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Author Topic: Eccentric (TechiNeru+) <DROPPED> - Thank You For Reading, a Summary  (Read 80096 times)

Offline RyoZakiji

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 15 (Nov. 11, 2017)]
« Reply #40 on: November 13, 2017, 02:46:57 AM »
Sugai-sama!! whats going on?

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 16 (Nov. 18, 2017)]
« Reply #41 on: November 18, 2017, 06:10:31 PM »
@RyoZakiji, @Kairi65, @MaYukiIsLife: Everyone is worrying so much about Yuuka. I feel bad, but Yuuka's going to be troubled for most of this arc. Akanen will do her best to regain Yuuka's smile once Yuuka gets sadder and sadder.




Checkpoint 16

Moriya Akane felt nice and refreshed. She won the tennis tournament, ate a nice dinner with her roommate, and took a shower. She wasn’t sure at what point her friends decided to invade her room to celebrate.

Risa, Manaka, and Fuyuka made themselves comfortable on the floor using extra pillows as cushions to sit on. Yuuka was at her desk, writing something down in her diary, which she called a journal.

Risa said to Akane, pulling a confetti popper in the competitive girl’s direction, “Congratulations on winning!”

“Congratulations.” Manaka made more confetti go into the air.

“Does that mean that I have to treat you to ice cream now?” Fuyuka laughed, “Haha, congrats.” She also let loose a confetti popper.

“Hey, hey, you guys are making a mess on the ground.” Akane scolded her friends lightly. She wasn’t looking forward to cleaning the scraps up.

Manaka ignored Akane’s complaints, “Anyways, congratulations on winning.”

“Thanks.” Akane sighed.

They were throwing an impromptu party that celebrate Akane’s winning. Fuyuka even brought a small basket of random sweets and party favors. When Akane asked why they seemed so prepared, she received an answer from Risa.

Risa said, “It’s because if you lost, we would have thrown you a pity party.”

“Harsh!” Akane complained. “It’s not like I want to win that badly. I...”

“Want to win?”

“Yea, I want to win.” Akane relented.

The group continued chatting. Manaka had her head on Risa’s shoulder and was casually interjecting into the conversation, teasing her roommate. They talked about random things like how Fuyuka and Neru had been getting along recently or how there’d been some strange things on the Keyaki class fan site.

“Let’s play a game.” Manaka said.

Fuyuka offered, “How about the mozzarella cheese game?”

“That might get a bit loud.” Risa replied.

“Werewolf game?” Akane thought aloud before shaking her head, realizing that four people was just a bit too few for the werewolf game.

Fuyuka opened a pack of pocky, offering some to Manaka and Risa before turning to Akane, “Akanen, do you want some pocky?”

“It’s kind of late. I don’t want to get fat.” Akane replied.

“Terrible words, terrible words.” Fuyuka looked away, making a face that said she was ignoring the idea of gaining weight. “I also brought some playing cards.”

While the four talked some more, Manaka fed pocky to Risa. Akane kept glancing toward Yuuka. Fuyuka thought to herself that there must have been something in the water that made her friends go all mushy.

“We’re playing the aishiteru game then?” Fuyuka clapped her hands once as she announced what they seemed to have decided to play for the small party.

At the mention of the game, Yuuka turned her head toward Akane’s group. She then awkwardly turned back to her journal. Yuuka flushed and made a face of embarrassed agony that she would get so flustered by the idea of her roommate saying ‘I love you.’

Then, she felt a weight in her stomach as her eyes noticed again her phone sitting on her desk.



Knock, knock. There was a knock at the door. Akane got up to answer it, and when she opened the door, she saw Neru and Yurina holding a box.

“Oda Nana asked us to help deliver these to you.” Neru explained, looking at the label on the cardboard box, “Mikkabi mikan from her hometown.”

Neru and Yurina handed the box over to Akane who stumbled for a moment at the weight of the box. “Thanks. I have to thank Oda Nana for this later. Haha, how many mikan are in here to make it this heavy?”

“How many, that’s a good question.” Neru smiled.

Yurina nodded. She looked at Akane and added, “Congratulations on winning your tennis tournament.”

“Tecchan, thanks!” Akane beamed.

Fuyuka called out, “Akanen, who was it?”

Akane replied, “Tecchan and Neru brought mikan from Oda Nana.”

Manaka said aloud, leaning her head on Risa’s lap as she nibbled on a pocky stick, “Oda Nana. Dani. Camel. Why mikan? Is it even mikan season?”

“No idea.” Risa shrugged, both pleased and embarrassed that Manaka was using her lap as a pillow.

“Do you want to come in?” Akane offered to Yurina and Neru, “We’re playing some games, but it’s more fun with more people.”

In the end, the other pair of roommates got dragged into the small impromptu party, Manaka casually spraying them with the leftover confetti poppers.



Sugai Yuuka tried to shake away her worries as she joined in on the celebration party. She didn’t want to sour her roommate’s happiness by being visibly troubled in the corner as she liked seeing Akane’s smile.

The girls were sitting on the ground in a circle. Yurina was next to Neru. Manaka was next to Risa. Akane was next to Yuuka. Fuyuka somehow felt like she was surrounded.

After making 7 clean popsicle sticks with labels, Fuyuka announced, “Let’s play the King’s Game.”

Everyone drew out a popsicle stick and took a look at their labels to check who was the King in the game. Manaka grinned and turned her stick to show the group, “I’m the King.”

Manaka peeked over to see what Risa’s number was and nodded to herself. Akane playfully flicked Manaka, scolding her because the King wasn’t supposed to know who had what number.

“Okay, number 2 kiss number 6.” Manaka commanded.

If Fuyuka had been drinking water, then she would have spit it out in surprise. She should have expected the Cool duo’s one half to go for a curveball like that.

“I’m number 2.” Akane showed her stick.

Yuuka said with surprise, “I have number 6.”

As Fuyuka was about to say something to retort to the task, she felt a rather hard tap on the shoulder. She noticed Neru playfully making a sign to not say anything and let it play out.

Yuuka and Akane blushed. Yuuka closed her eyes, and Akane flushed even more. Thinking of kissing her roommate made her really nervous, and she realized that she wanted to do it.

Akane leaned in, heart beating. She moved Yuuka’s bangs aside and gave the horse loving girl a peck on the forehead.

Akane blushed and moved her head away from Yuuka’s, “Okay, I did it.”

Yuuka felt her cheeks flush, and she was afraid to open her mouth because she knew she would stumble over her words. She wondered why she closed her eyes like that as if expecting a kiss on the lips, and added to that, she noticed that her roommate smelled nice like always.

The game continued.


« Last Edit: November 23, 2017, 06:06:15 PM by Shinoki »

Offline MaYukiIsLife

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 16 (Nov. 18, 2017)]
« Reply #42 on: November 18, 2017, 10:01:40 PM »
NO! YOU CAN'T LET THE CHAPTER END LIKE THAT

AND WHY ARE MAKING OUR OJOUSAMA SAD?!

TechiNeru being dragged into the impromptu party lol

Adding onto my Oneshot pile: YuukaNen is next after TechiNeru or first depending on which I write faster lol


Offline Kairi65

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 16 (Nov. 18, 2017)]
« Reply #43 on: November 19, 2017, 11:41:45 AM »
That's it??! NO~  :panic:

I don't know which emotion is a priority anymore...yuuka's sadness  :( or being kissed by akanen  :cathappy:

Of course, mona will protect her queen from anyone lol. And nice piece of monalisa love there :wub:

Offline RyoZakiji

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 16 (Nov. 18, 2017)]
« Reply #44 on: November 20, 2017, 12:55:14 AM »
NO! YOU CAN'T LET THE CHAPTER END LIKE THAT

Yeah you cant do that ahhhhhh!!!!

i really thought they will kiss  :inlove: but the ahhhh  :bleed eyes:

Waiting for the next update  :twothumbs

Offline mooza

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 16 (Nov. 18, 2017)]
« Reply #45 on: November 20, 2017, 02:11:26 PM »
New reader here! First of all, I want to tell you that I'm really enjoying the story so far. Can't wait for more!

I'm really intrigued by Yurina's character. What happened in the past? Did she really get bullied like in her dream? Who was that girl? Does she actually know who the man in the screen is? All these questions and i'm dying to know more >.< Also, Neru is really mysterious too. Just like in the second Keya drama.Who is she and whose side is she on? I'm looking forward to TechiNeru interactions.

Poor Sugai-sama. I wonder whats going on with her family. Them leaving the chat is so cold.

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 17 (Nov. 23, 2017)]
« Reply #46 on: November 23, 2017, 06:05:05 PM »
@mooza: Thank you for reading! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I'm glad you have so many questions, but those questions will take a while to be answered. Techi's backstory will be pretty painful too. (Ahh, I had been thinking that perhaps I wasn't blatant enough about my "Neru is mysterious" and "Techi is sad" set-up)
@RyoZakiji: They'll kiss one day. But I don't think I answer any more questions here.
@Kairi65: MonaRisa love! (speaking of MonaRisa, it was Manaka's birthday, and... ngh, there was some cute MonaRisa stuff she posted in her mobame about Risa sending her a birthday message and pretty literally: "As expected, I like Risa.")
@MaYukiIsLife: Yuuka's going to get sadder soon. Somehow, right after I wrote the previous chapter, I thought to myself: "How do I make Yuuka's life more painful..." But, I'll fix it too, so don't kill me. Haha. Enjoy this chapter~




Checkpoint 17

In the end, Hirate Yurina and Nagahama Neru decided not to continue intruding in Akane’s room and started heading back to their own room.

Neru casually asked, “Yurina-chan, if you had to kiss me, would you kiss me?”

“Eh?” Yurina nearly stopped in her steps as she looked at Neru in confusion.

“Like if you had been asked in the King’s Game to kiss me.”

“Kissing is something that people in love do right?” The short haired girl smiled wryly, “I don’t want to do something you don’t want.”

Neru replied, “I wouldn’t really mind.”

“It’s okay. There’s no need to say that.”

“Yurina-chan, I wouldn’t mind. Would you not want me to kiss you?”

“Neru.” Yurina started her reply calmly.

The short haired girl walked on ahead. Neru couldn’t help but feel the distance in the hallway between herself and Yurina seemed wide. They weren’t holding hands at this moment and Neru wanted to take Yurina’s hand, but she knew that if there was anyone to do that, Neru wasn’t someone who deserved to after what had been done.

Yurina said, “Don’t say that to me.”

“Oh.” Neru mumbled as she followed after her roommate. Yurina looked exhausted, and somehow, that was nothing out of the ordinary but just something that Yurina didn’t let people see very often.

“A kiss is for someone you love, so you don’t need to waste it on someone who won’t be loved.”

“Yurin—”

“Let’s head back to our dorm room.”

Neru put her hand on her head in exasperation. She thought wryly to herself that she had messed up. Then, she went after Yurina and the two returned to the dorm room together.


—Because —————— can’t have love.


Moriya Akane flopped onto her bed, her friends having left and luckily cleaned up their mess after themselves. They left with a final congratulations for her tennis victory and gave her the remaining party favors and snacks. Akanen had put those snacks and the mikan she got from Oda Nana through Yurina and Neru into the kitchen, a small one attached to the dorm room that was a bit bigger than the bathroom.

“Sorry if we were too rowdy, Yuuka.” Akane said to Yuuka who was preparing to go to sleep.

Yuuka smiled and shook her head, “No, it’s okay. It was fun playing those games with everyone.”

“That’s good.” Akane heaved a sigh of relief and extended a metaphorical hand out toward her roommate, “If there’s anything bothering you, you can feel free to tell me.”

“Akanen, I…”

Akane looked toward Yuuka. The former didn’t interrupt the latter but instead waited for Yuuka to continue.

“I guess I’ve been a little homesick recently.”

“You’re from Tokyo right?”

“Yes. It’s a little weird being homesick when home is so close by, but I miss my parents.” Yuuka fumbled over her words when she reached the topic of her parents but quickly deflected to Akane, “How about you?”

“This is probably the first time I’ve been away from home for so long.” Akane replied, “But, I kind of expected that I would be a little homesick because Miyagi could be closer to Tokyo.”

“Do you keep in touch a lot with your family?”

“Just the normal amount, I think.” Akane thought to herself for a moment. “My dad doesn’t text me like Mii-chan’s dad does.”

“It seems nice how Mii-chan’s dad sends so much.” Yuuka sighed.

“Penguin big service.” Akane jokingly said, referring to Koike Minami’s dad who always sent weird good morning messages with penguin emoticons that Koike would complain about.

They chatted for a bit more before turning in for bed.



The sun was barely just up when the sports clubs started morning practice. Like always, Moriya Akane attended morning practice with the tennis club. She had just finished jogging when another member of the tennis club came up to her.

The member requested, “Moriya-san, can I ask you a question?”

“Okay.” Akane shrugged, not seeing why not.

The clubmate thought for a moment, trying to find a good way to phrase the question, and then asked, “Sugai-sama, is she related to the Sugai Company?”

Akane raised her eyebrows in surprise. She didn’t know the answer to that question, so she could only respond, “I can’t answer that.”

“Sorry for bothering you then.” The club member sheepishly bowed and ran off again.

Akane stood for a moment, letting a frown grace her face. She had heard of the Sugai Company before somewhere, but she had never thought to connect it to her roommate.

She stood quietly, trying to pull up where exactly she had heard of the Sugai Company before. Not remembering, Akane pulled out her phone to search up the Sugai Company.

The main news articles she found on the business were nearly a year old, and they all talked about how the technology company had a merger with another company and many people from the Sugai Company were laid off. There were some rumours about why the merger happened such as internal strife or the CEO being sabotaged.

Clicking around in sites, she found an article on the Sugai family who ran the Sugai Company. Strangely enough, the rival company that the merger happened with was also owned by a branch of the Sugai family.

“Eh?” Akane let out a noise of surprise as she saw Yuuka’s name.

Unexpectedly, Yuuka was a part of high society. Akane pondered to herself for a moment about a story where a princess was cast away from her position down to the ground but eventually she would be swept away by a prince back to that golden royalty.

Then, Akane shook her head. In the first place, that imagery didn’t suit Yuuka. Rags to riches or riches to rags, Yuuka seemed like a normal person and even though Akane didn’t know much about company mergers, she was pretty sure that people didn’t plummet into poverty from a merger but rather had back-ups or could find new jobs.

“A prince…” Akane huffed, feeling a little irked at the thought of Yuuka’s possible future boyfriend. “I don’t like that.”

Akane put her phone away, and she continued her morning practice with the club, jogging some more.

« Last Edit: December 03, 2017, 06:13:42 AM by Shinoki »

Offline nevxist

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 17 (Nov. 23, 2017)]
« Reply #47 on: November 24, 2017, 01:28:23 PM »
Woah! I really wonder what happened to techi's past  :? Thanks for the update. I'll be waiting for the next one  :twothumbs

Offline mooza

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 17 (Nov. 23, 2017)]
« Reply #48 on: November 24, 2017, 07:40:37 PM »
lol rip techineru

jk.

will be looking forward to techi's backstory cuz i have a lovehate relationship with angst

Offline RyoZakiji

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 17 (Nov. 23, 2017)]
« Reply #49 on: November 25, 2017, 04:29:34 AM »
yeah i really want to know what happen on techi's past  :?

waiting for the next update  :twothumbs

Offline MaYukiIsLife

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 17 (Nov. 23, 2017)]
« Reply #50 on: November 25, 2017, 11:02:18 AM »
I wanna know more!

Offline Kairi65

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 17 (Nov. 23, 2017)]
« Reply #51 on: November 25, 2017, 06:48:18 PM »
I don't know but i get the feeling that techi is afraid of love. Like, she was betrayed or the other person and her relation gone horrible bcoz of what she feels.

Btw, thanks for the info about the mobame. I rarely read those so i just found out lol

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Interlude 4 (Dec. 3, 2017)]
« Reply #52 on: December 03, 2017, 06:12:39 AM »
@everyone: Sorry for the delay. Ahhhhhh, truly, thank you all for commenting. In complete honesty, I've had a half finished chapter on my doc since my last update. Yet... somehow, I didn't finish it. What is this productivity rate? It's pretty bad. But for now before I make myself finish the next chapter tomorrow, have a Techi-lude. (interlude)

@Kairi65: Techi being afraid of love. I'll keep you hanging on that question, but if it's on the spectrum of yes to no, it's definitely on the yes side.
@MaYukiIsLife: Glad to hear!
@RyoZakiji: Some insight onto Techi's past in this interlude, but not a in-depth look yet.
@mooza: Huhuhu, a love-hate relationship with angst? I don't know if I'm any good at writing angst, but the story as a whole is supposed to be pretty painful.
@nevxist: Thank for reading!



Interlude 4

Peering out the black tinted window of the car, sitting on the leather seats while the heating warmed the insides to protect against the chill of late winter, a long haired girl held a file with papers in her hand.

She was in Aichi at the moment, the car steadily driving through the prefecture. It was a long way from home, which was located in Kyushu. Yet, she couldn’t fully enjoy the taste of this different place.

The girl turned away from the outside. She peered down at the file in her hands. She had yet to read them through in the truest sense, having only glimpsed lightly at the papers inside.

Letting a sigh out of her mouth, the girl made up her mind and opened the file.

“Hirate Yurina.” She tasted the name, whispering it aloud.

The file was focused on a girl named Hirate Yurina. That much she already knew. When she opened up the file, she noticed a few pictures of Hirate clipped onto the first page.

One picture looked a bit older, Hirate with a childish short haircut. Hirate was smiling rather awkwardly as if being teased by someone good-heartedly. She was wearing the first year uniform of a local junior high school.

In the next picture, the junior high student had moved up a grade, her hair a little longer. In this picture, her smile looked a little exhausted, as if she was pushing herself to be someone she couldn’t be.

The girl in the car peered at the last picture, the most current one. Hirate looked pained. The girl in the car paused for a moment, squinting her eyes to scrutinize the picture. Rather than just pained, Hirate looked exhausted and even injured. However, the picture wasn’t very clear, and it was just a picture, so in the end, the girl in the car couldn’t put the whole story together.

Frowning, the girl in the car moved on with the file.

Name, birthday, and many other details were listed. For family, the Hirate family including the subject of the file also had an older son, a mother, and a father. There was a note of trivia of them having a dog. However, the older son was listed as deceased.

On further relations, it seemed that Hirate Yurina was rather popular with both the female and male populations of her school. She was the basketball team ace. Yet, something had completely cut those things off just over a year ago.

The girl in the car continued through the file, feeling more than just a little intrusive.

She entered the section of essays and notes written by the subject herself. There were segments of journals and school assignments including drawings and short scribbles. In addition, there were more pictures.

Surprisingly, the short haired subject of the file was smiling in those pictures. Beside her in a good half of them was a slightly older male, her brother. Another chunk of the pictures were with a female friend. The girl in the car wondered to herself why there were no pictures of Hirate Yurina with her parents except for those with her brother as well.

Then, the girl in the car started reading a short essay on family that was dated to about two years back. “Hirate Yukiteru.” The topic was the brother. “Beloved older brother.”

It was a cute essay, a bit clumsy in how it was written, but the girl in the car couldn’t help but feel that siblings were nice to have. The essay was mostly about the brother though.

Next, there were a few words about Hirate Yurina from other people, listed in chronological order. Firstly, the parents had said from years ago that their daughter was average compared to their son. A variety of others praised the girl while some more said she was normal or a bit darker than her brother.

Skimming through the comments, the girl in the car jolted in surprise at a sudden turn in negativity toward the subject.

Rereading a comment aloud, she couldn’t believe that the subject’s best friend would say such a thing, “The absolute worst…?”

The girl in the car turned her eyes away from the file for a moment, staring outside the window. Even though her employer hadn’t put all of the details in, she could put together the pieces of this Hirate Yurina’s existence from the file, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue.

She took a deep breath and resumed looking through the file.

She wasn’t doing a good deed from the start.


« Last Edit: December 05, 2017, 12:41:30 AM by Shinoki »

Offline four4four

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Interlude 4 (Dec. 3, 2017)]
« Reply #53 on: December 03, 2017, 09:20:26 AM »
Ehhhhhhhhh?! I really want to know more about Techi's past.

Offline MaYukiIsLife

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Interlude 4 (Dec. 3, 2017)]
« Reply #54 on: December 03, 2017, 11:48:24 AM »
Ehhhhhhhhh?! I really want to know more about Techi's past.

Agreed

Offline RyoZakiji

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Interlude 4 (Dec. 3, 2017)]
« Reply #55 on: December 04, 2017, 01:54:02 AM »

Rereading a comment aloud, she couldn’t believe that the subject’s best friend would say such a thing, “The absolute worst…?”


i feel like techi's best friend is the same girl that the one she always say. and same girl in her dreams

Offline Kairi65

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Interlude 4 (Dec. 3, 2017)]
« Reply #56 on: December 04, 2017, 05:44:23 AM »
Now this is a mystery. I wonder who's the girl skimming through the file

Offline MaYukiIsLife

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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Interlude 4 (Dec. 3, 2017)]
« Reply #57 on: December 04, 2017, 10:34:02 PM »
Now this is a mystery. I wonder who's the girl skimming through the file

Predicting it's Neru.

It was a long way from home, which was located in Kyushu.

This kinda gave me an indication, because Neru's now the only Kanji from Kyushu (as you all know she's from Nagasaki)

Offline Shinoki

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Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 18 (Dec. 4, 2017)]
« Reply #58 on: December 05, 2017, 12:40:11 AM »
The truth is, when I said "tomorrow" I actually meant "tomorrow" as in yesterday, but... ah, I wrote it. I need to get Yuuka's arc more organized or else it'll be an incomprehensible mess.

@everyone: Thank you for reading! I'm glad you're curious about Techi's past. I'll move up some of the development I had planned to earlier in the story so you can see more of Techi. I would reply individually to everyone, but... ah, I don't want to give spoilers. I don't know if there's a way to spoiler tag on this site, so I'll just refrain from that now.





Checkpoint 18

Light clouds were looming in the sky, hinting at rain to come. The bell rang, signalling break time. Hirate Yurina looked up at the board. Today, the scores on the latest quiz were up on the board and points were distributed again.

The short haired girl sighed and laid her head down on the table. She felt the hardness of the metal band around her left wrist as she tried to put her hands under her head. She hadn’t done well on the English quiz, which wasn’t too unexpected.

“Yurina-chan.” Neru came up to Yurina.

Yurina greeted her roommate with a mumble, “Neru.”

Looking at the board and back at Yurina, Neru offered, “We can study English together next time.”

Yurina paused for a moment, about to refuse but then she thought again. “Thank you.” She did need help with studying.

The roommates looked back at the quiz ranking on the board again. It was like normal, some classmates getting better, some not. Neru noticed that Yuuka had dropped almost ten places from her usual place as a member of the class who studied and got good grades.

Suddenly, the board flickered away from the grades. Instead, the usual man who made announcements was there again.

Neru flinched as the screen abruptly changed. Yurina looked toward the figure on the screen with a frown as well.

“I see everyone appears to be doing well.” He started with a fake smile. “Summer break will be coming up in a matter of weeks, and exams will commence before the break. These exams can be either taken as a boon or a bane. If they are failed, you will receive huge demerits. If you do well, then you will receive many points. I hope you will take advantage of this situation.”

“If you have read through your student handbooks, then you may have noticed that having a set number of points is a requirement for graduation. Do not forget to maintain your points so that you can graduate.

“An overview of the exams will be displayed on this board during your next break.

“This will be all for now.”

The figure on the screen disappeared, and the rankings from the quiz reappeared. However, no one was looking at those quiz rankings anymore.



Moriya Akane sighed as she heard about the upcoming exams. Even though the Keyaki class had a looser structure of learning with lectures on the board, she felt that she should have expected exams.

However, when she looked around the room, it looked like not everyone shared her opinion. Manaka had her face down on the desk in denial of exams. Suzumoto’s face was contorted in shock. Imaizumi looked half passed out. Yonetani, one of the smart girls in the class, was going along life as if she had expected exams being announced.

Harada Aoi was hanging by Yuuka’s desk, incessantly poking the horse-loving girl, “Hey, hey, hey. Yukka. Hey, hey?”

Risa came over to Akane and joked, “Ah, Aoi is being annoying to Sugai.” Then, the cool girl shrugged, “Better her than me, I guess.”

Akane raised an eyebrow and picked up a small eraser on her desk. The tennis girl tossed the eraser at Aoi’s head, “Hey, primary schooler.”

“Who are you calling a primary schooler!?” Aoi pouted and took Yuuka’s arm to complain, “Geez, Yukka, Akanen is bullying me.”

“Huh?” Yuuka looked up toward Aoi and back at Akane, “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” She quickly put her phone away.

“Was the announcement of the exams that shocking?” Aoi wondered aloud.

“Exams? Um…” Yuuka fumbled over her words.

Aoi frowned, “Did you not pay attention?”

There was a silence. Then, another eraser came flying at Aoi’s head, and there was a small snicker of ‘bullseye’ from the area of Akane’s friend group.

“Hey!” Aoi pouted, sharply twisting toward the perpetrator.

Yuuka wryly smiled, “Akanen, don’t bully Aoi, okay?”

“Okay, okay.” Akane relented. “I’ll have Fuu-chan treat her to ice cream next time we go for some.”

“Akanen, don’t say that.” Fuyuka sighed, hitting Akane lightly in the forehead with an eraser.

“Never mind them, I guess.” Aoi grumbled before turning back to what she was originally going to say, “But, anyways, Yukka, Yukka, Yukka, listen to this.”

“What is it?”

Sugai Yuuka listened to Aoi’s ramblings half-heartedly. As Akane watched her roommate, she couldn’t help but let out another sigh. The clouds outside darkened more, and it started raining.



It was still raining into the next class period. The droplets didn’t cease but rather increased like the worries in Sugai Yuuka’s heart. As she couldn’t pay attention to class, the horse loving girl’s mind gradually drifted off to another rainy day.

She had just finished an activity with her friends in the horseback riding club when it started to pour. The mud of the horse area quickly stained her boots, and everyone retreated inside to wait for their parents to pick them up.

The long haired girl chatted happily with her friends. However, she felt that it was strange that her parents hadn’t come to pick her up yet. It was rather embarrassing because they always came early, gushed over their daughter for a while, and then headed home.

Pitter. Patter. At that time, Yuuka didn’t know how fitting the rain was after her happy time on the back of the horse.

Waiting, many of her friends had already been picked up by butlers or their parents. Yuuka hadn’t received any phone calls from her parents, and no servant from their household had appeared yet. She felt an itch of worry in her heart.

Yuuka’s friend noticed and asked, “Hey, Sugai-chan, no one has come to pick you up yet?” The friend’s butler had arrived.

“It doesn’t look like it.” Yuuka shook her head.

The friend inquired, “Do you want us to send you home?”

“Thank you, but maybe the traffic is bad today due to the rain.” Yuuka politely refused, “I can wait for them myself here. Don’t let me hinder you.”

Letting out a huff of exasperation at Yuuka’s politeness, the friend nodded firmly, “I’ll wait here with you then.”

They waited. The rain grew heavier, and the sky was dark. Even though it was early summer at this time as well, the rain made the air colder and wetter than normal, chilling Yuuka’s heart.

Finally, another car pulled up. Yuuka’s male distantly related cousin stepped out of the car with an umbrella and greeted her.

Yuuka’s friend unconsciously grabbed Yuuka’s hand when she saw the cousin’s sharp look behind his glasses.

“Cousin, what are you doing here?” Yuuka asked.

He replied, “Your parents had something come up, so I’ve come to pick you up.”

“That’s strange.”

“Do you not trust me? We can call aunt to check again if you’d like.”

“No, it’s okay.” Yuuka shook her head, “It’s just somewhat rare for cousin to come out here since you don’t like horsebacking riding much.”

“It was a bit of an emergency.” His eyes were mirthful.

Yuuka bid friend farewell, and Yuuka and her cousin stepped into the car. In the car, they could still hear the sound of the rain and for some reason, the air conditioning was lightly blowing in the car.

“What happened?”

“Do you not know?”

Yuuka was silent. She clenched her hands tightly in her lap but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything and affirmed her older male cousin’s words.

“Uncle is in the hospital right now. It seems that he overworked himself especially now that they are discussing a merger of the Sugai Company with mine.”

“Father is…”

“No one told you? Your parents love you a lot, so they likely didn’t want to worry you.” He smiled, and Yuuka thought that it was a terrible smile, “You’re a beautiful young lady, Yuuka.”

The horse-loving girl didn’t know what to respond. She wasn’t sure why her cousin would add on such a praise for her, but in her heart, she felt that it was worse to be loved and not told anything by her parents. She didn’t want to have that kind of love.

Sugai Yuuka didn’t know when but some tears had gathered in her eyes.

Sitting up in her seat in the Keyaki class, Yuuka noticed that she had fallen asleep. Quickly wiping away her budding tears, she looked up at the board to at least try to pay attention to class.

It was still raining.


« Last Edit: December 14, 2017, 03:36:22 AM by Shinoki »

Offline four4four

  • Member+
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Re: Eccentric (MonaRisa, TechiNeru +) [Checkpoint 18 (Dec. 4, 2017)]
« Reply #59 on: December 05, 2017, 04:23:55 AM »
Yuuka~~~~~~ What is happening?

I don't trust the cousin.   :angry:

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