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“Taiyou! Did you find the controllers?” Chrono calls from his spot on the floor, untangling the wires to the PS4 carefully. He strains his ears, waiting for a response. Footsteps.
“I have them, Chrono-san! Sorry, it took me a minute to find them. They were buried under a bunch of other stuff.” Taiyou sits down next to Chrono, passing the controllers over. Chrono plugs them in, a blue light turning on. “Oh, they’re charging!”
Chrono high-fives Taiyou.
“That’s good. I seriously thought I messed up the wires for a second there… It’s way too easy to get them messed up.”
There’s a knock on the door. Both Chrono and Taiyou look up -- Chrono’s the one who stands first.
“I’ll grab the door, if you wanna turn the TV on and stuff, go ahead.”
Taiyou nods, and Chrono walks over to the door, opening it up. The final member of Team Striders stands at the door, wrapped in a blue scarf.
“Yo, Shindou.” Chrono opens the door all the way, and Kazuma walks in. “It’s so cold outside.”
Taiyou turns to wave at Kazuma. “Hello, Kazuma-san! Luckily it’s warm in here. I’m glad Chrono-san’s aunt let us stay for the night.”
“Yeah.” Kazuma says, smiling and slipping his shoes off. “I brought the games, by the way.”
He hands over the game package to Chrono, who cracks it open. The TV is already on, so Chrono leans forward to put the game disk into the PS4. Kazuma and Taiyou take their seats on the couch, controllers barely reaching their seats.
“It’s a two player, so whoever dies first switches out. We can pick the first pair with rock-paper-scissors.” Chrono says, fiddling with the volume of the TV before sitting in between his teammates. “Is that okay with you two?”
Taiyou and Kazuma both nod.
The three ready their hands. Taiyou has rock, Chrono has scissors, and Kazuma has paper. They all exchange stares.
“Uh… okay. Let’s try again.” Chrono says, staring pointedly at the ground.
Again, the three ready their hands. Chrono has rock. Taiyou has paper. Kazuma has scissors.
“...Alright, you know what? I’ll just sit out until one of you dies in game. I don’t think this is going to work.” Chrono brings his legs up to cross them.
The opening cutscene plays, and the three lean close to see the screen.
Kazuma raises a brow, then sighs. “You know, it’s kind of weird that they made a video game about Aqua Force of all clans, and then not the other ones? There isn’t even anything else from Magallanica.”
Chrono just shrugs. “I guess it’s the lore that makes them really cool? Not to mention the card art. It looks really cool like this.”
“The graphics are nice too. Kazuma-san, could it be you wish it was Shadow Paladin instead?” Taiyou asks, turning to look at the dark-haired boy.
Kazuma remains silent, staring at the screen. Taiyou and Chrono laugh.
“We’re gonna take that as a yes, you know. If you wanted to hide your feelings by not saying anything, you did a really bad job.” Chrono jabs.
“The battle tutorial is starting.” Kazuma says, concealing his embarrassment.
It’s very quick-paced, but still somewhat simple. It’s a mix of combo moves and special moves. The same buttons are used for the same attacks, but the type of attacks are different depending on the character. It’s a standard battle system, but the graphics made it seem much more impressive.
“This is kinda hard…” Taiyou’s shoulders tense as he speaks, squinting. “Chrono-san, do you understand how the game works? I’m losing HP really quickly…”
“Seriously?” Kazuma retorts. “I thought elementary schoolers were supposed to be good at video games.”
Taiyou frowns. He smashes the buttons furiously, in an attempt to survive in the game. There’s a melodic tune to signal that his character ran out of HP. Sighing, he hands the controller over to Chrono. “Do better, Chrono-san. I believe in you.”
Chrono nods, taking the controller. His character, Lambros, dashes to where Kazuma’s character is. Back to back, the two fight off enemies. “Kazuma, careful! Do you know how to use your shield?”
“I have a shield?!”
Taiyou stares, mouth gaping at Kazuma. “How did you even survive this long without using your shield?”
“Shit! Shindou, do you have a healing item? There’s an enemy -- shit.” Kazuma’s character, Thavas, falls. He passes the controller to Taiyou, who squares his shoulders.
“Alright! We can do this! Let’s go, Chrono-san!”
A cut scene starts. It’s beautifully designed, perfect down to every detail. The ocean water sparkles, especially when they rise to the surface during the tutorial boss fight. Lambros takes three steps back, readying his weapon.
“I think I unlocked some sort of hidden move?”
Taiyou and Kazuma stare blankly at Chrono.
“For real?! Isn’t it your first time playing this game?” Kazuma pulls out his phone, searching for the secret moves, unlockable only if you can figure out the buttons to press. “Uh, yeah. I guess Lambros’s secret move is really hard to achieve… and this is the tutorial…”
“Chrono-san, just what sort of luck do you have?” Taiyou watches Chrono, who shrugs. “Oh no!”
The melody plays again, signaling that Thavas ran out of HP. Taiyou pouts, giving the controller to Kazuma. “Sorry, Chrono-san… it’s my own fault for not paying enough attention.”
“The boss is almost out of HP. Good work, Taiyou.” Kazuma pats Taiyou on the head, then turns back to the screen, staring with a fiery intensity.
“Go, go! Kazuma-san! Chrono-san! You can do it!”
With Taiyou’s cheers, Kazuma and Chrono both unleash Thavas and Lambros’s secret moves. The screen flashes a bright white, the boss disappearing into the air. It’s like a splash of water, or like glitter in the air, falling ever so slowly.
A cut scene plays, and the three lean back into the couch.
“That was stressful… are all the battles going to be like this?” Chrono asks, reading the back of the box, long discarded on the floor.
Taiyou peers over Chrono’s shoulder. “Um, well… Kazuma-san did insist on the highest difficulty, so that could be why it’s so hard.”
Kazuma flinches. “Yeah, well, it wouldn’t be fun if there wasn’t a bit of a challenge.”
Chrono snorts.
“Don’t laugh! You can just luck-sack your way through this.” Kazuma places his hand on Chrono’s shoulder. Taiyou follows suit. “We’re counting on you to lead us to victory, Shindou.”
They play on into the night, and as it starts to get colder, they pause to grab the biggest blanket Chrono has. It covers all three of them, but they have to move in closer together. They’re nearly all the way through the game, having reached the final boss.
Kazuma downs a bottle of water, then crushes it in his palm.
“Let’s do this.”
The soundtrack has reached its climax, and Team Striders stare at the screen. Taiyou’s hands shake with overuse.
“Kazuma-san, I… can’t go on. Take my place… win…” Dramatically, Taiyou falls over on Chrono’s shoulder. Kazuma clutches his chest, shirt wrinkling.
“I won’t let you down, Taiyou… We can do this, Shindou! Let’s defeat the boss!”
On the screen, Thavas and Lambros make eye contact, then nod at each other as the final boss battle begins. Kazuma and Chrono work in sync, with Taiyou cheering them on, though he’s half asleep.
The water that splashes upon attacking glitters, the camera panning in on Thavas’s expression, watching Lambros carefully. The boss’s HP slowly depletes, and the screen suddenly flashes white.
Chrono and Kazuma look at each other, brows raised.
The final boss falls, a large splash blowing Lambros and Thavas back onto the sand. Thavas stands, searching around for Lambros. There’s the open ocean in the distance. Thavas’s hair blows in the wind, and he brushes it behind his ear. Lambros walks from behind him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.
They smile at each other, and stare off at the waves as the music fades out, switching as the credits roll. Names that none of the trio can recognize move down the screen, new ones appearing to replace the names that have passed.
Chrono sighs, dropping his controller in his lap. Kazuma rests his on the floor, then leans on Chrono’s shoulder.
Taiyou has long fallen asleep, breathing quietly.
“That felt longer than it probably was.” Kazuma says, eyes shutting slowly. “What time is it?”
“It’s like… 4AM… I’m so tired.”
The end credits finish, and there’s a singular CG. Adrenaline from the final battle having run out, Chrono’s eyes close. He lets out long exhale, pulling the blanket tighter around the three of them. Both Kazuma and Taiyou had drifted off on Chrono’s shoulder, and Chrono leans his head back into the couch, quickly falling asleep.
Even when the daylight peeks through the windows, the three don’t stir, remaining asleep. The world wakes up, but cuddled up together, they fall behind. The door cracks open, and Mikuru quietly enters.
She smiles at the sight, pulling out her cellphone. Mikuru snaps a photo, and quickly saves it. When they’ve all woken up, she’ll share the photo, but until then, she simply sends it to Chrono’s phone.
When Chrono sees the picture, he blushes, looks around -- and then, with an embarrassed grin, sets it as his home screen.