Fuji smiled sinisterly as he stroked his cactus. "This year's Halloween will be one to remember."
oo
A small wriggling body poked out of a large mountain of clothing, desperate to find something frightening to wear. After all, it was Halloween. But of course, this little girl owned nothing even remotely scary. Problem?
"Yes!" A fuzzy head popped out of the pile, holding out a piece of black fabric. Her hair was frizzed up and her braids were a mess, but Ryuzaki Sakuno was happy. She had found something that wasn't pink!
Normally, Sakuno would have just used her old sparkly fairy princess or "Glinda the good witch" costume. But that was before a certain freshman tennis prodigy had arrived and, knowing he disliked sweet things, Sakuno wanted to get on his good side. And so, she wanted to look honestly scary this year.
She unfolded the black fabric and frowned. It wasn't nearly big enough to cover her entire body. Maybe she could use it as a skirt? Or just as a cape? She needed help.
"Obaa-chan!"
"Yeeees?" Her grandmother's head stuck out of the doorway. Only it wasn't her grandmother's head. It was the head of a zombie-alien with brains and blood oozing out of its mouth. Doubt flashed through Sakuno's head before being replaced with panic; she was about to get eaten and/or abducted! She screamed and quickly grabbed a dictionary to throw at it.
"Sakuno, Sakuno! It's me!" Her grandmother took off her mask. "My god, you're easy to scare…" Then she mumbled something like, "Only other person…Kaidoh…pathetic…"
"O-Obaa-chan?" Sakuno clutched at her heart. "D-Don't scare me like that!"
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry dear." Her grandmother sighed. She only hoped that one day, Sakuno would be as brave and awesome as she was. "Now, what did you call me for?"
"I needed help with this." Sakuno held out the black cloth. "I need to make it into something, but it's too short."
Her grandmother's eyes widened to their fullest extent. "That? Too short? Nonsense! Here." She took it and wrapped it around Sakuno's small frame, under her arms. "I'll make this into a dress for you. We just need to add some straps and lace and giggle giggle…"
"O-Obaa-chan?" Sakuno asked softly.
Her grandmother let out a massive stream of "giggles" and rushed out of the room with the black fabric.
A half-hour later, she returned with Sakuno's new Costume. She instructed her to lift her arms and with a mighty tug, pulled the entire dress down onto her granddaughter.
Sakuno eeped. Then she looked down and just uttered, "Obaa-chan is amazing…"
Her little black cloth had been turned into a mini dress with bright green straps and striped sleeves. The excess cloth was used to add a fringe to the front of the dress. As short as it was, it was still an amazing costume. Her grandmother handed her matching striped leggings and black shoes.
"How did you do all this?" Sakuno asked in awe.
"That's my little secret." Her grandmother smiled, vowing that anyone who found out that she, Coach Sumire, was the champion speed-sewer in her school's knitting club would meet an early death.
Sakuno's smiled faltered. "But wait," she pulled at the fringe. "This isn't a very scary costume…"
"Ah, but that's what make-up is for." Her grandmother said wisely.
"Obaa-chan, you don't wear make-up."
Her grandmother slapped her hand onto her cheek. "Of course I do! Oh dear god, do you think I would look this young without it?"
Sakuno didn't answer.
Sumire continued. "Anyway, I have an idea. Why don't we put red lipstick on the edge of your lips to look like blood? That's scary."
"Yeah!" Sakuno whispered in agreement.
That night, the two Ryuzakis walked up to the door of Kawamura Sushi.
The door slid open before either of them touched it, and there to greet them was the same zombie-alien with brains and blood oozing out of its mouth. Sakuno experienced a strange déjà vu, but screamed nevertheless.
Her grandmother put her hands on her hips. "You knew that would scare Sakuno, Fuji."
"What? …This is Tezuka."
"Nice try, Fuji. And how did you get my mask?"
Fuji turned to Sakuno, disregarding her question. Sumire scowled.
"Ah, Ryuzaki-chan, come in! I'm sorry for scaring you. I, Tezuka, am such a bully."
The real Tezuka turned around. "Fuji."
Laughing softly ("Lighten up, Tezuka,"), Fuji took the mask off and started for the captain. He stopped and turned back. "Your lipstick is a little smudged, Ryuzaki-chan."
Sakuno turned pink. "Th-tha-that is--" That was supposed to be blood! Wasn't it scary?
Then she looked past Fuji and saw a little cat-eyed tennis player staring at her. Both people looked away quickly.
Unfortunately, two devious characters noticed this as well. To Sakuno's horror, Kikumaru and Momo kidnapped her while her grandmother's back was turned, and rushed her over to the one person she really did not want to see.
When the kidnappers were in front of a startled Echizen Ryoma, they set her down and saluted Ryoma.
"(Nya) Echizen-domo, we have located and retrieved your girlfriend." Then the two idiots gave each other high fives as if what they had just done was the funniest thing in the whole world.
Ryoma merely stared up at them from his seat. Sakuno looked down and was slowly turning bright red. Where was her grandmother when she needed her?
"We will now leave you to your duties, Ochibi-domo." Idiot 2 said. "…Besides, I see a little Oishi eating out of my plate."
Kikumaru and Momo hurriedly left with shouts of "That's mine, Oiishi!" and "I want that last piece, sempai!"
This left Ryoma and Sakuno by themselves in the corner, and quite alone.
Tick. Tock. Tick.
The dead silence seemed to grow as Sakuno looked around, stopping at Fuji sitting with Tezuka.
"Tezuka, please put on your Fuji mask?" Fuji smiled.
"You're pushing it, Fuji."
Sakuno turned back to Ryoma; she did not like her current awkward predicament.
In a desperate attempt to escape, she mumbled into her hands, "U-um, I-I'm going to find Obaa-chan now, R-Ryoma-kun…" She robotically turned away to leave when Ryoma spoke:
"Ne. Something's on your face."
Sakuno turned back to him. "Eh?"
With his head propped up on one hand, he said in a bored tone, "Right there." He pointed with his other hand to the trail of lipstick on Sakuno's face.
She blushed. Not only did he sound unimpressed, but he was making fun of her! How could her grandmother have been so wrong? "I-it was supposed to be blood…" She murmured while playing with her fringe.
Ryoma lifted his head. "Blood?" He asked, surprised. "Why?" It slipped out before he could stop himself. After all, this was the girl who had been shaking the entire time their class had watched a movie on how killer whales captured and ate their prey.
Her face had a rather guilty expression as she said, "U-um... it's Halloween, so…"
"Ryuzaki-sensei said that you only wore princess costumes." Again, Ryoma had not meant for that to slip out.
Sakuno didn't feel all that thankful toward her grandmother at that moment. "W-well, you had said th-that you didn't like those k-kinds of costumes, so I-I…" She suddenly squeezed her eyes shut when she realized how much she had revealed. "… tried to be s-something scary."
Ryoma regarded her as she fidgeted, obviously waiting for his response. Why did she care what he said?
Then Horio's loud, obnoxious voice streamed across the room. "Lookin' good, Ryuzaki!" Coach Grandma glared daggers at him and he instantly shrank in his seat. However, that brought everyone's attention onto Sakuno's costume.
Including Ryoma's.
There were whispers (mostly Kikumaru and Momo's) around them and Ryoma's head was buzzing with confusion. This definitely wasn't something Ryuzaki would wear. First of all, it was black. Second, it was too short. He could just hear his father's sick voice in his head. There's no such thing as 'too short', son.
But why was she wearing it?
"Ryuzaki-chan, you have some red on your face."
Sakuno scrubbed at her face. "N-no, it's…"
Momo and Kikumaru were sending out some major "go-help-her-Ochibi" vibes. Although Ryoma hated giving in, this was just stupid.
He took one of Sakuno's braids and pulled her down gently. "Here." He used his thumb and wiped some of the red lipstick off.
Sakuno looked ready to burst into flames. Ryoma only sighed. What a troublesome girl--
Click.
Ryoma whipped around with death glares ready to launch, only to find himself staring at Tezuka, strangely suspended from the ceiling with a camera.
"Buchou?" Ryoma asked in disbelief. "Wait--" He turned slowly to the right to find his real captain bound to his seat with a Fuji mask duct-taped to his face. Everyone stared in shock (and apprehension) at the fake-Tezuka on the wall.
Fuji slipped off his Tezuka mask and smiled at his camera, apparently unaware of the evil he had just committed. "This will make a nice Christmas card."
Ryoma increased his glare-intensity. "Fuji-sempai--"
"But wait, there's more."
Fuji flung off his mask to reveal Kabaji. Of course, we all knew that, right?
Oh the horrors.
(a/n): 10/31: Happy (belated) Halloween! Sorry, I know it's a day late lol, but my internet decided not to work last night. I know this will lose that whole halloweeny-sugar-candy-high effect, but I didn't want to wait until next year to post this.
After Tezuka used his super-Buchou powers to free himself, he walked over to the Kabaji still suspended from the ceiling.
"So you're the one I've been kissing?"
"Usu."
Tezuka commanded everyone to turn away as he honestly cried.
Fuji: Now get me down from here, Tezuka.