Disheartenment [Your Turn To Die Reader Insert]

Lights out

The five of you ran out of the cafeteria and into the central hallway after Gin and Nao. A large blue staircase had appeared in the middle of the hall, leading to a doorway near the top of the room. After a few minutes of tense conversation, Keiji and Sara agreed that the two of them should search the second floor while Joe, you, and Reko remained on this floor. Reko tried to convince you to stay in the bar with Kanna while she and Joe looked around, but since you're a stubborn middle schooler, you declined. Thankfully, the singer understood and reminded you to be careful while searching for the two missing people.

You walked back into the cafeteria with a determined look on your face. There was no reason to visit the pink room again, because, well, you couldn't, and the door to the kitchen was still locked, so Nao and Gin couldn't have made it into that room. Sighing in disappointment, you began to leave when the lights abruptly flickered off, painting the empty cafeteria in darkness.

Well frick.

Now unable to see, you ran your hands along the wall in order to find the exit door, but something else caught your attention. In the corner of the large room, was a weird glowing card. You stared down at it, debating on whether or not to actually pick it up. After all, this could be another trap... Screw it! You crouched down and picked up the card.

The card had the words 'Commoner' inscribed onto the bottom of it, and a picture of a pitchfork on the front. As you examined the rest of the card, the door to the cafeteria opened up rather violently, and Joe Tazuna walked into the room with a troubled face. "Hey... Y/N! You okay in here?" The boy asked with a slightly worried tone. You slid the card into your pocket and nodded, "Mhm! I'm okay."

Joe let out a sigh of relief, "Ah, alrighty then. Well, I think we should head over to the bar to meet up with the others soon. I've searched most of the place, and Nao and Gin haven't seemed to pop up anywhere. We can double-check, but I think it'd be a waste of time and energy to continue looking for them on this floor," He explained, resting his back against the wall.

"Oh, alright then..." You frowned, disappointed that neither of you had found anything useful during your search. You continued to walk around the first floor with Joe, looking in and out of each room on the hunt for Gin and Nao. After covering the whole floor, you and Joe reluctantly headed towards the bar to meet up with the remaining people.

...

The bar was relatively quiet.

Kanna sat down against the wall next to Reko, while Joe and you sat on the stools that stood against the counter. Q-Taro stood against the doorway, and that one blue-haired guy you had forgotten about was still tied up and was passed out in the corner of the room. Reko kept glancing at him every now and then, but you didn't think much of it.

"Hey, Y/N, How do you feel about this whole thing? " Joe suddenly piped up, rubbing the back of his kneck in a similar way that Keiji usually did. "I haven't really gotten the chance to talk with you or Gin, and I wanna change that! After that whole main game practice test or whatever it was called..."

"Um...!" You interrupted him, not wanting to be reminded of that unpleasant experience from before. "I don't really want to talk about that thing... Sorry Joe," You frowned.

Joe looked down at you with a guilty look, "Oh! Shoot, y-yeah... you don't gotta apologize, I understand. I shouldn't have asked something like that, especially to a kid..." He trailed off, looking down at the marble countertop to think, "Erm... what do you want to do once we get out of here? I'm only a few years older than you, so our interests probably aren't that different."

You tilted your head in thought, "Well, there is this thing I wanted to ask my mom for..."

Joe grinned, proud of himself for changing the topic so drastically without you noticing, "Ah, what is it?" He asked with a smile on his face.

"A new game," You promptly answered.

"That's good to hear. I'm a bit relieved that you didn't say anything complex. What type of games do you play?" Joe smiled.

"Hmm... my mom allowed me to get the java version of Minecraft a few months ago, but I really wanna get Animal Crossing! It just looks really fun and cute, but my mom told me we needed to save up for a while in order to buy something that supports it."

"I think it's definitely worth the wait. Sara and I used to play that all the time! It's been a while since I've touched the game, but it's a nice escape from reality honestly."

Hopefully you don't die before you get the chance to play Animal Crossing for the first time.

You and Joe continued to talk about video games, when suddenly the door to the bar shot open. Joe stood up, "Sara!" The boy exclaimed, walking over to the doorway where Keiji, Gin, Kai, Sou, and Sara stood.

"Joe!" Sara replied, "Did you guys find Nao?!"

Joe furrowed his eyebrows, "S...She wasn't on the second floor?!"

Q-Taro grimaced, "Ya mean she's just up and vanished?!"

"So miss Nao's just gone...?" You frowned.

"...Oh no..." Kanna whimpered quietly.

Now that Keiji, Sara, Gin, Kai, and Sou had arrived, everyone but Nao had assembled. A look of confusion crossed Sara's features before Kai quickly snapped her back to reality.