C-Rank Ranked Match — Team Meeting

August 5th. The day before the Ranked Match.

Today was our team meeting, and I’d been invited over to Marshmallow Smile’s office. Location: Space Station, Channel 2621, Floor 18, Office Section.

I met up with ChaCha in the bedroom and headed down a white corridor. It was like one of those commercial tenant buildings, offices for every kind of Army and team crammed in side by side.

“Here we are~”

A white door stood before us, an electromagnetic nameplate reading ‘Marshmallow Smile’ fixed to it. ChaCha held her card key to the reader, and the door slid open. Inside…

“…”

“…”

Shiina sat reading elegantly in a chair, and Niko lay slumped with her cheek mashed against the desk.

Niko was obviously down in the dumps, her eyes hollow, her very soul looking ready to slip out of her at any second.

“Huh? What’s the matter, Nikki?”

“Nothin’~”

Not a trace of her usual energy. Completely wilted.

“Ah, is this maybe that love business again?”

Niko’s back gave a little twitch.

“Niko… you’re in love with someone…?”

“Yep! Nikki’s gone and fallen for the student council president of her own middle school!”

“Student council president… hold on — middle school?! Niko, you’re a middle schooler?!”

“Yep~. For that matter, Shii’s a third-year in middle school too.”

No way… Shiina and Niko are both younger than me?!

Middle schoolers these days really are so grown-up…

“D-don’t tell me you are too, ChaCha…?”

“Nahh~. ChaCha’s a college sophomore~.”

Now that’s a surprise the other way!

“Just so we’re clear, it’s not like I’m in love or anything! That jerk! The absolute worst! The worst!”

“Oh no, oh no — what on earth happened? ChaCha’s all ears.”

Niko started to say something, but her eyes welled up and she clammed shut. With a look that said good grief, Shiina spoke for her.

“She lent this student council president her copy of Infinity-Space, apparently. But—”

“That jerk… the game I lent them, they went and passed it off to their sister…!”

Niko propped her cheek on one hand and let out a “Tch!”, irritation plain on her face.

Full-dive games aren’t cheap. Every one of them runs into the tens of thousands of yen, a hefty expense for a middle schooler. Have something like that treated so carelessly, and of course it stings.

“Th-that’s just awful… Niko, you lent it because you wanted to play Infinity-Space with them, right? Even if they didn’t want to play it, handing it off to someone else… that’s a little heartless.”

Niko clamps down on both my hands.

“Eep?!”

“You! …You really get it, don’t you.”

“Th-th-thank you…?”

Hm? Hold on a second. Something in that conversation just now felt… off.

Infinity-Space is a women-only game. And if she lent it out to that person, then the one Niko’s fallen for is—

“Everyone, let us put an end to this silly love talk right there.”

“It’s not silly!”

“We are running a little behind, but let us begin the strategy meeting for tomorrow’s Ranked Match.”

No. Let’s set that aside for now. This here is a far more important matter.

We settle in around a circular table. Shiina works an egg-shaped remote, and an electromagnetic screen floats up over the tabletop, lined top to bottom with the Ranked Match’s rules.

“The rules for the next Ranked Match are the same as last time. The stage will change, naturally.”

“I mean, do we even need a strategy meeting at this point? The four of us have been hashing things out over voice chat all along, haven’t we?”

“Meeting face-to-face once to put the plan in order is surely essential.”

“ChaCha’s of the same mind!”

Talking face-to-face isn’t my strong suit, but I think it’s necessary too.

Over voice chat the pressure is lighter, but I can’t read the other person’s expression, so I lose track of when it’s my turn to speak. And I still haven’t managed to say the thing I need to say. Today, for sure, I have to come out with it.

“First, the flow once the transfer completes. Shiki, you will go into hiding in a nearby building. Niko and I will link up by heading to where Shiki is. Ideally we join up before the first area shrink.”

The Ranked Match’s safe zone shrinks every five minutes. It shows up as a circle on the overall map, and while you’re outside it, your whole-body durability drains by 10 every second. A Space Girl’s durability is 100, so ten seconds outside drains it to zero and you’re deleted.

One minute after the match begins, the next shrink zone gets marked out; three minutes after that, the shrink itself plays out over the span of a minute. Then, one minute after it finishes, the next shrink zone is marked again… and the cycle repeats. The safe zone starts out enclosing the whole map, but each shrink erases roughly an eighth of its area, and after forty minutes it’s down to a circle a hundred meters across. Even that last circle disappears in one more minute, which puts the effective time limit at forty-one minutes and ten seconds.

That said, a fight almost never runs the full forty-one minutes. Factoring in a Space Girl’s operating range and firing range, I figure most matches are settled in around thirty minutes.

“Once we have joined up, we will watch how the zone flows and move based on Shiki’s Radar. When we spot an enemy unit, Niko and I push out front, and Shiki snipes when she sees an opening. Normally you would drill a detailed formation so the Sniper never commits Friendly Fire… but Shiki is not going to hit an ally, so there is no need for that.”

“In our case, everyone running free beats botching some formation. We’re stronger that way. We’ve all got great improv. Shiki especially — she does way more damage when you don’t tie her down.”

So much trust in me… It’s true I’ll never hit an ally, but there are times when one’s in the way and I can’t take the shot. Still, these two will carve out good sniping windows for me, I’m sure.

“It is fine if one of us — Niko or myself — drops out, but it is a problem if Shiki goes down. So please put your own safety first.”

“U-Understood!”

Radar duty falls to me. Since we run basically all our enemy detection off my Radar, neither Shiina nor Niko has put any status points into it. If I go down, we hand the other teams a massive advantage on the detection front. I absolutely have to avoid getting downed right off the bat, like last time.

“Next, let us go over the teams to watch out for. First, of course — Crimson Wings, on a Ranked Match winning streak.”

Shiina works the remote and brings up Kurenai’s data on the electromagnetic screen.

“Kurenai is a high-mobility Attacker who specializes in attacks that do not fit any mold. She runs a Wing, but her fighting style itself resembles Niko’s. Their skill is probably about the same, too.”

“In the end I still haven’t gotten to fight her, not even once. I’d love a match against her.”

“If Niko and Kurenai fought, the outcome would be impossible to call. I am good at running this type in circles, so leave Kurenai to me. There is no need to go out of our way to pick the option with the lower win rate.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine.”

Next, Shiina brings up Ren’s data on the screen.

“Ren is skilled at covert movement, and on top of that she is a capable sniper. That said, her handgun and assault-rifle proficiency is soft. Get in close and she is nothing to fear. She does have a trap kit equipped, though, so watch out for mines and wires. Once we have caught Ren in our sights, Niko or I will move in to pin her.”

I got to watch some of Crimson Wings’ past battles, and Kurenai and Ren aren’t so much strong as they are troublesome. Both of them read a situation with real accuracy and coordinate well together. And of course, they’ve got the technique.

But there was one who made even those two pale by comparison…

“Tsubasa… as for her, needless to say — she is the strongest in this Ranked Match.”

The electromagnetic screen changes, projecting Tsubasa’s phenomenal stats.

“Oh? More than you?”

“I am the strongest as well. We are tied for first.”

“Uh-huh.”

“The only effective measure against Tsubasa is… my railgun, probably. Breaking through ‘C:Aegis’ with anything other than my railgun is impossible.”

“So that one’s left entirely to you, then.”

“That is right.”

“…”

As I sit there fidgeting, ChaCha speaks up.

“Shikki. Isn’t there something you want to say?”

“A-ah, y-yes!”

The moment I raise my right hand, Shiina smiles.

“There is no rush at all, so let us hear what you think.”

“U-um… could I… could you leave Tsubasa to me?”

I look at Tsubasa, projected on the electromagnetic screen.

“I’m probably… the one who matches up best against Tsubasa.”