Midterm

"All right, I hope you guys studied hard!" Mister Tanaka exclaimed in his English accent, a mixture of smiles and frowns peering up at him from their aligned desks. He always tried so hard to make learning fun, but there was nothing fun about English. Not to Daisuke, anyway. He peered over at his exact opposite, who took his pencil in an unfamiliar excitement as the test was placed on his desk. Yasuhiko was so damn perfect, wasn't he?

"Are you all ready?...Okay..." his eyes took a final sweep of the room before calling out, "Start!"

The room filled with sounds of paper flipping and pencils writing. A single tapping could be heard amongst the buzz of busy-bees. Mister Tanaka followed the noise to Izumi's desk, where the brunet could be seen slouching over his test with his cheek falling out of the side of his palm. Ah…Izumi. He must have scored high on his entrance exam given the prestige of the high school, but had absolutely refused to perform. Hopefully he'd improve over summer vacation.

At the sound of the bell, Mister Tanaka called in the tests and received Izumi's drearily. He didn't predict good results, but he tried a smile anyway.

"Izumi, are you doing all right?" he asked, earning a raised brow from the student, "You haven't looked well."

"Oh...it's nothing to worry about. Thanks." he quietly answered before returning to his desk. Mister Tanaka let the science teacher take over for the proceeding period, yet as he made his way out of the room, he caught Daisuke sulking. Hopefully his school year would improve…whatever it was that was inhibiting his progress.

The day wore on and school couldn't have ended sooner. There was no hope of finding peace, however, as he was suddenly bombarded by the upperclassman, Natsume. They'd been neighbors at one point, but she was enjoying the city life, now.

"Daisuke! Daisuke, it's been a while, hasn't it? Are you joining us at Yasuhiko's to-"

"Not interested." he uttered indifferently as he turned away.

"H-Huh? But Daisuke!" she took his wrist, her unexpected strength forcing him towards her, "Um...how'd your midterms go? I...I think I totally failed. Haha!"

Daisuke snatched back his arm and rubbed the sore area as a growl bubbled under his breath.

"...I did all right, I guess." he answered as he started towards the exit, issuing Natsume to run after him, "...Natsume, I told you I'm not interested in The World, anymore."

"But-"

"I have to go to work, okay? Have a good weekend."

Daisuke disappeared down the road, leaving Natsume to sulk over to Yasuhiko, who was waiting at the gate. They took the bus back to his house, but Natsume's previous anticipation had died out with Daisuke's rejection. He really was finished with them; she had refused to believe it before, as Daisuke had once been so tenderhearted and considerate, but now...now...

"So Blackrose wanted to talk?" Natsume snapped out of her thoughts at Shouta's question to Yasuhiko. Compared to their online characters, Shouta probably resembled his the most: like Balmung, Shouta was extremely handsome and, despite his lack of armor, he, too, was a knight in his own way. Instead of wings, he'd come swooping in on his motorcycle and fought with his fists rather than a sword which, to Natsume's surprise, had resulted in a number of school suspensions back in high school. The purple bandana under his bangs apparently hid some nasty scar from a particular encounter, but Natsume suspected it was just part of his style; he resembled the typical biker with his leather jacket and torn jeans, but the moment he flashed his pearly whites, this tough persona would melt away instantaneously. She couldn't believe he'd never had a girlfriend!

"Yeah, she said she wants to talk about Daisuke..."

This issued a scoff from the young biker as he blew a black bang from his eyes.

"What is there to say? He won't talk to us either. The only one that's seemed to get anything out of him is Kaoru."

"Kaoru?" Natsume inquired. Yasuhiko clarified that it was Elk's real name and lived near Daisuke, "Oh wow! I've never spoken much to Elk, but I know that he and Kite are really close, aren't they?"

"They were, but Daisuke's been actively avoiding him, too. Ever since his dad left, he hasn't said much to any of us."

"Oh...that's...so sad." Natsume quietly uttered, "It's no wonder he's stopped responding to my mails. I hope he gets better soon..."

The three of them, now masked by their virtual personas: Orca, Balmung, and Natsume, met Blackrose at the lower level of a dungeon she'd suggested. It was at the Beast Statue that they approached the pink-haired player, who gazed at them concernedly as she began to voice her lack of contact with Kite. Though, strangely, her uneasiness stemmed not from personal reasons, but from the poor condition of the character, Elk.

"Elk? Well...I haven't seen him at school, but I just thought he was sick."

"He wouldn't say it outright, but I could tell that he wanted to talk to Kite." Blacrose explained. "I think they talked about this kind of stuff a lot. He feels that he can't even turn to ME anymore."

"But is he okay? What exactly happened?" Shouta pursued.

"He's...okay for now, I think. He said his mom's in the hospital, but he didn't say why. Just that...Kite would know. I guess this has happened before. Kite didn't mention anything to you guys, did he?"

"Uh...well not about Elk. In fact, I didn't realize they were this close." Blackrose nodded at Shouta's comment.

"I think it was after the Mia incident that they began to bond. I hardly ever saw one without the other for a while. I was just...I mean...do you think there's any way you can convince Ki—er...Daisuke to log back in again?"

Balmung and Orca exchanged doubtful glances, and Natsume wasn't any more optimistic. Would Elk change the outcome of their previous attempts?