"It's been missions two days in a row. Maybe Kaguya-chan's horoscope says it's Mercury Retrograde Day," Fujiwara Chika suggested. "Kaguya-chan, remember to check NHK's daily horoscope when you head out tomorrow morning."
I watched the horoscope this morning, and it was completely useless!
Amamiya Natsuki considered this, then said:
"Let's focus on how to complete the mission."
That was how boys thought: when there was a problem, solve it.
"Got it." Fujiwara Chika rested her chin on her right hand and murmured, "Hundred Man Kill sounds a little..."
Their eyes met.
Amamiya Natsuki and Fujiwara Chika tacitly looked away.
They were both veterans.
"Defeat a hundred people." Shinomiya Kaguya's delicate brows furrowed slightly as she thought it over, too. "It would be much easier if we could bribe our opponents."
As the Young Lady of the Shinomiya family, there was nothing wrong with relying on her real-world influence.
Without rules against cheating, she might even manage a Thousand Man Kill in a single day, let alone a Hundred Man Kill.
"Ah, I've got it!" Fujiwara Chika's eyes lit up, and she quickly raised her right hand. "How about rock-paper-scissors?"
"It's easy and convenient. We could finish the mission in no time."
"That doesn't sound reliable." Amamiya Natsuki shook his head. "We can try it first and see whether it meets the requirements."
"Duel me, Kaguya-chan!"
Fujiwara Chika put her left hand on her hip and held out her right hand to Shinomiya Kaguya.
Shinomiya Kaguya didn't think it sounded reliable, either. But... it was only rock-paper-scissors. There was no harm in trying.
Then Shinomiya Kaguya lost five rounds in a row.
"Wow, I won again?" Fujiwara Chika blinked. "Looks like the horoscope was right. I really am lucky today."
Watching Fujiwara proudly lift her chin, Shinomiya Kaguya began to question her own luck.
Could she really be that unlucky?
"I'll try." Amamiya Natsuki looked at Kaguya and raised his right hand. "Fujiwara-san does seem to be having a lucky day. The best thing to do is not play against her."
"..."
Shinomiya Kaguya bit her lower lip slightly and began playing.
This time, she finally won.
"How did it go, Kaguya-chan?" Fujiwara Chika asked eagerly.
Shinomiya Kaguya shook her head, her expression calm. "It didn't work."
Just as they'd expected, rock-paper-scissors didn't meet the mission requirements.
"I'll think some more..." Fujiwara Chika mused again. "Um, Kaguya-chan, you're so good at archery. How about entering a kyudo competition?"
As an all-around beauty, Shinomiya Kaguya excelled not only in her studies, but also in tea ceremony, flower arrangement, dance, the zither, aikido, naginata, and kyudo. Kyudo was her strongest skill. She had even won first prize at a national competition in middle school.
If she took part in an archery duel, she really would have a good chance of completing the mission.
However...
"My stamina wouldn't hold out." Shinomiya Kaguya shook her head slightly.
Even an all-around beauty like Shinomiya Kaguya had things she wasn't good at, such as stamina. As a Young Lady, she had so many things to study that she never had time to run around, jump, or exercise. Her baseline stamina was even lower than that of an ordinary girl.
In a game, she'd be something like an archer with high attack but low defense and health, one who went down at the slightest touch.
Shinomiya Kaguya had already considered the possibility of an archery duel.
She was confident she could achieve a Hundred Man Kill, but not in a single day. Her arm would give out partway through.
In fact, she had considered every kind of athletic duel, but her severe lack of stamina had forced her to rule them all out.
"What about shogi?" Fujiwara Chika suggested. "Kaguya-chan is super smart. You're great at both shogi and Go, so you should be able to achieve a Hundred Man Kill in a day, right?"
"The mission requires a display of martial prowess. Chess is probably considered an intellectual game." Amamiya Natsuki thought it over. "Either way, we'll have to try it to find out."
"I remember there's a shogi set in the Game Club's drawer." Fujiwara Chika quickly continued, "Why don't we go check right now?"
"Sure."
The three of them went to the Game Club.
Fujiwara Chika found a shogi set and started a game with Shinomiya Kaguya.
In less than ten minutes, they had a winner. Fujiwara Chika was utterly crushed.
"It still didn't work." Shinomiya Kaguya's delicate brows drew together slightly.
"I can't think of anything." Fujiwara Chika flopped onto the table, listless.
Amamiya Natsuki considered his words, then said:
"I've thought of something that might work."
"Huh? What is it?" Fujiwara Chika quickly sat up straight. "Tell us, Natsuki-kun!"
"Have you ever played an arcade fighting game?" Amamiya Natsuki asked.
"I've heard of them, but never played one." Fujiwara Chika shook her head.
Shinomiya Kaguya folded her right arm across her chest. "I haven't played one either."
Well, he should have expected that.
Shinomiya Kaguya was a proper Young Lady, and though Fujiwara was a little airheaded, she'd also had a good upbringing. The two girls had obviously never played an arcade fighting game.
"Hearing of them is enough. Basically, they're fighting games played on arcade machines." Amamiya Natsuki continued, "It's a fair one-on-one contest of strength, so it might meet the mission's requirements."
"We'll only know if it works after we try."
"There's a game center on my way to school. I suggest we go check it out now." Amamiya Natsuki got straight to the point. "If it doesn't meet the mission requirements, we can think of something else."
"Sounds good to me." Fujiwara Chika quickly voted in favor. "Let's skip class, Kaguya-chan!"
"We don't need to skip class." Amamiya Natsuki rolled his eyes. "There's still time before class. If we walk quickly, we won't be late."
Shinomiya Kaguya thought for two seconds, then nodded slightly.
"Let's go to the game center."
Chapter 34: Punching the Kindergarten at South Mountain
They set off at once.
The three of them left the classroom together and headed for the school gate.
Everyone they passed was coming in, while the three of them were the only ones going out. Their unusual direction drew plenty of curious looks.
"Wow, it feels like we're skipping class. This is kind of thrilling."
Fujiwara Chika looked around as she walked, her steps light and her eyes lively. She was like a little deer about to leave the zoo and run off into the forest.
What was so thrilling about that?
If you came to school without panties tomorrow, that would be truly thrilling!
"Kaguya-chan, have you ever skipped class?" Fujiwara Chika looked at her friend.
"No."
Shinomiya Kaguya had calmed down. She walked with her hands folded in front of her stomach, her posture elegant.
The aura of Ice Kaguya-hime was on full display. Everyone gave her a wide berth, and no one dared approach.
"Aw, I heard that a school life without skipping class isn't a complete life."
Shinomiya Kaguya's tone was cool. "Fujiwara-san, have you skipped class?"
"Heh, heh, heh." Fujiwara Chika put her hands on her hips and proudly raised her chin. "I skipped one PE class. It was last summer. The PE teacher made us run around the track, and it was so hot that I ran one lap and then hid in a corner."
Shinomiya Kaguya looked at her friend with a smile full of affection for a small animal.
"Fujiwara-san is so cute~"
Amamiya Natsuki nodded in agreement, then quietly put some distance between himself and the two girls.
Scientific studies had shown that stupidity was contagious.
Spend too much time with an idiot, and the idiot wouldn't become smart. You were much more likely to turn into an idiot yourself.
"Natsuki-classmate, why are you so far away from us?"
Fujiwara Chika quickly noticed that Amamiya Natsuki had been sneaking away from them and hurriedly asked him.
"Because Fujiwara-san is too popular."
"Huh?"
Amamiya Natsuki's voice was low and mournful. "If I walk with Fujiwara-san, someone will take a picture of us and put it on the front page of a tabloid. Then, after school, a boy who has a crush on Fujiwara-san will corner me in an alley, and I'll end up hospitalized with a broken bone. So I need to keep my distance."
"That's way too exaggerated!"
"..."
The three of them soon left the school grounds.
Ten minutes later.
Amamiya Natsuki brought the two girls to a game center and stopped.
"This is the place."
Japan was the birthplace of arcade games.
In the 1980s and 1990s, arcade games from Japan took the world by storm. But with advances in technology, their golden age quickly faded, and they were now in decline, on the verge of being relegated to a history museum.
In Japan, however, the arcade game industry hadn't died out. It was still on a downward slope, but it continued to attract a large number of players.
"The game center is on the second floor."
Amamiya Natsuki pointed to the staircase nearby and led Fujiwara and Kaguya upstairs.
At the top of the stairs, they turned a corner and found themselves facing a wall covered in all kinds of game posters. The sheer variety was dazzling. There were all sorts of games, with plenty of claw machines and capsule toy machines on both sides.
"It's surprisingly clean." Fujiwara Chika looked around curiously. "I thought there'd be lots of people, and that the place would be dark and scary, like some kind of little black room."
That was a stereotypical prejudice. The game industry was part of the service industry, and cleanliness was a basic requirement. No customers would come to a filthy, messy little black room.
Since it was still early, there were few players at the game center, and it was quite quiet.
As they passed an area with games, Fujiwara Chika's eyes suddenly lit up. She looked at a girl wearing a headset and holding a sensor. On the large screen in front of the girl was a game about hunting for treasure under the sea. Curious, she asked:
"Hey, what's that game?"
"It's the VR game experience area." Amamiya Natsuki looked over. "The equipment here is much better than home VR. It's a great experience."
"I want to play."
Fujiwara Chika clasped her hands in front of her chest, her eyes sparkling.
"We'll do it when we have time." Amamiya Natsuki led the two girls to an arcade machine and switched it on. "There are lots of different games here—adventure, racing, card games, music games, Taiko no Tatsujin, and so on... Our goal is the fighting games."
The machine started up successfully, bringing up the classic Street Fighter 4 screen.
"To be safe, it'd be best if you both picked the same character." Amamiya Natsuki went over the basic buttons and controls again, then stood up and gave them his stool. "Give it a try."
Shinomiya Kaguya and Fujiwara Chika sat down on either side.
"You can put in a coin now," Amamiya Natsuki reminded them.
"Put in what?"
"There's a coin slot by your legs. Put a coin in there—one hundred yen."
"Oh."
Fujiwara Chika looked down and searched around. "Hey, where's my wallet?"
Shinomiya Kaguya gave her a look. "You left it in your schoolbag and forgot to bring it, didn't you?"
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