Room Romantics

“I’ve beaten you like thirty times, give up!” Misako yelled.

“Never! A soldier never quits!” I replied.

Misako and I battled one another in her room, once again. Misako placed a bet that if I could beat her once, she would have to buy me a new manga. If I gave up on the challenge, I would have to listen to any command from her. Missus Takahashi made us some late-night snacks, and we gamed into the early hours of Saturday morning. Hiroshi went to Yuta house for a sleepover, leaving us to game in peace. As we battled on, I lost fight after fight against Misako. She was on the floor with me as we played together, and somewhere halfway through our gaming night, I felt her lean her shoulder against mine. I didn’t mind that she did so, she was warm. We kept our shoulders together; I didn’t want them to separate. I thought about inching myself a few millimetres closer to her, but I was too embarrassed to do so.

“I’m getting bored…” Misako said as she beat my character to a pulp.

“What should we do next? I’m not tired.” I replied.

“I dunno…I’m not tired as well.”

We paused the game, putting the controllers down. I stood up, taking the laptop that sat on her table.

“What’re you going to do with Hitomi’s laptop?” She asked me.

“I’m going to try some passwords myself.” I spoke.

I sat back down beside her, booting up the device. It was slow and clunky, a relic of the past. But a relic we needed to preserve. As I continued to wait for the laptop to boot to the home screen, I could feel Misako rest her shoulder against mine once again. I did not dare mention her actions out loud.

“Let’s think… What other interests did she have?” I asked aloud.

“Not too many; she liked music, a few television shows, and videogames. Those were the hobbies she had immense love for.” Misako stated.

I tried some passwords, thinking of as many as I could. Thankfully, the laptop had no restriction on how many attempts you had, or else Misako would have locked herself out of the laptop years ago. Going through a library of music, artists, names, places, videogame names, television shows. I tried as many as I could think of. Misako said nothing, merely watching me try to get in.

“It’s no use…” I exclaimed after minutes of trying to guess the password.

“Maybe we will never get in.” Misako stated.

“Never say never.”

Misako picked up a controller, switching the game to another at the press of a few buttons.

“What’re you going to play?” I asked her.

“Some game that’s a rip-off of…” She halted herself from finishing her sentence.

I turned to her, confused.

“Finish your sentence, a rip-off of what game?” I asked her.

“I-I don’t think I should say it.” She replied.

“What? Why?”

“You got those shakes and a headache after we spoke about it in Akihabara, don’t you remember?”

I thought about it, then noticed the lightbulb moment in my head.

“Oh, Human-Hunter?” I asked.

She threw her hands over my mouth, wanting me to keep quiet.

“Don’t say the name! Every time we discussed something from your past, you got those shakes and had that headache, not to mention you had a seizure!” She yelled at me.

I could not speak, as her hands smothered my mouth.

“Mmm-mmm-mmm.” I fumbled.

I took hold of her hands, lifting them off my mouth.

“I haven’t had a headache or tremors since my seizure.” I spoke.

“I know, but what if-”

“I already said it, if something were to happen, it would have already happened.”

We only noticed afterwards, but our faces were but a finger length away from one another. I could feel her breathing hit me. I assumed she could as well. We observed one another for moments, not wanting to move away.

“Don’t play that rip-off then, let’s play some old-school human hunter.” I said to her.

“F-fine. Bring your console into my room.”

I did as she asked. Plugging in my old MayStation to her television. I turned it on and waited for Human-Hunter to boot up.

“I haven’t played that game since…she died.” Misako said to me.

“But you’re fine playing it now?” I asked.

“I think wherever Hitomi is right now, she’d want us to play it.” Misako stated.

I loaded in my character, Lawrence.

“I haven’t seen your character model in years.” She spoke.

“I know, this is like a distant…distant memory to me.”

As my character loaded on screen, I received notifications from the videogame.

‘Abandon Guild? Last time since Guild Activity: Over 6 Years Ago.’ The notification said.

“I forgot, we were in a guild together…” Misako stated.

“Yeah, me too. Hitomi made the guild, right?”

“She did.”

“I want to visit our old guild-house, for old-time’s sake.” I said, hitting the options on the game to load our guild-safehouse.

“What was the name of our guild again?” I asked as we waited for the game to load.

“Midnight something…. Was it Crimsons? Crime? Creature?” Misako tried to recount.

I could not remember our guild name either. But as the game finished loading, the name appeared on the front of our guild-house.

‘MIDNIGHT CRUSADERS.’

The banner had a large clock next to the name, the number twelve plastered in the middle of the clock.

“Holy…” I stated.

“Hell.” Misako finished.

We looked at one another. We both had truly forgotten. Misako and I took our pocket watches out, holding them in view of the television screen. The pocket watch in our hand, and the clock on the game, they were replicas.

“The ‘M’ and ‘C’ on the pocket watches…they mean Midnight Crusaders…” I stated.

“She…took the design from the game.” Misako said.

“She really did,” I agreed, “She really did.”

A lightbulb moment. Without speaking, I nabbed Hitomi’s laptop and powered it on.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“The password- If my gut is right, it should be…”

Misako realized my train of thought.

“The GUILD NAME.” We said in unison.

‘Enter password:’ The computer screen read.

‘MIDNIGHTCRUSARDERS’. I entered the password.

And I clicked enter.

‘Welcome, Hitomi.’ The computer said, and it loaded the home screen.

Tensions rose as Hitomi’s laptop went to the home screen; Misako waited anxiously. The ability to use her best-friend’s laptop. It was nerve-racking. The home screen wallpaper was an image of our characters from the game Human-Hunter. Our characters stood in front of our guild-house. My character, Lawrence posed with a victory stance, Misako’s character, King stood on the ground cross-legged. Hitomi’s character held out their hands in the shape of a heart.

“She made this her wallpaper for her laptop.” Misako said.

“She really did love that game.” I replied.

“I think she loved us. She would never stop speaking to me about her being happy playing with us.”

I smiled. I wish I could have spoken to her. I handed the laptop to Misako.

“You should be the one to browse her laptop, it’s only right for you to do so.” I said to her.

“What should I look for first?” She asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders; it was her choice. Misako browsed the files of the laptop; some images were stored in one of the folders.

“Close your eyes.” Misako said to me.

“Why should I?”

“In case there’s something on here you shouldn’t see.” Misako replied.

“Fine…” I conceded, closing my eyes.

Then Misako grabbed my arm:

“David, look…” She spoke.

On the screen, a document of watch schematics were visible. It was the draft of the pocket watches we had.

“Is that it? Is that what she used to make our watches?” Misako asked me.

“I think it is.” I replied.