Sato Hashimoto // Warakuma High
APRIL 4 2015, SATURDAY
After School

What was that dream? That question haunted him ever since he had it. He had woken up with a start that morning, with the clear memory of the velvet-colored room and the words the residents spoke. “Between mind and matter…” Sato mouthed it as he stared at the equations on the board. They seemed to make so much sense when he looked at them but when he actually thought about them they meant nothing.

“Hashimoto, please solve the equation on the board.” With a startle, Sato rose, pushing back his chair far too much and hitting the desk behind him. He apologized, and then quickly board as he walked over to it. It was only then he realized that he hadn’t been paying attention the entire time the teacher had been introducing the formula he was asked to solve. Several long moments passed before a hand shot up from the front row.

“Yamauchi, may I solve it in place of Hashimoto?" The teacher nodded, and a frail girl brushed Sato aside. She ALWAYS did that, saving anyone who didn’t know the answer. It was almost an insult that he was “saved” by her like the idiots who barely even studied. The ONE time he messed up, it was in the only class he had with Akiko-san! With a significantly more salty mood, Sato returned to his seat and began to analyze everything on the board as quickly as possible, jotting most of it down into a notebook.

It wasn’t long before class ended and a dozen and a half students rushed out the door, with only a few couples of students already chatting away. Almost everyone around him was expressing their malcontent with the fact that their home room teacher had made them do a bunch of math immediately after the welcoming ceremony. As he made his way to the door, listening to others' conversations, he stumbled into a desk, knocking a paper note off it, and it was only then that Sato remembered the other strange thing that had happened that morning. In his shoe locker he had found a note detailing a meeting time outside the local arcade. It could’ve just been from his best friend, Ryouta, or it could’ve been a mistake, meant for someone else. Either way, it was the only thing he had to do for the rest of the day.

-----

Sato Hashimoto // [url=n/a]Warakuma Arcade[/url]
Once he was at the arcade, Sato quickly scanned the area for anyone who seemed to be waiting for someone else. No one seemed like they weren’t already with a group, and it WAS the time listed on the card. He decided that it was a mistake and they didn’t notice until later, and was too shy to take it back. And since that was a bust, Sato decided to grab a drink from the nearby café and sit by the entrance to the arcade for a while.

As soon as he returned to the arcade and sat down, a girl had walked over to him with an expression that was hard to figure out if she was intimidated or was trying to be intimidating. “Akiko-san?” Sato asked, but not before she held out a stack of paper to him, which were presumably math notes. “What gives?”

“I was told to give these to you.” Akiko said the words in a hushed tone, not all that different from how she spoke in class. But as soon as Sato took the notes, Akiko turned on her heel and left without another word. He shouted after her, but she went unfazed by the call and Sato immediately gave up, stuffing the notes into the bag he rested next to him. He’d check them later.

It wasn’t long before he grew bored from laundering outside the arcade. While videogames were always a rare indulgence for him, Sato headed into the arcade without even an idea as to where to start with the maze of games. He immediately noticed the large amount of students, which were mostly underclassmen, killing time with their peers. Of course, he didn’t know most of them, which made a foreign experience even weirder for him. However, Sato remembered other students talking about a game they really liked, Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold. Without much knowledge about videogames, he decided it was a good choice to start with, and it wasn’t long before he managed to find it. Sato cursed under his breath when he saw the gathering crowd around the P4UU machine. He went over to and leaned on some other random game, and pulled out the notes he was given. Though he looked through, he paid no attention to the numbers and instead mulled over one question: what other games were good!?