6 The stick of happiness

...

Not a thing could be heard in the Hiromata household. Only this uncomfortable and incredibly awkward silence was present.

Eru was hanging out at Seki's house as promised but it seems that they were a tad bit too early because Seiji still hasn't arrived. Seki's mom is still at work and his dad was hanging out somewhere.

"It seems like Seiji-kun still isn't home."

Eru, breaking the ice, decided to strike a conversation.

"Yeah. He'll probably arrive soon though."

"I see."

...

The conversation ended.

'Oi, oi. This is too awkward! Can that even be considered talking? We barely spoke to each other! What should I do? My efforts were futile and my social skills are good enough to prolong a conversation. Goodness! Surely, all that time talking with fictional characters in visual novels should come in handy here.'

"Kasumi-san, do you like playing FPS games?"

Suddenly, Seki interrupted Eru's line of thought with a question.

"W-Well, I've never really played such games. Why'd you ask?"

"Considering we'll be waiting for Seiji and it's extremely awkward in here, wanna play a game?"

He finally pointed out the elephant in the room.

"I've never really considered playing them but it does sound interesting."

Seki nodded to Eru's response and started booting up the console and television. He grabbed two controllers, sat on the cushion on the floor and patted the other pillow next to him. 'Here, here' he seemed to gestured.

Eru sat next to Seki and was given a controller.

"Do you know the basics of the game, Kasumi-san?"

"It's a shooting game right? How hard can it be?"

She puffed her chest and claimed proudly. The game started and a couple of zombies started approaching Eru's characters. The theme of the video game seemed to be an apocalyptic world.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

He commented.

"Ayiieee!"

Eru shrieked as she spammed the controller. She seem to have been overwhelmed by the pressure from the game and lost.

"Eh? Why?! Why am I being eaten again? I'm so confused!"

Seki let Eru play a couple more times yet the same happened each time. As soon as the game starts, Eru would press every button on the controller, not knowing what to do and the sight of the zombies approaching made her panic even more. She barely lasted for even a few seconds.

"Uhm, Kasumi-san. I think before you learn the basics of an FPS game, you should probably learn the controls first."

"Hiromata-kun, I don't understand. Why doesn't my character shoot even though I'm moving the 'stick of happiness'?"

"T-The stick of happiness?"

Eru quickly pointed at the part of the controller, a bit frustrated.

As soon as Seki saw what she was pointing at, he couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

"E-Ehhh? Why are you laughing?"

"K-Kasumi-san. I-It's called a joystick!"

Still laughing, Seki explained. Eru's instantly covered her blushing face with her hands from embarrassment.

"O-On second thought, I think I'll just go home."

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to laugh so hard. I'll just teach you the basics, okay?"

Eru was about to dash out but Seki grabbed her wrist, inviting her to sit down once again. Still embarrassed, she sat down the cushion, pouting slightly.

"If you use the joystick, you can move around. See? If you press this, you can shoot. If this..."

Seki started teaching Eru the controls in a practice stage.

"Ayieee!"

"Kasumi-san, it's a practice stage. The zombies aren't even moving."

As soon as Eru learned how to shoot, she just held the button constantly.

"You shouldn't constantly shoot 'cause you'll run out of bullets."

"I see. So it's a kind of strategy game where conservation of resources are important. Hiromata-kun, how many bullets does it take to kill a single zombie?"

Eru's face turned serious and she fixed her imaginary glasses as she analyzed the video game

"Well it depends on which body part you hit. For example, if you hit them in the head, they instantly die."

"If that's so, then I should be able to conserve my ammunitions if I hit all of them in the head. In the first stage, the gun has six available magazines with 17 rounds each. If I replay the first few stages a couple times and counted all the zombies in each stage, I should be able to get the average amount of enemies. I should at least hit them—"

"K-Kasumi-san, you don't need to think of it too much."

"Eh? But if I don't strategize, I'll run out of ammunitions and get eaten be the zombies! Then I'll turn a zombie myself and I'll put other people's lives in danger. Then I will arrive at my family's house and my parents meet the zombie version of me and weep. Then they have no other choice but to behead their only daughter's hea—"

Eru's monologue slowly turned morbid and dark that Seki had to cut her off.

"The game has given you enough ammo to finish the stage, just don't hold the shoot button to long and hit the air. Here, let me show you."

Without hesitating, Seki held his hands over Eru's and showed her how to do it. Naturally, Eru was surprised with his actions but she didn't feel uncomfortable or anything.

"I-I see... Thank you for showing me, Hiromata-kun."

"Kasumi-san, you tend to overthink things too much, don't you? You sometimes stop and stare at the abyss as if you're having a monologue in your head."

"I guess it's a habit of mine. It's just the way I was born I guess."

"Eh... Well I don't think it's a bad thing. I'm kinda jealous that you can your mind can wander off like that."

"Is that a compliment?"

"Sure it is! There are a lot of things that I wouldn't have thought off but you managed to."

"Really? Like what?"

"Like the 'Stick of Happines—"

Plop.

Eru used the cushion under her to hit Seki's face.