Fruits Ripe

Episode 3b

Same day of departure hours later at school 3rd POV

(29th annual Kaibara high school culture festival poster on windows)

Some time has passed and suddenly school became busier as the culture Festival was coming up next month, and everyone was preparing. In Tohru's class, their representatives were up front writing down the student's ideas on what they wanted to do. As one of the class representatives, Yuki was finishing up writing on the chalk board.

"It's decided. For the festival, our class is going to operate a rice ball stand. With that settled, I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on the kinds of fillings we should use." Yuki spoke up after he finished.

Tohru raises hand excited and spoke as soon as he looked at her, "Oh! What if we did tricolor rice balls? So that in every rice ball, people get three different fillings to try. A bargain!"

Yuki smiled and agreed with her idea, "That's cute. I like it."

Suddenly Kinoshita, one of Yuki's fangirls spoke up sarcastically, "Seriously?"

The other students were confused by her reaction and just responded with a simple, "Huh?"

Seeing she had everyone's attention, she continued mocking Tohru's idea, "We totally need to ditch that idea, Yuki!"

Another Fan girl joined in, "Yeah, what if she suggests a tuna, kelp, pickled plum combo?"

They both fake retched before Kinoshita followed up by saying, "Oh my gosh, that would be so disgusting!" Both fan girls were too busy laughing that they didn't notice Uotani approaching them. Then jumped out of their skin screaming when a steel pipe hit their desk. Tohru tried to calm Uo down, so she followed her over to their desks, but Uo didn't pay her much mind and told them, "Nowhere near as disgusting as your personalities, morons."

Kinoshita panicked but still responded indignantly, "What kind of psycho brings a steel pipe to school?!" This surprised the rest of the class, but they were also lowkey used to Uotani and Yuki's fangirls antics to jump in.

Kyo, who hadn't been paying much attention to those 'crazy girls', spoke up "I say we should do rice battles."

A boy who had been standing next to Kyo's desk, Shion, asked, "battles?"

Kyo punched his hand as he smirked and explained what he meant, "Yeah, brutal head-to-head matches. First to pin their opponent wins. Weapons are allowed and customers have to duke it out for their rice balls, and the only rule is no killing." He got so passionate about it that he stood up as he talked.

Everyone in the classroom except Yuki, Tohru, and vice representative deadpanned and responded with no hesitation, "Hard pass."

Kyo got upset not seeing anything wrong with his idea, "I'm trying to contribute here! You jerks could at least think about it!"

The Vice representative not wanting Kyo to feel too bad just said, "that's one idea."

Yuki deciding not to comment on Kyo's stupidity, got to thinking and suggested something that included Tohru's idea, "What if some of the rice balls are actually duds? We could make a deal where you buy three and then choose a fourth one for free. Only some of the choices are simply... empty."

Everyone except Kyo and the vice representative immediately sounded their agreement, "Sounds great!"

Kyo was even more upset at that and shouted out, "You shoot me down, but accept his dumb idea?"

The boy sitting in front of him, Yusuke teased him for his outburst, "Sorry Kyon Kyon, yours was way too weird."

The same boy from before standing next to him, Shion joined in with the teasing, "Don't pout about it, Kyon Kyon."

Kyo snapped at them while his face heated up from agitation, "Don't call me Kyon Kyon!

Yusuke teased him some more, "Don't be mad, Kyon Kyon!"

One of the girls, Iwata noticed cats appearing out of nowhere and couldn't resist squealing, "Look, cats!"

Seeing a whole bunch of cats appear out of nowhere surrounding Kyo, their classmates all exclaimed things like, "What the heck?", "When'd they get in here?", and "How cute!" All the chatter and attention though just made Kyo more agitated and caused his temper to flare.

Kyo, not being able to take it anymore exploded and ran out of the classroom, "That's it! I'm outta here!"

Yusuke called out after him as Kyo ran "Wait Kyon Kyon! You've gotta tell us what's up with the cats!"

Hana remarked calmly watching him, "Very strange." Hearing Hana say that made Tohru squeak with nerves.

Uo agreed nodding along with her dark haired friend, "Yeah, don't worry. You're still the strangest person at this school. That guy's got a seriously hot temper. Doesn't take much. he's the total opposite of our prince."

Tohru leaves the classroom to look for Kyo, who found solace on the school roof with the cats from the classroom surrounding him. That's how Tohru finds him after remembering he liked the roof at Shigure's house. The cats started meowing once they saw Tohru, but Kyo didn't budge until she spoke scaring him. "I thought I'd find you up here! You really like being up on high places, don't you? Oh, hello there, kitty. They're adorable. I guess it's not surprising cats like you so much." She picked up a cat and cuddles it.

Kyo scoffed, "It's not like I encourage them. They show up on their own. It happens to all of us with our animals. We can't stop 'em."

"Aw, that way you'll never be lonely." She thought that was a nice thing.

Kyo raised his voice a bit, "It's not a good thing! So, why are you here?"

Tohru ignored his tone and just genuinely answered his question, "I was worried, so I came to check on you. Don't you wanna help out with the culture festival project?"

Kyo sighed and self depreciatingly replied to Tohru's optimism, "You don't need me. Everything'll go fine as long as Yuki's there. He's always been so smart, and capable, and good with people. Everybody automatically respects his talents. They trust him. I'm the one who started martial arts first, you know. And now he's better at it than I am." His eyes go a bit misty like he was in a daze as he continued, "It pisses me off. I can't magically make myself more like him. But I would if I could."

Tohru gasped softly in surprise with wide eyes as she listened to him talk about himself that way. It was silent after that, but Kyo did follow Tohru back to the classroom. They were still on break and mostly everyone forgot about the altercation already. After a bit Tohru approached Kyo again with Uo and Hana in tow holding playing cards, "Let's play Rich man-poor man!"

Kyo was facing outside not turning to face them not in the mood to interact with anyone else, "No. Go and bother Yuki. I don't wanna play."

"I would, but Soma's not around right now." Tohru told him honestly.

Uo seeing he wasn't budging decided to taunt him, "Bummer, I was looking forward to playing you. You're so stupid and incompetent, I figured you'd make for easy pickings. Way to ruin my fun. Thanks a lot. Running away from a fight like you're some scared little boy, it's pathetic."

Kyo got more pissed off the more Uo spoke and eventually he grunts as he stood up and faces Uo, but she just smirked seeing she got to him right where she wanted him. His raised voice gathered some attention as he spoke to him, "Okay, you're on! But I'm not gonna dry your eyes when you lose, got it, Gangster Girl?"

Uo never stopped smirked and continued taunting him, "Whoever comes in last has to do everyone else's cleaning duty." Uo and Kyo arguing faded into the background as Hana and Tohru talk by the desks.

Hana told Tohru in her monotone, "Cozy. It's such an inviting maelstrom of waves."

Tohru replied while looking around the room, "That's strange. I wonder why Soma's not back yet."

Meanwhile Yuki got called out of the classroom by a female classmate and followed her to the library where she confessed to him.

Yuki tried to let her down gently in return, "I'm sorry. But I'm just not interested in dating anybody right now. It's not you, really. I'm just trying--" but the girl cut him off by getting over emotional, "No! Stop it! I don't wanna hear this! Yuki!" She jumped at him to embrace him, but he stops her by catching the sides of her head. They both stopped for a moment before he started to respond, "I, um, didn't mean..."

The girl cut him off less aggressively this time being depressed at being rejected, "You're really nice, Yuki, but you don't let anyone in, do you? Everybody says it! Yuki's different from regular people. An ordinary girl would never be enough for someone like him."

Yuki gasps after hearing her remark and he lets her go as she continues talking. Then watched her run away crying but now he was in a visibly down mood trying not to show how upset her words really made him.

Back in the classroom with the gang playing cards with a few others were surrounding them.

Kyo threw down his cards and boasted, "Revolution!"

Uo was indignant and argued with him seeing his cards, "What kinda under-handed trick was that you sneak?"

Kyo argued back, "The kind that's allowed in the rules!"

While they argued Tohru just looked a bit confused asked Hana and Uo, "Revolution turns the strong cards weak, so I don't know which to play next."

Hana pulled out her ace sneakily causing Kyo to look defeated and argue, "I do. Revolution Reversal."

Yuki approached the classroom where he could hear the shouting from outside. He was unsure if he should approach and ended up just watching from the door's window.

He could see Kyo getting upset about losing, "Not cool!"

Uo was fine with losing as long as it wasn't to Kyo, "She really got ya, Carrot Top."

"Nice work, Hanajima." Shion commented, him being one of the spectators.

Yusuke added to tease the boy, "Not lookin' good for Kyon-Kyon."

Not liking being teased raised his voice even more, "Shut it! We're just getting started here."