Chapter 2

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"Honoka, what exactly are we here for?"

"That!" Honoka pointed to a shop amongst the row of small shops ahead.

The shop had curtains covering the door and behind the window display so one couldn't see the interior, save a few skeletons and ghouls hanging in the display. A large bold 'SCARY PROPS' was written on the sign hung at the door.

Half of Muse sweatdrops, "A prop shop?!"

"Why didn't we think of this Kayochin? Honoka always has the best ideas nya!" Rin leaped around Hanayo excitedly.

"Seriously a seedy prop shop? The decorations inside don't look realistic at all!" Nico grumbled as she stares at a comical ghoul hanging in the display. "Are you sure we aren't wasting our-"

Nico was cut short as Eli pulled her inside determinedly. The rest of Muse, save Nozomi followed. "Let's try anyway."

"Geez, we'll definitely waste our day here..." Maki frowned, mirroring Nico's exact sentiments.

Once inside, a gaudy looking plastic devil flew at Eli's and Nico's faces. It didn't help that the shop was dimly lit either.

Eli screamed, clinging onto Nico with a death grip.

"I thought you were all determined a second ago..." Nico sighed in exasperation.

"I didn't think it would be this d-dark!" Eli buried her face into Nico's shoulder. Behind them, Kotori patted her senior's back awkwardly.

"May I help you?" A shop attendant dressed as a vampire asked them. Clearly embarrassed by her friend's behavior, Nico asked for him to turn on the lights.

Kotori tried her best to ease the awkward tension. "Let's search for useful things around here then."

Everyone agreed and they split into pairs to thoroughly search the shop.

"Eli-chan, do you have any clue about what Nozomi-chan may be scared of?" Hanayo inquired shyly.

Racking her brains, Eli replied thoughtfully, "Well, all I know is she is afraid of losing her friends, but a tangible phobia... I'm not so sure."

Hanayo seemed somewhat disheartened. "I see. Let's keep looking then."

Rin and Honoka bounded through the shop like easily excitable children, picking up little models of ghosts and demons and skulls and waved them about in the air.

"Honoka-chan do you think Nozomi-chan will be scared of this nya?" Rin held up a ghost model for said girl to see.

"I don't know... It looks like that is meant to scare children right?" Honoka tilted her head to the side, sizing up the model.

They continued their adventure of digging for more scary looking props.

"Rin-chan, what are we looking for again?" Honoka mumbled half-heartedly as she inspected a cute decorative dinosaur."

Maki and Nico finally found quiet after they separated from the group, too much quiet. Yet both of them stubbornly kept the silence, internally raging for the other to start conversation.

"Found anything?" Nico finally blurted out, a little too harshly because of her internal conflict.

"Not yet. None of these props look scary enough!" Maki gushed, clearly surprised by Nico's outburst.

"It was definitely a terrible idea to come here in the first place. I'm sure the others are all goofing off now..."

For once, Maki seemed to agree as the corners of her lips turned up slightly. But the smile was gone as quickly as it appeared.

As they continued scanning the shelves, the previous silence began again, yet much less awkward than before.

"Umi-chan, this looks pretty scary right?" Kotori tapped Umi's shoulder from behind her.

Umi turned around and was faced with a scary looking Hannya head attached to Kotori's body. "Uwah Kotori you surprised me! That does look scary."

"Heehee' Kotori pulled the mask off her face. "Maybe we could give Nozomi a big surprise kind of scare!"

"Kotori-chan, it seems that the others are gathering back. Let's go too, shall we?"

To which Kotori replied with an enthusiastic nod.

"Did anybody find anything or come up with any ideas?" Eli asked once everyone was present.

Umi spoke up. "Kotori was thinking we could just give Nozomi a big surprise or shock."

"Oh, you mean like an ambush? That might work!"

Everyone seemed to agree, and Kotori blushed from the recognition.

"Alright first thing at school tomorrow we'll meet to discuss this okay?" A titter of excitement went across the group. In their excitement and chatter, they failed to hear the creak of the door to the shop opening.

"What are you guys doing here?" A familiar voice asked. Everyone jumped about a foot into the air.

"N-Nozomi, what are YOU doing here?" Eli asked nervously. Cue everyone's nervous laughter.

"I came to look for everyone! It was odd that no one was in the clubroom at all, then someone told me ya'll were visiting the shops around here so I came to find everyone. Heehee is there some sort of secret meeting going on right now?"

Nozomi's relieved smile was so bright that instantly everyone felt guilty to be involved in this scheme. "Why would y'all need to visit a scary décor shop anyway?"

Surprisingly, Nico was the one who spoke up, "W-We were trying to scare Eli! We, uhh we wanted to see if she'd be scared of these props like uhh, uhm a little kid!" Nico's face was ridiculously red from the exertion of making up an excuse.

"Oh" If Nozomi disbelieved her, she didn't indicate it. All seven members held their breath.

"Well alright, but have mercy on Elicchi won't you?" She winked at Nico. "I wanna come along next time! I wanna see Elicchi's scared face too!"

Nozomi didn't take any notice of the relieved looks on all of her friends' faces. Instead, she smiled as she held open the door for them. "Since we are all here, let's all walk home together."

"

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