Green Gloop Do Not Good Aliens Make for Kate!

[arysthaeniru]

Title: Green Gloop Do Not Good Aliens Make
Recipient: Kate / fayth-flame
Rating: PG-13
Summary: He is never letting Momo-senpai recommend videogames again.
Notes: Ryoma-muse was being a pain in the neck for this, but I hope that you like this anyway! It isn’t quite what you specified, but I hope it’s satisfactory.



Alien guts splashed across the screen, accompanying an explosion which was emphasized by high-definition alien death scenes that made him very glad he was not an alien. Ryoma grinned to himself, as he continually mashes the buttons, ignoring the slight ache in his fingers, choosing to focus on watching as another spaceship in front of his character exploded. Just two more obstacles before he leveled up. Heh. This new video game that Momo had lent him yesterday wasn’t all that bad, to be honest. It came with a large female cast (which was probably why Momo-senpai loved it, his senpai could be such a closet pervert at times), looking pretty badass as they completely smashed up the aliens, he could even understand why half of the school was totally obsessed with it. The only game that was better than this was Wii Tennis, for obvious reasons.

Karupin meowed from his lap; Ryoma saw her cast a disparaging look at the burning spaceships as she stood up and gently tapped her paws on Ryoma’s bare thigh. He could feel her claws despite Karupin’s gentle taps; he’d need to groom her soon, or get Nanako to do it. Ryoma looked down, distracted from his game self’s conversation with another member of their fighting party, who was constantly on Ryoma’s case for being a weird stranger. Was this the time, Karupin? Still, he paused the game and scratched behind her ears. Satisfied with the attention, Karupin purred and settled back on his lap.

There was a knock at his door. Ryoma looked up, confused. His oyaji never ever knocked and Nanako was still in scho--

Or not.

“Nanako?” he asked, with a slightly confused smile at his cousin, who was supposed to be at her evening classes. As he wasn’t actually hallucinating, Nanako was not at her evening classes. Instead, she was wearing a dress, paired with heels that looked like they could kill a man. This, combined with makeup, and huge, dangly, blue earrings that reminded him of rings given by the ring toss booth during festivals, made her completely unrecognizable, and Ryoma wasn’t entirely sure whether to be happy for her, or just plain confused.

“Hey! I just stopped by to pick up my shawl, I left it in here.” she said with a giggle, as she walked over to the laundry basket propped up against the window. Oh yeah. he hadn’t emptied that yet because he’d got sidetracked by the video-game. Guess there were good points to not emptying the laundry bin on time.

“You going somewhere special?” asked Ryoma, stroking Karupin’s fur absently. His cousin really did look pretty.

“Yes, I’m going out with Nobosuke all night, it’s going to be lots of fun.” Nanako replied with a giddy laugh and a conspiratory smile. “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

Ryoma could almost feel himself turn green as his mind was assaulted with unwanted mental images of his cousin and her boyfriend together. Possibly in bed. Or not even in bed, judging by the looks Nanako gave poor Nobosuke-san whenever they were out in public. They were not unlike the looks Momo-senpai gave to the burgers at McDonalds, freshly made and ready for consumption, and the looks Fuji-senpai gave (despite having both eyes closed) to new blackmail material of the photo variety.

“Keep the details to yourself, Nanako-san.” he said hastily, trying to not shudder at the lecherous wink she threw him. Was every member of this family disgusting when it came to sex? Nanako had been the nice one, up until now, usually protesting when his dad read dirty magazines at the dinner table or when his mother started rhapsodizing about the wonders of getting himself a girlfriend and not using his racket as a way to jack off (which was gross, not to mention disrespectful to tennis. Tezuka-buchou would never approve). Nanako turning traitor was the ultimate betrayal.

Nanako, to his horror, decided to sit on his bed after smoothing the bedsheet of wrinkles. He might have forgotten to make his bed as well. “You won’t be singing that tune in a few years.” she murmured, leaning forward. Ryoma rolled his eyes.

“If it means being a pervert like oyaji and you, no thanks. ‘Sides, oyaji said that last year too, and the year before that.” Ryoma said, with an annoyed sigh. Karupin jumped out of his lap and rubbed herself along the sides of Nanako’s legs. Nanako bent down to scratch between Karupin’s ears; the Himalayan mountain cat purred happily, glowing under the attention.

“Well, what about Sakuno-chan?”

“What about her?’ asked Ryoma, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Nanako smirked mysteriously and very deliberately crossed her legs, as if she was settling down for a long stay. Suppressing a growl of frustration, Ryoma shoved her legs, lightly. Didn’t she have a date to get to? Wouldn’t Sanada’s brother get pissed off if she kept him waiting?

“Well, haven’t you seen the way she looks at you, Ryoma?” she asked, sounding smug.

Ryoma shrugged, and stopped trying to shove Nanako off his bed. She wasn’t budging despite his best efforts anyway.

“She looks at me like a normal person.” he answered firmly. But that was sort of a lie. Lately, he’d been noticing a multitude of amused, almost exasperated glances towards him, when she thought that he wasn’t paying attention. Still, he hadn’t commented on it, trying to uphold that japanese courtesy that everyone liked to spout off about. Ryuuzaki had always been weird anyway, from her ridiculously long hair and wobbly hips and nice bento boxes and that intense way she stared at him sometimes. It wasn’t that big of a deal to ignore another one of her oddities.

“Oh my gosh!” Nanako squealed. “You honestly don’t know. You’re so cuuuuuttee~” She reached forward to pinch his cheeks, raucously laughing. Ryoma frowned and restarted his efforts to unseat her from his bed, as he felt his cheeks get squished even further.

Curses, if only he was taller. But he’d been drinking milk for three years in a row, and absolutely nothing had happened to his height. “Geroff!” he protested, and she finally subsided, beaming at him. Ryoma smoothed down an unruly tuft of hair irritably, and glared at Karupin, who’d been placidly sitting in Nanako’s lap, without a care for her master’s plight. Traitor.

“I’m not cute.” he said, annoyed. “And girls are just weird, leave me be.” He grumbled, with full intention of restarting his game. He turned his back to Nanako and tried to find the menu button on his controller.

“You know, Nanjirou-san wants grandkids, but I’m sure he’d be okay if it was a guy that you liked as well~” murmured Nanako, close to his ear. So much for Nanako leaving. Ryoma winced as he accidentally pressed the volume button, causing his speakers to blast Empire Space Castles theme song at full volume. Karupin jumped up, startled, and Ryoma hastily reduced the volume.

“I’m just not interested, isn’t that enough?” he groaned, after the music subsides to a more manageable volume. “And besides, haven’t you got a date to get to?”

There wa a slight pause, and Nanako finally moved away from his back, picking up her scarf and tottering to the door in her heels. “Just think about it, okay Ryoma?” she said with a smile. “We just want to see you happy.”

“I’m seventeen, geez. Do you need me to already be dating?” asked Ryoma, craning his head to better look at her. She pressed her lips together, and her face softened.

“You’re a good kid. Stay out of trouble, Ryoma-kun.” she said, as she looked at the cat who was moving away from Ryoma’s bed towards Ryoma’s lap again. “Look after him, okay, Karu-chan?”

Ryoma grumbled. “You too. Don’t do anything that would scandalize your mom, like getting pregnant or killing him with your shoes. My mom would probably encourage you, so let’s stick with your mom.”

Nanako laughed loudly as she walks away from his room, and Ryoma waited until he heard the front door shut with a click of the lock before he located the menu button to start the game again. However, as soon as the ‘Loading’ screen came on, Ryoma’s home plunged into darkness. Goddamnit.

Ryoma stood up, much to the protest of Karupin in his lap. “Sorry.” He apologized as he fumbled his way over to where his drawers would be. There was supposedly an emergency light in his sock drawer but Ryoma had not yet needed it and wasn’t even sure that it was there.

It turned out that whether the light worked wasn’t even his biggest problem, as Ryoma collided straight into a barrier of cold metal. He cursed loudly in choice English that might have even made his oyaji wince as he gingerly rubbed his poor elbows and patted across where he had thought the drawers were supposed to be. Nope. That was still metal.

Problem was, he was pretty sure there was no such metal wall in his room. What the hell was going on?

Ryoma turned and shuffled towards where the door to the landing was supposed to be, hands feeling what seemed to be an unending cold metal barrier with increased anxiety. His parents were downstairs still, his mom had probably already set up a candle haven in the living room. That would be if he could ever find the freaking doo--

Suddenly, there was gust of wind and a metallic humming sound, and Ryoma shut his eyes as they were assaulted by bright lights. Owwww. At least the power was back. As his eyes recovered, he felt the urge to continuously open and shut them until they worked properly, because that what he was seeing was definitely not his house.

From the soft red carpets, to the sleek, burnished metal walls and the endless hallways stretching off to Ryoma’s left and right, it was clear to anyone that this was not his old, Japanese temple house. But what drove the point home so hard that it shattered all sense of doubt was the sight of a large purple planet rotating slowly underneath a window the size of an aquarium wall, and pinpoints of light visible beyond into the distant black backdrop.

“What even...” he murmurs as he walks forward, placing his fingers against the cold glass. Was this real? Or was it just the product of an extra cheeseburger he should not have fought Momo-senpai for? Maybe Momo-senpai was responsible for this. Maybe Momo-senpai wanted revenge over that burger. He stared at the bright purple planet and concluded that if Momo-senpai was responsible for this, he was going to beat him so hard on the tennis court- Momo-senpai was going to be a smear on the court once he was done with him.

If Momo-senpai and his stupid cheeseburger were not responsible, then that complicated things. A lot.

“Karupin?” he called absently, looking down the corridors. They curved off, into the distance, like a round maze and Ryoma frowned. Karupin was nowhere to be seen. Hmm. Were there any more windows? Maybe he could check that out with Karupin, if his lazy cat ever made it out of that storage room he’d been inside of.

“Karupin?” he called again, as he turned around, back towards to the door from which he’d come from and stopped, face pale with disbelief. There was no door behind him. What. The. Hell. He dashed ahead and ran his hands all over the wall, trying to find a hidden crevice to get it to open like before, but to no avail.

His breath started coming out in short pants, and he felt sweat on his palms and grime on his fingertips, even after feeling up the spotless metal wall. Panic crawled up his spine. He needed to get Karupin and go home, now. Ryoma clenched both fists, pounding fruitlessly against the wall. His knuckles began to redden. “Karupin!” he yelled. “Karupin!” Was his beautiful cat trapped in the dark?

There was a distinctly human scream from the corridor to his right and Ryoma gritted his teeth. Every corridor looked similar. He had to hope that there weren’t any more windows, so he could find his way back to this one, and get Karupin out after this.

“Hang in there, Karupin!” he yelled, before sprinting towards the corridor, towards where the screaming was coming from. There was a green goop thing thing attacking what looked like...Ryuuzaki? What? Did Ryuuzaki end up here as well? And how did she manage to get into trouble already? Guess some things didn’t change, even in an alternate dream dimension place thing that could have come from bad cheese and Momo-senpai voodoo. Panic was now paired with relief that he wasn’t alone after all. Having Ryuuzaki here means he was not going mad alone. Still, Ryuuzaki was not going to be here for long, if that green goop inching towards her, like perverts to schoolgirls was any indication.

Ryoma ran forward at the green goopy thing to--to what? Distract it away from Ryuuzaki? He really should have thought things through better, but then if he waited and the green goop got Ryuuzaki, he would be all alone in this giant space hallucination.

He spotted a gun on the floor immediately, and lifted it up to shoot at the goop without hesitation. He had played enough arcade games to know how to use a gun. The gun rocked in his hand, recoil nearly non-existent as he shot three or four beams of light in quick succession, hitting the vague middle of the creature. The goop started vibrating. Sparks of electricity flew out of it. The smell of crispy meat followed a loud hissing sound as the goop started to melt. Wrinkling his nose, Ryoma dropped the gun and rolled his eyes at Ryuuzaki.

“Honestly, do you get into every form of trouble, Ryuuzaki?” he asked, exasperated. Bullies on trains were one thing, slime blobs that looked like the mutant version of those from Maplestory was another. Honestly.

But when no stuttered thank you came, he took a closer look at her. Something was very wrong. For one thing, Ryuuzaki didn’t have blue eyes, did she? He would have noticed it if she had. Nor had Ryoma ever seen her wear anything other than uniforms and her long, pink skirts. Currently, in a skintight, leather spacesuit, looking like she was from the set of Star Trek, Ryuuzaki looked very little like her usual self.

“...were you at a costume party?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at her.

But Ryuuzaki looked honestly confused and frightened, as she fumbled around her hips, screeching slightly as she noticed that her holster was empty. Ryoma glanced at the gun in his hand and back at her, before cautiously handing it over to her. She seemed to relax significantly at that, and gave him a second, more considering, look. Hmm. Since when had Ryuuzaki ever wondered about ammunition around him? Wasn’t she a pacifist? And when had she gotten a laser gun anyway?

Was this even Ryuuzaki? Or some weird fake imposter?

“Who are you?” she demanded in return, her voice high-pitched and somewhat frightened, even as she straightened up and tucked her gun back into the holster. She was taller than him by three inches. Well, some things didn’t change, at least, much to Ryoma’s annoyance. “Why aren’t you in uniform?”

“...uniform?” asked Ryoma, lifting an eyebrow.

Ryuuzaki’s brow furrowed, confused, before she noticed the green goop on the floor starting to melt and her eyes widened again, almost comically. “We’ll sort this out later. We have to go to the bridge, now! If one of those things managed to get in, so will others! We have to set off the alarm!”

She set off, sprinting down the corridor, not waiting for Ryoma to confirm anything. Ryoma glanced back towards the corridor from which he had arrived. Karupin...he couldn’t just leave his cat, could he? But something was seriously messed up here and Ryuuzaki had blue eyes which was just weird. And Ryoma wasn’t entirely convinced that Karupin was even on this ship anymore. With any luck, she was at home, on his bed licking her paws.

Ryoma bit his lip and strode quickly after Ryuuzaki. When he didn’t see any glimpse of her brown hair for a good few metres, he clicked his tongue with annoyance and reluctantly started sprinting after her.

He managed to catch up with her, right as they reached an area that looked far too familiar. Ryoma blanched rapidly and stared around in horror.

What. What was going on? This was the bridge area from the videogame he had just been playing! Forget not cool, this was just plain freaky.

Sure, now things made some terrible kind of sense, like why Ryuuzaki had randomly decided that she liked catsuits and guns, but how the hell had Ryoma ended up in here? Was he dreaming? Couldn’t be, right? His dreams were never this vivid anyway, he dreamt of cannonballs into rivers of chocolate and running after hamburgers, competing with a fork that had suspiciously familiar spiky hair, and beating Tezuka-buchou in tennis.

This was too realistic to be a dream. Besides, he’d seen Inception when on the plane between California and Japan. You never knew how you got into a dream, and he definitely knew he’d gotten into this ship because of the stupid power outage and stumbling into the delivery closet.

...okay, considering he couldn’t really explain why he was here, that was not the most sound logic, but this couldn’t be a dream, right? He wouldn’t be expecting Ryuuzaki to wear catsuits, after all. That was just weird.

Still, despite all of this uncertainty, Ryoma fell in step behind Ryuuzaki as she burst into the bridge, panting uneasily. “TheGorgaciansmadeitintotheship, Captain!” she managed to gasp out weakly, before a girl with long pigtails came to grip her side. The bridge was filled with women, and the way they all managed to turn their heads to glare at them, in unison, was sort of creepy.

“Corporal Ryuuzaki, breathe a little and try again?” asked a woman from the largest chair in the room. Ryoma’s eyes briefly passed over her, before taking another look, blinking rapidly to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. No way. That couldn’t be... Tachibana An? But there was no mistaking the sharp bone structure of her face, and the golden brown hair that curled around her ears. That was definitely Momo-senpai’s girlfriend.

Something was seriously weird. Who would put her charge of a ship? Ryoma pulled an annoyed face before Tachibana’s eyes caught his face. Tachibana stood up sharply; she must have seen him. “Why is there an intruder on board?” she demanded furiously and Ryoma stepped back, beside himself.

Geez, they put her in charge because she was fucking scary, okay then. Momo-senpai had told him not to play as a guy when starting the videogame, so he hadn’t had to deal with this in his gameplay version. Of course, the problem with being human was that you couldn’t spontaneously change gender. Something that Ryoma was really regretting right about now, as every gaze came to focus on him with confusion and/or hatred.

“I don’t know why I’m here either. But is this the time? There’s green goop invading your ship. Shouldn’t you deal with that first?” asked Ryoma, with a shrug, before shoving his hands into his pockets, with forced nonchalance. It was easier to pick fights when tennis was involved. He felt empty facing conflicts without his racket. He would even settle for Ryuuzaki’s laser gun to help him.

“Other people, especially men, invading our ship is just as serious.” said Tachibana sternly. “It’s a breach in security either way, even if you’re not about to start killing us immediately. Humans are more insidious than that.” Her smile was thin and sarcastic. Ouch. He was assuming that she was not Momo-senpai’s girlfriend in this videogame world.

“A-ano, Captain, w-well, he did save my life. W-we should focus on the Gorgacians first.” said Ryuuzaki tentatively, as she straightened and tucked a strand of her escaped braid behind her ear.

Tachibana An closed her eyes briefly before nodding quickly. “Shiraishi, Yukimura, take ten girls and go check our perimeter. Keep your communicators on hand and check with bridge at every station.”

“Yes ma’am!” Two younger girls straightened up and pulled out their guns. Ryoma squinted at their faces before sighing in relief. The Shiraishi in question did not have bandages on her hand nor did she have blonde hair. This one must have just been the captain’s sister. The Yukimura did look suspiciously like the Rikkai buchou, but still, there was a more murderous expression on her face, instead of the sickly-sweet smile. That in itself was a dead giveaway that it must have been Yukimura’s younger sister.

Ryuuzaki pulled him to the side, as Shiraishi, Yukimura, and two other girls ran out of the room, speaking rapidly into their wrists. He took a glance at the pony-tailed girl, before lifting his eyebrows in surprise. Osakada. Why was he even surprised? Next thing he’d know, he’d see that Osaka chibi who had a crush on buchou and she’d be in charge of the aliens or something.

“Now to deal with you.” Tachibana said with a determined look, and Ryoma glared back, with as much force as she seemed to be giving him. It was really weird, to see the relatively cheerful and nice Tachibana An acting like this. Even if it made sense in the video-game context he’d managed to pick up from the game’s cut-scenes, it was still annoyingly jarring.

“What’s going on?” asked a pleasant voice and Ryoma almost sagged in relief as he recognized that voice. Okay, there was no way that Tachibana-san could be a jerk in any universe. He just didn’t have a mean bone in his body.

“Kippei!” Tachibana An snapped up into a salute instantly. Tachibana-san waved it off and gave Ryoma a look, his lips tightening.

“You scanned him, An?” he asked grimly.

“Not yet...” she murmured, and Tachibana-san turned to glare at her.

“An!” he gave a frustrated grumble, “If he saved our Sakuno, you ought to give him the benefit of the doubt. He might be a carrier, but he might not be.”

Carrier? Ryoma gave them both gimlet stares during their conversation, but neither of them seemed to notice. Good god, he’d always thought that films exaggerated for dramatic effect, but people really did stand around and talk when they were being invaded. He turned towards Ryuuzaki, who really was usually a voice of reason when the senpai or the adults were being stupid, but even here, she didn’t seem to be doing anything, except watching the Tachibana siblings have a staring competition.

“Scanned?” he asked, deciding to break the stalemate.

Tachibana-san turned to him. “Sakuno, can you please take him down to the station? Run the scans, as quickly as possible, then get back up here.”

“Yes sir.” she said quietly, grabbing Ryoma’s arm with one hand, and waving to Osakada with the other.

“Scanned?” Ryoma asked again, once they were in the corridor, this time glaring at Ryuuzaki.

She didn’t quail, which was weird in itself. Usually, Ryuuzaki just broke down into that cute, sheepish smile. Here, she just met his glare with a blank stare of her own. “Who are you? How much do you know?”

“Nothing!” Ryoma exclaims, defensive. “One moment I was at home with my cat, Karupin, and then I’m here.” At her slight frown, he tacked on, “And I’m Echizen Ryoma.”

Ryuuzaki tilted her head sideways and did that thing she always did when she was confused; she cocked her head to the side and bit her lip. “How strange...” she murmured for a moment, her creepy blue eyes focusing on him, before shaking her head. She then turned to walk towards their destination.

“Well, we’re one of four ships that were deployed to space fifty years ago. We were all placed into stasis and sent to the closest planets that could possibly be habitable for humans. The other ships reached their destinations before us, but it didn’t work out. There were other people living on the planets, which is good news, but we killed them all. A disease that swept through them, one that humans were carrying without even realizing.”

Ryoma pressed his lips together, mouth forming a severe thin line. This was a remarkably well-thought out plot for a video-game. It still didn’t explain why he was here but it was pretty cool. And potentially life-threatening. “And?”

“Well, it took three of the four ships killing the inhabitants of the new worlds, before we figured out how to detect this disease. They woke us up a bit early, and made us all scan for it. Mostly the men had it. None of the girls had it and only a few men didn’t carry this disease. So we used the extra escape pods and sent them all home.” Ryuuzaki says quietly. “There’s only one escape pod left now, and An doesn’t want to have to use that for you. Because what happens if something else happens? If we send you home, we’ll lose our only way of escape.”

“So she’d rather throw me out of the window, right?” asked Ryoma, dryly, sending a look towards the black abyss of space, and that managed to startle a familiar giggle from Ryuuzaki.

“Yeah. But you know, Captain Tachibana is a little more forgiving.” Ryuuzaki murmured, tugging at one of her braids as they reached a large door.

“Because he’s a guy himself, no doubt.” muttered Ryoma and Ryuuzaki smiled again, pressing a hand against the side of the door.

“That too, I suppose, but he’s also just a lot more compassionate about everything. He’s all for giving people chances. He wanted to talk it out with the Gorgacians too, before they almost killed Chitose and proved that they just want to kill people.” The door slid open and she pulled him into a sleek, black area, with a lot of tall, sharp looking things everywhere. Ryoma eyed them nervously.

“Hey, you’re not going to stick those up anywhere awkward, right?” he asked, and Ryuuzaki giggled again, blushing a little.

“No!” she protested. “You just have to stand in that large square.” Ryoma gave it a cautious look, but it looked just like the security scanners in airports, and those never really did anything weird. He stepped onto the platform with marked footprints and found, annoyingly enough, that his feet were too small to properly cover the marks. He could still see the bright yellow markings.

A red light slowly swept its way down his body.

“Arms up to your side, like you’re doing the star exercises?” asked Ryuuzaki, and Ryoma pulled his arms up, frowning. Did she mean jumping-jacks? Weird.

“And?” he asked, as the lights abruptly stopped. He regretted opening his mouth quickly, as a second later, a large amount of neon-blue liquid was dumped all over him. Spluttering, Ryoma pushed away his wet fringe from his eyes and coughed, trying to get the blue gunk out from his lungs. It tasted worse than cough syrup, and that was saying something, since oyaji intentionally went out of his way to get the worst tasting ones. Still, nothing was worse than Inui Juice.

“What was that fo--” A tight pressing sensation against his skin distracted him, replacing the wet, congealing sensation. He chortled, softly but as abruptly as the sensation had started, it stopped, and Ryoma realized that he was completely dry again.

“You’re clean.” said Ryuuzaki, with a small, slightly pleased smile. “We should head back to the bridge now, they’ll need all hands on deck doing work, and you’re a pretty good shot.”

“And you suck.” Ryoma said shortly, as he hops off the square, stopping himself from adding ‘still’.

“I wasn’t supposed to be a fighter.” Ryuuzaki simply replied, without turning red or making empty protests. Another difference from the Ryuuzaki back home. “But the mission parameters changed when we lost half the crew. We cope.”

Ryoma wasn’t entirely sure he liked this Ryuuzaki too much. She didn’t make life as entertaining as the other one. “Yeah, I guess.” he muttered as she strode down the corridor, her braids bouncing against her chest. He skulked after her, annoyance coiling in his gut. He wanted to be back home. He didn’t like this strange Ryuuzaki who didn’t react when he teased her and had big blue eyes and wore weird catsuits, and he didn’t like this strange Tachibana An who wasn’t willing to take Momo-senpai and himself on in a burger-eating contest and almost win with a huge, shit-eating grin on her face. And he definitely wasn’t fond of the lack of Karupin.

Suddenly, the ship started to tremble. Red flashing lights enveloped the ship. Ryuuzaki’s eyes widened and she groped at her gun. “Echizen-kun, we need to get back to the bridge!” she said, just as they hear a loud, wailing sound echo through the hallways, like the sound of teeth scraping each other. A chill ran down Ryoma’s spine.

“The green gloop got into the ship?” asked Ryoma, as he sprinted down the corridor from where they had come from, Ryuuzaki at his heels.

“Yes.” she said, biting her lip, as they rounded a corner to see a large congregation of gloop. Ryoma, without breaking his stride, grabbed Ryuuzaki’s gun from her hands and shoots three shots into the middle of the gloop. As the middle monsters flailed and melted, leaving behind a stench of burnt meat, he grabbed her hand and pulls them both through the gloop quickly, not leaving the gloop enough time to think or grab them.

“Keep running!” he yelled, turning back to shoot some parting shots at the monsters, before recoiling at the sight of the green things getting back up again and increasing in size. “Uhh, Ryuuzaki, is that supposed to happen?” he asked, as she started to sprint after him. She shot a glance over her shoulder and whimpered.

“No, no, no.” she fiddled with her belt, her tiny face pale even under the flashing lights. “They must have done something, with plasmids transferral...there’s no way, electricity’s supposed to kill Gorgacians....”

He didn’t understand any of that, but he didn’t think he needed to. “Any other way to kill them?” he asked, tucking the gun up his sleeve, tossing glances back at the gloop. It was only getting faster. At this rate, and the way that Ryuuzaki was lagging behind, it was going to catch up to them before they reached the bridge.

“Umm...some studies said that they can be killed with fire...” Ryuuzaki said, and Ryoma rolls his eyes. Well, that was great. He’d just pull out his handy molotov cocktail and blow them all up, like a good little hero. Fuck, fuck fuck, he was quickly coming to the conclusion that video games were a lot more fun when you weren’t the person playing in them.

He missed his racquet. With a racquet, he could gain enough friction to maybe get some sparks or something. But, no, he was stranded without Karupin and without his tennis gear. He didn’t know how to make the gun create sparks for a fire. Think, think, how could he improvise?

“Is there somewhere nearby where we can get fire from?” he demanded, tugging at her wrist, to encourage her to run faster. She tugged her wrist away, perhaps knowing that it was futile.

Ryuuzaki shook her head. “Don’t bother, we just need to get to...the bridge. Tomo has something...” she panted out, face red and streaked with sweat. They weren’t too far from the bridge, right? It hadn’t seemed like a long distance towards that doctor’s room from the bridge. Ryoma turned back to look at the aliens, before picking her up like a bag of tennis balls and running like his life depended on it. In this case it did, and even if his run was slower than his usual sprint, it was still faster than Ryuuzaki’s pace. She squealed as she was hoisted into the air, but Ryoma pointedly ignored that, gritting his teeth and sprinting towards the the bridge.

To his relief, he finally made it, skidding into the bridge through a hastily opened door. “Seal the doors!” he shouted loudly, dropping Ryuuzaki unceremoniously, and looked around for Osakada. Nowhere. The only familiar faces among the few women still left in the bridge were the Tachibanas, talking in low voices together at the front of the ship. His loud voice interrupted their conversation, and both parties turned to look at him.

“What?” asked Tachibana An, but Tachibana-san made a quick motion and the door quickly thudded shut.

“You’re clean?” asked Tachibana and at Ryoma’s nod, Tachibana grinned in relief. “Good,” he said gruffly. ‘What’s happening? We fell out of contact with Yukimura and Shiraishi.”

“They won’t die when we shoot them.” Ryoma replied, as Ryuuzaki staggered to her feet, rubbing her back.

“We need fire to fight them, that’s the other thing that the other ship’s logs talked about, right?” Ryuuzaki asked, nervous.

“That runs the risk of burning up the ship as well, however...” murmured Tachibana-san, pressing a finger to his lips, but Tachibana An just rolled her eyes.

“Leave it to me, I’ll deal with them.” she determinedly said, as she adjusts something around the gun at her hip. Ryoma had no doubt that the green gloop would scream running in the other direction at that look. Geez, he would never be able to look at the real Tachibana An the same, ever again. Of course, that was assuming he ever got to see the real Tachibana An again.

“Ryuuzaki, sorry to make you run again, but the others need to stabilize the bridge. I need you to run down to the control room, tell Chitose and Miyu to flare up the rear engines when I give the signal. I’m going to get them into the right position.”

Tachibana-san pulled a face before nodding. “I’ll help you, An. Kotoha, keep things stable in here, the ship doesn’t need to move too much in addition to all of this chaos.” he called to a brown-haired girl who sat by the large window. She looked familiar, but Ryoma didn’t get time to dwell on it, as Ryuuzaki gripped his hand.

“Sorry to ask..” she asked, her cheeks still burning red from her exertion. “But will you help me get to the engines, Echizen? If there are Gorgacians there, I don’t think I’ll be able to fight them...”

Ryoma wasn’t all too keen to go out there and face the green gloop again; he was feeling a little winded from the run. But he could hardly just let Ryuuzaki die, even if it was a weird, less-flustered version of his Ryuuzaki. “Fine.” he said, as if it wasn’t a big deal. “But we need something to make fire, rig--”

He threw his hands up in disgust as the Tachibanas disappeared through the bridge door, completely ignoring what he’d been about to say. “Just prepare to run, then.” Ryoma says, rolling his eyes. “We going out by that way again?”

“There’s another way through.” Ryuuzaki pointed towards the side door. Well, that was handy. He hoped that all ships had convenient designs like that. Though, that was probably the video game thing coming into it. He still wasn’t exactly sure how he’d gotten here, after all of this running and fighting and getting invaded. Ryoma yanked the door open and starts to jog down it, letting Ryuuzaki catch up. She was the one who knew the layout of the ship, after all. He only had vague memories of the ship’s layout.

They paused at corners, her eyes crinkling a little in anticipation, before closing completely in relief when they didn’t come across the green gloopy monsters. It was sort of cute, even if the ice-blue eyes was just too weird to see in her face. That was the sort of blue he associated with Monkey King, not his friend, Ryuuzaki. Ryuuzaki was warmth and cuteness and flustered competence. Not this stranger.

She paused at the edge of a corridor, and her face paled. “They’re here.” she murmured and Ryoma tiptoed to see over her head. Two of them... they could probably blast past them, if they went fast enough.

“Ready to run?” he asked quietly, gripping her hand in his. She looked slightly disappointed, but she nodded, squeezing his hand tightly. Her hand, at least, was just like his Ryuuzaki’s; cool to the touch and soft, and that gave him enough strength to pull himself across and sprint at the fastest speed he could muster.

Taking a deep breath in, Ryoma’s socks slid across the floor, allowing him to pull Ryuuzaki along with him easily. Remembering all the times he’d done just this in the metro, as he’d attempted to catch the trains that he was going to due to oversleeping, Ryoma pulled Ryuuzaki and himself backwards, and let the momentum he’d gathered propel them across the floor quickly, faster than the Gorgacians could really register. As soon as they were out of the Gorgacians’ line of sight, Ryuuzaki looked set to stop running, but Ryoma refused to let go of her hand, and continued to pull her at breakneck pace.

It wasn’t until he was entirely sure that he was away from them, that Ryoma paused to let the girl catch her breath. Her hair matted in clumps and clung stickily to her face due to sweat. Her breath was ragged and Ryoma’s own breathing was a little unsteady.

“You alright?” asked Ryoma, placing a hand to her back, steadying her. She nodded wordlessly, as she swallowed heavily.

“Not used to this.” she managed, as she took deep, gulping gasps of air. She really was quite different to Ryuuzaki. Ryuuzaki might not have been as good at Ryoma at tennis, but she could hold her own against most girls and her stamina was pretty decent too. But then again, this Ryuuzaki hadn’t had nearly five years of near daily tennis practise. This Ryuuzaki had just spent the past fifty years sleeping. Still, Tachibana An and the other people on the ship seemed to be adept with their muscles. But Ryoma was fed up of trying to think about why this Ryuuzaki paled in comparison to his own. At this point, he was just going to accept everything as happening, like he had at tennis, when people had started glowing and burning nets and making it snow.

“Where’s the engine room?” he asked, strolling up and away, dragging her wrist after a minute or so had passed. Ryuuzaki followed carefully. “Second left then left again.” she said quietly and Ryoma nods, and they quickly strode through the corridors of steel, his socks muffling his steps as he went.

The engine-room door loomed ahead of them, imposingly large, light glinting coldly off the heavy metal surface. It looked ominous to say the least. Ryoma pulled a face as he stepped aside to let Ryuuzaki access to the keypad. There was more scanning involved compared to the hospital room. She had to not only show her fingerprints, but also her eyeball to the machine, before the door slowly creaked open.

“Ensign Chitose?” Ryuuzaki calls out as they wander into the dark, smouldering room. It was only lit from the blinking lights on the large pipes that surrounded the room, and the smell of hydraulics didn’t make Ryoma feel very much at ease. Neither did the overarching silence. If there were supposedly people here, he’d sort of been expecting a little more human presence...were they dead already? Was it too late?

“Hi!” He heard a bright voice behind him. Both he and Ryuuzaki screamed in unison, turning to face an upside-down monkey in dungarees emerging from the tangle of pipes above them. Ryoma’s heart pounded against his chest and his arm ached from where Ryuuzaki’s fingernails had dug in, when she hid behind him. As his eyes adjusted a bit more to the light, her face became more distinct and Ryoma growled. “You!”

“Me!” The girl agreed, smiling brightly before frowning at him. “Okay, you know me, but how?” The spanner that she hoisted up over her shoulder seemed to rise a little bit and Ryoma tensed, his hand tightening over Ryuuzaki’s gun. Bolts of electricity might not work for the green globs, but they would certainly work on racquet-stealing Osaka brats.

“Miyuki, that wasn’t nice at all.” Ryuuzaki’s eyes furrowed into a disapproving disappointed frown. “We have a situation, you need to wake your brother up.”

“Oh he’s awake. He’s doing something with the upper engines. Or the lower engines.” Osaka-brat shrugged casually. “He’s somewhere here. He didn’t leave anyway, the door didn’t open until you two arrived.”

“It’s urgent.” Ryuuzaki stressed, tapping the badge on the front of her chest, and Ryoma averted his eyes, before he could linger too long on this Ryuuzaki’s curves. It was really weird to not see Ryuuzaki in her long, loose maxi-dresses or the unflattering sports uniforms of Seigaku. He kind of felt like a pervert, and he wasn’t! That was like everything he was trying not to be.

“Alright, alright, I’m going.” Osaka-brat darted back up the corner pipes, until she balanced on top of one of the closest ones to the ceiling. There was a momentary pause and Ryoma awkwardly shook his arm, which was still grasped inside Ryuuzaki’s fingers. She flushed and quickly let go, unable to meet his gaze.

Osaka-brat jumped back down in front of them. “Silly Sen-nii, I can’t see him anywhere from here. He has to be in the lower engines, so you’d better just come with me.” Ryuuzaki nodded and they follow Osaka-brat, who scampered through the maze of pipes and machines and beeping lights, like it was just a playground. How old was she anyway? She looked even younger than most of the crew. “What do you need done, anyway?”

“Captain An wants the engines to be turned on so we can defeat the Gorgacians.” said Ryuuzaki, looking worried as she looked around. “There’s a ton of them in the ship interior. We really need to get rid of them as quickly as possible, we’re less than a day from the surface of the planet.”

Osaka-brat frowned as she waited for the two of them to catch up with her. “Yeah, Sen-nii knows the engines better than I do, but if we don’t find him in ten or fifteen minutes, I’ll give it a shot myself. I think I can blow stuff up pretty well!” She grinned and tapped the side of her head with the greasy spanner, leaving another small smudge of black against her tanned skin. Ryoma snorted softly to himself and followed her, keeping his ears pealed for noises other than them.

Still, Chitose was good at hiding. He remembered the U-17 camp, and how there had constantly been searches to try and find Chitose, who’d gone wandering off when he was needed for a match or for training exercises. It seemed like it had all happened a lifetime ago.

The engines hummed ominously and Ryoma fixed a glare at their greasy guide up ahead of them. “Who are you, anyway?” she asked, as they walked past a large, suspicious clump of wires that had looked like Chitose from a distance.

“A stranger.” Ryoma said, tightly, keeping his ears peeled. He didn’t like this. In videogames, this was usually the sort of place where you got ambushed by green monsters who’d taken over someone’s body. He was betting on the green monster hiding in Osaka Brat. She was probably taking him and Ryuuzaki away from the entrance to successfully kill them and hide the bodies underneath these huge wires.

“Echizen Ryoma. He showed up from the middle of nowhere and saved my life,” explained Ryuuzaki quietly and gratefully, her hands folded over her front. She looked a lot more graceful and pretty when she wasn’t running for her life. More poised than his Ryuuzaki had ever been, not like he’d spent a long time observing her or anything. “Uninfected too.”

The Osaka Brat gave him an appraising look over her shoulder and grins. “Still doesn’t explain how you know who I am.” Her voice was challenging and teasing, with an almost sing-song tilt to it as she skipped around the corner.

“You look like someone I used to know, but you can’t be her.” Ryoma said, his tone bored as he followed the corner, brushing his hands over a coil of wires, to check that it wasn’t Chitose. For one thing, the Osaka Brat was older and looked much less evil. She was still his prime suspect for being an alien life-form though. It couldn’t be Ryuuzaki, she just wasn’t fit enough to be an evil green monster. Though that would be a huge twist.

“Weird~” said Osaka Brat with a mischievous grin. Ryuuzaki gave him a slightly wary look, which clearly indicated how little she believed him, but Ryoma just shrugged as they continue to walk through the dark room.

“That’s it, I’m putting a tracker on Sen-nii after this. Let him escape me again when I actually need him, I’ll whoop his ass!” She scowled, after they walked in practical silence for a whole minute. Ryoma rolled his eyes and kicked the floor lightly. Ryuuzaki laughed gently, flicking her hair behind her ear.

“Don’t be harsh, Miyuki, he’s probably doing something importa--” she broke off as a faint shouting sound came from behind a large wall of blinking red light. It sounded like a guy and before Ryoma could really acknowledge anything, Osaka Brat let out a loud squeal and clambered over the wall, leaving Ryoma and Ryuuzaki to stare blankly at her disappearing feet. Ryoma turned to the next corner, following her.

They rounded on Osaka Brat unravelling Chitose from a long set of wires and Ryuuzaki squeaked, feet pattering quickly forward to help. Ryoma slunk forward as well, hands in his pockets as he watched the two girls unravel the tall tennis player from his constricting bonds. He smiled dazedly as he got up.

“Sorry for the trouble, Miyu.” he apologized. “I was fixing something and then I tripped and then trying to get out only got me more entangled. It’s a good thing you found me.”

Osaka Brat tipped her head back, laughing raucously, the sound echoes around the large room. Ryoma looks around cautiously, wondering whether something was going to come in his direction. “Kippei-nii is going to have a field day with that!” she said with a large, mischievous grin and Chitose only chuckled at himself.

“If you keep it quiet, I’ll take over your duties for a week.”

“As if that’ll be enough to keep quiet.” challenged Osaka Brat. Ryoma coughed loudly to attract their attention. They were in enough trouble already, could the family banter wait?

“Large green things invading the ship? Are you going to burn them up or not?” Video game or not, this was a shocking amount of negligence in the battlefield, to stop and chit-chat. Was everybody going to lack common-sense here?

“The Gorgacians?” asked Chitose, his gaze sharpening. “Who would be burning them--ahh, An.” he said, eyes registering Ryuuzaki’s concerned face. “Do you know where?”

Ryoma exchanged looks with Ryuuzaki, whose eyes just widened in horror. Chitose glances at them for a moment, before beaming and clapping his hands together. “No matter, no matter, I can find her. Miyu, head to the upper engines, check the output feed. If you see An, start up the emergency klaxon. but the likelihood is that she’ll lead them to the lower engines These are further away from the rest of the crew.”

He started to stride away from the corridor while speaking, his steps long and wide, to the point where both Ryoma and Ryuuzaki needed to jog after him to keep up with him. Osaka Brat had disappeared and Ryoma could not longer see her anymore. It made him uneasy, especially considering the fact that she was probably a green gloopy thing, but he’d deal with that when it came down to it. That was how he dealt with life in general.

Ryuuzaki’s face was reddening again, so Ryoma gripped her hand and tugged. This was nothing compared to Tezuka’s grueling lap pace, after all. Ryuuzaki shot him a grateful look, and her smile sent small butterflies down to Ryoma’s stomach. Now that was just weird, and he refused to think more into it.

“So what, how do you fry them without frying your captain?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Chitose’s smile increases. “The engines are in space,” he replied simply. “An has to get them to an airlock, open it, and hold on tightly.”

He and Ryuuzaki both paused for a second, before Ryuuzaki made a very concerned face. ‘But...”

“It’s An, don’t worry about it.” Chitose patted Ryuuzaki’s head, gently. “Kippei’s there as well, isn’t it? I doubt he’d let her go it alone,” was his reply to the sudden widening of Ryuuzaki’s eyes. His smile morphed into a slight smirk as he reached a large console panel to make the screens flicker to attention.

Ryoma had forgotten how annoying that omniscience could be when it wasn’t from Inui-senpai, who was getting less frustrating about that now, anyway. He leant back on his hip and watched Chitose scan through the corridors, and they soon found the corridor where Tachibana An and Tachibana-san were fighting off the Gorgacians, her weapon shooting at everything in sight, as Tachibana covered her back.

“They aren’t very close to any airlocks.” Chitose’s face furrowed with slight concern. His fingers curled around the sharp edge of the console and gripped it tightly; the tips of his knuckles turning white due to strain.

“There are too many.” Ryuuzaki whispered, her hands coming to her mouth. “They can’t corral them properly with just the two of them.”

Ryoma’s jaw tightened, and he sighs. “Where’s the airlock, relative to that?” he asked as he comes closer to the screen, pointing at the ferocious face that Tachibana An was making.

“Fifty feet down, then to the second left.” Chitose said as Ryoma pulled Ryuuzaki’s gun from her belt, again. “You know how to use that?”

“Vaguely.” Ryoma nonchalantly replied as he broke open the top of the gun with three good smashes against the floor. Ryuuzaki stepped forward, staring at the gun (and at him) with barely concealed horror. Making sure that the wires at the top of the gun were frayed and torn, Ryoma removed his sweatshirt and draped it over the gun. He took a careful shot at something that didn’t look metallic and grinned as the sweatshirt set on fire. Chemistry was good for something after all.

“Alright, let’s hurry, Ryuuzaki.” Ryoma nodded as he holds the gun in front of him and out of the way so that it couldn’t harm him. Ryuuzaki looked a little worried, but she still followed him and they started to lightly jog back through the maze of wires and blinking lights, illuminated by the light of Chitose’s console. They passed Osaka Brat on their way up, but Ryoma didn’t pause to give her his time of day. If she hadn’t attacked yet, she probably wasn’t going to.

Ryuuzaki’s cheeks were red from exertion, but Ryoma didn’t slow his pace to accommodate her; he needed both hands to hold up the torch and he needed to make sure that his teammates didn’t die. If he was to be stuck on a spaceship with illogical rules, he might as well save the people that knew and followed those rules. He felt a small twinge of guilt at not waiting for her, but reminding himself that she wasn’t the actual Ryuuzaki was enough to assuage that temporarily. Weird Ryuuzaki was incomparable to actual Ryuuzaki.

His thighs burned due to physical exhaustion, an old ache that reminded him of tennis practice. He managed to finally see the large green things as he passed another large window that showed him a view of a large green lump of rock. His sweatshirt fire was on its way to extinction, but the fact that the green gloop recoiled upon seeing his fire made Ryoma grin in anticipation.

“Oh yeah, eat this!” Ryoma yelled as he dropped the sweatshirt fire behind him and blocked the path of escape; watching triumphantly as the fire starts to spread along the carpet. Ryuuzaki squeaked and grabs his arm, her fingers knitting around his arm as she pushed him forward and away from the fire. Shrugging her off, Ryoma pulled off his socks, one by one, and gently touched their edges to the fire. They caught fire instantly, and Ryoma threw the flames at the green gloop, which would force them to start running in the other direction, towards where the airlock would be.

He couldn’t see Tachibana An or Tachibana Kippei, but he hoped they were using the sudden movement of the Gorgacians to their advantage at their end, and weren’t questioning why.

“You just set the corridor on fire.” Ryuuzaki said in a strangled voice, staring at the slowly building fire. “And blocked off our way of exit.”

Ryoma glared at her. “I didn’t see you coming up with a plan.” He retorted, pushing back his sweaty hair, pulling up his shirt to cover his mouth from the slowly building smoke.

“This means we have to get closer to the airlock as well.” Ryuuzaki’s face paled as the fire grew and edged closer to them with no sign of stopping. He heard a sudden click, then a loud wailing siren started to peal through the ship, followed by a light shower of rain from the ceilings. Ryoma would have been more impressed with their fire alarm system, if not for the fact that the rain did absolutely nothing to the fire, but still managed to drench both Ryuuzaki and himself impressively.

Annoyed, Ryoma edged away from the fire, and towards the way the green monsters had begun to flee, with Ryuuzaki at his side. The fire followed them at a surprisingly fast rate, and Ryoma started to jog again, tugging on Ryuuzaki’s arm, which was now drenched in water. Slow drops of useless water dripped from her hair, making her look completely desolate and concerned.

“Hurry, hurry.” Ryoma rushed her as she stumbled over her feet. He could hear the sound of screaming and Tachibana An shouting loudly from ahead of them, where the Gorgacians were swarming. A different siren, with a different blaring sound filled the corridor. Ryoma’s instinct was to clap his hands over his ears; the two frequencies were clashing and creating a horribly discordant sound in his ears. But Ryuuzaki tugged his hands away, slipping slightly on the slick surface of his skin.

“Airlock’s opening!” she yelled, and Ryoma pales. There was no place to hold onto! No door handles, barely even a corridor handle. The only thing.... With a frustrated growl, Ryoma jumped upwards, towards the large alarm on the ceiling which created a circular protrusion from the smooth walls. Ryoma could cling to that. He had to. Ryoma managed to grip it on his second try, but as he did that, he notices that Ryuuzaki’s own attempt for the tubelights had failed and as the large suction happened, he screamed loudly.

He shut his eyes tightly as all of the water around them began to move towards the airlock behind him. He almost screamed in frustration at the loss, but he noticed a heavy weight clinging to his feet. With difficulty, Ryoma turned his head to see Ryuuzaki desperately hugging his legs, trying to stay on the slick surface without falling off.

“Come for my waist!” shouted Ryoma, as his own fingers start to ache from the tight grip he had over the alarm. This was not a proper way to cling a surface. His arms were aching, and the force of the water around him was painful and the fire had to have gone out by this point, right? And Ryuuzaki’s warm arms around his legs, clinging tightly to him were loosening slowly and he couldn’t bear that, he couldn’t let Ryuuzaki die, weird blue-eyed, composed version or not!

“Hold on!” he yells, as he attempted to get a larger grip on the alarm, and to his horror, he felt himself be sucked away, into the vast abyss of a pressureless spac--

With a start, Ryoma jerked awake, a soundless scream on his lips. For a moment, he patted around, feeling for water and fire and the broken gun, but as he roused himself completely, he saw his room around him, illuminated by the sunlight streaming in through his window. There was a loud meow from behind him; Ryoma pushed himself from where he was slumped over his video game console to see Karupin happily curled up underneath his covers, her face peeking out from his blanket.

With a groan, Ryoma cracked his neck, which ached from the uncomfortable dream he’d been submerged in. A dream. No way. No way that had been a dream. No way in hell, that had been way too realistic. He glanced at the game console, which had gone into sleep mode and shook his head, unwilling to believe anything.

He dived for his phone, which was wedged between his half-open schoolbag and the large pile of letters from California that he still hadn’t gotten around to reading. He scrolled through the numbers quickly and dialed Ryuuzaki’s, taking note that the time was 11am, and therefore not an unreasonable time to disturb her.

She picked up after four rings, with a bright ‘moshi-moshi’ that Ryoma always associated with her. “Ryoma-kun?” she asked, after a moment of silence. “Did you need anything?”

“You...you’re okay?” he asked, feeling a little stupid for having called her. Right, that hadn’t been the real Ryuuzaki. That had been weird Ryuuzaki, with blue eyes and a catsuit, and actual composure. Still, she’d had the same smile and hearing her voice was something nice, after last hearing her scream about fire and aliens.

“Ryoma-kun?” she asked, sounding clearly confused. “I’m fine. Why?”

“Yeah...it’s nothing. Something stupid. Have a good day, see you on Monday.” His words escaped from his mouth in a quick breath, and he threw the phone back against the bed, embarrassment making his cheeks heat up. If that got back to the senpai, they were certain to give him a hard time.

Especially Momo-senpai. He glared down at the offending game, and kicks the case cover across his floor. Seriously weird. He was not playing that game before bed again. At all, actually. He’d just get the plot highlights online and pretend he’d played it, if Momo-senpai asked. He still wasn’t sure if Momo-senpai had not voodoo-ed him over the cheeseburger.

He snorted softly. “I wonder how Tachibana-chan would feel about knowing that she was more terrifying than the aliens in this game, Karupin?” He asked Karupin, which gave him a condescending meow in reply before striding out of the room like a queen.

Alright, alright, he could take a hint. She’d hardly believe him, anyway, and then if he talked to her about the dream, it was sure to get back to Momo-senpai, who would rib him awfully. There was enough ammunition for that in real life, let alone a startlingly realistic dream. Ryoma ran a hand through his hair and laughed dryly. How much of that had he dreamed up, anyway? That was some morbid imagination he had there.

His phone buzzed with muffled intensity, and Ryoma reached for it. His phone hadn’t been damaged from that impromptu throw on the bed then. Good.

A message from Ryuuzaki. Feeling slightly apprehensive, Ryoma selected the message, his fingers hovering over the delete button.

I don’t know what happened, but I’m free at home if you want to stop by to talk about it. I have cookies? Love, Sakuno x

Ryoma felt a small smile touch his lips despite himself and he placed the phone back on the bed with a little less force, walking towards his bathroom while yawning loudly, rubbing his bare arms. Maybe he’d take her up on that offer.