A Match

“Where is Juusaki?” Denji asks Nana as she enters the store.

“He left, but he is fine— woah!” Nana’s eyes widen as she sees blood on the floor leading to Denji. Nana panics, “Are you wounded!?” She rushes to him and finally sees the truth.

“No, that’s not my blood. Ubiki here is losing a ton of blood. Did you call the ambulance yet?” Denji redirects the focus on his driver while he puts pressure on the wound with a cloth. His driver’s leg is tied around with a Denji’s necktie, “Here, here, put pressure here.”

“T—thank you, sir,” then the driver groans in pain as he heavily breaths.

“Yes, I did. Help will be here soon. Don’t worry, Ubiki-san,” Nana assures as the sound of sirens begins to approach in the distance.

“So, about Juusaki…” Denji trails off.

“He went back home. He doesn’t seem to be injured. You can stop worrying.”

“No, it’s not about that… I just…” Denji shakes his head, “I don’t know. It’s just so—”

“Master, you can stop worrying now. He is safe, and you are safe. Ubiki-san’s safe. I’m safe. Just cool your head off.”

“How do I thank him?”

“He told me to tell you, ‘You’re welcome.’”

“This guy, Juusaki,” Denji smiles warmly, but tears flow from his eyes.

Juusaki returns to his room in the Kingdom Towers and takes a phone call, “Yes, sir. The situation is under control. The target is safe as well.”

“I see,” the same voice Juusaki called earlier speaks, “is there anything else of significance?” Juusaki hesitates, “No, sir.”

“You sure? Well, if you can’t tell me now, you can just tell me when we meet in the car. Good night.”

Juusaki then sets his phone on his bedside table. Tiredly lying down on his bed, he sighs, “Thank goodness. Denji is safe. I have never felt this kind of panic before.”

“I’m marking this as deviancy,” his AI speaks to him in his head.

“What you did earlier, is uncalled for. Now, where is the program you executed?”

“I am not allowed to tell you that.”

“Why not? Well, that question won’t matter. I know you won’t tell me.”

“You’d know. I’m in your brain after all.”

It’s the weekend, and Nana meets up with Juusaki in the center of the mall, “Denji says his thanks… in tears.”

“He cried?” Juusaki asks with a tone of concern in his voice.

Nana bobs her head, “Mhm. Gosh, it’s not as if you are hurt or anything.” Nana scans Juusaki with her eyes, “Wait, are you hurt? What are these bandages?”

“Ah, I had some light burns from the fire in the laboratory. It’s not a problem.”

“Yeah, but Denji worried a ton for you. And you will just shrug these wounds off?”

“Don’t worry. I’m being careful with them,” Juusaki looks around the crowded mall, “then? Why did you call me out here?”

Nana is caught off guard with his question, “W—what do you mean?”

“You called me to come to the mall and this is all you have to say? You could have told me this through the phone.”

“W—well, that’s true. But aren’t you a bit happy? I personally came to give Denji’s gratitude.”

Juusaki narrows his eyes at her, “You are lying.”

“H—how would you know? For your information, I’m not.”

“I have my suspicions, but if you have nothing else to say, then, I’ll be taking my leave,” Juusaki turns around and starts walking away.

But Nana stops him, “W—wait!”

Juusaki stops and turns his head to the side.

“I—I have a favor…”

“What is it?” Juusaki impatiently asks.

“W—would you go on a…”

“Hurry up.”

“Sh—shut up! Can’t you wait? Gosh… you just don’t get it, don’t you?”

“I don’t.”

“Don’t say it so—” Nana groans.

“If you won’t tell me the favor, then I suppose I could leave now.”

“C—could you go on a paintball match with me?”

“Paintball?”

“It’s the game with guns, but the bullets are paintball. You don’t know about this?”

“No, I do. So, you want me to duel with you?”

“Y—yeah, more or less.”

“Sure, but why a paintball duel?”

“I just want to see who is the better shooter.”

“I can tell you that I’m far better than you.”

“Tch, you can’t say unless you win! Could it be that you are scared to lose?”

“I’ll show you a devastating defeat.”

“Try me!

They arrive at a place with a sign over it, ‘PaintGun,’ and behind the desk is a window that displays the paintball battlefield with the fighters in it, though it isn’t occupied for the time being. “Welcome!” a staff behind the desk greets as they enter the doors.

“Can we play one-on-one?” Nana inquires.

“Yes, of course! But that will have a higher price,” the staff politely answers.

“Ah, that’s no problem,” Nana faces Juusaki, “Don’t worry. I’ll pay.”

The two enter the arena with their gear, the plastic helmets, the protective suits with numbers and letters are sewn into it that easily identify them. Their weapons are replicas of real guns loaded with paintballs inside the magazine. They operate as closely as the real thing. Each player is equipped with a rifle and a pistol having two extra magazines each. The ammo count also closely follows the amount the real gun model would have.

A whistle is blown signaling the start of the match, and the duelers start from the opposite corners of the map.

Juusaki confidently trudges the arena while he scans his surroundings. Nana, on the other hand, shows cautiousness in her movements, but she still stays sharp and professional, true to her experience.

“Where could he be? It’s too quiet!” Nana heavily breathes as she anxiously fidgets with her rifle’s trigger.

But Juusaki plays no games, for he has already taken an advantageous flank on Nana. The arena has wooden structures and mini-buildings scattered around. But they are equally distributed to each side making it almost symmetrical. “If I study just half of the map, I already know the whole map.” And that is what Juusaki did, to study the map silently to slip under Nana’s radar.

Using this knowledge, he can easily predict Nana’s route and movements around the map. And she doesn’t know that Juusaki’s already behind her.

“Having fun?” Juusaki asks in a loud voice, and Nana alertly turns around and starts to aim her rifle against him. But she is too late. Juusaki has shot his pistol to her face shield.

“R-1 is out!” a voice declares through the speaker.

“Gosh, dangit! How did you do that? How’d you get there so quickly?” Nana whines. “I won. So, this settles it.”

“No! No! I want a rematch!” Nana won’t let her pride fall.

“A rematch is fine, as long as you pay the fee,” the staff reminds.

“Then, another one it is!” Nana says enthusiastically.

But every round is always to Nana’s defeat. Juusaki’s strategies are significantly more cunning than Nana’s. But Nana’s aim does not fall behind Juusaki's. Her accuracy almost matches that of Juusaki, if not better. Yet, she still lost.

“Gosh! Couldn’t you at least play easier on me? I’m a girl, you know?” Nana pouts.

“Now you use your privileges as a woman? Where did your confidence go?”

“Sh—shut up! I don’t want to hear it! A guy who gets competitive against a girl! How does it feel to beat someone worse than you?”

“Ah, so you admit inferiority.”

“N—no! I didn’t! I was just saying, maybe if you placed a handicap on that cheat aim of yours, I would have won!”

“My aim isn't cheated.”

“Oh, really? How about that round where you literally shot me from the other end of the map?”

“I merely calculated—”

“You shot that with a pistol! A-pis-tol! Gosh, are you trying to show off by not using your rifle at all!?”

“I am not. Also, what is ‘a piss tall?’”

“Then why didn’t you use it!? And that’s not what I said!!”

“Are you ‘pissed tall?’”

“Shut up, jerk!”

“Well, at least it’s settled now.”

“No, it’s not settled yet! We will have a rematch! This time you only have a pistol, and it will only have one bullet in it.”

“One bullet?”

“Ah! Could it be that you are not confident enough to beat me this time?”

“No, I was just confirming. Sure, let’s do one bullet pistol round.”

They enter the arena again, but this time, Juusaki only has a pistol on hand with only one bullet. Fortunately, the shop’s employee allowed this absurd request.

“She wants to beat him so bad,” the employee looks through the window to oversee the match and notices something, “wait, she has a rifle! That’s unfair!” Even so, the employee didn’t postpone the match.

The whistle blows to commence the match, and Juusaki goes to the center of the arena boldly. “There is no point in hiding. This is a quick draw match.” Juusaki scans around expecting Nana, but she doesn’t show up. “Something’s not right.” Suddenly, a rain of bullets showers him. “Auto-Laplace Protocol.” Juusaki easily avoids the sudden barrage of bullets and gets behind cover while the bullets splatter their colors on the already paint-covered planks. Juusaki yells to Nana, “You have a rifle?”

“Yeah! This is your handicap!” She shouts back.

“This is unfair,” Juusaki mutters to himself as he quickly moves from his position. “Don’t think that you can catch me off guard this time! I memorized your patterns!” Nana says as she shoots in another direction which is incidentally where Juusaki is in. But he dodges right in time to get behind a wooden wall. “Oh! Hachi!”

“Who’s Hachi?” Juusaki whispers and moves into another area. This time he squats on the ground as he inspects his gun. “What to do… what to do…”

“Scenario loading… Estimated time: four hours and—”

“AI, it’s useless.”

“I understand,” Juusaki’s AI replies.

An idea comes into Juusaki’s mind, and he starts tinkering with his pistol.

Moments have passed, and Nana hasn’t found a trace of Juusaki, yet.

“This round is the longest one they have played yet,” the staff remarks.

Nana then finds a pistol’s magazine on the ground. She picks it up and discovers it empty, “Did he lose his bullet? Did he shoot it already? It couldn’t be. He has to be doing some kind of trick.” And out of the corner of her eye, a head peaks from a wall with a pistol aimed at her. Nana looks around for cover but is too slow. She strafes sideways and successfully dodges the single paintball bullet. The head with the pistol retreat behind the wall. “Hachiko-kun! You have missed!” She says ominously as she jogs with her rifle ready to shoot the place where Juusaki has been. She turns around the corner but finds that he isn’t there. “Juusaki! There is no point in running! You have no other weapon— ah!” She gropes around for her side but she doesn’t find her sidearm. It is stolen from her belt. She quickly raises her rifle in every direction and pre-emptively shoots, but only hits the wooden walls. Then, at the other end of the arena, stands Juusaki, with the stolen pistol in hand. In one swift movement, Nana assumes a firing position as she quickly aims her rifle against Juusaki and shoots rapidly.

Juusaki, only after Nana shoots her first bullet, raises his pistol, but not exactly toward her. “Laplace Protocol.” In his eyes, he sees the future trajectory of the paintball bullets. It is easier to dodge them in comparison to a real bullet, but Juusaki doesn’t dodge them. Instead, he shoots at the bullets with his pistol.

Nana couldn’t believe what she is seeing but continues to hold down the rifle’s trigger. Soon, the rifle makes a click.

“I counted how many times you have pre-fired. And it was nine shots,” Juusaki says in a loud voice for Nana to hear him.

“Then, I’ll just reload!” Nana starts to rdetach the magazine from the gun.

“And this particular model has twenty-two bullets in it. And now I only have one,” Juusaki then aims at Nana and pulls the trigger. Nana stares at the bullet hurling toward her, and it explodes as paint on her face shield.

“Woah!” the referee couldn’t suppress their amazement over the speakers, “R… R-1 is out! B-1 wins!”

Nana yammers as she is frustrated with how close she is to completely reload the rifle, “I still lost!? I can’t believe it! You only had one bullet! And yet… and yet!”

“I told you. I was better—” Juusaki gets interrupted as he gets nudged by the staff’s employee. “Man, you should have given her a chance. Make her win or something, can’t you? That’s not how you treat a girlfriend.”

“G—girlfriend? What do you think we were?” Juusaki quickly asks as he starts removing his face shield.

“A couple on a date… weren’t you?”

“A—a—a—a—a date!?” Juusaki bows his head to prevent anyone from seeing his face. A clicking sound is heard from a distance, “You are so annoying, Hachi!!” A spray of bullets hit Juusaki.

“Woah! Woah! Wait! Ow, ow, ow! It hurts! Stop it, please!” Juusaki says as he tries to avoid and block the salvo of bullets of Nana’s frustration. Juusaki’s expressions are mixed with embarrassment and panic.