Okay, my last story for OHSHC is missing some key elements. I think it would be a bit confusing to try interweaving so many alterations, so let's just start over. I'm not sure which version you would prefer, so just in case, I'll leave Keindrich Avenges up. And thanks to people actually commenting and praising, I know just how to fix things!
And as a major re-edit, I'm doing two chapters at once. So enjoy Keindrich Redeux!
Why could I not be near rich people without something going insanely wrong? First the snobbery, then losing Yasuko at home, now this. The dean is going to kill me before I even enroll. And How upset Yasuko will be once she gets back from the hospital. I don't know how the fire started but the first responders say that it was possibly a gas leak. I think itwa s God trying to re-establish hierarchical boundaries. It's funny how a handful of sulfur could take down a hall as large as a two-story apartment.
SO2 + heat = disaster. A simple equation; Yasuko would have known it. She was an aspiring scientist after all.
Oops, sorry! Where are my manners?
Yasuko was-is-my sister. She took care of me since we were younger. I'd been abandoned by my parents from birth, who apparently thought me unworthy of their care. He father, Iwao Daokiju, was an old jewelry shop owner. He took me in when I was a small baby and raised me as his own.
We often made play jewelry out of the broken gems and tarnished old metals lying around the back room. The children of aristocrats and commonfolk alike enjoyed them, however unorthodox their origin. We soon started making a little change on the side for the store, which amused Papa. Yasuko always smiled under his praise, but I was more concerned about our customers and how happy they were with our handmade accessories.
I expressed my thoughts that maybe I could take over for Papa when I grew up. He smiled and said that one day I might own a jewelry company but first I must find my true desire. I asked him what wish could be truer than to provide for one's family. "To have a family," he responded. "To find love so you can give it."
I, personally, loved nobody more than Yasuko. She was always nice to me and her smile gave me warmth. In my heart, not "down under", you perverts! I could not tell if my love was romantic or familiar, but it progressed. I knew she loved me back; she loved everybody in school like they were her dozens of brothers and sisters. But she always had something else in mind other than that shop.
From the time she was eleven and I was eight, she has left the shop early on Wednesdays and Fridays and taken walks to the gates of a set of mansions and towers they call Ouran Academy. She took me with her on my ninth birthday to gaze at all the landscaping. There were statues and shrubbery galore-which must have taken years of patient care. We sometimes saw students strolling outside and chatting. Sometimes they would wave or just give us knowing glances, but many girls have stuck up their noses and laughed at our dowdy clothing.
I stuck my tongue out at them and called them prigs behind their backs, but Yasuko was so taken in by the elegant atmosphere that she hardly noticed. I saw the dreamy look in her eyes and knew what would make her happy. Though I probably wouldn't be. I hated to think that my dearest friend might turn into a snob like them, but it was obvious she wanted to be part of that upper-class world. Too bad we were too poor to even buy her a uniform.
Over the next few years, the shop actually did so well that the one Christmas, after I turned eleven, he offered to send one of us to Ouran Academy. I immediately volunteered Yasuko. After all, I said, she would be entering her freshman year soon. She cheered and thanked me for giving her my chance at luxury. She even kissed me-right in front of him! I somehow knew from that extreme display of gratitude that she wasn't going to change.
But I was only somewhat right. The girl with raven locks and nimbous gray eyes that we sent off that autumn was much more mature by the time she returned for the holidays. She had discovered a love of science and wished to become a doctor. Papa was glad and asked if she could heal his broken back. She giggled and replied that with a good education, she might be able to heal anything. I held up my teddy bear, which had many rents at the neck. "Yes, Kein, even Kuma-chan"
She had also met a funny boy named Mitsukuni Haninozuka, who said looked and acted younger than me but was supposedly her age. His companion was a much taller and more taciturn boy named Takashi Morinozuka. They were supposedly cousins and very skilled martial artists by nature. I was flustered trying to remember their names, so she told me to call then "Honey-sempaii" and "Mori-sempaii" like everyone else does. Soon I was hearing stories about them on a daily basis, like Honey's "little man" stage and Mori nearly tripping over a shorter classmate.
The next year, she told me that the school had a new Host Club. The Host Club, she explained, was a place where a group of boys scheduled dates with multiple girls. She failed to suppress a burst of laughter when I compared it to 'formal pimping'. It also bummed me that they never kissed or embraced or anything of the sort, but some had preset fiancés so they could not interfere. I sighed. Wish I had a fiancé.
The aforementioned boys were a part of it, as well as a capital-savvy heir (Kyoya Ootori), a flamboyant blond flirt (Tamaki Suoh), and mischievous twins who I had apparently gone to school with (Hikaru & Kaoru Hitachiin). She visited the club twice a week and talked with a different boy each month until deciding to set her sights on the younger twin, Kaoru. However she managed to differentiate them was beyond me.
She described her appointments to me, skipping to the funny or intriguing stuff just for me. Once, she said, this Kaoru guy actually kissed her on the lips. "It didn't last as long as ours though." I turned as red as her ascot. Dang, she still remembered that! She giggled and patted my head, "Just pulling your leg, oniichan."
"So it was longer?" I blurted. Her next fit of laughter vicariously made my sides cramp.
A party was coming up at the academy that spring, Which meant that dozens of committee students were working overtime on organizing every single aspect of the party. Refreshments, entertainment, seating, decoration, invitations, collecting R.S.V.P.'s-there's a chap for all that!
Yasuko offered to organize a basic layout of the tables and a friend of hers, whom I believe she introduced as Katsumi Yamasi, labeled reserved seats. I wanted to help out as well, so she put me with a group of girls to pick out the refreshments. I was wary of them, for I figured they'd be laughing at the 'commoner boy' like the women I met years back. But no, they were focused on the task and often asked my opinion. Believe me, I had a few funny ideas for the spread.
"So you think we should lay the sashimi out to look like a fish," one of the girls said, not quite sure about such a display.
I shrugged. "Sure, it may seem childish but it adds to the decoration. Is cuisine not about presentation?" The girls smiled and nodded in agreement. I pointed to my little sketch. "In fact, if we lay the carp and porgy in an A-B-A-B-B pattern along the sides and the marlin and tuna in a C-C-D pattern around the center, we could use the contrast to imitate flashing scales."
"Wow, I never thought of that." "And maybe we could use the caviar for the eyes." "This is going to look so cute." We have a winner. I beamed at my childish ingenuity. Take that, Umemiya Tatsuo!
A taller boy walked up to the group and their chattering rose up into fan-girl swooning. I looked at him closely. Blond hair, fair skin, eyes that look like amethyst orbs, overly elegant air. It had to be-
"Mr. Tamaki Suoh," I mumbled, "It's nice to...to meet you. I...I'm Keindrich Daokiju."
Great, the prince of the Ouran Host Club was here to check up on the preparations and here I am, a dowdy middle school student among high school aristocrats. I was confident walking through these gates and starting my work. Now I feel like my clothes hang loose over my shoulders and my hair is a hot mess. But now if it's true, Tamaki can see me and knows that I'm a poor jeweler's child and then Yasuko will be had. And if he sees how nervous I am, he'll see me as unprofessional...
Oh, God, what do I do? Maybe if I acted fancy, he'd think higher of me. I took a deep breath and bowed to him. "It's an honor." The girls chuckled. I guess I was acting silly for a man almost old enough to attend here.
Tamaki bowed back. "Ah, Mr. Daokiju. Your sister Yasuko has told us about you. I am aware of your tendency to be intimidated in such crowds, but fear not-you are among friends. It seems you want to become a jeweler when you get older. Perhaps when the time comes," He gestured to his mini fan base, "I might rely on you to craft a nice engagement ring for a future fiancé." They went crazy, as did I. Suoh wanted my work, my craftsmanship.
"I'll try, sir. But I am nowhere near professional enough to be worthy of such patronage."
"And I have yet to find the woman of my dreams," he said with a sad smile. The girls slumped a little as he looked off. "There was a girl I knew, but she has no apparent interest in courting me, let alone in engagement." Tamaki not having a woman? I wouldn't say it's preposterous, but I never would have imagined anyone being unenamored by him. I wonder who this woman was.
His head suddenly jerked up. "What is that strange odor?" Some people had apparently noticed as well and fled the building in disgust
I sniffed the air myself, then nearly gagged. It smelled like rotten eggs. But we didn't have any food orders in yet and few of them contained any egg products. Wait, Yasuko and I each learned about this in school. Sulfuric Acid-H2[SO4]-has an odor similar to that of rotten eggs. One of its properties due to its composition was high flammability. They are found in batteries, fertilizers, pool treatments and select hard surface cleaners.
I saw a man cleaning some of the tables where the food was to sit. Okay, that explains that. Though it's questionable that the scent would be that strong. "Excuse me, ladies," I called to the cringing girls. They looked at me in an odd way. They must have thought I farted. "No, I did not break wind. But this is important because I know the source and what could happen. Is anyone serving any food involving torching, flambé or baked Alaska?"
"Yes, of course." "What's the point in missing that?" "I don't see how that is important."
Tamaki put a hand on my shoulder. "It seems each of these involve setting the dish aflame."
"Yes," I continued, "and this stench that you are concerned about is created by a chemical known as sulfuric acid, which is flammable." A few more students turned their attention to us. "There is a chance that the table could be set on fire because the cleaners contain it. We may have to set a tablecloth overtop or raise the tray to cut the risk"
There was a lot of chatter among our audience. "But the stench is so strong." "And the cleaner is used weekly, yet we don't smell anything." "But the bottles say 'Keep away from open flame'." "So maybe even in trace amounts..." "Or maybe there's a gas leak in the building. The heating units run on gas." "My gosh, it's airborne!" "Oh, goodness, what do we do?"
"Simple, we do two things-or, okay-three things. One is we evacuate the building as soon as possible. Two, we call either a plumber or Poison Control. Three depends on their ruling. If we're good to go and have enough time to continue preparations, we just omit the flame products. If not, we might need to move the festivities outside, postpone them, or cancel altogether."
Tamaki ran to the front of the room where a microphone stood. "Testing. Test San-Ni-Ichi." He raised his voice. "Attention students. We have been informed of a chemical contamination. All students are to evacuate the building immediately. Exit doors are to the-" Everyone began to panic and scramble toward the upper corners of the room on either side of him. "Okay, apparently you know where two of them are, but there is another in the south-southeast corner of the room." Huge mass at that one after a second.
I had a bit of trouble getting out and found myself tripping a few times. Frenzied students stepped on my hands. Still other people got completely trampled. I heard yelling and jeering among those closer to the door; only so many can squeeze through at one time and you do not want to be the last one out at a time like this. So much for decorum. And I was the one who saved their lives-why trample me?
I sprinted out as soon as I could. There were four dozen students gathered outside, murmuring to one another. I didn't see Yasuko or the girl called Katsumi in the crowd. I shouted to them. "Oneechan! Katsumi-chan! Can you hear me?" I ran to a woman I recognized in the crowd. "Kanako, have you seen Yasuko Daokiju or Katsumi Yamasi?" She shook her head. "Thanks anyhow. Stay well." I asked around but no student, staff member knew their whereabouts. I sigh and think perhaps they got out already and will probably admonish me for running off.
And then I hear the last words I need to right about now. "Oh my God! Fire!" Yep, I knew this day would suck. I was just hoping nobody could die today. It's a chore, dying. I was one of a dozen 9-1-1 calls; he paramedics and fire fighters came to contain the situation and fish out bodies. Some were burnt a little, some got out perfectly fine, and two got charred beyond recognition.
I got nervous with each victim being carried off. What if she was one of the charred bodies I saw? How would Papa take this? Finally, I saw a black-haired girl come out of the building in a man's arms. There was a large burn through her hand. She looked rather pale, especially with the soot on her face. The limpness of her body told me all I needed to know. She was one of the casualties of today's catastrophe.
Oh God, not her...