Dho

Chapter 5: Not quite right

The streets of Tokyo were deserted, not a single person in sight. As the sun set Ichika and Eito walked along the muddy stone path through the city. A single piece of paper drifted in the wind like a feather. "Hey do you know where everyone's gone?" Eito asked as he scratched his messy blonde hair. Ichika pondered for a second quickly lifting her head up. "Well it's quite late maybe everyone's inside." By instinct the pair flipped their heads up to see the buildings towering above them. Neither of the pair truly believed what they'd said, something was clearly wrong. Never the less they wondered aimlessly.

"Hey why'd I get hurt? I mean this is Ar." Ichika winced as she remembered the pain endured on her.

"Maybe you tripped on a rock."

"Yes because tripping on a rock causes you to cough out blood." She sighed and shook her head.

"Well I guess they can register when you're being attacked and make an illusion of blood." His face was quizzical.

After walking for what seemed like forever they stopped at a vandalised bus stop. It's battered wood frame worn and splintered. After only one small workout against a demon the exhaustion was finally catching up to Ichika. Eito seemed to be tired too his lab coat sweaty. Ichika stared at his skinny build noticing cuts and bruises on his hands. "Hey why'd you buy this game?" Eito's question caught Ichika off her guard making her flustered.

"I mean really why'd you buy it? The game is only as good as a beta right now. You did notice how there's no intro or how they set a difficulty level by how skilled you were in an entirely different game."

"Well if you want the honest reason, I just wanted to leave my world for just one second and get away from all the stuff around me. My class won't talk to me because I was a coward when my friends needed me most in Sao. My Brother well he-he I don't want to talk about him. Finally my parents are nagging and overprotective." Everything went silent as she spoke, like the whole world was listening in.

"Um that's deep; I meant why'd you buy it even with all those flaws. I guess you did kind of tell me. Well if you're wondering I liked the idea and wanted to see it grow, plus I kind of thought it was finished." After talking so much, Ichika hadn't noticed the time until too late. Quickly grabbing her stuff and standing up. "I've got to go I forgot the time sorry." As Ichika took of the glasses she looked down to her school uniform which was splattered with blood! "Oh hey we go to the same school-" He was cut off as they both noticed the blood on their clothes. "I've got to go." They spoke simultaneously running away.

Two hours later

Ichika slipped into her house being as quiet as a mouse. The lights switched on to reveal her parents and the police. "Miss Akiyama have you been playing demon hunter online?" Ichika's mouth formed a round O then turned to a grimace.

"You're not in trouble we're just giving you a warning to not play the game again. You see it seems the demons are actually people just the game gives them a makeover. Unfortunately due to that fact one of your classmates Miss Goya has suffered from some cuts and bruises." Time slowed down as Ichika watched her parents apologising to the police. When she was being scolded by her parents and finally when she had to apologise to Goya. When Ichika went back to school she sat and listened as the rumours spread like a virus.

"I heard she just beat up Goya!"

"No I heard that she had this boy in the other class do it for her."

"You girls are both wrong I heard that Goya just looked like a demon."

By lunch everyone knew what had happened and Ichika had nowhere to sit (Although she usually wouldn't be allowed to sit anywhere) so Ichika went the only place she could the roof. The roof invited her like an old friend looking exactly the same as it had the last time she came to eat lunch there. As she sat on the only bench there was, she stared at the vending machine and the fences keeping her locked where she was. That's when she heard Eito "Hey looks like I'm not the only person being butchered by the rest of the year." She looked up to see his smiling face as if it was all a joke.

"Welcome to my world."