A Chance to Show Off

Yumi

A few weeks later, I heard that the Lobelia Girls' Academy representatives had abducted Haruhi!

With that information, I just sighed. Enough is enough.

I slipped into their school undercover, wearing my black leggings and a dark shirt. Prowling around darkened hallways, I wound up taking a couple of wrong turns before I finally heard near-screaming and followed that to an auditorium.

And what a sight met my eyes: a girl in a bright pink dress with highly-styled hair and way too much makeup was running back and forth across the stage, being chased by what looked like half of Lobelia's students, while about half the Host Club watched in bemusement.

I tugged at my hair tie and pulled two braids loose. I'd bound my hair into three braids and then spun them all into a single rope, because I figured I'd be doing something like right now. The way I bound the tip of one braid was making sure there was a decent loop of braid at the end, just big enough to slip over someone's hand. The other braid I just bound up normally.

Then I stepped onto the edge of the stage, started spinning the loop, and called, "Haruhi – right hand up!"

The pink-garbed runner near-automatically let go of her skirt with her right hand and held it up.

I waited for her to come back around and then let my braided loop fly!

It dropped neatly around Haruhi's wrist, and I yanked her out of the way of the chasers and practically right into my arms. "Who destroyed you?!" I asked.

Before Haruhi could answer, the tallest of the chasers – clearly the starring "male" role in their skit if the purple suit was anything to go by – lunged for me. "Get your hands off of my Haruhi!"

Funny, she sounds like Tamaki-senpai.

I caught a different free braid, swung it around and cracked the woman one on her outstretched hand.

Everything came to a complete halt.

"Listen," I hissed, surprising even myself at the venom in my voice, "I don't know who you are, and I don't care. Haruhi doesn't want to be here, she doesn't need to be here, and she isn't 'yours'! And if that's the way you think, then you're worse than Tamaki-senpai!"

Oh, the look that was on her face as she near-recoiled from me! She looked like I'd just slapped her!

So I decided to keep talking. "You barge in on her life, you don't take no for an answer, and you're talking as if you think Haruhi's your soul mate – which, as you're the same gender as Haruhi, I highly disapprove! Now do us all a favor," I drew my braid back in a windup, "and get out of Haruhi Fujioka's life!" My braid smacked the woman once on each side of her face, and I finished as I turned away, "And stay out! Come on, Haruhi, let's get you changed out of that pink monstrosity."

Later, the Host Club gathered around me. All of them wanted to know how I did that.

I tugged a braid. "Well…I don't like to brag, but…I really have been practicing doing stuff with my braids, ever since I grew my hair this long. If you want to see some of the stuff I've been doing…" all of them looked interested, "…then I'll need seven cans of soda, some paper cups set into a pyramid, a tower of blocks and…lots of space to move."

The next day, I found that the Host Club had arranged an open space in the middle of their room, with all the stuff I'd requested set up. I myself was already prepared by having my hair in two braids.

I studied the setup, orienting myself, ignoring Tamaki-senpai's announcement to their guests.

Silence fell when I gathered my braids into my hands, gripping them probably about midway, at highest a third away from my head. I started to make them spin…

And then I sprang into action!

My first target was the block tower. Someone – probably Mori-senpai – had stacked them as tall as me, and this wasn't counting that they'd put it on a table. I started smacking the blocks out of the middle of the tower, adding an extra spin from whichever braid wasn't hitting the block out so that it hit the block down and not towards the guests. The result was that the one big tower ended up two shorter towers on either side of me! (That one, I hadn't been consciously trying to do.)

Next, I spun over to the pyramid of cups. With several well-placed snaps, I sent some of the cups flying – without knocking the whole pyramid down.

For my big finale, I ran to the table of sodas, twirled my braids, and managed to grab each can – two at a time at first, down to the last one – and send them towards the Host Club!

Most of them caught the cans just fine. Kyoya-senpai, Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai did the best at that while at the same time making it look easy. Haruhi, Hikaru and Kaoru all managed to catch theirs, though they looked a little panicked. Tamaki-senpai didn't manage to grab the can until after it hit his chest. At least it was only his chest and not his face.

I spun my braids a few more times, let go and let them spin around my arms, and curtsied to my audience.

And I got the most incredible amount of applause.