This is my orginal work. All characters and plot belong to me. This oneshot was an entry for CLNighters 's writing contest: Leather Boots. The prompt was to write from the perspective of any villain, already existing or not. I chose to create my own new world and characters. I'm happy to say I placed first in this contest! Please enjoy.

Her name printed next to the word villain was something Seiko was beginning to get used to. The newest press release was laid aside the others from the past three weeks on the dark cedar wood desk, damp from the malicious rain, her name written in bold.

Water soaked through the paper, darkening the mask of the governed. She stood in front of a metal podium, something the republic liked to call "The Rostrum of the Given".

Seiko supposed the Head of Apricate imagined giving what was really a metal music stand a desirable name would make the thing respectable. And it did, for those unable to see through the veil of idiocracy they stood behind.

Seiko herself had never been one, but Dosei was.

Before he had bled out on the back steps of the engineering tower from a gunshot, that was.

She knew exactly who fired that gun. At the time, Seiko was incredibly surprised. But now? She just wanted to make sure his killer knew she could see through her sweet little facade.

Kaida may be fooling her hometown, Auroral, but wasn't fooling Seiko anymore.

A candle's light flickered and the wax dripped down the side, onto the bare cabinet. Seiko turned around in her chair, eyeing the burgundy candle. The same color Kaida's blood would be as it dripped down her throat.

She propped her arms on the table, blush colored satin gloves covering Seiko's forearms down to her fingertips. She looked Mizuto straight in the eye, raising her eyebrows.

"Are you going to start?" she questioned.

Sitting back in his chair, Mizuto huffed. "I assumed you would want to start, considering last time I visited you made it clear who was in charge."

Seiko tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. "Well, you seem to want to tell me something, desperately, by the look on your face," she stated.

"Oh?" he inquired, matching the angle of Seiko's head. "I wouldn't call it desperate, but I thought you might want to see it."

"See it? It's something physical?"

A wicked smile grew across his face as he placed a folded piece of paper on the table between them. Seiko glanced at Mizuto before sliding the paper towards herself.

Lifting the top edge off the table, she unfolded the paper into one large sheet of multiple articles. As she scanned the headlines, Seiko quickly gathered the information that every last one of these articles were about Kaida.

From the first time she swept in to save the day, NEW HEROINE PREVENTS ATTACK ON THE GOVERNED, to the first prize awarded to her, KAIDA HIME CHOSEN AS PRESERVER OF AURORAL.

Her eyes landed on one specific piece, released a mere two days ago. PRESERVER OF AURORAL NAMES SEIKO HINODE NEWFOUND "VILLAIN".

Seiko took a sharp breath in, skimming over the lengthy article.

" 'After the recent events I'm sure we all know of—the attempted murder of our very own Head of Apricate—I'm afraid Seiko Hinode is no longer a civilian to be associated with. In fact, she is no longer a civilian, but a convict,' Hime explains."

Her breathing took an uptake, Seiko blinking rapidly. Mizuto was peculiarly quiet, the silence well earned. Her eyes set on the dark table, not one sound in the vast room.

"I believe it is your time to go."

Mizuto scoffed, "What? I just handed you what you needed to hear. I should receive some kind of reward!"

Seiko met his raging eyes with hers, filled to the brim with a maniacal calm.

"You may go."

The heels of Seiko's platforms plunking through the muggy rain puddles were the only sounds in the streets of Auroral. She knew where everyone was. Where they would be. When they would be there. Who would be there. And, of course, why.

When she approached the carnival gates, Seiko pulled the freshly polished handles open. An easy path. Trying to make an ambush seem easy, she knew.

And it would be. Because her ambush wouldn't be an ambush, but an arrival. It was meant to catch their attention. Seiko knew it would.

One of those people would be Kaida.

Adjusting her cornflower dyed elbow length gloves which she had exchanged from her pink ones, she stepped into the priceless elevator and readied her stance.

Inhaling deeply, Seiko dropped her nervous expression and stared towards the elevator doors, the color of a rising sun. Hearing the robotic voice announcing the third floor didn't help with her nausea, but certainly braced her.

The doors slid open, revealing the most stuck up room Seiko had ever seen.

There were at least thirty-five regals and nobles scuttling about with crystal wine glasses that were probably worth more than the Head of Apricate herself.

At the sound of the elevator opening, several heads turned to meet Seiko's unchanging gaze, eyes widening one by one. And the last to look, by no surprise, was Kaida.

Seiko's lips turned upwards into a crooked smirk.

"Guess who?"

Kaida stood up, striding over to close the space between them. She stopped a few feet away from Seiko, meeting her eyes with a steely look.

"Oh, come on. No greeting? I thought Mr. Yuichi taught us better than that," she teased, changing the position of the silver pearl lined bracelet on her wrist.

"Well, I know you weren't always top of the class but I thought you might be smart enough to figure out you're not specifically popular these days." Kaida had a daunting look in her eye, as if daring her to play her game.

Seiko had to admit, she always did have a very convincing persona. But she knew it was just her manipulative side.

And Kaida only had one side to her.

"I figured I would stop by, see how my old classmate is doing!" She smiled back, lifting her eyebrows and tilting her head to the right. Seiko would play her game until the gamemaster lost.

"You really did make a mistake when you chose to visit."

"Oh, did I? Please explain yourself."

"Why don't I just show you?"

She widened her eyes. "Be my guest."

Kaida lunged, Seiko dodging by half of a heartbeat. She stood back, placing one foot slightly behind the other, raising her arms in defense.

She twisted one of the bracelet matching rings, one on each finger. Breathing quickly, she threw an elbow jab at her opponent, who blocked with her forearms. Kaida flew at Seiko, slamming her hand down on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes watered, and Seiko blinked rapidly. It didn't feel like anything was broken, but this could be just as much of an annoyance as Kaida.

She clamped her left hand over her right wrist, bringing her arms to her chest and body checking her fully, causing Kaida to stumble back multiple paces, briefly placing a hand over her sternum.

Although Seiko knew she could win this fight alone, she could see guardians moving in through her peripheral vision. She needed to end this fight quickly. Seiko didn't wait for Kaida to recover before delivering her next blow. She placed her black platforms just below her former friend's knee and dragged down, scraping her shin and landing on her foot on the way down.

Seiko took a breath to recover. "They're not designer, but with me wearing them, they could be!" she yelled out, watching Kaida hiss in pain.

For a split second the Head of Apricate and The Governed caught Seiko's attention, standing next to The Rostrum of the Given with arms crossed.

Bad move.

This gave Kaida the exemplary opening to ram Seiko into the rock hard wall behind her. This wall was seriously as hard as it was to get on Kaida's good side. Pinning her to the wall, she leaned in.

"You're a fool, a fool just as Dosei was."

Outrage ran through every vein in her body and every inch of skin on her. Seiko cried out with the attempt of turning Kaida deaf.

"Dosei is my brother!" She screamed, thrusting the girl off her, sending her body into the parallel wall. Between her panting, Kaida still managed to get one word out of her disgusting jaws.

"Was."

With fury practically crawling off her skin, Seiko sprinted towards Kaida. She brought her hands together, all ten of the silver rings meeting. Metal formed around the top of each finger, coming to a halt at terrifying points. She could almost see the horror seeping off of her brother's killer as she watched the razor thin claws come to a quick stop centimeters before the bridge of her nose.

"You won't survive this. I'll get to you one way or another," Seiko whispered, her psychotic look boring into Kaida.

Her look hardened into a hard, cruel expression. Seiko brought her knuckles wrapped in silver down to Kaida's jawline and heard the bones crack.

The rings of pure silver dug her right thigh, immediately drawing blood. She went back for another strike but was restrained when cold steel met Seiko's flaming skin.

The guardians pulled her back from Kaida, pressing a crystal into her ribs, shocking her and leaving her dead weight. She could begin to taste metallic blood.

But she wasn't done, she needed to prove Kaida guilty, needed to show Auroral what she really was. But what was she? All she knew is she could never be a hero. Except the world could never see that. All they see is someone to look up to, even though she always would look down on them. They would never see the pain forming girl that she was, the girl who broke apart Seiko in one foul swoop.

She looked Kaida straight in the eye, and neither broke contact.

"You're insane," she claimed.

Seiko sneered at the lie.

"Just because I'm the "villain" doesn't mean I'm insane, it just means I want something and I'm not afraid to fight for it."

After a few moments of denial, acceptance set in. The sun that had shined on their connection had set. It was time for a new moon of vengeance and shamelessness to rise.