After a week of waiting, the day had finally arrive. The festivities could be felt by the members of the Maita household as the children prepared to leave for school. Which was an unfortunate feeling for Amasa.

“Do I really have to wear this?” She complained as the girl was forced to put on a witches costume. “I look ridiculous.”

“Ahh, but everyone’s going to be in some costumes, so you won’t be sticking out.” Her mom responded.

“Yeah, plus it’d would be pretty sad if you were left out while I had this on.” Tahiko tapped on his armor, the banging creating the sound proving it was real metal. “I’m quite happy that I get to wear this again in a more casual setting.”

“Lucky you.” She replied with little enthusiasm. And thus, their trip to the school’s day of frights began. Just like her home, the school was also decorated with plenty of spooky posters and streamers of orange. They went much further than she’d expect from a place of education. How exactly were they learning in an environment like this? “I hate that they made me bring this dumb staff along too.” Amasa continued her whining, begrudging how inconvenient that thing made with it’s awkward shape.

“I know that complaining is your favorite pastime, but perhaps we could try to enjoy this day like everyone else?”

“Oh, so now you’ve grown the ability to backtalk me.” She took her revenge by yanking on his ear once more. “Stop worrying about me and just have fun yourself. I’ll just wander around and wait until today’s done.” Amasa was about to walk away when he grabbed her to stop.

“Wait, I truly don’t want you to go.” He said. In that moment, they took note that he had miscalculated his aim and took her hand to his. The boy only meant to grab her arm, but now they were holding hands. Upon seeing this, he quickly released his grip on her. “Sorry…” He said, a bit flustered.

“You better not make that mistake again.” She threatened him, her face growing red as she thanked her lucky stars no one seemed to have seen that. “Seriously, you don’t need to be so annoying.”

“I only wish for you to join along with me on something for once.” He replied. “I know that you begrudgingly do things with me, but you never have any better alternatives.”

“What are you trying to get at?” She squinted her eyes in slight indignation towards him. “Are you saying that what I do is lame?”

“Yes.” He answered plain and simple. “But if you wish to understand why I want to you join me… Well…” He got a bit quieter and less outgoing as the boy continued his sentence. “I quite enjoy your company, even as strange as that may sound. So I’d like it if you’d stay with me today.”

“What?” She felt his nervousness affecting her. As if he was a boy trying to bumble his way to asking her out. Then she quickly and physically shook that thought of her head. These two were siblings according to the outside world, she needed to stop being so weird about it. Amasa really hated herself sometimes. “Fine, whatever.” She turned her head up in disgust. “Since you keep asking, I’ll stick around with you.”

“Really?” He perked up upon hearing his offer was accepted. “Now this is some wonderful news. I can’t wait to explore all the wonderful things people have created for this day.”

“Yeah, well the first thing we need to do is go to our class for attendance and to help run the cafe.” That was their first responsibility, which they were among the first half to run things in the morning. Allowing the other half of their class to check out the other setups, then things would switch up come afternoon.

The pair walked there as they most normally would. The only difference being all the students they saw along the way were not wearing school uniforms, mostly, but rather some costumes filling the ranks of ghouls, monsters, and arguably not so appropriate clothing for school in the decency department. “Does this school not have any rules or something?” Amasa commented, complaining about the blatant lack of care for a dress code. “...Of course she’s wearing that.”

“Ah, so finally you two get here.” There they were greeted with Fukuna. She was adorn like a mummy. Beige wrappings covered her body like the long lasted ones a person would see on the real deal. Of course, her beautiful face was not covered at all, and the way these wrappings appeared on her body were quite seductive to the boys in their class. It appeared as though one could yank a loose piece and expose her nude body to the world. “Not the most original of outfits, but I guess that’s to be expected.”

“And of course your outfit’s a bit revealing, isn’t it?” She replied snidely. “Don’t you have any sense of shame?”

“I just carry more pride in myself.” Fukuna showed off herself even more upon hearing those remarks. “Besides, I got spandex under this, so it’s no big deal.” While there was no chance of nudity, it did fit her form quite well. The girl’s shapely body and curves were showcased better because of it.

“It looks quite nice.” Tahiko complimented as he rubbed his fingers onto a loose strand of bandages. “Feels authentic too.”

“Gee, thanks.” She giggled cutely and blushed from the compliment. It was nice coming from him.

“I don’t want to know how you apparently know how that feels.” Meanwhile, Amasa pouted as she was forced to watch this display. Along with complaining that somehow he knew what mummies were.

“Though I have to say…” There was one thing about today and all the costumes he had seen so far that gave him questions. “For a day about horrors and frights, a lot of people are wearing things that… Let me say make them look more attractive than anything else.”

“There’s a reason why I said I hate this holiday.” She responded. It wasn’t the horror that she didn’t care for, it was more the lack thereof for people to use as an excuse.

“You don’t need to be a downer on everyone just because you don’t agree with how people want to act.” Fukuna argued with her.

“Um, girls?” Tahiko stepped in to prevent another fight from breaking out between these two. It seemed they always had to disagree on everything. “Perhaps we should get the cafe set up before the crowd arrives?”

“Fine.” Amasa let her personal quips go. “So, what do we have to do?”

“The first thing we should do is get you out of your silly costume.” She directed that statement primarily towards the simple witch outfit Amasa was wearing.

“Just me?” She already was not a fan of that request before a proper one was even made.

“I assume it’s not easy to take that off that armor, is it Tahiko?” To be fair, a suit of armor did appear challenging to put on and off. Which is why she didn’t bother ask the boy, even if personally she had something else in mind for him to put on.

“I can take off my top half with no issue.” He answered.

“Perfect!” She clasped her hands in excitement. “Then here, put these on. You two are going to be our servers.”

“I already don’t like this.” Amasa commented as they were handed their new garments. They weren’t made aware as to what exactly these costumes were supposed to be of. According to Fukuna, that was to be a surprise for the day when things got started. However, looking at it now, she knew it was bad. “I look really stupid in this.” For her, she got something that was supposed to make her look like an elf. The pointy ears was proof of that.

So then, why did it also have to include a green top and skirt that revealed a ton of skin? The top was cropped, exposing her midriff. While the skirt was super short, barely covering even halfway through to her thighs.

“Don’t be so shy, you actually look cute when you’re wearing something decent.” The backhanded compliment from Fukuna didn’t help her feelings on the matter. Meanwhile, Tahiko was still trying to make sense of his own costume.

“This is what orcs wear?” He was pretty much just given a cloth with a leopard pattern to wear. It went over his armor pants well, but the top half barely covered him enough to be considered school appropriate. The boy’s muscular chest and toned arms were quite pleasing for all the girls in their class to watch, which garnered a lot of attention from them.

“Yes, and you look so good in it.” One of them said as a fair bit of girls flocked to him. Their eyes enamored with his appearance.

“Oh bother…” Amasa was disgusted and a bit jealous with this display. At this point, not a single boy even glanced at her revealing outfit.

“Ah don’t worry, I’m sure some boy from outside our class will like your costume.” Fukuna attempted to cheer her up before the day was to properly begin.

“That’s not my problem.”