Katawa Shoujo Forums

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Act 1
  Scene 7: Newsroom Engage (Again)

Hisao does some more work in the Newspaper Club.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning sneaks up on me, pulling the darkness from my eyes and tossing it out of the window, replacing it with a shrill alarm and a batch of freshly agitating sunlight.

I slip out of last night's clothes, groaning audibly as I pull on the old soccer uniform. The exercises are Doctor's orders, so it's hard to just... skip them.

I pull my pills from their bottles, downing them without a second thought and coughing on the taste without water. Locking my door, I step out of the dorm building and into the dull morning light.

By the time I make it to the track, Emi is already stretching out on the asphalt.

Wordlessly, I make my way over and start stretching as well.

"Morning, Hisao~! I'm glad you could make it a second day, you lazy bones!" She lilts, pushing her "feet" back and rolling her shoulders.

I nod, dropping a grunt in agreement.

"Tired, I guess? We'll run that right out of you, then!" She pushes up from the dirt and bounces on the fake legs casually, hands behind her back. I pull my leg back a bit, before standing. I feel like every bone in my body is simultaneously creaking.

"Let's get going then~!" She steps over to the starting line, bursting off it and quickly reaching speeds I could never imagine.

I jog from the line, increasing my pace ever so slightly until I reach a point where my legs feel like jello.

I continue running, but maintain my pace, just a touch longer than yesterday. By the time I feel my legs giving out, I had reached the starting line.

Emi comes by, finishing her innumerable sprints, patting me on the back as she grins wider than her face can seem to account for. "That was great Hisao! You'll be doing better in no time! Now I feel like I really do owe you that lunch~!" She drops to the side of the track with a ploof, stretching a bit before standing back up again.

"You head on to the nurse, I'll stop by in a bit..." Her voice is mildly strained, but she still holds a smile, playing with the paper clip prosthetics, as I walk away.

I step into the nurse's office, the trip to the building described by a single word: uneventful.

Sitting down in the chair, the nurse glances at me, "So, your exercise going well?"

"It, well, it mostly is."

"Mostly?"

"Having Emi as a partner is confusing. She's so unreachable as a goal, but so easy to strive for."

"Don't go getting any ideas, lover boy~." The nurse laughs boisterously, waving a hand idly in the air at his own joke, before pushing a strand of his hair from in front of his eyes, "I know what you mean, though. Emi is a wonderful girl and an even better runner. Having to run beside her would be rather... taxing. I assume you're not overexerting yourself again?"

I shake my head, "No, no... I couldn't see myself doing more than what I'm doing."

"Well, you'll reach a point where you can naturally run without too much effort. You'll need to increase the distance you run eventually. But in your first week? No, no." The nurse pulls my file from the nearby cabinet, marking down a few notes and grinning again, "Have you talked to your parents, told them how the year is going?"

"I don't really talk to my parents much. Even when I wasn't dealing with my heart problems, I was excessively independent. They both worked nights."

"So, I'll take that as a definite 'no.'" He says, grinning slightly.

"Yeah, a definite no."

"Alright, on to our favorite part of the day; lift your shirt for me?" He says, winking as he does so.

I shiver at the off-putting humor, but lift the sticky shirt from my chest anyway. He places the cold steel on my chest, probing it three times, then letting it drop back around his neck.

"Great, great! Your heart is beating fast, but the beats are not… too erratic; you indeed did exercise, and didn't just get your shirt wet. That's happened before."

I shrug, letting out a slight grin, as I let my shirt drop back down, "Is there anything else then?"

"Just keep it up, and good luck at lunch today." He winks again, laughing boisterously as he stands from his desk. "I'll get the door."

I step out of the office, and leave the building, casually walking over to the dorm.

My clothes are laid out on the desk, pre-placed from last night. I take them and my shower supplies along to the bathroom. Devoid of any freaks and failures, my shower goes peacefully. When I get back to my room, I glance at the clock and note that I have a bit of extra time before class starts.

Deciding to make use of it, I head to the main building and make my way to the cafeteria. I shuffle through the line, getting a plate of breakfast at random. I end up with a bowl of miso soup, an apple, some rice, and a piece of dry toast.

I sit down at a small booth in the corner of the cafeteria, eating without a word.

I stand to toss my trash in the bin, meandering to it through the now growing crowd of sleep-deprived students.

I slide the garbage into the bin, placing the tray and the bowl on top and turn to exit the cafeteria, heading to my first class of the day.

The classroom is empty, save for one kid in the opposite corner of the classroom, drooling over a textbook casually. I slide into my chair, pulling out my notebook for science and start flipping through the notes I had taken yesterday.

Naomi steps in soon after, missing her other half. She waves to me as she sits down in her desk, mirroring my motions of pulling out the notebooks and supplies.

"Where's Natsume?" I ask, breaking through the silence in this corner of the room.

"She stayed home today, she had an, ah, flare up. Because of me." She frowns slightly, peeking through her notebook in varying motions.

"..Flare up?"

"She has arthritis, a lot of it, to be simple about it."

That's… Well, that explains things. A lot of things. Basically all the questions relating to Natsume at least, I sputter out my thoughts to fill the awkward silence, "...Oh. That, uh.. Sorry."

"Yeah." She nods to me once, turning back to her book, mumbling something: Whether it was to me or to no one in particular is debatable.

The morning classes go by at a strangely slow pace. I find myself looking out the window repeatedly, checking the clock and my watch periodically only to realize a mere minute or two has passed.

When the lunch bell rings, I fish out the phone from my pocket as I step out of the classroom. When I open it, I'm greeted with a text from an unknown number.

• "hi hisao! this is emi
  remember that we have lunch today
  meet me and my friend up on the roof
  Ive got lunch and stuff all ready to eat so dont worry about that
  seeya soon!"

I awkwardly slide the phone back into my pocket, peeking around the buzzing nooks and crannies of the 3rd floor hallways.

How'd she even get my number?

Eventually I find a stairwell, aptly labeled "Roof Access." I make my way up the flight of dimly lit stairs, arriving at the door at the top. A broken padlock is lying down on the ground next to the door, and the door itself is hanging loosely open, sunlight pouring through the crack and into the stairwell.

When I open the door, I’m greeted by two people sitting on the opposite side of the roof, at an out of place picnic table.

Emi calls out, waving me over to the table, “Come on~! I’ve got your food over here!”

She pats the spot next to herself, and points at the boxed lunch. The second I acknowledge her, she sets to picking apart her lunch with the fervor of a ravenous animal, dissecting fresh prey.

I take my seat next to her, pulling open the bin and pulling the contents out, from their individually boxed packages. When I look up, the person across from me has their… feet positioned above the box lunch, eating contentedly... with their feet?

"Uh...?" I glance to Emi, snapping the chopsticks down the middle and holding them over my lunch as I try to make sense of the situation.

"Wha- Oh, right~! Hisao, this is Rin! Rin, this is Hisao!" She grins, a piece of rice plastered to her bottom lip. She flicks her tongue out, pulling the loose rice back into her maw, turning back to her food right after, in proper, full force.

Rin drops the chopsticks, nodding to me, "Hi." I inspect her frame, noticing a distinct lack of… arms.

Which would explain the feet, I suppose.

"...Hi?" I respond, picking up the chopsticks again.

...She…? doesn't respond, simply tending to her lunch once more. She plucks at the boxed lunch, not eating most of it. I pull a piece of chicken from the box, slipping it into my mouth and grinning at the flavor. The rooftop lunch passes very quietly, only filled with the occasional sigh of relief or inhaling of air from Emi.

When the lunch bell rings across the campus, Emi pulls over our boxes and frowns into Rin's.

"If you don't eat your lunch, you're going to fade away!" Emi chastises Rin.

Shrugging in response, Rin slides out from the table. "Would that really be so bad?" She says to the air, walking to the staircase and downstairs to class, I think. Maybe she's off to do more drugs.

I say more because she is too mellow to not be on... something.

Emi picks up the boxes of lunch, tossing them into her bag, "Was it good, Hisao~?" She leans forwards on her... legs, hands behind her back.

"The food was great! Did you, ah, did you make it yourself?"

"I did!" She grins widely, "Hopefully Rin didn't, like, scare you off or something. She is a bit weird, but she's great once you get to know her. The staff thought it would be funny to make a whole."

"A whole?"

"Y'know... I don't have legs, she doesn't have arms; put us together, and you've got a suit~! Plus, she ah, needed help getting dressed a lot of the time. Shirts aren't her friend."

"I could've figured... I'll be off now though, so I don't miss class. I'll see you around." I wave over my shoulder as I make my way to the door.

She calls out quickly, "I've got a track meet, during the festival! You should come see it~! Don't blow yourself up on all the food, though - I'll know!"

“Oh, I think the Newspaper Club was already planning on going to that, I could be wrong,” I wave over my shoulder as I step out of the door and down to my afternoon classes. Those pass just as boringly as the rest, Naomi in a rut because of Natsume’s absence; those two really do depend on each other.

When the final bell hits, time seems to lurch back into motion, the classroom droll finally having suspended itself for another few hours.

Naomi and I make our way to the club room, slipping into the room silently. Ayao remains in the same corner as usual, writing away on whatever subject it is she... writes.

We both take a seat at a computer, but Naomi takes a pointedly obvious bit of special care to not watch much, “Ah, sorry. I forgot my glasses today.”

I guess the obvious is that she has those... seizures often. Often enough to stress about them, at least.

"Hey, Ayao, is this fine here?" I motion her to the computer, the final draft of the newspaper issue flat against the print preview screen.

"That will do, yeah." She pulls herself back up onto the nearby counter, diving back into the little black notebook.

Slotting the roll of paper from yesterday into the massive printer, I glance to Naomi who then glances to Ayao, "Start the printer for u-" Ayao pops down from the counter, quickly keying in the commands and parameters for the newspapers.

"There. That's all we really need to do."

Naomi and I both glance at the finished newspapers, watching as they roll off the printer into a stack.

“Here, Hisao, you take the first page.” Naomi smiles warmly, pulling it out from the stack and flipping it through the air.

The smell of freshly printed ink on paper fills the room with an acrid stench. Ayao continues working, a smile crossing her lips as she does.

I take the paper hesitantly, mumbling a “Thanks,” in response.

Naomi simply laughs, placing her palms against the top of the printer. We both silently watch the papers as they flop onto the pile.

When I push my hands into their pockets, Naomi pipes up in the somewhat discomforting silence. “Are you hyped for the festival?”

“I know I'm not,” Ayao calls out from the corner.

Naomi pulls a scrap paper from the table next to the printer, balling it up and tossing it across the room towards Ayao. Instead of letting it hit her, Ayao swipes it out of the air and smugly grins. She dives back into her notebook within moments of this exchange.

“As I was saying…”

I shake to attention. “Oh, yeah. It'll be interesting to see the fruits of everyone's labors.”

“That's great, great~!”

Thinking back to Natsume’s information, I add on, “Are we going to need anyone watching the stands or something?”

A solid thump followed by a sharp “Shit!” comes from Ayao’s corner; when I turn to glance at the source, Ayao has her hand still in the air, in mid fist pump.

“What?” Ayao blinks a few times. Naomi sighs, followed by Ayao throwing her other hand up in the air. “You got me, officer, on charges I could never disapprove of.”

“... What?” I blurt out.

Ayao grins, laughing at the air, “I was the one assigned to the stands for the beginning of the festival by default!”

Naomi sighs, “Just because Hisao asks a question doesn't mean you're off the hook.”

“... Right.”

“And besides, why would I make him watch the stand? This is his first week.”

“...... Right.”

“And why are you still celebrating?”

“......... Rig-Oh.” She drops her hands from the air, crossing them over her lap, “I, uh. I forgot. Oops.”

The printer begins beeping violently, Naomi pushes the off button quickly, pulling the now empty roll from the machine. Tossing it in the corner, into a small stack, she turns on her heel and grabs her bag.

“Ayao, organize the papers onto the rack for me, our job is done today~!” She nudges me in the side, “Let's go check on Natsume, before curfew hits.”

“Sounds great, just a moment though.” I grab my bag from the counter, holding the newspaper in my hand as I pull the bag over my shoulder, “Lead the way.”

As we step out of the room, the door shuts with a click, Ayao glancing out the side window as it does, “Ignore her, Hisao, she's hit a spout of… mania today…” She tilts her head back, counting the tiles in the hallway's ceiling under her breath.

When we reach the turn, she lurches her head forwards and rounds the corner with a casual heel turn.

“So, Hisao, what are you doing for the festival? Natsume, Ayao and I usually get together after the stall is settled and go to watch the track team, then we watch movies until it gets dark!” She purses her hands together in front of her legs, “You'll love it there… it's so great~.”

“I don't really have plans, mind if I join you guys?” We step up the short flight of stairs, turning to the girl's dorm.

I open the door for Naomi, and she turns back before I let it close, “I wouldn't talk about my plans if I wasn't trying to get you to ask that question, of course you can join us!” She knocks on the door to Natsume’s room, opening it after a second tap, “Wait out here until I give you the signal, alright?”

Naomi steps in the room, flicking on the light and wading through the contents of the floor.

Numerous groans of displeasure and rattling covers float out from the room, until eventually Naomi whistles at an excessive pitch.

I step inside, a hand in my pocket and the other on the doorframe. "Hi, Natsume."

"Hi." She is leaning against the wall, a blanket pressed against her. Naomi is sitting on the desk chair, spinning it around in circles.

"Did you take your medicine?" Naomi turns herself around on the chair. She leans her head against the back of it, glancing at us as if she's looking over the top of a pair of invisible glasses.

"I took the medicine." Natsume is peeking out from the top of a blanket, her hands folded in her lap.

"Good~! Do you think you'll be fine to move around before tomorrow?"

"Probably." She tries to shrug, but can't and instead just repeats, with a lot more hesitation, "...Probably."

"If I have to drag you out of bed tomorrow, I will 'probably' fight you." Naomi tilts her head, drooping her glasses down and raising an eyebrow at her.

"I'll try. Did you bring food?"

"I've got bread in the bag." She pulls open her school bag and pulls free a store bag, labeled just "Have a Good Day!" Where'd she get that?

"Gimme gimme gimme." She says, starting to push forwards but almost tearing up. She slowly slinks back and points at the bag with puppy dog eyes.

I pull the bag up, and rip open the plastic wrapper containing the bread. She lifts her arm up, wrist rigid and swollen. I cringe and hand her the bread. It's hard to see someone in such a state, even if you barely know them.

She brings the wrist to her face, dropping the bread onto herself and holding it into place with her mouth, "Eheh.." She chuckles through the loaf of bread, pulling it in slowly. Naomi and I grin at the scene, but don't laugh. It just doesn't feel right.

When she finishes the bread, I pick up the juice pouch from the bag and put it down for Natsume. I poke the straw in and hand it to her. A few sips later, she speaks up, "This is probably one of the worst flare ups I've had all year..."

"Yeah, it doesn't look too great.. I called the nurse for you, by the way."

She rolls her eyes, "It's so hard to deal with him sometimes..." She glances to me, "You've had to deal with him for a good bit, with.. well, your heart. He irk you too?"

Natsume's speech is a lot more to the point when she's like this. It's jarring, in truth. Hard to deal with. She changes a lot when she's on a down day, it seems.

I slowly respond, "He's a bit jarring, but he means well I guess. Just a bit hard to laugh at some of the stuff he jokes around with."

"Exaaaaaactly." She points her finger at me, lifting her hand a bit more than the last few times, then dropping her hand to her face to scratch at it idly.

"Keep lifting that arm, Natsume~! I know you want to!" Naomi leans forwards towards Natsume, palms against the bed as she laughs, "You're not that bad, if you're not screeching in pain from lifting your arm for a scratch. Jeez. You faker."

Natsume ploofs back against the pillows, sipping out of the juice pouch and glaring towards Naomi with a sigh, "Implying that the Nurse would ever let me skip. I'm just so much better for little ol' you and Hisao. Sheesh."

"Ohohohoh. Whatever you say." Naomi slaps Natsume on the foot, before pushing off of the bed and turning to me, "Hisao, I assume you can find the way out?" Naomi steps out and leans on the door across the hall.

I nod once, turning on my heel, "Ah, yeah, seeya tomorrow, Natsume. Same to you, Naomi, sleep well.”

“Of course~! See you later, Hisao!” Naomi grins, waving to me as she slides into her room. Natsume makes some noise akin to a grunt of acknowledgement. Skillfully throwing something at the door, she manages to shut it before I leave.

I exit the girl's dorm, and enter the guy's dorm, stepping through the dimly lit halls.

I toss my bag onto the bed, pulling the paper from under my arm and flattening it against my desk. I pull a thumbtack from the top of my desk, and tap it into the wall next to my window. With the window open, it flutters lazily in the cold evening air, almost like a cape.

I pull out a book, pushing my bag from my bed as I lie down. I flip open to the marked page after turning off the light. The gentle breeze settles through the room, crawling through my chest and finding it's way deep inside.


_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• [Previous]
  [Next]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No longer lurking on this . I like this story and will read each updated chapter when it comes out .

There were two spots in it where two words were missing a space. I would copy them but I'm on my mobile phone so it's a lot harder to.

Hesmiyu wrote:No longer lurking on this . I like this story and will read each updated chapter when it comes out .

There were two spots in it where two words were missing a space. I would copy them but I'm on my mobile phone so it's a lot harder to.

Found 'em. Had to nab a good few of those pre-post since I went over a lot of Mirage's edits on my phone & it's got weird spacing. Thanks for bringin' my attention the presence of.. more. And glad you're enjoying it so far!

I suggest not processing edits on your phone. Mobile computing does have it's uses but text processing is not among them...
We'll gladly wait a few hours longer for the next chapter

There's a track meet during the festival? I am reading that correctly, right?

HoneyBakedHam wrote:There's a track meet during the festival? I am reading that correctly, right?

A few hours before it kicks off, correct. Put it earlier so I could slot in certain events that happen throughout the day. Touch different than the VN, but it was a calculated change. Reasonings and such.

Mirage_GSM wrote:I suggest not processing edits on your phone. Mobile computing does have it's uses but text processing is not among them...
We'll gladly wait a few hours longer for the next chapter

Yeah, I try to keep from doing that kind of stuff, but I had three hours in my mom's office with nothing to do but drink coffee and stare at a wall... At least editing kept me busy enough, lmao.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Act 1
  Scene 8: Empty Newsroom

In the face of boredom, Hisao goes for a walk.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I wake up to the alarm, pull on my exercise clothes and head down to the track. I go for the usual run, keeping up the same pace as the days before and head to the Nurse. Heart is doing… nominally fine... Fine for what it is.

I head to class but find the two seats to the left of me to be empty. Natsume is probably still out for her arthritis, and… I have no clue where Naomi is. Hanako didn’t come to class today either. Looks like today is gonna be a productive day.

Not.

Class passes irritatingly slow, the bell signalling escape from the half day putting me in a delightful mood. Free from actually paying attention.

I have an extremely free afternoon today, though. The newspaper room is likely to be empty, save for maybe Ayao… And I don’t really feel like spending time alone with her.

Naomi and Natsume are both pent up in their rooms, for reasons unknown to me. And it’d seem weird going to their dorms to check on them.

I could just take a walk around campus, take in the greenery.

Maybe I’ll enjoy it.

---

I stop by the newspaper club room, mostly out of curiosity.

Ayao is sitting in the corner, in her usual spot, flicking her pencil against the paper lazily. She lifts her offhand up, muttering a “Hi,” before going back to the notebook.

“Where are Naomi… and Natsume?”

“Right, Naomi said to tell you she’s fine. Just stayed home today. Overslept or something. Natsume’s still in bed with the uh, flare up stuff.”

“Oh. Thanks…” I shift in my position, scanning the room, “You know where a good place to go for a walk is?” I say, glancing around the room awkwardly.

“Needing something to do, then?” She shuts the book, holding it on top of her knee. “You could go to town. Or the little wooded area around the school. There’s a little path out there on the side of the school.”

“Thanks,” I murmur out in response. I turn to step out of the door, noticing the camera. Perched on a stack of papers and books the black, digital camera is seemingly staring at me.

I pick it up, and loop it around my neck again. Ayao doesn’t notice - or doesn’t care - as I exit the room and head out to the grounds.
---
After at least ten minutes of aimlessly shuffling about the grounds I spot what is almost a mock replica of the main gate of Yamaku. The same wrought iron, the same brick, the same… basically everything. The same except for size. And most of its shape.

I push it open and glance tentatively through it. A forest indeed.

I take in a deep breath, staring at the canopy of the trees as I walk. It’s… fresh outside. It’s a nice feeling. I reach down for the camera, dangling against my chest. I turn it on, glancing over the numerous buttons.

I open the lens cap, make sure the flash is off and then take a few shots of the trees surrounding me.

I flip over to the pictures on the digital screen, glancing over them and scanning them.

I’m not really an artist.

Or, well. I’m not an artist at all. But the shots look nice.

I let the camera dangle from my neck again and continue walking through the woods.

I come up to a massive willow tree and spot a flash of white in the underbrush.

When I glance to see who it is the face - and distinct lack of arms - is familiar.

“Rin?”

I don’t get a verbal response, just a shift in posture. Rin shifts about in the leaves, her back against the bottom of the tree, head crooked to the sky.

“Hello. Are you here to worry too?” She doesn’t shift her gaze from the sky.

“...Huh?”

“This is the worry tree. I worry here. Do you worry here?”

“...I’ve… not been here before, no. Do you come here often?”

Did I just say that? She’s probably too… high on whatever it is she’s high on… to interpret that as flirting. Rin seems like the type to have no interest in… romance... anyways..

“I do. Yes. There are those who believe you must come here when you decide to wallow in misery. And ‘those’ people are me. Me alone. And the tree isn’t really called anything.”

“So… You just talk to the tree?”

“What? Who talks to trees?”

“...Not me...?”

“That’s good. Only crazy people talk to trees. And I’m not crazy. I don’t recommend talking to trees.”

I take the camera from my neck again, aiming it to the sky and taking a shot. As if on cue, a number of birds fly from the branches. They’re caught in the width of my camera, albeit a lot of them being a blue, purple, or grey flash of color across the screen. I let the camera droop back against my chest. Rin slowly turns her head, glancing at the camera.

“So you’re one of them?”

“Them?”

“Picture taking… Photographers. You take pictures.”

“...Not a lot, really. Is there something wrong with that…?” I look down to the camera worriedly.

“Nothing at all… But… It’s not that good.”

“What’s not that good? Photography?”

“Yeah. It’s not… I don’t think you can make art as well, with a camera. It doesn’t feel right. And I can’t click the buttons with my feet.”

I just remain in silence, watching the treeline as Rin taps her toes against the underbrush.

Eventually, Rin stands up, flipping her feet underneath her and pushing herself to an uneasy stand. She adjusts herself, rolling her shoulders and popping her joints, before stepping along the same path I did, without another word.

I walk back, a few moments later, not exactly compelled to follow her to the school. She seems the type to… I don’t really know. She just… Ehh…

I linger behind, though. I take a few more shots of the forested area. By the time I reach the gates again, I’ve taken at least two dozen pictures, and the sun has started a lazy descent into the horizon, casting the already shady woods in a dark shade.

I head back to my dorm, leaving the camera on my desk, and reading a book in bed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• [Previous]
  [Next]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Act 1
  Scene 9: Where the News Happens

Hisao goes on a romp about the festival with the Newspaper Club.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I wake up to the clamoring of the crowds growing outside. Pushing up from my chair, I peel back the fluttering curtains and look out onto the bustling school grounds, uniformed students dashing about and preparing whatever club stall they're operating.

Thankfully today is the day of the festival, so I was allowed to sleep in. I shut my window and peel off last night's clothes, putting them in my hamper and slipping on another uniform, running a brush through my hair afterwards.

I step out of my room, pulling at the buttons of my uniform and loosening them. I peek at Kenji's door, figuring him the type to hiss at sunlight and social gatherings, especially ones with school involved.

I quickly make my way up the hallway to avoid contact with the epitome of a socially destructive human being. I pull out my phone and glance through the messages, eventually finding the contact for Naomi. I pull up a texting window, sitting down at the bench below the dorms.

The smell of fresh paint permeates the cool morning air, floating about and tugging at my nostrils.

• [Sent:]
  (Hey, where should we meet up?)

Naomi replies as I stand from the bench.

• [One New Message]
  (Naomi: newspaper stand, it's in between the aux and main building. be there in twenty!)

I make my way down the steps and follow the scent of paint, looking at the drying mural. Using the word 'human' loosely, seems to depict people. Melted down and smeared across the wall like refuse. The shapes bend and warp around the wall, coming to sudden halts and unknown twirls. The colors are warm, with odd splashes of cool thrown about.

The entire piece is pretty... interesting. I could never call myself an art critic, but the thing looks great. Couldn't say much more than that.

I turn on my heel, stepping off towards the school building before nearly bumping into a familiar figure.

Rin stands in my path, armless as usual. She glances at my chest, and simply says, "Hi."

I raise a hand to wave, before shoving it back in my pocket and slapping myself internally for the faux paus. I reply with but a simple, "Hi." as well.

"What are you doing?" Rin questions, staring off at the mural. It seems more like she's questioning the mural than me.

"I was, well, looking at the art. Was waiting for the time to pass." An honest reply, but Rin is probably going to find a way to make it confusing too.

"Oh." Not confusing. Just vague. That's fun, "Do you think it is good?" Or not vague. Just questioning.

She shifts her gaze from the mural to my chest again, "I think it looks great, personally."

"Why?" She shifts back to the mural again.

"...Because it just does? It looks good."

"..." She remains wholly silent, before puncturing the silence with her deadpan reply. "Fair enough."

"I've... Got places to be. I'll see you around Rin."

"Will you?" she questions the air, leaning in front of the mural and inspecting it closely.

I make my way towards the main two buildings, spotting Naomi and Natsume under a bench, chatting casually.

When I approach, they both turn and hush their conversation with a few hand gestures and shrugs.

"Hey, when's the track meet happening?"

"In about half an hour, we need to go make sure Ayao didn't burn down the newspaper stand though." Natsume pushes from the bench, grunting and wobbling. Naomi stands up a moment after, dusting off the forest green uniform skirt as she does.

Naomi and Natsume both glance towards the meandering crowds, sigh, and look to me, “Here's the time that we all hate; finding our way to the stall through the crowds. It's lovely.” Natsume sighs.

“Probably for the best that we get on our way then.” I step to the side, gesturing to the side. “Ladies first,” I add as an afterthought, not wanting to take the lead in such an unfamiliar place. Even with a week under my belt, the school grounds are still foreign to me.

Naomi steps forward with a toothy grin, Natsume behind her, complete with agitated groaning with the walking. I follow behind the pair, watching the sights as we walk. They talk to each other, commenting on the individual stalls and on the decoration.

They seem to critique quite a bit, but at least they don't seem too hostile about it; they're just commenting, pointing things out.

We all reach the newspaper stand, nestled in a busy section of the grounds, filled with the high pitched sounds of little games and the succulent scent of fried foods flitting about the air.

A simple wood stand, a boldly designed bit of paper handing from the top of the supports.

• • Newspapers Here!
    Festival Exclusive!
    
    FREE OF CHARGE

Lined up on the top of the stand, are numerous shelves, filled with this issue of the club's paper. Each shelf has a little bar over it to keep the papers from flying off, too.

It fills me with a touch of pride when I glance down at the papers, each one endorsed with my name up in the corner.


Made by: Ayao Yui, Naomi Inoue, Natsume Ooe, and Hisao Nakai.


Even if I didn't do much, it still feels great to know people will see this. I've not done much in this sort of field before. It's really entertaining, in honesty.

Naomi taps me on the shoulder, pointing a thumb towards the watery crowd, all dribbling downstream to some destination.

“The track meet is starting soon, we've got time though. Yuu doesn't go for a while. We may miss Emi’s run, but that's not a huge loss~." Naomi sticks her tongue out at me, before leaning back and staring at the sky as she walks.

"Naomi, don't fall or somethin-" She flips out her arm, whipping me across the chest.

"I know what I'm doing Hisao, jeez~!" She starts walking backwards, on top of leaning her head around.

Natsume pulls Naomi's head forwards, "Not in the crowds, stupid."

"..Jeez." She deflates slightly, but recovers upon seeing the track come into view, "Come on, let's go to our spot!"

The pair drag me around the side of the track, past the bleachers and to the edge of the woods around the setup. Seemingly cut out of the edge, is a stump and a surrounding bench, made from a split log.

"We dunno who left this all here, but Natsume and I have been using this for track meets since our 1st year at Yamaku!" Naomi sits down, swiping the flat and mildly crusty log with her hand, before setting her bag down and pulling out a rather large, yet somehow small blanket and laying it across the log.

I take a seat at the edge, putting one foot on the stump and turning towards the track. Not a bad spot, really.

"We eat lunch here sometimes, too. But only when it hits fall and cools down. The bugs come out en masse if we aren't careful. That's why we didn't bring food." Natsume adds, sitting on the outside edge of the stump, crossing her legs and leaning back against it with a grunt.

Naomi takes a seat on the opposite side of the log, glancing at the track. The runners have all lined up, and the referee has the starting gun aimed in the air, poised to fire off.

With the sound of the gun, birds fly from the trees behind us, and, more importantly, the runners take off down the track.

Numerous faces I don't recognize make their way around the corner, bolting at speeds I'll never be able to understand personally. They continue around the track, fighting one another for the lead, until they all cross the finish line; shouting comes from all around the stands and the interior of the field, everyone excited that their favorite team or runner did well. We all three glance to each other, and shrug, "Who was even in that race?"

"Nobody I know." Natsume shrugs. "Or, well, care about."

"Emi was in there, sheesh~!" Naomi bounces her leg up and down, bobbing the whole log violently. The starters take position once more, crouched over the line and ready to fire like springs. This time I do see Yuu in the lineup. When the gun fires, he bounces from the line, uncoiling and lunging across the straight. He takes the lead at first, rounding the first two corners gracefully, without a problem.

When he reaches the third, however, he seems to trip up just slightly, his pace falling out of line. He keeps running, but is passed by a runner from another school, taking quick advantage of the misstep. Yuu crosses the line in at second, staring bullets at the back of the guy who came in first.

He steps off the track and towards our group, hands behind his neck as he gulps in the air. He has a slight limp, but refuses to accept it, continuing at his casual pace towards us. He sits down on the log in between Naomi and me, huffing as he sits.

"Well that was subpar." He says to nobody in particular.

Natsume looks back at him from the stump, slapping him on the knee, "You got second, not last, get over it~."

Naomi glances at Natsume over the frame of her glasses, and pushing up off of the log, "You did great~! What happened to your leg or whatever? I could see you trip, all the way over here. You're going to the nurse for that, right?"

"It's fine, it's fine..." He droops his head over the back, only his upper back touching the log at this point.

When Yuu goes to lean forward, he moves his leg to the side and hisses under his breath at what I can only assume is pain. Natsume glances back at him again.

“Nice one. Are you gonna make us carry you to the nurse?”

Naomi sighs, lowering a hand to help Yuu up, “Hisao, support him, we'll have to take him up to the nurse. He's probably broken something. “

“Gah, don't talk like that, Naomi! It's just a sprain!” Yuu closes his eyes, leaning his head back to the sun. I lower a hand to him, helping him up, gingerly lifting him to a stand. He leans mostly into me, his left arm hooked around my neck, balancing on his right leg precariously. Naomi takes the opposite side, Natsume following from behind. We all three escort him as casually as we can, but still receive stares. When we reach the gates up to the school buildings, Emi bounds over, a curious look on get face, “What happened, Yuu?” She pouts just slightly, glancing to me with a tilt of the head, “Don't tell me, you broke something…”

“It’s probably just a sprain, Emi.” He says, pushing us forwards with a roll of the shoulders, “I'll talk to you later, I'm getting ice or something.”

She crosses her arms, watching us walk off with Yuu. Complete with some cross between puppy dog eyes and death stare, she bounces on her fake legs, a constant click following us through the air as we walk off.

When we get to the nurse's office, Yuu slumps out into the chair, using good good leg to push the chair back and lean his leg forwards, staring at the ceiling.

“So, what did Yuu do today?” The nurse leans forwards, “Still keeping careful on the track?”

“I tripped over myself on the last corner of the race.”

“Well, that'll do it, then. I did tell you that you're supposed to be careful about these things. I never even liked the idea of you joining the track team. I knew it would lead to things like this.“ The nurse leans back in his chair, planting one foot on the top of his desk, spinning himself around lazily, “Let's have a look at it, then. Hisao, Naomi, thank you very much for bringing him here. And a good job for not letting Natsume help.” He grins at Natsume, who is leaning on the doorway, “Go enjoy your day, though. I have a feeling Yuu will be here a while.” He winks at Yuu, laughing casually, “Seriously though, I’m glad you two dragged him here. He's too stubborn to do it on his own.”

We slowly nod, turning to the door. The last sight in the room, is Yuu sitting in his chair, arms crossed and head hung low.

We made our way out of the building, to the grounds. The sky is a fluffy, cerulean blue, the sun high enough in the sky to make it warm. Clouds fill much of the sky, making it comfortable enough. Perfect festival weather, in truth.

We all three walk to the first stall we see and then start walking.

"Hisao, are you good at games?" Naomi spouts out of nowhere.

I tilt my head back and forth. "Probably."

Natsume rolls her eyes, and Naomi grins.

"You either are or you aren't, sheesh." Natsume glances at the numerous games and tilts her nose at the scent of fried food. We all sort of gravitate to the soba stand, the line already filling up.

"Bad food is the best food!" Naomi bounces up and down on the balls of her feet, glancing over the shoulder of the man in front of her. The students are all wearing uniforms today. They said it was so we could all look as one student body. Honestly, it seems more like it's putting a massive warning sign on our backs rather than a sense of pride. Pride is... Not this.

Natsume leans back, sighing and pushing herself back forwards.

"I haven't had soba in so long, honestly."

"Really? It's so great~! Natsume and I get it everytime we go into town!" Naomi holds her hands behind her back, rotating and bouncing at the same time. The rhythm this girl has sometimes…

"We do, yeah. It's a habit at this point." Natsume glances down at her uniform. "Probably shouldn't have so much of it though..."

"Oh, hush Natsume. You're in need of some extra size anyways. You're thin as a bone~!"

I shrug. "You look fine, Natsume." I'm not lying, and she grins in response.

"Well I'm glad you think so, lover boy." She nudges me in the side with her elbow. I turn my head and laugh, stepping forwards in the line.

Naomi laughs along as well, picking up her soba and taking to it immediately, eating akin to a voracious dog, starved of it's meal for the day. She finishes her plate before Natsume even sits down. When we all three finish eating, we bring our plates back to the stand and continue our walk around the grounds.

We stop by a stand selling drinks and each pick up something. Naomi buys a can of strawberry soda, Natsume gets cold coffee, and I pick something at random. I ended up with a can of tea.

"We should go play a game~!" Naomi says, cracking the top off of her soda as she plops down on to the bench.

Natsume slowly sits down on the bench, groaning, "I just want a rest." I guess it makes sense that she's tired. Arthritis would make this much walking into a hell of a chore.

"We can always stop by your dorm and get the crutches if you want to keep going?" Naomi scratches the back of her head, hand resting in her short blonde hair.

Natsume sighs, letting her head rest against the back of the bench, "I hate those things~..."

"Well, I mean... I would too?" Naomi shrugs, "It's either that or sitting on a bench."

"I never do have much fun at these things. Let's go get the crutches." She leans forwards, pushing off of the bench with help from Naomi.

We all walk through the crowd, avoiding the glances from those from down in the town. When we arrive to the dorms, I let Naomi and Natsume go about their business inside, finding the crutches. I sit down on the bench from this morning and watch the crowds ebb and flow along the walkway.

Occasionally someone will glance at me with a confused look in their eyes, but they keep walking. I suppose I'm fortunate in that my "problem" is more internal, rather than Emi’s or Rin's, who stand out like a sore thumb. People look at them, and they don't have to connect anything together or make assumptions. They just know.

I simply get gazes of "...What's wrong with him?"

Analytics of a human mind, boring into my skull. It doesn't feel too great.

Lost in thought, a sharp crack brings me back to the present. Naomi is holding one of the crutches, while Natsume straps the other to her hand. They're a lot different than most crutches, but you can tell they're made for comfort, regular crutches bore into someone's shoulder, I guess. I've only needed them once, for a few days. I didn't mind them, but I can see them being a problem for sometime having to use them a lot more than most people.

Naomi has a light gray coat, pulled from their trip inside most likely. We all take off towards the stalls again, Naomi with a cheery lilt to her every word, Natsume limbering behind and grumbling.

We stop by a gun game, one of those where you shoot the target with a water-gun, which fills up a balloon. You win it it bursts before the time limit.

“Come on, Hisao~! I want a brand new stuffed animal!” Naomi calls out, bouncing and twisting as she speaks.

I bring the gun up to stare down the… center? I try to line it up with the center of the target, but my shots end up hitting the balloon itself, and by the time I'm even filling the damned thing, my time is up. I let the water gun droop back down and look to Naomi and Natsume with a shrug, "I uh, I tried?" I laugh slowly, and Naomi steps over to the gun.

"Let's make it a bet~!" She glances to me with a grin.

"A bet?"

"If I win, you have to join the Newspaper Club~." She bounces again, hands behind her back.

Even if I was already contemplating it... "You're on. What do I get if you lose?"

"I won't lose! Sheesh!" She elbows me in the side, grabbing hold of the gun and staring down the middle. Seemingly out of nowhere, a glare hits the corner of her glasses, splashing off the side and boosting the tension. She takes aim, and the guy behind the counter presses a button. The second he presses it, the target lifts up.

Naomi fires the water straight into the hole, keeping a steady bead on it the whole time. The guy tilts his head to the side, pressing the button again. The target shifts suddenly, and Naomi loses all of her focus all at once.

The bell rings, and the guy lets out a "Pheew."

Letting go of the gun, she plants her palms onto the stand, "What the he-" Natsume slaps her on the back of the leg with her crutch, "What the heck was that for?"

“What was what for?” he puts his hands behind his back, whistling.

“You're not funny, sheesh. Let's go spend our money somewhere else.” Naomi pouts, dropping her hands to her side. She turns to the pair of us, muttering under her breath, “Ass.”

Natsume grins, “Let's just go play something else.”

She glances to me, puppy dog eyes engaged. She says not a word, but turns around and stares dead on, at a large plush of a duck, set in the corner of the stand.

Natsume rolls her eyes, looking at the back in Naomi's head. I shrug, and turn to the stand again, pulling out some change to pay for my go.

I lean into the gun again, taking aim at the center of the target and taking in a deep breath. When the siren goes off, piercing the din of the festival, I pull the trigger. The water soars through the air at the target, hitting the center and filling the balloon. With seconds left on the clock, I'm still holding the stream steady, anticipating the click of the button. When he starts to worry, I see him press the button.

This is the moment of truth, I tell myself. He presses the button, and I let off of the trigger and tilt it just in time to fire off at the right time. The balloon, for all it's trouble, was broken.

The guy stares at the gun with a sigh, “Pick your prize.” he says, shifting his glare to Naomi and me.

I point to the duck, and he shrugs, pulling it from the rack and handing it to me.

“Here's your duck.” I hand it to her, triggering laughter to bubble forth from inside her.

“That was great, Hisao~!” She takes the duck and sets it atop her shoulder, making quack noises, before blinking at us and letting it go. She holds it by the neck, at her waist.

“Why a duck, though?”

“Because they're so cute~! All yellow and dorky, it's great~...” She stares off into the distance for a moment, “They're cute, alright! Don't give me that look, Natsume. At least I'm original~!”

“I do what I want.” Natsume is sitting on the bench behind us, one eyebrow arched, eyes glossy and head on her palm, “What time does it get dark today?” She adds, glancing up at the sky.

"I dunno, but I'll have to check. I hate not being able to stick around for the fireworks..." Naomi droops her head to the ground, pushing herself back up, "But, I'll work with it! We'll head inside and watch a movie~!"

"Oh, that's a lot different than I expected, but... I like it." I put my hands in my pockets, grinning slightly, "We should get some food from down in the town if we're going to be penned up inside, then."

Natsume and Naomi both look to each other, then to me.

They both nod, "Yes. That, that is... Yes. Let's do it~!" Naomi says.

Natsume just nods, grinning before adding, "Yeah. Do that. That sounds good."

I shrug, and begin my way towards the gates. I fish around my pockets for my wallet, flipping it open and counting my money; thankfully I still have a good bit leftover from before the… ah, hospital visit. Plus some from my birthday.

We step through the gates and down the winding road to the town. The last time I saw this road, I was on my way in. It feels... right, to leave now. Less permanent, but much more freeing. It feels good to walk down to a little dilapidated town at the bottom of a massive hill, friends following along.

It's comfortable. It could be better. I could be back at my old school without all my problems today. But I can try to do better here. It's what I've been served.

It's rude to ask life to take back a dish served fresh.

As we walk down the hill, the sidewalk cuts out and reduces to but a simple gravel path, alongside the steel railing. On the other side of that railing, is a rolling drop, into hills populated by shrubs, trees, and just... green. Everywhere, green. I turn back to the road, watching the occasional car drive up the hill, sputtering along. On the opposite side of the road, an older man walks a spotted dog. I turn to Naomi and Natsume, the pair of them strutting behind me. Naomi has a pair of sunglasses on, and Natsume is walking with her crutches, a slight glare forwards with every click of their rubber bottoms.

At the bottom of the hill, I turn on my heel and sit on the steel rails, looking at the pair. "So, where to from here?"

Naomi droops the sunglasses slightly. "I suppose ladies first can apply here." Natsume's pace remains the same, following behind me as Naomi takes the lead. She marches forwards towards the convenience store of legend.

When we arrive at the store, the sun has finally started to descend, making it's way back down, slowly but surely. We step inside and step off to the side, each of us taking in a collective sigh of relief.

Natsume looks like she's about to slam someone into the ground with her crutch, and Naomi is looking at me with a cocked head, "Are you fine, Hisao? You look pale~..." She pokes my arm, glancing at me from over the frames of her sunglasses.

I lean against a rail, fanning myself with my flapping wrist, “Just a bit... tired. That’s all.”

I stand from the rail, using the tie from my uniform to wipe the sweat from my brow. I find Naomi and Natsume off in a corner of the store, pointing at individual drinks. I pull a bottle out at random, ending up with a weird blue soda. Blueberry. Right.

Naomi and Natsume end up pulling out a six-pack of strawberry soda. We float through the aisles of the store, pulling out miscellaneous food items and tossing them in the basket. When the basket begins to dig into my arm I call it quits and drag it over to the cashier, letting its contents clink against the rubber track of the checkout line.

He places all of our junk food in the bags and calls off the total. I hand him the closest bill, shrugging when he goes to hand back the small amount of change left over.

Each of us take a bag, and we leave the store, the sun now much lower and the air significantly cooler.

We make our way back through the city, taking a much more casual pace for both mine and Natsume's sake.

When we reach the hill to Yamaku, we all three look at each other, and sigh in unison. We begin the trek, each of us pulling out a drink and slowly shambling through the rough gravel.

When the sidewalk begins, we sigh in relief. Naomi seems to just go along with it. Natsume and I both genuinely long for the moment when we can sit.

The gates come into view; their wrought iron, grey clay, and excessively red brick permeating through the dulling evening sky. We make our way through the crowds, which are all surging through the grounds at this point. The dorms, thankfully, are filled with nothing but the stray student-parent pair, chattering within their own little bubbles as we pass by. Stepping through the door to Naomi's room, I glance about.

Even if the reasoning for being here is pure, there will forever be something... interesting about being alone, in a room, with two girls and nobody else around.

I sit down on the floor, leaning my back into the frame of the bed with a groan. I set my bag on the floor next to me, and the pair both step over to Natsume's room, closing the door and coming back, moments later in casual clothes.

The room is clean, with a rather massive LCD TV placed atop a dresser. A desk is in the corner, littered with papers and books. The wall opposite the door is lined with newspaper clippings on cork board. A few pictures line the walls.

Sweat pants and a corny sweater for Natsume, baggy shorts and a tank top for Naomi. They both sit down atop the bed, lying down towards the television at the front of the room. Naomi pulls a remote from the inside the blankets, flipping on the TV and cycling to the DVD player. She glances to the closet, and pulls a small stack of films from it.

"I... Have an acquired taste for black and white films. No reason." She casually taps her free hand on the side of her glasses, "No reason at all~!" She pulls a movie from the middle of the stack, not even looking at the cover before sliding the disc into the ajar tray.

The film boots up, straight to the content: no ads or start menu, beginning credits skipped. When it starts, the film is in grainy black and white, sepia at times. It's an old movie, some romance about a royal samurai's daughter getting into an affair with a common man, and all the strife that arose because of it. Kinda corny, but I've heard of it before.

Powering through the movie, Naomi looks down over the bed at me, and pokes me, pointing to the window. The curtains are slightly shut, but from the angle I'm at, I can see through the crack.

The sky bursts alight, popping and crackling violently, shots of color bursting across the midnight blue sky. Naomi grins wistfully when I turn back, “It always seems so beautiful, judging from just the looks on people's faces. Someday I'd love to see a show, in honesty. But the seizures don't help that dream very much. “ Natsume wakes up a few moments later, the sound of the crackling and popping serving as a distant alarm clock.

Yawning and stretching, she blinks at the pair of us, lifting an eyebrow. She watches the show from the window, silently. When it ends, she slowly slinks back into the same position she was in before; crumpled up in a ball of Natsume.

Naomi laughs, pushing herself back against the wall, clicking play on the TV again, “She can sleep in any position, sure, but she'll be feeling that tomorrow~!” She keeps laughing, piping up when the video stops loading and starts playing.

The movie continues, the sound of Natsume nearly snoring in the background. When the movie ends, I pull a candy bar from the bag next to me and peel it open. Naomi pushes from the bed, slipping another movie from the inside of the stack and sliding it in the tray, setting the last movie down without a second thought, “Now that Natsume is asleep, we can get into the real cinema~!” She sits back down, and the movie loads up soon after. Godzilla plays.

I start losing time from the movie, at first just a bit of the beginning credits, nothing really... major, then I miss a few punches thrown by Godzilla, then an entire fight, and then… the rest of the movie. And the night.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• [Previous]
  [Next]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Still solid so far! Definitely has the feel of a VN route pacing-wise.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Act 2
  Scene 1: Yellow Scandal

Hisao wakes up amidst a scandal waiting to happen.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I wake up, my head against the floor and a scarlet blanket thrown across my frame. I hear the sound of gentle breathing and the sound of near snoring. A draft is going through the room, flipping the curtains about.

I guess the movie wasn't too great. Or it was so good it moved me to cry myself to sleep.

...I doubt the latter.

When I look up at the bed, Naomi is in the same position as she was last night, sitting up against the wall with a pillow behind her head and a small pile of snacks next to her.

Natsume is basically the opposite. From the lower chest up, she's on the bed.

The rest of Natsume is dangling on the side of the bed, head of hair draping across her face.

Prooobably not the most comfortable thing...

I stand up, flipping the blanket onto the bed. I turn on the lights and turn off the TV, which was on a loop of that movie from last night. I close the window, and step out, tentatively, into the halls.

When it clicks, it clicks slowly at first, but realization hits me all the harder.

...I'm a guy… in the girl's dorm. There will be repercussions, both socially and scholarly if I'm caught in here. I doubt the excuse of, "We were watching crummy movies and we fell asleep," is a good enough work around, even if it is true.

I make my way back into the room, after glancing up and down the hall, seeing numerous lights on, dimly shining through the dark hallway. Apparently it's late enough for people to be awake. ...Other than me, I mean.

I sit down at Naomi's desk. Considering there's nothing else to do, I look at the stuff she keeps there. I spot a book in the corner, the colors catching my eyes more than anything. I flip it open, reading the inside cover. When I see it's in English, I cringe and sit it back down; that language is impossible. I can't bear reading a paper in English, let alone a whole book.

I lean back in the chair, rocking it casually. The sun is still low enough in the sky for the room to be quite dim, even with a lamp on.

I try to fall back asleep, but it doesn't happen. I pull out a can of soda from the bag at the bottom of the bed, and crack it open under my palm, trying to muffle the noise at least a little bit. I lick the fizz off of my hand, then take a sip of the bubbly drink. I bring one leg up to my chest, bobbing the whole chair lazily as I drink it.

One misplaced creak sends Natsume off of the bed, and into a heap at the bottom of the bed, groaning in pain.

"What the he-" She glances at me and tilts her head to the side, pulling the hoodie a bit more around herself, "Oh, uh... Did you fall asleep too?"

I stare at her, and then point to the clock.

"Oh." She nods slowly, and creaks her way back into bed, "Should we try to wake up Naomi? She's hard to get asleep and hard to wake up. Probably shouldn't lounge around alllll morning."

"It's still four o’clock." I blink at her a few times, placing my hands on top of my head as I bounce the chair, "She deserves a bit of sleep. Surprised the way you slept didn't, well... Hurt?"

"Long story short: medication." She pulls a bottle from the pocket of her hoodie, "I uh, use this when I usually go to sleep. Took it before the first movie ended so I wouldn't die this morning. Not literally. But waking up sucks when I forget these.”

I shrug. “Makes sense, I guess.” Dropping the chair back to it's normal level, I put my hands on my knees. "So can we just go back to sleep?"

"Probably not. I'm too awake right now." She shrugs, pulling the blanket closer to herself as she sits against the wall.

I stand up and switch the light off, taking my seat again. When I look back to Natsume, she's already asleep again.

This all seems so natural to these two. It's unreal. I guess they're really close, which is well... Stupidly evident.

Nice observation, Hisao...

The whole group of friends seems really close, though. Yuu and Ayao are two who I don't know as well, which can be blamed on their classroom's placement. They all run around with each other, though. Honestly, they remind me a lot of my friends from before the uh, incident.

I pull the soda from the desk, and down the rest of it. I put the empty can down on the desk, making a small, clinking noise. Naomi slowly loses her balance, falling forwards from her right angle posture. When she connects with her knees, she jolts up and grabs the blankets underneath of her, looking at me with wide, and evidently confused, eyes.

"Holy! Wh-what? Why are you here Hisao? And wh-" She glances around the room, and down to Natsume, "Oh. That... Right~!" Naomi's voice is way too loud for the early morning. It flies through the room, and into the halls. A pound on the wall from the next dorm over and a few hisses can be heard from the early morning students of Yamaku.

"Naomi! Shhhhhh!" I glare at her and she boils down, cowering under the blanket.

I glance up at the clock. Five, which is still quite early… but it feels like only a few minutes have passed. I slowly turn to the window, pulling open the curtains and glancing outside. The sun is basically in the same position, which is still, well, high. Kinda.

"Is your clock wrong?" I look to Naomi, my voice a hushed whisper.

"Clock? ...Oh. That thing. It's uh... Not really working. Ever." She shrugs, pushing out of the bed and sliding over to the closet. She pulls the string, lighting up the small shelves. Pulling out her phone, she turns it on and tosses it on the bed. “Basically class time.”

She pushes off of the bed, and slams Natsume in the face with a pillow. Natsume raises a single middle finger to Naomi, starting a bit of stifled laughter between the two, “Real rude, Naomi. Sheesh, as you almost always say.”

“Pffffffff.” Naomi picks up the trash from last night, consisting primarily of candy wrappers and aluminum cans lined with bubbly art. Stuffing it all into a bag of chips that the pair destroyed on the way here last night, she slips it into the plastic wastebin in the corner of the room.

“Hisao, you should probably find your way to your room, get a new change of clothes. You've got drool on that one. “ I glance down to check. When I look back up, I see Naomi grinning, laughing in the same stifled tone as before, “Made you look~!”

Laughing, I pick up some of the trash she missed, tossing it in the bin as I talk. “That's fair, yeah. It's always weird to wear the same clothes twice in the same week anyways.

Naomi shrugs, “There's about half an hour left, just brush your hair through so you don't look so… bedraggled, especially after coming out of my room~! I don't want rumors…” she scratches the back of her head, glancing to Natsume. “Too saucy for a Monday morning. If we end up being the hot gossip, we may have to report on ourselves~!” She grins, laughing at her own joke.

After she's calmed herself down, she pulls open a drawer on her nightstand and pulls out a straggly brush. Pulling out the hair and clumping it into a ball, she tosses it into the trash. She tosses the brush over with her opposite hand. I catch it, and pull it through my nappy morning hair. With closed eyes, I attempt to avoid visibly cringing at the thought of the former wadded up brush hair.

I step out of the dorm with uneasy steps, making my way out as quick as possible. I glance around at the walls, and spot nobody in the common room, sighing in relief. I step outside, half expecting a crowd but, once more, get a pleasant surprise, and step over to the boys dorm with much more casual steps.

I grab a fresh uniform and my shower supplies from the closet, make my way over to the shower and start peeling away the previous night's clothing.

When I turn on the shower, a familiar voice screeches out, “Hey! Who goes there? I'm armed!" His shouts are reverberating down the empty hallway. Of course. A nice, calm morning has to be destroyed by the epitome of annoying.

I remain silent and mentally flip a coin.

I land on heads. That means leave. Albeit tails was also leave. I was leaving regardless, but I just wanted justification I guess. I step out of the bathroom, letting the door click into the frame before walking away. I head back to my room, put on some old cologne I never really used and deodorant and put on some fresh clothes. I grab the pills from my nightstand, popping them without water and nearly gagging.

Choking them down, I head out of the dorms and into the school grounds. I step through the doors to the school and into the classroom, taking my usual seat.

Hanako, the purple haired girl, is the only one in the room besides me, and she is... well, beside me. staring into her book, ignoring everything around her to the best of her ability.

I figure it's best to avoid a conversation and pick up my book only to realize a crucial detail: I finished the book already.

I turn to Hanako and clumsily clear my throat, "Uh, hi Hanako. Is that book any good?"

She creaks into motion, her eyes going from half stare, half sleep, to deer in headlights.

Closing the book slowly, she turns to me and nods. "It's... fine."

I nod in return. "That's good, then. I, uh, I finished my book."

"Was i-it any ...good?" She glances at the spine of the book.

I look down to it and shrug, "Not bad, I guess." I glance back up from it, and she is holding one hand over half of her face... her, well, scarred half. Her other hand clutches the bottom of her skirt. I turn back to the book, picking it up by the spine and holding it to her, "You wanna look at it?"

She freezes up and glances down at my hand like a rabbit, ready to dart at any given moment.

As if on cue, a familiar face steps in the front door of the class. The tall blonde... Lilly! That was it.

When Lilly steps through the door Hanako goes from cold and stiff to... lukewarm and rigid. Better than nothing. She slips out of the chair quickly, Lilly coughing into her hand and smiling, "Hanako? Are you here?"

Hanako answers the question with a gripping hug, catching Lilly severely off guard, nearly tripping. Catching her footing, Lilly returns to her normal posture, or, well, the posture I've seen at least, "Oh! Hello, Hanako. Is she here?" She has a slight touch of venom to the word 'she.'

Hanako replies with a really low, "No..."

"Is there anyone else here?" Lilly chuckles slightly, covering her mouth with the hand not holding her cane.

Hanako’s eyes dart around in confusion and fright. Figuring now would be the time to speak up, I lean forwards in my chair and cough. "I, uh, I'm here. I'm Hisao Nakai."

"Oh? I'm afraid we've never met. My apologies, I'm Lilly Satou." She smiles warmly, and I stand from the chair, weaving through the few desks to eliminate the awkward distance in the conversation.

When I make my way to the front, Hanako shrinks down, facing the ground and clutching both of her hands at the bottom of her skirt, "Is there, uh, something going on?"

"No, nothing worth mentioning." She smiles, turning to... gaze emptily across the room, "Hisao, are you new?"

"Is it that obvious?" I chuckle, scratching the back of my head.

"Only slightly," She says, her tone of voice remaining the exact same, followed by a gentle laugh.

I shrug, "I got here at a weird time. Last Monday and all." I glance to Hanako, "Do you, ah, talk to Naomi and Natsume at all? Or Ayao?"

"...I... K-kinda, yeah..." She is visibly tense, but she keeps soldiering on .

Lilly adds in at the end, "They mean well, I would say. Plus you did say you enjoyed writing that paper a while back!” Lilly adds. “What time is it, Hanako?" Hanako glances up to the clock, muttering out the time to her. Lilly sighs under her breath, "Well, I should be on my way then. Have a good morning you two. Give Naomi and Natsume my greetings, the newspaper was fantastic." She steps out of the door, waving goodbye to Hanako, who stands in the same spot, hands still clutched to the bottom of her skirt.

When I walk back to my seat, she steps behind me, still clutching to her skirt. I sit down and watch the class trickle in. Students start to slowly pour in, but Naomi and Natsume are nowhere to be found.

I sit at my desk glancing at my lazily written notes, flipping through the pages before laying my face against them, resigning myself to sleep, the white of dead, pulpy tree, soft against my cheeks.

When I come to, I feel a slap of a pencil against the back of my neck. Class has started, but Mutou has yet to arrive. Natsume sits in her corner of the class, sprawling out in the chair. Naomi is hovering over me, pencil tapping against my neck. As if on cue, the class simultaneously falls into a stupor. Their act of alertness, shot dead with a seemingly pointless tap.

Mutou steps in the room, beginning class by clearing his throat and slapping the ruler against the desk. Most of the class springs to, save for one girl who’s head stays down in the front room. The room remains silent.

Without a word, he writes numbers and letters on the board, creating the bane of our existence; book work. He slumps down at his desk, glancing at a cup of coffee and simply lying down in the pile of papers with a groan.

I guess even teachers can have wild weekends.

______________________________________________________________


When the bell for lunch rings, the corpses of the classroom lift themselves up, dragging through the halls of Yamaku.

Naomi, Natsume and I all make our way to Yuu and Ayao's class, finding them leaning against the wall outside of 3-2.

"Hey, are you three dead too?" Ayao glances to us, lifting a pair of sunglasses up from her face, eyes closed upon their removal, "I feel dead. Like, dead. Dead dead."

Naomi and Natsume nod, and I shrug. Yuu also shrugs.

Glancing to me, he jabs me with his elbow, "Must be a girl thing, eh?" He laughs at his own joke, before straightening himself up and glancing at the group, all of which were staring at him dully in the middle of the hallway. "...I like bad jokes, alright?"

We make our way to the cafeteria, chatting on the way. Ayao apparently went back home and slept the entire day, literally, so she feels more tired than she ever has before.

When we all get through the lunch line Ayao jabs Yuu in the side, “Come on, toss your garbage, I want to do something else~! Let's walk or something.”

Yuu groans. “Maybe later, my leg is, uh, hurting.” He coughs awkwardly. “After class?”

She waves her hand through the air, turning on her heel. “I’ll think about it.”

He gets up, sighing as he picks up the loaf of bread and cramming the entire thing down his throat. Shouting through the crumbling bread, he repeatedly calls out “Wait!”

Deciding it’s better to just ignore… that, I sit down at the table and peel open the carton of milk. "So, what did you guys get?" I ask, sitting down in the same spot as the past week. "I, ah, I got miso."

"We all got the bread, they had the fancy little ones with the chicken and stuff inside. So we all got that!" Naomi says, sitting down. "Those two are so hopeless sometimes, though."

"Who’s ‘those two’?’" I turn to them, laying down my chopsticks after a few bites of the noodles floating in the liquid.

Natsume speaks up. "The two are in and out of romance. It's really annoying, honestly." She takes a chunk out of the bread, nibbling at it with small bites. "That's why the two are so weird around each other. They're on a "break" again." She rolls her eyes, taking a larger bite of her bread and putting it down on the wrapper, tenting her hands.

That does kind of make sense. Their entire… presence is pretty clear when apart, but together they're rather off. Left with more questions than answers, I shrug and nod and get back to eating.

The pair of them eat the rest of their bread. I finish my ramen, and crack open a can of coffee, drinking from it and watching the crowds roll by. When Natsume finishes, Naomi throws away the trash.

"You two wanna head back to class early~?" She bounces on the balls of her feet, hands behind her back. Natsume pushes up from the bench, shrugging and grunting.

"Sure, yeah." I stand up and finish off the can of coffee in my hands, tossing it out as we walk out of the cafeteria.

We make it back to the classroom, sitting down in our seats. Naomi opens her bag and peers through the contents.

"Aha!" Naomi pulls out her massive notebook, filled to the brim with pages sticking out, multi colored sticky notes flitting out of each side, and a plethora of pen marks across the cover.

"Here, we can show Hisao some of our old stories for the newspaper~!" She nudges Natsume in the side. Flipping open the notebook to a random page, Naomi drops her finger to the page and starts skimming it, pulling up sticky notes and occasionally turning the pages. She pushes the book to the side, looking to me, "So~! This was our first article for the Club!”

Naomi plants her finger against the page, and starts to tell the story, but is quickly cut off by the Student Council duo and the rest of the class, marching in, followed by Mutou.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• [Previous]
  [Next]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Just catched up on this story. Feels nice, good pacing overall, even if the scenes themselves are sometimes short with quick transitions. I'll definitively continue to lurk around here, I hope you'll keep up the good work.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Act 2
  Scene 2: Cyclical Story

The real journalism kicks into gear.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When the final bell of the day rings, I stand and give a sigh of relief. The pair rises, Naomi helping Natsume to stand from the chair after the long, droning day.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I step out into the hallways with them towards the newspaper room across the school. We turn the first corner, picking Ayao up from her classroom.

"Hey," she says, waving to us. "What's next on the agenda for this week's edition?"

The three of us shrug as we go down a flight of stairs, turning another corner slowly.

They've sort of adjusted their pace for me, which is nice. I still try to pay attention to my breathing patterns when I walk places, just to be careful. It's good to not rush as much. The leisurely pace is just... well, better.

As we round another corner and start down the hall Naomi stops and pulls her notebook from the bag, flipping through the pages and stopping it with a pencil I didn't even see come out, "I've got a small list pertaining to the festival. Do we want to roll off of that, or do we want to clear our heads, getting off the festival topic?"

Ayao turns, walking backwards with an odd gait. “Festival, definitely.” She turns on her heel, pulling a green leaf keychain from her pocket and flipping through it. We all saunter inside, taking a seat in our normal spots, save for Naomi who's arranging a circle of chairs.

Natsume leans back, popping her back and groaning in pain, stopping for a moment before stepping behind me. "I say we stick to the festival line. Easiest to relate to, easiest to gather info for. Afterall, the entire school is still drained from the preparations. Can't go on some massive dig for information like we always try to do."

Ayao nods in agreement. "True."

Naomi sits down next to Natsume, tilting her head back and forth like a metronome. "Hisao? What do you think?"

What the hell is a ‘line?’ I mean… It basically sounds like… Oh. Topic. As in like… A line of conversation. Right. "Well, uh... I guess it would be best to stick to the festival... line. The festival line." I manage to stutter out a long winded agreement.

Laughing boisterously Naomi leans forwards into her chair. "Then it's settled~!" She claps her hands together and motions towards the circle of chairs.

"Right, Hisao, this is a little thing we call the 'Circle.'" Natsume sits down in her own chair, a rolling office chair with a massive pile of blankets underneath her and a pillow casually supporting her head. "It sounds really deep and intense, but it's not. We all just go in a circle. The first person shares a story, then the next comments on it and such while the first takes notes.” She makes a counter clockwise circle in the air. “When it reaches the first once more, the next person throws out a story idea. It continues until we've all gone on both ends."

Naomi opens her notebook, pulling one foot up to the first bar on the chair, resting her papers against the now angled knee. She pulls the cap off her pen, angling it towards Natsume. "You'll go first, then~!”

I look around the group, and each of them look prepared.

I probably don't, considering I'm greener than grass right about now...

Natsume starts speaking out her idea, clearing her throat and lifting her glasses to her multicolored eyes. "Basically, I think we should discuss the effects of the festival on classes and their grades, interview the teachers and the students alike, even the staff. Maybe talk to the nurse, seeing as he probably dealt with an increase in workload due to injuries arising from the preparations." Finishing her suggestion, she picks up her pencil from the spot nestled behind her ear and drops her hand to the paper, ready to write.

I think it's my turn now, though..

I don't even have anything prepared. Why would I, though?

When the three glance to me, my thoughts are confirmed.

I slowly turn my head to the ceiling, thinking intently. My mind grabs at anything I can possibly think of with some sort of relevance. Photography comes to mind, numerous times. I don't know why, but it is. It's better than nothing.

"Uh... What kind of photography would we do?" I put my hands in my lap, and glance around, my response not clicking with anyone.

Natsume turns, tenting her hands for a moment before answering. “For photography, we may end up talking to the Photography Club, see if they took any good pictures of the festival. Probably get something good out of them."

Naomi pipes up. "How will we handle the interviews? One per club, one per class, one per grade?"

Natsume nods. "One per club and class seems the likely answer. As for selection, participants place their name in a draw, pick at random."

Adding on, Naomi tilts her head back. "And for the Student Council?"

"We'll just interview our favorite conglomerate last." Natsume smirks, turning to Ayao.

Ayao leans forwards in her chair. "What style for the article? Formal, informal? What kind of tone? Are we here to prove a point of just entrance people with fancy writing and fun facts?”

All eyes in the room land back on me.

"...Well.. Uh..." I sputter out, "We could write about the positives of the festival, and how it brings people together, when... In honesty, it looks like much of the school is in cliques, but they sorta came together, I guess. Maybe it'll go well?"

Naomi nods. "I like it~! A lot more positive. How would we go about it?" She bounces her feet against the chair's bar.

"Well... Probably similar to Natsume's idea, interviews and such. One per class and club. Talk to them about how they worked together. Probably best to leave the Student Council out, though, since... Well, they always have to work together, for better or for worse."

Naomi nods. "Great! I like it, I like it a lot."

When she finishes, I write down a few notes on the front page of my notebook, noting the style of interview and the selection process.

Ayao glances at me with a raised eyebrow. "And how can we get the opinions of everyone, while still remaining on a factual level?"

"Well, I'd say by analyzing the data. Play it like one of, uh, Mutou's science experiments." I shrug, writing that down quickly.

"I suppose it could work. Connect it all together in the end and all?" She nods slowly. "I could see it work out fine."

Natsume glances to me, looking at my notebook and tilting her head back. "How would you, personally, write it?"

"Well, I'd... probably write it pretty informatively. Never really been much for a lot of frilly language."

"Hrm. Alright." She nods, turning to Naomi. I peel the page from my notebook, handing it to Naomi so she can also place it on the table behind her.

Naomi leans forwards in her seat, looking around the room and raising her hands in the air, doing something akin to jazz hands and a mock seizure, before planting them on her legs. "I say we summarize the festival~! Talk about everyone's favorite events and this year's attendance!"

Ayao slowly turns to Naomi, rolling her eyes. "Pretty simple, I guess. Where would we get the data? And how would we be writing this?"

"We'd go to the student council and pry it from their cold, dead hands~! Only if we have to. The, ah, prying part." She flips open a small notepad, scribbling across the first page she opens to before turning to Natsume.

"I'm guessing this piece would work more as an editorial or column piece? What kind of facts would find their way in the piece?"

"Numbers, sales, maybe even age groups~!"

"And where would we be getting those numbers if the student council doesn't have them?"

"We... wouldn't!" Naomi laughs for a moment before growing very serious all of a sudden and turning to her notepad, marking down the notes.

I raise my hands to the back of my neck, leaning towards the ceiling. "And, uh... How would this look? Would there be pictures to go alongside it? Graphs or charts?"

"Maybe a chart, definitely a photo!" She nods rapidly, marking down the final notes and tossing them on the desk behind her. Looking to Ayao, who is already writing in her notebook at a rapid pace, we all clear our throats.

Slowly lowering the book, she shrugs. "I'll just go with Hisao's idea. His seems the most open to entertainment while still having plenty of work required. And it requires the least interaction with the Student Council."

"You still have to gi-" Naomi glances across to Ayao.

"Eh, oh well." Ayao shrugs, closing her notebook. "Maybe another time? Three articles is plenty~." She stands from her chair, stepping out of the room. "I'm off to do things, stuff, stuff and things~." She leaves without another word, lilting up and down the hall as she walks away.

"Oh boy." Naomi rolls her eyes. "She probably got back together with Yuu again."

"Oh." Natsume sighs. "I thought that was obvious. Annoying, but obvious."

"Sadly." Naomi plops down in the desk. "Looks like we'll be working together, then, without much Ayao."

I shrug, shifting in the chair slightly. "Oh well, I guess. We can still get it all done if we work at it.” We each glance to the clock, then to the computers and nod.

Naomi takes her seat, and I sit on the edge next to her. Natsume takes the seat opposite to me, putting Naomi in the middle. She pulls her notebook to her knee, preparing to take notes. "So, Hisao, seeing as this was your idea~... What do you wanna start with~?" Naomi bobs her head towards me.

"Well... Probably get a list of all the clubs and their current members."

"Oh! I can do that~!" Naomi hops up from her chair and bounds towards the filing cabinet, pulling open drawers at random, until she triumphantly whips out a file. "I got one of these at the beginning of the year! I knew we would use them eventually~!"

I take the file from her and glance over it. "What about new arrivals? I know I wouldn't be on any lists for the Newspaper Club yet."

"We can make do with just these numbers, I would say. The only updated lists are on the student council's forms, in their little office, and it's always hard to deal with them."

I shrug, and Naomi nods, taking the file over to the massive machine in the corner, placing the papers on the top of it and pressing buttons at random. She steps back over, letting the machine whir about its business.

"So, we do the interviews first. Should we go around and talk to the teachers too, then? Maybe do that first?" Natsume leans into her notebook, flipping to a fresh page and marking it with her pen.

"Uh, how many teachers should we talk to?"

"I'd say... Probably ten, would work out well." Naomi nods, stepping back over to the machine in the corner, pulling out papers. "Thankfully the list of teachers doesn't fluctuate that much~!" She smirks, sitting down and crossing her legs.

She hands me the list of teachers and leans back in her chair, balancing it on two of its four legs.

I pull a highlighter from the bin next to the computer and highlight the list at random. The only teacher I recognize out of the ten I highlighted is Mutou.

I hand it over to Naomi and Natsume and they both glance over it.

"Oh god, you picked Nomiya. That'll be fun." Natsume puts her hands on the back of her neck, "Yuu will have an utter field day."

"What? Why?" I tilt my head, looking to Natsume with a confused glance.

"Nomiya is Yuu's uncle, and the pair never manage to get along. It's kinda tragic~..." Naomi says, dropping the chair back to four legs. "Yuu is really good at art~! Nomiya just thinks he could do better."

"Oh, that makes sense. I've never met Nomiya though."

"Probably for the best." Natsume shrugs, taking the notes and papers from today and putting them in a manila folder before handing them to Naomi.

Naomi stands and puts the folder on the desk in the back of the room. "Well, we've done a good bit today, we'll have to come back together tomorrow and start the interviews~!" She bounces on the balls of her feet before looking to me. "I'll take today as your... official entry to the club? You sure don't hate it~!"

At this point it seems natural to say yes. This group has harbored me since my first day at Yamaku and kept me busy. They're entertaining and definitely smart. I could grow to like it here. Sure, it's very different from my old school, but that doesn't necessarily make it terrible. "Yeah, I'll join. Definitely." I nod slowly, and Naomi darts to me,

Grabbing me up in a hug, she laughs belligerently. "Great~! Great! I'm so glad you're joining us, Hisao~! I promise we'll all do great things together!" She lets go and has a wide smile plastered across her face, a slight blush creeping across it as she turns back to Natsume.

Natsume grins slightly, pushing her glasses up her nose as well all three turn to leave the room for the night.

When we get outside, it's already growing a bit dark, the sun low on the horizon. When we go up the stairs to the dorms a security guard glances at us, and the pair apologizes for us all, heading into the appropriate dorms quickly.

When I get to my room, I plop down on the bed, looking at the ceiling. That same popcorn -texture as the first day I got here.

Weird how things can become an acceptable alternative so quickly.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• [Previous]
  [Next]

Apologies for the gaps in updates recently. My family's been trying to sell our house & move, so I've not really had much time to do editing, even with the backlog. I've got mirage looking at my most recently edited bit... But, yeah.

I've almost got the backlog out of the way, though. The backlog needs so much editing because I wrote it in NaNoWriMo, so... It's basically the equivalent of algae in comparison to my normal writing, lmao.

I'll have another scene out before the end of the week, hopefully.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Act 2
  Scene 3: Interviewing Eccentrics

Hisao and Naomi interview a few of Yamaku's teachers for the newspaper.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I wake up to the violent thrashing of my alarm clock. When I look across my room to the window I can tell it's still early morning. I squint around my bedstand for the clock and turn it off.

Groaning, I start to pull the covers back over myself.

That's better. Warmth and pleasure…

But a second alarm fires off as soon as I start to settle back into bed.

...Seeing as I set these alarms for something, I get out of bed and look for my phone. Probably a clue on there.

Flipping open the plastic slab, I look at the next alarm scheduled, titled—Oh. Right. Running with Emi. I check the time and sigh. I pull on my soccer clothes. My meds go down like the usual; terribly. I chase them down with water from the hallway fountain, but it still doesn't taste any better.

I walk out to the track, the air moist and cool. I spot Emi, who's taking back and forth sprints up and down the straightaway.

I call out to her, and she bounces to a stop, jogging over to meet me, "Oh! Hisao! I thought you'd given up," she says, unabashed.

"I... No, no I didn't." For some reason…

"That's great! Keep breaking my expectations, and you'll get healthier!" She bounces on her prosthetic legs, rearing to go.

We step over to the track, Emi stretching out her legs while I go about my other stretches. When I’m finished I pop up and get ready to go - in the loosest sense of the word “go.”

I take off at a pace slightly faster than usual, somehow not dying immediately, and keep the pace for a whole lap, dropping back to my original pace for the next half lap. I end on the same straightaway that had been plaguing me the whole time I've ran, but with another lap on my belt this time. When Emi reaches my position, she is absolutely beaming.

"You did great, Hisao! You did a whole extra lap!" She claps her hands together, "This is a reason for a celebration~!" She helps me to my feet, and I make my way over to the benches on the side of the track, sitting down for a moment.

My breath is ragged, but I feel mostly fine. I feel better than ever, in honesty.

She claps me on the back, and I cringe, wary of the fact that this could be troublesome. She tilts her head and shrugs, glancing back at me, "Well, let's head to the nurse, I've got to get checked out, and he'll want to hear about your new record today!" She smiles, heading up the incline to the school buildings.

***

I open the door to the nurse's office, and Emi steps in first, taking a seat in her usual chair. I pull out a chair from the corner and sit next to her, Emi having already started talking to the nurse.

"Right, so he did great today! He kept a higher pace!" She bounces in the chair, glancing at the nurse with happy eyes.

"That's good, good. Great, even. What about you, Emi? Are your legs doing fine?"

"They're... fine." She rolls her eyes, "Why wouldn't they be?"

"We'll wait until Hisao had his checkup. I think your teachers are used to you being late anyways." He winks at her, glancing at me, "Right, so, lift your shirt and come here~," He winks at me this time, a mockingly sultry one at that.

I stand up and lift my shirt up awkwardly. Considering Emi is in the room for once, this is a lot more unpleasant than it already was. She watches out the window, while the nurse probes my chest with the stethoscope, leaving it on my scar for a bit. When he removes it, he nods slowly, "The bad news is that your chest is going to explode. Good news is that I remembered my camera." He grins, laughing heartily before dropping his hand from my chest and letting my shirt fall back, “You're fine, though.”

Emi is sitting on the curtained-off bed, dangling her prosthetics off of the edge lazily. The nurse motions her over. I start stepping out of the room

"Hisao, make sure to keep running. You won't see the good out of it if you quit," he says as I step out of the room and into the halls leading out of the auxiliary building.

I make my way back to the dorms. The air is still chilly, and definitely still moist. It feels like it's going to be a rainy week. Probably making up for last week's generally calm weather. I step through the door to my dorm and get ready for class. The early morning goes by uneventfully: I shower, get dressed, grab a muffin and a can of coffee from the common room and then head out to class.

I sit down and say ’Hi’ to Hanako. She simply raises one hand to wave before staring back down at her book and going about the hard work of ignoring everything around her.

The class files in, Mutou already setting about writing down today's new science subject on the blackboard.

Naomi and Natsume sit down. Naomi jabs me in the side with her pencil. "Hey, should we talk to Mutou about scheduling our interview before or after class?"

I shrug. "We could just do it now to get it over with."

"That would be... a lot of work for this early in the morning." Natsume sighs, planting her face against the desk. "Guh..."

I stand up and look to Naomi. "I'll ask him myself, you make sure Natsume doesn't die." I smile slightly, stepping through the desks cautiously and make my way to Mutou's desk.

Clearing my throat, I catch his attention.

"Oh, hello Nakai. Is there something you need?"

"Oh, I just had a question to ask."

"Ask away, then." He puts down the piece of chalk and turns to face me.

"Would you be free for an interview anytime soon? I joined up with the Newspaper Club, and we had a few things we'd like to talk about in our next paper."

"Of course, I can do that. Come and see me today after school, and we can work something out." A din sets into the classroom, everyone chatting casually as they wait for the bell to ring.

"Great, thanks." I grin, turning to head back to my desk.

"I'm glad you decided to join up with a club, Nakai. Hopefully, you'll enjoy your time at Yamaku."

I nod, stepping back to my chair to take a seat. The bell rings, and class starts.

As Mutou rambles on about his new topic for science today, I turn to Naomi and glance at what she's doing. In the margins of the scant notes she's taking, she's marking down ideas for the article. It's crazy how in depth she can get with these articles, how in tune she is with the club. She always seems to be doing something for it. It's great.

Naomi looks up, to see me watching her write and sticks her tongue out at me. "Bored too?" she mumbles.

"I usually like this class. Just kind of tired this morning." I whisper back.

"Well, yeah, you're still running with Emi right?"

"Yep. It's my morning plague." I sigh slowly, leaning my head into my desk.

She laughs under her breath, "You're doing what you can to adjust. I applaud you for that." Smiling, Naomi glances up at the board and writes down a few more notes before turning to me again.

"Well, I don't think dying is fun," I mutter out, peeking at her notes and shrugging. I did keep up on a lot of my school stuff in the hospital, just so I wouldn't be woefully behind. I guess it paid off. I already know how to do this and the other material we've covered so far, so I've been able to lounge about in this class most of the time.

"Well, that's... true, I guess." She shivers. "Never been one for grimdark, sorry." She smiles slightly, flipping the pencil about in her hand as she watches me and the board, her gaze flitting back and forth at random.

"Oh. Sorry, I'm just kind of used to making that kind of humor. Mostly because it always seems so close. Hard to not think about it." I lean forwards, glancing at the blackboard before shifting myself towards Naomi more.

"You'll get better at it, I can assure you of that." She smiles warmly, leaning on her hands, "Why aren't you taking notes?"

"Oh, I, well... I learned this stuff on my own, back in the hospital." I bite the inside of my cheek, my head lying against my folded hands.

"Nice! It's great that you kept up on stuff while you were in that situation, most people would have just given up!" Her voice's volume rises ever so slightly, and Mutuo starts to turn. She jolts and looks down at her paper, writing fervent notes.

"I didn't have much else to do, but, well... it worked out in the end.' I smile slightly, flipping the page in my notebook. Passing the time, I start outlining ideas for my article, glancing towards Naomi's notes on occasion.

When the bell for the first period of the day rings, Natsume jolts up, wide-eyed and confused, before glancing across to Naomi and me, and nodding. "Ah... Right."

The next teacher for the day walks in, sitting their supplies down on the front desk and starting the class.

The rest of the day goes markedly uneventful, lunch passing with simple conversation, and the afternoon classes hitting their usually low pace. By the time we leave class, I have three pages full of notes. Naomi and I seek out Mutou, so we can get our interview with him.

Looking for him in the teacher room, we find Mutou nestled in a small cubicle, a pile of papers surrounding him, a desktop computer switched on with a grade sheet in front of him, and a tall mug of coffee, steaming up in the air. Weaving our way through the office, we reach him, and he turns in his chair towards us.

"Oh, hello Nakai, Inoue. Are you two here for the interview, then?"

"Ah, yes we are, sir."

"Great. We can find an empty classroom to conduct it in, since this environment is a bit too conducive to violent raucous and chatter." He smiles awkwardly, gathering up a few of his papers into a briefcase and standing. He takes us up the stairs to the second floor, to an old room in the corner of an out of the way hall. I glance back to Naomi, who is walking with an almost march-like step, humming to herself. Her hands are behind her back, bobbing against it with each step. She seems so happy to just be doing an interview.

When we reach the room, Mutou pulls a key from his pocket, sliding it into the door and pulling it open. He ushers Naomi and me in, before stepping in and s sitting down at a desk in the back of the room. “This is the old chemistry lab, by the way.” He looks at me. “We used it to hold the science club, in my first year of teaching here. Then it moved to 3-3, then it moved to not existing.” He smiles, his awkward face not allowing for a warm gesture to come across from the half-baked joke.

“Right, so, considering Hisao is new~!” Naomi tents her hands, leaning forwards to Mutou as she sits down. “Can I have your basic information? Name, birthday, education, all that?”

“You should have all that on the file from our last interview, Naomi.”

“Bahhhh~! It's more of a formality, to show Hisao how it works!"

Mutuo shrugs. "Next question."

Naomi twitches, turning to me. "He does this a lot." Turning back to Mutou, she clears her throat, pushing out a smile. "How do you think your classes, in general, group together for the festival?"

"Well," he brings his hand to his chin, scratching at the 5 o'clock shadow gathering at the end of it, "they definitely work together, considering the way the festival comes out every year."

"Right, right, any other ways?" She marks down on a small notepad, occasionally shifting her gaze up to Mutou.

"There's the fact that it brings classes together, which is rare in school. Usually there is a sort of disparity outside of the class, a disconnect. While you know those in your class and your club, interactions with others rarely happen. The few festivals dotted throughout the year change that, at least a little."

Naomi nods, flipping to the next page in her notepad. "Right, Hisao, any questions to ask, or are you content with simply observing, for today?" Her demeanor is oddly proper, a heavy tone different from when we started. I guess she settles into the whole ordeal quickly, switching her professionalism on like a button on a panel.

I shrug and lean forward in the chair. "How do you think our school would react to a sudden loss of festivals?"

Naomi nods, pleased with my question. Mutou leans back in his chair, looking at the ceiling, simply letting out a low "Hmmmmmm..." from his lips.

Pushing forward in the chair, he leans on his legs. "Well, we would definitely have a lot less drama." He scratches the back of his neck. "But also a lot less social life. Without the festivals, the clubs don't have a goal. Without a goal, the clubs would inevitably fall apart. That's why the Science Club fell apart. We never had a goal, aside from sitting around and discuss science, which didn't appeal to many."

I turn to Naomi, who raises a single thumbs up, already writing down notes in the pad.

"Uh... Right, and do you think a school without clubs would end up going bad?"

"Definitely. We all need ways to express ourselves, and most people need a club to do that. Where do you think people like our... Well..." He clears his throat. "Off the record, but, where do you think our student council would be, without a student council?"

Naomi snorts under her breath, turning to me and giving me another thumbs up. "They probably would be locked up in their rooms, starting fights online~." She laughs, turning back to the notepad, flipping to a fresh page and watching me expectantly.

"Ah, is there anything you'd like to say on the matter, on a personally related subject, or not?" I add, glancing back to Naomi with pleading eyes.

"Well, not really, but I still do have the Newspaper Club's email somewhere on file. If you need anything else, feel free to email me, or ask around class time." He smiles, the same unnerving smile as usual, standing from the chair. "Would that be all?"

Naomi faces me and shrugs. "I'd say we're done~!" She pops up from the seat and grabs the door for Mutou, letting me step out before he locks it and steps off towards the Teacher's Office.

"Right~! That went great! You've got a natural talent for this stuff!" She bounces on the balls of her feet. "Now we should probably go talk to the rest of the list - or see if we can at least." She bounds up the hall, peering over her shoulder and beckoning me forwards with a wave of her hands.

— – —

The sun is already setting low in the sky when we walk into Nomiya's room. Hunched over a desk, looking at some drawing, his outfit is absolutely absurd, a salmon colored blazer, with navy blue slacks. When he turns to us, he faces us with a polka dot tie, and dainty - and obviously aesthetic - rose-lensed glasses, pressed upon an aging nose. I sigh, clearing my throat and looking at Naomi.

Naomi slowly rolls her eyes at me, clearing her throat as well, pulling the notepad from her bag and facing Nomiya, slowly. "Hello, Mr. Nomiya, we have a few questions we’d like to ask you. This is Nakai, a new student and an entrant to the Newspaper Club. He is here to observe and ask questions." Her tone reaches the formal form quickly and firmly.

"Ohohohoo~! Well, someone's on business today, Naomi. Come over, sit down, get comfortable. You know how I am about my interviews, gal!" Nomiya adjusts his blazer and tugs on the tie, turning to sit down in the chair he'd been previously hunched over.

We each take a seat opposite of him. Naomi puts her notepad on the table, and fishes out a pencil from her bag, laying it on the top of the paper. "Right, so, how do you feel about the festivals in Yamaku? Do you feel that they help the student body, or hinder them?"

"Well, we have to have those who soar and those who sink, right? This festival drags the extremes out into the open!" He stands, plucking the drawing from the table and holding it in front of us. "What do you think of it? Tell me." One hand holds the artwork, eerily familiar. Upon searching the paper, I spot the signature in the bottom corner: Yuu. This is the picture he showed me a couple of days back, but better: More refined, and more completed.

The colors are crisp, and the details are clean. The lines flow together well and form a grand picture.

Nomiya places it back down on the table with a thump. "It's not the best that boy can do, and you know it, Naomi! He wastes time on running when he should be drawing... he's squandering his talent." He frowns, peering at me with an upturned nose.

Slowly sighing, Naomi turns to me and rolls her eyes. Nomiya, flying off on a rant about how Yuu could be a much better artist, peers over his glasses and slowly winds the preaching to a close.

When he finally takes in a deep breath, Nomiya turns to us and grins, laughing slightly and clearing his posture of any imperfections. He clears his throat and continues the previous line of conversation like nothing ever happened. “So, where were we? Something about the, ah, festival, right? And how I feel about it?”

“That's right, sir.” Naomi pulls her pencil out from behind her ear, putting it to the paper and holding it there.

He stands, putting one arm behind his back and the other to his front. “It is a grandiose time for the students of Yamaku to come together and work on such riveting projects, to produce such art!” His voice rises over time, reaching a level akin to Misha’s laughs, filling the room with his passionate response.

Naomi slowly sighs and fills the page of her notepad with more notes, flipping another page and turning to Nomiya. “And how do you think Yamaku would operate without festivals?”

“Why, that's simple!” He laughs, sitting back down and adjusting his tie. “I'd be without a job, for one!” Belligerently laughing at his joke, he clears his throat and leans forward into the desk. “The projects, the festivals, are more of a rehab type thing, something to make everyone feel more connected. So a lot of the student body would be a bunch of anti-social hermits if we didn't prod you into helping at least a little bit.”

Naomi tilts her head back, slowly pulling in a long breath of air. Pushing forward in her chair, she faces Nomiya again. “Is there anything you'd like to tell us on the subject, Now would be the best time for it.”

“I believe we are set then, Miss Inoue!” He claps his hands together and stands from the desk. “I've said what is necessary for the survival of our intrepid school. Would that be all?”

We stand as well, Naomi packing her bag and facing Nomiya. “That will be all, sir.” When she turns to the door, she sighs in relief, closing it behind me as we step out. "Thank god." She slumps over. "I hate having to deal with him. I suppose he hates the fact I support Yuu in his running."

“Why is he so…”

While I'm thinking of the proper word, Naomi pushes off of the wall. “Well, he's rude, pushy, eccentric... the list goes on~!” She bubbles forth in laughter, making her way up the hall. I follow behind, hands shoved in my pockets.

She's so carefree, so full of joy. It's hard to watch sometimes. She's so oblivious to everything, but yet so aware. She can ignore a critique, ignore some commentary on herself, just as easily as she could laugh in its face.

I'm glad I've met this… group. These people, the newspaper club, Naomi. Last year I couldn’t have imagined being here - but I'm okay with this, the way things are going right now.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• [Previous]
  [Next]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Act 2
  Scene 4: Initial Byline

The Newspaper Club has a meeting, with yet another explanation of confusing traditions and concepts.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I slept through my alarm for running with Emi today— she’s probably gonna yell at the nurse, but I’m tired. So I don’t mind. I’ve got about an hour before classes. Normal people wake up around now...well, normal for Yamaku at least. I think.

I down my medication with a half-full glass of water, pulling out a fresh change of clothes at the end of the swig. It’s become a routine. I took a quick shower last night, so I don’t bother taking one this morning. Half an hour to go till class, so I start walking at an easy pace. The sky is dull, calling for rain or just generic drear at this point.

When I get through the front door to the school, thunder booms. The people still outside start to hurry their pace, and the halls are quickly filled with squeaking rubber and annoyed voices. I climb up the stairs to the 3rd floor and realize I've still got 5 minutes to spare. Naomi and Natsume are chattering loudly in their back corner, leaving Hanako to keep herself buried in her book as usual. I take my seat between Hanako and Naomi.

"Hi Hisao!" Naomi lilts, clearing the room of noise for but a moment. The quiet chatter between cliques revs up again. "Sleep well last night?"

Natsume turns to face me completely at this point, extremely clear bags under her eyes. "Yeah, Hisao. Did you sleep well?"

"Like a rock. A baby rock." I shrug, laying my books across the desk and opening to the reading we needed to have done for today.

"So a pebble?" Naomi scratches at her chin, watching one of our classmates walk in--Miki, I think. "Yeah. A pebble."

Upon this realization of baby rocks being pebbles, the bell rings and class starts (complete with a soggy Mutou walking in right after the bell). Everyone, from professor to student, is showing that the weather is getting to them. Class drags on until lunch, when the bell seemingly rips everyone from this complacent lull and awakens them for...food. I guess.

I sit down and lean forward in my hand. Naomi lets out a slow shrug as she drinks from a bright and colorful can, flashes of red and purple streaking across it, “Today’s going so slooooow.”

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Natsume leans into the cafeteria table, onto her elbows, “Is there much else to do this week?”

“Not really~! Hisao and I basically have the whole thing down, which is great!” On the tip of Naomi’s words, the cafeteria bell rings, and the three of us shrug in near unison, standing up and walking towards our class.

Natsume slides through the cafeteria door, waiting for Naomi and I to catch up.

“You should take Hisao to the city this weekend since you’re free, Naomi.” Natsume lets the door close, falling back to a student I don’t recognize. They catch it and glare forward at us, but turn back to the cafeteria. Oblivious, she continues talking, “He’s not seen the city yet, and you just got your prescription updated on those glasses of yours. It’s a perfect time.”

“I dunno, I was thinking of catching up on my reading this weekend.”

When the bell rings, restarting class with a dull slam, the rest of afternoon classes pass the same as the morning. Of course, as soon as the bell letting out classes rings, the rain starts to calm down and give way to grey skies.

We all make our way to the Newspaper Room, picking up Ayao along the way. Naomi unlocks the door and dumps out her bag onto the round table in the corner, flooding it with miscellaneous papers and different knick-knacks, anything from a hairbrush to a piece of what looks like an apple core.

"Right! Let's…ahaha…get started then!" She slowly picks out anything not related to the news article, bubbling with laughter under her breath, "I uh, didn't realize I had so much stuff in my bag…"

I can almost feel the embarrassment. When she finishes gathering all the... stuff... up, back into her bag, she stands back up, straight and proud, "Right, now we can actually start!" She coughs.

She gathers up all of the papers, categorizing them by the weight of their importance and the actual subject they pertain to. By the time she finishes, it looks like some ridiculous reworking of a game of solitaire, featuring papers and sticky notes instead of playing cards.

"Ehe...Sorry." Naomi smiles awkwardly, brushing her hand through her hair. "Okay, so here's all of our stories for the week."

Natsume stands up, glancing at me, "We do this every week to figure out our stories for the next issue. We keep it simple with the sticky-note-arrangements, sorta. This week's a bit more cluttered than usual since it's Naomi's week." She shoots a smirk at her, laughing.

Ayao, from the corner, shrugs. "It's true, Naomi, your weeks for arranging are always the messie-"

"Leave me aloneeeee." She groans, "I have better things to do than worry about the exact stylings of our newspaper's planning spread. Like, for example, making the contents of our newspaper's planning spread."

Natsume sticks her tongue out. "Regardless, Hisao. This is a weekly thing. So get used to it." She shrugs, slowly leaning over the spread to look over it.

I lean in too, squinting through the notes, being reminded vaguely of the swirling confusion I felt back in the hospital before coming to Yamaku. There's so many little squiggles, quick notes, organized into logical thought. If I knew making a newspaper was this complicated I probably would've just fallen into the Drill Sergeant's lap or something.

Seeing as I have absolutely no idea what the hell I'm doing, I take a step back and watch the three of them work. Naomi chitters at Natsume, who is taking each individual page and tab, rearranging them into neat piles. Ayao takes these little...piles... that seem to keep coming, and plucks out individual tabs, placing them to the side.

"We're thinning the slugs out, Hisao. I decide what's going in this week, Natsume sorts it, Ayao prunes it. Then we all do it again." Naomi chirps, turning around to glance at me in the midst of all this chaos. "Trust me, it makes sense after a few shots of watching it all happen."

I scrunch my eyebrows, looking at Naomi. "Slugs…?"

“Oh! They’re just the beginnings of stories for the paper.” She laughs, and immediately jumps back into the fray, barking and chopping orders. If she weren't making any noise, I'd equate the terrifying motions to Shizune and Misha's stilted quickness.

This continues on, until Ayao hands Naomi back each of the piles she'd accumulated...And then it begins again. It's like watching a paper shredder eat it's own shreds, repeatedly. The piles get smaller and smaller, until eventually Natsume has only a single pile in front of her, spread thin across the table.

"Done!" Naomi yells, making Ayao yelp in some sort of fear at the sudden loud noise. "Oops. But finally! Sorry, Hisao, this part of things has always been a bit convoluted. It'll make sense eventually, promise!"

"Naomi, don't be such an optimist. It took me all last year to figure this thing out." Ayao sits down, taking a long breath. "He should've just skipped today."

"Bad precedent, that." Natsume sits down, groaning as she slides into the chair. "You know how it goes, when people skip class once or twice, they skip class again. The first time is always the hardest, generally. Skipping is the easy way out!" She points her hand in the air like some half-baked anime character, giggling.

"...I guess, sure. But Shizune and Misha get away with it all the time, and they're good students!" Naomi grumbles.

"Because they're the Student Council. They're superhuman drill sergeants and they'll forever escape our comprehension. We may never know how they truly function. They simply do." Ayao chimes in from her relative silence. "Still. Hisao's fine being here. Not like he has anything better to do." She raises an eyebrow in what I'm hoping is a jest.

“Ow. Okay.” I give an exaggerated sigh, as I glanced at the clock and the door, “Actually, now that I think about it, I should get back and work on my homework. It’s getting late.”

Ayao scrunches her eyebrows, “It was a joke, Hisao, jeez. Mopey.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that. Just convenient timing to make you feel bad.” A let out a quick smile, grabbing my bag off the table by the door as I leave. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow after class?”

“Sure!” Naomi chirps, gathering up the papers, “I think we’re all done here anyway. We can all walk back to the dorms together.”

Ayao shrugs, grabbing her stuff as well. “I was gonna hit the library, so you guys can go solo.”

Natsume glances at me, then to Naomi, “I’m gonna get a head start on the layout work for tomorrow so I can go home early tomorrow. Got a test the day after.”

We both step out of the door, glancing at each other with scrunched eyebrows. We step together, in a stilted unison.

“So that was fun~.” She grins, hopping down the small stairs as she talks, “How far did you get on your article?”

“I did most of it, I think. It went pretty alright, I’d say.” I put my hands in my pockets when I get to the bottom of the stairs, “That was pretty fun though, yeah.”

“Wow~! That’s rare! Most people just kinda shrug and never show up again when we get to the writing portion of the club.” She fist pumps and leans to the sky, “Yesssssss!”

I smile and survey the grounds, now dark and a lot more… blue, in comparison to the morning and afternoon, which instead are lively and green. I’d say I prefer this in honesty. The blues drowning out the greens, drowning it and dulling it out. The flat colors are nice.

Jabbing me in the side, Naomi peers up at me with a questioning stare, “Whatcha thinkin’ about there?”

“Oh. I was just looking at the landscaping.”

“Deep into gardening, or is it deeper than that?”

“Deeper than that, yeah.”

“Aww. Now I can’t get the picture of you in a garden getup out of my head!” She laughs, filling the night air with the reverberating lilt of her giggles.

“Well, I mean, I could garden. I never thought I’d be writing like this, so gardening doesn’t seem so farfetched now.”

She sticks her tongue out, jabbing me in the side and winking, “It’s not that bad, isn’t it?”

“Oh, no, it’s great,” I turn to her as we make our way across the open field, “I’m enjoying it a lot.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it! I was worried you thought I was bad company~!” She laughs belligerently again, facing the sky, “You’re red, by the way.”

“Red?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Nothing, nothing. Just keep your eyes on the prize, Hisao~.”

I realize, at this point, that I’m staring at Naomi as we walk. I quickly fix myself and watch the sidewalk, cheeks flaring up.

“That’s what I meant.” She pokes me in the cheek and laughs again, the air seeming empty when she stops, “This is fun. We should do this more often.” She steps up the stairs to the dorms, walking over to the girl’s building. Opening the door, Naomi peers over her shoulder at me, “I’ll cya tomorrow, Hisao.” I glance down at the door handle, opening it with a slow forming grin, and make my way to my dorm…That was nice.

“We should do this more often.” Naomi's words flash through my head at random. I’m probably just looking too far into things.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• I'M BACK HOES. Shortish chapter so I can get back into the rhythm of things. No more backlog whining bullshit like before.
  [Previous]
  [Next]

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________