Some slight backstory before I post this here.
I had posted on the Katawa Shoujo reddit forum a couple of days ago, admitting that I was trying to create a mod of this game, purely by myself, but with new animations and music, considering the possible liabilities of copyright issues. Ignoring that, I had received a comment saying that I should probably start by just writing fanfiction, since my main goal for this game was to be one of the main writers of the story / stories.
I took it upon myself to consider this advice and decided it would be a good idea, since there was an image that had been uploaded probably 10 years ago at this point that had peaked my interest into creating this story. For non-spoilers, I won't post it here, but you can find it on the mega-drive (the website with a bunch of links with fanworks credited to Katawa Shoujo). The image consists of an idea where in a parallel universe, the "waifus" of the game exist where you do not. You are a character in a game like Katawa Shoujo, a dating sim with 5 boys and you are the favorite for all 6 (including Misha) of them. They have each memorized every line by heart by replaying your route multiple times. I liked this concept and wanted to test out my writing ability to it.
Also, I want to apologize from the beginning because I actually only picked up this game about 2 weeks ago, not from 4-chan, but from a stupid YouTube short. It's a long story, so to keep it cut-and-dry, I played this game over the last 2 weeks and absolute love what it is and cherish it.
Disclaimer: This is officially the first fanfic I have written, there will be mistakes of some sorts, probably. I hope it is as readable and enjoyable as I can possibly make it out to be. Thank you for reading. If you have any advice, let me know. If this is an enjoyable story, I'll put as much effort as I can into the rest of it.
Chapter 1: Emi
Click, clack, click, clack, click clack click clack cli- cla- cli- cla- cli- cla-...
The rhythmic cadence of quick footsteps reverberate through the desolate air, creating somewhat of a symphony on the empty track.
A young, cheery, and quite short girl with twin-tails runs around on the aforementioned empty track. The birds in the sky contrast the bleak, desolate feeling there is below it. The runner finishes with an uneven pace trying to finish with full speed and strength as possible, leading to some stumbling beyond the self-made finish line she has made for herself.
The young girl catches herself, gripping both hands onto a nearby fence keeping the track in a confined area. Leaning on the fence, she's running out of breath and can be seen exhaling as if every breath was an extra minute to her life. In the distance, a man with purple hair can be seen watching her.
The purple-haired man walks up to her in an analyzing fashion, catching every detail he can of every movement she has. He firstly inspects the prosthetic legs she has been using to run with, like a scientist would with analyzing a species of animal that has been undiscovered... with uncertainty of what it could be.
A lightbulb seems to metaphorically flicker above this man, as he watches her continue to lean on the metal fence, inhaling every breath she can. He speaks up, with a clear and yet playful tone in his voice.
"Emi, I've got to say, I'm impressed, but what happened to going all out?"
A smirk practically walks on his face, slowly but surely showing up. Emi, the girl on the fence, looks up at him slightly, sticking her tougue out for what seems to be a split second, then continues to lean on the fence, looking down at the rubbery track ground, breathing heavily. The man with the smirk suddenly has a change of tone, a bit more worried and indecisive.
"Remember," he says with a grip on reality, "hands on your head, and keep yourself standing straight for better breaths, Emi."
Emi looks up this time, and directly faces this man. To which, she begins to speak, stuttering a breath in between every couple words.
"Yeah, I... know, I just... I can't really..."
She takes a water bottle off of the ground and twists open the cap, letting the cap fall on the ground despite realizing she will have to pick it up anyway, and begins taking a large swig of the water. The nurse notices this, anticipating the moment she forgets to pick it up so that he can remind her to do so. In spite of this short excitement tenderizing the worried thoughts of the man, Emi picks up the cap that had fallen off and accurately twists it back on, like a satisfying ending.
Emi looks back over at this man, and asks a question.
"So, what're you doing here then? Aren't you a nurse that's supposed to be helping other kids who need it?"
To this, the man chuckles softly and teases her back.
"You do need whatever 'it' is, Emi. I want to make absolute sure that with whatever happens," the nurse looks at her prosthetic legs, "those stay on with absolute certainty. I can't risk you mid-race losing one and becoming unbalanced and then... well- let's just not talk about that."
The nurse clears his throat and tries to introduce a new topic of discussion, trying to get the thought of something as horrible as that happening out of their minds. Emi doesn't care the least, but the nurse doesn't know that.
"Otherwise, has everything been going seemingly well, Emi?"
Emi's cheery and happy face suddenly reconciles where it should normally be, as she wipes the sweat off of her forehead hastily. As Emi's tone changes, she appears to be readily happy to answer any problem or question thrown her way due to her lifestyle of always having a drive.
"Yes, nothing's been a big deal lately. I'm okay, okay?"
The nurse grins at this and seemingly closes his eyes, opening his mouth afterwards.
"I suppose your ego was raised because of the meet later today, huh?"
Emi stares at him, like she was going to crawl over the fence and pounce on him like an offended cat. Instead, she relies on the simply-put:
"Asshole."
The nurse nods while grinning, and says his farewells to Emi, as she does to him. This leaves her by herself this morning, but this isn't anything new for Emi. As she picks up her bags and heads towards the dorms, she seems to have her mind stuck on something, and it's clearly bothering her. Her mood almost drains entirely from her face, but she's able to keep a somewhat stable facial expression until she makes it to her dorm room.
Walking up steps at any point now for Emi wouldn't have proven to be a challenge, nowadays more of a norm for her. The sounds of her prosthetic legs clacking along each individual step brings a similar rhythm to the pattern of noise she creates on the track. Emi finally reaches the top step and bounces off of it, like a rocket being sent into orbit to discover a whole new planet. She leads herself into the dorm entrance and opens the large, metallic door covering the stairwell doorframe. Not to cause too much noise, she now takes one-by-one steps to ensure an annoying presence of her arriving isn't being sent to everyone along the dorms trying to sleep in for today. After arriving at her floor, Emi opens yet another large metallic door and closes it gently as she retreats to her dorm room.
Entering her dorm room greets Emi with the orange-like walls and colors she has designed her room with, some other colorful objects being thrown in the mix as well. A pink pillow stands out on her bed with a window directly behind her bed's headboard, a shelf to the left of her headboard cluttered with items, and some other noticeable features. It's quiet and subtly peaceful for Emi, as she can relax here with no fear of being judged for what she feels underneath her gleamish outside personality.
In a way, this makes her feel somewhat squeamish, like she has no way of truly opening up about herself to anyone. Emi feels as if this is sort-of lying to others, and hiding herself away is never truly a healthy thing for herself. For her, it's not something she wants to do, it's something she feels compelled to do. As the thoughts mentioned beforehand make her start to emotionally tear up, she finally breaks as she looks over her entire room, seeing her laptop open on her desk with a familiar game on it.
Before anything can be said or done about it, she closes the laptop forcefully, tearing up more and more from the sadness of how she feels about doing this to other students at Yamaku, wishing she had someone to care for her and resolve her issues with reaffirming care that will never go away and never be lost. Emi jumps on her bed, hugging the pink pillow tightly, squeezing it as if it were to pour out some type of new tears for her to cry with.
A light knock... no, a thud, can be heard on Emi's door as she grips forcefully onto the pillow some more. She is startled by this slightly, being in an emotional and weakened state. Clearing the bad thoughts away as if she were sweeping them under a rug helps her to stabilize herself for who this may be. Emi instinctively almost calls out to ask who it could be, but then carefully takes a moment to think about who it could be. She quickly computes that it could only be one person who would have to thud on her door that Emi knows of: Rin.
Helping Rin in the morning is a daily task for Emi at this point, so she finishes helping Rin almost automatically. Walking back into her own room, Emi takes some time to herself in the morning. She cleans herself up, exits the shower, and dresses herself up neatly for the school day to begin.
After she is completely dressed, she takes a look at herself in the mirror, contemplating what she's looking at. Is it true happiness, or just a show for everyone else to look at to make them the happier one? Emi stares at this reflection of herself, like she's examining it for any flaws or cracks in the surface. Treating herself like a pavement sidewalk being treated by construction workers was something she had never seen herself doing, and it makes her slightly laugh a little. After slightly laughing, she lets out a few, seemingly meaningless words.
"He would probably find that funny."
Emi dresses herself, adjusting the black bowtie to sit perfectly at her collar. She rubs softly on the fabric on the skirt as she puts said clothing on next, with some slight trouble. Casting her own gaze into the mirror, she takes a deep breath and puts on the 'Emi face' that everyone knows and loves. Above her mirror is a calendar, boldly printed that today is Friday, with a large indicative red circle and words that read: Track Meet Today!
Emi reads this intently, her back arching so that she can discover and calculate how many days there are left of school after today. After counting up the numbers, making it seem more difficult than it should have been, there are 6 days left before graduation after today. Emi smiles slightly at this realization, seeming like she had lost track of how many days were left due to the important track meet today. A peculiar thought is stuck in Emi's mind, distracting her unintentionally from things she has always had the upmost dedication for.
Without realization, Emi's sitting in her class before lunch. Daydreaming. Suddenly, an expressively loud bell is heard throughout the school, notifying everybody of the time it is, and where to head next; Lunch. Emi's mind is immediately attained by the dramatic noise, and immediately heads out of class to head to the lunchroom. Passing by students in the hallways, the stand-out disabilities that some of the students have acquired is something Emi pays no mind. It's the usual for her, as so is her own. Emi can't catch quite a glimpse on anybody, as she's practically sprinting down the hallways to the lunchroom.
The sweet smell of food is something Emi can't resist, grabbing two trays and quickly leaving to head up to the roof. Casually jumping up each step, Emi reaches the top step that leads into the roof only to see it empty. A confused look runs all over Emi's face, spreading like wildfire. She decisively plants each tray carefully onto the rundown bench that sits atop the roof, hastily pulling out her cellphone, immediately calling Rin.
Gently passing through the air, Emi swiftly raises her right hand with a cream of orange color tinted on the phone she is holding. Raising it to her right ear, she hears a faint ringing noise repeated through the phone. Twice. She's begun counting, and at the third ring, a subtle voice can be heard. Rin answered the phone.
"You called," Rin speaks with a somewhat groggy and unidentifiable tone.
Emi worriedly rushes into the subject of the call, "Where are you? It's lunchtime, Rin! Are you sick? Are you okay?"
Emi's level of care for the matter of Rin not being there catches Rin a bit off-guard, and Rin isn't exactly sure how to reply correctly.
"I'm okay," Rin answers drearily, "Are you okay?"
The tight grip of Emi's hand on her phone increases gradually, not wanting to play any of these mind-games with Rin today.
Emi answers subtly without an answer, "I am wondering where you are at, Rin... are you skipping school!? Gasp!"
The gasp ends her statement with a feeling of shock and it clearly doesn't hit Rin the way Emi had thought it would.
Rin replies, "I don't think so. I received an invite to show my art at a new exhibit in town and Mr. Nomiya basically forced me to go."
Emi grins, at least getting an answer at what she was curious about. Posing herself in a cute and girly stance, despite no-one being around to see it, Emi lights up a beaming conversation with Rin over the phone, with Rin trying to give as much attention to her as possible. For the next 15 minutes, Emi sits herself alone with a phone next to her head propped up by her own hand. In front of her lies two trays, one of which she is eating out of. Taking slight bites out of her food to not cause a disturbance of chewing noise through the phone, Emi speaks on about how her day is going and how ready she feels for today's track meet.
Emi brings up this topic smoothly, with no hesitation to ask Rin a simple question.
"Hey, you are going to be able to make it to my track meet today, right? It's a big one, my last one of the season, and my last ever high school track meet!" Emi asks, and then proclaims curiously.
Rin shrugs audibly through the phone, "I don't know. This exhibition may take a while, and Mr. Nomiya wants me to talk to everyone I can."
A visible disruption is spread across Emi's entire personality, her mood wanting to switch sides from this 'Happy Emi'. Glueing each piece of her body that had been shaken up with the thought of winning today, Emi is able to collect herself together and stay calm. Emi's mind can only think about who in total is coming to her track meet that she really wants to see there. Within an instant after taking a moment to herself, Emi responds to Rin.
"Alright... well, let me know if anything changes, Rin! You know I'll be waiting!" The gleamy response Emi gives radiates through the phone.
Rin, a bit thrown-off by how happy Emi is handling this, tries to convince herself to say something meaningful and helpful to Emi which happens to no avail.
"I will," Rin gives her reply to letting Emi know, "See you later, Emi, and good luck at the meet."
Emi feels as if she were to have just been dropped into an intensely wild and overgrown jungle, struggling to fight through her emotions. A quick slice of, "Okay Rin, bye-bye!" feels like a machete swinging through the vines of loneliness that have swung down to appear in front of her, showing some hope.
The shed of one tear that rolls down Emi's cheek reflects in the afternoon sun, slowly dripping down her face as she feels lost in this somewhat well-known situation. Emi can't do anything besides continue to eat her food and question what exactly lead her up to this moment.
"Is it me? Is it because I'm not good enough? I never gave up. I thought that was enough for everyone. I thought that because I never gave up, I could push through everything with a bright and happy outlook on what's to come. It feels like everythings crashing down on me, why do I feel like this!? I pushed so hard through EVERYTHING and... and now, it feels as if I have no one in this world to share my experiences with. I just want somebody to be there to hold me. Someone who I won't lose, somebody who I can trust, and care for."
Fighting through the tears, she finishes the food on her plastic-brown plate and waits for the bell to ring, just waiting for something to distract herself from what's to come of today. A sharp yet familiar ring gives Emi the distraction she needed.
The bright sky turns one of an orange, pink pastel as Emi waits in her team's tent for her last race to commence. The night has gone by amazingly, Emi leading and winning in every category she's ran thus far. As Emi sits in the tent, she checks her phone almost nonstop to see if any new messages have popped up, her hope still not lost for Rin to show up. As the cheers signaling the end of the last 200 run are mentioned throughout the speakers, Emi stands herself up, dusts herself off and begins to walk out onto the field to begin her warmups.
The clacking of her prosthetics against the ground is non-existent to an extent, as she stretches from head to toe to ensure she can be most flexible when needed during the race. Her arm reaches across her head as her face is filled with determination and focus on one thing right now: winning this race. A bright ember sparks across the outline of Emi's body as she stretches, emitting a glowing effect onto the outsides of Emi's stance.
Thoughts cover her mindset amidst the reality of this situation. It's her last ever race as a highschool student, Rin isn't going to be there, and... well...
No one is going to be there.
Emi shakes her head, visibly such in the ways of her friend Rin, to get the thought out of her head. With this, she also convinces herself that it's alright because at least her mom is there, alongside the school's head nurse. Although, realistically, he would be there nonetheless. The warmup she had been ill-considerate of in spite of her thoughts is finished, and Emi begins to walk towards the starts of her final race.
The men's 400 meter relay ends rather quickly, and Emi speaks slightly with her running teammates. They share meaningful, motivational, and inspiring words to one another to prepare them for the last race of the season. With a handbreak on 3, the first girl lines up at her designated starting block, with a baton in hand. Emi watches this, focusing only on her teammate, cheering her on and then quieting down as everything around Emi goes silent.
A distinct voice can be heard through the speakers, "Runners, on your mark."
The first runner for Emi's team jumps up and down, stretches side from side, letting all anxiety out of her body as she moves sporadically. Emi's eyes track along her teammate like a security camera following a thief. It helps Emi focus that this race right now, this team effort, everything she has done to lead up to this point, the only thing that matters to her right now is winning this fucking race. Despite not being the one running yet, Emi has one of the fiercest and most competitive looks on her face that she has ever had. Her teammate is set now, her right knee down, coiled like a spring.
"Get set," the voice through the speaker leaves the crowd and all of the trackstars in anticipation and wait, holding his final breath of inhale until a sharp noise of a gunshot is ringing throughout the now-darkened sky.
After the gunshot, the eyes of all of the runners focus on who is primarily in first, then back to their teammate, and then to watching the time on the board. Emi can't help herself, she is only focused on watching her teammate run. This run means everything to Emi, even if she isn't running it herself.
The teammate is rounding the curve and comes finishing strong, handing the baton off to their next teammate with a substantial lead in the competition. Emi's eyes glisten and she yells out as loud as she can, "Go, go! Finish!"
The apparent and obvious competitive spirit in Emi's voice surprisingly conquers all the other voices being thrown out there to their opponents teammates. As Emi focuses on their team's runner, baton in hand, she notices that her right shoelace is untied. Emi feels the need to warn their team's runner as soon as possible, roaring loudly like a lion over everybody else, bouncing on her prosthetic legs to ensure height is put into play here to have a higher chance of the teammate hearing Emi. This shows to no prevail, and the teammate running stumbles a bit after an opponent from behind catches up and accidentally steps on the loose shoelace.
Emi feels destroyed, a loss as small as what had happened dropping pits of despair into her own motivation. The teammate running hikes the curve, handing the baton off to the third person in place, meaning Emi's team had now dropped to third place. The third teammate bolts off, and Emi is caught off guard. She begins to step onto the track herself and calm what is her thought process right now, unable to doubt herself. However, calming herself down causes her to stand still and this only opens an absolute trench of uncertain thoughts.
"Has this all really been for nothing? The months and months of training, everything I pushed myself through to be able to run again on these legs after what had happened? I went through hell and back in that stupid hospital, every day. I shed tears as the pain was unbearable but I knew it had to be done. For him. If HE were to have been here, would he be proud of you? Would he look at you and see you as a true champion, someone doubting yourself on the track? Is this really what you wanted? Maybe you are lazy after all, seeing as you can't ever focus in the moment."
Emi's self-doubt gets plastered and moved out of her thoughts by the voice of her own dad.
"Do it Emi. I believe in you."
Suddenly, her ears regain their hearing ability as she had zoned out completely. The roaring, almost deafening crowd of support follows onto the team's next runner. Her eyes refocus on what's behind her. The third teammate was still in third place, trying her absolute best to finish in front of second. They come close, but ultimately Emi recieves the cold, black baton about a millisecond behind second place. The baton exchange is complete, and with the running item in hand, she drives herself forward, click by clack.
The wind blows against Emi's face as she turns the first curve, as her prosthetic legs slap across the ground. Her form is somewhat perfect in the motion it percieves itself. Elbows manage to stay correctly positioned as she breathes through every motion as if she had an oxygen tank on her back. The cold and somewhat wet baton in her hands is gripped onto tightly, with Emi's face of just pure willpower encapsulates her entire mindset and physical ability.
Emi paces herself down the long, rubber stretch that is ahead of her. The head of Emi's looks straight forward at her competition, as she moves alongside the girl in second place. Keeping up a similar pace with the girl beside her, Emi decides that it's now or never. She repeats what her dad had said in her own mind to herself.
"Do it Emi. I believe in you."
The swift rush of Emi's presence is gone alongside the girl she had just been running with. Reaching the final curve of the final race she would ever participate in as a highschool student, Emi hears the home-crowd of the Yamaku High School cheer her on. The motivation is there. The noise is inspiring. The feeling in the air is stimulating, yet Emi can't express any of this into her running movements.
The curve is past and all that is left is the final 100 meter stretch. Just centemeters behind first place, Emi takes a deep breath. The breath in the chilly, frosty air shows out in a foggy afterlife. The red cheeks on Emi's smooth face brighten red in response. Taking the smallest second to look along the stands, she spots her mother there alongside the nurse, and wondering if anyone else would have shown up.
Emi, just right behind her first-place opponent, closes her eyes and tries to remember her dad's words, but can't come up with anything. She can't focus on what he would have said. The only thing Emi can think of right now is what she is truly feeling in her heart, what she needs and has to never give up for. The one person who she truly will always have a spot in her heart for. There is only one person who she can think of that would motivate her to finish.
Running and pushing with every last breath, she gets alongside first-place, and mutters to herself..
"I have to... do it... for him..."
