Chapter Text
A month goes by before everyone, including Chishiya and Ann, has time to hang out and play the next part of the campaign.
People start to flood the apartment, and everything goes from silent and quiet to the ultimate chaos in just a few minutes. They leave the setup to Karube and Chota, who talk in whispers and cover their mouths like giggling teenagers with a crush.
They have something big planned, and everyone seems excited about it.
In top of all the mystery the set-up is not the same as other times.
When Niragi emerges from the balcony to drop on the couch like a dead weight, there are five sets of chairs on each side of the table. The good thing about being used to having a whole army of annoying people pestering their home is that, over the years, Niragi and Chishiya have gathered enough chairs for everyone to sit on.
What is a plus when you play big D&D campaigns so no one has to sit in the other person's lap or at the table. But ten chairs? Without taking into account the other two at the short extreme of the table, where the DM screen is already set, that seems like too many people.
Twelve players.
Do they even have twelve friends?
“What is all this about?”
“We told you, it’s King of Clubs,” Chota says from behind the DM screen. “The player team goes at this side,” he points to the five chairs at his right. “And the rival team on the other.”
“You set up five chairs for invisible NPCs?”
“Not invisible,” Karube says, showing up from nowhere. Or more like from somewhere he shouldn’t be.
“What were you doing in my room?”
“Grabbing some NPCs.”
Now, in front of the five empty chairs, sits a very strange team of Pokémon Sitting Cuties. Muk, Granbull, Altaria, Piplup, and Stoutland plushies don’t seem like a very intimidating team, and Niragi turns bright red at the sight of it.
“Man, why would you have a Granbull plushie?” Arisu chose that exact moment to walk out of the kitchen. “Muk? Okay, he's a first gen, bot that one?”
“I’m not playing with that fucking thing!”
Niragi grabs everyone but Altaria and Piplup and walks back to his room with Arisu at his heel. Then Niragi opens a wardrobe, and Arisu screams, because that’s not a wardrobe.
“How do you have all that?”
“Wouldn’t you love to know?” He winks and places the terrible Pokémon back in place. “I don’t care if he’s just grabbing a random NPC as a joke. If we have NPCs, we’ll have good ones.”
And he throws Houndour, Aggron, and Porygon at Arisu.
“I only have all those because I’d rather have Pokémon’s that I hate in my collection than leave it incomplete,” and he closes the wardrobe slash collector shelf like he didn’t just show Arisu the gates to heaven. “Internship at Nintendo—don’t ask. I signed an NDA.”
Between this and Niragi’s computer, Arisu gets closer and closer to being the one asking Niragi’s hand in marriage if Chishiya keeps playing dumb.
But if he steps between those two, Kuina is going to skin him alive.
Everyone has taken their seats when they arrive.
Tatta puts on his cap, Kuina takes off her shirt and places it in the back of the chair so she can show off the blue bikini top and the boobs she paid for—her words, not his—and Arisu takes a seat next to Usagi.
Niragi just drops his body on the couch, next to Chishiya, who is already digging into the bucket of popcorn. Ann observes from the armchair, sunglasses still firmly set on her nose even if she's not playing.
“They’re not playing the minor characters? It’s just us?” Usagi asks, looking at the other three.
“And them!” Chota points at the Pokémon’s. Such a terrifying death game. “Should we start?”
Everyone nods. Karube rests his elbows on the table and his chin over his hands. Niragi doesn’t like that smile. It means trouble.
“We left it with Arisu, Usagi, Kuina, and Tatta choosing the King of Clubs as their next game. Arisu has questions, and who better than a King to answer them? Since it looks like the games won’t intervene with each other and the King of Spades is moving in the opposite direction, you drive without trouble. It’s a long ride. You leave Shibuya behind, cross the Okitafuto Bridge, and head towards Minatogaoka. You can see a big port area. You leave the car next to the road and step out of it one by one.”
Chota taps the area of the map where they’re at right now.
“The area, which is usually open to the public, is now surrounded by fences. The shipping containers have been moved, one next to the other, to create an unbreakable cage. In front of the door, there’s a small table with a signal you can’t see from where you stand and, behind that, the closed doors of the arena.”
The silence that follows is their cue to start the game.
“What’s that?” Kuina asks, talking about the table. They wouldn’t have mentioned it if it wasn’t important. “We approach the table.”
“Okay,” and Karube places four bracelets above the map. They’re ugly and bright and look like he just bought them in the corner store. “There are two signs and four bracelets. The first one reads, Guns are not allowed inside the arena. The second one reads Take a bracelet and wait, player requirement: 5.”
“What is this?” Arisu asks, grabbing the pink and orange one and moving it around.
“It says that we need five players,” Kuina adds.
“But we’re only four.”
They look at each other. Karube and Chota have something planned? Are they going to introduce a new NPC everyone will love just to kill them?
With how confused they are, no one seems to notice the movement behind them.
“Five, actually.”
Five heads, because Ann turns around too, snap in his direction.
“Niragi?”
Arisu asks in a way that makes him be so close to laughing. All their faces drop, like they just realized that whatever trouble Karube and Chota have planned, it’s starting earlier than they expected.
“It’s been a while.”
He stands from the couch and approaches the table, a wide smile on his face and his beloved Nerf resting against his shoulder.
“What? You’re still alive?” Tatta asks, and this time Karube and Chota are the ones who try to muffle their laughs.
“Team up with him? I don’t think so,” Kuina says, finally shaking the shock off. Of course he’s still alive. To this day no one has managed to kill him, and not for the lack of trying. Niragi's characters just seem imposible to kill.
“He’ll sabotage us for sure,” Tatta adds. What is Niragi even doing in a team game? From all the arenas he could have chosen from, why this one? “I bet he already has a plan to screw us over.”
That flatters Niragi. Of course he has a few. Someone in this group needs to plan ahead of things instead of jumping headfirst into them.
“I can´t take this off,” he raises his hand, and everyone notices how he’s wearing one of the ugly bracelets. When did he even grab it? Did Karube and Chota give it before everything started? “All I want to do is enjoy the game.”
With that shitty smile of his, he walks to the table until he’s standing behind the empty chair at the player’s side, hands inside his pockets.
“You’re not interested in playing? You’d better get out of here then.”
His friends look at each other. Niragi can either be their greatest ally or wreck their game; it depends on how chaotic he chooses to be today.
But one thing prevails: it will always be fun. So Usagi is the first one to reach for one of the bracelets.
“Usagi?”
“I don’t care about what he wants,” she says, trying to conceal her smile. She turns around to give Niragi’s arm a soft punch. What an idiot; he looks like he’s having the time of his life with this little stunt, he even winks at her. “If we don’t join the game, we’ll be going down. And that’s it. I’d rather die here than die like an animal.”
Everyone is looking at her now. “Me too,” and Arisu finally joins the game. “I want answers.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, you’re fucking idiots.”
“Don’t slow us down,” and with Tatta, the team is complete. “This game is about working together.”
Niragi takes that as a clue to finally join the table. He sits down with a smirk plastered on his face.
“I’m pretty sure you’re the slow one.”
Tatta kicks his chair.
Idiot.
Sometimes it’s so easy to forget that Niragi is actually nice with how well he plays the role of the ultimate asshole. He laughs, and Chota hands him his character sheet and dice from wherever he was hiding them.
This was teamwork, yes, but one meant to fuck with the group. They have the worst DMs ever.
“Well, now that the team is sorted…”
“There’s a chime sound, and you turn around to face the doors of the area. Now that the five players are ready, the fence starts to slide open. Registration is now closed; the game will now commence. The woman’s voice you are already so used to says. Behind the door waits a corridor made of shipping containers. As you advance, a sound announces that you are now past the point of no return. At your side, tall walls of metal that create a maze. Once the five of you have walked past the lasers, the iron fence closes itself. There’s no way back.”
Chota grabs the map of Tokyo and takes it away from the table. Under it is a new map of the area they’re in now, an aerial view of the shipping container facility.
“You arrive here,” he points at a small open area with a circle drawn in the middle. “The area is still surrounded by containers, but there are different ways and paths that lead to it. In the middle of it stands a strange tower. There’s energy around it, buzzing and noisy. Any of you are carrying something metallic?”
All the eyes turn to Niragi.
“Really?” He narrows his eyes and looks at their two friends. “Do I feel a tug in the metal? What aspect does the tower have?”
“Yes,” Karube says. “Tall.”
“No shit!”
“It’s a tall cylinder of metal, and on top of it rests a sphere. Happy?”
No.
Niragi doesn’t look happy.
He smacks his head against the table, “You put a fucking Van de Graaff generator in the game?”
“That’s how it’s called?”
“I don’t know, man. I just searched towers that go buzzzzzzzz.”
“I take off all my piercings and put them in my pocket.”
“It’s a Van de Graaff generator, not an MRI machine,” Chishiya says from the couch. “What is it going to do? Tickle you?”
“With these two as DMs?” he points at Chota and Karube, who look like they didn’t expect the introduction to the game to go like this. “They can turn it into a super powerful magnet or something. I have more than enough injuries, so I’m not risking them saying that I got a piece of metal ripped out of my body by magnetic forces, thank you.”
“Did you even plan that far?” Kuina asks, and Chota starts to laugh.
“Of course not, but let him be paranoid.”
Niragi leans back in his chair, arms crossed and frown deepened.
Idiots.
“Okay, so you arrive at the area. There’s a Vander whatever thing in the middle of it and, behind it, a screen with speakers around it.”
“What is this place?” Tatta asks, because if they’re giving so many details and the area is so big, there’s something more planned here.
But before Karube can keep going with the explanation, there’s a knock on the door, and, to no one's surprise, Chishiya doesn’t bother to move from the couch.
“What? I’m not going.”
“Don’t worry, it’s for me,” Karube says. “Sorry, give me a second.”
“You ordered food to our fucking appartment?”
Karube doesn’t give them an answer. He just disappears, and Arisu takes it as a chance to turn around to scream at Niragi.
“Now for real. How are you still alive?” Arisu asks, trying to look at his character sheet. “Chota!”
“It takes more than a homemade flamethrower to kill me.”
“We have a water gun, your lighter, and nail polish remover. Do you want me to apply the scientific method to that?” Chishiya sits on the couch, and Niragi throws one of the bottle caps at him. “Hey!”
“It was legal; ask Chota,” he taps the sheet that Arisu is trying to see. “Success in all saving throws, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
“Drop the flirting. You’re a married man!” Karube screams from the corridor, and then music starts to play from that direction. “Now pay attention! The King of Clubs team is now entering the field.”
Next to Karube, five new persons stand in their living room, and Karube stands aside to perform an over-exaggerated bow and extend his arms like he’s introducing them to royalty.
“Welcome to our game field,” one of the men says, arms wide open. “I am the King of Clubs, Kyuma.”
Three different things happen.
First, Tatta and Arisu choke on their drinks, starting to cough so hard that even Chishiya looks about to stand from the couch to punch their backs.
“The Sology?” Kuina stands so fast that her chair hits the ground. “Why is The Sology here?”
And third, Niragi stands too, pointing his Nerf at the newbies. Somewhere in the messy crowd that just formed in their living room, a voice says something about No guns allowed in the game, but Niragi ignores it.
“Ginji Kyuma, you still owe me eight thousand yen!”
“You know our band?”
“You know Kyuma?”
The man and Karube ask at the same time.
Well, this is a surprise.
“I was their sound technician when they couldn’t afford more than a broke college student!”
“Suguru!” Kyuma walks to him, arms open like he intends to hug him. “My guy! You’re a grown-up now!”
A dart hits him in the chest. Naked chest. He's not wearing a shirt.
Oh, this is going to be fun.
“What are you doing here?”
“Did you really think we were going to control 5 NPCs?” Chota says, pointing to the chairs where the Pokémon’s are still waiting for their turn. “We have something bigger ready.”
It’s not weird for them to bring other people. They already talked about it at the start of the campaign when they talked about going big. But everyone's face shows how unexpected this was.
The band waves at them, and they make a pause so introductions can be made for real. A few minutes later, with the rules of the game explained, the band, Karube and Chota, leave for the kitchen.
“You have ten minutes to distribute the points,” they say. “It’s funnier if not even we know what will happen.”
That leaves the team, Chishiya and Ann, trying to understand the rules of the game and that, for some reason, a rock band all of them follow is playing with them. Or against them. Or whatever.
“So what’s the plan?”
“The base needs to be protected, that’s obvious," Arisu says, eyes on the map. “The person protecting the base will have no problem if they’re touched, so we can give them the minimum points.”
“So 100 for the person protecting the base?”
“Yes, the problem is the other 9900 points,” Arisu looks at his friends. Right now, he’s not really sure if they’re playing or planning the game. “We can also start from the maximum points one can have, 9600. We can have someone with all the points search the arena, deal with battle, and search for items while all the other players have infinite points.”
“Sounds risky.”
“The fastest of us will become the forward, Usagi—that’s you. The other four will play goalkeepers.”
“One, don’t talk to me in football,” Niragi says, grabbing a blank sheet of paper. “Two, your plan is stupid. Pass me a pen.”
Arisu is about to do it, but Tatta grabs his hand.
“Can we trust you?”
“Tatta!”
“What? I’m not sure if we’re playing or taking a break or whatever this is,” he says. “But even if we’re on a break, we know him. Karube and Chota set the game for him to join us. Maybe they told him to mess up our game.”
“Oh yeah, I was thinking of that, but now this is personal.” Niragi starts to cut the paper into little pieces and starts to write numbers. “I’m going to kick Kyuma’s ass on my own terms.”
Well, then they’re lucky Niragi is on their team. Because when Niragi plays as a Diamonds player, it’s over.
“I can’t run fast. I take more damage. What’s the point of going for Spades then? I’m going to win this the old way: strategy.”
He shows everyone the papers and smiles.
“The point of this game is balance. And well, math in some measurement. This will be our distribution: two pairs of active players and just one guardian at the base.”
“You’re giving me 300 points because I stole the last slice of pizza the other day?” Kuina asks, looking at her paper. “I don’t get it.”
Across the table, Arisu looks at him, and suddenly his eyes are wide open. Finally, he gets it.
“I’m giving Usagi and you 300 points because you’re the runners here. If there’s a battle you don’t think you can win, you fly out of the place.”
“Why not 501 then? That way, even if they lose, they won’t die.”
Niragi lets out a long sigh.
Idiot.
He’s surrounded by idiots.
“The lower number to avoid death is actually 251,” Chishiya says from the couch. “At least if I’m reading his plan correctly.”
Niragi fires the Nerf again. Right into Chishiya’s forehead.
“Shut up, I was getting to that. We’re going to battle in pairs of a player with low points and a player with a lot of points. If we win, we both get 250 extra points. With 550 you are already safe, and the pair can part ways, and we have more players to search for items. Are you following me?”
As he explains it, he writes the numbers on the papers, and everyone nods.
Nice, not so stupid after all.
“And, if you lose, it’s only 250 each. The player with 300 points will be left with 50. So, they won’t die, and they can make it back to the base.”
“They won’t know how many points we have…”
“Exactly,” Niragi leans back in his chair, looking all smug and proud. “They can’t tell which of us got more points. If we divide the points in a more balanced way, the moment they touch one of us, it’s over; they’ll know the whole distribution already if they’re smart enough to do a subtraction.”
“Man, my head hurts,” Kuina rubs her temples; she’s already tired. “This is Clubs Niragi, stop talking about math.”
“What happens if they’re thinking like Arisu?” Usagi asks. “If they give a lot of points just to one person?”
“We change the pairs order,” Niragi and Chishiya say at the same time. He’s going to kill him for real one day. “Do you hear Ann interrupting the game?”
“Don’t get me in the middle of your fights,” the woman says. “It’s none of my business.”
“And I’m bored; come on, stop pretending to be the smartest person in the room and play.”
This time, he throws the whole Nerf at him.
“The thing is, if that happens, the faster runners will pair up and search together. That leaves the slower ones as a pair; they will have more trouble moving but a fucking lot of points. Again, even pairing the people with the small amount of points, they can’t die if they lose a battle. And again for the second time, they’ll be fast enough to run.”
“Dude, sometimes I forget that you’re more than an annoying bastard and that you can actually think,” Tatta says. “There’s no way we can lose!”
“I gotta give it to you; it’s a good plan.”
“If you say so,” and this time, it is Chishiya who fires a dart into the back of Niragi’s head. “This is going to be fun.”
“What container do you open?”
“This one!”
Karube's face falls. “Fuck! You find an item; roll a d6 to know what one you have found.”
Kuina smiles, grabs her dice, and turns around to offer her closer hand to Ann.
“What?”
“Blow for good luck.”
Ann rolls her eyes, but obeys, and Kuina's smile grows wider.
“Four!”
“Inside the container there’s a green box with a screen and a red button. When you press it down, the screen blinks a few times, the number rolls in, and finally it lands in 2000. Congratulations.”
“Yes!” Kuina grabs a pen to take note of her new points, and then she high-fives Arisu. Now she can be a solo runner.
“The player team has secured an item. The player team now has an advantage of 2000 points, the voice says. The big screen above the game arena displays your score going from 10000 to 12000, and one of the items disappears.”
“We’re winning!”
“That’s pretty cool! I can’t believe the plan is working!” Kuina says, holding Arisu by the shoulders and shaking him. “We’re the best!”
“Congratulations.”
“Oh, come on!” but Usagi slaps a hand over Niragi’s mouth before he can keep complaining.
“Kyuma has found you,” Karube says. “He’s still naked, by the way.”
Chishiya snorts from the couch, throws a popcorn into the air, and catches it with his mouth. This is being so funny.
“We can’t avoid each other all the time; we came here to play,” Kyuma says. “You want a battle or what?”
Arisu looks at Kuina.
Between the two of them, they have more than enough points, but Kyuma knows that they just got an item. And he’s a new player; they don’t know his style. Is he carrying all the points because he’s the King? Or maybe he just has 100 because, again, he’s the King?
“We’ll take it slow,” Kuina says, holding his hand and placing their joined hands over the table. “It’s two on one; the battle is ours.”
“You choose to battle Kyuma?” Chota asks, and Arisu gives him a stiff nod. They worked so hard in this game, so he knows that sooner or later there will be a twist. He’s getting nervous for real, the palm of his hand sweaty; he just hopes Kuina doesn’t mind.
“Since they’re standing there all stiff, I approach them instead,” Kyuma says. “I’ve been waiting for them to arrive for a while, so I heard them talk to each other. I ask Arisu about that fight he had with one of his teammates. Do you have a problem with that girl Arisu? It gave me the impression that you weren’t on the better terms.”
This time Chishiya lets out a full laugh.
Oh god, the King is a gossip; he’s loving this, and everyone around the table seems to think the same because they’re all holding back a laugh. Bringing personal shit to a death game? That’s serious shit.
“I tell Arisu that he has a strange look on him. He looks like someone who has already faced death, so confident and strong. Why are you trembling then? You don’t look like someone who would cower in the face of a battle.”
Oh, he’s getting Arisu’s character so quickly that it’s almost impressive. Or maybe Karube and Chota gave the King team a lot of information about the other players. Who knows?
“You’re not listening to a word he says, aren’t you?” Usagi whispers. “Neither of you are.”
Tatta tries to cover his face with his cap, but Niragi just shrugs.
“Can you blame a man?” he says, whispering back at his friend. “He’s hot.”
“I thought he owed you money.”
“But he’s still hot.”
And well, Usagi has eyes on her face. She has to agree with that.
“Guys, can you stop talking about Kyuma's tits? We’re getting serious here,” Karube says. When Usagi, Niragi, and Tatta look in their direction, Arisu and Kyuma are holding hands.
Only Arisu and Kyuma.
“What are you doing? We had a plan!”
Niragi is going to kick him out of his house, this time for real.
“Dude!” Tatta complains too.
“Men and their stupid pride,” Kuina slaps the back of Arisu’s head. “It’s bigger than their egos, I swear.”
Ann pats her back, and Karube sighs.
No wonder they take so long to complete each session with all the interrupting.
“Anyway. Arisu. You look down at the bracelets; now it shows both of your points. It’s 4600 against 2000. You win, and 500 points are added to your total.”
Around the table, everything burst into whispers and commentary, but Arisu is the first one to talk for real.
“You distributed the points equally?”
“Yeah, everyone got 2000.”
“Don’t tell them, dude!” Maki screams, and his teammates pull him back in the chair. They’re all shaking their heads like they’re already used to Kyuma bullshit. “I swear he’s stupid.”
No one knows what’s happening, but somehow, in between the chaos, Arisu and Kyuma keep acting like nothing had happened.
“I thought this was a game of life and death. Do you understand now?”
“It is, but my teammates and I are equal. We’ll live or die together.”
“Fucking sap,” Uta punches his arm and sighs. “You’re stupid, don’t drag us into this.”
But Arisu looks like he’s about to cry.
“I look at Kyuma and nod. I don’t have more to say to him, so I turn to Kuina and grab her hand so I can leave. I’m inactive, so I can’t battle more, but I go with her in case something happens.”
“Okay, while this was happening, Usagi and Niragi, where are you?”
“Five minutes and two more battles later, the team has made it back to the base. The current points are 13500 to 8500. You lead by 5000 points. Everyone but Niragi has entered a battle and needs to recharge their bracelets.”
“I see them approach a run to them!” Tatta says. He thought they would be bored playing the keeper, but seeing while out of danger is being so fun. “You’re back!”
“Things are going well this far,” Arisu says, looking down at the paper where he’s taking notes.
“This is a Kings game? Don’t make me laugh,” because of course Niragi needs to be Niragi. Asshole.
“Okay, just because of that, I high-five everyone but Niragi!” Tatta says, throwing a popcorn at him. “You’re so rude.”
“Hey, I’m being nice this far!”
“Yeah, I almost forget you’re playing one of the bad guys,” Kuina does, in fact, offer him a high five and Arisu does the same.
They are so annoying; if he wanted to play the bad guy, they would all be dead already. But he’s being all nice and demure today; after all, this is a Clubs game.
“Don’t worry, Tatta; he’s about to face the consequences of his own action!” Oh no. Fuck no. “Want to know about Niragi’s character new trait?”
From the binder where they keep everything about the campaign, Chota pulls a new sheet of paper.
“Our dear doctor helped us with it. Say hi, Chishiya.”
Chishiya does wave his fingers at Niragi, who glares daggers at him.
“What did you do now?”
“What’s happening?” Arisu asks. “New traits? You got even more skills now?”
“Nah, don’t worry.” With a sigh, he grabs his d20. “Come on, hit me; what is it going to be?”
“You were surprised about his character still being alive; well, there are consequences to being burned alive,” Karube says, waving the sheet around. “You have already noticed that his athletic skills are lower now. We thought about making him take more damage, but then Chishiya suggested this.”
“Niragi, roll 20.”
He obeys and, with a groan, announces the bad news, “15.”
“Congratulations, you have a coughing fit. When you check your hand, you see red, small splatters of blood cover the bandages now. Your throat burns, and it’s hard to breathe.”
“Seriously? Are you for real?”
“Blame Chishiya; the idea was his!”
He already blames Chishiya for a lot of things.
This is stupid.
“Since he’s injured and just making him take more damage sounds boring, Chishiya gave us a list of symptoms and consequences to all the shit that happened to him. We’ll make him roll a dice when we feel like it and add one to his own list. Right now, you have acquired the skill of coughing blood when you run too much.”
“So he has become Chishiya?”
“My asthma does not include blood; thank you for your concern.” He sounds so happy and proud of himself that Niragi wants to punch him. “Enjoy the hemoptysis.”
Niragi almost jumps to his feet, but Kuina grabs him to make him sit down and pats his head.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you, baby. Now let’s keep playing before you die and we’re left with one less player.”
“I hate you all,” arms crossed in front of his back Niragi huffs.
Idiots.
All of them are idiots.
“While Niragi is sulking, let’s move to the other team,” and Chota points to Kyuma. “Guys?”
Shitara raises his hand to speak, smiling like a kid who has been given candy.
“I’ve got an idea, if you don’t mind something crazy.”
And Kyuma smiles in the same way right back at him.
“How funny would it be if it was the same idea?”
The King team looks at each other.
They had this already planned. That much is obvious, but Arisu feels a shiver run down his spine nervelessly.
“Okay, so, player team? What do you do?”
“I stay at the base. The others keep searching in pairs.”
“King team, do you want to keep going with your plan?”
“Hell yeah!”
“Okay,” Karube says. “Everyone scatters around and—”
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” Tatta says over and over again. He got his hands clasped in front of his chest, and he keeps bowing to Shitara. “I’m sorry, dude!”
He just killed rhythm guitar from his favorite band.
“No big deal, kid!” Shitara has been trying to calm Tatta for the past five minutes. “It’s a game!”
“You invite us over and already kill one of us?” Kyuma asks, a few meters away as he sits down on the floor. “Rough play.”
“You’re still winning. Shut the fuck up,” but Niragi starts offering everyone bottles of beer, soda, and water. “How did Karube even get you to play with us?”
“We had a few gigs at the bar where he’s working, and you know how this goes. We always befriend the bartenders.”
“You tried to hit on him.”
“Same thing, I didn’t know he had his girl. I never try if I know.”
Usagi manages to pull Tatta away from poor Shitara, who joins the rest of the band on the floor.
After the stunt the King team pulled and Shitara character dying, they decided to call it a day. It was already dark outside, and there was so much game left, and that seemed like a good point to stop. And no one was really complaining, not when that meant spending another day with The Sology.
Everyone but Ann, who has work in the morning, and Chishiya, who retreated into his room when things got too loud, gathers around the living room.
“So Karube from the club, but Niragi?” Usagi asks.
“I told you already, I was their tech guy a few times,” Niragi takes a sip from his soda and throws Kyuma one of the empty cans. “When these idiots started, they couldn’t afford shit. I came across their advertisement of needing someone on sound tech. It was either a real or a kidnapper, but I took the chance and called.”
“How old were you?” Uta asks, trying to ruffle Niragi’s hair. “Because I remember that you were a fucking brat.”
“I was sixteen!”
“A brat, I said. He used to drop by our places and sleep on the couch."
The woman laughs, and Niragi pushes her out of him in the same way he play-fights with Heiya.
"You should have seen him, all scrawny and shy, he was almot nice back then," Kyuma says, trying to ruffle his hair. "He was such a good kid what happened to you?"
"College."
“THe thing is he was good at computer shit, so we kept calling him sometimes even as we got famous. Last time was when? Two years ago?”
“Yes, and you still haven’t paid me!”
“You got free tickets for the show!”
“From behind the stage, where I was taking care of your mics!”
Kyuma laughs, keeps ignoring Niragi, and turns around to look at everyone else.
“Enough about us. How come everyone here knows each other? You went to the same high school?”
“Yes,” Arisu says. He points at Karube and Chota too. “We three met in back in elementary school. Kuina and Niragi are friends since high school, but they went to a different one than us.”
“And Arisu and I knew each other because of some online games,” Niragi adds. “But never had the guts for meeting in person because, you know, the internet, stranger danger.”
“I started to go to the gym around the last year of high school. That’s where I met Usagi,” Kuina keeps going with the weird story about how everyone knew about everyone at some point. “And I met Chishiya when he was still in med school. My mom was sick, so I spent a lot of time with her, and, as a med student, he was around there quite often. So I made him into my bestie.”
“You forgot about how you condemned me to meet Chishiya too.”
“You needed an apartment, and Chishiya was renting a room,” she says. “And well, meeting Chishiya led me to meet Ann.”
“And then there was this party at a club where Karube worked, it was our first year of college,” Arisu says, wrapping an arm around his friend’s shoulders. “But Karube ditched work to suck face with someone in this room.”
“It was Niragi.” Two pillows hit Chota from different directions. “What! It’s true!”
“The thing is that then Niragi went to the bar counter to talk to Karube like, ‘Hey dude, sorry, my friend there dared me to kiss someone, and then you flirted with me, and I went with it!’ while Chota and I were talking with Karube.”
“And I recognized his voice because we still played together sometimes.”
“You were drunk and screamed, ‘You sound like my friend Dark Cypher! He’s an asshole, and I was so shocked that for some reason I told you that I sounded like him because I was him.”
“And the rest is history.”
Kyuma and the band look around quite confused.
Compressible, that was a lot of information.
“Wait, and you?” one of them asks, pointing at Tatta.
“We don’t know.”
“What?”
“We don’t know; all of us met Tatta at some point, like, it just happened.”
“And somehow he joined us? No one knows when or why, but one day he was there and never left.”
Tatta is smiling wide and bright; he tips his hat to the band and to his friends.
“What can I say? I’m charming like that.”
The conversation goes on for a while, and, at some point, The Sology leaves with the promise of coming back soon to finish the game.
“Hey, talking about the old times reminded me of something,” Kuina says, and that can’t bring anything new. Not when she turns around to look at Niragi. “Guess who sent me a message!”
“How am I am supposed to guess that?”
“Man, you give the same answers as Chishiya.” With a tired groan, she throws herself over Niragi’s lap. “Mana, my friend from school. She says there’s going to be a meeting for all of us. Everyone from our promotion is invited.”
Niragi blinks and looks down at his friend, who is still lying across his legs like a lazy cat.
“Are you fucking crazy!”
“What! I think it will be fun!”
If Niragi hadn’t seen her drink just one sip from Karube’s beer in all the night, he would think that she’s gone crazy or really, really drunk.
“Hikari Kuina, are you hearing yourself?”
She knows how bad high school was.
Well, not all, but she knows.
And it wasn’t good for her either. She had it together; she had friends, and for some reason, she was quite popular, even with… everything. But him? He doesn’t want to see all those people ever again.
“Kuina, the last time I saw all those people, I still wore a skirt on the daily.”
“You in a skirt? I would pay to see that dude,” Karube says, chuckling behind his beer. He’s drunk, and Niragi tries to hold back the disgust on his face. Instead, he offers him his hand palm up, and Karube is about to choke on his stupid beer. “What?”
“Do you know how hard it is to get work in my field? I burned my old school uniform, but if you’re paying, I’ll steal something from Kuina.”
“You've got long legs; you would actually rock a skirt,” she says, punching his arm. “And don’t go for Karube, he’s a shitty bartender, listen to me for once and marry a doctor. I know one that would also pay for seeing that.”
"I'm looking for a homosexual wife from an ultra-privileged class who wants to support me in exchange for me being her cover," Niragi says. "But a husband I have barely had to see because he works all day long, and I still get rich?” Niragi asked, ignoring the last part. “Sign me up. Start searching one, and I’ll invite you to our rich people honeymoon.”
Kuina blinks.
And looks at Karube.
And then at Arisu and Tatta, whose mouths are wide open.
If even they have noticed this bullshit, it is worse than she ever thought.
“Do you think he realizes what he just said?” he asks in a whisper, and Tatta just shakes his head.
“Are we sure he’s smart? Because I’m starting to doubt it.”
Kuina sits down again, getting off Niragi’s lap and grabbing his shoulders.
“Don’t try to divert the conversation; we need to go, okay? For our old shelves, for small, tiny us, so they see what we’ve become. Suguru, please, we need to go…”
Not the Suguru.
Not the Suguru and the puppy eyes.
He doesn’t want to go.
But the idea of leaving Kuina alone with all those people? That’s even worse.
Maybe he’s just being dramatic. Maybe everyone has grown into fully mature adults with a developed frontal cortex. Maybe it’ll be fine.
“I don’t know…”
“Come on, don’t you want to see how the people who hated on us now want to fuck us?”
Now it’s him who almost chokes on air.
What is she even saying?
“Kuina!”
“What? Come on, Niragi, please go with me.” Niragi looks around the room. Karube is too drunk to say anything. Chota has fallen asleep. Usagi left already, and Arisu and Tatta look at him like they don’t know if they have any say in the matter. “Please?”
“I…” fuck. “I’ll think about it.”
“Yeah!” and she throws herself at him, this time into a hug. Because she knows that in the Niragi to Japanese dictionary, I’ll think about it means I’ll do it, but I’m playing hard to get. “You’re the best when you’re not being an asshole!”
“I thought Chishiya was the best,” but he hugs her back.
“You can both be the best.”
Fuck.
Hook, line, and sinker.
This is going to be a terrible idea in the long run, but like with everything else, he chooses to ignore it until it runs over him like a truck.