Chapter Twelve: The Festival (Part Two)

It was always interesting when the Host Club got energized by whatever antic they had gotten themselves into.

'Never a dull day here.'

Currently, Renge was explaining her theory on who the harassing perpetrator was. Though, while using descriptions like, "seems honest and is a handsome youth", and, "but is actually a power-hungry monster.", in the same sentence, she was conjuring up a more definitive mental image of Kyouya rather than the Student Council type.

The Twins agreed, "No way, Kyouya-senpai's already taken that role..." Hikaru dismissed her claim.

"We already have one enemy in our club," Kaoru stated, most likely referring to Tamaki, "We're not in need of another."

"Did you say something?" Kyouya walked behind them, smiling his fake smile.

"N-no. Not a word!" they held up their hands, shaking.

Kiiro wanted to tell them who it was, if only to spare Tamaki from his worry, but the Shadow King had given her a quick description of what kind of what kind of punishment would befall her if she was to tell them.

She shivered.

"Excuse us for intruding on your conversation." two council members stood in the doorway. "I'm Matsudaira, Student Council President, we've come to let you know that we've chosen to withdraw from the race." he had sunken cheeks, straw-like-hair and leaned against the door frame for support. Kanan Mitsuyama stood next to him, smiling.

The club was silent, 'Not exactly the Kyouya type.

"It's too much of a burden to compete against the great candidates." he held his stomach. "Besides, we hear it won't be a chess tournament this year..."

Renge excused herself quietly, completely erasing her theory from her mind.

"Will the Host Club also be withdrawing?" Kanan asked sweetly.

"Not at all." Kyouya returned, phony smile on his face.

"Okay, good luck then," she mirrored his smile.

She and Matsudaira left, Kiiro looked to Kyouya, 'Those dark smiles...'

"Anyway, Tamaki," Haruhi started. "You were about to say something earlier?"

"About everyone's theories...then there's one person who fits the bill. If we can safely deduce a profile from these theories, then eight or nine times out of ten, the culprit will be..."

"Hmph...so the Student Council is turning tail and running..." a man walked in the room, he took a bite of the unpeeled orange in his hand.

'Ew...'

Takeshi Kuze, Makoto Tohgouin, and Hayato Tarumi stopped in front of the Hosts, they were the Football Team, and also in the Central Salon Race. "But, I say it's a wise decision. The race this year...will be a one-on-one duel any between the Football Club and the Host Club."

"Amongst the athletic clubs, they're the most talented group. They make it to the National Championships regularly." Tamaki explained. "Their team is called the "Ouran Orages". It's a French word that means "Tempest"."

"It doesn't sound that great." the Twins patronized.

"They chose the name for its similarity to "orange", the fruit that is." Tamaki continued. "The family of the club president, Kuze, holds the largest market share of imported produce in Japan."

"What about that personal grudge we talked about?" the Twins went on.

"Hey, Ootori!" Kuze called. "There's this rumor that you guys deliberately threw the chess competition last year, that true? Ever since you beat us in the semifinal, we've been a laughing stock." he squeezed his orange. "The story is an embarrassment, but this rumor even reached the ears of my fiancee."

"That's an unjustified rumor grievance, Kuze." Kyouya smiled. "Had people respected you, no one would laugh on the basis of such a rumor."

Kiiro suppressed a chuckle at the indirect hostility.

"What? Are you telling me it's my fault?! Even when you were a kid you had some nerve!"

"They're childhood friends, too." Kiiro explained to Haruhi, who was looking a bit confused.

"Remember when we were in preschool?!" Kuze asked, still seething, his orange squeezed to the point of juicing.

"I don't remember when we were kids. Please don't drip on the carpet." Kyouya smiled.

"Hmph...to think that the heir to the Ootori family should belong to such a carnal club as this..." Kuze wiped his mouth, calming down. "Oops, excuse me... You're only the third son."

The club hardened at Kuze's rudeness.

"...so no matter how much you try, you'll never be the heir to your family will you?"

Kyouya was quiet, fake smile vanished.

"No wonder you lick the crumbs of glory off of the Chairman's son's boots. The thought makes me weep..." he shrugged, arrogance exuding from his eyes.

"Hey!" Tamaki interrupted darkly. "That's none of your business. If you've got a grudge, resolve it in the competition..."

Kuze looked to him, where the rest of the club stood behind their president, "Hmph, fine. Let's so how talented the son of our respectable chairman is..."

'So, it's a fight?'

Kiiro sat in her studio, painting a project of hers, She couldn't quite focus, in reality, her mind was too far away from her brush to actually make something worth making.

Blee-deedel-dee! Blee-dee-deedel-dee!

She jumped out of her trance and glanced at her phone.

"Odd, he usually texts." she flipped her phone open. "Hello?"

"Kiiro? I'm coming over." Kyouya's voice answered.

"What?" she puzzled, what reason did he have to come over?

"I'll tell you when I get there."

"Um, okay?" she closed the phone, wondering why he was coming over. 'I hope everything's alright...he was so quiet after club activities today...'

"Miss Kiiro, you have a visitor." her maid informed her from the doorway.

'Did he call from the driveway? That was quick...'

"S-sure, let him in."

Kiiro waited until he came through her door.

"So?" she got off of the stool in front of her easel, taking a chair by the far wall, gesturing to the one next to her.

He sat beside her, not saying anything at all, he waited and she waited for him.

"It's nothing." he said finally.

"Oh, so you came all the way here to say that?" she turned her chair to face him, sitting Indian-style.

He chuckled half-heartedly, "Maybe."

"Kyouya..." she raised an eyebrow, resting her head in her hands.

"Perhaps...I just came to see you." he said in his phony voice.

"Don't use your host-voice on me." she smirked.

"Oh, so I have a host-voice?" he relaxed, crossing one leg over the other, turning his head to her.

"Yes, it's too sweet."

"I thought girls liked sweet boys?" he asked her.

"Maybe... But, I'm not so interested in boys." she smiled. "Especially sugary ones."

"Hm." he shrugged.

She sighed, staring at him, 'I need to make him talk...'

She got a good idea, she got up and stood right in front of him...looking at him.

"Kiiro?" he raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

"I'm feeling playful." she said as she snatched his glasses.

"Kiiro!"

"I won't give them back until you tell me why you came here." she winked, holding them behind her back.

"Give them back." he stood, coming for her.

"Nope." she darted backward.

"I'll just take them by force." he growled.

She sprinted over to the other side of the room and turned before the door to her room, holding up his glasses, but Kyouya was taller and could easily reach for them, she grinned, turning so her back was to him, keeping his glasses close.

"Come on."

"No!" she giggled.

She tried to get out from under him, and opened the door to her room, he grabbed her arms. With one hand on his glasses, he laughed, "Kiiro, give them back."

She wiggled away quickly, running forward, and tripped over the edge to her pillow pit, twisting to fall on her back, dragging Kyouya down with her.

"Klutz." she heard him say, as he reclaimed his glasses.

"Yay for pillow pits." she stated.

She opened her eyes to see Kyouya putting his glasses back on, while on top of her. She lay beneath him, while he was on all fours. Her face heated up.

"Well..." he smirked, running a finger down her jawline. "Maybe this was why I came here."

She frantically shook her head, too embarrassed to speak.

He chuckled, "Thank you, Kiiro." and, after a moment more, he stood, helping her up.

"You're horrible." she accused.

He smiled.

"Now, will you tell me why you came over?"

He sighed, "I guess I have to. Well, to tell you the truth, I came here to pull myself out of a bad mood."

"Was it...what Kuze said?" she asked gingerly.

"In part, but, thanks to that stunt you pulled, I'm in a much better mood." he shrugged.

"Glad to be of service." she said sarcastically.

"I suppose I can get out of your hair now, if you'd like." he began to walk away.

She grabbed his shirt sleeve, "Hey, wait, Kyouya." she started quietly.

He looked to her.

"You know, you don't have to leave just yet, if you don't want to." she peeked up at him, and his expression made her feel silly about what she was saying, "Um, I, uh, I just mean-!" she sighed. "I mean, I'd like it if you stayed."

He smiled, so genuinely, if made her feel strange, "Alright, I'm not busy anyway..."

She grinned back, "Alright! Oh! Hey! My Dad just had this cool little home theater put in!" she began to walk out of her room, cheering.

He followed her, wondering how she could be so oblivious to this.

'Six days until the festival.'

Kiiro was currently discussing the race with Kyouya. He sighed, "It's just as I suspected." as he looked at the Newspaper's coverage on the upcoming event.

The rest of the boys were exercising.

"Is that necessary?" Kiiro questioned.

Haruhi seemed puzzled as well.

"It requires physical strength but that can easily offset by our intelligence." Kyouya explained. "Instead of wasting effort now, let's form a suitable strategy and... hey, are you even listening?" the boys ignored him, continuing their regimen.

Haruhi was curious about the Hosts athleticism, "You're always so confident that I figured you'd be fine athletes."

"It's not like we aren't, but if we were good enough to beat the Football Club we wouldn't be hanging out in the Host Club. What about you?" the Twins returned.

"Haruhi's junior high records show that she takes over eleven seconds for a fifty meter sprint." Kyouya answered for her.

"I'm not good at sports." she admitted with a slight blush.

While the exercising boys fawned over Haruhi's unknowingly cute look, Kyouya shut his books, "Which reminds me, Kiiro, due to your records, I'm deeming you unfit to participate."

"You didn't have to say it like that..." Kiiro sighed. "But, I can-."

"Ah ah ah." Kyouya interrupted. "Stinking Rich, and Poor Man." he pointed to himself and then Kiiro, who pouted.

"Oh, come on, Kiiro-senpai, don't get all "Tono" on us." the Twins warned her. "Besides, you're the staff, you participating would be like Renge participating." they said, half-politely, comparing her to their self-proclaimed manager.

"Renge?!" she pouted even more. "I'm like Renge? She didn't even appear in this fic until just this chapter..." she sulked.

"Come now, Kiiro, the fourth wall is fragile as is." Kyouya told her.

The Twins shrugged.

"Oh, and Haruhi, how is your search for the perpetrator coming along?"

"At first, Kuze seemed fishy but..." Haruhi reported. "He seems like he wants to openly confront the Host Club. That means there may be someone who wants to see Kuze falsely accused. Maybe there's a simple solution, if we investigate the people around Kuze. What I don't understand at all is the meaning of the blank letters we found with the hate mail."

"Haruhi, something that appears complicated can be unexpectedly easy, and vise versa. And, even if you have a lot of threads in hand, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to tie them all together. Right?"

"Huh?"

"At any rate, will you memorize this for me before the race?" he handed her a packet.

"What is this, it's heavy."

"The blueprints for the school."

"Tomorrow's the day of the big race!" the intercom sounded. "What started off as a face-off between the Host Club and the Football Club is now a race between eighteen groups! There are 132 participants!"

'One of them is not me.' Kiiro moped.

"The winner will now doubt have the honor of being recorded in Ouran History!"

She sighed, stitching a few bunny designs onto Hani's battle armor-like coat. She had to stop because her hands had started shaking.

"Nervous?" Kyouya asked.

She smiled, "I'm not even in the race but, yes."

"Don't be." he laughed. "The plan will work."

She exhaled. "I hope."

"It will," he put his hand on her shoulder. "I have complete confidence in it. I constructed it."

"I helped," she raised an eyebrow. "Watch the arrogance."

"You're my slave, so of course I get all of the credit. Just count yourself lucky that I didn't use you for something else."

"I'll suffer in silence."

"Good."

Kiiro watched on the sidelines as the Hosts stepped up among the contestants in long black, or white in Tamaki and Hani's case, battle coats with long white headbands on their foreheads.

'Actually, now that I've seen it on them,' Kiiro thought. 'It looks like something from shonen manga.' she hung her head.

Kanan stood atop a platform, "Let me explain how the race works." she started. Apparently the President couldn't take over because of his weak stomach. "You're to follow the prescribed route and answer the questions at designated sites in each building, east, west, north and south. If any team member passes, so does his group. If not, they are eliminated. The group that successfully clears all sites will be given five clues. In the finals, participants must use those clues to locate a particular location. The group that claims the hidden crown will win use of the Central Salon. Any questions? Very well, then..."

"Let the race begin!" The broadcaster announced.

The clubs converged on site #1.

"First is the reflex quiz!" the site was full of little buzzers. "What is the name of the Fairy King who appears in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream?"

Tamaki buzzed a split second after the Basketball Club did, "Oberon!"

"Correct answer! Please ascend the slippery slope behind me and continue on!" he pointed to the slanted and oiled platform.

All three failed.

"On what day of the month did the character Murasaki-no-ue in The Tale of Genji die?"

Tamaki buzzed. "August 14th!"

"Correct answer! Suoh of the Host Club is advancing."

The girls squealed as he marched on determined.

"But... he slipped!"

'Flat on his face.'

"The Hitachiin brothers are stepping on him! What an incredible strategy for the chairman's son to sacrifice his body!"

"Who says it's strategy!" Tamaki yelled as they used him as a foothold.

Kiiro laughed. 'Well, that's one way to do it.'

Except they also slipped...

"Tarumi of the Football Club passes by easily! The Football Club starts off in the lead! Close behind are the Gymnastics and Wandervogel Clubs! Could it be? Will the Host Club be eliminated so soon?"

'Not exactly.'

Hani was hoisted into the air by Mori and he sailed easily onto the flat top of the slope.

"It's a miraculous show of teamwork between Haninozuka and Morinozuka!"

More squeals.

"The Host Club passed the first site! Next is the Math Quiz and One-Hundred Chin-ups!"

'Odd combination.'

Mori had the chin-ups covered while Hani and Kyouya zipped through the math tests.

"Third is memorization quiz and tightrope walking!"

'Why that combination?' she could see a similar question in Haruhi's eyes.

Tamaki wiggled along on the rope while Kyouya wrote away on his quiz.

"Fourth is a game of concentration and free throws!"

The twins easily matched up the two paintings with the same painter.

'Well, they're pretty good artists after all.' Kiiro admitted to herself.

They then easily threw the basketball through the hoop, posing for their fangirls.

"Goal! All clear! The Host Club finished at the same time as the Football Club! Will the other groups follow? As expected it looks like the two groups that sparked the race will move on to challenge each other in the final round!"

Even more squeals.

"Which club will seize the crown?"

The club went over the cryptic clues as they changed into costumes that she had, in part, designed, glad to finally prove herself useful, the clues were, "B, square, H. Go up and sink. Tenjiku. KCN. And, between the Holy Mother and Angel."

As she helped Kyouya adjust his robe, he asked her, "Kiiro, you know where it is, right?"

"Yes." she whispered, not wanting the rest of the boys to hear her, as they had deduced the first two and the fourth clues to mean west in different ways, and decided to head to the Sunset Venice exhibit set up in the West Gym, "Why do you waste your time going to the gym?"

"To create a better chance for a close race." he smiled.

"Ah, hold on, it's too loose here." Kiiro stopped him. She took a needle and thread from the table, getting closer so she could get to the collar of his robe, "U-um, would you mind sitting down for a second...it's hard to see." she fidgeted, despising her 5' 2" height versus his 6' 0".

"Sure." he smirked, settling in a chair.

She stitched his collar closer together so it wouldn't move as easily, she tried to ignore how close their faces were, "Th-there, I got it." she bit the thread and quickly stepped back.

"Thank you." he said, not ignorant to her red face.

"Y-yeah..."

"Now the final match is getting more exciting! Is it chance or is it inevitable?" The Broadcasting Club unveiled a huge, flat-screened television. "Both clubs have deduced the same destination! Sunset Venice in the West Gym! Wow! Please, watch the screen!"

They close-upped on the Host Club, covered in an excess of feathers and frills in slightly clownish costumes and robes.

"Carnivale! The Host Club quickly changed into Venetian carnivale costumes with the location change! What an awesome performer's spirit! They took no heed to the fact that it wasn't necessary for the race or that it was a complete waste of time! In a way they're reckless! Incidentally, "Sunset Venice" is apparently an event in which the ancient Italian city of Venice has been reconstructed in the west gym! Anyhow, let's continue with our live report!"

The Hosts caught up with the Football Club while the girls in the crowd squealed.

Kiiro laughed as Tamaki caught an orange that Kuze had thrown and sank into the channel of water under their boat. And then stood by silently as the Host Club frantically paddled toward the Accademia Bridge. Which... wasn't finished.

'No crown there.'

Kiiro smiled as Haruhi ran off toward the real location. The pool on the roof of the west building. The club took off their heavy clothing and ran after her. The Football Club got there after Haruhi and pushed her into the pool. Kyouya stopped Tamaki from swimming after her and dove in himself.

On the opposite side of the pool there was a throne which sat between a statue of the Holy Mother and an Angel, the crown was located there.

Tamaki and Takeshi both reached for the crown and...

"It's... It's over Tamaki Suoh claimed the crown! The Host Club wins!"

On screen, Tamaki held up the crown high in the air, looking every bit the King.

Kiiro couldn't help herself she cheered, and perhaps even squealed a tiny bit.

And, for some reason as Kiiro watched the Hosts figure out who sent the letters, Kanan sent them to try and scare the Host Club off so Kyouya wouldn't end up beating her fiance Kuze again, and how Kyouya used them, bringing the letters to their attention so they would get more fired up about the race, she could only think of that one quote, "Use whatever is at hand, be it friend or foe." - Kyouya.

"What a dark guy..." she smiled to herself as she made her way to where the club was. "But, you can't help but like him..."