Disclaimers at end of fic.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1.1 - Gakuran Girl
Sakaki sighed in the changing room as put her arms into the sleeves of
the gakuran and pulled the black jacket on to her shoulders. She had to
admit she could pull off the "delinquent" look pretty well. She just
wished she couldn't.
Kagura, now... she seemed to be enjoying dressing like this to improve
morale. And Tomo... she seemed to suit the delinquent style perfectly,
and probably had since the day she was born. Right now she was buzzing
Yomi, pretending to be some tough guy from an anim�, but Yomi just tried
to ignore her as she changed into her cheerleading uniform.
"Hey Sakaki!" Kagura called, approaching her. "Ready yet?"
"Just a moment" Sakaki replied. She reached over to one of the clothes
hooks and got a headband like the ones all her classmates were wearing.
It was white with black text that said "RED RACCOON DOG." Ayamu had
spent hours trying to find out what tanuki was in English. Sakaki had
a sneaking suspicion it was just "TANUKI," but Tanizaki-sensei hadn't
had any problem with it and Sakaki didn't want to argue with that.
She tied the headband around her forehead and looked in the mirror. She
set a lot of standards for the girls of her class. Tallest, longest
hair, most athletic and - she still blushed inwardly - most developed.
Her face habitually settled into a serious but neutral glare and she
tended to stay calm and speak directly. Her appearance, skills and tone
granted her a severe and serene beauty, mysterious and intimidating to
those who didn't know her.
It was a shame this was almost the antithesis of what she wanted to be.
Those who knew her knew about her smile - which could melt ice on
Pluto - and knew her solitary attitude was a facade. She loved being
around people, but was always serious and just didn't talk much. It was
an approach that had earned her dozens of admirers but few friends.
She turned to Kagura to reply. "Ready."
"Alright, lets go. Yukari-sensei is probably wai..."
"Right!" Tomo bounced up behind the two of them, throwing her arms up
into the air. "Who are we beating up first? Chiyo-chan?"
The other two stared at her.
"What?" Tomo continued. "We're supposed to be incorrigible delinquents,
right?"
"Not really..." Kagura slowly started to reply, until Sakaki spoke.
"We're not touching Chiyo-chan" she ordered.
"Okay, okay..." Tomo conceded. "Beat up Yomi?"
"It's your funeral" Kagura said.
"Hm... Osaka?" Tomo suggested, before shaking her head. "No, too easy.
What about Kaorin?"
Kagura - who had been noticing things lately - tried to imagine what
effect Sakaki beating up Kaorin would have, if Sakaki was actually
capable of that. It would probably break the poor girl's heart, brain
and legs, not necessarily in that order.
"Tomo!" Kagura grabbed Tomo's shoulders. "We're not that kind of
delinquent. We're more the kind who mess around and never apply
ourselves until a special teacher or coach comes along and inspires
them!"
Tomo seemed interested in this. "Really? Who's that going to be for me?"
The other two exchanged a confused glance.
"Well..." Kagura slowly said, "it's not likely to be Yukari-sensei..."
she trailed off as she imagined what kind of inspiration her English
teacher could give /Tomo./
"And if it was Kurosawa-sensei" Sakaki added, "she would probably have
inspired you by now."
"Well then," Yomi rose up behind Tomo like a specter. "The teacher that
inspires Tomo must be Kimura" she said, bringing up the dreaded name of
their perverted Classics teacher.
This notion earned a stunned silence and an alarmed "meep" from Tomo,
who then thought about it for a second and concluded "Actually, that
may not be so bad."
Everyone stared at her. Sakaki got the feeling Yomi's quick joke was
starting to unravel.
"I have an advantage over him. I'm actually allowed into the girls'
changing room, swimming lessons and so on. In fact, all I need for the
best peeping is a mirror" she declared proudly.
Everyone took a step away from her.
"Is she being serious?" A worried Sakaki asked.
"She's never been serious in her life." Yomi replied, grimacing.
Sakaki eventually emerged from the changing room, carrying a "RED
RACCOON DOG" flag and flanked by Kagura and Tomo. The former was trying
hard to look as tough and cool as possible, although most felt that she
was nowhere near as intimidating as the latter. Tomo had no idea when
to give up on a joke and was leering and making passes at most of the
girls she passed, Kimura-style.
So Sakaki walked between them, an oasis of serenity, calm and sanity,
although this was only because there were no cats about.
There was, however, Chiyo.
Chiyo was twelve years old, but with an IQ that dwarfed nearly everyone
else in the school... including the teachers. She was short for her
age, with shoulder-length red hair that was always pulled back into a
pair of pigtails and a cute face with large expressive eyes. She
currently wore a cheerleading uniform with one of the class' headbands
and stared up at Sakaki with barely contained awe.
"Wow, Sakaki-san! You look great!" she exclaimed. "Really tough and..."
"AAAAAAH!" All the girls turned to spot their teacher gaping at them
with glee. "PERFECT!" An ecstatic Yukari-sensei walked over to inspect
her troops. "PERFECT!" she exclaimed again, looking at Chiyo. "Perfect
cuteness, to entice the enemy over to our side!" She then turned to
look at the gakuran-clad trio. "Tough enforcers, to punish those who
would stand in our way!" She started walking around them, ranting to
herself. "Class 5 can join us or die!"
Tomo thrust a hand into the air. "BANZAI!"
"That's it, Tomo!" Yukari reciprocated. "BANZAI!"
"BANZAI!" Tomo returned the volleyed word to her teacher.
"BANZAI!" Yukari replied, before glaring at the other girls. "Whats
wrong with you? Come on, show some spirit! BANZAI!"
"BANZAI..." Chiyo, Sakaki and Kagura reluctantly chorused.
"Now," Yukari addressed her troops, "I want you three to go put fear
into our opponents' hearts! Let them know who they're messing with!"
She popped off a salute and spun on her heel to leave. "You are
dismissed!"
"All RIGHT!" Tomo cheered, before bouncing off to bother someone.
Kagura just looked up at Sakaki's face.
"Yukari-sensei is really 'on' today isn't she?"
Sakaki just nodded quietly and watched her teacher. Yukari had stopped
walking, and for a moment Sakaki was afraid she had heard what Kagura
said. But Yukari seemed to be preoccupied about something else. She was
staring up towards the roof of the school building.
"Actually... I've got something for you to do first." Yukari pointed up
at the fence around the roof. A number of banners - one for each
class - had been tied to it and the banner supporting class 3-3 was
hanging loosely at one corner.
"Go up there and tie the banner back, okay? Having it flapping about
that makes us look like idiots."
Chiyo and Sakaki looked at each other, and silently agreed not to say a
thing.
A few minutes later all three girls were heading up the stairs. Kagura
walked ahead, while Sakaki and Chiyo followed a few steps behind,
chatting about Nekoconeko. After a few flights of stairs they emerged
on to the roof and looked around for the loose banner.
"That's it" Chiyo said, pointing to a banner where a tie that should
have connected to the fence had come loose. The two older girls walked
over and co-operated to tie it back, Kagura holding it in place while
Sakaki's nimbler fingers did the knot.
While they were doing so, Chiyo was looking down through the fence at
the sports festival.
"Wow! You can see nearly everything from here!"
Sakaki and Kagura followed her gaze... it was true. Far below them
there was a sea of their peers, all decked out in white t-shirts, worn
with either shorts or bloomers. They swarmed around the refreshment
tent, lined the track and kept a two-meter distance from Kimura-sensei
wherever possible. There were even a few gathered around the equipment
for the bread-eating race, hoping to get a free bite.
The girls watched as Kurosawa-sensei put a finger over her ear and
fired her starting pistol, signaling the start of the 1st year boys'
100m race. They had been previously watching the events from the
sidelines, but the view here was very different.
"It's like watching athletics on TV." Kagura noted. "HEY, GO FOR IT
ICHI-KUN!"
A boy in the race stumbled slightly, before rejoining the race with
increased fervor.
"Ichi-kun?" Sakaki asked.
"One of my neighbors." Kagura replied. "Nice kid."
Sakaki sat back slightly and relaxed, watching the festival below her.
Then something caught her eye. Something cute.
She turned her head and looked toward the other side of the roof. A
small ink-black shape stooped by the skylights, scuttling about, moving
in circles. It looked up and noticed Sakaki, and for a moment Sakaki
could have swore that it suddenly grew a pair of cat ears and a
tail - but she hadn't had a close look at it before. It must have
always had them.
"Kagura, Chiyo," Sakaki said, never looking away from the little black
thing.
"What is it, Sakaki?" Kagura asked, before following her friend's gaze.
"What the heck is that thing?"
"I don't know." Chiyo said. "It looks like someone in a black cat
costume..."
It did, as far as Sakaki was concerned. A small child in a black
costume - a black so dark that it eclipsed everything. It certainly
wasn't actually a cat - not only did it walk on two legs, but it just
didn't move with a cat's attitude. Cats were proud and graceful -
walking as if they owned the street, sleeping where they liked. This
thing shambled, and seemed to be the kind of creature that crawled
into dark places and hid under stones, waiting...
Against her better instincts, Sakaki got up and started to approach the
creature. It was very cute, after all.
"Uh, Sakaki?" Kagura quietly said. "I think you should be careful with
that..."
"It'll be ok." Sakaki replied. "We just need to show it we don't mean
it any harm." She was sure it was friendly. Sakaki continued creeping
toward it, hand extended, until she came within touching distance of
it's face...
And it bared its teeth...
"Look out, Sakaki-san!" Chiyo yelled, and for once Sakaki's reflexes
were good enough - she pulled her hand back and the creature's jaws
closed around empty air. It looked puzzled for a moment as she
staggered backwards, and then it seemed to smirk to itself... before
leaping for Sakaki, drawing back the wicked claws on it's hand for a
strike.
Sakaki managed to dodge it by diving to the right but that laid her out
on the ground. She rolled over and tried to sit up, only to see the
thing standing over her, poised to attack. She soon found herself
rolling again as it pounced - she scrambled to get out of it's way and
find a way back to her feet, but it just followed her around the roof.
Then Kagura ran up and caught it with a kick that would have earned her
entry into the soccer team of her choice.
"Buzz off!"
The thing was sent flying and tumbled over and over across the roof -
it was small, and even lighter than it looked. Chiyo ran up to Sakaki
and tried to help her to her feet.
"Sakaki-san! Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Chiyo-chan" Sakaki replied, but she was severely spooked.
She looked up and saw Kagura running towards her. The creature, uncowed
and apparently unhurt, was running behind Kagura with it's claws raised.
"Kagura! Look out behind you!"
"Huh?" Kagura pivoted on her left foot as she turned, which saved her
life as the creature dived toward her right side. It shot past her and
then the two turned to face each other, Kagura backing away from the
little monster.
"Sakaki..." she said uneasily.
"I'm coming." Sakaki replied, as she cast her eyes around the rooftop.
It didn't take long for her to spot a section of metal piping, left
over by a careless electrician who had been called to fix the security
lights on the top of a shed. She grabbed the pipe, ran up to the thing
and swung it like a baseball bat.
There was nothing to the creature, and it took off like a rocket with
the impact. It flew across the roof and passed straight though the
fence before plummeting out of sight.
Kagura just stared at Sakaki.
"Sakaki!" she eventually managed, shock in her voice. "You hit
something cute!"
Sakaki felt her stomach twist and she dropped the pipe. "I know."
"You really went and walloped that thing!"
"I know."
"Did it just fall though the fence?" Chiyo asked.
All three girls stopped and stared at the fence. There were holes in
it, but you couldn't fit anything larger than your fist though them.
Yet that thing had passed clean though it.
Slowly, the three girls became aware of the screams and yells all
around them.
They silently looked at each other for a moment and then ran over to
the edge of the roof, peering down though the fence. The sports
festival was in complete disarray - students running around at random
and among them half a dozen black shapes. Sakaki watched in horror as
a shape leapt at a girl - it struck her neck and she simply vanished
in a purple shriek, leaving a small red speck where she had stood -
which quickly faded away.
Sakaki gulped down her start, but she heard Kagura give a shocked gasp
and Chiyo a horrified scream.
"She disappeared!" Sakaki said.
"It killed her!" Kagura yelled. Chiyo squirmed at the "k" word.
"No." Sakaki replied. "She just disappeared, she might be alive."
"Take another look at whats left!"
Sakaki took another look down at the school grounds and saw one of the
monsters attack a first year boy. He vanished, and as Sakaki looked
closer she could see the red light more clearly. A heart. Not a
anatomically accurate one, but a stylized 'love heart' like those seen
on thousands of Valentines Day cards.
The inky thing snatched at it, and the heart was gone.
Sakaki averted her eyes, but she couldn't turn away. A loud crash
beyond the school wall caught her attention, and she noticed a car had
smashed directly into a lamppost. There were more of the creatures on
the sidewalks outside the school, attacking pedestrians and kids who
had fled the school grounds. She heard a CRACK and turned to see a
policeman at the school gates, firing his pistol at one of the black
shapes menacing a group of girls. The bullets seemed to knock it back
without actually harming it, and he didn't notice a trio of creatures
creeping up from behind the wall until it was too late.
"Sakaki-san!" Chiyo then cried. "Look at the sky!"
Sakaki looked up. Plumes of black and brown smoke were rising above the
city. They billowed up - spreading out as they went - and then started
to narrow again, becoming long strands of smoke that swept up into the
sky, spiraling around a... a...
Sakaki just stared for a moment.
A bright light, shining in the sky. A star come to earth... or so it
seemed. The strands of smoke spiraled around it, inevitably drawn to
it's center, making the entire spectacle seem like a miniature galaxy.
It shone in spite of the daylight, because it was surrounded by a ring
of darkness that didn't even contain any stars, as if the star only
shone because it had absorbed all the light surrounding it. It was
impossible to judge how far away it was, but it had to be at least a
few streets... Sakaki guessed it had to be somewhere near Chiyo's
house, in fact.
"A BLACK HOLE?!?" Kagura yelled, starting to lose it.
"Its not a black hole." Chiyo said, shivering. "If it was, we'd be
compressed into a time-space singularity by now."
"Then what the hell is it?"
"I don't know, I don't know!" Chiyo just replied.
Sakaki looked at the thing in the sky, then down at the school grounds.
There were now more monsters there than people.
"We have to get out of here."
"What?" Chiyo stared at her. "You mean go down there?"
"Yes."
"No! No! They'll kill us!"
"We might be able to escape." Sakaki reasoned. "We have a much better
chance running across the grounds with the monsters there than we
would getting down those stairs if they tried to come up here. We're
safe up here, but soon we might be trapped. And..." She pointed at the
strange star in the sky. "Don't you think it would be good if we got
further away from that?"
Chiyo and Kagura took a look and both nodded.
"So you think we can just run for it?" Kagura asked.
Sakaki nodded.
"They're not very fast. It's our best chance."
"But..." Kagura looked unsure, but then almost exploded "I don't want
to run away! We have to do something!"
"We can't." Sakaki replied, calmly but sadly.
"But that first girl was Yukita!"
Sakaki gave Kagura a blank look.
"She was a second year in the swim team, and she was good! But I guess
you wouldn't know about that, Miss Go-Home club! You wouldn't know
about Kei-kun the pitcher who was that boy you saw, or Izumi who I
played tennis against, all you're caring about is saving yourself!"
"Stop, Kagura-san!" Chiyo yelled shrilly. "This isn't helping!"
There was a lengthy pause, where each girl realized the other two were
crying.
"I'm sorry. I want to help people." Sakaki eventually said. "But the
first step toward that is going to be saving ourselves. We have to run,
and hope we meet our friends on the way. Because aside from that,
there's nothing we can do."
Kagura grimaced, but reluctantly nodded. "Okay."
Chiyo just looked nervous.
"But... but... I can't run very well..." she said, her voice quavering.
"I'll just slow you down..."
"It's okay." Sakaki told her. "We won't leave you behind." And with
that she stooped down and picked Chiyo up, clutching her to her chest
so that Chiyo's face looked back over Sakaki's left shoulder. On any
smaller girl this would be too much to run with, but Sakaki was very
tall and Chiyo was rather short. Chiyo put her arms around Sakaki's
neck.
"Sakaki-san?" Chiyo said, embarrassed but suddenly hopeful. "You don't
need to..."
"It's okay. Don't worry." Sakaki looked at Kagura. "Lets go."
She headed for the steps back down. Kagura followed, but not before
picking up the piping Sakaki had discarded.
They crept downstairs. There weren't any of those creatures on the
stairs thankfully, and they took it slow to conserve energy. But soon
they arrived on the second floor, where the steps stopped, and they
were faced with a long corridor with a corner at the end.
"The main stairs will be closest." Kagura said. "If we get down there,
we just need to hope the entrance is clear."
"There's something there." Sakaki said.
"Huh?" Kagura took a careful look at the corridor. There didn't seem
to be anything there, although the shadows seemed to be more pronounced
than usual.
Then a shadow moved, a circle of darkness sweeping across the floor,
and one of the monsters rose out of it.
"Those things are in the shadows." Sakaki quietly said.
"What? What do you mean?" Chiyo asked anxiously, as she was facing the
wrong way.
"We can't go this way." Kagura tightened her grip on the metal pipe.
"It's that or we can wait for them to come to us." Sakaki replied.
"Fine. Then let's make a race of it." Kagura suggested, averting her
eyes from her friend. "We'll both run as fast as we can and not stop
under any circumstances, all right?"
"That's not very fair," Chiyo began, "Sakaki-san is carrying me!"
"It sounds fine." Sakaki just replied. "I hope we both win.
"Me too." Kagura said. "I'll start us. On your marks..."
Sakaki and Kagura got ready.
"Get Set..."
They tensed their muscles...
"GO!"
The two athletes leapt forward, tearing down the passage as fast as
they could, breaking every rule of corridor ettiquite they knew of.
The first monster they reached had barely noticed them by the time
Kagura sped past, followed closely by Sakaki. They dodged another and
slalomed past a third and a fourth before they finally reached the
corner.
Both girls ran round it without looking and took off full-tilt
towards the stairs, but there was a lot more in the way of opposition
here. Kagura blew past a group of three creatures but Sakaki had to
twist to avoid crashing into them. Then a group of four reared up in
front of them, fully aware of the three desperate girls' escape
attempt. They blocked the corridor, but Kagura raised her pipe and beat
one of the middle ones over the head with it, driving it to the ground
and knocking over one of it's friends too. Sakaki jumped though the gap
this left and sped on, until a group of five blocked the corridor ahead
of her. There was no way though... but Sakaki spied a sign above their
heads.
"3-3"
The rear door to her classroom was on her left! And it was open! She
shot though the door and slammed it shut behind her, before almost
collapsing to the ground with Chiyo in her arms. For once she had
severely overestimated her own stamina and now she was out of puff. But
this room was safe... there was nothing here.
Sakaki was so relieved that it took her a while to realize something
she'd missed while she'd been 'in the zone.' Chiyo was /screaming/ in
her ear, struggling in her hands and pulling her hair. Sakaki received
a kick to her stomach as Chiyo finished a near-unintelligible scream -
"...aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!!"
- and relaxed, burying her face in Sakaki's shoulder and shaking
uncontrollably. Sakaki tightened her grip on Chiyo and put a hand on
the back of her head, inbetween the girl's pigtails.
"It's okay, Chiyo, it's okay."
Chiyo seemed to calm down a little, but didn't stop sobbing. She
quietly murmured "Kagura-san..."
... and Sakaki turned to face the door she'd closed behind her as she
ran, a terrible feeling of guilt suddenly overwhelming her.
"Kagura!"
The tall girl stood there, frozen to the spot, waiting for Kagura to
yell angrily or open the door, but nothing happened. Then it suddenly
shook, as if something on the other side was trying to push it open
instead of sliding it. She took a step back, feeling incredibly
vulnerable and trapped, and took a look at the room.
It was horrible.
Something strange was happening. The white walls were sagging, turning
the colors of infected bruises and rotten fruit. The windows were
opaque with a sickly green tint and there were sags and ripples in the
glass that reminded Sakaki of when Tomo took to melting plastic with a
lighter. She thought she could see the ceiling drooping in the center.
She backed away from the door, repeating "It's going to be all right"
to Chiyo and them bumped into something, which clattered to the ground
behind her. Spinning to look she saw it was just a desk, but there was
something wrong. The legs had changed color to shades of purple, and
they had bent and sagged under the desk's own weight without breaking
or splintering, like a piece of rubber. She quickly looked up -
nearly two thirds of the desks in the classroom were the same, and the
entire right hand and front rows had collapsed. Her own desk still
stood upright though, as did a few toward the middle and back of the
room, but even as she watched another two slowly wilted and slumped
over, and the teacher's desk sagged at one corner.
Then the only bright thing in the room finally caught her eye. Someone
had been drawing on the chalkboard. A white cat's head sat in the
center - it's mouth was wide open and in it's throat there was a large
gold-rimmed keyhole. The chalklines seemed to glow faintly and Sakaki
felt herself drawn to it, if only because it was the only cute thing in
this room.
Then the door Sakaki had entered though finally started to slide open
and one of the small creatures poked it's head though. Sakaki had to
admit, the way it looked around the corner and blinked it's little eyes
was very cute, but she and Chiyo were far too scared to care about that
now. She backed away up the aisle between the desks, her feet crumpling
and slipping on jotters, pens and belongings that had fallen from the
desks. She had to make it to the other door... but no sooner had she
thought this than the door shook, as something on the other side tried
to open it.
They were trapped.
Sakaki backed up further, heading for the windows. More of the inky
creatures were coming in though the open door - five, six of them,
spreading out and closing in on her, cutting off any escape. Then
Sakaki felt a breeze behind her and Chiyo started to panic - turning,
Sakaki saw that claw marks had been cut into the tainted glass of the
windows and now they were being pulled open from outside, the center
torn away like a maggot biting though the skin of an apple. Another
creature stuck it's head in the resulting hole and Sakaki found herself
scrambling away, racing for Tanizaki-sensei's crippled desk.
Still the creatures on the ground kept advancing, and now the door at
the front of the class finally slid open admitting four more monsters
into the room. They didn't attack at once, just encircled Sakaki, and
Sakaki found herself re-evaluating them. Although they shambled and
crept, they were very much like some cats. Savoring the moment,
watching the prey squirm... Sakaki found herself comparing them to that
black cat, who she sometimes suspected lay in wait for her, so that
she would find it and try to pet it. They were too much like him.
The creature in the lead took another step forward, forcing Sakaki to
back up further toward the chalkboard. The back of her thighs bumped
against the chalkboard's plastic frame, but to Sakaki's shock her upper
body kept moving backwards and went though the chalkboard.
There was briefly an unpleasant dusty taste in her mouth, and her eyes
rebelled for a moment, before Sakaki realized she was seeing the
cats-keyhole picture on the board from the opposite side. She was
looking at the monsters though a stony fog. Then she completely lost
her balance and toppled backwards. The world around her grew dark and
featureless, the only light being the rectangular window into her old
classroom, now overrun by those things.
There was nothing to do but fall. No sound, no wind, only the rectangle
of sickly light above her getting gradually smaller and smaller. She
couldn't hear anything and her ears wanted to pop, but the way Chiyo
shook suggested she was screaming. Sakaki would have liked to have done
that too, but even in a situation like this she was a very reserved
person.
Instead she felt the darkness all around her and the exhaustion in her
body spread to her mind. Sakaki started to black out, and thanks to
Osaka the last things she saw were the letters "OON DOG" on Chiyo's
forehead.
She didn't realize it, but they were lucky to get out before things got
really bad.
End Part 1.1 - Gakuran Girl
Kingdom Hearts was created by Square Enix and Disney.
Azumanga Daioh was created by Kiyohiko Azuma and belongs to him, Genco,
J.C. Staff and ADV.
This fanfic is a non-profit work created purely for recreational
purposes, the author does not claim ownership of anything contained
within it.
This is the beginning of a Kingdom Hearts mega-crossover tentatively
titled "Unsung Heroes." It probably won't be as dark as this all the
way though, but I felt I really needed to effectively establish the
danger these things pose.
Future instalments of the story will be posted under a [KH/Lots] tag
instead of the [Azumanga/???] tag this one had.
It's been a long, long time since I last wrote prose - I've spent most
of the last two years in perpetual writers block. Comments on the
style are completely welcome, as it still feels a bit rusty to me.
Still, it gave me a lot of time to think about this fic and I think I
can make it work, so the benefit of the doubt would be appreciated.
;-)
Thanks for reading.
Part 1.2 is "The Dancer and the Soldiers"
GKScotty
steven@imdanet.com
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