Chapter Text
“Once upon a time,” Keigo narrated from behind the puppet show stand before a class of elementary students, “there was a hero. This hero embarked on a quest to convince the nearby Demon King to stop tormenting a village.”
He lifted his sword-wielding puppet.
“At long last, the hero had made it to the Demon King’s castle!”
Rumi’s Demon King puppet now rose to face the hero puppet.
“Here I am, Demon King! Stop this tormenting at once!”
“All this happened because they feared me,” Rumi replied gruffly, “condemned me before I’d done anything!”
“That doesn’t mean you can torment them! Let’s talk about it-“
“What good is talking when they’ll only continue to condemn me!”
“I won’t!” In his excitement, Keigo hit the cardboard stand, knocking it over and, thankfully, not hitting anyone.
But now the two were visible. A confused Rumi and now excited-anxious, embarrassed Keigo.
“Well,” Rumi whispered, “at least no one got hurt-“
“HERO BLADE!” Rumi yelped as her puppet took a hit from Keigo’s.
“What happened to talking?!” She had her puppet hit Keigo’s with its head. “Fine then! Demon Head Butt!”
Touya and Natsuo watched their fellow club members with clear confusion from a side table. “Now what?” Touya’s whisper was heard by Rumi’s always-keen hearing.
“Natsuo," she demanded, "music!”
“Wha-?!” Despite his surprise, his fingers worked swiftly on his laptop. “Uh, how’s this?”
A menacing tune emerged from the laptop, causing Keigo to whirl his head around toward the brothers. “The Demon King’s theme, already?!”
Rumi rose higher on her knees with a menacing aura. “This castle shall be your grave!”
She was really into it now.
Touya pursed his lips.
They needed to get these kids rooting for the hero. They seemed rather uncertain of what was going on.
Touya looked toward their audience. “Everyone, let’s support the hero.” He held a fist up. “Pump your fists to give power to the hero, and let’s cheer them on! Fight on!”
The plan worked; the children happily pumped their fists and chanted “Fight on!”
Rumi held her free hand to her chest. “Ack! Their cheering, it weakens me!”
“Here’s my chance!” Keigo swung his puppet at Rumi’s. “Hero punch!”
Rather than letting Rumi lower her puppet to fall, the hero caught them. “Demon King, do you understand now? Even if I must fight you, I won’t give up on you! We’re friends!”
Rumi looked to Touya. “Wrap it up,” she mouthed.
“The strength of the people through the hero indeed opened his eyes,” Touya spoke, “inspiring him to become a friendly demon, saving the village.”
These four were the members of a club that volunteered to do plenty of activities like this for the community.
Rumi: club president, third-year in high school. Came up with the original story for this puppet show.
Natsuo: Touya’s younger brother, a first-year.
Touya: Keigo’s closest friend, second-year.
Keigo: also Touya’s classmate, and also a second-year.
The U.A. High School Hero Club did its best to help whoever they can, whenever they can.
After the class president led them in their end-of-day bow to the Divine Tree in the classroom, an object found in all classes of the school, Keigo gathered his things before going to push Touya’s wheelchair.
“Got club stuff again, Keigo?”
Keigo smiled at their inquiring classmate.
“Of course! We’re the Hero Club, after all!”
As they made their way along, Touya gave a soft sigh. “Never gonna get used to such a weird club name.”
“Really? I think it sounds cool!”
Once at the club room, Keigo opened the door eagerly. “Keigo and Touya,” he announced, “reporting for duty!”
“Glad ya made it.” Rumi grinned.
“Puppet show yesterday went great,” Natsuo chimed up, “huh?”
“Huh?” Rumi rose a brow at him. “It almost fell to bits!”
“You two still pulled through.” Natsuo smirked. “All the kids enjoyed it, so I'd say it was a success!”
“Keigo’s improv went really well,” Touya agreed.
“After the stand fell,” Rumi admitted, “I thought I was gonna have a heart attack.”
Keigo smiled. “Hey, heroes don’t let themselves get all hung up on such a small thing!”
“You’re always so upbeat, Keigo.” Natsuo.
“Well,” Rumi spoke, “that said, let’s begin today’s meeting!”
The club task board had several cat pictures on it now. “Oh,” Touya spoke, “those are cute.”
“We’ve got several tasks to handle,” Rumi explained, “and they’re part of that list! So this month’s focus shall be knocking these tasks out. Like finding these cats’ owners!”
“Gotcha!”
“Probably try to get other students involved. Our website also needs updating, if you wouldn’t mind, Touya?”
“Gotcha.” He rolled himself and his wheelchair over to the nearby computer setup. “I’ll get the mobile version set, too, while I’m at it.”
“Nice!”
“And us?”
“For now, uh... Do what you’ve been doing! But more oomph!”
Natsuo rose a brow as Keigo glanced toward him. “You’ve been doing coast cleaning, right?”
“Yep.”
“We could try asking around there, too?”
“Oh, yeah!”
Touya looked toward the others. “Website’s good to go now.”
“Huh?!” He really was a computer wiz, aspiring to go to a tech school after high school.
Not only had he finished swiftly, but it was nice, too. Testing proved it operational as well, both on the computer and their cell phones for the mobile version.
After club hour, the four went out together for dinner, with Rumi mentioning she had something else to discuss.
“So, Cultural Festival plans need considering.”
“So soon?” Natsuo.
“The sooner we figure it out, the sooner we can start working toward it! I was thinking we could aim for summer break as the goal to have at least some decisions made about it!”
“We did fall behind with it last year,” Touya recalled, “so sooner really would be better after that.” They had waited much too long and had ended up with nothing to do for it due to other clubs beating them to claiming everything they could think of.
“With Natsuo on the team this year,” Rumi spoke enthusiastically, “we got this!”
“Me?!”
“Something fun,” Keigo chirped, “and memorable!”
“Yeah!" Rumi pumped her fist eagerly. "I want everyone to come up with at least one idea!”
As Rumi walked home, her phone chimed, alerting her to draw it out.
‘Taisha
Fukuoka
Aptitude Assessment Report Schedule’
‘Fukuoka Team report.
All members consistently at high level. Keep in mind that we are still in a period of conflict. Be prepared to carry out your duty.’
The usual assessment report. She sighed with relief before returning her phone to her pocket.
No biggie.
As Keigo pondered the Cultural Festival in class, a ringtone began to sound from both Keigo and Touya’s phones.
“Is that your phone, Takami?” The teacher sounded surprised.
“Yes!” He scrambled for his bag.
“Please make sure to turn it off before class next time."
“Sorry!” He could’ve sworn it was.
Just as he was about to shut it off, he noticed it was giving a strange screen he had never seen before.
‘Forestize Warning’
Just as Touya also read the message on his own phone, everything around them suddenly froze.
The birds outside remained mid-air, the leaves, their teacher unmoving, their classmates stopped.
“Keigo?”
He turned to see Touya looking out at the birds with clear concern, causing him to look as well. “What’s going on..?”
Rumi dashed out of her classroom.
This can’t be..! No way..!
As she ran, she soon came upon Natsuo, the first-year cautiously leaving his classroom.
“Natsuo!”
“Rumi? Something weird’s going on-“ He cut himself off at the look in her eyes.
She pursed her lips. “Natsuo, we. We’re ‘it’.”
“Huh?”
“What’s coming, the four of us? The club? We’re up to bat now. We’ve been chosen.”
The earth began to quake as a strange rainbow light spread slowly over the land.
Keigo held Touya close as they watched in fear as it came over the school.
There was no way they could even hope to outrun that.
“Touya-!”
“Keigo-!”