Press Start Otaku
"Keitaro~ get online!" A sixteen year old Shirai Kimiaki yelled over the microphone
"Shirai I'm trying to study!" Keitaro screamed back as he closed out the chat window, only for a second one to pop up.
"Were getting our butts kicked! This guy is such a high level; the two of us can't even touch their health bar." Haitani Masayuki yelled as he fogged up his webcam lens.
"It's a video game guys... one loss won't kill you." Keitaro then tried to close both windows.
"Keitaro please! We need this win to keep our guild at the top of the list." Haitani pleaded as he could be seen on his hands and knees in the chat window.
"If I do it this one thing, will you let me study for the rest of the night?"
"We promise!" Both boys screamed over the net.
Keitaro quickly closed out everything else on the desktop before opening the MMORPG off a link. The screen went black as a small window asking for a username and password popped up. Entering both in what seem like a second he smashed the enter button as the load screen filled with characters fighting dragons and other supernatural beings before his avatar came up. A level thirtyseven, dark haired, human warrior/thief class female. Wearing a green hood and twin daggers on her hips. What really made his avatar stand out though was the pair of glasses she wore. Doing a quick gear check he typed a URL code before hitting Enter World.
The area he spawned in was close to town in a woodland. His avatar drew her blades as he started checking his hot keys"
"Okay I'm in. Where are you two?"
"Your close! Run up the hill and make a left at the pile of dead orcs." Haitani answered before screaming. "Damn it! I'm out of heath potions."
"I'm close to being out of Mana, I hope you have some potions so I can keep with my healing spells" Shirai added before the sound of him slamming the desk was overheard. "Who is this guy? They must have some kind of enchanted item to have such high agility and HP. They're not even a thief class or a hybrid from one."
"Okay one of you send a ping. I hot keyed both health and mana potions."
"Not going to be much help. He asked for this one to be a two on one match. After we lose its up to you to hold our place in the guild list."
"Wait this is a single person trying to beat a guild?" Keitaro asked making his avatar stop.
"Yeah... guess who..." Haitani said as Shirai could be heard laughing.
Keitaro sighed, followed with a chuckle. "So what did he bribe you with this time?"
"I needed the gold!" Haitani screamed before Keitaro read that he logged off.
"He gave me a new staff that doubles my MP." Shirai said as a one on one challenge invitation popped on his screen. "Good luck, he's leveled up quite a bit since last time." with that Shirai logged off. From the tree line walked a warrior class fighter with blue and green chainmail armor. His claymore slung on his back.
Keitaro rolled his eyes as the message "I'm taking you down this time!" flashed on his message bored.
"You're now using my fellow guild to draw me out? This is getting boring I hope you know." He messaged back.
"Don't take me lightly! I spent a whole week of my spring break getting ready for this day!"
"You really want to beat me that bad?" he chuckled as he hit the enter key.
"You're the only person I've yet to beat in a one on one battle... besides my teacher. You know for a Teacher she is on here a lot."
"You know I was studying before you trick me here?"
"Pull an all nighter like me. Come on your almost never on anymore!" Keitaro sighed as he started to type he was getting off. "Hey are you coming to the big tournament?" Keitaro paused at the enter button. "If you come this weekend I promise I'll stop bugging and tricking you to get online. We've been at this for over a year now. A M.I.P would be a cool change up." He raised an eye brow at this. "That and I can gloat to your face when I win!" now he was gritting his teeth as he started to squeeze his mouse.
"You're on!"
Keitaro sighed as he walked around the convention center. He wore a green shirt with some baggy blue jeans and white sneakers. Though Haitani and Shirai agreed to come with as he met his game rival, the two quickly disappeared into the crowd of cosplayers and video game venders. "Could be home studying" he told himself. "Could be hitting the books and getting my test scores up. Now look at me! I'm at a gaming convention to get my online stalker to leave me alone!"
Heading over to the arena he looked over who was signed up. Skimming though the list he noticed a girl who was a foot shorter with long blue hair stand next to him as she also skimmed the sheet. She wore a red shirt with a yellow strip that ran over the chest along with yellow shorts and sandals. "She's kind of cute... though she must be in middle school."
"Hm? Oh hey, you in the tournament too?" She then asked, looking up with her emerald green eyes. Keitaro blushed as he quickly looked back at the broad. "Y-yeah I was talked into it during the last week."
"I've been looking forward to this for some time now. I'm actually here to meet~" She trailed off as her eye's wandered down to his badge. Keitaro looked down at it as he raised a brow. On it was his name and username along with a picture of himself and his avatar. She started to chuckle like some anime villain before turning away from him. "At last we meet! For you see... I'M~" Again she trailed off as she started to feel around her neck. Keitaro then sweat dropped as she started searching her person, then broke into a blush when she lifted her shirt in a panic. "I-I lost my badge~" She when cried as a few tears started to fall. "Without it I can't enter in the tournament."
Keitaro bit his bottom lip as she started to sulk. "I'll help you find it. I'm sure if we retrace your steps we'll find it before the games start."
"You're really going to help me?"
"Yeah, we have a few hours till then."
The girl smiled as she took to his side. "My name is Izumi Konata. Nice to meet ya!"
Again Keitaro blushed as he looked into her eyes. So full of life and happiness. "Urashima Keitaro, though I'm guessing you know that the way you kept looking at my badge."
Konata hummed a bit as they started back into the crowd. "I remember you from in game. I think we chatted a few times."
"What guild are you in?"
"Hmm... that's a secret!" She giggled. "I'll let you know when we find my badge, okay."
"She keeps making me blush! She's too~ cute!" He cried inward, making Kanata look at his with a bit of worry. "Um so where did you first think you left it?"
"I started off looking at some of the cosplayers. Those costumes look amazing! Don't you think so?"
"I~ didn't really look at them."
"Really? How can you pass up looking at them? They spent so much time and effort on them that it's almost an insult not to."
"I never thought of it that way."
"If it wasn't for me being in the tournament I might have even dressed up too."
"Really as who?"
"Hehe~ the list is way too long." The two came to the area they held a cheer off for the best cosplay. "Hey looks like we're in time to cheer for a winner!"
"Umm what about yo-"
"Yeah! Come on!" She suddenly yelled out as the cosplayers started to line up. Keitaro just sighed as he gave in and started to cheer for a Gungrave cosplayer. After it was over Keitaro looked at his watch.
"We lost a half hour but we still have time to look."
"Well I did look at some of the game booths."
"I guess we'll try walking around there."
"Hey what other games are you into?" Konata suddenly perked as she waited for his answer.
"Well I've been getting into RPG's and action adventure games. But the Yu-gi-Oh video game has~"
"You like Yu-Gi-Oh!" Her eyes sparkled.
"Erm~ yeah it's slowly growing on me. Hey what booths did you visit?"
"Well I started over by the west side and worked my way over to the back east."
Keitaro sighed as they started walking down the alleys. Every once in a while Konata would stop him as she picked up a game and started talking about it before he had to remind her they were on the clock. After an hour of searching both their stomachs growled. "Getting hungry too?"
"Yeah, let's head over to the food court."
The two went to a curry and ramen stand. As Keitaro ordered he noticed Konata was checking her pockets and started sulking again. "What's wrong?"
"I put my badge in a wallet so I wouldn't lose it..." Keitaro blinked a few times before sweat dropping.
"So you have no money?" Konata nodded. "Charge her meal to mine."
"I couldn't ask you to do that!"
"No sweat!"
"I'll pay you back when we find my wallet okay?"
"Why is it around this girl I feel like I can be myself? I don't feel nervous at all."
"Keitaro? Is that okay?"
"Hu?"
"I'll pay you back when I find my wallet."
"Don't worry about it really."
"Wow thank you for dinner then."
"You have any other places we should look?" He was surprised to see her jump a bit before a blush spread across her checks. Making sure she didn't spill any curry on herself she lead him to a table.
"Well I was over at the ero-game booths till they chased me off." She then started to play with her food a bit before looking up at him.
"I didn't even know they had an area for that here. Though I still have two more years till I can buy that stuff." again there was a sparkle in her eyes as she looked at him.
"Yeah, I know! I mean really the most they could do is let us look at the goods. And even when I turn eighteen I'll have to carry an ID because of how young I look. Besides I hate the whole age restriction on some of the dating sim games" Keitaro didn't know if he should go into detail of what he played so far or wait to see if she was joking. "I was worried when I met a guy I liked that ero-games might weird him out."
There was a silent's, followed by blushing, then the two of them eating in silent's.
"Wait, how~ old~"
"I'm fifteen; let me guess you though I was in middle school or something?" Again there was silent's. "I'm not mad about it; my mom got that a lot too from what my dad tells me. So I'm use to it I guess. By the way I wanted to ask you since I seen your avatar. How did you get the glasses?"
Keitaro looked down at the picture of his avatar before scratching the back of his head. "I won an art contest back when the game first started."
"You were one of the characters concept art winners?" Keitaro had to hold the table as she shot up from her seat.
"Yeah, I won for the female thief art though when I first drew it I made a copy with glasses just for fun but... I sent that one by accident. When they called and asked if they could lose the glasses I told them they could and the whole story of why she even had glasses. The guy thought it was so funny that he made the glasses just for my thief."
"You must be a really good artiest. Can you draw something for me some time?"
"Yeah we can exchange emails after the tournament. We're going to need to be quick if we want to find your wallet and badge. Not just because we need to get to the tournament, but we could get kicked out if we hang around that area to long."
"I just hope we find it soon, I was really looking forward to this. Though to be honest its turning out better then I hoped." Konata said with a smile as the two headed for the trash bins.
Walking around the ero-games wasn't new to Keitaro. He played his share of them from Shirai who was able to burn copes for him to play from online. But doing so with a girl who was openly into it was a bit of a culture shock for him.
"I remember it was around here that I stopped to look at a few things." Konata said as she looked around the table.
"People are starting to watch us."
"Just keep your eyes open fo-"
"Hey you two!" A security officer called out as he pushed though the people.
"Crap that's the same guard who chased me off before!"
"Where are we going now?"
"Follow me!" Konata yelled as she pulled him though a booth and out behind a large screen.
"I think they ran though here!" One officer yelled.
"Check the bathrooms!"
Both teens' breaths were heavy as Konata backed into Keitaro. "I lost them here last time. Give it a few and they'll have someone else to chase around."
"You seem to be a veteran at this."
"A hardcore otaku knows how to disappear when needed." She added before backing up even more.
"K-Konata..."
"H-hey be careful I'm s-starting to-" Konata feel forward, Keitaro tried to soften her fall by pulling her into him and rolling so he could land on his back. They both lay still as a guard was walking by.
"What is my hand on? It's soft...and perky." Looking down his hand was in Konata's shirt. Her face was glowing red as it came clear what his hand was cupping. Her hand shot up to her mouth to keep from making any noise as Keitaro tried and failed to move his hand out. Soon as the guard was gone both teens sat up. Konata was still red and she held her chest.
"I-I'm really sorry! I really didn't feel a thing that whole time!" He then noticed how her face went from red to blue like she was sulking again, then back to red as if she was anger. "K-Konata?"
To his surprise she started laughing. "This only seems to happen in my animes or mangas! This was an awesome day! Y-your nose is even bleeding!" Checking his nose, sure enough it was bleeding. Both teens laughed as they looked around the area.
"Hey dose your wallet have a Haruhi picture on it?"
"Yeah t-that would be the one." She answered between laughs. As they went over to the wallet. Both reaching for it at the same time their hands met. "H-hey..." both drew back, too shy to do anything before an announcement for tournament was called out.
"We should head over there."
"Yeah..." getting up she opened her wallet and took her badge out. "I was happy to have had time to get to know you before the tournament. You're a cooler guy then I thought." She said as the two stood just inches apart. "I know I promised to stop bugging you... but please email or even call when today is over."
At first Keitaro was confused as to what she was saying until he looked at the username and avatar. "Y-you're..."
"Yeah... losing the badge kind of spoiled my evil archenemy bit. Shame too because I practiced it for hours." This made him sweat drop. "But I like this flag ending better." Konata then started out of their hiding spot. "By the way... when we found my wallet you missed the flag. You need to save more often."
Confused, Keitaro watched as the blue haired girl disappeared in the crowd. "Flag?" Then I hit him like a ton of bricks. "I think...I might~"
