The bell rang and I was finally able to go home after a long day of school. I didn't have to worry about walking home with anyone. I walked home alone every day. It wasn't like I had any friends to go home with anyways. Ever since I came here, I hardly spoke with anyone. No matter how hard I tried, I was unable to.
The only two people I considered friends were two people I met online playing my favorite game: Neo Fantasy Online. Their names were Rinko and Ako. Luckily, we all lived in Tokyo so we met up a few times in person. When they weren't busy practicing with their band, the three of us would play NFO together.
There was a new event in NFO so I wanted to hurry home. Just like with any other event, Ako, Rinko, and I would grind it out until early in the morning. Sleep is for the weak, am I right?
In a hurry, I sped walked down the usual path I took home. Along the way, something caught my eye. It was a shiny sticker of a star. The way it glittered and glistened in the sunlight made it impossible to ignore. As soon as I noticed it, I brushed it out of my thoughts and kept making my way home. Although it was strange, every moment I spent not heading home was a moment of playing NFO lost. The longer I walked, the abundance of star stickers only continued to increase.
Inspecting some of the stickers was a brown haired girl with buns that looked like... cat ears? She enthusiastically hummed to herself before spotting me.
"Hey there!" She called out to me. "Do you know where these stickers lead to?"
"These stickers... I uh... d-don't know..." I responded in a quiet voice.
"Don't you want to find out?"
"I guess... but I have places to b-"
"Then c'mon, follow me! Let's figure out where this trail goes to!" The girl grabbed one of my hands and began to run.
"W-wait! We don't even know each other!" I stuttered as she pulled me along with her.
"You're right! I'm Kasumi Toyama! What's your name?"
"It's Y/N L/N."
"Y/N, huh? I love that name!"
"Y-you love my name?" I felt myself get flustered.
"Yup. C'mon, let's go, Y/N. These stars won't find themselves."
As much as I tried to find an excuse to leave Kasumi behind, I found that I was unable to escape her energetic grasp. We continued to move further and further away as we continued to follow the sparse trail of stickers.
"Look! There's one here! Oh, and another one there! But where's the next one? It must be hiding from us!" Kasumi scouted around hoping to find the next sticker.
"There's another one... right there." I pointed to a sticker that was on the wall of pawn shop called ryuuseidou
"You're right. Wow, Y/N, you're amazing!"
"T-thanks" I blushed.
"It looks like the trail leads to Arisa's place. This isn't the first time this has happened." The energetic girl explained to me. "Don't worry, she knows me so we can just walk right inside!"
"A-are you sure? It feels intrusive just walking into someone's place..."
"Don't worry about it. Arisa is really friendly." Kasumi reassured me.
We walked inside. It didn't look like anyone was inside, but there was a large variety of items littered around. I heard Kasumi gasp as she pointed at star stickers that were on the inside.
"Look, Y/N! We haven't found the end of the trail!" She beamed. "This mystery isn't solved just yet."
She followed the remaining star stickers in the shop until it ended on a star shaped guitar case.
