⟦ℂℍ𝔸ℙ𝕋𝔼ℝ 𝟙𝟚⟧
Kagami was not happy about her outfit. People were staring at her and she hated it. But at least she had food now. Food. She had managed to ransack several booths and was now happily munching on them when she started to notice the crowd begin to split in half. She peered down the walkway to see what was going on, and nearly dropped her precious snacks when she saw it was Katai.
She waved at him frantically, trying to catch his attention. When he noticed, she could see his shoulders sag in relief before he speed walked over to her and proceeded to drag her away from the crowd.
Everyone behind them broke out into whispers. Who was that? He looked really mad. Scary. Is he going to kill Ishioka-san? I'm gonna miss her chasing Najimi around.
Once the pair had found a quiet place to talk, she slapped his arm. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
"I wanted to surprise you." Kagami stared at him, mouth slightly parted in surprise. "But I got lost... and I couldn't talk to anyone. I'm sorry." Her heart melted at his words.
"Katai-kun, that's really sweet. I'm glad you're here." He puffed his chest out at her praise, feeling much more comfortable with his decision than he had when he first made it... or when he left the house... or when he entered the school gates.
"Ishioka-san, don't take this the wrong way but... why are you dressed like that?" Kagami glanced down at herself, taking in the short skirt and knee high socks before looking back up and making eye contact with Katai.
Her face burned vibrant red as she tried to tug the hem of her skirt down to cover more of her thighs. "Our class picked a maid cafe for our culture festival project. I originally had a suit, but... an acquaintance of mine forced me into this halfway through the day and ripped up my suit. So now I'm stuck in this stupid dress."
"Oh." The pair stared at each other for a minute in uncomfortable silence, neither knowing what to say or do next. Luckily, they didn't have to decide that for themselves. Unluckily, it was made for them by none other than the suit destroyer themselves.
Osana had jumped onto Kagami's back, practically strangling her with their hands as they tried to not fall off when Kagami tilted backwards in surprise. She swatted at Osana's wildly waving hands before deciding to end it quickly before she lost air supply to her lungs.
She quickly detached Osana's legs from her waist, effectively dumping them onto the floor. "Ishioka-san! I didn't know you knew Katai-kun! This is great!"
"You." Osana and Katai froze in terror at the single word. Her face was deadly serious, nothing but murderous rage crossed her sharp features.
"Ah. I thought you'd be less angry by now. Anyways, nice to see you again Katai-kun, I'm gonna run away now before I'm murdered." They turned tail and fled, attempting to disappear into the crowd.
Kagami took quick steps forward before pausing, a thought having crossed her mind. The entire crowd parted for Katai earlier. A dangerous smirk crossed her face as she turned around. "Say, Katai-kun, would you mind doing me a favor?"
It had been about half an hour since Tadano had last seen Najimi and Kagami. Either Kagami had caught them and they were no longer among the living, or they had managed to slip away and Kagami had decided to find something better to do.
He found that neither of these assumptions were correct when Najimi went flying past him, followed closely by... Ishioka-san sitting on Katai-kun's shoulders? The pair were fast. Katai was no slouch, and combined with Kagami's sharp eyes and added height thanks to Katai's form, there was no way they would miss Najimi in the crowd, especially since it parted immediately to keep away from the large male.
Despite being tunnel focused on her mission, Kagami spotted Tadano in the middle of the crowd before they turned the corner to follow Osana. She tapped Katai on the head to get his attention and pointed towards Tadano. Katai was confused, but didn't argue as he began to lumber towards the smaller male.
Tadano watched in shock as Kagami swung one of her legs over Katai's head to sit on one of his muscular shoulders before hopping off and landing on the floor silently. Her dress billowed up slightly, flashing the black shorts she wore underneath for situations like this.
"Hey, Tadano-kun. This is Katai-kun. Katai-kun, this is Tadano-kun." Katai stared at Tadano, feeling awkward and uncomfortable with meeting one of Kagami's friends.
Tadano understood immediately. "Hello, it's really nice to meet you, Ishioka-san has told me a lot about you." This put Katai more at ease, allowing him to give Tadano a small smile of appreciation that everyone else around them took as a threat.
"You too. Ishioka-san has mentioned you in several of her stories." Tadano glanced at Kagami for confirmation, only to see Kagami had turned a dark shade of red. When Tadano flushed pink, Katai looked between the two in realization.
Oh.
The group had taken to walking around the school, popping into other classes to see their projects. Katai had gotten comfortable enough with Tadano to make short conversation with him, and Tadano was doing his best to keep him included.
Despite their best efforts, Katai was still stiff and looking around awkwardly. "I think I'm going to head home now. There's a lot of people here and everyone's staring at me." Kagami nodded sympathetically, understanding where he was coming from.
She offered to walk him to the gates, but he refused, not wanting her to miss anything. His ulterior motive, unknown to the pair, was to leave them to spend some time together alone. Kagami was his first friend, and he wanted her to be happy. He would do everything in his power to help her with this.
"So, should we meet up with Komi-san?" Tadano was desperate to make sure they weren't left alone. He didn't trust himself around her. His head kept spinning in circles, knowing that Kagami had talked about him to her friend a lot. He had already embarrassed himself plenty, and he wanted to do his best to keep it from happening again.
"Yeah, that sounds nice. Where did you last see her?" In truth, Kagami was a little disappointed. Okay, a lot disappointed. Tadano was so quick to dismiss the thought of them spending time together by themselves. They had done it in the past and it wasn't an issue. Why is it an issue now? Is it because of this stupid dress? I'm gonna kill Osana-san.
"She's probably still in the classroom. Shall we head there now?" Kagami nodded in agreement, following closely behind her friend as they made their way back to the cafe.
The pair had found Shouko exactly where they thought they would, and now they were wandering the halls together with Osana. Kagami had not let up her glare, but she also didn't move to attack them either, which was a good sign.
Shouko was admiring all of the projects, her head moving so rapidly to drink it all in that she had begun to spin fervently in place until she got dizzy and nearly fell over. Luckily for her, Kagami had quick reflexes and was able to support her before she fell.
"Look! A haunted house! Let's go in!" Osana was waving the trio over from beside a black sign. Kagami slipped away from Shouko to bound over to it, not even pausing before slipping inside.
Inside, Kagami found herself looking around as best she could in the pitch darkness. She admired how well done the place was, the decorations and jump scares perfectly in place.
Being so short, the gelatin brick went flying over her head, but she could feel the breeze it left behind and the slight brush against her hair as it passed. Had she been taller, it would have hit her directly in the face. That would have been a good scare. Shame.
She continued deeper into the room, keeping an eye on her surroundings. She hadn't taken the flashlight provided, so it was hard to see the pathway. A white blur jumped out from behind a rock, their face painted chalk white. Paired with their dark hair and white dress and head cover, they looked the part of a woman in white.
Kagami bounced up and down excitedly. She wanted to say something to the girl, but she didn't have her notebook, and it would have been too dark to read anyways. Instead, she shot the girl a grin and a double thumbs up and then continued on her way.
Outside, Shouko was frozen in place, but slowly moved to the rest of her group to make her way inside. Her steps were slow, and she couldn't see anything, serving only to make her more nervous.
Everything in the cave made her tremble and jump, even the clearly visible signs. As soon as saw sunlight, she sprinted for it and collapsed to the floor, eyes wide and still shaking in fear. She heaved deep breaths in, but screamed and jumped when something touched her shoulder.
Shouko robotically turned her head to the side to face whatever had touched her, coming face to face with a worried Kagami. Her eyebrows drawn together and lips slightly downturned. "You okay?"
Instead of answering, Shouko leapt to her feet and crushed her friend in a tight hug. Kagami gently patted her on the back, soothingly running her free hand through her long hair. It's so soft.
Even when Tadano and Osana came up behind them, Shouko didn't move an inch, her grip never loosening. "Is she okay?"
Kagami began to sign back, although it was difficult doing it behind Shouko's back. "The haunted house really seemed to frighten her. I didn't think it was that bad, but I don't think we should let her near another one anytime soon." She glanced at Osana knowingly at the last bit. They raised their hands in submission, but the smirk that split their face said something completely different.
It took a while, but Shouko finally released Kagami. All it took was the mention of rooftop confessions and she was hooked. Kagami didn't see what the big deal was. Besides, why would someone want to confess their love for someone in front of basically the entire school?
Which is exactly what she said to Tadano. His face burned at her question, attempting to fade into the background when he thought about his last confession.
Writing "LOVE" across the entire track and yelling up to the third floor window where his crush was standing had been very public. Never again. He shuddered.
Yamai was quick to shout her love and plan for marriage to Shouko for everyone to hear. Shouko could only stare in shock, giving Osana the perfect opportunity to drag her away to have her own rooftop confession, which turned out to only be an advertisement for their maid cafe.
Unfortunately, Shouko's small voice was misheard by everyone, and now all the maids were cat maids, courtesy of Osana, who somehow had everything they needed on hand.
So now, both Kagami and Shouko were wearing cat ears. Kagami was fuming, but unwilling to show that to her friend who looked like she was having a really good time. She couldn't ruin that for her.
Osana getting dragged away by the meditation club wearing a sign with "REPENTANT" on it made all of it significantly better. Not only would they be suffering, they also could do nothing more to make this day more embarrassing for her.
They had decided to continue on without their friend, this time walking aimlessly. Shouko paused, looking around in alarm. Tadano stopped walking, prompting Kagami to do the same. "What's wrong?"
Shouko looked around again, eyes wide in alarm. "People are looking at me more than usual. Kagami too."
Tadano couldn't help the next words that spilled out of his mouth. "That's because you two look adorable as cat maids." As soon as they passed his lips, Shouko began to fidget in place and her face burned red. Kagami fought to keep her blush at bay, but when she realized she was failing, she made an excuse to go to the bathroom and rushed off.
The bathroom door slammed behind her, allowing her to press her face to the wall with her hands covering her face. She had it bad, but she could never get in the way of her friend, who was so obviously in love with Tadano herself.
Tadano had watched Kagami leave in worry. I shouldn't have said that. Tadano might have picked up on how frantic Kagami was, but Shouko had not. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up just moments before Onemine slapped him on the back, hard.
She had seen everything, and as much as she wanted to follow Kagami, she also wanted to tease Tadano. "Tadano, you can be really dense for such a perceptive person."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Onemine only gave him a knowing look.