original

Would You Rather?

Author: Swagnim

Chapter 1: Welcome To The System~

Bored out of my mind I was exploring YouTube, at first, I was listening to music, but then got recommended some anime 'would you rather' videos. I came across the Tokyo Revengers ones, few I found entertaining, others had just like simple questions of 'who would you rather kill'. Then I came across a comment with a link attached, first I was skeptical, but some other commentators recommended it so I gave it a shot. I was worried this all could be just a scam, but if I didn't click on anything suspicious and didn't download anything, it should have been okay right?

Once the strange site opened, they asked me to type in a Japanese female name of my choice.

"Wait why female, there wasn't even a question if you are female or not..." I told myself, maybe whoever made it was just biased. I shrugged and opened another tab where I could get recommended Japanese baby names. I found something I thought sounded nice, the name meaning was also acceptable, it meant righteous path or something along those lines.

"Michi." I wrote it, and soon the site transformed it into kanji. I just stared at the screen shocked and decided to google whatever this was the right spelling, it was causing it to be even more mind-blowing.

"What is even going on here." why would someone use their precious time to code such an advanced site, just for something such as a 'would you rather' game with anime characters. I scratched my head and clicked next, at this point this site got me intrigued.

Following that, the site wanted me to choose a surname, this time I spent more time searching for something suitable. I must have scrolled thru dozen of names before I decided to settle for it.

"Hirabayashi." it was quite lengthy, but it meant peaceful forest at least that's what the site briefed me off. Soon the surname also transformed to a kanji spelling, although this time I just laid trust that it was how you spelled it in Japanese. I clicked on the Next button, despite a window popped up instead of going to the following page.

"Are you pleased with your choices?" I thought about it.

"Michi Hirabayashi." I mean it sounded cohesive. Wouldn't the full name mean a path in a peaceful forest? And accept.

"Why are the stats here? What do I need them for?" There were five stats you could choose between. Intelligence, Agility, Strength, Endurance, and lastly Luck. Where you got 10 points to distribute them around. I thought deeply about my choices.

"I mean we want to be smart, right? And who wouldn't want to excel in Luck?" I put 3 stats in each of those two.

"Now 2 will go to Agility and then 1 for Strength and 1 for Endurance. Perfect." I clicked the next button and again the site asked me if I was content with the choices I made. I looked at the stats one last time before clicking accept. So I waited and waited but nothing popped up.

"Oh come on load!" I was livid, was the site choosing questions based on my selections. Eventually, a wave of tiredness hit me.

"What's going on, I wasn't that sleepy a few minutes ago." I could just see myself doze off in front of the computer screen, yet the last thing I saw was a message that popped up saying.

"Welcome to Tokyo Revengers world?"

Then I woke up, I was laying on the bed and my head was filled with numerous questions, what was the screen talking about and how did I end up in bed, most importantly.

"Why is my head throbbing so much?" Before I stood up a window popped up in front of me, it looked like a hologram, just floating magically in the air.

"The heck?"I tried to wrap my head around this, I held my hand up but it went thru the screen, whereas soon I found out I could interact with it as well, clicking on different tabs. Under the profile, it read.

"Michi Hirabayashi." there were also stats that I just picked up. I could also read the description of my character.

"A quiet and weak girl, that often misses out on school because of her constant sicknesses, therefore her parents spoil her frequently. Very intelligent if not stuck in bed she spends most of her time learning new skills and acquiring new hobbies. Although she doesn't have any peers to hang out with, making her feel especially lonely on school grounds. Gets sometimes bullied, but because her dad is a famous lawyer, teachers never overlook unfair treatment from her peers."

"What is going on?" I asked myself finally looking around realizing I was not in my room anymore.

"Wait I can click on the stats." I found out seconds later while I was hovering my finger on the Endurance stat.

"Let's see." I learned that not only Endurance meant how much stamina I got and how many punches I could tolerate but also how often I got sick. Welp that could cause a problem in the long run.

"The hell I am this calm like I just got here and I'm already planning ahead for the future, I don't even know how long I will be here." I held my head, my stare pacing around the room finding out it was only six o'clock. I went out of bed, could it possibly mean since my name changed my looks did too? I carefully went to the big mirror that was standing by the closet.

"Let's be calm." So I peeked just a tiny bit.

"Yellow eyes, also a beauty mark under the left eye? Well at least my hair color didn't vary much, it was still dark brown. But why do I have a feeling I look similar to Kazutora?" I was pondering about it until a window popped up.

"Would you rather, skip school and spend some time with your family or make a bento for your classmate Tetta Kisaki?" I figured I could check what kind of rewards I would get for completing the mission.

"They have different rewards?" The first about skipping school was getting another point in Intelligence and receiving more parental love points. Meanwhile making a bento for Tetta Kisaki gave me not only an Endurance point but also a vial of health potion.

"Why can I get a health potion in this game?" I pondered and remembered all the fights that occurred in this manga.

"Well I hope I don't have to go thru that.... but why Tetta Kisaki, why are we even in the same school and class?" For what purpose did I invest those points in luck when I was already deemed the opposite? I fell to the bed and decided to think about it.

"Since I already messed up with the Endurance points, I guess making food for that prick it is." but then again I never made any Japanese bento, though I already accepted this challenge.

"Michi, what is happening, why are you so loud in the morning?" a woman that looked like she was in her thirties arrived in my room, as soon she was fully in my sight a profile window popped up.

'Name: Yuri Hirabayashi. Occupation: Housewife. Age: 34. Parental love for you: 60/100.' Whatever that last part meant. I quickly stood up and came to her side acting cute.

"Mom, there is this one guy I wanted to make a bento for by myself, but I realized I don't know where to start, can you help me out?" She just smiled, probably delighted by the news.

"That reminds me of how I met your father in high school and also prepared a bento for him, of course, I will help you out." I jumped up and down with joy once she accepted my request.

"Now change your clothes, while I prepare the ingredients." I nodded and ran to the closet and picked up what looked to be a school uniform. Afterward did things like washing my face and brushing my teeth, then packed some books inside the bag. The system even pointed out to me which classes I had today and what I needed to prepare for each one.

"Great it's like having a futuristic reminder app," I told myself while running downstairs.

"Let's do this!" I said while flexing my biceps, Yuri the mother just laughed at my silliness. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to treat her, it was so weird to call her mother inside my head. But she acted so sweet and so excited that I wanted to cook with her, causing me to remind myself how I never did such activities with my real mom.

"So what are we starting with?" I asked as she started to give me instructions and tips on how to best prepare each sidedish. I put a lot of effort into this bento, even if it was my first time assembling one.

"You learn fast." She seemed shocked, well unlike her real daughter I already mastered cooking a couple of dishes. I just stood there proudly taking in her compliments.

"And last ingredients, a dust of love," I said while sprinkling absolutely nothing on top.

"I hope the boy you like will recognize your sincerity." I smiled and gave her a hug.

"Thank you for helping me out, you're the best." she just patted my head.

"I'm happy you are doing better my dear, recently you were really moody and holed up in your room all the time it made me worried that perhaps you were bullied in school." I took in that information, could it actually be true, but it said the teachers wouldn't take in such behavior? Then again ignoring someone's existence was also some sort of bullying. Maybe that's why I took Michi's place? But then again since I created this name on my own, did Michi Hirabayashi even exist before I came here? I decided to not get too philosophical on this topic, thinking about such stuff would probably make me feel worse. I munched on some omelet and side dishes we made together and prepared myself mentally for school.

Once I walked out the door I was worried that I would need to return back home and come up with a stupid excuse as to why I had no idea where the school was, but the system opened up a map, with a GPS inside.

"Oh thank god my navigation skills suck, but it really does feel like a game this way." I followed the arrow making my way to the train station.

"Wow, so many people." maybe walking to school was a better idea, than whatever this situation was. I walked onto the train but hated absolutely the whole ride there.

"Wait isn't that Kisaki," I muttered to myself when I walked out from the train onto the platform that the GPS feature was pointing me at.

"Wouldn't it be the perfect chance to give him the bento?" I asked myself and ran after him, he was carrying his bag like he was already living his gangster dream, with no care in the world.

"Shit." I heard him say while looking inside his bag, I wasn't sure what he was missing, but he didn't look an ounce happy. That's when I took my chance and tapped him on his shoulder.

"Good morning, Kisaki." Calling him by his surname wouldn't piss him off right?

"Oh, you're that girl in my class." I guess we weren't that familiar with each other, as I liked us to be in this strange scenario.

"You think I can occupy just a little part of your time?" He looked at me confused.

"And what the hell would you want with me?" He didn't seem too pleased to be stopped in front of the school. Time to make this into a speed run.

"WellImadethisbentoforyou, hopeyoucanacceptit." I whipped out the bento from the bag in a flash and handed it over it to him. He just stared at it, like he was trying to decipher an alien message.

"Wait, for me?" as if he was contemplating whatever tI confused him with another guy.

"Yesforyou, takeitgoodbye." I basically forced him to accept it and I ran to class, since my Endurance points were so low, I was already out of breath when I reached the school gates.

"Geez, I just ran for a minute." I decided to take it slow from then on.