A small, solemn sigh slipped through Yuri's lips as she sat on a bench outside of the convention.
"Yuri?" the young maiden's face slightly lit up as a familiar voice called her name.
She quickly looked around, but no matter where she looked, she couldn't find the person the voice belonged to among the sea of fans, "Shujinkou?"
"Over here," Yuri's eyes trailed down to the ground and landed on a cardboard box. Suddenly, the aforementioned individual rose through the top and stepped out of his ultimate stealth device. "Hey."
"…Why were you in a cardboard box?" Yuri asked.
"I was planning on making an entrance," he said, scratching his right cheek. His sheepish expression now replaced by one of curiosity, Shujinkou sat down on the bench and asked, "So… What are you doing out here, Yuri?"
"Ah… I…" The maiden fidgeted as she looked down at her hands. "Honestly, I felt really out of place at the convention…"
"How come?"
"Because I… I just felt like a fish out of water. I couldn't find anything to get into because I don't really understand anything there since…"
Yuri bit her lip as she started playing with her hair.
"Since… I never really had an interest in these sorts of things," she solemnly admitted.
Shujinkou scratched his right cheek and asked, "Why?"
"Huh?" Yuri replied with confused eyes.
"Why don't you have in interest in stuff like comics, manga, manwha, etc.?" Shujinkou questioned.
"Ah… Well… I…" Yuri's expression changed to one of worry. "I honestly feel like they're somewhat childish and never have complex stories or characters. It's just the overall format the stories are presented in…"
The young maiden immediately placed her head in her hands. "Ugh… You must hate me now."
"Yuri… I wouldn't hate you for expressing an opinion," Shujinkou gently assured her. "…Though I would advise against posting those exact words on the internet… "
"I already experienced a result similar to the one that would come from that course of action…" she then turned her gaze back to Shujinkou and asked, "You're not even mad that I called something you like childish?"
"Well, if you're asking me if I'm going to give you a 2-hour rant about how manga is, in fact, a form of literature that should be taken seriously and allowed to be used for book reports… I'm not going to do that."
"Ah… Your 2-hour lecture Sayori mentioned before…"
"It was a rant filled with padding," Shujinkou chuckled as he scratched his right cheek. "Anyway, with that in mind, you can tell that your view point isn't anything new to me. That said, there's more to that kind of stuff than meets the eye."
Suddenly, he imagined a light bulb light up over his head.
"Hey, why don't I show you what I mean?" Shujinkou proposed.
"Eh?" Yuri replied, surprised by his sudden proposal.
"We can go in and I'll try my best not to feel like a fish out of water."
"Ah…" Yuri's cheeks grew red as she played with her hair once more. "Just like at the Cultural Festival… But wouldn't it be a waste of time to try and do so?"
"I know it's not," Shujinkou shook his head. "Remember when we first had lunch together at school? You caught a glimpse of my drawing of Big Boss and gained an interest in his character after I explained some of his arc to you. You even did some research of a video game franchise you never heard of. So… you know, despite how you feel, you're not as close-minded as you believe."
"But…"
"Besides, you and the others helped get me into the intricacies of literature, even helped cement the difference between a metaphor and a simile. So, even if it's not much, I want to help you with this."
"Ah…" a conflicted expression formed on Yuri's face. "I… I don't think I can accept your offer!"
"Why not?" Shujinkou asked, her frantic response causing his worry to rise.
"It's just that… If I were to acknowledging manga like that, it would make me feel even more guilty than I already do now."
"More?"
Yuri silently nodded her head.
"What do you have to feel guilty over?" Shujinkou asked.
"Ah-!" Yuri began to play with her hair. "Well… Because of what I've done when the club was officially formed."
"Huh?"
"When you first joined the club, you may have noticed that Natsuki and I haven't really interacted much. Even now, we don't interact with each other as much as we do with you and the others…
There's a reason for that. You see, when the club first formed… I may have, kinda… insulted her interests and writing style."
"Really?" Shujinkou's surprise was so great it was impossible to hide it.
"On the first day, I noticed her bringing in her collection of manga and asked her if that was all she had. She seemed a little apprehensive when she said yes and… well… I pretty much asked her if she had any real literature too," Yuri admitted.
"Ouch."
"And then there was this other time, when Monika proposed that we write poems and bring them in to share. When Natsuki and I exchange our poems, we ended up getting into an argument over our different writing styles."
"Wow… The things that I was worried about when I first joined already happened to Natsuki… and by Yuri. That's really surprising," he thought.
"You know… I haven't really thought much about those incidents," she continued. "I mean, I feel regret that we fought in the first place, but I didn't really feel like I was wrong in my position. But my feelings on that matter started to… shift when you appeared before us.
We didn't know each other at first and yet you… Even if it wasn't always a conscious choice, I felt like I express my own interests around you and would always feel relief after the fact because you never made fun of them. In fact, you've even indulged them on occasion, just because I asked or because you thought it would cheer me up. I've told you moments like that made me happy, but I eventually realized something… Your actions and words, it made me see how much of a hypocrite I am!
I chastised Natsuki on her passions while fearing the same thing happening to me and never found anything wrong with it until much later! And now, being in a place like this… it's pretty much a symbol of what I look down upon. I didn't want to say no to coming here, because I didn't want to disappoint anyone, but I also know that others would be too focused on me if I showed any discomfort. But I can''t help but feel uncomfortable here, because if I was to have any semblance of fun, then I would be an even bigger hypocrite than I already am! And now I'm burdening you with my issues, instead of letting you have fun like the others surely are, but I started talking and couldn't hold those feeling inside me anymore! And now I feel worse, because even though you said you never find it annoying, the last thing I want is to burden you like this when you could be enjoying the convention you haven't visited in so long. It's just that…"
"Yuri," The troubled maiden looked into the eyes of the young man that called her. Like always, the innocence they exude had a slightly calming effect on her. "Like you just said, I don't find it annoying when you need my help or anything."
Yuri remained silent as she continued to play with her hair. "…You once told me that you were afraid that we wouldn't have like what you could have brought in. I assume that you were referring to your collection of manga?"
"Well… yeah," Shujinkou sheepishly admitted, scratching his right cheek.
"Now that you know that I did such a thing to someone who shares your interest, could you really say that you don't hate me or think that I'm a terrible person? Perhaps even a know-it-all snob? After all, haven't I already done the thing that you were also afraid of happening? I'm sure if I did that to you, you would have hated me too back then."
"No, Yuri. I don't hate or think you're those things you said, nor would I have hated you even if you did say it to me back then. Also, I'm pretty sure Natsuki doesn't hate you either."
"How can you be so sure of that?"
"Because if she hated you, she wouldn't have ever expressed concern over you before. If anything, if she hated anyone, it probably would have been me when I first joined. She had good reasons too since I zoned out a lot more back then that I would have understood if you or the others thought I was wasting your time too."
Yuri was once again stricken with silence as she pondered Shujinkou's words.
"Shujinkou… As both of our friend, what do you think I should do now?" she finally asked.
"Well…" Shujinkou scratched his right cheek as thought about how he should answer such a question. "Um… I think the best thing to do is ask what you yourself want to do."
"What I want to do…" Yuri closed her eyes as she pondered over her next course of action. "I… I want to apologize, because even if I don't particularly care about what she's interested in and even though our writing styles and thought processes are different, I still had no right to look down on her for it… But… I wonder if she'll actually forgive me."
"Well, she tolerated me annoying her on a daily basis so…"
Yuri slightly giggled at his remark.
"What?" Shujinkou questioned.
"Nothing. It's just that… you always try your best to cheer others up when they get down on themselves and yet you always self-depreciate yourself," she answered.
"Wait… Are you trying to say that I'm a hypocrite too?"
"No. You seem to be much better about it than me. But maybe that just serves to highlight how human we are and… how one of the true signs of friendship is that it's not just one person helping another but both sides being there for each other, constantly helping the each other up when they're down because no one person is infallible."
Shujinkou blankly stared at Yuri, causing her to instinctively bury her face in her hands.
"I may be going off point a little but… I'm just voicing what I think I've learned is all," she continued. "It may sound like I'm just babbling though."
"No, it's not that I think that. It's just…" the young man scratched his right cheek as he pondered his words. "You seem to have become a lot more talkative."
"So I am babbling…"
"No! That's not what I meant! I just meant that you're a lot more forward with your feelings than you were when we first met is all. It's pretty amazing."
"Oh… I guess I wouldn't have talked about myself or true feelings that much back then. But to be honest, I believe I owe it all to you."
"Really?"
"Like I said before, I was worried about people looking down on my own interests, so I would usually keep them to myself. But you being so patient and essentially not making a big deal of those or even my own faults as a person… It just felt safe to talk to you about what's on my mind and I also believe that it allowed me to open up a little more around others too. Though it's obvious that I'm still a little a hesitant when it comes to others, but it's still an improvement. Honestly, I didn't know having a friend could cause so much development in such a short time. Like you just said, it's pretty amazing."
Yuri simply smiled after those words. "I really have become a lot more expressive. I hope I can still be like this from now on and…"
The young maiden silently stared into Shujinkou's eyes and smiled once more. "I… probably took up enough of your time already. We should probably head in now. I wouldn't want you to miss out on something that excites you so much."
"Okay," Shujinkou lifted the box he arrived in slightly off the ground and crawled underneath it.
Yuri couldn't help but giggle as she watched the cardboard box slowly move towards the entrance.
Meanwhile, Natsuki, Fuyu and MoM waited for their turn to meet the visiting mangakas.
"So let me get this straight," Natsuki crossed her arms as she tried her best to understand what she was just told. "In the world of Kingdom Hearts, when a person's heart is consumed by darkness, then their hearts are ejected from their bodies and become literal beings of darkness called Heartless. But if that person has a strong will, then the body left behind will be able to go on without a heart and is called a Nobody."
No matter how many times she went over that fact in her head, there was one thing the pink-haired individual could not let go. "Why the heck are the heartless bodies called Nobodies and the bodiless hearts called Heartless?! Wouldn't it make more sense if it was the other way around?"
"Most likely, but you just got to learn to roll with these kinds of things," the MoM replied. "After all, do you think a bunch of fans complaining about every minor detail will affect anything?"
"Fans of this series really do make dedicated community…" Natsuki shook her head. She was filled with disbelief, but she also felt respect for those who liked the games.
"We are," Fuyu proudly said. "Otherwise who else would stick with the series as it keeps getting weirder and weirder concepts?"
"As long as it doesn't drive anyone crazy and produce more toxic fans for the world to deal with," Natsuki accepted.
"Now you're just asking for too much. Do you really think that the rise of toxic fans is inevitable?" the MoM pointed out. "You never know when the next one is around the corner."
"Don't say that…" Natsuki groaned. "You're going to speak that into existence."
"Like things like that really happen."
"You're the one who mentioned it! Are you trying to irk me on purpose?"
"The Master of Masters can be a troll," Fuyu explained.
Suddenly, another figure in a similar looking black coat walked along the line before stopping in front of Natsuki.
"Yes… You'll do," they said in a cold, venomous voice.
"Do with what?" she asked.
"In this year's battle royale for royalty."
"Huh?"
"It's the every other year battle that decides who will rule the convention," MoM explained. "Benefits include being treated like royalty, gain the respect of your fellow convention enthusiasts, etc. etc."
"Royalty, huh?" Natsuki's eyes lit up as she pondered the possibility of actually winning the tournament and earning the respect of everyone watching. "Nah, I don't feel like it. I already waited in this line long enough."
"That would truly be a shame… Unfortuantely, you cannot refuse the invitation of the king," the stranger informed her.
"Why not?"
"It is a rule that I established during my continuing reign as the superior."
Natsuki, unable to hide her annoyance, turned her attention to Fuyu and asked, "Is he in character too?"
"Xemnas exactly," she answered. "He's a cold ham."
"Do I have to listen to this guy?" Natsuki queried.
"Those who disregard the king's wishes shall be pelted with tomatoes," Xemnas replied.
"Ugh… fine…" Natsuki reluctantly agreed.
"You are also required to be in character for the royale."
"What the-? I can't just magically conjure up an outfit to match any character of any series all of a sudden!"
"You can use my coat," the MoM lowered their hood, revealing their beaming face for the world to see.
"Sayori?!" Natsuki rubbed her eyes and took another look at familiar figure.
"Yeah. Why do you sound so surprised? Didn't you know it was me?" Sayori asked.
"No, I didn't know it was you! You're face was covered up and you sounded nothing like you!"
"You're inflections were spot on," Fuyu complimented.
"Thanks." Sayori turned back to Natsuki and passed along her coat. "Good luck, Natsuki."
"Hopefully, I can get out of this done before she leaves…" she sighed.