Stepping Beyond the Pixels: Loves Intricate Game

Chapter Seven: Schoolyard Gossip

April 18: Save Her

Today was the destined day that marked the first death of a character. It is the day that you have to absolutely make sure Makino doesn't die, it's just a theory, but you think that is how you can get home. While you are still trying to figure out how to save the others, you had already put into action a plan that would keep Makino from being killed by Akui, or at least you hoped you did. That plan might have been completely thrown out the window when you were sent to the hospital and missed a whole day of school.

Like Tuesday, you woke up early to try and beat Yuki to school, but your mother said she didn't want you walking to school alone. She offered to walk you to school herself but you figured that you might as well walk with Yuki. 'I'm probably gonna have to follow Makino anyways, so there's no reason to avoid Yuki anymore, but I am not being late.' So after you got dressed, and decided that your stitches no longer needed to be covered, you took out your phone and dialed Yuki's number, already expecting her to be sleeping.

It took a few tries before a groggy sounding Yuki answered the phone. "Hello...?"

"Sorry, did I wake you?" you asked, though you already knew the answer.

"No-" she yawned midway. "No, I've been awake for ages now..." She trailed off at the end of her sentence, clearly falling back to sleep.

"Kobayashi-san...?"

"Snrk-W-what?! Oh- L/n-san! Sorry about that," shuffling could be heard on the other end of the phone. "HI! I wasn't expecting you to call me at–7:30 in the morning! Oh shoot, I got to get ready."

"Right, so anyways I was wondering if you wanted to walk to school together?" You held back a small giggle that threatened to spill from your mouth.

"Walk to school?" More shuffling and thuds. "That-that sounds great! Let me just, hold on, let me just get dressed first and then I will go pick you up–Oof!" Over the phone there was a rather loud thud followed by muffled feed-back noise. "Sorry, again, uh-where did you say you live?"

This time you couldn't help but to light heartedly laugh at her antics. "I didn't, but I can tell. My address is—"

You had just enough time to finish breakfast before Yuki arrived to pick you up, your mother was surprisingly happy to see that you have a new friend. Yuki, on the other hand, kept fretting over your sprained hand that was currently in a wrist brace, if she noticed your lack of bandage then she didn't say anything. By now it was only 7:48 a.m. and you still had one more person to pick up before actually heading to school. Unexpectedly, Akui lived not that far from you, only a nine to ten minute walk from your house, and from there the rest of the walk to school would take less than that.

Deciding to use the small amount of time where Akui wouldn't be present, you begin to ask Yuki more about what happened while you were recovering. "So, I know you briefly talked about it last night, but what exactly happened while I was gone?"

"Oh!" She clapped her hands together. "So, Tuesday, after lunch ended I returned to class, but I realized that you weren't there and that the teacher was also late and I got worried. A few minutes later, Watanabe-sensei returned saying how you had been in an accident and was sent to the hospital. You don't know how worried I was to hear that. None of the teachers would say anything else on the matter either, only that 'you were fine' and 'they were investigating the matter.' I wanted to immediately go visit you in the hospital but Minato-kun said that you were probably still being checked over and in recovery so it wasn't the best time. I was gonna call you the next day but then my Mom said I should be mindful of your recovery time and leave you alone to spend time with your family. I really wanted to check in on you, honest, but everyone around me said it was a bad idea!" She huffed, puffing her cheeks out and clearly upset by all the barriers that prevented her from visiting you.