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“For me, Takumi? You’re too kind.”
Nozomi smiled at the boy in question as he handed her a red, heart-shaped box, a slight blush on his cheeks as he remarked, “I-I know that I’m supposed to wait to give you a gift in return, but I really wanted to show my appreciation for the chocolates you gave me yesterday, so I couldn’t help myself…”
“Awww, how adorable!” Moko squealed out, placing both her palms on either side of her face as she said, “Your love for Nozomi is so strong that it transcends even the barriers imposed on us by tradition! I knew you’d treat her well as her boyfriend!”
“T-Thanks…” Takumi mumbled out awkwardly while the color in his cheeks darkened in response, as he couldn’t help but wonder whether he had been a tad bit too impatient to hand over his gift.
Maybe I should’ve waited until they were done talking with each other so that I could’ve handed the gift over to Nozomi in private…
Yet at the same time, he had wanted to repay her kindness from yesterday as soon as possible. And seeing that this was one of those rare occasions in which the cafeteria was sparsely populated (given that there were only the three of them here), he had ultimately decided to steel his nerves and seize this opportunity.
“Moko, you’re embarrassing him!” Nozomi exclaimed light-heartedly as she playfully elbowed her friend, before turning her attention to Takumi as she asked, “How were the chocolates, by the way?”
“They were delicious.” Takumi replied without hesitation, causing Nozomi to flush slightly at how quickly his response was. “I think they were some of the best chocolates I’ve ever had!”
“O-Oh! Well… I’m really glad that you enjoyed them, then…” Nozomi responded, clearly a bit embarrassed by how complimentary Takumi was being. “I was a bit worried that they wouldn’t turn out well since I don't really have much experience making something like that for Valentine’s Day, but I’m glad that it turned out okay!”
“Really?” Takumi asked disbelievingly as Nozomi simply nodded in response. “I never would’ve guessed that just by how good they tasted…”
“T-Thanks…” Nozomi replied quietly, her face warming at the praise as her shy eyes met his own beaming ones.
“Now I’m a little worried that my gift is not going to taste as good as yours did,” he said half-jokingly, chuckling briefly as Nozomi continued to hold the heart-shaped box in her hands, looking at it as though it was the most precious thing in the world.
She raised her face to meet his gaze once more, her eyes lighting up as she asked, “Wait, did you make chocolates for me in return?”
Realizing that his slip of the tongue gave away more than he had intended to, his eyes widened momentarily before saying, “Uh… crap! I kind of gave away what kind of gift it was, didn’t I? I-It’s not chocolate though, but it’s something else that I hope you’ll like!”
“Wait, so you made her something to eat?” Moko asked curiously.
“You’ll find out once she opens the gift!” Takumi responded cheerily before his eyes quickly flickered over to Nozomi, watching her expression as he hoped that she’d be delighted by his gift.
Well, there’s only one way to find out what he gave me!
No sooner did that thought cross Nozomi’s mind than she began gingerly lifting the box cover, revealing more and more of Takumi’s surprise gift to her vision as…
…
…
She nearly dropped the box entirely as her face immediately turned an incandescent red, her mouth hanging agape as she finally saw what was in the box.
“W-Well… do you like it?” Takumi asked, unsure of whether the scorching blush on her face meant that she approved of his gift or not. He couldn’t exactly see the inside of the box from his perspective, but he already knew what the gift that was meant to be in it looked like.
There’s no way that he’s asking me that after giving me—!
…
W-What…!? What IS this!?
She knew full well what the object inside the box was, but was sorely hoping that she had somehow hallucinated or misunderstood what she was meant to be looking at as her expression turned so scandalized that Moko immediately knew that something was wrong.
“Nozomi, sweetie, what’s wrong?” She asked as she peered over the girl’s shoulder, looking into the box for herself as the wrestler’s eyes widened almost comically as she, too, saw what was within.
“U-Uh… Nozomi?” Takumi asked as he slowly approached her, not having expected his gift to have evoked an emotional reaction anywhere near this intense. “Do you not like my—”
“TAKUMI!” Nozomi practically screeched out in a scandalized voice, her wide eyes scrambling to meet him as her expression was so unbelievably flustered at the moment that it was a miracle that she was still able to speak at the moment.
“I– Wh–! Why–!?” She continued sputtering out, unable to form a meaningful sentence as her face somehow managed to grow redder and redder with each failed attempt at speech that escaped her mouth.
Takumi couldn’t help but also notice Moko’s usually bubbly disposition turn frighteningly emotionless as the wrestler in question stared him down, causing the redhead to choose his next words very carefully as he anxiously asked, “N-Nozomi, what’s wrong?”
That question seemed to finally allow Nozomi to properly reboot her brain, as she finally managed to string together a coherent sentence, angling the box to show Takumi the contents within as she yelled, “‘What’s wrong?’ What do you MEAN what’s wrong!? WHY DID YOU GIVE ME THIS!?”
“Give you what? It’s just a—”
The words died in his throat as he finally saw what the two girls had been spontaneously combusting over for the past two minutes, his throat suddenly feeling drier than a desert as he finally saw inside his box the “gift” that lay within.
Oh.
Oh…
…
WAIT A MINUTE! HOW DID THAT EVEN END UP IN THERE!? THAT’S NOT WHAT I HAD PLANNED ON GIVING HER! WHERE DID MY ACTUAL GIFT GO!?
He was internally screaming at how this was possible, as he knew for a fact that the item within was not what he had placed in his giftbox, as there was no way that he would dare even THINK about giving her something so vulgar!
Takumi blinked once, twice, and then several times in quick succession, hoping that this was just a hallucination or a messed-up dream that he would wake up from.
…But every time he opened his eyes, the red, phallic-shaped silicon object within the box continued to greet his vision, almost as though it was taunting him as his mind struggled to comprehend the scene in front of him.
Why is there a dildo in my gift box!? WHO put that there!? And what did they do with my actual gift!?
AND WHY IS IT RED!?
Now it was Takumi’s turn to sputter senselessly as his face rivaled a wildfire in warmth, his mind racing a million miles per hour as it was a miracle that he hadn’t passed out at the moment from the sheer mortification that he was feeling at the moment.
“Takumi…” Moko began with a smile that didn’t match the way that she was cracking her knuckles at the moment as she said, “You have thirty seconds to explain why you gave Nozomi such a crass gift before I take you down to Hell in a Cell, starting now!”
“W-Wait, hold on!” Takumi began, hastily raising his hands in front of him as he said, “W-We can talk about this, right? I seriously didn’t mean to give Nozomi… that! Someone else must’ve swapped out my gift for this!”
“Sounds like excuses to me!” Moko proclaimed, slowly lumbering towards Takumi as she said, “How dare you have the audacity to blame someone else for what you did! Take some responsibility for your actions!”
“I swear I didn’t mean to do this!” Takumi implored as he slowly began backing away from the imposing form of Moko Mojiro that was approaching him. “You’ve gotta believe me!”
But his pleas fell on deaf ears as Moko continued to walk towards him menacingly, prompting Takumi to turn tail and flee for his life as he dashed out of the cafeteria, shouting out all the while, “I SWEAR IT WASN’T ME!!!”
Nozomi, who had been stunned into silence by the nature of the gift (and perhaps a little distracted by how endearing Takumi looked when flustered even though this was not the time nor place!), finally managed to say, “W-Wait, Moko!”
But it was too late, as her best friend had already left the cafeteria in her pursuit of Takumi, clearly intent on exacting vengeance for him daring to sully Nozomi’s reputation and dignity in such a manner.
…She couldn’t help but realize that Takumi was probably telling the truth, as he seemed just as appalled and mortified as she was when she revealed what she had gotten from him.
The poor woman was left standing alone in the cafeteria, still dazed by everything that just took place as she stared at the “gift” that Takumi had given her, wondering who in the world was responsible for this appalling prank.
…I should probably close the box lid now.
The last thing she wanted was for anyone else to catch sight of what was in her hands, for she would sooner die than have to go about explaining why she had such an object on her.
“Lady Nozomi, why did I just witness Lady Moko chase Sir Takumi out of the cafeteria in such a heated manner?” Kyoshika asked as she stepped into the cafeteria awkwardly, confusion evident on her face.
“I-It’s a long story…” Nozomi mumbled out, hoping that would be enough to dissuade her from prying any further. Kyoshika of all people getting wind of what happened would be an absolute nightmare scenario to deal with, and Nozomi’s dignity was already in tatters after the unfortunate gifting incident.
“Does it have something to do with his gift that you’re currently holding in your arms?” She asked, gesturing to the (thankfully) closed box in question curiously.
“U-Uh… No, actually!” She replied perhaps a bit too hastily, glancing down far too many times at the box in her hands to make doubly sure that it was closed and that the implicating item within could not be seen from any angle. “I-It was… because of something else entirely! Completely unrelated to his gift!”
“…If you say so, Lady Nozomi,” Kyoshika replied, raising an eyebrow before eventually turning her attention to other matters.
____________________
“Takemaru! Takemaru, I need your help!” Takumi cried out as he practically flung himself into the training room, hiding behind the taller biker as he stared up at him with wide eyes.
“Woah, woah, woah! Dude, slow down!” Takemaru replied as he witnessed Takumi’s mad dash behind him. “The hell’s going on, man? You look like you’re about to get your shit kicked in!”
“That’s exactly what’s going to happen to me if you don’t stop her!” Takumi replied in a panicked voice, keeping his eyes on the entrance to the training room as he hid behind Takemaru’s larger frame.
“‘Her?’” Takemaru repeated, before he seemingly had a realization as he said, “Oh no, don’t tell me that Hiruko’s crazy ass is going around trying to spar with everyone again! She really needs to stop doing that when we haven’t had a defensive battle in a while…”
“No, it’s Moko!”
“Moko?” Takemaru asked, bewilderment clearly evident on his face as he asked, “The hell did you do to get her on your ass—”
As if on cue, the wrestler in question burst into the room the two of them were staying in, causing even Takemaru to flinch in surprise as she roared out, “TAKUMI! Get back here, you womanizing scumbag!”
“Okay, HOLD UP!” Takemaru responded in turn, attempting to match her volume as he held up both hands in an attempt to appease Moko as the biker stood between her and her would-be victim. “Those are some pretty serious accusations you’re throwing around here! Did Takumi cheat on Nozomi with someone else, or—?”
“Hey! Why is that your first assumption!?” Takumi yelled out, clearly insulted by Takemaru’s interpretation of his character, as the redhead defended himself by saying, “I did nothing of the sort, and I would NEVER do anything like that!”
“Dude, I was just trying to mediate things here, okay? I have no idea what the hell’s going on!” Takemaru responded, sweating from his forehead as he saw the barely suppressed look of fury that Moko was directing at the boy cowering behind him at the moment.
“Takemaru… Mind moving out of the way?” Moko asked politely, a disturbingly serene smile on her face that was completely at odds with how animated she had been when she initially barged into the room earlier. “Takumi and I have some… business to settle…”
“Uh… Listen… that’s cool and all…” The biker began, trying not to make it obvious that he was coming up with responses on the spot that would hopefully de-escalate this situation. “But… mind telling me exactly what kind of business you have with him? Cause, uh… you seem pretty pissed…”
You didn’t need to point that out! Takumi wanted to shout, but he refrained from doing so because he knew that Takemaru was perhaps the only thing standing between him and imminent death right now.
He’d have to put his faith in him, even if he could be a little tactless at times…
“You could tell, huh?” Moko replied, and it was a little concerning that Takumi couldn’t tell whether she was being sarcastic or not with that statement.
“Guess I still need to work on my poker face then,” Moko remarked, looking off to the side for a moment as she continued. “A young lady such as myself can’t allow anger to show so easily; otherwise, my complexion’s going to be completely ruined!”
So she was being serious then… The redhead mused, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic, before Moko’s gaze abruptly locked onto him again, before turning to Takemaru as her expression suddenly became much more serious.
“Takemaru, do you have any idea how vulgar of a crime the scoundrel behind you has committed?” Moko asked rhetorically, sounding absolutely displeased with the scoundrel in question.
“No… not really.” Takemaru replied awkwardly, unsure of how he should be reacting as he asked, “...Care to share with me what he did?”
“Takumi, tell him what you did.” Moko requested–no, more so demanded –as though she were a prosecutor trying to convince a criminal to confess to their crimes.
“Wha— Why me!? I thought you were going to tell him?” Takumi responded, sounding awfully confused before realizing that talking back to someone who was clearly out for his blood and towered above him MIGHT’VE not been the best idea.
Moko’s gaze turned positively murderous as she narrowed her eyes at him, replying, “So you’d force a maiden such as myself to recount your terrible deeds instead? Just how low can you go, Takumi? I have half a mind to just—”
“Okay! I’ll tell him instead!” Takumi frantically blurted out, not wanting to give Moko any additional reasons for her to show him what Mokomania was like up close and personal.
Takumi quickly turned to the biker in question, trying to explain himself the best he could as he began with, “So, uh… Nozomi gave me a really sweet gift yesterday for Valentine’s, and I really wanted to return the favor today…”
“Sounds pretty innocent so far…” Takemaru responded, scratching his head as he uneasily said, “So what went wrong? Didja forget to give her the gift, or…?”
“Well, no…” Takumi replied, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead as he realized what he would have to admit to. “I… did manage to give her my gift. It’s just that, well…” He trailed off, unable to admit to the most damning part.
“Say it!” Moko ordered, glaring at him.
Fearing what would happen if he disobeyed her, the words came tumbling out of his mouth before what remained of his dignity could stop him from blurting out his misdeed.
“Igaveheradildo.”
“You gave her WHAT!?” Takemaru yelled incredulously, his eyes so wide that they would’ve needed another pair of red-tinted glasses to cover them fully, his face taking on a reddish color that Takumi never thought that he would see on the gangster.
“I said I gave her a dildo!” Takumi shouted back, realizing just how much deeper of a grave he dug for himself with that statement, his face reddening as he hurriedly added on to salvage what little of his reputation that remained. “Unintentionally though, I swear!”
“How the FUCK do you unintentionally give someone a SEX TOY!?” Takemaru asked, emphasizing the appropriate words as he sounded utterly gobsmacked by what Takumi just admitted to.
“I didn’t plan on giving that to her!” Takumi cried out, trying (and failing) to defend himself in a dignified manner. “I don’t even know how that got in my gift box in the first place! I had planned on giving her something else entirely different!”
“I don’t believe you.” Moko responded, crossing her arms as she said, “You totally planned on giving her that at some point! Why else would you have something like that prepared and gift-wrapped ahead of time? You were even carrying it in the cafeteria!”
“I swear I didn’t know that was in it when I had the box on me!” Takumi replied, despite knowing how unbelievable that sounded to anyone that wasn’t him. “I seriously thought it contained something else; I had no idea… that would be in there! You’ve—”
“Wait, hold on.” Takemaru interrupted, raising a hand as though to stop Takumi from rambling any further. “You’re saying that you had a different gift prepared this whole time? Where the hell is that other gift, then?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out!” Takumi replied. “I have no idea what happened, but the contents of my gift must’ve been swapped out or something. That’s the only way something like this could’ve happened!”
…
Takemaru just… stared at him, as though he was unsure of what to make of what he just said. Ominously peering over the taller boy’s shoulder was the visage of one Moko Mojiro, who was still looking at him with a very, very displeased expression.
As the biker slowly opened his mouth to speak, Takumi waited with bated breath to hear what his response would be.
“...Yeah, dude… I’m really sorry about this, but I gotta agree with Moko on this one, man. Do you realize how unbelievable you sound right now?”
“What!?” Takumi replied, his heart sinking into the depths as he physically recoiled from the sting of Takemaru’s betrayal. “But, but… I–I swear it wasn’t me! Do I look like the type of person to do something like that?”
“Listen, dude… You gotta understand.” Takemaru replied, trying to calm the poor boy down despite what he just said. “I really don’t wanna think that you did something like this either, but how else could something like this have happened? You were the one holding the gift, right?”
“Yeah, but… but someone could’ve still swapped it out for something else before I picked it up this morning!” Takumi responded, trying to grasp on to any kind of viable defense at the moment.
“And who would do that?” Moko countered, staring the boy down as she continued. “Actually, how would they even do that without you noticing? Were you neglecting your gift like a pinned-down fighter in a 10-person free-for-all?”
“Well, uh… it was in my room, but…” Takumi trailed off, grasping at straws at this point as he tried to come up with anything that could evoke reasonable doubt. “...Someone could’ve still snuck into my room while I wasn’t in and swapped it out!”
“I mean… that’s possible and all…” Takemaru replied, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt as much as possible despite the incriminating circumstances. “But why would anyone pull off that kinda stunt?”
“I don’t know, okay!” He yelled back as he seemed to be at his wit’s end. “Listen, all I know is that I didn’t do it, so someone else must’ve—”
Blaming someone else for what happened when he didn’t even have any kind of proof to back it up was probably something that he shouldn’t have done, as all it did was reinforce Moko’s belief that he was unable to accept any kind of responsibility for what occurred.
…Which clearly didn’t sit right with the wrestler, as she took advantage of Takemaru’s distracted state to sidestep around the biker, placing herself right in front of Takumi as she glared at the boy in question, cracking her knuckles menacingly.
His eyes widened like that of a frightened little animal that was surprised by its own impending death, despite the fact that he was quite literally staring death in the face right now.
Realizing that nothing he could say would get him out of being flattened like a pancake by Moko, he simply closed his eyes, hanging his head low as he tried to make peace with the doom that was clearly approaching.
He waited for the end to come, with only one thought going through his mind at the moment.
Please make it quick and painless, Moko…
…
…
But the end never came.
Instead, the last voice that Takumi thought he would ever be hearing at this very moment graced his ears, the voice of his literal savior, who was kind enough to give him a newly renewed lease on life that he would cherish with a newfound appreciation in the days to come.
“Moko, wait! D-Don’t hurt him!”
Takumi opened his eyes, breathing out a huge sigh of relief as the executioner who had hung over him for the past few moments turned to look towards the doorway, greeting his guardian angel with a surprised, “Nozomi?”
Words could not describe how happy he was that Nozomi was saving him from his planned execution like this.
He wanted to run over to her and get down on his knees, bowing before her as many times as he could until his back gave out as he thanked her over and over again for saving his life, pledging to her that he would do whatever she wanted for the rest of his life in return.
The only reason he didn’t do that was because he still (miraculously) had some dignity left, and because there was a non-zero chance that Moko would knock him out into next week if he even so much as approached Nozomi right now.
So instead, he took advantage of the wrestler’s momentary distraction to put Takemaru between himself and her once more.
“I… I know how bad this looks for him, but I really don’t think that Takumi meant to do that!” Nozomi spoke up, glancing over uneasily at the redhead before her gaze quickly flickered over to Moko as she said, “And… I at least want to hear him out, first…”
There was a brief moment of silence as Moko heard what Nozomi had to say in the boy’s defense before she hesitantly asked, “You really don’t think that he purposely gave you that gift?”
Despite the slight pink that was on her face, she determinedly shook her head.
Upon seeing that, Moko was (unsurprisingly) quick to acquiesce with her as she replied, “Well alright then, Nozomi! If that’s what you want, then we’ll hear what Takumi has to say for himself first before we decide what to do with him…”
“Thank you, thank you!” Takumi blurted out in a relieved tone, finally feeling safe enough to step out from behind Takemaru as he bowed before Nozomi, remarking, “You have no idea how happy I am that you’re here, Nozomi. I owe you— Wait, you’re still holding onto that box!?”
His face reddened as he took note of the red, heart-shaped box that she still had in her hands that contained a forbidden artifact within, as her face took on a similar hue as she awkwardly replied, “W-Well, I-I couldn’t just leave it out in the cafeteria, could I? A-And besides, it’d be a whole other problem if someone else got ahold of it…”
Fair point…
“E-Either way!” Nozomi hastily continued, eager to move on from this delicate subject matter as quickly as possible. “M-Mind telling me everything, Takumi? So that we can try to figure out what’s going on here…”
He let out a sigh in response, realizing that he really had nothing to lose after everything that had transpired. And so, he opened his mouth to speak, only to see something rather unexpected as he instead asked, “Wait, Takemaru, where are you going?”
Takemaru turned to look at the trio as he paused at the exit to the VR room, a rare hue of pink still on the biker’s cheeks as he mumbled out, “Well, uh… It looks like you guys are going to settle this matter on your own, so I should probably get going since this seems like very private business and all…”
“Wait, Takemaru, did you…?” Nozomi began, her face reddening as a hint of embarrassment crept into her tone at the possibility that—
“Takumi told me everything so that Moko wouldn’t kill him on the spot.” Takemaru revealed, coughing awkwardly into his elbow. Seeing the absolutely mortified expression on the poor girl’s face, he hurriedly said, “But I swear I won’t tell a soul about this! It’s a man’s promise!”
“You better not!” Moko exclaimed, glancing sternly at him as she commented, “Otherwise, we might just have to have a showdown between the two of us one of these days…”
“Heh, perhaps I’ll take you up on that offer some time…” The gangster replied before hurriedly correcting himself as he saw Moko’s face harden. “N-Not that I’ll tell everyone what happened, mind you! That’s not what I meant at all!”
The wrestler shot him a look, as if to tell him that he was on thin ice for that careless comment, before she eventually turned her attention back to Takumi as Takemaru hurriedly made his way out of earshot of their upcoming conversation.
“R-Right, uh…” Takumi began, stumbling over his words for a bit before he eventually started his story.
“So, yesterday… After you gave me those chocolates of yours,” he began, glancing over at Nozomi as he said, “I-I really wanted to get you something back in return, so I started working on my own gift for you…”
“What was it?” Nozomi asked, curious as to what he had meant to give her.
“It was… a cake.” He admitted, realizing that there was no point in keeping it a surprise now if all it would do is incriminate him further. Seeing the surprised look on both of their faces, he said, “I-It was actually my first time trying to bake one, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out, and…”
He paused for a moment, a melancholic expression on his face as he realized that Nozomi never had the chance to even see his cake, and he had no idea what became of it. He could only hope that it was still miraculously intact somewhere…”
“A-Anyways…” He moved on, not wanting to linger on the unexpectedly depressing thought any further, as he said, “After I finished that cake, I stored it in that box you’re carrying right now and then left it in my room. I planned on giving it to you the next day, but, as you know…”
He trailed off, leaving the obvious unsaid, as his gift-giving didn’t exactly turn out to be what he had planned for in the slightest. Seriously, what had happened to his painstakingly crafted gift? And how had it been replaced with something so vulgar!?
“So are you saying that someone… went out of their way to take your gift and replace it with…” Nozomi paused for a moment, her face pinkening as she struggled to refer to the object by name, instead settling with, “t-that?”
“That’s the only thing I can think of!” Takumi replied, sounding somewhat frustrated as he once more said, “I swear I never intended to give you that! Someone must’ve snuck into my room while I was asleep… or maybe even when I went for breakfast this morning and took my gift while planting that there as some kind of… sick joke!”
“Did other people know that you were preparing a gift for me?” Nozomi asked curiously.
“I’m… not sure…” He admitted hesitantly before saying, “But I know that a lot of people saw me busy in the cafeteria yesterday making that cake. Maybe one of them realized what I was up to since it was Valentine’s Day and all and decided to prank me…”
…
“Well, what do you say, Nozomi? Do you believe what he said?” Moko inquired, as though she were a defense attorney’s assistant trying to aid her counsel in the cross-examination of a witness.
Nozomi studied Takumi’s face for only a moment before turning to her friend as she said, “I believe him, Moko. I just… refuse to believe that he would do something like this on purpose!”
Takumi wanted to cry tears of joy upon hearing that she believed him, despite how ridiculous his alternative theories sounded even to him. But as much as he wanted to embrace her at the moment and thank her for her trust in him…
“We still have to figure out what happened though!” Moko bellowed resolutely, putting a hand on Takumi’s shoulder as the boy nearly jumped out of his skin. “Takumi, if you really didn’t do this, then you have to find the scoundrel who did and bring them to justice! I can’t let anyone disrespect my girl like that, you hear me?”
Right, I still have to find out what’s going on here…
“O-Of course!” He hurriedly blurted out, relieved that Moko was no longer intent on making him her next impromptu wrestling opponent, as he said, “I was planning on figuring that out anyways… I still have no idea where my cake went!”
Much to his surprise, he felt a hand gently interlace itself with his own. His gaze flickered over to meet Nozomi’s slightly flushed expression as she gave him a determined nod, saying, “I’ll help too, Takumi. Whoever did this to you was wrong for doing that, and it wouldn’t be fair for me to leave all of this in your hands…”
He was at a momentary loss for words, not having expected her to involve herself in this after how embarrassed she had been earlier. But of course, he wasn’t going to complain as he gave her an appreciative smile in return, a slight blush taking over his face as he simply said, “Thank you…”
____________________
Nozomi stood at the doorway to the room of a certain twin-tailed detective-in-training, clutching the box containing the item that was the cause of all of her mortification in her hands as she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do.
After taking a few deep breaths to prepare herself, she knocked on the door to Kako’s room, waiting for an answer.
The door flung open much more quickly than she had expected as she was greeted by an enthusiastic voice that was simultaneously surprising yet not so surprising in hindsight once she realized who the owner of that voice was.
“Greetings and welcome to Tsukumos’ Detective Inc.! You are speaking to Ima Tsukumo, the assistant to the great detective Kako Tsukumo, who is famed and renowned for solving all sorts of formerly impossible cases! How may I help you today, Miss—”
Ima finally looked up from the notepad he was so intensely analyzing just moments earlier, meeting Nozomi’s gaze as he finally took note of the heart-shaped box in her hands and the way it was decorated, completely changing what he had been about to say.
“Ah, Miss Kirifuji. Is this a gift for my dear Kako? If I may be so blunt, I didn’t realize that you swung that way! Anyways, gifts and other forms of donations go right over—”
“W-Wait, Ima, I think you’ve got the wrong idea!” Nozomi hurriedly interjected, her face flushing at the implications of what Ima had suggested, as she said, “I… I am actually here because I need Kako’s help as a detective…”
“O-Oh, well, in that case…” Ima began, unable to hide the slight hint of disappointment in his tone as he said, “Come right on in!”
Nozomi entered Kako’s room, glancing at the various books and corkboards with scattered notes in her room as the room’s occupant was currently seated at her desk, glancing up from a book as she cheerfully greeted Nozomi.
“Oh, hey Nozomi! What’s up?”
“Um… Kako…” Nozomi began uneasily, trying to act as normal as possible despite what she was holding in her hands as she asked, “You’re able to dust for fingerprints, r-right?”
“Of course I can!” Kako replied eagerly, her gaze shifting over to the box that Nozomi was holding as she asked, “Do you need me to test whose fingerprints are on that box you’re holding?”
“Y-Yeah!” Nozomi replied, before she quickly added on, “If you could tell me whose fingerprints are on this box, that would be great! W-Whatever you do though, please don’t open it! It contains something very… um… private!”
Ima raised an eyebrow at that, asking, “You’re not hiding anything illegal in here, are you? Because I’m afraid that you’ve come to the wrong place if you want our help on smuggling an item or some other kind of illegal activity…”
“N-No! There’s nothing criminal about what’s in here, I swear! But I would really, really appreciate it if you kept the lid closed on the box while you dust it. You don’t need to know what’s in it, a-and it’s actually better that way, believe me!” Nozomi replied, realizing too late that she was only making herself sound more suspicious that way.
Kako looked at her inquisitively for a moment as Nozomi suddenly felt as though she was being interrogated just based on that look alone, despite the fact that Kako had not even said a word about the contents of the box in question.
Unfortunately for her, the mind of the Great Detective was a curious one, and the moment Nozomi placed her to-be-dusted box on the desk that Kako was seated at…
“W-Wait, Kako, no!”
But her pleas fell on deaf ears.
Nozomi watched in horror as Kako took off the lid of the box in one fell swoop, the girl immediately freezing in place as she saw the item that lay within, her eyes widening almost comically in surprise.
Kako got to look at it for perhaps all of two seconds before Ima snatched the box away from her, hastily putting the box lid back on before glaring at Nozomi as he said, “Miss Kirifuji! I thought that you were one of the more decent upperclassmen, but to have the nerve to—!”
“I TOLD YOU NOT TO OPEN IT!” Nozomi yelled out, cutting Ima off as she buried her rapidly reddening face in her hands while she said, “I-It’s not what it looks like though, I swear! There’s a perfectly good reason why I’m asking you two to do this!”
“This ought to be good…” Ima muttered quietly under his breath before he said to her, “Alright then! We’re all ears. Tell us why exactly you need us to dust the outside of a box containing a… suspiciously red adult toy…”
“Uh… Well… you see…” Nozomi began, fumbling over her words like a fish out of water as her gaze flickered between Ima’s accusatory look and the flustered expression on Kako’s face, trying in vain to come up with the right words to say.
“Go on.” Ima prodded her as he was trying to extract a confession out of her. “Tell us, Miss Kirifuji. Why do you have an object like that on you? And the fact that it matches the color of Mr. Sumino’s hair to boot… Just what kind of degeneracy are the two of you getting up to, and why did you feel the need to involve my dear sister and me?”
“Well—”
“Oh, and a friendly word of advice! If I were you, I’d choose my next words… very… carefully .” The older twin warned menacingly, the smile on his face looking far too gleeful despite his thinly veiled threat.
“I promise that it’s nothing perverted or anything like that!” She blurted out desperately, now knowing how Takumi must’ve felt when he had tried to defend himself so valiantly earlier. “That… thing isn’t even mine to begin with!”
“Then why do you have it on you?” Kako asked, her cheeks as pink as her hair, as she still refused to look Nozomi in the eye despite her pointed question, the detective now realizing that perhaps there were times when she should let mysteries remain mysteries.
“I-It’s a long story…” She began trying to keep her voice from stuttering as she explained, “B-But basically… T-Takumi gave me this earlier this morning, a-and…”
“Ah, so Mr. Sumino was the one who gave you such a deviant gift?” Ima interjected, immediately coming up with his own theories as he commented, “Well, it looks like he and I have some very pressing matters that we must discuss later…” He mused ominously, glancing down not so subtly at the suspiciously knife-shaped lump in his pocket.
Why does he always have that on him!?
Before Nozomi could speak up to correct Ima’s misunderstanding, Kako immediately jumped into the fray, her eyes widening even more in embarrassment as she asked, “W-Wait, Takumi was the one who gave that to you? J-Just what did he want you to d-do with that!?”
“Stop jumping to conclusions!” Nozomi exclaimed, the blush on her face refusing to subside now that her mind was trying its best to not give any thought to the… implications of Kako’s suggestive question as she tried to defuse these allegations before they got any worse.
Letting out a deep sigh to try and compose herself, she admitted, “Okay, so you’re both right that Takumi was technically the one who gave this to me, but he swears that he didn’t mean to do that! A-And I believe him, so we think that someone must’ve pulled some kind of prank on him by swapping out the contents of his gift, which is why I’m asking you two to dust for fingerprints…”
“And you actually believe him?” Ima said almost incredulously, trying to hold back his laughter as Nozomi shot him an indignant glare in response, a glare that lacked any sort of bite behind it due to the inferno that was still overtaking her face.
“Hey! I don’t know what you think of him, Ima, but I know that Takumi would never do something like that!” She replied, sticking up for Takumi despite how much his dignity had already been dragged through the mud thanks to the events of today.
“I-I honestly don’t think that he would do something like this either…” Kako concurred timidly, glancing downwards before her gaze shifted to Ima as she said, “And besides, you know it’s not our place to judge their relationship like this, Ima…”
“Fair point, Kako…” Ima replied, deciding to reserve his own judgement for now as he glanced down at the box in his hands, saying, “So… you want us to just dust the box then?”
“Y-Yeah, that would be great! Just see if anyone else’s fingerprints are on it. A-And it would help if you could dust w-what’s inside it as well, but I’d totally be fine with you two just checking the box and nothing else!” Nozomi said, trying to be as polite as possible given the nature of her request.
“Well, at least you’re aware of how ridiculous what you’re asking us to do is…” Ima mused, glancing over at Kako as he asked, “Well, Kako? What do you say? Should we accept Miss Kirifuji’s… unorthodox case?”
Despite how utterly bizarre this request was, Kako wasted no time nodding her head, trying to regain her calm and collected demeanor despite the slight flush still on her cheeks as she replied, “We’ll see what we can do. Right, Ima?”
She turned to glance at her brother expectantly as he nodded in turn, trying to hide his slight displeasure at having to deal with something like this as he replied, “Of course!”
Ima then seemed to realize something important as his gaze shifted to his hands, before his demeanor fell slightly as he remarked, “Crap… I can’t believe that I forgot to wear gloves while handling the client’s item…”
Kako seemed to not understand what her brother was so concerned about for a moment, before a look of realization crossed her face as she simply said, “Oh, that’s fine! We’ll just have to account for that when we do our fingerprint dusting later.”
Turning to Nozomi, she said, “We’ll try to get the results back to you as quickly as possible. We’re running a little low on the powder though, so it might take us a little longer than usual…”
She nodded in understanding, responding with, “That’s fine! Thank you both for doing this, by the way… I really don’t know how I can pay you back for doing this for me…”
Kako emphatically shook her head, replying enthusiastically with, “You don’t have to worry about that, Nozomi. Just getting a chance to find out the truth and deliver justice is more than enough for me!”
“Heh, well, I’m glad, then…” Nozomi replied, finding Kako’s optimism to be infectious as she prepared to leave the two of them alone to do their work, when she suddenly had a curious thought that she couldn’t help but desire an answer to as she glanced at Ima.
“Wait… How do you two have records of our fingerprints anyways?”
“That’s actually rather simple!” Ima replied, raising an index finger as though signaling that he had the answer. “You see, whenever we’re in the cafeteria, we actually pay very close attention to what everybody’s eating and drinking for their meals.”
Nozomi simply stared at the purple-haired twin blankly, having no idea how that correlated with fingerprinting until she realized that Ima was simply pausing for dramatic effect as he continued.
“...And when everybody’s done and out of the room, I do a bit of dumpster-diving while keeping track of which piece of garbage belonged to whom. Then, it’s just a matter of keeping that in mind while Kako and I lift the prints off in this room!” He finished grandiosely.
…
Nozomi was stunned into silence for a brief moment before she eventually managed to say, “That’s… not what I was expecting at all… But that’s actually really clever, now that I think about it!”
“Isn’t it?” Ima replied, gesturing over to Kako, who was busy putting on gloves for her dusting session, as he said, “Of course, that was Kako’s idea, so it was practically guaranteed to be brilliant coming from a mind as sharp as her own!”
“...It’s also kind of creepy, knowing that you have that kind of private information about us…” Nozomi finished, her expression turning somewhat uneasy as she glanced at Ima with a slightly perturbed face.
“You do realize how ironic it is for you to have a privacy issue with my methods when you were the one who came in here presenting a box containing your boyfriend’s toy for naughty fun times?” Ima replied sarcastically.
“It’s NOT his!” Nozomi cried out, the blush on her face returning full-force now that she was forced to address this mortifying matter once more despite her wishing that she could move on from it indefinitely.
“You don’t know that for certain!” Ima countered, mentioning, “What happens if we find out in the end that no one else laid their hands on this box? What then?” Ima asked rhetorically, watching as Nozomi’s eyes widened as she considered that possibility.
But just as quickly, she shook her head, vehemently saying, “I don’t think that’s going to happen. And even if it did…” She trailed off for a moment before eventually saying, “...I’ll just have to have a talk with Takumi about it…”
She hoped that it wouldn’t have to come to that. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure how she would progress from there… and she then might have to seriously consider the far-fetched possibility that Takumi had been behind this all along.
“If I may suggest a means of getting back at him, you could always turn that gift around on him instead and use that toy to—”
“IMA!”
____________________
Thankfully, it didn’t have to come to that.
The dusting did reveal results. Results that were… rather shocking.
Well, to be fair, any kind of result at all would’ve been shocking. Nozomi couldn’t believe that Takumi was capable of doing something like this, but that didn’t mean that she also wanted to believe that one of their friends would pull off a prank as embarrassing as this.
She’d met up with Takumi to inform him of the results. He had been trying to discreetly interview some of the SDU members to see whether any of them had any helpful information about this incident, which mostly involved asking whether they had known that he had been preparing a gift for Nozomi the other day.
Most of them had known, which didn’t exactly help narrow down the suspect list by all that much. And because he still wanted to keep the details of this incident as private as possible for the sake of both his and Nozomi’s collective dignity, he couldn’t really press any of them for further details afterwards.
Gaku had actually been the one to help Takumi bake his cake, which wasn’t all that surprising considering his party planning background.
…And he had also been rather upset when Takumi informed him that the cake that he had helped make had gone MIA. When the redhead further inquired whether Gaku had anything to do with the disappearance…
“Dude! Are you seriously accusing me of stealing your cake when I was the one who helped you make it!? I thought we were pals, Takumi! You know that I’d never sabotage your chances with your girl like that!”
…Needless to say, he had been rightfully upset by the accusations, and Takumi decided to apologize profusely for suspecting the poor boy despite there being no basis to do so.
After reaffirming to Gaku that they were indeed bros and that he was very sorry for ever doubting him like that in the first place, Takumi hastily moved on before his paranoia could cause any more damage.
None of his other conversations yielded much insightful information. Thankfully, most of them went much smoother after he decided that he was no longer going to go around baselessly accusing people of stealing his present.
Except for the one with Darumi, which Takumi swore had nearly caused him to die of a heart condition right then and there.
He had approached her like usual, inquiring as to whether she knew anything about his planned present and the fact that it was missing, only to get MUCH more than he bargained for.
Apparently, she had been hiding behind one of the machines in the VR training room, trying to see if she could somehow port one of her usual games into one of the arcade machines to prank the next unfortunate soul that would happen to use it for training.
…Unfortunately, that also meant that she had overheard every private little detail of his sordid gift-giving incident (while somehow miraculously not laughing her ass off and giving her presence away) with Nozomi, which Darumi herself had summarized with an unfittingly cheerful comment that only someone such as herself could come up with.
“Talk about being forward, Takkers! I’m so proud of you, you know? I never thought that one of these days, you’d have the balls to tell Nozomi to go fuck herself with that gift of yours!”
…
He had practically fled from the scene after that, his face matching the color of his hair in record time as he was too mortified to even bother trying to correct Darumi’s (no doubt purposeful) misinterpretation of how everything went down.
Trying to banish the memories of that interaction into the deepest recesses of his mind that he could, he and Nozomi were now on their way to locate the owner of the box’s newly discovered prints with one goal in mind.
“I… still can’t believe that she’s the one who did this…” Takumi mumbled out, letting out a tired sigh as he walked alongside Nozomi, eyes downcast as he tried to process what the fingerprinting results really meant in the grand scheme of things.
“Maybe… it’s all a misunderstanding!” Nozomi offered hopefully, still having a hard time believing the results as she continued to clutch the box containing the offending item in her hands, her eyes still flickering down to it every so often out of paranoia that it was somehow open and revealing the contents within.
“There’s only one way to find out…”
With that, the two of them made their way over to the Metal Shop, which was the last known location of their potential culprit. Upon entering the room, they spotted their person of interest having a conversation with a certain heiress.
Upon noticing the two of them, Kyoshika seemed to be pleasantly surprised by their arrival as she turned to greet them both, while Kurara turned her attention back to tinkering with the metallic contraption she was working on, no doubt a work-in-progress trap of some kind.
“Lady Nozomi and Sir Takumi! It’s good to see the both of you! What brings you both to the Metal Shop at this time?” She asked curiously, noting that the both of them rarely visited this room even when they had free time.
The two of them looked at each other, neither of them knowing how to broach the findings to her, as the swordswoman seemed… oddly unperturbed by their appearance and the box that was currently being held in Nozomi’s hand.
And Nozomi knew that Kyoshika, bless her heart, could not put on a convincing act to save her own life if it depended on it. So it was hard to believe that she could be feigning ignorance so effectively right now…
Nonetheless, she eventually broke the silence, deciding to just ask outright, “Kyoshika… Do you know what this is?”
She gestured to the box in her hands, and Kyoshika’s eyes flickered to it for a brief moment before meeting Nozomi’s gaze once more as she confidently responded, “Why, of course! That’s the gift that you received from Sir Takumi, isn’t it?”
“So you do know about that…” Takumi replied, before his gaze hardened as he suddenly realized something. “Wait, I don’t remember ever telling you about my gift! How’d you even know what the box looked like?”
Kyoshika’s eyes widened momentarily at that piercing question before she hastily tried to put on an expression of normalcy as she replied, “W-Why, Lady Nozomi informed me earlier this morning, of course! That’s how I knew!”
Wait a minute…
“Wait… Kyoshika… that’s not true at all!” Nozomi replied, a surprised look on her face as she realized something that she had completely missed earlier due to the fact that she had still been dealing with the lingering embarrassment of Takumi’s sabotaged gift-giving.
“I can’t believe I didn’t realize this earlier, but you knew about Takumi’s gift before I even said anything about it! Even though I was just holding a box at the time, you somehow knew that what I was holding had been his gift!” Nozomi exclaimed.
“U-Um… well…” Kyoshika responded, realizing too late that she had said more than she should’ve earlier that morning before she eventually said, “S-So what if I had advanced knowledge of Sir Takumi’s gift to you? That shouldn't be an issue, should it?”
“Normally it wouldn’t…” Nozomi began, glancing off to the side worriedly before she met Kyoshika’s face once more. “But in this case, we also found your fingerprints on the box…”
Kyoshika seemed stunned by that revelation for a moment, unable to hide the shocked expression on her face as she stared at the box in question, almost seeming confused about Nozomi’s revelation.
And then, she turned her gaze to both of her hands, saying in utter bewilderment, “B-But… but how can that be? How can my fingerprints be on that box if I was wearing gloves while I was handling it?”
…
…
A tense silence followed the samurai’s confused question, as both Takumi and Nozomi were slowly processing the fact that she had practically just confessed to doing the deed without any need for additional interrogation.
Kyoshika seemed to realize her mistake as well, as she, too, fell silent, a slight flush overtaking her face as she tried to come up with a way to salvage this clearly unsalvageable situation.
But before she could say anything…
“YOUR GLOVES ARE FINGERLESS, YOU MORON! OF COURSE YOUR PRINTS WOULD STILL SHOW UP ALL OVER THAT BOX!”
Yeah, that too…
Kurara’s voice rang out as the heiress turned to face Kyoshika, the expression on her mask as indignant as it was exasperated by the swordswoman’s apparent ignorance of how fingerprints worked. Seemingly baffled by her stupidity, Kurara continued speaking, oblivious to the shocked expression on Nozomi and Takumi’s faces as she ranted.
“You bungling buffoon! Why did you think that I was so insistent about you wearing gloves!? Did you think that I was making some kind of bizarre fashion statement or something!?”
“Forgive me, Lady Kurara!” Kyoshika pleaded, sounding rather disappointed with herself as she said, “I thought that you were only reminding me to keep my gloves on so that I didn’t accidentally contaminate Sir Takumi’s gift with my bodily fluids!”
“I…What!?” Kurara replied, surprisingly at a loss for words for a brief moment before she managed to say, “I can see that you are wearing gloves, you know! I didn’t think that I’d have to spell out that you SHOULD’VE BEEN WEARING GLOVES WITH FINGERS when handling that box! Did you ignore my instructions and open it too!?”
“No, of course not!” Kyoshika replied hastily, adding on, “You made it abundantly clear that what was within was intended for their eyes only. And seeing as how this was Sir Takumi’s secret gift to Lady Nozomi, I knew that I was never to know what was inside that box!”
“Wait, wait, wait…!” Nozomi called out, the sudden influx of new information causing her head to spin as she asked, “Kurara, you were involved in this too? Did you put Kyoshika up to this!?”
…
Kurara’s masked expression turned chillingly still as the heiress simply stared at them both, her gaze slowly moving between Takumi, Nozomi, the box that she was carrying, , then back to Nozomi, then Takumi again.
And then…
Her tomato mask ripened so quickly that Nozomi feared that the heiress might’ve actually been boiled alive under there, before Kurara whipped around to face Kyoshika so quickly that she could’ve sworn that she heard her neck crack in the process.
“DAMN IT! YOUR IDIOCY GAVE ME AWAY, KYOSHIKA!” The heiress roared out, staring daggers at the swordswoman as Kyoshika shrunk back in fear. “I’LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR STAINING MY HONOR LIKE THIS! GET OVER HERE!”
“Oh my god, how the hell did things get to this point…” Takumi muttered under his breath as his disbelieving eyes watched the scene that was unfolding before him.
Kurara attempted to lunge at Kyoshika, but Nozomi thankfully managed to hold the heiress back before she could lay her hands on the swordswoman.
Seeing the difficulty that she was having restraining the furious Kurara, Takumi quickly stepped in to take Pandora’s Box off of her hands before the redhead decided to put himself between Kurara and Kyoshika so that the poor swordswoman would have some additional measure of security in place between her and Kurara’s fists of fury.
“Let go of me, Nozomi! I need to teach this manga-loving pervert of a swordswoman a lesson for disobeying my orders like this!” Kurara yelled out, struggling to twist out of Nozomi’s grip on her arms.
“I mean, she did technically follow your orders by wearing gloves—”
Takumi’s attempted display of witticism to defend the swordswoman was immediately interrupted by Kurara directing her anger onto him instead as she said, “You stay out of this, you… you dildo-gifting pervert!”
“Hey!” Takumi retorted, unable to keep the blush off of his face as he countered with, “That wasn’t even my fault! By the sounds of it, it seems like you were the one who set me up in the first place!”
“Kurara, please, calm down!” Nozomi pleaded, attempting to get this situation under control before things escalated any further. “We need to have a talk about all of this!”
“I AM CALM!” The heiress shouted in a decidedly not calm manner while continuing to try and break out of Nozomi’s grip. “We can talk about this after I’ve—!”
*POP*
“Eep!”
And just like that, the ferocity of the one and only Kurara Oosuzuki was extinguished like a flame upon her face being unceremoniously revealed to the world, courtesy of Kyoshika knowingly capitalizing on the heiress’ singular weakness to save her own skin.
“Ah-ha! I knew that would work!” Kyoshika declared triumphantly, holding Kurara’s tomato mask away from her almost as though it was a hostage.
The anger on Kurara's face quickly gave way to panic as her blue eyes widened at being suddenly exposed like this, before she immediately said, “M-My mask! Give me back my mask!”
…
…
After Kyoshika practically held her mask as ransom in exchange for the heiress promising that she wouldn’t immediately flip out and attack the swordswoman once she got it back, Kurara eventually got her tomato back and donned it as the four of them finally settled down to have a proper conversation after everything that had happened.
Both the swordswoman and the heiress began admitting to their parts in this whole mess, though even Kyoshika seemed to be surprised by some of the things that Kurara had to say.
“Pardon me if I misheard you earlier, Lady Kurara, but did you just say that the so-called “gift” that you had me deliver to Takumi’s room was… was a dildo!?” Kyoshika remarked incredulously, her face flushing as she asked that question.
The heiress said nothing, refusing to look at any of them as she simply nodded her head, a hint of red on her usually unripe tomato mask as she glanced off to the side.
“Wait, so let me get this straight…” Takumi began, trying to remain as non-flustered as possible despite this subject matter as he asked for clarification, “So, you were the one who took my gift earlier this morning?”
Another nod from Kurara, but still no verbal response.
“And then you had Kyoshika sneak into my room to replace it with this identical box, which contained…” He trailed off, gesturing to the box that he was holding in his hands before he hastily moved on. “A-Anyways, you convinced her to do that by making up a whole story about how I ‘commissioned’ you to make a gift for Nozomi so that Kyoshika would deliver the ‘finished product’ on your behalf without her knowing what it was?”
Another terse nod, but Kurara still said nothing, almost as though she was now also dealing with the secondhand embarrassment of how this entire situation had blown way out of proportion.
Despite the bewildered expression on everyone’s faces, Kurara had still yet to explain her motive behind such a dramatic prank involving such a controversial item.
“W-Why would you do something like this?” Nozomi asked, the pinkness in her cheeks refusing to subside as she sounded more confused than hurt about her friend pulling off this kind of stunt at both her and Takumi’s expense.
…
“I didn’t know…” She started quietly.
“What was that?” Takumi asked, not having heard her in the slightest.
“I didn’t know, okay!” Kurara said much more clearly this time, turning to face the redhead with raised arms, her sleeves drooping by her sides as she admitted, “I didn’t know that your perverted self was actually making a gift for Nozomi!”
“W-What!?” Takumi replied incredulously, his eyes widening and expression turning rather confused as he said, “But you literally just said earlier that you told Kyoshika—”
“I made all of that up, remember?” Kurara cut him off, having anticipated that very relevant point. “How was I supposed to know that what I told her was actually halfway true? When I saw you heading back to your room yesterday with that box, I thought that Nozomi had been the one to give it to you.”
“Wait, so…” Nozomi began, her lilac eyes widening in realization of what Kurara had originally been trying to accomplish with this little prank of hers.
“Exactly.” Kurara replied, as though she was reading Nozomi’s mind. “That little gift of mine was supposed to be for Takumi’s eyes only. I thought that it would be rather funny, seeing him freak out about his gift suddenly turning into something so obscene.
Takumi simply stared at the heiress indignantly, failing to will the blush on his cheeks away as he was appalled that even within her original plan, he had still been the primary target of her humiliating scheme.
He could’ve sworn he heard Kurara snicker to herself quietly before she eventually let out a sigh as she remarked, “But of course, you just had to go and be a more considerate person than I took you for and turn out to be the gifter all along rather than the giftee…”
“So then… me actually receiving the gift… and all of the… stuff… that happened afterwards as a result…” Nozomi said, struggling to keep her voice steady as it became quieter and quieter before she eventually trailed off.
“None of that was part of your original plan?” Takumi finished for her almost disbelievingly, his voice sounding like it was about to give out at any moment as his mouth continued to remain open dumbly.
“Absolutely not!” Kurara replied curtly, sounding surprisingly frustrated as she remarked, “It could’ve still worked as planned had you just opened your gift in your own time to make sure that whatever gift you were planning to give Nozomi was still nice and prepped for her, but you didn’t even have the decency to do that!”
“Hey, don’t go blaming this on me!” Takumi retorted, sounding rightfully insulted as he mentioned, “You were the one who planned this whole thing anyways! Where did you even get something like this!?” He asked exasperatedly, vaguely gesturing to the hidden toy within his box.
“Why, if you must know, I had a hand in helping with that…”
“GAH! What the—!?”
For the third time that day, Takumi nearly had a heart attack as he whirled around at the sudden voice behind him, coming face to face with the SDU’s resident Yugamu Omokage as he simply smirked at Takumi’s surprised reaction in amusement.
“Sir Yugamu was the one who made such a devious little toy?” Kyoshika exclaimed in surprise before her expression abruptly relaxed as she said, “Why does that reveal not actually surprise me in the slightest…?”
“Yugamu, when did you get here?” Nozomi noted in surprise, asking the relevant questions as she tried to maintain a relaxed composure despite the current topic of discussion.
“Well, I was out in the hallway when I heard quite a lot of bickering from my favorite girls and boy originating from this room in particular, so I couldn’t help but pop in to see what the fuss was all about…” Yugamu answered matter-of-factly before he chuckled to himself as he commented, “Though, I think I have a pretty good idea of what’s being discussed here…”
“YOU WERE THE ONE WHO MADE THAT DAMN TOY!?” Takumi shouted accusatorily at the assassin after recovering from his surprise, the indignant flush on his cheeks flaring up once more.
“As much as I would like to take credit for that to hear you yell at me some more, Takumi…” Yugmau replied breathlessly, gripping his shoulders and shuddering before he eventually composed himself once more and said, “Unfortunately, Kurara was the craftsperson behind it all. I just merely provided some diagrams and models to point her in the right direction…”
The more that the two of them learned about this whole situation, the less this seemed to be a simple prank and the more it seemed to be a shoddily put-together conspiracy targeting Takumi that just happened to have the added side effect of including Nozomi as collateral.
“Why would you even help her MAKE such a thing—” Takumi began to ask, only to cut himself off as he realized the answer. “Actually, never mind. I don’t even know why I bothered asking such an obvious question,” he muttered out, placing a palm to his forehead in exasperation.
Nozomi could not help but glance over sympathetically at the redhead despite her own mortification, seeing now that her being caught up in this mess was the result of an unfortunate series of misunderstandings.
…
“I apologize from the bottom of my heart for my involvement in this mess!” Kyoshika proclaimed, bowing her head in apology as she turned towards the disgraced couple.
Well, I guess one apology is better than no apology at all… Takumi thought to himself.
“It’s okay, Kyoshika!” Nozomi replied, attempting to keep a chipper tone despite it all as she said, “This whole thing wasn’t really your fault, anyways… You were tricked into carrying this out without really knowing what was going on…”
“And that’s a mistake I don’t intend to repeat in the future!” Kyoshika responded determinedly before she turned to Takumi, saying, “If it makes you feel any better, Sir Takumi, I can take that box off of your hands and dispose of the accursed object within so that you may rest easy—”
“NO!”
“W-What, why not?” Kyoshika responded in a bewildered tone, not having expected Takumi, Nozomi, AND Kurara to all deny her that opportunity so quickly and simultaneously to boot.
“I think it’s fairly obvious that you’re the last person that all of them would trust with a dildo.” Yugamu surmised, quietly laughing to himself mirthfully before he said, “Well, perhaps second-to-last if I’m also included in the equation…”
“YOU’RE NOT HELPING, YUGAMU!”
____________________
Takumi eventually decided to just hand the box over to Nozomi so that she could properly dispose of the prank gift on her own terms, hoping that he would never have to deal with the absolute mortification of even having to gaze upon such an object again.
Kyoshika had apologized profusely for her actions, and after a bit of prodding, the pair managed to get Kurara to apologize too while getting Kyoshika to hold her mask at swordpoint so that the heiress would promise that she would never pull off a stunt like this ever again.
They had also tried to get Yugamu to apologize for his role in this too, but of course, the assassin managed to make everything weird to the point where they both eventually gave up on trying to extract an apology from him (much to his disappointment).
Thankfully, Kurara had at least been considerate enough to keep Takumi’s original gift unharmed in her room, so after he got her to give back his present, he was finally able to give Nozomi his actual gift in the cafeteria after everything had settled down.
The cake itself was a bit messily decorated, with some of the sides being somewhat uneven.
Nonetheless, Nozomi had been quite delighted to receive such a gift anyways, especially given the absolutely heartwarming design that Takumi had chosen to go with, it being a heart that was half red and half purple in color, split right down the middle.
She had requested that he enjoy the cake with her, despite his objections that it would not be right for him to eat his own gift that had been specially prepared for her. Nonetheless, she insisted upon it due to how hectic the day had been for the both of them, and he eventually relented after seeing how persistent she was being about it.
It was a pleasant reprieve from the events of the day as they chatted with each other while enjoying the cake, playfully bantering about its taste, Takumi’s own baking skills, and how perhaps the both of them could work together sometime to make a dessert of their own.
They were finishing up with their respective portions when Takumi eventually brought up the prior events of this day again, saying, “By the way, I’m… really sorry about how things turned out earlier this morning…”
“It’s fine, Takumi!” Nozomi replied, saying, “I know that you never meant to give me that anyways…” A slight flush settled on her cheeks once more as she recalled her reaction upon receiving his “gift” for the first time.
“Still… things would’ve gone so much smoother today if Kurara hadn’t decided to pull that little prank of hers…” Takumi noted, letting out a tired sigh as he tried not to reminisce over his past embarrassment.
“That is true…” Nozomi remarked, chuckling to herself as though to look at the past through a more humorous lens, as she said, “Still, it wasn’t all bad…”
“Really?” Takumi asked curiously, saying, “I really don’t see any benefits from all of the shenanigans that we got caught up in today. What was good about any of it?”
“Well, you know how I said that I got rid of that prank gift that you got me earlier?” She said, the color in her cheeks darkening as she asked that rhetorical question.
“Yeah…” Takumi replied confusedly, expectantly waiting for her to continue.
He did not expect her to suddenly lean in so close to him, causing a blush to suddenly scorch his cheeks as her breath ghosted his ear, the next words being whispered to him causing his eyes to widen in surprise as a result.
“I actually decided to keep it…”
…
Either he was hallucinating right now, or Kurara had also decided to get Yugamu to spike his cake with psychedelics, since there was NO way that he just heard Nozomi say what she did, because if he did, then…
But if the way she was looking at him right now was any indication, what she just admitted was no trick of the mind, as the blush on her face was so intense that he could practically feel the heat radiating off of it even as she pulled away to look at him. Or maybe that was his own flush that he was feeling the warmth of right now.
Either way, he was nearly at a loss for words, only managing to stutter a whole bunch before he managed to say an incredulous, scandalized, “W-WHAT!?” in reply.
“A-Anyways, I have to get going now!” Nozomi moved on, attempting to feign nonchalance like she was trying to pretend that she hadn’t just said what she did as she got up, saying, “I need to get back to my room; see you later, Takumi!”
Unable to do anything but stare at her dumbly as she walked off, he was trying in vain to process what he had just heard as the gears in his brain had stopped working and were instead just steaming from both overuse and the implications of what she had just admitted to.
She suddenly paused in front of the cafeteria doorway, standing in front of it as she felt Takumi’s eyes still on her, no doubt still reeling from the shock of what she just did.
He could only watch as she turned around once more…
And winked at him teasingly, despite the flush on her face and the shy expression that he only got to see for perhaps a few milliseconds before she sauntered off, closing the door to the cafeteria behind her.
…
Wha— Nozomi, you can’t just—! You can’t just do all of that and then leave me hanging here! What do you expect me to do with that kind of information!?
…
I… I need to take a cold shower…