Friday, the day usually regarded as the best in work week, followed. The sky got filled with gray clouds again, dimming everything below. Chiaki was set to go to her school once again, preparing everything she needed. That also meant video games as well, because she just couldn't live without them.
On her way to school, she stopped right before an intersection, observing all sorts of cars that drove right in front of her. Vehicles that were parallel to her also had to wait in order to let others pass. She wondered where were they all going. However, there was one driver that had no patience to wait, as he drove down while passing through stationary cars while being over the speed limit as much as possible.
The aforementioned driver was on a yellow moped and the said driver was, in fact, a golden octopus wearing sunglasses.
"I like your cut, noob." taunted Herman before he somehow smacked back of her head as he made a turn left. The smack had so much force it made her fall down right on the road, causing her face to meet the rough surface of asphalt. Due to Herman overspeeding as much as possible, the driver of a Toyota smashed on the brakes before he smacked on the horn. Entire column behind the Toyota driver came to a halt, with some cars bumping into each other. Hadn't it been for the driver reacting in time, Chiaki could have been run over quickly.
"What the fuck, asshole?! You nearly caused an accident!" ranted random Toyota driver while looking back, but Herman was too far for his words to have an effect on him. Before he would continue his journey to his job, he stepped out of the car and approached the girl on the road. She was still lying on it, but she was attempting to stand up. Her right cheek had few scratches on them, with some causing minor bleeding.
"Hey, you okay there?" asked random Toyota driver, offering her a hand to hold on. With his help, Chiaki managed to stand up.
"Wha….what just happened?" quietly muttered Chiaki, utterly confused at what happened to her. She looked around, only to realize that she was in front of a column of automobiles.
"I think some drunkard on a motorcycle just smacked you. Didn't know smacks could be so powerful that would send a person flying." random Toyota driver attempted to elaborate as he gave her a spare tissue to cover her scratches on cheeks.
"...huh?" Chiaki tilted her head, witnessing a glimpse of a speeding moped. However, not only did the moped disappear within her sight in a turn, she failed to identify the driver of it. "Excuse me, but have you seen the driver of it?"
"Uh, nope. All I saw was a speeding bike." answered random Toyota driver before he went inside his car, trying to not waste much time since an entire column of cars with frustrated drivers was just behind him.
"Ah, I see. Thanks anyway." thanked Chiaki before she departed from the scene, freeing the column of waiting.
"You're welcome, but stay safe." cautioned random Toyota driver, continuing to drive to his job after the road has fully cleared of any obstacles.
"Seriously though, was that just my imagination or….?" thought Chiaki to herself during her daily journey to school, pressing the tissue on her cheek to minimize bleeding. It was a thought that just refused to go away.
After quite a lot of time walking around, she arrived to Hope's Peak academy. As soon as she opened doors of the entrance, Chiaki entered the halls. However, unlike how it usually was, the silence of halls was disrupted by various somewhat loud conversations between a mechanic, rockstar and a rapper. Their topic at that moment was something all teenage boys (and sometimes girls) loved to talk about: girls.
"Say, Zapatta, who do you think is the hottest chick in our class?" asked Kazuichi, wondering about the opinion of a rockstar friend regarding many pretty girls (and Hiyoko) in his class.
"Not gonna lie, Ibuki's ass is p-h-a-t!" admitted Zapatta, remembering that one time when he saw her bend over to look for instruments.
"Oooh, Ibuki! She's quite good, yes, but personally, I'm more fan of Miss Sonia!" Kazuichi's eyes started sparkling when he mentioned the name of his princess classmate.
"Sonia? The princess one?" wondered Zapatta.
"Hell yeah, dude!" cheered Kazuichi, pumping his fists in the process.
"Ah yes, she's quite pretty as well." nodded Zapatta as his vision of Sonia became clearer. As they gushed about Sonia Nevermind, Suifta raised her eyebrow, wondering if they actually knew her.
"...and I'm pretty sure she was a sailor before." added Suifta in a rather concerned tone as she scratched her head.
"What do you mean, Suifta? I'm pretty sure Sonia is very pure, I mean just look at her!" Kazuichi immediately went to defend her, despite the aforementioned princess chilling in the class without a worry.
"For someone like a princess, she said some words I never thought during that time we had, uh, a laboratory experiment." Suifta explained her point towards them, which caused an increase of interest in both Zapatta and Kazuichi. Even though the latter has already heard her swear, he wanted to know even more.
"Say, what kind of words did she use?!" asked Zapatta.
"You know, like f-" just when Suifta was about to drop that word, their conversation was interrupted by Chiaki bumping into Kazuichi out of a sudden.
"Hey, watch where you are-" warned Kazuichi out of an instinct after he flinched, but he cooled down once he recognized the person who bumped into him. "Oh hey Nanami!"
However, Chiaki herself failed to notice that three people were in front of her, standing awkwardly and lost in her thought.
"Nanamers! Look in front of you!" Zapatta called out for her. Perhaps it was due to his loudness, but it did manage to get her attention.
"Sorry about that." quietly apologized Chiaki.
"Hey, wassu-" casually greeted Kazuichi before he noticed that she was pressing a slightly blood stained tissue on her cheek. All three of them were rather surprised to see the gamer girl in such state, even though it wasn't really severe. "why...are you covering your face, if I may ask?"
"Oh...I just...tripped over when I was going to the school, but nothing much to worry. I'm fine." explained Chiaki while deliberately not mentioning that she was nearly in a car accident. She didn't want to make them worry, not that she thought she was worth of worry.
"I mean, it could have been worse, but take care of yourself, girl." suggested Suifta as she pointed at her.
"What are you up to?" wondered Chiaki, switching topics in order to make them less worry about her.
"Not much, except that projector broke in Zapatta and Suifta's class...again! I'm starting to think you guys need a new one." answered Kazuichi. While didn't mind repairing at all, it was getting ridiculous for him that their projector broke weekly.
"To be fair, the average lifespan of our projector is like five days. Part of it cuz technical issues, part of it cuz its Class 69." commented Suifta, hinting at what their days are at Class 69.
"I'm just gonna go to my class now. I'm not exactly sure of the time now...I think, but I hope you all have fun." wished Chiaki before she tried to go to her class, only to stop because she saw Zapatta and Suifta wincing at her remark. It caused her to worry a bit, due her not getting their social cues. "Is there….something wrong?"
"The distance between word "fun" and Class 69 is measured in light years, Nanamers." elaborated Zapatta in a rather genuinely disdainful way, lacking energy that he usually had. Suifta just quietly nodded in response.
"C'mon, it wasn't that bad last time." Kazuichi attempted to reassure, but it was clear that he didn't have a full picture of their class.
"Yes, but that's because majority of class was not there. Now, we have full package, my friend." debated Zapatta while also warning him about his classmates and their alleged shenanigans.
"I mean, if you give them a chance, you could have fun." Chiaki tried to convince them that maybe their classmates weren't really bad after all. It left both Zapatta and Suifta dumbfounded and had it been a much more abrasive person, they would have called her out harshly. But Chiaki, just like plenty of individuals in Class 77-B and Class 78th, was on their "pretty alright" list, so they took some time to think about how to express their opinion without tearing her apart.
"Sorry to say this, but you have way too high expectations of people, Nanam." said Suifta to her as softly as she could, but it already caused her to doubt herself, signified by her usually innocent smile turning downwards. Slight feeling of guilt kicked in Zapatta and Suifta when they saw her like that, so they decided within their minds that they'll make up something good for her.
"...Anyway, let me check something." murmured Chiaki, pulling out a Nintendo DS Lite to check time. Zapatta and Suifta found her usage of a handheld to be rather odd, since a phone would do just fine, if not even better. After checking the clock, it appeared that Chiaki was in a bit of a pickle: she was being late! "S-sorry guys, I have to go."
"See ya!" the gang of a mechanic, rockstar and rapper gave her finger guns to cheer on her as she dashed off as quickly as she could to her class. She couldn't afford to disappoint either Miss Yukizome or her classmates. Not that they would be disappointed over such small thing, though.
Meanwhile, a bit far away from Hope's Peak academy, Herman was driving down on streets of the city with his Vespa 946 moped, disobeying every single speed limit as much as he could. His Vespa was specifically modified with a stronger engine, so it could go even faster, meaning more speed limits to break.
"Hmmm, what is on my list today?" wondered Herman as he pulled out a small piece of paper that looked like your average shopping list, but that was his master plan for Friday. Only one thing was written on it:
"Obtain car!"
"Oh, that do be very nice! I've been looking forward to this!" Herman pumped his arm like a fist as he continued his constantly law breaking journey to the nearest automobile shop in the city, overtaking every single car in the process.
As he went forth, he suddenly encountered the worst nighmare of any driver, especially for tourists: a traffic jam. Hundreds of cars were stacked up in multiple parallel lines, each of them making only marginal movements per long periods of time. However, Herman and his Vespa were exempt of the jam, as they could maneuver around cars like no tomorrow. It gave him a feeling of some arbitrary pride, so to speak. An idea popped in his head as he was traversing through the jungle of automobiles.
"Ah, I see a legendary event in front of my eyes that is often referred as "Ingorgo stradale". I think I know what this means, ohohoho!" boasted Herman before he flipped a specially dedicated switch on the handlebar of Vespa. Suddenly, loud music, or rather sheer concentrated bass and treble in rawest form, started to blast through his so called bass boosters. The distorted song was about a certain dude boasting about his Lamborghini, though lyrics were barely comprehensible at that point. Windows of cars around him started to shake from resonance, with some cars even activating their security systems.
"What the hell is this?!" seethed random Nissan driver as his car went haywire due to bass. Herman had a laugh as the chaos in the jam. One of the drivers managed to spot the source of such audial assault and opened
"Hey, bastard! Stop playing that crap right now or I'm gonna beat your ass!" threatened a random Honda Civic driver that suspiciously looked like a yakuza member, but his threat landed on wrong ears.
"Ok, got it!" chuckled Herman before he increased the volume of his bass boosters. At that point, windows of older cars started breaking from sheer resonance.
"OH, YOU ABSOLUTE-" shouted a random Honda Civic driver before his voice was drowned in the audio based sea of furious car horns. The octopus on his Vespa just casually strolled down, taking great joy hearing the symphony of frustrated drivers.
"Hahaha, putting on bass boosters on my Vespa is the greatest thing! Some say too swag even!" boasted Herman, triumphantly continuing his journey to get a car amid the raging drivers.
After he escaped the traffic jam, he put an end to bass boosted harrassment by turning off his contraption. Soon, he also found an isolated car shop near the bay area of the city. The entrance itself was just a giant window with doors on it, revealing all sorts of cars that were on sale that day. From Subaru's to Toyota's, the shop had a quite a nice number of them. The moment he reached the desired destination, he parked his moped right in front of the entrance. He took of his glasses before he looked at the shop with delight.
"Here I am, as intended! Now, lets see what do they offer here." bombastically thought Herman to himself before he opened transparent doors, waving at the young salesman with his tentacle arm. "Hello there!"
"Oh, hello! Quite an unusual, but a welcome customer! May I help you?" approached young car salesman with a polite tone in his voice, trying to make Herman feel like he was at home. Not that he needed it, because just seeing cars was enough to intice feeling of joy in him.
"I am looking for some cars, yes." confirmed Herman, crossing his arms to look like a boss. The young salesman took him to the red sleek looking car with a spoiler on its behind.
"Would you perhaps be interested in Toyota Supra-" car salesman attempted to promote him a Supra, but there was one thing that bothered Herman about the car: the origin of the brand.
"It's japanese, so nah." Herman shook his head along with his entire body.
"Is there….anything wrong with it being japanese?" asked car salesman, being rather off put by marine based customer's disapproval.
"You see, japanese cars are basic bitches. They are not offensively bad, but they have no character. No gusto, it's just like vanilla." explained Herman while making gestures to prove his point, one of them being Spaghettata gesture out of all things. Young car salesman stood dumbfounded, trying to fumble some words out of his mouth after witnessing an explanation that he would have never thought he would have ever heard in his life.
"I...see. Perhaps you are more fan of german ca-" car salesman attempted to divert the topic to something more famously considered to be either efficient or overengineered, trying to take him to the Volkswagen Polo that was on sale that day.
"German cars are for pendantic snobs. Don't get me started on BMW drivers." scoffed Herman as he glared at Polo. At that point, the young car salesman was just lost on how to even please that octopus.
"Well...what kind of cars do you like?" piqued car salesman, leaving him to answer as he wished.
"Here, take a look, my friend." Herman suddenly pulled out another piece of paper, which seemed to be another list. Unlike the one that he used as a daily plan, that had organized content such as:
"Abarth,
Alfa Romeo,
Ferrari,
Fiat,
Lamborghini,
Lancia,
Maserati,
Pagani."
"Ferrari? Consider yourself lucky, because we just have one in stock!" car salesman scratched his chin as he raised his eyebrow. At the very least, he finally knew how to make Herman satisfied with his choice.
"Anything else though?" wondered Herman, just in case.
"Nothing else, sadly." car salesman shook his head before both of them went towards the corner, where Herman could see what he wanted.
The sole Ferarri reigned in the corner. It was not just any Ferrari, but a white stylish Ferrari FF, one of brand's cars that got four seats and four wheel drive instead of just usual two seats. Among other cars, it stood out like a glamorous celebrity among the ordinary folk.
"Oh….Oooooh…..Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh!" Herman rubbed his face in satisfaction the moment his eyes laid upon the shiny Ferrari. It was a total bliss or in his words...
"Ok, that's sex. It's just like looking at a supermodel with a fat ass!"
"That's...an interesting way to show approval, but I'm glad you do." although completely bamboozled by his customer, car salesman sighed in relief that he finally managed to give an option to the ever demanding octopus.
However, that feeling of relief vanished when Herman said one simple request:
"I want it free of charge."
"H-ha-haha, that's a funny joke, but it costs around 38085088,85 yen." clarified car salesman, taking Herman's request quite lightly.
"Did you think I was joking?" squinted Herman as he pointed at him. The tone of his voice changed completely, going from an usually bombastic to rather composed, but cold. "Let me say again: free of charge."
"Y-you are being ridiculous! I can't just handle over a car for free, especially something like that!" protested car salesman.
"Hand over the keys now." demanded Herman as a final warning, making an inviting gesture just to give him the object he desperately wanted.
"What, are you threatening me? I'll call the poli-" despite the warning, young car salesman insisted on protesting, even bringing the phone out of his pocket.
"I see where this is going, so…" interrupted Herman before whistled, sealing the fate of car salesman. His opponent was confused by the meaning of him whistling
It didn't take long for five tuxedo dressed men to break through the entire entrance with their back flips, landing right in front of shattered pieces. All five of them faced towards the direction of Herman and the car salesman, looking at them with grins that would make some people run for their lives.
"Eyy, my boy! Who's gonna get it this time?" one of punkster already began cracking his knuckles at the sight of car salesman. Other punksters followed him as well, cracking their knuckles in the process.
"W-wha….w-wha….WHAAAAAAAAAAA!" car salesman's eyes widened as he ran out of his car shop as quickly as he could. The moment he fully disappeared from the shop, all of punksters focused their attention toward Herman and Ferrari. The octopus jumped on the car before he turned towards his henchmen.
"Well, the catch is ours, punksters!" boasted Herman, raising his arm like a fist. In response, punksters pumped their fists while they went "YEAH!".
"Aw man, I didn't even throw a punch." lamented the punkster that cracked his fists first.
"Next time, but now we gotta find the keys!" reminded Herman as all of them started looking through the entire shop to find keys meant for Ferrari. Punksters looked around the place while Herman checked others rooms of the shop as well.
As the time went on, keys were yet to be found. Punksters looked every corner of the building, but not a single trace of their target was found at that moment.
"Seriously, where are they?" wondered one of the punksters while looking inside Volkswagen Polo. One has to wonder what would keys for a Ferrari be doing inside a mere Volkswagen. Suddenly, Herman dropped from the ceiling and landed right in front of them.
"Gottem!" Herman raised his arm to show them keys with a horse logo. Recognizing that logo, Herman and punksters knew that they have got what they wanted.
"Ayy, nice one!" cheered punksters around him before four of punksters followed Herman to the car. The golden octopus opened the door of sleek Ferrari FF and lowered the front seat in order to give two of the punksters a place to sit inside.
"I have a question, Herman my boy." asked one punkster that opted to wait instead of immediately going to Ferrari FF.
"Yeah?" Herman turned towards him with intrigue.
"What about your moped?" wondered punkster as he pointed at Vespa in front of the entrance.
"One of ya bois can take it for a bit. I wanna get that juicy Ferrari action now!" Herman gave him an answer along with keys for his moped as the sole punkster left the shop. Then he sat on the moped, inserted keys inside and started it up. Punkster on a moped waited for his colleagues to start up their own machine while Herman invited his henchmen to enter the car. "Get in, bambinos!"
After all punksters went inside Ferrari, Herman put the front seat back to its original position and then jumped on it.
"Ooooooh yeaaaah, baby!" whooped Herman when he placed his arms around the steering wheel. Before he started, he told his colleagues about the forecoming plan: "Alright my boys, here's our plan. We have to act as not sus as possible or else we are gonna get busted! Then, we are gonna speed it up back to our hideout and flex on everyone!"
"Ayy, can't wait!" said one of punksters as he grinned.
"Revv up those engines, cause its gonna get hot!" suggested other punkster, to which Herman responded with turning on Ferrari FF once and for all. The lights on the glamorous car turned on as the engine itself revved up. Once it was done warming up, the car's engine roared like a beast. Compared to other measly cars in the shop, the sports car influence in FF was loud and clear.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOH, magnificent!" Herman and his gang felt goosebumps when they heard the roaring sound of Ferrari FF. "Here we go, my bois!"
Unlike how he has done drives usually, Herman decided to take a polar opposite approach to getting out of the shop: drive it with the astonishing speeds of a snail. By slowly but carefully maneuvering around the shop, Herman and his colleagues managed to get out of a shop. Punkster on a moped escorted them as the main driver of a luxurious four seater stepped on the gas, starting to gain the speed they desired so much. Thus, they drove down the street, surrounding the area with roars of a Ferrari.
Meanwhile, back at Hope's Peak, both Class 77-B and Class 78th had lunch time. It was an average lunch time of the day, with each individual being with their friend group or by themselves. Chiaki was around her usual group, which consisted of Hajime, Chihiro and Ibuki. However, instead of eating her sandwich, she was motionlessly staring at the ceiling, lost in thought once again. Her behaviour raised some concerns around her group as they wondered what was up with her.
"Nanami is the world of "Staring at ceiling" again!" pointed out Ibuki.
"Earth to Nanani, report your status." Hajime waved his hand in front of her eyes, but to no avail. Chiaki was still staring upwards. "Darn, it didn't work. Gotta change it to something more effective."
"Wait, I know!" Hajime quickly got an idea about how to get her attention and he didn't take time to use it to her. "Hey, Chiaki, have you heard about rumored Starblade revival? I've read about it online that it's gonna have a completely different gameplay style than ones before."
As if he turned on a lightbulb, Chiaki turned her head towards him in an instant. It also activated her "fangirl" mode.
"Heh, I knew it, but before that, we wanna know if there's been anything bothering you. You've been more quiet than usual today." said Hajime to her, causing her "fangirl" mode to tone down considerably. It took a while to get a response out of her again because she was formulating sentences inside her brain.
"Uh...there's been something on my mind." admitted Chiaki after some time of thinking.
"Yeah?" Hajime leaned towards her a bit, judging from how quiet she spoke her words.
"It would be best to discuss it with them, when we, like, gather around after school." suggested Chiaki in a case anyone would hear them. At first, Hajime didn't exactly understood why, but then he got the idea. It was probably related to Daft Capo.
"Hmmm, if its relevant to our cause, then yeah, it would be better to talk about it later." said Hajime while remaining duo of a musician and programmer wondered what Chiaki meant.
"Probably….anyway, about Starblade…" Chiaki switched the topic as her "fangirl" mode got activated again, continuining into a happy tangent about a certain rail shooter arcade game. Hajime sometimes got a bit overwhelmed when listening to her, but he, along with Ibuki and Chihiro, enjoyed it none than less. It seemed like everyone was just minding their own business, not being bothered by eccentricness of each other.
But that was not the case. Kyoko, who kept herself distanced from others, overheard their conversation
"Them? What are they on about?" wondered Kyoko as he suspicion about them raised further. It was already odd for her that both Chiaki and Peko planted some kind of contraptions in the flower garden, then they talked about meeting some kind of group after the school. Although she had plans for today, Kyoko has decided to interrogate one of them next day.
At the other end of the city again, Herman and his gang were deprived of overspeeding joy, instead being caught in a slow vehicular hell that went by a simple name of "traffic jam".
"Oh, for fucks sake, it's Ingorgo stradale here as well!" cursed Herman, deprived of his usual bombastic energy, instead being filled with lethargic frustration that every European tourist channeled every time they tried to cross a border.
"Told ya to take the other road." warned the punkster that sat next to him.
"If there's a silver lining in this, at least our chances of being sus have decreased." other punkster in the back attempted to reassure the gang that was trapped amid the sea of stationary automobiles.
"Not being sus is not worth it if you are moving one centimeter PER HOUR!" countered Herman while making frustrated gestures with his arms. His argument was not even a hyperbole, because they have only moved one centimeter in the last hour and a half. "And even then that's not guaranteed."
"You know, you should have went with your moped." said the other punkster, who was just chilling in the back.
"But Ferrari!" exclaimed Herman, not letting a traffic jam stopping his eternal love for all cars italiano. Suddenly, they heard
"Speaking of moped, look at that boi go!" punkster next to Herman pointed at the sole punkster, who was speeding through the traffic jam on his moped while spotting the most excerment-eating grin that has ever graced planet Earth. As soon as he appeared, he soonly disappeared from their sight.
"Ah, the joy of being narrow. You don't have to deal with this." lamented Herman, remembering how did the early hours of his day go. Then he looked out of the window and saw that some cars were moving forward with significant distance. However, the car right in front of him was not moving at all for reasons only known to its driver.
"Good lord, the guy in front of you has already moved, asshole!" fumed Herman, smashing his squishy arms on steering wheel. The horn emitted by Ferrari was enough for the driver in front of it to react and speed up. Herman felt some semblance of relief as he stepped on the gas and rolled forward. "Finally, we are-"
That feeling of relief was soon shot down when a car on his right side tried to not only overtake him in a traffic jam, but also shove itself right in the line. Worst of all, it was a BMW.
"Oh fuck! BMW driver!" cautioned punksters at the sight of the intrusive German car. The traffic jam already caused Herman's anger nervers to be tickled, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
"NON TE NE ANDRAI VIA CON QUESTO, STRONZO!" roared Herman before he opened the windows of Ferrari and jumped out of it. The punkster next to him took care of the driver's seat in the time when Herman sneaked to the BMW. Once he managed to climb on it, he looked through the window to see the driver. Realizing that the window was an obstacle he couldn't just remove it with his tentacle arm, he brought up a Swiss army knife. Instead of using any blades on it, he broke the window with just bluntly smacking the closed Swiss army knife on it. The driver was startled by the sudden break-in, but by that time, Herman jumped in, shaking like a volcano that was about to erupt.
"FANCULO TE E IL TUO BMW!" shouted Herman at the driver before he began smacking him with his arm to the point of unconsciousness. After the BMW driver was knocked out, Herman took over control of BMW, stepped on the gas pedal and realigned the automobile back to its original position. After everything was set and done, Herman jumped out of the window and sneaked back inside Ferrari FF. He exchanged seats with punkster, maintaining the driving control of Ferrari once again.
"Alright, I'm back. Back to this shit." grumbled Herman, placing his grip on the steering wheel once again.
"Say, mind if we play some jams to make time pass quicker?" suggested the front seat punkster as he pointed at the screen that displayed navigation, time and many more.
"Oh, good idea! Let me set this boye up!" approved Herman before he pulled out his phone and turned on the bluetooth connection. Once the phone and automobile's device were linked, he looked for a song through internet. Some time of searching concluded with a choice of Herb Albert's Spanish flea.
"...Really, dude? Spanish flea, out of all things?" punkster, like his colleagues around him, raised their eyebrows in bafflement.
"Yes, it's for ten hours." added Herman.
"But I want something with beats!" complained punkster in the back, since he thought such jovial music wouldn't fit their tastes.
"This is the only music that fits being trapped in Ingorgo stradale. Get used to it, my boys." defeatedly clarified Herman.
"Hoo boy, this is gonna ring in my ears for a week." punkster rolled his eyes as they all waited amid the traffic jam, moving at the sluggish pace.
Hours have passed and both Class 77-B and Class 78th had their day finished at Hope's Peak. However, it was not all over yet for Fellowship of Darkness, who went towards their hideout . No new members were recruited that day. As everything was set, both human and bird members of the covert group were in the middle of their discussion.
"Avians of the Faraway Blizzard, have you found anything about that dreaded Kraken of the Land?" asked Gundham about activites of their adversary, crossing his arms for bonus intimidation points.
"No joy, if we are talking about Herman and Daft Capo. About you guys, though-" responded Skipper while trying to tell them all sorts of things they found out about things students have done. Some better left unknown.
"Importance of our actions at this temple of education is nowhere near relevant as what our adversary is doing!" interrupted Gundham, letting them to filter out information that they needed at their end.
"...Right, so yeah. Not much. Anything on your end?" concluded Skipper as he gave them an opportunity to report. It was an enough of a cue that Chiaki managed to reveal what thought was predominant in her mind for the rest of the day.
"Well, I did see….something...odd." Chiaki quietly spoke as she raised her hand. Her speaking up immediately caught attention of her friend group and penguins together. Others were curious about what would she say as well, perhaps it could be quite necessary for their defense against Daft Capo.
"Speak, Marshmallow Face!" ordered Skipper as he pointed his flipper at her.
"In the morning I saw….." began Chiaki, but she suddenly faltered, ceasing to talk as well. She stared at the ceiling once again, trying to formulate her words. Others were on the edge about what she would she say.
"Saw what?" demandingly asked Skipper, breaking a rather awkward period of silence in the process.
"Is she playing hangman's in her head or what?" whispered Kowalski to Skipper as he leaned towards him.
"...a moped, I think. It was yellow and kinda fast." Chiaki finally uttered what she wanted to say just before Skipper would make a comment about her. Although Hope's Peak students were confused, just mentioning any random vehicle in the context of Daft Capo was enough to invoke a sense of familiarity among penguins. Skipper, Kowalski and Rico gave her a serious look, confirming that there's relevance in her observation. Meanwhile, Private had a dopey face on him, like almost all the time.
"Two questions...One, who was the driver and two, what brand was it?" Skipper fired two questions in an immediate fashion.
"Uh, I do remember the driver being rather of short stature. Other than that….sorry, I don't remember too much." answered Chiaki.
"Wait, how is brand relevant to finding out if a vehicle belongs to them?" asked Makoto, not quite sure about how automobile brands connect to Daft Capo. Others didn't, but one of them did eventually figure it out. The individual in question was quite unexpected.
"Oh oh oh! Ibuki thinks that Ibuki gets it! We have established that they're car enthusiasts, right?" Ibuki waved with her hand, trying to get everyone's attention.
"Yeah...that's what we established." reluctantly confirmed Hajime.
"So they're like more knowledgeable about cars and they just look for brands that they enjoy, like that Volvo!"explained Ibuki before she put her arms around her waist and let out a hearty laugh. At some point, one could imagine Pinocchio's nose on her face in that pose. "Good job, Ibuki's braincells! You came up with something good!"
"You're not exactly on the wrong track, Horned Musician, but I think you are underestimating them regarding that." confirmed Skipper before he raised another point regarding connections between Daft Capo and automobiles.
"Oh, they're more than just car enthusiasts?" wondered Ibuki, leaning towards them.
"They're automobile FANATICS!" revealed Skipper in a dramatic fashion, but all he did was confuse them over such dramatization of something as mundane as taste in vehicles. None of the Hope's peak gang could come up with an appropriate response as they all stared at each other.
"...Explain." requested Nekomaru as he raised his finger.
"Alright, hear me out: these boys just look for and drive only one thing and that is European cars! Nothing else! I remember back in Florida, they took all European cars in the shop!" elaborated Skipper about certain quirks about the opposing mafia. "Sole exception for them seems to be commie cars, which is like...the only thing I agree with them."
"Does that mean it would be easier for us to know what cars belong to Daft Capo?" queried Hajime.
"….Yeah, actually. That's one way to sniff them out." confirmed Skipper without even realizing it initially.
"Do you have a list of all brands that Daft Capo could use?" asked Chiaki, tilting her head.
"Kowalski, the list!" ordered Skipper. Without hesitation, Kowalski brought up an entire catalogue of every European car manufactorer and threw it on the table, so that Hope's Peak students could look at it.
The thing was that every single European car manufactorer was on the list, including defunct ones. It was at that moment when everyone in the meeting realized they had a lot of work to do.
"That's….uhm...a lot of them." gulped Chihiro at the sight of so many companies listed.
"Eh, don't worry about it. Most prominent ones are highlighted." Skipper pointed out that some of the most prominent ones, such as Lamborghini and Fiat, were highlighted by red markers. Then he faced towards them with a serious glare and gave out an order: "Now, boys and girls, I have a request for you: Keep an eye on the moped."
As their meeting went by, Herman and his Daft Capo colleagues were still stuck in a traffic jam. There seemed to be hope for them in the form of jam itself getting smaller as they went forth, but there was only one obstacle left for them: an intersection. They were just two cars away from freedom of the jam. However, Herman and punksters waited for quite some time in a same spot.
"Herman, can you check what's in front?" requested punkster. The golden octopus driver looked out of the window, only to see something that truly shocked him to the core. Something he thought it was only possible in Europe.
"….Oh shit." blurted Herman with his irises shrinking at the sight of what he saw. "The worst possible thing to be in front of a crossroad."
"What?" wondered punkster about what he was dramatizing all about. In Herman's eyes, he saw the absolute most frightening, most spine chilling thing he could see. People around the world feared such calamity to an unbelievable degree. No one should have ever partake in such disaster. It was...
"….a Peugeot driver…"
"AW FUCK!" shouted punksters in forecoming irritation, at that moment knowing that the entire reason they were still waiting in the line was because of a some guy in a Peugeot 206 being stuck right in the middle of the crossroad. Worst thing was no one was in front of that guy. Only choice they had is to wait.
"Look at that, entire road is empty right in front of him. Why is he hesitating?" wondered punkster in the front seat as all of them observed the Peugeot 206 driver with intensity.
"I ask the same, homie, why is he just-" punkster behind him wanted to comment, but he was soon interrupted by a Peugeout driver going reverse, nearly hitting the closest car in the process.
"MOFO'S GOING REVERSE, HOLY SHIT!" everyone in Ferrari raged the moment when they saw him, with Herman smashing the steering out of instinct, causing a car horn to go nuts.
"The hell are you beeping for, asshole?!" yelled driver in front of Ferrari as he turned back to them.
"Not at you, it's the guy on the crossroad." clarified Herman as he pointed at the Peugeot menace.
"Oh, right." driver in front turned back before he smacked his own steering wheel, beeping at the Peugeot instead, but that did little to make him move.
"How many times has the word "asshole" been said today?" asked punkster in the back out of a sudden.
"Three. Four, if you count this one." casually answered Herman, making a gesture with his arms to put emphasis on his point.
"Only four? Funny, it's usually more." commented punkster.
After some of waiting, it seemed like Peugeot driver was finally going forward, much to everyone's relief. At that point, Herman seemed like he was sleep deprived for two weeks, but that was just in one traffic jam. To put salt to the wound, Spanish flea was still playing in the car.
"Finally, he's getting somewhere." sighed punkster, taking a comfortable position in his seat as a sign of relaxation.
However, their expectations were subverted, as Peugeot driver went reverse again.
"….and he's going reverse again." defeatedly deadpanned punkster. Other punksters shared his sentiment. Herman, on other hand, had an entirely different one.
"GLI SPINGERÒ UN INTERO PEUGEOUT NEL CULO!." snapped Herman out of a sudden before he leaped out of a car. With some help of his color changing skin, Herman sneaked underneath two cars in front of their Ferrari and arrived to the scene. At one instance, Peugeot driver suddenly moved, nearly running over Herman by accident in the process.
"Maniaco!" thought Herman to himself before he managed to jump on the door of troublesome car and stuck to it with help of suction cups. Upon noticing that the buffoonish driver left car's window opened, he jumped in as quickly as he could and he didn't waste a single millisecond smacking the living hell out of the Peugeot driver. Once Peugeot driver received same fate as the previous BMW driver, he took over the control of the French car and drove it to the nearest parking space as quickly as he could. Once he found a good place to park, he turned off the engine and looked at his own arms with disgust.
"Ugh..." groaned Herman before he jumped out of a parked Peugeot, looking for a place to wash his tentacles. He quickly found a small restaurant that had bathrooms. Once he sneaked in, he jumped on the sink and washed his arms in a quick manner. After he was satisfied with cleaning, he dashed to his Ferrari.
"I'm back, bois." Herman greeted upon returning, quickly occupying the spot
"Eyy, where ya been for so long?" welcomed punkster with a question.
"Had to wash my arms to cleanse them from the filth of Peugeout." begrudingly elaborated Herman before he looked back and saw that the only ones that were still causing the traffic jam was them. He felt pride and joy when he saw no one in front of him. His energy returned as well. "Ingorgo stradale is no more, boys! You know what this means!"
Along with him turning off Spanish flea, he quickly drove away from intersection, feeling freedom from the stationary vehiclar hell once and for all.
"The evil of Spanish flea is gone! Thank you and damn that song for eternity!" blessed punkster as they started driving at the speeds appropriate for a car and not for a snail.
Herman and punksters put on their sunglasses to look even more pompous than they already were.
"Sunglasses: on!"
Then, Herman put on some ultra retro techno synthwave music he found on internet by connecting it to car's device again.
"Synthwave: popped in!"
Herman prepared one of his tentacles on the gas pedal, prepared to slam it anytime he wanted.
"Chance of "accidental" manslaughter: very high!"
All of them grinned with delight.
"Yep, it's that time….time for SPEED!"
"Oh, this is gonna be lit!" cheered punksters when Herman slammed on the gas pedal with his tentacle that he used it as a leg. Ferrari FF's engine roared like a lion as it rapidly accelerated to speeds deemed acceptable by its driver. They were finally overspeeding in the city, now with extra style.
After their meeting with penguin advisors was over, Hope's Peak students went to their homes. However, a gang that consisted of Chiaki, Hajime, Ibuki and Chihiro didn't want to depart from each other. Instead, they decided to go together until it would be necessary for them to go their ways.
"Phew, this week was quite something, wasn't it?" Hajime sighed in relief, welcoming the fact that they could have some time to take a rest after such week.
"There were a lot of fun moments….and some not so much. But overall, I think it was pretty good overall." Chiaki summarized her thoughts on the topic. She had distinct fond memories of certain events, such as their meeting with a certain scientist girl.
"But now comes the sweet release of weekend! Wahooooo!" Ibuki happily hopped around. Just the way Ibuki would.
"It's nice to have some time to relax." smiled Chihiro as all of them continued their path together.
They stopped at the road crossing and looked both left and right to see if any cars were approaching. After looking at each side three times, they haven't spotted a single car coming. However, they haven't moved at all, since they had a tiny conversation.
"Hey….um….Are you guys free for this weekend?" quietly asked Chiaki after building up some courage to say it.
"I don't have much work, so yeah. I'm free for this weekend." nodded Chihiro.
"Ibuki's always free! Free like a bird!" giggled Ibuki as she imitated a bird flying.
"Well, I don't have much to do during weekend either, so I guess I'm free." confirmed Hajime.
"That's good to hear." smiled Chiaki as all of them were ready to cross the road. "Perhaps we could-"
Suddenly, just when they placed their feet on the crossing, a white roaring blur passed right in front of them, nearly running over all of them in the process. All of them jumped back from the sheer shock as they stared forward with shrunken irises and gaping mouths. Ibuki's hair rose up like a cat before a fight as she completely froze in a gasp. Chihiro's hair was similar in terms of that. Out of an instinct, Chiaki held on to Hajime for protection.
"….what the hell was that?!" exclaimed Hajime after witnessing the event right in front of his eyes. The shock didn't go away at all, with them standing in the same spot for some time.
The white roaring blur in question was an overspeeding Ferrari FF. Herman and punksters inside aggressively bobbed their heads while listening to synthwave.
"Oh, fuck! I missed out the noob!" noticed Herman after he glanced at side-view mirror, spotting Chiaki and her friends standing there. He really wanted to smack Chiaki once again, just for his own amusement.
"Say, who are those three along with that weak ass hoe? I recall that you've mentioned the horned one, but not much." asked punkster in the front seat with a raised eyebrow.
"You see, noob is accompanied with antenna, canned food apparently and…..uh...Windows Vista. Clowns, all of them, if I say so, but noob is the biggest embarrassment among them." elaborated Herman while making Hope's Peak gang seem as pathetic as possible.
"What gives? Sure, she looks like a clown, but biggest embarrassment out of them all? Doesn't that bastard chef deserve that title?" piqued punkster in the back, remembering the tale Herman told about Teruteru and his pasta sauce.
"Ok, get this. You know what was she saying when the "Hermaning the I forgot to count" arrived? Herman began elaborating his opinion on the gamer girl herself, making gestures with his tentacles as well.
"Let me guess..."I'll stop you, evil Herman! You bad!" or something like that?" guessed punkster in the front, crossing his arms to increase his pride.
"Exactly, almost word to word." Herman confirmed his guess with an "OK" gesture. He somehow managed to do it without fingers.
Everyone in the car bursted into foul laughter, with one of punksters in the back nearly rolling on the floor of Ferrari.
"Oh, that's just rich!" scoffed punkster in the back.
"...Why does every hero wannabe always say stuff like that? What are they trying to accomplish?" winced punkster in the front after his laughing fit went away. "God, this is giving me Las Vegas flashbacks...with that sponge and starfish. "
"Compensation." Herman blurted out almost immediately.
"...Whaddaya mean?" punkster in the front raised his eyebrows.
"Usually, when they're not self pitying or wanking, acts that are NOT mutually exclusive, failures at life often try to be like "Imma save everyone! Imma help everyone!" because they desperately try to seek validation in people….Sad! Hahahaha!" elaborated Herman before his elaboration turned into boasting about himself and the organization. "But folk like us need no useless platitudes! There is no "Can I?", but only "I WILL!". If we want something, we will take it! We are so based that even most prideful rappers bow down to us!"
"Fuck yeah, bruv!" cheered punksters, pumping their fists in complete synchronization.
"We are Daft Capo and we are driving down a Ferarri in Japan while blasting synthwave! Nothing compares to us!" boasted Herman once again as their journey continued to break every single speed limit in the city possible.
Located far away from Hope's Peak, but still in the same city (exact location REDACTED), there was a shoddy looking port warehouse. The entrance of it was guarded by a sole guard dressed in black, who also wore sunglasses and had a goatee. From the outside, there was nothing special about the warehouse. There were only containers stored in it, which is not exactly a rarity among all warehouses. The lighting was provided by windows above, bringing bare minimum of light inside.
However, who occupied it, was an entirely different story.
Men and women, dressed in white shining tuxedos, occupied the crusty looking storage facility. It seemed like punksters brought themselves two things in the warehouse: a jumbotron, which was turned off at that time, and a DJ mixer.
"Hey, when be Big G dropping his full mixtape?" asked punkster next to the DJ mixer
"Next tuesday. Apparently critics have been giving it eleven out of tens. Pretty crazy, even for Big G." punkster by the name of Rando, who occupied the spot of a DJ in the house. Allegedly, he was so standard by the standards of punksters, that the name was perfectly suited for him.
"ExPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESIS is the name of it, innit?" further asked punkster next to him.
"Yeah, that one." confirmed Rando with a confident nod.
"If it ain't fire, I'm gonna go directly for his ass!" threatened girl punkster as she cracked her fists.
"Ya know only Elite Bois can order attacks, right?" pointed out Rando, giving the girl a raised eyebrow, since he didn't fully believe she knew.
"Lobby them. Ez." debated punkster, crossing her arms while giving Rando a smug smirk. "Because listen, we are gonna be jamming with his mixtape for twenty four hours!
"Speaking of them, where are they? Haven't seen them since we got here in the first place!" punkster next to him gave out another question for him to answer.
"Our boy's gonna get us something, the other boi's currently busy with his...ahem...supplies, so to say, that mustached driver and his cronies are probably at car repair again and those two, who are legally not allowed to talk, are probably going for banks to get us dosh or something. I do not know where the bastard is though, he never tells us." Rando gave out all the information he knew at that moment.
Suddenly, doors of warehouse opened, revealing a punkster that parked Vespa moped right in front of them.
"...The fuck are you doing on his moped?" perplexed girl punkster, much more used to Vespa's true owner instead of some other punkster.
"You'll see soon enough." grinned punkster with both pride and satisfaction. Soon enough, loud and powerful roars were heard, causing all punksters to gather around the entrance. With boastful revvs, Ferrari FF drove right in front of them. For extra flexing, Herman made donut manoeuvre right in front of them.
"YOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled all of punksters out of pure excitement when they saw Ferrari FF flexing right in front of their eyes.
"Now that is a beast!" complimented Rando with a grin. After some stunts, Ferrari FF stopped as its engine was turned off. Doors of the luxurious car opened, with Herman and his punksters stepping outside.
"Hello there, my fellow punksters!" greeted Herman, who was met with cheers of his henchmen
"Ya been late, boi!" jested Rando at him as he approached to get a closer look at the Italian crafted vehicular beast.
"Ingorgo stradale, I tell you! Anyway, Our job's done!" announced Herman with a raised arm
"AYYYYY, MY FAM!" punksters congratulated him for a good catch.
"So, what else do we have for today?" asked punkster who was formerly next to Rando about
"Not much, we gonna chill for the rest of the week. Next week gonna be quite busy, though." foretold Herman about his plans.
"Say, can we pop in some jams now?" requested girl punkster, who needed her fix of music for that day.
"Not yet. We are preparing ourselves for the big event on tuesday. It's gonna be true fire, I promise!" answered Herman, denying her music in order to prepare her for something what he considered to be truly grand.
"Aight then." lamented girl punkster before going inside. With the help of other punksters, Herman placed newly obtained Ferrari inside the warehouse and, just like he said, spent rest of the day relaxing inside.
The sun was about to set. Everyone was inside their homes, including Chiaki. She was lying on her coach, thinking about the entire week. At that moment, her main thought was about what happened during the day.
"What a weird day. Nearly two accidents….but rest of the day wasn't that bad. Not bad at all, actually." thought Chiaki to herself, aware of oddities that happened, but then she remember something that made going to Hope's Peak academy truly worth it. "Having friends on my side such as Chihiro, Hajime and Ibuki really makes me glad that I got into Hope's Peak. I can't imagine my life without them anymore."
"….Say, a friend." Chiaki suddenly got an idea. She remembered a promise from yesterday. "You know, this seems like a perfect opportunity for it."
She brought up her phone and clicked on the phone shaped icon. Going through contacts, she decided to message a girl that she always wanted to know more about. A girl that was there when she was at the lowest point in her life.
Mayuri Shiina.
She started typing the message to her, but suddenly came to a halt. It was like if she froze in one place.
"Wait, should I? I really hope I wouldn't bother them….They will be busy...probab-" Chiaki started doubting herself. Such thoughts started to engulf her mind, but she made one tiny change: she won't let those thoughts win. "You know what? No. I'm not wasting this opportunity. It's better to try than not...that's what I learned in Hope's Peak."
Chiaki, despite her own doubts, managed to type out the message. All she needed to do was to send it. Even though her doubts were still prevalent in her mind, she pressed the "send" button, completing her self imposed task once and for all.
"Alright, now for the waiti-" thought Chiaki to herself, expecting to wait a long time to get a response. All sorts of hypothetical situations were starting to form in her head.
However, the phone rang back quickly.
"Huh, already?" quietly gasped Chiaki, startled by how quickly she got the answer back. Feeling of anxiety kicked in, but she checked the response regardless of what she felt at that moment.
"Of course you can! (⌒▽⌒) Mayushii will be glad to see you! You can also bring someone with you as well, more people in Lab, the better! Mayushii will make sure that Okarin and Chris-chan know about it. You can come in anytime you want!"
"Yes! Oh my gosh, I can't wait for it!" Chiaki fluttered with her legs out of complete excitement when she saw it. The fact that she was accepted in the first place gave her feelings that she found hard to describe by herself. But the message also gave out another implication for her: her future might be brighter than she expected. "I feel so pumped up, I might as well play one of my favorite games. I think I'm gonna go for something casual though, since I still have to prepare for tomorrow."
Not even wasting a moment and she inserted a cartridge of one of her favorite games inside her Nintendo 64 console.
"Pinkie Boye 64, a game that never disappoints. I could maybe go for a little speedrun, heh." Chiaki smiled to herself as she started playing the game about a round hero and a fairy princess trying to save the universe from the forces of evil.
More or less, she spent an entire night playing it.