“Sooooooo…”

“...So?”

“How did it go with Kaichou?”

“...” Mai didn’t answer. I couldn’t see her face, because she was leading the way across the forest, but I bet she had her typical mildly annoyed expression. Fortunately she still had her flashlight, which made it considerably easier for us to navigate through the wild part of the woods we weren’t really supposed to be exploring. She sighed continuously, probably because she was fed up with the Test and with my presence. Can’t blame her though, I’d also much prefer for this Kimodameshi to be over, but the story is the story and we need to force our way through it.

“...She was just asking about the normal stuff.” Mai spoke up after a good minute or two after I first asked about Kaichou. “ ‘How do I like the school’, ‘Am I keeping up with the lessons’ and so on.” 

“An exemplary Student Council President, taking care of the transferred student, how nice.”

“Annoying, if anything.”

“Figured you’d say that.” Our dialogue that started out of nowhere was going surprisingly smooth. Almost as if we’d known each other since long ago… Ooo, is it some fancy foreshadowing? Is it a suggestion that Mai and I met in real life, but we haven’t realized it yet??? Nah, this novel isn't THAT shitty. Right? Right?

“I’m telling you, if she really is playing a role, like we are, she’s damn good at it.”

“Is she really, though? Remember her falling into the bushes when you noticed her anime pendant? She’s clumsy as hell” Plus the time when she almost fell over and I had to rescue her in the most anime fashion ever, but I decided to keep that fact to myself.

“...” Mai was mulling over my statement, and in the end settled on not vocalizing her thoughts.

“So? What did you answer?” I was referring to the typical Kaichou-ish question she was asked.

“Nothing.”

“Yea, figured. Again.”

“What was that supposed to mean?!” She shouted and turned back to me at the same time, comically silencing all the loud bugs and other unidentified fauna around for a second. “Eeeeeh” She sighed again, this time ever more intensely, and faced forward again. I decided not to scold her about not engaging in a conversation with Kaichou, as it might’ve ended up quite painful and my face could really use not being beaten again. Instead…

“How were you two separated? You said she just disappeared?”

“When she was done with the questions she suddenly yelled ‘Look!’ and then… I saw that… thing.”

“The purple-ish ghost thingy?”

“...Yea, the same thing that was on the rooftop.” She was referring to our first day in this world, when I went full ham at her.

“And then what?”

“It flew somewhere quickly and before I noticed, Yuuri-san was gone.”

“Huh, that sounds creepy.”

“Yea…”

“Maybe she just hid in the bushes and wanted to scare you?” I guessed playfully.

“N-No way! If that was the case she’d come out after a while, right?!”

“Guess so. And what about that ghost?”

“It flew into the forest… I didn’t know what to do, so I just kept walking forward.”

“Huh…”

“...And you? How the hell did you end up falling from the top of the hill?” After a while she countered with a question similar to mine.

“Believe it or not, I also saw that thing. And I chased it into the forest, and well, let’s just say I got heckin bamboozled.”

“You ran after it and didn’t realize there was a drop?”

“I ran after it and didn’t realize there was a drop, yes.”

“Pff, idiot.” A faint laugh/snort escaped her mouth, clearly poking fun at my actions. “So it ran away?”

“Yea…”

“Figured.” Ooof, a nice counter plus a reference to my previous teasing.

Our conversation cut off there. Not because something extraordinary happened. Instead, we both must’ve independently decided that there was nowhere to take this conversation to. Before we realized, we were once again roaming the vast forest with nothing but a flashlight and the gradually building up feeling of being more and more lost. But then again, there were no signs of any anomalies happening, meaning that we must’ve been in fact following the ‘correct’ flow of events and going more or less the right way. Overall, there was nothing we should’ve been afraid of. And even if there was some beast waiting to devour us behind some bush, the Isekai logic would suggest we’d just respawn at the nearest checkpoint. Though I’m not so keen on testing whether that theory is true or not.

Mai’s sighs were getting quieter and rarer, and she seemed to be gaining more confidence with each minute spent in this rather unwelcoming environment. Her assertiveness sky-rocketed when we finally arrived at what we at first thought to be our destination. Mai noticed that the trees in front of us suddenly started becoming less and less densely packed, until we finally got a view of the night sky peeking out from behind the trees. 

“Aaah, fuckin’ finally. C’mon, I’m sick of this place.” Mai looked back at me without stopping or rotating her body and sped up considerably.

“Hey, slow down a bit, would you?” I shouted from behind her while struggling to get over some spiky bushes.

“Just come on, Jesus.”

“Yea yea…” Mai clearly wanted this whole thing to be over and didn’t heed my request. Instead, she dashed forward, only to stop right where the last of the trees were.

“Something wrong? Why are you stopping?” I tried to call her in between panting for some air. 

“...” She was just standing there without answering, which I was kind of grateful for, since it allowed me to catch up to her.

“H-hey… Oh, Jesus, I need to hit the gym… Sooo, everything alright-” Halfway through my second attempt at figuring out why she stopped, the answer came to me as I took a look around.

Below the delicate elevation on which we were now standing, a picturesque view was spreading. Amongst the copse of half alive and half dead trees, there stood a single, run-down, wooden building. Even a non-Japanese person would instantly recognize its characteristic style and shape. It was a dilapidated Shintoist shrine, lost within the woods. Basked in the blueish tint of the moonlight, it was giving off an unwelcoming, yet too peculiar not to investigate it closer vibe. Some parts of the shrine were covered in moss and numerous  dark-brown planks making up the outside were either crooked or cracked. The box designed for the worshipers to throw their hard earned money into was comically intact though. The same couldn’t be said about the huge shimenawa rope stretching underneath the outside portion of the distinctive Japanese architecture-style roof. Originally, it probably was nearly snow-white, but now was stained with remains of ash, bugs, and god knows what else. In front of the building there was a fairly large field devoid of any significant vegetation, other than random specs of grass peeking from between the ponds of dried out mud. 

The two of us stood there for a second devouring the full of the ‘pretty because it’s ugly’ wabi-sabi aesthetic of the hidden and apparently abandoned sacred grounds. While I was caught up with scanning through the area, Mai set off down the delicate slope straight towards the shrine.

“H-Hey!” I shouted at her back without a clear purpose. As one could imagine, she didn’t even flinch and walked onwards.

She carefully made her way through the rocks and fallen logs that were covered in various types of moss and fungi and didn’t seem to even be looking around. As if in trance, she was heading straight for the stone fence that was stretching on the opposite side of the shrine compared to where we were standing a moment ago. I went after her, but made sure to pay a bit more attention to the whole site. Upon closer inspection, the shrine was in even worse condition than I’d thought. Some random stone statues of the shrine guardians and lanterns were all chipped off at best, and missing most of their volume at worst. One of them had fallen over, most likely decades ago, judging from literal flowers and mushrooms growing out of it. Parts of the shrine itself also seemed to be missing. Some heavy rains or typhoons must’ve damaged the building well beyond the point of being reparable.

Mai finally reached the fence and froze in place once again. This gave me time to catch up and take one more look at the scenery stretching beyond the stone barrier. And it was even more picturesque than the shire itself. It turned out that even though I fell quite a distance during my chase after the ghost thingy, we were still pretty high up in the mountains. The shrine grounds were actually located on a steep cliff and separated from a fall of a good few tens of metres by only the aforementioned stone fence and were looking down at a town. The town which we must’ve come from yesterday morning. Now that I think about it, they did tell us that we were going to the nearby mountains for the field trip. Since it was already late at night, the entire city was lit beautifully. The view of its panorama truly was breathtaking. To think that we got to enjoy such a view only because we lost the original route sparked up some deep and philosophical emotions inside me I couldn’t quite describe. I was also 100% convinced that this wasn’t the place we were supposed to end our Test of Courage™. We just happened to find a stunning bonus location in our minigame of night forest wandering. And the existence of that bonus location was neatly hinted to us beforehand. My weeb senses were tingling once again and there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that the shrine we found was the very same infamous shrine/view point Kaichou brought up. Yup. The one where you make a promise with your loved one during the firework show so the two of you will be sure to spend the rest of your lives together. You know, the typical rom-com stuff… And I was now stuck and lost here with the Main Girl™… Lord, have mercy.

“Hey, what’s gotten into you?” I asked Mai after I’d arrived at the fence, referring to her rushing through the shrine grounds just to get here.

“...” She was gazing off into the distance with an expression of nostalgia mixed with disbelief and annoyance. As I was waiting for an answer a few drops of rain hit my head. Which, for someone lost somewhere in the mountains, wasn’t a particularly good omen.

“Damn. Come on, we can hide under the roof. Hope it’s still actually in one piece-”

“I know this place.” She said out of the blue.

“Huh? I mean, yea, I figured that this must be the place Kaichou mentioned.”

“That’s not what I mean… I’ve seen this place before.” A weird shiver made its way down my spine as I heard her words.

“As in… You’ve been here in your previous life, or something, or…?”

“You’re stupid or something? Of course not…” She seemed somewhat hesitant at the end there.

“Then what do you mean?”

“...” The rain was slowly starting to become fiercer and fiercer. Mai, after looking at me somewhat hostilely, put her hand into her pocket in search of her phone. She pulled it out and nearly shoved it in my face.

“There, look… And don’t get the wrong idea! I didn’t change it, because I was scared it’d break the world! Or something…” In almost perfect tsundere fashion, she showed me… Her phone’s lockscreen. 10:15PM, huh. Pretty late for a high schoolers’ kimodameshi. But that wasn’t the thing that she wanted me to see. It was the wallpaper that was the case. On the screen, there was a photo of a young boy and girl, both somewhere between 8 and 10 years old. The boy had dark hair, a bit longer than what you’d expect an average ground schooler to have and visible bags beneath his eyes. The girl’s hair, which was of similar length, barely touching her shoulders, had a pale reddish colour and was decorated with a daisy-shaped hairclip. She was wearing a beautiful yukata and had a broad smile on her face. She was making a peace sign with her fingers, while the boy was shyly looking away and blushing. The two of them were holding hands, standing in front of a low, stone fence amongst night scenery.

“I found  the same photo framed in my room.” Mai said, still holding the phone so that I could see the photo.

“That’s weird, I didn’t notice it when we were visiting?”

“I hid it before opening the blinds.” It was pitch-black in her room when we entered, that’d check out.

“Ah, got it… But why?”

“...None of your business!” 

“But I have to say though, the young you from this world looked pretty cute with short hair.” I said that in a playful manner, though I really meant what I said.

“Sh-shut up, you cheeky wanker!” Ah, a classic. “A weeb like you probably realizes who those kids are?”

“Oh please, who do you think I am? Of course I know. It’s us.” Or rather, those were the NPC versions of our characters before we got Isekai’d and overwrote their personality. The young and beautiful Hiro Sekuhara and Mai Gotou of this world. “It all falls into place. The Mai before you took over told me she made some promise with ‘me’ 8 years ago. Judging from the picture and the setting and everything, then yea, ‘we’ agreed to marry once we grow up-”

“No. Way. In. Hell!” The rain was pouring heavily now, and Mai headed back in the direction of the shrine after clearly stating she surprisingly had no intent to become my wife. “Come on, we can hide under the roof! God!” Annoyed for no reason, as always. But it was a good call. We’d be soaked if we were to stay here any longer. I followed her to the abandoned shrine, where we both sat down on the engawa.

 

...

 

Awkward silence arose around us, though I don’t think Mai minded. If anything, she was probably happy she didn’t have to talk to me. As we were sitting down under the thankfully-not-riddled-with-holes roof of the shrine, the rain turned into a full-on downpour. The temperature also plummeted, even though it was still technically summer. We didn’t spend much time in the rain, but our hair and clothes got wet anyway. I sneaked a peek at Mai. My eyes involuntarily looked straight at her chest, only to look away immediately after realizing the impropriety of their actions. Although it all happened in the, hehe, blink of an eye, Mai noticed my gaze and reacted in a manner that seemed scripted.

“What are you lookin’ at?! Perv!”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Bullshit. You have a girlfriend, goddamnit. She’s a saint for putting up with you, I swear.”

“Haha, guess so…” Saki is an angel, true. “But really, I was just thinking…” I stop to build up the tension and get her to actually listen to me. “Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out we really knew each other in the previous world? Haha…” It obviously was just an excuse to change the topic.

“I think I’d remember such a jackass. Especially one named ‘Sekuhara’. Now I know where that came from.” A nice diss, have to admit. I smiled in a troubled manner in answer.

“Well, actually, my surname was ‘Chikakane’... But for some reason it got changed in this world.”

“Don’t remember any ‘Chikakanes’ either.”

“Maybe I’m your long-lost childhood friend?” I tease her a bit. There’s something fun about making her comically angry…Maybe I am a masochist after all?

“Shut up, cut it out!” Because of the heavy rain I didn’t hear her very well, but this shout was audible very clearly. “But… You might’ve known me…” After visibly hesitating whether to say something or not, she spit that out almost too quietly for the sound not to get lost amongst raindrops.

“Sorry, didn’t know any ‘Mai Gotous’ either.” I mimiced her previous response. Thankfully, it turns out we didn’t know each other. Told you, this novel isn’t that shitty. It’s even worse.

“That’s not what I mean… You heard of Tw*tch?”

“I’m not a caveman, of course I have.”

“So maybe you know Mayo-nee san?” To use such a terrible pun for a nickname is both genius and idiotic.

“I’ve seen a clip or two of her, but wasn’t really her fan… Wait, hold up!” I freeze as a sudden realization hits my mind.

“Seriously? You haven’t noticed?” 

“... You’re Mayo-nee san?! Holy shit, you do look exactly like her avatar!” The Tw*tch streamer known as Mayo-nee san was one of the ‘virtual streamers’, using a real-time 2,5D anime girl model instead of showing her real face on the webcam… And her model was identical to Mai’s current form. Mayo-nee san was a polarizing character in the otaku internet. She was like any other of her kind, playing games and ranting about anime on her streams, but was infamous for her fierce personality, offensive jokes and constantly arguing and talking shit about her viewers… And now that I think of it, Mai’s real personality mirrors that perfectly. I looked at her face once again to confirm. Yup, it’s now blatantly obvious that it's her. I’m honestly ashamed of myself it took me this long, plus a hint to realize.

“Hehe, surprised?” She sounded way more proud of herself than she should have.

“ ‘Confused’ would be a more suiting, but yea… But it makes sense actually. You’re just as coarse as in the clips I saw.”

“Fuck you! Little cheeky wanker…”

“See?”

“Jesus Christ, shut up already!” Even though we were continuing to offend each other, it didn’t feel hostile at all. More like a friendly quarrel with the boys. Bizarrely natural, too.

“So my guess that you’re also a total weeb was correct.” There have already been multiple occasions on which she spoiled that she’s quite knowledgeable about anime as a whole. Between her knowing behaviour patterns of a typical Protagonist™, recognizing Rika form Rabu Rabu Gakusen and proposing a ping pong game as an essential field trip event, it was easy to come to that conclusion 

“...” She didn’t feel like answering.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.”

“...Whatever.”

“And even worse. A weeb that likes shitty harem rom-coms. Just like me. Hope we’ll get along well, yoroshiku.” The main reason she was popular among male audience was the fact that she talked a lot about the typical anime for dudes - The ones in the general ‘ecchi/harem/romance/school’ genre.

“I should’ve just stayed quiet…” Mai was now full of regret about making me realize who she was on the internet.

A random thought crossed my mind. We were having an actual conversation. Not that we haven’t talked to each other at all before, but only now did it feel like a proper interaction that wasn’t forced. Maybe I felt that way because it was the first time I learned something about her. We’ve been together in this world for a good while now, but I didn’t get to know her at all. Well, to be honest it’s kind of her fault for actively refusing to cooperate and avoiding us whenever possible. Which made me wonder…

“Why are you like this?”

“Huh?! You got a problem???”

“No no, chill out. I mean, since you like school harem rom-coms… Wouldn’t that make this world like a dream come true?” Her gaze changed suddenly, suggesting that I touched on the difficult subject. “I know it might not look like it, but I’m actually enjoying this new life very much. Well, at least now, that we’ve more or less figured out the rules. So I was wondering. Why are you constantly mad at everything and everyone? I can’t get my head around you.”

“...” No answer again. I sigh heavily in response after giving her a fed-up look. I leaned forward putting my elbows on my knees and supporting my chin with my hands. The rain didn’t feel like stopping anytime soon, as it was constantly pouring heavily. I looked at Mai again. She straightened her back, but cast her eyes down. They were now covered with a shadow in true anime fashion.

“...it’s your fault…”

“What? Sorry, I didn’t hear you.” She mumbled something but it was impossible to hear in the rain. She turned to me with angry eyes, inhaled deeply and…

“IT’S YOUR FAULT, OKAY?!” She screamed into my face so loud  that the gods that used to be enshrined here probably heard it as well. “Imagine waking up in some random place, not even remembering who you are and being yelled at and frightened by some creep with dead-fish eyes! Does that seem fun to you?! And then being chased around a school  you’ve never even been to and finding yourself in a town you’ve never seen before and then looking in the mirror and not recognizing yourself?! Great fun, right?! What is fucking wrong with you?! I literally went to a random playground, ‘cause I didn’t know what to do, and sat in that dome thing until it got dark and fell to sleep from exhaustion like some fucking hobo!”

“Okay, I can expla-”

“SHUT. THE FUCK. UP!  I’ve had enough of you and your friends and this mess of a world, why won’t you just leave me alone so I can be all by myself locked up in my room and live my life peacefully and not talking to people and not bothering anyone?! I don’t like people, I don’t like being around people, I don’t like talking to people, is it that hard to figure out?!

“The world’d break if you were to just lock yourself up like that…”

“I KNOW!” She yells in the same, constant tone with a teary scream. “God, I know that! I know… I know, I know, I know, I know!” She was doing her best to hold back her tears. Something inside her has just broken and the feelings she must’ve been keeping under lock and key since she got transported here all broke free at once.

“Haaa… haaa…” She was sighing heavily in an attempt to calm down. I decided not to say anything and give her time. “...I’m not a social type.” She continued, this time with a trembling, thin voice. “I’m honestly the opposite. Back at school, I’d just sit quietly at the back during lessons and breaks in my own little world, reading manga or watching anime… I was happy not having to talk to anyone. But then… I started feeling too alone. I’d thought being alone with the stuff I like was enough. But something felt missing. I didn’t want to talk to people, but I wanted to do so at the same time. I hated them, but wanted for them to approach me and ask about what I like… I wanted to find somebody who’d be willing to listen to me talking about all the weird-ass stuff I’ve been reading, watching, drawing… But nobody did. No wonder, I was an outcast. I wanted to be an outcast. But…”

“Then you decided to take up streaming?” I spotted an opportunity to join in gently.

“...Yea… That way I didn’t have to do make-up, decide what to wear and all that other stupid girly stuff. I could just load up my avatar and talk to people I knew were willing to listen to even my dumbest takes. And… that’s how it went. Until the accident. When I apparently got killed by a goddamn Truck-kun… Ironic.

“You lived and died like a true weeb. You have my respect.”

“Shut up.” This time, she said that gloomily, but lightly with an ever so slight hint of a laugh.

“So you’re just an introvert who can only interact properly with people of similar interests. Wouldn’t say that’s uncommon. It was pretty much the same deal for me.” I try to comfort her in my own way.

“And what did you do about it? You seem pretty self-confident for an introverted weeb.”

“Good question. Guess I… Started believing that there’s something I’m good at. Even if it’s something as stupid as predicting a harem novel storyline.”

“Hey, don’t you shittalk harems!” Now, her anger was purely fake. I somehow managed to cheer her up, it seemed.

“Haha, sorry.”

“But there are things I’m good at. You saw my ping pong game? Wasn’t I amazing???”

“You sure were.” Let’s just go with the flow for now. I’d much prefer not to make her angry for real again.

“And I’m great at anime trivia. Did you know that there is a scene in some random loli-vampire anime where the girl lifts up a road roller, and that it’s actually a motherfucking J*J* reference?!”

“I, uh, actually knew that, yea.” And used the same piece of trivia hundreds of times to impress other weebs online…

“What? Really? Of all the people I told this to, you’re the first to know this.

“I’m not just an average otaku. I am the True Weeb™.”

“Pfff, yea, right, true weeb my ass, haha” It felt like her mood made a full 180 degrees rotation and she was now the most relaxed I’ve ever seen her. I noticed the rain was slowly getting quieter and less intensive.

“...Is that also why you were against forming a club?” Before the trip, Kaichou told me that in order to create a club at our school, we need at least 4 members to start with. And Mai wasn’t keen on being the final one. Now I think I finally understood why.

“Eeeeeh, that thing again… Yea, I didn’t feel like spending any more time with you all. Plus… I was kinda jealous.”

“Jealous? Of what, me having friends?”

“No, you fuckin’ wanker! Of you being the Protagonist™”

“Huh?” She caught me off-guard.

“I wanted to be the Protagonist™ and get all the girls! Isn’t that the point of a harem show? I could get all of the cute girls all for myself. That’d actually be a dream come true~ But noooo, I’m just a fuckin’ part of YOUR harem, for fuck’s sake. Goddamnit.

“You for real? Haha, what the hell, of course a girl is gonna be a part of a harem in such a story!” Although yea, there’s also Hayato…

“What, you mean a girl can’t fantasize about having a harem of adorable anime girls that are all head over heels for her?!”

“No, but can’t say that’s a common pattern.”

“Your stupidity is an uncommon pattern, dickhead.” Ouch, what is she, twelve?

Even though Mai spoke a whole lot about herself, there was one more thing that was bothering me about her attitude. 

“Why are you always this… bitchy?” I decided to risk it and try to talk on her rules. And that might involve a lot of cursing. But hey, maybe she’ll feel more comfortable thanks to that. Somehow.

“How the fuck did you just call me?” …Shit.

“Aaaand that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Could that be maybe… You secretly like us and feel comfortable enough to act not like an introvert hidden in your own world, but like you did on streams with your viewers, hm?”

“Sh-shut up… It’s not like I like you guys or anything… Baka…”

“...You just had to say that line, didn’t you?”

“So you got the reference?~”

“Unfortunately”

“Hehe, sorry.” God, her personality is a mess. No wonder nobody was talking to her. “Eh, but honestly speaking… Kinda.” She was now referring to my previous question. “… I mean, you are a total weeb, which I guess calmed me down a bit?”

“ ‘Calmed me down’ isn’t the best wording, in my opinion.”

“Oh fuck off, you know what I mean!”

“So you’re like an otaku-moth. Instead of a lamp you cling to fellow weebs.”

“Talk about terrible wording.”

“Am I wrong, though?”

“Well, not really…”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like we’ll all be friends all of a sudden!” There she goes being a textbook tsundere again. It’s honestly surprising that the world hasn’t yet broken because of this.

“I know how introverts work, don’t worry”

“And… yea, I got a little bit more confident when you mentioned them being NPCs…”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

“During the school tour. I heard that you were comparing the students to NPCs. And it kinda made me not worry so much about them… Thanks, I guess?”

“You’re welcome I guess?” Now that she said it, it’s true that I said something along those lines. Although it was but a made-up defence mechanism for myself, so that I wouldn’t get sick in the crowd of unknown ‘people’. Glad it worked out not only for me though.

Our ‘serious’ conversation seemed to come to an end. Around half an hour must’ve passed since we hid under the shrine’s roof and the rain still hasn’t stopped. It was now more of drizzle than heavy downfall, but none of us has suggested departing yet. I took one more look around the scenery. The shrine grounds looked even more transcendent now, in combination with the shy rain. The dried mud ponds were now liquid once again and the air was smelling absolutely beautifly. Even though it was ever so faint, I noticed a smile on Mai’s face, which was probably a first to me. Her eyes were still moist from her emotional breakdown a few minutes ago. The expression on her face was as calm as the surrounding rain. I could tell there was more to how she felt. She didn’t tell me everything she wanted. But nonetheless, a huge portion of weight has definitely been lifted off her shoulders. In some inexplicable way, I felt like we really were getting each other. Maybe it’s simply because we were both lost causes of the otaku virus, but I had a feeling we were much alike. I’ve had that thought even before, but now I was much more conscious about it.

“Aaaaa… When does this trip end, I wanna go home and play RabuGaku…” Mai started whining like a little kid out of nowhere.

“Hee, I thought you only knew Rika from the anime adaptation?” Rabu Rabu Gakusen, or RabuGaku originally was a video game, but was adapted into numerous manga and anime. Most fans of the franchise don’t even know it’s based on a fighting game. For her to play the game was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

“How dare you! I’ve been a fan of RabuGaku since the first game came out!”

“Is that so… Wait, the first RabuGaku is from 15 years ago, how in the hell old are you?”

“Shut up! I-I’ve started playing when I was little… I must’ve been like 10 or 11-

“You’re telling me you’re 26?”

“What did I say, shut up! Fuckin’ cheeky wanker! You’re not much younger, I bet!”

“Actually, I’m 21…”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Feelin’ old?”

“Fuck you! Little brat.” Turns out Mai is a responsible adult woman… Theoretically, at least.

“But at least we seem to agree with the waifus. I also like Rika the most.” I try to find common ground again.

“Ok, I’ll give you a point for that, but the true question is, who’s the second best girl?”

“It’s obviously Kotori.”

“WHAT?! THAT BITCH?! WHAT IN THE HELL DOES EVERYONE SEE IN HER???” And so, in the middle of the forest in a literally godforsaken shrine, two adult (at least in previous lives) people were having a heated argument over fictional characters, that continued for a long while… Life sometimes is beautiful.