Chapter 8. Speedrun

A big explosion sounds at the concert hall, debris everywhere. On the stage, that girl, whatever her name was, standing in the middle, guitar on hand.

"What the...?"

"Now!"

Uzuki grabs a dice and flings it towards her. She gets a card out and transforms.

"Tres de bastos!"

Uzuki gets hit and flies back.

"Uzuki!"

I start dancing, but...

"Wh-what's going on?!"

"What's that supposed to do?"

She gets closer.

"I...uhm..."

"Well... That's it then. No point in keeping you here..."

She takes a card.

"As de-"

She flies backwards, as if she was pushed.

"What a joke"

In front of me, I see Katsuya, standing as if nothing happened.

"So... you called me for this? Really? I expected more from the bully"

"Nozomi, too far."

Houraiji comes from behind.

"Hoshino already forgave her, so be a bit more considerate on the matter, okay?"

She turns to her all red.

"B-but she's a bully! How the fu-"

"Language, Nozomi"

"Tsk. Okay, how am I supposed to react over this, huh?!"

"Just help, Nozomi"

"Fine..."

Uzuki comes back.

"Uzuki! You're alright!"

"I need more than that for someone to knock me out. I'm not that fragile anymore, you know?"

She adjusts her glasses; I smile back at her.

Hikari raises her hand.

"Excuse me for the interruption but, that girl, who I assume is called Diana-"

"That was her name!"

Everyone looks at me.

"...sorry, go on."

"Anyways, she's about to get up in approximately a minute. Most likely, she's going to go after Hibana first, then Hoshino will counter, Nozomi will try to fight back but she will use one of her cards and-"

"Just go on with it already!"

Katsuya is angry.

"Look prez, no disrespect but you almost wasted half a minute with-"

"Okay, fine."

She looks at me.

"Turn on the stream on your cellphone and use your earphones. She will explain the rest."

Hikari grabs her camera and stands in front of me, she seems like she is focusing the shot.

I do as she says, a voice rings- Makima.

"Got things fixed but now working out, right?"

"Yeah, I dan-"

"Dos de espadas!"

Diana runs towards me.

*click*

A burst of light comes out from Hikari's camera, Diana dodges.

"Just feel the music, don't think of anything else but what you love!"

The music starts playing, it's Valiant Heart again. I try to dance, but I trip on a slice I just barely missed and got my shoe.

"Stupid skill from the stupid keychain..."

The music stops.

"What keychain?"

I try to dance to the background music and skip Diana's attacks.

"You know, the item. It was the keychain. The duck keychain"

"Sayuri doesn't have a forbidden item"

I slip and fall.

"She what now?!"

Diana pins me to the ground.

"I saved you from that idiot girl over there and that's what I get?!"

"Like if I wanted a criminal like you as friend!"

"I'm not a criminal!"

Nozomi pops from behind her and does what I think is a duplex or some kind of luchador move, I really don't know, the only things I know is that one, Diana is on the ground, and two, Nozomi is really strong and flexible.

Hikari takes the deck of cards from her; she goes back to normal.

"You...!"

She walks slowly behind Diana and grabs a seemingly useless prop from the scenario, a megaphone.

"Like pearls to pigs..."

"Get off me, now!"

"Or what? You're going to punch me? Try"

Nozomi releases her and opens her arms, she smiles in the most devilish way I've ever seen.

Diana backs away slowly.

"I... I..."

"That's enough! No fighting!"

Akaza comes out of nowhere and stands in between them both, arms open.

"Sayuri!"

She looks at me overjoyed.

"Hey, you look exactly like me!"

She runs towards me, in a second Diana tries to grab her by the shoulder. Akaza turns around cheerfully and pushes her hand to the floor, Diana screams in agony and passes away.

"I said no fighting!"

We all stare at her.

"What? Too harsh? Whoopsie!"

I run towards her and hug her.

"You're fine! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

She hugs me back.

"Don't worry, it wasn't your fault. I mean, I didn't know those chips had shrimps on them"

I release her.

"...Okay, I know I sound like a broken record now but what?!"

"Yeah, I'm super allergic to shrimp! Diana got me some chips, but she didn't know about it and I'm not that kind of girl that just goes there and says 'hey, I'm vegan' or stuff like that because those people can be a big burden! Like Yoko! She's in my class as well and she told me 'Ugh I don't like pigs' with the ugh and all but I didn't know if she was talking about the animal or-"

"You died because you are allergic to shrimps?!"

"Uhm...yeah... Diana is really cool!"

We stare at each other, then look at Diana.

"...I think we messed up."

Hikari, Nozomi and Uzuki are now standing on a nearby wall.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

Hikari blinks surprised.

"... no one asked. Nozomi got your call, and we came, but it's not like I could avert a thing like this if the start of the plan involved blowing a wall down."

"So that's your excuse?! You didn't interfere because of something like that?!"

"God heavens no! If I try to reason with a person that’s convinced we are after them, there is no way for them to understand! Probably I would have gotten killed or worst."

I slap my face down and sigh deep.

"So... what now? What do we do? We don't even know if she was bad because I thought she did something to Sayuri!"

"Fine, I will take all of the responsibility and talk to her. In the meantime, please secure both the tarot cards and this megaphone."

Uzuki grabs both items and walks away, looking at me from the shoulder.

"You heard her, let's go."

Sayuri hops following Uzuki.

Well... I guess I need some answers now.