Having no knowledge of the Black Magic Club besides their faces, except for Reiko Kanadzuki, I've finally conceded to make their names up. Once I am corrected I will gladly change them to what they are supposed to be, but until I am corrected I can no longer write an entire story of "he", "she", "they". Additionally, I need to invent them up a little personality. All of this of course is based solely on what they look like. I hope I'm not too off the mark. Also, Renge's fanfiction probably actually exists. I don't know; I'm not in that fandom. EDIT: I just found out that in volume nine, the Host Club actually does a pirate theme. I still think I'm clever.
"Haru-Chan, Haru-Chan!" Hunny bounced excitedly up to Haruhi at their next meeting the moment the girl entered the room, "Did you really go? What was it like? Was it scary?"
"Was what scary?" Haruhi replied, trying to remember if there had been anything she'd done this week that could have possibly been considered frightening in any way.
"The Black Magic Club!" Hunny answered, hugging Bun-Bun tighter as if for comfort. Instantly that meeting came to mind and replayed in Haruhi's memory.
"Oh, that," she replied. "That was nothing. I just gave Nekozawa back his doll. You'd want someone to return yours, right?" she added to Hunny, giving him something to ponder and a chance for her to slip past him into the room.
"Is that a fact?" a pair of voices chimed in surround sound as the twins appeared on either side of her, their arms around her slim shoulders. They grinned diabolically.
"They didn't make you participate in any weird rituals?" Hikaru goaded devilishly.
"Or sacrifice a goat to some dark god?" Kaoru added with a smirk. Haruhi rolled her eyes, her face deadpan.
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," she replied, distancing herself from them and opting out of their ridiculous inquisition.
"Oh, really?" she heard them ask from behind, a knowing smirk clear in their voices, "Then what happened after he pulled you into his club room and shut the door?"
Somewhere across the room, Tamaki's ears perked.
"Were you following me?!" Haruhi turned fiercely towards them, clearly enraged.
"Of course," they replied nonchalantly with a shrug, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "We wanted to see what he did."
In a sudden flash of movement, Tamaki was in front of Haruhi, gripping her shoulders protectively with a look of sheer abject horror on his face.
"Haruhi, what have you done?!" he shouted in a very serious panic. "He didn't do anything, did he?! Like cast a spell on you or curse you and your entire family for generations to come?! You didn't eat or drink anything he offered, did you?! SPIT IT OUT! SPIT IT OUT, HARUHI!" He began shaking her violently as he continued, perhaps hoping to somehow rid her of any lingering curse on her clothing.
"S-senpai, please stop," she coolly requested of him, her face betraying her irritation. "You're overreacting."
"What would compel a nice girl like you to face down the gate to Hell?!" he continued dramatically. "What sort of daughter have I raised?!"
"I bet it looked like a dungeon!" Hunny offered unhelpfully, as it only served to bring an image to Tamaki's mind of chains and manacles.
"No, nothing like that..." Haruhi's voice went unheard as the Hitachiin brothers began to giggle and Tamaki turned quickly towards Kyouya with tearful eyes.
"Discipline her! No, wait! Do something!" Tamaki commanded. Kyouya adjusted his glasses.
"It's nearly time for our clients to arrive, Tamaki," he noted. "We should be getting ready."
The club president paused at this. After a brief moment, he drew his posture up elegantly and smiled radiantly at his club members- his attitude now turned completely around.
"Of course! We have a responsibility towards the beautiful ladies that will soon grace us with their presence! Come, we must prepare!"
"Right away, Tono!" The Hitachiin brothers saluted in mock respect, but nonetheless began towards the costume box where they had initially found Bereznoff.
Haruhi sighed in relief at the attention being lifted from her, and secretly blessed Kyouya for saving her from that irritating situation. At least Tamaki's personality was manic enough that he could only seem to focus on one subject at a time.
It occurred to her though, as her eyes met Kyouya's while he handed her the week's costume, to hope that he didn't expect her to owe him for the rescue.
Due to popular request, this week's theme was a little more roguish than their usual standard. It seemed to be big in popular culture outside of the school, so as the Third Music Room's doors opened that day and the young girls excitedly filed in, they were astounded to discover that the Host Club had finally agreed to a celebration of piracy.
Tamaki seemed to be having a great time, fulfilling the romantic fantasies of many young women who'd read too many trashy romance novels about dashing young swashbucklers who would whisk them away for a life of adventure on the open sea. With his long, gold trimmed crimson captain's coat and remarkable hat, his classmates were unanimously decided to be sort of amazed with how well he could wear anything he put on. Belted around his waist was an antique flintlock pistol (once fully functional but now completely broken for accident prevention) and an impressively constructed but completely fake cutlass.
"Tamaki-Taisa," a girl breathed, blushing furiously, "A pirate's life is so perilous! What do you hope to achieve?"
He replied by taking her chin gently in his fingers and tilting her face towards his own, softly smiling and yet dangerously inviting. "I would face down all the worst hazards of the sea for a chance to steal the greatest treasure of them all; a kiss from you."
The girls swooned and blushed around him, sighing dreamily. Haruhi was at a loss as to how easily he could come up with that stuff.
In her own blue waistcoat, tricorner hat and belted sash, Haruhi had managed to gather her own crowd of gossiping girls. Included in this circle was Renge, who apparently had a previously unheard of pirate fetish.
"You look so great!" She smiled broadly, "Right out of a seventeenth century sea port! It's just like in that movie! You know after it came out, I wrote a fanfiction about Jack and Will, but after I saw the second movie I changed my OTP to Jack slash Norrington, with Norrington as seme!"
The other girls squealed delightfully and demanded the web address of where they could read this story. Haruhi meanwhile, having never seen the movie, was at a complete loss as to what the hell they were talking about. All she could focus on was how hot and itchy her costume was.
Really, how did pirates get anything done in jackets like these? I can barely move.
"Haruhi-Kun," one of her clients addressed her with concern, drawing Haruhi's attention, "You look uncomfortable... is the costume hard to wear?..."
"Er... no, it's not that," Haruhi stumbled as she was brought back to the conversation.
"Do you not like pirates?" the girl continued questioningly.
"I don't know about not liking them," Haruhi explained, "but I don't know why they represent freedom. Life on the sea must have been hard. They were away for months at a time from their home and their families... and sometimes they didn't even come back. It's sort of sad."
The other girls sighed. "How thoughtful of you!" they declared sincerely.
"Speaking of 'not coming back'," Renge began with a mischievous spark in her eye, "I heard that Haruhi visited a different club earlier this week. Were you thinking of switching?"
The other girls suddenly stared at Haruhi in concern, their hands clasped together at their hearts in distress.
"Were you really thinking of leaving the Host Club?" one girl asked, tearfully.
"No, not at all..." Haruhi explained, trying to wave away the very idea. "I was just visiting someone..."
"Oh?" Renge asked slyly, activating her inherent ability to find slash in anything. "And who were you visiting?"
The others now looked on with great interest, making Haruhi very uncomfortable. "I was just running a favor," she replied clearly. "I have no intention of going back."
It was then that she heard a throat clear behind her, and a terrible feeling swept through her body. Turning her head, her blood froze when she saw exactly what she had feared; Shinobu was standing there behind her, her face hidden under her long, mousey hair. Her hands were gripping the front of her dress so hard her knuckles had turned white.
"Ah... um... H-Haruhi..." she began, trembling, "I'd just come to... remind you, um... but its okay. Nevermind!"
She then turned quickly and fled from the room, to Haruhi's surprise. Tamaki appeared beside Haruhi, having witnessed the display, watching as Shinobu ran.
"She looks distraught," he remarked. "We should go after her-"
"No, this is my fault," Haruhi sighed. "I'll take care of it. Don't worry about it, Senpai."
A humming sound brought Haruhi's attention back to her clients, where she discovered Renge looking thoughtful.
"Suppression of true feelings?.." Renge pondered aloud with a smile. "Perhaps this is why Haruhi visited another club last week."
The other girls looked at Haruhi, astonished.
"Really? With her?" one began.
"Haruhi is a nice boy, maybe he likes a nice girl." another continued.
"But she's so... very plain!"
"Haruhi sees through that, into her very soul, where she's a beautiful, pure-hearted person who arranges flowers and takes care of her grandmother on the weekends!"
"But she's shy, and gets teased! And he met her when he saved her from some bullies!"
The girls sighed wistfully.
"None of that is actually true..." Tamaki attempted weakly to explain, but was ignored by the girls who decidedly preferred their version of the situation.
"Forget it," Haruhi advised, irritated. "My life is their shoujo manga."
But despite the churning of the rumor mill around the club, Haruhi still felt guilty about Shinobu. She hadn't meant to hurt her feelings, or imply that she wasn't going to fulfill her promise. The only way she could make it up to her was to show up at the next Black Magic Club meeting like she said she would, and apologize there.
And so, after class later that week, Haruhi once again found herself in the school's theater department, standing before the clubroom doors with resignation. It happened to be that both the Black Magic Club and her own club met today, so she knew that she couldn't stay long. But still she did not feel hurried. As long as she actually showed up to the Host Club, Tamaki would not raise a fuss, and Kyouya would not add to her debt (she never heard him say that missed club days would result in a higher debt, but she was sure that it was true).
With a heavy sigh, she knocked.
The door swung open, seemingly on its own (but Haruhi suspected somebody was just standing behind it, out of sight). A streak of light from the hall slid across the dark room's floor, and she slipped in quietly. The door closed behind her, shutting out the light. As Haruhi's eyes adjusted to the dim candlelight, she slowly began to make out the forms of the club's members.
"Welcome." Haruhi jumped in surprise as Nekozawa appeared suddenly behind her, seeming to materialize out of thin air (it then occurred to her that he was probably the one behind the door). The club president smiled darkly at her from under his hood, his puppet perched in his hand. "We're glad you came."
"Well I'll be damned," one boy exclaimed, turning to another club member with a playful grin, "He actually came. Seems I owe you a Coke."
"Please have a seat." Nekozawa gestured towards a dark red, gothic Victorian loveseat. "We're still awaiting your diviner."
How gaudy, Haruhi thought to herself as she looked in distaste at the furniture, but nonetheless nodded in greeting to her host and graciously accepted his offer. Across from her in an elegant armchair, a girl with long black hair and piercing dark eyes was staring at her, expressionless. Two boys were chatting idly behind a couch, and a third was sitting beside a candle, reading The Collected Works of Shakespeare. All of them were once again dressed in black.
"You'll have to forgive Jun and Tokumi," Nekozawa began as he approached her, gesturing towards the pair behind the couch with an apologetic half smile. "But you see, we weren't certain you would actually return this week. I'm delighted to see you're an honest person, Mister Fujioka," He smiled, and while Haruhi was confident that he was smiling very earnestly, it was a bit difficult to separate his good intentions from his sinister countenance.
"I said I would be here," she replied plainly, "And so I am. If I wasn't going to, I would have told you that. It's unreasonable to lie."
"That's a very noble attitude. I can appreciate that," he replied sincerely. He looked up at her, and for a moment, through the inky locks of hair falling over his face, she saw one of his eyes, and it was smiling, too.
The door opened a crack, and Nekozawa turned quickly away from the sudden light, shielding his eyes with Bereznoff, as Shinobu slipped in and closed the door.
"Ah, am I last again? My last class is so far from the clubroom..." she began as she hurried over to the group, smiling brightly. But as she glanced up at Haruhi, her smile instantly vanished and she stopped dead in her tracks.
"H-...Haruhi... I, I thought you weren't coming..."
Haruhi stood up and faced the trembling girl and bowed. "I'm very sorry if I offended you, Miss Kokoro. I'm afraid you misunderstood the situation."
"Ah! Um, no... I, um..." Shinobu began to fidget, blushing. For a moment she seemed unable to speak, and may have stood there trembling for quite some time if the club president had not finally placed a tender hand on her back and lead her to a seat, allowing the girl a moment to compose herself.
"And now," Nekozawa began, smiling eerily as he picked up a candelabra and placed it on the table between Shinobu and Haruhi, the light flickering across their faces, "I believe Mister Fujioka has some business with you. Would you like to begin?" The last sentence was spoken with such an ominous air to it that one could easily imagine an aura of demons surrounding him. It occurred to Haruhi that at such a moment, her own club would certainly feel a cold shiver. But this club- Shinobu included- seemed oblivious to it. Perhaps they all spoke that way sometimes -though probably no one could do it with quite the panache as their president. She wondered, as Shinobu withdrew a tarot deck from her book bag, if Nekozawa enjoyed when he frightened people, or if he'd just come to accept it as part of who he was.
He probably enjoys it, or he wouldn't visit the Host Club so often...
"Haruhi, would you please shuffle these? And, please concentrate during the reading," Shinobu requested, placing a deck of cards in front of her. Haruhi did as she was told and shuffled the deck, but wasn't certain what she should be concentrating on.
The cards, I suppose, she thought, and attempted to do that as she cut the deck and slid it back across the table to Shinobu. As the rest of the club watched, the nervous young girl began to lie out the cards. Haruhi watched as she did so, but found the experience a little unnecessary, and at some point her mind began to wander into to realms of what she ought to make for dinner tonight.
Dad'll be at work, so it's just me tonight... we still have some instant ramen, but I just had that not so long ago... maybe I'll see what's on sale at the store...
"...Called the 'Celtic Cross' layout, it's very standard but it's considered the most useful of..."
...I think the B&B is having a special on tuna, if I can get there before the store closes...
"...This is behind you... This is before you... This is yourself..."
And in such a manner it continued, until Haruhi remembered that she was supposed to be paying attention and focused on Shinobu's fortunetelling.
She was vaguely impressed with the girl's level of concentration; it was one of the first times she'd seen Shinobu so confident. Shinobu was truly in her element in this club, even if the whole thing was sort of ridiculous. Although Haruhi was willing to admit she was probably supposed to be concentrating and not spacing out, and that it may have been a contributor to the outcome. The fact was Haruhi saw almost no truth in the spread and considered the whole thing a waste of time. Except for a few cards giving descriptions about her past and current state, which if she really thought about them she could make them fit, the rest were all rubbish, particularly all the cards designed to predict her future, as most of them just said something about an upcoming or future romance.
Unless that's referring to Tamaki's never-ending quest to make me (and every other girl in the school) fall in love with him, I don't see any possibility of a love life happening while I'm in high school- particularly since I'm dressed as a boy.
"...and finally, the outcome: the accumulative statement of the whole spread. The two of cups- love and friendship. It seems the theme of your spread today was harmonious connections. That's very fortunate for you, Haruhi!" Shinobu smiled brightly. Haruhi forced a smile in return.
'Love and friendship'? Oh, God- my life IS their shoujo manga.
"Ah, that's very good, Miss Kokoro. You do have a talent for this sort of thing. I'm sure you could do this at parties."
"S-so, what did you think? Did it sound right? Do you agree with it?" she asked, timidity returning to her voice.
"W-well..." Haruhi began a bit awkwardly, "I don't think you did anything wrong, but it probably didn't help you that I really don't believe in this sort of thing, so my future was probably not in those cards."
"Oh, no!" Shinobu shook her head, "It doesn't matter to these cards if you believe or not, they'll still tell you the truth. Right, Senpai?" She looked hopefully over at the dark haired girl with the vacant eyes. When the girl did not respond, Shinobu turned back to Haruhi excitedly. "Reiko-Senpai gave me these cards. She says they work better when they're a gift."
"Er, that's very generous of her."
"Of course Fujioka got the wrong fortune," a boy suddenly announced, scooping up the tarot cards on the table to Shinobu's horror. "You did it the LONG way. I'll show you a shortcut!"
"No! No! Jun, please don't!" Shinobu pleaded. The boy called Jun laughed devilishly.
"Ready? Goes like this..."
"NO! Don't do it! Stop!"
"BANZAI!" He then threw all the cards up into the air, scattering them. As they fluttered to the carpet, he snatched one arbitrarily out of the air and held it up.
"Ten of pentacles. Wassat mean, Shinobu?"
"W-wealth and inheritance. I've told you before not to throw my things!" she shouted furiously. Jun grinned.
"Ooh, I got a good one. Oh, don't look so upset. Here, I'll pick them up." He did, though carelessly, but did not hand them back. Instead, he glanced over at Nekozawa with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
"Umehito! Think fast!" Jun announced and threw them all into the air again at his president. Shinobu shrieked as Nekozawa plucked a card from the air, not even flinching. Jun laughed and finally the boy in the corner, ignored up until this point, snapped his book shut in irritation.
"Lord, what fools these mortals be," he rolled his eyes and glared over at the club's troublemaker. "How unrefined. Honestly, have you no dignity? Carry yourself with a little more elegance, instead of running around causing havoc and mayhem, like some sort of Japanese Robin Goodfellow."
"You only said that because you want to sound all smart and knowledgeable, you jerk. Why don't you learn to lighten up a little, Taro?"
"Bite your tongue! I can have a good time without destroying the private property of others," Taro declared in distaste. He looked sincerely over to Shinobu. "Pay him no heed. That he's mad, 'tis true, 'tis true 'tis a pity, and a pity 'tis true, 'tis true."
"Shut UP with your stupid Shakespeare, Taro! Nobody cares!"
"No, no, please don't fight!" Shinobu sounded on the verge of tears, "I can pick them up! It's okay!"
Haruhi chose this moment to quietly slip away. She had her own club meeting to attend anyhow, and they didn't seem to need her anymore here. Standing up, she backed towards the door as unnoticeably as possible. But just as she reached the door and put her fingers on the handle, a pale, slender hand reached out and gripped her wrist.
"Making your escape?" Nekozawa grinned eerily in the darkness.
"I have to get to the Host Club," Haruhi explained, completely undaunted by his sudden appearance or his spooky demeanor. "This fight doesn't seem to be any business of mine."
"I understand. I just wanted to thank you for attending, and invite you to return anytime you like."
"No, thank you."
Nekozawa flinched with a ready smile. "That didn't take you long to decide. Nonetheless, I'll be giving you this." He slid his hand down her wrist and into her palm, where he deposited a small, wooden Bereznoff-shaped keychain. Haruhi held it up, unimpressed.
"I don't really need this," she confessed, politely replacing 'want' with the word 'need'. It was a gift, after all. A smile split Nekozawa's face as he slightly lowered his head, looking at her from under his hood.
"You've attended two meetings now, Mister Fujioka," he explained cryptically. "That makes you one of us."
"But I have no interest in your club." And I don't owe you anything. "It's probable that I won't return. Therefore, this token binds me to nothing," Haruhi explained very simply.
"It isn't meant to bind you," Nekozawa laughed, "There's no spell on it. It only serves as a reminder of your time spent with us, and signifies our acceptance of you."
"Oh!" She seemed to make a connection, "So it's like a friendship bracelet."
Nekozawa seemed confused. "Um... No, it's a keychain... I told you, there's no spell on it."
Ah, of course not, she thought, biting her cheek. No one would wear a friendship bracelet here.
"Nevermind. But, why do you want me to have this?"
Unexpectedly, Nekozawa then drew back his hood, providing her with slightly more visual access to his face. He then lifted her hand, holding the keychain between their fingers with an earnest smile.
"Please accept it," he asked her, his hopeful blue eyes shining through the dark locks of hair that fell over them. Haruhi found herself momentarily stunned by this action. From Tamaki or the twins she might have expected it, but from Nekozawa it seemed very sudden and uncharacteristic. There was a very timid charisma about him.
"...I suppose it wouldn't hurt," she finally conceded. The keychain was sort of cute, in a weird way.
Nekozawa smiled, and raised Haruhi's hand up to his lips chivalrously- then, seeming to change his mind, stopped and switched their hand positions into a firm handshake. He then stepped back, leaving the tiny Bereznoff in her hand.
Glancing back into the room showed that there was still a fight in progress, so Haruhi decided not to announce her exit. "Give Shinobu my regards," she sighed, putting her hand back on the door handle.
"Gladly," he agreed. "Oh, and one more thing..."
She stopped as with a mischievous smile, he held up a card; it was the tarot card he'd grabbed when Jun had thrown them in the air. It was the two of cups.
"'Love and Friendship', right?" he grinned. "The same as yours. Perhaps that means we share a similar fate? Well, I'll let you draw your own interpretations. Have a good evening, Haruhi."
He then turned away from her, back to his quarreling club. Haruhi watched him curiously and slightly puzzled for a moment before finally exiting the room.