Necessary To Win: Side Stories
What follows is a series of short stories set at various points in what I could call the "Necessary to Win-verse. They vary in tone and style, with some humorous, others serious, some focusing on the protagonists, others focusing on their rivals or minor characters. They will not follow a regular update schedule and will have a variety of stories. Having read Necessary To Win and Paths Toward Victory is recommended for some of these stories in order to understand the context in which they are set, as they happen at varying points throughout the series.
Without further ado, here's the first installment.
Penguins and Bandaged Bears
One day after school, after the end of the tournament, Miho was shopping in a toy store in Oarai, while the ship was in port. The store was surprisingly popular among high school students, who often looked for gifts for their younger siblings, cousins, and even nephews and nieces... so said many of those who bought the gifts.
The cashier, a woman in her early twenties, was slightly surprised when Miho admitted that her first purchase from the store was for herself. She was surprised again when she learned the only reason Miho had been reluctant to admit it was because she was not buying it as a gift for a friend.
Miho recognized that cashier when she came in, and suspected that the cashier recognized some of her more regular customers. And as she approached the stuffed animals section, Miho recognized another person- her friend and kouhai, Haramura Nodoka.
Nodoka was busy browsing the merchandise, so Miho spoke first to get her attention.
"Nodoka-san?" Miho said. "It's a surprise to see you here."
"It...certainly is, Miho-senpai," Nodoka said, somewhat awkwardly. Nodoka was, in most cases, more confident than Miho, so when Miho noticed Nodoka stuttering, she saw it as proof that she'd unwittingly found one of Nodoka's weak spots. To Miho, confidence was like a suit of armor; it protected the wearer, but was not entirely easy to wear all the time, and still had vulnerabilities.
"Were you also looking for a stuffed toy, Nodoka-san?" Miho said.
Nodoka briefly considered her options. Perhaps she could lie her way out of it and claim that she was buying a gift for a friend, but she realized that Miho was too perceptive to uncritically accept that.
"Well... yes," Nodoka said. "The truth is... I have a stuffed penguin at my apartment called Etopen, which I purchased at a local toystore in Achiga while I was in elementary school there. I was hoping to find one like him here."
Miho simply nodded, interested.
"I... hope you won't laugh, Miho-senpai," Nodoka said. Even if she had become friends with Miho, she was still concerned with what Miho would think of her.
Nodoka's parents were highly respectable in every aspect of their lives, wearing suits to work every day, and keeping their offices highly neat and professional. Nodoka's mother had once taken her to work, while holding her to almost the same standards of dress and behavior as she was held herself. While there, Nodoka saw only one personal touch in her mother's office- a framed family picture- and the little she saw of one of her mother's co-workers' offices suggested that the others had similarly spartan and professional working spaces.
While not necessarily ashamed of Etopen, Nodoka saw it as a highly private side of herself, one that she would not easily show to others, and Etopen had not left the apartment since Nodoka had movd in. But Miho was not a judgmental person, and had more in common with Nodoka than she thought.
"No, of course I won't, Nodoka-san," Miho said. "In fact, I've got a lot of stuffed animals myself; I should show you my Bokoare-guma collection."
Nodoka's eyes lit up for a moment. When she realized she had common ground with someone else, she could talk about her interests with them more easily. She had bonded with Shizuno and Ako over their love of tankery, and, in the process, had also met their mutual friend Kuro.
"I've heard z little about them," Nodoka said. "The line of bandaged teddy bears, right?"
"That's right," Miho said, smiling. "As the story goes, the bear is short-tempered and likes to fight, but is weak and he gets beaten up easily."
"That's... almost the opposite of your personality, Miho-senpai," Nodoka said, slightly surprised at the description of the bear. For a moment, she had wondered if the bear was being bullied by the others, and wondered if Miho felt sympathy for him as a result. So why would she like someone who was so belligerent and largely brought his suffering on himself?
"I find it endearing, in a sense," Miho said. "He's not good at what he does, but he tries so hard, even when it costs him so much. He's also very straightforward and decisive. It must be nice to be able to go forward like that without being held back by your own doubt, and to do what you feel you must without being afraid of whether you can't do it. Perhaps for this reason, or perhaps merely instinctively, I like hugging him at night whenever I feel troubled."
Nodoka then paused as she came to a realization. It was true that Miho was, unlike the bear, relatively meek, so perhaps she admired someone who had a far greater resolve in the face of far steeper odds.
"I suppose that's true," Nodoka said. "But your triumphs have also involved struggle, Miho-senpai. And in spite of your being less confident than the bear, you can stand your ground when it matters, and succeed when you must. You're also very true to yourself, and I consider that strength."
Miho smiled and nodded.
"You, too, have aspects of yourself that you should accept, Nodoka-san," Miho said. "The day may come when you have to dress according to your employers' standard and keep your work space professional for those who may visit it, but I don't think there's anything shameful about keeping a stuffed animal that's also a childhood memento at home. You will need to be respectable in front of certain people, now and in the future, but you shouldn't worry about what your friends will think."
Nodoka nodded.
"I'll try that, Miho-senpai," Nodoka said.
A store employee who seemed as though she was just out of high school, passed by, and recognized Nodoka and Miho's Oarai uniforms. She did not pause to consider what they were here for, and whether the penguins and bandaged bears they were considering buying were for them or anyone else. To her, they were customers and her intuition suggested that they might need help.
"Can I help either of you young ladies find anything?" the employee said.
"No, thank you," Miho said. "I'm just browsing for the moment."
Nodoka decisively nodded. Now was as good a time as any to be true to herself in this matter.
"Yes, please," Nodoka said. "I have a round plush penguin at home, and I was wondering if you had any like that here..."
Author's Notes
Nodoka is canonically at least somewhat embarrassed by Etopen at first, particularly when her teammates learn about her sleeping with a stuffed animal at the first training camp, but gets to the point at which she can carry the stuffed animal into public games without much shame, and even plays better with it. This initial embarrassment is likely derived from Nodoka's desire to be taken seriously, given that she's quite hesitant to doing anything "childish." By contrast, Miho, who's significantly humbler than Nodoka, and thus less self-conscious, doesn't appear to have any reservations about inviting her friends over, where they can see her stuffed animals, so this is an interesting point of contrast between the two.
The information about Bokoare-guma comes from the director's Twitter. It's somewhat surprising that Miho likes a character like that, and I decided to elaborate as to why.
