Fractal Plane: Maiden's Heart

Chapter 6 - Power Trios?

1

"What's up, Tomoda? I heard you switched over to playing that new card game on mobile."

The bowl cut teen named Tomoda put down his bag before turning to the classmate with glasses. "Oh, that one? Yeah I started on it last night."

"Would you believe that Daimonji is already Platinum in the game?"

"Didn't that thing just got released last week? Holy... Daimonji!" With a distressed look, Tomoda called out to another classmate. "Daimonji! Just what kind of degenerate deck are you using? Help me climb!"

Kazuki Arata's ears did not register any more of the conversation among the trio of mobile gamers. He used to interact a lot with them thanks to another game, but due to real life circumstances, he just cannot log in to Lost Legend as much anymore, or other games, for the matter.

Not like he was lucky with his rolls there anyway.

His thoughts then drifted to what happened last night. It was an unbelievable sequence of events, and he still cannot get over it. No way can he tell the truth to just about anybody, and he felt some remorse over the lies he had to throw at Hikari when he got home last night.

"Good morning, Arata."

Hearing that cheerful voice, Kazuki tensed up and glanced towards his seatmate. However, there was nothing different from Miki Amagi's positive disposition. There were no signs of trauma on her face, and she looked completely normal, as if nothing happened last night.

"Good morning, Amagi."

"Let's work hard together today, Arata," she beamed as she sat down. "One last push before the school trip."

Kazuki exhaled. At first, he somehow thought that his seatmate would bring up the topic of the ordeal last night, but things seemed safe for now.

"Hehhh?"

Kazuki jolted up as he got startled by the third member of their trio's voice before being hit on the back.

"What's gotten into you today? You seem a lot stiffer than usual."

"Shut up, Shiki."

Shiki then raised his hands in response. "Ahhh, that hurts. You don't have to be so defensive and all."

The spiky-haired friend repeatedly looked back and forth between him and Amagi.

"So..." Shiki stared blankly at the ceiling, thinking of a random topic for the day as usual. "You guys ready for the school trip?"

A relatively harmless topic, good.

Looking back, Kazuki did agree with his friend despite his reaction. He did seem a lot more on edge today, and he knew that it had mostly something to do with the female in their trio.

He decided to tuck those thoughts away for the meantime the moment he saw the two friends engage each other in their everyday conversation.

He was worrying over nothing, after all.

2

Kazuki took each step with care as he walked through the crowded school hallway. Classes have ended, and as the weekend approached, students were busy packing up their things and talking about plans for the school trip.

With a class size of around twenty and a section for each year level, the school trip looked to be another big event. The other sections would take turns eventually, but for now, it was one class each from the first, second, and third year students who would be taking part in this trip.