Work Text:
There was a girl Shinya had never seen before at the arcade. She was staring thoughtfully at the Gun About console, watching monsters get their heads blown off on the attract screen. Shinya looked at the girl without speaking for a few seconds. His feet were slow to move and they felt heavy as he walked toward the strange girl, feeling like he did earlier that day during phys ed. The girl heard his footsteps and looked towards him with her big brown eyes, and he immediately stopped.
“Are you the King,” the girl asked, looking directly at him, or rather, his hat. Shinya nodded, and the girl gave a small smile, seeing eye-to-eye with him again. “I heard you’re really good at this game. The other players here say you’re incredible at it.” Shinya scoffed. “Well, yeah. I’m not called the King for nothing, y’know.” He took the plastic controller out of its slot, pointing it at the ceiling and puffing his chest out. “There’s not a single other player in the world who could keep up with me.”
“That’s a pretty big claim to make,” the girl said while she pulled a coin out of the bag dangling from her shoulder. “Would you mind playing a game right now?” Shinya turned toward the screen, pulling another gun from its slot. “It’s what I came here for,” he replied. “You’re free to watch as-"
“Oh no, I’m not going to watch,” the girl said. “I want to play against you.”
Shinya turned toward the girl, who was beaming with confidence. A crowd was beginning to form around them, whispering about him and his challenger. His heart began to quicken as he was caught off guard by his bold new enemy. “There’s no way you can win, you know,” he boasted after a quick cough. “You’re just a noob and I’ve put tons of hours into this game.” The girl nodded, reaching out for one of Shinya’s guns. “You have a point,” she said while Shinya placed the controller into her hand. “But I’ve been going to a shooting range with my dad-"
“Wait, a shooting range? With real guns?”
“I mean…it was more of a target gallery. But I’m no stranger to guns.” The girl looked toward the screen, clutching her gun with both hands. She stood firm and her face showed her determination. She kept her eyes glued to the screen, focusing on the baddies they’d have to shoot, and they darted around, jumping from target to target as she took the sights and sounds into
“QUIT MAKIN’ GOOGLY EYES AND PLAY THE FREAKIN’ GAME!”
“LANGUAGE,” the girl shouted back at the rude kid about their age. Shinya jumped with a startle before his face erupted into a deep red blush. “He’s got a point,” he quickly said. “We really should-"
“Oh, one last request…I hear you can get sweary if you get really excited. Could you…try to not do that this time?” She gave Shinya a genuine look of concern. “Kanji-oniichan says kids our age shouldn’t be swearing.”
He squinted at his opponent, but he sighed, his look softening. “Sure,” he said, pointing his gun at the display. “I can do that for you.”
---
As expected, Shinya had won. What wasn’t expected was that it hadn’t been a complete blowout. In spite of how green the girl was, she’d been able to keep pace, her stunning accuracy carrying her through. When she wasn’t aiming for obvious glowing weak spots, she was shooting out eyes, targeting thin spots in the monsters’ hides, and generally emptying her weapon into all the squishy bits she could spot no matter what. At one point, she got hit by a giant alien wasp that released poison and messed with her controls, but Shinya, upon hearing the familiar warped squelch of that insect’s attack, told her almost on instinct, and she adapted quickly.
He’d heard some onlookers say he was going easy on his rival for the day, which made him glare at the screen even harder. He did admit to himself that he might have spent too much precious seconds glancing at his opponent instead of channeling all his effort into the game.
A pang of shame ran through him as he looked at the results screen. As expected of the King, he’d gotten an outstanding score, but it didn’t reach the astronomical highs of his usual performances. It was a score worthy of an exceptional player, but not the greatest player in the world. In fact, it was separated from his challenger’s score by a paltry 5750 points.
However, the girl didn’t seem to care. “Wow,” she said, in genuine awe as the gossip of the crowd formed background noise. “That really is incredible.”
“You should see me on a good day,” Shinya bragged, hiding his shame. “If I’d been at the top of my game today, I would have left you coughing on my dust.”
The girl looked at Shinya, her cute face squished into a look of doubt. “Anyways,” Shinya continued. “You got a high score. It’s time for you to enter your name.” The girl gave a little noise and shot her name onto the screen. Do-ji-ma Na-na-ko. Shinya wondered if he could have gotten her name earlier, but did away with that dumb thought. He knew her name now, right? No need to dwell on the issue, he thought as he fired his own name into the scoreboard almost offhandedly.
“Well done, Shinya,” a smooth, familiar voice sounded from his left. “The King comes on top as always.” He turned to see Takashi, waving hello. “Where’ve ya been,” Shinya asked, sticking the controller back into its slot. While walking towards his student, the King heard his challenger laugh behind him. He saw Nanako embrace a tall, gray-haired man and spent a good while looking at the two talk to each other while she gave him the biggest smiles Shinya had seen from her. He watched them walk toward the exit and out of the arcade, attention fully wrested from the game, which now had another two players firing away.
“Shinya,” Takashi said, startling the boy. “Do you want to talk to her some more?” Another splotch of red painted Shinya’s face, but he was barely able to nod, looking down at the floor. The two walked away from the crowd and towards Nanako and the grey-haired man, who were well on their way towards another district. “Hey,” Takashi shouted at the two, gaining their attention. “Shinya would like to talk to your little sister some more.”
“Okay,” both of them answered, but despite the grey-haired man’s agreement, Shinya could feel the piercing weight of his stare stabbing into him. As he walked toward Nanako, he averted his eyes from her older brother’s face and onto that of his new challenger. “I…really liked playing with you today,” he mumbled, his attention split between the concrete and Nanako’s curious look. “I don’t know where you come from, but if you’re ever in Akibahara again, I’d like to…do another game with you.”
Nanako’s expression went unchanged for a moment before it shifted into a small, subdued smile. He could have sworn there was a blush on her cheeks as she reached into her bag and took out a phone. “Wanna give me your phone number?” Shinya hastily plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out his own phone. Not even her brother’s aggravated look could stop him, even if it did make him break out into a cold sweat when he spotted it from the corner of his eye.
“Goodbye, Shinya! I’ll be sure to call you when I get back to Inaba!” A grinning Nanako waved her goodbyes as she ran off out of sight with her older brother, and Shinya simply stood there, looking at the spot where he last saw her.
“You’re so lucky,” Takashi commented from behind him. “My first crush was on my teacher in-” Shinya punched him in the leg. He responded with a smirk.