"I'm in."
Another murmur went through the audience. The setup
would be rare enough with nanashi taking part, but to have
NO NAME as my opponent brought it to another level. No
one realized just how incredible the battle they were about to
see was. The final match in the tournament was a ditto
match between the top two players in Japan.
"Heh-heh. Well then, time to choose the character."
"Exciting."
Our eyes locked, neither of us backing down. We were so
fired up now that a couple of people in the audience shouted,
too.
The final match between Hinami and me was about to
begin.
A ditto match with our main characters banned.
Obviously, the key point now was which character to use.
If one of us got to choose, it was possible we'd cheat by
choosing a character we were decent at, and while I highly
doubt either of us would do that, the important thing was to
rule it out completely.
We discussed and came up with a plan.
"Harry-san!" Hinami called over to our host.
"What's up?"
"Choosing at random would be boring, so I was
wondering if you'd do the honors!"
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Harry-san hesitated. "I don't mind, but what do you think,
nanashi-kun?"
I nodded. "I'm fine with it."
"Well, in that case…"
He paused, looking at the character-selection screen on
the monitor. Then he gave a satisfied nod and looked back at
us.
"Gonna go with Wigglypoff. I want to see how you two use
her so I can get some tips!"
Hinami nodded solemnly. "Understood! Nanashi-kun, is
that okay with you?"
"Fine by me."
Continuing our little act, we casually accepted his choice.
He threw us a slightly worried look.
"I'm just curious… How much experience do you two have
with Wigglypoff?"
"Almost none!" said Hinami. "I've done the bare
minimum. Seen a few videos. That's it."
"Same here."
"Okay, then it's fair!" He smiled boyishly. I guess he was
just crossing his t's and dotting his i's as host.
I half suspected Hinami was fishing for Wigglypoff by
calling on Harry-san, but I don't think that's in character for
her. She probably simply wanted to create the appearance of
fairness.
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"All righty then, it's a Wigglypoff ditto between nanashikun and Aoi-san! I have a feeling this is gonna be good!"
The audience buzzed with excitement.
"Oh, by the way…," Harry-san said bashfully. "Would you
mind if I put this one on my channel? I think people would
like to see it…"
"…Oh, on YouTube?"
"Yeah."
He probably wanted to livestream it, specifically.
Well, there were already plenty of videos of me online
because people I play against would post them without
asking sometimes, and I wasn't trying to hide the fact that I
was at this meetup. I didn't see an issue.
"Sure, but…"
I glanced at Hinami, who turned to Harry-san with a
pleasant expression.
"It's fine! Just don't share my face or voice, please!"
"Oh, don't worry about that! I'll be covering it myself!"
"Ooh, commentary? Got it, ha-ha."
She giggled. The fun, bright aura she gave off at little
moments like this was another characteristic of her perfectheroine mode. I'm fairly sure anyone watching her would be
willing to do whatever it took to make her smile some more.
Although strictly speaking, I wouldn't be.
"Okay! I'll get everything set up. It'll just take a minute."
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Well, that was decided fast. Hinami and I were going live
on YouTube. All I had to do was play without talking—so the
usual—but who can help being nervous in that kind of
situation?
* * *
An offline meetup five minutes from a train station in
Tokyo.
A dozen or so people stood around one of three tables,
waiting to watch the game. The monitor was hooked up to a
laptop via some little device.
"Hello, hello! Harry here."
"And Max."
Harry-san and Max-san were speaking crisply into a mic
connected to the laptop via a different device. Compared
with a minute earlier, they'd taken on their usual roles.
Guess their announcer switch just got turned on. I'd never
seen a broadcast being recorded before, and I was struck by
how they commented on the most insignificant stuff. Also,
they were a lot louder than I expected.
"Believe it or not, today…"
Harry-san gave his viewers a brief rundown of the day's
event. He explained that this was the final match in a
tournament at an AtaHouse meetup, that it was a ditto
match—and that one of the players was nanashi. In order to
keep unnecessary information out of my brain, I didn't listen
or check the chat to see how many people were there or what
kinds of comments they were making.
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"Well, I hate to keep everyone waiting, so let's get this
game started! Please nod if you're ready, players!"
At that unspoken hint from Harry-san that we didn't need
to say anything, we both gave our silent approval.
Personally, I was ready the second I sat down.
"Then let's begin!"
That was the signal for Hinami and me to choose
Wigglypoff as well as the stage we'd agreed on in advance. It
was a simple, medium-sized stage with a platform on either
side.
A new screen appeared. Two Wigglypoffs floated down to
the stage.
"Three! Two! One!"
I released the unnecessary tension from my hands around
the controller.
Sweeping all other thoughts from my mind, I calmly took
in the screen.
"GO!"
As the game's announcer signaled the start, Hinami's and
my Wigglypoffs both did a short hop at almost the same
instant. We moved closer to each other in a rapid swirl of air
attacks, taking advantage of Wigglypoff's excellent
horizontal air speed and ability to jump multiple times—
both of which she did better than any other character—and
then moved away again.
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We both did a series of jumps, performing long-lasting
moves while watching our start-up and ending lag. To the
people watching, this negotiation might look like we were
simply flying back and forth, desperately inputting a bunch
of random moves that never hit their mark. You see the
same kind of strategy a lot with other characters, but only a
Wigglypoff ditto could have this level of repeated aerial
approach and retreat.
"What are they doing?" Max-san asked Harry-san. I guess
his voice was traveling through the mic to people all across
the country.
"Well, they're sizing each other up, getting a sense for the
timing they'll need in order for their attacks to capitalize on
the other player's lag. They're also figuring out if they should
move forward or back when they attack."
"Ah, I see."
Our negotiations continued against the backdrop of
Harry-san's commentary.
If this was any ordinary opponent, I'd be able to assess
their attack timing, movement quirks, and distancing, and
that would give me a sense of timing, so if I closed in at x
moment, my attack would be sure to hit home—but in a way,
that strategy depended on my opponent making mistakes.
And with a player as good at judging the situation as Hinami
was, mistakes hardly ever happened. My inability to easily
create an opening for myself was the sure sign I was playing
a high-tier opponent.
What happens when neither player exposes themselves to
attack—it's a deadlock. The two Wigglypoffs did not expose
themselves, instead repeatedly poking at each other in the
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hopes of baiting out a whiff and shouting "Wiggly!" "Poff!"
as they desperately kicked at nothing in midair. That was all
that happened for nine or ten seconds.
"They want to be sure their poke will catch their opponent
if they happen to come flying toward them. Or they want to
be ready to act in the lag after their opponent makes theirs.
They're adjusting their timing and positioning over and over
so that it stays advantageous."
"Ah, I see."
But if you don't at the very least take some risk, you don't
get any results. Hinami moved first. She took a step into my
space to shake me up.
But my forward-air hitbox was waiting for her. And
Hinami's Wigglypoff crashed defenselessly into it as she
tried to narrow the distance between us. A low-risk poke on
my part had worked out perfectly.
"Ooh, the first hit!"
"Nanashi-san has just successfully attacked."
Hinami's Wigglypoff bent backward slightly. But I'd only
grazed her, and she didn't freeze long enough for me to start
a combo. I bore down to follow up with another hit, but she
dodged.
And back to the stalemate.
"In situations like this where your opponent approaches
to attack, if you've already made a move in advance, that will
hit your opponent before their attack hits you. That's what
we call a poke."
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"Interesting. So the other player crashes straight into the
hitbox."
"Right. Since they're sussing each other out, the hit is
almost inevitable. You could also call it luck, though."
The game moved on. Most players would probably get a
little scared and pull back slightly, but Hinami was not so
weak. Realizing that she was going to come after me again, I
maneuvered steadily, preparing another poke.
Right then, with exquisite timing, she caught me in my
own ending lag. A hit.
"And you can see here that it goes the other way
sometimes. If a player reads their opponent's poke and
punishes during the ending lag, they'll land the hit instead.
Of course, the timing is very difficult."
"You're talking about whiff punishing a poke, which is
really hard to do."
"Exactly."
We'd both scored a hit, but too late in the animation to
start a combo.
"You know there's a lot of different patterns, but
essentially, you can think of it as a game of rock-paperscissors where you'll do best by fading back."
"…That's part of rock-paper-scissors?"
"It's a little hard to explain. Basically, when you make an
attack, it's a good idea to keep your distance."
"What do you mean?"
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Hinami had faded away from me, then attacked during
my ending lag. Even though it didn't lead into a combo this
time, either, I'd probably made a mistake by giving her the
chance to punish me.
"See what just happened? If you fade in tandem with an
incoming attack, as long as your opponent isn't way more
mobile than you, you can dodge, right? Which also means
that you can go after the ending lag from the attack you just
dodged."
"Right."
"So basically, you can't lose if you fall back."
"Why not just do that all the time, then?"
Apparently, instead of proactively attacking me, Hinami
used a main strategy that seemed to be to evade and counter.
In terms of return on risk, that makes sense for Wigglypoff.
"…You'd think, right? That's what the platform is for."
"How so?"
"I mean…it ends."
"Oh. Yeah."
Hinami had backed up all the way the edge of the stage,
shielding. If I landed right where I was and successfully
baited her, I could throw her off the stage, but Wigglypoff
can go from shielding to aerials really quickly, and she's also
got good damage and hitboxes. It wasn't a choice I could
make lightly. Watching and waiting was probably a good
idea.
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"Since you've got that to worry about, falling back is a norisk, middle-return action only if you've got plenty of room
behind you. But as soon as you run out of room, that's the
end of that."
"Right, 'cause there's nowhere to go. And then you're in
danger of losing neutral, right?"
"Exactly. Meanwhile, the player who pushes the other
person to the edge still has plenty of room, so they can fall
back as much as they want."
"Ah, I see."
Hinami was close to the edge, so now she could only win
through reading me. She was reduced to desperately doing
rock-paper-scissors with only two options.
That's why I poked with an aerial just close enough to
barely touch the edge of Hinami's shield. This prevented her
from gaining more ground, was low risk for me, and put
pressure on her. I'd wait until she couldn't hold out any
longer and made herself vulnerable, and then I'd fire the
decisive shot. After all, I could retreat as much as I wanted
to avoid Hinami's attacks.
"When you're in a good position to fade, you have an
incredible advantage because you can choose that option as
much as you want. It's a very strong action, but the more
times you use it, the less times you have left to use it, and the
more opportunities you give your opponent. That makes it a
fairly unique choice."
"So it's a superpowered double-edged sword?"
"Pretty much."
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I watched Hinami's movements intently, poking at her
with my Wigglypoff from positions where I could predict her
jumps and rolls, and where I'd be safe from any out-ofshield counterattacks. Once nanashi has you at the edge of
the stage, he doesn't back off.
"If you fade back, it's hard to lose at that particular round
of rock-paper-scissors, but if you do it too much, things get
harder and harder. That's why people fall back after lunging
way forward and keep an eye on their opponent's moves as
they attack. It's what they call 'playing footsies.'"
"Ah, that makes sense. Each player is trying to make the
other one move back to the edge of the platform and choose
the moments when their opponent doesn't fall back to deal
damage… Is that what you're saying?"
"Yeah. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but
that's the essential structure."
As Harry-san and Max-san were carrying on their smooth
and pleasant commentary, Hinami and I were continuing
our negotiation at the edge. I could fall back freely, but she
could not.
Finally, my relentless pressure paid off.
"Bad move."
She couldn't afford to fade, but moving forward was
tough, too. Without forgetting the light shield she'd done to
keep an eye on the situation, I grabbed Hinami's Wigglypoff.
Down throw, forward air, forward air. At a low
percentage, I could segue from the throw into a combo.
Hinami's Wigglypoff flew off the platform, and I chased
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after.
"Ooh, here we go!"
Harry-san's cheer got me fired up.
Now for the all-important edge guard. When I did the
combo, I used up two of my jumps, so I couldn't chase her
that far. Still, as soon as I landed on the stage, I got all my
jumps back, and she hadn't been blown so far back that I
couldn't go for a wall of pain. I went in the direction she'd
fallen and launched an aerial.
But she expertly used a downward air dodge to escape my
strike and grab straight onto the ledge.
"Aww! Anticlimactic."
"Would that have led to a combo?"
"No, not a combo, but nanashi-san would still have an
advantage. When an attack lands, the person getting hit
freezes for a period of time. If that period lasts longer than
the attacker's ending lag, then the victim gets that much of a
later start on their next move."
"You're talking about frame disadvantage, right?"
"Right. If that happens, then the victim starts at a
disadvantage in the next round of rock-paper-scissors."
"Huh…so it's like you lose even if you both do scissors and
it's a draw?"
"That's a good way of putting it. And if the person who has
an advantage wins that round, then they have an advantage
again in the next round. So even if you don't land a combo,
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it's important in this game to hit your opponent as hard as
possible when you have an advantage."
My Wigglypoff returned to the stage before Hinami
finished her recovery.
"And you were saying that this time, he only got in one
hit."
"Yeah. Aoi-san judged the situation well. She knew that
from that position, her downward air dodge would be faster
than her opponent's fast fall, and she could grab the ledge,
too."
"Very simple."
"Yes, very simple—but even if you know that mentally, it's
scary to angle it downward there, so personally, I have a
hard time doing it when it counts. Ha-ha-ha!"
"Not exactly a laughing matter!"
She'd avoided another hit. But she still had virtually
nowhere to go, and I still had the advantage. I ramped up my
poking and put pressure on her again.
"…Thirty percent, down throw."
But what was this? Hinami was muttering something, and
I didn't have to see her face to know she was cool as could
be.
She tried to leap over my head to recover more ground,
but I moved back and prevented her from doing so. At the
same time, I landed another hit. Hinami had to continue
fighting at a disadvantage.
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I maneuvered so she wouldn't retake her space now that I
had it, maintaining my advantage. That's one important
element of this game.
"Nanashi-san sure is tough."
"He sure is. Aoi-san's been in a fairly bad way for a while
now."
"Since they're using the same character, she can't brute
force it with an advantage in mobility or hitboxes. If she
keeps taking damage, she's gonna be in real trouble before
too long."
When you're edge guarding, obviously KOing your
opponent was ideal, but when their percent was very low,
racking up damage is important, too. Using Poff's jumps to
the full, I continued to make scattershot air attacks, building
a wall of hitboxes. The person on the receiving end of this
strategy would want to get back on the platform—but
moving forward would put them in range of my attack, and
they couldn't fade because they were already at the edge. The
noose gradually tightened until they finally cracked. Even a
top player like Hinami was no exception. All I had to do now
was carry it through.
"…Five," Hinami mumbled.
At the same time, her Wigglypoff landed from a double
jump and dashed on the ground toward my midair position
a slight distance away.
Oh.
That's when I realized.
My Poff had run out of jumps.
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"…Shit!" I hissed.
Normally, I'd be able to parry with my extra jumps and
midair mobility to retreat. But my Wigglypoff couldn't do
that, so she was doomed to drop to the ground from her
current position. I could air dodge to change the position
and timing of her fall, and I could attack while landing, but
to a certain degree, where she would land was predictable.
And the instant she hit the ground, she'd have some landing
lag, tiny as it was.
The second I used up my last jump, Hinami predicted all
this, landed right away, and started running. She was ready
for me. From here on out, I was at a disadvantage in our
game of rock-paper-scissors.
"Ouch."
Wigglypoff could do five jumps altogether. She must have
been counting my jumps.
The second I landed, I tried for an aerial. But Hinami had
control, shielding out of her dash to block my aggressive
attempt and grabbing my Wigglypoff.
And then.
"Thirty percent…," she hissed. "Down throw."
As she said it, Hinami's Wigglypoff pressed mine onto the
ground and then hopped up at an angle. I was in the thirties,
the same level of damage Hinami had when I grabbed her
before.
"Forward air… No," she mumbled in a terrifyingly cold
voice. Done with her throw, she pivoted, jumped diagonally,
and hit me with a back air.
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"Uh-oh, a back air!" Harry-san shouted excitedly.
I was surprised myself.
I'd grabbed Hinami at a similar percentage and done a
down throw, too. And I'd followed up with a forward air.
But that was wrong. Wigglypoff's back airs were just a tiny
bit more powerful than her forward airs. They're a little
harder to perform, but if you were going from a down throw
to an aerial combo, then rather than jumping straight into
forward air, you'd get more damage if you switched
directions right when the throw ended, did a backward jump
after your opponent, then attacked with a back air.
…But if I wasn't mistaken…
…Hinami had just copied me by doing a down throw at 30
percent, then segueing into an aerial.
The percent where a particular throw will lead into a
combo is different for each character, and of course, while
anyone would know those numbers for their own character,
it's really hard to memorize them for every fighter. Okay, so
I actually have done that, but unlike me, Hinami took the
shortest possible path to becoming a top player: She copied
me.
Since she wants to spend time on other parts of her life,
she probably divides necessary from unnecessary
information so she doesn't waste any time. She probably
considered combo memorization unnecessary, and instead
of asking herself which direction to throw those characters
in order to segue into a combo, she'd only have to ask which
direction she should alter her own launch angle after being
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hit so they wouldn't be able to start a combo. For example, if
such-and-such character grabs you, you'll be okay if you jam
the stick all the way in such-and-such direction—that sort of
thing tends to exist for a lot of characters, Wigglypoff
included.
Thinking back to what Hinami had said before her attack,
it's probably safe to assume that she had learned about the
throw-to-combo route from me, which I learned from
watching someone else.
Which meant that she was learning combo routes from
her opponent during a battle, then improving on them from
the very first time she used them to make them hit harder,
and turning them back on that same opponent.
"…You're kidding me."
It would be scary enough if she watched her opponent
carefully during the game and completely absorbed
everything they did, but she was actually making their
strategies better, as if that was a totally natural thing to do.
This player, Aoi Hinami—her specs were just too high.
* * *
"Now that was a match!"
"Ha-ha-ha, yeah, that was exciting."
The final match was over, and I was running through it in
my mind as I smiled at Harry-san.
"Also, you're amazing, Aoi-san."
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"Ah-ha-ha. Thank you." Hinami gracefully accepted the
compliment.
"Seriously, you're a star in the Atafami universe to give
nanashi-kun that much of a run for his money!"
"Thanks," she said, looking down. "But…in the end, I still
lost." She couldn't hide the regret in her eyes.
We'd played the match according to the usual first-tothree rule.
I beat Hinami 3–1 to take first place.
"Ha-ha-ha. Better luck next time."
"…Hmph."
Hinami intercepted my boasting with a razor-sharp glare.
I think she was genuinely pissed off. Hopefully it doesn't
affect my assignments.
"I knew I could count on you, nanashi-san!! We won!"
"Uh, you didn't do anything."
"Hey!"
For some reason, Rena-chan seemed overjoyed to get a
brush-off. Maybe she's the type who likes being mistreated.
Harry-san was looking at his laptop with a satisfied
expression.
"Thanks to you two, that stream went great! Chat couldn't
believe nanashi's first live game was with Wigglypoff, but in
general, everyone really enjoyed it! Some people were asking
who Aoi is. Got some new subs, too. You guys are awesome!"
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"Ha-ha, happy to be of service."
This guy was definitely more at home with streaming than
I was, but I made an effort to sound natural when I
answered. I may be a nerd, but I'm purely a game nerd, and
I don't spend much time in that culture.
"Actually, this was a really great experience for me, too,
since I've never played so many people in real life before.
Thank you!" I replied.
That seemed to remind Harry-san of something.
"Oh right! There's a question I've been wanting to ask
you!" He pointed at me, his tone tense.
"What's up?"
"Ordinarily, players who start out online have some
trouble adjusting to the real world. But even though you
mainly play online, you were a natural with the controller.
What's your secret? If you have some special way of
practicing, I'd love to learn from you!"
"Uh…"
The words stuck in my throat.
I mean, the main reason I was so good at playing offline
was…
I glanced to my side. The second-best player in Japan,
who I'd played a million offline games with, was looking
back at me with an expression that said, Whatever. I think
she meant I could tell them the truth as long as I didn't
connect NO NAME to her.
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So I decided to go with that.
"Actually…NO NAME and I play each other offline a lot."
"What?!"
"That NO NAME?!"
"You're kidding! How do you know each other?!"
At this earth-shattering news, even the silent onlookers
craned their necks toward me. Yeah, I mean, the mysterious
top two players in Japan, who'd never showed their faces
offline before today, had actually been meeting in secret all
this time? I think it was enough to shake up everyone
slightly.
"Ha-ha…that's a surprise."
"What's your winrate?!"
"How many times have you met?!"
"What's NO NAME like as a person?!"
Without waiting for me to answer, they were shooting
questions at me rapid-fire. I glanced at the player in
question, and this time, she scrunched her eyebrows
irritably. So she didn't want me to give away the details.
Understood. I could see her point—if I said the mysterious
NO NAME was a second-year high school student like me
and went to my school and on top of that was a beautiful
girl, the Atafami world wouldn't be able to handle it. No
doubt it would be the start of some kind of myth.
"Well…they prefer to keep a low profile, so I can't say
much…"
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"Oh, th-that makes sense… No worries!"
Harry-san sounded disappointed, but he quickly obliged
and dropped the subject. Man, I felt guilty. He'd helped us
out so much throughout the day, I wanted to say a little
more.
"But if I keep it to what I can say…"
"Yeah?!"
A murmur ran through the crowd. Just as NO NAME
implied, the player's age, gender, and everything else were
totally unknown. Whatever I said was sure to cause a stir in
the Atafami world.
I racked my brain for personal information about Hinami
that wouldn't reveal her identity.
"Well…if I were to compare them to something…"
"What, man?!"
I thought for a second, then hit on the perfect answer.
There was probably only one phrase that accurately summed
up NO NAME as a player and a human being.
I turned to the crowd, full of confidence, and told them:
"…NO NAME is like—a final boss."
"A f-final boss…"
A shiver seemed to run down the spine of everyone
listening.
"…Huh?"
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Somehow, I felt like I'd just created a massive
misunderstanding, but I hadn't lied, so I was in the clear…
right?
By the way, the player herself was staring at me with the
face of a captured princess as she mingled with the crowd.
Sorry, you're the one doing the capturing here.
* * *
Half an hour or so passed. After the excitement from the
tournament died down, everyone hung out and talked more
calmly for a while.
"Wow, you're all so connected."
We'd split the bill for a pile of snacks and juice and
alcohol from the closest convenience store and were chatting
about the Atafami world while we shared everything. I was
learning that all kinds of new information was flying, since I
usually only played online. Obviously, Hinami and I and the
rest of the underage crowd were having soft drinks.
By the way, Harry-san and Rena-chan were sitting by me,
and Rena-chan in particular kept bumping my feet because
we were fairly close. Also, every time I looked at her, I saw
that heart-shaped hole, which I wish she'd just cover up. If I
didn't install Mizusawa quick, I'd probably die.
"Yeah, we are. Oh, by the way, Ashigaru-san shows up
here a lot."
"Ashigaru-san? The pro gamer?"
"That's the one."
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I latched on to the meetup gossip Rena-chan was doling
out. Ashigaru-san is the top Lizard user in Japan. He's a pro
Atafami player who regularly participates in international
tournaments, and when he's in good form, he sometimes
ranks at the top. He's incredible.
"I bet he's really tough."
"He is! At least, when I played him, I was totally useless."
"Ah-ha-ha. That's not surprising."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Rena-chan
complained, but she smiled at the same time and touched
my leg between the knee and the thigh. Please stop, I'm
ticklish. Weirdly, even after she took her finger away, the
sensation stayed.
Next to us, Harry-san nodded enthusiastically.
"I mean, his main is Lizard. If you don't know how to
handle him, you're gonna be useless."
"Yeah, with Lizard, you have to be extra careful."
Lizard's a thief character who scatters firecrackers and
steel traps and other projectiles like that all over the stage,
and he fights at mid- to long-range with heavy blows.
There's a lot of techniques and set plays you've got to learn,
and when you're fighting, you have to always be thinking
about multiple things. So even though he's a top-tier
character, people say he's hard to use.
But once you've mastered him, you can really control the
game, and if your opponent doesn't know how to deal with
Lizard, you have a huge advantage. I've seen a lot of games
where Lizard's opponents short-circuit mentally from
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dealing with all projectiles, so he's able to seize control and
beat them before they can do anything.
Ashigaru-san probably used Lizard better than anyone
else in Japan. Maybe in the world.
Harry-san picked up a piece of smoked squid and went on
in a pained voice.
"Oh yeah, you've gotta take some serious special
measures. When we played, I knew I was screwed."
"I know what you mean! He's beyond me, too," Max-san
said, which convinced me they weren't making this up.
"If you're playing someone who's mastered him, I don't
think you can even get him with mind games."
"Right?! I mean, you can't get close to him. And if you do,
you gotta be perfect, or he'll intercept you with a dash attack
or a forward tilt, just like wham! You've gotta keep your
cool, but it's so hard…"
"Huh…I'd like to play him some time."
As we chatted about Atafami, Harry-san, Max-san, and
Rena-chan were all drinking canned cocktails, while I had a
cola. Just being able to talk openly about what I love made
those totally ordinary convenience-store snacks and drinks
taste like the most delicious things in the world.
…Uh, wait a second.
"Rena-chan, are you drinking alcohol?"
"Yes, and?"
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Wait, I thought underage drinking was illegal…
"Um, how old are you?" I asked her. She smiled
nonchalantly.
"I know what you're thinking! I'm twenty."
"What?!"
She was way older than me! No wonder she had that
weirdly adult magnetism. I'd gotten carried away and started
calling her Rena-chan and using casual language with her,
but we never properly introduced ourselves. I did say I was
in high school, but now that I thought about it, I hadn't
asked anyone else how old they were. Damn, human
interactions are tough.
"I should be calling you Rena-san! Sorry about that," I
said.
Rena-chan…Rena-san smiled invitingly.
"Oh, no, nanashi-kun gets to call me Rena-chan."
"Um…"
She just took a giant step closer to me—metaphorically
and literally. That sweet scent blurred my awareness again.
Shit, I had to install Mizusawa. Otherwise, I was going to sit
there gaping like a fish.
So what would Mizusawa do?
I remembered a conversation he and I had a little while
ago.
And then…
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"You're right… I am technically nanashi-kun. I'll stick
with that," I said in a confident, joking tone.
I don't know if that was the right answer, but that's what
my inner Mizusawa said. I think it's because of that
conversation we had about our plans after high school, when
he very confidently said he'd be all right because "this is me
we're talking about, after all." Aside from the discomfort of
acting so full of myself, I think it worked in the conversation.
"Ah-ha-ha! That was a very nanashi-like answer!" Renachan said happily. Maybe she really does enjoy it when
someone messes with her or talks down to her. Weird.
"Um, so, Rena-chan?" I said hesitantly.
"Yes, nanashi-kun?" she answered.
I felt like we were so close, we were actually touching—is
that normal when you're twenty? I was trying to act like it
was totally normal for me, too, and I think I was scoring a
ton of EXP.
As I was successfully navigating this new kind of
conversation with grown-ups…I suddenly heard Hinami's
voice from a slight distance.
"Nope, no one! I mean, there are some guys, but no girls.
That's why I don't talk about it much at school."
I glanced over. She was surrounded by three or four guys,
apparently talking about herself at the center of the circle.
"Yeah, I haven't seen many female players."
"Right?! One reason I came today is because I felt so
lonely."
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I think they were talking about whether there were any
other Atafami players at her school. She was babbling on in
a leisurely, charming way, and the guys listening and
nodding along seemed to be enjoying themselves just as
much—wonder if she was fine with acting like a princess? I
just hoped this didn't turn into a clash of the princesses. I
glanced over at Rena-chan. For a few seconds, she stared at
Hinami, her black eyes unreadable, before looking away.
"You never go to offline tournaments?"
Harry-san's question brought me back to our
conversation. Max-san and Rena-chan were looking at me
curiously. Offline tournaments?
"Honestly, I was never very interested before now."
"Really?" Rena-chan asked.
I nodded.
Until now, I'd stayed in the online world, but of course,
that didn't mean I hadn't thought about it.
"Winrates are calculated from hundreds or thousands of
games, but the results of a tournament might depend on
how I feel the day of. So I thought maybe it didn't mean as
much."
"Yeah, I can see your point."
It was similar to how I used to think about life.
No matter how high your winrate normally is, if you get
nervous on the big day and mess up, you're treated like a
loser. Atafami is the best of the best, and I didn't want it to
be contaminated by elements of a shitty game the second it
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got pulled into the real world—aka life.
I wanted to remove as much randomness as possible from
a competition of effort and ability.
"But…"
"But?"
I thought back on my literal "life experience."
"…lately, I've started to think I should just enjoy all of it.
That's why I came here today."
Harry-san grinned. It was a kind smile, with deep lines at
the corners of his eyes.
"Interesting… So you've gone through some mental and
emotional changes. Well, you are a student, after all!"
"You could be right," I said casually and smiled. Hinami is
my mental image at moments like this when I want to seem
approachable. "I'm planning to check out some of those
tournaments in the future."
"You are? That's great! I'll let you know next time
something's going on."
"Would you?"
"Sure. How should I get in touch? I can't remember if
you're on Twitter or not."
"Uh…no."
I did have an account, but it was a private one that I
basically just used to keep an eye on other people and never
tweeted myself. So I actually didn't have one for interacting
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with people.
"You don't? It'd really be handy for you to have an
account as nanashi."
"You think so?" I asked.
Rena-chan nodded. "Twitter is the main way everyone
stays in touch around here, with replies and DMs."
"Guess I better make one, then."
"The second nanashi makes an account, I bet you'll get
tons of followers," Rena-chan said, eyeing me. She seemed
pleased, although I'm not sure why.
"Do you have one?" I asked her.
"Of course! Wait a second…" She took out her phone and
showed me her profile.
"Thanks."
The account for rena@atafamiaka was pulled up, with an
icon that was very obviously a selfie. She followed 56 people
and had 521 followers, which was fairly impressive.
"This is the account where I chat with everyone!" she said,
handing me her phone. I took it, slightly embarrassed by her
trust, and scrolled down through her tweets. There was a big
mix of content—a picture of an Atafami screen with the
words Training mode, anyone? as well as tweets about her
everyday life with selfies attached, and comments about
real-world meetups. There were even lists of stuff she
wanted from Amazon and ones saying, It's here! I wonder if
she's well-known in this world. I guess you stand out if you
look like that in the Atafami world.
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"Cute!"
I'd found a picture of Rena-chan holding a cat, with the
words At the cat café.
"I know! Actually…"
She sidled up right next to me and started telling me
about the picture. Since we were both looking at the screen,
we were super close, and our shoulders were actually
touching. That sweet scent drifted into my nostrils and
attacked my brain again, and a warm sensation was
spreading steadily from my shoulder. I'm fairly sure I'd be in
trouble if she stayed this close for long.
I mumbled the appropriate responses as she told me her
story, then when she paused, I handed back her phone and
continued talking to Harry-san and Max-san.
"Anyway, I'll get in touch after I make an account."
"Got it. But you still haven't told me how," Harry-san said
jokingly, laughing a little.
"Ah-ha-ha. Very true. Wanna exchange LINE info?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Me too!"
I traded info with Harry-san, Max-san, and Rena-chan.
These days, that's not enough to get me flustered—but I did
feel slightly guilty about doing so with a girl while I was
dating Kikuchi-san…
Once we were friends on LINE, Harry-san turned to me
with wide eyes.
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"I saw you use your real name on there—are you okay with
that?"
"Oh yeah…"
I only realized after he pointed it out; I'd been using my
gamer handle the whole time at this meetup, but my LINE
name was just Fumiya Tomozaki.
I felt a little shy about having the two names connected,
but it wasn't like anything was going to happen just because
people knew my real name.
"It's fine! No loss for me!"
"Ah-ha-ha. Gotcha. I'll still add you as nanashi, though."
"Fine by me," I said, nodding.
By the way, Harry-san was just Harry, Max-san was
Shibata/max, and Rena-chan was R*.
Rena-chan gazed at her phone intently, then smiled.
"Your name is Fumiya-kun?"
"Um, yeah."
She locked eyes with me. "Can I call you Fumiya-kun?"
"Um, I guess so…"
It was technically fine, but again, I was dating Kikuchisan. I felt guilty—but I would sound crazy if I said, No, you
can't call me Fumiya-kun because I have a girlfriend. This
was a tough situation.
"Yesss! Fumiya-kun it is!" she joked.
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"'Yesss'? What's so exciting about that?" I joked back.
Wow, we sure were getting friendly. It was strange; I felt
like my position was being eroded but not in an unpleasant
way.
Now that we'd all exchanged info, we went back to talking
about Atafami. I wanted to ask them a lot of things.
"Interesting! So depending on the location, some
characters are easier to defend against than others?"
There were YouTubers like Harry-san and Max-san, and
others who wanted to be pros. There was the Kanto region
and the Kansai region, the online scene and the offline
scene. A whole wide world was out there, and of course, as
an Atafami player, I wanted to know about it.
"Yeah. The number of players in a certain area who've
mastered a given character is surprisingly important."
"It's so…mundane, you know?"
I tried to sound as cheerful and funny as possible as I
asked the questions I wanted to ask and responded to other
people's questions or made my own comments. What was
slightly different from other parts of my life was that it was
all based on Atafami, which I love.
To my own mild surprise, I felt totally at home here.
I hoped that Hinami was feeling the same way.
* * *
The next morning, I was sitting on my bed, checking
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various social media sites and smiling awkwardly.
"Top Online Player nanashi Turns Out to Be a Hunk…"
As I was scrolling through the feed on my private Twitter
account, an Atafami news roundup with that title popped
up. I opened it and saw that the main Atafami threads were
all about nanashi appearing at a real-world meetup,
sweeping the tournament with overwhelming skill—and
being a stud who brought a beautiful girl with him.
"…Oh man."
That wasn't all.
An Atafami player who I followed had rt'd a tweet saying
nanashi-san is super handsome, can't believe he's in high
school! by someone who was at the meetup and then added
For reals? There were clips of the live broadcast of my final
match against Hinami and videos of past online games
posted by my opponents. Nanashi had apparently been the
talk of Japan's Atafami world since the day before.
"Wow…this is getting more attention than I expected."
I knew I was somewhat well-known because of my
ranking, but I honestly had no idea that just taking part in
an offline meetup would get this much attention. Even
famous pro players who went to international tournaments
were tweeting stuff like So nanashi finally showed up offline
and Good-looking on top of it all. S-tier? My stomach was
full of butterflies just reading them.
There were also some tweets saying stuff like Good at
Atafami, handsome… God's unfair. Unforgivable, nanashi,
where I couldn't tell if they were being mean or joking or
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both, which made my stomach flip.
But anyway, if the rumor was that the top online player in
Japan was a high school student and handsome to boot, I
felt like I needed to say something.
"'Handsome,' huh…?"
I'd gotten that compliment multiple times the day before.
It was the polar opposite of what I'd always been called in
the past—gloomy or creepy or ugly or a freak. And now I
was being hit with words like stylish and easy to talk to and
chatty, which I normally associated with the normies in my
class. This was definitely a first for me.
I stood in front of my full-length mirror and stared at my
reflection.
"…Interesting."
I realized something.
In the past, I'd looked at this guy in the mirror, with his
hair done and his mannequin clothes on, and thought, He's
pretty stylish. That gave me a confidence boost.
But this was different.
The guy in the mirror hadn't styled his hair, and he was
wearing his pajamas. He sure as hell wasn't stylish. The real
me was on full display.
But that didn't matter.
My own reflection didn't gross me out.
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My hair was a mess, considering I'd basically just woken
up and run my hand through it.
I was wearing a set of threadbare black sweats that were
obviously very well-loved.
My ordinary bedroom added nothing.
But…I didn't feel like I was a freakish nerd.
I don't know if that counts as growth or vanity.
Maybe I just felt that way because I could see the changes
in how I was holding myself.
Or maybe I was a little buzzed from all the compliments
I'd gotten the day before.
But I was sure those changes meant more. Way more than
dressing well or being able to hold a conversation.
"…All right!"
I was staring at my face.
I'd been living with this face for seventeen years. It was
the first thing people would see about me, and I couldn't
change it.
My features weren't especially even, but they weren't too
bad, either. I didn't hate it quite as much as I used to—and
as I studied, I found myself accepting it unconditionally.
"'Handsome,' eh? …Well, I'm not sure about that," I
muttered—to who, I didn't know. Eventually, I started to feel
silly and laughed to myself.
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It's not that I wasn't happy. But I didn't think those
compliments determined my value.
Any value I had came from the action and determination
that made me decide to change and then follow through.
I'm a gamer to the core, and that was my genuine belief.
"…Here I go!"
I pulled myself together and sat down at my computer to
start doing some research.
I wanted to find out more about the world of Atafami that
Harry-san and Max-san had told me about the day before.
First, I looked up Harry-san's YouTube channel and
scanned the list of uploaded videos. At the top of the long list
was one titled "Japan's top player is even better than me at
using Wigglypoff! nanashi VS Aoi on Atafami." I smirked. I
got his point, but that's really the kind of title he uses?
Skipping over my own video out of embarrassment, I
played some of his other videos in the background as I
continued my research.
I looked up schedules for real-world meetups, and the
differences between Kanto and Kansai style. I read about
players like Harry-san with profitable YouTube channels,
and pros who played internationally.
These days, the majority of pro players actually seemed to
have YouTube channels, too, and when I searched for
famous pros on Twitter, a high percentage of them had links
to their channel. They all posted fairly often, but how did
they balance practice with making videos? Considering that
a lot of them also had regular jobs, I figured they must be
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posting their practice games on YouTube.
And how did they cover the costs when they went overseas
for tournaments? How did sponsors support pro teams?
How big were the prizes, what social standing did pros have,
what was the history, and how did future prospects look? I
researched all of it.
Unlike the game itself, this way of having your life
wrapped around Atafami was new to me. I'd assumed I
knew about that world, but I'd never actually looked into it,
and now that I did, its breadth and depth surprised me.
"These guys are incredible…"
I looked at some videos by people other than Harry-san,
too. I'd watched a lot of serious games and tournament
videos in the past, but I'd skimmed over the lessons for
beginners and the character intros. I hadn't realized it, but
like Harry-san, a lot of people made money off this stuff. I
could tell from the variety of the editing choices,
conversational styles, and structures that a lot more went
into it than simply playing the game.
"Interesting…"
I'd thought online winrates were the be-all and end-all of
Atafami, but maybe I was wrong. I mean, even a quick
glance around revealed this hugely varied universe.
It was like…well, like real life.
Some people played for fun, and others more seriously.
Some were pros, others were YouTubers.
Some pros specialized in serious matches, while others
were entertainers who attracted viewers more with their
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commentary than with their playing.
There were people who did this as a job and others who
did it for fun on the side.
Their perspectives and the information they provided
were all over the board, and none was "better" than any
other.
Well, in that case…
…if I wanted to do it myself, what approach would I
choose?
Part of me was casually mulling over the question now.