Even the Angel Is Bad at Some Things

Amane was, if anything, a person of leisure.

That was because, unlike other students, he didn't take part in club

activities, and he didn't work a part-time job, either. On top of that, he lived

alone but had been eating dinner with Mahiru, which reduced the time he

spent on housework.

Of course, he never slacked off at his studies, and he did a decent,

average job at cleaning now that he had learned the ropes from Mahiru, and

he kept his apartment neat and tidy. Plus, he exercised every day in his

efforts to remake himself.

Though he had more to do than the other students in the go-home club

who lived with their parents, Amane was nevertheless, if anything, a person

of leisure. He also had a higher degree of freedom than those students who

lived under their parents' roofs, considering he had no parents ordering him

around in his day-to-day life.

That's why Amane once again found himself with a surplus of time on

his hands.

He had already finished all his schoolwork, so he did his weight training

as soon as he woke up, then took care of the shopping in the morning when

he went out jogging.

He had started paying attention to the housework on a daily basis, so

even on days off, there was no need to do any large-scale cleaning, and he

could keep his place tidy with a little routine maintenance.

By three in the afternoon, Amane was ready to relax and enjoy some

video games.

He had moved the low table out of the way so he could play more

comfortably, and he had taken up his usual position in front of the

television, sitting on a fluffy rug that he had washed and de-fuzzed the other

day.

It's been a while since I did this.

The game he had booted up was a side-scrolling action game featuring a

cute pastel-pink character with a nearly spherical body that he had to guide

through each stage.

It was a game that had gone on sale many years earlier, and Amane had

cleared it countless times. The fact that he could play it through every time

without getting bored spoke to the fun of the gameplay.

Amane rarely replayed games with involved storylines, because he was

satisfied with them once he cleared them the first time. At most, he could

play through them twice. The second time through, he would exhaust all the

elements the game had to offer, and after that, he would rarely feel like

playing the game again.

I don't care what anyone says. I can always enjoy an action game that

handles so intuitively, Amane thought earnestly.

As Amane was enjoying the stream of cheerful melodies and bright

graphics, Mahiru sat down quietly beside him.

Recently, Mahiru had been spending at least one day each weekend at

Amane's place, and she was with him that day, too, after making lunch for

the two of them.

They didn't necessarily always pay attention to each other just because

they were together, and they often spent time doing their own things, so

even when Amane was playing a video game, Mahiru often did something

else, but…that day, she seemed to be interested in the game.

Mahiru brought a cushion over, took a seat beside Amane, and sat

looking at the television screen.

"Is this fun?"

"I wouldn't be playing it if it wasn't."

"I guess that's true. There's a cute character moving about, so it just

caught my interest."

The player character in the game was very cute, so Amane could

understand why it had caught Mahiru's attention, since she liked adorable

things.

"This is your kind of cute, isn't it, Mahiru? This character is really

popular and gets made into a ton of toys and stuff, so I think it was designed

to be easy to like."

"I mean, it's got big round eyes, and it looks squishy and cute."

"Yeah, true, but the stuff it's doing is pretty demonic. It's surprisingly

brutal. There's absolutely no mercy when it takes down enemies."

"Oh…?"

The way Amane was playing, he was purposely holding back and

avoiding making careless attacks, so from Mahiru's perspective, it must

have just looked like the cute character was moving around, bouncing

through the air, and crossing paths with crowds of enemies.

Once he revealed the character's signature method of attack, it wouldn't

seem so cute.

It literally sucked in enemies, stole their power, and used it to defeat

them.

The enemies that the player character sucked in never regained their

original form, and the player could swap powers if there was an enemy with

a better ability. Any discarded abilities got discharged as bundles of energy

and eventually disappeared.

The impression that the game gave was superficially cute, but it was

actually kind of horrifying if you took a minute to think hard about it.

Seeing it laid out like that, a game where you defeated enemies with

conventional weapons seemed less brutal somehow.

"You have a real weakness for cute things, huh, Mahiru?"

"…Is that a bad thing?"

"No, I think it's cute."

"…I feel like you're making fun of me."

That hadn't been his intention, but she seemed to have taken it that way.

Mahiru stuck her pink lip out a little bit in an expression of dissatisfaction.

Though Amane thought that she looked even cuter like that, he had a

feeling that his next comment would get him slapped, so he swallowed his

words and resumed his game without saying anything.

The character with the cute body bounced through the level, passing

through openings between enemies. Mahiru watched with some excitement,

and Amane found himself smiling as well.

"If you're interested, want to try it?" Amane asked, expecting that she

might want to try playing, if the game had drawn her interest. Mahiru

seemed to be unexpectedly brimming with curiosity.

"Is that all right?" Mahiru asked timidly, in a quiet voice.

"If it wasn't, I wouldn't have said anything. Plus, I have fun just

watching, so go ahead."

"…Well then, I'll give it a try."

Her curiosity seemed to win out over her reservations, and with some

hesitation, Mahiru accepted the controller that Amane offered to her.

To start with, he had her select the first stage as a kind of tutorial and

explained how to operate the buttons as well as a summary of the special

characteristics of the player character, then left her to her own devices, but

—

Immediately, she looked as if she was about to cry.

The same thing had happened once when he let her play a racing game.

It was sad to say, but Mahiru was extremely bad at video games.

It wasn't that she made absolutely no progress, but she was the type to

take a great deal of time before taking the next step forward, and though she

got the basics and had the ability to learn, for some reason, it wasn't

reflected in her gameplay.

To Amane, who could pretty much figure out most games the first time

he played them, Mahiru seemed like a very strange creature.

"I don't understand how you've managed to die so much."

"I don't understand, either."

"I'm pretty sure you've got good hand-eye coordination, but…"

"Ughhh!"

"I think you just have to get used to playing? It's not really an issue if

you can't get it."

For Amane, games were nothing more than entertainment, and enjoying

them was the most important thing, since that was what they were for.

Mahiru had no obligation to play, and it wouldn't cause any problems if

she couldn't master the game. No one would criticize her for being unable

to do it—Amane certainly had no intention of doing so.

And yet Mahiru narrowed her eyes and glared slightly at the game

screen.

"…Isn't it frustrating when you can't do something?" she muttered.

Mahiru was right; it was frustrating.

"You do hate losing to things like this, huh? All right, then. Do your

best."

If she wanted to play, Amane wasn't going to stop her.

Though he decided he might intervene if she kept going for a long time,

an hour at most.

They had time to kill, and if Mahiru said she wanted to keep playing, he

would leave her to it. Even if she couldn't beat the game, it wasn't as if

there was anything at stake.

Mahiru gripped the controller with renewed motivation, but then she

glanced over at him as if she wanted something.

"…Amane, please teach me. In detail this time."

"Sure thing."

Mahiru seemed to have decided that it would be best for someone who

could already do it to teach her exactly how to do it first, and she asked

Amane for another round of instruction, so he readily agreed.

…Amane realized that he had agreed too hastily when Mahiru stood up

and reseated herself in the gap between his loosely crossed legs.

Not paying him any mind when he froze from this all-too-sudden

development, Mahiru sat down with her arms around her knees, nimbly

avoiding Amane's legs as she found a spot for herself.

"Why?"

"If you're going to teach me the skills to play, I think it will be more

efficient to have you actually move my hands on the buttons. That would be

hard to do sitting beside each other, so this is the only way."

He understood that it would be easier for her to learn to use the

controller if they sat close together and he gave her a detailed

demonstration. But his responsible side warned him that this would

definitely cause problems for him, and it would be hard for him to focus.

They were extremely close together. They had hugged before, but this

seemed to be a different sort of closeness.

At the moment, he was leaning back on his hands, so their bodies

weren't in real contact, but if he leaned forward just a little, their torsos

would touch, and he would likely bump the back of Mahiru's head with his

face.

If he placed his hands on the controller that Mahiru was holding, he

would end up embracing her from behind.

"…Uh, I'm not sure about that—"

"So what do I do?"

Ah, she's not going to listen!

Amane put his head in his hand when Mahiru purposely ignored his

comment. He was worried he had a headache coming on, but he probably

should have been more concerned about the pain in his heart than in his

head at that moment.

How had his fun weekend game time transformed into such delightful,

distressing torture?

If he could have been honest about his desires and happily embraced

Mahiru, this would have been a great moment. But Amane's reason and

common sense wouldn't let him, so this felt like a new type of bullying, like

being forced to wait while a tasty morsel was dangled right before his eyes.

And yet he couldn't definitively say that it was unpleasant. Plus, Mahiru

was relying on him without any ulterior motives. She trusted Amane, which

was why she had installed herself on his lap.

In other words, Amane would need to endure it.

"Did you hear me?"

"I heard you, princess."

Whatever happens, happens, he thought, giving in. He hoped she would

forgive him.

In response to Mahiru's urgent tone of voice, Amane carefully bolstered

his armor of reason then lightly placed his own hands on top of Mahiru's,

which were holding the controller.

Mahiru's sweet, somewhat invigorating aroma gently wafted up at him,

causing a major momentary tremor in his sense of reason. But somehow he

suppressed the urge to embrace her and managed to leave a gap between

them as he wrapped his arms around her.

His painstaking efforts to sit in a way that wouldn't be objectionable all

came to nothing when Mahiru leaned right back onto him.

"I keep getting 'game over' in the same spot, so what's the best way to

deal with it?"

"…Indeed, whatever shall we do?"

"Why are you talking weird?"

Holding back his desire to ask her pointedly whose fault that might be,

Amane looked down at Mahiru, who was relaxing against him.

Her small body fit easily within Amane's arms, as if it was completely

natural for her to be there. Amane thought they were dangerously close, but

Mahiru didn't seem bothered, so he seemed to be the only one aware of it.

…She doesn't me as a man, does she?

As he was thinking that in deadly earnest, he flung his other thoughts—

the inexcusable ideas that arose in response to Mahiru's expectations as she

leaned against him—out of his head, and he tried to not be aware of them as

he guided her hands, giving her instructions for the game.

Amane tried to convince himself that she was just some kid from the

neighborhood and decided to support Mahiru's movements as she operated

the game the best she could.

"So you should watch how the enemies move. These guys only move

however they're programmed to move, so once you see their regular

pattern, you can defeat them."

"I can't see it; that's why I'm struggling."

"It's just a matter of practice. Here, try it now."

"…Why did I just get 'game over'? He didn't hit me."

"Sorry, but yes, he did. I saw it.

"…But I dodged it perfectly!"

"Don't pout, don't pout. Look, you can start the stage over from the

beginning."

Once he got used to the situation, his amusement at Mahiru's lack of

skill won out over his awareness of her proximity, so with quiet relief, he

showed her how to defeat the game's enemies.

"There…see, you did it! Yeah, yeah, good. Great job."

Mahiru didn't seem to mind the repetitious practice, and she slowly

learned how to do it after trying again and again. When she succeeded,

Amane praised her highly.

He gave his praise gently, almost in a whisper, fearing he would be too

loud if he raised his voice so close to her.

Mahiru let out a quiet groan.

"Mahiru?"

"N-nothing. Umm…that, uh, d-didn't really go so well, huh?"

It was unlike her to become so flustered, but what she was saying wasn't

particularly strange, so Amane let it go as just one of those things.

"Well, I think things like this are a matter of practice. I bet you just need

to do it a few more times. If you're not having fun, you can just stop—"

"That's not true!"

"O-oh, really? That's fine, then…"

Amane flinched when Mahiru suddenly raised her voice, but as

bewildered as he was, Mahiru looked even more perplexed, and she hung

her head.

"…I'm ashamed of how careless and foolish I'm being."

"Don't beat yourself up so much about a silly game."

"That's not what I mean, but…it's fine."

"Uhhh…?"

Ultimately, all Amane could do was tilt his head in confusion. He wasn't

sure what she was talking about. Mahiru didn't seem inclined to answer

Amane's unspoken question; instead, she hung her head and hugged her

knees.

"…Um, Amane, teaching me like this…you…don't find it unpleasant?"

Eventually, a quiet inquiry was put forth.

"Not at all. Just, well, we're a little close… I was wondering if you

might be finding it unpleasant."

"Why would I, when I'm the one who chose to sit like this?"

"Well, um…it's a little dangerous? I might touch something I

shouldn't?"

The way they were sitting at the moment, Amane could have easily

embraced her tightly, and if he'd wanted to, he could have slipped his hands

into places they shouldn't go.

Since Amane didn't want her to hate him, and since he thought that sort

of thing was for lovers to do together, he didn't have the slightest intention

of laying an indecent hand on her, but not having such intentions was a

different thing from not being on guard against it.

As always, Mahiru was not wary enough around Amane.

"…Are you going to?"

In response to Amane's words, Mahiru leaned back against him and

looked up at him.

Her clear, caramel-colored eyes hid a mischievous twinkle. Her cheeks,

which looked more flushed than usual, softened as she smiled.

Faced with that teasing expression, Amane purposely puckered up his

face and grabbed her tender-looking cheeks.

"Nope."

"Uahhh!"

He chided her that there were things that were and were not okay to say,

even as a joke, as he squished and pulled Mahiru's cheeks like soft rice

cakes. In response, he got a goofy, high-pitched shriek.

Wholeheartedly relieved that her squealing had no sex appeal, Amane

took several slow, deep breaths to calm his heart before it pounded out of

his chest.

…My heart can't take this.

Without a doubt, she must have been teasing him on purpose.

Amane sighed as he pinched her soft cheeks, thinking about how skilled

she was at getting a rise out of people. In his arms, Mahiru grumbled in

complaint, "How long are you gonna do that? Geez…"

They eventually pulled themselves together and continued playing the

game, but after two continuous hours of play, they were forced to accept

that Mahiru was not suited for action games.