The euphonious ever-after of the dream date at the beach still lingers on Yukari's mind. A hurricane of a storm is sweeping up the surrounding garbage, in place of the vacant trees. Peeling opening the storm shutters in her subterranean hideaway, the ceiling is full of grey speaks of flying objects. It almost resembles the static on an old television set.
Yukari is wearing a purple, bodycon dress with a halter strap around her neck — she has a matching pair of hydrangea-colored stockings with a white-lace trim. Her black, bunny hoodie sags around her bottom as she goes to the fridge to grab a Monster energy drink. While gulping down the acrid substance, she suddenly wonders what IA is up to.
She imagines herself as a slimy snail, leaving a trail along one of her lily-white clavicles. The foam from the newly opened energy drink smears over her upper-lip, she soon comes to the realization that there may never be a rainy day, where IA's pretty face doesn't come to her mind. Feeling disenfranchised after finishing her last record with the band, Yukari boots up her modem and logs onto the RPG that Kiritan had convinced her to play.
Not taking the program seriously at all, she designs an obese turtle character with a receding hairline and a monocle. Her character ambles onto the screen, looking rather pitiful, but Yukari starts to grown an affection for the sloppily rendered character design. A stag with the gait of a bona fide "Chad" strides up to her, his hooves are replaced with squiggly, tentacle fingers, and one of his eyeballs is made out of solid gold. He is dressed like a gentleman, with a vest, tie, and top hat. Yukari examines her own design and she had just created an oaf with a Boku no Hero Academia T-shirt with orange, pizza stains dribbling down the side with sweatpants, and a pair of beat-up loafers!
KIRITAN: I see you're as fashionable as always, Yukari一
YUKARI: I'm not into this whole... customizable thing... just give me an uzi or something. God.
KIRITAN: Fufufu! Your defiance is always endearing! Say, have you met Tōhoku Zunko? She's my best friend IRL!
YUKARI: I haven't.
KIRITAN: Well, you always did skip out on our karaoke meet-ups! Introduce yourself, Zunko!
A personified blob of matcha mochi with a leaf on its head, jumps up and down. Kiritan's avatar catches the green basketball and cradles in his arms! The two of them almost seem like a pair of twins, with their synchronicity!
ZUNKO: It's a pleasure! I've heard a lot about you, Ms... ゆゆ!
YUKARI: Ack! When you use the characters to abbreviate my first and last name, "yuyu" just looks like a pair of slit eyes!
KIRITAN: That's what we call you during our hang-outs!
ZUNKO: Hehe.
YUKARI: Not funny.
MAKI: Whaaa... Yukari's here?
Maki has a voluptuous pink feline avatar with a cheerleading uniform, the color-scheme was uncannily similar Lola Bunny from Space Jam. Her avatar has a looping animation of a hand on the hip and then off, and then on again. Yukari is a little bit transfixed the character's design, despite it being a cartoon cat...
AKARI: Yukari? You've finally decided to join our guild?
Yukari's eyes nearly jump out of her skull when she sees Akari's silly avatar. It's a jellyfish, on a mobility scooter, with a watermelon for a head. The eyes look like they're made out of punctures in the surface of the fruit and are two wholes, with twin lights gleaming through. Her tentacles slap the scooter and it does cartwheels around Yukari's obese, otaku turtle! Akari's speech bubble replies as if she's read Yukari's mind...
AKARI: 亀 ("turtle") otaku, so tetsu-otaku? How silly! Hahaha!
MAKI: I think he looks pretty cute to me!
AKARI: Behave yourself, Yukariin has a girlfriend!
The jellyfish bops the pernicious kitten with a few dozen suction cups. Sparks fly between the the two girls, Kiritan turns to Zunko to break the ice.
KIRITAN: Oh yeah! A day or two ago, we went to the beach with Yuka's girlfriend!
ZUNKO: Oh no! I missed that big of a narrative twist! ...oof!
KIRITAN: No biggie, you had to help your grandparents with their restaurant, after all.
AKARI: Her name is Aria. If Maki spills too much about their relationship online, I will strangle her with my braids!
YUKARI: Thanks for that, Akariin.
MAKI: Hey! Am I that unreliable?
YUKARI: I mean, when you swallow booze like a fish underwater... so, yeah.
KIRITAN: We're just all too sheepish to suggest the cursed "re" "hab" as an option.
MAKI: Y-Y-Y-Y o-o-o-o u-u-u-u! I'll have you know that I was sober for two whole days last month!
YUKARI: What an accomplishment.
MAKI: THANK YOU!
AKARI: I think that was sarcasm...
ZUNKO: Since I already have dibs on Kiritan as a wife, I suppose Akari and Maki are stuck with each other!
KIRITAN: Don't I have a say in this?
MAKI: Just go with it, Kiri-chan! Zunko is drop-dead gorgeous and is the best Japanese-food chef in town!
KIRITAN: I don't know about that, her and Akari would have to have a cook-off for the title.
AKARI: ...Kiri-chan, you're too sweet!
YUKARI: Well, I can vouch for Akari's cooking. It's the best I've ever had. No offense, Zunko! I haven't tried your dishes!
AKARI: ...
YUKARI: What with the ellipses?
AKARI: I'm crying.
YUKARI: What, really?
AKARI: Mhm.
ZUNKO: You guys are such kind friends to her. I really have to meet-up with you folks, in the near future!
KIRITAN: If you meet Yukari, I might lose the only member in my harem.
ZUNKO: Nah, Kiri-chan is my one true love. ︎My only competition is Akari.
AKARI: You don't have to worry, I'm not apart of the Kiritan harem. She's just a really good friend.
KIRITAN: ...
MAKI: FRIEND ZONED!
YUKARI: Jesus, Maki. I think you should go find a fuckin' nunnery!
AKARI: Huh? What's going on?
YUKARI: Just ignore her!
AKARI: Okay, I trust the advice, Yukariin!
ZUNKO: So... is anyone down for clearing out a dungeon?
KIRITAN: Yes! Isn't that why we're all here?!
After a few dungeons and battles, they get floored by a higher-level boss...
KIRITAN: Damn that vampire's soul patch to hell.
YUKARI: The boss was a contortionist and his soul patch is what you're worried about?
KIRITAN: Yes! It's hideous!
AKARI: I don't think I did well enough as a healer...
ZUNKO: Don't be too down on yourself, the aim with my spells could have been better. And Yukariin and Kiri-chan were pummeling them from the front lines.
YUKARI: Should we even mention Maki?
KIRITAN: Oh, you mean the drunkard that was glitching against the map's barrier?
MAKI: Huh?
KIRITAN: We needed your help during the boss battle! As the guild's leader, it is my job to punish you!
MAKI: How?
KIRITAN: You have to eat my super spicy chikuwa dish... with sugary mayonnaise on top!
MAKI: That... will make me sick.
KIRITAN: If you throw up, it's only because you've had too much to drink.
MAKI: Well, I have the first stick — it's on a plate, I'm making a hotdog-trail with the mayonnaise. Alright, going to eat it now!
Five minutes have passed.
KIRITAN: Maki?
ZUNKO: She's not responding.
AKARI: I hope she's doing okay...
KIRITAN: Akari, can you run upstairs and check on her?
YUKARI: Why can't you guys? Aren't you always hanging out there?
KIRITAN: Zunko and Akari are with me, in the lobby of Zunko's family restaurant.
YUKARI: Very well, I'll be back in, like, ten minutes... if I'm lucky.
Yukari wraps a clear, plastic poncho over her body and runs through the bullets of rain. Her socks are soggy and she walks into the stage's rehearsal area. Maki has fainted, dressed in a claret-colored corset, her chest had stilled. The purple-haired vocalist casts away her sheathing and begins to pump her hands against Maki's chest.
Fuck, Yukari thinks to herself, in a panic, I hope I don't break her rib-plating, by doing this!
"C'mon," Yukari whispers, "stay with me, Maki, breath一"
Maki's jade-green eyes snap open and her breath is exasperated. Globs of tears glisten like pearls, down the sides of her face. Her pale countenance and frilly attire, give her she same milieu as a porcelain doll. Yukari is mesmerized by her withering gaze, whispering, "Maki... um, uh... please... talk to me."
The girl with the golden blonde hair sits up and her movements are stilted by the tight bodice. Her bosom pours out of the seams and she gazes at Yukari lovingly, longingly almost. Yukari backs away, on the floor, and Maki crawls over to her and collapses against her chest.
Yukari's heartbeat is pumping wildly, "H-Hey, get off, will ya?"
"No," Maki defies her with a strange dignity, in her solemn eyes, "I want you to be with me, not with Aria, or whatever her name is. I have been in love with you, maybe it's in lust with you, ever since we first performed... side-by-side. The alchemy of your music, is something that I selfishly want for myself."
Yukari's ears burn upon hearing such flagrant words, such a bare representation of Maki's libido. The girl in the loose hoodie would be crazy to deny Maki's attractiveness, Maki's straddles her to the ground and captures her with a deep kiss. Yukari feels violated, the dripping of raindrops and warmth is too similar to the experience she had with IA, the woman shoves the voluptuous blonde off of her, screaming, "What the ACTUAL FUCK are you doing to me? Are you just TRYING to start problems?!"
From afar, Yukari's new song is blaring over them on the bar's stereo. Yukari feels an immense amount of existential dread, from hearing the deep crooning of her own voice from the loudspeakers, singing during their surreal confrontation:
荒れ狂う時の中 存在の証明を
I'm trying to find the meaning of my existence within this tumultuous moment in time.
行くあてもなく 歩いた
I walked, without any destination in mind,
雪のように儚く 溶けてゆく私を
on a battlefield that's swallowing me up within it,
包み込む戦場の中で
while I'm melting away like the fleeting snow.
モノクロの空に手を伸ばし
I hold out my hand toward the colorless sky.
旋律が儚く消えゆく
How fleeting is the melody, it's fading away.
優しさなんてもの
I can no longer recall
もう思い出せなくなって
what gentleness feels like.
これでいいのかな？
Is it okay like this?
あの時から 夢の様に
Ever since then, I've locked up my heart
心閉ざし 歩き出す
and continued walking on, as if within a dream.
生まれた事は 偶然だ
It was only by chance that I came into this world.
生きてる事も 偶然だ
It is also only by chance that I'm existing.
そんな想いを胸に秘めて
Keeping such feelings to myself, deep within my heart,
私は言葉を無くし
I've lost the ability to speak.
頭の中で蠢く影
The shadows squirming within my mind—
存在した
they existed there.
What is visible to your eyes？
What is with your of seeing truth？
You're a waste.
You're a sick.
You hate nothing
but, me
このこみ上げる気持ちはなんだっけ？
What is this emotion welling up within me again?
あぁそうだこれなんだ
Aah, yes. This is it.
気づいた時は涙が
When I realized that, my tears fell of their own accord,
こぼれ落ち雪を溶かしていた
melting away the snow.
気づいた想いをさらけ出して
Laying bare the feelings I've realized,
私はもう分からなくなり
I can't seem to make sense of anything anymore.
嘆いて 叫んで 存在を否定し
And so I weep, I scream, I deny my own existence
歪んだこの世界を歩いて
as I walk on within this distorted world
TO BE CONTINUED