving a small hiccup and then calming sip from the tea in her hand, she
tried to explain as best she could.  "It was after Kashin-sempai
declared me to be the new club president.  He had said that from now on
I was going to be acting as the president for the rest of the club
meetings for the year, and he would be coaching and training me on what
I need to do.

"I don't know how long Coach Truncheon was there, but well, he said that
since I'm going to be the new club president, there was going to be some
paperwork that I needed to fill out to make it official, so we want over
to Coach Truncheon's office and well..."

Needing to organize her thoughts, she took a calming sip of the warm tea
in her hands, before she decided to continue.  "Dad, it was all rumors,
everything he said was rumors, but he acted as if it was real.  As if
everything the rumor's said was one hundred percent true."

Sighing in relief, her mom spoke qently with a sympathetic smile and
said, "Yuri, rumors are rumors.  You know that they aren't true, and
everybody else knows it's not true, so you don't have to worry about it,
ok?"

"Yes," her grandmother continued, "Don't worry about it so much, the
gossipers will forget and then move on to the next big wild stories.
Although, why a teacher would actually believe in rumors is beyond me.
Seriously, that teacher really should be reprimanded for believeing in
rumors of all thing."

Clearing his throat to gather everyone's attention, Troi quite calmly
said, "Yuri, in Dark Heart High, and like in any of the schools just
like it, rumors are not mere gossip.  They are usually true, almost all
of the time.  I remember hearing about Aug-sensei owning a flower store,
back when I was in high school, and I didn't believe it.  But when I
started to fall for your mother, well, it was Aug-sensei and his flower
store that saved me from some serious blunders that I made with your
mother.  Imgagine my surprise when I found out the flower store was
real.  Last I heard, he had sold the flower store to somebody else,
don't know who though."

Yuri couldn't help but stare in shock at what her dad said.  If he said
that, "Then that means everybody is going to think I really am a SLUT!!!
Even you!"  Yuri couldn't help but cry with despair at the realization.

******************

"So, wanted to know about me being a magical girl, Angeleye?" Tokiko
calmly said as she was walking to where her bike stored.

"Umm, if that's alright Tokiko-sempai."

"Hmm," she considered as she walked over to her bike.  By the time she
got her bike and everything else ready, she had decided to tell some of
her story.  Sitting on the bike, she began, "Back when I was in middle
school, over at Sakuraba, I was the most powerful magical girl around,
everyone was saying how I was going to be the next Lavendar Fairy Heart
Skittle.  You might have heard of me, Glitter Angel Neutron Glimpse Bang
Girl."

Without waiting for a response from Amy, Tokiko continued, "As soon as I
hit the last year of middle school, I got my alignment shock.  As far as
I can tell, it was because I was too powerful, too fast.  I burned
myself out basically."  A dark grimace could be seen on her face as she
recalled her past.

"The school lied to me, told me it would come back.  My parents lied to
me as well, which is why I killed them.  But at the time, everyone was
lieing to me, saying my powers will comeback, and I'll be even stronger
then before.  But the rumours, and the stories that everybody told at
that school."

Pausing to consider something, she began, "Unlike Sakura Arts and the
other schools for magical girls, Angeleye, here at Dark Heart High and
all of the other schools like it, rumors are true.  When you hear about
the rumors of say, Norin the Devourer, who supposedly devoured all of
his brothers and sisters when he was baby, it's true.  It really
happened.  It's not like Sakura Arts, where you know the rumors are
lies, and everyone listens and gossips about it because it's so
shocking.

"At any rate, with all of the gossip and missing my powers, I was rather
depressed at the time and eating some ice cream, when a boy just sat
down in front of me. Now that I think about it, it was the first time
I've ever met Kashin.  Before I could even tell him to leave, he started
talking about alignment shock.  About what normally happens after
alignment shock finishes.  About how I was lied to by everyone.  I
didn't believe him of course, and I ran home.

"I like to use my guns, because I hate to use my powers Angeleye.  I
used cards back when I was Glitter Angel New Glimpse Bang Girl, and I
still use cards now.  I'm not a magical girl anymore, but they were
right when they said that I would be stronger then ever before.  But I
hate to use it, that's why I use guns."  Giving a long considering look
at Amy, she then said, "If it turns out you really are a true evil
magical girl, not one of those pansy ass fakers, then you'll probably be
even stronger then me."

Without another word, Tokiko gunned the engine in her motorcycle, and
tore out of the school grounds and running over some of the slow
freshman in her way.

******************

"Now tell us Yuri, what type of rumors are they saying at school?"
Hoshiko asked.

"Yes, just what have you been doing to get everybody to think that
you're a slut," Troi growled in anger, firmly convinved in the validaty
of the rumors from long experience.

"A rumor is a rumor, it doesn't mean it's true," Hoshiko sternly warned
as she glared at her husband.

In order to preserve the peace, Yuri quickly piped up and explained,
before her parents got into an argument, "Well Coach Truncheon was
telling me after I signed all of the papers that since I'm the new
captain, about all of the things that I'm expected to do, and also that
I can't join any other clubs as long as I'm the fencing team captain.

"That was all ok and I expected it, but, then he said that as I'm the
new captain, I shouldn't go around dating other club members, that it
wasn't a good idea.  I had no idea what he was talking about, but then
he explained to me about the rumors. About how I was sleeping with
Kashin-sempai, and the reason why I left the fencing club and went to
the accounting club was because Tokiko-sempai found out about the affair
and wanted to kill me.  Then it turns out that Amy is supposed to be my
bitch, and as a peace offering, I gave Amy-chan to Tokiko-sempai as a
gift.  Then I was going around dating Craig, Ki, and Balabalalde and
trying them out before deciding on which one I want as my new boyfriend
when Kashin-sempai graduates, and..." quickly running out of steam as
she had listed just a small number of the scandalous rumors that Coach
Truncheon, and then later on Kurosawa-sensei joined in when she had
stopped by to speak to the coach, all of the rumors that was about her.

"You've been having SEX!" Troi roared in unholy righteous parental anger
as he heard about the rumors that she explained.

With righteous female anger and mortal embarresment, Yuri quickly yelled
back, "I'm still a VIRGIN!  I'm still too young to do that kind of
stuff!"

Hugging her granddaughter and giving her much needed comfort, Mrs, Ibuki
said, "Don't worry dear, your mother and I believe you."

"We need to talk," Hoshiko commanded to her husband, angry at how Troi
was behaving and not giving the support that Yuri needed to help calm
her down.

******************

Author's notes:

This was a fun thing to work on, but I really do wish I had more time,
as I had serious problems while writing this.  Having to fix my computer
for two days, and then mysteriously losing an entire partition which
cost me the entire chapter I was writing is not conducive to a good
chapter.  Especially since I already asked for an extension once, and
then on the very last day of my extension, I have to go and rewrite the
entire chapter from scratch.  Oh well.  So I know that there is a lot of
spelling errors, grammar errors, tense errors, and all of that nonsense,
and that's cause I wrote all of this in about 5 hours.  And that was
mainly because I really didn't want to ask for another extension.

But at any rate, in chapter 54, with the way it was finished, it made it
seem as if the school year was in fact finished, and a new school was
going to start.  But with the next 2 chapters, they made it seem as if
nothing has changed, so I had no choice but to make up that excuse about
making sure that those that pass the finals need to prove their worth by
living up to the next year.  Probably add something like that for the
graduating class as well.

Also, tried to clear up that misunderstanding about evil magical girls.
And tried to use Yuri's grandmother a bit, as nobody else was.

Argh, not enough time, well, that's all that I can think of for now.  Oh
well, running out of time here.  Sorry if none of this makes sense.

--CCMax


******************

"Amzing isn't it," Amakusa said to himself as he sat his office.
"Creating all of these rumors about herself, convincing all of the
students and staff that it's all true, when in actuality, it is all just
a distortion of the truth.  Untruth.  And then acting so surpised and
shocked when she found out about the rumors, rumors that she knows will
never get to any of the people involved, as all of the students already
know about how quickly one's life can tragically end by associating with
them.  All of this time, and Ki, Craig, Yasuko, Balabalalde, Kashin,
Tokiko, and so many that she has associated with, and none of them will
ever know about these rumors.  As the nobody wants to die when they find
out about them."

He couldn't help but smile, "Yes, such high potential indeed."