StarSong

Door 6: Paper Man

"Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning."

-Maya Angelou

"Okay, the coast is clear!"

Kengo turned to the four Other students behind him, looking a bit nervous as to what was going on. Kengo, on the other hand, lightly pushed the locker door open before stepping out, standing in the hallways of the real Amanogawa High. Just as he suspected, there was no one at all.

"The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step," he said, turning to the Other students. "Come on, I'm not getting any younger."

Other Yuki was the first to step out, brandishing her trusty baseball bat—whom she affectionaly nicknamed Hubble—to protect her from danger. When there was none, she slightly lowered her guard.

"There's no Zodiarts here," said Kengo. "Now come on, we have to get going before..."

"Kengo!" cried a very loud voice. "There you are!"

"Hide!" Kengo cried hastily, pushing Other Yuki back into the locker, he closed the door shut and pressed his back against it as Gentaro grabbed onto his shoulders with Yuki not far behind. Kengo just feel the tension as he heard Other Yuki whisper, "That is my counterpart?"

"There was this Chamaleon Zodiarts that could turn invisible and then a scorpion that was somehow responsible for it!" Gentaro explained. "I tried using the Hopping Switch on Scorpio but then..."

"You fell flat on your face, didn't you?" Kengo replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah..." said Gentaro, rubbing a hand behind his head. "I was also trying to get rival candidates for the Queen Fest, but all of them said no. So..."

"Gen-chan asked me to fight against Kazashiro-san!" said Yuki. "He also said that with you helping me with my love of space, we could creat something that will help Gen-chan stay in Amanogawa. What do you think?"

Kengo held his breath as he stared at Gentaro and Yuki before reminding himself that four students were waiting to go to his house. This was one of those times where he found himself between a rock and a hard place.

However, Kengo immediately thought to himself. Even without my help, there's no way Jojima-san will be able to scratch a dent into the student body. Ironic, considering this is a space-based school. Although, if it will appease this idiot, let Kisaragi have his fun. I've got more important things to do.

"I'm sorry," Kengo said aloud. "While I do believe that Yuki is a good candidate against Miu and her cheerleading posse, I have some important business that doesn't involve cheerleaders and pom-poms."

"Eh?" Gentaro exclaimed, grabbing onto Kengo's shoulders. "But we need you, buddy! You're the one who's able to help Yuki shine bright like a-"

"Don't you DARE touch me like that!" Kengo snarled, pushing Gentaro away. As he said that, he felt another headache come through. He fell onto the ground and place both hands on his head. "Ugh...why now?"

"Kengo-kun," said Yuki, helping Kengo stand up. "Are you all right?"

"I need to get home," Kengo muttered, one hand on his forehead, another hand lightly rapping against the locker door. "Can you please...just give me some peace and quiet?"

"All right," Gentaro whispered. "See you tomorrow!"

Yeah, right. Kengo thought, seeing the two friends brainstorm ideas for the Queen Fest. Once he knew the two were gone, he opened the locker door, causing the Other counterparts of Gentaro, Yuki, Shun and Miu to topple over like dominoes.

"Warn us next time!" Other Gentaro muttered, rubbing his head. "I do not like having to see my Yuki-chan looking like she's about to kill someone when in confined spaces. She hates those."

"Sorry about that," said Kengo. "I didn't want your counterparts to know you were there."

"The 'real' Gentaro was quite...locquacious," said Other Shun, wiping his glasses with his shirt. "That's all I can say."

"Tell me about it."

"So," Other Yuki clapped her hands together. "Let's go to Utahoshi-san's house and have dinner there! What's for dinner?"

"Whatever the rabbits are cooking, I guess," Kengo answered. "Their menu is always changing and whenever I eat it, I've never felt so energetic and lively. It's like I can take on the world."

"Has it also caused your skin to look a little pale?"

"Huh?" Kengo looked into Other Miu's compact mirror and lightly touched his face. It was true—he looked paler than usual.

"Probably due to not enough sunlight," Other Shun suggested. "Or you need more Vitamin D in your diet."

"I'm about to give someone their daily supplement of pain if we don't high-tail it out of here," said Other Gentaro, cracking his knuckles. "That wuss-puss is gonna pay for stabbing me in the fucking chest, let me tell you..."

"Other Gentaro is right," said Kengo. "Come on, and don't mind the rabbits tackling you when you enter the house. They're very clingy."

"Clingy?" asked Other Miu, raising an eyebrow.

0-0-0-0-0-

"Stop it!" cried Other Miu, feeling the rabbits sniffing and snuggling against her. "You're so cute!"

Once the group made it to Kengo's apartment, the rabbits rushed toward to Kengo's side, sniffing him and introducing themselves to the newcomers. Other Miu was being tickle tortured by the rabbits' twitchy ears and noses.

"Shoo!" said Other Yuki, playfully swinging her bat to the side to get the rabbits hopping away. "We have some stuff to do, bunnies!"

"I didn't know Other Yuki liked bunnies," said Kengo, turning to Other Gentaro. "And yet she told me she's not that into girl stuff."

"Rabbits are a big part of her childhood," Other Kengo explained, crouching down and running his hands down a baby rabbit's fur. "That's how the two of us met."

"Animals are usually the beings that bridge connections to one another," said Other Shun. "We humans are no different."

The rabbits hopped back to the kitchen, some grabbing kitchen knives, others stacked up in a ladder to pull the refrigerator open, and two more tossing vegetables into a deep fryer. Another bunny hopped back to Kengo with a tray of lotus root tempura perfectly balanced on his back.

"Thank you," said Kengo, taking a fried lotus root slice into his mouth. After a few seconds, he nodded his head. "Good job. Definitely your best batch so far!"

The rabbit scratched behind his ear before hopping back to the kitchen. Other Shun quickly began counting the rabbits inside the house.

"Just one question," he said to Kengo. "Where do these rabbits sleep and why are they doing your housework?"

"They sleep anywhere in the house and they just do it because," Kengo replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Now come on, let's get to my room to start the plan.

The five students entered Kengo's bedroom. It was simple enough: a bed, a desk, a bookshelf, and a closet for clothes. Decorating the room were numerous origami figurines ranging dragons and swans to small paper flowers and hearts. Kengo just looked at them with pride.

"I've had a lot of time on my hands," he replied, taking an origami dragon into his hands. "It's time to wake up."

With a small puff of air, the origami dragon began to hover around, inspecting the newcomers and their button eyes. Other Miu and Other Shun looked in awe, while Other Gentaro stared at the box of origami paper and the back at origami figurines scattered everywhere as if contemplating something.

"Anything wrong, Gen-chan?" asked Other Yuki, noticing the look of worry on her friend's face. "Are you all right?"

"It's nothing," Other Gentaro replied. "We should be focusing on what Utahoshi-san wants from us."

"It's pretty simple," said Kengo, taking a paper fan hanging on a nail. "When Other Miu said she liked origami, I thought that she can do what I do: bring them to life with this."

"But we just saw you breathe on the dragon," said Other Miu. "I don't know if I have the ability to do that."

"Who said you're breathing on it? Here," Kengo handed the fan to Other Miu. "Fan yourself a bit."

Other Miu began to fan herself, not really expecting anything. After a few seconds, she heard the sound of birds chirping. She looked around to see a few origami birds flutter toward her, singing a sweet tune.

"Oops!" she exclaimed, dropping the fan. "Did I do that?"

"I was experimenting the other evening and it seems that by fanning them or breathing on them gives them life," said Kengo, letting an origami canary perch on his finger. "They can also stay dormant for a while until someone blows air once more."

"I see," said Other Yuki. "You want Other Miu to use the fan to bring the origami to life!"

"But she just can't stand still folding paper over and over," said Other Shun. "Knowing the student body, they'd want something...'flashy' to suit their needs."

"That's why I'm getting to the good part," said Kengo. "The origami is going to do another vital thing: they'll make up Other Miu's dress."

"I'm going up on stage naked?!" Other Miu exclaimed. "Not even in your wildest dreams!"

"I meant she gets a simple white dress and as she dances and twirls around, the origami animals gather around her. We can even make origami lanterns that light up to get the crowd going," Kengo continued to babble ideas as Other Shun tried his best to write them all down. Other Yuki tried to touch an origami phoenix with her baseball bat and Other Gentaro was slowly nodding his head, still having a look of worry on his face. Other Miu sat on the bed, letting more of the origami animals stare at her in curiosity.

"So," Kengo said, clapping his hands. "Do you think we can pull this off?"

"I think," said Other Miu. "That we're going to need lots of paper for this to work."

"I've already tried to work on some designs," said Other Shun, showing some sketches in his notebook. While they weren't made by the hands of a master artist, it still had enough detail to show which origami animals went where on the dress, along with arrows positioning where they would land and what color they would be.

"Doesn't look that difficult," said Other Yuki. "This will be easy to pull off!"

"Perfect," said Kengo. "All right, we'll start folding the basic origami pieces and I'm going to need Other Yuki's expertise in fireworks for the lanterns. Then..."

DING-DONG!

The sound of a doorbell interrupted Kengo's thoughts. He told the Other students to stay in his room as he walked toward the front door. He went to the window and partly opened the curtains to see who was there.

"Kengo-kun!" said a female voice. "I brought you some dinner!"

"Kengo!" cried a very loud male voice. "Open up! It's dinner time!"

Kengo stepped back as he soon realized what was going on. The people at his door were Gentaro and Yuki—the real Gentaro and Yuki.

Oh shit.