Seiran Academy

Chapter 29


“If you were not dressed as a girl right now I would be kicking your ass all over this dance floor,” Nemesis snarled at ‘Belle’, the whole while a perfect gentlemanly smile painted across his face. They stood amongst the revelers of Thanksgiving, a celebration held in a country that did not care for American history. Nemesis had on his best suit, black as usual, while Belle was dressed in a filmy red dress, dressed as a seductress, though he felt nothing like it. Sage wore an overdone blue suit that had to be borrowed last minute because ‘he forgot’ about the party. Minako stood away from all of them, dressed in a perfect white dress that showed off her glowing white skin, flirting happily with Thomas Evans.

“Do you have any idea how hard it has been to keep Minako safe from Sarah and her band of merry lesbians?” Nemesis continued harshly.

“They are not all lesbians,” Belle pointed out primly. “Only Sarah is. And that was the point, to gather attention, to make Minako hated. The rumors came back to Mr. Evans, who in turn told them to his favorite violinist in the world, Bartholomew Rose. In turn they both now see Minako as a victim and therefore… wish to victimize her. What part of this really goes against your plan again, because I am sure I do not know?”

“Yeah, well, what happens tomorrow when we all go back to school and face those demons that hate her?” Nemesis continued. “This was all supposed to end tonight, and now she will still be hated.

“You expect it to be that easy?” Sage scoffed laughingly. “You expect tomorrow that life will just suddenly be happy again and everything can go back to normal. Minako goes back to her life, we our own, and Belle gets to be Draco again?”

“Your voice is rising,” Nemesis reminded his friend, whom he seldom saw lose any temper in public.

“I am anxious for this game to end,” Sage admitted cruelly.

“For you it can perfectly end tonight,” Nemesis reminded him. “Draco and I will deal with more repercussions than you ever will.”

Belle shuddered to herself and took a large swallow of something they knew was not a virgin drink. Belle’s eyes had been blank all evening and she was thinking of what was later to come, ‘her’ part in all of this.

Across the room Minako felt Thomas’s arm go around her waist possessively. She was wrapped in his arms, friendly, and yet not. His hand ever so slightly brushed the curve of her ass and she tried not to smile. He played with her like she was an innocent while men took advantage of her behind his back. He did not know what he was truly dealing with and for the first time she stopped feeling sorry for him. Perhaps she was becoming as cold as her friends, but she was not done with Thomas Evans.

Bartholomew Rose was watching from across the room, speaking casually to Akane and Daisuke Aino. Akane’s eyes kept roaming over her daughter and glaring, then elating happily when she realized that her daughter’s attentions were not on the coveted Mr. Rose, but a lowly high school teacher.

“Your mom has not even said hello to you,” Thomas said in a kind voice filled with worry for a teenaged girl.

“She and I had a fight over summer vacation,” Minako admitted. “We have not really spoken since.”

“What could a mother and daughter fight about that would cause them to not speak for almost four months?” Thomas asked in his kindly shocked way.

“Men,” Minako muttered under her breath. At Thomas’s quizzical look she smiled brightly and continued, “She hated me dating Nemesis.”

“And how does the boyfriend feel about you being here with me and not over there with him?” Thomas was not blind, he saw the way that Nemesis watched the two of them, filled with jealousy and anger. Thomas knew not what had happened between Minako and Nemesis, but one day she was walking with him down the halls, holding hands happily, the next she was telling Thomas that she wanted to spend the evening with him, in his arms, dancing together, breathing heavily in the dark corners. Thomas blushed at the way her lips and breath had tickled his ear at the last words.

“Nemesis and I are no longer together.” Minako brushed it off like a fly buzzing about her ear. “He was more a rebellious stage than he was a serious boyfriend. I was awed by his violin and his fiery passion for music, but when I got to know him I lost most of my interest.”

“Then should you not make up with your mom if Nemesis is the reason for the fight?” Thomas asked, slowly pulling his arm from around the young girl.

“So I can tell her instead I’m in love with my teacher?” Minako looked to Thomas and shook her head. “No, I do not think so.”

This seemed to certify for Thomas that he was doing something wrong, his arm about his young student. He slowly began to pull his hand from her hips; it was only Minako’s next coaxing words that kept him close. “Mr. Evans, my mother is more interested in her own life than anything that has to do with mine,” she admitted. Amazingly it was the first truth she had told in a long while. It saddened her heart to say the words, and still they were tumbling from her mouth. “My mother wants to be with Bartholomew Rose. She was jealous of the attention he paid me, even for a moment, so…”

“Come on.” Thomas took her hand and pulled her forward. “Let’s step outside so you do not have to see them for a few moments, the air will relieve your mind.”

Minako smiled brightly, innocently, at him and allowed him to lead her from the ballroom.

“Where is she going?” Sage hissed. His eyes slanted and his anger grew as he stepped forward and Nemesis was the one to pull him back.

“It will look even more suspicious if we follow them,” Nemesis pointed out. “We are supposed to allow them the time to be alone, the time to arouse Mr. Rose’s suspicion and desire.”

“Well that is fucking hard to do with Akane Aino fawning all over him, distracting him with her low cut cleavage,” Sage spat.

“I guess it is my chance to play a part,” Belle smiled sweetly and walked away. From their spots against the wall they could only see the sordid act of a man in drag. It was nothing new, it was entirely cliché, and yet it worked perfectly. Belle stepped over, the vindictive girl with a crush on an older man, and spilled her drink down the front of Akane’s beautiful dress, soaking her cleavage in red wine, sadly making them look enticing. However, she would never know how enticing she appeared to be, she was too busy screeching at Belle, yelling at the clumsiness, and realizing she had to rush to a bathroom before the stain sets. Akane was followed by her ‘dutiful’ husband, who was more than likely looking for Minako as he rushed to help his wife escape, and hopefully remove the stain upon her dress, though the one on her soul would forever thrive.

Belle smiled triumphantly then turned to Mr. Rose, all flirtatious eyelashes and doe-like eyes. Mr. Rose had no interest. His eyes scanned the crowd, his head only nodding to every other word that came from Belle’s mouth. Not finding what, or whom, he was searching for Mr. Rose excused himself from Belle and began heading his way out into the gardens. Belle smiled triumphantly once again, then quickly followed. Nemesis and Sage had no choice but to stay behind.

In the beautifully surreal rose garden that surrounded the Rose manor, for the obvious reasons, in the depths hidden away from prying eyes, Minako stood next to Thomas Evans with a sly smile on her face, her eyes downcast to not look him in the eye. He could not see the absolute triumph written clearly across her face.

“Minako,” Thomas’s voice came out quietly, sweetly, his hand reaching forward and brushing a strand of hair behind her ear so he could see her face clearly. Minako quickly wiped away her sly smirk and looked up at him with innocent eyes that held a gleam of moisture.

“I can no longer take you with me; I can no longer escape to what Fatima had promised me.” What a horrible way to start off this conversation, Minako thought to herself cruelly. What could possibly be his point? “I want you to come away with me, anyway. We can go to America, where my family is from. We can join the orchestra…” Minako tuned him out. He really was proposing she run away with him. She was watching him, carefully, and hardly hearing the words streaming from his mouth. Something inside of the cold sheath she had wrapped around her heart broke. She reached her hands up to her breast in hopes to slow the sudden rapid beating.

“Are you all right?” he asked her suddenly, noticing her rapid distress.

“I… I’m fine,” she stuttered, sitting down upon a stone bench that was conveniently placed for a beautiful view of the night sky and the tips of the waters that flowed colorfully from a fountain that lay even deeper in the gardens.

“You look pale.” Thomas kneeled before her, grasping her hands in his. She was reminded of old time lovers who met in gardens for their romantic trysts, quietly kissing as they undid one another’s clothes, the taboo of it all the pure eroticism of it. Now this moment was anything but erotic, it screamed romanticism. That was not what was meant to be happening. He was supposed to be ravaging her, pulling her clothes from her body. Instead he was nearly about to proclaim his undying love and she suddenly wished for a fan to cool off her suddenly heated body.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I am moving too fast for you. It’s just that… the way you look at your parents shows no love and… Minako, I have a confession.” Minako waited ten heart beats before he said it, though it seemed to last for ages. “I know what Daisuke and Akane have done to you.”

“What do you mean?” Minako asked cautiously, though she had a feeling she already knew.

His eyes locked with hers and betrayal was the only thought on Minako’s mind. She shuddered and stood, dropping his hands from hers and walking deeper into the gardens. When she realized he had every intention of following her she ran, turning the corners of the maze and hoping to lose his trail. He called after her but it only made her feet move faster.

He had known. He had known all of this time what they did to her and he… he did nothing. He denied her safe passage with him when she had begged of it, preferring Fatima. He had left her to the machinations of her family, of the Dark Trio, of everyone around him while he kept silent. He had looked at her through eyes of someone who saw more than he would ever admit to.

“I have one question for you.” His footsteps stopped behind her, surprised by her abrupt stop, his pursuit ended due to her acquiescence. She turned towards him, her eyes now gleaming with true moisture. “Why now?”

“Because,” he said. He shook his head and readied himself, taking a deep breath and starting over. “When I first heard what Daisuke was doing to you, it was out of his own mouth. When I threatened to go to someone he asked me with what proof. I can not legally record him, I can only warn people, and when I brought this to the attention of my mentor I was told that I would be dropped from all programs if I turned this into something more. Could I see you suffering? I never saw you suffering, I had to admit, and so my attempts to help were quashed.

“For years, Minako, I waited for you to open up to me and you never did,” Thomas admitted. “I began to believe Daisuke really was just a pervert with a sick fantasy, and my mentor told me how I was going to ruin myself if I continued to insinuate myself into the life of a student. When Fatima came I jumped at the chance to leave with her, it meant I would not ruin you, or me.”

Minako opened her mouth to speak, to interrupt the thought process that she was following, and afraid to. She wanted to be lost, she suddenly preferred being lost. Thomas would not allow her to interrupt him. “Bartholomew Rose came up to me earlier tonight and told me that if I do not leave he will send me away himself.” Thomas smirked at this thought. “Minako, he is trying to seduce you, to place you into his grasp. I want to take you away before he can do that.”

“Thomas, I-” This is the most clichéd place for sentences to end, no person in the midst of a denial, a sentence, or an explanation can finish the, “so and so, I-” sentence. Perhaps because there is nothing that possibly can come after that but the blurted out truth. Would Minako have sat there and suddenly told Thomas everything? Were her nerves and feelings so jangled that admittance was her only source of reprieve?

As stated above, no one can finish the sentence. Interruptions always occur. This interruption came in the form of a top violinist, a man who was thick with girth from his older age and constant sitting, but whom was still a coveted prize among women. Even if it was only for his money women would still lie down on their backs and spread their legs for this man.

And he wanted only Minako, his beady eyes on her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable, and still she knew she had to do exactly as planned.

She would never know what she could have, or would have, said to Thomas.

“Thomas, how commendable, trying to save the young girl,” Bartholomew Rose snapped, his anger apparent in the curve of his eyebrows. “Risking everything for a girl who has slept with her step-daddy, and most likely is sleeping with my son. You will ruin both of your careers that way.”

It was time to work the magic that Minako had not been feeling all night. It was time to perform the act of a lifetime, all the while having second thoughts on the decision. Maybe she did not love Thomas Evans the way she had years ago, or even months ago. Perhaps she did not love anyone, but she loved herself even less.

But unlike the three men waiting for her to whore herself out, she did not go back on a promise.

“Mr. Rose, don’t blame Mr. Evans.” Minako was quiet, subdued, and smiling coyly through golden locks that had fallen before her eyes to give her just the small curve of seduction over her prey.

“Are you trying to stick up for the man who had tried to whisk you away?” Mr. Rose was unamused, yet a cruel smile taunted the corners of his lips. Minako, for the first time, realized she should fear this man. Not a simple fear of his lust, but downright fear him where in the dark a person would not wish to meet him and would be running for his or her life as if they had just seen Jason or Freddy Kreuger coming towards them.

“He is just naïve,” Minako said of her mentor, who looked absolute shocked in the corner, standing there, ready to have defended her, now watching her trample all over his dignity. “He does not know what he is saying.”

“Would you have gone with him?” The question was quick, straight through the heart, and she reflectively knew that the time for being coy was over, straight-forward was now her best plan of action, even if her straightforwardness was a lie.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because, Mr. Rose,” she hitched her breath, she blew out a bit of air, and trudged on, “I want to be with you.”

The world’s revolution seemed to speed up, Minako’s legs going weak with the words. She did not mean them, she wanted to scream from the top of her lungs that this was all a horrible prank by the Dark Trio, but of course she would not.

“Then come with me, Minako, and save Mr. Evans’ career.” It was a blatant threat, to them both, and Minako knew to take Mr. Rose’s outstretched hand, to go with him as he lead her through the gardens and away from the last light of hope. She followed him through the gardens, to the back entrance where a staircase would lead directly to his room.

Inside her the little girl who had still prayed for happiness was crying, but Minako quashed her down, steeling herself for what was to come.