Gamers

TL: qbomb
Editor: Deus Ex Machina

"Why are you being so stubborn, Chiaki!? "Moe" is a universal quality that makes every work complete!"

"Oho, complete, is it? Then one question, Keita. Are you claiming that you need "moe" even for a war movie?"

"Like I said—! Why are your ideas so extreme!?"

"Is being extreme that bad~? Aren"t personal opinions supposed to be biased~? fun~, this is why a lonely boy who believes that staying neutral is better than giving constructive comments is…"

"I don"t want to be like a boring adult, but I guess it"s better than creators who don"t care like you."

"Shut up, chibi."

"How uncute, you "seaweed girl"."

After school, sitting across each other at a desk, a boy and a girl glared at each other.

"You guys, get along—  …Hah…"

Sitting in between the two, I tried to stop their fighting while yawning loudly. Naturally, though, their fight wasn"t something that could be solved so simply. Ignoring me completely, they resumed their "moe" debate, leaving me alone… finally, I came to a conclusion.

"(This Hobby Club is so boringggggggggg!)"

It"s already been a month since the Gamer’s Hobby Club was created. Though irregularly, the club met about once or twice a week, and this is already the tenth meeting, but…

To be frank, after the eighth time, I don"t know how they can continue to fight about the same thing over and over again. Amano and Hos.h.i.+nomori somehow always fight every single time they meet. Of course, they leave me out every single time, and it gets boring pretty fast.

Also, this fight is… it"s certainly a fight, but from my point of view, it makes my heart strangely itch from time to time…

"Oh, by the way."

Taking a pause from advocating his "moe", Amano loosened his necktie and let out a sigh before continuing to talk.

"Chiaki, how far have you gotten in Kurikure 3?"

Taking a sip of her coffee-flavored soy milk, Hos.h.i.+nomori replied cheerfully, unlike the menacing look she had on her face earlier.

"Fufu~n. Listen carefully, Keita. I… have finally reached the great capital city, Elst!"

"Oh, me too."

"Eh!? Ugu… and I thought I was ahead of you…!"

"No, that"s what I should be saying. Yesterday, my RNG was pretty good, so I got a decent amount of progress done."

"S-same here. It was the first time I showed off in years, too…!"

They both glared at each other while grinding their teeth in irritation. then a few seconds of silence pa.s.sed.

"… The.. the boss of Thirst Valley was good…"

Amano muttered as he averted his eyes.

"… Well… that… the setup and the background music were good, it was difficult but not unreasonable, and the boss" behavioral pattern was good as well, so certainly, it was a good boss…"

Hos.h.i.+nomori also averted her gaze and timidly replied.

The two of them stole glances at each other, but never faced each other directly. Continuing the conversation, they kept fidgeting.

"A-and then the balance of the dungeons are as good as they can possibly be. Even though skills improve and better weapons drop at a reasonable pace, the battles don"t become tiring and the game"s difficulty is perfectly adjusted!"

"Yeah, yeah! It really lived up to expectations! Keita, you have a good eye for detail! That"s exactly right! Sadly, I don"t have anyone to talk about the game like that with. On the internet, the topic has s.h.i.+fted to speedrunning since they have already cleared the game, leaving behind the slow gamers like us.…"

"Yes! That"s right! I only have a short time to play games each day, and even then, I"m not very good at it and also have other games to play, so I don"t have anyone else to talk to who"s on the same part of the game as I am. That"s why I only talk to my brother about the game, wait…"

"I know what you mean! I also only talk about the game with my sister who has about the same game progress! Well, it"s not like I have much friends in the first place…"

"Yea… There aren"t any friends who are progressing at the same rate we do…"

"Because of that, I"ve been trying to pa.s.s you in the game lately…"

"Yea, me too…"

They began to fidget and glanced at each other once again. And then…

"But, I hate the heroine Lisa because she"s so pushy."

"Hah!? That"s being pushy? Hmph, this is why a loser girl who immediately labels a 2D heroine as "unrealistic" is…"

"Hah!? Disgusting! There isn"t any boy out there who would start defending a heroine character like her—"

Suddenly, their gentle conversation took a turn and they started fighting for a second round. Even though they were averting their eyes from each other a second ago, they were now glaring at each other and quarrelling.

While I watched over two warmly… my mind screamed  inside.

"(Go marry already and do this at homeeeeeeeeeeeeee!)"

Do you understand? This fight is a fight, but… it looks like a lover"s quarrel. I can"t stand to watch this; my heart"s beating too loudly.

"(Even though looking over Amano"s love comedy is like a hobby…!  Somehow… when I watch them talk, it"s way too sweet!)"

Far from keeping my distance, I"m surprised because I insist that I"m not friends with them. What the h.e.l.l? What have I been doing here after school these days?

Also, because there"s the difficult situation with my girlfriend, it"s even more difficult. I feel like I would be forgiven right now if I got up and hit Amano. I think the jury would declare, "Even though it was definitely an outburst of anger, taking the circ.u.mstances into consideration, the defendant is not guilty."

While I was going through various emotions, the two kept fighting.

"The scene where Lisa gets jealous of Serena is the most heart-pounding scene!"

"Ah, that event is really disgusting. It always feels like a love comedy as well, but especially, why is the heroine, who isn"t even going out with the protagonist, getting mad because he"s with other girls? I don"t get it. She doesn"t have the right to get mad."

"No, she definitely has the right! Then Chiaki, if you saw a boy you were interested in walking with a cute girl, what would you think!?"

"Eh, I-I… um…"

Hos.h.i.+nomori sent a fleeting glance towards me. …Honestly, I’ve known that she’s been emotionally attached to me for a while now, but because of her seemingly natural middle-aged couple act with Amano, I just can’t take her good will seriously. It’s probably similar to how Amano is emotionally attached to me. It"s like imprinting in chicks; having made a new friend, she was probably

She sent me a fl.u.s.tered look as our eyes met. After a few moments of contemplation, she answered Amano with a wry smile.

"I… if I saw the boy I liked having fun with a girl, I think I would be sad for a little while… but, eventually, I would only think "Good for them"… A-at least, I wouldn"t get mad. Yeah."

Watching her reply so bashfully, both Amano and I stopped breathing in surprise and sunk into silence… As she hung her head in embarra.s.sment, I elbowed Amano lightly and whispered into his ear.

"(H-hey, Amano! Don"t you feel anything when you see Hos.h.i.+nomori like this?)"

"(What!? N-no, that"s what I should be saying, Uehara-kun!)"

"(Hah!? Why would you be saying that!? That doesn"t make any sense! No, more importantly, Amano. You just saw that right now. Don"t you… feel like she"s surprisingly a good girl?)"

"(I-is that so? That"s, well… that"s… honestly, I feel like I just lost that argument… N-next time, I won"t lose!)"

"(No, no, that"s not what I"m saying! Win or lose doesn"t matter! Don"t you feel inside your heart that you want to protect a cute girl like her!?)"

"(…fu~n, I see… so that"s what you were thinking, Uehara-kun…)"

"(Why are you looking at me with those eyes as if you were looking a pile of tras.h.!.+? A-anyway, I was just saying how I think Hos.h.i.+nomori"s a good girl…"

"(I-I don"t want to hear that from Uehara-kun"s mouth! You"re the worst!)"

"(Why are you suddenly talking like a girl!?)"

"(No, I guess you could say that I"m speaking for a certain person…)"

"(Don"t say things that don"t make sense. You… just go compromise with Hos.h.i.+nomori. You understand, right? She"s really a good person.)"

"(Guh…)"

Amano groaned, as if someone poked a bruise. He hung his head just like Hos.h.i.+nomori and stayed silent for a short while… Showing some kind of renewed determination, he sat up in his chair.

"Ch-chiaki!"

"Huh? What?"

Hos.h.i.+nomori tilted her head in curiousity while looking at Amano, whose back muscles were tensed. The two of them looked at each other for a while… Amano"s face tightened up, and he talked as he looked straight at Hos.h.i.+nomori"s eyes.

"I-I think that someone like Chiaki has a lot of "moe"!"

He said it. He really said it. He said it even more directly than I thought he would. A lonely boy who grew up without having learned how to communicate with the other gender is really scary.

Quickly, I looked at Hos.h.i.+nomori"s reaction. Her cheeks were tinged pink—not. Rather, her head was steaming in anger!

"D-d-don"t make a fool out of me, Keita!"

Hos.h.i.+nomori slammed her hand against the table and stood up. Ignoring the both of us, who were completely dumbfounded, she continued to talk with teary eyes.

"S-saying that I have "moe" attributes… Just the thought of it makes me scared!"

"What!?"

Both Amano and I were dumbfounded. No… how much does she hate "moe" that she goes as far as to reject a compliment…

Trembling, she wrapped her arms around herself. …Even though I"m not Amano, I feel like it can"t be helped that someone with a small, animal-like form like her would be called "moe".

"E-especially since Keita called me "moe"… I-I only feel disgusted!"

"(Wah~, how moe~)"

I looked at the tsundere girl with practically saint-like eyes. However, receiving her words directly, Amano groaned and said, "Ugu, certainly, I must be disgusting!". Ah… come to think of it, this guy really has no confidence in himself.

I looked at Hos.h.i.+nomori once again. …Like a girl would be, it looked like she was really angry. I"ve only been a third party, but from what I can tell, the "moe" that Hos.h.i.+nomori hates seems to refer to the heroine"s strong personality. From the outside, the heroine seems to always take the initiative, and since she sees the character as fundamentally flawed, she seems to see the character in a bad light.

"(In other words, I guess it means that saying that Hos.h.i.+nomori has an aspect of "moe" to her will end with a shallow understanding.)"

Well, that"s certainly regrettably sad… wait, what? No, wait a second.

"(She… just then, didn"t she say that "especially" "Amano" was the bad part…)"

While I was pondering over that, this time it was Amano that hit the desk with his hand and stood up.

"I-I"m truly sorry that you were disgusted by my words. B-but…"

Looking at her with a fierce glare, he spoke with a strong voice.

"When I say that you have "moe", I"m only saying the highest words of praise that I can!"

…Huh? N-no, isn"t, isn"t that a really bold thing to say—

"Shut up, shut up! I"m not happy to receive your praise! No matter how you use it, I hate "moe"!"

"Hah!? Even until now, are you going to be so childis.h.!.+?"

"Who"s the child here!? I don"t think the chibi who"s shouting "moe" is the adult here!"

"It"s still better than you, "seaweed girl"!"

"Huh!?"

"Um… h-hey…"

Even though I raised my hand and tried to speak up, the two of them continued to fight without any signs of stopping. After watching over them for short while again… I let out a sigh once again.

"(The girl who wants him to properly look at her, and a boy who says that he thinks she"s cute from the bottom of his heart. If this isn"t mutual love, I don"t know what is…)"  

At least, these two had a good relations.h.i.+p that you could call "friends.h.i.+p".

"…Good grief."

With a sigh, I observed them argue over moe once again.

Well… actually, even including all these arguments, these two make a good pair. In other words, my actions were nothing but pointless meddling.

"That"s why Chiaki is—"

"Keita, Keita, that"s strange—"

The ever-constant situation of the Hobby Club. The rays of the sun entered the cla.s.sroom gently as it set.

In the end, I failed to improve their antagonistic relations.h.i.+p, and continued to watch them for a bit.

A gentle, adult-like smile appeared on my face.

Calmly, I looked out the window… I quietly thought over what happened today.

"(Like I thought, this Hobby Group is super boringggggggggggggggggggggg!)"

The harsh rays of the sun pierced my eyes as I remembered how I spent the day completely alone, having been left out of the discussion the whole time.