Hotaru

Koizumi literally laughed her ass off. I thought that she had finally cracked and had gone insane. "Sorry to pull your hopes down but, she's already taken." She was still snorting as she said that.

Misaki was about to interfere but I beat him to it. "I want her to assist me for the school festival. She seems much more reliable than a certain friend of hers."

Before Koizumi could retort, Sakura stood up and walked towards me until we were standing side by side. "After you." She urged. It was the first time she had spoken to me.

I turned towards the class and raised my voice loud enough for all of them to hear. "Before anything else, I would like all of you to cooperate and follow my lead. Since no one complained a while ago when I volunteered, I expect that none of you will object to what I say."

The room was filled with stunned silence. They were obviously not expecting my overflowing confidence (I could act as a tyrant if I wanted to).

"I'll take that as a yes." I said and continued. "Grab a piece of paper and write the booth that you want our class to do. One booth only and make sure that it's executable and can be prepared within a span of four days. After you have written, please give the papers to Sakura. The two of us will tally the top five then the whole class will vote among the five choices. Got any questions?"

Sumire raised her hand. I have a feeling that what she's going to say would be nothing but crap but I still urged her to speak. "Is this tyranny?" The class snickered. Seriously, do they always just go along with those two?

"Sumi, just do what she says." Sakura sighed then the edge of her lips quirked up. "Who knows? The bar club you've been dreaming of might actually be the booth we're going to present."

I gave her a displeased look. There's no way I'm going to approve that kind of booth. She just shrugged while Sumire squealed in excitement. I sighed. As long as it gets everyone to participate, it doesn't really matter.

I allotted fifteen minutes for them to think thoroughly about the booth we're going to exhibit but only five minutes have passed and half of the class has already passed their papers. I could feel a vein popping on my head. I think I would need to think of five decent booths for the choices. There's no way they could have thought of something proper within a short period of time.

Ten minutes have passed and all papers were in, including mine and Sakura's. We both started to sort them. Misaki, who stayed behind, also helped us. In a matter of minutes, we were already done and have classified the top five. Sakura wrote the choices on the board (her handwriting was terrible. I mean, terrible terrible. It's even worse than a three-year-old's and I'm not exaggerating).

"I'm going to say each booth. Just raise your hands if you're in favor of it." I said. "You can only vote once. Maid café?"

Sakura counted the raised hands and wrote the number six beside the name of the booth. "Host club?" Eight raised their hands. "Haunted house?" Four – including me. I tried not to pull a disgusted face when I saw the next choice. "Bar club." I said without much enthusiasm. Six raised their hands – four of them were no other than Sakura and her friends. I almost rolled my eyes. I raised an eyebrow when I was down to our last choice. "Mirrors?" Eleven hands were high up in the air and the booth we were going to manifest was immediately decided.

I turned to Sakura. "What's Mirrors?"

She looked at me with an unreadable expression but I noticed that she was clutching the hem of her skirt rather very tightly. "Oh, right. You haven't heard of it." She said. "It's a famous online game here in Japan. There are six tall mirrors encircled around the player. Jumbled phrases are carved at the top of those mirrors. It' a riddle. The goal is to complete the riddle and answer it." She took a deep breath then continued. "Here's the hitch: the disarranged phrases change position every two minutes."

"Meaning the words of each disordered phrase jumble again?" I asked for confirmation and she nodded.

"Your reflections on the mirrors also do not help. They will distract you as much as possible."

"The player's reflections move?"

"Yes." She bit her lip as if she was debating whether to say something or not. "I really don't think this is a good idea."

"Why?"

"It's.. it's going to be complicated. We cannot move a person's reflection."

"We can just use identical masks and costumes. It's not necessary that it should be the player's reflection anyway. After all, they're just distractions."

"How about the mirrors? Where will we get them?"

"It's easy, just let our rich classmates buy them." I said. "Why are you so against this anyway?"

It took a minute before she responded. "Not really."

I stared at her for a while, analyzing her reactions. She noticed me looking and snapped. "What?"

"The prize."

"Huh? Oh, the winner will be granted one wish, depending on its chosen mirror. Once the player won the game, he or she will choose one mirror. Each mirror has a specific category."

"What categories?"

"Material things, edible stuffs, fame, power, money, and contract."

"Contract?"

She nodded a little nervously. "A contract with the devil." Then she laughed without much humor. "It's like the grandest among the prizes. If you happen to be lucky, you can ask the devil anything that you want for a span of six days. Most people say that it's just crap but some still believes it. I guess that's inevitable."

"Do they really give the prize to the winners? I mean, material things are easy but fame and power?"

"I don't know. I haven't won the game. You know Reo Mouri?" I nodded. Reo Mouri's a famous singer. He had only debuted one year ago and now, he had already dominated Hollywood and almost the entire world. Every nook of the universe knows him. "Rumors say that he had played Mirrors before he gained his tremendous fame, though it's just a rumor and there's no confirmation."

I nodded as I sink in all the information I had gathered. I then turned to the class and spoke. "Since we're thirty five all in all, I'm going to divide you into seven groups but the number of members will vary. Six will be assigned on the costumes. They will also be the ones who will play as the player's reflections, eight on the set - including the background music and the phrases of the riddle, two will buy six mirrors, four will think of the riddles – I will be the one to check them, six for the advertisement of our booth, four will stay at the reception, and three will be appointed for the prizes."

I was only answered with silence. "You can be with your friends but make sure not to exceed the number of members I have mentioned. Just give me the list of your group mates later." Everyone screamed in delight and started organizing themselves. The dark blue haired girl whom I saw with Sakura and the other two yesterday, approached the girl beside me. "Miks, come on. The four of us could be on the reception."

"Sakura and I will supervise you all." The girl gave me an irritated look like she was debating whether to spank me or tape my mouth. She sighed and turned to her friend. "Tell us if she's threatening you okay?" She casted a sweet smile to her and sent a cold glare at me then she rejoined with the other two.

I'm beginning to think that these four are inseparable. It's like they wouldn't allow anyone to enter their circle.

x x x

"I won."

I am currently residing in my room – the moonlight was the only one illuminating the dark interior of the area. I have just eaten dinner with my father and taken a quick shower in my bathroom. It's still too early to sleep and since there wasn't any assignment given to us (we have no lesson until next week due to the preparations and the actual festival), I decided to check out the game which – almost – every Japanese is hooked up for.

I was staring dumbly at the screen of my laptop. After half an hour of critical thinking, I managed to arrange the riddle and answer it correctly. Sakura told me that the game wasn't as simple as it sounds. More or less, there were only ten who have won so far ever since the game was released into the public. And I was officially among the winners as of now. I kind of felt proud of myself. I have to admit, I had a hard time fixing the phrases and solving the actual riddle (precisely twenty two minutes for the organization and eight minutes for the figuration of the answer). Normally, my brain would've decoded it for a span of five minutes but my reflections or at least, my avatar's reflections have done their jobs rather spectacularly. At some point, I felt an extreme urge to break the mirrors and strangle my reflections (which, of course, is illogical because first, I cannot go straight through my laptop's screen and second, the mirrors are most likely unbreakable even though I use my avatar). I think getting on the player's nerves was also part of the distractions.

Sometimes, even I am amazed how genius I can be (I'm not boasting. There are times when my brain works unexpected wonders that even I am left speechless. Sometimes – as ridiculous as it seems – I think that Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton somehow managed to possess my mind without me noticing).

It's time for me to choose a mirror for the category of my prize. I suddenly remembered the contract Sakura told me. I was thinking how it will turn out if ever I got that specific division.

Well, that would be interesting. I chuckled inwardly.