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This works better than I expected. When I trained with Jii-san, I was in my [Student]-body more often, and I learned more about it. It may remind me of how I was in Japan, but there are differences. Like how it gained all the benefits of the hero-system. How even my meager improvements of [Attributes] like [Strength] makes it stronger.
Now I figured out that my hours of holding a gamepad back home may have benefited me in other ways. Holding it firmly with two or three fingers per hand, using commands with my thumbs and index finger, sometimes even middle fingers if that RPG had horrible controls.
You know what I hate? RPGs with real time commands and button mashing. RPGs aren't fighting games, dammit! Still, there were so many! Use this spell, mash the X-button like a maniac! Seriously, I have nothing against real time RPGs, but these commands are typically done in round-based ones, and I don't want to do that crap there! Or at all! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.
Unloading this anger, I use my thumb button mashing skills—greatly enhanced by my level—to bruise that bastard's thumb! [Iron Defense] is only for short durations and not spammable, so if I mash enough, I will get through every time, and even though he has regeneration, it surely pisses him off immensely, while also giving me chances to bring him down.
He tries another counter-attack, but gyrating my finger around is so easy. You know what I also hate? Rotating the joysticks challenges! They break, dammit!
While my sight is much better as a ranger, I remembered to put on my glasses, as I need as much of a clear image as needed to foresee his attacks. I also have a vague impression of his spirit, while it's not as clear as Ara-san's, I can at least notice when he thinks about an attack.
Another button mash from the side, breaking through his [Iron Defense], but he was trying to outsmart me by only doing a feint. My spirit-sense is enough to call the bluff, and as he tries to move the other way to meet my usual go-around, I use it to push him down.
Serious button-mash. With his finger on the bottom, my thumb is now in the exact position it would be on a gamepad. For good measure, I use a power-surge, one of the three super powerful attacks I have per day. “AAAAARGH!”
Yes, I seem to be able to use them in my [Student]-body as well, but only with my thumbs. I did it subconsciously, when Jii-san buried me, and it took a while to realize what I was doing, considering that there was the attack just after this.
That's the body I honed by playing games all day!
“One, two, three, four, I win thumb-o-war.” With this, the first round concluded, and the barbarian bastard holds his thumb, which I just broke. I can see how the bruises and swellings disappear, and his spirit becomes strange... is he using rage? Why not in our battle?
Ah. He can't. Or rather, if he does so, he will crush my hand, which would mean that he broke the rules. I'm pretty sure that only using rage on his thumb is too finicky for him. Time to antagonize him more: “What's wrong? Need a mommy-kiss for that?”
“Urgh!” He stomps once, creating a small hole. “You can use rage!?”
I guess that makes sense. Sudden power-bursts and everything. “Nah, you're just weak.” I don't believe that this is the kind of rage Jii-san was talking about, as it has nothing to do with being angry.
“Come!” He links his fingers with mine again.
“Go!” Jii-san gives the signal, and this time I don't move. He neither. Some may call it a battle of will. Others may call it a battle in our minds, trying to imagine every move the opponent would make. I call it boring.
I yawn, relaxing my thumb a bit, but he still doesn't attack. Hm... he learned that attacking me only invites a counter, and if I don't attack, he has time to heal. So I better move, slowly. Very slowly, and his body tension grows with every millimeter I move at a snail's pace, probably his mind is running wild with what I may do. “Booh!”
He jerks once, flailing his thumb in defense for an attack that didn't come. Seriously, he may be super strong and confident in the wild, but he would be destroyed at a PvP-Event.
Now with his thumb in motion, he has openings I can use. Instead of holding him, I strike. [Iron Defense] again, I start to hate this skill just as much as [Gust]. Of course striking iron with my thumb is bound to hurt, but I know entirely different worlds of pain. Compared to what I've suffered through today, this is nothing.
Another strike and a third one, yes, his bone isn't healed properly yet, and while he also doesn't complain because of the pain, he certainly feels it. He's just good at enduring as well, but each time he hardens himself, his thumb misses another chance to counter.
I begin pressing against his thumb, climbing down bit by bit to push it back as much as possible. He hardens his muscles, another thing these barbarians tend to do, but I found the spot his bone is about to break. Second power-surge! “RRRRRGGGHHHHH!” He takes it like a champ, but his thumb is now bending backwards. I rub mine against the spot that's connected to the hand, which will hurt him like hell, but he now consciously uses the advantage of having his thumb outside my reach.
Let's see how button-mashes will do. As the shock of repeated hammering on his finger crawls up his thumb, he clenches his teeth and groans, but I guess he will wait until [Regeneration] will heal everything up... wait, wouldn't it connect his bone again and therefore bring the thumb closer to me?
I got no power-surges left... Well, I have one left which will hurt like hell and will make it easy to beat me. I begin to relax my thumb again, waiting for the moment the bone will reconnect.
*SLAM!*
You know what I also hate in RPGs? Reaction based challenges! Who would have thought that they would train me for this moment, where my gaming skills would make the difference between life and death? Not my knowledge, but my actual skills.
“One” He tries to escape, ignoring the pain entirely “Two” he tries to fight back, to lift my thumb, despite having his muscles and tendons teared. “Three” *Crack* “Four, you broke my fucking fingers!” It hurts!
In his fight against the pain, he used his rage and his grip was so strong that he crushed my fingers. Yet this also means that I have won.
Silence followed my declaration. The finger-breaking bastard sighs: “You are right.” However, he takes the loss without whining. That I can respect. Not much else, though.
“WE WON!” It's Rine, who declares and now everyone else falls in.
“WE WON, WE WON!” The farmers begin cheering and chanting, I guess there is little else that they can do at this point, as they were more or less bystanders of their own fate. “LONG LIVE THE RED RANGER!” Wait a minute.
“RED RANGER!”
“RED RANGER!”
Fuck, I have broken fingers, but this hurts on another level. “SHUT UP!” Of course, they ignore me entirely.
Ah, I HATE THIS!
“Shit!” The boss-barbarian yells, but even he can't drown out the annoying cheers. “We lost. Shamefully. But the worst is that Grekk gets to live another day... Mark my words, Red Ranger. Next time, I will crush you!”
“Next time? I don't even plan to be in this world for long, so a ‘next time’ will be very unlikely.”
“You may have shielded that old bastard, but you will regret it!” Did he just ignore me? A sore-loser monologue? “He may not look like that to you, but he's a monster and you will regret having him close to you!” Well, if he doesn't answer me anyway, I won't say anything at all. “When my grandfather Brimm fought Grekk, Grekk ripped grandpa's leg out and beat him up with it. The grandpa I grew up with was a sorry excuse for a warrior, never able to heal from that event, neither physically nor mentally. He was a shame for us, and my father had a hard time becoming chief after that. Grandpa Brimm was a warrior that was only born once every century, but he was reduced to this sorry stage and died alone!” Come on, why tell me your story now? I mean, you're about to leave anyway, so I won't even make an effort to memorize it. “What do you have to say to this!”
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Just one thing: “Get the fuck over it.”
―○●○―
Seems like I stayed alive for another day. Kenta-kun was a mad lad, turning the whole thumb war upside down and overpowering a barbarian. It may have been only in a game, but that doesn't change how much power this one thumb of his showed.
I had no doubts of his win though, as my instincts told me I would be fine. This was not the day for me to die, and until I have reached my goal, I will continue to defy death at every chance I can get. I only agreed to this condition because I trust my instincts. Much more than my head, which may have led to many of the problems I have up to this day.
We are back at the White Horst and the people here are still cheering for Kenta-kun and Rine-kun. These two are arguing at the barn, getting louder and louder, which makes the whole cheering a bit awkward. “Seriously Rine. We have already been here for too long!”
“It's just half a day!”
“Half a day we could be further from Gottfried!”
“We won, we deserve to celebrate!”
“It's entirely unneeded!”
“I want to dance with you!”
“FUCK NO!”
Kyou-kun stands next to me, commenting: “He just doesn't want to be in the celebration.”
“Strange,” I answer, as I genuinely don't understand why someone wouldn't want to be celebrated.
“He hates people.”
“Ah... that makes sense.” Kyou-kun was with him the longest and therefore knows him the best, though Ara-kun would contest the latter part of that claim.
Yet the alfr girl is sitting on a chair by herself, doing this writing thing, and her pen moves as quick as lightning. She was saying something about “Writing down data” and since then, she has been fully immersed into whatever she's doing.
“Will he cave in?”
“Not really. He will just realize that he's the only one who wants to leave immediately, and Rine-chan is stubborn. He can't physically force her and he can't make her budge either. If I help him, we could convince her, but having a party would be a nice change of pace. Imagine, all we usually do is walk through no-man's-land, and whenever we are in a town, something goes terribly wrong, from Crusaders hunting him to all of us landing in jail!” Someone seems to be angry. Too bad that she doesn't appear to be very compatible with rage, otherwise she may become a fine barbarian.
Are there even fine barbarians? Looking at my people from the outside brings a lot of my past into perspective. Oh well, young me would have enjoyed it, and that's what is so infuriating about this.
“So if he doesn't cave in and she doesn't budge, what will happen?”
“He will probably hide, even though we do feel where he is anyway.”
“Wait, did he just jerk?” That seemed unnatural, as it was like he was reacting to Kyou-kun's words, rather than to Rine-kun's.
“Yes, he can hear us from this distance.”
“Wow, that's impressive. Even through all these people cheering and talking about him?”
“Yes.”
“And you know it and still say these things?”
“To quicken the process.” This girl is dangerous in her own right. While Kenta-kun may be the official leader, Kyou-kun may be the one who has the greatest understanding and power over these people.
How much does she know about me already? It's not like I'm hiding anything, but I also haven't said much. “Kakakaka!” This is just great, even at my age I can still be surprised and doubtful. How long has it been? “Kyou-kun, let's have a drink together later.”
She looks at me as if I asked her to join me on a city raid, but then answers: “Sure.” Then she furrows her eyes for a moment and then a mean glint appears in them: “I need to help prepare the food.”
“Come on, Kyou-kun. You deserve to be the one being celebrated.”
“I need to make some, and then Ken has to find out what I made.” Her smile looks very childish and cute, almost like Rine-kun's, but with an invisible nasty streak. “If you want to get me into a good mood, you better don't fail, Ken.”
...ah, the lad can hear what we say... How evil!
As I watch Kyou-kun running to the kitchens, my heart hurts. I spot Mirianne-kun, who looks how I feel, and I walk to her: “Yo.”
“Ah. Hello.” Her eyes are on Rine-kun, and pain and envy are eating into her expression. Then she slowly turns her face to me, and while she isn't crying, she doesn't look good: “The battle was out of this world.”
“It was decent.” If Rine-kun trains for ten years, maybe she could measure up to my prime or even surpass it. For now, she's still far away, as she's not even sure how to develop her raw talent.
“...I can't stand there with them. They are heroes, and I'm a farm girl.” Again, comforting women without bedding them is nothing I have experience in, so I can only listen to what she says: “I'm nothing but a fan now. For now, it has to be enough... No...”
She then starts walking, right at Rine-kun, who is now lying on her back, refusing to move until the lad agrees to dance with her. The cheers long died out, as watching this lover's quarrel took all the cheerfulness that was possible.
“Mirianne?” Someone calls her out, but the girl ignores it. Instead she bows over the princess, her braids dangling in the light wind.
Rine-kun quickly switches from pouting to wondering: “Huh? Mirianne? What do you want?”
The farm girl stretches out her hand: “Do you want to dance with me later... Rine-chan?”
“Sure!” The princess takes the hand, and stands up, both of them smiling at each other, and I have no idea why this is even happening. Then I notice that Kenta-kun has vanished, probably using this small distraction to blend in with the crowd or something.
I look at the scene of the farmers preparing for the feast and scratch my beard as I find it difficult to see myself there. I'm no farmer, but I'm also different from the young heroes. I guess I will skip that party, as it will make me feel bad.
“Grekk?” Rine-kun notices me and grabs my hand: “If you don't have anything to do, let's help them setting up! We may be the guests of honor, but in the end we couldn't have won without their support!”
This somehow hits something in my heart-region. Her certainty that fighting for someone, to have their moral support changes something... “Sure, I can at least carry stuff.” Even with my hurting arms, there will be nothing too heavy for me here.
Somehow I feel a bit better.
―○●○―
It's dark and cold, yet the big fires light and heat the inner courtyard of this farmstead. Music is booming, as instruments and people with questionable talent have been gathered, and people are dancing, drinking, and laughing.
For me, it's just annoyingly loud though I don't mind the music too much. I guess being in a fantasy world for months without any makes a person appreciate it so much. Especially considering that I used to listen to music every day. The music of my games, of course.
About the rest... please stop it.
I'm sitting with Rine clinging on my arm with a bit of a blushed face and a light smell of alcohol around her. Well, I also drank a bit, as there is no real legal age in this world and I guess being completely sober would be worse.
Rine cocks her head in the beat of the music, which comes closest to her wish to dance with me, but I'm seriously not in the mood. “Ah, look!” She suddenly exclaims, as she points at the fire. There is Kyou-san, who looks like she's teaching the children a bonfire dance. “Let's go there, Dear!”
“Go ahead.”
“Moh!” She puffs up her cheeks and tries to stand up while dragging me with her, but I resist. “Please!” She's frustrated and I feel a bit bad about it, but I'm not here because I want to and I'm set to be a party pooper throughout the whole thing!
“Ah, Katarine-san.” Ara-san approaches us and while her face has her usual aloof expression, I feel an outright scary intensity oozing out of her: “Good that you are here. If you have nothing else to do, would you like to join me for an hour-long discussion of your fight so that I get the most accurate data about it?”
“Ahaha... not really, this is a moment to celebrate.” Rine cocks her head a bit, then claps her hands in realization: “Ara, help me. Dear doesn't want to dance with me.”
“As much as you don't want to cooperate with my demands?” Ara-san asks. While I like the comeback, I doubt that 'cooperate' and 'demands' really fit in the same sentence.
“But I'll do it tomorrow! I promise!”
“Alright, promise attained without any need for return.”
This one makes Rine think a bit, then she widens her eyes as she realizes that Ara-san doesn't plan to help her at all: “Ah.” She puffs up her cheeks once more, then looks at me, who is still grabbing the bench I'm on as if my life depended on it—even though I rather risk it by not letting it go. “Why do you two have to be that way!?”
“Because I don't wanna.” “Because it's work.” Ara-san and I aren't really in sync, but at least our unwillingness aligns.
“Come on, I want to learn from Kyou with the children!”
Wait, why is Ara-san's spirit suddenly shifting? Even her voice goes up: “Katarine-san, why are you dallying here? We have to teach the children a lesson!” What?
“No Ara, we learn with the children!” Rine laughs, lets go of me and drags Ara-san with her, who seems to be looking forward to it...
Is she thinking of a prank?
“Red Ranger!” A brat with a bowl full of meat runs towards me. Ah, it's turd. “You're still hungry?” If I ignore him, he will leave on his own: “Here, I picked the best pieces for you.” Sorry, but no sorry, turd. I have years of experience ignoring people that want to strike a conversation with me. Hard earned work I’ve continued since attending middle school. “Hm...” He puts the bowl on the table and sits down next to me, the spot Rine just left.
Ignore.
Wait, is he trying to lean on me? I jump up and leave, which in return causes someone else to notice me, the boss-woman: “Red Ranger, we haven't toasted yet!”
Turn around: “Ah, there you are, Red Ranger!”
Shit, has Rine been my social shield all along!? “Just leave me alone.” I use [Distract] and jump into the next hiding spot, using my [Stealth]-skills to basically vanish for these people.
Ah, I hate it! I hate it!
Disclaimer: The opinions stated by Katsuragi Kenta about button-mashing in RPGs absolutely reflect the author's.
What kind of pet would Kyou most likely be?
