I'm probably the only person in the world who ships this, but I'm having a good time, and it amuses me to think that the first fic in this fandom will be shipping two minor characters. May this be the start of a thriving Komi-san tag.
A month ago, if you'd suggested to Makeru that she'd be voluntarily spending time with Nakanaka, she would have laughed in your face. She was busy working to defeat Komi. What point would there be in hanging out with some obnoxious freak? The only competitions Nakanaka could win would be about lame trivia or something equally useless. There was no point in even challenging her.
Makeru hadn't accounted for Komi being out sick. She'd already psyched herself up, too, and now she was itching for a competition. Unfortunately, most of the class was wasting lunch on boring things, like eating and socializing. She could have worked with that. She was willing to have an eating contest or something. But when she'd suggested it to Agari, she'd just gotten a lecture about the importance of savoring your food instead of wolfing it down. She needed a win to cheer her up after that.
She wouldn't have challenged Nakanaka if she wasn't desperate. She wanted to make that clear. But she had been, and there had been Nakanaka, playing some dumb game on her phone. It had been simple enough for Makeru to look it up and download it for herself. She mashed past the tutorial, decided that was good enough, and prepared for action.
She walked past Nakanaka's desk for the third time in five minutes. When Nakanaka proved too engrossed in her game, Makeru took matters into her own hands and feigned shocked. "You play…" She realized halfway through the sentence that she'd forgotten the game's name. But it was fine. "this game, too?"
Nakanaka looked up warily. "True, my mastery extends to such pursuits. What of it?"
Makeru forced down a grimace. How did you say things like that with a straight face? She almost walked away then and there, but that would basically be admitting defeat, and there was no way she could do that. "I was just thinking we could have a… friendly competition." She fought to maintain a smile. As long as Nakanaka believed this was a casual invitation, her guard would be down, and Makeru could crush her that much more easily.
"Fuhahahaha! You would dare challenge a bearer of darkness such as myself?" The sudden noise drew the attention of the whole classroom. After a moment of silence, Nakanaka coughed. "Very well, I accept."
The conversations around them resumed. Makeru took the opportunity to grab her phone, thumbs at the ready. "Perfect," she said. "Whoever gets the highest score wins."
Nakanaka looked unimpressed. "This is an RPG. There are no scores." She shook her head. "Here, let's each create a new character. Whoever has the most money when lunch ends is the winner, and gains dominion over the loser."
"Okay, yeah, whatever. That's what I meant." With that, Makeru's head snapped forward and she began to play.
The game turned out to be remarkably engrossing. The mechanics were deceptively complex, but she got the hang of them with ease. She was going to destroy Nakanaka.
Their teacher stepped into the classroom, and Makeru immediately flashed her phone at Nakanaka. "Ha!"
Nakanaka raised an eyebrow. "What a pitiful showing. Someone as pathetic as you could never hope to defeat one with dragon's blood such as myself." She held up her own phone to show that she'd earned twice as much gold as Makeru.
"What?!" The teacher shot Makeru a look. "Fine. I suppose you're better than I thought." She ground her teeth and reluctantly went back to her desk.
The lesson began, but Makeru wasn't listening. She was too consumed by the injustice of it all. How could she lose to a loser like Nakanaka? It was absurd.
No, there was no way this could stand. She would redeem herself. She tore a page out of her notebook and carefully wrote a message in her prettiest handwriting. Nakanaka's handwriting was probably ugly and hard to read, just like her. Makeru would show her what a mistake she'd made in agreeing to the competition.
She folded the page neatly and passed it to Nakanaka. After a moment, Nakanaka crumpled it up. She didn't bother to respond.
Makeru leaned back in her chair. It didn't matter what Nakanaka thought, as long as the message got through.
This wasn't over.