Emergency

***

The second round of the Beauty Contest is in full swing, with two contestants having finished their demonstration of skills.

The defending Vice-Miss and the girl often compared to Silveria in terms of beauty, Kanade, has mesmerized the audience and judges with another dancing number, just like she did in the previous years’ contests, earning herself solid 4 points as the average from the three judges.

Next in line was Eleona, bringing 3 huge burgers, showcasing how fast she can gobble all of them. With her personal record time, she was able to finish them all under 7 minutes. Diantha and Silveria found it unbecoming of a lady, resulting in a less-than-stellar average score. At the very least, Zhang, who was blushing the whole time while looking at the spectacle, has saved her with 5 points, brining the average score to 2 points. Unfortunately, Eleona's stomach couldn't handle the excessive amount of food she consumed, and she hastily retreated from the vestibule, feeling sick.

Fantasia wanted to accompany her, but Leanna dismissed the idea, considering it was Fantasia's turn next. Instead, Leanna volunteered to find Eleona and take care of her.

Now, Ravel is standing in front of the judges, nervously gripping the microphone.

“This is my favorite song from a relatively unknown singer from Slovakia. It’s called ‘Mentally Disturbed’ and it’s a fan made original opening for one of my most beloved anime…”

He clears his throat and begins singing a cappella, “The truth is hidden under the mask, even if it’s disturbing. The final battle with my love won’t be a happy ending. My conscience has been clouded for a long time, is the world to blame? And which two worlds should I have connected as the bridge between them?” Ravel pauses for a while, trying to recall the lyrics, then he continues. “Does my kind live only to be annihilated?”

“Okay, okay, stop, geez!” Silveria interrupts Ravel’s mediocre singing.

Most of the people wouldn’t notice the minor intonation mistakes Ravel made but Silveria’s ears were exceptionally sensitive. After all, her special skill has always been singing in the contest, too.

“If you don’t finish the song, you can take these four points, okay?” She offers a deal that Ravel has no reason to refuse.

“Man, how can you forget the lyrics of your favorite song? 2 points! Bam!” Zhang is visibly irritated.

“How come he never sang to me, hmph.” Diantha’s face grows redder and hotter, she closes her eyes and chooses to award Ravel with only one point.

Embarrassed, Ravel walks back to sit next to Fantasia who pats him on the head comfortingly.

“Alright, we have only two more contestants ahead of us in this round! But where is Zinia?”

“Over here!” Zinia shouts from the back of the vestibule, leading something along with her.

“Baaa!”

A goat.

“What on earth is she doing?” Ravel and the other contestants watch her take the goat on stage.

“This is my friend Goatee! She’s going to help me to showcase my skill!” Zinia declares with a great sense of excitement.

“Awww, Mrs. Goatee is so beautiful!” Fantasia’s eyes turn into hearts, while others regard the animal with a mix of disdain and curiosity.

“Well, the stage is yours, just don’t let it poop here,” Liko warns her, taking a few steps away from them.

Zinia walks to retrieve three large glasses from her backpack situated on the floor next to her seat.

When she comes back, she takes one of the glass and starts milking Goatee, filling the glass with a fresh product.

The audience reacts with a mix of giggles, disgust, and cheers.

When she is finished with all three glasses, she offers them to the judges, placing the milk in front of them, “Help yourselves!”

“Ugh-, no, thanks, I’m not going to drink THAT,” Silveria grimaces in disgust, looking away while holding up the card with the number one written on it.

Diantha frowns hesitantly, urging Zhang to try it first. He takes a sip from one of the glasses.

“Not bad, actually, it’s pretty tasty! Phenomenal! Ingenious!” Zhang proceeds to drink the whole glass, asking Silveria if he can take hers as well.

“Uhmm… let’s try, then,” Diantha cautiously drinks the milk, savoring the taste in her mouth for a little, “woah, it’s actually great! It has far richer taste than the milk from the store!” She immediately awards Zinia with 4 points, with Zhang following suit.

Meanwihle, Ares, who has been observing the entire show, stands up and prepares to leave, catching the attention of Seko and Yutaka.

“Hey, you’ve watched your girlfriend and now you’re not interested to see this through?” Yutaka tries to guess Ares’ motivation for the sudden departure.

“You two have been pretty annoying, you know that? Watching this competition is a waste of time, everybody knows how it’s going to end anyway. The next owner of that tiara has been already pre-selected,” Ares calmly reveals.

“What do you mean?” Seko presses for more information.

“I’ll let you two in on a little secret. The contest has been manipulated. Regardless of what the judges say, a significant number of the students here have been already instructed on whom to vote for.”

“What? How do you know that? Don’t tell me…!” Yutaka's voice trails off as he realizes who Ares' father is.

“Heheheh, a little money can win anybody over,” Ares waves his hand, bidding the two boys farewell while walking away, “But I suppose you don’t have any proof of that, do you?”

“Seko! This is bad! He must have bribed the students to vote for Zinia!” Yutaka shakes Seko’s shoulders in panic.

“Hey, the touches!” Seko tries to fight back in disgust, “…do we actually care?”

Yutaka halts the shaking, “You certainly don’t, and neither do I if I’m being honest. But if this is true then Ravel’s hard work up until now will have been for nothing!”

Ares’ father is a successful businessman, the whole family holds a high status in society. Running a Zoo is just a fraction of their wealth and property.

“You’re right, we need to let Ravel know somehow,” Seko wonders how they will go about it if they don’t want to start a commotion.

“Thank you Zinia for a rather… well… extraordinary show, now please take care of your friend and get it outside of the vestibule,” Liko stands afar, not wanting to be in close proximity to the stinky animal.

Zinia takes the goat outside as she’s told. The second round is nearing its end, with only Fantasia’s performance remaining.

“Alright, please give another round of applause to our last contestant in this round, Fantasia of 1.B!”

To Fantasia’s and Ravel’s surprise, there is much less booing than before and some people even cheer her on. The first round must have made a greater impact than they originally thought.

“Welcome back on the stage! What kind of a skill are you going to show us, Fantasi-,”

ZAP!

As Liko inquires Fantasia about her upcoming act, a sudden power outage plunged the entire vestibule into darkness. The lights went out and since there are few windows in the large building, the natural light was scarce. The microphone doesn’t work anymore and the laser show is shut down as well.

All the students start the murmur, taking up their phones and turning the lights on their devices on. Silveria stands up and loudly addresses the situation: “Please remain seated, the school janitor will work on the issue and he’ll get us running soon!”

“Seko, now’s our chance to talk to Ravel!” Yutaka nudges Seko’s shoulder.

“Fantasia? Where have you gone? Fantasia!” Ravel was too engrossed in the commotion to notice that Fantasia had disappeared from the stage.

“Hey Ravel, listen! It’s bad!” Yutaka comes running to him with Seko following, “Ares probably bribed the students so that they vote for Zinia!”

“What??”

“Yes, he admitted it himself!” Seko doubles up on Yutaka’s claim.

“Damn it, what’s going on today? … First we need to resolve this issue. I have a bad feeling about this power outage.”

The school janitor has arrived at the scene with a flashlight and a tool kit. He examines the electrical panel situated in the corner of the vestibule behind the judges. Silveria, as the student council president responsible for smooth running of events, accompanies him, holding the flashlight.

“Well? What do you see?”

“I don’t understand it. I just reset all the circuit breakers, you see that some of the lights in the back are working now, but I am puzzled as to why the plugs and the other lights are still not functioning,” the janitor replied, scratching his head.

“Hey! Let me take a look!” Fantasia reappears in the vestibule, running towards them while holding a certain device in her hand.

CHAPTER 21: END