Monday, April 25th

Izumi Academy, Classroom 3-C
Weather: Fair

Junichiro’s morning was spent daydreaming about curry buns.

It was just his luck for his alarm not to go off on time– and it was very much not his fault. He was certain that he had set the proper time on his phone before going to sleep last night. It was supposed to go off at 8. It was supposed to make this big, blaring sound that made his ears hurt and he would curse at it to no end as he got ready for school. It was supposed to help him to get to school on time. That morning it had remained eerily silent, almost judging him for staying up until three playing video games. Maybe it was its way of disciplining him. Maybe it just wanted to make fun of him. Whatever the case was, Junichiro had little time to freak out about the fact that it was 8:30 am and he had 15 minutes to get to school on time. After a fit of panic– and tons of ruckus as he stormed around his room to gather his belongings– he threw on his school uniform and bolted out his bedroom door. Junichiro wasn’t even careful enough to try not to wake up his father, who slept in his drunken stupor on the leather couch of their cramped living room, as he pelted down the creaky wooden stairwell and streaked out of their home.

With fair weather and light traffic, it took him a brief ten minutes to get to Izumi and an extra three to take a piss and rush for class. Both students and teachers probably thought he went crazy as he tore down the pristine white hallways and barreled past anyone who dared stand in his path. Once or twice, he heard one of them holler obscenities after him. This time, Junichiro didn’t care. He couldn’t be late, not this early in the semester. Late days were reserved for later on, when the days were hot and sweltering and he didn’t have to sweat his ass off on his commute. Then he could afford taking his sweet ass time on his trip to school.

Junichiro heaved for breath by the time he slumped down in his spot at the very back of class. Sweat poured down his face as he slammed his forehead down upon his desk. He had made it. He had actually made–

His stomach produced a large, trembling growl that sent a tremor through his bones. A yawning hole gaped at the very pit of his abdomen and loudly begged for food. The consequences of having no breakfast were steep.

Shit.

The curry-bun-daydreams washed over his mind like a storm of rain. Junichiro’s head didn’t move from its spot during the duration of the first few of his classes. He wasn’t sure if it was because his teachers felt for him or they simply had lost faith in him. Honestly, he couldn’t care less. All that mattered was sticking his teeth deep in the warm curry buns the school set during lunch time. And when Miss Yamada, his history teacher, finally stopped yapping, the lunch bell finally rang. In a sort of second wind, Junichiro launched himself from his desk and rushed out of the room.

It took him three minutes for Junichiro to return with a mouth half-brimming with sauce and bread and his hands carrying two more. He looked satisfied and almost proud of himself as he strode towards Kimiko’s seat. Manuevering a chair closer to where she sat with his right foot, he plopped down in front of her and stuffed his mouth full with the back portion of the warm bun.

”Can’t believe I was able to swindle that kid outta his curry buns– now I got two more,” Junichiro said, raising them both up as if they were a pair of trophies. ”Been thinkin’ ‘bout them the whole day, I was starvin’. Now they’re finally mine!”

He peeled away the wrapper on the second one and promptly took another sloppy bite as he looked at the girl expectantly.

”’Sup?”

How annoying. School was as painfully dull as usual, and to top it all off, Yurie realized she'd forgotten to bring lunch today. Great. Now she'd have to go pick up some bread from the school store. Hopefully they had curry buns in stock today. They certainly weren't good, per se, but those were still the most flavorful option available despite their lack of any actual heat. Curry, her ass.

When the lunch bell rang, Yurie stopped pretending to listen to their teacher, flicked her AR display off in her contacts with a tap of her gloves, and stood to start making her way down towards the school store. Of course, she was cut off as the class douchebag, Oda, practically flew out the door. She'd never had a problem with him, he'd never fucked with her, but it seemed half the school did. Something about fights. Whatever. He wasn't her issue until if he decided to make himself one. Not worth thinking about unless that happened.

Hands in her blazer pockets, Yurie leisurely strolled down towards the first floor, waiting patiently in line at the school store. Looked like she was in luck. Judging by the orders up ahead of her, they were carrying curry buns today. After a few minutes, there was only one person ahead of her in line. He bought three curry buns, and walked off. She would have thought nothing of it, but then a glance at what was in stock told her otherwise. That son of a bitch bought the last three curry buns.

"Oh, you can't be serious...fine, whatever." Yurie muttered in disgust under her breath before she bought a melon bread instead, one gloved hand tapping away inside her jacket pocket as her AR display lit up again. She'd set up a backdoor into the school's ID system some time ago, and one query later gave her the name of the little shit that bought up the curry bread. Utakata Haruto. She wasn't going to do anything with the information yet, but it'd be nice to know in case that guy ever wronged her in a more serious manner in the future.

Fortunately, it seemed karma decided to intervene in her favor. As Yurie started to walk back towards the classroom, she caught sight of Utakata...getting all three of his curry breads snatched out of his hands by Oda. Nice. She snickered slightly in the poor, poor victim's direction before following after Oda at a more sedate pace.

She returned to 3-C just a few moments after Junichiro did, unwrapping her melon bread as she stepped inside. Now, where was he...ah. Talking with Hayakawa. Right, they were friends, weren't they? Or acquaintances, at least.

"Nice work, Oda-kun." Yurie interjected in their conversation, sitting down on a desk next to Kimiko's and crossing her legs. Whoever had the seat wasn't here right now, so it wasn't her problem. "I was gonna buy just a single one of those curry buns, but that guy you ripped them off from took the last three. What a jerk, am I right? Thanks for giving him what was coming to him." She took a bite of melon bread more forcefully than she'd intended to, still rather ticked that she was eating this instead of what Junichiro and Kimiko were holding.

@Ambra @vietmyke

Kimiko had spent most of the morning unashamedly dazing in the classroom, content with staring out the window while the teachers droned on about whatever their particular subject was. Perhaps the teachers knew by this point in time Kimiko didn't really care to listen to them. At the very least she got her assignments in on time, that oughta be good enough for them surely. Instead, Kimiko spent a lot of her time doodling onto her desk, the edges of its surfaces miniature murals underneath her hands, still speckled and stained with bits of biolight paint she hadn't thoroughly washed off yet.

As the lunch bell rang, Kimi scoffed as Junichiro went off to go buy lunch- the boy had apparently forgotten his, again. The girl chuckled, shrugging off her bright red jacket as she hung it on her chair, picking up the worn bookbag underneath it. The bag itself was mostly empty save for the barest requirements, and of course her own packed bento- courtesy of gran. The bag was for the most part only weighed down by the collapsed hoverboard hanging off the back loop, a bright red Sunrider model, intricately decorated with biolight paints and adorned with a sticker of a black cat. Ever since she'd gotten it, Kimi had found herself reaching down to the bag and touching it every few minutes- as though to make sure it was still there, jealously guarding it from any potential theft.

Kimi chuckled and rolled her eyes as Junichiro soon returned with his apparently ill gotten gains: A trio of curry buns, an admittedly tastier prize than Hayakawa had anticipated. "Forget your lunch again? Starting the week off strong." The girl pushed her bento box into the center of the desk, revealing a packed lunch with plentiful- if simple foodstuffs. Fried egg and spam on a bed of rice, a small set of sausages cut and cooked to resemble little octopi, an assortment of steamed vegetables- almost as if the person who had packed it anticipated it being shared.

"Gran Gran wanted to make sure you were eating well, but it looks like you're doing just fine." Kimiko shook her head wearily, turning as she noticed Shinozaki approaching them. She gave the girl a faint smile, chuckling lightly as she commented on the poor sap that had his food taken away from him.

"Yeah, what sort of glutton eats three curry buns," Kimiko agreed cheekily, holding her hand out towards one of Oda's trophies, "Its a good thing Junichiro brought enough to share, right?"

---

Mori's daydream came so a sudden halt as the bell for lunch time rang. It was that time already? It was his lucky day. This early in the semester they didn't actually teach anything, and it was mostly just review, so he had plenty of time to daydream about total nonsense. Mori stretched out his limbs, letting out a small groan, accompanied shortly thereafter by several cracking sounds coming from his joints. He spent the next several seconds cracking the rest of his body, from his neck, his knuckles, down to his knees. His mom always warned him about how doing that would give him arthritis, but Takeshi did it all the time and he turned out fine.

Either way it was time for food. His mom packed his lunch for him, mostly because he'd either forget to do it himself, or forget to bring money to buy food. After last year, where that happened a few too many times for her liking, she just decided to do it herself. Mori looked trough his bag, pushing past various papers and school supplies before eventually pulling out a small metal case containing his Bento. He set the box down on his desk before opening the top off and taking a look inside.

Inside was about what he expected. Some rice, as expected, mixed in with a few vegetables and the occasional mushrooms. He didn't actually have the heart to tell his mom the way she prepared mushrooms was an affront to any and all gods, and was probably a felony in at least three prefectures. Up next were a small selection of fruits, consisting of cut melon, blueberries, and a few strawberries pieces made up this section of the box. Finally, thers was the protein. Fish this time, nestled on a bed of greens. He didn't actually know what kind of fish this was, but it tasted good, so he didn't complain. As for the greens, well, Mori was a warrior, not a rabbit.

As nice as the meal was, Mori's concentration was broken by the horrible sound of someone slurping something very loudly. He turned behind him to see a girl slurping her cup ramen in the loudest possible fashion, with chunks of tofu and broth splattering on her desk. A horrendous sight to behold, Mori immediately turned back around, staring back into his half eaten Bento. Maybe he should eat those greens after all. Anything to distract him from the monstrous sound behind him.

The girl behind him was mercifully quick, despite her eating habits, and had gotten up to leave. It was peace and relative quiet at last, and he could get back to finishing his Bento. Once more his mind began to wander as he ate, traveling into strange territory of trivia and future plans. He wanted to check out the new game he had gotten. Civilization, it was called. He wasn't too terribly interested in it, but a group of his internet friends were all playing it, and suggested he get it, too. Maybe it would be more fun that he thought?

---

The day had been mostly uneventful for Kaede. Classes had gone by relatively quickly, and the students were busy bustling about the hallways as usual. She tried to be a good student and pay attention, but it was easy for her mind to wander. The instructions for their assignment gradually began to sound muddled together as her eyelids grew heavier. Despite going to bed early that night, she felt like she hadn't slept a wink in the past 24 hours in that moment. But as soon as the bell rang for lunch, she was snapped awake by screeching chairs and her classmates leaving as if the room had burst into flames.

And so, without a plan to spend her lunch break with anyone else, she decided she would head to the rooftop and enjoy the weather along with her meal. But, on the way there she overheard a conversation between two male students. One was complaining about a well-known troublemaker swindling him out of his planned lunch.

She'd heard of Junichiro, but thought the rumors were baseless. Kaede herself had never seen him do something that students gossiped about, and considering how much teenagers loved to spread drama...

Kaede decided to keep walking towards her destination; if she saw him along the way, then she could give him a piece of her mind, whether he wanted it or not.

Her walk took her to classroom 3-C, where she overheard a male voice boasting about "swindling that kid outta his curry buns".

So, had he only gotten one and manipulated the person she saw into giving up his own? And on top of that, she overheard the two girls complain to him about taking the last of the buns and him refusing to share.

How distasteful.

Kaede stepped into the room during the commotion, reaching into her bag and grabbing one of the spare bento boxes she kept. She always came prepared should she accidentally drop her lunch, have it stolen, or for situations like this. She could see there was food at the center already, but... the girls having plenty to eat amongst themselves would be better than splitting one meal. Especially when one of them was dead set on keeping three curry buns all to himself.

"Here." Kaede offered the bento box next to Kimiko's, a fried chicken with tamagoyaki, broccoli, tomato, sautéed spinach, and seasoned onigiri rice balls bento box. It wasn't the flashiest, but it tasted good and was filling; that's all that mattered to her. "Since a certain someone wants to be selfish, you two can have this to help fill you up."

Maybe if Juni was willing to share he could eat with the two girls. For now, Kaede would have to stay close by because, well, she needed the bento box. It wasn't disposable and she had no intention of leaving it behind.

In situations like this she would eat next to or with the person she donated the food to just to get the box back. And so, that's what she planned to do.

Yurie just rolled her eyes at the byplay, munching away at her melon bread. Would've been nice if Oda had thought to hand a curry bun off to her, but she wasn't really expecting it. Instead, she held her food in one hand while tapping away on an AR display with her other, idly browsing the web as she listened to the other two make conversation. Hm, nothing big happening in her usual undernet circles. Deep Zero was being a prick again on the relay chat, but that was par for the course.

As a result, Yurie almost didn't notice as some girl she didn't know just butted into the room and the conversation, offering up...her own bento? Huh? Who the hell was this kid? She shared a glance with Kimiko for a moment before looking back to Kaede, pursing her lips. As tempting as a free lunch seemed, well, there was no such thing, ever. Whoever this girl was had to want something. People didn't just do favors for complete strangers without fishing for a favor in return. It was just a matter of finding out if the exchange was worth it or not.

"So you just have a spare bento handy at all times? Or is that your actual lunch? I'm not enough of a bitch to rob you of yours just because I forgot mine. Also, you got a name? I sure don't know you, unless you're one of these two's friends?" Yurie raised an eyebrow at Kaede before gesturing to her two lunch partners. Sure, she could trawl the school's intranet for this girl's dox, but unless she accessed the network herself, it'd be faster for Yurie to just ask flat out. Worst she could do was say no, really.

@Ambra @vietmyke @Serei2477

There was a quiet war going on in Torio's head as he sat and tried to pay attention to what it was their teacher was telling them. Juggling his notes, the myriad of things he had to do over the course of the week at home, as well as the fact that he wanted to find time to get some gaming in it was a miracle any notes got written. Made it that much more of a mercy when the bell rang for lunch and he was able to toss his notebook back into his bag and crack his fingers.

The flurry of movement, screeching of chair legs, and instant chatter cut through any serenity he was hoping to find, at least for the moment. He didn't join in with the hoard leaving as his mother wouldn't be let him caught dead standing in line to buy lunch from school. Or rather she wouldn't let the cooks forget it. No way she'd be slaving away in the kitchen.

He followed suit of the other students who had brought their own lunch and pulled out his own bento box that was loaded with homemade sushi plus additional rice and vegetables that he wasn't sure if he was going to eat or not. It would be an affront to the cooks who made it though if he didn't so...maybe he would.

A quick flick of his wrist brought a screen up above his desk as he scrolled through the various different game forums he was able to keep from his parents prying eyes. The mindless scrolling was quickly interrupted by the sound of someone absolutely inhaling their ramen from a little ways behind him. It took all of his willpower not to whip around to see who didn't have any manners, but instead he twisted his head just enough to witness the smattering of broth onto the girl's desk. Delightful. He was just glad that the mess she was making also correlated to the speed that she finished her food which meant she was up and leaving before the rest of his appetite could escape him.

With her gone he felt comfortable enough swiveling backwards in his chair to face one of the other people in class he knew was interested in gaming. "Hey Mori, hear anything about any good games coming out?" He was running out of stuff to play and as much as he wouldn't mind replaying something something new would be nice for once

---

Mori looked at the time on his phone as he put his now empty Bento box back in his bag. He had finished quicker than he thought. What to do for the rest of the time then? He could always play on his phone. Or at least browse social media. Maybe he could go wander around the school for a bit. He had a couple of friends in other classes, and notably, one of his brother's friend's brother went to school here. They were like brother brothers. That's like... brothers squared. Whoa. What class was he in again? 3-C? Maybe he should pay him a visit?

As the thought of getting up occurred to him, a voice rang out from in front of him. It was his classmate, Aozora, asking him if he'd heard of any new games coming out. Well, good games. Mori leaned back as he thought out loud. "Well, as far as good games are concerned, if you're into multi-player stuff the new Civilization game came out a couple of weeks ago. I haven't played it much but apparently the game takes a long time to play. As for other stuff, let's see here..." Mori took out his phone and began idly scrolling through, his eyes darting every which way on the screen as he scanned for information.

"There's Blackmoore's Night. It's about a pirate captain trapped on an island with a bunch of undead and you have to escape with the treasure. Apparently different combinations of treasure grant different abilities and can even determine your ending. It comes out in like a month. After that, There's Vade Retro. It's a horror game about an Onmyoji who has to exorcize demons from various places, collecting artifacts and incantations to banish them. It also has some sort of hiding system, but they havent realeased much on that yet. It's supposed to come out sometime in June."

Mori kept idly scrolling, but nothing interesting really came up. Everything else was either over a year away or didn't seem very interesting. Not to mention he didn't know Aozora's price point. Although, isn't this guy the son of a CEO? Then again, his dad would probably call it a bad financial decision if he blew a bunch of their money on video games. But what did he know? "That's about all I can find that falls under the catergory of 'new' and 'good', or at least 'interesting'. Maybe some more announcements will come out soon?" Mori gave a shrug as he twirled his phone around. "There's also the dozen JRPG shovelware games coming out like usual, if you're into that."

---

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Kimiko sighed. She half expected it, Juni was a glutton when it came to food- especially the good kind. Defeated, Kimi shrugged and returned to her own bento box to start eating. Nothing incredibly fancy, but it fit the bill well enough. "Are you coming over later then? Gran wanted to know."

A pin in the conversation was promptly placed however, as another girl approached. Catching Yurie's glance, Kimiko just shrugged. She recognized the girl as Kaede, an underclassmen. She didn't really know the girl though, and hadn't interacted with her much. Not that Kimiko didn't like the girl, she just never had a reason to talk to her, and 'friendly' was never a word often attributed to her. At least not by others anyway, Kimiko thought she was plenty friendly- but her reputation had a habit of preceding her. That being said, Kaede probably didn't care that much if she approached Juni, his reputation was on par, or even worse than hers.

"I think Junichiro is just fine," Kimiko snorted as the boy filled his face with more curry, "He looks as happy as can be. Kaede, right? Which classroom are you in?"

If Kaede had been in Yurie's shoes, she might have suspected something amiss as well. After all, nothing in this world was free. Still, Kaede wasn't one to offer something and expect (or demand) a favor in return.

She gave a little nod of her head at the first question, gazing idly at the other girl. "I always carry a spare in case my lunch spills or for situations like this." It was always good to be prepared, was it not? After all, this thinking was going to save Yurie from relying on melon bread and half of Kimiko's meal. She'd been about to answer Yurie, but Kimiko beat her to it. She gave the respective girl a little nod in affirmation. "That's my name, yes." She turned back to Yurie. "And no, I'm not their friend. I overheard a student complaining that he was swindled out of his curry bread by a certain someone, and I just happened to see that it was true. I heard the gossip surrounding him, but I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt."

The someone in particular seemed satisfied with the curry bread and was relaxing in his chair at a dangerous angle. Was he not worried about shifting his weight incorrectly? She couldn't help but admire that bravery. "Careful. If you stick your nose up any further a bug might fly in and call it home." Kaede told him.

Was it true? Probably not. Would he believe her and gain a sense of paranoia? Maybe.

It would be easy enough to look up what games were coming out online, but that required slogging through game journalists opinions on what was actually good. That would be an load of arbitrary and conflicting opinions that, quite frankly, Torio did not want to deal with. He had enough of that with his father's business partners. Besides, he knew Mori liked games, probably more than he did, and lunch was one of the few times he could actually talk to someone.

Seemed liked he'd made a good choice in who to ask as he was immediately met with a flood of information on the newest games that were coming out. He brought up a note to jot down anything his classmate mentioned that sounded even mildly interesting. He'd never been much for the Civ line of games since they took so long to play, but his attention was piqued at the mention of a new horror game. That might be one to look into.

"No shortage of new stuff that'll suck hours of my life away," he said, partially to himself, "Horror has always been my go-to so maybe I'll hold out until June before buying anything else." Not that he figured his parents would care what he bought so long as he offered to test it on his dad's new hardware.

Torio returned the shrug, "Probably some gaming convention or direct coming up. I can never keep track anymore." He snorted in half amusement and half disgust, "If I want to spend hours grinding the same looking dungeon or weird puzzle I'll just replay an Elder Scrolls game for the fifty millionth time."

---

"Horror, huh?" Mori replied back. "Can't say that was ever my shtick, but I could see the appeal." Mori silently wondered if there were any good horror games to play with friends. Though, maybe that would ruin the spooky atmosphere if you had a friend to mess around with. It would probably rely more on jumpscares than an actual spooky atmosphere, though it might double down on the atmosphere to try and get as spooky as possible. Things in VR were very realistic nowadays. He'd have to look into that sometime.

Mori quickly blinked back quickly from his blank stare as he realized what he was doing. "Well, the business year just started, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to guess that there'd be an announcement or two coming out soon." He slipped his phone back into his pocket before sitting back up in his seat. He hadn't been paying too much attention to announcements for games recently, it was mostly based on a "that looks fun" feeling as he looked through new releases. It had burned him a couple times, but more often than not he got what he wanted out of the games he bought.

"Personally I'm more of a Party Game guy, or at least multiplayer stuff. You'd be surprised how much longer a game can be replayed with you have other people to mess around with. I've always had a soft spot for the Mario Party Games, though I know a lot of people don't like the randomness of it. I think a little chaos in a game is fun every now and then. Helps balance things out, so to speak." Mori put his hands together to crack his knuckles, only to find that his knuckles weren't ready to be cracked again, leaving him awkwardly pressing on his hands.[/color]

---

Kaede, huh? God damn, why did her bento have to be so delicious-looking? It made her choices here that much harder. Melon bread would tide her over until class let out, but it wasn't an actual meal. The fried chicken, veggie, and onigiri bento, on the other hand...god damn it. She was gonna regret this in the future whenever this chick wanted something, Yurie just knew it.

"Sure, fine, if you say so." Yurie made a reluctant show of taking the bento, lifting a bite of fried chicken to her mouth with the provided chopsticks. Fuck, it was as good as it looked. "Compliments to the cook, because this's really good." She murmured in between bites before listening to the ongoing conversation.

That's what this kouhai came in here for? Just to verify a rumor? Giving Oda the benefit of the doubt? What a fair and high-minded person they had on their hands here. Yurie tried to not look too unimpressed, considering she was still getting free food from her. Still, if this was gonna let her rag on the person who actually bought the last three curry buns, she was taking it.

"Oh, don't worry about all that." She waved her right hand about casually, her left taking one of the onigiri from the box. "Little prick that bought those three also bought the last three. I was right in line behind him. Serves him right, really. Oughta give Oda a medal for enforcing karma today."

@Ambra @vietmyke @Serei2477