>>35842642
>Chihaya

>>35842642
>Iori
Ha, as if we have enough confidence to talk to anyone else

>>35842642
>>Iori
She can introduce the others to us

>>35842642
>>Miki
She's the best aside from Hibiki, who isn't here.

Voting is over!

You decide to talk to Iori – there was no way you had enough confidence to try and casually chat up two other mega-idols. That you didn’t lose your tongue every time you even looked at Iori was a miracle in and of itself.

“Hey, uh…” you begin nervously rubbing your head “would you mind saying something to those two for me?” you ask her. She giggles, a bit too happy at your discomfort.

“Not a problem, Protag.”

Taking you by the hand, Iori walks you over to Chihaya, who was currently in the middle of texting someone. The girl looks up and gives a small smile.

“Chihaya, this is Protag, my boyfriend.” Iori begins presenting you like the prize car on The Price is Right.

“It’s a pleasure.” She says, only half paying attention to you. She extends a hand and you shake it softly. The girl is short, flat as a board, and has natural blue hair. Or so you think. For a moment you get lost in thought as to whether the carpet matches the drapes, or if she’s got waxed hardwood floors. You almost ask, you can feel your mouth opening, but you slam it down and follow Iori to Miki. Close call.

When you reach Miki she gives a half smile and puts down the book she’d been examining from off of the coffee table. You’d met Miki before, as she’d been the person who helped save you from the clutches of the Usagi Club and for that you were grateful.

“W-what’s up?” you ask. She shrugs.

“Just looking forward for tonight.” She says. “I can’t wait to get scared!”

Remembering the haunted house fiasco from your first date with Iori, you’d truly rather spend the night at home rather than going out.

Where was it you were going again?

>The town’s gigantic corn maze
>The Halloween village built each year by the town
>Write in

>>35843191
>The town’s gigantic corn maze
water-soluble aliens when?

>>35842920
>>35843191
Nice tripcode, faggot.
>The town’s gigantic corn maze

>>35843191
>The Halloween village built each year by the town

>>35843276
Ah fuck. I'm a retard

Voting is over!

Today's a pretty quest-heavy day, isn't it?

>>35842642
>punture wounds
>vampire partner
I can already see where this is going.

Ah, that’s right; you were going to the big ass corn maze that the town erected each year. They grew it right outside the town and it stretched further than the eye could see. Why any of the girls wanted to go there was unknown to you, but you were dragged into this simply because you were Iori’s boyfriend.

The three girls beckon you to them as they walk out the door and you follow obediently. No point in trying to argue, not when you didn’t really have anything *actually* important to do. At the very least you had three nice views from behind as the girls chatted about…whatever they were talking about. Any time you tried to listen to the conversation you more or less heard static. You caught the word “concert” once and realized they were talking about idol-stuff. Definitely not your thing.

Miki did not have the same qualms about her fame as Iori did, and so outside of the apartment building was a moderately sized limo, for whatever quality “moderate” meant in a limo. You stoop inside of it after the girls and immediately collapse into the soft leather seat next to Iori, and lean your head back in relaxation. The inside was plush and blue velvet, with blue lights running down the inside of it. There was a drink bar, and you helped yourself to a shot or two of whiskey.

There was a lull in the girls’ conversation and Iori turns to you, smiling.

“Are you ready to have some fun tonight?” she asked.

“Last time we did something “haunted”, I seem to remember a certain idol nearly soiling herself in fear…” you tease.

She blushes red, and lightly punches you on the arm. “S-shut up.”

You just laugh, and so do the two other idols.

About 10 minutes later you arrive at one of the many entrances to the corn maze hand in hand with Iori, and take a look around you.

>Observe the people
>Examine the cornmaze
>Write in

>>35843812
>Examine the cornmaze

>>35843812
>Examine the cornmaze
Don't think about the people

>>35843812
>Observe the people

>>35843812
>>Observe the people
let the misunderstandings begin

>>35843812
>Examine the cornmaze

>>35843812
>Observe the people

>>35843812
>Examine the cornmaze

Voting is over!

I realize that this is an incorrect way to say it, but it was a typo the first time I used it in a thread and then I just kinda kept running with it.

Breathing deeply, very deeply in order to calm yourself from the insane amount of people at this corn maze (and this was truly the first horrifying thing of the night), you take a glance at the thing itself. As would be normal for a corn maze, the thing was (obviously) entirely made of corn. Huge stalks, probably 8 or 9 feet high, stood like thin skeletons standing side by side, their color like one huge wave of gold and light. There were various borders and banners of monsters and spooky nonsense around each of the entrances, and inside of the maze itself were workers who were paid to scare the pants off of any and all participants.

Chihaya and Miki stood in line before you and Iori and chatted to each other about something inane. A man walked over to them, bent over, wearing the grin of a man who is not all there.

“A-are you i-idols?” he stuttered and in that moment you felt great shame. It would not have been hard for you to be, well, just like him.

Annoyance flashed across Miki’s face but was quickly overshadowed by a fake smile. “Of course not. We’re just dressed like them.”

“B-but you h-have the s-same measurements. I can tell.” He breathed like a wheezy vent.

Chihaya grabs Miki’s arm and walks forward, not giving the man a second look, and then he wanders over to you and Iori.

“H-hey. A-are you I-iori?”

You clear your throat, the most manly thing you think to do in such a situation, and he glances up at you angrily.

“I wasn’t talk to y-you.”

You weren’t sure what to say really, how to respond. You just walk forward and he lags behind, lost in the crowd.

Eventually you and the girls make it to the front of the line, and a worker writes all of your names on a sheet of paper, and the time in which you walk in.

“Why’d you do that?” Chihaya asks.

“2 hour limit. If you’re not out in 2 hours, you’re too lost and we’ll find you.”
You nod, interested, and then walk. It’s immense size was absolutely aMAIZEing. HA!

>Walk left
>Walk right
>Write in

>>35844414
>Write in
Walk into the plot.

>>35844414
>Walk left

>>35844414
>Walk left
Time for something sinister

File: CQ2.png (74 KB, 245x224)

74 KB PNG

>>35844414
>aMAIZEing

>>35844414
Walk right

Voting is over!

File: iori witch.jpg (169 KB, 850x1110)

169 KB JPG

With the four of you at the entrance, you’re faced at first with two choices: going right or going left. For a moment no one makes a decision, before Iori speaks up, a devilish smile on her lips.

“Why don’t we race to see who can get out first?” she asks

“What’re the teams?” Chihaya asks “You and Protag, and Miki and I?”

“I’m up for it.” Miki says, smirking. “I’m positive we can beat you two.”

“We’ll see about that!” Iori answers

Another split second of silence and then the two idols run right, leaving you and Iori to go left. She grabs your hand and you run left, then left again, now following a straight line, now making a right, and after a few more turns and a few more minutes of running you both pause to catch your breath, Iori bending over with her hands on her knees and you…well, it wasn’t really a pretty sight.

People pass you two as you two pause. There are families with children dressed in cartoon character costumes. There are groups of friends, laughing amongst one another. A couple couples pass, the thrill of fear and the need for comforting that it brings being the reason they even decided to go through with this. The scene is calm, almost slowed down in time, and more people never seem to stop flowing.

That is, of course, until both you and Iori jump out of your skin when a hand rubs itself down your respective backs.

“OHMYGODWHATWASTHAT?” Iori yells, and you turn around, surprised and worried.

“J-just a hand. T-this is what we signed up for.”

She gulps, and the two of you begin moving once again. The sky above grows darker with each passing minute, and the bright bone-white ball of the moon begins to assert its dominance on the nearly indigo sky.

Wandering some more, you pass what you at first think is a costume glove. Upon closer inspection you can see that it’s actually a bloody human hand.

Uh huh.

>Point it out to Iori
>Look for the source
>Hurry out of that section
>Write-in

>>35844962
>>Look for the source
IT BEGINS

>>35844962
>Point it out to Iori
"Hey look, it's a bloody human hand."
"Oh yeah, it is."
"Huh."
"Weird."
"..."
"..."

>>35844962
>Look for the source
Over the bodies and through the maize, to Chromatique's plot we go~

>>35844962
>Look for the source

Voting is over!

>>35845025
that was a pretty good rhyme

You hate to complain (not really), but come on – how come, out of every person in this godamn maze, it was you who had to find the bloody, disembodied appendage? All you wanted to do was spend time with your girlfriend. Maybe make out with her in the cornmaze. Just enjoy the first Halloween night you’ve spent with someone in what had to have been *years*.

But no. You find a hand and against your better judgement, begin to look for its owner. People still pass all around you, noticing nothing.

“W-where’re you going? D-don’t leave me here!” Iori looks around, nervous. You point down to the hand and she stifles a scream.

“Stay here.” You say “I’m gonna see if I can find the, uh, owner of the hand.”

“Be careful!”

You don’t answer back. Instead, you walk off the path and into the wall of corn, squeezing yourself into the ranks. A body, a body, you’re looking for a body. You can’t imagine that someone could lose a hand and not at least pass out from blood loss, if not die.
You had underestimated the thickness of the corn rows, the tight spaces between them, and looking around you end up cutting yourself a few times on sharp leaves and plant fibers.

Eventually, however, you find what you were trying your hardest to deny the existence of – a body, young and male, with a missing hand. Blood pooled slowly out of his stump and his body was pale and already going rigid. He was deeper into the corn than you wanted to go (in order not to leave Iori too far away) and yet you could see two puncture wounds on his throat. Now, where’d you hear about that earlier?

“Well, uh, you’ll never guess what I found?” you say

“I…I think I can.” She goes pale

>Try to head back to tell someone
>Head towards the exit and warn people at the end
>Write in

>>35845475
>Head towards the exit and warn people at the end

>>35845475
>>Head towards the exit and warn people at the end

>>35845475
>Write in
call the other idols tell them what you have then call the police

>>35845475
>Head towards the exit and warn people at the end
Damn it girls, there's method acting and then there's...This!

Voting is over!

“We have to tell someone.” You say, looking around for a worker. Surprisingly, in a maze where people were supposed to jump out, there didn’t seem to be anyone around.

“L-let’s just head for the exit. We’ll probably get just as lost trying to retrace our steps.”

“Call Miki, tell her what we found. Maybe she can tell someone if we can’t yet.”

She nods and then follows your instructions while you wrap your arm around her shoulder and pull her towards you. She shivers, and whether it’s from the cold or the idea of the dead body you’re unsure. The two of your somberly walk the maze, looking around for any sign of what might be an exit.

Suddenly you feel a grip on your ankle and your eyes grow wide. You turn and face down, ready to kick, and see nothing there. Just then a scream from Iori causes you to turn back more quickly than you thought you could and you can see that she’s tearing up, holding her arms over her chest. Standing before you is a vampire, dressed in a cape quite like yours, although his face is obscured by a mask. The way he holds his body is similar to someone you saw earlier, but recollection is beyond your mental process at the moment, what with all the worry in your head.

“H-he groped me…”she says shaky. What? No one does that, not to your girl. Hell, you’ve barely groped her – some random douche was sure not going to do that.
[1/2]

>>35845904
[2/2]
“What the hell?” you ask, but he stands there in the classic “vampire wrapping himself in his cape” pose. You stomp towards him and he backs away, keeping the pose as he does so. You keep walking forward, but he sinks into the corn maze, and you sigh, deciding that you have better things to do than get lost following him. Your pride isn’t that stupid.

“You okay?” you ask her. She nods and leans into you a bit.

“Not the first time. Some fans are a bit too touchy feely. Those fans rarely leave without a broken hand, though.”

All you can do is shake your head and resume the arm-around-the-shoulder hold you had earlier. The two of you continue walking the maze, making what you think are educated guesses as to where you’re going (despite not knowing a thing).

You walk for what feels like hours, until you find yourself in a large clearing, probably the middle of the maze. God, this place had so many exits – why haven’t you found one yet?

>Walk in
>Observe first

>>35845927
>Observe first

>>35845927
>Observe first

>>35845927
>>Observe first

So, who do you think the vampire is?
Personally, I'm certain that it's Protag's brother, Anthony Tagger.

>>35845927
>Observe first

>>35844079
I don't see anything incorrect about saying it like that, Also, how was the dentist?

Voting is over!

>>35846039
The biopsy went fine - I bled a bunch, but that was to be expected. I didn't even need stitches, because the cuts they made weren't as deep as they expected.

2 weeks until I get the results back, so that's gonna be a bit of an anxious wait. Thanks for asking, though.

You’re a bit apprehensive about walking into the clearing now that you’ve seen a dead body and have been accosted by some creep in a costue. You figure that you should at least look around first.

The clearing, like the rest of the maze, is surrounded by corn stalks (obviously). The ground was cleared of vegetation and was just dirt, slightly damp and cold. Above the cornstalks was a great big sign that said “Monster Mash Dance”, and you guessed that this would be used for, you know, a dance sometime later in the night. Inside of the dirt was a number of large torches providing light in the now dark night. Beneath the Monster Mash sign was a hand written exit arrow pointing straight from under the large sign.

You give Iori a reassuring look and the two of you walk in together and begin walking towards the large sign slowly, as though you were praying to some statue of Christ. You keep your eyes peeled in case a worker jumps out but it’s quiet. You resist the urge to finish that thought with “too quiet”. You’re not that cliché.

When you’re about half-way through the clearing you see a figure step out from the dark – the same man you saw earlier in the vampire costume. The mask covering his eyes is still there, but now the lower part of the mask was gone, and in its place you could see his real smile and the real, sharp “fangs” sticking out. Fake dentures, you presumed.

“Uh, do you work here?” you ask, trying to keep your anger in check.

“Did. Do. Don’t. Who knows?” he answers.

“You would.”

“Would I?”

You weren’t going to get anywhere with this guy. You look to Iori, staring angrily at the man.

“Hey,” she says. “Get out of our way. We have to tell someone about the body.”

“Body? Oh! You found my work!”

Shit. That didn’t mean what you think it meant, did it?

>Question the guy
>Try to walk around him
>Write in

>>35846220
>Question the guy

>>35846220
Kick him in the shin hard and then you and Lori book it through the maize.

>>35846220
>Write in
"Yes, you did a great job with the male-up, it was a fantastical thing! I almost passed out!"

>>35846220
>Write in
Knee him in the nuts, take Iori by her hand, and break the land speed record

>>35846220
>>35846280
This, deny deny, play it cool, play it ignorant

Voting is over!

>>35846220
>>35846280
>>35846298
I have to give you a hand for the bang-up job you did with the fake corpse and fake hand, it really spooked me

>>35846298
>>35846291

“Your work?” you swallow, walking ever so slightly towards him, getting ready to run past him to the exit, or kick him in the nuts if it was necessary. “The make-up was incredible. And his acting was fantastic! What’d you guys use for the hand prop? It was almost too spooky for me, hahaha.”

Iori looks up at you but you just squeeze her hand in reassurance. “Trust me”, the squeeze says, and she listens. You watch Iori snap a picture of the Monster Mash sign and send it to Chihaya, with a message saying “get help for here”.

“Props? Make-up? Don’t flatter me. That was a real body.”

“Keeping up the act? You’re doing a great job.”

Now you were very close to him now, and you figured that if you were to run, you might be able to escape. You tense your muscles to get ready, when he pulls out a large machete from somewhere behind him. Its wicked blade gleamed in the moonlight, reflected the flames around him.

“It wasn’t an act!” he stomps his feet. “It was my real work! Do you want to see more of it? That girl in your hands – her measurements would be perfect what I want to try next.”

Measurements? Who else said –

You don’ have time to finish the thought, as the man rushes towards you brandishing the blade. You push Iori out of the way and dive to the opposite side, both of you falling at nearly the same time while the blade wielding fucker runs between you two. He turns around faster than you thought possible, and you manage to trip him before he can do anything. You rush to your feet and

>You try to punch him
>Try to grab Iori
>Write in

>>35846533
>Try to grab Iori
Time to leg it

>>35846533
>You try to punch him

>>35846533
>>Try to grab Iori
Time to be a hero!

>>35846533
>Write in
"YOOOOOU FUCKING OTAKU CUUUUNT"
Elbow dive onto his smug face as he's getting up

>>35846533
>Try to grab Iori

>>35846533
>You try to punch him
talk shit get hit

>>35846533
>Try to stomp on his nuts

>>35846533
Curbstomp him (or his nuts) and then grab Iori and run faster than your NEET physique should allow.

Voting is over!

>>35846579
>>35846589
>>35846571

Attack. Attack. Attack. The only thing going through your mind was to attack the fucker, to take the guy down before he even had a chance to hurt Iori. Or you. The former was obviously more important.

As the man gets up you manage to make your way to him quickly and punch him square in the face. As he’s falling you hit him in the nuts as well, hoping to hurt him enough for you to run.

“You dick!” he yells, but you’re already heading towards Iori. When you reach her she’s struggling up, her cute costume caked with dirt and a cut on her face from where she fell. You want to apologize but it’s not the time and –
Shit, yet again a hand on your ankle! You stomp, stomp, stomp on his hand, but it’s the other one –the not crushed hand – that is holding the machete. The one he ends up slicing cuts into your leg with.

“Fuck!” you yell, blood already sliding down your leg. You try kicking him away but there’s stinging pain in your leg already. “R-run Iori!” you yell as you limp.

“I’m not leaving you!” she yells.

“Don’t be stupid – just go!”

The man recovers and although his gait is now awkward in trying not to hurt his balls further, he can move faster than you. Just before he passes you for Iori, you shoulder him out of the way. But he doesn’t fall like you think he should. Instead he grabs you to stop himself and brings his face down to your neck. First you feel the fangs slightly, but he presses down harder than you thought possible and draws blood. You can feel it sliding down your neck, and then you can feel his slimy tongue rolling over it.

You try pushing him away, but his grip is harder than it should be and he doesn’t budge.

“RUN IORI!” you yell even louder, and you watch as tears spring from her eyes, but she follows your advice. Or would’ve, if he didn’t drop you immediately and rush to her.

>Struggle to get up
>Beckon him back
>Write in

>>35846804
Struggle to get back into a 3 point stance, the tackle his knees. A determined man can move with only 3 limbs.

>>35846804
>Write in
Grab his legs and trip him

>>35846804
>Write in
Grab him by the ankle, see how he likes it

>>35846870
>>35846804
This
Hopefully he'll trip and fall on his machete

Voting is over!

>>35846925
No, you are not going to let this guy get Iori. Not a chance. As he begins to take his first steps forward you grab onto his ankle with all of your strength and weight.

“The tables have turned now, huh?” you say, grunting in effort.

“Yeah, they have.” And he begins stomping on you and your hands, the way you’d done to him. Fuck, you hate being right.

Suddenly remembering the machete in his hands, he tries impaling you from above, but you roll out of the way before it could do more than scrape against your side. You’re still holding on to his ankle, but he hits you hard in the head with his other shoe, very hard, and you lose your grip for just enough of a second for him to get out and head towards Iori, who’d failed to run far enough – she wasn’t even out of the clearing.

You watch as the man grabs her hard, and you never stop trying to get to him. On your injured leg you raise yourself and begin limp-running towards him with all of your might and yet, he just laughs in your face. Iori whimpers, failing to get out of his grasp.

“You look so tasty!” he says, and bends his neck down, teeth bared, as he slowly sinks his fake fangs into her throat. Deeper, deeper, the teeth go as deep into her soft flesh as they did yours, and you never stop making your way towards him. You can see his tongue working over her throat, the way he tries to elbow him the face, but it’s as though you’re all moving through mud, slowly and with labored actions.

“L-let her go!”

“Are you sure?” he laughs, and, licking his lips, he pushes Iori away, rubbing the blade against her side as she falls, using her weight to injure herself. Blood blooms quickly on the thin cut, and it stains the ground. Her skin. Your vision.
As she falls to the ground before you, grasping at her side in shock, you feel a surge of anger and energy stronger than anything you’ve ever felt in your life. You

>Grab a torch and light the fucker
>Grab for his machete
>Grab to gorge his face holes

>>35847126
*the way she tries to elbow him in the face

>>35847126
>Grab a torch and light the fucker
SUFFER NOT THE UNCLEAN TO LIVE

>>35847126
>>Grab to gorge his face holes

>>35847126
>Grab to gorge his face holes
BLOOD AND THUNDER

>>35847126
>Grab a torch and light the fucker
Suffer not the heretic to pollute all that which is good and pure!

>>35847126
>Grab for his machete

I seriously don't know why we haven't tried to disarm him first.

>>35847126
>Grab a torch and light the fucker
Barbeque tonight?

Voting is over!

>>35847126
I HATE THIS GUY, PUNCH HIM TO DEATH PROTAG!

>>35847296
Because we're NEET and are only able to fight him because of righteous berserker rage?

>>35847299
In a very quick second your mind recognizes the purifying power of fire and the close proximity of your body to the large torches around you. Like some sort of Inquisitor, like a man of divine judgment, you shall use fire to cleanse the world of the man who’d dare injure Iori. Without looking at anything but the man before you, now frozen in fear it seemed, you grab for the flaming instrument of Justice to your right, and then dash towards him, ignoring the searing and screaming pain in your leg.

“H-Huh?” he starts trying to back up, but you’re already upon him like a snake to a baby mouse, the torch in your hands a spear of processed oak and magnificent fire. The glorious crack you hear as the heavy stick smashes into his chest is amplified by the light of the fire catching his cheap cotton costume up in flames, giving him but a taste of the hellfire reserved for scum like him. One more slam with the torch and you kick him away with your good leg. His cape alights as well, and he’s now stuck in burning clothes, running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

[1/2]

>>35847581
[2/2]

In his excited running his mask falls, revealing him to be none other than the creep who harassed the idols in the line earlier in the day. You hope he burns to death. His panicked running leads the man into the dried corn stalks that make up the maze, and very quickly the blaze spreads around the maze of maize. But you can’t concern yourself with that.

As you make your way to Iori the berserk rage in your blood begins to settle, and yet your will is iron. You pick her up in your arms, the injured thing, and struggle to walk forward – the pain is back in your leg in full force, and you’re reduced to limping forward.

Black smoke rises from all around the now-raging fire. It fills your lungs. It fills her lungs. She coughs, squirming in your hands, and you trip. There seems to be no way out, and in order to keep yourself from the smoke you huddle close to the ground with Iori in your arms. Consciousness begins to leak from you as the flames move closer and closer.

>Fight it
>Give in
>Write in

>>35847600
>Fight it
We are Protag, we rest only when our idoru is safe

>>35847600
>Fight it
But breath through a spare cloth(preferably wetted) if you can, you'll last longer.

>>35847600
>>Fight it

>>35847600
Whisper into her ear that it's going to be alright, that we'll protect her no matter what.

Then proceed to fight that shit with the strength of the Old Gods and see our maiden to safety

>>35847600
>Write in
yell out in rage and fight it

>>35847600
>>Fight it
"We're going to be okay, I'm going to get you out"

Voting is over!

I'm going to cut down on the voting times a little because it's getting a tiny bit late.

Concentrating every inch of your will into a single point, a single blazing white point in the center of your being, you force yourself up from the ground. You will not end here. You will not perish. You absolutely will not allow any more harm to come to your precious fucking idoru. No, this will not be the day either of you die.

You wrap the girl once more in your arms, and then cover her with your cape to make sure she breathes in as little smoke as possible.

“Everything will be okay.” You repeat. “We will be alright; there’s no need to worry.”

Over and over again you say these words while making your way through the burning maze, past the sign that pointed in the direction of the exit, walking straight through the fires blazing around you. In the distance you can hear people screaming, you can see sirens and lights and even a helicopter, but none of these matter in the slightest. No, all that matters was crossing the field of flames towards safety.

You don’t notice the passage of time as you walk straight ahead, now able to see the exit banner clearly. Your head feels light, your lungs as though they were black, bloated sponges, your exposed skin stung and burned and yet, you managed not to fuck up. You managed to keep her safe. At the exit is a paramedic herding people away from the incident and when he spots you he immediately runs over.

Everything that happens next is a blur. You barely remember being separated from Iori, and rushed into an ambulance. You remember the colors and sounds melding together while the world spun faster. You think you even remember seeing Eyepatch and the fake vampire. But it all fades to black soon enough.

---

You wake up in a hospital bed to the sound of your beeping heart monitor.

>Observe the room
>Get up, look for Iori
>Write in

>>35847891
>Get up, look for Iori

>>35847891
>>Get up, look for Iori

>>35847891
>Get up, look for Iori

>>35847891
>Get up, look for Iori
>Write in
"IOOOOOORIIIIIIIIII"

>>35847891
>Get up, look for Iori

Voting is over!

“Where is she?” is the first thing to pop into your mind once you regain consciousness. The sterile whiteness of the hospital room stings your eyes and nose as you look around the room. You seem to be the only one in there, and panic takes over despite your recent attempts to stop that reaction of yours.

Disregarding any sense of self safety you may have had (which wasn’t much at all anyway), you turn and begin to leave the bed…
Or you would’ve, if you didn’t fall straight down, the IV needles in your arms pulling out painfully as you did so. The floor you fall on is hard and cold, and these concrete feelings bring about every pain in you currently: the soreness of your body, the warm stinging of your skin, the sharp pain in your leg and, worse of all, the heavy smoke in your lungs, making it hard to breathe. You can barely croak out an “Iori!” with those broken gasbags of yours.

When you fell an alarm was tripped, and a nurse runs in frantically.

“Are you okay?” she asks while helping you get back up.

“Where” Pant “is” wheeze “Iori?”

The nurse ignores the question and lays you back down.

“You have to stay here, hooked up to these IVs. Don’t pull ‘em out again, okay?”

You repeat your question with equal ability, but as though a god answered you, the door opened at that moment and in walked your girlfriend, bandaged and bruised, but smiling wide and bright like the sun

>Greet her
>Laugh at your combined injuries
>Write in

>>35848080
>Spaghetti out

>>35848080
>Laugh at your combined injuries

>>35848080
>Greet her
>Laugh at your combined injuries
You know just once i'd like to go out on a major outing without one of us getting injured.

>>35848080
Cry like the man you are and babble endlessly about how glad you are that shes safe.

>>35848080
>Laugh at your combined injuries

“H-hey” you wheeze, “How’re you feeling?”
She looks down and blushes. “Fine, really. Thanks to you.”

“I didn’t do much,” you try to laugh and it sounds like a broken vacuum cleaner “you’ve got some stitches and I can’t breathe.”

“Walking over here was a pain. I had a stitch in my side the whole time.”

Silence. That was a terrible pun. A pun only you’d make. You’re rubbing off on her a bit too much.

Still, you can’t help but laugh at how stupid this whole thing was, and your wheezy-but-genuine laugh causes her to laugh too, and the two of you giggle uncontrollably for a few moments.

“M-maybe we can go out one of these days and not nearly die, you know?” you continue laughing

“As if.”

And it’s as though the terrible night never happened – you and Iori can do nothing but laugh and smile despite your injuries.
Not long after the doctor came in and gave his long speech about how you were “lucky to be alive” and “helped catch a criminal” and whatnot, but you’re barely listening. Iori is sitting next to your bed and holding your hand gently and that was all the reassurance you needed.

Miki and Chihaya had visited after the doctor left, having been the ones who sent for the police originally. They passed along their good wishes, and finally, finally, the two of you were left alone.

“Happy Halloween?” you cough out

“That was yesterday. Duh.” She gigles. After that she clambers up onto the bed with you – big enough for two thanks to her small frame – and it’s as though all of your pain lessens instantly.

You wanted to tell her that she steals your breath away, but the smoke in your lungs does that for you. Instead, you just bury your head in chest and she holds you and, for perhaps the first time in your life, you feel totally and completely at ease. Sleep comes over the both of you like a warm wave, and you drift off together without a sound.

---
END

Thanks for playing along with the special Halloween edition! Next Monday will be the conclusion of Ivan's tale.

Enjoy the rest of your night, readers.

Questions, concerns, and comments are welcome.

>>35848307
Ever think of doing something longer than a one-shot?

>>35848334
B-but Anon, it's not the one-shot.

>>35848307
Great thread and another daw worthy ending thanks for running, what happened to asshole after we burned him?

>>35848357
Vamp kid got taken into custody by Eyepatch, like Protag saw. He suffered some sever burns, though, and some cracked ribs.

Thanks for the kind words, anon!

>>35848334
Well, Ivan's story will be a two parter. But if you mean something like a "real" quest - I'm not sure I have it in me, not yet. One-shots have been my deal even in my old fan fiction days. I read short stories more than I read novels too. I prefer small, contained plots.

That said, I may do a couple of multi-thread "oneshots" for this series.

I've archived the thread, anons.

Now have a wonderful night.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Accidental%20Idol%20Crime%20Quest

>>35848293
When are we gonna break the news that her music sucks?

>>35848552
Idol pop isn't one of Protag's preferred genres of music, but I'm sure he has no issue with getting to hear his girlfriend sing, due in part because he likes her voice, and in part because he's not a dick.