Solitary Mask
Chibi Tsuki
A/N: This is my first YYH ficcie – I hope you people like it! Btw thoughts, written in italics are often of the main characters. Btw, this is set after YYH, but I decided to shorten Yuusuke's time in Makai a bit, so Kurama's 17 and in Senior High, supposedly around Year 11.
Chapter 1
Abnormal Differences
The moon illuminated the outline of a peculiar figure, who sat alone on the rock, facing towards the sea. Howling and roaring, the waves below crashed harshly against the cliff side, only to be forced backwards, into the large watery mass again. But nothing stirred this lonesome character, not even the fiercest of winds or the wildest clashing of water. The solitary warrior continued to gaze at the moon, the small celestial body emitting soft blue rays of comfit. Oh, how the Earth's moon glowed as brilliantly as the one at home, if only one could return home. A sudden howl boomed over the voice of the wind and water. Only towards this did the character stir the slightest bit. It was too subtle to be noticed easily. The isolated wolf howled again, yearning for its brothers and sisters to let it belong to a pack once again, but this was not to be. Once abandoned, the lonesome wolf will have to either find itself a mate or live forever in solitary.
May you find your dreams brother wolf…
~*~*~*~
Flowing red hair blew frantically in the air as the wind lifted up skirts. Kurama, using this chance, escaped from the crowd to the side of a school building. He panted noiselessly, his hands gripping his knees as the search for him began. A glimpse of light-coloured hair caught his attention but when looked up, he could see no one. For a second, he was thinking deeply but slapped himself mentally, knowing that there was something he had to do; escape if that was how you put it. Run Kurama! What are you doing just standing there?! Move it!
The handsome youth wasted no more time and left hurriedly in pursuit for his classroom. It was rather surprising that the girls followed him around like a flock of baby chicks after the mother hen. Obviously no one had warned him. The girls at this school were just as crazy as ones in his last school, Mieou High. He fled for the safety of his classroom once the coast was clear and shut the door behind him, his pulse pounding rapidly. Scanning around the empty room, he found a strange person looking out of the window as if Kurama hadn't made a single sound. Supposedly this classmate was a girl, wait! Of course she was a girl; she was wearing the navy blue and white sailor suit-like uniform and the matching pleated navy blue skirt that reached an inch or two above her knees. What appealed to him most was the white blonde hair. It was so light that it would've been mistaken as white. Quietly Kurama selected a seat and placed his black strap bag down on the desk. Being only two rows away, the teenager noticed that the girl actually had silvery hair, he had been positive that it was blonde before but now it was of an unexpected colour. With her back towards him Kurama was unable to see her face but he was neither curious nor tempted to peek. Chivalrous Kurama broke the unbelievably long silence, greeting the girl by the window, "Hello miss, my name is Minamino Shuuichi. I only transferred to this school yesterday." The girl stayed silent and Kurama respected the girl's silence and made no further attempt to stir up the conversation until the girl finally spoke up,
"If names matter to you, my name is Tsukishiro Mikazuki." Her gentle, soft voice held a tone of melancholy and loneliness, Kurama reacted subtly to this but the girl caught his body's silent gesture. He was sympathetic towards her, it was as if he had felt these emotions before. Heading towards her, he offered his hand to her but she merely turned her head back to the outside world again. "Shuuichi, don't get yourself involved with unwanted gossip by talking to me. It will merely give you a bad reputation, especially the male students since the girls have been swamping around you this morning. The guys will seize advantage from this and send bad rumours around about you."
Kurama looked away, slightly confused and uncertain, "What do you mean by that?" Mikazuki sighed and turned to face him, startling him slightly. Then he knotted his eyebrows. "I don't see why the others will gossip about me talking to you. The only difference between you, me and the other students is that you're wearing a mask."
His
classmate smiled physically, but her eyes didn't shine with the slightest
happiness at all. He could see her smile because of the mask's flexibility even
though the mask layered over her entire face and hinted no beauty. Even her
eyes weren't visible, only its shape and outline showed where it was. For a
while Kurama wondered how this girl could breathe and see, nevertheless speak
clearly.
You see, everyone is afraid of abnormality, meaning that they're afraid of me."
The girl sighed subtly as the red-haired youth continued to stand, deep in
thinking. That was until the door opened, revealing two male students wearing
the same uniform as him. "Hey, you're the new student right? We've heard a lot
about you and your grades," the taller dark-haired youth uttered, panting with
widened eyes. Kurama nodded and strode towards them, the shorter boy gesturing
for him to move faster. When the teen reached the puffed out pair, they jerked
him out of the room, slamming the door shut. "Hey," the shorted one spoke
softly, "never enter the room by yourself when the
girl's the one inside." Beside him, his friend was nodding furiously. "I've
heard that she has a really bad temper and she's very, very, very ugly. Don't
approach her or even talk to her!" Ugly? How do you know
that's she's ugly without having seen her face once before?
He glanced through the window by just tilting his head and saw the girl. She had resumed to her position, leaning her body against the window sill. "By the way, is your name Minamino Shuuichi?" the shorter one questioned, admiring his tall frame and well built body.
"Yes," Kurama admitted as he combed some of his hair with his fingers, feeling a sweat drop slide down his neck.
"Wow, how'd you build up such a strong figure like yours?" the shorted boy continued amazing himself while the taller student started conversing with Kurama about his academic achievements. Stepping onto his back foot, Kurama excused himself politely and walked down the corridor until he realised his mistake. But luckily class was starting and he soon found himself back in the classroom.
~*~*~*~
Lunch break was only several minutes away and … several minutes away from torture Kurama groaned softly as the thoughts of a quiet peaceful chat with some new friends was torture. He continued to sit up straight, sometimes leaning on his palm when he was tired of listening to the teacher teach the units of the study he had already learnt.
"Class dismissed," the Mathematics teacher announced, once the bell rung, loudly and clearly.
Standing up, Kurama found himself instantly crowded by the other girls once again. "Excuse me ladies," he uttered, trying to squeeze through the crowd. He resulted to the old and well used, "Ladies, look at the sky, isn't it such a beautiful and romantic crimson red?" It was such a cliché, but it had effect on the girls. They turned and he fled, crawling under the table whilst grabbing his bag. He crawled towards the door and staggered to get onto his feet, falling out at the same time. When he arrived at the canteen, it was the same as being in the classroom, the situation was the same everywhere. Why did all these girls admire him like some superstar? Trying to find some peace during lunch seemed quite impossible because all the female students kept piling repetitive questions on him,
"Have you had a girlfriend before?"
"Do you currently have a girlfriend?"
"Are you busy this weekend?"
He was sick of them already and tried to find some way to ditch them. "Hey, Shuuichi!" a familiar voice yelled over the squealing females. "I see that you're rather occupied there, shall I speak to you at a later time or do I need to make an appointment?"
Kurama glanced up and noticed the bubbly girl with the long sky blue hair. "Excuse me," he said politely, gripping his lunch with him in one hand while he tried to go through the crowd. Finally when he had managed to get the girls off him, he scrambled towards the speaker. "Botan, it's been a while since we've last seen."
The girl wearing the school's uniform gained quite a lot of attention and jealousy. "It has hasn't it? I've got a message for you," she replied in her soft sweet voice. Together the two started walking nowhere in particular but they were followed by a crowd back in some distance. "Everything in Reikei has been settled so there shouldn't be a problem, not for now anyway so you can relax for a while."
"That's good," Kurama murmured. A sudden smile lit on his handsome face. "Hey Botan, I heard that you and Koenma got together." He winked at her when her face began to blush furiously, it had turned into a dark pink colour, overlapping her pale skin colour. Since when was Kurama so well informed? She had only started going out with him a week ago and it seemed as if the whole world knew.
"How did you know?" she exclaimed, unable to keep her voice down.
"It was well, quite predictable." His calm cheerful smile always irritated her at such situations, not that she usually had such an outbreak of uncontrollable embarrassment, well not often while they were in public anyway. She quietened when she noticed everyone eyeing her, her face turning into an even brighter coloured red.
Botan glanced around, her big pink eyes following her gaze. "I'm leaving now Kura- Shuuichi." Running away, Botan left Kurama, smirking.
Once the girl was gone, Kurama rushed off while his little fan club stood completely dazed. Perhaps a tree would be a better place to sit since people can't see me as well as they can spot me in the middle of the small grass field. He searched the open area for a suitable place to sit. Some of the trees didn't seem to be comfortable since the branches were too close together. It seemed as if it was impossible to find a good spot. For a short time now, Kurama had been still in search of his tree, until he noticed a sturdy tree, its trunk thick and solid and the branches seemed to be the right height. His head turned from left to right and back left again, making sure no one saw him perform his little stunt and jumped onto one of the lower branches before leaping off it again to one that was shaded quite well by tree leaves. He had to admit that it did conceal him quite well although his stunning red hair was rather easy to spy. With his lunch in his hand and his back against the main body of the tree, he relaxed and settled in like a possum into its home. Suddenly he felt a wavering ki stir above him somewhere and looked upwards. Something or to be more exact, someone was sitting on the branch several metres higher. Instinctively Kurama looked back down, blushing slightly. A girl was up there staring into the vacant sky where the moon would be when day rotated into night. Although he couldn't see her underpants, he still continued to look downwards.
Maybe she hadn't noticed him and he could leave the tree without disturbing her. But his attempt to leave woke her from her trance and the girl simply turned her head to look down at him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look up your skirt..." The girl turned her head away again, to gaze at the sky once again. It was the girl he had met earlier that morning, the girl called Tsukishiro Mikazuki. "Hey Mikazuki." Kurama's voice had changed back into the sweet and steady tone again. Why was this girl so… silent? She never gave any opinions or dramatic reactions, unlike the majority of the school's female population, especially when there were people around her. Still silent… there was no sound, only the soft beating of their hearts and the light breathing. Once or twice Kurama tried to stir up a conversation but to his disappointment, she didn't reply.
~*~*~*~
Kurama entered class, the girl following far behind looking right at his back. People around her started jeering, pointing and whispering to themselves but the boy couldn't help but feel sorry but the girl seemed to have paid no attention to their loud whispers. He stepped into his next class; the science laboratory and sighed softly. Although he really loved science lessons, today he didn't really feel that excited even if it was his first lesson. Later, the masked girl appeared at the door and glanced around for vacant seats. Everyone stopped chatting and glanced at her, ignoring the teacher as he stepped in. They were just looking at her, slightly jittery but Kurama noticed no sympathy in their eyes. They quickly stuffed their bags on the surrounding tables as if to suggest to her that it was 'saved' for their friend. No one wanted her to be near, not even the teacher who had tried to keep his face from twisting into an uncertain and distressed look. Kurama was going to offer the poor girl a seat beside him but his neighbours shook their head at him, not wanting the 'innocent' to be part of the rumours and gossip. Finding a seat at the back corner of the science laboratory, Mikazuki quietly placed her bag on the desk, eyes averting to her every move.
This was insane. Kurama sighed and felt slightly useless that he wasn't able to help her, all he could do was sympathise this poor lonely creature.
Throughout the science lesson, Kurama couldn't stop thinking about Mikazuki, why didn't the others treat her the same way as they did each other? Even the teachers were prejudice against her although they didn't hurl insults or anything, only show signs of their nervousness towards the girl. "Hey Shuuichi," the girl beside him whispered, her long flowing chocolate brown hair curled and tinted in a light chestnut brown, "be aware of that Tsukishiro Mikazuki. She's rather hideous and ill-tempered, you don't want yourself involved with her. Besides, I've heard that she owns a wolf at her house. Apparently several girls passed her home and saw a wolf in the garden-"
"Kinae Yuki, please be quiet," the teacher boomed, looking at the girl with guilty face. The teacher continued rattling on, dictating notes while pacing from left to right at the front of the classroom, holding some notes in his right hand. His pacing was hypnotising Kurama to sleep but he didn't let himself show any signs of boredom or else the others would think that he was just another nerd who was to proud to look at others.
~*~*~*~
At last, the day had ended, the slow progressing pace of day had gone past. The golden face continued its daily procedure, to set behind the earth and down again, until it had fully fallen behind the horizon line. He strode out of the school gates, two shadowy figures running after him, yelling him human name. It was then did Kurama recognize them as the boys he had met earlier that morning. "Hey Shuuichi!" they greeted him pleasantly, introducing their names to him which they had forgotten to do earlier than morning.
A/N: I hope you people liked this ficcie, it's the first time I've written a YYH ficcie. I thought that I'd give Kurama some girl because he seemed rather lonely in the story. I also based it on prejudice because that's the topic we're doing rite now. If anyone has ever watched Saint Seiya, it's one of those masks the female Saints wear.
Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or any of its characters only Mikazuki and the miscellaneous characters.