strike a violent pose. // open!

[Ishikawa Hikaru]

Leave nothing to the imagination, take everything at face value, and if one still finds that they are being fooled; turn and run. Like a magic trick, the answer is so excruciatingly simple that the magician is doing a favor by not telling how it’s done. The answer impresses no one, but the trick is everything. The secret to Ishikawa Hikaru, the tick to his tock, the motive to his crimes, is so utterly disappointing that it borderlines on being unreasonable. Daddy issues. That’s all, and so terribly simple that it’s almost a let down. No one in his family suffered any tragic death, no scarcity of money, or any terrible disasters. It’s just something so simple, but so profound in the mind of one person that it hardly makes sense.

As honesty would have it, there was nothing wrong with Hikaru that he couldn’t fix on his own. He had the means, he had the money, and he certainly had the will, but one essential ingredient was lacking - two, actually: heart and energy. By this point in his life Hikaru was so dispassionate about how he went about life that it was only easiest to follow the path he had made for himself. Changing after so many years required a lot of energy, and a lot of courage, neither of which Hikaru was able to muster at this point in time. So life goes on, in the steady manner it is accustomed to, often ensnaring its victims into an almost daily cycle of routine. Hikaru was trapped in his own repeating history for the last four years. Today was nothing different; nothing special.

Karu was dressed for success as usual. He had a pair of the uniform slack which hung casually off of his lean hips. A white button-up shirt adorned his torso, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. His orange-red and white jacket was thrown smartly over one shoulder with the aid of his right arm while the left was occupied with a book-bag that was slung across the shoulder. His wild red hair was combed forward and hung across one eye like a forelock. As aforementioned, nothing special about this dress, or the sort of pose he was striking in front of his open locker. But something mildly special was going on that day, told by the way Hikaru was waiting ever so patiently and the way his emerald green eyes simmered and shifted over the student body passing through after the final bell.

But Karu was not so stupid as to make his predation totally obvious. He used the mid-sized mirror that clung to the door of his locker as a means to watch without spooking his prey. Locker number 451 was positioned perfectly in the reflection, all while people passed unknowing or figuring Hikaru was just spending an extra long time that day checking himself out. A good minute or two passed by in this fashion, but Karu was never dissuaded. His eerie smirk was plastered to his face the entire course of the time, so assured of himself that it was sickening.

And alas, the moment of truth was at hand. Sato Ken was spotted. Karu watched the sandy-haired, stocky jock with as much anticipation in his little mirror as a submarine captain would during WWII attached to his radar. Closer, ever closer, the kid stupid and unknowing – so naively unsuspicious! Who was he to assume that Hikaru's retaliations came after a day? Psh. Hikaru's revenge was swift and simple. Ken had only disgruntled him a few hours ago at lunch. The dumb-faced jock tripped Karu in the lunch line, sending Thursday Surprise all over Kohi Aya, making him the laughingstock of that hour and ruining a very dicey relation. The ingrate just stood there and laughed his head off. How stupid he was!

Hikaru could feel the small, prickly, tingling sensation that arose in the tips of his fingers when he was driven to mad anticipation. Ken was at his lock, turning the knob breezily. Not a device to keep Hikaru out! Not while there was a janitor in need of a $50 and access to the lock keys. The jock pulled down firmly, Hikaru froze. The door swung open and… It was hard to determine which was louder: Ken's girlish shriek of surprise or Karu's coarse, hysterical laughter that left him in tears.

A simple device, a small box and a string, but the ammo was powerful. As soon as Ken threw open the door, as Hikaru had assumed he would, five school-grown cockroaches were released from their prison and sent flying out into the hall. A cacophony ensued from the students who flowed as far away from the scene as possible in their river-like formation. One unhappy bug landed on Ken's shirt collar, the fat-faced jock tearing off his entire shirt in alarm. It seemed everyone was laughing or shrieking. Hikaru could not stand to look in his mirror any longer. The minute he turned around to watch the action their eyes met.

“You bastard!” the latter growled, slammed his locker shut, and stormed down the hall, shaking out his shirt. At least he had thought better than to confront Hikaru fist-to-fist; and Karu was glad too, for all his tricks he was not a battling man. He had won this round, and felt positively devilish.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, brother,” Hikaru called after Ken's back, returned some admiring glances from various relations that passed by, and set to his own business of putting up a book or two. He was positively glowing.

Live life lively. What the hell - there was no other option. High school was such a daily beating to begin with. A series of chokeholds and gasping breaths, the constant berating and beatings, it was either bear it or beat it. Hikaru could never seem to bear it, nor could he ever care to beat it. It was a constant, tedious annoyance that riddled his daily life – much like the few cockroaches scrambling around the hall. People spent so much time stomping them to death, but no school official would ever care to call an exterminator. So the students go through their lives with the expense of cockroaches – even a blessing in disguise for one such fool (when life gives you lemons… but that’s another lesson altogether). And as so, Hikaru went about his high-school life as such. Evasively.

But who gave a damn anyways? People have their own problems, their own issues, and go about them in their own way. Anyone who ever stopped to consider Hikaru intensely was a fool in desperate need of their own drama. He should be considered as a cockroach in the aforementioned analogy – there to make one’s life rather pesky, but not entirely overbearing. Unless, of course, one were Ken at the moment. Then Ishiwara Hikaru was one large, damnable problem. However, these events would all be forgotten the next morning by most of the student body. So why do it? Why not. It was like going to a concert. Great fun for the moment, but not any special memory.

[Loven Nova]

Left and right and left and right and stop and turn and right and left-

Her thought process wasn't very complex this very afternoon. One thing might be that she was thouroughly pissed off, and had managed to clear a litttle passage, by whacking people with the wings on her head, before having being trampled down by a flock of people. What had happened, was the snake loose again? Oh well, she had to get to her locker, and didn't care if a serial killer was in the way, becuase in her locker was something edible. The last edible thing she had managed to take from thier house before her brothers had decided too 'Get in touch with thier feminine side.'

She was still worried over the sandwhich they had produced. How the hell could you mess up a cucumber and cheese sandwhich? It really...Worried her. And why thier apartment smelled of roses and was pink was far beyond her, but she had decided to move out soon. Anyway, irritation, almost crushed, and what happened to appear at her feet? A cockroach. Usually she'd bend down, let it crawl onto her, then dump it out a window, but right now she had zero tolerance for anything, and, with a snort, lifted up her foot and brought it down with crushing speed onto it, and got a look of disgust from someone passing by.

Hey, there was more of them. Lifting up her long, deep red skirt, so they revealed the fact that her socks were knee length, she stamped on them, one by one, getting her frustration out on them. "Bloody little things. DIE!" Jumping on the last one, she let her skirt return to it's original length of her shin, the soles of her plain brown leather trainers now covered with cockroach remains. Hey, wait, people were here. Did that mean no more crushing cockroaches? How immensly dull.

"I wouldn’t have it any other way, brother." Eh? Who was he talking too. Wasn't her problem anyway. Walking past him, her locker five lockers down, she flung it open, and lo and behold...The last edible thing she would eat for a while. A sandwich, sallad, cheese...Didn't matter, it was edible. And it had meat, an extra bonus. Grabbing it, and stuffing the cellophane covered thing down in her brown bag, which was also the container to her sweater, and the bow which, too the teachers, she had 'lost' it. Sighing, she tugged at the collar round her neck, and acted as if she was dying from heat, before slamming the locker shut, and turning around, a sleepy expression on her face. Hey, there was the wierd guy again, still by his locker, a smirk on his face. Almost past him now...

And left and right and left and right and- Once more, she wasn't allowed to be in peace, but some first year midget ran into her, just nudging her. The cockroach remains covering her soles didn't give her much grip, and up her legs went, and down on her butt she went, her back, then her hands, her head centimetres from the ground. "Oi! Watch it punk arse!"
"You're now allowed to use bad language! Teacher says!"
"Do I look like a give a fucking rats arse? I wouldn't give a damn what 'Teacher' says if it so was served on a stick, skewered and grilled, on a plate, covered in sweet chilli sauce! Now, you fucking arsehole, GET A MOVE ON!" Taking a deep breath, she looked up. The red haired boy was still they're, and she could hear the first years running off.

Shite.

[Ishikawa Hikaru]

Hikaru was so beside himself with joy that he could hardly stand himself - the damned egotist that he was. This was surely going to make him very popular, and, in layman's terms, "fucking rad". Which was all there was to care about in High School, right? Being at the top of the social ladder. However, not only was Karu the top, he was the ladder. He was society, God, money, all of those things, including a mess. And people seemed to either hate him or love him - silly bastard. Which was how Karu liked it. Friends? Who needed them? Enemies and lovers was all there was to it.

But some stupid girl had to fall on her butt right in front of him. What a clutz! At first Karu was quite certain that he was going to laugh hysterically at her misfortune, but her little rage was enough to make him hold his tongue. Besides, with all these people watching (and the girls), there was a better option at hand to get two birds with one stone. But god, did it have to be this girl? She was... Not popular. Oh well, Karu knew the response he would get, it would just have to be at his expense today.

As if the heavens had opened and were pouring down roses, Hikaru swept down and lifted the girl into his arms, manuvering his lanky body with ease. The girls in the forming crowd gasped and their eyes widened. However, Hikaru's attention was serenely on the girl he was holding in his arms tightly, one hand against her back, the other... well... closer to her bottom than might be comfortable... His deceiving green eyes looked to her past his flowing red hair.

"My goodness; are you okay, sweetheart?" Hikaru crooned, sending the crowd into a squee. Of course, Hikaru could've cared less whether this girl was okay or not (in fact, he hoped she had bruised her butt so that she would learn not to be so coarse), but this little "act" was all for his advantage at a later date... Every girl loved a hero... Already, little remarks floated from the crowd such as, "Oh my god, Karu-kun is sooo nice to that girl!" and "Who is that lucky girl? I want Karu-kun to save me!" or even the slightly dejected, "Hikaru is an idiot..." from an ignored male voice.

[Loven Nova]

Sighing with disgust as shte girls scuttled off, she was about to stand up when that red haired boy suddenly picked her up. Okay, he was good looking up close, but this guy sure had some nerve! Did he think she was disabled, maybe? Or that she was some swooning fangirl of his who'd fake that it hurt so much, have to cling to him, and get him to carry her to the sickroom, in the hope that he would confess to her, and they'd share a long an passionate kiss. And then she'd become Queen Bee, but as this was real life, she'd lose that position soon enough.

About to ask politely for him too put him down, she realized something. He...Was he? His hand, was that...Was that hand on her butt? And his eyes...God, she wanted to rip them out. Chocolate brown eyes met bright green ones, and she could feel loathing running through her for this guy.

"My goodness; are you okay, sweetheart?" And the mumbles from the fangirls who should be in the position she was in right now. Turning over so she fell out of his grasp, landing on her feet, slipping ever so slightly from the cockroaches, as if she was standing on ice, then looking at him, straightening herself up. If any other girl were to hit a guy, a slap might do. Here, she lifted up her arm, and socked him in the face, a punch from the elbow.

"I knew she was going to smack him." "What an ungrateful girl!" "He had it coming." Mutters came from the crowd again, approving ones from the guys, shocked ones from the girls. "I was okay untill some freak decided to prove something to the world and pick me up, in the process...Groping me, I suppose you could call it, and actually having the nerve to ask me if I was allright. Do I look disabled to you? That I might not be able to stand by myself? Who do you think you are? Ladies number one? Do you think every girl is in love with you, or something? You make me sick!" Bending down to pick up her bag, she then glared at him again.

[Ishikawa Hikaru]

Hikaru watched quizically as the girl jumped out of his arms, sticking his head out in curiousity. Why would anyone want to remove themselves from his perfect grasp? Of course, he didn't have much time to consider it when ker-POW! The little bitch landed one with her elbow square across his face... His face! Oh, humanity! Hikaru, being the light-weight that he was, fell back a bit before catching himself before he was able to fall to the floor. With his hands caressing his burning face, the hatred inside of him was boiling over like a thousand flames.

"Ungrateful bitch!" Hikaru screamed, losing himself for a moment. As a sharp hush settled over the crowd, an instinctive damage control set in, forcing Karu to stand up straight and fix his hair, in the meantime, thinking furiously as to what to say in order to save face, "But, alas, these are the rewards of kindness... No good deed goes unpunished! In this day and age, my beautifuls, no one goes without suspicion... How cruel a life!" Hikaru's voice rose above, his eyes growing misty. Terribly good actor, he was. "I am only here to try and help poor girls... Even those who act strong on the outside..."

Hikaru took this girl by the hand, bending down to one knee, "Forgive me, poor girl, I understand your cry for independence, and I only wanted to serve," was his little load of shit. Hopefully that would win back some of the girls at least... But the one he was "bowing" to was most likely going to get a heaping of pay-back sooner than later. What a nerve! She actually hit him! Karu could already feel the little bruise growing on his cheek, and was planning his trip to the nurses' station to be dressed and doted on by the female assisstants... Oh, how terribly tedious things suddenly turned out!

"Just nod and smile... please..." Karu seemed to growl through gritted teeth in hopes that it would only attract the attention of the girl he was holding. That was the problem with "poor" girls. They had no class or regard for dignity. They ruined it for everybody else. Without the rich, the world would be completely uncivilized - punching someone in the face! Stupid bitch.

[Loven Nova]

"Ungrateful bitch!" She had wanted to make him snap, even though she hadn't really been expecting that. A hush fell over the crowd after that, and he himself seemed suprised over what he had said. Hand on hips, she could feel herself getting a slight, very, very, very slight handle on the situation.

And then he started off. Grabbing her hand, quite forcefully she thought herself, he started off on some charade, on which she was completely unintrested in. During the whole time his fangirls swooned, she was thinking up a good response to embarrass him enough, or to get him to react in such a way people would be shocked.

"Just nod and smile...Please" Her smirk grew wider, for maybe a second. She would make him buy her lunch, she decided in her mind. This would be...Hilarious. My sandwich is crushed, is crushed, the last edible thing is crushed...Never again will I eat, ooh...

Thinking these thoughts, when she looked up, tears had managed to pool in her eyes, and, lifting her free hand to first push a strand of hair away, and then put it over her mouth, glancing down, then finally into his eyes, a mumble, soft as a whisper, but loud enough for them all to hear. "I'm sorry...I didn't understand..."

And then her voice lowered, enough fro only him to hear. "Your buying me lunch in return." Oh yes, she could only cry over the thought of never more eating, never tasting another chip...Or having to eat something her brother had cooked. Oh, terrible thought.

It would probbaly move.

[Ishikawa Hikaru]

For a moment, by the smirk on her face, Hikaru had thought that maybe, just maybe she would throw the whole situation up in the air again (and it would be nearly impossible to remedy a second time). In fact, Karu was holding his breath, down on the floor, and hoping at the same time his nice pants weren't being dirtied. It would seem that Hikaru was a very hyperbolic character, and for the most part he acted that way, but when forced he could be quite serious. He was dead serious about her just playing along right now.

But then, all of a sudden, her expression changed into something mournful and pleasant! Karu let out a heavy sigh of relief before snapping back up into his bravado, wisking his hand against his forehead in false sentimentality before pulling a handkercheif from his breast pocket, snapping it, and handing it to her. However, in the midst of their exchange, Hikaru caught her change of character and her deman in sotto voce. He nodded and winked before hopping up, prepared to wisk the situation away.

He, of course, couldn't resist playing it up. Pulling her hand, and in turn, pulling her body to him, Hikaru smiled and began escorting her down the hall as if she was about to faint, or was mortally injured. From their close proximity, and slightly fast pace, Hikaru was able to get a few words in as they made an escape down the hall, "Cafeteria or off-campus?" he asked, of course, Karu always ate off-campus because the cafeteria was disgusting. However, "treating" this girl was not on his list. He, in fact, quite hated her for exposing him.

And of course, there was no need for introductions in Hikaru's mind. He expected her to know his name about as much as he expected to ever need hers again, except, perhaps, for a little revenge...

[Loven Nova]

C'mon you idiot, get me outta here! I can't keep this act up forever! Feeling her tears dry up, she was thankful when the hankerchief finally came, and she was able to hide her face in it, to mask the fact that she was laughing, having to disguise it as sobbing. Although, really they are idiot. Isn't it a bit odd to suddenly burst into tears? Her shoulders shaking from her sudden outburst, she could just make out him hopping up, and a wink above the hankerchief, before she had to hide herself again, biting her lip to not make any sound.

Feeling herself being pulled towards him, skidding on the floor as she did so, she was far to close to him for comfort, and therefore she now had the ability to kick him hard enough to do a full house. However, if she did do that, she could count with no lunch, so she had to stay put. "You are really pushing it." She hissed at him as they almost seemed to float down the hallway, his elegance guiding her. "Off-campus." It was a decision she had already made. The cafeteria was okay sometimes, but the enviroment...She wasn't all too keen on sitting down on some yoghurt.

She could feel, past his icy exterior, hate raging towards her, which in turn fired her up, making the deep green wings on her head bat once more, dangerously close to smacking him once more. Okay, I hate him and he hates me. He's the biggest revenge taker in this school, by rumour. The plus side is that I'm not scared of insects or any sort of animal. The downside is he may try to kill me. Working out what to do in her head if he sent the FBI on her, she could hear the murmurs as they passed people in the hallway.

They said things like, "Oh my god, look at them! Is that Karu's new girlfriend?" or "What the hell happened while I was gone?" She had no intention of dating this guy, and she almost lashed out at the poeple who said such thing as she was pulled along.

Wait, if she leant her head a bit more to the left...Yes! She got on of them! Seems these wings were good for something.