Wait a second. Why was Aoi Hinami, the perfect superwoman, asking me this question? Since she was friends with Nakamura, asking him would have been more natural. Was she making conversation to put me at ease because we’d never really talked before? No, someone as attuned to the social climate as Aoi Hinami would have already figured out that Nakamura had lost from the general atmosphere at school lately. Given that, bringing it up with me as a topic of conversation would be an odd move. What was going on?

…I couldn’t come up with anything. As I considered how to answer, Nakamura suddenly spoke up.

“God, Aoi, just shut up. I lost, okay? Let’s get going and forget about this dweeb,” he spat in the most irritated tone I’d ever heard.

The air between us froze. Uh-oh, now what?

“Wow! Really? Tomozaki-kun, that’s amazing! Come on, Shuji, don’t you worry!”

She said “don’t you worry” very affectionately, even a little teasingly. The tension softened.

“…Aw, shut up!” he retorted, this time smiling with exasperation.

“But Shuji’s good at everything! Wow, you must be super-good if you beat him! That’s amazing…”

“N-no, it wasn’t a big deal…”

“I want to play you next!”

“I—I don’t think that’s a very good idea…”

“Yeah, maybe not. Sorry, just got carried away!” She giggled.

For some reason, she was really easy to talk to. I guess this is what people mean when they talk about “communication skills.” And Nakamura was standing next to her with this tiny smile, like he was watching over a child, even though she’d just made him admit he’d lost. It must have been the way she teased him a little afterward that did it. If that was the case, she really was amazing.

“Uh, well, I’m off to the cafeteria.”

“Okay! See you later. Teach me some of your tricks next time!”

“Uh, yeah.”

“…ing…” Nakamura was muttering something.

“What?”

“Nothing. Bye.”

What just happened? “Uh, bye.”

“Bye!”

I walked off toward the dining hall while Aoi Hinami’s second “bye” reached the back of my head.

…Whew. I survived. I let out a sigh of relief.

But now it was all starting to make sense. She must have known from the start that even if she brought up that topic, she’d be able to get everyone feeling okay, even excited, by the end of the conversation. A decision only a normie could make. There was no way my brain could have predicted it.

All the same, I hadn’t expected Nakamura to reveal that he’d lost. Hopefully that won’t make him hate me even more… With that thought on my mind, I arrived at the dining hall.

That’s how the little explosion in my everyday life was softened by the formidable communication skills of Aoi Hanami before it shrank and faded away. I normally can’t stand the weird confidence and excessive enthusiasm of normies, and I used to think it didn’t serve any purpose. But I had to admit, Aoi Hanami was incredible. My values had shifted a little, marking a small milestone in my life.

The following Saturday, a much bigger event occurred.

“I’m here!”

“I’ll be there in two minutes.”

“Okay!”

The day of my meeting with NO NAME had arrived. I’d gotten a message saying, “If you need to contact me, use this e-mail address!” so now we were e-mailing. It seemed NO NAME was already waiting. I took the train one stop and arrived as well.

“I’m here.”

“Okay! I’m waiting outside the convenience store by the east exit.”

“Got it. What are you wearing?”

I could see the convenience store right across from the east exit. There was an ashtray outside with a couple of guys standing around it, smoking. Which one is NO NAME?

My cell phone vibrated. I opened the message. Okay, then.

“I’m wearing a white and blue shirt and a black skirt!”

A girl. Well, I guess that’s possible. I assumed it was a guy, but there’s no reason for it not to be a girl.

I walked over to the convenience store and looked around until I spotted a girl in front of the vending machine. White and blue shirt, and a black skirt. It was her.

From the back, I could see she had silky black shoulder-length hair and skin so fair it was nearly transparent. I couldn’t see her face, but she was probably young. Even from behind, I could tell she was cute. Oh shit. Now I’m nervous about saying hi. Hope my voice doesn’t crack.

“Uh, ’scuse me, are you NO NAME?”

I managed to say it okay. The pure and innocent black-haired girl started to turn toward me. What would she look—huh?

“Hi! Yes, I’m NO NAME…huh?”

“…Uh…? …Err…”

“Ehhhhhh?!”

Before I could even express my surprise, Aoi Hinami screamed.

Aoi Hinami?! What’s going on?

“Um…Hinami…san?”

“Okay, give me a sec. I need to calm down… You’re definitely Tomozaki-kun, right? From my class?”

“Uh, um, yeah…”

This was no Aoi Hinami look-alike. It was the real deal. But what hit me before the surprise was her strange behavior. She sounded totally different from usual. Like, not at all cheerful. Cold. At the same time, though, it didn’t feel like an act.

“You’re nanashi?” Her tone was kind of aggressive.

“Yeah, that’s me…,” I answered awkwardly.

“…!”

A sharp crease appeared between her eyebrows. Huh? The Aoi Hanami I knew didn’t scowl like that. She was more innocent, daintier…

“Well, this sucks…”

“Huh?”

“I don’t want to believe this. I don’t want to believe the real nanashi is a loser who’s going nowhere in life.”

“H-Hinami-san?”

What did she just say? “A loser who’s going nowhere in life”? She wasn’t the type to insult a guy right to his face, was she? What’s going on? Does she have a split personality? Or was I too much of a freak even for her?

“Wh-what’s wrong? Hinami-san, you’re not…yourself. The way you’re talking and stuff.”

“!”

She leaned way back, looking extremely uncomfortable. Her face is very expressive, so it was easy to read her mood. Normally, she uses that quality to a much cuter effect, of course.

“Oh… I’ve got to stop forgetting myself when it comes to Atafami…”

“Huh?”

“But if that’s all you saw, it’s whatever.”

“Whatever…?”

“You said I’m just talking and acting weird, right? If that’s all you noticed, then it’s not a problem.”

“Not a problem…?”

Um, yes it is. It’s a huge problem. Who are you and what have you done with Hinami-san?!

“…”

“…”

An unexpected silence descended over us. Well, this is awkward. But Aoi Hinami just stood there with that intimidating frown on her face, making no effort whatsoever to ease the tension.

“W-well anyway, so you’re NO NAME. That’s a surprise…I mean…”

I even stumbled over finding a couple of words to fill the silence. Well, at least I’m consistent.

“Yup. I’m disappointed, too. I can’t believe that nanashi, the one person I respected, turned out to be garbage without the slightest spark of ambition. You’re the type who’s willing to just give up and lose at life.”

“…Huh?”

I was already busy beating myself up, and here comes the outside world to give me another kick when I’m down. She was being really harsh. I mean, “garbage”? She did say something about respect, but that was in the past tense. I’d been preoccupied by how different she was from her school self, but I couldn’t let her diss me this badly without saying something.

“W-wait a second. Um, was all that…necessary?”

“I only said it ’cause it’s true.”

“Just because it’s true…doesn’t mean it’s okay to say it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t even know me, and you’re saying I d-don’t have any ambition and that I just let myself be a loser… What I’m trying to say is, you don’t have any right to lecture me. I think it’s rude.”

“Maybe you should stop talking with your mouth full before you start telling people not to be rude, don’t you think?”

“I don’t have anything in my mouth!”

I opened my mouth wide and finally managed to talk without stuttering. Aoi Hinami eyed me coldly.

“…Okay, I’ll give you that. I guess I was rude. I owe you an apology. I’m sorry. When it comes to that game, I get kind of worked up… But I’m gonna to tell you something, and I’m giving you fair warning it’s rude… I’m upset because the only person I respected turns out to be the type of person I hate most.”

“That’s what I’m talking about…”

“You have no right to talk about manners. Look at what you’re wearing.”

Huh? What do my clothes have to do with anything? It’s not like there’s a dress code.

“Wh-what do you mean? People can wear whatever they want.”

“…Hmph. That’s exactly why I hate your type.”

“Huh?”

She was still going. Even though she had apologized two seconds ago.

“When you meet someone, especially for the first time, there’s a minimum standard for what to wear, right? Okay, I know we technically aren’t meeting for the first time, but you didn’t know that, did you? Look at the wrinkles in your shirt. Did you even bother to iron it? And the cuffs of your jeans are all raggedy. How long have you had those? Have you considered buying a new pair? It’s been ages since I saw a high school student wearing high-tech sneakers. They’re all muddy, and the laces are frayed. It’s obvious you walked over here with them untied. And come on—your hair looks like you just rolled out of bed. Did you brush it at all this morning? Did you even look in a mirror? If you were meeting someone for the first time, and they showed up looking like you do now, wouldn’t you think they were rude? Well, Tomozaki-kun?”

After her tirade, I was suddenly aware of my appearance. I hadn’t thought about it earlier, but I suppose you could say I wasn’t dressed very well. Okay, so she was right about one thing. Still, what’s her problem? I didn’t come here to get roasted by someone I barely knew.

“B-but it’s none of your business, is it? It’s a free country.”

“Yes, it is. If that’s good enough for you, I guess that’s fine. It’s just that you said I was rude, but you’re just as bad. That’s all I wanted to say.”

“Just as bad?”

“Well, this isn’t actually the first time we’ve met, so you don’t have to apologize. If this really was the first time, then you should have, though.”

The expression in her eyes was worse than contempt for literal garbage and more in the realm of actual hatred.

“…But now I’ve said enough that I really am being rude. I don’t think any of it was wrong, but I’ll apologize again. For being rude, that is. I’m sorry. I don’t feel like talking about Atafami or having a rematch anymore. Good-bye.”

With that, Aoi Hinami turned on her heels and started walking toward the station. I caught a glimpse of her face as she went.

I’m not sure myself of the reason I went and opened my mouth. I should have been more than happy to say good-bye to someone so rude. Maybe I was annoyed about what she’d said, or maybe it was because for that brief moment when she turned away, she looked more dejected than hateful.

“…Wait. You think you can say whatever you want and then leave?”

Aoi Hinami stopped and looked back at me. “Sigh. Now what do you want?”

I’d been running my mouth to stop her, so to be honest, I didn’t have a follow-up. I was too worked up to read her expression very well, but behind the hatred I thought I saw a glimmer of hope at the same time. My mind was a blank. I was only conscious of a growing chill in my fingertips.

“You said I was losing at life or something.”

I didn’t know what I was going to say next. My heartbeat reverberated in my lungs and rattled my brain.

“You’ve got great base stats, so someone like you wouldn’t get how I feel.”

Aoi Hinami’s mouth moved ever so slightly, like she was repeating my words, but I couldn’t hear her. I wasn’t even sure what my voice sounded like just then.

“Life is unfair. I’m ugly, I have a bad build, I overthink until I can’t do anything, I’m wishy-washy, people make fun of everything I do, and I have no confidence in my ability to communicate. How is someone like me supposed to beat someone strong like you?”

This might have been the first time I ever said something like that to a stranger.

“But that’s all fine. Because life’s not fair. You don’t get results just by trying hard. If you could, I would, but life doesn’t have rules. No rewards, no right answers. As a game, it’s a piece of shit. If there’s no right answer, then there’s no point in trying. And I hate the way normies like you live. Your confidence is totally baseless, and you go around in packs just pretending to have fun.”

With the floodgates opened, I couldn’t stop myself.

“Even when I have a reason to be confident, I shy away. When I’m in a group I just feel alone, and it’s not fun. I’m used to this life. I don’t know why things are this way. You have a problem with that? I’ve been like this as long as I can remember. That’s fine with me. I’m a loner, but I have my fun. I’m fine with this…”

I clenched my fists.

“…So don’t force your values on me!”

I felt the heat suddenly drain away. The thick mist cleared from my head, the fire in my eyes began to dim, and Aoi Hinami’s expression gradually came into focus.

Her face was blank. She was just staring at me.

“…Stop crying like a sore loser,” she mumbled matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“I said, you’re a sore loser. You hate the way ‘normies’ live when you’ve never experienced it yourself? That’s idiotic. How do you know you hate it? If you’d experienced it and then said it wasn’t any fun, that would make sense. But you’ve never experienced it, have you? In that case you’re just a sore loser.”

…I had the feeling I’d heard a similar argument in the past. The very recent past.

“There’s nothing I hate more than someone who loses and starts trying to justify the loss instead of making an effort to improve.”

That argument really did sound familiar.

But this wasn’t the same thing.

“I get what you’re saying, but this is different. You can’t change characters in real life.”

“Characters?”

“The moment we’re born, our futures are pretty much decided. You’re good-looking and good at academics and sports. You’re top-tier. If I was like you, I’d be doing a little better in life. But I’m not. All my skill points went into things like hair-splitting and a tendency to be contrarian. It doesn’t help in life at all; it actually makes me think too much until I lose all confidence and motivation. What do you expect? My hands are tied!”

Aoi Hinami was eyeing me silently, so I kept talking.

“Your character is just better than mine. And that’s fine. I’ve honestly enjoyed my life just like it is. So leave me the hell alone…”

“A better character, huh?”

Aoi Hinami glanced down and to the side for a moment. Then suddenly, she spoke again.

“Come with me.” She grabbed my arm.

“Huh?”

With that, I was dragged away, dumbfounded and not entirely willing, by Aoi Hinami.

* * *

So there I was, sitting with my legs politely folded under me (but still slouching) as I scanned the room searching for the source of a very sweet smell for lack of anything better to do. I didn’t see any perfume or incense. But the smell was so sweet and pleasant that it had to be coming from somewhere.

There was a bed with white sheets and a light-yellow terrycloth blanket. A pink pillow and a pair of soft, clearly well-loved pajamas on top. A little black oval table with nothing on it except a cutesy orange pen and a black lamp. A white dresser and bookcase. A stylish black desk. Pale pink carpeting. The only other things in the room were a couple of simple, warm-colored knickknacks that were vaguely cute and tidy-looking. She hadn’t had time to spray an air freshener or anything like that.

Maybe the fabric?

I could be convinced that the room had taken on the smell of her clothes, sheets, blanket, and carpet. But to achieve that, she would really have to be on top of cleaning and laundry and stuff. If I hadn’t seen the completely transformed Aoi Hinami of a little while ago, I’d have believed the perfect heroine was capable of this, but not anymore.

What was her problem anyway? She just said whatever the hell she wanted and made me say things I didn’t want to say. Usually, if you dragged a boy from your class who you hardly knew into your room against his will, that would be considered insanely ru… Wait a second, I’m in Aoi Hinami’s room!

I’d been vaguely aware of what was happening and tried to ignore it, but in truth, I was in deep trouble. I’d never been in a girl’s room before, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. For the moment, I was just sitting on the floor. I’d probably already done ten things wrong.

The girl in question had left me there by myself, muttering a very mysterious “A better character, huh?” on her way out. She’d only been gone a few minutes, but I could already feel my mind trying to strangle me from the inside.

I’d managed to trick myself into staying calm by thinking about a variety of other topics, but I was about to break. Give me some peace already!

Thump, thump, thump. Someone was climbing the stairs, so this room must be on the second floor. I was panicking so badly I had actually forgotten I was on the second floor. Was Aoi Hinami back?

Click. The door to the room opened.

“…Uh, I’m just visiting.”

A girl I’d never seen before came in. Even I have enough communication skills—or should I say manners—to offer a proper greeting in this situation. Honestly, she wasn’t as pretty as Aoi Hinami, although there was a slight resemblance. Probably her older sister or something. I bet she was wondering why that perfect beautiful girl had let this dud into her room. I just hoped she didn’t feel the need to say so out loud.

“What do you think?” she said.

“About what?”

“A C-plus, maybe?”

“What’s a C-plus?”

“…You really have no experience with girls, do you?”

“Huh…?”

I didn’t even know her. What did I do to deserve that? The knack for sudden rude comments to super-geeks must run in the blood of the Hinami family.

“I’m not wearing makeup.”

“What?”

“It’s me, Aoi Hinami. I took off my makeup. How dumb are you?”

“…Ehhhh—?!”

I did notice a resemblance, but still, how could she look this different? I never got the impression she wore super-heavy makeup. In fact, it was the opposite—I thought she was the natural type. What was going on?

“You said my character was better than yours, right?”

“…? Yeah, and…?”

“Do you understand now?”

“…Understand what?”

“You’re so dumb, it’s almost criminal. Obviously, I mean that with a little effort, your appearance parameter can improve.”

“Oh.”

So that’s what she meant. I got what she was saying, but that still didn’t give her the right to lecture me.

“Even if you’re a low-tier character, you can improve yourself. Your face’s base stats aren’t an excuse for giving up on life.”

You sure about that?

“…That’s it? You brought me up here to lecture me with clichés?”

“Pretty much.”

“It’s really none of your business. I already told you, we’re different. First of all, I’m a guy, so I can’t wear makeup. Plus, our initial status is different. My facial structure is what it is. What can I do about it now? That’s just part of being bottom-tier… Anyway, I’m going home.”

I picked up my bag and stood up, less tense than before. Maybe because I’d just vented everything that was on my mind.

“You really don’t get it at all.”

“…What now?”

“What do you think the most important elements of a person’s appearance are? Tell me three.”

“I said I was leaving. Do I still have to play your little game?”

“Oh, so life isn’t the only thing you run from. You aren’t even up for a tiny little fight. You really are a sore loser.”

The insults kept coming. She had some nerve.

“Give it a rest already! Fine, if you insist, I’ll take your bait. Important elements of a person’s appearance. The face they’re born with, for one. What else? Their height and weight, I guess.”

“Wrong.”

Shot down.

“Okay, then what?”

“Your facial expression, build, and posture.”

I basically said build, didn’t I? “…What about your face itself?”

“Not a major issue.”

“Uh, I doubt that…”

How could your face not matter to your overall appearance? Obviously it did. My own life was proof.

“Then have a look at this.”

Aoi Hinami covered her face with both hands. She straightened up, then took her hands away like she was playing peek-a-boo. “How’s this for you?”

“…Uh, what just happened…?”

The girl in front of me was surprisingly pretty, as well as 50 or 60 percent friendlier-looking than before she hid her face. She looked like Aoi Hinami without her makeup on. Actually, shouldn’t she have looked like this before?

“Do you get it now? It’s all in my expression.”

“No way… It’s gotta be more than that.”

“So how do you explain it? Some kind of quick-change magic trick? Instant plastic surgery?” As she spoke, she let the energy drain from her face until it was what she had called a “C-plus” again. But even as that thought entered my mind, she was changing back to the friendly beauty. Again and again, she flipped back and forth.

“Oooh…”

I felt like I was watching an amazing skill. It was really impressive, honestly.

“Okay, I admit I had to practice a lot to get this good,” she said, slowly transforming once again. “By the way, did you notice that I’m changing my posture as well as my expression?”

“Huh?”

Now that she mentioned it, if I watched closely, I could see her back hunching over as the energy drained from her face, then straightening again as she became more genial and attractive.

“Your posture affects the impact of your facial expression. Just by perfecting your expression and posture, you’ll be more than able to convince people you’re a normie. Of course, I was blessed with a nice face to begin with, which is why I can get this beautiful.”

“You’re a confident one, aren’t you, Your Highness?”

“Exactly. Confidence is key.”

“That’s not what I meant! …Anyway, what’s your point?”

“You don’t know?”

…Okay, I guess I do.

“You’re trying to say that even an ugly bastard can manage to look ordinary, at least?”

“Ooh, you are good at guessing!”

“So what? You want me to try harder? Didn’t I already tell you it’s none of your business?”

“It’s not that.”

“What, then?”

Aoi Hinami looked me in the eye—or more accurately, she gazed so deeply into my pupils it was like she could see into my brain.

“It’s that people like you, or at least, this version of you, have the most despicable souls of anyone in the whole world.”

“Wha—?” What the hell are you suddenly attacking me for?

“I did say ‘this version of you.’”

“Th-this version? …Don’t think you can distract me by trying to imply—”

“You’re about to get a very smug lecture, but don’t feel obligated to pay attention. I do plan to give you orders, but ultimately, you’re the one who’ll decide whether or not to obey them. You’re free to ignore everything I say. Keep that in mind.”

Aoi Hinami cut me off, changing the mood. There wasn’t a shred of humor in her words or eyes. Even someone as socially awkward and oblivious as me could tell this was as serious as she got.

“…Uh-huh…” Her quiet drive and composure, way beyond what you’d expect from a normal high school girl, overwhelmed me.

Having gotten my consent, she began to explain. Her expression was neither the lackluster C-plus face nor the friendly, pretty one, but instead something sorrowful and very human.

“…You said you don’t have communication skills or confidence, and compared to you, my base stats are high. But they’re not. To be honest, I was an average person—below average, even, at least through elementary school. That’s why I’m not beating around the bush. Communication skills and confidence and the other things you mentioned—all of those can improve with effort. My life since junior high is proof.”

Her confident tone suggested that her claims were well-supported.

“…You said life was irrational and unfair, but that’s not true. The game of life functions on a number of simple rules. You just can’t see them because they intersect in complex ways.”

I could tell she was getting in my head, whether I believed her or not.

“I respected nanashi. I’ve gotten through a lot with effort alone. I was confident that I was better than anyone when it came to hard work and perseverance, and the results would show that. But I just couldn’t reach nanashi’s level in Atafami.”

Her explanation continued. She didn’t move or gesture hardly at all.

“I thought nanashi could outdo me in effort, and that’s why I respected him. But behind the curtain, this is what I found. When it came to real life, nanashi not only lost, he didn’t even put up a fight. Then, he was a worthless deadbeat who used his default attributes as an excuse to run away. Worst of all, he was a pathetic sore loser trying to justify himself by jumping to the conclusion that a pleasure he’d never experienced must be boring.”

Strangely, despite everything she was saying about me, I didn’t feel angry. Maybe I was overwhelmed by her earnestness and intensity, but more than that, I was starting to sense a similarity between us.

“I’m an amazing person. You think so too, don’t you? I might even be the most amazing sixteen-year-old in Japan. But in one area, you’re beating me. We’re the same age, and gender doesn’t matter for this. So I’m going to go ahead and say it: It makes me sick to know that you, the person who’s beating me—nanashi, the one person I respected—is ruining his life. It’s unforgivable! It’s disgusting! If the person beating me is worthless, doesn’t that make me worthless, too?”

I think the reason she didn’t strike me as arrogant even after everything she’d said was that she had obviously paid in blood and sweat for all her success.

“It’s my pet theory that the best games are always the simplest. The game of life looks like it doesn’t have any rules, but actually, it’s just an elegant, complex intersection of the simplest rules. You said life’s a shitty game, but that’s ridiculous. There’s no better game in the world. You just don’t know it yet… Nanashi is a great gamer, so how can I let him keep losing at such a wonderful game? …Tomozaki-kun, I’m going to give you an offer—no, an order.”

Details aside, I’d never met someone whose basic worldview was so close to my own. That’s exactly why—

“I’m going to teach you the rules of this game one by one.”

—her explanation made so much sense it was almost annoying.

“It’s time for you to get serious about playing the game of life!”

That was the major event that took place on Saturday.

* * *

“Okay, I get what you’re trying to say.”

I don’t think I’d ever been lectured this honestly and with so little BS by a person I hardly knew.

“Good.” Aoi Hinami’s face was still her real one, far as I could tell.

“But there are a few things I still don’t understand.” Yes or no, I couldn’t afford to give a perfunctory answer to a question like this.

“I think the game of life is trash. I can back that up with a lot of proof, and I’m fairly confident I’m right.”

The bottom tier gets exploited, and the top tier reaps the benefits. There are no simple, elegant rules. It’s just a shitty game.

“Yes…”

“So when you say life’s a great game, and that I’m just making excuses, and I’m a sore loser, it doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Right.”

“But…”

“But?”

As I spoke, I remembered how Nakamura blamed his loss on the game itself. “I agree with you. Not making any effort and covering up your loss by blaming it on the game is the most pathetic thing in the world. There’s nothing I hate more.”

Aoi Hinami’s mouth stretched into a wide smile.

“Really? Now that’s worthy of nanashi.”

“…But sometimes it really is the game’s fault. In many games, you can make up for a shitty character with technique, but there are a few where it’s just impossible.”

“And you want to say life is one of those games where it’s just impossible, right?”

“Right. That’s why it’s garbage.”

“In your view.”

“Maybe. But I don’t know how to look at life the way you do.”

“Of course you don’t.”

“Yeah, obviously. People can’t see through someone else’s eyes. In a game, you can try out a top-tier character, but in real life, you can’t try on another person’s perspective. My only choice is to trust my own view of things.”

“Uh-huh…”

“So when someone says life is the G.O.A.T. or whatever, I figure it’s just because they’re a top-tier character. Their opinion isn’t gonna change my mind.” I looked Aoi Hinami straight in the eye. “And that’s my perspective.”

This time, the disappointment on her face was clear.

“…Yeah. That’s fine, then. The final decision is yo—”

“But,” I interrupted. “…But this time, I’m starting to think it might be worth it to hear you out a little longer.”

Again, I looked her straight in the eye. Damn. She really is attractive.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because…” I thought for a moment. “Because the way you put it is too similar to mine, even if you are a normie with good looks. I think we have enough in common that I might learn something from you.”

“Hmm.”

“But that’s not the main reason.”

“…And what would that be?”

Her gaze shifted toward me with interest and suspicion.

“The person who’s saying this stuff is the only gamer in Japan I respect—NO NAME.”

“…”

“…”

“…Lame.”

Huh? I thought I nailed it!

“…Wait, how was that lame?”

“You can’t just slap on a weird one-liner at the end. It’s lame.”

“Cut me some slack; it took all my courage to say that.”

“Don’t care. You might think it was deep, but it wasn’t.” “Hey, I have problems with communication. How ’bout an A for effort, at least? I respond well to praise.”

“Did you do something praiseworthy? No, you disappointed me. Nanashi would never change his mind that easily.”

“Huh? What was easy about it? And I didn’t change my mind; I just said I was willing to hear you out a little longer.”

“How’s that any different? Sounds the same to me.”

“No way. I trust gamers, and you’re the second best in Japan. That means the person I trust more than anyone, other than myself, is saying there’s something I don’t know. Which is why I’ll listen. That’s all.”

“Doesn’t that mean you changed your mind?”

“I already told you, no! I’m just gonna listen and then decide if you’ve convinced me. I’m a long way from accepting your offer. If you don’t convince me, no dice.”

“But you’ll listen to me for now.”

“Of course. I’m nanashi. It only took one game for me to tell how much effort you put into honing your skills. I think listening to you will be worth my while.”

“…Hmph…I guess.”

“I guess,” huh?

I was about to congratulate myself on surviving a whole conversation with a classmate, and a heated one at that…when I realized I wasn’t actually talking to Aoi Hinami. I was talking to NO NAME. Maybe it wasn’t that impressive after all.

“Well, teach me already. What are the rules?”

I wanted to judge for myself whether the game of life was as “god-tier” as they say.

“Tomozaki-kun, you really don’t get it. I already told you, the rules intersect in complex ways. They’re not that easy to teach.”

“You can’t teach me? What the hell? Why did you change your tune all of a sudden?”

“…Okay, consider this. When you buy a new game and bring it home, do you get good by reading the instruction manual?”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“Just answer the question.”

“…No. I mean, I do read the instructions, but to get good you have to play. Otherwise, you won’t understand what it’s really about.”

“Exactly. They’re the same.”

“The same?”

“You don’t master games by reading the instruction manual. Same with real life.”

Same with real life? I thought about that for a second, but before I could answer, Hinami started talking again.

“You usually try playing new games without reading much of the instructions, right?”

I nodded.

“Life’s the same. You won’t get good without playing.”

…That didn’t sound right. After all, I’d been playing all my life.

“Wait a second. The reason I’m the way I am is because I’ve been failing this whole time.”

“Exactly. And when you’re having trouble in a game, what do you do?”

“In a game? Well, it depends what kind…but I might level up, practice, look at some strategy websites… That’s about it…”

“Spoken like nanashi himself. Correct.”

“And?”

“You can do all those in life, too. That’s the essence of the game.” She grinned.

“…Wait a second— No, I do get what you’re saying. You’re telling me to level up—to make an effort? I guess that’s the only option.”

“Right.”

“But it doesn’t work as well in real life as in other games. You can try till you’re blue in the face—it won’t make a difference. The limits are set when you start it up, and you can’t undo them. It’s a shitty setup in any game, including life. But you probably wouldn’t understand… After all, you’re a top-tier character.”

“Do you really understand?”

“Understand what?”

“Leveling up means self-improvement. It’s the work of increasing your basic abilities, from your appearance to your inner attributes. Practicing means improving the skills you need for getting ahead in the world—in other words, polishing the more concrete and practical abilities. Do those two things, and you’ll clear most of what life throws at you.”

“…Okay, I do get what you’re trying to say, but it’s not that easy. When you’re at the bottom like me, there are tons of impossible problems when it comes to leveling up or practicing.”

“Uh-huh. Leaving aside the question of whether you’ve ever even tried, I’ll admit, sometimes that’s true.”

“So you do admit it? Then I’m doomed?”

“Those seemingly impossible problems are what we could call life’s ‘hard stages,’ and there are ways to deal with those. You already said it. Leveling up, practicing…and one more.”

That would be…

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Strategy sites.”

“…What’s a strategy site in real life, then? Self-improvement books or how-to books? You’re saying I can figure it out just by reading some of those?”

“Oh dear,” Hinami said, giggling. “Well, I suppose that would work, too. But there’s only one strategy site in the world that’s one hundred percent guaranteed to work if you just follow what it says.”

“What are you talking about? That’s too convenient; no way.”

“It’s real. Although, I only know of one.”

“…So what is it already? Where would I find it?”

“Well…,” Hinami said, tapping her head slowly two times with her pointer finger.

“Right here.”

Her tone was playful and her expression overflowing with confidence. She might as well have been saying, “Obviously!”

“…I’ve got nothin’. Your confidence is something else.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. It was surprisingly refreshing to take such a clean hit.

“Naturally. I’ve had to beat the game out of necessity so far. I’ve drilled every cause-effect relationship into my head.”

It kinda made sense, but kinda didn’t.

“Cause and effect, huh? …Are those the rules for life you’re talking about?”

“Exactly.”

“Hmm…”

The rule for the life I know is that top-tier players get the benefits and low-tier players get exploited. Everyone hates contrarians and cowards, and hurting other people makes you look strong. The game of life is garbage because those shitty rules are all there is. But this girl was boasting that life had other rules—rules that could turn it into a great game.

She’d gotten real results, and that was persuasive. Her basic worldview was close to my own, so it was something I could accept. I was starting to think I might as well go for it—to get serious about the game of life.

But no. She was wrong. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed we probably wouldn’t ever understand each other. After all, that’s how things always end up with this type.

I asked her a question as a test.

“…So let’s say life is god-tier, then. Let me ask you this: Where does it fall in relation to the rest of the tier, among other games?”

That’s the crux of it. That’s the gulf between people who praise the game of life and me.

“How good? …Well, as far as I know…” She looked up, briefly hesitant. “Far and away the best, I’d say.”

See that?

That’s what I’m talking about. In the end, people who say life’s the G.O.A.T. are just looking down on all other games. They pretend to compare life to a game when it’s convenient, but in fact they view it as something special and superior. They assume other games are worthless from the start and only throw life in as a comparison after they’ve turned up their nose at all the others.

And this girl was doing the same thing. Disappointed, I wordlessly took my bag and got ready to stand up.

Just then, she started talking again.

“Actually…now that I think about it, it’s tied with Atafami.”

Her voice was so natural it caught me off guard, and so innocent the revelation was anticlimactic.

“What?”

“Yeah. I was on the fence for a minute, but I decided it’s impossible to say which one is better. I mean, ideally I’d be able to say life was better, but…unfortunately, it’s a tie.”

I was stunned. A tie for first place? Between life and Atafami?

Did she really just say that? The ultimate normie, Aoi Hinami?

“Are you disappointed? After all, you’ve already mastered Atafami. It might not be worth your while to try out another game that isn’t any more fun.”

“…You…”

Disappointed? That’s crazy. In spite of myself—

“Yes, that does make sense,” Hinami continued, muttering rapidly. “You’re already the best at one of the best games…which means I needed to offer you something even more valuable… Damn, I messed up. I always act before I think when it comes to Atafami. I really need to get better about that…”

She looked at me again.

“Well, I did say the choice was yours, and it doesn’t matter what you decide. It would be wrong to gain your trust by lying, so I guess that’s that.”

“I…”

I almost spoke my mind but caught myself. Up to this point, I’d been practicing Atafami because I wanted to, without anyone knowing. I really wanted to get better, and success made me feel satisfied and happy. It was fun, and that was enough.

But I also realized that I wasn’t likely to win anyone’s approval for it. The most I would get is some praise on the Internet. I didn’t have any gamer friends, my parents never gassed me up for it, and it wouldn’t make me popular at school. I’m bad at sports, and I don’t have a girlfriend, obviously. Meanwhile, I spent my time on Atafami and got results, for me and me alone. That really was enough. I didn’t think I needed anyone’s approval.

But now this girl—the strongest normie I knew—was saying that life and Atafami were in the same tier as games. In other words, she was saying Atafami had as much value as life, and she was saying it like an obvious fact.

This from the girl who knew life better than anyone.

Of course, the emotion I felt was contradictory. I’d always thought life was a shitty game. The logical thing would have been for me to argue that Atafami was way more fun. It’s the best game there is, I should’ve said. Don’t compare it to garbage; quit messing around.

But now this girl who was better than anyone I knew at life—the most widely accepted game in the real world—was telling me Atafami had equal value. I wasn’t sure what to think.

I didn’t think it mattered if anyone gave my efforts their stamp of approval. Which is good, because no one did. That effort was by me, for me, and I didn’t think I minded. I even thought it would be wrong if I did mind. But now…

Incredibly enough, I was getting affirmation from someone.

“What’s that expression for?”

“…I…” I looked down, trying to hide my feelings.

“Anything with rules is a game, in my opinion. As long as there are rules and results based on those rules, it’s all a game.”

Aoi Hinami waited quietly for me to continue.

“If that’s true of life, then life’s a game. If those rules are simple, elegant, and deep, it’s one of the best. If not, it’s trash… You agree with me there, right?”

“Yes, absolutely. Life has rules, which makes it a proper game. And…because those rules are simple, elegant, and deep, it’s a great one.”

“…Okay. I understand.” I looked up. “In that case…”

“Yes?”

I met Hinami’s eyes.

“The gamer in me wants to play.”

Surprise colored Hinami’s face. I don’t know what expression was on my own face when I said that, but it must have been enough to catch her off guard.

“That doesn’t mean I trust everything you said, though.” I was talking to the gamer in front of me.

“The game is right in front of our eyes. It’s a challenging one, but everyone in the whole world is taking part, so there are a lot of players. I’d only played a little before deciding it was shit, but now I’ve heard from a reliable source that it’s actually great. One of the top players is standing here saying she’ll teach me some high-level strats. So…”

I ignored the dumbfounded shock on Hinami’s face and kept talking.

“There’s no reason not to play the game.”

When I finished talking, I looked up. The stunned Hinami had vanished, and NO NAME was standing in her place with an excited smile.

“…A speech worthy of nanashi.”

“What can I say?”

“Do you trust me now?”

“No way. I won’t trust you until I play for myself and see if it’s really the best.”

It was true. I wasn’t ready to trust her just yet. Still, like me, she thought like a gamer, and she was giving other games a fair shake when she said life was one of the best. After all, it was as good as Atafami according to her. It wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.

“But that’s how it goes with games. You can’t judge until you’ve played. And if you’re gonna play, you’ve gotta take it seriously from the start or else it’s pointless. I don’t want to end up making excuses.”

“Exactly,” Hinami said, nodding and smiling.

“So I’m gonna try it out. I’m gonna play so I can beat the game like a real normie, but I’m not cutting any corners. How’s that sound?”

Hinami nodded, as if to say “Of course!”

“All right, then. Where do I start?”

“Oh, I like your attitude.”

For some reason, she sounded really happy. She stood up, went over to her desk, and started rummaging through it.

“What are you doing?”

“Life is a game that gives you a lot of freedom.”

“Huh? Well, okay, but…”

“And when you have a lot of freedom, what do you do first?”

“Um…”

Freedom? Does she mean those games where you can steal a car and go around killing people, or run around naked while robbing stores? If I thought about what they had in common…

“You create your character.”

“Hexactly,” she said with a straight face, pointing at me.

“Huh? What did you say? Hexactly?”

“The first thing you do is create your character.”

“No, what did you say before that?”

“…What do you mean? You must be imagining things,” she said curtly, looking away.

What was going on? Something about this seemed familiar.

More importantly, why did she say I was imagining things? I started to protest, but she ignored me… Better just move on.

“…So character creation?”

“Yes.”

Now she looked calm and peaceful, like nothing had happened. I didn’t get her. Whatever.

“But my character is already complete… And boy, is he ugly. Ha-ha.”

“You give up too easily. Use this.”

She ignored my cocky attempt at a joke and pulled something white out of the drawer.

It was… Just wait a second!

“…Oh geez. You’re not going to suggest I hide behind that all the time, are you?”

“Nope. There’s a better way to use it.”

In her right hand, she was holding a face mask, the kind people strap over their nose and mouth during allergy season.

* * *

“…I’m back…”

When I got home, I spoke the standard greeting, although not too loud since I was saying it more out of habit than to inform anyone in particular.

I had to pass through the living room to get to my room, and that’s when my mom noticed I looked different than usual.

“Fumiya, did you catch a cold?”

“Uh, um, uh-huh.”

I hadn’t, but I couldn’t explain what was going on, so I made vague noises of agreement.

“If you needed a mask, you could have asked. Did you buy that yourself?”

“Uh, no, my friend gave it to me ’cause I said I had a cold.”

“Oh really?”

She looked half surprised, half impressed. She didn’t have to say it: Oh, you have a friend close enough to give you a mask for free? Call it the bond between parent and child.

“Anyway, welcome back. Dinner’s almost ready, so go ahead and—”

“I know, I know.”

She always says the same thing when I get home. Take a bath before dinner. I cut her off mid-sentence and headed off toward the bathroom.

“Oh wait, actually…”

Bang!

“Okay!”

I opened the door on my little sister in her underwear and got so flustered, I answered a question that nobody had asked.

“Eww, you’re such a freak, Fumiya.”

She ignored me and coolly pulled on her sweatshirt, not looking particularly surprised. It was her fuzzy, oversize black one. Her stretched-out black bra, which was the wrong size for her modest chest, disappeared underneath it.

“I know you’re lying.”

“Huh?”

As she made her abrupt and cryptic accusation, she turned to me, wearing just her sweatshirt and panties. How about putting some pants on already?

“That.” She pointed to the lower half of my face.

“The mask?”

“You said your friend gave it to you.”

“Uh-huh.” I know where this is going.

“You don’t have any friends who’d give you a face mask.”

“Hey…”

This is just one of the annoyances of having a sister one year behind you at the same school.

“You shouldn’t tell lies that are so obvious.”

She’s in her first year, but you’d never guess we were related from her exceedingly good looks and bright personality, which have made her plenty of older friends in my class. Thanks to that, she apparently hears snippets of information about me. Still, I don’t see why I have to listen to my little sister lecture me in the etiquette of lying.

“Hey, I do too know someone.”

After all, I did get the mask from someone, so I wasn’t lying.

“Okay, who? Who gave it to you?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“See? You won’t tell me, so you must be lying.”

Ugh. “Aoi Hinami.”

“…”

My sister peered into my face. I’m not lying, girl. Gotcha!

For some reason, she sighed.

“What’s that for?”

“Listen, that’s not a friend.” She sounded exasperated. “The reason she gave you a mask is because she’s an angel. Get it? She’s nice to everyone. It’s not about being friends…she’s just a really good classmate.”

She sounded like she was lecturing a little kid out of pity. Anyway, I didn’t think of Aoi Hinami as a friend. If I did, she was more like a war buddy. And an angel? No way. A valkyrie, maybe, but no angel.

“Don’t take it the wrong way and fall for her or something. You’ll embarrass me.”

“You think I’d fall for someone that rude?”

“…Huh? What?”

“Nothing.”

“Argh! You’re mumbling, and then with that mask on, I can’t understand anything you’re saying!”

With that, she ripped the mask off my face. Damn.

“…I honestly don’t get it. So creepy,” she said, pushing grumpily past me… No wonder. “I really don’t get it,” she said again.

In the mirror, this creep had a grin so wide it was almost too big for the mask.

* * *

I looked at the mask in Hinami’s hand, confused.

“What do I use that for aside from hiding part of my face? …Also…”

I was even more confused by where we were than by the mask.

“…Why’d you make me come over here?”

After Hinami took the mask out of her drawer, she’d told me to come with her for the second time that day, grabbed my arm, and dragged me to a pasta restaurant near her house.

“We are going to use it to hide your face, but the important part is what you do after that.”

What I do after that? …But that’s not what I wanted to know.

“No, wait a second, I’m asking you why we came to this restaurant all of a sudden?”

“Oh look, here it comes.” She ignored my confused question as the waiter brought us our food.

“Here you go. One Japanese-style pasta with mushrooms, and one three-cheese carbonara.”

He put down the carbonara in front of Hinami and the mushroom pasta in front of me.

“Come on, answer my question.”

“This place is really good.”

She smiled in utter bliss. Did she have to smile like that? It was insanely cute.

“…That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Just listen for a minute,” she said with a sigh, pointing at her mouth. She did the same trick as before, switching between her beautiful and ordinary selves.

“Oooh.” Blink blink. “No, really, what is going on?!”

“You really are stubborn. I was just hungry, okay?”

She took a bite of her carbonara. I watched her wind the pasta around her fork, watched the arc travel to her mouth, and then watched her mouth open slightly to accept the coil of noodles before she pulled the empty fork out again. Every move was graceful and beautiful and charmingly sexy. I couldn’t help following her tongue with my eyes as it swept off the sauce clinging to the corners of her mouth.

“…So good!” she murmured softly with an innocent smile.

She was seriously, insanely cute.

“In other words…it’s all in the expression.”

Expression? “You mean your smile just now?”

“Huh? My smile just now?”

“Oh, um, never mind.”

She was so cute I accidentally put my foot in my mouth. Thankfully, Hinami kept talking like she hadn’t really noticed.

“Are you listening? This is my pretty-girl mouth.”

I looked more closely. The corners of her mouth were slightly lifted, and her cheeks seemed firmer as a result. She was inarguably attractive. Approachable, too. But as I stared at her, I noticed something else. Can’t put my finger on it. Must be her genuine cuteness. When I paid attention to that, I couldn’t look her in the eye, though.

“And this is my not-pretty mouth.”

The spirit disappeared from her entire face. Looking closely, I noticed her mouth droop and her forehead sag. Wrinkles even formed around her nose. She wasn’t ugly, but she was right on the line between beautiful and not.

“Ooo.”

Blink, blink.

“Why are you oooing? You look dumb. Now’s not the time to act impressed.”

“…Oh right.” I felt a little intimidated. Yeah, maybe not so cute.

“Do you get it?”

She smiled.

“This is how I look on a daily basis.”

She relaxed her mouth.

“And this is how you look.”

“I-I’m really that bad?”

She’d caught me off guard. I didn’t think I went around smiling all the time, but wasn’t it a bit much to compare me to the bad example?

“Yes, you are.”

As if she’d been expecting my reaction, she thrust a mirror in my face. I saw my droopy cheeks in the reflection.

“…Oh.”

“Do you see now?” I did, unfortunately. “…Apparently so.”

“I still don’t think that would make much of a difference. The corners of my mouth aren’t the only thing that’s ugly.”

“You sure like to talk back.”

“What do you expect? I’ve been thinking this stuff for sixteen years.”

“For now, let’s table the question of whether you’re ugly.”

That was nice of her. Sometimes, she could be surprisingly kind.

“I think you don’t understand the importance of the mouth,” she continued.

“It’s important?”

“Yes.”

She’d started taking bites of her pasta between sentences, and I followed her lead. Oh wow, this is good. Crazy good. What is this place? It’s incredible.

The aroma of the soy sauce melding with perfectly browned butter reached my nose and scored a direct hit. I took a bite, appreciating the combination of the fat oozing from the bacon and the savory flavor of the mushrooms on my tongue. The rich flavors were spreading through me while my mouth was enjoying the springy texture of the noodles.

“…This…is so good…!”

I had no idea pasta this good even existed… Thank you, Hinami…

I looked at her, trying to silently convey how impressed and appreciative I was. Her eyes were clouded with intense greed.

“So yours is good, too, huh?” she said calmly, her eyes flickering from my face to my pasta and back.

Um, so… Even someone with a communication block could figure out what to do in this situation.

“…Want a bite?”

She opened her eyes wide and made a face a little too cute to look at straight on.

“Thank you! Sure!” she said, sticking her fork into my pasta and spinning it around. She brought it to her mouth and gobbled it down. Her enraptured expression was practically carnal bliss.

Just before I could fall completely under her spell, I belatedly realized what had happened.

“Aaah!!”

“What?” Hinami asked with confusion.

Wait. Wasn’t that—? Didn’t our mouths just indirectly—you know? Isn’t that what just happened…?!

“No, I mean, you… That was…an indirect…kiss…”

I took a lot of effort to spit the words out, but Hinami raised her eyebrows disdainfully.

“Come on. Maybe if we were sharing a bottle of water or something, but no one worries about little things like that after junior high.”

“Really? Oh, um, people don’t usually worry about it…?”

“Yeah. Anyway, as I was saying,” she continued, ignoring my shock and assuming a businesslike attitude.

“Imagine two men wearing sunglasses are having a conversation. Their eyes and eyebrows are hidden. You can’t hear what they’re saying, but you can see them.”

“What are you talking about now?”

I was still upset about the indirect kiss thing, but damn, this pasta was good.

“One is a normie and the other isn’t. Do you think you could tell which was which just from their appearance?”

Are we still talking about mouths? Let’s see, two men wearing sunglasses…

“Uh…well, I guess if I saw them, I could figure it out—God, this is good—from their hair or the way they acted or their clothes,” I said between bites of my heavenly plate of pasta.

“What if they both had buzz cuts and suits?”

Buzz cuts and suits… I tried to picture it. Two guys with buzz cuts wearing sunglasses…in suits…munch, munch…talking to each other.

“I think I’d still be able to tell.”

Hinami nodded. “Right. Same hair, eyes and eyebrows hidden. You can still basically tell which is which. Isn’t that strange?”

“I guess so. This is delicious, by the way. That is kind of strange.”

“Why do you think you can tell them apart? …Here’s the answer.”

She pointed to her mouth. No way.

“…Pasta?”

“Idiot.”

Yeah, that was dumb. Sorry.

“…Facial expression?”

“That’s it.”

“Uh-huh…”

“Like I showed you before, your expression, especially your mouth, makes a huge difference in people’s impression of you. They pick up on it subconsciously and use it to make judgments about your personality.”

Yeah, I guess so.

“Sounds reasonable enough,” I said, before suddenly realizing something. “But wait a second. Is that the reason you’re always smiling?” I couldn’t help shoving another bite of pasta into my mouth.

“Kind of. You’re half-right, half-wrong.”

“Half?”

“At first, I made a conscious effort to smile, but as my muscles developed, it started happening naturally. Yeah, this is good… It took a couple of months to get to that point, though.”

“A couple months…”

So much effort lay behind that friendly appearance. “Anyway, you’re saying your facial muscles and mouth are important, right? …But what’s the mask for? If I hide my mouth, won’t I lose all the benefits?”

“It’s like weight training.”

“Huh?”

“Weight training. They’re muscles, so if you want to build them, you’ve gotta train.”

“…What are you talking about?” I asked, puzzled.

Hinami pushed a pack of thirty masks against my chest. “For the next month, whenever you’re not eating or sleeping—when you’re out and about, when you’re in class, when you’re talking to someone—I want you to have a huge smile on your face under the mask the whole time.”

“…What?! Seriously? The whole time?” I asked, bewildered, as I took the masks from her.

“Obviously. We don’t have forever. I want you to be done in a month.”

Hinami sat back down. Somehow, her plate was already empty.

“Hey, you said it took you a couple of months. Why can’t I go at the same pace?”

“Don’t be silly. You’d never make your goal.”

“My goal?” That was the first time I’d heard her say that word. “To become a normie?”

“Don’t you know how it works? When you’re going to start working toward something, it’s important to have a big, long-term goal, but you need mid-term and short-term goals, too.”

“…Oh.” Yeah, when I was practicing Atafami, I did set those kinds of goals.

“You of all people should know that.”

“…Yeah, I guess I do.”

“That’s what I thought. You’re picking this up quick.”

When I want to reach a big goal, I progress a lot more smoothly if I have a bunch of smaller goals to achieve. More like if I don’t, then I don’t know how to move forward, and then my motivation disappears. At least, that’s been the case when I was mastering various games.

And since life is a game, too, I should take the same approach.

“You’re going to move forward by clearing a series of small, medium, and big goals.”

“So I should think of my big goal as…becoming a normie?”

“Right. Of course, there are different levels of normie, your final goal should be to reach my level.”

“Isn’t that…a little too hard?”

“I admit, it’s a long way to go—the biggest loner in school to the most successful in the real world. But if you do exactly what I tell you, it’s not impossible.”

…Seriously?

“Well, all right… And what about my small and medium goals?”

“Right. First I’ll tell you your small goals.”

Gulp.

“Get your family or close friends to ask if you have a girlfriend.”

…Huh?

“What do you mean?”

“What I said.”

“Huh?”

Hinami looked at me, clearly annoyed by my confusion. “Geez… You’re so quick to catch on with Atafami and so slow when it comes to real life.”

She turned her palms up and gave an exaggerated sigh.

“That’s none of your business,” I said.

“Can we go on? I’m talking about surface changes so big people around you notice and ask you about them.”

Hmm…surface changes big enough for people to notice and ask?

“…And they have to ask if I have a girlfriend?”

“Oh geez. It doesn’t matter what, exactly; it could be ‘I almost didn’t recognize you for a second’ or ‘Damn, you glowed up!’ The point is, you’ve cleared the level once people start saying they notice a big change in you.”

“I—I see.”

“The part about other people saying something is important. It’s not enough just for you to think you’ve changed a lot.”

“Um-hmm.”

“It means you have to get to a point where people are objectively looking at you and seeing a clear improvement in your appearance. In the aura you give off.”

“U-understood.”

Hinami was annoyed; I could tell from the wrinkle between her brows. “Do I have to explain every little detail?”

“S-sorry…but how do I know…”

“Know what?”

“Even if the people around me say something, how do I know I’ve really passed?”

“…Can you not even make that decision yourself?”

“S-sorry.”

“…Fine. If someone says something, repeat it to me word for word, and I’ll decide if it counts.”

“O-okay.”

A feeling of reluctance and shame washed over me.

“Once you’ve cleared that goal, I’ll give you the next small goal. It’ll depend on how you’re doing then. And about the mid-range goal…well, that’s a simple one.”

She smiled.

“Have a girlfriend by the time you start your third year of high school.”

My jaw dropped. A girlfriend? Me? The guy who’s been a lone wolf from day one? She must have assumed I didn’t already have one because, well, I’m me. She was right, of course.

“No. Nope. No way.”

“What?”

“That’s way too hard.”

“What’s too hard about it?” She genuinely didn’t seem to understand.

“You probably don’t get it because having a boyfriend is easy for you, but for those of us who aren’t so popular, that’s a crazy thing to expect. Plus, it’s June already, right? Which means I have less than a year! It’s totally impossible!”

Without even meaning to, I’d stood up to deliver a passionate lecture on my own unpopularity. The waiter, bringing our tea, smirked as he set the saucers on the table. Hinami sighed from her seat. God, how embarrassing.

“Huh? …Okay, let me ask you a question.”

Her eyes were very, very cold.

“Uh, okay.”

“What percentage of guys in their second year of high school have a girlfriend, do you think?”

“Um… What, maybe twenty or thirty percent?”

“…Okay, let’s go on the low end and say ten percent.”

“Okay…” What is she getting at?

“Let’s compare this to a video game to help you understand. We’ll say Atafami. You’re the best in Japan, right?”

“Um, I guess.”

“Okay, then let’s imagine there’s a total beginner who wants to master Atafami. That’s where you come in.” She pointed at me sternly.

“Me?”

“Yeah. You have one year to give this person all the advice they need, like how to control the characters and how to practice. They promise to do exactly as you say.”

“…Okay…”

“How hard do you think it would be to make sure that person is among the top ten percent of all players in Japan in one year?”

The top 10 percent. That means a one-in-ten level, probably the best in their class. Which means, well…

“…Super…easy.”

“Hexactly.”

“Huh?”

“It’s easy, even when we set the number down at ten percent. In other words, if you do what I say, you’ll have no problem finding a girlfriend by the time you advance to the next level,” she explained, speaking quickly.

“Wait, what did you say before that?”

“…You’re imagining things.”

Huh? Is she messing with me? Her face was red. Is she making fun of me and trying not to laugh? I seemed to remember hearing those words before…

“Let’s focus on what’s important. Do you understand what I’m saying? It’s not a very difficult goal.”

Okay, maybe in terms of raw logic, but…

“But Atafami and life are different.”

That earned me another sigh. “Would you stop assuming things? You may be a pro at Atafami, but you’re an amateur at life. If you’re actually planning give it a try, just follow my advice.”

“…Sorry. Um, you’re right.”

I deferred to her and apologized. After all, I was the one who’d decided to play. She was right—I didn’t know the rules of life or how to skillfully handle the characters. A top expert was telling me what to do, so for now I figured I’d better just obey her every instruction. That’s what a gamer should do. I could decide later whether life was the god-tier game she said it was.

“Do you know where Sewing Classroom Number Two is?”

“Huh?”

“Sewing Classroom Number Two, in the old school building. Know where it is?”

Oh, she was talking about our school… It sounded familiar. I thought I remembered; I could probably find it if I went to the old building.

“Yeah, basically.”

“Good. From now on, go to that room half an hour before school starts every day, and then again after school.”

“Why?”

“So I can tell you what to do that day, and later you can report back and reflect on how you did. Obviously. What’s training without trial and error? If we’re doing this, we’re gonna do it right.”

If we’re doing this, we’re gonna do it right. Well…I could agree with her there.

“…Roger that.”

“Of course, some days one of us will have plans, so we’ll cross those bridges when we come to them. You have my e-mail address, right?”

“Yeah. But I hardly ever have plans. Ha-ha.”

“…Okay, are you gonna take this seriously or not? A few months from now, you will have plans after school. Are you ready for that?”

She glared at me. Wait, really?

“Seriously?”

“Obviously.”

She sounded super-sure of herself. If she was right, that would be pretty cool.

“I understand. I’m ready.” I bowed my head slightly.

“Oh, and…”

Suddenly, she sounded flustered, and all but a trace of her coolness was gone. She sipped her tea and looked to the side.

“Huh? What?”

She jumped a little, like she was startled. What was her deal?

“Well, um, this was officially an offline meeting between NO NAME and nanashi, right?”

Why are you so shy all of a sudden? “Y-yeah. What’s wrong?”

“Wh-what do you mean, what’s wrong? …You know, it’s an offline meeting…”

“What?”

“Oh, come on!” she said, sounding a lot more worked up than usual. She glanced down for a second, took a breath, then made eye contact so deliberate it felt almost unnatural.

“I mean, wouldn’t we normally exchange Atafami friend codes?”

She’d been looking me in the eye throughout our whole conversation, but now it felt like, I don’t know, some kind of bluff. Like she was forcing herself to keep looking at me because to do otherwise would be to admit defeat.

Despite her sharp glare and tightly pursed lips, her cheeks were gradually getting redder. Even someone with terrible communication skills like me could tell it wasn’t from heat or anger. Still, that doesn’t mean I knew how to respond. She did say earlier that she gets worked up when it comes to Atafami, but I didn’t know it was this bad.

“That’s all… You look like you want to say something.”

I had no intention of kicking the hornet’s nest, so I just told her, “Whatever, that’s fine,” and exchanged friend codes with her. Now we’d be able to play friendlies any time.

I would never forget the way she was blushing, but I knew I shouldn’t think about it too much.

Oh, and by the way, even the tea at that pasta place was to die for.

After the deed was done, I looked at Kikuchi-san. She shifted her gaze away slightly.

“…Um, thanks.”

“…You’re welcome.”

If you’d only seen this part of the interaction, you’d think we were a happy, innocent pair of kids. After me blowing my nose, not so much. I solemnly handed back the packet of tissues, then went to throw away the one I’d used and returned to my seat. Mission accomplished. I was wondering if I would be able to count this as talking to two girls when…

“Tomozaki-kun.”

“Ah!”

I was startled by Kikuchi-san’s clear voice, which felt like a breeze blowing down my ear and hitting my brain.

“Wh-what?”

“Um…”

Had I done something wrong? She seemed extremely dubious.

“Um…I wanted to ask you…”

“Yeah…?”

“Um…why…”

Why what…?

“Why…were you smiling?”

Ha-ha-ha… Shit.

In the end, I managed to save myself with some incoherent answer about my teeth hurting, which made me pull my lips back into something that looked like a smile, but Kikuchi-san’s frown when she had asked the question and the confusion in her eyes made me think I probably didn’t convince her of anything.

When I glanced at Hinami to see what she thought of this little exchange, she gave a dramatic sigh. Yup, I screwed that one up. Kikuchi-san thinks I’m a creep. Still, details aside, I’d fulfilled the basic requirements of the assignment. All I could do was view this as a big step forward and consider how to do better next time.

Next up was fourth-period home ec. Once again, I was a nervous wreck. Now I had to talk to Minami Nanami, who goes by Mimimi or Nanana. She got both nicknames because her whole name only uses two different syllables. Apparently, she mostly goes by Mimimi these days. She’s a classic Japanese beauty—pale skin, long black hair, and even, defined features—but for someone with such a traditional aesthetic, she has a bright, cheerful personality. She’s on the track team with Hinami.

Whenever we have to switch classrooms and I get there too early, the other loners are usually sitting at their desks thumbing through their textbooks or notes, trying to play at being cool and disinterested in the others. I don’t like to get involved in that, so I always kill time by going to the library first.

Not many people go to a library on a ten-minute break, so it’s usually either just me or me and one other person. By the way, I only pretend to read the books—I’m really working on tactics for Atafami. But today, I didn’t have time to go to the library. I had to get to class as early as possible to talk to Minami Nanami, or maybe, if I had the chance, to another girl.

The moment third period ended, I grabbed my home-ec textbook and workbook, my pencils, and some loose-leaf paper and left the classroom.

As expected, the air of the home-ec room hung thick with apathy—with an extra twist. Two loners were sitting apart from each other, as well as a relevant party—I mean the person who sits next to me—I mean— Okay, I’ll just say it: my target, Minami Nanami. Oh, come on! She had her workbook open and mechanical pencil at work. This was definitely an opportunity, but if I talked to her now, when the classroom was otherwise silent, our voices would be the only sounds in the room. I didn’t mind if the two loners overheard us, but I didn’t like the idea of my own voice filling the room. I know that’s irrational, but it’s true.

This was tough. What to do? I would rather have waited… Oh wait, Hinami isn’t here yet. Yeah, I’m supposed to do it when she was watching, so I can’t do it yet. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait a little longer. Until some more people come in.

By the time I sat down next to Minami Nanami, I’d prepared a hundred excuses and was in a safe mental state.

“Hey, what’s up Tomozaki-kun? You’re early today, aren’t you!”

Oh, come on!

A second ago she’d been silently focused on her workbook, but the instant I sat down, she started talking to me like it was the most natural thing in the world. The whole flow was so smooth that it took a second for it to register that she had talked to me at all. But no, she had definitely said my name.

I couldn’t ignore her, but if I told her the real reason I’d come so early—specifically to talk to her—I’d look like such a freak she’d probably kill me. Unfortunately, I’m the opposite of a witty conversationalist.

So…

“…No…”

“Huh?”

“…No, um, it wasn’t on purpose.”

“Oh really? Well, yeah, that’s usually how it goes, isn’t it?”

…that’s how our conversation went.

Wow, all I said was “it wasn’t on purpose,” which was completely pointless, and she still answered “Well, yeah.” …I’ve gotta say, young women these days really have an amazing ability to empathize. Wonder if I’ll ever get to that point.

But what to do now? A conversation had begun, which meant that if we fell back into silence, the mood would give its divine verdict: that we were not each doing our own work, but that we had started a conversation and couldn’t continue it. It goes without saying that I didn’t have any safe topics on hand, such as the latest episode of a show or gossip about so-and-so in our class. Worst case, I could ask her for a tissue as if the need had just occurred to me, but that would be a little weird.

With awkwardness pressing in on me, my only choice was to muddle through.

“Wow, that was amazing,” I timidly offered, trying to make my voice as nonchalant as possible.

“Huh? What was?”

Nanami-san blankly stared with her round eyes. Her voice was clear but very loud, which meant it reached the whole classroom.

“Um, I mean, all I said was ‘it wasn’t on purpose,’ which didn’t really mean anything.”

“Huh?” She was confused. Of course she was.

“But you still managed to agree with me…and it made me think about how this generation has amazing powers of empathy…”

Nanami-san was silent, as if her brain hadn’t yet fully processed what I was saying. No surprises there. I’d just said exactly what was on my mind a second ago. This conversation was shit.

“…”

“…”

Awkward. Well, this is hopeless. Now everything was weird, and it was completely my fault. There was no saving this. How are you supposed to make conversation? She told me to talk to girls, so I did, and look where that got me.

“Uh, sorr—”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Huh?”

She was really losing it. The other two kids in the classroom kept glancing toward us.

“Uh, wh-wha—”

“What are you talking about, Tomozaki-kun! You sound like an old man! Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Wh-what’s going on? “Um, I was just saying this generation…”

“But you’re this generation, too! Ah-ha-ha-ha!”

“No, I was just…”

“…What? Just what?” she asked eagerly, still giggling. I’m trying to say something serious!

“Like, high school girls these days use words like ‘yikes’ to mean all different things, right…? So I was thinking empathy is becoming more common for girls in this…”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Stop! Stop talking like a talk show host! Ha-ha-ha!”

The more seriously I tried to explain, the more hilarious it was. What was going on? While she was busy laughing at me, other students had started trickling into the classroom and looking at us with curiousity. Tomozaki and Mimimi?!!

“No, it’s just, like, I heard about it somewhere, but it didn’t sound like a real thing, and when I saw it for myself, it sort of gave the theory more punch…”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha! You’re killing me!”

“I just thought it was a valuable example…”

“That’s what I’m talking about—you sound like an old man! You literally live in the middle of examples! Ah-ha-ha-ha!”

“Minmi, what’s going on?”

Hanabi Natsubayashi, who was in our half of the class for home ec, had sat down across from Nanami-san. She’s petite and delicate, with bobbed hair, a childlike face, and very compact little movements, like a squirrel.

“Hi, Tama! Still tiny, I see!” Nanami-san said, ruffling Natsubayashi-san’s hair. I’m not sure how it started, but everyone calls her “Tama,” like the popular name for cats. Tama calls Nanami-san Minmi. I don’t know where that came from, either.

“Cut it out! Just answer my question!”

Natsubayashi-san pushed Nanami-san’s arm away with one hand and scolded her sharply from her height of less than five feet. Still, there wasn’t much real bite to her harsh-sounding reply.

“You’re scary, Tama!”

“Don’t change the subject! Explain!”

“Sorry, sorry. Tomozaki-kun’s talking like an old man. He said—what did you say? I forgot!”

“Huh?!”

“Hee-hee-hee. Guess you shoulda got here earlier!”

“That’s not true! You! Uh, Tomozaki, right? Tell me what happened!”

Next, she turned her razor-sharp tongue on me, but what cut deep was the way she kind of forgot my name.

“Who, me?”

“Is there another Tomozaki around?”

“No…”

“Then stop dawdling!”

“Good luck, Tomozaki!” Nanami-san joked with both fists pressed to her cheeks.

“What do you mean, good luck…? Uh… Um…”

I bumbled through an explanation. In the meantime, Hinami had come into the home-ec room with a few friends, smiling. When she saw what was going on she froze for a couple of seconds, then quickly recovered.

“…and that’s what happened.”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“That’s not funny at all,” Natsubayashi-san said.

“What? It’s hilarious!”

“No it’s not! You’re just crazy!”

“Ooh, you’re so mean! Ah-ha-ha!”

“Stop laughing!”

Natsubayashi-san really seemed to enjoy cutting Nanami-san down. Not a shred of empathy. I guess not everyone in our generation is the same. Anyway, Nanami-san had laughed at me when I was trying to be serious, so I was on Natsubayashi-san’s side.

“Um, I don’t think it’s funny, either…”

“What?!”

“Right? Like I said, Minmi, you’re crazy!”

“Aw, I wouldn’t say that! You just don’t understand ’cause you’re a child!” Nanami-san said.

“Shut up! You’re so annoying!”

“Ha-ha-ha, look at you! Come on, Tomozaki, wouldn’t you say Tama’s a child?”

Huh? She’s asking me?! Is she a child? I don’t think so, but I have no idea what to say. What do I do? I’m not smooth enough for this. My only choice was to say what I was thinking again.

“Um…uh…I don’t know if she’s a child.”

“Of course you do!”

“Um, yes…but, like, what I felt before was… You had amazing powers of empathy, but just now, Natsubayashi-san shot you down, right? So everyone is different, and you can’t make snap judgments about all young women…”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Listen to him!”

“…”

Nanami-san exploded with laughter, while Natsubayashi-san glowered up at me, disgruntled.

“So the conclusion I can draw is that you shouldn’t generalize based on a single example… That’s about it…”

“Stop already! Ah-ha-ha!”

As usual, Nanami-san was cracking up. Natsubayashi-san ignored her deafening laughter and addressed me.

“…That…”

“Huh?”

“…That was kinda funny!”

What was?

“Mimimi and Hanabi and…Tomozaki? What’re you guys all worked up about?”

In the middle of our muddled conversation, I heard a familiar voice. I was so flustered I’d forgotten the time, and I hadn’t noticed someone coming up to us, either. Actually, though, I’d predicted this, and it was exactly what I was afraid of. I should have wrapped up this conversation sooner.

Tomozaki, Natsubayashi, Nanami. We sit in order of our student numbers in home ec. And between Tomozaki and Natsubayashi was—

—Nakamura.

“What’s up with you two? Having fun with Tomozaki, huh?”

He walked up to us, frowning moodily and flanked by two other guys from his group, Mizusawa and…Takeishi, I think? They were both solid members of the so-called Nakamura Faction, with Nakamura at the center and the other two backing him up. Mizusawa in particular wasn’t just a follower but more like a key advisor. Even I could tell he was a sly operator.

“Hey Nakamu, listen to him! Tomozaki is really hilarious…”

“Oh really? Tomozaki is?” Nakamura glanced at me. His mouth was grinning. His eyes were not. “Whaddaya mean?”

His eyes glittered like those of a snake ready to sink its fangs into my heart. What was he planning to do to me?

A week had already passed since our Atafami showdown. The tension back when everyone had basically guessed what happened had dissipated, but right now, he had his followers with him, which meant he’d probably want to look even tougher than usual.

“He sounds just like an old guy on a talk show!”

“What? An old guy on a talk show?” he asked grumpily.

“Yeah!”

“I don’t get it,” Nakamura said.

Mizusawa, who was standing next to him, turned his gaze to me without moving his head. “Tell us about it, Tomozaki!” he said.

Maybe he had guessed Nakamura’s intentions; he directed the question straight at me. I didn’t like the way he called me by my name. Did he think I’d start stuttering if I had to say more than a few words? Was he playing with me? Don’t underestimate me, man. I may not be smooth, but I can explain myself just fine. Plus, I’m a hell of a lot better than you guys at Atafami.

And explain myself I did.

“…So that’s what happened.”

“Ah-ha-ha. See what I mean?”

Not surprisingly, Nanami-san didn’t laugh as hard this time, since this was the second time she’d heard it. As for Natsubayashi-san, she’d been silent ever since Nakamura and his crew showed up. Was she intimidated because three popular guys were there?

“…And?” Nakamura said when I finished talking.

“Huh?”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah…”

“That’s not funny.”

He turned to his two followers.

“Right?”

“Yup, not funny at all…,” Takei agreed gravely.

Mizusawa looked at him and started cackling loudly. “Ah-hah-hah!”

“You guys have a weird sense of humor,” Nanami-san commented,

“Uh, that would be you!” Nakamura shot back.

“What?! Nanamu, you’re harsh!”

Everyone except me and Natsubayashi-san was cracking up. Things were getting very uncomfortable. I started thinking the only reason this was still bearable at all was thanks to Nanami-san’s comical expression and tone.

“Okay then…should we vote on it?” Mizusawa proposed.

“Brilliant,” Nakamura said, like a general bowing to his tactician.

“…Uh-oh, this feels like a setup…,” Nanami-san said, laughing.

“Okay! Who thinks Mimimi’s a weirdo?”

Takei enthusiastically took a vote, acting like this was finally his big moment. Nakamura, Takei, and Mizusawa raised their hands.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha! Hey!” Nanami-san joked. I got the sense she was spinning her wheels, but if she hadn’t been, I think I might have suffocated.

“Damn, we don’t have a majority,” Mizusawa joked back.

“Wait, those guys didn’t vote, so we don’t know yet!”

…A bizarre game had begun. What was I supposed to do? First of all, I didn’t like the idea of joining in this weird voting game. They’d probably say it was more playing around than bullying, but I’m bad at judging these things. Plus, Natsubayashi-san was getting grumpy. Intimidation didn’t explain it. What relationships were at play here?

“Oh, come on, Nakamu! You sure look like you know!”

“Okay, who thinks Shuji’s a weirdo?”

Nanami-san thrust her hand into the air comically. Natsubayashi- san kept staring at the ground, ignoring what was happening. Something out of the ordinary was definitely going on. I examined everyone’s expressions and tried to figure out what it was. What is this? What am I supposed to do?

I thought about it in my own totally-inexperienced-with-human-relationships way.

…If I didn’t raise my hand now, they’d definitely ask me why I hadn’t voted for either one. And given what I’d observed so far, if they asked Natsubayashi-san the same thing, there was a high likelihood she’d ignore them. Which meant that my decision to raise my hand or not at this point would determine whether Natsubayashi-san was the one they started needling for not voting.

In other words, if I raised my hand, Natsubayashi-san would be left all alone. If I didn’t, there would be two of us to tease. And I’d be the main target of their attack. Which meant it would be wiser for me not to raise my hand. Yeah, definitely. I’m keeping my hand down.

But what is this about, anyway? How did Natsubayashi-san end up in this position? Why is Natsumi still laughing? Does she not realize what was happening? Or is it not really a big deal, and I’m just overreacting? God, I have no clue! Group conversations are way too hard!!

“Hey! I vote for Nakamura, too!”

Just then, I heard a cheerful, friendly voice behind me.

No—an overly cheerful, overly friendly, and definitely fake voice.

“You don’t even know what we’re talking about, Aoi.” Nakamura’s tone was cheerful but also threatening.

“Aww, but I was listening to the whole thing from over there. I thought I could vote, too.”

“No way. This is a Group 4 issue. Bye-bye, outsider.”

Nakamura flapped his hands like he was sweeping Hinami away. Her too-perfect smile remained firmly in place.

“Whaaaat? But you’re the one who lost to Tomozaki-kun in Atafami.”

The air froze.

Hinami had spoken in a fairly loud voice, and the topic was a minor taboo that no one in class ever brought up. Everyone else had been casually watching us ever since Nakamura arrived, so all of them heard what she said. For a second, Nanami-san’s ever-present smile seemed to twitch.

“Hey, Aoi.”

“Sure is cheap to use a vote to pick on someone just ’cause you’re upset he beat you! That’s why Shimano dumped you! She was like, ‘Younger guys are so immature!’” Hinami changed her voice to imitate the older girl’s and mimed along.

“You…just shut up.”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha! You sound just like her!”

“Pfft, ha-ha!”

“Ha-ha-ha!”

Not only Nanami-san but Takei and Mizusawa were laughing. The other kids who’d been watching were giggling, too.

It was incredible.

“So with me and Mimimi, that makes two votes. Who else?” Hinami glanced at me… Ah, I gotcha.

“I vote for Nakamura, too.”

“Oh shit!” Nakamura said. He sounded vaguely humiliated but cheerful at the same time. This was how Hinami worked. And then next…

“Hey,” I said quietly, throwing Natsubayashi-san a glance.

“…”

She silently raised her hand.

“That’s four votes! Looks like Shuji’s the one with the weird sense of humor!”

“Nice work, Nakamu!”

Hinami and Nanami-san were teasing him, but affectionately.

“Welp, the majority has spoken,” Nakamura joked, frowning.

“Bet you want revenge! You should play Tomozaki-kun in Atafami again!”

The whole class burst out laughing. What was going on? The taboo had suddenly become a joke. What was this?

“All right, all right! Tomozaki, I’m waiting for you!” Nakamura declared theatrically as he looked at me. When our eyes met, I saw genuine anger. Yikes. This is why I don’t like to look people in the eye.

“Uh, yeah, can’t wait.”

The home-ec teacher arrived right then. Perfect timing.

Could Hinami have planned that, too? …No, no way.

“Thanks, Aoi! That was awesome!”

“Ha-ha, thanks, Hanabi.”

As soon as Nakamura left the room after class, Natsubayashi-san ran up to Hinami and threw her arms around her.

“I was about to ruin everything again.”

“Thought so. It’s so easy to tell what you’re thinking,” Hinami said, patting Natsubayashi-san’s head as she hugged her. If I’d only seen that one image, I’d have thought it was a happy scene, but that comment about being “about to ruin everything” was interesting.

“Nice job, Tama! You did good!” Nanami-san added, running up and throwing her arms around her and Hinami from behind with the same enthusiasm as Natsubayashi-san.

So there was Hinami, with Natsubayashi-san hugging her from the front and Nanami-san hugging her from behind. A cute girl snugly caught between two beautiful ones, like some gorgeous high school girl sandwich.

“Hey! Get off us!” Natsubayashi-san scolded in her typical domineering tone, but Nanami-san totally ignored her.

“You were so good! You deserve a compliment!”

Nanami-san ruffled the smaller girl’s hair with both hands. When Natsubayashi-san wordlessly pushed them away, Nanami-san just moved down and ruffled her hair. Then, to my disbelief, she nibbled on Natsubayashi- san’s ear.

“Eep!”

Nanami-san looked very pleased by this reaction and traced her long, slender white fingers from the base of Natsubayashi-san’s neck up to the bottom of the ear and between her lips. Then, at just the right moment when Natsubayashi-san shivered, she gave her ear a lick and made her jump again.

“Hey, Minmi…! That…ah! Tick-tickles!”

Natsubayashi-san clung to Hinami, squealing as if she couldn’t stand it any longer. Nanami-san, looking entranced with her eyes half closed and her cheeks red, blew out a warm breath.

“Hey, Mimimi, now you’re going too far,” Hinami said with some disbelief as she gently bopped Nanami-san on the head. Nanami-san looked at Hinami with the same fascination, which then turned into a smirk. Hinami stepped back slightly, but she couldn’t move far with Natsubayashi-san still clinging to her. Perhaps guessing what was about to happen, Natsubayashi-san let her go, but she was too late—Hinami was right where Nanami-san wanted her.

“Hmmm…I wouldn’t expect you to say something like that, Aoi,” she said, as brightly as ever, but with a hint of a more grown-up kind of mischief. “Poke!”

“Ooh!”

Nanami-san jabbed Hinami lightly in the ribs on her right side, and Hinami responded with a sound so sexy I never would have imagined it from her previous behavior. Nanami-san slowly, teasingly walked her first two fingers up Hinami’s side to her armpit and poked three times.

“This is your weak point, isn’t it?”

“Heyyy! Mimimi…!”

Hinami clamped both arms down by her sides and pushed away the hand that had started to crawl up again. Nanami-san took the opportunity to move away from Natsubayashi-san and circle around behind Hinami. Then she wrapped her right arm around Hinami’s waist and grabbed her left side through the gap between her shirt and skirt. The next thing I knew, she had cupped Hinami’s chin with her left hand and was brushing her lips with one finger. At the same time, her left elbow had pinned down Hinami’s left arm. She sure had some technique.

“What? Did you say something? Aoi?”

Nanami-san had stopped moving and was whispering a hair’s breadth from Hinami’s cheek.

“I said sto—eeek!”

As soon as Hinami started to talk, Nanami-san drew a circle with the finger that was resting on her side, and her reply turned into a loud squeal. All the uncool guys in class, including me, stared at her with blank faces.

“What was that? Tell me again.”

“Just…leave…me…,” Hinami managed to say, bending her still-free right arm at the elbow and sticking it out a little. Oh, that’s what she’s up to. Getting ready for an elbow blow.

“Ooh…”

“Eee?!”

In a flash, the left hand that had been stroking Hinami’s lip snaked around under her right armpit in a semblance of a hug. Hinami responded by slamming her armpit shut, thereby failing in her attempt at an elbow blow. Nanami-san craned her head around and brought it so close to Hinami’s face it looked like she was about to kiss her, but all she said was a satisfied, “Too bad. ” She smiled mysteriously…

And then, as if she’d just gotten an idea, Hinami turned her face toward Nanami-san. They stared at each other, glassy-eyed. Now what’s happening?

Hinami brought her lips toward Nanami-san’s. Huh? Really? When they were so close I could hardly tell if they were touching or not, she parted them slightly. Nanami-san slowly parted her own lips. Closer and closer, and then…

Foooh!

Hinami blew hard into Nanami-san’s mouth. This unexpected attack landed perfectly, and Nanami-san loosened her hold and staggered back a few steps. Pressing her lips with the pad of her finger, she looked at Hinami with a mixture of frustration, enjoyment, and satisfaction. Her cheeks were red.

“…Yup, just like I thought. I’m no match for you, Aoi.”

Hinami looked fed up. “Geez, Mimimi, you are so silly! You give up yet?” she scolded in a somewhat childish tone.

“Well, only if ‘giving up’ means…”

Nanami-san turned her misty eyes up toward the ceiling.

“…That next time I’m not letting you win.” She stuck her tongue out clownishly and winked.

“Hey! What she means is, we’re not putting up with your sexual harassment anymore!” Natsubayashi-san said, jabbing her finger up toward Nanami-san.

“Ah-ha-ha. You’re still in love with Aoi, I see.”

“Am not!” Natsubayashi-san turned her face away before continuing. “Thanks for earlier, Minmi.” Her voice was suddenly serious, and her eyes completely sincere.

“…What for? I didn’t do anything,” Nanami-san said.

“Don’t give me that! Just let me say thanks!”

“Huh? Sometimes you say complicated stuff… You better not act like that tama-rrow!”

Despite Nanami-san’s little pun, the conversation seemed to have a deeper meaning. My guess was that Natsubayashi-san was thanking her for acting so cheerful and happy during the exchange with Nakamura. That would make sense—she really did save our butts.

Now that the girl-on-girl action was over, the male spectators wandered away. I thought of doing the same, but then changed my mind and walked over to the three girls. After all, I’d been part of the earlier incident, and I figured Hinami’s presence would make talking to them easier. Mostly, though, I wanted to get closer to my goal.

“Um, Hinami…Hinami-san, thanks for that. You really saved me.”

Hinami responded with a genuine grin, not one of her salesperson smiles. Honestly, did she have a split personality?

“No problem! You’re actually pretty funny, Tomozaki-kun. I was smiling the whole time I was listening to you guys.”

I almost laughed at how girly she sounded.

“I just said what I was thinking…”

“I could tell.”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha! He’s still going!” Next to the smiling Hinami, Nanami-san was cracking up again.

“You laugh too much, Nanami-san,” I said.

“Sorry, sorry…oh, and just call me Mimimi!”

“Um…”

“Only teachers ever call her Nanami-san!”

That was Hinami. Basically, she was ordering me to call Nanami-san Mimimi. Okay, fine then. At least it’s not real first-name basis.

“Um, okay, Mimimi, then.”

“Thanks, Tomozaki!”

“What about you, Hanabi?” Hinami asked.

“Whatever.”

“Okay…Tama, then?” Hinami suggested.

“Aoi?!” Natsubayashi-san squealed in surprise, looking up at Hinami.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha! Why not? We’re all buddies!”

“Um…Tama? Why Tama? Your name’s Hanabi Natsubayashi, right?” I asked.

“Well, because Hanabi means fireworks, and when people watch fireworks, they shout ‘Tamaya,’ right? Also, because it sounds cute!” Nanami-sa—er, Mimimi—explained excitedly.

“Yeah! You don’t mind, do you, Tama?” Hinami asked.

“Wait, you’re betraying me, too?!” she snapped back.

Once again, Hinami was giving me an order. It was gonna be tough, but then again, not as tough as dropping polite formalities altogether.

“Um, okay, Tama…chan?”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha! When you say it like that, she really does sound like a pet!”

“Stop messing with people’s names, Minmi!” Tama-chan scolded.

“Um, so…?” I was confused, but just then Tama-chan jumped in.

“It’s fine, just call me Tama-chan… I’m used to it anyway.”

She didn’t look annoyed. In fact, she was acting oddly sincere. It felt weird when everyone else was joking around, but I don’t think she was lying, anyway.

“…Okay, so we’ll go with Tama-chan… Thanks.” I said.

“You don’t have to say ‘thank you’ all the time!”

“Ha-ha-ha!”

She was a weird one.

The four of us managed to have a little conversation during the one- or two-minute walk to the next class. Of course, Hinami was nudging me along the whole time. If you were wondering, Tama-chan said the reason she calls Mimimi “Minmi” is because Mimimi is just too hard to say.

And that was my crazy first day.

I’d only been waiting in Sewing Room #2 for a couple of minutes when Hinami arrived.

“…Hey,” I said.

“Hi. Let’s get started.”

“Oh, okay.”

We were starting on a more solemn note than I’d expected, which made me nervous.

“First, congratulations on accomplishing your mission.”

Oh, a compliment from the boss.

“Th-thanks.”

“Technically speaking it’s not clear if you talked to them or they talked to you, but since you talked to four girls instead of the three that were required, I’ll let it slide.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I was worried if it counted.”

The truth was, of those four, I’d only initiated with one.

“So how was it? What are your impressions?”

“My impressions?”

“Anything is fine. What do you remember most clearly?”

“That’s hard. There’s so much…”

I scratched my head.

“But I guess the thing I remember most…was in the home-ec room… The thing about Atafami.”

“What thing about Atafami?”

“Yeah, you said Nakamura had lost at Atafami in front of everybody.”

“Oh, that,” Hinami said, smiling.

“And you made it into a joke. That surprised me.”

“Okay, but this is a time for self-reflection. The focus is supposed to be on what you did, not me…”

“Oh right.”

“It’s fine. I had to do it, either way.”

“How so?”

“He seemed like he had a pretty strong grudge against you for beating him. Like he didn’t want to mention it, or like it was his dark past… You must have really crushed him, huh?”

“Well, yeah… He didn’t take a single stock from me.”

“That’s what I thought,” she said with another smirk.

“Was that bad?”

“Not particularly. But it was bad that everyone was tiptoeing around it. Because of that, all his regret over losing got bottled up inside him. Then when no one could mention it at school, that made it awkward, too, and I’m sure he had all kinds of other feelings that couldn’t be released.”

“So that’s what was going on.”

“Yeah. And the more time passed, the more those negative feelings built up until he was like a balloon ready to pop. And the harder it got for anyone to mention it. Well, that’s my take on it, at least.”

“Makes sense.”

“Once things got to that point, Nakamura went harder and harder on you, and the balloon became trickier and trickier to pop. Since Nakamura is an influential member of the class, his rudeness to you destabilized your position. That would spell trouble if you want to be successful in the real world, and that’s why it was necessary to prick the balloon as soon as possible and just blow it up.”

“Blow it up.”

“Yeah. Just give it a little prick by saying something in front of everyone and turning it into a joke.”

Turn it into a joke… She made it sound so simple.

“It wasn’t that easy, was it?”

“Well, it wasn’t that hard in terms of technique, but I doubt anyone but me could have done it.” She smiled broadly. “No one else is brave enough.”

“O-okay.” This girl is a force to be reckoned with.

“So that’s what I did. I think Nakamura will ease up a little now, too.”

I would never have guessed that so much thought went into that little stunt.

“Back on topic. What do you remember most about what you did today?”

Hmm, what I did…

“Probably how tactless I was in conversations.”

“Tactless how?”

“It’s hard to explain. Like, saying the right thing to keep things fun for people.”

“I see… But everyone seemed to be having fun in home ec. I was surprised.”

“Uh…that was different.”

“Different?”

“I was just saying whatever came into my head, and they happened to think it was funny. We weren’t really communicating.”

“If you said what you were thinking, isn’t that communication?” She was studying me.

“I guess.”

“You’re misunderstanding something.”

“What?”

“Okay. Conversation is essentially telling another person what you’re thinking.”

“Um, but…wouldn’t both people end up pushing their opinions on each other?”

Conversation was supposed to be about respecting each other’s opinions and empathizing, right? Like Mimimi did.

“Not at all. You’re thinking that conversation just means getting the other person’s ideas and sympathizing or empathizing with them, but that’s not the heart of it.”

Just like she said, I did think conversation was the same as sympathizing or empathizing. After all, everyone did that—both adults out in the world and my own classmates. At least, that’s how it looked to me. And since I was bad at it, I always felt uncomfortable.

“It’s not?”

“Nope. Clearly, it would be arrogant to ignore what the other person said and then say some entirely unrelated thought of your own. But that’s not what you did, is it?”

Ummm… “I didn’t?”

“No. You explained it. You listened to what Mimimi said, and it made you think about how young people these days have amazing powers of empathy. So you said that. Which means you listened to what she said and had a related thought of your own. In which case, you weren’t being arrogant.”

“Uh, I guess so?”

“It’s true that simply sympathizing with what someone says often does smooth out the interaction. But listen. People have surprisingly sharp intuition. Eventually, they’ll figure out what you’re doing. In the long run, people trust those who don’t simply sympathize with what they say, but instead pause to think for themselves and then say what they came up with. You did that. A lot of people can’t, and they suffer for it.”

“I—I see.”

I kinda got it, but kinda didn’t.

“So as far as that goes, you did extremely well for a first-timer in today’s field practice.”

Really? “Extremely well” was great news.

“But you did horribly in other areas. Nothing positive whatsoever. The thing with Kikuchi-san was awful. You asked her to lend you some tissues, and when she did, you were still smiling under your mask, and then you pretended to blow your nose. You should be sinking into the floor with shame.”

“Hinami… If you’re using the good-cop, bad-cop method, your bad cop is a little too strong…”

“What are you talking about? That isn’t even all of it. You talked to someone in home ec when I wasn’t there. What did I tell you? Only do it when I’m nearby.”

“No, that was…”

“Listen. This time, Nakamura butted in after I got there, so it worked out, but do you know what would have happened without me? Hanabi might have blown up, and you could have become a school joke. If that happened, you’d be getting further from, not closer to, achieving your goals.”

“S-sorry… So the reason you told me to wait till you were there was so you could rescue me if something bad happened?”

“Obviously. If I just wanted to know you’d done it, I could ask the girls directly afterward or find out some other way.”

“H-Hinami…”

She was so kind…

“You’re not starting to think I care about you, are you? Because all I care about is my decision to help you achieve your goals, and I don’t want all my work to be wasted.”

“Oh right.”

“Plus, it’s not just so I can rescue you. I want to observe how the girls react when you talk to them, the kind of conversations you have, and your conversational skills before I decide where we go from here. I mean, before I decide who you become friends with and what kind of practice you do.”

“You’ve thought through all that?”

“Obviously. If you’re planning to take on a boss, you’re not going to win unless your level is high enough for whatever they’re going to throw at you.”

“That…”

I was completely sincere.

“…is exactly right.”

…Honestly, whenever we talked about games, we always saw eye to eye.

“Okay, then. As far as next steps…take off your mask for a minute.”

“Uh, okay.” I did as she said, and my huge smile finally saw the light of day.

“Try going back to your regular face again.”

I followed her instructions.

“Hmm, I see. Your training is showing results.”

“Huh?”

“Do you see it?”

“Whoa—”

She was holding out a hand mirror, and what I saw startled me. I thought I was making my default expression, but compared to the last time she shoved a mirror in front of my face, the area around my mouth definitely looked firmer.

“Even two days made a difference. You must have been working hard. Good job.”

“Well, you told me to do it constantly.”

“Yeah…you’ll do fine. From now on, you don’t have to do it all the time. You can ease up when you’re talking to people or if you get tired. And you can take the mask off in front of people. Just be sure to check your mouth in a mirror every now and then so you can learn how much effort you need to keep it naturally firm, and then work toward constantly maintaining that state. When you can do it without thinking, your training will be over.”

“Wow, really? Okay, then!”

I was making progress, and I was determined to keep it up.

“…That’s it from me. Do you have any other concerns?”

“Well…the thing with Natsubaya—I mean Tama-chan… It was like… The way she was acting…”

“…Oh, that,” Hinami said. Something was bothering her.

“If it’s hard to talk about, you don’t have t—”

Hinami interrupted me. “She’s very stubborn. Or…sincere, maybe.” She still looked troubled. “She doesn’t adjust her actions based on the mood around her. She just does what she wants.”

“Huh… That’s unusual for kids our age, right?”

“Yeah. Her good friends like that about her, myself included. But she doesn’t get along with some people.”

“I could see that.”

Like I said, not many young people seemed to act that way these days.

“She especially doesn’t get along with people like Nakamura who tend to control the tone of a conversation.”

Aha.

“Makes sense.”

“They’ve gotten into little…conflicts many times. Hanabi’s gotten burned in the past, and she feels responsible. On the other hand, a guy like Nakamura is obviously gonna think Hanabi should stop being so stubborn and just go with the program for once in her life. It has more to do with his own pride and stubbornness rather than malice, though… At least, that’s how it looks to me.”

“Hmm. If that’s the case…it sounds annoying.”

“Exactly! If I’m around, I can smooth things over like I did today, but no one else can handle Nakamura the way I can. Hanabi could be traumatized again when I’m not watching. But I can’t follow her around everywhere she goes! …So it’s a tough situation.”

Hanami’s emotions were slipping in and out of her voice, which was unusual for her.

“…So even Aoi Hinami feels helpless sometimes. I thought you could do anything,” I commented nonchalantly.

“I can’t do anything,” she mumbled with that same sorrowful expression I’d seen once before.

“Huh?”

“…Is that what you were expecting? There’s nothing I can’t do. I’ll show you one of these days that I can even fix the situation with Hanabi.”

“R-really?”

She was back to her usual confident self… Was she joking? What a waste of acting talent.

“But, I don’t think T-Tama-chan would listen if you told her to behave herself…”

“Right… Plus, I wouldn’t want her to. It’s rare for someone to wear their heart on their sleeve the way she does.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty unique.”

“Hanabi’s heart is always laid bare, which means it’s poorly defended. Someone has to act as her armor. Someone has to come swooping and fend off the attacks, or else her heart will get all torn up… Anyway, that’s the story with Hanabi.”

“Huh.”

I was nodding admiringly when Hinami caught me off guard with her next comment.

“That’s why I think you two might have surprisingly good chemistry.”

“Huh? Really? Why?”

“…Never mind. For now, just spend the evening thinking back on what happened today and what you learned as well as you can. You won’t develop very quickly if you’re just following my instructions all the time. You have to believe in it yourself. Okay?”

“Uh, um, okay.”

“We good for today?”

“Uh-huh.”

Hinami gestured for me to leave Sewing Room #2. She’d head home a couple minutes later. I obeyed without protest…and only realized once I’d left that a normie would have said, “Ladies first.” I still had a long way to go.

* * *

I was lying on my bed, just starting to fall asleep. She’d told me to reflect on the day as well as I could, but where should I start? Honestly speaking, my experience points were extremely low when it came to relationships. If someone asked me to come up with an analysis of today’s events that went beyond Hinami’s, I couldn’t do much more than turn tail and run.

Anyway, in terms of my own feelings about the day, I was surprised by the power of that invisible monster on the battlefield of group dynamics: “the mood.” I had no clue how to fight that monster, or even if the word “fight” was the right one for this situation. All I knew was that the battlefield belonged to the wild-animal trainers—the people like Hinami and Nakamura who were good at taming the invisible mood monster.

I had a mental image of Hinami and Nakumura facing each other in an oval coliseum, trying to parry an enormous deformed monster in the center with their chosen weapon and ultimately lead it to devour their opponent. Nakamura had a whip, Hinami a cape. Neither laid a hand on the other directly; in the end it was the mood that would kill them. Could I join that battle? I sure couldn’t picture myself there. I drifted off to sleep thinking about all of this.

By the way, Hinami had texted me a very impersonal “7 PM, first to take five matches wins,” which led us to a set of friend matches. I won five in a row. She still had a long way to go herself.

“Nothing’s up! I mean, we’re not enemies or anything like that, but Hinami is friends with everyone, isn’t she?”

“There! You did it again! You didn’t use ‘san.’ Just as I thought, very suspicious. Tomozaki! Why did you try to hide it? A guilty conscience, perhaps? Tell me everything! Spill!”

“I told you, nothing’s going on! Anyway, you think Aoi Hinami, the school idol, would do anything with me to feel guilty about? No way!”

“Got me there!”

“Hey!” I shot back teasingly.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha! I like that! You really are funny sometimes, Tomozaki!”

“Gimme a break! I wasn’t trying to be funny, and come on, that ‘sometimes’ was unnecessary.”

Somehow, I didn’t feel so nervous anymore. I probably had Mimimi’s conversation style to thank for that. Or maybe it was just that we were talking about a certain rude gamer.

“See, you should be happy like that all the time. You’re always so glum.”

“That’s none of your business… But actually, I’m fine with not being happy all the time.”

“…Really?! What do you mean by that?”

She really latched on to that. What am I supposed to say now? “Um, how do I explain this? Being fun and happy isn’t always the right answer…maybe?”

“Huh! You’re the first person I’ve ever heard say that! Gimme the deets! The 411!”

“41…?”

Oh right, 411. Who actually says that? “It’s hard to explain. For example, I like Atafami and other games, and…”

“Yeah, I’ve heard you’re super-good, too! And, and?”

“Yeah, um… it’s not at all like fun stuff at school. But I still spend my time playing Atafami, I mean…”

“Hmm. But isn’t Atafami fun?”

“Um…I mean, it is, definitely, but it’s like… I don’t play Atafami because I want to have fun. I like Atafami and I work hard at it, so the fun comes as a kind of side effect… Sorry I can’t explain it better…”

“No, I get it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, actually… I think you’re a little like Tama in that sense.”

“…Like Tama-chan?”

I couldn’t see that at all… But Hinami had said something similar.

“I guess…she doesn’t bend, or she doesn’t let herself be bent, ha-ha, and that’s a really good thing. Anyway, she’s got that side to her.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“You can tell? For example, even if bending would make a situation more enjoyable, she won’t do it unless she thinks it’s right. She’s really extreme. I’ve gotta give her props for that.”

“That’s unusual among our generation, isn’t it?”

“Ha-ha-ha! Here comes Mr. Talk-Show Host again!”

“Shut up!”

“Ah-ha-ha! …Anyway, I think that side of her is amazing, but I also know I don’t have it in me. I mean, I’m bent over backward most of the time! I bend every which way and do whatever it takes to make things fun. I’m bent so far over I can hear my back popping!”

“R-really?” I’d thought it was a natural gift.

“Oh, definitely. I’m a young maiden with many worries…I mean, is there anyone that doesn’t have any? Compared to Tama, my worries are tiny!”

“She really does seem…to have a lot of problems.”

“Right? I totally agree. But that’s why someone more flexible like me has to protect her. That’s the situation! So! What do you think? You gonna cry for me? Or pat my back?”

She stood in front of me with her hands outspread.

“I see,” I said. I’d been lost in thought, so I missed most of what she said. “But how do you feel? I mean, I can’t imagine you’d enjoy having to keep the mood up all the time.”

“Huh? Are you spacing out? But anyway, me? I don’t mind! The reason I do it is so things will be more fun, so obviously it’s fun! Of course, there are times when I don’t want to bend, but what can I do? Life’s not perfect! The reason I give in is because it would be worse if I didn’t! I’m always trying to go where the fun is!”

“…Okay, I get it. You do what you’re best at.”

“Exactly! You’re full of good lines, aren’t you, Tomozaki? My job is bending, and Tama’s job is not bending! That’s how we function!”

“And you support each other.”

“Right, right, exactly! We support each other! You really do know how to sum it up, Tomozaki! Of course, if I had to say one way or the other, I’d say I’m the one who supports Tama, to be accurate. And I’m okay with that!”

She gave another little ta-ha.

“Well, to me…”

“Oh, I’m heading this way now! Were you about to say something?”

“No, nothing important.”

“Really? Okay, well, see you later, Tomozaki!”

“Uh, yeah, see you.”

She waved exaggeratedly and disappeared like a passing storm. I’d started to say something and hadn’t finished, but maybe that was okay. It was just my own unsolicited opinion, or rather guess, and it was probably better to keep to myself.

I was going to say that to me, Mimimi seemed like the one being supported.

* * *

“Huh. Nice work,” Hinami said flatly.

“Well, Mimimi just kept the energy high while we were talking about serious stuff. The stuff even I can manage.”

“That’s true, but…it shows that you have a strength.”

“…I…do?” What did she mean?

“You did it in home ec, too. Apparently, you’re good at saying what’s on your mind.”

“Uh, saying what’s on my mind? Isn’t everyone good at that? I mean, all you have to do is say it.”

Hinami wagged her finger. “Not quite. There are more people who can’t do it than can.”

“Huh?”

“For example, Mimimi. Her strength is her flexibility. Do you think she’s good at saying what she’s thinking?”

“…Oh, I see. You mean she’s good at agreeing with the people around her.”

“Right,” Hinami said, nodding. “What about Hanabi? She’s probably good at it, right? At speaking her mind, I mean.”

“…Yeah, probably.”

“Are there a lot of people like her? Or not so many?”

Uh…not many. Fine, you got me. “So…this is a rare skill I have?”

“Yup. In a sense, this is your weapon, your strong point, your killer technique. And fighting on the field where you’re strongest is the foundation of gaming, right?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Okay. So if you get in trouble, you can fall back on this skill. Remember that.”

“I will.”

“Well, there weren’t any major problems in the incident you just described, so I’ll continue. Consider yourself lucky with the extra EXP… Anyway, keep observing conversations. You all prepared?”

“How can I prepare? …Don’t you just head out to the field for this stuff?”

“I think you know the answer. And put some spirit into it. I’m expecting your analysis on the final day.”

With that, I headed out to start my three-day exercise in raising my level and gathering information.

Wednesday, lunchtime in the cafeteria.

“Did you catch the last episode yesterday? I wonder what they’re gonna do in the finale.”

“Yeah, but the part when he was like ‘Come back to me!’ was so bad. I was laughing the whole time.”

“Ha-ha-ha! Me too! That was terrible!”

“Hey look at Tomozaki, he’s acting all nervous. He hasn’t said anything!”

“Yeah, I know. Weirdo!”

…Hmm, hmm.

Thursday, walking to the station after school.

“Oh, that reminds me, Yukako, was everything okay yesterday? Your dad kept calling you!”

“Oh, that! My brother was actually the one who didn’t get it!”

“The little guy?”

“Yeah! When I opened the front door, he was standing there like a statue, and he goes ‘Damn it!’”

“What a weirdo!”

“Sounds like something you’d do, Tomozaki!”

“Ha-ha-ha, yeah right.”

…Uh-huh.

Friday, between classes.

“Tell us something funny, Takahiro!”

“Hey, don’t put me on the spot!”

“Come on!”

“Um…well…yesterday, my girlfriend…”

“Stop showing off!”

“I’m not!”

“Tomozaki, do you have any…never mind, you wouldn’t.”

“Ha-ha-ha! That was rude!”

…Indeed.

That’s pretty much how things went.

“So how was it?”

It was our Friday after-school meeting. For the past four days, I’d been tossed into groups of kids I wasn’t particularly close with and forced to observe them, even participate a tiny bit. Four days in the depths of hell. And today we were going over it all.

“My soul is dead.”

“…Well, that’s the fate of antisocial people. But once you get your expression and posture and conversational skills in shape, you’ll be released from that fate soon enough.”

“…Are you sure?”

“I don’t think you can avoid being insulted. Groups are like that. Once five or six people get together, well…someone’s gonna be the sacrifice.”

“…I see.”

“What matters is your analysis.”

“Um, I thought about a lot of stuff, but…”

“Yes?”

The ultimate normie is asking me, the communication-disabled, for the observations I barely managed to scrape together. Of course I’m nervous.

What I noticed was the division of roles in conversations.

It seems to me that each participant in a given conversation has a role to take care of. There are three main ones: the person who introduces new topics, the person who expands on existing topics, and the person who reacts.

For example, on Monday, I observed a conversation that started like this:

“Hey, listen to this! Yesterday at cram school…”

Mimimi always starts by saying something like “Listen to this” or “That reminds me” or “So yesterday…” After that, she mentions something that’s not really related to what everyone had been talking about up to that point. Conversations are started by these “introducers.” That’s obvious enough.

Then there are people who add to the topics with comments like “And then this happened” or “That’s similar to this other thing.” These are the “expanders.”

Finally, you have the people who keep it fun by listening and agreeing or laughing, or occasionally expressing an opinion. These are the “reactors.”

Once a given topic has been wrapped up, an introducer will throw out a new topic.

Of course, expanders and reactors sometimes introduce new topics, and introducers take on the role of listener. But it seems to me that the roles are fairly fixed within each group.

And that wasn’t all I noticed. Also from Monday:

“Wow, the teacher definitely must have done that on purpose.”

“I thought so, too!”

“I bet he likes you, Minmi.”

“No way! It’s probably the opposite!”

In this case, Kyoya Hashiguchi and Tama-chan were acting as expanders. Even though they were part of the conversation the whole time, I could tell they weren’t at the center of it.

“Speaking of, have you memorized the vocab yet? I can’t believe we have to remember a hundred words all at once.”

This was something a certain key normie said on Wednesday.

What struck me as important was that while everyone in the conversation did quite a bit of expanding, it was almost always the same ones who introduced new topics. On Monday it was Daichi Matsumoto, Mimimi, and Hinami. I almost never observed Tama-chan or Kyoya Hashiguchi introduce a topic. Maybe if I watched for a really long time, I’d see one of them do it, but it was clearly rare. Which suggests that if you don’t introduce new topics, you’ll never be at the center of things.

Anyway, I couldn’t put a specific name on the idea if you asked me to, but that’s what I noticed.

“…And since Tama-chan and Kyoya didn’t introduce any new topics, they didn’t control the mood. That’s about it.”

Hinami nodded.

“Hmm. If the average person listened to what you just said, they’d probably be like, And? Does that mean something? In other words, everything you said is completely obvious.”

Her words hit home extra hard because I’d been wondering that myself.

“…But for people like you and me who are assessing the situation with a focus on cause and effect, it’s an important observation. Worthy of nanashi, I’d say.”

Just as I was reeling from the damage of her previous comment, she praised me. I was happy, unsurprisingly. She had me completely under the control of her good cop bad cop routine.

“R-really?”

“Yeah. You understand now, right? What are the two things you need in order to be good at conversation?”

…Oh, okay. I do get it.

“Improving my ability to introduce and expand on topics?”

“Hexactly.”

“Huh?”

“All that’s left is to figure out how to improve those abilities.”

“Wait, wait, wait. This is the third time you’ve said that ‘Hexactly’ thing. What is that?”

“…”

No response!

“…Okay fine, I give up. It’s a habit, and sometimes I slip up and say it. You don’t recognize it? It’s what Oinko always said in that retro game Go Go Oinko. I loved that game when I was a kid. To tell you the truth, I try not to say it because it’s embarrassing, but I’m tired of avoiding it. It always slips out, whether I like it or not, so from now on I’m gonna say it all the time. Just ignore it, okay? Story over.”

What’s with this girl? She gives a big speech, then suddenly gets all defensive and ends the conversation.

Wait a sec…

“…Oinko! I thought I recognized that phrase from somewhere! I remember now! You like that game?”

“…Wow. I should have expected the top gamer in Japan to remember that one. Hardly anyone knows about it. Which is weird because it was super-famous back in the day!” For once, Hinami sounded excited.

“Totally! I used to play it at a friend’s house when I was a kid. Oinko the pig was super-cute. He always said, ‘That’s so correct, I think I’ve been hexed!’ …That was a good game.”

“Yeah, it was. They made you think it was just gonna be another crappy manga spinoff, but it actually had stuff you wouldn’t expect from the technology back then, like 2.5-D parallax scrolling. Just technically speaking, it was amazing! But at the same time, it was one of those unique little worlds kids love. The characters were so cute! Seriously good game.”

Hinami was smiling like an innocent little girl. I—I didn’t even know she could make that expression.

“I’m with you there,” I said, looking away from her.

“I should’ve known you’d get it! When it comes to games, Oinko was like my…I mean…” Hinami turned her face away and coughed, like she’d suddenly realized something. “We’re way off topic.”

Maybe because she’d been rambling enthusiastically about something she liked, her cheeks were flushed.

“Oh yeah. Um…”

“We were talking about how to be good at conversations, right?” Hinami said, sounding disappointed. She crossed her arms with some discontent.

“Right. And we can talk about Oinko another time.”

“Yeah. Let’s get back to the point. So…do you know how to develop that skill?”

“Um…by imitating people who are good at it?”

“Hexactly.”

“There it is.”

“Once you’ve figured out what the two important skills are, you just watch the best and copy them. And now that you know what’s important, you know what to pay attention to, right?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“By the way, you mentioned the ‘mood’ earlier. Do you know what that is?”

“Uh, mood?”

…Now that she mentioned it, I realized I’d been thinking in vague terms, like “that person commands the mood” or “the mood is getting weird in this conversation,” but if someone asked me to define it, I wouldn’t be able to.

“No, I don’t. What is it?”

Might as well ask the expert.

“So ‘mood’ refers to the standards for right and wrong in a particular situation.”

Um, the standards for right and wrong? “What do you mean?”

“If I break it down, it’s the standard for what you should and shouldn’t do. Within a specific group, that is. For example, in some groups, you’ll earn praise for being easy-going and upbeat, but others, like, say, a group of college students, might dislike that and think it’s childish or uncool. That standard for good and bad is what people call the ‘mood.’”

“Hmm.”

I felt like I was starting to get the idea. If I said Mimimi was easily influenced by the mood and Tama-chan wasn’t influenced by it at all, that would make sense.

“The ‘mood’ refers to these standards for right and wrong, or good and bad. Specifically when they hold true within a particular group and not anywhere else.”

Hmm. “I get the gist, but I’m not sure that explanation’s enough.”

“That’s fine. We’re getting into the weeds here, which is not necessary at your level. Just keep it in mind as something that might come in handy in the future. For now, it’s enough to have a vague sense of it as ‘mood.’”

“That’s enough? …Okay. But there’s something essential I still haven’t asked you.”

Hinami grinned. “And what would that be?”

“I have a feeling I won’t get good at conversation just by copying the masters. It’s like my body won’t be able to keep up…like I probably don’t have the basic abilities to make the moves I want to make.”

That’s exactly the problem. I literally can’t copy the experts. At least, that’s how it often goes with video games—the expert is just too good with the controller.

I’m foreseeing the same problem in conversations. Say I want to introduce a new topic or respond to a joke with some witty comment, but the words just don’t come out because I don’t have the skills… In that sense, life really is a game.

“Very astute. You’re right. You need to build up your skills.”

“Right? And it won’t happen overnight…”

“It’s the easiest thing ever.”

“Huh? It’s easy?”

“Yep,” Hinami said, raising her finger in the air like a cheerful teacher. “Just memorize.”

“…Memorize?”

“Yeah. Piece of cake, right?”

She smiled mischievously. I was being teased.

“Come on, I need more than that. What do you mean?”

“It’s very simple.”

She pulled a pencil box from her bag. From inside it, she withdrew a pile of flash cards and started flipping through them.

“What are those?” I said, peering at the cards in her hand. I couldn’t believe my eyes. “…You’re kidding me!”

Each card had writing on both sides. For example, one said “The story about the little brother of Taro Nakajima (Group 2)” on the front and “He said he’d get into a national junior high no problem, but he didn’t even take the entrance exam” on the back. Another one said “What my mom said to me in the middle of May” on the front with “You’re a fine student but you wear the stupidest clothes” on the back. Another said “The scene in the third episode of My Secret Father that made me laugh” on the front and “The part where Yusuke Sugawara falls down, but he’s being so careful not to get hurt that it looks like a slapstick routine” on the back. And on and on. There was a whole fat pile of them.

“See? Easy.”

She was positively beaming. Terrifying.

“You…memorized these? Conversation topics?”

“Yup.” The smile was affixed to her face like the mask of a leering ogre.

“No, this is just too weird…”

“What are you talking about? In RPGs, you memorize the attack and defense values for all the equipment, right? And in training-battle games, you memorize the fixed stats of all the monsters, right? What’s the difference?”

As she was talking, she opened her large pencil box to show me the piles of flash cards stuffed inside, all of which I guessed served the same purpose as the ones she’d just shown me.

“Oh geez…”

“Why do you sound so pathetic? If you do this, you’ll never run out of topics.”

Sure, but…if a normal person saw this, they’d run the other way.

“…It’s just, wow. You’re right that I’m not gonna run out of topics…” I can see her point, but… “Are you suggesting I do the same thing?”

I was somewhat on the defensive.

“Obviously. But you can use whatever method you want. It doesn’t have to be flash cards. You’re decent at studying, right? In that case, you can use whatever is easiest for you as long as you memorize some topics.”

“O-okay.”

“Okay then, that’s it as far as conversation instruction goes.”

“Um, wait a second. There’s something I don’t understand.”

“What?”

“Assuming I can memorize some topics, you know I always stutter when I talk to people. What should I do about that? Practice saying ‘excuse me’ or something?”

“…Just get used to it,” Hinami said, sounding bored and tapping her finger on her forehead. “Anyway, you’re not going to say ‘excuse me’ to kids in our class, so what’s the point of practicing?”

“Oh r-right.”

“I swear,” she sighed, putting her flash cards back in the pencil box and sticking the box in her bag.

“Whew…I’m kinda tired after today,” I said.

“Makes sense. We talked about a lot of new stuff. Plus you shared a lot of your own thoughts. But tonight when you get home, and then tomorrow night, I want you to review our conversation, because we went over a lot of important things.”

“Review? You mean just try to remember what we talked about? I think I can do that…but I’m not sure.”

“I thought as much. Here, take this.”

She pulled a slender, palm-sized rectangular device with REPLAY and RECORD buttons on it from her chest pocket.

“…A recorder?”

“Yeah, it’s a voice recorder. I’ve been taping our whole conversation.”

When did she manage to do that?

“Ha-ha, you plan for everything… Did you buy that just for this?”

“No, I had it around. You can use it for a lot of things. I’m just lending it to you for a bit.”

A lot of things… I wonder what that includes? Considering those flash cards, though, I’m too scared to ask. She handed the recorder to me.

“Th-thanks,” I said.

“It has a bunch of different folders, but there’s nothing in them. If you press the REPLAY button, you can listen to today’s conversation. And here’s the plug for earphones.”

“G-got it.”

She really thought of everything for me. Must be another skill of normie experts.

“Okay, so let’s talk about the plan for tomorrow.”

“Huh? Tomorrow? Isn’t tomorrow Saturday?”

Some schools have class on Saturdays, but ours wasn’t one of them.

“Yes, and that’s why it’s extra important. Or did you have plans?”

“No…I’m free.” Sadly enough. “Why? You want me to practice at home or something?”

“Nope.”

“What, then?”

She replied as if the answer was not a huge bombshell.

“We’re meeting at Omiya Station at eleven AM. You’re going to spend the day with me.”

A date?! Or…I guess not, but…what?!

“Well… What do you think it is? Why would we come to Omiya for normie training?”

“Huh? A quiz?”

She wants me to think for myself, then? Okay. Hmm.

As I mulled over the question, I glanced at Hinami. She was still standing in front of our meeting spot, the Bean Tree sculpture in the station.

Seriously though, is it normal to look that good just standing there? She was wearing a long, lightweight blue coat (?) over a dress-like two-layer T-shirt (?). It was simple but oddly flattering. You could call the look cute, but you could also call it beautiful. I have no idea whether it was because of the quality of the materials or the style of the clothes. All I know is that looking at her felt like being face-to-face with a celebrity.

As I was thinking, staring absently at Hinami, I overheard two guys who looked like college students whispering to each other as they waited across the way from us.

“Is that…Hinami…?” one quietly asked, to which the other replied, “…Yeah, it’s really her…” Whoa. I was just comparing her to a celebrity, but what if she really is one…? She was already overqualified for every other area of life; it wasn’t impossible.

“…Hey, Hinami, you wouldn’t happen to be a celebrity, would you?” I whispered to Hinami, who was now radiating disappointment.

“Where did that come from?”

“See those guys over there?” I began, then explained the situation.

“Oh… Well, I’m not a celebrity, but I am famous. Especially around here.”

“Famous? How’s that different from being a celebrity?”

“I’m not in showbiz, but I’m famous.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I always have one of the top scores in the national practice exams, and last year I competed in a few cross-country running events at the national level… And then with my looks, my name gets around.”

Top in the national practice exams? Competing in cross-country at the national level? Normal people would wait until just the right minute to reveal that stuff, then spend hours bragging about it. But she’d dropped it nonchalantly into the conversation in a single breath. I felt dizzy.

“Wait a second. I knew you were amazing, but not that amazing!”

At best, I figured she could beat anyone at our school. But nationally?

“I’ve been telling you this whole time. I’m confident I can win in any field.”

She wasn’t boasting—far from it, she treated all this like my questions were annoying.

“…How on earth do you get those kinds of results?”

“It’s nothing special. I just think a little longer and work a little harder than everyone else in every field. Anyway, forget about that and tell me what you think your goal is for today.”

She made it sound simple, but…

I might be walking around with a bigger fish than I realized.

“We came here so…I could get used to…crowds?”

“I think…your level might actually be much lower than I thought…”

She pressed her temples like she was totally fed up.

* * *

The first place she brought me was a bookstore. But why a bookstore?

“So what are we doing in here?”

“Studying… Or more like deciding on your direction.”

“Direction?”

Hinami walked briskly toward the magazine corner and stopped in front of the fashion section.

“If you were teaching a beginner how to play Atafami, would you choose their character for them?”

By now, I was used to her suddenly talking about games.

“No. I mean, I’d stop them if they chose one that put them at a big disadvantage. Basically though, I’d want them to use a character they like and that’s easy for them to use. I’d probably tell them which ones were easy.”

Hinami nodded. “Right. Why?”

“Because they’d have more fun that way. If they’re not having fun, they lose their motivation, and in the long run that would ruin the whole point.”

“Exactly. That’s why we came to the bookstore.”

“…Huh?”

“Which of these styles do you like? I mean as a general inspiration.”

She flipped through a magazine.

“It’s hard to choose.”

“Today, we’re gonna buy some clothes for you based on whatever you choose. So what do you think?”

“…Oh, okay.”

So I was choosing my character.

“Are you sure I should be making this decision? I don’t have much fashion sense…”

“Don’t worry. Everything in this magazine is gonna be stylish. Some of it wouldn’t look good on you, but I’ll stop you if you choose any of that.”

“Got it.”

All of it looked stylish to me. And all of it looked like too much for me. I probably wasn’t tall enough or something. I spent about five minutes groaning as I examined the models until I finally chose one as a very general inspiration. This one might be okay for me?

“I don’t know, I guess this one?”

I wasn’t confident at all. Also, I noticed after I pointed that the price for the jacket was ¥44,800. Uh, that’s waaay beyond my budget.

“Okay, interesting choice…this should be fine,” Hinami said, closing the magazine and pulling up a maps app up on her phone. “Let’s go.”

“Huh? Where?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? To a store where you can buy the clothes for that outfit.”

I—I can’t afford that!

The store we arrived at was the most fashionable place I’d ever seen. So this is what clothing stores are like… On the way, Hinami had pointed to an ATM and I’d taken out some money, somewhat under duress. The balance left me uneasy that buying one jacket would eat through my entire paltry savings.

“Um, Hinami? I’m broke. I can’t be buying expensive clothes.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, handing me a jacket.

“I mean, I really can’t spend forty thousand… Huh?”

The number on the price tag read ¥9,720.

“Um…but you said we were going to the store that sold the clothes from that outfit.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then why… Are the prices this different for the same store?”

“Nope. This store sells the shirt from that outfit.”

“…Oh, I get it.”

She hadn’t said we were going to the store that sold the jacket brand. What is this, some kind of trick question?

“Fashion magazines usually include the brand names and prices of the clothes. When you find an outfit you like, check the prices. Look for the brand you can afford, and go to that store.”

If all the clothes in that outfit were by expensive brands, she said I should look for another outfit until I found something that worked.

“If you do that, you can’t really go wrong. The only item from this brand in the outfit you chose was the shirt, but any brand that makes it into a magazine, even if it’s just one shirt, will make a fine outfit. So you should feel free to choose the rest of the outfit here.”

Simple and clear.

“…Okay. I think I can handle that.”

“I like that answer. Sounds like you’re getting motivated to do things on your own.”

“I told you, didn’t I? I don’t play around when it comes to games.”

“Indeed you did.” Hinami seemed happy.

“…And I still haven’t learned the most important part.”

“You mean how to choose the clothes?”

“Right. I don’t know how to choose from so many options. What do I do?”

“That’s the easiest part.”

“The easiest? No way. Don’t you need to help from all your taste and experience when you choose them? I can’t imagine an easy attack strategy for that…”

“Of course. If you don’t fully make use of taste and experience, you’ll have a hard time picking out what’s stylish. Fashion isn’t something you can master overnight.”

“…So…”

“Do you know what this is?”

Hinami cut me off and pointed up in front of us. There, dressed in a T-shirt, jacket, and pants was…

“A mannequin…”

“I bet you can guess what I’m going to say next.” Her finger moved from the mannequin back toward me. “You’re gonna buy that whole outfit.”

Now that she said it, it did seem like an easy cheat. She’s right; I can’t really mess up with this strategy.

“Who do you think chose the clothes for this mannequin?”

“The people who work here?”

“Correct. And clothing store employees are usually more fashionable than your average person, right? You’ve gotta have a certain degree of confidence to get the job.”

“I guess so. I’d never apply for a job like this.”

“Mannequins are like advertisements inside the store to help sell clothes. These employees know their stuff, and they’ve put a lot of effort into thinking through their outfits.”

“…Okay.”

“What’s more, several employees have probably talked it over together. That means multiple fashion-forward employees thought specifically about this one outfit. Foolproof, wouldn’t you say?”

“Uh…yeah.” I was convinced.

“You see? You said earlier that being fashionable is tough unless you have help from all your taste and experience.”

“Yeah.”

“In which case, you simply borrow the taste and experience of people with style. That’s all there is to it.”

“…Makes sense.”

After all, the quickest route to improvement in Atafami was stealing, too. In this case, imitating the experts.

“Then you just wear that outfit as is. If you buy clothes that way a bunch of times, you’ll start to get a sense for it, and you won’t have to buy the whole mannequin anymore.”

“Got it… Oh, can I ask a question?”

“What?”

“When you say ‘buy the whole mannequin,’ does the mannequin come with the clothes?”

“…Are you an idiot?”

Her reply was not a yes or a no, but an insult. From that, I deduced the answer was no.

After that, she told me to choose which of the three mannequin outfits I liked the most, which I did more or less on impulse.

“…Okay, now go try on the clothes.” She made it sound so easy.

“What?! Try them on?!”

No-no-no, no way! Am I even allowed to try these things on? I mean, I’d have to talk to one of the fashionable people in their natural habitat. That’s clearly impossible!

“Why are you so surprised? You’re overly self-conscious. The store employee couldn’t care less, so hurry up and do it.”

“Wait a second! I thought I was safe if I bought the mannequin’s outfit! Why do I need to try it on?!”

“The outfit should be fine, but the size might be wrong. With your build, you should be okay with a medium, but do it just to be sure. That way you’ll know for next time.”

“No…but, uh…”

The topic of size was uncharted territory for me, so I couldn’t very well contradict her.

“Go on.”

“Y-you want me to ask her?”

“Obviously. I’ll want you to try things on when you go shopping by yourself in the future. You should practice asking on your own.”

“Y-you want me to try things on in the future?”

“Yes, I do.”

Her cold tone made it clear that further questions would be useless. I had no choice…

“…Wh-wh-what should I say…?” My voice was shaking. What the hell? Objectively, this was really sad.

“Just say, ‘I’d like to buy the outfit on that mannequin. Can I try it on?’ Or something like that.”

“Huh? Um, so ‘I’d like to buy the outfit on that mannequin.’”

“‘Can I try it on?’”

“‘I’d like to buy the outfit on that mannequin. Can I try it on?’ Like that?”

“Yep.”

I was asking for so much help I might as well have been in recovery after a major injury. Or in a nursing home. Sorry, Hinami…

“‘…I’d like to buy the outfit on that mannequin. Can I try it on?’ Okay, I’ve got this!”

I steeled my will and walked up to the store employee. It was a t-teenage girl. And her hair was in a ponytail, revealing the beautiful nape of her neck. Yikes.

“Um, ’scuse me!”

Okay, so far, so good!

“How can I help you?”

“Um, that, that—” I stuttered, pointing to the mannequin.

“You mean that one?”

“Yes. Um…I’d like to buy that mannequin.”

You see? I just asked to buy the mannequin. This is horrible. Nevertheless…

“…Um, you’d like the outfit the mannequin is wearing? Would you like to try it on?”

“Yes, please!”

Thanks to this incredibly understanding employee, this was working out well, if not quite according to plan.

After navigating these various twists and turns, I tried on the clothes, received Hinami’s stamp of approval, and obtained a coordinated, fashionable outfit for about thirty thousand yen.

“Ooh, why don’t you put it on right now?”

After I paid for the clothes, I heard a very cheerful voice right next to my ear. Who is that? Oh right. That’s Hinami’s fake voice.

“Would you like to wear the outfit out of the store?” the employee asked.

“Yes, do it!”

Her peerless, perfect smile was aimed in my direction. It could only mean one thing: Put it on, now.

“…Uh, yes, please.”

The employee led me over to the changing room, and I put on the outfit. She folded up the clothes I’d been wearing and put them in the bag.

“It looks great on you,” she commented when I came out of the room. I blushed a little.

As I was marveling over the great customer service here, the employee whispered something into my ear in passing, too quiet for Hinami to hear.

“Your girlfriend is so adorable and nice! You should take good care of her!” She smiled at me impishly.

“Oh, she’s not my girlfriend!” I said, flustered.

“Oh right. Of course not,” she replied.

Hey! Why ‘of course’ not? Okay, it’s true, but still!

“All right, we have a little time before the hair appointment.”

“…You already made an appointment, huh.”

Hinami’s preference for extremely thorough planning wasn’t much of a surprise by this point.

“How about we kill some time by…getting a bite to eat?” she suggested.

This should have been the part where my heart started pounding out of control, but somehow it wasn’t exactly like that.

“Oh, great idea. I was just getting hungry. Should we find a diner or something? Or since we’re in Omiya, how about an Omiya specialty? Wait, I forgot, there are no Omiya specialties. Too bad there aren’t any sakitama rice balls around here. Ha-ha.”

For some reason, Hinami responded to my joke with a glare verging on contempt. Incidentally, a sakitama rice ball is a Saitama classic: a little bread bun made from rice. Just as rice is the staple of Japan and taro root is the staple of some Southeast Asian countries, the sakitama rice ball is the beloved staple of Saitama.

“Listen. You’re about to go out to eat with a girl, and not just any girl—Aoi Hinami. Do you really think it’s a good idea to go to some random chain restaurant with no atmosphere whatsoever?”

“No, but things aren’t like that between us.”

“Never mind that. There’s a hamburger place near here.”

“Really? Have you been there?”

“Not yet.”

“Huh. And? Are you planning some kind of special hamburger restaurant training there?”

“Not particularly.”

“No? Really? So why go to a burger place?”

“Because I want to eat there.”

“That’s it?”

“…Yes.”

“You just want to eat a hamburger? Aoi Hinami just wants a hamburger?”

“…What? Is there something wrong with that?”

“No, but…” I was figuring she must have chosen that restaurant with some sort of practice in mind. “So you like hamburgers, huh?”

“Shut up! How many times are you going to say that? …My friends just like that place. Let’s get going.”

She started walking. Huh. She just wanted to eat there. That’s oddly normal of her. Very unexpected.

The hamburger restaurant she brought me to was a cute little place; an ad might tout it as a “forest hideaway.” There was a round wooden table out front, sheltered by a parasol and accompanied by a pair of stools that looked like tree stumps next to it. The whole thing was straight out of a picture book.

We walked inside and sat down at a table for two. I glanced over the menu and picked something in about two seconds, then waited for Hinami to decide on her order. Three minutes or so passed, and she was still silently and intently scrutinizing the menu.

“…Wonder what I should order.”

“You’re really having trouble deciding, huh?”

“You look like you made up your mind already… What are you getting?”

She sounded uncharacteristically hesitant. Which was surprising because I would have expected her to say, “I couldn’t care less what you order. I’m getting what I want.”

“The cheeseburger with tomato.”

“Hmm, that does sound good. It really does…”

She brought the tip of her finger to her lips and nodded with the gravity of a detective trying to solve a crime.

“H-Hinami…?”

“Fumiya Tomozaki-kun, I’d like to make a suggestion.”

“Huh?” Why was she calling me by my full name? She looked deadly serious.

“I’m going to get the Japanese-style hamburger stuffed with cheese and sauce. So…”

“Yeah?”

“What would you think about splitting that and your burger?” she said, now with the gravity of a detective announcing that the missing murder weapon had just been found. I couldn’t help it; I burst out laughing.

“…What are you laughing at? Are you trying to upset me?”

“Oh sorry,” I said, still smiling a little.

“I want the tomato cheeseburger, and I also want the stuffed burger. All I did was make a rational proposal to resolve the issue. There’s nothing to laugh about.”

“R-right, of course. Sure, let’s split it. You like cheese, huh?” I replied, remembering that she’d ordered the carbonara at the pasta place last time.

“Shut up! I can like whatever I want! So we’ve decided, we’re splitting those two things? …And how long are you gonna keep smiling? It really is irritating. Hurry up and order.”

It really would have been rude to keep smiling at this point, so with a little effort, I managed to suppress my grin and order. We sipped at the water the waiter had brought while we waited for our hamburgers to come.

“By the way, did you listen to the voice recording?”

She was talking about the recorder she’d handed me at yesterday’s review meeting. I’d followed her instructions and listened to it before going to bed.

“Yeah, I did.”

“How was it? Did you notice anything?”

“Like what?”

I was relistening to the same stuff I’d heard the previous day after school, most of which I already remembered, so there wasn’t much to notice…

“Maybe I should rephrase. Did you notice anything aside from the content?”

“Aside from the content…? …Oh.”

“I see you did.”

“…Our voices.”

I had noticed. The content was basically what I remembered, but one thing was different from how I remembered the conversation.

“My voice—or maybe like, the way I talked? It was totally different…”

“Right?” she said, like she’d been waiting for me to say that.

“Yeah. People always say your voice sounds different from how you imagine it, but I’d never listened to such a long everyday conversation like that before… It was pretty surprising. I kinda drone, don’t I?”

“…Yeah. If you noticed it the first time you listened, you’ll be able to fix it.”

“Think so?”

“Definitely. That’s what they say to tone-deaf people—once you can tell your own voice is weird, you’ll be able to fix it with practice. To a certain degree.”

“Huh.”

I felt like I’d heard that before—that the only people who were truly tone deaf were the ones who couldn’t tell something was off.

“…But you’re a particularly bad droner. You’d benefit from some training to correct it.”

“Am I really that bad?”

“Yes. It’s because you depend too heavily on the words themselves.”

“I depend too heavily on words?”

“For example, when I explain something, you have a number of set responses, like ‘Makes sense’ and ‘Really?’”

“I do?”

“Yeah. It’s probably unconscious. Well, you’re probably aware that always saying the same thing would be rude…so you change the words, but the tone’s the same.”

“The tone’s the same?”

“Yes. You don’t use facial expressions or inflection or gestures much in conversations. Your tone is always flat.”

“Oh.” She could be right.

“I’m going to give you an assignment while we’re having lunch.”

“An assignment?”

“Yes. What I want you to do is…”

“Yes?”

“From now on, when you respond to something I say, you’re only allowed to use vowels.”

“Only vowels?” What does that have to do with tone?

“You don’t understand, do you? Listen. Only using vowels means you can only say things like Oh? Ah! Oo!”

“Okay… Oh, we haven’t started yet, have we?”

“Not yet. Anyway, you know what happens when your options are limited like that? How do you think you’ll communicate your thoughts to me?”

“…Oh, I get it.”

“You’ll have to express yourself through your facial expressions, tone, volume, and gestures, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“In other words…”

Hinami drew her eyebrows together and said “Oh?” in a threatening voice, then made her eyes round and said “Oh!” as if she’d just discovered something. Next, she made a kind of dumb expression and gave an “Oh…” of realization. Finally, she held her head in both hands and groaned “Ohhh!” with frustration.

“…As you’ve just seen, you can express a lot with just ‘Oh.’ Once you’re in the habit of communicating your feelings through inflection, gestures, facial expression, and volume, the droning issue will clear up on its own.”

“…You’re sure good at that.”

The first thing I’d noticed was her incredible acting ability. That and how gracefully she modeled her examples. It was really cute.

“This is a way for you to narrow down the words you use and focus on other ways of expressing yourself so you can naturally improve. To put it another way, you’ve been using a wide variety of words, so your ability to express yourself in other ways has atrophied.”

“…Okay, I basically get it.”

“Good. Then we’ll start now. You don’t need to follow the rule when you’re saying something of your own, just when you’re reacting.”

I figured I’d start with a vowel that was right for starting something new…

“Oh!” I said energetically, holding up a determined fist next to my face.

“I like the enthusiasm, especially when we’ve only just started. You might be a natural at this.”

She’s praising me…in which case…

“Eyyy!” I cheered, throwing my arms up. That was all I could come up with after considering a bunch of options.

“Great! Making a fool of yourself. I thought you’d be too embarrassed at first to do more than tiny gestures.”

She had just insulted me. So if I wanted to say “Stop messing with me”…

“Eh?” I growled, pulling my eyebrows together discontentedly.

“You’re like a fish out of water. You seem a little angry. But what do you think? It’s good training, right? How about you pay for lunch to thank me?”

To express Hey, wait just a second now!…

“Ah!” I yelped, thrusting my hands out jokingly. Just then…

“Sorry for the wait. One Japanese-style stuffed burger…Huh? Tomozaki…kun?”

Out of the blue, the waitress said my name.

“Oh!” I replied, still riding the wave of the vowel training. I looked up at the girl who had brought the hamburger to find someone who was halfway between a character from a picture book and a girl’s manga—my classmate Fuka Kikuchi-san. The one from the nose-blowing incident. She was wearing glasses, which she usually didn’t. They looked amazing on her.

“Ah?!” I cried. Maybe I’d gotten the hang of the vowel thing a little too well.

“Fuka-chan?! Wow, I didn’t know you worked here! What a coincidence!”

Just as I was wondering how a third classmate had shown up, I realized it was Hinami, the social quick-change artist.

“Yes, I do… I just started about a week ago because I’d heard good things about it…”

“Everyone’s been talking about this place at school lately! I wanted to try it out, so we stopped by today for the first time.”

“Yeah, exactly!” I said, but I was still making the exaggerated gestures.

“Oh…yes… But, why…?”

“Why what?” Hinami said. I think she probably knew what Kikuchi-san was trying to say, but she didn’t let it show. Kikuchi-san’s gaze shifted back and forth between us curiously, as if she was seeing a pair of fairies that no one else could.

“…So you two are friends… That’s a surprise…”

“I know! We just got to know each other recently, in home ec,” Hinami answered right away. She sure was good at lying.

“…Oh, that time.”

Kikuchi-san giggled. Her long eyelashes quivered bewitchingly behind her glasses.

“Oh sorry! That one’s mine,” Hinami said, pointing to the plate Kikuchi- san was still holding.

“Oh right. Here you go… Well, enjoy yourselves…” With that graceful smile, she fit into the forestlike ambiance of the restaurant perfectly.

“…Is she gone?”

“Yeah.”

“Um…you think she figured it out? I mean, everything?”

For a second, Hinami was silent. “I think we’re okay. Even if she heard my voice for a second, she probably thought I was imitating someone. I wouldn’t have let her overhear a long conversation. Since this place is so popular with kids at school, I suspected we might run into someone we knew.”

“Oh, okay.”

That hadn’t even occurred to me. Typical for someone with a communication block.

“But I was surprised she was working here. I wasn’t ready for that, so my reaction was a little slow. She had those glasses on, too… But I know now, so it’s fine. I won’t slip up.”

…I knew her well enough to know that was true.

“It’ll be hard to continue now. If it had been an ordinary classmate, we could have gone on practicing responses, but…Fuka Kikuchi is different.”

“…What do you mean? If it had been an ordinary classmate?”

Was there something special about Kikuchi-san?

“During the exercises last week, I saw the possibility—and based on the reactions I just saw, I’m sure of it.”

“Sure of what?”

Hinami grinned.

“Fuka Kikuchi is going to be your first love interest.”

* * *

It goes without saying that I couldn’t look Kikuchi-san in the eyes when she came back a few minutes later with my tomato cheeseburger, but I was a mess even before that.

“W-w-wait a second! Just wh-what do you mean by that?”

“Judging by how flustered you are, I think you already know,” Hinami said casually, tilting her mug.

“Y-y-you mean, d-d-dating Kikuchi-san…?”

My emotions were spinning out of control, but obviously I couldn’t speak loudly, so my answer came out sounding pretty weird.

“Exactly. Your mid-range goal is to get a girlfriend before the end of the school year. She’s going to be the one.”

Hinami seemed to be keeping her voice deliberately calm. She was teasing me for being so worked up. But I had no idea what to ask or say, so for the moment I just sputtered “Wh-wh-why?”

“There are various reasons.”

Hinami took a bite of her hamburger, chewed, then swallowed. She was clearly going out of her way to keep me in suspense.

“The main reason is that of the four girls you talked to, you have the best chance with her.”

“Chance?”

I have a chance? With Kikuchi-san?

“Half.”

“Huh?” I was confused by the abrupt comment.

“Your burger?”

“Oh right.”

She sure was drawing out this conversation. Tease. Or maybe she just really wants a bite of my burger. For the moment, I focused on splitting the burgers.

“I don’t know why, but I got a glimpse of it when you talked to Yuzu,” she said, pointing to my nose. “When Yuzu asked Fuka-chan for a tissue, her response was really quick, right?”

“Well, now that you mention it…yeah… But, why?”

“As soon as you asked Yuzu for the tissue, Fuka-chan started searching for hers, even though she was only listening in on the conversation.”

“Wow…” I didn’t even notice. “…Is that all?” I asked.

“No. That was just a glimpse. Afterward, it struck me as a little unnatural, but it could have just been that she’s nice to everyone—not necessarily that she likes you. But it could also mean she didn’t especially dislike you.”

“Yeah. And?”

“It’s like this,” Hinami said, pointing to her stuffed burger. “When she brought my food, she realized who we were, right? Do you remember what she said?”

“Uh…? Did she say something important?”

“Yes. She said, ‘Huh? Tomozaki-kun?’”

She pointed at me like she’d just dropped a bombshell.

“…So what? It’s normal to call your classmate by their name.”

She sighed, then put her hand on her chest. “Even if they’re with the famous Aoi Hinami?”

“Oh. I see.”

That was a convincing point. Convincing, but also a reminder of her impressive self-confidence.

“I’m a fairly big star at our high school. And I’m approachable, too. Normally, when someone bumps into a group I’m a part of, they always say my name first. But the first thing Fuka-chan said was ‘Tomozaki-kun?’ It may seem unimportant, but it was actually the clincher.”

She was dead serious. Knowing how confident she was about everything, it scared me.

“Was it really such a big deal?”

“Yes, it was. Think about it. Even if it didn’t involve a big star like me, if you’re a girl and you see a guy and a girl you know, it’s easier to talk to the girl first, right? So if she says the guy’s name first…”

“That does…make sense.”

“It may seem normal to you that she said your name, but it was actually out of the ordinary. Of course, if she hadn’t noticed I was here, that would be a different story, but I have such a strong presence it’s basically impossible not to notice me. So this either means you have a chance, or Fuka-chan just notices things differently from most people,” Hinami said, polishing off her burger.

“Are you sure we can rule out the possibility she didn’t notice you?”

Hinami ignored my question and continued. “But as far as I know, she’s a normal girl…which means there’s probably some hope for you… Have you noticed anything?”

“Noticed anything?” I said, racking my brain. “Nope, nothing.”

“Hmm,” Hinami replied, looking troubled. “Maybe I’m misinterpreting it…”

For once, she seemed to have lost confidence in herself.

“If you’re misinterpreting it, don’t you think we should forget the whole love interest thing?”

“Not at all,” she said firmly. “In either case, she’s the best match for you right now. Even if I’m mistaken, she’s still going to be your main love interest.”

“B-but I’m not even sure if I like her or not.” I was never really on board with this, and that was why.

“…Don’t you think she’s cute?” Hinami suddenly asked sharply.

“Huh?”

“Fuka-chan, I mean. I think she’s very cute, but what do you think?”

“Um…well…I do, but…”

“Right. That’s enough, isn’t it? You don’t know if you like her yet, but you’re a little bit interested because she’s cute. So you try approaching her, and that’s how you know how you really feel… What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, if you put it like that…”

“You won’t be worrying about every little detail for several more levels.”

“Every little detail”? Were my feelings really so insignificant? I was torn. My distaste for insincerity was getting mixed up with my fear of approaching her and my ego as a gamer. But…

“…I made up my mind to give this game all I’ve got. I’ll do it,” I declared. The initial decision was already made, so I might as well put aside my doubts and give it a try. I can think about it later. It’s too early to softlock myself here…right?

“Nice. I knew you’d say yes,” Hinami said, picking up the menu.

“You’re getting dessert?”

“Yeah. You want anything? I heard the cake here is great.”

“Really?” I said, scanning the menu. “Then I’ll get the tiramisu.”

“I’ll have the chee—” Hinami broke off mid-word, blushing.

“Chee?”

She was suddenly extremely calm. Unnaturally calm. Fake.

“I’ll have the cheesecake,” she said in a tone that was as unnaturally calm as her expression.

When I burst out laughing again, she kicked me under the table.

After lunch we headed to the salon, where everything went smoothly and uneventfully. Hinami instructed me to ask for a safe haircut and otherwise leave it up to the barber, which I did. She also told me to get my eyebrows trimmed, and I did that too. After what the employee had said to me at the clothing store, I was ready to dive in headfirst. The total came to ¥4,800, which is ¥3,800 more than I usually spend.

When I looked in the mirror, I saw my ugly face topped off by a more-stylish-than-usual hairstyle. Welp, I did it. And now I’m sad.

That finished off a Saturday of learning how to pick out clothes, request a haircut and eyebrow trim, and improve my tone when speaking. Around evening, Hinami finally released me.

When I got home, I felt like I had finally advanced a little in the game for the first time.

“I’m back!”

I kicked off my shoes, more exhausted than usual, and stumbled into the living room. My parents weren’t there, but my sister was sprawled on the sofa like an idiot wearing basically nothing on her legs except…I think they’re called “short-shorts”?

“…You’re such a slob,” I said, not beating around the bush. She didn’t look up.

“What? Like you have any room to talk! I mean, you’re—” she said, finally glancing over at me. “…Huh?”

Her eyes were bulging in obvious bewilderment, like she was witnessing something beyond her wildest imaginings. She ran her eyes over me from head to toe.

“…Fumiya…um…”

* * *

“Hinami! Hinami!”

It was the following Monday morning. I sprinted up to Hinami, who had arrived in Sewing Room #2 before me.

“…Would you stop, please? You’re acting like a dog with attachment issues.”

“Your metaphor’s bad enough without the last part!”

“Well, you sure are full of comebacks this morning.”

“I may have cleared my first small goal!” I announced proudly.

Hinami’s eyes flashed. “Really?! Was it someone in your family? They said something?”

Her eyes were definitely sparkling. Somehow, seeing that made me happy, too.

“Yeah, my sister! Listen to this and tell me if it counts!”

“Okay, but are you sure you didn’t misinterpret something?”

“Mostly!”

“So what did she say?”

“Well…”

I could have used a drumroll right about then.

“She said, ‘…Fumiya…um…I don’t think you could have pulled off that transformation without some help… What, did you read a book on how to de-geek yourself and get some sex appeal or something?’”

Hinami’s expression was a strange mixture of bemused and chagrined satisfaction.

“Yeah, you cleared the goal, but…you sure seem happy about what your sister said.”

“Shut up! A win’s a win!”

“Okay, fine. Congratulations on achieving your first goal. Nice work.”

“Th-thanks,” I said, flustered.

“You might be thinking that you didn’t do any of this yourself, but that’s not true. Sure, you bought an outfit off a mannequin and got someone to cut your hair, but you’re the one who decided to do it and had the will to come along with me. You’re the one who worked every day to improve your expression and your posture. That’s no small feat, and it led you to this outcome. It wasn’t your effort alone, but you’re the one who grabbed it with your own two hands. No question.”

Hinami looked me straight in the eye as she spoke, fluently put into words what had been niggling at me.

“So I’ll say it again: Congratulations.”

“…Wow. Thank you.”

Since she’d said all that, the second time around I was able to say “thank you” with a little more sincerity. I’d reached one goal in the game of life.

“Okay, then,” Hinami said, briskly launching into her next topic without giving me a chance to bask in the afterglow of my success. “I’m going to announce your next small goal.”

“You don’t waste much time.”

“Of course not. We need to make steady progress if you’re going to achieve results. There’s no way around it but step by step.”

“I know, I know.”

“Then I’ll announce the goal. It’s very simple.”

I didn’t even have time to gulp.

“Your goal is to go somewhere with a girl from school other than me. Just the two of you.”

“Wait a second now!”

I reflexively pushed out my hands to stop her.

“…What? Are you planning to make some irrelevant complaint that reveals just how uncool and unready you are to join the real world?”

“No, but admit it! That goal is weird!”

“Why?”

“Because if I’m out alone with a girl, it’s practically a date!”

For some reason, Hinami met my fervent and logical argument with a look that went beyond heartfelt exasperation to something bordering on affection.

“Huh? I’m assuming you’ve never dated anyone, but haven’t you ever watched a rom-com on TV or read a comic about a relationship?”

“Yeah, a couple of times.”

“So you should know this. In this day and age, not even a kid in junior high would assume two people were dating just because they went somewhere together.”

“…R-really?” I was losing confidence.

“Really. Of course, it’s true that a lot of times when people go out, they’re testing the waters to see if they like each other enough to date.”

“S-see…!” I said, clinging to the web the spider had dangled in front of me.

“Were you going to say something else?”

I was shrinking second by second beneath her withering gaze.

“Uh, um…well, I guess…that’s that?”

“Yes. In any case, I’d like you to push ahead toward that goal. Are you ready? Here’s what I want you to do today.”

She continued without skipping a beat.

“Talk to Yuzu Izumi at least twice.”

“Wait a second!” This time I had her for sure.

“Can you stop interrupting me?”

“It’s not that! This one really is weird! The other day, you said Fuka Kikuchi was supposed to be my love interest, right? Shouldn’t I be talking to her instead of Yuzu Izumi?” I argued forcefully, before realizing that was silly. “…I mean, I’m sure you just said the wrong name.”

It was embarrassing, acting like I’d slain a dragon when Hinami’s tongue had just slipped. Okay, maybe I did want to get her back a little for always cutting me down… But just as these thoughts were passing through my mind, she caught me off guard with her response.

“What are you talking about! I want you to talk to Yuzu Izumi, not Fuka Kikuchi!”

“Huh? …No need to be stubborn—you misspoke, didn’t you?”

“…Listen. This is Aoi Hinami you’re talking to. Do you think I ‘misspeak’?”

“You mean to say you don’t do that, either?”

“Just listen. Fuka Kikuchi is your love interest, but romance works differently in the game of life than it does in your typical dating sim.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Here’s the deal,” she replied. “In dating sims, once you decide on your love interest, all you have to do is charge ahead, choose the options that make her like you more, and you’ve got her.”

“Yeah…”

“But it doesn’t work like that in real life. There’s no set path.”

“That makes sense, but why does that mean I should talk to Yuzu Izumi?”

“Okay, let’s say you’re playing a shooter.”

Here we go.

“When can you maneuver more smoothly? When you don’t have lives left, or when you do?”

“Huh?” I replied, confused for a second. “Well, it depends on your personality, but…I think the majority of people get nervous and don’t play as well once they run out of lives. That’s what happens to me.”

“Hexactly.”

“There it is!”

“Typically, you move better if you have room to fail.”

“…So what’s your point?”

She sighed, as she often did. “The same is true with romance.”

“Meaning…?”

“You still don’t get it? If there’s only one girl you have a chance with and not a single other candidate if things fall through, it’s like not having any lives left.”

“Oh right.”

“Continuing the analogy, if you have several candidates you could date if things don’t work out, you’re going to be more relaxed and confident about the whole thing, right?”

“Oh, that’s what you mean.” I understand, but… “You’re talking about having a backup, right? But, Hinami—Yuzu Izumi? Really? That’s not possible. It’s me you’re talking about here,” I told her with unusual confidence.

“I’m not talking specifically about Yuzu Izumi. I’m just saying you can maintain a better mental and emotional state that way.”

“Okay, but even so…wouldn’t that be insincere?”

Having multiple backups sure seemed dishonest to me.

“You wouldn’t be lying to anyone. It’s just that if you make a couple of female friendships that could develop into romantic relationships, it helps you worry less.”

“But I wouldn’t be giving my whole heart to her.”

“Oh, come on, this is getting silly. The reason Japan’s international policy can’t keep up with the rest of the world is because everyone here has blind faith in empty words. ‘Sincerity’ and ‘giving your whole heart’ just sound good on the surface; they actually distract everyone from taking productive steps.”

Whoa, why’re we talking about international affairs all of a sudden?

I thought for a second. “But wouldn’t it be self-defeating if Kikuchi-san ended up liking me less as a result?” I asked.

“That won’t happen. Granted, in typical dating sims, when you make choices that increase another character’s affection for you, the affection of your main love interest goes down.”

“Right?”

“But real life is different. Here, when one girl’s affection goes up, so does the other girl’s.”

Uh, so… “…You mean my reputation would improve among girls in general?”

“Yeah, that’s a simple way to put it. It can also make girls want you all for themselves, improve your status as a male, and have many other effects.”

“Huh, really…? Okay, I understand.” I highly doubted that my reputation among girls would improve, but anyway. “…So I’m not going to do anything special for Kikuchi-san? She is my main love interest, after all.”

“No, nothing special,” Hinami said, then stopped. Well, she must have some plan.

“…Okay. But I’m not going to go so far that I’m being insincere.”

“That’s your prerogative. Just make sure you’re not doing logical backflips to get away from this.”

To tell the truth, I wasn’t really worried about it, because you have to be pretty smooth to be accused of being a player, and I couldn’t imagine that yet.

“Got it. All things considered, that approach should work… Plus, if I don’t do it, it will take a long time to reach my mid-range goal.”

After all, getting a girlfriend before I moved up a grade was completely insane to start with.

“That’s true,” Hinami said, nodding. “It’s very important to keep your goals in sight.”

“Okay…I’ll give it a try.”

“Also, there’s the question of what to talk to her about.”

“Oh, I did memorize some topics…”

Hinami reacted with some surprise, then smiled happily. “In that case, I’ll leave it up to you,” she said.

Talking to Yuzu Izumi twice… The old me would have given up completely as soon as I heard that idea. But now a small seed of self-confidence was sprouting, telling me I might be able to do it if I tried. It was a strange feeling.

“Oh, by the way—that’s your assignment for every day this week.”

“What?!”

That tender sprout was nipped in the bud.

Sure, this was the analysis of a novice founded on the events of a mere week, but it’s what my experiences were telling me.

And those experiences led me to another thought. The point wasn’t to get other people to compensate for what you lacked, or to dole out what you had in surplus. It was to use your own strength to compensate yourself for your own shortcomings, all by yourself.

“I think you can change.”

“What?”

“I mean, if you still want to.”

“What? Change my personality? No way, I can’t do that! What are you talking about? I’m about to turn seventeen! It’s too late! I’m done talking about this!”

To ease the tension, Izumi gave a fake smile so perfect you couldn’t even tell it was fake. Without even seeing it in action, I knew it was the expression she used to fight her way through the battlefield of the classroom.

And then—I don’t know how to explain it, but I put together my conversation with Mimimi the other day, what Hinami had told me about Tama-chan’s strengths and weaknesses, and Izumi’s attempt to hide her feelings that actually ended up revealing them, and then I considered all of it in my own way. I also remembered two things Hinami had said.

“Conversation essentially consists of telling another person what you’re thinking.”

“Apparently, you’re good at saying what’s on your mind.”

If that was true, and that’s what genuine conversations were, why not try telling Izumi what I was thinking? If I’m gonna fight my way through this super-hard dungeon, I might as well get annihilated giving it everything I have. That was more or less my attitude anyway.

“…I was like that, too. From the day I was born until now, actually. I had a personality that never changed. Or maybe more like a worldview.”

“What?”

My suddenly serious tone must have caught Izumi off guard because her fake smile wavered a little. I’d consciously tried to make my voice sound as intent as possible, and I was surprised that it had worked, even slightly, especially with a normie. I continued my line of thought.

“To me, life is the worst kind of game. Life is absurd. High-tier characters profit, and low-tier characters are exploited. There are no principles worth mastering. It’s just a game of chance. There’s no point in pouring my time and energy into something like that, and there’s no need to. That was my way of thinking.”

“O-okay…”

Izumi’s smile was steadily turning to shock.

“So even if I lost at the game of life—for example, people ignoring me in class, not having a girlfriend or even regular friends, having a low social status—none of that mattered. ’Cause the game was shit to begin with. On the other hand, Atafami was a great game, so it was way more meaningful to win at Atafami than at life. It was awesome, and most of all, it made me genuinely happy. My whole life, that’s what I thought.”

Izumi stared at me silently.

“But recently, I met another gamer who’s kind of insufferable, but also just about as good as me. According to them, life’s one of the best games of all time. To tell you the truth, at first I was like, What are you talking about? If you’re a gamer like me and you haven’t even noticed how shitty the game of life is, we have nothing to talk about. But in the end, they said a bunch of stuff that convinced me. I still don’t fully believe it, but they do know their stuff when it comes to games, so for now I’ve decided to test it out. In other words, I’m trying to take the game of life more seriously.”

Izumi blinked in surprise.

“I’ve been learning strategies and ways to practice, and putting in as much effort as I can, and along the way, something clicked… I hate to say it, but I’m almost sure it’s true now.”

The next thing I said wasn’t directed at Izumi so much as at the gamer with the best work ethic, the most confidence, and the worst personality in the world.

“As a game, I don’t know if life’s god-tier, but at the very least, it’s good! That’s what I think.”

Izumi opened her mouth wide and smiled.

“So it’s not one of the best, then, huh?”

I smiled, too, naturally this time instead of consciously making an expression.

“Yeah, I’m not that convinced yet. And I don’t say something if I don’t think it’s true.”

“…Wow.”

“…Anyway, I’d been thinking life was a shitty game for more than sixteen years, but given just a small opportunity, I’ve come this far. Pretty amazing transformation, huh?”

“Ha-ha-ha. Yeah, it is, isn’t it? Ha-ha, you’re funny.”

No, don’t “ha-ha-ha.” I’m not done talking.

“Point is, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if your personality hasn’t changed for years and years.”

Maybe she realized what I was getting at, because she gazed into my eyes with surprise.

“So Izumi, if you want to change, I think you can.”

I forced myself to return her gaze.

“…Even now. I’m positive.”

And that’s how my attempt to clear the super-hard dungeon ended: not in victory and not in defeat, but in an unexpected outcome—persuasion.

* * *

“Y-you really think so…?”

Izumi’s eyes were shining. I’d finished saying everything on my mind, so I was back to my old self, the one who couldn’t ad-lib conversations.

“Yeah, well, maybe.”

Izumi burst out laughing. “Ha-ha, what’s that supposed to mean? You’re not very reassuring!”

“…Sorry.”

Since I’d managed to have such a long, natural conversation here at Izumi’s house, I figured my skills must have improved subconsciously or something. Nope. It was just my regular abilities: talking about Atafami and saying what I was thinking.

“…But…yeah…I think I’ll give it a try.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, practicing Atafami, and…seeing if I can stop worrying so much about what other people think… Like you said, you don’t know until you try.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah…oh, that reminds me,” Izumi added, taking out her cell phone. “Give me your number. I want to have it in case I have questions.”

“What?! It’s not like I’m some expert on what other people think!”

“Not that! Questions about Atafami!”

“Oh right…”

We exchanged numbers as Izumi gave me a look like, What is this idiot saying?

“Okay!”

“Uh, um, well…I’d better get going.” After all, I’d taught her what I could about Atafami.

“Okay—oh, don’t forget the game!”

“Oh, no worries, that’s a spare. The memory card is a backup, too.”

“Spare? Backup?”

“…Never mind. It means I have another one at home.”

“Really? But…if you’d lent me this to start with, couldn’t we have played online…?”

“Oh yeah! That’s true…sorry.”

“Ha-ha. Right! But this way let us talk about a lot of stuff, so it’s fine!”

“Ha-ha.” It was nice enough of her to say that. “Okay, bye.”

“Okay, take care! Oh, wait…um, uh—”

“What’s up?”

“Oh…nothing. See you later!”

I left her house wondering what she had wanted to say. Less than five minutes later, a short text arrived from her.

“Thank you.”

Just those two simple words, no emojis or anything. I guess that’s what she had wanted to say when I was leaving. Huh. She was a normie, but in some ways she was easy for me to connect with.

Right away, I sent a message of my own.

A message to Hinami, that is, asking her how to reply.

* * *

“The sword you were carrying just happened to work against the boss’s elemental weakness, and the shield you had just happened to resist the elements she used. A miracle, I’d say.”

It was Saturday. I’d sent Hinami an e-mail briefly describing my encounter with Izumi, to which she’d replied by telling me to report to her in person. Thus our emergency weekend meeting.

“A pretty amazing one, too,” I said, already tired of the huge parfait on the table in front of me. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about it, and it feels like things are going a little too well lately. There was the thing with Izumi, and the thing with Kikuchi-san, too. Are you sure you’re not laying any groundwork behind the scenes, Hinami?”

Incidentally, for some reason we were meeting at a famous parfait place in Tokyo, instead of in Saitama. Hinami was calmly eating an weapons-grade sugary concoction made up of strawberries, banana, and melon drenched in whipped cream and condensed milk.

“What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything. You’re the one who’s laying the groundwork.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes, you. I mean, if you didn’t always go to the library between classes, and if you hadn’t talked to Yuzu and borrowed a tissue from Fuka-chan, she wouldn’t have talked to you in the library. If you hadn’t crushed Shuji Nakamura in Atafami, and if you hadn’t been talking to Yuzu Izumi every day for a week, then bumping into her when she was feeling down yesterday wouldn’t have ended up with you going to her house. You’ve summoned all of this yourself through your own actions,” Hinami explained, working her way through 80 percent of the parfait we had agreed to split half and half after she made me order it. She did have a good appetite. I had already had enough after my 20 percent. By the way, it was called a Peach and Whipped Cream Cheesecake Parfait, or something like that.

“Okay, that’s true, but…”

“You’re so stoic. You can give yourself a little more credit for your hard work, you know. I mean, of course you don’t have to. As long as you can stay motivated.”

I wondered how she managed to speak so clearly with her mouth full.

“Well…I do give myself some credit.”

Hinami stopped eating. “…Really?”

She looked pleased, but maybe it was just because of the parfait.

“That’s fine, then. So what do you think? Isn’t improving your life through your own hard work a beautiful thing?”

She grinned and peered into my eyes. I didn’t know what to do, so I looked away.

“…I guess.”

“Huh. So you’re shy about that kind of thing.”

“Shut up.”

“Whatever. Anyway, your mid-range goal just got a little closer.”

“…Did you even hear what I just told you? The reason Izumi is doing all this is because she likes Nakamura.”

“All the same, I doubt she’s ever had a deep conversation with Shuji like she did with you yesterday. Plus, you have something she doesn’t. Okay, that’s probably not enough to make her fall for you. At least, not this you.”

“This me?”

“You may have grown a little, but you still have a lot to work on. In the long run, though, if you keep up the hard work and move forward step by step, it’s not at all out of the question that something would happen this year.”

“Seriously…?”

With Yuzu Izumi? The normie? Well, the fragile normie, that is.

“Yeah,” Hinami said, polishing off the parfait. “I’m talking possibilities, of course.”

“I can’t believe you ate that whole thing…”

“Anyway, have you decided yet? About Fuka-chan?”

“Uh, I’m still going back and forth. But I’m almost there.”

“…Huh. Well, I won’t ask what you’ve decided. Tell me after you do it,” she said, taking out her wallet. “If you do decide to ask her out, use these.”

“…Movie tickets?”

“Yes. They’re for a premiere of the new Mari Joan film next Sunday.”

“A premiere? …You think I should invite her to a movie?”

“Yeah, that’s part of it. But the bigger thing is the first time you ask her out, you shouldn’t come on too strong. With these tickets, you can act like someone gave them to you and you don’t have anyone to go with. Since they’re for a specific day, she can say she already has plans if she doesn’t want to go. Plus, if you do end up going together, you don’t have to talk as much, and afterward you’ll have something in common to talk about, right?”

“Oh, okay…”

“Also, if she’s really into you and she genuinely can’t make it that day, it’s very likely she’ll suggest that you go out another time. All in all, it’s a low-risk proposition.”

“Huh… Well, I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I’ll go ahead and take them. Thanks.”

“Sure,” she said, standing up with her wallet in hand. “Sorry, I have to get going. I have a lot to do today. Since I ate most of the food and you had to pay to come all the way into the city to meet me, I’ll get the bill.”

I thought about protesting, but I knew that once she’d made up her mind she hardly ever changed it, so instead I thanked her meekly and left it at that.

* * *

That night, I was using the recorder Hinami had given me to tape my voice, play it back, and practice my tone, as I always did. But as I was trying to play it back, I accidentally pressed the wrong button.

“Oh shit, what’s going on? Did I just switch folders?”

The file number should have read 63, but instead it read 781.

Uh-oh, how do I get back?

Suddenly, as I started pushing a bunch of buttons, a file started playing. Shit! I probably shouldn’t be listening to this without her permission! As that thought ran through my head, I started to press the STOP button, when my hand froze. The first thing I heard caught me off guard.

“That’s why Shimano dumped you! She’s like…Younger guys are so… No, that’s not right.”

What the…?

“Younger guys…shoot! You just…aaah! …Younger guys are soo…damn!”

It’s what she’d said when she came to rescue me and Mimimi and Tama-chan in home ec.

“That’s why Shimano dumped you! She’s like…Younger guys are sooo immature…there! Younger guys are sooo immature! Younger guys are sooo immature! …Got it!”

The recording ended.

I do have some respect for people’s privacy, so I didn’t consider listening to another file. But what I’d heard was enough. More than enough. Why was this girl amazing? I’d sensed it vaguely before, but now I knew without a doubt.

The amazing thing about her was how hard she worked to make herself that way.

* * *

The following week, on Monday and Tuesday I chatted casually with Izumi about Atafami during all our breaks. Nothing much happened aside from a few surprised looks from other people. Izumi was memorizing the techniques way faster than I’d expected. At this pace, she’d probably be able to play Nakamura before the week was out. When I told her as much, she seemed extremely happy. I’d found myself a good student. Plus, talking to her was easy since she sat next to me.

Hinami and I didn’t talk about much in our strategy meetings. She just told me to keep diligently working on my posture, facial expressions, tone, and topic memorization, along with talking to Izumi and Kikuchi-san as often as possible.

And then Wednesday came—the most momentous day since I first met Hinami.

Having sorted out the situation with Kikuchi-san in my own way, I felt more at ease for the rest of the day. Izumi and I had gotten into a routine of chatting a little about Atafami between classes, after which she joined the normies by the back window and I stayed alone at my desk. My confidence was rising, and I felt like I was making progress.

Of course, that’s always when something has to go wrong.

* * *

“Tomozaki.”

“Huh?”

Class was done for the day. The voice saying my name wasn’t one I was used to hearing talk to me.

When I turned around, I saw Nakamura’s buddy Takei glaring at me with his arms crossed. Mizusawa was standing stoically next to him like an impassive observer. It was the pair who hung out with Nakamura in home ec.

“C’mere.”

“What?”

What was up? Was I being “summoned,” as they say? If these two were doing it, Nakamura was definitely involved. But why? Hinami had let the air out of the balloon when it came to the Atafami incident. Had I done something to upset Nakamura? Or maybe this wasn’t a negative summons at all? Fat chance of that, considering their tone.

“Just come with us.”

Protesting probably wouldn’t get me anywhere; following them was my only option. I glanced around the classroom to see if Hinami was watching, but she wasn’t anywhere to be found… Maybe she was already in Sewing Room #2. Guess I’d be relying on my own strength to get through this sudden boss fight.

They led me—more like dragged me, really—to an empty room across and a little down the hall from the staff lounge that used to be the principal’s office. Traces of its former identity—an old but still usable sofa and desk, a CRT TV—still remained.

Nakamura was there, along with a couple other normie guys.

“…Uh…?”

Including Takei, Mizusawa, and Nakamura, there were six of them altogether. What the hell? Am I about to be lynched or something?

“Hey, Tomozaki.”

It was Nakamura. Just hearing him say my name was intimidating. I reflexively looked away and happened to see something familiar. Huh? A console.

“Hey, wait a second. Is this about Atafami?”

I didn’t know how to react to this unexpected development. Does he want to get his revenge by playing me again?

“Sure is. Sit there.”

I sat down in front of the controller he’d gestured to. The console switched on, and the familiar start screen appeared on the TV.

“Wait a second, what’s going on?”

Nakamura’s crew ignored my confusion and lined up at a distance from us, toward the back of the room.

“Exactly what it looks like,” Nakamura growled. I see.

“So you want a rematch.”

Nakamura clicked his tongue softly. “You sure are full of yourself,” he snapped.

“Honestly, though…”

I glanced behind me. We had an audience. Meaning there would be witnesses to whatever happened. The last time we played, I’ll be honest, I beat him so bad it was embarrassing. Most likely, the only people who knew that were me, Nakamura, and Hinami. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone else thought I’d won by a narrow margin.

But this match was going to be different. There would be witnesses to every last detail.

True, Nakamura might have practiced a lot over the past few weeks. Given his existing ability, that extra practice probably meant he could easily beat every one of the guys in the back of the room without losing a stock.

But I was another story. I was just too good. No matter how much he practiced in that short period of time, it would be a drop in the bucket. Plus, I was confident I’d improved more than him since we last played. If I genuinely, truly avoided any risks and didn’t worry about how long the battle went on, I could most likely avoid damage completely. Even if I didn’t do that, beating him with four stocks would be easy.

Which meant we shouldn’t be playing each other to start with. This would be more than a little embarrassing for him. Maybe if I could hold back on purpose, but when it comes to Atafami, that’s something I just can’t do. This was not a good idea.

“You shouldn’t do this,” I said.

“Seriously? You’re that cocky?”

I’d glanced at the peanut gallery as I spoke, so he probably took my words to mean “You’ll embarrass yourself.” Once again, I’d pissed him off. Of course I had. Sugarcoating was way too advanced for me at this stage.

“No, I’m being serious. I know you’ve been practicing every day…but still…”

I stopped mid-sentence. I’d only piss him off more if I continued: …it won’t make up for the difference in our levels. I’d already implied it, though, so it was probably too late.

…But his next question surprised me.

“Who told you I was practicing?”

I’d never heard him sound this intimidating. Huh? Why’s he asking about that?

“Uh, Izumi,” I said. There wasn’t any reason for me to hide her identity.

“…Figures,” he said, frowning. “Seems like you guys are friends now.”

“Huh?”

…Wait a second. It was too soon to be sure, but wait a second. Logically, he shouldn’t want a rematch yet, so I’d been wondering if there might be some other reason he’d called me here. You don’t think he…?

“Why are you friends with Yuzu? Sounds fishy to me.”

Yup, I was right. Hard to believe he’d said that so boldly in front of all those guys. Okay, let’s stop messing around here, Nakamura. The reason I talk to Izumi all the time is because she wants to go out with you, and that’s why she’s working so hard to get better at Atafami. I’m helping her get you. I’m Cupid’s arrow in this scenario.

And now you’re picking a fight because you’re jealous I’m friends with Izumi. Why do I have to put up with this?

“We’re not really friends.”

“What, then?”

I couldn’t tell him the truth. Only a true asshole would out a girl in love to save himself. I might be inexperienced, but even I know that much. I had to use my skills to get out of this.

“No, it’s just, we shouldn’t play here. We should play at your house or mine.”

“House…? Speaking of, you went to Yuzu’s house, didn’t you? Someone told me they saw you.”

Seriously? I’d just woken another sleeping dog? I was done for.

Think about it. Some super-geek crushes you at a video game, acts cocky as hell, then befriends the girl you like—or maybe don’t like? Anyway, they become friends and he goes to her house. Yeah, you’d be pissed. There was no getting out of this one.

“Um, it was more complicated than that…”

“Explain.”

“…Uh, sorry, I can’t talk about it…”

I couldn’t think of a lie, and he must have interpreted my answer as “It’s a secret just for Izumi and me.” He got even more upset, clamped down his grip on the controller, and snarled, “We’re playing. Now.”

But social awkwardness is my specialty, and I hemmed and hawed and wasted time saying things like “But…” and “Come on” and “No…” and “I don’t like the way you said that,” hoping something might change in the meantime. I was praying for Hinami. It should be easy enough for someone like her to get suspicious when I didn’t show up in Sewing Room #2, gather some information, and come galloping to my rescue. If I just killed enough time, I was sure she would come. I knew what she was like.

As I fervently prayed for Hinami and spun my wheels with nonsensical comments, the door to the room opened with a bang. There is a God!

“Sorry to interrupt y— Huh?! Tomozaki?!”

RIP lol, as they say. It was Izumi. I can’t believe this.

“Why are you here, Yuzu? I told you not to come around.”

“Oh sorry, Shuji. I just thought I might be ready…to play…you…”

She must have sensed the tension in the room, because the excitement suddenly drained from her voice. Sorry, Nakamura, this really is the worst situation possible for you. I’d told Izumi she might be able to play you before the week was out, and then I’d been killing time until she got here. This really is all my fault. I should have played you right off the bat. Now that Izumi’s seen you, you can’t back out, can you? Is there any way you can let me go?

“Whatever, it’s fine. You can watch us play.”

“Um, okay…!”

Damn. He’d done it. It was really over now. Izumi joined the guys lined up in the back of the room.

“Yuzu, come on. I told you it’s not gonna happen. Let’s go home.”

The door opened for a second time, and in came Erika Konno, the girl Izumi had told me about, and her crew. Even among a group with bright, bleached hair and short skirts, Erika Konno stood out.

“Huh? What’s going on?” one of the girls said.

“I’m gonna play Tomozaki right now. Watch me,” Nakamura told her.

Oh geez. Erika Konno and her battalion filed in, joining Nakamura’s crew. What was this? Super Attack Families Normie All-Star Mode or something? Why was he so intent on self-destruction? Well, he’s on his own now.

“Let’s go, Tomozaki. Can’t run now, can you?”

“Fine,” I sighed, steeling myself. Like I said, I can’t hold back when it comes to Atafami. “…But you’re the one who can’t run, Nakamura.”

In more ways than one.

* * *

Up till now, Nakamura had been the only person to experience how scathing I could be when I got cocky, but now a murmur rippled through the gallery. “Whoa!” “He doesn’t hold back!” “That is Tomozaki, right?!” “This is getting intense!”

I wish they’d all shut up. I didn’t care. If I have to do it, I’ll do it and do it right. This is my art. Hate yourself for picking a fight with me over Atafami, Nakamura. When it comes to this game, I’m A-tier.

“Still as sassy as ever, huh, Tomozaki?” Nakamura whined. He was obviously mad.

I don’t care. If you’re gonna hit me, go ahead and hit me. If that’s enough for you, great. But if we’re gonna do this, let’s do it and be done with it.

“Come on. Are we playing or not?” I coldly shot back, not looking at Nakamura as I picked up the controller. I’d had enough. Once we started, I’d let the sum of all my experience take over. I’d jump on the barrel at the headwaters and ride the river all the way to the ocean. I didn’t need logic. My experience would automatically draw out the possibilities and carry me to the right one.

“Of course we’re playing. Hurry up and choose your character.”

Before he even finished talking, I’d chosen my usual character, as if this was just another match.

Tch. From my position near Nakamura, I heard him give an angry click of his tongue. Right. He was choosing his character. Foxy, as usual. Let’s go.

I dashed toward Nakamura the instant the battle started. He started with a short hop and hit me with two long-distance projectile shots. Pairing the landing from a short hop with a ranged attack is a technique for eliminating the vulnerability after firing. Last time we played, Nakamura wasn’t able to use such a subtle technique. He really had been practicing. But it was nowhere near enough to stop my flow. Without hesitation, distress, or any loss of focus, I let the current of my own knowledge sweep Found along. It was time to style on him.

I don’t care if you can do a little more now that you’ve practiced, Nakamura. It’s irrelevant. For you, it may be an earthshaking development, but from my perspective, you might as well have done nothing. It’s like telling me, “Hey, I heard a species of ant in some African country evolved wings and now it can fly.” Really? Huh.

You might have tried a new strategy on Found when he rushed toward Foxy, but it’s about to be destroyed by my skill and experience.

As he approached, I wavedashed away with perfect timing five times. Gachachachachacha. There was no way he’d be able to respond to a move this insane and beyond his range of knowledge. I grabbed Nakamura, who was wide open, and comboed him all the way to KO. One stock down.

“What the hell was that?”

“His moves are so freaky.”

“No way!”

“Huh?!”

The peanut gallery was in chaos. Sorry to tell you, guys, but that’s gonna happen three more times, and then this match will be over. Of course, I wouldn’t do five wavedashes in a row again—that only worked as a surprise attack with some extra flair.

The paths I could take next came into view of their own accord. There were seven or eight of them, like flashing channels of light. Which one should I choose? Guess I’ll go with this one.

I intentionally started my dash attack slightly late, continuing the tiniest bit past Nakamura’s block before stopping. He’d stepped forward, totally exposed, and he reached out to grab me right there. Too bad. I passed you, so I’m right behind you now. The grab left him wide open, so I turned and grabbed him instead. Then I threw him. Another combo. Second stock down.

“What?”

“He couldn’t escape?”

“Is it just over once he grabs you?”

“That was sneaky.”

“No way.”

No, you can escape. If you’re good enough. Nakamura was rattled now, and he wasn’t using his controller well. Which left me with an infinite number of options. Flash, flash, flash.

They were so bright, and so many of them, too. Guess I’ll go straight ahead. If I take time choosing one, my eyes are gonna start hurting, and Nakamura’s going down no matter which one I choose.

I launched a simple dash attack. He blocked and grabbed me.

“Oooh!”

“He grabbed him!”

The peanut gallery was buzzing. It was the first time one of Nakamura’s attacks had succeeded. He was probably planning to do a combo—guess he didn’t know better. Yes, Foxy can start a combo from a throw when Found hasn’t taken any damage, but only if the Found player sucks at DI—directional influence: the control that a player has over their character’s knockback trajectory once they’ve been hit. If the Found player can use DI well, then the opposite thing happens—Foxy becomes vulnerable to a combo from Found. I guess you wouldn’t realize that unless you’d practiced with someone who did it to you. Blame the situation, man.

Boom. Third stock down.

“…” “…” “…”

The peanut gallery was silent. No surprise there. The first two times, I took Nakamura’s lives by starting with a throw and killing him with one combo. Finally, this time around, they think, “Wow, he grabbed Tomozaki!” But the very next instant Nakamura’s getting stomped. At this point, the only thing left was cleanup. Easy. Routine stuff. The channels flashing in front of me were spread across a wide-open field. No matter which direction I walked in, I’d reach my destination. I leaped upward, and it felt like I was flying as my body floated and danced through the air. When I looked down, I saw an extraordinarily complex path stretching off toward the right of the field. Since I’d end up in the same place no matter what direction I went in, I figured I might as well get some practice in. Why not take that one?

I ran toward Nakamura and did a short hop. Back air. Right wavedash. Neutral attack. Short hop. Up air. Land. Jump. Slight neutral B charge, fire in midair. Land. Dash to where Nakamura just landed and grab him. Down throw. Jump. Forward air. Forward air. Double jump. Down B. Land. Neutral B charge. Jump. Double jump. Down B. Up B. Land. Short hop. Fire the neutral B. Dash. Run off the ledge. Forward air. Double jump. Down B spike.

Fourth stock down.

Game over.

* * *

Whew. Now I’d done it. To get through that high-pressure situation, I genuinely focused on the game, and as a result I completely destroyed him.

“…Shit,” Nakamura muttered, like he was holding back his anger and distress. The peanut gallery watched in utter silence. With good reason. He’d been defeated in a four-stock game without taking a single one of mine. There was no way to explain it except that I was just that much better.

When I took his first life, people were saying things like it was creepy how good I was, but probably because Nakamura looked so deadly serious, they had fallen silent now.

I glanced toward the back of the room. Aside from Erika Konno, no one was looking at us. They were either exchanging awkward looks with one another, smiling in an attempt to ease the tension, or staring at the floor. Sorry, Nakamura. But I didn’t have a choice. I really didn’t want to do it!

“Well, I guess I’ll be going,” I said, hoping to escape the incredibly uncomfortable room. But three unexpected words stopped me in my tracks.

“One more game.”

The person who spoke was none other than Nakamura.

What the hell was he saying? One more game? After what just happened? He couldn’t be serious. It was impossible. No exaggeration, if we played a hundred times, he wouldn’t win once. There was absolutely no reason for him to play me again.

“Uh, but…”

“I said, ‘one more game.’ Pick up your controller already.”

“…Um, I want to change characters.”

“No, it’s fine like this. I’ll keep mine, too. I’m not blaming it on the characters, so don’t make fun of me.”

“…Fine.”

Nakamura didn’t so much as glance at the peanut gallery. He kept his eyes fixed on the screen as he spoke. Everyone behind us was staring at the back of Nakamura’s head in shock, and just a slight hint of fear.

I had no choice but to pick up the controller.

My brain wasn’t on fast-forward like it was in the first match, so I took a little more damage, but once again, I beat him without losing a single stock.

Of course I did. I looked back at the audience. Among all the downturned faces, I saw Hinami’s. Shit. She must’ve slipped in during our second game. She and Izumi were whispering to each other, probably getting Hinami up to speed.

But I doubted that even Hinami could fix this situation. I didn’t see it blowing over unless either Nakamura or I became the villain condemned to die.

When Izumi finished talking, Hinami seemed extremely troubled. Then she looked at me and shook her head.

I don’t know exactly what she meant, but it certainly wasn’t anything good. My situation probably wasn’t going to improve much.

“One more time.”

…I couldn’t believe it.

He’d announced in front of practically every important member of the normie group that he wanted revenge, and then he’d lost two games in a row. Why hadn’t he lost heart yet? What is going through your mind, Nakamura? Why do you still want to fight?

“Hurry up.”

Apparently, my own opinions didn’t matter.

“…Fine.”

For the third time, I won without losing any stocks.

The mood was getting heavier by the second. If even I could feel it, those sensitive normies must be ready to suffocate. I looked back. Everyone except Erika Konno and Hinami was looking down. Under normal circumstances, I’d say they were being melodramatic. Hinami’s face was blank. Erika Konno was glaring at us harshly.

“…I’ve got cram school today…,” one of her crew said, attempting to leave.

“Oh, me too…,” another one chimed in.

“Stop lying. You two have cram school on Wednesdays.” Nakamura hadn’t turned around, but his tone was still intimidating.

“Uh, well…”

“Ha-ha…”

And then—

“One more game.”

You’re lying, right Nakamura? Why are you doing this?

But there was no way I could talk him out of it.

“…Fine.”

Again I full-stocked him.

Nevertheless.

One more game, one more game, one more game—three more times. The mood was like lead weighing us down, but Nakamura didn’t change his attitude at all. Finally, in the last game, I lost one life before winning. And I swear I didn’t hold back.

Great! That should satisfy Nakamura’s thirst for revenge somewhat. Failing to KO your opponent even once over the course of so many games would cause more than a little damage to your pride; I get it. So…

“Nakamura, let’s…”

“One more.” He was staring fixedly at the screen.

“No, I’m done.”

“Did you think I’d be satisfied with one life? I told you not to make fun of me. One more round.”

For the first time since we started playing, he moved his gaze away from the screen and looked at me. There wasn’t the slightest glimmer of self-doubt in his eyes; he was ready to fight. Apparently, this was more than mere stubbornness.

“…Fi—”

“Hey Shuji, give it up already, okay? I’m starting to think you’re a geeky weirdo yourself.”

I looked over my shoulder. The voice belonged to Erika Konno.

“I mean, come on. Why are you getting so serious about a game? It’s dumb.”

Nakamura turned his piercing gaze on Konno. “…What’s it got to do with you?”

“What? You stop me when I’m trying to go home and tell me to watch, then say it’s none of my business? Seriously? I don’t actually think you’re insane, but you’re sure as hell acting like a creep,” she scoffed with a mocking laugh. Nakamura’s big show of intimidation hadn’t had the slightest effect on her.

“I don’t remember stopping you. Why are you following me around anyway, Erika? That’s what’s creepy.”

Her face contorted.

“Wow. You sure are full of yourself. You think you’re hot shit ’cause I said I liked you the other day? God, what a freak. Congratulations on misinterpreting everything. I only said it because I thought I’d be lucky to go out with the guy at the top of the pecking order. I’d never, ever have said it if I knew you were such a weirdo.”

She sounded giddy, but her words cut like a sword.

“I couldn’t care less what you think. Doesn’t change the fact I don’t like you,” Nakamura said.

Erika Konno scratched her head with her pointer finger uncomfortablly.

“I mean, you can play him a million times; you’re not gonna win. He’s so much better than you it’s hilarious to watch. If even I can see that, you must be pretty bad, huh, Shuji?”

“…”

For the first time, Nakamura hesitated. Swooping in for the kill, Konno turned to one of her crew for confirmation.

“Right, Miho?” Her timing was cruel.

“Uh, yeah, it’s so weird. Like, I wish he’d just go home.” The girl’s contempt sounded completely heartfelt.

“Right? …Anything else?” Erika Konno was fanning the flames. I could hardly believe the techniques she was using.

“Uh, yeah, I mean, Nakamura’s so lame to start with. Seriously, I wish he’d die.”

“Right?!” Erika Konno crowed.

That was the cue for the rest of her crew to lay into Nakamura. Izumi was silent.

“He told us to watch him get his revenge, remember? What an idiot.”

“Totally! Now look at him. It’s insane. I want my time back!”

“Hear that, Shuji? You’re lame and weak, and you always have been. You. Lost. Get it?”

Erika Konno’s abuse was one level harsher than all the rest.

“What’s it to you? Go home, then. Hurry up, get out of here.”

Even Nakamura’s verbal arsenal was withering under her force.

“What’s it to me? That’s funny. Hey, wait a second, is that a tear I see in your eye, Nakamura?”

“Oh my god, it is! What? He’s crying? How old are you?”

“You’re crying because you lost a video game? Are you kidding? You’re not in preschool! I mean, I heard you’ve been practicing in here every day after school lately. Ha-ha-ha, you idiot. This is the best you could do? All your work was pointless. I’d be so embarrassed if I was you. This game is bullshit.”

With that, Konno gathered her crew and made for the door. Hinami watched, moving her lips so slightly only I could have noticed.

But just a second before that, the voice of a furious boy echoed through the room.

“Hey! What did you just say?”

Hinami’s blank mask turned to surprise, more shocked than I’d ever seen her. With good reason.

After all, it wasn’t Nakamura or one of his crew who had just spoken. It was me.

“Huh?”

Konno glared at me, enraged that one of the rabble had dared to snap at her.

“…What? Tomozaki? Did I say something that offended you? Huh, freak?” she said in the kind of light tone you reserve for the smallest small fry.

“Is ‘freak’ the only word you people know?” I retorted caustically, forcing myself to return her glare.

“What? Obviously not! Why are you talking to me like that? Ugh, gross!”

“You sure are cocky all of a sudden, Tomozaki. I can barely handle how much of a freak you are right now.”

“I mean, why are you protecting him? Come on, it makes zero sense.”

“Right? He’s not even saying anything! It’s hilarious.”

“Freaks hang out with freaks, huh? I’ll stay away, thanks.”

The malice in every one of their words cut through me. I’d lashed out before, but this time, my hands were shaking.

“This is stupid. You wouldn’t understand anyway.”

“Huh?”

All that tone training, facial expression training, posture training, speech training…for the first time since I started, I understood the point of it. I was nothing compared to these girls when it came to those skills. They’d polished their abilities day in and day out. They could deploy them at will, so much better than me it wasn’t even worth comparing us. They knew full well I was nowhere near their level, and they scoffed at me for it. Whatever I said probably wouldn’t matter—they weren’t going to pay attention to me.

“You know,” I began slowly, making my voice as loud and earnest as I could, “there’s nothing I hate more than a person who loses and then blames it on the circumstances or the character or something like that instead of making any effort to improve.”

“Huh?”

“So what?”

“What’s he talking about?”

“Shut the hell up!” I shouted at the top of my voice. “…When I beat Nakamura before, he made excuses. He said it was the character’s fault. I thought he was worthless. But what about this time? He lost so bad, in front of all these people, but he didn’t make a single excuse! He just kept fighting and fighting! And eventually he took one of my stocks! You people probably have no idea how amazing that is! Not just anyone can do that!”

There are things even I can’t overlook.

And what Eriko Konno had said are among them. There was no way I was letting that slide.

“Huh?”

“What’s he talking about?”

“I mean, what’s the point if you don’t win, right?”

“Nakamura doesn’t make excuses anymore!”

I took a long breath and screamed my next words.

“But that doesn’t matter right now!”

My totally nonsensical words rendered Konno’s crew speechless.

I looked Erika Konno straight in the eye. She glared back at me. I was scared, but I refused to look away.

When it came to this, I had guts.

“Konno. You said something a minute ago. You said this game is bullshit.”

My level and my equipment were both inadequate for this battle, and I had no way of making up for that. Defeat was staring me in the face, but I refused to give in on this point. These people probably didn’t know about story battles, where players don’t collapse even when their HP drops to zero. It happens a lot in RPGs.

Of course, even I didn’t know if this was one of those!!

“Listen! I hate people who lose and make excuses instead of trying to improve! …But!”

I poured as much of my genuine personal hatred as possible into the words I screamed next.

“…But I hate people who make fun of Atafami even more!!”

Konno’s crew had gone completely blank. This was a glaring contest between Konno and me.

“Listen! This is an incredible game! The balance is good. If you practice, there’s no limit to how good you can get, and there’s no move you can’t escape. If you practice enough, there’s no combo that can instantly kill you. The characters are all unique and full of ideas. Every one of them could be a main character in another game! The game has plenty of secrets and plenty to do as a solo player, enough to compete with the online mode. And the online environment is outstanding, so you can fight stress-free! The user support is good, too! And! You have normal techniques, but the specials and super-attacks are flashy and fun even if you’re not hardcore. Atafami combines consideration for hard-core players with the showy effects that casuals like. The two opposites exist in perfect balance. It’s an immortal masterpiece!!”

“Huh? You freak. Is that all you wanted to sa—?”

“But absolutely none of that matters right now!!”

I screamed so loud my voice started to get hoarse. Even Eriko Konno looked shocked.

“You’re so full of shit! What the hell do you mean, ‘All your work was pointless’? Don’t even try with that BS! You’re being a huge bitch, and you don’t even know what you’re talking about! And I’m not just talking about right now! It’s been weeks!! Nakamura’s been working his ass off!!”

Nakamura threw me a surprised glance.

“I know what I’m talking about!! Listen to me! That move he used to get out of my combo on the second stock of the second game? It’s insanely hard!! Normally, it takes months to master!! And it’s even harder to do under pressure like today!! It’s not something you do by accident, do you hear me?! And that’s not all! The move he used in the last match to spike me? That’s a super-hard combo; not even I can nail it every time! It’s called MLJ! Moonlight Jail! It’s a crazy-hard combo!! He’s incredible! Nakamura is incredible, okay?! Clean out your damn ears and listen to me!! You probably wouldn’t understand, but Nakamura? He has a goal! Every damn day! He didn’t run! He kept going and going and going and going even when he didn’t want to! And he achieved this! Maybe it’s not the biggest deal! But he got results!!”

I was practically shrieking.

“So stop laughing at him!! Stop laughing at people’s hard work!! People who actually work for things? They’re doing it right! What they do is something beautiful! More than anyone else, without question!!”

My field of vision was turning white—or black, I couldn’t tell.

“I hate people who lose and then make excuses instead of working to improve!! And I hate people who make fun of Atafami!! But more than any of that!!”

I kept shouting with everything I had.

“The thing I hate most, in the whole damn world, is idiots like you who don’t know how to do anything but then have the nerve to laugh at other people’s hard work!!”

* * *

Silence. Erika Konno didn’t say a word. Her crew watched her. Nakamura stared at me, frozen with surprise. Nakamura’s crew fidgeted uncomfortably. Hinami’s eyes were moist. Seriously? Come on. Hinami was a master actress. Incredible.

The first one to move was Erika Konno.

“…God, what are you even talking about, freak?”

That was the signal for the girls in her crew to come back to life.

“Seriously!”

“Why’s he so worked up about a dumb game?”

“What a freak.”

It was no good. So this was “the mood.” Erika Konno’s comment had just established a new rule stating that “taking something seriously is bad.” I sensed it with my whole body.

My moment was over. I’d fired every bullet I had. Hinami, the rest is up to you. I managed to get this far.

You’d probably have done better.

I glanced at her. She was smiling slightly and nodding. Then she faced forward and opened her lips.

“Actually, I don’t think it’s such a bad thing—to be serious about something, I mean.”

The cheerful, friendly voice echoed through the room.

—Cheerful, friendly, but slightly frightened.

Huh? Frightened?

“…Huh? What do you mean? Yuzu?”

Erika Konno’s eyes flashed toward Izumi. What?! I-Izumi?!

I looked next to Izumi, where Hinami was standing. Her lips were frozen in an open circle before they had formed any words.

“No, I mean, like… It’s a beautiful thing in, like, a boyish kind of way, y’know what I mean…?”

“What? You’re defending Tomozaki instead of me?”

A visible shudder shook Izumi’s shoulders.

“No, it’s not that! But lately, I’ve been playing Atafami—is that what it’s called? I’ve been trying it out, and there’s a lot of depth to it! You should try it too, Erika!”

“What? Are you trying to change the subject?”

“N-no, of course not! I mean, he was talking about Atafami, right? So like, there’s this thing called a short hop, and it’s actually really hard. It’s hard to get it right! Oh, but I’ve been getting pretty good at it recently!”

“…Huh?”

It was painful to watch her flounder. Izumi was so good at reading the room; there was no way she didn’t know what was happening.

“Plus, it always seems like the strongest techniques take too long to start up, so it’s hard to get them right. But I figured something out! First you use one that kicks in quickly, and then you link the strong move from there! That’s a combo, right? …Is that obvious? Ha-ha…”

She was going on pure willpower. It was tough, but she was persevering. On the surface, though, it appeared pretty strange. The crowd was incredibly confused by Yuzu Izumi’s awkward struggle and the incomprehensible single-minded franticness of her words. It was like the focus of the scene had blurred.

“Right! So what I’m saying is, Found is a pretty hard character to master. I’ve got a long way to go. But Foxy is even harder, because, like, he drops faster! And that means he dies from accidents more often. No joke, Atafami is hard. I plan to work at it, though. The reason’s a secret of course, ha-ha…”

Every person in the room had their eyes on Izumi. For someone who cared so much about what people thought, this had to be excruciating for her.

“Also, when it comes to the other characters…”

Unable to stand it any longer, Hinami took a step forward. But a second before she did, Erika Konno’s hand reached Izumi’s shoulder.

“Enough already, Izumi. I’m getting bored.” She turned to her crew. “Let’s get out of here.”

The Konno battalion filed out of the room, leaving Izumi behind. Nakamura’s crew took that as their opportunity to leave, too.

The door slammed, and for a second the room was silent. Then Izumi collapsed onto the floor.

“…I…I was so scared…!”

She started crying. Really?

Nakamura walked over to her. “Hey, what was that all about? It’s not like you to push yourself like that.”

“But…but…!”

Nakamura put his hand on Izumi’s shoulder. Hey now, don’t touch my student without asking first! Oh wait, maybe it’s okay, they seem like they’re into each other. Yeah, it’s fine.

“Shhh, you don’t have to talk about it. You did a good job.”

“Ngh…! Shuji…!”

“It’s okay now. Hey, you don’t want everyone to see you crying, do you?”

Nakamura reached his hand out to Izumi.

“Nuh-uh, I’m okay…!”

Izumi rubbed her tears away fiercely with her sleeve, pulled herself together, and stood up on her own two feet. The two of them walked out of the room…or were about to, when Nakamura turned back and looked sharply at me. In a voice so quiet it barely reached beyond his own mouth, he muttered something. It definitely wasn’t loud enough to reach me, but for some reason, I heard it with extreme clarity. As far as I could tell, the will behind it was real.

“Next time, I’ll win.”

With that, Nakamura and Izumi left the room.

Um…?

“…What just happened?” I said.

“…I have no idea,” Hinami answered, gaping. For once, she was defenseless.

As I was looking at her face and trying to piece together the events myself, I realized something.

“Oh, hey…”

“…What?”

“This time…”

I consciously imitated Hinami’s favorite ironic tone.

“You didn’t do a thing.”

For the first time since I met Hinami, I could tell from her expression that my words had landed a direct hit.