In the mall’s food court sat a young white haired vampire and a giant gorging himself on food. Wulf had ordered for them, the big man had a bear’s appetite. Several burgers, hotdogs, fires covered in cheese or chili, while I absentmindedly ate small bites of some kind of beef stir-fry. It was extremely good but I struggled to enjoy it as my mind was obsessed over the Horacio’s.

  He knew Mrs. Horio was really named Esmerelda, her daughter was a single mother with a tragic past of getting romantically entangled with a gambler. She had technically been married to the man, a trick he used to gift her his gambling debts before disappearing one day years later.

  The woman would work herself into an early grave trying to pay off that debt whilst being hounded by loan sharks, leaving her two daughters who would also inherit that debt in the care of their grandmother. Unfortunately the world of Supernatural School Days had laws that allowed debts to be transferred to spouses and inherited by direct descendants.

  Meaning one of the main love interests Carmen and her younger sister Maya were saddled with that debt. They were too young to pay it off, meaning it was up to their grandmother to work in her old age just to keep up with paying the interest every month. That is until she loses her husband's business and has to resort to selling knickknacks at an outdoor market.

  ‘How did she lose a business owned by the Takamura syndicate? My family doesn’t practice predatory loan collection so the debt is owned by someone outside my influence to fix.

  ‘What happened to them behind the scenes?’ Carmen nor SSD ever tell you how their family arrived in such dire straits.

  “Are you worried about what Big Boss’ll think of you hurting yourself?” Wulf had a pensive look on his face.

  ‘Hurt myself? Is that why he has been acting strangely, he thinks I did something bad to myself?’ Then it came to him, he looked down at his arm covered by the sleeve of his hoodie. He HAD seemingly done just that before inhabiting this split identity.

  Wulf proceeded to speak up again in my silence. “I had a talk with Ed about how to best approach the topic. It has been over a year since your last incident and he thinks this might be a minor relapse and to ignore it for now. I couldn’t do that, I’m worried about you kid.”

  ‘Holy shit, did Kuro have a history of self harm? SSD never mentioned the titular villain having a history of depression, I assumed he went overboard practicing with magic.’

  I had to reassure them from thinking this might be a recurring problem. I can’t have them redoubling their watch over me if I want to have the freedom to solve the issues I couldn’t fix in game.

  “It was a minor… Relapse as you said. Being thrown out of my family home was a big hit to take, but this was what made me decide to change.” He rubbed the spot over where his wounds were.

  The large man let out a huge sigh of relief, seeing him relax so suddenly finally let me see just how much tension had been building in him. “That is honestly very reassuring Lil Boss, me and bonehead worried you were going to fall into the deep pit you used to be in and that returning to your white hair was part of your spiraling."

  “Thank you guys for caring enough to worry, I will be alright. It has just been a tough time, things will get better soon I promise.” I made sure to smile, hopefully it would not look as forced as it was.

  Thankfully it seemed to do the job since the bear wearing human skin gave a small relieved smile back.

  ‘I should dress up when we go shopping to ease their worries, maybe I will put some earrings back in if we pass a stall for them.’

  ***

  He quickly found himself thrown into a changing room by a very eager young saleswoman. “Let this older sister take care of you. When you leave you will be dressed better than ever before.”

  She had not been wrong, she might have had the wrong idea about his tastes in clothing though. He had indeed found a stall selling different accessories before arriving in this store. He had purchased and quickly put on a black helix cover that went over the back of his ear, and a pair of small silver rings from which dangled a long black spike.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The very enthusiastic woman had him try on a black jean jacket with silver buttons, a white band shirt he didn’t recognize, and slightly loose fitting black jeans that flared out towards the end. He hated to admit that the aesthetic of a goth loner appealed to him and he made it look good.

  The black on white with silver accents paired well with his white hair and pale skin. He LOOKED like a goth vampire, it was a little on the nose and he was not sure that this was how he wanted others to perceive him.

  ‘Or is it? I am one of the only people who will know I am a vampire. Everyone else will just see a depressed goth kid to look down their noses at. Perfect for getting others to lower their guard and think less of me if I run into trouble.’

  As I stepped out to get the opinion of the woman helping me pick out clothes she let out a little squeal of joy.

  “Yes I knew you would look good dressed like this. Hot, dark, mysterious…” She continued to list off compliments as she peered through a rectangle she made with her fingers. I would usually assume this was just a sales pitch to get some young boy rich enough to warrant having bodyguards to buy a bunch of useless shit.

  Except she had genuine admiration in her eyes, I could also smell her blood standing this close to the woman. It screamed of excitement, like a young girl playing dress up with a pretty doll all alone.

  ‘How do I know what that smells like?’ My head began to ache as I fought to discover the source of the lingering memory.

  The woman froze as a frown began to form on my face. “Sorry, am I going too far? I might’ve gotten carried away.”

  “No you are fine, I got a little distracted with another thought. Will you help me pick out some more outfits? Maybe a few things that are a little brighter and inviting.”

  Her smile lit up again at my words. “Yup I can definitely handle that, when you leave you will have everything you could possibly want!”

  ***

  “What to do?” His shopping trip was a great success all things considered. He got a full makeover, new clothes, new hair, and put the worries of his childhood babysitters turned bodyguard and shadows to rest.

  Only there were many things he would need to find out, many events could be skipped by the protagonist either missing them or choosing not to engage in them once discovered.

  He needed to discover what kind of person this world's protagonist would be. He knew next to nothing about him either since he was named whatever the player chose for him and his personality was moulded by choices you made.

  Then what to do about the Horacios, he did not want to allow a family to go through a huge ordeal if he could prevent it. Even if they did not know him, he knew them, and had grown to like them over hundreds upon hundreds of hours of playing SSD.

  I don’t know what I will do yet but I will prevent that future from occurring. How do I get close enough to them to discover what’s happening?

  I go to school with the girl in question, she is in the same class as the MC and his childhood friend. She definitely has a bad opinion of me though after all Kuro did these last couple weeks.

  There is an event soon involving the younger sister, that seems a little manipulative however. The MC is also supposed to be there to prevent it if possible anyways, I might still monitor the situation in case the worst occurs.

  Maybe the grandmother, she works for my family. Maybe I can get a part time job at her shop and figure out what is happening at her business for her to lose it. I’d need the schedule to be flexible since I need to go to school and will often need to do events during the afternoon and evening. It is worth looking into soon.

  Then back to figuring out how the MC will act. It is still the early game of SSD, he will stumble into minor events that would award easy xp and affection with the love interests on the way to school most days.

  There should be two events that occur early tomorrow. I could follow the route to school he would normally take with his friends and see what his choices are in real time. They are easy and quick events so even in the unlikely chance he does not engage in them I shouldn’t be late to school helping those he ignores.

  “That will probably be my best bet.” Shadow looked at me head tilted from across the room. He stood and walked over to sit by the door.

  “You wanna go for a walk? Sure why not, I can use it to clear my head.” I went and got a collar and leash. He never really wore either at home but within the city large pets had to be leashed and well trained by law to prevent accidents.

  “Let’s go.” I took him out deciding I would start putting plans into motion tomorrow and not worry about it anymore. I was still overly anxious with this new world.

  ‘Surely the protagonist will be an upright and just person who will help me overcome the other criminal organizations in the future, eventually letting me leave behind my fathers syndicate and lead an ordinary life.’

  ‘Right…?’