Angel From My Nightmare -CHAP.01--VAMPIREKNIGHT-

  “Make sure you give her clearance at any time,” Satoshi Harima – who frequently encouraged his Night Class students to refer to him more formally as Satti-san – told the guard on duty at the Night Class building. “She has long, wavy, blonde hair, blue eyes, slim, roughly average height... She starts here tomorrow.”

  “You still sure this is a good idea?” the guard asked gruffly. Satoshi had explained the situation to him and that he’d already gotten the headmaster’s permission for his daughter’s permanent clearance to all of the school buildings.

  “Of course,” Satoshi replied brightly. “She’s a smart girl – she’ll figure out the school’s purpose real quick. She won’t like what she finds, but I’m certain it’ll do her good in the long run.”

  “If you say so, Mr. Harima,” said the guard with a shrug. It wasn’t really his business. He was just here to do what he was told.

  “Satti-san,” Satoshi prompted.

  “No,” the guard replied bluntly. “You’re free to get your pupils to call you whatever you like, but count me out.”

  “You’re so boring,” Satoshi pouted. There was a good reason he was such good friends with headmaster Kaien Cross, without even going into their shared past as hunters. They could both be as childish as each other. It was a little embarrassing for two grown men.

  “Whatever, sir. Keep your cutesy nicknames with your students, not with me,” muttered the guard. He then added, “I sure hope your daughter’s not like you.”

  “Of course she is! She’s sweet and intelligent and very ambitious,” Satoshi gushed, ever the indulging father. He always became starry-eyed when talking about his children.

  “Already sounds nothing like you,” said the guard quietly, still muttering more to himself. He then cleared his throat. He knew that it wasn’t his business, but he still had to check one more time. “Do you really think this is for the best? From what you’ve told me, it sounds like you’re throwing your daughter into her idea of hell.”

  “And that’s exactly the point,” said Satoshi, more solemnly. “I want to change her idea of hell. I’m sure that once she’s attended Cross Academy, Harry will have a very different opinion of the beings that plague her nightmares.”

                                                          *

  Harry was a well-known control freak. She was extremely organised to the point of being obsessive-compulsive and was constantly paranoid over keeping everything perfect that was within her control. She could still cope under pressure, which she often had to do when dealing with her chaotic family, but she much preferred being able to live within routines that she’d built on.

  The only thing she feared was the unknown and the unnatural – anything she didn’t understand; anything she couldn’t control.

  But right now, she was feeling nervous. She was starting at her new school today. It wasn’t exactly anything unnatural or uncontrollable, but it definitely meant she’d be breaking away from her usual routines. If she was going to be living somewhere new, she’d have to start a whole series of new routines there too.

  “How’s the shoulder?”

  Harry looked up at her older brother from the passenger seat, her thoughts interrupted. “Not too bad. At least it won’t be on display or anything.”

  She’d never been noticeably strong or fast, so her brother had been teaching her to spar since they were kids. Hideki was good at fighting – so good that he’d been fired consecutively from his last three jobs for having tussles with other employees... and even a customer on one occasion. He was a nice guy, but he had a short temper that he just couldn’t control.

  They’d had one of their sparring practices a few nights ago and Harry had banged her shoulder on the corner of the coffee table in the midst of it. It didn’t hurt that much now, but she still had a rather nasty purple bruise, so she was grateful for the white-embossed, black blazer she now had to wear as part of Cross Academy’s school uniform.

  “True,” Hideki chuckled. “You don’t want anyone thinking you’re a roughneck.”

  Harry snorted. “Definitely not.” That couldn’t be further from the truth.

  Hideki smiled sadly. “I’m gonna miss you not being around. I won’t have anyone to practice with.”

  “Is that all I’m good for?” Harry teased. “Just practice with one of the others.”

  It was Hideki’s turn to snort derisively. “Are you kidding? I’d never get Saki out of her room, for starters. Jo clearly isn’t an option and Kei’s too little. I’d probably break him.”

  Harry laughed. “I guess you really do need me. Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll survive.”

  “How nice of you.”

  Hideki pulled up in front of the school and helped Harry out with her suitcase. She stared up at the intimidating wrought iron gates. She felt her stomach clench – this was it. Hideki gave her a giant hug and told her to be good, which she felt was a bit rich coming from him. Then he got back into the car and, within seconds, he was gone and she was left alone in front of her new school.

  “You must be Tamashi Harima.”

  Harry glanced round in surprise at hearing her name, seeking out the speaker. She noticed a girl similar to her own age, waiting at the gates. She had short, brown hair and big, matching brown eyes.

  “Please, call me Harima. Or Harry,” Harry said politely. “I don’t really go by Tamashi.”

  It was true. From a young age, her best friend had been Tamaki Kotani and there had always been confusions over the similarities between their names. As a solution, people had always referred to them by their family names and Harima had then been shortened to Harry – a nickname that had caught on, even within her own family. She was only ever called Tamashi when she was in trouble, which was rarely, when compared to her siblings.

  “Harry then.” The girl gave her a polite smile. “I’m Yuki Cross. The headmaster’s my father. He asked me to show you where your dorm is and give you a quick tour around the academy.”

  “Oh,” said Harry, pleasantly surprised. “Thank you. That’s really nice.”

  “No problem,” Yuki beamed. “I’m a member of the disciplinary committee, so it’s my duty to help out in any way I can.” She dutifully indicated the band attached to her sleeve.

  “Disciplinary committee?” Harry repeated. What kind of school would need a disciplinary committee?

  “Oh, we don’t really do any actual disciplining,” Yuki reassured, seeing the look on Harry’s face. “We just help to keep order amongst the students.”

  “That sounds good to me,” said Harry, impressed. If there was one thing she could appreciate, it was order.

  Yuki smiled again. “I’m glad someone sees it that way. Come on, I’ll show you to your dorm first so you don’t have to drag your suitcase around.”

  Harry was grateful for that. She wasn’t really a materialistic person, but packing for whole school terms at a time definitely took up luggage space. She even felt that she’d been quite lenient with the amount of books that she’d brought with her. She sure hoped that the school had a good library or she’d be out of reading material pretty quickly. It wasn’t difficult to tell that reading was her favourite hobby.

  Yuki chattered away as they made their way to the dormitories, explaining more about the academy. “This is where we stay – in the Sun dorms. The Moon dorms are on the other side of campus.”

  “Sun and Moon,” Harry mused. She felt that put her in the better-sounding dormitories. “That’s pretty cool. So is the Sun dorm for girls and Moon for boys?”

  “No, we have both for each,” explained Yuki. “The Sun dorms are for us Day Class students and the Moon dorms are for the Night Class students.”

  “Night Class students?” Harry asked questioningly. There were students here who studied at night?

  “They’re all aristocrats,” Yuki specified. “They’re used to running on a different... schedule to the rest of us.” She faltered slightly, but Harry didn’t notice. She may have read a lot of books, but she wasn’t half as good at reading people.

  The Sun dormitories were basic, but nice. Harry couldn’t help but wonder if the Moon dormitories were more upmarket, seeing as they housed aristocratic students. She discovered she was going to be sharing a room with a girl called Yoko Ohayashi. The idea was nerve-wracking enough, but she wouldn’t even get to meet her roommate yet, since the rest of the Day Class students were currently in class.

  By the time Yuki had showed Harry around the whole campus, the classes had clearly ended and the Day Class students had poured outside. Large groups of girls immediately began swarming towards the Night Class building.

  “Oh, no, it’s that time again,” Yuki sighed. “I hope Zero’s already ahead of them. Come on, I’d better go and help out.”

  Harry had no idea what was going on, but she followed Yuki anyway. Yuki forced her way through the crowd with Harry struggling to keep up. What was going on? It was almost like hordes of fan girls attempting to catch a glimpse of their favourite celebrities on the red carpet.

  “What’s happening exactly?” Harry had to ask, as Yuki helped her to create a pathway through all the people.

  “I guess you could say these guys are a bit like celebrities,” said Yuki, mirroring the idea in Harry’s head. “They certainly have their own share of admirers. That’s part of my duty as disciplinary committee – to try and keep order here... Oh, there’s Zero!”

  She was looking towards a surly, silver-haired boy at the front of the crowd. No sooner had she said it, he noticed her too. His disgruntled expression didn’t change. “Where have you been, Yuki?” he called to her. “Have you been slacking off somewhere?”

  “Of course I haven’t!” Yuki protested indignantly. She quickly turned back to Harry, looking guilty. “Hey, do you mind if I just try and help keep the students in line for a bit? I promise I’ll wait here for you afterwards.” Her face was concerned, as if Harry couldn’t cope on her own.

  “Sure, I’ll be fine,” said Harry, completely nonplussed. She couldn’t understand what the big deal was.

  “Thank you,” replied Yuki gratefully. “Just wait around in this area for me. Maybe move away from the crowd a bit if you need to.”

  Harry reassured her again that she’d be okay, so Yuki went to join Zero at the front of the crowd, where she then started barking orders at some of the girls. Harry felt completely unconcerned. Yuki seemed to have taken this all very seriously, but she really couldn’t see any problem here. These were just teenage girls after all – they weren’t a pack of ravenous animals.

  But then the gate to the Night Class building opened and, proving Harry wrong, all hell broke loose. The girls around her went wild – screaming and pushing and trying to force their way forward. Harry was completely astonished. They were like a pack of animals.

  Her first thought was to back away as much as she could, since she was just getting jostled from side to side standing here. Yuki’s concern for her clearly made sense now. But she was also curious to wait and see what all the fuss was about. Just what kind of individuals could provoke this kind of mass reaction?

  She soon found out. Through the gate walked a group of the most stunning people she’d ever seem. Harry didn’t scream or push, but she certainly couldn’t help gawking along with everyone else.

  She couldn’t decide who was more beautiful. The male who looked like a model with his wonderfully clashing red hair and blue eyes, the striking girl with impeccably long curls, the blonde-haired boy with startling green eyes...

  Wham! One of the Day Class girls became too agitated and suddenly shoved Harry so hard that she went hurtling forwards out of the crowd. A pair of hands caught her before she could hit the floor and she was pulled up against a solid chest. She blinked up to find a boy with eyes the colour of liquid sky and blonde hair that looked like it had been painstakingly arranged to be stylishly messy.

  “Are you okay? Were some of the girls playing too rough?” he asked teasingly in a singsong voice. He still didn’t let go of her.

  “Err, I’m fine,” replied Harry, feeling perplexed. She could stand perfectly fine by herself – he didn’t need to hold onto her still. He certainly didn’t have to hold her quite so close.

  “Hanabusa,” warned the other blonde with the green eyes that Harry had so admired. “She said she’s fine; leave her alone.”

  “I’m not doing anything wrong,” Hanabusa argued with a grin, pulling Harry even closer. “Don’t you agree? You don’t want me to let go yet, do you?”

  Before Harry could quite decide how to respond, a sharp voice snapped, “Hanabusa!”

  Hanabusa jumped and released Harry so abruptly that she staggered sideways several steps. The speaker was another boy, this one with waving black hair and dark eyes to match. He was truly beautiful, but he had a very definite power about him that said that he was in charge. It made Harry feel a little uncomfortable.

  “I would listen to Takuma if I were you,” he advised, voice cool. “This girl is clearly new – you should leave her be.”

  “Forgive me, Lord Kaname. It was just a joke.” Hanabusa gave him a quick and formal bow out of respect.

  “Well, it wasn’t a very funny one. And it isn’t me you should be asking for forgiveness from,” the student called Kaname scolded. He then turned to Harry, his face apologetic. “I’m very sorry. Please forgive him for harassing you – I doubt he really meant anything by it.”

  “Erm, that’s okay?” Harry still felt very confused. She couldn’t really see where any ‘harassing’ had come into it. All Hanabusa had done was catch her. He’d maybe held onto her a little too long, but she hadn’t really understood that anyway. Maybe he’d thought she’d be likely to fall down a second time.

  “Kaname!” Yuki had suddenly joined them, looking flustered. “I’m sorry. This is Harry – you’re right; she is new. I’ve been looking after her.”

  Kaname gave them both a warm smile. “Of course you have.” He turned to Harry. “Then you’re in perfectly safe hands. Take note of what Yuki tells you and you won’t have any problems. I hope you settle in well here.”

  He briefly patted Yuki on the shoulder, before continuing to walk away with the other Night Class students. Harry noticed that Yuki now looked even pinker in the face. Was she getting sick? Had trying to reign in all of the other girls cost too much effort?

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “You look a bit flushed.”

  “No, no, I’m fine!” Yuki insisted, embarrassed. She pulled Harry over to the side. “But maybe you should wait for me over here, away from the others.”

  Harry looked over at the crowd to see that the majority of the girls were glaring daggers at her and Yuki. She felt dismayed. Were they going to start discriminating against her because she was new? And Yuki too for helping her? She couldn’t think of any other reason for their hostility towards the two of them.

  “Here,” interrupted Zero, who’d been watching everything with cool eyes. He got Yuki to switch places with him. “You’ll be fine over here now,” he told Harry. “Most of the girls are afraid of me.”

  Harry was surprised to hear so. He didn’t come across as particularly scary to her. He seemed to vibrate with a certain kind of energy like Kaname did, but nowhere near as intimidating. Either way, she was grateful for his help. As Zero and Yuki continued to shepherd the rest of the girls along, she stayed meekly behind Zero and avoided looking at anyone, keeping her gaze fixed resolutely on the back of Zero’s head.

  It was only her first day and already she didn’t seem to be having a very positive impression on the other students. Maybe catching her first look at the beautiful people hadn’t been worth it after all.