This chapter is dedicated to hen333!
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Original Published Date: September 26, 2016
Edited Date: February 10, 2018
October 8, 2016 - Morning
At the school auditorium, many students volunteered to decorate the stage for the play. While they were doing so, the foreign adviser of the Literature club, Sir William Shijin, heads the audition for the different roles of the play.
"No, no, no! That is not how Ishtar would act," said Sir William. "Have you not read her biography well?"
"U-Uh, I'm so sorry, Sir William!" said a student, whose voice was trembling after being berated by the foreign adviser like that.
Sir William releases a small sigh and said, "You can be in the play but you'll only act as one of Ishtar's loyal servants."
"T-Thank you, Sir William!" she bows her head before leaving.
"Next!"
"Will you quit laughing at me, Itsuka-senpai?!" An anime vein throbs on Gil's cheek in irritation. "I can smack this book on your face any time."
"I'd like to see you try, Douji-kun!" Itsuka loudly laughs. "Come on, lighten up! You're doing well, honestly. The role of Gilgamesh is perfect for you!"
"You don't have to tell me," he massages his temples. "The only thing that I'm worried about is the person who will play Enkidu. Damn, does it really have to be a love story?!"
"The school hasn't done a play in a long time and a love story at that! Everything will be fine," Itsuka approaches Gil and heavily pats his shoulder. "Why? Who would you rather play as Enkidu?"
Gil grabs his senior's heavy hand and lifts it off of his shoulder. "Anyone but Mabu, obviously. I really can't stand that woman."
"Is it still because of what happened last February?"
Gil lightly thumps the hard bound book on his president's forehead, earning a small gasp from the bearded man. "We don't have to go there."
Itsuka lightly rubs his forehead. "I know, I know. Then, would you like Asura-san to do the role? I can ask her and Shijin-sensei, if it'll make you more comfortable."
In that moment, Gil fell into silence. Mentioning Asura like that was like a landmine since he still holds some feelings to the golden-headed secretary of the Student Council. Although, he also holds conflicting feelings for someone. It's strange, for him. He wanted to move on now but he lacks closure. After all, Asura was the one who broke up in the first place.
"I'm here with the supplies you ordered," said a familiar voice.
Gil and Itsuka focuses their look at Hinako, who has just arrived from an early-opened supply store near the school. She carried at least three paper bags full of needed supplies for the stage decorations.
"Ah, Suzuhana-san, you should have asked for help. These look heavy," said a male student who was second in-charge of decorating the stage. He looks worried.
"It's all right," Hinako carefully hands the paper bags with a smile. "Here you go."
"Thanks," he happily takes them. "We owe you big time!"
"It's no problem. Well, please excuse me," Hinako bows her head and hurriedly left the auditorium.
Itsuka pulls up a small smile. "Suzuhana-san sure is a hard worker. She even brought those supplies on her own."
"Yeah, but she's an idiot for not asking any help. If she dropped those, then her hard work would have been for nothing," Gil sighs, scratching the back of his head.
"Hey, lay off of her, Douji-kun. She's one of the most hard working people I know," Itsuka laughs a little as he looks at the slightly irritated vice president. However, there was something else. He saw something familiar in the golden-headed boy's eyes. He continues to look at him and then traces his stare to a particular brown-headed girl who just left the auditorium. In his eyes, it was something so familiar.
"Douji-kun, you..." Itsuka trails. "Hmm..."
"What?" He snaps his head and looks at the bearded man, who has a surprised expression.
"Do you...like Suzuhana-san?"
Something got caught in Gil's throat after mentioning that. He coughs a little, letting go of the annoying clog.
"What the hell are you saying, Itsuka-senpai?!" A fiery aura was burning behind Gil and multiple irk marks throbbed on his cheeks.
"Hey, calm down now," Itsuka raises his hands. "It's just, you looked so concerned for her earlier."
"No, I don't," Gil slowly walks away. "I'm going to practice somewhere else. Call me if you need me."
"A-All right," Itsuka replies, defeated, while scratching the back of his head. He looks at Gil from behind as he exits the auditorium from the right side.
Gil approaches a big tree and sits on the patch of grass around it. He rests his head on the trunk and looks at the blue skies, his whole body shrouded in the shadow of the tree.
October 8, 2016 - Lunchtime
"Tada~!" Marie happily said, pulling out one costume from a box. Everyone in the classroom was in awe.
Five boxes full of costumes for their cosplay café came in and it has sizes for everyone in the room.
"Now, who wants to be a servant under the Saber class?" Marie asks, putting the costume back inside the box.
A few students raise their hands. They like to get their hands on a wonderful sword prop.
"That's the spirit! Now, let's divide ourselves and get our costumes done!"
"Right!"
Class 1-A was busy in dividing themselves among seven classes: Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. Most of the guys were in the Berserker class.
"Hey, does this look okay?" Fūrin enters the room in blue tights and carries a red spear. The girls blushed a little.
Marie approaches him and looks at him from top to bottom. Then, she claps her hands once and smiles. "It definitely looks good on you, Fūrin-kun!"
"You think so?" He looks at himself. "This is one heck of a costume, Maricchi!"
"I know, right? My friend runs a costume shop and I asked her if maybe I could borrow a few for the festival."
"That's some friend of yours. Though, I'll stick with this," Fūrin twirls the red lance with his right hand. "I kinda look cool in it," he grins.
"Yep! You absolutely look handsome in it!" Marie compliments with a big smile, her expression starts to brighten up.
Hinako has yet to choose a costume for the cosplay cafe but there were certainly a lot of costumes that haven't been chosen yet. She picks up a blue dress but she didn't like the style since it shows off her shoulders a lot, so she places it back inside the box.
"Suzu-chan!" Marie happily leaps towards her side.
"Oh, Marie-san! May I help you with something?" Hinako asks with a smile.
Marie shook her head and just smiles. "You don't need to look for a costume from one of those boxes, Suzu-chan. I already have a costume especially for you!"
Hinako's eyes blink rapidly, curious as to what Marie picked out for her.
October 8, 2016 - Afternoon
Back at the auditorium, Gil was practicing a few lines with the other students who were chosen to be in the play. Although, they have yet to find the perfect person to portray Enkidu.
"Tell me again, sensei, on why I am Ishtar?" Mabu was gripping her script book tightly, irritated at the fact that she was chosen to play Ishtar even though she specifically auditioned for the role of Enkidu.
Teacher William spreads his hands to the side and breaths in air. "You were perfect for the role of Ishtar, Himeji-san. I know to myself when I see a student who is perfect for a particular role," he winks.
"But I won't be able to get all touchy-touchy with my Gil darling!" She pouts.
Gil suddenly felt a sudden shiver throughout his body when he heard Mabu said that. 'At least you weren't chosen for the role of Enkidu or else I would have quit,' he thought.
"U-Uhmm..." A shy student spoke out to Gil.
"Hmm?" Gil turns his look to the shy, female student. Her feet were fidgeting and she circles her fingers with one another. "What is it?"
"I, uh, just think that it's really cool of you to take the role of Gilgamesh, Douji-senpai," she speaks in a low volume. "I-I think that you'll do well in the c-community play."
"Oh..." Gil blinks a few times upon hearing one of the students who will be in the play praise him. Well, Gil was the type who would back out of embarrassing situations such as portraying a character in a play. He doesn't like to act and he knows to himself that it doesn't fit with his personality. But, in a way, he wanted to take part in the play. Maybe because it's been a while since he had fun like this. "Thank you."
The people around him were quite shocked and he felt his face get hotter and redder, embarrassed for being out of place in attitude all of a sudden.
"W-Whatever! Just get back to practicing! We have one week left before the festival! Now, get to it!"
"Y-Yes!" And everyone hurriedly practiced their lines again.
Fifteen minutes has passed and Gil has gotten through at least half of the script. As he reads it, he can't help but imagine the person who will portray Enkidu. Still, he doesn't like the fact that the play is a romantic story. He doesn't even do romantic, not ever since Asura broke up with him before the last school year ended.
"Excuse me, here are some food for you guys," a familiar voice said.
"Thank you, Suzuhana-chan! And I must say, that's quite an appealing costume you have there," a male student said.
"P-Please! It's for our cosplay cafe! I didn't have enough time to change back into my uniform."
'Appealing?' Gil raises his eyebrow out of curiosity. Then, from the stage, he turns around and saw a brown-headed girl wearing a golden armor, her abdomen was bare. A mixture of yellow, black, and red adorned her features. 'What the hell?!'
(A/N: This is Hinako's costume for the cosplay cafe. As you can see, I turned the white bra into a black, cropped turtle neck as Hinako isn't the type to wear a revealing outfit. Her hair is tied up into a high ponytail instead of the pigtails.)
(P.S. I haven't watched Fate/Kaleid Liner before but I've seen a few scenes and saw this, which made me decide that this will be Hinako's costume.)
Hinako notices Gil up on the stage and smiles at him. "Ah, Douji-senpai! Have some snacks for a while. You might be hungry."
"W-W-What is up with that costume?! Your abdomen is showing! Don't you even have a sense of modesty?!" Gil said in an embarrassed tone, throwing his script book towards Hinako and eventually, it hit her.
"Ow!" Hinako held her head that was hit by the book. "That hurts, senpai! Why you-?!" She grabs the book and threw it back at her upperclassman. It hit his forehead.
"Agh! What was that for?!" Gil held the book tightly in his hand. "That hurts!"
"You threw it first, you senpai-baka!" Hinako has an irk mark throbbing on her left cheek.
"S-Senpai-baka?! Come here and let me smack this book on your head again!" Gil starts to run towards Hinako.
"No! Stop it, senpai! Seriously!" Hinako starts to dash off. "What is wrong with me wearing this costume?!"
"Everything!" He shouts.
Everyone inside the auditorium starts to laugh, thinking that the two were a good comedic duo. Itsuka was by the side, eating yakisoba bread while watching Gil and Hinako chase each other around the auditorium. It was just what they needed - a comedy to liven up the tired people who were working on the stage for the community play.
"Hello, Itsuka-san," Asura greets as she approaches the bearded president. "My, it sure is lively in here today."
Itsuka laughs a little. "Why, yes it is. Just look for yourself," he points towards the center of the auditorium.
Asura follows the direction to where Itsuka was pointing at and saw Gil and Hinako chasing each other. She releases an anime sweat-drop.
"U-Uh, Itsuka-san? Shouldn't we be intervening? They might start a quarrel again."
"Ah, don't sweat it, Asura-san," Itsuka said as he peels off the plastic to expose more yakisoba bread for him to eat. "They're just playing around. If you haven't noticed, Gil and Suzuhana-san are friends. Unlike a few months ago, they were really hurting each other and constantly fighting."
"I see," Asura focuses her gaze on the two, especially on Gil. "He looks so happy."
"You got that right," Itsuka chuckles as he finishes the last of his bread. "I haven't seen Gil so worked up like that before. The two of them - they look like really good friends."
"Yes, I agree with you," Asura replies. Then, she lowers her head and looks at the floor. "I wasn't able to make him happy, the way Suzuhana-san is doing right now."
Itsuka pauses and looks at Asura who was standing on his left side. He's aware that her and Gil were in a relationship before. But, of course, it has come to an end all those months ago. The bearded man knew that it was Asura broke the relationship off and not the other way around. However, he couldn't exactly blame the blond-headed secretary for everything as it was a certain pink-headed woman's fault.
"Asura-san?"
"Hmm?" Asura turns around and looks at Itsuka. "Yes?"
"Do you still-" Itsuka pauses as he focuses his gaze on two people.
"Itsuka-san? What were you about to say?" Asura raises an eyebrow but his gaze was still fixated what has in front of them. She follows Itsuka's eyes and saw a shocking scene before her eyes.
"S-Senpai..."
"Suzuhana, I..."
Hinako was on the floor with Gil over her. His hands beside each side of her head. The two were uncontrollably blushing.
"W-Well," Hinako places a hand over Gil's shoulder and lightly pushes him away, both of them sitting up. "I'm sorry if that, uh, has to happen."
"No," Gil look to his right. "I should be saying sorry to you. Sorry if I threw the book at you."
"I'm sorry for throwing it back, then," Hinako replies as she, too, looks to her right.
Suddenly, Hinako hears a faint chuckle from in front of her. Slowly, she looks back at her golden-headed senior, only to find him genuinely smiling and radiating with the rays of the sun that has illuminated the auditorium. Hinako's eyes widen in surprise, a red blush starts to paint across her cheeks as she takes in the beautiful expression her senior has made.
Asura saw how Gil smiled towards Hinako's way, in which it made her heart clench in pain. She bit her lip, holding down whatever feeling she was having.
"I'm sorry but I don't feel so good," Asura said as she starts to walk towards the auditorium door. "If you'll please excuse me."
"Wait, Asura-san," Itsuka follows after her.
Outside, Asura kept on walking. Even though Itsuka was constantly calling out for her, she couldn't hear him. All she can hear are the thoughts that plagued her mind.
"Asura-san!"
The golden-headed woman snaps out of it, abruptly turning around to meet the worried eyes of the student council's president. However, when their eyes met, Asura releases a tear from the corner of her left eye, to which Itsuka was shocked about.
"Asura-san, you..." He couldn't bear to continue his sentence.
To be continued: (Autumn) Chapter 33