Halloween in Miami City had come, the feelings of celebration and festiveness had filled the air. Despite sharing a similar name to another well-known city of Standard, the celebration in Miami City was in a far different fashion than usual; being located in Japan, the idea of dressing up in costumes and partying with one another caught on well, but trick-or-treating was a somewhat foreign concept, mainly partaken by small children in small neighborhoods, of which only certain houses agreed to give out candy and other treats. Still, as limited as the holiday was, everyone seemed to take fun in the costume play and partying portions of it; many duelists in the city took pleasure in dressing up in the attire of their favorite monsters and decorating their homes, billboards, and buses with images and animations of Ghostrick monsters, Zombie-type monsters, and various demonic monsters. At the You Show Duel School, the staff & students had decided to put on a party to celebrate the occasion and had invited all their friends to party with; two of the invitees worked tirelessly in order to prepare together, one taking far more time than the other.
"Selena! Are you ready yet?! I want to show those You Show kids up on their own turf!" The impatient yells of Shingo Sawatari filled the main lobby of his home, damaging the ears of his father, the mayor, as they reverberated off the elegant red walls. He was dressed in the outfit of his ace monster, Abyss Actor – Big Star, under the effects of Abyss Script – Fantasy Magic; it was an elaborate mage outfit decorated in gold furnishings with a spooky-looking wizard's hat to top off the whole costume, Sawatari was definitely dressed for the occasion, but the cost of crafting had definitely punched a hole in his father's bank account. The mayor couldn't blame his son though; it was Selena's first Halloween in Standard, and she had never been allowed to act in a social manner back at Academia, Sawatari wanted everything to be perfect for his little princess – though the mayor did worry her lack of social skills could ruin the whole night.
"Hold up! I'm still trying to get this costume on!" Selena yelled down the stairs with such ferocity, scaring the mayor in the process; the boys couldn't see it, but Selena was fiddling with a zipper, and was adamant on overcoming the obstacle all on her own, a show of her soldier upcoming.
"Shingo, my boy," chimed Mayor Sawatari, getting close to his son's ear, "I know you're in love with this girl and all, but don't you think you're overdoing it, just a little? None of my staff's kids go this nuts on Halloween…"
"Please Father," replied Sawatari in an audible whisper, "Just let me have this! I want to make Selena's first Halloween special, something she'll never forget, just stay home and do what I told you, let us have our fun!" The conversation was cut short by the sound of a door being forcefully opened, a clear sign Selena had dressed herself. She walked to the top of the stairwell to reveal her costume, based off Moonlight Blue Cat, and put her hands to her hips; Sawatari thought the cat ears and tail were cute, but his attention was more focused on the blue and white leotard Selena wore, and the excessive amount of skin she showed on her legs and left arm, leaving very little to the imagination. Selena blushed in response to Sawatari's constant staring, and spoke to bring him back to reality.
"Well?" she asked, "Is it alright or not? Tell me with your mouth, not your eyes." Sawatari shook his head back to reality, he was afraid Selena noticed him intensely looking at her legs.
"Oh yeah!" he replied, chuckling off his knee-jerk reaction, "It looks great on you! It's just a bit…risqué, you know?"
"Excuse me?" Selena began down the stairs, defending her choice of attire as she descended. "You said 'Pick a favorite monster to dress up as!' did you not? Blue Cat is a favorite monster, I thought it'd look good; now are we going, or not?" Selena came face-to-face with Sawatari, the boy backing up as Selena leaned into him; it was clear who wore the pants in the relationship, even if she wore none currently.
"Oh, how cute!" cried Mayor Sawatari, "My little baby's first date on Halloween! Oh, I should take a picture to celebrate!" As he said this, the mayor produced a phone from his person and took roughly 11 snapshots in a rapid-fire burst, thinking he would choose the best later. "Alright, you kids know the rules; be safe and none of those 'tricks' that they do this time of year, I don't want to hear my little Shingo covered someone's house in eggs trying to look cool! Can I have my limo driver give you kids a ride there?"
"No thanks, we'll walk." Selena frankly was creeped out by Mayor Sawatari's overprotective nature, and rather preferred the idea of walking with her boyfriend like any other couple would, maybe partaking in that "trick-or-treat" business on the way there. In turn, Mayor Sawatari was afraid of Selena too, and he resisted every urge to point out the fact Selena wasn't wearing any pants, even though he didn't want her to catch a cold. "Let's go Sawatari." Selena grabbed Sawatari's arm and drug him out of his home, taking him out into the darkening streets as night began to set, leaving the portly mayor to his own devices as he solely inhabited the home.
The two teens strolled down the illuminated streets, passing by lightly decorated homes, lit with orange lights and decorated with pumpkin illustrations. Selena saw how some home doorsteps had large bowls of candy in colorful wrappers sitting out, waiting to be taken, and her mouth dampened more at each house she and Sawatari passed by.
"Sawatari," began Selena, "Explain to me this 'trick-or-treat' they do in Standard. Do we just walk up and ask for candy? How much do we get? Do they give out little cakes or cookies instead?"
"Well," began Sawatari in response, thinking of the right words to say, "In America, the children celebrate it by taking empty sacks to doorsteps and knocking for the owners. When the person comes to the door, you yell 'Trick-or-treat!', and then they give you candy in response. If you get none or a bad treat, then you play a 'trick' on them by pranking the homeowner, usually by throwing toilet paper on the lawn or throwing eggs at the house. We don't really do it in Japan much, jus-"
"I see!" Selena responded with a tone of bright discovery. "So we need to get a sack then! But where would we find one at this hour?"
"Selena."
"And we're going to need some eggs to play those tricks on people, would the supermarket still be open at this time?"
"Selena."
"Of course, we're going to need to get a head-start if Yuya and Yuzu intend on join-"
"Selena," said Sawatari in a louder tone, commanding attention from his girlfriend, "You do realize it's for little children, right? That we don't trick-or-treat?"
"Excuse me?" answered Selena, in a lightly horrified tone.
"We're teenagers, not children anymore. It would just look strange if we walked up with a bunch of kids in elementary school and just yelled 'Trick-or-treat!' at the top of our lungs expecting candy, and forgive me to be so bold, but it'd especially look freaky for you to be around little children in that outfit." Selena lowered her head at the prospect of no sweets to eat, no fun to be had, and Sawatari's words made her feel silly; she blushed that she, a mighty duelist, was so enamored with a children's activity, why did Standard seem so backwards to her? Sawatari immediately picked up on Selena's expression of misery and swung his arm around her shoulder, rubbing her cheek a bit with his free hand to make her smile. "Hey, cheer up! Parties are fun too! We're going to be in costume with everyone else, dancing and laughing, and there'll be some sweets there too, I guarantee!" Selena brightened her mood up and turned her head to Sawatari, now listening at the prospect of sweets.
"Promise?" she asked with childlike innocence.
"I promise!"
"Boooooo! Welcome to the Haunted Duel School! Boooooo!" Sawatari and Selena were greeted by the lame display of Shuzo Hiragi, dressed as a Darksea Rescue ferryman, as they entered the You Show Duel School. The outer exterior of the school was covered in fake spider webs and orange lights, while the interior was decorated with streamers and mood lights, the duel field was converted into a makeshift dance floor with some not-so-spooky pop music playing in the backdrop; suffice to say, the two thought it was a lame party setup, and Shuzo was just the icing on the cake.
"Not very frightening, Hiragi-san." bluntly stated Selena, slightly hurting the middle-aged teacher's feelings. Shuzo pulled up his hood in response and showed off his hurt face, expecting sympathy from the two before him.
"Hey," he cried, "That hurts, you know! I spent a lot of time trying to police this place up…" As Shuzo reeled at his hurt feelings, Yuya Sakaki, Yuzu Hiragi, and Noboru Gongenzaka had come forward to the arriving pair; Yuya dressed up in the garb of Vampire Lord while Yuzu was dressed as Ghostrick Angel of Mischief – the two obviously took stock in looking spooky for the season – while Gongenzaka just wore his normal Gongenzaka Dojo garb. Shuzo took notice of the teens converging and decided not to be the third-party third wheel in this situation. "Well, I'll leave you kids to enjoy the party, have fun!" Shuzo turned and left, intent on managing the duel field booth, which he converted into a DJ booth for the night.
"Selena, Sawatari!" shouted Yuya with glee, "You guys made it! Thanks for coming to our party, it means a lot! Nice costumes!"
"You look good too, Yuya," responded Sawatari in a smug fashion, feeling up Yuya's compliment, "However, like dueling, you still pale in comparison to me!" Sawatari turned to the other two, continuing his commentary. "You look great tonight too Yuzu, but I'm a little disappointed in you Gongenzaka." Gongenzaka, in response, flared his nostrils and folded his arms, taking a proud stance.
"I, the man Gongenzaka, won't discard years of culture for another country's holiday tradition! I wouldn't miss Yuya's party for the world, but I will not don a costume for Halloween."
"That's cool, you're already scary enough, Gon-chan." Fumbling at the comments, Gongenzaka turned to see Sora Shiun'in, sucking on a lollipop and walking out of a hallway door; it wasn't uncommon to see him around after he ditched Academia for You Show, but Sora's comments always had an effect of unexpectedly throwing people off.
"You're one to talk, Sora!" shouted Gongenzaka in response, flaring his nostrils in response, "You're not wearing a costume too you know!"
"Uh." was Sora's response as he pulled a cardboard cut-out of Kuriboh over his face, with holes punched through the pupils. "Kuriboh? Hello?" Selena scanned the room, looking mainly for the food, but taking note of the lack of people who showed up to the party.
"Where's everyone else?" asked Selena, curious to the lack of life at the party.
"Well," started Yuzu, scratching the back of her head, "We sent out some invites to the other duel school students we know, but LDS has their own party going on that Masumi, Yaiba, and Hokuto have gone to, Michio is catering another party tonight, and Mieru is practicing summoning ghosts with a Ouija Board tonight with her classmates."
"We were going to invite the other Lancers," continued Yuya, "But Reira wanted to spend Halloween with Reiji and Tsukikage doesn't seem like the party type; we don't even know how to get into contact with him. Really, you two are the only other people we invited who came." Sawatari and Selena couldn't help be let down by the lack of people; for Sawatari, it meant he didn't get to be as big a show-off tonight, while for Selena, it meant less people she could possibly spend Halloween with, though the prospect of more sweets for her was a silver lining.
"And the food?" asked Selena, mouth slightly watering, "Is there a cake or pie or something?"
"There's some cheesecake in the dance field," responded Yuzu, "But it's a store-brought one if that's alright, Dad doesn't really cook too much dessert." Selena grimaced at this response, the party was already turning out to be a bust just by the idea of no sweets alone; she was close to bailing on the party then and there. Just then, the sounds of children laughing came from a the hallway door, and out of the hallway came Ayu Ayukawa, Futoshi Harada, and Tatsuya Yamashiro, giggling and running around with pillowcases in their hands, dressed in classic Halloween costumes of a witch, Frankenstein, and a mummy, respectively. The children were gladdened at the sight of Sawatari and Selena's presence, and they gathered around the two in a triangle formation.
"Trick-or-Treat!" the three yelled, extending their pillowcases towards the two. Sawatari and Selena looked confused, not knowing how to respond.
"Sorry kiddies," replied Sawatari, "But I don't have any candy, or money to give, so you're out of luck."
"No Sawatari-san," responded Tatsuya respectfully, "We're just practicing for the rest of the neighborhood, you don't have to give us anything!" Ayu came closer to Selena and looked at her with bright eyes.
"Wow Big Sis Selena, you look really pretty in that costume!" Selena blushed and rubbed her arm, gladdened by the compliment but not looking to show it.
"T-Thanks…" she replied, flustered at the child's comment.
"Are you guys ready to go?" asked Yuya, bending down to talk with the children on eye-level. "You remember to be safe, alright? No taking candy from strangers, just the people in their homes, okay?"
"You got it Yuya!" shouted Futoshi with glee, "This whole holiday is giving me shivers!"
"You're letting the kids go out by themselves?" asked Selena, confused by the situation. Usually, Academia would send kids out into a remote island to fend for themselves as training, but Selena thought Standard would be a dimension above militaristic training like that.
"Absolutely not," responded Yuzu, "Sora is going to go with them, he's a very trustworthy guardian."
"Alright kids," chirped Sora, holding his hands behind his head, "Let's go hit the neighborhood before everyone goes to bed!"
"Thank you Big Bro Sora, you're the best!" exclaimed Ayu with glee, as her and the other kids gathered around Sora and handed him an extra pillowcase.
"You're not staying?" asked Sawatari. Sora turned around and pulled up his mask, giving Sawatari a look like he was crazy.
"A holiday that gives you free candy for just knocking on people's doors and you think I'm going to miss it? Are you stupid?" Sora pulled back down his mask and gleefully led the charge to the streets.
"They'll be gone for a few hours, so we have the rest of the party all to ourselves; I hope you guys know how to dance!" cheerfully commented Yuya. The teens walked to the duel field and entered the ring, finding a table full of food & a punchbowl and strobe lights going in tandem with the music in the background. Yuya further explained the party as he begun to break into a jig. "We can't activate the Action Field with all the lights and music hooked in, but there's still plenty of room to have fun with each other!" From there on, the teens started to dance, some better than others, all better than Gongenzaka, and Sawatari took the opportunity to try and outshine Yuya; he broke into an elaborate series of motions that almost seemed like a seizure or panic attack, but still looked relatively good for a dance routine.
"Oh yes! Check me out! This is how Shingo Sawatari takes the stage! Isn't this fun Selena?" Sawatari turned around mid-routine, but immediately stopped when he noticed his girlfriend was nowhere to be found. He scanned the room, looking for the girl under the strobe lights, taking care not to mistake Yuzu for Selena with the former's pink hair lit to look a dark blue. "Selena?"
There was a knock at the door of small children, and a middle-aged housewife got up to answer, brandishing a bowl of candies. Upon opening the door, she was met with a small group of trick-or-treaters, holding their pillowcases forward and demanding treats.
"Trick-or-Treat!" they all yelled with glee in their voices.
"Oh my!" responded the homeowner, "What a lovely young group of children! Here's some candy for the mummy, the monster, the Kuriboh, the witch, and…uh…" The woman trailed off as she saw a teenaged woman dressed in a risqué outfit, even older and taller-looking than the tallest of the children, clearly out of place with the kids on her doorstep.
"I'm the witch's cat. Meow!" responded Selena, pointing to her ears & tail and finishing the woman's sentence for her.
"Well, alright, if you say so." The woman gave each of the five some chocolate bars and lollipops before wishing them a Happy Halloween and closing the door. The five trick-or-treaters continued down the street, looking for more participating houses, and admiring their haul; Sora was practically drooling into his sack looking at the contents.
"Look at all this!" he exclaimed. "Chocolate bars, lollipops, taffy, jawbreakers, caramels! Ah, I'm in heaven!" Sora looked at all the happy faces of the You Show children, clearly gladdened by their hauls, before laying eyes upon Selena's drooling face as she gazed into her bag. "I see you're happy you came with us," he said in his usual smug tone of voice, "But man, was it a dirty move to abandon your boyfriend back at the party."
"He likes parties, I like sweets. We'll come to a mutual understanding." coldly responded Selena, clearly still not amused with what she considered the most pathetic party she'd ever seen. The group of children stopped walking at this, and began to inquire Selena about her decision.
"But Selena-san," politely started Tatsuya, "Isn't the point of Halloween supposed to be spending it with your friends and family?"
"Yeah, you're in love with Sawatari-san, aren't you?" added in Futoshi. Selena just looked off to the side as she made her response.
"I am, but we have two different ideas about this holiday. He thinks this trick-or-treating is a child's activity, but it's the most fun I've had since coming here so far. He can go dance until his legs fall off for all I care."
"That's not right!" shouted Ayu, startling Selena slightly. She ran up and grabbed Selena's arm, looking her dead in the eyes. "You can't just abandon him because you two fought, that's not what love's about!"
"But I-"
"But nothing, Big Sis Selena!" Ayu puffed her cheeks as she said this, but quickly broke into a smile. "I'm really happy that you came trick-or-treating with us, but you need to go back to him right now; Halloween comes once every year, but this is your first, you should spend it with your very special person over us, we'll all be here to have fun together next year, and we don't even need to wait until Halloween to do that!" The other children gathered around Selena and held her arm too, smiling as they did so. Sora just chuckled as he unwrapped one of his lollipops and bit down on it.
"Well, Ayu's got you there!" he exclaimed, taking a moment to lick the pop and savor the flavor. "So what's it gonna be Selena? Going back to the School?" Selena felt really foolish now, having to have the concept of holidays explained to her by children, and they were objectively right too; all she could do is hope she didn't hurt Sawatari's already easy-to-crush feelings by running off, and she prepared to head back to apologize.
"Selena!" came a call from down the street. Everyone turned to see Sawatari running down the street, with Yuya, Yuzu, and Gongenzaka in tow. He finally caught up with the group and quit running, panting as he held his knees and faced Selena. "Thank goodness you're alright, I got worried when you disappeared on me! I take it you were still a fan of the whole 'trick-or-treating' thing?"
"Sawatari," Selena started, "I need to apologize for what I did, running off like that. It was wrong of me, I probably hurt your feelings, I know how much you like showing off at parties." The last bit felt insulting to Sawatari, but he kept his cool.
"No, I should apologize." he responded. "You sounded so excited about the trick-or-treating, I shouldn't have shot it down out of the sky. I just thought a Halloween Party would be more appropriate for our ages, you know?"
"Well, we don't have to not do it!" chimed in Yuya. "How about we go trick-or-treating for the rest of the night, just the nine of us?"
"Excuse me?" responded both Selena and Sawatari in tandem, Selena gladdened by the idea, Sawatari shocked at how childish Yuya's suggestion was.
"It could be fun!" added Yuzu. "By the time we get back home, the night might almost be over anyways, so we might as well just trick-or-treat as friends!" The children began to jump with joy at Yuya and Yuzu's suggestion, happy their other good friends could come with them. Selena extended an arm towards Sawatari, holding her palm out towards him.
"How about it?" she asked, "Will you be my 'Big Star' for tonight?" Sawatari looked blank for a minute, then grabbed her hand back, chuckling as he did so.
"I never thought you'd be giving me the lame puns." he responded. "Why not, what's the worst that could happen? A couple jeers at school?" Everyone began to laugh and make merry as Ayu gave out some extra bags on her person, all except Gongenzaka, who had a slightly distressed expression.
"I wouldn't mind trick-or-treating with you all," he started, "But I have no costume on me. It would be shameful to expect a treat out of someone when I didn't put in the effort to have them reward me with…"
"Oh, I can fix that right up!" proclaimed Sora as he produced a black marker from his person. He jumped towards Gongenzaka's face and begun to quickly draw symbols all over it, from moustaches to monocles, before Gongenzaka's face lit up bright red in anger and he began to chase Sora.
"Sora!" screamed Gongenzaka as he ran after Sora, the other seven running behind two to catch up, "How dare you do such disrespectful actions to my face! Wait until I get my hands on you!"
"Oh no!" shouted Sora, "Run everyone, it's the Mountain Ogre, coming to raid your homes!" Gongenzaka just got more furious and ran harder as everyone laughed, making sure not to miss any houses handing out candy as they all charged down the street.
At the end of the night, Selena and Sawatari carried home pillowcases full of sweet treats, heavy with volume of chocolate and fruit-flavored candies. Sawatari struggled to keep the sacks afloat, while Selena had a big ear-to-ear smile and effortlessly held each of her far-larger bags over her shoulders. Sawatari took notice and began to make small-talk with her as he closed in on his house.
"You sure look pleased with yourself!" he commented.
"Mm-Hmm!"
"I take it you're not looking to dance next time, huh?"
"It's not that," Selena responded, "I'd be more than happy to dance with you next time, but I wanted sweets more than anything, and trick-or-treating made this holiday special for me. So thank you for coming with me and making my first holiday memory a happy one." Sawatari blushed and smiled, thinking highly of himself from the compliment.
"Why, it was nothing! Just that old Sawatari charm at work!" Selena shook her head, she had no idea why she expected anything other than another one of Sawatari's narcissistic fits of stupidity as a response. He humbled his demeanor as he approached his front door. "Though, I really did wish you didn't bring back all that candy, just this once."
"Why?" Selena asked in response, thinking there was no such thing as candy being bad.
"So you didn't get cavities." Sawatari opened the door to his home and Selena dropped her bags to the doorstep in response. In the main lobby of the home laid tables full of candy bowls, cake, and a piñata hanging from the ceiling, with Mayor Sawatari standing under the piñata.
"Like what you see?" he asked the awestruck Selena. "Only the best for my baby boy's girl!" Selena walked into the lobby, amazed at the sight and sheer amount of sweets before her, all hers to eat until the night ended. Sawatari came up from behind her and put an arm on her shoulder.
"It's gonna take a while to finish all this up! I was thinking we both tackle whatever now, and the put the rest in the fri-" Sawatari was cut off by Selena pulling him in and giving him a deep kiss on the lips, almost sucking all the air from his lungs in the process; Mayor Sawatari took a series of photos of the long kiss on his phone, looking to make an album of his son's first kiss. Selena broke the lip-lock and stared deep into Sawatari's eyes, blown away by the lengths he went to make her first Halloween the happiest she would remember, and spoke to him lovingly.
"Thank you, Shingo Sawatari." Sawatari gave a smirk and tilted his hat a little.
"Happy Halloween, Selena."
