The Plan
Part Four
"E-Eh?"
Dust raced into the classroom. As expected of the head of the Chinese mafia group Char Siu, Kanakura Yui only gave a small yelp of surprise as the wall behind her blew into pieces. A stream of delicate, but wild laughter came from the cloud of dust. Something enormous was coming into the room, creating a racket of whirring gears and mechanical creaks.
"Hehehe..."
"T-This voice!" said Raku, hand over his eyes to block the dust. "It couldn't be...!?"
"Hehehe...I've arrived, Raku-sama!"
A small yellow crane rolled into the room, its hook swinging dangerously through the dust. In the crane's control seat, there was a girl with two tails of orange hair running down her shoulders, her entire appearance rendering fragile beauty, like a flower that had just bloomed.
"T-Tachibana!?"
"Ehehehe~" giggled Tachibana Marika, her eyes spinning feverishly as she drove the crane forward. "Look, Raku-sama! I've finished it! I spent the entire weekend crafting this just for you!"
As the dust began to clear, Raku got a whiff of something strong and oddly citrus-like. He reeled back as he realized what it was.
"Energy drinks!? Just how many energy drinks did you drink, Tachibana!?"
"Please accept this token of my everlasting love, Raku-sama!" said Marika, pulling various levers in the crane. The hook swung forward, bringing the enormous package that it held crashing onto the ground.
"W-Wha—!?"
The entire classroom covered their eyes as light bounced off the object, casting a blinding aura that illuminated the entire room. The object that Tachibana Marika had worked tirelessly on throughout the entire weekend, a product of dozens and dozens of cases of energy drinks—
A giant statue made of solid gold was standing in front of them. Just because it was Tachibana Marika, everyone had expected it to be a statue of Ichijou Raku. And they were right. At least with everything below the neck.
But instead of Raku's trademark cross-shaped clips and Gundam vulcan sideburns, there was a completely different characteristic trait being shown.
An enormous beak and gaping, wide eyes.
The face of Tachibana Marika's parrot, Raku-sama.
"W-WHY IS MY FACE A PARROT!?"
Chitoge was bent over her upturned desk, pounding on its legs as she tried to hold back her laughter. Kosaki could only stare lifelessly at the statue, having unknowingly hoped deep inside for an actual replica rather than this masterpiece.
"Aww. It's cute," said Yui, patting the golden statue. The entire classroom couldn't help but think the same thought: WHAT!?
"Ah...I'm sorry, Raku-sama. It might not be perfect...I started to feel a little light-headed," said Marika, swaying in the chair.
"Tachibana, I really appreciate all the work you put into it, so please get out of that crane and go to sleep!" said Raku.
"I'm sorry you had to see me in this state...I was hoping to bring it to you later today at your home. But for some reason, I got this strange feeling that something irreversible would happen if I didn't brin...brin...bring this to you...right...zzz..."
Tachibana's head fell back over her seat as she started snoring.
"What just happened...?" said Raku, feeling extremely let-down for some reason. Meanwhile, Chitoge had fallen off her desk, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Well...we can't really have class with all this dust everywhere," said Yui, carefully removing Marika from the crane.
No, no, aren't there way more outrageous problems here!? thought everyone.
"Haha...Marika-chan can be really flamboyant sometimes, huh?" said Kosaki.
"I think that's an understatement, Onodera," said Raku, watching as Yui dragged Marika over to an area without debris.
Wait a second. Just now...was Onodera talking to me again?
"Onodera—"
"Ah...Ichijou-kun..." said Kosaki, also noticing that they were back to speaking terms. She looked down at her feet as she tried to stop a smile from forming on her face. "Uhm...Ichijou-kun..."
"O-Onodera. Listen...I'm sorry."
"N-No! You don't have anything to be sorry for," said Kosaki. Oh no, I really was making him feel uncomfortable!
"Yes, I do...I'm sorry that I put you in a bad mood earlier—"
"No, Ichijou-kun, that didn't have anything to do with you—"
"It was probably because I showed you that cat video, right? I'm sorry, I didn't know that you didn't like cats...and I talked to you for three hours about it too—"
"Ichijou-kun, I was just acting a little weird because I was thinking about confessin—I mean, I was worrying about something that's completely unrelated to you—"
As Raku and Kosaki talked over each other, brief snatches of their respective one-sided conversations registered in their minds.
Eh?
Huh?
"Cats...?"
"Something that's completely unrelated to me...?"
Chitoge stopped laughing as she saw the scene in front of her. Kosaki and Raku were staring into each others' eyes. Seeing their expressions, their lips quivering as if something was pushing forcefully at their teeth to try and get out
Could it be...? Maybe Kosaki-chan really is...
Chitoge swallowed. What had Kosaki been trying to say just a moment ago? Some time alone...? Maybe she wanted to...
No, it was a meaningless phrase. After all, Kosaki was good friends with Raku. It could've meant anything. But the way she had looked...the blush in her face, that aura of unease and hopefulness that Chitoge had only just recently started to recognize...
She felt the pendant cold against her chest.
Maybe...the guy she's been in love with is—
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
For the second time that day, the classroom suffered collateral damage. The windows shattered into a million pieces as a group of men wearing black suits suddenly burst into the classroom. They rolled across the floor, over the glass, and came to a stop in front of the classroom. One of the men let down a white bundle that he had been cradling while breaking in.
"Thank you," said the bundle, stretching out to reveal a small girl with a mask on her face. In fact, all of the men in suits also had masks. They were solid white with a big red X on the front.
"Who are you guys!?" yelled one of the students.
"Fufu. I'm glad you asked," said the girl wearing a white lab coat that was far too big for her. "We're an organization that's come to stop a dangerous event from happening here!"
"What!? Dangerous? Are you talking about the crane? Because that's already resolved—"
"NO! That puny thing? It's daily slapstick, that's all!" shouted the girl, pointing condescendingly at the crane. "No...we're here for something far more lethal. An event that has the potential to destroy the entire world!"
"What!?" shouted the students.
"Nuclear warfare!?"
"The release of Half-Life 3!?"
"Another new Sunrise series!?"
"WRONG!" shouted the girl. "Even worse than that! We, a group referred to by others as the 'Shield of False Love,' are here to stop only one thing!"
Her finger whipped forward to point at Ichijou Raku.
"PLOT PROGRESSION!"
"Huh!?"
"Hurry! Separate those females from that beta male before things start falling in his favor!" ordered the girl. The black suits began converging on Raku and Kosaki.
"GWAAH!"
There was a sound like a cannon going off and then one of the black suits went flying through the hole in the wall. Chitoge stood in front of Raku and Kosaki, her fist red from smacking into the black suit's face.
"I don't know what's going on here, but you're scaring my friends," said Chitoge, her eyes flaring up. "If you guys lay even a single finger on Kosaki-chan, I won't let you off easy."
The black suits hesitated as they felt Chitoge's battle rage wash over them. The girl in the white labcoat frowned and jabbed her finger at Chitoge.
"SILENCE, YOU FOREIGNER! YOU'RE NOT EVEN A PART OF THIS COUNTRY! BUTT OUT OF OUR BUSINESS!"
"H-Huh!?" said Chitoge, thrown off for a second.
"Hmph! Just because you have flowing strawberry blonde hair and a super-stylish body, you think you can stop us!?" said the girl, fuming.
"Eh? Her hair's strawberry blonde? I thought it was normal blonde," said one of the students.
"No, no. Look at the tips. They're kind of pink."
"Oh wow, you're right. Kirisaki-san, you're amazing!"
"W-What? Why are you all staring at my hair?" said Chitoge, looking flustered.
"Now! While she's distracted by the plebeians! Get her!" yelled the girl, stomping her feet on the floor.
At that moment, the wooden floors began to creak. Everyone stopped as they heard the sound. It was originating from underneath the enormous golden statue of Raku-sama.
"You can't be seri—"
Raku's sentence was interrupted as the floor finally cracked under the weight of the statue and sent them all falling down.