Connection Seven: Enter Chihiro Kosaka
"This cat is normally prancing about and bothering me while I perform my katas, but as of recent, it simply ceased to move and be active," the long haired martial artist described to the other two students in the Women's Martial Arts clubroom.
They were all sitting down seiza style - the two recluses knew Kusunoki would demand no less - and were surrounding a white cat. It didn't look good. It hardly moved, expending energy only to breathe. Shiori reached out and stroked the cat. It mewed, so it wasn't completely out of it, though it did sound rather strange. There were only four games that featured detailed cat care, so this was somewhat out of Keima's league. Besides, he had more important things to think about; namely, he had a feeling that this event would let him see the Ending, so he had to pay attention.
"Erm, have you been feeding it regularly?" Shiori inquired, feeling for the cat's pulse. Unlike Keima, she had read up quite a bit on caring for animals, so all she had to do was recall some general information.
"Caring for this animal is out of my purview," Kusunoki said. Keima could tell that she was trying to remain stoic, but she was cracking. It was clear that she was concerned for the health of what was essentially her pet. She motioned towards the clubroom, and the Capturing God decided to take it all in. It was a simple studio room, much like many of the other clubrooms, albeit bigger than most since it was one of the core clubs. Contrasting its notable size was the surprising lack of things to take up that space. The clubroom was barren; aside from a drab school bag, a water fountain, a stack of softer mats, and a punching bag, there was nothing in it. Running his fingertips over the coarse tatami underneath him, he could see why. This was Kusunoki's room, and just like the girl herself, it was spartan.
"As your companion may have observed," Kusunoki continued, noticing Keima's wandering gaze, "even if I did care to nurture this cat, I lack the facilities to do so. Oh, and please forgive me for my manners. My name is Kusunoki Kasuga."
Her guard finally dropped enough to give him her name. Good sign.
"Ah, I-I'm Shinomi- I mean Shiori Shiomiya," the librarian stuttered, her innate shyness kicking in despite her intense concentration on her task. Her deft hands moved towards the cat's shoulders. Gently pinching the skin, she tugged upward and let go. The risen skin sank back into place rather slowly. That was concerning. As far as Shiori knew, the colloquial term was called "skin tenting." Normally, a cat's skin would quickly snap back into place after pinching and pulling. Since it returned slowly, it was a sign of moderate dehydration, which easily explained how listless the cat was acting.
The long haired girl noticed the glint in Shiori's eye. Kusunoki knew that look all too well. It reminded Kusunoki of the times when she sparred with her sister, Hinoki. Whenever her sister had that glint in her eyes, Hinoki would instantly find Kusunoki's weak spot and punish her for it. Those days are long gone, though. Shaking the nostalgia away, the martial artist commented, "It seems you have made a breakthrough, Shiomiya-dono."
"Please, S-Shiori's fine," the girl said, uncomfortable with Kusunoki's professionalism. "As for the cat, it'll be fine too, once it receives water. Can you please fetch some water for me?"
"Gladly." Kusunoki rose and made her way towards the water fountain. Taking a closer look at it, not much was remarkable. There was one thing out of place, though. Near the hose that connected the fountain to whatever reservoir the water came from was a patch of tatami the size of Keima's fist that was darker than the rest. He also saw that there was some duct tape wrapped around part of the hose. Hm...
After watching Kusunoki return and hand Shiori the water, Keima asked Kusunoki, "Was your water fountain repaired recently?"
"Yes… er-"
"Katsuragi."
"Katsuragi-dono. It had been leaking for quite some time now, so I used part of the club's budget and bought materials to repair it. While handiwork isn't my field of expertise, I was able to stop the fountain from leaking. Why bring it up?"
"Because I think I know why your cat became dehydrated," Keima answered, pushing up his glasses. "It used to come over to the hole in the fountain's hose and sip water from it. Now that you patched it up, it had nowhere to get water from. Since you've never seen it leave this room, that meant that the only times the cat could have hydrated itself is when you weren't around. Because you practice for hours on end, this means that for long periods of time, this cat was without water, which led to this."
"I see," Kusunoki said, nodding her head. Slowly, her lithe form dipped till her forehead was pressed against the tatami mat. Keima raised an inquisitive brow at her bowed form, while Shiori tipped the cup into the listless cat's maw. In between sips, it purred. Prostrating herself before these two, the warrior pleaded, "I apologize for the burden, but I wish for you two to take care of this cat in my stead. I… I feel that I am unfit to care for it."
"Why?"
"This cat," Kusunoki coldly remarked, "is a sign of weakness, and as a martial artist, I can't let such feeble sights distract me from my goal."
"Then, now more than ever, I insist that you learn how to take care of it."
"...I don't understand."
Looking at Shiori cradling the cat in her arms as it snuggled up against her, Keima replied, "I think you'll find that even cute things have the strength you seek, Kusunoki Kasuga."
Keima nodded, a satisfied smirk on his face. He could See the Ending. All he had to do was get this cute-hating woman to find the value in cute things. He estimated that it would take around a week of caring for the white puffball, give or take a few days.
He flipped out his smartphone and checked the time. 4 'o clock. On a Saturday, that would mean practically no one that wasn't putting in overtime into their clubs was around. Ah, the word "saturday." It reminded him that he'd have to live through that one week of Kusunoki without a PFP. His elation died a little. It was going to be hard. He had a few galge on his phone, but the phone versions were so bad he was thinking of just waiting it out and playing their PFP ports instead. Still, in case he suffered withdrawal, he had a back-up.
Speaking of back, someone just patted his. Startled, Keima whipped around, only to see a smiling Ayumi with her hair still tied up. He guess she just got off from training, since sweat glistened off her skin, and she was still in her pink lemonade shirt and track shorts. Those red shorts irked him. Reality was trying to hard to portray Ayumi as some kind of heroine, right? With the gorgeous sunset lighting and secluded location? Reality should have just gone all the way and give her bloomers instead of track shorts like in virtually all galge. As always, Reality was just a shitty-
"Hey, I thought I told you to stop leering at my legs," Ayumi said, though unlike the other times, there was no malice in her words. "Anyway, still at school?"
"Made some progress with Kusunoki."
"Mou, the way you worded that made it sound like you were making a pass at her or something," commented the runner, pouting. "Don't go playing around with Kusunoki's heart. Or any other maiden's heart, for that matter."
Keima shrugged. "You know what I mean."
They walked out the gates side by side. This was when the lack of a PFP hit Keima hard. While walking home with Ayumi wasn't an uncommon occurrence, he could always rely on his PFP to keep him comfortable. Now, with zero consoles in his hand, he was out of luck. He could always just tune Ayumi out, but to be honest, it was counterproductive to both of their interest, and while he could hold a conversation rather easily, he could only do so with Conquest targets. Ayumi wasn't to be Captured, so he'd just have to go along with whatever flags Ayumi raised.
"Hey, Keima," Ayumi started, looking away from the Capturing God towards the sunset. "I'm sorry Chihiro wasn't that… pleasant when you two were debating earlier."
So she was concerned, huh? "It's no skin off my back. I don't really care what she calls me."
He suddenly felt a hand tug on his sleeve. Stopping, Keima turned around to face the runner, and if Reality wasn't pushing her heroine status earlier, It sure was now. The sun was melting into the horizon, so the gentle red hues caressed Ayumi's features perfectly. Her doe eyes looked sharp. Keima backed up a bit; he didn't want to get enveloped in her pace. Her hand was still holding on firmly to his uniform.
"A-are you sure it doesn't bother you?"
Their eyes locked.
"When I told you that I separate myself from the Real, I wasn't joking," Keima replied. 'W-why can't I look away?'
"So what about us?" Ayumi's hand snaked up from the cuff of his sleeve to grasp his bicep, though he couldn't see it; Keima's eyes still couldn't break contact with Ayumi's. "Are you detached from our relationship too?"
"That's different."
"How?"
"Tch," Keima groaned, finally able to look away from her alluring gaze. Her grip on his arm was still strong, though. "Why are you asking?"
Keima couldn't see Ayumi's lips curl into a smile laced with melancholy. "I really want to be your friend, Keima. I hope you know that."
"...I do."
'W-what is this?'
After plopping into his seat, Keima had peeked into his desk, only to find a peculiar jewel case inside it. Weird. He didn't remember bringing a CD to school. Examining it closer, he was sure that it wasn't his. On what he assumed was the back of the jewel case was a tracklist for her album. Keima could feel shivers go down his spine. With an ominous feeling settling in his gut, the Capturing God flipped over the case. Scrawled all over the cover of Kanon's album were clean yet harsh strokes of kana written in red. Was this blood…?
"'Please come to the place where we first met five minutes after lunch break starts'," muttered Keima, reading the writing on the CD case, "'because if you don't arrive on the dot, I'll have you punished. Love, K.'."
Keima didn't know what to do. His first thought was that he definitely didn't want to go. She was certainly going to send him reeling with that nasty stun gun of hers. Her parting words didn't make him feel any better about the arrangement either. She didn't go into detail about how she would defeat him, but he knew he wasn't going to enjoy it. On the other hand, he was probably going to get slammed even harder if he wasn't going to show up. Damned if he went, damned if he didn't. Did he trigger some kind of death flag or something-
"You're here early!" Ayumi cheered from behind. Jolted out of his fatalist thoughts, Keima whipped around to face the runner. She shot him a playful grin; he shot her an annoyed glare. "So… did you not bring lunch again? 'Cause I got a pork bun with your name on it!"
"I'm good, Ayumi. Thanks anyway."
"Eh? You don't want to eat with us?" Ayumi's grin contorted into a pout. Still, even if Keima wanted to eat with Ayumi and co. - for the record, he didn't - he couldn't: all thanks to a certain pink-haired demon.
For a short second, he thought of explaining his situation to the short-haired girl, but decided against it. What would he tell her? "Oh, I met an idol the other day, and now she wants to fry my pants off." No one would believe him, especially since he was seen as a delusional nerd with zero credibility. Shiori being there wouldn't help either. People either didn't know her or thought she was a library recluse with a bit of a connection to the Student Council: way more credible than Keima, but no one would believe her. Even if Ayumi were to throw all logic away and believe him, it would ruin her reputation. It was in his best interests not to trash it any more than he already has.
Taking all that into account, it was no surprise why he told his stomach to stop grumbling for a bit and lied, saying, "I'm not hungry. For real, this time."
Ayumi thought differently. She thought that there wasn't any ill will from Keima towards Chihiro, but if there was none, then why was he avoiding Ayumi and her friends all of a sudden? The runner knew for a fact that he had no homework to cram or people to meet, so what's with the sneaky-beaky act? 'Well, Keima may be top of the class, but I'll be damned if I can't come up with my own clever schemes too.'
"Alright," Ayumi relented. "Just don't forget we have after-class cleanup duty later!"
Climbing the south building's staircase all the way to the top, Keima didn't know what to expect. Was he going to get blindsided the moment he stepped onto the rooftop, or was Kanon going to at least give him time to plead his case? Oh, yanderes were such a scary archetype.
Punching the code in, Keima swung open the door, only to see something jaw dropping. That pink witch somehow snuck a whole stage onto the rooftop, complete with sound equipment and everything. There was even a studio equalizer in the corner, though Keima didn't know how she'd do mic tests without alerting the whole school. In fact, the God of Conquests would have been impressed had he not been quaking in his boots.
Once Keima sat down at the bench he used to love, Kanon popped out from backstage, dressed in a winter coat of all things. Giving Keima a faint smile, Kanon said, "I'm sorry for calling you out all the way here. I'll make sure to end this quickly."
'How polite for someone who threatens others,' thought Keima, holding the questionable CD case in his grasp.
"Anyway, please keep this a secret. My manager would kill me if she were to find out about this." Suddenly, the bespectacled girl removed her glasses and coat and cast them aside, revealing the costume underneath. He had to give her credit though; it wasn't pink. In fact, it was kinda cute, albeit revealing. A white cardigan, a yellow crop top, and a miniskirt didn't serve to protect her from the elements, though Keima doubted that was the point.
"You sure are lucky, Keima," the idol commented, bringing the mic up to her lips. "I haven't even released this song yet. I hope you enjoy!"
'I hope so too. Dying of boredom doesn't sound like fun,' the gamer snarked, though once the music kicked in and Kanon started dropping some vocal runs, he found himself pleasantly surprised. The song's melody was upbeat, the dancing wasn't bad, and the idol's vocals were buttery smooth. Heck, Keima thought it would make for some nice background music while gaming.
He looked away from the mini concert in front of him towards the high school building. Thinking about it, this might cause problems for the idol. He was sure people would flock towards someone who sounded like Kanon singing a song they've never heard before.
Oh well, it wasn't Keima's problem. He wasn't his idol's keeper.
"So," huffed Kanon, smiling despite the clear exhaustion, "did my song reach you?" As she descended from the stage and walked towards him, he had to give credit where credit was due. It seemed like she really poured her heart into that performance. Still, it was a bit alarming that she went through all this effort just to woo one unbeliever. He could see the Bad End she'd wind up hitting if she continued down this destructive path.
Oh well, it wasn't Keima's problem.
"It was okay," Keima coldly remarked, "but you aren't as good as Rina Ogata- ngk!"
A white blur shot for his neck. He only saw the white glove balling his collar for a split second before he was harshly yanked towards the idol. In the blink of an eye, he was face to face with the idol, fury in her eyes. Her voice quivering from frustration, the idol said, "Rina who? I know everyone in the industry, and I've never heard of this 'Ogata' person. Who is she?"
While it would have been easy to just see her surface level anger and brush her off because of it, Keima couldn't help but see that she was cracking. If he didn't want to have her break down in front of him, he'd have to something.
Oh well…
Even though he wasn't in the most comfortable position, Keima was able to pull out his phone, fire up a web browser, and look up a video of White Album, the visual novel that Rina Ogata came from. Bringing the phone into Kanon's view, Keima said, "Here's a video of her performing."
Watching the video on screen, Kanon's face contorted from anger to exasperation. She let go of Keima's collar, the sudden lack of force near his cravat forcing the boy to retake his seat on the bench. Keima would have let out a sigh of relief if Kanon didn't decide to sit shoulder to shoulder to him. Shaking her head out of exasperation, Kanon commented, "That's a video game, silly~"
"Yes. That still makes her my favorite idol." Kanon held out her hand: an obvious gesture for his phone. Well, unless he wanted to get shocked, cried at, or both, Keima had to give it to her. Handing her his phone, Keima watched as the idol flipped through it, looking at more White Album footage.
"Mou, why am I less liked than a videogame character?"
"It's not your fault," Keima comforted. "No idol of the Real can compare to Rina's depth of character."
"Okey dokey." Suddenly, the gamer found Kanon's face close enough to his own that he could feel her breath on his face. "But you liked my song, right?"
He didn't like close proximity with others, so he barely coughed out, "I-it's good. Still not as good as-"
Keima jumped back a bit as Kanon shot up from the bench, a dazzling smile on her face. "I'm so glad you like it! Ah, what a relief. I couldn't work for a while."
'Funny, my PFP won't work for a while too,' Keima said internally out of spite. It was a shame too. With how innocent, authentic, and charismatic she was, Keima might have grown to tolerate her. If only she didn't completely trash his PFP.
"Erm… can we exchange emails?" Kanon asked, putting a finger to her lips inquisitively. She put the other hand behind her back and leaned forward in an effort to be cute. Nice try, Real girl. Wasn't gonna work on him, especially since she was the gadget breaking witch.
"...Why?" If Kanon noticed his testiness, she didn't react to it. In fact, her formerly pursed lips only twisted into a shy smile.
"I don't have friends from 2-B. Or from anywhere in Mai-High, for that matter. In fact, you're the first person I talked to from this school."
Without even waiting for a reply, Kanon tossed Keima his phone. Startled, the nerd was barely able to catch it. He'd be damned if he were to let Kanon trash another one of his electronics. Turning on the screen, he found himself on his contacts screen. It wasn't a very long contacts screen, so it wasn't hard for him to find a newly registered email address. Keima winced. 'Oh what kind of flag did you raise now, Real?'
With Keima's email memorized, Kanon cheerfully said, "I look forward to working with you!"
"... I wasn't supposed to be working with you," Keima "cheerfully" said. Keima was getting a little frustrated with Reality. How many curveballs was it going to throw Keima's way before it was satisfied? First the Kanon fiasco, now this?
"Ayumi asked me to swap cleaning duties with her since the meets were coming up, and she wanted to double down on her training," Chihiro explained, picking up a broom and sweeping away. "Don't make it sound like I wanted to be here."
'Did I just witness the birth of a resourceful general?' He could just picture the runner smirking at the success of her plan. Resigning himself to his fate, Keima walked up to the classroom window and started arranging the desks..
"I don't know why she went out of her way to do this," Chihiro whined. "It's not like we were at each other's throats the other day."
"Mhm. I just don't like you."
"And I don't like you."
"I refuse to play along with this obvious setup," said Keima, just as his pocked buzzed. Letting go of a chair, he checked his messages. He sighed. It was Kanon again, for the fifth time that day. Why!? It had barely even been five hours since they last met! The messages were almost always simple stuff: barely disturbing.
Right now, she had texted him about how they were stuck in traffic and that she might miss her interview with the press. Hmph, she was lucky he had nothing better to do. His fingers flew across the keyboard, hastily telling her to stop worrying since the situation was out of her hands and to let her manager handle any schedule conflicts. He hoped it would keep the idol away for now.
"Hey, Otamega, what did you do to Ayumi?"
Pocketing his phone, Keima replied, "What do you mean?"
"She hated your guts less than a week ago. Now, she likes you so much that she wants to add you to our group. How?"
"I'm surprised you care."
Indignant, the girl huffed, "Of course. Ayumi's my friend- duck Otamega!"
Keima's eyes bulged as a 50 kilograms of girl tackled him to the ground. He had half a mind to lecture him, only to see Chihiro peek her head above the windowsill. Curiosity overcoming his newfound chest pain, Keima joined her. He saw two conventionally attractive guys talking about whatever. They were side characters, basically. Not seeing the point to all the secrecy, Keima craned his head around to look at the girl beside him. He saw hearts in her eyes; she was absolutely enamoured by one of them.
"Yuuta sure is cool," Chihiro swooned. Then, he pulled a complete 180 and scoffed at Keima. "Huge difference from you."
"Does it look like I care?" Keima said, looking away.
"Auah, I wonder if I could get closer to him somehow," the girl mused, completely ignoring Keima's remark as she put her arms behind her back. "Hm, it's almost his birthday; maybe I can capitalize on that. I've been looking for good gifts in magazines, but-"
"You think the secret to love is found in a 900 yen magazine?"
"Excuse me? Is the secret to love found in a 5000 yen video game?"
"Okay, look," Keima said, facing her again. She did the same. "What do you really know about this Yuuta guy? His likes? His personality? Hair color. Extra curricular activities?"
"H-how would I know all that?" Chihiro argued, crossing her arms. "I only started liking him like two days ago-"
"How laughable. Capturing a partner without knowing his parameters is like dressing up for snow by putting on a two piece swimsuit," Keima mocked. "I never neglect finding the route with these parameter; that's why I always get the good endings."
"That's just game talk."
"And what if it is?" Keima was just getting riled up now. He slowly leaned in towards Chihiro. "Have you ever confessed to someone successfully?"
"I-I don't see why that matters!" Chihiro stood up in order to get away from the nerd.
He stood up too. "Hah, to group me together with people who fail both in games and in Reality is ridiculous."
"That's big talk for someone who has never been in love before! Have you," Keima grunted a bit as he felt a finger prod his chest, "ever had a date or even kissed someone in real life before?"
Keima thought back to that day. He was in the library, pressed up against her, his lip gently caressing hers. He remembered how soft, how warm she was, the way she melted into his arms.
"I-I just-" Keima's cheeks were flared up, and he could barely choke out his words. "-just got caught up in the moment, e-even though I shouldn't have."
Chihiro's jaw dropped. "Wait, what!? You, Otamega? You kissed someone!?"
Her hands darted for his collar, gripping it tightly. She said, "I-I don't believe you. Prove it to me. Show me you can get someone to kiss you."
"W-what?" He tried to back up, but Chihiro had an iron grip.
"Y'know what, since I know you like games so much, let's make this a game. First one to get a date wins."
Merry Christmas! An early update is my present to you (and an AN that's a tad too long).
Kinda broke down near the end; it's pretty obvious too. Kusunoki's section had way more detail than Chihiro's, though it could just be the nature of the scene.
Also, there was a reason why I had Keima kiss Shiori, and you can see why now. First, she was the one who told Kanon that she and Keima were classmates, and her kiss would lead to this little scene with Chihiro. I wonder what other details are gonna have their consequences later on.
Ey, this is breaking the record again: 4,200+ words. I fear that these chapters may get longer as the connections become more and more complicated, so it might take more time to churn out these chapters.
By the way, I checked the poll results. It's a tie. I'll take the easy way out and just not do it. I've got some ideas brewing in my head about Elsie and Haqua, but they aren't that fleshed out yet. Oh well, maybe if I think up anything concrete.
Now, there might be people saying "Hey, you took that Chihiro story line from that other guy's story." I technically did if before that person in a story written by my old account. If this actually becomes a clamant issue, I'll drop the story name and username here. Until then, I'd rather not. Besides, I think the betting is a common enough story hook.
Oh, there's also a new poll on my profile. Just because I'm curious. There are some girls *cough* M-san *cough* who can't be in any chapters in the nearby future because of their unique arcs - I'm excited to write 'em, mind you - so the poll won't influence me too much. Still, it's nice to know who my audience likes.
As always, if there are any errors in logic or grammar, please point 'em out. I'll give it another lookover and update it. See ya next time.
