I would like to thank the user lordsoftheroses for co-writing this chapter with me as well as the joke that is used early on. Please enjoy.
*Classroom, Tokyo University Duel Academy*
The class was going over the Culture Festival in order to prepare for it and decide what they should do.
"Okay, the Culture Festival's in a few days and we still haven't decided on what to do, so we'd like to hear your suggestions." Shroud announced to the class with Chan next to him. "As class representative, I have a right to order you to do so."
Ms. Krystal, wearing a light pink T-shirt with white squiggly circles and lines all over it that were hard to see and on the chest area was writing so difficult to see that you'd have to get real close to it to see that it said 'If you're reading this you are too close', was in the corner of the classroom watching them. "This can't end well."
Spiral whispered to Naoto. "Have you ever noticed the class under-rep is always a girl?"
"Okay, what are your suggestions?" Shroud asked the class.
"Manga café!" A student raised their hand.
"It's been done." Shroud rejected the idea.
"How about a play?" Another student asked.
"That's been overdone." Shroud rejected that idea, too.
"How about we make a movie?"
"Oh, that' an excellent idea!" Shroud said sarcastically. "And while we're at it, let's make me an esper, Aura a time traveler and Momo an alien artificial construct sent by the Data Integration Thought Entity!"
"… You wouldn't be the esper; you'd be the sarcastic guy." Spiral joked back.
"I would have to be the esper!" Shroud stated. "I'm the only one who could be the esper."
"What makes you think you could be the esper?" Naoto asked.
"I called it." Shroud answered.
Chan had written down all of the suggestions on the board. "Are there any other suggestions?"
"No need. We already know what we all want… Star Trek party."
"BOOO!" The whole class started throwing stuff at Shroud.
"This is highly unsanitary!" Shroud said before being hit in the head by a tin can.
After all of the suggestions were made, the voting began and people put their votes in a hat that was collected by Shroud.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I must now go outside and count the votes without any outside influence or risk the electoral integrity with a debauched, fixed election. Excuse me." Shroud said as he ran for the door.
Krystal managed to snatch the hat from him before he could get out of the door.
"Not so fast, Romney!" Krystal wittingly said, taking the hat away and heading to the front of the class. "I'll count the votes. I'm an unbiased party. We'll count each vote one at a time so there's no suspicion of corruption. Shroud, take you seat."
"Ookay…" Shroud said in a sad voice as he went to his seat.
Krystal took a paper out of the hat. "First vote is… Star Trek party."
"Yes!" Shroud got excited.
"The next vote is… Manga Café." Krystal put a tally for both under the board. "The third vote… Manga Café. Manga Café… and Mange Café again. Manga café. Movie. Manga Café. Movie. Play. Play. Manga Café. Swimsuit Competition? Hmm… Oh, students only. Screw that! I'll file this under 'Other'. Manga Café. Play…"
After the final votes were counted, the final tally stood at Manga Café 20, Play 4, Movie 5, Star Trek 1.
"I guess we're going with the Manga Café, kids!"
"I demand a recount!" Shroud raised his hand.
"On what grounds?" Krystal glared at him.
"On the grounds that… everyone voted against me."
"… Request denied."
"Formal protest!"
"Denied."
"Informal protest!"
"… Denied."
Spiral looked at the person reading this story. "They stole that back-and-forth from the fanfic 16 Squads. That chapter was published a week ago."
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the school, there was a large ruckus sound and after it subsided, two guys were knocked unconscious and a girl with short blue hair and wearing a sleeveless, open jacket with a blue T-shirt and black pants.
"IF I EVER CATCH YOU LOOKING INTO THE GIRLS' ROOM AGAIN, I'LL ACTUALLY BREAK SOMETHING NEXT TIME!" The girl yelled at the beaten up guys before walking away.
As she walked away, people started to whisper.
"What's her problem?" A girl asked another girl.
"That's Asuka Mizuo." A girl whispered back. "She was enrolled here last spring."
"Oh, I heard of her. Didn't she grow up in a really rough neighborhood?"
"Was that it? I heard she-"
Asuka walked right past them and they stopped talking as she passed them.
Back in the classroom, the class was trying to work on the Manga Café.
"I wish that we could have done the swimsuit competition." Momo seemed sad.
"Why'd you suggest that anyway?" Camaru asked.
"Um… no reason." Momo obviously lied.
"Well, some of us might as well decide on who we'll be cosplaying as." Spiral said. "And we should also call dibs because there can only be one character per anime."
"Um… where's Shroud?" Naoto asked.
"He sulked off because his idea was rejected." Chun told them.
"My idea was rejected and I didn't complain." Momo stated.
"… Yeah, you kind of did." Aura said.
Shroud was about to head to the principal's office to complain when the mysterious girl (the one from the end of the last chapter) came out of the office and walked away.
"… What was that about?" Shroud wondered to himself.
Shroud had tailed her all the way to another section of the school. The mysterious girl walked right up to Asuka and talked to her. Shroud hid behind one of the corners and eavesdropped on their conversation.
"Excuse me, are you Asuka Mizuo?" The girl asked.
"Yeah." Asuka responded.
"If I may ask, would you like me to accompany you during the Culture Festival?"
"Hmm? Wait… what?"
"I would like to hang out with you tomorrow during the Culture Festival."
"R-Really?"
"Keep this just between us, okay?"
"S-Sure. No problem."
"Great. I'll see you at the Culture Festival."
The strange girl ran off and Asuka just stood where she was.
"Did… Did she just-" Asuka was about to say until she noticed Shroud peeking around the corner.
When Shroud saw that Asuka had noticed him, he ran away back to the classroom.
"Okay, we finally finished building the café! All that's left is getting the costumes!" Spiral was satisfied with the finished job.
"Guys! Guys! Guys!" Shroud came in running like he was running from a bully. "There was-"
Shroud was panting like he ran a straight marathon.
"H-Hold on!" Shroud tried to catch his breath.
It took several minutes for him to finally stop panting and clearly say what he wanted to say.
"I saw this strange girl come out of the principal's office and she talked with this other girl!" Shroud clearly said. "I think the name of the girl she talked with was Asuka Mizuo. She said so herself."
"Asuka Mizuo? !" Naoto seemed shocked. "What's she thinking? !"
"Who's Asuka Mizuo?" Aura asked.
"She's the toughest, craziest, scariest girl in the entire school!" Naoto told them. "When she enrolled here back in spring, she beat the shit out of these guys that were peeking in the girls' bathing room, when she wasn't even in it."
"I don't see the problem with that." Aura said. "Those guys did deserve it."
"… She's still really scary. Mostly because she can beat the crap out of anyone." Naoto admitted.
"She's that tough, huh?" Momo said.
"More importantly, the other girl came out of the principal's office!" Shroud reiterated. "If she came out of the principal's office, that automatically makes her suspicious! That means she must know the principal somehow! Which means that her arrangement with Asuka makes her even more suspicious!"
"What arrangement?" Lee asked.
"They are supposed to meet each other at the Culture Festival." Shroud answered.
"Well, you can go ahead with this, but we've got to handle this café." Spiral stated.
"Can I borrow Naoto and Aura?" Shroud requested.
"Why?" Naoto asked.
"I need someone to sneak around them and gather evidence while I wait in a safe place to record the evidence." Shroud responded.
"Why me?" Naoto looked up at the sky.
The Culture Festival finally started and there were stands in just about every hallway. Asuka was standing outside one of the classrooms waiting for the other girl. Naoto and Aura were standing around the corner, keeping an eye on Asuka.
"Are you in position? Over." Shroud asked over a walkie talkie.
"We are." Naoto responded over the walkie talkie.
"We are what? Over." Shroud asked.
"Um, you have to say 'over' every time you finished talking. Over."
"Fine! We're in position. Over."
"Has that target moved yet? Over."
"Negative. The target is still waiting. Over."
"Notify me when the target starts moving. Over."
"Will do. Over."
The mysterious girl finally came up to Asuka.
"Are you ready to go?" The girl asked.
"Uh… yeah." Asuka responded.
The two girls started walking away and Naoto started talking on the walkie talkie again.
"Shroud, target is on the move. Over." Naoto informed Shroud.
"Stay on them. Contact me if anything suspicious happens. Over." Shroud stated.
Back at their classroom, the Manga Café was getting a lot of service. It may have had something to do with the fact that Ms. Krystal was dressed up in a straight-blonde wig and in a grass-green haori with a kanji written in black on the back, inside a red circle. Underneath she was wearing a grey, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matched her pants. Her blouse was closed quite low, revealing her sizeable cleavage.
"Ah, you gotta love the times where you can just wear whatever you want and nobody can complain about it." Ms. Krystal sat back in her desk.
Although, most of the students in her class were also dressed up in costumes. For example, Momo had her hair tied up into a ponytail and wore a pale yellow, sleeveless outfit with a skirt end that has a slit down the side with a bright yellow star emblazoned on the right side of the chest. She also wore a dark brown scarf and a tight dark brown stocking on her right leg starting just above the knee and white boots. She also wore grey and black bandages on her arms from the shoulder down and a sweatband with a star symbol on it on each of her wrists.
"Welcome to the Manga Café!" Momo greeted some male students. "Let me show you to your seat!"
"Oh man! This is so awesome!" One of the male students expressed at the sight of Momo and Ms. Krystal cosplaying as such sexy characters.
"I wonder where Spiral is?" Momo wondered.
Momo then saw that at another table, Spiral was a sitting at a table hosted by Hikari. Hikari was wearing brown pleated checkered skirt, a white sweatshirt with long dark blue sleeves with a black singlet underneath, a yellow pendant over her neck and long, dark and light purple-striped stockings with white shoes and a belt tied to her left leg. She also had a sucker in her mouth.
"Would you like any more tea, sir?" Hikari asked Spiral.
"Oh, yes. Thank you very much." Spiral thanked her.
Momo started to get angry "Rrrgh! I'm going to kill her!" She muttered to herself.
Naoto and Aura have been tailing Asuka and the strange girl for a while now.
"Has the target exhibited any suspicious behaviors? Over." Shroud asked over the walkie talkie.
"The only thing suspicious so far is that Asuka hasn't beaten anyone up. Over." Naoto responded to Shroud.
"Seriously? Because by the look of things, I think what's more suspicious is-" Aura was about to say.
"Shh! Something's happening!" Naoto hushed Aura and pointed to Asuka and the mysterious girl.
"So… why did you want me to hang out with you anyway?" Asuka asked.
"Because… I've taken an interest in you." The strange girl responded. "I would also like to prevent 'strange' things from happening?"
"Interest? Strange? Wait, are you calling beating up perverts strange?"
"No, nothing like that. Although, now that I think about it, the strange thing going on right now is how your cheeks have been a little red since we met."
"Wh-Are-Are you calling me strange? !" Asuka became flustered.
"Wow, you reacted pretty fast to that."
"How could you say that so calmly? !"
"I'm somewhat patient. You… don't really like guys, do you? Every time I hear about you, it's because you beat up some guy for doing something perverted or disgusting."
"… Well… I-" Asuka turned her head and noticed Naoto and Aura spying on them.
Aura and Naoto quickly hid when they saw her notice them and Asuka turned back to the mysterious girl.
"Do you think she saw us?" Naoto whispered to Aura.
"I'm not sure, but I think I noticed something about Asuka." Aura whispered back.
"What's that?" Naoto whispered.
"I think-" Aura was about to whisper in response.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Naoto and Aura turned to notice Asuka was right next to them.
"Um…" Naoto became nervous. "We're not doing anything! We just happened to be heading in the same direction as you! Happens all the time!"
"Yeah!" Aura was also nervous. "It's not like we think you're a lesbian, and even if you are, there'd be nothing wrong with that!"
A sweat drop fell down from Naoto's head and Asuka started to become red.
"W-Wait… Did you just call me a lesbian?" Asuka asked.
"RUN!" Naoto screamed at the top of his lungs as he took Aura's wrist and ran like hell.
"HEY, WAIT DAMMIT!" Asuka chased after them. "IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK AT ALL!"
Hikari was still busy flirting with Spiral, posing as the character she was cosplaying as when Aura and Naoto came bursting through the front door of the classroom.
"What brings you buys here in a hurry?" Ms. Krystal asked them.
"Oh *huff* just *puff* we were *huff* late *puff*" Naoto responded in panting.
"Well, get your costumes and get to work. We've got a lot of customers coming in." Ms. Krystal told them.
Aura then noticed Hikari with Spiral and walked right up to them.
"*huff* You're lucky *puff* that I'm *huff* tired right now *puff* otherwise *huff* I'd…" Aura was about to finish her sentence when she fainted from exhaustion.
When things started to slow down, Spiral, Naoto, Aura, Momo, Lee and Shroud were all together to discuss the information gathered.
"Sadly, I have inconclusive evidence for us to make solid hypotheses." Shroud stated as he looked through a notepad.
"Wait, something just came to me." Lee said. "If the principal is the one who knows about the mirror world, do you think she's the one putting people in here?"
"No, she'd never do that." Momo quickly and calmly responded.
"What makes you so sure?" Lee asked Momo.
"I… You just have to trust me." Momo gave an excuse.
"Well, if that girl knows the principal, maybe she sent her to protect and keep an eye on Asuka." Spiral had an idea. "The principal probably recognized a pattern and realized who would be next."
"Now that you mention it…" Naoto realized. "That's probably not a bad theory."
"I have to admit, Spiral." Shroud expressed. "You're smarter than you let on."
"Um… I'm not sure whether I should take that as an insult or a compliment." Spiral reacted ambivalently to Shroud's comment.
"Aren't you the two guys from earlier?"
A voice came from behind them and Aura and Naoto's faces looked like they had just saw a terrifying behemoth. Everyone turned around and saw that it was Asuka.
"Look, I'm sorry I overreacted earlier." Asuka apologized. "I'm not saying this is your fault, but… it did feel like you were following me around."
"Oh, i-it wasn't you we were following!" Aura said. "Just that other girl."
"Um… can I ask you something?" Spiral asked. "Have you noticed anything unusual or strange as of late?"
Asuka's face started to show hints of anger. "Strange? What did you mean by 'strange'? Are you saying that I'm strange? !"
"Wait! No!" Spiral started to become nervous. "I didn't mean it like that!"
"You have ten seconds to back off or I'll beat every piece of hell out of you!" Asuka started shouting.
"What did I do wrong?" Spiral asked.
"That's men for ya. We never have any idea what we did." Naoto joked.
"I'M NOT BULLSHITTING AROUND!" Asuka became enraged.
"SCATTER!" Spiral yelled at the top of his lungs.
Everyone scattered into different directions to escape Asuka's wrath.
A little later on, everyone had gathered back after separating.
"That girl has some serious anger issues." Spiral commented.
"No kidding." Momo agreed. "It seemed once she gets mad, she's like a freight train."
"It's going to be difficult for us to get anywhere near her at this point." Aura hypothesized.
"You're right." Naoto agreed. "Plus, I think she'll be fine. She seems like the type who wouldn't go down without a fight or let anyone sneak up on her."
"Maybe you're right." Spiral guessed. "I'll keep an eye on my bracelet in case something happens."
"It's a plan." Shroud said. "I probably could have thought of something better, but it'll do for now."
Everyone just gave Shroud a look of disapproval.
"We have a long-ass way to go before we can make you a real boy." Naoto commented.
English Voice Cast
Todd Haberkorn Spiral
Maxey Whitehead Shroud
Yuri Lowenthal Naoto
Alexis Tipton Aura
Monica Rial Momo
Alison Viktorin Chan/Chun
Laura Bailey Hikari
Caitlin Glass Asuka
Wendee Lee Ms. Krystal
Cassandra Lee Mysterious Girl
Preview
Momo: Things are going to get very uncomfortable in the next chapter!
Shroud: What makes you say that?
Aura: To say anything else would be spoilers, but something unusual is going to happen.
Shroud: …
Naoto: … Do you smell something burning?
Spiral: That's just Shroud thinking. In the next chapter of Awakening of the Soul! ASUKA SMASH!
Lee: What the hell was that about?
Spiral: It's a Hulk reference.