Chapter Text
One thing NRC didn’t expect to come out of that bird’s mouth is another school event.
Crowley has been covering up the past overblots by sneaking in campus events. Some were seemingly successful, as the rest moved one easily.
But why do they have to perform again?
Was Blazing Jewels not enough for that man? Seriously, he keeps pulling these event ideas out of nowhere!
It's a good thing that there will be other performances as well. Other than performing their Blazing Jewel performances, some students from other neighboring schools will have their own unique performances.
It was an idea brought up by the Headmage of Royal Sword Academy. He said, “It will be a great opportunity to share our students' talents with one another.”
Crowley just nodded after dealing with the overblot of Idia Shroud—he needed a new distraction.
The destruction that whole event caused… oh his precious funds!!
Luckily, the Shroud family decided to deal with the damages caused by the incident.
Speaking about the event once more, it was planned to be taking up the whole school day. The first half will be the students making booths for their clubs, stores, details.. details... all of that stuff.
And by afternoon, RSA and NRC will have their performances.
Wait... Was Crowley forgetting something...?
WAIT!
The prefects, the ones he had a special request needed to be delivered, doesn't know about the request!
This is bad, right? The group whom he needs to be informed about is clueless about the whole thing!
Crowley needs to tell them immediately. He had told Ambrose that there would be a special performance at the end of the event.
Surely the Prefects will comply…
I guess it is time to call an emergency housewarden meeting.
“Are we all present? ” Riddle inspected the room. As the main manager of this event, the housewarden made sure everything is going smoothly.
Everyone else looked around. Malleus… Leona… the ones who are occasionally absent are present for this Housewarden meeting. It was abruptly called in the middle of practice but everyone seems to make it on time.
Azul and Vil arrived minutes before the meeting started due to them also being organizers in different areas of the event.
Kalim arrived just in time while Idia had to drag himself out of his room to attend.
Riddle opened his mouth, ready to ask why the meeting was called. All of them were busy practicing their assigned dance performances and organizing the booths.
In about two and a half weeks, the event will start. Everyone has been preparing the booths, polishing up their reused performance, and making sure everything is going smoothly.
“How about the Housewarden for Ramshackle, Zycius?” Crowley cut the red haired off.
Riddle stared at the headmage. It was rather rude for the headmage to cut him off before he could even speak. Not even an apology nonetheless!
And yet, his question does leave him curious. The Prefects? What is their use for attending this meeting? It was at the last minute that Zycius was assigned as Housewarden of Ramshackle, mainly because Crowley forced him onto the role.
Confused murmurs echoed in the room; no one spoke up, only for Vil to clear his throat and speak.
“Why do we need his presence? All the prefects have to do is perform their dance they have made for the Blazing Jewels event.” Vil spoke up.
The others nodded along; Vil has a strong point. It was useless to invite someone to this meeting who isn't that much help.
The Housewardens turned to the headmage; he looked terrified from all of their stares.
Trying to keep his cool, Crowley opened his mouth. He fully expected a well-thought-out excuse to form, yet he had nothing.
With no words coming out as an excuse, the crow quickly shook his head. "Ah, never mind that. Please continue.”
The room grew silent.
…
The meeting concluded. The ones mostly speaking thhrough the whole meeting were the event managers—Riddle, Azul, and Vil.
Overall the event was going smoothly as it should be. Due to reusing their old dance performance, they have no use for choreographing and writing up a new song for the performance.
Yet, throughout the meeting, Crowley was oddly silent. Being the one who called up this meeting, he hasn’t spoken a word about the event.
Of course, how Crowley is. He gives all the work to his students.
Everybody got up to return to their dorms. Azul and Vil were chatting up about their assigned roles. Azul registered and organized the booths while Vil was for the performances themselves.
Kalim joined in on the conversation. The housewarden asked the others what the booths and performances they will have on that day.
Leona left the moment they were all dismissed. He felt that it was absolutely useless for him to attend this meeting.
Idia also left in a hurry. He was forced by his own brother to attend meetings in person more often. He would say no, but Ortho was really good at capturing the cuteness of puppy eyes.
Out of habit, Malleus just simply teleported back to Diasomnia.
Riddle was last to leave. He took down important meeting notes and all the updates from the other event managers. With how good his mood was, it was safe to say that everything was going out just like he had planned.
The housewarden walked towards the door, a clipboard tucked beneath his arm as he was rereading the schedule of the following week before the headmage stopped him.
“Rosehearts! May I ask a small favour?” The redhead tilted his head, “What is it, headmage?”
The headmage clasps his hands together; he deliberately blocked the exit of the room. He wasn’t sure how to approach his request without angering the housewarden.
No matter how he would word it, the outcome will always be the same.
“WHAT?!”
“Headmage! The event is right around the corner, and you’re planning to add in more performances?!” The housewarden was furious. He gripped the clipboard so tight that it could break by the sheer force.
“The entire day is all planned out that everyone has the proper amount of time to do their scheduled performances!” He shouted. The good mood he had minutes prior disappeared the moment that dang crow spoke up.
He flipped through his papers, the headmage just looked nervously as a schedule was shoved towards his face.
Riddle pointed at the final timeslot, “The last performance ends by 5:50pm! After that we still have cleanup to do before everyone is dismissed!”
The crow just awkwardly nodded, lowering the clipboard down from his face.
“I understand your frustration… Rosehearts.” he gave a murky smile, “But we require this last performance.”
Headmage flinched when Riddle opened his mouth to speak up again. But luckily, the housewarden only sighed.
Clicking his pen, he wrote down the final performance with the available space he had on the paper. “You have the full responsibility of this last performance, headmage.” Riddle spat out.
Crowley nodded immediately. He waved goodbye to the retreating figure of the now frustrated housewarden.
Now onto his second problem, convincing the prefects about the performance.
Crowley always forgets how far the walk was from Ramshackle all the way from the main campus building. The headmage could simply teleport to the area but he found that walking to Ramshackle can help him plan out his very convincing speech.
He approached the building as the newly renovated building stood tall—far different from the building it was when the school year started.
He opened the small gate the building had as he walked towards the main door.
Hesitating, the crow knocked about three times before it was answered by one of the prefects.
“Headmage!” Yuu greeted him with a smile. Crowley could hear some commotion coming from the inside. He surely thought it was the other first years only to find out that it was just the rest of the other prefects.
Welcoming himself in, he greeted Yuu with a rather warm smile. “My my, this place looks brilliant!” Yuu followed behind him as the headmage moved his way towards the main room.
A crash could be heard from the other room plus a bunch of shouting following it.
“Why are you here, Headmage?” Yuu asked before Crowley could go any further into their dorm.
Yuukiara tilted her head in confusion as the headmage started explaining his reason with all the flare and sparkles it needed.
“GRIM, COME BACK HERE!” A shout came from the other room as the rushing figure of Grim came into the view.
Following Grim, Xianna (mainly called as Xixi), shouted for the direbeast to come back.
They both stopped in their tracks as they spotted the headmage.
“CROWLEY?” “Mrahh!!”
Grim was then grabbed by his bow from the Housewarden on Ramshackle, Zycius.
Crowley clasped his hands together with a smile, “All the Prefects are present, yes?” He looked around.
Yuu shook her head, “Yuuino isn't here”
They all looked around to find Yuuino coming from the room Xixi and Grim ran out from.
Before changing the topic of the conversation, Zycius immediately spoke about what everyone was thinking about.
“Why are you here, Crowley? You don't usually come to us without needing some useless chore.”
The rest nodded. Grim still tried to get himself off Zycius' grip.
“Oh am I that predictable?” Crowley gave sn awkward chuckle before continuing on, “I'm just here to speak about your performance in the incoming event?”
Yuu raised her hand, “The one where RSA And NBC are attending?” she asked.
Crowley nodded.
“What's there to say about it? We already memorized our performance and song” Xixi quickly turned suspicious with the intentions of the headmage.
“Well, I would like to request that all of you perform an original piece for the event”
…
“Excuse me?”
“WHAT?!”
“Wait, what did Crowley say again..?”
How can Crowley become even more annoying? Seriously, what is he thinking?!
Zycius pinched his nose bridge, “An original performance? Headmage, may I remind you the event is on two-”
“Two and a half” Xixi cut their housewarden off.
“Two and a half weeks!” Zycius gave Xixi a glare.
“Yes, yes of course I know!” He continued on
with his master convincing plan.
This is bad, the plan is going how Crowley expected it to be going.
But still, he needs to push through with his plan.
Hiding his smile, the headmage spoke up again. “Oh dear me, and I was just considering increasing your allowance if you accepted my gracious offer..”
Even with facing away from them, he knew that their eyes lit up when they heard their pay would increase.
Can you blame them? They had to live in a rundown building for multiple months with barely enough money to keep them alive.
Increasing their pay would be beneficial for their financial stability and for their sanity.
Crowley turned around, his smile returning to his scheming face. “So, do you accept my generous offer?”
Silence ran across the room as the prefects thought about it for a moment.
Zycius was the first to act, he pulled all of them close into a huddle; leaving the headmage waiting for their response.
“Do we accept?” Xixi asked first.
The rest shrugged, “The offer is extremely beneficial to us but…” The housewarden drew his words.
“Theres clearly a trap to this.” Zycius finished his words.
Yuu nodded, “But the money… I’m a popstar guys we can do this and break no sweat!” Dhe tried lifting their moods.
They all thought about it first before shifting their attention to their silent prefect
“How about you, Yuuino? Do you have any ideas?” Yuu asked.
The mute prefect blinked before breaking from the huddle to grab their notebook.
Returning from the huddle, they quickly wrote the words down and showed it to the rest.
‘We can ask for full creative freedom. Crowley eventually takes the blame for whatever performance we are going to give.’
The idea clicked in Yuu’s head, “You’re right! We can use the headmage’s willingness for full creative liberty."
As Yuu realized, the rest soon followed. The prefects managed to turn the request into something they could control.
Zycius spoke for the rest of them, “We accept.”
Those two words made Crowley celebrate, but of course he didn't want to willingly show it to the prefects.
The brief pause made Crowley think he had won in convincing the prefects.
“Only, if you give us full creative liberty for whatever performance you wish us to make”
The trade was small in the headmage’s eyes, but it will soon turn out to be his biggest nightmare.
With a nod that was filled with joy, the headmage had successfully convinced the prefects.
“So, what are we going to perform?” Xixi asked curiously. The term was very much broad in their eyes, as there was so much they could do. If the headmage gave them the specifics, maybe it would give them an easier time to make it.
The crow snapped his fingers, “Ah, lets see.”
“Maybe something that could entertain the audience? Perhaps mix it with something that is popular in your world?”
Yuu’s eyes never been brighter
The headmage just waved dismissively, “It is up to you what you shall do. I have other important tendencies to attend to, tata!”
Before getting a word out, Crowley was already ten meters away from Ramshackle.
Just great.
…
“…So you’re saying you want us to act out a musical?”
All the first years were called to ramshackle in such a hurry that they couldn’t even comprehend what was happening.
The moment they arrived, they sat in a circle around Yuu (who somehow bought a whiteboard for this specific occasion), and listened to her talk for exactly an hour and thirty-four minutes straight.
Who knew she was this passionate about theater.
“A quick recap of what Yuukiara has told us!” Ortho chimed. Luckily, the android was taking down notes for the whole time Yuu was talking.
“Firstly, Crowley gave the prefects a task that requires them to create a fully original performance."
“Secondly, they have full creative freedom.”
“And lastly, Yuu wants to make their performance about her favorite musical: Ride The Cyclone. And requires our help”
There was a silent that followed after Ortho finished speaking.
“And the event is in…?” Epel asked, turning to the other prefects who were sitting down on the couch newrhy their circle.
“Two and a half weeks.” Zycius replied.
Ace bursted out laughing, “W-WAIT!? You’re serious!?”
“You guys have only little time for that… why accept?” Deuce curiously asked.
The first years now turned their attention from each prefect to another.
“Crowley offered us money.” Xixi replied to the question. Even though how ridiculous it sounded, it was not out of the like that the prefects accepted it due to the money.
“I know Yuu has told us this before but… why need us?” Jack asked, the rest of the first years nodded in agreement.
Yuu cleared her throat, “We need you because you’re trustworthy! Plus… we want to make this whole thing a surprise.” She lowered her voice.
The first years tilted their heads. A surprise? Why do they have to keep this whole performance a surprise?
First and foremost, Riddle is the main event manager. If one thing goes out of plan, it would be off with their heads!
Just the thought of the sight of angered riddle made the card duo shiver in fear.
After a bit of thinking, it finally clicked for Epel.
“Wait! Are ‘ya doin’ this’n order to pay back the headmage?” The prefects nodded.
As slowly as it came up, it started to click with everyone else in the room.
After a bit of more back and forth, the first years were now fully in the plan of the first years.
Thanks to the over-an-hour talk Yuu had, the first years have some surface level knowledge of the musical.
In fact, Yuu has already planned all of this out.
The best (and worst) thing about being from a different world is that you could take something from your world and no one would know what it would be!
Using a musical from their world was the best plan—not only could they avoid copyright, but it is also the perfect musical to use
A musical whose songs don’t even sound the same next to each other—what better performance they could pull off other than that?
Next thing, casting. Yuu explained each of the roles to the first years and let them choose the role they wanted.
“I would gladly take the role of Ocean!” Sebek beamed, his voice louder and more proud than usual.
Ace chuckled to himself, “Of course you choose her”
They inspected the names and short descriptions of the cast Yuu wrote out for them on the whiteboard.
He pointed out Mischa’s name, “You suit him, Deucey” he elbowed his fellow card soldier.
Deuce read out Mischa’s description. Epel leaned in to see what the two were choosing.
“Aww wait, I wanted ‘em!” He stomped his foot. Checking out the commotion, the rest felt curious one what they were mildly arguing about.
“Mischa sounds so cool, let me have him!” He pleaded with Deuce. The card solder looked at the other options.
He read every single description, yet he always came back to Mischa. He really liked how Mischa talked about his ‘Talia’.
“While you two bicker… I want Ricky’s role” Ace approached Yuu.
Yuu chuckled, knowing how Space Age Bachelor Man goes; she was quite curious who would volunteer for Ricky’s role.
“Okay! Got it.” She removed the cap of her whiteboard marker and wrote Ace’s name beside Ricky’s and Sebek’s name beside Ocean’s
Jack approached Yuu next, asking if he could have Constance’s role since Epel and Deuce were still debating on who should get Mischa’s role.
And finally, Yuu managed to convince Epel to give up the role to Deuce.
Which gave her another problem. Epel would have to take Noel’s role.
Comparing Noel and Epel’s values to each other was something. Both of them are possibly the mere opposites of eachother.
“But pleaaseee Epel! We need you for Noel.. !” Yuu begged Epel, who still stood his ground.
Before Yuu continued her helpless pleading, Zycius stepped in to try his way to convince Epel.
“Think of how Vil would react if you were Noel.” “He would be.. Pissed?”
Then he suddenly came to a realization. Epel would have never though he would play Noel just to see the look on his housewarden’s face.
Vil would be pissed, yes. And so the rest of them would be. Why waste the opportunity of surprising their upperclassmen?
Finally, almost everyone had their roles.
Except for one.
Ortho looked at the last two options: Karnak and Jane Doe.
Both seemed fun to act as, but one had caught the humanoid’s eye the most.
Jane Doe, the mystery person of the musical.
Everyone huddled behind Ortho to see the final two choices. The other first years spoke about how Yuu fit Jane Doe the most as they are both mysterious in nature.
But Yuu already knew what her role would be.
“Ortho! Do you wanna be Jane Doe?” A chime came from the humanoid. He glanced between the choices and back to Yuu.
“I don’t know, my voice box isn’t as advanced..” His voice grew softer. “But you did your Blazing Jewel performance perfectly!” Yuu insisted.
After some silence, Ortho finally agreed to the role,
And finally, the cast for their unexpected performance is on the go!
The rest of the prefects were planning to handle the tech. Due to Ortho being in the Film Research Club, they have easy access to all the tech they could need to handle their musical.
Yuu gathered everyone in the center, holding her hand out. “TO US!”
The rest followed the gestured, lowering their hands and raising it with a cheer.
Yuu bounced as she started planning out all the stuff that they need. The other first years offered to help with some areas like costumes, props, and the main place they would practice.
It surprised them how good Yuu was at handling performances like these; she is a popstar after all.
It's only a moment of time until somebody gets suspicious of the acts of their first years.