Headphone Actor (5 page)

—No, this could potentially be very bad. What would we do if the one lead inside happened to be pretty faint-hearted?

The moment they opened the door, what would jump out at them would the extremely brutal shooting game set up in the dismal Science Preparation Room.

And the challenger they were up against would be me, gloomy and with unpleasant eyes, standing in this dark room …. No, I should stop thinking about myself. Honestly, I’d get depressed, and that was no improvement. I’d end up crying.

But even excluding me as the factor, as expected, it really was a game that would be a little rough for girls or kids.

I’d have to take caution and make sure that Haruka explained that part clearly.

The moment I stood up from the chair with a sinking feeling, the door opened.

Suddenly seeing light for the first time in several minutes, my eyes were momentarily blinded, and all I could see of the customer was their silhouette. I panicked a little, but judging by their height, it seemed to be a male adult.

It was rude to stay silent, so I started with the explanation that I had thought up.

“Ah, w-welcome! Our class is doing a shooting game! If you’re able to win in a challenge against me, then this fabulous prize—“

“I was wondering who I’d be up against, and turns out it’s just a girl. Even though that guy standing in front of the door looked easy enough to beat.”

As I was giving a cheerful and cute explanation with my best smile, the man smacked it down with those words.

For a moment, I was frozen without really understanding what had happened exactly due to the abruptness of his words, but I gradually came to realize the aggressive attitude that he was giving off.

“Eh …. Ah, um …..”

Due to this being the worst first contact and also because I wasn’t accustomed to socializing in my first place, my heart started throbbing at once, and my hands naturally started shaking. The speech that I had already thought up went completely blank, and even when I thought I’d still be able to talk, my mouth could only let out vague noises.

“Sorry to say, but it’s your unlucky day, girly. We came because it was our friend’s Culture Festival, and turns out there’s this fun-looking booth. He’s really good at shooting games, y’know, so we’ll be taking off your prizes, alright?”

As my eyes gradually got used to the light, I saw that behind the man that had entered first, was another, giddy-looking man. It would seem that these two were a pair.

“U-um, I’ll be doing my best as your opponent, so …”

Even as I felt sweat running down my back, I tried to keep calm, and continued with a smile on my face.

From the minute they’d started talking, I already knew that they were some malicious customers, but that still didn’t change the fact that they were the first.

I wondered if they planned wreck havoc for booths during the festival just for the heck of it. I couldn’t read the expression of the able-looking man with the sunglasses, but I could feel a devious attitude from the man behind him.

“Well, whatever. A homemade game is probably going to be shitty, anyway. Just child’s play, in the end. Although I feel bad about taking away the prize so early on, don’t lose hope, and think of this as lesson for growing up.”

As the man said this, he passed by me and dropped himself down in the challenger seat.

“It’s really too bad for you, since he doesn’t go easy or anything. Girly, you may not know this, but, he made it to the semifinals in the tournament for a game called “DEAD BULLET-1989-”. He’s also participated in a number of other tournaments, so if it’s you, girly, there’s nothing that you can—”

Speaking up until this point, he stopped his annoying rambling with a small scream.

That might have been because I’d stopped smiling to glare at him, or because he’d bit his tongue from rambling too much.

“Ta-Takaneee ….”

Suddenly, I heard a familiar, miserable-sounding voice. From the other side of the door, Haruka was looking this way with tear-filled eyes, and judging by his frightened expression, he’d probably been intimidated by these men.

With a hand gesture, I signaled for him to close the door. Haruka hesitated for a moment, but after managing a quiet, “Good luck ….!” he slowly closed the door.

Making sure that he had, I was once again in the darkened room, and walked towards where the booth was set up.

Sitting down in the chair beside the one the sullen-looking man, I faced the display with the title screen and once more, started to explain.

“Allow me to explain the rules one last time. This is a shooting game with a point system. The one that takes down the most targets will be the winner. There are different levels of difficult, so which level would you prefer?”

“The hardest one, obviously.”

“Understood.”

Pressing the select button on the title screen, I set the difficulty to “extra”.

This level was one that Tateyama-sensei had said was so difficult, that “if someone’s able to get a perfect score with this, they’re a monster.”

“Oi oi, wait a minute, girly. I’m sure you already know, but no cheating, got it?”

Before I’d even noticed, the gaudy-looking man had stood behind the sullen man, and said this in a slighter more threatening tone than earlier.

Certainly, that was something to be worried about. There was a possibility that they’d think we would change the difficulty for only our side of the stage, and furthermore, cheat with the points.

“Of course we wouldn’t rely on anything like that. Therefore, would you like to switch places with me? As it’s a point system, this way, there will be no complaints about who the winner is.”

As I said this, the sullen simply said, “I don’t care either way. Just hurry up and start,” and took off his sunglasses.

“… Let’s begin, then. May the best shot win.”

I tightened my grip on the controller once, loosened it …. then gripped it again. Once I was sure that I was feeling absolute confidence, I clicked the start button for the game.

As the monster enemies flooded out, for a moment, the top of the screen was filled with them. The time limit for battle mode was two minutes. In that time, the one that takes down the most enemies is the winner.

There were only two differences from single mode: even if you get hit by an enemy, you won’t be get game over, and instead become unable to move for a certain period of time; and if you’re able to destroy the bonus items, you can obstruct your opponents view with blood splatters

Other than that, there was nothing else different; it was a simple game where you simply take down the monsters that appear, but that’s exactly what allowed a player’s true ability to show itself.

Yes, there was nothing “shitty” about this game at all.

I had to completely wipe out this man who had looked down on this game, no matter what.

It had been one minute and thirty seconds since the game began. The point difference between me and my challenger was already so wide that he had no chance of recovering no matter how hard he struggled.

With my eyes focused on the screen, I couldn’t confirm his expression, but with his bluffs gone to this extent, he was in this miserable state. It was a rough guess.

Very calmly, I faced the enemies that appeared before me, and without destroying a single item to obstruct my opponent, I simply continued to shoot at the enemies.

The game buzzer sounded at the end of the game, and the screen showing the results pulled up.

However, perhaps because he already knew that he had lost, the sullen man stared dumbfounded at his controller. The man behind him, too, merely stood with his mouth agape.

It was obvious. To be able to continue shooting at that number of enemies without faltering didn’t have to do with the specifications of the game or whatever, but simply, the ability of the player.

After all, I had even dared to let go of the controller once and let the enemies attack me, so there was no room to make any complaints after that kind of performance.

“And that’s a match. Thank you so much for playing. As the rules don’t allow consecutive plays,

please come back after thirty minutes if you’d like to attempt another challenge.”

Even as I told him this with a smile, the sullen man was still mumbling the all-too-expected loser speech of, “This can’t be …. How could I have ….”

“Um … the exit is ….”

Just as I was trying to coax him into leaving, he stood up and faced me, raising his voice to a shout.

“J-just who are you!? I’ve never seen such an amazing player before! Just who …!!”

Listening to him say such overrated things had, honestly, become an annoyance.

I tried to pull him along as quickly as I could while telling a fitting lie, “I just practiced a lot ….”

However, the screen showing the results was too bright, and after he looked at my illuminated face and moved back, I realized that I had made a big mistake.

Earlier, the gaudy man had talked about the semifinals for the “DEAD BULLET-1989-” tournament.

With it being a nationwide event, it had been a pretty big turnout, and there was no mistake that it’d been rather packed with players.

From watching me play, it wouldn’t be a lie to say that I was fairly skilled. But, right now, I wanted that to be a lie.

“C-could be you …. LightningDancerEne-san!?”

—Things had taken a turn for the worst. If he was a contestant from the semifinals, and furthermore, from this district, there was no doubt that we had crossed paths at the tournament hall.

And what’s more, I had lost the mask I’d prepared for that day, and played with my face completely exposed.

In the semifinals, I had pulled off such a strong performance that it’d been called the “Dancer Legend” afterwards, gotten first place by a wide margin, and stood out to the point of being abnormal.

I was relieved that there hadn’t been a relay broadcast of those painful semifinals on television, but to think that I’d come across this kind of situation in a place like this …..

Since I’d been annoyed with these guys earlier, I had purposely put on a show to look cool, but with this sudden turn of events, my mind went blank again.

“Eh? W-wait, what, is this kid famous or something!?”

“Idiot, she’s not just famous ….! She’s achieved legendary scores at many tournaments, and the group that she’s the leader of, ‘Lightning Rondo –Eternal Rondo–’ even ranks in the top 3 in team competitions—”

“Gyaaaaaah!! You’ve got the wrong person!! That’s enough, please!! Please, just hurry up and make your way out!!!”

With the information concerning the secret I wanted to hide most of all being blurted out right now, quite simply, all reason had flown out the window.

“Ackk!! A-and what’s more, that play style from earlier is, without a doubt, Ene-san’s speciality, ‘Phantom Waltz –Holy Nightmare–’ ….!”

With a sensation like my internal organs were tightening, it felt like my face might start spewing magma.

I wanted to put these two in a drum can right this instant, and bury them deep in the mountains somewhere.

“I-I’m telling you, you’ve got the wrong person!! Ah, ah, please hurry up and get out!! I’m begging youuuuu!!”

Perhaps because there’d been too much of an uproar, the moment I threw open the door, Haruka burst into the room looking worried.

“T-Takane! Are you ok—!?”

“Gyaaaahh! You, too, 
get out
!! Everyone just GET OUT—!!”

I pointed at the door and screamed. Haruka included, all three of them replied, “Y-yes, ma’m!” and rushed out of the room.

I sat back down in my chair, shoulders slumping heavily.

I’d made an outrageous miscalculation. To think that my identity would be exposed like this ….

There was a chance that the sullen man would come back later with some kind of message like, “I’m very sorry for my rude behavior earlier. It was such an honor to be able to compete against you ….”

No, he would definitely would. It was probably wise to not log in for a few days.

—But then there was Haruka. It was possible that he hadn’t heard the conversation from earlier, but if he had …. I felt nauseous just thinking about it.

Truthfully, I was aware of it myself how embarrassing the account name was, which I’d made on an impulse, along with the “cryptically redundant circle” that I’d made on an even stranger impulse.

Furthermore, to think that even the play style name that everyone had secretly started using would be exposed—

“I have no choice but to delete my account and die ….”

Tears of shame began spilling from my eyes.

As expected of Haruka, if he found out that I was suffering from this degree of chuunibyou, despite how much I usually berated him for being an idiot, he would probably be put off by it.

Our friendship up until now would be broken, a distance would be placed between us, and finally, he would say, “Ah, Enomoto-san, good morning …..” This was certain.