Work Text:
“All right team. We won’t be having a game this weekend because of the summer festival. Your homework until our next practice is to enjoy yourself. With that, you are dismissed, the coach said.
Akito ran over to Ena who was waiting on the sidelines for practice to end. “How was practice?”
“Good.”
“Are you excited about the festival tonight?”
“Yeah.”
Ena sighed. “You could elaborate a little more?”
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
Since he had gotten off of practice he had wanted to do one thing, play Minecraft. He wasn’t a huge fan of video games, Akito much preferred going outside, but his teammates were talking about it so much that he was starting to feel left out. So, he downloaded it and, to his surprise, enjoyed it. The game was fun and simple. There was no specific way you had to play it, you could do whatever you wanted.
Ena unlocked the door to their house and, once the door was open, Akito pushed past her and ran upstairs.
Ena yelled after him. “Geh, Akito! Don’t run in the house!”
He ignored her. He couldn’t care less. The computer began to properly boot up once Akito powered it on. The Minecraft title screen was showing up on the monitor before he knew it.
The blocky-shaped cursor hovered over Net Game SMP. It was a server his teammates recommended to him. He clicks the cursor and the world loads in.
Akito’s house wasn’t impressive compared to the surrounding ones. The extravagant wood houses compared to his dirt hut. Not that it mattered, he could play the game however he wanted to. There was no pressure to show off how good he was, none at all.
He was much better than the people on this server. If he had diamonds, that would be easier to show off. Akito, unfortunately, did not have diamonds. There was never enough time in the day for him to go mine for diamonds. Akito’s eyes hit the fanciful house that was built into the mountain. There were other ways to get diamonds.
He walked over to the house. It was trapped. The tripwire, pressure plates, dispensers disguised as decorations. This was clearly the work of a pro player. He dropped a piece of rotten flesh from his hot-bar onto the pressure plate. An arrow flew out of the dispenser. He walked over to where the arrow landed to pick it up, it was poisoned.
The front door was too well covered to get in safely. There were the windows, but he didn’t have any blocks in his inventory to get up there. Well, then, there was only one way. He punched the wall.
It took maybe ten or so minutes to get through everything protecting the pro’s house. Akito went straight up the stairs to the chest room he saw through the windows. He broke the windows in order to make a quick escape. All that was left for his master heist was to steal the diamonds.
The chest was very well organized, making the multiple full stack of diamonds easy to find. The diamonds were quickly put into his inventory. He sprinted towards the windows.
<Daybreaker was shot by pomelo using Robin Hood>
Wait. What? The entire chat spammed their “www”’s and variations of.
Akito had to let this player know who they were messing with.
<Daybreaker> What the hell was that for?
<pomelo> You were stealing my things.
<Daybreaker> I’m sorry. Please don’t shoot me again.
<pomelo> I won’t if you help me build a house. You’re good at punching things.
With that final message sent, Akito collected wood, replanting the saplings as per the request of pomelo.
A few hours passed by in silence. The only message shared between them being air punches and jumping. The house was a pleasant thing. It was made of wood, and had a few windows for lighting. pomelo put the extra effort into decorating the house with a stylish roof and path.
The door to Akito’s room was pushed open. “Akito, are you ready to go? The festival is starting soon.” Ena was standing at his door dressed in her yukata.
He had gotten so immersed in the game that he forgot to change. He was still wearing the shirt and shorts from practice. Admitting he enjoyed the game was embarrassing, so…
“Yeah, I’m ready. Let me log off first.”
He quickly typed a message to pomelo.
<Daybreaker> Sorry gtg. I’ll be in tomorrow.
<pomelo> bye ttyl
With that final message sent, he logged off.
***
That whole event was a mess. He signed up for the gaming tournament because Toya asked him to, but they still lost. They got the tickets in the end, but the sting of defeat was still there. The last time he played video games so seriously was, he paused to think, when he played on Net Game SMP.
Thinking of which, how was that server doing. He hadn’t been on in years. He booted up his dusty old computer.
After logging onto the server, he could see a lot has changed. For starters, there was an actual lobby with leaderboards instead of immediately spawning you into the wilderness. On top of that, there were a lot more people. A big streamer must play on here, he couldn’t think of any other reason it would get so popular.
He walked on over to look at the leaderboard. In big blocky letters read “most kills” and ranked at the number one spot was pomelo.
He smiled a bit to himself, happy that they still played with their skill. The last thing he did with them was build a house. What happened to his house?
Akito walked around the server, looking for the place he originally claimed as his territory. After a bit of searching, and getting lost, he found it. His house was still there with one small addition. A grave reading RIP Daybreaker. They assumed he died.
He was going to die because as he was looking at the grave a player rushed up behind him and started punching. He couldn’t fight back well, he hadn’t readjusted to the controls yet.
<Daybreaker was punched to death by pomelo>
<Daybreaker> What the hell
<pomelo whispered to you> What happen to “I’ll be on tomorrow”
<You whispered to pomelo> Long story short, I got really into music
pomelo places down two wooden slabs and a fence post. They place another wooden slab on top of the fence post. She finally messaged back after taking her place at the makeshift table.
<pomelo whispered to you> I enjoy music as well. I sing in a theater troupe.
Akito took his place at the table as well.
<You whispered to pomelo> I’m not super into theater. That’s more my boyfriend’s thing.
<pomelo whispered to you> What music do you enjoy, then?
<You whispered to pomelo> I want to surpass RAD WEEKEND
<poemlo whispered to you> That’s funny. My friend is dating someone like that. They’re really talented
Akito and pomelo’s chat went on for hours, talking about all sorts of things. From music, to video games, to just life in general. The only reason it ended was because pomelo had troupe practice. It was fine, Akito had a date to prepare for anyway.
***
“And that’s the story.” Akito had just finished recounting the story to Tsukasa.
Tsukasa pushed his lips together in thought. “And you said her name was pomelo?”
He took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah. Is something wrong?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing’s wrong. You’re almost done with your drink, right? Let’s go to the arcade. You got all you can play passes from your tournament, best to use them.”
He quickly gulped down the rest of his coffee, burning his tongue in the process. “Yeah, let’s go.”
Tsukasa pulled out his phone and texted someone.
Akito gave him a skeptic look as he stood up. “Whatcha' doin'?”
He smiled at him. “It’s a surprise. You’ll see soon enough.”
Hand in hand, the couple walked to the arcade on the opposite side of the mall. Standing outside by the entrance looking worried sick was Kusanagi. She spotted Tsukasa and rushed up to him.
“Are you ok? What happened?” She was quick with her concern.
Tsukasa cleared his throat and then dramatically gestured towards Akito. “pomelo meet Daybreaker. Daybreaker meet pomelo.”
Did he just say pomelo?
“Huh!?” They both managed to say in unison.
Akito was the first to speak. “So, Kusanagi, how’s practice?” It came out stiffer than anticipated.
“Good,” she mumbled.
Despite how noisy the mall was, the surrounding silence was louder.
Tsukasa grabbed Akito’s and Kusanagi’s hand. “Let’s go play now. Your embarrassment is starting to rub off on me.” He dragged the both of them into the arcade.
“Stop. I want to play that game.” Kusanagi pointed to an arcade cabinet containing Puyo Puyo Tetris.
He let go of their hands. “That could be fun. I want to see you and Akito play each other.”
Great. He did some practice before the tournament, and he still lost at Puyo Puyo. That was against Otori though, maybe trying his skill against Kusanagi would be more worthwhile.
He smiled. “Yeah, sure it could be fun. I’ll play you.”
Right, just stick with what Toya taught him. Bonus points if he managed to impress Tsukasa. There was absolutely no way this could backfire. None at all.
They both swiped their free-play cards and set the PvP mode. The battle began. Kusanagi was good, she worked fast and was setting up chains left and right. Akito, meanwhile, had to focus on pulling off Toya’s usual strategy. The speed at which Kusanagi sent attacks was applying pressure.
Akito worked faster, he spun the Puyo too fast and messed up the chain. No matter, if he sent it now it could still work. He placed the Puyo a split moment after Kusanagi placed hers. The chains began. In a five chain combo, Akito was quite proud of himself, but pride wouldn’t give him the win. The victory belong to Kusanagi who got a seven chain combo.
0:1
Tsukasa clapped. “That was amazing. You were both working so fast, I had a hard time keeping up.”
Kusanagi blushed. “Thank you. You were really good Shinonome.”
“Ah, right, You too. Can I choose the next game?”
Kusanagi nodded. Akito guided the group over to an arcade cabinet with a shooting game. It was Field Game.
“During the tournament, this game was more my style, but thanks to that exploit, I didn’t get to play for long.”
“You were pretty good from what I saw. I want to see what you’re capable of.”
It was your typical battle royale game. You spawn on a map, are given a gun, and have to be the last one standing. Most of the people sharing their server were pretty new to the game. It made sense, apparently the exploit caused controversy online, which garnered more attention to the game.
Kusanagi prioritized having a hiding spot and sniping. Akito couldn’t take such an approach. The winner of their dual had to have the most kills, he had to go to the front lines. It was more fun rushing the enemy anyway. With a grand total of 13 kills, Akito had bested Kusanagi. Funny, considering her most kill rank on Net Game.
1:1
The next game that they went to was a DDR machine. Not for the purpose of their competition, but instead, another purpose.
Akito took Tsukasa’s hand. “Come on, you have to play something. I’d feel bad if my boyfriend third-wheeled on what was originally supposed to be our date.”
Arcades were fun and all, but there wasn’t much to do in groups of three. Knowing Tsukasa, he would stand on the sidelines and watch the whole time in the effort to make others happy. He really was too good for Akito.
“One game, and then you and Nene can go back to your competition. Although DDR is far too easy of a game for a star like me,” Tsukasa said as he walked up the machine.
Akito swiped his card. “Let me see you back that confidence up, pretty boy.”
Akito and Kusanagi watched his performance. Maybe that confidence wasn’t unfounded, as Tsukasa went to the hardest song and pressed play.
His every step was perfect. Akito thought he was a good dancer, but compared to what Tsukasa was doing, his skill meant nothing. It was the kind of skill that would form a crowd of curious on-lookers. Said crowd clapped once the all perfect effect flashed on screen.
“How did I do?” Tsukasa asked it casually, but it was clear he was looking for praise.
Kusanagi wasn’t able to form any words, Akito on the other hand. “You’re amazing, but the speed at which you learn things scares me.”
Tsukasa let out a hearty laugh. “I am amazing and because I’m so amazing, I’m going to ignore the second half of that sentence.”
“Well then, Kusanagi, the match is now in my favor with two wins. How do you plan on catching up?” Akito taunted.
“Wait a moment. We’ve only played two games. How do you have two wins?”
He gestured to Tsukasa. “Tsukasa got an all perfect and since he’s my boyfriend that means I got an all perfect by extension. Unless you think you can also get an all perfect, then it’s my win.”
Kusanagi crossed her arms. “You get Tsukasa’s win because you’re dating? That makes no sense. I was his friend before you were his boyfriend, so I should get the win.”
“Liar. I knew him through Toya, long before you knew him through your troupe.”
“You weren’t friends, though. From what I heard, you avoided him.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“You did.”
“Stop!” Tsukasa’s shout stopped their bickering. “How about you settle your disagreement through that fighting game over there. The loser gets my win and the winner gets their win. That way, you’ll both be tied.”
Akito groaned while Kusanagi rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
They walked over to the game. It was your typical fighting game, nothing special. They could just have fun with this one since it would be a tie anyway. Akito chose his character as Kusanagi chose hers. The game started and ended before Akito could figure out the controls as Kusanagi used her ultimate attack.
“What the hell was that!?”
Kusanagi stood back up. “There’s an exploit in this game where you can use your ultimate attack before the game starts. It’s frame perfect, so the developers never bothered fixing it.”
Akito crossed his arms. “That’s cheating.”
“And claiming Tsukasa’s win as your own isn’t?”
“Fair.”
2:2
Tsukasa led them to their final challenge. A game that needed skill, luck, and an absurd amount of money. The crane game. The two took their spots at identical looking machines. The first to get a prize wins.
The game commenced to them both failing and failing and failing and failing. Toya was always so good at these, but Akito believed they were complete bs. There was no trick because it was a scam. He believed that so confidently, and yet Toya rarely failed at them. Think Akito, carefully. What did Toya do differently that caused him to be good at this game?
The claw, it was always angled in a certain way. With that new thought in mind, he went in with a different approach. An approach that let him win as he pulled up the stuffed lion.
“Akito is the winner!”
Kusanagi stopped playing. “Not fair. These games are pretty much impossible.”
Akito took his new prize from the machine and handed it to Tsukasa. “For you, my love.”
He happily took the toy. “Thank you.”
Akito redirected his attention to Kusanagi ready to taunt her for her loss. Instead, he was greeted with eyes filled with fierce determination.
“A rematch. I want a rematch.”
A rematch it is then.