[fieldbox= Mizunohara Sagawa, turquoise, solid]
[October 22nd, Early-Evening / Ramen Shop, City]
Michio Kamijou idled unresponsively, even as the line moved.
"Michio-kun...?" Realizing he was ignoring her comments, Sagawa greedily tugged on Michio's sleeve.
"Hey-"
[BCOLOR=#000000]“Speak of the devil!”[/BCOLOR]
From one of the restaurant tables came a condescending and slobbish sounding voice of a girl. A particular girl in that class that Sagawa had absolutely no business with.
[BCOLOR=#000000] “How did your meeting with the social morals officers go, Mizunohara-san? Did you get suspended from school yet, or did Michio manage to save you for another day?”[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]Seriously? Why her for all people?[/BCOLOR]
Kira's 'greeting' seemed intent on stepping on both her and Michio's toes at the same time. While [BCOLOR=#000000]
there was no need for her to turn and confirm it was Kira Oshiro's voice, Sagawa[/BCOLOR]
glanced over to look at the obnoxious drummer girl.
[BCOLOR=#000000]
As it turned out, the slobbish sound of her voice certainly was due to talking with food in her mouth. She was also sitting next to Rei. They were both people that she purposely avoided on a regular basis. So, why were they the first people she had to conveniently run into right out of school? [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
There wasn't even any need to dignify such a greeting with a response. Since it was apparent that Kira was just trying to rile Sagawa up again. She was already a tiring person to deal with just being in the same class. Why did she have to torture herself in having a conversation? [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]*Sigh*[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
Sagawa audibly summarized her entire opinion of Kira Oshiro before turning returning her attention back to being in line. [/BCOLOR]
"Hey, Michio-kun. Let's sit outside, okay?"
@God Empress Wen
@Karyra
@Accelerator
[/fieldbox]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
[/BCOLOR]
[fieldbox=, white, solid]
[October 22nd, Early-Evening / Hisakawa Academy, Main School Building, First Floor Social Morals Office]
"...I don't understand."
"You say I don't want to know...but didn't I just say the opposite not to long ago? As for my family...well, what they're doing is no better than what you're doing right now, I guess."
Chiyo made it clear. One thing that was unsettling for her was her family's silence on the entire matter. She had appealed to Yuri in the hope that this would be a chance to find out things for herself. And not have things be decided
'for her own good'. But ultimately, it was not to be.
She was again left with more questions than answers.
"...I take it that everything said here today will be kept just between us, right?"
"Yes."
"...You probably already know about the incident that resulted in Umeko's banishment from our house, right?"
"Well, whatever it was, it took about a year's worth of memories from my life. Recipes, Schoolwork, People...I forgot it all. When I went home, you could probably imagine how surprised I was to find out that there was suddenly this woman, calling herself my
"step-mom" and introducing her daughter to me...again."
She told her story. Of arriving in a world where things had inexplicably moved forward. Her attempts to find answers were blocked in every way, from everyone. Her parents, Ren. Even Umeko.
So, even Umeko-san was also involved with it herself, then.
Eventually, Chiyo ended up acting the way the all did. Playing along with the impression that they all didn't get along to the point that it became the
truth for her as well. Looking down to the ground, she went on.
"I started to become vexed whenever she was mentioned- though, now that I think about it, none of those feelings were ever truly aimed at her. I guess, if anyone, it would have been myself I was angry at. I couldn't do anything but watch as my 'sisters' grew farther and farther away. I couldn't fix it, either...how could you fix something, if you didn't know the problem first?"
"Though, maybe if I had decided to step up, push my family a bit harder for information...maybe Umeko wouldn't have died like she did."
"A whole year's worth of memories." Yuri said.
"I'm so sorry, Imada-san."
Yuri had apologized to Chiyo several times ny now. But after hearing her side of things, Yuri was compelled to apologize to Chiyo Imada once more.This time, for real. The assumptions that she had made about her and Umeko were completely out of line. It wasn't just as case of Chyio having an intense dislike of Umeko.
She wasn't exactly like Mizuki, as she had originally thought. It was terrible thing for Yuri to compare them.
"Ah, sorry Nozomi-san, I went off on a small tangent there." Chiyo laughed, hesitantly.
"I guess what I'm saying is that I really do want to help, and I'd love to know what my step-sister has to do with all of this, but..."
The peach trailed off into a full fledged pause. Gathering her courage. Ready, she nodded to herself and spoke again.
"I can't force you to tell me anything, so I'll only ask one last time. Please, Nozomi-san, is there anything I need to know about...Umeko-san."
The honest answer Yuri could give was that she did not know if it was a good idea or not. There was nothing wrong with Chiyo wanting to know of the truth. In fact, this was exactly what Yuri was hoping for. That Chiyo didn't honestly resent Umeko - and that she and Ren could work together.
But, irregardless, the fact that the rest of her family wished for Chiyo to not know anything remained. It wasn't just her parents and Ren, but also Umeko herself - while she was alive - kept Chiyo from the truth behind what happened in that year of memories she had lost. Chiyo Imada was a bubbly girl who had nary a care in the world on the surface. Certainly, it must've been her family and sisters' wishes to keep that appearance. If Yuri told her about what had happened - it would introduce her to a world that was much uglier than the one she was familiar with.
Yuri couldn't put Chiyo into harms way for the sake of curiosity. And... she couldn't disrespect the wishes of several people for the sake of just one. With that in mind, she gave her final answer.
"I understand your feelings Imada-san."
"But, unfortunately you have to leave now." Yuri commanded.
So that was it. It was probably stupid to think Yuri would trust her with any information like that. She was regarded as a second compared to Ren in the Social Morals Committee. It was already a miracle that she was entrusted to help with Sagawa.
She had simply tried to push her luck too far.
The peach turned to go down the hall leading to the building exit, when...
"I know it's unfair, but I hope you'll come to understand, Imada..."
Chiyo turned to see Kokoro Amane leaning against the other side of the office doorway. She had walked out into the hall without noticing the president there.
"It was what Umeko-chan wanted as well."
Kokoro passed her offhand comment as she walked into the office.
"Good Evening, Amane-san."
"Evening. I just caught Iori and Kane fighting it out in a Virtu-Ava Battle, at the gym."
"Oh, did you need us to..."
"No. I already handled it."
.....
Just hearing that comment from Kokoro, Chiyo realized something. There were two other people who knew of Umeko. They were the two friends she had in middle school. The ones in the club that she was a part of. Those two people resided at this school. One of them, she just spoke to. And the other one apparently just got in a fight with Iori-chan from class.
Kokoro Amane knew something that Yuri didn't know. She was talking like she knew of Umeko's intentions. Did that mean Umeko had talked about this with the two sometime in the past?
She wasn't sure.
But the only thing certain was that there was more to this than what Ren and her parents were trying to make her believe.
@Raven Haruka
[/fieldbox]
[fieldbox= Mizunohara Sagawa, turquoise, solid]
[October 23rd, Afternoon / Hisakawa Academy, Main School Building, Second Floor Hallways]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
A day passed...[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
Once again,. Sagawa found herself in hall outside of the classroom. Class had ended about 10 minutes ago, but she waited in the classroom rather than participating in the stampede of students who immediately left. Now, she was able to lazily wander about the school in relative peace. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
But of course, today's wandering had a bit more purpose. Today, she had to start finding out who exactly was causing all of the malicious pranks using the school's VR systems. Originally, Sagawa had planned to willfully ignore the agreement until Yuri started bugging her about it. But, in light of her being 'given a chance' rather than being immediately persocuted, the frequencey of the pranks had increased. Seemingly in retaliation to the Social Moral Comitee's decision.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]"Hey, man, you need another tissue?"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]"Nah, I think the bleeding's stopped at now,"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
The 'Hacker' had triggered his invisible walls during the lunchtime rush. Making a group of 8 or so students run headlong into the end of the second floor hallway. One of them had to get sent to the hospital due to him being pinned against the wall behind the students.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]"Y'know, I hope you had a good laugh over my misfortune Mizunohara. Because you won't be laughing after they pin you for all this crap you're up to!"[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]"...."[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]"Come on man, let's just go."[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
That was right. After what happened yesterday, several students now know that she was being suspected for causing all of this. She didn't like it. It was fine when people ignored her, since she did likewise to them. But now, she seemed to have sunk even lower than than in the eyes of some people. [/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
So, at this point, Sagawa did have a personal stake in finding out who was behind the hacking.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=#000000]
But, the hardest part - where to begin? [/BCOLOR]
Acessing the browser on her own chip, Mizunohara looked through her options. Namely, getting a map of the school. Perhaps if she tried to mark everywhere the hacker struck...
I might as well check it. My messages...
In the middle of working, She was immediately sidetracked when she noticed new messages on her messenger. She glanced through them... and didn't find anything worth replying to. After a moment, she came across one message that immediately made her feel guilty upon reading.
o(^.^o) (o^.^)o
This is your number, right?
It's me, Chiyo~
Oh... oh no.
She had forgot to reply. Sagawa turned back to look into the classroom. Of coruse, no one else was left in there. They had all left. Not that it mattered anyway. Sagawa wasn't expecting Imada to be much help anyway. She probably just wanted to put on a good show for Yuri.
Whatever regret Sagawa felt. At this point, she probably made it clear that she wasn't interested in Imada's help or anything else by not replying. There was no use trying to call her out now.
Oh, you were going to start the investigation today? Why didn't you say so during class?
I'm already taking the train home. So, sorry Mizunohara-san! You need to tell me about this ahead of time!
You didn't respond to my text, so I thought you were just going to do your own thing.
Sagawa frowned to herself as she imagined that scenario. Imada Chiyo was a nice person. But, there wasn't any use in any of that if Sagawa didn't even bother talking to her.
She shook her head.
Oh come on. What was I hoping for?
This was stupid. She had just managed to make herself feel depressed over something trivial. If things kept on going like this, then even Chiyo, and everyone else in the school would come to think of her as being the culprit. Plus, if the hacker was able to turn walls into open hallways and doors, there was no telling if they would go as far as trying to make students fall down stairs and seriously hurt themselves.
She would be considered a witch. And everyone would harass her into giving herself up to authorities - if Yuri and the Social Morals didn't lose their patience first.
I'm so worried. I sent a message to Mizunohara-san once. Does that mean she could hack into my chip now?
"...!"
Sagawa just had to find the hacker before any of that happened.
[October 23rd, Afternoon / Hisakawa Academy, Campus Grounds, In Front of the School Library]
The best place to start out was the library. Located operate from the school buildings, it was spacious. The innumerable number of comfortable places to idle there was immeasurable. Sagwa walked past a grouping of students conspicuously in audience around the notoriously unkempt Elm Tree that resided next to the library.
Students liked to occasionally climb it. Made easy thanks to it's low hanging branches. The school Gardner avoided cutting anything that didn't directly impede the sidewalk. Something about bad luck or superstition.
As Sagawa took hold of the library door's handle, she caught something interesting in her ear, coming from the students gathered nearby.
"What the heck...? Why is the library door locked?"
"Nah man, it's open till 6 today."
What?
Sagawa looked over to the frustrated students nearby. One of them was straining at pulling a hanging branch off of the tree.
"Yeah? Then why isn't the door opening!?"
*SNAP!*
One of the twigs off of the branch came off, and now sat begrudgingly in the student's hand.
"Ah crap! I broke the handle!"
"What are you, some kind of monster?"
"It snapped off like it was some kind of twig!"
It's because it was a twig.
"If you're that strong, why don't you try to just RAM it open!?"
"Yeah, good idea! Uuuuuuoooghhh!"
Please don't break the tree.
Sagawa turned to face the 'real' library door just as the sound of a body slamming into a tree could be heard.
She entered a command into her chip:
ActiveRender.Set TRUE;
By default, active render was set to on, so that students could see class material for lectures. Sagawa didn't like some of the goofy or disorienting virtual avatars and projections her classmates sometimes used, so she disabled it outside of class.
The hacker was taking advantage of this fact to pull pranks on the students. Most didn't have the first clue on how to feed commands into their chips outside of what their interface software allowed them to. Though for the most part it was for their own safety.
Enabling the Virtual Reality tenderer, allowing Sagawa to see what the students themselves were seeing. Just as expected this turned the library door before her into the beleaguered Elm Tree. While the students tending to their injured comrade were now standing in front of the school's library. Albeit a complete virtual reality illusion of their library imposed over the tree.
Sagawa had to admit that looking at the scene with the Renderer turned off was a bit more entertaining.
Pulling on the 'Branch' of the false elm in front of her Sagawa took a step into the library's front lobby when...
"That girl is DISAPPEARING!"
"Half of her is there - but half of her is not!"
It was the same students again. This time, they were looking at her with wide eyed and mystified expressions. One of the students, with a visible bump on his head, was pointing at her profusely.
"What sorcery is this!?"
"Wait a second, I'm not..." Sagawa tried to explain.
"She's a Witch!"
"A WITCH!"
Mizunohara Sagawa, at that moment, was at a loss for words. The sheer amount of stupidity unfolding before her was unbearably palpable. Stepping into the library, Sagawa disappeared from their view.
"She's completely gone now!"
Hearing this, she stepped back, seeming to come into view out of thin air.
"She came back!?"
"How is she doing that!?"
"She must be hacking!"
Sagawa Sighed.
Someone save me from this.
@Anyone
[/fieldbox]