The Ghost on the Rooftop [Open Group]

"Ugh, how disappointing..."

The Ultimate Shopkeeper sighed as another day in her store went by. She figured that the Ultimate Gamer girl, Chiaki would've come by now and pick up one or more of the newest games Kaneko got into her store by now. Then she remembered that the girl was dead.

Kaneko herself wasn't too close to Chiaki as a person, but the Gamer was one of her favorite customers. She went in, asked Kaneko if she had this or that new game, or batteries for her handheld, she paid the money and then left without much smalltalk.

She closed the door to her shop, and walked to the school, as there were things in her dorm room Kaneko still needed to pick up.

When she arrived at the school, she looked at the sky. It wasn't often that the Shopkeeper thought that the sky looked beautiful.

She figured she still had some time before her dear Daniel came back from... whatever it was he was doing, and decided to go to the rooftop to more or less stare at the horizon.

A little while after she arrived, she could've sworn she heard the phrase 'Dragons are cheap.' right now. Instinctively, she answered. "No, they're not. Everything has a weakness. A sword to the throat or the underside of the belly, perhaps? If you can hurt it, you can kill it."

Kaneko turned her head towards the source of the voice, when she saw a hooded figure. Hey, didn't the Ultimate Gamer commit suicide from the roof of the school? That hood looked way too familiar.

"No, they're not. Everything has a weakness. A sword to the throat or the underside of the belly, perhaps? If you can hurt it, you can kill it."

Killing? Well that was certainly uncalled for, she thought. Sure, somethings weren’t as pretty as others or maybe some people would consider them useless but it was just plain rude to just kill them. Or so Chiaki thought anyway but hey she was the girl who was grinding up a Livdisc because she didn't have anything else that could learn an ice attack to take down any more mean dragons. And let her just be the first one to say, Luvdisc was kind of a chore to keep alive. One really had to wonder what Nintendo was thinking when they made something so cute and so fragile.

"Hey, killing is wrong...or at least, I think it is. Everything has the right to live as calmly and peacefully as possible." Chiaki grimaced as once again a Machoke slapped her fish down to red status. She should have brought more hyper potions but now she was too far away from the entrance to stock up. What to do, what to do.

“Killin, how unchill. Live and let live makes the world go round, brah.”

Oh hey, another new friend. Now, what was his name again? As the gamer girl looked up once again at the sound of a new voice, Chiaki noticed that this one was...oddly familiar. She did seem to recall that this boy was in the same year as her, but besides his odd speech pattern and the almost skunky smell that followed him around for some reason, she didn't know much about the blonde boy. Still, he seemed friendly enough and she smiled at his words, bobbing her head up and down in agreement as if she fully understood.

"I agree. Most...unchill." Chiaki fought off a yawn, blinked kind of sleepily and then looked right back down at her screen as yet another graveler appeared. How tiresome.

Kaneko brushed some hair aside. "Did you not just say that 'dragons were cheap'?", she asked the hooded figure.

"If so, then it is possible for you to engage them in combat and defeat them, retreat to prepare or to avoid them in their entirety."

She walked around to see that the somewhat translucent girl was holding something that appeared to be a Gameboy Advance. She did not see what game the person was playing, and to be honest, the Shopkeeper didn't really care.

The blonde girl simply let out a 'Hm.' when it was said that murder was wrong. "You're both correct about that, but murder is a part of life, too."

When she turned around, she saw a black-haired girl standing on the rooftop as well.

"Are you here because of the ghost rumors?", Kaneko asked. "I am just here because of the sunset."

"Did you not just say that 'dragons were cheap'?"

This girl was strange. Not only did she appear fascinated with the idea of killing things and that was usually bad. If she remembered right that was one of the first warning signs of a sociopath. What a scary woman. Chiaki may have corrected her on the fact that there was a big leap from “this Pokémon type is cheap” to “hold it down and slit it from sternum to crotch” but it was at that exact moment that the door to the roof once again opened and a newcomer joined them on the root, and Chiaki gave an absentminded wave as her eyes stayed glued onto her Nintendo DS, frowning in concentration as she tried to beat an annoyingly durable medicham.

"You're both correct about that, but murder is a part of life, too."

“Says who?” That just seemed wrong to her, truth be told. She knew that people did commit murders and that this was a horrific part of their society, but murder wasn’t something one should be so glib about. Killing was wrong, and it was wrong to just shrug your shoulders and say ah well, this is how people are. At least, that’s what she thought, a thought she made sure not to say out loud because there was a thought this girl might snap if she told her how she really felt. Instead the gamer narrowed her eyes and puffed out her cheeks a bit like she was debating what to say before settling for “Murder is wrong.”


And that was that. Chiaki turned her attention to the screen and the older girl turned to address someone else because there was no point in carrying on this conversation. She was wrong, that was all there was too it. Murder shouldn’t be justified just because it happened, people should strive to be better so one day there wouldn’t be any murders. That didn’t sound like a horrible thing to wish for, did it? For things to be nice and peaceful and maybe everyone could get together and play Mario party or something and everything would be nice and calm and friendly. Yes, she’d like a world like that very much.

"Are you here because of the ghost rumors?”

“Ghost? Who’s a g-“ Chiaki’s voice caught in her throat as yet again for the eighth hundred time the cry of a Golbat echoed from her screen. This time was different however, this time the bat had a greenish hue to it and the wings that were normally a purple color were now a salmon pink. A shiny golbat, what are the odds?

“’oly shi-“ She caught herself just in the nick of time, quickly flicking her eyes to the three other students that were there and scrambled to cover up the curse she had almost uttered. “oot.”


Phew. Crisis averted.

"I sense it.", Kaneko said coldly. "You're thinking I am a sociopath, isn't that right? Even so, I'm not angry. I feel it's hard to make me angry, something I must have inherited from my mother."

When the black-haired girl suddenly pulled out her sword and pointed it at Chiaki, she had to take a look at what happened. She took a few steps forward and saw a shiny Golbat.

Kaneko began to smile. "Lucky! You have a 1/8192 chance to find a shiny Pokémon! Did you bring enough Ultra and Great Balls? Maybe a few Dark Balls as well?"

She then sort of shrugged. "Or enough Poké Balls as well, but catching a stronger Pokémon with them is difficult..."

Why yes, after Daniel became Kaneko's boyfriend, he did show her what fun the Pokémon games can be. She doesn't play a lot, but when she does, it eases her mind off of other things, like difficult schoolwork or the works.

"Do excuse me.", Kaneko said to Mei after the latter threatened Chiaki's device with her sword.

"Please, calm down first." Although the Shopkeeper thought of herself as a smart young woman, she still knew she had to tread carefully now.

Slowly, she approached Chiaki and the game she was playing as well.

"Although there is a bat on the screen, it is nothing to worry about. It is not a real bat."

She turned to Chiaki.

"Chiaki, my dear, would you be so kind as to... how did Daniel put it again? 'Close the lid' on the device to put it into 'Sleep mode'? That should be proof enough that the bat is harmless."

When she turned to Hoshi, she gave him a warm smile.

"It is good to see you again, Hoshi. Although the circumstances right now are less than stellar, I hope your day was fine?"

Kaneko sort of hoped that she didn't have to use her Death Stare, even if it was effective generally.