91 Vol 2. pt. 28 Patch 5.0: Downtime, Plots, and Upgrades (1/2)

Ryouta opens the door to his apartment and sees a certain blonde and a short silver-haired girl.

”We're letting ourselves in,” Cassandra says, pushing two shopping bags into his arms and then walking through the doorway past him.

Serra holds up a peace sign and follows Cassandra.

Ryouta investigates the first bag and sees a few bottles of pop, some iced tea, and some hard lemonades. The second bag holds a bunch of different snacks in it ranging from chips to gummy candies.

”What's – uhh, hey, and what's going on?” Ryouta asks, closing the door and looking at the girls already starting to pick up on the latest messes that he has made since they were last here.

”Movie night, but first we're cleaning this place up. We don't want to watch movies in your place if you've got junk sitting around. Right, Serra?” Cassandra asks.

When she doesn't get a response, she turns around and sees Serra with a bag in Ryouta's kitchen putting some empty bottles into it. Serra looks at Cassandra's confused face and tilts her head.

”Ri-right,” Cassandra mumbles before getting back to work.

”How'd you forget that she's deaf already?” Ryouta asks. ”Didn't you come over here with her?”

Cassandra hangs her head low and doesn't say anything.

”You… you were talking to yourself a lot on the way over, weren't you?”

Cassandra's head hangs even lower.

”What were you doing? Just endlessly ranting and assuming she was listening the whole—”

Cassandra throws an empty bag of chips at Ryouta's face! Unfortunately for her, it ends up just sort of drifting down to the floor almost immediately after throwing it.

Ryouta decides that it would be best to drop it going by her red face and embarrassed eyes.

”What are we going to watch?” he asks.

”Don't know. Serra said in-game that she knew the perfect movie to watch, and it apparently only came out recently, so she said there's no way we've seen it – probably,” Cassandra explains.

Ryouta joins Serra in the kitchen and signs to her, asking what they are going to watch.

Rather than sign back to him, Serra shakes her head and flashes a very suspicious smile with just a hint of dark sadism in her eyes.

Ryouta shivers and rubs his arms. He has never seen this side of Serra, and now he is worried.

He looks at Cassandra.

If he's worried, she would probably be really worried.

He looks back at Serra and gives her a thumbs-up. Whatever her plan is, he consents.

After cleaning, and then giving each of the girls a shoulder massage to the best of his capabilities as thanks for cleaning up after his messes, the three settle down next to each other on the couch with their multitude of snacks and drinks displayed on the table in front of them. This time around, Cassandra is the one sitting on the middle of the couch with a spot open on her right side for Serra with Ryouta on her left side.

Serra stands in front of the TV, strikes a dramatic pose with one hand on her hip, and pulls out the movie from her pocket! In her hand is a small card with a code on it that can be scanned by most modern televisions. When she holds the card in front of his television's scanner, the TV comes to life, goes into movie mode, and then text displays on the screen just as Serra plops down onto the couch next to Cassandra.

Virtual Horror Reality

When the game doesn't let you leave,

and when you're not playing the game you thought you were.

Inspired by true events.

Rental Time Remaining: 24 hours

Ryouta already feels nervous. He has never been good with scary movies, and every time he has tried watching one or a horror anime, he's had to go and marathon some cute slice-of-life anime full of moeblobs in order to sleep those nights.

He regrets consenting to Serra's plan.

Looking over at Serra – no, he looks at Cassandra.

Her entire body is stiff to the point where it would be only natural to assume that she is actually a statue and not a living person.

He no longer regrets Serra's plan. Just knowing that somebody else here is far more afraid than he is, before the movie even starts, is enough for him to feel better. Now, rather than look forward to being scared, he's looking forward to seeing Cassandra get scared.

”Penguin, turn subtitles on,” Ryouta says.