_______

"L, I was wondering if I can keep the key? And there's also a condition that the hidden character must be connected to me with some stuff called 'connector'. Do you know what that means?"

Ariana cringed at herself for asking in such sweet tone she never used before. It made her feel like two faced woman who's simply trying to use someone. However she needed to do this in order to erase her doubt.

"Don't worry, the key is safe with me. And I already connected us together. Now the only thing we need is the girl. Let's go"

Only after taking few steps, did L realize that Ariana was still at the same spot from earlier.

"What's wrong?"

"It's weird.. the system and..." L briefly heard Ariana mumble something.

"....What?" He asked.

"Never mind. Let's go find the real Asuka quickly. It's better to go on separate ways so we can find her faster. Call me if you find her first"

"Wait Ariana, we should go—..."

L tried to say something she was already out of his sight. The black haired girl already headed towards the same direction Asuka ran off in pace of a professional athlete.

Because Ariana felt the need to find Asuka before L does.

It was just an intuition. Nonetheless Ariana couldn't help but try to keep her distance from L.

'Think, if I was a ten-whatever-years old kid with depressions and play crazy games like this one, where would I go?'

There wasn't a single place that came to her mind.

Then a wonderful idea struck.

"Hello? Good afternoon Sora.... Can you help me with something real quick?"

She easily requested for Sora to hack the cameras around here and find 'L's girlfriend'. Of course there was a price.

"Thanks, Sora. You were a great help. I'll definitely repay you with something later"

"I'm glad I was able to be of help to nee-san"

Ariana worriedly glanced over to the number and shrugged it off. She'll soon leave this place anyway so there's no need to fear these psychos.

The real problem was the place the girl ran into.

"A haunted house? It's definitely the last place she was seen around"

She felt like the kid was truly special once more. Aren't kids usually scared of such places? It seems like Asuka is an exception.

The ugly looking house surrounded by creepy stuff was surprisingly closed down today despite having a lot of people around. There weren't anyone guarding the house either so Ariana decided to quickly sneak in.

"Asuka? Are you here?"

The house was so dark and there was unfortunately no light. Ariana had to use her phone's flashlight as she wandered around like protagonist of a horror movie.

Suddenly she heard faint sniffling sounds across the room.

"Asuka?"

"T-the mean lady?"

Yep, it was definitely her.

"What're you doing here, all alone? Don't you see a sign that it's not open today? C'mon, let's get out of here and talk things out"

To her disappointment, Asuka desperately shook her head.

"I won't go back with you! I've to help Saito!"

"That guy is literally a fictional character. And he's already being possessed by a bad guy so there's no need to save him. Isn't it better to return to our own world, where there're real people with feelings? To your friends? Or.."

Ariana paused as she tried to avoid saying 'family'. The word triggered the girl earlier and she didn't want to go through the pain of finding her again.

"I don't want to go back! It's much better to live here rather than going back to that place" Asuka exclaimed. Then she brought her knees closer and muttered in a sad tone. "No one's going to worry if I disappear anyway"

'Looks like she has her own problems too'

Inhaling a deep breath, Ariana took a seat next to Asuka despite the floor being a mess with all the fake blood of the haunted house scattered around. It was an emotional conversation and she didn't want to ruin it by acting like a clean freak.

"I'm also the same" Ariana stated.

Asuka looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah. You can see why right? I've too high standards for my friends despite being someone with worst kind of attitude. During school, I had like only two friends and we already fought after we graduated. Not friends with them anymore. No family or relatives. Works from home so not close with my coworkers either. But still, I want to go home"

"Why?" asked Asuka.

"Because it's real. People hate me for a reason. But the characters from the game only falls in love with me because I'm the protagonist. Not a single reasoning at all. I miss my old peaceful life, with just couch, pizza, netflix and me. How about you? Isn't it better to return back and play your otome games? I promise you, experiencing it in reality is not what you expect. I had my legs stabbed and even had my eyes gouged out by Riku"

"By Riku?" Asuka's eyes widened in shock. "But isn't that like the worst ending a player can possibly get during his route? How bad are you at this game?"

The serious atmosphere between them changed while Ariana was sweating bucks while wondering if she should tell her about the hidden route, where she had three yanderes chasing after her.

"But I reached good ending in Sora's route.. and found a hidden route too"

"Hidden route? Doesn't that only appear when the player is about to die?"

'That's true..'

"And Sora's route is literally the easiest one. Just a simple compliments can win him over. Are you really serious?"

"Yeah..." Ariana meekly answered. 'And I struggled a lot to get that happy ending too..'

"Haha, I can't believe you're that bad. At this rate I won't be surprised if you also failed to win Usato's route before Sakura killed you"

'That's literally what happened'

Ariana could see her pride crumbling away and decided to not tell her about the truth. Instead she asked different question, trying to change the topic.

"If you know that much about the game then do you know L's real name? It's strange because I can't see his character information no matter what"

"L? Isn't that the kind silver haired brother from earlier? How am I supposed to know his name?"

"Eh? Why don't you know it?"

Is the hidden character so mysterious that his name was kept hidden even in the game?

However her expectation was far from the truth as Asuka replied.

"Because he's definitely not a character"