9 Cultural Festival Part 4

"What the heck?!" Natsuki exclaimed.

After agreeing to find out what the "big event" was, the four literature club members entered the school where they immediately found themselves in line.

"When you said that there was long line, I didn't realize you meant that it was this long…" Shujinkou marveled at the length of the line. Considering that they weren't even on the right floor, it became very apparent that saying that the whole school was waiting in this line would not be an understatement.

"The line's gotten longer…" Sayori nervously chuckled.

"What's so great about this 'big event' to make the whole school want to see?" Natsuki wondered aloud.

"It must be something very enticing," Yuri said.

Shujinkou didn't know what to say. He's only seen a line once in his life and all he was trying to do was pick up a copy of a game he pre-ordered months before then. The experience still haunts him to his day.

Noticing the length of the line was intimidating her fellow club members, Sayori quickly decided that the best thing to do was to find a way to take their minds off of the wait.

"Ah! I just remembered!" Sayori dug through her bag and pulled out a watch. "Random story time!"

"Random story time?" Yuri repeated. She was curious to what Sayori was planning.

"It's a game Shujinkou and I played a lot when we were kids," Sayori started to explain. "The rules are simple; a person starts a story and after a set amount of time, another player takes over the story telling responsibility. We had a lot of fun with that game, right Shujinkou?"

Shujinkou nodded his head in agreement. In contrast to his traumatic line waiting memory, he had many fond memories of taking the scenarios that occurred in his head and sharing it with a friend. In fact, sometimes Sayori didn't want to take over the story telling responsibility because she was very interested in where his own story would lead.

"Alright then, start us off, Shujinkou," Sayori cheered.

"Okay," Shujinkou cleared his throat and started his tale. "A long time ago, there was once a boy that had the power to make whatever he wrote in his journal to come to life. It was a special gift that was accidently given to him while he was still developing. How you may ask? Well, a fallen angel, named Kyojin, stole a mystical orb from heaven that granted this power to its wielder and attempted to use it to take over the world.

Realizing that the orb was stolen, God sent his top angel, Jack, down to Earth to find Kyojin and take back the orb. A fight of epic proportions ensued. The two were evenly matched, but Jack was able to use reverse psychology to fool Kyojin and land a major blow on him, causing the fallen angel to drop the orb. The falling orb soon phased itself into an unsuspecting woman's womb and fuse with the developing child's soul. It wasn't until he was four where he learned that he had such a cool ability and then…"

"Stop!" Sayori interrupted. "It's time for someone else to continue the story."

"Man… I was just getting into it," Shujinkou mumbled. He then glanced to his right and noticed that Natsuki was staring at him in awe before quickly turning away with an annoyed look on her face, making him wonder what he did to earn that response.

"That was a great start, Shujinkou," Sayori complimented.

"Mm-hmm," Yuri nodded her head in agreement. "It was quite impressive that you could create such a set-up without anytime to think."

"It was okay…" Natsuki muttered. "But watch how a pro takes your story and makes it even better."

"So, you want to go next Natsuki?" Sayori questioned.

"Eh?" Natsuki responded. The boastful girl closed her eyes and started to think about how she should continue the story. After spending several minutes in silence, her eyes opened and her face shot Shujinkou an expression that couldn't help but make him feel like he was being judged. "Alright, here goes…

The boy himself wasn't a well liked kid. Almost everyone his age made fun of his interests and his relationship with his parents wasn't exactly the best. He tried everything he could to get the others to accept him and his interest, but in the end it was all in vain. In the end he felt like there was only one thing he could do. He was going to make one last ditch effort at being accepted.

Now, no one knew of his special ability to mess with reality by just writing in a book. He always felt that if people ever found out, he would be even more of an outcast then he ever was. But after realizing that he was already alone and had nothing to lose, he revealed his powers his hometown. He summoned cute animals and made it rain sweets, but instead of making him endearing to the entire town, the citizens instead ran away in fear, leading to…"

"Time's up!" Sayori interrupted. "Time to switch!"

"How was that?!" Natsuki boasted, keeping her eyes trained on Shujinkou.

"Not where I would have gone with it, but it was very good emotional arc," Shujinkou responded.

"You got to have emotional story arcs for your character or else no one will connect to them. It's something your part lacked," Natsuki said. "Remember that or else you won't be a good story-teller."

"But my character was still in his mother's womb when my turn was over," Shujinkou pointed out. "He wasn't able to have an emotional story arc yet."

Upon realizing that he was right, Natsuki turned away embarrassed.

"I know that! I just meant that you should have one for your story if you have gotten to that point, dummy," Natsuki retorted.

Shujinkou didn't know how to respond. He then remembered that it would be better not to respond and let Natsuki have the final word.

"Your turn, Yuri," Sayori said.

"Eh? Me?" Yuri timidly replied. She always knew her turn was coming, but still couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. She closed her eyes and thought about how she could continue the story from where Natsuki left off. Moments later, Yuri took a deep breath and opened her eyes, ready to tell her part. "The day after he revealed his powers, the boy was confronted by a group of people who were very interested in him.

They offered his parents money to take him away to their facility and they agreed. The boy thought it would have been a place of fun but, as soon as he arrived, the young boy was shocked to find out that it was the exact opposite of what he thought it would be. The entire facility was filled with technology that would impress anyone, but to the child it just enhanced the cold and sterile feel the atmosphere was giving.

For the next three months, the boy was subjected to all sorts of experiments. Some of them were fun and some of them were not. Eventually, the fun experiments disappeared and more unethical experiments were used. These experiments involved torturing the child physically and psychology, causing the beginning of his loss of sanity and planting the seeds of despair in his heart."

"Time's up!" Sayori interrupted.

"Ah…" Yuri let out a sigh of relief.

"I guess it's my turn," Sayori grinned. "So… months later, the boy eventually reached his breaking point, causing his powers to evolve. No longer needing to write things down for his powers to take place; all he needed was his fractured mind. He used his powers to summon a giant monster and allowed it to rampage. It ate everyone in the facility and decided to do the same to everyone who shunned the boy where he came from.

With the monster gone, it finally hit the boy that he had just taken lives and realized that he couldn't let the monster destroy his hometown. He used his newly evolved powers to confront the monster there and engage it in battle. It was a long and grueling battle that lasted hours until the boy realized that he couldn't beat his own monster. It seemed that in the end there was only one option left to take…

Without a second thought, the boy flew down the monster's throat and detonated himself to save the town that always treated him terribly. He died thinking he was a freak, but his death caused the entire town to realize the error of their ways and decided to celebrate the boy's life every year on the day he died to pay their respects. The End! Wasn't that a great story?"

"It was all over the place," Natsuki said.

Shujinkou had to agree with that comment. It wasn't a bad story overall, but the tone of it was inconsistent. It started off as an action/adventure story, then shifted to emotional drama, then shifted to psychological torture and finally ended on a rather bittersweet note.

"Well, at least the game accomplished its original intention. We're almost at the front of the line," Sayori happily pointed out.

The four of them silently waited 10 minutes until they finally reached the door to the "big event" they heard about.

"Hey… isn't this Monika's classroom?" Sayori noticed. The other three looked up at the class number and realized that they were in fact in front of Monika's classroom. They finally were allowed to enter and their eyes couldn't believe what they saw.

"This is a…" Shujinkou weakly muttered, lowering his head.

"A maid café?! The 'big event' that had the whole school excited was a maid café?!" Natsuki exclaimed. Her fellow club members shared the sentiment. They couldn't understand why a café, even a maid café, could prove to be so popular that the entire school would come. Soon the answer shyly walked into the classroom in a specialized maid outfit.

"Monika?!" Sayori gasped. Monika quickly glanced to her right and her cheeks turned bright red upon laying her eyes upon her fellow club members.

"H-Hey guys…" Monika weakly smiled. Suddenly, everyone in line and inside the café broke into a cheer, excitedly chanting Monika's name.

"You got to be kidding me…" Natsuki mumbled. "You mean the "Big Event" was just you wearing a maid outfit?!"

"The power of the school idol…" Shujinkou thought.

Later that afternoon, Monika happily approached her club members, who were waiting for her next to the school's front doors.

"So did you guys enjoy the festival?" Monika asked.

"Well, kinda… until your class caused the entire thing to stop," Natsuki said, still slightly annoyed by the revelation of the "big event".

"Sorry…" Monika chuckled.

"I have no complaints, I still got to eat a lot of food," Sayori smiled.

"That's great," Monika smiled back. "What about you Yuri?"

"Mm. I also enjoyed myself," Yuri answered.

"And you, Shujinkou?" Monika asked. At that moment, Shujinkou snapped back to reality and nodded his head.

"I have to admit, this is the first time I actually enjoyed the festival," Shujinkou replied.

"I told you, you would have fun," Sayori grinned.

"You were right," Shujinkou chuckled.

"Well I'm glad everyone got to enjoy themselves," Monika smiled. "Hopefully next time I can join you guys. Anyway…"

Shujinkou noticed Monika glance towards his direction with a curious look on her face.

"There are no club activities today, so I guess we can all head home," Monika informed her club members.

The five of them walked out of the school and Shujinkou realized that he was once again among a sea of happy faces. Everyone looks forward to the school's cultural festival, but he's always been indifferent to them. He still was a bit indifferent to the event itself, but he also couldn't help but look forward to the next one.