Chapter Text
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The main screen is that of a school and its front yard, iron gates swung open in welcome. Several cherry blossom trees flank its left and right sides. A faint breeze causes a small whirlwind of falling sakura petals. A couple of dogs and cats dozing on the flowerbeds lining the school building. The sun is bright.
Brighter still is the game’s title, in candy colors and cutesy font: [ DOKI ♡ DOKI ♡ HEARTS ♡ PARADISE ].
Underneath the title that’s sparkling so brightly that it hurts his eyes, there’s a prompt asking for him to enter his name. The part where he keys his name in is grayed-out, [中原中也] already typed in. The only part that requires his input is to press the glimmering [OK~♡] button using the sakura-flower cursor.
He clicks his tongue, but presses the button anyway.
The game in front of him looks murderously cheerful, but staying outside of the game also doesn’t seem advisable. He waits until his eyesight resettles after the whirlwind of the loading screen, a pink flower storm covering his entire vision.
He clicks through a hundred prompts without really reading anything from the setting.
He’s a transfer student in final year of high school, he gains some admirers, he joins a club, he beats up some bullies from a neighboring delinquent school, he’s asked to help in the school festival, blah, blah, blah. He keeps on clicking the top-most options for the dialogue, since he just wants to get to the end of things quickly without reading the mundane setting.
And then there’s an underclassman who looks like a color-swapped Tachihara who asks to talk to him at the school’s garden on the day of the festival. He chooses the topmost dialogue again, which immediately leads to a cutscene where he stumbles upon said underclassman’s dead body under the cherry blossom tree.
“……Oi, what the flying fuck,” are his first actual words since entering this strange game.
He spends a few minutes staring at the corpse in bewilderment. He knows that he’s just playing a game, he knows that the corpse in front of him is just fictional pixels given life. He knows that it’s not actually Tachihara, but it’s still a bit unnerving to see something like it happen.
…Huh.
[RELOAD GAME? ♡] flashes in front of his eyes. It’s in the same cutesy font and bubblegum colors as the game’s title. Juxtaposed with the corpse that’s still there, it gives off a sense of wrongness. Whoever developed this game must have some seriously bad taste.
He doesn’t turn around, but he could feel the dark mist that was chasing him before start to encroach upon his back. It’s the main reason why he decided to enter this game. He can’t figure out why he’s trying to run away from that mist, but it’s giving him an uncomfortable feeling, like he can’t let himself be swallowed up by it.
[OK~♡] is the only available option.
Well, he’s never been the sort to turn tail from any challenge. He clicks it with a vicious jab of his finger through the air, and a whirlwind of cherry blossoms sweep him away.
— — —
[中原中也 Game File #2]
He’s back to the main screen, with the game title and the grayed-out prompt for his name.
Thankfully, his eyes have adapted to the blinding color palette of the entire place, so his head doesn’t hurt so much looking at everything now.
The main screen is that of Yokohama High School and its front yard, iron gates swung open in welcome. A huge clock hangs on the face of the main building that’s seven floors tall. Several cherry blossom trees flank the gate’s left and right sides. A faint breeze causes a small whirlwind of falling sakura petals. A couple of dogs and cats dozing on the flowerbeds lining the school building. Two cats prowl the perimeter, meowing cutely towards him. There’s one cloud drifting on the otherwise-clear sky. The sun is bright.
Brighter still is the game’s title, in candy colors and cutesy font: [ DOKI ♡ DOKI ♡ HEARTS ♡ PARADISE ].
He clicks his tongue and presses the glimmering [OK~♡] button using the sakura-flower cursor.
Another round of a pink flower storm, then he’s whisked to the game’s next scene.
Nakahara Chuuya’s class introduction to 3-B, the year’s second-best class. Now that he’s paying more attention to things, he spots familiar faces amongst his classmates. Characters that are color-swapped versions of Shirase, Yuan, Kajii and Albatross are in this class. The homeroom teacher looks a bit like Pianoman, if aged up by thirty years and given many facial wrinkles.
As is standard for transfer students during this kind of scenario, he’s sent to occupy the seat near the window. There are two empty seats there, on the last two rows beside the window. He ends up sitting on the one beside ‘Shirase’, who then immediately befriends him.
He tries to garner more clues, but it really is too mundane for someone like him. He didn’t notice it as much during the first round, but this game… is quite focused on the character’s daily life. A very normal, peaceful daily life filled with homework and ordinary struggles of a high school student.
Port Mafia Executive Nakahara Chuuya doesn’t run away, but he ends up sleeping through most of the dialogue now that he isn’t just mindlessly clicking. Well, the plan is to stop mindlessly clicking, but after the tenth prompt about whether he’d like to eat lunch at the rooftop or by the side of the track-and-field area, he’s ready to resume his earlier style of just clicking whatever.
On this round, he still is a transfer student who gains a lot of admirers due to his exam scores and his performance with both sports and the arts. He joins the soccer club this time, and ends up spending more time with the captain, Shirase. He still beats up some bullies from a neighboring delinquent school, sending them to the ground. Their leader even ends up crying pitifully.
He tries to keep a lookout for the ‘Tachihara’ of this game, but since he’s joined the soccer club, it’s been a lot of training and bonding with the team. ‘Tachihara’ is from the archery club, so their paths don’t cross now.
Even though he just mindlessly clicked through earlier, he still remembers that the death happened on the day of the school festival. He’s more mindful during the days leading up to it, reading through each one of the mundane dialogues.
Fighting through his boredom is a lot harder than it looks. There’s too much lackluster dialogue and generic NPCs that he has to deal with. He can’t help but feel that there’s something missing, but try as he might, he can’t pinpoint the source of this odd sensation.
He looks down at his clothes. The mirror in his dorm room has been broken by its previous occupants, and the glass on the window is too dull to show him what he looks like. A standard white button-up and black pants. He has a necktie loosely hanging from his neck, which has been commented on by several NPCs. He rubs his nape, irritated for some reason.
On the day before the school festival, his soccer team is supposed to fight a qualifier for the Nationals. Captain ‘Shirase’ asks to talk to him an hour before the game. There’s apparently something important that he wants to tell Chuuya, so he’d like to meet him in the locker room.
Chuuya clicks his agreement, which immediately leads to a cutscene where he stumbles upon the dead body of ‘Shirase’ crucified against his locker.
“……Oi, what the fuck, does this mean that he was supposed to be my love interest in this round?” Aren’t they just supposed to be hotblooded comrades fighting together to achieve victory for their team? Shirase is a friend, damn it!
[RELOAD GAME? ♡] flashes in front of his eyes once again. It’s sparkling brightly, the edges of the floating button shimmering with tiny stars and pink hearts. An overload of perky cuteness. Last time, he simply ended up clicking [OK~♡] as it’s the only available option.
It’s still the only option now, but Chuuya does something that he didn’t do last time.
He sidesteps the flashing button.
Huh.
It doesn’t send him back or push him away.
He circles the area surrounding the crucified ‘Shirase’. Most of the blood are on his neck and shirt, leaving his face easily identifiable, as if the culprit wanted to make sure that he doesn’t doubt the victim’s identity. The blood isn’t so fresh anymore, most of it absorbed into the man’s clothes.
‘Shirase’ has not had the chance to change into the sports uniform. He’s wearing a cardigan on top of the usual uniform, and it seems to have been glued hard to the metal lockers to suspend him in that crucified pose.
Chuuya frowns at how the other is placed—that is, too high for him to inspect the top of his head without jumping around.
As he’s thought, the game developer really has some terrible taste!
He has a feeling that there’s a meaning behind keeping this ‘Shirase’ very recognizable. Since he’s going to reload the game anyway, he ends up just foregoing caution and drags the other’s body down.
“…I fucking knew it,” he grumbles as the body falls forward. The back of his head has been cut cleanly. Seems like the perpetrator really took his time to do this. With proper tools, even someone without a lot of strength could have done it. “Is the murderer calling ‘Shirase’ brainless for wanting to confess to me?”
He didn’t manage to inspect the first corpse, but he has a feeling it’s a similar murder method.
He looks around for more clues. The windows are also foggy enough that he couldn’t see his reflection. He tries to slide it open, but he sees a prompt pop up in front of his eyes as he touches it.
It’s rare to have ‘introspective’ self-dialogue prompts in this game—or rather, it’s rare to have something that’s directly linked to what’s happening. Most of the self-dialogue were mundane observations about the weather, about the cats and dogs in the school, about wanting to sleep instead of listening to lessons.
Now, the prompt says, [“I can’t see my reflection, but I’m sure it’s not because there’s a ghost behind me.”]
“…Such bad taste,” he grumbles, and pokes the window again. “What if I just want to see how I look?”
The next prompt says, [“I can’t see my reflection, but it’s not like I need to check how I look, I know I’m very cute.”]
“So I can affect the prompt?” He frowns and thinks about how he’s not such a narcissist that he’d bother to think whether he’s cute or not.
[“I can’t see my reflection, but it’s not like I need to check how I look, I know I’m the most beautiful shorty in this world.”]
Chuuya sighs, then punches the window.
[RELOAD GAME? ♡] whirls in front of him, and he could almost hear phantom laughter around him. He punches the [OK~♡] button and promises himself that he’s going to wring the game developer’s neck for being so annoying.
— — —
[中原中也 Game File #3]
He’s back to the main screen, with the game title and the grayed-out prompt for his name.
Thankfully, his eyes have adapted to the blinding color palette of the entire place, so the headache that he has is linked to how annoying the game’s last developments are.
He’s been fine with simply going through the game before, but now he’s irritated enough that he wants to solve it. If only because he wants to reach the end credits and get a confirmation as to the game developer’s identity.
He squints at the sky and at the rest of the scene. Huh, it looks a bit different. The sun doesn’t seem as bright as before, and there are three big clouds around it. In the distance, he could see dark storm clouds.
Yokohama High School and its front yard still stands in front of him, iron gates swung open in welcome. The iron looks… not exactly rusted, but somehow more sinister. The tips are starting to look more like pikes awaiting heads to be mounted on it.
The dizzying brightness has been toned down, and somehow, the cherry blossom trees flanking the gate have its flowers glow a deeper pink. A stronger scent too, as the petals surround him in a small whirlwind, as if they’ve become lusher compared to earlier.
There’s one dog that rolls around near the gates, its brothers and sisters sleepily wrestling together. One of the cats circle his ankles, meowing at him.
He stares at the game’s title, [ DOKI ♡ DOKI ♡ HEARTS ♡ PARADISE ], feeling like there’s something really off about it. He takes a deep breath, then clicks the [OK~♡] button using the sakura-flower cursor.
Another round of a pink flower storm, then he’s whisked to the game’s next scene.
He stands in front of 3-B’s classroom, but instead of waiting for the teacher to ask him to come in, he rushes towards the opposite direction. It should lead to the faculty room, which is on the same floor as the third-years’ homerooms.
In the previous rounds, the game has mostly kept him inside several locations.
The school property. The dorm room that used to be occupied by four people, but now only has him as the sole occupant. That one scene where he returns to his home, but because his parents are busy, faceless people, he doesn’t run into them at all. The street connecting Yokohama High School to the neighboring delinquent school, where he runs into those bullies, where he eats dinner with soccer club teammates. The tryouts for Nationals are hosted by their own school, so he doesn’t go anywhere else.
He’s seen a bunch of NPCs that are seemingly modeled after his real-world acquaintances.
Except for one.
“Where the fuck are you, shitty Dazai?”
Inside the school grounds, the faculty room is the only room that he hasn’t been to. So, if that mackerel’s character is here too, then he should be inside that room. Unless his mind is actually a genius, and so, has actually prevented himself from thinking of an NPC based on him?
On his way to the faculty room, he bumps into someone familiar.
A color-swapped version of Fyodor Dostoevsky, wearing the same fluffy outfit as is present in his information dossier. Aside from the hair color changes, the only other difference is that his eyebags are way darker now.
Chuuya presses the dialogue prompt that asks, [“Are you okay?”]
It immediately whisks him to a cutscene where Dostoevsky’s bludgeoned into unrecognizable pieces, the fluffy clothes being the only thing that tells him of his identity.
…No, the instant BAD END tells him enough.
[RELOAD GAME! ♡] [RELOAD GAME! ♡] [RELOAD GAME! ♡] [RELOAD GAME! ♡] [RELOAD GAME! ♡]
The prompts fill his vision, layering over Dostoevsky’s body like a kaleidoscope mosaic. The intent to stop him from approaching and inspect the body is too clear.
He takes a deep breath and yells, “Come the fuck out then, shitty Dazai and I’m going to punch you so hard!”
As if taking that as his agreement, he’s surrounded by the flower whirlwind, and brought back to the loading screen.
Chuuya clenches his fists. He’s going to find that shitty mackerel’s character, romance him so hard and then kill him himself, damn it!
— — —
[中原中也 Game File #4: PAUSED]
[to be continued]