Hajime doesn't give in.

Hajime took a deep breath and aimed to clear his mind. He had to consider what he knew to find a way to win. Only by winning Chiaki's game did he have a shot at leaving here as himself.

But... that wasn't his goal, was it? He wanted a way to turn her back to normal. If he proposed something that might do that outright, like "let me destroy the Tome," she'd probably, best case, pass and let him leave. She didn't seem at all hesitant or repentant about the concept of turning into one of those imps, so there was no way she'd let him trick her into giving up that transformation.

His only two options seemed to be to either give in and join Chiaki as one of these bizarre creatures, or **** a win and, potentially, leave Chiaki forever. Could he accept either of those options? He'd just learned that, even before the Tome, the two of them had wanted to be together. Wasn't there some way they could be both together and back to normal?

"Dammit... Why did it have to be me?" Hajime couldn't help but ask himself, gripping his knees tightly. "If I had some kind of special talent like Chiaki or her friends, I'm sure I could do this... Ah, that's right." Hajime felt a sense of clarity accompanied by resignation. "I thought that even without talent, if I worked hard enough, I'd eventually be able to be with her as an equal... In the end, I guess that's impossible for a guy like me. Now, she's becoming something really 'special,' something that's not even human. There's no amount of work or time that will let me be with her in that condition. It's either join her now or lose her forever. Can I really let that chance pass?! If only I had some kind of special talent, any kind at all, I'm sure I could find another way...!"

That was it! An idea finally came to him. Without any further hesitation, Hajime rose to his feet, indicating the intention behind his next statement. "Chiaki, I dare you to suspend this game of Truth or Dare!"

"... You're stalling?" Chiaki asked, tilting her head and letting her bangs fall back over her budding horns. "This probably doesn't mean 'suspend it so we can play the party game,' I bet. You're asking me to suspend it so you can have more time to decide. But... that sounds boring..."

"Please, Chiaki! Just let me suspend it a bit until, uh... I've prepared myself to decide."

"Hmm... How does this sound?" Chiaki looked up at him and pointed a finger, giving him an agreeable smile. "Fix your dare like this and I think I can agree to it. 'I dare you to suspend the game for four days.' I think I can find ways to prepare and entertain myself until then. That way, I'll level up, the Tome'll get stronger, and you'll see just how great imps are. There's no way you'll be able to turn your nose up at it then... probably," she added, rising to her feet. Even standing, she had to glance up slightly to look into his eyes.

Hajime evaded her gaze, picking another corner of the room to focus on. "I guess that's probably as good as I'm going to get, huh? Fine. I dare you."

"Fair enough." Chiaki extended her hand for a shake, allowing Hajime to better examine the sparkling pink polish on her nails. "It's a promise... Don't forget about your promise, okay, Hajime? Even if things change a lot for both of us, don't forget you promised to make a decision. I'll be thinking about you..."

Hajime took her small hand in his and shook it, still looking into the corner curiously. Something had caught his interest. When he realized what it was, he quickly chose another direction to look in, apparently taking interest in the ceiling.

Still shaking his hand, Chiaki reddened a bit. "Oh... You saw my new toy? I probably should have hidden it better. Well... since you're suspending the game, I might keep using it a lot, but, like I said..." Still holding his hand, she caught the lapse in his defenses. She took the chance to reel him in and land another quick peck on his cheek, leaving a lipstick mark. "...I'll be thinking about you... Okay?" In spite of how she'd been laying it on him, her magic lipstick never seemed to smudge, and she gave him another full, well-painted smile.

Hajime shook his sweaty hand free and swiped up his bookbag, backing towards the door. "Think about what you're doing, instead!" Without any further discussion, he turned, threw open her front door, and stepped out onto the elevated corridor serving their apartments.

He stumbled over to his own door, feeling like he'd just fled a battle. All at once, the adrenaline from his encounter left him, and the fatigue from his full day returned. He locked his door behind him, threw his bag on the floor, and managed to drag himself to his bed without even turning on the lights of his apartment.

The young man threw off his clothes from the day, surprised to find out how much he'd apparently been sweating. When he was finally nearly exposed to his apartment, clad only in his boxer shorts, he rested his back against the shared wall between his apartment and Chiaki's, sighing and staring up at the ceiling. "What is Chiaki thinking? No, actually... she basically explained it to me, but I still can't believe it. It's like she wants to escape this world and live in a world of magic... That's nuts, isn't it? I mean, objectively... Chiaki had a great life, right? She's an amazing person, she's friends with other amazing people, and she gets to spend all day doing what she loves... How can she think it's okay to just throw her life away and live as an imp inside a video game?"

Hajime fell onto his side, still on top of his sheets. "Wasn't she happy? If she wasn't... there was probably more I could have done to make her happy, huh...? But we live in the real world. I had to get ready for her in the real world. Humans can't just escape into a world of magic. That's like giving up on what makes us human..."

His deep thoughts were making sleep set on quick. Before he fell asleep, Hajime felt like he had to come up with a plan. He had to do something, anything, to try and resolve this problem. After all, while he technically had nearly 96 hours, so much of that would be spent trying to study and work. "Boring human stuff," a voice in his head suggested.

Although the scope of the problem seemed to call for it, he didn't feel like he could rely on the police or the military. For one thing, those kinds of solutions never seemed to work in the movies... really, though, he couldn't see how anyone bound by conventional thinking would be able to come up with a solution which wasn't just "kill her before she can do any harm," which was the last thing he wanted.

"There's not much an ordinary guy like me can do... but maybe I know someone who can." Hajime picked his pants up off the floor and fished his cell phone out of his pocket. Fighting against drowsiness, he managed to make his way to the website of Hope's Peak Academy, and then to the forums. Back when he was obsessed with the idea of being admitted to that school, he'd joined their forums to keep up with the news. He certainly wasn't the only Reserve Course student who'd lived treating the Ultimates attending that Academy like celebrities, **** to lap up any bit of news about their exciting lives from any source he could. It'd been a long time since he cared enough to log on, but he was happy to find he remembered his credentials. Before passing out, Hajime managed to type out a message and get it posted on the public forum. Of course, it wasn't even in a current or graduated alumni section, just a general section where it would be buried by thousands of other posts from a thousand **** nobodies. It was entirely possible no one would see it. He had no better idea of how to contact any of those Ultimate students, though... This was his best shot.

Posted: 1 AM
By: Anonymous User
Subject: Chiaki Nanami turning to imp
My neighbor, Chiaki Nanami, is turning into a magical creature called an imp because of a magic video game. Her body is changing and she is growing horns and she isn't acting like herself. My apartment is located at XXX-XXXX
Can anyone from the Academy do anything about this? If you're Chiaki's friend, please help her before it's too late!