University of Smash

Initial Descent

"My brother? Nah, let him sleep."

"How did you know he was sleeping?"

"He sleeps in even more often than I do. If he doesn't answer the door, then he's probably asleep."

"Fair enough. Now back to the matter at hand. What is this thing you found?"

"Follow me; I'll show you the way."

We left the apartment and went to the main floor. We then turned from the elevator and went downstairs. The stairwell felt a little stuffy, as though no one had used it in years.

Thankfully, we left the stairwell quickly and entered the basement. The basement was well lit and significantly less stuffy.

"Okay, we're in the basement now," I said, stating the obvious. "Where in this place are we going?"

"The room we're going to is behind those double doors," Robyn replied, pointing to the double doors right across from the stairwell. "Follow me."

She walked over to the double doors and opened them, revealing a rec room. Marth was already standing at the opposite side of the room. He turned to us and waved. "Robyn, you're back!" he exclaimed. "And you brought Arthur with you!"

"Nice to see you again, Marth," I said. "So what are we going to do here?"

"We're going to play a game," Marth explained. "We decided on playing shuffleboard."

"...Can I assume that you don't know how to play this, either?"

"You assume correctly. Do you know how to play this?"

"No."

"You don't?"

"Just because I know how one game works doesn't mean I know how they all work!"

"So what should we do?"

"Maybe I can help you," a voice said behind us. We turned to see Sakurai standing behind us, smiling.

"What are you doing here?" Robyn asked.

"You don't think I spend all my time working, do you? I come down here sometimes to relax."

"So you know how to play shuffleboard?" I asked.

"Sure do," Sakurai replied. "That's why I put the shuffleboard courts in this room."

"Great. Let's get started, then."

We walked over to one end of the court. Sakurai picked up one of the sticks and put one of the discs on the court.

"The rules are relatively simple," Sakurai began. "You divide yourselves into two teams. Each team takes the discs and cues of their color. I'll team up with Robyn, so Marth and Arthur will be the opposing team."

Sakurai had chosen the black discs and cues, and he was lining up his shot. He shoved the disc forward toward the triangle at the other end of the court. His disc stopped short of the triangle.

"Okay, it's your turn," Sakurai stated, gesturing towards Marth and me. "Try to get the yellow disc completely in one of the areas while also trying to keep the black discs out."

I stepped up and grabbed the yellow cue. Sakurai had placed a yellow disc on the floor already.

"Stand in the rectangle and shove the disc from there," Sakurai said.

I stood in the rectangle, located behind the triangle on our side. I braced myself before shoving the disc at the triangle. It slid past Sakurai's disc and landed in between the 8 and 10. I cheered, and Sakurai chuckled a little.