Volume 1 - Top-Tier Character Ayanokōji-kun [DISCONTINUED] [READ THE REVISION]

SS - Hinami Aoi: Behind Those Eyes

I've been playing games for my whole life.. I started with the Bintendo, Bintendo 3DS, the Bii and then finally, the Blitch. I love games—I seriously couldn't live without them. One of my favorite ones is a retro game called "Go Go Oinko". When it released, everyone, including me of course, went crazy for it! It makes you think it's just some generic and kid-friendly character-spinoff at the start but then it evolves into a really fun game with an actual story and amazing gameplay! At the end of every level, the main character "Oinko" would say Hexactly!.. which may be the reason I say it as well.. Anyway! It was really fun~ Maybe I should pick it up again for old times' sake?

But it wasn't my favorite game—that place will forever belong to Atafami. It's just so.. so.. perfect! The fluid and fast-paced gameplay coupled with the great art style.. the different characters and their ridiculous amount of individual moves... the soundtrack and visual effects... everything about it was perfect! But the best part is the leaderboard. At the time, it felt like my competitive spirit was just calling out to me, telling me to rise to the top. And I decided to do it! I used the tactic I had been using for a long time now—get in the ring and put in so much effort until I have knocked out my opponent. I have done it with the game of life and achieved the status of "social superstar" in it. The character known as "Hinami Aoi" is perfect—communication, academics and physical ability were all maxed out. I decided to use this approach for all my life, and so far I've been successful. I was able to surpass anyone in every field. That is why I thought I could do the same in Atafami as well..

How wrong I was.

There was one person I could not surpass. One person who, no matter how many times I played against, beat me. Every. Single. Time.

nanashi

He was the number one in the Japanese Atafami player base. The tippity top of the iceberg. He was insanely good—his reaction time, punish game, neutral game and combo starters were ridiculous. Some of his moves were... just absolutely amazing. Like, the stuff he pulled off sometimes were so far removed from a normal player's imagination, it was just... completely unbelievable. Even the meta of the game was heavily changed due to nanashi. Instead of neutral-game being the most important, more and more combo-starters appeared. Basically, Atafami became completely "combo-based" all because of nanashi. 

If I'm being totally honest.. I used to watch a lot of his matches on Boutube  to improve myself. They were a great resource to learn from. I mirrored his aggressive playstyle and tried to do my own twist on it.

In short, "nanashi" is amazing.

But "Ayanokōji Kiyotaka" sucks.

Seriously.. what's with this guy!? I expected nanashi to be someone amazing.. someone great.. someone.. better than me! And then someone like him appears!? What the hell!? That is not.. not fair! If nanashi is such a loser at real life, then.. the person I've been admiring all this time.. was a loser as well which makes me a loser too, right!? I just can't allow that. I can't. That is why I decided to teach him—teach nanashi how to play the character known as "Ayanokōji Kiyotaka". I needed him to not only be great at Atafami, but great at life as well.

Of course, you may ask what's so bad about him, no? I mean, he is somewhat attractive.. but it gets totally canceled out by the rest. If there is one word that described Ayanokōji-kun's entire being.. it'd be "average". There's nothing that's even remotely interesting about him. Monotone voice. Unchanging expression. Plain clothes. No conversational skills whatsoever. Add to that a sarcastic attitude which just makes you want to rip out your hair, and you got yourself an "annoying average joe". I.. I hated the current Ayanokōji Kiyotaka. I wanted to mold him into someone better—someone worthy of the name of "nanashi".

Even though Ayanokōji-kun was so utterly boring, there was one thing that got stuck in the back of my mind. Rather, it was a question I kept asking myself.

What had to happen.. for you to become like this?

Don't take it the wrong way, like I said, he's completely average and boring.. but I somehow felt sad looking at him. Whenever I looked into his eyes, it felt like I was staring down into an endless abyss. Like there was nothing behind—just complete.. nothingness. No, I'm 100% sure, there was nothing there. He was like a lifeless shell of a human being. Maybe if he had reacted to anything I said, to any tease.. I wouldn't feel like this. But he didn't react to anything at all. That poker face of his was really impressive and eerie to look at. 

Why wouldn't he react? Aren't teenage boys like him easily surprised? I was one of the most popular girls in school—no, scratch that—one of the most popular people in our district, but Ayanokōji-kun seemed like he didn't even care one bit. When I met him in front of the shop, I was the one who got surprised. He just kept staring at me like nothing happened and even told me to calm down. Every single situation, he kept calm.

When we went to the restaurant, I got a small hunch that it may have had to do something with his upbringing. Did he have a bad relationship with his parents?

And then in the old AV room where he played against Nakamura-kun, he just.. completely changed. That speech he did wasn't like him at all. Normally, when people like Ayanokōji-kun hold a speech to someone like Erika, they would get laughed at because their positions were at totally different ends on the social hierarchy. But he was suddenly able to speak so well. So logically. When he talked about the effort Nakamura-kun had put in to beat him.. I was really touched.

However, one part stuck out to me. And only for me, I presume.

"I have seen it time and time again in my life—people, who despite their best efforts, get mocked by those who do nothing."

I started to ask myself another question: Ayanokōji-kun, what have you seen in your life? What have you experienced? What did you need to do to be able to utter such a statement? I want to know. I just.. really want to know more about you, nanashi. At the same time, I'm scared. For a person to become as lifeless as Ayanokōji-kun, you had to have seen a lot. 

What will I find behind those eyes of yours? I don't believe you're someone average. You can't be. You're nanashi, right? The top Japanese player. There's no one better than you.

Ayanokōji-kun... I feel like I don't know anything about you.

Do you wear a mask, like me?

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Now that I'm able to look back on all the events that have happened and the stuff I was thinking at the time, I really want to slap myself in the face.

Ayanokōji-kun.. being someone average? That's the funniest joke I've heard in my entire life. What a giant lie.

But, can you really blame me? Can you blame anyone from our class? There was absolutely no way someone could have foreseen what was about to happen. Literally no one expected that.

I seriously wanted to mold him into someone "worthy of the name nanashi"... how could I have ever been so dumb? Was I.. just blind? There has to be some explanation for my ignorance at the time.

To think I wanted to surpass the person known as "Ayanokōji Kiyotaka" .. Yeah, good luck with that.

As they say,

hindsight really is 20/20.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES

Short and sweet! That's how side stories should be in my opinion.

I hope you enjoyed. There are 2 more side stories coming and then we'll move on with the main story.

Criticism and corrections are appreciated!

Peace!

- juli0os