Friday . February 27, 2015


Sket Dance is a Japanese anime and manga series written and illustrated by Kenta Shinohara.

" That's Not My Name! "
Call me Sunako Nakahara.

D I N G

"And now." Hand up towards the elevator doors, doing an abrupt finger flick as one would when motioning an Abra-Cadabra Hocus Pocus trick – or what one messy eater would do to rid their hand of sticky rice – what the elevator doors did after doing so was... Nothing.

"And now." And another five finger flick of her hands. This time with shoulders slunched up.. and with the last split-second creepy-wiggle of her fingers in an after-thought for added effect. (Dramatic effects or what have you.) And what the doors did this time was... Still nothing.

"And n- " Elevator doors all of a sudden opened. " –nnooowwww.." The look of mock concentration on her face quickly turned sour. Reiko sighed. Slowly, she stood up. Straight and tall in her full 5-foot 8-and-a-half height, green lips in a pout, she growled at the glass lift. "You know what, doors? You should have opened the moment that DING dinged-ed." She stepped out, huffing.

About a hundred or two people her age were there. Or maybe nearly three hundred people? She was not a good guesser. A third of the people there were familiar faces. Most of those familiar faces were her friends. Some there she couldn't decide if they were familiar or not. The others, she had no idea who they were.

And the rest, she knew.

The Rest were different and separate from the Familiar Faces.

The Rest, more or less twenty people, she knew and have hung out with since April last year.

The Rest were her closer friends. They were the ones whose eyes lit in happy recognition at the sight of her walking out of the elevator. They were the only friends who she had shown her little After-Graduation make-over to.

She didn't care if all her other old High School classmates saw and knew who she was. It didn't matter to her. She hadn't been trying to hide it from anyone anyway. Most of her classmate just hadn't kept in touch after High School. Those that she managed to stay in contact with had seen her change of appearance and that was all.

...Oh. It seemed there were way more people there than she first thought. Probably a thousand more. They were on the lower front side half of the building. Reiko almost missed them. She guessed they were friends, and-or families, of The-Familiars and Probably Familiar people there.

While only part of the familiar faces, and the faces she couldn't tell if they were familiar to her or not, thought she look familiar to them, everyone else totally had no clue who she was.

Not much happened in the first week of summer vacation. June was hot and longer day-ed. Reiko Yuuki was happy to have stayed locked up in her room until the two weeks of summer break was up and she had to go back to University.

But her friends in the occult club during High School flew in and drove hours from out of town just to spend their last week of vacation with her. After all, they haven't seen her in over a year. Even old friends who haven't seen her since Middle School came too.

Both old and older friend of hers had gotten to know each other online and were now sending each other text messages.

They all agreed on what day to come see her, which was on the start of the second week of break.

She told them she would have her alone time - pretty much needed it - with Josephine, Hiroshi, and Akira for at least a week before hanging out with any of them. The three were her skeleton and atonomical friends Of Darkness. For eight days, she had been watching horror movies in her dark room Of Darkness with them. And did other dark things in the dark, whatever creatures Of the Dark did, away from the light where it was lightless. Exactly like the Dark creatures liked.. With no light.

In short, she was an introvert obsessed with horror.

Reiko had only taken a few steps before she was tackled from all sides. All except the backside. The weight of multiple peeps speedy jumping right at her knocked her backwards off her feet. Back into the 20x20x10-sized waiting room elevator with its own coffee table, sofas, and reading magazines.

Five not-so-complete strangers were practically on her.

For a moment.

Soon after hearing running footsteps, the elevator vibrating from several pounding feet, the five people who had glomped her were plucked off of her body one by one, unceremoniously tossed and shoved off to the side.

Replacing the five were six others - two gorgeous ladies and four eye blinding radiant prettyboys - group hugging her with her still flat on her back. Confusion was clearly on her face.

D I N G

The elevator doors closed.

There were only two floors in this MANSION – the top floor and the underground. Actually, manymany-many other floors were there. But only two of the floors the elevator was able to go to. Which was why only [Up] and [Down] buttons were there instead of manymany-many numbered floor buttons. The reason why the elevator was made to be like a waiting room was because it took several minutes to reach the underground.

The top floor was THE-EFFIN-ENTRANCE to The MANSION. The MANSION's entrance was as big as the Tokyo Dome, empty of anything except the two plant pots on either side of the building each the size of a two-story house with a couple giant trees in both pots as the house plants. There was a rug placed in the middle of the building. The rug was the length and width of a gymnasium.

One could actually misplace their shoe if that one left their shoe randomly lying anywhere in the entrance building.

While that whole thing right there was the freakin entrance to The MANSION alone, the underground was the "main living area" of the actual home.

The MANSION was complete with pretty much everything. The underground was as big as the town above ground itself.

There were streets. It had its own Police Station. Grocery stores and a shopping mall. Field, farm, cars, trains, horse-drawn carriages, and motorcycles. Houses and apartments and other tall buildings for the seven hundred servants and the families of those servants. A lake and other trees and plants here and there.

There were schools too for young kids and adults –a good thing because it usually took over an hour ..nearly two hours.. sometimes even longer traveling by either car, bus, or train to get to the elevator, reach the above ground entrance, go through security, and get to the nearest Elementary, Middle School, High School, or University outside the Tokyo Dome sized MANSION entrance of the Unyuu family.

There were actually quite a bit of kids and teens living in The MANSION's underground who have never step foot on the elevator that connected those undergrounder livers to the above ground civilization.

Mimori Unyuu, daughter of the owner of the Unyuu MANSION, went to school above ground. She had been taking the helicopter to get to school since she was twelve years old.

The only thing The MANSION didn't have was an airport. The underground of The MANSION even had an artificial sun and weather system! Yes. The place had its own sky.

Crazy.

D I N G

…wait for it.

Wait for it.

Wait f-

The elevator doors opened.

Hime Onizuka was grumbling as she walked inside the elevator waiting room. "Jeez. These elevator doors!" Known as the legendary Onihime during Middle School, and then as Himeko in High School, she was now called Onihimeko. University life was different. Somehow, meeting new people in a new school always ends up with Hime having a new nickname.

The now Onihimeko couldn't help but flinch as she saw five people lying in uncomfortable positions, simultaneously get up and jump on the heap of people on the floor. Many grunts and groans were heard. She frowned. Shaking her head, she grabbed the closest person on the pile. The person she grabbed held on tight to someone. That someone grabbed on to somebody else. And so on.

But the last person on Reiko didn't know what was going on. The person didn't hold on to Reiko tight enough.

Even with only one hand, Onihimeko's legendary strength pulled the weight of eleven people off of Reiko easy. They were all dumped a few feet away.

Reiko blinked.

Reiko screamed, slowly sitting up. A huge grin was on her face suddenly. She mental thanked Onihimeko for pulling everyone off of her.

"Thank you," she thanked her friend out loud, but this Thank You this time was for Onihimeko side stepping out of the way right when Reiko jumped up. Reiko then threw herself on the tangled stack of flesh that had surprise-pounced her. "I missed you guys! Long time no see!"

Not so hurriedly, she calmedlyly, practically lazily-like, stood and helped everyone up.

Those whose bodies were twisted painfully into positions that would make even the most advanced yoga posers wince in pain glared at Reiko for taking her sweet time.

D I N G

The elevator doors cl-

D I N G

-closing only halfway, the elevator doors opened up again.

In came eleven more people.

Onihimeko shouted, "Close the door! No more people come in here! It's getting crowded!"

D I N G

The elevator doors closed.

A perpetual bright smile on while her boobies crazy-bounced about unrealistically, Mimori Unyuu, the RICH girl throwing the party at the Unyuu MANSION entrance that day asked, "What is going on here? Is everything alright?" She patiently watched the beautiful people on the floor. She stood there without making a face like Reiko, Hime, and the others she came in with did when they watched the pretty looking strangers before them pop and crack their bodies back to rightness feeling.

D I N G

" ...one potato. Two potatoes.
Three potatoes. Four..
Five pota-
"

The elevator doors opened.

Onihimeko threw her hand in the air, exasperated. "Really now? Come on! No more people," she snarled at the… Oh.

At the bewildered faces of her two mostest best friends back in High School. It'd been fourteen months since she'd last seen these two goofballs. Eyes dramatically tearing, she tackle hugged them both. "Bossun! Switch!" she cried out their nicknames. Their real names were Yuusuke Fujisaki and Kazuyoshi Usui.

But the two guys were not the real Yuusuke Fujisaki and Kazuyoshi Usui. They were not the Bossun and Switch, the only two other members of the club she had been with in High School.

"Hime…"

Onihimeko jerked back. Bossun never called her by her first name. He always called her Himeko. Were they calling each other by first names now?

Now that she had a closer look at him, right away she realized something.

He wasn't who she thought he was. His eyes were still his eyes. This young man had Bossun's eyes.. But his lashes were longer then it usually was. There was only one other person with Bossun's face and that other person had been calling her Hime.

"Sasuke," she greeted dryly.

Sasuke Tsubaki nodded.

The shy look of Oppsies on her face made the others in the room chuckle. "It was your eyes. I'm sorry. You look so much like Bossun today. Your hair is longer and your eyes aren't so sharp and severe. Did you change your eye contacts?" She faced Switch when he patted her on the back. She let go of him and stated the obvious. "Switch. You're smiling. Goofily. What's been going right and great for ya? You're usually expressionless."

The not-Switch guy nodded. He gave her a smile with Kazuyoshi's face.. even though he wasn't Kazuyoshi.

But she didn't know that yet...

Switch's look-a-like shrugged. His amused smile suddenly changed into a more apologetic one. "By the way, I'm not Kazuyoshi."

..Until now. Now she knew the guy wasn't Switch. Who else, but Switch, had Switch's face? Her silent question was soon answered.

"I'm his twin brother. Not long lost. He knows about me. We just rarely see each other. Complicated family issue. Drama drama." Scanning the faces of everyone inside the elevator, he wondered, "So~ What's happening? This a private party?" He bounced. "Ooh! Can I join?"

More than half the people in that elevator were staring at him. They couldn't believe what this dude with Switch's face was saying. More twins separated? That's two of the three Sket Dance club members separated from their twin growing up. Ha! Now all that's left would be for Onihimeko to fess up out of the blue that she in fact had a twinsy out there too.

Reiko giggled. "Hey, Hime! Maybe you also have a long lost twin somewhere!" Everyone laughed with her.

Hime Onizuka was quiet. Should she tell them? She didn't really feel like telling them. While at the same time she wanted to. They might ask a lot of questions and she wasn't sure exactly if she was up to answering any of it just quite yet. But out she blurted without thinking. "I do, actually." Her eyes widened in surprise as the words flew out of her mouth and she wasn't able to stop herself.

Half the people there laughed.

Some didn't react in any way.

And the few who saw her face had the same look on their eyes as she did.

D I N G

The elevator doors closed.

A quiet figure had been standing at the corner of the elevator the whole time.

Nobody seemed to notice him. He wasn't hiding. He wasn't shrunk back trying to take up the least space as he possibly could manage. He was just there, looking casual, leaning back against the corner wall there with his legs crossed and his hands in his pant pockets. The guy was the first one in that movingroom. He was there way before Reiko used it to get from the underground town to the above ground MANSION entrance building. He had been invited to the party there that day, but with the heavy security around the place, nothing too interesting happened. Like almost all the guest seemed too afraid to let loose and party wild.

Few minutes after showing up to the party, (the dude was from above ground in another town) he hid himself in what he thought was some kind of relaxing room with calming tunes being played on the speakers within the walls. It was a shock when he all of a sudden felt the room move. Several long minutes after, he heard the door he came through open up. He was hecka confused seeing a beautiful lady walking right in with a freakin street just outside the – he then guessed were the elevator doors – right behind her.

Insane.

That room was an elevator. It was bigger than the tiny-house-living he lived in with his Dark Lord, Satan and their annoying friend, Lucifer.

And a freakin town underground?

Freaky.

He also heard from a neighbor friend's second cousin once removed, who was classmates with Mimori Unyuu back in freshmen High School, that that BUILDING with an army of butlers and maids and security guards was just the house entrance of The MANSION.

What.

He's not sure if not being noticed at all was any better, less so, or as bad as if they all had seen him there but had easily forgotten his existence.

Wow.

Stepping into that movingroom was the best idea. He enjoyed watching all of the people tha's come in there. It was way more fun than where the "real party" was at.

Probably a minute after this Hime girl blurted out she actually had a twin there was an awkward silence all around before she told them in a most convincing smile that she was just kidding, laughing because of some of their faces...

The guy felt she was kidding about kidding-about, and that she really did have a twin. He was pretty sure the others were feeling and thinking the same - each sure that everyone else was also thinking the same and feeling about everybody else around them thinking the same. And they were all thinking they all were sure she was sure she knew what they were all thinking.

Nobody said anything about it though.

When the Hime girl hit a button next to the door, she suggested going to Reiko's place.

The lone-last-wheeler guy decided he would go too, hoping it would be okay. Although he still wasn't trying to go unnoticed, part of him hoped he would go unnoticed as he tagged along.. But if, and only if, someone did finally take notice of him, he would simply ask if it was okay to go along with them. They looked like nice chill people. They probably wouldn't mind.

But they did mind. The guy was wrong when he thought no one saw him. It only seemed like nobody noticed him. But really, they were actually doing an awesome job of ignoring him. They were uneasy about him following them.

One of Reiko's long-time-no-see friend wrapped an arm around her head and brought her ear close to the friend's mouth. The friend whispered, "That ghost is following us. Do you really want that thing going to your place?"

There was no need to read between the lines and-or guess what the friend meant by .:ghost:.

What the ignored guy didn't know was that he'd been dead for a couple hours now. Right when he went through security, his body had collapsed. The Unyuu family doctor said he had a heart attack. The dude wasn't able to be revived. The doctor advised everyone to ignore the spirit of the dead man when they see him. He might get attached and if that ever happened, the Unyuu MANSION family and staff cannot guarantee they can fix that problem.

Reiko shrugged. "I don't mind."

The friend rolled her eyes at her. "You're maybe the only here who doesn't."

That was true.

...


Ghosts? They exist? Does the real Kazuyoshi Usui "Switch" know this? Who are Reiko's old friends? Who are all the other people in that elevator? What has everyone been up to these fourteen months? Where are the real Bossun and Switch? Are they going to show up at Mimori's party?

We'll see in later chapters!

xDxD

Thank You for reading! Peace!