Alternate RPG:Season of the Sakura
Started:Dec 28, 1999
Started by Zoisite

Another bright sunny day with the bird singing and enough of a chill in the air to be comfortable. The sun shone down on people cheerfully moving about smiling and laughing. It was enough to make Zoisite want to be ill. Sliding a pair of dark sunglasses over his glittering jade eyes, he merely mumbled to himself in a language gone unheard since the Silver Millennium. School... how could Nephrite make him go to school of all places? As far as he understood it, school was a place of torture where children had to sit most hours of the day. If asked, he would have protested that this was just a way for Nephrite to get rid of him for a time. *Must still be upset about me wiring his hairdryer to the Dark Kingdom's security system again* Zoisite mused to himself as he pushed open the front door of Juuban High.
With a miserable sigh, he glanced down at the schedule. At least he was listed as Zachery Sanjouin... Sanjouin Masato's little brother. Just how much more tied could he get to his nemesis? Wrinkling his nose in distaste, he slumped down into his seat as the teacher started to drone on. Glancing at the other sophomores, he seemed less than impressed or still in shock from being locked in this place. Lifting a hand to his jacket, he poked about for a few moments, withdrawing a small crystal cupped in the palm of his hand. Sliding it under the desk, the article held firmly to the wood, quickly starting its main purpose of collecting energy. He may have been trapped, but he refused to be bored. As class dragged on, he wasn't overly surprised when about three of the students went home early, complaining of the flu. Capturing up his books in his thin arms, the little sakura was at least cheerful now as he headed for his next class... the collector crystal held firmly in one hand.

Michiru pushed her hair over her shoulder as she walked down the hallway. her eyes fell onto a young man with long blonde hair. *Wow..who is THAT!* he mind cried. *Must be new I would have picked him up LONG time ago.* she thought. She smoothed out her skirt and made her way over with a flashy smile. "Hi, you must be new here." she said.

Zoisite blinked up with an almost puzzled expression as the teal haired female started chattering away to him. *reminds me of a chipmunk* he thought vaguely. Finding his voice, he pasted a false smile over his lips, remembering Nephrite's last warning before he left that if he heard about any massive blood baths that Zoisite would spend the next century or three scrubbing the cobwebs out of the darkest corners of the Dark Kingdom. "Sanjouin Zachery..." he murmured in reply. His emerald eyes kept leaping from person to person like a trapped animal's. Why did it have to be a female... "Yes, my brother just enrolled me here. Said that some time in a public school versus the Academy would do me some good. I think I'm late for," a quick peek at the schedule, "Music Composition?" Zoisite made a vow to himself that Nephrite was going to die a long and painful death someday for selecting these classes for him...

Michiru watched him go off. "He likes to play hard to get..I'll have to remember that." she muttered and headed off to class.

Coach Sanjouin watched the students go off to their classes. He chuckled at the encounter with the 'run around Sue' of the school and Zachery. *Oh that will be fun to tease him about later.* he thought, his attention was deviated when a fight broke out in the gym. *Not again!* he thought and went in to break it up.

Darien stomped into the school, his handsome features twisted into a scowl. His editor, acting upon some unknown wisdom that all editors used, had insisted Darien's "alien invasion" stories were scaring all the readers away, so to make up for his one-tracked mind, he now had to write some human-interest articles. And the first one happened to be about some stupid award winning program that the Juuban administration was crowing about. "My dumb luck," Darien muttered looking around the maze for a sign or something that would point the way to the administration office. He sighed running a hand through his hair and covered his scowl of irritation with a bland mask that quickly faded into an expression of amusement. Dressed in dark, snug jeans, a wife beater and gray flannel, he was definitely attracting the attention of several school girls as he wandered down the halls looking for the office.

Giving no more thought to the female as she finally released him from her presence, he gave Nephrite a generous scowl. At least they hadn't cursed him with that class. Shuddering at the thought of even running about for no reason, he blinked up at the man the just brushed by him. Jade green eyes briefly touched upon Darien's sapphire ones before sliding away with the quickness of a thief in the night. *Not bad looking at all* Zoisite mused with a rolling of his eyes as the bell rang. Tardy... lovely. Taking one last glance at the darkly clad man, he eyed the classroom door with indecision. Just what would Nephrite do to him if he skipped just one measily little class. Ignoring the line of students standing outside the nurse's office complaining of the flu, he grumbled. His luck, some busybody teacher would tell 'Coach Sanjouin' that his little brother failed to show up.

Michiru stood in the hallway as the tardy bell sounded. *Oh well..late again. Think I'll skip it today.* she thought with a sigh. "Hey..isn't that?" she muttered. "Darien!" she called and went over to him. "What are you doing here? Here to rescue me from the burdens of school life?" she asked. *Please don't say you saw me flirting with that cute guy!* she thought.

Jeremy sighed as he dropped the third jock with a snap kick to his groin. He glanced at the fourth who decided to just back off and then he glanced down at the one who had instigated the incident and spoke is his even monotone, "Perhaps next time you think you can get a couple quick 'sucker' hits in on one of the new kids you won't." He merely nodded at the student had been the original victim and groaned inwardly at the coach's approach.

Turning around, Zoisite's gaze flickered from left to right. Assured that no one seemed to be watching him at present, he turned away from the classroom door and wandered down the hallway. Even Nephrite seemed to be having problems of his own to worry about... perfect. Running her head through the various pockets scattered about his form, he plucked out four empty collector crystals. Light refracted dully off of their surfaces, seeming to try to draw it in instead of shower it back in a spray of colors as most prisms did. Sliding the first into an empty locker, he activated it with a touch. Slowly, it would begin to draw energy from the students and fill itself... when it reached that point, it would be a solid black. With Nephrite unaware, it might be the perfect time to try to slink back into their superior's graces with a few extra bargaining chips. Backstabbing generally was the order of the day. In the chemistry lab, a student fainted in the middle of an experiment, starting a small fire. It was blamed on a combination of the fumes rolling off of the experiment in progress and the flu. While standing in the hall talking to a friend, a girl dropped to the floor, shaking and chilled. Once more, it was explained away to the flu and overexertion. During gym class, five more had to be taken away. All complained of extreme fatigue. This had naturally thrown the school's office into chaos as they dealt with worried parents, teachers, and now... a reporter.

Tashande sat outside, laying on the ground. He checked his watch, then resumed his nap. The newest (and most reluctant) of the senshi was waiting for class to end so he could possibly catch one of the other senshi on their way out. Then the fire alarm went off. He suddenly perked up and got to his feet, watching kids rush out. Some of them fell to the side and passed out. Others collapsed and were nearly trampled.

The Coach walked up to the group. "alright, what did you do this time?" he asked Jeremy with an evil eye. "Everytime I turn around you're..." he said and was cut off by the fire alarm. "We're not suppose to have a drill today." he muttered. "Alright everyone outside." He then turned to Jeremy. "You got lucky this time."

Jeremy shrugged and monotone, "Makes no difference."

Trailing along at the back of the pack as they wound their way outside, Zoisite seemed to have cheered up immeasurably. He was getting the energy that he wanted, he didn't have to worry about these mortals poking about him, and most of all, he didn't have to deal with Nephrite. Perhaps this school thing was so bad. Briefly he eyed Jeremy, the one who had been fighting in Nephrite's class. Not too bad looking, but a tad too muscular for him. Probably one of those all brawn, no brains type. It was a wonder he and that Michiru girl weren't together. Lifting his shoulders in a soft shrug to himself, he boosted himself via a little telekenesis onto the top of the stone wall to look out over the sea of student that waited to see what caused the alarm. Folding one lithe leg over the other, his jade gaze turned back to the building as well.

Darien shook his head as a quirky grin brightened his features. "Sorry, beautiful, I'm here to work, but if you want, I could be.. talked into rescuing a damsel in distress." He leaned against a wall, his smile growing. "Though I don't know if damsel describes you.." his teasing was cut off by the fire alarm and with a sigh, he grabbed Michiru's hand and headed for the nearest exit. "Looks like I was talked into it," he said softly.

Michiru smiled at Darien as he led her outside. her eyes once again fell on Zachary, who was sitting on the wall. "That's the new kid. I tried to welcome him to the school, but he gave me a cold shoulder, or was playing hard to get one of the two." she said to Darien.

Sanjouin stood beside his class and sighed as the girls complained that their make-up was still inside. he finally turned and told them all to shut up or run laps. It got them quiet. Then one boy fell over. "Couch, I don't feel well. I'm tired and want to go home." Sanjouin sighed and made the kid stand up. "You were up late studying again, weren't you. Well, you're not getting out of my class. You'll stay until class is over. Besides, you're not even running a fever."

With a faint yawn, Zoisite glanced up to Michiru and Darien as they strode out of the school doors. Waving a hand towards them, he sighed mentally. This was taking entirely too long, and not nearly enough students were dropping. Then again, if anymore fell sick, he'd have Nephrite to deal with. Sliding the wire rim glasses off, he rubbed the spots were they sat. Briefly his gaze settled on Darien, something about that one unsettling him once more. Slipping his glasses back on, he tilted his head in curiosity, simply studying the dark haired man for now as 'Coach Sanjouin' yelled at another of his reluctant students. Jeremy escaped his notice for the moment, as well as Tashande... there was too much interference around for him to single out just one, perhaps luckily for all.

Tashande looked around, too. *There* It was that one weird kid with the messed up face. He pushed his way over to him. "What's going on?" he asked. Immediately he thought, *Fire drill, dummy*

A pair of green eyes focused on Tashande as he spoke, Zoisite's face expressionless. A cold chill passed over the little sakura's spine at the sight of this one, enough reason to make him wary. Leaning forward to rest his delicate chin in one equally slender hand, he quietly studied Tashande before answering in a bemused voice, "It would appear to be a fire drill of some sort... a fire in the chemistry lab perhaps?"

"Fire?" Tashande said stupidly, "Is it okay?" *Dumbass,* he thought to himself, *You're not Superman*

Minako strolled out of the school, sighing. She'd been in the middle of a History test when the fire alarm went off. Not looking where she was going, she nearly tripped over one of the people slumped on the ground. Carefully picking her way over to a clear spot of grass, Minako wondered what exactly was going on.

"Minako!" yelled Dunican as he came running out of the school. He didn't some of the people slumped on the ground and tripped over them. As he feel forwards he put his hands out and did a hand stand back to his feet. Running over to Minako Dunican stopped by her. "What is going on?" he said and looked around. "Do you the negaverse is behind this? All these people had there energy taken," he said.

Tashande heard Minako's name and saw her sitting on the grass. He quickly pushed his way out of the horde and made his way over to her.

" I would guess so, there's no other explanation," Minako said, pausing to wave over at Tashande who was making his way over, " Unfortunately there's nothing we can really do until we find out exactly who is taking the energy..." she added, scanning the crowd for anything.

A delicately formed brow was arched as the young man wandered away before Zoisite could spit out an answer. So much the better, he supposed as he stretched back out on the top of the wall like a reclining feline. Crossing his ankles once more, his fingertips picked at a sakura blossom, letting the petals drift downwards to the ground. Watching the small group out of the corner of his eye, that feeling of wrongness increased. Finding Nephrite might be a priority now, even if he did hate the man. If something was going to blow up, he wasn't going down alone.

Jeremy closed his eye and ran his gloved hand over the scarred side of this face and the socket, sewn shut, *I've been over this school with a fine tooth and comb and there's no fire, the teachers are all gone so this wasn't a drill.* He kept to the shadows and glanced out at the students around the school before heading back where there was no chance of being spotted, *Something's up, and I am not feeling all that good about it.*

"Flirting again?" Darien laughed, looking up at the boy. "And I thought that I was enough for you," he teased giving her a pouting look. He glanced around at all the other people, some of which were dropping like flies. He frowned. This didn't look right.

Michiru pushed him gently. "Oh you're always suspecting me of flirting. Its like you don't trust me or something." she said and turned her back to him, smiling devilishly. A boy fell on her, almost clawing at her to stay up. "So tired." he muttered and feel. Michiru let out a small scream and clung onto Darien. "What..what's happening?" she asked.

Sliding down off of the wall, Zoisite landed lightly on his feet. With a disinterested glance at the students about him, he began to work his way through the crowd. For one not looking for him, he seemed to blend in perfectly, perhaps some natural form of camouflage or just habit when one prefers to go unnoticed. Coming to a pause, he stared hard at Jeremy. *Too familiar...* Slipping past Tashande and Minako, he stopped as well, examining them. Among all those affected in at least some small manner, those that were immune or slower to react to the effects needed watching. At Michiru's scream, he smirked faintly. *Silly females... why did males like such flighty creatures?*

"I haven't the faintest," Darien muttered in reply. He wrapped his arms around Michiru and pulled her close. "Don't get too close, it might be catching," he whispered in her ear.

Michiru nodded and slumped into Darien's shoulder. "I feel alittle tired." she said with a small yawn. "Why don't we skip the rest of the day and go take a nap." she suggested.

"Study first," Darien teased, tightening his grip on her even while all the little alarms in his skull rang out. Something was seriously wrong here.

Studying Darien and Michiru at his distance, Zoisite shrugged to himself. Harmless it would appear, regardless of the internal sensors they set off. Slipping through the crowd, he crept back into the school through one of the back entrances. Humming softly to himself, he removed the glasses and shifted his clothing back into his steel gray Dark Kingdom uniform. Flicking a mote of dust off of the emerald trim, he stalked through the hallways, the click of his boot heels being the only sound. Picking up one of the crystals he'd set down earlier, he pocketed it with a grin. Full... Beryl-hime would be pleased. Turning back towards his homeroom classroom, he headed for where he'd placed the other three.

Michiru shook her head. "Sorry, dearling, but I can't study now. Good night." she said and slipped off into an unconscious state in Darien's arms.

Nephrite looked around the courtyard. *Zoisite.* his mind said to him. He started walking the halls in search of the Sakura and found him heading in his direction. "And just what are you doing?" he asked.

Zoisite came to a halt, emerald eyes wide as he quickly hid the crystals behind his back, attempting to look as innocent as a newborn lamb. Mind racing to come up with a good excuse to be inside while everyone else was outside, he finally rattled off what he thought was convincing, "I forgot my backpack, and you know how you lectured me about losing the other four..."

Jeremy heard the voices and clenched his fist whispering, "Imperium Power." His black body suit and cowl appeared and he snuck to the corner and listened carefully.

Nephrite smirked. "And why do I not believe you this time?" he asked cooely. "Did you set off the fire alarms..On your fire day? I really expected better than that of you. You're not in elementary school, you know."

Zoisite scowled up at the smirking face of Nephrite. With a growl, he held out the three energy filled crystals to the star king. Once caught, there was little that he could do to dodge his superior, especially given Nephrite's size and power advantage over him. Trying to look innocent, he offered them up to the other man, "I was getting these for you as well..."

Darien froze, the sound of the locket in his pocket sounding louder with all the collapsing kids around him. He eased Michiru down to the ground, softly kissing her, as if it might wake her like in a story.

Michiru moaned softly in her sleep, but didn't awaken.

Nephrite smiled. "Good work, but you know gathering these will cause commotion and there will be questions asked. "Questions I'm not ready to face. Lets go, get these in a safer place in the Kingdom and stay low for a while until this passes over." he said to zoisite.

Zoisite nodded, staying silent as he lifted his loosely clasped hand to his heart in the customary salute of the Dark Kingdom. Sakura blossoms erupted out of thin air, consuming his form as he vanished, leaving behind a few of the pinkish white flowers and the sharp scent of cherries. Reappearing in his own quarters and out of Nephrite's view, Zoisite fell into a blue fury. Anything delicate enough or shatterable was thrown as hard as he could against the far wall. Pillows were shredded by both his nails and thrown ice crystals. Standing in the middle of the destruction, the sakura snarled, emerald eyes sparkling with rage. The bitch Beryl would congratulate Nephrite, he'd get all the glory and probably never mention that Zoisite was the one who'd planned it all and did all the work. Dropping into one of the ruined chairs, he sat in the gloomy darkness of his rooms, already planning the day when he could get rid of not only the other kings but Beryl-hime as well. Jadeite was gone, Nephrite would slip up someday and then Zoisite would execute him. That only left the mysterious ice king, Kunzite, that no one ever saw but everyone knew of the extent of his power. One had to have some manner of intelligence and ability to survive as the first among them. Beryl-hime... well, as far as Zoisite was concerned, she couldn't rule her way across a courtyard. Falling into his own sort of doze, Zoisite dreams were of death and destruction of those three that stood before him.

Darien sat back and gave Michiru's hand a squeeze before whipping out his ever-present cell phone. He first contacted the home office to give a copy editor a brief sketch of what happened, than got ahold of the police and the medics. Police arrived first, followed by a team of medics, who took the collapsed people away on stretchers. After seeing that Michiru was safely tucked away on one, Darien went inside to do a little snooping on his own.

Within the confines of the corridor where Zoisite and Nephrite had stood, a few sakura blossoms blew about, playing tag over Jeremy and Darien's feet. Had one picked them up, they still bore faint psychic taints of the Dark Kingdom general about them... their scent that of sadness if it could have been put into a smell. The weak cherry still clinging to the satiny petals was enough to bring tears to the eyes of most, speaking of a life lived among people but not one of them... an outsider that wanted to be accepted and was not... and now hated everything and everyone with an unending fury. Within minutes, the delicate blooms began to die and wither, leaving no trace of Zoisite's passage.