[School’s Back/Afternoon/Fall]

Standing over a red puddle with an axe or any other murder weapon always makes you think. You get a moment to stop and look at yourself — you just now murdered a predator in this school in cold blood after luring them out here, like many other monsters you’ve done the same to. How come you’ve become such a mess?

Maybe it’s the loneliness of your current situation. After all, with your parents dead, no job apart from hunting bad people at night, stealing the possessions off their bodies, and living with only your little sister (Stelle)… maybe it’s time to admit you failed in life.

But, have you?

Doing this “Merciless Vigilante” bit with her has earned you quite the large sum of cash. As a result, you and her have been living an okay life. You’re like Batman while she’s Oracle — you do the job while she takes care of all the backfire that comes from it by hiding evidence, manipulating officers, and making this whole messed-up gig work over and over again. Despite losing all her innocence through this, she’s grown into something greater than any 13-year-old could be — and it shows.

As many times before, you destroy all evidence of the murder (including the body and disguise you wore), knowing Stelle will take care of all the CCTV around the school. After all, this WAS her middle school, and the only reason you were able to lure them out here was because of Stelle — she’s the perfect bait and the main reason why this can happen. This shouldn’t work at all but it does — and it worries you that one day it will come back to bite you both.

But for now? Live and breathe.

[Back at home]

Going to the third floor of the apartment complex, you enter your apartment without worries. Funny enough, that b#stard held quite the fight — you got some minor bruises across your body and a small cut on your cheek. You should probably go see Stelle — after all, maybe she’s prepared the usual “Tea Party.”

Her innocence wasn’t totally destroyed in the process — her love for Alice in Wonderland remained. So now her whole thing is that. It was even more of a surprise when she bought an entire custom kigurumi to be Alice in a more anime art style.

You enter her bedroom and see she’s already set up shop. She’s wearing a full hadatai bodysuit — skin-colored — underneath her clothing, a wig, and a mask with the face of a girl. She has a permanent, unchanging expression with sharp blue eyes and a closed, monotone look — the kigurumi making her look like a doll or figurine of the character. The mask fully covers her face, so you can’t tell what she feels. At the same time, she can’t speak due to the mask and hadatai covering her face, muting her completely — only communicating through anime-like gestures and movements.

There’s a whole premium tea set across the table with a place set for you on one side. On your plate, there isn’t tea but meds and a medkit from your storage. She holds her own teacup, not drinking it since the mask. Its stare is cold yet lovely as she nods, silently asking you to sit down. You can expect her not to speak or change her face, so this will be a one-sided conversation like many before. Have fun~.