Going Viral
Chapter One –The Depression of Discovery
'Twas a very nice afternoon at Ouran Academy. Just kidding, there were grey clouds above, and it looked close to raining. But anyway, the twins were singing, and (in his own opinion) the Host Club King Tamaki was shining.
This is purely metaphoric, might I add.
"Hey, Kyoya! Why don't we do a Death Note cosplay? Haruhi would make an adorable little Misa-Misa!" the supposedly shining Tamaki suggested enthusiastically, his eyes alight with childish joy.
"Realistically, you would make a better Misa and she Light Yagami, albeit without the murderous tendencies. And what would the rest of us be? There are hardly enough relevant characters, really," Kyoya reasoned.
"Alright then how about… Black Cat? You could be the creepy doctor dude, Haruhi can be that Saya person, and Honey-Senpai can be Train as a kid!"
"No. Absolutely not."
"But why not?"
"Just because we have the same voice actors doesn't mean that we should cosplay as them." Kyoya scolded, rolling his eyes.
"Fine then! How about Final Fantasy? We haven't done that yet and there are plenty of characters to choose from!" Tamaki hit his palm with his fist, looking triumphant. "Yes! That's perfect!"
"Alright then, I really can't see any reason not to, so we can do Final Fantasy cosplay sometime next week." Kyoya sighed, looking through that week's profits and expenses. "But we'll have to tone down the other cosplay that week, since Final Fantasy cosplay isn't the cheapest there is."
And so went the conversation.
Meanwhile, over on the other side of the room, Honey sat eating cake while Mori accompanied him. Okay, moving on. Near to where they were, the twins were dancing around in the Pirate cosplay they had worn, and thoroughly enjoyed that day. The incestuous pirate twins had been a big hit, somehow, despite the fact that they were talking in pirate slang most of the time.
And then there was Haruhi, who was sitting on the windowsill, staring out at nothing in particular, which was odd for Haruhi, who would generally be studying during the time in-between Hosting sessions. Tamaki was of course, the first to notice Haruhi's difference in habit, and the only one to overreact about it.
"Hey Kyoya… I'm worried about Haruhi; she's been all sad today. She didn't participate much in club activities today, and-"
"If you want to know what's wrong, why don't you go and ask her yourself?" Kyoya said irritably.
"I-I don't want to upset her!"
Kyoya (wisely) chose to ignore him.
Instead, Tamaki went to the twins for consolation.
"Kaoru, Hikaru, you're in Haruhi's class. Why is she acting all…" he glanced over at her. "…all depressed-like!"
They shrugged. "We don't know," said Hikaru.
"She's been like that all day," said Kaoru.
"And why did you not tell me!" Tamaki hissed.
The twins resumed their dance, saying in unison, "Didn't think it was relevant."
"Yeah, maybe she-"
"-Caught some kind of cold or flu-"
"-Or a terminal illness-"
"-Or a deadly virus-"
"OKAY! OKAY! ENOUGH!" Tamaki cried, throwing his hands over his ears. The room went quiet and everyone turned to stare at him. At that very instant, it started to rain. Haruhi slid down from the windowsill and mumbled something about leaving her books somewhere. Tamaki's eyes followed her all the way to the door.
"Well, if you want to find out what's wrong," said a voice in Tamaki's ear.
"Then now's your chance!" said a similar voice in the other ear.
"Kaoru, Hikaru," Tamaki said. "Will you kindly stop pretending to be my conscience?"
Nevertheless, Tamaki followed Haruhi through the large double doors. When he didn't see her anywhere nearby, he tried to think of some of the most likely places she would go. Her class, 1-A? No, the chess club used that class to practice, and Haruhi was no good at chess. So maybe… the first-year library? It was huge, and the book club only used a small part of it for their meetings.
And so he set off for the library at a run. He reached it just in time to see a small foot, clad in a shiny black Ouran shoe, disappear through the door. He quickly slipped in after the mysterious foot, and looked around to see the same foot disappear behind a bookshelf. He followed it again. But as he emerged around the corner he had seen the foot disappearing around last, he saw Haruhi sitting on the floor, bent over a book, her back to him. He looked at her foot. Yep, it was the same foot he had seen. Wait, it wasn't the foot he was after, it was Haruhi, so why did it matter to him whether it was the same foot or not! Why did it even matter to write this? Moving on…!
"Haruhi…" he said quietly. Haruhi jumped and whipped around, slamming the book shut and attempting to shove it under the bookcase.
"Senpai! What are you doing here?" she gasped, flustered.
"I could ask you the same question! What's wrong with you today?" Tamaki questioned, taking a step towards her.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Haruhi insisted defiantly.
"Haruhi!" Tamaki repeated, kneeling down in front of her, staring into her eyes as if trying to read her mind to find out what was wrong. "You can tell me if something's bugging you. Is it those shady twins giving you a hard time?"
Haruhi sighed. "It's not the twins. It's nothing that concerns you, okay? I just… don't feel well, I guess. I think I might go home. Tell Kyoya for me, if you want to help." She got up to walk away, and as she did, Tamaki caught a glimpse of the title of the book Haruhi had tried to shove under the bookcase; Viral Weaponry in the 20th C. The rest of the title was cut off, but Tamaki could guess what it said. He leapt up and grabbed Haruhi's wrist as she tried to run away.
"Let go of me, Senpai," she said calmly, but firmly.
Tamaki tried to ignore the assertion in her voice, and he shook his head defiantly. "Not until you tell me what's going on! Haruhi, why are you looking up viral weaponry?"
Haruhi's tensed arm went limp under Tamaki's fingers as she resumed the dejected posture she had been assuming that whole day. She didn't say anything.
"Haruhi…" Tamaki said once again. She turned to face him; a single tear track glistened on her cheek. Tamaki's eyes widened as she spoke in a cracked voice.
"Because… my mother…"
Tamaki didn't say anything else as he pulled Haruhi into a comforting hug. "I understand," he said softly.
"No…" Haruhi said into Tamaki's chest. "This is different. I found out… she was…" she whispered the last word, "murdered."
Tamaki froze, but then pulled away from Haruhi to hold her at arm's length. "I thought she died of a sickness?"
"She did," Haruhi confirmed blankly, looking at the book sticking out from under the shelf.
Tamaki understood; she had been killed by a viral weapon. He let his hands fall from Haruhi's shoulders, and sank to the floor. "How," he said simply, "how do you know?"
Haruhi sat down next to him. "We were given an assignment to research a relevant murder trial. Mum was a lawyer, as you know, and I knew she'd been involved in a few murder cases before. Dad doesn't usually let me look at her old case files, but he's hardly at home, so it wasn't hard to find the box.
"It was her last case. Her client was the family of the first victim of a new viral weapon created by a diagnosis specialist. They were trying to sue the hospital for letting it happen. To begin with, the patient had been diagnosed with an unknown form of brain cancer. According to witnesses from the hospital, the diagnosis specialist had taken samples of the tumor, and mutated the disease with pneumonia."
"That's-!" started Tamaki.
"Horrible, I know," said Haruhi, before she continued. "The new virus was given to the patient as a supposed medicine, but the next day, the patient died. I'm guessing this was just a test for the diagnosis specialist, but as he was tracked down, the two witnesses both died a fortnight after giving testimony. They brought in the diagnosis specialist, and after a few court sessions, during which the doctor pleaded not guilty, mum proved that he was guilty. She got paid a lot for that case, as a prosecution lawyer."
"So what happened to the doctor?" Tamaki inquired meekly.
"He got the death penalty, according to mum's old files. The thing is, after the sentence was made, and a background check was performed, they discovered that the doctor's fiancée was actually a sadistic mass murder who developed different ways of killing. Obviously, that's why the viral weapon had been produced. It wasn't very contagious, but it was still a slow, painful, and virtually undetectable method of murder. Victims continued to die of the virus even after the creator's prosecution."
Tamaki's eyes widened. "You mean…"
"Yeah. My own mother… was the first victim after the trials ended. She died sixteen days after the case was concluded."
"Haruhi…" Tamaki whispered, his voice thick with emotion as he turned to look at her. She was staring straight ahead, blinking furiously at the tears that rolled freely down her cheeks.
Tamaki felt his own eyes well up as he gently pulled her close again, and she sobbed into his chest.
A/N: It's short. I know. I'm not incredibly proud of that, but what can I do? I knew where I wanted to end the chapter, and ran out of things to say.
Not to mention the fact that I still need to settle into the characters, setting, and plot. After that, the chapters are guaranteed to grow in length. Considerably.
But the sci-fi kinda stuff is right up my alley, I could write about it for hours, seriously, so you KNOW the chapters will get longer once we get into the thick of it.
Believe it or not, the original idea that I had is in this whole chapter. Yep. The whole thing. Pretty cool, huh? But don't worry, after writing this I've gotten loads more ideas. :3
Please review to let me know anything I need to work on, or any good points, or any absolutely terrible points. Even if it's ridiculously terrible, review to tell me that, before I cause any more damage!
Arigatou Gozaimasu!
- Silver
