Significantly Lost . . . [Hiei]

[» broken coda]

[/i] look up once more, to perhaps find some factor of recognition in the hall in which she found herself; but, alas, none was there and she, once again, dubbed herself lost.

The petite pink-haired girl had lost all sense of time in her pointless wandering, and every path way she took seemed to lead her to the same main hall way; no one was around, so there was no one from whom she could ask directions. The only noise she had heard for what must have been hours was the soft shuffling of her tired foot-steps, so it was natural for her to be surprised and somewhat happy when she heard a few boys talking in the vicinity. Her ears perked up at the sound -- they seemed to be in conversation with one another -- and, before she could realize what she was doing, she ran toward where their voices were coming from and rounded the corner, nearly colliding with the students that stood there.

[/color]"Sorry to disturb you --" she said to them, backing up a few steps and looking up to face them. They must have been middle-school students, she decided, judging by the blue of their uniforms, whereas the one Mirany was clad in was red plaid.

The expressions on their faces seemed surprised, so Mirany continued: " -- but I'm --" She paused, however, when the two older boys grinned at each other and walked over to her, each step slow and agonizing. They looked sort of... well, malicious, as their eyes never moved from Mirany, who happened to be the innocent target that had stumbled upon the bullies. " -- lost..." she finished her sentence, her eye brows knitting from worry, or perhaps from fear. Her eyes locked with theirs, but she quickly averted her gaze, not liking the way they were looking at her. She considered apologizing again -- maybe they were angry at her for bumping into them? -- but then one of them spoke, his voice malevolent, his expression decidedly angry.

"Hey, little girl..." he said, as his companion's grin widened; they had backed her into a corner now, and the one who had spoken grabbed her arm as the other one spoke. "You're going to wish you had never run into us..." Mirany's eyes widened slightly, and she backed up as much as she could as a slight fear crept into her heart; oh no, what had she gotten herself into?

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[Hiei]

"Ain't it funny how people attempt to increase their self-esteem by picking on the younger and smaller people? Pathetic, I saw. Though, I have to say, it's very entertaining watching people deceive themselves."

First, that voice would seem to have emerged from everywhere, or at least, to the two seniors. The girl, who was facing their direction, would have seen the figure appear from behind the two seniors. Voice projection was a little trick Hiei had picked up through his training as a Student President. And it had helped him in many situations, like creating distractions and in this case, hiding his presence. The two seniors glanced to their left, to their right and up, trying to catch sight of who this oddly-familiar voice was coming from. Hiei stopped a few feet from them, pulling his hands out of his pockets.

He was wearing the school uniform, though will slightly modification. For one, he added cloth to the bottom of his shorts so that it went past the knee. A fasion preference, so to say. Hiei would look through the bangs of his raven black red-tipped hair, letting his eyes lock with the girl's, whom he presumed to be looking at him by then. Giving her a nod, he gestured for her to get out of there, or at least, find somewhere where she would be safe until Hiei was done dealing with the seniors.

Now, Hiei should not even be there, but he found that classes were getting a little boring for him, especially considering that it was Christmas and he had more important things to waste his brain cells on. And not wanting to get caught by teachers or bots, he turned to the Middle School complex, knowing that none of the teachers would have thought that he would be here. After all, he was the Student President of the Elementary Branch and any Middle School student knew about his somewhat large reputation in terms of combat. The defeat of Hiei comes with a prize of big popularity in the Academy. It was a risky move coming here, but Hiei had been able to avoid the middle school students. Up till then, that is, when another lost sheep fell into the hands of the older wolves.

It was then that the seniors followed the girl's eyes, turning around on their heels as they finally found him. Their eyebrows furrowed, Hiei noticed. Their teeth were baring too. Hiei raised his head a bit, peering through from under the bangs of his hair. Now, it was only through his hair that these males were able to recognise him. For one, his hair colour was unique. Black with blood-red highlights and tips and his naturally red eyes confirmed their identity guess on him. Then, the one on the right stuck his right index finger out at Hiei, letting out threat in a form of a yell.

"Get out of here, Hiei! You may be the President in the Elementary Branch, but in here, you're nothing but a pathetic whelp!"
"Yeah, we're going to beat you down into a pulp."

The other continued, slapping his right fist onto his left palm for added effect. Hiei was not sure whether that was meant to scare him, or it was meant to help increase his own self-confidence. Hiei only opened his mouth, raising his head as he shot back a simple, yet effective, comment.

"Oooh, really?"

That certainly angered them.

[» broken coda]

[/color]"Where do you think you're going?

At the same moment, the other one shouted at the boy who had just arrived: "Get out of here, Hiei! You may be the President in the Elementary Branch, but in here, you're nothing but a pathetic whelp!" and the one who had Mirany's arm captive added on: "Yeah, we're going to beat you down into a pulp."

Their voices were decidedly malevolent, but their faces held some sort of fear of this boy that Mirany now knew to be called 'Hiei.' She also now knew that he was the Student President of the Elementary Branch, which she was slightly surprised to find out -- she had had no idea that the Elementary Branch even had a Student Government.

She realized that she had been yet again staring, so she averted her gaze at the same moment that Hiei replied -- "Oooh, really?" Those two simple words seemed to have a dire effect on the two seniors, for their expressions turned to anger and the grip one of them held on Mirany's arm tightened, causing her to wince slightly. They didn't, however, make any move to go attack Hiei -- perhaps they were too scared to.

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[Hiei]

Hiei gritted his teeth. His plan had been foiled, the girl getting caught by the one to his right. That was not good. He needed to get her out as fast as possible. He knew what these middle students were capable. He was also aware that they had somewhat a lack of teachers and as such lack of discipline. Whatever they can do to this student, there was still a chance the would get away with it, but Hiei was not going to all that to happen. These students were under him, they were his responsibility. If anything happened to them and no one took action, he would.

If he had known that his taunt would only bring more pain to the female student, he would not have used it. Unfortunately, history could not be altered and he already had. All he could do was repent for it. And that meant that he was going to have to save the student while putting her into as least danger as possible. If these guys hurt her anymore than they already had, Hiei was going to take action. Lowering his head and looking menacingly through his red-tipped bangs, he would shoot another threat at them.

"Now, let's not get fiesty here. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I suggest we go by the easy way. Just let go of the girl, back off and let me bring her back to the Elementary branch."

The hard way was kept unsaid. Hiei did not have to explain it. He knew these seniors were smart enough to understand what he meant, but if they were indeed to ask, which would surprise Hiei indeed, he would only simply reply and say that he would make them. His right hand then stuck out, his hand opened wide as he pretended to summon the Dark Dragon. He did not want to have to release the demon. The space around them was too small for him to control the black dragon properly. All he had to do was pretend, though. Hopefully they would get the message and realise just how serious he was.

And he need not fear these students. He still had his martial arts skills to boot. He could beat down these students. True, it'll be easier with his Alice, but the surroundings deprived him of that leasure. He had to do it in a more physical way indeed.

"What say you?"

[» broken coda]

[/color]"Now, let's not get fiesty here. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I suggest we go by the easy way. Just let go of the girl, back off and let me bring her back to the Elementary branch," -- if it had been Mirany he had been glaring at with that stare, she would have given in to him in just a moment, too frightened to stand her ground. Even if it wasn't she he was threatening, she could still feel herself growing more frightened by as the seconds passed by, knowing somehow that he would have an attack impending and at hand.

The older student didn't loosen his hold on her arm, but the two of them backed up slightly as Hiei held out his hand, palm open wide. Mirany appeared to be the only one in the vicinity that had no idea what was going on, for Hiei seemed very serious and the two seniors seemed to understand and comprehend that -- they looked frightened, yet tried to hide it with angry expressions. Perhaps he was going to use his Alice, Mirany mused silently, looking at his outstretched palm in wonder; a summoning of some sort? She couldn't really tell, and didn't want to throw random guesses about, but she assumed that it was something dangerous, judging by the reactions of the older students.

Glancing between Hiei and the two bullies, Mirany thought hard for some way she could help remove herself from this predicament without either of them getting hurt; her Alice would be of no help unless someone was to get hurt, but she'd prefer to not have to go through that route.

Suddenly, Hiei spoke again, question the older students of their decisions: "What say you?" Mirany could hear the unspoken threat underlying his inquiry, and she had assumed that they'd had enough time to think of a decision, but apparently not, since they seemed to be struggling with some inner turmoil. The senior's grip on Mirany's arm tightened once more, and she was pulled and pushed around like a rag doll as he waved his arms frantically and shouted at Hiei. "Yeah, well we're not afraid of you -- we could take you on any day!" he said, sounding as if he were trying to convince himself more than anyone else; his companion continued for him, his voice shaky with what Mirany presumed to be fear. "Yeah, bring it!"

All the while they had been shooting threats at Hiei, Mirany had been formulating a plan to get out of between them in her mind. And as soon as they had shouted what she assumed to be their last remarks before Hiei would beat them up, she put her plan that had taken her so long to think of into action -- actually, it had been more of a last resort sort of thing, the only plan she could conglomerate that didn't involve anyone getting seriously hurt. So, she raised her foot and kicked the one who had her arm in a rather sensitive area, whispering "sorry" to him as she did so, her short frame giving her an advantage and allowing her to duck out from between them as one released her arm, which was now slightly sore, and cringed in pain, and the other watched in surprise, his gaze continuously averting from his friend to the small girl who had just attacked aforementioned friend.

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[Hiei]

It seemed that they wanted it the hard way. Hiei gritted his teeth. He had been hoping to avoid to have to resort to violence, but it seemed that it was the only way nowadays to get a message across. His right hand suddenly clenched, the young male letting out a growl. The girl was dragged around, only angering Hiei. He was about to dash forward, though, as the girl finally and suddenly retaliated, throwing a kick at the older male's groin. The three males went silent, Hiei and the other student watching as the attacked male doubled over, both his hands over his groin, his face cringed with pain, moans escaping his lips as he fell on his knees.

That had got to hurt.

Hiei pushed the thought out of his head as he took this opportunity, breaking into a quick sprint, watching as the other student finally regained his composure as he stepped up, his right hand raised and poised to strike a slap at the girl's face, an attempt to avenge his friend. Hiei quickened his pace and soon enough, he was between the girl and the other male, his right foot in the lead, the girl to his right and the male to his left. Both of his hands were to his right side, his eyes completely on the male's as the slap continued to come in, now threatening to hit Hiei too. He was not going to get that chance. Hiei swung his upper body around, his left hand coming up, the fore arm colliding with the male's forearm and stopping the attack completely with his right fist went upwards from his right waist, sending a rising jab at the male's face.

The attack connected, the sound of flesh against flesh reaching Hiei's ears as the male flew backwards in surprise, his nose bleeding and most probably broken. Upon landing on the ground, he went silent for a moment, before letting out a loud yelp as he reached for his bleeding nose, obviously in pain. Hiei lowered both hands, taking a deep breathe. They had managed to put them down, but only for a while. Turning around, he qucikly grabbed the girl's hand, opposite the aching one.

"Come on, quick!"

At that, he started running away, no longer wanting to put the girl in danger. True, he could easily stay behind and bring down these older students, but it would get messy and Hiei was unsure whether he could still keep the girl safe till then. He would run to a cross road, before turning to a right. And 2 seconds into that road, he would drag the girl into a bush to the side, kneeling himself down beside it, placing his hand then on her shoulder in an attempt to quickly lower her to his side. They had no chance of outrunning these seniors, so his only choice was to outwait them. Turning to the girl for a moment, he whispered to her.

"Are you ok?"

[» broken coda]

[/i] tried to hurt her, or something of that sort, anyway. The thoughts were quickly chased out of her head, however, when she realized that the un-maimed older student had raised his hand as if to slap her, and she lost all reason at that moment, intending to run away but instead just standing there, petrified, her eyes shut tight and waiting for the blow.

It never came, though, and she opened her eyes a moment later and, to her surprise, saw Hiei standing in front of her, probably intending to take the blow for her. She knew he wouldn't just do that, however, and her presumption was proved right when he stopped the slap mid-way and jabbed the senior's face; the sound of what she assumed to be a bone breaking reached her ears, and she watched in silence for a moment, stunned. She had no time for any other thoughts, however, before the Student President grabbed her hand, applying caution to not take the one that had been roughly grabbed by the older student, and shouted, [/color]"Come on, quick!" as he pulled her in the opposite direction.

She ran behind him, barely being able to keep up as his grip on her hand remained firm. They made many abrupt turns, and Mirany only narrowly avoided falling many times because of Hiei's hand that was pulling her along. He made a quick jerk to the right and jumped into a nearby bush, Mirany following but stumbling more than jumping. Now that they were safely behind full shrubbery and out of sight from the two older students, who she doubted would be following them so soon, she took the time to catch her breath and nodded when he asked if she was all right, whispering a quiet, "th-thank you."

[/ul][/font][ Blah, it's short. Dx ][/size]

[Hiei]

He returned the nod as she expressed her gratitude to him. At that, his eyes left her for a moment as he looked out from the bush, both his eyes and ears sharp and trying to search for any trace of the two middle-branch student. By now, they should have recovered and were already starting to look for them. If they had a healing Alice of sort, it was only more dangerous. They had to stay there, just in case. Hiei had yet to see their Alices and he was not going to take any chances and be caught off-guard. But his attention, of course, was not fully on the seniors. After a few seconds, his eyes and attention returned to the girl, looking at her for a moment, before letting his eyes glance down to her arm. Turning around but keeping himself hidden behind the bush, he reached out and grabbed the wrist of the said arm. Raising it to get a better look, he inquired.

"How does your arm feel?"

Looking back up at her, he started to refresh the moment earlier in his mind. Those two seniors seemed familiar, as if Hiei had met them before. Then again, judging from their personality, Hiei would have. Many times, he had protected most of the Elementary branch from the abusive seniors. And most of the times, they were by the same people. Perhaps this was not just the first time he had clashed with them? Then again, Hiei never really considered them as significant opponents so he never bothered to remember their name. Speaking of names, he never got hers. True, it was not really a good time for it, but it would probably help him in the future, when there was a need to call her. After all, they might just get seperated. Keeping his voice audible only to her, he whispered.

"If you haven't got it, by the way, my name's Hiei. Hiei Valentine."

He never had to ask. By introducing himself, he had also asked her an unsaid question. It was, after all, only proper manners to introduce yourself. And Hiei considered the females being the better-mannered among the two genders. Though, more than often, he was proven wrong by a few rude and annoyingly hyperactive girls.

Same here...

[» broken coda]

[/color]"It's fine now..." she replied, her voice trailing off.

The silence that fell between them was slightly awkward, so Mirany looked away, peeking out through the bushes again. She wasn't sure what she was looking for; if the two older students were going to appear, she and Hiei would probably hear them before they actually got to them -- they hadn't seemed very capable of staying quiet or being stealthy. Or maybe they could be when they wanted to. At the moment, however, it didn't seem as if they would be appearing, so she stopped looking for them and instead raised her hazel gaze up to the skies, watching the clouds drift by.

She was woken from her reverie at the sound of Hiei's voice again, low enough for only her to hear: "If you haven't got it, by the way, my name's Hiei. Hiei Valentine." She had known his name to be 'Hiei' when the seniors had shouted at him and addressed him as so, but it was nice for him to introduce himself to her -- Mirany had completely forgotten to give him her name, although the situation had never really allowed time for it.

She replied as a means of common courtesy, introducing herself to him. "Shirakeru, Mirany," she said in a low voice, turning her head slightly to face him with a small smile on her face. "It's nice to meet you, Hiei-san!"
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[Hiei]

And she could still smile. Unfortunately, Hiei could not return the favour. The Student President found no need to smile, nor did he find any urge to. He had not smiled for a long time already and if he did not know any better, he might have already forgotten how to smile. The muscles around his lips had been so used to a thin line that it had forgotten how to smile already. Her name was Shirakeru Mirany. Another Japanese. Majority of the Academy's population was Japanese, mostly due to this Academy being the Japanese branch. And Hiei felt rather shameful to say that despite him being Japanese, he did not know how to speak his own language.

Then, footsteps reached his ears. His eyes widening, his right hand raised, stopping right in front of Mirany's face, gesturing for her to keep silent as he lowered himself further down, not wanting to be seen. The footsteps were coming and they were coming quick. And for some reason, Hiei had a bad feeling about this. Leaning in closer to Mirany and placing his lips closer to her ears, he whispered to her, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

"Mirany... How fast can you run? Cause I need you to run at that direction as fast and as long as you can."

With that, he pointed at the direction opposite from where the crossroads was. Basically, behind them. There were trees, bushes and plains, soft of like a small controlled garden. She would have no problem getting through and the natural environment would hide her from plain view of the seniors. True, it was dangerous splitting up like that, but with the plan Hiei had in his mind, it was the only way he could get her out of harm's way.

"I'll catch up with you later."

[» broken coda]

[/i] any other person, and problems seemed to follow her around, if not already by her. And even if no problem would reach her there as she ran, she would probably end up tripping over her own two feet like she usually ended up doing anyway. Even so, trying couldn't bring any harm, right? Or much of it, anyway... Mirany was willing to take the risk, and apparently, so was Hiei.

As she stood up in one fluid motion and started running towards where he had gestured, she could hear his whisper drifting lazily off into the wind as she left it behind her. [/color]"I'll catch up with you later."


It didn't take her long to reach the foliage that sprouted out of the ground without event -- i.e., her falling and risking them both getting caught by the seniors -- and it didn't take her long to pick the tree behind which she would hide; it's trunk was thick and sturdy, worn and aged over time, as it's peeling bark told. But it would certainly be enough for her to hide behind.

Now safely behind a tree, she glanced back towards where Hiei sat, crouched and ready to spring up and fight, if need be. Back at the intersection, however closer the sound of footsteps was coming, the two older students had yet to appear.
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[Hiei]

Keeping his ears locked onto the sound of the footsteps, he judged the position on the two seniors. At the same time, he watched Mirany make a run for it. Upon entering the small model of wilderness, Mirany was out of Hiei's sight. With her safety taken care of, he turned back towards the intersection, or what he could see of it through the thick bush. The footsteps were coming close. Hiei clenched his fists, getting ready to strike. Though, surprisingly, he released none of his demons. He found no need for them just yet. After all, neither seniors had yet to display their Alices just yet. Hiei was a fighter and an analyst. Unless he discovered their Alices, Hiei would have a hard time thinking up of the best approach. Until then, he was keeping his demons at bay. And he would wait.

At that, the footsteps stopped. Hiei's eyes widened in alert. Where had they gone too? The Student President had not seen anyone pass through the intersection. Something was wrong. Unless they entered the green and natural section of this pathway, he would have at least seen them pass through the intersection. Wait, what? Gulping silently, he twisted himself around as he looked towards Mirany's direction, behind him, thinking that they had somehow found her first. His eyes only widened, though, as he heard a shuffling sound behind him, the area in front of him suddenly covered by a shadow, appearing at a blink of an eye. His heart almost skipped a beat.

"Well, well. Look who it is."

Hiei turned around, only to find himself meeting face-first with a fist. The smaller male was thrown backwards, landing on the grass on his upper back. Hiei rolled back once, stopping as he laid on the stomach, his eyes closed as he tried to ease away the pain on his chin. He had tried to dodge the attack earlier, though he was only able to redirect the attack from his nose to his chin. Opening his eyes as he raised his head, he hoisted himself onto all fours, noticing that one of the seniors was standing where he had been at earlier. The senior was grinning.

Hiei could have sword, he had not heard him coming at all. How was that possible? Another question hit his head. Where was the other senior? A soft hissing sound filled his ears, coming from below him. Still on all fours, he lowered his head in shock as he saw a fist emerging from his very shadow. It rocketted upwards, colliding hard against his stomach and throwing him upwards, off the ground. His eyes stayed open, watching as the other senior emerged from his shadow, now complete in his figure before Hiei even landed on the ground, a grunt escaping from his lips as he clutched at his stomach. That was no light hit. Quickly getting to his knees and one hand, his other arm still over his stomach, he gritted his teeth as he looked at the two seniors. He was certainly in a very sticky predicament.

[» broken coda]

[ Sorry for the much-delayed reply. ]

Mirany had judged it safe to close her eyes for a moment and release a small sigh, but apparently not, since, upon opening the hazel optics, the two seniors were no longer in her line of vision. Heart beating quickly, she glanced around frantically to see where they had gone to; just a moment prior, their footsteps had stopped -- Hiei also, she saw, glanced towards her and seemed to be looking for them. As her eyes fell upon him, though, they widened at the sight of one of the two seniors, who had somehow silently slipped behind him, his threatening shadows hovering over Hiei ominously. How exactly had he gotten there -- and where was the other one? Surely they couldn't have run that whole distance silently in the short amount of time during which her eyes had been closed.

She couldn't, however, waste time thinking about this just now, for the senior had flung his fist back, ready to strike a blow. Eyes wider than before, if that was even possible, her breath caught in her throat and she raised a shaky arm to point behind Hiei, who must have seen her look of fear, for, at that moment, he whipped around, just in time to meet the fist of the opposing seniors.

She watched, petrified, as her fear grew -- but she wouldn't just stand there and do nothing. As Hiei was thrown backwards from the force of the blow, Mirany ran forward towards the senior, hoping she might be able to surprise him from behind without him noticing. What she would do when she was behind him, however, she knew not -- there was nothing in her power that she could possibly do to harm him, or perhaps even just scare him off. She wasn't, however, thinking of this; her impulsive instinct had taken over, and nothing would stop her from being as much of an advocate as humanly possible for her.

As Mirany ran towards the senior, Hiei was being beaten up, and pretty badly, at that. They had both converged on him now, two ominous seniors surrounding the younger boy that had fallen. One of them had, once again, pulled back his fist to throw another punch at him, but he was unable to do so, for Mirany had run behind him and had taken hold of his arm, both of her small hands wrapped around his larger wrist as she made a pathetic attempt to justify her rash actions in doing so. "S-stop -- please?" her small voice rang through the day, making the command sound more like a pleading request than an imperative demand.