Loveless Fan Fiction ❯ Flawless ❯ Boy Meets Girl ( Chapter 1 )

I need to rest, and yet as I lie here, awake, I realise that I have come to a most astonishing - and disturbing - conclusion.

Something has gone wrong, in more than just one way. My partner Haruka and I have long been together, but something within our connection as the first dual-gender Zero unit has become frayed and, to some extent, totally useless. I've always told her that she's too free-spirited, but she will always disagree; she claims that I am too cold and analytical, by my own admission. As dorm-mates in college, we have to be able to coexist perfectly - Agatsuma Soubi is too dangerous for us to take on, so long as we can't act as decisively as one mind. I think she's hiding something from me - but why would she if she has nothing to lose? After all, we're partners - she is my fighter and I am her sacrifice.

—-loveless—-

“Haru-chan?”

“Lafayel.” The college student barely looked up. “Good timing, mind. There's a Sentouki nearby.”

“Is it Loveless?”

“Perhaps. Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. I'm going to have a look.” That being said, she strode off, her light hair swishing in the crisp autumn air. She dressed in a gothic manner on her days off, her baggy and chained pants normally paired with a corset and armwarmers. Today was no different; her pants were edged with green, and her corset was matching with the same emerald-green lacing. A darker green scarf hung around her neck, and the armwarmers were black with silver buckles shining on them - besides that shining silver, her light blonde [nearly white] hair was the only bright part of Haruka's body save her milky white skin. Just a few centimetres shorter than Soubi's, her hair was pulled into a ponytail and a small braid hung down from the front as well as the bangs masking her forehead. All in all, Haruka was honestly quite beautiful, if not mainstream.

On the other hand, Lafayel had tanned skin from spending hours in the sun. He was pretty popular - especially with the ladies - but neither he nor Haruka had lost their ears yet; Haruka was never willing to do much, she was `too busy' to have time, and Lafayel adhered to the code of the connection between the two and wanted no other mate.

“Agatsuma Soubi,” Haruka breathed suddenly, stopping when the setting sun illuminated the willowy Sentouki's silhouette. “I declare this to be a battle of spells.”

“I accept,” came the ever-calm voice. Loveless - Aoyagi Ritsuka - stood behind him, looking completely uncaring.

“Sentouki system, activate,” Haruka called, entwining Lafayel's hand with her own.

“Sentouki system on,” the fighter replied.

“Our name is Zero,” both Lafayel and Haruka said in unity. “Ready to fight.”

“We'll let you attack first,” Lafayel laughed. “It's not like it can bother us, anyway.” Haruka glanced at her brown-haired partner, sighing at his carefree demeanour. It didn't matter if he could feel it or not, she would be the one bandaging whatever injuries he received as the sacrifice regardless.

“One thousand leaves, become bladed and slice. Slice into the enemy's arms, legs, face.”

“Wind, scatter the leaves and send them back to their beds of earth. Set the leaves afire, temperature 1000 degrees. Burn all to ash.”

“A funeral pyre, to be doused with water and well-wishes. Ice, restrain the sacrifice, and water, become as snow and fall.”

“That was a good spell, Agatsuma-san. No wonder Ritsu-sensei and Seven-tan speak so highly of your abilities,” Haruka finished, smirking. Now time to do what she had come for. “Cold, blanket all and freeze all at sub-zero temperatures. Lower body temperatures to zero.”

With a thump, her sacrifice succumbed temporarily to the cold, leaving her to Soubi's will. But something was wrong about it… like she had almost planned to lose from the start…

“You lose,” he breathed in her ear, suddenly close.

“That's fine by me. There was something I wanted to ask you, anyway. Lafayel would not approve of me asking this, and would most likely go to Nagisa-sensei and have me terminated. But I must know… are you really Loveless's Sentouki?”

“No. You should know that by now - I originally belonged to Beloved. Aoyagi Seimei.”

“Very well; then I have a request to make. Will you take me with you?”

“Why?”

Gingerly pulling her left armwarmer off, the Sentouki revealed her hand. Visible through the blood was a single word:

`Loveless'.

—-loveless—-

“So you're staying with Soubi-san?”

“If he lets me.”

“He will. I told him to.”

“Ritsuka-kun, I'm your Sentouki now,” Haruka sighed.

“We can fight over this, you know,” Soubi replied rather unhelpfully. “I am his Sentouki.”

“Both of you… I'm going home!” Ritsuka ran out the open door, leaving both fighters confused.

“That will need to be considered, Soubi-san. I am not a Sentouki by nature - Ritsu-sensei made me into one. Also, something I'm sure Nagisa-sensei knows - I'm not a true part of the Zero program.”

“I'm not sure I follow you,” the Sentouki replied.

“Like hell you don't,” she snorted in response. “Because of my tolerance for pain, Nagisa-sensei decided that I could be a part of the Zero program. From there, I went through the same training you did; but I went from a supposedly `nameless' sacrifice to a top Sentouki. You were lucky enough to be born a Sentouki.”

“Not really,” came the reply. “I was born as a sacrifice, but made into a Sentouki. Whatever real name I had was erased, and I became Beloved's.”

“I think I understand, then.” Looking over at the handsome artist, she continued. “Come on… surely you get it… no? Fine, I'll explain. We both are two of the strongest Sentouki currently existing. We were both born as sacrifices and our names were erased so we would be interchangeable. You ended up with Beloved and now Loveless, because you have no name anymore - whatever process Ritsu-sensei used on you permanently erased yours, it seems. For quite some time, I was a Zero and had three different sacrifices, but then my real name showed up and I realized that I had a Sentouki of my own, being an unnatural fighter at Nagisa-sensei's orders. Now do you understand?”

“You're implying that forcefully changed sacrifices become extremely strong Sentouki,” he replied.

“I just don't get you, Soubi-san…” she sighed. One minute, he seemed relatively stupid, the next he showed that he was not only intelligent, he was on par with herself.

“At any rate, you're going to get cold standing out there,” Soubi replied to that, ushering her in.

“Why are you being so friendly with me?”

“Ritsuka-kun told me to be.”

“And you just… obey him?”

“Perhaps you don't understand. These hands,” he said, raising them, “are Ritsuka's. This body,” he continued, gesturing to himself, “is Ritsuka's.”

“Why?”

“Because I am his Sentouki.” The answer was astonishingly simple. The doorbell rang, and Soubi sprung up to get it, catlike in his grace. “This is Kio,” he offered, opening the door to reveal his fellow college student.

“Kon'banwa, Kio-san. I'm Haruka.”

“You've taken in another person, Sou-chan?” Kio seemed to be on edge until Haruka sidled up to him, gently grabbing his hand and leading him away from the door.

“So… who are you? You're pretty cute,” she mused aloud, her demeanour completely changed in the time it took to blink. Smiling slightly, Haruka began giving off a Sentouki aura much like a catlike purr once she noticed the sushi and beer he had brought with him. Of course, Kio was oblivious, but Soubi noticed the change of her fighting presence immediately.

“Aah, anou, I'm Sou-chan's friend from college…” he seemed a little intimidated by her forthright attitude and so she backed down a little, still offering the same `purr'.

“`Sou-chan', huh? You two must go back a bit,” she commented, unpacking the food and ushering Soubi to the small table.

—-loveless—-

Everyone was more than a little bit tired by the time Kio announced that he had to leave. Haruka's lithe form was curled up on Soubi's bed, watching both of the men as they bid each other goodnight, and she was falling asleep there. Once Kio had gone off in his car, she rolled over towards the wall and refused to move.

“If you won't move, I will move you,” the renegade Sentouki warned.

“Aww… c'mon, `Sou-chan', you wouldn't mind, would you?” She pouted a little, curling up and shivering. It was cold outside, cold inside, and just generally cold.

“If you insist,” he replied, simply laying under the covers as he usually would.

A moment later…

“Oi, oi! You're taking up too much space, Sou-chan!”

“How long are you going to call me that?”

“I don't know. I'll consider stopping if you stop laying on my leg.”