dmboogie

Leaking Worlds

"No, Ninja-chan, I'm pretty sure this is exactly what we need to be doing." Akira said, pounding a fist into his palm for emphasis. "Doing what needs to be done. Asking the hard questions."

He was impressed by Mitsuki's inventory question. Sadly the only item that could have been of use to him was currently wherever iPears go when they disappear off the face of the earth, but it showed she was getting the hang of the game. Akira was about to remind her that only the protagonist got a legit inventory when the lights went out.

Akira's left hand exploded with pain, and he let out a distinctly unheroic yelp. When the lights came back on, they found him collapsed to his knees, clutching his hand. "I, uh," he stammered at Mitsuki, face deathly pale, "Think I pissed something off."

Leaking Worlds

"Y'know, I'd actually be up for a picnic, but neither of us brought a basket of food. Tragic." Well, artist girl,would probably be hella pissed if they brought food into her gallery, so it all worked out. Anyway.

Of all the things Akira expected to be behind the door Mitsuki opened, the secret world council was not one of them. Why the hell were they chilling right next to the garden? Did faceless abominations need time to admire the bounty of nature?

Well, whatever. There was an opportunity here. Akira stood in the center of the spotlight feeling the intense gaze of the figures' lack-of-eyes. He cleared his throat. "Gentlemen. You must be wondering why i called you here today." Silence. "I have discovered a criminal most dire. A wretched being, deserving of our scorn. Last meeting, someone stole our secret cookies." Akira twirled around to point at a random figure. "It was you, Douglas! You did it, you fiend!"

Leaking Worlds

Go, adventure acquaintances, go. They had to do what must be done, because Akira was missing his warm bed at home more and more and everyone else seemed rather intent on sightseeing in the (admittedly pleasant) mystery murderous dimension place.

Akira nodded agreeably with Mitsuki's comment. "Quite right, quite right. Nothing but delightful mediocrity from me, from here on out. I just needed to recruit the timeless hero to my cause. Lead the way, Ninja-chan. I'll keep track of how many experience points you need until the next level." She seemed reasonably competent, and Akira was more than happy to play sidekick if Mitsuki didn't expect him to actually do anything.

The two reached the top of the stairs. Akira admittedly hadn't expected to find an indoors garden in the middle of a gallery, but who the hell was he to define the meaning of art? That was a topic that made people say lots of boring words for far longer than necessary.

Wait. Waaait a minute. Oh, artist lady had sure gotten him. Upon further inspection, there weren't any real plants at all. Just a buncha paintings and sculptures. Good thing Akira realized that before he leaned in to smell the flowers, or some shit like that. In any case, there were four doors leading out of the room. "She's gotta be behind one of these doors." He said, turning to Mitsuki. "You should open one, so I can passive-aggressively blame you when it turns out there's nothing there."

Leaking Worlds

A couple people branched off into the left hallway. Akira shook his head at them. They obviously failed Adventuring 101. Akira wrote the textbook for that class. It was a single piece of paper with "don't be a dumbass" written in bold text. He would have been content to let them go and be the slackers they were, but they were leading Mitsuki astray. That was no good.

"Oi. Ninja-chan." Akira called out, waving to her. "Wrong way. Final boss is always at the top, right?"

Without waiting for a response from her, Akira slowly started to ascend the stairway that was opposite of the way he came in. The quickest way to get all this troublesome shit out of the way was to get immediately to the bottom of things, after all. Expending effort to spend less time expending effort made sense, right?

Leaking Worlds

Akira stared at Yori. Killjoy. There hadn't even been much joy in the first place. He killed the joy so hard that it retroactively erased itself from existence. Mitsuki and Akira hadn't exactly been barreling through the door, so shit seemed kind of like an overreaction to him. Mitsuki seemed to share his world-shattering ire, which she expressed by staying put. Lame.

Akira deliberately took one large step through the doorway, into the gallery. Just one step to show exactly where he stood on the issue. He made a not-very-dramatic gesture with his arms. "Hello. It is I, Akira Watanabe, and I am standing in the art gallery of dooooooom." He unenthusiastically waved his hands about. "Seems safe enough to me." Something creaked. A mysterious creak. Akira ignored it. Creaking was bad in general, especially in doom dimensions.

"Mitsuki has an idea. I guess. Let's find the nice artist lady and see what goes from there?"

Leaking Worlds

Yori continued to be the stoic son of a bitch that Akira knew and was pretty okay with. Kozue, however, proceeded to be Kozue. Damn. "Sorry. You were just collateral damage." Akira said, giving him an apologetic nod as he squeezed past him into the classroom. Masato and Rika had also come along for the ride. Looks like their group would be the super senpai special. The younglings with their love rhododendrons would have to be fine by themselves, he guessed.

Akira was in the middle of examining the Ominous Wall Words(tm) when Rika managed to get the blackboard to come crashing down. "Judging you." Akira said, pointing at her. And judging. The dust seemed to be too thick for her to notice, though. In any case, the judging and shit ceased to matter after she opened the door, revealing a hella cool art gallery. Art was rad. Akira smiled slightly as the nice girl on the intercom gave them a veiled death threat. She seemed pleasant enough.

Mitsuki was in an adventurous mood, as always. "I'll come along." Akira said as he walked over to her. "Someone has to keep your natural kleptomaniac instincts in check, protagonist-chan."

Leaking Worlds

Ow, that was a sick burn. Even sicker than Akira's had been. Sick enough to justify a hashtag. Mitsuki - 1, Akira - 99. That was totally a legitimate score, and not one acquired from finding the universe's cheat code that allowed you to attain max score in arbitrary and imaginary conflicts. Boy, would that be incredibly silly.

Akira sighed. He was being stupid. Again. That seemed to be a recurring theme. Whatever.

He casually trailed behind Mitsuki as she blazed the trail ahead, like a good protagonist. The biker guys had rudely gone ahead without them, but Akira would not be ditched so easily. The building mostly normal, for something that apparently contained a world-eating evil or some shit like that. Kind of creepy, but only the mundane weirdness that any abandoned building had.

The others had apparently stopped at the very first classroom, room 1-1, where Mitsuki was already busy looting the place. Again, like a good protagonist. Classic JRPG hero of justice. Akira would make her realize her true destiny yet. For now, though, he settled for looming directly behind Yori. "Boo." He said unenthusiastically.

Leaking Worlds

I find Rika's faith in Akira both confusing and amusing.

Leaking Worlds

Oh. He was being dragged. Alright. Akira didn't even try to resist. He just let physics do the resisting for him. Even though Mitsuki quickly gave up, it looked like Akira no longer had a choice in the matter. He'd crossed that strange line where actually doing things was less overall effort than not doing the things. Oh well. It could be reasonably entertaining to do something for once.

Haruka and her friends seemed to be having a little "moment". Akira didn't really pay attention. Relationship drama was such a pain in the ass. Not that he had any first-hand experience, really. But it seemed like way too much of a pain to deal with. To prove his point, Haruka tearfully dashed into the depths of the building, forcing her friends to go after her. That was a disaster waiting to happen. Oh well. Akira had faith in the others' ability to handle it. That totally was not just a handy reason to be apathetic about it.

Whatever. He turned to face Mitsuki. "I suppose I am, ninja-chan. As you know, I am the perfect model of a responsible senpai. There is truly nothing to fear." That would have been inspirational if it hadn't been said in an entirely monotone voice.

Oh. Someone was talking to him. Akira simply blinked at Rika, confused at her... everything. He vaguely recognized her as a classmate. A legit classmate, not a plastic-medal classmate like Kozue or Yori. She seemed to think that Mitsuki was his sister? Weird. He didn't care enough to correct her, though. Akira quizzically examined Mitsuki. "Do we really look that much alike?" After a moment, he shook his head. "Nah. I'm far too handsome. Anyway," he said, pointing at the biker bros, "Wanna take them with us? I think they need a chaperone."

Leaking Worlds

Sweet, thanks for the clarification.