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“Damn it!”
Narumi threw his tablet, a few seconds later the error message appeared. He looked down at the options and scoffed. Try again? He had already tried to complete the song ten times, but he hadn’t improved at all. In fact, he had gotten worse. In the first few attempts, he at least was able to complete the song without missing any notes. However, there had been too many “good” notes, and Narumi couldn’t accept anything except the peak of excellence, full “super perfect”.
The issue was, this specific song was too difficult, and after multiple attempts his hands were starting to cramp.
Narumi didn’t even remember why he had started playing a K-pop rhythm game. He had never cared about the genre’s manufactured perfection and soulless music, he had always scoffed at the obsessive fans that let boring music take over their lives.
(He would never admit that he loved a few BoA songs, and that he may or may not have obsessively streamed the Shinee’s music video for “Lucifer” when it first came out.)
He didn’t remember when he learned about the game. About a year ago, he had been scrolling through social media when he saw an advertisement; It had unlocked memories of girls at the orphanage saving up to buy albums, trading the photocards, and watching music videos on full volume. Narumi had been forced to learn about Big Bang and Girls Generation, learn what a bias and a maknae were. He had a nearly perfect memory, so even if he tried he would never forget the terminology or idols’ names and birthdays.
As an avid gamer, Narumi had immediately been curious. He knew rhythm games existed, but he had never played one. So Narumi had downloaded it, and since then the game had a grip on his life.
Unfortunately, life as the captain of the most powerful division didn’t allow for much free time. Narumi wouldn’t allow a game centered around collecting cards of polished, carefully designed K-pop idols to completely control his life. However, he couldn’t accept failure. Even when he was at his most busy, he nearly always managed to complete his daily missions.
It had taken countless hours of grinding, probably thousands of dollars, but he had a collection of virtual cards he was proud of. Narumi knew his insistence on perfection may have slightly held him back, but it paid off. He would never forget the joy when he finally made it into Platinum. It had been several grueling months of tapping all day, eyes glazing over from the bright lights, tapping and swiping until his fingers ached, when he finally had enough rhythm points to upgrade his cards. Since then, he had comfortably been able to sit in Platinum.
But now felt immense dread when he saw Platinum III on his screen.
What he had once celebrated was now a prison. It had been months, but he couldn’t make progress. He thought it had been a slog getting promoted to Platinum I and Platinum II, but clearly he had been naive. Not only was he now unable to be promoted to Master, he was barely even able to stay in Platinum III. Each week was a harsh battle to avoid being demoted. He religiously played his top songs, leveled up cards as much as possible, even spending money to play more songs. But it was to no avail. One week full of kaiju attacks, and he was sent back to the pits of Platinum II. Even if he played every note perfectly, he was unable to make the final push out of platinum. If Narumi was a lesser man, he would have quit a long time ago.
Once again Narumi looked down at the error message. Instead of trying the level again, he closed out of the game. He sighed and put his tablet away. He’d try again later.
This week he would get into Master.
***
“Fuck!”
Even though the song was over, Narumi continued to aggressively tap on his screen. It had been going well, every note had been a super perfect. Since he was Narumi Gen, nerves didn’t affect him. Despite his above-average performance, Narumi had continued to be focused throughout the entire song. That was until the last note.
He had missed it.
He clenched his teeth as the game tabulated his score. Missing that note had completely ruined his score and his mood. If it hadn’t been the end of the week, he would have quit for the day. However, the third division had invaded his base earlier this week, so Narumi had been too busy with actual work to grind.
“Narumi, we’re in a meeting! Stop playing your stupid game and pay attention!” Hasegawa hissed. He reached out to take Narumi’s tablet.
“No!” Narumi pulled back, holding it to his chest. “I only have thirty minutes until rankings close! I can’t get demoted again.”
“You can at least pretend you care,” Hasegawa’s voice was tense. “Kaiju no. 9 is a serious issue.”
“Yeah, no shit. I’ve prepared more to take down that mushroom head than anyone else. I just have different priorities right now.”
Before Hasegawa could continue admonishing Narumi, another voice called out from across the room, “Captain Narumi, could you please report on the state of Shinomiya Kikoru and Hibino Kafka’s training?”
Narumi scrunched up his face and tore his eyes away from the table. It was the stretched grin that haunted his nightmares, the beady eyes that ripped past his ego and could tear his spirit to shreds. The purple bowl cut was pristine as always, not a hair out of place. Seeing the face alone ignited a rage in Narumi that not even the meanest Kaiju could elicit.
“Whatever,” Narumi mumbled. He shut his tablet off then threw it on the table. He stood up and surveyed the other participants in the room. It was the same higher-ups as usual, none of which even bat an eye at Narumi’s shenanigans. They all knew Narumi’s ability at neutralizing kaiju came with the caveat he would never respect them.
He sent one last look at his tablet, mourning his loss, then began reporting details from the past month of training. He gave a brief overview of their progress. He obviously skipped over his secret training with Hibino and his dumb disciple's affinity for numbered weapons. Once he finished, he answered a few questions, then made his way back to his seat. It had been over thirty minutes so Narumi didn’t bother opening up his game again. He spent the rest of the meeting zoning out, counting seconds until it ended. He wished he had brought his Switch, at least then he wouldn’t be dying of boredom. Instead, he tapped his foot, half listening to the monotonous droning, and waiting until he was free.
When it was finally over, Narumi stood up and stormed across the room. Hoshina was chatting to the person next to him.
“If I get demoted, it’s your fault.”
Their conversation halted. The other person got up and quickly escaped. Hoshina sighed; He looked at Narumi, raising an eyebrow. “Why would they demote you? You might be lazy, but at least you fight well.”
“I’m not lazy!” Narumi yelled, “And I meant my game, the defense force would never demote me.”
“Anything's possible, Captain Narumi. You really push your luck when you shove your responsibilities onto Hasegawa and don’t even pretend to pay attention at meetings,” Hoshina said calmly as he stood up from his seat. “There’s a reason Captain Ashiro is the face of the defense force.”
“Hey, I have more followers than her!”
“She doesn't have personal social media, but her posts on the JAKDF accounts still get more engagement than yours.” Hoshina said. Narumi frowned, trying to prepare his counterattack, but Hoshina was relentless. “Captain Ashiro also has more interviews, is in more commercials, and is referenced in more articles. Even without personal social media followers, her influence is undeniable.”
“That’s-”
“Captain Narumi, I have to go. Bye.”
Without another word, Hoshina left. Narumi was abandoned. He stood there for a moment. Eventually, he also left the room, suppressing the bitterness that had built up.
***
Narumi felt his stomach growl and checked the time. He should probably eat something. He blindly reached to the side where he normally kept a pile of snacks, but came back empty. He glanced over and sighed. He forgot, he’d eaten everything. Narumi’s stash was completely ravaged, not even a single cup of instant noodles left behind.
After debating within himself, he grabbed his phone, tablet, and left for the cafeteria. After the disaster of last week, he had decided never to procrastinate again. Narumi was practically guaranteed to be promoted back to Platinum III, but he would take no risks. He had been demoted, and that had caused a pain he would never recover from. He needed to play a few more songs, but he could multitask. After all, his body needed the proper energy and nutrients in order to properly hit each note. Maybe all along the thing he needed to finally reach Master I was balanced meals.
However when Narumi stepped foot in the cafeteria, he immediately regretted it. Distracted by his hunger, he had forgotten the third Division was still at the base, meaning they were currently in the cafeteria eating dinner. He scanned the cafeteria, but didn’t see the one person he wanted to avoid. Without thinking further about it, he grabbed a tray of food and sat at an empty table.
The game was still going through its loading screen, which cycled through different group photos. Narumi stretched his arms out in front of him, then individually stretched each finger, lightly pulling them back to straighten them. When the game finally opened to the home screen, he opened the daily missions.
“Ugh no, I hate that song.”
There were certain songs he refused to do on principle, either because they were annoying or objectively awful. However, he had no choice. Narumi turned the volume all the way down on his tablet, silenced it to be sure, then clicked on the song. At least this way, he wasn’t forced to subject his ears to sonic atrocities.
After about five minutes, Narumi had finished all the daily missions. He finally took a bite of his food, preparing himself to take on the more important task. He unmuted his tablet then clicked one of his favorite songs. However, he noticed an immediate problem: the room was too loud for him to hear.
Narumi frowned and tried to somehow enhance his ears, but he could barely hear the song. He wished he had brought headphones, without the music as reference he made significantly more mistakes.
The score flashed across the screen, Narumi smashed the screen. He turned the volume up all the way, and clicked replay. With the volume up, he was able to hear the song through the cacophony in the cafeteria.
“So this is the game you were talking about?”
Narumi almost slipped up, but he was able to avoid disaster. A few seconds later the song ended. Unfortunately, his score was still disappointing. He looked up and scowled. “Bowl-cut, you made me mess up.”
“How did I do that?” While he was focused on the game, Hoshina must have sat across from him.
“Hey, you can’t sit here,” Narumi hissed. “I need to focus.”
“Okay, I’ll be quiet.”
Narumi doubted his ears. “What?”
“I’m curious.”
“Curious?”
“Of course, what game is so important it makes the first division captain ignore his job?”
“I do not, I’m better at killing kaiju than you.”
“Captain Narumi, you already know I still have the miniature-sized kaiju record.”
Narumi suppressed his simmering anger. He distracted himself and scrolled to pick a different song. Thankfully, Hoshina had finally stopped talking, Narumi was able to dedicate his full focus to the game. Somehow that wasn’t enough, it was as if his brain failed to properly process the notes. He barely finished with zero misses, but he got 10 “goods” which ruined his score.
“Hm, so you’re also bad at this game.”
Narumi grit his teeth. “You beat me one time. I’m still a better gamer.”
“I’m not a gamer, you just aren’t good.”
Narumi decided to ignore the buzzing pest and decided to play a different song.
“Plus, this game doesn’t seem too difficult,” Hoshina commented. “I’ve seen other rhythm games that look much harder.”
“I didn't ask.”
He purposely picked one of the most difficult songs, though one he could complete with minimal mistakes. Narumi shook his hands to release the tension and took in a deep breath. He clicked play and powered through the two minutes of spamming notes. At the end his fingers slightly ached.
“That was much better,” Hoshina said. “Makes me want to try a song or two.”
“As if!” Narumi scoffed. “Your little hands can’t even pull a trigger correctly, why would you be able to play this? You need elite manual dexterity.”
Instead of falling for the provocation, Hoshina smiled. “Is that a challenge?”
“What?” Narumi quickly recovered from his surprise. “You don’t stand a chance, bowl-cut.” There was no way Hoshina would actually play a K-pop rhythm game. The one time he beat Narumi at a video game was a fluke, he hadn't even been able to properly hold the controller until Narumi showed him how.
“Let me try.”
Narumi instinctively pulled the tablet closer. “Download it yourself.”
“Sure,” Hoshina replied with no hesitation. “What’s the game called?”
Narumi analyzed Hoshina’s face, trying to determine whether or not he was being sarcastic. He sometimes couldn't tell if the smug smile was genuine or not.
“Fine.” Narumi decided it didn’t matter and told Hoshina the name of the game.
“Thanks Captain.” Hoshina smiled and pulled out his phone, a moment later he turned the screen towards Narumi. “This, right?”
Narumi looked closer, it was the game being downloaded. He scoffed, “Yeah, and good luck. You’ll need it. Rankings are a blood bath.”
“That’s right, you were demoted,” Hoshina hummed. “What rank are you?”
“Doesn’t matter, you’ll never get there.”
The rest of the meal passed peacefully. Narumi played his game, and Hoshina didn’t bother him again. Until Hoshina got up to leave, Narumi even forgot Hoshina was sitting near him. For a moment, he thought the bowl-cut wasn’t that bad, but quickly dismissed the thought. Someone with that haircut was destined to be annoying.
***
Hoshina and the rest of the third division left Ariake, and Narumi was inundated with work. He was training nonstop, perfecting his own abilities, but also had to help Hibino and Kikoru. Narumi had even less time to play his game. Despite that he had been able to crawl his way out of Platinum III. After all, he was an amazing gamer.
However, he’d been so busy, he’d completely forgotten about Hoshina’s threat.
Earlier Hasegawa had dumped a large stack of paperwork on his desk, so Narumi was taking a short break to rest his eyes. Ignoring the responsibilities he was using as a pillow, he began to drift into sleep.
“Captain Narumi, how’ve you been?”
Narumi jumped up, suddenly awake.
“Why are you here?” Narumi rubbed his eyes and held in a yawn.
“Just wanted to check in, haven't seen you in a month.”
Even though Hoshina had been regularly coming to the Ariake base to train Hibino, Narumi had purposely avoided him. The smug expression on Hoshina’s face proved that he’d made the right decision.
“You know, you never told me what rank you’re in.”
Narumi felt his stomach drop. “Rank?”
“Yeah, I’ve been playing that game.”
Now Narumi remembered their conversation a month ago. He rolled his eyes. “So what, want a trophy?”
“Just wanted to tell you I made it to Master I.”
“What… How is that possible? It’s only been a month!”
“I don’t know.” Hoshina shrugged. “You’re the expert, you tell me.”
Narumi grit his teeth, but carefully hid his frustration. He feigned a laugh.“Well, you still have a ways to go, bowl-cut. I’m all the way in Master III.”
He was actually in Master I but Hoshina didn't need to know that.
“Oh, congratulations Captain Narumi,” Hoshina replied. “I barely made it into Master I. Those players have such high scores.”
Narumi felt his eyes twitch, but continued to suppress his annoyance. “Yes, once you play for a few years you get the hang of the mechanics. It becomes super easy.”
“Yeah I agree, the hard part is leveling up the cards. Now that takes a long time and lots of repetitive playing.” Hoshina sighed. “I mostly played a few minutes every day, but once I stayed up to midnight so I could max my first set. Thankfully none of the songs are particularly difficult.”
“Yes, super easy.” Narumi thought of his countless sleepless nights where he grinded songs. The dozen songs he couldn’t complete without missing some of the notes.
“I tried to look up which songs are the hardest, but none were that bad,” Hoshina said. “I wonder if their newer games are harder.”
“No, they look easier.” This time Narumi wasn’t lying. They might have had one or two difficult songs, but the newer games didn't impress him. He also had no attachment to the music from the other groups.
“Captian Narumi, have you played any of their y-axis games?”
“...their what?”
“You know, how it registers the score. This one is x-axis, but their newer games are based on the timing.”
“They’re rhythm games, they’re all about hitting the notes on time.”
“No actually, you have to hit the center of the notes to get a super perfect. Hitting the notes on the beat is y-axis.”
Narumi stared blankly.
“It took me a while to get used to it,” Hoshina admitted. “Though I think it’s interesting they’d make a rhythm game that’s based more on precision than rhythm.”
Narumi’s head spun, he couldn’t hold in his incredulity. “Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know, ask the developers.” Hoshina shrugged. “But didn't you already know this Narumi-san?”
“Of course, I just didn’t know they had fancy terminology for that. I didn’t have to look up online guides for help.”
“Oh I didn’t need a guide, I just was curious about their other games,” Hoshina replied. “There’s lots of dedicated players from all over the world.”
The conversation continued for a bit longer, but Narumi barely heard a word out of Hoshina’s mouth. Finally, Hoshina left, and Narumi decided he wouldn’t let himself be embarrassed. It was no longer time to play nice.
He sat in front of the tablet, RT-0001 equipped.
This time, he would become a true master.
***
A week later, Narumi religiously checked the calendar, waiting for the next joint training. It would be later this week, but no matter how much he checked the date didn’t come any closer. He thought of the beautiful rankings and couldn’t wait.
“What’s wrong with you? I’ve never been able to get you to pay attention to schedules.”
Narumi tore his gaze away from the calendar and glared at Hasegawa. “This time it’s actually something important, not your boring meetings.”
Hasegawa sighed. “If Soshiro-san went to every meeting would you care about them?”
As if the chair had caught on fire, Narumi jumped up.
“I don’t care about that slimy bowl-cut!”
Hasegawa had a deadpan stare.
Narumi scowled. He picked his tablet up and left the room, muttering to himself about Hasegawa's ignorance. He didn't understand how important this game was, how essential it was that Narumi proved his dominance. He had been grinding nonstop, perfecting the hardest songs. He had finally risen to Master III, and this week was even third place on the leaderboard. There were still a few days before rankings closed, and the timeline matched up perfectly. He’d be able to show Hoshina his amazing score and make him admit defeat. He never even had to know that Narumi had technically cheated by using the numbered retinas. Even if he did find out, they hadn’t immediately increased Narumi’s score. It had taken him a minute to figure out the optimal spot to hit each note, and it still relied on his god-tier skills.
The day the third division was coming, Narumi checked the rankings first thing after he woke up. Thankfully, he was still in third place. Since there were players all over the world, he sometimes fell dramatically while he was asleep. Narumi fell asleep in his uniform, so he didn’t have to bother getting dressed. Still holding his tablet, Narumi headed out to the training yard.
The third and first division were already there, with Hoshina leading warm-ups. Narumi didn’t care, he had priorities that superseded training.
“Bowl-cut!”
Some of the officers looked up, but Narumi ignored them. He glared at Hoshina.
“Five laps!” Hoshina ordered and was met with collective groans. However they didn’t complain for long and all broke off into a jog.
Hoshina turned around and slowly walked over. “Good morning Captain”
Narumi didn’t care about his morning or boring small talk. This conversation was more important than discussing the weather. “Did you still play the game?”
“Oh yes, I did quite well this week,” Hoshina said with a smile. “What place did you get?”
“Third.” Narumi said with a smirk.
“Well I got second.”
Narumi’s heart dropped.
“Prove it!” He hastily replied. Narumi had quickly decided Hoshina must be lying. Even if he wasn’t, it was still possible that Narumi had gotten a higher score.
“Sure.” Hoshina pulled out his phone. “It’ll take a moment for the game to load.”
Narumi looked down at the slow download screen and scoffed. “I already have mine.”
He proudly showed the tablet, which still had the rankings open. He studied Hoshina’s face, ready to gloat. However, instead of looking defeated, an evil grin spread across his face. Narumi began to wonder if he had made a mistake.
“What a coincidence, we were in the same league.”
Narumi read the name in second place, and felt the horror settle in
- 「カグラバチ」[36,453,345]
- Montblanc10 [36,123,973]
- gundamlUv3r [35,273,612]
The name was so clearly Hoshina’s. The score Narumi was proud of mere minutes ago was now a slap to the face. Despite everything, there was still a million point gap between them.
Hoshina turned his phone off and put it away. “I thought the name seemed like something you would pick, but I had no idea it was you!”
Each word was like another knife through Narumi’s chest.
“I checked your top songs, is picking bigger groups more helpful? Will that make the score higher?”
Narumi’s eyes twitched.
“I have a solo artist, less cards to upgrade, right? But I don’t know. Nine cards per group also isn’t that bad.”
Narumi wanted to yell at him to shut up, but that would be the same as admitting defeat.
“I hope we’re in the same league again, it’ll be fun now that we know each other's username,” Hoshina said. “Can you add friends in this game? Is there a messaging feature?”
“NO! Even if there was, why would I talk to you ?!?”
Hoshina’s smile momentarily broke, but it was quickly repaired. “I guess you wouldn’t want to. I forget that you actually do hate me.”
Narumi's anger was quickly replaced by confusion. He didn't know why, but he thought it sounded like Hoshina’s feelings were hurt.
“I can stop playing the game, I just thought it’d be fun if we played it together.”
Narumi’s instinct was to say ‘of course it’s not fun playing with a smelly bowl-cut’, but he held back. There was a slight quiver in Hoshina’s eyes. Even though Narumi complained, insulted him, and truly disliked Hoshina, he didn’t hate him.
“I don’t care if you play,” Narumi forced out, scowling. “Just know I went easy this week. I barely even played. Next time, I’ll get first.”
The hurt on Hoshina’s face disappeared, and Narumi became certain he had imagined it.
“Of course. We can even play together, if you want.”
“So you can lose in real time?”
“I’m a million points ahead, can you really catch up?”
“It’s actually eight hundred fifty thousand points.”
Hoshina started laughing, and Narumi realized that wasn’t much better. He clenched his fists. Ranking above Hoshina wasn’t enough. He made a vow that next time they were in the same league, he would get first place. No one else would be able to stop him.
“Time to get back to actual training. We can play later after rankings close.”
Narumi shut his tablet off. He held in his complaints, he would never in a million years willingly play this game with Hoshina.
***
The dining hall was full of motion. People shuffling trays, grabbing seconds, raising their voices to be heard over the constant hum of noise. Each table was packed, there was only one that had empty seats. However, no one else wanted to sit there. They looked from a distance and knew it wasn’t a situation they should interfere with.
Narumi and Hoshina were pressed next to each other, both hunched over a tablet. Not a single muscle moved, not a single sound was made. They both stared at the screen.
“How is this possible?” Narumi asked.
It had been a month. He and Hoshina had finally been put in the same league again. But this time, they couldn’t even dream of getting first place.
- ナンバー9 [45,629,419]
Narumi had seen scores that high before, that wasn't what shocked him. The true terror came when he looked at the age of the account and found it had been made two days ago.
“They had to have spent a lot of money,” Hoshina said quietly. Even though he tried to hide it, Narumi could tell he was also shocked.
“But he shouldn’t be able to be in our league, the account is too new.”
“There’s the league-up tickets.”
“No, it shouldn't be possible.”
They fell into silence, looking down at the ranking. Narumi had practiced long and hard, he had brought his score up to 37 million, but that wasn’t enough against a true monster.
A moment later, Hoshina sighed. “At least I still did better than you.”
Narumi scowled, he was hoping that wouldn’t get brought up. “I’m only a hundred thousand below you. If I replay a few songs I can pass you.”
Hoshina shrugged. “What matters is I still have a higher score.”
Narumi was still annoyed, but most of that was fixated on the mysterious player in the first place. Even though he hated to admit it, he was somewhat used to losing to Hoshina. He was able to respect Hoshina’s skills, if he hadn’t Narumi would’ve never tried to recruit him.
But both of them losing to a random outsider? That was something Narumi could never accept.
“Let’s crush them,” Narumi stated. His eyes bore down to the number in the score. “There’s still two hours until rankings close.”
Hoshina seemed surprised. It took him a few seconds to respond. “The difference is too big.”
Narumi didn't even hear the complaints. “Bring out your phone.”
Hoshina reached into his pocket and slid out his phone.
Narumi pulled it out and immediately went to the in-game store. Without paying attention to the cost, he loaded up on upgrades.
“Captain, what are you doing?”
Narumi put in the credit card number and handed the phone back to Hoshina. “I got you a new set of cards and enough RP to max their level. That’ll be enough to push you to first.”
Hoshina frowned. “But why buy them on mine?”
Narumi grit his teeth and forced out, “I already have them.”
Hoshina might be scoring higher than him, but he was still new to the game. Some cards had a higher bonus than others. It was pure luck that some were currently being resold.
Seeing that Hoshina was too stunned to respond, Narumi yelled, “Hurry up, bowl-cut! There’s only two hours.”
Hoshina nodded and began to upgrade the cards. Narumi sat next to him, micro-managing and complaining about how slow he was.
They spent the next two hours trying to get Hoshina to first place.
During that time, only Hasegawa approached them. When he saw Narumi finally working with the vice captain he’d had a petty grudge against for years, Hasegawa accepted he’d have to take on more work and walked away.
Finally there were only two minutes left. They sighed, looking down at the leaderboard.
- ナンバー9 [45,629,419]
- Montblanc10 [45,325,548]
“Damn it. We were so close.” Narumi slumped back. He winced, his back was stiff.
“We got close, though,” Hoshina closed the game.
“They’re probably cheating. They have to be.”
“Not everyone has to rely on cheating to do well.”
Narumi frowned. For some reason, the statement felt like it was targeted towards him.
“At least I still won. Now I’m a few million points ahead of you.”
“Only because of me. You owe me.”
“You’re right. How can I make it up to you?”
His answer caught Narumi off guard. For some reason, he felt flustered.
Hoshina laughed. “Well let me know.” Hoshina got up from the table. “I have work to do, so see you later Narumi-san.”
He left. Narumi sat for a moment, he felt somewhat dazed. Narumi didn't know why, but something felt wrong. He couldn’t place the origin of the feeling. Admittedly lots of strange things had been happening recently, the defense force had been more hectic than usual. Maybe the exhaustion was catching up with him.
Narumi looked at the time, and then realized; it felt like only a few minutes had passed, but he and Hoshina had been there for almost two hours.
That must be the problem, the bowl-cut had sucked the life force out of Narumi. Confident in his conclusion, Narumi stood up and finally left the cafeteria. Even if it was to defeat number 9, never in a million years would he willingly work with Hoshina again.
....except maybe next week Narumi would brag about being first place.
Then he thought of something better.
“I can crush him at Splash Bros. I’ll make him play that with me instead.”