The play ended.

I confess, I did not expect to become so engrossed in the play as I did. Apparently the play had an original book. After watching the play, not buying the original would be a crime. Visiting the bookstore after school seemed like a good plan. Maybe I could even check out if Mushoku Tensei released any novels as well.

Teachers started getting the students to exit their seats, making sure they picked up their trash. Once they got up, the students started chatting away. Not a lot of people talked about the play though, which surprised me. That ending almost made me cry.

“What’s wrong with you, Nwier?” Tesha must have noticed the tears in my eyes. Unlike my uniform, my eyes were probably red.

“Please don’t talk to me right now, Tesha, I’m having trouble processing what I just witnessed.” I put my hand up between us, signaling that I needed some space. Meanwhile, my other hand made sure my eyes were dry.

“That ending really got to you, didn’t it,” Tesha did not seem to understand my feelings, probably because she was an inhuman serial killer.

“Tesha, I said not to talk to me right now, didn’t I?” I spun to face her, my red eyes resembling the fury of a drunk, “I’m having a little bit of a hard time keeping my feelings in right now.”

Tesha tilted her head in confusion, “You could just let it out, I won’t judge. Why would you need to keep them in?”

“Look, I’ll let them out later, just…” a sniffle escaped from me, despite my efforts to bar it in, “not right now.”

“You must cry easily, huh,” Tesha picked up her things, “fine, I’ll leave you alone for now, so cheer up, yeah?”

“Okay…” I meekly nodded my head. Engrossed in my feelings with the play, I couldn’t even stack on the complications I had against Tesha. I needed to get myself together.

We shuffled out of our row and out of the auditorium. Even with the lights on, I couldn’t see past the crowd.

Due to my unsteadiness, I occasionally bumped into Tesha, or the person behind me would bump into me. Each time, my heartrate took a dip, and both the guy behind me and Tesha let out some kind of noise of annoyance.

At some point, Tesha grabbed my arm and forced me to match her pace. I could sense the relief of the guy behind me, but also some other unidentifiable emotion welling in me. Though, I didn’t have any time to care about that, I was too busy acting flustered when being dragged by Tesha.

When I didn't think about how she murdered a handful of innocent people, Tesha seemed to actually be a decent human being. I probably only saw a façade though.

Soon, Tesha and I were separated, and I entered the bus I rode in on. I still felt sad…sad and lonely. Normally I’d crack open my book, but I just received a huge blow from the play. I could not read Mushoku Tensei, or I would be diluting the feelings I got from the play.

“Hey, um,” A small voice erupted from the right of me, “can you move a bit? I need to sit down.”

My last name mate arrived. I wondered where she was. Actually no, I forgot she existed, since I got too absorbed in my sadness. “Sorry,” I shuffled a bit to make way for her, “go on ahead.”

“Thank you,” she nodded slightly before taking her seat.

As she settled down, I turned all my attention back to all the sadness in my heart.

Or so I thought, but I had no luck. My luck probably ran out once I dropped my uniform in the whites. I had no other explanation for all the horrible things happening to me. Unusually, my last name mate decided to initiate conversation with me.

“The play was pretty sad, wasn’t it?” She caught my attention, apparently I wasn’t alone, “But the play left out a lot of things that the book had, I was a little disappointed too.”

Whoa, my last name mate read the book! You know what, I doubted her when she shared her dislike for Mushoku Tensei, but she might actually be a really good reader at heart. If I talked with her more, maybe I’d get some good stories from her.

“You probably think I’m a bit silly for being so moved by the play though,” my last name mate shifted her gaze away and out the window, “everyone seemed so uninterested in it.”

“No! I totally get you,” I shouted a little too loud, forcing my last name mate’s gaze back to me, so I quieted down a bit, “it was way too hard to hold back my tears, you know?”

“So someone else did feel sad too,” my last name mate let out a relieved sigh, “I’m not alone then…”

“Hey, you read the book too, right?” I really wanted to read that book, especially if the play left out bits of it, “Do you have a physical copy I could borrow?”

“Well, uh, yeah, I do,” my last name turned back to me, “I’ll try and get it ready for you tomorrow.”

“Thank you so much! I’ll treat your book with the respect and care it deserves,” I needed to make sure she knew that I would keep it safe, “I promise!”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Y-yeah, thank you…” my last name mate wound up being a very pleasing person to be with, and she let people borrow her books, what a nice friend to have, “a lot of people end up damaging my books sometimes…”

“What! That’s crazy! Whoever did that better pay,” I knew the pain of having books ruined, and it’s tenfold what one would expect, “tell me their names and addresses, I’ll give them each a visit!”

“Y-you don’t need to go that far,” my last name mate acted shocked for some reason, trying to hold me back from giving the fools who wronged her and her books their deserved punishment, “it’s just a few bends and tears.”

“Look at me, uh,” I took a quick peek at her nametag, properly placed on her uniform, “Hazel! Those books are precious to you right? They helped you when you were down, isn’t that correct? Your life was given meaning by the words you read, yes? How could you just let people walk all over them like that!? Stand your ground!”

“U-um, please, you’re being really loud right now,” Hazel’s eyes wandered around the bus, seeing a large amount of gazes going their way causing her voice to shrink, “everyone’s watching…”

“No! I will not stifle myself! You need to learn to be angry at those people who ruined your preciouses!” I found myself standing on my seat, with my foot planted on the backrest, “We must take a stand! Let those fools fall, let them feel the pain they inflicted upon us!”

“Neuire! Settle down back there!” Mrs. Green commanded me to take a seat. As a student, I had to obey her.

When silence followed, my last name mate continued acting flustered. The occasional glances everyone gave us did not seem to sit well with her. Leaving her alone would make me a criminal, so I decided to cancel the noiselessness between us.

I decided to start off with the line that she probably wanted to hear, “Sorry.”

“W-what? What are you sorry about?” Hazel snapped to attention, she must have been deep in thought, “It’s okay; you were just a little loud…”

“Yeah, sorry, I’ll be quieter next time… Hey, was there anything you didn’t like about the play?”

Hazel went along with my attempt to change the subject, “They cut out a lot of the foreshadowing and the dialogue, everything else was fine. I did miss some of the old scenes though.”

“Oh, well I thought that the play could have been a little less bloody with the death of that one guy.” I decided to try and see if she would back me up or go with Tesha’s idea of the murder.

“When Ben killed that person? I think that went well; besides, the murder itself didn’t really matter. The reactions held more importance.” Hazel ended up on a whole different point than both Tesha and I, “Most of what happens in life is determined by how you react to it, after all, not just what happens to you.”

Hazel’s idea struck me, it felt more right. I thought of telling Tesha about Hazel’s answer too, maybe she’d think I’m smarter. Wait huh? Something felt weird.

“Well, I’m only saying what I read in a book, but I think it fits, don’t you?” Hazel gazed into my eyes, and realized something was wrong, “Um, is something wrong? Why do you look like that?”

I became aware of something important, and that important something was not there. My book, Mushoku Tensei, I couldn’t find.

Quickly, I ran through what happened throughout the day, trying to find out where I left my book. I must have left the book at my seat, when I was overcome with sadness. Tesha, she distracted me, I blame her. Okay, I was definitely at fault here, no need to point fingers at who I was nearest.

The bus already started, so I couldn’t do much. I couldn’t just ask them to stop, so I decided to go with the next best plan.

First, I needed to get the path clear, “Hey, Hazel, move for a bit please.”

“What? Why? Where do you need to go? I’m at the window,” Hazel shuffled, not knowing exactly why, “did you want to sit here?”

“No,” I opened the bus window, “but thanks for moving, you can have your spot back, now.”

Once I opened the bus window, I vaulted out of the bus.

“Ah! Wait huh!? Where are you going?!”

I turned to face Hazel through the bus, the occupants of the bus went crazy. The best course of action was to signal a goodbye, so I saluted.

“I’m on a mission.”

With that, I ran back towards the auditorium, losing sight of the school buses. I’m pretty sure they sent some other students after me, but I lost them on the way. While running, I accidentally ran into one of the employees in the auditorium.

“Hey kid, you’re one of those students, right?” The employee had a dark complexion with a shiny bald head. That shine was very mesmerizing, but I fought the urge to stare. “Weren’t you supposed to leave a long time ago?”

“Uh, I’m here to look for my book,” I decided to enlist the employee’s help, “it’s colorful, and it’s called Mushoku Tensei.”

“Is that so? Well, you can go inside there and take a look,” the employee opened up the door to the auditorium, “we haven’t cleaned up in there yet, and it’ll be crowded.”

“Alright,” I entered the room and waved to the employee, “thanks sir.”

“You are welcome,” the employee smiled then went back to his duties.

Now I had the ability to search the auditorium, which was filled with a large amount of people. A band on stage performed for the audience, and the watchers seemed to be having a very good time.

Whenever I had to squeeze through some tight spots, I could feel their irritated glances pass over me. The way their eyes glanced over to me as if I were the most bothersome person on the planet hurt in strange ways. I felt as if my heart was being compressed by some huge hand.

At some point, I just couldn’t take it. I gave up on trying to search for my book, and I ran back up the stairs. I came across the employee who seemed to be waiting for me.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” The employee said as he made his way towards me.

“No, I did not find what I was looking for…” I sulked towards, then past him.

“Hey, I’m sure you’ll find it, maybe you had it somewhere else when you lost it?”

“Maybe… but I was sure it might be here…” as I thought back to when I was sitting in the auditorium, an idea came to mind, “actually, I think I know someone else who might know where it is.”

“Is that right? Well, I’ll keep searching here on my end,” the employee brought me out of the auditorium and locked the door once again, “also, do you need help getting to your school? It looks like the buses are gone.”

“Oh, uh,” he was right, the buses probably left, “yeah that would be helpful.” Hopefully I don’t get in too much trouble when I get back.

“Okay then, come with me,” the employee brought me with him to bring his keys from his office, “you’re lucky I’m on my break right now.”

We left the dark lobby and he brought me to his four-seater car. I cautiously buckled myself in. He began driving towards the route our buses took.