Chapter Twenty-Eight: An Ideal Haruhi
The resemblance was nearly killing Kiiro, ever since she had sat down in the cafeteria beside Haruhi and the Twins- at a table adjacent to the one Tamaki, Kyouya and Kanoya Megumi sat at- it had struck her how much Megumi looked like Haruhi. The few times Kiiro had seen Haruhi in a long wig, she looked exactly like this. It was a bit unsettling.
Currently, Haruhi, the Twins, the seniors and Kiiro were not-so-secretly observing Kanoya and her Prince from across the way as she handed him a bento she had made herself.
"This is all your doing...?"
"Yes, I really love cooking."
Kyouya sat down across from Tamaki, "By the way, I heard that the Kanoya family has many restaurants in the Kansai Zone."
"Yes. Since a long time ago, I've been taught by my father in the kitchen of the restaurants, and, since I loved it..."
"You enrolled in Aoizuka School in Kobe." Kyouya finished for her. "It is a very well known place there. Why did you enroll here at Ouran for your second year and during the middle term?"
"It was my mother's idea. This was her parents' old home as well. Then..."
"Kanoya-san..." Tamaki started. "To thank you for this lunch, how about letting me be your guide around Tokyo?" he smiled. "Are there any places you'd like to visit?"
"If you are my guide, then any place is fine." Even Kanoya's smile echoed Haruhi's.
The Twins huddled together, Hikaru said, "Does she like him?"
His brother replied, "Definitely, she likes him."
"Well, yesterday she was saved. And, he risked his body like that."
"Also, I heard that she has trouble talking to people, but now in their exchange she speaks so casually."
Hani joined their conversation, "Ne, ne~... I was wondering~... Somehow, doesn't Kanoya-san resemble Haruhi~?"
Haruhi nearly dropped her chopsticks.
"Ah, you noticed it too?" Kiiro joined the huddle.
"Suoh-san..." Kanoya began. "You look so calm... You definitely give off an adult vibe..."
"Tono! What's up? You don't look well!" the Twins took action, slapping him on both shoulders.
'Ouch...'
King held his injured shoulder, tears falling from his eyes profusely, while the Twins addressed Kanoya, "Princess Kanoya, we're very sorry, but lately this person is often lost in his thoughts... But, usually he's known as the super-annoying prince!" they smiled mischievously.
"Oh? Is that so?"
"And even more, he is a narcissist, and an unlucky, perverted crybaby!"
"Ah!" she had a look of disbelief on her face.
"Even at night he sleeps with a teddy bear!"
"Ah!"
"He likes lunches that have hearts on them, his hobby is to research Japanese culture in the wrong way. He likes correspondence and his collection consists of small packages of commoner's sweets!"
"Ah..."
"Hey, what do you think you're doing...?" Tamaki said angrily as he recovered.
They whispered to him, "Well, looking closer at her, we realized that she resembles Haruhi. And we wanted to check her personality..."
"Haruhi...?" Tamaki looked at Kanoya again.
Kanoya smiled that cute smile that Haruhi also seemed to have, "Suoh-san has so many masks! So tomorrow I'll prepare a heart-shaped teddy bear lunch!"
The Twins deadpanned, "Now, well, Tono... has this kind of let's-have-a-walk-with-you-wearing-a-white-one-piece-while-the-sun-goes-down-near-the-waves-of-the-sea idea."
'That was the daydream from the time we went to the sea.'
"Well, I often wear white one-pieces..." she replied simply.
"With Tono, would you publicly take each others hands in joy and spin around?" Hikaru stuck out his pointer finger.
'That was from the time of the physical exams.'
"If Suoh-san wants it." Kanoya smiled.
"What if he wanted ideal newlywed behavior?" Kaoru stuck out his pointer finger.
'Tamaki's dreamed that Haruhi up more times than anyone's cared to count...'
"There are people who dream of that, right?"
"During free days would you play Daruma-san has fallen? And would you have a tour around commoner supermarkets?"
'Like when we played 'red light green light' and when we went to that exposition?'
"If Suoh-san wants to do that, of course." she laughed lightly. "All these things seem so funny! I don't think twenty-four hours in a day would be enough!"
"N-no way..." Kiiro muttered. "Someone like this exists..."
The Twins, Hani and Kiiro all had the same shocked look on their face and the same thought in their head, 'An ideal Haruhi?! Tamaki's fantasy is now here... Right in front of our faces?!'
Kanoya tended to the still-recovering Tamaki and Haruhi went back to eating her meal quietly.
For the next few days, Tamaki spent most of his free time with Kanoya, which- though they did look like a perfect match- was angering his fangirls to no end. And a bad mood had gripped the club because of the two, the Twins and Hani were busy fuming in the club room when Kyouya entered, "Are Tamaki and Haruhi here?"
Kiiro sat on one of the windowsills and shrugged, "I haven't seen much of either of them lately..."
"Haruhi is near the library, and we don't know about Tono." the Twins sulked angrily.
Kyouya raised an eyebrow, irritation plain on his face, "Why are you three making that pig face?" The Twins and Hani stopped making the face. "If it's because of what's been rumored about Tamaki and Kanoya-san, we can't do anything about it. Even Tamaki can't do anything about it, if we consider that she felt responsible for his wound, and that he obviously wants to thank her."
"We know!" the Twins yelled. "We know! But it's no joke that Tono finally seemed to start being conscious of his trauma and exactly at this same time...!"
"Ne, ne, won't it be that, because she is similar to Haruhi in Tama-chan's mind, his feelings will change, right?" Hani had big tears in his eyes.
"Who knows." Kyouya sighed. "But, then again, I have shocking information. It seems that she got transferred her because her parents are on bad terms... To be precise, her father and her mother's parent's family. The girl's father is planning some new project. And her mother's family is absolutely against it. 'If you plan on continuing the project, we'll make you divorce.'" he quoted. "And the daughter, Megumi, is unable to see him. Don't you think this is similar to Tamaki's situation?" he asked. "It seems that she had to break all contact with her father. Maybe due to someone interfering..."
Everyone looked shocked, "Does Tono know?"
"I don't know... Maybe he knows or she will tell him soon. Well, as she prefers..." Kyouya ran a hand through his hair. "For Tamaki, Miss Kanoya Megumi is the perfect, ideal woman. Moreover, I'd say they can probably relate to one another."
Kiiro glanced out the window again, thinking about how troublesome the circumstances were becoming.
'If we were to make a pie chart on what the Host Club does, about forty percent of it would be represented as 'stalking and/or spying on people'...' Kiiro thought as she sat with the Twins, Haruhi and the seniors behind a hedge. "Why am I here?" she added.
"Target found!" Kaoru said in a small voice. "Even today, with this cold weather, they are having a friendly lunch in the cold courtyard!"
On one of the benches sat Tamaki and Kanoya.
"I see a huge basket! Today there's lunch western style?" Hikaru followed up. "And also... is that only for that two of them? Is Princess Kanoya, by any chance, a big eater?"
"I wonder at what time Kanoya-chan wakes up every morning to make that big lunch~?" Hani thought aloud.
"..." Mori was silent.
"Hey..." Haruhi spoke up. "Let's stop peeking on them. I want to hurry up and have lunch in the room. There are so many books I want to read..."
"A voice of reason." Kiiro smiled at Haruhi.
"Stupid Haruhi!" Hikaru scolded. "Have a little solidarity! What's happened to the new Haruhi?"
"Why are we out here for this kind of amusement?"
"Amusement?" Hikaru questioned. "It's not amusement that we're spying on them! So we're trying to cover the fact that it's unpleasant by joking about it! You're really pretending that you don't care!"
"B...But, well, I don't ca-..." Haruhi almost finished.
Kaoru announced, "Ah! Princess Kanoya is about to feed Tono some food!"
"It looks like they are at that stage already~!"
Hikaru and Haruhi quickly whipped around to see the pair.
"But, Tono politely refused. Princess Kanoya is crying a little due to the shock." Kaoru continued.
"She is not... Don't lie..." Haruhi was tricked.
'So, she really does care.' Kiiro chuckled.
Hikaru sighed, "I heard that yesterday she confessed to Tono."
Haruhi was silent.
"But, isn't it too soon?" Kiiro began. "No matter how the circumstances of love at first sight are, she transferred only one week ago..."
"And no matter how guilty she felt for Tono's injury..." Kaoru joined. "...since she's always been attached to Tono, it was impossible for her to make new friends."
"...Tamaki-senpai...what was...his answer?" Haruhi wondered quietly. Her head was poking out of the bushes.
"Haruhi?" Tamaki saw them. "What are you all doing here? If you were so interested in Kanoya's lunch, you should have said so."
"Please help yourself, there is so much." Kanoya offered.
Kiiro excused herself quietly and wondered down the hallway.
'This all seems to be playing out oddly. If she confessed to him, I wonder what happened?' she sighed. 'It's not like he would accept something like that when he's only known her for a week. And, he wouldn't give up on Haruhi... even if she wasn't ideal. But, still...'
"Ah, Kiiro!" Kyouya called, he met her at the end of the hall.
Still lost in thought, Kiiro asked, "Kyouya, do you believe in love at first sight?"
He smirked, "That's an odd question to ask out of the blue. Have you seen Tamaki?"
'He probably doesn't.' Kiiro concluded as he avoided the question. "Oh, yeah, I've seen him. He's in the courtyard." she led him back.
When he saw King he said, "Tamaki, when you're finished eating, could you come to the clubroom?"
"Kyouya?"
"It's about yesterday's activities. You didn't come..."
"I'm so sorry! I'm coming right now!" Tamaki ran up to them. "So, thank you for the meal, Kanoya-san. It was really good today, too."
"Eh? But you hardly ate anything." she looked surprised. "Well, in that case, I'll come, too."
"Oh no, please, eat calmly with the others!" he smiled. "Sorry, see you later!"
"Ah..." Kanoya tried to say something but they were already walking away.
"She had the face of an abandoned puppy, you know..." Kyouya broke the silence as Tamaki went over the books for yesterday's meeting.
"Eh?"
"Princess Kanoya." he cleared.
"I heard that she confessed to you." Kiiro said from her spot on the tabletop.
"She confessed her feelings to you? Are you two dating?" Kyouya asked.
"I refused." Tamaki sighed. "But, then today, too... She was still there with me. I think she is relying on me to run away from what's hurting her... But, I can't do anything for her now. Because, when I looked at her I realized that I too, I'm like her... What Hikaru told me... I thought a lot about it and I think that relates to this as well... You know... I was so happy to have friends... And all I could think about was that I didn't want to break it, and I pushed everyone into my ideal world... To think that when I heard about my trauma I even thought it was cool..." he laughed. "And, I felt ashamed when I realized it... That's why, exactly like me, Kanoya-san is clinging on to me and trying to run away from something. But, I can't do anything for her. And I don't know... I don't know what I can give her." he confessed.
Kyouya and Kiiro looked surprised.
'This idiot...' Kiiro smiled.
The bell rang.
After Tamaki excused himself, Kyouya looked up to her, "Kiiro, let's call a meeting for tomorrow after school."
"Mm?" she gathered her things in her bag, "Do you have some scheme in mind?" she grinned.
"Something like that." he returned her smile, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Go on, now. You don't want to be late for class."
She rolled her eyes, "Yes, sir."
"Oh, and, one more thing." he stated as she reached the door.
"Yes?" she leaned against the doorway as he shuffled through his papers with his back to her.
"I don't know about first sight, but, I know it doesn't have to be too long after that." he said simply.
She cocked an eyebrow, "What vague thing are you referencing now, my liege?"
He glanced at her over his shoulder, "Your question from earlier, of course."
It dawned on her what that meant, Kyouya was a bit of a romantic.
What hadn't quite gotten through to her was how he had come up with this opinion.
Everyone but Tamaki was invited.
"Sorry I'm late!" Haruhi apologized as she ran into the mostly empty club room.
"Haruhi you're late!" the Twins nagged.
"I told you to be punctual." Kyouya added.
"I...I'm sorry, it's just... I've been getting information all day yesterday and today..." she shuffled in. "By the way, is it okay to be here? Tamaki-senpai..."
"Tamaki is with Princess Kanoya at the hospital." Kyouya stopped her. "So, did you think about the project?"
"Yes... for the most part..." she handed him a bundle of papers. "But I'm not sure it will be okay..."
As he read them, everyone looked over his shoulder.
"Um..."
"Isn't it surprisingly good?" Hikaru asked.
"Yes, somehow it's the most plausible one." Kaoru agreed.
"It looks like it could work well..." Kiiro interjected.
"And it seems the budget is low." Kyouya added. "As expected from a commoner plan."
"I approve." Mori said simply.
"Haru-chan's idea is approved~!" Hani laughed.
"So, everyone agrees?" Kyouya smirked. "We're replacing our stupid club president, who isn't able to do it, and for this time, we'll perform it by ourselves! Our target, like we talked about yesterday on the phone, is Miss Kanoya Megumi. Let's prepare everything in detail! This is all, what's your answer?"
Everyone responded with a smile, "Yes!"
'An orienteering race. Haruhi had a very good idea.' Kiiro thought as she helped put everything together.
Competitors in teams of two would make their way through six checkpoints, which were scattered all around the building, until they finished the race first, or best. At each checkpoint, you would have to complete a task to clear it, the task was administrated by one of the Hosts, and also by Nekozawa and Kiiro and excluding Tamaki who was to participate, and when you finished the task, if you finished the task, you would move on to another checkpoint until you completed them all. When you completed them all, you had to put together a curry with the ingredients you won at each checkpoint. Whoever completed the race the fastest and with the best curry won. The winner's prize was: one of the Hosts would do what you wanted for an entire day, so a lot of people were participating.
As of right now, Kiiro and Kyouya were waiting at Checkpoint Five in the library with quite a few tricky crossword puzzles. The Twins were at Checkpoint One with their favorite pastime: the 'Which One is Hikaru Game', Hikaru had dyed his hair back temporarily of course. Umehito Nekozawa was waiting at Checkpoint Two with a quiz on black magic items. Hani was waiting at Checkpoint Three with a game of 'Bottling the Bunnies' which was similar to 'Whack-a-Mole'. At Checkpoint Four one had to play 'Kuma-chan Crisis Shot (Kendo Version)'- which was similar to 'Pop-up Pirate Barrel'- with Mori. And then there was Haruhi at Checkpoint Six, where participants would play a game of truth.
"And so, the Ouran High School Host Club's Curry Orienteering Competition is starting... right now!" Haruhi announced. All the teams took off in different directions, it didn't matter what order you went in.
Kyouya got a call, "Hello, Kyouya-senpai? Tamaki-senpai started just now." Haruhi told him. "Now I'm going to the point I'm in charge of."
"Yes, then." he smirked and hung up. "The first competitors should be here any moment."
Kiiro chuckled, "How many people do you think we'll stump?"
One of there first contestants was Kanan, who was in a team with Kuze, who was bragging about winning- and making Kyouya join the Football Club- until he saw the crossword puzzle. Though, all of their challengers were free to use the books in the library.
The second call came from Hani, "Hello Kyou-chan~! How is it going there~?"
"We have two teams already. And you, Hani-senpai? Well, anyway, I'm providing a very difficult crossword puzzle game here, it seems everyone is having a hard time with it." he said with an evil aura.
"I brought the history books!" one contestant yelled.
"What's the 'eye underneath a fruit'?" Kuze asked.
"Oh, it's right in front of you." Kanan laughed.
"Kyou-chan's game is extremely evil... Ne, our strategy will be fine, right~?"
"Regarding Princess Kanoya, we have to leave that to Tamaki."
"Okay, it would be nice if Tama-chan could also cheer up~! Takashi and I are only going to be here until March... We don't want it to end like this..."
"Hani-senpai..." Kyouya looked surprised. "Is it possible that they are really going to make you graduate?"
"Of course! What do you mean?"
'Really, what kind of question was that?' Kiiro raised an eyebrow, which earned Kyouya's glare.
"Oh, no, there is no deep meaning." he waved it off.
"Tama-chan... What might be the biggest problem that he is holding in his heart... I wonder what we could do to cheer him up..."
There were pounding footsteps from behind them, "Kyouya-senpai! Kiiro-senpai!"
"Haruhi? Why are you not at the place where you're supposed to wait?" Kyouya asked.
She took a deep breath, as she had been running around a lot, "I asked Casanova-kun to wait in my place for now. But, we have a problem! It seems that we can't use the kitchen on the first floor as our goal! The teacher had forgotten that they were making repairs today! Tell all of your participants to use the 3rd kitchen in the East Wing."
"Of course." Kiiro nodded.
It was a while before Tamaki and his partner, Kanoya, made it to Checkpoint Five, having passed all of the other checkpoints easily except for Mori's.
"You are late." Kyouya criticized as the two walked into the library.
Kiiro looked up from checking a completed crossword, the basket Tamaki carried contained all manner of conflicting ingredients, fruits, fish, natto, ginger, onion, wasabi. Just the thought of what kind of curry that might make turned her stomach.
"Is your choosing of ingredients going well? It... sure seems a weird mixture... I've heard of curries with fruits and curries with fish but, never curries with both... These are going to be trouble even for Kanoya-san, if it's too hard you can retire." Kyouya echoed her thoughts.
"Well, those were not exactly my choi..." Kanoya began. "Ah, no. It's fine if they are used carefully. And, if we add more spices..."
"Is that so...?" he gestured to the tables. "So please, play my crossword game. And, by the way, the first group that arrived, the Football Team, is still at that point." he pointed to where Kuze sat still trying to figure out one of the problems.
"You... how hard is this task?" Tamaki stuttered.
"She said something interesting, right?" Kyouya gestured to Kanoya, who was not going to waste any time on the crossword puzzle.
"Yeah, but, I didn't actually realize it until I was doing this. This project was done to have her take out her true feelings." Tamaki said.
"That's right. We assumed you would choose very improbable ingredients and that it would make Kanoya-san come out from her state of numbness. Thank you for doing what we thought you would." Kyouya commented.
"...That's great..."
"Kanoya-san's father's specialization is Japanese cuisine. And it seems that his best specialty is indeed curry. When we heard this, we thought that this project could actually work. And then Haruhi said that if it was you, along the way you would have understood what the purpose of this project and helped."
"Tamaki-san, this task is really hard if we don't consult the books." Kanoya stated.
"Eh? Really?"
"If we do some research, we might be able to understand more, however. There are things from cultures of every country around the world. We need a knowledge of brand names of tableware, flowers and furniture. For example: What's the name of the ceramic type established in 1735 in Tuscany?"
Tamaki easily said, "It's Ginore. We use it in the clubroom."
'Exactly.' Kiiro hid her smile as she handed a checked crossword off to a pair of regular club guests, ready to advance.
"In Okinawa's bingata method, to get the color yellow, what is the name of the natural dyestuff?"
"It's Fukugi."
"The playing field of Kemari's game?"
"It's Kakari."
"Turkish type of traditional clothing?"
"Shalwar." Tamaki easily wrote down all the answers. "But, these questions..."
"You're not playing fair, Ootori Kyouya!" Kuze accused. "These are all the things that were used in previous Host Club events! It's too easy for Suoh!"
"Oh and is that bad?" Kyouya sighed. "The point of our Host Club events: they are fun and simple for our guests. This is our motto. Now we are providing something for our regular guests, something they can have fun doing."
Renge and two other regular guests were working on a puzzle and reminiscing.
"Gah!" Kuze scoffed.
"This is today's hidden theme." Kyouya looked toward Tamaki. "For most of us, it was barely two years but already, we are feeling the history of the Host Club."
"Kyouya..." Tamaki held up his puzzle.
"Did you already solve it? That's impressive. So now, what kinds of ingredients do you want to bring with you?"
"Tomatoes, cumin and chili powder!" Kanoya spoke up.
"Kanoya-san..."
"I shouldn't be telling you this because, I too, can't decide by myself but listening to your talk before... even if I don't have a lot of confidence. No matter what I do, there are feelings I don't want to give up on." she blushed. "So please give me tomatoes, cumin and chili powder. I need those..."
Kyouya smiled and pushed a shocked Tamaki, "Come on, go, now you're at the last part. Haruhi is waiting for you."
They hurried off to Checkpoint Six.
Kiiro waited for them to get out of earshot, then giggled, whispering to Kyouya, "You know I knew Tamaki would choose all of the wrong things, but, we may have underestimated him this time."
Kyouya's smirk resurfaced, "Or we've overestimated Kanoya-san's ability to save the ship."
"All the same, I wish we could hear what happens next."
Kyouya chuckled and said, "Did you forget about the phones?" He flipped his open and dialed the number of the phone that he had left waiting at Checkpoint Six. "Listen."
Kiiro put her ear next to the phone and they both listened while Kuze still tried to complete the puzzle. After a while they heard Haruhi say, "Welcome to the last part! This is the mouth of truth! I will ask you four things, if you lie about any of them, the mouth will swallow your hand and you won't be able to continue! Now please, team representative Kanoya-san come forward!"
Kanoya said, "Yes."
"Is your name Kanoya Megumi-san?"
"Yes."
"Is your hobby cooking?"
"Yes."
"Before Ouran, did you attend Aoizuka Academy in Kobe?"
"Yes."
"Don't you feel sad or regret that you had to part from your father?"
"Haruhi! That quest-!" Tamaki yelled.
"I...don't." there was a crashing sound. "Kyaaaaahhhh!"
"Kanoya-san!"
"My hand is being pulled inside! Something warm is keeping it!"
Thankfully, Kiiro knew it was only first-years Kasanoda and Soga holding on to the girl's wrist.
"Haruhi! Stop it now!" Tamaki tried.
"No."
"Haruhi!"
"No!" Haruhi yelled back. "Because you too are lying! Didn't you tell me that you would start talking to us? And yet you're keeping something painful to yourself. You're still thinking that you should stay quiet, because, if you don't, you'll cause problems for us. And if you expressed your real feelings, you're afraid we would leave you? Then we would have done it already. We know your good sides and your bad sides by now. Hikaru and Kaoru know you've been able to tell them apart for a while. Hani-senpai knew you wouldn't be affected if he tried to get his way by crying. Mori-senpai, with his strength, knew that, even if you flinched, you would never refuse a match. And then, even though I probably don't understand the half of it, you were able to easily solve the crossword because of all the memories you created with everyone. You're selfish! A crybaby and you abruptly keep twisting all of us around! We know all this! Why can't you understand it... Even if we do... We still want to be here all together!"
Haruhi's outburst made Kiiro's heart twinge.
"Please let me go! Tamaki-san, help me! Uwaaa! Father, help me! I want to go back to Kobe!" Kanoya confessed. "But, I can't think so. This new project was a dream you had for a long time but mother had to protect family customs. I know both of them are suffering, that's why... if he wants to pursue his comical path I want to help by pushing him towards it!"
A silence fell, from somewhere a distant wind was heard whistling.
'...Comical path...?'
"Eh?" Haruhi.
"Eh?" Kanoya.
"Eh?" Tamaki. "Comical?"
"Ah... Yes..." Kanoya continued, evidently much more calm. "He wants to be a chef entertainer. He decorates with kitchen knives, a new kind of art."
Tamaki was laughing hysterically, "A chef entertainer! I want to see it absolutely!"
"Ta-Tamaki-senpai!"
"I'm sorry..."
They heard the Twins' laughter, they were on another phone at Checkpoint Six, "What's a chef entertainer?"
Hani, also on a phone, "Is he also able to cut a cake~?"
"It sounds interesting, though." Kiiro admitted.
"I now understand why the mother was sympathetic of him." Kyouya added.
"What a manly spirit." said Mori, also on a phone.
"Eh? You all?" Tamaki sounded surprised.
"We didn't think we would laugh so much!" the Twins seemed to be dying with laughter.
"It is kind of funny, isn't it?" Kiiro giggled.
"If you have finished everything, go to the goal!" Kyouya told Tamaki.
"Listening to your laughing voice made me hungry~!" Hani stated.
"Curry." Mori said simply.
"That's right! Hurry up and make the curry!" the Twins ordered.
"Can you make a good curry with all those odd ingredients?" Kiiro asked.
"Tama-chan, make it sweet~!" Hani advised.
"...Spicy..." Mori contrasted.
"Really, you guys are 'two steps forward, one step back'..." Kyouya sighed.
"Ah! Geez, shush, shush! Don't all talk at once!" Tamaki yelled.
Haruhi spoke up, "Kanoya-san, I'm sorry to have you go through this. But what you said just now, wouldn't it be good to also say it to your family? Because right now you... have an incredibly relieved expression..."
"Hello, Hikaru..." Tamaki addressed. "Do you think you could find some time later? There is something I want to talk about."
When they hung up the phone Kiiro looked up to Kyouya, "Do you think he's...?"
"I hope so." Kyouya sighed. "This is beginning to get frustrating."
"Frustrating?" she grinned. "Is that why we stick with our idiots?"
He chuckled, ruffling her hair, "You might have a point there." he straightened up when he realized Kanan was approaching them with her and Kuze's- finally- completed crossword. "Alright, Kiiro, continue checking these, will you?" he waved a hand at her.
Kiiro accepted Kanan's paper, looking it over before retorting, "Why am I the only one checking these?"
"Because you didn't understand my message earlier." he scribbled something in his ever-present black notebook. "Consider it your penalty."
"What message?" she pouted as she sent Kanan and Kuze along to the next checkpoint.
He shrugged, "My point exactly."
After all the participants had finally finished, and had made their curries. The taste test had been done. The winners, based on taste and time, were Kuragano and Sakurazuka, two of Haruhi's regulars.
"W-wait, you mean Tono and Kanoya-hime still lost in the end?!" the Twins were stuck in a state of disbelief.
"After all of that...?" Haruhi sighed.
"Well, I suppose we'll have to follow through on the promised prize." Kyouya shrugged.
"Maybe we banked too much on King to win..." Kiiro and the Twins shared a look.
"But at least this way Kanoya-chan can work things out with her family~!" Hani giggled.
"Mm." Mori nodded.