Frozen Roses

"Damned boy," she spat, shivering with rage and near-despair as she tore through the crowded, arch-lit, open-air halls of the academy, blank to the world and seemingly all alone with her dark thoughts. Why does he have to do this to me?! It's degrading, frightening, disgusting . . . and no one believes that it's happening!

Hikari dodged the noisy, shuffling students around her with ease, shifting her books absentmindedly in her hands as she hurried towards her locker, the last bastion of safety she felt she had in the academic area of campus. The girl's stomach and jaw were still clenched tight in memory, but she refused to let the tears fall, yet. That sort of display could wait until she was in private.

Riido, you bastard, don't you know how I hate it? Don't you care? No, of course not. You don't care about me, you just want to look big in front of your friends, break me to feed your ego. Hikari changed her textbooks quickly, slamming the locker door hard as she thought of a place to compose herself. The young lady neither noticed nor cared about the stares she gathered from her actions, seething in silence and waiting for a place to squeeze into the crowd. You're not going to get away with it. If no one else will take care of it . . . then I don't know. I've told you I hate it, I've asked you to stop. I've told the teacher, I have documentation. I'll endure if I have to, but I'm not going to let you break me.

Seeing her chance, Hikari let herself be swept into the endless flood of young men and ladies, back into the rush of cyan uniformity. She didn't care, though, knowing exactly where she wanted to go. A small dip here, a dodge and a turn there, and a quick cut across a fast-paced stream of students led the small girl to a bathroom near her next class.

Unfortunately, it was nearly packed.

Staying well back from the knot of older children waiting for the next available stall or mirror, Hikari gazed at her impassive image in a small sliver of reflection that was not being monopolized by someone brushing her hair or applying lipstick, noting any flaws in her mask.

Such a frivolous pastime, applying makeup. Why bother at this age? Hikari sniffed, shifting slightly to take advantage of a momentary lapse in the whirlpool of femininity before the mirror. She could no longer see any of the redness in the eyes or cheeks she had felt earlier, just a firmly set jaw, a pair of hard-angled eyebrows, and a slight gleam of pain reflected in her brown irises. Good enough, Hikari supposed, as she set about straightening her short-skirted school uniform and avoided the newest influx of students.

We're still just little girls, barely fourteen, and yet. . . . The child turned from the bank of mirrors and melted back against the wall, finger-combing her long charcoal hair in silence as she resumed her brooding.

I'm not like all these giggling fools around me. They'd take your crude remarks as compliments, swoon from your "harmless flirting." They don't know how you really are, Riido, but I do, boy. I'm not going to sit there and lap it up. I refuse to be weak like them.

Resolved, Hikari steadied her grip on her study materials and left the madness of the small room behind, heading mechanically for her next class as she let her expression grow dispassionate once more.

I'm not going to let you win.

Sunlight beamed down in a grand manner upon four figures standing within a huge, stylized rose pattern that adorned the tiled floor of a large balcony. It winked and danced cheerfully along the red inset, creating a striking contrast to the symbol's serene marble surroundings, if anyone had cared to notice. Birds chirped merrily through the rose-scented air above the silent quartet, obliviously darting this way and that to catch the myriad winged insects that flitted about in the late summer heat.

The sudden surreal counterpoint of a phantom gavel rang throughout the heavens, startling only the avians, who were not, of course, expecting it. At that signal, a sandy-haired young man who had been looking out onto the grounds of the academy from their lofty perch turned to face the other three members. A pair of golden beads at the end of a red decorative cord on the boy's uniform caught the light as he moved, focusing the others' wandering attention on him. He smiled slightly, as if remembering a private joke, before falling into an authoritative pose and glancing at the other members of the group in turn.

"Thank you all for coming, and I'd like to call this meeting of the Student Council to . . . er, wait, where's Ken?" the youth asked, losing all his supposed grace in an eyeblink as he hooded his blue eyes with one hand and scouted about in a futile search for the missing member of the group.

"President," a boy to the side coughed, slightly embarrassed at the antics of their leader. "That's what we're here to discuss, remember? Didn't you read the letter?"

Blinking, the teenager paused, bringing his hand down as he took on a puzzled air. "No, I just figured you'd tell me what was going on anyway, Eien," he glibly replied, wagging his finger at the green-and-white garbed young man before him. "You are the secretary, after all . . . you should be keeping notes on these things. . . ."

"That's not the point, Amano," the remaining male member of the group chimed in, "and you know it. You're supposed to be up-to-date, and I specifically remember Ken sending each of us, and the Chairman, a letter of resignation. He's leaving the school, president. Why can't you just keep up on your own?" He sighed as the girl that had been standing silently behind him moved forward to lay a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"Arigatou, Himitsu. . . ."

"Ahem. Now that the bickering is over, for the moment," the evil glare Eien directed at the two other officers ceased any further conflict immediately, "and we're all up to date on the current situation, I motion that the voting be allowed to commence for the position of Student Council treasurer. All in favor?"

A quartet of "Aye"'s could be heard above the returned birdsong, before an embarrassed silence reigned over the group.

"Er, Himitsu, you're not a Student Council member. You can't vote, remember?" Shin murmured as an aside, causing the girl to blush slightly.

"My apologies, Shin-sama." The young man gave a slight, knowing nod in her direction before returning his attention to the two others on the otherwise-empty balcony.

"If you would, sign here, please, mister vice-president," the secretary said as he passed the red-haired boy an official academy pen and a sheet of rose-embossed, calligraphed paper, "and we'll be able to adjourn."

A few strokes of the writing implement, a gesture, and the missive was finished, ready to be presented to the Chairman.

"Well, that's that, isn't it? All the petty, boring stuff is done?" Amano sighed, ignoring the baleful glares he got in favor of picking a bit of lint from his butter-yellow dress pants. "This is all just formalities, you know; the rest is left up to student body elections," he continued blithely, stretching a bit as he prepared to take his leave.

"True," Eien nodded as he jotted down the few minutes in a pocket notebook. "It almost makes me wish we had other business. The Ends of the World have been quiet lately. . . ." The boy noted as he slipped the folded booklet into a green-edged uniform pocket and began his trek through the high balcony's French doors. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a class to tutor. I wouldn't want to be late," his slightly-sighing voice floated back.

"Right behind you, Eien-kun." The president grinned and followed the retreating secretary, leaving Shin and Himitsu alone on the great overhang to listen to the fading sounds of boyish squabbling.

"Ooh, have you heard, have you heard?" an excited voice squealed to Hikari's left, completely breaking her concentration on her studies. "Ken Sabato, the Student Council treasurer, is being expelled, and they're looking for a replacement!"

"That's funny, I heard he was just moving," another girl on Hikari's opposite side chimed in, her chair squeaking as she pivoted in it to face the first student and talk behind the middle girl's bowed head. "I thought his mother got sick or something, and needed to move to a warmer climate, so his family had to pack up and leave."

"Um, excuse me," Hikari began-

"No, that's not right! I heard from the filing secretary's assistant's coffee gofer that-"

"Excuse me, but I'm trying to study here . . ." she continued, leaning across her book to glare at the female student to her left, to no effect.

"-Ken was questioned by the Chairman, Ohtori-san, and was found guilty of feeding gummi worms to the academy's homing pigeons-"

"Excuse me," Hikari piped up, a little louder than intended as she glared at the beribboned young lady to her left. The ranting girl didn't seem to notice, though.

"-and was stripped of his Council rank and told he had three days to leave the premises!" the first nameless girl affirmed proudly. "That's a pretty just punishment for trying to poison our winged friends, wouldn't you say?" She finally took note of her audience and smiled for effect.

Unfortunately, all her smile met was a cold mask of frustration and anger.

"You," the black-haired girl growled at the young lady to her left as she snapped her book closed and stood up to leave study hall, "are a complete and utter lunatic. Now if you will excuse me. . . ." Hikari quickly left the room and headed for her dorm, where she might finally get some peace and quiet in order to study for her upcoming Japanese literature test.

Back in the study room, the remaining pair of girls looked at the empty seat between them and blinked in disbelief.

"What a strange girl," the one on the right murmured, shaking her head as she turned back to her own studying. The other just tilted her own head in confusion and looked up to stare at the door Hikari had exited, feeling strangely remorseful.

"I wonder, I wonder . . . was it something I said?"

Hikari fled, afraid for one of the few times in her life, knowing that Riido was just a few steps behind her, smiling like a wolf. She raced down the corridors of the education building, unmindful of any shouted attempts to slow her or her pursuer in her desperate attempt to get away, to get to the safety of her room in Kishida Hall. . . .

He won't catch up, he can't. He can't! Only a few more steps, hurry! Hikari's inner voice urged her on, but in reality she knew that anyone who might be willing and able to protect her from the beast that was hunting her down was too far away.

By this time she'd left the main hall behind and was running in a straight dash across the manicured grounds to her dorm, but even now it seemed as if she would never escape the boy's vile grasp. Why was no one ever there when she was caught in a corner like this, and gods, why did she never have her swords with her??

Suddenly, as if the tenacious boy was attuned to her thoughts, caught she was-right about the waist, as Riido quickly yanked her to a stop. They skidded, but luckily did not tumble onto the white-paved and tree-lined walkway, thanks to the young man's agility in the planned maneuver. As soon as his hold diminished, however, she broke out and spun away from him, edgy and ready for another sprint.

"Hey, hey, what're you running away for?" Riido smiled slyly at her, trying to play off how she had struggled and fought in his momentary grip. "What did I do-besides save you from a nasty fall just now?"

"You ought to know, Ayami-san," Hikari replied with a frigid sneer as she recalled a few choice memories in a mostly futile attempt to dampen the unnatural fear she felt. "So get away from me." She took a few wary steps back, which Riido almost unconsciously matched.

"Now wait a minute-" he reached for her, but Hikari would have none of it, her eyes widening in sudden fear at his possessive motion. Don't touch me! she mentally screamed.

"No! Leave me be!" The girl was gone in a panicked flash of cyan, black, and white before the young man could even think to chase her again.

His arm slowly lowered as he bowed his head in shame and helplessness. Why didn't she want him? What was wrong with her? What's wrong with me? he thought as he slowly turned and headed towards his own dorm, his dark eyes shadowed by midnight hair and his finely-angled jaw clenched tight.

"What's wrong with me?" The words echoed on the warm breeze behind him, but no answer came.

"Still can't win her, eh, Riido?" his roommate sighed, only glancing at the boy's sorry condition once before returning his gaze to the computer before him. "How'd you guess, Genrou," the young man groused as he peeled off the overcoat of his cheerfully monochromatic uniform and laid down on his bed to spend a productive and wholesome hour staring up at the bedsprings above him in depression.

"Maybe she's not worth the trouble-and don't call me Genrou," Genjirou mumbled as he swept a lock of brown hair out of his narrowed eyes in order to examine a piece of code on the screen, not even looking over at his moody friend.

"You ever even say the three magic words to 'er?"

"Huh?" Riido responded intelligently, still swept up in his brooding. "Well, no, but she's got to know. I mean, why else would I send her flowers in class, or flirt with her, or try and save her from a nasty fall, like today?" He sighed moodily and idly flicked at one of the dark coils that seemed to float above his head. "She avoids me like the plague, Genjirou. Everything I do, she hates. Maybe she thinks I'm not worthy, maybe that's it . . ."

A noncommittal grunt and a half-muttered curse from his roommate proved that the hacker-wannabe wasn't even listening. "Damned buggy piece of . . . oh, yeah. You got something in the mail, Ayami. It's on your bed."

"Huh?" Riido rolled over in confusion, trying to look behind him. He certainly hadn't felt or heard anything when he'd fallen onto the mattress . . . "Where is it? I don't see it . . . and I'm not giving up on Hikari," he snapped, finally realizing what the other had said.

"Should be right-it's stuck to your shoulder, man," Genjirou smirked, pointing to Riido's shirted left shoulder blade as the youth reached around his back in frustration.

"Good grief . . ." Finally succeeding in pulling the small, rose-sealed envelope away from his body, Riido carefully slit the top edge open with a finger and with a slightly annoyed air, pulled out the note contained within.

"Woo, fancy letterhead and everything," the tired student sighed as he skipped to the meat of the letter. "Let's see what the top brass wants now . . . Congratulations, Riido Ayami, for blah . . . Ohtori Academy, blah, blah . . . Student . . . Council . . . treasurer?" Wide black eyes blinked in startlement as the paper fell from his fingers. The young man quickly turned to his roommate, who was eyeing him with some interest. "When the hell did this happen?"

Genjirou's hazel eyes blinked owlishly as he replied, "Man, the elections were yesterday morning. Weren't you in homeroom? Everyone voted, and of the candidates, you won by a landslide. . . . Riido? You okay?" Said boy was at that moment coughing up a lung in surprise, unable to answer.

A few moments later, after the initial shock had worn off, the taller boy fell back onto his bed, still stunned. "I wasn't . . . but . . . I'd just been nominated on Monday . . . how could they hold an election that quick and not tell me until now?" he cried, gripping the sides of his disheveled mattress in panic. "I'm not prepared-I have to form an acceptance speech, address the Student Council, get my new uniform, attend the induction ceremony, check out the finances, update the books . . . why wasn't I informed?"

"Chill, Riido, chill! Emergency elections, remember? Sabato moving out? It's really not all that bad," his roommate answered in as soothing a voice as he could muster from his perch in front of his computer monitor. "Everything'll be fine. Just get a couple of things together now, like what you're going to say to the Council, maybe write up a groveling letter of thanks to Ohtori-san, and then just sit on your heels until you're needed. Simple, right?" Genjirou flashed a quick, crafty, and most of all, encouraging smile at his friend before proceeding to ignore the other boy as he slumped back into the bed to work things out on his own.

The click-clack of typing was the only thing heard in the room for a few minutes before Riido whispered, "Y'know, this could work to my advantage . . ."

Word had quickly spread throughout the school the previous day about Riido Ayami's near-unanimous election to the Student Council. Today, the halls were currently abuzz with the boy's virtues-how forthright he was. How handsome. How punctual. How upstanding. How expressive. But most of all, how much he was enjoying himself and his newfound position.

It was more than enough to turn Hikari's stomach. That was why the girl was approaching one of the most hallowed sections of the administrative complex, and why she was preparing herself for the argument of a lifetime.

She would make everyone see the truth about Riido, before he was given the pursestrings of power. Before he was a true member of the untouchable Student Council. That horror would never hurt anyone ever again. With luck, he would be expelled, just like the previous treasurer had supposedly been, and she could finally be safe from his unwanted advances.

She could finally feel safe and strong again, after so long under that devil's thumb. . . .

Hikari had been collecting evidence for nearly half a year now on the young man's transgressions against her, how she was being treated, how no one would believe her, how they would always take the charismatic boy's side. It was all documented in her slim, barely scribbled-in diary; every single word, gesture, and flirtatious flip of the skirt, and she would gladly forsake the sanctity of its pages to make sure Ayami-san burned. . . .

"Yes?" the young woman behind the desk asked, one penciled-in, brown eyebrow curved skywards in question as Hikari began to make her unseeing way past the receptionist. The young lady blinked, pausing in her forward movement to assess the situation before her.

"May I help you?" the woman tried again, clearly annoyed at the lack of response. Fortunately, the girl's moment of startlement passed, and she finally was able to speak.

"I'd like to see the Chairman, please," Hikari said coolly, brushing a long lock of ebon hair from her face as she continued, "about the school's current choice of treasurer."

"Did you hear? Did you hear? Did you hear how another scandal's rocked the Student Council?" the girl to Hikari's left whispered to the young lady on her right.

"What's gone wrong this time?" the other girl whispered back, and Hikari was hard-pressed to keep a smile off her lips at the first one's forthcoming answer.

"Riido Ayami was accused of torturing a girl, and stripped of his rank! I heard from his next-door-neighbor's cousin, who also attends Ohtori, that he had all sorts of incriminating things hidden under his bed!"

"Really? Like what?" the second girl asked, suddenly intensely interested in the juicy gossip that was sure to fall from the other's lips.

"Like long belts!"

"Ooh."

"And slippers." She shuddered melodramatically.

"Oh, my . . ."

"And worst of all, a plush rabbit stuffed in a box! Isn't that just atrocious? The poor thing could have suffocated! Oh, how it must have suffered!" Tears of righteousness fell from the first girl's eyes, to the embarrassment of the two girls.

"But, it was just a toy rabbit," the other challenged weakly, gaining a scathing glare in return. "I mean, really, what he was being accused of . . . that torture thing . . . that would have been much worse than the bunny, right? Shouldn't he have been kicked out like the old treasurer . . . what's his name?"

"Well, what he did isn't nearly so bad as killing our pigeons," the girl on the left huffed, apparently perturbed at the lack of animal rights support her two companions were showing. "Down with gummi worms! Gummi worms are for sadists!" Her fisted hand rose into the air, punctuating her words with violent intensity.

Hikari took this as her signal to leave, before the madness the young lady was emitting overcame her, as well. She sighed, stretching, then pushed her chair out and stood, facing the girl to her left, knowing that her job here was almost done.

"Have either of you ever thought about trying out for the Drama Club? You'd probably knock 'em dead," she said in an amused tone as she closed her reading materials and smugly left the study hall, glad to hear of Riido's ruined reputation.

"Y'know," said the right-hand girl with a smile as she looked over to her erstwhile companion, who was still spouting anti-gummi worm rubbish, "that doesn't seem like such a bad idea . . ."

Riido's entire world had fallen apart in the course of three days.

He had nose-dived from the heights of fame and rapture to the depths of scathing rebuke and scorn, and it had only taken three infinitely finite days.

Three days in which Hikari Makugire had managed to tear him limb from limb and use his bloodied trunk as a scratching post, laughing all the while.

Or at least, that's how it seemed to him.

How, in all the world, could I have ever loved a frigid bitch like her? Riido growled, deep in the back of his throat. How could she do this to me? Didn't she care? Couldn't she see how much I loved her? Love . . . can I even say that word and mention that thing in the same sentence anymore? Doesn't she know how she's just broken me?

Of course she knows, Riido answered himself as he stared blankly up at the darklit springs of the body-curved mattress above him, She had to know what she was doing. Why else would she get herself elected treasurer in my place? She didn't even run in the election, dammit, and now she's sitting there, in her new uniform, on the Student Council! Damn her, that should have been me! The minutes ticked by as he allowed his feelings to build and war within him. Oh, Hikari, brightest love, darkest hate. Riido's face twisted into a scowl and he closed his eyes as the image of the very girl he loved and loathed appeared before him. You took what could have been the greatest moment of my secondary school career and destroyed it. I was one of Them, Hikari. I could have given you so much, so many privileges, but you had to take it away, take it for yourself. . . . Tears formed in his tight-shut eyes, but he ignored them as he let the anger burn a hole through his heart.

This isn't over, Makugire-san. You didn't want my love, so I'll give you my hate instead. Tears were streaming down his face, now-hot, stinging droplets that he prayed would wash away everything he had ever felt for the pale young woman who had crushed his dreams.

I won't take this lying down, girl. You showed me how much you detest me, but I'll be the one to show you what hate can really do.

I'm not going to let you win.