Kirito(exe) Has Stopped Working
...
In a special part of Tokyo, 06:38 AM.
...
A silver Miata roadster was parked outside the Kirigaya Residence. Its brown haired owner, Ishoyama Taisuke was whistling absentmindedly while lifting a rock in their yard, revealing the brass key underneath it. He smirked, opening the door before walking inside the house.
Midori and Suguha looked at him with widening black eyes, eating breakfast in their kitchen as Taisuke froze in place like a statue. He spoke slowly, "Uh...I'm just here to give Kazu a ride."
"Ever heard of knocking?" Sugu asked sarcastically, eating some more of her oatmeal.
"He's in his bedroom." Her mother noted sternly, seeing the boy hold the key to their house in his hand. He then slid it across the table awkwardly.
Taisuke nodded, before walking up the stairs to Kazuto's room. Poking his head inside for a second and realizing that he was asleep, Taisuke proceed to run back down the stairs and speak to them again, "This may be very loud. I apologize in advance."
As Midori and Sugu looked at each other confusedly, Taisuke put his hands on his hips in Kazuto's room, "All right man. It's the first day of the semester, I've got to get you to school."
Kazuto said nothing, rolling over on his pillow as his taller friend sighed, "Dude. Get. Up. I'm not going to ask you again."
Silence.
Taisuke rolled his orange eyes, "Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you." He returned from their kitchen with a pestered mother and daughter in it holding a metal pot and a wooden spoon. A loud clanging noise filled Kazuto's room as Taisuke tried to wake him up, "Get up!"
He was still soundly asleep. Taisuke threw off Kazuto's bed sheets, picking him up easily with his boxing honed muscles. The sleeping teen was tossed onto the hardwood floor, crumpling onto it while still snoring lightly, "Jeez, come on work with me."
Taisuke poked his stomach with his foot while warning him, "Last chance."
Seeing that this was going nowhere, Taisuke toted large amplifiers from the Kirigaya's living room close to Kazuto's bed. Placing them on the ground and wheeling them to an electrical socket, seven amplifiers sat awaiting to be used. Taisuke chuckled to himself, hooking them up to his computer, "Oh god, he's going to kill me."
The intruder giggled to himself, opening up a window on Kazuto's central computer screen. Taisuke typed into the search bar: loudest Russian music on the internet. The video he decided to play was named thusly: Soviet National Anthem. (Prepare yourself)
Anticipation rose in his young heart, hearing the seven amps hum in unison as he turned up every nob to their maximum potential, the feedback whirring and the electricity echoing. Taisuke took off the upper part of his school uniform, practicing his Russian accent quickly before picking up a keyboard on Kazuto's desktop, carrying it to an amplifier.
Taisuke stood on top of one of the amplifiers, before hitting the spacebar on the keyboard he was holding.
The whole house seemed to shake under the sheer volume of the music, the amplifiers blaring so loudly that Kazuto was literally blown off the ground towards the wall of his room. Smacking against it, his ears seemed to be assaulted from every angle, Kazuto's black eyes widening so much that his eyeballs could possibly pop out of his skull.
Taisuke yelled so loudly in his Russian accent while flexing his muscles, that his voice seemed to be raised by the music blaring, "Comrades! Today is the epic day that begins our young journey into a new semester! Battles will be lost, wars will be won! As long as we stick together, as brothers and sisters, all will prevail!"
Kazuto's body shook under the sheer power of the triumphant Russian music, and a red flag seemed to wave behind Taisuke as he delivered his speech, "No matter the cost! We will always succeed in this semester's tribulations! Whether it be homework, projects, or bullies! Even essays! We shall overcome all! All! All shall tremble underneath our brother-like power! Nothing shall ever stop us! Nothing! Our strength is our brotherhood! Peace! Freedom!...Victory!"
It appeared as though Kazuto had a small seizure, his skinny body waving like Taisuke's imagined Russian flag on his bed.
Taisuke hit the spacebar and paused the video, the outrageously loud music ceasing, "Seriously dude. Get up."
Kazuto rubbed his ears while yelling, "What?! What?!"
"Come on it wasn't even that loud."
Kazuto blinked while trying to recover from the sudden attack, "Ishoyama. Why do you do this to me?"
"Because I can." Taisuke picked up his black school uniform, the exact same to the one he himself was wearing, "Throw this on." The bankers son ordered, tossing it to him after putting his shirt back on, "We're leaving in fifteen minutes come on."
"What? I can't hear you!"
Taisuke winced and threw his shoulders up painfully, "Ow! Kazu, don't yell so loudly." The Ishoyama opened the door to his room, "Get dressed come on let's go!"
He ran downstairs, seeing Midori and Sugu clamp their hands over their ears, "Is it over?!" Sugu yelled.
Taisuke nodded while opening up their fridge, "Yup. Got him up an' running, should be going soon. Wanna ride from me?"
She looked at him after removing her hands from her ears, "Get into a car with you? I'd rather be shot."
"Suguha!" Midori exclaimed.
"What? I was being honest..." She murmured quietly with a shrug.
Midori whispered to her daughter, "Just because something is true doesn't mean we say it."
Taisuke cracked open an orange soda pop, guzzling it down and then checking his watch, "Not my best time." He admitted, throwing the empty metal can over his shoulder.
"That was the last one left." Sugu growled, balling her fists under the table and trying not to knock him out.
Kazuto walked down the wooden flight of stairs throwing his red tie around his neck, "Hey, you're not driving the same car from last month right?"
"I am." Taisuke tossed him a fruit bar that Suguha was reaching for, "Eat that in the car let's go!"
Midori pressed her lips to Kazuto's forehead as he waved goodbye to Suguha. Taisuke grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him along, "Let's go!"
...
Kazuto drifted off while staring at Taisuke's side view mirror, before standing up straighter and blinking, "Think my hearing's back." He said suddenly, the fruit bar wrapper laying in his black pocket.
"Great great." The driver murmured, braking before the stoplight, "What's your issue with my car by the way?"
"Nothing, but I'm just wondering. If your family's so rich, then why can't you get a nicer ride?"
He sighed, accelerating and turning left to head towards the school, "Cause I'm seventeen. Can't have anything beyond a special vehicle licence till November, and this is the only car I'm qualified to drive. Freaking sucks man."
Kazuto did a dumb buck toothed impression of him, "Uh-hur...Look at me, I'm Taisuke and I complain about having money. Hyuck-Hyuck!"
"Hey, I wasn't complaining. Speaking of which, when my birthday comes up I might get you something special."
"Me? Get me something?" Kazuto asked, his eyes being attracted to a bill board poster showing off his favorite brand of sour candy.
"Yeah. I'll get you a car so we can both drive. Oh wait..." Taisuke turned his head slowly to the boy to his left, before returning to the road, "You're too young..."
"Wow." Kazuto scoffed, "Real smooth." He began to give him a sarcastic slow clap, "Bravo. Ten out of ten, would recommend."
"Ah. Yojimi Gakuen, long time no see old friend." Taisuke murmured, parking right next to the school sign. Kazuto began to walk away carrying his school bag, but Taisuke rubbed his hands together, "Heh heh heh. Hold up."
Kazuto watched him re arrange the words on the school's sign so it read: Your mom still goes here.
Cars kept zooming by, Taisuke hoping that someone would see it and pester the school about changing it. The other boy shook his head seeing Taisuke just giggle and walk away, "You are a child. A child." Kazuto emphasized.
"Tell me something I don't know." The two of them walked together as Taisuke breathed in through his nose sharply, "Smell that? It's our new semester waiting to be sown and reaped."
"Full of comrades?"
"Full of them. Wait you were listening? I half expected you to be deaf during that."
"Yeah I heard. The whole city probably heard. People in Europe probably heard." Kazuto mumbled, rounding a corner of a hallway while they walked together.
Taisuke turned to him while walking to his right, "Hey, if my ideals are that powerful..."
"Your ideals are revolving around one person. Who is erm...you."
"Me? Well I guess I'm a powerful person." Taisuke acclaimed brightly, his perfect posture straightening further with a glow, resting a hand atop his chest.
"Why the hell are we friends?" Kazuto sighed, gripping his school bag tighter.
"Because no one likes you."
"No one likes you either Yama."
Taisuke smiled warmly, "I know."
As they rounded a corner, Taisuke clenched his jaw after bumping into someone half a head shorter than him, "Hey, watch where you're going Yuuki! Damn!..." He walked off shaking his head, ignoring the papers he knocked out of a girls hands.
She knelt in front of Kazuto to pick them up neatly, "So uncivilized..." The diligent beauty mumbled beneath her breath, before standing up and looking at him, "Hello Kirigaya."
"Y-Yuuki." He said through incredible shyness, trying not to break down in front of her.
Asuna smiled, "Ishoyama's a real handful. Ever think about finding some new friends?"
"E-every day." Kazuto stuttered, shaking slightly in fear.
She handed him a pencil, "Here. Think you might've dropped this."
His palm lay open robotically as if his brain was fried, so it just slid off when she placed it there.
Asuna walked off towards their homeroom in Taisuke's direction, and Kazuto just stared after her, his jaw unhinged like an open mail box. He started stuttering after she left, "D-do you want to maybe..." Kazuto blinked, his brain moving at a turtle's pace while looking after her.
Students eyed him and muttered to each other while walking. Taisuke walked back after him and chuckled to himself, "Ah. I see love hath struck you like a mighty bitch. Kirigaya..." He snapped around his face, trying to break him out of his trance while seeing Asuna's orange-ish brown ponytail sway, "Kirigaya..."
His friend waved a hand in front of him, but he kept staring at the girl walking away. Taisuke placed a hand on his chest again, "Well I guess I must take advantage of thine's situation fare not?"
Taisuke turned Kazuto's body so he was facing directly into a metal row of lockers, still dazing away in his trance. "Wrecked." Tai muttered darkly in triumph. The other teen walked off leaving him there, embarrassing him in the hallway.
After a brief moment or so, Kazuto blinked repeatedly, before shaking his head and running to his home room with a growl, "Ishoyamaaa!"
...
In the classroom, a beautiful black haired young woman gave her lecture on Physiology while Taisuke had an idea. He slipped a note to Kazuto, passing it during class to him. Kazuto unfolded the note slowly before poring into it.
Who do you think has a bigger chest, Hayano-sensei, or your sister?
Kazuto turned slowly to the student who sat behind him, passing it back with one word written on it.
Stop.
WHAP!
In the blink of an eye, the teacher had appeared and smacked her ruler onto the desk, pressing it to the note.
"Hayano-sensei...please. Please don't read that." Taisuke begged burying his face in his hands.
She cleared her throat before speaking in her silky smooth voice, "Mr. Ishoyama here wishes for his friend Mr. Kirigaya to lend him the information on the particular size of breasts. While a good teacher would use this to preach her moral views, I must say this." The woman paused as her heels stopped clicking, holding the note up in front of the class, "Mr. Ishoyama. Don't you think you're a little bit too young for that? What with how young you act and all..."
As she turned around to write on her chalkboard, the class laughed in unison while Kazuto turned back around in his chair, "Ishoyama. Hayano-sensei just wrecked. You."
"You were listening to that?" Taisuke asked with a tomato red face.
"My brain works in mysterious ways." He shrugged, turning back around to the lesson, gasping upon seeing the teacher smiling for a moment as everyone laughed.
...
As airy white clouds crossed September skies, Taisuke walked to the cafeteria by himself spotting Kazuto sitting alone in the back of it.
He then grabbed his sandwich and dunked it in a trash can like a basketball. Kazuto jumped out of his seat, "Ishoyama! That's my sandwich!"
"Aw, what a shame." He murmured, "Oh well, guess I have to make it up to you somehow." Taisuke licked his upper lip, "Maybe I should buy you lunch and give that sandwich an upgrade."
Kazuto shook his head while following him to the cafeteria's canteen, "You suck Yama. You suck."
"So." His friend started, "What do you want me to get you?"
"Hm... Guess I'll just get a regular meal."
As they waited in line to get Kazuto's food, Taisuke spoke to him, "Fall dance is coming up pretty soon. Thinking about asking someone- oh wait...I already know who it is."
"W-who?"
"Who else? The same girl you've had a crush on since first grade obviously."
Kazuto scratched his cheek shyly, "It wasn't first grade, come on Ishoyama."
"Oh really?" Taisuke danced his fingers in the air, "Let's travel ten years back in time shall we? You were six and I was seven..."
~Taisuke makes flashback noises~
Two small boys were sitting next to each other on a park bench, watching a group of girls chase each other around while giggling.
"Ishoyama. Who's that?"
Taisuke bit into his salami sandwich with primary teeth, speaking with a much higher voice than he did now, "That would be Miss Yuuki, Kirigaya."
~Fourth Grade~
The boys were playing soccer on a synthetic field, and Kazuto tried to block a coming goal as Asuna sprinted at him. His jaw just dropped and the girls cheered as they won. Taisuke walked up to Kazuto eating a salami sandwich and the black haired keeper asked him a question, "Ishoyama. Who's that?"
"That would be Miss Yuuki." Tai murmured, chewing the salami in his mouth, seeing the girl he was staring at.
~Eighth Grade~
Shinozaki Rika chuckled, standing on a park bench and yelling loudly, "Come one come all! Who can beat me in an cartwheel contest?"
Asuna shrugged, taking her on, "Why not? I'm sure I could."
Seeing a large crowd of fellow preteens cheer the two girls on, Kazuto watched Asuna from afar, "Dude. Who's that?"
Taisuke picked some salami out of the braces he used to wear, "That would be Miss Yuuki. Wow, she's been in our class for ever and you don't even know who she is. Short term memory loss much?"
~Taisuke coughs loudly bringing Kazuto back to his senses~
"You okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine."
"I'm glad I skipped a grade back in kindergarten. Who even knows how I'd be if I wasn't even in her class."
"Oh god!" Taisuke cried, keeling over and earning frightened looks from the black uniformed students around him, "No! I can't..."
Kazuto just shook his head at the students in line staring at him keeling over on the ground, "Don't worry. He does this all the time."
"Your edge...it's too much...I think its sharp enough to cut me." He grunted, keeling over before standing up like nothing happened, speaking to a lady at the register, "Hi, I'd like a regular meal and a-"
"Salami sandwich." Kazuto cut him off, "Order something new. Please."
The lunch lady slapped a salami sandwich and a tray on the metal counter, "That'd be 1798 please."
"Sure." Taisuke murmured drawing his wallet and giving her a generous tip, "Nice hairnet Ichita."
Kazuto shook his head in disbelief while picking up the red tray, "You have to hit on everyone? Everyone?"
"Everyone who's pretty." He corrected with a sharp wink to the lunch lady, walking to one of the cafeteria's long tables after Kazuto got his food.
"You don't hit on...you know...her."
"Yeah, because he hates me."
"Wanna know why?" Kazuto asked sitting in to eat his lunch on the table while Taisuke sat in the opposite direction, his legs sprawled unlike Kazuto's which were under the table.
"I already know why. It's because I did her a huge favor back in our second year. Give me a break."
"A favor?" Kazuto asked, taking pieces of bread into his hands and letting them soak in soup, "You infected her lunch with moss! She was out with the stomach flu for over a week!"
"That's a favor in my opinion. She missed a week of school and-" Taisuke grunted slightly, throwing his legs over the bench and sighing sitting exactly like him now, "Never thanked me for it."
"Why in the hell would she thank you?" One of his hands shoved soup soaked bread into his mouth, chewing on it quietly.
"Because I'm a gracious guy." The boy full of himself smirked, before throwing his nose upwards and smiling at some passing girls. Used to this, they just kept walking and ignored him.
"Who're you gonna ask?" Kazuto wondered, moving on and looking over his lunch at Asuna sitting with her friends.
"Maybe Ms. Hayano. She's only a couple years older than me, like four or so. I'm sure she'll want to go with me."
Kazuto chuckled against the food in his mouth, "Yeah...sure."
"Well I bet you I can go with her if you can go with you know who." Taisuke joked, refusing to use his hated rivals given name.
"I know I can."
Taisuke laughed so loudly that a couple of students whipped their heads to him, "Oh my. Oh that is just too good." Taisuke wiped a tear off his face, "Almost a decade of failure and you think you'll get her."
"I haven't even tried yet Yama."
"Exactly! You can't even speak to her without-." The left side of Taisuke's body started to 'twitch', "St-st-st-stuttering!"
"This year will be different." Kazuto declared indeterminately, gripping his spoon, "I know it."
Taisuke stopped laughing, "Oh, this is why I love hanging out with you so much." He switched sides of the table, sitting across from him, "There is no way in hell. That she." The boxer pointed to Asuna, "Is going out with you."
"And why not?"
The lean boxer blocked Kazuto's view of Asuna with his face, "Hey. Not happening. You know who is practically the Queen of Yojimi. She's the richest, smartest and best looking person in the entire school. Aside from me of course." He added arrogantly, "You might as well go back to those dating sims we used back in the day."
"No."
"I don't know what to tell you. But you know who does have a chance? Me."
Kazuto choked on the piece of bread in his mouth, "Wh-what?"
"Yeah. Look at me! Got me the right social class, grades and sport. You? Bro you'd be lucky to land Shinozaki."
"But you hate each other!"
"Precisely, I still have a greater chance than you. You know how Huey Lewis sung about the power of love in the greatest movie of all time?"
"Yeah."
Taisuke leaned forward across the table, "Yeah well he lied. Power of love doesn't mean a thing."
"Well what do you know about love?" Kazuto asked, chowing down on a cheap bag of potato chips, trying to look around Tai's head to see Asuna.
His friend smirked, turning around and leaning back, sprawling his legs out lazily before unwrapping his salami sandwich, "First. I know that I'm in love with Hayano-sensei."
"You're just attracted to her Ishoyama." The black haired student muttered, rolling his eyes of the same color.
"I want to make babies with her."
"Exactly. Physical attraction. How would you do it then?"
"Well, I'm glad you asked." Taisuke smirked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, chewing his beloved sandwich of salami, "She would sit on her desk. Then I would get out all my best assignments with my perfect scores on them an' sprawl 'em out next to her. Then I would-"
"Stop. Listening to your perversions sickens me Yama." Kazuto snapped, "I meant how would you get her to love you?"
"Oh..." Taisuke shrugged, still letting Kazuto stare at Asuna by not blocking his view, "I have no idea. But still, why would this semester be different when every other semester has been the same?"
"Fate's keeping us apart, I just know it."
Taisuke placed his sandwich on the table before keeling over on the ground groaning and wincing, "Your pretentiousness...it's too much...room getting darker...too dumb...too edgy..."
His friend ignored him and rolled his eyes, seeing Taisuke rise up from the ground a second later as if nothing had happened.
Kazuto finished his potato chips as he kept staring at that unreachable goal, getting his crush recognized. Taisuke laughed again, "Bet you don't have the guts to ask her. And then I bet that if you do have the guts to ask her, she'd still say no."
He stood up with a look of total determination on his face, "You're going to choke on your words Yama-Tai, watch me."
"Watch you do what?...Oh no."
Emblazoned with fear, Kazuto made the short yet seemingly infinite walk to Asuna's table with all her friends. His legs started to become weak, like if they were filled with sand, his shyness keeping him locked in a sap like trance as if he was some sort of slowly melting popsicle.
"He's not even going to make it to her table." Taisuke giggled, laughing while filming his sheepishly slow walk on his phone, smugly eating salami the whole time.
The shy boy started to shake in fear, not even halfway between his own table in the cafeteria and Asuna's.
Kazuto turned around quickly with a pale face and a raised finger, "Can't do it."
He began to hyperventilate on the cafeteria bench, his chest heaving up and down while being comforted by Taisuke. His older friend took the chance to massage Kazuto's shoulders and speak softly, "It's okay...everything's gonna be fine."
"How can it be? I can't even get to her table!" Kazuto kept panting, sweat running down his pale face.
"Deep breaths." Taisuke assured, using his strong hands to massage Kazuto's shoulders, "Deeeeep breaths man come on. Breath in."
A sharp breath entered Kazuto's mouth.
"Breath out."
The breath left it.
"Listen." Taisuke looked Kazuto right in the eyes, energetic orange locked with fearful black, "You. Have got this. You are the man Kirigaya! The man!"
"B-But I thought you hated her..." He stuttered out.
"Forget about me." Taisuke turned him around and rolled Kazuto's shoulders in his hands, almost as if he was preparing him for one of his own favorite boxing matches, "Its about you man! You! Not me! And you, have got this."
"I-I-I..." Kazuto shook his head, "I do?"
"Yes. Look at me. Look at me!" Taisuke kept making eye contact with him, "You can do this. Yes you can! You're Kirigaya freaking Kazuto! You can do anything!"
"I can?"
"Yes! Now get up and use that huge heart of yours! Use it!"
Kazuto shot up off the cafeteria bench with a bright smile, "I can! Yes I can!"
"Yes!" Taisuke clapped his hands together and hooted, "Get 'em boy! Get 'em!"
Kazuto breathed in deeply, rubbing his hands in front of his face while walking towards Asuna's table, his anxious words floating in his mind like a storm.
Do I smell all right? What if she says no? What if she's already going with someone else? What if Ishoyama's pulling my leg on this one, he always does! I am just too scared. I'm not good enough to go with her. I-
Before Kazuto knew it, he was at Asuna's table, the large group of girls looking at him with puzzled looks on their faces.
"H-Hello." He breathed out.
"Hello." Asuna smiled turning around and sitting up in her perfect posture.
"I-I am...Kiri...hm..." Kazuto stopped, his hands twitching nervously in fear behind his back.
"I know who you are. We've been in the same class for years."
"You look like you're about to piss your pants. Need a diaper lover boy?"
"Stop it Rika." Asuna warned over her shoulder before returning to the shy black haired boy in front of her, "Do you have something you'd like to say?" She asked, knowing the dance was on the minds of many people.
"Y-Yes...I..." Kazuto gulped, "Would you...would you...I-I..."
Taisuke was watching the whole time and he put his phone away, "Don't worry, I got you man." He appeared at Kazuto's side, wrapping an arm over the incredibly nervous boy's shaking shoulders, "Ladies." Taisuke smirked, earning about five different eye rolls.
"Kazuto was about to tell me something Ishoyama." Asuna said annoyedly, glaring at her rival darkly.
"We'll get there. Do you ladies know that Kirigaya here has never had a cavity since third grade? Hubba-hubba." He growled, flicking his blackish brown eyebrows upwards.
"I'm afraid you're interrupting what your friend had to say."
"I'm afraid not. As I'll just say it for him because he's too damned nervous. Yuuki Asuna. Would you do me the huge favor of going to-"
An electrical bell rang, and Asuna rolled her eyes when she rose off the table's bench, "Waste my time some other time Ishoyama. Goodbye Kazuto, see you in class." She added in her warm voice, smiling lightly and waving to the boy whose head followed her movements.
After the group of girls left their table in a hurry, along with the rest of the cafeteria, Kazuto wiped the sweat off his face and turned to him, "Ishoyama you life ruiner! Now she'll never go to the dance with me!"
"Yes she will! We have two weeks until its here." Taisuke checked his watch, "Oh crap, we're going to be so late!"
The boys ran back to their homeroom, Taisuke pulling up some flowers from the ground on the way over there.
...
"Hayano-sensei!" One of her best students said, getting down on one knee and extending flowers off his broad chest, dirt falling off its roots and in front of her desk, "Please go to the dance with me! Please."
"Oh Ishoyama." The teacher smiled at him as if he was a little boy, ruffling his blackish brown hair, "I'd love to go the dance with you."
"Really?" Taisuke sparked up, smiling from ear to ear.
"Of course. Only I can't or else the school will fire me."
Taisuke rose from the ground with an arm over his eyes, "Why is the world so cruel to me?"
As he returned to his desk, the boy sitting in front of him teased him, getting revenge after years of cynical punishment, "Oooof. The pain man, I feel it."
"Sh-shut up Kirigaya." Taisuke whinged, protecting his face from embarassment.
Kazuto threw his arm down with a vengeful smirk, "Knew you weren't crying, I know you all too well..."
Class rolled along like it did every day for the past two years, with Taisuke staring off dreamily at his teachers chest, and Kazuto doing the same into the back of Asuna's head. Asuna looked to the window at her right side, seeing the reflection of the entire class with her analytical amber eyes.
When she saw a single black haired head stare off in her direction before glowing red in embarrassment and looking down at his lap, the girl could do only one thing.
Smile.
...
As they all left class, Kazuto tried to work up the courage again to ask her, only for Taisuke to appear in front of him, "Hey. You want to help me out with a lab assignment and then hit the basketball courts?"
"Yeah sure." His friend muttered with a deep sigh, seeing Asuna walk out of the classroom.
"Great let's go."
The boys stood in the chemistry lab wearing goggles and lab coats, mixing ingredients into a foaming glass beaker, "Okay..." Taisuke poured some clear liquid into it, "That should be it..." His orange eyes widened before seeing the concoction glow the same color, "Uh...how much Ammonium Nitrate did we use?"
"Thirteen milliliters."
"No, Hayano-sensei said eight. You copied the notes incorrectly you idiot."
Seeing the beaker spark and foam, Kazuto felt his heart race, "We're going to blow up the science lab! Oh god what're we going to do!?"
Taisuke's gaze flew to the labs clock, "No we're not, no one's at school at this hour. Help me get this thing outside, quick!"
The boys carried it to the hallway gently, closing the door to the chemistry room quickly before standing away from it with their backs turned to it. They raised their hands over their ears and braced themselves for an explosion.
Asuna rounded the hallway corner with Rika, "So you know, I always knew that it should be like that- but then-"
PAPOW!
Kazuto and Taisuke turned around slowly to see the girls standing head to toe in orange goop, what remained of the beaker was a smoking husk and a few broken pieces of glass.
Asuna blinked, her eyelids starting to bat together to collect herself again. She gave Taisuke a death glare, a look so frightening that the tall boxer forgot he was afraid of a girl with half his strength, "Ishoyama! You ruined my school uniform!"
"I-I but I...I..."
She wiped some of the goop off her face and looked at it, "It's supposed to be clear and smell of Silver Nitrate. Amazing note work imbecile, good luck on tomorrow's chemistry practical. Let's go Rika."
Taisuke yelled after her, "Oh yeah? Well I'm beating you in that class so how 'bout that?"
Asuna trashed his argument in seconds, speaking while walking away, "By about half a percent. That's the only subject too."
He grunted, throwing off his goggles and balling his fists, "That...she-devil...that...witch...I won't stop studying until I beat her in every class."
"But your grades are already perfect! Why would you push yourself harder?"
"To beat her. Kirigaya!" His hands snapped to Kazuto's shoulders, sizing the boy up, "Promise me you won't actually go to the dance with her. Forget your crush, stay with me man!"
"Uh..." Kazuto looked down at his shoes, staying silent and not knowing how to respond.
Taisuke became impatient and just shook his head, "I'm skipping boxing practice today and going straight home."
"But who's gonna give me a ride?..." Kazuto mumbled.
"I don't know, not my problem." Taisuke shrugged, getting his things and leaving the lab coat in the chemistry room, "See you tomorrow!"
"Ishoyama! Come on please!"
He had left quickly, his silver Miata sparkling in the sunlight when it flew out of the school parking lot.
Kazuto sighed and picked up his school bag, "Well I guess I'll just walk to the courts by myself then..."
...
He sat on the metal bleachers by himself, leaning on the green chain link fence behind him while he ran over his notes, the boy trying to find his mistakes. The tip of his pencil ran over formulas and bullet points, but no matter how hard he tried he simply could not remember what he did wrong.
"Need some help?" A kind voice asked, as it mixed with the sounds of a bouncing orange basketball and squeaking sneakers.
Kazuto grew shy and nervous instantly, "Uh...I-I uh..."
Asuna offered a hand and Kazuto placed the notebook in her palm with shaking arms.
She pressed her thumb to a red pen and corrected his notes in less than a minute, "There. Should be fine now."
His black eyes flew over his notes before they widened.
She didn't just fix them...she elaborated on them. No wonder she can beat Ishoyama!
Asuna sat down next to him and shrugged, "Chemistry can get pretty boring sometimes. I don't blame you if you mess up on the lectures."
"T-tell me about it."
He noticed how there were still small patches of orange gunk lying around her school uniform. Asuna had tried to do her best to remove all of it, but some of it actually had stuck onto her like tangerine colored chewing gum.
Kazuto looked over his left shoulder to see the ground, and his right where the girl he had admired for years sat. There was no tall boxer to call his sarcastic wingman, no courage to summon. He had no choice but to look at her and run over his notebook sitting on his knees shyly.
"So I saw you try and talk to me for the first time today. That was pretty cute if you ask me."
"Y-you think so?" He asked hopefully.
Asuna nodded, sitting in her usual perfect posture, "Yeah, I get why however."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"Ishoyama is a very negative person, it's why I share such distaste for him. He must've drilled it into your head for years that you're no good just to stay with him. Or that you believe that since your only friend for years is a selfish rich boy, you have no idea how to interact with people. That's my take on it at least."
Kazuto's jaw dropped a little, staring at her in awe.
How in the hell is she so smart!? Is this some sort of angel who descended from above?
She smiled a little, "You know...my friends told me rumors about how you could never work up the nerve to talk to me for years..."
"Oh god!" He buried his face into his hands, "Oh god I'm so sorry..."
Asuna laughed in a watery giggle, making Kazuto's head shoot up and look at her, "Oh it's fine...I can't really blame you considering your position. Teased and bragged to since our first year, I think I would do the same. How about this? I'll take the pain off your hands of having to ask me and do this."
For the first time, amber met onyx.
His sheepishly calm gaze turned frightful as she said the following words while looking into his eyes, "Kirigaya Kazuto. Will you go the Fall Dance with me?"
Before he could react, so many emotions overcame him that it was like his brain was squashed by multiple bullet trains in an instant. Surprise, anxiety, joy and utter shyness just smacked together like a tidal wave in his head, before he crumpled under the weight of it all, passing out and slumping off the metal bleachers.
"Kazuto!"
Sweaty basketball jocks and Asuna stood over him, trying to revive him. They poked his face and his chest, attempting their best to get him back awake.
The boy with obsidian eyes had them open sluggishly, before seeing a gorgeous face hang over him.
"Are you all right?" She asked, her voice brimming with worry.
"I...I..." He paused, gulping, the words building up like a supernova in his rapidly beating heart, before bursting in a beautiful display of star dust, "Yes. Yes, I will go to the dance with you."
...