"Everyone, thank you for waiting! I'm your favorite host, Kada-ko!"
"Oh oh oh! Miss Kada-ko!"
Miyazawa Yu didn't have to wait long. All the incandescent lights on the ceiling suddenly went out, leaving only focused spotlights that swept twice and focused on the center of the stage.
Surprisingly, the organizer of this presentation seemed playful and directly invited the famous Eroge voice actress, Miss Kada-ko.
Because of this, Kohei Imamura, who was originally lacking in enthusiasm, instantly burst out with astonishing excitement, even pulling out two glow sticks from somewhere and waving them frantically.
This behavior was practically writing "I am a pervert" on his face, drawing a chorus of scorn.
"How embarrassing... how can we have a friend like this!"
"That's right, he had such a good thing and didn't offer to share it with us, he's basically non-recyclable trash!"
"You two..."
Glancing at the two scumbags who were righteously criticizing Kohei for not knowing how to share, Aina Yoshiwara reminded them, disappointed: "There's a middle school student here! Don't you know how to set a good example?"
"Hiss... Indeed!"
"Aina has a point. Think about what Senpai Tokita and the others would do at a time like this?"
The sense of responsibility as a senior welled up in his heart, and Miyazawa Yu instantly realized—That's right! He is already a senior, how can his words and actions be so childish!
If he leaves an indelible psychological trauma on his junior, how can he face the seniors of the Pab Club!
"Kohei! Did you hear that!"
"Tch, just this once..."
Fishing out a classic work he carried with him, Kohei Imamura handed over his treasure with trembling hands.
"Please be sparing with it, and be careful not to fold the corners..."
"Who told you to be generous and share! I meant don't talk about these things in front of our junior!"
Pa, Aina Yoshiwara snatched the notebook and confiscated it, blushing as she stuffed it into her small bag.
It's strange, Kohei doesn't seem to have any place to store things, so where did he pull out all these magical tools!
"..."
Silently retracting the hand that wanted to accept the gift, although Yū Ishigami is a tech nerd, every man plays a little bit of Galgame.
He actually quite likes Kada-ko too...
"Yoshi~ I think I heard a super—enthusiastic cheer, but this time Kada-ko won't go easy on anyone!"
On the stage, Kada-ko, the host, didn't forget to get down to business while showing off her popularity: "Next, we will hold a rock-paper-scissors tournament to win the ten copies of the game test licenses I have in my hand!"
"First, regarding the number tags you have, please have friends with odd numbers stand on the left, and those with even numbers stand on the right. Staff will be responsible for coordination later!"
"Odd numbers on the left, so three on the left? You guys go ahead, I'm heading to the right first."
Looking at the number tag with the last digit, Miyazawa Yu pulled Kohei and Aina and turned to the right.
Only Iori, Chisa, and Yū Ishigami remained in place. Realizing he was likely a third wheel, the latter also quickly slipped away on the pretext of finding his opponent.
As for whether Iori could seize the opportunity and redeem his image in Chisa heart in one fell swoop.
"That's up to him..."
"Yeah!"
"Ugh... what should I do, I feel a little dissatisfied."
Although she was temporarily connected to Yu and Kohei's team voice chat, Aina Yoshiwara still bit her nails unwillingly.
If Chisa and Iori relationship gets better, won't she have absolutely no chance!
"Huh?"
"Didn't hear that clearly."
"Hoo—it's nothing..."
They didn't genuinely fail to hear her. Miyazawa Yu and Kohei's hearing, honed in noisy drinking parties, was no joke; they were simply giving Aina, who had revealed her true feelings, a chance to save face with tacit understanding.
This way, she wouldn't recall it later, become suspicious, and spoil the good mood of playing.
As for future matters, they can be discussed later. Two single guys have no right to teach Aina how to date.
"The three of you, please come here to verify your number tags... All three of your numbers end the sequence. Please line up at Rock-Paper-Scissors Table 1."
"Thank you. Table 1, I remember it's over there."
Without much effort, the three quickly found their participation location, where a long line had already formed in order.
Miyazawa Yu showed his number tag to the staff, and was immediately assigned his opponent.
"Kohei, I'm up first. Don't disappoint me, you hear!"
"Of course! I return that sentence to you verbatim. Don't lose the match in the first round!"
"Why are you two suddenly so fired up?"
Completely unable to understand, Aina Yoshiwara watched Miyazawa Yu walk onto the field with an unyielding momentum, tilting her head and feeling the chances of winning were slim.
After all, rock-paper-scissors is a zero-sum game purely based on luck. Even with six of them, it's too small a number when put against thousands of people.
It would probably be difficult for them combined to win even one copy of the game!
"Winner! Number 5000!"
"Winner! Number 4998!"
"Eh?"
Totally bewildered, before Aina Yoshiwara could even react, she was already standing on the field, and was instantly knocked out by a fiercely determined middle school student.
"Why did you two win! Are we going to be separated even by luck!"
"Well, well~ It can't be helped. After playing in the Pab Club for so long, rock-paper-scissors is just like breathing!"
"That's right, I just felt like I would win, and then I won..."
Nodding seriously, when a skill is mastered, the body develops an instinctive reaction to winning or losing.
Since he specializes in rock-paper-scissors and condensed his intense desire to defeat his opponent, Miyazawa Yu called it "Fist Desire"!
"That's nonsense! What do you mean you felt like you would win and then you won! Aren't you just teasing me for not playing the drinking game with you!"
"Although you say that..."
Glancing at each other, Miyazawa Yu and Kohei Imamura simultaneously looked at Aina with contempt: "But wasn't it you who refused to play with us every single time? If anyone was isolating anyone, you isolated us, right?"
"Gah!"
Aina Yoshiwara was speechless. After all, when Yu invited her to play strip rock-paper-scissors when he was drunk, she had indeed firmly refused every time.
"Yoshi! Let's continue our expedition! Kohei!"
"Oh!"
Without giving the three of them any more chances to figure out who was right and who was wrong, the second and third rounds of the competition started one after another. As the number of people decreased, the frequency of the matches noticeably increased.
Aina Yoshiwara watched blankly as Yu and Kohei won match after match, until finally only ten people were left in each group.
"Oya~ Congratulations to everyone for standing out from so many people, that was hard work. Now, the two groups will mix and compete to determine the final ten people who will remain!"
Standing on the field at the same time, Miyazawa Yu was naturally assigned to Table 1.
Besides him, Kohei occupied Table 2, and that guy Iori was standing opposite a big man at Table 10.
"This... this isn't right! How can the ratio be this high! Can strip rock-paper-scissors really increase the win rate of regular rock-paper-scissors?"
"At this point, that seems to be the only reason..."
Having been defeated quickly, Chisa Kotegawa looked at the three scumbags on the stage with helplessness in her eyes. This might be the true depiction of how plagues live for a thousand years.
"The senpais are all very strong, and what is strip rock-paper-scissors?"
"It's nothing, nothing, just a very common drinking game. Yū, you'll learn about it when you go to university."
Not wanting to destroy the middle school student's innocence, Aina Yoshiwara stopped Yū Ishigami, who was about to look it up online: "Look quickly! The match seems to be starting!"
"Ready~ Three! Two! One! Rock, paper, scissors!"
Swish!
Twenty fists were thrown almost simultaneously. Miyazawa Yu and Kohei Imamura won as expected.
However, when they shifted their gaze to Table 10, they saw Iori, who had fallen one step short of winning the prize, his face pale and unable to get up.
"What! Iori actually lost, could his opponent also be a master of strip rock-paper-scissors!"
"Rock-paper-scissors doesn't have to be strip rock-paper-scissors! And maybe he was just lucky..."
Not wanting to deal with these idiots whose only way of playing rock-paper-scissors is the strip version, Aina Yoshiwara looked at Iori, who was being dragged back by Chisa, and said regretfully: "It's okay, defeat is common in military affairs, you just had bad luck."
"...No! Yu, be careful next, I feel like he changed his hand!"
The pallor only lasted for a few dozen seconds; a fool's sorrow always dissipates quickly.
But this doesn't mean Iori gave up. On the contrary, he seriously warned Miyazawa Yu that the guy he competed against definitely had something wrong with him!
"Changed his hand? Isn't that cheating?"
"No! Although it looks very much like cheating, changing your hand gesture before fully completing the movement is an allowed technique."
Shaking his head and extending a hand, Kohei Imamura slowed down, first allowing his index and middle fingers to protrude slightly, adopting the posture of throwing scissors.
However, at the very last moment of making the gesture, he unexpectedly opened all five fingers.
"It doesn't look difficult, but actually, both your hand and eyes must be highly tense, after all, there's only a thin line between skill and cheating!"
"I see, then Yu must be in danger!"
"..."
Recalling the night he was tricked into participating in the Miss Beautiful contest, and the two liters of pure shochu that gave Miyazawa Yu a Pavlovian reaction to Azusa-senpai.
Chisa Kotegawa eye twitched slightly, then she clasped her hands together and prayed for his opponent, hoping he wouldn't be so traumatized by Yu that his will was broken.