"Okay, everyone," I half-droned. "Once again, the voting has split between the maid-cafe and the haunted house. If it keeps tying, we're going to have to go back to square one with another option."

  The battle for what our class would do for the culture festival had raged on since before I had come back from the hospital. In an unexpected turn of events, it was Kaori and the girls that suggested the maid cafe; some of the boys quickly joined up and split the class. Denki led the opposition by proposing the haunted house. Whatever stragglers were left by the maid cafe were swept up by the prospect of scaring other students out of their minds.

  "Denki," Kaori adamantly stood. "Why are you fighting the maid cafe so much? Wouldn't a guy want to be waited on by a cutie in black and white?"

  "You think too little of guys, Kaori," Denki retaliated. "You don't even have all the boys' support, much less the girls that would be wearing the outfits and waiting on other students. Besides, how many other classes are going to do the exact same thing? A haunted house is more unique and opens the doors for more experiences."

  "We're going to lose both options if you don't give in, Fujimori," one of the girls on Kaori's team stated.

  "The same can be said about your proposal," Rito chimed in. "Not that I would particularly mind, but the class is pretty evenly split. I can't think that we would unite under a cause like we have for these."

  It's been like this for two weeks. As the representative, I don't have a vote, but I would give anything to have a vote so I could end this back and forth.

  "What about this..." Hiro spoke up as all eyes gravitated towards him. "Why not mix the two?" He stood up and walked to the board. "We can have the cafe that Kaori and her team want while putting a gothic or haunted spin on it to make it what Denki and his team want."

  There's no way they'll go for this.

  "That's actually not a bad idea," Kaori tilted her head and put her hand on her cheek.

  "Hiro, that's a great idea!" Denki's smile lit up the room.

  I can't believe they went for it.

  Both teams seemed to come to the middle ground of a gothic cafe. Before I could even finish writing the proposal on the board, Kaori and Denki had combined their camps and split into groups for preparation. The borderline war zone became like a hivemind all thanks to Hiro.

  "Hey, Kazuma," Kaori called. "Denki and I are going to go to the theatre club to try to get some of their costumes. Wanna come?"

  "Sure," I said looking over my shoulder. "It looks like they have it handled here."

  The walk to the theatre club room wasn't necessarily a long one, but as luck would have it, it took a while because seemingly every other class had sent out people to fill the halls. Faces came and went seemingly endlessly in wave after wave.

  Through it all, one stood out. One made my heart stop. One wore a grey hoodie and was covered by a white mask. My memories ran wild, back to the balcony on New Years Eve, back to his sinister voice, back to his omen. Here he was, walking among the living as if he was one of them.

  In an instant, the buzzing, the nausea, and the sense of impending doom returned. It was so intense that I couldn't even activate my ability. The voices in the hall all seemed to blend into one and became muffled as he moved from side to side, like a tree swaying in the wind. Without a word, he slipped into one of the rooms. My breathing became jagged and short.

  "...zuma?"

  Can't you see he's right there?

  "Ka... ma... kay?"

  I can't let him hurt them.

  "...ki, he... no... ding."

  Snap out of it!

  My lungs were filled with air in moments. The droning and other sensations vanished from my body as quickly as they had appeared. The hall was empty, and I was vice-gripping the handle by the window. Kaori's hand rested on my shoulder as she leaned over to look into my eyes. Denki stood in front of me as a wall, probably to prevent anyone from walking into me when there were other people around.

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  "Hey, buddy," he started. "Are you okay?"

  "...yeah," I answered after a brief silence. "I-I don't know what that was."

  "Sheesh, gramps," Kaori teased. "Maybe you should head back home for the day."

  "Hilarious," I sarcastically replied. "Not an option, though. We have to get as much done as we can: we're already behind the other classes."

  "Just don't push yourself too hard like you did at the sports competition, okay?" Denki seemed legitimately worried.

  "I'll be fine, buddy."

  We walked into the theatre club room, and my recovered facade was shattered. On the wall hung a mask almost identical to his, the mockingly whimsical smile was replaced with a sorrowful and remorseful frown. The way that the hollow eyes still stared into my soul and the haunting aura that it still emitted seemed to trigger the nightmare all over again. The worst part wasn't the mask, though; it was that no one seemed to understand the danger they were in. It was like something so close to Damien's mask was something normal to them.

  "Kiki!" a young-sounding girl called.

  "Ai!" Kaori's expression lit up as the two girls embraced.

  As they broke apart, I saw a girl just over half of Kaori's size. She had long light blonde hair pulled into pigtails with eyes like a warm latte that was perfectly mixed. She barely looked old enough to be in junior high, much less high school. As I saw more of the student in front of me, one thing still glared at me, the mask on the wall.

  "What's wrong, buddy?" Denki nudged.

  "That mask... where did it come from?"

  "Huh?" The girl hugging Kaori pulled back and looked at me with disgust. "You've never seen a theatre mask?"

  "He's a bit sheltered," Kaori joked.

  "It's only half of the literal symbol of the theatre," the other girl spoke down to me. "You know, comedy and tragedy? The Divine Comedy? The Tragedy of Dar—"

  "I know what comedies and tragedies are," I interrupted, irritated. "I'm asking where is the other half of the set? Where is Comedy?"

  "No idea, grouchy," she seemed to brush off the question. "We haven't seen Comedy since we came back from Christmas break."

  Then what the hell did I see outside the room?

  "Anyway," the girl continued brushing off my and Denki's existence. "Kiki, have you come back to tell me that you're entering the pageant?"

  "Hardly," Kaori smiled. "And don't be rude to my friends, Ai. Boys, this is Hirota Aisha, one of my best friends since elementary."

  "And clearly the only one who sees her childhood friend sweeping the competition at the pageant," Hirota added.

  "You've always had the best jokes, Ai," Kaori laughed.

  I looked around the room still on edge. She was the only member present. He easily could have slipped in and disappeared in the time between me seeing him and us entering the room. Masks and cloaks covered the walls, but none of them matched his.

  Why was he here? Is the danger he warned me about coming? Why would he even care if it was?

  "Please, Kiki," Hirota begged on her knees. "Join the club and win the pageant for me — us."

  She gave the biggest puppy eyes I had ever seen. Kaori looked at the two of us like a cry for help. Denki and I shrugged helplessly in response. She gave a defeated sigh as she made one last stand.

  "Tell you what, Ai. You and your club help out our haunted cafe and I'll think about joining the club." She looked back at the two of us then to Tragedy. "Throw in half of the theatre mask set, and I'll consider the pageant too."

  Hirota looked up with joy. "Deal! I would have done it anyway if you were asking, and losing half of the mask set is no skin off my back. It's a win-win."

  We worked out the details of what we wanted the uniforms to look like and called it a day. I grabbed Tragedy on the way out, and we made our way back to the classroom. As we walked, I stared down at his sorrowful frown.

  His mask was a theatre mask. He got it from our school's club. He's closer than I ever thought he was. Just who the hell is Damien Greene?

  The rest of the afternoon went smoothly enough. Our group gathered to walk home and found Nina getting ready by the shoe lockers. Before I could say anything, Chika and Kaori had already seized her and convinced her to walk with us. Her expression was less than thrilled. As we made our way through the city to the train station, I managed to get a chance to talk to her.

  "Thanks for not showing that day," she muttered.

  "You seemed like you didn't want company," I replied.

  "No, really, thank you," she glanced at me. "I needed the time alone."

  I can't tell if she's being sarcastic or genuine, and I don't think I ever will be able to.

  "Did you find anything useful?" I asked.

  "Nothing I hadn't already seen," she looked away. "They cleaned up the mess pretty well, but there was no sign of that idiot, one way or another."

  "I'm sorry. If you want, I can go with you this weekend."

  "Sure," she mumbled.

  "Okay, when and where do we — "

  CRASH

  "What the —" Denki began.

  "It worked!" Natsu cheered. "I'm free!"