Side Quest: Memories of Junior High

When Hinami Hanabi started junior high, she was excited to find that one thing she could excel at. It wasn’t to help decide what she wanted to do in the future or benefit it in any way, even she understands it’s too early to think of that. She wanted something to help make her school days more fun. To find friends to share those memories with.

During the first few months, Hanabi tried many activities; track, volleyball, creative writing, theater, music, photography, floral arrangements, but struggled to find enjoyment in any of them. The happiness and excitement she felt when she started slowly decreased until she was no longer smiling as she left for school each morning. Exhausted, she decided that maybe it was best to just focus on her studies, a task she knew she could excel at already. Day after day, doing the same thing by herself over and over, boredom started piling up.

Then one day she randomly decided to walk through town before going home. It’s a common area for students as it has a few different shops and cafes. While passing an electronic store, she noticed a flier for ‘Starfight’, the hit MMO that was released a few years earlier. Although she doesn’t play games, she heard classmates at school talking about it, describing it as a unique and fun gaming experience.

With no other options at the time, she decided to give it a try. She bought the game and a cheap headset from that same store with her allowance before going home.

Later that night, after eating dinner with her parents and younger brother, she went upstairs to install the game. Since it will take a while, she did some homework in the meantime.

Once complete, she opens it and in the game screen are dozens of stars that all slowly disappear until you only see the clear night sky. Then appears the title ‘Starfight’. Mesmerized by the graphics already, she can’t wait to see what the rest of the game looks like.

She creates an account and decides to use a mage due to the pretty design. Hanabi hardly customizes her character as a result, only changing the hair to be long and bright red. Her username is where she struggles the most. After thinking for a bit, she goes with Flora, partially after the first part of her name ‘Hana’, and Mae, the name of a character in a book she read when she was little. With that finished, she joins the game for the first time, arriving at the Fountain of Truth in the town of Rayna.

As a new player, there are few fields she can travel to in order to prevent encountering a monster far stronger than she can handle. Having no idea what she’s doing, she already starts to regret making an account and simply wanders until she reaches the Voiceless Meadow. A beautiful, vast field with no monsters in sight. There are a few players scattered, but only one stands out to her.

A tall man with black hair, dark armor and a large sword on his back. She clicks on it to see the username ‘Hargrave’, a player at level 72. She then notices a button beside his name to request communication. Hesitant at first, not knowing if this player is even Japanese with a username like that, she clicks it and waits for a response. Discouraged after 2 minutes of silence, she steadily shifts her mouse towards the log out button until she hears someone.

“Do you need something? I usually have this turned off.”

It’s a man’s voice. He sounds young, possibly her age. However, speaking in a rude tone, Hanabi believes she did something wrong. Nervous, she quickly apologizes;

“I-I’m sorry. Your character stood out to me, I couldn’t help trying.”

Another moment of silence follows as Hargrave analyzes her character. “So you’re a new player. Are you looking for some tips?”

Hanabi gets excited that someone is willing to help.

“Yes please! I’ve never played a game like this before.”

“Wow, a completely new player. Well one of the many good things about this game is they make it easy for people like you.”

Hargrave explains that he has been playing for just under a year now and knows good starter areas to level up quickly. He shows Hanabi, only knowing her as Flora, around those areas, and forms a party with her so they can battle more easily as well.

After taking part in a few fights, he sends her a list of websites to read up on skills and spells, telling Flora to pick a few she likes. He suggests she focus on healing and defense since they are more desirable for parties. They ended up playing for hours, helping Hanabi reach level 18. As it reaches midnight, they finish up for now.

Having enjoyed spending the time together, Hanabi almost doesn’t want it to end.

“Will I get to play with you again?”

“Sure, I’ll be on tomorrow. You reminded me how fun it is when you first start, I’d be happy to help out some more.”

And with that they promise to meet again and log out. Hanabi places her headset on her desk. Feeling so much joy she can barely contain it, she giggles aloud and falls on her back in bed with the biggest smile.

“Hargrave...what a cool name.”

Hargrave and Flora played together a few nights each week, always meeting at the Voiceless Meadow. Flora caught onto the game quickly, learning some spells and skills when she played alone in order to be of better use in battle. Focusing on the one aspect of playing with Hargrave, Flora became the best support possible.

After playing for 4 weeks, Flora rose to level 53, with Hargrave at 92. It was almost scary how fast she was catching up, making Hargrave feel he couldn’t slack off. Playing together so often, they became known as a powerful team. It wasn’t just ‘Hargrave the Hero’ anymore, it was ‘Hargrave and Flora the Perfect Duo’. Many players wanted to recruit them, but they mostly kept to themselves just as Hargrave did before meeting her, preferring to play together rather than in a big group.

Back in the real world, weeks after first playing Starfight, Hanabi glances at her classmate. Sitting in the middle of class is Kiyama Seiji. He has blue eyes and short black hair, with bangs covering most of his forehead and the scar above his right eye.

She thought he looked familiar recently, but it took a few days until she figured it out. The eyes and hair are very similar to Hargrave, except without the scar. When she remembered his young sounding voice, she couldn’t stop herself from approaching his desk during break.

“Hey, Kiyama.”

After getting his attention, he looks up and is surprised to see who it is. Besides the fact that students avoid talking to him in general, he knows this classmate is very shy and usually only speaks when spoken to.

“I was wondering, do you play Starfight?”

Hanabi leans in closer, inches from his face, and moves his bangs on the right side to more clearly see the scar on his forehead. Still in shock, Seiji says nothing, simply blushing by the close encounter.

Finally realizing what she’s doing, Hanabi jumps back. Her face becomes bright red and she immediately apologizes before running out of the classroom. Despite the other classmates also confused by what just happened, they push the blame onto Seiji, wondering what he did to make her react that way.

Ignoring the chatter, Seiji raises his palm to hide his rosy cheeks, feeling slight warmth. He lets out a sigh as he tries to calm down. Instead of going after his classmate to clarify what happened, he considers that this girl, Hinami Hanabi, may be Flora Mae in Starfight, the new player he’s been with the past few weeks.

That night, he decides to wait for her in their usual meeting spot. However, hours pass and she never shows up. Confirming his suspicion, he gathers the courage to ask her the next day at school.

Fidgeting as the day passes, Seiji waits for the right moment, knowing if he didn’t do so today, then it would be all the more difficult to talk to her. He is finally able to after the closing bell rings, immediately approaching her.

“Hey, Hinami, can we talk?”

“If it’s about yesterday I already apologized.” Hanabi says while looking away, still embarrassed.

Slightly flustered himself, Seiji tries to be more specific and answers her question from before. “Yes, but no, it’s not that. Starfight! You were right, I do play.”

Hanabi smiles brightly and stands up to look him in the eyes. They both gather their things and walk to a bench out by the side of the school where no one else can bother them. They discuss how they found out about the game, why they chose their class, and why they enjoy playing so much. Even though they spoke plenty of times in the game, it was always about playing itself, not anything else, almost making it feel like this was the first time they ever met.

“Your hair and eyes, they look very similar to your character Hargrave. It took me a few days to notice. The only thing missing is...your scar.”

Hanabi wasn’t sure if she should have mentioned that, but felt this was the best time to do so. Hesitant to talk about that topic initially, Seiji then wonders why she chose to talk to him in class. She could have just continued with how things were in the game, keeping their identities to themselves, but instead she approached him which brought them to where they are now.

Considering that, he decided to trust her and tell her the whole truth. Being in the same class, she’s sure to have heard the rumors, but that’s only a fragment of his story.

“You’ve probably heard some of this already, but the scar was caused by my mom. Upset that she lost her job, she started destroying everything in our home and when I came out to see what was going on, a glass shard hit my forehead. I was bleeding a lot and she took me to the doctor, but that was the end of it all.”

As Seiji explains, he touches the scar and looks towards the ground.

“I never saw her again after that. Losing my family, bullying started at school, and I felt all alone until I found Starfight. Playing helps me forget all that, helps me feel free. I’ve even become so popular people call me a hero!”

Watching his sadness turn into joy, Hanabi can’t help feeling the same. “From the moment I first met you, I could tell how much you enjoy playing.”

Happy that this conversation wasn’t difficult in the slightest, Seiji then says what he wanted to from the start, looking straight at Hanabi.

“I hope...we can continue playing together.”

“Of course! I was just too embarrassed to log in last night.”

“I figured that out at least.” Seiji laughs, finding it silly that she even needed to say that.

With both of them in a better mood after yesterday’s exchange, they go their separate ways. After clearing everything up, they talk regularly in school and in Starfight, meeting as often as possible, enjoying every moment. However, it doesn’t last long.

A few weeks later, the bullies who normally target Seiji, switch to his new friend Hanabi. They simply stop her in the hall and threaten her a few times. Initially she was able to escape them and hide it all from Seiji, but then he witnessed a verbal attack on the way to class. Seeing Hanabi backed against the wall, clearly frightened, Seiji rushed over and forced them to leave before asking her,

“How long has this been going on?”

Hesitant at first, knowing he won’t be happy no matter what she says, Hanabi decides not to hide it anymore. “For over a week now. I didn’t tell you because–”

Enraged at first, Seiji just sighs and looks away. “Maybe this was a mistake. I’m sure this is why no one ever talks to me.”

Seiji walks away, making sure not to look back to see how upset Hanabi was, knowing it would make this more difficult. Leaving the distraught Hanabi with those words, he breaks off their friendship for her safety.

Returning to how it was before, Seiji keeps to himself in school, not talking to anyone, and plays Starfight as the lone hero Hargrave. He thought it would be easy, but after the weekend passed and the next school week began, Seiji realized how much he missed spending time with Hanabi. Leaving his lonely life behind was easy, but to have to return to it so quickly was simply grueling. Not to mention, he noticed the bullying still continued.

The following Tuesday morning, before the school bell rang, Seiji slams his hands on his desk, seemingly letting out all his pent-up emotion. He then shouts towards his newfound friend as loud as he can.

“Hanabi!! Never leave my side again! I’ll protect you for the rest of my life!!”

Surprised, Hanabi can’t help tearing up and smiling. Seiji then takes a look at the rest of the classroom to see many seats are full, meaning he made that declaration in front of almost the entire class. Frozen solid, the students start teasing him, calling them ‘love birds’ and asking if that was a marriage proposal.

Hanabi is unfazed by the teasing, too focused on how happy she is after hearing that. Seiji sits down and lays his head on his desk, covering his head with his arms, wanting to disappear in embarrassment.

After that incident, the teasing never stopped. Seiji and Hanabi became the big couple at school and they learned to deal with it, accepting it for what it is since they were just happy to be together. The bullying never stopped either, but just like he promised that morning, Seiji was always there to protect her, never leaving her side since.