Chapter Text
故に感情線は渋滞
The fences around Kamiyama High were pretty high, if Emu had to guess she’d say it’s at least two Rui and a half, but maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Still, it doesn’t matter. Like every time, she’ll run as fast as she can towards the backgate and she'll find, as always, a certain spot in the bushes that surround the school’s entrances.
Said spot is just a bunch of leaves and there are no sticks holding them up, it's some sort of fake plastic greenery that the school decided to put there to not substitute the plant entirely.
Luckily for Emu, that meant that she could jump on the base without hurting her foot, and with that speed, launch herself on the top of the fence and then land down on the other side with a huff.
And that's exactly what she did, as always. She immediately rose from the ground and smirked, striking a classic Tsukasa pose with her hands on her hips.
"Heh-hehehe, finally! Swooshing by the senpais was hard, but nothing is impossible for a sparkly heroine like me! Wahahahahaha!" she said, half-skipping and half-running towards the garden.
She stopped as soon as she heard laughter, hiding behind a corner. Slowly, and murmuring "sneaky sneaky" under her breath, she slid her head to the side, looking for potential dangers. But instead her eyes landed on the reason she came all the way there in the first place: Tsukasa, Nene and Rui, sitting together for lunch.
All her carefulness evaporated in a second and she ran forward in the same way she did for the fence skip.
“TSUKASAAAA!” she screamed in a sing-song way, as she opened her arms and pretty much took the boy down with a tight hug.
“EMUUU, why do you want to kill me?!” he complained and grunted, “I mean, I’m happy to see you, but what are you even doing here?!”. He rose to a sitting position and all the grumpiness for being slammed into the ground disappeared for a surprised look.
Ah, Emu thought to herself. If only I could tell the truth about this.
Well, how was she supposed to bluntly declare that “she just couldn’t stay anymore without him” and talk about “how she wanted to take any excuse to be with him even when she knew he didn’t see it as she did”. She didn’t have the sheer courage that she admired so much in Tsukasa, nor the strength to handle it in a healthy way if he was to explicitly refuse her feelings.
Because ah, she was really, really in love with Tsukasa. She couldn’t even call it a crush. Every time she saw him, Emu’s heart couldn’t stop demanding her to reach out for him and stay in his arms forever.
How did she realize what that burn in her heart meant, Emu didn’t know. One day she was his best friend, the next she decided she could only see him as something else. She was confused at first, because a lot of people would have called her feelings “something more”.
What “more”? It wasn’t like she loved Tsukasa “more” than she loved Nene or Rui or her siblings. It was just, well, different. And in any case, she knew Tsukasa didn't feel the same as her.
She could see it in the way Tsukasa talked to her everyday, unaware of what all her affection meant and simply accepting it as her normal behavior.
So, like all the other times, she sighed and smiled widely, because no matter how sure she was that nothing would have happened, a part of her still refused to give up.
"I was boooored and Saki and Minori were already having lunch with their friends, so I decided that I was going to eat with you guys!" She explained throwing her hands up to the sky.
"Ohhhh" Tsukasa smiled as well, striking the same pose Emu had struck just seconds ago, "then I, for instance, shall dine with you, Princess of the Underworld! Ha ha ha!"
"Oh, that's right," Rui nodded thoughtfully. "It's a good excuse to have a rehearsal for our next show. Tsukasa, I suppose you have already learnt part of the script, right? Maybe, even memorized some scenes…?"
"Yeah," the other boy nodded, and as he sat again on the bench, he bent to his side to look into his bag, "I think the 3rd act is the easier to play, as it's just me and the Princess of the Underworld having a discussion about…"
Emu stopped listening to him, as much as she would have loved to know more about the script she hadn't still read. Because she saw Nene pinching Rui's hip with quite some force.
Rui's face scrunched comically, but before he could complain, Nene hissed with an extremely low voice "why did you have to propose that!"
"What do you mean? We can't just excuse ourselves out of nowhere, that is way too obvious!" He replied with the same volume.
"I know, but a whole rehearsal will take the entire lunch break and more, they'll never have time to be alone with each other!"
"You know that Tsukasa is the only one who even read the play, forget memorizing everything! It will take us, I’d say, probably 20 minutes!"
Nene seemed to hesitate for a second, and she turned to look at Emu, who was more than definitely burning with embarrassment. She knew that her cheeks matched her hair at the moment. 'How do they know…' she squeaked in her mind.
She simply shook her head, though, and muttered "Nene, you know, I came to see you two as well!".
But, Emu wasn't as good at speaking quietly as her teammates were. Tsukasa, sure enough, heard her, and hummed with a question, “What was that?”
“NOTHING!”, both girls squealed at the same time, which earned an even more confused look from the blond boy. Thankfully, Rui came to the rescue quickly, “Huhuh, we’re just worried that someone could give Emu troubles, since she shouldn’t really be here sitting with us”.
‘Phewww’, Emu thought to herself as she realized that Tsukasa looked convinced. Then, Rui’s words settled in. He was right, but it’s not like she had ever cared about being reported to the Student Council. Although, that was until now.
If they banned her from the others’ school, how was she supposed to see Tsukasa whenever she felt alone? As of now, the only solution she had found to tone down the need to confess to him was having him around whenever she couldn’t handle silence anymore.
“Uhmm,” Nene seemed to pick up on her fear, leaving Emu’s obvious heart problems for another moment, “I don’t think anyone would snitch, considering how often you come here. But, if Shiraishi was to see you with Tsukasa and Rui, she’d definitely get worried”.
“Shiraishi?” Emu asked Nene while taking out her bento box. Better as well eat now, who knows when she would have to run for her life.
“Hm-hm” Tsukasa nodded, staring wide-eyed into his own food, “she’s the disciplinary committee. If she sees something suspicious she might ignore it, but if me or Rui are nearby she’ll get mad”. He swallowed hard and then glared at Rui before continuing, “Everytime this guy has some crazy ideas, she always manages to find out and punish both, EVEN WHEN I’M CLEARLY NOT TO BLAME.”
“Would you shut up, idiot!” Nene hissed, “we just made a point to pass unnoticed, don’t go throwing everything overboard!”
They stared at each other for a good 10 seconds, as Emu and Rui silently questioned one another whether they should step in or not, before Tsukasa looked down and apologized quietly to Emu, “Sorry, it just gets really frustrating to double check everything whenever I catch sight of Shiraishi”.
Emu smiled and shook her head, asking instead “If we are risking it too much then, let’s practice now so we get at least something done!”
And so they did, although Emu had to forcefully ignore Rui’s quiet whisper to Nene “and whenever we see Shiraishi approaching, we’ll send those two off for an epic escape. Knowing them, it's better than a date”, because it sounded both incredibly embarrassing for the implied feelings behind and extremely exciting.
They managed to try a great total of 4 scenes before the interruption inevitably arrived. Emu was just about to pretend to stab a humanoid-frog soldier when she heard Tsukasa curse.
“Damn it” he said, and gave Rui a small shove to their left. Two people were walking towards the side door of the main building, and by doing so they were going to pass right next to them.
They both looked like they were the same age as Emu, and it looked like one was dragging the other outside. The one being “forced” into the walk was wearing a pretty dreaded expression, but there was no negative feeling behind it, like this was some sort of bothersome prank.
Emu couldn’t notice anything more than their hair color (one’s was black with blue ends, and the other’s was pastel pink) before someone covered her whole head and torso with some yellow fabric.
“I can’t believe I’m saying it, but good idea Tsukasa” Nene said, “Emu, put on Tsukasa’s jumper, and take off yours from under it. If you just hold it in your hands, it will look just like you have a colorful bento.”
“I agree,” Rui spoke somewhere higher, and Emu guessed he had gotten up. “Mizuki is with her, I see. Then, I think I can distract those two. Nene, come with me, you’ll make for the best excuse”
Emu wiggled in the foreign clothing, way too big for her, as she listened for further instructions from Captain Rui.
“Oh jeez” Nene rolled her eyes, “What do you have in mind…?”
“Tsukasa,” Rui ignored her, “get her out somehow, ok? How do you usually get in, Emu?”
“The bushes near the backgate are fake, so I use them to BAHOOM jump from one side to the other”
“Ok, that’s a plan alright. Tsukasa?”
Emu was lifted up by said man, who saluted like a military of some high rank and immediately turned back facing where she had come from.
“Let’s go!” he smiled at her and took her hand, “our new and full of adventures breakout will bring forth mesmerizing emotions and smiles! HA HA HA”
And just like that, they set off as fast as they could. Emu had always considered herself to be at least decent at following the flow, but it took her half of the run for everything to dawn on her.
She was holding Tsukasa’s hand. He smiled so brightly. She was wearing his jumper. He was so warm. The adrenaline burned its way through her veins and she started laughing like crazy, followed by her companion who did the same.
‘What matters?’ she asked herself, her thoughts dancing in her mind even faster than her heart was racing, ‘This is so much more than I could ever ask for. If this is the maximum I can get, I’ll live it fully with no regrets!’
“Tsukasa-senpai?” and just like that, the moment was gone. Panic flared up, mixing itself with the momentum of the run. Everything that happened next ended in just one second at best.
Both of them looked behind their backs with the corner of their eyes only. A guy with blue hair, Emu couldn’t make out any more features, was staring at them from very far away. There was no way he could recognise Tsukasa without second guessing himself, if they kept running.
The two reached the same conclusion, if the look Tsukasa gave her was something to go by. The pure energy in Emu’s vein quickly translated from hilarity to haste, and she out-speeded Tsukasa as he grinned wide.
She could now see the gate, which blessedly was a little hidden from the very wall she slid into when she first arrived. She started deciding where to push herself up from as she would usually do, but Tsukasa had other plans in mind.
“On my three, jump, Emu!” he screamed, or at least that’s how it felt like, “And when you’re up there, I’ll let go of your hand, so use the plain part on the peak of the fence to lean on!”
“HUH?” She tried to reply, but he was already counting. She gulped, as he went ahead of her once again, basically skipping. And there, he completely stopped, and used the momentum to make Emu turn towards the bushes. Then, he hit the three, and she jumped as high as she could.
Tsukasa's hand that wasn't holding hers wrapped her around the waist, pushing her up and letting go as soon as she was in the air.
It was like time had stopped flowing. She was basically flying. She knew Tsukasa was about to let go of her hand too, but the motion that made her initially turn to the fence now had made her spin mid-air, and she was looking at him.
It was definitely the crush filtering everything in a shiny and golden light, but the smile they were sharing was a view she would have never forgotten.
And just as it started, the jump finished with her landing safely on the other side, to which she immediately rolled over behind the fake leaves.
“Are you all good??” Tsukasa asked, looking at her through the bush, as he sat down on the grass, breathless.
“Yeah”.
For a long moment, the sound of their breaths was the only audible thing. Then, both of them bursted out in laughter.
“EMU” he said between giggles “DON’T STAY FOR LUNCH NEXT TIME, HA HA HA HA HA”.
“EEEEEH? But, that was the most BAWOOM and WONDERHOY thing ever!”
“It was, but we got lucky. Touya will definitely ask me more later. Oh,” he suddenly changed tone, “do you mind giving me back the jumper? I’m all but cold right now, but later I’ll probably cool down”.
“Ah, of course” Emu did as she was told, the euphoria fading while the feeling of Tsukasa's hand in hers still lingered. As she was putting her own hot pink one on, Rui and Nene approached the pair.
“Sorry guys,” Nene started, “the decoy ended up scouting out a problem we had not seen coming”.
“What do you mean?” Tsukasa asked, to which Rui quickly replied, “I told Shiraishi that I needed to speak to Mizuki, with the excuse of Nene’s costume. Turns out, Mizuki won’t have time to make that for the next two weeks.”
“Shit,” Tsukasa replied “What now?”
“Now,” Nene said, “we will have to adjust an old one ourselves. But that will take me and Rui at least a week, cause neither can sew more than a pair of buttons. So you two will have to work on the prompts, I’m so sorry”.
“Actually” Tsukasa replied, “I can sew a little. If you already have the dress, I can change some stuff for yours and Emu’s. I think me and Rui can use the knight one and the rose tuxedo, right?”
“Oh,” Rui said, “I had no idea. Then yes, let’s exchange roles. I’d be better at prompts as you know”.
“Good” the other boy replied and turned to Emu, “Then, how about we go gather some stuff at the mall tomorrow?”