The First Event is Over

Sunday ended soon, and Monday came as fast as it always did. Arata opened his eyes and mentally took note of the activities he should do today. It was the last day of the event 'Autumn Flowers Has Risen,' and he should give the remaining Cosmos Crowns to Tohru before it got too late. The Halloween Month would start tomorrow, and he sobbed as he thought of the Halloween costumes he would miss this year.

Costumes were only equippable on a date-able in minigames. He had not tried going there again, but he felt like it would just confuse the date-able he would take with him. He had all the available costumes, but he had no idea how many had been released since the last major patch.

Also, Sayaka teased him with the new date-able waiting to be unlocked, the creature of the night. However, thinking about how they would meet seemed to make him fear the future. He was excited to unlock a new one, but he was scared of what she might be able to do during her Encounter.

To think about it, he did too little Encounter during the event. Perhaps he should be free again now that the event was ending. There were even a lot of girls whose Intro Encounters were not yet played. To be honest, he had could not believe he had not played Ruby's Intro Encounter yet... well, after passing so he could acquaint himself with Tohru. Was it just a one-time chance? Momoka did not have hers triggered on the day they met again, too.

Snip! A chopstick snipped his nose, effectively dragging him back to Earth. Before him was another furious Tohru. He was eating lunch with her, and he was not paying attention again.

"What. Exactly. Are. You. Thinking about?" Tohru tore a grin through her angry face. "This is the second time you ignored me." She took back her chopsticks and pinched the edges against a folded tissue. She continued digging at her food that was almost done. "Is there anything that's bothering you? Like something spelled with A-T-TO-RI?"

"Ah, no. It's nothing related to her at all." He chuckled as he caught up with eating.

"Really? So you have no idea what happened in the hospital?" Tohru raised an eyebrow.

[An Affection Scene has started! Affectionate Jerk Hamada Tohru has the Affection Rate at 75%. Try to earn as much points as you can to raise Affection Rate with the date-able! Remember what they like to hear!]

'Why am I playing an Affection Scene when we're talking about someone else? I should probably try to make it about her instead, I guess.' Arata finished the food he was chewing before answering. "Did something bad happened?"

"Hahah, apparently, Attei scratched someone so bad he bled!" Tohru spoke in so much delight. "When we arrive, he was not there anymore, but Housekeeping was wiping the blood off of the floor. No one knew what she used, but I'm betting she still had one of those green knives she keeps. What are those things anyway? Why does she eat it after using them?"

"Let's just say she's getting rid of the evidence. It's like using ice as a weapon." Arata only snorted a little. With a grin on his face, he started down a path of questioning. "You seem happy about the incident. The victim someone you know?"

Instead of cheery and raging she-jerk, the woman twitched and turned away. She seemed to have taken a deep breath, judging from how her chest went up and down. Her eyes were suddenly filled with loathing, one she never showed Arata before. Then again, she cleared it with a blink and a sneer directed to him. "Nah, it's just some guy. I was surprised he got around that bitch."

Arata punched a hole in his carton drink using the straw and sipped a bit. "Which bitch?"

"Keiko, of course."

"You used to be passive towards her. What happened?" He noticed the change in her gaze.

"Well, things were said. For the first time, I was happy Attei was around, or else things would have gotten ugly." She was reminded of her own drink and got to it. "Ruru didn't even try to stop me. Hah! She was lucky."

"...You visited Keita, and Keiko berated you for being there?"

"Berated wouldn't begin to cover it. She blamed me for everything that happened. Even that thing they saw." She shrugged again.

Arata's eyes widened a little as she spoke about the 'thing they saw.' He was aware that what they saw was the creature of the night: the succubus. It was also the one responsible for Keita's comatose. He hummed inside his mind as they both gave way to silence.

Then again, Tohru only shrugged after having a silent debate with herself. "Hey, Arata. Promise me you'll be careful. People are dying left and right these days. If you don't want to end up like Keita, be on your guard at all times."

"Sure." He smiled at her. She returned the smile as well before looking away and finishing her drink. Arata copied her without looking away from her.

[The Affection Scene has ended! You have additional 15 points! Affectionate Jerk Hamada Tohru now has 77% Affection Rate! Congratulations!]

"Tohru!" Arata almost ripped the straw off of the carton. His voice alarmed the girl before him, making her gaze shot towards him. However, he only laughed out as he noticed how stupid his outburst was. "Sorry, sorry, I just remembered something I have to give you."

He fished the Cosmos Crowns from his bag. They ended up fusing again, but this time, it turned into a necklace. It must have set itself to adjust to the receiving date-able. He handed it to the girl. "I hope you like it."

Tohru looked at it and stared at it for a while. She only gave him a half-smirk before putting it on her neck. She was not one to have jewelry, but she wore the necklace as soon as she received it from him. Her cheeks started flushing as well. She pulled out her phone and used the front camera to function as her mirror. She was too closet ecstatic to even talk to him.

The player waited for her response patiently. The way she checked herself out along with the necklace was enough message to show how happy she was about it. She then turned to him and brought her phone down.

"Uhh, it's beautiful. Are you sure you want me to have this? It could be for Attei, you know..." she was turned away as if not wanting to see the change in his expression when she mentioned Attei. However, due to Arata's 'hack' as a player of the game, he was pretty much aware of what her face looked like by then. She repeatedly stroked at the necklace. "I-Is this my dog collar now? It looks so expensive!"

"It's not a dog collar. It's a token of appreciation." Arata chuckled and coated his words with care. "You're a special girl to me, Tohru. I hope we continue to be nothing less than friends. More than that, I don't mind either."

"Less than girlfriend but more than a friend, huh." Tohru managed to clear her blush and grin at him again. "Oh well, who cares. I'm enjoying this non-labeled relationship with you for a month now and counting." She twitched and hummed as she hooked her hair behind her ear. "In just a month, you could... practically... what more if it was years..."

Without more information about what happened in the hospital and further mumblings from Tohru, the lunch ended. And so was the school day soon after. Even though he was not able to gain the second Event Album, he was satisfied with the results. The Affection Rates of two date-ables had been maxed by using the higher Date reward and the Cosmos Crowns.

Since he passed on seeing Cora, he went straight home to log on the forums. Checking once in a while was normal. Then again, his progress was unlike everyone else who could play three game days in one human day. He treaded these days carefully and with more emotional experience than anyone else. Since his holy green light went live, there was another surge of messages into his inbox. What he read through the first lines was shocking to him of course.

"Topic: What do you mean October is sealed? Poster: TheKing Arata. Why is everyone asking me how did I unlock my October calendar? I haven't even played October till now. I just finished the last day of September." Arata just had to let his confusion show as there were around twenty messages asking him how to unlock the October calendar as if it was sealed.

"These guys really!" Mumumu was the first one to comment, along with a barrage of angry emoticons. "Don't they read announcements?"

"Hahah, October calendars will be open tomorrow." Devin sent laughing emoticons. "Every calendar will be opened once it coincides with the real-time month. They announced that in the Dev Note last time."

"Whoa, what to do when you're done then?" Arata posted.

"They just launched the multi-route system. You can now open routes for all the date-ables you have unlocked without overriding your progress. In short, no more switching." Devin sent in a thumbs-up. "More content while waiting... well, if you have a lot of date-ables." It received multiple reactions as soon as it was posted.

Arata twitched as he saw the new feature in the forum. "Maybe this is a way to prevent flooding emoticons in a post."

The next post that came was from Botan. "Is this real?! Things that Arata didn't know?!"

"Oh, shut up." The player whispered as he held on the left-click of the mouse to summon the reaction list for his comment. He gave him a shrugging reaction nonetheless.

"You should announce about it since they read your posts more than the Dev Note." Mama Ookami commented along with rolling eye emoticons. Arata ended spurting his spit as he read her comment and even gave her a salute reaction.

"Topic: What do you mean October is sealed? Poster: TheKing Arata. Why is everyone asking me how did I unlock my October calendar? I haven't even played October till now. I just finished the last day of September. Edit: October calendar opens tomorrow when October starts. Same with the rest of the new calendar."

New replies came in while Arata was update his topic post. The latest one was from Horsepower. "@TheKing Arata. This is what you get for finishing the story mode too fast before! Rolling eye emoticon. You caused this!"

"@Horsepower. What the hot springs, man. Sweat emoticon." Arata sped through his keyboard to reply. However, he had to post an identical reply to Ookami since she gave a +1 reaction with Horsie's reply. The player groaned in his seat. "So it is my fault!"

"Take responsibility!" Pantsu yelled, late to the party. He earned a lot of +1 from the players.

"Let's make him host the next live!" Ookami sent it with a laughing emoticon.

Arata's eyes widened as the post garnered multiple reactions from the players. He immediately jumped to his PMs and 'whispered' to Ookami, who was Sayaka. "Sayaka, what's with this? I can't host the live."

"Don't worry about it. Trust in me and in your mind. I'll schedule it during your sleep." That was all he received from her.

Arata could only sigh and pout as he continued to read the incoming comments and questions about the next live stream. Sayaka seemed to be in a good mood, but it worried him. She used to tell him to avoid getting seen by the outside world. Why was she making him host the live?

He leaned against his seat and sent another message to her. "What happened? Did they say something?"

"A lot of things had been said about you." She replied with haste. "I'm going to debunk everything they think they know about you."

"...Please take care of me then."