Chapter Text
It’s April 1st.
Tsukasa wakes up, hugs Saki, and goes to school. He greets Toya in the hallways, strikes a few excellent poses, and goes through his perfectly wonderful starlit day (yes, the sun is a star so he’s taken to referring to all his days and nights as ‘starlit’—keeps his eye on the dream, you know?).
During lunch, he goes to find Rui. Their director had texted him last night about showing him a new invention for their next play. Now by 'showing him' Rui usually means 'running several alarming beta tests on him,' so Tsukasa wasn’t actually really looking forward to seeking him out today.
But c’mon, it’s Rui. It’s not like Tsukasa is not going to go through with whatever he’s planning
So he waits for Rui at their usual spot in the courtyard. He waits and he waits.
He’s getting a little sick of waiting.
Lunch is almost over and no sign of Rui. He checks his phone but there’s no new messages. Tsukasa considers calling him but if Rui missed their meeting, chances are he got distracted with something and won’t pick up anyways.
He asks some of the other students if they’ve seen Rui around.
“That Kamishiro guy? He’s probably lurking on the roof with his creepy robots.”
“Careful. If he heard that he might drone bomb us.”
“Hah! He would.”
It’s been a while since Tsukasa has heard other students talk so callously about Rui and he has to bite back his tongue. (“Weirdo Combo” is one thing but ‘creepy’ is a term that has always bothered Rui, Tsukasa can tell.) But n time for confrontations now! He has to find Rui before lunch ends.
He goes up to the roof, and Rui actually is there. The purple-haired boy turns toward the door opening with an expression of hopeful anticipation—only to immediately deflate when he recognizes Tsukasa.
“Oh. Tenma.”
“‘Oh Tenma?’” Tsukasa parrots. “What kind of greeting is that? I’ve been waiting for you in the courtyard for half an hour!”
“You’ve been waiting for me?”
“Yes! We were supposed to test out that new ‘surprise’ invention you made for our next show!”
“Our next show?”
Rui’s expression has turned from confused disappointment to confused amusement.
“I don’t recall ever agreeing to… that.” He chuckles. “But if you would like me to make you a fun contraption to alarm others with, I’m sure that could be arranged with the proper compensation.”
Now Tsukasa is the one confused.
“What? No! Look, lunch is almost over and we don’t have time to do a runthrough of your invention now. Is that something we need to do at rehearsal today? Because we should tell Nene and Emu if that’s the case.”
Rui just keeps looking at him with that face.
“Is this a prank? Are you doing a very strange April Fools’ joke right now?”
Tsukasa throws up his hands. “Are you?!”
Rui shrugs. “Well, either way I’ve been entertained.”
The end of lunch bell rings, and Rui slips by him without a second glance.
“This was fun, Tenma. We should avoid doing it again.”
…
Tenma???
OK, so obviously Rui planned that whole thing just to screw with him for April Fools’ Day, which Tsukasa does not appreciate seeing as he gave up his whole lunch hour for that — and he didn’t even get to see the cool thing Rui had planned for their next show!
Annoyed with their director, Tsukasa decides to find Nene first after school just so he can complain to her about it. (She’ll probably somehow make it seem like his fault and insult him for it but still.)
He finds her still in her classroom, playing some shooting game on her phone.
“Oy! Nene!” he barks, walking in. “You will not believe what Rui did to me during lunch today!”
Nene nearly jumps out of her desk.
“Wh-What do you—? What do you want—?”
Tsukasa barrels forward with his rant.
“I swear, Rui and April Fools’ is the worst combination. This is more annoying than that year he gave me hair gel that turned out to be glow-in-the-dark dye that wouldn't wash out for a week.”
“Rui pranked you?”
“Yeah! Get this! Today, he ditched me at lunch and then when I found him on the roof, he pretended like he didn’t even know me!”
“…I’m…sorry?”
Tsukasa groans. “Ah whatever. He just better not keep that act up during rehearsal today. We have way too much work to do. Anyways”—he holds out a hand— “want to walk to the gates together?”
Nene doesn’t answer. In fact, she’s not even looking at him.
Tsukasa frowns as he finally notices her trembling hands and her panicked eyes.
She looks really worried.
“Nene, what’s wrong?”
“I-I—You—” She takes a deep breath. “Who are you?”
The way she says that makes Tsukasa’s heart clench and for a second he’s almost scared.
Then he laughs.
“Oh come on! You’re in on it too?! Geez Nene, you almost got me. But seriously. We have a lot of work to do today, so let’s move on already.”
“What are you talking about?” Her voice is terribly small and Tsukasa is kind of impressed by her acting chops.
“O.K. You want to play this out? Fine sure. Ahem.” He places a hand on his chest and clears his throat.
“MY NAME IS TSUKASA TENMA, FUTURE STAR AND LEADER OF WONDERLANDS X SHOWTIME! WILL YOU, SONGSTRESS NENE KUSANAGI, GRACE MY TROUPE WITH YOUR BELOVED VOICE AT REHEARSAL TODAY?”
As expected, Nene looks horrified.
Tsukasa grins at her with the implicit dare that he will keep speaking at this volume if she doesn’t give up this prank and come with him already — but instead of scowling and throwing a stapler at his head, Nene’s next words sound like they break on the verge of tears.
“Are you trying to-to tease me because I know Rui? I-I swear I don’t know what he does on his free time—he doesn’t talk to me—please-please—”
The grin quickly vanishes from his face.
“Okay, Nene, okay. You got me. I’m not teasing— This isn’t funny anymore.”
He tries reaching out to her again but she flinches—she actually flinches—and backs away.
Tsukasa is used to his friends joking with him but this? This is not a good time.
There’s a hand on his back, and Tsukasa turns to see Toya beside him.
“Tsukasa, I think you’re upsetting her.”
“What?”
Toya stares at him with concern. “Kusanagi is very shy. I don’t think we should bother her if she doesn’t want to talk.”
“I know she’s easily embarrassed but—She’s my troupe member!”
Toya’s brows furrow (and you know shit has gone wrong when Toya’s facial expression actually changes).
“Tsukasa… Since when do you have a troupe?”
Something is up.
Rui and Nene ganging up to bother him is one thing, but Toya??? Even after Tsukasa insisted to him that this was becoming a very upsetting prank, Toya simply looked at him with even deeper confusion and concern.
Unable to stand being in that setting any longer (seriously, was the whole school in on this joke!?), Tsukasa ran for the one place he could think of, and the one person who could never lie to him even if there were a gun placed to her bubblegum pink head.
The Miyamasuzaka Girls' Academy gates rise up ahead of him.
The girls’ school lets out earlier, but if the others are doing this just to get a day off rehearsal, then there’s a good chance she’s still here.
“SAKI!” he calls to his sister who’s standing outside with her childhood friends. “Saki! Where’s Emu? Have you seen Emu?”
“Emu?”
Saki looks surprised (at his presence or his question, he’s not sure).
“I don’t know—”
“DON’T SAY YOU DON’T KNOW AN EMU!” he preempts. “I don’t know what those three are planning for this April Fools’ prank but it has gone on long enough and it’s pissing me off, so if you’re in on this, you need to let me know where she is!”
Saki looks so stunned at his outburst that Tsukasa immediately cringes and starts apologizing for raising his voice at her. It’s not her fault. It’s just he has had a weird day and he also ran like five kilometers to get here and may pass out from oxygen deprivation any moment he’s not sure. He should probably take a moment to catch his breath.
“Saki, this is your brother, right?” Shiho says, like they haven’t all hung out multiple times in the last few years.
“Yeahhh… You all remember Tsukasa…”
“How does he know Emu?”
“Hona, you know an Emu?”
“Yes, Emu Otori from my class.”
“YES!” Tsukasa yelps. “Yes,” he repeats at a more restrained volume. “Thank you, Honami. Can you tell me where to find her?”
“Why do you want to see her?”
It’s such an absurd question Tsukasa almost starts to laugh again except now he actually feels more like crying. But the Leo/Need girls are all watching him that same concerned expression Toya was giving him earlier, except way more apprehensive, and Tsukasa feels like he needs to be really earnest about this right now.
“Because,” he says, “she’s my friend.”
He’s followed Saki onto Miya school grounds. As a non-student, his presence is a little obvious (it’s a lot obvious) but it should be passable with his sister accompanying him.
They reach the archery building where girls in black and white uniforms are warming up their bows and arms. A pink, very bendy girl is stretching near the back.
Tsukasa is too relieved to stop himself from calling out, “Emu!”
A dozen girl heads turn their way and Saki has to tell them, “He’s um, with me.”
Emu smiles as they approach her, seemingly unbothered by the guy in her girl school (and why would she be? She’s broken into his school enough times to be enrolled there).
She looks surprisingly refined in her archery club uniform and Tsukasa can’t help but wonder since when does Emu do archery club? He knows she’s in like four different athletic clubs but most of those have never interfered with rehearsal so does she just miss this club a lot? She’s never mentioned it.
But whatever, that’s not what’s important right now.
“Emu,” he says again. “Happy April Fools!”
“Huh? Oh wow! It is April Fools!” Emu says brightly.
“Yup! I’ve figured it out!” Tsukasa puts his hands on his hips. “So are we done now? Can we get back to work?”
Emu blinks blankly up at him.
“Get back to what?”
“Rehearsal? Our shows? We have a new one coming up so we really don’t have the time to be goofing off with childish pranks right now…?”
“Oh. Okay. Good luck with that!”
“Good luck with—Emu, what the hell is going on?!”
With unreadable eyes, Emu turns away from him to look at Saki.
“This is my big brother, Tsukasa Tenma,” Saki explains. “And I’m Saki Tenma, by the way. I’m in class 1-C? You know my friend, Honami Mochizuki?”
“Oh yeah! Honami! She always smells like apple pie. ^_^"
“Yes! That’s our Hona!”
The two girls start getting chatty in front of him and Tsukasa has to interrupt.
“—Okay okay. Very impressive. I like how many angles you thought this through. Emu doesn’t know me thus she’s less likely to know Saki, hahaha very creative. But honestly? This joke is not feeling very funny anymore, if it ever did. Rui, Nene, and now you, Emu? It just feels like lying at this point, and you know how I feel about being lied to. I don’t know who came up with this prank, but I really need you to stop now. Please? Can you respect my boundaries and stop pretending you don’t know me?”
Emu blinks at him slowly.
“Okayyy…”
Tsukasa lets out a breath of relief.
“...except I really don’t know you, so I guess I’m not pretending!”
Before Tsukasa can completely lose his shit, a purple-haired girl enters and a chorus of “good afternoon, Asahina” echoes around the space. This older student’s eyes land on him and Tsukasa can feel her telepathically dialing security on him.
Saki is dragging his arm out of the archery club and Emu is turning away from them when Tsukasa sees something that sends a jolt of adrenaline through his system.
“Wait, wait, Emu!”
She looks at him and Tsukasa squares himself to look at her—like really look at her—for the first time he’d sprinted in here.
“Wonderhoy!” he shouts, throwing up his hands and putting on the best smile he can while shoving down that panicky sinking in his chest.
Emu frowns at him.