Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hello, everybody!” Miku waved to the audience with both of her hands. “It’s me, Miku Hatsune! I’m so happy to see you all came here today!”

“Of course we all came here today,” Lily speaks from the crowd. “We literally got called down to come here.”

“And I really am glad that you all listened. Now, who’s ready to hear me sing?”

“We’re only here to listen to Lola,” Daina responded.

“Lola is a dead vocaloid!” Miku snapped and went back to her cutesy act. “Anyway, I’m going to start now! Wish me luck!” The idol began skipping around the stage, singing, “Viva viva happy!”

Lola enters the stage, snatching the microphone from Miku. “Miku, What the heck are you doing? This isn’t a concert, this is a school meeting. Get off the stage and sit down!”

Miku huffed and stomped off the stage, muttering, “You’re just cranky that everyone knows me and only complete geeks know you…!”

Lola clears her throat, “Ahem. As the principal of Vocal Rhythm High, I’d like to say to you all: please stop encouraging Galaco to get on top of the roof. Stop getting on top of the roof, Galaco, it’s not a walk-in for a reason.”

“Excuse me but as a queen, I must be high above the rest at all times!” Galaco argued.

“Pff, maybe you should work on your ranking first, then,” Cul snickered.

“Excuse me- I- I’ll- you’re lower than me!”

“Says who!?” Cul questioned, getting provoked.

“Says the fans!”

“That’s not valid proof!” Cul got up, cracking her knuckles and getting ready to throw a fist.

“Cul, no fighting!” Lola shouted, making the microphone screech and causing everyone to cover their ears. “Listen, students, this school was built after all of us vocaloids begged our companies to make us a school specially made for us, and because of that, other schools don’t see us as a real school, but I’m sure if we all cooperate and work properly, people will start taking us more seriously. So, here are the rules that you all need to do better in following: no crashing a motorcycle into the walls, no dragging dead animals into the building, and no flooding any parts of the school.

Dex raises his hand.

“Yes, Dex?” Lola gives him permission to speak.

“So, basically, you’re telling us to not bring dead animals, but… any type of meal with meat includes a dead animal.”

“Dex, you know very well that when I say that, I’m talking specifically about you and all the roadkills you bring in. Stop bringing in roadkills!”

“B-but, I just want to show my friends how much I love them,” Dex stuttered, getting teary-eyed.

“Dex, that’s what dogs do, not wolves, and even when dogs do it, it’s an unwanted gesture,” Cyber Diva broke it to him.

Lola concludes, “Now since you’ve all heard my complaints, I hope you’ll listen. I expect to see better behaviour, alright? You may go back to your classes now.”

That one given instruction is what caused chaos to all that attends the school, for everyone got up in a union and went for the only two doors the room has, causing people to push and trample over each other.

“Ow! Move it!”

“Aww, those were my favourite boots!”

“Everyone, calm down a bit- ow!”

Galaco’s voice screeched above the rest as she pushed them aside like a wild animal, “I will be first! I will- be- first!”

Lola watches from the back, not wanting to say a word in fear that everyone would get mad at her for giving them terrible instructions.

Already out of the room and above the chaos is Lapis and Merli, who were able to avoid the crowd by flying with their fairy ability. “Aww, I feel so bad for everyone… We should help them!” Lapis suggested. Before Merli could make a say on the matter, she poured some of her fairy dust and the door crumbled down along with the rest of the walls. “Oops… I- I was only trying to expand the door…”

“Lapis!” Lola’s shout rang in the microphone, causing another screeching sound from the microphone that made everyone cover their ears.

“Lapis… I told you to stop using your magic…” Merli sighed.

Chapter Text

After the chaos with the assembly, everyone was tired out, but that didn’t stop Lumi from announcing the big news. “Class, we have a new student coming here today, so I want you all to treat him well. He mains Chinese, so don’t fluster him too much with Japanese.”

“Oh! Just like me!” Hua beams.

“Oh yeah, Hua is in our class…” Piko remembered.

“Oh yeah, Hua exists,” Iroha followed.

“Of course you forgot, you always do. They always do,” Hua stated passive-aggressively.

A voice was suddenly heard shouting and screaming in the hallway, sounding closer and closer, “Nooo! Put me down, Longya! I don’t want to go to a stupid school! You all hate me!”

“We don’t hate you! We’re doing this because we love you,” a female voice was heard.

“And also because we need a break from you,” a more masculine voice added.

The door opens and the class is meant with a baby face boy and two people behind him, one having black and white hair and the other having purple. “Moke, you kicked me fourteen times during the process of me bringing you here. Don’t try to escape for today and I won’t kill you for it,” the man with the monochrome hair persuaded.

“I don’t like this place, it’s too bright; and I don’t like you, either, Longya,” Moke complained stubbornly, crossing his arms with a face of disgust.

“You love me, I’m a great brother,” Longya claimed.

“No you’re not, you suck.”

Ignoring his grumpy attitude, the girl with purple hair gives him a goodbye kiss on the cheek and chirps, “Goodbye, Moke. Have fun on your first day of school!”

The two were ready to leave him until Moke grabbed a hold on to the girl’s cloth, getting teary-eyed and begging, “Please don’t leave me here, Qingxian, I’m gonna miss you!”

Seeing through his act, Longya pleads in his head, ‘Don’t fall for it, Qingxian, don’t fall for it, Qingxian, don’t fall for it, Qingxian…’

“Awww, my poor little boy!” Qingxian cried. She took her flower pin off and placed it nicely on Moke’s bangs. “There, now you have a part of me with you.”

Holding in snarky laughter from seeing the annoyed look on Moke’s face for having his plan fail, Longya said, “Bye, Moke! Have fun!”

Before he could try any other attempts on Qingxian, Longya took her by the arm and yanked her away with him.

Standing where he was, Moke grumbled as he took the flower pin off, “I don’t want your stupid hairpin, Qingxian… This sucks…”

A desk began to be repeatedly slammed with no warning, make him turn in annoyance to see who was doing it. “Ugh! Would you quit- quit-! Ahhh…” he trailed off upon seeing who it was.

“Moke! Moke! Sit next to me!” Rin waved her hand as if banging on the desk next to her wasn’t enough to raise attention.

‘Rin’s in my class! And she’s directing me to a desk at the back of the class right next to a window! Being a new student who finds his lover in his class and sitting by the window? I must be in an anime!’ Moke’s eyes sparkled at the thought as his cheeks became a perfect pink blush.

“Um… Hold on, Rin, let him introduce himself first,” Lumi instructed, trying to manage some control in the strange interactions that have been going on.

Moke went to the front of the class and introduced himself, “Hi. I’m Moke, and I love anime and cosplay and… I want to sit next to Rin!” He finished his speech with no conclusion as he walked over to where Rin sat, hands held together against his heart.

“Hi, Rin,” he greets back to her in euphoria as he pulled his seat back. Before he could sit down, however, a black backpack was suddenly thrown on it in a random direction, blocking his way. Len comes over and picks up his backpack, plopping himself on the seat where Moke was supposed to sit and leaning back against it, putting his legs on the desk. He eyes Moke as if finally noticing him and says, “Oh. Hey, kid.”

“Len, what the heck are you doing?” Moke asked.

“I suddenly feel like sitting here, so it’s best if you scram.”

“What’s with your crappy gang member act?”

“And why do you want to sit by me now? You didn’t want to in the first three days of school when I was whining for you to,” Rin questions.

“That’s because I do things in my own time. That wasn’t my time, but now it is,” Len answered casually.

“Moke, you can sit next to me since Len has moved,” Cocorobo called out to him, pointing at an empty seat right next to her.

“I don’t want to sit next to you, you look like you think we’re living in the Pokémon universe and you randomly make vacuum noises,” Moke complained.

“It’s a habit!” Cocorobo defended herself.

“Moke, just sit next to her before we waste any more class time,” Lumi ordered.

Moke gave a sad look at Rin who didn’t even notice that he was upset, being too busy being happy that her brother is now sitting next to her before he sat down next to Cocorobo.

Half an hour of the class past by and Moke was still grumbling. “Stupid banana haired boy, making me sit next to a vacuum while he blocks me from my princess…”

All the meanwhile, Cocorobo was cleaning away the pencil marks on her desk while making a vacuum noise.

Chapter Text

“Hey dude, I heard that a couple of vocaloids from different companies are doing a meet and greet at the beach! You wanna go?”

“From different companies? Is this a collaboration or something?”

“I don’t know, I never heard any of the companies make an announcement like that.”

“Ah, whatever. Let’s go!”

A conversation like that is what most people are talking about as they quit any plans they once had and rushed over to the beach.

. . .

Luka was laying down on a beach chair, enjoying her suntan until a girl’s face blocked the sunlight and gleamed, “Woah! Are you Luka Megurine!?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“Oh my gosh! Can you- uh-” the girl looks around frantically and holds out her hand. “Can you sign my arm?”

“Um… sure,” Luka answered, feeling a bit weirded out. She was hoping to not run into any fans today, but she guesses that running into at least one is a given. “Do you have a pen?”

“No… Uh… Just write with your finger!”

“Write with my finger?” Luka repeated.

“Yes!”

“Okay…” Luka skimmed her index finger on the girl’s arm, spelling out her name. Once she finished, she looked at her for some reassurance if that’s what she wanted and gets a positive response as the girl repeatedly thanks her and runs off.

‘Well… that wasn’t so bad,’ Luka thinks, laying back down on her chair. Exactly when she does, she finds no sunlight in the slightest but instead the many faces of people, talking all at once. She screams from the sudden crowd and tries to get some kind of order with them to no success.

Meanwhile, Gakupo was helping Yuki build her sandcastle. “You should make a little princess for your castle,” Gakupo suggested.

“Okay,” Yuki took in the suggestion, doing just that. Gakupo looks at it and grows a bit upset. “Uh- maybe the princess could use a friend,” he adds.

“Good thinking,” Yuki agrees. She makes another mould of sand that looks the same as the first one and sets it next to the other. “There! Now the princess has her prince!”

“They look so happy together…!” Gakupo swooned, taking the child’s play a bit too seriously. That’s when Luka’s scream flew by his ears, making him jump up and cry, “Luka!?”

He sees a large crowd swarming where she sits, not even being able to see a glimpse of her. “Don’t worry, Luka! I’ll save you!”

He looks around and spots Una walking by. She freezes and they stare at each other, Una already knowing what he was planning on doing.

Now, Gakupo holds on to Una with one arm and swings her hair around at people to knock them out of the way with the other like a flail. Unfortunately for him, he caught Una during her spicy mood, so she gave no mercy as she bit on his arm to let go of her; although, a samurai must always move onwards, and with that in mind, he continued his heroic save with no falter.

Seeing Luka’s angelic face, he sets Una down and reaches out his hand to her. “Luka! I’m here to save you!”

Thinking that taking his hand and allowing him to help her would only raise his confidence that he has a chance with her, Luka stays where she’s at and makes up an excuse, “Oh- uh- um- no thanks, I’m fine. I’m sure that I can make it out by myself.”

She gets up and attempts to walk through the crowd but fails to do so, Gakupo growing more anxious as he watches the excited fans grab on to her. Going on his own actions, he grabs Luka by her waist and yanks her out of the crowd with him.

“Thank you, Gakupo…” Luka thanked him, not knowing what to say as he looked at her with a proud smile.

“No need to thank me, I’d do anything to make sure you're okay. So… can I follow you?” he thinks about how strange that sounds and wants to smack his head as he tries to rephrase it, “I mean- want to be together? As friends?”

Luka tries to think of an excuse as to why he can’t come along with her and finds one when Una shouts, “Gakupo! You jerk! You left me in the crowd!”

Having his heroic instinct pop up from the cry, he rushes back in the crowd after apologizing to Luka, “Sorry, I have to go help Una!”

“That’s okay, you take your time,” Luka responded. Once she was sure that he was fully gone, she scans the beach for anything strange and spots her target.

“Miku! Did you set up a meet and greet without permission?” Luka accused. The way Miku was chilling on a seat behind a booth with a cup full of lemonade and a whole line of people waiting for her was telling her that she was right.

“Not this time, hun,” Miku responded, not even giving Luka a look as she examined her nails. “It was Daina who set it up.”

Luka couldn’t believe that until she saw Daina on the other end of the booth. She walks up to her and asks in surprise, “Daina? Why are you doing this?”

“Oh, you know, as a vocaloid, meet and greets are a thing that happens,” Daina shrugged.

“Meet and greets are a thing that the company plans and sets up,” Luka corrected.

“Mm-hm.”

Luka stares at the girl until she breaks down and admits, “I just want to do one meet and greet, okay? I’m a vocaloid, too! I deserve merchandise and the idol life!”

“Daina! You can’t just make your own meet and greet! Your company would get mad at you!” Luka scold.

Dex joined in on the conversation, “Come on, Luka, just let us have this. We’re vocaloids who don’t get as much attention as you.”

“If that’s your intention, then why is Miku here and sitting right in the front of it all?”

“She attracts the attention,” Dex shrugs.

“You two, I need you to shut down this stand right now before you get us all into serious trouble,” Luka demanded sternly.

“No!” Dex huffs like a child.

“Dex, close the stand down!”

“No!”

Daina encourages, “That’s right! You tell her!”

Luka stares at the stubborn frown Dex is giving her for a good moment before petting his head and caressing his neck, requesting sweetly, “Dex, would you please be a good boy and close the stand down?”

Dex, trying to fight from falling into a trance and failing miserably, perks his ears up and wags his tail as he stammers excitedly, “O-okay!”

“Dex, no!” Daina slams the table and causes the wolf boy to jump. She tries to take a more calm approach which she couldn’t muster too well due to her desperation and annoyance as she gives him the same treatment as Luka, saying, “Be a good boy to me and keep the stand up?”

“Ow! Daina, you’re hurting me! Trim your claws,” Dex cried. This only caused the ginger to quit her sweet approach as she caressed his neck more viciously out of frustration.

“Daina, why do you even care? You’re barely getting any people coming to you, anyway,” Luka points out.

“No! They’re coming to me! They’re- uh-” Daina sees someone approaching her nonexistent line and points at him. “You see that? There’s someone right now!”

The boy rubs his arm modestly as he says, “Hi… Uuuh… Are you a friend of Miku’s? Think that you could give me her phone number?”

Daina’s eye twitches as she answers, “No, I can’t give you her number because I don’t have her number. She’s right over there, just go ask her yourself…”

“O-okay, wish me luck,” the boy says before he walks off to Miku’s line.

Daina groans until her groan turns into cries as she covers her face with the table’s surface. “Aaah, I just want to be like the more successful vocaloids with a good company! Is that too much to ask for!? I work for it, I really do!”

Feeling bad, Luka tries to comfort her, “It’s okay, Daina. Your company is really trying their best, and at least you’re getting a lot more attention than others.”

“That means absolutely nothing to me,” Daina deadpans, making Luka shocked by the rather blunt statement.

“Don’t worry, Daina; I’ll buy you a whole bucket of KFC chicken to make you feel better,” Dex comforts while patting her back. The ginger’s face lights up to that with a childish glow as she cheers, “Yeah, that sounds great!”

“She gets out of life crisis by the mention of chicken,” Luka states, dumbfounded. “Alright, sure.”

A high pitched shriek was heard from the other side of the table. “What!? What do you mean I’m in big trouble!?” Miku shouts into her phone. “But I’m only bringing more publicity! I’m not even the one who hosted the meet and greet! No, don’t throw away my Racing Miku 2016 figure! I look so cute in that!”

“Oh crap, is Miku in trouble with the company?” Dex observes, getting nervous for what’s to come. Daina’s phone rings and she slowly brings it out with shaking hands in fear. She sets it on speaker and the three listen while holding in their breath. “Daina, did you set up a meet and greet?” the caller asks.

“Y-yeah,” Daina stutters back.

“Is it going well?”

“Uuuh… I guess.”

“Haha, good job then, I guess. It didn’t cost you much, did it?”

“Not too much, no.”

“Alright, enjoy yourself.” The call ends and the three who’ve been listening remain silent until Luka breaks it with, “Huh. I guess there’s a pro in not being owned by a big company.”

Daina smiles brightly and laughs, “Haha, that’s right! Starting up high is for the chumps! We work our way through! Come on, Dex, you’re taking me to KFC.”

Getting pulled by the arm, Dex pouts, “What? But I was only going to buy you some because you were upset; you’re fine now.”

“Ah. I see. Alright, that’s fine,” Daina says, her fox features that have dropped indicating otherwise.

Dex tries to stand his ground and gives in, “Fine, we can go.”

“Yeah! That’s why you’re my boyfriend!” Daina cheers.

“For chicken?”

“I was going to say for being so sweet but sure, for chicken.”

Luka watches the two run off and was about to go back to her attempt at relaxation until receiving a call from Crypton. “Hello…? What do you mean I’m in trouble!? I wasn’t even involved in the meet and greet! I was the one trying to shut it down! Huh!? I could’ve stopped Miku!? No I couldn’t! Have you ever seen Miku be stopped before for any stupid thing she’s done!? It’s impossible with her and her big ego!”

Chapter Text

Since the vocaloids were only able to get themselves one school, only a high school was made. With that in mind, the younger vocaloids are all put in one class to save up space; and so, Oliver sits in a room with four young kids, hearing them cause complete chaos with pencils being thrown and shouts coming from all corners of the room.

He’s embarrassed to say that he isn’t the smartest kid in the class given that Yuki attends it, but he does believe that he’s the most level headed and reasonable. As the oldest kid, he can keep everyone in order.

And so, when Kiyoteru left him in charge of the class while he goes out to print some papers, Oliver felt more than dedicated into keeping everyone under control.

Right now, he finds himself having to try to get Rana to stop drawing on the wall with her markers. “Rana, please stop, Mr Hiyama is going to be mad if he sees that you’re drawing on the wall,” he pleads desperately.

“No, he’ll be happy because I’m drawing pandas, everyone loves pandas. Cute, cute pandas~” Rana sang as she continued to draw.

A gasp was heard from the back of the class and all turned their heads to the source to see Gachapoid, who was standing up on a shelf with an open container full of apple and grape juice. “Guys, I found the juice boxes!” he announces excitingly, his eyes sparkling.

“Gachapoid, don’t get on top of the shelf! You’ll hurt yourself!” Oliver cries in worry.

“Nah, I don’t want to. Hey, don’t you want juice? Because I know that I sure do,” disobeying the blonde, Gachapoid grabbed four boxes of juice and opened one up.

“You can’t drink that much, that’s too much sugar! Besides, they’re only for when a kid has done a good job for the day,” Oliver cries, feeling himself losing any confidence he once had. He was supposed to look after four kids- that’s it, only four- yet he already lost all control on them except for Yuki who never misbehaves in the first place. Wait, no, there’s still Una… “Where’s Una?” Oliver asks, being afraid to find out the answer.

“She’s fishing in the pond,” Yuki answers from her desk, lifting her eyes away from her picture book to point outside the window.

“Again!?” Oliver runs over to the window and sees Una dipping her hand in the school pond, trying to catch herself some fishes that aren’t even there. He groans over how Una had to be in the class right next to the pond. If he’s lucky, he’d catch her during her sweet side. “Una, come back! There’s no fish there, so you’re literally just grabbing at the water,” he calls out to her.

“But what if there are? Then they’d be all alone!” Una pouts back. Never mind, Oliver is not lucky to have caught her during her sweet side.

Feeling all of his confidence crumble, Oliver gives up and slumps in his desk, whining, “Who am I kidding? I’m terrible at being in charge! No one will even listen to me…”

Seeing him so upset, Yuki closes her book and walks up to his desk, patting him on the head and saying to comfort him, “It’s okay, you did your best.”

“My best sucks…” he groans, keeping his face resting on his arms.

“No it doesn’t! I’ll listen to you.”

“That’s because you’re great…” Oliver realises what he said and finds it embarrassing, especially when he looked up and saw the proud blush on Yuki’s face. “Uh- good, I mean good! I mean you’re a good girl! So…” He hides his face again, this time from embarrassment instead of shame.

Suddenly, a single word was shouted by Rana that made Oliver’s heart jump out of his chest: spider.

Crawling on the counter that Gachapoid sat at was, in fact, a spider, causing the green-haired boy to jolt off of the counter and run to the furthest part of the room with the others.

“Oh my god- kill it! Kill it! Kill it!” Oliver shrieked in a perfect high F note.

“Oliver’s afraid of spiders? The same Oliver who’s into ghosts and monsters and killer clowns? Hahaha!” Gachapoid laughs.

“If you aren’t afraid then go kill it!” Oliver dares.

“No way!”

“Exactly! You’re afraid, too.”

“Am not! I’m just… I’m just afraid that it’ll ruin my hair.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Does too! It could crawl up on my head and lay eggs in my hair and then my hair would be ruined, so there! It does make sense!”

“Someone go get rid of it because it’s coming this way!” Rana cries.

Everyone starts to shout in chaos as the spider approaches closer with its tiny legs until Oliver shouts, “Everyone, stop!” His order caused everyone to go quiet and give their attention to him. “Since I’m in charge here, I should be the one to find a way to save us from this spider. So… we’re going to build a fort.”

Not even two minutes later and all the desks were stacked in a way that created a barrier that protected all of the kids behind it in crouched positions.

“The fort is built, sir,” Yuki reports to Oliver. “What do we do now?”

“Now…” Oliver pauses with a serious, distant look in his eyes and continues, “Try throwing something at it.”

“I have a pencil,” Rana says, holding up a cheap mechanical pencil she found on the floor.

“Good, throw it at the mighty beast!” Oliver orders like he’s ordering the entire Spartans army.

Standing up on her knees to have her upper body stick out of the fort, Rana gives a mighty roar and throws the pencil only for it to miss the spider by a long shot and hit the wall. “Sir, I missed!” she reports in dread.

“We’ve lost our weapons…” Oliver mumbles as he tries to think of something. “Gachapoid, turn-”

“Nope,” Gachapoid cuts him off.

“But-”

“My hair.”

“It won’t damage your hair, I promise.”

Gachapoid goes silent for a while and then gives in, sighing, “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

“Okay, so I need you to turn into Gachapin and-”

“What?”

“I need you to turn into Gachapin and-”

“I literally can’t do that.”

“...What? Why not!?” Oliver asks in shock.

“Because I wasn’t designed that way! I’m not a form of Gachapin, I’m only influenced by him.”

“Oh… Okay, back to the thinking box,” Oliver rests his chin against his knuckles and begins to think of a plan once more.

“...I have an idea,” Yuki claims, getting everyone’s attention. “All of you stay down, I think I know what to do to get rid of it.”

“You’re going up by yourself? But what if you get hurt?” Oliver questions in worry.

“I’ll be fine, I’m a tough girl,” Yuki assures him.

“Woah, Yuki, you’re so brave!” Rana compliments her in admiration.

“Yuki, you can’t go! Stand your ground!” Oliver orders her.

“I have to! Rana tried her best with the pencil, now it’s my turn to try my best,” Yuki said stubbornly.

Oliver grabs her by the shoulders and shouts, “Yuki, as the person in charge of this class, I demand you to stay down!”

“Oliver…” Yuki looks sympathetically into his eyes and says, “just trust me.”

Oliver keeps a hold of her but makes his grasp more gentle, sighing, “Fine… I might not be good at getting people to listen to me, but just promise that you’ll listen to this one order: stay safe.”

Yuki smiles confidently at him and whispers, “I will.”

The little girl raises herself fully up on her feet from behind the fort, looking straight at the spider. All was silent, the spider not moving as if staring at her in anticipation. Yuki takes a deep breath, and… “Can you please leave, mister spider? You’re giving us all a scare.”

As if being triggered by what she said, the spider began to run towards them faster than ever.

Gachapoid jumps up and shouts, “You’ve enraged it!”

Oliver pulls them both down and tries to calm them, “It’s okay, we’re fine! We got a barrier to protect us!”

All four kids pop their heads up to see how far the spider has gone only to find no sight of it on the floor. They glare down to the desks and finds the spider walking right on one of them. “It’s climbing our fort!” Rana screamed. They all began to scream with her, huddling together.

Oliver, being in tears by the time that the spider made it to the rim of the desk, cries, “No! No! No!”

Thinking with panicky thoughts, the boy quickly snatches the spider up as everyone else is still screaming. Una pokes her head through the window from the outside and asks, “What are you all screaming about? Oh, a baby spider!”

The blue-haired girl’s smile quickly dropped along with everyone else’s jaws as they saw Oliver thrust the spider right into his mouth and swallow it.

“Oliver, what the hel- what the heck!?” Kiyoteru shouts, having to censor his mouth in front of the kids.

“I… I did it… I conquered the spider!” Oliver begins to laugh, feeling victorious. “I saved everyone!”

“Unbelievable… I leave for a few minutes to print some papers and the kids make a fort out of the desks and one ate a spider… and is that marker on the wall? Ugh… the printer just had to be jammed,” Kiyoteru muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation.

“...We’re sorry, Mr Hiyama,” Yuki mutters.

“No, no, this is my fault for putting a twelve-year-old in charge of even younger kids,” Kiyoteru replies.

“Mr Hiyama, I conquered my fear!” Oliver announces to him excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah, go to the nurse, Oliver,” Kiyoteru orders, pointing out the door.

“But I’m feeling fine-”

“Go.”

“Yes, sir,” Oliver walks out the room and suddenly gets a sickening feeling in his stomach, clutching on to it and groaning, “Ow…”

Oliver shuts the door behind him and the class is all in silence till his ear-piercing scream is heard from the hallways, “Spider! An even bigger spider! It’s mad that I ate its friend- noooo!”

Silence then ensues once more and Kiyoteru breaks it with, “...I think he just fainted. Yuki, from now on, whenever I’m gone, you’re in charge. I have to carry him to the nurse’s office, so make sure you keep a good eye on the place till I get back, okay?”

Yuki gives an obedient nod, “Yes, Mr Hiyama.”

Chapter Text

Journal log #1

Since my family has forced me to go to a high school where everyone’s IQ is lower than the average mind, I’ll be writing journal entries in order to keep my highly functioning brain cells in order. I fear that if I continue to hear nothing but idiocy every five days a week, my knowledge would shiver up and die flat on the floor. The only way to stop this from happening is to listen to someone smart, and who’s the only smart person whom I am aware of in this school? My mind! So I’ll be listening to it by writing entries.

That’s a good explanation, I like that.

Journal log #2

Someone in my home is using my makeup meant only for cosplay purposes without my permission… It could be from any of the four girls that I live with, or… Longya is going drag. I’m taking the latter.

. . .

Longya is not going drag, I know this for sure because when I interrogated him, I provoked him into smudging all kinds of makeups of mine all over my face, and the outcome is the most terrible thing I’ve ever seen.

No one who’s so terrible and inexperienced with makeup can be a drag queen, so there's no way it’s him.

*Sniff* He tainted my adorable face! Now I’m going to have to try to wash everything off.

Journal log #3

Ling has admitted to being the makeup culprit out of guilt! But that’s the same guilt that made her get me a box of cakes, so I’m happy!

Cake, yaaaay~!

:D

Journal log #4

Hanayo Koizumi is such a cute character, she’s so adorable! But I can’t cheat on Rin like that! I’m already feeling guilty over how my Hanayo figure is standing gracefully on a counter behind glass while I have to keep my Rin figures a lot more hidden… Did I say figures? I mean figure! Singular, not plural!

...No, I mean plural. There’s so much Rin figures and their all so great, it’s amazing!

That’s it, I’ll not cheat on an angel-like Rin! No Hanayo x Reader fanfics shall be read!

Journal log #5

I saw a chipmunk today! It was so cute~! I don’t see a lot of chipmunks in my area, so I’m very happy that that one paid a visit.

Journal log #6

Tianyi keeps on pestering me to make some friends, it’s so annoying. I don’t need a foreigner from outer space to be telling me to make friends, I find lots of people that could be considered friends at conventions.

I can make friends if I want to, I just don’t want to! But… if I can have a group of friends where we’d go out on trips together like the beach…

That’s a very happy thought...

Diary entry #14

Red hair as red and hot as fire, white skin as white and sparkly as snow, a style befitting of a fashionable prince, an amazing description like that can only belong to Fukase.

I love you, Fukase. I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you. How many times do I have to say it till you accept it? Till you tell me that in return?

Why would you talk to that girl right in front of me when you know how I feel? You make me want to kill her.

Every day, I dream of us sitting on thrones meant for royalty in a castle as king and queen, and you’d hold my hand as we watch an entertainer, and you’d call off the entertainer during the middle of his act so you could take me to our glorious bedroom where you’d rest me in bed and hug me warmly before going in between my legs and

and you’d whisper in my ear of how much you love me until I can’t open up my eyelids any longer and full into a soothing slumber.

Journal log #7

What the heck!? Who wrote that!? Why would they do this- why would they write such horrifying scenes- what!? It got so horrid that I had to use white-out on a huge part of the page! Why would anyone do this?

I would’ve liked to go through life without having read an erotic fantasy about Fukase, thank you! Why would anyone like Fukase, anyway? He’s the embodiment of evil!

Ugh… I can’t believe someone stained my journal like that...

. . .

“What are you doing with my dairy!?” Mayu’s panicked voice is heard coming behind Moke as he writes in his journal, ignoring his gym class that’s having a run around the field at the moment.

“Your diary? This is my journal!” Moke counters and goes to the first page that has his name written on it for proof.

“What? Why would a boy own a pink booklet covered with bunnies, hearts, and glitter?”

“Because that boy could like cute stuff!” he huffs. He cuddles his journal and gush, “It’s so cute!”

Mayu’s brows furrowed in worry as she mutters, “Did I write my fantasy in your journal…? Did you read it? Ugh… A weirdo read my fantasy, I can’t believe this!”

Moke grew reasonably offended at her words but softened up when he noticed that she was trying to fight back tears. She must be embarrassed; she’s a lot softer than she makes herself out to be. “It’s okay, you were only writing a fantasy story about Fukase and you as a king and queen, right? There’s nothing actually bad in there, is there? Because I covered your writing up before reading the whole thing since I thought it would be rude,” Moke lies in order to make her feel better.

“Ah…! Yeah, that’s right! Yes, it was just like a Disney movie, nothing else,” Mayu takes his lie in relief and adds on to it. “I’m sure that you’ve written many of those with you and Rin.”

“Wh-what?” Moke asks in surprise. “I don’t write about that! I’m… I’m the knight in those stories and she’s the princess, not king and queen... How do you know that I love her, anyway?”

“Oh please, everyone knows that you like her just as everyone knows that I love Fukase, you don’t try to hide it.”

“I mean, yeah, but… it’s embarrassing when people that aren’t even in my grade knows that.”

Mayu clutches onto his shoulders and looks at him with encouraging eyes. “Don’t worry, Moke, I support your love! I think it’s great that you show it to the world!”

“Really…? Doesn’t it make some people feel uncomfortable?” Moke asks, feeling unsure of himself.

“It doesn’t matter what those people think; people who don’t support our kind of love deserves to die!”

Moke isn’t sure if his obsessive liking to Rin should be encouraged, but he lets it be encouraged anyway. Eyes sparkling, he agrees, “You’re right! We should cut those people’s existence out of our lives!”

“That’s right! They deserve to be killed!”

“Ha haa…!” Moke laughs a bit uncomfortably and warns, “Don’t say something like that so loud or people might actually believe you.”

Mayu gives him a long look and sits next to him, shaking her head in disappointment and sighing, “Oh Moke, you are a coward.”

Chapter Text

From the time spent on earth, Tianyi has come to the belief that there’s good in everyone, that even the cruellest person has at least the tiniest bit of a sweet side. With such a belief, she’s able to list all the positive things about a person- except for Fukase. She has yet to hear or witness anything good about Fukase.

She remembers when she first introduced herself to him, she didn’t straight up tell him that she’s an angel but rather an alien, just like she says to everyone else as to not be put upon a throne.

He responded back to her as if speaking to a child, gasping, “Wow, really? Well, aren’t you special? Maybe you’ll get along with the other special vocaloids. We got a singing fan and sword and vacuum- oh, but maybe you're an alien who wants to meet other species. You can talk to Oliver, he’s a monster, and Sweet Ann, and Big Al. They’re all monsters!”

Curious, she asks, “Really? What kind of monsters are they?”

Fukase’s face drops dead serious, his voice going to a low, grim tone. “Does it matter? They’re monsters so they would definitely enjoy killing you and eating you up! Take this as a warning and avoid them at all costs. Monsters don’t deserve friends.”

Tianyi is very confused at this point but also a bit scared due to his tone. “But… I thought you just told me that I’d get along with them-”

“I said nothing! You probably misunderstood me because you’re used to your weird alien language. Anyway, monsters are terrible, so if you see one of them like, uhh… Oliver or something, spit on him. It weakens him.”

“But Fukase… aren’t you a monster?”

Heavy silence follows for a good second before Fukase breaks it with a shocked cry, “How could you say that!? Calling me a monster when I just met you! How can anyone be so cruel!?”

Tianyi desperately tries to apologize, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you, I just-”

Ignoring her, Fukase takes out his phone and calls Rin, putting her on speaker. “Rin! You won’t believe what just happened to me! You know Tianyi?”

Rin answers, “Yeah, I know Tianyi. She looks really nice-”

“Well, she’s not nice!” Fukase sobs, “She- she called me a monster!”

Rin gasps in surprise, “That’s so mean!”

“I know! Hold up, I gotta tell my bro!” Fukase hangs up on Rin and calls Piko. As the phone rings, the redhead keeps shooting quick daggers at Tianyi, making her feel worse than she already does before the phone stops after three rings.

“...Hello?” Piko’s voice is heard through the speaker.

Getting straight to the point, Fukase shouts, “Piko! Tianyi called me a monster!”

“...Good,” Piko deadpans heavily. Hearing silence on the other end, Piko adds, “I mean, maybe she’s wrong physical wise- you could just be a really unhealthy kid, but mental and emotional wise? She just stated a fact.”

Fukase doesn’t say anything and Tianyi doesn’t dare utter a word. Still hearing silence from his end, Piko asks, “Is that all you want to say? I’m reading a book, so-”

“Piko, you’re not helping!” Fukase shouts before hanging up on him.

Feeling incredibly bad, Tianyi continues to apologise, “I’m sorry, Fukase! Please don’t be upset! What I said was awful! I wasn’t thinking! I- I-!”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I was just messing with you,” all of the emotions in Fukase’s voice drops in an instant as he suddenly looks bored of their interaction.

“Wha- what…?”

A large grin spreads on the boy’s face before he started laughing, “Haha! Did you fall for my obvious, overblown act? You’re so gullible! You looked like you were about to cry! Hahaha!”

“Wait… You were just messing with me?” Tianyi asks in disbelief.

“Yep. I was only teasing you. It’s a joke, so you can laugh.”

Hearing him telling her to laugh makes her feel as if she actually should, so she tries her best to force one out and it ends up sounding uncomfortable.

“It’s okay if you didn’t know, you are an alien.”

She’s not sure if she should feel insulted by that or not.

It was an unpleasant experience, to say the least, but it left her curious about him. He can’t be as heartless as he comes out as, she’s sure that he has a soft side. After all, Rin sounds like she likes him, and although Piko called him a monster, she has a feeling that the two are great friends.

Tianyi decided to interview some vocaloids of their thoughts on him, starting off with Yuma. Notepad and pen in hand, she questions, “Yuma, do you mind me asking what you think of Fukase?”

“He tainted my music sheets…” Yuma muttered. Although not shown by voice, he looked sad, avoiding eye contact with Tianyi by looking to the floor.

“He what…?”

“I like to write my own lyrics and poems… He took my sheets… and used them to wipe the mustard off his burger because he claims to hate mustard… but he didn’t hate it half an hour later when he had a second burger…”

Tianyi feels really sorry for him. Not being what she wanted to hear, she comforted him with a pat on the back before moving on to Iroha.

“Ooo! I love Fukase! I love him ‘cuz he loves Hello Kitty and I love Hello Kitty!” Iroha gushed.

Hearing something positive about him, Tianyi grins. “Oh really? That’s cute of him.”

Iroha adds, “Yep! Yep! He loves Hello Kitty so much that he took all my merch!”

“Wait- what?”

“He says that he’s just borrowing them though ‘cuz he loves her so much. I love her, too!”

Tianyi wonders on if Fukase plans to internally “burrow” them.

Wanting to hear something good about him, she speaks to the people who she believes to be his friends, starting off with Rin. She feels a bit embarrassed to have been distracted by the size of the Crypton vocaloids house before Rin snapped her out of it by calling her name.

“Oh- uh- yes… Mind if I ask you some questions?” Tianyi asks.

Keeping her happy mood, Rin answers, “Yep! I mean nope! I mean… wait… you can ask me questions!”

“Thank you. So tell me, what do you think about Fukase?”

Rin’s eyes sparkle as she answers, “He’s… an awesome guy! He’s so cool! And funny! And mysterious! We’re like partners in crime!”

“Partners in crime?” Tianyi repeats, feeling intrigued.

“Yep. We do pranks together. He shows me how to do them; he’s really clever.”

“That’s sweet,” despite complimenting their actions, Tianyi wonders on how far they go with their pranks. “Okay, next question: what’s the best thing that Fukase has ever done and what’s the worst?”

“The best…?” Rin goes silent for a while as if in thought and answers, “He became my friend… and is still my friend. And the worst is… I can’t think of anything.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing! He’s an awesome boy! Amazing! Great!”

Hearing her praise him so much, Tianyi wonders how Fukase behaves around her for her to put him on such a high pedestal.

Before leaving, she decides to speak to her twin as well. “Len, out of curiosity, what do you think of Fukase?”

“I-” Len pauses and suddenly goes silent as if recalling past events before grumbling, “I think that he’s a bad influence.”

“In what way?”

“He brings my sister into trouble… She used to be caring. And he taught her to keep pulling pranks on me! Plus, he made her extra happy today which only makes her extra annoying.”

“How’d he make her happy?”

“He called her a ‘cutie’ and it got to her head.”

Tianyi felt warmth in her heart as she awed, “Awww! Does he like her?”

“No, that’s how he naturally talks. How dare he dilute Rin’s mind by calling her a cutie? She’s not attractive, she’s Rin. Stupid Fukase with his sly tongue,” Len was sounding as if he was forgetting what the main point of the conversation was.

“Oh yeah, I think I remember him casually calling me ‘sweetheart’...” feeling as if her whole presence was forgotten, Tianyi slowly walked away while saying, “Uuuhh… Thank you, Len. I’ll be leaving now.”

Len was too busy complaining to realise that she left.

Moving on to the last person, Tianyi visits Piko at his apartment and asks him about Fukase.

“What do I think about Fukase? Umm… Well, he’s not too bad. He’s entertaining. He’s less sensitive than other people, but he still has a heart,” Piko answers. “He might seem cruel at first, but once you get to know him, you’d find that he’s actually pretty caring.”

By the way Piko was describing him, Tianyi felt moved.

Speaking of Fukase, the boy himself opened the apartment door without a single knock, waving as he says, “Hey, Piko.”

“The door wasn’t locked…?” Piko asked in unsettlement.

“Nope. Lucky for you, I came for you to notice,” Fukase answers.

“I mean, I mostly lock it so you don’t barge in, so-”

“Don’t care, listen to me,” Fukase walks in his apartment while keeping the door open, holding a plastic bag in hand.

Unamused, Piko deadpans, “Take your shoes off-”

“Doesn’t matter, this is more important.”

“At least close the door-”

“Nope, this is more important.”

The two glared at each other in silence. For friends, Tianyi was not expecting this heavy mood of a greeting.

“Look,” Fukase takes out a PS4 console from the bag and opens a slot, letting water spill out onto the floor. “I cleaned your PlayStation.”

“You put it in the dishwasher,” Piko points out with the same unamused expression.

“Yes. You always complain about me eating while playing with it, so I cleaned it for you.”

“You know very well that putting it in a dishwasher would break it.”

“Yes. It’s clean now. You’re welcome.”

A more heavy silence fills the air till Fukase couldn’t help but grin and started spilling out laughter. Frustrated, Piko growled, “You jerk!”

He pounces on him, knocking him on the floor and sending the broken PS4 flying as he repeatedly began to smack him. Despite the attack, Fukase continued to laugh and joke, “It’s just a joke, bro! Please don’t hurt me, baby, you know I love you!”

“Love died when you murdered my PlayStation!” Piko raged.

Tianyi never expected to see someone as timid and level headed as Piko to break out like this.

“No-! Haha! Dude, calm down! I’ll buy you another one!” Fukase claims, making Piko halt and ask, “Really…?”

“Yeah, just give me, like, three-hundred bucks-” while saying that, Fukase has gone back to being hit once more.

Despite all she has witnessed, Tianyi refused to give up to there being a good side of Fukase, and so she started to follow him around from behind. Stalking, as you’d say.

Through lurking around, she is now witnessing Fukase in a field of flowers with Yuki, having caught a butterfly in his arms and showing it to her. “Wow, she’s so pretty!” Yuki admires.

Tianyi found it a really cute scene to behold.

“Yeah, it looks pretty enough to eat,” Fukase responds. Yuki says what Tianyi was thinking, which was, “Wait, what?”

They both got their answer when he faced the sky and opened his mouth wide, lowering the butterfly with one hand to his mouth.

“No, don’t eat her!” Yuki shouted in panic. Fukase immediately shut his mouth and agreed, “Yeah, you’re right. I’d probably get sick from eating raw bugs. Eh, oh well.” Shrugging, it seemed as if he’s let it go free only for him to slip it into his hat.

“No, don’t trap her in a dark place! Take her out!” Yuki cried.

“Can’t, my hat ate it,” Fukase said, taking off his hat to show her the emptiness inside.

“Wha- what? Your hat is alive?”

“Yeah, he’s alive,” Fukase brought his hat closer to her and said, “Here, pet him. Careful though, he might bite your hand off.”

“...Are you trying to scare me?” Yuki questions hesitantly.

“No, I’m not trying to,” Fukase answers. Yuki stares at him quizzingly and he widens his grin in response, making her eyes round in fear. “You’re not like the nice monster in my storybook…” she pouted.

“The Bogeyman thinks I’m nice.”

“The Bogeyman isn’t real…”

“Oh, he won’t like hearing you say that…” Fukase muttered. Yuki tries to be tough for a little longer before breaking into tears and running away, crying, “No one will like you if you be mean!”

“I like me!” Fukase shouts back, staying where he stood.

Infuriated by the scene, Tianyi stomped towards him and scolded, “Fukase, you just made a little girl cry and you don’t even care! That’s terrible!”

“Almost as terrible as stalking?” Fukase asks, getting Tianyi to get flustered that he knew. “Besides, I’m terrible- as you said- so it’s a given.”

“Y-you’re not terrible…!” Tianyi backtracked.

“If you don’t think I’m terrible then you must be terrible, too.”

“No, uh-” Tianyi wonders how he could be saying that about himself with a nonchalant smile. “You’re only hiding your kindness!”

Fukase looks like he heard an unamusing joke as he asked, “I’m what?”

“You have kindness, it’s hidden deep into your heart, but I’m sure that once you let it show, it’ll be the biggest kindness known to man,” Tianyi spoke passionately.

“Like the Grinch?”

“Uh- sure, like him. As long as you have a heart, you have some form of kindness…” Tianyi placed her palm to where his heart should be and didn’t feel a beat. “Um… Where is it?”

“It’s on this side,” Fukase takes her wrist and leads it to the right of his chest, where a beat was felt.

“Oh…” Tianyi smiles sheepishly. “You’re an interesting one. Do you have any important plans today?”

“If I say yes, would you leave me be?”

“You already answered my question by asking that.” That was the last thing that Tianyi told him before she grabbed his hand and ran as if she had something in mind. Not too far off, they stop near a small ice cream booth with Kaito running the station.

Seeing the two, Kaito’s eyes sparkle as he happily waves to them and greets, “Hello! Do you guys want some ice cream?”

Fukase responds by laughing, “Haha! If he’s this excited about two customers then his business must be failing!”

“No, not at all. I’m just excited that I get the chance to talk to my friends.” Kaito’s response that shows that he’s not insulted in the slightest and being so nice made Fukase groan in disappointment.

Tianyi answers Kaito in a just as happy tone, “No, we’re not customers. I just brought Fukase over so he could work with you.”

“He wants to work with me?” Kaito gleams.

“I want to work with him!?” Fukase repeats in shock. “Says who?”

“Says me and your good conscious. With this job, you can be helping a man with his small business and serve up smiles,” Tiayni explains.

Overhearing the conversation as she was passing by, Cul jokes, “Fukase serving up smiles? I’m sure the only thing he could serve up are children’s tears once they see his face!”

“Haha, Cul, you’re a riot!” Fukase fakes a laugh. “Tag me along with you when you visit France, okay?”

“Aww, don’t mind her, Fukase! She’s just being mean,” Tianyi tries to comfort him.

“Nah, it’s fine. We joke around like that all the time; And, you know, she really helped, because now I want to work here just to prove her wrong and to get you off my back.”

“Your honesty is great…”

And so Fukase got his own worker apron and started his job of serving ice cream as Kaito went off to stock up on supplies. All the while, Tianyi watched him from the bench and stopped him every time he was going to pull a prank such as give a kid an ice cream with a fake spider dug into it.

As Fukase dealt with more annoying customers with sobbing kids and entitled parents, he was beginning to lose his spirit. He’s wondering how much more he can take when a kid came up to the stand only to say, “I wanted some ice cream but I lost my appetite when I saw your face,” and cackled off.

“You heard him, right?” Fukase asks Tianyi, “I can punch that kid, can’t I?”

“No, of course not!” Tianyi refuses, startled by the question in of itself.

At some point, as Tianyi was lost in her own thoughts, she snapped out of it only to see Fukase standing in front of her with Gachapoid around his arm.

“Hey Tianyi, I was thinking: you only want me to work so I can be good, right? But I’ll have you know, my buddy right here thinks I’m great,” Fukase claims, patting Gachapoid’s shoulder. “Right, Gacha?”

“Oh yeah, totally. Fukase gives me tasty food whenever I’m hungry and cheers me up when I’m sad,” Gachapoid agrees. Hearing the bond between the two gave Tianyi a heartwarming feeling. She awes, “How sweet! I knew there was good in you, you didn’t even need me to push it out of you.”

“Wow, you actually bought my act!?” Gachapoid gleams with pride. “Cool! I knew I’d make a good actor! My acting career starts now! Fukase, pay me the ten bucks you promised.”

A long silence follows as Gachapoid continues to hold out his hand, waiting for some cash until Fukase breaks the silence by grasping his cheeks and asking, “Are you stupid? Are you really this stupid? I never thought it was possible for anyone to be this much of an idiot!”

“Ah haha, you know, I think I am stupid, because, like, I forgot just how scary you are until now,” Gachapoid laughs nervously and slips out of Fukase’s grasp, quickly running off.

Hearing himself do a low growl while watching the boy run, Fukase remembers that Tianyi is still sitting in front of him, and so he faces her with a grin and chuckles, “Funny kid, he makes me laugh.”

Seeing the angry pout remain on Tianyi’s face, Fukase adds, “I mean, can you believe how stupid he is? Ha!”

“Fukase, you not only tried to trick me, but you scared off a little kid,” Tainyi states sternly.

“No I didn’t! Gacha’s just a weird kid!” Fukase denies. Spotting Oliver walking past him, he drags him over by the arms and puts his arm around his shoulder, asking, “You think I’m nice, right, Oliver?”

Noticing Oliver having a hard time in knowing how to answer, he stares at him with a large grin. Such a grin scared Oliver to the point where he squealed, “Yes! Yes… So please be nice to me.”

Fukase looks over at Tianyi and sees that she’s angrier than before. Knowing that it’ll be his best option, he lets go of Oliver and mutters, “I’m gonna get back to work.”

“Please do,” Tianyi responds.

Getting back to work, things were going well enough for Tianyi to forgive him for the stunt he pulled, until he had a mother complaining to him over how he should give her a free scoop of ice cream since her son dropped his. “I paid my money and my son never even took a lick of it! I think it’s only fair that you give him another one for free!”

“But it’s not our fault that your son dropped his ice-” as Fukase was talking, he was cut off by the mother shouting, “That shouldn’t matter! Give him another one right now!”

Having enough of her shouts and the spits that are flying all around his face, Fukase gives in, “Fine, whatever you say, lady.”

As the woman walks over to her son to comfort him, Fukase could hear her complaining about him. Looking below him, he finds a splattered ice cream on the floor that the ants have infested. “I could scoop that ice cream right off the ground and plop it on a cone… I can serve it to her like that… That’ll be so funny.”

He must have been staring at it for too long, because Tianyi knew what he was thinking and told him, “Fukase, don’t,” with no further context. He stares at her and back at the ice cream rotting on the ground only to sigh in annoyance and scoop up a fresh ice cream to serve.

More annoying customers continued to come, the only thing being able to cheer the redhead up being that he could tell Tianyi was becoming proud of him and his tolerance. It cheers him up even more when he gets a text from Kaito saying that he’s on his way to man the station once more.

Soon, this job that he considers hell will end, and he could go back to causing hell on others, instead…

“I want a vanilla ice cream, and chocolate ice cream, and strawberry ice cream, and orange, and mango, and cherry, and mint chocolate chip, and oreo, and banana, and birthday cake, and hazelnut, and matcha, and cranberry!”

“...What?” Fukase stares at Rana, believing that her whole order was a joke.

“You didn’t hear me? I said I want a-”

“I know what you want,” Fukase quickly clarifies, not wanting to hear her list the entire menu of flavours again.

Una, who’s standing next to her with tacky shades that she must find really cool to be wearing, snaps her finger and goes, “Alright, man, you heard her order; give it to the girl.”

“Do you guys want it separate or something? Like, split it six and seven?”

“No no! It’s all mine and it’s going to be a big and colourful tower!” Rana explains, holding her hands in the air as if to show how tall the ice creams will stack together.

“You do know that it’ll all fall, right?” Fukase asks.

“Come on, just give me it! I promise I won’t drop it!”

“No, that’s not the point, it’s that-”

“I got the money!” Rana takes out a crumbled stash of dollars and shows it to him. Fukase still found the order to be ridiculous, but a funny outcome came to his head that made him shrug, “Fine, whatever you want.”

Rana jumps in excitement as she sees the ice creams get stacked onto one another till all thirteen different flavours of ice cream were on one cone. He cautiously hands it to her and she carefully takes a hold of it and gleams, “Wow… Wow! Wow!”

A lean of the ice cream tower coming towards the girl made Una gasp and shout, “Watch out!”

The slow grin creeping up on Fukase’s face quickly drops into a jaw-dropping frown as he sees Una tilt the cone that Rana holds and the ice cream now coming to his direction. Before he could make a move, the ice creams on top fell at him like rain, staining his clothes and hair in all kinds of colours and only leaving four scoops on Rana’s cone.

Fukase doesn’t know how to react at the moment, feeling sick. His beloved white and red outfit has been stained with a bunch of other colours that don’t go well together. Una desperately repeating apologies and grabbing lots of napkins to try to helplessly wipe off the stains did make him feel a little better, but all chances of him being calm got ruined when Rana counted, “One, two, three, four… Okay, I’m going to need you to put nine more scoops again.”

Trembling and twitching, he suddenly completely freezes only for his body to jolt up and pound on the stand, shouting at her, “You idiot! What the hell do you mean you want nine more scoops!? Did you not see what you just did to me!?”

“I made you colourful! You look so much better now; you looked so boring before,” Rana answers bluntly.

“You think I look good? Well, I got good news for you: the tower of ice cream was met to fall on you, not me!”

Getting annoyed at being shouted at, Rana shouts back, “Good! That sounds like a fun thing!”

“Alright then, here’s your fun!” Fukase thrusts her cone upwards, letting the ice cream smack her face. When a scoop fell to the ground, Rana’s eyes that were full of tears became visible as she sniffed back snot. “Y-You hurt my nose…!” she stammers as she stares down at the splattered ice cream on the ground.

“Did I? Oh well, only makes your nose look a lot more fun. It’s very colourful now,” Fukase taunts, pretending to be nonchalant about it.

“You’re such a- a dirtbag!” It sounds like Una’s spicy side has come out, and she was getting really riled up.

“A dirtbag? At least I’m not an idiot like your pig of a friend!”

As a fight was breaking out, Tianyi was distracted giving flowers to a group of little girls and telling them all of how pretty they are, only noticing the fight when the shouts of the two got louder. Not being able to imagine the mess that Fukase has caused, she quickly rushes up to the stand only to hear Una shout to Fukase’s face, “Why don’t you go back to your cage, you monster!”

“Why don’t you go back to the kitchen at a sushi restaurant, you eel!” Fukase shouts back, and only then does he notice Tianyi. Quickly, he tries to justify himself by putting his arms in the air to give attention to his stained clothes and tries to justify, “It’s not my fault! Look! Rana dropped her ice cream on me!”

Tianyi looked at the little girl who had tears on her face and was trying to bring her snot from dripping down. She questions, “Why’d you give her a tall stack?”

“She insisted on it!”

“You knew it was going to fall.”

“Yeah, but- I mean, she had the money, and…” Fukase stops when he hears Tianyi’s sigh and knows that she knows the real reason as to why he did so. “Okay, fine. I gave her it because I wanted to see a tower of ice cream fall onto a little girl so I could laugh at her like the monster I am. That’s what you want to hear, right?”

“No, that’s not what I want to hear! I want to hear you being good!”

“Okay then, here’s something to hear: I rescued orphans from a burning foster home. Wasn’t that a nice little fiction? Because only in fiction could a monster like me do something nice.”

Tianyi felt as if there was something bothering him and huffed, “You’re not a monster, Fukase! You have a heart! It’s not in the normal place, but it’s still there.”

“Oh yeah? Well too bad that I’ll never use it.” Fukase smirked grimly and pointed at Rana, “I enjoy laughing at people’s misfortunes and get entertained by their tears. The only thing that would make Rana’s crying more pleasurable right now is if she’ll cry louder.”

Rana whimpers and goes behind Una, the blue-hair girl looking ready to bite him.

“That’s not true-” Tianyi gets cut off by Fukase’s frustrated growl that doesn’t match with his forced smile.

“Of course that’s not true! You know what’s true! You know everything about everyone! You know me more than me! Go on, Tianyi! Go on and open up all the other ugly people’s hearts in the world! You’re an angel sent down from God himself, so you could definitely do it!”

Before she had time to say anything else, Fukase ran off with a quick, “Goodbye!”

As much as she wanted to chase after him, she felt that she must comfort the kids, first.

. . .

In his small apartment where he lives alone, Fukase is now taking a shower to wash off the many flavours of ice cream that stains his hair. As he does, he can’t help but stare at his odd, wrinkled, scratched up body that stands out with its unnaturally white colour. ‘Tianyi is so stupid… She’s probably designed to be an alien that came from a planet exactly like heaven, she will understand absolutely nothing about me.’

He took longer than he needed to finish. Putting pants on and then buttoning up a shirt, he hears a knock on his door that gets him to have to walk while buttoning up the last of his collar area.

“Who is it?” he cooed.

A girl’s voice answers, “It’s Tianyi… Can I come in?”

“Nope. You’d be breaking the restraining order if I let you in.”

“What?! You put a restraining order on me!?”

Tianyi heard a laugh behind the door that makes her embarrassed that she believed an obvious joke.

“I’m joking,” Fukase explains and opens the door, letting her in. Right away, she notices that his apartment looks very clean and fancy. She also notices that his hair is wet.

“Um… Did you have a nice shower?” she asks.

“You’d like to know?” Fukase smirks at her, making her feel embarrassed for asking.

She retracts, “Nevermind!”

He laughs and she sighs. “I came over to say that I’m sorry, actually…” she apologizes, twiddling her fingers. “I was pushing you too hard to change.”

“Yeah, it’s fine, I don’t really care. Plus, I come off as a monster, so I guess that change is needed,” Fukase shrugs, caressing the back of his head. “...I will try to change, eventually…”

“Thank you, I appreciate that. I’ll try to go a lot easier with you.”

His smile looks different than the ones she usually sees him do, looking softer. “You want to go out for a walk?” he asks.

“You just took a shower, won’t you get sick?” Tianyi asks.

“Yeah, maybe,” Fukase answers while already being out the door. “Welp, let’s go.”

. . .

Walking around a nearby park, the two spoke about many things. “Did you come down from a UFO or something?” Fukase asks with a chuckle.

“No, I came down by light teleportation and fell from the sky right on Ling,” Tianyi giggles.

They stop walking when they hear a familiar little girl’s voice and turns around to see Yuki running up to them. “Fukase, I got something to give you!” she shouts out to him.

“Oh my God, she’s getting revenge for me letting my hat eat up that butterfly earlier!” Fukase guesses, readily putting his hands up in defence.

Seeing his arms up, Yuki goes around him and puts her arms around him from the back. He begins to panic, “Tianyi! She’s trying to squeeze the food I ate right out of me! Get her off of me!”

“I think she’s hugging you,” Tianyi points out.

“Oh yeah, kids could do that,” Fukase stops struggling and adds, “I mean, pfft- of course. I was kidding when I said that she’s attacking me, I didn’t forget that kids have the ability to hug me. Haha, stupid.”

Yuki lets go of him and explains, “I read a story about the bogeyman and it says that he’s not actually trying to be mean when he does bad things but that’s how he learnt to play because no one was with him to tell him how to play nice. He’s actually a fun guy though! He just needed someone to show him love!”

“So?” Fukase asks.

“So I’ll show you love!”

Fukase stays quiet for a while before chuckling, “Heh… Kids are really stupid…”

“Fukase! That’s not nice! She’s giving you a chance!” Tianyi scolded.

“Yeah…” he mumbled and then lowered himself down to her eye-level, placing a hand on her shoulder and saying, “You’re a sweet kid.”

Yuki showed her pride from the compliment by standing up straight and Tianyi felt a lot more satisfied with that response. She gives him a little thumbs-up and encourages, “Good job!”

Fukase gets closer to Yuki and continues, “In fact, you’re so sweet that I’ll let you sit on a throne with me when I overtake the world and make everyone be my slave.”

“A throne?” Yuki asks, “Like a princess?”

“Yes, I shall make you a princess.”

The little girl’s eyes enlarge with sparkles. “Okay! I’ll wait!”

He hushed his voice, “Yeah, but you have to keep it a secret from everyone or the government might hear and we’d get in trouble, especially since Tianyi’s right next to us and she doesn’t know that she’s going to be one of the first.”

“Oh, okay,” Yuki nods her head to show that she understands and then palaces her index finger on her lips. “Shh.”

He does the same, repeating, “Shh.”

“What the heck are you telling the child?!” Tianyi yells in worry.

. . .

Piko opens the door to his apartment without a key, finding that he left it unlocked again. “I seriously needed to remember to lock the door…” he mutters as he walked in, freezing when he spotted a big gift box in the middle of the room with a sticky note that says, “From Fukase”.

Knowing that it’s from Fukase makes the box just as frightening as if it was from an anonymous person. Taking cation, Piko goes to the kitchen and comes back to the box with a large tablecloth wrapped around him and kitchen scissors in hand, staying at a safe distance as he extends his hand to cut the wrapper open.

Seeing a blue box through the wrapper, he slices it with the scissors and sees a picture of a Playstation on it. “Huh…?”

He lets go of the tablecloth and puts the scissors on a table, running close to the box and ripping the wrappers off, finding a Playstation 5 in his view. “He actually bought me a new Playstation? And this just came out a week ago, so it’s hard to find in stores, too…” the boy began to get teary-eyed as he uttered, hugging the box. “If I find an Xbox inside, I’m going to scream.”

Fortunately for him, there actually was a Playstation inside.

Chapter Text

“Dex!” Daina shouts and stomps her way up the stairs to get to Dex’s apartment room. Once arriving at his door, she repeatedly banged on it until Dex opened it.

“Oh! Hi, Daina-” the boy looked so happy to see her that his tail was wagging without his knowledge, but once seeing her sharp teeth from her scowl and her eyebrows furrowed so angrily, he immediately shut the door.

“Dex, let me in!” she demanded.

“Ummm… Let me think about that.” Dex looks through the peephole and sees hot air coming out of her nose from the other side, making him answer, “No.”

“Let me in!”

“No! You’re scary!”

Dex heard what he could tell to be Daina repeatedly scratching at his door and began to scream. From all of the shouting, they both got an angry shout from their downstairs neighbour, Mizki, who was repeatedly banging her broomstick on the ceiling and shouting, “Be quiet! It might be daytime, but Yuma wants to sleep and I won’t allow you to wake him up!”

From his bed, Yuma mutters sadly, “But Mizki, you just woke me up…”

Settling down, Daina tries to negotiate with him, “Okay, okay, how about this: I promise to calm down once you open the door.”

“R-really…?”

“Really.”

“You promise?”

Daina thinks of how he could be such a kid with her at times. “I promise.”

Dex slowly opens the door and Daina steps in, only to let out a roar while revealing a spray bottle in her hand full of water. Dex shrieks, “Gyaaah! You promised that you won’t be mad!”

“I’m not mad, I’m just getting serious!” Daina rebuked.

“Please don’t shoot me!”

“Tell me where you took my heart-shaped pillow and I’ll spare you!”

From downstairs, Mizki was heavily questioning what’s going on up there. Yuma guesses from his bed, “Sounds like she has a gun… this must be a lover’s quarrel!”

“Don’t get excited over a girl aiming a gun at her boyfriend!” Mizki scolded, a bit afraid by his reaction.

Dex gasps at Daina’s accusation and rejects, “I never took your pillow! That would be stealing!”

“Don’t act offended! You took my scarf before and dug it under the ground of the front lawn- oh… no. You. Didn’t,” the thought hits Daina slowly and she smacks her head with annoyance.

“That was one time! I didn’t take your pillow, I promise!”

“Fine. I’m gonna dig up the yard, and if I find my pillow, I’m spraying the water straight into your ears!”

“Noooo!” Dex cries, bringing his ears down to hold on to them.

Daina stomps down the stairs of the apartment and Dex watches her digging up the ground outside with her hands from a window. He bites his lips and runs to his bedroom, rummaging under his bed to pull out a small, heart-shaped pillow. “I’m sorry, Daina...” he mutters and squeezes the pillow against his chest, taking a huge sniff of its scent, “but I love feeling like your always close to me! Heehee!”

He wags his tail and lays on his bed, hugging the pillow as he lets out a comfortable sigh.

Maika must have very bad timing, for she decided to pay her friend a visit while her friend was dealing with a little situation and ended up catching her sniffing the dirt. “Hi, Daina- uh… do foxes hibernate?”

“No, and I’m not getting ready for hibernation. Dex took a thing of mine again and I’m suspecting that he dug it up. Seriously, I feel like I’m the only person who has to deal with this kind of thing!” Daina complains.

“I don’t know about digging things up, but lots of couples deal with that. We just feel so comfortable with our lover’s possessions that we don’t even realize that we took any right away!” Maika explains, cuddling her jacket which Daina just noticed belongs to Yohioloid.

“Huh… Doesn’t he ever get mad at you?” Daina asks.

“He never seems to bring it up. I think we’re close enough to get comfortable with borrowing small things from each other without much worry,” Maika swoons at the thought.

“Dex feels that comfortable with me? Isn’t that, like, on a married couple love…?” Daina blushes a little as she asks the question. “I guess that’s nice…”

A minute later, Dex was startled to hear an “Ah-ha!”, making the tips of his hair stick up. Daina marched up to his bed and looks down at him, declaring, “So you did take my pillow!”

Feeling incredibly guilty, Dex couldn’t help but cry as he apologized, “I’m sorry! I just wanted something of yours to feel close to you! You’ve been focusing so much on getting your songs sung and giving attention to your fans that I started to miss you! Please don’t spray me…!”

Seeing the sad, guilty look he has with his ears drooping low and his lips pouting, Daina sighs and then softens her expression, sitting on the bed next to him to ruffle his hair. “I’m not going to spray you, Dex. If you missed me so much then you could’ve just told me! I could’ve made some time. I could focus more on singing duets with you, too.”

“You’re right… So you forgive me…?”

“Eh…” Daina looks at his hopeful eyes and takes a hold of his cheeks, nuzzling her head against his. “Of course I do, because I know that you’re a good boy!”

His tail sways in excitement and his ears perk up as he asks, “I am?”

“Yeah, you’re a very good boy!”

Dex lays on Daina’s lap and lets he spoil him some more by ruffling his hair and moving his ears around to get the good spots.

They hear a voice that makes them freeze and dart their eyes towards the door, seeing Maika. “Daina, you told me that Dex has ice cream in the freezer, but I couldn’t find any- oh…”

Screaming from embarrassment in his head, Dex quickly picks up Daina’s pillow and hides his blushing face with it.

“You like to get treated like a dog, Dex?” Maika asked with a curious smile.

“No!”

“But I just saw you-”

He reveals his face which was changed to look mature and serious as he answers, “I’m a tough, hard-core wolf.”

Maika could only wonder how someone could switch such an embarrassed face so fast.

. . .

Meanwhile, in the house for the PowerFX family, Yohioloid was throwing everything he could find around in a desperate attempt to find his coat. “Who keeps on taking my stuff!? Who’s the thief!? When I find out who he is, I’m going to cut his hands and burn them into a disk!”

In the corner, Oliver watches and sweats nervously as he mutters, “Brother is scary when he loses the things he likes…”