Gamers!

Short Story Collection: Chapter 3 – Keita Amano and Local Communication Battle

[This took place a while before Amano received Tendou’s first Game Club invitation.]

When I’m browsing the comments of a large online game store, I unexpectedly found a well-received game that I missed.

The first impression of this game is like a Nintendo 3DS software for children. In reality, it’s an exciting robot combat game straight out of Corocoro Comics. I think it’s great, anyway.

The story is moving, the combat is immersive, and the godly balanced game mechanics added infinite variations to the game.

I can’t help but lean forward and stare at the screen. …This game is precisely in my zone. I can’t believe I didn’t notice the cover and the related information. How embarrassing and shallow of me. However, more importantly, I finished all my games already, so I’m pretty bored right now. This is literally a gift from God.

Well, all I can do is check it out when I pass the game store after school. I quickly opened my wallet. …Alright, no problem, I got a bit of money. It should be enough.

Once I thought about the possibility of encountering a new favorite game, I can’t help but shiver in excitement. After that, I opened the most trustworthy positive review I can find to push myself and eliminate that last shred of hesitation.

The review is filled with praises that are entirely within my expectation-

{The plot is excellent. …No, actually, the game is already in climax once you finished the tutorial! You have to utilize your items and skills to the max. Then, you will fight with or against your friends in local communication battles. This sentence basically summarized the entire game! I should say that this is what makes it so attractive! You have to play it!}

-I quietly exited the browser.

I left my room and walked down the stairs, deflatedly. Then, I put on my old sneakers and dragged my feet to tie up the shoelaces.

“Eh? Brother, you’re not leaving yet?”

My 9th-grade little brother, who’s going to school later than me, was dumbfounded when he saw that I’m still lingering around. I gave him a powerless smile. …After that, I dropped down an “I’ll be leaving” quietly before leaving the house.

To prevent me from being late, I got on a bus, which I usually wouldn’t. The normie group from the seats behind gave me uncomfortable glares. Even though I didn’t do anything, the girl next to me coughed on purpose. I tried my best to tolerate this for 10 minutes.

Finally, I arrived at the 2F classroom that I dreamed of for so long. I laid on the table exhaustedly.

(Why staying on a bus for 10 minutes is even more exhausting than walking for 25 minutes…)

It’s not just mentally. I’m physically tired as well for some reason. Usually, I would try to play mobile games as much as I can before lessons start, but I guess I won’t do that today. Staring at the classroom dazedly, I accidentally made eye-contact with the refreshing and handsome normie, Uehara-kun. I hastily turned my face towards the window.

-The window is reflecting a lonely passerby with dark circles around his eyes.

I’m Keita Amano, 16 years old, 9th grade. My blood type is A, and my zodiac is cancer. There are four people in my house. Then, …I got stuck on the personal description part. After all, there’s basically nothing for me to talk about.

I was never selected as a hero. I don’t have a tsundere childhood friend or sister-in-law, and I don’t have outstanding wit or superpower. …Ah, no, perhaps I’m an “imaginary killer” in disguise. …However, I never got the chance to verify this ability.

(…Ah, ah, can someone suddenly drag me into a superpower battle. …Of course, my safety should be guaranteed. At the same time, I need to have incredible powers as well.)

Honestly, I’m a piece of trash with Eighth-grade syndrome that’s always daydreaming even though he’s dead-tired.

I, Keita Amano, is a 10th-grade student. Like many others, there’s something that has been seriously bothering me, yet, in reality, this source of frustration can just be found about anywhere.

That is-

(…A famous game that sells by promoting multiplayer with your friends MUST BE ELIMINATED-)

-Loneliness.

This isn’t even a state that a student should be in, not to mention those teenage romantic comedies. I’m not just friendless.

Naturally, a background like this is introduced in the prologue of a light novel, but, in reality, there’s a beautiful class president and one or two other friends that always care about you. If you think that I’m in such a fantastic position while trying to play as the victim, I’ll have to stop you right there.

Right now, let me tell you the undeniable truth.

Starting from the spring of 10th grade until now, none of the students has chatted more than one minute with me.

Also, it’s not those dumb and cliché “I actually got a girlfriend or friends outside of the school” settings as well. It’s what I just said. I’m a loner because I’m lonely, a true lonely boy. I can confidently announce that I have zero friends.

I’m scared when the teacher asks us to form groups by ourselves. I’m used to eating alone. I don’t feel comfortable staying in the classroom during breaks. Instead, I find relief idling in the toilet. Sometimes, someone will come up to me and ask me for some random contact things.

So, people described my can’t-be-any-“normaler” face as “disgusting” frequently. This makes it harder to talk to others, and I began acting suspiciously. Then, this vicious cycle continues, and others are even more “disgusted” by me. At last, it made me feel that I’m saved if I become involved in a superpower battle.

It’s just that I’m not terribly bullied. It’s because, as an unremarkable student, I realized and corrected my position. At the same time, I didn’t overly mock myself as a “low-life refugee.” So, people just view me as a background passerby.

To me, gaming is the only interest that keeps me alive. So…

(…Ugh, screw local communication battles…!)

I remembered what happened in the morning again as I mumbled depressingly.

No, allow me to add something. Actually, someone does play video games with me.

…………

…Well, it’s my little brother.

As long as we each buy a copy of the game, we can still fight each other in local communication battles…

However, for a middle-class family, such capitalistic thought of brothers buying the same game twice can never be achieved!

“?”

Is it because I accidentally knocked on the table? I can see that the girl on the left is looking at me. Just as I’m about to clear everything up with an “I’m fine,” she suddenly pretended to be fascinated by something outside. …Although she didn’t say anything, she seemingly distanced herself a bit away from me. …I want to cry.

A-Anyway.

Well, it’s not exactly right when I say there’s no way for us to buy two copies. After all, brothers that purchase different versions of Pokemon do exist. That’s one way to have fun.

However, this doesn’t apply to my family. It’s because my little brother isn’t the same gaming addict as I am. His attitude towards gaming is, “Ah, it looks like brother’s having fun. I guess I can give it a try.” Also, he abandoned the game in the middle 90% of the time, and he didn’t complete it either. My little brother even deleted my save a few times.

In summary, I never thought of buying a copy for my little brother. Also, I’m not rich enough, anyway.

(If it’s combat or co-op games in consoles, I think he does like it.)

I do allow online battles. However, I’m also an introvert online, so I more or less hesitate.

Currently, Mono and NOBE are the only two that I interact with online.

Mono and I aren’t that close in the mobile game as we barely talked to each other. As for the interaction between the crazy free-to-play game developer NOBE, it’s actually just one-sided feedback from me as a zealous believer. (Also, it’s a simple “I think it’s fun” feedback.)

When I’m thinking about this calmly, I deeply felt that I’m utterly disconnected from the outside world. More importantly…

(I feel happy for some reason, even though I’m in such a situation. I’m hopeless…)

If it wasn’t for the local communication battle this morning, I’m afraid that I won’t even notice that I have no friends at this moment.

I can’t help but sigh deeply. For a moment, it fogged the window, but it disappeared right away.

“8 times, …right?”

When the after school assembly is over, I’m lost in thoughts thinking about things like this as usual.

…How many times do I have to go to school until the game release day?

The high school loner’s path is arduous. The reason that I can bring myself to school every day is thanks to the intermittent “encouragement” provided by my favorite games release day.

A guy without friends is escaping reality with video games. I don’t know how much everyone in the world hates this method. However, from my current perspective, games are why I can keep going in the real world.

I grabbed my schoolbag neatly filled with notes and textbooks, as I stood up and prepared to go home.

-Suddenly.

“Tasuku, let’s go home after we play at the arcade!”

“A-Aguri? Why are you in my classroom? This is embarrassing…”

The flippant girl that poked her head out from the door of the classroom called the central figure of my class innocently, Tasuku Uehara-kun.

After his friends joked around with him, he left the classroom with the girl- his girlfriend with a very embarrassed face.

I grabbed this window. Of course, it’s not as ridiculous. Anyway, I went through the backdoor and left the 2F classroom when everyone is looking at them.

I walked towards the entrance helplessly by myself.

The couple is holding each other’s hands intimately. Compared to his joyful girlfriend, Uehara-kun looks pretty embarrassed. They look unexpectedly sweet.

I looked at their backs boringly as I became lost in thoughts.

(…Indeed, it’s nice to have a girlfriend.)

The scene before me is simply too far for me to reach right now. I can’t even envy or be jealous of them. In reality, Uehara-kun looks a bit annoyed. Perhaps the first thought in his head is “this is a bit awkward.” But that might not be true. When he sees his girlfriend being like this, he can be blessed to the max right now too…

“Hey, hey, Tasuku, You’re amazing at gaming!”

My shoulder shivered at this sentence. I tried my best to keep my cool, and Uehara-kun is still answering with a casual attitude.

“I’m not that good. I think you saw that incredible guy in the arcade yesterday, right. He’s the guy that’s entirely focused on puzzle games.”

“Hey, Tasuku is impressive as well. Remember that time when you played Puyo Puyo with Aguri-“

As a fanatic gamer, I can’t help but eavesdrop on their conversation. …Hmph, you’re incredible at gaming, right. …You two can lie about that once you abandoned that normie life of yours-

“Tasuku actually tortured your newbie girlfriend with a 20 win streak-“

“That’s amazing! But it’s horrible at the same time!”

I can’t help but yell! Those two immediately turned around. So, I hastily dashed into the classroom next door. Although those two didn’t see me, people in the room are giving me a strange look.

My face flared up right away. I greeted everyone and left the room within a second. Luckily, those two seem to have gone.

I can finally feel relief. However, I thought of how awkward it will be if we chased each other’s tails. So, I plopped my head down while slowly making my way towards the stairs. …What am I even doing?

“…?”

Just as I lowered my head because of my weird actions, suddenly, I saw a lost student handbook at the corner of the corridor, right below the fire extinguisher.

“…………”

I paused for a moment. However, since I’m always acting suspiciously, even if I try to be a hypocrite, my status in class wouldn’t increase anyway. It’s better to just let this go and brutally ignore it.

…………

…………

“Okay, I got it.”

“Ah, t-thanks. I-I’ll be leaving.”

After handing the handbook to the class teacher in the office, I left with a nervous look.

(Phew, at least everything went fine…)

Instead of the satisfaction of doing a good deed, I’m more afraid of those conflicts that are specially designed for me. …For example, people start to think whether I stole it when I picked up the handbook. That was close.

I walked towards the stairs again as I tried to remember the owner of that handbook.

(In the end, I didn’t even see it because I don’t want any troubles. …It would be great if this is a flag for meeting a beautiful girl. …That’s impossible. I can only imagine it.”

In reality, I did take a glance at the photo when I picked it up, but I didn’t see whether it’s a guy or a girl. I can only remember a messy clump of seaweed. …Is this some kind of prank? Anyway, instead of a love flag, this is more like a flag of getting into trouble with weird students. I feel like I’m in an unsettling Tales of the Unusual episode right now. But it should be fine. I should just try to forget this. Yep. [Note: Tales of the Unusual, a Japanese TV show for suspense and fantastical stories.]

I’m such a pathetic, insignificant, daydream-loving, Eighth-grade syndrome loser.

I feel defeated after I did something good for some reason. I passed through the stairs, left the school building, and headed towards downtown.

I always walk home. After all, I don’t feel comfortable staying on the bus for multiple reasons. More importantly…

I can’t help but bitterly smile when I’m standing at the game store I frequently visit. Usually, I stop by once or twice per week. First of all, I’ll definitely come here every Thursday to check out new releases. Even if I’m not planning to buy anything, I still want to check out the package.

Aside from that, I’ll also take a tour when I found something I like online or in some other places.

As for this time, …it’s not because of the above reasons. I already checked the new releases, and I don’t find anything particularly interesting. If I have to explain why, I guess it’s because today is just another ordinary day. I just stumbled upon here subconsciously.

When I entered the store, I walked around as I browsed the products. Since I’ve looked at all the new stuff already, there’s nothing remarkably surprising. The vintage section didn’t have anything worthy of discussion either.

Just as I plan to go home, I suddenly remembered the game that emphasizes local communication battles in the morning.

(Well, even though I’m not buying it, I can still check out the package, right…)

I thought about that. Just as I’m about to move forward-

“!?”

I noticed an unusual presence. I can’t help but take cover behind the shelves. When my pounding heart is calming down, I secretly glanced at the situation again. Indeed, it’s her, Karen Tendou. I held my breath for some reason.

(W-Why is our school’s idol here?)

I can only see a beautiful girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, a perfect figure, and an incredible face. She’s so unrealistic to the point that I wouldn’t doubt she jumped out of an anime or manga. However, this girl is paying full attention to checking out games.

“…………”

I can’t stop myself from looking at her beautiful face.

Karen Tendou, she is the most famous person in our school- …No, she’s the most famous person in this region. Naturally, I don’t need to explain the reason. It’s because of that face.

I’ve only heard the rumors before. At one point, I doubted it and said, “Don’t underestimate anime. How can a girl that surpass anime exist in reality…”

However, when I saw her in high school, the barrier in my heart that isolated 2D and 3D was utterly destroyed.

She’s the legitimate “princess.”

She’s good at academics and sports. Her look and grade are both top-notch, and she’s an extremely noble person. Karen Tendou, the perfect human, created by God himself.

…Also, I’ve got absolutely no contact point with her, even though I don’t need to bring this up. She’s located at the top of the school pyramid. I’m a low-tier passerby, just like the class difference I’ve learned during humanity lessons. The best I can do is to look and admire her from afar, maybe including some light-novel fascination as well. It’ll only make me frightened and blessed at the same time if I talk to her. …I’ve never believed that I can see a person that makes me “frightened and blessed” at the same time until now. She’s a respectable presence that I can never hope to get close to while giving me such a feeling.

However, that Karen Tendou is actually browsing games.

I gulped.

(W-Why is she here? No, actually, there’s nothing wrong with Karen Tendou buying things in the game store. …However, she doesn’t match this background at all…)

This is not the only place for you to buy games on the street. Tsutaya and the mall are right in front of the station. You can get games anywhere. Also, this store isn’t cheaper than those places as well. Basically, only a guy that’s “happy as long as he’s surrounded by games” like me will come here. [Note: Tsutaya is a bookstore chain in Japan.]

But she’s right here.

(Is she looking for some rare games?)

I’m a bit, …no, I’m insanely curious. So, I tried to secretly look at the game in her hand while preventing her from noticing me. -That is…

(T-THAT’S…THAT’S THE ONE ON THE TOP OF THE WORST GAME RANKING LAST YEAR!?”

This sudden shock made my heart started pounding in a whole new meaning!

(N-No, Tendou-san! You can’t buy that! Although the cover looks interesting, that’s just a decoy! The content is bombarded with wave after wave of negative reviews…!)

Just as I’m getting anxious, Tendou-san is attracted to the content of the box as she’s reading it. …T-This face, she doesn’t know that’s the worst game!?

(W-What should I do…? S-Should I go talk to her? However, I’m stepping over the line. After all, Tendou-san and a guy like me…)

My brain is a tangled mess, and my stomach hurts. I can’t even decide what I should do. If we’re friends, I should at least give her a warning. However, I can’t say that I know her. If that’s the case, I must not say anything. B-But, for a lover of games-

(Uh, ah!)

Just as I’m frustrated on my own, Tendou-san already walked towards the cashier. I think she’s buying it!

(Ahh, Tendou-san…)

Carrying an indescribable feeling, I watched the unrealistic school idol buying the worst game last year. After she left the store, I let out a sigh and came to where she was a while ago, …which is where that piece of trash was located. Perhaps I’m imagining this, but I can seemingly smell Tendou-san’s remaining scent. …Uh, am I a pervert!? No! I pretended to cough at mid-air as I looked at the shelf again. -I suddenly realized.

“Eh? …T-The t-trash game area…?”

It looks like this area is just a couple days old. I didn’t know this existed. Aside from the games that made it in the worst game ranking last year, there are some other trashy titles. Every game has a simple description from the staff. Which means that…

(Eh? …Even though Tendou-san knows that it’s a piece of trash, …she’s still buying it?)

I froze as my heart began to stir.

I left the store subconsciously with a face full of anxiety.

I thought about what happened today as I’m on my way home

At last, I still don’t understand what she was thinking. She could be a trash lover, or she bought it because she really thinks it’s interesting.

No matter the reason, …right now, I’m sure that she has some sort of determination. A determination that won’t be easily waivered by other’s comments.

“…………”

For some reason, I stopped walking.

…Compared to Tendou-san, what’s happening with me today?

I became disappointed in a game because of a strange reason. Even though I’m the one that caused this lonely high school life, yet I’m feeling lonely when others are chatting about games. I’m even freaking out because I did something right.

It’s not because I couldn’t connect with others.

It’s because I didn’t bother connecting with others.

Although I acknowledged the painful reality, right now, I still can’t muster up the courage to talk to the others.

“…I’m the textbook’s definition of a passerby.”

I’m completely different than Tendou-san. I’m just surviving the days with a weak mind.

…………

However…

However, even for a guy like me, there’s still something…that I don’t want to give up.

That is, …that is-

“Eh? Brother, you bought a game?”

When I entered the living room of my house, my little brother bulged his eyes as he stared at the game store plastic bag in my hand and asked.

I put down the bag and answered him.

“Yep, I didn’t plan to buy it, but I got it anyway.”

“Heh, that’s unusual. Brother always decided on the game you want beforehand.”

My little brother robbed the bag in my hands and took out the game as he said that

The game that he took-

“What? Hmm, …a local communication battle robot game?”

-It’s the one that sells well with its local communication battle system. My little brother gave me a weird look.

“Brother, do you know anyone else playing this game?”

“…Well, I don’t.”

“Huh? Then why did you buy it?”

My little brother gave me a dumbfounded look as he asked me.

I smiled bitterly. Then, I shared my determination with him, which he probably won’t understand.

“At least, I don’t want to give up…anything related to gaming.”

Whether it’s because some hotheaded gods listened to my wish, I met up with the “Game Club” via Tendou-san a while later. I managed to construct a precious relationship with others with the help of gaming….

All of that happened a while later.