kamiyandisease | Chapter 01: The Calm Before the Next Storm

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Chapter 01: The Calm Before the Next Storm - Starry Sky [Video/Action]

[Someone is feeling a bit adventurous and daring tonight! If you’re walking by or looking out your window of House 4, you’ll find that one misfortunate loser who just so happens to be sitting on top of the roof. For a moment, he looks a bit uneasy because plenty of bad things could happen when you’re sitting on a rooftop! But regardless, he still simply wants to check out the beautiful view. Touma will awkwardly rub the back of his head before he starts speaking.]

Um... Quick question! I'm not breaking any laws by lounging on top on a rooftop, aren't I? I don’t get a chance to do this often, so please let this spirited youth be able to treasure this opportunity as long as he can-! [Hopefully, he won’t go crashing through the rooftop and into someone’s shower or something. He shakes off that thought immediately.] Anyway… It’s good to know that the stars here are much brighter than how they are back home. Whenever you live in a city, it’s tough to appreciate how precious nature really is. [With that said, he moves onto the next subject!]

I’m not very sure how to feel about that last experiment… But Halloween is coming up soon, so we should all be on our toes for what’s gonna happen. For those who have been here for a long time, do you think you could give this speculating Kamijou-san a little insight on what has happened these past few years? If I wake up underneath a pile of treat-or-treating candy or end up getting chased by zombies, then at least I’ll know what to yell out when the random event flag raises itself.

... Is anyone else up at this time or am I simply musing to myself?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Everyone has to voice their opinion on an issue sometimes, so it can't be helped if someone has to get really preachy when it comes to ideals. Sure, it can be corny and boring, but someone has to speak up! How else can you get through to a person if you don't talk to them?

... [Clears his throat.] I-I'm just speaking for the sake of the protagonists. It's not like I really took that personally.

That's awfully specific denial.

[ no, okay, she won't troll him further over it, even if it amuses her a little.. ]

I was just saying that something like that doesn't work for any ninja, since they have to be sneaky and delivering speeches isn't exactly part of that. It's why manga are so unrealistic.

That's true. You don't see one person defeating ten guys in an entire gang in real life. It would be different it things were one-on-one maybe, but one-on-ten never turns out well. [A beat.] Still, that doesn't mean that it isn't fun to read.

I'm not so sure. I never particularly cared for manga. [ this probably doesn't come as a surprise. ] You definitely seem like the kind of person who would enjoy such a thing though, Kamijou-san. Maybe that's why you took it as so much of a personal jab.

We'll simply have to change that over time-- [Then he hears that.] Gyaaa! Hold on a minute... Am I really that one-dimensional and predictable?!

Let's see, how should I say it.. [ She pretends to think for a moment. Sorry, Touma, she can be sort of a troll when she actually cares for people.. ] I would say you just offer people the comfort of the predictable.

Besides, what do you mean with 'change that over time'? You're starting to make it sound like some sort of project.

Haaaah? What's with this mocking tone I'm hearing? Ange-san... Don't tell me that you're the type that take pleasure in teasing others. [And he'll just be joking around here--] Haaah... Kamijou-san is having a relaxing moment under the stars with a cute girl and the moment doesn't feel very romantic at all.

That's because it is! My "Opening Up Ushiromiya Ange Raising Project"! The name still needs work, but that's the jist.

Ah, so I'm the one getting it wrong here, Kamijou-san? I thought part of this whole 'being friends' deal involved friendly teasing. [ She won't lose this battle, okay!! Although that last part.. ] And if it's a romantic mood you're looking for, you should have taken an actually cute girl here.

... [ okay, that makes her a bit more B|.. Tsuntsun. ] I'm not so sure if I want to be part of this. It's not like I need to open up, either way, so it's all just useless.

Well, yeah! That's true! But coming from you... It's tough to tell if it's teasing or blunt insults. [HE'S JUST SAYING!!! Whoa, whoa... That actually makes him pause.] Eh? Well... I don't know about that, but you don't think you're cute at all?

[No, Ange, no! This is progress!!] Yeah, you do. Nothing is useless since everything happens for a reason. This Kamijou-san still has a lot of things to teach you!

Rest assured, if I had any insults for you I'd just state them properly. [ keep the jokes to your haircut, etc, etc.. at the second part her deadpan fades just a tiny bit, enough for her to blink a bit curiously. ] Not really? Should there be any reason for me to think about myself in terms like 'cute'? It seems pretty unfitting.

[ but what is being social.. ]

In that case, give me one good reason why I should have to open up.

.... [How did the conversation go in this direction? Touma takes a moment to think...] Hmmm... Should I say 'pretty' or 'beautiful' then? Those terms would suit you better since you aren't a kid. Aren't all girls supposed to see themselves as attractive in some way?

If you want a short version from me... Then it's because if you form bonds with other people, then new doors and opportunities will open up! I guess it's like how positive energy attracts positive things around you.

Not all girls. Or.. well, I guess I can only speak for myself, but I've never had any sort of interest in that sort of thing. The way I look is just the way I look, no matter what you want to call it. I don't see what's so important about it that's enough to make other people throw a fuss.

[ 'new doors and opportunities'.. More like more chances to be betrayed, most of the time, she has learned by now. ] ... You're too much of an optimist, Kamijou-san.

Eh? No one's throwing a fuss at all. It's just having an good self-image on yourself. Expressing how you are on the outside from the inside, you know? I guess that's how I see the situation anyway.

[He'll blink at look over to her.] ... Huh? Why do you say that?

I'm more talking about those people obsessed with good looks and all. A few girls back in my old school were like that, to a point where they would start to constantly complain about haircuts to each other.. Probably since they could do little in the sense of fashion with the school uniforms and all.

[ She shrugs a little at that, but.. the next part is slightly less deadpan and more serious, down-to-business. ]

New bonds with people aren't such good things at all. New bonds mean that there's a new chance to get lied to or manipulated or worse. It also means there's the chance of losing that bond again. There are just too many negative things about it for it to be worth it.

Haaaah? I'm not telling you to become obnoxious like that... Absolutely not. I couldn't really picture you doing that at all. [That raises a question for him, though.] What was your school like, anyway?

.... [Touma reads this and he'll follow up with his own serious tone. Again, he remembers how he lied to Index... Even if she forgave him, he still can't fully forgive himself for that. What kind of friend could he call himself?] Lied to and manipulated, huh? I've already been through that, but that didn't mean that I fully given up on people right then and here. I'd rather trust people at 120 percent than trust no one at all. I don't see how anyone could possibly live like that.

That's good. I'd have to start questioning your wild imagination if you would be able to picture that. [ Then she.. frowns a little, maybe for a moment, but shrugs it off again just as quickly. ] It was the kind of private boarding school. You know, a place where they ship spoiled rich kids off to so society won't have to deal with them until they're at least more grown up. And to spend the time a little, they bother each other endlessly instead since just school would be too boring for them.

It's not that hard. ... At least not impossible. [ But even as she says it, it's not completely true that she manages to live that way. After all, even if she doesn't fully realise it, she does slowly start to trust people sometimes. But from her own point of view trusting nobody is exactly how she lives. ]

Eh? Who said that I had a wild imagination? It's perfectly healthy like any other teenage boy. [Keep telling yourself that, Touma.] That sounds more like a prison than an actual school. You don't seem all the spoiled to me. Quite the opposite, in the fact.

... [He cannot fully buy that at all.] I don't believe that. Humans aren't made to live on their own. If you show me a lonely person, then I'll show them a fun time.

No, if there's one thing I have learned by now about you, it's that your imagination is definitely above average. Not that it's exactly a bad thing, but you shouldn't go too overboard with it or people might start to think things and all. [ it's okay, she will just tell him the opposite.. ] And.. well, I like to think I was one of the exceptions in that school. Maybe that's why they decided I was the excellent target to pick on.

[ for a moment she goes quiet. ]

... Do you really think you can help anyone at all with that?

...??? Eh? Um, thank you... Wait, think things-- [Oh. Oh. She meant it like that--] Gah! How can you say such things with a complete straight face?! That's scary! [...] People had picked on you? [Ouch. That hits a sensitive spot for him.] ... I'm sorry. I wasn't there to do anything for you, so... Maybe things would've been different if I could've been there.

If it can make them ten times happier than they were before, then I would do everything I could to help.

There's no need to apologize over 'what-ifs'. They don't matter either way. Things just happened the way they did, and there's no changing it.. That's all. [ Luckily she can just casually shrug a little about it by now, even when thinking back on it. It was rather unpleasant back then, after all. ]

And that would be why I'm.. a project of yours?

E-eh? From how you're saying that... It's like I'm going to perform an experiment!

It comes pretty close to that, doesn't it? Especially when you're just going to go ahead and give it weird titles like the "Opening Up Ushiromiya Ange Raising Project". Soon I might just start to feel like a lab rat.

[ not that she seems to be complaining, exactly, it's more just her usual deadpan. ]

Hoooh? Then please let me grab my labcoat and lay yourself out on the operating table. I will put on my golves and grab my tools and we were begin with today's experiment.

[Said with a straight face and sparkle.]

Sure, sure, Kamijou-sensei.

[ ~~what is that sparkle doing there~~ She mostly says it with a straight face too, since.. well, that's the deadpan fashion in which she does all her sort of humor. ]

So which part of me are you going to dissect, huh?

... Eh? Isn't it natural for scientists to start at the chest?

[Of course he says this as casually as possible without even realizing how awkward that soudned.]

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