"Haaaaah?" Matsuda turned to the brunette as they walked towards their school. "What's that thing?"
Haru shrugged. "Dunno," he said, tossing the strange object that had caught his fancy from the trunk in his hand. "Found it in ojii-san's trunk while cleaning the storeroom. Looked pretty cool, and I kind of grabbed it without thinking. But, man, my gramps had some weird stuff! Relics, old pieces of metal, you name it. Guy must have been archaeologist, or something."
"Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever heard you talk about your grandfather," Motohama said, pushing up his famed "three-size scouter glasses". "Why is that?"
"Well, didn't really know much about him. Mom never really says much of anything about him, and we don't have any pictures of him except for what I found in the trunk. Speaking of that, it had this freaking weird lock on it, too!"
"Lock?" the two perverts asked in unison.
"Yeah. It was one of those dial-looking locks, the one where you have to input a code. All the letters were in Greek, and the only hint was in Sanskrit."
Motohama blinked. "... you know Greek and Sanskrit?"
"Not by choice," Haru grumbled. "Anyway, I already told Motohama, but I've got plans for Sunday, so I can't join you guys for our usual festivities."
"WHAT?! Why...?!" Matsuda complained.
"My grandmother, that's why. Whenever she comes over, my place is a madhouse."
The bald lolicon cocked his head to the side. "Is she really that bad?"
The redhead so expression turned seriously grim. "... you don't wanna know..."
"KYAAAA!"
"LOOK, IT'S KIBA-KUN!"
"HE LOOKS SO HANDSOME TODAY!"
"PLEASE MARRY ME, KIBA-SAMA!"
The three teens respectively groaned in annoyance upon seeing the "Prince of Kuoh" pretty boy, Yuuto Kiba. The Perverted Trio never liked any bishonens. It was a well-known fact. To such perverted lechers, pretty boys were their most hated nemesis. Haru didn't personally hate the guy, just the fact that he was pretty much loved by every single woman in the entire school, which left him envious. Honestly, what does a guy like that have that I don't? he thought, glaring at the blonde before he noticed something off. He could have sworn he saw something shimmering next to him. The hell?
"Hey, Haru," Motohama spoke up. "When did you get a tattoo?"
Haru blinked, and turned to Motohama, who was staring at his hand. "What tattoo?" he asked, looking at the back of his hand. His eyes widened, however, when he saw the red markings scribbled on his skin. "What the… where did this come from?"
"You don't even know where you got it? How hammered were you?"
Haru scowled. "For your information, I was cleaning the storage room and clearing out stupid junk!" he snapped. "Piss off!"
"Okay, okay… Jesus, man. Just asking a question."
"Never mind that!" Matsuda shouted. "Hot babes, twelve o'clock!" Immediately, the other two whipped their heads around to find none other than the Great Onee-samas of Kuoh Academy; Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima, walking towards the front gate. "Oh, man! How lucky are we that we got into a school with such awesome babes?!"
"We just got to be the luckiest men in Japan, my friend." Motohama grinned.
Haru, while he wanted to say that he too felt lucky, couldn't help but feel apprehensive. As he stared at her, at Rias Gremory, he felt a cold-chill run down his spine. It felt like something was glaring at him. He looked around, and the only things he found were the few disgusted glances either discreetly or noticably there by the students walking by. He turned back to Rias, and like with Yuuto, he saw what seemed like some sort of haze behind her. He also felt his hand burn. It was not an unpleasant feeling. Rather, it was more like an itch of some sort, the sense that his skin was warming up.
He had no idea what triggered this strange sensation. All he knew that it didn't seem normal at all.
He was still disturbed by it… but he supposed he could ignore it for now. He had classes to get to.
"... hm, what an interesting lad."
"I'm glad you think so. To be honest, I've had my eye on him for quite a while."
"Is that so? Pray tell, how has such a boy so deluded with lust come to garner the eye of my bride?"
"One, I have asked you repeatedly not to call me that. It reminds me of… him. Secondly, let's just say he has great potential. Of course, it's a question of how to get him to join."
Class was so boring. Time was torturing him, he just knew it. Every time he looked at the clock, the hand barely moved at all. The teacher's voice was grating his ears. Why did he even come to school today? He should have just pretended to be sick and play hooky, maybe watch porn, but no, he had to come to school… well, probably better to do that than be at home, moping that his grandmother would come.
As a result, he accepted the lesser of the two evils, as being in school will actually take his mind off of those particular thoughts. But as he sat in his desk, his thoughts fell back to the artifacts from his grandfather's trunk.
When I asked Mom about gramps, she said the only thing she knew about him from grandma was that he traveled all over the world, and then just disappeared one day, he wondered. All of that stuff… I wonder how he got those things. And that sheathe… it looked brand freaking new! Where did he get it? Was it recent?
The item in question obviously seemed out of place with the rest of the antiques. It looked as if it had just been made. It was a beautiful item colored gold and royal blue. Based on its size, it seemed built to store a two handed broadsword of some sort. Whatever it was, or whoever used it, they sure had taste. It looked to be something from a fairy tale story about Knights and Magic. Of course, the same could be said about what he had picked up from the trunk. He hadn't actually meant to grab it. His mom had called out to him after he had grabbed it, and he had accidentally slipped it into his pocket. Even now in class, he was looking at it with curiosity. What is this thing, anyway? he thought curiously. It looks like some piece of a machine… but at the same time, it looks like a hilt to a sword or something. Heck, it even looks like those lightsabers from Star War, just without the beam.
A strange object for certain, considering it is an antique. It simply looked too futuristic to be from anything too far long ago. Maybe around the nineteenth century? Haru pocketed the object away, not wanting for it to get confiscated, and then looked around the room. Was it just his imagination, or were there fewer people in class today?
"Is it true that Honda-kun's family went missing?"
Haru's ears perked, hearing the conversations around him.
"Not just his, but Motoya-san's too!"
"Didn't they go missing about two days ago?"
"Damn, that's scary."
"What do you think happened?"
"I dunno… but a lot of people have been disappearing lately too. Not just our classmates' families. Hell, I've heard that Shinichi and his family disappeared last week."
Disappearing families...? Then he recalled the news story Motohama told him yesterday.
This must be what he was talking about…