Chapitre 4: The Notorious Date-able
The stand-off in the garden was one of these weirdly tensed scenes that Arata avoid in school, back when he was still alive. However, he was in the middle of one, and hopefully, it would end soon. The player kept on looking at Keiko and the unknown woman, only to hear the bell ring. The 12 PM action time was going to close.
"Anyway, just see you around, Keiko." The woman tossed the ball to her finger and spun it on the tip. She walked away, coming to the same direction she entered.
"Why do I even have to see her around?" Keiko bit her lower lip and closed Arata's jacket on her. She then brought her gaze at the king. "I... Feel free to hate me now, Arata-kun. My feelings won't change." She got up and gathered her things before running away.
Arata got up and watched his childhood friend run away. Feeling offended by how that rude girl made Keiko cry, the player got up and dusted himself, mumbling about who that girl was after all. "She must be a new character for Keiko's route. Then again, why does she feel so strange?"
After the remaining of the afternoon action time, Arata had to say goodbye to Yukari since he was going to attend the Student Council meeting. He met Attori on his way and they managed to talk on the way since she was going to the dance club room. After walking her to her club, Arata managed to get to the Council room.
"Someone sure took their time!" One of the members called out as he walked in.
"Sorry for having a girlfriend to walk to her club room." Arata shrugged him off, making some of them sob for being bachelors.
"Well, since Hamasaki is here, let's start finalizing the details and general activities for the cultural festival." Ruby, who was the Student Council President, put on her brave face and tapped the board where she listed the submitted ideas for the fest.
It had been a good hour or two, and Arata was nothing close to exhausted. He enjoyed listening to Ruby agreeing and arguing with other members of the council. Most of them had gone home, but Arata volunteered to help Ruby sort the rejected submissions from the accepted ones. Each class submitted for an idea on the first day of classes after the break after all.
"It's been a while since we last talked to each other, Hamasaki." Ruby startled Arata with her rather soft voice. She turned to him with a smile. "Would you like to talk? Even just for a while?"
"Ah, I think-" Arata noticed Ruby sit on the table, her legs quite too open for a normal sitting position. He then smirked at her before going close to her. "What do you want to talk about, Ruby-sempai?"
"Anything." She reached out to stroke at his chin. "I haven't seen you the entire break. I must have missed you a lot." She brought her free hand to her thigh and picked up the hem of her skirt. "Didn't you miss me, Arata?"
[An Encounter Mode has been triggered! School Queen Tohsaki Ruby has a total of 30 Excitement points right now. Obedience is at 70%, Excitement at 30%, and Affection at 100%.]
[Play the Encounter Mode? Yes / Pass]
Pass? Letting a scene pass would mean that there are other available scenes to play at that moment. Arata almost frowned as he thought of things, but for some reasons, he chose to pass.
He only leaned close to Ruby and pecked at her lips before pulling back again. "I do, but I have a girlfriend now. I can't frolic with anyone else anymore." He ran his fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry, Ruby-sempai. I can't do anything further than this."
"Hm, very well." Ruby crossed her legs, and handed Arata a thick folder. "Just call me when your girlfriend starts getting bored. Then again, I might be the one getting bored soon." She shook the folder, which reminded Arata to take with both hands. "I need to have the gym custodian to look over these requests for the fest. You should give the reviewed version to me on Friday."
"Sure." The king motioned to go, but he felt his tie getting pulled by the girl. He received another kiss from her which was longer than the first two they shared. He only smiled and gathered his things to leave the room.
On the hallway, Arata sighed and stared at the folder. Just today, he was able to trigger Keiko and Ruby's Encounter Mode, and it felt rather weird to be triggering them on the second day. He whispered to himself while walking, "Botan used the term Intro Encounter. Does every date-able have an Intro Encounter? I haven't gotten Yukari to max, but she had one. Hm, I guess I had to ask around again later."
The gym custodian's office was of course in the gym. Arata went inside and noticed that the basketball club were training as fiercely as usual, same routine for the boys and girls' teams. His school was last year's champion in boy's division so planning to get a back-to-back was in everyone's minds. It probably drove the girls to work harder, too. The king looked at his watch, seeing that it was still 4 PM meant the action time was still active. He did have another scene to play.
He met with the custodian and went over what the Council proposes to do for the upcoming fest. The custodian promised to review the requests and give alternatives about the ones she might reject. Arata nodded in gratitude and reminded her that he will be back around Thursday for it. The king bid goodbye to the custodian, and made his way through the court to get out of the gym.
"Look out!"
[Not enough Strength!]
Both voices startled Arata, that when he saw the ball was almost against his face, he jerked back and failed to balance himself. He had not measured the pain inflicted on him inside the game, but a ball hitting his face would surely hurt. He tried to dodge, only to slip. Then again, a hand suddenly slapped the ball away, and another arm caught him from falling. The ball bounced back to the others for them to collect.
"Geez, that's thrice in a row." Hamada, the girl who Keiko loathed, saved the king. She helped the player to his feet before snuffing, a smirk on her face. "Why do I end up always saving you? So uncool for a guy, don't you think?"
"Saving me, huh." Arata raised a brow, not accepting that she saved him from Keiko. Then again, she did so for the ball and the fall, making the king drop the matter and smile. "Anyway, thanks for slapping the ball away. That would have hurt."
"Yeah, like the bump on your head when you hit the floor." Hamada laughed out. "Unless you don't want to count that since you're so used to being down there."
A glare and a deep frown crumpled Arata's face. "Why do you sound so obnoxious? What is your problem!?" He growled after, forgetting that there was no screen wall between them. Arata likes women, but it did not mean he tolerates those who ridicule others. However, he was silenced by Hamada... with her finger across the player's lips.
"Shh, don't cause trouble here, Mr. Student Council." Hamada chuckled before taking her finger back. "I was expecting a lot more modesty from a popular guy like you. Looks like you're not what I expected you to be." She shrugged. "Too bad."
"Not what you expected, huh." Arata took a deep breath and grunted aloud. He gathered his composure and kept his silence, noticing how the girl waited for another word from him. He then just shook his head before sighing. "Since you saved me thrice, maybe you should at least give me your name or something."
"Ah, I thought you'd never ask. It's Hamada Tohru." The woman smiled again. "No need to present yourself to me, though. I know you're Hamasaki Arata. Any preferred name you want me to call you?"
"God of the living." Arata answered, his lips starting to curl as he stifled a smirk.
"How interesting." Tohru shrugged, but kept her smile. "I guess I'll just see you around, Acchan." She turned away and ran back to join her girl's basketball team.
[You have successfully turned Affectionate Jerk Hamada Tohru into an Acquaintance!]
Arata's shoulders fell, and he cried inwardly. "There goes another date-able, alright. Can I murder the devs now?"
The 4 PM action time finally passed, and Arata found himself chatting with his in-game friends during the 6 PM action time before taking dinner. He had started a post in the forum where in he discussed the possibilities of getting Encounter modes as the first scene he had with his date-ables. Then again, almost everyone did say they got Encounter modes with their date-ables as the first scene... but that was the tutorial.
"Guess no one got the same experience as me." Arata sighed in front of his computer. He got a notification saying a friend posted a reply on his post.
"Yeah, they do that when you play non-route, king idiot." Botan followed his reply with a bunch of sighing emoticon. "I still haven't unlocked Yukari and her Intro Encounter because Attori. Crying emoticon."
"Every date-able?" Arata replied to the post. "Yeah, Attori's route is a killer. Pat emoticon."
"Yeah, that's why they are called Intro Encounter. Every date-able you had unlocked will have an Intro Encounter." Botan cried again after the words.
Another friend posted a reply. Mumumu Ichigo cried with Botan. "I should have played a non-route. I want to unlock Yukari, too."
"Seven laughing emoticons. Still not over Yukari unlock?" Pantsu replied and joined their chat. "Arata OP. How many Intro Encounters have you unlocked so far?"
"Four. Attori, Yukari, Keiko, and Ruby. I haven't met the rest so I'm preparing for them." Arata sighed even though he should sound proud for unlocking a total of eight at minimum. He then posted a separate reply. "I should probably prepare once I unlocked Tohru's Intro Encounter. She's a hot girl, but I want to punch her in the face."
Mumumu quoted from his previous post. "Tohru? Like Hamada Tohru?"
Arata twitched and immediately made another post, discussing about Hamada Tohru as a date-able. He linked the new post to his first post. "I made another thread for Tohru. See it here."
Naturally, all those who were following the thread went to check out the new thread.
"Who the heck is Hamada Tohru?" Arata's post was entitled as such with this as the entry post. "During your lunch on September 3 with Keiko, did you meet Hamada Tohru? Keiko got some beef with her. Later, you can see her in the gymnasium. I turned her into an Acquaintance, which is the first step of getting a date-able. Who is this (sorry, I know she's a girl) jerk?"
Mumumu answered with a barrage of laughing emoticons. "That ultimate jerk was Keita's girlfriend. In Keiko's updated route, she will tell you that her older brother was dumped by his girlfriend last summer. She even transfered schools to avoid seeing him." Then came the angry emoticons. "CRUSH HER!"
Devin Charge, another of the chatmates, replied to the post. "Hahah, there's a hidden mode for Tohru, devs said."
"Screw those devs! Why do they keep on adding violent ones!?" Pantsu came up with a longer line of angry emoticons than Mumumu. "Where are my normal sweetheart date-ables at!?"
"Flying ten thousand kilometers away from you." Botan responded, followed with an airplane emoticon.
Arata ended up laughing out, which could have been everyone's reaction. He then replied to them. "Geez, at least they should design the new ones like Yukari. The only urge I feel for Tohru right now is punching her face. Ruby is like this, but not distasteful, and she does it in a sexy way."
"Why don't you? Challenge her to a fight, (at) TheKing Arata!" Devin replied after quoting the last post. "Build relationship till Friend, and then challenge her."
"Right now, I'm thinking YOU are challenging ME, (at) Charge Devin!" Arata sent in a line of grinning emoticons. "I don't want to hit that girl! Tohru got bigger guns than me!"
Mumumu sent in a barrage of laughing emoticons, followed by Pantsu and Botan.
Devin answered with poop emoticons instead.
The king soon felt hunger taking over him. The action time might not be over, but he felt the need to eat. He then said goodbye to his friends before heading downstairs to eat, ending the day as soon as he was finished with the last chores of the day.
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