I don't know... this might be the closest thing I've ever written to an omake, but basically, this goes off my usual recipe of writing, and even weirder, this is in third person.
This chapter actually takes place in the middle of the last chapter (After creepy goth brony's non-confession), so keep that in mind.
Well, enjoy.
On the afternoon of Ayumi's birthday, Chihiro was ready… All the snacks were put on the desk and Ayumi was still in the dark about what her friends were planning. It was definitely all good.
Now, it was only that banner left… Still, the corners of the room were pretty high… She had no clue how she'd do it, because even with the tables, she couldn't reach those points exactly.
"Chihiro-saan…" Elsie said from the side, "If you want, I'll put it up…" Chihiro scoffed lightly. Elsie wasn't that much taller than her, so she doubted she'll be able to do it.
"You can try, but I also think you're a bit short," with that, Chihiro sat down on one of the desks they had pushed to the sides. Elsie looked nervous.
"Aaah… I can't do it when you're staring at me like that… Can you please just wait outside until I'm done?" Chihiro was a bit confused with her friend's reluctance, but she stepped outside…
Come to think of it, Chihiro felt a little thirsty, so she decided to leave Elsie to her devices while she got a drink.
Man, blowing balloons sure is exhausting…
Once she had polished it all off, she went back to the room, where Elsie was floating in the air, unsupported. Chihiro blinked again, to make sure her eyes weren't messing with her. How does a human even float like that?
"Oi… help me, will you?" when she looked again, she actually realized Elsie's older brother was holding her up on his shoulders. She wondered why she didn't notice him there a second before.
"What are you doing here, Otamega?" she pulled the closest desk to where Elsie was so she wouldn't break her neck getting down. Both siblings looked relieved when Elsie had her feet back down on the earth.
"Better question… Why are you back so fast? My shoulders are killing me…" he glared as if it was her fault. Chihiro scoffed… That guy is such a weakling.
"So what… I just went to get juice, and she would've used you as her footstool, regardless of whether I was in the room," she replied. Now that the setting up was done, Chihiro pulled up a chair for herself.
"Nee… Ellie?" the brunette demon looked up from her book, "is Otamega gonna be here the whole time?" Elsie stood up and bowed.
"I'm sorry, Chihiro-saan… Oka-sama said I could only come if Kami-nii-sama was with me. She doesn't want me walking home alone when it's dark out…"
"In that case, why doesn't he just play on the roof until the party is done, then you guys can walk home together?" she was shocked when she heard some frantic nodding from where he was. That makes the first time he has ever agreed with her on anything.
"Can't I just do that?" he whined. Chihiro smiled internally. Boys who whine are kinda sad, but his voice seemed especially cute. Now, if only his personality was a bit cuter…
"But Kami-nii-saaamaa…" she whined back, "you contributed to Ayumi-san's gift as well, so you should give it as well."
Chihiro had to hide her smile… They really act like siblings, even though there's a world of difference between them. Ellie was so nice… and cute… unlike her brother. Wait… Otamega contributed to the gift?
"Wait… you know what a present is?!" Chihiro asked in mock shock. She was genuinely surprised though. Who knew that Otamega had a kind bone in his body?
"Ha ha…" he gave her a bored looking side glance, "I see your humour has overtaken 'nails on a chalkboard' on the list of sounds that make me want to rip my brains out," he was so mad that he wasn't even trying to play his game. He glared, so she glared back.
"I'm glad… Though if you do plan on pulling your brains out, please do it on the roof… You'll be bothering people if you do that here…" she replied coolly.
"Chihiro-saan… Nii-saama…" Elsie called, ending their glaring match, "we're here for Ayumi-san's birthday, so let's get along…"
"Fine… You did get a present for Ayumi, after all, so I can't kick you out."
"How very kind of you…" he went back to his games. Chihiro shrugged and went on to tell Elsie about the rest of the plan.
"So according to Miyako, it's Ayumi's turn to put the hurdles away. In that time, Miyako and Ayumi's other friend will come here. Then we'll hide behind the desk, so when Ayumi comes, we'll jump out and surprise her…"
"But won't Ayumi-san know that it's a party already because we put up a banner up?" Elsie replied innocently, but even through that, Chihiro realized the flaw in her own plan.
Damn that…
"Look, it'll work," she said hastily, "we'll close the lights so she can't see it…" Elsie seemed satisfied, but Chihiro still saw the flaws… It's still daytime, after all, so even without a light, you can see well enough, thanks to huge ass windows shining light everywhere. Chihiro sighed…
'Sorry, Miyako… I've failed you…'
At that time, Miyako entered with her other friend, who Chihiro could only assume to be Izumi.
"What's up?" Izumi greeted cheerfully. Then, she noticed Otamega sitting by the window.
"Whoa, Otamega! What are you doing here?" Of course, he paid them no mind, so Chihiro had to explain the situation.
"Don't worry yourself… He's here babysitting Ellie, so he won't do much anyway," Elsie protested in the background, but I held her back.
"Aww, I was hoping that he was here for Ayumi…" she smiled wryly before turning to Miyako.
"Don't worry about that… Otamega did get a present for her…" Chihiro said, but by the looks of it, no one was really listening. Izumi went up to Miyako, who was by the window.
"So what do we do now?"
"Well, it's kind of bad, but she's on this floor already," she said worriedly. The bantering stopped. Then Izumi steered Otamega to the door.
After a few spoken words, the gamer was chucked outside and everyone else hid. Izumi turned off the lights and kept an eye out on the two people who were outside.
Seemingly, after two minutes, Ayumi entered, and we all jumped out of our hiding spots. Otamega stepped in behind her before returning back to his seat.
"You guys did this?!" Ayumi exclaimed happily. When the girls nodded, they came in for a group hug. Once they were done, the festivities started: The crisps were opened, the soda was poured, and once again, Otamega didn't give a damn about any of it. That suited Chihiro just fine.
After getting herself a drink, Chihiro sat on one of the desks. She felt pretty happy about today. It was just a chilled day. She could hang out with some friends… Some newly met strangers… the guy who she has a crush on for some inexplicable reason… That's what it's like to be young… Then she wondered why she was thinking like those middle-aged Oji-san's who pretend they're still teenagers…
"Who wants to play Old Maid?" Izumi held up a deck of cards. Chihiro jumped up at the thought… If there was one thing that she was good at, though that actually might be true, it has to be card games. She'd do anything to win.
"Count me in," she said happily, slamming her styrofoam cup on the desk in her enthusiasm, but luckily, she'd drunk more than half, so no cola sloshed out.
"That sounds like fun!" Elsie came up to the centre as well. Then their heads gravitated to the last missing member, who was currently chatting, or possibly attempting to chat, with Otamega. Chihiro walked over and cheerfully slung her arm around Ayumi's shoulder.
"Hey, you're playing, right?" she asked before shooting a glare at Otamega as to say 'off my friend, creepo…' Ayumi nodded.
"I-I just wanted to see if Katsuragi wanted to play as well…" she said nervously.
"No thanks… I'm fine here," his tone was cold, but his voiced wavered as well, like he was nervous. Chihiro looked between the two of them, surprised. Did she really interrupt something?
"Though you know… Ayumi is the birthday girl, so you should do what she asks… for today at least," the dweeb of dweebs gave Chihiro a glare, but she really didn't care… Anything to annoy him was cool with her.
"You want him to play, right?" Chihiro almost swore her friend's face turned three shades pinker at that statement.
"It's not that…" she looked away, "I just didn't want him to get bored…"
"Coz you're the host?"
"Exactly… Let's go with that…" she muttered that last part under her breath.
"Sorry, Otamega, but you're obligated now…" Chihiro said, happier than she should be… And it wasn't because she actually wanted him to play either… she just couldn't wait to beat him.
He glared at Elsie for a few moments before walking to the tables which Miyako and Izumi had set up for the game. They all settled down to begin.
As Chihiro shuffled the cards, she noted where the rest of the queens were. Then she handed them out to the whole group. No one seemed particularly concerned with shuffling their cards again, which was a relief, because now, she had the basic idea from where to get the cards she needed. She could win this.
"So we'll pick from the person on the right, okay?" she clarified. She looked around to make sure everyone was clear. Of course, it wasn't that easy. It seemed like Elsie had never played this game in her life.
"Okay, you should just watch how we do it…" and then they started. Miyako picked up; Otamega picked up; Ayumi picked up; Izumi picked up, then it was Chihiro's turn.
Her especially trained eye knew exactly which one to pick, so when she turned it over, it was what she wanted… One of the queens… She smiled and turned over to Elsie.
"Now, you have to pick…" Chihiro said, pushing the queen to the top. No idiot would take a card shoved in their face, would they?
Still, it turns out that Elsie is that much of an idiot, which almost threw a wrench in Chihiro's plans. Luckily, Ayumi saved her.
"You shouldn't take the one she forces up, Ellie… That's a trap," Chihiro made it that she kept her composure the whole time.
Elsie picked the card which wasn't the queen, and Chihiro frowned comically.
"You're not supposed to explain the trick, Ayumi," she whined, which got a laugh from Miyako and Izumi.
"In any case, when you get two cards with the same number but opposite colours, you put them in the centre," she concluded her non-explanatory explanation, but it seemed like Elsie understood it enough, because she threw 2 Jacks into the pile.
When the attention was off Chihiro, she softly pressed her nail on the left corner. It wasn't enough to leave a visible mark, but she could feel it. That was the way she'd win.
The method she had was to never allow the queens to meet up, and she did that by marking the three queens when she got them. It kept the game going and gave her enough time to pair up the rest of the cards.
Of course, within five minutes, she was out of the game. So she leaned back on the back legs of her chair, watching the rest play it out.
"You cheated!" Otamega said calmly a minute later, and Chihiro nearly fell back. She quickly stood up when her seat was stable.
"What are you going on about, Otamega? I don't cheat…"
"You were controlling the pace of the game, weren't you?"
"And how exactly would I do that? Marking cards wouldn't get me anywhere, and you saw that I shuffled it properly…" Otamega looked at a loss for a second, and Chihiro felt triumphant that he had no proof. Still, she was a bit worried. This was the first time anyone has ever guessed she was interfering with the ending of the game.
"You said about marking the cards…" he muttered, before grabbing the queen from his hand. He felt the corners and he realized they were slightly dented.
'Oh crap!' was the only thought on Chihiro's mind.
"You kind of gave yourself away," he admitted, "I only noticed that the queens weren't thrown in yet…"
"Look, that wasn't cheating… I was just keeping tabs on where the queens were… Besides, I thought up that idea on my own… It's not cheating if you use your recourses carefully…" Chihiro was trying to be as earnest as she could, but her heart had gone into overtime with its beating and her face was the same shade as those strawberry pixie stix she liked eating…
Considering it was the first time she'd ever been caught, and that it was the guy she liked who figured it out… Honestly, she didn't think she'd ever been more attracted to a guy…
And because he outsmarted her… That's one weird reason to find someone hot…
"A-anyway!" Chihiro stuttered out, "I'm still an excellent player, and that wasn't cheating…"
"It so was…" he scoffed.
"Fine, let's play a different game where marking cards won't make a difference…"
"How about Speed?"
"Fine, I have extra playing cards in my bag," Chihiro replied, walking off. She heard him scoff behind her. Chihiro was really excited for the rematch. Speed was another game she was good at.
She pulled one of the desks from the corner, cringing slightly at the scraping of metal against tile. After which, she started shuffling the cards.
"Nee… Chihiro… What was up with that?" Ayumi appeared by her side as she started setting the piles.
"I guess… he somehow figured out the method I play Old Maid, so we're having a rematch now," Chihiro started setting up Otamega's side as well, and she was doing pretty good, considering she was doing it upside down.
"You seemed pretty excited," Ayumi added. Chihiro stopped for a millisecond.
"Why wouldn't I be? This is one of the few things I'm actually good at…" when she had the cards out, Chihiro called Otamega over.
"You have some nerve challenging a God, you mere mortal," he sat in the seat opposite her. It was bad for Chihiro though. His knees were touching hers, and it was distracting her. She didn't need any distractions now…
"Please…" she said, once she scooted away to a more comfortable distance, "you're a stupid cockroach, if I'm a mere mortal…" Chihiro's eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Shall we begin then?"
"One… two… three… go!"
Chihiro started putting down cards as soon as the two main cards are down, but he was way faster. In fact, it was almost as if a wind was being generated by his arms, because her hair was flying all over the place. She tried to keep focused on how many cards he had, because that was the only chance she had of keeping up to a strong opponent like him. As soon as the last of his cards were gone, she slammed her hand on the smaller pile hard enough that it hurt.
She had won that round, but barely. There wasn't even that big a difference between the piles height anyway.
They glared at each other, before starting again…
It took a good fifteen minutes to get to the point where there was no starting card on on Chihiro's right. Anyone who slapped that empty space would be the winner. Both Chihiro and Katsuragi were panting lightly, and she could tell that his movements were slowing down.
"Tired… Otamega?" she tried to talk him down, but she was too tired herself to sound serious.
"Not at… all… you?" he replied in the same breathless tone. Chihiro would scoff if she actually had the energy to do that… he was such a liar…
"Never… I'm going to whip your butt once and for all," she got the one card ready.
"One… two… three… go!"
And somehow, the two equally stubborn teenagers who had no intention of losing went for it with the best of their abilities. Chihiro wasn't as fast, but she made up when it came down to slamming it. He went through his cards like lightning, but he wasn't as fast on the uptake. It was a close one…
It was as if time slowed down as Katsuragi put down the last six of diamond, and both of their heads turned slowly towards the empty space. Their hands inched towards that little space. That little space which could make their dreams come true… the little space that would define their pride for the rest of the year… that little space was the most important thing in the world.
The thud reverberated in the room…
Chihiro opened her one eye she hadn't even noticed she had squeezed shut…
"Wha… wha…" her already flushed face got redder when she realized that their fingers were nearly interweaved together, because they had both gone at it at the same time.
And worse yet, there's no way to tell who had their hand on it more. Chihiro looked up, and he looked equally aghast.
Chihiro whipped her hand away and turned her chair around, her face now rivaling the Sparberry cola that that was on the desk.
"I'm going to the toilet," she said in a small voice before hightailing it out of there. She really couldn't help it, but she was certain she'd say something weird. On her way out, she felt something hard under her shoe.
When she got there, she went straight to a cubical and screamed. All that tension that was trapped in her body and soul left, and she finally calmed down.
She got out and washed her face till it returned to some kind of ordinary colour. She really had no clue what to do…
She really didn't want to confess, but she's spontaneously combust if she kept putting herself in such emotionally charged situations without saying anything.
"I like you, you idiot!" she said, loud enough that it would echo on the tiles, but not enough that anyone outside would hear. Besides, this place is empty anyway.
Though she realized, when she got back, that apparently, while she was gone, pandemonium had reigned, and somehow, Katsuragi had his face covered in cake, while everyone else was at different levels of amusement. Elsie wasn't even in the room…
"What the hell happened here?" Chihiro asked, her sense of inner peace restored in the face of this chaos…
Izumi was laughing too hard to reply, and Miyako was staring at her half-smooshed cake sadly, so Ayumi started.
"Well, you see…"
Ayumi watched as her close friend left the room, and she wondered what that was about. Katsuragi was sitting at the table where him and Chihiro were battling it out for the Champion Card Player, or something, just looking at his left hand, which was still on the empty space.
"What happened to Chihiro, Katsuragi?" she sat in the chair her friend was in previously.
"I don't know… She ran out before we even decided who won…" he examined his hand, which was still on the empty space. Ayumi guessed the game had just ended. Still, why would Chihiro leave? Was it because of Katsuragi?
"What exactly happened?"
"We both went for it at the same time, so we were halfway on it. Then she just left… Real girls make absolutely no sense…" he mumbled, still checking something. Could it be he wanted to know if he had the bigger half of the empty spot?
"Well, seeing that she left, she must have conceded defeat, so you don't need to keep watching that spot," Katsuragi picked up his hand and flexed his fingers, like his hand had gone asleep.
Still, that didn't explain why Chihiro left at all… Could it be that−
"You can stop right there," Chihiro interrupted, but Ayumi could tell that it was to stop her from voicing that thought out loud. Maybe she was right?
"So is that true then?" Ayumi asked solemnly. Chihiro screamed internally… Now Ayumi would find out that she had a crush on Otamega, and she'd never live it down. Ayumi's eyes were narrowed in suspicion, so there would be no point of lying to her, because she'd see through it…
"Yeah…" Chihiro said reluctantly.
"So you went to wash off the Otaku cooties…" Ayumi ended.
"Y-yeah… That's why I left… Anyway, continue…" Chihiro was so relieved she had dodged the bullet. Man, she should have thought of that excuse before.
"So how do you feel then?" Ayumi asked, and Katsuragi looked up from his still clenching and unclenching fist, "about winning, I mean?" a cocky smile graced his face.
"That'll teach her to challenging the God of Games…" he held his head up high… "Besides, she was easy to beat…"
"Oh… so you nearly drew on purpose?" Ayumi asked.
"Yeah, I went easy on her to see how well she'd do…"
Chihiro clenched her hands into fists… How dare he? He was such a liar, considering how tired he looked at the end…
At that point, Ayumi noticed Miyako coming towards her, but Izumi pulled her back. Obviously, Ayumi went to check on them.
"Aww… Go back and chat with the Otamega some more…" Izumi said, but Ayumi ignored her.
"No, we've been here over half an hour and we still haven't sung happy birthday yet," Miyako interjected, but Izumi was gone.
"But what about Chihiro-san?" Ellie asked…
"Yes… What about Chihiro-san?" Chihiro asked threateningly. They better not have cut the cake without her… But wait… Otamega landed in the cake.
"Look, we didn't sing… We just talked about it…"
"We'll wait for Chihiro for the singing, but Ayumi should make up a speech for herself… By then, Chihiro should arrive," Miyako said logically. Elsie seemed happy, because she went to speak to her brother.
"But what do I say? You know I don't like a lot of attention…"
"Come on… We're just your friends," Miyako tried.
"Well, Katsuragi isn't one…" Ayumi continued to protest.
"Well, he got you a present, so maybe he is?"
"H-he got me a present?" Ayumi stuttered slightly.
"Yeah, Chihiro mentioned that before the party…" but Ayumi was already convinced. She even thought that she knew what she wanted to say.
And then, Katsuragi came flying past her right, straight into the cake…
"So in other words, you don't know what happened…" Chihiro concluded with the story. As interesting as the second perspective was, none of the pandemonium was explained at all.
"Sorry, that's all I know…"
So she went over to the Miyako, who was brooding over the cake. It seemed like he only collided with the third on the left, but the damage was pretty obvious.
"Okay, Miyako… What do you remember?" She gave the cake one sad look before standing up.
"Well, after you and Katsuragi started your own game…"
"Now what do we do?" Miyako looked at the rest of the table. No one had said anything since Chihiro and Katsuragi had left the table.
"I don't even get what happened…" Izumi whined. Ellie and Ayumi nodded as well.
"From what I understand, he caught her doing something illegal, so she challenged him to another game," she tried to explain, but she knew she didn't get to them properly.
"Was Chihiro-san stealing cards?" Ellie asked.
"Did she pawn off the cards for money?" Izumi added her own question.
"Did she send extra cards to an overseas bank?" Ayumi asked as well.
'Wow… your friends are kind of slow…'
"That's not the kind of illegal I mean!" Miyako waved her hands to brush off the ideas, "I mean that she was abusing the rules from the book to make the game go in her favour…" Everyone Ohed in response.
"Anyway, should we split Katsuragi's cards and just play like before?"
"I guess so… I don't think they'll be back soon," Ayumi agreed, so Miyako gave the 4 or so cards that Katsuragi had left to everyone.
"I don't get why Nii-sama left… He was nearly finished too…"
"I don't know… He must really hate cheaters…"
"Look," Chihiro interjected, "can we get to when I left?" Miyako sighed, but got on with it.
"I don't really know when you left−"
When Ayumi had gone to watch Chihiro's and Katsuragi's match, the other three went to get some more snacks.
"Does anyone want gumballs?" Miyako asked. For some odd reason, Chihiro had chosen that as part of the snacks for today. The other two girls shook their heads, so Miyako took one for herself.
'These are pretty good… Take another one of those,' so Miyako took another one.
"Miyako," Izumi opened a bag of chips, "do you know it Ayumi and Otamega are friends in class?"
Miyako thought back for a bit, but nothing was really coming to mind. They sat pretty far away from each other, so it doesn't make much sense.
"Katsuragi doesn't talk much in class… If he ever does talk, it's to Ellie…"
'Though Chihiro does annoy him quite often…'
Come to think of it, that is true. Those two are pretty antagonistic to each other, so that isn't really a friendly relationship.
"Aww, I was hoping to hear something more juicy…" Izumi hit Miyako on the shoulder, and the bag of gumballs fell from her hand. The majority spilled out and rolled everywhere.
The three of them picked up all of them.
"What are you doing, Izumi?" Miyako asked as her running friend headed to the bin.
"I was going to throw these away, seeing it's out of the five second rule…"
'Oi, don't waste food like that!'
"Rather, give that to me. I don't want to waste all those…" Izumi looked at Miyako weirdly, but handed over the balls.
"I'm guessing you want these as well, Miyako-san?" Ellie handed the ones she had picked up as well.
"And after that, I sat and cleaned them before putting them in the bag… Once I was done, I went to call Ayumi, who was talking to Katsuragi, then we talked about her speech till Katsuragi came flying into the cake."
'And so, that was also a bust,' Chihiro groaned. Man, she was really curious about how that happened. Still, she guessed the only way she'd get the truth is if she actually talked to Otamega. For obvious reasons, she was reluctant to do that. Still, if Miyako was with her…
"Miyako… come help me interview the suspects and the victim," she said with a confident air which she didn't really have.
"But there's only one more suspect. Doesn't it imply that she was guilty already?" Miyako said, with good point, but Chihiro wasn't assured.
"Ho hoooo…" She stood proud, "just that was enough to put you back on my suspects list…" Miyako flicked Chihiro in the forehead with her middle finger.
"Ow…" Chihiro's hand went up to sooth the slightly pink spot, "what was that for?"
"Stop making this into such a big deal… I was talking with Ayumi by that desk when he came, so obviously, neither of us could have done it," she pointed at the desk where the dwindling pile of candy was.
"I can agree to that," Ayumi came by as well.
"In any case, I want to see if it was intentional or accidental… also, there is a possibility the victim did it himself to frame someone else, so we should see about that… Now where's my cap?" Chihiro started walking towards her bag.
"You don't have a cap…" Miyako snarked. Before Chihiro could go elsewhere, she started steering her to the other two members of the party. Chihiro hit something with her right shoe. She looked down to see a blue gumball roll a foot away…
Shit… she shouldn't tamper with the evidence… Chihiro stepped back to where the gumball had been.
"Miyako, can you put a marker at where my foot is?" she waited a moment until Miyako could note the place properly before running off to fetch the blue gum, which was an important piece in this mystery puzzle. When she picked it up, she noted that two sides were actuall flattened, so it resembled a cube more than a ball. So it had been stepped on more than once… interesting…
Chihiro grinned… She was a pretty good detective… One might even call her a Master Detective…
When she had successfully located it, she went to interview the last, and possibly, most likely suspect.
"Hey, Chihiro," Izumi said cheerfully, "what'cha doing?"
"Huumuuu… I'm here to bust this case open…" Chihiro put the gumball in her pocket.
"So I'm guessing you want my point of view…" Chihiro nodded.
"Okay, so it started like this…"
Izumi stood by the light switch before the party, watching Otamega and Ayumi make out outside…
"Oi!" came two shouts of disgust when Otamega and Ayumi burst into the conversation, both a charming, but totally angry, shade of red.
"That didn't happen, Izumi!" Ayumi screamed. Izumi laughed again.
"I know… it just sounds more interesting. So anyway…"
Otamega and Ayumi were having a totally innocent conversation, before Ayumi kicked him into the wall−
"That's wrong!" Ayumi objected again.
"I don't know… that sounds perfectly believable," Chihiro said, but something else was bugging her.
Otamega had already cleaned his face, but there was still a smear of cream on his cheek.
"Otamega, you still have cake on your face…" Chihiro brought to his attention.
"Ayumi, I guess you know what to do," was all Izumi could say. Those words were enough to darken the hue of everyone's cheeks within listening range.
"Shut up and just solve the mystery, Chihiro!" Ayumi tried to end this conversation, and Chihiro was more than happy too.
"Look, what happened once I left?"
Izumi and Miyako watched the two lovebirds chatted.
It occurred to Miyako that the party had been going on forever, and they hadn't even cut the cake, so she went to call Ayumi over.
"Oi, leave the love birds alone," Izumi pulled he hardest, but it didn't work, because Ayumi came to check what was up herself.
While Miyako and Ayumi talked, Izumi decided to take this into her own hands. Otamega wasn't at the desk. He was actually by the balcony door. After which, he took his PFP and started playing.
"He kept ignoring my attempts to talk about Ayumi, so I thought I'd go the forceful way and just push him towards Ayumi, but apparently running makes you really strong, so I pushed too hard," Izumi ended off kind of anti-climatically. Chihiro went over to where Miyako had marked the gumball's spot.
"Nee… Otamega… Did you slip on this ball?" she held up the gumball from her pocket.
"I did feel something under my foot," he confirmed. Chihiro looked to where Otamega had started, and where Ayumi was standing, and where she'd found the ball.
"So Izumi is the one who did it, right?" Miyako asked.
"No, she wasn't…" Chihiro concluded.
"EEHH!"
"Well… Izumi is a runner, so she must have decent aim, and the ball wasn't on the route which Otamega took… It was something else…"
"But it's a ball… It's bound to roll elsewhere," Ayumi said insightfully. Chihiro thought hard.
"Actually, I stepped on it as I was going to the bathroom," she pulled the nearly cubed gumball out of her pocket, "and considering how much it's deformed, I wasn't the only one. The ball wouldn't have rolled that much once it got squished…"
"Oi, Give it up already!" Otamega slammed his hands down on a desk, "it's obvious that she pushed me… Better question… who the hell stole my PFP?!"
"PFP?" everyone repeated blankly.
"Yeah, my gaming console. I couldn't find it once we'd finished playing Speed, but it appeared when I started complaining…" the same look of shock appeared on everyone's faces, but Chihiro gained her composure back first.
"Huumuu… It sounds like a job for the Master Detective…" she started laughing at the thought, but Miyako hit her upside the head before she went to talk to Otamega.
"You got it back, right?" he nodded, "And it wasn't broken, right?" he nodded again.
"Then let's end this freaking chapter! It's already 16 pages long."
Otamega shrugged.
"Now, can we finish this party?" she looked at Chihiro.
"Yeah, I guess I'm done… Besides, being a Master Detective sure is tiring…"
And so, the festivities continued, but of course, Keima Katsuragi wasn't into it… He still didn't get who had stolen his precious PFP… All those mob characters are freaking dangerous…
Elsie came back after a few minutes, to get a hard knock on the head from her brother.
"Awawawa… Why was that, Kami-nii-sama?"
"Your stupid hagoroma dragged me into the cake… It was lucky that someone had pushed me before, so the blame went elsewhere, but it would have been bad if people had seen that…"
"I'm sorry, Nii-sama… It was just that I needed your help capturing that mandragon…"
"What can I do?! Besides, you're the one who hatched that thing…"
"Luckily, I caught it," she held up a confinement jar which had an angry, but harmless, mandragon inside, "so there was no harm done. I even fixed the wall it broke…"
"Can't we go now?" Keima whined, "If we go now, I can still make it to the game store before it closes."
He thought back to the games which were waiting, all cold and lonely, for him to start capturing them. Besides, the new titles for the week came out… an hour ago… But he was stuck at this stupid party…
"Ah, Ellie… there you are…" Chihiro cheerfully announced her presence, as she always does… God, those mob characters are so loud…
"Man, you missed one hell of a scene… Your brother fell into the cake…"
"He did?" Elsie replied, confused.
"I told you that already, you Bug Demon," Keima shouted, but both girls ignored him.
"Yeah… I couldn't figure out who did it though, despite my master detective skills… It's a pity, because I would've given them a high five for putting the Otamega in his place…" she looked up slyly. It was obvious she was trying to goad a reaction out of him, and he wasn't biting.
"Look, I'm going to the game store, then when I get back, we'll go home… And you don't tell Ka-san anything…"
"Eeeeh," Chihiri sneered, "you're getting your sister to lie for you? You're the worst, Otamega," he scoffed and left the room.
Still, as he was leaving, he realized that it was probably a good thing he came. He felt like he understood the nature of the memory modifier Elsie used a little better now. Still, it worried him. It seemed like whatever modification the NPCs got was much weaker, and that one girl from Ayumi's club still remembered him coming to practices. From now on, he better involve less of those NPCs when he's conquering girls.
"What a shitty game," he grumbled, tapping the 'I' button more ferociously than needed, "NPCs have so much power around here!"
He thought back to those parsley delinquents and those annoying girls who Elsie actually considers friends… They're just like those greedy NPCs in his roleplaying games who demanded payment or gifts if you wanted to get to a new place.
Chihiro: [You want out of this party… go fall in this cake so we can laugh at your misfortune for the rest of the night…]
Izumi: [Hahahaha… that was good.]
[Now go flirt with that old conquest who's forgotten you already…]
Chihiro: [Now let's go to the next minigame…]
Chihiro: [Here… take this brush… I'll give it to you for no reason other than to confuse you…]
Keima groaned at the thought of a game like that. Games in real life don't unlock events or increase heart points, so what is the point of them. Even real life is glitchy. His left hand had been tingling, non-stop, since that useless game of Speed before. He mashed the circle button some more and tried hard to ignore it.
Reality is even shittier than he thought before…
Hehehe... I wasn't even expecting to do the epilogue in Keima's P.O.V. Still, it turned out better than I expected.
In any case, Chihiro's 'master detective' and 'huu muu' are a reference to last season's Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizokin. The show was kind of meh, but Tensai is awesome... Nothing beats the loli detective.
Anyhoo, the whole thing about Keima's PFP getting stolen... actually, if you read between the lines, the answer is in here, because some characters were particularly vague... If you feel like rereading this chapter, you can try guessing in the reviews... I will reveal it at sometime, though...
There is a reason to this chapter though other than being a break for me before the roller coaster that is Chihiro's arc, and that is that there's a fair amount of unreliability in my writing... Characters will lie and withhold truths until they're necessary. I'm not exempt to that rule either...
Which is why I can say, with extreme confidence, that there isn't a scrap of foreshadowing here...
Well, chapter 26 will begin Chihiro's arc...