C-Rank Ranked Match — The Loner's Humiliation

“Haah. One against eight really was beyond me, it seems.”

Shiina sits up out of the capsule bed, her expression far too composed for someone who just lost.

“C Rank really isn’t a soft touch, huh. Their movement, sure, but every one of them had their tactics locked down.”

“Individual skill on its own isn’t cutting it anymore~. Let’s work up some proper tactics on our side too.”

“Yes. Quite so.”

Everyone else is facing forward. But me…

“Hic—”

And me… I go and burst into tears.

“Shiki?”

“H-hey, what are you crying for?!”

“Oh-oh-ohh?! Whassa matter! Want ChaCha to sing you a song?”

So frustrating… so frustrating…!

“S-sorry… I’m just… so pathetic…!”

I’m so embarrassed I could die. A newcomer who loses and then cries about it. Who on earth do I think I am.

I’m the worst. Trying to get myself killed first thing because being there was too much trouble… everyone else is playing this seriously, and I was ready to throw the match for my own convenience…! And because of that, Niko and Shiina both…! If I hadn’t been here, if I hadn’t made them come to link up with me, the two of them would have joined up and it would have ended differently…!

I hide my face behind my arm. Tears, when the whole premise is that we’re robots. What a strange thing to include. Don’t go building in pointless features like this…!

“S-sorry! For dragging you into it like that! We were, uh, pretty cornered ourselves, y’know, we just couldn’t find a third! So, look, here’s the thing! I’ll buy you any weapon you want to make up for it!”

“This one was a match we were bound to lose anyway! ChaCha and the rest of us were treating it like a practice match!”

“…We weren’t… bound to lose…!”

“—!!”

They try to comfort even someone like me. And that kindness only makes it hurt worse…

Alone is easy. If I’m alone I can bear losing. I can bear the frustration of defeat. But…! In a team battle like this, when you lose, the apologies you owe and the helplessness of it all come piling on top of you…!! I want to put a round through the me from a few hours ago, the one who tried to self-destruct at the first opportunity. I’d forgotten… this feeling. This feeling is the one I hate. Lose on your own and it’s one person’s worth of frustration. Lose as four and four people’s worth of it lands on you.

So frustrating… so frustrating… so frustrating…!

I want a do-over. I want to win. This gun is all I have. If I can’t prove I exist with this, then there’s nothing I can do at all!!

What do I do. Maybe I should just log out and be done with it…

“Heh.”

From Shiina’s lips… a smile slips out.

“H-hey, you…! Read the room!”

“My apologies. That was a laugh at my own expense. We ought to be following Shiki’s example.”

“Huh?”

“—We lost. And yet we let the frustration of that defeat wash straight past us. We calmly listed our points for improvement and set about moving on. That is not a good thing. When you have lost, you ought to feel the frustration of it properly. Shiki, by shedding tears, has told us as much.”

Huh? Somehow I’m getting an awfully generous read here.

“That’s… true, sure. But—”

“That it cannot be helped, because we are a team thrown together at short notice? That is nothing but an excuse.”

“Ngh—”

“Nah, Shii might have a point. Honestly, ChaCha was letting it wash right past her too, going ‘eh, can’t be helped’.”

“Yes. As did I. The ‘frustration’ that the rest of us let slide off us, Shiki caught and held for us. Thank you, Shiki. Thanks to your tears, we were able to notice our error.”

“Yes…?”

Somehow I’ve ended up being weirdly well thought of here?!

Shiina’s eyes on me are brimming with trust. Is this girl, possibly… the airheaded type…?

“So then, Shiki. What will you do from here?”

“Uh, um…”

“Our contract ran only as far as this Ranked Match. The Ranked Match is over, and you are free. From here on you are under no obligation to have anything to do with us.”

That’s… true. Say goodbye here, then go back to working my way through the game alone and in silence. That would surely be the most fun, and the easiest¹.

But… that choice would surely be the most frustrating of all.

I’m a loner. I’m hopeless at talking to people. I hate things like team battles… But more than that—

I clench my fist and lift my head.

More than any of that — I hate to lose!

Scared as I am, I can’t stand to let it end with me simply having lost.

Because I hate to lose, I tried to self-destruct before anyone else could beat me. I tried to run from defeat. But I’ve already lost, so there’s no running now. I won’t be satisfied until I pay it back!!

“Just one more time — will you fight alongside me?!”

Shiina smiles. Niko gives an exasperated laugh. And ChaCha beams from ear to ear.

“Yes. We would ask the very same of you.”

“Welp, guess we’ve gotta book the next tournament then~. Any requests?”

“U-um… I’d like to enter a tournament that the team I fought will be in.”

“You mean the Crimson Wings? Ahaaa, so this is payback, then.”

“That’s not… what this is…”

…It absolutely is, though.

“Sure, why not! Me, I loooove that kind of thing! Their sniper got me too, remember. I’m with Shiki.”

“In that case.”

ChaCha fiddles with the wristwatch-shaped terminal on her arm…

“One week from now! There’s a C-Rank bracket tournament. The Crimson Wings will probably rank up at this one, so if we can’t fight them here, the next chance is gonna be a long way off~.”

A week, huh. That’s plenty of time.

“Then we shall need to raise Shiki’s level to thirty before that.”

“Eh, if we haul her off to a high-difficulty Planet it’ll take no time at all.”

“A-about that… I’d like to be allowed to do the leveling and so on by myself… and I’d like to give back the armaments you lent me, as well…”

“Huh? You don’t have to give them back, it’s fine.”

“Yep yep — no no, I get it, Shikki. I’m not into princess-play² either, y’know.”

ChaCha nods over and over. So she does understand…

“I see. You wish to place yourself in a situation with no help at hand, and hone your individual skill further still. That is what this is about.”

Shiina really does go and read me in the coolest possible light, all on her own.

“Very well. However, we will be setting you some homework.”

“Homework…?”

“I will specify a few small things: the minimum stats we would like you to have, the armaments we would like you to carry for the team’s tactics. Please do not be concerned. None of it is anything significant.”

“R-right, then… I’m in your hands…”

“Yes. We will cooperate at any time, so if you find yourself stuck, please do rely on us.”

“O-okay…”

I’ll call it here for today’s Infinity-Space.

In the end, being able to take part in the Ranked Match was a good thing. I got to learn all kinds of techniques, tactics, armaments. It’s a deeper game than I’d thought… there’s something in it worth the effort.

I won’t forget this humiliation. Next time, I fight at full throttle from the very start.

I’m going to put a round through every last one of the Crimson Wings.