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Countdown to Devil's Night Part 4

There are times in life when something that should logically happen doesn't. There were many examples he could think up, but Shujinkou didn't care to go through them. He could only think about what affected him now.

The mystery of Sayori's current whereabouts kept him up all night. It was time to depart for school, but he didn't feel tired at all.

There have been times where he would at least show some drowsiness but persevere as if he wasn't, but he didn't have that moment. Despite how tiring the events of yesterday should have been and his lack of sleep, he was fine.

"Alright..."

Shujinkou grabbed his backpack and steadily climbed down the stairs.

"I'm off, Mom," he announced as he walked towards the front door.

Hiro stepped out the kitchen, a confused look floating on her face.

"But you didn't have breakfast yet," she said.

"Gotta skip today. See ya later!"

Shujinkou rushed out of the house, surprising his mother. He hated to just run off like that, but he had no time to waste.

The first thing Shujinkou did was return to Sayori's house. As he expected, she was nowhere to be seen. His disappointment and worry fueled him, giving him the energy and stamina to run to school without pause.

Upon arrival, Shujinkou took a moment to catch his breath.

I can't believe I actually ran the entire way to school.

Once he was ready, Shujinkou entered the school. Instead of heading to his classroom as usual, Shujinkou instead traversed the first-year hallway. He was desperate for information and despite not wanting to come off as only visiting when he needed to too, this wasn't a time to dwell on that.

Based on her history of having vital information, he needed to talk to Mali.

He stuck his head inside her classroom. Discovering Mali wasn't there was like a slap in the face.

This is crazy! I'm having trouble finding anyone lately!

It was possible that she just hasn't arrived yet, but Shujinkou didn't have the patience to wait today. He walked into the classroom and noticed two female students talking near Mali's desk.

"Um... Excuse me."

The two girls looked his way. He had expected them to give him strange looks, but was surprised that they seemed weary of him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You... you're the guy Mali's always hanging around," one of the girls said.

"Yeah. I'm her senpai, Shujinkou."

"I'm surprised you could say that so casually," the other one said.

"Why wouldn't I?"

The two shot Shujinkou blank stares. They knew he knew the answer to that question.

Now that I think about it, everyone seemed to stay away Mali when I first came here...

"It's really surprising you're still putting up with her," the first one of said.

"I know Mali can be... I know she likes teasing people a lot, but she really has her good points you know...," Shujinkou defended. "She's helped me out a lot even though she had nothing to gain from it."

Looks of disbelief fell on their faces. Shujinkou couldn't blame them for not believing him. Befriending Mali or at least getting to whatever their relationship is now took time and patience.