4: Even seemingly unbeatable bosses have weak points

4

Even seemingly unbeatable bosses have weak points

During the first-period break on the day Nakamura came back, Hinami, Izumi, and I joined his group by the back window to finish our conversation from earlier. We were chatting noisily when a loud shout exploded from the front of the classroom.

“So you finally decided to come back, huh, Shuji? Don’t you think a week is a little too much to skip?”

It was Erika Konno. She was sitting cross-legged on top of her desk, cackling like a classic trendsetter.

“Guess I felt like coming today,” Nakamura shot back, and there was some weight behind it.

Erika Konno climbed down from her desk and walked straight up to him with two members of her posse.

“Seriously, though, why were you out for so long? Just tired of school?”

Konno’s friends blended into our group by the back window, meaning the new group was made up of Hinami, Nakamura, Mizusawa, Takei, Izumi, Erika Konno, her two hangers-on, and me. Nine of us, and I was the only bottom-tier character. All of a sudden, I felt totally out of place, and I was getting the sense that I shouldn’t say anything.

“Yeah, kinda. As long as I make it to third year, I’m good, right?” Nakamura said intimidatingly. It was like the showdown in the old principal’s office. Konno and Nakamura were terrifying when they talked to each other…

This was max difficulty here. As far as what I could do here—well, observation was about it. I wanted to join in on the conversation, but that was obviously impossible. I mean, I went off on the queen before, and I hadn’t talked to her since. Shit. Wish I could just slip away from this little meeting.

“Why’s Tomozaki here? Kinda out of place.”

Just as all those thoughts were running through my head, Konno put me right in my bottom-tier place. Ugh, stop it. I know I don’t fit in. I want to disappear; you don’t have to rub salt in the wound . Her words got to me because I more or less agreed. Or… Erika Konno-san, you aren’t still mad about that fight, are you? Figures. I gave you hell.

“Sh-shut up. I’m not out of place. I’m right here.”

I guess my gamer’s hatred of losing took control and made me want to fight back a little, and I had been practicing messing with people. And that’s how I ended up saying something really dumb. I think that was the world’s dumbest response to being told I was out of place.

“…Huh?”

When she turned her frown on me, all my fighting spirit evaporated. I was like a deer in the headlights. Like a random NPC when the dragon attacks. No chance of survival. Welp, I’m screwed.

Mizusawa smiled and pointed at Konno’s hair.

“Hey, Erika, did you curl your hair yourself?”

“Oh, can you tell? You’re sharp, Takahiro.” She petted her hair.

“What can I say? You’re almost as good as me.”

“What?! Shut up!”

The conversation rolled on smoothly. Nice one, Mizusawa. He’d pushed her buttons on her favorite topic—beauty—added just the right dash of teasing, and expertly seized control of the conversation. As I was replaying the series of events in my head, I realized something. That analysis was a sign of some fairly significant improvement. I’d been working on observation day in and day out lately, which was probably why I was noticing this little stuff.

“What, too cheap to pay for a perm?” Nakamura said.

“Huh? I’d rather spend the money on clothes. Right, Yuzu?”

“Yeah, we went shopping together the other day! I keep buying so much stuff, it’s crazy…”

“I get you! I’m like that with food…,” Hinami said.

“You mean cheese, right?” Mizusawa teased.

“Ah-ha-ha, nooo, don’t share my secrets!”

“Seriously! You eat so much cheese whenever we go anywhere!” Takei jumped in.

The conversation hurtled on. I couldn’t join in, so I focused all my energy on observing. As I watched the eight of them talk, I picked up on a couple of points. It was mostly vague stuff like who was looking where, the combination of what they were saying and their body language, and various inferences based on information I’d already collected. But still…

If what I noticed was right, I had the feeling that I’d finally found the last key to clearing Hinami’s assignment.

* * *

During the break before we went to class in another room, I went to the library for the first time in ages. Lately, I’d been busy with my assignment, and I had the option of seeing Kikuchi-san on the weekends, so I hadn’t been here in a while. Today, though, I wanted to talk to her about something.

I slowly pushed open the door and looked inside. She was sitting at her usual table in her usual chair, quietly reading a book. When she was surrounded by books, she had a uniquely intellectual, holy presence that was also a warm and pure presence. Like there was a sacred flame burning in her—that was probably the easiest way to put it. Kikuchi-san wasn’t in the library; the library had arisen with her at its center. At least, that’s how it felt to me.

As I stepped into her world, our eyes met. I walked slowly and calmly up to her, sat down next to her, paused to take a breath, and then looked her in the eye again. Her kind smile, peaceful as the night sky in autumn, struck something deep in my soul.

“…Hi.”

She greeted me with a voice like the soft tapping of fingernails on a church bell—delicate and profound but also elegant and welcoming.

“…Hi.”

My voice began with a quiet breath delicately vibrating my vocal cords, amplified in the resonant chambers of my throat and nose.

By the way, the reason I’m describing my voice in terms of the body’s physical structure is because coming here alone feels like coming home to Kikuchi-san—it feels like I can finally relax.

“It’s good that Nakamura-kun is back,” Kikuchi-san said with a gentle smile. I nodded, thinking about how observant she was with our class.

“Yeah,” I said.

Kikuchi-san smiled mischievously. “And you had a hand in that, didn’t you?”

Her tone was teasing but warm. Recently, she’d been doing that a lot. The impression wasn’t devilish or angelic—just very human. Very Kikuchi-san. It made me happy because I could tell she was opening her heart to me.

“Yeah, you could say that…”

“Hee-hee…I thought so,” she said, smiling brightly and nodding slowly in an almost loving way, like she was affirming my whole self. “Good job.”

Wrapped in her motherly aura, like getting a pat on the head, I could feel the bashfulness coming on, and I started talking in order to hide it.

“B-but…it was really Izumi who did all the work.”

“Izumi-san…”

She rested her chin softly on the top edge of her book and looked up, thinking quietly.

“…What’s the matter?” I asked, still a ball of nerves. She blushed and glanced around. A few people were sitting nearby. She pressed her book to her lips and brought her face to my ear, like she was about to tell me a secret.

“Izumi-san and Nakamura-kun like each other, don’t they?”

Thanks to her breathy, incredibly delicate whisper, my right and left brains instantly melted together so that all I could do was nod mechanically.

“Yeah.”

My overheated neurons barely managed to produce a single, monotone syllable before creaking to a halt. My MP (mental points) was dropping to zero, or maybe I should say the healing power had been too much for me and just wiped it out… I dunno, man. I have no idea what I’m talking about.

Kikuchi-san hugged her book to her chest and giggled.

“I hope it goes well for them. I’m a bit envious.”

Her good-willed smile was pure and honest, and her own yearning for love was completely noble. Thank you, Kikuchi-san’s parents—thank you, planet Earth, for giving birth to this girl. These were the thoughts passing through my mind with utter seriousness as I watched her smile. More accurately speaking, these were the thoughts I was trying to focus on to cool down my overheated face.

Funnily enough, Nakamura was one of the topics I’d wanted to ask her about today. I refocused my attention on the business at hand.

“Um…can I get your opinion about something?”

* * *

After school that day, I headed to Sewing Room #2. It was the first time Hinami and I had met alone since Nakamura came back to school.

“Now that the Nakamura situation has been sorted out, I’d like to quickly review that and then focus on the Konno assignment.” Hinami sighed, stroking the hair resting on her shoulders. I bet the stress from all that illogical planning was building up in her.

“Gotcha. Well, the route may not have been the most rational, but the outcome was fantastic,” I answered, needling her with just a bit of irony. Hinami smiled like she relished the challenge.

“Listen to you! Well, you certainly did a wonderful job of leading everyone into wasting their time and effort,” she calmly retorted.

“Thanks,” I replied, just as sarcastic. “I did have a few thoughts about that, though.”

I wanted to talk about all this heart-following stuff, which was my top priority. Hinami’s eyes turned serious.

“Was all that pointless meandering what you consider staying true to what you want?” she asked provocatively, staring into the depths of my eyes.

I realized this was an important moment.

That time Hinami and I argued, I’d talked about what I really wanted . I was certain she was using this situation as another opportunity to decide whether that was something that was even measurable. It’s a common argument to say that being logical all the time is just suffocating and cold, but that’s emotion-based. If I said that, Hinami wouldn’t even want to consider my side of the argument.

I carefully organized my thoughts before answering her.

“Well, this is just a theory, or like…one of several possible arguments.”

“…Uh-huh.”

My proof-oriented tone must have gotten me over the first hurdle, because Hinami shifted her posture into listening mode and nodded. It would be impossible to prove my point unless I did it in her ring—with logic.

“Anyway, here’s my thoughts about what happened. You were making rapid-fire suggestions on how to solve the Nakamura problem using the most rational and quickest approach, right?”

“Yes, I was.”

“But Izumi and I kept interrupting you with our silly ideas, so you weren’t able to fully do it your way.”

“Precisely. I don’t even know how many times I gave in…”

Hinami sighed. As I suspected, the experience had exhausted her. My hope was that it was the first step toward pulling off her steadfast mask.

“Yes, you did give in a lot. But…”

“But what?”

Again, she gave me a look like she was challenging me, and I tried to break through my words.

“If you hadn’t given in—if you’d pushed ahead with your own approach…I think the problem would have taken even longer to solve. Don’t you agree?”

Hinami blinked a few times.

“…What are you talking about? That’s obvious. I mean, I wanted to wait until Nakamura came to us for help.”

I shook my head.

“That’s not what I mean. I mean after that.”

“…After?”

In other words, after we’d decided to start laying the groundwork to help Nakamura before getting his go-ahead. Even when we were taking a less straightforward path, Hinami had tried to apply her logic.

“Don’t you think if we’d done everything you said after that, solving the problem would have taken longer? I mean, you were trying to get us to convince Nakamura’s mom that playing Atafami wasn’t bad—in order to solve the problem of the Atafami ban, right?”

“What do you mean? Wasn’t that the problem that needed solving?” she said, as if it was obvious. But I just pointed back at her.

“Well, we never did solve the problem of the Atafami ban, did we?”

Hinami nodded twice, slowly, and smiled like she was enjoying this argument.

“Aha, I see what you’re saying.”

I nodded back at her.

“Yeah, I think you’re with me now. The Atafami ban was the source of the fight, but like I said, it was never resolved. But we were still able to get Nakamura back in school within less than a week of launching our plan. This was the shortest possible route to a solution—and one that your logic didn’t find.”

“Ah, I see.” Hinami raised her eyebrows happily.

“I think you already know this, but the key was Izumi’s desire to help Nakamura. And because he realized how she felt, he came back to school even though the root problem wasn’t fixed. If we’d followed your method, we’d have had to wait until that root problem was resolved to get him to come back. Your way would have taken longer.”

“I’ll admit, that’s fair.”

She was resting her chin in her hand, but her eyes blazed with fighting spirit. I met them head-on.

“You set these goals based on your own rules, but you’re unable to step outside of the rational approach. But when you follow your instincts and do what you want to do, you can find shortcuts that you wouldn’t otherwise. That’s what happened this time.”

Hinami nodded again.

“I see. So what you want to say is, your and Yuzu’s desires were effective in finding the shortest route.”

“Right.”

I nodded. She thought for a moment, finger on her lips, then smiled sadistically.

“I give you a score of sixty percent.”

I yelped with indignation. “Wh-what?”

She looked at me with complete and utter calm.

“Think about it. You’re trying to argue for following your heart over logic, right?”

“Huh? Well, yeah, right now I am.”

Hinami shook her head. “It’s weird. You’re saying you should follow your heart because it allows you to find the shortest possible route to your goal.”

“…So?”

Hinami sighed, as if to say You don’t get it?

“You’re saying it’s great because it allows you to find the shortest possible route. But you’re ultimately just saying it’s great because it’s rational, right?”

“…Oh.”

Her point dawned on me.

“You wanted to explain why focusing on what you want, on something irrational, is so great, right? But you ended up essentially saying you found a method that’s more rational than mine. Which makes you even more of a logical extremist than me.”

She was right. I’d wanted to say that by pursuing what you want, you could achieve something more wonderful than was possible through logic alone. In which case, I should have shown how it could give you something Hinami’s approach couldn’t. But without even noticing it, I’d ended up arguing that my way was just more rational, which was to say, I’d fallen into a value system that said logic was better.

“Y-yeah, that’s true…,” I groaned. Hinami looked at me, apparently pleased to see me speechless. Her smile was devilish and extremely amused.

“Well, you get the picture. It wasn’t a bad attempt. Better luck next time. If you’re going to argue for the merits of prioritizing what you want, you need to show me something I can’t get by doing it my way,” she chided, poking my cheek like she was my big sister. Ugh, shit. This is just embarrassing.

“B-but it’s hard to find the most effective method just doing it your way, isn’t it? Aren’t there some approaches you can only discover using my way? I mean, we wouldn’t have achieved the results we did this time otherwise…” I was refusing to admit I’d lost.

“Okay. If that’s the case, then prioritizing rationality isn’t bad in itself—we just set the wrong goals this time around. Sure, things turned out this way because I made getting rid of the Atafami ban my goal, but what if I’d focused on getting Nakamura to stop skipping school instead? We would have been able to take a variety of approaches, including communicating Yuzu’s feelings to Nakamura, right?”

Hinami smiled triumphantly.

“At least, I would have been able to,” she added.

“Damn…”

That was all I could say. She was right that simply by shifting the goal, she would have had a whole bunch of options: having Izumi call Nakamura to say she was worried about him, using the ever-straightforward Takei, or… Well, that was about all I could come up with, but anyway, she could have made a plan and achieved results just as fast as we had this time.

As long as she didn’t mess up setting the goal, she could reach the same territory through her extremely rational approach that we could reach only by chance through ours.

That was her version of “correctness.”

Some people made the mistake of setting goals in pursuit of mechanical, numerical efficiency only, so their version of logic ended up ignoring emotions entirely. And that made it weaker.

But the final boss, Aoi Hinami, mechanically and numerically included emotions in the calculations that formed the basis for her pursuit of efficiency, which she in turn incorporated into her overall rational approach.

In which case, she had no need for my approach. At least, not for the reason I’d just given.

Hinami tapped her chin twice with her pointer finger, looking happy.

“That’s why I gave you sixty percent. I’ll admit, your argument was quite a bit better than some others you could have come up with. Some people might slap together an argument by insisting something’s self-evident when it isn’t—like a religion or something. You made a genuine effort to prove your point. That was fun.”

Hinami’s little speech was getting kinda high-handed, but she had me beat.

“…B-but why’d you mess up the goal this time? I think you failed to see that Nakamura coming back to school was the most important thing. And you missed it because your thinking was overly rational, no?”

Hinami looked more pleased than ever as she responded.

“Oh, no… It was the opposite, actually.”

“…Wh-what do you mean?”

She looked at me triumphantly.

“I wanted to stop Nakamura’s mother from thinking Atafami rots your brain.”

She smiled sadistically.

“Oh…”

By pointing out exactly how her irrational feelings toward Atafami had led her to a more time-consuming solution, Hinami declared a decisive victory. She was just too strong.

* * *

That night, I was eating dinner with my family and thinking over my assignment. I was fairly sure I’d discovered Erika Konno’s weakness by watching Izumi work to help Nakamura, but I didn’t think I could deliver a one-hit KO with that alone.

I would need another trick to help conquer her.

There was her desire for people to not look down on her, and then there was the strange feeling I’d noticed when Nakamura came back to school.

I connected all the dots and put the finishing touches on my plan, for what it was. What I ended up with was such a classic bottom-tier-character strategy that I was half-afraid Hinami would get mad at me for even suggesting it. But I figured this was the only way to take down a boss like Erika Konno.

My strategy was extremely simple.

If I couldn’t take her down with a single arrow, then I’d keep shooting until she finally fell.

I sat on my bed, organizing my thoughts and going over what I needed to do. Before I knew it, I was asleep.

The next day, at my morning meeting with Hinami, I went over the points I needed to confirm before implementing my plan.

“I’d like to review a few things about my assignment with you.”

“Like what?”

I mentally reviewed my strategy.

“At our meeting the other day, you said asking other people for help was a good approach to this assignment, right?”

Hinami nodded. “Right. Since Erika Konno is such a powerful opponent, there are things you’ll have a hard time handling with your skills alone.”

“Exactly,” I said, nodding. “…So about that…”

Hinami nodded encouragingly. I paused, then continued.

“Can I ask you to help?”

She looked at me suspiciously. “What exactly do you mean by ‘help’?” she asked.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to tell me what to do… I just want to ask you to do something, and have you do it for me.”

In other words, I’d be the one gripping the controller, and Hinami would be one of the characters I was using. I’d still be the gamer, here.

“…Ah, I see,” Hinami said, apparently satisfied, and paused for a minute. “In that case, I’m okay with it.”

“Oh, really?”

She nodded.

“Yeah. Just know I’m not going to say anything, even if I think your plan will fail. I’ll do what you ask me to, and no more.”

I nodded.

“Yes, that’s all I want.”

“Otherwise—”

I interrupted, pointing at her. “The assignment is meaningless?”

“…Well, yes.”

She seemed extremely irritated by my cockiness, but I decided not to worry about it. I knew to expect as much.

“Oh, but you care what people think of you, so make sure that’s not a problem.”

“Obviously. I won’t do anything embarrassing.”

“Good. Anyway, about my strategy…” I filled her in.

“Got it. I can handle that. I’ll start today.”

“Okay. I appreciate it!”

Now that I had Hinami’s approval, the meeting came to a close. Right! Time to lay the groundwork.

I headed to our classroom and looked around. Izumi had just arrived and was heaving her books onto her desk. Now was my chance to talk to her. This was the second phase of preparation. Plus, what was the situation with Hirabayashi-san? I wanted to ask her about that, too.

“Izumi.”

“Oh, hey, Tomozaki!” she responded at several times my volume.

“Oh, uh, hey!” I said, flustered, as she switched into a dramatic, formal tone.

“I am now the captain!”

“…Oh, wow!”

It sounded like she’d talked to Hirabayashi-san and taken over her role. A woman of her word. Now that she’d found her way, she was a powerhouse.

“So it’s all you, huh?” I said.

“Yeah, she was really struggling. And on the actual day of the tournament, the captain has to do stuff like trade out players and call time-outs. She said she was super nervous about that.”

“…Huh. So it was good that you took over, then.”

“Yeah!” she said with a strange sense of excitement. She was really wound up. “Oh, so what did you want to talk about?”

“Oh right. Actually…”

I lowered my voice.

“What?”

“It’s about Erika Konno…”

I told her about my strategy, and she frowned.

“…You think that’s all it’ll take?”

Not a very good reaction—but I’d expected that.

“I can see why you’re worried, but there’s more to it than that…”

I explained my combo strategy, which was the core of my plan.

“Ah, now I get it! That makes more sense. That could work!”

“R-really?!” I was clinging to Izumi’s encouragement.

“You should be more confident!”

“Y-yeah, I know.”

I could feel Izumi’s exasperation. But how was I supposed to feel confident when I was going up against someone as strong as Erika Konno?

Anyway, I’d gotten Hinami and Izumi to agree to help. Now I just had to tell Mizusawa about my plan.

“Well, I hope it works!” Izumi said.

I nodded. “Me too. Okay, I’m off to talk to Mizusawa.”

“Oh, you haven’t told him yet? I’ll do it right now, then!” she said energetically.

“Huh?”

“Hiro!”

With almost impulsive speed, she called out to Mizusawa, who was talking with Nakamura’s group.

“’Sup?”

Mizusawa being Mizusawa, he immediately slipped away from the conversation and walked over to us. Normies tend to be very decisive when it comes to communication.

“Tomozaki and I were just strategizing about the sports tournament…”

“About the tournament? Why? Girls and guys are separate, right?”

He looked back and forth between the two of us suspiciously. Their momentum was starting to overwhelm me, but I managed to pull my wits together and explain the situation to Mizusawa. “Uh, that’s not quite what’s going on. Actually…”

When I was done explaining, Mizusawa smirked.

“Sometimes I really do think you’re secretly evil.”

“Sh-shut up!”

He was kind of right, so I didn’t protest that strongly. I’d picked up a little of Hinami’s ruthless pragmatism. But this time, I was also trying to help everyone enjoy the tournament, which was what Izumi and I both genuinely wanted. Plus, I wasn’t planning to do anything terrible, so in my mind, it was fine. As long as the goal itself was honest, I was good.

“Hmm, hmm. Okay. So you want me to work with Yuzu on all this?”

“Basically. I hate to ask, but do you mind?”

“Leave it to me! We’ll be your mood-reading duo.”

“Ha-ha-ha! Okay, thanks.”

With that, I had all three of them on board. And my work here was done.

Yup, you’ve got that right. For this assignment, I’d thought up the strategy, but the implementation was totally up to other people. Or I should say, as a weaker character, I’d run around collecting the items needed to bring down the dragon and then asked a bunch of high-level characters to use them. I felt slightly guilty for doing so little, but I’d gotten Hinami’s permission to rely on other people for help, and she’d said anything went as long as I was the one holding the controller. I’d also gotten her approval for the plan itself, so all in all, it seemed like I was meeting the assignment’s requirements.

A sense of accomplishment washed over me as I sat back and recalled what Kikuchi-san had told me the day before in the library—and what had become the core of my strategy.

* * *

“Um…can I get your opinion about something?”

I’d asked her the question after Kikuchi-san whispered that she thought Nakamura and Izumi liked each other. We’d already talked about Erika Konno once before, at the café, but I had more I wanted to know.

“Yes…about what?”

She could tell I was serious; she stuck a bookmark in her book and laid it on the table before turning back toward me.

“Um, thanks,” I said. “Actually, it’s about Erika Konno again…”

I’d made three guesses, and now I was looking for a way to confirm them. It would have been one thing if I was carrying out the plan myself, but since I was relying on other people so heavily, I wanted to be sure before I asked them to help. That was why I’d decided to ask the observant Kikuchi-san about a couple of things. Guesses I made on my own were unreliable, but if someone else had the same thoughts, then the chance I was right would skyrocket.

“Hmm, what should I ask you first…? Okay, I’ll start here.”

“I’m listening.”

I told her my first conjecture.

“The other day at the café, you said Erika Konno cares about her friends, right?”

“Yes…”

She nodded.

“Why do you think that is?”

When Kikuchi-san told me Erika Konno didn’t want people to look down on her, she’d followed up by saying she did care about her friends. At first, I assumed she was just saying that, but thinking more about it, I realized Kikuchi-san wasn’t the type of person to say things she didn’t mean. Then when I saw Izumi working so desperately to help Nakamura—when I witnessed her kindness up close—I remembered a certain characteristic that the most successful people share.

Take the time Mizusawa and Mimimi came to my house and started seriously discussing the romantic potential between Nakamura and Izumi. Or the time Hinami gave me her bag but acted like she was “trading” it for a little pin so I wouldn’t feel guilty. Or the way Mimimi always acted like a goofball to protect Tama-chan. I’d learned from experience that normies, especially those at the top of the group, were often capable of genuine thoughtfulness.

Of course, there were exceptions, and maybe it was just a coincidence that the normies I knew were like that. But Erika Konno was the leader of a top-level group. From experience and from what Kikuchi-san had said, I might have found a possible route to success, no matter how scary she was.

“Well…,” Kikuchi-san said with a slightly troubled smile. It didn’t take long to figure out why. “For example, if someone’s making fun of one of her good friends, she’ll protect her friend by making fun of the other girl even more… And if one of her friends is rejected by a guy, she’ll pick on him…”

“Oh…ha-ha.”

I chuckled a little wryly. Kikuchi-san’s examples were a demonstration of Konno’s eye-for-an-eye approach, but I also realized she was right to say that was a form of thoughtfulness, too. Konno seemed to be attacking people for no reason, but she was actually doing it for the sake of her friends. It took speaking with Kikuchi-san for me to see that.

And that’s when my first strategy took form.

I’d get Izumi to tell Erika Konno directly that she wanted everyone to have fun at the sports tournament.

That was my first weapon. Izumi was a close friend of hers, enough that they’d been shopping together multiple times already. As far as I could tell, Izumi was closer with Erika Konno than anyone else in her group. If Izumi told her straight up that she wanted to enjoy the tournament, it ought to have some impact—and all the more so if Konno cared about her friends.

Simply stating her feelings might sound like an easy job for Izumi, but keep in mind who she’d be telling this to. This was a fairly difficult mission. The strategy was only possible because she had grown so much lately and gotten better at speaking her mind. The weapon was only completed when Izumi became stronger. I’d better be grateful she leveled up.

“Thanks… And there’s something else.”

“Yes…” Kikuchi-san nodded, and I asked my next question.

“Erika Konno pays pretty close attention to Hinami, doesn’t she? Y’know, as a rival?”

I waited for Kikuchi-san’s response. She paused and looked down, like she wasn’t sure what to say.

“Yes…I’d agree with that.”

Okay. I had my second confirmation.

“Thought so.”

I’d realized this on the day Erika Konno and her posse joined up with our group. I’d been observing the conversation between her, Nakamura, Mizusawa, Takei, Hinami, Izumi, and two of Konno’s other hangers-on from outside the circle. Erika Konno and Hinami had hardly spoken to each other. I had never seen them talking before, but the way they even avoided making eye contact was just weird. And neither of them was quiet in the conversation overall, which must mean they were intentionally avoiding each other. And that meant there was an invisible but deep-rooted conflict between the leaders of the two groups.

If that conflict did exist, I couldn’t imagine Hinami being the one to start it. The only scenario I could imagine was that Erika Konno initiated it, and Hinami went along because she didn’t have any other options.

I didn’t know if Konno viewed Hinami’s brilliance in every area with hostility or plain old fear, but she definitely held some kind of negative emotion toward her. Ultimately, though, if I took Konno’s pride into account, I’d bet she wanted to avoid taking an inferior position relative to someone stronger than her.

In other words, Konno saw Aoi Hinami as a greater rival than any of her other classmates. And that’s where I’d aim my second weapon.

I’d make her think that if she didn’t play well in the sports tournament, Hinami would look down on her.

I’d taken a hint from Hinami’s own approach to problem-solving. For instance, with the Nakamura incident, she’d planned to use her own good grades to improve Atafami’ s image. In the student council election, she’d used her achievements on the track team. All the effort she’d poured in beforehand produced major results. This time, I’d get her to use her high position in the class hierarchy.

All I had to do was ask Hinami flat-out to fan the flames of Erika Konno’s insecurity, and the plan was as good as done. I’d asked her to make little comments to Konno’s posse: Is Erika going to play? and If she’s not feeling up to it, she can leave it to me. I don’t mind at all! and Guess this isn’t really her thing, huh? If the message reached Konno through them, that should spur her on somewhat. Thank you, Hinami. I know the lines I’m giving you are kinda iffy.

But this strategy wouldn’t necessarily yield big results.

If Konno was able to avoid Hinami’s contempt by making fun of the sports tournament, she could get what she wanted that way instead. To prevent this, I needed my third weapon.

And so I asked Kikuchi-san another question.

“Also…”

“Yes?”

I thought for a moment about how to phrase it.

“Erika Konno probably still likes Nakamura, don’t you think?”

Kikuchi-san nodded a little reluctantly. “…I think so.”

Okay. All the pieces were in place.

My reasons for that guess were simple. First, I’d heard her say in the old principal’s office that she liked Nakamura in the past. Second, she’d showed her hand when he came back to school after his long absence.

The one and only Erika Konno had gotten up and walked over to join our group with no prompting whatsoever. It was strange for her. But when I thought about it, it all seemed very straightforward. She wanted to talk to Nakamura because he’d been away—and she wanted it so badly that instead of calling him over to her, she went to him.

This was my final weapon.

I’d get Mizusawa to smoothly drop a hint that Nakamura liked sporty girls.

It’s kind of an idiotic plan, but some people say the simplest strategies work best. I don’t really need to explain this one, right? The idea was to convince her that if she gave her all at the tournament, Nakamura might think she was hot. I had some qualms about using this weakness against her, but, well, sometimes the end justifies the means?

So that was my strategy, and I had a reason for using three prongs, thanks to what Gumi-chan had said at Karaoke Sevens. She belonged to the same tribe as Erika Konno, and she’d told me what was most important for conquering her.

“If you want to motivate the queen, you need to make it worth her while!”

In other words, cost performance was the key. Let me lay it out:

She wants to make her friend Izumi happy.

She wants to avoid having Aoi Hinami look down on her.

She wants Nakamura to like her.

Based on the information I’d collected, these were Erika Konno’s three desires. I just had to set things up so that through the single action of getting involved in the sports tournament, she could fulfill all three of those desires. Once I did that, the payoff for that one little thing would be extra tempting.

Even if each individual element was weak, the three of them together packed quite a bit of punch, and the cost performance of participating improved. And when that happened, Erika Konno, Gumi-chan’s fellow apathetic alien, would act.

That was my strategy to take down Erika Konno, made possible with the help of a lot of other people.

All I had to do now was watch how my three arrows changed the mood.

* * *

Several days had passed since I finished laying the groundwork for my strategy, and everyone had completed their tasks. Among the girls in class, the attitude toward the tournament hadn’t changed dramatically, but it had definitely changed nonetheless.

“Hey, Yuzu! Has the sport been picked yet?”

“Yeah! I’m going to announce it at the next long homeroom, but we’re doing softball!”

“Huh.”

“Basketball was popular with the other grades, too, so we did rock-paper-scissors, and I lost. But then softball was our second choice, and I didn’t even have to rock-paper-scissors for that one.”

“Uh-huh. Gotcha.”

If I told you the one asking all the questions was Erika Konno, you could see how much the mood had changed. She’d gone from being totally uninterested in the tournament to actively asking questions about it. Okay, so that “uh-huh” was a sign she was still pretending not to care, but I felt she really was just pretending. This was major progress.

“So who’s our pitcher gonna be? Yuki?”

“Uh, I played softball, but I was on third.”

“Yeah, but aren’t you the only choice?”

And in response to their leader, the other members of the Konno group gradually started to show some interest, too. Some were probably just following her lead, but my guess is that the others were always interested and had just been hiding it because of her. In any case, when the person who normally set the mood changed direction, the group around her immediately changed, too. This was the opposite of the Nakamura incident—when he was absent, everyone started dividing into new factions. When the central figure indicated a clear direction, the group came together.

After that, I could have safely said the girls in the class were excited for the tournament, I think. But while my strategy was partly to thank (along with the work of Hinami, Mizusawa, and Izumi), the cleanest hit surprisingly came from the fact that Izumi was now captain. Just when Erika Konno was starting to show a willingness to participate a bit, Izumi gave her an extra push, and the end result was a kind of synergy.

Also, if I was right that Erika Konno had her eye on Hirabayashi-san for some reason, then it’s highly likely that she was being so stubbornly unmotivated because of who was captain. When her friend Izumi took over, that had a big impact. I was so grateful for Izumi’s personal growth.

Anyway, all those little factors came together to make a big change in Konno’s attitude. Instead of using one hard push to turn everything around, I’d nudged her little by little and ultimately achieved a big result. In that sense, my strategy had the same structure as my general approach to life, and to lots of the games I played. Now I just had to wait for the tournament itself.

* * *

We had three days to go, and school had just let out.

“Yeah, it’s safe to say you’ve passed your assignment.”

Hinami was giving me her grade before the big day even arrived.

“Really? I’m already done?”

“Yep.”

True enough, in the few days that had passed since I saw her bombarding Izumi with questions, Konno had become totally wrapped up in the tournament. She had an inherent desire to be better than other people, so I guess once she gave in and started to do something, she felt the need to do it well. In that way, she reminded me of Nakamura.

“I doubt we have anything to worry about at this point…and even if everything goes south, I’d still say you passed after how much you managed to influence Konno.”

“Yesss!”

I pumped my fist without a hint of self-consciousness. Man, that was a long assignment. But it was a fun one—it really felt like a game.

“I hope you can stay this positive for the tournament, but for someone as out of shape as you, that’s gonna be hard.”

“Ouch…”

My spirits fell as Hinami put into words what I’d already faintly sensed myself. She grinned at me with satisfaction.

“Anyway, it was fun to watch nanashi put together a strategy. I meant for this to be a tough one, but you did a surprisingly good job of it.”

“Uh, oh, really?”

I was wide open, and the sudden pivot from insults to praise landed a solid hit. Shit, now what do I do? I was happy, though; I couldn’t help it.

Hinami must have instantly recognized that my guard was down; she smiled with a mature sexiness, parted her soft lips, and hit me with a “Nice work.” Okay, Hinami, now I know you’re just trying to embarrass me. I won’t give in that easily.

“So, uh, so what’s my next assignment?”

Fighting against her seductive gaze, I changed the subject. She smiled sadistically as I struggled to regain my composure.

“What’s the matter?”

“N-nothing. I just asked about my next assignment.”

“Is that so?”

“Y-y-yes, it is.”

She was intentionally winding me up with her relentless questions. Nope, I’d lost. I could barely get a hit in during this exchange. She really knew how to push my buttons.

Apparently satisfied, she returned to her usual cool attitude.

“Anyway, you’re right. Rather than waiting around to see what happens, you’d be better off moving efficiently ahead. I think you should leave Erika Konno behind and go on to your next assignment.”

“…Got it.”

I nodded, finally calm again. I’d had a break over the past few days as I watched my strategy unfold, so I was ready to go again. Bring it on!

“Now then, your assignment for the three days between now and the tournament is…”

“Oh boy…” I braced myself.

“…to devote yourself completely to improving your layup.” With the utmost gravity, she announced a majorly disappointing task in the most serious of tones.

“…Seriously?”

She smiled teasingly at my reaction.

“The whole class is excited for the tournament now. It would be a shame not to win, wouldn’t it?”

“…Ha-ha.”

Hinami’s smile was oddly amusing, and I couldn’t help laughing a little. Here it was again—her obsession with being number one. The boys’ team really had nothing to do with her, but I guess she wanted a double win for our class?

“I’m fairly sure the girls will manage to take first place. My work on the student council hasn’t really started yet, so I can focus on this. Having Erika Konno on board now is huge, and so is the fact that Nakamura is back at school. You guys need to get on top of this. Considering who you’ve got on your team, winning isn’t a complete fantasy.”

“You think so…?”

“Not that it’ll make much difference even if you do improve, but I’d like to shore up that weak point of yours.”

“Weak point…”

She was right, but hearing the truth still hurt. I wanted to have a good time at the tournament, but maybe it’d be better if I just didn’t play at all.

“But…three days of practice won’t change much, will it?” I asked. Hinami wagged her finger at me.

“Listen. You’re not going to be practicing every move in basketball, just your layups. If you focus on that, you can wait by the basket for someone to pass you the ball at the right moment and toss it in. It’s not a typical position, but that’s fine. There probably won’t even be real man-to-man defense in the tournament.”

I couldn’t help smiling at her bizarre but weirdly practical strategy.

“Okay, I get it…but is this really the assignment you want to give me? I mean, everything else has had to do with social stuff.”

Hinami smiled smugly.

“What are you talking about? This is going to help on that front, too.”

“Really?”

Hinami answered in her usual rational tone. “You can finally join in on conversations with Nakamura’s group, but you’re still mostly incapable of talking to more than half the kids in our class. I heard Tachibana even forgot your name the other day.”

“Uh…”

So my classmates still saw me that way.

“You already have the skills to speak normally with the other guys in class; you just haven’t had the opportunity. I know three days is a lot to spend on something completely unrelated to communication skills, but remember this is like taking a shortcut to making conversation opportunities. It’s not an entirely inefficient thing to do.”

Hinami smiled proudly.

“Um…so you want me to practice layups and find a role to play in the tournament so I can talk with the jocks in class…”

“Basically.”

So she wasn’t just trying to score a win; she was also thinking about my position in the class. Hats off to you, Hinami.

“Plus, you should get some EXP from the new environment this assignment creates.”

“…Oh right.”

I thought back a couple of days to the incident with Tachibana-kun. He’d joined our conversation for the first time, and I’d gotten so nervous that the whole series of exchanges felt like uncharted territory. It really lit a fire under my butt. By intentionally pushing me out of my comfort zone, she wanted me to collect more EXP on a daily basis.

“This will be a good opportunity, right?”

“Well, now that you’ve put it like that…yeah.”

I had to admit she was right.

“Anyway, I want you to start layup practice after school today… Remember, you’re aiming for number one.”

“Ha-ha…got it.”

Hinami told me about a park between school and the train station where I could use the basketball courts, and with that, my intensive training began. She would stop by after track practice to give me tips and correct my form. And make fun of my horrible coordination.

Seriously, though. She’s even found a way turn layup practice into EXP for my ultimate goals—just how logical was she?