My name is Tetsuo Taketa. I am a perfectly average middle school student. I have no particular talents. I come from a normal family. I am a perfectly normal person leading a perfectly normal life. Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It wasn’t until that one fateful day…

…

..

.

People knew each other from last year, but I did not make any special relations with anyone in particular. I wasn’t actually interested in anyone in particular.

If there was one thing that was particularly distinct, it was that I was a loner who loved spending games alone in his alone time, but even that is pretty commonplace nowadays.

“Hmm…”

I was seated right next to the window on the very back of the classroom. When my phone runs out of battery, the sight outside serves as my saving grace from having to listen to the boring lessons.

“Hey…” a voice calls out to me.

But I imagine it was only my imagination.

“Hm…”

“Psst…” the same voice calls out to me.

This time, I actually consider looking to my caller.

“Hey.”

It was a beautiful girl with brown hair and black eyes with an energetic face. From a glance, it’s obvious that she’s that gal who likes to hang out with others.

“O-Oh, hey…”

I awkwardly raise my hand.

“Wh-What is it?”

“The test paper.”

“The what now?”

“The test paper. Here, collect the paper.”

It seems I wasn’t paying attention because I didn’t notice that she was indeed offering a tes-

“Test paper?!”

There was a test today?! Already?! It’s only been a few days of school!

She shakes the paper in front of my face.

“Oh, sorry.”

I take the test paper out of her hands.

Oh my god, oh my god, I didn’t review for a test…

The fear of failing the first test of the school year brings me on edge. As a result, I begin sweating furiously.

Next thing I knew, the answer sheets are being passed down and that very paper is in front of my face held by the girl.

“O-Oh, th-thank you.”

My hand reaches for the paper visibly shaking.

“Are you nervous?” she asks me.

“M-Me? Y-Yeah, I didn’t get to review for anything yesterday… I didn’t even know there was going to be a test…”

“Hmm, I see… me neither!”

How can you be so fine while admitting that?!

“The test today is…”

I peer upon the test paper and I see…

Math?! I suck at math the most!

“This truly isn’t the ideal scenario, haha,” she nervously chuckles, “Aha!”

“Hm?”

“I have an idea! We might fail this test, but just for morale boost… how about we make a bet?”

“I-I’m listening.”

“Let’s see who scores higher in this test! The one who loses has to follow an order from the other no matter what!”

I might be bad at academics, but when one offers a challenge, my gamer self just can’t decline.

“Fine! It’s on!”

Math is hard, but I can’t possibly do that bad!

…

..

.

A few minutes later…

“Urgh…”

The results were out. I received a 3/25.

“This might be the worst score, I’ve ever gotten in my life.”

There’s no way I’m winning the bet…

From my groaning, I happen to overhear another sigh. It was the girl in front, the one whom I bet with.

My eye catches sight of a lone 2 in her score.

Maybe I shouldn’t have doubted myself.

Feeling a bit bad, I try not to ask her about it.

Alright, since I won the bet, I’ll use that dare to make her happy!

It’s the least a man could do. I wouldn’t kick someone when they’re down.

Alas, the time came and she approaches me. Of course, her expression was weary. Poor thing.

“Uwahhh… this sucks…”

“Oh, you must be dissatisfied.”

“Mhm.”

I should let her ask me.

“What’s your score?” she asks depressed.

There!

“Ahahah, it’s honestly pretty low… I got 3.”

“What?”

“What?”

What’s with that reaction? Why is she surprised?

“Y-Your score?”

Instead of telling me outright, she shows me her score.

“P-PERFECT?!”

Her depressed face turns into a smug one and those eyes gaze toward me.

“Looks like I win.”

“Wait! Wait! Wait! Why did you act all sad?! What was that all about?!”

“To be honest, I was sad because the test was too easy.”

“Wha-”

You have to be kidding me.

“With that said-”

She snickers and a mischievous smile forms on her face.

I gulp anxiously.

I may have just entered the lion’s den.

“Someone’s going to buy me a lot of food today~”

“My wallet…”

I grit my teeth.

“Damn you! How… How could you not make any mistakes?!”

That concludes the turning point of my life. The rest of that story is to be continued for another time.

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..

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Another day passes by. I am currently walking towards school as we speak. Along the way, I encounter Takayuki-san.

“Yahallo!” she greets me.

“It seems someone has been late watching anime again.”

“Ehehe, I can’t help it. Anime is my fuel.”

“Is anime all you watch? Don’t you watch anything from other countries?”

“Mmm, not really. I am actually considering it in the future, though. Perhaps it’s the influence of my big brother.”

Takayuki-nii, huh? He seemed like a pretty interesting person, I’d like to get to know him better sometime in the future.

“Anyway, don’t forget about our bet yesterday~” she reminds me.

“I know… you keep pestering me about it.”

Yesterday, we played a round of shogi. Whoever won would buy the other what they would want. I lost.

I groan audibly.

My wallet is gonna die at this rate.

I spot that the school was only a few minutes away.

“Say…”

“Hm?” she wonders.

“How about we make a bet? Double or nothing, from yesterday.”

“Double or nothing… that’s a bold declaration. If I win, you’d basically have to buy me two things, wouldn’t you?”

“That’s IF you win.”

“Hmm,” she thinks for a while, “What do you have in mind?”

“Simple. The first one who gets to school wins.”

“That’s it?”

“Let’s put a little twist. We can do whatever we want to slow the other down. Everything is fair play.”

“Oh~ You’re on.”

We brace our starting positions.

“On the mark of three, we begin, is that settled?”

“Got it,” she agrees.

“Alright…”

I cunningly smile. I begin counting.

“一, 二… deux…”

“Wha?”

“Cuatro, dua, fem…”

“Hey, those are different languages! All in the wrong order too!”

“I never said I’d count in the right way.”

Impressive, she can identify them.

“We’re playing that game, eh?”

I continue counting, “…일, 零, tatlo!”

As I say the equivalent of three, I dash forward and she follows after. Because of it, I gain a headstart.

“For the first time, I’ll win against you, Takayuki-san!”

“You cheater!”

She picks up some stray bottles and throws some at me.

I narrowly dodge them.

“That’s not enough to get me!”

“Grrr…”

She pouts. Really adorable, actually. But I carry on my task, to win.

“Watch out! A raging alcoholic!” she warns me.

“Oh come on, if you’re going to use that trick, at least be more convinc-”

Funnily enough, there was that exact person running towards me.

“GRAGH! A RAGING ALCOHOLIC!”

I race back to run away and we eventually cross paths. She was not slowing down at all.

I stop in my tracks and watch her.

“What are you doing?! You might get hurt!”

But she keeps running anyway.

The distance between the alcoholic and her rapidly decline.

“TAKAYUKI-SAN!”

The alcoholic was waving his arms wildly attempting to hit anyone in his way. Once the distance was right, Takayuki slides pass him like a scene out of an action movie and completely bypasses the guy.

“No way… Wait…”

She’s really near the school! This is bad!

All the engines inside my body turn on and I sprint like an athlete and merely go around the alcoholic.

“I… WILL… NOT… LOSE!”

Running the fastest I have ever been, I was slowly clearing the distance Takayuki made.

Upon seeing a stray can, I throw it under her feet to try and make her trip, and once it reached her… it actually hit her. But what came after came from my wildest dreams.

Just as she was about to trip, she… backflips?!

“HUH.”

I throw another bottle and it hits but she…

“CARTWHEEL?!”

Another bottle hits and…

“DOUBLE SOMERSAULT?!”

The bottles eventually end up in her hands and she ends up… uh…

“JUGGLING?! WHAT ON EARTH.”

She lets go of the bottles and head into my direction. Like it was karma, I end up tripping over the first bottle that I cross.

 “GYAGH!”

Splat.

“My nose… hurts…”

It’s over… this is my loss.

She arrives at school safely.

“I win!”

…

..

.

Bonus Challenge!

After that wild display, I start to wonder if Takayuki even has limts…

But that doesn’t mean I’ll give up.

While walking along the hallway, I challenge Takayuki once more.

“Another one? I’m starting to worry for you…”

“Don’t! It’ll make me worse if you don’t accept! Double or nothing!”

“Double or nothing, again? That makes it quadruple the original prize now, doesn’t it?”

“Only IF you win.”

“Okay then! So what’s the challenge?”

“The challenge today is… a quiz bee!”

“A quiz bee?”

“That’s right. I’ll bombard you a plethora of questions and you’re gonna have to answer them.”

“Any twists?”

“Nope, none this time.”

“Great! That makes things simpler.”

I swear Takayuki-san, this is the time you will make your first mistake!

“I have 15 questions in total, divided in the categories of Easy, Medium, and Hard. You must not make a single mistake at all, otherwise I win.”

“Isn’t that too harsh, shouldn’t I just meet a threshold?”

“For Takayuki-san, that might be too easy. So let’s settle with that.”

“Mmm, okay!”

She actually agreed to it. Wow.

“Anyways, let’s not waste any more time. First question of the easy round. For the easy round you have 15 seconds.”

“Give me your best shot!” she says pumped up.

“What’s the answer of 3 to the power of 3 to the power of 3?”

Easy, Medium, Hard? Nope. It’s all hard… now, Takayuki-san… let’s see you-

“7,625,597,484,987.”

What?!

“Uh, hang on, let me check the answer sheet.”

I pull out the aforementioned answer sheet and…

“You’re… correct.”

This… doesn’t feel like it’ll go smoothly at all.

“Okay, uh, next question… what’s a 101-sided polygon called?”

“Hectakaihenagon.”

“…Correct. Next question, How many time zones does Australia have?

“3.”

“…Correct.”

I take out a flashcard which shows the chemical composition of BaCrO₄.

“What is its chemical name?” I ask her.

“Barium chromate.”

…

..

.

The rest goes as what you would expect.

“…Correct. Who was the first national hero of the Philippines?”

“Lapu-lapu.”

…

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.

“…Correct. What is the fear of people’s opinions?”

“Allodoxaphobia.”

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.

I groan.

“…Correct. What’s my favorite color…”

“Green.”

“HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW THAT?!”

“So! So! What’s the verdict?!”

“You didn’t score a single mistake… You got… perfect, again, Takayuki-san!”

"Yahooo!!!" 

“Urgh… Tell me the things you want…”

“Yay! I'm gonna get all sorts of expensive stuff! "

Curse you, Takayuki-san… I swear… I’ll be there when you make the first mistake! I will bear witness to it and I will be the cause of it! You shall make a mistake!

END OF EPISODE 15.5