Kamisama no Memochou:Volume 5 Chapter 4
The Twenty One Balls on that Summer
At the end of summer, the white ball seemingly absorbed by the blue sky of the field captured my heart.
My summer vacation was wrecked by work. It was not about wasting my life fooling around with the NEETs or helping Alice move the Dr. Peppers around. It was actually about coordinating an event. Including the prior kidnapping incident,my summer vacation slipped away while I was running around.
I couldn't say that such a summer vacation was not fulfilling, but as a 16-year-old high school boy, I do want to lose myself in some things a typical high school student would do.
Entering November, this youthful passion continued to erupt and expand, seeking a place to vent, and then it exploded.
...At the game center.
As my dad was often deployed everywhere for work, I never made many friends from elementary school to middle school--if I did write such things, Alice would probably have chided me "Think about how emotionally retarded you are instead of blaming your dad's redeployment!" But in any case, I did have a period when I spent my time after school alone, at the game center
Such an illness (I don't think it's wrong to call it an illness) eased up a lot later on, one because the fighting games fad cooled off, and two was because my older sister started managing my finances, and I had no money to spend.
In other words, the passionate flames in my heart were never vanquished. With a battlefield and fuel, surely it will be blazing again.
"You'll be addicted anyway! Starting now, Vice-Admiral Fujishima?"
Soon after the second semester started, Major invited me to play an online baseball game called 'Power Playball'. Like an arcade game that can be connected to others, this game required lots of money. Thanks to the salary Yondaime gave me, my wallet became a lot fatter.
'PWLB' (This shorthand's weird, but it's a given terminology) requires many players to register their teams with their identification cards, and battle online in the entire country. The best concept of this game is the massive player database. Unlike ordinary baseball games where only a few actual baseball players are available for choice, one an automatically generate a player with unique values and fitting name just by entering a person's name. It appears to be composed based on the massive amount of online data.
For example, by entering the name of a famous racer like Senna, Prost or Schumacher, a character with high speed will be generated, while a characters named based on a professional golfer will have higher contact and arm accuracy stats, while a pro wrestler will be a power hitter. If the name entered was that of a politician or artiste, the player character generated would have unique values that 'might seem fitting'. Thus, it was a major topic on the internet, and attracted the attentions of players who weren't that familiar with baseball. Even if the name entered was an anime or manga character, the unique values generated can be rather believable; it's really amazing. If the name entered is a baseball player's, the character will naturally have the corresponding values. Even the little details like Kuwata Masumi muttering to the ball before pitching, or Kiyohara Kazuhiro dealing with dead balls will be reflected on the characters, so there had been decent revivews on it. However, the higher the values of the players in game, the higher the cost needed, so it's unlikely to put all stars like Suzuki Ichiro, Ochiai Hiromitsu, Oh Sadaharu and Nagashima Shigeo into the batting lineup. Besides, entering names of ordinary people will create characters that are somewhat decent, so quite a few people named the characters based on their own names.
The appearance templates of the players in the game are all fixed, but the uniforms can be customized with different patterns, and I too got a unique place in the game through the internet; it's not an overstatement to say that my team's famous. I had all the heroines from the Dragon Quest I to IX as my starting players, and had the image of my customized characters plastered on the uniforms, resulting in it being a subject of report by a few blogs and news stations (just to note, the team's very weak).
"As to be expected of you, Vice-Admiral Fujishima. Our 'Drive a Phoenix' team uniform shall be in your care."
"Please deal with that questionable team name first. I don't want a picture I draw be famous for that kind of team..."
"What's wrong with this name? It means 'Driving a Phoenix! Of course the Phoenix here refers to the F-14 Tomcat fighter jets missiles, nothing to do with a team that couldn't be created after losing to Rakuten in a trial..."
"Who are you trying to bluff here!? Isn't your ace pitcher called 'Horie'?"
"His strongest weapon is a forkball that falls like the stockmarket!" Hey! watch your words! "Anyway, a Phoenix has a fiery, ferocious feeling, so a dazzling golden glowing bird piccture!"
So I had an Oyakodon picture pasted on the uniform, but Major was infuriated. Didn't you want a fiery, dazzling bird!?
“You have been lax recently. What do you think the job of a detective assistant is?”
On a certain Friday in mid-September, I was nagged at by Alice. I was always loitering at the game center, and it had been a while since I showed up at the agency.
“Yes, Fujishima-kun! It’s the assistant’s job to take care of Alice’s hair! Do remember how to take care of it…ehh, seriously! Didn’t I tell you to comb it gently? Like this…”
Even Ayaka was fuming. The three of us were on the bed on the Detective Agency, and Ayaka handed half of Alice’s long hair to me, teaching me how to take care of the hair. Ayaka was giving all kinds of criticism at my combing and conditioning techniques.
“But I never asked you two to take care of my hair!” Alice hated the idea of people toying with her hair, and was unhappy about this.
“I rather have Ayaka or Hiro handle this, if it’s up to me.”
Ayaka’s my classmate, working part-time at ‘Ramen Hanamaru’ in this building. She’s a lot more capable than me when it comes to handling with Alice’s needs.
However, she does act airheaded at times, saying some troublesome things like this,
“But won’t both of you be moving to a larger office and living together, Fujishima-kun and Alice? That will be more troublesome now.”
“Wh-why do I have to live together with Narumi?”
Alice tried to turn her head around, but scowled as her hair was stuck in the comb. Her ears were blushing. Did it hurt that much? Ah, no…so I turned to Ayaka too. What do you mean, living together?
“Holmes and Watson have always been together! Poirot and Captain Hastings! Don’t a detective and assistant have to live together?”
“Who taught Ayaka such nonsensical knowledge? You don’t read any detective novels, don’t you?”
“…Not on me!?” I had no knowledge on foreign mysteries at all.”
“Hiro told me.”
“Ayaka, think about it. Don’t get too close to that gigolo! He’s the guy who’ll try to woo any nurse the moment he’s born! Always with the useless words!”
Alice was so furious that she was patting her thighs. I too was taken aback. Living together with Alice? This isn’t good, is it? Bad in all kinds of ways, so please don’t joke about this. However, Ayaka did once tell off Alice for being careless about the relationship between male and female. Why mention that out of a sudden.
“Hiro and I have discussed over it, and we decided it’s time to change Alice’s education. Since both of you are going to live together, might as well go with the flow…” Who’s going to live with her? What kind of education is this?
“Enough! Narumi! You don’t have to learn how to take care of the chair!”
I was tapped on the shoulder, so I handed the comb to Ayaka, and had her do the rest. I should have done so right from the beginning.
“Listen up, Narumi! I can live by myself even without an assistant like you! Your current job involves only the ironing of clothes. Remember this!”
“Yes yes yes…I get you.”
Alice had been a little more self-aware, realizing that it’s embarrassing for others to strip her. However, I was still the one in charge of ironing her pajamas, for it seemed she was scared of touching it.
“Why is Alice so scared of the iron?” Ayaka continued to comb. It seemed Alice had a phobia as she had once touched it after I had used it.
“Correcting the shape by applying heat. This short-term manner of thinking is truly the terrifying bit. It is barely acceptable if used only on clothes, but imagine…there may be fools who will think of ironing the winkles of a human.”
“Oh yes, Alice. Do you know about a hair iron? It’s used to iron the hair.”
Once Ayaka whispered this explanation to Alice, the latter’s black hair jolted like electricity. Alice reached her right hand out towards the keyboard by her side, and the search result appeared on a screen.
“…Wh-wh-what is this device?”
After reading the description of the hair iron, Alice shrieked. So she didn’t know about such a thing before? She got a whole bunch of weird knowledge in her head, and no common sense at all.
“Heats up the hair? That looks like a torture tool used to interrogate criminals! An Iron Maiden is a massage chair compared to this!”
Apologies to all hair iron manufacturers, I guess our detective here has no malicious intent. Alice wiped off Ayaka’s hand, and snuggled into the pile of dolls. Her buttocks were still shaking. Is it that scary?
“Narumi! Never ever use the iron to flatten the creases on my pajamas! Such terrifying devices should be exterminated.”
“How am I supposed to flatten your pajamas…without an iron?”
“Use your hands to flatten my pajamas one by one! Consider yourself lucky to spend an uninteresting life on this!”
“You got to be kidding! I have my own things to do!”
“Oh? What is it? Say it.”
And with her actually mentioning this, I was a little disturbed.”
“You’re not trying to say that you’re revising or reading ahead? Don’t make me laugh. You’re definitely repeating the year.”
“Ugh…I!” I retorted, “I do some sports after school.”
“So, ‘Power PlayBall’?”
“You know about that?”
“The NEET detective knows all incompetence. Furthermore, you are a highly popular creator on the internet. How can I not know? I do know you have been designing crude uniforms that show lots of skin, and got a bunch of high salary players, but you never won at all because of your utter lack of team balance.”
“How is that crude? Many people requested me for such things! What can I do?”
See, even Ayaka, who doesn’t know anything, is giving me a weird look here!
“E-erm? What is it? Fujishima-kun? You’re unable to graduate because you lack credits, and now you’re drawing eros to earn a living because you don’t want to work?”
“I have no idea where to begin retorting, so I’ll stay silent.”
“But you aren’t. You said something.”
“Ahh yeah.”
“…Actually, Fujishima-kun, you’ll say everything and anything to yourself, and that’s why we’re having this conversation. You haven’t realized?”
“…Ayaka, you can’t mention that to him directly! Look at his devastated look. It’s like a worm on the asphalt exposed to the sunlight the entire morning, no?”
“I-it’s okay, I’m not that devastated…” I weakly refuted. “It’s not the first time Ayaka said this about me…”
Ayaka had first said this about me before the Angel Fix incident. In other words, I was told off by two different people, and this was a lot worse than before. She couldn’t remember, and yet that’s what she said of me…whatever, in the future, I’ll just work in a job that doesn’t require me to talk to others. Maybe I should just live as an illustrator…
“Eh…but…since you are earning, that means your illustrations are amazing, aren’t they, Fujishima-kun?”
Ayaka tried to speak up for me, but she ended up wrecking me instead.
“it’s not real money, just in-game currency.”
Alice coldly noted as she tapped at the keyboard, showing the ‘PWLB’ forums. Shown on it were the illustrations I put up for auction. Most were already sold out.
“Did you draw these, Fujishima-kun? Eh? Looks like some anime illustration I saw before.”
Ayaka looked back and forth between me and the monitor.
“The one at the tope right was used in a movie poster, isn’t it? I can see it that everywhere on the internet.”
“it’s not that simple. Actually, this game doesn’t have a function to upload pictures, and he had to used the tool provided by the maker to do all these.”
Alice began to explain gleefully.
“If current available pictures can be uploaded, there’ll be a controversy over copyrights. That’s why the game maker provided this outdated drawing tool. So outdated, ovals can only be drawn.”
“Eh? Ehhh?”
Ayaka pointed at the monitor, looking flabbergasted. Shown on the monitor was a swimmer girl with glittering skin.
“In other words, the bored people in this country really have too much unnecessary stubbornness and skills that surpassed the make’s expectations. By changing the diameters of the ovals, any straight lines and curves can be made. The drawing process can be replayed. You can see by looking.”
Alice pressed a key, and the image on the monitor was refreshed immediately. Ovals of various colors and sizes gathered, gradually forming that swimsuit girl.
“It’s a fast forward. Probably takes about three to four hours to complete.”
No, I spent about 8 hours actually.
“Amazing…so there are really such bored people on this world!”
“That assistant of mine sprawled on the floor happened to be one of them.”
“You two nag too much!” I hammered at the corner of the bed, trying to refute. Alice gave me a cold look, and even Ayaka looked at me with pity.
“Eh, well…it’s fine, Fujishima-kun!” Ayaka stammered, “Drawing a swimmer girl with ovals is pretty impressive too!” That’s not a job! Stop trying to console me in such a strange manner.
At this moment, the bell to the office rang. My savior appeared. It’s Major.
“Vice-Amiral Fujishima, you’re here? We’re deploying to ‘Game Nishimura’ today.”
I hurried out, and nearly crashed into the computer rack. Game Nishimura was the playground we deemed as our battlefield. Don’t say that we’re being deployed. This isn’t work.”
“Stop creating a fuss when you enter.” Alice glared at Major, “Narumi’s doing work as a detective assistant. Go look for someone else.”
“What work? It’s Ayaka’s job to take care of your hair, Alice.”
“He’s in charge of being bullied by me.”
“Major, let’s go.”
I sighed, and hurried out of the office.
It was evening, and the setting sun was finally behind the building, the heat seeping from the asphalt mixed with some coolness. There were a few trendy shops on the road, and as usual, few passers-by as we went our way from the office to the station. There were a few stalls selling ice cream and crepes that livened the mood. The low-rise buildings and the stout culture hall could be seen, and the passers-by started to increase in numbers. ‘Game Nishimura’ was opposite the culture hall, next to the batting practice centre. The slender and long apartments seemed to be flattened by these two buildings, and the windows from the first to the third storey were covered with glamorous gaming posters. Like usual, there were a few customers moving in between the crane games at the entrance.
“Major! There’s quite a few retro games on the second floor after renovation. Mind checking it out for us?”
Once we entered the shop, a nervous looking bespectacled man walked out. This Nishimura-san is the shop owner. His dad is the boss, but as the latter has been hospitalized for long, he ended up running this business at a young age.
“Oh? I’ll have a look.”
Nishimura-san had been asking Major, a fellow gamer, for suggestions. Major gleefully looked into a corner deep inside the second storey, acting like a consultant, only to be arranged.
“This much, and you say that you gathered all the retro games? What do you want me to say?”
“Is-is that so?”
“Don’t import any classic shooting games. They don’t attract young people, are too common for retro games, and nobody’s interested in them. At least bring in Bomber Jack or Libble Rabble.”
“Uu, yes, I understand.” Hey! You’re really going to do what he says?
Speaking of which, Nishimura-san seemed to have aged quite a bit since summer break. The large gaming consoles on the first floor are one thing, but there’s hardly any customers on the second and third floor. Probably having difficulty doing business.
“Didn’t you import six ‘PWLB’ during summer break? Hasn’t that improved things?” Major asked, and Nishimura-san’s shoulders dropped.
‘The only ones popular are large online games. Everything else, best not to talk about them.”
Nishimura-san looked around at the retro games, and sighed reluctantly.
“The manufacturer has been going about promoting new gaming consoles, and we had to do discounts like the others…the highly anticipated games were soon pushed for home port…I heard that ‘PWLB’ will be moved to home port soon. The future sure is bleak…”
I guess so. You can say that the glory days of game centers is starting to end with the advent of family gaming ports and internet.”
“Wait a sec, Major.” You shouldn’t be saying that here. Nishimura-san started to cry as he wiped at the screen of the console.
“Even the part-timers quit very soon. The batting centre next door’s closed down.”
I was about to mention that it was quiet next door. So they had closed down?
“I don’t know if our shop can last through the winter,,,”
“I-it’s that bad?”
Whenever I came by to play ‘PWLB’, I had to queue, so I never had to worry about that. Thinking about it, given the space, there isn’t much earnings.
“Owner, mind if this thirty year veteran at the game center say something here?” Aren’t you just twenty a few days back? Major leaned on the chair, a leg resting on another as he looked proud. Nishimura-san kneeled on the floor, and clamly said, “Please do!”
“The most important part of managing a game center, is to not bother with what the gaming maniacs say.”
“You don’t have the right to say that, you gaming maniac!”
“You see, Vice Admiral Fujishima…” Major pointed at the empty second floor, “Gaming maniacs are maniacs, and no matter how we complain, we can’t leave our games. Normal folks have many ways to enjoy life however. When they feel that game centers are boring, they’ll walk away silently. If we’re going to change this shop by our wishes, we’ll have the crane and gacha games disappear, and install various retro fighting games. This will result in worse performances.”
“Now that you say so, that is correct…”
“Now what am I supposed to do…?” Nishimura-san asked as he sat down next to Major.
“Anyway, why do you want to continue this decadent business?”
Major never minced his words the entire time. Seriously, if this shop closes down, won’t you and I have issues with that?
“It’s my dad’s shop. I like games too, so naturally.”
“This isn’t a trade that can be done naturally. Do you know that every year, the current gaming industry will continue to evolve the business models, and yet the large games that use hundred yen coins like before…”
Major continued his spiel of words, and I had to hurry down the stairs. There were people gathering around the large pachinko-like ‘PWLB’ machines.
“Narumi! Didn’t Major just drop by too? What are we waiting for? Registration for the Tokyo Open Preliminaries is open.” The college students gaming with us kept waving to us.
“Are you done with the full Morning Musume team?” So asked one of those in high school…probably a senior. We met in the gaming club, and to be honest, I really did not know his name.
“But…that team is really weak, you know? I did make the illustrations…”
“It’s fine, show it now. Nobody’s looking forward to seeing how strong your team is.”
Amidst the laughter, I was shoved to the side. We inserted our identification cards, and the teams were decided. The 360 degrees monitor showed the dazzling green of the Tokyo Dome, “Hey! The opponent are all from Johnny’s!” “This Morning Musume group can match up against them, I guess.” “Wait, Nakai’s a baseball nerd. He’s strong!” “Hey! Isn’t that Mori there? Now he’s treated as a racer! Super fast now!” “That Kimura’s basically a baseball player!” and the spectators roared. I was choosing the starters using the touch panels, feeling the passion oozing from the bottom of my heart. Game centers certainly were becoming a thing of the past, but I kept visiting to experience this passion.
