"You're not joking…are you?"
He shook his head in disapproval. " I'm not and you should respect a person's space."
Departing with that, Sota was left puzzled about what happened.
'If only I had something to…'
His eyes brightened as he got an idea.
'The book I borrowed from Jiro when summer vacation started. If I show it, then he surely will drop the façade.'
He went up in front of him and stopped him.
"You can drop it now since I have the book you gave at summer vacation….", he said while searching around his bag for the book.
He had put the book in the bag when summer vacation started so that he wouldn't forget it.
Searching through the bag, Sota found only his textbooks and writing books.
"Huh? I swear I had it here…."
"What's the deal with you man? You're wasting my time! School's about to start so I don't have time for your crazy shenanigans."
Seeing Yuuta's angry eyes, Sota decided not to push him anymore.
'What is happening?'
Sota searched for any more familiar faces.
Many people were almost unrecognizable due to the summer tan from the vacation.
Sota caught a glimpse of it but saw red hair disappearing through to the hallway.
'Is that…. Umi?'
He dashed through the corridor, but there was no trace of the red-haired person.
His head was spinning around. He thought, what is up with this, people disappearing, names changing.
The more he thought about this, the more puzzled he became.
===================================
He entered his new class and saw a bunch of people surrounding a desk.
Sota knew the drill. There was probably a popular guy/girl that was new to the school and all the students either wanted to invite them to lunch or be friends with them.
Sota was not one of the group and knew he wouldn't act like th-..
Sota got up suddenly, his chair falling, producing a loud sound from the impact.
He got the worst possible spot known to mankind, the center of attention.
All heads turned towards him, including the popular kid.
Red eyes, which looked friendly, now filled with surprise, and the stunning golden hair.
"You're that g-girl from the…"
"Supermarket!"
Not letting him finish the sentence, Sota looked at her with a puzzled expression. Her eyes seem to say 'Go with or I'll destroy your crouch as I did to the boy'
"… Right."
She was soon bombarded with questions.
"Do you know this loser, Umi?"
"You guys met by accident right?"
Most of the questions were calling Sota a loser or a creep. Not that he cared.
"No, not at all. He didn't try to do anything bad or creepy. One thing led to another, and we had a bet on what the price of a product was. He became the loser so he brought me a drink. That's all there is to that."
Even though it was not the situation, it was not wrong.
'There is no way somebody would believe this it's just not-…'
"Oh, that's what it was."
"We thought it was something else."
Sota was flabbergasted at the fact that they believed such an easy lie.
"Go to your seats. Homeroom is starting!"
===================================
Once lunch started, Sota was ready to talk to her. He got up with his bag and approached her.
"Umi, have lunch with us!"
"No ditch those guys! With me!"
"What did you just say"
Almost all of the students crowded around Shoko's desk.
They pushed anyone on their way, including Sota, who fell on his butt.
'I have no choice, but to use force.'
"Guys…", he started.
All of them turned silent and turned at their opponent aka Sota.
Their eyes screamed "Death"
"….I will go to the cafeteria."
After the pause, they continued as if nothing happened. Sota left the room, deciding to catch her at another time.
"What a pain", he sighed.
'My head hurts from all of this that has been happening'
Sota had millions of questions, about what was happening now. He had hoped to get answers from Umi but it was harder than anticipated.
Lost in his thoughts, Sota accidentally bumped into a guy.
"Sorry! I wasn't paying attention."
"That's alright."
'I swear I heard that-…'
"Kei?"
The guy he just bumped turned around in confusion.
"Who?"
"Kei, it's been a long time! I haven't seen you since the last day of school."
He pointed at himself and asked, " Are you talking to me?"
Sota froze.
'Not this again.'
"Y-yea who else would I mean?"
He shook his head. "You might have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Kiyo."
"Ah right maybe", Sota said with a nervous laugh.
He opened his locker and a piece of paper fell.
'Meet me at the park in front of the arcade, at 5. You will find your answers.'
"So that's all that happened today."
Sota finished explaining to Umi about the strange things that happened.
"And to make it even more bizarre, I went home and searched for the book that I got from Jiro, just in case I forgot to put it in the bag. It was nowhere to be found."
Sota looked at Umi, who was deep in thought.
"S-so?"
She appeared shaken as her thoughts were broken by Sota.
"Oh right! You have money?"
"What?"
"Answer the question."
"Y-yeah. I have a little over 1000 yen."
With orders to follow her, they went to the train station and bought a ticket.
"Take us to where ever this train ends.", was what she said to the clerk.
Sota decided not to question it. If it was something that explained all of this, he would gladly go along.
While they went to their seats, Sota saw her serious mood and decided to lighten it up with some humour.
"S-so is this what people call eloping with your loved one, or is it-…"
"W-what?!", she said flustered at the comment.
"Well…"
"Let me make this clear. I would never elope a guy like you and, you're not my type and never will be."
Sota frowned. 'That backfired real bad.'
"S-sorry."
She sighed as if she was already fed up with the boy in front of him.
'I should keep my comments to myself. Now she probably thinks of me as a creep.'
There was awkward silence during the entire ride.
After travelling for several hours, they came to the end of the track.
"This is the last stop! All passengers please exit the train. Thank you for riding with us!"
Sota was a bit tired from the ride, but he dared not to say a word to her.
'She'll find me annoying if I say something like that. Besides, a boy should be able to endure all pains.'
"Are you tired? We can stop by somewhere for a drink?"
"No need, I'm fine."
"Okay. I'll take your word for that."
Umi didn't show any sign of fatigue and Sota was honestly impressed.
"This place is deserted, isn't it?"
They were walking for about 30 minutes and there was no sign of people.
All there was a bunch of abandoned buildings. In front of them was a wall of thick mist.
"Trying putting your hand towards the mist."
Sota slowly put his hand towards the mist, the cold hair coming from it, hitting his hand, making him shiver.
A transparent wall appeared, blocking Sota's hand and the words that popped up said,
"Access Denied. What is this Umi?"
"I-I have no idea. You know in games when you go to the end of the map, you trigger a warning that the character will die if you go further?"
Sota punched the wall of mist, but the transparent wall that appeared stopped it without a budge.
"Are you saying we are in a game?"
"N-not necessarily. I am not sure about it myself. But someone up there has made this "World" that we live in.", she said pointing at the sky.
"G-god?"
"You idiot! I meant people like us. This wall is the world border and we are at the 'end of the map'."
She then took a deep breath and sat down on the floor.
"I think I wasn't meant to be a part of whatever they are planning to do to you."
Sota took a stone and threw it at the wall with force, but it just ricocheted back.
"How can you say that?"
"Because I can see it."
Sota paused and looked at her. "See?"
"Do you mean you can't see this? There is a pointer on top of each of us but only your point is green but we all have orange pointers."
Sota tried to wrap his mind around the information that was being processed.
"So you're saying that there are pointers above our heads and I can't see them?"
She started walking back towards the town and Sota followed her.
"Yes. Green pointers are mainly used in games to indicate 'the player' which means you're the 'main character' of whatever they are doing."
"W-what are you then?"
She looked at the sky, having a distant look.
"I have no idea. Honestly, I was jealous of you. You have a reason here in this world, whereas I'm just…..someone who exists because of you."
Sota felt sorry for her and wanted to comfort her, but he knew that at moments like this, he wouldn't want pity from someone else.
"When… I don't know, they finish with whatever they do with you, I might just be erased from this world."
"M-maybe you're a 'side character'. They don't always get bad endings. I've played dating sims and usually the side characters get their happy endings.", said Sota, trying to comfort her.
She gave him a sad smile, appreciating his effort.
"I'm not sure what this is anymore. All that I told you is based on 'what ifs', so I can't have my hopes up."
The cold and cocky girl he saw at the arcade had vanished. Even though she acted cold towards Sota, he wanted him to return to her old self.
"Are you tired of walking all the way?"
Umi seemed surprised at the sudden change in subjects.
"Uh well, I don't feel tired. The first time I came here, I had no money, so I walked all the way here on foot and didn't take a single stop."
"I-I see."
After a moment of silence, Sota decided to speak up.
"How about we go to the arcade?"
"Arcade?"
"I-I'll beat you at Mario Cart and you will have to buy me a drink this time."
Umi gave Sota a smug look. "Huh? You don't sound confident."
"I am."
"Sure. I might even have to skip dinner, considering the number of drinks you would have to buy."
A small smile crept to her lips as her challenger retorted at her confidence.