Chapter 2

"Everyone's here," said Kiyoshi, massive in his yukata, his ghost makeup dreadful in the light of day. None of the other basketball club members was in 2-B with Kiyoshi, and thus there had been no one to warn them of their doom when Kiyoshi's submitted choices- unwarily approved by his class- had been 'Kissing Booth' and 'Haunted House'. Kagami and Kuroko had been hearing the screams drifting faintly down from above for the better part of the day.

Hyuuga shuddered right past him and dropped into a chair Kuroko put next to Riko, saying, "You could have stopped him. You possessed that power. You could have stopped him."

"No one was forcing you to visit 2-B," said Riko, who had in fact been very careful to familiarize herself with the house before Kiyoshi got out of makeup and started on his shift. "Why didn't you just go to Koganei-kun's class? Mitobe-kun is cooking in the café there, it was pretty good."

"Whose idea do you think it was to go to 2-B," said Hyuuga. "Why the hell is the line for here so long, anyway, cross-dressing can't that popular in Seirin. No one could possibly want to see Kagami in a dress."

"Wrong on both counts," said Imayoshi, and Hyuuga raised his head to look directly at the Miracle table and take in some of their fiercest rivals eating Kagami's crepes and sitting together at tables bickering like children.

"Huh," he said. "Well, that explains the screams of 'SORRY' I kept hearing in there. Your mushroom might be stuck in the haunted house."

"Wakamatsu will get him," said Imayoshi, supremely unconcerned. "That's the good thing about having to graduate the team, you know- you're no longer responsible for these idiots."

"I bow to sempai's infinite wisdom," said Hyuuga drily.

"Ootsubo-san!" said Kiyoshi brightly. "This brings back memories, huh?"

"Thankfully, not that many," he said, eyeing Kiyoshi with the mixture of alarm and resignation that everyone who spent any time whatsoever with Kiyoshi tended to adopt.

"Hanamiya sends his regrets," said Imayoshi to Kiyoshi, crisply.

"Oh, he couldn't make it?" said Kiyoshi. "What a shame."

"What do you mean, couldn't make it?" said Riko, dangerously.

"I invited him!" said Kiyoshi, looking surprised they wouldn't have realized this. "I thought he might like to come, since his school isn't that far away."

"Are you an idiot?" said Hyuuga.

"He also wants to know how the hell you got his number," said Imayoshi, delicately rolling up a piece around his marshmallow topping and skewering it, "But I'm afraid I couldn't satisfy him on that count."

"Well, we've known each other a long time," said Kiyoshi, as if tried to cripple me was the equivalent of a friendly nod in the hallways.

"You idiot," said Hyuuga. "Do you have any idea how much weaponry is running around from the cosplay cafes? What if he came and we murdered him? Do you want us to go to jail?"

"But he would be invited," said Kiyoshi. "Besides, Riko was saying, high attendance is good! And isn't the festival fun? Right, guys?" To the table at large.

"I can't speak for Kirisaki Dachi," said Takao, "But just speaking on behalf of Midorima being crazy, why did you do this to us?"

"But I saw him just now," said Kiyoshi, surprised. "And some of the rest of you: you looked like you were having fun!"

"Looks can be deceiving," said Takao. "Mostly they can be deceiving when Midorima is playing all the games until he wins and girls won't stop glaring at us and he's making us spend all our money buying him more tries."

"Did he win?" said Hyuuga. "We've got a baseball aiming game did he-"

"He won it," said Takao.

"Class 3-A's ring toss?"

"Won it."

"3-C's got some kind of guessing-"

"He won it."

"What about 2-D's basketball mini- what am I saying, he won it."

"Usually Murasakibara-kun gets all of Midorima-kun's snack prizes," said Kuroko. "He never eats them himself."

Hyuuga fell off his chair, and then climbed up, muttering to himself we're in his damn class and all his crazy friends are there why am I even still doing this.

"He stocked up on potential lucky items," said Takao to Kuroko, as Kuroko put his crepe before him and held out his hand for Takao to pay for both his and Midorima's food. "And we can't eat that much, we'd explode."

Kuroko shrugged. "Give it to Kagami-kun," he suggested. "Or Aomine-kun."

"Aomine may already be on the verge of exploding," said Imayoshi. "How many has he eaten?"

"No, he's fine," said Kuroko.

Riko put her head to the side, and said, "Hey, Imayoshi-kun."

"Yes, Seirin's coach?" said Imayoshi.

"How would you like to make sure Aomine-kun goes to more than five seconds of your practice next year?" she said.

"Thankfully, by that point it will absolutely none of my business," said Imayoshi, "But speaking objectively…impossible."

Riko's eyes cut across to Kagami, leaning across the burner to wave his spatula in Midorima's face. "I could think of a way," she said, and sipped her iced tea.

"It's rather a case of fire and gasoline, though," said Imayoshi. "Oil and napalm. Other such uncomfortable metaphors."

"I prefer to think of it as the marriage of two like minds," said Riko.

"Very like," said Imayoshi, and looked over to the Miracle table to meet Momoi's raised eyebrow with a sheepish smile.

Momoi eyed Kagami and Aomine- currently arguing about whether or not Aomine could actually order the Nike swoosh on his crepes while Kuroko dutifully tried to recreate it anyway- and shrugged at Imayoshi in one long elaborate movement, who nodded.

"Obviously," said Imayoshi to Riko, "I could neither confirm nor deny any of this, as I have no more official power or involvement in Touou's development." He paused. "Officially."

"Officially," said Riko, "I think Momoi just said that she doesn't care what you do, as long as I don't care if she drags Kuroko-kun behind the gym or shows up at our practice in a bikini again. Which, you know what? I actually don't. As long as Aomine-kun comes along."

"Again?" said Kise, catching the tail end of that conversation. "Wait, what?"

Midorima muttered something that sounded like 'don't ask, don't get attacked in the middle of class by a pink-haired monster'.

"Either Touou and Seirin are getting joint practices next year or he just proposed to her," said Takao. "Or…they just arranged the marriage of Aomine and Kagami. It's you guys, so I can't be sure which."

Hyuuga squinted a glare at Takao, but then Kiyoshi said, "Oh, that reminds me! Will we have camp together again next year? That was fun."

"No, it wasn't," said Midorima.

"No, it wasn't," said Kagami at almost exactly the same time, and they made amazingly horrible and childish faces at each other while Aomine and Kise sniggered.

Takao twinkled up at Kiyoshi. "Yeah," he said. "That was fun. We should totally do it again."

"Please make him stop," said Hyuuga leadenly to Ootsubo.

"I'm also retired," he said, almost apologetically. "Those crazy people are no longer any of my business."

"Next year I'm going to be manager," said Kiyoshi brightly.

"I'm sure you'll pep everyone up," said Imayoshi.

"I should ask Momoi-chan for manager tips," said Kiyoshi, thoughtfully.

Riko rolled her eyes and shoved her chair back, barking Kiyoshi in the shins, but not very hard. "I'm off to the gym," she said. "Izuki-kun's stand-up is soon, isn't it? We should be there when he starts. I'll pick up Nigou, too, and then I want to check the flow down at the courtyard. I'll see you guys there, and collect Koganei-kun and Mitobe-kun on your way. Teppei, by all means solicit manager tips. See you in a bit."

"I don't think I've ever said this to you before," said Imayoshi, watching Riko leave, casting sly glances to Hyuuga under his lids as he did so. "But that is an amazing woman."

"Please feel free to never say such a thing ever again," said Hyuuga. Kiyoshi petted his head.