CHAPTER ONE
The Beauty is the Beast
With the early morning sunlight peeking through the windows, Ryou finally sat up in the corner of the room where he was had finally collapsed last night. He felt himself shiver though the cold December wind was less of a reason than the blood on his shirt, torn pants, muddied shoes and something in his hand. A gun. What was he doing with a gun. Now Asakura Ryou was but an ordinary average boy, liked mathematics and archery, not much good at anything else but neither too bad at anything. He used to do some karate or something when he was a child but stopped that in middle school. Just your everyday guy 12th grader found at any high school. He had never in all his 18 years of life seen a real Gun and now he had one in his hand. Whats more he could still feel the dull pain of the shock when he had fired it. “I really did fire it….” Ryou was mumbling still unable to believe the events of the earlier night.
It all started the last evening, the first evening of the three day graduation trip. Well may be it had started when quite earlier even before they boarded the bus at their school. He had just reached there. Not too excited. “Its way to embarrassing being excited for trips at this age..” he recalled. He found his usual group of friends and were just fooling around when his eyes met Rio, just the hottest girl at his school. She had transferred here three months back and had gained instant popularity being good at everything and also pretty to boot. Not a girl he could ask out.. he realized. Well then it really was a shock when he was passed a paper while crossing the girls’ group. When he had looked back he found Rio smiling at him causing him to go red. He had to make sure he was alone when he opened it.
“Meet me alone in the free time this evening. Follow me to the place.”
Can it be true, could he really be getting a confession from Rio. May be it was all a prank by the girls..?? But still, what if it wasn’t..?? How naive he was.. Really..
He had followed her alone in the evening to the end of the garden at the back of the hotel. More than the end of a “garden” one should rather say the start of the “forest”. It was a really isolated place.
“Hi Rio.. how are you..??” Ryou asked. “How are you.. that's all i come up with.. how idiotic" he thought but he never did talk to her much. When she had turned around her face was more serious than a confession should require. And while he was wondering whats up, she started speaking. “So Ryou… I’m coming straight to the point. You may not be aware of it but you are one of the few people in the world in possession of the unique gene trait causing your brain to have a tremendous potential, and of utmost importance to us or mainly our BOSS. So if you’d kindly co-operate with me then the Mind-Extract would be over pretty soon.” Now Ryou was confused. Really. What did she mean by words like “unique gene or some mind-extract something..” He thought may be this really was some gag played by the some of his classmates (girls most probably) hiding somewhere. “So, this is a new game among your girls is it..?? Hmm. What do you need of my brain.. you are already a genius. And whoever’s hiding in the bushes, I won’t be fooled by your jokes.”
He heard a rustle in the bushes and thought “Aha.. I was right after..” and stopped mid-sentence when a silver haired creepy looking man completely dressed in black came out. “He’s not talking you seriously Rio.. should I pop some holes in his body..?? You can still get his brain, and I’ll get to have my fun.. ha ha. What say you boy.??” It was then that Ryou had noticed the big Gun which looked too real to be a toy. “Back off Klaus. You are really not needed. I’ve everything in control. And you really do make a mess. I prefer things to be done neatly..” Rio was talking out some weird device from her pocket. NOW.. things were starting to feel too creepy to be just games. Some thing was going on, and he was the only one who did not know what. “Haha.. go on then your highness. I’ll be waiting here and if he tries to run, I’ll probably have my shooting practice..” With this the Klaus guy leaned on a nearby tree. Rio glared it him and started coming near Ryou. While trying to back away a little bit of time Ryou tried asking.. “And what would happen with this device..??” “Oh nothing much. You won’t feel any pain.. you’ll probably become an even more idiot. Remember the dolls you used to play as child? More or less like that. You won’t even know what happened. As there won’t be any YOU left.” And suddenly he was punched in the stomach, and before he could gasp, he got a kick at his ankles and he was flat on the ground. “Oww.. ouch.. what the hell… stop..” Ryou was trying to shout and he got his hands twisted at the back and Rio kneeing his spine and trying to get the strange creepy looking machine near him.
And then things had started to get hazy suddenly. He was having a fierce headache. Eyes glazing over, he could barely look at anything. “So much for no pain, huh..” Ryou could barely see through closing eyelashes at something strapped at Rio’s leg, seemed to be a gun. He was not sure what he was doing but he somehow pulled it with his free hand. He barely had the strength to hold it. But in that delirious state he somehow fired a shot. The shock nearly knocked him his arm out of his shoulder. “Shooting with a gun is really quite different from a bow” he had thought even in that state, not that he could even hold his archery bow much less shoot it. He didn’t even remember or know where he was aiming. It hit Rio’s leg, good for him. While Ryou was struggling to get out of Rio’s grasp he got punched once more. “Is she a beast, what crazy strength..” he recalled. He had somehow dodged her next kick, more because the was actually falling down. And then he somehow got up and started running and stumbling and running again. He heard a few bullet shots, probably fired at him. But thank the goddess of luck, none hit him. He had wondered if they were chasing after him. Rio probably couldn’t but he was not sure how hurt she was. But the Klaus guy could still be after him for all he knew. This gave his legs more strength. He had ran and ran in the forest until he didn’t know where he was. He found an abandoned cottage and finally lost consciousness inside it, too tired to worry about the crazy gun guy.
And now even after waking up he had no idea what had happened. He was still hoping for all this to be a dream, but the gun in his hand was too real to be dream. And same with the blood. And he could still feel the pain of Rio’s punch and her kick. That wasn’t a dream. Ryou was too afraid to go back, but was there anything else to do..?? It was still early morning, about 5:00 am by his watch, and the sky he could see was still mostly gray, the sun just creeping up the tree tops. Thinking of all the plans the guys were making to play all night, he thought it could be safe to sneak back as they would be sleeping. But what if Rio was there..?? And what about her leg.
He had shot her.
SHOT.
Would he be arrested..??
More importantly what if she and the dangerous guy come back..??
“Nothing, I can do here” Ryou finally gathered enough courage to start back. It took some time to figure out which direction to go and further stumbling on overgrown roots of the forest bed before he could see the hotel. He held the gun inside his jacket so it could not be seen and somehow safely got into his room without being noticed by any of his friends. He gathered his pack, popped into shower and changed into fresh clothes. He hid the gun in his bag as he did his bloodied clothes. And by the time he got out, others were starting to wake up.
He tried to behave as normally as he could while his friends were questioning him.. “Where were you all night… Don’t tell me it was a girl.. *gasp* you got lucky with a girl..??” Now the loudmouth Suzuki was yelling at the top of his voice and he yelled before Ryou could stop him.. “Guys. Hear this, our dear friend here left us behind. He was with a girl last night” He was with a girl all right not all night but the beginning and it could not be called “Lucky” whatever interpretation you take. “Who was it.. who was it.?” All the guys started at once.. “Ahh stop guys its nothing, I went to out after curfew and got caught by the teacher, I got back after kneeling in front of his room half the night..” This somehow got them to stop. “Ohh that’s all. I was worried there bro’.” Suzuki was winking at Ryou. It seemed he still believed in his "girl" theory. Anyway they got down with their bags. It was time to start the second day of the trip. “What the hell am I doing just going along normally when all that happened..” thought Ryou quite a bit frustrated. But he didn’t know what he could do. Who would believe him.. And while he was wondering this and getting down the stairs, he felt a chill run down his back. As he looked down he could see Rio standing with the girls, supported by Azuki and her leg all bandaged. She was smiling at him. SMILING.. !!!“Good going boy.. now are you going to say you were punished by the teacher together huh..” He was loud enough that the girls had heard him. “Why would Rio be punished by a teacher. She got pierced by a nail last night.. on the stairway somewhere.. Right Rio..” replied one of the girls. Azuki was staring at him and Rio was still smiling. And thanks to Suzuki, some rumours of previous night's events were starting among the boys. Each a crazy story, but none crazier than the truth. Suzuki was now thumping his shoulder..
While passing the girls, someone whispered in Ryou’s ears.. “Don’t worry Ryou, we’ll get you anyway. You’ve got nowhere to run. I’ll be watching you… And.. So will he..” It was Rio and she was pointing to the edge of the garden where someone was standing with his back to the students. He turned around and it was the same crazy guy from last night. He gave an evil looking grin and pointed to something in his jacket which looked like a gun. He pointed a finger at Ryou, and mouthed off a word. “BANG”.
CHAPTER TWO
Another Deadly Beauty(?)...
