Chapter 14 [Elementary Days (pt.11)]

(A/N: Please do not worry, this is the REAL chapter 14! Btw, I realized the ages I put for the 4th graders were completely off so let me review them again- Kazuo is 10, Sachie is 9, Mayumi is 10, when Emiko is 10)

For the past few months, Emiko's schedule has been on the rough but smoothly controlled. Her training regiment stayed the same, so did her academic rankings, along with her volleyball practice with Kazuo. The young boy was now more muscular than expected, and Emiko's body also became more well-built.

"Ey! Pass it, Kitkat!" Emiko shouted.

"Shut up M&M," Kazuo spoke grudgingly, who still obeyed the order.

The moment Emiko's hand touched the ball, she slammed it down onto the other side of the court. FWEEET! It was out.

"DANG IT! WE WERE SO CLOSE!!!"

"Yeah, and you ruined it queen bee."

"Um, who ruined the most amazing spiker's concentration? Especially when she was about to do an EPIC spike?"

"You, duh. Like girl, who even calls a setter, 'Kitkat?'"

"Me, obviously."

Recently, the duo made quite a cute pet name for each other. Kitkat for Kazuo when Emiko's M&M.

"Hey, Shimizu, Sigawawa! Nice spikes over there!"

"Thanks, Nakamura-san!" The girl thanked gratefully while her partner gave a depressive look (due to the TERRIBLE pronunciation of his name).

"Oh c'mon, I told you all to stop with the stupid honorifics."

Rin Nakamura is a member of the "Adachi's Public Gym Court" that Emiko and Kazuo has been attending for a while now. He was one to NEVER use honorifics, even to adults!

"Sorry, Nakamura....san."

"Ughhhh, you just can't get rid of that polite mouth of yours, can't you? Well, that's fine! It's a lovely charm point after all! And since Nakamura is too long, you can just call me Rin!"

Everybody gasped.

'Did he...did he just invite me over to a first name basis?' Emiko thought.

"Cut the crap, Rin," another black haired boy remarked. "Can't you see you're pressuring an elementary schooler? You're practically a hoodlum at this point."

"Huh? DO YOU WANT TO GO?!?"

"Do I want to go? Hell nah, I'm ready to DESTROY YOU!!!!!"

"Wow...that progressed quite fast."

"I agree, Kazuo."

The black haired boy is Shuta, Rin's fave partner and vice versa. Shuta is a blocker but knows all of Rin's favorite spiking points, which occasionally creeps out the latter. As for Rin, he is a spiker who never failed to receive Shuta's special dumps. Never. Emphasis on the 'special' dumps.

"Anyways, we should get going," Kazuo spoke to Emiko.

"Huh? Already?"

"Yeah, don't want to worry our parents too much."

'You mean your parents, Kazuo. Geez, they just had to call the police and file a missing case when their special, baby boy was 'gone' for just 30 minutes. 30. MINUTES!'

"Aw, that's a shame," Rin popped in. "Do you two really have to go? How about I just kidnap you two-"

"Don't listen to this idiot here," Shuta interrupted, "just make sure to return home safely."

"We will," they tweeted back.

Before the whole gym even knew it, the sweetful duo swiftly escaped the gym. On their way home, Kazuo requested,

"Emiko, could you analyze me again? I want to see how far I improved from the past months."

"Kazuo...I can't."

"What? Why not?"

"Well...I'm too busy studying for the social studies materials next year."

...

...

...

"WHY THE **** ARE YOU EVEN STUDYING RIGHT AFTER WE JUST WORKED OUT FROM VOLLEYBALL?!?"

"I don't have time afterwards. Only a couple of hours left to review the test of the year and complete the personal projec-"

"Okay okay, I get it! Just...I thought you could listen to a friend's request."

Out of nowhere, the Sugawara bursted into puppy eyes. Emiko could only see brightness.

'Ughhhhh! Even if he may have grandpa hair, I cannot escape those puppy eyesssssss!!!!!"

"Kazuo..."

"Emiko?"

"...I already gave you the analysis sheet."

"Huh? Where-oh! When did this get here?"

"Long time ago," the girl lied.

"Wow! You're magical!" He blinked once, then twice with those big, bubbly, twinkle-eyes.

'GYAAAA! MUST PROTECT HIS INNOCENCE! I'M SORRY BABY KITKAT, I'M NOT ACTUALLY MAGICAL! I JUST ANALYZED YOU DURING THE VOLLEYBALL MATCH AND QUICKLY RECORDED IT WHILE RIN AND SHUTA WERE FIGHTINGGGGGG!!!!!!!'

(A/N: Hypocrite...and that's "totally" un-magical of you, Emiko *insert roll eyes*)

While Emiko was sobbing about how "innocent" young Kazuo was, that said boy was observing his stats.

[Name: Kazuo Sugawara

Age: 10

Gender: Male

Height: 131 cm (4'3 ft) -grew by an inch, good growth in few months

Intelligence: 2/5 -you're still dumb, why are you like this? Disappointment. Disgraceful. F-sian, not an A-sian. Failure. Expected but a FAILURE! Lmao, don't take it seriously, but I bet your parents are whooping your *** off every single day despite being the favorite child.

Power: 4/5 -stronger power, noice (by one point)

Speed: 5/5 -yas, you did it! Guess we'll have to upgrade this later

Stamina: 5/5 -I'm so proud of you! I knew you could survive my torture!

Technique: 3/5 -you're actually decent now

Position: Wing Spiker, your sets are nice but your stats fits a spiker more than a setter. Work on it and you might probably become a decent ace in middle school. Probably...]

'...okay, I don't understand how this is so accurate, including the part where my parents whoop my *** off. Emiko, are you sure you're not a stalker at this point?' Kazuo pondered.

But the boy shook off the thought. He instead asked,

"Emiko, what do you mean by upgrade my stats?"

"Upgrade? What do you mean?"

"Here, it says so on the comment for my speed, 5/5."

"Oh, that part. Yeah, it's literally what I mean by upgrade. We'll now have to base the stats on middle schoolers."

"Huh?"

"Didn't I tell you few months ago? These stats are based off of the average body of elementary kids. Sure, you're better than average-in terms of your age. If you went up against a true pro, this whole sheet is practically useless."

"Wait a minute, so you're saying I have no chance against middle schoolers, since my stats are basically an elementary kid's?"

"Correct," she bluntly stated.

Kazuo drooped into his emo, depressive gloominess. Suddenly, the two heard a voice.

"Emiko! Kazuo! Heyyyyy, how are you doing?"

They turned to the direction of the voice, which belonged to no other than Mayumi, the loud house of the group. But unexpectedly, her voice was much...quieter than usual.

"Good afternoon, Mayumi. We're having a lovely day, for sure," the Shimizu responded, ignoring Kazuo's desperate state.

"Oh, well that's amazing! Anyways, I wanted to plan a sleepover between the usual four!"

"Really? That's nice! When's the date?"

"In like 2 days, how about it?"

"Sure! Whose place?"

"Mine. Like duh," Mayumi enthused.

Her two friends froze. They were experiencing a whole set of trauma. The last time they had a sleepover at Mayumi's...it was a complete disaster from then on.

"Oh c'mon, don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts!" She laughed.

"M-m-me? Pfft, don't even joke a-a-about t-t-that! Y-you were the one sobbing the most out of the three of us, excluding Kazuo!"

"Y-y-yeah! And I don't believe in ghosts, you girls were just hallucinating! What I truly was afraid, were the times you three would question my whole existence, making ME ponder if I was even real!"

"Alright, that's understandable. But I just thought we four should confront our traumatic fears. And...that'll be hard for me on my own."

The volleyball duo were guilted, admiring how Mayumi was acting so brave as of now when...the rest of the 3 were trying their best to escape that horrid day.

"Plus...I have something really important to tell you all...so please...please come."

Now not only Emiko, but even Kazuo was starting to get scared. It was not every day where Mayumi would start tearing up, even if it was a drop!

"H-hey! Don't cry, we'll definitely come! Okay? So don't worry girlie, we two will definitely be there? Oh, I'm not sure about Sachie thoug-"

"S-she's coming! So yeah, all four will be at my house in two days, capisce?"

"Capisce," the other two repeated.

-2 days later-

DING DONG!

CREAK!

"Emiko, you're finally here!"

"Yeah, sorry I'm late! Mom was just trying to finish up her cake for us to eat."

"That's fine, it's better than you not coming at all! Oh, let me take the cake. You should go put up your stuff in my room, we'll be trying to confront the 'ghost' after all," Mayumi smiled.

"S-sure, here," Emiko stuttered as she passed the beautiful dessert. Then the angel of the group went upstairs with her stuff. There, she met her other friends.

"Hey guys-"

"Is she here?" Sachie asked.

"Huh?"

"Is she here, Mayumi?"

"Huh, oh-um, no. She's downstairs with the cake my mo-"

"Okay, that's good. Put down your stuff and sit down with us first. It's urgent," Sachie demanded.

"Um, if you say so."

After Emiko obeyed her commands, the brown-haired girl continued,

"Alright then. Now that the 3 of us are here, let's talk about Mayumi."

"Mayumi? What about her?"

"Didn't you notice like 2 days ago? When she invited you two over to the sleepover?"

"Notice what-" Emiko suddenly remembered her usual excited friend, being quite depressed. The dear friend also didn't greet her so loudly today.

"Seeing you go silent, I suppose you realized the situation."

She nodded.

"So far, me and Kazuo made up 3 theories. One, she's on drugs or something," Sachie lightfully joked.

"Which is clearly impossible," Emiko deadpanned, "That girl always acted like she was on drugs. I'd believe it more if you said she stopped using that stuff. Which is also impossible, since the 3 of us would've told her earlier if that was the case."

"Or two," Kazuo followed up, "she's possessed."

"Possessed?"

"Yeah, like remember the ghost incident we had in 1st grade? It could've took control over Mayumi!"

"Then wouldn't we have already made this discussion like, 4 years ago?"

"We thought the same thing too, which leads us to the 3rd theory. Mayumi met the ghost just recently as of late and she is probably being forced to sacrifice us, her precious friends!"

"Sacrifice? Please, no matter how crazy Mayumi might be, she would never do such a thing."

"That was my first reaction too, Emiko," Kazuo replied. "But think about it, didn't Mayumi seem down since like, months ago?"

Emiko then pondered, and she began to agree with Kazuo bit by bit.

'I can't deny those words. Mayumi did start to become more busy in tutoring the past few months But, I thought she was just jealous since I was spending more time with Kazuo."

"And, you can't forget how Mayumi had an important announcement to tell us today. 'I have something really important to tell you all...so please...please come.' Sounds familiar? And suspicious?" Sachie queried.

"Yeah...but sacrifice? No way-"

"Hey! I'm back! Sorry if I was...um, am I interrupting something?"

"No, it's nothing at all for you to worry, Mayumi! So what are we doing today?" Kazuo swiftly saved the girls.

"Oh, I was planning on-"

And Mayumi went on and on about the plan for the day. Some interesting, some not. But Sachie and Emiko had a strong resolve to complete:

'I'm going to find out what's going on with Mayumi!'

Then the four continued the fantastic day with mall-shopping, eating, arcade games, more eating, gossip, eat some more, and so on. It was so fun that no matter how hard the trio tried, they gave up on their "detective search." Eventually, the four returned to the household, showered, and got ready for the epic event. The "ghost-hunting!"

"Seriously? This is so dumb!" Kazuo groaned. "Like, do you three still believe in ghosts?"

"NO!" All three shouted.

"We're just trying to confront our traumatic past and get this over with!" Mayumi continued.

The two girls behind nodded along.

"Whatever."

"So, how should we 'confront our fears?'"

"I was just planning on switch off all the lights, then use the flashlight to shine the dark closet of mine!"

"Lame."

"SHUT UP KAZUO!"

"Still lame."

"Anyways," Emiko intervened, "let's quickly finish this up and go to sleep!"

And so, the four hastily darkened the whole house and Mayumi found her adorable, Hello Kitty flashlight.

"Are you ready for this?" the flashlight holder whispered.

The remaining three gulped and hushed some 'yeah.'

"Alright, we got this."

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump. Their hearts beated faster as they reached the closet door.

"So...who's opening it?"

...

"Not it."

"Not it."

"Not it."

All but Emiko said 'not it.'

"...I hate you all so much."

Mayumi whispered again, "Here, take the flashlight at least."

Emiko took the object from Mayumi and placed her right hand on the closet door. It was time for the epic moment.

Click

She turned the doorknob.

Creak

She pushed the door-

KA-BOOM!

"AHHHH-huh? Oh, *sigh* that stupid thunder. Anyways, no ghost in here! Let's now go bac-guys?"

The searcher realized her friends have all vanished.

"Hey, where are you all?"

Emiko looked deeper across the room but nothing, the whole room was empty. No friends, no desk, no bed, only Emiko and Mayumi's hello-kitty flashlight.

"Guys? Hey, this isn't funny. Get out, right now before I get REALLY mad!"

...

There was no voice that replied back.

"Kazuo? Sachie? Mayumi? HEYYYY! I KNOW YOU'RE ALL HERE! So please, please make at least a noise...guys?"

Suddenly, she realized the room was purple.

'This...room isn't Mayumi's. No! I-I must be dreaming!'

The girl quickly pinched herself but instead of numbness or waking up from a dream...she faced a terrible sense of pain. Unexpectedly, her skin began to bleed. As the drops fell to the floor, it echoed into a mysterious sound.

DING DING DING DING DING

Gradually, the dinging sounds got louder and louder. Eventually, they began to ring from every part of the walls.

"Stop. STOP. STOP IT!!!"

BRING...

*BZZT! ERROR ERROR ERROR! ERROR IN AU OF HOST #65! HOST WILL BE COMPENSATED FOR THE ERROR! WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE?*

'Compensated? What I'd like? I just, I just want to go back! Go back to Emiko Shimizu! Back to my 2nd life!'

*Bzzt! REQUEST COMFIRMED! REQUEST APPROVED! ORIGINAL HOST #65 WILL NOW MOVE BACK TO HER 2ND LIFE!*

BRING BRING BRING BRING-

"EMIKO!"

"*GASP*" The referred girl woke up to her name.

"Emiko, are you okay?"

"I'm, I'm back?"

"Emiko! Listen to me, are you okay?"

Though she was still quite confused, the girl nodded her head.

"Thank goodness, I thought we'd have to call the ambulance."

Emiko squinted her eyes and realized that the woman holding her body was Mayumi's mother.

"Are you sure you're okay? You don't want to go back home?"

"Home..." the woozy one repeated, "I want to go back...home..."

"You want to go back? Alright, let me give your parents a call first. I'll call the hospital along the way-"

"NO! No hospital! Please, no, no, no, no-"

"Hey hey, things are going to be fine. I won't call the hospital, okay?"

"Okay..."

"EMIKO!" Mayumi exclaimed, "I'm so sorry, we shouldn't have let you take the closet first! I'm supposed to be the host but I-I-I-"

"Mayumi...are you here?"

"H-huh? Yeah, I am but-"

She was cut off from Emiko's deep, tight, bear hug.

"E-Emiko?"

...

After 5 minutes quickly passed by, Emiko finally released Mayumi from her captivity. She then wondered,

"What happened?"

Kazuo wasted no time to explain.

"When you opened the closet door, you suddenly fainted. Then, you started scratching yourself and we got really worried, so we called for Mayumi's mom."

"Scratch? Faint? B-b-but, I'm pretty sure I was in that room...it was purple...I think...you, you all disappeared after the thunder..."

"Thunder? Purple room? We don't know how that happened but Emiko, there was no thunder of such. Maybe it was just a dream you had when you fainted."

"Yeah, she might've slept quite late these days because of studying. You really need to take care of yourself!"

'I...fainted? It was just a...dream? ...no, that can't be it...I-I even pinched myself but the pain was so...real...'

"Hey! I called you parents, Emiko, so just sit tight for now! Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?"

The girl really wanted to call that operational system...she felt a sickening motion inside her stomach...but it was bearable. Just like any other day.

"I'm...really fine."

"Okay...is there anything you might want?"

"...maybe...cake..."

"Cake? But you just had food and you clearly fainted-oh! Isn't it too...early for your age? Well, let me talk with your parents again first. I'll be right back!"

(A/N: Hint- we girl should understand what this means)

"...anyways...so you're going already, Emiko?"

"Yeah...I'm sorry," she apologized, "and you planned so much for us too."

"It's okay! Your health is more important, of course!"

...

"Mayumi, isn't it about time you tell us the truth?"

"Huh?"

"Don't act stupid," Sachie clarified, "even Kazuo figured out something was off about you. Like, where did our crazy, loud Mayumi go?"

"Oh," she muttered, "I didn't think it'd be so obvious."

"Yes, so please. Tell us the reason...why did you even plan an epic sleepover like this? As if it was...going to be our last?"

...

"I guess you all caught me...heh, so you want to really know why?"

Immediately, the three felt a terrible feeling shiver down their spines. It was a warning for bad news. But the trio stayed firm.

"Yes," they synchronized.

Mayumi swayed her eyes left to right, trying to find at least one sense of hesitance in their expressions. However, she saw no regrets in the eyes of her besties. She sighed, and calmly spoke with just two words.

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"I'm moving."