Ayanokouji What If: Popularity Time

V9 Chapter 1: War On The Horizon

                          Kiyotaka Pov

It was the day after we had returned from the Mixed training camp exam when I had agreed to meet up with a select few groups of people.

The day was January 22nd which would be a normal day. The day after, the 23rd, would be Kikyo's birthday. Therefore I decided to bring together a group of Class C and A students to plan a birthday party for her.

Currently, our group of 10 was sitting in a large karaoke room at the end of the mall. The room had black soundproof panels on the walls to block any noise coming out of it, brown tiled floors, black leather couches, and a coffee table at the center.

Hanging above it all was a shimmering disco ball. Along the walls were various colored lights that, when projected, would turn the disco ball into a rainbow ball of lights.

Sitting at my sides were Shinohara, Karuizawa, and Inogashira. Opposite me on the other couches were Hirata, Ken, Ike, Matsushita, Ichinose, and Sato.

On the table were drinks and a few small snacks and desserts scattered along the outer edge of the table but at the center of it all was wrapping paper, scissors, and many cardboard boxes.

My fingers delicately pushed the tape onto the colorful paper while my free hand reached for more tape from the dispenser. The wrapping paper was striped with the colors blue and purple and was currently wrapped around a small boxy shape like a cocoon of color.

"We have the planning down," said Hirata, his eyes set on an itinerary in his hand, "But we have an issue."

I looked up with a raised eyebrow, "An issue?"

He sighed while gently laying the paper on the table, "Yamauchi has asked her out on a private date."

Ah. So that will be the issue.

"Have you tried to talk to Yamauchi-Kun?" asked Ichinose.

"Well yes," said Hirata with a nod of affirmation, "But he told me that he planned on...asking her out."

The girls gasped and Shinohara recoiled, "We have to save her! That's probably the most amount of danger she'll ever be in!"

If only she knew.

"That's a tad bit over dramatic," I said quickly to avoid something inevitable, but it was too late.

Ike nodded furiously, "We can't let Haruki ask her out! For the entirety of the male population, we cannot let her be stolen away!"

"Eh? You're kidding right?" muttered Shinohara with a confused expression, before suddenly clasping her hand over her eyes while her eyes widened in a mixture of confusion and happiness. "You became normal?!"

Ike stood up violently, throwing his right hand forward with his mouth wide open to say something. Unfortunately, his knees slammed against the table, and instead of a confident war cry, he let out a squeal and fell back onto the couch.

"Ow, crap!"

He rubbed his knees while he glared at the table, "That demon...!"

How unfortunate. Just as Ike was about to get fired up about something, his flame was doused by his pain. But I had to admit he looked cooler than he normally did when trying to lead the charge.

Ike was a strange case in that he was utterly a fool, but he had redeeming qualities. His camping skills guided the class in the Capture the Flag exam, and he has the making of a leader of a small militia.

While he would never be my first pick under any normal circumstance, if there was a time when the class had to be divided into small groups for an exam, he would be a student I would choose over somebody like Shinohara, Karuizawa, or Yamauchi due to the fact that they would bring a lot of drama alongside them.