With their ice cream finished, the conversation now moved on to what game they should play. Kai sat on the bed between the other two and faced the screen.
“What do you two typically play?”
Kai and Jun looked at each other to ponder the question Kotobuki presented.
“I guess Tanks and Warships?”
“Also we’ve gotten back into Monster Hunter.” It was just ten days ago that the release date for the massive expansion Iceborne was announced, which led to many joyful screams and high-fives between Jun and Kai.
“Tanks and Warships are a little technical, so let’s leave those for now.”
“Have you ever played Monster Hunter, Hotey?”
“My apologies. My little brother appeared to play it on his 3DS, but personally...”
Kotobuki shook her head back and forth in apology. The sight of this adorable behavior made Jun reel back from the pain in her chest. She apparently had to be melodramatic over everything.
“Well, Kotobuki, what games do you typically play?” asked Kai in return.
Kotobuki was an anime otaku. She was a hardcore viewer who made sure to watch the first episode of every anime each season to see for herself which shows would suit her tastes.
Conversely, she didn’t partake in manga or light novels very often. Particularly manga—she always limited her horizons by saying that manga was too quick to read through, giving it a poor amount of entertainment for the cost. Of course, Kotobuki had been a middle schooler until very recently, and she had barely three months of work experience under her belt. Kai read between the lines and could infer that she was making do with what little allowance she was given, so in a way, it made perfect sense that her main medium of choice would be the one she could watch for free.
But now that he thought about it, Kai had never actually heard her talk about her experience with games.
“My little brother has a Switch. Sometimes we play Mario Kart, Smash, and the like together. Though, calling what I do ‘play’ may be a bit generous...”
Her choice of words clearly implied she wasn’t too great with action games. Kai turned to Jun and they gave each other knowing looks.
“I don’t own a PS4. My brother wishes to have one, but...”
“Yeah, they’re expensive.”
Even among Kai’s circle of friends, people who owned both were in the minority. It was far more common for them to choose a console based on the games they wanted to play, if they or their parents could afford either one at all. In that sense, Kai and Jun might have been blessed to have families that were so understanding toward games that they were able to collect both consoles back in middle school.
“Well, how about mobile games?” Today’s teenagers had a strong ally: plenty of them owned a smartphone even if they didn’t own a console.
“Ah, those... I’m a casual F2P player who only touches them on occasion. My friends and I have played School Idol Festival for a long while, and I enjoy the DanMemo game for its cute, chibi characters and excellent story.”
“What about FGO?!” asked Kai, a bit forcefully, about the game he’d been the most addicted to. He wanted a fellow comrade.
“What about FGO?!” asked Jun, with around the same level of force, about the game she’d been the most addicted to. She seemed to want a fellow comrade.
“M-My apologies... I’m interested in it due to the anime airing in the fall...but I always imagined it to be a game that required a large investment in the franchise,” lamented Kotobuki. Sounds like she hadn’t been able to find the opportunity to play it. “...Er, would it be best if I began playing it?”
“...Nah, Hotey, I won’t ask you to go that far.”
“...Yeah, Jun’s right. Games aren’t something you should have to play by force.”
While Kai and Jun were being honest with their words, their disappointment was real as well. Kotobuki, given her low self esteem, took it far too personally and immediately acted like she was at a funeral.
“B-But hey, we didn’t come here to play phone games, right?”
“Y-Yeah, let’s talk about games the three of us can play together!”
“R-Right, we got off track!”
Anyway, they could tell that Kotobuki wasn’t too experienced with games. Being bad at action games put an additional bottleneck on what they could do together; most games made to be played by multiple people tended to be action-oriented.
“I-I’m rather skilled at Mario Kart! I can give my brother a run for his money.”
Kotobuki read the room and cutely clenched her fist to reassure them. Jun clutched her heart once again while crying about how precious she was. Kai chose to ignore her.
“Okay, Kotobuki, what’s your record on Thwomp Ruins in Time Trials?”
“Huh? My record?” Kotobuki, the casual gamer, seemed confused as to whether she was supposed to know that offhand. The two hardcore gamers beside her looked at each other, surprised that she didn’t know that offhand. “L-Let me give it a try!”
“I like your spirit!”
“I’m rooting for you, Hotey!”
Kai booted up his Switch in TV mode and handed a Joy-Con to Kotobuki. She opened the Time Trials mode with the determination and resolve of a soldier marching toward certain death. Kai and Jun turned their gazes to the TV in suspense.
What they saw was a Princess Peach who had never heard the word “drift” in her life and crashed into every Thwomp on the track. Her time was better left unsaid.
Kai and Jun immediately communicated through nervous glances.
Crap! Jun, I can’t think of how we can possibly put enough of a handicap on to have an actual game!
What do we do, Kai? I don’t want to bully Hotey!
Kotobuki shuddered as she gripped her Joy-Con. She was too emotionally unstable and too focused on what other people thought to not understand what those glances meant.
“I’m sorry... I suck, I’m sorry...”
“D-Don’t worry about it! The only score that matters in a game is whether you had fun!”
“...Right, and playing Mario Kart with me...wouldn’t be very fun for you two...”
“I-It would totally be fun! Your big sis Jun knows just how to play with a handicap!”
Even though she was being comforted on both fronts, Kotobuki still slumped her shoulders in dejection. Well, Kai wasn’t sure that Jun’s comment counted as comfort.
“What do we do, Kai?”
“You’re making me solve this?!”
“C’mon, you’re the man here, you can do it! Pwease, save me and Hotey!”
Jun broke out the flirty voice as soon as it suited her needs. He couldn’t deny that he had to do something, though. After some thought, Kai came up with an idea.
“Oh yeah, let’s play a co-op game.”
A competitive game falls apart if the difference in skill level between its players is too wide. It just turns into a bullying session. But with cooperative games, if one person is inexperienced, then the other two can pick up the slack. If anything, it hypes people up and even deepens bonds. This was the real way for an experienced gamer to welcome a beginner.