His life officially went to shit once lunch rolled around.

MC liked to think of himself as a creature of habit. While he didn't consider himself defined by any particular schedule, there was a comfort he found in the certainty of some things in his life. Sayori often complained that line of thinking was, in her words, "totally lame-sauce," but he never let that sway him. He didn't much care for the opinion of someone who didn't adhere to any kind of schedule most of the time anyhow.

Among those aforementioned certainties was his lunch order. A turkey and cheese hoagie, apple slices, water, and a chocolate-chip cookie. It was a healthy mix of protein and fruit to power him through the rest of his school day. The cookie was a guilty pleasure—all work and no play made MC a very dull boy.

His usual routine had been subject to a slight detour, and a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels was now included among his haul. Sayori's snack, as she had eagerly saw fit to remind him barely a minute after classes had broken for lunch. His eyes traveled to the bag, which was barely smaller than his hoagie. 'I'm not sure this really counts as a snack...'

MC was so lost in his thoughts regarding Sayori's worrying diet that he failed to see the small frame turning the corner where the hallway met the cafeteria. A thump, a crash, and all of his plastic-wrapped food found itself on the floor, not far from where their owner had accidentally sprawled onto some poor victim.

The first thing he noticed was the startling shade of pink that invaded his vision. 'That can't be hair, right?' The smell of exceedingly feminine shampoo quickly proved him wrong, and he started to realize that he had probably bowled some poor girl over.

Whoever it was that he was currently lying on top of probably didn't appreciate him gawking at her hair. Quickly, and as non-awkwardly as he could manage, the young man scrambled back to his feet, trying to find his voice. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! You okay?"

The girl was probably the strangest contrast in extremes he had ever seen in his life. She couldn't have been taller than five feet. Everything about her was what he imagined when he thought of the word girly—her hair ties that separated her hair into two twintails, the flashy anime stickers on her bag, and her done-up nails attached to her tiny hands, which were currently trying to help the rest of her body return to the upright position.

That was about where her charm ended, however. Equally pink eyes, framed on a porcelain face free of blemishes, were currently narrowed in what had to have been the most intimidating and disdainful glare he had ever seen in his life. That it was aimed at him only added to his growing apprehension.

His eyes, desperate to look at anything that wasn't the terrifying look attempting to burn holes in his face, fell on what he assumed was the source of the stranger's ire. An opened single-serve carton of milk was clenched in her left hand, its contents splattered all over the girl's uniform. Her torso was almost entirely soaked, and the liquid was starting to progress its way throughout her skirt. The smell of dairy was wafting its way into MC's nose.

Whatever it was he could have said beyond an apology, the girl apparently didn't want to hear it. "Do I look okay to you, you dumb fucking sack of shit?"

Yeah, she was pissed. Her voice was high-pitched, but the words she spoke might have sounded more at home with a drunken sailor than a high school girl. "Uh... no?"

"Obviously, moron," she snapped back. She eyed her uniform, drenched in milk. "Well, this uniform's ruined. Great. Fucking awesome."

The mouth on this girl really didn't match her appearance. Had he mentioned that? "I'm—uh, really sorry. About running into you."

"Oh, really?" Her pink eyes rolled. "Well, that makes it okay then! We can just forget this whole thing ever happened! Because you're sorry."

Yes, he was an idiot for not paying attention. She didn't, however, have to be such an ass about it. "Look, I said I was—"

"I don't give a shit about what you said," the tiny girl quickly cut him off. "If you're really sorry, you'd offer to pay for a new uniform. I don't care about your worthless apology."

Feminine appearance or not, this girl was quickly starting to grate on him. He'd admit he was in the wrong—he'd even agree that it would be the right thing to pay for a new uniform—but to antagonize him like this was another thing entirely. She was turning what was an honest mistake into what she apparently perceived to be a personal attack. It was just a uniform, for god's sake! Clearly, her day had already been bad before this debacle, and MC had become the verbal punching bag.

MC took a breath to collect himself. The quicker he got this over with, the quicker he could put this behind him and forget this angsty pink gnome's existence for the rest of his life. If he had to sacrifice a few dollars to do so, so be it.

He felt around in his pocket for his wallet, only to find himself grasping at air. He did so on the other side of his pants, and was met with a similar result. His blood ran cold.

"Well?" The girl asked, expectantly. After a few more seconds of fumbling around his person, MC's voice rasped out an answer. "I can't find my wallet."

Predictably, he was met with little sympathy. "Well then you better fucking find it, shouldn't you?"

She jabbed a finger into his chest, and MC suddenly felt very small before the girl. "If you don't get the money to pay me back for what you ruined, the uniform will be the last thing you need to worry about." Her smile was all teeth and no comfort. "Got me?"

His mind was running on autopilot. "Got you," he gulped.

"Good. Pray you don't see me before then." She stood up and made her exit, not before stopping and turning one last time. "Oh, and don't bother running or hiding. I'll know if you do." And then she was gone.

It took MC a moment to gather his bearings, and only once he had that did he gather his belongings. Any thoughts of food were forgotten as he trudged into the lunchroom and found his usual seat next to Sayori.

His friend noticed his plight immediately. "Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but you smell kinda milky right now."

That was probably the least of his worries right now. "Hey, Sayori?"

"Hm?" She hummed as she popped open her bag of pretzels and inhaled the first chocolate-covered snack.

"How much do school uniforms cost?"

Sayori gave him a look. "Like, a girls' uniform?"

MC nodded. Sayori's look remained. "MC, when I said I maybe didn't know everything about you, I didn't think that included cross-dressing..."

MC flushed an embarrassed red. "That's not—ugh, let me explain." He gave a quick overview of his predicament, making sure to include as many details as he could remember.

Sayori listened attentively as she nibbled on pretzels. After he finished, she seemed lost in thought for a moment. Her rare bout of silence was enough to put MC on edge. "Sayori?"

"This girl..." Sayori said slowly. "You said she had pink hair?"

"Pretty tough to mistake it."

"And she was short, too? With a real bad temper?"

"Yup," MC confirmed. "Do you know her?"

"That's probably Natsuki," Sayori said. "I have her for a few classes. She's kind of... notoriously mean. Keeps to herself a lot, doesn't have a lot of friends."

MC paled. "Oh my god, did I just dunk milk on a potential school shooter?"

"No, no, she's not that mean," Sayori quickly waved off. "She just... isn't super big on socializing, I guess."

There was a small bit of relief in her reassurance, but it wasn't much. "So, how fucked am I?"

"It's not that bad!" Sayori attempted to cheer him up. "Natsuki's a big ol' meanie, but I bet she's a girl of her word. If you pay back the uniform, she'll probably leave you alone forever after that."

"Probably," MC scoffed. "So, how much is the uniform?"

Sayori wilted. "... three-hundred dollars."

MC's shoulders slumped. He didn't have that kind of cash on him. "Crap..."

"Don't worry!" Sayori, endless ray of positivity that she was, reached across the table and took one of his hands in hers. "You're a smart guy, I'm sure you can think of something! I can help you out, if you need it!"

Desperate as MC was, he wouldn't resort to having Sayori pony up with him to pay for a new uniform. "This is my mess, Sayori. I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not gonna have you help me pay for this."

"So how are you gonna pay for this, then?"

A very good question. One that MC didn't have an answer for currently. In all likelihood, he'd have to explain the situation to his parents (probably beg a little, too), but that wasn't a conversation he was really eager to have.

"I'll figure something out," MC settled on saying. For now, an equally big problem was that he had lost his wallet. He'd have to make a trip to the lost and found after school. Though, that was assuming that no one had made off with it already.

MC sighed. Today had turned into such a mess. Yeah, he wanted some more excitement in his life, but this wasn't the kind he was looking for.

"Hey," Sayori regained his attention. He noticed his hand still lingering in hers. "You okay?"

He felt awful for worrying her like this. With how weird she'd been acting, the last thing she needed was to stress herself over something that had been his fault. She'd probably been looking forward to pizza and a movie tonight.

MC tried for his most reassuring smile. "I'm fine. Promise."

"Don't worry," Sayori grinned. "If she gives you any trouble, I can always talk to her! I'm sure we can figure out something between us girls!"

MC quirked a brow. "Oh yeah? You and what negotiating skills?"

"I can be quite per-sway-sive when I need to be," Sayori sounded out what MC imagined was the word "persuasive" as she confidently placed her other hand on her chest.

Still, he laughed. She really was too good for the likes of him. Lightly squeezing the hand still clasped in his, he nodded appreciatively. "Thanks for worrying about me, Sayori. It means a lot."

Sayori had apparently forgotten about their intertwined hands too, as a blush took over her face upon feeling the squeeze. "O-oh, it's nothing, really! You know I'll always be there for you, MC."

"I know. And I appreciate it." MC rescinded his hand, looking down at her oversized snack. "You just worry about having enough room for pizza tonight, alright?"

"Hey! This really is just a snack!" Sayori pouted, clutching her pretzels defensively. "Besides, I always have enough room for some pepperoni!"

MC laughed. "I'm sure you do."

The lost and found room was, predictably, empty when MC arrived after school. Why they had an entire room dedicated to dropping off lost items, MC would never know. The most students lost on school grounds were pencils, erasers, and other school supplies. Hardly anything that couldn't be easily replaced, or warranted an extensive search in the dinky lost and found room.

That, or they just assumed that no one would be dumb enough to actually lose anything of importance and be desperate enough to look for it here. MC sighed. He guessed that made him the idiot.

The room was oddly well-kept, despite its blatant lack of use. Lost items were neatly grouped, stacked, and labeled for ease of access. Plenty of mechanical pencils, pencil bags, and random sheets of paper. Someone had even left a relatively intact school-issued vest, though it stank to high heaven. Fat chance anyone would bother reclaiming it now.

"Wallets, wallets, wallets..." MC mused as he searched the room. Seriously, who even bothered picking up and dropping off all this junk to begin with? And they couldn't have put a student or someone on the teaching staff in charge of the room to help him look, or at least keep him company? The room was outside, near the athletic fields, and only had one small window that filtered in light. It was creepy being in there alone.

He eventually did find what he was looking for, as a small shelf labeled 'Wallets' sat near the back of the room. "Here's hoping there are still good people in this world," MC muttered as he opened the shelf and dug through its contents.

There were a surprising amount of wallets, but all of them were predictably empty. MC figured that their owners had bought new wallets, and left these old ones up for adoption in the school's lost and found. MC couldn't really blame them—some of the wallets were either clearly made for younger children, incredibly tacky, or both. Still, not included in them was his own wallet.

After another few minutes of searching, MC closed the shelf with a huff. "Figures," he sighed. Realistically, the chances of it being here were beyond low to begin with, but there had been a small part of him holding out hope anyway.

MC retraced his steps. He distinctly remembered having his wallet when he left the house this morning. It had been firmly in his pocket, like it always was. He hadn't thought about it again from that point up until he realized he had lost it during his confrontation with... whatever her name was. Meaning he'd lost it somewhere along the way to school, or during his early classes.

He doubted that he'd lost it on the way. It was a pretty simple walk, and he didn't do anything nearly strenuous enough physically to force it out of his pocket. But then again, he hadn't done so when he'd gotten to school either. Maybe it had fallen out on its own when he had been walking the stairs, or getting out of his desk? No, he would have noticed it then. Hopefully.

Could someone have stolen it? He had only interacted with two people all day—Sayori and the angry jailbait girl. MC would sooner predict nuclear fallout within the next few seconds than Sayori being compelled to steal his wallet, and the mean pink-haired girl—Natsuki, he remembered her name was—had looked a little too preoccupied with cussing him out to swipe his wallet out from under him.

But then, with all scenarios seemingly thought of, when could he have lost it? Could someone have simply snuck it from his pocket while he was walking in the hallways? Had he actually lost it on the way to school? Did he only imagine taking it with him this morning, and was it actually sitting peacefully on his nightstand back home? All the possibilities were beginning to make his head hurt.

Giving up on pondering hypotheticals, he resolved himself to one final search through the lost and found when a loud thunk behind him broke his concentration.

Turning around, nothing was there. The door was still slightly open, and most everything looked to be the exact same. Upon closer inspection, however, one of the shelves hidden along the other side of the room had apparently dislodged itself from its cabinet and fallen on the ground. Approaching the new mess, MC noticed the shelf was labeled 'Miscellaneous'.

There was a good variety of items now spread along the floor, likely the most of any of the other shelves. Keychains, packs of gum, other knickknacks and trinkets. MC thought for a moment, before shrugging. It couldn't hurt to look through the pile, just to see if someone had accidentally placed his wallet in the wrong shelf. Taking to a knee, he began sorting through the junk, hoping to feel a familiar leather among the rubble.

So focused on his new task, MC didn't hear the faint but present sound of footsteps behind him. Or the sound of a heavy object being lifted.

What he did hear, however, was the loud clang of a very painful blunt force slamming into his head. It was the last thing he registered before his body fell limp and his consciousness left him.

MC hated being woken up forcefully. Sleep was a wonderful thing, after all. Worse than being woken up forcefully, however, was being woken up by getting doused with freezing water.

Almost immediately, MC returned to the land of the living, coughing and wheezing in an attempt to dislodge some of the water that had gotten into his nose and mouth. Once that was finally dealt with, he realized he was shivering from the cold water soaking through his school uniform, and reckoned with the fact that his head hurt worse than anything he had ever felt before. His head was pounding, and his ears were still ringing.

Fighting off the grogginess as best he could, he tried to take in his surroundings. Another dinky room, not unlike the lost and found shack at school, but decidedly more barren. Save for the chair he was currently sitting on, that after a moment he noticed he was tightly bound to.

His vision cleared up a little more, and he noticed a figure standing in front of him, holding a big empty bucket. A voice filtered in past the ringing in his ears. "And that makes us even for the uniform, prick."

MC recognized that voice. High-pitched, with word choice straight out of a drunken sailor's vocabulary. Finally regaining full vision, his eyes widened as they took in a petite girl with obnoxiously pink hair. "It's... it's you!"

Natsuki snorted, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, try not to piss yourself. Now, unless you wanna die, I recommend you start telling me where it was you hid that pendant."

We're back, and the action is only just getting started. Thanks for being patient with me, and I hope to have the next chapter published as soon as I can get it out. Until next time!