"It just looks like a normal town. Nothing special about it." Edward commented, looking around at all the people and shops.
"YAY!!! Haruhi's hometown! Haruhi's hometown!" The twins chanted excitedly, getting more attention from the people around, who had already been drawn to the limousine.
"I can't believe I finally get to see where Haruhi lives!" Tamaki said.
Haruhi began. "Guys, it's not really that big of a d-"
"Let's go shopping!" Honey interrupted.
"Shopping! Shopping!" The twins continued chanting.
"Calm down, men." Tamaki started in a calm tone, gesturing for the club to quieten. "We will do this in an orderly fashion! First, we will all go to all those shops there, you see!" He said, while pointing at a crowded row of shops a few metres away. "Then, we will all split up to see the rest of the town! Then, we will meet right here at 2PM sharp, so we can all go back to one of my small houses near here!"
"Yes, sir!" Hikaru, Kaoru, and Honey shouted together while saluting, while Mori and Kyoya nodded in agreement and Ed facepalmed.
- - - -
"Ooh! A shop for keychains!" Honey pointed out excitedly.
"200 yen for one keychain?" Hikaru wondered, looking at all the keychains on the shelves.
"That's a lot less than we usually pay." Kaoru finished. "They're usually around 20,000 yen, at the least."
"2-20,000 yen? That's like a whole 2 weeks worth of groceries! These damn rich people." Haruhi mumbled to herself.
"We can get matching ones! And besides, they're only going to be 1,600 yen if we all get one!" Honey pulled out the puppy eyes.
"So 1,600 yen," Ed calculated, before suddenly realising what that meant. "I AM NOT GETTING ONE OF THOSE KEYCHAINS!!" He shouted.
"Why not?"
"Well, you could at least get something cool, like this one!" Ed argued, pointing to a key chain. It was silver, with a gleaming demon skull on it. It looked very intimidating, and scary.
The Host Club stared at Ed.
Ed stared back.
"What? You got a problem with my sense of style?" Edward finally spoke out aggresively, breaking the silence.
"... Your sense of style is horrible." Kaoru said.
The Host Club murmured in agreement.
- - - -
Ed walked through the bustling towns, staring at the rabbit keychain in his gloved automail hand. It was small and pink, only slightly larger than a bottle cork. He had no idea how the Host Club managed to wield their powers of plot convenience here, but somehow they had done it.
The Host Club...
Edward crushed the rabbit keychain out of anger, but it bounced right back, its innocent face staring right at him. This only angered him further, but before he could torment the rabbit further, a sudden ache of pain in his right shoulder brought his attention to the weather.
Nearly all of the sky was still a vibrant light blue, but he could see edges of gray clouds, twisting and billowing in wait of the upcoming storm. Just like the clouds, there were waves of twisting pain all throughout his arm and leg. Ed fell forward slightly and hissed in pain. Before anyone could notice what just happened, Ed straightened up and kept on walking, acting like nothing had just happened. He couldn't let show anyone how weak he was.
1:32PM. Edward glanced up at the clock tower. If he wanted to get back to the limousine, he would have to start getting back now. The problem was that Ed had no idea where he was. Since he was so distracted with the weather, Ed wandered off randomly instead of keeping track of where he was.
Suddenly, he saw two very unwanted faces: Hikaru and Kaoru.
"Hey Ed, check this out!" Hikaru called out.
"This commoner's coffee is only 1600 yen for an entire container! Can you believe that?" Kaoru added.
"Yes." With that, Edward kept walking on.
"What's got you in a hurry?" Both of the twins asked.
"Just ran out of time for your stupidity." Ed mumbled, before carrying on.
"Wait!"
"And why should I?" Edward asked, looking aggravated. It could rain any second now, but these twins just had to hold him back up.
"Where are you going?" Hikaru and Kaoru said together.
Ed answered back sharply, glancing up at the sky. "Back to the car."
"Already? But it's barely 1:40, and it takes about 5 minutes to get back to the limo." Hikaru responded.
"Yeah. You've been acting real weird here for some reason." Kaoru added in.
"You should go back soon too," Edward said, with an impatient tap of his automail foot. "Might rain soon."
"Rain?" Hikaru and Kaoru asked disbelievingly. Then, they burst into laughter. "The sky is clearer than it's ever been!"
"No, it's not."
And with that, Ed was on his way.
- - - -
The Host Club was back in Tamaki's "small" house, watching the weather outside. True to Ed's words, it had started to rain, and badly. Loud rain crashed down relentlessly from the dark grey sky, while peals of thunder and bright lightning shook what seemed like the entire earth. Strong, loud winds nearly uprooted the trees.
Everyone was safe inside, except for...
"Haruhi! Where's Haruhi!" Tamaki called out over the loud storm.
"I guess we were in such a hurry we forgot about her." Both of the twins chorused.
"Don't be so calm about this!" Tamaki shouted while pointing at Hikaru and Kaoru. "Haruhi could be in danger!"
A loud crash of thunder quickly silenced the Host Club.
"We should go look for Haruhi." Mori suggested.
Honey was the first to volunteer. "I'll go!"
"We're going too," Hikaru and Kaoru said.
"And, I'm going, of course!" Tamaki volunteered.
"Well, this could turn out to be very interesting," Kyoya stated with a hint of interest and pushing his glasses up, which caused them to glint in the lightning.
"So that just leaves..."
"Fine, whatever, I'll go too," Ed said reluctantly.
- - - -
"Hey there."
An unfamiliar voice brought Haruhi's attention to the person standing right in front of her in the wide alleyway. He looked to be about the same age as Haruhi, but the sly grin on his face and the sneering people behind him said that he wasn't looking to be friends. Haruhi quietly gasped in surprise, but quickly straightened up and put on a calm demeanor.
"What do you want? I don't have much money on me, if that's what you're looking for." Haruhi said smoothly.
"We don't want you," he snarled. He seemed to be the leader of the group.
"Yeah," another cold voice agreed from behind.
The leader stepped forward.
"We saw your little friends back there. They looked liked they could spare a bit of money for us. So, why don't you tell us where they are right now? Unless," he began, slamming a hand into the brick wall above Haruhi's shoulder, making her flinch back in fear. "You want to be hurt. You don't want that, do you?"
"I... don't-"
Suddenly, a crash of thunder made Haruhi jolt up and her heart to pound even louder, which made the only things she could hear anymore were the sounds of the heavy rain around her and the painfully frantic beats of her heart in her ears.
This could be the moment where I die.
"What's that? Afraid of a little bad weather? How tragic." The leader spoke, causing the people behind him to laugh loudly.
However, Haruhi didn't even register the words they were saying. The world was too loud, too much. She didn't know anything anymore.
Until she heard a familiar voice ring loud and clear against the rain.
"Stop right there!"
- - - -
Yo kids. Okay this part was really fun to write, especially near the end where I started to really get into the story. Next there's Part III, the last part. This was really fun to write and I hope you find them fun to read.
See you next week, and sorry for not updating in over a month!
Bye!