Chapter Text
Kyoya woke up to the sound of someone shouting at him. This, of course, wasn't unusual considering Tamaki was usually within a 5-mile radius of him at all times. What was unusual, however, was the fact that they weren't shouting his name.
“Kaede! Did you fall asleep at school again?”
Another thing that wasn't unusual for him to do. There were many late nights spent at the host club balancing the books after Tamaki’s assorted lavish purchases and some late nights spent just doing good old-fashioned homework. But his name wasn't Kaede. He entertained for a second, the possibility that Tamaki was doing some extensive roleplay, in which he happened to be named Kaede. This wouldn't be the first time, but he couldn't think of any notable historical or pop cultural figure named Kaede, so he felt it was unlikely. The second issue was that the voice was not one he recognized. Distinctly female, which ruled out most of the people he spent time around. It could be a guest at the host club, but he was generally familiar with all of their voices, and this was unlike any of them.
Now the mystery of where he was and who was talking to him could easily be remedied by opening his eyes, but if there was one thing Kyoya HATED, it was waking up in the morning. He always woke up with the worst headaches every morning, that really only subsided by around noon, but he usually managed. So he decided every day to sleep for as long as possible, even in a risky, unknown environment. Kaoru would probably say it was very irrational and un-Kyoya-like of him to do so, but what did Kaoru know?
“Don't bother him. He's no fun anyway.”
Another voice, this one more high-pitched. There could've been some far-off chance that it was Honey-senpai, but Kyoya knew he wasn't with the host club the moment they decided to let him keep sleeping. Tamaki would NEVER stand for that.
The sound of footsteps alerted Kyoya that the two girls had left the room.
He rubbed his face sleepily and opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. Because of course it was. He fumbled around for his glasses and managed to find a pair a few inches away from him.
These must be “Kaede”’s glasses, he thought, slipping them on. “Kaede”’s prescription was unfortunately slightly different than his, and didn't account for the slight nearsightedness that went along with his severe farsightedness, but the compensation was good enough that he was able to mostly see.
He was in some sort of club room, with a large full wall-length fish tank. He liked that. Kyoya had always liked fish, such calm and collected creatures. In front of him sat a computer, a similar model to his own. The space was nowhere he had ever been or heard of, so he decided his best option would be to do some research.
He opened the computer.
Shit, a password, he thought, shaking his head at his own idiocy. Of course, “Kaede” had a password. Everyone had a password.
Off of pure muscle memory, Kyoya tried his own password, a combination of letters and numbers that rotated every day depending on his personal cypher. To his shock, it actually worked.
Who is this Kaede? Why does he have the same password as me?
In the reflection of the computer screen, Kyoya could see himself. He looked like…himself? His hair was slightly disheveled from having just woken up, and there was a red mark on his cheek from sleeping on the desk. But besides the glasses with a slightly different frame than what he was used to, he was just him. Odd. Clearly, “Kaede” was very much like him, in appearance and temperament, given that his accomplices did not find it odd that he was there overnight.
Kyoya stared at the computer screen for a second before absorbing the information in front of him, “Kaede”’s financial portfolio.
He took everything back. “Kaede” was nothing like him. Only an absolute fucking idiot would invest this much into precious metals. Goddamn precious metals.
Kyoya rubbed his temple. This poor bastard, he thought, knows nothing about investments.
Kyoya was quite familiar with good financial investing. He prided himself on it. While he mainly focused on having a good, stable long-term portfolio, he also occasionally participated in day-trading. It was the closest he'd ever get to gambling, and he felt a rush whenever he came out on top.
Whatever the case, Kyoya was knowledgeable enough to know that investing in precious metals to this degree was idiotic. Unless…
Kyoya opened up the search tab to do a bit of digging.
After a solid half an hour, he determined that one: precious metals was in fact the correct investment choice for one Manyuda Kaede, and two: this was an alternate universe. He had figured the second part out due to a combination of the investment market and the fact that no matter what he searched, Ouran Academy did not exist.
Oh, and three: he seemed to be surrounded by even more insane people than his regular colleagues at Ouran. He thought for a minute about what antics Tamaki and the twins had pulled over the years and amended that statement. The people here seemed equally as insane.
There was Runa, the girl who had said to leave him alone before, which he greatly appreciated. From what he gleaned from the photos and information on Kaede’s computer, she seemed to be the Loli-type. Loves candy, wears oversized clothes. Very similar to Honey-senpai in that way.
Then Yumemi, the Prince Charming (or in her case Princess Charming) type. Romantic, excited, and obsessed with her appearance in a way that gathered lots of fans. A good personality for an idol to have, Kyoya mused.
Midari seemed like the Little Devil type to him. Equal parts insane and bored out of her mind in a way that made a dangerous concoction. The twins were mostly harmless, channeling their boredom into dumb childish pranks, but Midari seemed a level more unhinged, going off of the damage reports on Kaede’s computer.
Yuriko, and Kyoya presumed, Kaede both exemplified the Cool type. Calm and collected, and less overtly aggressive. Kyoya imagined they both acted similarly to him, although email correspondence with Yuriko indicated a hot head underneath layers of pristine attitude. Kyoya supposed he too could get a bit upset at times (the other hosts would probably call it more than a bit upset, considering they witnessed the time he punched a window in frustration) so she still classified as the Cool type in his mind.
Ririka…was a bit of an unknown. There was very little documentation on Kaede's computer about her, despite extensive files, correspondences, and reports about everyone else on the student council. For now, Kyoya would stick to classifying her as the Wild type, since all he knew about her was that she was extremely quiet.
Finally, Kirari. She was what Kyoya liked to call the Scary Psycho Bitch type. They didn't have one of those at the host club. From what he gleaned, she seemed completely and utterly unpredictable, only acting based on what she found interesting. Kyoya hated that, and it seemed like Kaede did too, given his written distaste for some of her actions. Kyoya did not like associating with her type. Not at all.
Kyoya decided he needed to figure out how he got here and how to get home without interacting with these people as much as possible. This would be a challenge, clearly, since they thought he was Kaede, the treasurer at Hyakkaou Private Academy, a school run entirely on gambling.
It was going to be a long day…