To sum it up, I fell down the stairs and ended up groping a girl.

Actually, it couldn’t really be helped, could it? I mean, prior to falling I was just reading my phone and happened to clumsily slip down onto the stairs. It just so happens that I would bump into someone else during that moment. That being said, I believe I’m clearly innocent in that case.

Well, I looked up.

I take that all back.

Under me was a blonde girl with blue eyes, pretty much a foreigner. Her uniform from this school though. But the way her face looked… that bob-cut hair with bangs makes her look like one of those ‘yariman’, no offense.

TL note: Yariman means bimbo/bitch in colloquial Japanese

“eh…I’m guilty aren’t I?”

Her face reddens quite a bit, “For the moment being, would you mind getting- eh!“

My hands accidentally squeezed something soft. Her face completely changed.

Ah. Shoot. This happens in anime a lot, doesn’t it?

She lifts her palm, then slapped me.

*SLAP*

“Wait I seriously didn’t feel that one at all! You sure that was a slap?”

“huh?” She asked in confusion.

I sat up, the pointed up to my cheek, “There’s nothing here! Look, nothing red!”

Oh what am I even doing, I’ve already started talking without thinking again. Sitting up like an idiot I am, I bullshitted my way out towards innocence.

“Yare Yare Daze…You call that a slap?” I lectured her.

“That was pathetically weak! That’s just a disgrace to all the bitchslaps out there. Listen here, if you’re gonna slap me embarrassed, you do it like how a real girl would do it! Do it from the start again!”

Ok, maybe I spoke a bit too much.

I pulled my face closer to her and shut my eyes, prepared for impact.

“Pft-”

Then I heard a giggle, the slowly opened my eyes to a girl laughing lightly. She sat back up, then smirked.

“Heh, I didn’t realize Sakuzaki-san would be like this… It’s kind of a surprise, to be honest.”

This time, I was a bit confused.

But hey, I’m probably innocent.

“Um, have we met before?”

“Geez, we’re in the same class. I’m Hoshino Ai, I suppose this might be our first legit meeting haha…” She spoke in a somewhat small voice, but extended her hand for a handshake, “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” I responded and shook her hand, “it was somewhat brief, but I got to go now.”

“See you then,” She smiled

Then we went back to our own businesses and left.

I really judged her too much by her own looks… damn.

I continued my way around the stairs leaving back to my home. I checked the clock on my phone: 4:13 pm.

Whilst waiting for the bus back home, I spent my time reading the rules. ‘FREEDOM’ really didn’t seem that much of a deal to play with, just except for the fact that it was mainly AR; Augmented reality. Mobile games like this have been a trend for sure, but the pain going outside it far too different from the daily lifestyle I preferred. The game format was almost too standard… in-game currency and store, PVP options and quests.

There wasn’t much to really pay attention to when reading most of the rules as it was probably just as long as the terms and conditions. So I scrolled to the bottom, where the [Let’s start!] button showed, and I pressed it.

For a brief moment, I felt a minor sting on the back of my neck. Then I looked up by instinct. But saw something else instead; from the other side of the road, I saw Haru.

Then my bus arrived, blocking the view just so she disappeared from my vision. I hesitated for a moment on what to do, but I ditched the bus stop to cross the road. As I from the bus stop, the sight of her somehow relieved me.

Well, it was already weird for a model student like her to suddenly stop going to school.

“Hey, Haru!” I called, and from a few meters away she turned around and saw me.

I ran across the road, almost carelessly and hit by a car or two on the way, and I stopped, panting in front of her.

“Gee, You weren’t at school today, weren’t you?” I could barely hold my breath from continuously panting, “Something happened today?”

Her face looked honestly surprised to see my existence. But she then looked down, seemingly not really comforted by the moment

“Oh uh, sorry for suddenly asking. Daisuke and the bunch were pretty worried about you and all…” I sighed and gave another consideration from her behavior, “... But I guess you’re at least doing fine and all, so that’s nice to see.”

She really didn’t respond this time too. To be honest, it’s really disheartening to see her troubled, but if she’s avoiding us… then probably we’re not the right people to help her. With a thought like this in me, I just gave up on comforting her.

“Uh… I guess I gotta go now then. I mean my bus is here and all so see you tomorrow!”

I looked back at my bus stop. Obviously, my bus wasn’t really waiting for me and already left, but I thought I should leave now. So that’s what I did; I went back home.

“I’m home…” I called out as I entered the Natsuki household.

“Welcome home, Nii-san.”

“Where’s uncle?”

“He’s at the lounge with a creepy face,” she pointed back, “he thinks he’s got a chance at it this time.”

Speaking of a chance when it comes to him, it’s certain he wants to have a relationship. Good luck on ya, you 29-year-old old geezer. Congratulations, the earth now celebrates that Natsuki Tenya may be broken from his curse of being single, not that we care.

Then I ignored him for the rest of the day.

Nothing much happened after, so the next day comes.

Because Daisuke and I haven’t seen Haru at this us, we assumed that Haru wasn’t attending school again. Either that, or she’s seriously sick or something. But even so, it was to some degree a bit worrying.

That’s why during today’s school lunch, I went to meet Ms. Hanae.

“...so that’s why you came here?” She almost laughed, “Oh you guys are so youthful.”

Wow, so casual.

“Um, I really wanted to know if there’s anything you know that happened recently on the dojo side of things.”

“Don’t think there’s much I know there. I’m just a bodyguard there after all.”

I guess my time here was productive.

“Wait are you leaving on me!” She cried out, not that I cared.

So as I prepared to leave the teacher’s office, I turned back and noticed something. She’s sitting there, carrying a creepily happy face that I had not noticed until now.

“You seem… different today. Did something good happen recently?”

“Ehhh, are you worried?” She teased me a bit, “Well I think I have a chance at- Wait give me a chance! There’s really something I wanted to talk about- THE GAME!! THE GAME!”

Since she sounded too annoying, I shut the door behind me as I left. It wasn’t long later when I received another message from my phone. When I read it, I could only just frown upon it.

“That bastard…”

…

“Sorry! I really hope you don’t mind tagging along like this!”

Kneeling before me in dogeza position was Daisuke, begging me to help him with class duty. Cleaning the class… I thought to myself as I looked around the class …More like cleaning his mess.

“Ah right,” the teacher supervising us, Ms. Hanae, spoke to us, “not that I care, but please do complete the duty before sunset. It’s a pain for both me and you, after all.”

Wow, so casual.

Daisuke and I did a fair share of cleaning of the class.

“Hey Daisuke,” I briefly struck a conversation whilst doing the task at hand. I couldn’t ask him yesterday, I asked him today.

“What now?”

“You know a girl named uh… ‘Hoshino Ai’?”

“Yeah, what about her?”

“I’ve just met her the other day,” I replied, “She just seems somewhat interesting. Is she transfer student?”

Daisuke pulled a face of disappointment.

“You know; you can get really dense sometimes… She’s been in our class since the start of the year… sits in front of you in class I think.”

“eh?”

“uh okay, whatever you believe in…” He responded disinterested, “whatever floats your boat…”

We were pretty much done now; all that’s left were just packing up the equipment.

“Sakuzaki-san, might I have a moment with you?” Ms. Hanae suddenly asked me,

“Daisuke can just do the packing up by himself anyways.”

“huh…”

He glared at me, whispered “teacher’s pet…”

Ms. Hanae dragged me outside and left me no time to respond. She shut the door behind us and pointed her phone screen at me.

“You didn’t give me a chance to tell you this, but,” she paused for a second, “the game you mentioned, ‘FREEDOM’. I don’t think it’s safe to play that.”

I think had a good idea what she was saying though. Games like this… they tend to turn out to be scams, either that or the addiction would affect my lifestyle; typical teacher talk. Though kind of ironic really, since from her screen I could see the exact same icon of the game.

Isn’t she a player too? Oh well.

“Yeah I see, I’ll keep that in mind,” I then pointed at her phone, “By the way Ms, you’re a player aren’t you?”

“I can’t… uninstall it,” she replied slowly, her head down that I could barely see her face.

“Eh?”

If anything, that’s the sign of a pretty crappy game.

Then the door behind both of us opened on itself, showing Daisuke right behind us.

“Done with all the silly chat yet? Com’on Natsuki, let’s hit the train before it gets dark!”

“I guess that’s concludes everything today. I’ll see you guys at class tomorrow,” Ms. Hanae smiled, before walking away down the corridor.

“Gee,” I told Daisuke, “more like it is dark now.”

The bus we took going back wasn’t any different from the usual bus we took anyways. It was just the usual same route, at a different time. Sitting in here looking out, I really could feel pretty relaxed. The bus trip only took a 5 minute run to the stop which we part.

But before I really could say my farewells at the bus stop… I spotted her; Hoshino Ai. Again. I was sure it was her… after all, not many of the locals even look close to a foreigner like her.

As if groping her on the other day was not enough, fate decided to bump me into seeing her today. Somehow, she was acting weird, walking around in the streets not far from here, as if searching for someone around the area.

But if anything, I think I owe her a proper apology for then.

“What’s wrong?” Daisuke asked.

“Ah, don’t mind me. Just gimme a sec, I’ll just greet an acquaintance soon.”

His face changed to serious for a bit, “you do realize it’s dark. Not the best time to hang around for you…”

As if he has the right to say anything!

“…but,” he continued, “I’ll tag along too.”

I smiled… I think.

“Let’s go then,” I said, pointing towards where I last saw her, “she should be around there…“

As I turned back, I saw her almost disappearing into another street. I followed to where I thought she was, only too see her from the edge of the street quickly disappearing to another intersection. Curiously, I immediately set chase towards the roads and down the alleyways of the suburb and eventually I started panicking.

Even after all this chase, I still ended up losing sight of her. On top of that, I was now lost in this maze of an alleyway.

I stopped to catch a breath. Daisuke wasn’t far behind and caught up to me at that moment.

“The hell’s with you, please don’t just start running like that.”

I didn’t answer him back, even though I mainly couldn’t anyways because of the sound of my pants. I was tired as hell and lost among here.

In an evening like this, anything could happen here. If there was anything we could prevent… then we needed to at least guarantee Hoshino Ai is safe.

I pulled out my phone, I had to call her… something was seriously off. I scrolled to the contacts, desperately as I searched for her name there.

But she did not exist there.

...Of course not, I have only really known her since yesterday. How stupid am I?

“Ok, I’m assuming whatever you tried didn’t work,” Daisuke suddenly started talking, “Look, I’ll try calling… what’s the number?”

I turned around, slightly relieved.

“‘Hoshino Ai’, got her number?”

“Ah, no not really.”

I turned back, slightly disappointed.

My phone vibrated a bit, an app opened on itself.

On that black display screen, displayed some words.

[A player nearby is engaged in PVP]

What?

AUTHOR NOTE: try this song for reference https://youtu.be/oiLI9KcAytk

Not long later, we heard a scream not far from here.

No please, we can’t be too late…

Daisuke and I looked at each other. Perhaps we had looks that showed our thoughts opposing each other; Daisuke wanting us to be safe… I wanted to make sure Hoshino Ai is safe.

He really didn’t want to be here, so I left with him an option to opt out.

“I’ll check out what’s wrong, you try to call the police or something.”

“Gotcha.”

On instinct, I had to go towards the sound. After all, there was a chance she would be there and because of that fact, I just couldn’t abandon a person who could be in danger if I could do something about it.

“Hoshino-san!” I called out, hopefully not disturbing locals and loud enough for her to hear.

[Distance from PVP zone: 10m]

Then around the corner, I saw her there. She was there, she really was. In one piece and all, safe and on the ground. I saw her stumbling backward on the ground, so I tried to get a bit closer.

But she gritted her teeth and looked barely able to prevent herself from nausea.

It was a face of disgust, perhaps from something we shouldn’t see.

Then I realized, I took a step too many.

“Hoshino-san, are you al-”

Hoshino saw me but to a degree of shock. From the side of the face, I saw an eyepiece on her ears.

‘I’m on my way there. Just stall.’

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed something almost unnoticeable. The purple moonlight and the brown of corpses reflected a woman there, sitting care-freely on the small mountain of corpse. ‘She’ was, without a doubt, a monster. The woman licked the tip of her already bloodied knife and smiled this way.

It was an empty smile… full of the greed, lust, and desire for killing.

…Shit.

I could hear almost breath I take in that moment. I wanted to do something, yet my shaking legs forbid me to do so. It was probably because… I don’t know what to do to start off with.

Maybe I should start off with running away. But she’ll be left behind.

What’s the right choice?

Just like that, I was frozen from doing anything. No…, not just me, but also her; we were frightened by what could happen to us.

It was too obvious for the two of us to notice what was to happen.

Then in that instant-

‘She’ threw a knife towards Hoshino.

Hoshino stayed still and pointed her arms towards the knife and chanted,

“Shop item: barrier”

The knife hit blunt into a blue field that appeared right in front of her arm. It did not penetrate further, nor did it leave a scratch on her in the end. Then the knife dropped to the ground and the blue glow of the field dissolved away.

Just what on earth…

I turned back to where I thought the woman was… but before I knew it, ‘she’ charged in towards me and strangled me.

“Natsuki-san!” Hoshino yelled, struggling to do anything.

I tried to resist, but her grip was beyond stronger than my attempts to stop her. On top of that, I was losing my strength along with my breath.

Hoshino looked to the side and spoke to her earpiece, “Sensei, this is getting pretty bad…”

It took a while for me to understand what was happening to this situation.

Ah… I’ve become that woman’s hostage so Hoshino couldn’t do anything. My presence here was just not needed for her safety.

“Hoshino-san…” I barely squeezed out of my mouth, “You… should run too.”

Then I overheard the whisper from her earpiece.

‘Ah, just give me a second, Hoshino.’

A bag was thrown out of nowhere, but towards us. ‘She’ dodged a couple of the books that fell from the bag, but that was enough to keep her distracted for the moment.

‘She’ looked up, this time there was another person besides Hoshino this time. I peeked from the corner from my eyes, and I could only register one person who fitted that look…

The one wearing the yukata with a jacket on top, without a doubt, it was her.

“Tch,” ‘She’ scowled, stabbed me in the stomach and dropped me on the ground, “There’s no help to it then.”

Because she was outnumbered, ‘She’ left almost immediately. But those two did not chase after ‘her’… after all, they couldn’t risk engaging in a fight while an injured person was nearby.

And from the edge of my field of vision, there was a blurry Hoshino rushing to my end.

“Sensei! Natsuki-san is-“

Then everything turned black.

It was then when I lost consciousness, so I had no idea what happened after.

***

Then I woke up.

I had a nauseating headache, yet made me barely remembered what happened not long ago. I checked my torso, which only showed a minor scar from then. At least I was alive.

Come to speak of it, how long has it been since I collapsed?

As I wonder such question, I realized that I was in a place unfamiliar.

This is a bedroom really unfamiliar to me, and to think that there exists a bedroom as yellow and girlish like this actually frightened me. That too, but on top of that it was the size of the room was somewhat large… kinda like as if the person who lives in this household was rich to some extent.

Holy shit a girly room exists…

“You woke up,” Hoshino said as she entered the room, “Congratulations.”

“WOAH WHO WHAT THE SHIT THE WHO?”

I panicked a bit, maybe too much.

But holy shit, I didn’t really expect a girl to come in to this girlish room. This place is really full of surprises… Damn.

Well, that was just me being sarcastic earlier.

“Um,” she replied to my unique response, “I’m taking it that I haven’t healed your head enough. Give me a sec, bring it closer I need to dissect-“

She leaned over, eagerly as if she really wants to cut my thing apart.

That’s going to cost my life, you know!

“PAUSE! I was just joking!” I raised my arm to defend myself, “Just surprised earlier. I’m all healed and all from what I could see. That being said…”

“Eh…?” She looked a bit disappointed, but then pulled a joking face, “teehee~”

I recalled the events that happened then.

“This… it’s your room isn’t it?"

“Well duh.”

Wow, so casual- wait that line was like supposed to be reserved for someone else.

“Got anything to explain what happened earlier… some time ago?”

“It’s still the same day,” Hoshino sighed as she replied, “but yeah, you might want to check this out.”

She pointed to my phone, which was lying on the bed. On the screen on the phone, displayed these words:

[WELCOME TO FREEDOM]