The chalk clacked against the board at the front of the room, Iida far too eager to take down notes from any ideas he heard tossed about. The room was still tense from Kairi's awkward emotions flitting about, but it had fallen to a more manageable rate the last couple days. Guilt began to override her as she left Shoto's messages without a reply, and she decided to talk to him again. After the conversation she had, her friends made it sound as if it were best to continue on as they were. It was true – no matter how she felt, he still was her best friend. Even if was strange, even if what she felt was beyond friendship. She still cherished every part of what they had and it would be even more difficult to detach herself from him based on some stupid little feelings. While he still remained concerned for how absent her mind seemed to be, Kairi wrote it off and told him she was feeling better. They continued on as before, even if the room was still a bit antsy as her feelings spiked.
Yet somehow, the class did feel brighter and more enthusiastic after Kairi found some calm in the situation, especially when she was speaking with Shoto and her heart burst with fluttering elation. The atmosphere carried on being positive even if it was met with some awkward tension. It was unclear to her what the discussion unlocked, but she felt herself a little more tamed and better to focus in the classroom afterwards.
Today, 2-A was spending extra time after class to discuss and plan what they were to be doing for their culture festival project in just six weeks' time. Aizawa had promised them the teachers were lightening their hero work to give them more focus time for the festival, but it was still going to be a heavy load. As always, Iida was taking the work seriously and was waiting for any suggestion for what it was their class was going to contribute.
"If I recall, Mr. Aizawa told us all a few days ago to begin thinking of what we could do," he told them sternly, walking in front of their teacher's desk as if he were in charge of the room.
"I thought a hero demonstration might be something to enjoy," Momo suggested.
"The third years did that last year," Kirishima reminded, reclining in his seat. "It didn't go very well. Some were amazed, but others were involved by the lack of feeling immersed and some of the quirks damaged the room. I don't see teachers allowing us to do that again."
"Yeah, but it would be real kick ass, wouldn't it?" Bakugo chuckled. Kirishima smiled his agreement.
"I think I came prepared with the perfect idea!" Iida began, dramatically placing his hands to his hips with pride. "What if we demonstrate both the marriage of hard work, knowledge, and add in physical obstacles where they could feel like a hero! Really show the strength of our school!" He smiled, believing this was the best idea yet.
"What are you talking about, Iida?" Momo asked, looking just as confused as the majority of the class around her.
"A trivia game show with an added obstacle course!" he declared happily, and sent his awe across the room, expecting everyone to jump into agreement. Instead, much of the class sounded horrified, or some combination of that with bored. Yuga was practically falling asleep into his hand at his desk. Jiro rolled her eyes. Uraraka tried to politely smiled, but it was clearly strained. Izuku, leaning against his desk, merely turned his gaze away to avoid Iida's eyes. Koda scratched his head nervously. Standing beside each other, Shoto and Kairi exchanged looks, having a short conversation with just their eyes. What do you think of this idea? Of course not, are you serious? You're right, it's ridiculous. Sensing the reception between the feel of the room and the expressions, Iida slumped his shoulder and frowned his disappointment.
"I guess... in further reflection, it is something of a mess."
"I do think the idea of having the parents and visitors involved is a really good one though!" Hagakure enthused, shoes hopping to show that she was jumping excitedly. "Maybe we could do something along the lines of that?"
"It does seem like a better idea," Kaminari agreed, folding his arms behind his head. "Rather than a presentation which could get dull if not done right."
"Being more immersed in an experience might allow guests to linger and become more interested in what we come up with," Ojiro quietly replied from his place in the corner."
"Perhaps we could try a mirror maze, and dim the lights to make the path harder find. It would be rather amusing the see how many guests hit the mirrors before they leave," Tokoyami said darkly. Several students looked at him worriedly.
"I'm going to say a no on that idea," Iida said, pushing to move on.
"You know..." Mineta began to snicker, a terrifying sign to everyone in the class. He held his hands together, comically tapping his fingers together with devious intent. "A maid café is always a popular idea. We have the perfect amount of girls in our class to simulate a maid café atmosphere, and people generally enjoy them!" Just as he was rising out of his seat, ready to explode from the excitement bursting from him, Ashido swiped a textbook off a nearby bookshelf and slapped it against his cheek. The small boy toppled from his seat and smacked onto his back, not a soul rushing to help him.
"Hard. No," Ashido hissed.
"I don't really think I'd really stand out as a maid," Hagakure answered honestly.
"It's a bit overdone," said Tsu.
"I'm not going to wear something like that," said Momo.
"Yeah, we can just throw that in the 'fuck that' pile," Kairi mumbled. Shoto chuckled lightly. Her spirit flew.
"1-D has decided to do a maid café this year, anyway," Iida sighed. "And it's true – a maid café is a bit overdone, even if people enjoy them." Kairi rippled with discomfort.
"Gross," she whispered, shaking her head.
"Any other ideas?" Yuga launched from his seat, and bowed gracefully in front of the class as if they were honored to see him speaking up.
"Perhaps something like a spa experience? To really rejuvenate the skin and leave our guests looking their best!"
"That sounds kinda fun actually!" Uraraka said.
"Except spas usually include manicures," Jiro remarked, dully turning away from the conversation.
"That doesn't seem to be too bad of an idea," Sato said.
"Do you really think that many people here know how to do nails or give massages?!' Bakugo scowled, heavily rolling his eyes at each suggestion. Mineta scrambled from where he lay on the floor, eyes aglow at the magic words.
"I am excellent at massages!" he declared.
"I don't want to know why," Iida groaned.
"You know that a spa experience doesn't just have manicures, right?" Shoto said, waving his pencil around as his spoke. "You would also need to do pedicures. No – don't reply. I don't really want to know if you're into that Mineta. And most people here wouldn't be comfortable with giving random people massages."
"Not to mention a calming atmosphere is impossible," Bakugo quipped, throwing his head in Kairi's direction. Her mind clicked, anger snapping through her brain. Her foot stepped forward and Shoto gripped her wrist to stop her. Her skin buzzed under his touch and she froze. He shook his head, reminding her to stay out of another argument. Fingers touching her skin cast a soothing spell over her. A glance at his eyes leveled her anger and she remained quiet.
"We're just going to remove the idea all together," Iida said nervously. "Any other ideas?"
"I did kind like an idea of a game," Izuku mumbled. Iida glowed again. "N-not your game! That is not to say your idea was terrible, I just think something that would make the guests invested and want to stay til the end to see who won would be fun!"
"Maybe like something that would pit us against the guests!" Uraraka said, growing in her agreement. Izuku nodded. "That's a good idea Deku!"
"That certainly would demonstrate the values of teamwork and make the guests stay longer to enjoy our work," Iida agreed. With no further remarks from the class, he turned to write "GUESSING GAME" on the board, and then swiveled back.
"It would have to be a big game that allows for a lot of people to play," Tsu said, looking across the room. "Both for us and the attendees."
"What about a game with puzzles? You can put a lot of people in that, and that would also help with teamwork?" Kairi quietly said, interest growing in her as she felt drawn in by the excited static of the conversation. Shoto looked over at her approvingly, as if proud she were throwing in her voice. She warmed with a flourish and looked over at her feet, smiling.
"Like an escape room?" Iida thought, eyes widening. "I suppose we could reset that every hour..."
"How would we be involved in that?" Jiro scoffed. "Unless we stayed in the room and moved stuff around to make more difficult."
"Or we could be like those horror movies and pretend to kill them if they don't figure out how to get out," Tokoyami said calmly. Kairi looked at him with confused terror, matching must of the class. Bakugo stepped two spaces closer to Kirishima, away from the bird kid.
"That... might be an interesting idea..." Shoto muttered. Those within an earshot gasped and stepped away from him, surprised by his response. He immediately blanched. "That... isn't what a meant! Obviously... I was just thinking about the slightly darker side of things... Kairi, didn't you say your dad went to a murder mystery party once and essentially ruined it?" She giggled, and nodded.
"He did. He said the clues didn't make sense and was frustrated that he got it wrong, and left declaring 'This isn't how the police do it!' and he stomped away and was never invited again!" Warmth lilted her voice as she cackled at the memory, of how angrily he stopped into the house and grumbled for hours about what a waste of time it was. "It isn't fun watching crime shows or movies with him either. He either figures it out right away, or complains that it's incredibly wrong. He enjoyed Agatha Christie though. He thought the stories were well written." As she continued to speak with mirthful nostalgia, the class exchanged looks.
"A murder mystery party?" Momo thought aloud, as if declaring what everyone else was already thinking. "That could be something. We could declare someone's been killed and have the guests try to work in groups to try and figure out the answer."
"Oh wait! There's a movie based on that game, Clue!" Izuku answered, jumping in. "Didn't it have multiple endings and each ending had a different killer?"
"Maybe we could do that," Kirishima said. "We could have different scenarios and in each one there's another killer." Iida snapped his fingers and began to write out the suggestions on the board. The more each student spoke up, he added to the list and within fifteen minutes they had a cohesive list of their plan. All students seemed to grow excited about the idea of playing out a murder mystery for guests to enjoy and once the rough plan was constructed, they became eager to work on it right away.
The initial idea was for it to be presented like a murder mystery dinner party, and all the guests were to be welcomed as if they were joining the party. Recognizing it would be impractical to design a whole meal for every scenario rotation, they decided instead on a cocktail party design; with hors d'oeuvres and snacks, and some tea and juices. Doing some research of classic murder mystery tropes and characters, they decided that some of the students would play as some of these classic characters and would also be considered guests at this party, but would be the only ones who would be the suspects. Those attending the festival would then have to collect clues, interview the "suspects" and figure out who it was. They had a few scenarios with a different suspect and would rotate them. They would need to set a schedule in a pamphlet to let the guests know when each scenario started, but after each set they would release them and take some time before beginning another. It also was a good opportunity for other guests to potentially come back and try out a new scenario.
"We have twenty-one students, however," Iida said, inspecting the pieces on the board he had written. "That might seem a bit overcrowded, doesn't? That's a lot of suspects to whittle down in such a short amount of time."
"I may not be a convincing player..." Hagakure chuckled shyly. "I'm not sure I would really act and stay in character. Plus they may just think I did it since they couldn't see me do it."
"Well, I suppose not everyone is going to be comfortable acting anyway..." Momo said. "What if we split down this list then? My father holds parties all the time. There's usually staff walking around and handing out food and drinks, and the parties are often like the ones shown in those movie clips except more moderns. Plus, we have to have a butler, right? Those who don't really want to act as a character can be the staff."
"So we can have maids?!" Mineta almost screamed.
"They won't be maids like that," Iida scoffed. "Besides, the focus will be on the mystery and not the maids."
"Maybe the staff can still be involved in the mystery though," Uraraka said, nearly flailing from all the excited planning. "They're the eyes and ears of the mansion, right? The guests can ask them questions, and help give them hints. Plus if one of our suspects is a butler, he'll be mixed in with the rest of the staff and it will be more of a surprise!"
"Good idea, Ochaco!" Izuku said. She smiled, growing pink.
"Thanks!" Iida hurriedly wrote down the idea.
"Then, I guess... we could write down everyone who would like to be on the staff and who would like to be a suspect then?" Iida said. Met with nods, they went around the room and asked who would like to be a staff member and who would like to be a suspect. They all decided, for an extra element of fun and to further the immersion, the suspects would have characters, professions, and they would need to dress the part to fit. As the activity formed, excitement was bubbling around them. Even Kairi, while she mostly sat back and shook or nodded her head to voice her opinion, was feeling a bouncing erraticism inside her as she fell into the building of the mystery. It was something different from the norm, and she didn't have many experiences with plays or anything that wasn't some sort of coffee shop or a game for a culture project.
"Kairi?" Momo finally, asked, turning to her to collect her name.
"You know, I think... I think it might be kind of fun to see if my father is going to pin me as a suspect or see if I can implement anything he's pointed out to me on TV over the years... I might just... maybe..." Feeling shy and insecure, but determined and brimming with enthusiasm, she twiddled her fingers again and shyly looked at her feet. "I think I want to try to be a suspect." While her answer was first met with surprised gasps, they quickly fell to proud smiles. Shoto in particular grinned brightly, glowing at her. She brushed her hair in her face, hiding her pink blossom cheeks behind the blue strip.
"I'd like to be a suspect too," Shoto said. Momo wrote down his name and continued around the room. By the end of it, all the players were collected and they narrowed down their choices. For the final part of the project before they were released, Iida and Momo wrote down the roles and placed them in the hats, with F or M visible on the back in case it was important for that character to have a specific gender (according to the tropes). Passing it around, someone would first pick a name and then hand it back to Iida. He would whisper something to Momo, who would then write to down. After Mineta had drawn the name he had picked, Iida turned pale at the title scribbled. Shaking his head, he skipped saying anything to Momo and had Shoto draw a name. Holding both pieces of paper, he placed them in front of Momo and whispered, softly. Her eyes bulged, looking back over the strips of paper before slowly nodding. She looked back up and grimaced apologetically, with Kairi being the last in line to draw. and then realizing Kairi had been the last in the line to draw. Her friend only shook her head and mouthed "I'm sorry!" Kairi mouthed "Why?" but at that moment, Iida began to read off the names and her question was soon answered.
"With all the names in... I shall be the host butler! Aoyama, you are our resident billionaire playboy!"
"I shall of course be charming as usual!" Yuga chuckled.
"Uraraka, you shall be playing the attractive socialite flirt..." Izuku and Uraraka blushed simultaneously. "Ashido, you are our conservative teacher. Midoriya, the recluse writer.. Yaoyorozu, our young ingenue. Kaminari, the gentleman gardener. Mineta, the veteran. And finally our newlywed lovers, the Lord and Lady shall be played by Todoroki and Hoshino!"
Kairi's blush disappeared and left behind the palest sheen to her skin. Momo looked at her horrified, Yuga smiled dreamily at the two and Tsu let out the meekest of nervous ribbits.
Shoto only grinned and pressed a hand between her shoulder blades. It burned and rippled through Kairi violently.
"Shall we head home then, my dear?" he asked, voice full of comical teasing. Kairi swallowed and held her throat tight, suppressing with all her might a startled scream.
If that whole exchange about name drawing and what Iida frowned at was confusing, it's explained in the next chapter, I promise! Thanks for all the new readers! :)