High-School Dorm Monitor
4th Floor Leader
Tamaki Ichinose
How do you do, fourth floor?
High-School Dorm Monitor
Student Mentor
Yu Inui
We will now conduct the evening roll call.
Please go ahead.
I couldn't hear you very well.
We will now conduct the evening roll call.
Please go ahead.
Yes, that will do.
Reizei-san.
Present.
Man, I get so tense during roll call, I forget to breathe.
It wasn't quite as strict in junior high.
I hear they also do surprise inspections in the high-school dorms.
Huh.
The White Lily's in her loungewear.
She looks just as lovely with her hair tied.
Why's she on the fourth floor?
Mio!
They're on a first-name basis?
I want to game.
I think I might die if I don't get to play a match soon.
Sounds like withdrawal symptoms.
Rules, patrols... What's wrong with those heinous villains they call dorm monitors?
Aren't the dorm monitors the good guys here?
We don't get to play outside on weekdays, and there's not enough space inside.
We'll just have to sit tight until the weekend and—
She's crying for real.
Seriously? Who turns on the waterworks just 'cause things aren't going her way?
I know you did it the other day, but still...
I think I got kind of desperate that time.
It was my big chance to have my first ever local match.
m 0 0 l 100 0 100 100 0 100
*Local: An offline match. Played in person and not over a network.
Her "first ever"?
Anyway, don't you think it's ridiculous?
Against all odds, I meet a crazy girl who's into fighting games,
yet I can't play against her?
It's a waste of my life.
You know, Mio...
Honestly...
I get it.
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Is there any place on this campus where we can play without being seen?
Shall we set out to explore the dorm after we've dined and bathed?
Would you please stop using such difficult words?
Which word?
Found one.
It was right under my nose the whole time.
I mean, an empty room with a broken lock right here on the fourth floor?
This hallway sure is threatening. Threatening me with expulsion.
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"I was just going to the bathroom" will only fly in this zone.
Any farther, and I'm in trouble.
Kuromi Girls' Dorm: No Noise After 8PM Lights Out: 10PM\h\h\h\hRise: 6AM No Exceptions
Sorry, Mio.
I just can't—
Looking for "sparkles" like I felt back then
had become my only goal in life.
And when I met you, I found them.
Right then, I was thinking the exact same thing you were.
Following the rules in this situation would be wasting my life.
I mean...
I can't wait...
to game with you, either.
Come on. Let's fight.
That's no good.
First-years shouldn't be walking around at night.
A dorm monitor!
So...
Do you like fighting games?
Yes, we, uh, play a little SF6.
Wow! Really?
U-Um, Yu Inui-senpai...
Yes?
Do you, uh, play SF6, too?
Yup.
Like hell you do!
Huh?
A proper young lady who goes to Kuromi doesn't play fighting games!
Wow, yikes. What's this girl's problem?
Aya-san, don't be cringe. Calm down. No cringe.
Well, you might have a point for a lot of girls here, but I've got brothers.
Back when SF4 was big, my little bros bugged me to play with them every day,
and I got more into it than they did.
And now you play SF6? In this dorm?
There are ways to get away with it.
The simplest one is by becoming a dorm monitor.
Of course.
Dorm monitors get single rooms, and since they enforce the rules—
You there.
What are you doing here?
Another dorm monitor?
The fourth-floor leader...
Tamaki Ichinose-senpai.
Hiya, Tamaki-san.
Inui-san?
You're with them, too?
What exactly are you all up to?
Of course! Inui-senpai can smooth things over for us...
Oh, I spotted some first-years in an empty room,
and I figured I'd better report it, so I was just grilling them.
You bitch. You figured you'd be in trouble if you covered for us,
so you threw us to the wolves!
I see.
So you snuck into an empty room to play video games after lights out?
Your misconduct breaks multiple rules and debases the Kuromi dorms.
You should be ashamed.
If you have anything to say for yourselves, I'll hear you out.
But your guilt seems clear.
I will inform you of your punishment in due course.
Think about what you've done while you wait.
I can't put my finger on it, but something...
Something feels off here.
You asked us if we were trying to play video games. Isn't that right?
And after only a glance at this.
Your point being?
You can't fool me, Senpai.
No normal Kuromi girl would look at an arcade stick, this weirdly heavy box,
and know right away that it was a game controller.
Which means you've been using your monitor privileges to game in secret.
You're a fighting game player, just like us!
Is that all...
you have to say?
You're free to invent whatever stories you like.
But casting suspicion on me to escape punishment when you should be contrite?
Suspension.
At a minimum. I suggest you prepare for the worst.
She has a point.
I don't have any hard evidence that she's gaming in the dorms.
I think that's enough for tonight.
Is this checkmate?
Let's play.
W-Were you listening?
I was.
You piled on the pressure to sweep it under the rug,
but I thought, "Oh, right. So she's into fighting games, too."
So let's play.
Is she a bot that begs for matches?
This is great. You're both so messed up.
Sorry, Tamaki-san.
This just got fun, so I'm siding with them.
Inui-san?
Anyway, I already knew that you play fighting games.
My room's next to yours, remember?
If I listen real hard after lights out,
I can hear you hitting buttons on an arcade stick.
Fine, then.
Have it your way. How about this?
First to three. If I win, you didn't see anything tonight.
How exactly is that "my way"?
Keep your nonsense to yourself.
I'm leaving.
Running away, huh?
Excuse me?
In that case, if you lose, you both get expelled.
Will you play on those terms?
Of course.
Th-The White Lily is smiling.
How pure. How innocent.
What unabashed beauty.
Good game.
She sucks.
Sucks
Hey.
You two.
You need...
to teach me SF6!
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Our late-night arena is all ready!
Wow.
It's like a secret base.
Covering the cracks around the door would make it suspiciously dark,
so this is our best bet.
It'll muffle any sound, too.
I guess you've got the wisdom of... you know?
Huh?
Senpai, she just really doesn't know it's "the wisdom of age."
Still, it's hot in here.
Not to mention crowded.
Let's hurry up and play.
Right.
Aren't you two forgetting someone?
O-Oh, right.
I thought the same thing watching your set with Mio.
Are you even trying to win?
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Oh, I don't mean it like that. Or actually, I do.
But I'm not saying you're especially bad or anything.
Your defense is particularly good.
It's just... How should I put it?
Don't you think she plays like she's had her spirit broken too many times
by people grinding for points in ranked?
Uh-huh. She's too scared of a wakeup super to commit to oki.
Like, she doesn't wanna get punished, so she doesn't do any moves.
Her neutral game's completely passive.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Anyway, you can tell she's waiting for you to make a mistake.
Why even play Juri if you won't go on the offensive?
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Why even play Juri if you won't go on the offensive?
You never tried to go for SA3, did you? Even when you had the meter for it.
Well...
As my rank went up, more and more of my combo attempts got blocked and punished.
So I save SA3 for when I block a DI or another big move.
Mutter
I mean, Juri has to be careful in neutral anyway, right?
She's weak against zoning, so one projectile can leave her minus forever,
and her projectile works weird, so she can't win a fireball war.
Plus, her lights are trash and have crazy short reach.
Way too much detail.
So negative.
SOB
At the end of the day, her biggest problem is her mindset, not her skill.
Okay, how about this?
Set the training mode dummy to guard at random.
And hit confirm into SA3.
Uh...
Juri's Saihasho is slightly minus on block,
but it should leave you too far away for an easy punish.
If it hits, follow up with Go Ohsatsu and combo into SA3.
I, uh, see?
Now, practice that forever, until you can do it at least 90% of the time.
At that labbing station.
Labbing station
What? Now?
Do you have a problem with that?
N-No.
I understand you're the better player,
but I just thought I could always practice when I was alone.
Oh, yeah?
And anyway, is that any way to speak to your senpai?
Trash players don't get a say.
Listen. You could play matches with us all night and it wouldn't matter.
I need you to realize you'd get zero out of it.
Zero? The concept supposedly discovered in India? That "zero"?
What's that? Sounds interesting.
Can you please keep quiet for a moment?
Getting your spirit crushed in ranked made you forget.
"If they come at me with that, I'll counter with this and wreck them."
"I'll slaughter them all with this string I've practiced to death."
"Tonight, I'm gonna force this guy into retirement."
All those sparkling feelings.
"Sparkling"?
However!
If you practice hit confirms,
you'll instinctively start going for medium kicks in matches.
That will create new room for improvement: your next assignment.
This is what it means to fight. Now that you know, get to it!
So for now, how about we play first to three?
"Winner stays on" good with you?
Of course.
And so, our midnight tournament began.
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*I didn't do that
A cry that comes out of the mouths of fighting game players when their character does something they didn't intend. Only in rare cases did they actually "not do that."
I didn't do that!
Okay, Senpai. My turn.
Yu Inui-senpai played up to either SF4 or SF5 in arcades
and only recently got back into it with SF6.
And this girl...
She held on again.
I thought I took an insurmountable life lead early in the round,
but I couldn't chip away that last pixel.
She walked?
She walked forward then?!
Damn it. She's enjoying this.
Let's run that back.
Uh, I hate to spoil the fun,
but it's only two hours till morning roll call.
Huh?
That's funny. We only just got started.
It only felt like 30 minutes.
We have class today, so how about we call it a night?
I agree.
Ichinose-senpai, is it okay if we leave our sticks here?
Suit yourselves.
Our first late-night local ended without trouble.
Roughly 90 minutes of sleep later, I felt pretty refreshed.
Out all night!
How do you do, Aya-san?
This is only an idle question to pass the time...
...but is it true you've been calling the White Lily just "Mio" lately?
And a little bird told me the two of you are d-d-dating—
I have to be cautious with my pokes when she throws that many fireballs.
Meaning she just walks up to me.
But there's more to it than that.
Since my first game against her,
I've noticed she can tell when I'm about to go on the offensive.
She has a nose for it.
But if I back off to i-frame through her fireballs, I'm open.
I'd normally be on the offensive in this matchup,
but I kept getting pressured to death in the corner yesterday.
Still, I have to get past her fireballs somehow—
Just you watch.
A week went by like that.
We played till morning, thought about counter-play, then played again.
I had fun. I got pissed off. I felt like murdering someone. But it was always fun.
Anyway, it was no time for beauty sleep.
Listen, you two.
Yes, Senpai?
The set's 1-2, so it's not your turn yet.
Tamaki-san's been labbing hit confirms this whole time.
You didn't forget her, right?
O-Of course I haven't forgotten.
She asked you to teach her SF6, so I wasn't going to say anything,
but some of us aren't battle-crazed barbarians like you two.
I wanted to have a fun game night with Tamaki-san. We don't get to talk much.
97.
I don't like sidelining her on her own. It feels like bullying.
This local needs to be fun for all of us!
99.
I did it.
I hit confirmed and canceled into SA3...
100 times straight!
Wait, 100 times?
I didn't tell her to go that hard, did I?
Yikes.
I can wear myself out raising my rank, but there are only tougher battles ahead.
Fighting games are about endless, grueling labor.
Or so I thought.
But this is fun.
I'm having fun labbing right now.
Now, give me my next assignment.
A challenge so hard it makes my eyes bug out of their sockets!
She's had one weird awakening.
Not so fast, Senpai.
First, you worked hard to learn that hit confirm.
Don't you want to try it in a match?
Yes, I do.
In that case, first to three.
Senpai, you should play me first.
No, I should go first, logically speaking.
No way! I'm gonna play against Tamaki-san first!
Then, let's play first to three to decide who plays her first to three.
And draw lots and play to decide the order.
Am I going to get to play at all tonight?
Translation: William Varteresian Timing: Edgar Cruz Editing: SMR Quality Check: Geoff Mazzolini Translation Check: David Saylor
Illustration: K. Hayato