I Won't Let Him

Truth Is, It Was All Rigged From The Start

OMORI let his eyes squint, concentrating on his target.

Holding steady on his hockey stick, he studied the moving plastic cutout of the velociraptor goalie while tapping on the hockey puck at his feet.

When the moment was right, he struck the shot. The puck glided smoothly across the slippery floor panel of the stand.

Aaaaannnd...!

BZZT!

The puck bounced off the plastic goalie with a thud.

Damn. It got blocked again.

"Don't worry, SUNNY! You're doing great!" HIKIKO cheered on behind him, remaining optimistic as ever.

A very false statement. This was his third consecutive failed attempt out of the five he was granted. As much as he appreciated his sister's encouraging words, they just felt hollow.

The plastic cutout of a raptor hockey goalie kept spinning around, mechanically taunting him with the speakers playing a prerecorded mocking laugh. The electronic board above it that was keeping track of points showed a total of zero out of five.

He could see KEL playing his heart out at a football kicking game a few booths over. With a mighty kick, the football went past a small field goal before landing directly in a small tiny hole worth one thousand points. Victory confetti launched as KEL ran around, whooping like a party animal.

Sigh...

OMORI admitted he was never good at sports anyway. Out of the six of them from the group, pretty much everyone else besides him had much more experience in some form of physical activity. MARI and AUBREY were good at softball. HERO was a good swimmer, despite his lack of endurance. KEL was practically good at everything, but mainly specialized in basketball. Even BASIL was more physically active in comparison to OMORI since he actually goes outside every day to do gardening work. If gardening was an Olympic sport, BASIL would be a national treasure.

OMORI? Pretty much useless at everything.

The fourth hockey puck spat out from the mouth of a velociraptor-themed dispenser, sliding smoothly towards his feet.

He had two shots remaining. Better make them count.

"Yeah, SUNNY! You can do it!" HIKIKO kept cheering on from behind.

Alright...

OMORI took a deep breath before concentrating again. His eyes were fixed directly at the velociraptor goalie in front of him, studying its movements and patterns.

Looking at the cardboard cutout's turning speed, he internally counted the seconds it passed by. One. Two. Three. The speed switched at semi-random intervals, seemingly at least three seconds each.

OMORI imagined himself. His strengths and weaknesses. How hard and fast he could hit.

If he timed it just right...

Holding his breath, OMORI felt a surge of confidence as he took the shot again.

For a moment, it seemed like he timed it perfectly. The puck was about to make a direct beeline into the metal net before the goalie could turn fast enough to block it.

BZZT!

OMORI blinked.

The puck bounced off again from the raptor's plastic feet. The speakers played the annoying sound of his mocking laugh again. The electronic board displayed zero out of five points again.