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I N H E R I T A N C E
Target One: King’s Gambit╚════════════════════════════════════════╝
World State // Japan, Present Day
For the students of Namimori High School, the cusp of summer meant more than the twilight of the cherry blossom bloom, the long-anticipated approach of summer vacation or even the impending arrival of the sun’s sweltering heat. For them, it heralded climax to months of planning and preparation.
The Namimori High School bunkasai, or cultural festival, was a two-day event held on a weekend in the midst of June. While typically a high school cultural festival wouldn’t be a big deal, relatively speaking, the one held by Namimori High School had accrued a certain kind of reputation over the years.
The first day of the festival, the one exclusive to the students and staff, was for all intents and purposes a normal cultural festival with all the associated median-effort presentations. Like an empty shell waiting to be filled, it gave only the barest indication of the final product.
The second day, on the other hand, was a bit different. Ever since a graduating class from a few decades ago decided to go all out for each of their high school years, there has been something of an extravagance arms race, with each year trying and failing, or succeeding in some cases, to top the former best. Even for those students who cared little about academics, it was clear to see why this was an event worth going and contributing to.
Thus, the Sunday dawn saw the sun rise above a majority student body toiling in the halls, the courtyards and the fields in preparation for the coming day. And as sun approached its zenith, the campus of Namimori High School officially opened for business.
Yesterday may have been the day Namimori High School’s annual cultural festival officially began, but today was the day it really started.
@Demon Shinobi@Suku // Namimori High School Interior
You are Aleksandr Minamoto, and as the Head of the Disciplinary Committee and President of the Kyudo Club, you’ve been understandably busy during all the festivities. Set-up, maid cafe, policing--that was the triple threat that took up most of your morning, the only reward for your loyalty to your friends, class, and club members.
But now it’s over It’s finally over.
Plus you avoided the midday crowd too. Though, that also meant you had to traverse the midday crowd while trying to meet up with your best friend, who was nowhere to be seen. Everyone you had asked had pointed you somewhere else. When Ienari finally answered his phone, all you got was a hasty "I'll be there as soon as possible, don't worry" and then air silence. If you didn’t know better, you might’ve thought he’d been trying to avoid you.
...Which, in all honesty, could also have been the case. Ienari had been pretty aloof for the past two days, even more so than usual, and aside from the bare minimum, you didn't really see him hanging around at school as much. He wouldn't even let you go to his house. But he’d been the one who organized your rendezvous, and you’d never known him to go back on something once he’d committed.
Either way, it was clear that this wild goose chase wasn’t bearing any fruit; so in the end you decided to trust your best friend and enjoy what you could on your own in the meantime. Ienari was probably still grinding away at his duties or catching the Student Council President's ire for trying to skip out on them or something like that.
A short while after making that call, something caught your eye among the see of people. Or rather, someone caught your eye (not like that). Her striking appearance was one you hadn't forgotten since you'd first met. Bright pink hair, deep red eyes, and and a roll of bandages wrapped around her head. Her name was Erika Curtiss, an individual you had more than a passing acquaintance with due to your family's situation, and one quite similar to yourself all things considered. You'd always wanted to get to know the mild-mannered girl more intimately (seriously it's not weird), but you hadn't had the opportunity for whatever reason.
The question is, what were you going to do about it now that you had the opportunity? Or maybe she would act first?
@Amaterasu // Namimori High School Courtyard
You are Olivia Leveilleur, and it's been three days since your arrival in Japan from faraway Italy. You've spent most of your time in the Sawada family residence, a large western-style home in the wealthier residential division of town, recovering from seven hours worth of jetlag. For most of those past few days, you've been alone. Sawada Munetake, one of your masters and the man you had arrived here with, was always out doing something or other, and Sawada Ienari, one of your friends (who was also one of your masters), had classes and extracurricular activities that occupied most of his time. Although the latter had made a point to arrive home as soon as possible, and although you’d been watching when you could, the past two days were long and lonely.
But today would be different.
Today Namimori High School was open to the public for its annual, locally-famous cultural festival. You found out about this... Well it’s probably best left unsaid how that happened, but when you brought it up with Ienari, he was kind enough to invite you.
Well, to be more accurate, he yelled that he “wouldn’t mind if you showed up” as he bolted out the door this morning to avoid being late for set-up, but details like that weren’t important. You knew what he meant.
It didn’t take long to arrive, especially since you only knew where it was from... some means that was also best left unsaid. You’ve been waiting for the better part of the morning, just out of sight. It wouldn’t do to disrupt him while he was doing his job, but with the turn of the hour, the end of his shift came...
...and so did the opportunity to strike!
But before you could act...
Sawada Ienari // Namimori High School Courtyard
It was a busy morning for a busy guy.
While ensuring proper conduct at the festival was the Disciplinary Committee's duty, ensuring proper conduct of the festival was his jurisdiction as the Manager of General Affairs. On the tin, his duties for today were simply preparation, inspection and management. The first was a troublesome violation of his already fragile sleeping schedule. The second and third however...
Ienari threaded through the veritable deluge of visitors, traversing the crowd with as little forcefulness as possible to avoid further disturbing the questionable contents of the box in his arms.
It had been like this for the past few hours, running errands all around the campus--and even outside the campus! Everyone wanted big and bold and iconic to cement themselves in the school's history books. The festival he'd went to during his first year was a mess; so it should've come as no surprise that behind the scenes everything was a mess as well. It was definitely more than he'd expected it to be, but he'd see this job done properly. If not because this was his first year on the Student Council, but because it was good to have a reputation for reliability.
Especially with that guy running the show.
Ienari stopped in front of a first floor classroom full of students practicing for a performance, and passed off the box of live snakes to a very enthusiastic conductor. He hurried away, both curious and worried about what an instrumental group would need snakes of all things for. Unfortunately if he stopped to ask about all the weird requests he'd gotten today, he wouldn't have gotten anything done--the snakes weren't even the top of the list!
As he made his way through the crowd, Ienari activated the screen of his phone and looked through his notifications. Beyond several missed calls from someone who wasn't on duty anymore and was likely very disappointed in him right now, there was... nothing.
Nothing.
No urgent orders to run across the city, no day-ending problems left until last minute, no strangely specific requests for questionable favors, no no nothing! Spurred by this news, Ienari turned a corner, exited the building, and sat himself on a bench in the courtyard, taking a much needed moment for himself. He sunk into the seat, threw an arm over its rest and began lazily observing the crowd.
Compared to most Japanese cities, Namimori was something of a melting pot, and that definitely reflected in its demographics. Lots of international businesses and "international businesses" had set up shop here since his great-grandfather's time, and with them came foreigners looking to settle down and acquire work. Or acquire "work", if that was the case.
As concerned as he was about the latter type, Ienari couldn't say that his hometown was corrupt. There were a few underworld factions in and around town, true, but they rarely caused trouble. The type of mafia work you'd see was mostly tax shelters, fraud, and other relatively civil, inoffensive criminal business. Occasionally some idiot would cause a ruckus, but overall Namimori was a port in the storm, just as the Tenth wanted.
And just as Ienari wanted as well.
As someone who could one day ascend to the title of Boss--what a joke that would be--it would've been trivial to call upon the Vongola's resources for his benefit. Even now, supply lines and hired help were quite literally at the tip of his fingers. But he wouldn't stoop that low; it would go against everything he believed in and everything he was working for.
But in exchange, he had to do all the grunt work himself.
It was exhausting, definitely, but that seemed to be the trend for this week. Between everyone's last minute preparations, working through the approvals and declinations for the festival, and the very unexpected arrival of Olivia and his brother, there was a lot he was fitting in.
'Right, I should tell Minamoto-kun where I am.' Ienari brought his smartphone up to his face but, before he could unlock it, the sight of something- someone in his peripheral vision made him bolt upright in his seat.
Three days ago, his brother had arrived in Japan completely unannounced, and although there were a lot of worrying things about that, Ienari had learned before that sometimes it was best not to ask questions. Ignorance was bliss after all. Munetake could do whatever he wanted as long as it didn’t involve him, and Ienari was confident his brother wouldn’t do anything to disturb his lifestyle if there was another option. He was just that kind of person.
Regardless, a not-unwelcome consequence of the sudden arrival was the pink-haired girl he was currently making awkward eye-contact with from across the crowd.
Her name was Olivia Leveilleur, a maid working for the Vongola Famiglia. He'd met her four years ago, and spent around two years with her as the only person his age not out to manipulate him. To say that they were familiar with each other might be an understatement. After all, there were reasons he could barely properly look her in the face ever since she’d shown up here (‘Not like that’).
If he thought about it, he might even be able to call her his fr...frien...friendly associate.
At any rate, last he’d heard she was based in Italy, but apparently that wasn’t the case anymore. Munetake was supposedly busy making arrangements for her extended stay.
Ienari cast a sheepish grin in her direction, mentally apologizing to Aleksandr for the promise he was about to break. He opened his phone, and without looking down, wrote Aleksandr a message on Line:
change of plans
cant skip work w u
And to top it off, he added a sad, apologetic anime-styled cat sticker before pocketing his phone.
Ienari waved Olivia over. “Didn't expect to see you here. How are you holding up?”
