Character Overhaul

June 5th 2018

Ryuuji reluctantly returns to school. Despite having an extra day off, he still isn’t prepared and takes his time all morning.

When he turns at the school gate, he instantly hears someone shout his name and sees Sun run towards him. As she approaches, she places her hands on his arms, pushing him slightly due to the force of her running, which only causes Ryuuji pain.

“That hurts! That hurts!!” He shouts.

Sun quickly steps back and apologizes. “I’m sorry! I heard you were injured, but I wasn’t thinking.”

Although she doesn’t admit it, Sun was just happy to see the injuries weren’t severe. She never intended to cause him harm. A few students passing by giggle at the seemingly silly encounter.

Ryuuji places his hand on the left side of his chest as the pain calms. It definitely feels a lot better compared to the first day, but still hurts enough to make him avoid moving his upper body much. Thinking about his current condition, Ryuuji can’t help laughing at himself.

“It’s pathetic, isn’t it?”

“I don’t care about that. Why didn’t you contact me at all? I stayed at school later than usual on Friday, but I didn’t hear about what happened until yesterday.”

Ryuuji notices Sun is more worried than she was in any situation he dealt with before. He tries to come up with the best way to apologize and is about to speak when they are interrupted by a tall man in a gray suit; the school principal. They both turn to him as he greets Ryuuji.

“Welcome back, Takomi. I’m glad to see you are well. Would you mind following me to my office before class? We need to discuss the incident from last week.”

One thing after another, can’t you give me a chance to fix this problem first? Ryuuji wants to complain, but he knows there’s no use talking back in this situation.

Before following the principal into the school, he tells Sun they will talk later. He feels bad leaving her behind again, and is unable to get her worried expression out of his head, but tries to focus on the upcoming conversation.

In the office, the principal is sitting at his desk, explaining everything that happened after Ryuuji fell unconscious.

“The fight didn’t continue for long. Thankfully the staff arrived and put an end to it before things got out of hand, leaving you as the most heavily injured.”

“I guess that’s fine, but what’s to stop this from happening again?”

“That group has been a long standing issue that we were unable to deal with before now because they never caused any actual harm before. Those 6 students were suspended for 10 days and have been threatened with expulsion if they act up again.”

With the bullies out of the picture, Ryuuji can now attend school with ease since they were the cause of all his worry up to this point. No more random students approaching him with strange comments or threats to take his money.

He then repeats the principal’s words as he remembers the crying he heard in the nurse’s office when he first woke up, 6 students? Then what about that brat who saved me? Ryuuji looks to the principal to ask,

“What about that other kid? He wasn’t with the bullies.”

The principal thinks about who else was involved, “You must mean Kiyama Seiji? He was also suspended, but only for this week. We were worried about him always screaming in the halls and arguing with other students.”

“Why? He tried to help me!”

“While that may be true, the fight didn’t start until after he arrived, correct?”

The principal instantly brings up a valid point. The students were initially only attacking him, not actually fighting until Seiji intervened and it escalated from there. Stunned by his words, Ryuuji can only listen.

“The teachers who were alerted to the issue would have appeared in time to help you all the same, making his interference unnecessary. As such, he needed to be punished as well.” The principal then stands to lead Ryuuji out. “That’s enough for now, any more questions can wait until after school. Now please go to class. You are already late.”

Unable to argue any further, Ryuuji silently leaves the office. He closes the door behind him and notices Sun waiting at the end of the hall. He walks up to her, hanging his head.

“I really messed up didn’t I? Involving that innocent kid and even worrying you as much as I did.”

Remaining calm, Sun simply says, “Yeah, kind of.”

“I’m really sorry. I’m not used to stuff like this and I don’t even know what I should say. I just wanted to be alone these past few days.”

Although she is upset he didn’t speak with her sooner, hearing that one apology was enough for her to forgive him. Besides, there is still more for him to do anyway. Sun smiles and pokes his forehead, pushing his head up so as to look her right in the face.

“Don’t worry so much. I’ll help you make things up with your new friends.”

Hearing that, Ryuuji feels relieved for the first time since Friday. He realizes that Sun would definitely include herself in these ‘new friends’ that she just mentioned and has to consider making things up to her as well. At least she should be easier.

Before this, I never understood why anyone would go so far to help someone. Everyone around me, classmates and even my father, were always at an arm’s length. We would talk daily about similar interests and that was it. No drama or divulging any dark secrets. No meeting online to play the game we loved talking about. The most simple exchanges. I wouldn’t say I was lonely, though. It suited my life at the time when I had no troubles in the slightest.

Then it became increasingly clear that I couldn’t live that way anymore. This new life wouldn’t allow it. Always receiving help from Sun, and then these two, I had to do something in return besides apologize.

Today is yet another day where Ryuuji is unable to pay attention to the lessons. His mind is instead focused on what the principal just told him. Suspended for a week just for saving me? What a screwed up system. I can’t wait that long to talk to that brat.

Despite still needing to figure out what he wants to say, Ryuuji spends the hours leading up to lunch thinking of a way to meet him sooner and reaches one conclusion.

When lunch begins he goes to Sun’s desk, “Do you have any idea where I can find that brat’s girlfriend?”

Expecting this to be difficult, he’s surprised to hear a simple answer, “Yeah I actually saw her this morning when I was waiting for you. She said she spends time in the library when her boyfriend isn’t here.”

“Will you come with me so I don’t screw up again?”

Sun wants to complain, but did say earlier that she would help. Not to mention this is the first time he’s relying on her through his own decision, instead of her having to force him to act, so she feels like she can’t refuse.

Together, they walk to the library. It’s not that big, with the front desk sitting before the large bookshelves that are lined up like aisles in a store. Behind them, in the back against the windows, are tables for students to study or read.

They spot her at one of the tables, seemingly copying notes from one book to another. Ryuuji asks Sun what her name is beforehand. He knows ‘Hana’ is part of it, but there’s no way he can call her by such a nickname. Especially not when she has a boyfriend who could easily beat him up. Sun tells Ryuuji her name is ‘Hinami Hanabi’, but that’s all she plans to do. He has to find the best way to apologize by himself.

Ryuuji composes himself and walks up to where Hanabi is working, deciding to get her attention before sitting down. “Hey…you’re Hinami, right?”

She glances upward and smiles, excited to see him. “Ryuuji-senpai! I’m so glad to see you’re alright!”

Surprised to get that type of reaction from someone other than Sun, Ryuuji isn’t sure how to react and simply takes a seat across from her. He gets right to his apology.

“I just wanted to apologize for getting you involved in that fight last week.”

“You don’t have to apologize.” Hanabi frowns. “If anything, what happened to Seiji was my fault. I’m the one who asked him to help you while I went to get a teacher and if not for that, then he wouldn’t have gotten suspended. At least that’s what the principal told us.”

So that’s why she was crying. She must feel just as bad as I do, if not worse. Even though he would rather avoid it, Ryuuji thinks back to the incident itself, remembering how the students were still kicking him until the brat arrived.

“The principal told me the same thing, but as the one who was attacked, let me tell you this;” Gaining her attention, Hanabi looks at Ryuuji as he gives his opinion. “If not for that bra-- Kiyama’s interference, I definitely would have been more heavily injured. You did save me, so don’t blame yourself.”

To hear the same words Seiji said to her, once again reassuring her that she did the right thing, Hanabi’s expression relaxes. “Thank you.”

Feeling accomplished after apologizing to one of the two already, Ryuuji is unable to hide the joy from his face. However, the next person is the more difficult of the two. He doesn’t want to have to deal with that brat ever again, but he can’t leave it like this.

Sun then takes a seat next to Ryuuji. The two girls greet each other even though this is their second meeting today.

“Thanks for finally joining us.” Ryuuji says to Sun.

Sun wants to jab him for that comment, but holds back due to him still being injured. She instead ignores him completely and asks Hanabi what she’s doing.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are all these notes for?”

“Ah, Seiji is really upset that he’s suspended so I’m making copies of all my notes to be sure he doesn’t miss anything. He always works hard to keep good grades”

Both Sun and Ryuuji take another look at the books on the table and try to think of how long that would take. Each class has a lot of lectures and it seems as if she is writing them down word for word twice this week.

“All of them?? That must take a lot of time.” Sun can’t help but blurt out her thoughts.

“It does take all of my free time right now, actually, but I know he will be happy.”

“Let me help you out.” Ryuuji suggests.

“You would do that?” Hanabi asks, surprised.

“Yeah, why not? It’s not fair for all this to fall on you. Though to clarify, this isn’t for him. Let’s just add this to my apology towards you.” Ryuuji is sure to point out. “I only can’t help after school because of work.”

“That would be great!” Excited, Hanabi smiles brightly. “We can come to school 2 hours early and meet here in the library.”

“Two hours??”

Coming into school early, then working until late at night. Ryuuji already regrets his decision, but can’t back out now and still agrees to help. It would only be for this week anyway.

“That sounds great. And can I ask one more thing?”

“What is it?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, I need to apologize to Kiyama as well, but there’s no way I can wait a week to do so. Can you help me meet him sooner?”

“Of course! He definitely wouldn’t want me to bring you to his place…how about the nearby train station? I can try and have him meet us Thursday after school.”

“Thursday is fine. I don’t have work that day.”

With everything settled, Sun asks about the rumors related to them in junior high, wanting to know how true they are. Hanabi blushes and confirms that it is all true. She explains that before class one day, Seiji snapped and shouted his feelings for her in front of everyone. He was always teased for that and thought it would disappear when they reached high school, but the story spread so fast within the first week. Ryuuji only finds it to be silly in every aspect.

“I’m sure most people don’t confess their love when they snap.”

Hanabi giggles and continues explaining, “The scar on Seiji’s forehead was caused by his mother when he was younger and he was always bullied for it. When we became friends and the bullies started targeting me, Seiji shunned me thinking it was for the best, but he couldn’t hide how he really felt.” Realizing she said too much, Hanabi then waves her arms. “Please don’t tell Seiji I told you this though!! It would only upset him.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Ryuuji already plans to have nothing to do with them after apologizing anyway.

Hanabi checks the time and notices lunch is about over. She grabs her books and tells Ryuuji that she will see him in the morning. Ryuuji simply waves and smiles. Once she leaves the room, he lays his head on the table, facing Sun as she says,

“I’d say you did pretty good. Now you’re one step closer to forgiveness.”

“From you or that brat?”

“From Kiyama of course.”

“I should have known.”

Ryuuji turns his head with his face now flat on the table. He thinks about how much he wants to run away after the promise he just made to Hanabi. Coming in 2 hours earlier…why did I even agree to that?

Starting the next morning, as promised, I met Hinami at school 2 hours early to help copy her notes. I could barely stay awake while she was all sunshine and roses. I dreaded each day, but there was no defeating that bright smile. So I opted to nap in class instead. I figured Sun could just tell me if I missed anything important.

Then the day arrived when it was finally time to meet that brat. Not that I had any idea what I wanted to say. Still, I told Sun I would take care of this myself, not wanting to bother her with this too. She laughed and wished me luck in return. Was it that hard to believe I can handle this? Hinami led me to a small garden close to the train station where she said he would be waiting.

June 7th 2018

The garden is against the wall of the station, consisting of flowering bushes of various colors to form a rainbow pattern. Its beauty has made it a popular meet up spot, especially for train goers.

Seiji is leaning against the small fence surrounding the bushes in his regular clothing. He glances to his left to see Hanabi, smiling at the sight of her, but that quickly fades when he notices Ryuuji following behind. Once they get close enough, Seiji starts to whine.

“Haannaa~ How could you trick me like this?”

“Sorry, I could tell he really felt bad.”

Ryuuji passes Hanabi and stands in front of Seiji, both staring each other straight in the face. Despite being a grade apart, they are nearly the same height, with Ryuuji just slightly taller. Since he’s the one who asked him here in the first place, Ryuuji initiates the conversation.

“Yo, brat.”

“Yo, loser poor boy.”

Wanting to yell at him for that comment, Ryuuji reminds himself why he’s here and grumbles instead. “Look, I’m sorry for getting you caught in my mess and...” having more difficulty with this part, he pauses briefly, “And...thank you for helping me. It doesn’t matter what the principal says, if you didn’t appear things would have been a lot worse.”

When Ryuuji is done talking, Seiji shrugs and turns away. “I guess that’s a good enough apology.”

Hearing such a light response after how hard it was for him to do all this makes Ryuuji believe this was a mistake. Ungrateful brat. He really can’t say one nice thing.

“I know you’ve been helping Hana with my notes too. I do appreciate that even if I’d rather not read your shitty handwriting.”

“Sorry for not being a girl.”

Deciding it is not worth it to respond kindly, Ryuuji attacks in return. Seiji scoffs at his response and takes the conversation where Ryuuji never expected.

“Have you heard the rumors about me?”

Noticing how nervous Hanabi became caused Ryuuji to say “Just from classmates chatting” to avoid her getting in trouble.

With a forlorn expression, Seiji rubs the scar on his forehead, “They’re pretty much all true. My mom caused this scar and I’ve been without a family ever since. That and Hana are why I always worked so hard in school, studied to get the best grades, having perfect attendance. The fact that the school overlooked my record and only focused on the fight...it’s ridiculous.”

Ryuuji is baffled by the sudden flood of information which almost sounds like a cry for help.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Why indeed? I’m not really sure myself.”

Hanabi places her hand on Seiji’s arm to make sure he’s alright. They’ve spoken plenty of times about his past, but she never heard him reveal this to anyone else so she’s sure something is wrong.

“Sorry, Hana. Let’s go.” Seiji says, sensing her worry.

As they walk away, Ryuuji tries to understand what just happened.

He looks worse now than when he first saw me today! I’ll wipe that gloomy look off your face somehow. Unsatisfied with how this ended, he shouts to Seiji.

“Hey brat, do you play Starfight?”

Annoyed by how he was just referred to, Seiji turns and shouts. “Yeah, what of it?”

“Meet me at the Voiceless Meadow, tonight at 9 pm. We’ll finish this there.”

Seiji reluctantly agrees and they go their separate ways. Once home, Ryuuji made sure to send Sun a message to inform her of their meeting, including a map to show her where it is. However, he instead told her it was at 8:45 pm, hoping she wouldn’t be late. Luckily Sun was on her computer at the time and was still alerted to the message. She asked him why it was such a weird time and he said he just felt like picking it.

Following Ryuuji’s time, Sun is the third to arrive right before 9 pm. Seiji has the username Hargrave, a tall swordsman wearing black armor and carrying a large sword behind him, at the max level of 145. Hanabi has the username Flora Mae, a mage at level 122 wearing light blue and purple clothing and a green staff with a few buds at the tip.

They notice the hunter Sunshine and, assuming it’s Sun, request communication. Seiji gets right to the point.

“So where’s that idiot?”

“He should be here soon.”

Sure enough, a player named AkaNinja appears before them. To Sun’s surprise, instead of requesting communication, he sent a ‘friendly fire’ request to Hargrave. She actually has no idea what that is, but considering Ryuuji’s personality, she knows it can’t be good. Seiji then shouts,

“Not this guy again. I won’t let you get away this time!”

“You know who this is?” Sun asks.

Hanabi sighs as she explains. “Kind of. He attacked Seiji before, not that he could do anything. I told you to automatically deny these types of requests.”

“Why do that when I can take this guy out again?”

Despite complaining, Seiji is excited by the encounter and accepts. After seeing it’s accepted, Ryuuji takes another look at Seiji’s username and starts panicking. Knowing they can’t hear him anyway, he shouts into the mic.

“This brat is one of the 4 legendary players?? There’s no way I can beat him! Especially if he uses the same skill as last time!”

In the game, Hargrave picks up the sword on his back with one hand and holds it in front of him as he activates a level 15 skill ‘Blood Seal’ to strengthen the weapon.

Ryuuji’s panic elevates as he recognizes the attack pattern that easily defeated him last time. He still lunges his character forward rather than run away, hoping to dodge at the last second.

“No matter what tricks you use, you won’t be able to escape my attack. Now disappear!”

Seiji starts to swing the sword towards the enemy target. Sun still doesn’t understand skills and all that, but can tell that Ryuuji is outmatched and speaks up,

“Wait a minute, that’s Ryuuji!!”

Startled by her comment, Seiji accidentally presses the wrong key and instead directs the attack upward, not hitting anyone. AkaNinja then sends them a request for communication, canceling the friendly fire. Once accepted, he suddenly shouts.

“What the heck were you thinking?! I could have been killed with that one hit!”

“I think you mean it would have been a repeat of last time.” Hanabi says.

“Maybe you should have gone with a normal way to talk.” Sun adds.

Ignoring the girls, Ryuuji continues shouting, “You would’ve kicked me out of the game before I could even accomplish anything! That’s not right!!”

Towards the end of Ryuuji’s rant, everyone hears Seiji break into laughter. He tries to calm down to explain why, but they can still hear laughs in between.

“I can’t believe you’re that stupid ninja! Not only did I almost kill you a second time, but a ninja? In a medieval fantasy setting? How can the son of the game’s creator use something so lame?”

“Hargrave is calling me lame? You brat, don’t dis ninjas!”

To hear laughter mixed with rude comments, Ryuuji is conflicted over these results. His intention was to help Seiji feel better, but does he have to be rude even though it clearly worked? Ryuuji then receives a message from the username Flora Mae that simply reads ‘Thank you.’ Realizing it’s from Hanabi, and focusing on the point of this meetup, Ryuuji listens and grumbles. Whatever, this is fine. I’ll only let you laugh at me this once.

********************

After meeting Kiyama and Hinami in Starfight and repaying my debt, I thought I’d have nothing more to do with them, but I was completely wrong. I ended up running into them almost twice a day. At the school gate, shoe lockers, the hall on the way to or from class, it was like they were everywhere. I was so sure that brat hated me so I couldn’t understand why this was happening. Then by chance, I ran into Hinami.

On the way to school, Ryuuji is still trying to wake up after staying up late playing Starfight when he suddenly hears ‘Good morning!’ from a familiar voice. Startled at first, Ryuuji looks to his right to see Hanabi with her usual, bright smile. Instead of greeting her in return, Ryuuji asks her the question that has been nagging him.

“Hey I’ve been wondering, why do you guys keep treating me like we’re friends? Especially that brat. I thought he didn’t like me.”

“That’s not true at all!” Hanabi is surprised he would even think that.

“Then please help me understand.”

“You’re the first classmate to show any concern for Seiji, besides me of course, so I think he’s just happy to have a reliable senpai.”

“But I’m not reliable.”

“Yes, Seiji did say that as well.”

Now Ryuuji is even more confused. Hanabi reconsiders her previous words and tries to come up with a better explanation.

“I’ll just tell you what he told me.” Hanabi prepares herself as she imitates Seiji’s voice. “ ‘He seems to have a lot of problems and might be unreliable, but he’s the first person besides you who actually listens, so maybe it will be fun to hang out with him after all.’ ”

“He got the first part right at least.”

“So please take care of us, senpai.”

Feeling he has no choice in the matter, Ryuuji warns her, “Don’t blame me if things don’t work out.”

As they reach the school, side by side, Hanabi notices Seiji waiting for her at the gate and runs up to him with a joyful greeting. Seiji sees Ryuuji leisurely following behind, but reacts differently than the day he received his apology.

“Morning, Hana. I see you dragged Ryuuji to school with you.”

“That’s not a bad way to put it.” Ryuuji says, going along with his comment.

Not enjoying the teasing so early in the morning, Hanabi pouts. Seiji laughs and slings his arm around her shoulder, “Thanks for walking her to school.” He says before leaving for class.

Ryuuji keeps to himself, simply watching them walk away before heading in. We'll see how this turns out, I guess.

********************

Starfight Tips;;

Friendly Fire can be requested by anyone and sent to anyone. There is no way to initiate it without a request and it’s one of two ways to fight other players, with the other being the Colosseum. Players have the option to automatically deny such requests. If you are in the same party with members who initiate and accept Friendly Fire, then you have the option to take part as well, unless you deny those requests.

The Four Legendary Players. They are the only players who consistently reach the max level the same week a new expansion is released, despite it being more difficult the higher level you reach, and are admired for different reasons. They’re not the only players at max level, but those two facts make them ‘legendary’ in the eyes of the many. No one knows anything about them besides their gender and the country they reside in. They each play different classes which is purely by coincidence.

------Hargrave is a swordsman played by a male who resides in Japan. He is known as a hero after easily beating many of the highest level monsters with ease that players often have difficulty with. He will sometimes join other parties to help in new quests, but mainly played by himself until the player Flora Mae joined. She hasn’t reached ‘Legendary Player’ status, but many believe she will in the future due to being Hargrave’s ally. [True name: Kiyama Seiji]