Imouto sae Ireba Ii.

"…I want to play a TRPG."

On a certain night,

Haruto, cooped in the kotatsu of Itsuki"s apartment, was flipping through the "Grand Crest Replay" when he suddenly mentioned this.[69]

"TRPG?" Itsuki, engrossed in his draft at the table, asked,

"Itsuki, you do know what a TRPG is, right?"

"I do, but I never played one."

TRPG—or Tabletop Role Playing Game is an interactive Game between players without the use of gaming console. It"s a game that has its plot driven by dice rolls and decisions.

Players can choose to be adventurers, knights, kings, detectives, policemen and other professions, and aim to complete the storyline by becoming the protagonist of the story.

Most of the plot progression is determined by the Gamemaster (GM), but the story is influenced by the players" actions, and it"s common to see the plot direction derail in a way the GM didn"t expect. The story develops through player interaction (of course, the decisions of the GM does influence things), so there"s a lot of freedom in the story, and the immersion level of the story is amazing.

"Well…I used to join a TRPG club during college."

For some reason, Haruto gave a nostalgic look as he said this.

"Heh. That"s unexpected." Itsuki said.

It was his own bias, but Itsuki had a.s.sumed that Haruto joined the tennis club.

"…The reason why I got interested in books is because I read the Replay light novel in middle school, so I always wanted to use the chance to play a TRPG myself. After that, when I had to choose clubs, I chose the TRPG club without hesitation."

And just to note, "Replay" is a reading material created from a TRPG player (this is also called a session), and sometimes, they would also be published with ill.u.s.trations.

An outstanding GM, outstanding players, and the dice; such uncertain factors that surpa.s.s the will of humans continue to brew, developing a story, and might be more dramatic than an intricately crafted plot, so while there aren"t a lot of readers that actually played a TRPG, they can gain something similar to the fun of reading a light novel by reading a Replay novel.

This "Grand Crest Replay Fantasia X Factory" Haruto"s reading is considered a Replay novel, and the story is about 8 popular novelists and ill.u.s.trators playing, clashing with characters filled with their own personalities, and creating a thoroughly intense story.

"So, you"re one of those who went from being a GM to an author?" Itsuki asked.

As there"s a lot of freedom in a TRPG, a GM needed skills to create an interesting scenario, and naturally, would need the patience to lead the players to the desired direction and the capability to handle unexpected changes. It was said that amongst the current professional authors, a few of them were TRPG GMs, and refined their story crafting skills through this.

Haruto once joined a TRPG club, and so Itsuki a.s.sumed he followed this pattern too.

"No…less than a year after I joined, the club disbanded…"

"…Is this going to be one of those long stories again?"

I don"t want to hear such things now, that was the vibe Itsuki had as he asked Haruto, who was giving a wry, lonely smile,

"It won"t be long, so just listen…during the half year I joined the club, it felt okay…every week, everyone would hold sessions, and I too was GM for a few times. I dumped my college homework to come up with scenarios and original rules….back then, I thought everything was really interesting. There were about ten members or so, and I was the only freshman there, but the seniors were all really nice…only one of these seniors is a girl. She"s a pretty one, and has a large rack."

"…Do I really have to hear you out until the very end?"

"Yeah…quite a few people liked that senpai in the club…or rather, the entire club…she never went out with any other guy. They all understood how each other felt, and had a silent oath to not confess to that senpai to avoid getting the club awkward…but right when summer vacation was about to end, things happened."

"Alright, no need to tell me. I know what happened."

"…Senpai confessed to me."

"You see, I knew it!"

"…I rejected her confession. It"s a lot more fun playing TRPGs than it is to go out with girls, and I didn"t want to create this tense atmosphere in the club…however, after I rejected her, she started to date the other guys. It was common for her to be going out with two, three guys, and the relationships in the club were a mess. Everyone who came to the sessions were very aloof, and those who were dumped by her left…and even she left the club, leaving only the president and me behind. Prez and I didn"t have the strength to continue running the club… "it"s all your fault", and prez told me that. Those words were really destructive."

Saying that, Haruto filled his gla.s.s with beer, and downed it.

With a weak expression, Itsuki asked Haruto,

"…So, what am I supposed to do after hearing this common story of a club crashing? Can I call you "Kodaka-san" from now on?"

"I can"t live up to that name. Kodaka-san did manage to keep the Neighbors" Club intact, unlike me. I didn"t…I just had an inspiration after not having read the Replay novels for a long time."

"Just had an inspiration, huh…"

Itsuki"s face started to numb.

"Right, so because you ruined my mood for no good reason, as punishment, you"re going to be a TRPG GM!"

And then, Itsuki said this while pointing.

"Huh!?"

"I always had interest in playing a TRPG. Since you were a GM once, that makes things easy. Do your best and let me enjoy this."

"I still have the anime work to deal with. I"m busy!"

"Like I care. You got time to drink and share stupid memories while I"m at work. It"s perfect."

"…Haa….well, now that you mention it, I can"t deny it."

Haruto showed a little smile, and chirped,

"Right, let"s play! What about the other players?"

"How many players do we need for a TRPG?"

"Anyway, it"ll be easier to play if we can get four players."

"Hm, well, we can definitely get Lord Kani…it"s impossible to contact Setsuna…but is it okay to not limit it to authors?"

"Doesn"t matter."

"Right. I"ll invite Miyako and my little brother."

"Okay. Anyway, do those two have any TRPG experience?"

"Never asked them about that. I guess they"re beginners too."

"Okay~ Nayu-chan probably hasn"t played it either. All beginners…right, I"ll go think of a plot immediately. Goodness, busy, busy."

Haruto got up with a sigh, his smiling face lacking in the fake heartiness, flowing with the bubbly innocence of a child.

妹

And so, on a Sunday in early March.

Five people, Hashima Itsuki, Fuwa Haruto, Kani Nayuta, Shirakawa Miyako and Hashima Chihiro were gathered in Itsuki"s apartment.

Seated at the windowside of the kotatsu was the GM Haruto, the one at the opposite end near the kitchen was Chihiro. To Chihiro"s right was Miyako, and to her left was Itsuki, seated side by side with Nayuta.

"…Nii-san, can I really join?"

Itsuki heard Chihiro"s whisper, and Nayuta smiled.

"Don"t mind. I always wanted to have a time to play with my future brother-in-law.

"…Really. Please take care of me then."

Chihiro sounded a little miffed as he said this.

"It might be a little too quick, but I personally welcome you calling me sister-in-law."

"…No, there"s no need for that."

"You seem a little listless? Have you unloaded in the morning?"

"Unloaded…? No, I have properly…"

"I"m asking you if you have m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.ed in the morning."[70]

"Mas…? I-I didn"t!" Chihiro"s face went beetroot, and Itsuki glared over in annoyance,

"Hey. No s.e.xual hara.s.sment on my little brother, Lord Kani."

"It"s fine. He"s going to be my brother-in-law anyway."

"Will not!" "Not at all!"

The Hashima brothers called out in unison.

Chihiro and Itsuki did play video games together a few times, but it was the first time Chihiro joined Itsuki"s friends, and that everyone got together. Chihiro did meet Nayuta, Miyako and Haruto a few times, all of whom often visited Itsuki, Chihiro would always excuse himself in fear of disturbing them, and went home straight away. Thus, he never had a chance to have a proper conversation with them.

Also, it was the first time Miyako and Haruto met.

But despite this, it seemed Miyako, Chihiro and Haruto were adept at interacting with others, so there should not be any issues. Such was Itsuki"s optimistic thoughts.

After the members who never met before greeted each other, Haruto spoke up.

"Eh, I"ll like to thank everyone for coming to partic.i.p.ate today. This time, I"m inviting everyone to play a TRPG I designed based on an existing game. You guys are all beginners, so I"ll try my best to simplify the system. If there"s any player who has any requests, I"ll try to fulfil it as much as I can. If you have any suggestions, feel free to mention it."

"Oh." "Yes~" "Yes." "Understood." The quartet nodded.

"—The world setting is a common fantasy world of swords and magic. In this world, there are a few continents, and the story is set in one such setting—the Chronica setting. Chronica itself has numerous countries, and there hasn"t been a major war between them over the past decades. Amongst them, the Westernmost country is called the Gagagia Kingdom."

"GAGAGA Kingdom?"[71]

"Gagagia Kingdom."

Itsuki asked, and Haruto corrected him.

"…There are a lot of relics and caves within the borders of the country. Thus, many adventurers arrived in the kingdom of GAGAGA—Gagagia one after another, searching for treasures, or the fangs and claws of the monsters that reside in the caves, and other materials. Each of you guys are one of the adventurers…now then, please create adventurer roles for your ident.i.ties."

"Create them?" Miyako asked."

"This time, I"ve already created characters for you guys, and the parameters and other number details for them have been completed. You can use that as a basis and adjust accordingly. The first type is the "knight", with high attack and defense power, suitable for fighting enemies on the frontlines of protecting allies. The second character is the "rogue", very agile, nimble, uses a bow and dagger for battle, and has the ability to identify traps and open treasures and locks. The third character is the "monk", able to use recovery magic and holy offensive magic, has offensive and defensive abilities second only to that of the knight, and can be a frontline fighter. The fourth character is the "mage", able to use powerful offensive magic spells and able to attack multiple enemies at once."

"It"s a very balanced party, but I prefer to clear everything with a full party of monks or bards."

Nayuta said "Specialist parties are rather interesting, but this time, I"d like to have everyone follow the rules. TRPGs are different from digital games though. Digital games allow you to gain XP points and retry over and over again, but TRPGs only give you one chance to clear. It"s very risky for anyone who strays away from the recommended gameplay."

"Will we end up dying in the game?" Miyako asked, and Haruto gave a mischievous smirk.

"Of course, if you"re unlucky, you may die. If this really happens…anyway, if anyone really dies, we"ll think about it."

"Ugh…I"ll be a knight then. Looks like it"s the least likely to die."

"So that kind of reasoning…"

Itsuki"s choice left Chihiro with a bitter smile.

"I"ll be the mage then." Miyako said.

"So, Chihiro, do you want to be a monk or a rogue? I"ll let my brother-in-law choose."

"…I"m not your brother-in-law. Please choose, Kani-san."

"Then, this sister-in-law here will choose monk then."[72]

"…"

After the four of them chose their jobs, Haruto handed them the character sheets.

The character sheets included a brief introduction to the roles and abilities of the playable characters, and while the skills and unique equipment they had were already written down on the papers, their names, ages, genders, character backgrounds, interests, likes and dislikes remained blank.

"Well, fill in the blanks and create your own ident.i.ties."

"We can set our own genders, huh…" Chihiro asked.

"Yeah, you can create a character that resembles yourself in real life, or you can play as a completely different character. It"s fine for you to make it such that it"s yourself who"s transported to this fantasy world."[73]

"…"

Chihiro gave a serious look at the character sheet, and peeked aside at Itsuki. The latter was scribbling down his own profile.

"…What kind of character are you playing as, Nii-san?"

"My character name"s going to be Tsukiko, 17 years old. A pretty swordsman with long black hair."[74]

"You"re going to become a girl, senpai??"

Nayuta got excited.

"What do you mean become a girl!? I"m the type who always chooses a female character whenever I have to choose the gender of a game protagonist."

"Why?"

"The protagonist"s appearance is the most common thing I see in a game. In that case, I find a pretty girl more interesting than a guy."[75]

"I get it. It"s like how it"s cuter to use the female equipment in "Monster Hunt" and "Toukiden"."

Haruto, also in the female character camp, agreed.

"I see…so Itsuki-senpai wants to be a female knight…if there are hands and orcs, it"ll be appropriate…" Nayuta said, and gave Haruto a look.

"…Well, it"s a fantasy world, so of course there are such monsters around."

"I"ll be looking forward to it."

Upon hearing Haruto"s explanation, Nayuta gave a cheeky smirk with much intent behind it.

"…Then, if brother is going to be a girl, I"ll try being a girl too…can I be Tsukiko-san"s little sister?"

"Little sister!?"

Those words left Itsuki reacting excessively, and he stared at Chihiro"s face intently.

"You"re the little sister…w-well, that"s okay, I guess?"

While Itsuki appeared to be faltering, Nayuta showed a displeased look.

"So I"ll be senpai"s little sister too! I"ll be 10 years old! My interest is to be ecchi with my older sister! I like ecchi stuff too!"

"""Like h.e.l.l there"s such a 10-year-old around!!!"""

Itsuki, Miyako and Haruto retorted in unison.

"…I can"t?"

""…No, it"s not that you can"t…well, whatever you want then."

Haruto answered, appearing to have given up.

"Hm…since the three adventurers are sisters, I guess it"ll be more natural if I"m one of the sisters too."

Miyako pondered,

"Alright, then I"ll be the eldest of the four sisters. I"ll be twenty years old, like I am in real life."

"Mya-san"s going to be my older sister. Ehehe."

Nayuta giggled, looking very delighted.

"Wait…if Miyako"s the older sister…then, I"m your….little sister…?"

"Right."

"I-I"m the little sister."

"Perfect for you. You"re a siscon anyway."

"Hold up. I do love little sisters, but this doesn"t mean that I want to be a little sister myself!"

"…So do I lower my age? I-it"s not like I can"t be your little sister…"

"Hmmm…mmmmmmmm…mmmmmmmmmmmmm……"

Miyako blushed as she asked, and Itsuki gave an ever-serious expression, before saying.

"……Well, let"s leave things as it is."

"So you"re able to accept…being my little sister…"

"Yeah. Please take care of me, big sis."

"You"re just a little sister. Don"t get c.o.c.ky…"

And so, the four players decided to play as four sisters."

"Once you"re done with your setting, it"s the stat bonus points allocations. You can level up whatever parameter you like, 5 points at most."

"There"s a 2D or 3D beside the strength and other stats. What do they mean?" Chihiro asked.

"The D refer to dice. The first number means that you can roll the dice to get the number. So 2D means "roll two dice"."

"Is there a difference to the value of the dice roll?"

"Take for example, you met an enemy. If your dex stat is higher than the enemy"s accuracy stat, then you"re able to dodge the enemy"s attack. Rolling the dice here is to determine that value."

"In other words, the higher the number rolled, the better?"

"That"s right. There"s only one die, and for every six points, you get another die, and so on. If your strength value is six, you get two rolls when you need to determine something with strength. If the value is twelve, you get three dice rolls."

"I see…so if my dex stat is eleven, I"ll get three dice rolls when I increase a point?"

"Yep. Other than battle, and whether it"s for collecting intel or opening treasure boxes, there"s a lot of situations where you need to roll a die, so it"s very important that you can roll more than once. If you need just one or two points to get a multiple of six, it"s best to raise that stat."

The four of them brooded over it, and finally decided on the allocation of the bonus points.

"Now then, please create a unique skill for yourselves."

"Personal unique skills?"

Itsuki tilted his head, wondering.

"Call it a killer technique or a transformation technique or an ability to pa.s.s through walls, anything can do. Just explain the concept, and I"ll show it in the system. However, if the designed skill is too overpowered or too convenient, I"ll add demerits or strict usage conditions, so take note."[76]

"Killer technique. Then I want the Railgun."[77]

"R-railgun, huh?"

Miyako nonchalantly said, and Haruto"s face froze.

"Eh? Don"t you know? There"s a light novel called "Toaru Majutsu no Index", and there"s a character I really like called Misaka Mikoto. That"s the signature move of hers, a killer technique that injects electric currents into a coin and fires it out."

"…I know. There"s no light novel author out there who hasn"t heard of it."

"Then so be it!"

"Oh-okay…"

Miyako gave a "whatever goes" smile, and Haruto, together with Itsuki listening from nearby, were shivering in cold sweat.

"…Hey, is this really okay?"

"…Probably. We aren"t going to release this on a Replay volume…"[78]

"Ah, so you can have such a killer technique too?"

Chihiro had an idea, and said with excitement.

"Then I want the Imagine Breaker."

"Woah! This kid"s fearless too!"

"The "Imagine Breaker" is the ability of the protagonist in "Toaru Majutsu no Index". By touching it with the right hand, he can negate all supernatural powers."[79]

"…I know this. There"s no light novel author out there who doesn"t know that."

"I"ll leave it to you then."

"…Ah, okay."

Chihiro asked with a tender, nonchalant voice, and again, a drop of cold sweat trickled down Haruto"s face.

"Not bad, Imagine Breaker. Miyako asked Chihiro innocently.[80]

"Hm, I do think this move really suits the agile rogue."

"And he did think through this properly…!"

While Chihiro commented, Haruto watched him with fear and respect.

"My turn!" Nayuta raised her hand,

"I want an ability that can power up senpai through ecchi!

"Yeah, got it."

"…I never thought you would let that pa.s.s so easily."

"Compared to how bad those two before were, a little ero is nothing much…"

Nayuta gave a surprised look, and Haruto said with an exasperated look.

Finally, Itsuki,

"Haruto. It"s a rare moment, so I"m going with a super amazing one."

"…Whatever you like."

"Now then, Unlimited Blade Works is mine!"[81]

"Like h.e.l.l it is."

Itsuki"s eyes were dazzling like a kid as he said this, and Haruto could only cup his head in frustration.

Haruto had the players" original abilities added into the game system, and sorted out the characters…and, while not fearful of any potential troubles, Haruto and Itsuki had some discussion before deciding to name their moves differently, and avoid using actual move names from current works.