Chapter 1

Mmngh, grrr…?!

Hey now, what’s wrong? You’re running out of steam~ What, is defending yourself all you can handle?

You’re a strong boy, Tetsu-kun! If you’re a man you should fight back!

Gwah~! Oh come on, quit running all over the place!

Hang on, don’t hit it! Look, that sign over there even says you’ll get banned if you roughhouse with the machines.

Ugh, but~…?

Hah, an opening! Dumbass, it’s suicide to look away in the middle of battle, Tetsu-kun! This is the end! Now diiiiie… ☆

Ah~ Wah~…?! I just got KO’d! Dangit, why can’t I win?!

Ohoho ♪ ‘Cause you’re not concentrating at all, you noob. And you’re such a clumsy guy you keep pressing the wrong buttons.

I’m great at taking advantage of my opponent’s mistakes ♪

Urgh~ That’s so annoying! I suck at games where you gotta push all these buttons and crap, I’m better at stuff like whack-a-mole.

And not counting fighting games, I’d never lose to you in a real fight, Hinata-kun!

You sure about that~? I can hold my own in a fight, y’know? Well, it’s not like I’m about to challenge someone from the karate club head-on though ♪

More importantly! Just like we promised, the loser has to go get us drinks. Go on, Tetsu-kun~ ♪ I’ll take something sweet!

Wawah—Can you not throw your change at me? You have like, no manners…

Seriously, haven’t you heard of “martial arts begins and ends with a bow” before?

Hate to break it to you, but this is a fighting game, not martial arts~ The winner takes all here ☆

Well, I guess that’s true…

Let’s play a different game. I’m not used to this, so my eyes are drying up.

Okie doke~ You’d wanna play something that gets your whole body moving, right? What about a dancing game?

I’ll go pick something for us to play that looks fun, so hurry up and get me my drink ♪

Yeah, yeah~ Uhh, where’s the vending machine…?

……

Oh, what? Wassup, Oogami-senpai!

Huh? Oh, ‘s just you. The hell’re you doin’ here?

I’m the one who should be asking you that~ It’s a day off, so I came to play at the arcade. Ryuseitai’s on break after our last gig, anyway.

Is it the same for you, Oogami-senpai?

Nah, I’ve got work later on. We’re always out in the middle of the night performin’ at that one underground stage in the neighborhood.

But my club didn’t meet today, so I had some extra time on my hands.

I figured I could kill time until our live at the arcade, so here I am.

But this place sucks… It’s so damn loud, I feel like I’m goin’ deaf. No clue if they allow smoking or what, but it kinda reeks of smoke in here.

Uh oh~ Tetsu-kun’s got himself tangled up with a delinquent ♪

Tetsu-kun! Leave this to me and get out of here! Bring it on, you punk! Hi-yah~ ☆

Hey, Hinata. Cut it the hell out, you’re pissin’ me off~… You guys’re hangin’ out together? You friends or somethin’?

We’re in the same class—you could say we’re pretty tight ♪

Right, sure. …You better take good care of your friends, Hinata.

Ahaha! That’s weird! You? Acting like an actual senpai? ♪

Got a problem? I don’t wanna hear any complaints… I am your senpai from your club, so how ‘bout you show me some respect, ya bastard?!

Gyeh~?! Quit it! why’re you giving me a noogie?

Hold up, you’re not with Yuuta today? You guys’ve been actin’ on your own a lot more lately.

You still fightin’? I thought that damn vampire got all up in your business at Setsubun though…¹

So I thought you got over all that crap.

No, we’re not fighting… I think? We’re still a little unsteady on our feet, but we’re trying to find what’s best for us.

Hmm… Well, I’m not gonna get involved with family problems, but if you gotta talk about anything, you can lay it on me.

Everyone needs to stop making every last thing the damn vampire’s problem, so.

Anyway, hey Tetsu-kun. You really sure you should be wasting all your time here?

Huh? Whatcha talking about? Like I said, Ryuseitai’s on break so…?

Huh? Mm~… Oh, then I guess you’re not involved in all of that?

I thought for sure you were the one who came up with it though.

Huh? What’s “all of that?”

Also, I’m not the leader of Ryuseitai yet, so I can’t just come up with Dream Fests like S3s or anything, y’know?

Nah, there’s no way it’d pass as an official Dream Fes. So it’ll prolly just be a B1 like last time.

Wait seriously, what’re you talking about…?

Duh, it’s a Dragon King Competition.

You’re doin’ it, ain’tcha? You had one back in the spring, but the student council butt in and cut it off…

So now you’re hostin’ another one and settlin’ the score that we had to abandon halfway in.

The karate club’s in charge of this Dragon King Competition. Did you seriously not hear anything from your top dog Taishou?²