Childhood Part XII – Fated Meeting – Start
A week had passed since Komaru and Tsumugi became friends.
Thanks to that, it had become quite the common sight to see the otaku girl at the Naegi's house, slowly but surely she was getting more comfortable with being who she is around her new friends.
At school, things have improved slightly. While Hotaru and her friends are still a nuisance, Tsumugi now had people she knew cared about her, so, the blue-haired girl cared each time less about the redhead that tormented her.
Speaking of her friends.
Right now Komaru and her friends are having lunch by the tree on the back of school.
"The costume party is approaching." Hina comments while looking at her friends eating.
Or just Komaru, who was chewing down on her lunch box.
"Owh yweah!" The brunette says while chewing on some of her food. "I totawy fowgot!"
Chieko hits the other girl on the arm. "Don't speak with your mouth full, idiot!"
"Sowry!" Komaru yells.
"You're doing it again!" Chieko yells back.
As the two girls argue in the background, Hina turns to a smiling Tsumugi. "Do you have your costume already, Tsumugi-chan?"
The blue-haired girl nods negatively. "No." She then scratches her cheek. "I probably won't even use one."
Komaru and Chieko stop fighting in the back. "Huh? Why not?" The brunette asks, now focusing her attention on Tsumugi.
"I'm just not a fan of wearing costumes." Scratching the back of her head, the otaku explains.
Chieko crosses her arms. "Huh? But I thought you liked to cosplay."
Tsumugi shakes her head. "I like cosplay, I don't like to cosplay." The other girls look at each other with a confused expression.
"Why not?" Komaru asks, looking towards the other girl.
"Oh, well… how can I say this…" Tsumugi looks to the sides before smiling sadly. "I just don't feel like it looks good, I may be okay at making the costumes, but wearing them is a different story." The girl waves her arms. "Plus, I don't think I'll look that good in anything anyways." She whispers herself, thinking no one would hear her.
But Komaru did hear the other girl, and she would let her be down on herself. "I disagree!" The brunette exclaims while getting up. "You'll look amazing in any costume, Tsumugi-chan!"
The blue-haired girl blinks. "R-Really, I d-don't-"
"Shut it, you'll look amazing and I'm going to prove it!" Komaru gets up and points to the blue-haired girl. "We're going shopping for costume today after school!" Tsumugi tries to open her mouth to say something, but Komaru doesn't allow her to say anything. "And I won't accept no as a answer!"
"O-Okay." Tsumugi nods slowly. She was very confused about the other girl's outburst, but she couldn't deny that she was quite happy by hearing Komaru complementing her.
As the girls continued their lunch. Watching them from behind a tree is a smirking Hotaru.
"A shopping trip, huh?" The redhead smirks maliciously.
Makoto sighs while looking outside of the window in his class, while the talk he had with his mother had helped him clear his mind, doubt still existed within his heart.
He wanted Chiaki to accept the invitation.
Yet, he hoped she would refuse.
He knew it was better for her future to accept.
Still, he hoped that she gave that up for the sake of their friendship.
Makoto bangs his head against the desk and sighs again.
"Okay buddy, that's the fourth sigh in 5 minutes." Eiji walks up towards his friend's desk looks at him. "What's wrong?" The brunette opens his mouth to deny that anything was wrong, but Eiji lifted his fingers, making him stop. "And don't try to deny it!"
Sighing again, Makoto turns to his black-haired friend. "Let's say, hypothetically that a friend of yours is going to a far away place." Turning to look towards the window, he continues. "But if you talk to them, they will change their mind. Would you do it?"
The black-haired boy crosses his arms. "That's a tough question." He sits down at Makoto's desk. "But I think I wouldn't."
Makoto looks down to the floor. "Even if it hurts you that they are gone?"
Eiji looks forward. "Yep." He replies without any hesitation. "Especially if that is what they want."
A silence falls between the two boys. "I see." Makoto looks up towards the ceiling. "It's funny you know, Okaa-san said the same thing." Opening a soft smile, the brunette gets up. "And you two are right. I should absolutely support her on whatever she decides." He turns to face his black-haired friend. "Thanks Hino-kun."
Eiji jumps from Makoto's desk and turns to his friend. "Glad I helped." He then points to Makoto's bag. "Now, can we study a little bit?" Eiji scratches the back of his head. "Ya know, just the guarantee that our presentation will go well?"
Nodding, the brunette opens his bag and pulls out his notes for their assignment presentation in the next class. "I agree, we have a lot to go through."
And so, the two boys studied for their presentation on the cultural differences between Novaselic and Japan.
"Finally! We're free!" Eiji yells while throwing his hands onto the air.
Makoto giggles as he watches his friend excitedly walking out of the school. "I believe that was the last big assignment before the final tests in two weeks."
The black-haired boy stops and turns around to face his friend. "Oh man! I forgot about the tests!"
"If you need, I can help you study." The brunette offers as the two stop by the front gate.
"That'll be great." Eiji replies, turning around. "Well, seeya tomorrow Naegi-kun!" With that, the black-haired boy runs away towards the city.
Makoto waves to his friend before entering the park.
Chiaki's father was home today, so she had already gone home.
They would meet later in the afternoon to go shopping for costumes.
The boy stopped at the park and gazed towards the bench where he and Chiaki hanged out.
A soft smile grows on his face as the memories of when they first met come back to him, together with all of his other wonderful memories that the mauve-haired girl was part of.
Then, his heart sank.
My days would be very different if Chiaki-chan is not around.
He tightens his fists and walks towards the lake by the park.
The brunette sits down by the grass and looks towards the lake. "I know what I should do." Picking up a rock, Makoto throws it at the lake. "Argh!" The boy groans in frustration. "Then why can't I do it?"
The rock skips twice, before sinking to the bottom of the lake.
Suddenly, another rock is thrown and that one skips over the entire lake, only stopping when hitting the ground on the other side.
"If you put too much force when throwing the rock, it won't go far." A feminine voice says making Makoto turn to face this new presence.
Standing there with rocks in her hands is a girl with short strawberry blond hair and bright blue eyes.
She was beautiful.
"O-Oh? Is that so?" The boy asks feeling his cheeks burning up just from looking at her.
"Yep." The girl approaches him, before turning towards the lake and throwing another rock. "If you want the rock to reach the other side-" Just like before, the rock skips over the entire lake and hits the ground on the other side. "-you'll need the correct amount of strength, precision, accuracy and a good angle to throw it."
Makoto watches as the girl grabs another rock from the ground and throws it, once again hitting the other side.
She knees down and picks up another rock, before turning to the brunette and offering it to him. "C'mon try it." She winks.
Makoto looks at her hand for some seconds, before getting up and grabbing the rock, then he turns towards the lake and throws it.
The rock skips two times and sinks down once again.
"Still not there yet." The blond goes behind the boy and wraps her arms around his. "Let me show you how it's done." She smiles.
The boy's cheeks burn bright red, when he feels her breathing synchronizing with his. "Huh?" But he also feels something else.
A strange feeling, almost like…
Familiarity.
"Now you throw it at this angle." After positioning his arms in the correct angle to do the throw, instead of letting him go, the girl hugs his chest and continues. "Now, you need to throw it with a little bit of force, not too much, just a little."
Holding onto the rock, Makoto takes a deep breath and throws it.
One, two, three and four.
On the fifth skip, it reaches the other side.
Finally letting go of him, the girl clasps her hands together and smiles. "There! If you know the trick, then it's pretty easy to make it go all the way!"
"Y-Yeah! You're right!" The brunette smiles back, but his smile disappears as he looks more closely to her face. "Say…" She looks towards him. "Have we met before?" His hazel eyes lock with her blues one and for a second, he could swear that he knew this girl from somewhere.
He just couldn't pinpoint where.
Blinking, the blond walks back and puts a finger on her cheek. "I don't know." Then, she gives him a mysterious smile. "Or maybe I do. Who knows?" She puts hands behind her head. "I'm pretty famous."
"Wha-" He is interrupted when the girl launches forward and gives him a hug.
"You're just as wonderful as I've been told." The blond holds onto him.
"W-Wait." Makoto blinks and she has already separated their hug.
"Well, it's time for me to go, I'm a pretty busy gal, ya know?" She turns around and runs away. "See you around-" With a smirk that made Makoto shiver, the girl whispers. "Ma-ko-to!"
With that, the girl runs away, leaving Makoto very confused.
The boy is stunning for some seconds. "How does she know my name?" He asks himself, before finally noticing that she was already gone. "Wait!" He yelled, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Who was that?" The boy closes his eyes and asks himself.
The feeling of her body with his, why was it so familiar, yet, so uniquely strange?
Childhood Part XII – Fated Meeting – End
Bet y'all aren't expecting Junko Enoshima to appear.
In all honesty, neither did I.
This chapter was written on a whim, and it may or may not screw me over in the future, but that is a problem for future me to figure out.
Now, to answer one of the readers about Yui.
It's complicated.
She will obviously appear on the story, through Kyoko's flashbacks, but I still on the fence about whether or not she will be alive and be an active character on the story.
Ideias for her I do have, and let me tell ya, they are fucking insane, but I still haven't decided if I will make them a reality.
So, I shall throw that question at the readers, should I include characters from the novels here?
Originally, I was just going to use Shinobu Togami and the characters from Zero.
Anyways, that was the chapter, hope y'all like it!
See you around!