"Everyone gather to the center of the auditorium. I repeat; everyone gather to the center of the auditorium! We're starting our Dance-a-mania for tonight!"
A plump teacher at the stage announced. There were murmurs and shuffling, as well as the clinking of plates and forks as students and teachers stood up from seats to gather.
"What's going on?"
Zoro asked as Yosaku and Johnny stood up.
"Oh, yeah. Every dinner dance we have a Dance-a-mania."
Zoro stared at him, and Yosaku hastily elaborated,
"It's just a time where the students just gather to dance and switch partners every minute with."
"It's not compulsory, is it?"
"Well, if you don't get up, teachers come and drag you there. It's their idea of a fun, social event. It is, really."
Johnny added with an encouraging smile. It didn't work. Zoro shuddered.
"Sorry guys. But I think I'll run away and skip this one."
"What?! But the dean--"
"I thought he wanted to meet you--"
"He'll be expecting you to--"
"I'll be back when this dance-a-whatever ends."
Zoro replied quickly, and began to shuffle towards the front entrance. To Zoro's horror and alarm he saw Mr. Harrison standing at the entrance, obviously guarding it to keep people like him from leaving.
'There should be a back entrance or something,'
Zoro thought, edging quickly away from the dean and towards the back of the auditorium. Sure enough, as he approached the back, he saw a lit sign proclaiming in neon green letters: 'BACK ENTRANCE AND BACK STAGE' aside a large arrow.
He hurried onwards, but accidentally bumped into several girls. They stopped in mid-laughter and let out squeals upon seeing him. A tall girl with long dark hair and bright copper highlights squealed the loudest, and to Zoro's dismay, grabbed his arm.
"Hi! You're the new guy, aren't? Zoro Roronoah?"
"Uhhh..."
How the hell did she know his name?! Zoro demanded inwardly, I've only been here two days!!
"Well, they're starting the Dance-a-mania now! I'll dance the first dance with you, how about it?"
"Uhm,"
Zoro said with his eyes straining to see the back entrance,
"Not now. Er, I'm... heading to the... bathroom."
"Aww, but it's starting,"
She said with a pout. The girls behind her nodded encouragingly at him, and Zoro stared.
"Uh..."
'Do I have to say I'm desperate or something?! Can't these girls take a hint?!!'
He thought in frustration. He missed the looks of slight worry they exchanged.
"...I don't really dance. And I need to go to the bathroom, now, excuse me."
With that, Zoro pushed through the crowd of girls, and they let out small gasps before silencing behind him. Relieved, Zoro continued walking, starting to see the reflected light from the entrance on the floor when he stepped on something with a sharp crack.
He glanced down, and saw something glint beneath his shoe. Bending down onto a knee and picking it up, he examined the thing.
It was a pair of black plastic-framed glasses that was cracked at the left eye.
He drew in a sharp gasp of breath. The booming of the teacher's voice in the microphone, the noise of the students inside the auditorium talking and moving, the echoes of everything suddenly ceased into a silence.
What's going on? He thought frantically. The pair of glasses in his hand swam into a blur of black, and into a slightly blurred image of a thicker-framed pair of glasses. It wasn't cracked at either eye. Rays of sunlight fell upon his hand, and he could see in his peripheral vision the motion and colours of people on either side. But he couldn't hear a thing.
His vision swung upwards, and he felt his lips move. A young, dark-haired girl was looking at him, smiling at him. She had a hand reached out for her glasses. However, Zoro couldn't see her face properly. It was so blurred, he could barely make out her features.
Then her face sharpened into a young woman with dark hair that was trimmed into a round cut below the ears, and a soft smile with deep blue eyes... then it fuzzed out and sharpened into a young woman with the same dark hair but with a cut that curved out, her eyes a chocolate brown, and she wore an embarrassed smile to go with her blushing cheeks... then it blurred back to a young woman with the blue eyes... no, the brown.... the blue.... the brown...
Everything swirled and swirled into a whirlpool of hazy colours until suddenly, Zoro was met with the image of a young girl with deep blue eyes, smiling at him with a wooden sword at her side... a bokken. She lifted her head, smiled at him softly, yet so sadly. A flurry of cherry-blossom petals flew past his eyes, and sound suddenly burst out in volume as he heard her murmur in her sad voice:
"...Zoro..."
Suddenly, Zoro was blinking, the bright whiteness of the image gone and replaced by a dark surrounding. Another voice was calling his name. Another voice behind him. Looking around, he saw an unfamiliar girl with black hair streaked with copper, looking at him with a sickeningly sweet smile but flinching with uneasiness.
"You can ignore her, you know,"
She was saying,
"She's always like that. You don't have to think about..."
He looked forward, and saw a young woman drenched in some sort of liquid, her hand clamped over her mouth. It looked like buttons littering the floor. He tried to see her face. It... it looked like that marine general... the one that looked like...
What was she doing in that dress? He frowned, then looked at himself in horror. No, scratch that-- what was *he* doing wearing these things?! Glancing behind, the severe lack of blue sky and sunlight and sudden collection of girls caused him to draw back slightly. Who were the girls behind him? Just where the hell was he??
He stood up, holding the pair of glasses in his hand, his mind full to bursting with questions -- but as soon as he stood up, the confusion gushed out of him. His mind was freed of all the strange questions; the funny throbbing in his temple; the alarming familiarity... .it all disappeared -- he blinked.
He looked at the girl before him again. He had just recognised her for a split second; he was sure of it... but right now, all he knew was that she looked familiar. He walked cautiously to her, as he could tell she was crying, and gently leant down. She felt his shadow over her, and glanced up, her chocolate eyes meeting his.
A jolt ran through Zoro, but he couldn't decipher what it was. Instead, he held out her glasses, and she stared at them. Then, throwing Zoro a mistrusting glance, she snatched the glasses from his hand and held them tightly. He could see her hand shaking as she did so.
"Th-thank you."
She mumbled, sniffling. Zoro looked over her. The lights from outside the auditorium looked inviting. His mind had yearned to get out as quick as possible, but now it wouldn't let him leave the shaking girl before him. Letting out an inward sigh and wondering if he would regret it later, he held out a hand to her. Her eyes looked confused and cold, but he decided to ignore it.
"You can't stay here forever,"
He reasoned.
"You know her, Zoro?!"
Cried the girl behind him, sounding thunderstruck.
"Leave me alone."
The girl before him snapped, wiping her tear-stained cheeks with a wrist. Zoro sighed, bending down so their eyes were level.
"You expect me to just walk off after seeing someone crying like this in the middle of a corridor?"
He muttered, and she sniffled before letting out a small noise of agreement, sounding reluctant.
"I'll help you to your dorm or something,"
He said, offering his hand again,
"So get up."
She shook her head stubbornly, and out of patience, Zoro reached over and tried to grab the hand she kept clutching to her chest. She gasped, and Zoro saw the black material start to fall apart as she pressed her other hand to it. Her eyes shot through him murderously.
'Ouch,'
He thought,
'Why didn't I see that sooner, I wonder...'
He looked at her back, and saw that it was torn open from the middle. He noticed that the buttons on her back had been made to alternate on each side so that the button-holes lay in neat rows at either side.
'Hmmm...'
A long ribbon on the floor was twisted around the girl's ankle. Cautiously, Zoro tugged a bit at the end of the ribbon, and she threw him an alarmed look as she lifted her ankle instinctively. He tugged the ribbon free, then moved around behind her.
"Wh-what are you--"
"Hang on, hang on,"
He muttered, and like a shoe-lace, he thread the ribbon through the lowest alternating button-holes before starting to weave them in and out upwards.
"Hey!!"
She cried in protest, her face starting to warm in embarrassment,
"You don't have to--"
"Stay still,"
He mumbled,
"Please?"
She grew quiet, her face burning as she felt his warm fingers occasionally brush past her bare back as he thread the ribbon through.
The girls whispered a bit more, threw death-glares at the girl on the floor, then spun on their heel and left.
"Merii,"
Kaya called her manager as she curled up on her white, plush sofa.
"Yes, Miss Kaya? You called?"
Merii appeared from the hallway.
"Merii, did you find the young man?"
Kaya asked. Merii shook his head regretfully.
"Well, hurry up then,"
She snapped, and turned her head over and press her face into a cushion. She heard him sigh.
"Yes, ma'am..."
As his retreating footsteps faded, Kaya thought deeply. She had time to, after all; Kurohadol had called to cancel their dinner tonight, and she was glad he had because she had no heart to dine with the manager of Feline Incorporates at the moment.
When she had been going through the usual crowd of reporters, a young man had suddenly popped out of no where. His eyes had been covered with a pair of glasses, but his nose... his uncannily long nose made Kaya remember something... she, looking at him curiously, watched the glasses slip off his eyes, and then -- she recognised him. Thinking long and hard now, she didn't know him at all. But... she knew him all the same!
It was the same sort of confusion that filled her everytime she pondered her mysterious sickness.
She needed to meet him... she needed to know. That was why she was looking for him now, although she didn't have much to go on... a young man who looked 17 or 18, wearing glasses... and she only knew his first name, after all... but she knew that if she searched for him long and hard enough... she just might find an answer to all her questions.
"Usopp-san,"
She mumured into her cushion, and felt the name slip out of her mouth like she'd said it so many times before.
"Hang on. You're telling me we have to ride our motorcycles up the stairs?!!"
"Why not? There's got to be a thrill to it, right?"
"Er, no denying that. But isn't it... I dunno... a bit extreme? I mean-- OW!!"
"You dumbass clown! Of course it's extreme! We wouldn't be doing this if it didn't shock 'em any. Remember, we're teaching them what happened to the 'delinquents' they unceremoniously ditched."
"If you say so, Krieg."
Short silence, then:
"...So let me get this straight. We rush up the stairs, crash into the auditorium where they should be having their dinner dance, round them up into the middle... then punch the dean?"
"NO!! We pulverise them!! All of them!! Dean, teachers and students alike!! For forgetting the fact they faced so many students with expulsion just because they got the jitters from our so-called 'bad behaviour'!!"
"Oh... yeah."
"Krieg, let me remind you that if the police are contacted in any way in between, the plan will be completely rui--"
"Shut up Krow. I am aware of the consequences. But who's to say we can't escape as soon as the sirens ring?"
"Right."
...............
"...I hate it when Krieg grins like that, Krow."
"...I hate to admit it, but so do I."
A/N: O.O Thanks for reading uptil now. O.O I'm in shock. O.O Hmm. O.O Was it really horrible of me to do that to Tashigi? O.O I feel guilty... O.O Forgive me... O.O Naaaa.... O.O I'm still in shock... O.O Uhm... O.O Expect next chapter soon... O.O Sorry I took a while to post this one.... O.O Thanks, all of you, you're all darlings... O.O And, yes, I'm still in shock...
A plump teacher at the stage announced. There were murmurs and shuffling, as well as the clinking of plates and forks as students and teachers stood up from seats to gather.
"What's going on?"
Zoro asked as Yosaku and Johnny stood up.
"Oh, yeah. Every dinner dance we have a Dance-a-mania."
Zoro stared at him, and Yosaku hastily elaborated,
"It's just a time where the students just gather to dance and switch partners every minute with."
"It's not compulsory, is it?"
"Well, if you don't get up, teachers come and drag you there. It's their idea of a fun, social event. It is, really."
Johnny added with an encouraging smile. It didn't work. Zoro shuddered.
"Sorry guys. But I think I'll run away and skip this one."
"What?! But the dean--"
"I thought he wanted to meet you--"
"He'll be expecting you to--"
"I'll be back when this dance-a-whatever ends."
Zoro replied quickly, and began to shuffle towards the front entrance. To Zoro's horror and alarm he saw Mr. Harrison standing at the entrance, obviously guarding it to keep people like him from leaving.
'There should be a back entrance or something,'
Zoro thought, edging quickly away from the dean and towards the back of the auditorium. Sure enough, as he approached the back, he saw a lit sign proclaiming in neon green letters: 'BACK ENTRANCE AND BACK STAGE' aside a large arrow.
He hurried onwards, but accidentally bumped into several girls. They stopped in mid-laughter and let out squeals upon seeing him. A tall girl with long dark hair and bright copper highlights squealed the loudest, and to Zoro's dismay, grabbed his arm.
"Hi! You're the new guy, aren't? Zoro Roronoah?"
"Uhhh..."
How the hell did she know his name?! Zoro demanded inwardly, I've only been here two days!!
"Well, they're starting the Dance-a-mania now! I'll dance the first dance with you, how about it?"
"Uhm,"
Zoro said with his eyes straining to see the back entrance,
"Not now. Er, I'm... heading to the... bathroom."
"Aww, but it's starting,"
She said with a pout. The girls behind her nodded encouragingly at him, and Zoro stared.
"Uh..."
'Do I have to say I'm desperate or something?! Can't these girls take a hint?!!'
He thought in frustration. He missed the looks of slight worry they exchanged.
"...I don't really dance. And I need to go to the bathroom, now, excuse me."
With that, Zoro pushed through the crowd of girls, and they let out small gasps before silencing behind him. Relieved, Zoro continued walking, starting to see the reflected light from the entrance on the floor when he stepped on something with a sharp crack.
He glanced down, and saw something glint beneath his shoe. Bending down onto a knee and picking it up, he examined the thing.
It was a pair of black plastic-framed glasses that was cracked at the left eye.
He drew in a sharp gasp of breath. The booming of the teacher's voice in the microphone, the noise of the students inside the auditorium talking and moving, the echoes of everything suddenly ceased into a silence.
What's going on? He thought frantically. The pair of glasses in his hand swam into a blur of black, and into a slightly blurred image of a thicker-framed pair of glasses. It wasn't cracked at either eye. Rays of sunlight fell upon his hand, and he could see in his peripheral vision the motion and colours of people on either side. But he couldn't hear a thing.
His vision swung upwards, and he felt his lips move. A young, dark-haired girl was looking at him, smiling at him. She had a hand reached out for her glasses. However, Zoro couldn't see her face properly. It was so blurred, he could barely make out her features.
Then her face sharpened into a young woman with dark hair that was trimmed into a round cut below the ears, and a soft smile with deep blue eyes... then it fuzzed out and sharpened into a young woman with the same dark hair but with a cut that curved out, her eyes a chocolate brown, and she wore an embarrassed smile to go with her blushing cheeks... then it blurred back to a young woman with the blue eyes... no, the brown.... the blue.... the brown...
Everything swirled and swirled into a whirlpool of hazy colours until suddenly, Zoro was met with the image of a young girl with deep blue eyes, smiling at him with a wooden sword at her side... a bokken. She lifted her head, smiled at him softly, yet so sadly. A flurry of cherry-blossom petals flew past his eyes, and sound suddenly burst out in volume as he heard her murmur in her sad voice:
"...Zoro..."
Suddenly, Zoro was blinking, the bright whiteness of the image gone and replaced by a dark surrounding. Another voice was calling his name. Another voice behind him. Looking around, he saw an unfamiliar girl with black hair streaked with copper, looking at him with a sickeningly sweet smile but flinching with uneasiness.
"You can ignore her, you know,"
She was saying,
"She's always like that. You don't have to think about..."
He looked forward, and saw a young woman drenched in some sort of liquid, her hand clamped over her mouth. It looked like buttons littering the floor. He tried to see her face. It... it looked like that marine general... the one that looked like...
What was she doing in that dress? He frowned, then looked at himself in horror. No, scratch that-- what was *he* doing wearing these things?! Glancing behind, the severe lack of blue sky and sunlight and sudden collection of girls caused him to draw back slightly. Who were the girls behind him? Just where the hell was he??
He stood up, holding the pair of glasses in his hand, his mind full to bursting with questions -- but as soon as he stood up, the confusion gushed out of him. His mind was freed of all the strange questions; the funny throbbing in his temple; the alarming familiarity... .it all disappeared -- he blinked.
He looked at the girl before him again. He had just recognised her for a split second; he was sure of it... but right now, all he knew was that she looked familiar. He walked cautiously to her, as he could tell she was crying, and gently leant down. She felt his shadow over her, and glanced up, her chocolate eyes meeting his.
A jolt ran through Zoro, but he couldn't decipher what it was. Instead, he held out her glasses, and she stared at them. Then, throwing Zoro a mistrusting glance, she snatched the glasses from his hand and held them tightly. He could see her hand shaking as she did so.
"Th-thank you."
She mumbled, sniffling. Zoro looked over her. The lights from outside the auditorium looked inviting. His mind had yearned to get out as quick as possible, but now it wouldn't let him leave the shaking girl before him. Letting out an inward sigh and wondering if he would regret it later, he held out a hand to her. Her eyes looked confused and cold, but he decided to ignore it.
"You can't stay here forever,"
He reasoned.
"You know her, Zoro?!"
Cried the girl behind him, sounding thunderstruck.
"Leave me alone."
The girl before him snapped, wiping her tear-stained cheeks with a wrist. Zoro sighed, bending down so their eyes were level.
"You expect me to just walk off after seeing someone crying like this in the middle of a corridor?"
He muttered, and she sniffled before letting out a small noise of agreement, sounding reluctant.
"I'll help you to your dorm or something,"
He said, offering his hand again,
"So get up."
She shook her head stubbornly, and out of patience, Zoro reached over and tried to grab the hand she kept clutching to her chest. She gasped, and Zoro saw the black material start to fall apart as she pressed her other hand to it. Her eyes shot through him murderously.
'Ouch,'
He thought,
'Why didn't I see that sooner, I wonder...'
He looked at her back, and saw that it was torn open from the middle. He noticed that the buttons on her back had been made to alternate on each side so that the button-holes lay in neat rows at either side.
'Hmmm...'
A long ribbon on the floor was twisted around the girl's ankle. Cautiously, Zoro tugged a bit at the end of the ribbon, and she threw him an alarmed look as she lifted her ankle instinctively. He tugged the ribbon free, then moved around behind her.
"Wh-what are you--"
"Hang on, hang on,"
He muttered, and like a shoe-lace, he thread the ribbon through the lowest alternating button-holes before starting to weave them in and out upwards.
"Hey!!"
She cried in protest, her face starting to warm in embarrassment,
"You don't have to--"
"Stay still,"
He mumbled,
"Please?"
She grew quiet, her face burning as she felt his warm fingers occasionally brush past her bare back as he thread the ribbon through.
The girls whispered a bit more, threw death-glares at the girl on the floor, then spun on their heel and left.
"Merii,"
Kaya called her manager as she curled up on her white, plush sofa.
"Yes, Miss Kaya? You called?"
Merii appeared from the hallway.
"Merii, did you find the young man?"
Kaya asked. Merii shook his head regretfully.
"Well, hurry up then,"
She snapped, and turned her head over and press her face into a cushion. She heard him sigh.
"Yes, ma'am..."
As his retreating footsteps faded, Kaya thought deeply. She had time to, after all; Kurohadol had called to cancel their dinner tonight, and she was glad he had because she had no heart to dine with the manager of Feline Incorporates at the moment.
When she had been going through the usual crowd of reporters, a young man had suddenly popped out of no where. His eyes had been covered with a pair of glasses, but his nose... his uncannily long nose made Kaya remember something... she, looking at him curiously, watched the glasses slip off his eyes, and then -- she recognised him. Thinking long and hard now, she didn't know him at all. But... she knew him all the same!
It was the same sort of confusion that filled her everytime she pondered her mysterious sickness.
She needed to meet him... she needed to know. That was why she was looking for him now, although she didn't have much to go on... a young man who looked 17 or 18, wearing glasses... and she only knew his first name, after all... but she knew that if she searched for him long and hard enough... she just might find an answer to all her questions.
"Usopp-san,"
She mumured into her cushion, and felt the name slip out of her mouth like she'd said it so many times before.
"Hang on. You're telling me we have to ride our motorcycles up the stairs?!!"
"Why not? There's got to be a thrill to it, right?"
"Er, no denying that. But isn't it... I dunno... a bit extreme? I mean-- OW!!"
"You dumbass clown! Of course it's extreme! We wouldn't be doing this if it didn't shock 'em any. Remember, we're teaching them what happened to the 'delinquents' they unceremoniously ditched."
"If you say so, Krieg."
Short silence, then:
"...So let me get this straight. We rush up the stairs, crash into the auditorium where they should be having their dinner dance, round them up into the middle... then punch the dean?"
"NO!! We pulverise them!! All of them!! Dean, teachers and students alike!! For forgetting the fact they faced so many students with expulsion just because they got the jitters from our so-called 'bad behaviour'!!"
"Oh... yeah."
"Krieg, let me remind you that if the police are contacted in any way in between, the plan will be completely rui--"
"Shut up Krow. I am aware of the consequences. But who's to say we can't escape as soon as the sirens ring?"
"Right."
...............
"...I hate it when Krieg grins like that, Krow."
"...I hate to admit it, but so do I."
A/N: O.O Thanks for reading uptil now. O.O I'm in shock. O.O Hmm. O.O Was it really horrible of me to do that to Tashigi? O.O I feel guilty... O.O Forgive me... O.O Naaaa.... O.O I'm still in shock... O.O Uhm... O.O Expect next chapter soon... O.O Sorry I took a while to post this one.... O.O Thanks, all of you, you're all darlings... O.O And, yes, I'm still in shock...