The two of them struggled to swim back to shore from the river.
The girl helped Uesugi Shun wring the accumulated water from his quilt.
"Are you sick? Is this quilt really that important? We almost drowned!"
"Do you think I wanted to!"
Uesugi Shun retorted, "It's not like I wanted to! It's because the quilt is growing on me, I can't take it off, okay?"
"Huh?"
At this, the girl froze completely.
She looked at Uesugi Shun with an incredulous expression, then was silent for a long time before slowly asking, "Growing on you?"
Uesugi Shun stood dumbfounded, having blurted out his secret in a moment of haste.
"Uh... no, I mean... never mind, you wouldn't believe it even if I told you."
Uesugi Shun had intended to argue further, but the words died on his lips.
"No, I believe you."
Just then, the girl reached out her wet hands, cupping his, "I believe you."
"Because... because..."
The girl hesitated for two seconds, gritted her teeth, and lifted her clothes.
The male protagonist immediately panicked, "You, what are you doing? Why are you taking off your clothes here? Are you crazy?"
But...
In the next second, he trembled all over.
Under the moonlight, the girl, except for her head and palms, was covered in white spikes, just like a Hedgehog.
The whole world was dark, with only one source of light.
The faint glow from the girl's body.
The game screen was very poetic, and Furukawa Hirozawa was touched by this scene.
Hedgehog Girl, so that's it.
He finally understood what it meant for Quilt Man to meet Hedgehog Girl in the PV.
No wonder the male protagonist was pricked and bled when he tried to grab her wrist just now.
"quilt. Ah, can I call you quilt?" The girl squeezed out a faint smile, squatting on the ground, hugging her body, her arched back covered in white spikes, which looked like silver grass under the moonlight.
However, they rose and fell with the girl's breathing, as if they were alive.
"My name is Hinata Minami. Of course, you can also call me Hedgehog."
"I... I'm always told I have a sharp tongue, like I'm covered in thorns, but, quilt, do you know?
I never thought I would actually become like this one day.
After all, being like a Hedgehog isn't a real Hedgehog.
But suddenly one day, my whole body was truly covered in sharp spikes, and no one could get close.
And then I really became a Hedgehog."
Hinata Minami's eyes were moist, and her voice was already choked with sobs.
At this moment, when Uesugi Shun saw the sharp spikes covering the girl's body, his heart ached.
He scrambled over on all fours, then wrapped the girl's body in his quilt.
As the two embraced, Hinata Minami leaned on his shoulder, her pupils suddenly dilated.
"No, I'll hurt you like this."
She desperately tried to push the male protagonist away, but Uesugi Shun held her firmly.
It was less about comforting her and more about covering her scars, those spikes all over her body, carefully protecting her.
"I understand, I understand. I've had the same experience as you."
Unconsciously, the male protagonist was already in tears.
"It must be very hard, having your whole body covered in spikes, right?"
Hedgehog Girl was slightly stunned, then she could no longer hold back and burst into tears.
Crying, she asked Uesugi Shun, "It must be very painful to have the quilt growing on you, right?"
It was on this day that Quilt Man met Hedgehog Girl.
Two kindred spirits, cursed non-humans in this vast city, came together.
I don't know why, despite such a tragic encounter, my heart was inexplicably filled with happiness and gratitude the moment I met Hedgehog.
If there truly is a God.
Then this moment must be the manifestation of a miracle.
...
Ah... damn it...
Furukawa Hirozawa reached out to wipe his eyes, his vision blurred by tears.
Who the hell wrote this script?
How can it be so emotional right from the start? It's simply too infuriating!
And it was clearly quite cheerful just now, this tear gas was released too unexpectedly, wasn't it?
Clearly, this was not Urobuchi Gen's script.
According to Gen Urobuchi's style, emotional moments would come much later; at this stage, he would be laying out many dark and suspenseful elements, then gradually unraveling them, layer by layer, until finally delivering a fatal blow.
But it didn't quite resemble Ishino Mika's style either.
Because the emotional shifts in "Quilt Man" were actually quite significant; the beginning was despairing and oppressive, making one feel like dying, but the next moment, it would use very natural and joyful plotlines to make you laugh out loud.
But it was a comedy just now, and in the next second, it made people's eyes well up.
This ability to control emotions was truly too strong.
And the transition was quite natural.
Even now, Furukawa Hirozawa was moved to tears, yet he could still feel the happiness of the male protagonist and female protagonist meeting.
Meeting the one and only in a vast sea of people.
That's probably what it felt like, right?
...
Hedgehog Girl Hinata Minami had run away from home after a big fight with her family.
Mainly because of her introverted personality and particularly sharp tongue, she was the type to be prickly all over, and combined with actually becoming a Hedgehog Girl, Hinata Minami simply didn't want to live at home anymore.
But she didn't expect to meet Quilt Man Uesugi Shun.
A fated encounter ignited a new desire for life in both of them, so Hedgehog Girl suggested Quilt Man move out of the dormitory, and they would rent a small house.
The two naturally moved in together.
During this process, many interesting and joyful things happened, making Furukawa Hirozawa laugh uncontrollably while playing the game.
The two fought fiercely over a bowl of instant noodles in the house.
Hedgehog fiercely pricked Quilt Man with her spikes, and Quilt Man used his quilt as a shield, then covered Hedgehog.
But after the struggle, both of them, drenched in sweat, still sat on the tatami, sharing food while looking at the moon outside the small window.
In the end, Quilt Man still left most of the instant noodles for Hedgehog, only drinking the remaining soup after she was full.
Licking their lips, both were very satisfied.
Just then, a whoosh suddenly sounded outside.
A colorful line, trailing light, rose from the ground, quickly shot into the night sky, and then exploded.
Pop!
"Wow, it's fireworks!"
Hedgehog Girl scrambled to the window, poking her head out.
Fireworks bloomed in the sky like flowers.
"Wow, really! So beautiful!"
Quilt Man also squeezed his head in, rubbing Hedgehog Girl's cheek, making it sting.
And their necks were jammed on both sides, feeling like they were about to fall apart.
"Are you an idiot?" Hedgehog Girl smacked the back of Quilt Man's head.
Two faces squeezed into the same narrow window, a space that could originally only fit one person was suddenly filled.
"Ah~ Don't push... Ow ow ow..."
In the Ghibli-esque scene, fireworks bloomed across the entire backdrop, as if watercolor paints were splashed onto a deep purple canvas, then allowed to spread and flow freely.
This scene was simply amazing.
And in the small window pane in the lower left corner, two slightly childish and cute faces were squeezed together, and Furukawa Hirozawa felt a warm current overflowing in his chest, flowing throughout his body...
At this moment, I suddenly had the urge to kiss Hedgehog.
But we couldn't do it anymore.
Our heads were stuck in the small window pane, we couldn't twist them around.
Missing an angle, an angle for a kiss.
Amidst these fireworks, I really wanted to tell Hedgehog, Hedgehog, I like you.
...
Through such interactions, Furukawa Hirozawa could clearly feel the mutual restraint yet intense affection between the two.
Because they liked each other, they were together.
Because of restraint, they couldn't confess.
It was probably a state like that.
"In the forest there was a group of animals, there were elephants, tigers, Hedgehogs, and also quilts."
"Are you an idiot? How can there be an animal called a quilt?"
Hahaha...
Furukawa Hirozawa was really going to die laughing.
But, laughing and laughing, he cried.
Damn it...
Why am I, a single person, playing such a heart-wrenching game?
These two are clearly showing off their affection, why am I laughing so happily?
...
Although the game's art style was very fairytale-like and dreamy, and the plot was fresh and natural, allowing one to feel the subtle beauty of first love, in reality, playing it was still full of realistic elements.
For example, Furukawa Hirozawa had to worry every day about what the two of them would eat and use.
Time in the game progressed continuously, and three meals a day needed to be bought and prepared, otherwise, there was a possibility of a BAD END—
Quilt Man and Hedgehog Girl dying of hunger in the small rented house.
Life was hard, and they also had to work part-time.
Hedgehog Girl found a job at a convenience store, serving customers, cashiering, and cleaning every day.
Since her spikes weren't very long, she could easily cover them with a white sweater; as long as she didn't have physical contact with people, everything seemed to be fine.
As for Quilt Man, he found a job as a flyer distribution mascot, which involved putting himself into a large mascot costume and awkwardly distributing flyers at the storefront, occasionally posing for photos with passersby, and performing cute actions with children.
Life was warm and happy.
The most dreaded thing was the arrival of summer.
Because in summer, wearing thick clothes and draped in a quilt would truly be a bit strange.
...
In addition to working odd jobs, earning money, buying food, and cooking every day, the map would also refresh with new NPCs and events as time progressed.
Some were main quests that could not be skipped, and others were side quests to enrich the plot.
In the side quests, one could collect scattered clues, such as the female protagonist's background, stories that had happened to her, her identity, her family relationships, and so on.
One could also obtain some clue items from these side quests.
Then, when important game events were triggered, a golden corner marker would appear on the main map, at which point some subsequent important plotlines could be unlocked.
As time continued to progress, Quilt Man encountered not just Hedgehog Girl among the "mutants," but also:
Angel: Although she had a pair of black crow wings and couldn't fly in the sky, this girl stubbornly insisted that Uesugi Shun call her Angel.
A very childish and cute character.
She would hang around the male protagonist and female protagonist, freeloading meals.
Fireworks Girl: Her head was covered with many firework tubes, and she couldn't be near open flames; once ignited, the fireworks on her head would shoot into the sky and go off.
Kohi: A 20-year-old boy who, once angry, couldn't help but spew flames, even his entire body would ignite.
However, burning caused extreme damage to himself; he could accidentally burn himself to ashes, so when he appeared, one of his arms was missing.
Only a charred stump remained.
Moreover, Kohi's eyes were both blind, burned out by himself.
"So, TV shows are all lies. If superheroes have superpowers but no body that can withstand them, they'd probably end up like us, right?" Kohi said.
His two eyes were hollow.
It was just that the fairytale art style made him look somewhat cute.
Quilt Man and Hedgehog Girl watched him from the side, their hearts filled with a sigh.
It seemed that not having particularly powerful superpowers was also a good thing.
However, Quilt Man still couldn't understand: other people's superpowers seemed quite impressive, but what about mine?
What use was a superpower like a quilt?
...
Several strange people gathered together and lived an interesting and warm life.
Angel suggested, "Why don't we form a league? Like the Justice League."
"What should we call it?" Fireworks Girl asked.
"We're all monsters, so how about the League of the Bizarre?" quilt said.
Hedgehog rolled her eyes, stood up, and kicked him.
Quilt Man, who had rolled around on the ground, rubbed his head and sat back down next to Hedgehog Girl.
"How about we call ourselves the League of the Disqualified?" Hedgehog Girl suggested, "Just like Dazai Osamu said in No Longer Human, we are just a group of beings stripped of our humanity, yet forced to live on."
Hearing her explanation, everyone fell silent.
Flickers of firelight gleamed in Kohi's two dark eye sockets.
Furukawa Hirozawa also fell silent, feeling a lump in his throat.
"Alright. I support it." Angel raised her right hand, "Let's call ourselves the Disqualified, no problem."
"Mm-hmm. We are indeed the Disqualified..."
Oh, these people are quite optimistic.
...
The League of the Disqualified lived carefree lives, filled with many humorous moments that kept Furukawa Hirozawa's lips curved upwards while playing the game.
If Quilt Man and Hedgehog Girl were a bickering couple, then Kohi and Fireworks Girl were clearly a pair too.
Sometimes, Kohi wasn't careful, being blind, and accidentally brushed against Fireworks Girl's body, he would hear the sizzling sound of a fuse burning.
Immediately after, a firework would erupt from her head.
Everyone quickly fetched a basin of water and poured it over her head.
Hiss~
Smoke rose.
Fireworks Girl sat on the ground, her face full of worry.
"Ah~ I'm sorry."
However, Kohi then realized that although both his eyes were blind, when Fireworks Girl's fireworks burned, he could clearly see her appearance and that beautiful firework.
It was like a beautiful flower suddenly blooming in boundless darkness.
In the dark river, colors slowly flowed and bloomed, spreading across the entire screen.
It was strange to say, fire and water were such incompatible things, yet Pokeni used a unique flowing pattern to represent fireworks, perfectly combining the two.
It was breathtakingly beautiful.
By this point, Furukawa Hirozawa's rating for "Quilt Man" was already very high.
He hadn't had much hope initially, but the actual experience was unexpectedly good.
Cute character designs, a dreamy art style, combined with soothing and moving music, made one sigh with contentment, feeling that life was truly worth living.
...
Kohi discovered that the only thing he could see in this world was Fireworks Girl when her fireworks burned.
It was extremely beautiful.
However, from then on, he would be very restrained, not allowing himself to get close to her, lest he accidentally blow Fireworks Girl away.
The group continued to live happily like this.
Until one day...
As Kohi was going downstairs, he suddenly knelt to the ground.
He clutched his abdomen and vomited violently.
Only, what came out was a puddle of ash...
Sparks flew in the air.
Then Kohi collapsed to the ground.
Oh my god!
This is going to be a knife!
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