Operation: Scare Nozomi

Chapter 3

Their ingenious plan of action was set into motion a few days after. 8 members of Muse gathered in the clubroom excitedly. However, this plan didn't prove to be very meticulous.

"So Honoka, what exactly am I supposed to say?" Maki twirled a lock of her hair nervously.

"All you have to do is ask her to come to the clubroom at 4pm!" Honoka grinned from ear to ear.

Maki huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "But how?! Won't she be suspicious? And why am I the one who has to do this?'

"Maki is definitely the most cool-headed one to pull this off." Umi smiled supportively and the rest gathered to cheer for her.

Well that did it. Maki threw her hands up in exasperation. "Fine! I'll do this, but not because I want to help!"

They were left staring expectantly at her back as she stormed out the door and into the corridor.

Maki tried her best to calm her breathing and her red face, as she watched Nozomi's back from behind a corner.

Alright. Everyone is depending on me to do this. If I screw this up, I'll spoil our whole plot. Keep calm, Maki. "Well, I never wanted to do this anyway." She muttered under her breath, immediately denying her thoughts.

Now is my chance. Maki sprang from her perch stealthily. "Nozomi, wait a bit!"

"Eh?" Nozomi stopped in her tracks, surprised by the one who was calling her. "What's wrong, Maki-chan?"

"Uh... The others want me to tell you to come to the clubroom at 4pm... Well, because we decided to start practice a little later today." Maki fidgeted slightly, sweating nervously.

"Oh I see. That is a little late though, what's the occasion?"

"Well, some of them are rushing an assignment and are uhm in class! Y-yes, in class! We want to begin practice together today so we decided to wait for them!" Maki blurted out agitatedly.

"Alright, I'll just go take a walk till' then. You haven't seen Elicchi have you?" Maki shook her head. "I'm going to go look for her then. No naughty business in my absence, you hear?" Nozomi took what she said as the truth, and winked as she teased Maki.

Maki gulped. "Y-yup!" She forced a smile and waved her senior off, wondering since when she appeared to be so naïve.

If this was the amount of stress she got from lying she won't ever tell a lie again.

With Nozomi out of the way, the rest of Muse worked feverishly to finish the set-up.

"The rope needs to go up higher, Rin! And stop playing around with the webs, Honoka!" Eli chided.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Umi slumped against the table, muttering as she watched the chaos about her.

Kotori hears and pulled Umi to help her adjust the cloth over the lights. "Come on, Umi-chan! Let's just try and have fun today, okay? Help me, I can't reach!"

Umi pulled at the cloth such that a lovely eerie glow fell about the room, unlike the usual bright lights.

Time passed them quickly, as they put up this cloth, adjusted another, pulled down the childish tinsel (It's not Christmas, guys!) and prepared their masks.

"Harasho! We managed to put them all together!" Eli clapped her hands with relief and glee

All their proud/anticipating smiles were worn on their faces.

Cue the ghost hanging above the door, falling to the ground with a clatter.

"Aww, no! Nico Ni has to put it up again!" Nico whines, running for the main act of their jump scare.

"That wouldn't have happened if someone else set it up!" Maki grumbled.

"Then why don't you do it?" Maki and Nico ended up having a staring contest again.

"Hey, hey we still have about half an hour. That should be enough time for both of you to set that up again!" Hanayo interjected, "I can help too!"

The argument was temporarily paused as the three of them scrambled to pin up the miniature ghost back up at the door.

Suddenly, a voice speaks up about something none of them considered before. "But what if Nozomi-chan arrives early, nya? Isn't Nozomi-chan like a ninja?"

All of them stop in their chatter and activities and fell silent. Nico facepalms. Oh dear.