Chapter 015 – Mr. Chen Yao, you're quite interesting.
The arcade is a place to unwind: rows of cabinets running the newest, most exciting games. After school, students flock here to forget their troubles—a little slice of paradise. That paradise was shattered for Chen Yao by a bunch of 'elite' kids in red blazers.
Three class leaders and a swarm of specialized elites had already crowded the modest arcade, turning it into a battleground.
"..."
Yukinoshita Yukino's brows drew together. Even as students of an ordinary top-tier high school, they could feel how hopelessly addicted these rivals were to conflict.
"All right, ignore the ones who aren't even playing. Sobu High exchange student, do you know why Japan's number-one school, Koudo Ikusei High, keeps an arcade on campus? Games mix strategy and skill; they're both relaxation and a kind of battlefield."
Ryuuen Kakeru lounged back, dropped a coin, and flashed a combative grin as he explained.
"Yeah, that makes sense."
Chen Yao heard nothing objectionable and nodded.
"Unlike you lot—sons of mere lawyers, daughters of prefectural councillors, content with the middle class—the competition here is hellish. Everyone who leaves aims for the very top. That's the difference."
Ryuuen's off-hand words carried barbs; Yukinoshita Yukino and Hayato Hayama's expressions froze.
Yet Chen Yao noticed that, for all Ryuuen's arrogance, every character he picked was a classic PK fighter. The guy had stubborn principles in gaming, not some shameless button-masher, and Chen Yao's interest revived.
The match began. Hachiman Hikigaya and Shizuka Hiratsuka flanked Chen Yao to watch; Ryuuen's two sidekicks focused just as hard. For a moment it felt like any normal arcade.
"Honestly, playing games before rehearsal—no tension at all. Typical public schools..."
Katsuragi Kohei, ever serious, sighed in resignation.
Sakayanagi Arisu disagreed. "I think Dragon Boy has a point. A mere pastime, yes—but without knowing your opponent, how do you read their habits, bait their moves, test reflexes and execution? Otherwise international tournaments wouldn't draw such fanatics. I'm not saying good gamers are geniuses, but smart people do learn games faster—and you glimpse how they think."
Katsuragi studied the board: Sobu's top student Chen Yao versus Ryuuen. Just as Sakayanagi claimed, the duel was layered—feinting meter, luring attacks, even sacrificing a character to probe the enemy's mindset. It looked almost like a chess match.
After two probing rounds ending one-for-one, Chen Yao turned up the heat. Ryuuen's fighter fell into crisis. Everyone could see Chen had mapped Ryuuen's patterns. Though Ryuuen clung on by dumping meter, four rounds later his entire roster was wiped.
"Nice going!"
Shizuka Hiratsuka and Hachiman cheered; behind them Yuihama and Kagaribi no Kiriue celebrated like King of Fighters corner characters.
"Tch… damn it, how!?"
Ryuuen slammed the cabinet—his pet game, and he'd never lost this badly in his life.
"Looks like a thorough defeat, Dragon Boy."
Sakayanagi smiled with faint mockery.
"That's the second time you've called me that. Say it again and I won't be polite, Sakayanagi Arisu." Ryuuen rose, stood over her, and glared.
She didn't flinch. "Relax; it's only a game. You lost patience for victory from the first round. Seems you're short on patience in reality and in here, Dragon Boy—"
Ryuuen lashed out with a sweeping kick. An older boy behind Sakayanagi moved to block, but Chen Yao slid in football-style and caught the kick on his forearm. Ryuuen's shin met a pillar of bone; he yelped, crashed to the floor.
"Don't be a sore loser. Losing a game costs you nothing; losing your temper costs character and pride. Threatening a girl because you lost once proves you're small-time. If you want a rematch, come find me—anytime."
Chen Yao's wrist was unscathed; he hadn't even felt real force—just a scare tactic. After all, most students assume a boy won't hit a girl.
Everyone blinked: Ryuuen had kicked Chen's arm, yet Ryuuen was the one on the ground.
"Ugh… Chen Yao, you bastard!!"
Clutching his leg, drenched in cold sweat, Ryuuen realized he'd been crushed in both his proudest arenas. Deflated, he let Classmates help him out of the arcade.
"Thank you, Gopher-kun."
Sakayanagi beamed at him.
Chen Yao sulked. Elegant Sakayanagi was smiling—what was so awful about 'Dragon Boy' compared with his own 'Gopher'?
Because Sakayanagi Arisu has a heart condition, Chen Yao didn't dare startle her and said nothing, simply returning to the arcade cabinet. Right now, however, Katsuragi Kohei—rarely seen playing—had actually taken a seat, ready to challenge Chen Yao.
"Mind if I give it a try too?"
Katsuragi Kohei asked politely.
Chen Yao was a bit puzzled, but he had no reason to refuse; anyone had the right to play on an idle machine. As expected, even after carefully watching a round, Katsuragi Kohei quickly lost. Next came Komikado Rokusuke from Class D, followed by Kanzaki Ryuuji from Class B who'd been watching—both were soundly defeated all the same. Still, they could all tell the transfer student Chen Yao possessed remarkable reasoning and judgment.
Among the crowd, a long-haired girl also witnessed the spectacle. She felt it was making a mountain out of a molehill; only boys would treat an arcade game like a showcase talent such as shogi, and she paid it no mind.
Hiratsuka Shizuka, Hachiman Hikigaya and the others could see that, although they were only playing, they were also testing one another. Chen Yao had essentially "made a name" in this impromptu gauntlet. While he was simply enjoying the game, the whole of Koudo Ikusei High School now remembered him. "Classmate Chen Yao, it's almost time—we should head to the stage for rehearsal."
Yukinoshita Yukino noticed as well and quietly reminded Chen Yao.
"Oh, right. Then I'll let someone else use this machine..."
Chen Yao lost interest and stood to leave.
Just then a boy walked in, sat at the now-vacant opposite cabinet, and asked in a cool voice, "Classmate Chen Yao, would you mind one more round? It won't take long..."
In an instant, not only Katsuragi Kohei and Komikado Rokusuke but even Sakayanagi Arisu stiffened. Yukinoshita Yukino and Hachiman Hikigaya were surprised by the sudden hush. Sitting opposite was a cold bespectacled boy. Yukinoshita Yukino blinked. "You're President Horikita from the Koudo Ikusei High School Student Council?"
"You must be Senpai Yukinoshita's younger sister. Mr. Chen Yao, since everyone's having so much fun, how about a final match with me?"
Horikita Manabu gave a meaningful smile and opened his hand in invitation.
No one could figure out why the Student Council President himself had come, yet his gaze was fixed on Chen Yao alone, as though no one else in the room existed.
In the crowd, the black-haired Koudo Ikusei girl looked shocked; it was the first time she'd seen her brother invite anyone to an arcade game.
"So, are you here to play—or to test me?"
Chen Yao asked in bewilderment.
"Heh, relax. I'm purely here to play with my junior—nothing more."
Horikita Manabu replied with a smile.
"Well, Classmate Chen, will you take the challenge?"
Hachiman Hikigaya realized how dangerous the opponent was, but since he was the Student Council President, he couldn't tell whether Chen Yao should accept.
"...All right, one more round then." After a moment's thought, Chen Yao agreed.
The two began operating their controls and started a match.
For some reason, the entire arcade fell silent; everyone stopped to watch the showdown between Chen Yao and their Student Council President.
To his surprise, Chen Yao found the President's skill exceptionally high, his judgment and analysis outstanding—an opponent he had never encountered before.
"Classmate Chen Yao, your learning ability is impressive. Even in an ordinary video game, I can see you learn far faster than others. It's not just from frequent play; you review and adapt in real time."
Horikita Manabu spoke while still playing.
"Surely I'm not the only one who's noticed—anyone who's played with you would have. You're... quite remarkable."
He smiled with genuine interest.
It was clear he truly admired the boy opposite him.
In the first round, Chen Yao's character lost by half a health bar due to a probing mistake. Just as he was planning a new tactic for the second round, a hand seized his arm.
"Chen Yao, it's time—we have to go."
Yukinoshita Yukino frowned slightly, looking uneasy.
"..."
Chen Yao hesitated, but seeing her expression he knew she didn't want him to continue. After a second thought he yielded.
"Sorry, President Horikita, my Classmates and I have rehearsal. Let's have that rematch another day."
Chen Yao smiled at Horikita Manabu.
"I believe your name is Yukinoshita Yukino. You've got backbone—certainly more than my little sister. Well then, Junior Chen, we'll settle our unfinished game next time."
Horikita Manabu also stopped. His cool eyes fixed on Yukinoshita Yukino like a sharp current, making her flinch. He smiled again, yet his words stung two black-haired girls present.
"..."
Sakayanagi Arisu watched silently as Chen Yao and the Sobu High group left. She had noticed how much influence Yukinoshita Yukino held over him. It meant nothing, yet for some reason she felt an inexplicable unease.
5:30 p.m.
[BOOM...]
Thunder rumbled across the endless sky above Chiba Prefecture; thick black clouds rolled and broke apart, lending the scene a dreamlike air while the air itself felt oppressive.
Sobu High's P.A. system droned that a cloudburst would strike at five, urging students still on campus to head home.
...
Back from Koudo Ikusei High School, Yukinoshita Yukino carried the Student Council's painted stage flats into the gym storehouse behind the school.
A damp wind kept tugging at her exquisite face and jet-black hair.
Even while working, every move the girl made could only be called 'a feast for the eyes'; her solitary diligence revealed a quiet, indomitable beauty.
Sobu High's Student Council is chronically understaffed—students here hate extra work—and with the performance only two days away, Yukinoshita Yukino seldom asks for help; she guards the props alone.
[Whooosh!!]
A sudden wet gust flipped the canvas cover off a flat.
With a soft cry, Yukino turned to retrieve it, but a passing boy was already bending to pick it up.
Across the rumbling sky, Yukino found Chen Yao—on his way to the parking lot—and for a moment the two simply looked at each other.
"You're still here?"
Chen Yao asked, draping the canvas back over the scenery.
"I was wondering the same—Mr. Always-First-to-Leave is still on campus?"
Yukino shot back.
Chen Yao gave a helpless shrug, hoisting the other end of the flat.
"I came back for my bag, but Devil Yoshida nabbed me.
Summer Koshien qualifiers are coming, so he made me throw a few dozen pitches to stay loose..."
"Sounds rough."
Yukino offered the off-hand sympathy.
"By the way, Classmate Yukinoshita, isn't this Student Council work?
Are you sure you should be watching all this alone?"
Chen Yao asked as they walked.
"The Service Club accepted the request, so strictly speaking this is part of the assistance."
Chen Yao frowned; he still didn't grasp why the Service Club existed.
In the anime he'd watched, it claimed to help the weak and reduce bullying, but Yukinoshita Yukino wasn't that melodramatic.
So why did she keep taking requests?
"Could you tell me what the Service Club really means to you—not some grand save-the-world ideal, but personally?
What does club activity give you?"
He asked casually, expecting no answer; the aloof girl rarely bared her thoughts, not even to Hachiman or Yuihama, let alone an outsider.
...
Yukino crouched, gloved hands gripping the board, then quietly said, "I want to experience more of other people's lives."
!!
The words nearly made Chen Yao drop the prop—she had answered, the ice-queen herself.
She glanced at the sky; the churning clouds mirrored life itself—murky, unsettling, yet fascinating.
"Everyone has a path to walk, good or bad, but we each get only one life.
If I could sample different journeys, maybe I'd understand life better... and find my own road."
Evening wind stirred the girl standing on the lawn; she tilted her face upward as though searching that shifting sky for her place in it.
Chen Yao fell silent; he hadn't expected the light-novel heroine to harbor such uncertainty.
"Mr. Chen Yao... have you thought about where you're headed?"
Yukino asked from the storehouse doorway, turning the question on this boy who felt both close and distant, curious how the lone-wolf transfer viewed his own life.
"Me?
Finish school, savor student life, then after college go full-time into manga—maybe parlay any popularity into anime or game production.
Success or failure, I'll walk the path I chose."
He pictured the future, smiling brightly at Yukinoshita Yukino.
She watched him, silent: top grades, stellar baseball, countless open doors—yet no hesitation, no doubt.
She envied that clarity, and the envy only deepened her own uncertainty.
Splatter—raindrops the size of peas abruptly lashed down, soaking them both.
"Mr. Chen Yao, are there any props left?"
Yukino asked, wiping her face.