“What?!”
An otaku like me? Her? This gyaru? An otaku?! And she’s here to find an otaku boyfriend?!
I knew that there were otaku so good at hiding their power level that you’d think they were normies, but this was hard to believe. After all, she was the most popular girl at school.
“Anyway, I won’t tell anyone that you were here, so please keep it a secret! I beg you, don’t tell this to anyone!” she pleaded.
“Uh? Ah...” I was so taken aback by how desperate she sounded that I couldn’t even answer her properly.
“I don’t want people at school to know I’m an otaku! And if my classmates found out that I came to a party like this, it’d be the most embarrassing thing in the world!”
“Sure, fine. But would it really be that bad if people knew?”
Sometimes, popular girls in my class—even if they weren’t full-fledged otaku—talked about anime and gacha games. I assumed that someone like Kokoro, who was so high up the school’s popularity ladder, wouldn’t really be made fun of even if she were an otaku.
“It’d be worse than bad! It’d be terrible!”
“But some of the girls in my class also talk about anime and stuff...”
“They’re not otaku! They just watch anime, and that’s it! Those casuals know nothing about doujinshi, or Comiket, or cosplay! Even then, the other girls say things like, ‘Wow she’s such a total geek’! Just imagine what would happen to a real hardcore otaku like me! I’d lose all my friends and be shunned like a creep!” She explained her point without drawing a single breath.
If what she said was true, not only was Kokoro an otaku, she was a pretty serious one at that.
“Okay, I get it. I won’t tell anyone, all right?” I finally answered, still shocked by her intensity.
“Really? Not a soul?” she asked, blinking up at me. She looked terrified.
“Yeah.”
“A-Aren’t you going to, like, blackmail me? Like, you won’t tell anyone as long as I do something in return?”
“Excuse me?”
“You know, like...” she said, blushing, “if I want you to keep the secret, I have to obey all your orders, or become your sex slave, or...”
“What are you talking about?! You read too many weird manga!” I yelled, unable to contain my surprise.
That kind of thing only happens in X-rated doujinshi!
“I’m not going to blackmail you or anything. I won’t tell anyone that you’re an otaku!”
“R-Really?!” she said, surprised.
“Yes.”
“Oh... Thanks.”
The fear slowly drained from her face.
I’d read some light novels where the heroine would blackmail guys with their dirty secrets, but I wasn’t that cruel.
“Still...” Kokoro leaned against the wall, sighing heavily. “That threw me for a loop. I didn’t think I’d run into someone from school here.”
That makes two of us, then.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“K-Kagetora Ichigaya.”
“Oh, I don’t think I’ve heard of you.”
“Sorry I’m so unpopular!”
“Hey, I never said that... Hm? ShadowTiger...?” she mumbled, reading the name tag on my chest.
“Wait, wait!” she said, starting to laugh. “Is that because your name is Kagetora? Like, did you literally translate your name into English?! That’s so cringey! That’s the cringiest edgelord name ever! Hahaha!”
“Shut up! I thought it’d be easy to remember. I just wrote the first thing that came to mind!” I said, as my face began to glow with embarrassment.
I always use this for games. Is it really that cringey? Damn it, I’d better come up with a new name then...
“Anyway, you’re one to talk!” I said, reading “2♡” from her own name tag. “Two-Heart! The Ni from Nishina, meaning two. Then Kokoro, meaning heart! You’re doing the exact same thing!” I said, raising my voice.
“Not at all. It’s witty and cool!” she replied.
If it’s “witty and cool” to “literally translate your name into English.”
“Anyway, how’s it been so far?” Kokoro asked.
“How? What?”
“The party! Did you meet any decent girls?”
“Hmm...”
The shock of running into Kokoro had made me forget about everything. But now, I recalled the situation I was in, having come to this party looking for a potential girlfriend, only to be ready to turn tail and go home.
“Well, to be honest, it’s not been great. There aren’t any cute girls.”
I didn’t want to admit that I was going home because I didn’t have the courage to speak to anyone.
“Huh? All these girls, and none that you’d consider cute? Do you have the highest standards ever? How many girls have you talked to, anyway?”
I looked away, not wanting to answer her.
“Hey! Did you hear me?”
“It’s just that...”
“I couldn’t hear the last part! What did you say?”
“It’s just that... I still haven’t talked to anyone...”
“What? None at all?! After all this time?!” she gasped, appalled.
“But what am I supposed to do about it? It’s easier for girls, since you just have to wait for someone to come and chat you up! But for boys it’s different. We actually have to go and start the conversation!”
“Why are you getting mad at me now?! And don’t think girls have it that easy! Boys can talk to any girl they like. That’s nice! But we can’t even talk with the guys we like because we get approached by others first.”
“At least you can talk with someone! Do you understand the struggle of being alone while everybody else is chatting and having fun?!”
We were still arguing over which of us had it worse when we heard a voice from inside the room.
“The otaku meetup is almost over! Thank you for joining us!”
“What?!” We exclaimed in unison, shocked.
Over?! Kokoro and I rushed back into the karaoke room, but the staff was already showing everyone to the door.
“Please leave in an orderly fashion!”
Before we knew it, we were caught up in the crowd and ended up back outside where we’d started.
One of the groups we’d left with was discussing where they’d go next.
“Wanna go to karaoke together, just us?”
“Sure! Let’s go!”
Kokoro and I watched them from afar.
The party was over, and she was the only girl I’d spoken to. Since I was planning to leave early anyway, I guess it’s all the same...
“The party’s finished? Just like that?” Kokoro said to herself, dismayed.
“I prepared so much for this! It was the only chance I had! I got my nails done, bought a new dress, and even practiced in front of the mirror! And I only managed to speak to two guys that I didn’t even like, and you! And it’s finished already? No! It can’t be!”
Judging by how devastated she was, Kokoro had probably been looking forward to this party a lot, even more than me.
“Can’t someone like you just get a friend to introduce you to someone? You don’t seem like the type who’d have trouble dating,” I said. Unlike me, Kokoro was popular. Did she really need to come to a party like this?
“I already told you that I’m hiding the fact that I’m an otaku! And I want my boyfriend to be an otaku too! That’s why I could never search at school or through my friends!”
Hm? But doesn’t that mean...?
“So I decided to be brave and came all the way here, but now it’s over.”
“So you mean,” I asked her, “that you’ve never had a boyfriend?”
“How are you still not getting it?! I want an otaku boyfriend, but I can’t tell any of my friends. Isn’t it obvious that I haven’t?!”
So she’s just like me? She’s never dated anyone?! I can’t believe it! That slutty-looking Nishina has never dated a boy!
She still wasn’t my type at all, but at least I felt like we had something in common. We both wanted to find someone with the same otaku hobbies as us, but couldn’t find a date at school.
An asocial boy and a popular girl, facing the same problem. What a joke.
Sad and disappointed, we started walking toward the station.
“Say, Ichigaya... Do you have any otaku friends?” she asked me, her eyes shining with newfound optimism.
Does she hope that I can introduce her to a potential boyfriend? She’s even more desperate than I thought.
“I have a friend at school, a few online, and then some from back in middle school.”
“Oh!” She was already excited. Shallow gyaru.
If all that she was looking for in a boyfriend was his otaku taste then I’d have no problem introducing her to someone. But...
“Let me ask you something though. Exactly what kind of guy are you thinking about?”
“Well... He has black hair and doesn’t catch the eye but he’s actually good-looking. He takes care of himself, he’s kind of aloof but really kind to his girlfriend. He’s great at games and is certainly not a casual. He has to be, like, a real otaku. He doesn’t mind if his girlfriend is into really deep stuff or BL, and, possibly, he even likes that stuff himself. He’s loyal, he’s thin and tall, he’s up to cosplaying with me...”
“Otaku like that don’t exist!” I interrupted her.
Her expectations are way too high!
“No way! I’m sure there are lots of them! I’m not asking for a model or anything. And I’d be fine with someone who’s not quite handsome, in that male voice actor sort of way.”
“Are you dissing male voice actors?”
“Fine then, you tell me. What kind of girlfriend are you looking for? Earlier you said that there were no cute girls, as if you’re fashion magazine material or something.”
We’d argued all the way to the Showa-Dori entrance of Akihabara station, so we moved away from the crowd, continuing our discussion next to one of the columns.
“What kind of girl? Let’s see...” My imagination ran wild as I conjured up the image of my dream girl.
“She has to be a beautiful, innocent kind of girl who likes the same stuff as I do. You know, like anime, gacha games, and other things with cute girls in them. Not BL or otome games. Also, she should be kind and caring, have long black hair, pale, fair skin and be shorter than average. Preferably my age or younger. She should never have dated, shouldn’t have any male friends and...”
“Are you dumb?”
“Huh?!” I didn’t understand what she was trying to say. Dumb? Me? Why?