Original Music Makes 12 Chapter 12 Shoujo Effec

Duran met the others outside the north gate, which was a smaller and more discreet exit out of the school grounds. His clammy hands twitched by his side.

'Keep calm, keep calm.' Duran chanted to still his fast racing heart pumped with adrenaline. He forced pages and pages of boring maths in his mind to keep his desires and reactions in-check.

'Gawd, you guys look like nervous wrecks.' Himeko blurted when she caught sight of her brother, Fumio and Saski waiting at the gates.

She frowned at Duran's twitching,clammy hands, Fumio's sweaty brow, dark rimmed eyes and Saski's shivers, sweaty face and the sleeves of his shirt plastered to his arms.

'This is beyond a joke. How could Sensei be so irresponsible?' Mei said with concern as she came up behind Himeko with Kou by her side.

'And not just these guys. I've never seen the infirmary so busy with people waiting in the wings.'

'So we're to be your helpers and moral conscience for this task?' Kou said bluntly.

'Thank you. Any of your help is fine,'Duran said with a low bow.

Kou faced him with an awkward expression.

'Eh, er, um, it was by a teacher's request, so I couldn't refuse,' he replied and checked on how his childhood friend was holding up.

'Your pheromones aren't going to cause embarrassment out on the streets?'

'Tsk. You don't have to be blunt Kou-kun.' Saski grumbled as he wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to stop his shivers. 'I'm doing my best.'

'Tsubaki-kun, you look feverish. You should go home,' said Mei. She was worried he was going to collapse on them.

'I wanna come. I'll be worse off if I stop now,' Saski answered.

'Okay. So what's first to get? By the looks of Tsubaki-kun, we're on a time limit.' Himeko gathered everyone around Duran who held Watanabe-sensei's ingredient list before them.

'We need five ingredients.' Duran ran through the list.

The first two were something they could easily buy at a shop. The tricky part was the expense. Mei and Saski agreed to hit-up Sensei for cash then go to the stores near the station.

The other ingredients involved a bit of a run around the streets. They had to find two plant extracts; rose and lavender. Hunt for a young male cat, pat off and bag some of its fur. Why on earth it was needed was beyond Duran's understanding. In his state and itching for a cure, he'd scrap the scales off a snake if he had to.

'Hey isn't Aki-kun's dad manager of that nursery place?' Fumio added.

'Yeah, yeah, he is. Fumi-chan let's grab Aki and get the plants,' Himeko confirmed.

'That leaves Hayashi-kun and Kitkun to hunt for cat fur,' Mei ticked off.

'Okay. Before we take off, we should all exchange numbers in case of an emergency,' Himeko ordered.

Duran felt awkward when he swapped numbers with Saski. Especially, when his heart raced at a million miles an hour.

'Let's go!' He cried out and turned to flee.

Everyone else hurried off to secure their part of the cure.

Chapter end