Period 1: The Devil's Game

Period 1: The Devil's Game
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Period	1
Volume	1
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Next	Period 2: The Bonds Of A Curse

The Devil's Game is the first chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and manga volume 1.

Premise[]

Everyone in class is obsessed with video games; except for Mio Matsuzaki, who doesn't have a game system. But her luck changes when one day, she stumbles across one someone left behind. But after starting the game inside of it, she is warned not delete her save file...

Yomi's Introduction[]

From her seat Yomi greets the readers. She tells them about the setting of the series and suggests they take a seat.

Summary[]

As the only student in class without a game console, Mio sighs while listening to her classmates chatter. Her mom refuses to buy her one because of her poor grades, so she is forced to watch them from a distance. Mio is approached by her friend, Yukari, and they converse until she gets invited to join in on a new game, along with her crush, Abel.

Mio sadly makes her way home after school. It's pointless to ask her mom again, and even if she tries to save money it could take a long time before she could afford a game. Just then, she steps on something and to her surprise, she finds an abandoned console. Mio doesn't recognize this model, nor the game "Animals and Humans Stories" loaded in it, and she is startled when it turns itself on. She remarks on its "cliche" story line of animals encountering events to grow up to become kings of the animal kingdom by collecting food and money, but she hastily decides to take it. Nobody saw her pick it up, so its fine. She feels a little anxious when a warning screen tells her that she will lose progress should she restart the game, but she quickly becomes distracted with her cute bunny character. She enters her name and the game begins.

Bunny Mio encounters fruit in the forest, and the game asks her what she wants to do with it. Mio chooses B "return it to the police" and happily continues home, until she spots a wallet on the ground. She promptly turns it into the police station, where the relieved owner rewards her with 10,000 yen as thanks. The nearby officer offers to help Mio home due to the suspicious figure lurking through town lately, but Mio assures them she will be fine.

She wonders how to spend her newfound gains after leaving when she sees bunny Mio gained 100 acorns for being honest. Mio is delighted, but by now she starts to wonder if it was alright taking the game. She rationalizes that it's fine because someone discarded it, and it's not a big deal if it means she won't be lonely anymore.

The next day, Mio makes her way to school when she takes note of a status bar she didn't see previously. She brushes it off assuming its a display for the console's remaining energy before it needs charged again, only to become distracted when she sees Abel up ahead. She tries to speak to him but she panics and he passes her by, leading her to feel discouraged. She resumes her game as Mio Bunny encounters a male tiger she has a crush on, and the game asks for Mio to make a decision. Hoping things go better for her, Mio chooses A "talk to him of course!" and suddenly Abel approaches her. His friend and Mio are stunned as he greets her and invites her to walk to class with him. Mio happily accepts.

In this time, Mio comes to the conclusion that everything happening in game happens to her too. It's too much to be coincidental. She is initially disturbed but she comes to accept it when she realizes that she can control her life to go the way the wants. She can improve her grades and sporting skills, become popular and date Abel.

Mio quickly gets to work for self-improvement when one day, Yukari and another friend approach. Her suspicious behavior made them concerned as of late. Mio tries to hide the console from them and quickly comes up with an excuse to leave for their next class. She can't let them find out about the console or her new game, because they would want it too and she isn't sure how to explain obtaining it. Not only that, but they would use its power for their own gain too.

Mio is outside when a new event happens. Mio Bunny sees something and she can either "Keep walking until they meet" or "Stop to look them in the face", and she chooses the safer option. Besides a little kid run by Mio sees nothing, and she expresses relief. She goes on to warn the child to be careful when suddenly a bus collides with him. She is frozen in shock as a nearby Teacher screams for help- if she had chose the other option, she could have been killed.

Mio remains on edge during class, oblivious to their Teacher as they inform the class of a suspicious person seen in town as of late. He warns everyone to leave in groups for safety reasons. Mio observes the third statistic bar to see it has decreased, and by now she's beginning to feel sluggish. She can't understand why since she had a big breakfast, but she blames it on staying up all night to play the game. Once class ends she gets up to speak to Yukari and some friends, but they brush her off, causing her some concern. Yukari joins them after asking Mio to meet her after school.

Mio is very anxious when Yukari returns to explain how everyone has become upset with her lately. She's been ignoring them even though they reached out to her, she always wanted to be alone and sometimes she won't even acknowledge them now. Yukari is convinced that everyone would feel better if Mio apologized, but this only makes Mio frustrated. She stubbornly refuses on the grounds that they did the same thing to her before she got her own game console, but Yukari tries to say this isn't true. It was her unapproachable attitude that made them keep distant, then she asks if Mio is hiding something from her. Mio snaps at her by saying she likes her new game much more than being with them. She proclaims that she doesn't need friends and runs away in tears.

Mio calms herself down at a bench behind the school when she sees how late it is. She decides to head home and turns off the game, but to her confusion it turns back on. She sees her bunny being approached by the "fiend of the forest" just as she sees a tall shadow before her. She looks up to find someone standing nearby, wielding a bladed tool and wearing a strange hat over his face. Remembering the details she heard of the lurking figure, Mio runs inside while screaming for help and takes shelter in the restrooms nearby. She locks one of the stalls just as she hears the figure step inside, dragging the bladed object against the doors.

Mio begins to cry as she feels guilt over not apologizing and leaving with Yukari when she had the chance. The game alerts her to a new event: her character ran home for safety and now she can either "Open the door from inside" or "Break the lock on the door". Mio panics realizing the figure located the stall she's in, and she watches as the third bar on the game begins to drastically drop, causing her to realize that it wasn't the battery: it represented her life span. She collapses on the floor and frantically mashes the reset button, just as the door flies open.

But it's not a dangerous figure wielding a weapon. It's two of her classmates, who are happy knowing their prank on her worked. They point fingers by saying that Mio was ignoring them lately so she had to be taught a lesson, but to their alarm they see she's no longer there. An irate Yukari shows up to scold them for scaring Mio so much. The man was caught, but to make Mio feel better she offers to walk home with her. But as she looks inside the stall, she sees the console on the ground. From an unknown location, they are unable to hear Mio calling out to them.

Yomi's Epilogue[]

Yomi rises from the seat she was occupying. She reasons that if Mio had been more aware of her surroundings and told her friends the truth then things might have ended differently.

Characters[]

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

This is the first chapter to involve a cursed item.
This is also the first chapter where the Protagonist is partially spurned into certain decisions because of a crush.