Gaming Talent

"Kujo-senpai. What kind of game is this?"

When Minato came home from his part-time job, Airi asked him while holding a famous falling object puzzle game. She seemed to be excited about it.

Apparently, she had found it while cleaning the room and was curious about it.

She had recently finished a lot of RPGs and had some time to spare, so she thought it was a good time to ask Minato about it.

"This is a falling object puzzle game." (T/N: Tetris!!)

"A puzzle game?"

"Yeah, it can be played by two people, so do you want to try it while I teach you?"

"Yes, I want to try."

Kazuma had left an old portable game console at Minato's house, so he could teach her how to play it together with Minato's console.

Minato pulled out the copy of the game and taught Airi how to operate it and some tricks while playing against her a few times.

"It's quite difficult. It takes a lot of thought."

"If you could do it right the first time, you wouldn't have any trouble. It's all about getting used to it and watching how other people make their move."

Airi struggled quite a bit and frowned in annoyance.

He had taught her how to play RPGs at the beginning, and she had gotten pretty good at it without any further help.

So he thought she might be able to do it quickly this time too, but apparently not.

Out of Minato, Kazuma and Momose, Momose was the best at playing competitive games, probably because she was good at using her instincts to drive the game, which suited her well.

Minato was the best at these thinking games.

Kazuma had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, but he was basically no match for Minato and Momose. In addition, he was hopelessly unlucky when it came to multiplayer games. Even so, his mental strength was impressive.

Hearing Minato's words, Airi put her hand on her chin and thought about it. Afterwards, she smiled as if she had come up with a good idea.

"If so, could you show me how you play, senpai?"

"That's fine, but I don't know if it would help you."

"Yes, it's fine."

There was also a single player mode for this kind of thing, so showing it was no problem.

Although Minato was good at it, he didn't intend to master it, nor did he intend to play online as he thought it wouldn't be of any use to him.

Airi said it was fine, so he finished the single player mode.

During that time, Minato glanced at Airi and saw that she was looking at the screen with a serious face. Maybe she was more serious than she usually was when she was studying.

"I see, I've got it all figured out."

"Eh? You were just watching, right?"

"That's right. For now, why don't we play against each other?"

"Yeah, sure."

If anyone could figure it out just by watching Minato's moves, no one would have any trouble, but Airi was smiling strangely confidently, so maybe she really did figure it out.

Minato's expression was dubious, but he did as he was told and played the game–

(What is this, aren't her movements too different?)

Her movements were clearly different from when they had just played. Minato wondered if she had really figured it out.

But even though Airi had gotten better, she was still an inexperienced fighter. He couldn't afford to lose, so he gave it his all and won.

" Muu~ , I can't win. It's really difficult. It doesn't work out the way I envisioned it in my head."

"It doesn't always work out that way."

Airi looked frustrated, but Minato was frankly impatient.

After all, she had gotten this good after only a few games and watching other people play.

If they were to play against each other a few more times, there was a possibility that he would be overtaken.

When he replied in a calm manner while breaking out in a cold sweat inside, Airi's face turned sullen as if she was not satisfied.

"One more time, please."

"Okay."

Minato thought it would be unfair to Airi if he pulled out at this point, so they played again, but she was even better.

He managed to win, but then she asked him to do it again, and they played it several more times.

The result–

" Yatta, I won!"

"Congratulations."

Finally, Minato lost.

He was convinced that this would happen while playing against her, but it happened much earlier than he expected.

Minato had been taking it seriously since the middle of the game, but he was amazed at how fast Airi had improved beyond that.

It could be that Airi had talents for games in general. Minato couldn't wait to see how she would do in a competitive game against Momose.

After finally beating Minato, Airi's face looked really happy and she had a big smile on her face.

Seeing her so happy and excited, his frustration for losing vanished.

"Then, one more time."

"Eh? You still want to do it?"

She said it again as if it was obvious, so Minato couldn't help but ask her back.

"Of course, I'm still on the losing end."

"No, Ninomiya, usually people don't get this good in such a short time, you know?"

"Is that so? But it's fun, so let's continue."

Apparently, she didn't think that the way she was progressing was unusual.

It was understandable, as Minato didn't think she'd ever played a competitive game before, but it didn't make sense.

Looking at her comment about losing more and the way she was biting back at Minato earlier, Airi might be quite competitive.

"All right, I won't hold back."

He was sure Airi wouldn't stop until she won. Minato let out a sigh quietly and accepted the suggestion, not wanting to cool her enthusiasm for the game.

However, his holding back had already long since passed.

"Eh… Please take it seriously."

After that, the game was made to continue until Airi really won the game.

Towards the end, Minato was almost always on the losing end, and his small pride was shattered.

"These games are fun, too."

"…Ah, yeah…"

Looking at Airi smiling happily, Minato nodded his head, wondering how he could tell her how extraordinary she was.