The Hinamizawa sun was relentless. Rays like fire blared down on the pavement, casting invisible and insufferable waves from the base of the black concrete that stretched out across the schoolyard. Strong rays of light streamed in through the school's windows, which did little to shelter its inhabitants from the fever outside.
The small cluster of kids in the classroom, however, could unanimously agree that being inside was far better than taking the ravenous heat head-on. Five determined adolescents—or some just about—were determined to properly distract themselves until the clouds interfered, and it was less of a death sentence to trek their respective ways home.
Some, however, were more exuberant than others.
"Alright, team!" Sonozaki Mion addressed, hopping to her feet after a long moment of silent consideration. Her palms dug into the desk in front of her, while her seat was knocked back by the girl's sudden movement. The legs of the chair grinded against the floor tiles, commanding the attention of her friends.
"I know we had an outdoor game planned, but understandably, some of you can't handle the heat!" She cast a sly look towards the only boy in the group, slumped over his desk like a deflated balloon. A subtle shift in his demeanor was the only indication that he had heard Mion's jab, as his face was hidden—smushed into the desk, really—by his brown, shaggy tresses.
"We could play with water guns," Hōjō Satoko recommended almost autonomously, fanning herself in her seat.
Mion clicked her teeth and drew out a noise that sounded none too pleased. "I don't know. It might be more tempting to just shoot ourselves, with how the weather is," the light-haired girl rebutted. "No fun in that!"
The little blonde, as stubborn as she usually was, found herself nodding along sagely to Mion's logic, as if it hadn't been her suggestion. Mion knew Satoko's competitive nature would clash with her desire to be drenched in cold water. A water gun fight today would either leave her a winner, burnt from the sun; or a loser, drenched in water.
An obnoxious yawn, followed by the nosiy smacking of lips, wriggled out from the boy to their right.
"Kei-chan!" Mion barked, whirling towards him dramatically, her out-stretched index finger just inches from his crown. "This is no time to be sleeping on the job! We have to find a game to play!"
The boy omitted a terrible whine and lifted his head back, lips pursed in a pout and his eyes sealed shut. His arms crossed behind his head, and he rocked the chair dangerously on its two back legs.
"I'm sorry, Mion, the heat's making me drowsy," the boy, Maebara Keiichi, explained as he cracked open a drowsy, blue eye.
"Tsk!" Mion waggled her finger, disappointed. "Party pooper!"
This accusation had the brown-haired teenager shooting up in his seat, though his quick impulse to negate such a claim was quickly replaced with dogged dismissal for the sake of saving face. "Hey, don't call me a 'party pooper' when there isn't a party."
The green-haired girl opened her mouth to contravene, but a little girl sitting beside Satoko decided to interject, unfazed by the older children's banter. "How about a game of Truth or Dare?" she suggested, a smile radiating from her dimpled face with the innocence of a thousand kittens.
"Now we're getting somewhere!" the leader of the club huffed proudly, crossing her arms against her chest.
Ryūgū Rena, who had been decidedly daydreaming, snapped back to reality at the blue-haired girl's unquestionable adorableness.
"Hau, Rika-chan!" she cooed, pressing her fists to her cheeks in a lame attempt to control the urge to coddle the ten-year-old. "Let's play with the rules in my favour so I can take you all home!"
"Sorry, Rena, no handicaps!" Mion grinned, winking at the younger teen. "The rules of today's Truth or Dare are… the first one to chicken out is our loser, and the winner is the last one standing! The loser serves as the winner's slave for a whole week!"
"There's a lot on the line today," Furude Rika, the little bluenette commented with a spirited chime to her tone.
"That's right!" the older girl agreed, feeling prematurely triumphant as she offered the pre-teen a giddy thumbs-up.
It was time to get as savage as the sun.
"Rena! Truth or dare!" In the thrill of the game, Keiichi had shaken off his "sunny inertia" and gotten engrossed in the faulty nature of the day's Truth or Dare.
"Dare!" the redhead peeped.
"I dare you…" his eyes twinkled devilishly, "to not take anyone home today!"
A gasp sounded from the younger girl, who held a clenched fist to her bosom in shock.
"I… I can do it!" she declared, sounding nonplussed and incredibly unsure of herself. "U-Unless I win, of course!" Her own blue eyes seemed to glisten at this realisation. If the only way to take anyone home today was to win, then she would put every fiber of her being into it!
"Evil!" Mion grinned approvingly, her thumb to her chin.
With this new determination pumping through her, Rena turned to face the little snaggle-toothed blonde beside her. "Satoko-chan!" she blurted out, her voice quivering. "Truth or dare?"
"Truth!" Satoko lifted her chin, offering Rena a challenging, toothy grin.
"Tch, typical Satoko!" Keiichi butt in, mumbling crossly. "Dishing out dares, but too scared to handle them herself!"
Satoko puffed up at this, her thin brows furrowing. The grump didn't last for long though. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, and the lids on her crimson eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Don't mistake my strategy for cowardice, Keiichi-san!" she taunted, grinning like a wolf.
Rena, while pumped with adrenaline and ready to fight for her right to kidnap her classmates, was sinking in her chair from the dark and dreadful, creeping awareness that she wasn't quite good at coming up with questions.
"Do… you… like… when Keiichi-kun falls for your traps?"
Keiichi nearly flipped the table, jumping out of his seat.
"Of course!" Satoko grinned.
Mion snorted.
"What kind of question was that?!" The brown-haired boy exclaimed in disbelief.
"One I easily answered!" the bob-cut blonde crowed impudently. The boy would get no time to seethe over this however, as the little girl jabbed a finger at him, poking him harshly in the forehead. "Keiichi-san, I dare you… to go through that doorway!" She lifted her finger from his face and gestured towards the exit.
"Hey, I didn't even get to pick!" he cried indignantly.
"What, you were going to pick "truth" after what you said? Keiichi-san wanted to be a hypocrite?" the cheeky blonde baited, the bridge of her nose crinkling childishly as she sneered.
The sixteen year old huffed, and without a witty rebuttal, began to walk towards the door. "What the hell kind of dare is this anyway?" he scoffed over his shoulder.
"I need you to see if Nee-nee is almost back with the waters!" Satoko called, exasperated as Keiichi poked his head into the hallway.
Keiichi stomped his foot in frustration, whipping around to face her. "Do you know how to play this game?!"
Unfortunately, the true reasoning of Satoko's dare was triggered as Keiichi's foot slammed down on a wiry string, and an assortment of chalk and blackboard erasers rained down from a collapsed hidden bucket onto his head. Immediately, the boy was enveloped in a cloud of white dust, wheezing hotly as Satoko chuckled loudly and victoriously in her seat.
"Oooh-ho-ho! What happened to "people learn," Keiichi-san? That was my easiest trap yet!" Satoko cackled mercilessly, cheeks burning with laughter as she surveyed Keiichi's now powdered, milky-white face.
"Satoko!" Keiichi roared, clearing the chalk-dust from his eyes and hurrying back to the girl with clear malicious intent.
"Now, now, Keiichi-san!" Satoko smirked, glancing swiftly behind him.
THWAK! The brunet stumbled as a speedy blow was delivered to the back of his head. The boy let out a gasp of pain and immediately raised his hand to protect himself from any further swings, severely nonplussed.
Shion Sonozaki lowered her palm and wrapped her hands together neatly behind her back. "Tell me, Keiichi, what you were just about to do?" she growled innocently, her tone miraculously both singsong-y and terse.
"What? Oh, nothing." He knew better than to argue… or to even be jokingly honest, for that matter. Sonozaki Shion, Mion's twin sister, could be a real menace when she wanted to; especially regarding Satoko's wellbeing… which was just so incredibly unfair. Realistically, Keiichi would never do anything to hurt the little girl, but when the same could not be said in reverse, he felt as if the odds were really never in his favour.
"Good boy."
After a quick and highly anticipated water break, the club got back to their game, now with the addition of Shion. As the game drew on, the questions and dares became less prankish and jokey, and increasingly more lewd and cruel. After all, they could giggle all they wanted to, but eventually the sun would turn down the heat and they would be expected to go home. Mion was adamant about having a winner and a loser before dusk rolled by.
At some point, in distress, Rena had dared Keiichi to chicken out, which had stalled the group as they tried to figure out the validity of the dare. It had resulted in some rule-adjusting, and had been eventually omitted as a viable dare, but left the boy on edge.
"I dare you to leave a naughty message on the blackboard for Chie-sensei!"
"I dare you to stand outside on the blacktop without your shoes for ten seconds!"
"I dare you to let me draw raunchy things on your face with permanent marker!"
"Do you seriously kidnap people?"
"Do you still own the doll that Keiichi-kun gave you?"
"Is there anyone in class you would go on a date with?"
"I dare you to kiss Mii-chan!"
As with many games of Truth or Dare, in the thick of puberty… today's game had finally reached that point.
"What?!" Keiichi hollered, his light eyes widening.
"You heard me… nipah~." Rika's usually-cute catchphrase seemed somehow more menacing than her coy accent suggested.
"Ooh, Rika-chan, you stole my dare!" Shion cooed, her green eyes glittering with mischief.
Kei scanned the group of girls for confirmation. Surely this broke some kind of club rule?! Club-induced fraternization! It was basically treason!
He gulped noisily, feeling unusually bashful and frustrated by extension. While the girls continued to coo and cackle vulgar and accusatory insinuations and innuendos, Keiichi found himself breaking out into a cold sweat.
Mion had exclaimed something in surprise at the dare, but Keiichi wasn't sure whether it had actually been a real word or not.
Tearing his glare away from Shion, he chanced a glimpse at her sister, startled to find her looking foreignly sheepish. There weren't many instances he could recall Mion blushing so profoundly, except for when she made perverted jokes, such as the time she told the class to ask what colour Furude Hanyū's undergarments were. There was also that time an adult had seen them walking together to school and referred to them as a "cute couple…"
Rude… it had been none of their business to say that! On the upside, he'd gotten to bear witness to that elusive, red-faced Mion; the "girl" she hid under her churlish, "oji-san" exterior. He honestly liked both sides of his best friend, but… like the tongue-tied Mion, he too had moments of cold feet…
"I wouldn't mind being your boyfriend…" he had mumbled after calling Mion out on her flushed skin. But when the silence that followed became too much to bear, and the consequence of his playful confession sunk in, he had spun on his heel and told her that he had obviously been joking. He still dug his palms into his face when he looked back on it on his own, and the horrible surge of butterflies and other fairy tale junk that fluttered around in his abdomen. But Mion had said it… they were classmates; just friends who were in a club together and walked to school together.
That didn't stop him from thinking about it, though.
Sure, maybe her family was intimidating, and Mion was probably way out of his league, but… he was just a healthy, teenage boy. Who honestly could blame him?
Shion prodded his side, jerking him away from his inner monologue.
"Come on now, Keiichi... unless you're… chicken?"
His blue eyes flitted to Mion's, and he swore he could hear her heartbeat from where he was sitting. Or was that his own?
The boy swallowed another lump in his throat.
"Where?" he asked, his eyebrows twitching.
Rika cocked her head to the side like a puppy, smiling artlessly and brushing the tip of her index finger over her bottom lip.
Damn.
A kiss on the cheek he could have done, but… well, in addition to feeling incredibly uncomfortable having four pairs of wolfish, young eyes on him, he didn't… no, he didn't want to do it like this.
"You witches got me," he huffed, crossing his arms and looking away. His face felt hot, and his palms were clammy. He was in no condition to be kissing anyone, really, certainly not his best friend.
But what he had exchanged for the upkeep of his romantic pride was the dramatic loss of all the rest of it. He was now the loser of the game, and he would serve out his punishment for the rest of the week. All that was left was to see who win it all, and he'd be forced to serve under their cruel tyranny for the next seven days.
Dangerously, he stole a glance at Mion, and had to keep from physically recoiling when he –for at least a split second—saw the hurt in her lidded, emerald eyes. He frowned and looked away, his hand reaching back to wipe at the collection of heat and discomfort in his nape. He had imagined that, hadn't he?
As always, however, the girl was quick to bounce back from any kind of embarrassment, and the game moved on in rapid succession until the sky outside was spilled with dark blues and bright orange hues as the clock hit 18:00.
Rena, in her adamancy to take everyone home, had made it to the final two before Mion dared her to run through the streets indecent, and the redhead had to throw up her white flag.
"What a turn of affairs!" Shion cooed in the aftermath, grinning like a hyena between Mion and Kei. "Now you have to work for the girl you refused to kiss; justice at its finest, I say."
Keiichi growled, and Mion, to her credit, shrugged indifferently.
"Keiichi-san just needs to man-up is all," Rika purred thoughtfully, and Keiichi huffed, glaring daggers at the little girl.
Mion gave the boy a hardy slap on the back and chuckled. "It's true, Kei-chan! For a frequenter of Angel Mort, you sure are bashful!"
"A shy little pervert!" Satoko snickered, always eager to join in on the badgering.
"Sh-Shut up!" the teenager hissed, unmoving from his seat. "Why do I even hang out with you guys?"
"Club's dismissed!" Mion declared, and the children began to collect their things and clean up the mess they'd made.
"We'll have to skip out on the outfit for now, Slave." Mion feigned disappointment as she and the brown-haired boy made the trip to her house. "If my grandma sees you in a maid's outfit…" she paused to giggle boyishly, "heh, well, actually…"
Keiichi gaped. "Please, no," he whined, tilting his head back in ire. He felt spineless enough in front of that old woman, there was absolutely no need to put him in a skimpy dress and make matters worse.
The two walked in silence, leaving their footprints in the dirt road as the cicadas sang into the evening.
Shion had gone off to do some shopping, promising to be home by nightfall, and Keiichi did not look forward to seeing her. Hopefully, he'd be allowed to go home before his friend's troll of a sister made it back to the Sonozaki residence.
The twin would have plenty more to say about his loss, he knew…
He looked at Mion from the corner of his eye. The sun might have gone down, but it left a dry mug of heat in its wake that had yet to catch wind of the sun's absence. In just an hour or so, the night air would cool Hinamizawa, but… the sixteen year old's chest ached.
"Here," he said simply, thrusting out his half-full bottle of water in her direction, noticing how flushed her skin was.
"Eh?" The girl blinked, seemingly snapping out of some deep thought. She noticed the bottle and grinned, her nose crinkling playfully.
"You're quite the willing young slave," she praised loudly, the usual, spunky Mion that she was. But there was also something off about her that made his stomach knot uncomfortably.
He hoped—no, it couldn't have anything to do with earlier. He was just imagining it all; the heat was getting to his head.
The girl could have all of Hinimizawa lined up to kiss her if she so wanted, and he knew that… but it was weird to think about. He often chose not to, when he had any say over what his brain wanted to think about. Sometimes the places his mind went…
Keiichi ran his hand through his hair and refocused himself.
Mion was loud and crude, but she was also a great leader and a passionate, supportive friend. …She would probably be an awesome girlfriend.
Nevermind this whole punishment game slavery bullshit. Mion was great, but she was evil, too.
But so was he.
"So… you kept that doll, huh?" he chirped harmlessly. When he'd won it, he thought about giving it to Rena, since it seemed like something she would have liked to take home. Not exactly Mion's cup of tea. But he was glad he gave it to her, if she really had kept it.
Having not expected the silence to be broken by such a comment, the green-haired girl jumped a bit, looking cross.
"Well, why wouldn't I?" she countered with a grin, trying to regain her composure and the upper hand. "You think I'd just throw it out?"
"Just didn't take you as the kind of girl who'd be into that stuff," the boy replied nonchalantly, shrugging his arms behind his head.
Mion chuckled nervously beneath her breath, and Kei was surprised to find no witty comeback to follow suit.
"Buuuuut I saw the way you looked at it, so… you can thank me later," he assured her.
At this, the girl flicked her wrist. "Nonsense, Kei-chan! You're my slave now— you don't even have the decency of being a maid, no matter what costume I eventually get you in. You won't hear any thanks coming from me, haha!"
She laughed, and he rolled his eyes. Mion was just about as prideful as he was, maybe even more so.
The two arrived at the massive Sonozaki estate before the sun went down, leaving Mion idling at the doorway.
"Thanks for walking me home, Slave," she grinned, but quickly bit down on her tongue. She slapped her hand over her mouth, and the boy fired his finger-guns. "I'm just too much of a nice person." The Sonozaki heiress sighed, as if such simple kindness was exhausting. Brushing back a strand of hair behind her ear, she offered Kei the cheeky, impish smile he had come to know all too well.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then," Keiichi waved, beginning to head back towards the road.
"Whoa, gutsy move! Since when do slaves dismiss themselves?" the green-haired girl purred wickedly.
He stopped in his tracks, turning around with a grimace.
"Let me at least you some water before you walk home, eh, Kei-chan?" She smiled and disappeared inside. Keiichi felt himself being carried back towards the door through autonomous strides. His own lips seemed to contort into some kind of smirk, because he knew Mion could be ruthless, but she also cared too much to seriously push anyone.
She returned with a glass of ice water, and Keiichi had to quickly wipe a small dribble of drool.
"Can't let you get out of this slave pact by melting on your way home," the girl announced as she handed it over. Kei chugged it down quickly, sighing in euphoria as the cold liquid rushed down his throat.
Choosing to ignore the tongue-in-cheek remark, he thrust the empty glass back into her hands.
"See you tomorrow, Kei-chan. Hope you're ready to carry two backpacks!"
So those of you revisiting this silly little one-shot after, what... 7 years? Wow. I rediscovered this account and gave it a proper rewrite! I hope the difference from 2009-to-2016 literature is quite obvious... ^^
Though, again, it's been a little under a decade, but I hope I was able to keep most characters true to form! I forgot a lot of what they called each other... I remember they all had their own special nicknames... so excuse me if I mixed up any! I tried to watch some clips (void of murder, because as I've grown up my gut's gotten a little softer... so watching children now younger than I getting tortured... I just want these damn kids to be happy, haha) but YouTube didn't have a whole lot for me to go off of.
Anyway, I don't think I'll be continuing this unless I am struck by inspiration-lightning, or if reviews heavily demand I do so? ;p Keeping in mind the first 14 were based on the old version I wrote when I was a young teenager.
Thanks for reading!