Chapter Text
"You're doing what now?" Their teacher asked, with an amused but confused look on her face. Asano rolled his eyes and was about to restart the powerpoint he had been presenting when Karma butted in.
"Miss, we just explained everything. The entire play was sexist anyways, we're just taking the name and altering it to match our personalities. On slide seventeen," he motioned to Gakushu, who went back a few slides, "you see that in the time period when the story was created, the message that the original authors wanted to convey was that, if you find a sleeping woman in the woods, you need to kiss her," that was not what was on the slide, but Gakushu didn't want to interrupt. This was embarrassing as is.
"Very well, but this whole fighting sequence, will it be PG? How will you do it? Props? You're not going to fistfight on stage are you?"
"No, Akabane will be handling marionettes that will fight me with wooden swords, and the outcome of the play will be decided at the end, meaning that there is no fixed ending in mind. We'll fight and whoever wins will win. It should be good enough for the improv part of the play no?" He tried to smile sweetly, avoiding Karma's grin on the side.
"I see," the teacher looked like she was in deep thought, "alright! You can do it. But don't be shocked if your grades aren't as high as they usually are, drama isn't for everyone!" She smirked, and Gakushu released a breath he didn't know he was holding in. At least now they didn't have to fight over some girl dummy that he would have to kiss.
"I don't know about you Asano, but we have to get perfect on this. How long will it take to design puppets that move when I pull a string?"
"It should be simple, depending on how big the cardboard figures have to be, we'll need supplies," he thought about the calculations in his mind, then took his notebook out to document his thought process. Their drama teacher looked over at the two who were now scribbling dimensions down with a weary look in her eyes. It was drama, not math "I can buy all of the supplies if you want," Asano offered after a stretch of silence between the two. It was as though he had let go of their rivalry for a moment in order to work diligently, a very Asano thing to do.
"Alright, but if you buy all the stuff we can do the project at my place," Karma added, not looking up from his own notebook where he was writing down where to cut holes and the dimensions for the strings. Gakushu wanted to say something along the lines of 'I am not going to whatever cave you live in,' but he realized a) that would make a scene, and b) it would be more efficient, since Akabane lived a street closer to the school.
"Alright," it may have taken him too long to answer, but it took him a longer amount of time to realize that there were at least five eyes staring at him. He raised an eyebrow.
"How many cardboard figures do you want to fight? You have to make it to the boss battle," Karma asked, ignoring them.
"You work on the script and I'll work on the dimensions, I'll be the one fighting them anyways," he rolled his eyes and took the notebook from under Karma.
"Bold of you to assume you'll make it to the boss battle." His plan was to tangle Karma up by hitting the cardboard figures in a way that would swing enough for Karma to lose balance, but he soon realized that Karma could just let go. He frowned and turned away from the redhead to try to avoid any more taunts. "How much of it has to be scripted?"
"Up until the start of the fight. I take it your imagination isn't too sadistic to come up with a decent and school appropriate script."
"Words hurt Asano. We'll be from rival kingdoms." The gears were turning.
"Are we at war?"
"There would be more at stake that way, yes. The war will have been going on for a hundred years at the first light of daybreak on the day of our battle," he began scribbling some things down, "costume design! I'm wearing red. You can wear some blue purple, oh my gosh," he stood up, "ice prince."
"Excuse me?" He understood, but a part of him knew that Karma was eager to explain his idea- and of course that meant the teacher would hear their enthusiasm which was good for their grade.
"We need lore, something behind the war, I don't want to be one of those guys who fights just because they're proud of their country. You're trying to take the seasons from me and make them all cold," Karma beamed, "but I'll stop you with my fire powers, okay?" Gakushuu blinked, then blinked again, rubbing his eyes for good measure. Maybe if he rubbed hard enough Karma would disappear, but the redhead did no such thing. "Well?"
"Why do I have to be the bad guy? You know, technically in war the role of the bad guy vs the good guy is subjective. For all I know, you could be planning to convert all of the seasons to deserted wastelands with that heat," he argued.
"Great you already know your lines. Now how does it go? Does all the seasonal power end up with the one who's alive by the end of the night?"
"I say we add an orb or a magical instrument of some sort, just to add to the effect, it's like we're materializing the seasons that way. We could replace the princess with the orb and no one would notice."
"Are all women objects to you Asano-kun?"
"No. They aren't, but in this case it would be pointless to just assume that once the other is dead, all the seasonal power is transferred to the better man. Who's to say that someone else won't come and kill the victor?"
“Alright okay,” Karma rolled his eyes, “note to self, Asano-kun has a thing for orbs. Don’t be shocked if you catch him making out with one,” he jotted that down beside a sketch of the orb.
“Erase that.”
“It’s my creative process, stick to your math.”