Disclaimer: I do not own any of the multiple animes or mangas in this story. Thank you.


The Anime/Manga Revolution
Chapter 3

Hey mom,

I'm still alive. My business courses are going okay and Jap 101 is eating my soul. However, I might actually pass. I've joined a club and the members seen really nice, except for one. They all speak a little Japanese and use it when I least expect it so I probably won't completely fail.

The club is basically an anime club where we dress up as characters and act like them. Don't worry, I'm keeping up in all my studies and I'm well grounded so I won't let the other members rope me into anything. Besides only one would actually be mean to me and the others would stop him. There's only three other members in the club but we don't really do much.

On the first day we cleaned up the clubroom so it looked nice and I cosplayed as Botan. Since then we haven't really done anything but talk and do a little homework. Today they promised something interesting would happen so I'm excited. I'll write more when I have time.

See ya!

-Mona

With a sigh, I folded up the letter and placed it in my notebook before starting to make my way towards the school's front steps. Since no one had bothered me while I sat under the tree it had become my new hiding spot. It probably wouldn't last for long though. While Hearth University was in a warm and sunny climate, the city occasionally was hit by strong storms.

Once I went to go on a tour of the school but I had to reschedule because of a storm knocking out the power. The lake that was on the outside of the city had been kicking up eight feet waves and flooding the roads as well. Thankfully, since I had joined Hearth's ranks there hadn't been another storm like that. I was always worried about what I would do if a storm happened though. Back home the worst we ever had to deal with were snow blizzards dropping more snow than you could shovel onto your driveway. Flooding was something I had never had to deal with so before joining Hearth's ranks I had read up on all the safety precautions. Unfortunately that only scared me more when I realized how under prepared I was, so I just tried to stop thinking about it.

I glanced at my watch again out of habit. Fifteen minutes to go before class. Then a few more hours before I could go and get my costume on. After a few weeks, the cosplaying had really become addictive. Although we had yet to actually do something other than talk, it was fun. It was such a relief to be able to hide behind Botan, Anzu, or even Kagome's personality and be happy about something instead of freaking out about whatever project I had coming up. I knew I was being irresponsible but as my high school law teacher had said, "You're only young once so why bother spending it working when you'll be working for the rest of your lives." I may not have listened during high school but at university I didn't have a part time job so I was bored. (Although I was working on that.) I didn't tell my mom that though because she would worry that I was getting roped into something dangerous. While writing the letter, I could see why she would think that. Any form of club had the potential for evil. If you showed too much of yourself, the other members could get blackmail and force you into doing something. Or you got too loyal to them and did it because they told you to. However, the Anime/Manga Addicts was different. We focused only on self-expression and never used our real names.

I paused on the stairs as a thought hit me. Everyone knew my name but I didn't know any of theirs. I wasn't even sure which costumes belonged to which boy. I could guess based on their personalities but that wasn't the same as knowing. The realization should have worried me I guess but I just shrugged it off and kept walking. I was almost at the top of the stairs when a voice shouted, "Yo raw metal!"

Since I was the only one on the stairs, I paused and turned to look behind me. A tall upperclassman walked up with a smile on his face. The cocky smile made me want to throw up. Sadly that was the affect of self-expression through cosplaying. When you pretended to be a character who had tracts you shared but hid, you got used to showing them. Anzu's dislike for people with egos (something I shared) was starting to show more strongly in me. Or it could have been the fights I was picking with Kaiba. I frowned once he was standing beside me. "Can I help you?" I asked.

He nodded. "I'm from the Alpha fraternity and you seem like the perfect person to join our ranks."

I blinked, pretending to be interested when in reality I was sickened. I had heard all about those clubs and there was no way on this blue, green, and smoggy Earth that I was going to humiliate myself just to get into a club. "Really?" I asked, politely interested but trying to subtly back away.

"Sure. You're amazing in all your classes and you're really cute." He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder as if he had just paid me the greatest compliment. In reality, he did the exact opposite.

When I was little some jerk thought it'd be funny to call me cute. Since then I went out of my way to not be cute. I wore my hair in a ponytail that had been left at high school because of the dress code at Hearth. I wore baggy clothing and a baseball cap (again left at high school). And when I got glasses I went for the kind that were red around the lenses but faded to black around the arms. The only times I took cute as a compliment was from my mother and this boy was anything but my mother.

"I'm failing Japanese 101," I said as if I couldn't make sense of what he was saying. They probably used the same line on everyone they tried to get to pledge.

He shrugged as he took his hand from my shoulder. "Japanese doesn't really matter here in North America now does it?"

I mentally grinned. He did it now. As my siblings (and now Kaiba) well knew, the moment you stated something you thought was true I'd make it false within seconds. "Actually since the Japanese and Chinese are taking over more and more of American and Canadian companies, the knowledge of their language will be invaluable in near foreseeable the future."

He hadn't been expecting that and when he smiled again it was forced. "Well your other classes are awesome so what do you say?" He held out his hand. "You want to be an Alpha?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm more of a Libra and an advisor than a leader. Thanks though." I turned on my heel leaving him to figure out what I had just said. Knowing my luck, I had just painted a sign on my head saying "Prime target for new pledging activities" but I didn't really care. They couldn't do anything really bad or else the school would get a bad rep after I call the cops.

I sat down in my usual seat and smoothed out my longer black shirt. As I had stated before Hearth was in a sunny climate but during the winter months the place cooled down a little so that the temperature was around 70 degrees (roughly 22 C). Since I came from a colder climate I didn't feel cold but I was thankful for the excuse to wear my longer skirt. No more pulling on it because it was riding up too high!

Class started after a few minutes and I jotted down notes with a mental note to rewrite them out later. Only three more hours before I could slip into my costume and see what interesting thing the boys had planned.

*A*M*R*

I slipped into my costume as quick as I could and put a big smile on my face as I entered the room. "Hey guys," I said.

From his seat over in the corner, Kurama looked up and smiled. Over the past few weeks, I had gotten to know the Kurama cosplayer so I could actually look him in the eye. Not to say that I didn't blush when he said something really sweet but I was quick to put the cosplayer and the actual character Kurama on opposite sides of my mind.

"Welcome back," he said as I sat down at my chair with a huge yellow backpack and smoothed out my skirt. While I loved Kagome, her costume's green skirt annoyed me as much as any other skirt. It was simply too short… although Anzu's wasn't any better and Botan's kimono was almost too warm to wear.

"Thanks," I replied as I looked around. "So where are the other guys?"

Kurama smiled. "In a rush?"

I ran through my memory trying to remember if we had made it so that the other boys knew about Inuyasha. I couldn't remember so I went with the safe answer. "Not really. I just have lots of homework tonight."

Kurama settled back into his book. "The others will be arriving shortly. They just needed to pick something up."

"Cool."

He nodded and read for five seconds before saying, "By the way, have you given any thought to inviting another friend to the club?"

I frowned, coming out of character for a moment to figure out what he meant. "You mean school based or character based?"

If Kurama had been Tamaki, he probably would have scolded me. Instead he set his book down and grabbed the Code. "I meant character." He flipped the pages until he found what he wanted before handing it to me. "You've been in the club for a little while so you'll have to have your special costume ready soon."

I glanced over the page and saw that a "special costume" is the first costume that a member makes alone. "Are there any rules for who I can be?"

He shook his head. "Not really. Before your special had to be cleared with the heads of the club so that we didn't have too many of the same characters running around." He motioned to the area around us. "As you can see, that's not really an issue. As long as you have it ready by the 24th of fourth month that you've joined the club, everything will be fine."

I nodded as I tried to think of who I could be. "What's yours?"

He smiled. "That's a secret."

I would have kept asking him but Kaiba and Tamaki entered the room with a few small boxes in their hands. With barely a glance in my direction, Kaiba tossed one of the boxes at Kurama. "They didn't have the rolls so you'll have to put up with sushi."

Meanwhile Tamaki handed me a box and I tilted my head at him. "What's this?" I asked.

He smiled. "Contact lenses."

I frowned. "And I have them because…"

Kaiba rolled his eyes as he sat down. "Because none of your characters wear glasses and you do."

I let that remark go without an argument because it made sense and Kagome would have let it go. For now. "But how did you know what to get?"

Tamaki motioned to Kurama. "It just so happens that Spirit World was willing to give us all the information we wanted."

I tried to smile, as if learning that the boys could learn anything about anyone wasn't a scary thought. Now I felt really outdone. I didn't know their names but they knew mine and enough about me to get contacts. "So do I owe you guys for these or—"

"Quit stalling and just put them on."

I blinked at Kaiba. Even for him that was a bit harsh. "I'm not stalling; I'm just trying to get some information."

He rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. "No you don't owe us. Yes they are the right prescription. Yes we got you coloured ones as well. And if you want to stay in the club, you had better put them on right now."

To his right, Kurama smiled weakly. "What Kaiba is trying to say is that it would be better if you wore contacts while cosplaying so that you could truly get into the character."

I frowned again as I opened the box. Inside I found five little cases with words engraved in them. One was labelled pink. Another was blue. The rest were clear, green, and gray. Since Kagome had brown eyes like me I picked up the clear case. Now here is a fun fact, I've worn glasses since grade 9 and I have never worn contacts. The idea of placing something on my eye while trying not to poke myself in the eye never really appealed to me so I guess I was stalling as the boys waited for me to put on the contacts. If there was one thing I've learned from school is that if you stall enough, someone will take pity on you and help. Unfortunately, Kaiba was in a really bad mood.

"If you don't know how, you can just say so," he said as he uncrossed his arms.

Rather than make him madder, I looked up and shrugged. "Okay. I don't know how."

He groaned and then showed me how to put on contacts. Apparently, the cosplayer for Kaiba also wore glasses and his eyes were green not blue. He reached to his right eye and quickly took out his contact lens so that he had one blue eye and one green eye. My stomach became queasy when he did that. This was why I was going to be an accountant. Anything having to do with the body just made me sick. Even contact lenses. So of course, the Kaiba cosplayer put the contact lens back in with practice ease and then expected me to be able to do the same.

Six minutes later I was wearing contact lenses and not enjoying it. However, for the sake of Kagome I played my part and put up with the little plastic lenses placed over my eyes. Thankfully, Kaiba and I quickly got into a battle over something and I forgot about my contacts so yay!

Then someone knocked on the door. The next thing I knew was that I was being chucked into the curtain space with a death threat from Kaiba. If I so much as made a noise, they would never find my body. Not sure if he was seriously going to kill me or not, I obeyed. However, since sitting on my head and not the floor wasn't very comfortable, I turned around in the small space so that I was standing.

The door opened and some people entered the room. Being me and curious, I did what anyone would have done in my place, opened the curtain a pinch and tried to see what was going on. As Mrs. Fujimoto and Mr. Favager waltzed into the room, I felt the temperature of the room drop. I barely had time to wonder why teachers were bothering with room 444 when Mr. Favager spoke.

"Well boys, have you thought about my offer?"

The glares from Kaiba and Kurama could have killed the devil. Kurama was the first to speak. "I'm afraid we've been too busy to even consider joining student council."

Mrs. Fujimoto nodded as she looked around. "I would say so. This place actually looks half decent. You three however still look the same." She studied Kurama for a moment before saying, "Andrew, stop being foolish and dress like someone who actually has a job for once."

Kur-Andrew muttered something about getting on that. However, Mrs. Fujimoto didn't stop glaring at him until he added, "Mother."

She then nodded as if pleased before turning to Kaiba. "See, your half-brother knows his place. Now if only you would listen and leave this foolishness. And take out those contacts, Sean. They make you look old."

Ka-Sean crossed his arms as he glared at her but he was silent.

Mrs. Fujimoto frowned some more. "I believe I told you to do something."

"And I believe I stopped taking orders from you when I moved out."

"Watch your tone, Sean."

Behind them Mr. Favager was glaring at Tamaki.

"When are you going to apply yourself seriously?"

Tamaki shrugged but he didn't have the same aura of Andrew and Sean. Instead of glaring and putting up a cold front, Tamaki seemed to shrink into himself.

Mr. Favager groaned when he didn't receive a reply. "Your mother and I didn't spend thousands of dollars for you to come here and play, Martin."

Tam-Martin's voice was small and he was looking at his shoes. "I know."

"If you know then forget this club."

Martin only shook his head.

Mrs. Fujimoto paused in her verbal battle with her son to look around again. "By the way, where is your new member?"

All three of the boys tensed and I decided that freezing would be my best option.

"What new member?" Andrew asked, blinking his green eyes.

Mr. Favager frowned. "Don't get smart with us, Mr. Brock. We know you recently talked to a raw metal."

Andrew nodded. "Yes but she did not join the club."

Mr. Favager smiled. "Really? Such a shame. She might have been able to give this club some life."

Sean glared at him. "Or been another target."

"Pardon?"

Martin elbowed Sean but he ignored him. "Those thugs were obviously sent to scare us and let me tell you, we don't scare easily."

Mr. Favager nodded. "You and your half-brother perhaps but…" His voice trialed off as he looked at his son. Beside him Mrs. Fujimoto coughed.

"We'd better leave before the dust settles," she said as she turned to the door. "Remember Sean, Andrew, the council would gladly have you. All you have to do is leave Ma—"

"No," Andrew and Sean said, cutting her off.

Mrs. Fujimoto shrugged. "Alright. But I'd keep an eye out, especially for the new girl." She opened the door and disappeared through it.

Mr. Favager followed but not before looking around one last time and saying, "And Martin, get rid of those contacts. The purple gives you colour."

Sean slammed the door shut before Mr. Favager could see Martin look down at his shoes. I came out from the curtain seconds later. Sean-Kaiba was shaking with anger while Kurama had an arm around Tamaki who was staring at his shoes. He seemed to be in a trance. Without considering the stupidity of my question, I asked, "Is he okay?"

Kaiba turned on me. "How okay would you be if your father mocked you daily?"

Kurama glared at him. "She's just being considerate."

Kaiba rolled his eyes and glared at the door as if it was the cause of all his problems. Tamaki meanwhile seemed to return to the land of the living as his confidence came back. "Well now, I say we forget all about that and get to work."

I frowned. "On what?"

Tamaki smiled his grin I was starting to fear. "On our next big event of course. Our club won't survive unless we get more members."

Kaiba glared at him. "We won't survive if we don't stay out of the council's eye."

Somehow I had the feeling he wasn't talking about cosplaying. I glanced at Kurama for an explanation but he ignored me as we slowly slipped back into our game. Tamaki, Kurama, and I bounced ideas back and forth on ways to get people to join the club. Posters apparently had been tried and turned out to be a waste of paper. Tamaki's host club idea had been shot down because there weren't enough boys and they didn't like the idea of leaving me alone with boys. And we didn't have enough people for a skit. Finally, it was time to pack it up for the night. Tamaki and Sean quickly disappeared into the night but I stayed back with Kurama while he closed up. As he was locking the door for room 444, I asked, "What was Kaiba talking about when he said we needed to stay outside the council's eye?"

Kurama sighed as he took off his wig revealing the brown hair underneath. "As you probably could guess the university isn't very happy with our club."

I nodded as I followed him to the gates. "But they can't really close it down, can they?"

Andrew shook his head. "Easily. All they have to do is reduce the club to one member."

"How would they do that?"

We paused at the gates and Andrew offered to walk me home. I accepted and he continued. "By offering Sean and I positions on student council."

"Like they did with Ashley?"

He nodded. "They'll probably do the same to you once they find out you're in the club,"

"Well the Alphas offered but I turned them down."

"Why?"

I shrugged as I looked both ways before crossing the street. "Humiliating myself just to get into a club isn't really my style."

Andrew nodded. "I'd watch my step then. The Alphas are infamous for revenge schemes."

I nodded. We were silent for a moment while we waited for the light to turn green so we could cross. "So you and Ka-Sean are half brothers."

He nodded. "I wouldn't recommend reminding him of that though. He isn't very fond of his parents."

"So I'm not the only one he thinks is an idiot?"

Andrew chuckled a little as we neared my apartment. "You may not believe me, but Sean actually doesn't think you're that much of an idiot."

I frowned. "Really."

"Really. He hasn't had someone talk back to him in ages so he's probably enjoying himself at your expense—"

I nodded. That sure sounded like a Kaiba thing to do. However, Andrew wasn't finished.

"—and he's just testing you to see if you really will remain in the club. Once he realizes you will, he'll switch over to 'friend' treatment."

I frowned. "Does he do this to everyone?"

Andrew nodded. "The one girl who joined back in our freshman year was reduced to tears daily because of him. Later we found out she had just joined the club to try to split up the three of us."

I frowned. "Speaking of that, why did Mrs. Fujimoto and Mr. Favager only seem interested in having you and Sean join student council and not Tamaki as well?"

"As you probably noticed Martin tends to shut down in front of his father. He probably doesn't strike them as student council material."

I was about to ask more questions but we had reached my apartment. I said goodbye to Andrew and started to finish my nightly routine. It looked like there was a lot more to the club than I thought. I just hoped I was ready for whatever was to come. Sean's words about the only way to survive was to hide kept coming back into my head. I couldn't help but wonder if he had used survive deliberately as if our lives were really on the line. But they couldn't be… could they?


A/N: Was the name switch thing confusing? I tried to make it obvious who I was talking about but if it wasn't obvious enough I'll change it and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading!

-D101