“This is the first original cake I’ve ever made.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Hinami was surprised, but that eventually turned to a smile. “Geez…you two are not playing fair.”
“Ah-ha-ha. I still got help from my mom and dad, though.”
“…But still.”
While talking, Tama-chan put a knife in the cake, and she served up one slice of cake on a plate, which she gently set in front of Hinami.
Hinami took in the colorful, glistening cheesecake.
“C’mon! Eat, eat!” Minami urged her.
“But…”
“Once you’ve had one bite, you won’t be able to stop anyway.”
“Huhhh, wasn’t expecting something like that from you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Mimimi and Hinami were bantering, matching each other beat for beat as always.
I think, in a way, you could call that a formality—but that was fine, I thought.
Hinami slowly brought a forkful of the cake to her mouth. “…It’s good,” she murmured, and I could hear the gratitude in her voice.
Since this was Hinami, I didn’t know how much of her performance I could believe.
But this was a precious moment for the nine of us.
We all followed in Hinami’s lead, cut up the cheesecake, and started eating.
“Ohh! This is good!” Mizusawa said in surprise.
“…Wow, the sweetness of the berries and the smooth flavor of the cheese…” It was so good, I got rather verbose—my otaku flaw.
“I’m so glad I got the chance to eat Tama’s cake…!” Whatever Takei was feeling moved about, he was half in tears as he ate.
“Ah-ha-ha…this may be your first cake, but you could sell this,” Hinami said with a smile.
But Tama-chan shook her head no, also smiling. “Um, for our price range, it would be selling for less than the cost, so I can’t.”
“…Oh, I see. Thanks, Hanabi.”
“You’re welcome.” As Tama-chan kindly nodded, she was smaller than any of us, but bigger than any of us.
Listening to their conversation from the side, Mizusawa and I shared a look.
“Okay, let’s go, Fumiya, Fuka-chan,” he said.
“Y-yeah.”
“Y-yes!”
And then Mizusawa, Kikuchi-san, and I came forward.
“A-all right, guys!” I said with a little hesitation.
“Okay, then could you look at our present?” Mizusawa said, as smoothly as always.
Kikuchi-san repeated just the “C-could you?” part as we lined up in front of the projector.
If the feelings Hinami had just let show were the real thing, then I wanted her to hold on to that feeling as she saw this.
I got right to it and connected a tablet, which had a controller attached to it via USB hub, to the projector. And then I made a certain logo screen display over the whole wall.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Throw Throw Found”
✦ ✦ ✦
Though it was simple, since the graphics were straight out of Atafami, it was a pretty nice-looking opening image. It was an original that reproduced the game Hinami loved, Go Go Oinko, with Found from Atafami.
“Ah-ha-ha, what is this? A parody video?” Hinami said, laughing.
I placed the controller in front of her. “Ha-ha-ha. Nope. —It’s a parody game.”
“A game?” Hinami was surprised.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I navigated the opening screen, which displayed “story mode” and “versus mode,” and went with the latter.
“See, you can actually move it.”
“What the heck?! You actually made this? From scratch?”
“Yeah. I got Kikuchi-san and Mizusawa, and Ashigaru-san to help…and we got a guy to make it,” I said.
Hinami giggled again. “You were just saying Tama-chan went really far. But you totally can’t talk.”
She was completely right.
But my answer for her was the same as before.
“Of course,” I said boldly and with pride.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’ve done so many important things for me—so much that I couldn’t ever repay you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“…I see,” Hinami said, jerking her head away in her contrarian way, but with the hint of a smile. Then she took up the controller in front of her and started playing Throw Throw Found.
“Huh…?” Hinami made a surprised sound.
“Ha-ha-ha, how d’you like that? Great, right?”
“These controls…,” Hinami said, and I nodded with pride.
At first, Hinami had probably thought that it was just a shooter with Atafami characters. But this game didn’t just focus on the superficial aspects of graphics and whatnot. It had been made with a focus on the gameplay—the rules and controls.
So even if it looked different, it should feel just about the same as when she had played with her sisters way back when.
“Let’s play. It’s been a while—,” I said.
I took hold of the controller again.
✦ ✦ ✦
“—since we’ve had a mirror match between two Founds.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Hinami looked exasperated, but I could tell she was looking forward to it as she smiled. “Bring it on… But…” Her expression gradually turned competitive.
It was a lot like the one she’d always get before playing Atafami with me.
This determined smile suits her best, after all, I thought.
✦ ✦ ✦
“…I have a way longer history playing this Found—are you okay with that?”
✦ ✦ ✦
I couldn’t really tell if that came from her real feelings, her mask, or what.
✦ ✦ ✦
I think that moment, when Oinko and Atafami were mixed into one—
✦ ✦ ✦
—was the very moment that a young Hinami and NO NAME blurred into one.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hey, hold on! You’re way too good at this, Aoi!”
“Eh-heh-heh! Hexactly. I won again.”
We were all playing repeated matches of Throw Throw Found together.
We’d been playing it under the rule that whoever loses switches with the next person, and currently, Hinami had been playing continuously without a single loss.
“But that was a pretty good game! GG, Nakamoo!”
“Shit, I was so close… The moment your HP got low, you got so damn tough.” Nakamura was incredibly frustrated, having lost to Hinami by just a hair. In the most recent game, Nakamura had really taken the lead at the beginning and had gotten pretty close, but in the end, Hinami’s ultra-cautious playstyle had just barely won out.
Hey, playing like that against a beginner isn’t very mature, is it, Hinami?
“Does that make it…fifteen wins in a row?” Kikuchi-san said, watching Hinami with horror.
“Yeah…but…,” I said confidently. “I’ve basically got it. I’ll be okay next round.”
“Ohh! I’m looking forward to it.”
And so I took the controller from Nakamura for my fourth match against Hinami.
“Time to wreck you again,” she said.
“Nah, this time I’m going to win.”
Our gamer trash talk got the audience worked up. Hmm, as someone aiming to be a pro gamer, I guess it really is important to offer people a show.
And then the game began.
To play, you moved the character up and down and pressed a button to make Found throw shuriken. If that hit the other person, they’d take damage, and you’d score a certain number of points—it was a very simple system. Thanks to that simplicity, the important thing was precision of control, and Hinami had played this game for years, so her control was naturally refined, leading to this string of wins.
But I hadn’t declared that I was going to win for no reason.
The key points in this game were the unique feel of the controls—the motion of the character going up and down started slow, but if you continued moving in the same direction, it accelerated—and each player could fire just two powerful projectiles. Basically, like bombs in shooters. In Oinko, they were bombs, but in Throw Throw Found, they were called flash-bangs.
The flash-bangs were powerful, and one hit would take almost exactly half of your health away, so they could turn around a match in one hit. Nakamura had managed to almost eke out a win once because Hinami had gone the wrong way early in the game and hit one of those flash-bangs.
Essentially, it was an opening in the rules. If I was to beat her, then it had to be with that.
“…”
I closely watched how Hinami moved, waiting for my opportunity.
The way Nakamura had been playing when his flash-bang had hit her had given me a hint.
The flash-bang would do massive damage—half your max HP.
Hinami was an experienced player, and it probably was no coincidence that she had touched the flash-bang.
That realization had opened up a path to victory.