A/N: I'm only telling you two things. AMV, and booby trap. Nyahahahaha!
Part IV: Second Half
Remember, discover and learn every resource.
In a while, our greatest one is supposed to come in in a few seconds. Ah…there's the tapping at the window now.
Crows are very intelligent creatures. And rodents are, in their own fashion, too. I explained to the animals what to do and where to go, and they understood perfectly (but Ayame was the one who convinced the crow to carry two mice on its back.)
The crow drops a bundle on the bed, and the two mice jump off and run to me, noses twitching, while Aya picks the bird up and preens its glossy black feathers lovingly. I grin and throw two lumps of cheese at the mice. "Thanks," I say. Looks like mice are capable of picking locks, given the right instructions. I only hope they re-locked the cabinet. And that they won't try the trick anywhere else.
Hitomi looks at them wonderingly. "They did do it."
I smirk. "I told you they're sensitive enough to avoid your father's string traps."
Yamato's grinning from ear to ear as he unties the bundle (a joint effort by the crow and the mice) and reads the labels on the videotapes inside. "These are all the right ones too."
"That's thanks to this pretty one here," Ayame croons, rubbing the crow gently on the head with a thumb. She really loves the animals. "She's the one who can recognize letters, almost."
Taki chuckles and winks at the crow as it turns inquiringly in her direction. "You don't know what you just assisted in," she tells it jokingly.
The crow releases a croak much like laughter, and bobs its head back.
Teshichan pulls out her videocam from its bag. "We're lucky I brought this."
"Aa, we are," I say, as Keisuke takes it from her and hooks it to the computer.
Ban pokes at her. "Tell the truth, neechan. You were hoping to spot blackmail today."
Teshichan grins at him. "This is so much better."
"Honestly, are you sure you're not related to my father?" Hitomi asks, amused.
Ginji bounces up and down on his bed. "Can we watch a bit before we start anything? Please?"
"I guess so," Keisuke concedes, and fiddles around with the keyboard as Hitomi selects a tape and slips it into the videocam.
In a moment, the media player pops up, and a video starts to play. We stare, for one long, long moment. And then we have to really try hard not to laugh hysterically and risk being heard downstairs.
"Oh God…Hitomi…your father is evil…" Yuji gasps out.
I can't keep my face straight. "This is too perfect," I chortle.
Yamato slaps me on the back, and when I look I see pure mischievous glee on his face. What…
"I have another idea," he says excitedly. "A good one. Really. It's worth re-planning everything…"
When he told me what it was, my face was practically cracking with the size of the grin I had. "Oh, we won't have to re-plan. Your idea just made everything better."
…---…
Nearly time…
Keisuke's in position, giving me a thumbs-up as he fixes a few strings to a speaker. It's an old trick he learned from his father. Yamato, Teshichan, and Hitomi are in the room, too. Aya, Taki, Ban, Ginji and Yuji have all gone downstairs (somehow managing silence while doing so) to set up. As soon as she's done, Teshichan will follow to make sure they've done things properly. Hopefully, she'll also go unnoticed.
Voices drift from the speaker. "Come on, Shido-kun, just a few songs!" Emishi, loud and clear.
"A minute ago it was one song. Now it's a few?" Otosan's annoyed, obviously. Funnily, it sounds like there's a bit of panic in his voice, too.
"Monkey man, we all know you can't sing, so why afraid to show it?" Ouch, low blow, Ban-san! Watch out next time I decide to prank you…even if I sort of agree…yeah. Anyway, over the angry bickering that follows, I can hear Ginji-san trying to separate the two.
"Girls, how's it going?" Yamato asks.
Teshichan waves a hand, before tucking a bit of her hair behind her ear. "Nearly done. Just wait."
"Better hurry," Keisuke says, looking at the speaker with a small expression of trepidation on his face. "I think they're nearly convincing him to sing."
"Gah!" Yamato bounds over to the computer. "Come on, what's taking you so long?"
"Come on, Shido-san, how bad can it be?" If Kazuki-san's trying to be pacifying it's not working, because I'm pretty sure Otosan's glaring even as he answers, "You, Kazuki, should know."
That sneaky annaiya, I can hear the grin in his voice as he…oh no, I think he's turning on the karaoke. "Let's try a few Christmas carols, first. They shouldn't be too hard."
Keisuke and Hitomi both groan. "Tou-chan! What are you doing?!" Keisuke's muffled exclamation comes through the hands over his face.
"Teshi, how much longer?" I ask.
"Wait, wait…all right, Hitomi-chan, just smoothen it out and then it'll be ready. I'll go down now. I'm supposed to send the crow to tell you when it's all set, right?"
"Yeah. Go already!"
As she disappears out my door and down the stairs, Keisuke suddenly backs away from the speaker. "Guys, watch out."
"What—" Yamato and I begin, before a blast of Christmas-y trumpets and polyphonic piano comes out, in the unmistakable tune of…
"Jooooooy to the world, the Lord has come…"
"Yaaah!!" Yamato jams a pillow over the speaker.
Keisuke grabs another pillow and stuffs it over his head. "He doesn't even need the speaker!" he cries. "They put the volume on its freaking loudest!"
"Let earth, receeiiive, her King…" Hitomi and I clap our hands over our ears, wincing. "Stop it!" Hitomi says. "I can't concentrate!"
That song's nice, but Otosan kinda didn't hit the first note. Okay, make that he tried it about five pitches too high and his voice cracked. Aaagh… He didn't get any of the other notes, either…
Ban-san and Ginji-san are laughing like mad. I can really hate them now. I think I can hear Paul-san, Juubei-san, and Akabane-san trying not to laugh in the background. I really believe they're more like trying not to get involved, though.
"That song's not really for your voice, Shido-kun. Here, try ano—yaaagh! Ouch!" Sounds like Otosan threw Emishi into the door. Serves him right.
"Shido-san, try another one. Here." Even through the muffled speaker, we can hear the buttons as Kazuki-san pushes them. Honestly, you're mad…
"Hitomi! Hurry it up! I don't know what they gave Tou-chan to make him do that!" Keisuke hisses.
"Almost done, shut up!" his sister snaps, fingers flying over mouse and keyboard. Woah, I think a vein's starting to throb in her forehead.
"I don't know why I'm letting you do this." I don't know why you're letting them either, Otosan! Why do you sound so freaking calm?
"Gooo, Shido-kun!" How did Emishi recover so fast?
"Shut up." Music plays again, a slow-ish melody. Otosan's voice booms out, still horribly off-key. "Chestnuuuts, roasting, on an open fire…"
"They're nuts!" Yamato groans, and I agree, my face twisting into despair. If you're going to make him sing, at least nothing with high notes!
Ban-san and Ginji-san are really not helping. Their laughter's the one hysterical now. Remind me to get Akabane-san to help me take revenge on them. Maybe their wives, too. Yeah. And I'll pull Kazuki-san into the victims list and get Ren-san on my side.
A crow flaps through the window and onto my shoulder. It basically tells me that Ayame is getting annoyed and suffering a lot, so can we please get our butts moving and push through with it already.
"We're just waiting for her!" I retort, jabbing my finger at Hitomi, just as she jabs the "enter" key with an exultant, "Done!"
"Oyaji, you're an idiot!" I hear Yamato exclaim. Ban-san has apparently crowed, "I know the perfect song!" dashing forward and switching the music of the karaoke before anyone could stop him.
"Neechan!" Keisuke runs to Hitomi. "Connect it already."
"Tapping into the system…" Hitomi types a few more things. "Got it. Play!"
We wait with mounting anticipation as Otosan begins to…"sing."
"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock. Jingle bell swing, and jingle bell---what the hell?!"
Hitomi and Keisuke burst out laughing, and Yamato leans back, a look of pure satisfaction crossing his face. The same look is on mine, as on the screen a clip of Emishi doing his weird, octopus-like floppy dance appears. In a couple of seconds, he's dogpiled by a bunch of animals that try to tear at his clothes. Emishi picks himself up and runs offscreen howling and protesting, and hounded all the way. In the background, Otosan's grinning maniacally.
Teshichan has great talent in making videos. AMV's, mostly. With the videotapes we "borrowed" from Kazuki-san, can you imagine what delightful blackmail she came up with? Remember, our source is one of the top informers in Shinjuku. Although he doesn't know it yet.
The video goes surprisingly well with "Jingle Bell Rock," too.
Look, it's Ban-san trying to make a move on Himiko-san and getting fried to a crisp in the process. The caption there, which I swear Teshichan didn't put, says "Not as good a ladykiller as he thinks." Himiko-san looks nineteen, there. That explains it…
Oh, and it's Emishi getting slapped by an eighteen-year-old Ren-san as he tries to make a move on her… (Teshichan inserted a huge blinking "BUSTED!" at the top of that clip…)
There's Natsumi-san beating up Ban-san and Ginji-san in ping pong…gosh, they're pathetic…
Drunk Emishi with a lei, ukulele, and hula skirt. He's pretty wasted. Look at the dance…wait, don't. It's disturbing.
Kazuki-san in a tutu?! Heck, that's priceless! Even if it's apparently some undercover mission! (Yamato's making some smart remark about how pink is his color)
Hey, now it's a nurse uniform!
As per agreement, there's plenty of Emishi and nearly none of Otosan. Teshichan couldn't resist snatching a clip of Ban-san and Otosan squabbling, though. She inserted more blinking text: "Give me back my teddy bear!"
Oh my God…it's Ban-san and Emishi mooning the videocam! (Teshichan!) Hitomi shrieks and covers her eyes, both in horror and amusement, and Keisuke, Yamato, and I are howling now.
The stunned silence from the speaker is broken by Ban-san's outraged "What the--!" and Kazuki-san's "How--!"
"Yamato, c'mon!" In a split second, we're flying into the servant's stairway, and into the hidden rooms where the maids and butlers wait for their cues during big functions.
There are several well-hidden peepholes in the walls, for them to see outside. We stop at the room just outside the living room, in time to see the door fly open and Kazuki-san, Emishi, Otosan, and Ban-san (dragging Ginji-san along with him) bursting out.
Across the room are Midou Ginji and Amano Ban, grinning naughtily at them for all they're worth. Then they turn and run.
"Come back here!" several voices roar, and the adults rush across the room.
CRASH. The room with the just-waxed and polished marble floor. Somehow, the rags got left in very strategic places. Look at the men fall all over themselves. Wow, that looked painful.
"Ban! Ginji!" You can hear the little devils laughing and running away.
The men are up surprisingly fast, and they run out into the next room (well…some of them are hobbling) and into the main hall…out the front door…
THUMP. A couple of yelps. "Gah! Cold!" Now, that was probably the flock of crows dropping a bunch of old Christmas décor—wreaths, to be more specific—and a couple of buckets of ice cubes on several unsuspecting heads. Good one, Taki, you convinced them.
More curses, more kid laughter, more running. I nod to Yamato. "It's time!" We slip out of the servant hidey-hole and make our way carefully across the polished floor and into the living room.
And stop short. Paul-san's looking out the window, laughing quietly to himself (from the sound, Taki, Ban and Ginji have successfully led the adults across the lawn with the sprinklers on full force—Teshichan's work.) Juubei-san's sipping quietly at a beer, apparently having decided not to ask, and Akabane's looking straight at us and smiling. Oops. I forgot to count all the men when they ran out the room.
Oh, MakubeX-san's here, too. Yamato and I grin a little at him, a little uncertain. Would they let us get away with this…?
"You know," MakubeX-san says mildly, gesturing to the TV (that's currently showing Emishi trying to get Juubei-san to do the Macarena) "I've got more stuff like that. You could have asked me to help."
Yamato and I break into wide grins. "It was kinda spur-of-the-moment," I tell him.
Yamato walks over to the karaoke and quickly unplugs it, but I pause before I go to help. "Um…you won't rat on us, will you?"
Akabane's chuckling quietly. "I'd say they had it coming. Don't you agree, Paul-san?"
Paul-san's smirking and nodding as he looks out the window. "Hai, they did. Oh, and I'm with MakubeX, you two. I have lots of stuff like that, too. Tell me next time if you need some."
"I can just say that I didn't see anything," Juubei-san adds.
We grin, say thanks, and rush out the room, the dreaded karaoke set at our mercy and in our hands.
…---…
We stash the set in the servant hidey-hole, and creep back up the stairs quietly. There's a spew of angry monkey-chatter from outside, and several cries and howls from the men. I don't know why at least half a tribe of monkeys (one with a huge scar across its eye) visit for at least a month from time to time (something about "paying tribute" to Otosan), but I do know it's something to do with Ban-san and Ginji-san. And it hasn't escaped my notice that the two avoid the place where the monkeys stay while they're here. So…I suggested that part, yes.
We slide the door shut and quietly cross the hallway. Turning the corner, we reach the door of my room…and stop.
Otosan's there, blocking the path, hands on hips and glaring at us. Hitomi and Keisuke are peering out of my doorway, both looking sort of scared.
Oops. I gulp as I see a strange glint in my father's eye. Busted.
To Be Continued...
A/N 2: Obviously, I wasn't able to finish it in time for Christmas. Well, for the Christmas season, yes. I'll try to have the last part up tomorrow. If my dad allows me on the internet. :)
Can I just share to the Pinoys...Wielder (NonEntity) and I came up with something before, when we were bored, about Shido serenading Madoka (referred to in first chapter. Ban goaded him into it, if you want to know.). And for some odd reason, we pictured him singing "Harana". With the guitar and everything. (Lyrics--> "Sino ba 'tong mukhang gago, at nagsisintunado sa kaba..." were just too fitting) When we reached "Puno ang langit ng bituin" we started cracking up...Can you imagine Shido singing that? And Wielder could somehow imagine Yamato possessing Ban and forcing him to do the same for Himiko to make her happy or something, and a lot of other random stuff with Ginji and Kazuki and Natsumi and Ren got inserted...Riyuji and Kampana kept staring at us. Yeah.
hikari: Sorry I wasn't able to update so soon...but anyway! Here's chapter four, and I hope you liked it. Thanks for reviewing!
Atropos' Knife: Have a good holiday! I'll leave you to judge if the idea was too evil. I have to thank you, by the way, for helping me come up with the bulk of the kids' prank. Which was Emishi-torture. :) Riyuji says "Merry Christmas," too. Bye!
marbles: Natsumi sang "Ichibyou no Rifurein". Basta, the first ending song. :) Look for "Evil Eyes" (Ban's image song) and "Shi no Jundo" (Akabane's image song). If you want to be brave, look for Shido's image song (Beastmaster). Have a nice time... :D
virgo-princess93: No Friendster, sorry...And I hope this chapter was good. Had a kinda hard time writing it. n.n;; Tip: READ a lot. Of good books. It helps when you write, because you learn from them.
Alicorna: Heyo! Uh, I put in Chapter 1 and the previous chapter the list of kids. Is it okay if you backtrack to those to get the listing? -pokes fingers together- kinda lazy to rewrite... :D sorry! But in this chapter it's easier to keep track, since only five are really in action. Sorry, see,I come from a place where kids of that number (and reunions with kids running all over the place) are common... :D haha.
Oh, I saw you reviewed for "The Promise." :D Thanks! I'll answer your questions when I put up the next chapter of that fic. Sometime in mid-Jan, probably. And I think your penname and its origin are cool. :D Thanks for reviewing!
limelie: Nope, they don't like the singing at all. To be perfectly honest, though, after a while, your ears get used to his singing. :D Did you fall off your chair this time? Don't hurt yourself, apo! :D
Yami Neko Tenshi: All right, I'll look out for it. :D Haha. Oh may GAD, Shido in friar clothes and shaved head? You are SO something else. XD Interesting....anyone care to draw that?