[I] Eyes and Eyes (Solo Thread)

[Takumi Nishijou]

A gaze fell from heaven. Those eyes always look at me. His gaze, piercing the clouds of the sky and the walls everywhere, falls on me like rain. An anonymous look pierced me from the sky, and as if trying to escape from that look, I focused my eyes on the screen in front of me. All I see is a destroyed stage, all I see is despair, all I see is death, there is nothing left there anymore.
There was no one there, no one moved, no one was still alive. All I can hear is the background noise. It would have been nice if none of this had happened, if it had been just another delusion. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

“Damn it! These guys are impossible! Even when I gave them of my valuable time to advise them how to make the dungeon!”

Currently the screen was showing a room from my favorite game, Empire Sweeper Online also known as ESO the screen was showing one of the game's dungeons, and currently my character as well as everyone else on my team had died. All because of the retards of my colleagues, who were not able to follow my instructions. Anger at this failure leads me to just quit the game.
“No, it’s cool, I just have to go in as Lieselotte, kill them and steal their items…”
My anger subsided slightly as I thought about what I would have to do next. After all, with my main Reinhardt account it would be a terrible stain on the honor I have accumulated over the years to attack other players, but for those moments I have an additional account that I use to vent my frustration.

After calming down my anger, I stared at the ceiling, at that moment I was at my base. Although I call it that way, it is not like an ordinary house, it was a container located on the terrace of an apartment building managed by my father, the container does not have windows, so the only source of light inside it was the lamp located on my desk, thanks to that it was impossible to know if it is day or night, unless you have a clock.

“My name is Takumi Nishijou, I am 17 years old and I am in the second year of Suimei Academy. Although the truth is that I rarely go to school, since grades have never been a problem for me. I always take the final and partial exams, and I have gotten very good grades on them… in other words, I am very intelligent.”

I said this out loud, like I was talking to someone in my base, and even though I know I'm not, the darkness that rules this place mostly exacerbates people's fantasies. It could be that something is there, where I can't see it, in the unknown.
“Damn! I have this horrible habit of stimulating my own paranoia…”
To avoid dwelling on it too much, I continued with my monologue.

“Currently I am alone… that is, I do not live with my parents. This “Kurenai” building is under the management of my father's construction company, so the rental price for this container on the terrace of the building is especially cheap. There is a good view from here, in the area where I live you can see the surrounding mountains of Shibuya , but likewise, it is tiring to walk the sloping streets and, as if that were not enough, the motel district is nearby... Thinking about that makes me want move to Akiba … but instead I'm in Shibuya , a place as bad as that recent dungeon in ESO”

That dungeon usually has dire beasts with very rare attacks and doesn't drop interesting items, it's a horrible dungeon that only low-level players frequent, everyone with neuron usage goes through there once and proceeds to the next town. Of course, I did the same.

“That's why this city full of criminals and such capitalist people should destroy itself, although being inside my base brings the annoyance to a level that I can tolerate. Thanks to my Master Race computer and my perfect internet connection, that I call this place my base.”

Thinking how foolish it was to keep talking to myself, I put my brilliant monologue aside for whoever was watching me, and focused on the ground at my feet.
“Ugh, this place is a pigsty.”
The floor covered with an upholstery to insulate the heat was covered with rubbish. Empty plastic bottles, full garbage bags left by various sites, not to mention some convenience store food boxes lying around as well. My bed was full of boxes of erotic games, so I was forced to sleep on the sofa.
“Someone should clean this place up… although I was the one who left it like this to begin with… hee-hee.”
After getting frustrated with my bad joke, I kicked a bottle that was on the floor, with such bad luck that the same bottle bounced off the walls of the container and headed towards the shelf with my more than 100 wives, sisters and daughters. I barely had the reflexes to stop the bottle before a catastrophe struck, but that didn't stop a cry of despair from leaving my mouth.
I made sure there was no danger to my precious collection, these girls are the only ones who can heal my heart from the filth of this city. And in exchange for that I have made sure to arrange their shelf once a week, in addition to making sure that they are all at the best angles to contemplate their splendid figures, and I have also taken care that not a single gram of dust sullies them.

After having saved the situation, I looked at my computer screen again. My personal computer is on the left, while another one, not so powerful, is on the right, I have used it to search for news, to watch anime, and any other miscellaneous query that I may need. And between the two screens is my figure of Seira-tan in 1/3 scale in pre-awakening version.

“Seira… how cute you are Seira…”

The figure gazes at me with an adorable pose, its eyes sparkling. She is without a doubt the one closest to my heart, without Seira in my life, I probably would have succumbed to this derisory society.

“Okay then, let's go back to ESO”

Within the game there is the RMT system to convert in-game currency into real money, thanks to that I could live without having to get a part-time job for a long time, and if it wasn't because I needed the credits in college, I wouldn't even go. Being able to study on the internet, I was forced to create a minimum attendance table with which I can graduate without problems as long as I go to school 2.5 times a week.
“The guys who go to school every day look down on me and call me nasty otaku, but from my perspective it's the ones who go because they're told and stop thinking for themselves who deserve to be called idiots truly."
While I was thinking about it, a close acquaintance from ESO talks to me over the external in-game chat, his name is Grimm Ram, of course we have never met in person, but we always talk online and play on ESO, Grimm Ram informs me of all sorts of happenings outside. After seeing his call, I sat in my chair and began to chat with him.
Not being face to face, I feel much more comfortable talking about all sorts of things, and with Grimm Ram this was the case, although it's always seemed like a bad joke to me when he starts talking about 3D girls, in which I am not interested.

Suddenly, a user that I had never seen before entered the chat room, under the name of “Ronin”, and although Grimm Ram and I greeted him, the subject decided to remain silent.
“What the hell? Are you ignoring us? Well, I don't care anyway, that's the good thing about the internet, you don't have to worry about useless interpersonal relationships.”
Deciding to leave the subject alone, I continued my conversation with Grimm Ram, who was telling me about something shocking that has happened in the 3D world and that seems to be called the New Revolution of Madness. After doing a quick search, I find that it refers to a series of murders that have occurred in Shibuya in recent days, in which a total of 7 victims have been counted to date, including a fetus. Apparently the first case was a group jump of 5 people with apparently no connection from a very high building, and the second case being that of a man who had a fetus inserted into his stomach. Because the gang jump case involved people with no connection and whose families claimed to be people who would never commit suicide, it is being treated as a homicide case.
and despite the fact that I asked him not to tell me more about it since it was related to a gore murder case, he sent me a link that he proclaims is an image of one of the victims. Under normal circumstances I would not open the link, but thinking that it could hurt the pride of the great Reinhardt, treated even as a God in the game, possessor of all knowledge and a just and firm being, I felt obliged to observe the link. But to my surprise, it's just a poorly drawn doodle of what appears to be a man with many crosses stuck to his body, the doodle didn't even have color.
After having picked up on Grimm Ram’s joke, we talked a little more about nonsense and finally he withdrew from the chat, leaving me alone with that Ronin who until now had not said a word. I was about to leave when suddenly a link is shared by Ronin. After being silent for so long and suddenly sharing an image, I thought about ignoring him and paying a visit to the bathroom, but suddenly Ronin himself started sending links in impossible numbers at a great speed.
Anxiety begins to climb through my body like a filthy beast, and again I feel that look, the sensation forced me to look behind me, but as always, I found nothing or nobody, it was like an indefinite terror, something that, although I should already Being used to feeling doesn't give me a bit of calm.
When I was little, I thought that that gaze was God's gaze, and at that time it gave me a certain security to think that God was watching me, as if he were watching over me from afar, I even wrote an essay about it for school, the title of it was "whose eyes are those eyes?". But as I got older and put childish ideas aside, I realized how disturbing that feeling was, and that he couldn't be a benevolent God if he could cause such a mess in my emotions just by looking at me.
Suddenly my room, as familiar as it could be, started to feel like something different, similar to the feeling after watching a horror movie, or hearing a scary story, my body is completely tense and the fear is palpable. All for this guy who is surely a troll

“Ah, wait--!”

But when I moved my hand, shaky from the current sensation, to try to close the chat, my finger inadvertently clicked on one of the shared links. And as soon as my eyes fixed on the image that appeared, a guttural sensation came over me, even without being able to clearly define what that image was, its figure was so distorted that I couldn't clearly tell what it was, it reminded me of one of those works made by the self-proclaimed avant-garde artists, those who make works focused on gore and claim that it represents the chaos of the world. Nonetheless…
“Is it possible to be delirious with the smell of blood so vividly that I feel dizzy? Is it possible to be delirious so strongly with that smell that I feel nauseated?"
With difficulty I moved my hand despite the nausea to try to close the tab. But what jumped out at me was a single text from Ronin: “Whose eyes are those eyes?”

Hours later. I was looking at my minimum attendance chart, after that I had to spend almost two hours curled up on the sofa, trying to stop the nausea and terror that invaded me after Ronin's last words. Questions like the possibility of my personal information being leaked went through my head. It wouldn't be impossible for it to be someone with a grudge against Reinhardt, just as I have many allies, I also have enemies, although those enemies were basically envious of Reinhardt's success, as a side effect of being popular.
However, that was not important, after missing the live broadcast of my favorite anime, I was forced to watch the recording after that, and after trying to play ESO a bit, I realized that I couldn't concentrate due to Ronin being in my head, so I couldn't enjoy my game, and that's how it arrived, the worst possible day. In other words, today I have to go to school, and although I don't want to, if I fail to meet my table, my calculations will fail, and I may even have to repeat a grade.

I endured my urge to stay at my base, and left the building through which it would take me ten minutes to get to the school. And almost as soon as I was on my way, my spirits progressively sank. My body felt heavy, my breathing became difficult to bear, and soon sweat began to ooze from my body. However, this is what always tends to happen when I go to school.
After taking a right turn, I entered Shintou Park, on the other side of it was the school, and from here I could see housewives taking a walk, or employees in suits sitting near the edge reading newspapers. After taking a moment to eat something by the lake, I head towards my school, always keeping a low profile, keeping my head down and avoiding any eye contact, my goal for my school life is to go completely unnoticed, and to achieve this, staying invisible as air is important.

As I entered the school building, in my mind I was reciting over and over again “don't look at me, don't talk to me”. As a side note, my younger sister by only a few months also attends this school, but she still lives with my parents. The days in which I run into her end up being tragic days because of this, but fortunately today was not one of those days, and I managed to get to my classroom without much inconvenience. I quickly go to my seat and when I sit down I focus my eyes on the table, imitating the position of sleeping on my position, normally I would stay in that position until the start of classes, but suddenly I felt a tap on the shoulder.

“Hey, Taku”

With the fright, I raised my head quickly.

“today is a school day for you?”
“Misumi- kun …”

The boy sitting in front of me was Daisuke Misumi, he was a handsome boy and all the girls seemed to like him, and for his part, he has declared that he likes all of them too. Being someone who openly dates more than one girl at a time, he would be classified as a delinquent, if possible I wouldn't want to have any relationship with him, but…

"You're always looking down. Lots of gaming and little sleep?"
“No… not really.”

He was the only person in the class who spoke to me, to the point that I couldn't help but wonder why he should talk to me, when our hobbies and personalities are so different. It is something that always puts my head to ponder since a few months ago that we began to interact with each other. If I were a woman, I could understand it in some way, but since that’s not the case, I can't understand why he is speaking to me.

"I guess it's because you're a hikikomori, you can't help it then, but you should still try to cheer yourself up a bit more, respond with more joy"

Answering himself, Misumi makes an illogical request, since anxiety prevents my voice from coming out correctly, interacting with 3D people is almost painful. Also, I would like to make it clear at this point that I am not a hikikomori. They are locked up 24/7, 365 days a year, I am different.

“But more importantly… yesterday I conquered the third girl in our class. Do you want to know who she is?”

After cautiously looking both ways, Misumi lowered her voice and directed a totally irrelevant question at me.

“No… no need, really…”
“Don't say that, show a little more interest. I'll tell you, it was Tanaka”
“But who is Tanaka?”
“What’s that? We are almost in October and you still don't know the names of your classmates? Although it is natural, since you are not interested in 3D…”

Exasperated, Misumi shrugged and let out a sigh. But despite that, to date he has not belittled me for my tastes, that is, for my love of 2D characters. He hasn't called me weird or creepy either, probably because it's not his style to begin with, he's never gone too far with me. It is perhaps because of all this that, despite the fact that in principle he fits the profile of a delinquent, I don't see him as such, and for this reason, without realizing it, I end up talking to him when he approaches me.

“And with her, I've already captured pretty much all the cute girls in the class. It might be time to turn my eyes to the next class.”

On the other hand, maybe he's not as nice a guy as I thought… if the girls heard what he said, they would probably fall on him like an angry mob.

“But aside from things you don't know, have you heard of the New Revolution of Madness?”

I was honestly surprised that Misumi knew about it, to me he was only interested in other girls, although after listening to him talk a bit more, it seems that he only read about it in a sports magazine, on suspicions that the group jumping case was actually a homicide.

"And besides that, rumors say that the murderer is a girl, and that she is also beautiful!"

Listening to this part, I could understand why Misumi had found out about the case, even to the point of reading about it.

“I'm really… not interested in the subject, so…”
Wait, the perpetrator is said to be around the area, so you might even end up finding her, make sure that she doesn’t kill you dude.”

The subject began to turn more unpleasant for me, so the ratio of my responses began to decrease, and before Misumi lost interest completely, the homeroom began with the arrival of the teacher, cutting off the conversation abruptly, something that I certainly appreciated in my mind.

Later that same day, I left my base to buy dinner. I went to the nearest store in my neighborhood, which took me three minutes from my base, but unlike other days, at one point I felt that I was lost, disoriented. Even if I recognized the place, it was as if I had first come here. I stopped for a moment, hoping the sensation would go away, or maybe, to understand where I was. And in plain sight was something lying at the end of the street.
Sensing a rotten smell, like garbage, I assumed that it was a garbage bag, one that also seemed to have been broken since its apparent contents were slightly scattered on the ground. But as soon as I got a couple of steps closer, I realized that it was the corpse of a cat, and what I thought was the contents of the bag turned out to be its entrails.

“Ugh …it can't be…”

A strange sensation began to cross my skin when I saw the gruesome spectacle, but I would inevitably have to go another way now that my usual route had been blocked. As soon as I turned around, however, another cat, this time alive and black as the night itself, stared at me, its piercing eyes seemed to want to express something, like danger or some ill omen, but after a few seconds looking at me the animal ran away.
I stayed silent for a few seconds, but then on impulse, I turned my eyes back to where the other cat was, and to my surprise, now there was nothing in its place, not even a trace of blood, it didn't take me too long to figure it out. To think of a reason, since it is something more common to me.
“Again… a delusion. It must be because of all those gory things I saw yesterday, I've always had a very powerful imagination, and the more details I receive, these kinds of episodes tend to happen to me... sometimes I even end up screaming in fear, but luckily it never happened to me in a place full of people, like the school or the street in the middle of people… I am lucky that this time too, there is hardly anyone around.”
I let out a calming sigh, but at that moment I realize something that before with the cat thing, I hadn't. It was a sound, a repetitive noise that from some time began to rumble in the street. When I looked at the ground at the end of the street, there were many “shiny things” scattered on the asphalt. Its shape was like crosses, and as if I was attracted to them, I approached to take one of them. I realized at that moment that the crosses were made of metal, and that they also had a sharp point like a needle, together it looked like a cross-shaped stake.
The sound that was still repeated was cold, and it was repeated at intervals, and as if I was drawn to the source of the sound, my feet would not stop walking forward. Meanwhile the sound did not stop, that sound of something being hammered was heard getting closer as I walked forward. Its origin was to the left of the next alley, if I turn towards the place, I will discover its source. And turning the corner, what I saw was…
Embodied on the dark wall, a bright red. The first thing that crossed my mind was that I had already seen something similar to this. It was something similar to a hedgehog, or flowers with many thorns, an incredible number of stakes kept it attached to the wall, observing more carefully, I could confirm that a large amount of blood was coming out of the stakes, and the bright red was about a pool of blood, and with the dim light from the only nearby lamppost that red became more vivid, and at that moment my brain finally processed the scene in front of me, that nailed with hundreds of stakes was the body of a person.
But the most terrifying thing was not the cruelty and suffering that the man would have probably gone through, but that the one who had caused said act of malice was simply a girl. I could tell for sure because the girl in front of the body nailed to the wall was holding several of those stakes in her hands. It was then that I remembered why my first feeling was that I had seen this somewhere.

"It's... it's the photo... Ronin sent yesterday!"

Without realizing how dangerous it was, I raised my voice, causing the girl's shoulders to shudder slightly, I had made the terrible mistake of revealing my presence, her body turned slowly and... her gaze pierced me, such darkness in her eyes it could only come from a ruthless killer, and even so, his expression turned into a calm smile, totally out of tune with the situation.

“Ah… I'm… so happy…”

Such words came out of her mouth, even though they were meaningless, why would she be glad that someone saw her killing somebody? It is here that I finally begin to recover my train of thought, and coming out of the stupor of the scene in front of me, I began to receive alerts from my brain, alerts that I had to leave that place, first my gaze diverted elsewhere, but before I could take the first step in another direction…

“Taku … I really wanted to see you…”

She suddenly said my name, despite the fact that I have never seen her in my life, let alone told her my name, and after saying these last words, her smile seemed to turn into something terrifying, my body was invaded by the fear, forcing me to run, while screaming heartbreakingly. I kept screaming, even though it started to get hard to breathe, and above all, I didn't stop running. And even though I turned a few times to see if she was following me, the girl was nowhere to be found.

When I got to my base, I was still out of breath, to mitigate the exhaustion, I took a soda from the mini fridge and drank it at once. I couldn't understand what had just happened, I wasn't sure if it was a delusion either, because I had never had one so real and bloody to begin with, can a delusion take my breath away like this?
I couldn't believe such a thing, it felt totally out of place, just like something I felt in my right hand, I didn't realize until now that I had clenched my fists so tightly while running, but what I had in my palm was, a stake. In the palm of my hand, a stake identical to the one in the alley, plus a confirmation that this was not a delusion.
In terror I threw the stake anywhere, the metallic sound tinkled a couple of times inside the container before it stopped ringing, after having calmed the whirlwind of fear and confusion a bit, I remembered the girl's face and the " work of art” that Ronin had sent me. If I had one of those stakes, what had happened was inevitably real.

In an attempt to organize my thoughts, I began to formulate a list of events and mysteries that have occurred in this short time. First it is worth mentioning the phrase "whose eyes are those eyes?" that only I was supposed to know, but that it was written by Ronin, then there is the image that he sent, and that a day later turned out to actually happen, finally the demon girl that I found at the scene, and who knew my name.

“There is no doubt… that image was like a warning of what was to come, after all there is no way that the demon girl could imitate what is seen in the image so faithfully. So, the demon girl is probably Ronin himself, and she has some method of pre-rendering the crime scene she has in mind to carry out, she probably thinks of her crimes as a work of art…”

In a matter of minutes, I put together a whole ruse and profile for the demon girl, thinking it fits what a psychopath would do, but I still haven't figured out why she would show the crime she had planned to me? And how did she discover my true identity? But before these questions, something became clearer to me, and that is that if she could know about my identity and my past, she surely knows where I live.

“I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die!”

The terror of thinking that at any moment the demon girl would reach my base makes me grab my head and repeat the same prayer to nothingness.

“Everything will be fine”
“Huh?”

In front of me was Seira-tan, leaning on my keyboard and smiling warmly.

“Takki, you should stay locked up here, so that demon girl can't get you! After all, it's a matter of time before the police catch her~ but until then, you shouldn't trust anyone or pay attention to what others say.”
“But Seira…”
“They say that sometimes running away is a victory in itself, so just forget about everything 3D, it's all foreign to you and you'll feel better that way! There's no point thinking about things that don't concern you~”
“M-maybe you're right…”

Seira's figure, which was on the keyboard before, is now only the same as the one on my desk, looking forward, I take that figure gently in my hands, no matter how close I bring her to my face, her beautiful smile doesn't disappear and does not make gestures of displeasure.

“Thank you Seira! Thanks to you I have gained some courage. The third dimension can go to hell, and that demon girl wouldn't be interested in an otaku like me either. I just have to keep playing like every day, and watching my favorite anime."
"But don't let your guard down either!"
“I understand, I shouldn't trust anyone, I won't listen to anyone, and I'll be cautious with the third dimension… I'm really glad you care about me Seira.”

Once the crisis was over, my heart was able to calm down enough, and to change my mood, I decided to play more ESO for the rest of the night.

[Takumi Nishijou]

Almost a day later, I was elated after having found a rare item in ESO that I had been looking for a long time, however, with the excitement of the moment, which had even managed to effectively erase from my mind the bad times of recently, a knocking noise was heard in the container, and a loud voice that, to my misfortune, I knew very well.

“Hey!! O-PEN-UUUP!! Idiot brother!!”
“Oh… no.”
“If you don't open, terrible things will happen!”

In a normal situation I wouldn't open it, but if I do that she'll surely tell my parents, and they'll end up deciding that I should go back to live with them, after all the owner of the building is my father, if he wanted he could take me out without problems. Resigned to what I had to do, I got up from my chair and removed the interior padlock to open the container door.

“Ah, you finally opened. With that I confirm your survival! Since you didn't respond I was starting to think you were dead… Uwah, this place is a mess, you should clean up once in a while.”

The girl with a small and thin complexion enters my base as if it were her own, Nanami has always been more of a nuisance than anything else to me. Nanami is a 4.9 feet tall girl, with naturally blonde hair reaching to her chest and her eyes a shade of purple. She always wears a black headband and this time she is in her school uniform, probably going out of her way home to visit.

“This place is a garbage dump, even though I always tell you to clean it up, why don't you do it...ah, maybe I should come clean once in a while~”
“B-but I refuse…”
“Why? Even though I am offering to help you!”
“Because I d-I don't want you messing with my stuff.”
“You're amazing, sometimes I wonder how you could become someone like that, how terrible… ah, I got a little thirsty so I'll have a drink…”

With difficulty Nanami reached to the bottom of the container and opened the mini fridge next to my desk, before reaching for one of the bottles of soda that I had already started drinking.
“How could my sister have become so haughty? I wish you would ruin your stomach from drinking soda, that you go to the hospital and stop bothering me…”
Nanami 's voice takes me by surprise, the bottle still with liquid inside falls to the floor, spilling its contents on the tapestry and some of the CDs on the floor, but before I could claim Nanami for the disaster. I notice that she herself also seems to be feeling something strange. Her eyes were wide open as she clutched her neck.

“Ugh… uguuh. ugh…”

Her mouth opened and closed rapidly as she began to cough violently. In a matter of seconds, the cough caused Nanami to spit out of her mouth, she spit out blood, blood darker than the usual red as it was mixed with the black soda she had drunk, and shortly after Nanami herself fell into that puddle of soda and Contaminated blood, her body began to convulse desperately while she tried to dig her fingers into her neck, as if she wanted to tear it apart.

“Haah, haa, Gaaaaah — “

After that, Nanami started making noises that seemed to imply that she wasn't getting enough air to breathe, kicking in all directions, an analogy being a fish out of water.

“Aaah … aaaaaahh … geh, gah, uuaah … degh … iiih …”

Nanami 's screams in agony, and little by little the sounds coming from her faded, until the room was completely silent again.

“Nanami?”

When everything happened, I finally called her name, with no answer, and after moving her a bit and finally putting my ear to her mouth, I was able to confirm that she had stopped breathing, Nanami was dead.
At that moment I remembered the detective series and since in some cases food is poisoned to kill the victims, it was then that it all made sense to me. I had poisoned the soda to kill Nanami.

"To all this, why did I kill her?"

At that moment, a sound similar to turning off one of those old televisions resounded in my head along with a flicker, and all the bloody scene described so far disappeared. Instead, there was only Nanami finishing her bottle of soda.

“Uehhh …”

In other words, what had just happened was one of my delusions, but when I realized it, I thought that my imagination had become too cloudy, leaving me with a terrible feeling. No matter how annoying Nanami was, she wouldn't deserve something like that, probably the demon girl's deeds have further distorted my already active imagination.

“Hmm? What happens? You look paler than usual. Are you ok?"
“N-no, it’s nothing, forgive me.”
“why?”
"It's nothing, j-just, forgive me."

The bad feeling that the delusion had left me caused remorse in me, for which I ended up apologizing to Nanami, although she had no idea why.

"No need to apologize, I won't get mad because you don't have milk tea or something better than soda."

Luckily Nanami alone connected the dots and thought about the reason for my apologies, but now that everything was back to normal, and that Nanami had bothered me enough, I felt the need for her to leave. She had already confirmed my survival so she had no reason to be here anyway.

"Anyway, go away."
“I can't believe it! Moron! I leave!"
“Yes, please do it.”
“Idiot! Die! I hope the serial killer finds you and kills you!”

Nanami apparently expected me to stop her from leaving, but meeting no resistance she took further offense, yelling horrible things at me, her older brother before running out of the container. My base had been silent again after Nanami's departure, and I was finally able to play again, but just one day later I had to attend school again, collapsing my good spirits that I had until now.
As despicable as it may seem to me, if I were to fail one day on my table, it would have worse consequences, preventing me from graduating as one of them.
“Graduate… to begin with, why is it so important to graduate? I know I decided to do it myself, but I can't help but feel burdened by it... huh?"
While I was wondering with myself, I felt something familiar, someone's gaze on me, but this was different from the "gaze of God", it felt weaker, so I took advantage of turning a corner to quickly look back, what I could see out of the corner of my eye was a girl in my school uniform. The image of the demon girl flashed through my mind, and for a few seconds I was about to collapse on the spot, but my reasoning entered to save the day.
"Wait, it's normal for a girl in a school uniform to go after me, since we're going to the same place, it's still not sure if she's following me, in that case, I'll try to take the long way to school…”
After deciding, I turn to the right at the next corner, which leads to a path to the school, but much longer, and I also add a faster rhythm of my steps, once I have turned a few corners, I turn quickly. This time I was sure, we were very close to exchange glances, but that girl was following me. Although the question of why had me on my nerves, confirming that the girl had glasses and a different hair color took away my fear that she could be the demon girl.
This simple fact made my psychosis go down, and soon it seemed more important to me to get to school on time than the girl A chasing me, I had decided to name her that way because her existence was quite irrelevant to me.

After surviving school for one more day, I decided to visit the usual internet cafe, E-Café is the only place I can go for entertainment, since I don't like to go out. Located on the edge of the Shibuya shopping district, this place is frequented by 3D girls and people with money, but it's not a problem for me since each computer is properly isolated from the others. This room, number 37, is reserved for me thanks to my seniority in the place, and it is also the furthest room from the others. I used to come at least twice a week, after school to play ESO for a while with my other alternate account, Lieselotte.
"It's not that I'm tired of Reinhardt, it's a mini break, being an example of heroism and righteousness all the time tends to mentally exhaust, with Lieselotte on the other hand I can relax from all that, her combat history is terrible and it's made to make others look better, and if someone bothers me, I can finish them off and take their items, hee-hee ”
Normally the nearby rooms are unoccupied, but coincidentally, today room 36 is occupied. When I went out for a moment to refill my glass, I realized that the door to this room was ajar, and inside I could see a student's backpack with several key chains hanging from it, I could recognize the lousy design of the Gero Frog, that horrible doll that Nanami showed me one day attached to her cell phone and that was apparently popular nowadays. I brushed it off and went to the vending machine, however, after refilling my glass and turning around, I could swear I saw the figure of girl A who had been following me earlier today, just to make sure I hid behind a nearby curtain. and waited to see it again, but it was not possible to find her.
“Huh? Have I imagined it? It may be... a lot of girls from school come here too, even girls with glasses. I better hurry back, in a couple more hours this place will be full of people and I will have to return to the Base.”
Having calmed down again from my psychotic outburst, I went back to the room and played another hour before leaving the premises, the uncertainty hadn't let me play much more so I hurried back to my Base. With such bad luck that at this time the number of people on the streets was very high.
"Ugh… I hate crowds, I get the feeling that everyone is looking and laughing at me.”
Normally I would take the streets less traveled to return, but after what happened that day when I witnessed that murder, I have started walking through main streets just in case. A red light stops my way, and I can't help but look everywhere looking for some danger, more specifically the demon girl, but now girl A's face also appeared as a potential danger, that's when my feet froze on its place.

In front of me, on the other side of the street, was girl A, in the middle of the people waiting to cross. I could feel her gaze fixed on me, even through her glasses, her gaze seemed to demand something from me.
Maybe it was because of the car lights, but her glasses seemed to shine brightly, and then I heard her, coming out of her lips, a malevolent laugh that, despite being across the street, felt like it was next to me.

“Fufufu … ahaha …”

After her maniacal laugh, girl A raised her skirt a little, from which several objects fell that made a particular jingle when they fell against the asphalt. They were cross-shaped stakes. Images of what I saw at that crime scene popped into my head immediately.

“Ahahaha!”

Her bloodshot eyes were not normal, and her cheeks had drawn unpleasantly with her expression, and as if she had something terrible on her mind, she stepped out of the crowd waiting at the crossroads and rushed across the street, I thought of running away immediately, but my legs did not react to my desires, nor could I say a word. Meanwhile girl A was crossing the street, holding one of those stakes in her hand. The moment I thought she would catch up with me, Girl A's body went flying as she was hit by a truck. The crowd began to scream in panic, and it was impossible for me to see from my position what would have become of her, but surely, she was dead.

A sound like an old television turning off echoed inside my head, and when I blinked the scene had changed again. My body was covered in cold sweat, and the people who were shocked a second ago were calmly waiting for the traffic light to change, there was no sign of the truck, and the A girl kept looking at me from across the street. The light turned green, and people from both sides of the street began to cross, all except for girl A and me, who both stayed in our places, though she didn't start laughing or lifting her skirt.
She just looked at me firmly, the situation became more and more stressful, and soon I was screaming myself to run in my mind, until my body finally reacted by running away from there. My escape, however, was so frantic that, a few minutes after starting running, when I turned a corner I collided with something and fell face first to the ground, my aching body did not respond to me to stand up again, and after turning to see what had I crashed into, a motorcycle was on the ground.

“Umm, are you alright?”

Before I knew it, girl A was in front of me, looking closely at me with a question and a worried expression. My body was totally petrified, I couldn't react or move, at this moment I felt bad for not having taken the train back home.

“Are you hurt?”
“W-what do you want with me?”
“Huh?”
“S-stop following me! What do you want of me?"

Girl A's voice sounded genuinely concerned, but if this woman wanted to trick me and mock my pride, it wouldn't be that easy for her, so I responded with what my anger allowed me, and tried to stand up despite the pain, the girl A by my side now seemed confused by my answer.

“When I saw you run away, it caught my attention, and then I saw you fall so I was worried…it's not like I want anything from you, uh…”
“Th-then wh-why were you chasing me?”
“My name is Yui Kusanoki…”

For reasons I don't understand, instead of answering my question, girl A who introduced herself as Yui starts introducing herself.

“Actually, when I first saw you, something caught my attention about you, so… I just started doing it… I'm so sorry.”

With a bit of a strange reason, Yui begins to explain that apparently, she followed me because something caught her eye about me, nothing more. A hardly credible reason, but one that, due to the sincerity with which she apologizes to me, I find it hard to totally reject. Now that I look at her more closely, Yui seems like a pretty girl, with her waist-length pale blonde hair, dark green eyes, her figure is slender and graceful, her face delicate and equally pale, and other detail to mention is that even though she is wearing the school uniform, her skirt is much longer, even several centimeters below her knees unlike the normally short skirts of the other girls.
That a girl like her has been nice to me is precisely one more reason to be suspicious. If she was a 2D character, I would have calmly accepted it, but that wouldn't go through with a three-dimensional girl.

“I… am not interested in the three-dimensional world…”
“Huh?”
“I…um…in…so, I b-bother…don't…follow me again…”

Having made my point, I try to stand up, but my body is particularly sore and although I hadn't broken anything, when I tried to move my right shoulder, it failed to respond and hurt progressively more with each attempt to move. As I tried to take a couple of steps, my legs gave out and I almost fell to the ground, but Yui quickly came over and took my hand, then supported my body.

You're hurt, I'll help you… let me take you home, since it was my fault you got hurt…”

Added to Yui's apparent good intentions, this was the first time a woman had touched me, outside of my family, so my mind was literally a blank.

"So, please tell me where your house is."

So many things to think about, the contact with this 3D girl, the possibility that she is related to the demon girl, the fact that she had been following me, the strong desire to go back home and more caused me to finally be unable to think in none of those things with sanity.

“So where is your house?”
“Shi-shinsen…”
“In Shinsen, I understand, can you walk?”

Still distracted by the excess of thoughts and by the fragrance of this 3D girl, I nodded without thinking, so we began to walk at a slow pace, while Yui had the delicacy to match my pace so as not to force the rhythm. She had done so many things for me that I didn't feel confident throwing her out, and I ended up accepting her help all the way to the Kurenai building, and even to my base on the top floor. During the whole trip we didn't talk about anything, because to begin with I had no topic of conversation except the 2D world, and any girl who was faced with that topic would think terrible things about me.
Honestly, Yui had been a great help, after taking the elevator to the eighth floor, I had to climb some stairs to the terrace that I probably wouldn't have been able to climb on my own, and although Yui didn't seem to be particularly strong, she had been doing quite a bit of an effort to carry me.

“Wow, so you live here. It looks awesome, like a feeling of freedom and uniqueness, I admire something like this.”
“Huh?”

Yui's comment was far different from what I expected to receive, but if she was trying to coddle and trick me, it would take more than that, so without responding further, I proceeded to remove the padlock from the container to open the door.
“Haa, I finally made it home. Today was such a disgusting day that I'm considering becoming a real hikikomori."
A few more steps inside and then I heard Yui's voice next to me, because I had forgotten that she was still supporting my weight.

“Umm, it's really dark, where is the light switch?”
"You... you can let me go, I'm f-fine on my own now."
“The floor is too messy… I mean, there are many obstacles when walking, it could be dangerous. I'll take you to the sofa, and I'll drop you there.”

I find it impossible to deny her logic, so I let her lead me there, Yui advanced carefully as she moved things along the way while she supports me, and carefully sets me down on the sofa.
“She's so nice to me, and so attentive… no, don't be silly! She tries to trick you!"
I quickly realize that I just thought for a moment about trusting this three-dimensional girl, but I quickly snap back to reality, hardening my resolve.

“Umm, where is the switch? ..."
“Ah, uh… On… the co-computer.”

Yui soon found the lamp and turned it on, vanquishing the darkness from inside the container. Personally, a relief because with the darkness of the place, her breathing began to become erotic to my ear.
“This situation is like what you would find in an erotic game, as if I had raised a flag with Yui, if this was such a game, in the dark of night something would have happened between us”
Suddenly, a sound from Yui wakes me up from my reverie, it was a sound of slight surprise so my head quickly goes to where it seems that Yui directs her gaze, in her trajectory is the figure of Seira-tan making her Moe pose.

“Is she Seira-chan from the Blood Tune series?”
“Huh? Y-you know her?"
“Oh that's right, I like Blood Tune, I watch it every week.”
“R-really?”
“Do you like Seira-chan? She is my favorite and her outfits are beautiful."

The tone of her voice sounded more animated, signaling to me that she isn't lying, which is very unexpected, and the fact that she didn't seem to know about the figures, tells me that she isn't a fujoshi either, but just likes anime.

“Can I see her for a moment? Ah, but maybe I'm bothering… I think I better leave…”
"O-okay, you can see her."
“Really? Thank you very much."
“Th-That's the pre-awakened version of Sanryoudo. Many figures of Seira-tan have come out, but this is the fi-first one”
“oh? That's impressive”

Seeing that Yui seems to appreciate Seira-tan, I thought it wouldn't be wrong to allow her to take a closer look at her, and Yui wastes no time in taking the figure and looking at it thoroughly, after which I start spouting out various precise and detailed information about the figures, about how I have all the 4 figures of different versions of Seira-tan, about how the most expensive was the maid version, but the version in a swimming suit seemed very striking. And about how Alpha will release the post-awakening version in a few weeks. By the way, both Alpha and Sanryoudo are figure creators, this was some needed clarification for Yui after my explanation. When I finished my monologue, I realized that I had probably said incoherent things to Yui and remained silent.

“Umm, could you show me the maid and swimsuit versions you mentioned?”

I honestly thought that she would have been disgusted or upset by my words, but Yui seemed to be amused, leaving me totally confused.

“O-on the shelf…”

Following my words, Yui takes the figure and watches it carefully as well.

“Stunning, even the underwear is so well detailed, maybe I should buy a figure too.”
“Th-then you should pre-order the post-awakening version I re-really recommend it.”

After that I found out that Yui was more well versed in Blood Tune than I thought, she even knows the chapter where the awakening happens. The most important thing was that Yui kept her smile during the conversation, thinking that a girl would give me that smile in a conversation like this really makes me think of that phrase "the world is a very big place".

“Umm, may I ask, your name?”
"Huh? ...Ta-takumi Nishijou."

Yui asks with some embarrassment, and considering that she had introduced herself, but I hadn't, I decided that I could give her my name. But I still haven't forgotten Seira's words, I shouldn't trust anyone, nor listen to what anyone else says.

“Nishijou-kun, I would like to ask you a favor…”

“The truth is that I love you. I have always been looking at you, but I am no longer satisfied with looking at you.”

Yui looked blushed, and after her confession she began to search through her bag, looking for something specific.

“I want all of you to be mine, and after thinking about it for a long time, this was the cutest method I could come up with.”

What she took out of her bag was a kitchen knife, illuminated by the desk lamp, the object flashes. My only option was to watch the scene in terror, since my thoughts were in chaos, so I could only swallow.

“I love you so much… I can't wait any longer.”

Yui gripped the knife so hard that her fingers turned white, and she pointed the weapon at me. I tried to shake my head as hard as I could in protest, but it was probably too late.

“Your flesh, your bones, your skin, your veins, your brain, your eyes, and of course your most intimate parts. All those parts, I'm going to, eat them all. Ahahahahaha! ..."

Letting out a maniacal laugh, Yui plunged her knife into me. A strong impact, a great pressure, I looked at my chest, and the knife was buried in it.

“Ahh…”

Yui let out a sigh, while the knife sank into my bones and flesh, but I didn't feel any pain, after all, this was… one of my delusions. A sound similar to that of a television being turned off resounded in my head, the next moment my gaze was focused on the wallpaper of my PC while I thought about how terrifying yanderes are.

"Wait a moment, first I'll make some space on the ground for me to sit, and then I'll tell you the favor I want to ask you."

I had forgotten that she wanted to ask me for a favor, she just got on the floor and started moving things around to make room for her to sit.

“Oh…”

Suddenly, she stops and seems to have found something, but from my perspective it is impossible to see exactly what it is, for a moment I think that she is trying to steal some figure from me, but that would be impossible since I have perfectly memorized each and every one of them, but before that I could warn Yui not to touch them, she moves herself and shows me a particular book.

“this is what they call a doujin, right? I found this lying around, and taking a look at it…it was amazing, I was pretty surprised.”
“Don't lo-look without asking…”
"I'm sorry."

Apparently Yui found one of Blood Tune's erotic doujin, which I probably dropped at some point, and had looked inside it, although it's embarrassing, I'm glad it wasn't something worse. Having made space on the floor, Yui settles into the free space and looks at me again.

“So, regarding that favor… could you please join me in pre-ordering the figure?”
“Huuuh??”
"It's just, I've never been to any of those stores... but maybe I'm asking too much... sorry."

I braced myself for that favor, but then was completely stunned by Yui's words, not only because she was interested in what I had to say, but because she had asked me, a nasty otaku, to accompany her somewhere. My mind was strongly torn between not trusting all her words, since it was not possible that a development taken from a visual novel was happening in reality, and because Seira-tan had warned me, but looking closely at his eyes, I noticed that Yui's eyes were glassy, as if she was about to cry. It was at that moment that I understood the phrase that women's tears can be weapons. My mind was so confused that for a moment I literally couldn't express a word, but when I saw that her tears were about to roll down her cheeks.

“I’ll g-go…with you…”

Yui seemed surprised by my answer, and when asking for confirmation I just nodded my head. I couldn't think of another way to stop her tears so I accepted her invitation, even though I had the feeling that I had fallen into a trap. Yui wiped away her tears and then showed a smile as she thanked me for accepting, but internally I didn't feel relieved at all.
“Damn you! 3D girl, that was a dirty play, but it was also my fault for not preparing myself for these situations. And besides, what happened to that expression of anguish from a few seconds ago? Now she was smiling like nothing, so they were crocodile tears after all…”
To make matters worse, Yui began to organize the day we would go, and with a smile she suggested going tomorrow, a day when I have to go to class, which would make it worse, but fearing that refusing will make her cry again, I end up accepting.

"Nishijou-kun, what class are you in?"
"Class B... se-second year."
“Then I am your superior! I am third year. I'll pick you up after school, so wait for me."

At this point, I couldn't help thinking that I was in another delusion, so I proceeded to pinch my cheek, but the pain was real, so this has to be real too.

“Okay then, thank you very much for letting me hang out for so long. If your foot still hurts, please go to the doctor to get it checked out.”

I just nodded my head and stared still in disbelief while Yui walked to the exit of the container, and before leaving she said goodbye to me with a "see you tomorrow". Leaving everything quiet again after her departure.

The next day, I was at school, the math teacher whose name doesn't matter had just left since the class had ended, and the other students were talking about going out to hang around, while the club members went to their respective clubs, and also there were those who directly went home. Normally I would be one of the latter, but this time was different.
I had been nervously looking towards the door of the room, this was the first time that I had promised to meet a girl, and my nerves had me on edge.
"Maybe, I should leave... she might not even come, she's probably watching from some corner, laughing at me for waiting for her, though in a way, that would be better than actually coming... Yeah, I think it's best to leave now, anyway, we're of different grades, we probably won't see each other again later.”
With the decision made, I stood up, but at that moment I felt an arm around my shoulders.

“Taku! Whatcha doing?"

There was no need to think about who it was, Misumi-kun was the only one who approached me in the entire classroom.

“Aren't you gone yet? Whenever the doorbell rings you are one of the first to disappear, I call that technique the “Takun supersonic shining step” hahaha”
"No... I'm leaving now..."
“Were you expecting someone?”
“huh?!”
“So I got it right, huh?”
“How? ..."
"You were more restless than usual, and also you constantly looked at the door"

I was surprised at how observant Misumi-kun turned out to be, not only was he clear on how soon I used to leave to go home, but he had also detailed in my habits, it was almost creepy how well this guy can read between the lines. And to make matters worse, before I could deny that I was waiting for someone.

"Nishijou-kun?"

The same person who I had been waiting for a moment ago ended up appearing, timidly standing at the door of the classroom, Misumi-kun had ended up thwarting my escape, if it wasn't for his intrusion, I would have been able to leave before she arrived.

“Woah! Hey hey! What's going on?! What does this mean?! Taku I demand an explanation. Is she your girlfriend!?"
“I-it's nothing like that…”
“So what is this about? I will not believe that she is your friend or such nonsense. You who are a hikikomori, where did you get a cute girl like her?"
“Y-yesterday she found me when I had an a-accident…”
“I see, so it was the case of an adverse situation, you're clever! But I'm glad you're finally showing normal inclinations. And also, to think that there are girls like this, it is an opportunity that you should not miss. Good luck Taku! And don't worry, I'm not going to take your woman away from you."

With these words and a stronger than usual pat on the back, Misumi-kun effectively ignores my explanations and creates a misunderstanding himself. His blow to my back is followed by a push to propel me towards Yui, who was still waiting outside the classroom.

"Umm, I hope I wasn't a bother, coming looking for you like that."
“Oh no…”

Actually, she was being a bother, but seeing Misumi-kun from the living room with his thumbs up, I decided to ignore everything and get out of here as soon as possible. Yui apologized for coming to pick me up without warning despite only having met yesterday, but my mind was more focused on getting away from school so I didn't give too much trouble to it.
“Leaving school with a girl heading home, to think that something that only the Riajuu do would end up happening to me, I thought I was someone so far from reality for that to happen. Damn I'm so nervous! But how could I not be, if it's my first time walking with a girl! I can't think of anything to say, what do you hope to get out of a horrible otaku like me to begin with?"
Not knowing Yui's identity or her goals, I had a hard time thinking about what she wanted to achieve with all this, it wasn't that I was trusting her in any way.

“Yesterday… did you see Blood Tune?”
“huh!? Ah yeah sure."
“Ok, so I have a question about something I didn't understand from this week's chapter…”

Thanks to Yui starting the conversation with Blood Tune, the silence is finally broken and we started talking fluently about anime, especially about Blood Tune, in such a way that by the time we got to the Animeight store, I was still telling her more stuff. Yui was so good at listening, always showing a genuine interest in what I had to say, and that was why, even though it was probably a trap, I couldn't help but tell her everything I knew.
I kept quiet while Yui made her pre-order for the figure, then I did the same, and after staying to buy some other things at Yui's request, we finally headed towards the train station, where she would get on.

“Nishijou-kun, do you have a cell phone?”

A strange question, but after listening to her, I shake my head because I never saw the need to have a cell phone.

“I wanted to contact you again, but now that I remember, you have a PC at home, right? I have one too, so we could exchange emails.”
"Wh-why?"
“Well… when the figure comes out, I'll have to go pick it up. So, I was thinking maybe we could go together? I still don't have the courage to go to Animeight on my own, so…”

I was totally stunned, but not for anything other than Yui's words.
"I can't believe this girl's cunning, really the three-dimensional world is scary, because even if I understand that all this is a ploy, I can't refuse these requests without feeling bad"
The girl turned her face directly towards me while she blushed.

“Also, Nishijou-kun. I want to get to know each other better as friends.”

Something strange happened with this girl, something in the atmosphere around Yui, did not allow me to refuse her requests.
“I wonder if this is because I'm not used to talking to people, or maybe Yui has very high conversational skills. Whatever the case, everything seems to indicate that Yui is not going to leave until I give her my email, her anxious look makes it very clear to me…”
Whatever effect this atmosphere around Yui had, it had me under control of it. Without realizing it, I was writing my email on a piece of paper to give it to her. And as soon as she had what she wanted, Yui simply said goodbye with a smile and left me without further ado, probably for 10 minutes I didn't move from my place.

I was now in my base, consulting the situation with Grimm Ram, assuming that maybe he would know something about that strange feeling I had with Yui at the end, however, he just limited himself to assume that I was making it all up from some erotic game. And when I made it clear to him that it wasn't about that, he started acting like Misumi-kun, trying to encourage me to continue being intimate with that woman and even taking it as some kind of trivial matter.
While I was talking to Grimm Ram about it, a message arrived on my email, and the sender was none other than Yui Kusanoki. I was surprised how quickly she messaged me, and that was not all, the content of the message seemed full of good intentions and even emoticons to create a feeling of friendship.
At Grimm Ram's request, I shared the message in the mail, removing my personal details, but apparently according to Grimm Ram, I was overthinking things, and kept saying things like I wouldn't find a girl like her these days, and that she was my ideal girl, but I couldn't dispel the suspicion that it was all an intricate trap, so this conversation with Grimm Ram didn't completely clear my head of all doubts.

The following week there were two “go to school” days, and the same melancholy as always had me gripped as I approached school. Apparently, the season was beginning to change, for example, the leaves on the trees were now more colorful, and people began to show less skin due to the cold, although since I rarely leave my base, the change of temperature affected me less, I always go covered.

"Good morning Nishijou-kun."
“O-oh, yeah.”
“I was finally able to greet you again. Although it took 4 days counting Saturday…ah, I s-sent you an email last week…did you see it?”

I just nodded my head to her question, to which Yui smiled again and revealed that she had thought that the message would not have arrived since she did not receive a reply, and therefore she thought of sending it again, but more important questions begin to flood my head.
“What do you expect from me? That I fall in love with you? That I become your boyfriend? That we live together as a couple happily? But that's impossible, it could never happen, to begin with, I still don't understand what Yui sees good in me, even more so when I don't have faith in her, that's why it's impossible."
After thinking about all this, I realized that I had stood still, and I was attracting a bit of attention, so I reaffirmed my step even leaving Yui behind, but she jogged up with me.

“Yesterday I went to your classroom to look for you, but you weren't there. I thought you had a cold so I got a little worried. Where were you?"
“I don't… co-come often to school. So, everyone thinks I'm a Hi-hikikomori."
"I see, then I'm happy to see you today."

I thought that she would be disappointed, I thought that she would think the same as the others and leave, but her answer surprised me so much that I inadvertently turned my gaze towards her, discovering that, once again, she had a smile on her face. Of course, when I realized that I was looking directly at her I turned my head again. But it was precisely because of these things that I did not end up trusting her.
And it was while that kind of overly friendly and sweet conversation was going on that the school start bell rang.

“Oh no, the doorbell, we must hurry. See you later then, Nishijou-kun."

Without realizing it, the school entrance had been emptied of students, leaving only us to enter.

“Oh! I forgot, would you like to go out together back home today?"
“Uh…”
"I'll wait for you in the backyard of the school when you leave, I'll be there regardless of what you choose, so don't push yourself."

A bow was the last thing Yui did before heading towards the third-year building. Again, I pinched my cheek, but once again this was not one of my delusions.
The rest of the day I was distracted, I did not pay attention to anything in the classes and I just limited myself to looking out the window in contemplation. None of my teachers or classmates had any interest in me, but Yui did, she seemed to be different from the other idiots. Pondering this thought, I spent the entire class day.

“Hey Taku, are you going on another date today? With the same girl from last time.”
“…”
“I get it, you don't have to think too much about whether to go out with her or not. If you like her, it's okay to do it”

Misumi-kun normally thought only with his genitals, but sometimes he would say useful things. Realizing that it's time to meet Yui, I took my backpack and left the classroom.
Not coming to school often, I'm not entirely sure of the shortest way to the backyard, but on my way through the third grade building I ran into a lone girl in the middle of the hallway. Her stern expression contrasted strangely with the fact that she was looking out the window at the sky, but she certainly had an imposing atmosphere.
Her qualities gave me the impression that she was a delinquent, so I tried to go unnoticed by her side as quickly as possible.

“Hey…”

But apparently my ability to be like air didn't work on her, she called me suddenly, forcing me to turn to see her, the girl glared at me.

“Who are you?”
“S-sorry!”

The girl of course didn't know who I was, but the fear that she would lynch me right there or that she wanted to ask me for money was too high to me, instead of introducing myself, I just apologized before running away without looking back.
I hated the 3D for setting such traps for me, but luckily the delinquent didn't follow me, and I soon was in the backyard.
Upon closer inspection, I found Yui staring at the flowers in the courtyard. She really was there, she really came for me.
Yui probably wouldn't betray me. Apparently, it's okay to trust her after all. She may be able to save me. Yui looks up and then she looks at me, while her eyes widen, apparently in surprise, but she soon approaches my location.

“I-I'm surprised. You really came… I was about to give up thinking that you wouldn't come. But I'm glad I waited."

Hearing her say that made me think, that maybe Yui has the same mindset as me, always thinking negatively towards things and overthinking things. Actually, we could be very similar, but there was a clear difference. While I saw things negatively and didn't do anything about it, Yui saw it too, but she acted on it. Watching her proactive attitude made me think that it wouldn't hurt to be a little more like her.

“So, do you want to come home with me?”

As if needing further confirmation, Yui asked about my intention to accompany her, to which I nodded my head, before heading towards the school gate.
As we walked out of school, I felt ashamed, I had the impression that people were looking at us with envy, and the more I thought about it, the more real it felt.
Leaving school, we entered the Shintou park, even since we could cut our way to the station where Yui gets on, we decided to sit in the same bench because in Yui's words “she wanted to see the same thing that I saw every morning”. After putting her bag on the bench, Yui stared at the lake, silent, but with a hint of serenity. Seeing so much calm, I asked myself if this was what living was about.
Even with this being such a common scenario for me, even with this being such a common situation. I wonder why it seemed like my tears would come out at any moment.

"It must be nice to have breakfast here... maybe I'll try it too one day."

Embarrassed to look her in the eye, I look down at Yui's bag, while cursing myself for not being able to meet a girl's eyes, I notice that Yui's bag has several of those Gero Frogs.
“Wait…wait a second, just now, my eyes caught something…those Gero Frogs, which are supposed to be popular with girls. I've seen them elsewhere before, in that specific quantity and order… where?”
Memory quickly brings me back to room 36, ajar when I went to get drinks at the E-Café. The person in that cubicle was looking up about the New Revolution.
That could only mean that the person I was looking for about the New Revolution, and who had positioned herself next to my cubicle was…
For the first time our eyes met directly, she was also staring at me through her glasses. She was still smiling, but her eyes seemed somewhat confused. I didn't know what expression I was making, but I turned my gaze back to her bag. And then I felt her breath hitch.

“Nishijou…kun?”

Her voice clearly reached my ears, but many thoughts went through my mind to respond, she had been with me, but she never said anything about it, and she had also been looking up about the New Revolution.
I had completely forgotten about it, but thinking about it brought me back to that grotesque scene, and also the face of that one, the demon girl.

“These are called Gero Frogs. Some friends started giving them to me and before I knew it, I had all of these, although they don't really look very pretty to me. It seems like they have become popular with girls.”

Yui starts trying to take some of the Frogs in her bag out. Her hand was shaking, probably from her rush to get them out, she wasn't getting it. And in her forced attempt to release them, she ended up throwing the bag to the ground.

“Oh my god, what a mess I made, forgive me for that.”

From the unclosed bag came several books and notebooks, and a laptop. While Yui was trying to pick up the things, I could have given her space and move, but I couldn't move at all, the reason for that was, that I could see it.
One of the notebooks was opened spilling its contents, there were several newspaper clippings and all of them were related to certain incidents. I saw clearly that they were all about the New Revolution.

“Wh… why?”

Yui quickly collected all the clippings and stuffed them into her bag, which she then held suspiciously against her chest. Her smile had disappeared and she now looked very uncomfortable.

"Wh-what was that?"
“…”

Yui didn't answer me.
“Why don't you answer me? Answer me, if you don't answer me… is it because you feel guilty about something? After I believed in you, after I thought we could be allies."
At that moment Seira's words crossed my mind. "I shouldn't trust anyone, I shouldn't listen to anything they say." I knew then, that Yui had cheated on me, and that all 3D girls were liars. And the fact that Yui had reached out and been nice to me, it was all with a goal in mind. She might want to take me to the police, or threaten me.
I wasn't willing to accept being a part of this charade, let alone continue here in front of this woman, but as soon as I turned to leave, I felt Yui's strong grip on my wrist.

“Are you running away?”

Her voice was ice cold, so cold that I thought my spine would break into ice, her voice was so different that she didn't seem like the Yui from before. And besides, her grip was really powerful, the force was so great that I started to feel a lot of pain, thinking that maybe she was thinking of breaking my wrist.
Yui not only prevented my escape, but also pulled me towards her, forcing me to turn to look at her. The color that she had in her eyes could not be that of a sane person.

“I won't let you run away. I'm sorry I lied to you, but that goes for both of us. You have also been hiding something from me, right?”

Thinking of something I might be hiding from Yui, I could only think of the crime scene and the face of the murderer I had seen.
That was why she had reached out to me. And that means that everything she said is a lie. The way she cared for my injuries, the time she said she was a fan of Blood Tune, the time she forced me to go with her to pre-order the Seira-tan figure, and every time she smiled when I spoke to her about all those things, and when she said she wanted to be my friend, and when she said she worried about me when I didn't go to class, she had said all of that deliberately without meaning to.
I clenched my hands tightly as I wailed in my heart. condemning the moment I decided to trust this girl.

“I would have liked to investigate a little more, but seeing that you have discovered me there is no other way. There is something I must tell you. You will listen to me, right? You're not saying you won’t listen to me, are you? You must listen. Listen. Of course, you will listen. If you don't listen to me…”

Leaving aside that she doesn't specify what she will do to me if I don't listen to her, all the air of kindness that Yui had had disappeared, and instead I could feel an unforgiving atmosphere, an enormous tenacity, her fragility had disappeared, now showing her true “cool head".
Even as she grabbed me, Yui started looking for something inside her bag, and my futile attempt to cover my ears so as not to hear her was baseless because she had one of my hands trapped. What Yui takes out of her bag leaves me shocked, so much so that I stopped straining my hand.

“You know this cross right? You really know it, right? Of course, you know it. I won't let you pretend you don't know it. It would be strange if you didn't know it. You know it right? You-know-it-don’t-you?”

Of course, I knew it, after all, I had seen many of them, scattered on the floor, in the hands of that demon girl, and pinned to that body against the wall. But I could only limit myself to shake my head strongly in denial, my body was already covered in sweat.

“This was in your room. In your room. Under the bed. Lying on the floor. It was down. You dumped it there. Or did you want to get rid of it? Either way, there it was. It-was-there.”

I just couldn't stop cursing this bitch, she had taken advantage of me, on the very same day we met, after seeing my figures and saying that Seira-tan was cute, she took the opportunity to rummage through my base.

“This cross is quite unusual, it is imported, and it was used in the third incident of the “New Revolution”. I tell you it's the same. It's the same right? It is undoubtedly the same. It's the same. The same kind that nailed that man to the wall. The-same-one."

She suspected me as the culprit of the murders. She was convinced that I was the killer. I couldn't help to wonder if she was some kind of detective. But immediately dismissed the ridiculous idea, that it could only work in video games or anime.
To begin with, she had made a mistake, since I know who the real culprit is. That demonic woman, whose name I don't know, but she wears our same uniform.

“so…so what?”
“Nothing more and nothing less. I just wanted to confirm that you know what it is. Though I would have preferred to remain silent still."

I didn't know what she meant by “still”, but I certainly didn't want to find out. Yui finally released my hand from her grip.

“One last question, do you have precognitive powers?”
“Say what?”
"I ask because this information would not have been possible for you to obtain unless you had precognitive powers."

Yui takes something else out of her bag, this time it's a color printed photo. It was the same photo that Ronin had sent me, but it shouldn't be possible for Yui to have it.

“Why would you have a photo that replicates the third incident? And more importantly, you sent it a day before it happened. It was saved in the cache of the PC you used.”
"You-you're wrong!"

The photo had been sent to me by Ronin, if I showed Yui my PC history I could prove it. But that still hadn't resolved the question of how she managed to get the photo. But as if she could read the question on my face, Yui sighs once before giving me the answer.

“This photo was taken from room 37 of the E-Café. I would have liked to review your personal PC as well, but the opportunity didn't arise… and this right here is all about you.”

Immediately afterwards, Yui took out yet a new printed sheet and handed it to me, I wanted to avoid seeing it, but if she was trying to incriminate me, I would have to have the means to defend myself, so I took the paper and looked at it with some fear as It was qualified by her as “all about me”.
However, rather than my personal information or similar data, this is a record of a conversation, one that I immediately recognize as the one Ronin and I had.

“Can you see how weird that conversation is? Their timestamps don't match at all. Reinhardt, you wrote the first part of the conversation on the 28th, around 3 pm, and then you went to the E-Café, which you frequent a lot, the next day, on one of the days you attended classes, as the record says, the log from Ronin was wrote. I took it upon myself to record the chat in room 37, and what I concluded from that was that. You have multiple personalities. And Ronin is none other than yourself."

[Jeff Franklin]

I count 204 paragraphs, thus awarding you 1020 TP!