Fall in Love All Over Again
Chapter 12: The Shadow of Courage
Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, but I do own the fan-made characters.
Note: This story will contain new characters with a new plot. The same corky humor will remain. Watch as the next generation of the Ouran Hosts find themselves by finding each other.
For the sake of the story we're going to assume the summer flew by like a breeze and now color changes the leaves. The kids have returned to school and are just getting settled once more with classes, homework, and the like. A big event is coming up at Ouran High, one that the courageous embrace and the cowardly flee from. It's the Ouran High Fall Festival, also known as the Halloween celebration!
"Are there any suggestions on what we should do as our theme for the fall festival?" questioned the class president of Haruki and the Hitachiin's class.
"How about Fright Fest?" said one of the boys sitting in the front row.
"Yeah," agreed the girl next to him, "we could deck out the school and make it a haunted house."
"We could get into groups of say 3-6 people and be assigned to a specific spot in the school to spook up and scare each other." called another boy randomly.
"Any objects to this idea?" wondered the rather formal class president, then after a pause he nodded, "Alright, my vice president will make a sigh up sheet for the groups and you will each be assigned a place in the school to do whatever you will with. Decide your groups and we'll go from there."
"Should we all four be in a group?" asked Minoru to his brother, cousin, and friend.
"Guess we really have no other choice." said Kichiro, wishing it could be pairs so he could avoid working with his obnoxious cousins.
Haruki watched as the rest of the room grouped up, while one boy was standing in the corner all by himself looking sort of scared to reach out to anyone, "Hey guys, why don't we let him join our group? He's all by himself."
"Haruki, always caring for the lonesome losers." Minoru meant that to be a small hit at Kichiro which caused a slight sign of irritation to appear on his face.
"His name is Isamu," informed Kichiro, his eyes fixated on Minoru, before they looked to Haruki, "he doesn't say a whole heck of a lot. I've heard he's a real coward though, so that's probably why no one's choosing him."
"In that case, bring him over here." smirked Mitsuru.
"The goal of the game isn't to scare your own teammates Mitsuru." said Haruki flatly, "Be nice, I'm going to go get him." Haruki stood up from her chair and started over to the boy. His hair was bright blond, sort of long for a boy's, but not longer than the Hitachiin twins' who had very long hair. His eyes were sapphire blue, and large like he was always frightened. When Haruki walked up to him he blushed. He wasn't used to pretty girls talking to him, even though he was handsome, "Uh hi, your name is Isamu right? My friends and I were wondering if you'd like to come join our group."
"O-oh, oh no I mean- uh," stammered Isamu, blushing furiously, "You see, I'm petrified of just about everything, and there's no way I'd be of any advantage to your team. So I'm sorry, I just don't wanna be a burden. In fact I'll probably just stay home the night of the festival. Halloween's the worst day of the year for me anyway, along with April Fool's Day." he shuddered.
"We really want you to join though," smiled Haruki.
Isamu looked over Haruki's shoulder at the rest of her team, and the Hitachiin twins grinned evilly in his direction while Kichiro just sat there and tilted his head, "Those twins kind of scare me." shivered Isamu.
"Don't worry, they scare everybody." she grinned.
"Well… okay, but I apologize in advance if I'm of no help." he informed, trying to be forceful, but failing.
"Alright," giggled Haruki, leading him over to their table so he could sign up with their team. She decided to introduce him to the Hitachiins, "This is Minoru, Mitsuru and their cousin Kichiro. Guys, this is Isamu."
"H-h-hello," stuttered Isamu.
"Welcome to Team Hitachiin." greeted Minoru.
"Since when was that our team name?" asked Haruki.
"Since there is three Hitachiins here." teased Mitsuru with his tongue sticking out, "you were absent from the discussion and that's what we decided." we being the twins and Kichiro not caring one way or another.
"Hitachiin…" muttered Isamu.
"You okay?" asked Haruki.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." he answered with a shy smile.
The class president interrupted everyone's small talk with an announcement, "Alright, places will be assigned tomorrow. Halloween is Friday so be preparing a plan for your designated area. Class dismissed."
As the week went on the gang discussed what they should do with their assigned area, all except Isamu that is, who kept quiet most of the time and listened. They were assigned the hallway beside the third music room conveniently enough and when they had down time, would venture out there and discuss what would go where and all of that.
By Wednesday, the Hitachiin twins decided that they'd do a vampire/werewolf theme since they were enemies, then they debated on what to dress Kichiro up as. Kichiro didn't like the idea of dressing up in the first place, but the twins wouldn't take that as an answer, so to tease him more, they gave him cat ears, paws, and a tail to make him a black cat. Haruki they dressed up as a Lolita Witch against her best wishes, and finally humored Isamu as a cowardly prince.
When Friday finally came, Mitsuru was transformed into a vampire, Minoru a werewolf, Kichiro the black cat, Haruki the witch, and Isamu the dashing but oh so cowardly prince.
"This is embarrassing," groaned Kichiro with bright red cheeks.
Haruki straightened out her oversized witch's hat, "You don't look that bad. Though I don't know how these costumes are supposed to scare people."
"Well…" Kichiro murmured, "someone's scared." he pointed his cat claw to Isamu who was in a corner by the stairs.
"Isamu there's nothing to be afraid of." reassured Haruki, watching the boy flick his flashlight on and off.
"I shouldn't be here Suou! I'm so afraid." whimpered the boy.
"Get over it." groaned Mitsuru, popping out from beyond the stairs in attempt to scare the boy. Isamu freaked and hid behind Haruki who seemed to be his only true ally in this group.
"Leave him alone Mitsuru." said Haruki with a scowl.
Mitsuru came up to her and placed his hand beneath her chin, "Only if you let me partake in your blood." he joked.
Isamu started to swoon, nearly fainting from the word blood and picturing it trickle down one's neck, "Cut it out." Haruki said, jerking her head away from him.
"Minoru is quiet." whispered Kichiro leaning against the wall, "where did he go off to?"
"Not sure now that you mention it." said Haruki.
Suddenly from behind Isamu, Minoru popped up and howled, causing the boy's hair to stand on end as he doubled over.
"I said that's enough!" roared Haruki, "this isn't a game of scare your teammates, leave Isamu alone!"
"Fine, fine, you're no fun." whined Minoru, before he turned to Kichiro and slid him into an embrace, "hey there kitty kitty, wanna play with me?" he teased.
"If these claws were real I'd scratch your eyes out." groaned Kichiro.
"Feisty are we?" cooed Minoru in his ear, resting his head on his cousin's shoulder.
"If someone ends up dead tonight it'll be you." whispered Kichiro flatly.
"Dead?!" squeaked Isamu, turning his flashlight on and off frantically.
"Don't worry Isamu, Kichiro's just kidding." smiled Haruki.
"You know, I bet if we took some pictures of me biting you, those customers of the host club would flip." smirked Mitsuru, now joining in the game of "Let's Tease Kichiro Until He Cracks".
"Don't even go there." growled Kichiro.
"Guys, our turn is coming up soon, shouldn't we hide or something?" asked Haruki, trying to distract the twins from teasing Kichiro as best as she could.
That's when they all heard the sound of a squeaky door opening and closing, and then the fumbling of something down the stairs, when it reached the bottom, it was revealed to be a dead body! All at once the five of them screamed and scattered in all directions. Isamu was hurled into a trap door, Mitsuru and Kichiro were flung into a room that was locked from the inside, and Haruki and Minoru were still running down the hallway until Haruki tripped and fell. Minoru automatically stopped and turned back to her, "Haruki! Come on!"
"No, no I can't move. I landed on my knee. Give me a second." She begged, shriveling up into a ball on the floor.
Minoru knelt down in front of her, and removed her witch hat, "Will you be okay?"
"Yeah…" she whispered, her body stiff.
"Wonder where the others went…" muttered Minoru, then his eyes widened, "Mitsuru…"
Slowly Haruki sat up, "I'm sure he's fine. I'm really worried about Isamu though, he was right behind us and then… he vanished."
"Whoever's pulling the strings here is really good…" huffed Minoru.
Mitsuru and Kichiro's room was completely pitch black, in fact, they almost freaked each other out when they reached out and felt one another standing there. Mitsuru pulled out his phone to use it as a light, "Kichiro." he breathed with sigh of relief.
"Yeah… what the hell was that back there?" Kichiro was breathing deeply, backing himself up against a wall and sliding down to the floor.
"I don't know…" muttered Mitsuru, checking the door to find it locked. After a moment he gave up and sat down beside his cousin, who was still trying to catch his breath completely, "looks like we're locked in."
"Great," whispered Kichiro flatly.
The silence of the darkness around them was eerie. Only the aura of the cell phone could really be seen. Thinking of this, Mitsuru decided to address something that had been bothering him for a while. It made it easier now that he couldn't see his cousin's face, "Kichiro, why did you ask Haruki out on a date over the summer?" he mumbled.
Kichiro raised an eyebrow, "I didn't. She asked me. Why are you bringing this up now?" he wondered.
Mitsuru's heart sank, "Oh, she asked you? I see." he whispered, "Just wondering is all." he decided to quickly change the subject so Kichiro wouldn't overanalyze the situation, which he was famous for doing so, "So about that bite to eat." he grinned, bring the phone up to his face to make it glow evilly and flash the fake, sharp canines in his mouth.
"Touch me, and you'll be puking phone parts for a month." growled Kichiro.
"You're so violent." whined Mitsuru.
"And you're so annoying so I guess we're even." Kichiro retorted.
"You know Kaoru would have played along with my dad." sighed Mitsuru.
"Don't even bring that up." Kichiro fumed.
"I'm sorry…" Mitsuru suddenly spoke so genuinely, "…how's she doing anyway?" he suddenly asked.
"Why ask about something you don't even care about?" murmured Kichiro breathlessly.
Mitsuru quieted himself, and closed his phone, allowing the darkness to completely swallow them up.
By now Tamotsu was in hot pursuit of his sister. He heard her scream all the way from another hallway that he was directing with his group. He wouldn't let anything or anyone hurt his little sister. He ran so fast, he ran out of steam quite quickly, and halted in the middle of their designated hallway, where the "dead body" laid in front of the stairway.
"Ah, I see." muttered Emiko with a flashlight and book in her hands. She was following behind Tamotsu with a regular, more careless stride, "I bet I know who decided to prank the Hitachiin Team." she grinned. When Emiko grinned this way, it was sort of evil, but it could just be fitting the mood of the situation.
Haruki and Minoru were now walking around, trying to find the terrified prince they had lost along the way, while also looking for Kichiro and Mitsuru if they could find them as well.
"How's your knee?" wondered Minoru.
"It's fine, I'm sure it's just bruised. The initial pain was what hurt the most." informed Haruki.
"That's good." nodded Minoru.
"Haruki!" shouted Tamotsu as he galloped up to his sister, "are you alright? I heard you scream."
"Yes Tamotsu, we just got pranked that's all." she replied.
"Haruki," addressed Emiko, who was again following Tamotsu, "Didn't you mention a boy named Isamu on your team?"
"Yeah, we can't find him, Mitsuru, or Kichiro." Haruki answered.
"Ah, so it really must have been Mizuki." nodded the shadow queen with a smirk.
"Mizuki?" asked Minoru.
"Nekozawa Mizuki, the leader of the black magic club. She's Isamu's older sister." explained Emiko, "She makes fun of her younger brother for being a coward because she's quite the opposite."
"Haruki!" called Mitsuru, who was running to them with Kichiro by his side, and Isamu following behind them.
"There you guys are, what happened?" asked Haruki.
"Isamu here let us out of the room we got trapped in." explained Kichiro.
"I'm sorry everyone. It would seem my sister wanted to play tricks on me tonight because she found it humorous that I decided to come. I didn't mean to get you all involved. She can be quite scary when she wants to be." shuddered Isamu.
Suddenly a huge shadow of a cat puppet appeared on the wall and Isamu bolted from the seen, scared out of his wits. Descending from the darkness came Mizuki, with a beelzenef puppet on her hand, "Wait up you coward, I'm not done yet!" Mizuki wore a cloak with the hood down, had extremely long, ravenous black hair, and deep blue eyes that matched her brother's.
"So that's all it was…" mumbled Haruki.
"Are you alright Haruki?" asked Mitsuru.
"Uh, huh? Yeah, I'm fine Mitsuru. Thanks for asking." she smiled.
Minoru stared at his brother thoughtfully, when suddenly Mitsuru looked back at him and a scowl appeared on his face. All he could think was how much of a liar his brother was, and some day he'd force the truth out of him.
Author's notes: I had to make Nekozawa's kids appear at least once in this fan fiction. I think Isamu is so cute. I try to pick names that sort of represent the characters. I've read that Isamu means "courage" so it's supposed to be ironic since he's the cowardly prince, and Mizuki means "beautiful moon". Throughout the rest of the chapters I'll reveal some of the other hidden meanings behind the hosts names and such. Anyway, keep on reading and I'll see you at the next chapter. Please review! =D
