Today is the day I'll claim my victory today.
Joking aside, I wonder if I'll be able to present myself to Ryuichi's parents, after all, his family works in general distribution of goods, not to mention they own a farm.
Remember when I bought the tomato sauce from a convenience store? Yes, his company was the one that distributed that thing.
And so right now, I'm in front of Ryuichi's house. Or to be more accurate, in front of his gate, which resembles a historical samurai residence.
"Tomoki, you must greet his parents well, and don't forget to give this small gift to them. But regardless, have fun and call me later, okay?" — Mom said.
"Okay?" — I replied.
"What? Something wrong?"
I mean, last time when I went to Ayame-san's house, she kept asking me to send messages and that I should be back before sunset.
"Nothing."
So Mom went back to her home, and right after, Ryuichi appeared with his parents.
"Sup, Tomoki!"
"Hey, Ryuichi!" — Then I looked at his parents. — "Madam, sir, I hope you like this small gift."
"Oh my! What a polite one, thank you for being a friend of my son." — Ryuichi's mother said.
"Ryuichi said that you helped him a lot at school. Thank you for taking care of him." — Ryuichi's father said.
"It was nothing. Besides, he helps me a lot too when I need him."
"Such good friends! You're his first friend who he really relies on." — Ryuichi's mother said.
"Mom!" — Ryuichi was clearly embarrassed.
"He even said he would help you with everything you did for him." — Ryuichi's father said.
"Dad!"
Did he see me like a big brother? I can't let this chance to tease him slip.
"Ooww! I didn't know you think of me like that. Wanna call me aniki?"
"No." — He straightforwardly denied it without any hint of hesitation.
"Okay." — And so I replied the same way.
"Both of you are really close to each other." — Ryuichi's mother said.
"How?" — We replied in unison.
"Haha! Hey look, someone's coming." — Ryuichi's father said.
It was Tachibana-san. I noticed some bags under her eyes. To be fair, with so many things she must going through, I'm not surprised.
I just hope today she can forget about these things and just have fun.
"Hello Satou-san, Tomoki-san!" — Then she turned to Ryuichi's parents. — "Here... it's a small gift, I hope you like it."
"Thank you, you must be Tachibana-san's daughter, right? How's your mother? It's been a while since the last time we talked to her." — Ryuichi's mother said.
"Yes, I'm Tachibana Himari. My mother is fine."
"It's good to hear that. Well, make yourself at home." — Ryuichi's father said.
"Thank you!"
And then, Ayame-san appeared. As always, I could see Sasaki-san driving the car.
"Hello Satou-san, Tachibana-san, and Tomoki-kun." — Then she turned to Ryuichi's parents. — "It's been a while. Here... I hope you like this small gift."
"Thank you, Ayame-chan. Time really flies, and you've already grown up this much." — Ryuichi's mother said, it seems they knew each other.
"And how is your... your school? I heard you always ace the tests." — said Ryuichi's father. Did he stutter?
"Fufu~ the school is fun, and I'm lucky to have friends like them."
"I see, well. Everyone, let's head to our house. Please..." — Ryuichi's mother guided us to their house.
Ryuichi's house is a traditional residence (yashiki). It kind of reminds me a bit of the ryokan I went to on my vacation. But, if you compare them, Ryuichi's residence has a much wider area.
Anyway, we headed straight to Ryuichi's room.
"Then, we'll be leaving you here. Have fun!" — Ryuichi's mother said.
Now, only the four of us were in the room.
"So... Tomoki, what did you bring this time?" — Ryuichi asked.
"Something all of us can happily enjoy, and this time your gaming skill will be put into practice."
"Why do I think this will go wrong?" — Ryuichi retorted.
"Tomoki-san, it doesn't count if you already know how to play!" — Tachibana-san said.
"I've never played THIS game. Sure, I already know the basic idea, but I think all of you have at least heard of it once."
"Fufu~ I wonder what it is." — Ayame-san said.
So I started the game.
It's Mary Party. You can already guess what happened here. This is all because of the main audience who play this, but the basic idea is the same.
"I know this game. You really know what to choose." — Ryuichi said, little he knows.
"I already played this game before... but as far as I know, luck plays a big role in this." — Tachibana-san said, well she's not wrong.
"This one doesn't involve kids or marriage, right? Right?" — It seems Ayame-san is the only one who doesn't know about it.
Then everyone started choosing their characters... you'll be surprised by the names of the characters. Try to guess who their "originals" are.
[Morikawa Tomoki - Yosh]
[Satou Ryuichi - Prince Peach]
[Tachibana Himari - Waluigia]
[Edomae Ayame - Shy Girl]
And now we'll roll the dice to see the order of play.
[Prince Peach - 1st]
[Waluigia - 2nd]
[Shy Girl - 3rd]
[Yosh - 4th]
"I kind of start regretting choosing this game, can we change?" — I said.
"Really, Tomoki? Really?" — Ryuichi said.
And so we started.
Let me summarize how it went from then on.
Prince Peach landed on most of the red spaces and always remained in last place in every minigame. He's really weak when it comes to gaming.
"This game sucks, can we change it?" — said Prince Peach.
Waluigia triggered most of the events, switching the landscape of the map and always buying items that changed players' positions or the star's position. And she always did that whenever some of us were close to the star, most on me... Talk about luck.
"How does it feel to see the star you yearned for slip through your fingers? Hehehe... feel my pain!" — said Waluigia.
Shy Girl was the richest. She landed on most of the lucky spaces, not to mention she bought most of the items, to the point of even giving up on the star just to buy more. And I was shocked at what her primary goal was.
"Fufu~ Tomoki-kun, no hard feelings, okay~?"
Then our friendly Yosh — I was able to win most of the minigames. The only one I lost was the photographic memory game, Shy Girl excelled at that. I couldn't buy the star — or rather, I couldn't even reach it.
There are two reasons for that: first, because of Waluigia, who always changed the position of the star whenever I was close to getting it. Another reason is because of Shy Girl, who always gave me poison mushrooms. Even though Shy Girl was a cute character, I could see why she's considered a villain.
And to make it worse, whenever everyone passed through Boo, they always robbed me.
"I mean, if I can't win, at least I can drag you down." — Prince Peach.
"If I can't reach the star, then nobody will! Hehehe!" — Waluigia.
"No hard feelings, okay~?" — Shy Girl.
At this point, I wasn't even retorting back.
But when I finally passed through Boo, as a normal player, I went for the one who had the most money.
"No hard feelings, okay~?" — Take this, Shy Girl!
"..." — Shy Girl was only smiling.
"Ayame-san? You need to press the button, otherwise I'll take most of your money."
"Fufu~ it's okay... I prefer it this way... after all, you need me, right?" — Shy Girl said.
"Okay?" — I didn't know if she was mocking me.
And now we're in the last lap. Nobody was able to buy the star. I think this is the first game I've ever seen that happen. Well, maybe because there was one player who could actually buy it without any problem but instead had another goal in this match.
Anyway, this is the last minigame, and I've got to say, the one who wins this will take the lead. After all, if everybody was targeting me, instead of trying to get the star, I needed to come up with another strategy. That's why I bet on Bowsette... just to make sure, Bowsette's appearance is the same as the original; the only difference is the ribbon on her head... that's all.
So the strategy was to share everyone's money equally. That way, at least I'd have a glimpse of hope to win this game. It's kind of ironic that the only time I got lucky was the worst space possible.
Since I'm the only one who landed on the red mark, it's me against everyone.
[Prince Peach x Waluigia x Shy Girl VS Yosh]
[Dart Gallery]
Let me explain to those who don't know this minigame.
Basically, I can't let them hit me with their darts. Each of them has 5 darts, and they have to hit me 3 times within 60 seconds.
"Tomoki, you'll be in last place again!" — said Prince Peach.
"You'll never be in first place! You should have been content with 3rd place!" — said Waluigia.
"..." — Shy Girl kept smiling.
"Your coins will be mine! All your schemes will go down the drain!"
As the game started, Prince Peach and Waluigia began shooting like crazy. As for me, I just needed to move around and make sure not to get stuck between the darts that were already shot.
"This minigame clearly benefits you!" — said Prince Peach.
"It's totally unfair! You're just lucky." — said Waluigia.
"Am I hearing crying?" — I taunted them.
The only one who didn't shoot any darts was Shy Girl. She just kept staring at me with a smile.
"Ayame-san, only 15 seconds left. You better—"
She shot her first dart, which took me by surprise.
"That was close, too bad that I—"
Then another one. But she missed that too. I noticed the space I had to move around in was way more limited than before. However, now she only had 3 darts left, and if she missed one, I'd win.
I can dodge it.
"Tomoki-kun, no matter what you do..." — Shy Girl suddenly said.
[-1 life, 2 lives left] — She distracted me, that's all.
"No matter where you go..." — Shy Girl kept talking.
[-2 lives, only one remaining] — No way! I need to be more unpredictable.
"I'll always catch you. You can't run away from me... Fufu~"
[YOU LOSE] — NOOOOOO!
I can't believe this. Ayame-san just outplayed me easily.
Even in the game, she's better than me.
In the end, this is the result:
[1st — Waluigia: 1 star, 20 coins] — The one who triggered the most events.
[2nd — Shy Girl: 1 star, 20 coins] — The one who bought the most items.
[3th — Prince Peach: 1 star, 20 coins] — The one who landed the most red houses.
[4rd — Yosh: 0 star, 14 coins] — No bonus... even the game didn't want me to win.
When players tie, they roll the dice to see who gets the higher number. Waluigia was luckier today.
"Yay! I won! And again! You can call me the Queen of Games!" — said Tachibana-san.
"Don't worry, Tomoki-kun, it's only a game... yeah, only a game..." — said Ayame-san, while consoling me.
"I can't even win in the game... am I a piece of junk?" — I said.
"You're still better than me; I only gained through robbing or being pitied by the game." — said Ryuichi.
This is how we hung out at Ryuichi's place.
At least, the main goal — to lift Tachibana-san's spirits — was a success.
I guess it's time to talk with Tachibana-san.