"Well, summer's over,"
Natsuki Subaru walked out of the convenience store, groceries in hand. It was late at night, the glow of streetlights making shadowy lines on the parking lot.
"School starts tomorrow." He said to himself "Not that it matters."
Subaru sighed. Tomorrow, his life would fall back into the cyclical nature of school life. Wake up, go to school, slack off, go home, play games, go to sleep, repeat.
He shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking about things like that. There was a limited edition of a popular MMO coming out pretty soon, and he was going to try and get one.
This, of course, would have been the series of events that preceded Subaru if not for the event immediately following the current moment.
Subaru blinked for a second. There was a brown-haired boy in a tracksuit, lazily walking down the sidewalk, and glancing at a pretty girl who was crossing the street. Hey, I think that uniform is from the same school as mine.
A small red tractor started coming down the street, which didn't seem that important to Subaru. But the other boy clearly thought otherwise.
He gasped, shook his head as if he was dreaming, and quickly pushed the girl out of the way, before his lean figure was caught in the tractor's headlights.
"Eh? What's this all about?" said the driver. The boy didn't respond, he was lying on the ground with his arms and legs twitching. The girl dusted herself off and stared at the scene with wide eyes.
"Oh my… he soiled himself!" she said. Then she started to laugh. "Oh my gosh! Did he think that was a truck? That's gotta be the most hilarious thing I've seen in years!"
Subaru noticed that the girl had a very loud, haughty, and obnoxious laugh, the exact opposite of a cute giggle. Weird. I should probably go check that out. I mean, I've got nothing better to do…
Just then, a yellow blur passed right by him.
"Huh?" He suddenly realized that his groceries were gone. "Hey!"
He saw a cute blonde girl with red eyes gaspt before running off with his plastic bag. Without a moment's hesitation, he turned on his heel and dashed after her.
"Hey! Stop right there!" he yelled. Finally! Something interesting! A thrilling chase that will surely only precede some kind of elaborate mystery plot! Maybe with a cute girl involved!
The thief ran through an alleyway, with Subaru in hot pursuit. Just then, someone grabbed him by the collar.
"Huh?"
"Well, well. Look what we've got here."
Two thuggish-looking guys entered Subaru's vision, one tall with silver hair, the other short.
"Hehe, let's see what's in his pocket!"
Crap. What do I do? Calm down now, remember what you learned from that manga.
Subaru wrestled out of the big guy behind him, and struck him in the face before he could react.
"Gah!" said one of the other thugs. "Get him!"
Subaru quickly sent a swift kick to the shorter thug, but the last one put a knife to his throat before he could react.
"Hah! Not so cocky now, are you?"
"Nngh…" What should I do? I have all my money in my wallet!
"Hey!" a female voice came from the opening to the alleyway. Subaru's eyes drifted to the side. There was a white-haired girl with purple eyes and pale skin standing at the entrance. "What's going on here?'
No way… is this for real? Did I seriously just meet my heroine?
"Nevermind that," said the girl. "Did you guys just happen to see a yellow-haired thief run by?"
"She went that way," said the silver-haired thief, pointing on the other end of the alley.
"Thanks!" the girl jogged by, before stopping just at the end. "Wait a minute, what are you doing that guy?"
"Uh… nothing." said the thug. He stuffed a fist inside Subaru's mouth before he could say anything.
She sighed.
"Alright, guess I'll deal with this."
The other two thugs got to their feet.
"You'll have to get through us first!" they said.
"In fact, you're kinda pretty," the smaller one added.
"You asked for it!" said the girl. A gray cat leaped off her shoulder and straight at the thugs. "Puck, use Soul Crystal Shot!"
The girl tossed a few blue plastic crystals, while the cat simply stared as they passed over it's head. The crystals bounced harmlessly off of the ground
Out of all the people I could've been rescued by… I got a chuunibyou girl. Subaru mentally sighed.
"What was that supposed to do?" said the bigger thug.
Run!" The girl grabbed Subaru's hand and dashed off. The cat leaped onto the thug's face.
"GAAAAAAAAH!" He let out a fearsome scream as the feline scratched into his face
"Run!" said the girl, grabbing Subaru's hand as they dashed off.
A little bit later…
The two of them panted as the cat caught up with them.
"Phew! That was a close one. You know, you really shouldn't be wandering around this part of town at night." the girl remarked, ignoring Subaru's wide smile.
"You… you saved me."
"Hey! Don't get the wrong idea! Now tell me where your companion went so I can find my insignia!"
"My companion?"
'A-hah! My intuition is never wrong! So you are working with her!"
"Eh… I'm sorry madam but I think you're confused."
"Never! Unless…" she paused. "Oh no! Could I really be wrong? What do I do?"
"Well, you could start by explaining the cat, or maybe a helpful expository monologue as to where I am and whatever the heck is going on."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." The girl sighed. "And don't call puck a cat, he's a bakeneko!"
"Oh, I get it! In your weird chuuni world, yokai are real and your cat is a nekomata."
"Bakeneko. Nekomatas have two tails. Ugh, look who I'm talking too. I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to find my insignia," she turned her back and started walking off, but Subaru grabbed the back of her dress.
"Wait! I can help you!"
The girl turned around again angrily huffed.
"I already got what I wanted from you. You don't have to repay me or anything."
"It's not about repayment, this is the start of a grand adventure!" Subaru chuckled. "Let's see… in order to make the most out of this situation, I'll aim for one good deed per day. And today's deed will be… helping you find your insignia thingy! I did see who stole it after all."
"Well… you could probably still recognize their face, so I guess I'll let you tag along. My name is Satella, by the way," then she suddenly flushed red and put Puck to the side. "Hold on let me do that again…"
Satella struck some kind of shonen pose before announcing. "I am Satella, Witch of Envy, Member of the Seven Deadly Sins' Witch Division, and Spirit Stand User!"
"Is… is that a Persona reference?"
"What? No!" She dropped her pose. "Why does everyone automatically assume that of all things?"
"Either way, my name is Natsuki Subaru!" Subaru struck an equally ridiculous pose. "A shut-in who has neither friends nor money!"
"Why would you… nevermind. Let's just start searching," Satella sighed.