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Lilith Dusk

"I would never steal! How dare you!"

0 · 1,161 views · located in Namimori Café

a character in “Katekyo Hitman REBORN!: Undying Will”, as played by KumoriKitsune

Description



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"I just loveeee, entertainment. Don't you?" *Wink*



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[hr][/hr
PERSONAL INFORMATION





ImageFULL NAME
      Lilith Diane Dusk

ALIAS
      Lily/ Diane

AGE
      18

GENDER
      Female

FLAME TYPE
      ???

OCCUPATION
      Bakery Sales Clerk & Chef/ Thief

GENERAL APPEARANCE
      5’9, long beautiful flowing hair, with a very attractive face. She has olive skin complexion and always is dressed well.



PERSONALITY TRAITS




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PERSONALITY
      She seems like an angel and can easily fool most people that she is one; however, she’s a schemer. She typically has an agenda or plan for people she meets if they aren’t someone she actually cares about. She can be witty, sarcastic, and a tad rude at times. She loves the thrill of stealing and the risk that comes with it. She no longer steals because she actually needs it, but more for the thrill, the chase, the adrenaline. She occasionally steals in broad daylight because her methods are so smooth, you won't even notice that you've been robbed when she's right in front of you. Sometimes, she's the 'phantom thief' that wears a Fox mask at night that steals jewels and flees. She's done inside heists and never been caught. Some even think the phantom thief is a mere legend around Namimori.

      Lily is actually kind when she wants to be. She tends to give a lot of her proceeds and sometimes even what she steals to orphaned children and older people who feel on hard times. She works at the bakery and can occasionally be found giving bread to the homeless and poor people. She knows what its like living under hard conditions especially since her family stole for a living just to get by. Lily would never take from those who can't earn a decent living, but wont' hesitate to use here ability or her 'charm' to seduce someone to steal even if she doesn't need it. Lily is a thrill seeker who can be found sometimes gambling with her '21 year old fake ID' and oftentimes at clubs where she isn't old enough to be at, but there's easy and drunk targets at places like those. Just entertainment and easy marks fill that place.

LIKES
      Money.
      Jewelry.
      Anything interesting.

DISLIKES
      Police.
      Trouble.
      Drama.

FEARS
      Ending up where her mother and father ending up. Dead or in jail.

SKILLS
      She’s extremely good at being a Kleptomaniac. She can steal from people without them noticing. You can shake her hand to greet her, continue walking and find out five minutes later, that your watch is missing.

HOBBIES
      Stealing
      Working at the bakery
      Sometimes she gambles at casinos. She has a fake idea profiling herself as 21.

SEXUALITY
      Bisexual

ODDITIES
      She can’t resist interesting opportunities.



STRENGTHS
      Wooing over men. Stealing and fleeing.

WEAKNESSES
      The irresistible urge of either stealing or and interesting venture.



BACKGROUND




ROMANTIC INTEREST
      None.

FAMILY
      None currently around. Her mother is in jail for most of her life for a robbery and her father is deceased. The closest thing she has to family is Bertha. She’s a lady who owns the bakery in Namimori that gave her a job.

ImageHISTORY
      Lily can vaguely remember her father since she grew up. He’d gotten caught up in some money troubles with a mafia and ended up dead. This caused a heavy burden for her mother since she really didn’t have any skills to maintain a stable job. This then lead her mother to a life of stealing. She’d started with small jobs and worked her way up to bigger ones. She’d even use Lily to con and steal things from unsuspecting victims. Lily grew up stealing to maintain and manage her lifestyle with her mom. They moved from place to place to prevent suspicion, but eventually the mother went in for a heist that was way over her head. Her mother also did this heist alone and ended up in jail for life. Lily, only at the age of 14, had no other choice but to fend for herself without her mother’s guidance and protection.

      A couple of years later after stealing and moving around, Lily was well versed at being a local thief. She’d had gotten too good at it and made a decent living. One morning though, she stopped by a coffee shop only to purchase some pastries (legally of course) and an old lady came up to her and said, “You’re not going to steal that are you?” The lady chuckled and continued to make more bread. Lily a bit taken back by her statement, started to get up, but the lady slowly eased her back into the chair and said. “Now missy, I know what you do for a living and that must be tough,” she continued, “I’ve actually seen you take someone’s watch a couple of times in the area; but I didn’t report you because shortly after I saw you gave a heap of cash to a homeless man. You can’t be all that bad…so I’ll make a deal with you. You start working for my shop and earn a decent living, and I’ll save you the trouble from being reported.”
      It was a strange offer Lily thought, but she took it at least until she could flee from this area especially since the baker lady knows what she does. She was provided a room in next to the shop which was old and dusty, but fairly spacious. Over the next couple of days, she served coffee and pastries, enjoyed the smiling faces of the people, and actually had fun working at the shop. She never fled the premises and days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months working at the shop; however, she didn’t stop stealing, but just didn’t steal as much. ;)

      She may not do it for a living, but now she does it for the thrill. Her nightlife consists of gambling, running about to different clubs, and going through Namimori for a good time. Hey life in the day, she's just a casual coffee shop helper. Bread is a very popular thing of the town, so Lily is the delivery girl in a sense for it. She goes around making deliveries and also serving as the saleswoman at the local high school. She serves a variety of pastries throughout the day along with coffee to students. It's pretty easy to sell to the boys because she's pretty 'developed'. It's a pretty tedious job dealing with other students daily, but earning a earnest living during the day isn't all that bad. She still gets to interact with other high school students, and if they ask whether she's in school, she lies and says, "I'm in home school."



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So begins...

Lilith Dusk's Story

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Izaya Ryujin Character Portrait: Nami Gokudera Character Portrait: Roni Hideaki Character Portrait: Fia Leone Character Portrait: Enon Nakada Character Portrait: Chester Sterling
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"Listen here, young Ieharu."

At the mentioning of his name, Ieharu's ears perked up, but he didn't turn to look at the source. He was too busy playing his video game, torso hunched to the side, shoulders scrunched in concentration, the clicks and clacks of his controller nearly as deafening as the sound of gunfire emanating from the massive flat screen before him. This wasn't the first time he had to multitask while an adult was talking.

"I probably shouldn't be telling you this–in fact I shouldn't be, but I believe honorable men like myself should show some good charity toward the families of their targets."

Ieharu's eyes narrowed slightly, but his concentration on his game didn't falter for a second. Though he was only halfway paying attention, he did recognize the voice. Male. Upbeat. Sanguine, but with a hint of danger. It was Godot, though his twin brother Ieyoshi always called the man "their new nanny".

"You might not believe me–I get it, it's a little sudden–but I am an assassin sent by an anonymous payer of mine to knock off an heir of the Vongola family."

From where he stood in the room, Godot took a few steps closer. Ieharu didn't notice, nor did he respond. On the TV, a rival's body exploded in a plume of blood and body parts. Presumably the boy's doing, because he snickered softly.

"Namely, that would be you, Ieharu Sawada." Outside, thunder boomed, ravaging the skies. It was several moments before Ieharu reacted, but then it was as if he'd been physically slapped. The clicking and clacking from the controller ceased immediately as he slowly turned his head, looking over his shoulder at the man who had just threatened his life in no uncertain terms. He was standing pretty close, too. Eyes wide, Ieharu moved his lips as if to form words, but nothing came out.

"Indeed," Godot continued, shrugging as if it were none of his business, his attitude cavalier. "Your Daddy-o's quite an important guy, and there are certain people who are quite concerned as to who takes his nice leather-padded throne."

Ieharu dropped the controller. The sound of an explosion erupted from the TV soon after, the flat screen flashing wildly before going black. There were only two words on the screen now: Game Over.

It was then that Ieharu found his voice, high pitched and wracked with incredulity. "Wait... what?!"

"I don't think you'd be all too interested in the details, seeing as you're going to die anyway." Godot took another step closer. He was within arm's reach of the boy now. "But just think of this as my diagnosis for you."

While gaming, Ieharu had been seated on the edge of a particularly comfortable reclining chair. Having closed the distance between them, Godot leaned on the chair's back, causing it to shift and Ieharu to slide backwards. Slowly. They were practically face to face now.

"I've decided that it's going to happen tomorrow." He said, matter-of-factly. "I can't delay it any further, please understand that I really wish I could."

Ieharu simply stared in horror, the weight of Godot's words imprinting themselves onto his psyche. Could it be true? Is he serious? He sounded pretty serious. Looked dead serious, in fact. But his father would never put an assassin so close, right? ... but what if he didn't, or he made a mistake? What if it was all part of the plan? What if he was going to die?!

"I've grown to like you, young Ieharu, so this is about all I can do for you."

"But—!"

"You've got one day to live, or at least until the next time I see you. I'm giving you the opportunity to clear up whatever remaining regrets you might have. It really hurts my conscience to think about good men dying with regrets..."

As Godot spoke, Ieharu brought his hands to the sides of his face, a sound like that of a dying animal escaping his lips. One day?! It wasn't fair! He had a math test tomorrow that he'd already studied for. He had so many people to meet... so many friends to make... all of it for nothing. His hands traversed his head, moving from the sides of his face to his forehead. Tears came to his eyes at his next thought.

I'm still a virgin!

"Regardless, that doesn't stop me from doing what I'm paid to, I just like to get an extra minute of sleep later on. So, I suggest spending the night to give it some thought, just make sure you sleep good, alright?" Ieharu didn't respond, his hands still plastered to his forehead. "... Oh, and make sure you don't tell anybody like your brother or something. You don't want to get your family involved, else I'll be forced to... Well, I'm sure your a smart kid–in fact, I know you are." Again, Ieharu didn't even respond. Didn't move. Didn't dare to. Never in his life was he so intimidated by the presence of another.

After a momentary silence, Godot turned, releasing the chair and nearly causing Ieharu to fly off it as it snapped forward. "Guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow." Almost as an afterthought, he added: "Oh, and good luck on the quadratics test."


**



"Yoh, I'm not kidding. I'm serious." Ieharu threw his hands up, a gesture meant to implore. "Didn't you hear me?! He's going to murder us all!"

The boy was sitting atop his bed, covers wrapped around himself like a burrito. Only his face and hands were exposed. He looked like an Eskimo, wrapped in his layers. Standing across from him was literally his mirror image save for their hair color. It was his twin brother, the self-proclaimed "older brother" Ieyoshi, casually slipping on a T-shirt while laughing his head off. When it came to someone as eternally relaxed and laid back as Ieyoshi, "laughing your head off" meant a few soft, curt chuckles. If you weren't actively listening for it, you might even miss it.

"Pfft. Murder you, maybe." Ieyoshi's voice was gruff, his tone sober, his face stoic. It was as if someone had turned his "energy" dial way down and then broke it off. "He did say only one of us would be offed, right?" He turned from sizing himself up in the mirror to look at his brother, who hadn't yet responded. "Right, Haku?"

Ieharu sighed, his big brunette bushel of hair poking out from under the covers. "Right," he mumbled, dejected. He cast his eyes downward before speaking again, this time in a hushed whisper. "You'd save me, right?"

The response was immediate.

SLAP!

Almost instantly, Ieharu brought both hands to his left cheek, where Ieyoshi has unceremoniously slapped him, a look of surprise and anger fresh upon his face. "Yoh! What the fuck?!"

Ieyoshi took a stance, leaning to the side, hand gripping lightly the base of his skull, a somewhat exasperated expression overcoming his otherwise neutral countenance. Ieharu recognized it as his brother's lecturing pose. He'd seen it a million times before. "Look," his brother began, pointing at Ieharu's face. "He's obviously not going to kill you. Think about it." Ieyoshi brought his hands together, marking off his points by counting his fingers. "A, that no-good Tsuna might be stupid, but do you think he's stupid enough to bring a killer into the house? To sleep in our beds? Eat our food?"

"Hey!" Ieharu interrupted, his voice shrill. "Dad's not no-good!" He said, referring to their father, Tsunayoshi.

Ieyoshi shrugged, continuing, his voice as low and monotonous as a boring college professor's. "Whatever. B, the guy's been here for, like, two weeks already. If he wanted to kill you, why not get it over with quickly? Why play buddy buddy with us for nearly a month? C, we don't have time for this. Get up. We have that math test, remember?"

Though he nodded at a couple of his brother's well-articulated points, when Ieyoshi told him to get up, he responded by pulling the covers over his head and rolling back into bed. "I think I'm gonna be sick..." He mumbled, peeking out from under the sheets after a moment.

Ieyoshi sighed, grabbing his backpack by the strap and swinging it onto his shoulder in one smooth fluid motion. He then sauntered out of the room as if the universe owed him a favor. Sauntering seemed to be his natural form of locomotion. From his mannerisms and personality to the way he picked up his bag and walked out of a room, in Ieharu's eyes, his brother was the pinnacle of cool.

After hearing the customary slam of the downstairs door, there were several moments of blissful uninterrupted peace, with Ieharu nearly falling back asleep. Before he could drift fully into unconsciousness, however, he heard someone at the window. He could tell without looking that it was Ieyoshi. Reluctantly, Ieharu rolled out of bed, the frigid air biting into his exposed skin. Slowly but surely he made his way to the window. After a moment, he opened it.

"Ieharu." Ieyoshi was standing on the grass outside of their home, looking up at their shared bedroom window. Their bedroom was on the second floor.

"What? I said I'm not going."

"Yeah, I know. I just remembered something."

Ieharu raised an eyebrow. Ieyoshi had that look on his face again. The one he always got several dozen turns before he won at Monopoly.

Ieyoshi's lips morphed into a slight grin. In response, Ieharu gulped involuntarily. That grin was never a good sign.

"I know something you think I don't know. And it'll make you come to class, too."

Ieharu ducked down so that only his eyes shown over the windowsill, as if his brother were going to start hurling rocks. "Wh... what are you talking about?!"

There was a moment of silence before Ieyoshi responded, but when he did, his brother's eyes grew wide with fright. "I know who Ieharu likes."

Ieharu shot up, his upper body practically leaning out the window at this point. "W-What are you talking about?! I don't l-like anyone!"
"Yes you do."
"No I don't!"
"Then you should have nothing to worry about when I confess to them on your behalf... unless you can catch me, of course."

And with that, Ieyoshi turned and began walking away with that slow measured pace of his.

"Wait! Yoh! Don't! Stop!" Ieharu pleaded, but if his brother heard his protests, he didn't act like it. His fears of being assassinated evaporated instantaneously, replaced instead by the terror of complete social doom at the hands of his brother. Ieharu brought his hands to his face. Unlike his brother, he didn't think of himself as very cool, or smart, or anything. He didn't have many friends. No one respected him, but at least they left him alone. If Ieyoshi was serious about telling, and he's always serious...

Well, he'd never be able to show his face at that school again.

Like a hurricane, Ieharu threw on whatever clothes were lying around. He and his brother shared a room, and they were the same in size and height, so they shared apparel too. In roughly eight minutes time, Ieharu had gone from half naked to mostly ready for school. Brushing his teeth would have only slowed him down anyway. As he rushed towards the door, open book bag swinging off his shoulder, it began to dawn on him that, even if he were to run his very hardest, his brother had an insurmountable lead. Immediately, he began to regret not stopping his brother while he had the chance. Still, maybe there was hop—

Upon bursting through his front door, Ieharu tripped over his own feet and face-planted on the stairs outside. Slowly but surely, he raised himself up off the ground, propping himself up with one arm and holding his injured face with the other. He was trying his very hardest to resist the urge to cry, but it was yet another fight he just wasn't winning. That same bitter thought that always hobbled him reared its ugly head once more: the loser Ieharu has failed.

Little did he know, a shadow slowly crept up behind his unprotected back.

"Buongiorno, young Ieharu," his terrifying home tutor greeted him as casually as ever, his hands buried in the pockets of his jacket, "I didn't think you'd be so eager to go to school today, especially on such a terrible day like this." Godot looked up toward the sky, of which was blanketed in thick clouds. The air was moist from the remains of the previous night's downpour, and water glistened on the soaked grass and wet concrete. For his part, Ieharu yelped audibly at the sound of his name being called. Godot's pleasant demeanor would have eased the boy, had their last conversation not ended so terribly. Instead, his stomach did a backflip and his chest turned to ice. Gradually, he turned his head, once again looking over his shoulder. The feeling of deja vu was practically nauseating. The man always seemed to approach from his blind spot.

"M-mi-uh-G-g-g-godot... h-hi..." He managed to stutter his tutor's name, eyes wide with fear as he suddenly remembered: he was going to die today.

"Oh, by the way, about our little agreement last night... I got word from my client that there's been a change of plans." Again, there was that peaceful smile, as if all was right in the world. "It's sort of exciting, I suppose."

Iehari inhaled sharply. Deep in the recesses of his gut sparked the faintest glimmer of hope. "A change?" The pitch of his voice inflected as he spoke, making his question come out as more of a plea.

Godot nodded. "Yes," he replied, "a pretty big change. You see, I'm not going to kill you later." At that very statement, in one swift motion, Godot brought his hand out of his pocket, a black pistol in hand. All so suddenly, Ieharu found himself staring down the barrel of Godot's Beretta. That flicker of hope in his gut disappeared just as swiftly. Too scared to move, too scared to even think, Ieharu did what came natural.

He screwed his eyes shut.

There was a delay, however. Godot hesitated, although he smirked when he did so. "Seeing as you've accepted your fate already," he said, "I guess that must mean you don't have any more regrets. There's no special person in your life? No unfinished business with somebody close, not even your family? Nothing, eh?"

After several moments of silence devoid of a bullet to the face, Ieharu gathered that the question hadn't been rhetorical. Still, he didn't dare open his eyes. Maybe this way, he still had the chance to wake up from this nightmare.

From under his breath, the boy mumbled something.

"Speak up, boy," Godot demanded, "You're only getting one chance to say it, so spit it out!"

Somewhat startled at the command, Ieharu repeated himself, this time with a bit more volume. His kept his eyes closed. "W-why do you care about what I regret, M-mr. Godot?" Ieharu could almost swear he heard Godot chuckle.

"You'll understand if you die." With that cryptic statement, Godot rotated his wrist sideways and squeezed the pistol's trigger.

And that was it. A loud pop!. A flash of pain. Pressure around his forehead. And then nothing. Ieharu Sawada, son of Tsunayoshi Sawada and Kyoko Sawada, brother to Ieyoshi, friend to few, and most of all, still a virgin, died at that moment.

However, while dying, Ieharu regretted. He regretted parting with the world. He regretted what a waste his life had been. He regretted spending the time studying for a math test he'd never take. But there was one thing he regretted more than anything else. One thing that, even as the bullet pierced his skull and robbed him of life, he wished he had accomplished with all his heart.

I should have stopped Ieharu from confessing for me... from saying something stupid... I could have stopped him...

His body was cold before it even hit the ground.

... with a dying will.

On the other side of the street, several passersby screamed in horror. One was even so bold as to yell, finger pointing in violent accusation: "That thug just shot that kid!"

Ieharu's body slumped on the ground, blood pooling under his head. One second, he was certainly dead. But then in the next...

"REBORN!!!"

Ieharu literally exploded, most of his clothes burning away to ashes, his then-dead body springing to life like round two in any good video game's boss battle. Though he was still scrawny and mostly naked, he sported a look that'd never crossed his face before. His eyes were wide and full of determination, his pupils dilated, his irises practically glowing. He was grinding his teeth in seething rage. Most noticeable was the massive orange flame located smack dab in the middle of his forehead, the blaze shifting and pulsing to some unknown rhythm.

His sudden re-emergence from death and accompanying roar of rebirth startled everyone in the area, excluding Godot. One of them—an old woman—fainted where she stood.

"I'M GOING TO STOP IEYOSHI FROM SAYING SOMETHING STUPID!" He shouted at the air. "WITH MY DYING WILL!"

And with that, Ieharu sped off, his feet carrying him as fast as an Olympic athlete as he raced with all his might towards Ieyoshi and Namimori High.

Godot watched as the half-naked boy sped off like hell on wheels, and so did the rest of the neighborhood. People looked at Godot, flabbergasted at what they had just witnessed. Godot smiled at them affably.

"Things are going to be a lot more interesting around here from now on."

The setting changes from The Sawada Household to Japan

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Ieharu Sawada
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The police all stood on high alert around the museum. They were loaded with guns, having casual conversations, and prepping for the oncoming threat. The atmosphere was tense since it was growing close to the designated time. She said, “After midnight, the mask shall be mine!” She promised to steal the latest piece of priceless artifacts, the mask of Aphrodite. This mask was plated in real gold, bedazzled with rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and rare gems to give a seductress look about it. The museum of Namimori recently obtained this as a gift for being such a beautiful city. It was honored with one of the great treasures of the mythological god’s series, but of course that will attract those who desire it for themselves. The museum placed the mask amongst an enormous presentation where numerous lights shone on it. The display glass covering it was special and could only be removed by inputting a specific code. Namimori wouldn’t let a foolish thief even attempt to plunder this. Typically, the police would laugh at the thought of this; however, the one claiming to steal this item was notorious. It was rumored that she has struck in areas around Namimori and would have her eye on obtaining a second of the god’s series.

“The Phantom Thief, Jeneva Gray, won’t be getting her hands on this tonight,” Inspector Smith muttered, “I promise you that.” His grip tightened on his gun as he remembered his last encounter with the infamous thief. One could literally see the rage beaming from his face.

“Calm down Inspector, it’ll be fine,” the lady next to him said in a soothing voice.. “We’ll get her this time,” she said as she placed her hand down his back. Her touch alleviated the pressure building up inside of his body. His grasp on the gun started to become lighter and he slowly holstered his firearm.

“Sorry Rebecca, you always know what to say partner,” he said with a slight grin. She is always so reliable. “We’ll get her together,” he said like a protagonist in a story. Beautiful, smart, and kind ran through his mind as he gazed at her. She wore her favorite sunglasses, although it was dark at night, and had her detective trench coat. She has been his partner in the agency for years. “Sunglasses this late at night though?” he asked.

“A girl has to match her outfit and purse. You should change your style sometimes Inspector,” she mentioned as she snickered a bit after she finished her phrase.

He then eased himself against the large display on the wall right below the Mask of Aphrodite amongst his compatriots who surrounded the area. He reached into his pocket, pulled out both a lighter and cigarette and lit it. After a puff of smoke was let out, he looked at his partner next to him and said, “You care for a smoke Rebecca?”

She replied, “I’ll be fine for now Inspector. Thanks though.”

“That’s unusual, well more cigs for me then,” he replied as he took another hit. “You got to take some of the lung cancer to be a partner of mine,” he said sarcastically. He checked his watch on his wrist that counted exactly on 12:30 AM. “I doubt this was even Jeneva Gray anyway. Does she see how heavily guarded this place is?! We’ve been patrolling this place even since she dropped her calling card three days ago.”

“This could just be a prank,” Rebecca stated. “We’ve patrolled, walked the routes, and even help assist some of the installations for protecting the mask. It isn’t possible.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Inspector Smith said while taking another smoke break.

One minute passed. Two minutes passed. Five…..ten minutes passed. The Mask of Aphrodite remained in the glass and there were no break in, alarm, or a Phantom Thief to intrude.

“A ruse,” Inspector Smith sighed, “I knew it. It probably was some kid around the area leaving a note. A fan of Jeneva Gray I suppose.”

“Not surprising, she’s developed some sort of fan base over the internet,” Rebecca stated.

“Oh, so you’re a fan of thieves now Rebecca?” Inspector Smith pestered.

Rebecca chuckled snickered a bit as she continued walking around, “Merely looking up our enemies Inspector.” Rebecca stretched her arms a bit and then said, “My legs are going stiff. I’ll go patrol the area. You stay here and relax.” She walked off without receiving any of the inspector’s input.

The inspector shrugged and continued smoking. About ten minutes passed and Inspector Smith started to wonder where Rebecca went. “Now what could that lady have gotten int--”

AHHHHHHH! A loud scream came from a far off direction.

“What was that?!” “A scream!” “Hurry, head in that direction!” A flurry of cops began speaking simultaneously and ran in that direction.

“Rebecca!” Inspector Smith said out loud. His heart raced and he could literally feel his pulse as he dashed in that direction. A crowd of men stood over a body and one felt her pulse.

“She’s alive, no injuries. Just passed out,” the man examined further. “Diethyl ether was used. She’ll be unconscious for a bit.”

A sigh of relief came from Inspector Smith. “That’s great, but what’s more important is--”

The lights flew out in that instance. The rambling of the other confused officers filled the air while they managed to all grab their flashlights. They moved quickly back to the Mask of Aphrodite and once they all shined their light upwards they stood in awe of what was before them. It was her in the flesh, gleaming down on all of them. The glass was removed meaning the code was input. The mask of Aphrodite was on her face and her specialized trench coat was on her body.

“Hello there officers! I hope you don’t mind if I wear this out do you?!” Jeneva Gray herself stood there with the biggest smiles on her face. “I think I’ll be taking my leave.”

“Don’t let her get away with the mask, Fire!” The men put up their guns. As soon as they held them up, Jeneva Gray already begun her move down a zip line. Shots rang out however none were able to hit in time. She was already zip lining straight outside of an opening that she had already prepped. “After her!”

The officers all ran outside. A few stayed back to tend to Rebecca. Inspector Smith however, was smarter than that. He dashed in the opposition direction of the officers and Jeneva Gray.

“Amateurs,” he said out loud. “She’s no rookie. I know she found a way to dart past the officers.”

As he ran in that direction, and made it outside to the back of the museum. He found himself in an alleyway. He saw a ladder and figured that going to a higher level would increase his chances of witnessing Jeneva Gray. He was correct, as soon as he reached the top level; he saw ha building over running. His blood began to boil when he thought of her knocking out his partner Rebecca Stratum. He ran as fast as he could at Jeneva Gray while she merely turned her head around to look at the Inspector. She no longer wore the Mask of Aphrodite, but her standard mask that had rushing s design on it where her eyes were barely visible.

As he got closer in, she said, “Ah, good to see you again Inspector? Why don’t you continue your smoke break?” and laughed.

She began running as he approached. They hopped building edge to building edge. She completed these feats like a veteran parkour runner while Inspector Smith struggled to follow along. He started breathing hard chasing this thief and grew more and more tired. They soon both reached a building that couldn’t be jumped. Jeneva Gray merely stood there staring at Inspector Smith while he walked up breathing hard facing her. She had a small bag with her obviously carrying the Mask of Aphrodite.

“This is the end,” Inspector Smith started with gasping breaths, “...for you Jeneva Gray. Give me the mask and come peacefully.” He pulled out his gun and handcuffs, but she looked more amused than worried.

“You’re growing old Inspector. I don’t think you’re cut out for this line of work,” she replied.

Right as soon as she finished her sentence, she sprinted directly towards the Inspector.

BANG! BANG!

He shot his gun twice and the bullets flew forth. They both flew inches from her body and would have been fatal, but she skillfully dodged each shot as if she had some foresight on the trajectories. She’s had experience at this. She brought her foot up, kicked him in the chest and pushed him down with the stiletto parts of her feet. His gun fell to his side while she stood over him in a dominating post with her heel standing on his chest, while he breathed heavily still trying to catch his breath.

“Maybe another day Inspector,” she winked. “Try to get your stamina up though. You couldn’t even hit me at point blank range. This heist was easier than stealing the Ring of Athena.” She walked over to his gun, kicked it to the side and jumped off the building.

“Blast it!” Inspector Smith yelled knowing that he failed once again to catch this thief. He slowly got up, and began making his way back to the police force. By this time, the police force all stood around their cars in front of the museum. There was chatter about how she escaped, how did she obtain the codes, and how did she leave without a trace. Still a bit bummed, Inspector Smith looked up and saw Rebecca Stratum.

“Ah Rebecca,” he said happily, “You’re alright!”

SMACK!

The police force quieted down and witnessed the angry woman slapping him. Inspector Smith’s face turned red and the pain from her slap stung. She had a strong right hand. He stood there in shock when she finally said, “You idiot! I’ve been tied up for the past 5 hours and knocked out by Jeneva Gray! You’re telling me you didn’t notice!”

The pain from his face stopped as his eyes widened. “Five….hours…,” were the only words he could mutter. “But I was with you a few…” he stopped. Everything became clear and it all made sense. The Rebecca he met earlier was Jeneva Gray. Although the behaviors, mannerisms, prior knowledge, and walks were the same as the real Rebecca. He had been fooled easily. Even the men amongst the force didn’t notice.

“Fu--!” he yelled to the sky.

---

Lilith walked back into her small apartment room literally attached to the coffee shop. It was on the second floor of the place with stair access from the right side. She walked up the stairs carrying her small bag, unlocked her door and went inside. She gave a sigh of relief while her heart still raced from all of the excitement from the night. A disguise, police chase, and gunshots all while making an appearance and seizing the Mask of Aphrodite. An interesting feat to say the least. She walked up to her plain looking closet, opened it and went further to the back. She reached past a plain shirt that she would never wear, pushed it to the side and revealed a small red button in sight. She pressed it. The closet then began to slightly shift and lock behind her while the front opened like a secret passage. The descending flights of stairs lead further underground that lead to her little sanctuary. This area was built on the vast amount of fortune she’s acquired over the years from common thievery and major heists. What stood before her was money, artifacts, treasures, and even the Ring of Athena placed on a plaque.

“And now, welcome to your new home,” she said as she took the Mask of Aphrodite, placed it on her face and gave a goddesses laugh. She then placed it on a podium to join the collection. She then looked at an expensive clock she took on the walls of her underground hideaway. “Almost time to go to work, I better start getting ready.” She hung up her Jeneva Gray costume, went back upstairs, and started to prep for the day.

After showering, getting prepped for the day, and collecting her belongings, she was ready for another plain day. It wouldn’t be as eventful as the previous night, but something interesting always happens looking the way she does at an upscale high school. Selling coffee and pastries at the local high school is pretty entertaining though. She gets plenty of time to interact with the students just through casual conversation just like a standard coffee shop. She gets hit own pretty often which helps her sales and flirts here and there. High school students are pretty knowledgeable in a variety of things and she’s often learned about her recent targets from heists from students.

She finished prepping a cup of coffee to energize her from the day. She drank cautiously to prevent herself from getting stains on her All In Coffee Shop t-shirt. She had a hat and wore some jeans to advertise the shop. For a while, she had to constantly wear this as a standard uniform, but the high school and the owner stopped caring about what she wore as long as it was appropriate. They wanted to give her a normal girl feel for the school even though she wasn’t currently enrolled in any form of educational institution. She looks around the coffee shop with the nice calm atmosphere it gave. It just promotes conversations and overall was an exhilarating place. The tables, board games, cards, art work, and the many pastries accompanied by coffee flavors filled the room. The aroma of freshly made desserts flew through the air and revitalized all that stepped in. After finishing her cup of coffee, it was time to go about her day. She took her usual route through Namimori to walk towards the high student. She saw students walking, talking, and in their standard uniform. She recognized a few faces from the coffee shop and from making sales at the school; however, she only knew a small amount of people, and none really personally. Her habit of being a Phantom thief combined with her job keeps her pretty busy. Maybe she’ll make an effort to actually get to know some people well? Just maybe.

On her way to the high school, she always sees an assortment of student parked cars. One caught her interest though. It was an old school mustang, something she usually doesn’t see on this route. She looked at her reflection from the side view window and said, “I look pretty good,” as she gave her usual coffee shop girl smile.

THUNK!

Lilith instinctively jumped back.

“HAHHHHHHH!” shouted some random kid with his underwear standing. Lilith stood there, confused to say the least. The boy had a flame producing from his head and for once caught her off guard.

“What are you doing?!” she yelled, but as she spoke, the boy continued to jump car to car further down the alley.

She ran after him to see what and why he was doing this. An interesting turnabout of events to say the least. “Maybe today won’t be so plain after all. High school kids are a bit crazy.”

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Ryuu Morimoto Character Portrait: Ieyoshi Sawada Character Portrait: Enn Arasaka Character Portrait: Ieharu Sawada Character Portrait: Lala Wakahisa
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"Whee!"

The few people walking on the street turned at the sound to see a fifteen year old boy wearing an unzipped blue hoodie skating casually past on a sleek blue skateboard, a wide grin on his face. A girl in pigtails texting on her phone didn't notice that he was headed her way, but a twist to the left and Enn was past her in an instant, leaving nothing behind but a shocked look on the girl's face and a few locks of her hair blowing in the wind.

Enn grinned and skated a little faster, enjoying the wind against his face and ruffling his white hair. Shou would have asked him to bring a helmet (they both knew he didn't really need one but Shou worried anyway), but he wasn't here since he'd gone to school earlier so Shou wouldn't mind so long as Enn stashed it somewhere safe and not tell him about it! And there wasn't any need to tell him about it, at least until the time they had to go home which would be too late since Enn hadn't brought a helmet with him. Sure, Shou would sigh a bit over it and warn him to bring one with him, but Enn could deal with that!

He really could deal with it. He'd dealt with it before, but that wasn't what Enn was worried about.

How would Shou react if I fail a math test? Enn bite his lip and moved to the right, dodging a trashcan. He hadn't exactly studied (it was so boring - well, maybe not angles but it was still boring, how was he suppose to remember all this stuff?!) and he knew that his studies weren't good. He didn't really cared if he failed since he didn't really care for it, but then Shou did and Enn really wasn't sure if he could pass the math test the teacher would set for them to-

Something was coming.

Enn spun around warily, coming to a stop as he looked around for whoever - it had to be a person, it sounded like running feet - was making the noise. The few shoppers around him did the same, their faces curious at who could be running so furiously.

One of the shoppers, an elderly man squinting into the horizon Enn had passed by a few minutes ago, was the first to spot it. His face turned to shock and surprise as the sound came nearer, and so did the rest of them as they saw what was a nearly naked young teenager with an orange flame right in the middle of his forehead as he charged furiously towards them like an express bullet train at full speed. Then the looks of surprised incredulity changed to panic when they realised that the boy was charging towards them with absolutely no intention of stopping and the shoppers scattered, leaving the path clear for the crazy maniac to pass through.

All except Enn, who remained smack dab on the middle of the street as he stared at the boxer-clad maniac charging towards him. His hands hung loose, and his eyes widened in surprise at what he was seeing. "Haku?!"

The figure grew larger and larger, and Enn quickly dodged to the side as Haku charged past, the backlash blowing his white hair back. For a moment, Enn continued to stare blankly, then a grin large enough to split his face formed and he was off, using his skateboard to catch up with Haku.

"Hahaha!" Enn had no idea what was going on, but it had to be fun, right?! Or else he wouldn't be moving so quickly. Leaning low, Enn sped up until he was a blur, leaning forwards to catch up to Haku. Spotting Chester on a bike, he gave the guy a quick wave and grin before moving forwards, easily keeping up with his friend as he dodged and jumped over obstacles. "Hey Haku," He called wildly, the wind whipping his hair back from his head and snatching away his words, "Haku this is fun why're we going so fast I'm kind of having trouble keeping up though where're we heading?"

Haku didn't respond and leapt on top of a car. Boo! Enn pouted and narrowed his eyes, forcing his speed to increase in order to keep up. On his right index finger, a ring with a small yellow stone sparked with a small flame, and Enn continued to chatter with a bright smile as they kept a healthy distance apart and headed towards what Enn knew was the school.

"-and that's why I think you're rushing, did I get it right Haku did I - oh, guys!" Spying two figures up ahead, Enn waved at them cheerily. "Hey!" Forgetting about the one-sided conversation he was holding with Haku, who was more than a mile to his right jumping on cars, Enn slowed down as Haku forged ahead of him. Completely ignoring the dumbfounded looks on Yoh and Damien's faces, he grinned and chattered excitedly "Guys did you know Haku can move faster than a car now this is awesome - whoa?!"

Haku jumped towards Yoh, and Enn stared in surprised interest as they tumbled their way through the entrance. For all the time Enn knew them, Haku had never tried to attack Yoh before. But then Haku had never gone out in just boxers before or had a flaming forehead either, so maybe it was a game? It might be an experiment, but Haku wouldn't be out if it was. Pushing off on his skateboard, Enn followed Damien towards the courtyard to see the twins scuffle on the ground, placing his hands casually in his pockets. He was about to ask them whether he could join in when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Oh, Ryuu-chan!" Enn turned and smiled brightly at the shorter man, who gave him a brief glance before going back to staring incredulously at the Sawada brothers like he couldn't believe his eyes. "I've no clue, but it was awesome! Haku was jumping on car roofs like a supervillian and everything shouting Reborn or something! I was too far away so I couldn't hear, haha. And then they started fighting." Enn's grin turned bloodthirsty. "Think I could join in?"

The words came out almost on automatic. "Don't call me- wait, nows not the time for that!" The grip on his shoulder tightened, and Enn pouted as he allowed himself to be dragged towards Damien, stepping on the ground and kicking his skateboard up into his arms as Ryuu tapped Damien once on the arm for acknowledgement.

"What happened?!" Ryuu asked the Sawada's lackey urgently, keeping his voice low. He readjusted the dark green bag on his shoulders, preparing to dump it on the ground in case he had to help. A little way behind him, Enn was cheering the both of them on with a manic glint in his eyes and looking like he wanted popcorn. "Did Haku lose it?! Why're the two fighting and more importantly, should we stop them?!"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Enon Nakada Character Portrait: Mayu Kojima Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Aobane Kuroiobashi Character Portrait: Lala Wakahisa
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The palpitations struck at midnight, forcing him awake in another place of vague familiarity where the creaking bones of machinery sang its lullaby of life’s mundane tragety. Humans were sectioned into compartments, mimicking the evolving technology, and the exertion thinned their hearts until they became hollow. They observed the world with gouged eyes, the business folk like carved gourds, and he let the train return him home whilst staring back into the compartment’s passengers, watching as they wore themselves down to inhumanity, and let themselves become spirited away by witching hour.

By the time he was expected to arrive at the school’s gates the blood vessels of his sclera had begun to swell; the tiny, tiny freckles of red dilating until the white expanses became webbed with the tale of his sleepless night. His body – the neglected exterior – hung from the membrane of his soul, worn and thin, muttering from within: when did you feed me last?

Enon didn’t reply, his memory crowded with the background music of the artificial heaven surrounding him, where people could trade their lives for comfort and convenience and pretend to shower one another with sweet affection. When he ceased walking in the straight line, that vengeful muscle in his chest began to race again, acting simultaneous with the numbness in his feet, all on account to the wandering of his mind – school? No, there was no desire to walk in those halls and suffocate himself today. He exhaled, slow and deliberately, and turned to the direction of a nearby bakery, deciding to end any questioning of when he last ate something, and henceforth sooth the rest of his thoughts with hot tea and fresh bread.

Despite how the bakery was built close to Namamori High it became one of the few public places he designated as acceptable, bordering on comfortable when the familiar face of a certain employee was there. Lilith Dusk was a well-known name even at a school she didn’t attend, but it wasn’t her popularity that made his feelings towards her step out of neutral ground. He couldn’t explain the phenomenon; however, it seemed as if the woman’s shadow held a different reality that what she wore on her face, opposite to the angelic presence she was known for.

Although he was wrapped in layers of clothing he didn’t remove his coat upon entering the bakery, comforted by feeling hidden from the eyes of the humanoids invading the space. Corporate slaves and housewives alike already stealing the space’s oxygen and polluting it with hushed conversation and he shoved his hands in his pockets when standing in line, waiting patiently in anticipating of speaking to Lilith today, and filling his empty stomach with a serving of melonpan.



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When Lala grabbed her shoulders she visualized electrons being wretched away from their atoms, left stranded as invisible bolts of lightning stole their place and darted in-between the fine fibers of her uniform until the madness of static electricity could ghost over her arms. Naturally the upperclassman had been granted superhuman powers of Zeus, forcing Mayu to seal her lips and listen carefully to a sound that wasn’t the stream of her endless consciousness or the brawl continuing in the background. Blinking away her astonishment, the edges of her mouth eventually wavered away from the shock of physical contact and into more jovial territory, and carelessly she smiled, somewhat proud of her summarization of the morning.

Following Lala’s eyes she watched the scene continue to unfold in silence, raising her brows only in response to the moment when Rosa’s balance was sabotaged with the dryness of her uniform. A bold of forewarning ran through her, as if the anxiety residing in her spine was diligently advising her to maintain a safe distant from the school’s queen for the day (unless she got the chance to compliment the other girl’s boots, which could only be a source of envy). Lala’s reassurance didn’t placate the foreboding though, not when the ‘paparazzi’ oiled their gears and began following orders, and she could only imagine that this would result in a string of misfortune: forever would the relations between the Holy Monarchy and the Sawada Twins be tarnished, and thus the kingdom of Namamori would be split down the middle and thrown in a hundred years’ war.

"Mentally, huh?” Dazed, her response was empty, her energy only returning when Lala took her hands away from her shoulders. “Yeah! I suppose twins would be pretty close anyways.” Mayu added, the smile returning to her visage with a renewed vigor, although it diminished warily when watching the other begin to prepare to confront the messy situation. Perhaps Lala would literally shake some sense into the twins, and henceforth prevent the approaching social calamity to protect their average, everyday lives as High School students. “You can do it, Lala-chan!” And when the girl disappeared into the erratic crowd, Mayu called out to her with all the encouragement she could muster from the bottom of her heart, waving just as fervently back to her – and jumping into the air for good measure.

Lala was about to enter the fray after all...she needed all the good luck she could get.

And how true that was. Once Yoh transformed into a Yakuza member with a peculiar taste in underwear, throwing punches and infecting the land of Namamori with more violence, her heart began to race; beating in a skipping pattern of one-two-four. Yet her hands didn't shake, and beads of sweat never down her neck, but she did wince at the final punch, convinced that the student may mysteriously ‘transfer’ the next day. Yikes – definitely time to check out of here, lest the authorities show up ready to interrogate everyone in sight. Mayu began to wander from the spectacle, only to become distracted by the sight of plain indoor shoes, indoor shoes that traditionally would never wander from the safety of clean, polished floors and disinfectant.

When she looked up from the ground, her jaw lost a bit of its strength and her eyelids lifted, letting her eyes appear larger and larger and – (well, luckily it wasn’t to the extent that they would fall out onto the floor). “Aobane! ….-kun!” Straightening her back, she managed to narrowly dodge the unforgivable act of forgetting to formally attach fondness to the end of her classmate's name, and inside her imagination she pictured herself capturing a baseball while the referee shouted ‘safe!’ at the top of his lungs. Turning her head towards the dying action, she began piecing the situation together, and her facial expression relaxed.

“So you rushed out here to see the commotion.” The tone, sharpened and bitter, was a poor attempt at teasing the other first year, but she soon lost track of her train of thought, wavering at her own indifference. Returning to her normal, smiling composure, she ignored the battle's finale to talk to the student who had become one of her personal favorites – if simply because he was a radiant, bundle of joy of endless rambles for a million topics. “Don’t worry. They’ll be okay – physically.” Repeating Lala’s words Mayu nodded and clenched her fist, her other hand now burdened with the task of holding her schoolbag alone. “…Probably. As long as no one tells the more intimidating Hibari twin."




Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Izaya Ryujin Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Makoto Fujiki Character Portrait: Mikhail Sergeyevich
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"Well that was anticlimactic," Lilith muttered after witnessing the Ieharu and Ieyoshi fiasco. The smoke bombs were a good escape mechanic, she's used them on several occasions, but having a chase was more breathtaking. She pulled out her new iPod she nabbed from bumping into a student. He stared at her 'nice personality' so she tapped him on the shoulder and said have a nice day. What he didn't know, is that his fancy device is already gone. "This playlist is pretty lame," she said as she scrolled through it.

A burst of wind flew briefly causing Lilith's hair to flutter with it. Her long orange hair calmly waved as if it were a maiden beckoning those around. She slowly moved her hand on her head to keep her hair intact, and said, "Blast it!" The newly open empty space on her head caused her to turn around. Her Namimori coffee shop hat was gliding with the wind. It drifted gently down onto a tall tree on top of a branch. "Really, cmon..." she blurted out. She sighed, and began rolling up her sleeves. This isn't really a hard task, but it's annoying to do. Showing off that she's actually very athletic isn't really ladylike. "Ah, my shoes aren't tightened," she said as she kneeled down on one knee to tie her shoes.

"I'll save it for you fair coffee lady!" an approaching voice blurts out.

She merely said, "Don't worry I got it kid," without looking up as she switched shoestrings. She finished, slowly got up all prepared to climb this tree. To her surprised, the boy was three fourths of the way already. He was short, had black wild hair with a few green highlights. He was literally almost there. He had both of his feet hanging on a large branch with the hat at the end. He moved closer... and closer... and...

"I got it!" he yelled out loud.

He flung the hat to Lilith. Surprisingly not bad aim. She caught the hat with ease, placed it back on her head and replied, "Thanks...now get down!"

"Sure! One second, I'll just—"

CRACK

The tree branch at that exact moment broke. As if she watched it in slow motion, she saw the boy seamlessly falling unable to react. She ran directly to him after he fell down on his back. Her heart started racing. Is he alive? Is he hurt? Her thoughts continued frantically as she approached him. She bent down next to the boy placed her hand on his chest to see if he was breathing.

"Hahaha... that was all... a part of my hero plan... the great... Izaya," he muttered out in spurts, then passed out.

Lilith let out a slight sigh. This would've been way easier if she had done it herself. Now there's an inconvenience before work. She picked up the boy. He was surprisingly light and easy to carry for such a little tough guy. She's performed heists with diamonds and gems weighing much more than this fickle, but sturdy kid. She began making her way to the nurse's office.

**


Lilith walked inside of the nurse's office carrying the boy. The nurse's name was Mikhail Sergeyevich, but she always called herself Mika. Everyone else lovingly refers to her as "nurse," even though she had enough degrees, certifications, and research background to perform neurosurgery as a full fledged doctor if she felt the urge.

Currently, Mika was in the process of bandaging a student's face. His nose to be exact. By her expert prognosis, and it was truly expert, the boy's nose had been fractured in at least two places. Nothing too serious, but it would hurt for a while. The poor thing had apparently gotten involved in some sort of schoolyard tussle this morning, and didn't come out of it the victor. He'd been brought in by a couple of good samaritans—two first years, Ryuu Morimoto and Aobane Kuroiobashi—some time ago.

When he heard the door slide open, Mika's patient, in the middle of having his face bandaged, looked over to see Lilith the "bread lady" walk in with the unconscious Izaya. Mika promptly grabbed the boy by the chin, forcing his head back into position. "Stop squirming or I'll have to start over, Sammy," she chided gently. "Then you'll be late for your next class." She offered him a warm smile. "We wouldn't want that, right?" He nodded slightly in response.

Without looking away from her patient, Mika addressed Lilith. "Don't tell me Izaya's back!" She said, laughing, her voice fluffy with a musical quality to it. Now, to most people, her uncanny ability to recognize people without even looking at them was somewhat uncanny. One student even swore he saw a pair of eyes in the back of her head.

Lilith, on the other hand, seemed to shrug it off. "Yeah. He saved this fair coffee lady's hat from the tree villain." She had a somewhat agitated expression as she spoke. Pausing for a second, she glanced over to one of the unoccupied beds and slowly eased the unconscious Izaya onto it. She gave him a slight kiss on the cheek, "thanks little hero." Even though this inconvenienced her a bit, and possibly caused her to lose an hour of pay, she still appreciated the fact that he went through the trouble to get the had. "Anyways," she turned her head back to the nurse, "Nurse, I have to get to work. I'm sure you've got it from here," she said as she ran off. She was late.

"Thanks for bringing him in!" Mika called out, turning her head as Lilith left the room. "Hmm." She turned back to her current ward, meeting the boy's eyes. "Looks like this'll have to do. When you get home, tell your parents what happened, but don't let them remove the bandage." The boy, Sammy, nodded in affirmation. "You don't need to go to a hospital over something as insignificant as this, but if your folks have any questions, they can call the school, alright?"

Sammy nodded again, hopping off the bed. "Okay. Thanks nurse," he said, smiling.

"And no more fighting!"

"Tell that to the other guy," he muttered in jest, rubbing the side of his face as he left the room.

With that handled, Mika turned towards her next project. The indubitable young hero of Namimori, the superman without the super, the resident daredevil: Izaya Ryujin. As Mika made her way over towards where he rested, his posture peaceful, thumb near his mouth, she began taking stock of his most recent visits to her little clinic. Counting the time he fell out the second story window, the time he tried to "save" a first year student from that parked car, and the incident with the popcorn and the staircase, this would make visit number eight. First-year classes had just started not a month ago, and the boy had already required her attention eight times. Surely it was a record.

Suddenly, Izaya's upper body sprang up from his bed, fully revived and reborn. He proudly said, "I'm great lady! I'm going to be a great," his voice on the next word cracked, "hero." He had a slightly embarrassed look on his face because his voice squeaked. A second later, he then looked around at his surroundings and realized that he no longer stood in front of the coffee lady maiden, but instead, the nurse's office... again. "Awww, I didn't get to be a cool hero," he said realizing he somehow ended up here again. "Hey Nurse Mika, how'd I get up here? You brought me here?"

Mika chuckled, pulling a stethoscope from her pocket. "Lilith carried you here, fair hero," she began, her voice jovial. Jokingly, she made a flexing motion with one of her arms. "Do I look strong enough to carry a big boy like you?"

"Awwwww!" he muttered this time louder than before. "A hero can't be saved by the victim! That's embarrassing... oh well," he recovered so quickly. "And of course you'd be able to bring me up here Nurse Mika. You have healing super powers," he said with a large smile on his face.

Mika grinned at that. "Yeah," she began, putting the stethoscope earpieces to her ears. "I am pretty badass, eh?" Suddenly, her expression got a bit more serious, a tinge of worry entering her voice. "Now, I hear you fell out of a tree this time." She took the sound-detecting part of the stethoscope into her hand. "You know the drill."

"Alright," he said with a sigh. He took off his dirty shirt from falling on the ground and extended one arm up leaving his chest exposed.

Mika placed the cool metal to the front of his chest. After a moment, she moved it over his heart, and then transitioned to his upper back. After listening for a moment and hearing no irregularities, she sighed in relief. "Looks like you got lucky... again," she said, stuffing the stethoscope back into her pocket.

"Great! Nothing can ever keep me down!" He hopped off the bed and put threw his shirt back on. Another successful nurse visit, and another day to be a bit late for class.

"Just promise me that you'll be more careful in the future," she said in soft rebuke. This was the seventh time she's said those exact words. After a second, her tone returned to its typical affable buoyancy. "And have a nice day, hero!"

Fully clothed and prepared for another day, started to run out. "Of course Nurse Mika! I'll be careful!" He gave his own hero's salute as he exited the door. He turned around for a second and peeked his head inside of the doctor's office. "Oh yea, I'll see you tomorrow! I can't wait! The Bread Wars!" He ran off back to class.

Mika saw him off with a wave, knowing for sure that, like he promised, she'd be seeing him again fairly soon. In fact, his mere mention of the so-called Bread Wars—the weekly tradition of unsanctioned student combat over discounted foodstuff that'd started back up last week—meant her little clinic would be filled to the brim come tomorrow after lunchtime.

Speaking of lunch, it was about time for her break. Technically, it'd be called a breakfast break, but paperwork is paperwork.

Closing the door to her clinic, Mika began strolling up the hallway. Every now and then, a student would wave to her or shout out a greeting to "Nurse," and she'd wave back. The kids here were truly very fond of her. It brought a smile to her face as she rounded the corner, still unsure if she wanted to visit Lilith's coffee shop or take her chances at the food court upstairs. That's when Mika's eyes fell upon a completely unexpected sight.

Oh? Surely she was mistaken, for this couldn't be... "Fujiki? Makoto Fujiki?" Though Mika's expression was completely amiable, her eyes had narrowed slightly. She hadn't meant to say the girl's name out loud. "Ah. Never mind. Er, are you a new student here, girl?" She said, softening her tone. It was just as well, too, for the campus's obnoxious bell system exploded to life, the ear-splitting chime sounding for a good five seconds, signaling the commencement of the day's activities. "You seem lost."

The setting changes from Japan to Namimori Café

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Rosa Kuromaku Character Portrait: Crostoph L. Stings Character Portrait: Akira Shinsato Character Portrait: Neri Mantovani Character Portrait: Lala Wakahisa
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Cross was watching until some kid showed up and told the other kids that some other person was in trouble. He noticed the name and thought that was enough info for one day. Any more and someone would have to pay him up front before the week was through. "Well, that was weird. I guess people do have woes in this school," he said, playing with one of his bangs. "Watching those guys made me hungry. We should get something to eat."

Akira tore his eyes away from the fight, which had stopped when the brown-haired kid with a serious look on his face ran with the other brown haired student - oh hey, it was Aobane! Akira wondered what was up for him to have that look on his face—it was probably something bad—and looked at the scene curiously, wondering what was going on. Maybe he should ask?

Well, it wasn't any of his business. Plus, Akira didn't think they'd be pleased if a complete stranger followed them. He watched neutrally as the blonde boy blocked the white-haired boy's kick and yell something that stopped the white-haired first year mid-punch, causing him to cock his head to the side like a confused bird. He wasn't close enough to hear what the blonde kid said, but evidently it had been serious enough to stop the fight, since the white-haired student dropped his fighting stance to run after him as the blonde-haired guy chased after Aobane and the brown-haired first year.

"Schools aren't normally like this, yeah," Akira said wryly. The third year flailed and followed the first years as he turned to face the two of them, face thoughtful. He was getting hungry, and eating alone at home was unappealing when compared with eating with his new found friends. "That reminds me, I guess there's a place we could stop by for dinner - oh, hi Luka!"

"Yo." Luka gave them a lazy wave from where he was, walking towards the gates. "What's up?"

"Nothing much." Akira shrugged. A thought occurred to him, and he smiled. "Hey, wanna come join us for dinner? We're going to the cafe. To scout out the lay of the land. Before the battle begins."

It wasn't often that Luka went out to eat; he often enjoyed having his meals alone at home. But having company once in a while wasn't too bad, he supposed. Besides, Akira can be a pretty persistent guy sometimes. He was off from work today anyway, so... "Why not?" Luka decided, shrugging. He could leave the "lay of the land' thing to Akira. He turned, waiting for them to catch up. "You can introduce me to your friends while we're walking. It'd be pretty rude if I just called them "new guys", after all," he teased, flashing a small grin at them.

Florence has yet to consider the thought of dinner, but eating out was probably better than whipping something up for herself. Making a mental note to go shopping soon, she followed Akira, Luka and Cross into the cafe. It was larger than she had expected, with several chairs and round tables in its interior. There was a stall there, with a menu board on top tilted slightly to make it easier to see. It seemed to be offering a variety of pastries, from muffins to croissants. Coffee was sold too, as well as several other varieties of soft drinks.

"Wow," a girl's voice exclaimed, "You're a genius, Rosa!" At a table in the middle of the cafe were a group of five girls, with their purses to their sides and a bunch of schoolwork on the table, as well as several beverages and muffins. In a clockwise order, they were Tomoe Tachibana, Rosa Kuromaku, Lala Wakahisa, Erin Saito and an unfamiliar third year student. Looking at Erin and the third year, one would have to wonder if they were all girls. They were in the process of doing their homework, or at least Tomoe was. All the other girls were pretty much finished (with the exception of Erin, who didn't seem too enthusiastic about her work) and Rosa was assisting Tomoe with some rather challenging math problems—only that Rosa was merely answering all the questions Tomoe would get stuck on, which was at least half of them, and wasn't doing anything to actually help Tomoe understand what she was doing. Tomoe wouldn't stop showering her with praise every time Rosa answered a question merely by glancing at it.

"Well, this stuff is really quite simple," Rosa told her, spreading her fingers and touching her own chest, "or at least they're rather simple for me. I just happen to have a gift for math." Rosa happened to have a gift for a lot of things, it seemed, and Rosa definitely wasn't humble about these 'gifts' either. Rosa talked a big talk, but no one could ever remember a time when Rosa didn't just meet expectations, but surpassed them.

"You need only remember the formulas." The third year - Neri Montavani - said, flicking a lock of wavy pink hair behind his shoulder. It fluttered down to rest against his back, ending at his waist. The teen was dressed in drag again, this time in the girl's school uniform. The only difference was that there was a smooth grey vest underneath the jacket, that flattered his lithe figure and gave it a more elegant look. He looked at Tomoe seriously, sipping a cup of black coffee. "It isn't hard, so long as you focus in class."

Tomoe pouted. "Yeah, but y'know, sometimes I just can't focus! Like, y'know when you have something on the tip of your tongue, but it's not something you're saying but it's something your thinking, but it's not all that important to you, but you can't help but think about it?" Tomoe received silence from every direction. "Well," she reiterated, "I was thinking about those boys in their underwear." Erin gave a sudden, curt chuckle. "You know," Tomoe continued "Those boys that ruined Rosa's clothes, and her phone!" An air of uneasiness had suddenly swept over the table as many eyes looked toward Rosa to see how she'd react. Rosa acted as if she didn't hear it, however. Tomoe leaned forward and asked Lala, "By the way, Lala, are you keeping those clothes?"

"Hmm..." Lala looked at Tomoe thoughtfully and then looked at the uniform she was wearing which is technically Rosa's. It's very notable to the eyes as well, though not in the manner of a fashion statement. More of, it was making a bold declaration due to the mud and dirt stains splattered about. At the very least, it was a good thing that it was dry now. "I don't think so. They're not mine to begin with. I'll just grab my gym clothes later and get changed." Lala added with a smile and then took a sip of her bottled water, before showcasing a slight pout on her lips due to remembering about Math, because of Tomoe asking about it to Rosa. Numbers do not mix well with Lala and that is simply that. "It would be best if Math just didn't exist..." Lala sighed after that as she knew that it was just wishful thinking in the end.

Rosa glanced at Lala. Then, with an air of dignity, she told her, "Perhaps you should return those clothes to me on the weekend. Clean, I'd expect. For now, I'll give you permission to keep them. Just treat them with the utmost care." Rosa brushed her hands through her hair as her eyes were shut, giving her a sort of aloof look as she was speaking to Lala. Rosa then gave a light smile. "Possibly, if you aren't busy," she offered, "you could stay over for a little bit when you return them." Tomoe seemed rather intrigued. Erin sucked loudly through her straw where there used to be an iced coffee. It wasn't often that Rosa invited her friends to her house.

Lala looked at Rosa with a bright smile on her face and somehow, it felt like there are invisible sparkles around her. "Of course, I'll return your clothes in pristine condition." Lala nodded her head visibly energetic to serve as assurance. It was already a given that Lala would return the uniform, but she did not expect the offer of staying at Rosa's house. Lala was aware that Rosa was not the kind to readily invite anyone to her abode, even them. Lala did not doubt Rosa of course, for she knew it was a nice gesture extended. To Lala, Rosa was a nice person and that was it. "That would be lovely indeed." Lala answered with that small yet gentle smile before glancing at Tomoe and Erin. There was something up and about, and Lala was about to speak of an idea to Rosa when Neri took her moment which she was not offended at all.

"Allow me to visit then." Everyone stared at him. Even if he looked convincingly like a girl, everyone around the table knew he was male, and the idea of him staying at Rosa's place for a sleepover, painting nails and talking about boys, was disturbing. Neri raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at them, placing his now empty cup of coffee back on the table with a sharp click. "Not for a sleepover," he said in disgust, as if he knew what they were thinking. He saw no point in joining in on girly activities. "I've made that dress you asked for last week, as well as a shirt for Lala. Going to your home to check on the both of you will allow me to save time. I do not think there will be any misjudgements in my measurements, but it is better to be safe than sorry."

"Oh! You made me a shirt, Neri-kun?" Lala asked with those eyes of hers twinkling in excitement, similar to the precious rubies found in jewels. "I can't wait to try it on! You always make very beautiful and cute pieces!" She clapped both of her hands before looking at Rosa. "Don't you think so, Rosa-chan? It would be nice. We can try Neri-kun's clothes."

Rosa glanced at Neri while stirring the last of her cappuccino at the bottom of the cup with her straw. With a slight pause beforehand, Rosa answered, "Fine, as long as it doesn't take as long as last time. Also, those measurements better be perfect this time." Rosa had a strange tendency to pause before answering people, as if she were either considering how to answer them or was reluctant to. It was this sort of aloofness, this lack of overfriendliness, that somehow attracted others toward her instead of repelled them. Many female students, both her age and younger, aspired to be as talented and mature as the glamorous idol Rosa was.

"Please," Neri's voice was full of contempt and distaste from the memory. He sat back against the chair, reaching up to tuck his hair neatly behind his ear. "I do not take as long as other tailors do. The only reason it even went that long was because you wouldn't let me near-"

The doors swung open with an extreme force. A silhouette of a figure carrying an umbrella stood at the door breathing a bit heavily. "Finally!" Lyn yelled being a tad loud compared to the fairly quiet coffee shop. She gazed around swinging her head left and right to scan the room. "Bingo!" she said out loud. Rosa was in her sights sitting next to Neri and the others. She walked over a bit fast in a silly manner still a bit tired. She approached the table, grabbed a chair from a different one and eased her way in. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late! You see, there was this guy that said girls can't play football so I put down my umbrella and," she continued her highly detailed story and how Lyn ended up performing better than the star players of the team. "..And then I headed here! Pretty fun day overall!"

"Ah, another person at the table?" Lilith said a bit sarcastically. "You need anything?"

"Nah, I'll be fine. Good to see you coffee lady!" Lyn happily replied.

"Good to see you also," she responded with a grin on her face.

Lala perked up in seeing Lyn as she smiled and spoke her welcome, "Hello Lyn-chan!" She even offered a small wave to emphasize her greeting before looking back at Erin, recalling her need to say that idea of hers, yet again the moment was taken, this time by Erin.

"How about a water, lady," Erin spoke up, sitting up from her slouched position, "Glass'a water, that is, if that's, uh, alright." Although Erin was never allowed to wear her black leather jacket in class, she sure enjoyed wearing it over her uniform everywhere else. Erin glanced at Rosa, who's gaze was fixed elsewhere. Erin called to her, "What's up, Rosa?" Erin looked in the direction Rosa seemed to be interested in, a quartet of students who entered the cafe recently. Erin recognized one of the students. "Hey, that's the new guy," she mentioned, "In my homeroom, he's, uh, new... Come to think of it, I think that girl's new too."

"New students, hmm?" Rosa seemed very interested in them. Understandably so. New students weren't completely familiar with the social order of the school, after all. Rosa had to make sure they knew who were the right friends to make and who were the wrong ones. "Lala, Lyn," Rosa ordered, "I think it would be best if we gave them a warm welcome to the school. What do you girls think?"

"Of course! It's wonderful to meet and have new friends! I'm up for it!" Lala said with a rather cheery smile on her face, and was sincerely concluding nothing but good intentions in what Rosa meant as warm. Her eyes looked towards the direction of the new students. Lala had a thoughtful look while biting her lower lip. There was something odd about those two new students. It was something she can't put into words, but it won't be nice to avoid them because of such a bias. Then, Lala had a flash of recognition when she recognized Akira. "Oh, Akira-kun is there! We should go and say hi."

"If you do, pass this to Shinsato." Neri said, reaching into his bag. He pulled out a brown paper package and passed It to Lala,. "It contains the outfit he asked me to make for him. I had intended to pass it to him tomorrow, but since he is here, I might as well hand it over now. Thank you."

Lala looked at the package on her hands thoughtfully before giving a enthusiastic nod. "No problem, Neri-kun! I'll give it to him!" She ended that with a smile and a thumb's up to prove the positivity of her answer and also the confidence that it will be done.

"I love giving warm welcomes! Hmm, but like...what if it's too hot today? Should we give them a cold one?" Lyn said as she began pondering. She placed her hand to the side of her face in a thinking pose. "That really would be a problem with this rising temperature with weather. How would we go about this," she continued rambling to herself in deep thought.

By this time, Lilith had already come back with the glass of water for Erin and the rest of the requested items. Lilith was pretty entertained by their commentary since they all had distinct personalities to say the least. Out of all of them, Lilith found Rosa the most interesting. As the coffee lady at school, she's heard countless stories about her influence, bullying, and rule over the school. Certainly doesn't effect Lilith though seeing as she isn't a student, but it was one of those things she's found intriguing.

Luka gave a yawn as they entered, covering his mouth with his hand. The place was alive with chatter, and both Akira and Luka noticed Rosa's crew as the source. The duo simultaneously chose to ignore them and look at the menu instead. Rosa and her 'minions' didn't target anyone who wasn't disrupting the peace or on their blacklist, but it was best to not attract their attention. Akira did shoot a friendly smile Towards Lala, Lynn and Neri before they took their seats around an empty table, though it was brief.

"Hmm..." Akira hummed under his breath thoughtfully, flipping through the menu. The chocolate milkshake was delicious, but the set meal A served fruit tea and would make a proper meal instead of just a drink. Well, he could always get the shake later. He turned to the others, an easy smile on his face as he rested his elbows against the table. "Alright, decided! Set meal A, passion fruit tea. What about you guys?"

"I'll get the same." Florence said after a brief study of the menu. She didn't know what the food here will taste like, not that it'd matter much to her supposed skewed sense of taste. Flavor was not something very important, as long as the meal was enough to fill her stomach she'd be fine with pretty much anything.

"Set B for me," Luka said lazily, closing the menu and placing it down on the table. He relaxed back against his chair, placing his hands behind his head. He had been about to declare the same set meal Akira and Florence had chosen until he'd spotted the drink choice for set B. It was a no-brainer after that. "Strawberry milkshake for the drink, please."

Staring at the menu intensely, Cross placed his fingers on line to read the smaller printing more easily. He was having a tough time trying to figure out who's idea it was not to put pictures on this menu, though the reason it was something he aimed for was unknown. "I'll get meals A through C. Ooooh, and maybe a side of the rich coffee."

"Great decision," Lilith said smiling. She memorizes the orders instead of jotting them down for practice on memorizing details of a heist. Doing these type of orders are child's play.

Meals A through C? “You can eat all that?” This guy must have an endless pit for a stomach. Luka leaned back against his seat when he caught movement from the corner of his eyes. He made the mistake of turning his head to look, a single brow rising when he saw that Rosa was walking towards their table. Wonderful…

"Why, hello guys," Rosa greeted with a grin. She tried her best to make her tone seem friendly, but she just managed to make herself sound somewhat sinister and vaguely condescending. "I wasn't interrupting anything was I?"

"Not much, really," Akira replied cordially, turning to face the girls. "We're just waiting for our meal, that's all." he smiled politely at Rosa, shooting a more friendly one towards Lyndis and Lala. "What brings you here?"

"Well, I've just heard that we had a few new students come to school," Rosa continued, glancing at Florence and Cross consecutively, "and I just thought that it was absolutely vital to introduce myself—ourselves—to them." No matter how hard Rosa was trying to give the impression that she was being friendly, she could never lose her hubris no matter how hard she tried. She looked at Florence. "My name," she put her spread fingertips on her chest, "is Kurokmaku, Rosa Kuromaku. Of course, you can always call me Rosa. I don't need formalities when speaking with friends, after all." Once again, Rosa's tone and her intentions were mismatched in her voice. "Of course, these girls," she gestured to Lyn and Lala on either side of her, "are my friends," her tone made her sound possessive of them, "Lala Wakahisa and Lyndis Kyori." 'Can't you see what pretty friends I have?' is what she might have will been saying with her pose.

"Yep yep! We're good ole friends," Lyn said reacting to Rosa's sudden kindness.

Lala smiled warmly at the group. "Hello there! It's a pleasure to meet you all!" She then looked at Akira. "Akira-kun! Here! Neri-kun wanted you to have this!" She handed the bag which contained the outfit. "I bet you would look good in it for sure." She made a thumb's up at that.

"Thanks. Lala! Sweet," Akira grinned, the appreciation at the gesture clear on his face as he took the package from her, placing it inside his bag gently. "I asked him to mend my stage clothes," he explained, turning back around to face them again. "They had a tear in them from one of the swords in the box that night. I had a spare, but I asked Neri to help me mend it since he does it for free."

"Glad to be some help! I can't wait to see you in it." There was not an ounce of insincerity in Lala's words as she truly believes that Akira would look good and the fact Neri makes wonderful ensembles.

Cross looked over his eyes widened slightly in surprise. He had seen some things throughout the day, but this confirmed it. Truthfully, he was more phased by the fact that it took him that long to realize, but he glad he did. No, he was glad he mad the choice to start talking to Akira. Boy, was he a pimp. He waited for Akira to get his shirt back, then nudged him and winked, giving him his proper kudos. He was relieved too. At first when those girls came out of nowhere he thought they had wanted something, especially when the one who seemed to be the main talker referred to them as "friends". However, he imagined that if they were cool with Akira then they were alright. When she finally finished talking, he looked over at her friends that she seemed to be presenting. More and more this was starting to look like a street affair even though he was sure these girls went to the same school that he did. He tossed it up to everyone having there types of people. Usually he wouldn't go for the floozy types, but he figured they'd be okay since they were dressed well.

Lala felt something nagging at the back of her head. It was not that idea which she had yet to say, but more of an instinct telling her to pull Rosa away. It was all due to her sights landing on one of the new students, specifically, the male one. "Ah... Rosa-chan, we -" Her sentence was not completed as once again, her best efforts were thwarted by the said new boy who did what was her gut feeling was probably warning her about.

Without a moments hesitation, Cross stood up and wrapped an arm around the girl who called herself Rosa. "Nice to meet you, Rosa," he said slyly. "My name's Cross. How about we get out of here and get something to drink eh?"

A girl approached them? "It is a pleasure to meet you, Rosa, Lala, Lyndis." Florence's eyes rested on Rosa disinterestedly as she introduced herself and her friends, not feigning her boredom one bit. She wasn't too interesting as far as Florence was concerned, they were new students, sure, but Florence saw no need to reply. All she wanted to do was to get her dinner, anything else was a slight hindrance. However, her interest was piqued when Cross wrapped his arm around the girl that seemed like she was the 'leader'. A mixture of surprise and amusement filled her eyes for a second as her mouth quirked into a half smile that faded as soon as it came. This was definitely something else. Was Cross trying to flirt with another girl? Her eyes looked a little confused as she turned to Akira, tilting her head as if in a question of what to do next.

Akira stared, eyes wide as Cross hugged Rosa, Queen of the school and its dictator, around the waist. His jaw dropped with shock, and only his stage training prevented him from dragging Cross to hide with him under the table or laughing at the colossal, massive blunder Cross had just made. The urge to laugh maniacally out of the sheer impact of Cross's social life ending on his first day (first day man, first day!) was suddenly overwhelming, and Akira made sure that any hint of even a smile was off his face and stuffed into a locked box into a closet where it would never see the light of day. If he laughed, it'd make things even worse for Cross than it was already, and Akira didn't want that. Distantly, Akira knew that he should be dragging Cross into apologizing so that Cross might get off Rosa's blacklist, but he was too stunned to do anything other than stare and gap like people who had seen his magic shows for the first time, only with the feeling of rapidly arriving doom instead of wonder.

With his chin resting against the palm of his hand, Luka watched with mild interest until Cross hugged Rosa. His eyes flickered over to look at Rosa’s face, just to see what kind of face expression the Queen will have. “Pfft—“ Oops. Luka cleared his throat and managed to hold back his laughter; but the smile on lips still lingered.

Rosa cried "Bletch!" It almost sounded as if she were giving a violent scold to a delinquent child. In that instant, whatever she called a friendly attitude turned into one of complete hostility as in one swift motion, Rosa swung around and smacked the boy, Cross, with the back of her hand. It was beyond audible and could be heard throughout the small cafe. Cross's face followed through with the smack, leaving his face turn to the side. He rubbed his cheek as if he were a boy who had just been smacked by his mother. "Wow. Here I thought we were being friendly," he grinned. "Either that or you're just a tease." He was beginning to think that maybe everyone was like this in school. Hard to understand by what they say, so he decided to be more focused on what he sees and not hears.

"Akira? Is this... normal greetings in Japanese Schools?" Florence was genuinely curious. Akira didn't seem too disturbed, so it must have been something commonly seen, right? Perhaps it was the norm in this country, to flirt with someone as a first meeting. Maybe Cross was more learned than her on that subject, and she's been doing things wrong ever since she got there. So many possibilities.

"...No, Florence, it's not." Akira said, speech suddenly coming back to him. Ahaha shit. Akira had a sinking feeling that Rosa wouldn't let this slide even if Cross apologized a thousand times. He shook himself back into closing his mouth before any flies got in and quickly made sure that the expression on his face was a neutral one that showed no emotion on what he was feeling - namely, the urge to laugh and never stop, which suddenly became a lot easier when Rosa slapped Cross. It was nice knowing you, Cross. See you in the afterlife... if Rosa or Akako doesn't eat your soul, that is.

But maybe the slap was all there would be to it. "Uh, dude," He said uneasily, getting up from his seat. "Sorry about him, he doesn't have much manners." he said apologetically to Rosa, pulling Cross away from her by the arm. He smiled at her, all charm and goodwill. He shot a meaningful look at Cross that said Don't talk and let me handle this, and continued to turn up the charm, hoping to defuse the situation, "Rosa, this is Cross, its his first day here. He's also not from Japan, so he doesn't really know the culture. What did you come here to talk about?"

"Rosa-chan, may be we should just leave it at that, okay?" Lala looked at Rosa with concern and then back at the group. "They're new and they're about to have dinner. We should let them have it, right, Lyn-chan?" Lala turned to Lyn to at least dissuade the tension she could definitely feel rising. It's unexplainable, but Lala knew that something from this point would only escalate into a bigger scene which she really didn't want to happen. "I bet Tomoe-chan needs help in math and you know, I'm no good at that. Okay, Rosa-chan?" The problem was... Rosa was set on her sights.

"He's certainly unenlightened," Rosa muttered with great contempt, "a typical woman-hungering creature, an inferior kind of a human, a man." The trio of guys frowned at that, displeased. Rosa shifted her glare away from the boy and looked toward the girl, who hadn't yet introduced herself. Rosa chuckled sardonically as she examined her own fingernails. "I'm sure you understand," she told the girl without addressing her, "how very unfortunate it is that somebody like yourself ended up with a crowd like this. Honestly, girl, I feel for you," Rosa grabbed Lyn's hand to examine her fingernails, "You're new, after all, so I suppose you don't really understand... how things work. You're deserving of better friends, ones that will teach you how things actually work." She let go of Lyn's hand to examine Lala's fingernails. Rosa then offered her hand out to Florence, in order to check her fingernails. "What do you say, girl...?"

Grab the hand girl, Rosa thought, and pledge your allegiance to your Queen. Offering to check Florence's nails may have been a way for them to be able to touch hands, a sign of friendship and trust, but Rosa's true intention was a different sort of bond. In having the girls allow Rosa to check their nails, a very small and insignificant gesture on its own, was a way to display that not only they were her friends, but that they were submissive to her and would bend to her will without Rosa having to say anything. They were her property, which like any curator of treasures or shepherd of a flock, she examined carefully to make sure they were in check. In a seemingly harmless gesture to check Florence's nails, without saying a single word, Rosa was checking to see if Florence wasn't only trusting of her as a friend, but was also ready to bend to her will, without a single word needed.

Florence observed the exchange with feelings mixed with confusion and amusement. That girl, Rosa checked their nails? It was perhaps some sort of ritual unknown to her, and as a hand was extended presumably to check her own Florence glanced at her hand before looking back to Akira, Cross and Luka quizzically. She never did like making decisions all by herself, this was a troublesome matter. However, she didn't agree to Rosa's words. "Firstly, I will not offer any excuse to your first statement for Cross, but Akira appears to be quite different from my observations. Secondly, I am certain that the friends I have now will teach me the ropes, or at least, I do not need anyone else to tell me which crowds I should stay with, or which friends I should make. And lastly... It's Florence. Florence Sterling. A pleasure to meet you as always, but I'd appreciate it if you could stay out of my business."

This made Lala worry. She wasn't offended by Florence's words. The new girl had the right to speak her mind, but it was a different matter when it comes to Rosa. Her ruby red eyes filled with trepidation as she reached out to Rosa by placing a hand on the shoulder. "Rosa-chan, we should just go. It's their first day after all. We can come back and talk to them, next time." Lala was doing her best to appease Rosa for she knew what was to follow. Her instincts were telling her that without fault. "Ro---" She was unable to continue her next words as Rosa, much like panther jumping on its prey, grabbed hold of Florence. This was bad!

There were hundreds of things you didn't do to Rosa, but no matter what Cross had done or could have done in that cafe to Rosa would have compared to the sort of action Florence had just preformed. Florence directly defied her. Many students had done things to displease or attempt to disgrace Rosa in the past, but not a single person was ever stupid enough to defy her, and speak up against her at that! Florence may have been careful with her words, but her tone said it all. You aren't the boss of me. Oh how little this naive little upstart even knew. Now, sure, accidentally defying her may have been slightly excusable because she was new, but Florence didn't even take her hand. One didn't refuse the hand of a Queen as if it was a dirty beggar's fingers. Rosa's face shifted into a look of sheer disappointment, one that made anybody want to shrivel up in shame, as she stared directly into Florence's eyes, her hand resting right in front of her, palm down. Did this girl even care? Then, with a sudden, violent jolt, Rosa snatched at Florence's wrist, like a toddler's. "Listen–!" Rosa caught herself suddenly as somebody approached, releasing Florence's wrist and holding her own elbow.

"Excuse me." It appears that she had offended Rosa for whatever convoluted reason. How was Florence to know why? She was just considering her options when the grip on her wrist loosened.

The clicking sound from plates and the refreshing smell of fresh food began to fill the area. The meals are ready accompanied by the drinks requested from the table. Lilith held it easily with one hand walking towards the table, then stopped right between Rosa and Florence. "Your food is ready," she directed towards the table. "But before you guys dig in, I have one thing to say," she paused for a brief moment as her face shifted to one with dire seriousness. The pleasant aura around her changed as she said, "This shop prides itself on having a peaceful atmosphere so if you're not willing to cooperate, then I'll have to ask or force you guys to leave. With that being said," she regained her waitresses smile, "please enjoy you meal!"[/color][/b] Her last line was said with almost an award winning actresses smile. She shifted to a complete different persona. She walked off and began to tend to other tables.

"A-Ah, thanks. Sorry," Akira turned around jerkily, his heart beating fast in his chest.The serious look that appeared on his face when Rosa grabbed Florence faded away into a thankful smile. The tension receded, and he reached out to help distribute the meals to their respective buyers, mentally bracing himself for impact. The tension was still there, and the wide-eyed stare of excitement and curiosity Cross had been shooting at Rosa like he'd been expecting a catfight had morphed into a frown after the waitress Lilith warned them, like the one he and Luka had (nd which Luka still had) only seconds ago.

"Ah, such a nice lady," Lyn replied misunderstanding the situation. She may have not pieced together that Rosa and Florence were arguing. "Florence and Cross seem pretty nice also, just weird." Forgetting they were right in front of her.

Lala felt that a big bone was pried out of her chest when the waitress entered the scene. The disaster was averted and she was really grateful for that. "Yes, she is really a nice lady, Lyn-chan." Lala agreed on that statement but on a different context than what Lyn was commenting about. "Lyn-chan, please it's not nice to say they're weird in front of them." Lala glanced at Lyn before looking back att the group. "Uhm, please enjoy your meals." She noted before looking back at Rosa.

Rosa was somewhat caught off guard by the sudden, stern warning the woman had, although she didn't show it. She waited untill the waitress had left before she gave off an indignant huff. She turned toward her girls, Lala and Lyn and looked at them up and down, as if she were trying to figure out what to do next. Rosa looked back at Florence, biting her lip, and then at Akira. "You understand," Rosa told him cryptically, "don't you? What happens them now, that is." Rosa sighed and turned her back toward the table. "Come on, girls," she declared, "we have no reason to associate with those two. We have things to chat about."

Lyn picks up her umbrella as she gets up from the table. She opens it elegantly and does a random spin. "Goodbye guys," she says with a wink. She does a slight bow with her right hand pulling up her dress only slightly as a formal farewell. "May we meet again," she says as she's quoting some movie she saw about the history of Japan culture. She began following Rosa as she skipped along.

Lala nodded at Rosa's words and then looked back at Akira and his companions. "Have a nice nice day, everyone." Her eyes landed on Akira as she silently mouthed an apology made of one word. 'Sorry...' Akira's lips twitched into a minuscule smile that meant it was okay, and she then smiled at all of them kindly. "I hope you do not close your doors for all of us being friends. Because you'll never know when that person after all will become a big part in you life, right?" She asked and the quickly added. "That is what Lucci-sensei said earlier. Well, I'll see you around!" She waved at them before turning her back at them going to where Rosa and the others are.

"Mm?" Florence sipped at her tea slowly, her mind already forgetting what events had just conspired. In her mind she had done nothing that notable, Rosa had tried to tell her to reconsider her choices, and Florence just disagreed. Why she had offended the other girl was frankly not a matter of interest to her at that point of time. Not to say that she wasn't curious to know more about Rosa, but it was none of her business what she does anyway, so as long that it didn't concern her.

"Well," Cross said as the ladies left the area. "That was sure something wasn't it? Not everyday you have some girls talk to you for no reason." He looked over at Akira and nudged and winked at him again. "I suppose that's what happens when you hang around someone with pick up skills like you, eh Aki?"

"Dude!" Akira said, sounding both scandalized and amused. Luka snickered as Akira shoved Cross away lightly, his cheeks pink tinted a faint pink at the implication. "I'm not a pimp man, look for someone else." He leaning back against his chair with a shudder, trying not to laugh himself. The idea of Rosa dating someone was both funny and disturbing, and now that the tension had died down Akira had the sudden urge to laugh with relief. "Especially not for them, I want to live a long life, thank you very much."

Cross nodded. "I see what you mean. Marrying someone who likes to play rough might breed for a short life."

"More like playing till their limbs break off instead of rough." Akira sighed, humor receding back into seriousness. The situation was really bad now that the two of them had gotten into Rosa's shitlist. On their first day too, what were the odds? Akira grabbed his cup and took a sip of the tea, wetting his lips. He had to explain what was going to happen next, and that wasn't something he liked doing. "They're not all that bad, but I guess I should start at the beginning. Luka, help me if I get anything wrong." Luka nodded as he drank his milkshake through a straw, and Akira leaned forward, resting his head on against his hands. "That girl Cross hugged just now was Rosa, and..."

"Hey Rosa!" Erin spoked up slightly above indoor voice. "Spot-on with that hit! I would have punched him in the mouth if I were you, or twisted his finger, maybe." Rosa gave Erin a wordless glare, which caused Erin to slink back a bit, looking to her side as she slurped away at her water. Tomoe fought the urge to snicker and just stared at her textbook like it was spilled milk. Rosa merely sat back down wordlessly, giving a sort of uneasy silence to the table. Erin broke it. "So, uh, I guess we're not talking with those two anymore, huh?"

"I personally don't care about the womanizer, Cross," Rosa said truthfully, "but the girl, Florence, is a moron." Rosa examined her own fingernails again. "She's also quite vicious, a person of the wicked sort. Perhaps we should tell people to avoid her, for their own good of course. Somebody text Akako."

"Yeah, uh," Tomoe spoke up, having given up on the homework, "Where's A-ko again?" Tomoe squinted, before lighting up in realization. "...Oh yeah! I remember. She's with those club boys, huh, doing you know what." Tomoe giggled at that while Erin clicked her tongue. "You know, just giving those twins a bit of a scare. They're not actually hurting them, right?" Rosa didn't answer. "And do we have to do anything about them as well?"

"No, not really," Rosa responded surprisingly suddenly, "we don't have to worry about those two upstarts, at least not anymore. The boys will have dealt with them and those two will be out of our hair. They will have learned their lesson. If they haven't, well, Akako is supposed to bring us their underwear." Tomoe giggled as she unwrapped her BluScreen from her wrist and began idly browsing. Erin chuckled before giving her water one big gulp to finish it. "Although, to be perfectly honest, I don't care too much about those boys anymore. They weren't really much of a threat anyway. Honestly, they probably don't even deserve whatever's coming to them, but whatever." Rosa glanced around the cafe and saw the clock. "Besides, they should be finishing up soon anyhow, so we should as well."

"Uh, Rosie?" Tomoe was reading text messages when she spoke up. "I think you should see this."




Collaborative post between Lloyd999, Alle9009, moahi, Pandora's Melancholy, taigaxx and KumoriKitsune.

The setting changes from Namimori Café to Namimori High

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: [NPC] Bartender Character Portrait: Izaya Ryujin Character Portrait: Roni Hideaki Character Portrait: Chester Sterling Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Ryuu Morimoto
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The loud chatter of the cafeteria filled the room. The cafe was spacious and contained more than enough space for every student in the school as if they planned for another incoming class. Although it seemed like a normal day, there was a bit of 'tension' floating around in the air. It was Thursday, but not your average one. More specifically it was Godbread Thursday, the day where boys become men.

"Only a few more minutes to go," Lilith said watching the oven. She was still waiting to produce the gift from heaven and bring it to life on earth. The Godbread. Perfectly seasoned, buttered, and prepared with love. The ultimate bread that for today, was only one eighth of the regular price. Typically, only fully grown adults with a well-paying job could afford such a delicacy or a few students that came from rich families, but this special was made with the students in mind; however, there was a large catch with this. Only five were being made. In the spirit of competition, each Godbread will be placed separated and equal distance from the opposite side of the coffee shop. Whoever brings it to Lilith's cashier stand in the small coffee shop section located in the cafe, gets the sale. Once the Godbread container was handed to Lilith, then it is considered safe and no longer eligible for anyone to take. This was the honor rule in placed for all those who battle for it. This was a monthly affair and allows students to release any stress they have built up through school along with the chance to be blessed by the Godbread.

Today marked the second Godbread Thursday of the school year which tends to be the more popular one. By now, the nicknames of those who have participated have been given and more people would have garnered strategies in preparation for war. The first war was interesting to say the least. There five winners were the Hokage, the angry Mad Hatter, the Ghost, the Doll Queen, and the Still Reaper. This time, the fight will be more rigorous since more students have prepared their own strategies in preparation. You could see among the students that some have matching shirts to represent their factions, others have sat in certain positions closer to the Godbread locations where they would be placed. "This'll be a good show," Lilith said to herself. This was one of the few things that gave Lilith a slight rush other than stealing valuables. "I guess I'll check what's on TV then," she said as she motioned towards the remote. There was a slightly large television used to create ambiance with background music while the store ran. *Click* She flipped to the first channel, hah the news.

"This is AMAZING," the reporter obnoxiously yelled. "Tempest! From Blast of Tempest is rumored to be coming to Namimori to perform, SOON!" Her excitement was very apparent accompanied by the fans standing behind her trying to get their five seconds of fame. "I love you Tempest!" one of the teenagers shouted from behind the reporter. "Oh yeah! We love you Tempest," another fan shouted. "But that's not all folks!" the reporter could barely contain her excitement, "But Kunyo! Kunyo the model! He'll be accompanying her! Both of these idols together!"

"Her music is alright, but Kunyo is pretty attractive. Not my type though," Lilith muttered while changing to the next channel. Another news jingle came on again, "Oh great, more news."

A male reporter with a larger build stood there with a serious demeanor. "This is scary news folks. Last week, we went from covering the mysterious gamer N1E5—pronounced Nies— and his many achievements, but this week we have a notorious hacker attack...in NAMIMORI." "This man sounds like the conspiracy theorist that are on television....oh wait," she stopped midway realizing this in fact is the news. "But alas, we have hope! We have another hacker on our side!”

"Conspiracy, conspiracy, next," she clicked the remote again.

"Here we are live with the famous Wushu Master, Alois!" The reporter shifted the mic while the camera focused on Alois. "Hello Alois, I've heard you're coming to Namimori soon, why is that?" She continued to ask him probing questions on and on.

"Eh, that's cool I guess." *DING DING DING* The oven continuously beeped. It's time. Lilith pressed the power button on the remote to shut off the annoying news reporters. As she walked towards the oven, she could notice the shift in atmosphere in the cafeteria. The voices slowly began to fade as she went to open the oven. She grabbed her Namimori cafe specialized mittens with Bertha's image holding a coffee mug, then opened the oven. The irresistible aroma overwhelmed the cafe and overtook Lilith for a moment. The smell started to spread even further into the cafeteria causing an eerie silence to fill the area. "The God bread," one student muttered quietly, "Praise the gods. "The Pastry Goddess has finished the ritual," another student said while beginning to kneeling down in respect. Lilith somehow earned the title of Pastry Goddess as the legends of God Bread Thursdays began. The nicknames and different factions of students were always interesting to say the least.

Lilith pulled out the long strip of Godbread out of the oven and already prepped five durable sturdy containers out on a table. She carefully divided them up, spread butter, a bit more seasons, and finally completed the legendary God Bread by placing them in the containers. "It's time," she said while holding each container stacked on top of each other like a professional waitress. She walked slowly towards the first pedestal on the opposite side of the cafeteria. The pedestal was white and in the form of ancient Greek god. The five gods that had a pedestal design were Zeus, Hera, Athena, Ares, and Apollo and it is said that whichever bread you receive will cause you to earn a different blessing from the respective god. Each pedestal god held their hand out as if they were holding something up which conveniently could be filled with a God Bread. All five god pedestals that lie equal distance from each other while they all stand on the opposite side of the cafe. As Lilith placed the final God Bread, she began walking back like a model in all her beauty. She lived up to her title as the Pastry Goddess because as she slowly walked, her hair flew which helped show her natural allure. By this point, the entire cafeteria population was silent and watching Lilith head back to the cafe. The war doesn't start until she says those magic words. Students sat there with their fist clenched and ready.

The sound of running footsteps began near the Zeus Godbread statue. Someone tried to get a false start ahead of everything. "Sorry love," Lilith said as she quickly turned around. She reached for a small yen coin from her pocket, held it with two fingers with her left hand, and prepared her right hand to flick it. She closed one eye, then released the flick. The yen flew at a terrifying speed directly toward the student. BAM! It hit the child bulls eye on the back of the head. He fell down temporarily knocked out from the impact. Some students shook their heads, knowing that you should never try to get an early start. The Pastry Goddess is beautiful but merciless. Without saying any further words, Lilith turned around and continued walking towards the cafe. She finally reached the cashier with her back facing the wall opposite of the students and the Godbread. The tension in the air was more evident since it was about to be that time. She quickly turned around with the 'coffee lady girl' persona and smile and said, "Welcome to Namimori Cafe! We are Now Open!"

"To the Godbread!" "Ahhhh!" I'll get it!" A multitude of students had begun yelling while chasing their respective god pedestal. This was the beginning of the second bread wars.

The setting changes from Namimori High to Japan

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Izaya Ryujin Character Portrait: Chester Sterling Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Ryuu Morimoto
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Ryuu scowled around the room, ignoring the din as he reached a hand up to his hat - a fedora that had a wide band near the brim that was the colour of the school sweater he was wearing over his uniform - to jam it securely down on his head like a helmet. He looked around suspiciously at the room, taking note of everyone's position.

He, Chester and Izaya were nowhere near the outside tables - those belonged to the popularities and bullies, the rest of the normal people were at the tables inside, discussing strategies or just fidgeting in place as they waited for the Godbread battle to begin. Why there was a battle with bread as the prize Ryuu didn't know (it wasn't even free, the last time he'd taken it he'd had to pay for it at the counter), but damn lunch period if he wasn't going to get that bread, even though he was still bruised and hurt from the fight yesterday. It had been scarily delicious, almost like those first class bread you could get in Tokyo that costed more than he knew-not-what, a car maybe, but definitely a lot more than a highschool student could afford.

No way was he missing out on this. Especially when his new club members where joining in on the fun too.

How did it even begin in the first place anyway? Some student from the beginning going "bread mine, no touch" with another going "hurhurhur, me no care" and swiping it from student 1, starting a food fight that ended up like the world's first MMA match, only with more amateur violence, praising of the gods (ALL HAIL THE BREADMAKER!!) and bread as the winning prize they had to pay for? Talk about weird. All the schools he'd been to never had sanctified food wars taking place ever.

(The how and why of it was a lot more simpler than what Ryuu was thinking. It actually involved a mix up where everyone was only able to eat bread for a week straight when all the shops but the breadshop closed, two students fighting over a piece of bread with the ferocity of starving wolves who had just spotted a small baby bunny with crippled legs and knowing that only one gets to eat it, a serious of incredibly bizarre coincidences involving a container of hot bacon soup, a group of back packs and a bully trying to get someone to do his homework for him, and a baguette. And also a wallet. The result had been a fight on the scale of Ragnarok with the noise of a tank at close range and only broke up when the bell rang for classes to begin. No deaths were had, but many of the students afterwards had to go to the infirmary.

And thus, the Breadwars began. Never let it be said that students had no clue how to hold a food fight.)

The sounds of bookies and tactics and just noise in general around him went down as the BreadMaker appeared, and Ryuu faced Izaya and Chester. It was about to start. Time for one last debrief. Ryuu tried not to grin from the anticipation.

"Alright, its about to start," He said quietly, stretching his arms in preparation. He straightened forwards from his slouch to half out of his chair, ready to move the moment the signal was given. "We all know what we're gonna do during the battle period - Captain, I am not bailing you out if you get hurt, and I won't hold back if we're facing each other Chester - but..." Ryuu's voice grew smaller and more hesitant, like he was half-hoping for them not to hear, and he kept his gaze locked on the Breadmaker. "good luck."

The plan was simple, really. Ryuu and Chester were going after the bread, while Iz (who was just plain weird, seriously) went around to help people or do who knows what. Why he wanted to shift them around instead of join in Ryuu had no clue (it wasn't like they wouldn't be capable of moving themselves up after waking up and it wasn't like they weren't prepared for it), but eh. It was what he wanted to do. Ryuu saw no point in going against it, so long as it didn't involve Ryuu ditching his original objective.

As for Ryuu's plan, it was simple - go after the Herabread, stay out of Chester's way, and hopefully manage it without aggravating anything. Oh, and fighting. Lots and lots of fighting, yay. Izaya could do what he wanted on his own, Ryuu had no plans for helping out -

The woman at the counter started to talk, and Ryuu readied himself just like everybody else, body tense, eyebrows furrowing downwards. Wait for it....

"Welcome to Namimori Cafe! We are Now Open!"

The setting changes from Japan to Namimori Café

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lilith Dusk Character Portrait: Ieyoshi Sawada Character Portrait: Ieharu Sawada Character Portrait: Damien Gokudera Character Portrait: Yume Hibari
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"So you're saying people fight over the pastries?" Ieyoshi walked along Damien's right side as he spoke, his tone as paced and even as ever. He had the voice of a old sage that had long since grown bored of his mortal coil. "Sounds dumb," he muttered almost offhandedly. "I already have a lunch from home anyway."

"No Yoh you don't understand!" He shook his head while moving slightly in front of the twins to face them. "Godbread wars is a way of life!" He said with an unnecessary loud voice. He shifted his pose as if he were a samurai holding his invisible long bamboo hat. After a dramatic pause, he gave a deep voiced chuckle as if he were the final boss in a video game. "Little did you know peons, I am," he quickly clasped both of his hands together then swiftly moved them in various positions like a ninja performing a jutsu. After reaching his final hand gesture, in a old Japanese man tone, he said, "The Hokage!"

Ieharu giggled in response, his grin big enough to brighten the whole hallway. Though soft, his laughter was rich and bubbly. Ieyoshi, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes and sighed.

"Godbread wars give you a chance to show your heart, valor, and soul. To battle all of the other warriors fighting their way to be blessed by the gods!" He clenched his fist and pounded it on his chest producing a slight thump noise. "Will you both not heed the call?! Will you both not join the ranks of the chosen few?" He looked up to the sky with a gleam shining in his eyes. His arm now extended upwards with one finger pointed to the stars. "The god's invitation stands before you both! Join me for this battle, for I shall have victory once again! Earn your own Godbread!" By this point, he was no longer looking at the twins, but towards the sky like a dreamer. He whispered with a loud voice, "Be Legendary," while providing his own recurring echo of the word 'Legendary' as if it were fading out. He maintained his pose pointing to the sky fixating his gaze on the same spot. He was awaiting a response from the twins and didn't move an inch like a statue.

"Well... I think it sounds pretty cool," Ieharu said, chiming in from Damien's left. For some reason, the older twin was maintaining a noticeable distance between himself and his younger counterpart, though Ieharu was not sure why. It'd been this way all morning, ever since they'd woken up. Maybe he had done something wrong? Or perhaps he'd angered his elder twin by dragging him into that fight yesterday? Just the thought of yesterday's antics with Ishiki made Ieharu's chest seize up, but the moment passed rather quickly. Though he remembered being bruised and bloodied before falling asleep that night, most of his injuries were healed by morning as if they hadn't even occurred in the first place. He looked past Damien and to his brother, shooting him a smile. "Not that I wanna fight again or anything," he continued. "I learned my lesson, huh!" The moment Ieharu looked towards Ieyoshi was the moment Ieyoshi looked away, his eyes trained in the opposite direction. Ieharu's smile melted into something resembling a frown, betraying for a moment his inner frustration with being ignored, but with his hand he wiped the expression from his face. He didn't dare ask Ieyoshi what was wrong. Not yet, anyway. He knew better than just about anyone that only way to fix a problem involving his brother was with extreme patience.

The trio walked in deafening silence for a few awkward moments before Damien spoke again.

Damien picked up on the unusual vibe in the air between the two. He typically performs something witty as comic relief between the two, but for once, he was at a loss of words. Well best to keep them on task. "Batman!" He suddenly blurted out. "Yoh, if you actually got a Godbread, you might be known as Batman throughout the school!" He shifted his gaze over to Ieharu and his eyes squinted a bit. A grin came upon his face as he said, "and you ole little you. You'll be Captain Underpants the hero." Damien chuckled as a look of horror raced across Ieharu's face.

Ieyoshi simply grunted in response. It was neither approving nor dismissive.

As they rounded the corner, they were greeted by the a large metal sign that hung from the ceiling: Namimori Cafe. Loud chatter overflowed from the room, nearly drowning out their conversation. As they stepped through the double doors, they were forced to raise their voices.

"Do it, Yoh! Do it!" Ieharu urged. Ieyoshi? Didn't want to fight? Truly, his brother was behaving strangely today.

Ieyoshi shrugged, turning back towards the entrance. He had no qualms with a little friendly sparring, but with all the crap that went down yesterday, he just felt tired of it all. In fact, he wanted to go back home and sleep more than anything. "Meh," he sighed, preparing to walk out of the room. "On second thought, I'll catch you guys later."

"Oh, come on, Yoh!" Ieharu groaned, "don't be like that."

Ieyoshi stopped in his tracks, seemingly at the behest of his brother.

"Oh jeeze," Ieyoshi muttered, his voice taking on an unusually high pitch, his shoulders slumping slightly. Literally a moment ago he was the image of cool, the posterboy for suave, the unshakable stale-face Ieyoshi, but now he looked like a kid who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

If he didn't know any better, Ieharu would describe his brother's strange behavior as bashful, but that was an impossible role reversal. The boy followed his brother's gaze towards the cafeteria's entrance. Standing there

"Woah!" Ieharu began. "Is that Yume-nee?!"

Damien shifted his head immediately at the name. "Did you say," without pause his eyes went from his normal expression to a love struck teen, "Yume?"

A smile that would even shatter the moon's gentle light in reverence decorated the lips of the Himemiya Princess as she stood at the entrance with those eyes of her gazing at the visage of three individuals though, it was clear her attention was commanded strongly by one. Words were not spoken as she took a step towards the group in her eloquent grace. A crown of starless obsidian trailed behind her with every elegance intrinsic in her being. It was like a vision of a lady meant for the greatest illusions of mankind had come to reality, as such it was clear as to why the onlookers of the cafeteria were attracted to her form.

True to that, a companion of the Sawada twins was obviously enamored with her. Ieharu glanced over to his left to see Damien looking as if he'd taken a shot of adrenaline to the chest. Ieyoshi, on the other hand, seemed to shrink backwards... though surely it only appeared that way.

"Good day to you." Yume started as she found herself now before the group. "Ieharu-kun. Damien-kun." Her sight then settled on one. "Ieyoshi."

At mention of his name, the elder Sawada twin flinched ever-so slightly. It was a nearly imperceptible micro-movement, though Ieharu honed in on it like a missile, eyebrows rising. He noted that, for as long as he could remember, his brother always acted... weird? in front of a small handful of people. Ieharu enumerated the list in his mind. There was Mom, Dad, uncle Ryohei, that actor that played Batman in that one movie, and then there's...

The smile on Yume's face did not relent, though her eyes held a deep understanding that none can decode, perhaps, only a selected few could hope to. "I am glad to see you all attending Namimori. I would like to apologize I had not welcomed you as early as I am able." To show her sincerity, her head lowered in a bow as her hands delicately placed at her front. "I also would like to extend my apologies if my Ani had done anything untoward to you all." She then lifted her head to look at them with an expression of sweet affection relating to her brother. "It would be a great favor if you would dismiss his disorderly conduct."

Haha, it's cool, Yume-nee," Ieharu said, smiling as he scratched the back of his head. "I don't think we've really seen him around, though I heard he threw someone out a window."

"She called me Damien-kun," an infatuated Damien muttered, causing Ieharu to snicker quietly. For his part, Ieyoshi simply stared at his shoes.

Then like so, Yume's emotion shifted to that of gentle joy. "I do hope that you three are enjoying your time here." She showed familiarity towards them and this was a natural course as her father after all serves as a Vongola Guardian and above reason, she had been her father's representative in the Annual Famiglia Meeting. Something she is only able to attend when her schedule would allow it or is endearingly asked by her Oji - Tetsuya. It was rather enjoyable even with the consistent questions and overfriendliness provided by Rokudo in which she is often protected by Sasagawa. Most of all, she was glad to meet the others as well, specifically the children of her father's friends, though she had been told many times that it was not that case. Though, there was one she had met far more than the rest.

In any case, she stopped her thoughts of before and focused at the now. "How have you been, Ieharu-kun? Damien-kun? Ieyoshi?" Each time she mentioned a name, she looked at them with her eyes filled with tenderness yet, held that profound meaning as if seeing through them. "It has been quite a while since I have seen you all." She had a thoughtful smile before continuing with her words. "How all of you have grown. Such handsome boys." And as swift as a wind passing, her lips pursed ever so slightly. "I do wonder. Have you boys been into trouble?" Just like so, she looked at each of them before fixing her gaze a bit longer on Ieyoshi's profile and then proceeded looking at them in equal light. In the end, the things needed to be tackled cannot be revealed in the light, for now.

Ieyoshi remained silent, and Damien just stared awkwardly, so it was up to Ieharu to respond. He'd turned a shade redder at Yume's compliment. "Pretty good, Yume-nee," he replied. "We haven't seen ya since Dad was last around. How's--"

Suddenly, the room grew silent, which gave Ieharu pause. Everyone looked towards the front of the cafeteria, where a woman began placing containers out along several pedestals.

Yume looked at the breads being placed in interest.. Her eyes seemed to be in trance as if observing it or rather seeing something more than that. She does recall that there had been mentioned of an event for the cafeteria during Thursdays. It was indeed interesting as she could see some of the students focused rather in an excited manner, yet with a predatory gleam in those faces. Though, she could understand why they appeared so invested on the breads being displayed. They do look exquisite, that much she could tell. "Those Godbreads do look rather appetizing." She noted and then looked back at the boys. "Now, I know why they seem eager for it, though, I do not think I would be able to get one myself." She smiles gently and it was just simply a good after thought for her as she take another look at the breads.

Ieyoshi stole a glance at Yume, then at Damien, then sighed, a smirk worming its way onto his face despite himself. "Fine, Hokage. I'm in." He raised a fist, pointing it towards the Godbread statues. "I just gotta punch my way to one of those, right?"

And then it happened. "Welcome to Namimori Cafe! We are Now Open!"

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