𝙅𝙐𝙎𝙏 𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙄𝙉𝙂 | nagi seishiro

𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼

"This is taking forever..."

You spun around in your chair, waiting impatiently for your match to load. Your posture was slouched and your headset sat uncomfortably on your ears. You were on your twentieth game and fourth energy drink of the day—also known as a champion's routine, obviously. It's not like you had anything better to do.

You stopped your chair once you noticed the agent menu had finally rendered. "Fucking finally," you grumbled. Without hesitation you chose your main, waiting for your partner to pick theirs. You'd decided to add any sort of spice in your life, playing duos instead of solo play for the day. Thrilling, isn't it. "Dude, are you gonna pick?" you asked into your mic. Their profile loaded a moment later with their character of choice.

Are you kidding me? The agent they chose was the one least suited for a team with yours, their abilities clash like two smart kids in class having different answers. Do they not know how this game works at all? "You're playing Reyna? C'mon, don't tell me I was teammed with some tryhard."

They unmuted, "Huh? Reyna's abilities are the most overpowered in the game. You literally chose Sage, she sucks after the nerf." From their voice, they seemed like a guy. Asshole, more so.

"What?!" Your own teammate insulting your character. Unbelievable. You took a deep breath, "Whatever, y'know what? I'll show you after I carry your ass."

"With what?" he questioned, "The heals that don't even fully replenish hp?"

"Yup."

The agent selection ended, finally, and the match officially began. To your dismay, you couldn't kill anyone on your team, hopefully they'd patch that soon.

The first round started and you both rushed to the other team's side of the map. Quickly finishing off one of the opponents each.

Fuck. You groaned internally, your stats were still equal. Unacceptable, you were determined to make this guy eat his words.

The gameplay continued, each round usually ended with you both getting a kill. The one with the top K/D (kills to deaths) swung back and forth between the two of you, each time one out-fragged the other, the slam of a desk could be heard ricochetting into their mic. As much as you hated to admit it, the competition within your own team was kinda, maybe, slightly fun.

"Last round, buddy. Prepared to lose?" you taunted while you rebought your shields.

He clicked his tongue over the voice-chat, "We're still tied."

The final round commenced and you rushed out to the area opposite of your teammate, waiting for the opponents to show themselves. You watched the map in the corner of your screen as his player marker camped in Area A, while you were in B. It was just a game of which site the enemies picked.

Your headset picked up the noise of footsteps through the alley you were overlooking, both members of the other team running out to try and plant their bomb. Muscle memory took over, you lined up your cursor with their heads and knocked them out one after the other.

"Suck on that!" you shouted as the big 'Victory!' title splayed across your screen.

You could hear he'd knocked something over, "That was totally scuffed. They just went to where you were defending," he urged.

"No need to be so salty about it, can't accept a Sage main just totally owned your ass?"

"Sure. In fact, I'm utterly devastated. Crushed."

You laughed under your breath, "I would be too, man. It even hurts me to see someone take a loss this tragic."

"I'm sick of talking to you, you and your subpar main can go eat glass." He disconnected from your party and you burst out in laughter.

It was funny how seriously some people took a game to heart. Your friends liked to tell you that your raging problems were getting worse, but as if you'd ever be like that. No way. Not ever.

The rest of the week after that, Nagi was not happy.

His pride had taken a a major beating from that Valour match. He'd refused to go on the game in days. Reo had noticed his change in mood at school, even more dry in conversation than usual. When Nagi explained to his friend what happened, as if it was the most devastating event on the face of the planet, Reo suggested that he go get a new game to play, since he'd already burnt out of everything currently in his collection.

So, there he was. Walking along the walls of the store, packed with games and nerdy merch galore. He kept his eyes on the ground as he headed for the section with the new game he wanted.

He'd spent his entire Friday night scouring his browser for something new and actually interesting to play. The game had only released just recently, but its ratings were already through the roof. Hopefully, they'd hold true.

Once he was in front of his intended isle, his eyes quickly flicked up for a moment, checking the sign to make sure he was turning at the correct corner. Assured, he stepped through the rack of gaming paraphernalia, looking over each game cover to find what he was looking for.

His searching stopped when he caught sight of the fated video game. There was only a single copy left on the shelf, the forums really weren't lying when they said it was selling out fast. The corners of his mouth faintly lifted in slight excitement, reaching his hand out to grab it for check-out.

That was, until, his hand knocked against another reaching for it as well.

"Ah, ah, ah," Nagi turned toward the voice on his right, belonging to the body of the same hand that was still pressed against his, "Hands off, I call dibs," they warned light heartedly.

His entire figure froze, which was sort of an awkward position, arm still suspended midair. He recognized, no, dreaded, the sound of that voice.

You've got to be kidding me.

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