Karen was chatting with the teacher that was supposed to lead them through the test. It was only to talk herself out of this activity, she didn't feel ready to get bullied by her height or her personality for 3 years long. It was no use to discuss this with the teacher. He said that she had to participate or she would get expelled. The parents were happy enough she was going to school in the first place. Her parents would kill her if she left school, was that really worth it? Well her parents didn't understand her reasons to be like this.

Being punctual was one of Ender's strong suits. Unfortunately, this particular métier was a tad bit biased, as in it catered to only certain events. The long-awaited conclusive volume to a beloved light novel series is only being sold in select stores? He'll be there, on the dot. For every. Single. Store. Debut of a new idol? Camera at the bloody ready, locked and loaded with a shelf's worth of MicroSDs. New expansion pack released for favorite MMORPG? His surfacing afterwards is newsworthy.

Now, classes? Well... present didn't always arrive with punctual. Luckily his destination was announced before his series of alarms setup in minute intervals failed to stir him. And now with an engine roaring like a beast, the speed of rotation accelerating, 9mm Parabellum Bullet's Setsuna Drive synchronized with every step the boy made in his rush. The amount of palpitations his heart made far exceeded to normal limit, and his lungs were crying from the struggle facilitate air. Ah, yes, this was the true sensation of running for one's life! He wasn't sprinting from his demise, but rather to it. It was highly unlikely that Yoshida-sensei would dispense kindness, given Ender's lackluster track record trailing throughout the whole week. If he had remembered to bring a slice of toast he would have succeeded in pulling off the perfect trope.

"But wait, this isn't the pilot episode!" He cried aloud as adrenaline surged through his voice, trying to squeeze out that last morsel of energy. The lyrics emanating from his headphones channeled enough momentum to push him forward, even though he wanted to crumple and finish the true route of the VN spent an unhealthy amount of time grinding last night. For a moment he debated to follow his spirit animal, D.Va, and chug a mountain dew and dorito cocktail for the final stretch. With a reverberating shout Ender pushed through the doors of the complex and performed his own rendition of Mio Naganohara's chase scene. He pivoted on the fulcrum of his heel after he rounded a corner and continued his sprint towards the predetermined location where the stragglers of class 1-A would congregate.

While Karen was casually talking with one of the teachers, hence the only function that she allowed to show herself too the headphone boy drew closer to the surveillance room. Karen hadn't anticipated that someone was still out of the room that was also in her class. When Karen knew it was helpless to talk to the teacher about her situation she brew an end to their short chat. Looking somewhat down she turned away from the teacher and took a few steps away from him as he made his own leave too. She was thinking of another way out of this but knew it was helpless to call in sick as a digital being.

NEEEEEEEERF!!! THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!" Ender propelled himself at a speed beyond the boundaries of reality, followed by cyclones of air. At least that's how he envisioned his current sprint. In all actuality, the young electrician was on the border of death. He bleated his sprint to an exhausted trot when he realized he was just a few feet away from the surveillance room doors. The boy's vision plopped onto the tiled floor as he tried to jumpstart his lungs with whatever oxygen he could consume, completely unaware that he was not alone. In fact, he was unable to alter the spectacle the other person had to bear witness to. Hell, Ender didn't even notice their presence until his quirk picked up something which jostled him from spent state instantaneously.

His gaze locked onto what appeared to be a petite girl, sheepishly coasting somewhere within the age range of eleven to fifteen. Blonde locks just barely peeked through the oversized hoodie. Ender was unable to scrutinize her facial features since the girl's back was currently to him, perhaps purposefully. Yet despite all of these characteristics, his focus actually lied on an underlying trait. A myriad of synapses fired through his brain as he rapped off conclusions and theories over why his quirk registered the girl before any of his other senses. Yet the voltage matched that of a generic cellphone, which seemed to be the most plausible and logical deduction. But something still felt off... WAIT. THAT HOODIE.

"ARE YOU IN A KAGEROU DAZE, FAIR MAIDEN?!"

Wait. Shit. This wasn't a VN. There was no save point. No rewind.

The 3D world was truly a frightening place.

"E-Erm. I mean. F-Fine day we're having here, yes?" He managed an amiable smile, internally screaming. It would take a miracle to save this interaction.

A sudden yell made Karen snap her head towards the source of the voice. It was only to find out that one of her classmates had found out that she existed. A slight blush appeared on her face when her thoughts were processing the situation. With a somewhat shocking look she stared at Ender for a moment, why was he yelling out those specific words? Karen snapped her head towards the side in denying manner looking a little sad and mad before quickly disintegrating into data. Her body and clothes had completely disappeared. The phone made a loud thud as it landed on the tiles of the hallway. The smartphone on the ground looked fairly high tech and well protected, to linger it around so much was definitely gonna cause trouble most would have probably thought.

What was this guy thinking showing up like that out of nowhere. He could have at least given her some sort of indication. What if he told the class about her now, there was no use in hiding at that point. Karen gave an annoyed pout at no one in particular as she slowly floated around in her phone data.

"What in Jormungand's name just happened?!" He exclaimed to what was now nothing but thin air. Well, almost nothing. Where the girl just stood was now laid a high tech smartphone. He couldn't discern the brand due to its well-protected encasement, but based upon conjecture Ender assessed that it had a durability that rivaled a certain cellphone line. The boy's head instantly darted his head to see if anybody else beared testament to the sight. Perhaps he should actually formulate a legitimate sleeping schedule? No, no, what he saw was indeed real, yet it felt nowhere near. The student made the educated decision to cautiously approach the device. He wouldn't be surprised if Mari from Love Live Sunshine suddenly leaped out of a classroom door and yelled "ITSU JOKE!"

"H-Hello?" He squeaked in a mousy voice as he craned his neck over the phone. "WHAT. DO?! Okay, calm down, you have encountered many unique maidens before- but this girl is 3D- are you really sure about that? Because she just evaporated and turned into a smartphone- the phone was already on her person, she just left it behind- CGI?! YES. IT WAS CGI. Maybe she was using one of those projectors, like in the spy movi-" The internal war being waged within the boy's mind was visible on his face. If the girl really had retreated into her phone, she was currently getting quite the comical show.

Her way too long sleeves were covering up her mouth and chin as she levitated through cyberspace. Karen boringly looked in front of her as she heard the voice speak. She could hear and see him yet the boy couldn't do the same. By now Ender had picked up the phone of Karen and held it in front of his face. He was probably trying to get her attention but Karen didn't want to bug. Maybe he would forget about her if she stayed here long enough. Ender was desperately talking to himself like some kind of idiot, what a moron. Karen her expression didn't change at all, she didn't appear interested. The phone made a short clicking voice. The sound of camera shutters. If she could bind a name with that photo she could remember everything about him. He was her classmate after all. If it kept going like this they would meet in a few minutes anyway.



A chat appeared on the screen of his own phone. It looked a little dubious perhaps but Karen believed in it. She shifted her body to a lying position with both hands holding her head up from the nonexistent cyber ground.

---

Ender felt the pocket of his gym attire vibrate and anxiously produced his own phone with the girl's still occupying his left hand. As an adept multi-tasker and veteran shut-in, processing more than one screen at once was a common activity of his. His eyes shifted between both screens, regarding the newly opened chat on his cellphone while keeping tabs for any changes on the other's display. The layout of the chat chain was very simplistic and monotone. White bubbles against a black backdrop. A sign that the chatroom was either quickly manifested, or the creator didn't have enough interest to embellish it with detail. There wasn't any visual cue pointing to the identity of the creator either. Hell, the chat didn't even run as a registered application.

"H-Hi. Um. This is Ender." Providing ones real name in the virtual world was practically taboo, but he wasn't sure if using one of his many handles was the more feasible decision in this situation. "Ender Kazetani. Who may this be?"

"Please don't drop a death flag, please don't drop a death flag, please don't drop a death flag." This was undoubtedly a peculiar situation. For all intents and purposes he was still borderline late.

---

It didn't look like the usual chat that was always used but more like a bug of some sort. His phone gave a few error codes before the chat was working like it was supposed too. The headphone boy introduced himself as Ender. A window popped up next to Karen with all the students of the school. Almost instantly his name was filled in making his school profile pop up in the screen. His quirk was to detect electronic currents with his hearing. She wondered how she would be affected by his quirk. Karen could travel over electric currents but how would that be perceived by him? Back to the text she got from him Karen made a short reply back.



Karen glanced at his headphones for a moment wondering what he was listening too. She tilted her head lightly to the side in question and got a glimpse of the sound. It didn't sound like regular Japanese pop but more to the anime side of the Japanese community. It was still enjoyable to listen to though.

A...I...

Ender mouthed the letters with squinted eyes, unable to decide whether he was shocked by the presence of an artificial intelligence, or to send a prayer out to the scientific community in light of the fact that somebody had far surpassed their efforts. The boy rubbed his head with the side of his hand in an attempt to digest the knowledge. Then again, this could just be some random from one of his many forums pulling a prank, but the technological strives being made here implied that this wasn't anything of the sort. In fact, this setup held a blaring resemblance to a VN encounter. It was just text on a screen, and as the protagonist it was his duty to choose the right bubble that would activate the intended route.

Or so Ender would like to believe.

The door to the surveillance room was right there, yet the detective inside of him wanted to get to the bottom of this. With a deep gulp the ebullient student pressed onwards.

"Hi, AI!" He began.

"WHAT WAS THAT?! THAT DOESN'T FLOW AT ALL! OKAY, OKAY, THINK. Gdi, situations like this weren't in the 3D Survival Guide!" His fingers floated over the screen until he conjured up a response.

"Do you by any chance know about the current location of a certain girl. About a yay high, blonde, has a pretty moe sense of fashion?"

Her answer would hopefully put Ender's suspicions to rest, since he already had a faint feeling about the student's circumstances.

Ender looked a little confused when she had said her name. Was it that strange to call herself that? Karen and her parents found it pretty fitting, well whatever. Others might like it more.

Ender had asked her if she had perhaps seen a tiny blonde girl with a moe outfit on? Karen looked hesitant for a moment but she had to go with it if he believed it or not.



The song on Ender his headphones had ended so Karen decided to give him a taste of one of her own songs.



Ender wasn't peeved in the slightest over AI hijacking his phone's playlist. On the contrary, AI's choice in music helped flesh out "their" character, but it gave no implications towards the nature of the individual behind the chatroom. The boy glanced down both ends of the hallway. While quirks stumped many with their phantasmical qualities, he personally couldn't wrap his head around one that turned a girl into ones and zeroes. But perhaps that was honestly what had transpired. Regardless...

"Ah, okay, The student continued to condense his thoughts while fighting the urge to jam out to the new track, "Well guess I'll just, erm, make sure her phone doesn't get lost. Yet again, it's nice to meet you AI! How's your day been?" He had to stray away from internet taboo. Hopefully his perturbation would be conveyed through the send button.

Ender had accepted her lie, it made her feel kind of bad to tell him something like but there was no other choi-... Oh he was gonna keep her phone with him. Karen hadn't really thought about something like that yet. She could get a new phone from the academy but that would take a small amount of time and they weren't infinite. To say it in short, each and every phone has to be handled with care... Karen got an annoyed look on her face as she grit her teeth. It had taken some time for her to reply back perhaps bringing up some confusion about what had happened.



Karen had completely forgotten to reply about her day, she was a little too focused on the phone right now, if she lost it in her first week she would have a big problem or rather her wallet would have.

Leaving such an expensive device on the hallway floor wasn't what Ender would call plausible by any stretch. It would be more pragmatic to drop it off at the lost and found, but he didn't have adequate time to do so. And besides, if it was still on the floor when he exited the surveillance room, he would be sure accomplish the task. Pressed for time, going through with AI's advice just didn't rub him the right way. "I'm sorry, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I discarded such an expensive device. Especially if it belongs to somebody who I've yet to meet."

Why did this boy have to be so nice! Ugh, she really had to do it herself didn't she. There wasn't really anything nearby that could help her get this boy down while she took her phone back. This meant she had to do it the sneaky way and run away with it. This was gonna be pretty hard for her to do. Karen bit her lip for a moment as she closed her eyes for a moment of peace.



Karen pixelated back into the real world again just behind Ender. It was close enough to her phone so she was fine with staying in the real world. He was quite large looking at him now, this was gonna be hard. Karen quietly snuck up to him and tried to pull her phone away from him from under his arm. Either if she got the phone or didn't she turned away from him her body cropping up a little with her arms close to her chest and her head lowered. She held the phone tightly to her chest if she had it so it was harder for him to steal back if he tried. She hoped he would just let her go.

Ender's eyes were locked on the empty space in his hand, then slowly rotated his vision as if a spirit laid in wait. Instead of a under-rendered jumpscare, he was actually met with the same diminutive character from earlier, with an identical back and stature included. "WHA?!" Was all that could be mustered as the kid did a double, triple, and finally quadruple take before some measurement of a composure was rebuilt. Frankly the girl's resurfacing supported his earlier hypothesis, but rather than being candid it was determined that the more rash decision was to not press the blonde. Albeit that very action may force her to dissipate once again, the social damage that would be inflicted was irreparable.

Ender paused for a moment to coalesce his thoughts and said, "Your stealth factor doesn't seem high enough. Perhaps inject a few points into your SPD tree, and perhaps select an applicable skill or two." The boy spoke in an enlightening voice while he pushed up invisible spectacles.

Yes. Brilliant. Meet a difficult situation with jargon only a certain sect of the population will understand! Exacerbation is the true way to success! Wait, no, he couldn't just leave it there! "Soooooo, um, erm, I see you've gotten your phone back and all..." His voice trailed off with only an awkward silence to take its place, "Oh! Don't worry, I didn't go through any of your files," A curt glance over to doorknob, "I-I gotta go. Yoshida-sensei is going to have my head- or worse, confiscate my gaming console. I'll, um, let you be." His hand reached out for the steel knob, but stopped at a hover over the luster surface, "The name's Ender Kazetani, the self-proclaimed techaholic of class 1-A!" Normally Ender would pull off a backflip or a magical girl transformation sequence, but time was of the essence, and his funds for CGI had run dry.

Successful! She got her phone back and left Ender in confusion, it hadn't come as far as doing it in stealth but that was anticipated already. Karen had her face hidden quite well at least she tried her hardest to not show him all too much. Ender was brushing it over like nothing happened, he was happy to see Karen have her phone back again and was talking like they were playing a game. Was this guy being serious... The game had gotten so far in his head that he can only think about stuff like that now. Karen got the chills from him, yet she understood what he meant. Karen trusted this guy somewhat, he didn't jump onto her yet and hadn't mentioned anything being off around her at all. Mostly because he was even weirder himself so it was hard to notice the odd girl.