“All right. Perfect. Now…”
Pressing a button on the title screen, I set the difficulty to “Extra.”
Mr. Tateyama mentioned that this level was “so hard, you’d have to be some kind of monster to get a perfect score on it.”
“Hey, wait a sec, lady. I ain’t accusing you of anything, but you aren’t gonna be cheating or nothin’, right?”
The eternally pissed dude spoke up again, acting a bit more threatening this time.
I couldn’t blame them for considering it. It would have been easy to ease the difficulty for my end only, or to rig the scoring system to my advantage if we wanted to.
“Oh, no cheating at all, sir. Actually, we could change places if you like. It’s all based on points, so I won’t complain if you beat me from either station.”
“This is fine,” said the grouch as he removed his sunglasses, “so let’s just get going.”
“…Certainly. Good luck.”
I placed a firm grip on my controller, relaxed it a bit…then gripped it hard again. Making sure I was 100-percent comfortable with it, I clicked on the “Game Start” button.
Enemy monsters swarmed out from the backdrop, completely covering the screen in an instant. The game lasted two minutes in competitive mode. Whoever managed to shoot down more enemies in that time walked away the winner.
The difference between this and single-player mode was that the game didn’t end if an enemy hit you—you were shut out of the game for a short period of time instead. You could also shoot certain bonus items to obscure your opponent’s view with a giant on-screen blood spatter.
Otherwise, nothing had changed. The gameplay couldn’t have been simpler: You see monsters, you shoot them. But that simplicity meant that the difference between a beginner and a seasoned player was obvious to anyone watching.
No. There was nothing “stupid” about this game at all.
And this guy acted like he was too good for it. I had to whip him, and soundly.
By the time ninety seconds had passed, I was so far ahead scorewise that my pissed-off opponent had no chance to make up the difference, no matter how much he struggled.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen so I couldn’t see how he was looking, but this was a sorry performance for someone who talked so tough a few minutes ago. I could imagine his expression easily enough right now.
Coldly, robotically, I kept tabs on the monsters appearing on-screen. I didn’t shoot any of the bonus items. All I cared about was blowing away my foes.
The end-of-game buzzer sounded, and the game displayed the final results screen.
But the pissed dude, perhaps because he already knew he lost big, was blankly staring at his controller. The guy behind him held his mouth open, dumbfounded.
Of course he was. Slashing apart such a massive number of monsters without a single mistake couldn’t be done by gaming the system, so to speak. It was a simple matter of talent.
I had even performed the old party trick of putting the controller down midway and letting myself get whaled upon for a little while. They couldn’t say I didn’t give them a fighting chance.
“Well, that’s the end of the game. Thanks for playing! I’m not allowed to play the same competitor twice in a row, so if you’d like to try again, feel free to come back half an hour from now.”
I smiled as I made the announcement. “No way…how could I have…” the angry man said. You couldn’t get a more traditional sore-loser script than that.
“Um…if you wouldn’t mind?” I said, trying to hurry them out of the room. My opponent immediately stood up and began wildly shouting at me.
“Wh-who the hell are you, anyway?! I’ve never seen such an awesome gamer in person like you! How on…?!”
It was such a typical, predictable response. To be honest, I was already getting annoyed by it.
“Well, you know,” I replied, “I practiced a lot.” It wasn’t much of a response, but I hoped it was enough to make them go away.
But looking at my face, illuminated by the results screen shining almost too brightly in the darkness, the men began to rear back a little. Just then, I realized I had made a terrible mistake.
The dopey guy just told me earlier that his surly companion was a champion-level Dead Bullet -1989- player.
Playing in the nationals was definitely nothing to sniff at. There was no doubt that I had just trounced a pretty seasoned gamer.
He had certainly demonstrated some flashes of talent during our match, so I doubt his slope-headed friend was lying. But, if anything, I wished that he was.
“Are…are you…Dancing Flash Ene?!”
—This couldn’t be going any worse. If he made it to the semifinals—and, especially, if he qualified in the same region that I did—we had probably at least seen each other at the site of the regionals.
What’s more, I had misplaced the mask I had prepared for the day of the tournament. I played with my face visible for all the world to see.
I decimated the competition at the semis, easily scoring first place to punch my ticket to the final. They would later call it—and I’m serious here—the “Legend of the Dancing Flash.” To say the least, I stuck out a little bit.
I wasn’t concerned at first because the semifinals were thankfully not shown on TV, but, man, how could I have known this would happen?
I had been generally miffed all morning, so I was putting on this cool, composed gamer-girl image up to now, but this sudden development wiped my mind clean once more.
“Huh? Hey, is this girl famous or something?!”
“Famous? Dude, not just famous. You ever heard of ‘Dancing Flash: Eternal Rondo’? That’s the guild this lady built. They’re, like, legends in the tournament circuit. The scores they put up are nuts. They’re in the, like, top three of the team battles—”
“Aaahhhh!! Y-you’ve got the wrong person! Please, just give me a break! Like, just get out of here already!!”
The man’s blabbing away, revealing everything that was in the number-one spot of the “secrets I never want revealed” list, had brought me to the end of my rope.
“B-but…But I recognized your play style! That’s, like, the classic ‘Holy Nightmare’ technique that Ene came up with for Dead Bullet!”
I was plagued by the feeling that my guts were going to eject themselves out of my mouth. My face felt like it would start spewing magma at any moment.
I just wanted to stuff these two people into an oil drum, fill it with concrete, and go bury it in some mountain forest.
“That…that’s not me, okay?! Uh, please, I need you to get going! Pleeeease!!”
Thanks to this outburst, the door flung itself open, Haruka bursting into the room with a worried look on his face.
“T-Takane! Are you okay—!”
“Yaaagghh!! You go away, too! Please, all of you, leave—!!”
I pointed at the door as I shouted. The three of them murmured “Okay, okay!” as they obediently trundled themselves out of the room.
Sitting back down on my chair, I slouched my shoulders dejectedly.
This was a major miscalculation. I never imagined that my true identity would be revealed here, right now, of all places…
What would happen if that pissed-looking guy sent me a message later along the lines of “I apologize for being so rude to you earlier. It was a great honor to have the chance to compete against you…”?
He might do it, too, is the thing. It’d probably be a smart idea not to login for a few days.
—But Haruka’s the real problem. I don’t think he overheard any of that conversation, but if he did…The mere thought nauseated me.
I always found my handle pretty embarrassing. When the game asked me for an account name, I just kind of freestyled with it. That clan title was meant to be an ironic attempt to sound all spooky and mysterious.
Now it was all revealed…That, and the ridiculous name that people had given to my gameplay style.
“I should just d
elete my account and die…”
Tears of humiliation came down my face. After all this time of treating him like an idiot, if Haruka found out about how I went around online with all these teenage-fanfic-writer names, he’d probably freak.
My current circle of friends would almost certainly crumble. They’d all politely keep their distance from me, saying stuff like “Oh…uh, good morning, Enomoto…” like someone had just passed gas in the stairwell.
It’s all over. This is awful. What the hell is some tournament-level player doing bumping around a stupid school festival like this, anyway? It was just the most horrible luck.
For now, I had to assume Haruka heard everything and come up with the best excuses I possibly could.
But—wait a sec here—even if he did make out some of it, it was unlikely he’d understand much of what they said.
No. There was no way he could.
He wasn’t a gamer or anything. No way at all.
It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay.
“Takane, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay, I’m okay…Aghh! Since when were you in here?!”
…Thanks to focusing so fervently on my internal conflicts, I had completely failed to notice that Haruka was there in the classroom, right by my side.
“Since when? Uh…around the point you said you should delete your account and die, but…”
My face instantly ran hot as an oven. He even overheard me talking to myself.
And talking to myself about something as stupid and embarrassing as my video-game account…
“No! No, I didn’t mean that! You know, the account…like, the thing you use to chat with friends and stuff, right?”
What else could I have meant? Haruka wasn’t even listening, but the sight of me, head down, trying to make excuses, would’ve aroused anyone’s suspicions. From the bottom of my heart, I wished someone would throw me in an oil drum and bury me in the mountains.
After a moment, I looked up, wondering how Haruka was reacting. For some reason, his eyes looked alive with energy, as if flames were burning in them.
“You really handled that great, Takane! I thought those guys were pretty scary at first, but they were all polite with me and stuff on the way out! I guess they must’ve given some respect for your skills once the game was over, huh?”
Haruka was acting amazingly passionate about this all of a sudden.
He was scared and blubbering a moment ago, and now he was going on about sportsmanship like some peewee soccer coach.
But this sudden shift didn’t matter. I felt a wave of relief, noting that he didn’t mention me once during his speech.
Haruka didn’t hear a thing after all. Thinking about it, no way he’d be the kind of guy who’d have his ear against the door anyway. I was all worked up over nothing.
“Wow…They were that nice to you, huh? Yeah, I sure hope I taught them not to mess with this school. Not that they had any chance against me in the first place!”
“Ha-ha! You said it! You know, I was really anxious about all this, but this is actually really fun! You’re being a huge help, Takane!”
Of course I was. There were a few unanticipated events, yes, but we had successfully entertained the first visitors to our booth.
And considering how easy it was to fend off a challenger as talented as that was, I was confident we would hold on to our prize—as long as the national #1 didn’t show up or anything.
If you focused on the results alone, we were off to a grand start. And if those two guys are already gone, there was nothing left to be concerned about.
Given the location of the science storage room, we could hardly expect to be as crowded as the festival stands outside. I should just sit back, enjoy the atmosphere, and wait for my next challenge.
All this anxiety had made me pretty thirsty. I took a swig from the sports drink I had ready under the desk, a small reward for my epic performance.
“I sure am impressed, though…And that name’s really cool, too! ‘Dancing Flash Ene,’ huh? I’d love to see you show off some of those ‘Holy Nightmare’ moves sometime!”
The sports drink in my mouth flew across the room, robbed of its chance to tour my stomach.
What liquid that didn’t spray out went straight down my windpipe. I began to choke loudly.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what just happened, Takane? Are you all right?!”
Haruka gave me a couple precautionary slaps on the back. I would have much preferred it if he suddenly blinked out of existence.
My skirt was drenched in sports drink, and the violent intensity of my coughing was causing my mind to zone out.
If anything, I wanted to just die right there, just as I was.
“Ngh…huff…huff…H-how did…you hear about…!”
Catching my breath, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as I asked. But it might have been too late by that point anyway. Haruka had just parroted my handle name and “special moves” (ugh) back to me, precisely, without error.
“Those guys told me. Man, the one dude was really excited about you, Takane! I’m glad I got to find out about it!”
“Ahh…ahhhh…”
I no longer had the energy to wipe myself dry. All I could do was hang my head and groan. It was all over.
Time to wave my school life good-bye. The school festival had been kind of fun, but now it was just another memory I wish I could erase.
“Hey…hey, why’re you acting all depressed? I mean, that’s really awesome, Takane! You’re like some kind of celebrity, right? All those fans! It’s like I’m in the same class with this huge big shot!”
Haruka gave me another pat or two on the back, but the term “big shot” mercilessly pierced deep into my heart.
He was right, though. Anyone who saw me would naturally conclude that I wasn’t exactly a normal girl. If my hobby was something humdrum like shopping, that would have been fine. Or if I had focused on extracurricular activities instead of all this, people might think I was a really active, energetic teenager or whatever.
But what kind of attraction was there to a teenage girl who spent hours and hours playing a game where you killed hordes of the undead? I couldn’t think of any.
Haruka was going on the way he was because he didn’t understand my viewpoint. The more he actually found out about my daily lifestyle, he more he’d want to edge away from me, that much was certain.
Then he might not even treat me like a friend any longer. The thought scared me on a primal level.
“Mmm…Well, Takane, I don’t know what’s making you so worried, but I’m not gonna start hating you just because you’re different, you know? So quit acting so down, all right?…Oh, right! Hey, can you maybe teach me a little sometime? I wanna start playing, too!…Uh, Takane? Are you listening?”
Haruka was rubbing my back as he spoke.
Whether he was aware of it or not, the worst thing about this was how he was talking about all this embarrassing stuff as if it weren’t embarrassing at all. He probably acted this way with everyone. There was nothing underhanded in his behavior, you could say. That, or you could say he was just too slow in the head to fake friendliness.
Still, through it all, there was something about him saying he wouldn’t hate me that I found very reassuring.
Thinking about it made me realize how dumb I was being.
Whether out of happiness or embarrassment, I was starting to feel more tears coming for reasons unknown to me. I was unable to answer Haruka, or even turn toward him.
“Um…Hello? I’d like to have a match?”
Suddenly, another visitor spoke up from behind the door. Oh. Right. The school festival’s only gotten started. No time to sit here staring into space.
I hurriedly wiped away my tears and turned toward the door, only to realize that my skirt was still soaking wet.
“Oh…ooh…”
I was frozen, pitched forward like a runner at the starting line. Haruka briskly walked past me and ou
t the door.
There was something generally off about a lot of his personality, but he was always oddly generous to others at times like these.
I took out a handful of tissues from a box on top of the shelf, quickly wiping them on my skirt and the floor.
It wasn’t a great amount—just the sports drink I had in my mouth—and it was all wiped up in seconds.
Wadding up the tissues, I tossed them into the garbage can in the room and headed for the door, as if nothing were amiss.
Opening it a crack, I stuck my face out to tell Haruka that I was ready. There I saw our next visitor—a boy, around twelve or thirteen years old.
“Oh, is everything okay? I think this kid wants to play you, so knock yourself out!”
The fire had once again returned to Haruka’s eyes. This game wasn’t a sport or anything, but in terms of it being a competition where players tried to outdo each other, I suppose there was a sense of sportsmanship to it that appealed to him.
Maybe he understood me better than I thought. The idea brightened my soul as I began to get excited for my next match.
“Oh, are you the champion around here? Well, good luck.”
The young challenger, sporting a black parka and dyed brown hair, flashed a refreshing smile that seemed to have something lurking behind it before giving me a polite bow.
“Oh, uh, sure! Good luck to you, too! Here, come on in and I’ll explain the rules to you!”
I slid the door open and the boy entered, exclaiming “Coooool!” as he examined the décor.
“Okay, uh, we’ll be done in a sec.”
I turned back toward Haruka, eyes now blazing with competitive passion, and shut the door.
“Uh, so yeah, here are the rules! We’re gonna play each other in the game running over there, in the center of the room. Whoever beats more enemies and scores the most points is the winner! Easy, right?”
I tried to make the best big-sister impression I could as I spoke, the smile that failed me earlier gleaming like the sun. This visitor seemed perfectly normal. Or maybe my first opponent was so abnormal that everyone else seems tame by comparison.
“Whoa, that looks like fun! I guess our little friend isn’t here either, but…what do you think, Kido, wanna try it out?”
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