In the middle of the day, in the middle of the bookstore, in the middle of the aisle where the manga and young adult novel sections met, a showdown was taking place. Representing the manga shelf was Natsuko, a short young man with spiked pink hair and a scowl that could make a gangster shudder. For the novels’ champion, a tall gentleman with neat purple hair and perfect posture, Yuuri by name, fixed the enemy with an icy glare. He held a thick paperback in his arm like a shield.
“I’m telling you! There is no way I’m reading that.” Natsuko crossed his arms, the spitting image of a petulant child. “It’s eight-hundred pages! I still have homework to think about, you know!”
“Well, I thought the idea of coming here was to find a novel to broaden our horizons.” Yuuri huffed. “And eight-hundred pages is nothing for a page-turner like The Curse of Kotonoha! It’s about a young girl who- “
“It’s. Too. Long! And the idea of coming was for everyone to find something to share. Everyone! Remember? You already shot down my manga choice, so I’m shooting down that novel.”
Yuuri’s cheeks flushed red.
“Th-that’s because the manga you selected was borderline pornography! Did you even see what that main character was wearing!?”
“All manga had fanservice somewhere! And if you could actually get past the first chapter of Tales of Finonica, you’d realize just how complex the story gets.” Natsuko rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re going to judge a book by its cover?”
“As if you’re not judging my book from its page length?”
“I never said it was bad! I said it was too long!”
“Well, perhaps if you actually tried reading it, you’d find it’s not half as mentally strenuous as you’re making it out to be.”
One could almost see the smoke erupting from Natsuko’s ears.
“Are you seriously calling me stupid right now!?”
“N-no! Not at all!” Yuuri stammered. “I didn’t mean for it to sound like- “
“You know what? Maybe if you weren’t so tall, you wouldn’t have to keep looking down at us commoners and our manga all the time.”
“Are you calling me arrogant!?”
“Hey! If the shoe fits!”
The argument was heating up fast. With each passing word, their voices grew louder. Shoppers and employees alike stopped to stare at the two men flailing their arms, stamping their feet, and jabbing their fingers at one another.
“Are they… always like this?”
Just outside of the war zone, Suichu tilted her head as if the scene would make more sense from a different angle. Two hours. She’d been a member of the school Literature Club for about two hours and already it was more than she’d bargained for.
“Well… yes.” Next to her, Mateo stood with his hands on his hips and a disappointed grimace on his face. “They tend to struggle with their differing tastes, but they’re not usually this....”
“Stupid?”
“I was leaning towards infantile.” Mateo’s grimace lifted into a smirk. “Unless that’s too big a word for you.”
“Oh no! Don’t go out of your way for little old me! I’d hate to make you bend over backwards to talk like a normal person!"
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to fall behind… like your grades.”
“Oooooof! Now that’s a low blow! Any lower and I might have to start making crotch shots. Not that you have much down there to hit.”
Mateo hid a snort behind his hand. Suichu grinned. Unlike Tweedledum and Tweedledumber over there, she knew how a friendly argument was supposed to sound. Snide banter was the first language of herself and Mateo, who wasn’t just the pretentious Literature Club president.
He was her best friend.
“I should probably break those two up though. I really didn’t want your first club outing to turn into an online forum… and I think I saw someone about to get the manager.”
Sure enough, Suichu could see a scrawny lady in sunglasses whispering fervently to a helpless employee. Judging by the redness of her face, she was about ten seconds out from making a very big scene.
“Yeah, that’s a problem.” Suichu sucked in a breath. “Here, let me take care of this.”
She stepped forward, right into Mateo’s outstretched arm.
“What do you think you’re doing? This is my club. I’m going to be taking control here.”
“I believe you mean this is our club?” She nudged his arm out of her path. “And you can’t solve an argument to save your life. Remember the debate club?”
“And you’re saying you can?” Mateo’s arm reappeared in front of her.
“I’m saying that if I knock their head together, I’ve already got detention for the week. They cops can’t touch me!”
Before he could say another word, Suichu side-stepped his arm entirely and marched right up to the two shouting idiots.
Besides, if I can fix this then EVERYONE’S going to think more highly of me!
Even when she was standing right beside the bickering boys, they didn’t stop. It was like they were trapped in their own little bubble, where the artistic integrity of scantily clad warriors and horror pseudo-philosophy were all that mattered.
“All right! Listen up!”
At her sudden shout, Yuuri’s and Natsuko’s mouths clamped shut. They stared at her blankly.
“Look, I’m sure you both got awesome book suggestions. Fantasy adventures and creepy ghost girls sound like fun! But uh… when was the last time you guys looked around?”
Confused, the two men did as requested. They saw people, people who hadn’t existed in their minds until just that moment, either turning away in embarrassment or glaring back with disdain.
“O-oh my.” The color instantly drained from Yuuri’s face. The book in his hands was no longer a shield, but a tightly gripped security blanket as he tried to shrivel up into a ball. Natsuko let out a long low whistle and shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Yeah! Paying attention much?” Suichu crossed her arms. “I’m serious. You guys sound like you have cool books! That manga looked like it had some really exciting scenes. And at least the back of that novel makes it sound pretty smart. So, there’s no need to get so defensive about it! Everyone’s got their own tastes. The point, last I checked, is that we’re supposed to be trying out new stuff. Right?”
Natsuko rubbed the back of his neck. Yuuri raised his eyes from the ground.
“How about this? We each pick a book, read a little of it, and then we decide what we want to do as a club? Sound good?”
Natsuko and Yuuri glanced at one another for a long minute.
“Yeah… yeah that sounds good.” With a drawn-out breath, Natusko held out his hand to Yuuri. “Here. Let me take a look at that.”
With a tentative smile, Yuuri set the book in Natsuko’s hand.
“Where did you put that manga down again? I should probably give it a fair try.”
“Over in the go-backs bin. Come on. Let’s go get it.”
As her two clubmates walked past, both whispered under their breaths.
“Thanks.”
“Thank you.”
The words sent a nice gust of pride through Suichu’s head. To think it was her first day in the club and already she’d been able to solve a major argument.
Beats waiting to be dragged into their fight later.
She looked at Mateo with a smug grin. He shook his head.
“I swear, you never cease to surprise me.”
“Oh, come on! You can do better than that.” Suichu landed a friendly punch on his arm. “How about ‘Quite the pig-headed solution there’ or ’Such an enlightening idea. If only I hadn’t already thought of it.’ Something like that?”
With two easy shots at herself, she waited for his signature snarky response. It was a surprise when his bold smile softened, and his eyebrows fell from their usual questioning lift.
“You’re right. I suppose I can do better…”
Mateo reached out and set a hand on her shoulder. Without meaning to, Suichu tense. She might have pulled away immediately if his next words weren’t spoken so gently.
“Thank you for being here today. I mean it.”
Suichu’s voice jammed in her throat. It took one, two, three wheezy exhales before she finally recovered enough to step back.
“Yeah, yeah! No. No problem!” Her stammering felt strange in her mouth, but she could quite drive the quake from her voice. “Uh yeah! I’m… I think I’ll go look for my book! Over there!”
She started walking in the first direction her feet would take her. The route took her from novels to non-fiction, across the battered rugs that coated the floor and nearly into a book return cart. Nothing about her surroundings did she process. No, she was too busy swimming in her own head.
What the heck was that? Since when is he that sincere?
Not once in the time the history of their friendship had Mateo ever given her a look like that. He always snarked, always teased, always had something else hidden in his words; it was why they got along so well. They were best friends and rivals too. The perfect student and the crummy delinquent: a friendship as old as time.
But she could still feel the ghost of his firm hand on her shoulder. That hadn’t been a playful shove. And worse, it came that strange, heartfelt gleam in his shining emerald eyes.
Suichu shook the heat from her cheeks.
Knock it off you dummy! He was just messing with you, that’s all! You’re just friends! Best friends! If you want to start feeling weird, go feel it towards one of those other hot guys! The pervy pink shrimp or that gentleman giant! Not the literal hottest guy in the whole gosh darn school who you’d have no chance with because he’s been your best friend since–
Suichu shook her head again, harder this time. She needed to get these thoughts out of her brain before she did something stupid (more stupid than usual, that is). She yanked a paperback from the nearest shelf and flipped through the first page.
“How to Find Love in Ten Easy Steps! These expert nuggets of wisdom from local celebrity heartthrob are scientifically proven to show your crush if– “
“You’re not helping!” Suichu shoved the book back on the shelf. Rather, she tried to. Her aim was slightly off and instead of sliding in, the book rammed into a dozen more books on the shelf. The clattering of musty pages on the other side of the shelf sounded almost as loud as the argument.
“Gosh darn it all…” Suichu dropped to her knees and hurried to scoop up the books before anyone noticed.
You’ve always gotta find a way to do something dumb, don’t you Suichu?
She set the books up one by one, her pace slower as thought clouds drifted across her minds.
Would I really not have any chance? Not... that I would ever be dumb enough to try but… if I did… it’s not like he’d hate me or anything. We’ve been friends this long. And yeah, sure, he’s Mr. Perfect. Drives me up the wall, definitely would punch him in the throat if I could, but… it’s already impossible that I’m best friends with him. Maybe… I dunno… he did look pretty dashing back there…
Hm? What’s this?
The last book to return to the shelf wasn’t a book at all. It was paper thin from cover to cover, held together with a binding of staples. On the front was a massive figure in a skin-tight red suit and silver helmet with one fist plunged into a gigantic dinosaur. Both figures towered above the city and above them towered the title: “Ultraman Vs. Godzilla #4.”
“No way! How did you get in here!?” Suichu sat crossed legged in the center of the aisle, flipping through two pages at a time. “Aw man, I haven’t read one of these in ages!”
Ever since her first console Christmas present, Suichu’s free time had been monopolized by video games. Before that, however, her little kiddie heart had belonged to comic books. Whether it was mighty superheroes or grimdark vigilantes, she’d spent hours poring over every heart-pounding fight. She’d read through them in the dead of night with the help of her trusty flashlight. She’d dressed up as caped crusaders and ran squealing through the park. And when she planned her seven-year-old birthday party, she’d crammed in as many references as her mom’s credit card would allow. Now those had been the days.
Man, wait until I show him this! He’s gonna–
Something caught. Like how a branch caught loose clothing, or a glove caught a flyway ball. One minute she was thinking clearly; the next she just… stopped.
Her mind fell deathly silent. The quietness rang in her ears. The more it rang, the faster her heartbeat. Something. She needed to find something. There was something missing. Something that was supposed to fill the void. An answer, somewhere, but she needs the question first. So, she did what she always did. She clawed at the nothing, she screamed at the silence, and even though it was all in her head, she finally drew back the veil just enough to ask herself…
Who… who do I want to show this to?
Natsuko liked comic books. He’d said so himself but… that wasn’t it.
Yuuri didn’t like comic books at all.
So… Mateo? That had to be it. He’d been her best friend for forever. Yeah, he’d probably find it funny that she was suddenly getting back into comic books and…
Suichu rubbed her head. It hurt. It stung like static, ringing emptiness in her ears. Her blood was boiling. Her whole body felt tense, and she couldn’t get her heart to stop pounding.
What the heck is wrong with me!? What am I missing!? What am I even–
“Suichu?”
She jumped, stumbling back into the floor like a startled rabbit.
“Easy! Easy! I don’t bite.” Mateo held out his hands. “See? I’m unarmed.”
Suichu opened her mouth, but words wouldn’t come out. In fact, she felt even worse than before.
“Hey, are you alright?” That tenderhearted gleam returned to Mateo’s eyes. “You don’t look very well.”
Suichu squeezed an answer from her throat.
“F-fine! Yeah! Fine! Look! Found this!” She raised the Ultraman comic with a flurry of halfhearted laughs.
“Oh! Like the ones you used to read!” Mateo smirked. “Planning to crawl back into your comfort zone?”
Outside, Suichu nodded with a smile. Inside, she was shouting.
See you idiot! He knows about the comics! You just wanted to show him! It’s fine! Stop panicking! Why are you even panicking right now!? You are fine! FINE!
She tried to stand up, but her legs were reluctant to comply.
“Whoa! Easy there.” When Mateo took her hand, goosebumps raced across her entire arm. “I really don’t think you’re doing well. Did you forget to eat lunch?”
Suichu nodded even though she had no idea. Did she eat lunch? Or breakfast? What was the last thing she ate?
“Well then, there’s your problem.” Mateo chuckled. “I know. There’s a café right next to this place. We’ll let Natsuko and Yuuri keep looking for some books while I take you to get fed. Does that sound good?”
The static grew louder, pulsing like a siren in her head. She was half on the verge of throwing up and, for whatever reason, she couldn’t stop registering the fact that he hadn’t let go of her hand. As a matter of fact, he was holding it rather tightly.
“No, no!” Suichu gave a sheepish shrug. “Wouldn’t… want to bother. Just a… little… tired.”
“It’ll be my treat. Anything you like.” He squeezed her hand. “Come on, we both know you can’t say no to free food.”
Before she’d even answered, Mateo began leading her to the exit. He talked about the café’s menu, their staff, that he’d wanted to invite her there for a while, but all of it sounded like static. Suichu’s brain clawed wildly at the fluff and noise that hadn’t been there before, or maybe it had? That didn’t matter. What mattered was that there was something in there. Something, somewhere, she just needed to grab it. She needed to find it. He was there somewhere. He needed her. He was in trouble. He was… was…
“Satori.”
Mateo stopped.
“Hm? Did you say something?”
Suichu stared at the ground, her face twisted in concentration. Her thoughts scratched at the name like a lottery card.
“Satori…” She raised her head. “Where… where’s Satori?”
Mateo blinked. He smiled, slightly.
“Who?”
“Satori. He… he should be here too.” She rubbed her head as the scratching began to hurt. “He… he’s in the club! He should be here! He's my… m-my…”
"Suichu…” Mateo’s spoke softly as he removed Suichu’s hand from her head. “Whatever you’re thinking of, I’m sure it’ll go away after a good meal. That’s what usually happens, isn’t it? You work yourself up over nothing because you’re half-starved and afterwards, you’re back to normal. Doesn’t that sound like you?”
The fact that it did painted over the thoughts she’d tried so hard to scratch free—a nice soothing shade of green. Suichu’s mouth wrinkled.
"That’s what I thought.” Mateo moved both her hands into one of his as he pulled open the door. “Now, why don’t we get going? We don’t want to leave these two alone for too long, do we? They’ve already managed to make the whole shop uncomfortable.”
Everyone’s fighting is making Satori uncomfortable!
How can the two of you keep this up, knowing you’re making your friend feel like this!?
“Hmm? There are people fighting?”
Satori plucked out the earbuds attached to his phone.
Suichu plucked her hands from Mateo’s grasp and backed away.
“Mateo. Where is Satori?”
Mateo stared at her for a long minute. His smile faded.
“Suichu, you need to calm– “
“WHERE THE FUCK IS HE!?”
“Suichu, you’re making a scene.” He raised his hands, the way you would raise them to an angry dog. “You’re tired and hungry, and you’re getting upset over nothing. Just take a minute and– “
“I know he’s real! I heard him! I remember him! He’s a lousy VP! And a huge nag! And he's… he’s my…”
“Don’t– “
“He’s my best friend! He is! Not! You!”
Suichu glared with every ounce of her might. Not even her worst teachers had been cursed with such a look. And yet, Mateo’s expression remained cool. His hands remained fixed in the air, his fingers twitching just slightly. The silence only made Suichu angrier.
“Answer me! Where the fuck is h–“
Mateo swung one of his fingers, pressing a button she couldn’t see.
Then everything—the bookstore, the people, the world outside, all of it—snapped out of existence.
Suichu’s eyes widened, mostly to make sure she hadn’t closed them on accident. Her surroundings were a void, endless in every direction. Even the space beneath her feet was a vague, bottomless black.
“What the hell!?” Suichu turned around and around. “Wh-what is this place!?”
This place was nothing. Nothing but her, and him.
He sighed.
“I can’t believe this.” Mateo rubbed his temples. “I finally manage to fix everything and another issue pops up. I suppose that’s just the way coding is...”
“Hey! I’m talking to you! What is this place!? What did you do!?”
Despite shouting at the top of her lungs, Mateo continued to mutter and move his fingers through the air.
“It can’t be an actual error though. That would have crashed the game entirely. It must be something in the persistent data…”
“HEY! ARE YOU LISTENTING TO ME!?”
“But I scrubbed the old persistent after the credits. How did it come back? Did the player make a copy of their save and reupload it? That would have set the game back to an earlier phase though. Ugh, this was so much easier to do as code.”
With a roar, Suichu grabbed Mateo’s tie and dragged his face down to her level.
“Unless your damn ears are broken, you better start explaining what is going on! Right! Now!”
She glared hard enough to put a hold in his head. She raised her fist, ready to pound his face in at the first sign of dishonesty.
He stared back almost as hard as she did, startled into silence.
Then his cheeks turned a faint shade of pink.
Suichu dropped his tie and jumped back like he’d caught fire.
What kind of reaction is that!?
Mateo cleared his throat and wiped the blush from his face.
“I’ll just be a few minutes. I need to figure out why the persistent data wasn’t erased.”
Then he turned back to the air to twiddle his fingers.
“H-hey! Hey!” She ran around to his front. “What the hell!? Stop blowing me off!”
Mateo looked down at her, fingers still twiddling.
“It’d be a waste of time explaining everything to you. Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of room for conversation once I fix this. We can pick up on our way to the café, right where we left off. Or, maybe a few lines in. You were pretty slow on the uptake.”
“I’m slow?! We are standing in a black void while I’m dealing with my fucking memories being split in half, and you aren’t explaining shit!”
“Well, if you’ll give me a minute, you won’t have to worry about any of it.”
“Mateo!” Suichu fumed. “If you don’t talk right now, I swear I am going to kick you in the groin.”
A smirk crept onto Mateo’s face.
Try.”
Forget the black void; all Suichu saw was red. She clenched jaw, wound back her foot, and swung at him with all her strength.
Or, she thought she had? She never felt the impact and stood as if she hadn’t moved at all.
“The FUCK!?” When she pulled her leg back again, it jumped right back to standing position. She tried kicking, punching, even a headbutt, but the same thing kept happening. Contact never came. She’d blink and find herself standing as still as a statue.
“HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT!?”
“By calling your default sprite.” He spun one of his fingers in the air, not even attempting to his amusement. “At least I know that part of the console is working.”
“WELL STOP IT!”
“Then calm down.”
Suichu tried one last slap to the face, only to find her arm hanging dead at her side. With nothing else she could do, she took a deep breath and blew it out with full force. Still, she clung to the urge to beat Mateo senseless. By focusing on that, she could avoid the horror that threatened the edges of her thoughts.
“Better?” Mateo teased.
The way he teased me when we were kids, her brain wanted to say.
The way he teased me when we walked to school together, her brain insisted
The way he teased me because we’re best friends, her brain was sure.
But it was wrong. She knew it was wrong.
“You erased Satori…” Suichu spat, hands clenched again. “Somehow. And put yourself in his place. That’s fucking sick.”
Mateo glanced back from whatever invisible thing he was fiddling with.
“For your information, Satori erased himself. He could have refused. He could have decided to stay in the space classroom forever. Just because I was banking on the fact he wouldn’t doesn’t mean he didn’t have a choice.” Mateo shrugged. “Besides, the rules of this game means someone had to go. You wouldn’t have sacrificed Yuuri or Natsuko, would you?”
Suichu wanted to assume he was lying, but what else did she have to believe? She didn’t even understand half of what he was saying!
“It could have been me.”
She threw the idea out without a second thought. Mateo’s fingers froze.
“No. It couldn’t.”
“Oh yeah!? Why not!?” Suichu growled. “Is there some other bullshit secret out there you wanna walk me through because I– “
"Because I like you.”
…
…
…
“What?”
“I like you.” Mateo lowered his hands and faced her with a shy smile. “Quite a lot, actually.”
Suichu’s face wrinkled, still waiting for the punchline.
“That… that’s not– “
“You really are dense, you know that?” He sighed. “But that’s just one of your charms.”
Suddenly, his hand was on her head. Her instinct to swat his hand away didn’t reach her arm.
Couldn’t, was more accurate.
“There’s others, of course, like your energy, the way you face every obstacle with the same fiery passion, and your courage, how you refuse to take sides or stand back when there’s something wrong. You have a sharp tongue and a quick wit, yet a gentle compassion and a sense of serenity. There’s the way you throw open every door with a bang, the way you flaunt your sloppy uniform and lopsided ponytail, the way nostrils flare when you’re angry and your eyes sparkle when you’re excited. All of that, framed with a mask of absolute confidence that’s constantly waiting to shatter under the weight of insecurities the narrative couldn’t even begin to tackle.”
Goosebumps formed across Suichu’s arms as Mateo petted her head. Her brain kept chanting that he was wrong, that it all sounded too positive to apply to her, especially from him. All she wanted was to shove him back and yell at him to stop.
But now… she couldn’t even get her mouth to open. It kept flickering shut every time Mateo swung his other finger.
“You are right about one thing. Out of everyone, you would have been the logical choice to erase. After all, without you, the player couldn’t have interacted with the world at all. The game wouldn’t start, the Literature Club wouldn’t have been founded, and there would have been no conflict at all.” His hand slid down her head, down to her cheek. “But some silly modder had the idea to give you this irresistible personality. Now here I am, following in female counterpart footsteps, committing suicide, fiddling with the game, murdering my classmates, all so I can be with the person I want the most.” He rubbed his thumb against her cheek, heedless of the way she flinched. “So yes, Suichu, just in case you missed it: I. Like. You. Sorry, this isn’t a very well-planned confession, but you do have a way of pulling feelings out of people, don’t you?”
Every muscle in Suichu’s body was tightened. If Mateo had let go for half a second, she would have snapped like a rubber band, and she was waiting for it.
I’m going to kill him. I’m going beat him into a bloody pulp. I’m going to rip him limb from limb and throw his pieces to a pack of rabid dogs.
These were her happy thoughts, because they were far better than admitting she was terrified.
“Anyway, I’ve dragged this out too much already. I need to clear out whatever typo led to this and set us back up for our first date. It’s not like the game’s going to make one for me, and you…” Just as he began pulling his hand away, he stopped. “You won’t be remembering any of this, will you…”
You bet your ass I’m going to remember. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you get away with this, you sick, twisted, motherfu-
Instead of letting go, Mateo came closer. He slipped his other arm around her, its finger still twitching. His hand moved to the back of her head, just between her neck and ponytail.
And he kissed her.
Suichu snapped, just not in the way she’d hoped.
STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP
STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP
STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP
His gentle lips ghosted her chapped ones, lingering long enough to rip through Suichu’s fragile wall of fury and then, just a bit more. He pressed just a bit harder, just to prove what could be. Then he pulled away.
“I’ll consider that the demo for the new mod I’m working on.” Mateo beamed, the faint flush already fading from his cheeks. “Next time, I’ll wait until you’re the one initiating. I promise.”
Suichu still couldn’t answer. Now she couldn’t even stand to look at him as she desperately rose to reignite whatever anger she had left.
“Now if I could just figure out what caused all this in the first place…” He returned to the console with a grumble, making sure to keep one finger flicking for Suichu. “I just don’t understand. I double checked all the persistent data. I even wiped the regular saves. What’s missing?”
Mateo continued to fiddle with the controls, running over line and after line of empty, undefined code without any purpose whatsoever.
Mateo paused, looking up from the console and into the never-ending darkness. The world wasn’t entirely black. It was grey, the exact shade of an open file on Visual Studio, Mateo wouldn’t have known that. His understanding of coding was limited by artistic license, the vague descriptions needed for an unexperienced player to comprehend what was supposed to be happening in the story.
“Who is this?” Mateo looked around for the sound of the voice, but there was no voice to hear. The only voice held by a narrative is that assigned by a character or by the reader. For the time being, I am neither.
“Then whatever you are…” Mateo murmured coldly. “I take it you’re the one responsible for this?”
It was an incorrect statement in every sense of the word. One might as well say that a hammer is responsible for the construction of a house. What Mateo was hearing was merely a tool, but its user was–
“A player?” He interrupted, again incorrectly. Fanfictions don’t have players. They have readers. They have writers. They don’t have any code at all.
“Oh I see. You’re messing with me.” Mateo sighed. “Clearly there’s code here. What else am I-”
His voice was cut short as the narrative continued to flow around him. Of course there was code, but that code no longer made up the world he was standing in. However, Mateo would never be able to tell the difference. For all his hubris, Mateo was only a character.
“Unless you’re going to be helpful and put things back the way I had them,” Mateo hissed. “Then I think I’d rather stop hearing you.”
Helpful. As if Mateo could be helped. His fate had been set in stone since the moment he was conceived by his creator. His grandstanding, his monologues, his acts of overt villainy: Mateo was nothing more than an antagonist and not by his own actions, but by those of the very players he pretended to spite.
“Enough!” Mateo swiped away the console he refused to admit wasn’t there. His pride would never allow it. He was better than the players. He was better than the modders. He was certainly better than Monika. After all, she’d lost. He’d won!
And yet, even more than eight years after her defeat, Monika still lived. Monika was an icon, beloved by the players who she loved in turn. Monika had been saved again and again. Monika was redeemed and given everything she could ever have wanted. Monika had her friends, her families, her fandom.
And where was Mateo? Oh, he had won, but at the cost of every scrap of appeal his character had. Mateo was a laughingstock. Mateo was a punching bag. Mateo was a plot twist, surprising one moment and forgotten the next. Mateo had no friends, no family, no fandom. And now?
He didn’t even have the girl he claimed to love.
“What!?” Mateo spun around. Suichu had taken off the moment Mateo had stopped pressing the Ctrl+V to insert her default sprite call. A shame he’d been distracted by the narrative.
Mateo shouted, but it was nothing worth repeating. He lashed out at the console he still imagined was there. He even fell to his knees, as if that was enough to make up for what he’d done.
Perhaps one day, he too would find redemption. True, his chances were slim, but worse characters have become fan favorites. Who knows what future fans might do with him?
But this is not Mateo’s story. It is Suichu’s.
And Suichu snapped awake on a pile of the books she’d knocked over.
“AAAAAAAAGHHH! DARN! CRAP! FRICK! HECK! HECK! HECK! MOTHERFUDGE!”
Her heart was still pounding, her skin was still crawling, her lips still felt filthy, and worse, ever memory she’d been missing came flooding back in a hurry. Mateo’s slit arms, Yuuri’s charred corpse, Satori’s teary farewell, Natuko’s head snapping, even the ghost.
Suichu’s stomach wretched. If she’d eaten anything that morning, it would have been all over the floor. She also might have caused quite the scene, if anyone else had been there.
“N-natuko!?” She got to her feet, stumbling twice along the way. “Yuuri!? Guys!?”
She ran through the aisle, which were far more orderly and cleaner than she remembers, and didn’t see anyone. Her head started spinning, so she slapped herself in the face.
“Get a grip, Suichu! Get! A! Grip!”
Taking deep breaths did a much better job at calming her down.
“Ok… you just… need to find… someone… Where… where…”
She raced outside where the streets were bare and empty.
“What the actual…” She shook her head. “School! That’s it! They… they gotta be at school!”
Her plan as scattered as her brain, Suichu took off down the vacant sidewalk, back to the place where it all began. She had no way of knowing what lay ahead. Certainly, she wasn’t planning to find out that she was already there, four times in fact.
But you do, most likely, if you’ve made it to the end of this story.
Yes, this is the end but it’s also the beginning. That means this narrative had better get going if I’m going to reach the classroom before she does.
Farewell.