Yugo was standing in a perfect recreation of his father's home in Sendai, for a second he thought he got teleported back to Sendai, until he looked out of his bedroom window and seen the white light instead of the road and houses.
So this was a magical recreation of his house, Shitoki should be just down the road, Oaklie's should be next door. Yugo went to the bathroom and checked himself out in the mirror. He looked exactly like when he was twelve years old, a miniature version of the current him.
Suzuki stood at the bathroom door. 'Where's this? Your home?'
'My father's home, yes. We're currently in Sendai, the place where I spent most of my past fifteen years. I don't get why we're here though, I practically have no memories in this boring household anyways. Games, studying, repeat. Nothing of worth, Sure my dad's cooking is some gourmet shit, but I doubt that'll be enough to bring me back here.'
Suzuki walked around. 'Pretty roomy. It must've costed a lot, especially in a place like Sendai.'
Yugo chuckled. 'It's not like I'd know. I spent most of my time outside or in my room. My dad is also away for work, usually overseas, I have the house to myself, but he pays the bills. Dad's usually only home when there's a holiday of some sorts, on some occasions I only see him at summer. Pretty sweet.'
Suzuki walked around the hall for a while. 'I don't see your mother's photo anywhere. Why's that.'
'Ouch, touchy subject.'
'Sorry.'
'Nah, it's fine. Mom and Dad broke up two years after Yuri was born. Mom moved to Hiroshima and Dad stayed in Sendai. Dad never told me why they broke up, and I never dared to ask because it visibly hurt him.' Yugo said as he walked up the stairs. 'Wanna see my room?'
He pushed open a door and walked in. The room was a mess, clothes on the floor, a small monitor at the corner of his room with a Nintendo Switch rigged up to it, a dome in the floor with cards, cars, tracks, Beyblades, pages and socks, a plastic bookshelf with many books on it, Suzuki can identify "Battle Royale", "The Lord of The Rings", "The Man in The High Castle", "Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", "The Martian Time Slip" and "Now wait for Last Year".
'Big fan of Philip K. Dick aren't you?' Asked Suzuki. 'Most of the books you have are by him.'
'Great author. His works can rival those of J.R.R Tolkien and George R.R Martin.' Yugo replied.
'Yeah but they write different genres don't they? Tolkien and Martin write Fantasy, while Dick writes about science fiction and whatnot. And I just realised that the only book by a Japanese author is "Battle Royale". Not a big fan of local works eh?'
'Never really got into them, there aren't a lot of good Japanese science fiction books.'
Suzuki took in the chaos that was Yugo's room. She picked up a page off the floor. 'Arcfier? What the hell is this...'
Yugo's face got red and snatched the page off Suzuki. 'Gimme that! None of your business.'
Too late. Suzuki was already picking up the pages and going through them one by one. 'Lilorfa the onee-san elf...Alton the war torn lands...the Shattered Isles...Starburst rifles...what the hell...?'
Yugo's face was now as red as a tomato. 'They were my Dungeons and Dragons characters, well Arcfier and Lilorfa were. Alton and the Shattered Isles were maps, starburst rifles were the guns the evil army called Peacemakers used.'
'And let me guess, Lilorfa was probably your character right? Damn Yushita, you gotta control them hormones, onee-san elves, holy shit man, I gotta keep my sister away from you.'
'Look Ren, I was twelve, I'm over it now. And you're talking awfully like Josh and I don't like it.'
Suzuki laughed. 'Well that's how I was raised. It's tough growing up in a household with three girls and six guys, and I was closer to my brothers than I was to my sister anyways.'
Yugo and Suzuki walked downstairs. 'Wasn't Yamano with us when we came here?'.
Suzuki shrugged. 'I don't know. Maybe she got sent to her own past? Why am I here though.'
Yugo found the keys in his potted plant. 'Eh, forget Yamano, she's probably safe anyways. Lets take a trip through a day in my life,'
They walked out into the street. Just on the left of the house the white void continued. Arrows were on the ground. 'This looks like a game. Hmmm.'
The two of them followed the arrows for a certain amount of time. hazy outlines of humans appeared then and again, often stopping Yugo and chatting with him for a while.
'You seem pretty popular for someone who doesn't see sunlight.'
Yugo waved goodbye to a silhouette of a elderly woman. 'Well, yeah. On the rare occasion of me leaving my house, I'd help sweep the neighbourhood, set up shops and maybe play football with a few of the younger boys. And I was the pride of my mother and father for a long, long time. In fact, it was that pride that made me adapt to the antisocial life-style I used to have. Oh, want an iced tea?'
'Sure.' Suzuki answered. 'How did you get out of this, so called antisocial lifestyle.'
'To be honest, I was pretty popular back in Shitoki, after all, being really damn smart and being able to perfectly play any sport possible gets you pretty high up in the junior high social ladder.'
Yugo swiped a student card in his pocket on a vending machine and two cups of peach iced tea clunked out.
'But I was never the sort of guy girls would ask out. I'm the sort of guy every girl would want to be friends with, but none would actually develop feelings for me, Josh was there for that, he is pretty much on par with me on, well, everything. And he looks hella hotter than me. Our friend group was perfect, really. Oaklie keeping a rein on me and Josh, Douglas, being in the student council and often scoring us sweet, sweet, stuff. Like first class tickets on school trips, an air conditioned private club room and the best bus our school provides. They might seem like small things now, but for a thirteen years old me, they were absolute luxury. Josh being sort of the harem master and usually having girls around him at all times. And me. The mastermind behind nearly all of our small adventures, whether it was on our school trips, just just around the corner from our house.'
Suzuki listen attentively to Yugo. 'And what if I asked you out right now.'
'I'd decline, because I know that was just a random question and you didn't put your heart into it.'
'Good, I never wanted, and never will want to go out with an antisocial, bratty, piece of garbage like you.'
Yugo stuck his straw in the tea. 'Keep rolling with the insults, don't stop.'
Suzuki ignored him and asked another question. 'And how far away is this school of yours?'
Yugo sipped his tea. 'Right around the corner now. The arrows stopped.' He pointed at the ground. 'See? Now it's my turn to ask a question. You've been bombarding me with questions.'
Suzuki extended an arm. 'Go ahead.'
'What's the deal with your eye?'
'I guessed it was this one.' Suzuki sighed. 'I was born with them. That is literally all I know.'
'You sure?'
'Yes.'
'You sure that you're sure?'
'Yes.'
'You're sure that you're sure that you-'
'Shut up you antisocial piece of trash.'
'That's getting old, think up of a new insult.' Yugo took another sip of his tea. 'One last question, how can you see if your eyes are completely obstructed?'
Suzuki also stuck her straw into her iced tea. 'I don't goddamn know. I can see without my eyes for some reason, maybe it's because of my other senses being strong enough to paint a picture in my very vivid mind.'
Yugo smirked. 'Must be useful.'
'Unlike you, I can control my hormones.'
'Aaaarrrreee yyyoooouuu suuuu-'
'Yes, shut up, you horny piece of shit.'
'Ouch, you never fail to impress me.'
The two walked through the Shitoki front gates, Their clothes magically changed to the Shitoki Uniform, a white jumper over a white polo shirt, complete with white joggers.
'Welcome to Shitoki Campus of Gifted Children. Also known as the hell I lived through for three years.' Yugo chucked his now empty cup into a bin.
'Unfunny, two outta ten.'
Suzuki followed Yugo into a plain brick building. The building stood out amongst the others, not in a good way though. It had moss all over it's walls, some of it's greasy windows were shattered, the flower bed surrounding it couldn't even be called a flower bed. It's just purely weeds and tall grass. A small hut was to it's left that was in the same condition as the schoolhouse. But just that the hut reeked of piss, the schoolhouse didn't.
Yugo deeply breathed in. Suzuki gagged. Yugo spread his arms. 'Welcome to schoolhouse number zero. The original Shitoki Campus. God knows how much I miss this place.'
Yugo pushed open the door and took in the atmosphere. It was identical to the real Schoolhouse Number Zero. Or Schoolhouse Best as the students named it. He almost felt as if he was going to school on a regular Monday, with Oaklie, Douglas, Josh and Naomi. Key word, almost. The atmosphere was still there. But the ghostly students and a blabbering Suzuki Ren ruined it.
Suzuki followed Yugo upstairs, as the first floor was rendered unusable and was mainly for storage according to him. The second floor was where most of the classes were. Despite the obvious condition of the schoolhouse, Suzuki was surprised when she heard laughter roar out from one of the classes where the window was broken, some kid sliding down the hall on a skateboard while a few of his friends followed him, a ball bounced off a wall somewhere in the distance, and just the overall happy atmosphere of the place.
Yugo nudged her. 'Told ya, don't judge someone by their appearance.'
She followed Yugo up to the third and last floor. This was where most of the club rooms were according to Yugo. She followed him down the hall while catching glimpses of the different activities the students were doing. Some were playing Dungeons and Dragons, some were painting, there was an empty clubroom with pictures and cameras, there was a clubroom with rows of high-end gaming PCs and ghostly students focusing intensely on whatever game they were playing, she swore she even saw a group of ghostly boys trying to summon a demon.
They reached the end of the hall where a clubroom door was shut. 'Is this your clubroom?'
Yugo puffed out his chest and looked proud. 'Yes, It's the second most roomy clubroom there is, as the esports club took up the largest, but it's the newest and most luxurious.'
'And what sort of club were you?' Suzuki asked.
Yugo winked. 'You'll see.'
Yugo unlocked the door with a key on his key fob, and pulled it open. Suzuki was mind blown.
Never has she seen such a homey clubroom, there was a large TV and multiple beanbags, a hammock hanging off the ceiling, multiple blow-up mattresses, stacks of western Science Fiction novels, manga and magazines, some appropriate, others not so much. There were seemingly hundreds of posters hung up on the walls, there were posters of cars, ships, games, bands, girls, sports teams, anime, you name it. Beside the stack of manga there was an old fashioned CD player standing back to back with a Bluetooth speaker. In the TV stand there was DVDs of movies and old concerts, the other drawer contained Yu-gi-oh cards, Beyblades, Pokeballs and four nintendo 3DS. There was a large glass cabinet of anime figures at the back of the room, but what caught Suzuki's attention the most was a full on photo booth shoved away in the corner of the room.
'What's that for?' She asked.
'What's what for?'
'The photo booth.'
A smile broke across Yugo's face. 'It's for when some people need a bit of, privacy...'
Suzuki wandered over to it and pulled open the curtain, darkness engulfed her.