Chapter Text
Tsumugi glanced over the paper in front of her, laying her pen down on the desk beside it. The story she was riding looked good enough, except for a few notable grammar mistakes. She would have to correct that later.
The ultimate cosplayer was far from The best writer at Hopes peak. In fact, writing wasn't even part of her talent, but when one loves characters as much as she does, it's only natural to want to write them as well.
She had wrote the occasional fanfic here and there, though she was sure none of them were as good as the ones made by the ultimate fanfic creator in another class. Nor was she confident that her writing was anywhere close to the ultimate riding prodigy who happened to be in that exact same other class.
No, Tsumugi simply did it as a pastime hobby, one that she wasn't exactly trying to hide but that she didn't openly discuss with her classmates either.
This story was different though. Apart from loving characters, she also liked to imagine how the people in her life would fit into different kinds of stories. Sometimes, the ideas would take over her and she would craft a fanfic about her friends or anyone else she knew.
Unlike her regular fanfics, she never planned on sharing those with anyone. It wasn't that her love for figuring out what kind of stories would work well for her friends was any secret, but it would be so embarrassing if any of them ever found out that she turned some of them into actual fanfics.
The cosplayer glanced up at the clock in her dorm room. Already past midnight...
Staying up late wasn't anything new for her, she would often do it to finish making her cosplay outfits. But occasionally she would find herself riding late into the night as well.
Tsumugi stretched and got up from her seat. Maybe she could finish fixing this story tomorrow, she thought. It wouldn't be good to be late for class the next day.
Turning off her lamp, Tsumugi lay down on her bed and allowed her eyes to slowly drift shut. Before she knew it, she had fallen into a dreamless sleep.
Junko tapped her foot restlessly in the dining hall. It was lunch the next day and as always she looked extremely bored. The ultimate fashionista was content with her talent and her role in it, but she had seen so much already that not much surprised her anymore.
She glanced over at the girl sitting opposite her, the ultimate cosplayer herself. Unsurprisingly, Tsumugi had bags under her eyes yet again."Did you stay up last night making another one of your cosplays?
"What time did you sleep?" Junko asked as she picked at her food.
Tsumugi, Who had been lost in thought, looked over at her.
"Hmm? About midnight," she replied, trying her best to stifle a yawn.
"Figured," Junko said. "Which cosplay were you making this time?"
Tsumugi hesitated. "Uh, Haruhi Suzumiya?" She tried.
Junko rolled her eyes. "Yeah totally," she replied sarcastically. "Come on Tsumugi, you're clearly hiding something. What's the catch?"
The cosplayer looked away, her cheeks reddening a little. "It's nothing really," she replied, subconsciously fidgeting with her bag where her now almost finished fanfic sad, concealed from prying eyes.
Junko, The extremely sharp, observant person that she was, noticed it.
"What's in your bag?"
Tsumugi covered her face with one hand as her blush deepened to a rosy pink. "I, just a story."
"Not any ordinary story from the way your acting," Junko pressed. "Wait, I know, it's something naughty isn't it? Ooooooh you're writing not safe for work stuff of your favourite anime charac...""
"No nothing like that!" Tsumugi cried, slowly lowering her hand. "It's just, really embarrassing."
"Embarrassing huh? And it's not something naughty," Junko mused. "What is it about us or something?"
Tsumugi squeaked and turned away. That fashionista was way too smart for her own good.
"From your reaction I'm guessing I nailed it!" Junko said triumphantly. She then frowned slightly as she thought for a moment.
"Hmmm, now what could it be exactly? You're always writing fanfics..."
"How did you know that?" Tsumugi asked, surprised.
"Oh, you left one of your stories on the lunch table the other week and I saw it, it said fanfic number 53," Junko replied.
"Goodness so that's where it went... Well it was just a draft anyway and I rewrote it after I lost it, so it's fine. But I guess I can't hide anything from you can I?" Tsumugi replied with a sigh.
"Nope, and I going to figure out what this is too."
"Oh no..."
Junko tapped her fingers on the table. "So anyway like I said, you are always writing fanfics,
and you're always talking to us about what kind of stories we would fit into," the fashionista continued.
The cosplayer began blushing again. "I, yeah..."
"Did you write some of those ideas down into actual stories?!" Junko gasped suddenly, leaning forward in her seat and pointing excitedly at Tsumugi's bag. "Oh my gosh you have to show me!"
Tsumugi laughed nervously. Great, she guessed it, of course. Junko was always good at analysing stuff.
"Don't tell anyone," Tsumugi replied, "it's embarrassing."
"Oh hell no I'm going to tell everyone," Junko said. "This is the most exciting thing that has happened in this school since well, I don't even remember when!"
"They're **really** not that good," Tsumugi protested. "I'm sure they are quite plain compared to what your classmates can wip up."
"Girl, Quality doesn't matter. Life here is so predictable and boring," Junko replied. "Everything happens as it should and nothing crazy ever occurs. But if you wrote our friends in different scenarios, I'll at least get to imagine more exciting things happening by reading them."
"Well I guess that's true," Tsumugi agreed. "I guess I never thought of it like that."
She slowly open her bag and pulled out the story she had been working on. "If you really are interested, you can read it,"she offered, sliding the papers across the table to the fashionista. "It really isn't anything special."
Junko Took the papers and began to read the story quickly. Her eyes widened as she saw her friends going through fictional perils and trials, things way more exciting than their everyday life.
In everyday life everyone was normally happy for the most part, but in the stories, everyone had to go through so much hardship. It was so refreshing, the amount of despair everyone had to experience compared to their peaceful, boring lives.
When she was done, she pushed the papers back to Tsumugi who had been watching her anxiously this whole time.
"What did you think?" The cosplayer asked as she packed her fanfic back into her bag. "Like I said it probably wasn't that..."
"It was fucking awesome!" Junko exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "I wonder why you haven't showed me this before!"
"Well, uh, I thought it was silly and embarrassing," Tsumugi admitted. "You really liked it?"
"Yes!" Junko cried. "If only we could experience insane events like that in real life rather than just I don't know, do the same thing every day."
"It would be awful though, I mean this stuff it's fun to read about and watch in anime but to go through all that?"
"The despair would be refreshing," Junko reasoned.
"I guess you have a point..."
The girls sat there in silence for a brief moment.
"Hey, why don't you show this to everyone else?" Junko asked. "I mean, I'm sure they would love to experience the refreshing despair in the story as well. Oooh it would be even better if you wrote more."
"I do have more than one story about our friends, but like I said it's embarrassing," Tsumugi repeated. "Besides, I don't think they want to see themselves suffering."
"But if they know, we can all at least pretend to act out some of the scenes, like, pretend that something interesting is actually happening," Junko explained.
Tsumugi purked up.
"I like acting out scenes," she expressed. "We do it a lot as cosplayers, it's honestly really fun."
"Well if we acted out scenes from your stories we wouldn't even need to cosplay since we would just be ourselves," Junko continued.
A sparkle of excitement shown in Tsumugi's eyes. "You're right!" She replied. "I know not everyone is into cosplaying, but it would still be really nice to act out scenes with them. If they could just be themselves, that's half the problem gone."
"Mmmmhmmmm," Junko nodded.
Tsumugi beamed excitedly as she began imagining several scenarios. "We could role-play together," she said aloud, more to herself than anyone else. "Pretend to go on adventures, and even replace characters from anime with ourselves... I wonder how that would change a certain story, or maybe it wouldn't at all?"
"I see you're on board with the idea," Junko noted.
"Oh," Tsumugi snapped out of her fanticy and looked back at Junko. "I am," she admitted. "I do really want to role-play with everyone."
She then looked down again, a more insecure expression taking over the previously excited one. "But would they all really want to do that though?" She asked uncertainly.
"You could ask them," Junko shrugged.
"Yeah but I'm so plain, they probably wouldn't even be interested," Tsumugi sighed. "It's just a hopeless dream, even if they do notice they might not want to."
"Oh come on," Junko replied. "You know what? Why don't I do it?
"You?"
"Yeah, people definitely notice me, so I asked them for you."
"Will you really do that? What if they think I'm weird? Or that the stories are weird?"
"Well nothing is going to happen if we don't do anything," Junko reason. "Look, do you want this or not?"
"I do but..."
"Then it's settled," Junko decided. "Let's all meet up first thing tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow morning?!" Tsumugi exclaimed "But that's so soon!"
"Nah, it's almost 24 hours from now," Junko said. "I'll tell everyone in my class, your class and Chiaki's class."
"That's so many people!" Tsumugi cried. "I'm not so sure about this."
The bell rang signalling the end of lunch.
"Well the more the better right? Besides, those are all the people in your stories," Junko replied, rising from her seat.
Tsumugi stood up as well, swinging her bag onto her shoulders. "I guess you're right," she relented. "And it would be really nice if we all agreed to do it together. I guess I'm just a little nervous. Well okay, very nervous but, maybe I should look on the bright side and hope for the best."
"There you go," Junko said, slapping Tsumugi on the back. "That's the spirit!"
Tsumugi smile shyly. "Yeah, thanks for encouraging me," she replied gratefully. "I just hope it all works out tomorrow."
The two of them began making their way out of the dining hall and towards their respective classes.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure it does," Junko replied as they stepped out into the corridor. "Besides, I want to do this too, so it's in my best interest as well if it succeeds. School life is so boring without anything new happening."
Tsumugi laughed. "You get bored easily don't you? Maybe I should fit that into my next story."
The dining hall was never as crowded as it was the next morning at 7 am. Normally, most students would take their time to get ready for classes, which didn't start until nine.
But that morning, 48 students from three different classes crowded around several long tables. Some looked refreshed after a good night's sleep, others looked rather drowsy.
Nevertheless, excited and curious chatter filled the air, as Junko had informed them all that there was a very exciting announcement she wanted to make.
Tsumugi honestly did not expect her to actually be able to gather everyone, but her ultimate fashionista influence was vast. She should not have underestimated Junko.
A wave of nerves and excitement filled her. Was she actually going to be able to host a giant role-play with everyone? It seemed a bit much for the first time she thought, as she glanced at the almost 50 students surrounding her. It seemed like a good idea at the time but, what if they all got mad at her for waking them up this early for something so mundane?
After all, it was just stories and a role-play suggestion. Was it really, really that necessary to gather everyone like this? Why couldn't she just tell them all herself one by one, form a small club or something. Why did she leave everything up to Junko? Of course Junko made everything big and flashy. She was going to embarrass herself so badly...
"Okay everyone, listen up!" Junko's recognisable voice called over the crowd. "So, you might be wondering what this is all about,"
"I want to go back to sleep," complained Hiyoko, interrupting the fashionista. "Why do we have to wake up so early anyway? What's so important?"
"Great," Tsumugi thought. This was going exactly as she feared.
"Oh come on, you just got here and you want to go already?" Junko asked. "You haven't even heard what I have to say."
Hiyoko grumble to herself. "Fine but make it quick," she said.
Junko cleared her throat. "Okay so I was thinking, school life has been so boring lately hasn't it?"
Everyone looked at her, confused.
"Boring?" Chihiro asked uncertainly. "But, I mean it's been so much fun here, we're in hopes peak Academy."
"Yeah!" Kaede agreed. "Every day is filled with joy anad friendships."
"Such talented hope, shining through everyone," Nagito added.
"Yup that's exactly my point," Junko said. "We all live a life of happiness and peace, which is great and all but nothing exciting ever happens."
"Well, what do you expect from a school life?" Asked Taka.
"My bro's right," Mondo said. "It's not like we can start a fucking biker gang fight in here or something," he joked. Taka burst into laughter and gave his friend a high-five.
"Everything is peaceful here, we have friends who are like family, and graduating here means we are set for life, what else could you possibly want?" Kaito asked.
"Ugh I don't know, adventures? Drama?" Junko replied, getting a little bit annoyed that no one else seemed to understand. "Like, haven't you seen movies and stuff? Kids go to high school and some crazy thing happens, like we have to fight some villains or go solve a mysterious horrible secret about their school or
"That's just in movies though, things like that don't usually happen in real life," Kyoko reasoned. "
Besides," Taka added, "we shouldn't be fighting in the school environment."
A few students laughed at that comment.
"Maybe not in real life, Junko said. "But we can make our school life that much more entertaining by pretending that they happen."
"W-what do y-you mean?" Toko asked. "What like, m-make up a s-scenario and a-act it out o-or s-something?"
"Actually, yes exactly that," Junko replied, glad that some people were starting to catch on. "I suggest we act out some big crazy scenario and pretend that our school life is more interesting."
"It does sound like a fun idea," Chiaki mused. "And a really good bonding activity."
"That would certainly require a lot of acting and imagination on our part," Celeste continued. "Though I must admit it is an intriguing idea."
"I thought you were going to suggest something illegal for a second," TakaSaid, relieved. "On behalf of everyone in my class, I vote that it's a good idea for bonding and school harmony."
"Wait you can't vote for all of us," Sayaka protested. "Though to be honest, I thought it was a fun idea too."
"Me too," Makoto agreed.
"What gave you such a fun idea sis?" Mukuro asked, looking at her younger twin sister curiously.
"Tsumugi!" Junko announced proudly.
All eyes turned to look at the cosplayer. Tsumugi fidgeted nervously with her hands. It was time to talk about her story.
"What's this about Tsumugi?" Shuichi asked, turning to her.
The dining hall was silent. They were all waiting for her reply.
"Uh, well," she began nervously, clearing her throat. "You know how sometimes I talk about what kind of stories we would all fit into? Like what kind of protagonists each of us could be or what kind of plot we would fit best in?"
Her confidence grew a little as she talked about her interests.
"I remember," Kaede piped up.
"Well, I wrote some of those ideas down and turned them into actual stories, they're not that good or anything but... Junko asked me to show her one of them yesterday and she liked it so..."
"Wait, you wrote those ideas down Tsumugi?" Kokichi cried excitedly. "You should've told us that earlier! I totally want to see that now! I'm a super evil villain in one of your stories right?"
He bounced up and down in his seat, like an excited five-year-old who had just been told that he could go to Disneyland.
Tsumugi allowed herself to laugh a little. "Well not exactly but..."
Nervously, she pulled out some of the stories she had written from her bag. For that morning, she had not just brought the one she showed Junko the previous day, but also past works that she had sworn she would never let anyone else see.
Tsumugi put them on the table in front of her and tentatively, a few of her classmates reached out to take one.
"Oh you all are so slow," Junko said, swooping over to pick up a stack of stories and distributing them to the other tables.
Maki glared at the fashionista. "Do you wanna die?" She asked. "You should let her give them out at her own pace you know?"
"Actually, dying would be super despair inducing so yes," Junko replied.
"Sis..." Mukuro began.
"Anyway, now some of you have them! You can get into groups to read it if you want, they're really good."
As though on queue, students began scooting next to each other to read the pieces of paper in their hands.
Maki moved over to sit next to Tsumugi.
"Are you okay?" She asked. "You seem really nervous. That little, I swear I'm going to strangle her."
"No it's fine," Tsumugi said. "I did agree to this, I just didn't think she would be so, quick with it. I'm just nervous that's all."
"I don't have to read it if you don't want me to," Maki said, indicating the story she was holding. "These things can be very personal."
"No, if I back out now I'll never had the courage to do this," Tsumugi replied. "I've come this far, why don't we just read it?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, let's just do it."
The two girls began pouring over the sheets of paper, joined by Kaede, Kaito and Shuichi.
As they red, the cosplayer watched anxiously for any signs of disdain or disappointment in their reactions, but their expressions were unreadable.
It didn't take long for some people to begin exclaiming their surprise however. Some students were expressing how interesting the plot was, others were laughing about their roles in certain stories and how it would be pretty funny if they actually happened. Still others were complimenting the writing and characterisation of their fellow classmates.
Some gave passive aggressive responses but that was just typical judging by their personalities. Tsumugi knew that it was their way of appreciating things.
All in all, the reactions were pretty positive or at the very least neutral, and Tsumugi Felt her nerves leaving her a little at a time.
"You guys, actually like it?" She asked, looking around at everyone.
"I didn't know you were this talented Tsumugi!" Ibuki exclaimed. "I can write a song about this!"
"I like the part when I was battling the evil monster with water powers since I'm a swimmer," Hina exclaimed.
"Gonta like how he was going on adventure with bug friends and is able to help Khing and become true gentleman," Gonta cheered.
"I like the mid evil haunted castle," Celeste expressed.
"Really?" Tsumugi asked, feeling a mixture of relief and surprise.
"I've never watched violet evergarden," Peko commented, "but I like how you put me in her place in the hopes peak rendition of the story."
Tsumugi felt her cheeks grow warm. "Oh did I bring that one too? I only planned to bring original works not rewritten anime..."
"It was really good Tsumugi," Tenko approved.
"Actually it was terrible, just kidding I lied, it was great! Though I got a feeling I picked the wrong one, I'm not evil in this," Kokichi complained jokingly. "Hey, hey, who has the story where I'm evil?"
Everyone began chattering again and exchanging the stories they held. Even Hiyoko had forgotten how annoyed she was at having to wake up so early. She was talking animatedly with Mahiru while her other classmates did the same around her.
Junko watched them, satisfied that her plan succeeded. Now things are going to be a lot more interesting, at least in an imaginary world.
Once the excitement died down a little, she addressed everyone again.
"See what I mean?" She asked. "We can act some of these scenes out and pretend that our school life is way more interesting than it is."
"I'm all for it!" Kokichi volunteered at once. "This is exciting!"
"I'd like to try it out too!" Hina added.
A good number of the other students agreed to take part as well. Some, like Byakuya however, said they had more important things to do.
Tsumugi had expected something like this, but at least half of them had agreed which was a lot more than she had ever anticipated.
"Let's meet up tonight after classes," she said excitedly. "We could form a club or something! This will be great!"
Everyone who had wanted to participate gave cries of agreement. Excited smiles and high-fives were shared across the three classes.
The breakfast meeting ended with a bang and it was a lot better than Tsumugi have ever expected. She could not wait for that coming evening, where she and a large number of her friends and school mates were going to reenact scenes that she had created. It was a dream come true, and she could not wait for it to begin.