Volume 2 - Top-Tier Character Ayanokōji-kun [DISCONTINUED] [READ THE REVISION]

Chapter 25 - Frustrating Flies Humming And Hating

Isn't a prison just so frustrating?

Always abating. You keep waiting, and eventually, you start hating.

A hero's hate is nothing to be scoffed at; no, for it could destroy boulders, yet have no shoulders.

One mustn't be led by dark. It is important to mark a goal and follow it through, even if the path diverges.

A hero always emerges.

But even if that is true, who knew that things could turn to concern?

A hero, brave as the light, strong as white, will also corrupt, leading them to disrupt.

That hero has been lost, no matter how you dismiss,

in the only, lonely abyss.

---

After the barrage of questions by the other participants and my conversation with Rena, the group started up versus mode, which was more what I'd imagined an offline Atafami meetup would be like. That was a relief. Harry encouraged Hinami to join in, but she said she wasn't good enough yet. I guess she'd blow her cover if she played at her real level, and knowing her, she probably couldn't bring herself to go easy on her opponents. Watching was a wise option if she didn't want to give herself away. For now, at least.

But honestly, I didn't think it would be such a huge issue to reveal her identity. Sure, she may have received way more eyes on her, and Rena probably wouldn't have liked it, but still, this was just a single meetup. It wasn't the end of the world.

"Nanashi-san, let's play!" Harry said, rolling up his sleeves.

"Sure."

We headed over to an empty screen and sat down to get ready to play. I could hear Rena shouting, "Ooh, exciting!" in the background. I would've recognized her voice even if Hinami wasn't the only other girl there. 

When we finished choosing our controller settings and got to the character selection screen, I spotted something peculiar.

"You play Wigglypoff?"

"Hm?" He quizzically tilted his head. "Yeah. One of the few that play her, ha-ha."

Wigglypoff was a little one-head-tall character who was a fairly unique fighter thanks to her high number of jumps and fast aerial mobility. She was great in midair encounters, but got knocked out at relatively low percentages.

I didn't often come across people online who used her well, so this was an interesting matchup.

"You good?"

"I am."

To decide on a stage, we figured we'd go old-school and do rock-paper-scissors, with the winner picking from a couple of simple options. Since I lost, he got to choose the stage. We ultimately went with Bokemon Stadium, which was a fairly disadvantageous map for Found, my character.

Just my luck.

It took a couple of seconds for the game to load, and once our match started, I began spinning the stick around with my left thumb. It made a satisfying sound as it scratched the edge.

As we played, I noticed that Harry was a fairly solid Wigglypoff player. If I had to judge him, maybe I'd put him somewhere in the upper to middle ranking. But even though I say that, I didn't really enjoy our games. I figured him out way too fast and at some point beat him with all my stocks left. Obviously, I got bored.