"Our classmates are monsters," you remind him. "And most of them scare easily whenever humans come up as it is."
Kazama, having just opened a can of soda, pauses before he can take a sip.
Having his attention, you continue. "And you think it's a good idea to spotlight a killing machine."
Lifting his glasses out of the way in order to better pinch the bridge of his nose, Kazama lets out a dejected sigh. "I see your point. Don't get me wrong, it totally sucks, but it isn't like I can argue with you either. And if I remember right, there are rumors about Takizaki possibly being a Witch like that freshman.... Sendou, right?"
You nod in affirmation -- both that you've heard the same gossip, and that he's referring to the correct underclassman.
"If we start with something like a crop duster," he continues, "that could go some ways toward showing a positive side of humanity -- that even if there are violent or destructive applications for some human inventions or technologies, there are plenty of other ways of using it that are beneficial."
Glancing at your direction, he asks: "That's what we're really supposed to be doing, right? Making it easier for our classmates to integrate into human society?"
Really, you should treat it as a rhetorical question, since your homeroom teachers literally spelled it out for everyone on the first day of class. But given how few clubs or students really seem to acknowledge that... hell, given how predatory some of the faculty can be... the mere fact that your obnoxiously nerdy clubmate is legitimately considering the topic enough to ask that question is enough that you can't bring yourself to call him stupid for it. The fact that he used 'integrate' instead of 'infiltrate' was also nice.
Even though you're seldom in a truly bad mood, the people who've seen you smile can still be counted on one hand.
You're a little proud of Kazama for achieving even this basic level of awareness when so many of your mutual peers haven't yet -- and a little proud of yourself for your role in getting him there, too. Closing your eyes to bask in the moment a little more, you nod. "That's right."
Or at least, that was until now. "Holy shit, he does have expressions...!"
"You say something, Kazama?"
The glasses geek seems oddly flustered, and almost spills his soda all over himself in his floundering. "Nope, not me!"
Hrm. Must've been the wind.
And speaking of wind, something else just occurred to you. "Big planes or small planes?"
Kazama blinks, taking a moment to consider the question. "Bigger's usually better, but it's not like anyone's going to care about learning the math or logistics involved in getting a passenger jet off the ground."
That's not what you meant, and you tell him so.
He... still seems clueless.
"He's asking," says the most beautiful voice in the world, "whether everyone's putting together their own RC model that will fit on a shelf when we're done..."
Kazama, who was mid-sip at the time, is now coughing and sputtering as cola drains out of his sinuses and onto his shirt.
A cold hand lovingly rests upon your shoulder as Mizore continues. "...or if we're going to build an actual aircraft and make someone fly in it."
"Jeezus Shirayuki," the half-outraged otaku mutters while trying to clean himself up, "are you trying to give me a heart attack or something?"
It is a rhetorical question, and even if it weren't the answer would be obvious and intuitive.
Mziroe still makes a show out of considering it anyway, evidently to amuse herself, until finally: "Nope."
"Ugh, and I just did laundry, too," Kazama irritably mumbles. "Anyway, to answer the question, we're the Mechanics Club, not the Electronic Entertainment Club. It should be pretty obvious that after a few smaller-scale models to introduce the relevant engineering and physics concepts, we're definitely going to end up buildng a legitimate aircraft at some point. Given how much budget we've got for the semester, though, it'll probably only be big enough to put a child in."
You look at Mizore, and see her blink in response to that. "Well," she says as much to herself as to the two of you, "Yukari probably already knows at least half the theory anyway, so teaching her to pilot it wouldn't be that hard."
Before either of the two can get any further along, you decide to state the obvious flaw in this plan -- and it isn't Yukari's willingness to participate. "Doesn't that one freshman hate Witches?"
Kazama realizes who you're talking about, and sighs. "Damn, I'd forgotten about that punk Yoshitatsu. If he found out we were considering putting Sendou from the Newspaper Club in it, a known Witch, he might be tempted to sabotage it in order to hurt or kill her and pass it off as an accident."
Mizore, for her part, scoffs at the notion. "Kazama, even you've got more balls than he does."
Even if she's completely and utterly right, there's still a part of you that wince in sympathy at her merciless choice of words.
"Messing with Yukari means messing with us," she continues while leaning against you. Even though her body's cold, you can't say you dislike the contact.
Impotently glowering from behind his glasses at the two of you, Kazama takes that as his cue to get up and leave. "And a belated happy Singles Awareness Day to you too," he bites out with bitterness that you assume is mostly affected.
After he leaves, Mizore sits down more properly next to you and cuddles up against you. Already knowing what she wants, you go ahead and wrap an arm around your girl, and the Snow Woman sighs in satisfaction.
In a lot of ways, you're content to enjoy the tranquil silence.
Although.... you are curious. "Do anything interesting today?"
Mizore giggles, although she brings up a hand to cover it. "Oh, nothing too much. Just... catching up on some housework, I guess."
Housework? "What, like cleaning up your dorm or something?"
You're not entirely certain of why Mizore looks so damn smug all of a sudden... but when she smiles and plants a kiss on your cheek, you decide that if she felt it were important to bother you with, she'd do so. "'Or something'," she says with a small grin.
__________________
The next several days pass by in a haze. Nothing really notable happens to you or any of yours, although you're quite pleasantly surprised to find that the Newspaper Love Triangle are.... well, they're still kind of awkward around each other, but at least they're all on functional terms again, and that's the important thing.
You don't know if they've reached any kind of resolution to their dilemma, and from what little you've managed to get from any of them without prying, you're convinced that they haven't. But the smiles come easily and honestly, now, from all three of them.
......eh, they seem to have things under control.
You didn't expect to have a string of comparatively carefree days -- how do you choose to spend them?
(pick ONE)
[]Meditate on gaining basic control over your Stand. If there's any chance at all that it could act on a violent impulse you don't want to indulge, that's a risk you're not willing to take.
[]More than one of your ancestors, you now know, have found glory by the light of the sun. Attempt to further your training in the Ripple, and see where it takes you.
[].......all things considered, you're confident enough in your power. What really concerns you are your friends. You took care to check up on.... (pick TWO)
-[]Moka. You recall how devastated she was over the Triangle drama, and the last few times you've seen Tsukune he doesn't seem to have puncture wounds on his neck as often as you'd expect. Has she been taking proper care of herself?
-[]Tsukune. You know how much of a pain in the ass it can be to have hormone-driven females chasing after you, and you can imagine that Tsukune's been through so much more stress getting that from people he cares about. Maybe he could use some time away from the ladies?
-[]Kurumu. Before, she seemed like she was about to implode from the guilt of feeling like she betrayed her friends, and she didn't have an issue lashing out at anyone around her in order to try and deal with it, either. You're concerned about how stable she really is...
-[]Yukari. She was reverting to some of her older, more annoying habits before.... she isn't too lonely, is she?
(NOTE: if you choose to hang out with your Newspaper friends, then you can't do any kind of training. The reverse is also true.)
