Ok! I finally figured out a little ditty to connect the two chapters. Hopefully it works alright for everyone.
kazuki: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you like this story so far. Although…I'm not sure how much you'll like this chapter…You'll see why later.
Summer turned to autumn, and the leaves changed colors. The trees were covered with beautiful reds, oranges, golds, browns, and deep purples. But as time goes on, the leaves begin to fall. Unfortunately on this fall day, the connection between two friends would become as tenuous as those of the autumn leaves. It was a day that started with a surprising meeting.
"Hello, Hino-san," Azuma smiled as he met her in the hallway. "It's a lovely, autumn day, isn't it? The leaves have turned nicely this year."
"Yu-Yunoki-senpai! Uh, hello…yes, I guess they have." She paused for a second. "Umm…if you don't mind my asking, what brings you to the General Studies wing?"
"I came here to see you," he responded smoothly.
"Oh…uh…why?" she asked nervously.
"I was wondering if you have some time to spare after school. I have a little favor to ask of you, from the Student Council, actually."
"Oh…umm, I guess I can help you."
"Wonderful, then please meet me in front of the orchestra room."
- ( 9 - 9 ) -
"So we need to help set up for a concert?" Kahoko asked, handing Azuma another prepped poster for hanging.
"Yes, the Music Department puts on a concert and exhibition for the public a couple times a year. Usually it's held before summer vacation, but because of the concours, it was delayed until after the vacation. The school-wide concours is such a rare event after all."
"I see…Here's another one, Yunoki-senpai…"
"Hey" Ryoutaro called out in greeting. "Yunoki-senpai, Hino, why're you hanging up posters?" he asked as he strolled up.
"Ah! Tsuchiura-kun! Hello! How are you?" Kahoko smiled at her fellow General Studies Department student and former concours participant.
"We're hanging posters to advertise the Music Department's semi-annual concert and exhibition," Azuma replied.
"I think I remember hearing something about that. Do you need any help?" Ryoutaro gave Kahoko a sidelong glance, which she didn't notice.
"No, I think we have it under control," Azuma responded smoothly. He had seen the look Ryoutaro gave Kahoko, and had no intention of letting Ryoutaro cut into his time with Kahoko.
However, fate had other ideas.
"Yu-Yunoki-sama!" a girl shrieked, rounding the corner. "I've been looking all over for you!"
"What is it?" Azuma turned with a concerned look, waiting patiently as the girl panted, gasping for breath.
"The" *pant* "The copier!" *pant* "It's going spastic! The machine is violently spewing smeared papers all over the room! I…I think Makino-san did something to it! At this rate, we won't be able to get out the practice schedules and room assignments for the exhibition in time!"
"How annoying…and what timing too. Well, as much as I don't want to leave them alone together, duty calls. I can't force Kahoko to wait for me in front of these two…" Turning to Ryoutaro, he bowed graciously and requested that he help Kahoko hang up the rest of the fliers. He left with the girl, leaving the pair alone.
"That sounds like quite a mess in the copy room." Kahoko shook her head, placing some tape on the back of a poster. "I'm amazed that a fiasco like that is possible!"
Ryoutaro shrugged, reaching up to hang another poster. "Who knows…admittedly though, that machine is getting kind of old, maybe something just shorted."
They laughed and continued to hang posters. When they had finished, he accompanied her back to the orchestra room to pick up her things.
"Excuse me for interrupting!" they both called as they swung open the door to the Orchestra room, having heard noises coming from inside.
"Kaho-chan! Tsuchiura! What're you two doing here?" Kazuki asked cheerfully, putting down the chairs he had been carrying.
"I left some things here earlier when I was helping Yunoki-senpai with some Student Council stuff, so I wanted to pick them up," Kahoko explained.
"Sounds good. Oh, hey, Tsuchiura, do you mind giving me a hand with these chairs?" Kazuki motioned to the stacks of chairs around the room. "I need to stack them against that wall over there."
"Of course, Hihara-senpai," Ryoutaro responded, picking up the closest stack and walking toward the far wall.
Kahoko smiled and turned to grab her bag and violin from their perch on the counter. "Huh?" she looked at the counter in confusion. Her bag was resting where she had left it, but her violin was gone!
"Calm down, Kahoko," she thought. "Maybe it's around here somewhere." But after searching high and low all over the room, she still couldn't find any trace of her violin.
"What's wrong, Kaho-chan?" Kazuki came up behind her with Ryoutaro following behind.
She bit her lip in distress. "I can't find my violin anywhere!"
"What? That's terrible! Where did you last leave it?" he yelped.
"I left it over on that counter near my bag, but when I looked, it wasn't there."
"Are you sure?" Ryoutaro asked. "Did you check the cabinets underneath, maybe it got put away by mistake?" He walked over and checked the cabinets. Turning to report a negative, he frowned suddenly. "Hihara-senpai, what's wrong?"
"Huh?" Kahoko turned and saw that all color had drained out of Kazuki's face as he stared at the counter in horror. "Hihara-senpai…?" She waved her hand in front of his face to get his attention.
When he came to, he faced her, trepidation filling his eyes. "Are…Are you absolutely sure that you put your violin case there?" he squeaked weakly.
Kahoko nodded, looking both concerned and confused at the same time.
He walked over to the piano bench and slumped down on it, holding his head in his hands. "What have I done? What have I done?" he moaned over and over. When he finally looked up at Kahoko, a pained look crossed his face. "Kaho-chan…It's gone…I'm so sorry…"
She blinked at him, not understanding. "What does he mean that it's gone?"
Ryoutaro lifted Kazuki up by his shirt angrily. "What do you mean, it's gone? How can it be gone? What did you do?"
Kazuki didn't even struggle, his shame was so great. "I…It was a mistake…I didn't realize that it wasn't for the instrument donation drive…"
"Instrument…donation…drive…?" she murmured, still not understanding what was happening.
"Every year around the time of the Music Department's exhibition, the Orchestra Club holds an instrument donation drive. People bring in broken instruments that they either can't afford to fix or just instruments that they don't use anymore, and donate them. The instruments get sent to various schools around the country for kids that want to learn music, but can't afford to have instruments…If they're broken, the company assesses whether it is worth it to repair the instrument or buy a new one, before sending it to the school…" He miserably met her eyes. "Today was the very last day for collection, and you accidentally placed your violin really close to the spot where all the other instruments for the drive were. I…I thought that it was for the drive, so I grabbed it and shipped it off with the rest of them…"
Kahoko's face blanched, understanding finally shining through the fog in her head.
"The truck came a couple of hours ago…They're probably long gone by now…" He got on the floor and bowed deeply. "I'm so sorry Kaho-chan! I've done an abominable thing!"
"My violin…is gone…?" she whispered, a sharp ache filling her heart.
"I'm so sorry!"
"Hey…there's…there's got to be a way to get it back right?" Ryoutaro asked slightly frantically. "It's not like we can't get it back…"
Kahoko looked at Kazuki in hope.
The hope in her eyes ripped Kazuki to shreds. He couldn't give her the answer she wanted. "I…I don't know if there's anything we can do…The truck has already made the delivery by now, and they may be getting packaged for shipping to who-knows-where as we speak…"
"No…!" she whimpered, tears cascading down her face as the last hope she held of getting her violin back disappeared. She fled from the room, sobbing her anguish.
"K-Kaho-chan!" Kazuki cried as he ran out the door after her.
She quickened her pace at the sound of his voice.
Just as he was about to speed up as well, he was immediately stopped. "L-let go of my arm Tsuchiura! I need to make sure she's ok!"
Hotly Ryoutaro replied, his eyes flashing in anger, "After what you did, do you have any right to talk to her?"
"But…But…it was an acci-" Kazuki started to protest, straining against Ryoutaro's vice grip on his arm.
"Do you think that just because it's an accident you're absolved of all guilt?" Ryoutaro cut him off. He fixed him with a firm, forceful look. "She doesn't want to talk to you. After what you've done, there's no way she'll listen to anything you say now anyway."
Kazuki stopped struggling, watching the hall door in agony. "He's right…I can't deny anything he's said," he thought.
Ryoutaro dropped Kazuki's arm in disgust. "I'm going to see if I can find her." He stormed down the hallway.
"He's right…" Kazuki thought dismally, looking at the ground in utter defeat. "There's no way…she'll listen…to anything…I say now…"
Poor Kazuki! I'm sorry you had to go through this, although I did warn you at the beginning of the chapter. But still!
So there is another Kitchen Princess scene in this story and that is…where Sora betrays Najika's trust and she runs off. Then when Sora tries to get a hold of her, Daichi tells him to get away from her because he hurt her. And when Sora says that he didn't mean to, Daichi scoffs and says that Najika won't listen to anything he says. So basically…that last scene right now.
The hardest part of this chapter for me was trying to figure out what in the world Kazuki could do on accident that would make Kahoko upset enough to not want to talk to him. Eventually, I thought of this. Losing her violin would be the most traumatic thing for her, minus killing a family member or something, which I refused to do.
Ryoutaro kind of reminds me of Daichi, so he was cast in Daichi's role, while Azuma was there mostly to provide a reason for why Kahoko didn't have her violin with her. After all, it would be difficult to do things like hang posters if you had to carry around a violin. And last but not least, I mentioned a Makino-san who messed up the copier. Her name came from Tsukushi Makino from Hana Yori Dango.
In the next chapter, will Kazuki be able to fix the situation?
Please review! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
