Hakuta recalled that fateful day. The day where he first met the masked gamer, which ironically was also the first time he actually met Ino. This was back during his junior high days before they would eventually become classmates.
The boy had decided to enter a local gaming tournament. It was nothing serious, but still good fun regardless. Because of the more casual nature of the event. Hakuta was easily able to defeat everyone he matched against. Moving to the finals, he believed himself to have gotten an easy victory to stroke his ego for a bit.
This was where he sat besides the masked gamer for the first time. While playing, he had heard murmurings of people behind him talking about this person and how good they were. He believed it only to be a bunch of noobs speaking way too highly of someone they played against to protect their self esteem.
He would soon find out how wrong he when Hakuta finally began to play against her. They caught him by surprise early on, taking a quick first round. This was where he found himself taking the game much more seriously than he had before, struggling to win the second round by a narrow margin.
However, despite his best efforts, it seemed his opponent was just too good and finished him off in the deciding round. The boy couldn’t believe it, but someone actually managed to best him at a video game.
“Who are you?” Were the first words coming from his mouth. He only thought of it as asking a simple question. As not only was he curious, but Hakuta wanted to be their friend. Looking back, due to the adrenaline rush of having such an exciting experience, he might’ve sounded angry at them. Which would explain why she was so afraid of him when they met the second time during that big gaming tournament.
“Wow…” He said in the present. “So that’s why you were so interested in me when we saw each other again in high school.”
“Huh, I always thought it was because he was a massive nerd.” Said Ninka with a much less delicate response to such a revelation.
“I just couldn’t believe that boy I beat became my classmate.” Said Ino. “My mother said she wanted me to make friends who shared the same hobbies as myself. But even though I wanted to, it was hard to want to approach him about it.”
“Probably didn’t help that I had no clue.” Hakuta had always viewed them as two separate people. Even now that he knew the truth, he still couldn’t believe she was the same person as the one before. “And I guess it hurts a little bit knowing we couldn’t talk about your issues whenever they came up.”
When she had stopped spending time with him due to the boy choosing to recant his disdain for gyarus. That also meant she no longer wanted to play video games with him as well. Which made sense as she didn’t want to be friends, but was unfortunate fro him when he got confused as to why the masked gamer stopped responding to his messages at the same time she did.
“I truly am sorry for that.” She replied. “It was the most petty thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
“Okay, I think we’ve caught up enough.” Ninka finished off her food, which was easy as they were small portions which always confused Hakuta on how they filled anyone’s stomachs. “I hate to cut things off, but we should get back to the others.” She only suggested this as she saw he had become a bit too interested in Ino. At this rate, her being here would only turn her into a third wheel, and Ninka was no third wheel.
“You’re not wrong.” He had no argument for her. “But Ino, if you don’t mind. It doesn’t hurt to be with people a bit closer to your age.” Hakuta looked over at her father, where it seemed there were less reporters surrounding the family. They must’ve been content with most of his answers to move on to enjoying the event.
“I’m not sure if it’s the best fit for me.” She still had some reservations about being with his group of friends. Which were mostly a bunch of rambunctious gals. “Besides, my family kind of needs me more.”
“Why would they?” He asked, but he would get his answer from someone else.
“There you are, Ino.” Suddenly her father spoke up behind him. The man’s words sent chills down Hakuta spine as he slowly turned to look at the imposing figure. He had just looked over at their table just a few moments ago. How did he get her so quickly without the boy noticing? “I see you’re talking with some of your classmates.”
He leaned down closer to the boy, giving him a clear voice given their proximity. “I didn’t realize when we first met you were Toukou’s son.”
“Hehe…” Hakuta laughed nervously as he addressed the statement. “Yeah, I hope my dad’s been good with you.”
“He’s certainly a character.” Kazuhide spoke in the same polite way whenever someone would call something ‘interesting’ when they didn’t want to insult someone or something for being weird. “You don’t really resemble him all that much. It’s why I didn’t notice until more recently.”
“I take more after my mom.” He replied, unsure of what this man was after. Nothing out of the ordinary had come yet, but this was a politician he was speaking with. There had to be something behind these words.
“Father, if you’d like.” Ino had picked up on it too. Whatever she was thinking, it had to be accurate as he was also her dad. “I can return to you and mother.”
“I do have one question for your friend here.” The man took the shot he had been setting up. “I hear from your father you play a lot of video games.”
“I-I do, yes.” His nervous response to such a question seemed silly considering the words, but in context it made complete sense that he would fear a man with the positions he carried.
“Father.” Ino continued to attempt and stop this, though it was all futile.
“I was wondering then, are you aware of some person going around in a mask attending those so-called gaming events?”
“Why do you ask that?” Hakuta didn’t imagine her dad to be talking about the masked gamer, who just so happened to be his daughter. “I mean, I might’ve heard about them whenever I’m playing online.” Though part of why the masked gamer grew any sort of notoriety in the community was ironically because of Hakuta himself. Whenever he had gone to an event before seeing her for the second time. The boy would ask around first if anyone had seen a masked figure before. Eventually the legends would grow as a result of him spreading it around. The so-called myth of ‘TheMaskedDemon’.
“Because I need to figure out who that darn person is.” He answered. Unfortunately the popularity had reached him, which only served to upset the man as it undermined his ideology. “They’ve gotten people rallied under them, trying to become as supposedly ‘good’ as they are and wasting their time trying to catch a shadow.”
“Father, please. Now’s not the right time.” These were not words Ino wanted to hear. As even though he didn’t realize it, he was speaking poorly of her. “My friends, they don’t need to hear this right now.”
“I’m sorry, but I just wanted to know.” He replied. “That person is influencing our youth to live poor lives. Wasting their lives away playing meaningless video games. Haven’t people even heard there are those who game themselves to death?” Hakuta wished that wasn’t the truth, but it indeed appear in the feeds he followed for gaming news.
As he lamented that, his attention moved to Ninka for a moment. Where he noticed something off about her. Her hands tightly gripped the fork she had been using to eat. Her eyes turned sharp as she stared at the man.
“Hey.” He grasped her wrist, speaking quietly so the other’s wouldn’t hear him. “You okay?” She didn’t say anything back to him, but did loosen her grip on the fork, allowing it to fall to the table.
“Father…” Ino stood up from her seat now that the conversation had come to an end. “We should go back to mother. It’s not nice to leave her all alone.” He didn’t say anything, but nodded in response to her suggestion as the pair left.
“That jerk!” Ninka finally spoke up once they were out of earshot. “Can you believe the things he said about her?”
“He doesn’t know.” Somehow it was Hakuta who came to Kazuhide’s defense.
“But he still said those things in front of you.” She countered. “If he’s going that far, I bet he’d disown her if he figured out that masked gamer is her. And why are you standing up for him? That dude hates you.”
“He doesn’t… Hate me.” He spoke, but even Hakuta was unsure if his statement was true.
