Chapter 1:Highschool Boys and After School 2

It was a usual Friday afternoon.

Tadakuni was lounging around in the living room couch of his house together with his friends Hidenori (who is reading a book) and Yoshitake (who is doing some practice with rubber shooting).

"Hey, uh guys?" - breaking the silence was Hidenori as he put his book down with a somewhat inquisitive look on his face. He obviously had something that's been on his mind.

"Hm?" - Tadakuni made a bored grunt.

"We still don't really have girlfriends, right?"

Yoshitake heard him loud and clear, ready to listen to his old buddy.

Tadakuni sighs, already aware where this was going, but he decided to humor Hidenori.

"Yeah, we don't. But so what of it? Is there something the matter?"

"Well...it's not like it's that important, but..."

"Buuut?"

"You ever get these...moments of jealousy and/or annoyance when you look at couples? Not just in real life, but in books and games and such."

Tadakuni opened his mouth, ready to drop the whole thing out of potential embarassment, but there was something in Hidenori's ramblings that made sense to him, strangely enough. He closed his mouth and actually gave it some thought.

"Well, now that you mention it...i did have these similar thoughts whenever I saw a guy and a girl having a good time. I mean, i don't really hate couples in general, but still...maybe we should just give up on girls or something. Romantically speaking, of course. Because we can't really seem to get anywhere."

"If you ask me, i've already pretty much lost interest in romance, dudes." - chimed in Yoshitake, with his usual blank expression while shrugging. Tadakuni went to the fridge to grab a drink while Yoshitake continued with his rubber shooting.

"I see." - responded Hidenori. He honestly wasn't expecting much of a positive or reassuring answer from them both.

He just had to let things out once in a while, right?

Plus, a certain violet-haired girl was on his mind for quite a while now. Almost every one of their encounters was nothing short of awkward and tense, including the several times they met at the riverbank, that elevator entrapment fiasco and during the cultural festival when he was forced to run away as fast as possible with poor Mitsuo being his ghostly scapegoat. Bafflingly, he still doesn't even know her name, but he recognized her Sanada West High uniform. They both seemingly had a shared interest in books, which he thought was an okay thing.

Initially, he found her somewhat strange but interesting, though he got scared, annoyed and angered more than once by her. He never really thought of himself as a lonely otaku, because for one he's got his friends and classmates to be around with. And...nothing much else. This started to make him worry, searching for answers to these thoughts.

"Oi, Earth to Hidenori." -spoke Tadakuni, waving at the brown-haired boy in front of his face. Hidenori was so deep in thought he didn't even notice him. Tadakuni sighed, but then smiled mischevously.

"ARGH!" - yelped Hidenori, as a sudden pain coming from the right side of his head overtook his thoughtful state. He saw Yoshitake grinning.

"What the heck was that for, you jerk?!" - screamed Hidenori, clutching his head in agony.

"Hehe, sorry man. Tadakuni here was bored, so he made me shoot a rubber band at you cause you looked dead and you needed to be brought back to life."

"What kind of necromancer uses rubber bands for that?!"

Yoshitake then suddenly ducked as a grinning Tadakuni came into view. He had a rubber band ready to fire at Hidenori.

"Eh?!!!" - he yelped as he covered himself in his hands for protection. Tadakuni fired the rubber band.

"...eh?" - A moment passed. Hidenori was confused. He was supposed to be hit by it, but it never came. He looked up only to see a look of pure terror from his friends. He slowly turned around, seeing someone that can only be described as the aspect of fear itself.

Tadakuni's sister.

The rubber band slipped off her face. She had a look of pure emptiness about her.

"Tadakuni?" - said Yoshitake, with his eyes shadowed towards him.

"Yeah...?"

"If we survive this, i'm gonna put you through the harshest rubber band training of your life."

Tadakuni's sister chuckled. "We'll see about that, you fucking idiots."

The trio bolted the milisecond she finished her sentence. She was definetely gonna give them hell.

Somewhere nearby, Karasawa was peacefully strolling through the street chewing some gum as he was thinking about a certain trio of next door neighbours. Especially one lady with a bob cut, in which he started to sweat a little bit when she came to mind.

Then he heard screams coming from his front view. He saw 3 familiar figures running away from a smaller figure.

He adjusted his hat, turned around and walked back like nothing happened.