Vormund

VORMUND: Beneath Golden Gilding

Chapter 1

Beneath Golden Gilding

We lay our scene in a fair city, much like the rest. Skyscrapers reach out in all directions, and both man and machine roam the streets precariously, without worry. Except the few crimes and scandals, there is nothing but peace.

Or at least that's what one would be led to believe; this is indeed a peaceful world, not one in which horrifying monsters stalk the streets among us, seen only by a few. Here is where the truth lies, not fiction. It lies beneath the golden veil above society. There lies our story of Naoya Kisaragi, who had no idea what he was in for that day long ago...

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"Class dismissed," the teacher declared in a short monotone as three melodious rings resounded through the room.

Naoya roused himself from his nap and stretched out over the desk, letting out a short yawn. As the teacher continued to drone on about how the students shouldn't forget their homework over Golden Week, Naoya stuffed it into his folder, along with other unfinished homework. It looked like he had a lot of crap to put up with for such a short vacation.

He had just rested his head back onto the desk when a sudden 'thwump' sound came from his desk. He looked up, and lo and behold, there was his good friend Tsubaki, looking troubled as always.

"Naoya-kun!" she exclaimed, her twinkling cyan eyes taking on a frustrated appearance.

"How're you doing, Tsubaki?" he replied with a dreamy look in his eyes, studying her face carefully.

"Don't pull that 'how ya doing' thing on me again, Kisaragi! You slept through class again!"

"You didn't tell me how you were doing."

She groaned, "Ugh, I'm not doing your report for you again, just so you know."

"You know you will." he said with a smirk, pulling himself up from his seat.

Tsubaki rolled her eyes and with a short giggle, she agreed, "Naoya-kun, why do I find it so hard to say no to you?"

"Because I'm just that awesome."

"You sound so serious when you say that." she laughed, but then her face turned serious, "Naoya-kun, how about we have a little...trade?"

The second Naoya heard his friend say "trade", he automatically let out a sigh, "What do you want this time? I can't keep paying for your Yuri mags with my allowance, you know."

Tsubaki's face flashed a deep red behind her long brunette bangs and her red framed glasses; she exclaimed, "N-Naoya-kun! Shut up, you pervert!"

Naoya rolled his eyes, thinking about what a shame it was that such a pretty girl was-

She slapped him with her purse in the middle of his thoughts, something he found rather annoying.

"Ow... Tsubaki-chan... why did you hit me...?" he asked in a whiny voice.

She growled back at him, "You know why! I don't need any more of those, thank you very much. I just wanted to..." she rummaged through her seemingly bottomless bag, pulling out her hand only when she grasped a flier in it, "...see if I could get you to join this, is all."

Naoya swiped the paper from her hands, quickly reading through it.

The drama club invites YOU to join, today! Meetings occur after school on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Practicing year-round, we perform at the school festival and periodically at the nearby opera house.