Story: RCM Shojo Magnet

I do hope this one came out alright. Definitely need some suggestions for options as well.


<i><b>Love Spell of the Music Room</b>

Once, there was a student whose only talent lay in music. He had no time for anything else and spent all of his time playing classical music on a variety of instruments. He excelled with them all. Piano, guitar, flute, drums, xylophone... Everything. This was sufficient to make him happy, spending his time drawing upon the notes of the past to play them in the present.

However. One day the class bully, a cruel yet beautiful girl that was avoided by her classmates, asked him why he only played the songs of the dead. In response, the boy learned more modern songs of various genres and replicated them perfectly, in the process growing happier still that he was learning even more about the world of music. In response, the girl grew angry and asked him to try writing his own music.

For a full year, the boy laboured over this task. Every day, he would write a score during whatever free time he could muster. Every day after school, he would play for the entire class. Every day, the boy would be laughed at by everyone, and the girl would be leading the laughter. He tried it all. Every instrument, every genre, every combination of the two he could dream of. To no avail.

“Why?” he asked the girl one day. “Why do they laugh at me? Why can’t I create my own music, when I can play so well?”

“You really want to know?” the girl responded, turning up her nose as she left the room. “It’s because music is all you know. Your songs are without soul. You are an imitator, not an artist.”

On the last day of that year, the boy did not play for anyone. Instead, he left class with his shoulders stooped and his brow furrowed. Almost everyone ignored him, deprived of their fun. But the girl was irritated at this development and followed the boy at a distance, ready to mock him at a moment’s notice. She was almost disappointed when he entered the music room and sat in the corner.

“Come on, then,” she said, leaning smugly against the doorframe. “Not going to play anything today? Maybe you need a little inspiration. For example -”

The girl reached out and picked up a guitar, which she smashed against the drumset. Both instruments broken in a moment. It is said that the boy’s heart nearly stopped at the sight, and he begged for her to stop. He would play for her, if it meant being left alone. If it meant leaving his beloved instruments alone.

The girl sat upon a stool and inspected her nails while the boy retrieved a xylophone and wearily played out just twenty-four notes, no more than that. A short melody, tiny by comparison, but a funny thing happened as each note was slowly echoing throughout the room. Their eyes lingered upon each other. The fear the boy felt for her vanished. The disdain she held for him disappeared. The two of them had inadvertently fallen under the influence of a powerful love spell contained within this specific combination of notes played upon this specific xylophone.

Upon realising the power this song held, the xylophone was hidden and the notes responsible sealed away within the school grounds, kept protected and safe from the general public within these locations: The girls’ locker room, the home economics larder, the library, the school roof and the boiler room.
</i>
Hiroyuki rubbed his chin thoughtfully. A love spell, huh? Normally that sort of thing would sound kind of silly to him, but… If he really was in some kind of harem-series-like situation, then it was only natural that it would be for real. Love spells cropped up in those all the damn time, and in the end it always amounted to the same thing for the protagonist (himself).

Trouble. With a capital T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Actually having to deal with something like this so quickly was not a promising sign. Nope. Not at all. Sure, most people might expect him to be overjoyed at the development, but that’s not how things <i>worked</i> in this kind of story. A love spell like that was practically designed for misunderstandings that would reflect very poorly on him, possibly resulting in being beat up or belittled, and quite frankly he didn’t want to have to deal with that nonsense quite yet.

“That is… Quite the story,” Omitsu said, fidgeting from the attention she’d brought on herself. “A - A literal love song! That sounds quite… Fascinating.”

“Yeah…” Miyako said, tapping her foot thoughtfully. “Interesting.”

“Oh, please,” Yuya snorted. “As if that could be a real thing. I mean, there are so many holes in that story. We don’t have a name for either of them to start with, and from the sound of things the two of them were probably already crushing pretty hard on one another but didn’t know how to express it.”

“She’s right,” Romi nodded. “There are other problems too. I mean, if this song only works when played on that particular xylophone and someone wanted to keep anyone from playing it, why not destroy it? If it needs a particular combination of notes, why write them down and hide them in certain places in the school? Who wrote that entry, and why did they know where the notes were hidden? It all smells completely made up, if you ask me!”

“Exactly!” Maru declared with a twinkle in her eye. “Which is exactly why this should be our first investigation! We have to answer these questions and others still. This is the very purpose behind the occult club, is it not? To discover the answers to questions, to probe into the occult and bring light to darkness. Come on, Hiroyuki, I know you at least must agree with me!”

For a moment, he considered saying no, this was stupid, but you try saying no to those big expressive eyes looking at you with such expectation. Resigning himself to fate, and praying that going with the flow at least would allow him some measure of dignity by the time this was done, Hiroyuki nodded and tried to figure out exactly how he would be screwed here.

<hr>
It is important at this time to take note of the reactions from each of the girls, because not all of them were being particularly honest with what they were feeling just then. For that reason, a brief run through is necessary before continuing.

Romi’s reaction is rather straightforward and simple. While the story is full of holes, it certainly sounded like it might be fun to look into. While she completely didn’t believe it was real, it would provide a solid manner in which to get to know the people around her. Hang out with them. Normal sort of stuff under the guise of weirdness. Perfectly in line with what she wanted with her life, a semblance or at least pretense at normalcy.

As for Miss Bodyguard? She didn’t think much of anything. So long as Romi was in no danger, she didn’t particularly care.

For Miyako, on the other hand… She knew that magic was real for a fact. Being half demon was kind of good proof of that, so she wasn’t willing to dismiss it completely out of hand. A love spell… Might well be the answer to her main problem of preventing herself from being made into a full demon! The issue of whom to use it on was still a big problem, as she didn’t really know any guys worth her time. The one guy that she did know really well? Oooh, that was another problem entirely! Why, knowing Hiroyuki, he was even now planning on using that love spell to turn them all into his eager little harem girls! As if she’d give him the chance! Of course, it did create the problem of keeping him away while simultaneously getting the spell for herself…

Maru was by far the most straightforward of them all, and in fact the most outwardly honest. She saw a mystery that needed to be solved. The chivalrous thing to do in such an instance, particularly when there was a risk of someone using this kind of spell on someone against their own will, was to investigate and contain it as soon as possible. Why! The very idea that someone might use the spell… How wicked and selfish! Of course, she could surely rely on Hiroyuki’s aide in such a manner. He would never allow such temptation to fall into anyone’s hands.

Yuya, to her own eternal annoyance, saw the spell as a refutation of everything she’d been doing for god knows how long. While it was true that she was seeing her matchmaking as a major annoyance, somehow the existence of something like a love spell simply invalidated all of her hard work. Why, something like that couldn’t possibly exist, and she would surely prove it!

And then, at last, there was Omitsu. Poor Omitsu. She knew that love kept her healthy, she knew that love kept her from falling over. For someone like her, a love spell sounded like an antidote. She need never fall sick again. Right? But - But could her conscience allow her to use her power in such a manner? Even for her own health? Even for that…

Conflicting thoughts, conflicting feelings. It mattered little either way, because now the occult club was going to begin its very first investigation.