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Author Topic: Eccentric (TechiNeru+) <DROPPED> - Thank You For Reading, a Summary  (Read 80090 times)

Offline ametakarano

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 22.5 + 23 + OS (Jan. 05, 2018)]
« Reply #80 on: January 06, 2018, 05:23:53 PM »
That's the Mote Onna Fuuchan doing her job! :D

Akanen, don't let Yuuka marry the man! Smash him hard with a tennis racket!

-----

The OS was so fluffy. I liked it~ <3

Offline MaYukiIsLife

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 22.5 + 23 + OS (Jan. 05, 2018)]
« Reply #81 on: January 06, 2018, 05:59:38 PM »
AKANEN YOU CAN'T LET YUUKA MARRY HER JERK OF A COUSIN! PLEASE GO OUT THERE AND CONFESS YOUR GODDAMN LOVE TO HER!

(I also read your OS on Wattpad btw)

Offline Minami-chan

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 22.5 + 23 + OS (Jan. 05, 2018)]
« Reply #82 on: January 08, 2018, 03:04:45 AM »
I just read it whole.
I'm loving this fic.
Poor Yuuka ... to be forced to marry in order to pay for her father's medical treatment.
I am looking forward to reading more about the evolution of Neru and Techi in history.
As well as Techi's past.
And Neru's past.

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 24 (Jan. 15, 2018)]
« Reply #83 on: January 16, 2018, 12:11:48 AM »
Checkpoint 24

‘I love you.’

Her hands were trembling. She wondered how much she had cried these past weeks, but her heart still hurt. She gripped her cellphone in her hand harder and wiped those budding tears away.



Sugai Yuuka sat in her seat, trying hard not to glance at Akane. This was it. Today was the beginning of the end, and she didn’t want to face it. She had come into the classroom as late as she could as if trying to delay the inevitable.

Homeroom started, and an overview of the day played up on the board.

The day appeared like a normal day. The horse loving girl wondered if that was going to be how it ended.

Suddenly, the board flickered. Had she paid attention, Yuuka would have seen Yurina flinch and Neru deflate. However, she was too caught up in the feeling of apprehension that had settled in her gut.

The figure on the screen appeared like always.

He began speaking, “I am sad to announce this to the class, but a member will be leaving us prematurely.” He didn’t sound sad in the slightest.

Murmurs sounded through the classroom as girls started questioning their friends on who it was. Despite some of the clueless members of the class, some had a clue who it was.

Yuuka could feel Akane’s worried eyes boring into her back. The horse loving girl held her head down, but when she lifted it up, she noticed Neru looking at her as well.

The figure on the screen waited for the murmuring to quiet down a little before he continued, “I’m sure you are all curious as to who it is.” He paused. “Sugai Yuuka-san.”

Silence filled the room. The soundless digital clock seemed to tick by the seconds.

Then, sound exploded in the room.

Aoi burst up from her seat, mouth flapping open like a goldfish, but she didn’t know what to say. Her head swivelled back and forth between Akane and Yuuka until she grew dizzy.

“Eh? Wait, Yuuka?” Habu shook her head, asking Yuuka if she had heard correctly.

Yuuka was glad she had turned off her phone’s notifications as she knew the class LINE chat had to be going crazy. She looked away from her worried classmates, trying to block them out.

“Yuuka!” Akane called out.

Yuuka didn’t turn toward her roommate, “Akane…”

Just as they were about to have another confrontation, the figure on the board coughed into his fist to regain the class’s attention.
“As you may have inferred, unfortunately, your classmate Sugai Yuuka-san will be leaving us soon.

“Today will be her last day of classes. However, she will be staying for a few more days to get ready to leave. As such, we have made the decision for classes to be optional to attend for the next two days.

“Sugai-san’s fiance will come to the classroom pick her up shortly. That will be all for today. Ah, do not forget about your exams.”

The screen then flickered off.


—The world is filled with ⌧⌧⌧
—Nothing?

“Are you serious?”


Shida Manaka rose from her seat. The cool girl’s expression was irritated, and she started walking toward Yuuka. At Manaka’s sudden actions, Fuyuka stood up as well as if going to stop her, but Risa made Fuyuka halt.

Manaka stopped in front of Yuuka and repeated her words, “Are you serious?”

The long haired girl was quiet, not able to look Manaka in the eyes.

“Are you serious?” Manaka glared, grabbing Yuuka by the collar. “Is this how you’re going to deal with whatever you’re doing? What do you think Akanen feels!? You’re just r-”

Aoi hurried over and yelled, “Stop it! It’s not Yukka’s fault!”

“Shut up.” Risa coldly cut in.

Habu defended Aoi and Yuuka, “Hey! Who do you think you are?”

Manaka accused Yuuka, shaking the other girl, “Akanen’s been worrying for who knows how long, and this is what you do? A fiancee? Are you thinking about anyone but yourself?”

“I…” Yuuka didn’t know what to say.

“Yuuka, don’t worry.” Koike also joined in the fray, sending a frown toward her cool classmate, “Manaka, what’s wrong with you? Yuuka’s been worrying too!”

Seeing the mood get worse and worse, the classmates all starting to stand up out of their seats and choosing their sides, Fuyuka tried to interject, “Maybe we should just calm down a little…”

Sato Shiori agreed with Fuyuka, but their opinions were covered up by the agitation filling the room.

Oda Nana commented, “I kind of have to feel bad for Akanen.”

“But that doesn’t mean it’s Yuuka’s fault.” Imaizumi spoke. “I don’t know what they’re fighting over though.”

“Manaka’s right. I have to ask, who do you think Akanen is? She’s our friend.” Risa made her stance clear.

“Yuuka’s our friend too!” Aoi retorted, “Akanen, Akanen, Akanen! Yuuka has feelings too!”

Risa sneered, “Huh?”

Over the whole argument, Manaka had yet to let go of Yuuka. “Hmph.” She felt a little conflicted, but the displeasure from the way she saw Yuuka seemed to be making Akane sad override that inner conflict. “What are you even doing?”

Aoi said, “Just let go of Yukka already!”

Habu went over to the epicenter of the stress in the classroom and tried to get in between Manaka and Yuuka to get Manaka to let go. However, as the tall girl reached out, Risa slapped Habu’s hand away.

“I…” Yuuka mumbled to herself, unsure of what to say still.

Feeling that the tension wasn’t even close to going away, Fuyuka interjected again loudly, “Mona, Risa, we should calm down. Akanen hasn’t said anything.”

“Fuu-chan, be quiet.” Risa shook her head.

Manaka nodded along to Risa, “Yea, Fuu-chan, I want an explanation. Fiance, what? Is she serious?”

“Hey-!” Aoi butted in again but was suddenly cut off.

“Let’s stop.” Akane finally said.

The classroom door opened smoothly. Everyone stopped in their tracks, and a man wearing sharp glasses and a professional suit walked into the room. He looked at the girls strangely, questioning why they were standing up, and saw Manaka’s hands release from Yuuka’s collar.

His eyes appraised the class. Giving a cold smile, he then addressed the one he was searching for, “Yuuka, good morning. I’ve come for you. Have you said your farewells yet?”

Yuuka nodded to his greeting, “Good morning… cousin.”

“There’s no need to be so distant. Seiichirou is fine.” Seiichirou said. Seeing that he received no response, he continued, “I’ve come to pick you up. Perhaps it is a bit early, but would you mind coming with me? Our lodgings for the next few days have been prepared. We can move your belongings over there.”

His words came in a gentle question form, but there was no question in them.

He took Yuuka’s hand, lightly acknowledging the others in the Keyaki class, and made way to leave with her.

“I do apologize for interrupting. We will be going now.” He smiled, sending a chill down Manaka’s spine.

As Yuuka followed Seiichirou, heading out of the classroom, Akane’s voice cut through the classroom, speaking before Manaka or Risa, both having opened their mouths. “Yuuka.”

The horse loving girl stopped in her tracks. Seiichirou glanced at Akane uncaringly and allowed Yuuka to hear what he saw as her friend’s last farewell.

“I love you.” Akane proclaimed.

Seiichirou’s uncaring look changed minutely, his mouth curving down to a frown.

Yuuka paused. Then, she replied, “I’m sorry.”




This update took longer than I expected. At the same time, I didn't get as far as I expected. The part at the beginning of the checkpoint? It has yet to occur, but I thought I would get to it by the end of this checkpoint. Nonetheless, thank you for reading and I hope you can bear with me as I write this story.

@Minami-chan: I'm glad you like the story! Once Yuuka's arc is done, I'll be re-focusing on Techi and Neru. In the future arcs, instead of hyper-focusing on one pair (like YuukaNen), I'm thinking of running two sub-plots at once.
@MaYukiIsLife: I'll do my best to destroy Seiichirou soon.
@ametakarano: I'm glad you enjoyed the one-shot~
@four4four: PeNaako really are ponkotsu. Haha. While I have no plans to make a continuation of the one-shot, I'll definitely write more PeNaako in the future. Also, there's a PeNaako arc planned in Eccentric, so... one day. One day, I'll get there.


« Last Edit: January 29, 2018, 01:32:32 AM by Shinoki »

Offline four4four

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 24 (Jan. 15, 2018)]
« Reply #84 on: January 16, 2018, 12:54:44 PM »
Noooooooo, Yuuka! :cry:

Manaka should have just ended him right there. :angry:
He was out numbered. No chance they wouldn't win.
Akanen, now it's your chance to finish him while he's asleep. 8)

PeNaako arc? Would love to see the plot of that. :lol:

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [OS (Jan. 21, 2018)] <Eccentric update soon>
« Reply #85 on: January 22, 2018, 12:03:27 AM »
The Eccentric chapter likely won't be finished today, so I'm uploading some one-shots I wrote. A slightly dramatic yet sweet Yuichanzu and a parody teaser for a TechiNeru story that will never be. (Though I'd be happy to read it if someone wanted to write something based off of it.)

@four4four: Uwah! You make a good point. If they had just all ganged up on Seiichirou in that classroom, that would've been great.



Waiting


“...can I have a kiss?”

The world had ended. She still couldn’t wrap her head around how it had happened. Imaizumi Yui looked down at her flickering hands and the scenery around her. It hadn’t changed since she woke up; everything was just a wasteland, and she couldn’t leave her place.

The girl wondered what the meaning to her life was.

She couldn’t remember her past. She thought to herself that she didn’t have a past in the first place. Imaizumi Yui as she knew herself was an artificial intelligence entity centered around one system in the ruins of Tokyo. Although she could project herself as a hologram to a small surrounding area, she couldn’t touch anything at all with her own body.

Yet, she thought that she remembered. She thought that she could remember a number of older brothers who pampered her, one of them liking to scream weirdly, a cute little dog that her family liked to dress up, and something like a life. She thought that she could, but when she tried, she couldn’t grasp those strands of hope.

Imaizumi Yui waited, singing a song to herself.

The world had ended. There were very few people left in the world. Even though there had been some people that stopped by, they all eventually left. She still aided them to the extent that she could.

A short haired girl accompanied by a strong girl with long hair had expressed a desire for Imaizumi to come with them, but the hologram girl could not.

A pair of cool girls had passed by before. They joked that they had been dubbed The Cool by someone in the past. The hologram girl helped them out, and they went on their way after asking if she could come with them.

No matter the kind offers of the human travelers, Imaizumi knew that she couldn’t go.

She looked down at her flickering hands and sighed, “This is lonely.”

Her systems were beginning to break down. It had been three years since she awoke in this desolate world, but they needed maintenance nonetheless. She had a manual for maintenance, but she couldn’t quite look through it and had no way to fix the systems herself.

Imaizumi Yui looked around, seeing no one.

Dejected, she started singing to herself. Her voice carried in the wind, but there was no one to hear the girl who could have become a star if the world hadn’t ended.

Then, she heard the sound of crunching, the sound of footsteps on the gritty ground. Imaizumi looked at saw a girl, and her first thought was that the girl was very cute. She stopped singing at the appearance of a human being.

The human girl said. “That was a really good song.”

“Thank you.” The hologram girl blushed.

Imaizumi Yui’s body flickered. She felt self-conscious showing her system failures to a stranger, but at the same time, a memory seemed to flicker through her mind of a girl. Imaizumi couldn’t remember the girl’s face.

When the hologram girl took a look at the human girl, she found that the human girl seemed a little sad.

“I’m sorry that I made you wait.” The human girl said.

Imaizumi was confused. “Eh?”

When the human girl reached out a hand to Imaizumi’s hand, the hologram girl expected not to feel anything. Her hopes had already disappeared in the last three years, but it was warm. The human girl’s hand was warm on Imaizumi’s hand like an illusion.

A memory passed by again of warm lips and a warm smile.

“The system malfunctioned…” The human girl whispered to herself. “It’s okay. I’ll fix it so you can properly live from now on.”

The hologram girl would have questioned what the human girl had said, but in her shock, she had fallen into a cracked mirror of memories. The only part of the outside world that still met her was the human girl’s sad smile, which she wanted to turn back into a happy one even though she should have only just met the human girl.

“—”

What was her name?

Why was that girl so familiar.

Imaizumi Yui’s head began to hurt. At the same time, her heart also hurt.

“—”

She silently tried to mouth out the human girl’s name. It seemed as if her voice was stuck in her throat trying to dig up memories that shouldn’t have existed in a hard drive that had only booted up three years ago.

Then, she froze.

“Yui...”

At that time, when the world had ended, she had almost died. The hologram girl realized that she should have died. Her flesh had been pierced by something, and her hands had been covered in blood. Her breathing shallow and her eyesight darkening, she wondered why she hadn’t died.

By her side, there had been a voice.

The person by her side was the girl that she liked, her partner in singing. Both of them had claimed that the other was their ideal person, but Imaizumi felt in her heart that her partner was really the best.

She had never confessed.

Even though she loved her partner’s smiles, the awkward ones and the happy ones all alike, she had never had the courage to confess. Imaizumi smiled a lot, but her partner had always been able to see through the fake smiles she put on when worried.

No, she had confessed. Rather, her partner had confessed.

When she should have died, her partner—Kobayashi Yui—confessed, “I love you, Zuumin! So… d-don’t die!” She had broken out of her default aloof demeanor and had been crying.

Imaizumi had felt that she should have been happy. Yet, she also felt like she was going to die, her heart torn out that she wouldn’t be able to reciprocate Kobayashi’s love. That her heart was slowly stopping didn’t help.

She, at that time when the world had ended, put on a smile to try to comfort her partner.

She, at that time when she wished that the world wasn’t going to end, responded with all her feelings while coughing up blood, “I love you…”

She, at that time when she should have died, selfishly asked, “...can I have a kiss?”

It had been warm. Then, darkness overtook her world.

Imaizumi Yui opened her eyes again. The world had indeed ended. For the first time in years, Imaizumi Yui’s real body felt human warmth. She saw Kobayashi Yui smiling sadly at her, holding her hand.

Just as Kobayashi Yui was about to close the lid of the part of the system that held Imaizumi’s body, Imaizumi weakly called out for Kobayashi, making a ripple in the healing liquid that had held her body in stasis for so long.

“Yui...pon…”

“Zuumin… Don’t move. I’ve found a way to heal you now, so...”

“I love you.”

“Eh…?” Kobayashi Yui was caught off guard, but she replied with a teary smile, “I love you too.”

Imaizumi Yui felt her eyelids begin to close. The liquid surrounding her still somewhat injured body was causing her to sleep, but she noticed just slightly that it had been changed. Perhaps that liquid would heal her.

“I don’t want to go to sleep…” Imaizumi said quietly.

Kobayashi replied, “It’s okay. You’ll wake up soon, and you’ll be healthy again, so…”

“Yuipon, ...stay with me?”

“Of course.”

“...can I have a kiss?”

It was warm.

Because Imaizumi Yui was alive.
And they were in love.




Chinese Cultivation Parody


Nagahama Neru looked at her desolate courtyard and the complete lack of servants around. She didn’t seem like the second miss of a high noble family in the Zaka kingdom, which treasured the cultivation of spiritual and martial power. Her clothes were plain, though she looked cute nonetheless, and her area of the household was not glowing with prestige.

It all started with her tenth birthday where it was tested that she was a cultivation waste.

Her older sister was already on the fifth level of spiritual cultivation while her younger brother was on his fourth. Only Neru in General Nagahama’s family was still at zero.

It was only her late mother’s friendship with the empress and emperor, Watanabe Risa and Shida Manaka, that saved Neru from being kicked out of the Nagahama family altogether. Neru’s other siblings were from other mothers.

Neru was walking around the household, enjoying the fresh air and gazing upon the fish in the koi pond, when she suddenly felt a push at her back.

Splash!

Neru fell into the pond. As she sputtered, completely soaked, she saw who pushed her. It was her younger sister from a concubine mother, a precocious girl who had achieved a spiritual cultivation to the second level.

Just as the younger sister was about to ridicule Neru, the two half-sisters noticed their father, the General Nagahama, walking by with a handsome guest.

The two of them heard a maid whisper loudly to another maid in the corner, “It’s the Fifth Prince! So handsome!”

Neru’s younger sister straightened up as she saw the handsome youth. She put on a white lotus style smile as she noticed her father and the guest heading toward Neru and her, pretending that she hadn’t been trying to bully her sister.

“Greetings to Father and the honored Fifth Prince.” The younger sister greeted.

The Fifth Prince, a short haired youth, responded with a wordless nod.

General Nagahama smiled at his younger daughter and frowned at Neru before asking, “What happened here?”

The younger sister cut off Neru’s attempt to explain and said, “Big sister was clumsy and trying to mess around, so she fell into the pond. I was going to help her just now.”

General Nagahama bought that excuse while the prince’s eyes narrowed. The younger sister made motions, coming closer to Neru to ‘help’ her, but in truth, she was aiming to humiliate her useless sister even more.

That was when a pale, beautiful hand reached out to Neru.

Everyone looked in surprise. The prince had reached for Neru, lifting Neru out of the pond, uncaring whether or not his rich robes were dirtied. Neru looked closely at her helper’s face for a moment, noticing that the prince’s eyes were very deep despite the coldness that seemed to emanate from them. They were pretty eyes, eyelashes too long to be a man’s.

“Your Highness!” General Nagahama sputtered, unsure of what to say.

The younger sister blurted out. “Please, don’t dirty yourself with her.”

To those words, the prince sent Neru’s family members a sharp look that was just short of a glare. The prince still hadn’t let go of Neru, holding the cultivation-zero girl close. The prince then replied, “There is nothing dirty about this girl. Unless you find your Nagahama family’s blood too filthy for my presence.”

General Nagahama quickly said, “Of course not, your Highness.”

The younger sister wasn’t as smart and said again, “Big sister Neru is a waste! She can’t cultivate any spiritual energy, so your Highness should stay away from her!” She received another sharp look, reducing herself to her knees.

An awkward air then filled the courtyard that they were in.

Neru wondered what she was doing in this handsome prince’s embrace. She never thought that she would ever get close to this particular member of the royal family, but she was grateful for the Fifth Prince’s help.

There were five princes in the Zaka kingdom. Although the Fifth Prince was the youngest one, the Fifth was the one most favored. The First Prince, Akane, was the Crown Prince but had already thrown his support behind the Fifth. The other princes, Rika, Nana, and Miyu, had also thrown their lots behind the Fifth Prince.

The Fifth Prince was fabled to be a high level cultivator already at the ninth level, something that was usually only attained after decades of hard work, cultivation becoming exponentially harder as levels were reached.

In addition, the Fifth Prince rarely made any public appearances.

All those reasons came together in Neru’s logic that meeting and being helped by the Fifth Prince was really too rare of an occurrence.

“Your name is Nagahama Neru?” The Fifth Prince asked.

Neru nodded, wondering if she should ask the Fifth Prince’s name as the prince was nearly never referred to by name.

“I’m Yurina.” The prince seemed to shine. “You can just call me that.”


—At that time, Neru didn’t know…

—That she would unlock her cultivation, becoming the first elemental cultivator in a century. That she would be targeted by assassins. That the prince was actually a girl. That they would get married.

—However…
—TBC.

—Actually, not really.



Mona: Our youngest son is growing up…

Risa: Techi’s not even our son.

Mona: She is.

Risa: Okay, fine.

Mona: She has the good looks from you and me.

Risa: She’s a bit of a flirt like you, Manaka.

Mona: Risa, I love you!

Risa: G-geh! ...hmph. I love you too.

Mona: Unexpectedly, she’s going after Neru-chan. Ah, that person’s daughter has grown up well. I thought that it would be a TechiMemi ending, but it’s actually a TechiNeru world?

Risa: What are you even talking about?

Mona: Hm?

Risa: Hm.

Mona: Hm.

Risa: Techi marrying Memi would have been good since Memi is the princess of the neighboring country, Gana kingdom, but they’re just friends.

Mona: Memi’s not becoming a love rival, right?

Risa: She has a relationship with a noble youth from her kingdom. What was that person’s name… Mana?

Offline four4four

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [OS (Jan. 21, 2018)] <Eccentric update soon>
« Reply #86 on: January 22, 2018, 06:26:29 AM »
Imaizumi almost died? :cry:
So Yuipon was able to save her by putting her body in stasis and letting her interact with the world through a hologram program?
Then Yuipon left to find a way to heal Imaizumi's body and only came back after finding a cure?
That is an adorable love story between Yuichanzu.
I am happy that Imaizumi still remembered Yuipon in the end. :)
It would have been sad if she had completely forgotten her. :cry:

The TechiNeru teaser seems to have a good premise.
Would love to see you make a full on story out of it. 8)
It has a good basis to have multi arcs involving different groups that are for and against Neru and Techi being together.
Of course there is also the fact that Neru seems to be blessed by a rare ability.
There are an endless number of possibilities of how this would affect her relationship with Techi.
Anyways, I would love to read a story that is based on this teaser as well.
The dialogue between MonaRisa at the end felt like a 4th wall break for some reason. :lol:

Looking forward to more OSs.

But of course I especially look forward to the next checkpoint of Eccentric.
I am expecting something bad to happen to Seiichirou. :angry:
Please make it happen. :twisted:

Offline Minami-chan

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [OS (Jan. 21, 2018)] <Eccentric update soon>
« Reply #87 on: January 23, 2018, 12:53:08 AM »
Thank you very much for continuing the fan fic.
I really read what happened in the classroom, see how all the girls are suffering for Akane, it made me feel very bad for her. But Yuuka is not to blame for anything.

Focusing on several plots at once can be a good idea. But if you decide to do it as before, it's fine too.

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 25 (Jan. 28, 2018)]
« Reply #88 on: January 29, 2018, 01:31:32 AM »
Checkpoint 25


Yuuka sat on the edge of a luxurious bed in the guest room prepared for her and Seiichirou. Rather than calling it a guest room, it was already an apartment. There were two bedrooms, bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen.

The horse loving girl was glad that Seiichirou respected her enough for them to be staying in separate bedrooms. She felt the soft fabric on the bed sheets and looked at the silk canopy of the bed. It was nostalgic and should have been comforting but it was not comforting in the slightest.

Seiichirou was in the room with her, sitting in a comfortable sofa chair. There was a distance between the two very distantly related people.

The glasses wearing man smiled, “Yuuka, how are you finding these temporary lodgings so far?”

“They’re good, cousin.” Yuuka nodded politely.

“Call me Seiichirou. We are engaged, so you shouldn’t be so distant.”

“...” Yuuka didn’t reply, looking away from his eyes.

Seiichirou sighed. His eyes turning ice cold, he started, “Unless you’re already in a relationship with that girl? Then, we should just call off the engagement. I will have to apologize to uncle if that’s th-”

Yuuka interjected, “No!”

A small silence filled the room. Yuuka’s heart was in pain from anxiety. If she didn’t go with Seiichirou, she didn’t know what would happen to her father. It was like Seiichirou was holding her father’s health over her head to control her.

His lips curled up in amusement, “Show me.”

“Seiichirou, I don’t love her.” Yuuka choked out his name. Seeing that he still wasn’t satisfied, she forced out, “Seiichirou-sama…” Her throat felt like it was constricting with disgust, and she didn’t know at what point she had started feeling this way toward him.

“I see. If that’s the case, then you should be happy that we can be together. Perhaps you don’t love me like a lover yet, but time will strengthen our relationship, don’t you agree?”

“Yes…” She looked down at her lap, clenching her hands.

“You should smile, Yuuka.”

“Yes…” She looked toward him with a strained smile.

Seiichirou looked at the smile and returned something of a smile, but his eyes were still chilly. He rose from his seat and approached Yuuka. Then, he stopped. A ringing sound came from his pocket. He sighed, adjusting his glasses, and took his phone out. Looking at the number, he frowned.

He said to Yuuka, “Apologies. It seems I have a call I need to make.”

Finally, he left the room.

Sugai Yuuka let out a deep sigh and flopped down onto the bed, curling up. This bed seemed too large. She was used to seeing Akane nearby when she went to sleep. There had even been a few times when her other friends in the Keyaki class had slept over and invaded her bed.

The horse loving girl took out her phone.

She looked at the message that she had written but hadn’t sent. With a trembling finger, she pressed the send button, sending the message to Akane.

Yuuka whispered, hugging her phone closer to herself, “Actually, I do love you, Akane.”


“I love you.”
—Liar.


Moriya Akane’s lunch was untouched. She held her chopsticks in her hand, and the bento box was open. Her friends were around her, and the clock was still working. The world went on around her, but Akane didn’t have an appetite.

Akane’s group and Yuuka’s usual group were sitting close to each other, but it seemed like without Yuuka here, there was an unending chasm between them. Of course, there were other reasons.

“Akanen.” Risa sighed, unsure of how to console her competitive friend.

Fuyuka looked at Akane’s unmoving chopsticks and tried to convince her to eat, “If you don’t eat, then you can’t do anything.”

Akane nodded, “Thanks. I can’t do anything.”

“I don’t mean it like that.” Fuyuka shook her head.

“I know.” Akane said.

Manaka looked at Akane worriedly. Even though the short haired girl acted cool, she was actually very soft for her friends. She felt bad about blowing up at Yuuka earlier in the day, but unexpectedly, Akane forgave her.

Risa stuffed a piece of bread into Akane’s mouth, “Akanen, eat.”

Not able to spit it out, Akane chewed the piece of bread. It was actually pretty delicious, but she couldn’t put her spirit into enjoying her food.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed.

Akane checked her phone to see what it was. She pressed the notification, opening LINE, and read the message while trying not to shake. Her eyes reread the words multiple times to make sure that she hadn’t misread them.


“I love you.”
—I love you too much.


Brring. Brring. The sound of a phone ringing repeated. The first call hadn’t been picked up. The second to the same phone received the same lack of response. The phone had been turned off.

The third call hadn’t been picked up. Despite recalling the next phone a number of times, no calls had been picked up. That phone had accidentally been dropped and was yet to be replaced.

It was likely the eleventh call on the third number. It was yet another phone call that hadn’t been picked up. These calls all came from the same phone. The person calling all those numbers wasn’t giving up.

The amount of time that passed wasn’t a matter to her, but there was still some sort of time limit. Even if she had to call one thousand times, if she could reach the person that she wished to reach, then it would have been a worthy waste of time.

Brring. Brring. She didn’t know what number call it was.

Brring. Brring. The phone in a Tokyo hospital was ringing. Brring. Brring. It stopped and started once again. The nurse who had left for one moment to grab her slightly late lunch came back and found the phone ringing.

Brr-

The nurse picked up the phone. She felt a little exasperated as she was just about to consume her lunch after spending long hours working, but she acknowledged that there were people who needed a nurse to answer calls more than she needed to eat at the exact moment.

“Hello? This is Shin-Tokyo General Hospital. How may I help you?” The nurse greeted the caller.

“May I contact the Sugai-san on Floor 6, Room 607?” A high school girl’s voice came through the phone, “I’m a classmate of his daughter, and something has come up related to her, but I haven’t been able to contact him through his cell phone or family’s numbers.”

The nurse was a little surprised. However, she heard the girl’s voice shaking and couldn’t help but feel for the girl, “Yes, I’ll put you through.”

“Thank you so much...” The girl seemed to have let go of a heavy weight.


—The words go through.





I'm not sure I even know what the meaning of 'soon' is when I write this story. Soon, soon, soon, YuukaNen's pain will be over. I'm going to make myself write the next checkpoint tonight. I'm looking forward to beating Seiichirou up.

@Minami-chan: Thank you for reading!
@four4four: You're spot on about the Yuichanzu one shot! Hoho, I might make some other one shots continuing the TechiNeru teaser. As for Seiichirou, his end is near. The story outline I have written says that he's out of Yuuka's life by the next checkpoint.

« Last Edit: February 04, 2018, 12:21:57 AM by Shinoki »

Offline four4four

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 25 (Jan. 28, 2018)]
« Reply #89 on: January 29, 2018, 03:37:44 AM »
Yuuka~~~~~~
You've finally confessed your feelings for Akanen! :wub:

What exactly did Yuuka say to Akanen in that message? :?
I am guessing that was Akanen trying to contact Yuuka's father.
There must be something critical in the message then.
Does it lead to Seiichirou end? :twisted:

Can't wait to see how Seiichirou "disappears" from Yuuka's life. :P

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 26 + 27 (Feb. 3, 2018)]
« Reply #90 on: February 04, 2018, 12:21:02 AM »
Thank you for reading! Jphip was down for a while, but it's finally back up. And this arc is finally coming to a close. (Only the exams left.) I hope this isn't too lackluster a closing. Again, thank you for reading!

@four4four: Hohoho, YuukaNen is a blessing.




Checkpoint 26


Akane looked at her phone in her hand. She had been able to call Yuuka’s family, and she found out that they had thought that not contacting Yuuka would be able to cut Yuuka off from worrying about them. She also found out that the Sugai patriarch was recovering from his illness.

She sighed. “Please, let this work.”


Neru was on the phone in the hallway during break. She nodded while saying ‘Yes’ to the person on the other side of the call. At one moment, she stopped to think.
Then, she said, “If you can, then please break him apart.”


Yuuka had just received a message from Akane when her phone rang. She looked at the number in surprise, but she picked up the phone call. “Father?”



Seiichirou finished his phone call. He looked at the time on his wristwatch and adjusted his glasses again. A small issue had come up within his company, and that caused him to be on the phone for two hours.

As he was about to return to speak with Yuuka, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

The man headed toward the door that led to the hallway, and he opened to door. To Seiichirou’s surprise, there was a pair of tough looking men dressed in black suits, wearing sunglasses.

“What is it?” Seiichirou asked apprehensively. He felt that he had seen this pair before when talking with a supervisor of the Keyaki class recently, but he hadn’t spoke with the imposing duo.

One of the men in black said, “You are to leave the premises of this campus immediately.”

Seiichirou furrowed his eyebrows and started to ask indignantly, “What are you talking ab-”

The other man in black grabbed Seiichirou by the tie and dragged him out of the doorway, into the hallway, “Are you disobeying?”

“Unhand me this instant. I’ll have you know who I am-” A little flustered, Seiichirou tried to use his authority and money to threaten the pair.

What he received in return was a harsh blow to the side, making him choke in pain. Seiichirou wanted to fall to the ground in agony, but he was still being held by the tie, his neck restricted, almost choking him.

He looked at the two men in black, but they didn’t say anything.

“Who sent you?” Seiichirou spat out.

“Someone who has an interest in seeing you gone.” The man in black not holding Seiichirou spoke. Hearing a buzz in the communication device hidden in his ear, he repeated the words of his superior to Seiichirou. “Your existence has already been rejected.” He gestured to his partner.

At that gesture, the other man in black threw Seiichirou to the ground and began to pummel Seiichirou.

“Wh- AGHH!!” Seiichirou could barely grab a breathe to scream, but he couldn’t hold back the searing pain that was running through his body.

One man spoke, “Silence him.”

Seiichirou’s eyes were filled with fear. His glasses had been broken, discarded to the side, and his face was already a red mess. Even so, he didn’t want to die. Luckily, what he received was a piece of cloth stuffed into his mouth, preventing him from speaking, stretching his jaw painfully.

By the time they were done with him, he would have wanted to die instead.

The pair dragged Seiichirou away, throwing a bag over his head, to a place he couldn’t recognize. Then, he went through an hour of torture and interrogation. His fingers, arms, legs, and ribs were broken already, and it was like the person behind all of this didn’t care about the consequences of killing someone like Seiichirou.

Looking at the broken man on the ground, one man in black spoke to his partner, “Didn’t she say to do something?”

“Yes.” The other man in black replied curtly before giving a heavy stomp to Seiichirou’s pelvis, making a cracking sound of bone and an uncomfortable squish of an organ being crushed.

Seiichirou could not scream anymore, but his body still spasmed in pain. His dark pants were stained, but it was hard to tell if it was blood or some other liquid.

The man in black’s communication device buzzed. He replied, “Yes, sir. We’ll take him away. We’ve obtained all the information.”


—Did it cease to be interesting?


The door was locked. Yuuka had been twisting door knob for a while, having seemingly heard some strange sounds, but the door wouldn’t budge. Then, she heard a small beep that sounded like a remote control lock unlocking, and to her surprise, when she tried to open the door again, it opened.

The horse loving girl looked at the door, but she couldn’t understand how it worked. It didn’t look electronic in the slightest.
She walked out of her room. The place that had been prepared for her and Seiichirou seemed oddly quiet. She soon learned why.

A butler stood in the room and greeted Yuuka, “Yuuka-sama, Seiichirou-sama sends his apologies.”

Yuuka inquired, “What do you mean?”

“He was called away for an emergency business conference and had to leave right away for Hokkaido. If there is anything urgent to discuss with him, you may reach him through the phone.”

“...I see.”

“I will escort you back to your dorms. Your belongings will be moved later.”

She said, confused, “Thank you.”

With the butler escorting her, Yuuka returned to her dorms. The butler quickly left as soon as they reached the Keyaki dorms, so Yuuka mechanically returned to the place where she and Akane had stayed since the beginning of the school year.

Yuuka stopped at the end of the hallway, stalling before moving on. She thought that herself that she ought to tell Seiichirou that she wanted to annul the engagement now.

Finding out that her father was recovering, that her family didn’t want her to marry Seiichirou, that she loved Akane, and all those things made her realize that she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she did marry him.

She called Seiichirou, telling him of her decision. To her surprise, he agreed. His voice sounded a little strange, but he agreed.

That was that.

Then, Yuuka stepped forward. She was heading home.



Checkpoint 27


Moriya Akane woke up, noticing that the sky was already dimming. When all had been done for her, she had returned to the dorm room that belonged to her and Yuuka.

‘I want to walk home with you hand in hand. I want to keep living like that.’ Yuuka had written those words to Akane. That was why Akane decided that she would wait for Yuuka to come home in their place together.

When Akane had returned to the dorms, she took a seat on Yuuka’s bed, feeling that Yuuka’s half of the room appeared very empty. Smelling Yuuka’s comforting smell but missing Yuuka’s presence, Akane had inadvertently fallen into the land of dreams.
Akane got up from Yuuka’s bed.

Then, she heard the sound of the door opening. The tennis playing girl hurried toward the door. Eyes widening in happy surprise, she saw the person at the door.

“I’m home.” Yuuka greeted.

Akane pulled her roommate into a hug, “Welcome back, Yuuka!” She buried her face into Yuuka’s shoulder to hide her crying.
They shared a moment of quiet relief. It looked like everything had worked out fine in the end with Seiichirou. Akane felt Yuuka shaking.

“Are you crying?” Akane asked.

“Akane, you’re the one who’s crying.”

“Because I’m happy.”

“Me too.”

After they finally stopped crying, the pair released each other from their embraces. Akane reached out a hand to Yuuka, and wordlessly, Yuuka took Akane’s hand. The two walked fully into their dorm room.

Akane said again, “Welcome home.”

“I’m home.” Yuuka replied.



Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sky had turned dark, clear of clouds. Brilliant flowers of fire lit up the sky. Even though it wasn’t season yet for summer festivals and fireworks, there they were up on the sky. Through the windows, Yuuka and Akane could catch glimpses of the light show.

They had eaten a quick dinner together, making something in the kitchen in their dorm room.

“Let’s go to the roof and get a better look.” Akane took Yuuka’s hand.

The two headed up toward the rooftop. As they opened the door to the roof, they felt a slight breeze blow past.

The next batch of fireworks shot up into the sky with a whooshing sound as Yuuka and Akane walked across the rooftop, still holding hands, to the fence. Time appeared to stop for a moment as the fireworks flowered into an ephemeral ring of colors in the sky.

What wasn’t fleeting was the feeling of a beloved’s hand in their hands.

Yuuka smiled, “Beautiful…”

Boom! Boom! Boom! The sound of fireworks was overwhelming. Akane said something, but her words were covered up by the explosive sound.

Yuuka replied, but with the fireworks still going, Akane couldn’t hear Yuuka either.

The pair found themselves basically mouthing words with the background noise so loud. It was a little silly, so they started giggling, which turned into full blown laughter for a few moments.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Another set of fireworks went up. There were different patterns, circular ones, flower-like ones, bursts of color that seemed to spread and change in the middle of their movement.

Akane spoke again, trying to be a bit louder, but alas, she wasn’t quite loud enough.

Yuuka giggled, making another response.

Akane nodded, feeling somewhat fired up to get her voice across over the fireworks and hollered into the distance. “I love you, Yuuka!”

It just so happened that at that moment, there was a slight pause in the fireworks. The competitive girl’s words transmitted clearly to her roommate.

“I love you.” Yuuka leaned in closer to Akane.

Akane blushed, shouting to the distance again, “I love you!” Her words were aimed toward Yuuka.

“I love you!” Yuuka did the same.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The fireworks flew up again.

Akane turned over to Yuuka, loudly saying something with a smile. Her words were muffled by the fireworks. Then, she quickly kissed Yuuka on the lips. Akane blushed as she quickly moved her face away.

Yuuka’s brain short circuited for a moment, feeling Akane’s smooth lips. Seeing her roommate up close like this, the horse loving girl felt her heart racing. She wrapped her arms around Akane and pulled her into another kiss.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The two felt like fireworks were exploding inside their heads. Before they knew it, the fireworks show had ended.

“Akane, you beast…” Yuuka complained, setting her head down on Akane’s shoulder, breathing heavily.

Her lips were a swollen from all the kissing that they had done, and her clothes were dishevelled. On Yuuka’s pure skin, there was a trail of marks down her neck where Akane had fiercely attacked.

Akane blushed at the accusation. They hadn’t actually gone past much other than kissing.

They stood quietly for a minute.

When Yuuka and Akane finally parted from their embrace, Yuuka tripped over her own feet from exhaustion from making out, and she pushed Akane onto the fence awkwardly by accident. From an outside point of view, it would have looked like a role reversal where Yuuka was taking the top.

“Ouch!” Akane winced.

Yuuka worriedly asked as she regained her balance, “Are you okay?”

“It’s okay. I’ve had worse.” Akane got off the fence and reassured Yuuka. Akane gave her girlfriend another kiss on the forehead.
At that moment, they heard footsteps on the rooftop coming toward them. Akane took Yuuka into her embrace again due to surprise, and the roommates looked toward the people who were coming.

“Aka- Eh?” That was Manaka’s voice.

Hirate Yurina and Shida Manaka were looking for Akane in worry, and at last, they had found both Akane and Yuuka on the rooftop. The odd pair hurried over, feeling glad that it looked like everything was okay.

As soon as Manaka noticed Yuuka’s state, she quickly put her hands over Yurina’s eyes.

“What is it?” Yurina asked.

Manaka deadpan replied, “This is inappropriate for kids.”

“Hey!” Akane blurted out a retort. She let Yuuka go, and Yuuka straightened out her clothing. The pair was blushing red.

Manaka looked at her friend, “Is everything…?” She inquired if everything was okay, if Yuuka wasn’t leaving, if whatever had been plaguing Akane for the past while was fixed.

“Yea.” Akane nodded.


« Last Edit: February 13, 2018, 02:39:03 AM by Shinoki »

Offline four4four

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 26 + 27 (Feb. 3, 2018)]
« Reply #91 on: February 04, 2018, 01:23:56 AM »
FINALLY!!! Seiichirou is gone! :twisted:
Out of the way for the YuukaNen ship to sail. :wub:
But Neru's conversation on the phone is a bit mysterious. :?

I'm so happy to finally see Yukka and Akanen together. :w00t:
I never knew Akanen was such a kissing monster. :shocked
Poor Techi, too young to see YuukaNen in action. :lol:

Can't wait to see the next arc.

Offline mooza

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 26 + 27 (Feb. 3, 2018)]
« Reply #92 on: February 04, 2018, 01:34:09 PM »
Finally a happy ending!
Okay firstly, Neru is suspicious as hell. Makes me wonder if she's the one who sent those men.
Secondly, the scene where Shida covered Techi's eyes because it was 'inappropriate for kids' was adorable.
Lastly, good job writing this story. It's really interesting and I can't wait for more~

Offline Minami-chan

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 26 + 27 (Feb. 3, 2018)]
« Reply #93 on: February 05, 2018, 12:13:34 AM »
Very funny Manaka covering Techi's eyes.

Finally ... finally! Akane was having a hard time, no wonder they were looking for her all worried. Akane and Yuuka are together.

Neru's call has been strange.

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [OS (Feb. 9, 2018)]
« Reply #94 on: February 09, 2018, 10:01:50 PM »
Before the next update of Eccentric, I'm just going to drop these three one-shots here! If you read my stuff on Wattpad, you might have already read them. But, the system is generally: Eccentric updates here first. One-shots update there first.

I jokingly call these one-shots (in the order that they appear in): that sad MonaRisa one, YuukaNen is really gay, and TechiMemi indulges my chuuni heart.

I'll be sure to update Eccentric sometime over the weekend.

@Minami-chan: Indeed, Neru is a suspicious person.
@mooza: I'm glad you enjoy this fic! It makes me really happy. Tehehe~
@four4four: Look forward to the next arc~ It's Arc III <Aoi> that's coming up after a bit of wrap-up of exams for the girls. Following that is Arc IV <Yui>, focusing on Yuichanzu and also shedding light on Techi's past.




Time Runs Out


“It’s unfair.” Shida Manaka hadn’t realized that she had let her voice slip.

She wondered when the last time she had exited into the real world had been. In her hand was a vial of medicine that she made with her alchemy skills as a mage, but upon finishing the creation, she had zoned out and started staring at the clock on the wall.

The short haired mage girl was currently in a magical space created in order to manipulate the passage of time where time inside the space only took a little while outside of the space. She was in a sweet little cottage, and the ‘outside’ of the cottage was a fresh grassland with a few fruit trees. The sky was nearly always blue, but there were fluctuations in the weather here and there to recreate the real world.

Yet, she knew that it wasn’t the real world.

Her friends, like the adventuring squad called the Yuipon Protection Squad created by Oda Nana who was chasing after Yuipon, which had grown to include Suzumoto Miyu who was chasing Oda Nana, weren’t in this false world.

Manaka herself could easily leave this world behind. Rather, she had the capability to do so. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to do so. Her heart would break.

She muttered aloud again, “It’s unfair.” She wanted to break something.

Then, she heard a small but familiar voice. “Manaka?”

Manaka turned around from where she was standing and saw that her treasured person, Watanabe Risa, had awoken and was weakly sitting up on the bed.

“Risa, did I wake you up?” Manaka made motions to act normal.

Manaka wondered how long had it been since Risa had last woken up. It had been four days. The last time Risa woke up, Risa could only stay awake for thirty minutes. The time Risa had in the living world was slowly but surely shrinking, and Manaka couldn’t accept that.

Risa replied, “It’s fine.”

Risa would eventually fall into an eternal coma where she would never wake up again and could only die. This was a curse, an illness that couldn’t be cured with conventional methods, a cruel instance in the world where time was tied to a girl’s soul by a devil’s power. In other words, it was not fine at all.

Manaka held up the vial she had in her hand, “I made you medicine.” It was a potion that was supposed to slow down Risa’s time temporarily so that Risa could stay awake for longer, but it didn’t make much of a difference. All the things that had been made to try to cure Risa hadn’t worked.

Risa said coolly, “I don’t need it. Manaka, you can… you can just leave.”

“No. I won’t.” Manaka rejected.

“Manaka, leave.”

“No.”

“Manaka.”

“I won’t leave.”

“Manaka!”

“No!”

A moment of quiet fell between the two girls. Risa clutched her chest in pain, wincing while trying not to worry Manaka. However, Manaka’s heart still hurt at her lover’s pain, eyes noticing the magical chains of curse on Risa’s body and the hands of a watch that were only a sliver away from midnight, the end of Risa’s existence.

Manaka cursed her own eyes for being able to see the curse. She had been successful as a mage and alchemist because of her ability to detect magic, but the grotesque thing that was destroying Risa’s body was something that she wished that she couldn’t see.

“I’m sorry.” Risa sighed.

“No, I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

“I’m just unlucky. I was born with this, a curse.”

“If you hadn’t taken that hit for me, then it wouldn’t have activated like this. You would still be able to live like a normal person.” Manaka adamantly denied Risa’s words.

At that time, which seemed like just a few days ago, a year ago, the pair had gone adventuring together in a dungeon, but they had accidentally stumbled upon a demonic beast in what shouldn’t have been such a dangerous area. The demon had charged up a dark magic attack and send the magic toward Manaka, but Risa had pushed Manaka out of the way and took the hit.

She had nearly died in that instance, but thanks to Manaka’s large stash of potions as an alchemist, Risa’s life hadn’t vanished just there. Yet, that dark magic had activated a curse put on Risa’s body when she was young.

Risa justified her actions, “You wouldn’t be there.”

“Does that matter?” Manaka frowned.

“Yes.”

“We’ve had this conversation so many times.”

“We have.”

“Will you drink the medicine?”

“No.”

“Not even mouth to mouth?”

“No.” Risa rejected the offer. “Just a kiss would be good.”

Manaka set aside the medicine vial. She leaned in to kiss Risa, and their lips softly touched. As the two girls embraced, Manaka couldn’t help but feel that Risa was cold.

Risa joked, “Your kissing is good as always. No wonder I like you.”

“Risa, you’re mean.”

“Manaka, I love you. I love that you’re so kind and bright. I love your smile. I love that you work so hard even if you’re childish sometimes.” Continuing, Risa confessed her love.

“Risa, I love you too.”

“Manaka, that’s why you should give up on me.”

“I won’t.”

“We won’t be able to stay together. We won’t be able to retire together and watch Dani, Mon, and Pon end up marrying in a threesome. We won’t be able to grow old together. That’s why-”

Manaka cut Risa off with another kiss. “I’ll make it so that we will.”

Risa looked down, “Can you?” “How much time do I even have left? This is probably the last time that I’ll be awake ever again.”

“Don’t say that...”

“Isn’t the hand of the clock only one click away from the final place?”

Another short moment of quiet filled the space. When Manaka looked at the curse, it was indeed in its final stages. However, she still retorted, “Even so!”

Risa’s chilly hands reached for Manaka’s hand and reassured Manaka, “I’m already happy enough that you’ve wasted so much of your life staying by my side like this. If you hadn’t been there, I probably would have died a long time ago.”

Manaka averted her gaze, wanting to cry.

“Manaka.”

“Risa, I’m not going to leave.”

“I figured.”

“I’ll stay with you until the end. Let’s be happy together.”

“Thanks.”

They chatted about the past for a while longer while holding hands. Risa’s hands seemed to become slightly warmer. Risa’s life force was gradually getting weaker and weaker, and her eyelids became heavy.

“This is probably the end, Manaka.”

“I-it’s not the end.”

“Thank you.”

“I love you, so don’t go…”

“...it’s cold…” Risa set herself down on the bed, but she wouldn’t let go of Manaka’s hand. “Stay with me until the end… sorry, I’m selfish.” She felt tears in her eyes and noticed Manaka was crying.

“No, no, no. I wouldn’t have left in the first place. I want you to be with me. Risa…”

“Good night.” Risa murmured with the last of her strength.

“Risa…?” Manaka held Risa’s hand until the end even though she could no longer feel Risa’s strength. “It’s unfair. Hey, wake up. Wake up?”

There was no reply.

She looked at the curse surrounding Risa. It had indeed already reached its final form, becoming a pulsing red mass of magic that wasn’t visible to the normal human eye. The curse was eating away at Risa, and soon, Risa would likely die to it.

Manaka hated that thing with all her might. Despite all her efforts, she hadn’t been able to get rid of it.

For a moment, Manaka began to lose hope. However, when she looked at Risa and felt that hand still intertwined with her own, Manaka reaffirmed to herself that she wasn’t able to accept an ending where Risa wasn’t by her side. Those last moments that she tried to savor just weren’t enough.

What she wanted was a lifetime with the girl she loved.

Manaka mumbled out an apology to Risa as she reluctantly untangled her fingers from Risa’s. She didn’t want to let go and wasn’t a fan of what she had in mind, but it was the only option left that she could think of.

It was a magic that was highly likely to fail. It was a magic whose failure would have caused an endless coma for the recipient and the caster alike. In fact, it was a magic that usually killed the caster regardless of success or failure.

However, it was the only thing left.

Manaka summoned a ritual knife to her hand. She winced because it was scarily sharp even though she had seen swords before.

“If this fails, let’s meet again in our next life.” Manaka laughed wryly, trying to keep herself from breaking apart in grief. “I won’t fail though.”

She took the knife and stabbed it into her heart.


“It’s unfair.”





Keyaki Hogwarts


The wind blew furiously, her hair flowing messily with the currents. The crowd was going wild, blue and red banners waving, voices shouting, magic going through the air. Akane was decked out in the Gryffindor colors, eyes narrowing on the Golden Snitch. A Bludger whooshed by, nearly hitting her, but the competitive Gryffindor was too swift to be hit.

A flash of blue entered Akane’s eyes. That was the Ravenclaw Seeker, Sugai Yuuka, top of class and all-round capable person. Yuuka seemed to have spotted the Snitch as well.

Without a moment of hesitation, Akane dove downwards. The angle was so harsh that the Gryffindor Seeker’s move wouldn’t have been allowed by some professional coaches, but there she went, believing in her willpower. As she went down, she saw Yuuka follow.

Akane grinned. This was exhilarating even though she could crash into the ground and hurt herself badly. That was what magic healing was for.

The ground closed in. At the last moment, Akane twisted and went shooting up into the sky just as she was about to hit the ground.

The commentary in the back by the Hufflepuff Ozeki Rika went something like: “It’s a Wronski? Wronski Feint! Akanen! Dangerous! Ahhhhhh!!!” It was an unstable commentary. “Whew, Yuuka is okay too…”

Despite Akane’s risky maneuvers, her rival Seeker had managed to get out of a pinch and was tailing right behind Akane. Akane sped on ahead, forcing her broom to go faster and faster, as fast as she could.

The Snitch was right there. The glint of light off the golden ball entered Akane’s eyes. She reached out her hand. There. Then, she grabbed it.

The game was over.



The Quidditch teams were on the ground now. Ravenclaw looked a little disappointed, but it was a close match. The Gryffindors were already celebrating, and they were prepared to party into the night after dinner.

Yuuka and Akane shook hands. The losing team’s Seeker smiled and said, “Congratulations on winning.”

Akane reciprocated that handshake, “Good game.”

Akane’s teammate gave Akane a hearty shoulder hug, “Whoo! We did it!”

Ozeki also came down to the field and let out a sigh of relief as she complained about Akane’s last stunt. “Ahhhh, that was dangerous.”

“I won though.” As if it was an obvious choice of action, Akane replied to Ozeki.

Yuuka giggled, watching the interactions between her yearmates, “You’re such a Gryffindor.” She herself was quite a Ravenclaw, studying properly all the time, but she wasn’t the definition of Ravenclaw like how Akane seemed to almost embody the guts and courage of Gryffindor sometimes.

Akane noticed that she was still holding onto Yuuka’s hand and reluctantly let go. “Well, I did win.” She shrugged, glad that everyone was a little red after a harsh game since her cheeks were probably blushing.

“You did.” Yuuka relented before responding, “I won’t lose next time. Ganbariki.” She made a little hand gesture of ‘ganbariki’ before getting embarrassed at herself.

“I’ll look forward to our next game then.”

Yuuka waved goodbye to Akane and headed back toward the Ravenclaw group.



Daytime. After class.

Moriya Akane and Shida Manaka floated on their brooms, chatting. Akane was riding the broom in proper posture while the Slytherin Manaka was casually riding it to the side, unafraid of falling off.

Without a second of warning, Manaka said, “So in other words, you love Yuuka.”

Akane choked, “Huh!?” She nearly fell off her broom in surprise.

Manaka shrugged nonchalantly, “What? You want to be with her all the time. You partner with her during Potions all the time. You help her grab books even though you’re the same height. You always want to have a Quidditch match with her.”

“That doesn’t mean I love her.” Akane grumbled at her green-clad friend.

Manaka raised an eyebrow, lifting her bangs a little, “Huh?”

“Fine! I do like her a lot.”

“See, I told you.”

“You sneaky little snake.”

“Akanen, I’m just being your love guru right now.”

“You’re such a playboy that I can’t trust you to be a love guru anyways, Manaka.” Akane gave Manaka a playful push, “Who’s your new girlfriend?”

“I like a bunch of people.” Manaka replied enigmatically. Despite the Slytherin house having a bad reputation from the last war with a Dark Lord, Manaka was somehow very popular with the population at Hogwarts.

Akane let out a sigh, wondering what kind of taste her classmates had, “Huh…”

“Anyways, see you later.” Manaka flew off on her broom.

“Wait! You were the one who wanted to talk to me about somethin- Ah, she’s gone...” Akane slapped her palm on her forehead, “I can’t believe Risa still loves her so much.”

Despite Manaka’s infamy as a player, Manaka still had her one true love, the cool Watanabe Risa who was also in the Slytherin House. It was just that their relationship was often on and off, but from Akane’s point of view, Risa forgave Manaka quite easily.

Finding no point in staying around in the sky, Akane also descended. She pondered to herself that Manaka hadn’t given any actual love advice and felt a chill on her spine as to what her friend would scheme up.



Library. After the end of Quidditch season.

Akane had to write a Transfiguration essay for homework, so she grabbed a book from the shelves and headed toward the tables in the library. As expected, there were many students wearing blue, but she spotted Yuuka among them.

“Hey.” Akane sat down across from Yuuka, setting down her book and parchment so she could get to work.

“Hi.” Yuuka peeked up from her book and greeted Akane.

“So, what are you reading?”

“A book on the creation of the Patronus charm. It’s really interesting. How about you?”

“Transfiguration homework.”

“Oh, that essay. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

The two Quidditch players exchanged smiles and got to work. Akane got stumped on what to write after a while. Although she didn’t like asking for help, she put aside her pride and asked Yuuka for a bit of help.

Yuuka’s smile while helping Akane made Akane’s heart melt. Soon enough, Akane finished her homework, but she ended up staying in the library for a little longer, reading books with Yuuka.



Daytime. Hallway.

Akane, Yuuka, and Manaka stood in a not often travelled hallway. The two Quidditch players looked toward their mutual Slytherin friend in confusion. Manaka had called them over for some unknown thing. In the past, they had been tasked with weird things such as being lookouts for Manaka’s pranks, but this time, it looked like something different.

The Slytherin girl took out her wand and waved it at the wall. A broom closet door appeared.

“There’s a broom closet right here, and there are two people who are hopelessly in love with each other but haven’t said anything to each other about it.” Manaka smiled, “Now, you know what comes next.”

Without letting Yuuka or Akane retort, Manaka pushed her friends into the broom closet, closing the door.

Manaka told them through the door, “By the way, you’ll be let out in an hour. Have fun. No one will interrupt you two.”

“Wh- Hey, Manaka! What the heck!?” Akane tried to open the door.

Not only did she fail to open the door, but she got no response. It seemed like Manaka had walked off after setting the two up. Akane was definitely going to get revenge on Manaka for this, something like setting Risa on that player Slytherin.

Then, Akane turned to Yuuka. At that moment, the Gryffindor realized that the broom closet was somewhat cramped. The two girls were squished close to each other, and the closet was also dark. Akane blushed, and she couldn’t see Yuuka’s expression.

“So… you like me?” Yuuka asked.

Akane replied flustered, “Yea.”

“...I like you too.”





War in the Future


Dust clouds rose. The distance was a flurry of brown. The sky had greyed. So much of the world was covered in the flames of war, the blood lost from the worst of human activity. What technological advances in the last few years meant nothing in the face of human lives lost. This world was filled with war, and no one could see the end of it even if they could almost see the end of the world past the horizon.

Of the major powers involved in the world war, Japan was one of the most unscathed. The battles had yet to drastically affect the civilian settlements, but already, a number of naval disputes off the coast had caused deaths in civilians.

Military weaponry had developed. Within the Japanese military, there were two special task forces called NG and ZEL comprised of a few dozen elites. Although that small number appeared to be useless at first, after the deployment of the first elite force, NG, Japan’s military endeavors met with less casualties, bringing about the second force, ZEL.

Kakizaki Memi was attending a press conference about ZEL’s latest accomplishments in the everlasting war. The group had taken down the terrorist cell that had run rampant in northern China for the past few years, allowing supplies to be directed to the battlefield and for Japan to win a crucial battle.

The cameras flashed, almost irritatingly. The voices of the reporters appeared to overlap. The wall behind the members of ZEL attending the conference had depictions of zelkova leaves, the symbol of their group. Sugai Yuuka and Moriya Akane, both heiresses to wealthy conglomerates who had set aside their silver spoon and enlisted, were answering the questions that were thrown toward them.

Of the members of ZEL present, only Sugai and Moriya were taking questions. The other two, Shida Manaka and Hirate Yurina, were standing to the side, rejecting questions and answering others with, “Classified.” All four were dressed in black military uniforms striped with silver.

Although Memi had seen the ZEL members before, the elites used in advertising to promote enlistment in the military, this was the first time she had seen them in person. Memi was in the back, not a reporter asking questions, yet she could feel the intensity in Hirate's eyes. That short haired girl had a disinterested look yet her eyes were burning.

Soon enough, the question part of the conference was over. A few pictures more were taken and that was it.

Memi watched as the reporters filtered out of the conference area. She jolted in surprise as she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning to see a big sister-like friend, Nagahama Neru, a secret member of ZEL who worked on home base operations such as home grown terrorist groups. Her cover was that of a freelancer, in what was not specified.

If Neru and Memi hadn’t met the way that they did, perhaps Memi wouldn’t have ever known about Neru’s connection to ZEL.



At that time, it was dark and muffled. Memi still wore her hair in low twintails, and as she was walking home, everything suddenly turned dark. When she awoke, she couldn’t see. A sack was thrown over her head, and her limbs were roughly bound by rope.

Memi now and then was not a super soldier. She couldn’t escape by herself, so she could only wait in terror as to what would happen to her. She didn’t know who kidnapped her, but she could hear Japanese voices as well as foreign voices shouting. She could hear violent thuds and gunshots.

Before she could even process what was going on around her, she found herself roughly picked up by someone’s hands. He barked at her in some language that she couldn’t understand. Then, he shouted in the same unknown language at someone else.

Memi, who at that time was a middle school student, found the sack torn off her head. There was a piece of tape over her mouth. She found the barrel of a gun pressed against her head, and it seemed that she was being taken hostage in some sort of warehouse.

Across from the man who had taken her hostage, Memi saw a girl with long black hair. That was Neru. The hood of her outfit had been blown off, and a broken mask was on the ground. Neru held a gun in her hand, analyzing the situation quietly.

Neru pointed her gun at the man’s head and replied in the foreign language.

Memi squeezed her eyes shut, scared of dying. A gunshot rang out. Memi felt the warm splatter of blood against her face. However, she wasn’t dead. She tumbled to the ground as the man holding her suddenly collapsed with his head blown to pieces.

From nowhere, a figure dressed in the same outfit as Neru, but with the hood and mask still intact, swooped down with a gun in her hand, landing on the dead man’s body callously. This seemed to be the person who sniped the man.

The mysterious figure and Neru, who Memi did not know yet at the time, exchanged messages through a secret sign language. The figure helped Memi up, gently dusting Memi. She gestured toward Neru, but Neru shook her head.

Suddenly, the warehouse began to fill with red colored gas. Neru and the figure shared a look and quickly pressed a button on part of their uniform, putting a gas mask over their faces. However, Memi didn’t have one.

The mysterious masked figure lifted Memi into her arms and removed her gas mask, putting it onto Memi’s face. Neru glanced back at the figure, but didn’t say anything. The two military agents needed to exit the warehouse quickly.

“Try not to breathe too much.” The mysterious figure said to Memi in a low voice, “The mask won’t help that much.”

After that, things went black for Memi. Memi only remembered the deep eyes of the mysterious figure.

The mission was apparently a success for Neru and ZEL. Memi was saved from the kidnappers, and the kidnappers turned out to be a branch of a radical leftist group gone rogue who had wanted to let foreign enemies into Japan.

Memi was debriefed after the kidnapping and signed a number of papers because Neru’s identity was to be a secret. The Japanese government wouldn’t silence their own citizens, but they needed to protect their secret agents as well. It was also at that time that Memi began a deal with the government and started her friendship with Neru.

There was a reason that the radicals had kidnapped the young Kakizaki.



At this time, the last of the reporters were leaving the conference area. Neru removed her hand from Memi’s shoulder once she saw that the younger girl noticed her there. Neru was dressed in a white blouse and skirt, civilian clothing that hid completely her identity as a secret agent.

Neru spoke to Memi with a smile, “Shall we go?”

Memi nodded, “Okay.” She was a little nervous, but she needed to go ahead.

Neru and Memi exited the conference area. They walked through the hallways of the building, looking through the glass window-walls out at the city around them. Usually, they would chat about something, but the tension in Memi’s heart was too high for her to casually chat.

Rather than using the elevators, Neru and Memi started walking down the stairs. Neru had explained that elevators were risky, and if something happened, then it would be near impossible to survive.

The two girls reached the first floor. They went through a hallway, and before long, there was no one around. Neru opened a secret door in the wall, using her eye for identification, and she led Memi through a hallway with a completely different color. This place didn’t exist in the blueprints of the building.

Knock, knock. Neru stopped before a completely white wall and knocked on it.

A voice asked, “Humility.”

“Kindness.” Neru replied.

Then, that wall opened up, revealing a small meeting room and a door to a hidden car parking area. Neru walked into the room with Memi, and the wall closed. To Memi’s surprise, the wall was vaguely transparent, allowing the people in the room to see into the hallway but not the hallway into the room.

In the room, the members of ZEL who had been in the press conference were sitting on the sofa. Sugai and Moriya sat upright, seemingly at ease. Shida was cross legged, cleaning her gun. Only Hirate was standing, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. The latter two had loosened their military uniforms, which were just that, uniforms for show and not for actual combat.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Sugai Yuuka. You’re the new technician who’s joining us?” Sugai greeted Memi warmly.

Memi quickly replied, “Yes. I’m Kakizaki Memi.”

In turn, the ZEL members introduced themselves. Moriya said, “I’m Moriya Akane.”

Shida gave a curt gesture, “Shida Manaka.”

“...Hirate Yurina.” Hirate spoke last, finishing the introductions.

“I know that you have already signed a deal with the higher ups. However, you may still back out now. We won’t blame you for it, not us here nor the members not present right now.” Sugai said to Memi, “This war is dangerous, and being affiliated with ZEL will put you in danger as well.”

“It’s okay. I’m not backing out now. I already have a target on my back.” Memi replied, “I want to work with ZEL to end the war, and maybe… maybe so that life can return to normal.”

“Then, welcome to ZEL.” Sugai extended a hand to Memi.

They shook hands. Maybe it would have been strange in another world to see girls whose average age was less than two decades shake hands like this to decide matters of military weaponry, but they couldn’t ignore the bloody conflict that was seeping into Japan.

After speaking for a little bit, making small talk, Sugai received a notification. She motioned to her teammates, and the ZEL members stood up. Neru tapped Memi on the shoulder and explained, “We’re heading out now.”

The group entered the hidden car parking area and entered into a black car. Memi sat down between Neru and Hirate, facing the other three girls who were sitting opposite.

Sugai told Memi, “I’m sorry, but we have to blindfold you for this ride to hide where the base is. We don’t want anything to happen.” She handed Neru a black cloth.

Neru blindfolded Memi. Memi vaguely understood the reasoning behind Sugai’s words, and she wondered to herself how the car they were riding in was going to be camouflaged as it headed toward their destination.

Shida clarified blandly, “What she means is torture.”

Memi twitched. Of course that was what Sugai meant. Although the heiress was polite about it, everything came down to security. As Memi wasn’t a trained elite soldier, if she was caught and tortured, she would likely spill the secrets of the location of the base if she was allowed to know.

Hirate stated, “Which we will prevent.” The short haired girl with mesmerizing eyes didn’t sound like she was trying to reassure Memi, but Memi couldn’t see anyone’s expression at the moment.

They drove quietly to the ZEL base.



Kakizaki Memi was good with weapons—to put it extremely simply. It was because of wartime changes in curriculum in schools where certain classes emphasizing military advancements were encouraged in students. It was just Memi’s luck that she would discover something that would put eyes on her that she didn’t need.

Within ZEL, Memi found herself getting along more than she expected. Everyone was eccentric, and they were all able to make a good working relationship. They didn’t put too much pressure on her, but that actually made her want to work harder to improve ZEL’s weaponry.

Before she knew it, ZEL had become something of a second family.

There were two sections within ZEL, the more publicly known one that was making efforts into the war and the secret one led by Neru that dealt with Japanese internal problems.

After joining ZEL as a technician, Memi had spent more time with the secret group than the public group as the public group had been deployed constantly overseas in order to deal with issues. The war just kept getting worse, and casualty rates continued skyrocketing.

ZEL had just returned from a harsh mission in northern Europe. They had managed to blow up an enemy military base and take out the enemy’s general, but the general Japanese military and allies failed to make a decisive victory. Morale was low.

Memi walked into the base’s cafeteria with Neru, discussing the development of a new war technology. “It can cut through time like butter, but the stability is worrying, so the human body might not be able to take it.”

“I see.” Neru took in the information that Memi was talking about. She would eventually read a report on the technology, which would be sent to the higher ups, but it was still good to listen.

With the way Memi spoke, sometimes Neru felt that Memi was too proper and mature. It was the same with the other young member of ZEL, Hirate. However, Neru was at ease because she often saw Memi clinging to people in her free time. Neru just hoped that Hirate would relax a little more too.

When Memi and Neru walked into the cafeteria, they saw three public ZEL members chatting. Watanabe Risa and Shida Manaka were joking around, ruffling Hirate’s hair.

Memi’s gaze naturally went toward Hirate. They were the same age, and for some reason, the technician had always wanted to talk with Hirate but hadn’t had the chance.

After a while, Risa and Shida waved and left Hirate. For that moment, Hirate stood alone.

Neru gave Memi a gentle push on the back, “You should go talk with her. Call her Yurina. She won’t mind.”

Memi was surprised that Neru had seen through her, but at with that motivation, she headed toward the short haired girl. After all, Neru seemed to know Hirate decently well, sometimes even going as backup for the ZEL missions.

“Um, Yurina… -san.” Memi greeted Hirate Yurina.

Yurina replied with a nod, “Memi. Yurina is fine.”

For some reason, Memi found Yurina’s small movement of the head to be endearingly cute like a small otter. She found herself smiling, “Thanks for your hard work.”

“You too.”

“Are you getting dinner right now?”

“Yea.” Yurina responded. “Do you want to get some together?”

“Sure.”

The two girls got dinner together in the cafeteria. Sitting down, they engaged in small talk, finding that their interests overlapped. They didn’t talk about war or work at all. For a moment, Memi and Yurina felt like normal high school girls.

They talked about their favorite characters from media.

Yurina adamantly proclaimed as she ate, “Moomin did nothing wrong. It’s all Futeneko.”

They talked about school and daily life, something that had been interrupted for them a long time ago. There were things like math, history, funny teachers, and favorite seats in classrooms.

Yurina admitted, “I’m not very good at school…”

“Let’s study together.” Memi offered to study together with Yurina.

Before long, their plates had been cleared.

Memi asked, “Yurina has a summer birthday, right? I’m in winter.”

“It’s autumn right now.” The short haired girl nodded, “When’s your birthday? I’ll write it down and remember.”

“Ah, it’s December 2nd.” Memi answered.

She thought back to her birthday two years ago. That was actually the day after she was kidnapped and met Neru, so she hadn’t been able to celebrate it then. Yet, she wondered if meeting Neru was considered lucky or not since she was able to meet ZEL. It had already been such a long time since then.

They finished dinner and left the cafeteria.

Memi waved, “See you later.”

“Later.” Yurina smiled faintly before leaving.



Memi’s heart was racing. She felt the wind beating into her face, her skin cold, face slightly red. It was early December, but the sky was already filled with little white snowflakes falling down to the ground, covering it with white. Aside from the snowfall, the night sky was filled with the light of the stars and an aurora.

This wasn’t Japan. In fact, this wasn’t even in a city. This was the middle of a forest.

She was in a stealth plane that had just landed near the defensive lines of the enemy. ZEL was heading out to take out certain checkpoints so that the main Japanese allied forces could break through those lines. It seemed absurd that just a little under two dozen girls would be a factor to clinch the victory of battle, but their track record spoke volumes.

The ZEL members were dressed in camouflage outfits that defaulted to black. Although the clothes looked thin, they were state of the art technology that would keep the girls warm even in temperatures way below freezing. They were heavily armed.

Aside from the people manning from the plane, Sugai, Neru, and Memi were the only ones who were staying behind. The former two were acting as the command heads, monitoring the situation. ZEL was alone, and they always worked alone without backup.

Sugai said to Moriya, “Succeed in this mission.”

“Of course.” Moriya nodded.

There wasn’t any matter of luck involved. There was only success or death. The stealth plane’s door closed, and the technology hiding it turned on full throttle. Now, Memi could only wait to see how things turned out.

An hour passed. Communication lines were steady.

Another hour passed. Sugai and Neru seemed uneasy.

More time passed. Then, the typically polite Sugai let out a curse in English. She tinkered with her headset to no avail. Neru pushed a few buttons here and there, but she shook her head toward Sugai.

“Communications down.” Neru frowned, “Ozeki and Risa injured.” That was the last information they had received from the team.

Memi stepped up, “Let me try to fix it.”

Sugai shook her head, “This isn’t your expertise.”

“Even so…” Memi was determined.

More time passed. The technician wondered if all the operations were so tense and dangerous or if this had gone south beyond expectations. Memi tinkered around, but it was true that the communications device wasn’t her field of expertise.

Memi’s work was rather niche. They centered around a new form of energy that she had discovered and was about time-space manipulation. Sufficiently advanced science was like magic, but no matter the magic she could work, she couldn’t fix the communication lines.

Time continued. They were still within the expected time for the operation.

“We’ve had worse.” Sugai mumbled to herself, worrying. “Akane…”

Memi didn’t give up. She stayed glued to the communications, trying to find a way through. New information continued streaming to the command head, things like enemy movements, but it had no way of getting to the members out on the field.

Another hour passed. That was when Sugai received information that the operation was a success. However, that information wasn’t from her teammates but rather from other Japanese military forces. They still had no way of confirming whether or not ZEL was safe. Even if the checkpoints were taken out, that didn’t mean that the operation had been properly completed.

Sugai clenched her teeth and dug her fingers into her palms so hard that she started bleeding.

Boom! An explosion rang out. In the distance, smoke could be seen rising and the red of flames seemed to flicker up.

It was at that moment that Memi made a breakthrough with the communications. The lines were filled with static and panic.

Bzzt. “-Shut up!-” Bzzt.

Bzzt. “-Techi!!!-” Bzzt.

Bzzt. “-we have to-” Bzzt. “-injured-” Bzzt. “-retreat, retr-” Bzzt. “-can you move-” Bzzt.

The sounds of gunfire came through the line. Memi could almost imagine the blood spraying from the bullets. She thought she heard the sound of a nano-blade knife cutting through human flesh like butter.

The connection was back. Yurina yelled, “We don’t leave anyone behind!”

“Communications back on.” Sugai spoke through the communications line, “Where are you?”

In the end, the plane picked up all the members of ZEL. Even though some were bleeding profusely and nearly knocked out, everyone was accounted for. Sending a volley of fire down at the pursuers, the plane retreated.

The girls treated their wounds and their comrades’ wounds. The worst things would have to wait, but they had all gotten out with all their limbs intact.

Shida ground out to Memi, “Med kit. Now.” She eyed Risa worriedly, having already stopped Risa’s bleeding with first aid. However, Shida’s partner was currently unconscious and covered in blood, soaking the black outfit blacker.

Memi quickly grabbed a medical kit. She rushed around trying to help out.

When everything that she could do was done, she walked over to Yurina who had bandaged up her own wounds earlier. The short haired girl’s eyes were filled with regret.

“...I should have done better…” Yurina mumbled.

“Yurina?”

The operation finished a success, but it was the worst success that ZEL had yet.



Memi looked at a video from a recent incident that the secret half of ZEL solved. A radical militaristic group that wanted to escalate the war had attempted to take the Diet building hostage. The video was jarring. The use of her time based technology stopped a bullet in mid-air for a split second, allowing the agent to cut the bullet in half in the air.

Even though Memi had made the device, the possibilities of its usage made her nervous. At least, it was an one use device with a limited power source.

She went through the video a few more times, jotting down notes on the field use of the technology. Then, she put her laptop away and closed her eyes for a moment. Memi wondered what Yurina was doing as the short haired girl didn’t seem to take a break.

After the operation gone wrong in winter, the Japanese allied forces broke through the enemy defensive lines. A harsh battle raged, but ZEL’s activities weakened the enemy lines so much that the allied forces were able to take down the enemy.

A temporary ceasefire was signed. Alas, the elite force’s efforts weren’t enough to completely end the war.

“What’s the point of this war…?” Memi sighed aloud. Sometimes, she couldn’t even tell who they were fighting anymore.

Neru, who was passing by, replied, “There is none.”

“Yea.” Memi nodded.

“Techi’s in the K room.” Neru mentioned, “You should be able to catch her if you go now.”

“Thank you, Neru.”

“It’s nothing.”

Memi headed toward the K room. Ever since the ceasefire had been announced, Memi had had more time to talk with Yurina. They had grown closer, and Memi wouldn’t let Yurina fall into those moments of self-loathing where the short haired girl blamed herself for not being able to perform better.

The technician caught the ZEL member as she was exiting the K room. Memi greeted Yurina and made some small talk. They compared schedules.

Then, Memi said, “Let’s go out.”

Yurina faltered in her step due to confusion, “Huh?”

“To the city.” Memi explained, taking Yurina’s hand, “To have crepes and do whatever it is people our age do.”

Yurina nodded. “Sure.”



Two girls walked through the streets hand in hand. One of them wore a cute pink cardigan with a skirt, her hair in low twintails that she hadn’t worn in a while. The other had short hair and was wearing a hoodie. They looked like normal high school girls on a day off although school hadn’t let off yet.

Memi wondered aloud, “It's almost Valentine's, huh?” Seeing the decorations and advertisements on the street, she was informed of the passage of time.

“It's already February? I hadn't noticed.” Yurina was a little surprised as well.

Chatting, they continued walking. Although the temperatures were still chilly, the warmth of each other's hands blocked that thought away.

They window shopped, looking at cute toys, accessories, and chocolates. At one point, Memi dragged Yurina into a clothing store and had the soldier try on a cute dress.

Memi beamed, “Yurina, you're so pretty.”

“…”  Although the short haired girl didn't say anything, her attempt to hide her face showed her embarrassment at the praise.

At some point, they stopped for a snack. There was a variety of places where they could have gotten food, but the two girls decided on soft serve ice cream.

“Delicious.” Memi said.

Yurina’s expression melted into a silly smile as she ate her chocolate ice cream with the small spoon, “It's delicious.”

“Let's share.” Memi took a scoop of her cookie dough vanilla ice cream and held it out to Yurina, “Say 'aahn.’”

“Aahn.”

“How is it?”

“Sweet.”

Yurina also gave Memi a bite of her chocolate ice cream.

Before long, the sun set and the city lights turned on for the night. Looking at the time, the two girls knew that they should probably start heading home. The trip had been so fun for Memi that she wanted to cling onto Yurina and have both of them play a little longer.

“Memi.” The short haired girl gently stopped Memi.

“What is it, Yurina?” Memi turned to Yurina.

Yurina took out a small case from her pocket. “Happy belated birthday. It's over two months late, but I got you this.” She opened up the case, revealing a plain silver ring with the engraving ‘Memi.’

Memi gasped, “It's so pretty! Thank you…”

Yurina took Memi’s hand and smoothly slid the ring onto Memi’s finger. It wasn't Memi’s ring finger, but Memi’s heart was already exploding with emotion.

“I have the matching pair.” Yurina smiled quietly.

Memi cupped her hands over her mouth, “…I'm so happy…”

“I love you.” Yurina smiled, a blush adorning her face.

At that, Memi started crying from happiness, trying to hide her face.

“Why are you crying?”

“I…I love you a lot…”

“Yea, I love you.”



Spring was coming. The trees that had been withered through the winter were beginning to bloom again. Passing by a park, Memi smiled as she saw the cherry blossom trees flower. She and Neru strolled around Tokyo in casual clothes.

“You and Techi seem happier recently.” Neru teasingly commented, “It's cute. Young love.”

“You're not old either.” Memi retorted.

“Maybe.” Neru asked. “Have you two ever talked about what you'll do after the war? Like getting married or something like that.”

“We don't really talk about the war.”

“I see.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Travel the world. Rebuild Nagasaki. Retire together with Fuu-chan.”

“That sounds nice.” Memi sighed, thinking that it'd be nice if the war would end soon.

At that moment, the war sirens in the city began to blare, a voice coming onto all the broadcast channels telling the citizens to head to a shelter in a calm and orderly manner.



Memi wondered if she should have expected that the ceasefire would end. Enemy stealth technology had found a weak point within the Japanese lines and nearly managed to pass into Tokyo. No one had expected such a bold move of attempting to massacre the civilians, but luckily, no civilians had been killed. Nonetheless, this signalled that the war was back on, and the enemy had to be eradicated.

ZEL returned to work. They were off very often, gone for weeks before coming back home for a few days.

The technician felt that sometimes she saw them more on television than in person at a certain point. In the past, that had been the same as well, but having been able to experience a pseudo-peacetime with Yurina before, Memi was experiencing a loss.

In late June, ZEL returned from a mission in the Middle East.

Seeing ZEL returning from another press conference, Memi went over to greet Yurina in the hallway, “Yurina, happy birthday.”

The short hair girl didn’t respond, so Shida poked Techi’s arm, “Techi.”

“Sorry...” Yurina twitched, nearly attacking on instinct. Memi could see the bags developing under the short haired girl’s eyes. Yet, when Yurina saw Memi, she put on a strong face, “Thank you.”

Shida shook her head, “She’s a bit exhausted since she’s been the centerpiece of a lot of our operations. Forgive her, okay?”

Memi mutely nodded. She waved goodbye to them as the group of ZEL members walked on. They still had outfitting to do and other evaluations. The technician hoped that they would have time to rest, but she couldn’t help but think that such a thing was only a hope that wouldn’t come true.



That night, as Memi was about to turn in to sleep, she heard a knock on the door. She went to her door, opening to find Yurina there. Yurina looked tired, and the time was late, yet she had come over to Memi for some reason.

Yurina looked at Memi’s pajamas, “Were you about to sleep? Sorry, I’ll…”

Memi quickly shook her head, “No, come in.” She saw that Yurina was still in her military uniform so late at night.

“Excuse me for intruding.” Yurina entered Memi’s room.

The two girls made small talk for a bit. Memi offered to make tea, but Yurina shook her head and politely rejected the drink. They walked out to the balcony and looked up at the sky. There weren’t many stars in the sky that night, the clouds covering up the light.

“The sky… is it beautiful?” Yurina questioned.

Memi replied, “I think it is.”

“Do you think the sky will be the same in the future?”

“It will be more beautiful. Let’s go stargazing together once everything is over.”

“Maybe.” Yurina nodded.

“Yurina, are you okay?” Memi asked.

“I’m okay.” The short haired girl replied, stepping back indoors. “You don’t need to worry about me too much, Memi.”

“Of course I’ll worry. There’s only one Yurina out there, and I love you.”

Yurina looked surprised for a moment before she replied, “I love you too.”

The technician had the soldier sit down with her on her bed. They held hands as they talked. Memi noticed that Yurina was wearing the matching ring to the ring that the short haired girl had given Memi in February. The two girls never talked about the future or the war during that short night.

At some point, Yurina had fallen asleep.

The elite ZEL member looked so peaceful asleep. Memi wished that Yurina’s eye bags would just disappear, but she knew that Yurina was busy. That was why she tucked the short haired girl in on the bed carefully, and Memi eventually fell asleep as well.

It was warm.

When Memi awoke, Yurina was gone.



ZEL went on a long term mission as quickly as they came back in late June. This mission would span for months, and no one knew how long the group of 20 odd girls would be gone. Neru had disappeared for a secret operation as well, and Memi was left behind.

Summer passed. Autumn came. As soon as autumn seemed to start, the end of that season also began to end.

Memi continued developing technology, collaborating with some other scientists. The weapons that they managed to make were deployed on the field, and the efficiency as well as uniqueness was praised. However, the true result was just death and more death.

ZEL barely sent any messages back. The communication was controlled. There were messages now and then as Memi created new prototypes and inventions were sent over specifically for the special forces to use.

In mid-November, the war seemed to be lightening. The end seemed to be near with a Japanese and allies victorious. Memi received a small note from Yurina promising to come back and celebrate Memi’s birthday.

Even with the end near, the end didn’t come.

December passed. ZEL didn’t come back. The battlefront still continued raging.

January came. The outdoors began piling up with snow. Fights were still continuing, bloodshed amassing. There were talks of world leaders coming together for a true peace conference, destroying the enemy states, and all that, but ZEL wasn’t home.

On the last day of January, the media announced that the war was over.

That night, ZEL was returning home. As soon as Memi knew that they were coming, she rushed out to meet the group, eyes searching for Yurina. Everyone had a serious expression on their face that turned even more serious as they saw the young technician.

Neru also came back then. She walked toward Memi.

Memi couldn’t see Yurina anywhere. Spotting the injuries littering the group, she felt her heart drop, a terrible premonition overcoming her. The end of the war should have been a happy thing to celebrate. Perhaps Yurina was a little late.

Yet, when Memi asked, her voice came out shaky. “Where’s Yurina?”

“...I’m sorry… She didn’t make it.” Neru spoke, not meeting Memi’s eyes.



Something broke in the technician’s heart. As she fell to the knees in disbelief, eyes filling with tears, Memi’s soul was ripped apart by the loss of the person that she had wanted to spend the future with after the war. In a moment of grief, she even wondered what the meaning of ending the war was if Yurina was gone.

Memi locked herself in her lab, working furiously.

At first, her friends, the secret agent members of ZEL, Neru, and even the public part of ZEL had pounded on her door, asking her to get out. However, she wouldn’t budge in the slightest, ignoring them.

She abandoned her own health, not bothering to go out to eat. She kept working and working, trying to figure out a way to turn back time. Her expertise was time-space technology.

As the war was over, the military was gradually cutting down. ZEL was to be disbanded soon enough, and Memi wouldn’t have the same type of laboratory that she had during wartime. She needed to work fast.

Knowing that Memi was stuck in her ways, Neru took to leaving food at the door for Memi so that the girl would at least eat. It was only a stopgap method.

Two months passed since the end of the war. Memi’s head pounded with pain from the work that she had done, her limbs feeling weak from staying in the laboratory all day. She had finally made a prototype.

Memi pressed the button to test the prototype. The device glowed blue for a moment. She wondered if it would work.

Then, the blue light became to fluctuate, growing bigger and bigger. Memi found the hand that she was using to hold the device freezing up as if stuck in time. Her breath was caught in panic.

Boom! It exploded. It didn’t work. That was it.



The cherry blossoms were in bloom again. The pink-white flowers drifting in the wind outside of the hospital. Memi sat in the hospital bed, bandaged up and recovering from the explosion caused by her own device’s failure. The side effects were unknown, but it was likely that she would never be able to properly move her right arm again.

Neru as well as Shida had come visiting Memi.

Neru explained, “We haven’t given up searching…” The ZEL members were still trying to find their comrade, their youngest member that they tried to dote upon when it had been possible.

“...I see…” Memi nodded, unconvinced.

Neru sighed, “Memi…”

“No, it’s okay.” Memi shook her head, and she mumbled quietly in a moment of darkness, “I guess ZEL is the type of group that leaves people behind.”

As soon as Memi said that Shida roughly grabbed Memi by the shirt and growled, “How dare you say that…” Shida looked as if she wanted to beat the technician up for implying that ZEL didn’t care.

Neru gently pried Shida off of Memi and talked to Shida through a sequence of hand signals that Memi couldn’t read. They had an angry silent conversation before, it was decided that they would leave.

Shida sent Memi a curt look and headed to the door.

Neru followed her teammate out. “I’m sorry, Memi.”

As soon as the ZEL members left, Memi was alone in the room. She looked out at the cherry blossoms again, and somehow, her sight began to blur with water droplets filling up her eyes.

Memi cried quietly, “I’m sorry…” She tried to wipe away her tears with one hand, but she couldn’t.



Spring, summer, and autumn passed. Winter came once again. Memi had been discharged, and since then, she had rarely met with any ZEL members. The world seemed to be back on track.

The enemy states had been harshly fined, and their activities were monitored by Japan and its allies. Governments were installed, and military was forcibly cut down. Japan was back to peacefulness, and the military propaganda that had been all around for years of Memi’s youth were gradually disappearing, being replaced by kinder and softer things.

Snow lightly dusted the ground. Memi walked around the city, looking at shops half-heartedly. She only used her left arm, having learned to use it only now. Her right arm was still lacking in function despite the treatments applied.

Memi stopped in her tracks, not wanting to go to the place where Yurina had first said the words, “I love you.” Memi mouthed those words aloud as she looked at the ring on her hand.

Once again, her birthday had passed without being able to celebrate with the one she loved.

Just as she was about to head home, Memi’s phone rang. She dug it out of her pocket awkwardly and picked it up without looking at the number. Then, her breath halted and she found herself tearing up in disbelief at the voice.

“Happy birthday. I’m sorry that I missed it…” It was an awkward yet familiar voice.

Memi asked, “...Yurina?”

“Memi.”

“...are you really...”

“I’m in the place… the place where I gave you that ring back then.”

Memi immediately started running toward that place. “I love you. You can’t leave me alone like this again, okay?” She cried into her phone.

“I know.” Yurina replied. “I’m sorry for making you cry.”



Memi saw Yurina standing in the place where the soldier had given the technician a ring. Yurina looked different, her hair longer. Yet, her eyes were still so deep, and she wore the matching ring on her finger even though the metal was beat up from all that the girl had gone through.

The two girls’ eyes met.


“I love you.”

Offline MaYukiIsLife

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [OS (Feb. 9, 2018)]
« Reply #95 on: February 09, 2018, 10:44:00 PM »
Time Runs Out:

Quite a bitter end to Risa there, with Manaka trying to the very end to get her lover to live. It's like the type of fic I always write lol.

Keyaki Hogwarts:

Someone really needs to make a Keyaki x Harry Potter fic man. Like an ongoing.

War in the Future:

Again, much like Time Runs Out, it would be something I would write (and maybe am ;) ) but I like how it's a happy ending to such a sad oneshot. Also why is Risa always the one on the verge of death? I realised that as I was reading LOL

Offline Minami-chan

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [OS (Feb. 9, 2018)]
« Reply #96 on: February 11, 2018, 02:09:21 AM »
Thanks a lot!
These one short , the story of Keyaki Hogwarts is the most like me.

See you in the next upload!

Offline four4four

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [OS (Feb. 9, 2018)]
« Reply #97 on: February 12, 2018, 06:41:37 AM »
General:
Oooo the planned arcs seem interesting.
Is Aoi's arc going to be a solo one or is she going to be paired with someone?
Can't wait to see it after the girls write their exams. :P

Time Runs Out:
Noooo Risa~~~!!! :cry:
How did she get cursed in the first place?
Manaka tried so hard to save her, but in the end she couldn't do anything. :(
At least they can meet each other in the next life. :)

I don't know why but the ending reminded me of Romeo and Juliet.

Keyaki Hogwarts:
Of course Risa and Manaka would be in Slytherin. They fit right in. :P
Manaka being a playboy? Wouldn't have expected that, but she did admit that she likes a lot of the other members.
At least Risa forgives her. :lol:
Manaka trapping Akanen and Yuuka into the closet together was the best part though. Finally got them to confess to each other. :wub:

You should write 7 books based on this. :P

War in the Future:
Yay a TechiMemi fic. :)
My heart sank when I saw the ZEL's members reaction when they saw Memi as they were returning at the end of the war. :cry:
I felt bad for Memi when she became obsessed with trying to figure out a way to turn back time. It showed how much she truly loved Techi.
I am just happy it was a good ending. I am not really into bad endings. :)

But now my question is: What happened to Techi? :?

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 27.5 (Feb. 12, 2018)]
« Reply #98 on: February 13, 2018, 02:38:03 AM »
@four4four: Thank you for reading! For Aoi's arc, I don't plan to have Aoi paired with anyone. What Aoi ships are out there, I wonder~ Risa-sama's already taken, huhu. For the oneshots, I'm a big sucker for happy endings. I believe that MonaRisa managed to find a happy ending somehow (in that life or the next). Risa's curse, it was put on her by an evil mage when she was young. (I think.) For what happened to Techi, I didn't really think that out. That's up to your imagination.

@Minami-chan: I'm happy you enjoyed the oneshots! This update is a day late (why did I say I would update over the weekend, I wonder. Haha.) but I hope you enjoy this light-hearted transition chapter.

@MaYukiIsLife: I look forward to reading your story~ Also, I totally need an ongoing Keyaki Harry Potter fic in my life too. If you find one, drop it on me, haha.





Checkpoint 27.5


On the next morning, the Keyaki dorm’s cafeteria was extremely lively. The 21 girls didn’t have to attend class, but through some unspoken consensus through their LINE group chat, they had all come down to eat breakfast at a normal time.

Last night, after a day of worry over Yuuka’s sudden notice of departure, their group LINE exploded as soon as the unexpected fireworks show ended. Yuuka and Akane informed everything that they were okay, and no fiance was going to take Yuuka away.

In the cafeteria, Aoi tackled Yuuka with a hug and apologized profusely to Akane, who accepted the first apology, before she was finally pried away by Risa who couldn’t help but sigh and tell the immature girl that everything was okay.

The Keyaki class grabbed breakfast. Since there were many tables and a long period of time for eating, usually not everyone was in the same area during breakfast. However, today, it seemed as if everyone wanted to cling to Yuuka.

Habu let out a happy sigh, repeating the words she had already said, “Yukka, I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Koike nodded before she glanced between the recently troubled roommates. Something seemed different, and the penguin loving girl had a bit of an idea, even more so when she thought she saw a mark on Yuuka’s neck. “Akane…” Koike asked like a mom questioning the boyfriend of her daughter, “Did you two…?”

“Mii-chan, you don’t need to-” Yuuka laughed shyly, pulling up her collar moreso.

“Yukka.” The penguin loving girl shook her head. All the time, Yuuka took care of her, so she held in her heart a desire to make sure that Yuuka was treated well.

Akane said, not afraid of an angry Kansai penguin, “I love Yuuka.”

“Good.” Koike nodded.

To the side, Yonetani commented, “Minami’s really protective, huh.”

Oda Nana covertly sent Akane a thumbs-up, “Good job!” That gesture caused Suzumoto to smile and Yuipon to give a wry sigh.

“As expected, it’s not right without our Sugai-sama.” Manaka grinned, looking at the unusually rowdy cafeteria. Even the classmates who sometimes acted like they didn’t care were present.

Yurina nodded, “Yes.” She liked the warmth of this class even if it had been unfamiliar at first.

“Like family.” Neru added, placing her hand on Yurina’s hand.

The roommates shared a smile.

Manaka ruffled Yurina’s hair, “Then am I the dad?”

“No, we’re the parents.” Akane interjected, pointing between herself and Yuuka.

“We’re the parents.” Manaka shook her head, linking arms with Risa who was chewing on some fruit.

Yuuka giggled, “We can ask Techi.” They had somehow decided that Yurina was the child of the family.

Yurina twitched, feeling a put off by the thoughts of parents. Yet, when she looked at the people around her, she felt oddly at ease. Neru gave Yurina’s hand a squeeze of support. The short haired girl didn’t give an answer but instead smiled lightly.

“Hey, how abo-” Ozeki suddenly spoke up only to get interrupted.

“Ozeki and Rina are the grandparents.” Risa said nonchalantly, feeding Manaka a piece of fruit, “Aoi is the pet puppy.”

“Hey~” Aoi pouted.

Getting into the mood of the conversation, Koike hugged Habu and jumped in, “Habu-chan and I could be great parents too. Don’t you think so, Techi?”

“This class is strange...” Yonetani held her head and stared at her classmates. She tried to share a gaze with Yurina of ‘we’re the normal people, right?’ but it seemed that the look didn’t go through.

Sato Shiori said, “I think it’s nice.”

Seeing her friend’s statement, Yonetani didn’t disagree. She looked toward Nagasawa Nanako, who shared the ‘Nana’ part of her name with Yonetani, and found Nagasawa and her roommate Berika nodding to Sato’s words while chewing on bread with chocolate.



“Everyone’s really kind.” Watanabe Rika spoke.

Nagasawa Nanako nodded, “Yea.”

“I’m glad I applied to here.” Rika murmured with a smile, hugging her whale plush doll Aoko to her chest, “Friends…”

“Yea.” Nanako offered Rika a chip from her bag. “I’m glad we’re friends.”



The sky was clear, the morning sun beating down not too hot. The Keyaki class resumed, seemingly back on track and normal again. The bell was just about to ring, the digital clock on the wall heading toward the start of homeroom.

Three seats were still empty in the classroom. Aoi, Yurina, and Neru hadn’t come in yet.

Aoi ran desperately through the hallway with a piece of toast in her mouth. She overslept in the morning, and her roommate hadn’t woken her up. That was a lie. In fact, her roommate actually left a sticky note on Aoi’s forehead saying that she gave up on waking Aoi up.

Nonetheless, Aoi rushed toward the classroom. Slamming the door open and collapsing into her seat, she huffed, “I’m not late!”

“Barely.” Risa commented to the side.

Aoi made an incoherent grumble of complaint to Risa’s word. Risa technically wasn’t wrong. As Yuuka rubbed Aoi’s back to comfort the not-a-grade-schooler-girl, the bell rang.

Yuuka wondered aloud, “Where are Techi and Neru?”

Homeroom started. As usual, an overview of the day came up on the board.

It was at that moment that the door to the classroom slammed open once again. Everyone’s eyes went toward the door, including Aoi who was finishing up her breakfast. A silence overcame the girls.

“We’re… not late?” Neru smiled sheepishly.

Neru entered the classroom, holding Yurina in a princess hold with arm strength that didn’t seem to fit the cute girl. The short haired girl being held looked away shyly from her classmates. Her hair was bed hair; she slept too well.

“Neru…” Yurina mumbled, arms still looped around Neru’s neck.

Feeling Yurina’s embarrassment and getting a little self-conscious herself, Neru deflected her classmates’ eyes and made a statement that sounded like a question as she looked at the board up front, “We still have exams next week?”

A different kind of silence filled the room this time.



In the end, everyone scraped past the exams without failing.


« Last Edit: February 27, 2018, 11:29:31 PM by Shinoki »

Offline four4four

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Re: Eccentric (TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 27.5 (Feb. 12, 2018)]
« Reply #99 on: February 13, 2018, 12:52:38 PM »
Hmmm I guess you're right.
I don't see Aoi being shipped with anyone else except for Risa sama.
So I guess Aoi will have a journey of self discovery instead?

Glad to see that everything is back to 'normal'. :)
Feels like the calm before the next storm.
At least Techi got a chance to be held princess style. :lol:

Looking forward to reading the start of Aoi's arc.

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