Chapter 12: Better Luck Next Time

Airi and Makoto walk down the hallway to the auditorium. Airi is carrying a stack of a few papers and is shaking nervously. Makoto reaches towards Airi and holds her hand.

“Relax, everything’s going to be fine.”

“I’m just super nervous about this speech. I don’t know why they picked me of all people to give it.”

“It’s because you’re just so charismatic, Airi. You’re beautiful, you’re smart, and you have influential family members. You’ll do just fine sweetheart. I believe in you.” Makoto said in a sweet voice, giving Airi a genuine smile.

“Ok, I think I’m good now. Thanks for helping calm me down.”

“No problem. Anything for you. Good luck out there!”

Airi walked out on stage to applause from the rest of the students. Makoto stayed back and watched from the sidelines.

After school, the two begin walking towards the train station.

“Hey, mind if I come hang out today, sweetie?” Makoto asked.

“Of course, do you even need to ask?”

“Well, no, but it’s the polite thing to do.”

The two get into the train station and simultaneously notice an advertisement for a new anime DVD that was released that day.

“Woah, I didn’t know this was coming out today!”

“Me neither. Would you like to go buy a copy so we can watch it together at your place?”

“Sure, let’s go!”

When the two arrive, they realize they don’t have enough money on them to buy the DVD.

“Shoot, we need more money.”

“I think we went by a convenience store on the way here. Want to go get some money out of the ATM?”

“Yeah, good thinking Makoto. Let’s go.”

The two walked a few buildings down to a convenience store.

“I’ll wait out here. You go get the money.”

“Alright, be back in a bit.”

“Oh, wait. Can you hand me the Timeagotchi please? I’d like to look it over a bit while I wait for you.”

“Sure, here.” Airi says, handing it over.

“Thanks.”

Airi walked over to the ATM and started the process of withdrawing money. A loud screeching noise comes from outside, but Airi can’t see what’s happening, as her vision is blocked by a wall. A few moments later, the machine dispenses her money and she makes her way outside, only to be horrified at what she sees.

“Makoto! What happened?!” she shouts.

“Car… Hit, me…”

“Relax, deep breaths. Somebody, please help!” Airi shouts in panic.

Nobody walking by seems to hear her. The people inside the convenience store pay her no mind. No cars appear to be driving by.

“Stay with me Makoto, I’ll call for help.” Airi said, holding Makoto in her arms.

Airi reaches for her phone, but she can’t find it.

“Wait, the Timeagotchi. Where is it?” Airi asks frantically.

Makoto opens her hand slowly and reveals the Timeagotchi, completely destroyed.

“No, this can’t be happening. Not again.”

“Airi… Don’t worry about me. I’m going somewhere better now.”

“Stop it Makoto. You aren’t going to die. Not this time.”

“I’m sorry… Ai-Ai…”

Makoto’s eyes close as her breath stops. Airi breaks out into tears.

“Makoto! Why?! Why now?!”

Airi cries herself to sleep right there on the sidewalk, holding Makoto’s lifeless body in her arms.

“Airi? Airi… Airi!” shouts a voice.

Airi opens her eyes quickly, her head pounding.

“Huh? What? Who is it?”

“Your mother. Your alarm has been going off for who knows how long. You’re going to be late for school. You need to stop staying up so late playing your games.”

Airi’s mom exits the room and Airi turns off her alarm clock.

“Nightmare, huh? That’s relieving at least.” Airi thought to herself. She looks over at the alarm clock again and is shocked fully awake. “Crap, I am going to be late.”

Airi looks at her phone and sees that Makoto had texted her a few times to see if she was awake, as they had been doing for months.

Airi quickly got into her school uniform and ran out of the door without eating breakfast. Thankfully, she managed to get to the train before it left.

As she enters the classroom, she notices Makoto talking to a girl. It was one of their classmates, Kiyomi. Kiyomi appeared to be a bit disappointed about something, but ended up walking away before Airi could get to them. Airi was about to ask Makoto what happened, but the bell rang and the teacher entered the room.

At the beginning of lunch as they exit the classroom, Airi finally asks Makoto what she wanted to ask all day.

“So, what was up with Kiyomi earlier?”

“She was telling me about how there was some new girl who she was showing around so she’d feel more welcome here.”

“That’s the class president for ya. Why was she telling you about it though?”

“I dunno. She seemed like she wanted to talk to both of us about it, but somebody woke up late.”

“Sorry, I had a really rough time last night.”

“You stay up late again?”

“Well, yeah. There was a really tough boss fight against a giant robot.”

“You never learn, do you? Did you at least beat it?”

“You bet I did! I was really feeling it.”

Airi and Makoto spotted Kiyomi talking with a girl they didn’t recognize and decided to go check it out.

“Yo, Makoto, Airi. Just who I was hoping to run into.”

“What’s up Class Pres?”

“Hi Kiyomi.”

“This is Yuri. She just transferred here from another school.”

“Pretty late into the year for a transfer.” Makoto said.

“Yeah, anyway, introduce yourself.”

“Hello, I’m Yuri. As she mentioned, I’m new around here. I hope we can get along.”

“Of course! I don’t see why we wouldn’t.” Airi replied.

“Really?! That’s amazing!”

“You seem excited.” Makoto said, mildly annoyed.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just don’t have any friends here yet, and was hoping that we could be friends.” Yuri said with a bit less enthusiasm.

“Oh… I uh, I didn’t mean to come off as rude. Sorry about that. Hey, why don’t you come get lunch with me and Airi?”

“Really? I’d love to. Thanks.”

“Well, that’s great. I’ve got some stuff to take care of, so I’ll leave Yuri to the two of you for now.”

“Alright, later Kiyomi.” Airi said.

“See ya.”

“Well, shall we go?”

“Yeah, I’m freaking starving.”

“Ok, let’s go! I’m super excited to see more of the campus.”

After showing Yuri around a bit and getting lunch, the three make their way up to the roof.

“Woah, the view here is really something. You can see the entire campus from here. Oh, is that a pool?” Yuri exclaimed in excitement.

“Yep. That’s where the swim team practices after school.” Airi replied.

“That’s so cool! I never learned how to swim, but it’s fun watching other people do it.”

“What do you do? You know, for fun?” Makoto asked.

“Fun? Let’s see… Well, sometimes I like to write or draw, and I like playing video games.”

“Writing? What do you write about?” Airi asked.

“Oh, um…” Yuri seemed nervous to respond. “I uh, write fan fiction.”

“Oh, that’s pretty cool. What do you draw?”

“Also… fan fiction…”

“What kind of fan fiction?” Makoto teased.

“I uh, I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Oh? So what I’m hearing is you’re a huge perv like Airi then?”

“No no no, I’m not… Wait, what?”

“Shut up Mako-chan. You don’t just go telling people stuff like that.”

“Relax, she seems nice. Besides, don’t you want another buddy to talk about doujins with?”

“Well, I guess so. So, Yuri, you like to write and draw stuff like that, huh? Do you make manga?”

“No, I mean, not yet. I’d like to at some point, but I’m just not sure how well it would turn out.”

“Doesn’t hurt to try, right?” Makoto asked while shoving her face with food.

“Yeah, she’s right. You should just go for it. So, do you like to insert your own character so they can be the love interest?” Airi teased.

“Sometimes. It just depends on how well I like the pairings in the original works.”

The three continued to talk and get to know each other better. Yuri pulled some drawings out her backpack and showed them to Makoto and Airi. Makoto was shocked at what she saw, but Airi just smiled and gave a genuine thumbs up, her face turning red as she did.

The next day after school, Airi and Makoto were stopped by Yuri and Kiyomi.

“Yo, Airi, Makoto. Yuri and I are gonna head to a cafe to hang out and talk. You two wanna come with?” Kiyomi asked.

“I’ve got nothing to do today. You?” Makoto asked Airi.

“Nope, let’s go, I think it’ll be fun.”

“Yay, so many new friends to hang out with already.” Yuri said.

The four made their way to the cafe and sat down. They all ordered a slice of strawberry cake.

“Wow, this place is so nice. I’ve never been to a cafe before.” Yuri said.

“Really? You never went places with your friends before moving?” Makoto asked.

“No. I never had any friends.”

“Oh…”

“Makoto…” Airi said quietly.

“What? How was I supposed to know?”

“Anyway,” Kiyomi interrupted, “I come here pretty often with the rest of the student council. The staff are pretty familiar with me and always sit me off back here where we can all talk about stuff away from the rest of the public.”

“That’s pretty handy for us, since Makoto likes to be pretty rowdy at times.” Airi jokes.

“Hey, I do not-” Makoto started before realizing what she was doing, “oh, I see.”

“You two get along pretty well.” Yuri said.

“Well, we have known each other for a really long time.” Makoto replied.

“I bet you two know a lot of stuff about each other.” Kiyomi teased.

“Yeah, what of it?”

“I’m just saying, I’m sure there’s all kinds of juicy drama that you two know about. Like, an embarrassing secret, or a secret crush maybe.”

“Oh, well, uh…” Airi started before being interrupted by Kiyomi.

“Come on, let’s share some secrets while we’re here. We do it all the time in student council when we get new members.”

“Alright fine, but I’m not going first.” Makoto huffed.

“That’s fine. Let’s talk about our crushes. I’ll start first. You know that boy, Akira?” Kiyomi asked.

“Akira? Yeah, we’re friends with him. Well, we were until he started dating that girlfriend of his.” Airi mentioned.

“Oh, Mari? Yeah, what a piece of work she is. She wanted to be on student council last year, but we all decided against it. I don’t know what her problem is.”

“Wait, so you have a crush on Akira? Of all the people at school, him?” Makoto questioned loudly.

“Yeah, so what? It’s not like it matters anyway. Speaking of not mattering, Yuri, who’s your crush? I’m sure it won’t matter if you tell us since it’ll be some guy from your old school.”

“Oh, um, actually…” Yuri started before blushing and putting her head down in embarrassment, “I have a crush on… Airi.”

The three other girls looked at her in surprise. Makoto, Airi, and Yuri were all blushing.

“Uh, well, I’m really flattered to hear that Yuri. It’s just that, uh…” Airi sat and thought for a moment. “I’m kind of already taken by somebody. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. Sorry for making things awkward, I should have kept my mouth shut.” Yuri said sadly.

“No, it’s ok, really. Honestly, I don’t really mind.”

“Well I do. I mean, come on Yuri, you can’t just say that to someone you just met.” Kiyomi started.

“Well, it is sort of your fault.” Makoto added.

“My fault? How is it my fault?”

“You’re the one who suggested we talked about our crushes.”

“Oh, I guess you’re right. Sorry about that. Maybe we should have talked about something else.”

“Um, Airi?” Yuri mumbled.

“Yeah?”

“Can we… still be friends?”

“Of course we can.”

“Oh, good!”

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits again.

“So wait, Airi, you said you were taken already. This is the first time I’m hearing about this. Who are you dating?” Kiyomi asked.

“That’d be me.” Makoto said, raising her hand.

“Huh?!” Kiyomi asked in shock.

“What, surprised because we’re both girls or something?” Makoto asked.

“No, I honestly kind of expected this eventually, I just didn’t think it’d happened already. That’s why I was surprised.”

“Well, I say good for you two. Mind if I draw you two some time?” Yuri asked.

“Not at all. I’d love for you to draw us.” Airi replied.

The four girls continued to talk for what felt like forever before eventually saying goodbye and going their separate ways.