“It is really annoying how good I make things look.”

  He watched himself flick up his shirt collar as he loosely pulled up his tie. These were some of the few clothes he had not gotten rid of. Off white almost gray formal shirt, dark blue dress pants with a matching coat featuring Sukimi Academy’s emblem over the left breast. The required school uniform all students had to wear.

  Typically students wore vests as well but that was not enforced outside of the winter months. Nobody wants angry parents complaining about heatstroke so students would not get any flak about the missing article of the school uniform.

  There were things that you could get into trouble for though. Things like exposed tattoos which he could wear clothing to cover so that was a non issue. Clothing that did not conform to the school uniform were a no go, and piercings. Such as the earrings he was currently wearing.

  He COULD remove them, go to school and put them on once he was back home.

  “They look good though.” He caught himself grimacing at the thought of needing to go without the new accessory.

  Two days.

  It only took two days for him to get attached to them. Was this more personality bleeding?

  He dismissed the pessimistic thought.

  No this was all him. In truth, he always liked things like this. Cool clothes, dressing up, piercings and tattoos. He was held back in his old life for one reason or another. He didn’t have a face that he felt looked good with piercings, he didn’t have extra money for clothes outside of school or work outfits. He was insecure about his body and did not want to expose himself to ink.

  This was an opportunity to enjoy all the things he couldn’t before waking up as Kuro. An opportunity that seemed to have been intended if the creepy messages before crossing into this world were to be trusted.

  “Do as your heart desires.” The final words the person behind the text stated before the headache consumed me.

  ‘No… The final words were “see you soon”.’

  Is that person here somewhere in the city

  “Ugh I do not have time to add more problems onto myself. I will figure it out later.”

  He would keep the earrings. At this point it would be weirder in everyone's eyes if I showed up following the dress code anyways.

  Besides, I have a protagonist to investigate.

  ***

  Blue paint, black slanted shingles, red brick privacy wall separating the sidewalk from the yard with a black gate next to a call box.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Many cutscenes featured the home of the MC and it was easy to pick it out on the street from the many other two story homes.

  A similar one with green paint sat just next door, the home of the MC’s childhood friend. The girl who starts the game already crushing on you from having grown up together, but is too shy to tell you how she feels.

  And then there was him, standing at the end of the street in the opposite direction that they walk to school everyday. Waiting to follow them like a stalker.

  Did he feel creepy doing this? Yes. It was unfortunately necessary though, seeing how the MC conducts himself is a top priority.

  Hopefully he would be an upstanding guy who could fight back the forces that sought to turn the city into a playground. Worse case scenario he was an insensitive prick who would eventually push away everyone he cared for due to his perverted lust.

  Kuro went out of his way to leave home early to do this, normally he could get away with an easy 20 minute walk to school. He had to commute 15 minutes out of the way to this neighborhood to follow behind the MC’s half hour journey to school.

  The brown wooden door to the green house opened. “Right on time.”

  A girl stepped out her front door calling back into her home. He couldn’t hear her from where he stood but knew she was calling out a goodbye to her parents. This was a daily routine that played out in SSD’s early game.

  She only reached up to 4’11, had chestnut brown hair, deep green eyes, and was insanely curvy. A “short stack” character that was well endowed despite their short stature. One who thought of themselves as being overweight due to being insecure, regardless of how attractive they actually were.

  She was a reserved and nervous girl who struggled opening up to people. You could choose to help her make friends or allow yourself and your group's default third to be her only source of support. Sayo Uesaka.

  Next she would cross her front lawn and swing around the brick wall to the MC’s house to wake him up.

  At this point in the story he was still slightly lazy and would struggle to wake up on time to be at school, something the player could fix over time. Lucky for the protagonist he had a friend who loved him and was willing to take the time everyday to help him.

  She will go to his house to wake him up, then wait for him outside by the street to walk with him to meet their other friend Carmen, Mrs. Horio’s granddaughter.

  Except that wasn’t what she did.

  He felt a chill run up his spine as Sayo gave a wistful look at her childhood friend's home, gave a dejected sigh, then walked alone down the street without going to the MC’s house.

  ‘Why is she leaving? There is nothing the MC can say this early into the game to ruin their friendship.’ Something is terribly wrong.

  He waited until she was out of sight to investigate. As soon as she rounded the corner a block down the road he bolted towards the MC’s home, leapt the brick wall landing in the front lawn and approached the home.

  The problems were immediately apparent. He had not noticed from down the street behind a privacy wall but the windows had no blinds or curtains. He had an unobstructed view into a living room that contained no furniture.

  The paint had long since begun to flake with age. There was no car in the driveway that the Protagonists father and mother used to go to work. The MC’s bedroom had a window facing the street with a small overhang of roof.

  He only had to slow his heart a little to gain the strength needed to leap up 10 feet to the small bit of roof and have a view into the room.

  No bed, no desk, no bookshelf containing manga and video games. Worst of all… No MC.

  This world did not have its protagonist.