EDIT: As of May 27. I just realized that high school Ruby probably had a year or so before Kaguya took her picture. Reorganizing the ages for consistency (and also so that the age gap is more accurate and also a bit closer, a bit more convenient)
I'm also trying to add chapter titles... But I have no idea what style would be good. I have to think about it...
Sorry if you got notified HAHA, new chapter soon though! By today or tomorrow.
Arima Mana basked in the afterglow of a cheekily executed prank, even after a few minutes had already passed, and the topic had already moved on to introductions.
Of course, simply saying someone's name along with adding a few short details isn't enough of an introduction for either the Shirogane family or the Saitou-Hoshino family, so it was up to the organizers, the Arima family, to break the ice.
Or, rather, up to Mana to organize it, since his mom was busy coordinating with his big surprise. And also the projector for later's movie watching. And, well, as mature his elder sister was, she was nowhere mature enough to be handling this. So of course, the job was left to reincarnated now 4-year-old.
He had to buy about 30 minutes or so for his surprise since everyone arrived much earlier than expected. Thankfully, Mana was prepared. He had prepared more than a little bit.
"Okay, everyone, gather up!" Mana had a flashback of a club president gathering his members for a moment, even as he gathered everyone in front of him.
His mother, Arima Miura, was at the back, near the door, quickly controlling the temperature even as she called upon her and Mana's shared surprise.
His elder sister Arima Kana, and the sweet neighbor, Shirogane Kei, on the other hand, were both very good girls, sitting seiza-style directly in front of him, and to his right and left respectively. They were so sweet and cute that Mana had an intense urge to pat their heads then and there but held off as his gaze followed the other people in the room.
In the center between and behind the two girls in front of him were the two twins, Hoshino (Saitou) Ruby and Aquamarine, who were surprisingly the rowdier bunch. Ruby was still smug about pranking Aqua and was clearly still ribbing him about it. Aqua was pouting, but Mana knew him well enough at this point to know that he didn't truly mind.
The remaining ones, a bit more distant in age to the four-year-old kids, stayed a step or two away, but with an inviting glance and gesture from Mana, they too moved closer, with Shirogane father and son on the left and Hoshino Ai and Saitou Miyako to the right.
With everyone gathered and in place, Mana smiled to himself and signaled his mother, who turned on their rented projector to show was on the computer.
It was just a basic PowerPoint that Mana filled with various stock photos that he'd taken from the internet. But these weren't just any pictures. He removed saturation from all of them so that they were black and white.
"So while we wait for mama, I found some things we can do while we wait on the internet the other day…" Mana explained, the nervousness slowly creeping in despite his best efforts to keep it at bay.
After all, the photos weren't just photos. They were, in essence, meant to be projective tests. In psychology, these tests used vague and ambiguous stimuli meant to draw out an individual's underlying thoughts, emotions, and motives. They declined in usage in Mana's former world because they weren't reliable and valid tools, but they were popular tools and can be viewed as being done for fun.
Mana had learned about these projective tests, but he'd never seriously had one administered to him nor had he administered one himself. These tests, while popular, were never taken seriously.
All of this made it perfect for today's icebreaker. Not only were they known to be done for fun by those who passively studied psychology (or perhaps those who passively scrolled the internet, which Mana still fit in), but Mana could also perhaps learn more about those around him. It could possibly even help them learn a bit more about themselves or others in a way that hurt no one.
It was also something that wouldn't land him in any real suspicion due to its popularity online. He had the excuse of seeing it in an article on the internet readily available. He'd need it in case any of the adults or even Aqua himself started getting suspicious of him.
As he went through the first few silly parts of the presentation where he abused the hell out of the PowerPoint animations and deliberately kept it silly and simple for the benefit of the actual kids and, well, because Mana himself was a kid, Mana couldn't help but smile brightly despite everything he was doing and had to keep doing in his four year old body.
'This is a world that decrees the death of Hoshino Ai for the convenience of the author's plot. For the development of the story, for the creation of drama and circumstance, everything that happens is for content. ' Mana's smile was directly opposite to how edgy his thoughts were, and yet his smile matched his true feelings.
Mana briefly locked eyes with Hoshino Ai as he was explaining the rules of his makeshift therapy turned into children's game. 'But… That's fine, isn't it? My existence here is a mistake. With every word and action that exits my mouth, the more I destroy everything that was ever meant to be. If the author declares that in this world, Hoshino Ai must die, then a mistake is exactly what I must be.'
As Mana's eyes glazed over Aqua and Ruby nodding and absorbing his rules, a brief thought flitted through Mana's head, a reminder of the beings paying attention to the families in front of him. Mana's eyes sharpened imperceptibly as he gave himself that little push to be more cheery, to ensure the success of this section of his birthday party.
'To the God-like beings that play with human lives, whether you are Yatagarasu, Amaterasu, or even the author Aka Akasaka himself, if any of you are actually out there and listening, then know this.' Mana, an actual atheist, found himself contacting god-like beings for the first time.
'Not these guys. These guys are mine.' Mana looked over the attendees, a pinch of tension unraveling itself as he got more and more into his role.
Outwardly, it was only a few seconds so Mana finished up his explanation. "Well, any questions? Shall we start?"
Hoshino Ai listened carefully as instructed as Mana explained.
"Okay, so here are the rules." Mana started, a barrage of animations on every slide that Ai's eyes had to follow the words being presented. 'Where did he even learn to do this, anyway?' Ai found herself absently wondering. She never learned how to anything like this on the computer.
Although Ai had to admit that knowing a bunch of obscure little bits of information was what Mana was like. Ai thought back to the other time when Mana started teaching her, Ruby, and Aqua to swim. That was the day her kids really started warming up to the Arima brother, she realized in hindsight.
It was probably a good idea that Ruby and Aqua got to know the Arima family, Ai personally thought. Just by being exposed to them, Ai's kids were getting to experience all sorts of different activities, activities that she'd never experienced and honestly didn't know her kids would need or want to experience. The playdates proved to be a lot of fun for her and her kids, and even today, on Mana's birthday, not only were they all watching the movie together, but Mana had even prepared an activity for everyone as well as another one for later.
Ai kept her smile up outwardly, even as she both listened to Mana's instructions and moped inwardly. 'Part of a good childhood is letting the children have a lot of experiences.' she recalled from a net article she'd read, and so Ai would do her best to keep giving her children unique experiences.
"So basically, I saw this on YouTube and I thought that it would be fun for us all to do it together today while we wait for my other surprise." Mana continued. Apparently, Mana would be showing everyone random pictures, and then he would spin a wheel with everyone's names. Whoever's name got chosen would have to make up a story about what's going on in the picture. Mana would spin two more times per picture, and each person chosen would continue the story.
Before Ai could refocus, Mana was already spinning the wheel. "Let's just get into it!" he said, spinning the wheel on a website in another window. When it was finished spinning, Mana announced the person who would be starting the first story. "Looks like the first person is Ai-nee!" Mana gestured excitedly at Ai, and Ai felt her body move into autopilot as she was used to.
Ai looked at the photo in question with a bit more focus. It was a photo of a little girl looking out of a window, watching as a mother and daughter pair ate ice cream. "Ooh." Ai made a vague noise of curiosity, both to buy time to think of an answer as well as to buy time to prepare her reaction.
Once again, Mana was somehow hitting yet another one of her personal issues. She'd been like that girl, long ago. Once upon a time, she was a girl longing for her mother to come back, for any mother or father or family to come for her, to love her. The picture wasn't anything abnormal, and it really did have random stock photo from Google images all over it, but Ai still felt like she related with the photo. Her mind whirred with the effort to develop a story that would fit the situation, as Ai-nee the 19 year old participant of a four-year-old family friend's birthday party-
"Ai-nee?" Ruby mumbled, hesitating beside her, Hoshino Ai's dear little Ruby tugged at her sleeve as Ai realized she had been silent and thinking for a little too long.
"I've got it!" Ai played up the bubbliness and airheadedness. "The girl over there, she's jealous! She wants ice cream too!" Ai pouted as she continued. "I kinda want ice cream too." she mock whispered. She sneakily gazed at everyone in the room, spotting everyone smiling at her antics. 'Great!' she thought, having been successful at getting through the sudden ambush.
To continue the story, Mana spun the wheel, announcing in a moment that it landed on Shirogane Kei. The little girl who was Mana's neighbor was clearly a bit shy, but she still answered relatively quickly. "Then…" she demurred, nodding to herself. "She asks her papa behind her if she can have ice cream." the girl says.
'Ah.' Ai realizes in her head, restricting the urge to blink. 'Right, that's an option.' Ai dismisses the little voice in her head, the familiar pang of longing of a time long ago with the practiced ease of a weary veteran. Without noticing, her hand started stroking Ruby's head, partially habit and partially something else, Ai didn't know.
"-and then her big brother comes in and gives his little sister ice cream!" Ai refocused into the party and the situation to find that Mana had already spun the wheel, rolling Shirogane Miyuki, the older brother, and that the guy had somehow inserted himself into the story, saying that he was the big brother who already bought ice cream and decided to give it to his little sister.
"Ah, a siscon." Ruby teased from her side, and the Shirogane brother flushed red and started explaining himself vigorously while the Shirogane father beside him sniggered as he watched his son react.
Ai's gaze found itself watching the other families once more, the episode from a while ago still somewhat fresh in her mind. 'Happy families, huh…'
Ai couldn't help but let her thoughts drift toward the Arima family's mother and the Shirogane family's father. 'Are they examples of parents who love their children? Ai wondered. Ai pursed her lips for the slightest moment. 'Am I?'
A memory of the morning car ride floated up into the front of her mind, subconsciously drawing a smile from her face despite her personal issues.
Even if Ai would ponder that question for much, much longer, its burden would feel a little lighter today.
The update comes out! This one was a bit harder to write because I'm slowly moving away from canon. Well, not that this fic really followed canon anyway, as Mana talked about. Mana's intentionally going against canon, after all.
To make this happen, I've also kind of merged some projective tests, namely the projective test where you look at pictures and tell a story with a bunch of word association projective tests. I was kind of trying to make a projective test fit for a group icebreaker kind of thing, so I felt like it was important to try to get multiple people into it.
Ai was projecting hard, but subtly, while Miyuki, a bit more obvious and much less guarded, somehow reveals that he's a dorky 11-year old siscon with a few feelings towards a bit of money issues. I hope I was able to convey that. It was honestly kind of hard to write this chapter HAHA
Also, yes, Mana is kinda rigging the wheel LOL
More Oshi no Ko fanfics please! It's gonna happen! - (lie that will come true)