"Good morning, everybody. Here we are again. I hope you've all gotten some sleep," Maki began as she started off the group's morning meeting. "Because we're going to need to do better than what we did. That was pathetic. Hanayo?"
"Right, but today is a new crop of rice!" Hanayo said. "And by that, I mean today is a bright new day, for the glorious rice plant. And for other, less important things. Like finding out what Rin had in her bag two days ago!" Hanayo had been assigned by Maki the night before to deliver the morning's briefing, to have a change of pace, but she just couldn't keep her mind off her glorious favourite food! She'd make it up to Maki later.
"Thank you so much for your input, Hanayo. I appreciate it greatly." Maki said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. How hard was it to keep her mind off rice for just long enough to start a meeting? Too hard, apparently. Hanayo had better make up for that terrible opening speech later.
"So, Hanayo-chan's idea didn't work yesterday. I volunteer my idea to go next." Nozomi piped up.
"And what would that idea be, Nozomi?" Maki asked, frustrated. She didn't think what was going to come out of her senpai's mouth was going to be any good. Despite the good and motherly aura Nozomi portrayed, she was goofier than anyone else in µ's.
"Elicchi, why don't you tell them?" Nozomi suggested. Eli visibly reddened. Alarm bells started ringing in both the first years' minds. Eli's next line didn't help either.
"Uh, well, alright. So first of all, we're going to need Kotori in on our plan, specifically because of her knowledge of the school grounds and her connection with the principal." Eli started.
"Why, exactly, do we need that? That makes it seem like this plan is going to be complicated." Maki asked. Those alarm bells were really making themselves known.
"Sounds like there's a big chance something is going to go wrong, too." Hanayo added. Big alarm bells. Big and red and super annoying but probably very accurate alarm bells. She and Maki were going to regret this, whatever it was going to be. She could feel it.
"The reason, you see, is…" Eli began.
"I regret everything." Maki said. "I hate you, Eli, I hate you, Nozomi, and I hate me. Me most of all for agreeing to this. Existence is suffering. Woe is me. Ugh."
Nozomi gave her a grin. "You should've known what you were unleashing when you recruited me, Maki-chan."
"Let's hope this works. I can't help but feel Nozomi's going to get carried away, though." Eli said.
Nozomi recoiled in mock hurt. "Why, I would never, Elicchi. You two will just have to trust me."
"Trust you to molest someone for information without losing the plot? If I hadn't been overruled you would've been off the team for this." Maki said incredulously. "Anyways, I can hear the second years' footsteps now. Not a word about this until after the meeting."
Rin noticed as she walked into the Idol Research Club room that Kotori's eyes were looking uncomfortably in Nozomi's direction. Thinking nothing of it, she sat down to prepare for the meeting. After the events of the past two days, however, she quickly started nodding off.
"Rin-chan," Hanayo whispered, "You look really tired. I'll tell you when we need you up."
Rin jumped at the invitation and promptly fell asleep without inhibition.
A critical mistake.
"Eh, where'd everyone go?" Rin mumbled as she woke up groggily. Kayo-chin had told her to go to sleep until they needed her, but where were they now? There was no way they could an entire meeting without needing her input on something.
"Don't you worry about that, Rin-chan." Nozomi's voice? There she was, in the corner, her hands poised for-
"Nozomi-chan, what are you doing? Nozomi-chan, we can talk about this, I won't nap during the meeting again I swear! Nozomi-chan- EEK!" With one massive lunge, Nozomi was on top of her, causing her to scramble or end up violated.
With Nozomi's first move avoided, Rin scrambled to the door to fling it open-
Except for the tiny problem that the door was locked.
"Don't run, Rin-chan! I won't do anything inappropriate for this school!" Nozomi cackled as she set herself up for another attempt.
Rin leapt out of the way yet again, but she felt herself tiring. Usually, outrunning her senpai would be no problem, but with her just having woken up from a nap and having had little rest otherwise the past few days, she knew she was going to lose. The only question was, what would await her once Nozomi got her hands on her?
"Rin-chan, Rin-chan, come to mama! I know you can't keep this up!" This time, Nozomi didn't go directly at Rin, but to her side, just so that Rin would crash into the corner of the wall on her evasion.
"Nozomi-chan, please, whatever sins I've committed, we can fix, can't we? Nozomi-chan, please stop coming clos-ERR!"
Visitors to Otonokizaka High that day swore it was haunted as they heard one girl's screams and another's gleeful, maniacal laughter, no matter where they went in the building. Of course, the source was a certain Rin Hoshizora and her molesting senpai, Nozomi Toujou. Regardless, the school gained a following among the occult, a fact that was unintentional on Nozomi's part but one that she would become quite happy about.
"I feel like I forgot something," Nozomi mused as she looked at the twitching heap of limbs on the floor. "Oh well, it can't have been that import- oh! Oh right! Rin, what was in your purse two days ago at the park?" The pile of muscle, bone and skin on the floor didn't give her an answer. "Well, shucks."
Elsewhere in the school, Principal Minami was striding very purposefully towards the Idol Research Club. She had been entertaining potential transfer students' families when they'd all heard it; the bloodcurdling screams accompanied by the deranged laughter. The others had assumed some kind of ghosts were in the school, causing them to whisper about how the whole place was haunted, but she knew better, and she was going to give µ's a piece of her mind for disrupting her efforts to keep the school afloat.
"Hi, mom!" Kotori chirped as she casually cut the principal off. When Hanayo had told her about the plan, she hadn't thought too much could happen, and that she'd just been told as backup. That was obviously not the case. She'd been in the home economics room working on the outfits for µ's with Nico when she'd heard the plan being carried out. Considering the Idol Research Club room and the sewing room were on opposite sides of the school and she knew the Principal had a tour scheduled for around this hour, she had rushed to get in the way of her mother and seemed to have gotten there in the nick of time.
"Kotori, did you hear that just now? It sounded like it came from your friends." The principal stated.
"Oh, yeah, I was going to check on them right now, actually." Kotori said. She needed to buy time for them to get away.
Eli had also heard the effects of Nozomi's master plan from her spot in the courtyard, and she realized quickly that Nozomi had gotten out of hand. With that in mind, she and Hanayo looked at each other.
"We need to get them out of there." "Yes, boss!"
The two of them in agreement, they grabbed the ladder they'd kept beside them in case the worst happened and sprinted to the window of the Idol Research Club room.
"Alright, Hanayo, you support the ladder. I'll go up and save them. We don't have much time."
"On it, boss." With that affirmation, Eli was off like a shot, using all the flexibility and strength she'd gained from being a ballerina.
"Nozomi, follow me if you want to live!" She yelled as she spotted her best friend hovering over her victim, poking at her to try to revive her. "Bring Rin. She's our responsibility now, too."
"So, Kotori, you're sure there's nothing I should know about? Not as your principal, but as your mother, if there's something threatening the safety of your friends, shouldn't you tell me?" Principal Minami said as she continued onto the clubroom.
Not if the danger is also my friend, Kotori thought. She'd done her best to slow the Principal down at this point, the rest was up to Eli and Hanayo. One more turn and they were on the same hallway as the scene of the crime.
Principal Minami put her master key in the lock as Kotori held her breath. Had they gotten out?
The room was empty.
"Oh? I could've sworn the sounds came from this room." The principal mused. "Hmm, the window is open."
She walked over to the window and looked down, only to see Nozomi on the ground with Rin's head in her lap.
"Toujou-san, what happened?" The principal called down.
"I was walking with Rin when something jumped out of a bush and surprised her, causing her to faint. It got away before I could see what it was, though." Nozomi replied, straight-faced.
"We probably thought it came from this room because the window was open all the way, mom." Kotori chipped in. She had thought the perpetrators would've been able to get away, but to able to get away and set up a plausible cover, they were quicker than she thought. The next time she had a devious trick to pull on Umi or Honoka, she knew who to recruit to help.
"Well, girls, it's good to see you're all safe, just remember to be careful in the future. And walk in the centre of the path, away from the bushes, if there's a chance of things jumping out. I'll be going now." The principal thought she had a pretty good idea of what had happened, but if they were this good at covering up, she wouldn't make a big deal out of it. She'd gotten at least somewhat used to their quirkiness by now.
In the silence after the Principal left, the girls shared a collective sigh of relief. The plan had predictably failed, but at least they'd avoided getting in trouble. Just then, the sound of a phone buzzing startled them out of of their reverie.
"15 unread messages? They're all from Maki-chan, too." Hanayo unlocked her phone and looked at the contents. What could have been so urgent that Maki texted her 15 times?
'Cover blown, abort, abort.' 15 identical messages with the same line. Maki must have heard the ruckus from the piano room and been worried silly.
'Everything fine, tell u later' Hanayo texted back. She didn't expect a response right away, so she was surprised when her phone buzzed before she could even turn off the screen.
'Nani sore? Imi wakannai!'
Hanayo turned to the group around her.
"Girls, we have some explaining to do."
So sorry this took so long, I got smashed by the dual terrors of writer's block and laziness. Here's the longest chapter to date as compensation!