"Oh, that's quite clever from Grandpa, actually!" Konoka said while she and Chachamaru passed the meals round the dinner table at the resort. Konoka, of course, was starting by serving Setsuna with a smile, making her guardian blush and lower her gaze. "Pairing you up with Natsumi-chan, one of the last few in our class not in the know, means you'll work extra hard not to be found..."
Ayaka nodded. "Yes, yes, I can see his logic..." she said, sounding oddly worried.
Asuna caught on to this. "Why that tone, Iinchou? Even if she finds out, what's one more in the class by now?"
"You still don't know Natsumi-chan all that well, do you, Asuna-chan?" Sakurako said, making sure to thank Chachamaru with a nod. "Well, you've never been all that close, after all. Natsumi-chan may look like, uh, kind of a pushover, but when she gets mad at you over something, she doesn't forgive easily. She's not like Madoka-chan, who won't ever hold it against you if you keep very important secrets from her for months!"
Kugimiya nodded while beginning to sip her soup. "Yep, that's me, the always forgiving pushover."
Now Negi looked quite concerned as well. "Is that so?" he asked.
"What did you ever do to Murakami, so you'd know that?" Chisame asked as well.
Sakurako laughed. "Not me! But Misa's chorus once butted heads with her club over a musical, and Natsumi-chan didn't talk to the three of us for nearly a year!"
"Oh dear. It sounds like she'd actually be upset at the whole lot of us..." Negi said faintly.
Ayaka rasped. "Shiina-san is exaggerating as usual, Sensei. Natsumi-chan is much more forgiving than that!"
"I still remember her wearing a long purple wig for her role of Jezebel after that," Misa grouched. "I've got to admit it, her imitation of my voice was spot on too... Anyway, Negi-kun, can't you take some time off for the second day and drop those people on Chao? I had plans for us!"
"What kind of plans?" Misora frowned, giving her a warning stare along Ayaka and Haruka.
Misa smiled and produced a poster from under the table. "I'm going to register Negi-kun and myself for the Miss and Mister Mahora, of course! We're sure to win, too!"
Negi blinked. "A beauty contest? Misa-san! Sorry, but absolutely not! I'm pretty certain a teacher couldn't take part in such an activity, and certainly not with a student!"
Ai looked a bit more downcast than usual then.
Itoshiki noticed. "We'd never win anyway, Kaga-kun. I look simply hideous in a swimsuit."
Ai sighed. "Sorry for even thinking about it..." she said.
"Let me see that," Saber said, taking the poster from Misa and reading closely. "Hmmm, this is interesting. Shirou, perhaps we should register ourselves?"
Shirou gagged on his soup, then sprayed it all over Keiichi's face. "What, what gave you the impression that'd be a good idea, Saber?! That's not like you at all!"
Saber slammed her fist on the table, now causing Keiichi's own plate of soup to splash him as well just as Chachamaru was starting to wipe his face dry. Morisato only exhaled patiently. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, Shirou! Since all other contestants in this War are cowardly quitters, we must draw them out by making our presence known in public, risky as it may be! Besides, if this is the King and Queen of Mahora, then I am born for the task!" After a moment, she added, "And I'm sure you may make a decent Queen as well."
Shirou facepalmed. "If the other Masters notice it, it'll only be to make fun of us!" he groaned. "Surely, nobody else could be that willing to do anything just to pick a fight!"
---
Illya put the poster down. "Berserker?" she asked very soberly. "What kind of swimsuit would you favor, speedos or trunks?"
"GRRWLF?"
---
"I don't see any regulations against teachers competing here, actually..." Haruna said as she went over the tiny print, adjusting her glasses.
Asuna perked up. "Ah, really?"
"Takamichi would never register with you, regardless," Itoshiki said.
"Shouldn't you be choking yourself on a chicken bone right now, Sensei?" Asuna replied, annoyed.
Haruna smiled, a glint in her eyes. "This is great! I'll make Nodoka and Kotaro-kun compete, and I'm sure they'll take one of the prizes! Now that should make that blockhead kid start seeing her as a woman already!"
"Oh, so you aren't making me register with you, Haruna-chan?" Rito asked, half relieved and half disappointed, as he reached over for the pepper shaker and instead groped Matoi's breast. Without a word, she stabbed his hand with a fork instead. "AIIIEEEE!"
"Nah, it'd be unfair to everyone else," Haruna said. "Lala-chan and I would have to register at once with you, and even if they allowed three-ways, who could even begin to compare?" At this, Lala nodded sagely. "By the way, Matoi-chan, you'd better not do that ever again. That's my Rito-chan's fapping hand..."
"That's okay! I'm a helper!" Konoka said happily, moving from her chair to heal Rito's hand.
"What's 'fapping'?" Negi asked.
"That doesn't matter right now, Boya," Evangeline said from the head of the large table, beating Chisame to the punch. "Anyway, Hasegawa is completely right in what she was about to tell you. You aren't going to compete in that stupid contest with Suzushiro, Yukihiro, Kasuga or especially Kakizaki, that'd be simply retarded..."
"Master, you're slipping into offensive alt right speech again," Chacahamaru said.
"Why that 'especially' when it comes to me!?" Misa protested.
Ayaka seethed. "Evangeline-san, I must point out that your role as our sponsor doesn't give you any rights over our private lives!"
Eva gave her a cynical look. "Says who?"
"Um, thank you, Eva... I guess..." Chisame said, then barked at Misora right when she was about to open her mouth again, "Be quiet, you! You're Church! What would Sister Shakti say if she saw you parading before everyone in a bikini?!"
Misora cowed back, eyes very round.
Evangeline chuckled cagily, wetting her bread on some sauce and daintily taking it to her mouth. "You are, instead, teaming up with me so I can prove myself as this campus' queen before leaving it behind."
"Yes, that is much-- Whaaat?!" Chisame said.
"Being born this handsome was a curse," Negi said in a very low voice to himself.
"What was that just now?" Skuld asked.
"Nothing, I was just murmuring nonsense..."
