Chapter 21

A crowd surrounded the nurse's office as the students wondered who it was.

"I heard it was Kuruma."

"What if it was Yanagi?"

"Either way, it's horrible."

Izumi and Shiori stopped nearby, staring at the growing crowd. How are we supposed to get through this to check on them?

"Excuse me," Takumi huffed as he rushed up to the crowd. "Teacher here. Let me through, please." He automatically tried to force his way through the crowd.

The door to the nurse's office opened. "Can you lot keep it down?" she snapped at them. "What are you all doing here, anyway? There's no need to gawk at sick people."

"Sick? I-is he—"

The nurse latched onto Takumi's arm, dragged him in and shutting the door before the crowd could look inside.

"Aw!"

"Maybe we should go before she snaps at us again."

The crowd dispersed until only Izumi, Shiori, and a few of the fangirls remained.

"Should we wait?"

"It's Kuruma, not Yanagi."

"So? They're both important players."

"I don't think we should stick around here." One of the fangirls glanced over to see Shiori glaring at her. "Who knows what she might do?"

"But I need to pay her back for the voodoo doll and goop!"

"Oh? You have proof I did something?" Shiori asked. "I mean, it's not like I have a reason to do that to you, right?" She slung her arm over Izumi's shoulders.

The girl swallowed hard. "T-this isn't over." She took off with the other girls behind her.

"Is there actually a curse on her now, attached to the doll?" Izumi asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Shiori smirked.

A chill ran down her spine. Never get on her bad side.

"So, what do you want to do now? Not sure they'll let us in."

Izumi approached the door, holding her hand up to it as she took a deep breath. "I'm not sure. I'm too anxious to leave, but I don't want to disturb them."

Shiori pointed at the two chairs sitting against the wall near the door. "How about we wait a bit and work on this?" She held up the tablet.

Not sure I can focus... "Well, you can do that, but what will I do? I need to do something..."

"Work on the story? I know you had a few ideas for it."

"Shouldn't that be what Kuruma does? It's really his game." Though he did kinda ask me to be a writer...

"I think he'll be busy working on the gameplay mechanics to worry too much about the story. Don't forget to have some dialogue for the random NPCs Kuruma will put in for players to talk to, even if they don't have anything helpful to say."

"Noted. Wait, as the artist, are you going to have to work on an opening sequence, too?"

"At least a sequence where the baseball game gets attacked, yup."

Izumi glanced at the closed door and started a new document in their shared folder.

After a while, the door opened, and Takumi pushed Yanagi out. "You can continue baseball practice; Kuruma just needs sleep, and you're not helping."

"But..." Yanagi sighed, shoulders slouching as Takumi closed the door, grumbling about how he was going to hear it from their parents. Yanagi turned and spotted them, lighting up instantly. "Oh, I thought you two went home already."

"We heard someone on the baseball team collapsed, and considering his brother's panicking, we figured it was Kuruma."

"The nurse said it was just fatigue, so he needs extra rest." He ran his hand through his hair. "I can't believe he's doing it again. I should've warned him earlier."

"So, how is he?" Shiori asked. "He didn't hit his head this time in the fall, did he?"

Hit his head?! Izumi's eyes widened.

"Nope, he's okay, no injuries. We were practicing our throw when he wobbled, and I rushed up in time to catch him before he fell. Ugh, I don't want to leave... but I'm not allowed back in yet."

The door opened. Takumi popped out and held his finger to his lips. "Please keep quiet. And what are you still doing here? Go to practice."

"Fine." Yanagi grumbled and shuffled down the hall.

"Hey girls, Kuruma's okay, just tired, so you can head home if you want. If you insist on waiting, you can wait inside, so long as you're quiet."

They exchanged a look, and Shiori knew right away what the answer was.

"Let's go in." Shiori sighed.

Takumi stepped aside to let them through.

I hope they're right, and he just needs sleep. Izumi sat in the chair beside where Kuruma lay. She lightly brushed his bangs aside out of his face, and froze when she noticed Takumi watching her.

"Interesting..." he mumbled.

She shifted away from him a bit and turned the tablet back on.

"Oh, did you want to try out what he has so far? Not the prettiest, but his progress has been more than I expected... though not without its price." He sighed and glanced at Kuruma. "Love his passion for it, but I'd rather he not end up here or worse."

Worse? I don't even want to think about that. Kuruma... please be okay. Izumi took a deep breath and held up the tablet so he could show her how to access his game.

"Have fun. I'll be back in a while to take him home myself." Takumi turned to the nurse. "Let me know if anything happens."

She nodded to him, and he headed off.

No introduction, but you get to choose between two characters... that are generic at the moment, but named. Let's go with Kuruma.

It dropped her straight into a baseball game in the 7th inning, 2-2.

Guess it would be too long to have a full one for this. But what if people just want to play a baseball game?

Swing.

Miss.

Gonna be hard to get this timing. Wish I could use a regular controller.

She tried a few more times and finally hit a ball, only for it to be a foul.

"Damn," she grumbled.

"Too hard?"

Izumi's shoulders jumped, and she turned to see Kuruma watching her play.

"Sorry, was I too loud?"

"No, not at all, though I am curious what's going on, other than that I apparently blacked out." Kuruma sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"We were worried when we heard someone had collapsed, so we came to check on you. Takumi showed me how to get into the game, though I'm not that good at it."

"Takes some getting used to, but I should probably tweak the difficulty a bit..." he trailed off, wondering how long that would take. "Anyway, want me to help?" He leaned on his side and reached over for the tablet. "I'll show you."

She leaned in closer, a faint blush tinting her cheeks.

"And wham... Damn."

He missed.

"Okay, this time."

He missed again.

"I swear I'm good at this in both real life and in-game," he grumbled, his face reddening.

"Maybe because you're leaning over to show me. Here." She sat beside him on the bed, and her heart rate spiked. Okay, maybe too bold for me. She swallowed hard and stared at the screen as he tried again, though she couldn't help but sneak a glance at him. He's so focused... She smiled, watching him instead of the game.

"There! It's a little tricky for now, but do you want to try again? Unless you're not into it..." He trailed off, remembering the bookcase full of video games in her room.

"O-oh, sure." She took the tablet back. Focus on the game, not the handsome boy. Her heart hammered in her ears.

She took a deep breath and timed her swing. "I did it!" she cheered. "Now for a repeat performance..."

Kuruma chuckled, his eyes on her instead of the tablet. "Getting into it now?"

"Yes! I won!" Izumi cheered and turned, forgetting how close Kuruma was, and locking eyes with him. "Oh..."

He stared back at her with a soft smile as he leaned in closer.

Izumi's heart raced.

The door opened, and Takumi came back. "Sorry for the wait..."

Izumi fell off the bed in a rush to put space between her and Kuruma. "S-sorry." Reddening up to her ears, she grabbed her backpack. "I... We should get going now."

"Wait!" Kuruma called out to her.

He called out to me? He doesn't want me to leave?

"Your tablet."

"Oh, right. Thank you." She avoided eye contact as she took the tablet from him. "It was fun. Get some rest, and try not to overwork yourself." She turned, bowed to Takumi, and took off with Shiori right behind her.

"Well, that was... interesting," Shiori said.

Oh my gosh, what was that? Izumi sped out of the school.

"Hey, slow down, or you'll hurt yourself again."

Nope, I have to get out of here.

"Did I interrupt?" Takumi asked.

Kuruma sighed, shaking his head. "No, yes... I don't know. She just..." Kuruma ruffled his hair. "No, I shouldn't get too close."

"Why? She seems to like you."

"But what about Yanagi? He seems to like her, and I don't want to get in the middle."

Takumi rubbed his chin. "Hard place to be, but shouldn't that be her choice?"

"Well... I'd rather not chase after the same girl."

"Since when have you chased after any girl?"

"Tch."

"You could always talk to Yanagi first, but that'd be an awkward conversation."

"I just need to bury... whatever this is." He held his hand over his racing heart.

"I'm sure that'll work so well with you two working closely together on the game." Takumi rolled his eyes and patted Kuruma's shoulder. "Good luck with that; you're going to need it."

Kuruma brushed his hand off. "Just leave it be, Taku, please."

Takumi shrugged. "As someone more experienced in life, let's just say feelings aren't so easy to put a lid on."