A week ago, Issei was the happiest man on earth.
Though not for a reason he had ever expected!
Frankly, the teenager was having a good year. His grades were up and he'd made enough of a climb that his parents let him buy all sorts of things as reward for the, at times, seemingly outlandish amount of effort he'd been putting in.
While it had cost him five afternoons a week and, on test days, the weekend before, he'd gone from a solidly B student to almost completely straight As! He'd even put in enough effort to at least go jogging regularly, pulling up his physical scores from the bottom half of his class to the top third!
So his collection had prospered. From visual novels, to a new console, and even a brand new display case for his… collectibles, his mom seemed adamant on bribing him into keeping up the high scores.
Not that she needed to.
In fact, there had been a few moments where Issei had felt guilty about everything. That his parents felt he needed to be bribed at all was a touch insulting, but their comments about him finally overcoming his perversions had been downright painful.
Yet that didn't matter!
Because, you see, Issei was a man on a mission.
He had aims. He had goals to conquer and obstacles to overcome.
And it all started when he'd heard that Kuoh Academy, the previously number one all-girl's institution of the country, was changing its policies and becoming a mixed class school.
Kuoh was everything you wanted in high school.
Prestigious.
Well maintained.
But for Issei in particular, the upside was less about where he went to class and more who he went to class with. Because they were only allowing guys to apply now, at the earlier years, it meant that the older classrooms would be filled with only last year's students.
Cute girls!
It was paradise.
Meaning that, even if Issei had to deal with guys in his class, so long as he made it through the gates, he would be surrounded by a veritable kaleidoscope of choices and flavors to feast his eyes on.
How could he not apply himself?!
So that's what he did.
He studied.
He dedicated himself, and he managed to graduate not only at the top of his class, but also aced the entrance exam for Kuoh in what he could only imagine must have been the proudest moment of his parent's lives. And as per their agreement, those were exactly the conditions they agreed on so they would let Issei get into his dream school.
The cruise?
That was just the cherry on top.
A way for them to commemorate it. And it wasn't like Issei was complaining.
He could see a bunch of gorgeous ladies by the pool every day for a whole week. How could he not be satisfied? As far as he was concerned this was only a taste of what his high school life was gonna be all about!
'Guess it was too good to be true, huh?'
Or maybe the world really did have it out for him, though the young man didn't like that kind of thinking. There was… too much at stake to simply lie down.
Regardless, the first few days of the cruise had been just as Issei envisioned. With all the playing, lazing around, and gawking he could fit into his routine. It was only on the night of the third day that it all went pear-shaped. Sailing through some sort of freak storm, all the lights on the ship going dark…
That was when the nightmare started.
People started disappearing.
Or rather, they'd go to their rooms and not leave.
Or they would go to the restrooms and not come back.
The staff downstairs were the first to go.
'Man… she caught this guy on his knees.' The teenager winced in sympathy walking past a statue of a man that had been turned while trying to crawl away from that terrifying lady. Taking up the middle of the hallway, Issei had to slowly tiptoe around him to avoid tripping.
There was a reason he avoided hallways like these.
One slip was all it took for that lady to get him.
When he escaped her the first go around, Issei wasn't exactly sure of what he was doing or where he was going. He'd tried finding a member of the staff to warn them about the maniac running around the ship, but found only statues. Then he tried to find a phone that he could use to call for help, surely someone had a phone that was working.
Only not at all.
Nobody had a signal and later on, trying to use the ship's phones, the doors had been locked or it had been too confusing to follow the directions with the precious few seconds of time he'd had.
But now? With time and flashlights and a few spare moments spent studying manuals on how to operate a satellite phone? In most cases they simply wouldn't even turn on. As if electronics had stopped working altogether.
At first Issei had been relieved to find out that the ship was still going despite the lack of anyone driving it… but that thought soon became negative when he realized that it was probably that lady's doing.
Was she planning to take them somewhere?
Did she want to escape to some other country after doing… whatever it is she was doing here?
Those questions made sleep difficult.
'Seems like she hasn't been down here yet.' All the small trinkets and strings he left lying around were still where they were, and the storage area door was still firmly closed.
Strangely, all of the mirrors were gone, though.
"Would she have just taken the small ones? Why leave the other traps?"
Issei looked down the hallway with his mirror just in case, muttering to himself and suddenly becoming a bit more worried.
You never knew if you were being followed.
'Coast is clear.' Nodding to himself, Issei slowly turned the handle on the door, cracking it just enough to slip into the room before just as carefully closing it behind him… the click of the lock always made his heart skip a beat… before the silence made him sigh in relief. Even if something was weird, everyone was ok.
Another successful day.
"Ok everybody, I'm back!"
Several small faces peeked out of cabinets, and the older kids slowly started leaving the other entrances.
"I bring candy!" Switching to English was difficult and the words were stilted and accented, but clear enough to coax a few more wary faces into the main area of the officer's mess. "Chocolate!"
While the chisel had torn a hole through one of the side pockets, Issei had still managed to bring back an entire packful of food, drinks, and, yes, sweets. And the two dozen kids, some of whom were babbling quietly, and one of whom actually hugged him, made him relax just a bit more.
The oldest of the kids, Joan, walked in carrying a baby and Issei pulled out a six pack of baby food.
"Here! Warm, then yum yum."
She smiled and murmured something in French, nodding at him before going to take care of the child.
"Big brother, big brother!" Shotaro, a Japanese boy tugged on his shirt. "Tota is sick!"
Nodding, and extricating himself from the others as they distributed the dry goods, he pulled a small insulin case out of his coat pocket and followed. And the poor boy, who had Type One diabetes, received his injection - the small plastic needle clicking to signify the meds would soon do their work.