Chapter 124: Chapter 123 - The Final Karaoke Incident

All things considered, the karaoke outing had turned out to be a disaster in the traditional sense, by this group’s standards, it was a success.

Akari had gotten through an involuntary duet.

Mina almost died from embarrassment three separate times.

Rika had enough material for at least five more volumes of manga.

Aoi was somehow the most normal person in the entire room.

Kuro was still confused why everyone was such idiots.

Outside it was beginning to get dark and they were soon approaching the end of their time.

Almost everyone was packing up to leave.

Or they would have been if Rika hadn’t spotted what she thought was the flashiest button on the karaoke machine.

She squinted her eyes at the screen. This is usually not a good thing.

"Oh?" Aoi said, immediately concerned.

"What did you find?" she asked, nervously.

Rika adjusted her glasses.

"An interactive game."

"No," a chorus of unequitable responses replied from around the room.

"What type of game?" Mina yelled out.

Rika smiled. A scientist who saw their controlled explosion about to happen.

"A compatibility test!"

And just like that the room was frozen.

Akari instincts started to kick in.

"Don’t push it," she said.

Mina nodded as though she were reading Akari’s mind.

"Definitely, don’t push it."

Aoi turned to Rika to see if she was going to push it.

"And you will be pushing it?" she asked.

"Of course, I will be!"

Before they could stop her Rika had touched the button and the karaoke machine turned itself on.

Akari is on a rollercoaster of emotions as she processes the results of the Couple Compatibility Challeng

WELCOME TO THE COUPLE COMPATIBILITY CHALLENGE!

A flurry of pink hearts filled the screen and nearly knocked Akari out of her chair.

"Is this truly how karaoke places are?"

The machine would not acknowledge her belief.

How could it?

ANALYZING PARTICIPANTS...

PLEASE WAIT...

The crowd was silent, except for Kuro sipping his soda like he had nothing to do with what was happening.

Mina was drafting a will.

Rika had excitedly begun taking note of everything.

Aoi was looking in anticipation.

Akari wanted to yank the plug on the building.

Then the results popped up.

PAIR 1: AKARI & KURO

The crowd erupted.

"NO!"

Akari raised her finger at the machine as if to show her disapproval.

"REJECTED!"

The machine would not notice.

COMPATIBILITY ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS...

A large wheel began spinning and everyone was drawn to watch as hotly desired Akari could no longer watch.

Akari would cover her eyes one way or another before feeling compelled to uncover them.

The final tally was then revealed.

87%

No one could make a sound.

Absolutely no sound.

Akari’s functioning unit was rendered nonfunctional.

Akari was disconnected from reality.

Mina could not believe what just happened.

Rika was already making notes.

Aoi thought for a moment.

Kuro looked up at the screen and said, "Seem a little arbitrary."

"THAT’S YOUR RESPONSE?!"

Akari was beet red.

But the machine was not done.

Demonstrating Relationship Indicators...

High Shared Activities

High in Mutual Attention

Extremely High Mean Number of Arguments a Day

Plausible Couple Status

The Crowd Erupted Again.

"ARGUMENTS ARE COUNTED AS BEING COMPATIBLE?!"

And they were.

Akari was now seeking to sue someone.

And they evaluated the results of the machine’s previous evaluation as well as all future evaluations of compatibility.

RESULTS OF MACHINE EVALUATION. MOVED TO NEXT .

Pairing 2: Mina & Kuro

Mina had immediately. . . well, not immediately but she had soon hidden behind a cushion.

"This is a nightmare."

The machine was continuing to analyze.

The machine’s ’wheel’ was continuing to spin.

The machine had stopped spinning.

91% was revealed through the machine.

There were several pairs of eyes fixed on the couple.

This included Mina who, once again, was not hiding any longer and...screamed.

And who had screamed Akari .

"You have to be kidding me!"

The machine was still in operation.

Emotional Support Received: Extreme

Safety Rating: Great

Natural Communication: Good

Future Living Together: Great

This was a new sound that had never been heard.

Mina then buried her face as deeply as she could.

She sounded like...A train on fire.

Akari was standing with a mixture of hurt and anger.

"How can you be higher than I am!"

"I DON’T KNOW!"

Kuro blinked.

"I’m not trying to take anything away from you."

Somehow, that just made everything worse for the two females.

The machine completed it’s evaluation of Pair 2.

RESULTS OF MACHINE’S EVALUATION . MOVED TO NEXT .

Pairing 3:Aoi & Kuro

Aoi was doing just fine... much to the surprise of everyone else.

Aoi continued to be calm through this evaluation as well.

The machine continued to analyze.

The machine continued to spin.

The machine stopped spinning.

The machine revealed that there was a match percentage of 99% between Aoi and Kuro.

The rest of the room was completely quiet.

For whatever reason, Akari had also stopped.

Because the results were as calm as Aoi.

Aoi then turned to Kuro.

Kuro turned and looked at Aoi.

They both nodded in agreement.

RESULTS OF MACHINE’S EVALUATION . MOVED TO NEXT .

PAIR 4 : RIKA & KURO

Rika was fully awake now.

"Oh?"

Everyone was feeling anxious.

Very anxious.

Analyzing...

The wheel just kept spinning.

And spinning.

And spinning.

Longer than any other wheel.

And finally it stopped.

90%

That was pretty disappointing to Rika.

"Only 90%?"

"ONLY 90%?!"

Akira almost threw the cushion at her.

The machine continued.

Creative Inspiration: Maximum

Observation Level: The max!

Research Interest: Concerning

Potential Manga Material: Unlimited

The room exploded again.

Aoi was laughing for the first time all day!

Rika was very proud.

Kuro was very worried.

Rika was worried because there were many reasons.

The machine flashed suddenly.

NEW FEATURE UNLOCKED

Everyone froze.

"No."

"Absolutely not."

"Please do not do this."

The machine did not listen.

Naturally it didn’t.

Showing Favorite Relationship Moments...

Giant slide shows started to go up one at a time.

The room completely died.

Instantly.

The first picture was of Akari and Kuro at the beach.

More specifically during one of Akari’s many embarrassing moment.

Akari screamed,

"DELETE IT!"

The second picture showed Mina and Kuro talking peacefully about a rough day.

Mina immediately hid her face.

The third picture showed Aoi quietly hanging out with Kuro on a train.

The fourth picture was of Rika showing Kuro an outline for a comic she had written with a huge smile.

There was a fifth and sixth and seventh...

Every one of their accident memories.

Every one of their potentially romantic moments.

Every one of their misunderstandings.

Were all displayed publicly.

In HD.

The room was utter chaos.

Meanwhile in another part of the town .

Faculty office.

A sneeze.

Minami thought why did she sneeze?

In karaoke.

The machine displayed a message.

Overall conclusion:

All participants hold above average bonds to Kuro Kurogane.

Silence fell upon the room.

No one moved.

No one spoke.

Because the machine inadvertently told the truth.

Then, the machine would say

The primary result: It’s complicated.

Even Kuro nodded his head.

"Seems right."

Everybody pointed to Kuro.

"YOU’RE THE PROBLEM!"

"What did I do?"

No one knew.

Because that was so unbelievably frustrating.

Kuro truly had no idea.

At last they managed to get away.

They mainly did this by pulling the plug on the machine.

It was something they all agreed on.

Even Kuro.

Especially Aoi.

Karaoke left them exhausted.

Humiliated.

Emotionally damaged, and

Much less stable than they had been prior to the karaoke session.

Mission accomplished.

Next morning.

In School.

Everything seems normal.

For three minutes.

Minami enters the faculty office.

Sees something horrific.

Everyone’s smiling.

At her.

Too much.

Way too much.

One teacher waves.

"Nice costume."

Minami freezes.

Another teacher laughs.

"Very cute."

Minami freezes more.

A third teacher shows a cellphone screen with a picture of Minami from the past that was taken at a childhood festival.

This picture has the same embarrassing costume as the caption of someone’s Twitterpok account.

The photo sent out to everyone in the Twiitterpok by Great Failure, Yui Kanzaki, including some people outside the group.

Minami’s soul left her body.

Meanwhile,laughter echoed through the school, as the photo spread. All over again. And all over again.

Minami stood still. Like a statue. An angry statue.

Eventually, Minami reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, opened her group chat, and typed: Where is Yui?

None, as Yui Kanzaki had disappeared. Completely. Vanished. Missing. Escaped. And in return, proved her guilt.

While Minami typed that message to Yui at the exact same moment, Yui sneezed from across town.

As Yui hurriedly looked around her environment, she said, "...Uh oh."

For the very first time in Yui’s life, she felt fear; real fear; fear created from an angry teacher.

Yui was chilling in her room and then door bell ring . She went to open . And infront of her -

Minami adjusted her glasses and smiled. It was a dangerous smile that terrified the person who saw it.

"Found you."

Not long after, thunder rolled in the distance, or maybe that was all in Yui’s imagination.

Either way, the hunt for Yui had begun.

And with that, the our characters School Life officially commenced.