Love, Eroge, Music & Other Craziness

by Geek Girl Naruru

Namikaze Naruto is a normal fifteen-year-old high school student. He has a distant relationship with his sister Naruko, who always treats him rudely. One Day in Spring, he encounters a foreign girl playing a piano on one of his travels to a junkyard and helps her in many ways as he discover that her name is Weiss Schnee.

31. Ruri & Satsuki

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"The two first years are going to make a game together." Such was the president's sudden declaration.

It was after school, Kuroneko asked me to join her to the game research club. Having heard what the president said, both Kuroneko and Kae shot glances at each other.

"Why do I have to…"

"Why do I…"

They immediately voiced their objections together. Like usual, these two still didn't get along.

"It's a long-standing tradition here in this club."

"President Miura? You decided that just now, didn't you?"

"If you would, please stop lying to us."

Kae and Kuroneko both retorted. Why was it that women were so in synch only when it came to blaming others?

"Okay, that was a lie." The president readily admitted his lie.

Ah, yeah, now I remember. Game club was a pretty unserious club. There was no way they would have a policy that strict. The club president gave a little ahem and cleared his throat.

"But, you're still doing it. There are two reasons. First, we have to see what our new club members can do, and second, we want our new club members to work together well. More the second reason. When it comes to you two, there's no doubt you have the skills, but it's bad that all you do is argue with each other. So for me, that's the first priority on the list of things to fix."

"But…"

"Sure, we're usually a pretty easygoing, carefree club. But compared to the other group members, you two really want to make games, right?"

Kae's lips were thinned into a stern frown when the club president kindly asked her that question.

"And making games is a team effort. Got it?"

"I understand."

"Hmph."

Kae reluctantly nodded her agreement. Kuroneko had her arms crossed and her face turned the other way, but she also didn't seem like she had any further objections.

Ahh… that's amazing… he managed to convince these two. Rather than saying that he succeeded in making a logical argument, it was probably more that he sincerely understood what Kuroneko and Kae's goals were. He had said as much during the welcoming party, right? That he wanted to create a club where anyone could study games, and anyone could work hard and make games with others.

"You two probably know already that next month, there's an online game contest. The Chaos Create contest, which is a pretty famous one. You two are going to make an entry into that competition."

"You don't have to get too worked up about it if you don't want to. We won't be actively involved in the project, but if there's anything you don't understand, we'll try to help you as best we can."

Nanashima-kun smiled. He was probably trying to relieve the tension in the air a bit.

"Alright then," The president began to conclude. "So, in other words… you two, please bring a draft of a plan for the game you want to make by the beginning of next week. Ah, right, you two have been working on game ideas in club already, right? It's fine if you use one of those too."

"But I'm pretty sure Gokou-san and I were working on different games…"

"Well, of course we can't make both. You two will bring your plans to club next week, and we'll decide which plan to use with a majority vote."

"I see. A majority vote… by the members of this club?"

Kae took a glance around at the other club members in the room, which consisted of seven members, including me.

"That's fine. I don't mind that."

"I also have no objections."

It seemed that the two of them had agreed to the majority vote. I had an idea, so I raised my hand.

"President."

"What is it, Naruto?"

"Can I help out with the games we're using for that contest? I mean, I wouldn't be able to help out more than doing odd jobs here and there… but hey, I'm a new member too, right?"

"Hmm." The president stroked the stubble on his unshaven face and glanced in my direction. Next, he flashed me his canines and gave me a knowing smile.

"That's fine. Go ahead and try, comrade. Ah, yeah, I guess it would be a huge help if you took on the job of supervising these two."

After the club meeting was done, I headed for a bookstore in front of the train station. Even as an amateur, now that I was going to help out in making games, I wanted to do what I could. I had no idea how much I would be able to do, but I thought it probably would be a good idea if I read one or two books on making games. The books in the clubroom were all too specialized and difficult to understand, so I wanted to find something a bit more simple… an introductory text, or something like that.

"Somewhere around here, then…?"

I wandered around the bookstore with a smile on my face, when I found a shelf that seemed to have the types of books I was looking for. And then… there, I saw a face that I recognized.

"Ah, isn't that Kae?"

"Hwaah!? Ah, N-Namikaze Senpai?"

The minute I called out to her, Kae jumped up in surprise. She was probably also on the way back from school, considering she was in her uniform.

"Eh? Eh? Eh? W-What are you doing in a place like this?"

Was it that damn strange to see me in a bookstore?

"Ah, well, I was looking for an intro book for game making or something like that."

"A-Ah, I see."

"This is good timing too. If you have any book you'd like to recommend, please tell me."

"Ahh… fuuuu…" Kae blinked with surprise as she tried to steady her breathing, and she finally seemed to calm down.

"Alright then. Let's see… if you just want something that's easy to understand for beginners, then I would recommend something like this."

Kae took down one of the books on the shelf without a moment of hesitation.

"But easy books don't really get into any of the finer details, so they're honestly not too useful for making real games."

"I don't mind."

Kae gave me the book, and I flipped through it, confirming that the material inside was just what I was looking for.

"Even if I went and picked up a more advanced book right away, I wouldn't be able to understand a word of it. So this is enough for me."

"Ah, I see. By the way Senpai, why you join game club?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, because Senpai had a Rock band I always thought that the thing Namikaze Senpai was interested in was Rock Music, not games"

"Yeah I love Rock but I do have a bit of interest in games too. And I'm also part of the team that's going to make this game, so it just wouldn't be good if you two try hard to make the game but I can only stand to the side doing nothing."

"But you know, cramming information like that overnight is going to be nothing but a hindrance to us."

"That's a pretty blunt way to put it."

"Did I offend you?"

"Nah."

If something like that were enough to offend me, then I would have already burst a blood vessel in my head. After all, I've heard much worse things said to me by a certain brute who lived in my house.

"In fact, it's helpful to hear that. I see, I see. Just cramming information… won't be useful." I put a hand on my chin and nodded.

"Well then… I guess I just have to find something I can help out with."

"Namikaze Senpai sure seems to have a deep sense of responsibility. I'm surprised."

"It's not that surprising. I'm just a person who usually goes with the flow."

"Ah, I see."

This "Ah, I see" that Kae said seemed to be one of her favorite phrases to say. When she said it with her lips thinned and looked sulky, there was a certain charm about it and she was cute too. But there were also times when hearing her say that just irritated me.

"By the way, did you also come here to buy game designing books?"

"Eh? N-No, not really." For some reason, Kae seemed a bit flustered.

Well then, what exactly did she come here for? But I didn't even have to ask. Because it was pretty clear that the book she was holding in her hands was a BL book.

"W-Why are you looking at me like that?" Kae's face flushed beet red, and she quickly hid the book behind her back.

It was a huge difference from my own sister, who was so proud of her little sister eroge and bragged about them to my face. It was actually pretty refreshing seeing her like this.

"Hm? Ah, no, I was just thinking about how you sure like books like that."

"I know it's bad." Kae cast her eyes to the floor, her face still completely red.

"Nah, it's not. I mean, it's not like you're buying 18+ stuff. I really don't think it's something you should be embarrassed about and try to hide."

"A-As I thought, Namikaze Senpai is pro-homo, isn't he!?"

"Why the hell do you always try to make me out to be a homo!? I'm a bonafide hetero, thank you very much!"

"Oh…"

Don't look so disappointed, dammit! When I gave her a glare, Kae slapped a hand on her mouth and seemed to regret her words.

"Ahh, I did it again… sorry… it's just that whenever I see Namikaze Senpai… that is… I just can't keep all these dirty fantasies from swelling up in my head…"

Taken out of context, you could really interpret those words as a crazy, pervy love confession.

"Whenever I see you, I just can't help but have BL fantasies."

No, sorry, but hearing those words did not make me happy in the least.

"W-Well, whatever."

"Ah? You're fine with that?"

"No! Actually, I'm not at all!"

Look! She has a glint in her eyes! This girl is sick! Sicker than sick!

"Ooo… getting my hopes up like that… that's not nice, Senpai."

"…"

I'm stumped. I just don't know how to respond to that. Also, how is it that you've changed so much from my first impression of you? Who the hell are you supposed to be right now?

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to ask… are all fujoshi sort of like this? I mean… to be so timid when it comes to your hobby, or rather, to be so self-loathing… for you especially, it's strange that you're so self-assured usually, but only when it comes to your hobby do you seem to lose your nerve…"

"C-Come over here for a second…"

"Huh? H-Hey…"

Kae suddenly grabbed me by the hem of my shirt and pulled me to a corner of the bookstore. She pushed me against the wall, and looked all around to make sure nobody was watching. And then she spoke to me in a panicked whisper.

"Hey… please don't say the word 'fujoshi' at a place like this…"

"S-Sorry. That was careless of me."

I sincerely apologized. Her large chest was also pushing into me right now, but this was no time for that. I had to think of something else and distract myself, or else this situation might start feeling weird. But geez, what self loathing… did she really care about it that much? I didn't have too many data points to go off of, so this might be my misunderstanding, but…

It's things like this that probably marked the difference between "fujoshi" and other kinds of otaku. For example, even though Naruko was concerned for her public image and kept her hobby a secret, she still embraced her hobby and proudly considered it to be a part of herself. In contrast, Kae was relatively approving of otaku culture and didn't think it was something you needed to be so desperate to hide, but when it came to fujoshi culture, she would stubbornly hide it from others and would be ashamed of it.

"I'll have you know, Namikaze Senpai, that the word 'fujoshi' was a word originally born out of self-prudence and self-derision."

Kae held up a finger, and began to talk in a tone you might expect from her if she were lecturing a younger brother.

"The fact that the words we use seem almost like a secret language at first glance, and the fact that it's common for website administrators to put a lot of censorship marks on words is because we don't want the pure, normal people to stumble into our territory. It's a self-defense mechanism to prevent ourselves from being persecuted by the majority."

Seeming to get more and more worked up as she went on and on, Kae drew her face even closer to mine… and her body pushed up against me even more. When you also considered the fact that she was a junior high schooler until just a little while back, this was a scary situation.

"Namikaze Senpai? Are you listening to me?"

"Huh? Ahh, yeah…"

It really wouldn't be good if we stayed in this position for much longer. But it was hard for me to just tell her to stop… for many reasons.

"This is just my opinion, but… fujoshi culture was something that was built on the respect for each individual's sense of values. So, you could say that if something doesn't mesh well with my values, then I would quickly abandon it and distance myself from it. It's probably not a feeling that Namikaze Senpai can understand, but even if we're talking about a close friend, if their values aren't compatible with mine, they are my enemies."

I don't understand. I don't understand even a bit.

"So, when you say 'values aren't compatible,' what exactly do you mean?"

"An easy example would be the question of who's a seme and who's a uke."

"I understand even less now!"

"Huh? Namikaze Senpai… don't tell me that you don't understand BL terminology…?"

"Don't ask me that as if you're shocked! I never had the least bit of interest in BL!"

"Ahh… hmm, well then, this might be a bit difficult for you to understand. Umm, well, the fujoshi culture is really an exclusionist culture… or rather, I should say that there are a lot of fujoshi who will refuse to participate in anything that isn't compatible with their opinions. 'One fujoshi's moe is another fujoshi's dismay.' 'Well, let's make sure to put ourselves into different groups then.' … something like that. Whether or not it can actually be done is one thing, but I think that way too. Even if it's another fujoshi, there are just things we might not see eye to eye on, and I know that in times like that I can easily turn into a pure ball of rage. And I understand that it's not wise or appropriate to act that way."

I think I got what she meant. So, when she snapped at the welcoming party, that was why? "Pure ball of rage" was a perfect way to describe it. And that time, Kuroneko knew that fujoshi were like this, and used that to her advantage to trap Kae, didn't she? But most of all, Kae's explosive fit seemed to even surprise Kuroneko, although Kuroneko already knew what Fujoshi were like. What fujoshi were like, huh…? Fujoshi were restrained and self-hating.

"So, in other words… fujoshi culture is a culture of shame?"

"I guess you could put it like that."

It seemed that Kae wasn't fully happy with that. Granted, it wasn't like I should be expected to be able to get to the heart of it after only learning a bit about it.

"So, all those unrestrained fujoshi characters that just blab about their hobby everywhere, the ones that have been coming out of all mangas recently, those are just distorted misrepresentation of the male authors. Of course, that's a distortion that they use to make it more interesting, so it's not like there's anything wrong with that… it gives me mixed feelings. I just don't want people to read a work of fiction and suddenly decide that fujoshi must be like that."

Wait just a second. From that reasoning, aren't you also a distortion? Just from what I've heard from you, I get the feeling that you're a pretty extreme hentai even for a fujoshi…

"So, you're saying that you want people to understand fujoshi better?"

"I don't care if they do or not. I just want them to leave us alone."

I see. What a self-loathing way to think. Kae continued in a rather timid tone.

"I mean… I can't puff out my chest and confidently say that we're not hentai… but still, it's not it's a hobby that we can practice out in the open… however, we're aware of that. So real fujoshi are a bit more tactful, I think."

"I see."

I remember that she said something similar at the welcoming party too. That it's important to be tactful, that even though she tried to restrain and didn't like her own perversion, she couldn't do anything to stop herself from fantasizing. That whenever she got excited, she would accidentally expose herself. Would change into a complete hentai. All Kae's troubles were probably rooted somewhere around there. Even when she started giving me this lecture on fujoshi, she got a bit worked up about it. Well, this is probably a good spot to try to get back to the main topic. I mean, meeting here alone here is a pretty rare opportunity…

"Hey, you know…"

"What is it?"

"Do you get along well with your brother?"

"Huh? Not at all!"

"Really? But your brother really comes off as a siscon if you ask me…"

"That's exactly it! It's so gross!"

Hey hey, where have I seen that kind of attitude before?

"Come on, Kae. It's not good to talk badly about your brother, even as a joke."

"Namikaze Senpai is awfully eager to have my brother's back, isn't he…? (whisper) I-I see, so he really does love him…"

"I don't love him at all!" Even if you try to speak softly like that, I can hear you loud and clear! You're not trying to restrain yourself at all!

"But if I remember correctly, at the welcoming party, weren't you like 'Thanks, and sorry, Onii-chan. Good luck on your match,' or something like that?"

"Gyaahh! Please forget that!" She flushed beet red, and she gripped my collar.

Hahaha, I guess she really is different from my own sister, seeing how much of a brocon she is. She's sure not willing to admit it though. Well then, let's move on then.

"What do you think about this game competition you're submitting to?"

"What do I think… hmm, please keep this to yourself, but… I'm really looking forward to it."

"And why exactly? Aren't you pretty incompatible with Gokou?"

I saw a sparkle in Kae's eyes.

"I mean, it's a good chance, isn't it? If I win at the first presentation, then we'll be making my game under my guidance, right? It's an ideal opportunity for me to show off my true abilities, and if we can make a good game and win a prize at the competition…"

"Yeah, if?"

"Then Gokou-san would also gain some self-confidence, wouldn't she? 'Ahh… even though I'm like this, if I do what Serinuma-sama says, then I can live in harmony with those around me, and can create something good… thank you, I love you, you made all this possible~~' … something like that, right?"

Kae's shoulders shook as she laughed. What a pushy woman… this dimwit is seriously screwed in the head. There's no way it was going to go that well. I thought Kae was a motivated person with a lot of leadership potential, but at her core she's seriously just a brat. But, I mean, she's still definitely not a bad person.

Ah, right, now that I think of it, Kae was trying to reform Kuroneko, wasn't she? Kuroneko and Kae. To be honest, their compatibility with each other wasn't really that bad. After all, they had similar hobbies, they liked similar anime, and as far as conversation went, they meshed well with each other… at least, more than Kuroneko meshed with Naruko. And after Kae's secret was exposed at the welcoming party, they should have been able to get closer to each other. All they needed was another push, I think. It would be nice if they could get along better during the gaming competition though.

"In any case, Senpai is probably on Gokou-san's side through all this. Just know that I won't go down that easily."

"You sure seem pretty confident."

"Naturally!"

Haha. How Kae was acting right now was probably the very definition of "bubbling with excitement." Just seeing her like this was enough to get me excited as well. Considering how our first face-to-face meeting went, I had honestly thought that I wasn't good at dealing with her, but… hey, she's a pretty good girl, isn't she?

(◕ω◕✿)

Both Kae and I headed for the register. On the way, my attention was suddenly drawn to a hardcover lying face-up on display in the new releases section. The title was "My Wing 2." It was the sequel to the novel "My Wing" that my sister, Naruko, had written.

So this is already out? I couldn't keep myself from sighing. Thinking of My Wing made me think of that time my sister made me go out with her to collect data for her cell phone novel. I went with her on Christmas to Shibuya… and that was quite a hell of an experience…

"What's wrong, Senpai? Ah, that book… the sequel came out, didn't it…"

"You know this book?"

"I despise that book."

For a second, I wanted to respond 'Who the hell do you think you're saying that to?' But then I remembered. There's no reason she would know that my sister was the author. I restrained the displeasure I was feeling in my heart from appearing on my face, and I asked her the obvious question.

"So, why do you hate it?"

"The protagonist's personality is just terrible… reading it just touches every single nerve in my body. There are definitely people who think differently, but, I honestly can't see what could possibly be interesting about this book."

"I-I see."

After all, the main character was modeled after Naruko, right? So I can somewhat relate to her feelings.

"But it sure does sell well, this book."

"Does it?"

"Yeah. I have no idea why, but there are a lot of people who like this book… but more than anything, it's because they're really good at advertising."

Kae picked up a copy of "My Wing 2" from the display shelf, and showed it to me while pointing at the obi of the book.

"The second shot of a true love story, written by a girl still in junior high school… well, I don't know if it's true or not, but it seems that a junior high school girl wrote this book."

No, that's definitely true.

"On the internet and on television, the ads that played up the idea that Ruko Sensei is still in junior high school are pretty cleverly made. She never shows her face, but photos of her in her school uniform have been published, she's done interviews, and before the book was released they put the full text of the book online so that people would talk about it and spread it by word of mouth… and there were a lot of other things like that. It's not just because I read it and thought it wasn't interesting, but from an objective point of view, the reason this book became a hit wasn't just because of the ability of its author… Namikaze Senpai?

"Hm?"

"What's wrong? You look completely dazed…"

"It's nothing."

I was just sinking deeper and deeper into this pile of emotions… that idiot of sister… she hasn't contacted us even once, even though all her friends are worried about her… they say that no news is good news, but there was still a limit to that. Ugh… geez… what in the world is that girl doing these days…?

Beep beep beep beep beep!

"She's calling!?"

"Hyah?! W-What was that all of a sudden? Don't just shout out like that please!"

Ignoring Kae's protests, I rushed for my cell phone and checked the caller ID. The name that was displayed on the screen was…

"I'm sorry for calling you out like this."

"I don't mind. I actually had something I wanted to ask you too."

The person who had called me was not Naruko, but was rather Nanako Kuroi aka Fate-chan. She was a slender woman with long blond hair. I had faced this person before during a plagiarism incident involving Naruko's cell phone novel.

In the end, that issue was resolved without major problem, and Kuroi-san never was turned into the police. After I got the call from Kuroi-san, I parted with Kae, and had just now arrived at the café where she was waiting for me.

"Where did you get my number?"

"Naruko-chan told me some time ago."

Naruko, huh…? Exactly what kind of conversation were they having such that my phone number came up? I couldn't even imagine it. Hmm, also… in a sense, this person was to blame for Naruko going overseas. After all, if this person hadn't locked her eyes onto Naruko, then Naruko wouldn't have been able to save up the money she needed to go overseas.

It's not like it matters. Even if that weren't true, this is still not someone I wanted to meet. I sat myself down across from her, and she began the conversation.

"Can I call you Namikaze-kun? Or do you prefer Naruto-kun?"

"I don't mind either way, Fa-I mean Kuroi-san"

Whoops. If I called her Fate-chan, she would probably get angry. But unlike before, she didn't get angry, but just gave me a casual sigh and a bitter smile in response.

"It's fine, whatever. Just call me whatever you want."

"Umm, you said that you had something you wanted to talk to me about…"

But she seriously seemed completely different. I couldn't really put it into words, but she just seemed a lot less irritable and much more softer than she was before. I also felt I could hear a bit of difference in her tone while she talked…

"Yeah. Let's talk about that over a meal. Of course, today is my treat. Alright, Naruto-kun. Just order whatever you want."

"Thanks, Umm… Kuroi-san. How have you been?"

"Lately? Hmm, well… my savings are running out, and I'm getting pretty panicked about it."

"That sounds horrible!"

"It's not like I'm proud of it, but yeah, it is really terrible. I'm living alone, I have no family I can depend on, and I got fired from my temp job last year. I thought it was my last chance, so I spent all the rest of my money writing novels and didn't even try to look for a job… it's even hard for me to get a good meal. Even for this meal, I really have no choice but to use revolving credit on an ACOM Mastercard."

This wasn't something to laugh about. This was not funny in the slightest. Life as a wannabe was pretty tough.

Kuroi-san puffed out her rather modest chest, and for some reason seemed proud.

"To be honest, my annual income is 530,000 yen."

"That's not something to be happy about!"

It seemed that Kuroi-san had been laid off and now was struggling with poverty. You couldn't even counter her as a member of the working poor anymore. It was a surprising state of affairs.

I pushed the button on the table and called the waitress over.

"No, please let me pay! Just eat something! It's unthinkable for you to treat me!"

"R-Really? Hm, sorry… this almost feels like begging…"

No, you definitely were begging! Begging almost to the point of threatening, you were! Do you really think I could let you pay after you told me a story like that!? We gave our orders to the waitress who came over, and restarted our conversation.

"I'm really sorry."

"It's fine, really. So? What did you want to talk about?"

"That little sister of yours… or rather, she was pretending to be your little sister that time."

"You mean Kuroneko?"

"Yeah, her."

I see. So she already knows that Kuroneko and I aren't really brother and sister.

"I really wanted to give her my thanks."

"Your thanks?"

"Yes, my thanks. Not my apologies, but my thanks. I've already said it to Naruko-chan directly, but… I still haven't told that girl."

I kept silent and waited for her to continue.

"I thought about what that girl said to me back then. They were naïve, painful… and incredibly nostalgic. How should I put it… it really was liberating, in a lot of ways."

"A lot of ways, huh?"

"Yeah, a lot of ways."

Kuroi-san gave me a smile. She didn't seem to plan on going into any particulars of what she meant… but her expression was bright, almost as if she had gotten rid of her personal demons. So, lured by her expression, I gave her a smile in return.

"I'll give you her contact information. You should tell her directly instead of going through me."

"That's true… yeah, I'll do that." She shut her eyes and nodded.

Her actions gave her an air of maturity appropriate for her age, and I felt my heart unconsciously speeding up a little.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah, nothing…"

Ooh, that was really close. We sat in silence for a bit, after which Kuroi-san changed the topic.

"You know, I heard that your sister… Naruko-chan, I heard that she went overseas."

"How exactly did you know that?"

"To tell you the truth, Naruko really pushed for me to be on the editorial staff for 'My Wing' and 'My Wing 2.' So I really had a lot of opportunities to talk with her. And one day, that girl just suddenly announced that she was going overseas, and it really surprised me."

"Naruko really pushed for that?"

I didn't know what was going on. This person was the person who tried to plagiarize Naruko's cell phone novel, right? So why would Naruko let this person on her editorial staff?

"I couldn't believe it either. But Naruko-chan said, 'I was able to write this because of Kuroi-chan's advice. So I want to work with her to the very end in order to give something really good to the readers. Also, I really don't want to have meetings with Kumagai-san alone.' I thought it was really sweet of her."

No. Naruko is not sweet at all. Especially when it came to her work. She would let her passion carry her away, and I couldn't see her letting someone onto her team that she didn't think would be useful.

So, I'm sure that she honestly believed that she needed Kuroi-san's abilities to make a better novel, and that Kuroi-san honestly had that kind of talent. Perhaps Naruko had decided not to press charges against Kuroi-san also because she wanted to write a better novel. After all, the person who had originally lured Naruko in and had worked on making My Wing the big hit that it ultimately became was Kuroi-san. Even though she herself didn't have the ability to write good novels, that didn't change anything. And in fact, I was sitting here because I also wanted to borrow that strength.

"Under strong encouragement from Kumagai-san, I'm going to be taking the mid-career recruitment exam for the Dengeki Books Editorial Department."

"Ahh."

"I really don't know how well that would work. I mean, considering I did what I did… and I doubt any novelist would want a failed wannabe as an editor… and I really don't think I'm suited for an editor's position."

Bit by bit, Kuroi-san let out her true feelings.

"But… I guess… at this rate, I'm just going to starve to death…"

Even then, in the end she forced a smile onto her face.

"So I plan to do everything I can. To find something I can do and then to do it."

I was seriously impressed by how cool mature, working adults could be.

"Ah, right, Naruto-kun. Did you say you had something you wanted to ask me?"

"Ah, right right. To tell you the truth, I'm making a game for a school club right now…" I then began explain my reason to Kuroi-san.

"And so, I really want those two first-years to get along. And, I think if they make a game together, and they can win a prize in the contest, then it would be a good experience and even a good opportunity for them to open up to each other."

It was basically the same thing that Kae had suggested before. I honestly thought she was an idiot after I heard her talk about that, but after thinking about it long and heard, I saw that it did make some sense. Combining your strengths and facing a challenge was a good way to deepen the bonds between people. And if they could then emerge victorious from that challenge, it would be even more effective. So…

"I really want to do whatever I can to help them place in the contest."

This person had experience producing real hits and real results, to the point where even Naruko acknowledged her abilities. Novels and games were different fields, but she might be able to offer me some insider tips.

"If that's what you want, then I guess there are a few things I can tell you."

"Really!?"

"P-Please don't get your hopes up too much… I'm really not that familiar with games. Umm, I really don't think I would be able to tell you anything that wasn't already obvious."

"I don't mind at all. Please continue."

"I see. Well then… how about you try and be a bit more careful of what genre you're going to submit to the contest?"

"Genre?!"

"Y-Yeah, I mean, this 'Chaos Create' contest… they judge games by genre and give awards by genre, right? So, depending on what genre of game you submit, how difficult it is to win a prize might increase or decrease. So how about you go through the past prizewinner data from this contest carefully, and figure out both what genres have the highest chance of winning prizes, and whether there are any trends you can see in the popular games?"

"I see… I understand! I definitely remember that the 'Chaos Create' site had that kind of past data, so I'll try and do a bit of research!"

That was a good idea. Fufu, I can feel myself getting pretty fired up.

"I-I see. So I hope I was a bit useful then?"

"Of course. I'll bring it up in club tomorrow. So, in other words, it's like this: We have to be careful about what genre of game we make…"

(◕ω◕✿)

"Let's make an eroge!"

The next day at club meeting, I wasted no time in announcing that marvelous idea.

"Huh!? W-Wait just a second! Namikaze Senpai, are you insane!? Don't just start spitting out wild delusions!"

Kae's reaction was frantic. I sent a calm glance at Kae as she stood there and steamed.

"Hey, don't get so upset. Please allow me to explain."

"I honestly can't see how anything you could say would change my mind here though…"

"Just listen. This contest that we're submitting to, this 'Chaos Create,' works by choosing winning games from each game genre, like RPG or STG. And of course, there are genres with more submissions and genres with fewer submissions. So the popular genres would be harder to win, while the unpopular genres would be easier."

"I see. So it's like how in the Olympics, you could say that the minor sports are easier to win a gold medal for."

"It's more like wannabes going out of their way to aim for the easy amateur competitions."

"That's a bad comparison!"

Really? But I was just repeating exactly what Kuroi-san had told me.

"Anyways, there's no mistake that there are different probabilities for winning different genres, so naturally, we arrive at the genre we should aim for."

"Yeah. So? Y-You mean, that is… so the genre we should aim for is…"

"Yes! The 18+ Adult Game genre!"

Swish. I put on a cool smile and thrust my finger at Kae's face. My internal switch had already been flipped and I was in my super-excited mode. Kae clanged up out of her seat, and thrust her finger at my face in return.

"Even so, how in the world did it get to the point where we should be making eroge in club!? Senpai, you're really more of an idiot than I thought!"

"Eh? But the idea makes perfect sense, doesn't it!?"

"Hey, how can you stand there looking so sure of yourself? Someone please say something to him!"

Kae turned around and looked for some support. But the club president just stood there with a full smile on his face.

"Well done, comrade! I never thought about it like that!"

"This one's insane too! I-Is everyone in this club a hentai!?"

Wait, no, however you think about it, you're the biggest pervert here. I was about to say that, but then I realized… when she said that, she had completely naturally counted herself too…!

"Shion Senpai! Shion Senpai understands, right!? You understand what the problem is here, right…!?" Kae took Nanashima-kun by both shoulders and began to shake him back and forth Nanashima-kun looked at a bit of a loss.

"A-Ahh, yeah, sure…"

"Hey, come on, can you idiots hear me!? I'm trying to talk reason right now! C-C-Come on, Shion Senpai, tell them!"

"Well, about Namikaze's idea, I understand why he's saying that we should aim for the 18+ genre, and that there would be little harm in transitioning to that genre. Whether it's Gokou's game or Serinuma's game, if you just add an H-scene to them, then they become 18+, so you could still use the games you've already been making."

He paused for one beat.

"But either way, that means we would be getting girls to write H-scenes, wouldn't it?"

"Ah, yeah we would be." I agreed nonchalantly.

"Hentai! Hentai! Hentai!" Kae hurled criticism at me with her face completely red.

"C-Calm down."

"Do you really think I could calm down here!? Y-You're trying to get your kicks by shaming Kouhai girls! It's sexual harassment! No, it's a sexual power play!"

"Don't be so outrageous! It's not sexual harassment at all. F-For example, if I told you to write H-scenes and include the guys you know, then you'd write them happily, wouldn't you?"

"I would write them with all my hea — n-no, that's not it! W-What are you making me say!?" She was sure easy to trap like that.

"A-Anyways, enough about me! Alright?!" Kae turned to Kuroneko, who was sitting next to her.

"Also, Gokou-san must not like this either, right!? So please talk to this sexual harasser! Tell him you'll curse him to death, in the way you usually say it or something!"

I gradually came back down to earth as I watched how seriously Kae was flipping out. I really thought this idea would have worked.

Hmm… was it really impossible…? However, Kuroneko, who had been completely silent up to that point, took a position that far differed from what Kae and I were expecting.

"If Senpai tells us to do it that way…"

Huh? Was it really ok? I really had thought that she would respond like Kae said and would threaten to curse me to death…

Kuroneko's eyes watered and she blushed red right down to her ears. She began to mutter while deliberately avoiding my gaze.

"The game I'm making now, it wouldn't take too much to add that in… so I can do it if you want."

"G-Gokou-san… are you serious?"

"If all it takes to increase our chances… is to add on a scene…"

Kae was a bit taken aback at Kuroneko, who was clearly embarrassed but was being very prudent.

"I-I guess that's true, but…"

"It's just, I've never drawn a scene like that with boys in it… so unless I try to do it, I won't know if I can or not."

I see. Now that I think about it, all the H-scenes that Kuroneko has drawn have only had girls in them. She probably had the motivation but not the confidence. So I spoke as responded as sincerely as I could.

"If that's the case… then I'll help you as much as I can too."

"Eh? Help with…" Kuroneko suddenly stopped midsentence and stood up, banging her hands on the table.

"K-Know your place, you idiot… w-w-why do you think someone like me… would lower myself to such… to such shameless human customs…?"

"What kind of crazy misunderstanding are you having right now!? I didn't mean it like that!"

I just meant that I would read the H-scenes that you write, and give you my impressions as a male erogamer! This is definitely not some ero doujin, with a guy saying "fuhihi, well I'll give you some material to draw" or something!

Kuroneko stood there with her eyes closed tight and her fists clenched, obviously in a sour mood.

"I absolutely refuse. That's not going to happen."

And then, right next to me, Kae was waiting to launch another lecture.

"From now on, I'm going to call you sexual harassment Senpai, alright?"

Her icy cold smile struck me right through the chest.

(◕ω◕✿)

One week later…

This the day when Kae and Kuroneko were supposed to present their games

"Hey, you first years. I'm making an entry into the contest this time too, so prepare yourself!"

It was after school. We were just about to begin the presentation session when the club president said that.

"And of course you're causing trouble once again…"

Nanashima-kun sighed. Next, Kae asked a question with a somewhat puzzled expression.

"The president is also entering the contest? But separately by himself?"

"Yes. Hmph, we'll be sparring partners through it all, so come at me with all you've got."

Well, considering it was the president we were talking about, while he was busy motivating the first-years, he probably started wanting to participate himself. Nanashima-kun looked at the president with half-lidded eyes.

"If you don't do the same genres though, you can't directly compete with each other, you know. So… what kind of game are you planning to enter into the contest?"

"Megidoraon II. The sequel to the game I was using for a club entry test."

"Well, there's no way that's not going to be a shit game."

"W-We won't know until I make it, right!?"

"Not really. From the beginning of time, there's no example of a game that was a shit game but had a sequel that wasn't."

"What do you mean!? I could improve like they did with Dragon Quest 2!"

"I would bet that it's going to improve more like Cheetah Man 2."

"Why are your insults so harsh!? And why the hell are they all references that can only be understood by the idiots who go on Nico Nico Douga!? Dammit! Someone say something to this guy!"

The president was dripping with sweat and looked around him, but there were no club members who came to his aid.

"Aaah… that's way too cruel! What the hell did I do to deserve this!? Alright, fine! I have other games I've been making too! So I just have to design it better and that'll be fine, right!?"

Nah, probably not. That wasn't exactly the problem that Nanashima-kun was trying to point out…

"President, I want you to imagine in your head the ideal, most fantastic game you could possibly imagine."

"Hm? Ah, like this…?"

"I can tell you that's already a shit game."

"Wha!? Y-You…! Wha… what are you saying…"

Nanashima-kun was just merciless! He just cut him down right there!

"Anyways. It's fine and all if you want to enter the contest too, but just don't get in their way."

"Tch, you have no faith. Well, whatever. Let's start the presentations."

The president said that, and Kae stood up first.

"Let's go from my plan first then. Everyone, please direct your attention to this screen over here." She spoke with a nice and clear voice.

Kae started up a projector that she seemed to have prepared in advance, and her game materials showed up on the white screen. Each time she clicked the mouse, the slide show went through screens filled with things like rough character illustrations, story summaries, and explanations of her game's concept.

The two chubby club members clapped their hands and whistled. They seemed to have completely converted to being Kae's fans already. Although, Kae seemed to be the most uncomfortable with this and she frowned. Those two were probably going to vote for Kae… it was a bit of an unfavorable set of circumstances for Kuroneko.

Well then, onto Kae's game… I wasn't happy about the fact that every single one of her characters was male, but it seemed like a medieval fantasy RPG. The club president widened his eyes a bit.

"You… you can draw?"

"I'm pretty terrible at it though. But I thought putting illustrations in would make it a bit easier to understand."

She seemed pretty great at it to me. Like Kuroneko, this girl also seemed to be pretty multitalented. These gaming company hopefuls were really quite something.

Kae began to boldly explain her game, brimming with confidence, "Well… the game I want to make is a dungeon crawler RPG!"

"So… like Wizardry or Etrian Odyssey?"

Nanashima-kun asked that question. Kae gave him a smile, and responded cheerfully.

"Yes! Compared to Dragon Quest or FF, Wiz really enjoys a deep-seated popularity with gamers even though it hasn't changed much from the original. And if you ask me, that's because there is still a lot of the primitive, original appeal of RPGs packed into Wiz."

Kae placed one hand on the table and leaned forwards, raising up one finger on her other hand for emphasis.

"That is, character creation, role playing, and searching for loot… those are things that are even a part of why MO and MMO games are so fun… for example, Monster Hunter applies those ideas well and is a big success."

"Nobody cares about your theories on RPGs. Just tell us how exactly you plan to incorporate that 'primitive appeal' into your game."

Kuroneko butted in with an insulting tone. But Kae just puffed out her chest, as if saying "Glad you asked!" Hm, her breasts sure are big.

"Indeed. Well then, allow me to reveal the concept of this game."

Kae clicked the mouse, and the image being projected onto the screen changed.

"The game I want to make will be an RPG that specializes in game balance and pacing. Lately, the big RPGs have so many high-budget movies and huge world maps that it's impossible to compete with those in those ways no matter how hard we try. But if we pay attention to the things that modern RPGs are beginning to lose, then we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. If I can optimize the game balance parameters, like the strength of the enemies, the encounter rate, the item drops, the enemy movement patterns, the experience points you get, the strength of magic attacks, the cost of inns, the ease of getting equipment or healing items… then we can bring out the thrill of barely making it past battles, the happiness of getting your hands on a new piece of equipment, the feeling of accomplishment and improvement you get when you put that new piece of equipment on… ultimately, the most important thing is that the player feels like he or she is part of the adventure. And I'll build everything in the game in order to allow the players to experience that joy."

"Along those lines, it's true that Etrian Odyssey was able to put that kind of idea into practice and make a pretty good RPG for the cell phone, even though the cell phone has far lower capabilities than console machines."

"Indeed! Of course, that's not enough for a game to catch on, so I'm going to use a modern-styled story and light illustrations as hooks. It just wouldn't do to forget that the game has to give a good first impression so people will actually pick it up and play it."

Hmm, I didn't understand too much of what she was talking about, but she definitely seemed to have thought everything through. At that moment, Nanashima-kun spoke up.

"I understand where you're coming from when you say that an RPG that focuses on game balance could be fun. But, aren't you limited by how much time you have to make this? The more carefully you want to make the game, the more time you have to put into it."

"No, that's not a problem, Shion Senpai. If we're making a dungeon-crawler RPG, we only need one town map, and we also don't need a world map. And although it would be better if we included them, it's not entirely necessary to have graphics of the different weapons and armor either. Just think about the original Wiz game. Even that was more than enough… rather, it was really good, don't you think? I also said that we would use some modern-style light drawings, but if we're smart about it we won't have to draw that many. Taking this to an extreme, we could honestly make a good RPG without any graphics at all, and only rely on text and the programming. And what's more, if we do it like that and cut out a bunch of things, then the tempo of the game goes up as well. And isn't a game that just goes at a smooth pace like that stress-free and nice?"

"You say that, but… getting the game balance to be that good is easier said than done, you know?"

The president voiced his concerns. But Kae just gave back a bold smile and pointed at herself with her thumb.

"Fufufu, not to brag, but I'm really good at dealing with finicky things like game balance. I'm confident that I can work the game balance better than the staff at major game companies."

"Well that's a pretty bold statement… you sure have a lot of confidence in yourself."

"You may have your doubts still, but let me hand out a trial version of the game alongside some production materials. You should make a judgment after seeing those. All the graphics are still pretty shoddy since I was the one who drew them, and the dungeons have not been designed past 5F, but it's definitely a good game. Also, let me just emphasize that there are no bugs. So, I mean, if I can get this far by myself, then I really don't think there's much of a reason for Shion Senpai to be worrying about time constraints."

"Hmm." The president cocked his head to the side and grabbed his chin.

"It's not bad at all. What do you guys think?"

He opened it up to the rest of the club. The first person to respond was Nanashima-kun.

"It looks pretty good. You know, back in elementary school, during lunch breaks, I had the habit of drawing grids in my notebook and using my pencil as a die. So I can see where Serinuma is coming from."

"A self-made TRPG, huh? Yeah, definitely, I've done that too."

Now that they mention it, I've played like that before as well. I had friends who created their own games in their notebooks. They would come up with really ridiculous setups and roll dice… we would chat while adding and subtracting from our health bars with a pencil and eraser. If you talk about the primitive appeal of role playing, you were probably referring to something like that.

"Fufu, I guess we've already pretty much decided to go with my plan then." Kae smiled bashfully.

Just like Kae said, there were murmurs of approval here and there about her plan. It was to the point where the contest almost felt decided already.

"So Gokou's presentation is next."

Nanashima-kun turned the topic to Kuroneko. But even though she probably heard him, Kuroneko didn't respond whatsoever and just continued to sit there.

"Hey, it's your turn."

"I-I know."

It seemed that she really was nervous. She was rigid, like that time we had gone to that publishing house. Kuroneko stood up stiffly, almost seeming like a marionette.

"W-Well then… umm… I'll show you my plan now… please make room around the projector."

"Alrighty, please do your best."

Kuroneko brushed Kae aside, seeming irritated, and put up her production materials up on the whiteboard. She also took out a thick stack of production materials from her bag, and began to distribute them around.

"What's up with this thick stack of papers…?"

"They're obviously production materials."

As I thought. Even when it came to making games, this girl's habits didn't change much at all. Compared to the materials that Kae had handed out earlier, these must've been five times as thick. Kuroneko made sure that everyone had a copy of her materials, and began to mumble softly.

"I want to make a visual novel."

"Wow, that's a fairly orthodox genre."

The president made a rather safe response. On the other hand, Nanashima-kun seemed concerned about the time constraints like he did before.

"Have you thought about how long you want it to be?"

"I was thinking that the game would take around five hours, and there would be three routes."

"Three routes? Even if there's a common route, that's going to take quite a bit of work."

"That's pretty hard, I think. Wouldn't it be better to cut down on the amount of material?"

"I agree. We don't have that much time to make these, so we should make getting this game done our first priority, and in that case, I think it would be safer to make it a one-route game with no branches."

Kuroneko and Nanashima-kun's conversation was followed by a few other voices of dissent. Every time that happened, Kuroneko began to respond with a "Ahh, that is…" but ultimately couldn't say anything and just stayed silent. She looked back and forth between the people asking her questions and her production materials, and seemed to be attempting to make an appeal. But if she couldn't put that appeal into words, it wouldn't get across. She had completely shrunk back into herself. And she couldn't form words very properly. This was bad. This didn't feel like a presentation at all anymore.

Geez. Why was it that this girl could argue so fluently with Naruko like that, but at important moments like this couldn't do the same?

"Wait just a second." Seeing no other option, I tossed her a life raft.

"If it's about time restrictions, I'm sure we'll figure something out. Right?" I looked towards Kuroneko and urged her to respond, and she finally managed to form a proper sentence.

"Yes, I don't mind if I get a bigger portion of the workload."

"You may say that, but there is definitely a limit to how much just one person can do."

The president said that. He had created a couple games himself, so there was definitely persuasive force behind his words. But I knew. I knew how quickly Kuroneko could draw manga, and that she had even written a few novels, so when it came to pacing, there was no issue. That's why I puffed out my chest, almost like I was talking about myself.

"Just tell them. Tell them how quickly you can work."

"If we're talking about text, I can generally write 6 kilobytes every hour."

"Certainly, if that's true, then we won't have any issues with making the scenario."

When I saw how impressed Nanashima-kun seemed to look, I gathered that it was pretty amazing indeed. I continued with my line of reasoning.

"And according to my investigations, visual novels are pretty popular and separated pretty finely into different genres, so the number of entries gets pretty scattered between those genres. Because of that, this might be a genre to aim for if we submit something to Chaos Create. Picking Gokou's project would definitely be consistent with the plan to go for victory, don't you think?"

"And what exactly are you trying to do? Are you trying to back me up?"

"Don't be an idiot. I'm just giving my objective opinion."

I turned back to everyone else and clapped a hand on Kuroneko's shoulder.

"This girl can also draw manga. And what's more, she's really fast at it, and she draws really well."

"W-Why do you look so proud of that…?"

Well, you're not really giving a presentation here, so I have to do it in your place and look proud for you.

"Everything I've said is true."

"I'm really nothing special."

"Don't be so shy. You have to assert yourself more! You know, like you always do."

The president watched our verbal exchange, and grabbed his chin.

"And you definitely can write the script too?"

"Yeah."

"Hahaha, that's pretty amazing. I mean, if that's the case, you could probably make the entire thing yourself if you had the time." The president was in high spirits.

Kuroneko looked at the ground and spoke with a gloomy tone, "I've always studied games assuming I would be making them by myself… also, please don't make too much of me. Let me just make clear that just because I can in theory do everything from start to finish, that doesn't mean that I'm confident that I can do each and every part well."

"I already said it, didn't I? Games are made with teamwork. There's no way we would let you do everything yourself." The president flashed his teeth at Kuroneko and smiled.

"Exactly." I smiled at Kuroneko.

When she saw me do that, she moved her fingers around restlessly and quickly turned her back to me.

"Hmph."

"Well, from what I heard, it does seem we would be able to make it in time." Kae butted in. Her lips were thinned and she seemed sulky.

"But I wonder if this game would turn out to be any good. I mean, just look at this setup… it's not like I've read through all of it but… to be frank, it seems really one-sided."

"But with your proposed game as well, you had no female characters." Yup, that was incredibly one-sided.

"S-Shut up! We're not talking about my game right now! Also, who exactly would want to buy a game with such a gloomy, heavy setting? And there's so much specialized vocabulary that I just get so confused. I really think that the game would be better received if you did a lighter story to appease the lighter gamers."

"That's true." And in a quite unexpected turn of events… Kuroneko readily agreed.

"See? So if that's the case —"

"— But this is what I want to do."

Kuroneko upturned one corner of her lips. It was an incredibly wicked smile, one that fit her to a tee. I felt a chill go up my spine. I recognized this feeling. This was…

"You know, a certain friend of mine once read one of the novels I had written."

Yes, this was that.

"She told me that my novel was nothing more than self-serving masturbation."

"But isn't that quite good advice there? She just wanted you to think about your audience a bit more, right?"

"There was also another time. That same person turned to me and told me, 'you're really an idiot, but let me just tell you that the most important thing in making something is that the creator wants to do it and is having lots of fun doing it. If you can't even do that, then there's no way you can make something good. Hmph, don't you think that's the ideal all creators should strive for?'"

"Y-Your friend sure has a pretty obnoxious way of putting things."

My God. Who in the world was talking so big to my Kouhai like that?

"But in either case, what she said seems to be correct."

"Yes, exactly. Creators shouldn't forget about their audience, should find something they would have fun making, and that's the ideal that creators should strive for. It's so right it almost makes me want to vomit."

H-Hey. You…

"But that only applies for people who can make what they want to make and then find a way to sell that work with only small adjustments. What do you do if you make what you want, but then find that you've gone completely off track of what people want? If you sacrifice yourself to make what the players want, then you're just a suck-up, but if you make what you want, you're self-serving. And you will never be able to achieve that 'ideal' or whatever that you speak of."

"Well yes, I admit I don't really know how to answer that."

Good grief. But the one Kuroneko was talking to right now was probably not Kae. Rather, she was probably talking to the person on the other side who had once spat those words out at her.

"You know, I really, really hate those people who can just have fun like that and make things. I can't help resenting them and just getting frustrated. To the point where I just want to strangle them to death."

"That would be just a pointless crime…"

"So what?"

"So what, you say…"

"Hmph, it's not like I'm going to go out and seriously kill them… in fact, the things that those people make are really quite wonderful, and many people wait eagerly for them, myself included. It's not something you can handle so casually with just a pointless crime… however. Even then… don't you feel like you would like to teach those people a lesson? And I have the will-power to try and do just that."

Kuroneko gave a mysterious chuckle, looking like she was recalling an incredibly fun memory.

"I thought about it… thought about what I should do to beat those people down. How I could act to make them rue the day they looked down on me and kneel at my feet."

I've honestly never seen anyone as rebellious as this girl. But I wonder… why was it that even though her words were pretty pointless, when Kuroneko said them, she came off as pretty charming? I stifled a smile and asked my next question.

"Well? What was your conclusion?"

"There are two options we are left with. One is to get as close as we can to that ideal and come into constant conflict as we try to achieve balance. But the other… the other is to revolt."

"Revolt?"

"Yes. To revolt by not giving a damn about their so-called 'ideal.' If we do that, then there's no more conflict to have, right? Self-serving? Masturbatory? I could not care less. I'll just let the people who want to say that say it all they want. Meanwhile, I'll just do what I want, when I want it, and how I want it done. After all, to me, the doujin market is precisely the place for us to whip out works which are a hundred percent self-serving. If you think our masturbatory games are boring, then I'll just have show you some amazing masturbation!"

"What the hell are you running your mouth off about!?"

Kuroneko had been going on and on vigorously, but at my one sentence she suddenly returned back to her senses and flushed from ear to ear. But she summed it up thusly, "So that's the concept for the game I want to make. I'm fully aware that it sounds self-centered, so if you want to reject my proposal then please don't hesitate to." And then silence filled the room. A silence that was all the more suffocating for how long Kuroneko had continued to talk.

"Alright! You two, good presentations. Nice work!"

"President, should we start the vote?"

At Nanashima-kun's question, the president put up three fingers.

"Nah, let's do it thirty minutes later. These two went through a lot of work to prepare these presentations, so let's take a quick look at their production materials and game samples before we make a decision."

"That's true. Well then, we'll take a vote in thirty minutes."

Now, everyone was going to take a look at Kuroneko and Kae's presentation materials, but just as before, Kuroneko's outlook was bleak. After all, Kuroneko's materials were as thick as always and incredibly difficult to read. Kae's materials even included a sample game, and just seemed like the real deal. This really was hopeless…

(◕ω◕✿)

Thirty minutes later… it had finally become the time to choose whether we would be going with Kae or Kuroneko's plan.

The president looked around at everyone and raised his voice, "Well, first off… those who think that Serinuma's plan is the best, please raise your hands."

"…"

"…"

"…"

Nobody. Even the two chubby guys who seemed like big fans of Kae didn't raise their hands.

"Wha…"

As expected, Kae was completely lost for words. She had stood up with a clatter, but couldn't seem to grasp the situation and just stood there stock still.

"Well, next, those who think Gokou's plan is the best, please raise your hands."

This time, everyone raised their hands. Me, the president, Nanashima-kun, and the two chubby guys… five votes in total.

"Well then, the game that the first years will make together will be Gokou's game."

Bang!

"Wait just a second! What in the world is the meaning of this!?"

Kae had finally shaken off her paralysis, and banged on the table. The president awkwardly scratched his cheek.

"Well, it's just what it looks like."

"B-But this is crazy! That is… I mean… I was pretty moved by Gokou-san's presentation too, you know? I was pretty moved, but… zero votes… was my plan really that much worse than Gokou-san's!?"

Kae was raging, and I could almost see the steam coming out her ears. Considering how recklessly confident she was in herself, it was no wonder she was so unwilling to accept this outcome. She hadn't realized the fatal flaw in her plan.

Kuroneko stayed silent with her eyes closed, relishing Kae's stare. And then… everyone, including me, turned to the president with expectant looks. The president realized who everyone was staring at, and pointed at himself, almost as if asking "W-Wait! I have to say it?" And in response, everyone nodded in unison, giving him the go-ahead. The president groaned painfully, and spoke to Kae in a sincere tone.

"… Umm, well you know, Serinuma… your presentation was also really good."

"Enough with the flattery."

"It's not flattery. When you finished your presentation, I honestly wanted to make that game. I thought that even if you lost the vote, I really wanted to see that game finished anyways. To be frank, if we took the vote thirty minutes ago, I was pretty sure you were going to win."

I agreed. Kuroneko's presentation had some real spirit behind it… but like the person herself had said, there was quite a bit of selfishness in it. On the other hand, although I don't claim to be an expert, Kae's presentation seemed really organized, and I couldn't find any real flaws. She really made her plan sound interesting. But even then, everyone ended up supporting Kuroneko's plan. Why was that?

"Are you telling me that those thirty minutes were enough to change your mind…? Was there something wrong with the samples and the materials I handed out? That can't be true. I spent so much time revising and perfecting them that I was sure that they were perfect…"

"I see. So you don't understand? Well, I guess I have no other choice then. Let me show you exactly what was wrong."

The president put a laptop on the desk and revived it from standby mode. One scene from Kae's sample game was on the screen. It was one of the "minimum required scenes" that Kae had been talking about. The president spun the screen around so Kae could see it, and spoke in a gentle voice.

"For example… Kae-chan… what exactly is the meaning of this scene?"

"Huh? I mean… it's an event where the characters are at a regenerative hot spring having orgy"

Kae said that in the most casual, natural tone in the world. Of course, at this party, everyone was male.

"Don't you think this place here where the monk is doing **** with ****** to the warrior's ass is amazing!? And look at this one! This samurai and necromancer are in a really private really moe situation! I mean, relationships between openhearted warrior characters and really weak-seeming pretty boys are just irresistible, and just take a look at this! There's even a **** on the Masamune blade! I was really looking forward to getting Gokou-san to do drawings of these too!"

"Hentai! Hentai! Hentai!"

Just like a certain someone had screamed at me before, I screamed at Kae, my face red.

"You little…! You call other people hentai and sexual harassment senpai and tell them off…! You say you're using contemporary light illustrations and stories? What wild delusions are you under to be able to say that!? You're way past going off the deep end… you've gone right to the bottom of a canyon! The game you want to make isn't an RPG at all! It's a complete homo game!"

"What are you saying, Namikaze Senpai? The game I want to make is a complete homo RPG."

"What the hell is the difference!?"

"Nooo, they're compleeeetely different! By the way, the main characters of this game was based on you Senpai!"

"I thought so!"

"Ehehe."

Why do you look so proud of yourself!?

Pant… pant… pant… pant… I couldn't breathe, probably since I had yelled that out without taking a breath. I was damn near tears when I spat that out, you know.

"I-I'm going to call you sexual harassment Kouhai from now on, got it?!"

This is by far the first time in my life where I have been so disgusted with a girl. This girl probably couldn't make normal judgments anymore once she got excited and flipped her switch. In that respect, she reminded me of myself. But seriously, how could she make the entire game and not come to her senses!?

"Y-Y-You… you're trying to sexually embarass your male senpai, aren't you!? No matter how good it's made, do you honestly think you could get me to make such an unpleasant game!?"

"Are you… calling my work of art unpleasant!?"

She said something that reminded me of myself in the past… I honestly just wanted to crawl up into the fetal position.

I suddenly understood what Ayase must have felt back then. This was impossible. Just physiologically impossible. Just seeing guys intertwined like that with each other made me want to vomit, but learning that the protagonist was based on me made it even worse. And then, she made every character incredibly tall and slender. I mean, seriously, that character that was based on the president looked nothing like him except for the glasses.

"Sorry, but that's exactly it. So don't be surprised that your plan didn't get a single male vote. Sorry about that, but just give up."

"Dam… mit… ugh…"

Kae got a bit choked up as tears rose to her eyes. Even though she had come to us with this kind of a game, she was pretty confident about it. So this all was probably pretty frustrating.

"So… you're telling me… that we're rejecting my idea… and that I should make Gokou-san's selfish idea together with her? Is that what you're saying?"

Seeing Kae looking so pitiful, I couldn't bring myself to pile on any more criticism. The president spoke in my place.

"Exactly. Go with Gokou's idea and bring the project to completion. President's order."

Kae clenched and ground her teeth together. The president looked unusually serious, and gave Kae a stern look.

"If you don't want to do it, then you don't have to come to club anymore, you know? So what are you going to do?"

"I…"

"Huh?"

"I'M GOING TO TELL MY BROTHER ON YOU!"

By the time the ringing in my ears had subsided from that exclamation, Kae had already ran out of the room. That girl… she pretended to be calm and collected, but when she got worked up she was seriously a complete child. Nanashima-kun got up to chase after her, but the president stopped him.

"Just let her go, Nana-chan. Making games is a team effort. But despite that, she broke the club's rules and ran off. She probably knows better than anyone that she's being unreasonable and selfish. But even then, she can't accept what just happened, and was just too annoyed to continue talking civilly. That's probably why she ran off."

Kae also had things that Kae wanted to make. In that regard, she was every bit as passionate as Kuroneko. So there was no reason she would bend and compromise so easily.

"Are you sure, president?"

"Hmph, I have great hopes in that girl, after all. She'll come back, and she'll have grown up so much that you won't even be able to recognize her anymore…"

This guy sure liked to try to sound cool in the most desperate of situations. At that point, after having just sat there silently all this while watching the course of events, Kuroneko finally spoke up.

"She already ran off, so there's no point in thinking too much about it. I'll just do the game alone. All I have to do is finish the game and win a prize in the contest, right?"

No, that's not alright at all. Didn't the president already tell you that making games is a team effort? If you don't make it in a team, there's no point. But there was no reason for me to say that out loud. Because… because Kuroneko already looked very unhappy about this situation.

After that day, Kae stopped coming to club. I had tried to convince her to change her mind, but she told me that she wasn't going to come anymore. I'm sure that her reason for stopping wasn't just because her presentation lost.

Sometimes I almost forget… but that girl was incredibly ashamed of being a fujoshi, and tried to hide it. And then she exposed that to all the people in the club. What's more, she exposed herself while looking really proud of it. And once she came back to her right mind, she probably wanted to die. So it was understandably hard for her to come into club and act like nothing happened.

I even went to her older brother, Takurou, to ask for advice, but he seemed to be in a sour mood and wouldn't tell me much. So this hopeless state of affairs continued. My plan to make friends for Kuroneko seemed to have come to a standstill, but… in the end, I had to do what I could. There was no way I could just quit making this game in the middle.

A few days later, in an unusual turn of events, I went back to my house alone with Kuroneko. She want come to my house to work on the game together.

"Sorry to intrude…"

The uniform-clad Kuroneko took her shoes off in the entranceway and overly carefully arranged them on the floor. It was what she always did, but for some reason her movements seemed strangely slow today. When she was finished arranging her shoes, she turned towards the hallway and her eyes began to wander around the room, as if she was looking for hints of others.

"Ah, nobody's here but us."

"Yes. We're here, just the two of us…"

She blinked a few times, and then tightly gripped her upper arm. She showed no signs of wanting to move from the entranceway. She was acting suspiciously. I spoke up while scratching my cheek.

"Why do you look so nervous?"

"I-I'm not nervous."

No, you're definitely nervous. You've also been to this house so many times I've lost count already, so I really don't see why there's a reason to be nervous. Ah, although, that's not quite true. The situation right now was different than the situation up until now. It's only been quite recently that she's started coming to my house not as Naruko's friend, but as mine, and also… now that I think about it, this was probably the first time we've been in my house alone.

There was absolutely nobody else in this house right now. Ah, I see I see. I usually don't pay attention to it that much, but in the end she was still a girl, wasn't she? Well then, at times like these, I had to step up and be considerate.

"Well, anyways. Please come in."

"Yeah."

When I urged Kuroneko on, she finally began to move. But her movement became no less suspicious, and she hobbled forwards slowly, almost like some small animal.

"Well then, let's get started right away."

Once we got to my room, Kuroneko began to talk without even giving me an opportunity to bring out some drinks.

"Alright… wait, what should I even do? Come to think of it, I never asked you that."

"Debugging."

"Debugging?"

"Yeah. You're going to use that PC and play the game I made. I mean, I haven't even finished half of it yet, but for now, you're going to play the parts I finished over and over and over and look for any issues."

"Hmmm… well, I think even I could do something like that."

"It's simple… but it'll be hard work. This is just something that I wouldn't be able to do by myself…"

"Got it. Leave it to me."

"Yeah. Please. And also…" Kuroneko looked right down at the ground.

"Also tell me what you think about the game… alright?"

She mumbled that and seemed a bit embarrassed about it. Immediately after that, I installed Kuroneko's unfinished game onto my desktop PC (the one Rias and I had put together), sat at my desk, and began to debug.

On the other hand, Kuroneko had put her laptop on my bed — close to the pillow — and was lying there on her stomach. It was the usual position that she took when she worked in my room (it seemed to be the pose in which she could concentrate the most). Rias was usually here with us, so this must've been the first time she's taken that pose when we were alone with each other. She looked so defenseless like that. It was probably a sign that she really trusted me, but to be honest, I couldn't help but feel uneasy about it.

"Hey."

"Huh!?"

She spoke up to me at the exact moment when I was thinking that, so I ended up panicking.

"Do you have a minute? Could you come over here?"

"What is it?"

I got up out of my chair and approached Kuroneko's position. If I let my guard down, I could feel my gaze wandering to the pure-white skin of her buttocks. Kuroneko stayed upside down on the bed and briefly glanced back in my direction.

"That scene that I asked you about a bit ago… I tried animating it a bit. Could you take a look at it?"

"That's fine with me. Here, give me your laptop."

"I can't. That would break my concentration. You should go to a place where you can see the screen." Saying that, Kuroneko scooted a bit to the side on the bed, leaving a bit of space beside her.

"Are you telling me to lie down next to you?!"

"You don't have to look so restrained. It's your bed, after all."

"Don't say something like that!"

Considering we were in a locked room, her telling me to lie down next to her almost sounded like she was seducing me. Of course, it wasn't like that, but… as proof of that, Kuroneko was staring at my panicked face with complete puzzlement.

"Why are you hesitating?"

"Why, you ask…?"

Also, isn't it weird that she was nervous until a second ago, but now that she's lying there she seems so relaxed…? I honestly didn't understand her sometimes. Seeing me hesitate more, Kuroneko's mood took a turn for the worse.

"What is the meaning of this? You can play an 18+ adult game side-by-side with your sister, but you can't play a normal visual novel with me?"

"W-Why the hell do you know about that!?"

"The last time I talked with your sister… she told me."

I see. So it was that girl's fault. The last phone call she made to Kuroneko… so she did it after that. Dammit, that girl just had to go and run her mouth off. To think she would talk about me during her last phone call with her friend… even though they should have had plenty of other things to talk about…

When the subject turned to Naruko, our conversation suddenly stopped. Maybe it was because I felt my mood drop just a bit. At that moment, Kuroneko suddenly spoke up. Spoke up with a rare smile on her face.

"'Nii-san, would you like to play a game with me?"

"You idiot. My sister would never say something like that."

Geez. I gave out a resigned sigh, and sat right on the edge of the bed. I leaned my body forwards, and gazed into the laptop screen. Kuroneko's face was right next to mine, but even though she was a younger girl, I didn't feel nervous at all. After all, she was the same as Naruko to me.

She had no consciousness of the fact that I was a boy. And there was no reason for me to feel any desire towards someone who thought of me like that.

"Hey. This is fine because it's me, but you really shouldn't do things that might make other guys get the wrong idea."

In this way, I relieved some of the tension in what was becoming a rather dark atmosphere. And then, I tried to tease her a bit to see if I could provoke a reaction.

"Or what are you saying? Do you like me or something?"

"I do like you."

"Wha-!?"

I was really surprised and whipped my head back to look at Kuroneko. Kuroneko remained emotionless and continued to stare at the screen, but her small lips began to move.

"I like you… just as much as your sister likes you."

"Well thanks a lot for that."

In other words, she barely registered my existence, huh? So that's how it was… geez, I got surprised over nothing.

(◕ω◕✿)

"So? What do you think?"

"The story is… really dark… reading it gets me a bit depressed…"

"I used Rosario Lombardo and Izanami as motifs. It's a story about a boy who loves a corpse. Every night, the boy finds himself transported to the world of the dead through his nightmares, and looks for the soul of the one he loves in the Labyrinth."

"Hmm… that description is too metaphorical and I can't understand it."

"I see. Well then, I'll rewrite it to be easy enough for you to understand."

"That's pretty considerate of you. Are you sure? I'm… you know, a complete beginner… I really don't understand much."

"I don't mind. That's exactly why I showed this game to you."

"If that's the case, could you do something about this really nasty bad ending too? If I were really playing the game I would seriously cry."

"That's an ending I wanted to put in no matter what, so I can't do anything about it."

"I see."

"Yeah. Also, you can avoid that ending depending on the choices you make."

"You said there were three routes, right? So there's one with a happy ending, right?"

"None."

"None!?"

She said that like it was the most obvious thing in the world! Geez, she completely surprised me.

And then, we each went back to our own work. Time flowed gently onwards. We were in the same room, but we barely talked to each other and just went on working. It wasn't unpleasant, and it wasn't boring. Although, it didn't make me feel at ease either. It was a feeling that was incredibly difficult to describe.

When I had been working for two or three hours, I had more or less gotten used to this debugging work. Then again, I had a pretty simple job. All I had to do was play the same scene over and over and over and tell Kuroneko when I found things like the game freezing or weird text being displayed.

It seemed that making games meant doing similar things endlessly. You could call it monotonous or plain… but in either case, it was definitely hard work. To be honest, was I really being of much use here? I was a bit suspicious… was giving me this job just Kuroneko's way of being considerate? As I thought those rather insecure thoughts, I saw that Kuroneko was taking a break. She suddenly asked me a question.

"Hey… Senpai?"

"Hm?"

"'Senpai' or 'Nii-san'…. which do you like being called more?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"It doesn't matter. Just tell me."

"Hmmmm… well, Just go with 'Senpai.' I mean, we're not actually siblings, so calling me 'Nii-san' would be weird, I think."

"I see."

Kuroneko let out a mischievous chuckle, and her mouth warped into the shape of a crescent moon. It was a smile I'd see her make when she was in a good mood. I'm not sure what the meaning of the question she just asked me was, but she seemed to be satisfied with my answer.

"I see… well then, whenever we're alone from now on, I'm going to call you 'Nii-san.'"

"Why are you doing the opposite of what I wanted."

"Hmph, it's more interesting that way, isn't it?"

"You're a damn vile woman!"

Dammit, she was planning to do that right from the start, wasn't she…!? I re-crossed my legs where I was sitting. Kuroneko mockingly laughed at me, and put one hand on the bed, crossing her legs. From that position, she reached out one of her black-socked feet towards me, and whispered in a falsely sweet voice.

"Hey, Nii-san? I'm pretty tired. Could you massage my feet?"

"Don't spew nonsense! What kind of image do you have in your mind of what a brother and a sister act like!?"

"Hm? But isn't it true that in this household, the brother is the sister's manservant?"

"Absolutely not!"

Kuroneko shut her eyes and put her hands in front of her mouth, her back shaking with laughter. This must be only the second time I've seen this girl having this much fun… or was it the first? And in that case… well, I guess getting made fun of was worth it. This girl really had a nice smile. She should show it more often.

(◕ω◕✿)

Through my and Kuroneko's efforts, progress on the game steadily moved forwards. Today, like every other day, we had gone back to my room once school ended, and we were working on the game by ourselves. I sat at my desk, and Kuroneko was facing her PC, lying on my bed on her belly.

"Hey… Kuroneko?"

"What is it… Nii-san?"

"You know, lately we've been coming to my house to work a lot, haven't we? Today's a weekday, so we also could have worked at club."

"Is that a problem?"

"No, that's not what I meant."

"I see. So then what's the problem?"

Well, that's true… it's just that lately, my family has been whispering rumors about how the eldest son has been bringing a younger girl up to his room. My mother had always thought that I was dating Weiss, so all I got from her now were cold looks. Like I was some adulterer she wanted dead.

"By the way… why hasn't Rias-san been coming over lately?"

"Who knows? Perhaps she's too busy."

This girl… she hasn't heard from her friend for a while and she's not worried at all. I wonder why…

To be honest, not seeing Rias for a while made me feel really lonely. Maybe I should give her a call next time? I guess it's true that you don't realize what you have until you've lost it. And I guess I really did like Rias more than I had thought. And that I really got lonely more easily than I thought.

"While we're on the subject, is it alright for you to be with me so much? What about your band?"

"It's fine. They okay with it, I already told them that I helping you with your game. By the way, your game is almost done, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's true. The scenario and CGs are all done, and we're just going to use things we can find for free for the music… so all that's left is to put all the scenes together. If we're fast, we can finish everything in a few days. There's still just around a week until the deadline, so it looks like we're going to make it."

"Haha, that's great. Congrats."

I offered her my congratulations while staying off the subject of her deteriorating relationship with Kae. However… things didn't go that well. When we tried to put the finishing touches on the game by stringing all the individual scenes together, the game stopped really functioning. Even in places where things were working fine before, the game started to freeze or crash.

We also saw inexplicable cases where, after a decision point, we went on a route that was completely disconnected to the original route we were on, or cases where picking the same decision at a decision point resulted in going on different routes each time.

"This is quite strange."

Kuroneko also looked pretty flustered, and although she still showed no emotion, she frantically typed on the keyboard in an attempt to fix all the problems.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't check everything properly…"

"It's not your fault. The bugs are my fault… please don't try to take responsibility for my own misses."

Her words were filled with piercing emotion, but also with earnest sincerity.

(◕ω◕✿)

It was lunchtime, and we were in the clubroom.

"This is a bit tough…"

We couldn't fix the mistakes no matter how hard we tried, so we showed the game to Nanashima-kun, and he came back with a rather unfavorable response.

"You can't fix it?"

"I can. But we have to start by figuring out exactly where and what the bugs are, and that takes time."

"How much time?"

"Well… even if I got the president to help me… I really don't think we can get it done in a week. So… I don't think we can make it in time for the contest."

"Seriously…? Dammit!"

"I had heard that Gokou has studied how to make games before, but this is her first time actually trying to make one, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Kuroneko didn't answer, so I answered for her.

"Then that's already more than enough. To think that she could make this much content on her first try is already really amazing."

"Yeah, that's right. You really did a great job by yourself. You had enough work that even with a group I thought you would barely make it, but you really did much more than I had expected."

The president also praised her like that (although, he completely ignored me).

"Hey… Kuroneko…"

Knowing that my Kouhai was probably pretty disappointed right now, I called out to her with a kind voice. And when I did that, I heard Kuroneko mumble.

"So, what you're saying is that there are bugs in my game that you can't fix very quickly, and we won't be able to make it by the contest deadline, right?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." The president nodded.

Kuroneko turned her eyes downwards and fell into thought for a bit. But then… She quickly turned heel, her shoes making an audible scraping noise against the floor.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Kuroneko didn't respond, didn't even turn back, but just quickly walked out of the room. I managed to get a small glimpse of her face when she left, and I saw that she was firmly biting down on her lower lip…

I chased after Kuroneko. She just continued to walk through the hallway at a quick pace, not showing any signs of noticing that I was following her. I had no intention of stopping her, but she was pretty hard to catch up to. So I just kept up with her and followed her. Before long, we arrived at a first year classroom. It was the class that Kuroneko belonged to.

What in the world did she think she was doing? I have no idea what this girl could be thinking. Probably because an upperclassman like me had shown up, the hallway was abuzz with murmuring. I could feel curious looks piercing through me. But it's not like I could just glare at them and make them scatter.

Kuroneko threw the classroom door open strongly and entered. She attracted her fair share of stares as well. After all, she was usually the loner, and she had just charged back into the classroom looking flustered… people were probably wondering what was going on. Kuroneko headed straight for a certain seat. And in that seat was none other than Kae.

Kae the clean freak, the brocon, the person who couldn't forgive anything that wasn't proper… and also the closet fujoshi. I wonder what she thought about herself right now. Of course, I had no way of knowing for sure, but I could make a guess. After all, when it came to things that weren't proper, there was nobody that knew better than I did. She was annoyed, probably. Annoyed at herself. She was probably angry at her own hypocrisy of disobeying a rule that she herself had set out.

The presentation hadn't gone as well as she had planned. After that, she disobeyed the club's rules and ran off by herself. Like that, she began to sulk, not able to admit to her own mistake. It definitely wasn't uncommon. And I wasn't in a position to blame her for it. I mean, I was similar myself. In fact, I feel that everyone has gone through something like this before.

Seeing Kuroneko approach her, Kae paled and bit her lower lip.

"What are you doing, Gokou-san? Everyone is trying to eat their lunches and you're being quite noisy."

"Serinuma-san. Please, I need you to lend me your strength."

Kae had steeled herself for what was coming, but at that she opened her eyes wide and froze.

"W-What do you mean?"

"Bugs showed up in the game I'm making. At this rate, we won't be able to make it by the contest deadline."

"And?"

"You should be able to fix it, right?"

"Why… do you think that?"

"Because I listened to your presentation… and I played your game. You used some really complicated programs to make your game run more efficiently, but even then there were no bugs. I wouldn't be able to do something like that. Nobody in the club could do something like that. If you help me, then we should be able to get the game done in time."

"And that's why you want me to lend you my strength…?"

"Yes."

Kuroneko answered in the affirmative, and Kae fell into silence with a conflicted expression. I could also feel that this wouldn't be an appropriate time for me to butt in. The murmuring in the classroom slowly got louder. Her classmates probably knew Kuroneko as a rather quiet person, so this was most likely the first time they saw her speak so openly like this. But in the next instant, all the murmuring came to a complete stop. Kuroneko was bowing her head down towards Kae.

"Please, make a game together with me."

This was Kuroneko we were talking about. A girl who was proud, shy, and who was almost never honest with herself. Each and every person in that room was lost for words. And for good reason. I was shocked as well. I blinked over and over, wondering if I was just seeing things. Kuroneko's fists were clenched tight, and her legs were slightly shaking.

This must've been really frustrating for her. I could imagine that this was the first time in her life that she's done something like this in front of an audience. But despite that, this girl could bow her head sincerely to someone. Seeming to recover from her amazed stupor, Kae took Kuroneko by the hand and tugged on it.

"You… come here for a minute…!"

Kae dragged Kuroneko along and quickly rushed in my direction. I tried to dodge out of the way, but she lightly knocked into me as she passed.

When I looked back, I saw Kae walking out of the room with Kuroneko in tow. She was probably planning to take her somewhere private, like she did to me in the bookshop. Somewhere where they could talk. Immediately after they left, I began to chase after them.

"Geez, think about where you are when you say things like that…! I can't believe you."

Kae had brought Kuroneko to the back of the school.

"Why did you have to go that far? Bowing your head to me in front of such a big crowd…"

Kae looked irritated as she pressed against Kuroneko. Kuroneko was pinned between the wall and Kae's breasts, like I had been that other time. Kae was gripping Kuroneko's wrists, and from what I could tell she was gripping them with quite a bit of strength.

"Also, what does this have to do with me anymore? I've already been scouted by the public morals committee, so I'm planning to quit that pointless club."

Hearing those words of rejection, Kuroneko swung her arms and got out of Kae's hold. She leaned in close to Kae until their noses were almost touching and gave her an intense stare.

"I… I want to finish this game no matter what I have to do. And if possible, I want to win a prize in the competition."

"I know that! What I was asking was why you had to go that far! What is it? Is it that if you don't win the competition, you'll be cursed to death or something like that!? To be honest, seeing how you're acting, I'm starting to think that that's actually the case!"

Kae seemed to be the one in the most pain as she spat out her anger. Kuroneko responded to Kae's sarcasm.

"It's close to that. If I start something, I will see that something to completion. I will hold my goals up high and exhaust all my strength striving to complete them. I learned to live my life like that from a certain someone. If I don't do that, then I will forever be a loser… I will just continue to wander around aimlessly with malice in my heart. And my pride will not allow me to live like that."

"What… are you saying?"

"Right now, I was talking about an infuriating friend who has already gone off somewhere far away."

"This person… is this the same person you said during the presentation that you wanted to beat down?"

"Yeah, that's right… I want to make her kneel at my feet and lick my boots. And to do that, no matter how shameful or unsightly it may be, I will fight and struggle until the very end."

A light but charming smile rose up onto Kuroneko's face. She moistened her lips with her tongue, looking almost like a cat who had found her prey.

"Hmph… to think she could make me feel like this… I'll have to make sure she is paid back in full. I won't forgive her for winning and then making a run for it. Next time I meet her, I'll definitely make her speechless."

She wanted to be able to hold her head high when Naruko came back. She had to look deep inside herself and improve. At least, that's what I heard in her words.

"So…" Kuroneko looked straight at Kae. She wasn't wearing her color contacts… but I could swear I saw her eyes glowing a sinister red.

"So please join me, Kae Serinuma. If you're still unsatisfied, then I can beg if you want me to."

"Gokou-san, you…"

Kae looked at Kuroneko with a bewildered expression.

"Why is it that you haven't blamed me for anything yet? It's strange for me to be saying this myself, but aren't I the worst? I lost during the presentation, but just because I didn't like your plan I ran away… and on top of that, you ended up being the first one to bow your head…"

"Who was wrong or who apologized first is not important. What's more important is that I want to make a game with you."

Kuroneko fluidly communicated what I believed were her true feelings. She didn't want to lose to a certain someone, would complete her game at all costs, and didn't want to give up. Her words were probably born out of that motivation, but… she probably never imagined that she would have to ask Kae for help. Then, feeling completely cornered, she let her true feelings flow out. And I'm sure those feelings got across to Kae.

"Friends are more amazing than you could imagine. If there's something you can't do by yourself, then join up with another person… or maybe two… and you might be able to do it. If there's a time when you feel helpless and can't move forward… with another person, you can gain the courage to do so. If you try and try but nothing pays off, if you just continue to recklessly exhaust your efforts and hope to be rewarded for it, but even then you don't get results… and the plan backfires just as much as the effort you put into it, and you find yourself close to tears… if there is someone who will hold you up at those times, then you can get through it. And then, just a few words… just a few trivial words are enough to repay all your efforts… mm… yes, that's right…"

For just a fleeting, fleeting moment, I saw Kuroneko smile nostalgically.

"If I have friends to help me, then I still have energy to spare. That's something I learned recently."

And so, she wanted Kae to make a game with her. Her cheeks were just a bit flushed, but Kuroneko had spoken with a serious expression. I'm sure that a year ago, Kuroneko would never have said something like. And so, over this past year… I wasn't the only one who had changed.

And then…

"I see." Kae dropped her shoulders and the tension left her body. Almost as if Kuroneko's words had seeped into every fiber of her being. She let out an exhausted chuckle.

"So? Is the game data in the clubroom?"

"Ah, so you'll help?"

"I'm not helping. Rather, we're making the game together, right?"

(◕ω◕✿)

One week after that day. After returning to the game club, Kae fixed the bugs in the game in no time at all. She stood there letting orders fly at Kuroneko and Nanashima-kun, and they crushed the bugs one after another… and they finished repairing the game, a task that everyone had thought was impossible before the competition deadline, in only two days.

And what's more, as if trying to make up for lost time, Kae began to get deeply involved in making the game. Kuroneko and Kae butted heads quite often, sometimes having shouting matches and hurling insults back and forth, and they began to brush up the game. You could say they had a lot of planning meetings with each other. But these were not like the meetings I had been a part of at the publishing company.

But that was to be expected. After all, at that publishing company meeting, not only were we dealing with a pro, but all he did was criticize Kuroneko's work, so it really didn't feel like they were trying to cooperate to make something. In that regard, these meetings that Kae and Kuroneko had, where they clashed over their own ideas of how to make the game more interesting, were more genuine examples of planning meetings.

In the end, as a result of those planning meetings, even the genre of the game ended up changing. With Kuroneko's approval, Kae was allowed to also put RPG elements into the game. The title of the game was "Greed's Labyrinth (Seven Deadly Sins Series, Second Game)." They ended up putting the text Kuroneko had written on top of the RPG system that Kae had made. It just so happened that both their games were set in a labyrinth anyways, so this was a pretty good match.

You should have just done that from the start! Is probably what everyone in the club was thinking, but everyone wisely kept their mouths shut. Of course, changing the genre when the deadline was so close added a lot of work that needed to be done, and naturally things got chaotic as the deadline loomed. In the end, Kae shut herself in her room and worked overnight (I had gone over to help as well, but Takurou Onii-chan turned into a demon and chased me out of the house. It was terrible.)

It was quite incredible how they punished and tormented themselves like that. But within that mess, I could also see them having fun. I'm not trying to say that they're masochists. Rather, it was similar to the kind of fun you saw in sports. How should I put it… take soccer, or baseball, or track… you would hone your skills through grueling practices, and then put those skills on display in matches.

I really felt like creating games wasn't any different from that. On the day that they completed the game, I heard the following exchange, "You seriously can write 6kb of text per hour, can't you? I really didn't believe you when you first said that."

"You too… you really got rid of a lot of bugs in such a short amount of time. What's your secret?"

"Well, when all's said and done, it's intuition."

"Intuition?"

"Yes. How should I put it… I really don't know how to say it. When I make games, I can clearly see the parts that aren't proper. That's why I'm really, really good at debugging, fixing game balance issues, and correcting typos. You just have to look at all the digital data from the top down and pick out the unpleasant parts."

Hearing that, Nanashima-kun seemed surprised.

"… Umm… so when I first met Serinuma, the reason you were able to find that boss's weak points and safe areas was…"

"Ah, yes, that's the same thing. As long as it's in the form of digital data, there's probably nothing that I can't break through."

Kae looked quite proud of herself and puffed out her chest, her breasts swaying a bit. It also seemed like she was telling the truth. What was this? Did all gamers have superpowers like this? Kuroneko seemed excited for some reason.

"Don't tell me… that ability you have… the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception…? T-To think it actually exists…"

Kuroneko's eyes widened and she shivered, stumbling a bit.

"Please think of this as an honor. From now on, I will call you 'User of the Mystic Eyes" with much respect."

"Did I just get a completely chuunibyou nickname!?"

It seemed that through game creation, Kuroneko and Kae had come to acknowledge each other's strengths. See, look… wasn't this exactly like what happened in sports? And then, there was the long-awaited result. How did the game we made do in the competition? Well, we didn't win a prize at all, but we definitely made a splash on the Chaos Create forums.

Back in the current time…

"NOOOOoooooooooooooooooo! They made a thread about the gaaaaaaaaaaaaame! This is terrible! Do these people not have hearts!?"

"You're noisy. Please stop looking for game reviews on the internet and then going crazy over them. And also, that thread is mostly bashing my scenario, is it not? Why does that bother you?"

"T-That's obvious, isn't it!? It's because they're criticizing our game. It doesn't matter which part they end up criticizing!"

"I did what I wanted to do, and the result wasn't well-received by the users. I'm the one to blame."

"If you say that, then let me point out that my game system wasn't exactly praised either! To put it another way, it wasn't even bashed! And the only reason we were in such a rush at the end was because of me! Also, can you just stop it with trying to take all the blame yourself? With these things, the right to feel happy or frustrated belongs to all people involved. Am I wrong?!"

"Thank you for your opinion. Well then, please be as frustrated as your heart pleases. In return, if people in the clubrooms around us come complaining, I'll leave that to you."

"Well then, I'll take you up on that offer then! Ughhh, this is terrible! Gyaaah, I'm so annoyed! But really, Ruri, you're being awfully calm about this. How can you be like that when they wrote such terrible things about the game?" Kae unhappily poked the screen with a finger, with enough force that I thought she would poke a hole into it.

Kuroneko scowled at her comrade-in-arms out the side of her eyes and whispered in a detached tone. "I'm already used to it."

So I won't let my feelings show, is how I heard her continue in my head. After all, there's no way she wasn't frustrated. Yes… she's had it tough up until now… her work was trashed by Kumagai-san, and she was relentlessly made fun of by Naruko. And to me, it seemed that the difference between Kuroneko and Kae's reactions to this criticism was a reflection not of their own personalities, but more a reflection of the experiences they had had up until now.

"Hey, Naruto Senpai. Are you listening?"

"Huh… what is it?"

Kae, you're giving me a really scary look. Ah, but whatever. Today I'll listen to your complaints through to the end. Even though I couldn't be any use at all… I was frustrated too.

"Up until now, I've thought that reacting emotionally to criticism just shows a lack of appreciation for the people who took the time to play your game, and if you have time to do that then you should spend it improving. I thought that only idiots with no self-control get worked up over anonymous Internet opinions. But, when I see something I made getting treated like this on the internet, I have to revise my opinion. Keeping calm in the face of anonymous Internet criticism? Hah, that can eat shit and go to hell! Things that piss me off just piss me off, goddammit!"

Bam! Kae smashed her hands onto the keyboard.

"C-Calm down… girls shouldn't say things like 'eat shit' and 'goddammit.' Come on, that's just not right."

"As if I care! I-I'll definitely kill these people! I'll definitely, definitely kill these people! The people who are writing these comments on forums without a care in the world, and the people who are posting on blogs with their smug expressions, they're all guilty! Gyaaah! You better prepare yourself, you pigs! I'll find out who you are, secretly friend you on mixi, and kill you in an offline meeting!"

Bam bam bam bam! Kae continued to bang on the keyboard with incredible force.

"Hey, stop that! You're going to break the keyboard!"

"But…! But… ugh…"

She is just way too frustrated! I'll bet that the people making these criticisms would have never guessed that the game staff would wish for their deaths so fiercely for each and every one of their comments.

"I'm sure everyone thinks that way! It's not just me!"

"No, it's not like that!'

I desperately tried to calm Kae down, for the honor of all the creators in the world. Kuroneko, who had been doing her own work on her own PC, also seemed a bit fed up.

"Seriously… what if you just stop looking up reviews online?"

"E-Even if you tell me that, I can't help but search for them~~~~! And what's more, I dug up all the criticism that even the search engines didn't show! I'm good at that! Oooghh… w-what's with this helpless feeling I have!? H-H-How do I make it go away?!"

"Make the next game. Make the next game so interesting that it will just floor everyone who plays it."

Kuroneko said that without taking her eyes off her screen, and not letting her typing pace drop a bit.

"Doing that will be much more satisfying than going off and killing each and every person who criticized your game."

"At least you're an expert with words… rather, you're a pretty forward- looking person, Ruri."

"Hmph, it's just that there's no other way to deal with this… but in any case, I have a plan for a game that will teach all those people who made fools of us a lesson. Are you in?"

"Of course. This time I'll be involved from start to finish… so it'll definitely be amazing! By the way, we're going to make the protagonist a stylish, macho man, like the ones you see in Gears of War!"

"Rejected."

These types of conversations in the clubroom… they were very much a part of the club life that Kuroneko had gotten for herself. She had tried so very, very hard, and in the end found just one companion. Both Kuroneko and Kae probably weren't happy about the outcome here at all.

So no matter how much I praised them, I doubted they would accept my praise honestly. That's why I kept what I was thinking inside my heart. You two are really quite something.

And one day after that, Kuroneko sent an email. It had an empty subject line, and all it said was "I'll be waiting at three thirty behind the school building." It almost felt like she was challenging me to a fight or something.

"I wonder if I did something…"

When I arrived at the designated spot behind the school at three thirty, I found Kuroneko in her uniform waiting for me. When she realized I was there, Kuroneko quietly stood up. She spoke to me in a barely audible voice.

"I… have something I want to report to you."

"Huh?"

"Lots of things have improved… things in class, other things… so, I'm reporting them to you."

Drop by drop, her words slowly and haphazardly came out. As always, she was bad when it came to speaking with other people. Usually, when someone did something in such a roundabout a way as this, they wouldn't manage to get anything across to the other person. But I knew. I also had a guess as to why she called me out here like this. She probably wanted to thank me. So, even though the words themselves might have sounded strange.

"Nah, I didn't really do anything much."

"No, that's not true at all!?"

"R-Really…?"

"Yes… I was happy when you told me that you were worried about me as me, and not as your sister's replacement."

As she spoke, Kuroneko looked down at the ground. W-Wait… this girl… what was she saying…?

"I was happy when you told me that you would prefer being called 'Senpai' over 'Nii-san.'"

Was she nervous? Was that why the hands she had clasped in front of her skirt were slightly shaking?

"Joining the same club as me, worrying about how I was alone in class, backing me up during my presentation, even choosing to spend less time with Weiss Senpai and your band… and being with me. It… It made me really, really happy."

W-What this? Was I dreaming? My jaw dropped to the ground in dumbfounded amazement. To think that someone who was usually so difficult… to think a person like that would smile at me like that, would thank me like that… anybody would feel the same way in my position. I was so surprised that my brain was just a mess.

"U-Umm… S-Senpai, I want you to close your eyes for a second."

"W-Why?"

"J-Just do what I say!"

"A-Alright."

I didn't know what Kuroneko wanted with me but I did what she told me. As I close my eyes I heard the sounds of her approach.

"…!"

I felt a soft sensation on my cheek.

"Now you can open your eyes."

When I open my eyes I saw Kuroneko's flushed face moved away from mine, leaving only a faint, sweet smell behind.

"Wh… wha…"

D-Did she just… kiss me!? What the hell did she think she was doing… is what I wanted to say, but my voice suddenly became hoarse and the words vanished from my mind.

Even as she flushed deep crimson from ear to ear, Kuroneko gave me a downright wicked grin.

"And that ends my report."

Wha… what the Hell!

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