The Dance for the Dead

Chapter 1: Yuki Mai 1st Year Student

"Have a nice day at school Yuki" My mom called after me as I walked out the door.

"Bye" I waved and rode down the street on my bike.

It was my first day as a first year student in high school at Kaiyako High. My heart didn't start beating like an elephant giving CPR, until I pedaled into the school yard. There were hundreds of uniformed students pouring into the school. Most of the other first year students looked just about as nervous as I felt. I locked my bike with the others and joined the crowd. In a sea of unfamiliar faces I spotted my best friend Akane.

"Hey, Akane" I shouted just loud enough to attract her attention. She looked around and I waved my arm in the air.

"Yuki" She said giving a warm smile and jogging towards me. "I'm glad you're here I was hoping I wouldn't have to go in there alone." She said grabbing both of my hands.

"Yeah" I said with a smile equally glad as we began walking in the building with the rest of the students. "You know" I started eager to tell my best friend about my dilemma. "My mom want's me to join an after-school activity this year to show colleges I'm "A well rounded student", can you believe it?" I asked.

"Really?" Akane asked with a slight grin. "I'm going to try out for the dance team this year. My sister Rin is the captain of the team, and she has been really pushing me to try out. You should try out for the team with me." She asked in a slight pleading tone.

The crowd of kids began to move and we realized that they were finally letting the students into the building. We walked slowly with the crowd, practically crawling along.

"I don't know about that, have you seen me dance?" I asked. "Lets just say it isn't my best skill that I should be showing everyone." I giggled.

"Well that's what I told her myself, but she said she would train me." Akane said. "Please don't make me go there on my own." She begged looking at me with her bright red eyes as big as they would go.

"Fine" I gave in "But no promises on me trying out."

She pouted, but settled for my answer. We walked with the other kids into the gym for our entrance ceremony. Akane and I took out seats with the other 1st year students. Principal Takeshi came out and spoke of the opportunities our school had to offer, and how we better not waste out talents. When he was finished, the cheerleaders came out and did a cheer to encourage our sport teams to do their best this year. It was an interesting display of "pep", but nothing compared to what happened next.

The school's dance team came out, and I recognized Rin right away. She looked just like Akane except, unlike Akane's long black hair Rin had short black hair, and bright blue eyes. She was so pretty, the whole squad was. And when they stepped out onto the gym floor in formation everyone fell silent.

The music began and the dancers bowed to the audience. When they came up from their bow, the group split into two. They preformed back-flips in the opposite direction of each other. When you took a closer look you could see that they weren't using their hands at all. They all flipped to the beat, and in perfect synchronization. A little too perfect. When they stopped flipping both groups turned to face each other. They rolled into a hand stand, only they weren't on their hands but on their fingertips. They were thin but not thin enough for that not to be painful. The beat dropped just as they came down, and they jumped in the air doing a series of flips and turns in the air as if gravity turned off for them. Then they ran towards each each other. I thought they were going to crash into each other, but instead they leaped into an upside down pyramid at the last second. Who does a pyramid that fast? I thought to myself. Let alone an upside-down pyramid. Rin, at the very bottom of the pyramid shouted "Kaiyako High" in an amazingly pitched tone. Then lights flashed off. The light was off for literally one second and they were gone. I looked to Akane who looked just as mesmerized as I did.

"Alright, Everyone get to class!" One of the Administrators yelled breaking the trance that everyone seemed to be under.

"That was amazing!" I said to Akane as we headed down the halls.

"Yeah... my sister looked like a whole different person out there."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Akane began. "Rin is always nice and polite, but I have never seen her do moves like that, and she's been dancing for all her previous two years of high school." She went on. "All during our spring break I haven't seen her doing that routine. I wonder when she learned it? She has also been acting strangely at home all of a sudden... Like violent."

"Maybe she learned it this morning? The violence could be a phase or something" I tried to explain to calm my anxious friend.

"Yeah maybe you're right" She said with a weak smile.

"Ill see you later." I said to Akane when we needed to split up in the hallway.

"Bye, I'll see you after school." She said reminding me of my commitment. I waved and headed to class.

School was slow. I couldn't stop thinking about the dance teams performance, their moves were almost superhuman. I couldn't wait to go and see Akane tryout, as far as I knew she couldn't do moves like that. I wondered how her tryouts would go.