#Shoku Tsubaraya

[yansimstorythatiwillnotworkon]

#5

Friday

Info-Chan: If you managed to poison Raibaru’s food with a headache or emetic poison, she would be weak enough to eliminate.

Yan-Chan: If that was really the case, then why couldn’t I have done that any other time?

Info-Chan: I give you helpful tips daily. This is just your helpful tip of the day.

Yan-Chan: A helpful tip that amounted to nothing in the end.

Info-Chan: Don’t worry, this one is probably the most helpful one! :)

Yan-Chan: Why are you stalling?

Yan-Chan: I only have so much of the day left before everything is ruined

Info-Chan: Don’t worry ^^

Info-Chan: I wouldn’t unintentionally allow my client to fail. :3

That, of course, hinted that she would allow her to fail intentionally if she so pleased. Ayano sighs as she gets one last text from her crappy informant.

Info-Chan: Toga Tabara seems to need a little help. :)

Ayano frowns, but pockets her phone and searches the halls for Toga.

__

“Oh, Ayano.” Toga’s eyes widen in slight surprise at Ayano approaching him. He puts a hand on his hip with a curious frown. “I’m surprised you’re asking. I admit, I didn’t entirely see you as the ‘favor-doing’ type.” He shakes his head with a hand on his hip. “Before I answer, though, can I ask why you want to do a favor for me?”

Ayano didn’t know any more about Toga than he knew about her, but from what Info-Chan had told her, he wasn’t exactly as impressionable as other students. Regardless, the less Toga was able to say for certain about her, the safer she was from being doubted based on her actions.

With that thought in mind, Ayano subtly began swaying back and forth in a girly manner. She smiled in faux confusion. “Well, I can’t say that I help others because I want sunshine and rainbows raining on Academi, but I can say for certain that doing favors makes me feel helpful.” Shrugging, she claims, “Maybe it just feeds my ego, hehe..”

Toga raises his eyebrows briefly, his gaze and overall posture hinting that she had didn’t quite believe her. He simply shrugged and continued, though. “Well, to each their own. Not like I can say what you do and why you do it.” He claims, folding his arms. “As for my favor…” He hums in thought. “Well, I’m sure you know I’m quite notorious for not being able to pick a club. It would help me if you asked each club leader their thoughts of me- regarding my performance, of course.”

Ayano nods with a bright smile, “I can do that! No problem!” She says, and begins walking to speak to the first club leader on her list.

“One moment.” Toga calls out again. He hesitates as Ayano turns back to him but eventually gets his statement out. “Could you also ask Kuroko what she thinks would be best for me?” He asks, “I value her opinion a lot, and I’m sure she could give me great advice.”

After pondering for a moment, Ayano eventually nods. Kuroko seemed to be the more… normal of the student council. Akane always seemed to be breathing down her neck, awaiting Ayano’s eventual screw up. Aoi spent more time accusing her of things instead of actually catching her doing anything. And Shiromi was just… weird.

Unlike her fellow student council members, Kuroko was more humble and respectful to everyone while still knowing how to use her authority. If Toga hadn’t asked for Kuroko specifically, Ayano likely would have gone for her herself.

__

“Ah, Ayano.” Shoku smiles at her, although his awkward expression hinted that he hadn’t forgotten their previous encounter.

“Shoku.” Ayano nods, “Toga’s having trouble picking a club… as per usual. He asked me to ask you and the other club leaders what your thoughts on his performance in this club was.” She explained briefly, continuing her petite body movements, but keeping her face normal. When she first interacted with Shoku, she showed no changes in her persona or facial expressions, so perhaps changing how she presented herself slowly wouldn’t stand out to him as much.

Shoku raises his eyebrows in slight shock. “Oh, really?” He lifts a hand up to his chin in thought. “Well, he certainly was talented. He was an incredible learner, and apparently often had to cook for himself at home. He didn’t know everything, of course, but knew a lot despite being a novice.” He hesistates for a moment, however, before saying. “I guess if I had to complain it would be his lack of…enthusiasm? He claimed several times that he wouldn’t want to ‘waste time’ cooking for others, or even himself. I guess after spending so much time cooking for himself, it got kind of boring?”

Ayano hummed in silent thought, but nodded. “Right. Is that all? Did any of your clubmates have anything to say about him?”

“Well, Aija didn’t really like him. Thought he was lazy, which he really wasn’t.” Shoku explained. He turned to his tray, grabbing a bag of powdered sugar and sprinkling some on top of his brownies. “Honestly Aija… doesn’t like a lot of people. At all. I think what she didn’t like about him was the fact that Toga saw cooking as more of a hobby instead of anything he would consider ‘important’.”

Once again, Shoku turned to Ayano with a brownie on a napkin. “Do you still not like brownies?” He asks, smiling hopefully at Ayano.

After a moment of thought, Ayano takes the brownie. “Thanks.” She said briefly, taking a bite of it. She then nods, “It’s good, but a little cakey. And I’m not a fan of powdered sugar.”

“Not everyone is.” Shoku says with a casual smile. “I appreciate your feedback, though!” He says, picking up the serving tray. “If other students say the same then maybe I’ll use a little less flour and more butter?” He says, although more so to himself. He nods to Ayano as a goodbye and goes on about his usual routine.

__

“Hi, Yan-Chan!” Kokona waves happily at Ayano as she enters the gymnasium. Ayano waves briefly, not quite knowing if Kokona knew that the “Yan” nickname was meant to be a joke name or not.

Kokona and her club were on the stage, all holding their own script. Tokuko was clearing her throat and excersizing her voice as she was often the singer or vocalizer during performances. Shozo was comparing the script to a book he was holding on the “History of American Tragedies”. Tsuruzo usually got the main role, only second to their leader. Kokona was usually the narrator due to her passion and overall joy of being dramatic, and Riku was usually everything else. Technician, stage set-up, back-up, and so on and so forth. Basically a jack-of-all-trades.

“Ayano! There’s my favorite drama-club-to-be!” Tsuruzo claims, flipping his curled ponytail over his shoulder. He smiles brightly as Kokona walks over to Ayano as well.

“Look! I’ve got the narrator role again!” Kokona cheered to her, jumping a bit in excitement. “Isn’t it so cool?!” She asked excitedly, looking down to Ayano.

Ayano nods. “That’s nice.” She says calmly.

“Did you come to beg me to join, yet?” Tsuruzo asks with a hopeful grin. It immediately fell, however as Ayano shook her head. “Well, we can’t all be bursting with potential, I suppose.” He huffs, but smiles once again. “So, what brings you here, darling?”

Folding her hands behind her back, Ayano responds, “I came to ask you about Toga.” She claims. “He wanted to know about what you thought of his performance during his time here.”

Tsuruzo immediately scoffs, looking offended at the mere mention of Toga. “Performance?! I think you mean lack thereof!” He snapped, placing a hand on his hip with a scowl.

Ayano raises her eyebrows in surprise. “Really? What did he do?”

“What he didn’t do is put in an effort!” Tsuruzo grumbled, before sighing and deciding to calm down. “He had all the time in the world to learn scripts or help with setups or run errands, but all he did was ask questions!” He looks to his hand, counting on his fingers, “‘Why this play?’, ‘Is there any meaning behind it?’, ‘Why is Kizana even the leader?’, ‘Why does anyone listen to her?’, ‘Shouldn’t we do something more unique?’, ‘What’s the point of this line?’, ‘Does this have anything to do with-’ and nothing else!”

“He’s just mad that Toga was honest about disliking Kizana.” Tokuko chuckles, although her voice was a little weaker that usual.

Riku spoke up, tilting his head to the side in thought. “Well, he was pretty talkative.” He commented, “It was only a matter of time before his questions switched from what the play was to asking if it was related to some…obscene murder case or something or other.”

Kokona hesitantly agrees, folding her hands together awkwardly. “Yeah… he did ask some weird questions. Which wasn’t exactly the problem, it was more so that he asked us these questions while we worked in front of him.”

“He wasn’t really an actor. All of us have our own… amount of talent when it comes to acting, but he either didn’t bother or just… couldn’t.” Shozo added. “Honestly, I just don’t think that he joined the drama club to act at all. Of course, I don’t know what he joined for, but my point still stands.”

“He left before I could kick him out.” Tsuruzo smacks his teeth, his arms folded in pure irritation. “He didn’t bother going to a single club activity. It was Monday through Thursday, and he left Friday morning.”

Ayano frowned in thought. She wondered a bit about what exactly Toga’s goal was if not to actually act, but brushed it off. In the end, that wasn’t entirely her business. If he ended up being as weird as the Drama Club saw him then Info-Chan would have provided her with that information. Or maybe “might have” is more accurate.

“I…see.” Ayano nods in understanding. “So, in general?” She asked, turning to Kokona this time for a more fair judgement.

Kokona smiles wrly. “He just, ah… didn’t seem very interested in the first place. I’m sure he could have performed well if he actually wanted to, but he… didn’t.”

Ayano nods. “I see. Thank you for the information.” She says.

“If we were so helpful don’t you think it’s only fair that you help uuus?” Tsuruzo hums, walking behind Ayano and placing his hands on her shoulders.

“...not today. But what do you need help with?” Ayano asks him, taking a step away and turning to face him.

Kokona bounces up next to respond instead. “With setting up the play in a couple of weeks!” She says, peering down at Ayano with an excited smile. “Our leader, Kizana, is coming back to Academi next week, so we want to put in as much work as possible!”

Ayano ponders that and hears Tokuko mutter something like “unfortunately” under her breath. Ayano didn’t particularly care about this Kizana character, but it might do her reputation good if she helps out. Even more so without being in the club. “I’d be happy to help, but like I said I’m pretty occupied today.” She responded.

“Well, whenever you’re ready, we’ll be waiting!” Kokona chirps, waving Ayano goodbye cheerily.

__

“Toga?” Shin seemed to frown at the thought of him. Well, he was already frowning, but it seemed more so out of disdain than being generally gloomy. “Well, he was… very interested in our studies.” He said, quietly. “He asked a lot of questions, but in the end, um…”

Shin looks around the club briefly, as if trying to collect his thoughts, before Supana spoke up. “He debunked all of our studies with ‘science’, and whatever.” She grumbles, clearly not holding a very fond memory of Toga.

“I recall that Chojo was quite fond of him.” Shin said, moving his tall figure from in front of Ayano to reveal the lankier boy sitting in a chair.

Chojo peeked up from his upside-down book, but immediately looked away from Ayano. He mumbled something that Ayano couldn’t quite here, and after noticing that he spoke up. “He listened to me a lot!” He said, much louder.

“Be quiet!” Supana hissed, making Chojo recoil back into his chair.

“Sorry..” He mumbled.

Shin turns back to Ayano. “Chojo is quite talkative if you’re patient enough. Toga was very patient, and listened to everything that he had to say. Though..” The taller boy paused in thought, but slowly continued, “..I feel like he was looking for something whenever he listened to Chojo. And perhaps that was the same reason he spoke to us and asked us questions so often?”

“I heard something similar.” Ayano said, averting her gaze in thought. She didn’t particularly think that Toga was suspicious or meant any harm. If anything, he just seemed like he sat with a club for a week and left if it wasn’t up to his standards, regardless of how high those standards might be.

“I could be imagining things.” Shin claimed, shaking his head, “He did seem to be a very positive influence on the club. He never bothered listening to rumours and didn’t judge any of us via how we appeared. If anything, he seemed to have joined for knowledge rather that drama, which can be respected.”

Ayano nods, “I think so, too.” She agrees, folding her arms behind her back and taking a step back. “Thank you for the information, I’m going to continue asking around.”

“I hope what we’ve said was helpful to you.” Shin says, bowing his head as Ayano takes her leave.

__

“I guess he was alright.” Gema shrugged, immediately straightening his back when Ayano came in. “He was interested in every aspect of every game. Hell, he asked me so many questions even I started questioning what I was playing. I didn’t like it!” He sighed, sitting in one of the chairs at the desk. “If a game I’m playing has secret contreversial lore I’d honestly rather ignore it and keep playing. But then Toga had to keep, like, doing background checks on the developers and stuff?”

Mai spoke up. “Toga looked into a favorite developer of mine and learned that he was… well, a freak to be honest. I still play the game, sometimes, but… it doesn’t feel the same anymore.” She sighs, “I’m at least thaknful that he told me the difference of a good and bad developer. I see why so many of my friends hate that game now. It really hasn't grown much in the last… what, ten years?”

“He was suuuuuper smart!” Midori said, cheerily, trotting over to Ayano. “He sorta did that thing that your mom would do! Like, he would watch us play and then point everything that didn’t make sense! Do you remember that?”

Ayano nods. When she was a kid, Midori would bring over her game system and all of her games. She recalled Kuu saying that if she won against Midori than they all would have a book night. That alone probably made Midori better at video games.

“How’s your mom, anyway, Ayano?” Midori asks, but is interrupted by Gema.

“Don’t get distracted, Midori, you still have grinding to do!” He says, sitting her back down. “Anyway, Toga left pretty quickly. He finished all of our games in two days and then left! I guess he didn’t feel like farming XP for me anymore.” Gema shrugs, once again having to straighten his posture, clearly not yet used to standing up straight just yet.

Gema seems to remember something and smiles at Ayano. Quietly, he says, “Thanks again for those tips, Ayano. Musume and I are on, like, talking terms right now! Girls don’t usually talk to me! You know, unless they’re..” He looks at Midori, and then back to Ayano and shrugs, “..a loser.”

“I’m happy to have helped.” Ayano says, “And thank you for the info. Toga will be happy to have heard your opinion. I think.” She says. “I’m going to continue asking around now.”

“Sure, sure. Tell him that if he feels like grinding more XP he’s totally welcome!” Gema calls, although Ayano didn’t think that she would bother telling him that.

__

“Ayano! We’ve been seeing more of you, haven’t we?” Budo says, thankfully remembering to keep his voice quiet this time. “What can I do for you?”

Ayano pulls her hands in front of herself, intertwining her fingers. “Toga asked me to do a favor for him. He wanted to hear what the club leaders thought of him. Apparently, it will help him decide which one to stay in for good. Or something or other.”

Budo gives a wry smile. “Toga, huh?” He crosses his arms, thinking. “Well, he certainly put in an effort. But.. you know, he’s a pretty thin guy. He only stayed with us for the week and eventually left us for the light music club.”

“Did he do a lot of research on martial arts?” Ayano guesses, causing Budo to smile in surprise.

“How’d you know?” He asks, “I honestly think that Toga just used being in our club as an excuse to do research about martial arts.”

Ayano nods. From what she’s hearing, Toga was just the type to research anything he could.

“He’s a pretty smart guy, though. Some stuff he told me even I didn’t know about.” Budo laughs, “Not that anyone taught me anything. But anyway, if Toga worked out, he could probably properly get into Martial Arts, but I don’t think it’s his strong suit at the moment.”

Ayano nods. “I understand. That’s all I needed.” She bows lightly, “Thank you.”

“Of course!” Budo beams as Ayano moves onto the Light Music Club.

__

“Oh, he was an absolute riot!” Miyuji says, pumping her fist with a big grin. Her smile immediately falls into something more sheepish as she thinks about it more, though. “Well… his skills were. Despite how absolutely a-MAZ-ing he was with instruments… his skills didn’t exactly match his energy.”

Tilting her head to the side, Ayano asks, “What do you mean by that?” She got the general idea, but maybe Miyuji could provide an example.

“Well..” Miyuji flopped back down on her seat, casual picking at some strings of her guitar. “...he stayed here literally from Monday to Wednesday. We did a performance on Tuesday, and he honestly rocked the whole time! But, during the performance, he was, like… completely still! It’s like he only moved the necessary parts of his body to perform the song well, but didn’t enjoy the song at all!”

Myuji lowers her voice and continues. “Between you and me, he was sort of a drag. He was super serious about everything. Hell, the most expression he showed the whole time he was here was when Kiba let him dissect and fix up her keyboard!”

“Sounds like he preferred learning about the instruments more than playing them.” Ayano says, and Myuji shrugs.

“Maybe. I mean- he was only here for three days. I don’t really have much else to say about him.” She says, looking down to her guitar. “Except that he was pretty good-looking. Would’ve been our hottest member if he let me dye his hair.” She chuckles.

Ayano bows her head briefly. “Got it. Thanks for the information.”

“Anytime! Except next time I’m gonna make you play with us!” Myuji called as Ayano left.

__

“Hm.” Geiju hummed briefly, turning his head away from Ayano to paint as he thought. “Very inquisitive.”

Ayano folds her hands together in front of her. “So I’ve heard. Were there any pros or cons with working with him?” She asked, realizing that she would probably have to do most of the talking.

“Very smart.” Geiju said, nodding, but then shook his head as he said, “Not active.”

Ayano pauses in thought, slowly putting Geiju’s words together. It would be helpful if he could provide some examples, but Geiju was strictly a two-word-sentence speaker. As if hearing their conversation, Enpitsu walks in and leans on the doorway.

“He was kind of a drag, I won’t lie.” The orange-haired fellow claimed, although him saying something like that wasn’t too surprising when it came to most people. “He said he never painted in his life, but aced every beginner and intermediate-level training on his first day here. And then he left.”

Geiju speaks up, “Studied plenty.”

“Yeah, that too, I guess.” Enpitsu shrugs, “He came to all of the members of the club and studied our individual tastes to the T. But he still left the very next day.”

Ayano looked to Geiju. “Did he happen to join on Thursday?” She asked, to which he nodded to. Maybe he was following a schedule or had some sort of goal? “I see…”

Enpitsu spoke again, “I think he enjoyed painting, and he was really good at it, but when he left, he just said that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay.”

“He might have been testing out each club, then. Most of the other club leaders say the same.” Ayano said before turning to Geiju again. “Thank you for answering.”

Scoffing, Enpitsu mumbles, “To the best of his abilities.”

Geiju didn’t react to Enpitsu’s remark and nodded to Ayano as she exited the room.

__

“Well, he was definitely a good photographer.” Furredo claims, leaning back in his chair. “He didn’t seem too bothered when he learned that we only really photograph for fun.”

Dafuni smiles sheepishly and comments, “I do think it’s worth mentioning that he didn’t let us see the photos he took.”

Furredo nods, snapping his fingers, “Right, right!” He looks back up to Ayano, “He even brought his own camera. Probably so we wouldn’t have a right to look at the pictures he took.”

“Certainly didn’t help those ‘pervert’ allegations.” Beruma comments. As she does, Rojasu flinches and leans up. He sniffs, looking half-asleep.

“He’s a pervert?” He asks, blinking slowly, before slowly laying his head back on the table.

Furredo chuckles awkwardly and raises his hands to his club. “Let’s not encourage those rumors, you guys. Those are only rumors that really stemmed from nothing. I don’t know why he kept his pictures private, though. He could just be a private guy. Or maybe he was embarrassed.”

“Toga?” Sukubi asked, slipping Rojasu’s bento out of his bag. “He didn’t seem like the embarrassed type. He was super confident and, like, straightforward and stuff.”

Beruma snatches Rojasu’s bento away from Sukubi, but not in agreement. “Right, I think his candid personality shocked people into listening to him.” She says, putting the bento into her own bag for safe keeping. “I say that, of course, because other students hate it when we take pictures of them if it isn’t some happy celebration or event. But they did the opposite for him.”

“So he approached the people he was taking a picture of?” Ayano asked, to which the club agreed to, whether that be a murmured ‘yeah, pretty much’ or a simple nod.

Dafuni giggles, “Maybe you were right about the embarrassed bit, then. Pictures taken face-to-camera probably don’t look too good anyway.”

Rojasu sits up again suddenly with a gasp. “Like that one cat meme!” He said, causing a wave of laughter amongst the group.

Not only was Ayano not a meme person, but she recalls there being several different cat memes. Whatever it was Rojasu was talking about before he went back to sleep was somehow something that the whole club recalled. Or maybe it was completely different, who knows? They didn’t seem like the smartest bunch anyway.

“Well, thank you for the information.” Ayano says, bowing her head politely.

“No need to be so polite, Yan-Chan! Ayano!” Furredo quickly corrects himself and smiles, “Drop by anytime!”

__

“Oh, Toga! Yes, yes.. Very smart, that one, very smart.” Kaga nods his head. “Or, uh… obedient, at the very least. You don’t meet many people willing to sacrifice their lives for science. I would know. I wouldn’t either. Not when there are other people around!”

Ayano pulls her mouth into a straight line before speaking up. “Right… so, is there anything significant that he did during his time here?”

“Uh, no. Er- yes, maybe. I don’t know, you should ask Homu. Toga seemed incredibly interested in her.” The scientist claimed, walking over and peeking underneath the tarp in the corner of the room before walking back to his usual spot and typing something. “A-As a matter of fact, the two of them seemed incredibly close throughout his time here! Ate lunch together, spoke on the roof, and… whatever friends do, I suppose.”

“He was pretty smart, though.” Horo spoke up, messing with a small device that lit up pictures of random students occassionally. He smacks his teeth, tapping on it with a sigh. “Toga, right? He really did his research. He looked into everyone in the club and helped us with all of our separate projects. If anything, he was just an assistant to everyone.”

Nodding, Ayano joins Horo’s side as he works. “And what about Homu?” She asked, watching as Maka’s picture came up on the hologram device. It stayed there for a moment before Horo finished putting a couple of pieces together and pocketed the device.

“Right, um… I’m pretty sure they spoke the most outside of the clubroom.” Horo lifts a hand to his chin in thought. “I wouldn’t call them friends. I don’t think Homu would consider anyone a friend, but I do know that she talks to people who have something she needs. I think.” Horo shrugs a bit, “In fact, I think that was all. They had some common objective and extracted as much as they could before he left for the next club.”

“Do you know what that objective is?” Ayano asks, but Horo shakes his head.

“I don’t. Homu doesn’t really talk about private stuff to any of us. Or anyone, for that matter. I guess Toga was just something special.” Horo said, “I wouldn’t recommend asking Homu, either. She talks to people less the less she knows them. Meka says she doesn’t even bother responding to people on the street.”

Ayano frowns in thought and steps back. Bowing her head, she says, “Right. Thank you for the information.”

“Sure.” Horo said, waving briefly as Ayano left.

__

“Didn’t stay here long.” Itachi shook his head. “I won’t say he easily gave up, I just think he easily lost interest.”

Ayano tilts her head to the side, “You say that as if he was looking for something.”

Itachi nods. “If not a reason to stay then something else. That something is probably why he worked out with each of us for a period of time.” He says briefly. “Whatever the reason, he surely won’t be welcomed back if he pulls that ‘losing interest’ bit on me again.”

“What did he talk to you about?” Ayano asks, tailing him as he walked back into the gymnasium to stretch.

“The club leader, past members. And I think how we interact.” Itachi said, pausing between each example to thoroughly stretch his muscles. “Like I said, nothing much.”

Ayano hums quietly in thought. It was just Uekiya and Kuroko that she had left to ask. “Right, thank you.”

Itachi merely hums, running back out of the gymnasium to return to the track.

__

“Ah, well, he was certainly a great worker!” Uekiya smiles fondly at the memory of Toga. “We really needed a guy like him here. He was sort of the muscle we needed to deal with tougher plants and weeds. Himari couldn’t do all of it herself, haha..” She brushes off a bit of dirt and stands up from her plant to properly face Ayano. “I think the girls just liked having a guy around, hehe.”

Toga seemed to have made an overall positive mark on this club, but that was probably because Ayano only asked Uekiya one question. Anything negative at all she feared would cause rumours to spread. “So you don’t have any complaints? That would be a first.”

Uekiya hesitates, but sheepishly twirls a piece of her hair around between her fingers. “W-Well, uh… He was a great worker whenever I asked, but he and Sakura would usually run off together to go talk about… well… something?” She gasps and quickly says, “Oh! But they aren’t dating! Please, don’t take that out of context. Sakura’s already in a relationship, so she’s not interested in Toga. Plus, it’s been quite a while since the two spoke.”

“I understand, Uekiya.” Ayano nods reassuringly. She didn’t doubt that Sakura wasn’t interested in Toga, as before classed she often blabbed about her boyfriend to her friends. Although they still have yet to meet him.

“Thank goodness..” Uekiya sighs, but smiles again and returns to the topic at hand. “I’m not sure what those two spoke about, but I do know that they went to the Occult Club to grab books sometimes. Toga spoke to all of us individually often, but with Sakura I just assumed they had a similar interest.”

That was strange. Near the end, Ayano’s interests are steered back to the Occult Club. Shin didn’t tell her much except that Toga spoke with Chojo often. “Did she speak with Chojo at all?” Ayano asks.

Uekiya hums, shrugging, “I’m not too sure. I’m sure I’ve seen them talk at some point, but not for any significant reason. Sakura talks to her peers often so it’s not exactly strange to me. Why do you ask?”

“No reason, really. I was just… wondering.” Ayano bows her head briefly. “But thank you for answering my questions.”

Smiling, Uekiya waves cheerfully at Ayano. “Of course! Don’t you worry about it!”

__

It was 7:49 now. Ayano had wasted all of her time doing the task that Info-Chan had given her, that she’d completely forgotten that the whole reason she might lose Taro is because of Info-Chan’s unreliability. She didn’t even know what Osana was doing right now. Hell, she could’ve decided to confess early and she and Taro could’ve been on their merry way to a honeymoon or something.

As Ayano blindly stormed towards the student council room, Kuroko, who was walking out, suddenly bumped into her and instinctively shoved her back with one hand. “Ah. I apologize, Ayano. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

Ayano stiffens up, which she learned was a habit of hers whenever she’s confronted by the Student Council. Or more precisely shoved by them. “..neither was I. Sorry.” She says, taking a generous step back. “I wanted to ask you something, Kuroko.”

Kuroko pulls up her sleeve, looking at the time briefly on a watch Ayano hadn’t noticed she had before. “Alright, we have about ten minutes before we should head to class.” She says, nodding at Ayano as a way of hinting to her to continue.

Ayano folds her hands in front of her, almost subtly copying Kuroko’s movements as she continued. “Toga asked me to go to each club leader and question what their opinions on his performance was during his time there, and I’ve finished that. He also asked me to come to you and ask you the same thing.” She pauses for a second. “You two are in the same class, right? Maybe he wants you to give his opinion on his performance durring class, then?”

“I know what he means.” Kuroko says, nodding briefly. “He often runs errands for me and includes himself in the work I do as the leader of the student council president. He’s a fine worker and has his head in the right place. Even more so than that, he’s a very efficient worker.”

Somewhat like the others, Kuroko pauses in thought. Slowly, she continues. “If he wants criticism, then his only issue is socializing. Or perhaps a better way to word that is… he needs to learn about what the people he interacts with wants. His goal is to finish the objective he’s given, but his swiftness is often misinterpreted as indifference or him having an unfeeling personality.”

Ayano nods. That certainly sounded like Toga. According to the majority of his past club leaders, that was something he struggled with. “So I’ve heard. I’m sure that if he hears that the majority of his peers think that, then he’ll consider acting otherwise.”

“I hope so. I fear he may become disliked simply because of his own habits.” Kuroko agrees, folding her arms back behind her back. “If that’s all, I’d like to continue my routine before classes.”

“Right.” Ayano, for the last time, hopefully, bows her head politely and parts ways with Kuroko.

__

Ayano couldn’t find where Toga was for a while, and considered just going to classes and forgetting the task for today, but finally found him outside of the faculty room window. When she walked over, he noticed that he was reading a book, and had the famous stray kitten perched on his shoulder. “Ayano.” He looks up to her. “I’m glad you found me.”

“It took some time. What are you doing out here?” Ayano asks, kneeling down next to him. The cat subtly switches from Toga’s left shoulder to his right as Ayano approaches, seemingly avoiding her.

“I like the cat.” Toga said, tilting his head to the right and urging the cat to sit in his lap instead. “He’s very quiet and polite. For a stray, that is.” He shrugs, looking back down to his book. “I take it you’re here because you finished my favor?”

Ayano suddenly remembers that she approached Toga with a polite and girly persona, and decides to smile in order to keep that much efficient. “That’s right! In general, everyone agreed that you were very talented. Albeit…” She puckers her lips in thought and hums, “...a bit distant. Aloof even. But a good listener, if that’s any consolation.”

Toga nods, his eyes raising from his book to the grass in front of him in thought. “Right, I expected that.” He mumbles. Despite his clear-spoken acceptance of that fact, he seemed conflicted now that it was confirmed. “And Kuroko said the same, I’m guessing?”

“That’s right.” Ayano says, noticing that Toga’s expression remained as still as it was previously despite her answer. “She also said that she thinks you’re a very efficient worker…. But, in addition to that, she’s also concerned that the way people percieve you might ruin your relationships in the future if not corrected.”

Humming, Toga nods briefly. He sat and thought for a moment, before sighing and standing up. “Right. I’ve been told all of this before.” The cat hops onto the grass and sits in its signature spot as it looks up to Toga. “I guess it’s just something I still need to work on.” He nodded again, more so telling this to himself than responding to Ayano.

Ayano stands up after him, but pauses when Toga speaks up again. “Perhaps like your expressions.”

“Huh?” Ayano blinks, a bit shocked at the sudden comment.

“You seem to not be very used to showing emotion, so I’ll say this. The more invested you get into a conversation, the more bored your expression looks.” Toga said. He continued when Ayano stayed silent, clearly not knowing how to respond. “I know that because I’ve seen you interact with others in many different ways. You pretty obviously switch from looking uninterested to some… flavor or a personality.”

Ayano presses her lips together and furrows her eyebrows, somehow feeling embarrassed and frustrated that someone pointed her out. “...I see.”

Toga stares at Ayano’s expression for a moment, but smiles. “Regardless of how your face look, I’m happy that there are helpful people like you in school.” He puts a hand on his hip, “Your ability to change how you appear is impressive, but I hope you don’t feel pressured to do so around me after this.” He pats her shoulder and walks past her to get to class.

Despite Toga’s kind words, Ayano only feels herself feeling more irritated. Was it that obvious to everyone? What could she change to make it less so?

God, this day was nothing but stress. After class it will be lunch time, which means it was way closer than needed to the end of the day. To 5:00 PM. To Ayano’s inevitable doom.

__

Once lunch time hit, Ayano slowly tailed Osana and Raibaru up to the rooftop. Osana was showing off some sort of playlist to Taro, and Raibaru- ever the obsessive friend- was watching, leaving her lunch pleasantly unattended. How is someone so unecessarily strong so sloppy with their food? Well, regardless of the reason, it certainly made Ayano’s job easier.

As Ayano discreetly slipped some of the stomach poison into her, she heard of how Taro seemed to apparently be a fan of whatever the hell Osana had showed him. Ayano steps back quietly, and steps aside to sit on a nearby bench that happened to be empty. She didn’t want to look as if she was doing nothing, as Toga and another student were sitting somewhere nearby. God knows Toga will notice if she’s being suspicious.

Ayano pulls out her phone as she waits for the stomach medicine to set in for Raibaru. At the same time, she coincidentally gets a message from Info-Chan.

Info-Chan: Are you sure this is going to work?

Yan-Chan: Don’t try to make me doubt myself now.

Info-Chan: I’m not ^^

Info-Chan: I’m just making sure you know the risks of what you’re doing.

Yan-Chan: What do you mean?

Info-Chan: Well, for starters, what do you plan to do exactly to elminate her?

Ayano pauses for a moment, realizing that she didn’t bring any sort of weapon with her. God, of course as soon as she forgets something like that Info-Chan has to call her out on it. No matter, Ayano could just drown her. Surely, she’ll be caught off guard by that.

Yan-Chan: Drowning.

Info-Chan: Right, of course.

Info-Chan: So, hypothetically- considering she’s such a strong student- what if she’s able to overpower you? I don’t recall you training your body this week.

Ayano pauses, balling her fists.

Yan-Chan: Can she then?

Info-Chan: I don’t know :)

Info-Chan: I’VE never tried to drown her.

Yan-Chan: Regardless, what good are you as an informant if you don’t KNOW anything?

Info-Chan: No need to be so rude, Yan-Chan :(

Info-Chan: I at least know that Raibaru’s already left.

Ayano stiffens, looking up to find that Raibaru was already on her way to the bathroom. Without another remark, Ayano rushes down to the nearest bathroom. Thankfully, she could hear the evidence that Raibaru was still occupying the stall.

As her heart raced, Ayano quickly walked into the bathroom. But she paused.

“Jeez, Raibaru. What did you eat?” Amise asks, filling up a water bottle, presumably for Raibaru to drink from.

Ayano quickly ducks back out of the bathroom, her heart thumping, but likely for all the wrong reasons. Why was nothing going as planned? Why have all of these days been a failure? Why didn’t she have the strength, the plans, the knowledge to get any of this done? Even with whatever help Info-Chan was giving her, these past couple days have only been a failure for Ayano. What has she accomplished? Socializing??

Ayano turns her head as she hears Raibaru’s voice approaching the bathroom entrance. “I don’t… god… I don’t need your help, Amise.” She hisses, acting unnaturally rude to the girl.

Amise sighs, exiting the bathroom as Raibaru rushes downstairs, likely to go to the nurses office. “Oh, hey, Ayano.” She says, turning and smiling to the girl. “What are you doing out here?” She asks, folding her arms behind her back.

“...” Ayano hesitates, but manages to squeeze out, “...I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Ah, well.. I was heading to class since I’d finished lunch, and then I saw Raibaru heading to the bathroom looking absolutely terrible!” Amise said, pulling a hand up to her chin with a concerned frown. “She doesn’t really like me that much, so she didn’t tell me what exactly caused such an upset stomach, unfortunately.”

Ayano falls silent again, looking away instead of responding. If she said anything else she might actually end up saying somthing she shouldn’t. Asmise stands there for a second, before smiling and walking off. “Well, enjoy the rest of you lunch!” She said, walking downstairs to her classroom.

Ayano waits to hear Amise’s footsteps get far enough before she pulls out her phone. Rather than texting Info-Chan, she just blankly stares at the blank screen, unsure of what exactly to do.

__

Ayano went to class, but found herself watching Osana intently afterwards. During cleaning time she stood outside of the door, still just… watching. What was she supposed to do? If she were to get caught or apprehended, it was over for her.

When Osana walked down to put the note in Taro’s locker, Ayano followed her then, too. Her heart beated fast- almost as fast as when she first ran into Taro.

It didn’t matter anymore. Taro would love Ayano regardless. All it took was some threatening, right? Better yet, why not hold Osana hostage, since she was just… so much better than Ayano could be? Right. Right… Not Raibaru or Taro or the student countil or the staff would dare come forward if that were the case, right? Since Osana was so important to everyone.

The running didn’t help Ayano’s beating heart, and she found herself panting and almost feeling lightheaded as she ran up to the base of the hill. Before she could put her�� plan into affect, however, someone suddenly grabbed her by the wrist.

In a poorly chosen split-second decision, Ayano swung the knife at whoever it was, but her wrist was caught.

Amise smiles at her. “Put that away, Ayano. There are people around, you know.” She hissed, her voice colder than the kind expression on her face. Slowly, she urges Ayano to slip the knife back into her pocket. “Now watch.” She says.

Maybe it was because Ayano felt so lightheaded and disoriented, but she stood there. She allowed Amise to grab her shoulders and turn her to the sakura tree. That’s when she noticed something. It wasn’t Osana up there waiting for Taro. It was Osana running up to meet Kyuji. “...huh?”

“I guess maybe you were too anxious to notice, hehe.” Amise chuckles.

Ayano struggles to calm down, but does eventually, and recalls the previous events in her head. No, Osana didn’t put a letter in a locker… she took a letter out of hers. That’s why she was running. Was she not planning on confessing after all? What had happened? “...what..?” Was all Ayano managed to mumble out before Amise continued.

“I’m sorry that Info-Chan was messing with you so much.” Amise hums, folding her arms behind her back. “It was only because I insisted on helping you.” She holds a hand up to Osana and Kyuji, who were certainly having a pleasant conversation. “While you were unfortunately struggling, I was able to get the two together. Or at least make Osana choose between someone who showed no interest in her and someone who did.”

Ayano furrows her eyebrows. Was it that easy? Wait, why did she do that? She knew Info-Chan? Insisted on helping??? “You… you work for Info-Chan?”

Amise makes a slightly offended face. “Meh. I’d call us business partners if we were on good terms, but somewhat.” She replied, shrugging. “I’m sorry again for the trouble. Info-Chan didn’t want your victory simply handed to you, so she insisted on giving you a hard time in exchange.”

“...and… and where’s Taro?” Ayano asks, bunching up her skirt in her hands anxiously.

“On his merry way home. He didn’t recieve a letter for him to stay, after all.” Amise said, putting a hand on her hip with a smile. “But anyway, congratulations, Ayano.”

Amise folds her hands behind her back. “You’ve… eliminated Osana-Chan. Taro is now free for the taking!”

[mephiles-the-jester]

Have this art of Snapped!Subs

@oka-and-kokona-against-bullcrap

[uta-no-fan-sama]

these spot the difference games are getting harder and harder

[lightmusicturtle]

shoku's surname is Tsubaraya

Geiju's surname is Tsuka.

[bramblie]

Since the Tsubaraya brothers are a thing now, and Shoku is potentially Amai's suitor, what do you believe Geiju thinks of her? Would he like Amai?? 👁👄👁

I believe he thinks brother's private life is not his business and won't stick his nose into it. He doesn't care about Amai and doesn't hold any opinions on her. If she breaks Shoku's heart tho, he'll be angy

[yansimstorythatiwillnotworkon]

Shoku Tsubaraya

Name: Shoku Tsubaraya

Gender: Male

Class: 3-2

Club: Cooking

Persona: Social Butterfly

Reputation:

Overall: +50

Liked: +50

Respected: +100

Feared: 0

Crush: Amai Odayaka

Strength: Very Weak

__

Shoku is just about as kind as anyone would expect, although he does have a distaste for those who aren't kind back. He's used to defending his brother from bullying and does the same with his club mates and friends when it comes to bullies.

He often got into fights up to middle school because of his attempts to defend his brother. As of now, in high school, he wants to be as gentlemanly as possible. Additionally, he wants to be more like his father, who was admired for his patience and talent.

As it turns out, getting into fights when he was younger caused him to sacrifice a lot. His brother wanted to be around him less to prevent him from getting into trouble, and he didn't have a good enough reputation to get into a nicer high school.

He hopes that he's able to improve and has decided to use his time at Akademi as a stepping stone to do that.

[yansimstorythatiwillnotworkon]

#1

(For those who are deathly allergic to ocs in fan content, one of the ocs put in here isn't too important at the moment, but will be by the next week. Anyway, here's the first day of Osana's week.)

(Also, fair warning, there's a bit of cursing in here that's a tad bit more intense than in the game.)

__

April 2026, Week 1

Monday

“D-Don’t get me wrong!” Osana waved her hands to her friend as the two gossiped a tree or so away from Senpai. Ayano herself was sitting on the bench beside them. “Looks aren’t everything! For instance, I can’t get along with them if they’re as dumb as a rock! So, really, the most important thing is intelligen..”

“Musume!!”

Ayano flinched, being taken sincerely by surprise as Kashiko screamed for the self-proclaimed leader of their annoying little gang. Musume was already unbearable on her own for being such a senseless moron, but Kashiko was loud and obnoxious.

“Girl, you are not going to believe which of the long-skirted sluts are back.” Kashiko snickered, waving her phone teasingly to the taller girl.

“If this girl is so important, then why have I not heard of her?” Musume asked, crossing her arms with a lifted eyebrow.

The purple-themed girl grins, “Duh, cuz I see all the drama first? Maybe if you didn’t spend all your time in the damn plaza you’d see somethin’, too!” She shrugs, “Anyway! It’s Semaj..”

As Musume hears Kashiko whisper this, she scoffs, “Hell no, it is not Amise god damned Semaj.”

“Yes, girl, it is!” Kashiko giggled, “With how she totally quit last year, you would’ve thought that girl was dead!”

Musume rolls her eyes, “If only, huh? God, Hoshiko’s gonna be pissed to hear that Amise is back.”

“For sure! Amise always snitched on her pranks, didn’t she?” Kashiko said to her blue-themed friend, pulling out her phone.

“..where is that goody-two-shoes, anyhow?”

“Uh..” Kashiko smacked her teeth, pulling a finger up to her lips in thought. “The sewing room, I think? Pretty sure she’s chatting it up with that fugly femboy in there.”

Musume raised an eyebrow. “You mean that no-eyed weirdo?” She asked, and rolled her eyes when Kashiko nodded. “Man, she must think she’s the quirkiest girl in school, chatting it up with the loners.”

“Right?!” Kashiko cackled.

“Well, I’m gonna see what she’s been up to, then. See what I can stir up..” Musume hummed, waving her phone at Kashiko as if telling her to get back to her part of the school.

Ayano scoffs, looking back to Raibaru and Osana before realizing that they were just talking about their favorite cats instead of anything relating to Senpai. Ayano frowns, blaming those two for having screwed up her chance at learning more for her plans. In general, she hoped that she got the gist of whatever it was they were saying.

Ayano stands up but suddenly jumps at a voice behind her. “Hello, there.” She turns around, seeing a taller girl behind her. Judging from her general appearance, she assumed that she was one of the foreign kids that the Headmaster accepted in for the sake of having more students. Although Ayano didn’t recognize her.

“Hello.” Ayano responds blankly, although internally she wonders why she didn’t notice this girl approaching her. “Do I know you?” She asked, not very well attempting to hide her lack of interest.

“Well, no, but that’s why I’m here to introduce myself.” The girl puts a hand to her chest with a charming smile. “My name is Amise Semaj, I’m one of the exchange students from last year.”

Ayano nods, “Right.”

“I planned on introducing myself to all of the first years, but then I saw you and realized we hadn’t introduced each other either.” Amise hums, crossing her hands behind her back. “I guess it’s because I’ve been gone so long. But, it’s a pleasure to meet you, miss..?”

“..Ayano. Aishi.” Ayano responds, reluctantly taking and shaking Amise’s hand. It wasn’t often that anyone bothered introducing themselves to Ayano. If anything, if Ayano wanted to look good she would often have to walk up to them and do some sort of favor for them. Thankfully, the whole school was apparently made up of a bunch of morons who couldn’t do a simple essay.

Amise chuckles, “A pleasure to meet you, then, Aishi.” She says, folding her hands back behind her back. “I still have some first years to catch up on, but I hope you have a, uh..” She pauses for a moment, thinking of her next words strangely carefully. “..a productive day.” She says, before nodding and walking away.

Ayano merely hums in response, watching as Amise is suddenly shocked by Musume’s sudden appearance. Musume pulls her in for a quick and brief hug- so much so you would think that she was disgusted by it- before pulling out her phone to take a selfie of the two of them together.

Maybe that was just Amise’s thing, being popular with others, Ayano thought. It would be bad if she “witnessed” anything, then. Ayano would make sure to keep that in mind.

__

“Oh, hey! Hi!” Shoku Tsubaraya was apparently pretty popular with the other students. He was sweet, he baked often, and had an extreme passion for his club while the actual leader was away for a time.

Ayano looked around briefly as half of her attention was set on whatever Osana was saying outside. Apparently she liked the thought of joining the Cooking Club. But what good does that do Ayano? “..hi.” She replied stiffly.

Shoku cleared his throat awkwardly. “I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to you before.” He walks over to the counter and places one of the pastries on the napkin. “Do you like brownies?” He asks, holding one out to her.

“No.” The girl replies quickly as Osana and Raibaru continue on their way to the Drama Club. “I just came to look around.” She says, before swiftly leaving the room and heading for the next.

“Oh. Well, we hope to.. See you..” Shoku trails off before sighing in defeat. “..again.”

__

“Saaaaaalutations!”

Ayano frowned at how loud Tsuruzo Yamazaki’s greeting was, and he seemed to catch the hint and quiet down just a tad bit.

Raibaru spoke to Osana gently outside of the club room, and Ayano turned her gaze back to the purple haired fellow. “Hello.”

“Quite indifferent, aren’t you, my dear?” Tsuruzo lifts his hand up to his chin, smiling in thought as he looks Ayano up and down. “..actually… I think I recognize you! Gosh, who’s class were you in last year…”

Ayano quickly tuned Tsuruzo out before Osana explained that the Drama Club “wasn’t her type” of company. Rightfully so, the lot of them were insufferable for the most part.

The blank-faced girl blinks as Tsuruzo snaps his fingers in front of her. “Hello? Were you listening?”

“Ah, no. I spaced out. Sorry.” Ayano apologized half-heartedly.

With a sigh and a wry smile, Tsuruzo puts his hands on his hips. “I was asking your name, my dear.”

“Ayano Aishi.” As soon as she introduced herself, Tsuruzo’s expression lit up.

He laughs, “I knew I knew you! You were the one who fainted at the beginning of the year, weren’t you?” He recalls. Ayano frowns a bit in displeasure at the embarrassing thought.

Her fainting was the very first day that Ayano ever saw Taro. It made sense to her to be overwhelmed, although she told the nurse that she was simply feeling sick that day. Still, it was shameful that that was Taro’s first time noticing her. How embarrassing…

Tsuruzo on the other hand seemed quite pleased by the news he’d recalled. He didn’t seem to be laughing at Ayano specifically. Or at least, not for fainting like an idiot. “That was such a cute little act you put on! Good on you for getting out of classes for the rest of the day!” He smiled and Ayano blinked, a bit shocked.

It was true that she was allowed to just wander the school for the rest of the day thanks to that little incident. According to the guidance counselor she just needed some time to get used to her surroundings, since the day was “bound to be overwhelming” for some. Was that how people saw that day? Her trying to get away from classes?

Before Ayano could think any further, she noticed that Osana and Raibaru were departing this part of the hallway. “I’m going to go.” She says briefly, but Tsuruzo stops her.

“Ah-ah-ah, one moment.” He pulls a rose pin from his hair and hands it to Ayano. “The drama club could use such a good actress. I’m sure our leader would be pleased to have you.” He claims, before lifting a hand up to Ayano’s chin. “You also have an incredibly adaptable face.. I’d say you’re a perfect fit.”

Ayano pulled her face back, not entirely knowing what he meant by “adaptable”, but continuing on her way with a quiet, “Right..”

“Ah, think about it, Aya!” Tsuruzo calls. “You have a face fit for the spotlight!”

__

“O-Oh.” Shin turns, surprised by Ayano’s visit, but not shocked by her sudden appearance. “..hello, there.” Shin Higaku had a quiet, almost half-assed demeanor if you looked at it a certain way.

Amise was sure that to most people who looked at him he was just shy, maybe even intimidating due to his height. But as far as Ayano could tell, he just didn’t want to be here.

The entire club was very quiet, calm. The few members that were there were simply reading or chatting quietly about something. If anything, if Ayano were to join and was forced to attend an activity to stay in it, she would probably prefer it be in a club with a bunch of anxious losers.

Ayano looked behind her, noticing that she was able to see the hallway from inside the clubroom, although she didn’t know if it was actually one-way. She saw Osana speaking with Raibaru and talking about how creepy the club was. That much Ayano had to agree with. If the club lost the pentagrams it might be seen as some sort of reading club, which would likely be more popular.

“Your club looks interesting. I’ll consider joining.” Ayano says briefly, before tailing Osana upstairs.

“Farewell..” Shin says quietly, a bit louder now that Ayano was leaving.

__

“What? Whaddya want? Why are you interrupting me?!” Gema huffs, barely looking up to Ayano, and only having acknowledged her after she tapped him on the shoulder.

Ayano furrowed her eyebrows, but continued with her question. “What do you do in this club?” She asked.

“Uhh, can you not tell by the name?! What, do you have brain damage or something?!” He crosses his arms, although this only proves to make him look smaller due to his hunched over position. “I bet you came to look down on us, huh? Because we have a different hobby than you?! Actually, you don’t even do anything, do you? What, is staring at the sky more entertaining than practicing your hand-to-eye coordination? Is tha–”

“--what are the benefits to joining your club?” Ayano rephrases, hardly having the energy to refrain from rolling her eyes at his ranting. Even if there was some major benefit, Ayano would likely look for quite literally anyway to get it instead of dealing with Gema as her leader.

Gema raised an eyebrow, but eventually looked back to his game. “You know, since we’ve got tons of different games you can probably, uh.. “Boost your stats” in different aspects and whatnot. Like.. if you want to learn more about biology or writing or something or other, just play a specific game and you’ve pretty much got all the information you need.” He shrugs, no longer interested in conversing with Ayano.

“Right.” Ayano exhales, being released from Gema’s shrill voice only to be subjected to Osana’s whining about how playing games was childish. Ayano didn’t often play games, but considering how many games there were about murder, she thought differently.

“I’m going to move to the next club now.” Ayano comments, although as expected Gema doesn’t even bother to respond.

__

Ayano nearly winced when Budo spotted her. Even his general demeanor made him look… “loud”.

“Welcome to the Martial Arts Club!” And loud he was. “What brings you here?” Budo Masuta asks, holding out a hand for a hand shake.

Ayano reluctantly takes his hands, and gets a very firm shake in return. He was most certainly strong- and possibly the most fit person in Akademi. She could tell that much because of his height and build. Even with the knowledge she was taught about taking people down, Ayano would surely struggle- maybe even fail- against Budo in a one-on-one.

“I’m looking around. Deciding on if I’d like to join a club just yet.” Ayano responded. Despite having a distaste for Budo’s loud persona, she was still capable of holding a conversation with him.

Budo smiles, “Guess that’s my time to promote, then, huh?” He puts his hands on his hips, making himself seem even larger than before. “We study hand-to-hand techniques and specialize in self-defense.” He explains. “We’re not interested in starting fights, of course, but if anyone ever wanted to start one with us, we’d know how to not only defend ourselves, but fight back and apprehend the assailant as well!” He explains.

“That’s just the simple stuff, though. I’m sure our club can be of interest to you if you’re ever paranoid of.. Maybe walking home alone at night, or just have a problem with those delinquents out there.” Budo jabs a finger out the window to outside because that’s where the infamous delinquents usually hung out.

Ayano looks away in thought, catching that Osana wasn’t too interested in the Martial Arts Club either. How picky. As Ayano is thinking, Budo speaks up again in a slightly quieter tone.

“Sorry if I’m coming off a bit strong. I’m often told that I scare possible club members more than their own anxieties.” He explains, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Mm.” Ayano watches as Osana and Raibaru head towards the light music club. “I’ll think about it.” She responds briefly, making Budo’s expression light up.

“Great! Drop by anytime you’d like to spar with us!” He waves as Osana exits the clubroom.

__

“Yo!” Miyuji Shan, the current Light Music Club leader waved, putting down her guitar and standing up to greet Ayano. Before Ayano could respond, though, Miyuji smiles. “Hey, you’re pretty cute! But I think some red dye would totally make you rock that hairstyle!” She comments, pumping her fist a bit with a bright smile.

Ayano looks at her ponytail, messing with the end of it briefly. She wondered if Taro would like her better with some hair dye. If he liked Osana so much, maybe she could dye it orange? “..if you’re implying that I should become the red color to your band, just know that I’m no good with instruments.”

“Ha! You caught on to me, didn’t you?” Miyuji giggles. “Ah, well, it was worth a shot!” She shrugs. “But don’t worry about your experience- we can teach you everything! Hell, one of our members is sort of like a, uh- a jack-of-all-trades type card, y’know? She can teach you whatever instrument you’re interested in.”

Ayano hears Osana talk about how she wouldn’t want to join a club if she had no experience. She scowled, upset that she and her rival would think the same about anything. Except for how amazing Taro is, at the very least.

Miyuji lifts an eyebrow at Ayano’s lack of response, but shrugs and pulls a pin out of her pocket. “Well, that wasn’t a no, so take this and come back if you’re ever feeling it, alright?” Miyuji suggests, putting the pin in Ayano’s hand.

“..right.” Ayano nods briefly, tailing Osana and Raibaru over to the Art Club.

__

“Oh, hi.” Geiju Tsuburaya, apparently the brother of Shoku despite their varying appearances.

“What do you do in this club?” Ayano asks, folding her arms as she looks around briefly. There was all sorts of paint, good for making a mess, she assumed. She then looked at the painting smock that Geiju was wearing. That would be useful if she wanted to cover up some blood.. But she’d likely have to join the club in order to get it.

“We paint. We sculpt. We craft.” Geiju says irritatingly briefly.

Ayano looks around some more, noticing plenty of tapes, canvases, box cutters, pens.. A lot of items for a lot of uses. Despite the irritatingly silent leader, this club might be of good use, Ayano thought.

Geiju looks away briefly from his canvas. “Joining us?” He asked, although as Ayano looked away in thought, he turned back to his canvas.

“Maybe..” Ayano says quietly. Geiju nods in understanding as Ayano heads to the next club after Osana.

__

“Oh, hey!” Fureddo welcomes Ayano brightly, standing up from the table and stepping out of his club’s little curtain room to converse with her. “Welcome to our little getaway, heh.”

“Hello.” Ayano greets blandly, looking around the room. The clubroom was littered with random photos. Some looked to be very old school photos before they had decided to make the school a little more lively with other decorations. Some were of students last year, 3rd years who were off to college by now, and of course plenty of hangouts with the club itself. It seemed… welcoming, but not of any use.

Fureddo chuckles, placing a hand on his hip. “I recognize that look. Doesn’t look real professional, does it?” He asks, tapping his fingers against his hip with a wry smile. “Can’t say that it is, Yan-Chan.” He admits, before adding in a quiet voice, “Can I call you Yan-Chan?”

“No.” Ayano says in a dead tone, very much hinting to Fureddo that she was serious.

The photographer snaps his fingers with a nervous grin, “Got it…” He then continues with his previous statement. “Well, if I had to explain my club honestly, I’d say that it’s really just a place for us to have fun. You know, chill out..” He nods to the snacks on the table, “Pig out, make friends.. memories.. All that good jazz.”

Despite Fureddo’s friendly demeanor, Ayano only frowned. “So no benefits.” She guesses, crossing her arms.

“Nothin’ but the keys to the vending machines and a free camera.” Furredo shrugs. As he does, Osana can be heard loudly complaining about how she would rather join a club that takes itself seriously.

“Valid opinion.” Furredo comments, smiling, before lowering his voice. “But an awful loudmouth, isn’t she?”

Ayano scoffs, “I’m sure she’d be just as loud if I put tape over her mouth.” She claims, making Fureddo burst out laughing. He clearly didn’t expect such intense sarcasm from someone who was usually so bland.

“You’re fun, Aya-Chan.” Furredo chuckles, nodding to a box on the floor. It was labeled “cameras”, no doubt for all of his nonexistent future club members. “Even if you don’t wanna join, you’re always welcome to come hang whenever.”

Ayano nods at his statement, “I’m going now.” She says, leaving the room as Furredo bids her a last goodbye.

__

Info-Chan: Do you think I should give her a little jumpscare on her phone?

Info-Chan: You’d have to record it for me, though.

Yan-Chan: I am busy.

Info-Chan: You’re no fun.

Info-Chan texted her as soon as Osana started talking about just how weird the disappearance of the Info Club was. Ayano was subtly interested, simply because she knew nothing about her “accomplice”. That thought, though, quickly became just as uninteresting due to remembering that she did, in fact, have a job to do.

That job involved learning this brat’s interests, according to Info-Chan. This had all better be worth it with how much running around and socializing seemed to come with this particular task.

__

“Welcome.. To my lair!” Kaga Kusha, the infamous science club leader, welcomed Ayano as he opened his arms, as if she were to bask in his glory. Instantly, though, he shrunk back to his hunched over position and cleared his throat. “I-I mean, the science club. Ahem. What do you seek?”

Ayano blinks, unamused at whatever excuse of a “personality” this was meant to be, and looks away. “I’m just looking around.”

“Mm.” Kaga turns his back to Ayano, focusing instead on whatever it was he was working on. “Yes, well, come to me if you wish to join. You’d make an excellent test subject- erm.. An alright club member.”

Osana seemed to be paranoid about one of their devices blowing up. That sounded like a wonderful idea. If joining the science club gave her the ability to simply blow up her rival, then this stupid childhood friend could be gone sooner than she’d anticipated.

“Loud girl..” Kaga huffed, frowning at Osana’s remarks. “..our inventions do not blow up.. Or at least.. They haven’t… in at least a, uh.. Two years. When I first started attending Akademi. It was my fault.” He assured Ayano, although this only proved to heighten her disinterest in the club.

Ayano takes a long look around the room, attempting to find anything else that interests her. She spotted some sort of android that a student was working on, whatever weird changing room they had, and a small circular.. Thing. “What’s that?” She asked, pointing to it on one of the tables.

“Eh? Oh, that thing.” Kaga takes a couple of quick strides over to the item and lifts it up, turning it upside down. “Right, right, it’s, uh… I think this is Homu’s little.. Friend or other. Who knows. It cleans the floors. Liquid, that is, so it’s no good to the club.” Kaga claims, waving his hand dismissively and putting the item back down.

“What all does it clean?” She asks, looking at the robot curiously.

“Ah, y’know… water. Uh.. juice, I suppose, although it might gunk up the systems.. Not honey or… well, not anything too thick and not anything too sticky. I’d say honey about draws the line. Maybe.” Kaga shrugs, “Just ask Homu, she probably knows.”

Ayano frowns, clearly disliking Kaga’s unwillingness to answer any of her questions genuinely. “..right.” She sees Osana and Raibaru leaving, and takes that as her cue to leave as well. “..I’m leaving.”

“Yes, yes, have fun..” Kaga waves his hand dismissively as Ayano leaves.

__

Itachi sighs, tossing a towel around his neck as he approaches the waving Ayano. “What do you want?” He asks in his intimidating deep voice, crossing his arms.

“I’m looking for a club to join. I’d like to hear about yours.” Ayano explains simply as Itachi subtly catches his breath.

“Hmm, well..” He turns to the rest of the club, who were still running back and forth on the track. “We run in the morning, swim in the afternoon. It’s tough training- not just any novice can join and get good quick.” He rubs the towel on his face as he continues. “No one’s going to stop if you fall behind, but if you can keep up, you’re bound to improve. Practice makes perfect, as they say.”

Ayano nods, thinking it over. Osana claims that it would be strange being the only female in the club, but having a bat at Ayano’s hand would be very useful. “Do you use any of the other sports equipment in the gymnasium?” She asks, thinking of the dumbbells, the weight, the baseball bat.. All of those were dangerous enough to be useful to her.

“Not often.” Itachi shrugs. “We used them more when our old leader was in charge, but she’s away right now, so we just stick to the simple stuff. If you’re interested in it, you’re free to grab what you want, but it’s not likely that we’ll bother with it.” He explains.

“Got it. I’ll consider joining.” Ayano responds, and Itachi nods before turning to his club and beckoning them back to the changing rooms.

__

“Oh, hello, there Aya-Chan.” Uekiya beams at the lower classman. “It’s so nice of you to stop by. Are you interested in joining?” She asks, smiling sweetly at her.

“I’m looking at all the clubs available.” Ayano responds simply, and Uekiya nods with a smile.

“Well, I assure you that the gardening club is a perfect place for you to not only learn about plants, but enjoy taking care of them in a comfortable area. All of us members of the gardening club can always help you with anything you're confused about as well. Anytime you need, dear.” Uekiya explains as sweetly as ever, resting a hand over her heart with a soft smile.

“...and, what sort of tools do you have in the shed?” Ayano asks, nodding to the shed just behind Uekiya. The gardening leader smiles wryly, but answers.

She hums in thought, “A shovel for dirt, an axe for any weeds or thick vines, clippers for the same reason… rat poison to get rid of pests and.. So on and so forth.” She shrugs. “Why? Do you need something in there?”

Ayano shakes her head. “Not right now.” She pauses, realizing that that was a bit of a strange thing to say and then adding. “I don’t think I’d need it if I haven’t joined yet.”

Uekiya giggles. “That’s right, isn’t it? Well, if you’re ever interested just come to me and we’ll get you a lovely little flower of your choice, alright, dear?” She hums, patting Ayano’s shoulder gently.

“Right.” Ayano nods. In a way, she can see why Osana would feel so comfortable with joining this club. Uekiya seemed like a people pleaser, so it’s normal for her classmates to feel comfortable around her, Ayano assumed. “I’m going to get to class now.”

“Of course. I’ll have to get going here pretty soon as well. Have a nice day, Aya-Chan!” Uekiya waves with a pleasant-as-usual smile.

__

Ayano’s first day of the week was nothing short of disappointing. She followed all of Info-Chan’s advice, and yet in the end it amounted to nothing. What was she supposed to do with her likes and dislikes? Get into her good graces?

But then what about her bodyguard? That damned pigtailed martial arts god? Was she supposed to just spontaneously gain every ounce of strength that she needed to defeat her?

Budo could be of help in that case, considering that he was the only one able to defeat Raibaru. But even with his and her own combined knowledge of fighting, there were so many strings attached.

Joining the Gardening, Sports and maybe even the Light Music club would allow her to walk around with something dangerous without being seen as some delinquent or someone with malicious intent.

Additionally, the Light Music, Cooking and maybe even the Photography Club could help her seem somewhat pleasing to her peers by joining in friendly, sociable acts. 

The Drama and Occult Club could be good for hiding herself, considering the Occult Club’s general reputation and the Drama Club’s equipment.

And of course there’s the Science Club’s items, the Martial Arts Club’s general knowledge, and the Gaming Club’s… assets? All of these clubs could be of use in some way or another, but is it really worth going through all the effort?

According to Info-Chan, Ayano only had four more days to figure out some sort of elimination method, but from the looks of it, four days just wasn’t enough time.

Ayano sighs, standing up from behind the bush as Taro enters his home. As she does, there’s a sudden chime from her phone, indicating that Info-Chan had messaged her.

Info-Chan: I see that you realize how much of a bust your first day was.

Yan-Chan: Did you even have a plan when you made me do all of that?

Info-Chan: Of course, I had plenty.

Info-Chan: You’re just so slow.

Info-Chan: If you’d picked up the pace, I would’ve been able to give you the rest of my plan.

Info-Chan: I guess you really don’t want to get rid of Osana.

Yan-Chan: Don’t antagonize me.

Yan-Chan: You’re playing around with me, aren’t you?

Info-Chan: I’m only being honest.

Info-Chan: Maybe pick up the pace tomorrow, and we’ll see what we can do.

Info-Chan: Capiche?

Yan-Chan: Fine.

Although wondering if Info-Chan wanted to see Osana suffer or herself, she clearly had no time to fool around and find out. If she was going to get anything done, she had to hurry up and head back home.

It was a shame Ayano and Senpai lived so far from each other. It always took so long to get from his place to hers. But seeing him get home safe was worth it in Ayano’s eyes.

[yansimstorythatiwillnotworkon]

#8

Wednesday

“You know, Taro, you’ve been making incredible progress thus far!” Amai claims with a proud smile.

She and Taro were currently standing by the fountain as students filtered in and out of the plaza for the occasional snack from one of the five tables surrounding the fountain. “It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that a lot of this is thanks to your help and your quick learning.”

Taro blushes, clearly not used to such intense praise. “Ah, thank you. I-I don’t know if I’ve been doing that well, though, haha. I’m still not very good, but I’m glad that you think that I’m making progress.” He says, holding one of his arms with the opposite hand. “I’m open to helping you out some more if you really need it.”

Amai smiles, folding her hands together pleasantly. “Don’t you worry. Today’s Wednesday, so I think since all of the treats are properly baked now, we should be able to relax a little bit!” She says, sitting down on the fountain and patting the spot next to her. As he sits down next to her, she continues. “So, what are some things you enjoy doing in your free time?”

“Ah, well..” Taro takes a small book out of his pocket and chuckles. “Believe it or not, reading.”

Amai tilts her head and holds a hand out, asking for permission to hold it. Taro hands it to her and she reads the title aloud. “Fall of Two byyyyy Yukina Miura. What’s this book about?” She asks, handing it back instead of reading the summary on the back.

With a sigh in thought, Taro holds a hand to his mouth in thought, looking at the cover of the book. “Hm… well…” He thinks for a moment, before smiling and looking up. “Well, basically it’s a story about how a girl who’s job is mountaineering is sent up to an infamous mountain to answer a distress call from someone on top of the mountain.”

Immediately, Amai had a question. “A mountaineer? Usually they’d call a professional rescuer for that type of thing, right?” She asked, leaning her arm on the fountain curiously.

“Apparently, since the mountain was usually so isolated, the nearest rescuers were too far to get to the distress call immediately. The best bet they had was a nearby mountaineer, who was sent up because they believed that the caller was in immediate danger.” Taro explained.

Amai nods, urging him to continue with the story. “Eventually, the mountaineer reached her, but the weather immediately got bad once she did, so they had to wait to go back down. And….” Taro hesitates. “..well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the story for you..”

Smiling, Amai raises her hand and waves it dismissively. “Don’t even worry about it. I don’t often choose reading above baking in my free time. Go ahead and tell me!”

“Ah, if you say so..” Taro smiles hesitantly and continues. “So, while they’re waiting, the mountaineer is investigating the area they’re in, which is a big cave. As it turns out, the caller had a severe injury that resembled a stab wound from a blade, but the caller denies anyone being up there with her, or even having a blade.”

Amai holds a hand up to her mouth in shock, clearly wrapped up in the story-telling.

“There are several events that happen before they’re able to begin traveling down. I… admit, a bunch of it just seemed like filler.” Taro says, looking disappointed. “I think the whole point of the book was to leave the mystery up to the reader’s interpretation.” He says, shrugging lightly. “So, basically, at the end, when the mountaineer and caller are climbing back down, the caller suddenly walks to an edge and starts… reminiscing about something.”

“Reminiscing is a weird word to use.” Amai comments. “Or maybe just a weird thing to do in this situation.”

Taro nods. “I agree. The caller starts talking about how she just wanted to go on a vacation, and that’s the reason why she was here in the first place. To take a vacation with people she trusted.”

“Ooh..” Amai furrows her eyebrows, looking a bit anxious at that comment. “That sounds spooky.. Does that imply that the caller wasn’t there alone after all?” She asks.

To Amai’s question, Taro just smirks, almost mischievously at her curiosity. “That would explain the stab wound to some degree, wouldn’t it?” He asks with a smile. “The mountaineer tries to get the caller to keep going, but she threatens to jump. Apparently, she thought that the mountaineer had figured out ‘what she did’, but she never explains what it is that she did.”

If Amai could be at the ‘edge of her seat’ without being in Taro’s personal space, she probably would.

“The caller threatens to jump if the mountaineer tells anyone what she did, and despite her not knowing what it was that the caller did, the mountaineer promises.” Taro leans in a bit, his expression in a mischievous smile. “So, the mountaineer walks forward and slowly takes the caller’s hand. The caller then apologizes and theeeen..”

Taro trails off, leaving Amai to guess what happened. She places her hands onto her cheeks nervously. “Oh, gosh. Does she jump? Does she drag the mountaineer with her?” She asks, looking distressed.

“We actually don’t get to figure that out.” Taro explains, leaving Amai to exhale in both relief and dread.

“Gosh, that’s so scary… those poor ladies. So… what do you think happened?” Amai asks, folding her hands together.

Taro hums in thought, seemingly appreciative of the fact that Amai had asked. “Well…” He holds a hand up to his chin as he thinks over his response. “..I saw a theory video on the book once. It said that the caller likely went up the mountain with someone under the guise of a vacation, but was tricked and attacked- hence the stab wound. But she’s alive, so maybe she killed the person who attacked her and hid the evidence some how. Since the caller felt so guilty about this possible person’s death, she killed herself and took the mountaineer with her so that she wouldn’t be able to tell the story.”

Amai frowns, “I guess that makes sense.. And since it was just the caller left up there, it could easily look like a murder that the caller had put together, couldn’t it have?” She rationalized, her moods seeming to have dulled after hearing about the story.

Nodding, Taro chuckles with a wry smile. “I’m sorry, I guess that wasn’t the story you were expecting, huh?”

“Not at all!” Amai laughs, albeit uncomfortably. “But I did ask for you to tell me. Next time I’ll specifically ask if you’re reading a pleasant book.” She says.

“Sounds good.” Taro says, nodding in agreement.

Ayano squints her eyes, hating it whenever Taro smiled at anyone other than her. Didn’t it tire him out to smile at almost everyone he spoke to? For what? None of them deserved it.

A sigh behind her makes her flinch, and she knows immediately who it’s coming from. Ayano turns around, her back pressed against the tree in a more casual manner, rather than peeking around the tree like a creep.

“Much better.” Amise says with a wry smile. “So. What did you need?” She asked, waving her phone lightly. Ayano had actually bothered using the number that Amise had given her. Amise crossed her arms, an unsure look on her face, as if she already knew what it was that Ayano had messaged her for.

“I am ready.” Ayano says, her face more serious than it was emotionless this time. “And I have… a plan. I just need you to copy Amai’s handwriting and write something down for me.”

Amise raises her eyebrow. “And… what would I be writing?” She asks.

Once she does, Ayano glances behind the tree, where Taro and Amai were still chatting. She pulls something out of her skirt pocket- a small light green book.

As Amise grabbed it and skimmed through the pages, she recognized it as Amai’s diary based on the sweet handwriting and the topics she had written in it as well. She frowned, realizing what exactly Ayano wanted her to do. “...right.” She sighs, almost looking disappointed in Ayano as she walks out of the plaza, looking for a private area.

__

Amise wasn’t entirely sure where to go. There were hardly any comfortable places that weren’t ever visited- each part of the school was usually occupied or visited. Right now, Amise was just walking through the hall. If not looking for somewhere to write, then for another solution to convince Ayano not to commit some god-awful crime.

As she walked, she passed by the door of the Cooking Club and heard arguing. At first she thought that it was Ajia and Seiyo again, but actually found the other two semi-rivals of the club. She opens the door that’s out of their sight and walks in quietly, listening to what it was they were saying.

“Saki.” Kenko sighs, tossing his head back in exhaustion. “You know it’s just a suggestion. I’m concerned for your health! Would it really kill you to chew some gum instead of a whole bag of candies?”

Saki put her hands on her hips. “I am! I’ve been swapping some sweets out for something else, like my parents say. I’ve been chewing gum instead of bringing candy. I’ve been using those- those- organic materials that you insisted I use! I’ve been doing that!” She huffed, folding her arms. “It’s not the big of a deal if I bring some candy once!”

“I know that Saki, but I’m only reminding you because the whole point of a diet is to keep at it for a long period of time! If you really don’t want to keep up with it, then you could just say that.” Kenko assures her, trying to be the calmer voice of reason, although this doesn’t help Saki’s overall irritation.

Groaning, Saki turns away from him. “Why don’t you talk to me about something else? It’s always dieting and health with you! Don’t you have any hobbies? Any pets!” She throws her hands up in the air with a huff. “It’s always the same with you! And my parents! They come home after a long day of work, ask me about what I’ve eaten and then go into their room! It wouldn’t kill you all to ask me how my day was, would it?”

Kenko holds out his hands, lifting one up and lowering the other as he began speaking. “Saki, I am your school mate and club mate. Most of my life is surrounded in good health, all I’m doing is talking to you about what I talk about with everyone else around me.” He sighs, folding his arms. “If you’re so bothered about what your parents say to you, then you should talk to them about that. I don’t have any power over what your parents do and don’t say.”

“You don’t have to contribute to it, though..” Saki mumbled, averting her gaze in a gloomy manner.

Someone walks up behind Amise and puts a hand on her shoulder. It was Shoku, who sighed and walked past her. “Come on, you two, the whole school can hear you.” He says sternly, putting himself in between them. “We really don’t need the majority of our club arguing. You two agree, don’t you?” He asks softly, looking to the both of them.

Saki scoffs, turning and marching out of the Cooking Club. “Fine!” She grumbles, heading towards the Occult Club, likely to rant to Daku.

Kenko frowns, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, you’re right.” He says letting his arms rest at his sides. “I didn’t realize her parents were so hard on her. I’d probably shut up a bit more if I’d known that that’s the majority of what she’s hearing from them.”

“You’d do better telling that to Saki.” Shoku points out, patting his shoulder and pushing him towards the door. “Not now, though. She needs a moment to cool off and you need to help with the sale. I expect to hear that you both apologized and reached common ground.”

Kenko nods, walking past Amise and looking a bit embarrassed at having been caught in such a petty argument.

Shoku sighs, before turning and smiling to Amise somewhat nervously. “I’m sorry you had to see that. It’s not often you see them in such a heated argument.”

Shaking her head, Amise smiles. “It just seems like a mix of the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the wrong comment, too.” She shrugs, slipping the book discreetly into her skirt pocket. “Saki just seems stressed and Kenko is just worried about her. He does know the body and mind pretty well.”

Shoku nods with a light chuckle. “That he does. I’m glad there are people like you who see both sides of the situation.” He says, crossing his arms. “So, did you visit for any specific reason? Amai is out near the plaza if you need her.”

The reminder of what Amise was tasked to do was something she could thank Shoku for and equivalently not tell him about. “Ah, no. I just heard arguing and got worried. I’m actually looking for a private place to sit down right now.”

“Ah, I see.” Shoku smiles, looking out the window to the sakura tree. “If I may, I personally recommend the sakura tree up there. Amai and I-” The cook pauses, going a bit red in the face at the implication that his original sentence might cause and quickly rewords himself. “Ah- I mean- we talk there often. It’s not often bothered outside of the occasional couple making out.” He laughs lightly.

Amise crosses her arms, smirking. “Ah, so is that what you and Amai are doing up there?” She asks mischievously, tilting her head to the side.

“G-God, Amise.” Shoku covers his red face with a hand and laughs weakly. “Please don’t ever say that in front of Amai. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself if she ever hears that.” He sighs, lowering his hand to cover his mouth shyly.

“Promise.” Amise chuckles, holding up an ‘ok’ symbol with her hand. “I’ll head up there, then.” She says, waving her hand briefly and walking out of the Cooking Club.

__

“H-Hey! Ayano!” An unfamiliar voice called out to her, and Ayano turned to see the bluenette from the art club waving and walking over to her. “Hey! Hey, uh… you’re Mai’s friend, aren’t you?” She asks, immediately looking shy and picking at her hands nervously.

Ayano pulled her mouth into a line as she thought. “...well…” Rather than answering, Ayano simply asks. “..why are you asking?”

Efude didn’t seem to notice or mind and immediately continued with her request. “O-Okay, so, this might sound weird because we’ve hardly talked and you probably don’t even know who I am- I’m Efude, by the way, class 1-1- but I wanted to ask you a favor.” Efude speaks quickly and hurriedly, as if trying to get her question out before she could be rejected. “I was… I was wonder if you could ask Mai to be my muse for a day or so? Maybe under specific requests but that’s not really a necessity..”

Ayano folds her arms. “I’m willing.” She says laxly. “I can ask, but me knowing her doesn’t mean she’s going to say yes.”

“Oh, I know.” Efude laughs a bit nervously. “But, like, she doesn’t know me at all so I didn’t think she was going to say yes. But if you ask her then she might! There’s a bigger chance, right?”

“I…guess so.” Ayano says, nodding to Efude.

Apparently, that wasn’t enough indication to Efude that Ayano was going to do it, as she nervously laughs again, clears her throat, and continues. “U-Uh, I heard from Enpitsu that you were, like, super helpful and stuff? He said you helped him with his muse, so- ha, so I just assumed you might do the same for me. Ahem.”

Ayano tilts her head to the side, an eyebrow raised. “Yes. And I am going to help you, too.” She says, more direct this time.

Nodding vigorously, Efude wiped her hands on her skirt, clearly incredibly nervous. It then became more obvious to Ayano that she probably didn’t look like she was willing to help. Efude was a social butterfly- one that depended greatly on her interactions with others.

With that in mind, Ayano put her hands on her hips and looked away casually. “Don’t worry, I’ll get to it.” She says, putting on a confident smile. “From what I’ve learned, I’m pretty persuasive.” She said with a light chuckle.

“C.. Cool!” Efude laughs, looking a little reassured by Ayano’s more confident persona. “I’ll, uh… well, I’ll just be outside of the gaming club. That’s where I usually am, hehe… Okay, bye.” She bids Ayano farewell quickly before speed walking down to the Gaming Club.

Ayano hums to herself in thought. Mai seemed like a pretty simple person to convince, and she’s already done Mai a favor. Surely she’ll be willing to do this favor back? Ayano looks around the hall, gazing through the windows just in case she can see anything from across the school. Unfortunately, as she turns the corner, she doesn’t see the person walking on the other side.

Due to the other person’s pace, Ayano ends up stumbling back. “Ah!” The person grabs Ayano’s arm, attempting to steady her, but ends up falling with her. Out of all of the times Ayano’s bumped into people, this was the worst fall she’s had. Maybe she should start walking in the middle of the hallway to avoid these confrontations.

“Ow, ow.. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” A nervous voice said, quickly scrambling off of Ayano and yanking her up off of the ground. “Sorry. Sorry.” Scilla continues to apologize even after brushing any dust off of her uniform.

He stands up straight, realizing who it was he’d bumped into and steps back. He bows down at the waist with a red face. “Sorry. That was super sloppy of me.” Scilla sighed, standing back up and putting a hand to his face in embarrassment. 

“It’s okay.” Ayano says, looking down to a very noticeable red color on the side of Scilla’s wrist. She points a finger. “You’re bleeding.” She says, looking around for whatever had torn at his skin. She spots a pair of fancy-looking scissors on the floor, ones that he had obviously dropped.

“Oh!” Scilla’s face goes red, covering his wrist and picking up the scissors. “Sorry, that’s so embarrassing.” He apologizes again. Ayano wonders if Scilla apologizes like this often. “Sorry.”

Ayano frowns. “You apologize a lot.” She says, crossing her arms before noticing something wet on her own arm. Looking down, she realizes that it’s blood that was dripping down her arm.

“I-I’m apologizing because I think I cut you, too..” Scilla says, frowning pitifully. “I can.. I can get you bandages. I.. uh…” He digs around in the bag that was hanging on his shoulder. Shakily, he pulls out a small roll of bandages. She wondered why he was carrying both scissors and bandages, as if he was always prepared for this situation. “Sorry..” He mumbles again.

Before Ayano could insist that she was fine, Scilla quickly grabbed her arm and wrapped it up tightly in just a few seconds. “Sorry. It’s nothing professional.” He murmurs, although blood certainly wasn’t getting back out of the bandage. “I’m so sorry. My clumsiness got you injured. Sor–”

“--stop apologizing.” Ayano furrowed her eyebrows, her sharp comeback making Scilla shrink into his shoulders. He opened his mouth, likely going to apologize again, but he shut his mouth immediately.

“Gosh..” Scilla sighs, stepping back a bit. “I- uh- I guess I can’t say sorry anymore, but, uh- please tell me if you want me to pay you back somehow.” He mumbles, looking guilty.

Ayano pauses in thought, realizing that there is something that he could do. “...actually..” She lifts a hand up to her mouth in thought.

Info-Chan had given Ayano some context regarding Amai’s Monday conversation. Apparently, Amai’s family was currently struggling with her parents’ bakery failing because of competition. And according to Amai, she was positive that this was because of manipulation via the competition.

This wasn’t new information for her parents, though, as Amai often had that assumption about competition. This was far worse when she was younger, but foul play was always at the back of Amai’s mind. That fact in its own was enough for her parents to disregard her suspicions entirely.

Since Scilla seemed so adamant on paying her back, surely he could do this for her?

“...could you tell Musume something for me?” Ayano asks, pulling a finger up to her lips as she decides how exactly to approach this.

__

“Taro is my newest trainee. It’s nice to have one as soon as I get back to Akademi. Not only that but he’s an incredibly fast learner as well! Not to mention humble. He has a lot of muscle for kneading despite not having done it before. Those delicious apple pie crusts are proof of that 100%! It reminds me of when Shoku and I first met.

“Shoku was the very first to join my club when I reopened it two years ago. At first it was just him and Kenko with me, but we made it work! He always has been such a remarkable second-in-command. On several occasions, I’ve been so shocked by his talent that I was tempted to hand over the role of leader to him! Even as I’m coming back he insisted on not keeping the role, which is honestly just the sweetest thing. Shoku wasn’t always the best (possibly even better than me) at baking, though. He was more of a cook than a baker, so he wanted me to give him some tips! We’ve been incredibly close ever since, and I really do appreciate that he’s been there for me since our first year! <3

“I guess while I’m being sentimental I should talk about my other club members. It’s so great seeing their faces again! We didn’t keep in touch as much during the summer and I missed out on the first week of school, but they seem just about the same!

“Saki is dating Daku now, which is really sweet. I guess they’re a really clear example of opposites attract? Just today Saki was blabbing to me throughout the entirety of lunch about how she and Daku met and each of their dates ever since. I don’t know Daku that well, but from what I’ve seen he seems like a mature and reliable person. I believe he’ll be nothing but good to Saki!

“I heard Ajia has been looking into a professional culinary school! According to her, even her parents agree that her skills are top notch! Of course, that was obvious to all of us. She’s even been able to teach me some things I didn’t know about the history of Japanese food! There is one thing I’m a bit worried about, though…

“Ajia is a master in traditional Japanese food, but times are changing. Even if her food comes out impeccable, what if someone with a newer, less known food takes the attention away from her? Everyone in Japan has tasted Japanese food, so wouldn’t they want something new? Something different? Well, maybe I’m speaking from my own tastes. Who knows? Regardless, I know Ajia puts incredible effort into everything she does. I feel like that effort alone could get her a high rating! :)

“Seiyo, Seiyo, Seiyo. I feel like he’s always been the brightest of us all. Not in smarts (I am NOT calling him dumb I think I worded that incorrectly) but specifically in regards to his personality. Always hopeful, curious, and determined! I’m not sure which of those Western cartoon characters of his has caused him to be this way, but honestly, I’m proud of him! Ajia and his parents often talk about how his goals and admirations are unrealistic, but none of them can deny that Seiyo is an amazing cook. That’s his passion, and if a cartoon character is what fuels that passion, then so be it!

“Kenko is the number one reason why we use fresh ingredients to this day. While more expensive, the less modified and more pure ingredients have honestly made a difference in how people feel when eating our treats! Kenko’s whole idea was to either go big or go home with the budgeting, and I’m really glad I listened to him! Even Saki has been getting a better eating style because of the ingredients. It’s so sweet that Kenko cares so much about our well-being. Honestly, with how helpful and healthy he is, I’m surprised he hasn’t dated anyone! I don’t know how long he’s been adamant on that lifestyle, but I think I’ll ask.”

From then on Amai finishes gushing about her friends and moves on to bidding farewell to her diary. Amise sighs.

Beside her on the grass was the alphabet on a notebook, each letter resembling Amai’s handwriting in uppercase and lower case. It was a good thing that Amai had such dainty handwriting. Even her quotation marks and exclamation marks had cute hearts instead of the simple circle of the period. Now that she had that down, all Amise had to do was write down the suicide letter.

That’s all she was told to do, at least. Realistically speaking, Amai’s had nothing but happy thoughts. Even her thoughts on competition had been dulled down. Despite what gossip may claim, Amai’s “hatred” for her competition could easily be seen as insecurities instead. That’s what it was, after all.

“I know I used to say that every mistake I made was because of someone else. I take full responsibility for what I used to say, but that was in middle school! I think I’ve matured as a person since three years ago. Doesn’t anyone else?

“Well, I know Shoku does. He seems like one of the only people I can talk to about these things. I don’t want to give my clubmates a reason to doubt me, and my parents are disregarding my suspicions completely!

“I know it’s my own fault for having such selfish thoughts in the past, but isn’t this a bit dramatic? There’s a difference between 13-year-old me screwing up a design on a cake and blaming it on my competitor and a BUNCH of healthy, clean rats polluting our pantry!

“There was no nest, they were all near the same size, they were all clean and there was nowhere for so many big, healthy rats to hide or squeeze into! Not only that, but our storage barely had a dent in it. You would think that after rats seemingly “breeding into our ingredients” there would be bite marks, missing food, holes in bags and stuff, but there wasn’t!

“I know I’m not being dramatic this time. I know my line of thinking makes sense, but the only person on my side is Shoku! Even with him on my side, I’d hate to trouble him with anything else. It’s nice having someone to depend on, but it feels way less nice knowing that someone else’s anxiety is suffering because of my own problems.

“If I really am crazy, then I’m sorry. I don’t want to trouble anyone and I hate bringing misfortune to anyone, but I hate my family being trouble even more than that. My parents are so hard-working. They built this bakery from the ground up! If all of that was ruined because of someone else’s ill will and because I chose to turn a blind eye, I would never forgive myself.”

That was a thought that Amise could carry on writing. If she added more subtle notes to Amai’s diary that increased how troubled and stressed Amai looked, then suicide would actually make sense to some degree. With another sigh, Amise lifts up the pen, being careful to keep the handwriting the same size and keeping Amai’s font in mind.

“Things have been getting worse for my family as of recently. I can tell how stressed mom and dad are about our lack of customers. After the rat incident, we’ve obviously been getting less and less customers. Sabotaging or not, the thought of my parents suffering so much is heartbreaking.

“Not only that, but things have been going…wrong in the club as well. I’m sure everyone’s just a bit overwhelmed by the thought of a Bake Sale, but… does that really cause so much arguing? I love my clubmates, really I do. So seeing them argue so often is just… overwhelming.

“I know Ajia and Seiyo have their differences, but is that really enough for them to argue at every corner? If Ajia could just… calm down a little, half of these arguments wouldn’t be happening. Not to mention Seiyo always contributing to these interactions isn’t helping at all!

“Even Saki and Kenko have started. I know it’s not on the same level as Ajia and Seiyo, but it’s still not a positive interaction, like we all should be having.

“Am I downplaying stress they could be facing at home? Was this whole Bake Sale idea of mine a bad one? Is it because of me that everyone’s so stressed?

“Everyone around me is stressed and I feel like everything’s just falling apart. How much longer am I supposed to say that things will get better until it does? I feel like I’m lying to myself and to the people I love.

“I’m just not sure what to do anymore.”

After about ten minutes, comments like that were carefully placed all around Amai’s diary. Now, hopefully, the letter that she was about to write made sense. Despite Amise’s distaste for the idea, the only job she’s given herself is helping Ayano explore her options. Hopefully, if Ayano went through with this, this would be the last victim that fell to Ayano’s delusions.

__

“Amai. I’d like to speak with you about the Dark Delights Bakery. I have information that can help you with your family’s business, but I don’t want to drag unnecessary attention to your situation. Please meet me on the rooftop at 8:15, right before classes. I hope you’ll be there.”

Amai blinked, thinking quietly about the note. Someone wanted to meet her in order to talk about her situation with the Dark Delights Bakery. Plenty of people knew about the bakery and its growing popularity, so it wouldn’t be weird for anyone to assume that her troubles were with it. But not once had she ever told anyone about the bakery by name. Was this person just that smart? Had they gone to her own bakery and asked their parents about it? No, they would have told her something, right?

Looking at a nearby clock told Amai that it was 7:55 right now. Twenty minutes until this person wanted to meet up. The whole reason she’d gone to fetch the note was because Scilla had told her that he saw someone put the note in her shoe locker. Amai sighed. She could probably ask questions later once she went to talk with whoever wanted to meet her. “Hm…” Amai hums, sighing and putting the note in the pocket of her skirt. She didn’t want to drag someone else into this, but if this person could really help somehow, she was willing to take that chance.

“Amai.” Shoku walked to her, smiling gently. “I’ve got the leftovers put up and in the Home Ec fridge. Are we going to make more treats tomorrow and give them out on Friday?” He asks, noticing the bummed out expression on her face.

Amai smiles, although it clearly doesn’t reach her eyes. She seems to notice this and sighs. “Yes, that’s the plan. Thank you so much for putting everything up so quickly. I know the others have been a bit stressful to handle.”

“That’s what I was going to say.” Shoku chuckles. “I was going to say that, really. Not to treat the others like kids, but I did try to talk to them about their behavior on… several occasions. I think maybe they’re just… stressed. I’m sorry if it’s weighing down on you at all.”

“It happens, Shoku. Maybe I should have planned the Bake Sale some other week.” Amai ponders, lifting a hand to her mouth in thought. “I’m… not sure how I could have timed this better, though.”

Shoku furrows his eyebrows, his expression looking evidently more worried than happy. “...is something wrong, Amai?” He asks, folding his arms with a cautious expression.

After sucking in a breath, Amai sighs, realizing that she valued not piling more onto Shoku than getting anything off her chest. “Well… I’d be lying if I said it was nothing, but.. I’m just a bit too tired to talk about it right now.” She says, inhaling again sharply as she felt herself getting a bit more emotional.

It wasn’t often that Shoku ever touched anyone without permission, but as soon as Amai raised a hand to wipe an upcoming tear from her eye, Shoku stepped forward and wrapped her in a gentle hug. Amai froze for a second, but reciprocated the hug after a second. “Gosh..” She mutters, biting her lip to prevent herself from crying.

“I know you’re going through a lot right now, Amai. I hate if anything else is piling up on you, and you don’t have to tell me.” Shoku says, parting from her briefly and instead holding her hands. “But I hope you aren’t ashamed to tell others about what you’re going through. Your family, the club and I are people you should always be able to confide in.”

Amai sighs, smiling, a bit brighter this time. “I know…” She wipes her eyes again and smiles up at him. “I’m not sure how I earned amazing people like you in my life, Shoku. Thank you.” She says earnestly.

Shoku nods, his heart swelling in happiness and accomplishment that he accepted what he said. “Of course. I’m always here.” He assures her, smiling. He notices the time and steps away. “I’m going to head to class. Take your time.” He says gently, waving back at her as she waved him goodbye.

With another sigh, Amai brushes her hair back, wondering how exactly she could get herself ready for this confrontation. She still has ten minutes until she has to head up to the roof. Maybe walking around a bit could jog her brain?

__

Saki hummed in thought, looking at the time. Realistically speaking, she and Daku should be getting to class. But, she wanted to spend as much time with Daku as possible before it turned 8:30. But, like the smart man her boyfriend was, he commented on the time.

“It’s 8:14, Saki.” He points out, standing up and walking over to her chair. Bending down to lean on her chair, he gently took the book she wasn’t reading with a smile. “I appreciate that you trust me to complain, but I think we’d both rather not be late for class.” He says, tapping the book on her head before putting it back.

Sighing, Saki pouted, sinking into her chair and messing with one of her ponytails. “Yeaaah, I knoooow… But can’t we stay here for another minute?” She asks, putting her hands together pleadingly.

Daku chuckles lightly. “I can walk you as slowly as possible to your class, Saki.” He says, holding out his hand to her and urging her to get up.

Saki takes it and holds onto his arm begrudgingly. “Oh, fine.” She sighs, although she was really just happy to be in close proximity with him.

The argument with Kenko did make her upset, but not necessarily at Kenko himself. Sure, it was annoying that he always asked about her health, but it was actually a different story for him and her parents. She knew that he was right in that aspect, but there was no way she was going to admit that. Not right then at least. Saki knew that Kenko didn’t mean any harm, and she appreciated what she did, but sometimes his timing was just wrong.

As Daku and Saki walked, Saki spotted Amai walking to and up a flight of stairs opposite to her classroom. She lifted an eyebrow, stopping and looking back at her. Daku glanced her way questioningly. “I hope you don’t plan on keeping me here until 8:29.”

Saki wanted to laugh at Daku’s joke, but she also wanted to know where Amai was going. “No, uh… Amai was going the wrong way.” She said vaguely, slipping her hands from Daku’s arm. “I’m gonna go check on her. If I’m not back in like five minutes just go to class, okay?” She calls back, scurrying off to follow Amai.

__

Amise: Saki is following Amai.

Amise texted this, but got no answer. Neither was there an indication that Ayano saw her message.

Now that this plan had officially amounted in Amai’s eventual death, Amise had to hope that Ayano was able to handle this on her own.

An irritatingly familiar tone dinged from her phone.

<Info-Chan has sent a gif.>

The gif itself was of a chibi-shaped Amai getting her head hollowed in by an axe of some sort. This wasn’t what was happening, but Amise knew what that meant.

Info-Chan: I win this round :)

__

Amai leaned her elbows onto the railing along the roof in thought. The time was 8:25. She definitely had to get going by now. How long did this person expect her to wait? Or maybe they were waiting in a different area? Sighing, Amai lifted herself off of the railing. Just about ready to leave as the time turned to 8:26.

“Sorry.” Ayano apologized to Amai casually, walking to her. “I had trouble finding you.” She claimed, folding her hands behind her back nonchalantly.

“Oh! Ayano?” Amai folds her hands together over her lap in surprise. “So you wanted to meet me here, then?” She asks, Ayano nodding in response.

“That’s right. I’ve heard about your family’s problem regarding the new bakery and I have some information to help.” Ayano repeats what was written in the note, which Amai recognized.

The brunette nodded, pressing her lips together anxiously. “Right, I recall. So… do you also think that my bakery’s being… sabotaged, then?” She asks, feeling guilty for saying that out loud.

“I do. By all means, the incident with the rats doesn’t make any sense.” Ayano says. “I did some digging, and other locations where a Dark Delights bakery has been set up, some other bakery nearby was forced to close due to going bankrupt.”

Amai frowns. “Were there claims of foul play by those bakeries at all?” She asked, although that wasn’t guaranteed just because Amai thought that that was the truth. Similar to her parents, other bakeries might not want to go down with a bad reputation. So, if they had no proof, they probably stayed quiet about the whole ordeal.

“Some, yes.” Ayano nodded.

With a sigh of both relief and dread, Amai turned around to lean on the railing again. As she did so, Ayano briefly checked the time, which read 8:28. Almost there. Just a couple more minutes and she should be clear.

“I knew it…” Amai sighed. “That’s… I-I get trying to keep your own bakery alive, but… foul play is just…” She puts her face in her hands, knowing that she didn’t really have to explain.

Ayano didn’t actually have a plan. Not one that would help with Amai’s bakery, at least. “I also heard that several of the bakeries suffered the rat treatment as well, despite beforehand being perfectly clean.” She claimed. All she had to do was keep Amai under the impression that she had a plan and information.

Amai shook her head in disgust. “It’s just-” She turns to Ayano briefly, her expression one of anger for a fleeting moment, before disappaiting once more into distress. “--I– failure is… obviously something no one is proud of. I get that. But… making others fail and failing becuse of someone else are two things that feel horrible to me!”

Amai looks away again, blinking away tears of frustration. Once again, Ayano looks down at her phone. 8:29.

“...that’s just how the world works.” Ayano mumbles, before adding, “Unfortunately.”

Ayano could hear Amai speaking. Complaining, maybe damning the bakery for being against her. Who knows? As she continues, Ayano’s breath went shallow and her heart beat faster. The clock turned 8:30. Those delinquents were leaving now- as evident by the ringing of the bell.

“Someone has to fall for someone else to rise.” Ayano says quietly, stepping beside Amai and watching as the delinquents walked slowly into the school. Too slow, even.

“But does that justify foul play, Ayano?” Amai asks, not bothering to turn around as Ayano stepped back. “I know everyone suffers with something. Whether it be a financial situation or a mental illness, but at the end of the day isn’t everyone still held respo…”

Thump Thump Thump

This rush was different than the feeling Ayano felt when she was in close proximity to Senpai.

“--still feel bad for–” Amai cuts herself off with a gasp as she’s pushed forward, her stomach meeting the railing. “--Ayano? What–”

ThumpThumpThumpThump

Excitement, and looking forward to the relief of having be rid of this… obstacle. This worthless thing in the way of her path.

“--wait- stop! You’re gonn–” Without time to explain, Amai lets out a scream as she’s tossed over the edge.

Thmpthmpthmpthmpthmpthmpthmp

The sound of that obstacle hitting the ground harder than it was supposed to, was the most bone-chilling, and yet exciting sound Ayano had ever heard.

The sound of Ayano’s very first victim.

“Huff… huff…” Ayano’s breathing was hard as she clutched the cloth over her heart, as if trying to get it to shut up already, so she could continue with her day. Her breath scraped against her throat and her vision blurred in and out. She hadn’t even seen Amai’s doomed-to-be-crumbled body. Couldn’t all of this adrenaline wait until later?

When Ayano’s breath finally caught up to her, she heard another sound. Something a bit more pathetic. Something she think she would hear from Amai’s horrid corpse. Whimpering. Muffled whimpering, choking, maybe even sobbing.

Ayano turned her head slowly, her expression not having fixed itself just yet. She could make out two bright blue pigtails, a shivering figure. The voice that erupted from the figure was echoing, as if it wasn’t even fully there. “..what… what the FUCK Ayano?!”

Who was that? Who is having such an… extreme reaction to Ayano’s… business?

“She’s- she’s dead! No one could survive that fall!! Why would you do that?!” The blue-haired student screamed, her echoey voice full of agony.

Such dread. Not only was that a nuisance to Ayano’s patience in its own, but some ounce of knowledge crept into Ayano’s crippling mind. Someone saw her. Someone who clearly disapproved of Ayano’s business.

Ayano took a step forward, and the screaming immediately ceased. Nearly just as quickly as Ayano had noticed she was there, the student turned on her heel with a scream. Not a wail of agony, but a scream of terror. Fortunately, this student was too panicked. Too scared and shaken. But Ayano knew what to do.

Before she could reach the nearest door, Ayano hooked her arms around the student, one over her mouth and the other wrapped tightly around her waist. The student thrashed about, the back of her head nearly knocking into Ayano’s face several times. All the thrashing did was make Ayano stumble and irritate her further.

Several dreadful pleads of “no” could be made out despite Ayano’s distorted hearing and the muffled state of the student’s voice.

“No…” Ayano echoed, bumping into the railing above the school exit. She couldn’t piece together why she had repeated what the girl was saying. Maybe she was correcting her own distorted hearing..? Maybe she was… trying to figure out why the student was pleading?

Regardless…

Ayano, still filled to the brim with adrenaline, tossed the student… Saki… over the railing effortlessly. Any scream she heard was quickly ceased by an equally quick thumping sound, similar to Amai’s.

The adrenaline made Ayano’s body ache. Her arms and legs felt overstimulated. Bruised even. “Hmmhmmm…” Was that a chuckle? Who knew Ayano could laugh? Smile? Without telling herself that she needed to? “Hehehe……”

Ayano’s arms were limp at her side as she collapsed to her knees. “Haha…ahahahahaha!!”

No one could hear her, and she couldn’t hear anything over the ringing of her own shrill laughter. This was perfect. Who knew such an accomplishment could hold such bliss?

Amise wasn’t here, and would probably leave the mess for Ayano to clean up. Ayano couldn’t hear anything Info-Chan could be texting her. Even with that blasted alarm, Ayano’s laughs would likely make the alarm silent compared to it. Since neither of them were… available in Ayano’s mind, it was up to Ayano to confirm it.

Amai has been… eliminated.

[yansimstorythatiwillnotworkon]

#7

Tuesday

Currently, Amai was teaching Taro how to properly knead the dough for some sort of mini apple pie recipe. As it turns out, it took a lot of effort and physical strength, which Taro seemed to be significantly lacking in. He looked over to Amai, who was patiently waiting with a smile. Her ball of dough was smooth and already sitting covered in a lightly buttered bowl.

She gave him an encouraging nod and he continued, using all his strength to properly roll out the dough. This was in the dining part of the cooking club. In the actual kitchen part, the other members were quietly talking with each other. Everything seemed fine up until Ajia returned back from the bathroom.

“Seiyo.” Ajia calls, her voice quiet although that didn’t ever signify if she was angry or not. “Did you put hot sauce in my rice mixture?” She asks, glaring up at him.

The blonde presses his lips into a tight line. “...it was just a drop. A-And it wasn’t on purpose! I was just… being sloppy, I’m sorry.”

“And why did you mix it in?” Ajia follows up, her nails almost digging into her own hips as she scowls at him.

“Because I thought you wouldn’t notice..” Seiyo replies sheepishly, hanging his head a bit to avoid Ajia’s gaze.

Ajia brings a hand to her head with a sigh and retrieves the bowl with her mixture. “Seiyo, it’s orange.” She says through gritted teeth.

Shoku clears his throat, still smiling. “Come on, now, we’ve got snacks to finish.” He says, his tone almost warning.

“Right..” Ajia sighs, turning her back to Seiyo, although still clearly irritated. The blonde looks guilty, but turns back to his own snacks anyway.

Taro exhales quietly, thankful that the back and forth hadn’t escalated. Amai nudges him slightly and whispers. “Sorry about that. They argue often.”

“It’s no problem.” Taro smiles at her. “I’ve heard some of their arguments in the hall.”

Amai giggles quietly. “You poor thing.” She looks back down to her finished crusts as she’s putting them in place. “I adore them, but that’s certainly one thing I don’t miss, hehe.”

Just as Amai finished saying that, Kenko came over. “Hey, Amai. I wanted to talk about the sale.” He says, folding his arms after wiping them on his apron.

“Yeah? Do you have all of your treats planned out?” Amai asks, wiping her hands as well and grabbing the bowl of apple pie filling near her.

“We all have at least three choices ready for the picking. But, uh…” Kenko hums, pulling a hand up to his chin. “Actually, that’s what I wanted to tell you about. We have everything planned out and we’ve got enough ingredients, but we might not have enough hands.” He explains.

“Ah..” Amai pauses in thought, almost spilling the filling. “I… didn’t think of that. A bake sale is a really big upgrade from last year after all…” She mutters in thought.

As Amai’s thinking, Shoku walks over with his tray in hand, smiling at her. “We could always grab some more volunteers. If it turns out that a whole bake sale is too much work, then we could even ask some students experienced with cooking to help out.” He adds on, “We could even open the club for those interested in joining for the week to try to get more folks to join.”

Amai smiles, clearly pleased with Shoku’s ideas. “All wonderful ideas! As a matter of fact, before you all get knee-deep in your cooking, why don’t you all go grab some helping hands to make your process quicker?” She calls to the rest of the club.

“Ooh, Kokona will love to help!” Saki says, immediately abandoning her tray of treats in order to run to the Drama Club.

Kenko sighs at her immediate leave and pushes the tray closer to the middle of the counter so that it didn’t fall off. “I’ll see if Himari or any of the other girls want to help. I heard they’re quite fond of baking.” He says with a calm smile, walking the opposite way from Saki.

Eventually, everyone but Amai and Taro left to go grab new recruits. Amai made sure to tell her club to gather everyone into the Home Ec room since it had more room than the Cooking Club. Shoku would take the reigns with the club for now while Amai tended to Taro.

“So, Taro.” Amai starts, slipping the mini pies into the oven. “On the topic of baking, do you have any lunch with you?” She asks, brushing off some loose flour from her apron.

Taro’s eyes widen a fraction and he groans. “God, apparently not.” He sighs, frowning. “I honestly think that Monday is just the day of the week that I forget my lunch. It might be written in stone somewhere.”

Amai giggles, raising a hand up to her mouth as she did so. “It’s a shame to hear that that’s a habit, hehe. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it, though.”

With a light scoff, Taro comments. “Yeah, well, that’s what my sister told me in grade school. The only difference is my mom can’t give me a smack over the head whenever I actually do forget.”

“Well, I’m sure Osana will do it for you.” Amai said as she looked to her list of treats. After a moment of silence, Amai realizes that that might have been an iffy topic to bring up for Taro. “Ah. I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to say that.”

Taro smiles. “Don’t worry about it. At the end of the day we are still friends. And honestly, I feel like that’s a pretty good page to leave that chapter on.” He says, nodding to himself.

Amai hums in satisfaction. She brings the note over to their table and smiles along with him. “I’m impressed to hear that. It’s refreshing to see someone who takes something like that so well! Someone mature like you is destined to attract another lovely lady soon!” She assures him.

With a blush, Taro chuckles a bit. “Th..Thanks, Amai. That actually means a lot coming from you.” He says, a bit embarassed at the praise. “Ah, so… what’s next on the list, then?”

“Well, our apple pie bites are in the oven right now, so our next treat should be…” Amai looks to the next option on the list. “Ah, brownie bites. These are actually Shoku’s favorite.” She rolls up her sleeve and flexes her arm with a cute smile and wink. “We’d better make him proud, then!”

__

Amise sighs, she and Ayano walking towards the Home Ec room. She glanced at Ayano, who was gripping the bow of her uniform tightly in her hand with an evidently enraged expression on her face. “You really oughta fix your face. Shoku’s sweet, but doesn’t exactly appreciate those who ruin the mood of the event.”

Ayano turns her glare to Amise, who doesn’t seemed very phased by it. “They were practically flirting.” She growls, only illiciting another sigh from Amise.

“Is that right?” Amise hums, before muttering. “You’re awfully impressionable, aren’t you?” She asks, a bit too quiet for Ayano to hear. The slightly shorter girl was too upset to be curious, anyway, though.

Amise clears her throat, hinting to Ayano to fix her face before they entered the Home Ec room. Ayano sighs, letting her face fall to its normal lack of expression after a moment. The two enter, and Shoku turns and smiles at them.

“There you are, Amise! And Ayano! I’m glad to see that you’re visiting us as well!” He says, beaming as he holds a hand to the crowd of students that littered the room. He points to each of the four counters and explains, “There are four main stations. All of them either making sweet treats, healthy treats, western-style treats and japanese treats.”

Saki had obviously gathered together her friends and boyfriend, her counter consisting of Kokona, Riku and Daku. Kokona already had a bunch of experience in the cooking club since she attended the club last year, so both she and Saki were teaching the other two what they knew.

Kenko’s counter had Himari, Sukubi and surprisingly Scilla, who was usually alone. For a moment, Ayano wondered why Sukubi would be at the ‘healthy treats’ coutner but it’s likely that they promised him something sweet if he worked on something healthier.

Ajia’s counter is where she, Osana, Kyuji and of course Raibaru were working. Ayano recalled learning that Osana and Kyuji both were incredibly interested in Cooking, so they likely saw this as an opportunity to sharpen their skills.

“I’ll be taking Uekiya, Otohiko and Kokoro back to the Cooking Club for the extra space.” Shoku said. “You two can go ahead and pick whichever station you like best, or come to the Cooking Club with me. Our station will have varied treats. Maybe a mix of all four.” He claims with a shrug, leading his few to the Cooking Club.

Seiyo’s counter held Hana, along with Cassian and Frankie, who were both transfer students from America. Ayano supposed in that case it made sense for them to stick with his treats.

Ayano immediately trailed to follow him, but Amise hung onto her sleeve. “Nooot so fast.” She says, her voice hushed. “That’s not a good idea for you, Ayano.”

Tearing her arm away, Ayano frowns. “Why not?”

“Because you might faint. Again.” Amise responds, putting a hand on her hip.

“...I.. I had a conversation with him yesterday.” Ayano mumbled, not needing to know that Amise assumed she would faint again if Taro came too close to her.

Amise gave her a shocked but doubtful look. “Really? As in a normal, back and forth conversation?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. “No light-headedness with full words?”

Ayano shut her mouth, avoiding Amise’s gaze. Reluctantly, she quietly specified. “He talked to me.”

Sighing, Amise nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I expected.” She stands in front of Ayano and holds her hand to the Home Ec room. “You stay here and socialize. I’ll make sure that they don’t spontaneously make out in front of five other people.” She says, her sarcasm not much helping Ayano’s anxiety.

Reluctantly once more, Ayano sighs and walks back into the Home Ec room. Immediately as she did, Kenko turned to face her. “Hey, Ayano. Are you any good with knives?” He asks, smiling calmly at her.

“Uh.. yes, I think so.” Ayano replies approaching the counter he was stationed at.

“Great.” Kenko sighs in relief. “Sukubi is better at mixing and decorating and Himari is making trips to the Gardening Club for us. And Scilla…” He looked over to the silent boy, who spun a pair of scissors on the counter top with a curious expression. “...I think he prefers scissors over knives. Which isn’t going to work.”

Ayano nods in understanding. “Don’t worry. I can take care of anything that requires a knife.” She says as Kenko smiles and slides a cutting board with several vegetables over to her.

He then turns to Scilla and hands the glasses-wearing boy a handful of green onions. “Here, if you can make little rings with these up until the white part, you’ll have been a big help. You can use the scissors for this.”

“Oh.” Scilla pauses, taking the onions and sliding the scissors down until Kenko nods at the size. “Okay.”

Ayano immediately went to cutting the vegetables one by one. She did have to learn to cook for herself, and her mother taught her all about knifework in the kitchen. In only a couple of minutes, Ayano had just about finished cutting all of the vegetables on the board. She took the ends of them and tossed them into the bucket next to her counter that would apparently be used for compost for the Gardening Club later.

“Gosh, you’re done already, Yan-Chan?” Kokona calls, looking amazed at the neatly cut vegetables on her board. “That’s super impressive!” She says, forgetting to stir for a moment but starting again as Riku turned down the fire.

Kenko smiles. “It really is. You can come back and chop off some more veggies when Himari comes back with the next bunch. For now, though, you can help with one of the other stations if you want.” He offers, pleased with Ayano’s help as he takes her place and begins sorting the cut vegetables.

Ayano looks around briefly, before seeing Kokona’s excited grin aimed her way. With an inward sigh, Ayano walks over. “Do you all need help over here?”

Kokona nods excitedly and Daku speaks up. “We need help to keep Saki from eating all of the ingredients.” He says, taking away the ‘tasting spoon’, as Saki had labeled it, away from her before she continued eating the caramel.

“I only had, like, two spoonfuls! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Saki huffed, although the twiddling of her hair made it quite clear that her first statement was a lie.

Daku smiled briefly, “You’re being obvious about it. Maybe if you can sneak someone without anyone else noticing I’ll stay quiet.” He says, which was enough to give Saki hope of getting away with her crimes.

Kokona rolls her eyes. “Way to give her false hope. Now I’m never going to keep my eye off of her!” She claims.

Riku shook his head with a smile before looking to Ayano. “We’re making chocolate-coated caramel candies, I believe.” He explains briefly, before turning to the others. “Saki and Daku are working on making the caramel and Kokona and I are working on the chocolate.”

“If you could coat the molds in chocolate, that’d be super helpful, Yan-Chan!” Saki directs, passing her three different candy molds.

Ayano nods in understanding. “I’ll handle it.” She says, moving to her own corner to work as the others chatted amongst themselves. Occassionally, they would ask her something, but she would answer quickly in order to let them know that she was busy. Thankfully, they took the hint with no grudge.

__

“Ah, crap.” Taro attempts to brush some flour off of his uniform, but just ends up spreading it more. “..uh…” He gives Amai an unsure look.

“Aw, I should’ve thought to get you an apron! Gosh, I’m so sorry about that, Taro.” Amai frowns, looking around for a spare. “I’m sure we’ve got one around here somewhere from last year..”

As Amai looks around, Shoku walks over and slips off his own apron. “The last one we used was the spare for Toga. How well do you like pink, Taro?” He asks.

Taro chuckles, looking a bit embarrassed. “Well, it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice. Is there anything else you have available?” He asks, his attention being drawn to Shoku as the taller male handed Taro his own apron.

“You can use mine until we’re able to offer you a spare. Pink might be my… third favorite color, personally.” Shoku comments as Taro takes the offered apron.

“Thanks a lot, Shoku.” Taro smiles, slipping off his jacket and putting the apron on over his button-up. “I’m going to toss this into the washer.” He says, briefly waving bye before he leaves for the Home Ec room.

A few seconds pass after he leaves, and Kokoro quietly speaks up. “..on Taro?” She mumbled to Amai. Shoku immediately turns his head to her, having heard her question due to being closer to the pink-themed girl. He looked shocked, and turned back to Amai, curious as well.

“What was that, Kokoro?” Amai asks with a polite smile.

Kokoro pouts her lips a little shyly, carefully patting the sifter with her palm to make powder sugar rain lightly atop the cooled off brownies beneath her. “I…I just asked if you had a crush on Taro.”

“Oh, my.” Uekiya holds a hand up to her mouth gracefully, looking shocked but not surprised at the typical question of Kokoro’s.

Amai giggles lightly. “I know you love that sort of drama, Kokoro, but I’ve known him for less than a week. I don’t think much if anything could bloom in such a short amount of time, hehe.”

Shoku exhales silently, visibly relieved to hear that as he got back to work on his own batch of brownies. Uekiya giggles a bit at the expression that Amai thankfully hadn’t noticed, and Shoku blushes a bit in embarrassment.

“Hm.” Kokoro pouts her lips again, this time in thought. “Okay. Sorry.” She mumbles, avoiding Amai’s gaze shyly.

After a longer moment, Kokoro’s phone rings and she immediately puts down the sifter to wash off her hands. “Be right back.” She says, louder than her previous muttering as she dashes out of the room to answer it.

From what Amise could assume, she asked Amai that to see if she and the other girls could do anything regarding those rumours. Since Amai had denied any feelings with a straight smile as always, there was no doubt that she had no feelings for Taro. So, the bullies had to think of another way to spin a rumour. If Amise knew anything about them, Kokoro was probably going to ask Taro next while he’s on his way back.

“U-Uh, Amise…” Otohiko steps closer to her subtly as he quietly calls for her. He shows her his hand, which had a small cut on it. “..I, uh… some blood got in the mix bowl. I-I cut my hand but I didn’t realize I was bleeding at all. Do you.. think Amai and Shoku will be mad if they find out?” He asks, looking down at the bowl in his hands with a frown.

Amise smiles, “Don’t worry about it. I can take care of it. You should just go wash your hands for now.” She says, low so that none of the other chattering folks could hear her.

Otohiko nods thankfully and quietly leaves the room. After he does, Amise quickly makes a small cut on her hand with a nearby knife. “Oops!” She says, looking into the mix bowl. “Oh, god, that’s no good. Amai?” She calls.

The brunette quickly walks over, noticing the blood in the mixing bowl. “Oh, gosh. Are you hurt? Is the cut deep at all?” She asks, grabbing a nearby towel for Amise.

“Well, it doesn’t hurt much. I didn’t even realize I was bleeding, honestly.” Amise says, holding out her hand and allowing Amai to wipe the cut briefly.

Shoku steps behind them and dumps out the mixture before washing out the bowl. “We have enough ingredients and treats ready for lunch time. This bowl really doesn’t make much of a dent in the rest of what we have prepared.” He explains casually.

“I’m glad to hear that.” Amise sighs in relief as Amai tosses the towel into a nearby clothing bin. “I’m sorry if this inconveniences you, though.” She says, holding her cut hand.

Amai smiles. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Accidents happen! You should go to the Home Ec room and wrap that up. Ask the nurse for some bandages if you need to.” Her smile then falters a bit as she crosses her arms. “Ah, but, you probably don’t want to do any kneading with those hands now. If the wound isn’t covered properly, it could get more blood in the pastries or get unecessary material in your wound.”

Amise nods. “Got it. I’ll go get this cleaned up, then.” She says, walking out into the hallway. As she turns the corner, Taro spots her and waves.

“Hey, Amise. You’re friends with, uh..” He pauses in thought, not recalling Ayano’s name for a moment. “..uh, Yan..Chan? Is… Is that her name?”

“Ayano. Aishi.” Amise replies, smiling at him. “I’d say so. Why do you ask?”

Taro clears his throat, looking a bit unsure of his next statement. Regardless, he does end up spitting it out. “Uh, so… Do you know if… if she doesn’t like me? I mean… um..” He raises a hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it nervously. “It’s not- not like I think she’s a bad person or anything. I’m just… worried that I might have done something to disturb her?”

Amise frowns, lifting a hand to her chin. “I don’t recall you doing anything to her. Do you?”

“No, I don’t. It’s just… when I’m in her general area she gets incredibly quiet. Just now I walked into the Home Ec room and she was having a conversation with someone. But she noticed me immediately and went radio silent! I wasn’t even near her.” Taro explains with a frown, looking anxious at the thought of somehow getting someone to dislike him.

“Oh…” Amise hums in thought, before smiling and letting her hands rest by her side again. “I don’t think that she dislikes you. She’s just generally very… hard to talk to. She especially can’t stand close proximity.” Raising a hand to her chin again in thought, Amise continues. “I recall bumping into her once, and she practically ran from me! I think she’s just not used to human contact. Which is…”

Taro frowns, more so in pity than distress, though. “..sad.” He sighs. “Gosh, and I’ve bumped into her twice already. That’s embarassing.” He shakes his head, looking ashamed of himself. “I hope I haven’t single-handedly made her dislike by bumping into her. She seems like a nice girl!”

Amise chuckles lightly. “She can be. All you have to do is give her time.” She explains. “And… maybe let her be the one to approach. It’s easier to converse with her when she’s the one who initiates the conversation.”

Taro sighs, but smiles hopefully. “Got it. Thanks, Amise.” He nods to her and heads on back to the Cooking Club.

Taro was very impressionable. He’s always tried his best to see the bright side in everything, so it wasn’t hard for Amise to change how he views someone as strange as Ayano. Amise has yet to get a thank you, but perhaps Ayano will appreciate the work she’s doing for her.

__

“You good, girl?” Frankie, or fully, Francesca, bumps her hip into Ayano’s, likely harder than she intended. “You went suuuper quiet just now.” She says, coating the jalapenos that Ayano had sliced in some buttermilk and then dropping them into a flour mixture.

Ayano hums quietly, noticing that Taro had left. “..yes. I was just thinking.” She replies, continuing to slice through other ingredients.

Frankie nods quietly in response, although her tapping foot indicated that she wanted to say something. “...uh, so..” She pauses, deciding how to word what she wanted to say. “You know, I recently joined the Martial Arts club. And… I was sorta complaining to them while we were training about a problem I had. And then they were saying about how you did a big fat favor for, like… all of them, and how reliable you were to them. So..” Frankie hesitates with an awkward frown, “..uh, do you think you can help me with something?”

Ayano figured that that was coming up, regardless of the amount of time it took for Frankie to finally spit it out. “It depends, but I’m open to trying.” She says casually, dropping the rest of the cut up chicken into the bowl of buttermilk.

Frankie smiles. “Good stuff! So…” She hums in thought, slowly putting her thoughts together. “..okay, so, there’s like, this dark-haired bitch who keeps harassing me. And has been harassing me since last Monday.”

“...right.” Ayano nods, pulling her lips into a straight line at Frankie’s wording.

“It’s, uh… ugh, who is that girl from 1-1..?” Frankie snaps her fingers together in thought.

Cassian, who shared a class with Frankie, spoke up. “That little short, black-haired punk?” He asks, looking offended.

“Yeah!” Frankie nods, shocked that someone else could identify the student.

“That’s Lori!” Hana speaks up, turning to Ayano. “She’s basically on parr with the delinquents with how little she obeys the staff and student council.”

Ayano turns to wash her hands and calls back. “So, why hasn’t this girl been suspended or expelled, yet?”

Hana shrugs. “Who knows. The guidance counselor might have a soft spot for the delinquent types.” She claims, before continuing. “I heard that Lori is super infamous for starting fights outside of the school for the smallest shit! Like, one time I think that one of the students bumped into her on the way outside of the school and she only rocked their shit!”

Cassian cringes. “Yeah, no, that was me.” He sighs at the memory. “You wouldn’t believe what she said to me..!”

Cassian and Hana were pretty infamous for being problematic on their own, mainly towards each other by arguing. Only when it came to gossiping and trash-talking other students they’d actually talk like normal human beings.

Ayano and Frankie tuned them out and continued on with their conversation. “Yeah, but on that note, I’m having some serious trouble with her. Literally several times, I’d have to book it home so that she didn’t drop kick me.” Frankie rants, sighing in dread at having to do it again today. “I’m not really sure what her problem is with me, but she doesn’t bother talking to me about it or anything. She just pops up and starts throwing hands!”

Ayano crossed her arms, lifting an eyebrow in thought. “So, do you want me to fight her?” She asked. Despite how violent Lori seemed, Ayano was sure that she could put the girl in her place.

Frankie frowns at the suggestion. “Ah, I dunno. Despite how small she is, she’s, like, hella strong. I’d like for you to get her to leave me alone, but I’m not sure if I want you to get three black eyes in the process. Y’know?”

“I think I can hold her off while you head home at the very least. But constantly fighting someone every day before I get home might be exhausting.” Ayano claims. Her mind wanders to if Taro were to ever see her fighting. He’d probably think of her as some violent brute. “...or embarrassing.” She mumbles.

“Well, I guess I’ll be vague, then.” Frankie crosses her arms. “Get Lori off of my back for good whenever you can.” She says briefly. “Please. Getting jumped every day after school is obviously not fun.” Frankie holds out her arm, which had a bunch of bandages and bruises peeking out from beneath them.

Ayano nods. Doing something like this for Frankie, who not only was pretty popular but very well-liked could do wonders for Ayano’s reputation. Not to mention that Frankie herself would make an incredibly ally- or “friend”, Ayano should say. She’d be very useful if Ayano ever really needed it.

Seiyo speaks up, having finished a big batch of fried goods. “Frankie, try one of these.” He says, offering her the basket.

The fried jalapenos seemed to catch Frankie’s attention and she popped one into her mouth. She furrowed her eyebrows in thought before looking at the bowl that held their flower mixture. “Okay, outside of salt and pepper what did you add in here?” She asks, taking one of the chicken tenders and trying that, too.

“Uhh, paprika… garlic powder, onion powder… I think that’s about it.” Seiyo said, shrugging.

Frankie shakes her head. “Yeah, no, I see the problem. So all of those are fantastic, but it only adds so much flavor to the breading.” She says, walking over to the fridge and pulling the jalapenos back out. “So, first and foremost. Jalapeno juice in the buttermilk every time. There should be no exceptions. Even if you’re frying jalapenos. Maybe even some lemon shavings if you really want that zesty flavor.”

“Cassie’s feeling the zest at all times.” Hana snickered, earning an unamused expression from blonde in question.

“Oh, shut up. With that palm tree ponytail.” Cassie hisses back. “Maybe if you grew up with four sisters you’d have a better taste in fashion.” He snaps at her, earning a small snicker from Frankie before she continued with lecturing Seiyo.

Ayano finished her part at Seiyo’s station, so she moved on to Ajia’s table, which held her last pair of rivals and the one who relieved her from that stress.

“Do you need any help over here?” Ayano offers, folding her hands together in front of her with a neutral frown.

As Osana looks up to her in slight surprise, Ayano feels some… uncomfortable feeling in her chest. Was this the first time she’d bother to socialize with Osana? Or attempt to? Did she ever talk to her or did she just plague her mind for the entirety of last week? Regardless, there was a horrible feeling of… nervousness at Osana’s regular friendly gaze.

Osana didn’t know anything about what happened last week. She had no idea how many plans Info-Chan had walked Ayano through that could have taken her life. That fact was… chilling to Ayano. There was no reason for Ayano to hate Osana any more than holding a slight vendetta against her, but for some reason she hated looking at her. What right did she have to stand here in front of her when she was the cause of all of her stress last week?

In Ayano’s mind, Osana was already dead to her. Maybe her being alive instead of rotting in a garbage bag reminded Ayano of looking at… a ghost?

“No, we’re alright.” Ajia insists, continuing to neatly fold the sushi rolls she was making without looking up at Ayano. “The work you’ve done is impressive. You should enjoy the rest of your time before classes.”

Ayano nods in understanding. “...right. I will, then.” She says, before walking out of the Home Ec room. She could wait outside the Cooking Club and watch Amai’s behavior. Maybe throw a rock at a window if she tried something stupid.

Before Ayano could get too far down the hall, an irritatingly familiar voice called out to her. “Hey! Uh- A-Ayano!” Osana called, somewhat awkwardly walking over to her. “...hi. Um..”

Ayano lifts an eyebrow at the orange-haired girl. A bit surprised and even more uncomfortable that Osana had bothered approaching her. When Ayano didn’t respond, Osana’s face went a bit pink in embarrassment.

“Uh, so.. I just wanted to talk to you about Taro?” Osana brushes a fringe of her bangs behind her ear in slight nervousness as she continued. “I don’t know if you know this, but Amise told me that you have had feelings for Taro for a long time and were working up your courage to confessing to him some day.”

Ayano nods silently, and Osana nods as well, glad that she’d given some form of response. “So, Taro and I have been… friends for a long time. I’m not saying this because I feel like I own him or anything, but since you seem so talented and responsible, I just wanted to say that I’m glad that Taro… might fall into good hands.”

Osana smiles even thought Ayano didn’t respond to that and continues. “I was in a similar situation, but… the moron never showed interest in me, hehe. I guess I feel like we’re in similar shoes? You seem more… confident than me, so you probably don’t need my emotional support or anything, but… good luck! You’ll need it with that guy.” She says, seeming content with how she’d worded that.

Despite Ayano’s initial shock at the rant of Osana’s, she slowly looked away, feeling conflicted. “...thank you. I… appreciate your support.” She says, her hands held awkwardly at her sides. “Um. Good luck with Kyuji.”

“Hehe, thanks!” Osana beams, putting her hands on her hips. “I think we’re doing well so far!” She says, seeming happy with the ending of the conversation. “I’m gonna get back to that food, though. Talk to you later?” She waves, going back into the Home Ec room.

Surprisingly, Raibaru hadn’t bothered following her out. That could have been the perfect chance to stab her and drag her someplace else if Osana was still a concern of Ayano’s anymore.

Ayano frowns. She didn’t like that Osana was so… social. How could she even be so happy without Taro as a love interest in her life anymore? That just goes to show. She never needed Taro like Ayano did.

Ayano turns around, slowly walking down the hall again.

Yes, that’s right. Even now, her pathetic rivals prove to Ayano that she’s the only one worthy of his love and attention.

__

Ayano didn’t get any tasks done on Tuesday. But she did manage to chat with a number of people. Apparently, Ayano was better at knife work than she thought she was. That’s what all of her other peers said at least.

Nothing thankfully happened with Amai and Taro. It seemed that all they really had to talk about was the cooking lessons. But still, such close proximity could… ruin Taro’s view on Ayano. Amai may begin to look more appealing.

Ayano still had three more days left before Amai would apparently follow in Osana’s footsteps and try to confess on Friday. Everything would work out in her favor, surely. And with a better reputation, Ayano’s plans would be flawless.

She would make sure of it.

[yansimstorythatiwillnotworkon]

Geiju Tsubaraya

Name: Geiju Tsuka

Gender: Male

Class: 3-2

Club: Art

Persona: Loner

Reputation:

Overall: +36

Liked: +10

Respected: +100

Feared: 0

Crush: ???

Strength: Very Weak

__

I saw a post once about someone equivalating Geiju's personality and not-talking habits to autism. I'm not sure if that was what YanDev was going for, but I think it makes a little sense. I personally don't have much experience with the symptoms of autism, so before I actually make this canon in my story I'd like to do a bit more research.

Outside of that, I'll talk about the relationships I featured up above for Geiju. Shoku, obviously, was a number one choice. We never really see them interact since the two being brothers was unintentional, but regardless, I believe that they have a swell relationship.

The only drama I bothered adding was between him and Miyuji. Do keep in mind that this is completely spontaneous, and I really have no reason for adding any drama between them. So before Miyuji became the iconic, bright-punk 'Miyuji Shan' that we know today, we know that she was far more tame. Simple hair, shy personality, all of that. During that time, she and Geiju were very close friends.

I imagine that outside of Miyuji just being sweet, she got along better with more shy people, and before Geiju became as aloof as he is now, that's what he was. They grew close because Miyuji was a nice person, and because Geiju was easy to get along with if you were patient enough.

If I were to feed into "dating" rumours, I would say that Miyuji's sudden change in fashion and personality repeled Geiju's interest. By all means, he doesn't dislike her, but since she's no longer the Miyuji that he knew in love, he failed to find her presence as pleasant as before. The two still talk and wish each other well, but they're no longer as close as they were before.

[yansimstorythatiwillnotworkon]

One Quick Note

I've changed the students' classes. This, amongst other topics are just things I changed for the sake of it. Some of these new seating arrangements help with the plot of the story, and some others are just changed for no particular reason.

I guess a more important reason would be that it reflects what age I think some of the characters would be. (Typically ranging from 16-18.) Here is the list of the students (excluding OCs in order to keep it to students the fandom will recognize, of course). Also, this doesn't affect seating arrangements:

1-1: Kyuji Konagawa, Otohiko Meichi, Seiyo Akanishi, Chojo Tekina, Efude Nuriomono, Dora Tamamoto, Juku Ren, Iruka Dorufino, Sumire Suzuki, Tsubaki Uesugi, Ryuto Ippongo, Pippi Osu, Hoshiko Mizudori, Shiromi Torayoshi

1-2: Hanako Yamada, Horuda Puresu, Hazu Kashibuchi, Kokuma Jutsu, Borupen Saishiki, Shima Shiya, Beruma Dinkuri, Yaku Zaishi, Mantaro Sashimasu, Himari Fujita, Mai Waifu, Kokoro Momoiro

2-1: Ayano Aishi, Osana Najimi, Kuu Dere, Raibaru Fumetsu, Shozo Kurosawa, Kokona Haruka, Enpitsu Byoga, Beshi Takamine, Sukubi Dubidu, Homu Kurusu, Midori Gurin, Gaku Hikitsuri, Hayanari Tsumeato, Musume Ronshaku, Hana Daidaiyama

2-2: Asu Rito, Megami Saikou, Ajia Ashitomi, Saki Miyu, Riku Soma, Shin Higaku, Maka Tansei, Miyuji Shan, Rojasu Norubiru, Dafuni Bureiku, Hojiro Zameshiro, Uekiya Engeika, Umeji Kizuguchi, Akane Toriyasu

3-1: Oka Ruto, Osoro Shidesu, Sakyu Basu, Inkyu Basu, Kenko Sukayaka, Tsuruzo Yamazaki, Tokuko Kitagawa, Supana Churu, Gita Yamahato, Sho Kunin, Mina Rai, Horo Guramu, Unagi Denkashiza, Hokuto Furukizu, Dairoku Surikizu, Kashiko Murasaki, Aoi Ryugoku

3-2: Taro Yamada, Amai Odayaka, Kizana Sunobu, Toga Tabara, Shoku Tsubaraya, Daku Atsu, Geiju Tsuka, Kiba Kawaito, Budo Masuta, Furredo Jonzu, Kaga Kusha, Meka Nikaru, Itachi Zametora, Sakura Hagiwara, Gema Taku, Kuroko Kamenaga

Also, since I love adding pictures, please enjoy these uniform redesign drafts. I personally think it doesn't fit Yandere Simulator's current time, but I digress. Feedback is appreciated, as per usual.

[mephiles-the-jester]

owo

[mephiles-the-jester]