Mexican Standoff

“He’s reliable, thoughtful, kind, and always willing to help.”

“He’s everything you’d want as a friend.”

“Ya gotta be strong and push through it, right?”

“Iwasaki-kun…. “

“Sato-san…”

“It's not just that I like you–”

I woke up with a startle….how many times are these scenes going to repeat themselves in my sleep? At this point, it’s either cringing from embarrassment or unresolved high school trauma on the menu.

This is Sato we’re talking about here too…. In her own words, she’s an airhead and a klutz, and then when she gets flustered, her hair flutters in several directions, the faintest of —

I must have sustained some sort of brain damage from the door incident.

I need a distraction…stat.

What time was it again?….not even 2 am yet.

If I keep thinking about that day, I’m not going to get any sleep, am I...

I flipped open my laptop and clicked a new tab…. I wonder if a certain VTuber is streaming now.

She is….

“DUUUUDE are you mentally SANE--”

On second thought, maybe a cooking video or a chill travel vlog…

***

After the karaoke event, many of the weekdays blended together through the usual routines; classes, studying for midterms, building the arm, with periods of having meals as a group or chatting in the common room peppered throughout.

For the most part, everything seemed to resume as usual—

“Iwasaki-kun, could you get that rubber tube over there?”

“Sure,” I passed it over to Sato, who grinned and started tinkering with the parts again.

“This part has quite a lot of rubber pieces,” I commented.

“Yep! To make sure Elise doesn’t get electrocuted, or anyone near her!" She lifted her arm up. “Imagine wearing a heap of metal parts with a battery and wires; without insulation, it’ll just be a giant taser!”

The thought of Lafon wielding the power of electrocution with this arm was more than enough for me to agree completely with Sato here.

“Good idea,” I observed her as she assembled it as one would build Legos; actually, if I ever said to her face that whatever she’s doing is like building with Legos, she would let Lafon electrocute me. Her understanding of these complex diagrams and procedures….she was the genius here.

And it wasn’t like I was completely useless here; I can use a screwdriver here and there, help hold onto the arm as she tightens certain areas….maybe I’m the kid building with Legos here.

As long as Sato doesn’t mind.

My arm brushed over the paper diagrams, causing one to slide down the table. As I stretched over to grab it, my ring finger caught the edge of the paper, and a quick but sharp pain jolted my hand.

I reflexively brought back my hand, internally wincing. A papercut, just my luck.

Apparently, Sato was also watching and stopped her progress. “Are you okay?

“Yeah, just a papercut…” I looked at my hand, a tiny red line grazing my finger,

“Let me help,” she rushed over to the little first aid box she kept at the end of the table, bringing out some bandages and rubbing alcohol wipes.

“Hehe, I used to get tons of paper cuts…Well I still do,” she giggled. “This first aid kit comes in handy a lot.”

I nodded. “Though the past few weeks, you barely needed it.”

“Maybe working with these tools over the years built up dexterity in these,” she wiggled her fingers.

She wrapped the tiny bandage around my finger. Despite her years of workshop experience, her fingers were quite soft.

I glanced at Sato’s expression of satisfaction, presumably in her work to wrap up my finger. A moment later, she also lifted her head. Too close—

I straightened my posture and returned to a neutral sitting position. “Thanks–”

“Of course!”

***

“Ita—daki—masu!” Sato slowly exclaimed as the four of us were about to eat.

Not bad, Sato. The study sessions seemed to be helping; the four of us had just finished studying for the day, with midterms quickly approaching…as in next week.

But as a reward, the rest of the night was to wind down and enjoy some ramen.

“We could play some party games on my game console after dinner.”

“You have it with you?!”

“Yes,” Lafon replied. “It was originally my brother’s, then when he got the new version, he said I could have it.”

Sounds like a typical older brother move after getting an updated console.

“That sounds like one of our classmates….I think it was Ryan.” Sato chirped. “He says he played a lot of video games after classes,” she nodded. “He even watches people play video games–”

“People do that?” Lafon raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah, they’re called streamers, like their career is people watching them play video games!”

I glanced at Watson, who smiled along. That’s the expression of somebody who knows all too well the topic, yet is struggling to keep a straight face.

“Interesting,” Lafon took another bite. “I know there’s a competitive part of video games, similar to sports, where people watch. But why watch random people on the internet play?”

“Hmm..” Sato was lost in thought. “I see your point— kinda like… in basketball, people watch the LA Lakers, not the LA Fitness Lakers–” Sato, what does that even mean?

I looked on with utter confusion, and she realized she likely needed to clarify her response. “Ah, LA Fitness is a gym in the States, so it’s like watching regular people play–”

That’s quite a perspective on it.

“Serina, aren’t you near Cleveland?” Watson interjected; she has spoken, and it’s to deflect the conversation on Sato, as Sato replied in haste. Effective!

Am I supposed to intervene here? What am I, the air traffic controller of their hidden professions?

“Anyways, what do you think, Iwasaki-kun?”

“Well,” I started, “streamers don’t necessarily have to be professional gamers to be entertaining, like watching a reality show.”

“That also makes sense,” Sato noted. “Iwasaki-kun’s explanations always seem to help, like when I compared cosplaying to Halloween costumes and you clarified–”

“Cosplaying?” Watson inquired. It was now Lafon’s turn to stare in silence.

I’m dead.

“Well, with that, it takes a lot of effort, since Halloween is more like buying an outfit from a store…” I pondered, thinking of a diversion. “I guess with streaming, it does take confidence and effort to put yourself out there on the internet.”

“Could you see yourself streaming games?”

“Nope,” I crossed my arms in an ‘x’ pattern. “Putting my face on the internet like would be too much–”

Sato paused. “There are ways around that…Ryan mentioned something about virtual streamers—or what was the term…”

“Is that what he was talking about…VTubers?” Lafon nodded. “I had no clue what he was referring to–”

Watson, upon hearing the term, grinned and kept quiet.

I can’t take this anymore– this is like a standoff– Watson with her streaming career, Lafon with her cosplaying, and Sato….well, Sato is really unintentionally instigating this debacle.

“I’m sticking with gaming solo, or in this case, the party games tonight…” I broke the silence. “Which I will win–”

Sato turned her head to me, eyeing me with suspicion. “What makes you so confident?”

“Just cause.”

“Well, game on!”

Lafon smirked. “When I win, I’ll make sure to buy extra desserts–”

“Then…I have to win to prevent that!” Watson raised her fists with determination.

***

Back in the common room, Lafon hooked up her console to the TV, and she passed out the controllers.

As Lafon turned it on, she scrolled through to find the game in question.

“Ah…my bad.” She fumbled the controls and ended up opening her friend list.

Which wouldn’t have been much of an issue, except for the first name on the list.

ChocoNyan.

I blinked. Turning to Watson, her expression was blank.

She exhaled. “Elise, you can’t be fumbling controls now, your competition's in two weeks?”

“Chloe, if we want to go there, go boot up your PC with your vtuber rig and I’ll crush you on stream.”

Sato stared at Lafon and Watson with both disbelief and curiosity.

I looked at both of them, just shocked.

“Since when…”

They both looked back at us. Watson cracked first, giggling, and moments later Lafon joined in; the duo were almost out of breath in the end.

“From the break,” Watson wiped a tear from her eye. “Sorry, Iwasaki-kun, during dinner you looked so stressed–”

“I enjoyed it,” Lafon smirked.

It was staged?!

“Huh?”

Right, so Sato’s the only one in the dark here with Watson.

After Watson explained it to her, with some video demonstration, Sato was caught up to speed. Still slightly confused, she was elated to hear about Watson’s streaming career, and Watson was understandably flustered by the fan-girling.

I closed my eyes, thinking about how strange things turned out on this floor. A physics and engineering prodigy, an international cosplayer, and a popular streamer, all living on the same floor. Having known this for a while, I haven’t given it too much thought, though there were times I had to question where I stood among the group.

I mean, sure, not everyone has that incredibly focused talent or hobby that’ll turn heads; I know it isn’t ideal to be comparing myself to them, but it is human nature for one or two intrusive thoughts to appear–

“Iwasaki-kun, we’re starting!”

For now, my special talent will be beating them in this party game. Payback for causing me unjustified panic at dinner! 

Lafon took something out of her purse: three slips of paper. “Anyways, I got these for you three.”

My eyes widened as I read the words written on them.

Three VIP tickets to AnimeTokyo.

“But you need to beat me in the mini games, of course.”