NOVEL NEXT Chapter 94
Sometimes I have dreams.
Dreams of a time I can never go back to.
“Ugh, seriously! What would you do without me?”
“Don’t worry about it. Besides, you… no, never mind. Just go inside.”
“Okay. See you tomorrow!”
I chose to isolate myself.
So I shot sharp words at you without hesitation, yet you stayed by my side until the very end, not giving up.
Unlike my changed personality, you always had a bright disposition and many friends around you.
It would be a lie to say I never envied you.
And the fact that you always looked out for me, even though I didn’t say it, was one of my hidden prides.
“Ugh! Do you have any idea how grateful I am for all this care? I wish our I could be a little brighter!”
“Well, if you’re not that grateful, then just stop. You’re doing it all on your own. And you’re even older than me. What do you mean by ‘sister’?”
“…Mentally, I’m probably much older? And how could I abandon you? Well, you’ll understand once your puberty is over. You’ll know how much I tried.”
Sometimes I wonder.
What if I hadn’t made that choice back then?
If I had just ignored it thinking it wasn’t my problem, could I have been with you until now?
Of course, I’m not dissatisfied with my life now.
In fact, in small aspects, I could say I’m happier than in my previous life.
But still, I occasionally find myself wondering.
How are you doing now?
When you heard the news of my death, did you shed any tears?
Or did you feel relieved that I, the burden, had disappeared?
Being your kind self, I imagine you struggled to take care of Mom, who was left alone.
My life was filled with regrets, but since I thought it was over, I didn’t cling to it.
Yet, I can’t help but be curious about how you’re doing now.
And that curiosity leads to a single thought.
Thanks to you, I was able to make that choice in the end.
Thanks to you, I now have the courage to move forward again.
I wanted to tell you how grateful I am for you not giving up on me until the very end.
I wanted to convey those words to you.
★
“Ugh….”
I calm my wildly racing heart with deep breaths.
No matter how many times I promise myself, when reality approaches, I can’t help but feel nervous.
“Kayanoh.”
“Ah, yes…!”
At the sound of my name, I swallow hard and lift my head.
In front of me sits a gentle-looking woman wearing glasses.
“Is that slightly offbeat rhythm due to your nervousness?”
“Ah, um, I’m not really sure.”
Right. The place I’m in is a vocal training academy.
Encouraged by Suzuha Koga, I gathered my courage, contacted my manager about vocal training, and my manager promptly told me to get started and provided the location of the academy.
I had just finished the skill test here.
“I thought I sang as accurately as possible…”
“Hmm. It might be that you were too concerned about stuttering. When I listen to your singing, it doesn’t just feel like you’re slightly behind the beat; it feels like there’s an awkward offbeat, especially before the highlight…”
The teacher began to explain the training to come step by step.
Starting from basic vocal techniques to correcting the parts where the offbeat occurs.
She planned to teach me various things gradually and asked if I could come every day, if possible.
And I replied.
“…If I don’t have any important schedules, I’ll come every day.”
I nodded quietly.
Objectively, it was already a late start.
In that situation, I couldn’t say something like, “It’s too much to train every day, that would be overdoing it.”
I had to try my best to do as much as I could.
For my goal.
★
[Izumi Kainoh☆Star’s Flow @KainoIzumi · 3 minutes]
I’m planning to play Bloody Night after a long time!
https://ontu.be/XXXXXXX
Star’s Flow 2nd Gen #KainoIzumi #BloodyNight #BN
[VTuber, Thread 378 discussing Kaino Izumi]
…
51. Checked the schedule, today is Mei’s Bloody Night stream.
52. 51 << I guess it’s the first time since the collab with the Young Lady? 53. 52 << Right. That caused a huge uproar too. 54. If we look at it back then, it could’ve been used as a main content. 55. 54 << It must’ve been hard to watch the game being torn apart for nonsensical reasons. 56. I heard she’s going solo, does anyone know Mei’s past rank? 57. 56 << I saw it on the summary; she was Knight Raid ranked. 58. What level is Knight Raid? 59. 58 << Top 1%. ★ [【Bloody Night】Finally going solo! #KainoIzumi #Star’s Flow #BloodyNight #BN]
-─(≧▽≦)>ZumiZumi!
-─(≧▽≦)>ZumiZumi!
“Ugh….”
Before starting the stream, I was reading the patch notes for Bloody Night after a long time.
It had been almost six months since I played, the first time since the collab with Hikari Kurokami.
So I needed to know if anything had greatly changed.
“The tank positions have been buffed overall.”
Early, mid, and late game, the damage dealers were too dominant.
Yeah, when I occasionally watched gameplay videos on Ontube, most of them were combinations of damage dealers and supporters.
Bloody Night has three character positions: tankers, damage dealers, and supporters.
On the surface, it seems simple and standard, but what sets it apart from similar genre games is a big difference.
That difference is that each team only has two members.
There are three character positions, but you can only select two from each team.
This creates drawbacks no matter how you mix them, and you have to overcome those drawbacks through character traits and items.
For example, the most standard combination would be a tanker and a damage dealer.
A straightforward combination where the tanker holds the front while the damage dealer cleans up the enemies.
However, this combination lacks a supporter, which becomes a drawback in prolonged fights.
Therefore, it struggles against strong tank and supporter combinations, and item farming has to focus on recovery items.
This raises the game’s difficulty but is also what makes it fun.
“Ugh…. Done.”
Fortunately, the game hadn’t changed drastically to the point of being hard to adapt from the start.
And it was nice that my main character, Rina, got a buff; there was nothing to complain about.
“Hmm hmm.”
I cleared my throat before starting the stream, and when I checked the time, it was 4:59 PM.
Then, as the clock struck 5:00…
“KonZumi… the party maker… is Izumi…”
-HiZumi!
-HiZumi!
I began the stream as usual.
★
“Ugh. The matchmaking is… taking a little long…”
Even though it was my first time back to Bloody Night in a while and I hadn’t played ranked in over two years, my records on this ID wouldn’t just vanish.
Since I had already hit Knight Raid rank on this ID, my MMR was high, so the long matchmaking was to be expected.
So I thought I’d just chat in the chatroom for some simple talk while I waited.
-Why suddenly BN?
I noticed a message pass by.
I knew it as well.
There were quite a few people who questioned why I was playing Bloody Night.
And it was a valid question.
The biggest uproar I experienced stemmed from Blood Night.
Honestly, the reason I hadn’t played Bloody Night since the collab with Hikari Kurokami had at least some influence from that memory.
But after playing various games recently, I suddenly thought.
Honestly, I can’t say I didn’t have any blame back then, but the game itself wasn’t the problem.
So why haven’t I played this game?
It was fun to watch, and I was confident in my skills.
Once my thoughts reached that point, I naturally began writing Bloody Night into my schedule.
But well, I didn’t need to mention this specifically.
I didn’t want to talk about what happened back then.
-Is there a character you use other than Rina in BN?
“W-well, I’ve played a little with Shiron. It’s kind of fun aiming for one-shot kills…”
“Ah, it’s started.”
As I chatted, boom, the sound hit as we finally transferred to the character selection screen.
My position was obviously a damage dealer, and the character I chose was naturally Rina.
My matched teammate picked the tank role, and he chose Luke as I picked Rina.
A Luke-Rina combination. That’s a classic combo that was popular right after Bloody Night’s release.
This guy knows how to play!
The favorability toward this stranger whose face I didn’t know rose slightly in my heart.
[Nice to meet you.]
“I-I also look forward to working with you…”
Since Bloody Night is basically an FPS, it requires quick judgment.
So normally, players use voice chat and system pings rather than regular text chat.
I usually just use system pings without speaking, but now that I was streaming, I couldn’t ignore a greeting like that.
Of course, in the past, I would have replied via regular chat, but now I had grown.
Who am I? I’m the one and only Arcana Shooter!
[…Are you a girl?]
Ah, should I dodge?