The alarm woke me up early as planned. When I called out to Meiji, I got no response, possibly because he was still sleeping. I got out of bed and took a quick shower before slipping into the school uniform. I hadn't tied a tie in a while, but my hands still seemed to know the motions by heart. I quietly prepared a quick breakfast of cereal and a slice of bread. After eating, I could feel Meiji stirring. "Good morning, sleepyhead, how was your night?" I asked.

Not bad, actually, Meiji replied. So…we're waiting to walk Sayori home today, right?

"That's right. And we're going to do actual homework, not just say we did."

Homework… and here I felt him space out. Not that it mattered. I was still in control. I washed my face, grabbed the schoolbag and headed out. Much like the day prior there were clear skies but it was still cold. Looking at Meiji's phone I saw it was now around 7:30. "Hey, when does school start for you?"

Huh? Oh, it starts at 8:00, but we can get there in ten minutes if we leave right now.

"Heeeeeeeyyy!"

I turned and saw a bubbly little blur of energy running towards me. I waited for her to join me. When she stopped in front of me, she was panting heavily. "You okay, Sayori?" I asked.

"Sorry, I overslept again!" she said apologetically.

"Oh dear. You seem to be doing that more and more recently," I said as I motioned for her to join me. "Although, I hope me kicking your ass yesterday didn't tire you out too much," I teased.

"I kicked your butt just as much!" she exclaimed as she fell into step next to me as we walked down the hill. "But…I'm sorry I was late."

"Don't be sorry," I said. "I'm not mad. A bit concerned perhaps but not mad."

She blushed a bit. "You don't have to be concerned, I'm fine," she said.

"Alright, if you say so," I said.

As we continued heading down the hill towards the school, I saw other students coming out of their own houses or passing us as they headed down the same hill. At the bottom of the hill I saw a decent sized Japanese high school. A small group of students with bands attached to the arms of their blazers were standing at the gates welcoming students. That's the student council, right? I asked Meiji.

Yep, they're pretty strict but I've heard they mean well.

They greeted us as we passed through the gates to school. Once we were past, I looked up at the school. The main building had three floors, each with windows in each classroom. The entrance looked pretty standard with a taller portion of the building with a clock situated near the top. There was a roundabout for students coming through both gates. There was a small garden in the middle of the roundabout with a few small trees and bushes. "Well, I'll see you after club, alright?" Sayori said as she stood.

"Sounds good to me! Later."

She smiled and ran towards her shoe locker. I stood. Alright, where to now? Meiji told me where his locker was. I opened the locker and, after putting my shoes in and the slippers on, headed to Meiji's classroom. The room was already nearly full of other students. Meiji identified his desk, and I wasn't surprised when it was the typical main protagonist seat. I began making my way towards it.

"Whoa, look who actually showed up on time," a teen girl with blonde dyed hair and blue contact lenses said as I entered the classroom. She was wearing a lot of makeup as well as ear piercings. Her uniform was pretty loose, especially around the chest area and I wasn't blind to the busty nature of her breasts. I identified her as a gyaru. "I'd have thought a loser virgin like you would be too tired after watching his anime and reading his manga."

Whoa, who the hell's that?

That's Tani Kozue. She's a popular girl in school and says stuff like that to me. I normally just ignore her and hope she'll get tired of me. No one in the class likes her too much.

However, I'd learned long ago that some bullies took silence as a challenge. I looked her right in the eyes and felt my impulsive smartass nature get the better of me. "I could say the same of you, Tani. I'm surprised you're here after all you must have done last night. Who'd you spread your legs for this time, I wonder? A businessman? Politician? Your mom?" My voice was calm and collected, but I also had a small smile on my face.

Her eyes bulged, and if Meiji was in control of his body, I'm sure he'd have been doing the same. "W-W-What did you say to me, you little freak!?" she shouted at me.

I grinned. "What? Are you hard of hearing as well as a slut?"

By this time the entire class had gone silent and was watching this showdown between the two of us. Stop! Don't do this! Meiji was practically begging me by this point.

Tani's face had gone bright red with rage. "Someone finally grew some balls. Shame I'm gonna have to break them!"

"Ooooh scaaary! I bet some of your clientele love having their balls stepped on by a high school girl," I chuckled as I walked past her towards the chair and set my bag down. "And at least my balls are bigger than yours."

"Oh, that's it, you asshole!" I turned and saw her rushing me, her (admittedly very attractive) face contorted with rage as she raised a fist.

I ducked and her fist made contact with the desk, causing a sharp cracking noise to come from it. "Strong arm you have there. How many did you jerk off to get that strong?"

"You're dead!" She chased me around the room, trying her hardest to hit or kick me, but even in this less than shape body, I was still fast enough to evade her. Soon I saw angry tears forming and smearing her makeup. "Stop running, you coward!"

"Awww, better not cry," I said in a demeaning tone. "No use getting that sexy beautiful face all messy on my poor loser virgin account," I said.

She froze, anger replaced by shock. "What…did you just call me?"

I shrugged. "Sexy and beautiful. What? Just because you're trying to kill me doesn't mean I can't recognize that you're very attractive. Physically at least."

Her face went red again, but I wasn't sure if it was anger, embarrassment or both. But it didn't matter much as the door slid open behind Tani. A deep stern voice said, "What is going on in here?"

I turned and bowed to the older man, who I assumed was the teacher. "Nothing, Sensei, just a little disagreement between me and Tani-san," I said innocently.

The teacher, an older balding gentleman, looked down at Tani's fists. "Are you sure it was just a little disagreement?"

"Huh?" I make a show of looking down at Tani's fists. "Oh, um, yeah I guess it was getting a bit heated before you came in." I bowed apologetically to Tani. "Sorry about that." She made a huffing noise and slunk back to her chair. I proceeded to mine and sat quietly.

You're a reckless idiot! Meiji almost shouted at me. She's gonna have my head for this!

I don't know about that. Look. I took a glance over and saw that Tani was looking my way, her face still a bit flushed. She noticed me looking my way and stuck her tongue out at me before turning away. I looked away and a few seconds later, my peripheral vision caught her trying to sneak a glance at me. So…she's one of those stereotypes. Tough girl on the outside. Not quite a tsundere.

She's going to kill us!

I have some fighting experience, and even in this body I can at least dodge her attacks.

Don't we have more important things to worry about aside from this?!

I sighed softly. Trust me, if she's the type I believe she is, she won't do anything that drastic.

There was a brief silence from him, then, Fiiiiine. But if she kills us, I'm haunting you in the afterlife.

Fair enough.

I took out a pen and paper and began listening to the teacher. I took copious notes as fast as I could while Meiji simply worried about what might happen. The first morning classes went by, and when it was time for lunch, I decided that I would go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. The moment I stepped into the hall, a pair of strong but feminine hands grabbed my blazer and pushed me against the wall of a smaller hallway where no one could see us. I was now face to face with Tani who was glaring angrily at me.

Aaaah! I knew it! We're dead!

Relax. I've got this. I smirked. "Yes? What is it, beautiful?"

Her face went even redder now and she pushed me harder against the wall. "Don't you dare call me that again, or you will regret it!" she hissed.

"What, not call you beautiful?"

"You know perfectly well what I meant!" she growled

My smirk turned into a glare. "Only if you leave me and everyone else alone. If not, let's just say I'm very good at Photoshop and can make you look bad."

Color drained from her face. "Y-You wouldn't dare…"

I leaned in sharply, causing her to back up a bit, but not enough to let go of my blazer. "I've taken your crap for long enough, Tani. Why should I have to anymore?"

She flinched. "My crap…?"

Wow, this isn't going as badly as I'd feared.

"You've been in my face for too damn long. I can only take so much before I snap." I pushed her hands off me. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need food." I walked away from her.

"Wait!" I turned and saw her bowing slightly. "I'm…sorry. I always thought…that you didn't mind it whenever I teased you. The girl I did it with last year didn't seem to mind."

"That wasn't teasing. That was bullying. Be more mindful of your words. See ya." And with that, I walked off. Cafeteria, left or right?

Right.

I was nearly at the cafeteria when someone grabbed my shoulder. Looking back half expecting it to be Tani again, I was surprised and relieved when I saw a very worried Sayori looking at me. "Did you get into a fight with someone?!" she asked, sounding scared.

"News travels fast, I see," I said. I turned and faced her. "It wasn't really a fight. More like a match where I constantly had to dodge her. She didn't manage to hurt me."

"She? Who was it? You didn't try and hit her back, did you?" Sayori asked, hands on her hips.

I put my hands up. "No, not at all. I didn't try and hit her."

She sighed in relief. "I'm glad…who was it?"

"Tani-san."

I saw the familiar look of recognition in Sayori's eyes. "Oh…I remember her from last year…"

Do you think…that the girl Tani mentioned is Sayori?

"Did she do anything to you?" I asked carefully.

Sayori didn't say anything, and she didn't need to. Meiji seemed to recognize that look. Yeah, that girl did pick on Sayori.

I lifted Sayori's chin. "I'll make sure she apologizes to you."

"N-No, don't bother. It's fine," she said, smiling uncertainly.

"Sayori, it's not fine." I looked seriously at her. "What she did is unacceptable."

"Stop!" Sayori nearly shouted, tears in her eyes.

Just let her be, Meiji said. She's stubborn about this sort of thing.

I sighed, but smiled. "Alright. I won't do anything."

"Promise?" she looked pleadingly at me.

I pulled her into a hug. "I promise. I won't do anything." A few people around us gave us catcalls and people encouraging me to kiss her Meiji immediately felt embarrassed. Sayori quickly broke the hug. I started feeling almost insulted but immediately remembered how PDA was viewed in Japan. "Heh, sorry."

"I-It's fine," she said, face a bit red.

"Do you want to eat lunch together?" I asked.

"Oh, actually I'm gonna have lunch with the club members today. We have some club stuff to discuss."

Probably Sayori telling everyone about how she's going to bring a new member and how to ensnare him. "Oh! Well, um…sorry if I'm keeping you from them."

"That's alright, I wanted to make sure you were okay first." She looked a bit relieved. "Please promise me you won't get into any more fights."

"I can try my best."

You'd better.

I will.

She looked happier now. "Alright, well I'll see you after class."

"Sure thing. Have fun!" She skipped away.

The cafeteria was crowded, as I expected it would be. The room was large and had a high slanted ceiling with stained wooden roofbeams. Hanging from those beams were slowly rotating ceiling fans. I had entered from the left entrance but I noticed other students coming and going from an entrance on the right. Opposite the doors was a large window that looked out onto the field outside. A few trees kept the sun from glaring in too much. To my immediate left I saw a plethora of vending machines as well as food ticket machines. I watched as someone took a ticket and got in line to the counter where there were a few windows where the kitchen staff interacted with the students. Hey, is this place a private or public school?

Private, Meiji replied.

I'm guessing you're not a college prep school, I said as I walked over to the ticket machines and looked them over.

How'd you know?

I guessed, I said. I went one of the food ticket machines. "Hmm…what to eat today…?"

That chicken curry looks good, Meiji said.

"Chicken curry sounds delicious," I agreed and selected it. I took the ticket to the cafeteria staff and waited. Once the food was delivered, I went outside. The air was brisk, but still warmer. I also wasn't alone out there. In the distance, I saw a familiar book loving nerd girl reading while she ate. She was eating ramen and drinking some hot liquid from a thermos. I assumed it was tea.

Is that Yuri?

Yeah, I think it is. Let's leave her be.

Why?

One, we don't know if meeting her earlier will affect the game, and two, she wouldn't be comfortable.

Fair enough.

Hey! That's my catchphrase!

I know. He chuckled.

Alright, alright. And with that, I headed towards an empty table, sat down and began to eat.

While I was eating, Meiji broke the silence. So, you know more about me than I know about you. If your story is true, tell me about yourself a bit.

Oh crap, I haven't told you much have I? Well, what would you like to know?

All you've told me is your name, he replied.

Fair enough. Well, I'm a twenty-two-year-old college student. I live, or lived I should say, in a nice house which is being paid for in part by my parents.

Oh, you're a lucky guy.

I know. When I'm not studying, going to school or working, I enjoy anime, a few manga, games, and reading fantasy or science fiction books. I also do go to a gym occasionally, but mostly for endurance training. Back in my world I'm not exactly what you'd call fit so I try and get some exercise when I can.

Do you have a girlfriend?

Nope, haven't had one before.

Huh, well it makes sense why you'd play dating sims.

Hey pot, kettle called. He says you're black.

Fine fine, I get it.

Good. Anyway, my Mom and Dad both work in finance and are pretty well off. I work as a lower scrub at the company they work for.

So, you got the job based off of people you know.

That's certainly part of it. I was given an interview because of mom and dad, but I got that job on my own. My parents asked them not to pull punches during my interview. And there's nothing wrong with getting ahead based off of connections.

My parents do a lot of work with money too, or so they've told me anyway, Meiji said.

Huh, we're not so different then, I replied.

Guess not.

I looked at the time. Crap, it's getting late. We should be getting back to class.

Yeah, we should.

I quickly finished the rest of the chicken curry, which was as delicious as it sounded, cleaned my place a bit, put the dishes away and headed back to the classroom. I walked past Tani's desk. She didn't say a word or even acknowledge me as I took my seat. Once more, I took copious notes while Meiji just chilled inside his own body. I even felt him fall asleep at one point. Finally, the bell rang and it was time for clubs or to go home. Students trickled out until it was just me and Tani. Meiji was still asleep so my stress levels were much lower than they were before. She was still looking down at her desk, oblivious to the world.

She looked so despondent so I cautiously walked over. "Hello?"

She jumped and looked around. "Huh…wha…? Oh, it's you." She glared at me, but not as angrily as before. As a matter of fact, she seemed defeated. "What do you want?"

"Kozue, school's over. Aren't you gonna go home?"

"Don't you dare call me by my first name. You of all people!" She stood. "I could make you regret what you did today, and there are no witnesses."

"Except for everyone on the internet," I said, pulling out my phone and snapping a quick picture of her face.

"What do you want from me!?" she was practically screaming, tears running down her eyes and staining her makeup.

I felt immediately bad for her, but I wasn't about to let Meiji's life get any worse than it already was. "I want you to leave me and everyone else you've bullied alone."

"I didn't know!"

"Now you do, so you can't use that as an excuse anymore."

She looked down. "Fine…Have it your way!" She grabbed her bag and stormed out, slamming the classroom door behind her.

That slam was enough to startle Meiji awake. Whu…what happened?

"Nothing you need to worry about. Go back to sleep."

Okay… he was asleep in seconds.

"How the hell does he do that?" I wondered aloud as I sat back down and pulled out the textbooks. For the next hour I did homework. I worked on math problems, read a few short stories assigned to the class, and was just getting started on a short two-page paper when the door slowly opened. I looked over and was relieved to see Sayori peeking in nervously. "Hey there."

"Oh good, you're still here," she said with relief as she walked over. "I thought you'd gone home already."

"Now why would I do that? My word is my bond, after all."

She looked at me concerned. "I just thought that after today…you'd be too stressed."

"A promise is a promise. Ready to go?"

"Yep!" Her cheerful attitude reappeared instantly, as if her worry hadn't been there at all.

"Great. Let me pack my things and we can get going."

"I'll go wait outside!" Before I could say anything, she bounded out of the classroom.

As I was packing up, Meiji woke up again. Wait, aren't we going to go with Sayori? What happened?

"She just showed up and will be waiting outside." I finished packing and threw the bag over my shoulder like most anime characters do. "By the way, is there a bookstore nearby? I was hoping to get a new manga and a couple of books in preparation for tomorrow."

There is, actually, and it's on the way home.

"Great. Think Sayori will mind if we pay it a visit?"

I don't see why not. We can ask.

"Sounds good to me." I headed down to the shoe lockers, put my shoes back on and walked outside. The sun was getting lower in the west and the sky was getting darker. Sayori was sitting on a benche, whistling the same song I'd sung to her the day before. She looked like a kid as she swung her legs back and forth. When she saw me, she waved and stood, running over. "Hey, ready?"

"Yep!" she held up both her hands in a gesture that reminded me of one of her expressions in the game.

"Good. By the way, is it cool if we stop by the bookstore first? I wanted to buy a couple new manga."

"More manga? Don't you have enough?" she asked.

"There's no such thing as enough manga," I said with a chuckle.

"Meiji…" she looked worried at me.

I raised my hands in defeat. "Tell you what, how about if I promise to buy an actual book and take you to get something small to eat after, will you come?" She began to drool and nodded. "Great! Let's go."

The bookstore wasn't too far out of the way, we just needed to walk about a block away from our street. As we did so, I asked Sayori how the club went. "It went really well," she said excitedly. "We discussed a short story today."

"What story was it?"

She furled her brow, as if trying to remember. "Um…"

"I'd have thought that the vice-president of the Literature Club would know what she read," I teased.

"It's on my tongue's tip!" she said, trying to concentrate again.

"Tip of the tongue, Sayori," I corrected.

"Stop interrupting meeee! Meanie…" I merely chuckled and let her be. Finally, a light bulb must have gone off in her head. "A Horseman in the Sky!"

"Who's the author?"

"Ambrose something, I can't remember the last name."

"I've never read it. Is it good?"

"It's sad," she said. "It's set during the American Civil War."

Huh, why would they be reading American literature?

American literature is just as much literature as Japanese literature, thank you, I replied. "Well, what did the others think?"

"Natsuki didn't like it. She said it was too fancy. Yuri loved it and was telling us what she thought about it a lot."

Sounds like an interesting read even more, I said. "Too fancy?"

"Yeah, it was a little fancy. There were a lot of descriptions in there."

Yeah, Yuri would probably like that more than Natsuki.

If you say so.

I'm reasonably sure.

"Oh, we're here!" Sayori said suddenly. I looked over and, sure enough, we'd arrived at a bookstore. It was smaller than I was hoping, but I didn't let my disappointment show as we headed up the stairs towards the store. As we entered, I took a good look at the store. Immediately to my left was a counter with two registers. Directly across from the register were a few tables where a couple of customers were reading using the light of a few lamps placed equidistantly on the tables. Near the back was where the aisles of books were located, each with a label with genres listed on small boards. The ceiling lights were florescent bulbs which glowed softly. One of the employees, a foreign woman with wavy brown hair, was typing something on a computer while the second, a young Japanese male employee, was busy putting away books.

"Welcome," the male employee greeted us quietly but warmly as the two of us entered. He looked to me like he was a young college student, bright and cheerful. He had somewhat shaggy black hair and brown eyes. He wore a gray set of work pants, a pale blue dress shirt and a black vest that had a tag with his name on it. The woman was wearing similar coloring, but instead of a shirt it was a blouse. "Just a heads up, we're closing in an hour," the man said.

I looked at my phone and the time was 5:23 PM. "We should be done by then, I think," I said.

"Great. If you need any help finding anything, please let any of our staff know."

"I'm going to go look around a bit," Sayori said. Without waiting for a reply, she headed towards one of the aisles and was gone.

"Actually, yes I could use some help. I was looking for a few things," I said, walking up to the employee.

"Great. Well why don't we head over to the counter and I'll look them up for you. Do you know the titles?"

"Yes I do."

"Good," the man said, sliding behind the counter and typing a few things on his computer. "What's the title of the first book?"

"It's a mystery/horror novel called The Portrait of Markov," I replied.

"Do you know the author?" he asked as he typed the name in.

"I'm sorry, I don't. All I know is that there's an eye on the cover."

He typed a few things in his computer and hit enter. "Hmm…we have a few entries. Look here." He turned the screen to me. "Do any of these look familiar?"

I peered at them and one immediately stood out. An image of a book with a dark blue cover and a blood red eye that looked like it was bleeding was one of the choices. I pointed. "I think that's the one."

"I'll be right back." The employee headed down one aisle and after a minute returned with the book. It wasn't very long, much like the way it was described in the game. I looked at the price and was surprised that it was only seven hundred yen. "Is this it?"

I opened the book and flipped through it quickly. "Yeah, this looks like it," I said, closing it and putting it on the counter.

"What's the next inquiry?" he asked, pulling the screen back to him.

"This next one is a manga called Parfait Girls. There should be multiple volumes," I replied.

He nodded and typed it in the search icon. "Author?"

"I don't know that one either, sorry."

He typed a few things in and hit enter. "Oh dear, there are a lot more than last time. Mostly cookbooks." He turned the screen to me again. I looked at the images on the screen until one caught my eye. My eyes widened at the image before me. The book had an image of four cute magical girls on the front. In cute red and white lettering reminiscent of a candy cane, a playful title had been written out: Parfait Girls Vol 1. But that wasn't what had caught my eyes. It was their poses. They were identical to the poses the girls had on Doki Doki's title screen, albeit with these girls having different hair color and length.

"Y-Yeah, that's the one I was looking for," I said.

"You're lucky," the employee said. "We have all the current volumes in. The bundle costs about five thousand yen, though."

Hold on. Before I let you blow six thousand yen on all this, tell me why we're getting this.

This is a manga that's special to one of the club members, I replied. Besides, I think you'll be surprised.

Alright, let's get it.

"I'll take that too," I said. The man walked to a different aisle and came back with a large stack of manga, each a decent thickness. I open the first volume.

Monika's lookalike, named Kiwi Minori, was wearing a black vest with coattails over what looked like a bright emerald green dress. She wore, unlike the others who had white gloves, long white sleeves that left her hands exposed. She was holding some kind of magical wand in her hand that resembled Monika's pen. Her hair was tied in a very exaggerated set of twintails. Her hair was the same color as Monika's save for at the end of the twintails where it transitioned to the same emerald green. Instead of a ponytail, though, this character had twintails which were held in place by emerald green bands. She was wearing a very tiny hat on her head with a small feather in it. Her eyes were green as well and had little hearts in them. Around her neck was a collar with a bowtie on it. She was wearing black thigh-highs on her legs with a green highlight on the top of the tights. Her shoes were black save for the soles which had green on them.

The outfits of the other girls were somewhat similar. Yuri's stand in, named Blueberry Taka, had a black jacket instead of a vest. This didn't escape my eye as it could indicate some kind of problem Taka had that was similar to Yuri. However, the coattails were still there. Her hair was black until it reached the end where it turned purple. Her hair was tied in a long single braid, half of which was bright purple as was her bangs. Instead of a hat, she had a purple rose and feather in her hair. Her eyes were also purple and had the same little hearts. She wore short white gloves. Her thigh-highs and shoes were identical to the others save for the purple coloring. In her right hand she held a thick book with a black and purple cover.

Sayori's stand in, named Strawberry Sayaka, was in Sayori's signature pose but her eyes were closed. I assumed her eyes would be as pink as her outfit. Her hair was long and blonde save for the pink highlights in her bangs and at the end of her loosely flowing hair. Her dress had a fused collar with a bowtie like the one Minori was wearing. Her hat had a bowtie as well, much like Sayori's. She also wore white gloves. Her thigh-highs and shoes were identical to the others save for the coloring difference, this time being pink. In one of her hands she held another wand similar to Minori's, albeit pink.

Natsuki's stand in, named Peach Nakara, had an outfit similar to Sayaka's own, only with her signature coloring being a peach color. Her natural hair color was a darker peach color. She wore a black top hat with a heart on it. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail. The end of her hair and her bangs turned to a brighter peach color near the ends of her hair. She also held a wand in her left hand. It didn't escape my notice that the names of the last three all ended in A while the Monika stand-in ended in I, whereas it was reversed in this game.

"Anything else we can get for you?" he asked politely.

"No, this should be it. Let me grab my friend and we'll be on our way." The man bowed and headed to the counter. I walked up the aisles and found Sayori drooling over a cookbook.

Does that woman never stop eating? Meiji asked, in an amused tone.

Don't be too blasé about it. Overeating can be a sign of depression. I'm not sure if that's the case for her, but it's a possibility.

Oh…I didn't know. I felt his guilt return but I gave him a virtual hug. Thanks…

I looked over her shoulder and saw she was looking at wedding cakes. "Well that does look good," I said.

"Kyaa!" She jumped and dropped the book. "Ah, Meiji, don't scare me like that!" She put her hands on her hips and glared at me.

"Aha, sorry," I said, picking the book back up and brushing the creases out as best I could. "I got what I wanted, ready to go?"

"Yep. I'm hungry anyway."

"Well, I did promise you some small snack. Let's hurry up so we can get you some food," I said as we reached the counter. As the cashier began to ring up my purchases, I asked, "Did you want any books, Sayori?"

She shook her head. "Just food."

"Aha, alright then your majesty," I gave a bow.

Sayori giggled then said in an authoritative tone, "Very well, commoner." She pet my head.

"Am I a dog now?" I chuckled as I handed the cashier some cash. "Woof."

"Good boy," Sayori smiled and pet my head again.

I really have missed this, even if it isn't me doing it, Meiji said.

Soon my friend, soon.

When we left, Meiji led me to a nearby convenience store where I let Sayori roam the aisles with a basket. I bought a small melon soda and egg sandwich and ate the tiny meal while she filled her basket. The cashier, an older gentleman, chuckled. "Your girlfriend has quite the appetite."

"Aha, she isn't my girlfriend," I said. "She and I have been childhood friends for years though."

"Whatever you say, kiddo," he smiled.

She will be though if all goes well, I said.

I'm scared though. What if she rejects me?

Even if she did, it's not the end of the world, I said, sipping on my soda. You're just going to have to move on. It's not your fault if she does, but I have it on good authority she won't.

But it's not a game anymore, he said. Is it?

I'll be honest, I'm not sure if it's a game or not. But the coincidences are too big to ignore.

Sayori came up and placed her basket full of goodies on the counter. I moved over and waited for the man to ring her up. "Think you've got enough to last until dinner?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Ehehe, well Mom texted me and said she had to work late tonight, so I'm buying snacks and dinner me," she said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Well, do you think you have enough still?" I asked, dropping the teasing tone.

"Yep!"

I smiled. "Alright, if you're sure, then I'll get these for you." I paid for the food and took the bags as we headed home. The sun was lower than it had been and it was getting colder. A few clouds, which I identified immediately as altocumulus, were coming in from the west, covering the sun and casting its red glow all across the sky.

"Meiji…are you sure you're okay? Earlier…with the fight?" Sayori sounded worried again.

I smiled reassuringly at her. "Nothing happened after, I promise. We had a brief exchange after school was over but she ran out after I tried to talk to her about it."

She frowned. "What were you thinking, Meiji?! You could have gotten hurt!"

That's what I'd like to know!

I sighed. "Look, that girl has been walking all over me since the term started. I got fed up and finally stood up for myself. I don't deserve that kind of treatment by anyone. No one does. But…I'm sorry for worrying you. I guess I just snapped. I promise I'll be more mindful in the future."

"You better," she said. We walked for a while in comfortable silence. Finally, I saw Meiji's and Sayori's house coming up. I walked past my house and carried the groceries to Sayori's place. She opened the door and said, "I'll take those from you."

"It's alright, I can take them," I said, but she insisted. I handed the groceries to her. "See you tomorrow morning," I said.

"Goodnight, Meiji."

"Goodnight, Sayori." I headed out towards Meiji's house.

So…what are the plans for tonight? Meiji asked.

"I did promise we'd continue One Punch Man, right?"

Right! I could feel the excitement pouring from Meiji as I unlocked the door and entered the house. After I washed my face a bit and put the first volume Parfait Girls and The Portrait of Markov in my bag, I changed out of the school uniform and into some loose pajamas. When I was all settled in for the night, I turned on my laptop and began playing episode six. The two of us watched and laughed together. When the last episode finished, I looked at the clock. "It's past 9 already. We should get some sleep."

Aww, I wanted to watch the specials, Meiji said.

"Tomorrow night, I promise," I said.

You'd better keep that promise, he said as I walked over to turn off my laptop and the television.

"Of course, I will," I said as I returned to the bed and lay down. "Tomorrow is a big day, though. So be prepared."

I certainly hope you're wrong about this world, but if you are, I'll do what I can to make sure what you told me doesn't happen.

"Thanks. Goodnight."

Goodnight.

And with that, I set the phone alarm again and slowly drifted off to sleep…

Progress on this story and the mod it's based off of is coming along. Look forward to future installments.

morbiusgreen