Author's Note: Hello everyone! Here is chapter 3 of 'Secret of the New Host!' and introductions are over! And I finally updated in less than a month! HOORAH! But unfortunately you shouldn't expect the updates to as frequent as this one with the longer chapters :( (Take a look at the time gap between the posting of the first and second chapters, for example) Still, I'll keep trying my best to finish it! For every one of my stories- even the unpopular ones that don't gain much attention! ANYWAY: It's time for things to move along, no? So this chapter will be mainly focusing on a continuation of Kyoya's thoughts from the end of the first chapter. (And did anyone seriously get Tamaki's so-called "attempt" at a Yoda impression in the end of the previous chapter? Or did it just go by unnoticed?!)
Also, I've decided on what month of the year this is set in, and where it is in relation to the cannon storylines of Soul Eater and Ouran. Be aware though, that the cannon universes of Soul Eater and Ouran will both be the cannons of the animes, not either of the mangas.
I looked up some of the characters on the Soul Eater wiki so see if there were any clues as to their exact ages. There are no explicit statements that name their exact age, but at the start of the manga (and thus the start of the anime because the anime started off following the manga but then diverted around episode 31 or so), most of the main seven appear to be thirteen years old (although, there is the possibility that Tsubaki and Liz are fourteen at the start, but there's very little confirmed evidence in the anime or manga pointing to that suggestion, so I'm going to keep them at the same age as the others in this fanfic because of the lack of evidence to prove that they're a year older). The main cast are about the same age, and in the anime, Black Star is said to have been but a young infant when his clan was wiped out THIRTEEN years ago, thus suggesting he would be thirteen and so would the rest of the group.
Also, it was explicitly stated in the part of the story with the Runaway Express Train in the Sahara (that's episode 30 in the anime) that the EXACT DATE the Kishin was revived was the first of April.
(Oh, the irony. So here is a little cracky extra to the chapter -on How the Kishin Revival Should Have Ended- which I would normally put at the end Author's Note, but if this one was, it would lose its context.
*Curtains part*
Maka and Soul: *Walk onto stage* BU-PA-DAAAA!~
Soul: *Sings it badly in an intentional mocking*
Maka: Maka CHOP!
BAAAAAWN
*Maka and Soul exit stage*
"April Fools."
Medusa: Mwahahahaha! I have an ingenious plan! We are going to trap the whole student and faculty bodies, AND the headmaster of Shibusen in a dimensionally-isolated magic cube surrounding the hall room in one of the towers and take the chance to totally trash Death City the sh** up in flames as well as revive one of the most powerful demons in the world!
Everyone in the room including Lord Death: . . . . . . . . . . *Give her "Don't try! We'll stop you!" glares*
Medusa: . . . APRIL FOOLS!
NOT LONG LATER: *Whole student and faculty bodies AND headmaster of Shibusen (minus the main group that were out stopping what Lord Death couldn't be there to stop) are trapped in a dimensionally-isolated cube surrounding the hall room of one of the towers whilst the Mizune sisters are taking the chance to totally trash Death City the sh** up in flames while Medusa, Eruka and Free revive one of the most powerful demons in the world*
Medusa: BEHOLD, MY INGENIOUS PLAN!
Stein: But you said you were only 'April Fools' about "Trapping the whole student and faculty bodies AND the headmaster of Shibusen in a dimensionally-isolated cube surrounding the hall room of one of the towers and take the chance to totally trash Death City the sh** up in flames as well as reviving one of the most powerful demons in the world"!
Medusa: Well… APRIL FOOLS for "Going 'APRIL FOOLS' about trapping the whole student and faculty bodies AND the headmaster of Shibusen in a dimensionally-isolated cube surrounding the hall room of one of the towers and take the chance to totally trash Death City the sh** up in flames as well as reviving one of the most powerful demons in the world"!
~Chan, Chaka chan, chaka chan, chaka chan, chaka…CHAN CHAN~)
(I should seriously consider doing a 'Soul Eater: 4-Koma Theatre' fanfic. Hahaha)
Anyway, the Kishin Revival was the first of April (going from episodes 18 to 24)and the Runaway Express train (episode 30) was in June – two months AFTER the Kishin's revival (In six episodes- or six-and-a-bit episodes if you include the very end of episode 18-, just over an hour goes by, but in six episodes after episode 24, TWO MONTHS go by…WOW). By this, one can easily assume that the actual Battle against the Kishin (that led to the Kishin's demise) would've been around the end of the year, or during the first month or two of the next year. Thus, by then, or later, the main characters would be turning fourteen.
In Ouran Highschool Host Club, the last episode of the anime tells of the events at the Ouran Fair – which, if my memory still works, was around the middle of the year to August, right? Please tell me if I'm wrong. The anime is set in High School grades (DUH! It's in the name!) and it works on the Japanese school system (which follows the AMERICAN school system, doesn't it? Because we have a different school system here in Aus and fellow Aussies out there, you'll know what I mean)- grade 8 and grade 9 are in Middle School, and High School is grades 10, 11 and 12 (High School first year being grade 10, second year grade 11, etc.) so the youngest protagonists- Haruhi and the twins, who are high school first years – would have to be fifteen years old, older than the Soul Eater protagonists at thirteen/fourteen.
THEREFORE, this is the time setting of the fanfic in relation to both anime's cannons:
The Soul Eater gang are all fifteen (old enough to be in high school first-year of the Japanese school system) and it is in the month of August – so it is over about a year and a half post-Kishin's-demise, (I'm also assuming here that the Ouran Fair was in July), since it's August it's been nearly a month after the incidents of the Host Club at the Ouran fair. Kid, Liz and Patty arrive for their first day at Ouran on the 1st of August (and since the previous chapter, chapter 2, was set after school on their first day, this means that both chapters one and two are set on the 1st of August) and the whole setting of this fanfic will be during the month of August from the start of the month to the finish. Just be aware though, I want to get the story rolling, so I'm not going to waste time describing a few of the days in week one of their time, and timeskip to certain days in the week. This chapter timeskips 2 days from Monday to Wednesday. Now, just be aware, that since I don't have much creativity when it comes to the exact setting, I'm just gonna say that because of some improbable coincidence, Kid and the sisters' first day at Ouran – the first of August – is a Monday, which is the first day in the SCHOOL week.
So, here we are, with the 3rd chapter of 'Secret of the New Host!' Enjoy!
Chapter 3: A Wary-Minded Soul! What is Running through the Head of Ootori-senpai?
Ever since the honour students came, I have been suspicious of them. There is an odd air of suspicion about them. Naturally, being the academically-well-trained member of the Host Club, I picked up on this quite easily.
It was all simple and ordinary school life for the Host Club.
Until they came.
Elizabeth and Patricia Thompson.
And, most suspicious of all—
Death the Kid.
I could easily get access to any information I wanted— the reason behind how it is so easy for me to pull blackmail on anyone suspicious. I could find out people's darkest secrets— I even hid secret cameras all around the Music Room to take photos of the Hosts for photobook compilations to sell to the guests— so naturally I would research records or information on any new students that were ever transferred to Ouran Academy's High School to use as blackmail material if they were troublemakers and something was needed to put them in their places. It was something I always did; a fixating routine. It was how I spent a good portion of my school break whenever my family did not go out on a luxury vacation and unceremoniously drag me with them – researching all the first years or transfer students who were new to the High School grades. Although, even on luxury vacations I still did the research nonetheless – just not as often.
Of course, I went as per my habit when I gained knowledge of the three new students' transfer a whole week prior to their arrival; however, for one of the very rare times in my life…
I was stumped.
Utterly stumped.
As soon as I got into my research, I couldn't find a single record at all. I stayed up every night that week as late as my inner-body-clock would allow before my energy-lacking brain and orbicularis oculi* forced me asleep, and researched every source I could get my hands on –
– which was quite a lot, mind you.
But the outcome was repetitive and fruitless.
Nothing. Nil. Naught. Zero. Zilch.
No birth certificates, no family trees of family names, no old photos, no medical records, no nothing.
I couldn't even find out what school they transferred from. All I knew about them was their names, their ages, that they were coming to Ouran only on a one month trial and that they were from America, which was all in the students' transfer statements – the very means by which I discovered their upcoming transfer in the first place.
It irritated me to no end.
During the week, every morning, Tamaki, the other hosts, and other students would ask me about the bags under my eyes that I failed to obscure from annoying, prying gazes. I would brush them off or give them a narrow glare to send them out of my way. I didn't need anyone bothering me when I was so determined to find any data on these mysterious three honour students. By the end of the tiresome seven days, every night had still proven absolutely wasted and nothing was turned up.
Well, I could come to one conclusion.
If there weren't any records on them, then they'd either been deliberately hidden or never existed in the first place; thus the three were either very important -so much that their origins were confidential- or they were very dangerous, and had led secret lives away from anyone so no records on them existed. Much to my (after-that) well-concealed exasperation, it seemed I would have to wait until they arrived at Ouran Academy so I could question them or spy on them while they were at the school. Then they finally arrived- and I was itching to ask questions, but I kept quiet for the spying-plan. Things turned even more in my favour on the issue when Tamaki invited them into the Host Club, and they accepted. Of course, it's probably due to the fact that he would most likely become a pestering annoyance if they didn't join, so they may have joined for their sanity's sake. Although, I don't really see why they would join the Host Club if they really valued their sanity. All-in-all, everything was the perfect way and environment to observe them in, so I started recording my days in the Host Club from the first day Death the Kid, Elizabeth and Patricia transferred.
Monday went by as an introduction, and many interesting things were discovered about the three honour students, namely Death the Kid's fixation to symmetry, which was most likely some type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I wrote in my notebook for the rest of the time I observed them, and when they enquired as to what I was writing down I simply closed the book so they couldn't see what I was writing and replied in a calm manner "Calculations of the club's budget and expenses", and they passed it off, simply taking my word for it. My new goal was set in mind.
Discover the truth hiding behind their faces.
Thus, began my recorded entries.
Wednesday, August 3rd, 5:00pm.
My third daily entry on the transfer students. It was in the time after all the guests had left the club and the other members were all packing up. The rest of the club decided to start having a rather aimless conversation, whilst I did not interfere, simply retreating to the back of the circle and recording this entry in my notebook.
It was a quite a flexible conversation they were having, bending from one subject to another like water being "bent" by that dark-skinned girl from a certain American cartoon Tamaki got hooked on and made the whole club watch the first episode of on one occasion. I would only use such in a simile because it was the only concept I could use to describe it – sans my standard concentration thanks to the loud talking going on. Nonetheless, a flexible conversation it was. It started off on the topic of costumes for the next Host Club lesson, then changing to telling fragments of each other's life stories. I perked up at this part of the conversation, and continued to write this whilst secretly listening in as far as my ears dared strain. Kid mainly spoke about his travels. I learnt a little bit more about him.
"Is that where you got those cartoonish skulls things – the rings and neck-pin?" I heard one of the twins ask. I had seen the cartoonish skulls before – and upon not very much memory-searching – realized. It was a logo constantly used around Death City in Nevada, USA. It seems tha–
…
–Well, that was a close call. It seems I perked up too much at hearing Hikaru ask Kid one of the questions I had longed to hear answered, and the little devil twins had noticed my apparent interest towards the question, then barging over to try and see what I was writing –this entry – so I had to close the book in time. They snatched the notebook off me, and started to try playing that commoners' game "piggy in the middle" with it before handing it back, but one of my signature cold glances – accompanied by a glint of light glaring off my glasses – immediately ceased their "game" and I immediately got the journal back before anyone could take a look. As I was saying previously, Hikaru asked Kid about the skull neck-pin and rings, and the question was answered. It turned out that Kid had an older sister and she sometimes accompanied him on travels. They had gone to Death City together on a trip the previous year, and she had purchased him the neck-pin and rings as souvenir gifts. He said that he wished he could wear them with his school uniform, and looked down with sad eyes as he mentioned his sister had bought them for him. I assumed something ill had befallen his sister, perhaps she had fallen horribly sick, had any other injury or illness that had her hospitalised, or died recently. He was obviously very close to his sister…
Or "perhaps" not. I was still very dubious.
Tamaki asked about Kid's sister, but the boy refused to answer. He was a strange person. The end of the session had arrived, and it was time to part ways. They had decided to go with general pop culture cosplay – mostly animated pop culture – as a theme for Friday.
Friday, August 5th, 3:30pm
The fifth daily entry on the transfer students. It was today that the cosplay session took place, with everyone in all sorts of cosplay. Tamaki had dressed up in the cosplay of the dark skinned boy from that American cartoon he obsessed over – which he reinformed me of having the name 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. He was dressed up as the dark skinned girl's – Katara – he also informed, older brother, 'Sokka'. Of what I could remember of 'Sokka' from the first episode Tamaki made us all watch, the character was a thick-headed poorly-fighting warrior who was the source of most of the cheesy jokes and 'comical humour'.
"Come on, Kyoya!" the 'Host King' insisted with a pout, "Aren't you going to get into cosplay?"
I replied with a "No, not really." But he ignored me and started pondering: "Hmm… Who from Last Airbender would you be good as especially personality wise?..." I am very glad this journal is private, because I can write what I like in here and he will never see it, so I will state it clearly on line below:
'Tamaki is a godforsaken idiot.'
He suddenly sprang out of thought, and had starry eyes with a baby smile. He shoved in my face a bag of crimson-lined costume with pointed shoulder pads that looked like it would come from an ancient Chinese military, along with a black wig that had a topknot ponytail and cosplay fake-burns special effect make-up. He said in a joyful baby voice.
"I know, you can be Prince Zuko!~"
"NO!"
–
…
– Ah, I just had to close the book again as Hikaru and Kaoru – dressed up as Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter (which really suited the twins, considering Fred and George were also twins, both pairs of twins were cheeky pranksters and they had similar hair colours) – jumped at me from behind and leaned their elbows on my shoulders.
"Yeah, forget Zuko from that American cartoon—" began Hikaru (I could tell them apart only when they spoke, because of their voices).
"When you cosplay someone else instead!" Kaoru finished.
"Have you ever seen or read the Anime or Manga of Fullmetal Alchemist?" Hikaru asked.
"Because we think—" Kaoru began.
"That you'd make a brilliant Roy Mustang!" they both chimed in unison and they both handed me a bag full of blue military-like clothes with military boots and white cloth gloves with red symbolic circles sewn on. "And you don't even need contacts or a wig! You've got the same hair and eyes as the Colonel Bastard!"
I sighed. I let the twins have their fun and went off to dress into the Roy Mustang cosplay. Then I came back and found the others had also emerged.
"Come on, Haruhi! I'm Sokka, so you can be Katara! You can be my widdle sister!~"
"No thanks, senpai. I've already got an old costume sorted."
Tamaki deflated. Haruhi gestured to her bag, which contained an old costume of a strange black uniform, with cross-like symbols on white buttons and shoulder plates and white lining on the costume's black hood. Her bag also contained, some boots, a silvery-white wig, a long red glove covering that would cover her entire arm (which adorned a green cross on the back of the hand) and a red marker, which was used to draw a scar above and going down through her left eye that had a star or pentagram drawn at the very top. She was holding in her other hand a round, golden sphere with a cross on the front and with four stumpy little 'feet' as well as wings and a long protruding 'tail' that curled into a larger roll-shape at the end. "I've got an old costume of Allen Walker from D. Gray-Man that I haven't worn in a while, but it still fits."
Kid, who was dressed in a long, black garment shaped somewhat like a "kimono" which I recognised as a Shihakusho (the Shinigami uniform) from Bleach, entered a symmetry fit, to which the rest of the club was still becoming accustomed to.
"Haruhi, why are you wearing a costume like that?!" Kid exclaimed in annoyance. "Can you not see how horribly asymmetrical it is?! Change it!"
"I can wear what I want, Kid!" Haruhi objected. They started causing a ruckus in the background, until Hikaru and Kaoru split them up. The twins quite clearly took advantage of Kid's symmetry obsession as they stayed as symmetrical as possible, keeping Kid starry-eyed and busy with praising the Hitachiin brothers over their "excellent use of symmetry". Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai soon afterwards emerged from the dressing room, the former dressed in a green formal suit and tie with brown formal shoes, a small pair of round glasses that sat on the edge of his nose and also to boot, carrying a wooden staff with a lightning-bolt-shaped top wrapped in bandages. The latter of the two was wearing a grey military uniform and had slicked his hair back.
"Aww!" Tamaki looked at Hunny-senpai. "You're cosplay is awesome, Hunny-senpai! Who are you supposed to be?"
"Do you want to challenge me, Tama-chan?~" Hunny-senpai pointed his staff at Tamaki. "You should watch yourself, for I am Negi Springfield the wizard! Son of the legendary Thousand Master, the Wizard who uses a thousand spells! Tel ma Amorista!~" he started giggling happily.
"What about you, Mori-senpai?" Tamaki asked casually.
"Guten tag." The tall dark-haired senior spoke simply. "Germany, Hetalia."
"Geez, everyone seems to be getting hyper." Liz remarked.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Tamaki asked.
Liz and Patty were both dressed in school uniforms that resembled sailor uniforms, like most typical anime high school uniforms. Patty had her short hair in a yellow hair cloth that tied into a knot above her head, whereas Liz left her longer hair down.
"The Hiiragi sisters from Lucky Star." She answered casually. "I'm Kagami and Patty's Tsukasa. And before you do, don't even ask. It was Patty's idea." Patty was giggling like Hunny-senpai.
There was much enjoyment around the room during the Host session. The girls were alerted in the session on Thursday that Friday's session would be a cosplay-café session and even the guests could come in cosplay. Quite a variety of girls came dressed in their own unique cosplay. I sat most of the time, observing the other club members at work and recorded my observations in my journal. I saw a blonde guest with her hair in a braid and dressed in a black vest trimmed white, leather pants, boots and a red coat with a black snake-cross symbol on the back come up to me and gave me a smile, clapping her gloved hands.
"Kyoya-senpai is the Colonel?" she asked.
"The twins made me get into it; I don't actually watch Fullmetal Alchemist."—
…
– I had to close the book again so the guest couldn't see. From what she told me, she was cosplaying Edward Elric, from Fullmetal Alchemist, and Edward hated Mustang. She, with a big blush on her face, demonstrated me a "height rant" about Edward hating being called short, and headed off to her booked host. Hunny was reciting part of one of 'Negi's' spells quite proudly and some of the girls cheered. I plan to spend all my time recording in this journal on the transfer students and their behavio—
…
— Once again, for the umpteenth time today, I had to snap the journal shut as the twins, this time, jumped behind me and stared over my shoulder.
"What are you writing in that book, Kyoya-senpai?" Hikaru had asked teasingly.
"Come on," Kaoru had added. "Tell us."
"I'm doing busy calculations of the club's budget, like yesterday." I replied coolly. "It is unfortunately taking quite a long time to do, so I'm working on it now."
"So, if it's just—" Hikaru began,
"The club's budget calculations—" Kaoru continued,
"Then why are you so closely hiding it like a dark secret?" they both asked smartly and mischievously in unison, resting their elbows on my shoulder whilst pointing their toy wands at my notebook and sporting wide Cheshire-cat grins. I pointed my flame gloves at them in a snapping position – as they had so kindly informed me earlier of reason why Mustang was dubbed the 'Flame Alchemist'—accompanied with a death glare. They shrugged and walked off, and I opened this notebook, once again glancing over to Death the Kid, Liz and Patty and recording everything they said, and observed how they acted. Any information. Anything that could get me closer to unravelling the truth about them; was valuable. Every second I was in their presence, every second I saw them do something or say something, to me or to anyone else, was valuable data. I was determined to find out who they were. Oh-so-very determined.
Sunday, 8th August, 11:30pm
It was not a school day, so I did not see the transfer students and thus had no reason to make a journal entry, but I had a reason for recording this data down. It was dark in my large bedroom. I felt the soft mattress of my double bed beneath me as I sat cross-legged, laptop resting in my lap. My fingers flurried around the keyboard as I searched through all the other records I could find, double-checking and triple-checking old resources I had given up on prior to that night. My stubborn need to find out the truth had kept me going all night. I was about to give up and go back to bed, when I stumbled upon something I hadn't before in the database of birth certificate records for New York. I had entered into the 'view source element' option and it brought up the computer coding schematics of the confidential database that was available to my family's status. I had much experience with hacking, so in order to not get traced, I bought a pocket Wi-Fi device and a new phone, which wasn't much of an expense considering my family's wealth. On the phone, I went into the source code; I discovered a very-well-concealed code that shouldn't have been there before:
'[confidentialfiles]'
Confidential files… A tugging feeling in my stomach told me that this would hold what I was looking for; this would end my hard near-fortnight of torturous and fruitless searching. Using my knowledge of computer coding to hack the system, I made it through to a page of "confidential records" that was locked with password security. I was able to hack past the password lock and there was a list of special records belonging to anyone from New York – and not just birth records, but also new reports, significant events and such. I skimmed through, tiredness and need for sleep catching up with me very quickly, when I found something that unleashed a sensation of much satisfaction. At the same time, I was in disbelief, but I was still glad about my eventual findings.
Elizabeth and Patricia Thompson...
My effort had nearly ended. One little thing had nearly, finally, ended my search. One little news article and I had the information I wanted. One, insignificant, two years old news article!
"Car Stolen from New York Businessman; Brooklyn Devils Strike Again!"
I felt a sly smile creep its way onto my face in the darkness of the room.
This was the best night in this entire month.
A/N: THERE WE GO EVERYONE! I know that a few reviewers were asking when, and thus I know there are others out there asking the same thing, so this message is for you: Ooh, if you're wondering when the cat is FINALLY let out of the bag and the last two questions in the story's summary FINALLY come into play, then be excited. Secrecy and revelations and all those wonderful little goodies are really gonna start in the next two to three chapters! SO GET EXCITED EVERYONE! BECAUSE I AM REALLY EXCITED TO WRITE THOSE TWO SAID CHAPTERS! I'll try to update as soon as I can! And as Black Star would say – YAHOOOOOOO!
Also, I am going to draw a picture of Kid, Liz, Patty and the Host Club in their cosplay from the cosplay scene in this chapter. I finished watching 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' a few weeks ago and when I realized that Tamaki would probably take in interest in its plot line and comical humour (mostly courtesy of Sokka), I had to write it in! Besides, Tamaki dressing up as Sokka and trying to get Haruhi to be Katara, and thinking Kyoya would make a good Zuko cosplayer based on Kyoya's personality, was just too good an idea to leave out!
If you don't really know any of the characters they were cosplaying as, I'll state them again (and they weren't meant to be ALL anime cosplay, since Tamaki and the Twins weren't cosplaying anime) : Tamaki was Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Kyoya was Colonel Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist), Hikaru and Kaoru were Fred and George Weasley (Harry Potter), Kid was Ichigo Kurasaki (Bleach) – but minus Zangetsu (he couldn't find a way he could hold the Zanpakuto and be symmetrical!), Liz and Patty were Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi (Lucky Star), Hunny was Negi Springfield (Mahou Sensei Negima!/Negima?! Magister Negi Magi), Mori was Germany (Hetalia) and Haruhi was Allen Walker (D. Gray-Man).
Anyway, see you in the next chapter of 'Secret of the New Host!'
Pokelolmc….OUT! *Poof*
