Fool Bloom (A Magical Woman Quest)

"Oh yeah, speaking of plays, how's Ladder to Heaven coming along?" Miyako asked Reiji to keep things going smoothly. She then looked over at Kazuya and tried to tell him, "Ladder to Heaven's the new play Reiji-kun's staging, it's based on-"

"Thank you, Nozawa, but I'll give Kazuya the lowdown," Reiji spoke up, "Ladder to Heaven is a novel by the acclaimed Kuramazov, who Nozawa tells me is apparently the same person as the town witch."

Kazuya nodded. "The one who almost killed me when removing the leech," he said.

"She what?!" Reiji immediately burst out.

"It was an accident!" Miyako equally on instinct said back to him, having hoped that wouldn't come up this early.

"I did not mean to seem ungrateful," Kazuya said, "it is just what almost happened, that's all."

"Yeah, and Kazuya-kun's still here, and Arisugawa-sama was still the one who stopped that leech!" Miyako hammered in.

"So you say," Reiji muttered, arms crossed, "But in a divergent timeline I doubt you'd so quickly rush to her defence."

"Technically with how multiverse theory works I could now be dead, alive, and anything else in all sorts of timelines," Kazuya said.

"Ooh, Padma in Full Bloom would now, she does multiverse stuff!" Miyako said, unable to resist a chance at Hanazakari trivia. Realising she was getting sidetracked, she shook her head and went, "Anyway, does that matter? In the timeline we've got right here, Kazuya-kun's alive and all healed up."

"Right, I see. But I just got told someone nearly killed my best friend, good intentions or no, Nozawa. You truly think that's gonna leave me as cheerful as a summer's day?" Reiji said.
With Miyako struggling to answer that, Reiji went back to the original topic. "So, Ladder to Heaven. Regardless of who wrote it, and as I seem stuck with it, it's about a WW2 pilot returning home, going into hiding with a drug addiction, then experiencing unearthly visions. So far, it's," he then sighed, "not going well."

"Sorry to hear that," a calmed down Miyako said, "since, y'know, I suggested it to you. But hey, there's my other idea-"

"No no, we will be proceeding with Ladder to Heaven," Reiji said, cutting in before Miyako could bring up what he dreaded she would. He still groaned on bringing up, "Our first dragon to slay is set design. Hoo boy do we not have the riches needed to stage anything like the Battle of Okinawa. Seems our wooden O will have to make do with just showing the old monastery and consigning all else before then to the narration."

"Wait, wooden O? But I've seen your theatre, it's rectangle-shaped," Miyako said.

"I was alluding to a Shakespeare preamble- oh, never mind," Reiji said, clutching his head.

"I got it," Kazuya said.

"Second issue is casting. We, er, don't exactly have many actors available, let alone for as serious a role as 'addicted survived kamikaze pilot on the run'," Reiji sighed out.

"There's always us!" Miyako didn't hesitate to say, "Kazuya-kun needs help recovering his emotions, acting could work for that. It's Arisugawa-sama's story, who better to cast in it than her? Maybe even Higashi-sama could help, after all it's her friend's story. And hey, I'm always up for it," she just had to add.

Reiji's face drooped. "Kazuya, I pre-emptively apologise. But Nozawa, this is an incredibly dark and harrowing story, and you're suggesting a bunch of people with, to my knowledge, zero acting experience?" he asked.

"Well yeah, that just makes it more authentic," Miyako said, with Reiji nearly faceplanting into the table hearing that.

"Still, it's not like I have anyone else this short notice," Reiji mumbled, then straightened up and said, "Okay, but you'll all still have to audition like any actor would. Well, most actors that is."

"Alright, woohoo!" Miyako said, despite her shrine job and college application.

"I may as well, there's not much else happening in my life right now," Kazuya said to this. "And Nozawa, you said you had another idea for a play? Would not hurt to hear."

"Believe me, it really would hurt to hear," Reiji swiftly spoke up.

"Paradise Lost," Miyako said, grinning as she caught Reiji completely off-guard. "I've been reading it recently, per Arisugawa-sama's recommendation. But yeah, if staging Ladder to Heaven's a problem, no way are we gonna pull off Paradise Lost, even if someone somewhere's probably staged it."

"A fascinating choice, not a book I would have thought you'd be into, Nozawa-chan," Kazuya said. "Not that I ought to comment on others' reading tastes, as every book I've read so far I just did because I was told to." Not that Miyako minded, she'd been blushing the moment Kazuya called her '-chan'.

"She's probably only into it because she's fallen for the Lucifer fandom," Reiji grumbled.

Am not! Miyako would've said… but she knew she couldn't say that in good conscience. So she instead went with, "Hey, I've put a bunch of time and effort into reading Paradise Lost, it's seriously heavy-going y'know!"

"Likely the translation to blame," Reiji said. Even if she wasn't blaming her specifically, Miyako still felt that comment was somehow directed at her or Koyomi.

Rather than get angry again, Miyako instead smirked as she chose to bring up what she knew Reiji was fearing. "Oh, and a third idea was to stage my own real-person fanfic, My Chemical Valentine. A multi-part Hanazakari odyssey about Red Spider Lily in Full Bloom as she-"

"Oh no you just didn't!" Reiji blurted out, then narrowed his eyes and said, "And you'd better not start telling Kazuya what 'omegaverse' or 'hanahaki' are!"

"I am not sure what 'real person' even means in this situation, let alone the other terms," Kazuya said, "Except 'fanfiction' obviously, I recall Reiji used to show me his."

"Well, 'real person' just means it's got real people in it. The Hanazakari Cherry Blossom and Chrysanthemum, and others like them," she said.

"And that is legal?" Kazuya had to ask.

"It shouldn't be," Reiji hissed.

"Eh, it's a grey area. Depends on who you're writing about," Miyako said. The moment Reiji looked like he thought the coast was clear, she then went, "And omegaverse means a setting where everyone's born either dominant or submissive, or sometimes neutral but nobody cares about them," despite them being in public, "and hanahaki's a disease where unrequited love makes you cough up flowers and you have to confess before you choke."

"It that so? It appears a lot has been developing in the fanfiction world that Reiji has neglected to tell me," Kazuya said.

"…For good reason," Reiji seethed like a kettle beginning to boil.

"Hey, there's more wholesome stuff in My Chemical Valentine too. You're making it sound much worse than it is," Miyako said, "like Soulmates for instance. Well, unless you're Arisugawa-sama, 'cause she found that of all things so icky that she handed me Paradise Lost. Said Milton wouldn't stand for it."

"Because if love is predestined, then it lacks the free will needed to be called love," Kazuya stated, then shrugged, "Or so he said. Our Literature classes were very thorough."

"And they were one of the nicer teachers," Reiji grimly said, but more lightly added, "Well, I suppose if hearing that about soulmates bothers you, Nozawa, then I'll say that Milton was a Cromwell supporter. Probably shouldn't take everything he said to heart".

Frost Decade aside, Miyako's knowledge of her own country's history was flimsy enough as it was, let alone of English history. Still, she nodded and said, "Thanks, Reiji-kun. Anyway, I guess we're gonna be busy here on out, but would either of you like to come by the Inari Shrine again sometime? I know Higashi-sama would be happy to see you're okay."

"The Inari Shrine, right…" Reiji said, his apprehension understandable given the last time he'd been there he'd ended up splattered against a cliff. "Well, if it's just to say hi, that works."

"I have no strong inclinations against doing so," Kazuya stated, but as Miyako frown at him he added, "I mean, I'd love to go."

"Great! Oh and, uh, Kazuya-kun," Miyako said looking at him. "Hope I'm not intruding or anything, but… has your family noticed anything about you yet?"

"Shigeharu and Chiaki? No, nothing, they have plenty of matters occupying them, same as ever," Kazuya said.

"Those are Kazuya's parents' names," Reiji chimed in for Miyako, "he calls them that as, well, you see-".

"Per their instructions that I do not call them 'mother and father'," Kazuya said, with Miyako flinching on hearing that. "Ryoichi has been more alert; he was my only relation to visit me in hospital. I can't be sure how much he knows yet though."

"You may have guessed that Ryoichi-kun still gets to call them 'mother and father'. Hell, 'Mum and Dad' even," Reiji said, then sighed. "He'll probably go berserk if he does find out, Kazuya having lost his emotions was the whole reason he got named heir. Whole reason he was even born, likely."

This was something Miyako had already heard, but it still stung to hear it repeated. I kinda wanna hate Ryoichi… but yeesh, knowing you only exist because your older brother lost his emotions, I can't imagine how that feels, she thought. "Well maybe if your mother and father had been there for you Kazuya, all this wouldn't have happened," she said on impulse.

"That is truer than you think," Kazuya cryptically said. "They assigned me a babysitter back then, turned out they were from the Frost Fair. Hence how all this started."

"Hence how Kazuya's parents' egos got so wounded. Him being drained in a sudden attack would be one thing, but imagine the scandal if word got out that they invited an emotional vampire into their home, gave them their trust?" Reiji said. "Well, so go the thought processes of the 1% anyway."

That a Frostfarer would be hired as a nanny did track with the illusion magic Miyako knew they wielded, they couldn't infiltrate Earth without it. "I see," Miyako was left murmuring, "Er, Kazuya-kun, was there any reason you didn't bring that detail up before?"

"There seemed no need to," Kazuya said, "And I confess, I may not have been quite, well, comfortable doing so."

Their dinner at least helped to lighted the mood again. Miyako had gone with a crispy unagi platter, Reiji with a steamy udon bowl that seemed endless, a bowl he said he wouldn't get for cash reasons but then couldn't resist, and Kazuya… well he ended up picking a beef dish for little reason other than it being first on the menu. The combined aroma wafting through her nostrils alone had Miyako already on cloud nine, though she doubted even that would make Reiji get over being left out in the cold.

Once dinner was over, with Miyako naturally being first to finish and Kazuya last even with how deep Reiji's udon bowl went, she asked, "Er, I guess we should all be getting home now, huh?" 'Home' being used loosely, given she'd been at the shrine only a week and whether the Kai mansion even had the right to be called Kazuya's home. Miyako had come to The Black Goose with the plan of clearing Koyomi's name there, but she may have left that too long with how late it was now.

Article:

But who to walk back with?
[ ] "Hey Kazuya-kun, mind if I walk back with you?"
[ ] "Hey Reiji-kun, mind if I walk back with you?"
[ ] Head straight back to the shrine, maybe Hayato will be around?
[ ] Head straight back to the shrine, maybe Asahi will be around?
[ ] Head straight back to the shrine and get some shut-eye.
[ ] Write-in