EA :: Chapter 1 : Ryuzakai

Ryuzakai Allen Cornelius stepped out of the locker room with light red flecks across his face. Huddled behind him, over a body sprawled out on the floor, were several boys from his P.E. class. They stared at the back of Ryuzakai with a mixture of shock and fear. Before closing the door behind him, the boy, Ryuzakai, turned to glare angrily back at them, his pitch black eyes cold with rage.
"Don't look at me like that. He," he nodded to the boy on the floor, "had it coming all year. It's like I've been telling you all along, don't mess with me if you don't want to get hurt."
He recieved no answer as he walked off, hands in his pockets. In the back of his mind he expected to be stopped by a teacher at any moment, but he was too furious to focus on the repercussions of what had just happened. In fact, he was replaying the events led up to the scene he had just walked away from.
A kid from his class, Stephan Ball, had provoked him into a fight while they were changing out of their gym clothes at the end of class. While Ryuzakai had been busy pulling off his grey tee, he recieved a sharp blow to his lower neck, the force of which slamming his forehead against the locker in front of him. Rubbing his head lightly, he turned angrily to see Stephan leering at him cockily.
What happened next went by too fast for him to really recall. With one swift, fluid motion he punched Stephan square in the face, the boy's nose crunching on impact, broken. Then Ryu grasped a hanful of the boy's curly carrot-top with one hand jerking his head upwards, planting his other fist deep in his chubby stomach. Then he kicked Stephan's legs out from under him, sending him to the concrete floor. Ryuzakai stared down at him, his face expresionless, but his chest burning angrily. This boy had been harassing him and taunting him all year, ever since he found out about Jessica. And as far as Ryuzakai was concerned, he finally was going to be dealt with. After all, it was the last day of the school year, and after this, he would officially be a high school student, and his parents were planning on leaving Virginia to return to Ohio, where his stepfather had family. Why not settle the score?
So Ryuzakai broke the single rule of hand-to-hand combat: Never hit a man when he's down. Glaring furiously down at Stephen, who clutched his hands over his gushing nose, he kicked him across the face, his shoe hitting him in the temple hard. Stephan let out a painful moan, but Ryuzakai wasn't done. He proceeded to kick Stephan's ribs over and over again until he heard a loud pop and cracking sound. He then stomped suarely on his chest, causing Stephan to cry out, choking on his own blood as he did. Ryuzakai kicked the boy across the face one last time and turned to leave, but he stopped, looked back down at his victim, reconsidered it, and gave him one last kick to the groin, getting a yelp of pain in response. Finally satisfied, Ryuzakai left the locker room.
"Such a stupid thing to do," he muttered under his breath as he stepped out through the double doors in the cafeteria leading outside. "I shouldn't have lost my temper..."
Ryuzakai knew full well that what he had done was wrong, and he even acknowledged the fact that he could have just as easily ignored it, but there was no denying the simple fact of the matter. Ryuzakai, at the deepest part of his roots, was a sadist. Seeing Stephan in pain had given him a pleasure unlike most things he had experienced. But that wasn't to say that he was a violent person by nature. No, he did his absolute best to avoid conflict, and when strife was unavoidable, he never resorted to violence unless he was in danger of being harmed. And this happened rarely. But there was no escaping the fact that he enjoyed it. He thrilled himself with hurting Stephan.
It was this knowledge that made him shudder as he took his seat on the bus. He openly admitted to himself that he had a problem, and even went so far as to acknowledge how scary this made him appear to both his classmates, and himself. He hated being this way. This part of him, the senseless thrill for violence, it wasn't who he really was. This wasn't something he was used to. If it hadn't been for Jessica...If it hadn't been for Jess, none of this would have ever happened...
He stared out the bus window without really seeing anything. He was lost in the memories of his past, and didn't notice when a girl sat down in the seat beside him. Nor did he notice anything she said. In fact, it wasn't until the bus had started moving that he noticed he was sitting with someone at all. As the bus drove down the street, away from the school, the girl accidentally nudged him in the ribs while she reached into her schoolbag, which sat between them. Ryuzakai turned to retort angrily, but froze when he realized who it was. It was Katherine Pence, a girl of the same age as him, same grade. She wore her long light brown hair in a ponytail most of the time, like today, and her bright blue eyes had always had the effect of captivating Ryuzakai when he looked at her. At full height, she probably reached his nose, with him standing at 6'1", fairly tall for a fourteen year old. She was younger than him, her birthday being March 6 while his was November 30. She was an extremely intelligent girl, and seemed fairly popular and liked amongst the school populace, much like her twin, Rebecca, but Ryuzakai couldn't say this was true for certain, as he had never, not once, spoken to the girl.
Inwardly, he mocked himself for months about this. He had the nerves of steel and could stand up to anyone, student or teacher, with unwavering confidence, but when it came to Katherine, he simply melted. Sure, he was on pretty decent terms with her younger brother, David, who was two years younger than himself, but Katherine was in a completley different world. And the fact that he had developed an intense crush on her last year didn't do much to help with his nerves. Not that he stood a chance with her, he believed. She was far too pretty and popular, and, even then, she was one of those religious "good girls" that a guy like Ryuzakai, who was anything but a "good boy", could ever hope to win. No, he had far too bad of a reputation both in and out of school. After an incident about a year before, the town he lived in, Bridgewater, had ostricized and blamed him.
And just like always, he was at a loss for words as he turned to her for nudging him. Cheeks slightly pink, he averted his eyes and muttered something that sounded like "sorry" and looked away, noticing out of the corner of his eye that she hadn't heard him and was already immersed in a book. In his mind, he made a mental comparison to an old friend of his, Katherine Santimarino, yet another girl he had developed a crush for in the fifth grade, back when he was still living in Ohio. She was a very stuck up girl, and not once during their year of classes together had he ever seen her once pick up a book, let alone read one. They had a sort of mutual crush for each other, and she had been his first kiss, a childish peck on the lips, but a kiss all the same. But one day, about two months before the end of term, she suddenly stopped coming to school. The day before, she had told him, her eyes leaking tears, that he friend, Chase Faiello, had died after a long struggle with Leukemia. After that day, he never saw her again. He moved on quickly, as she wasn't in school the following year, and it was during his seventh grade year that he moved to Virginia, where his mother had family, thus how he came to know Katherine...or rather, know of Katherine, at least.
You know, it's laughable, really...It's been two years and you still haven't mustered up the courage to even say "hello" to her. It's stupid really. If you like the girl so much, say something to her. Now! Before it's too late. Sure, it won't mean much if you end up moving, but what if you don't?! A little goes a long way, Ryuzakai!
It was still another ten minutes before Ryuzakai finally made his first utterence to the girl, his very first attempt at conversation.
"U-uh, hey Katherine..." he muttered, looking warily over at the girl.
She looked up from her book and glanced at him. Her eyebrows drew together slightly and she tilted her head to the side a little. "Umm..." She looked confused, lost even. "You're..."
"Ryuzakai. Er, just Ryu," he replied hastily, his stomach clenching. She didn't even know his name, what was he thinking?!
"Right..." she whispered, looking away. "You're the guy whose sister--"
"Please..." he muttered, biting his lip as a familiar pain crept up inside his throat. "Can we not go there?"
"Oh! I'm sorry!" she apologized hastily. "I wasn't trying to upset you or anything!"
"No, no, no...I just...er, sorry..."
"Sorry..." she echoed, slowly pulling her eyes away and returning to her book, her cheeks pink.
Inwardly, Ryuzakai assaulted himself. Idiot! You idiot! What the hell is the matter with you?!
Ryuzakai closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat. He had probably just blown what little chance he may have had at getting to know Katherine...
It was some fifteen minutes later before Ryuzakai got off the bus at his stop (two streets from where Katherine lived) and trudged home, hands in his pockets. Fortunately, his parents wouldn't be home for another three hours, which gave him plently of time to himself to think the day's mistakes over. But when he got to the front door he realized something was wrong. The door was unlocked. Raising an eyebrow, he walked across the front lawn to the garage, but found it closed. That was odd. The door was unlocked, so he assumed someone was home from work early...but the garage was locked? That didn't make any sense. Mother and Jack always kept it open when they were home...Ryuzakai punched in the secuirity code and the door lifted, but there was no car. Both of the cars were missing, and what struck Ryu as even odder was the fact that the garage light was on. That definately wasn't right. He marched to the door that connected the house to the garage and found it unlocked as well.
"What the hell..." he muttered, opening the door.
He stepped into the kitchen and closed the door behind him, making sure to lock it. He looked around suspiciously, but nothing seemed to be out of place. The pantry was closed, lights were out, the sliding door that led to the basement stairway was closed as well. The doorway connecting the kitchen and dining room was also open as normal (the designs for the house included sliding doors in each non-bedroom doorway that slid into the frame and wall when open.). He walked into the dining room and examined the area. The living room and dining room were really just one big room, but it had been pseudo-sectioned by the placement of furniture. To his immediate left, againt the wall with the doorway, was the computer desk. The dining room table stood about two feet away, square, with about two feet of space between it and each side, a wall to the left, ahead, and where Ryuzakai was standing. The couch to the right of the table made up the fourth "wall". In the living room, the wall/couch was placed in the middle of the floor, with an end table against the wall, and another couch along the wall beside it. Settled in the middle was a glass coffee table. In the corner to Ryuzakai's far right was Jack's 64 in television and entertainment set. On the wall nearest Ryuzakai was the fireplace. There were two large windows on the opposite wall, draped with tan curtains, one in the living room, behind the couch, and another in the dining room. The other wall that the televison was cornered between unded abruptly four feet from the wall, leading to a hallways lined with bookshelves. The front door was also visible on the far right end of the opposite wall. Down the hall were two bedrooms on the lefthand side, one on the right, and a closet and bathroom at the end. The first bedroom had been his own, before he moved into the basement, the second being his parents. The one on the right was now unoccupied.
As he looked around the room again, his eyes fell on a sheet of paper that sat on teh table, the corner pinned under the plant that sat in the center of the table. That hadn't been there when he left, and so he assumed it to be a note left by his parents. He picked it up and scanned over it. He was wrong. It wasn't from his parents at all. It was a letter...of acceptance? He read over it again, not that he needed to. He retained it easily, but he couldn't quite believe, or accept that this was real.
Ryuzakai Allen Cornelius,
You application to Emerald Academy has been accepted and you are now officially a student here, at the prestegious EA. Instructions, supply lists, and school overview has also been enclosed for you and your parent/guardian to read over and discuss. We await your arrival with excitement. The term begins the 31st of August. Once again, congratulations.
Augustus C. Hammer
Applicant: Ryuzakai Allen Cornelius
Year: 1
Dorm: Red
HoD: Leah D. Armstead
"No way..." he mused, a hint of a smile on his lips, "Emerald Academy? There's no way in hell..."
There was no way he could believe this was real. It was probably Jack playing a cruel prank on him. There was no way that the Emerald Academy would have accepted him. For one thing, he had never applied. For another, Emerald Academy was one of the best acadmies in the world, accepting students at an international level. It was easily the best four-year, high school leveled academy in the world, outranked only by the UK's Griffin Academy. The Emerald Academy had a reputation for turning out some of the best minds in the world, and ever since its inception, its country of operations had made quite the name for itself and actually had relevence in the world and people actually knew where it was on the world map (several miles off the coast of Japan, to the east, in the Pacific Ocean. Beyond that, the Academy was slightly further, northeast, on an island all its own.). This was the opportunity that many would give anything for. But one detail still nagged him.
"I didn't sign up or apply...How did I get accepted?" he asked the silent house, but his heart jumped and he was jolted with a sense of alert and panic when he recieved and answer.
"That would be me," called a voice from the hallway.
Ryuzakai froze. So someone had broken in. He definately didn't recognize the voice. He had already reached for the phone on the wall when the a man stepped into view. He grinned slyly at Ryuzakai. He was a tall, slender man, standing maybe an inch or two above Ryuzakai if he had to guess. He had brownish-blonde hair that stuck out everywhere, and his dark blue eyes were set behind a pair of small, rectangular, yellow-tinted glasses. He was dressed in a light blue dress shirt and light khakis. But for the sinister smile he had on his face, and the way he held himself, he gave Ryuzakai the distinct impression of a madman.
"Who the hell are you?!" Ryuzakai demanded, his thumb over the "talk" button of the phone; he had already dialed in 911.
"I, Ryuzakai Allen Cornelius," the man started, taking a step near him, "am your father, Leon Allen Cornelius."
"Go to hell!" Ryuzakai snapped. "My father's been dead a long time!"
"Oh really?" he replied with a sneer. "Is that what deer old Diana told you?"
"How do you know my mother?!" Ryuzakai shouted with angry alarm.
"I already answered you, boy. I am you're father."
"Bull! He's dead!"
"I assure you that I'm very much alive. Look at this." Leon reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small card and what looked like a photo. He reached into his left pocket and pulled out a paperclip and stuck the two items together. Then tossed the card and photo at him. It whizzed and spun and Ryuzakai caught it. He pulled the two apart and looked at the card first.
"Leon Allen Cornelius...So you have the same last name, but that doesn't mean you're my dad."
"Well then look at the photo, why don't you?"
Ryuzakai did and saw, with a mingle of horror and shock, that it was a photo of his mother, this man, Leon, and a baby that was unmistakably him, Ryuzakai. He recognized this photo actually. His mother had a copy herself, but the topright corner, where the man's head was, had been torn off. For the first time ever, Ryuzakai was seeing the completed family picture. He had wondered for years and years who that man was, what he looked like...but now he had the answer...But something about it still didn't sit right with him. He looked back up at Leon, tossing the photo back. He felt much less threatened and alarmed, but he was still on guard with this man.
"If you're really my father, then why show up now? Why wait fourteen years?" he asked angrily, his fists shaking slightly. He had always harbored a deep resentment for the man he never knew, for the father that had abandoned him and his mother.
Leon shook his head, frowning slightly. "I'm a scientist and I go where I am needed most. My assignments have taken me all over the world. You're mother understood, which is why she remarried."
"Then why are you here?" Ryuzakai demanded through gritted teeth.
"To take custody of my only son, of course."
"To take cust--what the hell are you talking about?! You think you can just show up, after fourteen years of abandonment, and just tell me you're taking me away?! Go to hell!"
"First off, son, I never abandoned you. You were the one I cared for. But I couldn't let you grow up moving from place to place. You needed a stable childhood. A good, stable, education. I figured it would be unfair of me to only be in your life sporadically, so I left you with your mother and stayed out of your life. It was easier for you that way. But I did not, never in the fourteen years you've been alive, abandon you. I had kept your family--you're stepfather even--finincially secure all this time. I have paid every expense as far as you are concerned, and have continuously deposited a large sum of money in your mother's account ever month for fourteen years. That account was also set up to allow you access when you came of age, or if something ever happened to her."
"Why the hell should I believe that?"
"If you don't check for yourself." he pulled out another card and tossed it to Ryuzakai. It was a bank card. "Dial the number, give the the account number, and they'll tell you exactly how much is there."
Ryuzakai did so and was shocked, utterly astounded, to discover how wealthy his mother truely was.
"There's over five-hundred thousand dollars in that account!" Ryuzakai exclaimed in disbelief.
"Ah, there's far more than that, my dear boy. That is only what she had. In your personal account, there is far more."
Something caught Ryuzakai's attention. "Had?" he asked, tilting his head slightly. "What do you mean by that?"
For the first time, Leon's smile faltered. He reached onto the coffee table and picked up a copy of the newspaper that Ryuzakai hadn't noticed before. Leon held it out to him and Ryuzakai took it and read it.
And then his world shattered.
On the front page, the first article, the first photo, was his mother. But it was far more gruesome than just her. She was in her car, but it was mangled and destroyed, the glass shattered, the car contorted around her, trapping her body in. Her face was bloody, lines of red branching off down her face. The headline read: Freak Accident Leaves Mother Dead.
"No..." Ryuzakai breathed in disbelief, his legs shaking. "No!"
"I'm sorry..." Leon muttered, not looking the least but sorry.
"She's...you mean...mom's..."
Leon placed a hand on his son's shoulder and squeezed. "I'm sorry...she's dead. Jack too...page three..."
It was Leon's words that broke through to him. Ryuzakai couldn't help the tears that flowed freely from his eyes. It was like someone had poured a bucket of ice into his stomach. It couldn't have happened. It wasn't possible. His mother and stepfather could not be dead! Not now, not after what he had just gone through.
Leon watched in silence as Ryuzakai broke down and sobbed. He waited, arms crossed, as the boy cried and sobbed in agony. He was patient with the boy, but after nearly ten minutes, he finally knelt down and placed both hands on his son's shoulders.
"Ryuzakai, you have to pull yourself together and be strong," he said. "I've already taken care of the custody papers, I came as soon as I found out and took care of everything. I'm going to take you away from all this."
Ryuzakai shook his head, and when he spoke, Leon was surprised to hear his voice steady and calm. "No...I can't leave. This place...I have to stay. For her..."
"Ryu, you have no choice in the matter. You have to leave."
"No, you said that in the event that something happened to mother, her account would shift to me. With that money, I can afford to stay."
"No, you can't. You're going to be taken and thrown in a psychiatric hospital if you don't leave."
"What do you mean?"
"That boy today. Ryuzakai, you killed him."
"No...there's no way I did. He's just hurt."
"Ryuzakai, I'm telling you that he's dead. You're going to end up in a lot of trouble if you don't leave with me."
"I can't..." he whispered, the pain obvious in his voice. "I promised her I'd stay..."
"You can come back, then. Ryuzakai, I'm a very powerful man, and I can make this all go away, but I need to get you away from here before I can do that. I need time, and until then, you need to be somewhere where you can be safe."
"I...I didn't really kill him?" He hadn't meant for it to come out as a question.
"You did. He's dead. Broken ribs, one of which punctured his lung. Oh, and trauma to the brain."
"I didn't mean to...he attacked me..."
"I know. I saw the surveillance."
"I...I e-enjoyed i-it," Ryuzakai stuttered, a resurgence of fear and pain threatening to overcome him. "I-I liked it..."
"It's okay, really. Listen to me. You've been accepted into the academy. You're name has been down ever since you were born. I planned everything out. You'll be safe there. That will give me time to sort out the mess here."
Ryuzakai nodded without thinking. He was numb. He didn't want to think or feel anything right now. He just wanted to get away. And what this man, his father, was promising him sounded right.
"Good. Now go pack some stuff, clothes, cleaning supplies, you know. I'll wait for you outside."
Agian, Ryuzakai nodded and stood up.
"Oh, and Ryu?"
"What?"
"Once you get there, there's a boy I want you to keep an eye on. He's very much like you, in both situation and in life. I want you to watch him and tell me what you think of him at some later point."
"Why?"
"Because he could potentially be a threat to you. He could easily take away both your second chance at family, and your freedom that you're leaving this place to obtain."
"No...I won't let him do that," Ryuzakai said firmly. "I've lost enough already. I won't let anyone take anything else away from me."
"I wouldn't be so sure. This boy...he's not like everyone else. He could give you a run for your money, I bet."
"Then I'll kill him too!" Ryuzakai shouted, clenching his fists again. "You understand?! I'm tired of losing everything, and if you're as powerful as you claim, then you should be able to protect me from prosecution if I kill someone else!"
"Indeed I can, my son."
"Then it's settled. I'll go to the academy. If this guy really is a threat to me, he's as good as dead."
"Good, now go pack you're things."
Ryuzakai nodded and trudged past Leon, into the kitchen, and down into the basement. Leon turned and walked out of the house. Nobody saw the look of triumph he wore on his face. Nobody saw his eyes flash, looking red. And nobody saw the cruel, sinister smile that had spread across his face as he left the garage.

This is amazing I cant wait to see what happens when he gets there.