Control (Aphorism Fanfic) COMPLETED

Prologue

This was not how it was supposed to turn out.

She leaned against the walls, ducking out of sight while wrapping her arms around herself, taking a shaky breath, hiding behind her curtain of blonde hair.

Naraka High School was supposed to be the gateway to heaven – ironically, considering its name – but it was supposed to her heaven, a heaven away from her home.

She hated the control her parents had over her life - she herself wanted to be the one who controls her fate. So it wasn't surprising that when the sensei of her class, Class 1, told her to write down a kanji, she automatically wrote down the kanji for control.

Then there was this stinging pain of her left wrist and she found the kanji on her wrist itself.

Afterwards, the monsters appeared.

Her black eyes darted about, looking for an exit. The monster started prowling on her other classmates. She clenched her fists and ran, just ran and ran and ran, not caring about anything. One of those monsters snapped its jaws at her. She shut her eyes, closing her eyes to the stain of the bloodshed around her.

She always hated the colour red.

Her name was Kanade Misaki and she did not want to die here; not in her new school, not during the first day of a new year, and not without getting a say in her death.

She gasped, stopping at a dead end. She ducked when the monster snapped at her, only for her long, curly hair to be caught within the jaws of that thing chasing her. She tugged desperately, not wanting to be eaten alive or crushed within its jaws.

"Aren't you in a fix?"

She glanced up, meeting the bright eyes of a tall boy dressed in the school's uniform.

'A student!'

His arms were casually crossed, cocking his head to a side. She couldn't focus on him and grasp anything much; her vision was all too stained with the colour of blood. The only thing she managed to make out were his shining eyes.

"What do you want?" she gasped, voice too hoarse from the screaming.

"I can tell you how to get out alive," the boy said. "Providing you promise to help me next time as well."

"I don't like owing others favours!" she shouted, desperately trying to yank her hair out of the thing's grip.

"Oh, well," the boy shrugged. "Then I guess-"

The monster snapped its jaws, jerking her back to the situation again. She yanked her hair one last time and then, suddenly, she broke free, strands of hair falling to the ground.

She fell flat on her face and when she sat up, the tendrils framing her face were still long. But when her hand reached to the back of her head, her long beautiful hair was hacked to a short bob around her jaw. She had long, long hair only a few minutes ago; now it was mostly short and unkempt – and it was all thanks to this stranger.

"Well?" the boy called again.

"It's all your fault!" she screamed, taking all her anger out at this stranger with the bright eyes.

The monster advanced upon her again, snapping its jaws.

The boy raised his eyebrows.

She exhaled shakily, giving up her pride and shouted, "Alright, I promise you. Help me!"

The boy smiled, as if waiting for that answer. "Your character is your power. Use it."

She yanked at her sleeve. The 'control' kanji stared back at her.

"C-Control!" her left arm raised in front of her, as if trying to shield her.

The kanji shone brilliantly for a moment before the monster stopped in its tracks, not moving.

"Disappear," she said.

The monster fell apart, spreading its remains along the corridors, further adding to the bloodshed.

The boy grinned crookedly. "So, next time during an eclipse, I can count on you?"

She pulled herself to her full height (which was, sadly, a lot shorter than his) and glared. "Why couldn't you have helped me? You have your own character. Look what you did to my hair!"

"Ah, that is a shame," he said nonchalantly, as if it was anything but a shame. "But truly, your character is of great use. Mine is not as... practical as yours, you see."

A light filled the place. The monster milling about died down, one by one.

"Well then, I must leave now. I will see you again, Miss ..." he trailed off, waiting for a name.

"Kanade Misaki," she snapped. "Call me only Misaki."

He smiled again, before turning and leaving.

There were three things that Kanade Misaki was sure of at the end of her first day in Naraka High School.

One, she finally had some control over how her life goes.

Two, she lost at least three quarters of her hair thanks to the stranger with the bright eyes.

Three, she was going to make that stranger with the bright eyes pay.

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A/N: This was a fanfic originally posted in 2013 titled "My Control", and has been since removed. This fic is a revamp of the original, switching from 1st POV to 3rd, adding more detail to the plot, deviating from canon eventually. Hope you will enjoy! Contains spoilers for the manga up till the ending, and beware that canon had been changed here and there to fit the fanfic :)