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Another day passes, and she waits by the fountain, alone, focused hard on her game without really being focused, to the point she hits another Game Over. She sighs, and lowers it just a few inches, like he’ll somehow pop up from behind it, surprising her.
He doesn’t.
Hinata remains missing, and the only sounds are the muted chirps of birds and the gurgling of the fountain behind her. It’s almost like before, way back at the start of the year, or even further. Those friendless days of middle school, where she dealt with the loneliness by tearing herself away from the world around her, curling herself tight into a defensive little ball with only her video games allowed inside her personal cocoon. Rumours spread about how she’d been cursed, unable to register anything except the console in front of her.
Not that anyone from that school cared.
They care here, about her at least. Ever since she bonded through her class via video games, they seem to be all about her. She doesn’t know if she deserves it. She loves her classmates, but she was just trying to connect with people, and after that, do her job as class rep, helping those she considers friends. Most people don’t get fawned over for doing their jobs, right? People often praise those that help others, sure, but helping people should be a given, not some rare commendable act, she thinks. It should be natural instinct.
She reboots the game, and her fingers begin to click at a mad pace once more, trying to push herself into the world that served as her hideaway throughout her years. Maybe if she was more than just a class rep - maybe if she was a real hero, like the pixelated figures on her screen, then maybe she could figure out what happened to Hinata. Maybe he’d been kidnapped. That thought seems to make a lot of sense - it’s a common plot device, after all, the perfect way to start into the more dramatic arcs of a story.
She ponders this scenario in her head, different idea of how it came about, of how to fix it. Hinata’s trapped in some villain’s castle or lair or whatnot, and the Chiaki in her head - the hero Chiaki, not the real one - she’s levelled to the max and equipped with as much armour as she can manage and on her way to save him. Jumping on Goomba, maybe, or slashing down enemies with a sword. Summoning her Persona, her outfit cool, her attitude confident and rebellious. Casting Firaga and singeing obstacles in her way. She might even have a starship, shooting down opposing forces and avoiding their projectiles.
‘Heaven Slaying Dragon Fist’ is useful, sure, but she really needs more in her move-set, more in her inventory, more in her party.
And in the end, after the final boss is defeated, slinking off to the shadows never to be seen again, she would find Hinata. He would be alright, and then the two of them would escape together, far far away, back to where things are safe and normal again, like how it used to be. To meet her classmates, to play games together, to hangout by the fountain just like before. They’d all be happy. And she knows, sometimes, that in these scenarios, the hero is often rewarded with a kiss - the idea slows her movement somewhat, just a little, with the shock of it. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad either, if Hinata wanted it too. Maybe, with him... it might be nice.
But that’s a thought for another time. Or perhaps not, because this whole situation is impossible anyway, even though she wishes it weren’t. She’s never actually wanted to be a video game character, as much as she admires them - to be confined to one world, with only so many options and people to meet and limited endings. It’s better to be playing the games than in them, she thinks, experiencing all the universes instead of just a singular, where failure just means having to load a save point and can even be fun and challenging, not life-threatening.
But still, to have their powers in the real world... to carry round the skills of hero Chiaki like a secret identity... that might be nice.
The power to help friends, no matter how tough the problem.
Game Over flashes on the screen once again. Chiaki shakes her head. Even that’s impossible. She doesn’t know if Hinata even has any problem. For all she knows, he might just have grown tired of her, like her elementary school classmates had, leading to the lonely middle school years to follow.
Placing her Game Girl Advance inside her backpack, she decides to postpone the rescue mission for now.
In the end, a rescue mission does take place, though not the kind she anticipated. For Miss Yukizome, who saved them. Who taught her so much. Who had been so kind. Who's eyes were now empty of that love and compassion, only filled with a twisted sadisticness.
And then she’s in a dungeon, and there’s traps and pain and blood. The girl, the final boss, she laughs at Chiaki's efforts, at her refusal to give up. And she thinks, as she stumbles, as she grits her teeth, this is the kind of thing she’s been picturing. A chance to beat adversity and be the hero.
But she’s not a hero.
She’s just a girl who wants her teacher safe, and in the end, as hard as she fights, as strong as her determination is, it’s not enough. Separated from her party, inventory empty, stats not nearly good enough, HP too low to recover. The spears hit, and the world dissolves into colours, bursting, burning, bright. More agony than she ever thought possible.
She finds Hinata, or some version of him. He doesn’t remember, and she’s not a hero, so she can’t drag those memories back. She can only lie on the floor, bleeding out, battling the pain and the darkness at the edges of her vision and losing, losing, as he watches on.
She’s just a girl who wants to protect her classmates, but can’t. A girl who's not ready to die yet. Who wants to play games together, just one last time. She’s not a hero.
But she’s too plot-relevant to be an NPC now.
Maybe, she thinks, as the boy she so desperately sought after stares blankly at her and things begin to fade, maybe in the midst of her failure to save those important, in the midst of her very death being broadcast to her classmates, breaking their hearts, spreading despair -
In the midst of all that, maybe, she’s always just been the tool for a villain.