Chapter 214 – Dating (3)

I applauded in pure admiration for Grape’s score that caught my attention.
During the basketball game, the surroundings were full of strange men.
It must have caught your attention to see a beauty like Grape playing basketball with her breasts bobbing.

“Well, you are doing well… Hey, do you like basketball games?”
“What game shall we play next?”
“Well, maybe a fighting game… ? Have you ever tried it?”
“Uh… No, I’ve never tried it…”
“Uh? Hey? For a moment?”

A stranger talked to Grape, but Grape and I naturally ignored him and walked to the other game machine.
This is a fighting game.
The fighting game that I see the most is a fighting game that contains two years of my college days… It was a beautiful girl fighting game made with magical girls as a motif.

“There is no specific command for this, so it should be easy to do.”

Among the games that came out after the negative appeared, it is a work that boasts considerable popularity.
This game, whose characters were designed with the motif of famous magical girls at the time of production, was divided into a story mode in which you face various monsters and a battle mode in which magical girls battle each other.
Unfortunately, the story mode was deleted due to the subtly implied story of a magical girl being subjected to various acts when defeated by a monster… In this way, it has survived and continues its reputation through fighting games.

I sat down and chose the character I used most often, the magical girl of fire.
Grape’s Choice is a Magical Girl of Healing… Not a bad choice.
I first explained the rules of the game to Grape on the match screen.

“There are four attack keys, weak hand, strong hand, weak foot, strong foot… Strong attacks are strong but slightly slow, and weak attacks are slightly faster but do less damage. Like the front hand, up hand, down hand, and jump hand, the direction of the attack changes depending on the direction key operation, so you just have to pay attention to that.”
“Uh, wait, wait…”
“Weak attacks are good for building combos, but the guard crash gauge under the health gauge doesn’t stack well… When the opponent blocks, mix the strong attack well, ah, the blocking key is automatically blocked by walking backwards, the upper attack is standing, and the lower attack is sitting…”
“Wait! Slowly… !”
“At the bottom is the mana gauge, and when the mana is full, the spell card opens. This is the key to replacing the spell card. The key is to quickly load the spell you want from each gauge and use it when needed, and ah, while paying attention to the guard crash gauge… Ah, if you press this, you can fill up your magic…”
“You want me to slow down?!”

This is pretty easy to understand, and I’ve summarized only the necessary things and let you know…
I waited for a moment until Grape understood the game and filled up his magic in the corner.
After manipulating the character by himself for a while, Grape pressed every key one by one and moved the character around, then tilted his head to the side as if something was wrong.

“What… ? This something… It’s strange… ?”
“Why?”
“Hmm… That is… This game… Right? The technology is subtly… It seems familiar… This, like this… If you do this…”

I was a little surprised to see the magical girl of healing character move and straightened my posture.
The Magical Girl of Healing is a melee fighting combo character with a terrible level.
Grape was entering the highest difficulty level combo of such a character without making any mistakes.

“Uh… ? It’s really similar…”
“Hmm… It’s probably similar, because this is a game based on a real magical girl.”
“Yes? Uh? Was there anything like that?”
“Look.”

I chose a spell as a fire magical girl character and used magic.
The character poses nicely, stretches out her fingertips and shouts the magic starter word, Shooting Star Ray.
Although the name is slightly different, it was Esther’s shooting star.

“Uh?! This is Esther… !”
“Huh… ?”

Grape was surprised by the character using Esther’s magic, but immediately parried all the magic one by one.
I was frightened by the strange phenomenon that beginners were parrying, and immediately dashed the character in the air and attacked from above.
Then, Grape’s character immediately countered and launched an aerial combo.

“Eehh?!”
“Wasn’t the game starting now?”
“Oh, no… That’s right! Come on!”

I got out of the air combo by using the passive skill to spur the air.
Then Grape immediately followed my character using the same skill as me.
Read the avoidance path as it is and shoot it down, chase the character who was hit to the floor and combo…
It is not a beginner’s skill.

“This is not my first time playing this game!”
“Hey, it’s my first time…”
“Don’t lie, Air Work is a command skill that can only be used by these two characters. This is my first time, how do I know the commands?”
“I followed what Anger typed…”

Stealing someone else’s key input… Grape is a mean magical girl.
Thinking that I couldn’t stand it anymore, I began to use techniques Grape didn’t know about sparingly.
Create a situation where you have no choice but to guard, force a combo by inserting a heavy attack, command input immediately after using a spell, motion cancellation, and a skill to force a combo to create a guard crash state and then connect the blow.

“Uh?! How do you do that?”
“Don’t teach me!”

I used spells at random on Grape, who still didn’t know how to use spells properly, and forced connection combos without stopping.
After winning an overwhelming victory, I kept my pride as a gamer and entered the AI ​​battle mode.
I let out a sigh of relief as I calmly dealt with the sword magic girl who appeared as an AI opponent.

“Whew… Won…”
“… Can’t you just look at it for a bit?”
“The world of competition is cold.”

I snorted at Grape’s disgruntled voice.
What to watch… If I was careless, I almost lost.
Is it because she’s a magical girl… His fighting sense was great.

“But Grape is good at this… Would you like another round?”
“No… I’m tired of playing… Mentally, it’s a painful movement to see…”
“Hmm…”

I quietly agreed with Grape’s words.
A magical girl of fire and a magical girl of healing… Other people might not understand it, but for Grape, it would be a painful move…
Grape sat down next to me and started watching me fooling around with the magical girl of the sword.

“But it is a very strange game… A magical girl as a motif…”
“It’s subtly different, but… A lot of game-like interpretations were also included, and it was based on the magic and posture of real magical girls… It’s not the same thing.”
“Are there other characters? That… Hey, I wonder if there are grapes…”

Grape asked if he was coming, his face blushing in case someone nearby might hear.
I played with the magical girl of the sword in the game and thought of the characters that appeared one by one.
Ash, Rapid, Esther, Lily, Rusty, Grape… In addition to the top seven, Maria, who became famous at the time the game was created, also appears in the game.

“There is. All of the magical girls who have been at the top for a long time must be there right now?”
“This is a very interesting game… Well made… But there must be a lot of characters I don’t know, I don’t know who I’m dealing with now.”
“Even if the motif is a magical girl, it’s just imagination… The magic used in the game is all based on video data or rumors, so it will be a bit different.”

For example, at the time of production, Rapid was famous for appearing all over the place in an instant, so it was set to use simple high-speed movement magic.
The character’s name is a magical girl of speed, a moderately strong character.
Ash is a hidden character… Massacre Magical Girl… In fact, she is also nicknamed the Monster Slayer, and she seems to have been named that because she kills monsters so well, but she is not a magical girl at all.
She doesn’t use magic… There is so little material available at the time that she is embodied in just a quick swing of her sword with her great effects.

“She said earlier that the character was quite similar… ?”
“That… She had an introductory video of herself filmed on View Tube. It is because of it.”
“Ah… Uh? What about Esther?”
“Esther… Among the game makers, there is an Esther fan…”

It’s not just that there are fans, the name of the game maker is Shooting Star Creators.
After cornering the magical girl of the sword, I started beating non-stop with Esther’s character using the ultimate magic, Meteor Charge, and the awakened character’s crouching weak attack.
It looks like he was hit terribly by an attack that no one can see.

“… It’s something Esther would do.”
“Uh, yes?”
“I think I’ve seen Esther do something like this during game broadcasts…”

Knowing that… Grape is great too.
As Grape said, the attack I am now attacking was Esther’s way of playing, a technique that the game company officially said was inspired by Esther’s broadcast.
It is a combo that uses Meteor Charge, an awakening device that raises the character’s damage and speed, and attacks the opponent’s mentality by constantly attacking with weak attacks that only increase speed.

“Which magical girl do you like best?”
“Huh? In the game… ?”
“Ah yes! That’s right… Which magical girl do you use most often in games?”
“Yeah… Are you writing now?”
“… Do you like this?”
“Huh… ?”

After defeating the Magical Girl of the Sword, I felt a strange chill and straightened my back as I provoked the AI ​​without ignoring it.
Is it because it’s cold at night, or is it because the air conditioner is strong in the game room… ?
I shrugged my shoulders and answered Grape honestly.

“This is the most fraudulent character… The character Grape wrote earlier is also a good character, but this is a bit… There is a lot of favoritism from the producers.”
“Aha… I see… It’s a game, so I guess.”

Weird… What… ?
After answering, the chills suddenly disappeared.

“However… What kind of character is Grape? Please?”
“Uh? Uh…”

I continued to sit and tease the sword magic girl with medicine attacks, but I stopped my hands after hearing Grape’s words.
When he turned his head, Grape was looking at me with expectant eyes.
I swallowed deeply, regretting what I had been doing.

“This… This is…”
“Yes?”
“Therefore… That, now my opponent…”

The character with Grape as a motif was the character I had been toying with until now, the Magical Girl of the Sword.
The way he actually fights with Grape is different, and he’s not a bad character, but… Not a very good character.
Even though I’m a game character, I was worried that Grape was watching what I was playing so far, so I deliberately greeted the character with Grape as a motif and said.

“It’s because the character I’m writing is too strong right now, and it’s good for beginners… The evaluation is not so good, but everyone uses it at least once when they first enter… That’s it… He’s a good character!”

Grape, who had been smiling wide even though he had lost the game earlier, glared at the game screen with a cold expression on his face.
On the screen, Grape’s character, who had no blood left, was beating Esther’s character, who was full of blood.
However, the fraudulent character who had already used the awakening machine did not lose blood no matter how hard he hit it.

Haha…”
Haha…”

Grape smiled weakly and turned his head toward me.
My character, who took only a little damage even after hitting it for a long time, was finally declared victorious after the short time limit was over.
Grape’s character slumps to the ground, voicing resentment.
Right after that, Grape smiled broadly and spoke in a cold voice.

“This is a garbage game.”