Childhood Part XX – Costume Party (Part 2) – Start
Komaru hummed happily to herself as she washed her hands.
Everything was going great and everyone was having fun, even Tsumugi was getting out of her shell a lot more.
Truly, she couldn't asks for anything better, her friends are having fun and the food was great.
Without the brunette girl noticing, someone enters the bathroom.
"Looking cute in that costume." A feminine voice comments.
Nodding happily, Komaru replies without looking back. "I know right? My friend made it for me." She turns around with a smile. "I'm pretty sure I can win the contest with i-" The young girl's smile disappears as she notices who she was talking to. "You!" Her previous smile is replaced by a angry expression.
Hotaru smirks maliciously. "Hello there." The redhead starts slowly walking towards Komaru.
To the older girl's surprise, instead of stepping backwards, Komaru walks forward, until the two are facing each other.
"What do you want?" The brunette girl asks angrily.
Hotaru backed down a bit, before smirking again and saying. "Nice costume you have there." Her smirk turns into a cruel smile. "Would be a real shame if it was destroyed right?" After saying that, the redhead brings a scissor out of the pocket of her costume. "Little otaku would feel horrible if it was destroyed right?"
Now understanding the situation, Komaru steps back. "What the heck are you trying to do?" She yells as Hotaru walks slowly towards her.
"Don't worry sweetie, I won't hurt you." The older girl snaps the scissor and smiles. "I'll just make some adjustments to the Otaku's costume."
Komaru's back hits the bathroom wall and she gulps.
While watching Hotaru approaching with scissors in hand, the brunette girl asks herself. ' Why is she doing this?' Gulping, Komaru closes her eyes. ' Does she really hates Tsumugi-chan that much?'
Before Hotaru can get close enough to do anything, the door to the bathroom is slammed open.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" A voice yells from the door.
Tsumugi knew something was wrong and she couldn't be more right.
Once she stepped inside the bathroom, she saw her bully Hotaru holding a scissor up and a scared Komaru with her eyes closed.
At that moment, the otaku couldn't help but yell. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
"Tsumugi-chan?" Komaru opens her eyes and look towards the blue-haired girl.
"Look who it is." Hotaru turns around and smirks. "If it isn't the otaku herself."
"…" Tsumugi doesn't reply, she simply walks forward towards her best friend. "Are you okay Komaru-chan?" She asks worried as the other girl nods.
Hotatu click her tongue. "Ignoring me? Who do you think you are?" It's east to hear the clear anger in her voice.
"What are you doing to Komaru-chan?" The blue-haired otaku asks, not looking towards her bully.
"It's none of your business." The redhead replies, before trying to grab Tsumugi's shoulder and pull her away from Komaru. "Now get out of the wa-"
Suddenly, what was happening in this bathroom finally clicked in the blue-haired girl's head.
But surprisingly, for the first time since the two met, Tsumugi turned around and slapped the other girl's hand. "Listen here you piece of shit!" Hotaru steps back, now with a scared expression on her face. "I don't care what you do to me or why you hate me so much." The anger in the otaku's voice and her cold stare going through her round glasses was enough to send shivers down Hotaru's spine. "But if you even THINK of touching my friends-" The two other girls could swear that Tsumugi's hair started to float. "I'm going to make sure you understand what despair really means."
Both Hotaru and Komaru are at a complete loss of words, the girl standing between the two didn't look anything like the shy otaku that the both of them knew.
"Tsk! As if you can do anythi-" Hotaru starts talking back, but she is quickly silenced when Tsumugi's palm makes contact with her cheek. "OUCH!" The redhead yells, the surprise of the slap was enough to make the redhead fall back and shake her head in disbelief. "WHAT THE FU-" She can even say anything, before another slap hits the other side of her face.
"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Tsumugi yells, making the other girl shake in place. "And I don't want to see anywhere around my friends, understood?" She asks, looking down upon her bully.
From Hotaru's point of view, Tsumugi's face is partially covered by shadows, only showing one of her eyes behind her glasses. "Tsk!" The redhead gets up, tossing her scissor to the side. "I hate you! You stupid rich bitch!" With that said, she runs out of the bathroom, now only leaving a still steaming Tsumugi and a very confused and partially scared Komaru.
Silence falls between the two friends as they watch the bully run away. "Komaru-chan!" All of that scary aura dissipates in a instant, being replaced by worry in the otaku's voice. "Are you hurt?"
The brunette slowly shakes her head. "N-No." She then looks to the side. "She didn't hurt me." The younger girl looks back towards her friend. "I-I think she was trying to ruin my costume."
Tsumugi let's out a low 'oh' but before she can say anything, more people come into the bathroom.
"Tsumugi, Komaru!" Hina calls with worry in her voice. "What happened?" She and Chieko hurry to where their friends are.
"We saw that girl Hotaru ran right past us." Chieko says, before cracking her knuckles. "If she did something to any of you I'll get her!"
Komaru, now more calm and less scared, jokingly replies. "No worries, Tsumugi-chan already took care of her."
The blue-haired girl laughs awkwardly and the other two just look at each other confused.
Makoto and Chiaki make their way back into the party, after some time wandering around, the two find his Komaru and her friends getting out of the bathroom.
"Hey Komaru." Makoto calls while approaching his sister.
"Onii-chan." The brunette girl replies, without her previous excitement.
"You seem down." Approaching his sister, the older boy asks. "Did something happen?"
Komaru looks back to her friends, before shaking her head. "No, it's nothing." The girl smiles softly and simply hugs her brother.
"Okay then." The brunette boy hugs her back. "But are you su-" Before he can continue, the music in the room stops and a female voice announces.
"Ahem, ahem!" Kaori, Komaru's P.E teacher, falsely coughs at the microphone, getting everyone's attention. "Do I have everyone's attention?" She asks, but soon responds to herself. "Good, because now it's time for the main event of the night!" The blond woman pauses, before turning to where most of the students are gathered. "The costume contest!"
The excitement on the students face is quite clear, all except for one.
Makoto turns to his sister and asks again. "Are you sure that nothing is wrong?" The brunette boy asks.
"I-" Komaru looks to the side, meeting her gaze with Tsumugi's. "I'm sure." She smiles to the other girl and slaps her own cheeks. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a contest to win!" Pumping herself up, Komaru quickly runs towards where the other students are signing for the contest.
"Komaru." Makoto whispers, before throwing a glance to Tsumugi, who just averts her gaze.
The boy sighs, if they didn't want to tell him, he wasn't going to insist.
But still, he knew something had happened.
It was no surprise that Komaru won the costume contest.
Which Makoto thought was a bit unfair, considering that Tsumugi's costumes are just on another level, but at least she didn't seem that bothered by whatever was bothering her before, so he guessed it was fine.
Tsumugi and the others didn't saw Hotaru for the rest of the party, the redhead not even participating on the contest.
Which was fine with Tsumugi, it may seem cold, but she couldn't be more happy, not having to deal with Hotaru for the rest of the night.
So, with that, the group of friends enjoyed the rest of the party, until it was time to go back home.
Once at the Naegi household, the siblings and Chiaki tried to give their costumes back to Tsumugi, but the otaku insisted that they kept it, saying that it was a sign of their friendship.
After that, she and Chiaki went away to their own homes, leaving the Naegis to discuss the details of the prize for Komaru winning the contest.
Honoka and Daisuke decided not to go, instead giving their place to Chiaki and Tsumugi.
Simply put, they believed Makoto was old and responsible enough to handle being two days away from home on the Fuzumi hot springs.
Plus, it was only fair that Tsumugi got a change to go there, since she was the one that made the costumes in the first place.
Of course, her butler was accompanying them, they did need a adult with them after all, but mostly, the parents believed that nothing bad was going to happen.
With that settled, everybody went to their rooms, the trip was going to be in two days.
As Makoto was finishing dressing for sleep, a knock is heard on his door. "Who is it?" The brunette asks.
"It's me, Komaru." His sister replies. "Can I come in?"
Makoto smile. "Yes."
Komaru, now wearing her strawberry themed pajamas enters his room slowly. "Hey Onii-chan?"
"Yeah? Did you want to talk about something?" The brunette boy jumps onto his bed.
"I just wanted to ask one thing." Komaru looks at her own feet, making her older brother feel worried.
"Well, ask away." He replies, not really sure of what she wanted to talk about.
"Why do people hate each other?" Komaru looks at her brother, who is at a loss of words.
"I-" He looks to the side, unsure of what to say. "-I don't really know." Looking back to his sister, he continues. "That's a very complicated question."
"I see." The younger sister sighs.
She tried to not really think about it, but it didn't get out of her head.
Why does Hotaru hate Tsumugi so much?
"Want to sleep together?" The brunette boy asks, feeling that Komaru was uneasy.
"Oh, uh-" Blushing, the young girl looks to both sides, before smiling timidly. "-Y-Yeah."
Makoto moves to the corner of his bed and waits for Komaru to jump in, the two snuggle together as the brunette girl feels her cheeks getting hotter.
"Night, Maru." Makoto says, closing his eyes.
This time is the boy who blushes, when he feels her arms wrapping around him. "Good night, Onii-chan."
With that said, the two siblings sleep peacefully in each other's embrace, they both still had worries clouding their hearts, but at least on that moment, they were able to simply ignore their worries and enjoy the warmth of each other.
Childhood Part XX – Costume Party (Part 2) – End
With that, we finally end Tsumugi's arc.
Yes, that's the end of our favorite otaku's arc, at least for now.
Firstly, I know that this chapter may seem structurally weird, like the pacing is kind of strange.
For that, I can only say that I'm sorry.
I had a plot for the costume party, but because of some changes that I made earlier in the story, I had to change it.
So Hotaru and Tsumugi's plot abrupt end is because of that, I still want to use the character of Hotaru and her relationship to Tsumugi, so I have some plans in how to re-work this plot back, but for that, y'all have to wait a bit.
Well, now that we finally finished the costume party and Tsumugi's arc, we only have two more things to solve before Hope's Peak.
I sincerely hope you all are having fun reading this silly story of mine, even with sometimes it can get pretty bad, and I seriously can't comprehend how people can give a chance to this story, so for that, I thank you all.
Anyways, hope y'all liked it and see you around!