Spring Cleaning + Laser Tag = ?

To many, Spring Cleaning means to deep clean every crevice of your house and make sure that everything is neat and tidy — a once in a year motivation for many people to actually be productive in their life.

Spring Cleaning for the Celestial Ring means a similar thing — yet entirely different at the same time.

After all, when someone says Spring Cleaning, their first association wouldn’t be murder. Not that Hastra would call it that. He prefers the term ‘bug hunting’. But oh, wait– that’s probably not any better. Eh, who cares?

Hastra likes to keep the members on their toes, make sure that no one knows what and how he’s going to get rid of the bugs in the circus — so Spring cleaning’s different every year. He can’t have them figuring things out and finding ways to avoid getting caught, after all!

This year… This year is a little messy. Messy but fun, at least in Hastra’s eyes!

This year, Hastra decides to invite everyone to a game of laser tag. It’s for fun and training – two birds in one stone. He has to train the new recruits and make sure the older ones are still capable, after all. 

He’d split the people into multiple groups, each one going in one at a time – taking turns participating in laser tag with Hastra and only Hastra as their sole target. Anyone who manages to use the infrared-emitting light guns to tag him during the game would pass the test and be permitted to operate their daily tasks as per usual. Anyone who fails, however, will need to go through an upcoming Spring Camp for rigorous training.

Of course, they’re allowed to use their light guns to eliminate their fellow peers too. There’s no rules against that – but what’s the point? Well, maybe you wanted to be annoying, or inconvenience someone else simply because you don’t like them, or simply out of spite… The Spring Camp has never been known to be pleasant, after all, and all is fair in this game of laser tag!

However, there’s one group ; a group of misfits – as Hastra would refer to them this time – that will be playing a slightly more different game than the rest of them. 

The game starts off the same at first. Everyone would be handed a laser gun to be used. Except, what they’d soon find out is that these laser guns are more than just infrared-emitting light guns. These babies? These babies can very much kill. After all, they are real guns too, secured and loaded. Pulling the trigger will very much shoot a beam of light at someone — but it’ll also send a bullet flying at its target and… BAM!

If you aimed at someone’s head… Oops.

For Hastra, though? Someone aiming at another’s head would be the best outcome. It’d save him the trouble of having to get them all on his own. In fact, that’s what he hopes will happen as he sits at a hidden platform high above, swaying from side to side as he watches the misfits scramble around the maze in search of him and each other. 

Thankfully for him, half of the members of the Celestial Ring have always been known to be competitive. So, when Hastra hears the first blood curdling scream… He knows that that’s when the game has truly begun.

The first person that he runs into after jumping down into the maze is a blue-haired Gleamstic that’s been in the circus for quite some time now. He remembers her. She’s always so eager, so full of personality – always so bright and just a bundle of fun. Right now, though? Now, she’s in a full on panic state. She’s also the one first person who figured out the laser gun is, well, pretty much a gun, the very person he was observing up above. When she sees him, she gasps — a beam of hope in those eyes as she rushes towards him.

“Sir! Sir Hastra, the gun– the gun, it’s—!” She’s panicking, gesturing in a random direction. Hastra doesn’t need to look over there to know that’s where the supposed corpse is. 

“Loaded?” Hastra finishes with a tilt of her head, to which she nods vigorously. “Yes! Yes, it’s– it’s an actual g-gun!” 

He wants to laugh. Does she even realize that he’s the one who set up all of these in the first place?

“I know.” He snickers.

The bewildered look that she gives him is priceless.

“Y-you knew?” 

“Of course,” he waves the laser gun he has in his hand, a grin blooming across his face as his ears wiggle excitedly. “The entire trip was planned by yours truly, of course I know. I intended for this to be a fun time, but it’s just a shame, you know?”

There’s a brief pause, then a sigh. “It’s such a shame that you just had to go and sign your name to another party when you could’ve gone so far with us. I really liked you.”

Hastra doesn’t think he’s a sadist, or maybe he just never thought about it until now… But the way her face twists from one of confusion, to realization, to fear and then anger is just so amusing. He doesn’t need to wait and see to know that she planned to shoot him right then and there. She knows that her cover is blown and that her current situation is life and death — not that Hastra would ever give her a chance at life.

Before she could even lift up her gun, he pointed his right at her face, a warm smile stretching across his lips as he whispered the very last words she would hear from him: “Bye-bye.”

The moment the trigger is pulled, all he sees is red for a good few seconds. Hastra doesn’t even flinch when blood splatters onto him. He would wipe off the ones that get on his face, flicking the droplets away from his fingers and staring at the body that falls over right before him.

One down, nine more to go.

This will take a while. Being the one in charge of weeding out the bad eggs in the circus can be such a taxing job, but at least Hastra will make the most out of it.

There’s buzzing in his pocket and he blinks. He digs out his phone from his pocket to check his contacts, only to beam when he sees the name that comes on screen — Onni. There’s not a single hesitation in his movement when he accepts the call, a chirp in his voice as he answers: “Darling! Apologies, I’m a little busy right now.” There’s a pause, then a laugh. “No, no. I’m just doing some cleaning up around the circus.” 

Another pause. “Yes, I’ll probably need your help later. I’ll send you the location once I'm done. Love you, darling!”

As soon as the call cuts off, Hastra decides to do a little bit of stretching. He exhales a sigh once he’s done. He gives the laser gun in his hand a little spin before he starts to make his way forward once more.

He’ll have to make a thorough clean out today.