prologue: ryuji !! warm-up !! attn: norie, maiko
shslcatcher:
“Chancey” is not a word that would come to mind given Ryuji’s original plans which involved flinging a rubber band he’d had in his pocket at her. It’d annoy someone, sure, but it wasn’t all that risky in terms of consequence (if things did look sour he could just claim it was an accident, after all), not like this new plan was. There was nothing about this that could be considered ‘accidental’ by any means.
“You know kabe don, right?” he asks, grin widening.
Come to think of it, he’s always wanted to do something like this, and given that his companion was up to the task… Yeah, no way in hell any of my teammates would approve of me doing anything like this.
“So what I‘m thinking is that the two of us approach real quiet, right? When we’re in front of her, I’ll bend down a little so you can get on my knees, then you’ll lean against the wall – like this, see?” he says, demonstrating with his hands. “And you can trust me to hold onto you; I’ve got a really strong grip!”
He gives them a thumbs up, not necessarily waiting for them to comply (if not, well…he still had the rubber band) before walking in the direction of the sulking girl.
Norie’s eyes lit up at the mention of kabe don. Of course they knew of it; in fact, to call them proficient in such an area of expertise wouldn't be much of an overstatement. More times than the columnist could count on one hand, they’d been unjustly carted off to the principle’s office for performing one too many cicada blocks to unsuspecting denizens within their school’s hallways. Although they didn’t have an especially brawny physique, Norie was quite tall and reasonably durable as a result of countless schoolyard fistfights. It had simply taken ample practice to be able to properly attach themself to the wall using only their four limbs, undue confidence, and a hearty dosage of stupidity.
Their eagerness to carry on with the devilish little scheme was evident as they nodded in earnest, listening with a keen heart as Ryuji explained it in further detail. The semantics didn’t matter much to Norie, all that did matter was that they were about to pull the finest prank of all time; primo, nonpareil, the paramount of all pranks...! Norie felt their heart racing just thinking about it. They clapped their hands together and barked out a sharp laugh of satisfaction.
“Just brilliant, Hadena-kun!” they exclaimed brightly, the impromptu nickname rolling off their tongue with little difficulty. “Keh... with both the slyness of a fox and the ferocity of a Komodo dragon, we’ll execute this kabe don flawlessly! I have no doubts about it,” Norie recited, saluting their acquaintance like they could only assume a military officer might.
They hustled after Ryuji, not a speck of restriction fueling their footsteps as they marched gladly over to the poor, gloomy victim of their would-be antics. They glanced at the catcher and winked once they’d drawn near enough to begin getting into formation. Regrettably, they seemed to have forgotten the "real quiet" part of the arrangement somewhere along the line. There had been an awful lot of excitement, and Norie’s attention span was fifty leagues too short. They marched with stomping footsteps and cackled as they lifted one foot, preparing to step onto the platform of Ryuji's thighs.
“Hup, Hadena-kun!” Norie shouted.
