-Daichi Izumi : Classroom 2-A, Yurei High School-

As the three students gazed at Mitsuko, Daichi went further to examine the fiber of Mitsukos well-being in an attempt to discern how she was processing the concurrent situation. Of course, the purple haired giants facade began fracturing the longer he scanned her face, calculating her next move. This cause the teens face to twitch slightly as the grin began to fade away into an icy stare, prone to having the chance to mold into another emotion on a whim.

Determining the outcome to this predicament was difficult, as there were myriads of conclusions. Daichi continued to wait for a response, feeling that this whole predicament, this whole plan was for naught... and in the end, the turn out was against his favor. Keeping that unidentifiable glare, the teen could only figure that extorting some form of discombobulation appeared to him that it was going to be a lengthy trial. With his patience on the line, Daichi wondered how many excruciatingly caustic days of dealing with her lunacy.

As he plopped down into a familiar chair, his arm crashed onto the desk as Daichi went to work, squinting at Mitsuko. "... eh, you're no fun," Daichi retorted, an audible sigh emanating from him during the middle of his statement. The teen lean forward a bit, overshadowing the desk he was occupying. "Honestly, you're missing bonding time with a couple of your new colleagues... but whatever, I guess as slightly looked forward to it."

At this point in time, the lavender haired teen was hiding nothing short of honesty. In short, he did want to see the girl embarrass herself, however once that event was possibly over with, Daichi would hold no qualms traversing the store... possibly. Pondering on attempting to figure a way to hit a sort spot, Daichi studied her longer before shooting out another reply. "... and by yourself? Geez, why not go with your friends or something? I'm sure they would enjoy that quality time with you." Daichi had a minor revelation, and held some hope that the cold demeanor and eccentric attitude she held did not frighten off prospective companions...

After all, he would feel some weight on his conscience if he discovered that as the truth... and would feel more over as pure, low down scoundrel. Befriending the girl, only to destroy that reality... that wasn't him... that wasn't even close to the Daichi he remembered himself as.

Shaking his head, the boy stared down at the desk as he became enamored with taking an elongated nap. Maybe he could take a jab at the prospect, if he was possibly right about the girl being lonely, after possibly forming a sound platonic relationship? Tapping his finger on the desk at a rapid pace, the boy was brought back from his mild trance at the report of snacks. The boys eyes ate every word as his head flew up, fixated on Mitsuko. Of course, he wasn't very hungry at the moment, key words moment, and might procure a one not only for him, but Akemi too.

Glancing over, Daichi only pondered on her mothers motives for conjuring up a batch of scrumptious looking brownies... As he measured each one, there was the possibility of fur the making an even greater impression to distract them from a mere facet which gave way to possibly uncovering truths about the president. Cringing a bit after feeling that he came to a resolution which supplemented Daichi with an addition to one of his younger theories.

"That's quite... sweet of your mother to prepare such a delectable treat," Daichi leisurely said, mentally scolding himself for making an inordinate pun, even rolling his eyes at it. "... heh, maybe I can bring some cooked Takoyaki with some help from my sister due to her being the superior culinary artist." As Daichi made the jest, he knew the fact that it was do ninety percent learning with trial and error, and ten percent of actual cooking. It was a horrid struggle to get anything edible out of him, which is why he left cooking to his sibling and father.

Of course, from what he discerned, others were excited by the idea, save for Charles who was prone to disgruntlement rather then unbridled enjoyment. Of course, Daichi eyed the boy, unfazed at his consistent attitude of stay in aloof and "cool." Daichi believed that type of mental structure was going to bar him from a few things. "He's the type of guy who'll never be happy... unless something changes within his mindset."

Of course, with the food, most people were showing reluctance in grabbing one as a result of attempting politeness... as far as Daichi was concerned. Of course, he found it very peculiar in a few others earlier talks, especially about traversing stores in search of a costume while not including Daichi... which was peculiar since he injected himself into the whole spiel. She seemed to harbor more attention on females, seemingly ignoring the male (Daichi) in this process... and held a questionable blush.

Of course, he might be guessing, but the girl was possibly uncomfortable in the presence of guys and dared not speak or mention them? From all he was concerned that face told him some facts about the girl, but not everything since he simply didn't judge the whole book by its cover... however, body language and tearing apart each word wasn't.Suffice to say, he just went on a possibly incorrect whim that she was like Seiko in that sense of enjoying companionship with other girls.

Heck, he'd ship it... if he was at least correct.

Aside from that, the boy took note of the action, or per say, inaction of his newfound companions as some of them stared at the brownies, particularly the arrival of a girl who received a stapler in a... less desirable fashion. As peculiar as it appeared, the girl did not take the risk of grabbing one or two brownies and snacking on them. It was certainly obvious that she was waiting for something to happen. As he studied the girl, it was apparent that she was possibly trying to be polite, or either avert appearing rude by taking a few... just like the other chick.

At any rate, as he scanned each person and their postponed decisions, Charles, unsurprisingly, took the liberty of being one of the first people to hear up to the table and grab some brownies. From the mere seconds he was standing there, it wasn't hard to tell that he was attempting to procure the lions share of the meal. Sighing, Daichi only wondered if his greediness would ever be quenched as the boy shoved both of them into his mouth in an impolite manner.

Of course, the girl who loved to get to the punch line was next in her endeavors of procuring food. Praising her mother, the short girl gladly went next after Charles. While doing so, he appeared miffed at the way he acted, honestly surprised at how... violent she was. As some weird display of power, she audibly growled at the boy while baring her teeth. Daichi was not expecting that and was perturbed by such an attitude, even after she asked Mitsuko to give her regards in baking these treats.

Of course, Daichi was probably going to get one for himself and another for his sister. The boy slowly rose from his seat, looking back at the other students before returning his attention to the crowd gathering by the treats. The teen turned over to the table, shoot in his eye up as he title his head to stare at the girl stiffly shuffling by the ice queen herself.

Before he even privileged himself to the chocolaty sweets, he Ben his head in Mitsuko and the other girls direction. Eyeing the blonde girl first, Daichi opted to respond to her to quell that girls sense of waiting. "You know, you don't need to stand there and wait for everyone to procure a few brownies... even if you're attempting to not appear rude, you won't." With that sentiment put forth, Daichi gave Mitsuko his attention next to address her mothers kindness. "Also, could you give your mom my gratitude as it was kind of her to bake some brownies for the group..."

Exhibiting a patient smile, Daichi turned towards the brownies, analyzing each one as he stepped further before just grabbing two random one. There was no method to this as he glimpsed at one of the delightful treats he took and hit into it... huh... The brownie was really tasty; Akemi would love this one. Turning around to face the president, he gave the girl a smile of approval before walking away, lingering a few feet away from the short girl.

Whether or not they were actually from her mom was out of the question, as Mitsuko could of gone through the grueling work of baking these while hiding her more happy side. This stemmed from the display from earlier as Daichi happily munched away as he leaned on the board He then began eyeing the club leader, as well as everyone else as his eyes dashed around to each person in the room.

"Interesting..."

"...If it's really that important to all of you, then I will procure a costume on my own."

Well, that could have gone better. She wanted to press the issue, really, but ah well. She could bother Mitsuko much more later. She already had an idea in the works for what she wanted to do at the little...'event' anyways. And by that, she meant pretty much doing exactly the opposite of what their leader said. She was fairly certain it was a horrible idea in the grand scheme of things, but well, she never claimed to be a master of good judgement. She could also enlist Charles help, since she had that bit of leverage on her...

For now, though, brownies!

"My mother was a bit...excitable when I told her about the meeting, so she decided to make a small batch of brownies. I hope they're to everyone's liking. Have as many as you like."

Mitsuko revealed an entire tupperware container full of the things. Well, they looked delicious, that was for sure. She walked over there, moving past the other students before grabbing one, and promptly stuffing the whole thing in her mouth.

"Teesh are delishoush. Your mom made tesh?" She said through a full mouth. She swallowed the one she ate after a few minutes before continuing, a small smile on her face. "Your mom sure can bake." With that, she grabbed a few more, before walking away from the group. She was planning on eating the rest of the brownies by herself, before she noticed Mura...by herself who was also blushing slightly.

...kek.

Now, if this wasn't a good time to interject herself into someones thought processes, she didn't know what was.

"I'll ask those questions after you give the new girl the rundown." She said to Mitsuko. "For now, I'm going to enjoy these delicious brownies!" She left the small group, and walked right over to Mura. She would ask those questions later, but at the moment she was much more interested in Mura. For a variety of reasons. One, she probably really shouldn't eat so many brownies. Two, if she could get friendly with her she could possibly get some info on her supposed...after school activities.

"You know, if you keep blushing like that while staring at the front of the room, people might think you're imagining the prez in a skimpy costume." She teased with a friendly smile, walking to the front of the other girls desk. "Seiko Karuta!" she introduced herself, taking a seat next to Mura, still carrying a few brownies. "Really, call me Seiko though. Prez keeps calling me Karuta-san, and it feels like she's giving me the cold shoulder." The redhead sighed, faking being hurt. "Mura, right?"

She proceeded to eat another brownie before offering the other girl one. "Want one?~" She asked, holding out one of the brownies to her. "They're really good. I almost wanted to tease Mitsuko that she made them herself."

She gives me love and affection
Baby, did I mention
You're the only girl for me
No, I don't need a next one
Mama loves you too
She thinks I made the right selection
Now all that's left to-

OMI’s hit single came to a screeching halt before finishing the verse, all by just a single flick of the boy’s thumb. Eli Hughes, notes the marker for the room. 2-A. Here it was. The Occult club. Even before he silenced his phone, Eli could make out quite a ruckus coming from the other side of the door. Though he wasn’t sure if that was exactly a good thing. As he approached the club’s meeting room, a guy came stomping out, slamming the door behind him. Eli might have said something but...well, the look on the guy’s face didn’t exactly scream “I love people! Talk to me!” But hey, everyone has a bad day, yeah? Dude probably just needed to go fume about something. Not that it was any of Eli’s business.

Standing outside the door, he inhaled deeply. Crowds and new people weren’t exactly a problem for him. Hell, part of him actually liked, no, thrived on it. But his gut still always managed to knot up extra tight. Stage fright? The thought amused him. In a way, he was about to perform, wasn’t he? He exhaled. Well, standing around twiddling his thumbs wasn’t going to make things any easier.

Eli reached up to his right ear, yanking out the earbud. He shifted his phone to his open hand before yanking out the left earbud as well. As he was wrapping the cord around his phone, the screen lit up and an envelope sat on the front page. It was from Emm. Actually, there were three from Emm.

-hey bro

-im going to Mieko’s house after school
dont worry about walking me home today
already got the ok from pops

-have fun at nerd club

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. Nerd club, eh? He hadn’t said anything to either her or Pops about joining the Occult Club, but he had taken home a flier he found just chilling on the ground. It was enough to peak his interest. But...well...he must have just laid it on the kitchen table when he got home and forgot about it after grabbing a snack. She saw it and just about died laughing. Then she spent the next hour teasing him about it. Fun times, that. Though it did help to cement his decision. At this point, join it or not, she wasn’t going to let it go. So hell, might as well have at it, no?

He shot her a quick reply before putting his phone deep into his pocket. A shit-eating grin stretched from ear to ear. It was a little cruel, that. She had been insanely worried that right after they got to Japan, someone was just going to pick her up and run off with her. Eli supposed it could happen but...well, he was comfortable betting against it.

-K. Don’t get kidnapped, squirt.

With that wrapped up, Eli shot a look from side to side to make sure the coast was clear. Satisfied that it was, he strolled over to the door and made his entrance, the giant hunkering down to avoid decapitation by door frame.

“...an in America, so you may just be more American than I am. I take it you, uh, like the states?”

Eli made a quick scan of the room before entering fully. Well, there was nobody that he recognized. That was...well he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He was vaguely aware of some chattering going on amongst the people inside, though he didn’t quite put together that one happened to be in glorious English. A couple things immediately struck him as odd. First, most, if not all of the people were _{rather cute} girls. Not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, but he hadn’t expected such a drastic skew. Next, many of them were chowing down on brownies. Which...alright, he had nothing on that. And finally, the atmosphere...didn’t exactly scream creepy, ghosty Occult club to him. If anything, this could easily have been a baking club or a sweets connoisseur club. Or...shit, what if it was like some sort of woman’s studies club? Not that there was anything wrong with any of those, but...well, he’d feel rather silly if he had the wrong room. But he could have swore that the flier said 2-A.

“Hey yo, uh…’cuse me, I’m lookin’ fo-”

Eli blinked, realizing that he had spoken in English. Well, that was embarrassing. He wasn’t exactly sure what got him in THAT mindset. He paused for just a moment, switching gears into Japanese before picking that train of thought back up. Then, in his best - though heavily accented and likely butchered - Japanese, Eli continued, speaking up to everyone, yet no one in particular.

“Sorry. I am looking for the Occult Club? I am running a bit late, and I thought the flier said to go to Room 2-A? Would anybody know where it would be if not this? I am still a bit new here.”

Truth be told, he was a bit frazzled. Normally he would be at basketball practice right about now, but he managed to convince the coach that he was feeling a bit sick and needed to see the nurse. After a super rushed shower and then practically sprinting across the school, he could see himself having gotten the room number mixed up in his head. He was stressed about lying to coach and stressed about being late to the meeting. It happens. Actually, the more he thought about it, the more he had thoroughly convinced himself that the flier said 1-B. His cheeks began to warm up.

Oops.

"Uh, y-yeah thats my name. And what about Mitsuko in a revealing costume? It would be just us lot, and I think she would look rather cu-cool. She would look pretty cool."

...she was fairly certain Mura had almost said 'cute'. That would have been hilarious to hear coming from her. Seiko simply gave a small smile at the statement though, finishing the last brownie she had gotten as the other girl started eating the one she had given her, soon stating how good they in fact, were. Seemed pretty much everyone enjoyed Mitsuko's moms cooking, then. Maybe they could look forward to more delicious snacks in the future. That would be awesome.

"So then. I've heard you're a journalist, or at least journalist in training."

Mura said to her not long after. Ooh, trying to get the drop on her, was she? Kek~

"Sounds like an interesting career choice, and one I've looked at myself. Though I definitely wouldn't be good at it. I was wondering what made you want to do what you have been doing. You know, writing a blog and all that."

"Pfft, wasn't really that hard." She immediately replied. "I like writing, and I like sticking my nose in other peoples business. It's a win-win for me. So, I guess nothing really made me want to do it. I just do it because I want too." And that was about all she had to say on that matter, if only because there wasn't really much to say on it. It wasn't like she was hiding some big dark secret or something.

"Buuuut, enough about me~" She smiled, somewhat mischievously. "I wanna ask you something. Only fair, since you asked me something, after all." She continued. Mura wasn't about to get the upper hand in this little meeting so easily. "Soooo, there's tons of rumors about what you do after school, you know. There are some pretty...colorful ones, too~" she chuckled, pausing for a moment to let Mura try to imagine exactly where this conversation was going.

and then she promptly changed the subject.

"But who cares? I wanna know why you joined this occult club. Tell me, and I'll leave ya alone for now. Don't tell me and I'll have to speculate about your afternoon activities. On my blog, of course~" Whatever her choice, she was gonna go grab one of those waivers after Mura replied. She still did want to ask the Prez a few questions, after all. She supposed she could do that while waiting for everyone else to shuffle out.

Yeouch.

The girl that turned to face Eli looked...serious. Like, waaay too serious. That was the kind of look you only got when you’ve seen some shit and somehow walked away from it. If Eli had to guess, going off every single detail he knew about her (absolutely zilcho), then he would say...murder. This cold mama probably killed a couple fools on her way here this morning. Probably runs a massive criminal empire to boot.

Eli felt himself grinning despite his current predicament. Alright, so his little analysis of the girl was most likely downright wrong on so many level. Too many movies, Granny would say. But Granny also thought aliens were trying to abduct her cats so...maybe not linger too much on that bit of criticism. In any case, Eli managed to calm himself before he so rudely burst out laughing like a madman. The girl sized him up, then launched into a spiel that sounded...well-rehearsed? If not, somebody get this chick an award for some epic improv skills.

She introduced herself as Matsushima Mitsuko _{that was a bit of mouthful}, and confirmed that this was indeed the Occult Club, of which she was president. Eli let out an audible sigh of relief, and his entire body seemed to relax and loosen up. He’d take being late over being lost anyday. But as the girl went on with her speech, he couldn’t help but feel as if she seemed a touch...annoyed? Miffed?

…

Alright, to be honest, that was fair. He WAS about thirty minutes late to a one-hour meeting. If her speech normally took thirty minutes and she pretty much just condensed it down to...less than one? Well, yeah, he’d probably be a bit annoyed himself if he were in her shoes. He had a decent excuse in his mind but...well, even a great excuse was still just an excuse. He’d have to figure out how to be a bit more punctual for next time. If need be, he’d talk to coach. He really didn’t WANT to have to do that, but if his hands were tied then…

Oh. Earth to Eli, come in Eli. What had she just said? He had been a bit wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t been paying full attention to her speech. Well, asking her to repeat herself was out of the question. She might not be some sort of mafioso, (or would it be yakuza here?), but he for whatever reason felt like it would be in his best interest to not get on Madame President’s nerves any more than he had already done. He did manage to pick up a few things, some of which may be important. Something about the Halloween Extravaganza and a ghost hunt at the school. Some more about a waiver to be returned by Thursday. There was also something about brownies.

Eli gave her a couple nods, indicating that he was following her - which he did, for the most part. “Thank you very much.” he called to her in whatever bastardized form of tongue that he was trying to pass as Japanese. Strolling over to the table with the waivers and brownies, Eli glanced around at the other students chatting lowly. He was just double checking, but no, he really DIDN’T know anyone in the club. He’d have to change that. Maybe this Halloween event then? Probably.

“Hey, I know you! How are you Eli”

Huh? That sounded pretty close. Eli turned around - just in time to see Charles. Eli grew a big shit-eating grin, before launching into some short choppy laughter. Well shit haha...if it ain’t my boy Charlie! What’s good, son?”He lifted up a fist and held it out for Charle to bump.

He liked Charlie well enough. Granted, being two foreigners in a majoratively Japanese high school...in Japan, might have had just a bit to do with it, but Charles actually wasn’t a bad guy either. Maybe a bit delusional at times, but hell, who wasn’t these days?

“What are you doing here in this freak show? Blackmailed as well? Well, whatever the reason, watch out for Makota, she punches and watch out for Seiko, one tiny mistake and you’re screwed. Big time.”

Eli laughed again. They couldn't be that bad. Charles had a bit of a flair for drama at times. Still, part of his mind went back to the President. If she really was using blackmail or bribery just to get members to join her club...well maybe she really WAS the head some criminal organization?

…

He wouldn’t cross it off the list just yet.

“Heh, ain’t no blackmailing or sexual favors for this guy. So I guess I’m just one of your freaks.” He ended with a shrug. “But uh...what about you? You mentioned blackmail...do they really
have anything on you?” He paused for a moment, considering his buddy. Of course they did….

“That bad?, eh?”