Chapter 131: Chapter 130 - Costume Fitting
There was one goal set for Kuro Kurogane when arriving at school.
Survival.
Surviving the day.
Not making any drama.
Not causing chaos.
Avoiding any disaster at the upcoming school festival.
Absolutely no discussing about Snow White.
Just living the simple and peaceful day.
Unfortunately.
Fate apparently planned something else for Kuro.
Right after entering the classroom, he saw several boxes of cardboard standing around the Minami’s desk.
Students were already gathering around them.
Looking way too enthusiastic.
"No."
Turning around.
Instantly.
With no hesitations.
Unfortunately, Kuro didn’t manage to go three steps ahead.
"KURO!"
Akari’s voice rang in the classroom.
Several pairs of eyes were watching him.
Escape was impossible now.
"Come here."
"No."
"The costumes have arrived."
"I know."
"Then, come here."
"No."
Akari grinned.
That grin did something terrible to him emotionally.
Soon enough, he found himself dragged to the front of the room.
Against his will, of course.
But then, the whole class had already gathered around boxes of costumes, waiting patiently.
Rika was already examining labels, Aoi was helping distribute costumes among students while Mina somehow seemed to look nervous.
Kuro knew that trouble would arrive soon enough.
Minami started clapping her hands.
"All right everyone, stand in line."
Most people followed but Akari obviously not.
And there wasn’t any use persuading her anyway.
Costumes kept being distributed.
Seven adventurers, the witch, the narrator, various other characters.
It looked like everything was going smoothly.
Until Minami arrived at the last box.
Biggest.
Most dangerous one.
"Kuro."
"No."
"I’ve yet to say anything."
"I know what’s inside."
Minami sighed deeply.
"Kuro."
"No."
"Kuro."
"No."
"Kuro."
Silent stared.
Finally.
Minami opened the box.
And unveiled its contents.
Snow White costume.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Then, chaos.
Akari fell on the desk laughing.
Actually, laughing like mad.
Tears were forming on her cheeks.
She couldn’t stop laughing.
"This is hilarious!"
"It’s not."
"It’s absolutely hilarious!"
"It’s not."
"It’s absolutely hilarious."
This costume was truly gorgeous.
But that was precisely the problem.
Beautifully elegant.
Differently crafted and detailed.
Professional.
Blue and red outfit with a large skirt section and many decorations.
Obviously, somebody poured quite a sum of money on such an item.
And this only complicated situation more.
Mina immediately looked aside.
Then back.
Then aside again.
Over and over.
Her face was gradually getting dangerously red.
Kuro noticed that.
"Why are you avoiding looking?"
"I’m not."
"I’ve seen you doing this twice."
"No, I didn’t."
"Yeah, you did."
"No, I didn’t."
Pointless dialogue.
Meanwhile, Rika had gotten into another dangerous state of mind.
Her eyes were shining like crazy.
Notebook was already open.
Photographs were being taken.
Quite many photographs.
"Delete those."
"No."
"Delete the damn photographs."
"No."
"Rika, delete it."
"For historical reasons."
"For what?"
"The funniest day of my life, maybe?"
Several authorities could easily hear Kuro’s screams about this girl.
But unfortunately, there were no laws protecting people against annoying people.
Then Aoi looked at the costume.
Thought about something for half a second.
Then gave her killing blow.
"It suits you."
Silence.
Total silence.
Kuro, Mina, Akari.
All of them were stunned.
For a second.
"What?"
Aoi asked.
"It suits you."
"No."
"It does."
"It doesn’t."
"It objectively does."
And there was no denying that the word ’objectively’ was always terrible coming from Aoi’s mouth.
Akari was recovering instantly.
"Oh my god!"
She pointed at Kuro in dramatic manner.
"Prince gave his approval!"
Classroom erupted in laughter once again.
Aoi looked confused.
Kuro wanted to jump out the window.
Then came a statement he least expected to hear.
"Everyone, dressing room is prepared."
"No."
"Everyone, fitting measurement."
"No."
"Kuro."
"No."
Minami simply ignored him since experience taught her it was better to ignore him.
Several classmates forced Kuro into changing room.
His resistance was brave.
But not effective at all.
After ten minutes.
Everyone was gathering in the classroom.
Anticipation was growing.
Akari was setting up video camera, Rika – taking still camera, while Mina simply looked nervous.
Aoi quietly was reading her script while teacher regretted choosing education for her career path.
Then, change room’s door opened.
Silence.
Total silence.
Kuro emerged from there.
Then wanted to go back.
The costume fitted well.
Really well.
Incredibly well.
Classroom remained silent.
For exactly two seconds.
Then it got into chaos.
"IT FITS!"
"WHY DOES IT FIT SO WELL!"
"HILARIOUS!"
"THERE’S A SPECTACLE OF ANOTHER ONE HERE!"
Akari collapsed on the floor.
Again.
Laughing.
Almost crying with joy.
Several others shared her condition.
Meanwhile, Mina just looked elsewhere.
Staring at the ceiling now, as if trying to understand something.
Unfortunately, there were no answers here.
"Why are you looking at the ceiling?"
"I like the ceiling."
"Since when?"
"From today onwards."
Nobody believed in that lie.
Rika had gotten even crazier now.
Click, click, click.
Photos.
Lots of photos.
"Rika, stop it."
Click.
"Rika."
Click.
"RIKA!"
Click.
"This is historical material!"
"Not really."
"I guarantee you that."
The notebook acquired new content.
"Snow White Collection."
Kuro shuddered at that statement.
And finally, Aoi looked away from her script.
Stared carefully at Kuro.
And said:
"Still fits."
Critical hit again.
Immediately after that, Akari slammed her hand on the table.
"Proud words of prince have been stated!"
Classroom erupted again.
Then, Kuro looked towards teacher.
Helplessly begging for pity.
Mercy.
Whatever she could do.
Minami just laughed.
Out loud.
All of his hopes were shattered now.
Fitting session somehow became even worse.
Since now, everybody was insisting on having a group photograph.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Too late already."
Several of his classmates forcibly took Aoi and placed her beside Kuro.
Prince and Snow White standing together as the script had intended.
Click.
Photos.
Lack of photos.
Endless photos.
Historical evidence against him in the future.
Then, Akari appeared.
With witch costume already partly dressed.
"Let’s take a family photograph."
"This isn’t family photograph."
"It definitely is now."
Mina almost choked here.
Rika wrote something in the notebook.
While Aoi remained indifferent.
Kuro instantly aged for years because of that.
Minami decided to hold one last checkup of stage position.
And everything became worse.
Again.
Cast gathered in the auditorium.
Large stage stood waiting for them.
Empty rows of chairs stretched ahead.
Banners celebrating festival hanging above.
Everything became much more real now.
Minami checked everyone’s position on the stage.
"Prince."
Aoi stepped closer.
"Present."
"Snow White."
Kuro sighed.
"Unfortunately."
Classmates laughed.
Then something happened unexpectedly.
Everybody stood in their positions.
Lights got activated.
Stage’s curtain was raised.
And during a few following seconds...
They could finally imagine how it would be during the actual performance of the play.
Real audience.
Real festival atmosphere.
Everything.
Unfortunately.
Such emotions lasted only for several seconds.
Since Akari pointed out to Kuro again.
And started laughing uncontrollably.
Entire class started laughing along with her.
Applause was echoing in the auditorium.
Cheers were heard everywhere.
Whistles.
Cheers again.
Kuro stood in the center of the stage.
In the Snow White costume.
When all the rest of the class applauded for him.
Kuro finally realized something important.
Unimportant things like no way out of this situation.
Or that there was nobody to help now.
The realization of that he was going to participate in the performance of the play which was going to cause many problems for him later.
And this was only first part.
Unfortunately, Kuro realized it too late.
Because the applauding class wasn’t stopping anytime soon.
Instead, they continued doing this and Kuro was thinking about the possibility of transferring to another school.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible anymore.
If Kuro thought the costume fitting was over, he was once again proven wrong.
Since the universe decided there was even more suffering left for him.
The auditorium had already emptied of many other students.
Mostly those not taking part in the performance.
Except the main cast.
Minami was collecting papers.
Rika was editing dialogue.
Akari was eating something stolen.
Again.
No idea where from.
Kuro was ready to go, when Aoi came with a script.
"We need to rehearse."
"No."
"We have the largest number of dialogues."
"No."
"You have less than two weeks till the performance."
"No."
Aoi stared.
Kuro stared back.
After five seconds.
Then ten.
Then fifteen.
In the end, Aoi won.
As usual.
A few minutes later, both were standing on stage.
An empty auditorium spread before them.
Everything seemed strange without the rest of the class here.
Quieter.
Calm.
Dangerous.
Aoi opened the script.
"Page Thirty-two."
"Why do you know it?"
"I memorized it."
Of course she did.
Rika’s interpretation of Snow White was very weird.
It consisted of scenes with Snow White talking to prince about managing the kingdom.
Making it one of the funniest parts of the play.
Aoi read first.
Using her smooth princely voice.
"Snow White, your financial decisions destroy the kingdom."
Kuro let out a sigh.
Then said.
"The kingdom worked perfectly fine, until you appeared with all your spreadsheets."
Aoi nodded.
"That’s a valid remark."
"That isn’t your next line."
"I’m aware of that."
Kuro massaged his head.
So far, rehearsal was going nowhere.
Then the unexpected happened.
Aoi turned out to be pretty damn good.
Actually, very good.
She recited everything flawlessly.
Timing perfect.
Expressions matching each scene.
Princely posture too.
Some of the students watching from their seats started whispering.
"She’s really good."
"She perfectly fit the part."
"To be honest, she seems cooler than any actual prince."
These remarks somehow made Kuro feel sympathy for every prince ever living.
While Akari entered holding three ice creams.
Once again.
Nobody knew where she got them.
Once again.
Nobody asked.
She took a seat next to Mina.
Who had been helping Rika.
The second Akari saw the stage, she smiled.
"Oh."
"What?"
She pointed.
"Chemistry between them improves."
Mina instantly looked away.
"There is no chemistry."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Really."
"No."
"Really."
"No."
"Fine, stop lying. There is some chemistry."
Mina just sighed.
Meanwhile, on stage, Kuro and Aoi kept rehearsing.
Soon they came to one of those emotionally charged scenes.
No romance.
Just emotion.
Or rather lack of it.
At least if compared to what was written initially.
Rika managed to turn it into an interesting discussion on politics.
Aoi looked straight at Kuro.
"The people trust you."
"And the people trust me."
For a minute, the scene worked perfectly.
Dialogue seemed natural.
Everything looked sincere.
Even Minami stopped drinking her coffee to watch.
Then Akari screwed everything up.
Predictably.
"Now kiss!"
The auditorium roared.
Mina dropped the script.
Rika almost fell off her seat laughing.
Even Minami spurted out her coffee.
Kuro pointed at Akari angrily.
"Go away."
"No."
"Do that."
"No."
"You are such a villain."
"Thank you."
She wasn’t meant to compliment anyone.
Even Aoi sighed.
Something rare.
Extremely rare.
Rehearsal somehow recovered.
With difficulty.
Eventually, Minami ended practice.
Everyone started putting everything away.
The sun was already setting outside.
Its golden rays shone brightly through the auditorium windows.
As Kuro packed his stuff, he noticed Aoi sitting in front.
Reading the script once more.
Of course she was.
"You take it quite seriously."
Aoi looked up.
"Performance is in front of the whole school."
"Few people would react calmly."
Aoi thought.
Then shrugged.
"I found it enjoyable."
It shocked Kuro.
She looked at the stage.
"Beside..."
"Hmm?"
She then focused on him.
"Your Snow White impression is surprisingly good."
Silence.
Kuro looked stunned.
Aoi was completely serious.
Thus making everything even worse.
Somewhere in the auditorium, Akari heard the entire exchange.
Hysterical laughter spread throughout the entire place.
Long after everyone had left home.
On the other side of the room, Rika silently wrote down something in her notebook.
Chapter Revision Idea: Increase Snow White Embarrassment By 300% Percent.
The School Drama proceeded well.
Unfortunately for Kuro.
