Chapter 1, Part 2

Chapter 1, Part 2:
The girl was clearly not Japanese, even when seen from a distance. Her hair reached about three inches past her nimble shoulders; the color was a dark, reddish shade of brown with a few white streaks here and there. She was taller than most and her preference for high-heeled shoes only served to make her appear taller. In terms of her body, she was a little thin for her size but her figure was filled out, very seductive. She had the almost perfect hourglass figure that she’d wanted; her chest was easily three cup sizes bigger than anyone else and about a cup size bigger than a girl her age. She had a nice, light bronze tan that made her stand out; which she liked since it set her apart from the Japanese girls but she disliked it as well because it made it much harder for her to engage in her hobby as well as to blend in whenever she thought she wanted to. But she was disinclined to make any effort to blend in more. She adjusted her crimson-tinted sunglasses as she took in a deep breath and took her mug of hot chocolate as she stepped out of her dorm room. As she did, she passed by a window and saw her reflection. She took a look at herself and then tossed her hair back.
“Celia Foxfire, you are an absolute goddess.” she said to herself before moving on.
Celia, one of the few gaijin students in Seven Angels, took a good, long sip of her hot chocolate as she looked out the window of the fourth floor of the school’s main building. She’d spent quite a bit of her time as an observer of the school’s prominent students. There were the obvious subjects, the seven girls that made up the powerful and beautiful student council, but there were also the other, less obvious ones. There was Tachibana Rinka, the captain of both the karate and aikido teams as well as a confirmed lesbian, having had two girlfriends in the school since her freshman year – and according to rumor, more than a few flings as well. There was also the enigmatic Kirisawa Kanako but Celia was put off early on by the fact that she couldn’t figure the girl out and eventually gave up on it. Of course, she could have gone on and watched Kibagami Hodaka, the known street fighting delinquent, a pretty face and the school’s most prominent heartthrob. However, for all the interesting people she could have watched, she found that the one that caught her interest the most was the twin of one of the student council members: Kazama Yuki.
Kazama Yuki was a terrifying young girl. She was as physically imposing as her twin sister Miho was; that meant she wasn’t imposing at all. Indeed, Celia didn’t note much divergence between the two in terms of physical appearance. Both had long legs, slender bodies, their figures were shapely but hadn’t yet filled out completely and Celia considered them to have small breasts, even for Japanese girls. Both of them had the same dark brown hair cut past the shoulders, almost to the waist but Miho preferred to tie her hair in a single ponytail while Yuki kept hers free with several strands over the forehead. Both of them had the same light skin tone, which she thought to be a little unusual. One of the differences Celia took note of was the fact that Miho walked with a grace and nobility befitting someone of regal bearing but in contrast, Yuki walked with a street-wise roughness, a lack of pretentious poise or aristocratic flair. There was a short list of differences on the physical level that Celia noted but the most prominent one was the mask on Yuki’s face. It was made of tempered steel painted with the left half white and the right black, the design was similar to the yin and yang symbol. The reason behind the mask was that Yuki had suffered severe facial burns as a child and they had never actually healed, so to hide the disfigurement, the mask was given to her by her family. According to some, it was at Miho’s request, while to others Yuki actually designed the mask on her own before she had it made. Only Yuki’s eyes and pale pinkish lips were visible, the same chestnut brown eyes that Miho had but Yuki’s had a fierce, primal ferocity to them that wasn’t right, a contrast to her twin’s eyes of curious innocence and sincere warmth. There was something in those eyes that Celia didn’t trust, that Celia couldn’t trust. For some reason, she reminded Celia of Adolph Hitler.
That was exactly the reason why Celia wanted to observe her, she thought to herself as she walked around the halls alone. She hoped not to see any of the few other students already there as she walked. She was almost completely alone but she knew that there were other students already there, namely: Kirisawa, the Kazama twins, Kibagami, Tachibana and a new girl that she only saw but didn’t get a chance to speak to. There were likely others but she was far from interested in them. As she kept moving, she saw Miho walking out of the library from the other building. She had spotted Kirisawa walk out a few minutes before and she thought the reclusive artist looked rather flustered. She wasn’t sure of that but somehow, she was sure Miho was responsible for it. The reasons behind it weren’t even the slightest bit fathomable for her. Celia let her mind toy with a few possibilities on that based on what she knew on the two but that only gave her about a minute and a half worth of distraction. It was an interesting angle, that there was a chance that one of the social elite of Seven Angels was somehow involved with an outcast, an example of the bottom of the barrel. She had a feeling it was somehow connected to Yuki but she had no idea how. She smiled as she decided to take a course of action on the matter. Then she laughed. Or more appropriately, she cackled.
She decided to keep moving. As she walked, every so often she’d stop to admire herself in the window. Apart from observing other girls, Celia often caught herself enamored by her own appearance. It would have been dishonest of her to call it anything other than what it was: a touch of narcissism. She had good reason to think highly of herself. She was beautiful, she was intelligent, she was rich and she was also a talented singer, though she kept that to herself for the most part. She wasn’t self-obsessed, however. She disliked praise coming from others as she felt them shallow, the ones giving them uneducated and had little to no awareness of what the proper standard should be. Nonetheless, she could get along with anyone with ease and she could adapt her mindset to suit a given person or conversation even though she always kept to herself the complex criticisms and prejudices she had towards other beliefs and mindsets.
She made her way to the ground level and she was in a position that allowed her to have a clear view of the courtyard but at the same time, she could hide behind one of the pillars to mask her presence. It was from that vantage point that she managed to see something interesting.
Kibagami Hodaka and Kazama Yuki were both seated on a bench and, despite the distance, it was clear to Celia that the two of them were holding hands. She was too far to tell what the two of them were talking about or if they were talking at all but the scene certainly threw Celia off. Yuki was a terrifying and dangerous person, as far as Celia was concerned, but she’d never considered that she had any involvement with the delinquent Kibagami. For a moment, it seemed as if Kibagami had moved in to kiss Yuki or to at least remove the mask but Yuki brushed her away. It was hard to tell what Kibagami’s facial expression was at that moment but she didn’t move very much from Yuki’s position. It was also notable that the girl in the mask had changed the direction she was looking; her head looked over to her right. Celia felt as if the masked girl was looking for something or waiting for something. She was tempted to move closer but she’d decided against it when she considered that doing so might reveal her presence. It was then that Yuki stood up and said something to Kibagami before the masked girl proceeded to walk away, leaving the delinquent heartthrob on the bench alone to contemplate whatever had gone on between them. Celia decided it was time to leave a few minutes afterwards. There didn’t seem to be anything else left to see between the two and her hot chocolate, though only half-finished, had already gone cold. As she turned a corner, she froze.
“You were watching, weren’t you, gaijin?” It was Yuki.
She’d come out of nowhere to suddenly just come in front of Celia. She’d never been that close to Yuki before and she felt some sort of power that shook her to her core. “Watching what?”
“Don’t lie to me, gaijin. I know you were watching.” Yuki countered as she came closer, using the intimidating fire in her eyes and her own body to gently pin Celia to the wall. “I am not a fool.”
“I really don’t…” Celia gasped as Yuki drew her face closer to hers; the metallic surface of the mask almost touched her skin. She also felt Yuki’s hands forcefully pin her wrists to the wall.
“I truly, truly dislike dishonesty, gaijin. Now tell me honestly,” Yuki said. Her voice was warm and melodic but Celia couldn’t shake her fears as her heart beat madly. “were you watching?”
“You already know the answer to that…”
“True. But I do so value honesty. Now, answer my question.”
Celia gulped as her heart raced. Yuki drew her face even closer to hers and the cold metal mask on her skin made it worse. She felt she had no other choice but to answer. “Yes.”
Yuki suddenly drew back with a cold smile. She wasn’t quite done with Celia yet. And that realization made Celia feel uneasy – to say the least. “How good of you to answer me with honesty. Now, on to other business.” Yuki reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a lighter. She lit it close to Celia’s face; the flickering flame almost touched the gaijin again. “I am quite aware of your habit of watching others. Do not deny it. I would be so disappointed if you did. We simply must speak on it.”
“No problem…”
“I want you to understand that you can do it but you have…limitations. You have to be aware that certain people are off limits. And you must have it in you, the kindness and understanding I mean, to see that both I and my sister are not to be disturbed by your intrusions.” Yuki said. She spoke as if she was explaining things patiently to a fool. “I do hope I’ve made my request perfectly clear. Have I?”
“As day…” she answered nervously.
Yuki smiled as she gave Celia her personal space. “Excellent.”
As Yuki left, she had a malignant smile on her face. She was sure that Celia wasn’t going to watch her or Miho anymore and that meant she was free to pursue her objectives. She had taken certain measures to ensure it. She entered the dorm room she shared with her twin sister and locked the door behind her. Miho was already inside, quiet and on her knees; her face betrayed her subservience to Yuki. As she stepped into her dorm room, she got the lighter to start the flame anew. She stared into the flame and watched it dance slowly. She stared at it intently, her mind focused solely on it. She continued that way for several minutes until she gave up on whatever it was she was intent on doing. She put it back into her purse as she took a seat. She looked out the window and watched Kanako as she sat alone while she was at work again at something on her tablet PC. Yuki simply looked down as she slowly slipped the mask from her face while her twin, Miho, closed the curtains. Yuki felt that they had much to talk about. She was sure Miho felt that way for a long time already but she never cared about her twin sister’s feelings much for the most part. As far as Yuki was concerned, Miho was merely a tool to be used and discarded at her convenience. It was only fortunate for Miho that Yuki had need of her for the time being.
The two of them had a secret that had dark ramifications. The relationship between the two was one of dominance and subservience. Yuki controlled Miho. There was little way around it: Yuki was seen as the near-absolute master of Miho’s life. Her nature as a physically imposing and dominating woman had been formed and, essentially, fed by Miho’s over-all willingness to kowtow to Yuki’s demands. However, in recent days, as Miho’s obsession with Kanako slowly grew, Yuki had noticed the slight increase in what she saw as defiance of her orders coming from her lesser twin. It was something that she’d long feared as she always knew Miho was capable of far more than Yuki ever gave her credit for and perhaps more than what she expected. Yuki had always known that her control over her twin, her dominance was fragile in the best of circumstances from her point of view. She had noticed her own use of pain to keep control over her sister but that could only go so far. She had to find a way to either gain full control over Miho or, when it proved to be the worst case scenario in Yuki’s interpretation, she would have to rid herself of her twin.
“You…didn’t have to do that to Foxfire-san.” Miho said.
“I’ll do as I please, Miho. Besides, I didn’t do anything that would permanently damage her mind.” Yuki answered. “Are you questioning my authority?”
Miho whimpered.
“I didn’t think so.” Yuki said as she relaxed. Then, she decided it was time to scorn Miho for her failinga. “You were dismal earlier in trying to make contact with Kirisawa, you pathetic weakling.”
Miho shuddered as Yuki reached out and gripped her head, the fingers applying pressure to the right nerve endings to cause her great pain. “I…I… won’t fail again, Yuki…it hurts…”
Yuki released her. “Fine. Be fortunate that you’re more likely to get her to reveal herself than I am. It would be so much easier if I could do to her what I did with Kibagami.”
“Is…is Kibagami-san…?”
“Kibagami? Ah, you speak of the street thug.” Yuki nodded as she watched and enjoyed Miho shudder in terror with every word. “Yes. She is a product of Akatsuki, like me or Kirisawa. She will join me and she will have some use should Kirisawa prove…unwilling to see my point of view.”
“Wh-what are you planning?”
“Kibagami is quite adept at using what talents Akatsuki gave her and I know what things she is capable of. She merely needs an excuse to unleash her innate cruelty upon someone and should you fail in convincing Kirisawa, Kibagami will constitute more…unpleasant methods.” Yuki explained as she folded her fingers in front of her face. Miho seemed able to stomach the horrible scarring of her twin’s face. “I know how much you care about her, so I suggest you do not fail in convincing her to join me.”
“I…I won’t.”
Yuki raised an unconvinced eyebrow. “I so would like to believe you. But you see I have my doubts on that. You haven’t even been able to confirm what it is Kirisawa is capable of doing.”
Miho trembled. “You told me yourself what she might be.”
“That is no guarantee. I want confirmation.” Yuki paused for a moment and then smiled. “But I do understand that building trust with someone like Kirisawa can be a long process. I’m giving you as much time as you need but be warned. I know what you know, I do what you do and we both know if you are not doing what has to be done, sister. I am lenient with you but I suggest you do not trifle with me.”
“N-never, sister.” Miho muttered. “Perish the thought.”
Yuki smiled at the expression. “I should think so. We should think so.”