Chapter 2: Down the rabbit hole

Took me awhile but I finally thought of a good way to continue Tatsuya's unexpected trip to the world of Disboard. With Sora and Shiro able to turn the world upside down he can finally relax and live his life.

Picking up right where the last chapter ended.

The room falls silent Sora's words echo in everyone's minds.

Stephani is the most in shock. "L-L-Love? With Mister Tatsuya?"

I see her turn her gaze to me. Her eyes get a shine the moment our eyes lock. "Oh man I feel really horrible about this, Miss Stephani. I hope you won't hate me for this." Scratching my cheek.

Before being able to process the situation. I hear Shiro grill Sora for idea to have Miss Stephani fall in love with one of us. "I'm sorry Shiro, but this way she couldn't reject our request for a place to stay."

Shiro glares at him. "Then just say she now belongs to us. Nii and Tatsu-nii you're a bunch of perverts."

Her words strike us both with an stab to our pride. "I-"

I would have said something but Miss Stephani was bashing her head against the wall actively cracking it. I rush to stop her. "Hey!"

She turned with no hesitation to my voice. "Yes, Mister Tatsuya?" She seemed really happy, but blood was running down her face.

"Umm, could you not hurt yourself like that Miss Stephani?"

"Of course. And just Stephani is fine."

I blush a bit that she doesn't want any formalities. "Oh then you could just call me Tatsuya."

She noticeably blushed and tried to hit her head but stopped short, likely because of my request for her to not hurt herself.

Sora and Shiro watch in clearly being entertained by our conversation.

"Stephani?"

"Yes?" She quickly replies, eyes sparkling bright.

I rub my arm. "I'm really sorry we did this to you."

She continues to blush. "Oh, it's not that I mind it all that much."

I can only assume that we both look down in embarrassment.

"Hey, hey Tatsuya. What about a place for us to stay?" Sora gets my attention.

"Huh? That's what you're concerned about? We just forced this girl to fall for me and all you can think about?" I scold him.

Sora only shrugs at me. "It's kinda the reason we did that even if it was short-sighted."

I can't help but sigh knowing he's right. "You know, I really hate how you're so smart for someone who never left his room in three months. It's not fair to the rest of us mortals."

Sora winks sticking his tongue out. "What can I say? I do my research. When we weren't gaming I'd read books to gain knowledge. about the world."

Grabbing him by the collar I look him square in the eyes. "Will you take this seriously? We're messing with the feelings of this girl just so we could get a place to stay!"

"I don't see why you suddenly have a problem with this, did you not ask for this a moment ago!" He yells back at me.

Clinching my fists I throw him at Stephani, who then ducked, through the door and it closes behind him.

"Wha! Hey, be careful. He almost hit me." Stephani called out. Going to the door, she checks on Sora. Sora was practically a pitiful glob in the ground.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just thought that it was a good idea to have the girl fall in love with one of us so we could have a place to stay for free." He speaks so quickly it's difficult to understand him.

"Is- is he ok?" Stephani asks looking back in the room seeing that Shiro is in a similar condition. "Nii- Nii, where did you go Nii why did you leave me, Nii?"

Stephani is understandingly freaking out, not knowing the siblings like I do. "What is happening?"

I approach her. "It's ok, they've been like this for a long time." I grab the door. "Watch this." I push her back and open the door more so they could see each other."

Shiro sees him immediately and cheers up. "Nii!"

Sora runs back into the room. "Shirooooo!" He jumps on the bed and hugs her. "That wasn't cool Tatsuya."

"Tatsu-nii is so mean." Shiro glares at me pouting.

"Your words wound me Shiro." I turn to Stephani. "Hey Stephani."

"Yes?" Her eyes glisten again, I'm not sure if I'd ever get used to it really.

"Would it be possible for us to stay with you for a time? I don't want to impose-"

"No no, it's fine, I'd love to have you and your friends say with me…" As she say this she's trying to hit herself but always stops short again due to my request that she not hurt herself.

I place my hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "Hey, I want to say this now. I'm gonna work so that you won't have to force yourself because of this worlds crazy rules. I'll make it so that it's genuine one day." I smile warmly.

I notice her face flush red and she quickly looks away. "Wh-why would you say something like that? You've already won and got me like this. So why bother?"

I smile, responding not even a moment after she asked. "Because, I didn't want to make you suffer like this, I wanted to make you smile on my own efforts."

She wouldn't look at me. "O-ok."

"Um, hey you guys. If you're done flirting, the rooming situation…?" Sora gets our attention.

Stephani and I look away from each other a bit embarrassed having temporarily forgot that Sora and Shiro were there the whole time. I glance at Sora wearing a grin I'd never seen before. "What is it?"

"Stephani, until the poker contest is over with you are still the princess correct?" Sora seems to have ignored me.

Stephani snaps back to normal. "Oh, um well yes I suppose that's true."

Sora rubs his chin, he's planning something, I just know it. "Then could I assume that you have a library in the castle?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

'Oh boy, well at least this one doesn't seem so devious.' I think to myself as Shiro walks up to me waving for me to come down to her level. "What's up Shiro?"

She whispers. "Nii has a new plan. For it, we need to learn the written language of this world."

"When will I be filled in on the details?" I ask her just as softly.

She shakes her head. "It's better for you not to know. You have no poker face."

I can't help but sigh since she's entirely right. "Well, can you two at least try not to use my freedom as a bargaining chip from now on…? doubly so for Stephani."

"There's no need to have you as the prize for the next while." She tells me, even if unconvincingly.

"What you want access to the royal library?" Stephani shouts directing my attention away from Shiro who heads back to bed. "You absolutely can not go in there, only royalty is allowed on there."

Sora glances at me. "But Tatsuya here needs to learn the language, he can't read at all. And how could he possibly learn it with the library used by the royal family?"

She looks at me face burning red. "y-you have a point."

'He has no point… I can tell this is part of his plan though so I'll go along for now.' I think to myself. "It would be nice I you would teach me, the language here."

"O-o-o-of course, I'd be delighted to." She can't deny me, or the chance to help me it would seem.

"Would it be possible to bring Sora and Shiro with me? I don't want to leave them alone here. Since they don't do so well on there own."

"Ye-yes of course they can come." She cliches her fist wanting to hit herself for giving in so easily.

Sora claps his hands. "Great, then let's head over there first thing in the morning." He collapses on the bed with Shiro quickly following suit.

I scratch my head. "So, Steph-"

"Yes?" Her eyes sparkle a bit.

"Ah, uh I don't really know how to say this but…" I pause thinking of a way to say what I mean as delicately as possible. "It's pretty late and I wouldn't want you to walk home at a time like this, so, you can sleep in my bed until morning." I hide my face behind my hand trying to not blush myself.

"S-s-s-sleep in you bed?" Her whole body is shaking.

I put up my hands in defense. "No, I mean that I'll be sleeping on the floor. I wouldn't suggest that we sleep together. We only just met."

She noticeably calms down. "Oh, then that's fine, I suppose." I might be sleepy but I could swear I heard some disappointment in her voice just now.

"Then shall we get some shut eye?" I sit against my bed, coddling the sword that I carried with me when we were brought here. I feel the bed shift as Stephani got in it. The night goes by and it was rather hard for me to get any sleep but there were a couple of spurts of time that I got some sleep. At one point I could have sworn I felt someone touch my hair as I slept. 'Couldn't be…' I go back to sleep.

When morning came of course Sora and Shiro were well rested, yet for some reason Stephani was half asleep like I am. "Well don't you guys look like a couple of zombies." Sora teases.

I yawn. "Shut up Sora, I'm too tired to put up with you right now, let's just get to the castle already?" I gripe rubbing my eyes.

"Sure sure. Lead the way Steph."

She sheepishly nods then realizes something. "Who said you can call me Steph?"

"Guys please not so loud, it's too early and I'm far too tired. Can we just go?" I stop them both.

Stephani light up. "Of course." She starts to lead us through the city still wearing the, I think it's a potato sack. I notice that several citizens look at us and in particular Stephani with judgmental eyes and I even over hear some people saying something about a foolish king.

'Could her father have been a cruel or weak-willed man? Maybe I shouldn't bring this up. With this poker tournament happening it likely means that he died pretty recently.' I think to myself for quite some time before I walk right into Sora who had stopped walking. "Hey, why'd you stop?"

"What do you mean? We're here." Sora points up.

When I look to where he was pointing I see a large gate, the gate to the Royal palace of the human race in the world of Disboard. "Amazing."

"Come, Tatsuya, I'll show you the whole castle." Stephani grabs my sleeve and starts to pull me with her into the castle. Sora and Shiro follow close behind. However soon after we arrived we were greeted by someone unexpected to Stephani. What are you doing here?" In front of us stood that girl that was playing Stephani yesterday.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm on my way to be coronated as queen of Imanity." The girl wore a veil over her face. "The better question is who let you in here former princess with a foolish king for a grandfather? Actually I'm glad you're here. You can have this back." The girl pulls out the dress that Stephani had been wearing the day before, but instead of handing it to her she drops it on the ground. I notice Stephani shaking, as she reaches down to pick up the dress.

"Hey-"

"Stop princess, this is part of the game." Sora had stopped both of us, picking up the dress himself and handing it back to the girl. "This, along with the crown, still belong to you…" I know Sora had an evil look in his eye, from the girl's reaction, the kind of look that will make me regret everything from that point on. "For the moment that is." He starts to laugh lightly. Causing me to get chills.

Looking back had I known the real reason Sora wanted to get into the castle so badly, I might have tried to stop him…

I know. It pretty much all took place in one room but I'm taking this one slow. Working out plot points and going through several ideas before I decide to choose the path, plus with it being a direct first person narration a lot more can happen in scenes or just what he notices... As always, I encourage critiques, corrections, rants, comments, shares and of course suggestions. There are no bad comments. Until next time Shi-oon out.