Chapitre Deux.
A/N: BestFanofAnime, thanks for your review. :D. I pretty much created this story because of Fuuka's comment later in the game about how 'they were thinking about killing a person who was alone at Christmas.'
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December 4th 2010 – Shirakawa Boulevard- Friday
Eyes fluttered open to look at the ceiling fan spinning overhead. Ryoji simply lied on his bed for a while, watching it spin over and over again.
He wanted to believe that everything before yesterday was just a dream, that he was merely an ordinary teenager going to school, but the truth dwelled inside him.
In that moment, Ryoji had an epiphany.
"I hate December," he grumbled as he slowly opened the blinds to his apartment in the seediest location in the Port Island Area, wincing painfully at the winter sun that was overhead. He sighed as he stared at the girls outside his window, propping his head onto the windowsill.
December, quite frankly, sucked. It was cold. The trains failed to run on time. And the girls weren't half naked. He sighed as he watched another ugly girl in a fur coat walk by the near-deserted streets. A hand closed the blinds shut while he slowly made his way to the dresser. He wanted to get out of his lonely apartment.
He wanted to have fun.
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December 4th 2010 – Paulownia Mall- Afternoon
Thwack.
He couldn't go to the school to hang out with Junpei and the others.
Thwack.
He couldn't go outside of Port Island because of the weird pull that Tartarus has on him.
Thwack.
What the hell was he going to do for twenty-eight days?
"Easy, boy. You're going to break the machine if you're hitting it so hard."
Ryoji turned his head away from the moles popping their heads up and down to stare at a businessman in a suit. The thing that disturbed him was his black faux-looking hair. It was real, but it looked like it was piled up with so much glossy gel that made it look like plastic.
"Why would you care?" he frowned as he directed his attention back to the Whack-a-Mole game, taking his semi-wooden mallet onto the poor moles' heads.
"Do you know who I am?" the man questioned.
"…"
Thwack.
Thwack.
A visible twitch in the man's head appeared as he announced himself, "I'm President Tanaka, business entrepreneur, and you should be honored to meet me."
Thwack.
"Stop playing! I'm about to make you a deal of a lifetime."
The words made Ryoji pause for a moment. Was this what he was searching for?
"Good. I see you're pretty good at these sorts of games. I can make you a spokesperson for a gaming company…"
Ryoji waited for the catch.
"All for the paltry sum of ten thousand yen!"
"No thanks."
The man twitched again before the game store owner started calling for the man's name, leaving Ryoji to his game…which suddenly yelled game over and had 'Top Score' pop up on the cheap screen.
Staring at his score of almost one million, Ryoji gaped at the fact that his score was a hundred times more than the second highest score. Turning around and looking at the clock, he paled with the realization that he played for six straight hours. What a waste of a day…
"Hey, kid. Shouldn't you be in school or something? You're wearing the same insignia like another kid I know there," said Tanaka.
"Who?"
"Ahh…I don't give the names of my clients. Bad for business…though I could be persuaded."
Ryoji gritted his teeth in frustration before straining to say, "No thanks….I have to go."
"Listen, kid. You should stop disrespecting your betters or else you might end up in trouble…let's say with your school for not going to class?"
He didn't need this today. He came here to have a relaxing time, not to have this jerk compound his problems even more. He felt a phantom pain on his foot from when Yukari stomped it when he asked whether she wanted to accompany him to Shirakawa Boulevard.
Ryoji looked away at his foot towards the smug look on "President" Tanaka's face and grinned.
Sharing was caring, after all.
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A yelp could be heard from Game Panic as the store's door suddenly swung open as Ryoji ran off with yellow scarf in tow, followed by a hopping Tanaka who apparently was struggling hard to not yell profanity all over the place.
Ryoji's mirthful laughter could be heard throughout the mall, almost carefree as he ran out towards the doors, hopefully to escape the angry man behind him.
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December 4th 2008 – Port Island Station- Evening
Losing the crazy man wasn't actually too hard. All he had to do was go to Port Island Station and go back and forth to Iwatodai for some time. The legitimacy of the man's claim of being a 'president' got worse and worse since no president of a company would possibly waste his time trying to chase a kid like him.
Honestly, he wasted a day? That man wasted three hours just trying to look for a person who caused him pain that probably didn't last an hour or more. He frowned at the thought though.
Regardless of that status, that man could afford to waste time unlike himself who was just waiting to the end, dreading it…always thinking about it. It was these kinds of thoughts that made him sympathetic to his friends who were in a similar situation. Sighing, he reentered Paulownia Mall with a sigh, eyes staring at the fountain with mild disinterest.
"Mochizuki-kun? I thought you -hic- went going overseas already." A familiar female voice called out.
He turned around, dreading what he knew what was coming.
"Errrr…Toriumi-sensei…ha ha…I can exp-"
Wait a second. He was overseas? How did that happen? Mitsuru?
"Shouldn't you be getting ready to leave with your parents?" the teacher asked with an odd flush on her face. The source of the redness was obvious; her breath smelled lightly of alcohol. Heh heh, a drunk teacher. She didn't look too bad either…
He ended that thought abruptly; older women wasn't his thing. It was Kenji's.
"Mochizuki-kun, kindly stop ignoring me. It's impolite." Toriumi commented sternly.
"I wasn't ignoring you! I was listening!" Ryoji instinctually replied. He was listening…somewhat.
The woman closed her eyes and sighed, saying, "What's wrong? You're acting off."
"I was listening. I heard you tal- wait, what did you say?"
"Hic…Unlike SOB-san, I do pay attention to my students," she said, "Hic…don't tell people I said that."
"Heh heh, I won't," Ryoji smiled. "Who's S.O.B-san?"
"Eko-ha ha! You're not getting that out of me. Ha ha!" the teacher replied and then leaned back on the bench. "Even if you're not my student anymore, I'm not set –hic- myself up for more trouble."
Ryoji's grin widened as he said, "I agree. Ekoda-san is an S.O.B."
The teacher laughed hysterically. In fact, it was starting to get worrisome. Looking at his teacher like this wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing in the world. They were supposed to be mature and wise, not chummy. Seeing the strict Toriumi-sensei like this was rather unnerving.
"Why are you drunk in the first place?" he asked…and received an empty beer can to the head for that. It wasn't thrown that hard, more like a light tap.
"I'm not druuunk. –hic-," she replied, "I'm waiting for someone today, and I need the stress relief."
"Stress relief?"
"Honestly, -hic-, teaching all of you kids is sometimes a horror especially during the holidays…a lot of you sleep in class, some students are too taken with –hic- other students to actually pay attention," her eyes bore into Ryoji with that comment, "and other students goof off by firing rubber bands when my back is turned."
She grumbled as she clenched her fist, eyes gaining an odd malevolent fire, "I'll find them…and when I do…"
Ryoji coughed, "Errr….I can't help that people stare at me…heh heh." The mischevious narcissistic side of him said that he could if he wasn't so handsome. The other, more sensible, side of him told him not to voice that out since that would probably lead to verbal abuse.
"Anyways, I'm here –hic- on a bench away from the central part of the mall to deal with a jerk I've met a couple weeks ago."
"Jerk?"
"There's another S.O.B. that comes here every Friday to cheat students out of their money. –hic- He tried to sweet-talk me into becoming a..-hic- supermodel."
Ryoji paused and blinked. That description sounded familiar. "Uhh…does he have super-shiny hair and wear a blue suit?"
"Actually, yes, he does. He was supposed to be –hic- here an hour ago… I'm..going…to…"
"Going to what?" He blinked as Toriumi trailed off and slouched down on the bench.
"zzzzz"
A sweatdrop appeared on Ryoji's head as his former homeroom teacher suddenly passed out on the bench. Unknown to him, she did the same exact thing another time before which lead her to meeting said S.O.B.
He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"Maybe…I shouldn't have stayed out so late yesterday," he complained to himself before sighing again.
Taking one last look at his former and only teacher, he slowly left the mall again.
He didn't really want to meet that man again anyways. That maniacal look in his eyes was scary as well as his rants about sending Ryoji's photo to ex-convict dating sites.
