Chapter 32

For the rest of the school week, Yanagi walked Izumi to school, traded finished assignments with the teacher, winked at Shiori, and made sure everything was okay before heading to Kuruma's.

I can't believe we haven't seen or heard from him since the suspension started. Izumi lay on her bed, hugging her wolf plushies, as she debated what to do for the rest of the weekend.

Knock, knock.

"It's open."

The door opened and Yanagi stood in her doorway, his eyes sweeping across her room.

"Cool." He nodded and plopped down on her bunny beanbag chair.

"Yanagi?!" She shot to her feet, dropping her plushies on her bed. "W-what are you doing here?" Oh my gosh! He can see... everything!

"Oops, did I startle you? Your mom said it was okay to come up here, but if you don't want me in your room, I understand."

Mom?! "T-that's not it." She stared at the ground, fidgeting with her fingers. "B-but..." She swallowed hard.

"Oh, I could just pass out in this chair. Sorry, did you say something?"

"You don't... find it creepy?"

"Find what creepy? I mean, the horror manga poster can probably startle someone in the dark, but other than that, it kinda reminds me of a girly version of Kuruma's room. Actually, I think you have more of those." He pointed at the robot model kits set up on her upper shelves. "So he might get a bit jealous if he sees it, but I could use it to figure out which one to get him for his birthday." Yanagi gave her a thumbs-up.

She sighed, collapsing back onto her back.

He raised an eyebrow. "Were you worried about me seeing this? I kinda figured you were one of us a long while ago. Between the manga in your backpack when Kuruma was going through it, and how super into creating the game you got, it made sense." He shrugged. "It's not a big deal, is it?"

"Apparently not." I've been freaking out over nothing?! Shiori didn't care, so I'm not sure why I expected Yanagi to. Actually, he assumed it in the first place!

"I can tell you were worried about it. We should've showed you Kuruma's room early on, so maybe you would've opened up and not worried about it. I know he'd love this room... Did people make fun of you for it in the past?"

"That would be an understatement."

"Sorry about that. Anyway, I'm here for a few things... Hey! Can I borrow this? Kuruma didn't get the newest one." Yanagi jumped to his feet, his eyes glued to her bookcase.

"Uh, sure."

"Great, thanks. As I was going to say... I came to check up on how you're doing and check to see if you were willing to test out the game tomorrow."

"We don't have club tomorrow." And we've barely touched it this week.

He chuckled. "After our little fight, the coach got angry at our game dev club, and now Takumi wants to see a demo of the game to prove we've been working and can work together. He'll have to report back."

"Shouldn't Kuruma show it off? Or get Takumi to play it." Though I'd love to play it.

"Kuruma said it should be you to play it. No, it has to be you."

Has to be me? Why?

"The reason is a secret to be found out on Monday." Yanagi held his finger to his lips and winked at her. "By the way, you don't mind me sticking around, do you? I don't want to be home, Kuruma kicked me out, and I doubt Shiori would open the door."

"I don't mind. We can even play something, if you want." She gestured to her bookcases full of video games."

"Don't mind if I do." He stood beside her to look through them and glanced down at her, smirking. "Something co-op would be best. We can totally go three-player now with Kuruma sometime."

"But..." I'm not sure he wants much to do with me. "He wasn't exactly talking to me before the suspension." Her lip quivered.

"Because he's an idiot. Things will be different on Monday, promise."

Monday rolled around, and Izumi rushed out of her house in the morning to find both Yanagi and Kuruma. "H-hey," she greeted them.

"Good morning," Yanagi said.

"Um..." Kuruma rubbed the back of his head and averted his gaze. He suddenly dropped to his knees and bowed, his head touching the ground. "I'm sorry about how I was acting."

"I-it's okay. You don't need to bow." Izumi tried to pull him up.

"No, I do need to, because I messed up royally. And... thank you beforehand for playing the demo. We've been working on it a lot these past few days, and it's important to me that you play it."

"Of course! I mean... I'd love to."

Kuruma got to his feet, biting his lip as his eyes met hers.

"You're forgiven, and I hope you're feeling better." She smiled widely.

"Y-yup." Kuruma's face burned as he looked away. "Let's go."

At school, Shiori glared at Kuruma.

"I'm sorry." Kuruma bowed to her, though avoided the ground while in school.

"Tch." Shiori huffed, crossing her arms. "Try not to let it happen again."

"Yes, ma'am." He sat down with a sigh.

The school day flew by and game dev club met up at their usual computer lab.

"I already know you've put in a lot of effort here, but I still need to see the game," Takumi said as Kuruma set it up on a computer for Izumi.

Izumi sat down, feeling eyes on her screen from behind her, and took a deep breath before starting. "Let's go."

She chose Kuruma's character, though she was surprised he was listed first this time. Still remembering the timing from the last time she tested it, Izumi breezed through the last two innings of the baseball game, with her character shouting encouragement on the side as their manager.

A meteor dropped down on the baseball field, cratering into the ground. It cracked open, and demons crawled out alongside purple goo. The goo immediately took over the cheerleaders nearby, turning them into zombies.

Hey, those girls... They totally look like Hoshi and her friends!

She held back a snicker and followed the instructions to run. Her manager character ran right beside her.

A small, four-legged demon with red eyes and a long snout popped up in front of them and prompted a fight. She attacked with her bat, but barely did any damage.

The demon morphed, vines rising out from it as it grew ten times its size, and the vines shot them out to the manager and wrapped her up. "She's mine now!"

It changed to an animation of Kuruma reaching out for her as she was pulled away, the demon climbing to the top of the school.

"Izumi!" his character cried out. "I'll save you somehow!"

I totally got kidnapped by a creepy demon...

"Foolish boy." A woman wearing a purple cloak, holding a crystal ball in one hand, appeared behind him. "You can't beat demons with a wooden bat!" She cackled and held up a set of cards. "But I can help you with that. Choose the one you're drawn to, and its powers will be yours."

I wonder if they put in different ones or it's all the same. She glanced back at Shiori, whose gaze didn't waver from her screen.

Izumi picked the one on the right.

"Strength Card."

Her baseball bat glowed yellow.

"May you have the strength to save the school and those you cherish. Good luck." The fortuneteller vanished in a puff of smoke.

Hmm, he changed the line a bit. Her eyes lingered on the word 'cherish'.