Sunday, the final day before start of a fresh week. It continued to rain from the day before, yet it provided a form of tranquility for denizens of the city, knowing that they could spend a day relaxing instead of working at full force like they do during the week. The same applied towards specific teenagers from Hope's Peak (and Mayuri), who had a sleepover at the residence of the school's very own gamer girl. Four different folk, two boys and two girls, all in their pajamas, slept on the couch while the resident herself was partaking a journey in her very own dream land in her bed. The couch was the one that could extent itself, so that everyone on it could have a comfortable night that day.
First one to pull their consciousness out of the hibernating state was none other than Ibuki, who woke up as quickly as she stood up from the couch. She was like a spring that was suddenly launched from a platform.
"Ah….I believe it's time for the daily good nom-nom-nom-nomming!" thought Ibuki to herself as she stretched herself to give her joints a wee bit of energy. The awoken musician stood up from the couch before she looked around to see her friends still sleeping. Hajime was sleeping while sitting on the couch. At the same time, Mayuri and Chihiro took more comfortable positions for their sleepover. Mayuri even had a small plush of a spherical panda with her, hugging it tightly as she continued to sleep.
"Look at them, all so sleepy...so cute!" mused Ibuki after looking at her friends that were yet to be awake. She placed her arms on her cheeks like a daydreaming romantic as she continued observing, still waiting for her amigos to wake up. The musician didn't have to wait for long when sleeping Mayuri yawned wide open before she slowly opened her eyes. "Oh, oh! Mayushii has risen!"
"Morning, Ibu-chaaaaaan." drowsily greeted Mayuri as she rubbed her eyes to clear off any sleep crust she had. When she stood up from the couch, she stretched herself as well. Soon afterwards, Hajime followed. He woke up rather quickly without any sort of movements, just his eyes opening out of a sudden. When his vision became clear, he saw that Ibuki was already full of energy while Mayuri was still regaining hers.
"Huh, you two already awake. It's like seven in the morning." commented Hajime as checked the time on his phone to see if he was correct about it. The time itself was just five minutes past his guess, but it was close enough.
"You know what they say: Early hour is the golden hour! It's the perfect time to sing along with birdies!" bubbled Ibuki before she opened the window of the living room to see what was going on outside. She found that rain was the one thing that stood out, other than that, not much else. However, that alone didn't stop her from preparing herself to unleash her singing onto the neighborhood. The better word for it would be joyful screaming. Needless to say, her neighbors weren't exactly fond of it.
"Both Chihiro and Chiaki are still asleep though." reminded Hajime while still feeling drowsy, successfully stopping Ibuki from blasting the whole neighborhood with her yelling.
"Oooh, right right! Ibuki can't bring herself to wake up someone so cute." said Ibuki while thinking about how both Chiaki and Chihiro were still asleep. Suddenly, Chihiro rolled in his sleep, facing them all. His body slowly raised from the couch, but his eyes were still closed.
"Fuji-chan is awake!" pointed out Mayuri as the programmer boy gradually opened his eyes.
"M….morning, guys." Chihiro quietly greeted them all with his vision returning to normal. Hajime, Ibuki and Mayuri happily greeted him back as his vision became clear.
"Alright, one more to go. She'll wake up probably when she feels like it, considering how much she sleeps at school." commented Hajime as all of them waited for her to wake up. The ones that were considered to be students of Hope's Peak expected that it wasn't going to be anytime soon that they'll see an awoken Nanami.
"Chi-chan sleeps at school?" asked Mayuri.
"Yeah, sometimes she just falls asleep….while standing even." replied Hajime with traces of disbelief in his voice.
"Woah." marveled Mayuri at the fact a person could be even capable of just hibernating while standing.
"I don't think that is a fact you should be impressed with, Mayuri." debated Hajime regarding that, since he saw Chiaki's tendency to fall asleep at random times rather concerning. He thought that she could fall asleep during a dangerous moment, such as crossing the road. Even though he remained quiet, Chihiro agreed with Hajime, considering he did see more of her than anyone else at that moment.
"Mayushii always wondered how it feels sleeping while standing. Maybe you get completely different dreams when you stand up. Mayushii gotta try that out one day." rambled Mayuri, letting her thoughts out.
"What about bats? They sleep upside down while standing!" Ibuki contributed with additional rambling.
"Then they get inverted dreams!" after hearing Ibuki's response, Mayuri came to a conclusion about how bats see dreams upside down. Hearing that, Ibuki planned for the next night to sleep upside down, just to get the experience of inverted dreams.
"It's better to just lay down." deadpanned Hajime before all of them decided to prepare themselves for the day. All of them went to brush their teeth with their own toothbrushes, though they took turns to who occupied the bathroom. After they have made their teeth funky fresh with the feel of toothpaste, the gang debated whether the day was to be spent in pajamas or should they just change their clothes. Ibuki and Mayuri argued for a pajama party, while Hajime and Chihiro hesitated about it. In the end, they have made a compromise that while Ibuki and Mayuri remained in their pajamas, Hajime and Chihiro were allowed to change their clothes.
The following thing after pajama discussion were them going to the fridge to have a breakfast. Chihiro told them that Chiaki wouldn't really mind if they ate while she wasn't present, since it would be better if they treat themselves. Each of them took a desired meal out of the fridge and then ate it. After all of them finished their breakfasts, the gang returned on the couch. Hajime told them that it would be best if they waited for Chiaki to wake up if they were to play video games, so they chose to distract themselves with other activities. In the mean time, Chihiro, just like he did previous week with Chiaki, showed them his work on the laptop. The AI he was working on saw some improvements and changes, such as smoother speech and being renamed from Takashi to Usami, likely inspired by the plushie that Chiaki owned. Mayuri and Ibuki took a special liking to the bunny avatar of the AI.
After the demonstration was done, it was Mayuri's turn to tell some memories she had through out her life, such as when she went to a cosplay convention with Rintaro Okabe and another friend of hers. She emphasized that her friend was looking really adorable in the costume, which managed to give fuel to Ibuki's endless imagination of everything cute, girls and cute girls. Hajime, Chihiro and Ibuki all wanted to hear about her life, Future Gadget Lab as a whole and all sorts of adventures she partook in.
By the time they spent on other things, it was already noon. Calming rain continued on, but Hajime's patience regarding Chiaki's sleepiness was running thin. Others were getting a bit concerned about her as well.
"Alright, this is getting ridiculous. It's like twelve o' clock and she is still asleep. I think it's time to check up on her." suggested Hajime as he stood up from to couch in order to get to her bedroom and pull her out of sleep once and for all. Others followed with the same goal in mind.
"She's probably still asleep or playing video games. I'm not sure if it's okay to disturb her, though…" hesitated Chihiro, cautioning Hajime before he opened the door. He just didn't want to make Chiaki upset in any form.
"I'm sure it will be okay, Chihiro. We can't really let her sleep through out all day. She's gonna miss out a lot." reassured Hajime as he insisted on waking her up.
"Hehehe, what a sleepyhead!" giggled Mayuri, finding Chiaki's sleepy tendencies to be rather cute.
"That's almost an understatement, Mayuri. Almost." sighed Hajime, recounting his experience with her sleepiness before he gave the gang a sign that they're going to enter her bedroom."You guys ready?"
"Ready like never before!" approved Ibuki along with Chihiro and Mayuri. Hajime opened the door, revealing her own bedroom right in front of them. The programmer boy was already familiar with that place, but it was completely new discovery for Ibuki and Mayuri. They were rather surprised on how modest the bedroom itself was. After looking around a bit, they found the person they looked for.
"There she is!" Mayuri pointed at Chiaki, who was curled up in her bed. She hugged her magical girl bunny plushie as she snored during the time her consciousness was taking a journey through dreams. The blanket covered her up to shoulders. It was a surprised to no one when they saw that she was still sleeping even at such time.
"...Yep. Just like I guessed. Completely asleep." Hajime shook with his head as he placed his hand on his forehead.
"Awwww, look at her! She's just like a little kitty." cooed Ibuki while observing the sleeping Chiaki. She even imagined her having cat ears and a tail like a true cat. "I wonder if she's gonna lick herself in her sleep."
"Okay so, how do we-" Hajime turned towards the gang as he tried to come up with a way to wake her up, only to be disrupted by something he didn't imagine he would hear at that moment.
"...Goddess of light…..please lend me your strength…please..." Chiaki suddenly mumbled in her sleep while dreaming about being a servant angel of a divine long haired pretty woman while combating the evil forces of the underworld. It seemed like she was in trouble, surrounded by the foulest monsters trying to maul her in the dream.
"….What was just that now?!" perplexed Hajime at what he heard from her sleepy mouth. It was one thing to expect her just being sleepy, but talking while dreaming was another level for him and everyone else.
"Tehehe, she's probably having an adventure in the land of dreams." answered Mayuri with a chuckle, finding some amusement in whole situation.
"Oh, this is gonna take a while..." Hajime already knew what was in front of him, but it didn't stop him from at least trying to wake her up in the most basic yet not as intrusive compared to other options but still enough to knock her out of sleep way.
"Hey, Chiaki! Wake up!" Hajime called out for her, but to no avail. Chiaki was still deep in her dreams.
"Nope, still in dream land." reported Ibuki while still looking at the sleepy girl.
"Yeah, this one isn't a surprise." shrugged Hajime after witnessing an outcome that was to be expected.
"Goddess of Light here! We are gonna have Juicy Chicken Number One for lunch! Chi-chan, if you don't come to our realm, I will eat all of it!" intervened Mayuri with an oddly bold voice of hers and puffy cheeks. She even put up fists to make herself more "imposing".
Despite her efforts, Chiaki was still sleeping.
"Darn, the dream barrier is too strong." Ibuki scratched her head while thinking of additional ways to wake her up. One of her the options she thought of was something that could potentially wake her up, but not without completely startling her.
"Is there any way we can wake her up? This can't go on forever...besides, it's kinda weird to stare at the sleeping person." Hajime started to wonder if it was even possible to wake her up at that point. Deep sleep such like one he experienced at the moment was something new for him.
"...There is." Chihiro reluctantly raised his hand, knowing the answer.
"Huh? Would you mind telling us, Chihiro?" asked Hajime, being relieved that at the very least one of his friends knows how to wake her up. Chihiro just quietly but hesitantly pointed at the digital alarm clock on the cupboard. The rest of the gang quickly realized how the solution was right in front of their noses, causing them to feel quite silly for it.
"Oooh, I see, I see! It should have been obvious from the start!" laughed Ibuki at the idea.
"...I'm sorry, Chiaki." Chihiro apologized in advance before he prepared himself to adjust time until the alarm clock would go off. "How much time should I set?"
"Ten minutes." Hajime raised his finger. That was the maximum he gave it to her, otherwise it would take way too long for his patience to endure the wait.
"O-okay…." stuttered Chihiro before he set the clock to ten minutes from their current time with few presses on buttons. After he did his job, the gang decided to let her have sleep for those ten minutes, but she needed to wake up. If the alarm clock failed them, their final option was Ibuki's imagined way of waking her up that wouldn't be received very well among them.
"Everything's set and now we wait." said Hajime before all of them left her bedroom as they waited for the outcome.
"T-this is not gonna end well…" Chihiro couldn't help but worry that they're gonna anger Chiaki, considering that alarm clocks were not exactly her favorite thing.
"Don't worry too much. I'm sure it will." reassured Hajime. The programmer boy trusted his friend about it, since he believe that Chiaki wasn't exactly the person to lash out on people. She didn't seem angry that time when alarm clock interrupted her.
"Even Chi-chan needs to be wakey wakey." Mayuri added her own little comment before all of them went to the couch, patiently waiting for the gamer girl to finally exit the slumber land.
Ten minutes have passed and just like it was set, the alarm clock went off. Her dream was abruptly by the sounds of the very object she opposed the most. The worst thing for her is that the dream was just about to get at the most intense part so far, where she faced a giant dark dragon god of destruction who possessed the goddess of light with his mind.
"Mgggrrrrrrrrrrrrr…" growled Chiaki, pouting while having her eyes closed as she started smashing her fist on the cupboard in order to silence the alarm clock. All of her moves didn't even hit the clock, causing her to fully wake up. Once she got out of her bed, she shut off the alarm clock, but not before she decided to lash out her frustrations on it, shaking it as if she was strangling someone. "Why won't you be just quiet already, you stupid-"
Suddenly, Hajime opened the door and greeted her amid her shaking the alarm clock. The rest of her friends also peeked in, curious to see if she was awake or not. "Good morning, Chiaki."
When Chiaki heard him, she immediately dropped the pouty face of hers, instead the gamer girl herself got startled as her face turned completely red. She looked at her friends from behind, standing still while her cheeks were overtaken by strong blushes.
"Oh my god, her face is like a cherry. So cuuuuuuuteeeeee!" complimented Ibuki with her heart melting after seeing Chiaki completely embarrassed over the fact that her friends caught her venting out her frustrations on an inanimate object. Mayuri couldn't help but both giggle and smile at how Chiaki was flabbergasted.
"G-good morning, Chiaki." greeted Chihiro with feeling slightly relieved that he didn't see Chiaki mad, just incredibly flustered.
"M….m….morning, everyone." muttered Chiaki in an attempt to both greet them and to hide her own embarrassment, even thought it was too late for her. No one really minded, they were just glad that she was finally awake.
"Come here, Chi-chan!" invited Mayuri to get there and so Chiaki did.
"How are you guys?" asked Chiaki as all the blushing disappeared from her face.
"We were just waiting for you to descend from the dreamy realm, but we're all good!" explained Ibuki as she gave some thumbs up to reassure that all of them were in good mood.
"So, what kind of forces of evil did you fight, Chi-chan? Demons from the underworld?" piqued Mayuri, which caused Chiaki to blush again.
"Huh? You guys know exactly what happened in my dream?" asked Chiaki, wondering they're secretly psychic, just like Sayaka Maizono claims to be at times. The idea of her friends being able to read her mind seemed intriguing for her, but a bit scary. There could be times she could have some thoughts that could surprise them in one way or another.
"Yeah, you were talking about it while sleeping." Hajime revealed to her a bit of a more mundane yet logical option. "Wasn't there a game about it, where it's like you control some angel-"
And thus, with a mere implication of a game she dreamed about, Chiaki was activated: "You know of it?!"
"Y-yes, he appeared in that fighting game where everyone's in!" stuttered Hajime when Chiaki suddenly went into fangirl mode once again. Even though other students of Hope's peak present at her house knew about her sudden shifts, Mayuri observed her with great interest. It was curious for her to see just how excited she could get. It was little wonder why Rintaro gave her a nickname of "Springy Rabbit".
"Super Combat Collab C?" Chiaki tilted her head in curiosity, wondering if Hajime also knew about that game.
"Super Combonk Cottage See?" Mayuri somehow managed to misinterpret the entire title of the fighting game famous for its usage of characters of various franchises and being a smash hit among competitive community, despite the game itself being intended for casual audiences.
"Y-yeah, that one." confirmed Hajime. It gave Chiaki an idea what could they play together.
"We could play this one today...if you guys wanna." suggested Chiaki with a smile on her face, already imagining the possibilities they could do with that game.
"I mean, if everyone's in, I gotta check it out!" approved Ibuki.
"Everyone's in? Is there Upa in it too?" wondered Mayuri if one of her favorite characters was in.
"I can go with any game. Anything can be fun." happily nodded Chihiro, though it was more of the fact that he thought any game with Chiaki was fun.
"That's usually a game that everyone plays. It's funny how fighting brings people together, while games about parties….not so much, eh?" commented Hajime on the matter while also reminiscing of certain party games that were intended to make people unite with each other, but those were rather notorious for being "friendship killers", so to speak. With his comment heard, he approved the choice of that fighting game being played that day.
"Yeah, there's a lot of RNG in those games. It's not exactly a proudest moment when you're in the lead, only to land on one unfortunate space and then you land on the last place." Chiaki added her thoughts to the discussion before she went to set up her hybrid handheld-stationary console, bringing not only the docked console, but also controllers for it. She chose to give everyone classic controllers, since those controllers that came in packaged with the console tended to have severe technical issues. So noticeable that entire games became unplayable because of it. She replaced the cartridge that was already in, which was a game about robot maid girl trying to save her professor from another evil emperor professor who had an army of scared looking aliens on his side, with the cartridge of the famous fighting game. By the time Chiaki was still setting up everything for their gaming session, Chihiro, Ibuki and Mayuri were just chilling on the couch. Hajime's curiosity about what sort of games and consoles she owns has risen.
"I do have one thing to ask, if you don't mind." said Hajime to her while she was still setting everything up. Another thing she needed to do was to update the game, since she hasn't played it in a while. Other games, both old and new, occupied her time instead.
"Yeah?" Chiaki turned towards him, tilting her head.
"Mind if I check out what other games you have?" asked Hajime for permission to see her collection of games.
"Of course! You can also pick any of them we could play today too!" Chiaki allowed him to check her stuff without any sort of hesitation. He couldn't help but chuckle when he saw how eager she was to share anything related to video games. The boy with an ahoge stood up and walked towards the bookcase, filled with games meant for various different boxes. They were all organized in a way that each section would belong to a dedicated console.
"So many games for so many systems…I wonder how did she get so many of them. Probably collected them through her life." wondered Hajime at the quantity of various games she had. At the bottom of the bookcase, he noticed that there were some booklets, most being barely over five pages long. Despite majority of them being from an
"Heh, she even has manuals? That's some old school stuff. I guess she truly is an Ultima-" Hajime smiled at the thought that she kept the manuals, despite the concept of physical copies of them being nearly extinct in the modern era. Suddenly, he stopped when he saw one disturbance among the booklets."Hold on a minute…."
Unlike its tiny counterparts, the sole book seemed flat out colossal, having at the very least around five hundred pages. Hajime wondered what game even needed that huge of a manual in order to even play it. To him, most games were understandable enough that even ten pages seemed like an overkill. He decided to pull the book out of the bookshelf to see what it was about.
It became very clear to him that what he was holding wasn't a video game manual at all when he saw a monochrome image of an F-16C Fighting Falcon with roundels of Hellenic Air Force, armed with just two AIM-9P5 Sidewinder rear aspect infrared homing air-to-air missiles on its wingtips, flying over Athens on the cover. He was completely startled by the fact that Chiaki Nanami out of all people in the world had what seemed like an actual military document in her house. He turned a page to see if his suspicions were confirmed. All it needed to take was read an excerpt from it.
"This information is furnished on the conditions that it will not be released to another nation without the specific authorization of the Department of the Air Force of the United States; it will be used for military purposes only;…."
"Nanami….what….what is this?" Hajime turned towards Chiaki and her gang with an absolutely flabbergasted expression on his face, still trying to comprehend that she owned an actual military document. Even shocking for a passive and docile girl like her. "FLIGHT MANUAL HAF SERIES AIRCRAFT F-16C/D BLOCKS 50 AND 52+ is...a name of the game...right?"
"Chiaki has a secret life as a fighter pilot? That's so cool! Why didn't you tell us?" marveled Ibuki at the thought that their game loving friend was secretly kicking posteriors of bandits across the skies, even though few details were off. First of, why would Chiaki own a manual that seemed be exported from United States to Greece was not clear. Secondly, why for an aircraft type that wasn't even operated by Japan, even though Japanese Air Self Defense Force uses F-2, which was essentially larger F-16 variant meant for the island nation only. Chiaki stepped closer to Hajime to see what was he concerned about. Upon taking a closer look, she remembered why she used the manual for one of the most well known late Cold War aircraft out there.
"….Ooooh, yeah. I did use it for games." revealed Chiaki about the true usage of such manual.
"H-how did this end up in your house in the first place?! Isn't stuff like that classified?" asked Hajime while worrying that Chiaki somehow managed to violate operational security of the company that made the manual and owned the production of the aforementioned aircraft.
"Actually, a lot of military documents do get declassified after a certain amount of time. Some are even available to read and download on internet. My guess is that this plane was exported a lot, those usually get their information revealed sooner than those only meant for domestic use." clarified Chihiro, recalling the times he indirectly learned such information from all the learning he did for programming in his childhood. Topics such as these often intervene with each other, despite not seeming at first glance. Thanks to programmer boy's explanation, it became much clearer and far less shocking than initially imagined. He wasn't sure how would he live his life, knowing that his friend got her hands onto potentially very sensitive data, which could endanger her life greatly.
"...That actually makes a lot of sense, now I wonder for-" Hajime remained perplexed, only to realize that there is only one genre that truly needs such long manuals. A genre that accepts even actual manuals as a basis to learn the mechanics. "Oh right, simulators. How hasn't this popped up in my head in the first place is beyond me."
"There's one simulator that I really like. It's about this plane." said Chiaki as she pointed at the monochrome picture of the F-16C. She seemed to have a smile on her face when she talked about it. "Would you mind if I show it to you guys later on?"
"Simulating a military plane from home? I do wanna see how that looks." approved Hajime, considering that despite some games he has already played by himself before he even met Nanami, he never saw a full fidelity flight simulator in action. Chihiro and Mayuri approved as well, but Mayuri was completely clueless about any discussion they had.
"Chiaki gonna rock the virtual skies!" cheered Ibuki as she prepared herself in advance to root for Chiaki once she would play the aforementioned simulator that day.
"Can I have the manual for a bit?" requested Chihiro. His request was fulfilled by Chiaki handing the manual over to him. He place it next to where he sat, so he could read it later on.
"But now, it's time for some duke outs!" announced Chiaki as everyone in the room grabbed their controller. The game also finished updating with only an A press needed in order to advance. Chiaki pressed the needed button and the game started loading. When the game properly booted up, the title screen, consisting of a giant logo that resembled a circles with two lines cutting it, appeared. All they needed to do was to press START and so Chiaki did. The game transferred them to a stylized, albeit rather crammed in menu, consisting of a single player mode, the local multiplayer mode, the online mode, the miscellaneous stuff and lastly, the settings. The selection was automatically redirected to the local multiplayer mode.
"So, guys. Wanna do free-for-all or co-op?" asked Chiaki, waiting for others to decide. Obviously, single player mode was not on the list.
"I'm up for anything, really." stated Hajime, which is also a sentiment both Chihiro and Ibuki agreed. Any mode could be fun for them.
"Co-op sounds more fun. Mayushii thinks that it's better if we all work together." Mayuri expressed her thoughts far more clearly than the rest of the gang. She wasn't a fan of an idea of her friends fighting against each other, even in just a game. By Mayuri's request, Chiaki chose one of the co-op modes she considered the most fun to play with friends: Boss Rush mode. After selecting it, the game threw them to the character selection screen. There were about seventy playable characters from different franchises on the roster. Chiaki immediately chose Pinkie Boye, a puffball that was one of her favorites. Hajime opted to go for a "jack of all trades" character, picking one of the first options on the roster: some middle aged plumber-sailor man named Pops. Ibuki took a while to find a character, since she was lost in the vast roster. After some time of searching, she found a musician punk girl with a flamethrower guitar.
"This lady right here speaks to my soul!" said Ibuki as she placed her hand-carrying-a-token cursor on the desired character. Meanwhile, Chihiro found out that the avatar from Fiesta Festival: Tropical Breeze was a playable character. Considering that he was familiar with the game, he made his decision. Last one to choose their character was Mayuri, who was inspecting the roster for a very specific character. Withing a quick time frame, she found the exact character she was looking for.
"Upa!" exclaimed Mayuri at the sight of a spherical panda as a playable character. She spared no time selecting it. "Upa is in!"
"Press L if you wanna change colors of your character." advised Chiaki to everyone else. Each friend of hers tried it out and selected the desired color. However, Mayuri's eyes gleamed when she saw Upa in a metallic color scheme.
"Metal Upa!" Mayuri pointed at the screen. With everything set, Chiaki pressed START to begin the Boss Rush mode. The first boss seemed like to be some kind of jester, similar to Pinkie Boye in appearance. The battle zone for that jester seemed to be the surface of a purple planet that had an especially starry night sky. Hajime wondered how a character like that could even be considered a boss and Mayuri found him to be pretty cute.
Then their expectations were thrown out of the window when the jester transformed into a bat-like abomination with eyes of insanity. Both Mayuri and Hajime took their words back when they saw the end result of the transformation. The battle begun with Chiaki's character making the first move by smacking the jester in the face. Flinching was not implemented in bosses, but a tiny part of monster's health bar went down. Next one to follow was Hajime's character, also jumping in the air to strike jester's face with a plunger. The image of a plumber-sailor just casually smacking a bat-like jester monster in the face warranted a giggle from Mayuri. Before either characters could continue striking down the giggling monster, it teleported to another part of the screen as it unleashed crescent scythes from its wings. Only Mayuri's Upa was hit by them as it was knocked out a bit. She was still figuring out controls of the game. Meanwhile, since the jester was close to them, Ibuki and Chihiro sent their characters to punch it in the face. With a combination of a B button and pressing up on the D-pad, the musician character struck the jester monster by launching herself with her flamethrower guitar while Chihiro's character attacked with balloons. Even more of its health bar went down, but the jester monster teleported again, preparing itself to spit out a large plasma beam from its mouth. Once the beam was fired it was so strong that the jester itself was pushed off screen. Chiaki, Hajime, Chihiro and by all luck combined Mayuri as well managed to jump in time to avoid the beam. However, Ibuki wasn't as fortunate, instead her character felt the full blast of the plasma beam, increasing the knock out percentage by a huge margin. If the monster managed to score a hit once, she was done for.
The jester monstrosity teleported again, that time very nearby to its opponents. All of them combined their forces and struck down the jester will all of their attacks. Health bar of it depleted drastically, but it had one ace in the hole: the monster split itself in half, freaking out everyone but Chiaki for a bit. Chiaki was used to it, thanks to Pinkie Boye's tradition to have disturbingly nightmarish final bosses almost every game. In the middle of split halves, a black hole appeared as it suddenly expanded to a greater degree. It tried to suck in every single opponent, but all of them managed to run away from it, with some such as Mayuri and Chihiro just barely evading it.
After the black hole disappeared, a purple shadow appeared on the floor. It followed all the characters until it stopped beneath Mayuri's Upa. She managed to step away just in time before the jester lunged itself upwards. Then it returned to the middle of the screen, allowing everyone to beat the ever living hell out of it. With Chihiro's character striking his face with an axe, a brief KO flash appeared before the boss was sent all over the screen, screaming before facing its final demise. Those who played the game for the first time felt incredibly accomplished, but that was just the beginning for them. The game rewarded them with a rest room for them to replenish their health and take a break before they would face another boss.
Time has passed, with the gang reaching the fifth boss of the mode. It seemed to be some kind of an eastern dragon, which ruled the skies. They were still in the rest room, preparing themselves before they would face it. Chiaki checked looked around to see if her friends were having fun. Judging by the expressions from Ibuki, Chihiro and Mayuri, they seemed to greatly enjoy the time spent at her house. However, she was caught off guard when she saw Hajime just blankly staring at the controller with a frown on his face.
"Is there something wrong, Hajime?" asked Chiaki out of concern. Her question also immediately grabbed attention of everyone else, who also were worried about what was bothering their friend.
"It's fine, I promise…" quietly answered Hajime attempting to reassure everyone about his feelings, but he couldn't keep it in anymore. He had to let it out one way or another, just that he needed someone to listen. "Just that….can we discuss something and keep it just between two of us?"
Chiaki nodded as both of them stood up from the couch, looking for a place that would allow them to have some privacy.
"Where are they going? Do they have secrets between with other?" wondered Ibuki as she peeked.
"I think it's best if we let them be together for a bit." suggested Mayuri, knowing that this was something Hajime wanted at that moment. He wasn't prepared to reveal it in front of everyone. Both Ibuki and Chihiro followed with Mayuri's suggestion out of respect.
Chiaki and Hajime decided that their discussion would take in her bedroom. Once both of them entered it, Chiaki closed the door before both of them sat on the bed, surrounded by silence.
"You seem….trustworthy about this." reluctantly began Hajime about an issue he was having.
"Hm? I'm glad you see me that way….but what's on your mind?" further asked Chiaki, tilting her head.
"Can you promise me a thing before I tell you? You won't think worse of me, right?" Hajime started sweating when he was about to tell her his problem that he had through out his life.
"I would never think worse of you. You're my friend after all." reaffirmed Chiaki. It almost seemed baffling that he even thought that she was going to hate him for whatever reason. He just wasn't that type of a guy that would even think of doing despicable acts to others in her eyes.
"Heh...okay, are you ready?" Hajime managed to pull of one tiny smile after hearing Chiaki's thought on it. He became much calmer, seeing how open Chiaki was to listening to him.
"I'm ready, I think." nodded Chiaki. Hajime took a deep breath before he was finally prepared to say it. He hesitated, still worrying if Chiaki would see him in a different way, but he was already far enough
Then he admitted the secret:
"I…..don't have talent."
"That's nothing to worry about, Hajime." Chiaki immediately reassured him, even giving him a pat on the back. Hajime was completely taken with the feeling of absolute shock when a person with talent wasn't bothered that he was without a talent, let alone accept him for that fact. He couldn't utter a word for some time.
"Huh?" blurted out Hajime before he gave her a question just to test how genuine she was about it."Are you...serious about it?"
"Yes! Having a talent was never really important. To tell you the truth, it was more of a burden than anything. Only thing that my future is going to be is just playing games and nothing else. But you can make your own future. You have the freedom that people with talents lack. You could be anything you want." Chiaki started sharing her feelings with him, how it truly meant to be one with talent. He never truly saw how many limitations came with talent, how much one's life is already predetermined, like fate itself setting it in stone. His friend also made him slowly realize how many possibilities he has right in front of the gate, but he still wasn't sure what could he be. It did give him hope that he will be something beyond a person without a talent. Hajime remained silent,
"Besides, I never looked at people for what talent they have. It's more important for who they are and Hajime, there's a lot of great stuff about you." Chiaki suddenly, yet boldly stated. She even put her arm on her chest, with a big smile on her face as she looked directly at him.
"R-really? D-don't get a hang of-" blushed Hajime while trying to downplay any good actions he did, but that did nothing to stop Nanami from continuing expressing her thoughts out loud.
"You are very knowledgeable and you are willing to explain me anything that is unclear to me. If I'm honest about myself, aside from what I know from video games, I don't know much. It's a bit silly, but its true." further expressed Chiaki, remembering all the times he went out of his way to explain her things that she didn't understand, no matter how silly or obvious it was. "Another thing I really like is that you have a strong sense of justice, I think. Like, remember when you called them out for hiding information from us, right?"
"...Yeah, considering for what are we dealing against, anything could be a factor for survival." said Hajime, remembering the persuasion he had to do for sake of others as well.
"I felt really proud of you that day. It showed me that you care a lot about us...which also reminds me of another thing that I really like about you: you have a very kind heart." Chiaki suddenly placed her hand on the spot where his heart was. Hajime blushed even more, especially being touched by her, but he couldn't help but feel soothed by it. He was starting to feel more ease within his heart. "I remember the time when we both entered Hope's peak for the first time. I was...really nervous at that time, but we did it together. I wanna say….thank you, Hajime. Thank you for being my friend."
Hajime took some time to digest everything Chiaki said to him, but he gave her a gentle smile at her, knowing that she was pretty adamant about her thoughts on him. He gave her one last question about it."...So...it's safe to say you don't see me in any different way?"
"Yep, and I don't want you to be anyone else. Hajime will always be my friend." boldly, yet softly confirmed Chiaki. The part about remaining who he is hit him hard, he hasn't heard anyone say it before in his life. He cherished it with everything he had, it was a gesture he would never forget.
"...Heh...I knew I could reach out for you." smiled Hajime at her. He could just hug her on the spot, but he felt like sudden movements would scare her. It was best to go slowly with her. "Thank you, Chiaki."
Chiaki just quietly smiled at him before they decided they were ready to return to their friends. When they opened the door, they were surprised at the sight of three friends already waiting out for them.
"Wait, you guys have heard all of it?" sputtered Hajime, worrying that they would
"Mayuri told us that now's the right time to step in. I think we should all say something on the matter." explained Ibuki, lacking her usual cheeriness that she radiates almost all day. It was possibly because Ibuki felt like this was a matter to be taken seriously.
"I'm kinda not sure what to expect from them, to be honest…" Hajime thought to himself. While he could fully trust Chiaki about it, he didn't know how would Ibuki and Chihiro, fellow students with talents, react to the truth about him. Mayuri didn't worry him too much, because she never stated she had a talent akin to what Hope's peak classified as one.
"Hajime, I'm glad you have opened up even more. One becomes truly happy with life once they accept themselves. I think you should value yourself for what you are, not clamor for what you aren't. For what you are, I wouldn't have you any different." Ibuki spoke as honestly as she could, crossing her arms while giving him an earnest smile. She always wanted to see anyone of her friends just being true to themselves and she was proud of him that he shared an insecurity with his friends. "I'm very glad to have you as a friend."
"I really admire you for how strong you are, Hajime. You're both strong outside and inside. I wish to be just like you, someone who could protect others. It doesn't really matter if you have talent or not, just be who you are." admitted Chihiro to him as well, even pumping his fists to show how much he truly wants to be strong. Even though he didn't say it, Chihiro felt like he should take inspiration from his friends, since he was still hiding his own secret from everyone else.
Hajime couldn't believe it. Not only Chiaki accepting him despite lacking a talent, but Ibuki and Chihiro welcomed him as well. Emotions within him were starting to bottling up, since he wasn't used to such positive influence of his friends around him before.
"Haji-tan, I already knew that something was bothering you when you visited the lab yesterday. You worried that you didn't fit in, didn't you?" asked Mayuri, completely nailing what was bothering Hajime not only in the Future Gadget Lab, but ever since he entered Hope's peak as a whole.
"How is this girl that I've just met yesterday reading me like an open book? I don't know how much can I take it…" Hajime thought to himself while still trying to keep composure, but he did feel like he might be overwhelmed with emotions.
"You shouldn't be worried about that, Haji-tan. Friends will always accept you for who you truly are. Mayushii can assure you that you'll always be our friend." gently reassured Mayuri before she gave off a smile while pointing at the pocket on his pants. "You should also check your phone as well. Mayushii's got a tiny surprise for you, hehehehe~."
Hajime brought his phone out of the pocket to see a notification on his home screen. After clicking on it and typing out his password, he noticed that he received a video file from a contact named Future Gadget Lab. "Huh? What's it about?"
When he started playing the video, he saw that it was recorded by none other than Kurisu, Rintaro and Itaru, who were standing in of the camera, looking directly at him. He was pretty surprised to see that they sent a gift directly for him.
"Hajime, if you are seeing this, then we got something to tell you." began Kurisu while sporting a warm smile on her face. "You and I are on the same parallel. I do not think of myself of having a talent either, the reason what I became today was through a lot of hardship I had to endure….but I do not regret my past. Do not be ashamed of yourself for what you are, rather be proud. I can say I'm very much looking forward to your next visit."
"Dude, you have at least five girls, Kurisu Makise included by the way, all over you. From what I've heard from Ibu-chan, more as well. If that ain't gonna make you a cool guy, I don't know what will! Appreciate what you have around yourself and be happy, bro." added Itaru. Even though he worded in in his own way, there was a feeling of total earnestness in it.
"The One with Ahoge, take the following message with most serious consideration! You're a Lab Mem, which should you consider to be the highest honor anyone could achieve! Talent is meaningless, especially compared to being the one with Future Gadget Laboratory and don't let anyone say otherwise!" Rintaro cheered for him in his own chunnibyou way, posing dramatically in the process.
"This is the message we give specifically for you, Hajime. Thank you for becoming our friend." beamed Kurisu as she waved at him slowly, but gently. Itaru crossed his arms, proudly nodding at him while Rintaro gave out a laugh worthy of a self proclaimed mad scientist.
"El Psy Kongroo." Rintaro concluded the video, striking down the last pose before the video ended. Everything that happened left Hajime completely overwhelmed. The fact that Kurisu, a person he admired a lot for her feats, not only accepted him, not only related to him, but also said directly to him that she's looking forward to seeing him again, filled him with utmost joy. Even though he was holding it through out all the time, he let one tear fall. He just couldn't hold it in fully anymore.
"...You...guys…You...guys are the best…." Hajime thanked them all, letting out some chuckles of genuine happiness out of him. It could be said that this was one of the best days he ever had in his life.
"Come here, Hajime." Ibuki, along with Chiaki, Chihiro and Mayuri, all hugged him as tightly as they all could. Hajime gladly returned it, hugging them all in one fell swoop. His friends never saw Hajime smiling so much before, but they felt great amount of warmth in their hearts. None of them could let go off from each other, they were locked in a hug for some times. Some of them, like Chiaki and Chihiro, were blushing big time.
"Are you feeling better now, Hajime?" gently asked Chiaki, giving a few pats on his back.
"Absolutely! It feels so much more at ease now." joyfully answered Hajime with his heart feeling freedom from a burden that he carried through out his life. After some time, they let go off each other, all of them feeling quite happy with how everything went.
Suddenly, knocks on the door were heard, surprising them all except one.
"Oh, it has arrived!" announced Mayuri as she ran towards the entrance of Chiaki's house. Others waited because they weren't sure who was knocking on the door. There were two possibilities for them: a surprise visit from one of the students of Hope's peak (most of them assuming it was going to be Makoto) or a visit from a Future Gadget Lab member.
Instead, it was prepared lunch that Mayuri bought them through a call.
"Juicy Chicken Number One!" sang Mayuri as she showed them a giant boxes of fried chicken. The scent coming from it tickled appetites of the gang. The hungry black haired girl led them to the dining room, where they could eat friend chicken tenders in peace. After preparing the table for lunch, Chiaki and her friends performed the traditional "Itadakimasu" gesture before they started eating. Chiaki and Chihiro just modestly munched the chicken tenders while Hajime ate like a normal person. Ibuki went slightly overboard with eating chicken tenders, but it was still in acceptable range.
Mayuri, however, munched on chicken tenders like a blue whale catching krill in one swoop. Hajime was quite surprised when he saw a girl like Mayuri eating the lunch like a feral predator.
Few pieces of fried chicken remained after all of them finished with lunch. All of them were satisfied with it, but Mayuri and Ibuki perhaps ate too much of them.
"Ah, Mayushii is so full right now!" proclaimed Mayuri as she tapped her tummy before she wiped off crumbs off her face.
"Soooooooo is Ibuuuuuukiiiiiiii." agreed Ibuki before all of them talked about activities after lunch. They remembered that they still haven't finished the boss rush mode, so they returned to it. The sky ruling eastern dragon awaited for their arrival.
More time passed, with all of them defeating the final boss of the mode. They all felt incredibly accomplished with them going through the boss rush mode, especially since not a single player got knocked out. They were wondering what to do next, but then Chiaki remembered a certain game that she promised to show earlier.
"Alright guys, I think I can show you something I think you'll find cool." Chiaki gave off a disclaimer that she was prepared to fulfill her promise.
"What do you wanna show us, Chiaki?" asked Hajime. Rest of her friends wondered the same. Chiaki stood up from the couch and went left the living room for a bit, only to return with a joystick in her hands.
"I'm ready to go hardcore...I think." declared Chiaki with an oddly incredibly determined expression on her face. It became clear to them what she was going to demonstrate.
"Ah, flight simulator. I wonder how's gonna be that manual used." said Hajime.
Chiaki went to her personal computer and plugged the cable for joystick inside the USB port. Her friends approached her while she was setting up anything required for a certain simulator. They all curiously watched her turn on the computer and then logging in. Once she logged to her account, they were greeted with a desktop background of a magical girl bunny. She had so many different icons for all sorts of games on it, yet they were organized well enough that even a person without interest of games could navigate through it. Chiaki, after navigating through icons, clicked on the blue square icon that had silhouettes of the F-16 Fighting Falcon in it. The game itself was titled Falcon BMS.
Upon clicking on the desktop shortcut, a window with multiple options appeared. It was decorated with two grayscale pictures of F-16s taking off. Chiaki quickly pressed on the "Launch" option to make the game boot up.
When the game finished loading, it brought them to the title screen. It consisted of a flying F-16, armed with two AIM-9M Sidewinder infrared homing missile, two GBU-12 laser guided bombs, two drop tanks and even a LITENING targeting pod near the intake. The layer beneath the fighter was its cockpit, which had two large multi-function displays on them. It was a slight glimpse of what a cockpit of what was presumably F-16CM Block 50 (variant of the Fighting Falcon that is capable of carrying AGM-88C HARM anti-radiation missile). The background image seemed to be the map of Korean peninsula. It was a logical choice, given that the default setting for the simulator was the aforementioned geographical location.
The graphical user interface was quite different from the game they played before. Instead of just everything categorizing into single player mode, multiplayer mode and so on, the game gave them options such as Instant Action, Dogfight, Tactical Engagement, Campaign and much more. Some of the options, like Tactical reference, were exclusive to the genre it was in.
"Bogey has jinked back at me again, sixteen miles at seven o' clock, master arm on!" sampled sound within game greeted them.
"Oh, this music is a jam!" Ibuki bobbed with her head the moment when she heard retro menu theme kicking in. Others observed the game with curiosity, even if they didn't understand some things in it. Chihiro prepared the manual he was allowed to have for a bit in order to see its utility for the game.
"Six miles, six miles! Tally two, tally two!" additional sampled sound within game played in the song.
"Let me show you how its done in the Viper!" Chiaki pumped her fist as she let herself be immersed in the game. The gamer girl chose the Tactical engagement option, which led her to three categories: Training, section of Tactical Engagement that had already built in mission to teach the player how to utilize basics of the aircraft; Saved, more already built-in mission with a couple of Chiaki's own missions and Online. Chiaki then pressed on the saved category and selected the mission that was titled "BVR TEST – FALCON VS FULCRUM". She thought a quick combat scenario would be the best way to demonstrate the game while keeping conscious of time. It would have taken way too long if she went with a full mission. Before she went into the mission, the game presented her a map of Korean peninsula. The type of mission was fighter sweep, with its objective being taking down that pesky bandit. She didn't need to do much adjustments, so she pressed on the "TAKE OFF" option.
The game transferred them to another loading screen, that time presenting the whole aircraft. Some of the boxes of text gave information about its systems and weapons it uses. Time taken for the game to load wasn't too much, as it transferred them to the cockpit view of the F-16C. They flew over the snowy landscape of virtual South Korea at noon. She chose to use Block 50 variant of it, since she was pretty familiar with it. The mission started with the Fighting Falcon that was armed with four AIM-120C AMRAAMs and two AIM-9X Sidewinders, just in case she would be forced to go in a merge, flying above twenty thousand feet in altitude.
"Hold on, can you pause a bit? I wanna take a look around inside this plane." requested Hajime to see the interior of the Falcon. By his request, Chiaki pressed the P button on keyboard to pause the game. She dragged the mouse while holding the right button, demonstrating them the interior. Chihiro, after searching through pages of it, showed them the layout of the cockpit in order for them to see how much of it is accurately modeled within the game. Mayuri had zero idea what it even said in the manual.
Upon further inspecting it, Hajime found out that the simulator modeled the entire layout of the cockpit and the systems within, from just switches and knobs to more advanced stuff like radar warning receiver and multi-function displays eerily accurate. It was hard to believe that a game like this is meant for public.
"Oh wow, they actually got it really close. Really dedicated developers, I have to say." Hajime thought to himself before he wondered how much does the game cost. Must have been expensive, considering that just modules of aircraft for flight simulators tend to cost quite a lot of bucks. "Hey, Chiaki. How much did this game cost?"
"Technically free." quickly clarified Chiaki while still sticking to reality before her mind got absorbed into the game.
"What?! All this for no cost?" blurted out Hajime.
"It's actually a mod for a much older game. You still have to buy the original one though. Luckily, its pretty cheap." elaborated Chiaki while remembering all the procedure she needed to do in order to play it. She even needed an account for a very specific forum. Even though Chiaki sometimes used the internet for games, she always kept herself away from making accounts of sites. She preferred to be just a bystander.
"...This is quite a passion project, if I say so." thought Hajime, finding it a bit ridiculous that such game was developed by people who were asking nothing for charge. "Is this your favorite flight simulator, Nanami?"
"Mhm! One of!" happily nodded Chiaki before she unpaused the game, finally letting herself to fully immerse in it. She adjusted the radar range to one hundred and sixty miles by pressing a gray square button on the top left side of the left multi-function display and then set the range for HSD (function that shows the pilots the flight path and steerpoints) to two hundred and forty miles on the right multi-function display by doing a similar action as before.
After seconds of flying, a white square with a line on its bottom side appeared on the radar. Chiaki immediately responded by slewing the cursor on it and locking it. Then she redirected the Fighting Falcon's nose towards it, while putting the throttle on the max, engaging the afterburner in the process. She also started climbing, since she would not only cruise through the air faster at higher altitudes, but speed combined with altitude would also increase the range of AMRAAMs. It didn't take long for her to break through the sound barrier, despite indicated airspeed on heads up display showing otherwise. When the circular indicator on the heads up display started expanding, she knew she was in range to properly fire the missile.
"Fox Three!" shouted Chiaki as she held on the "Weapon release" button, firing away a single AIM-120C at the Mig. She, after keeping the lock on the aircraft for a bit, immediately broke to the left by yanking the joystick as hard as possible. The aircraft turned so hard that giant trails of vapor appeared on it. Hajime was sort of impressed by how much level of detail the game had, despite seeming a bit on the more vintage side. Chiaki kept the afterburner on, just to keep distance away from Mig's retaliation.
"Did ya get him, Pilot Nanami?" piqued Ibuki as she did a "peeking" pose. Chiaki pressed the number six on the keyboard to see the visual of the hostile, only to find out that Mig-29 Fulcrum was falling down in flames, confirming that the AIM-120C AMRAAM splashed it. "He's down! Wahoo! Before he even appeared!"
"You did it!" cheered Mayuri along with others for Chiaki's successful take down of a virtual bandit. "Mayushii didn't quite understand what was going on, but Mayushii is happy that you did it!"
"Mind if I try it out a bit?" asked Hajime after Chiaki concluded the mission, curious to see what it means to be a flight simmer. Just from watching Chiaki playing it alone gave him an impression that such genre has an entirely different feel from other video games.
"Of course! I really wanna see anyone of you play the game! I also wanna hear what you think of it!" Chiaki jumped out of her chair from excitement, startling Hajime and others a bit.
"Woah there, I'm gonna play it and you're gonna see." Hajime sat down with Chiaki being directly behind him. It felt like she was her Weapons System Officer, despite those being present in different planes. The mission he went with was the same as Chiaki's, starting with the same loadout and starting altitude as before. He was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of switches and buttons present in the Falcon, but after he took a closer look at it, he realized that there was some logic applied to the layout. Each part, such as for starting up engines and turning on external lights, had their own section in it.
"Okay so, these should be self explanatory." Hajime thought to himself as he inspected the cockpit. "This seems to be an air to air mission, so it should be…"
"Oh, one of the buttons is just named A-A. How convenient." realized Hajime after he saw a circular button with the aforementioned marking displayed right in front of him. After he pressed on it, the right multi-function display changed to weapon selection function. The weapon he had as selected was AIM-120C, but he wasn't too sure what was the syntax for it. "Chiaki, what does 120C mean?"
"AIM-120C is an active radar guided missile, meant for longer ranges." explained Chiaki in a way that she sounded like a wannabe instructor. Even if she wasn't playing the game and just watching, she was still knee-deep into the whole game.
"So it's best to keep it at 120C, I assume." said Hajime, keeping the options. After just a bit of flying, a rhombus with a number 29 appeared on the circular radar warning receiver.
"Number 29 appeared on that circular screen. What should that be?" asked Hajime for help.
"Mig-29! Enemy plane! Set your radar range from forty to one hundred and sixty miles!" cautioned Chiaki as if an actual Mig-29 Fulcrum violated their air space. Hajime followed her advice and adjust the functions on the left multi-function display to the requested range. However, he didn't know how to slew the cursor on the white square.
"How do I lock it up?" asked Hajime once again.
"Left shift and arrow keys to move the cursor. Place it then press left shift and home to lock the target. When the circle on Heads up display enlargers, fire it by pressing this button on the joystick" advised Chiaki as she pointed on a circular button on top of the joystick.. As he followed her instructions again, he managed to lock up the bandit. All he had to do at that moment was wait for the indicator on the HUD to enlarge.
"Alright, locked." said Hajime before he was welcomed by the blaring sounds of the radar warning receiver going crazy. "Uh, Chiaki….what do those sounds mean?"
"Mig-29 fired a missile at you! Break left and dive down!" passionately yelled Chiaki, acting like Hajime was in actual danger of being shot down-
"Emergency, emergency!" Ibuki added her own panicking to the situation. Suddenly, Hajime channeled fear and dread of every single pilot that had a missile coming right after them.
"Why does this sole enemy in a damn video game work me up so much?!" thought Hajime to himself before by the sheer chance of luck the indicator expanded. Apparently demonic space bending jesters and divine dragons were a piece of cake to deal with, but a Soviet (now Russian) fighter aircraft meant to directly counter the Fighting Falcon? Entirely different story.
Out of instinct alone, he held on it, but he forgot to to release it immediately out of sudden thrill of adrenaline kicking in, firing three AMRAAMs at the incoming Fulcrum instead. He yanked the joystick hard to make a turn as he started diving down. The Fighting Falcon started drastically gaining speed as it dived down towards the surface of the sea.
"ALTITUDE! ALTITUDE!" alerted the voice within the aircraft, which is affectionately known among pilots, both real and virtual, as Bitching Betty. Hajime thought that Betty's warnings were just making the situation worse, but he managed to pull up before the Falcon would meet its demise in the sea.
"D-did ya get him, Pilot Hajime?" stuttered Ibuki amid all the action that it took place. Hajime at the time didn't know how to switch views as he was feeling that he was going to have a stroke.
"Press six on keyboard." calmly advised Chiaki. Just like she said, Hajime pressed the number six on the keyboard and he felt great amount of relief when he saw that the Russian fighter that threw an R-77 active radar guided missile at him was now bursting in flames, thanks from a hit by all three AMRAAMs he launched at it. Everyone surrounding him celebrated the victory with an applause for taking down that pesky bandit.
"You did it! Now Hajime will be on his way to be an ace too!" cheered Ibuki.
"I survived!" Hajime was just satisfied that he managed to survive in the virtual air space. He was ready to reveal his thoughts on the simulator to Chiaki. "Whew, that was pretty fun….but also….hoo boy….quite something."
"I'm glad you liked it. Seems like it's nice to share around your favorite stuff...I think." giggled Chiaki, just feeling very happy that a friend of hers enjoyed a game that usually isn't accessible for everyone. After finishing their business with Falcon BMS, they have decided to spend rest of the day doing other activities. Chihiro demonstrated the capabilities of his in-progress AI before they decided to freshen up things with a board game.
After spending couple of hours having fun, the night arrived. It was time for them to have some sleep to have some energy for school. Everyone was in their pajamas. The plan was the same as day before, with them sleeping on the couch and Chiaki sleeping in her bed.
"Alright, guys. Are you all ready for tomorrow?" asked Chiaki one more time before they would all call it a day. Judging from responses she got, they all seemed to be more than prepared to face Hope's peak head on next day.
"Mayushii wants to come along too before we go our ways." requested Mayuri to at least follow them to the school before she had to go to the Future Gadget Laboratory.
"You can come along anytime, Mayuri." immediately approved Chiaki, letting her know that her presence makes a day better for her. Before she went to her bedroom, she let out a big yawn. "Now, it's time to take a trip to dream land. Good night, everybody."
"Good night, Chiaki." her group of close friends spoke the last word for that day before all of them went their own ways to have some sleep. Everyone on the couch and Chiaki in her bedroom.
However, the only one that didn't fall asleep was Mayuri. Instead, she quietly went to Chiaki's bedroom to check up on her. Unsurprisingly, Chiaki was already asleep. Mayuri smiled a little when she saw how comfortable she looked while sleeping. After getting up close to her, Mayuri leaned towards her.
"Hey hey." whispered Mayuri, waking her up. She was slightly glad that Chiaki hasn't drifted into deep sleep just yet.
"Oh? Mayuri?" wondered Chiaki after seeing smiling Mayuri in front of her.
"Yep, Mayushii's here." smiled Mayuri before she started gently patting Chiaki's head. The girl that received pats blushed a little, but found ease and comfort in being gently patted on her head."How are you?"
"I feel pretty amazing, especially thanks to you, Chihiro, Hajime and Ibuki coming here. I never really had so many people before here." happily answered Chiaki as she placed her hand on her chest.
"Heh, I can tell. I'm glad that we finally have an opportunity to get to know each other more after so many years." giggled Mayuri before her innocent smile faltered, replacing it with an expression filled with regret. It caught Chiaki off guard, since she has never seen Mayuri in that state before. "I'm sorry I couldn't do it before though….a lot of things happened between our first meeting and now."
"What happened?" piqued Chiaki, wondering what was on Mayuri's mind. She was worried that saying anything wrong to her would make her really upset, so she waited to let her talk about it.
"...Bad things. A lot of bad things happened to Mayushii and her friends. If it wasn't for Okarin, Mayushii wouldn't have been here at all." quietly told Mayuri with a voice full of sorrow. Chiaki froze just by implications alone, she couldn't comprehend how such an innocent and gentle girl like Mayuri could suffer so much. She couldn't even utter a word, yet she felt her heart being squeezed by some unknown force.
"But it's okay now. Okarin got it all under control. Ever since that summer from a while ago, Mayushii's life has been pretty well." comforted Mayuri as her smile returned. That smile of hers alone calmed down Chiaki.
"Thank goodness…" Chiaki let out a breath of relief. She held Mayuri's hand out of an instinct, feeling her warmth.
"You really like Okarin too, don't you, Chi-chan?" asked Mayuri as she winked at her, knowing how much Rintaro told her about it. Chiaki blushed a little before she put words together in her mind.
"Yeah...I do….I sometimes wish I was like him or anyone of my friends…but I don't know how." admitted Chiaki while feeling like she lacked a lot of things that Rintaro Okabe and her friends had.
"Hehehe, you two are not too different from each other." chuckled Mayuri.
"Huh?" Chiaki tilted her head, sporting a blush again. To be compared to a person she considered to be heroic was not expected for her.
"You and Okarin care a lot about your friends. Happiness of your friends is the most important thing to you and Okarin. You proved it what you've said to Haji-tan. Mayushii is very proud of you because of that." explained Mayuri as she gave her more pats on her head.
"I just spoke what I've felt. It wasn't really that much..." Chiaki tried to downplay herself, but Mayuri insisted on what she thought.
"What you've said meant a lot to him. It was quite a lot." Mayuri defended her position before she laid out question that was dedicated solely for Nanami. "I do have a question for you, Chi-chan."
"Yeah?" wondered Chiaki.
"Are you happy with yourself?" suddenly asked Mayuri.
A moment of silence followed. Chiaki desperately tried to keep up a smile, but her eyes were telling a different story. She stared at the floor before she tried to look directly at Mayuri.
"...it will be okay. I promise." Chiaki attempted to reassure that everything was fine with her, but Mayuri's smile vanished the moment when Chiaki became silent about it.
"I think you have already provided me an answer." lamented Mayuri. She decided that at the very least Chiaki could do one favor for her. "If there's anything wrong, you should call me, okay?"
"...I'm gonna try." quietly promised Chiaki, but Mayuri noticed that there was some hesitation in her voice.
"You should take some rest now. Tomorrow awaits you. Good night, Chi-chan." advised Mayuri before she gave her last pats on her head for that day.
"Good night, Mayuri…" Chiaki said to her before she managed to fully fall asleep. Mayuri left her bedroom, feeling nothing but concern for Chiaki. She returned to the living room, but she didn't lie down on the couch immediately. Instead, she opened up the window to look at the starry sky of the night. Watching tranquil stars filled her head with thoughts.
"I'm glad that you have found sincere happiness in your friends, but you are not taking care of yourself at all, Chiaki." thought Mayuri to herself, not understanding that why for some forsaken reason Chiaki refuses to take care of herself at all, contrary to how much she does for her friends. "I think you should be happy with yourself too…"
Mayuri raised her arm to reach for stars. For a while, she just stared at it before she pretended to grab them and lowered down her arm. She closed the window before finally deciding to sleep. Only one thought remained in her mind: When will Chiaki truly feel happy about herself?