It all started on a Sunday. For almost three weeks, I had been playing an RPG game called Ebon Quest at my gaming console Game Blast 6 (GB6 for short).

   In this game, you’re supposed to clear the main story by defeating enemies and bosses, all the while strengthening your character by getting better equipment and items. The story is exciting by itself, but this game’s biggest selling point is its multiplayer feature.

   By connecting your GB6 with the internet, you can play with players around the world. If you ever have trouble with your progress, you can ask your friends or even random strangers for help. Up to four players are allowed in a quest.

   Furthermore, there’s a PVP feature too. But I never touched this. I know for a fact that there are tons of toxic players and sore losers out there. I don’t want to have my experience ruined because of them, so I stay out.

   Oh, and I’m afraid of losing. There, I just straight out admitted it.

   One night, I ended up playing a quest with three strangers. After we cleared the quest, we talked for a bit. Our interests are quite similar, so we became acquainted with each other. To be more precise, I was the one who became acquainted with them, since the three of them are already friends and even know each other in real life.

   This coming Sunday, there is an event for Ebon Quest players. One of them ask me whether I would like to go with them. I don’t think there’s any harm with it, so I said I’ll go. We exchanged contact number and eagerly awaits the arrival of Sunday.

   Back to the present. The event starts at 9am at a convention center quite near to the Academy. To get inside as soon as possible, we promised to meet up at 8, at the entrance of a park near the convention center.

   I go there at 7.40 while wearing my normal clothes. When I reach there, there’s a slightly plump guy waiting at the park’s entrance. I recognize him. He’s one of the students at the Academy, a Class 6 student. I muster up my courage and talk to him.

   ‘Hey there, I’m Shadowless Light.’ I tell him.

   Yes, that’s the name I used in the game and yes, I know it’s a direct English translation of my name. Don’t judge me!

   His eyes widen up at that. ‘Oh, hi. I’m Square Knight 23102. You’re Kagenashi-kun, aren’t you? From Class 2?’

   ‘Yeah. You’re from Class 6, right? Sorry, but I never got to know your name.’

   ‘No worries. My real name is Iwata Katsuo. Nice to meet you.’

   ‘Likewise. So, where’s the other two?’

   ‘Ah, them. They prefer to be right on time, rather than being early, so we’ll need to wait until 8.’

   ‘Is that so? Well, that’s fine too.’

   ‘Man, I can’t believe you play games too.’

   ‘Why? It’s not like I’m an honor student who shuts himself in during off days and study all day.’

   ‘I guess. Although, one of us won’t be happy that you’re the Shadowless Light that we’ve been hanging out with.’

   ‘Huh? Why is that?’

   ‘The thing is, he has a crush on Oomori from your class, and he’s jealous that you got to have lunch with her.’

   ‘But it’s not like we’re going out.’

   ‘I know. But it won’t stop him from being spiteful to you.’

   ‘You think he’ll believe me if I tell him that we’re just acquaintances?’

   ‘I sure hope so. I definitely don’t want to go to the convention center with one of us hating the other.’

When it’s 8 o’clock, I see two more people heading for the park. I recognize both of them as well.

   ‘The guy in blue shirt is the guy you need to convince.’ Iwata tells me.

   ‘Got it.’

   The two of them are surprised to see me with Iwata, and even more surprised to learn that I’m Shadowless Light. As expected, the guy in the blue shirt is not really happy about it, but the other guy’s cool with it.

   ‘Let me introduce you. This is Ueno Tsuyoshi. You’ll know him by the name of Charging Tanker. He’s from Class 6, just like me.’

   ‘Hey there.’

   ‘Hi. Man, I can’t believe that we’re going to hang out with someone from Class 2!’

   ‘I was a Class 6 like you guys too, you know?’

   ‘I know. But still.’

   Iwata continues to make the introduction.

   ‘This guy here is Takagi Shoji who goes by the in-game name of God Takagi, also from Class 6.’

   ‘Yo.’ he greets me coldly.

   ‘Nice to meet you. Listen, there’s nothing going on between me and Oomori, alright?’

   ‘Iwata! What have you been telling him?’ Takagi demands from Iwata.

   ‘Hey, don’t blame me! I just don’t want our fun trip to be ruined by your sour attitude!’

   ‘What’s that supposed to…’

   ‘Look!’ I interrupt quickly. ‘Like Iwata said, I don’t want our outing to be a bad one just because of some misunderstanding. So I’m telling you now that Oomori and I aren’t as close as you think.’

   Takagi was skeptical at first, but in the end he choose to believe in me.

   ‘All right. If you say so.’

   ‘Great. So, shall we go?’

   ‘Yeah. Let’s.’

   When we reach the convention center, there was already a long line. While waiting for the line to decrease, we take out our GB6 and start playing some quests.

   After waiting for an hour and more, we can finally go in. There’s all sorts of stuff related to Ebon Quest here: the sales booth of the game, a stage where players get to show their skills, and there’s even a few cosplayers walking around.

   We wasted no time to head for the one thing that we’re here for, and this is the sole reason the line is so long. We could make our own figures by inserting our memory card into a machine. You can decide the armor and weapon of the figure, and you can even make the figure strike a pose. You need to pay for it, but it’s totally worth the price.

   I design my figure as the same as the character I use in my game: wielding a black spear and wears a set of azure armor that I got from fighting a rare event boss. I made the figure strikes a pose where he is miming a thrust.

   The others got their figures too, and all of them based them on the character they use in the game as well. Iwata’s character is a rifle user that dons a leather armor that specializes in mobility and support the others from far. Ueno’s characters uses a broadsword and wears a spiked armor that reflects a portion of the attack he received to the attacker. As for Takagi, his character is a spellcaster that relies on his magic and his trusty staff.

   After we paid for the figures, we hang out at the convention center for a while before leaving for lunch. At Ueno’s suggestion, we go to a ramen place.

   The place is just moderately busy, so we got our seat the moment we came in. We place our orders and decide to share a plate of dumplings and a bowl of fried chicken.

   ‘Wow, this ramen is good!’ I compliments when I take a slurp at my noodles.

   ‘I know, right? I’ve been a regular here since my junior high times!’

   ‘So, where should we go after we’re done eating?’ Iwata asks.

   ‘We could go to a manga cafe to play more Ebon Quest. I know a place with good Wi-Fi connection.’ Takagi suggests.

   ‘Sounds good to me.’

   The room available at the manga cafe Takagi suggested is quite spacious and comfortable, and the Wi-Fi connection is very good as well. We played with our consoles in silent for a while until Takagi breaks the silence.

   ‘Kagenashi, I need to know. What kind of girl tickles your fancy?’ he asks me all of a sudden.

   Ah, the guy talk you always see in animes.

   ‘Well, I don’t have any specific types, since I value compatibility above all. But if I have to specify, I guess a girl with a cheerful personality is nice.’

   ‘And the body?’

   ‘I prefer big breasts.’

   Takagi and Ueno gasp loudly at that.

   ‘Preposterous! A girl’s best treasure is her legs!’ Takagi shouts.

   ‘The hell you talking about? It’s her ass!’ Ueno corrects him.

   ‘Is not! You and your love for lumps of fat!’

   ‘Well, you have a fetish for sticks!’

   ‘Don’t call legs sticks!’

   ‘And asses are more than just lumps of fat!’

   I’m seriously glad that we’re in a sound-proof room, or we’ll definitely be getting weird looks.

   ‘And you, Iwata?’ I ask the guy who was keeping quiet.

   ‘For me, it’s like you said. I don’t really cares what the girl looks like, as long as she’s a good housewife.’

   ‘True that.’

   ‘Ah, what’s the point of talking about all this? It’s not like we’ll be able to get girls.’ Takagi says in despair.

   ‘Hey, you started it.’ Iwata reminds him.

   ‘I know, I know.’

   ‘Aren’t you going to confess to Oomori?’ I ask Takagi.

   ‘Are you kidding me? I’m a C Rank, remember? And she’s an A Rank! She’ll never gives me the time of her day.’

   ‘Not to mention the fact that Shimazaki and Miyahara caught the attention of most of the girls at school. Shrubs like us won’t stand a chance. Period.’ Ueno adds gloomily.

   ‘Damn it, if only I was born a hunk…’

   ‘By the way, what made you fall in love with Oomori? Her legs?’ I ask Takagi curiously.

   ‘What, hell no! Oomori’s charm points is more than just her legs!’

   ‘So her legs’ part of it, huh?’

   ‘It all started way back at the entrance exam. I barely passed mine in the combat department and only earned a C Rank, so I was quite depressed. Just when I was brooding by myself at the back of the building, she appeared out of nowhere and comforted me.’

   ‘ “Cheer up!” she says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re only C Rank. As long as you never give up, you’ll be an A or even S Rank one day!”. Her smile back then cured me of my depression in an instant. I swore to myself back then, that I’ll definitely become an A Rank to be in the same class as her!’

   ‘Except you didn’t.’

   He nods his head in agreement and hangs his head. ‘Except I didn’t. It’s been almost three months. Forget A Rank, I’m not even a B Rank! While I’m struggling to climb up the rank, Oomori will get snatched away!’

   I honestly don’t know what to say. I want to comfort him, but it would sound insincere since I sort of cheated when I got promoted.

   After a few hours of gaming, we got tired and put away our consoles.

   ‘So, what now? Go back to our dorm?’ Iwata asks.

   ‘Aw, already? But I don’t want to go back yet!’ Takagi whines.

   ‘Then, you guys want to check out the bookstores? There’s some light novels I want to buy.’ I suggest.

   Like the real world, this one has an abundant of light novels I find extremely interesting. I bought two bookshelves just to store all the light novels I bought.

   ‘Sure, it’s not like we have anything better to do.’

   We spent quite some time in the bookstore, and I end up buying five light novels. The others were never enthusiastic about reading, but had their interest piqued when they saw how excited I was. I recommend them some series, and they bought a volume of the ones they find interesting.

   Now, truly with nowhere else to go, we head back to the dorm. Before we do, they tell me that I can come by their club room if I ever feel like it.

   ‘Wait, you guys formed a club?’

   ‘We sure did. It’s called the Shut-Ins Club.’

   The other day, I swore I had visited every single club available in the Academy, and I told them so.

   ‘Oh, that’s because you didn’t go to the old training facility. That’s where our club room is.’ Iwata tells me.

   ‘How did you even got Sak… President Morifuji to approve the club’s existence? You guys only got three members.’

   As per the school rules, each club must have at least five members to get acknowledged as a club, or risk getting disapproved or shut down.

   ‘We went to her and said that we don’t need a budget, only somewhere quiet to hang out and play our games. After being repeatedly warned by Vice President Kurogane to not conduct any bad behaviors, we got ourselves a place.’

   ‘I see. Well, maybe I’ll come check out your place tomorrow.’

   ‘Sure. We’ll be waiting for you. It’s the third one, by the way.’

   ‘Got it.’

   On the next day, after the school is over, I head over to the old training facility. This training facility was replaced by the new one after some technical problems occurred with the former. It was too costly to demolish it, so it was just abandoned. The electricity still runs here, but pretty much no one uses it.

   ‘Let’s see, the third one… Ah, here it is.’

   I press the button right next to the door, and the door slides to the side with a ‘fwish!’ sound.

   The three of them are sitting cross-legged at the middle of the room. At their side, there’s a plastic bag full of snacks and can drinks. For some reason, there’s a white board here as well, also some marker pens and a duster. The room is way too big for four people, but since we’re not allowed to hang out at other places, it’ll have to do.

   ‘Oh, Kagenashi is here.’

   ‘Welcome to the Shut-Ins Club.’

   ‘Hey, guys. Just curious, what’s with the white board?’

   ‘Oh, that. Once in a while, we’ll think up of a topic to discuss and debate, and we’ll write down all the points we made on it.’

   ‘Like what?’

   ‘Well, our last topic was “Which one is better? School swimsuit or bikini.” We decided it was school swimsuit.’

   ‘So it’s a pointless debate to pass the time.’

   ‘That’s another way of putting it.’

   ‘You can choose a topic if you want.’

   ‘Me? Can I?’

   ‘Well sure, it’s to commemorate your first visit.’

   ‘There’s just one thing,’ Ueno tells me before I could make up my mind. ‘No discussion about the Chocolate Mushroom and the Chocolate Bamboo Shoots. We had that discussion one time. It took us five sessions and we still couldn’t manage to come up with a conclusion.’

   Ah yes, the ultimate debate with the two similar snacks as its subject. Yup, that topic should be avoided at all cost.

   ‘Well then. How about a debate about cat girls and dog girls?’

   ‘Cat girls and dog girls, huh? We never had that discussion, did we?’

   ‘Nope.’

   ‘All right, then. Let’s do it.’

   I know that I can just made the topic about cats and dogs, but where's the fun in that?  Japan turns pretty much everything into girls anyway, so I might as well go for this version.

   Coincidentally, the team was separated into two and two, with Ueno and I in the cat girls team, and Iwata and Takagi in the dog girls team.

   ‘Figures that Takagi would go that side.’ I comment.

   ‘It’s so obvious.’ Ueno agrees.

   ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

   ‘I mean, you like Oomori.’

   ‘Who’s like a dog with too much energy.’

   ‘Hey, we’re talking about girls with animal ears, right? When did we switch to talking about my crush?’

   ‘We didn’t. We just felt like making a comparison.’

   ‘Anyway,’ Iwari starts to talk before we deviate from our topic even further. ‘I prefer dog girls. Being an unpopular guy, I would want attention, even if it’s from my pet.’

   ‘That’s right, that’s right! Can you imagine coming back from home after looking at normies and couples all day, only to have your cat girl stares at you like she’s staring at a trash? The little confidence I have would crumble!’

   ‘We just want to be treated like we worth something!’ Iwari is very close to crying.

   ‘I don’t know. There’s just some days when you’ll want to have some peace and quiet, right? If you choose to neglect your dog girl at the wrong moment, she’ll feel lonely, and then you would feel guilty and pamper her, making you lose more energy in the process.’ I state out my opinion.

   ‘To that end, a cat girl is better. Yes, she’ll look at you with those frosty stares most of the time, but she’s not cold all the time. When she wants your attention, she would ask for it in a subtle way, like casually snuggles at you. Dog girls would just charge at you with full speed.’ Ueno fortifies my point.

   Just like this, all we did were debated about a pointless topic until it’s time to go home. Sure, we didn’t gain anything form it, but I still had fun. Life isn’t all about gaining things.

   ‘Thanks guys, I had fun. I’d love to drop by all the time, but I have training and all, so I can only come here once in a while.’ I tell them when we leave the place.

   ‘No worries. Just come here whenever you got nothing better to do. We’ll be waiting.’

   And so, I became the provisional member of the Shut-Ins Club. I filled up an application form and hand it to Sakuya on the next day.

   ‘Oh my, it seems that the rumors about you going to clubs and trying out their activities were true.’ Sakuya says.

   ‘Rumors? Over something so trivial?’

   ‘Well, you’re the first year who got a double promotion from C to A. Of course people would be interested in you.’

   ‘...’

   ‘Incidentally, what kind of rumors are they?’

   ‘Well, it’s mostly about your excellent cooking skills. Nishi-san from the class next door won’t stop talking about you when we had a joint sparring session the other day.’

   ‘I see, nothing negative then.’

   ‘Why? Did you do something you shouldn’t?’

   ‘Not at all. It’s just that rumors can become detrimental to you in the blink of an eye, that’s why I worry.’

   ‘Well, we the student council is here, so you have nothing to worry about. You just go enjoy your school life.’

   ‘Yes, thank you very much.’

   ‘...’

   ‘Um, Ichika seems to be in a bad mood. Do you know why?’

   Ever since I came in, Ichika has puffed up her cheeks and straight up refuse to look at me.

   ‘Well, she’s mad that you didn’t go visit her at the kendo club.’

   ‘The thing is, I was at the club’s doorstep.’

   ‘Lie! I did not saw you at all!’ Ichika finally looks at me and shouts.

   ‘I wanted to go in, but then I saw the way you treat your club members…’

   ‘Ichika-chan, I told you to treat them better. Now look what you did. You literally scared someone away.’

   ‘But, it is for the sake of training!’

   ‘A training where not everyone can catch up. Maybe you should reconsider the way you do things.’

   Ichika hangs her head in shame. ‘…Yes.’

   ‘Cheer up, Ichika! The training camp’s coming soon, right? I’ll try my best to train with you.’ I say in an attempt to lift up her mood.

   The training camp, which is coming up in three day’s time, is a five-days-four-nights event that requires students to participate in all sorts of training at a large, secluded building on top of a mountain.

   In the anime, there’s nothing much going on in this arc, but viewers get to see more Yui. And see her getting intimate with Yuuji. Urgh.

   Anyway, Ichika becomes more cheerful after I said that, and promises to train me strictly. Suddenly, I fear for my life.