We've been on the ship for a week. For some reason, I feel that my physical fitness has started to deteriorate. Before the holiday, Shinji and I had stopped going to the gym because we had to study for final exams. That's why lately he often takes me to the gym to make up for all of the gain that we lose. We also occasionally invite Kouki and Gilang. As a judoka, Kouki is strong enough but still lacking in speed and stamina. Gilang is the opposite, he has good stamina and is also quite agile but his strength can be said to be ordinary.
Apart from the gym, we often go to the arcade as usual. You could say this is our favorite activity to unwind. Today the four of us were on our way to the arcade and were talking about what game we were going to play. There were several students there. Some of them play in groups or individually. Among them, the one that caught our attention the most when we stepped in was a pink-haired girl who was playing Tekken.
"Oi, look at that. This is the third time I've seen her here," said Kouki.
The same girl who sat behind me in class. She was never seen in the pool or other recreational areas. This arcade seems to be the only place she visits, and if not here, I've heard that she's often seen daydreaming on the deck while staring at the ocean.
Despite my efforts to make her more comfortable in class, Nanahara Mari was still practically an outcast in our class. The girl was no longer as rude as before but she still tended to be alone. Most of our classmates besides Satonaka are still reluctant to be friends with her, even her own roommate.
"I don't know if I should feel sorry for that girl..." said a concerned Shinji. "There are still a lot of people who don't want to accept her despite the apology."
"Well, at least she doesn't seem to be bothered by it..." Kouki chimed in.
"That just makes it worse," Shinji argued. "Getting used to being alone is just...too sad..."
"Wow, I never thought you could be quite sensitive," Kouki commented and to be honest I agreed with him.
"If you're that worried, how about you ask her to play together?" Gilang suggested. "I mean don't you guys wonder how good she is? From what I see she could be very good at arcade games."
Well, for some reason Nanahara gives the impression of a girl who often plays games in her free time. The last time I visited Nanahara's room, I realized that she had a game console. Considering she's rarely seen outside of school hours, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that games are her only entertainment.
"Good idea," Kouki said. "Yukiharu, go and ask her..."
I was a little stunned. "Me?"
"Who else? You are the closest to her."
"You're her classmates too, how hard is it to approach her and say hi?"
"Yeah, it's just...." Kouki exchanged glances with Gilang nervously. "It feels a bit awkward if we go there..."
I don't really understand but is this how all my classmates feel towards Nanahara? I knew that most seemed to be reluctant towards her for some reason but I didn't expect it to be this bad. It seemed like her apology the other day didn't bring much change other than making them tolerate her existence.
"Okay, I'll talk to her," I couldn't help but act. Nanahara and I may still not be considered friends, but apart from Satonaka, I'm the only one who can be a bridge between her and the other students. Since I have already saved her once, then might as well go all the way.
"I'm coming with you," said Shinji.
"Okay, then Gilang and I will try a new Time Crisis over there. Good luck..." Kouki and Gilang seemed unwilling to endure the possible awkwardness, deciding to separate themselves. Well, the arcade machine only had two seats so instead of just standing and watching, it was better for them to go and try another game. After the two of them left, Shinji and I walked over to the girl.
"Hey, Nanahara," Nanahara, who was doing a 10-hit combo with Kazuya, was distracted by my call. As a result, his combo failed and she was punished.
"Fuck!" she cursed before turning to me with an annoyed face. At first, I thought she was about to snap at us but after seeing who we were she fell silent for some reason and stared back at the screen in focus while her mouth spoke flatly. "What do you want?"
"We just wanted to say hello," Shinji answered. "Do you often play this?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Is Kazuya your main?"
"No, but I like to practice with him every once in a while..." her eyes remained glued to the screen as she spoke. I couldn't blame her because right now she was trying to find an opportunity to punish Hwoarang's barrage of attacks.
"I see. It seems you're quite good at it," I said honestly. "By the way, my main was Asuka..."
"Asuka...So you are a defensive player?"
"Um...defensive?"
"Yes, Asuka is a defensive character, just like Kazuya who I'm using right now, don't you know?"
"No..." That explained why I was so easily punished every time I tried to attack with Asuka. I thought it was because my opponent was too good.
"That means you're nothing but a noob..." Ouch. As usual, this girl always speaks bluntly. Even so, she wasn't wrong.
"Maybe you're right... actually, we've seen you a few times at the arcade, so we were a little curious about how good you are..." actually her abilities were quite clear from how she played Kazuya. Not to mention that Kazuya was not even her usual choice.
"So you guys want to challenge me?" She stopped playing and then turned to us. Her voice sounded cold but I could feel a hint of enthusiasm behind it. This is the first time I saw her like this.
"Well, you could say that..." said Shinji. "My main is Steve, I may not be as good as Kouki but I think I'm pretty good with that character..."
Nanahara grinned. "Heh, sit down then. I hope you really know how to use him."
***
We all always play games in our free time. Winning or losing doesn't matter, because the point is to have fun together, so I think this could be the beginning of our friendship with Nanahara. Unfortunately, about half an hour later, I realized that the word friendship might not be the right word to describe the relationship that grew from our match with her.
Nanahara plays with the ruthlessness of a pro. She doesn't show us any mercy at all. Shinji was defeated quickly and couldn't win a single round. My luck wasn't any better either as Nanahara barely gave me a chance to attack, and swiftly punished me every time I tried to take any opportunity.
Not long after, Kouki and Gilang came over to us out of curiosity since we spent so much time with one game. It seemed like seeing me and Shinji playing with Nanahara relieved the awkwardness a little bit from them. "Are you winning guys?"
"What do you think" Shinji answered bitterly, while Nanahara was currently stretching her sore arms in front of the screen. The two of us have played more than six times with that girl and never won a single match.
"Woah, she's that good?" Kouki asked in astonishment.
"Yeah, she's a pro, Kouki," I added.
"Oh really?" a smug smile suddenly appeared on his face. "How about playing with me? I'm a high-tier online player, you know?"
Nanahara turned to him. The girl still seems quite amused and at the same time skeptical about his bragging. "So you said you were better than these two?"
"Of course. I have sharpened my skill in tons of online matches."
"What are your stats?"
"A+ in aggressiveness, A in combo damage, and B+ in defense. You see, I am quite confident in my abilities."
Suddenly Nanahara's grin grew wider. "Interesting, I hope you can back up those words. Sit down." Kouki immediately took a place next to her excitedly. Among the four of us, Kouki is the best, but I'm not sure he can beat Nanahara. Not to mention how his mouth can sometimes be quite annoying when playing games...I have a bad feeling about this.
***
"What!? What the hell? How is that even possible? I have the frame advantage!" Kouki railed after being defeated for the third time. All the feelings of reluctance he felt towards the girl had now evaporated and were replaced by feelings of anger because he had been decisively defeated again and again. After this day we all learn that it turns out Nanahara was ranked S in both tenacity and punishment proficiency.
"Learn how to follow up your attacks with better combos, it's easy to punish you if you don't," she lectured.
"Are you sure you didn't cheat or something?"
Hearing this accusation, Nanahara's face seemed to burn with anger, and to my surprise, Kouki was not so stunned when the girl rebuked him. "What do you say? How can I cheat in the arcade?"
"He's right, Kouki, stop being a sore loser and accept your defeat." Shinji scolds him but he gets ignored.
"You know what? Fine! Let's play one more time. I'll use a random character...just watch, I'll kick your ass as many times as you like..." Nanahara, who was already offended, started ranting.
"Eh, calm down, Nanahara...we believe in you," I tried to calm her down but she didn't pay any attention to me.
"Okay, let's play one more time. This time I will repay you tenfold, you damn cheater." Meanwhile, Kouki becomes even more childish. Sometimes, this guy can be quite toxic when playing games.
"You're just talking big..."
Nanahara and Kouki played again with burning emotions. My two other friends and I could only look at the two of them with concern. It looks like they won't be moving from there for some time.
"Should we go try another game?" Gilang proposed.
Shinji shook his head. "Nah, I'm staying here and watching them, just in case this if it turns into a real fistfight."
I agree. Given Nanahara's temperament and Kouki's mouth, this situation could have developed into an iron fist tournament in the real world. Besides, maybe we can also learn something by watching the two of them fight. I don't mind staying here and watching them until the end but before that...I'm thirsty.
"I want to go get a drink, Gilang, want to come?"
Gilang nodded. "Sure, a cold soda would be nice."
"Shinji, want something?"
"Anything is fine, but please don't take too long. I'm not sure I can handle the two of them by myself..." Shinji is so worried about them. I hope their bickering won't continue outside the arcade.
***
Gilang and I left the arcade to look for a vending machine. Just two steps from the door, I suddenly heard someone calling me. "Kuro-chan!"
There's only one person who uses that nickname. I turned around and found Miwa Mitsuki in her casual clothes jogging over to me. "Hey, Kuro-chan, Gilang-kun. How are you doing? Having fun at the arcade?"
"Yeah, just as usual" I answered. "We'll come back again after buying drinks. How about you? I don't usually see you wandering around by yourself."
"So what? I can't go out alone?" Miwa asked back in a joking tone.
"Of course not. It's just that every time I see you, you're always with the other girls."
"I could say the same thing to you, usually you two would be with Minami-kun and Iwa-kun. Why didn't I see them?"
"Over there," Gilang pointed towards the arcade. The arcade door was made of glass and the Tekken arcade machine was not far from the entrance so Miwa could see them from here.
"Ohh, is that Nanahara-san playing with Iwa-kun? How can you guys ask her to hang out?" Miwa sounded really impressed.
"Actually, we didn't invite her," I answered. "She's been there since we came, so we asked her to play together."
"How kind of you, Kuro-chan. You made sure no one was left behind in our class..." Miwa was still smiling but somehow her smile felt different when she said those words. Is that sarcasm? I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking too much about it. "By the way, Kuro-chan. Can I have a moment of your time? I need to talk to you...just the two of us..."
Oh, this is quite sudden. What does a girl like Miwa want to talk to me about? I exchanged glances with Gilang for a moment before turning back to Miwa. "Is this important?"
"Yeah, you can say that."
"Okay, we can talk after I get some drinks, or maybe you can come with us if you want, it'd be boring if you just waited here by yourself, right?"
"Sure, I'm also in the mood for a walk."
Thus, we went to the vending machine with Miwa. We made small talk along the way and when we found the machine, I told her to get a drink. Miwa immediately lit up at that.
"That's very kind of you, Kuro-chan. You know how to treat a woman..." Well, technically everything on this ship was free for us so she didn't need to thank me for that. Her words were a bit excessive but that's just how she was.
While she was looking at the drinks, Gilang came closer and whispered to me. "She probably wants to confess to you..."
"There's no way," I argued in an equally low voice. "This is too sudden, too blatant."
"If not to confess then what else?"
The conversation had to be cut short because Miwa had finished taking her drink. The three of us returned to the front of the arcade. I don't believe she was trying to confess but since he already mentioned it, the possibility keeps lingering in my head.
"Let me bring the drinks," said Gilang, "You guys have something important to do, right? Don't worry, I will tell Shinji and Kouki that you were having a date."
"What are you talking about? This isn't a date..." I corrected him and Miwa chuckled at that. After that, Gilang went into the arcade carrying four cans of drink. Hopefully, the drinks can help cool the heads of those two people.
"Let's sit over there," Miwa pointed towards a small synthetic garden. The divider is made circular and tiered so that it can be used for sitting and leaning. Several corners of this ship are also decorated with similar gardens with floors covered with blue carpet. The interior design of this place really makes the atmosphere quite comfortable, so I often see several students who like to sit and relax around here.
"This ship is really luxurious, isn't it?" After we sat down, Miwa started the conversation by commenting on something that was already obvious just for the sake of small talk.
"Of course. It still feels unreal for me to spend the summer like this..."
"Speaking of summer, we've had a lot of fun lately," Miwa opened her can. "But you know, after six days many of them started to feel restless...you know why, right?"
Oh, I see. So that's what she wanted to talk about. After I revealed the existence of a special test a few weeks ago, we all boarded this ship with the expectation that at some point in our journey, we would be asked to take an impromptu exam. Sensei's response (or rather lack of response) had confirmed it. Even so, after six days of sailing in the ocean, the school still had not announced anything, so it was natural for them to feel worried. My friends felt the same way and that's why we try to divert our attention by playing every day until we are satisfied.
"Do you know when they're going to hold that exam or whatever it was called?" Miwa asked.
"How could I know? You should ask our teacher...that is if she is willing to give a clear answer."
Miwa sighed. "So we have no choice but to wait?"
"Yeah...unfortunately," I haven't told them that the first special exam in previous years was always held on an island. Therefore, as long as we haven't docked, we will all just be idle here. If I tell them this information, maybe it will ease their worry a little bit, but it will be troublesome if they start asking where I know this specific information.
"If you don't know when, at least do you have an estimate of what kind of activity they'll throw at us?"
"Sorry, I don't know about that either, not enough information..." This time I spoke completely honestly. The form of the exam changes every year so there's no way I can predict it.
"Is that so? Well, if you don't know, that means there's nothing we can do," Miwa leaned her head in resignation. "You think the other classes already know?"
One of the reasons why we keep distracting ourselves with recreation and never discuss specific exams is because we want to avoid information leaks. Indeed, it seems pointless to do all this because just knowing the existence of a special exam will not make much difference other than if you know what kind of exam will be held. Besides that, even though I have acquaintances in other classes, I'm not very good at gathering information.
Nee-chan so far hasn't shown any signs that she knows anything, even if class B already knows about the special exam, it could be that they deliberately kept it a secret from her because of her relationship with me. I also haven't seen Teiichi much lately.
"Aren't you the one who should know better? You have lots of friends in other classes, right?" I asked her back. As a sociable and lively person, Miwa should have much wider connections than anyone in class C.
"What do you mean?"
"I know you hang out a lot with students from other classes. Haven't they been showing any strange behavior lately?"
"Well, it's true that I have a lot of acquaintances but that doesn't mean I have to pay attention to all of them, right? After all, you were also the one who told us not to discuss this with the other class..."
"Indeed, but that doesn't mean you can't listen..."
"Well...ah, whatever. All of this thing about the secret exam is indeed kind of related but actually, that's not the main reason why I wanted to talk to you."
I glanced at her while taking a sip of my drink. "Oh? Is there anything else on your mind?"
"Of course. There are many things on my mind about you..." Miwa smiled. Don't tell me what Gilang said is true? Well, there's no way. If she wanted to confess to me she would take me to a better place than here. A seat in front of an arcade is not a very romantic place to confess your feelings to someone.
"First of all," Miwa continued. "After what you did the other day, opinions about you can be said to improve a lot...and when I say a lot, I mean a looot. You might not realize it that much but you are the center of attention in our class right now. In fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration if I said that you were almost in the same position as Satonaka right now..."
Actually, I'm quite aware. Considering everything that's happened to me lately, it's not surprising that I became a topic of conversation. It's just that I chose to ignore it, but what was she trying to imply when she mentioned my reputation?
"...So, what I want to say is that since you have gained a lot of attention there are certain people who are curious about you, and do you know what most of them want to know from you?"
Why is she still flailing around the bushes? Just say what you want to say. "No, I don't know..."
"They want to know what your relationship with a certain pink-haired girl."
"...You mean Nanahara?"
"Yes. Who else could it be?"
What is my relationship with Nanahara? What's this? Do they just want to find gossip material or something? "I...don't really understand what you're saying?"
Miwa smiled mockingly. "Oh come on Kuro-chan. You understand what I mean. After everything you've done for her, it's not surprising that anyone would think you have a crush on her..."
"I need to remind you that Satonaka was the one who wanted to help her first..."
"Satonaka is Satonaka. She's a good girl who cares about her friends especially since she's already our class rep by technicality, but you...Nanahara isn't your responsibility, and even before that you also seemed to be the closest to her...I mean you're the one who talks to that girl the most ..."
Satonaka had mentioned something similar some time ago. If I'm not mistaken right after sensei first announced the class points. It was just a light teasing so I quickly forgot about it.
"I can see what you mean, but there's nothing between us. I helped her purely for the sake of our class," I denied. She probably won't believe it, but if that's the case, it can't be helped.
"Our class, huh?" Miwa still looked unsure. "So you did it to gain respect from our classmates? So you can become someone important?"
I could feel my eyes twitching at that. She seemed to say that I was an ambitious person who was never sincere when helping people. Well, technically the part about being someone important isn't completely wrong. Kasai did ask me to handle several problems in class in order to strengthen my position as a class leader. Even so, I also decided to defend Nanahara because I really wanted to help her. Before I could respond, the girl continued talking.
"Oh, or maybe...you're actually after Ayase-chan?" Miwa covered her mouth while looking at me with raised eyebrows. "So you did all that to impress her? I can't say I agree with your method but not bad, Kuro-chan..."
"Enough. What kind of man do you think I am?" I didn't raise my voice at all but Miwa seemed to have widened her eyes at my cold tone. It seems that no matter what, my annoyance remains obvious.
"Oh, it seems I was a little out of the line. I'm sorry, Kuro-chan, I just wanted to tease you a little. It was not my intention to question your sincerity."
Hearing her talk like that seemed to relieve my irritation. Now I'm starting to feel bad because I was annoyed at a simple joke. "No, I'm also sorry for overreacting..."
"No-no, I'm the one who should pay more attention to what I say..." now the atmosphere was a bit awkward. In the end, Miwa decided to stand and throw an empty drink can to a nearby trash can. "Maybe it's time for me to go back. I have an appointment with my friends to eat on the top deck. The restaurant has really good tuna dishes. You should try it sometime with your friends."
"...Sure, I'll go there sometime..."
"What I said earlier...please don't take it seriously. Thank you for being willing to entertain my ramblings. See you tomorrow..."
Miwa walked away looking cheerful as if nothing had happened. Even so, she might think that I'm angry with her. It seems without me realizing it. The wait on this ship had made me just as nervous as my classmates. Maybe playing games will help ease my feelings a little.
I went straight back into the arcade after that. The funny thing is that what Shinji feared actually happened. Nanara almost attacks Kouki for real but Shinji stops them. In the end, we were kicked out of the arcade for making a fuss. Man...what a day it was.
***
I'm not planning to drag this out so in the next chapter, we'll finally arrive on the island. Actually, this chapter is supposed to end with the island finally in sight but I underestimated the word count as usual. I'm not too happy with this chapter so I might rewrite it if I get the chance. Maybe you guys can help me by sharing your opinion about what I need to improve and it applies to all of the previous chapters as well. See you next time.