KARMA!!: absolution | book 1 | uta no prince-sama

Chapter 6: Cake Makes Everything Better Unless It Was Made By Natsuki!!

Sora　天

"Nii-chan! Nii-chan! Look, look, look!" Sora skipped back to across the room, twin in tow and managed to shove both of them to the front of the mass of students, pointing a roughly at a piece of paper at the front of the hall.

Shimono Sora: 下野 天 Shimono Subaru: 下野 スバル Kurusu Syo 来栖 翔

Score: 97

Sora hugged her brother's arm as he read the news that seemed too good to be true.

"We passed?"

She whacked his arm, "Don't sound so surprised - and we didn't just pass - we got one of the top five scores!" She caught sight of a certain person trying to see over the heads of many other, taller students. "Syo-kun! Come and look at this!"

She grabbed his hand, pulling him to the front of the crowd, and repeated the same process she had with Subaru. When Syo-kun saw their score he thrust his fist into the hair and whooped.

"We nailed it!" He offered her a high five, and then searched for Subaru, offering him the same, who was reluctant but followed through.

"Arigatou na," he said cheerfully. "We couldn't have done it without you, Subaru."

"Likewise."

The bell rang, signalling for them to return to class, "See ya later!" She called over her shoulder. On her way out she noticed Otoya, and Tomo-chan telling a very sparkly eyed Nanami that they had been asked to get some textbooks from another class and to go ahead without them.

Sora waved to the shy composer, "Nanami! Did you see your scores?"

Nanami smiled and they headed down the corridor towards A Class, "Un! Ittoki-kun wrote such wonderful lyrics! I'm sure that's why we got an 87!"

Sora laughed. "Your song was wonderful too, Nanami! I'd love to sing a song you've written one day!"

The other girl chuckled nervously, "I'd be honoured! The song that you sung with Kurusu-kun was incredible! Your voices really brought out the best in each other. I felt so energized and inspired from the sound you created."

"It was thanks to Subaru's music!" Sora said proudly. "We really couldn't have done it without him."

She was about to joke about something else, but when they entered the classroom she could immediately tell something was wrong. All eyes were on them and the room fell quiet, as though waiting for a reaction.

A reaction for what?

Then she saw the blackboard and the cruel words that were scrawled across it in large chalk characters.

NANAMI HARUKA:

SUSPICION OF USING CONNECTIONS

TOTAL BACKDOOR ENTRANCE

SHE CAN'T EVEN READ MUSIC!!

SHIMONO SORA:

HOW CLOSE IS TOO CLOSE TO YOUR TWIN?

BOUGHT HER SCORE

A FAKE

Sora lost track of how long she stared at the words directed at her. A fake? Buying her test score? Accusing her of that with Subaru? Was this really what her classmates thought of her?

Beside her, Nanami also seemed to be going through a similar thought process, golden eyes flashing with hurt. Sora desperately wanted to start wiping away the slander, but her knees wobbled and her hands had tightened into fists, fingernails digging into her flesh.