Storyline

## War Arc

In fear that he would never be able to fully execute his plans to reform Yumenosaki and the idol industry before his potential untimely death, Eichi Tenshouin began experimenting with the idea to try and create a perfect, healthy clone of himself with the assistance of his acquaintance Tsumugi Aoba. After many failed attempts, resulting in distorted life-forms that Eichi killed himself, he finally managed to create his first two successful clones, EichiClone and TsumugiClone. EichiClone and TsumugiClone were created to be completely identical to their original counterparts in appearance, fully humanly conscious, and unable to contract illness, only able to die from being killed or from old age.

After the horror of having to witness the conception and destruction of so many deformed clones, Eichi had fully intended to give up on his experiments, as he had already achieved his original goal. However, one day, he was presented with a new task by Tsumugi: not only to create devious clones of each of the Five Oddballs with the intention of causing their reputations within Yumenosaki to be further destroyed, but to test if the human aging process could be entirely halted, out of Tsumugi’s own curiosity. Before Eichi could agree or deny, Tsumugi had presented Eichi with ShuClone. ShuClone appeared and acted similarly to his basis, Shu Itsuki, except his body was incredibly frail, and it was difficult for him to move properly. Despite this, Tsumugi had successfully managed to make him immortal, although he could still be killed by physical trauma.

Tsumugi forced Eichi to assist him in creating the rest of the immortal Oddball Clones. Due to the immense pressure being put on Eichi, despite his deteriorating physical condition from the stress creating each clone had put him under, each new Oddball Clone had a different physical deformity. The last of the Oddball Clones to be created, NatsumeClone, ended up the most physically impaired, due to several of his internal organs turning out to be deformed or limited in function. At this point, out of disgust for the actions of his original counterpart, TsumugiClone decided to flee Yumenosaki. Although, he still would visit EichiClone, but only when Eichi and Tsumugi were not present, or busy.

Eichi ended up having to be hospitalized after the creation of NatsumeClone. He assigned EichiClone to take his place in his daily life at Yumenosaki, as he had managed to integrate the majority of his memory, save for those of his early childhood, into EichiClone’s mind while creating him. However, EichiClone did not quite have the same personality, therefore many of Eichi’s closer companions were able to pick up that something was off-putting about his behavior compared to that of the real Eichi. At the same time, Tsumugi started to attempt creating new versions of the Oddball Clones. He did his best to contain the original five into the Underground Archive, the designated area of the school for the experiments; he was too cowardly to get rid of them by his own hands, fearing their possible strength. Despite his efforts, rumors of “monsters” roaming the hallways of Yumenosaki in the evening drifted around the school, implying that the Oddball Clones would escape on their own anyway.

One evening, after returning to the abandoned Marine Biology Club room that the Oddballs would regularly take sanctuary within, Kanata Shinkai happened to come across KanataClone asleep in one of the larger fish tanks. In a fit of rage, Kanata attacked KanataClone, scaring him away. Immediately suspicious that the deformed clone was created by Eichi and/or Tsumugi, Kanata began to spy on Tsumugi for the next two days, until he discovered the location of the Underground Archive. Upon discovering the lab, Kanata completely tore it apart as thoroughly as he possibly could on his own, even killing the still growing Oddball Clone duplicates in the process. The next day, Kanata revealed to the rest of the Five Oddballs that he had seen KanataClone in the Marine Bio club room. This is when the Oddballs regretfully decided they would have to kill their clones in order to stop Eichi and Tsumugi from wreaking any more havoc, and to prevent any more Yumenosaki students from becoming endangered.

Following the deaths of ReiClone and WataruClone, the first of the Oddball Clones to be killed, NatsumeClone revealed his existence to Natsume Sakasaki. For a brief period, lasting up until shortly after the suicide of ShuClone and the death of KanataClone, Natsume would visit and take care of NatsumeClone, since the rest of the Oddball Clones were no longer able to attend to him. NatsumeClone would often complain to Natsume that his pain was getting worse by the day, and explained that although he mourned the deaths of his fellow Oddball Clones, he understood why they had to die and believed it was for the best, as otherwise they would “be damned to an eternal Hell on Earth,” hinting to Natsume that they were all created to be immortal. NatsumeClone was the least hostile of all the Oddball Clones; therefore, Rei Sakuma proposed that he be euthanized rather than killed. NatsumeClone died in Natsume’s arms.

Shortly after all of the Oddball Clones had died, TsumugiClone confided in the Five Oddballs the rest of the details about Eichi’s clone experiments. Being able to completely empathize with the experiences of TsumugiClone, as well as feeling sympathy for his crisis of being a completely different person trapped into having almost the exact same appearance as the original Tsumugi Aoba, the Oddballs essentially took him in as one of their own, making him the unofficial sixth Oddball.

Eichi’s original plans of “The War on Yumenosaki” were put to a complete halt. Eichi came to completely despise Tsumugi, exiling him from Fine and bad-mouthing him when asked why the two of them suddenly stopped being friends. Dejected and distraught, Tsumugi decided to talk with Eichi to try and make up with him. Instead, he was confronted by EichiClone. Filled with fury and resentment, Tsumugi impulsively killed EichiClone, then deciding to drop out of Yumenosaki and leave his previous life behind. After the death of EichiClone, TsumugiClone mysteriously disappeared.

The tragedy of the clones had a deep impact on the Oddballs, still lasting into the next school year. Completely horrified by the whole catastrophe from start to finish, Shu Itsuki ceased associating himself with the Oddball title. However, the rest of the four Oddballs became closer than they ever were, swearing to each other that they would always protect each other without fail. They firmly believed that one day, TsumugiClone would return to them, and that he was still alive somewhere unknown.