Kasanoda blinked in surprise as two figures popped up in front of him.
He had no idea where they had come from. It was as if they had appeared from thin air.
No, of course not. That's ridiculous.
He tried to assure himself that the only thing he could possibly be confused about was that they were not wearing the proper school uniform. Instead, they were wearing dresses that matched each other's in style, though not colour. One dress was the brightest yellow with green, while the other was a contrasting black with deep violet.
"Uhm... hello...?" Kasanoda finally spoke.
The silence that ensued began to make Kasanoda doubt that they had appeared with the intent to communicate with him, and were instead looking in his general direction.
However, why would they be so close to him? They weren't much further than half a metre away from him, and staring right at him. He couldn't deny that fact.
So why where they remaining silent? Kasanoda got the feeling that they were making fun of him somehow.
He took their silence at face-value, refusing to dwell on it any longer, and instead focused on their appearance. Maybe he did know them... and just forgot?
No... that was absurd. These two were definitely too flashy for him to forget, even if he had only seen them passing on the street. They were both the same height, and had bright aquamarine eyes; so bright, in fact, that they seemed inhuman.
One had hair down to her waist and it was slightly wavy. Kasanoda knew that this person's hair colour was definitely not natural, considering it was only a couple of shades darker of a blue than her eyes.
Not that he was judging her, of course. People had the freedom to dye their hair however they wished... In fact, even Haruhi's father had died his hair at some point.
However, was there any ultimate gain to be had from dying one's hair bright blue? Kasanoda didn't think so, though he did not express his thoughts, because it was rude and they weren't speaking to him yet anyway. He didn't want to bother the two, even though they were the ones in his personal space.
The other one had shorter hair, to her shoulders. It was an orange colour, though Kasanoda noticed that it had a slight pink overtone to it. This girl was no less ostentatious than her companion with her bright yellow dress, by all means, but Kasanoda could swear that her eyes were brighter and livelier than the other's.
Scratch that. They had exactly the same expression. It reminded him of the cunning, mischievous faces of the Hitachiin twins who had dressed him up so embarrassingly when he first met them. Kasanoda took a step back instinctively, knowing that these two were probably cut from the same cloth. He did not want to be too near to them.
Kasanoda looked from side to side. His internal observation train had only been as long as a few seconds, and he could barely believe it. His inner musings truly do seem to take a long time... but when compared with the real world, they were only fleeting seconds.
He almost jumped out of his skin when one of the odd girls in front of him said something.
"Hello, Kasonada-san. Aren't you just glad to see us?"
Kasanoda couldn't fight his confusion. It was the blue-haired one that spoke to him, with a large grin on her face. Her voice was deep and almost gravelly, but, in a strange way, smooth at the same time.
However, those observations were not important for the issue at hand. She had spoken to him with familiarity... but he had no idea who she was.
He scratched his head as he answered, "Uhm... do I know you?"
The grin of the blue-haired girl widened as her eyes glinted with something strange.
"Perhaps not, but you are truly happy to see us... right?"
Kasanoda thought about the question. Was he happy to see them? He didn't even know them! So why would he be happy?
"We can grant miracles."
Kasanoda looked at the other girl, who had spoken with a voice much higher-pitched than her counterpart's. She was wearing the same face as the blue-haired one, one gloved and bejeweled hand messing with her bright hair.
"M, miracles? What do you mean?" he questioned of them, growing a little irritated that they would not give him a straight answer.
Haruhi sat at one of the hosting tables. Hosting hours were about to end, and she was currently drying spare teacups as Kyoya sat across from her, working on whatever financial calculating he had to do that day.
Tamaki, the Host Club's ever so popular King, saw the last guest out with excessive charm and radiance. Haruhi fought against rolling her eyes. She was fairly certain that the girls knew how to walk out of the room on their own, and that the additional glib and glamour that Tamaki brought to the table was unnecessary.
However, saying that would only put him in a slump, so she kept her mouth shut.
"Good choice, Haruhi," Kyoya said coolly as he punched numbers into the calculator. Haruhi narrowed her eyes simply.
Be that as it may, Haruhi was one-hundred percent certain that Kyoya could not read minds. If he could, he would be ten days past crazy by now. She guaranteed that much.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" asked Hikaru, who draped an arm over Haruhi's shoulder casually, as his brother did the same on the other side.
A few moments of confusion passed, in which the rest of the Host Club members gathered around the table and stared at her, before she realized that she had uttered her proclamation out loud, just as if she was having a conversation with Kyoya.
"Aww~ Haru-chan, you can't be crazy, okay?" Honey smiled hugely at her as he laid a piece of blue-wrapped candy in front of her. She picked it up and inspected it absently.
"Oh, I'm not. See, when I was younger, my dad worked a lot, and I didn't really have a lot of intimate friends I could hang out with very often," Haruhi clarified, setting the candy down.
Tamaki looked like he was about to burst over with tears, like a dam threatening to break, but Kaoru hit him over the head viciously.
"Let her finish, Boss. No tears."
Haruhi smiled at the display and continued.
"Anywho, so I made up a bunch of people and talked to them instead. Like imaginary friends, only I'm sure they were much more real than any imaginary friend a kid comes up with on a whim."
"Why?" Hikaru asked.
"It always seemed like they did really have personalities of their own. Though, I suppose at the end of the day, they only said and did what I wanted them to. Like any other imaginary friend."
Tamaki smiled. "I never pegged you for an imaginary friend type of person, Haruhi," he said, on behalf of everyone else in the Host Club. "Do you still talk to them?"
Haruhi grinned. "Not really. Every once in a while I remember some of them."
Hikaru sighed. "That's good. It's weird if you keep talking to imaginary friends at your age."
Haruhi frowned slightly. "If Kaoru was imaginary, and you had the same relationship with him as you do now, would you still talk to him?"
Hikaru pursed his lips. "Of course!"
"There you go," Haruhi said triumphantly. "You have that situation, obviously."
"So, Haru-chan, you were so close to your imaginary friends it's like Hika-chan and Kao-chan?" Honey asked her. Haruhi smiled.
"Yeah, basically. Though I didn't talk to them all the time when I was little, regardless, so don't begin thinking I'm uber weird or anything."
"Of course not! I think it's rather nice, actually!" Tamaki stood straight and struck a dramatic pose. "A girl, lonely as a child, making up lifelong friends in case she never found any! Oooh, Haruhi, are any of them like me?" Tamaki suddenly asked, staring at her in anticipation.
"Hmm..." Haruhi thought for a moment. "I am not sure... I think I only have two that are like anybody in the Host Club."
"Which ones?" Hikaru asked eagerly.
"They are like you two. And maybe a little like Tamaki-sempai... Actually, a lot like Tamaki-sempai. But... a little different. Their mischief is always justified by one thing. It's actually really ridiculous, how much they get into it. I don't know why my childish mind made them that way. Though... I suppose those personalities suit them."
"What is it?" inquired Kaoru.
"...For some reason, my mind made them obsessed with... love."
Love! The single, driving force of the universe! Nothing is more powerful, and can bring about more miracles than the power of love!
Love! The single, driving force of the universe! Nothing can defend better, and mend more cleanly than the power of love!
This world turns on an axis provided by love.
Everything everybody does is a form of love!
A sword, and a shield! A rose, and a thorn!
Love conquers all! In the famous words of Andrew Lloyd Webber, LOVE NEVER DIES!
We have devoted ourselves to its entrancing, intoxicating power. We are both two edges of the same, powerful sword! Yes... it truly is wonderful!
We write the history books! We compile the never-ending tomes using this never-exhaustible force!
Nothing could be more perfect! Let the curtain rise!
However... false love is worth less than the dingiest of lies. False love deserves two-million times worse than death!
And with that... Let the curtain fall...~!
"What miracles do you want, Kasanoda-kun?" said the blue girl.
"We can grant whatever wish you want!" said the orange.
"You only have to do one thing."
"And that is..."
""To believe in the power of love!""
Kasanoda watched their exchange of words parry between them like a tennis match, ending in their excited line in unison. It reminded him so much of the Hitachiin twins that he was ready to bolt, having no idea what they were saying.
"Love...?" Kasanoda finally answered, not knowing what to say.
"Yes!" said Blue. She spread her arm out in a dramatic gesture. "The purest form of magic!"
Kasanoda, upon hearing this, shook his head almost violently. "M, magic?! What kind of stuff are you two talking about? Either speak straight, or I'll leave!"
"Ahh~" Orange purred, circling around him and draping an arm over his shoulder, touching his face with a yellow-gloved hand. "But what is keeping you here?"
"Yes," Blue responded. "What keeps you here with strangers? What kind of entrancing power can accomplish that? What type of power but love?"
Kasanoda looked down, trying to ignore the girl on his shoulder. They had a point. They were strangers, and once they started talking about weird things, he could have just turned around with his bag slung over his shoulder and walked home as he always did.
No matter what they said, however, he doubted that some powerful magic called love made him stay there. After all, he knew he felt no attraction to either of these people, so it couldn't have been that.
Blue smiled deviously, as if she had read his mind. "Aaaah... but you see... love is not limited to romantic love, though romantic love is one of the strongest."
"The other would be the pure love of a child," chimed Orange.
Blue continued seamlessly around Orange's trivia. "Love is like a fine veil. It is so easy to tear." As she spoke, her face transformed into one that was pitifully forlorn, and she looked genuinely disappointed about her statement. After a few moments, her face brightened up again, as if nothing had happened. "However, it is also like the clearest of glass. Yes, yes, that is a much better comparison. Please throw out the veil line."
She cleared her throat and began her spiel again.
"Love is like the finest, clearest glass. It is so easy to break," her eyes glinted as she spoke. "However, because it is so clear, it allows the holder to see things he may never have seen before..."
"Without love, it cannot be seen," Orange added, in all seriousness as she circled to face Kasanoda again. "Do you see? You see us, we who may bestow the most sparkling of miracles."
Kasanoda sighed. "I'm getting tired of all of this. Either you two tell me who you are and what you want, or I will leave."
Blue laughed. "Oh, hoh-hoh, how feisty! Of course. That is not such a demanding request."
She turned to Orange, who smiled and locked arms with her companion. They reached their outside arms to Kasanoda in a pose that reminded Kasanoda of Tamaki Suoh- Oh, God, please don't tell me they are as cunning as Kyoya, too!
"Here we are!" announced Blue.
"Here we stand!" announced Orange.
"We are servants of love!"
"We are demons of love!"
"We bestow your deepest wish!"
"We bestow your greatest miracle!"
Blue closed her eyes and Kasanoda swore he saw sparkles fall from her fingertips as she proclaimed her next statement. "I am Zepar!"
Orange echoed her movements with the same flair. "I am Furfur!"
They opened their eyes and stared at him with dramatic expressions he couldn't describe. ""Now prove to us, your love!""
Haruhi sighed. The Host Club had been rattling off questions to her about the imaginary friends she had made up when she was little, and some of them had even shared with her information about the friends they had.
The twins and Kyoya, as she suspected, had none. (Or, in Kyoya's case, none that he would like to admit). The twins had always had each other, so there wouldn't be any use for an imaginary friend.
Honey used to have an army of imaginary bunnies that he would dispatch on the 'meanies of the world'. It was demented, and fluffy. Haruhi wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.
Tamaki said he used to pretend that he had siblings. He told her that the one that he had imagined the longest was a younger brother named Satoshi, and he dramatically described that the reason he doesn't talk to Satoshi any more because Satoshi fell off of a cliff. Haruhi frowned at this. Out of all of the imaginary friends she had made up when she was a kid, she had never purposefully killed one off. When she was little and hadn't thought about one of her 'friends' in a while, she told her dad that they were off on a trip and had only just came back.
"Awww~ Haruhi, you are so cute!" Tamaki grasped her to him in a hug, and Haruhi felt all of her breath leave her.
To Haruhi's surprise, Mori had even had one. He didn't talk much about the imaginary friend, though. All he said was that he had one.
Kaoru sighed, getting bored. "Why are we talking about this, anyway? We sound like girls at a slumber party."
Tamaki immediately let Haruhi go to point at Kaoru. "My little girl is a girl, and we should be there for her! You wanted to know in the first place!"
Kaoru sighed again, and Hikaru started arguing with Tamaki loudly. Haruhi had an unamused expression on her face and she put the candy that Honey had given her into her mouth.
Only Mori noticed the club room door open until it was slammed.
Everybody looked up to see Kasanoda, disheveled and breathing hard, enter the room.
"Bossa-nova? What are you doing here?" Hikaru asked, completely forgetting about his argument with Tamaki.
"They... they won't leave me alone!" Kasanoda answered, walking over, forcing himself to stay calm as he sat down next to Haruhi. Haruhi poured him some tea and Kasanoda gratefully took it.
"Who? Hordes of adoring girls? You have us to thank for it," Hikaru responded with an evil smile on his face.
"Well..." Kasanoda said as he finished his tea. "I wouldn't say hordes of girls... just two in particular. They keep babbling this nonsense about love...It's really creeping me out."
Haruhi turned to him. "What do you mean, Casanova? Do you know who they are?"
Haruhi found Kasanoda's plight to be very interesting. If it really was who she thought it was... no, it couldn't be. They were imaginary. They weren't real people. It's probably just two crazy girls who were fans of the son of the Kasanoda syndicate…
"Their names... are Zepar and Furfur," Kasanoda answered, and Haruhi's eyes widened at the news.
Hikaru and Kaoru started laughing hysterically. "What kinds of names are those?! Ahhahahahahah!"
Kyoya frowned. "They aren't students here."
"Wouldn't surprise me. They weren't wearing the school uniform, anyway." Kasanoda replied.
Haruhi was the only one who shut out of the conversation after hearing the names of the 'girls' who were bugging him. They couldn't be real! And perfect timing, too, right when she was thinking about them!
Perhaps... it was the action of thinking about them after so long that caused them to appear? No... even if that was the case, she'd be the only one to see them, to acknowledge them! Kasanoda couldn't possibly have seen them.
Unless...
That whole spiel about the magic thing that they always talked about was real...
No, ridiculous! Magic wasn't a real thing.
Haruhi took a deep breath. She was probably having another crazy dream, like the one where Ouran was like a wonderland. This situation couldn't possibly or logically be a 'real' one.
It was almost as crazy as saying one knew if that cat in the box was alive or dead without opening it.
Then again, Ouran was almost just like a cat box. Things that shouldn't happen, things that should be questioned in the realms of logic, happen. The endless supply of banana peels on the floors, for example. Who knew if they were real, supplied by a prankster around every corner? Who knew if they were fake, and people just claimed they were the reason for embarrassingly tripping over their own feet?
Haruhi sighed. She didn't know what to believe any longer.
If Zepar and Furfur were indeed real... then they were not merely a child's fantasy, or a simple delusion thought up in the mind of a lonely kid. They were real, and for whatever reason, had decided to dwell with her.
Haruhi nodded to herself, satisfied for now. She didn't know how or why, but she did know the what. And the what was supplied with two separate instances:
One. Kasanoda had talked to her dad or something, and her dad had told him about her imaginary friends, and he then had decided to pretend that Zepar and Furfur were after him for a joke only she could be in on. The only problems with this were that Kasnoda didn't have the personality to play such a prank, not at all.
Two. Zepar and Furfur were real. The 'magic of love' they so ardently described was real. And they had decided to stay with her when she was lonely.
Hah. The second option was so absurd that she would readily take Kasanoda being a devious prankster any day. She wished she could peer deeper into this cat-box (provided that it wasn't a dream her tired mind thought up, of course), and figure out the real truth.
Perhaps she was overthinking things.
The entire room went silent as the sound of a latch clicking was heard, and the group saw the door slowly open. Kasanoda looked increasingly nervous, but Haruhi reassured herself that this was some part of his plan. After all, the door concealed whoever was behind it.
The suspense was palpable as the door opened all the way...
Haruhi nearly fainted.
Clear as crystal, and completely life-like, stood the twins who she had thought to be delusions by a mere child, who she called 'imaginary friends'...
Zepar and Furfur, looking as extravagant, colourful and theatric as ever.
The cat box was wide open now. But... Haruhi's logical mind conceded that there was no possible way for them to be real. The only explanation that didn't involve ridiculous claims of magic was that her old imaginary friends were based off of people she already knew.
She knew it was useless the minute she thought it, however. There weren't any people she knew that fit Zepar's and Furfur's rather... ostentatious personalities.
"Hello!" Tamaki said. "How are you?"
"I am Zepar~!"
"And I am Furfur~!"
""We are here to grant Kasanoda-kun's miracle!""
Tamaki blinked. "Miracle? How?"
""Why, with the magic of love~~~~!""
Whatever doubts Haruhi might have had about whether this Zepar and Furfur were the same as her delusions were blown out of the water. These were the same ones, alright.
"I already told you, I don't want anything you're selling!" Kasanoda yelled. Zepar and Furfur merely smiled, their movements indicative of actors on stage- exaggerated and dramatic.
Zepar laughed and looked straight at Haruhi, who paled.
"I bet your mind is reeling about the different possibilities for this situation, isn't it?" Zepar asked her. Haruhi blinked.
"Yes. There is no way you two could possibly exist," she stated firmly.
"Say it in red," giggled Furfur, and Haruhi frowned.
"Now, no more jokes," Zepar smiled and walked over to Haruhi, lifting her chin up with a black-gloved finger, the bracelets on her hand clinking together.
"I'll tell you how it is, Haruhi-chan," Zepar said. "I will tell you right now that love is the most powerful substance in this world. Whether it be love for cherry tomatoes or love for your husband, love exists everywhere, in so many forms it is impossible to count."
"So much love... is indicative of magic, Haruhi-chan," Furfur said, taking over with the explanation. "And without the love, the magic cannot be witnessed. Neither can the truth. For example, say... you love Puropuropiyupiku-Man. But Puropuropiyupiku-Man does not love you. Because he is lacking that love, he cannot see your true feelings for you, see? That is the magic of love~~"
"How is that magic?!" Haruhi asked, her rational mind taking over. "That's just common sense!"
Zepar suddenly laughed. "If it is common sense, Haruhi-chan... then why can't you see it?"
Haruhi blinked as the world around her faded into black, Zepar's voice surrounding her as if they were both in a long, dark tunnel... "What... do you mean...?"
"-uhi! Haruhi!"
Haruhi woke up to an earnest and concerned voice yelling in her ear. She lifted up a hand to her head with difficulty and covered her ear.
"S, ...stop yelling..." she croaked, a headache threatening to burst her skull open. She tried to open her eyes, but it felt like they were glued together.
Her skin was hot, she could tell, but she felt a cool hand cover the one that she wasn't using.
"Haru-chan? Can you open your eyes?"
Haruhi recognized that voice. It was... Honey. She knew that, and was happy that she knew that...
She tried harder, and with a small noise of effort, she finally opened her eyes. She blinked them for what seemed like forever as the white, artificial light streamed into them. After a while, she grew accustomed to the light and was able to process what she saw around her.
She was in the hospital, and the smell of antiseptic permeated her nostrils irritatingly. The members of the Host Club were all gathered around her hospital bed, even Kyoya and Mori. She looked down at herself and winced. Even moving her head hurt. She was bandaged everywhere, it seemed, and her back was killing her, and there was a muted ache in the rest of her body; from some type of anesthetic, no doubt.
"W, ...what happened...?" she asked with a weak and cracked voice. Tamaki leaned down over her and brushed her hair off of her forehead, which was sticking there with sweat.
"Haruhi... how far back do you remember?"
"...I... don't know... all I remember is some crazy dream..."
"I don't think it was a dream, Haruhi."
Haruhi blinked in surprise. "So... what happened? With Zepar and Furfur?"
"Huh?" Now it was Tamaki's turn to be surprised. "No, there was nothing about that at all... Haruhi... don't you remember? Your dad… he died... …and you ran out into the street in distress... and you were hit by a car... remember?"
Haruhi's breath hitched. "D, dad... died...?" Her eyes widened as the heart-beat monitor started to beep faster. The twins reached out and caressed her carefully, murmuring things to her to try to get her to calm down, as it was clear that Haruhi was going into some type of shock.
Haruhi caught herself and she took deep breaths to calm down.
"Haruhi…" Tamaki frowned. "We were there… we could have comforted you! Why did you run out into the street like that?!"
"Boss, stop it, she doesn't need this."
"Hikaru, you know you feel the same way!" Tamaki yelled at him. "Haruhi! How could you do this to us? We were there for you! You don't need to be so stubbornly independent all of the time! You could have leaned on us! Why did you doubt our love for you?!"
Love.
Realization struck Haruhi. So that…. Was what her dream was about….
Zepar and Furfur. They were people that Haruhi had imagined in the days of her youth… borne out of a lonely consciousness, and made to be so lifelike that Haruhi had truly once thought they were real.
She thought she had grown out of her imaginary friends. She thought that they were gone forever.
However, it still seemed as though they could still teach her something.
She looked around at the Host Club, who was standing there, all with equally concerned expressions on their faces. After further inspection, even Kasanoda had come to see her, and she gave him a weak smile, which he returned. All of these people loved her, in their own ways, and some showed it more than others.
How could she have been so blind? Even in the face of the most tragic and heartbreaking thing that could have happened to her, they were there for her, and vowed to be.
Yet her obstinate goal to be an independent woman had almost tore her away from them too. Maybe… if fate had turned out differently, if Zepar and Furfur had not bestowed that one miracle upon her… she would be with her father in Heaven right now.
Zepar and Furfur worked with one thing in mind. Love.
They called their work by one, miraculous, glorious word. Magic.
And as Haruhi looked around at the faces of all who loved her…. She truly believed. She believed that… this was most certainly….
Magic.
AN (end): This is kind of a crossover, actually. However, the crossover part of it is not hinged upon the story they came from, so no previous knowledge is required. Zepar and Furfur are from Umineko no naku koro ni, which belongs to Ryukishi07. Ouran High School Host Club belongs to Bisco Hatori.
Also, I would like to point out that the third-person limited perspective in which this story is told is not all that reliable. That's because Kasanoda doesn't know the 'truth'. Muahaha. If you would notice, Haruhi never refers to Zepar and Furfur with pronouns such as 'he' 'his' 'she' 'her' etc. This is because our lovely Ryukishi07, the guy who made them, made their gender into a catbox. In actuality, Zepar and Furfur are of the opposite gender; it just appears that they are both girls. So, which one would you think is male? Some people say Zepar because of the more masculine speech and a deeper voice. However, some say that those qualities of Zepar's are merely there to distract from the fact that it is actually Furfur who is male. In short, nobody knows. It's really fun to think about, though. Haruhi's not the only crossdresser here! *cackle*