Their Night Alone Together

「All right. Let’s do it.」

「Y-yeah.」

One day after school.

Nakamura Shuuji and Izumi Yuzu were alone together in Nakamura’s room. A little nervous, they sat on the bed, avoiding eye-contact.

「We haven’t done it lately, after all.」

「Y-yeah, that’s right.」

As Izumi replied, she placed her hands on her thighs, which were exposed by her short skirt, and fidgeted with her fingers. There was a stark contrast between Nakamura’s relaxed demeanor and Izumi’s fidgety look.

「Did you do it with anyone else since then?」

「Eh!? I didn’t, no way!」

In response to Nakamura’s question, Izumi shook her head in denial.

「Oh?」

「Ah, although…」

Nakamura expressionlessly waited for her to finish. Then, appearing slightly embarrassed, Izumi opened her mouth.

「I did practice doing it… alone.」

「Haah? Alone?」

Nakamura frowned as if caught off-guard. That reaction caused Izumi to feel even more embarrassed, and she averted her gaze to the floor.

「H-Huh…? Has Shuuji never done that? Doing it alone.」

「Nah, never.」

「Is- Isn’t it normal!?」

A faltering tone of voice. Seeing Izumi minutely wave her hands all flustered as if to blur a slip of the tongue, Nakamura made a wry smile.

「It’s not, you know?」

「Re-Really!?」

Even as Izumi regretted having said something so strange, she searched for the right words to say next. However, before she could find them, Nakamura spoke up.

「Yeah whatever, let’s just start.」

「O-Okay!」

Without regard to Izumi, who had already completely lost her pace, strangely calm, Nakamura slowly reached out with his hand. It was a practised movement, and it was easy to see that he had repeated the action many times before.

Izumi watched him attentively, gulping down her saliva. She let out a short breath, and pursed her lips.

Then, those fingertips made a snapping sound.

The game console made a whirring noise as it read the disc. A few seconds later, the screen of Attack Families, a.k.a. Atafami, appeared on the TV connected to it.

That’s right. Nakamura had flipped the switch of the game console containing Atafami.

「Still, if I recall correctly, you’ve improved a little bit.」

「R-right!? It’s the result of practice!」

「You’re at just the right level. Makes you a good practice stand.」

「So mean!?」

The two of them were of course gathered in this room to do some long overdue Atafami practice.

Selecting Versus Mode, Nakamura configured the rules and stocks, then chose Foxy at the character selection screen.

Izumi chose Found. This was by the advice of Tomozaki Fumiya, the Found user who Nakamura was trying to beat. Nakamura had readily accepted, thinking it was a good way to practice, and had no way of knowing that behind the scenes, that choice had been influenced by Tomozaki himself.

「All right.」

「O-Okay.」

With that, Nakamura selected the stage, and the match began.

A ninja and a fox landed on a narrow stage with three footholds in a flat area.

Izumi squeezed the controller with more force than necessary and watched Nakamura’s Foxy move.

The Foxy made a small leap and fired its ray gun. It hit Izumi without any resistance, but while taking the hit, by reflex she somehow managed to choose one of the moves she had memorized.

Izumi’s repeated training under Tomozaki’s guidance was to memorize the moves of a match between advanced players. Memorizing the flow of the game, and then learning how to use the controller in the same way. Specifically, she had memorized the match between two of Japan’s top two players, Tomozaki Fumiya (Nanashi) and Hinami Aoi (NO NAME). But this wasn’t something Izumi was aware of.

「Take this!」

Izumi’s poking manoeuvres were successful, and the attack struck Nakamura’s Foxy.

The efficacy of memorization lies in the fact that it allows us to trace the judgment of a situation when necessary.

Even if you don’t know why you choose a certain action, if you just keep memorizing the flow and and how it’s done, you will be able to reflexively execute something that resembles the memorized action when a similar situation appears.

Of course, this method lacked the flexibility for dealing with unknown situations, but it was still the most effective way to improve Izumi, who was just an amateur, in the short term.

This was likely the result of that training. Although there was surely a big difference in their respective Atafami histories, the battle progressed with the situation evenly matched. Both sides had only one life left, and the next KO would decide the outcome of the battle.

Izumi’s Found approached Foxy, using interwoven jumps and dodging the rays as much as possible.

Then, it reached the air above Foxy. At that distance where the next landing would close the gap, Nakamura firmly put up his guard.

This was an unusual choice for the aggressive Nakamura. Most likely, his desire to win at this critical moment had made him choose that action. It was a stable strategy through which he could guard against Izumi’s aerial attack and counter with a throw.

「…!」

However, at that moment. A certain scene from that memorized match rose to the surface in Izumi’s mind.

In that match, there had been an almost identical situation.

Izumi reflexively knocked down the joystick to adjust the distance between her and Nakamura.

Originally, she was going to unleash an aerial slashing attack straight at Nakamura, but that plan had now changed. She narrowly passed Nakamura midair and landed behind him without even firing an attack.

That had been a move chosen by the memorized Found.

「Wha…!?」

Nakamura let out a short cry of surprise.

Nakamura’s Foxy, which had been preparing to guard an aerial attack and execute a throw, involuntarily input the commands for a throw even while identifying that the Found had landed behind. Naturally, it was unable to grab the Found and the throw came up empty.

Even from there, the match continued to progress as memorized.

Izumi’s Found, which had landed without doing anything and thus had close to no landing lag, calmly turned around and grabbed Foxy.

In other words… the technique known as a『Cross-Up』.

Landing on the side behind your opponent to prevent them from countering you when you land. It’s a simple but important technique that can make a big difference in battle situations, considering that it allows you to avoid the starting point of combos.

Izumi hammered a memorized combo from after the cross-up into Foxy, and from there…

「Uh, um, did I do it?」

She secured a victory against Nakamura.

「…」

Looking unusually uncomfortable, Nakamura just stayed silent. As for Izumi, who couldn’t help but notice that atmosphere, she waved her hands in a panic, just as she had done before the match.

「…time.」

Nakamura whispered.

「Eh…?」

Unable to make out what he was saying, Izumi asked him to repeat himself, upon which Nakamura looked at her with a deeply frustrated, but serious expression.

「Yuzu, let’s do it one more time.」

Despite being caught off guard, Izumi nodded, feeling as if she were an adult looking after a brat.

「Yeah!」

And so, their night alone together continued.