And it's now the Halloween Arc! Who's ready for this?
/= [DAY 54] =/
Apparently, she wasn't aware of the fact that the clubs were competing against each other for the scariest section of the building, and that they're going to be judged by people who have been chosen to participate. Charice was one of the few nations chosen to be the "testers" for the haunted college building competition thing that apparently was going on (they said "house"…but it's a building), so she was banned from entering the school until the Glee Club performance at six.
Way to go. She sighed. Don't they even know that I apparently inherited Alfred's ability to handle this type of stuff?
Whatever. It was too late now. She was going to have to deal. Nonetheless, it'll give her a good excuse to wander the rest of the campus that she's never seen before. Apparently, there was a rumor that they were right next to the beach or something (in New York? What the hell?).
So that morning, she did in fact sleep in, and then quickly got into her usual red attire and headed out for a hike. She didn't bump into Ludwig, so she assumed that he was either going for a morning run elsewhere or he was in the competition too. God forbid what he was making up scares at least five thousand years out of her. She'd like to live to see 2048, you know.
As she hiked along the pathway, her mind began to wander. It drifted over the past, and everything that happened over the last month and a half.
["When a nation is not allowed to reincarnate, the whole nation goes into a panic. In other words, if one part of the section is down, the whole nation cannot exist."]
The underlining principle of this entire ordeal. Those words that Wang Yao had told her and her brother that day…the things that made her know that whatever happened was going to be something she cannot abandon.
["…when nations die prematurely, they leave behind a sign…something to call the others to bring them full circle in the reincarnation process."]
She couldn't help but smile. Li Xiao was the expert when it came to this. He and Carlos had done this before, of course. Carlos…
["Wow, I mistook you yet again! Sorry, dude!"]
["My full name is Carlos Machado, and I'm the Republic of Cuba!"]
["Ahahaha! I think she takes a fancy to you, Matthew!"]
She missed him, even if they only talked once. He was the one that really started her journey…through everyone's worlds.
["Here, no one mocks me. Here, no one continues to ask who I am anymore. Here…I belong."]
["He had been forced out because them…the pain that he has kept hidden even to the mirror…is because of all those who wish to exploit him. He will be safe here…away from all of you."]
["…well, the truth is, you're just a mix of nations…a little of this, a little of that, a mix of a few people here and there…The truth is, you have no identity."]
["I am loyal only to me…and no one else."]
["Let's face it…I'm better off dead."]
["The ones with the biggest smiles hold the most scars, you know."]
["What I do is on my own terms…for I am an avenger and hence I can do whatever I want!"]
The worlds were messed up, now that she thought about it. Burnt flags, dying national flowers, mermaids looking like your friends that tackle-glomp / rape you to the point of mutation, freakin' PIRATES, battling a boss on her own, running around Madrid(?) like a nutcase, handling an emo bastard…
Makes you wonder just how insane the other nations are…
After a few minutes, she realized that she had wandered so far that she was at the beachside. She blinked for a few minutes and realized that she was totally lost. She was about to panic when she saw a familiar face sitting at the side, staring at the ocean with a dead look on his face. It scared her just a little.
"Feli-chan! Feli-chan!"
He looked up quite confused, allowing her to skip toward him with a grin that actually brought a grin to his face as well. She plopped right next to him with a chirp, causing the fear in Feliciano's face to fade away.
"I guess you've been chosen to be a tester like me, huh?"
"Ve…actually, I was supposed to be at the school…but I told them that I had to go to the bathroom…"
"Couldn't handle the crazy school?"
"Ve…"
"Hah? Oh my god, someone threatened you, didn't they?" She grabbed his shoulders. "Who tortured you? Who messed with you? Tell me, and I will beat his brain out!"
"VEE~! No, no no no! It's not like that!"
"Are you sure…? Don't you be lying to me!"
"Ve…"
"You're shaking, Feli-chan…"
"…it's nothing, really…"
"OH MY GOD SOMEONE RAPED YOU!"
"VE~~~! No, no no!"
"No…? OK, that's good…" She sighed. "Here I thought it was something that was physically traumatizing…"
"…ve…"
"Oh my god, it's still traumatizing…" Charice held Feliciano's hand. "What happened, Feli-chan?"
"I-it's no big deal…"
"But you stopped smiling…" She stated. "It must be big. Tell me, please."
Feliciano mumbled something to himself, obviously reliving the poor thing and making Charice extremely uncomfortable. She was just about to retract her statement and talk about the many wonders of a simple pasta bowl when she felt his hand squeeze hers.
"I-I've…I've been having nightmares…"
"Nightmares?" She leaned in closer. "They're just dreams, Feli-chan. Nothing in there is real."
"…but…in it…everyone is dead."
Now THIS was a problem. Even for a nightmare.
"They're all dead around me…I keep begging for them to wake up, but…they don't move…they're just…they're just…"
He started shaking, and Charice knew she had gone too far. She quickly hugged him tight and cuddled him as close as possible, hearing the quiet sobs of the Italian boy beneath her fingertips. She quickly rubbed his back: it worked for Rizal when he was a child, maybe it'll calm him as well…
"I'm sorry, Feliciano…"
"It's OK…you didn't know…"
"Yeah…I guess having a nightmare of everyone dying in front of you really is traumatizing…" She stated. "I mean, I guess I was just blessed without seeing something like that before." That was permanent, of course.
"…and I really hope you never do."
She chuckled softly to herself. Despite the fact that it never really lasted past a day, she had seen death before. She was in the vicinity of one once, but that was a day when Rizal told her never to turn around…the first day she heard a gunshot up close before, and the day Rizal adapted his human name…
"Hey, let's not go too deep into stuff like this." She laughed. "Don't you have a Halloween thing to do?"
"Ve~~! T-that's right!" He stood up. "Doitsu will be mad if I stay away for long."
"Sorry that I can't come with…I'm one of the 'testers', you see."
"Ve…well, I hope we win."
"I'll be the judge of that."
/=+=/
But for the most part, I might as well be scared to death over the moment called BOREDOM…
She sighed as she left the beach and headed toward the lake nearby (yes…apparently there's a lake and an Oceanside at this place…and they're going to make this a PUBLIC college), wondering if she could catch fish there. Not surprisingly…she can't.
Maybe all the female fish swam away from all the hot bishounen. Hey, it was a possibility.
"Eh? What are you doing here?"
She looked up and saw that there was a girl wearing a pink uniform and a nice little pin in her hair. She instantly knew her as Taiwan. Wang Yao seemed to like talking to her a lot. She tilted her head.
"I'm a 'tester' of the competition. You?"
"So am I. I'm trying to find all of them." She answered. "I don't know how many of them there are in all."
"Well, I thought people were just mean and wanted me to suffer." Charice sighed. "Oh, by the way, I'm Charice."
"Yeah, I know you. Kiku loved talking about you."
"…interesting…" She blinked. "You're Húdié Mei, aren't you?"
"Eh? Why are you calling me a butterfly plum blossom?"
"…that's…not your name?" Charice blinked. "Everyone calls you that."
"It's a nickname, not my actual name." She answered. "Geez, I always told them to at least call me by my real human name when people don't know me."
"…I'm sorry, I didn't think I needed to ask?" Charice blinked. "And you are…?"
"Lin Yi Ling. The Republic of Taiwan."
"…why do Chinese people have prettier names than I do…?"
"Y-you think my name is pretty?"
"Compared to mine? Think about it!" She answered. "No, seriously! Think about it!"
"…I think your name is pretty."
"Really? Uh…true, I guess. It sounds English."
"Well, every name sounds pretty if you say it right." She laughed. "Even the German names. Especially when you whisper it."
Nevermind the fact that she ships men with other men. Whispering bishounen are the hottest things around. No questions asked. After a few minutes, they found themselves talking to each other about a few things. It turns out that she was a good friend of Japan as well. He had helped her declare her independence from China, and as such they were like best friends.
"I've wondered, though…seeing as how men and women usually don't stay friends for long in terms of us, has he ever hit on you?"
"Who, Kiku hit on me? No." Lin Yi laughed. "Personally, I always thought he would be hitting on Heracles!"
Heracles…Heracles… "You mean…GREECE?"
"Yeah, that's him. Why?"
"…you ship Yaoi?"
"Of course I do! Who doesn't?"
"…we should totally be best friends." Charice laughed. "I ship Yaoi too!"
"Really? The only one besides you that I know of is Elizabeta, but it's pretty obvious!"
"RIIIGHHT?" Charice laughed. "Oh, and Alfred and Arthur dating? So my doing."
"Really? That's so cool! Tell me, tell me!"
And yes, Charice had to lie through her teeth on this one. Cause really, Lin Yi won't buy the fact that all it took for them to hook up was a crazed up pirate sailing the seven seas and almost killing them. After a few minutes of plain talking, she felt a card in her hand that had the image of a priestess on it. She looked up from behind Lin Yi and saw a woman in a red robe and had strange things in her hair.
["I AM THOU…AND THOU ART I."]
Lin Yi Ling…interesting…
["AS THE PRIESTESS WHO MEDIATED BETWEEN THE GODS, I AM AT YOUR COMMAND."]
The card and Persona sank into her body just as something was coming up from behind them. She turned her head to see that Lovino was approaching them, mumbling to himself as another figure appeared behind him. But she wasn't paying attention, for Charice had instantly tackle-glomped Lovino the minute she saw him.
"Lovi-chaaaaaaaan~"
"It's Lovino!" He spat, oddly enough not struggling. "Can't you get it right?"
"But Lovi-chan sounds cuter…"
"I DON'T WANT TO BE CUTE!"
"Too bad! You are! Oh, and by the way…how's that costume of yours?"
"GOD DAMMIT, ARGGGGHHH!"
"I guess the both of you are testers, huh?" Lin Yi asked.
"I'm a little scared about it, but yes we are…"
"Eh?" She looked up. "Maple-chan~! You're a tester too!"
"Y-yeah…I heard there were seven in all." He answered. "There's four of us…so we'll wait for the other three here. That's what I told them to do."
"Seven in total…I wonder who they are?" Charice tilted her head.
"Daaaaaaaa ZE!"
Oh sh-
"YONG SOO, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"
Charice quickly jumped out of the way as Yong Soo landed face first in the dirt. He was about to go for round two when someone grabbed his collar and shot him a death glare. Oddly enough, it was Li Xiao. He looked up, saw her, and instantly grinned.
"You're forced to do this too, huh?"
"Basically. But hell, gives me a few hours of doing absolutely nothing!"
"Except beating up a Korean?"
"A Korean who's my best friend, but yes." She pointed out.
"Waaaaaaaiiiiiiit a minute." Lovino blinked. "You two are best friends? YOU TWO BARELY HANG OUT HERE!"
"We don't need time together to be close friends, da ze!" Yong Soo dropped an arm around her. "She's the one who taught me English! For free! And it works, da ze!"
"Of course I did. In exchange, I get to sample all his food!" Charice turned her head. "But that still doesn't mean that you can touch my boobs."
"Awwwwwww."
"Oh, is this where we're meeting? The testers?"
They looked up from their position to see a woman walking toward them. She was wearing a school uniform but had a veil around her head and a red dot on her forehead. Charice couldn't help but notice that she wasn't wearing the required shoes for the uniform, but was wearing something that reminded her of the desert for some reason.
"Yeah, that's us da ze." Yong Soo chirped. "I haven't seen you around! What's your name?"
"This is Addidy." Li Xiao answered. "We were both colonies of England once, so we know each other well."
"Nice to see that nothing has changed, Li Xiao." She answered. "How much longer until we have to return to the school?"
"Well, I wanna say a few more hours…but me, Maple-chan and Lovi-chan here have an opening performance to do~!"
"Which I am doing against my will…"
"You're just mad because Antonio's going to be there."
"THAT'S MY POINT!"
"Oh, you're part of the Glee Club!" Addidy remarked. "I was considering joining, but I'm more of a dancer than a singer."
"That's fine. If you can play an instrument, I'm sure Roderich will take you in."
"I can play a good pungi."
"That'll work!" Whatever that is.
"So I guess that's all of us." Lin Yi said. "We still have a few hours until the three of you have to go get ready for your performance, so…what should we do?"
"I say we replace the veggie dip that's in the dorm lounge with wasabi."
"SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!"
/=+=/
Kikuri-Hime is a dragon goddess worshiped at Mt. Hakusan and is considered the Shinto goddess of negotiation and mediation. She is well known for being the one who mediated on behalf of Izanami so that she and her husband Izanagi could exchange in a debate, her actions later establishing the duty of later Miko when communicating with Yomi. Oddly enough, her symbolic flower (which is basically lamentation of death) is the chrysanthemum. The Japanese word for that flower? Kiku. [Lin Yi Ling - Priestess]
"Addidy" is the personification of India. I have a best friend named Addidy and she was Indian, so I figured that I might as well have this nation make an appearance. It was either this or Thailand, and I have way too many Asian nations. Oh yeah, a pungi is the instrument snake charmers use.
So…next chapter~!