Jaydor

[Joan fucking DIES because she's in grorious nippon now and should watch REAL shows like PrePure]

[Aika is LITERALLY the WORST]

Joan

Within some time, you arrive at your front door. Quietly stepping inside, the house is completely silent. It's the same as when you left it earlier this morning, the present absence of Nekomoto aside. Your parents haven't come yet, evidently.

It wasn't a very welcoming atmosphere even then, but now that there isn't a talking cat lying around with you, your home seems incredibly lonely.

Aika

You start searching on your phone before your fingers pause at the sound of a sudden voice.

"You certainly seem bored, young lady," Nekomoto comments, practically appearing out of thin air. It's been some time since you tried calling out to him at Joan's request, but wherever he was, he must have returned.

Yukari

Takeshi speaks while continuing to work on the scooter.

"So, what about you? Have any stories?"

Hisako

You idly flip through one of your textbooks, random scribbles and doodles populating the margins. You come across a consistent pattern as you skip through a certain chunk of pages.

On the same spot on each page is a date and a fortune. Slowly, it comes back to your mind that you had once made a habit of writing down the fortunes that Masumi-chan, your fortune-telling friend in the occult research club, gave you each meeting.

"What's that you're looking at, Kazuaki-san? Finishing up some homework?"

Egusa-san glances in your direction, curious as to why you brought out the textbook.

Joan

The bandaged girl doesn't reply as you make your leave. She simply watches you exit for a moment before turning away.

A few minutes later, you find yourself outside the arcade again.

Aika

After a bit of digging around under the TV, you find the case for the first volume of Blindfold Hero Punchman and insert the disc into the Blu-ray player.

"Change Fist! Lariat Buuuuuurniiiiiing!!"

The first episode begins with the protagonist, a down on his luck man with a boxing hobby, meeting the titular Blindfold Hero Punchman in a chance encounter! Disaster strikes as Punchman defeats the enemy to protect the protagonist, but at the cost of his own life. With his last breath, he gives his mantle and powers of a Blindfold Hero to the main character.

It's an odd show, but you think you can understand how it has wide age range appeal.

Joan

"I'd tell her to stay away from magic, then. Are you satisfied?"

Tami, Hisako

"Hmm.. a couple of years? Just kidding."

Egusa-san laughs with a bashful expression.

"Well, to be honest, it's been a few months. Three or four, I guess? In the beginning, I thought her personality was just because we didn't know each other well, but she hasn't changed at all even now."

Joan

"Don't get involved with strange fish," she replies.

..? You're not really sure what she means.

"Is that all?"

[as much as her high priest Cube would argue otherwise, Joan cannot carry the campaign on her own]

[seriously you guys need to update]

Joan

The girl averts your gaze.

"..It's meaningless to pursue that kind of wish like that."

Her response is dripping with contempt, but rather than being towards you, it isn't directed at anyone or anything in particular.

"That's all I'm going to say about it. Just forget what I said anything earlier."

Joan

"No, it doesn't. Your specs might go up, but even if you win your battles, you'll still get worn down. It's like spending 900 yen to make 1000, you barely break even."

Tami, Hisako

"Eh? Ah.. you must have run into a youma and its nightmare then. I guess it didn't notice you though if that's all that happened."

Egusa-san scratches at her cheek and chuckles nervously.

"Good thing, huh?"

Joan

She makes a troubled expression, as if trying to remember.

"This all happened.. a little more than a month and a half ago?"

Hisako

You look inside. The contents are the same as they were before, textbooks and other school related items.

Aika

You load up a site with many uploaded galleries.

..It's a pain to browse on your phone.

[You guys need to step it up Joan's the only one doing anything]

Joan

The girl tilts her head slightly.

"I didn't."

Joan

"You don't need to know what my wish is. It's not going to help you."

Joan

The girl narrows her eye.

"I don't see why those are important."

Joan

"About four or five months ago."

Joan

"I couldn't tell you. It's probably been wished for, or someone wanted to, but I've never seen anyone making a wish."

The image of a one-way road floats into your mind. Almost frightening how someone would force themselves to keep moving, even without knowing what was really waiting at the end.

Joan

The bandaged girl lets out a bitter sigh as she leans against a nearby crane game machine.

"It depends on the level and type of residual magic. At lower levels, it's things like causing magic phenomena or emotional outbursts. More than that causes.. mutations."

She stares up at the ceiling.

"I've only ever stood on the very edge, so I don't know what comes after. But it would have to be a lot worse than everything else if someone ever got to that point."

Joan

Strands of magic power spill out from your ring and coalesce between your thumb and index finger, quickly forming into the familiar jewel shape of an oblivion seed.

The girl absorbs it into her own ring once you drop the seed into her hand.

"Ask away."

Joan

"First, the oblivion seed," she says, holding out her palm in expectation.

Just looking at her, the bandaged girl gives off a listless, even pitiful, impression from her appearance and body language. She would almost seem weak if not for the intense, dagger-like gaze in her visible eye.

Joan

You quickly head up to the second floor. As expected, there's not as many people as there would usually be since most people are still in school at this time of day. That's not to say there aren't still a fair amount of patrons around though.

That being said, you recall that you never actually caught a glimpse of the girl, much less her face. She apparently has a lot of bandages, but depending on the angle, even that might not be an ideal trait to pick someone out of a group.

"Nonohara Joan?"

But before any of that could become a problem, you're approached from behind. Turning around, you find a young girl wearing a hoodie and track pants, with half of her face wrapped up.

Tami, Hisako

Egusa-san notices Hisako's twiddling, tilting her head in response, before finally snapping into place as if she suddenly remembered something important.

"..Oh! Right, right, we were here because Fujiwaka-san wanted to talk about something."

She puts her fork down.

"Sorry. What did you want to discuss?"

Joan

"There's a nearby arcade, in front of a Book-On. If you don't know where it is, look it up. I'll be on the second floor. Come alone."

Brushing off your demands, the girl then hangs up.

Luckily, you know which arcade the she was talking about, and it isn't that far away from your current location. You've been there a few times.

Joan

"Did you decide yet?"

Aika

You call out for Nekomoto, but after a few moments of waiting, you still don't receive a response.

Joan

"This is a public phone booth. I would rather not loiter longer than I have to."

Aika

You open up the app to play, but you're greeted with the message of "The game server is offline for scheduled maintenance. Service should resume at 5:00 PM."

It must be due to an impending content update.