LIGHTNOVELONLINE chapter 85
85
41. Risa Jumonji Wants to Play with Hideyori
“The inside is surprisingly cramped. And dark.”
“Yeah…”
Unfazed by the caution, Risa shows no sign of turning back, even though she knows it’s narrow and dark.
If it were Tsugaru, she’d normally refuse, saying, “Why do I have to do such a thing with Mr. Akechi?”
“Come on, let’s kill, let’s kill.”
“You’re really in the mood to kill…”
She urges me on, unable to hide her excitement.
She’s already holding the gun-shaped controller, even though we haven’t put any money in yet.
I take out a 100-yen coin that I just exchanged.
“It’s a 100-yen coin from five years ago.”
“Do you care about that?”
While poking fun at Risa’s attention to detail, I insert two 100-yen coins from five years ago.
Then, the monitor comes to life.
Spooky background music plays as the narration text spreads across the monitor.
“The year 3XXX, the world was dominated by them. Those ‘them’ are—” the narration was a jumbled mess, and the message flowed too quickly to read, making it clear it wasn’t meant to be read.
It’s a common trope.
“The year 3XXX, huh? We’d be dead by then.”
“Do you care about that?”
The narration ends in about five seconds, and we move to the stage selection screen.
There are various places to choose from, like a laboratory, school, or building, but there’s no explanation, so it’s unclear if there’s a difference in difficulty.
“Look, Risa, it’s time to choose the stage! Only 30 seconds left.”
“Do you care about that?”
“Well, you should care…”
She throws my lackadaisical “Do you care about that?” back at me.
Maybe she was actually concerned.
“Then let’s go for the execution ground stage! I’ll decide for us, Mr. Akechi.”
“I guess that does bother you, doesn’t it?”
It stands out oddly in the floating space.
As soon as Risa selects “Execution Ground,” the game begins.
“aaahhh…”
“Zombies are coming! They’re coming! What should we do!? What should we do!?”
“Don’t panic so much! Use your weapon!”
“Oh, right.”
The gun’s attack range moves in sync with the screen.
Locking on is easy, and it’s quite a thrilling and enjoyable game.
But still, it’s not an FPS.
The iron door opens, and a gust of wind hits my face to simulate the sudden chill.
“Whoa!? Amazing!”
Risa reacts to every little thing.
“By the way, why does Akechi’s gun fire rapidly while mine only shoots one bullet at a time?”
“Just hold down the trigger!”
“Wow, amazing! It’s firing rapidly! Is it a Desert Eagle? A SOCOM? A Colt Python?”
“It’s definitely none of those.”
The controller is shaped like a handgun, but it fires like a machine gun.
It’s a fictional weapon, this one.
Even though Risa knows FPS and gun names, her knowledge is overwhelmingly lacking.
Taking damage now and then, we move deeper until a boss-like centipede creature appears.
“It’s not a zombie, it’s a creature!” I retort while firing back.
“Alright, let’s go for the headshots! Destroy the parts to collect materials! Earn tons of experience points to learn the Satellite Beam!”
“Your knowledge is all over the place!?”
“Ah, I got hit…”
Risa goes down from the centipede’s full-body charge attack.
I too am whittled down by the charge, and quickly killed by the underling zombies.
“Games like this are impossible to beat in one play. They’re designed to make you continue and take your money.”
“I see, well, it was fun anyway. I want to try a different game too. I got to experience an FPS.”
“Oh, right.”
Leaving the zombie game behind, we wander around the arcade, looking around.
“Wow! Look, look! It’s a plushie of Fracture Bandage Bunny! So cute…”
“Uh, yeah.”
Risa stops in front of the UFO catcher.
It’s a character with a painfully injured rabbit, its right arm seemingly broken, fixed with a bandage, and a black eyepatch over its left eye.
Cute or not, it looks painful.
“Alright! I’ll give it a try!”
Risa inserts 100 yen and challenges the UFO catcher, but it barely moves a few centimeters, showing no sign of being caught.
“Isn’t this impossible?”
“With 100 yen, well, yeah. But now that I know how loose the arm is, I can calculate and make it work. Risa, let’s switch.”
“Akechi-kun…”
I take over from Risa and head to the front of the machine with the switch.
Finally, a scene where I can cheat using my knowledge from a past life!
Having retired from club activities, I’ve transitioned from a kendo enthusiast to a gaming one. Time for my skills to shine.
On the fourth attempt, the plushie finally falls from the machine.
“Yesss, got it!”
“Wow, that’s amazing, Akechi-kun.”
“I’ll give it to you, Risa. The Fracture (・) Bandage (・) Bunny.”
“Fracture Bandage Bunny, huh? Thank you, Akechi-kun.”
I got a reasonably large plushie, got a bag from the clerk, and put it in.
“Ehehe, I got it from Akechi-kun.”
I saw a lot of Risa at the arcade, looking appropriately happy for her age.
She’s always been the type to nag with a “Big brother!” image, so it’s quite a gap.
“Speaking of which, your brother isn’t here, is he?”
“You just noticed now!?”
“I was so engrossed with Akechi-kun that I didn’t notice…”
Risa turns red, showing a bashful face.
Though sibling faces are similar, hers is different from her brother’s, with a charm and cuteness he lacks.
“…I might understand why you like Emi-san and Sakuya-san. They’re reliable, aren’t they?”
“So Fracture (・) Bandage (・) Bunny is popular with them too. A bunny that breaks its bones to protect someone is reliable, right?”
“It’s Fracture Bandage Bunny. I understand why it’s irritating now.”
“?”
With a pout, Risa turns her face away.
That gesture is just so cute.
It’s a moment I want to capture in a photo or an event CG.
“Ah, found you. You were here.”
“Big brother! Where have you been?”
“Sorry, sorry, I got caught up playing darts. Did you get that ‘Fracture Bandage Rabbit-kun’ from Hideyoshi?”
“Fracture Bandage Rabbit-kun, huh? It’s nice, isn’t it? But I won’t give it to you, brother.”
“Then I’ll have Hideyoshi get me the same one.”
“As if he would.”
The warm exchange between the siblings is dazzling.
They are siblings, but at the same time, the protagonist and the heroine.
Even though I’m used to seeing it, it makes for a perfect picture!
I wish someone could edit Hideyoshi out of the photo or event CG.
Ah, if I become the photographer, then there won’t be any unnecessary characters in the shot.
“Thanks, my best friend.”
“Huh? I didn’t do anything.”
“It’s not true that you did nothing, Akechi-kun. Thank you!”
“Ah, uh…”
Risa’s gestures are cute.
In the game, the blood-related conflict scenario was not very interesting, and I didn’t find Risa very appealing, but seeing her up close, she’s incredibly cute!
“Akechi-kun and… well, we seem to share a lot of interests, including Star Child and all… I want to hang out with you more, just like my brother does.”
“Eh?”
“Is that not okay…?”
Risa looks up with a red face.
What is this adorable creature?
“Let’s go! Anywhere!”
“Thank you, Akechi-kun!”
Even though I know she’s using me to flirt with her brother, I nod.
I’d nod a hundred times over!
“I’ll allow you to hang out with Risa without me.”
“Eh?”
“Wait a minute, big bro!?”
Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?
Risa is dragging Takeru away from me and whispering a sermon to him.
“Stop it, it’s embarrassing! I can’t talk when it’s just Akechi-kun and me! Stay behind me, brother!”
“No, you were totally having a conversation.”
“You were lying about playing darts and followed us, didn’t you?”
I don’t know what they’re talking about, but she must be forcefully convincing Takeru to stay with her.
Risa’s goal is to date Takeru, and I’m just in the way…
I want to tell her to stay away from me, but I really feel sorry.
I genuinely feel bad for enjoying myself while the other members were being forced to study at Eien-chan’s house.
“Well, shall we head home then?”
With that single remark from Takeru, who had finished his secret talk with Risa, the dissolution began.