“Do you get it now? It’s all in my expression.”
“No way… It’s gotta be more than that.”
“So how do you explain it? Some kind of quick-change magic trick? Instant plastic surgery?” As she spoke, she let the energy drain from her face until it was what she had called a “C-plus” again. But even as that thought entered my mind, she was changing back to the friendly beauty. Again and again, she flipped back and forth.
“Oooh…”
I felt like I was watching an amazing skill. It was really impressive, honestly.
“Okay, I admit I had to practice a lot to get this good,” she said, slowly transforming once again. “By the way, did you notice that I’m changing my posture as well as my expression?”
“Huh?”
Now that she mentioned it, if I watched closely, I could see her back hunching over as the energy drained from her face, then straightening again as she became more genial and attractive.
“Your posture affects the impact of your facial expression. Just by perfecting your expression and posture, you’ll be more than able to convince people you’re a normie. Of course, I was blessed with a nice face to begin with, which is why I can get this beautiful.”
“You’re a confident one, aren’t you, Your Highness?”
“Exactly. Confidence is key.”
“That’s not what I meant! …Anyway, what’s your point?”
“You don’t know?”
…Okay, I guess I do.
“You’re trying to say that even an ugly bastard can manage to look ordinary, at least?”
“Ooh, you are good at guessing!”
“So what? You want me to try harder? Didn’t I already tell you it’s none of your business?”
“It’s not that.”
“What, then?”
Aoi Hinami looked me in the eye—or more accurately, she gazed so deeply into my pupils it was like she could see into my brain.
“It’s that people like you, or at least, this version of you, have the most despicable souls of anyone in the whole world.”
“Wha—?” What the hell are you suddenly attacking me for?
“I did say ‘this version of you.’”
“Th-this version? …Don’t think you can distract me by trying to imply—”
“You’re about to get a very smug lecture, but don’t feel obligated to pay attention. I do plan to give you orders, but ultimately, you’re the one who’ll decide whether or not to obey them. You’re free to ignore everything I say. Keep that in mind.”
Aoi Hinami cut me off, changing the mood. There wasn’t a shred of humor in her words or eyes. Even someone as socially awkward and oblivious as me could tell this was as serious as she got.
“…Uh-huh…” Her quiet drive and composure, way beyond what you’d expect from a normal high school girl, overwhelmed me.
Having gotten my consent, she began to explain. Her expression was neither the lackluster C-plus face nor the friendly, pretty one, but instead something sorrowful and very human.
“…You said you don’t have communication skills or confidence, and compared to you, my base stats are high. But they’re not. To be honest, I was an average person—below average, even, at least through elementary school. That’s why I’m not beating around the bush. Communication skills and confidence and the other things you mentioned—all of those can improve with effort. My life since junior high is proof.”
Her confident tone suggested that her claims were well-supported.
“…You said life was irrational and unfair, but that’s not true. The game of life functions on a number of simple rules. You just can’t see them because they intersect in complex ways.”
I could tell she was getting in my head, whether I believed her or not.
“I respected nanashi. I’ve gotten through a lot with effort alone. I was confident that I was better than anyone when it came to hard work and perseverance, and the results would show that. But I just couldn’t reach nanashi’s level in Atafami.”
Her explanation continued. She didn’t move or gesture hardly at all.
“I thought nanashi could outdo me in effort, and that’s why I respected him. But behind the curtain, this is what I found. When it came to real life, nanashi not only lost, he didn’t even put up a fight. Then, he was a worthless deadbeat who used his default attributes as an excuse to run away. Worst of all, he was a pathetic sore loser trying to justify himself by jumping to the conclusion that a pleasure he’d never experienced must be boring.”
Strangely, despite everything she was saying about me, I didn’t feel angry. Maybe I was overwhelmed by her earnestness and intensity, but more than that, I was starting to sense a similarity between us.
“I’m an amazing person. You think so too, don’t you? I might even be the most amazing sixteen-year-old in Japan. But in one area, you’re beating me. We’re the same age, and gender doesn’t matter for this. So I’m going to go ahead and say it: It makes me sick to know that you, the person who’s beating me—nanashi, the one person I respected—is ruining his life. It’s unforgivable! It’s disgusting! If the person beating me is worthless, doesn’t that make me worthless, too?”
I think the reason she didn’t strike me as arrogant even after everything she’d said was that she had obviously paid in blood and sweat for all her success.
“It’s my pet theory that the best games are always the simplest. The game of life looks like it doesn’t have any rules, but actually, it’s just an elegant, complex intersection of the simplest rules. You said life’s a shitty game, but that’s ridiculous. There’s no better game in the world. You just don’t know it yet… Nanashi is a great gamer, so how can I let him keep losing at such a wonderful game? …Tomozaki-kun, I’m going to give you an offer—no, an order.”
Details aside, I’d never met someone whose basic worldview was so close to my own. That’s exactly why—
“I’m going to teach you the rules of this game one by one.”
—her explanation made so much sense it was almost annoying.