Locked and wounded. (A Hololive fanfic)

Chapter 8: A horrific challenge.

(Arato's POV.)

It's a day since that small incident at the school rooftop, and since then things have been... Actually much worse than ever, dealing with two problems on two sides. On one hand, there's the stalking issue, on the other, there's Vincent. Both problems aren't letting up anytime soon, while Sora dealing with Vincent by herself did make things more peaceful for me, I'm still worried about her. Escalation was always possible, and Vincent isn't showing any signs of giving up anytime soon. What should I do...?

"Arato-kun! Are you there!?" My thoughts were interrupted by the familiar, cute, high-pitched voice of a girl calling out to me. And I immediately shook my head to clear my thoughts before I looked at Sora, forcing a smile on my face despite the inner turmoil going on inside my head. "We're gonna be late for school today and you're spacing out... Is something wrong?" She then asked me, and I shuddered at her question. I didn't wanna tell her that I was slowly losing my goddamn mind dealing with two problems at once. "It's nothing, don't worry about it." I responded, and it's obvious that Sora doesn't believe that in the slightest.
"Come on, what's wrong? I can tell something's bothering you." She responded, crap... She knows. There's no hiding it now. "Well... You know how it is, there's Vincent and then there's the stalking issue." I said, and it earned a warm smile from her. "You're really kind, you know that, Arato-kun? I said I'd handle Vincent but you're still worried about me, you keep worrying about me even when you have your own problem..." She remarked, placing a hand on either side of my face. She was so close I could feel her breath against my nose...
"Y-You're being awfully affectionate today..." I stuttered out as she held me so close, and then she started blushing, although she didn't let go. We kept at it like this for a few more moments, both of our faces flushed from being so close to each other. Eventually though, Sora let go of me and I backed off probably more that is necessary. "A-Anyway... We should head out, we're getting late..." I then said, and she nodded. After we grabbed our stuff, we headed out the door and started walking to school. It's pretty much a routine now, but with all the good people around us, Sora looks forward to it every day. And I'm happy for her.
As we walked down the streets towards school, Sora hummed a cheerful tune to herself, a melodic tune that I couldn't help but listen to. Her angelic voice only added to it, it was utterly captivating. And then Sora noticed that she had an audience. "Enjoying it, Arato-kun?" She asked, and I sheepishly chuckled and nodded. "Yeah... I didn't know you could hum like that, you probably have a nice singing voice too." I remarked, and Sora's face flushed red ever so slightly, though her smile didn't fade. "You're too kind, Arato-kun..." She responded, her face demure in a way but still really happy at the compliment. It's true though... I'm curious about her singing voice now that I heard her humming, not the right time now though. There's still class and I still have to slowly drive myself insane from the stalking and Vincent issue.

After a while, we managed to arrive at school in the nick of time, and so we sat down at our desks with barely a few minutes to spare before class starts.
As we sat down, Fena came in and sat in his desk, though uh... He looked utterly exhausted, not sure why.
"Hey... Something up?" I asked him, and he looked up at me while rubbing his tired eyes. He stared at me for a second with those cold, tired eyeballs before he responded. "Mmm... School backyard... Later at lunch." He groaned out, his face just screamed 'I'm sick of this shit', and I don't know why. Well. there's another addition to my schedule... Damnit, I wanted to eat peacefully for once, most incidents regarding Vincent occurs during lunch and I was hoping today would be different and I'd get to just hang out with Sora and stuff. "Craaaaaap... Okay fine, I'll bite." I replied, and he nodded as he looked at me with his tired eyes. The hell did this guy do last night? I've never seen a guy so tired in my life, minus me looking in the mirror after working a particularly bad day at the clinic. "You're a mess La Guierre, what happened?" I asked again, though I have a feeling he isn't gonna answer me anytime soon. "Don't mind me doc, just show up on time..." He responded, not wanting to push it too much, I just nodded. Even though my doctor side is on high alert. After that conversation Tanigo-sensei went in and started class as usual, nothing too significant right now and it borderlines on boring if it wasn't for Tanigo-sensei's teaching methods that picks up our interest. And it took everything within me to keep myself from yawning out loud in certain parts of the topic we had, and I sometimes entertained myself by mentally recollecting what I knew about medicine, mainly about the immune system. The second most complex biological system after the human brain. This info was brought to you by the human brain.