Some of the students silently gazed at Kiyomi's motionless body while the majority of them screamed at each other. Accusations were being thrown left and right, but none of them actually made any sense. A certain maid was obviously getting increasingly angry and tapped her foot loudly. None of the other students who were making a commotion stopped what they were doing.
"CAN YOU ALL JUST BE QUIET?!" Petra screamed, and the room finally settled down.
"Thank you, Petra." Isaac rolled his eyes in annoyance at everyone else.
"Now then. You all are freaking out over nothing." Minato said in an exasperated manner.
"I can't believe you, Minato! I understand that you may not have been the most fond of her... but she died. You can't write that off as nothing." Yukira didn't even seem mad, she just seemed unnaturally solemn.
"No. Guys, he's right." Ryota spoke up.
"I didn't think you were the insensitive type, Mister Morimoto." Hokuto seemed put off, before continuing, "Hm. I do believe my judging of your character is fine. So why is this not a big deal, exactly?"
"Can't you guys figure it out?" Ryota asked, blinking in shock.
"Could you elaborate on that?" Hokuto seemed calm, but was more unnerved than usual.
"Oh yeah! Just because you're a little smart doesn't mean anything. Why don't you just tell us? Unless this is just an act and you're as dumb as you look." Mazuri spoke up and glared at Ryota.
Wait, Mazuri?! Where the hell had she come from? She was the last person we expected to waltz into the cafeteria with us, but at least she was okay. Or maybe not... Her insufferable attitude was already starting to get on my nerves. It's bad enough that one of us was... well, dead... but now some of the others were being incredibly insensitive. A short silence hung over us.
"Mazuri?! Where the hell were you?" Ted spoke out for the shock of the rest of us.
"I came when I heard the body discovery announcement." Mazuri shrugged, and Atsuko nodded by her side.
"You liar." Isaac simply stated.
"Excuse you, nerd? What did you say to me?" Mazuri narrowed her eyes.
Isaac simply responded yet again, "You're a liar."
Before Mazuri could speak up, Minato butted in, "Alright! We'll stop being so goddamn vague. She's not dead, you idiots. She's just faking it. Mazuri just wandered in here, there was no stupid body discovery announcement. Can't you all tell that she's not dead?"
"She looks pretty dead to me. Who are you calling an idiot, idiot?" Ted muttered bitterly.
"I have to agree with Ted... I don't want to admit it, but the announcement probably went off when you were all screaming at each other." Xiang brought up calmly, though he looked a bit on edge.
"Okay fine then. If you don't believe logic, then just believe what you see." Isaac strolled over to Kiyomi's motionless body.
What... what was he planning on doing? Slowly, Isaac brought up his foot and tapped on the ground. When Kiyomi still didn't move an inch, Isaac sighed to himself. Swinging his leg back, he looked like he was preparing to kick her. How rude! I knew he was pretty insensitive, but... That's just plain cruel. Why would you kick a dead body?
"This is your last warning, Kiyomi. If you don't stop pretending, I will bring my foot down onto your face. Trust me, it won't be pretty." Isaac stared down at her, but he looked uninterested.
"..." Everyone else stayed silent as Isaac started to swing his foot forward. Mika and Xiang looked as if they were ready to jump in to stop him, but what was the use of protecting her...? She was dead, as cruel as that is to think.
"Ha! Your reactions were priceless! How's that for acting?" Kiyomi suddenly shot up from the ground, right before Isaac's foot would have collided with her face.
"You've gotta be shitting me." Tio deadpanned.
"KIYOMI! Why would you ever do that to us? Why, I ought to..." Petra was boiling with anger. Xiang rushed over to her side and patted her back reassuringly.
"It's alright Petra... Just calm down..." Xiang whispered soothingly.
"Like hell we should calm down! She just scared us half to death! This is the closest I've ever gotten to actually wanting someone to die!" Ted burst out angrily.
"Why... Why did you do it?" Yukira seemed as if she was close to tears.
"Because! Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Kiyomi exclaimed happily, "Your reactions were the best! Ha~!"
"What is she even going on about?" Hokuto stepped back.
"And you suckers all thought Atsuko was crazy!" Mazuri started giggling, and it increased into outright laughter.
"Shut up, you brat! Atsuko is still crazy, but now we've got another one..." Miki put her hand to her forehead.
"Brat?! Look who is talking you-" Mazuri growled, but paused.
"What? You don't have anything?" Miki asked smugly.
"No. I just don't want to be with you losers any longer. I might catch stupidity." Mazuri pretended to choke and turned to leave.
"Oh no you don't, young lady. You are staying right here until all of this nonsense is cleared up." Petra sternly stated, grabbing Mazuri by the ear.
"I hate all of your guts." Mazuri growled, and for once, nobody argued with her.
A silence once again hung over the room. Nobody wanted to speak to each other, and everyone but Kiyomi (and perhaps Atsuko) was definitely not amused. Everyone just sort of stood glaring holes at the person next to them. A few students made a hopeful look towards the exit, but Petra cleared her throat and headed near the doors. She promptly blocked the exit.
"Petra... You did state that we need to get this nonsense cleared up. I agree wholeheartedly. However... How should we start?" Koh coughed in attempt to break the eerie silence.
"WELL THEN. Er, hahaha... What now?" Mika asked awkwardly.
"Ugh, I'm just pissed off that the drama queen over here had to be all... drama-y." Miki groaned.
"I literally hate every single one of you. Go die. I hate, hate, hate you!" Mazuri increasingly got louder.
"Why don't you stop acting like a child? You're an annoyance!" Petra nursed her head as if she had a headache.
"I'm leaving!" Mazuri huffed and started stomping off for the second time.
"Halt!" Xiang suddenly shouted.
"Huh? What's your problem?" Mazuri was in a sourer mood than usual. Yikes. To be fair, everyone was.
"I... just wanted to express something that I feel." Xiang paused, "I know that we aren't all on the best of terms, but we need to get along. For the sake of ourselves and others."
"I don't care about the rest of you. I don't want to make friends." Mazuri deadpanned.
"Fine then. You can be the first to be killed." Petra shrugged.
"Petra- That is not the way you should be dealing with her..." Hokuto said sternly.
"Yes, I know. But she needs to understand that the world does not revolve around her. It might make her feel bad, but this is the quickest way for her to understand that she needs to grow up or else someone will come and kill her. I am simply looking out for her." Petra retorted.
"I don't need your help!" Mazuri shouted, "I don't need anyone's help!"
"SILENCE!" Koh shouted, surprising the rest of us. He seemed to notice that he had been a bit too loud, and flinched a bit before apologizing, "Sorry, but... Xiang is right! Don't you see what's going on here? You are all fighting for no reason! Mazuri, there is no reason for you not to open up. Why won't you let us help you? Please... Let's just try to get along."
"Thank you, Koh. If only there was some way for us to get to know each other better." Xiang breathed in deeply
"Isn't that obvious? I have an idea-" Kiyomi was instantly cut off.
"Excuse you. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say." Miki bluntly stated.
"Yeah. Even though I didn't fall for your pathetic attempt for attention, I don't really want to hear what you have to say." Minato crossed his arms.
"At least hear what she has to say." Isaac sternly said.
"Huh? But- Why?" Ryota narrowed his eyes.
"It might be better than anything any of you have to say." Isaac retorted.
"Usually I'm not the one to be rude, but she's seriously pissed off all of us. I'm not quite ready to forgive her." Ted cracked his knuckles in a sort of menacing manner, though I'm sure it wasn't intentional.
"...WHY? You losers! I am a celebrity! Why don't you listen to me? It was just a joke! Forgive me, okay? Jeez!" Kiyomi shouted out of nowhere.
"Kiyomi..." Xiang laid a hand on her shoulder.
"I... I just want you all to like me! To pay attention to me! Is that so bad? I'm sorry! There, I said it, okay? I'm trying to redeem myself now. I want to give you all a reason to forgive me. So please, let me speak." Kiyomi had tears near the edges of her eyes.
"Oh, Kiyomi... We're sorry, go on and say what you want." Yukira's eyes grew wide with worry.
"Actually, I'm not sorry so-" Miki brought up, but then closed her mouth irritably, "Okay, fine, I'm sorry."
Kiyomi's tears seemed to instantly evaporate. She didn't even wipe away her tears... it was if they had quite literally disappeared. Instead of drooping low, the corners of her mouth shot up into a wide grin and she definitely had a change in her mood. Her entire face seemed to brighten with happiness, and it was hard to believe that she had been crying just a split second before. Wait, was this girl pretending again? Just to get a reaction out of us! How dare—"
"A party. If we have a party, we'll definitely get along better. Plus, I need to get to know my other co-stars. And of course you all want to meet the star of the show, yours truly." Kiyomi giggled.
Before anyone else could speak up, Mika smiled politely, "Yes, that's a fine idea, Kiyomi."
"No—" Minato started, but Ryota put his hand over his mouth.
"Just let her have this, okay? She might actually be hurt..." Xiang whispered from the corner of his mouth.
"Heh, of course it's a good idea." Kiyomi smirked, oblivious to Minato and Xiang, "I was the one who brought it up, after all."
"I do remember saying that collaborating for information was useful, but I don't want to take part in wasting time." Isaac yawned.
"I agree. I do not wish to partake in this event." Minato was emotionless as ever.
"Look, I know you might not like it... but we have to get along. That's the only way we're going to survive." Xiang announced to us.
"I don't wanna." Mazuri pouted childishly.
"Look, bitch. What's wrong with a party? You need to chill out. A party might be the only thing that doesn't bore me in this hell hole. You aren't ruining this for me." Tio spoke up nonchalantly.
"It's mandatory. And that is final." Petra slammed her hand down on a table, and with that, we were dismissed.
"Ugh, this royally sucks. I really hope that this works." I groaned as I made my way out.
"Actually, there is a tactical advantage to a party. Social events always make the bonds of others stronger." Ryota piped up next to me.
"Tactical advantage? What is this, Fire Emblem?" I stared at him incredulously.
"Er, well I've calculated it, you know. Even that embarrassment and that rude magician will have a higher chance of, well, being happy when they are with others who make the effort to be friendly." Ryota tapped his chin.
"Wow. So you've got some smarts in you after all. That's why Minato actually puts up with you." I stated bluntly.
"I don't put up with him. He's still overly arrogant to the point where it's endearing." Minato deadpanned.
"At least you two get along fine. In fact, some of us are really nice people. It's a shame that we have people who refuse to make friends like Mazuri." Koh muttered beside us.
"It really is a shame, isn't it?" Ryota frowned, "I was so forward to meeting new people at Hope's Peak and now this is what happens."
"If you're worried so much, just wait until the party. It's tomorrow, in case you weren't listening." Minato briskly said, "You'll get a chance to interact with people, okay?"
"At least we can look forward to that." Ryota perked up, "Despite being an airhead, I know that Kiyomi must be quite the party planner."
"A party! I've never been to a high school party before. I wonder what sort of... scandalous things might happen." Yukira seemed shocked at her own words.
"Uh, I mean Kiyomi might go big, but it's not like anything you might see in a movie." Ted grinned at her.
"Ah, really? That's good. I wouldn't want to clean up such a mess. I didn't think it was possible to trash an entire house anyways." Yukira seemed to relax.
"Speaking of cleaning up... Setting up might be a huge pain too, right?" I shuddered at the thought of all that work.
"I'm pretty sure the planners know what they're doing." Koh blinked, "They don't need nuisances like me there. Er, not to say the rest of you are nuisances! Just me, hahaha..."
"You don't need to be so tense. Everything will be okay; all we have to do is sit through the torture of waiting." I groaned, before sharply turning back around.
"Huh? Where are you going Hana?" Koh turned to face me.
"I remembered that I can kill time by choreographing. I'll be in the gym if you need me!" I smiled to myself and took off running.
"Left, left... Right, right. Twirl, and jump!" I voiced my actions and then came to an abrupt stop.
The music stopped right as my feet landed on the ground. Sweet! Another perfect execution to my own choreographed dance, of course. It was nice to finally relax after what had happened today. I sighed and lay on the floor, happily closing my eyes. However, my blissful peace was disrupted when my e-Handbook started to beep rapidly.
"Oh shit, please don't explode!" I fumbled with the device, before throwing it as far away as I could.
My e-Handbook didn't explode, thankfully. Oh god, I was too on edge lately. What was this, a stupid action story? My breathing slowed to a normal pace, and I scrambled over to my e-Handbook. Gingerly picking it up, I sighed in relief when I saw that no cracks blemished the screen.
"Jeez, what was that all about?" I rolled my eyes and continued what I had been doing.
Approximately thirty minutes later, a sharp knock sounded on the doors to the gym. Before I could say that there was no reason to knock, Xiang opened the large doors. He stepped inside and immediately made his way towards me.
"Hello, Hana. Did you not get the text message Kiyomi sent you?"
"No. I don't have my phone on me. And how would Kiyomi even know my number?" I looked at him in confusion.
"Oh, so you don't know. That would explain it." Xiang chuckled humorously.
"Don't know what?" I continued to stare at him as if he had a screw loose.
"The e-Handbook can send text messages. Didn't it beep obnoxiously?" Xiang explained briskly.
"Oh. Now that you mention it, it did. What can't this thing do?" I stared at the big tablet-like object.
"I'm sure there is much it can do. But regarding the text message, Kiyomi has requested your help. She says it's urgent and something only you can accomplish." Xiang's spoke as he started leading me out of the gym.
"She needs my help? Alright. I can help her out. I'm not surprised though. I didn't actually expect you, Kiyomi, Petra, and Mika to create a party in under twenty-four hours. Not to say you aren't impressive—" I chuckled, remembering that Xiang could probably snap me like a twig.
"Petra brought up that it would be better if we all worked together. Sort of like a pre-party so we can get to know each other even better." Xiang seemed really happy at the thought.
"Yeah, we're are all good people, but we just need to get to know each other." I smiled politely.
"That's right. We need to do what we can to prevent a murder." Xiang stated quite grimly.
The short rest of the distance to the cafeteria was spent in comfortable silence after Xiang's rather depressing comment. It did set me off for a bit, but he was right. It was something blunt that I would state as well, but I had been trying to forget. But that was the true nature of the party. For us to all get along so no one would have to die before their time. Pushing all the depressing thoughts from my mind, I opened the door to the cafeteria and was greeted by a pleasant sight.
"Hana! Where were you? Gawds! I have been waiting, for like, ever!" Kiyomi immediately approached her.
I didn't even pay attention to her. I just stared in awe at the full cafeteria. It was decorated quite nicely and had a magical theme. Ahh, Disney themed. I smiled when I read the large banner drooping from the ceiling. Despite Kiyomi apparently calling me for something only I could do, everyone was gathered in the cafeteria yet again. Way to make me feel special.
"Hello?! Hana! Listen to me!" Kiyomi snapped in my face, successfully snapping me out of my daze. Ha ha ha... I'm funny.
"Yeah? What? I'm listening." I blatantly lied.
"Alright. Yeah, so I just want you to pick the music for the party and all since you're a choreographer." Kiyomi bossily said before briskly walking off to tell the newly arrived Ted what he was supposed to do.
"Hey! Why do you get to do it?" Miki pouted angrily at me.
"Huh? Do what?" I asked, blinking at her.
"Wow. You really are stupid. Why do you get to choose the music? I'm the pianist." Miki crossed her arms.
"I don't know. She just chose me. I bet you'll be actually preforming, so..." I smiled awkwardly.
"Yes, that's right. You'll be amazing, Miki." Mika came up behind them, "Isn't this fun, though? We get to include everyone with their talents and all."
I had to admit, it was pretty sweet. Everyone was getting along MUCH better than a few hours ago. It seemed like everyone had forgiven Kiyomi for her stunt she pulled, but with good reason. The girl definitely knew how to party well. Maybe not a crazy party, but it would definitely be... magical. Like Disney!
"Not to burst your bubble, sweetheart... but what the fuck can a smuggler do to help?" Tio groaned, sitting down.
"Hokuto can't do much with his talent either, but he's moving the grand piano. Why don't you help him?" Mika suggested.
"Nah. I'd rather not. This is kind of boring for now. Ask Xiang or something." Tio shrugged.
"Xiang is cooking though." Miki stated bluntly, "Why don't you do something useful, you lazy bum?"
"Not my problem. And I'm not a bum, little girl. I bet I could buy your entire family. Now shut up, I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when we start partying." Tio closed his eyes and instantly began to snore softly.
Ted appeared next to me, being newly briefed by Kiyomi, "What can I do to help?"
"Oh, lovely. They need a macho guy to lift my piano. Don't hurt it." Miki waved to him as he jogged off to help Hokuto.
"Shouldn't you help them? I mean the faster they get your piano ready, the faster you can practice." I brought up.
"Well then shouldn't you be picking out your music?" Miki shot back.
"I've got a perfect playlist inside my head. I'm already done." I said, rather proud of myself.
"Then I don't really need to practice, do I? None of you seem to know real music. I've been practicing my entire life, I'll be fine." Miki said, but she still went to help carry the heavy piano.
"Oh, Hana. If you're done with your task, I'm sure Xiang and Petra need your help in the kitchen." Mika started herding me towards the kitchen door.
"Oh hey! Hana's here, guys!" Yukira stared at me, before shouting over her shoulder.
"Oh, hello Hana. It's nice of you to help out." Petra didn't even look at me. She simply continued to scour the cabinet for something.
"Yes, I need your help actually. We need to fill a lot of mouths, after all." Xiang was cooking over a large flame. Whatever it was, it smelled good.
"Aww, come on Xiang! Your dishes smell so good. I thought my secret family recipes would blow the others away." Yukira pouted, but it was obvious that she was having fun.
"Secret family recipe? It doesn't seem so secret to me." I stared at her.
"Huh? Why do you say that?" Yukira looked at me with a look of shock.
"You're not even cooking the dish... You're just telling Petra how to cook it for you." I said slowly.
"But Petra promised not to tell anyone. Besides, I'm not used to cooking. Usually a maid does it for me... So thank you Petra." Yukira smiled as the busy maid rushed past her.
"Of course. I don't mind." Petra said without much emotion. She was obviously concentrated on cooking.
"Well... Is there anything I can do then?" I brought up.
"Thanks for offering. Ryota went to go set up the table, so I don't have anyone to hand me ingredients. Could you do me a favor and get me some pepper?" Xiang asked politely.
"Of course." I got up on the counter and reached into the cabinet. Taking hold of the large container of pepper, I stretched my arm to hand it to the cook.
After a few minutes of handing Xiang ingredient after ingredient, he hummed happily to himself. He shut off the stove, and then shook the pan a few times. Immediately, I reached for a large plate from the top cabinet and handed it to him. He bent the pan over the plate and the delicious food came tumbling out.
"Wow! It really smells good." I was practically drooling.
"That's good to hear. This is to eat right now. We've all been working very hard, so it'll be nice to have a family style dinner together." Xiang handed Petra a plate and she instantly left for the cafeteria. Yukira followed, then Koh, then Minato, then Isaac, and lastly, I took the second to last plate and Xiang followed me out with the last one.
"Oh man, this is a great idea. This food looks delicious." I inhaled slowly.
I set down the plate and everyone else gathered around the table. Sitting in front of them was an array of foods, but not too much. Just enough for them to have a snack, and then get back to work. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits, and it even made me forget about the despair we were in for.
"I'll go wake Tio. He didn't do anything, but I guess we have enough for him." Petra clapped loudly in front of Tio's face.
"What? Jeez, lady. Calm down." Tio shot up, then rolled his eyes.
"Be lucky we're allowing your lazy self to eat. Now then, go on." Petra ushered him towards the rest of us.
"Aw, why you gotta be on my ass about not doing anything? It's not like it's my fault I can't do anything because I'm a smuggler. Mazuri isn't here and I don't see you bitchin' at her. She could probably do some lame ass magic trick or something. What can I do?" Tio groaned.
"You could try, for one thing. And I don't see Mazuri getting any food, now do I? So be grateful and sit down." Petra shot at him quite elegantly.
Everyone enjoyed the brief break we had. Despite working for most of the day, all of us were in high spirits. The work had been fun enough, and we were all excited for the party. There was excited murmuring among all of us as we all pleasantly chatted. It was a shame we were all having fun while Mazuri refused to help out in anyway. She'd have to show up for the party, so that was good enough.
"Hm? Where... Where is my purse?" Petra seemed utterly confused as she got up and looked around her chair.
"Oopsie daisy!" We all turned to see Atsuko holding a sopping wet purse, contents spilling out of it.
"ATSUKO! Don't tell me that is mine!" Petra was immediately at Atsuko's side, and snatched up the wet purse.
"Why is she even here? Atsuko's a major freak!" Miki backed away from the crazy comedian.
"Yeah! I get that the party is mandatory, but it'd be more comforting if both Mazuri and Atsuko weren't present at the pre-party." Ted shifted awkwardly, not making eye-contact with anyone.
"Shush, it is nice of Atsuko to provide help unlike that child. However... It's annoying that you'd mess with my personal belongings!" Petra exhaled deeply.
"Oh dear..." Minato muttered, "What is with women and their possessions? She can just get a new one."
"It seems like she had some important things in there..." Ted looked like he felt really bad for her. I turned around to see Petra fuming mad, but also seemingly mourning what had been ruined.
"Atsuko..." Hokuto talked to the girl as if she were a child, "What do we say to Miss Adamanteen?"
"Sorry... It was just a joke! You guys are no fun!" Atsuko pouted like a kid who was being reprimanded by her parents.
"It... It..." Petra was breathing heavily.
"Petra, calm down. Try to not end up in an argument." Isaac rudely said.
"You make a good point. I won't cause an unnecessary fuss. It's... It's alright Atsuko. I didn't have anything of great importance in there." Petra's eye started to twitch. I bet there was something she liked in there.
"Why don't you go practice your jokes with Mazuri in her room? Come on... Let's go." Hokuto sensibly got Atsuko away from Petra by leading her out of the cafeteria.
"I'm grateful." Petra mouthed to Hokuto as he left, and he just gave her a reassuring smile.
"Are you alright?" Xiang asked with concern in his tone.
"Yeah. I was really worried I had something important in there, but there was nothing of great importance." Petra sighed in relief.
"That girl really needs to know how to control herself. She's such a child." Miki rolled her eyes.
"Yeah. But I don't think she'll ever know how. She is literally a child in a teenager's body. I think we need to watch her." Ted let out a frustrated growl.
"I can't do babysitting, especially with that nuisance." Minato promptly refused to look after her.
"Ha, babysitting. That's practically what it is." Ted laughed without humor.
"Let's just hope her annoying pranks cease immediately." Ryota yawned, looking up from his book.
"Yes. If they do not, I will make sure they do." Petra nodded to herself.
Everyone sort of backed away. It was definitely scary to see Petra so calm, yet almost boiling over with anger. Just as we were about to enter another awkward silence, Hokuto entered the cafeteria yet again without the annoying comedian. How did she manage to be a successful comedian again?
"She's out of the way now. Let's continue then, we have no time to waste." Hokuto informed us.
"Ah, lovely. I didn't think I could take another moment with her." Tio complained loudly.
"What are you all upset about? You were asleep the whole time." Ted looked at him incredulously.
"Eh. Good point. That reminds me. Back to sleep I go." Tio immediately shut his eyes once again.
"Oh! Hana!" Ryota came running up to me.
"Yeah, what do you need?" I tilted my head.
"Xiang wanted me to tell you when I was done setting up. I've done my part, so I'll go back to being his aide. I think Kiyomi wants you to help decorate, so good luck with that." Before I could reply, the actor had already returned to the kitchen.
Despite not really having a choice in what I was doing, I was happy. The atmosphere was pretty nice considering the circumstances. It kind of sucked that I had a bad sense of style so I would be horrid at decorating. Luckily for me, Kiyomi had a whole chart planned out for what went where. The entire cafeteria looked decent right now with a large banner hanging from the ceiling. The only other thing that had been put up was the giant "castle" that was a cardboard cut out. It was huge though, and slathered with light blue paint. It looked like the castle right before every Disney movie.
"Huh... This chart is kind of complicated, isn't it?" Ted was studying the chart intensely.
"Yeah, damn. Kiyomi sure thought this out." I muttered, quite impressed.
"I'm surprised she managed to make this gaudy bow look good." Ted held up a giant yellow bow that was definitely... well, gaudy.
"Oh, uck! That's so ugly! But it looks nice on the chart." I nodded, impressed once again.
"Everyone does have their own quirks, I guess." Ted smiled, and proceeded to tack up the giant bow.
"Hana, you're helping us decorate, right? Well the materials are in the cabinet by the door." Minato pointed to the large cabinet over on the other side of the room.
"Thanks, Minato!" I hurried off to the cabinet.
"Technically, we could save more space if we were to use this method..." I heard Isaac muttering to himself near the cabinet.
"Oh, excuse me Isaac. What have you got there?" I peered over his shoulder to see him holding two charts.
"This is my own interpretation of how the decorating should go. This other one is what Kiyomi wants. Kiyomi wants a ton of space reserved for things you just look at. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to just save space for the actual human beings attending the party? She is quite the airhead." Isaac explained to me.
"Ah..." I whispered, examining the two plans, "But Kiyomi's does look nicer..."
"So what? It's only logical that..." Isaac was cut off as Ryota appeared behind the two of them.
"Hm? Are we discussing a plan or something?" Ryota blinked innocently.
"Weren't you helping Xiang instead of interrupting me? Hm?" Isaac coldly glared at the poor actor.
"Oh- I'm sorry. Well, er, did you need some help? Yukira has run out of secret family recipes, so Petra is helping Xiang instead." Ryota explained nervously.
"Yeah. We were just explaining how apparently it's more logical to have more space for the guests instead of the decorations." I informed the confused Ultimate.
"Well... isn't more logical, though? There seems to be nothing incorrect about that argument to me. I sense no contradictions." Ryota blinked at me once again.
"You say that, but you haven't looked at the decorations Isaac planned." I pointed at the chart Isaac was holding.
"Oooh... Isaac. The theme is Disney, not blank desert." Ryota laughed.
"But it saves more room." Isaac retorted.
"We have plenty of room. It's more fun if there are some decorations anyways!" Ryota smiled and slapped my back good naturedly. He was about to smack Isaac's back as well, but decided against it and quickly turned away.
"Hana! Are you about done? What is with women and taking so long with such trivial things?" Minato sighed at me.
"Sorry, sorry! I'm on my way!" I said, grabbing an armful of decorations and almost tripping over myself.
We spent the rest of the day on making the party a great success. It was really hard to decorate a giant cafeteria with only the few of us, but we managed to get it done by the end of the day. We did an amazing job, if I do say so myself. Luckily, the wait was over and the party was starting early next morning. All I had to do was sleep, and then the best party ever was waiting for me. Smiling, I drifted off to sleep.
Honestly, I didn't think my writing of Kiyomi's death was that convincing, haha! But you guys definitely picked up some things that made it fake. Yup, it was just Kiyomi faking it. She's a drama queen, after all. the meme queen: You're certainly right, Mazuri definitely does seem like a first victim type. She might be, but she might not. Oooh! As her creator, of course you'd pick that up easily that she was faking it. She does like doing things just to get a reaction out of people, doesn't she? You'll see soon enough what's up with Atsuko, but she's certainly creepy. ApexUtopia: melons-girl And really? That's quite interesting! I almost joined karate with my best friend as a child, but I started volleyball instead. HeroinofDarkness: She's not, but she's quite a good character, yes! I like her a lot. Ahhh, Xiang's ideals are quite interesting to me. And Ryota and Petra? I wasn't expecting many to relate to Petra, so that's interesting! And of course it's nice to have a fun guy like Ryota around. White Weasel: Yeah! She doesn't really seem like a first to go type, but she might be later on. Who knows? Mhm. Kiyomi sort of made the decision to rile everyone up last second, and it's surprising that so many of you caught onto that. That was the major point to prove it was kind of fake, honestly. That's really interesting, actually! Miki is great, yeah. She reminds me of my own friend as well, in fact. DoctorTDespair: I decided to add a little more flair and excitement here, hehe! No motive, but one of the Ultimates already itching for murder? I wouldn't expect it, but it does make sense. I love writing the Free Time events! They're amazing since all these characters are so unique and interesting. Pfffft... Saying no to Koh was funny to write too. Why do I even put up the yes or no thing if Hana always says yes? That's the only time she'll say no though, probably. Question: Would you rather go to Kiyomi's bitchin' party or Togami's bitchin' party? Personally, Kiyomi's seems more like my thing. I wouldn't want a pat down, just saying.
Pffffft. That's a hilarious way to put it, but nope! She was faking it. She sure has a flair for the dramatic. Oooh, I do try to even out the lines per chapter, sorry about that!
