Chapter 193 — Plans For The Festival

Yuki

The occult research club was relaxing in the club room and chatting before we headed home for the day.

After class, Issei, Asia, Xenovia, and I headed to the club room in the old building.

When we arrived, Yuuto, Akeno, and Rias were already there.

Koneko and Gasper-kun arrived shortly afterwards.

We had gone through our normal club meeting agenda, and since there wasn’t anything going on and no Devil work tonight, we were done for the day and could head home.

“So, it’s almost time for the second year’s school trip, right?” Rias asked while drinking tea Akeno had made for everyone.

“Yeah, it’s coming up soon. We will be going to Kyoto. Where did you go with Akeno-san last year, Buchou?”

“Our class trip was also to Kyoto,” Akeno answered. “Buchou and I were able to explore the city. Though it makes me sad that we won’t be able to join all of you.”

Koneko nodded as she sat in my lap. 

She handed me one of her slices of banana from the plate she had set on her lap. 

“Thank you, Koneko-chan”

“…No problem. I wish I could go to Kyoto with you too, Yuki-senpai,” Koneko said. 

“It’s alright, Koneko-chan. You’ll get to go with Gasper-kun and your class next year.”

She let out a noncommittal hum.

I chuckled at her pouting.

I listened to Rias as she continued from where Akeno had left off. 

“But we were only able to see so much of the city on our trip. You only get three days to sightsee, so you’ll need to plan out your trip accordingly. If you don’t, you’ll end up wasting a lot of your time and miss out. Even though Akeno and I planned out our trip well, we still didn’t get to see everything we wanted.”

“That’s right. Buchou wanted to visit every major site, but sadly we didn’t account for traffic and travel times in our planning, so we missed out on our last stop, Nijou-jou,” Akeno said with a smile. “Buchou was quite upset. She even started pouting and stomping her feet at the railway station. 

Akeno chuckled to herself, and Rias’s face turned red.

“Akeno! You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone about that!” She said, shooting Akeno a glare.

Akeno grinned back at her. 

Rias sighed and turned to the rest of us.

“I was very excited to see Kyoto, one of the most famous cities in Japan. And while we were on our trip, I got distracted by the sides of the city and the souvenir shops and ended up wasting some of my precious time.”

I often forgot that Rias was slightly obsessed with Japan and its culture.

She could go from acting totally fine to like an overexcited tourist when Japan was being discussed.

She could get intense about it as well.

“Why hadn’t you gone to Kyoto before the class trip? You could’ve used magic checked and teleported there, right?” Issei asked. 

Rias shook her head and waved her arms at him.

“I wanted to experience Kyoto for the first time on my school trip. You don’t understand. I’d longed to visit the city, but I wouldn't do something as tasteless as ruining my class trip experience by teleporting there beforehand. I wanted to experience everything the right way.”

Rias’s eyes were gleaming. 

She was romanticizing the whole thing, and I’m sure you couldn’t convince her that she wears incorrect about any of it.

She really loved anything Japanese.

I’m just glad she’s not like this over the fact that I’m a Kitsune.

“Isn’t Azazel-sensei going on the trip too?” Issei asked.

“Yes. He mentioned that he wanted to enjoy visiting Kyoto, so he will be coming along as well. Though I doubt he will do much more than relax and sightsee,” Yuuto said.

“While I’d love to continue talking about your school trip and Kyoto.  We also need to discuss what we will be doing for the upcoming school festival,” Rias said, changing the topic.

Everyone’s interest was renewed with the mention of the school festival.

During the festival, all of the clubs would set up events in their club room for the other students.

And as the Occult Research Club used the whole old school building, we would need to prepare something large to use the entire building.

“You’re right, Buchou,” Issei said. “Man, with the school trip and then the school festival pretty much right after, second years will be very busy.”

“And the spirits festival was just last week,” I added.

“The school really has a lot of events close together,” Asia commented.

Akeno handed Rias a sheet of paper and set it on the coffee table between us.

It was a form our club would have to submit to the school and student council with what we were planning on doing.

“You’re all right, which is why we need to start discussing this now so we can start getting ready for it even while the second-year members are away on their trip,” Rias said. “We won’t have a lot of time if we wait until they get back. But now that we have a lot more members, it will be much easier to prepare for the festival.”

“I’m excited for the school festival! It sounds like so much fun!” Asia said with a smile.

“The sports festival was great. I’m really enjoying these high school events so far,” Xenovia said.

She seemed excited too, though less obviously than Asia.

Both she and Irina seemed to really enjoy the competition of the sports festival.

They’d even been asked by multiple of the school's sports clubs to join their clubs.

“What about you, Irina-san?” Asia asked.

“Y-Yes! I’m looking forward to it,” Irina said. “I was lucky to transfer into Kuoh at a good time to be able to participate in all of these events. I-It surely is thanks to Michael-sama’s guidance!”

She still seemed distracted.

When Asia spoke to her, she seemed lost in thought before she replied.

And she was still positioning herself away from me in the club room.

I sighed as I reminded myself that there wasn’t anything more I could do about her acting off around me.

At least she seemed more like herself as she got excited for the school festival with Asia and Xenovia.

“It will be your first school festival too. Right, Yuki?” Asia asked me.

I nodded.

“Yes, just like you three, this is my first year attending a high school.”

“It’ll be fun to experience it together with you, Xenovia-san, and Irina-san!”

I smiled at her.

“It will be. I’m looking forward to it.”

Koneko turned and looked at me from her seat on my lap.

“…We will make sure you have a good school festival.”

“Thank you, Koneko-chan.”

She nodded and turned back towards the rest of the group.

“So, last year you did a haunted house for the club's event, right, Buchou?” Issei asked. “I didn’t visit the Occult Research Club during last year's school festival, but afterwards I heard it was really popular.  A lot of people said the ghost props you used seemed pretty realistic.”

“Well, we did use real ghosts, so of course it was realistic,” Rias said casually.

“It would be impressive if someone hadn’t been scared by our haunted house,” Akeno added.

I blinked.

“You used real ghosts?”

“Yes. I found some Youkai that would be able to play roles in our haunted house. They were harmless to the other students and needed work, so it worked out well. Thanks to hiring them to work in the haunted house, the whole thing worked great,” Rias said with a nod.

“Wait! You can’t just bring ghosts to the school! Even if they’re harmless!” Issei said with a look of disbelief.

“Why not?” Rias asked, tilting her head.

“Because they’re ghosts! You’re not supposed to use actual ghosts in a haunted house! That’s how someone gets haunted or cursed or something!” Issei said.

“Well, we were scolded by Sona-Kaichou afterwards,” Akeno said. “Though she was only the vice president of the student council at the time. She yelled at us about how using the real things was overboard and ignored the rules of the school festival.”

I frowned at that.

“But we were allowed to compete with normal students during the sports festival,” I said. “Sona-kaichou didn't have an issue with that, despite the obvious advantage we have as Devils. So why would it matter if Youkai were brought in to work in the club's haunted house?”

Issei gave me a confused look.

“You’re really not seeing an issue with Buchou using real ghosts in their haunted house, Yuki-san?”

I shook my head.

“Like Buchou said. No one was hurt, and no one realized that the ghosts were real. I don’t see how it’s an issue.”

Koneko nodded in agreement with me.

“I think you’re just getting too caught up in it, Ise,” Rias said with a soft smile.

He let out a defeated sigh.

“Maybe…So, are we doing a haunted house again this year? Or will we have to come up with something else? Maybe we could do an event with a vampire in a box?”

“Issei-senpai is a meanie! You always poke fun at me!” Gasper-kun shouted as he smacked Issei’s arm.

“You’re my Kohai! It’s my privilege as your senpai to mess with you!” Issei said defensively. “Plus, I can’t mess with Koneko-chan! She would kick my butt if I did!”

I looked down at Koneko.

She turned and looked at me blankly.

“…It’s true. I would beat up Issei-senpai.”

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“And it’s fine for Gasper-kun to get picked on by Issei-san? Does that mean I should pick on you?”

Koneko paused for a moment and frowned.

Then she quickly looked away from me.

I shook my head and called out to Issei and Gasper-kun.

“Issei-san, leave Gasper-kun alone. Gasper-kun, stop hitting him.”

Gasper-kun froze mid-slap and lowered his hand.

“A-Alright, Yuki-senpai.”

“Why do I not get to mess with my only male Kohai? It’s how we are supposed to bond. And you were teasing Koneko-chan and got her to blush! So why do I only have to stop?”

I blinked and looked at Koneko, who turned away from me again.

I could see that her cheeks were slightly pink.

“…Issei-senpai, shut it.” She said lowly.

“Ara. Are you bullying poor little Koenko-chan now?” Akeno said with a grin. “You should follow your own words and leave our kohai alone. And instead, you could try to bully me. I’m sure I could handle it.”

She batted her eyes at me as she spoke.

I rolled my eyes. 

I noticed Irina was watching us with a faint frown on her face.

“That’s not what happened or what will happen. Let’s get back to talking about what we will be doing for the school festival,” I said.

“Mou, that’s no fun, Yuki-chan,” Akeno pouted.

“…Are we doing a haunted house again, Buchou?” Koneko asked, ignoring Akeno.

Rias held her hand to her chin as she thought. 

“I’m not sure. Maybe we should do something different this year…”

“Well, the haunted house does fit for us as the Occult Research Club,” Yuuto said.

“Maybe we could do something different, like a sword sparring exhibition,” Xenovia said.

Yuuto shook her head.

“We can’t. The kendo club will be doing that, even if I wouldn’t mind displaying my swordsmanship.”

“…Fortune telling,” Koneko said.

“Hmm, that’s not bad, and it fits with our club, but it needs something more…” Rias murmured.

“I’ve got a great idea!” Issei said with a grin. “A maid cafe!”

I sighed.

Koneko shot him a disapproving look.

“I-I don’t know about that, I-Ise-kun. I d-don’t know if that’s a great idea,” Yuuto said as her ears turned pink.

“I think that would be fun…” Gasper-kun muttered.

Any opportunity to wear a frilly dress would get Gasper-kun’s approval.

“I don’t see an issue with it,” Xenovia said.

“…Issei-senpai is just having lewd thoughts again,” Koneko muttered.

“No, this is a great idea! Buchou and Akeno-san are the beautiful and idol-like ones-sama’s of the school. Asia, Xenovia, Irina, and Yuki-san are the beautiful and popular transfer students. Yuuto-san is the elegant and charming knightly girl of the second year. And Koneko-chan is the cute school mascot girl of the first year!” Issei said with arms spread wide. “And I guess Gasper could wear a dress too.”

That actually wasn’t a horrible point.

Most everyone in the club was famous in the school in some way. And all of the other girls were beautiful and were rather popular.

Koneko didn’t seem convinced.

“Or we could do an animal girl cafe!” Issei said, noticing Koneko’s look. “Koneko-chan and Yuki-san could leave their Youkai traits out. Everyone else could wear props as part of their uniform!”

“That sounds like it could be fun!” Asia said with a smile.

“But it still doesn’t really fit with the Occult Research Club’s Theme,” Yuuto said.

“We could always do another haunted house,” I said. “I could use curses instead of ghosts to create the atmosphere. I could set up a few basic and harmless curses around the haunted house to cause fear and panic to our guests.”

“That’s not any better than the ghosts!” Issei cried out. “You can’t just curse the whole school building!”

I tilted my head. 

“Why not?”

“You just can’t! You’ll definitely curse someone if you do that! And we have our club room here! I don’t want to come to club meetings where I could be cursed!”

I shook my head.

“I know what I’m doing. Nothing bad would happen. Plus I can just remove them afterwards. It’s not like they’ll be permanent.”

“I don’t see what the issue is,” Xenovia said.

“Thank you, Xenovia,” I said.

She blinked in confusion, then gave me a nod.

“I think it would be fine too…” Asia hesitantly said.

“Not you too, Asia!” Issei cried.

“W-Well, it’s Yuki,” she replied. “I trust that she knows what she’s doing. And the student council shouldn’t have a problem if we make the effects ourselves, right?”

“They definitely will have issues with it! There’s no way they won’t!”

“…You’re being a baby,” Koneko murmured.

“Buchou! You have to take my side here!”

“Well, all of the ideas seem like they are doable, but I’m not sure what we should do yet. I’ll have to keep thinking,” Rias replied absentmindedly. 

“You can’t be considering letting Yuki-San curse the building, right?” Issei asked worriedly.

“Her idea isn’t a bad one, and as Asia said, we should trust that she knows what she’s doing,” Rias said with a small smile. “Curses are her thing after all.”

Issei slumped in his seat.

“…There. Yuki-senpai wins,” Koneko said as her tail moved back and forth.

“That is not what happened,” Issei groaned.

I patted Koneko’s head.

“It wasn’t a competition, Koneko-chan. But I definitely won.”

Issei let out another groan.

“C-Congratulations, Yuki-senpai,” Gasper-kun said.

“Thank you.”

“So it sounds like we have a few ideas to think over now, Buchou,” Akeno said as she picked up the teaser and put it away. “I think we can all head home and talk it over some more during dinner.”

“That’s a good idea, Akeno. Alright, everyone, let’s—“

Rias was cut off as everyone’s phones began to ring at the same time. 

Rias quickly pulled out her phone and quickly read it.

All of our phones going off like that could only mean one thing.

Either there was a stray Devil on the loose, or more likely, the Khaos Brigade had appeared in Kuoh.

The Hero faction of the Khaos Brigade had been sending out small attacks in our town.

We had fought with two of them so far, and Rias had all of our phones connected to the town's defensive wards so that we would know when another attack came.

Rias stood and looked over all of us with a serious gaze.

“You all know what it is. Let’s go!”