Jaku-chara Tomozaki-kun - Volume 2 Chapter 3 part6-7

We were now on the way back from school. Mimimi spoke cheerfully to me as we walked side-by-side.

「Still, that went pretty well, don’t you think? You can really do it, Tomozaki!」

「Ah, no……it wouldn’t have worked without your negotiations, Mimimi.」

Two of us, heading home from school together. Moreover, taking the same route up until the nearest station. Come to think of it, it was natural that this would happen.

It might have been the second time I would be heading home together with Mimimi, but I hadn’t mentally prepared myself.

「I wonder if this will be enough for us to put up a good fight?」

「Hmm, let me see. Well, at the very least, with this it’s not like we can’t put up a fight……I think.」

I spoke while hiding my nervousness from us going back together. Although I tried giving her an ambiguous affirmation, what was the actual situation? The total student population of Sekitomo High was just under six hundred. Having just over a hundred supporters…… in all honesty, it wasn’t enough. No, had this been a normal election that would likely have been more than enough to go on, but our opponent was Hinami. If you considered that, you could even say we were still far off the mark. Given that, what should we do……?

Nervous from the two of us returning from school together, my thoughts weren’t quite in order.

However, walking alongside her like this, despite how I myself was suffering overwhelming defeat in the game called Life, I was still the one with the taller stature and better physique. It kind of made me realize the obvious, but she’s a girl.

「Hmm? Do I see you staring? So it’s a confession after all!?」

「T-That ain’t it!」

Flustered, I tsukkomi’d. Mimimi laughed cheerfully, her bag swaying. As a result of that momentum, the strap attached to her bag also swayed.

「……What’s that?」

I looked at the strap. It was a large strap, resembling a haniwa, and had a kind of strange, striped colour scheme. Was there something like this attached before? [1]

「Oh! What a discerning eye! It’s something I bought the other day after falling in love with it at first sight!」

「He, heeh.」

The design of the strap kind of feels awfully questionable. I was stumped on how to respond.

「So how is it!? Cute, right!?」

I went 「Ehhh!?」in surprise. Th-this is cute?

Here, I recalled a method courtesy of Mizusawa that I had also previously used to mess around with Izumi.

「Nah, it’s really weird.」

「Ehh! No-no-no! It’s super cute!」

Mimimi laughed. Ooh, looks like we’ve got a good mood going again. Incredible, Mizusawa. This method has great usability.

「No, but I mean, this……looks like a haniwa, right.」

「That’s exactly what makes it cute! Jeez! So you don’t get it, huh～」

Even as Mimimi pouted at me, her tone of voice indicated she was having fun. The Mizusawa Method sure is amazing.

Not at all. But I do know for sure that this isn’t cute, okay.

「More importantly, the election! What should we do tomorrow?! Tomozaki-san the Brain!」

Just like before, Mimimi brought a hand to my mouth as if holding a microphone.

「Hmm……that’s right. What to do from here, huh……」

I thought.

In order to win in this election. In order to strike the chinks in the armour of the flawless gamer NO NAME.

The essential point of this battle would be in Mimimi and Hinami’s『Difference in awareness of the match.』

To put it bluntly, this time Hinami was being careless. Though I say careless, it wasn’t some foolish carelessness of the type『There’s plenty of leeway so I can take it easy』, but rather, a valid carelessness with the meaning『Not thinking that we would fight with this much focus on winning』.

Thinking about elections normally, what a candidate should head for is to『gather more supporters』. That is why Hinami would likely expect Mimimi’s course of action to be the honest objective of『gathering more supporters』, and in fact that is what Mimimi had been doing prior myself becoming the『Brain』.

Under that assumption, if Hinami was in it to win, to her the fighting style with the highest chance of success would be to『just like Mimimi, gather as many supporters as possible』. After all, since there was an insurmountable difference in original capability and past accumulations, if she were to fight her opponent on the same stage and with the same tactics, the chances of an unexpected upset would be considerably low.

And at the moment Hinami was, by that same logic, fighting with her focus on『gathering more supporters』.

In addition, this also concurred with NO NAME’s style of a『head-on attack with an overwhelming amount of effort』.

In other words, we couldn’t win there. Hinami specialized in such a stage and strategy. We had no choice but to abandon that option.

Which is why earlier, before going to the gymnasium to buy votes, I had suggested the following to Mimimi.

「Let’s aim for fifty-five percent.」

That’s right. From the start, we would abandon any idea of『gathering more supporters』. We were practically abandoning, in advance, any possibility of obtaining votes from forty-five percent of the hundred-percent of voters. Instead, we would pump everything we had into the remaining fifty-five percent. While Hinami worked on the hundred-percent for the purpose of『gathering more supporters』, we would focus only on the fifty-five percent, and make them unwavering in their support. By fighting in this way, even with a gap in ability that almost doubled ours, we would be able to fight an even match.

And this plan was linked to our activities that made use of the『electric air pump』, targeting a specific area to great effect.

At that time, I had also explained the following.

「──When it’s simply an issue of win or lose,『100% of votes』and『51% of votes』have the same value, after all.」

In an election, you win if you secure the most votes. In other words, as far as winning and losing was concerned, once you had secured the majority vote then anything above that would only be relevant for one’s self-satisfaction.

Of course, there was no way Hinami didn’t understand this. However, she was a user of frontal attacks and would therefore avoid choosing that method. It would be a different story if she knew that Mimimi was adopting the indifferent『way of fighting that aims for fifty-five percent of the vote from the start』strategy, but she likely wasn’t considering it in the slightest.

Which is why this was an indirect method which targeted that opening. In a sense, nothing more than a surprise attack.

We wouldn’t be able to stand up to other fighting styles just by coming up with a counter-plan to Hinami’s fighting style. If Hinami were to come up with her own counter-plan to this strategy, then it would instantly collapse like a house of cards.

But I was fine with that. Something that metas the previous environment’s top meta is the current environment’s top meta. You hear about that kind of thing every day in the world of competitive gaming.

「……Heyy Tomozaki～? What’s the plan for tomorrow?」

「Ah, yeah.」

Ah, that was bad of me. Unconsciously diving into my own world of thoughts again.

「I say that, but I wonder if it’ll be something difficult……?」

「Hmm. ……Let me think about it.」

In truth, I had already explored several options, but no method of obtaining similarly firm supporters like just now in a single day had come to mind.

「Actually though, why is it that you want to win against Aoi so much, Tomozaki?」

Suddenly, a question from Mimimi.

「Why, you ask?」While slightly confused, I replied.「……It’s the same as what I told you last time, though.」

「The thing about you liking games and getting more fired up the stronger your opponent is?」

「Yeah, well, that.」

「……Is that all?」

Mimimi took the question a step further.

Well, to be honest, that probably wasn’t all. Or rather, if my reason for wanting to win was that I liked games, then why wasn’t I regularly competing in terms of academics or sports? It certainly wasn’t a very good reason, was it.

Even Mimimi kind of had her mouth in the shape of a smile but her expression looked doubtful. Should I be frank?

If I had to say something the current low-leveled me could do, it’s saying what comes to mind exactly as it is, after all.

「……You know, I’m good at AtaFami.」

「Eh, what’s this all of a sudden?」

「No look, Hinami’s good at it too, as a matter of fact.」

「Ahh, I see!」Mimimi had a look of comprehension.「So in other words, this is about revenge against Aoi!」

I tilted my head.

「Revenge?」

「Ah, was that not it? I thought that perhaps this was all because you lost in AtaFami which you had such confidence in or something.」

「Ahh.」I smiled wryly.「That’s not it, if it’s in AtaFami, I did beat her.」

「Eh! Is that so!?」

A reaction that kind of said simply winning against Hinami in something was already deserving of surprise.

「Yeah, well. But among all the AtaFami players I’ve ever fought, Hinami was the strongest, or rather, she was the first opponent to make me think I might lose to them one day.」

「Ho, hooh.」

Mimimi was visibly taken aback as she listened to me.

「But how should I put it, aren’t I being thrashed by Hinami in Life? No matter what I do I can’t win, and I can’t even see a future where I do win. But that’s because the main battlefield for the AtaFami player who I uniquely acknowledge, Hinami Aoi, is『Life』.」

「Ahaha, it’s just like you’re treating life like it’s a game.」

The point was that it really is a game, though.

「I guess. But I thought, if『Life』is a game, I want to try fighting against that Hinami Aoi in not just AtaFami, but also in her main battlefield『Life』. No matter how insignificant I am, I’m still a gamer after all. But I can’t win as I am right now, so……」

「Ah. ……So that’s why.」

「Yeah. I thought that if I cooperated with you, Mimimi, winning might be possible. Something like that.」

「I seee～. Well, if that’s the case I think I understand.」

I explained my motives truthfully. Things like me being Japan’s number one in AtaFami were kind of embarrassing so I left such details unsaid. Of course, that also applied to how I was getting Life lessons from Hinami.

While saying something to the effect of「Mm-hmm, that’s youth for you」, Mimimi nodded several times.

Still, she’s drawn out the conversation considerably. So this is the conversation technique of a riajuu, huh. That being the case, let’s have a go at imitation. After all, I had been ordered to steal Mimimi’s conversation techniques, and I was actually a little curious anyway.

「……How about you, Mimimi?」

「Hm?」

「What makes you want to win against Hinami so much?」

Just like how Mimimi had done to me, I returned the question. Just as with the Mizusawa method, I think that as expected appropriation is key to conversation.

「……Hmm～～」

Mimimi showed a troubled smile, her eyes wandering around in space.

Ah, might I have gone too far with my learning through imitation and breached a sensitive topic?

「Ah, sorry.」

「No, not at all, it’s fine! It’s not that big a deal, you know?」

While scratching her face, Mimimi, with the same gaze that was neither here nor there, began to speak.

「Well then, here’s a question! What is Japan’s tallest mountain!?」

For some reason, here came an unexpected, cheerful quiz. Mimimi had returned to her usual bright expression.

「A pop-quiz?」Though confused, I answered her.「That’d be Mount Fuji.」

「Correct～! Pafu pafu～!」

「Y-Yeah.」I was at a loss on how to reply.

「Okay, next question.」Mimimi smiled meaningfully.「What is the second tallest mountain in Japan?」

Mimimi stared into my eyes, sending me a gaze that was as if she was trying to assess how I felt.

「Eh, second tallest? ……What was it again? Umm……」

「Bu-buu～! Time’s up! The correct answer was～……『Kitadake』!」

Mimimi held up two fingers.

「Kitadake? ……I had no idea.」

「Right?」Mimimi laughed spiritedly.「Okay, next question! Who was the first president of America?」

I knew this one.

「George Washington.」

「That’s correct! Then ……what about the second president of America?」

Mimimi, as if testing some part of me, slowly threw the words my way.

「Um, let me see. ……Who was it again?」

「Okay, too bad～! The correct answer was John Adams! Tomozaki, is world history not your strongest subject～?」

「I, I wonder.」

I was finding it difficult to grasp the purpose of this quiz. Mimimi’s expression grew just a bit more serious than before.

「Well then, onto the next question! In the sports test in May, who was first place overall for the girls?」

Then, Mimimi smiled a gentle, meaningful smile. Hm.

「That would be Hinami, right.」

「Yep, correct. Now then.」Mimimi gently tilted her head to the side.「Do you know who was second?」

She then made eye contact with me.

「……No, I don’t know.」

「Right? To sum things up, that’s what it is! First place really stands out and becomes famous, but the moment it comes to second place! Instantly, the value drops!」

──The value drops.

At that point, I had the feeling I could guess what Mimimi wanted to tell me.

「So, the one who placed second in that sports test……」

For just an instant Mimimi’s expression appeared somewhat lonely, rigid as if taking a sharp breath, but right after that it returned to the usual smile.

「That’s right! The one in second place was none other than myself, Nanami Minami! How about that? I’m actually amazing! Did you know that?」

「I, I didn’t.」

「I thought as much! But that prett-y much sums it up. Ah, incidentally, as for studies, in the first-year end of school tests, I was always second too! Though I did drop to third and sixth place in the recent mid-term and end-of-term tests in the end～」

That surprised me. Our school was pretty high-ranked, so those achievements truly were remarkable.

「Eh, is that so? You don’t seem like it.」

Surprised, I inadvertently put my honest thoughts into words.

「Heyyy that’s rude!」*ka ka ka*, Mimimi laughed.「But you know, it’s true that everyone isn’t aware of it! That in fact myself, Nanami Minami, am one accomplished in the pen and sword with an attractive face and figure, and make for a handsome Yamato Nadeshiko boy-girl couple……」[2]

「No wait, you’re not a handsome boy.」

「Ohh, as expected you pay attention to the details, Tomozaki! But it looks like you acknowledge the other part……how suh-weet!」

「Shaddup!」

In order to be able to keep up with Mimimi’s pace, I tsukkomi’d.

「Ahahaha!」

Mimimi let out a big laugh, then returned to a serious expression.

「But well, that’s the story.」

Smiling faintly with her face looking down, Mimimi kicked a pebble with an *ei*.

「……Is that so.」

I hadn’t known. I hadn’t known that because of how incredibly amazing Hinami was, Mimimi was always hidden by her shadow.

I averted my eyes slightly, continuing to walk. Upon which Mimimi, with not her usual excessively bright, shining smile, but with a somewhat fleeting smile that felt like it might disappear at any moment, said the following.

「That, is why I want to win.」