The heck? Are you kidding me with that oki? That was a setup! A setup!
Look up what "setup" means and get back to me.
Damn it! Damn it! What gives?
Cry your heart out.
I'll beat you next time, Mitsuki!
Bring it on anytime.
I accept challengers 365 days of the year.
I wonder how they'll try to beat me next time.
I can't wait to see!
Man, we just don't stand a chance against you, Mitsuki.
You're so much better, it's almost funny.
You said it.
Let's give SF4 a rest for today.
Oh, uh, I'd better get home, then.
I'll beat you next time, Mitsuki!
When?
Guess I'll start planning how to win tonight.
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I... I did it.
You won a game off Aya-chin!
Way to go, Tamateya!
Huh?
Am I "Tamateya"?
'Cause your name's Tamaki.
You're good at judging what will kill.
I know you're happy, Senpai, but that was just one game, and it's first to three.
Of course. And I'll keep winning.
Sob, sob, sob.
Okay, I'm up next.
Crap.
Good game.
I dominated her in the first few sets, but then she suddenly adapted.
I'm losing more than I'm winning tonight.
That was a good game.
Well, Senpai, we'd better go now.
Oh, of course.
I'll nap until morning roll call, too.
Hey, Inui-san.
If you're going to sleep, do so in your own room.
Well, where's the harm?
I thought this last night and the night before,
but Aya-san always shows up here spoiling for a bloodbath.
Yet when she loses, it's like an evil spirit exits her body,
and she leaves the room looking refreshed.
It's almost as if she's glad she lost.
You seem happier lately, Aya-san.
Huh? Have I got a dopey grin?
You look a little cuter than before.
You think so?
I haven't told anyone that you're always out all night.
I'm sorry—
Mio?
Aya-san.
Aya-san!
Have you calmed down?
Yes.
Even though I know what she's like on the inside,
I can't help being nice to a pretty girl in tears.
So, uh, what's up?
It's a long story.
I'll listen.
You know how we had an assembly before evening roll call?
Yeah.
ASSEMBLY HALL
High-School Dorm Monitor
Vice Chair
Hana Ichinose
High-School Dorm Monitor
Chair
Morino Fujimiya
How do you do, first-years?
Next week is exam week, so I'd like to explain a few things.
And that's what happened.
That's it?
Um...
I don't quite see the problem.
So what exactly is the White Lily crying about?
There's nothing more to it than that, Senpai.
This girl...
is crying because she doesn't want to study for exams.
That's the whole story.
Crying 'cause she doesn't want to study?
She's not a baby!
Mio, I've actually been wondering something for a while now.
Your brain's so rotted from fighting games that you smuggled a stick into school.
Why did you come to a school with a "no games allowed" policy?
I had barely started junior high
when I realized I was in hell on earth.
Classes were 50 minutes. Five whole minutes longer than in elementary school.
And there were six classes a day, Monday through Friday. Total madness.
And the exams were even worse.
They demanded I sacrifice afternoons, evenings, and even weekends to studying,
when that should be gaming time.
The spiritual agony was unendurable.
The state was trampling on my human rights.
This country is out of its mind.
So I made up my mind to just ignore it.
I-Ignore what?
Studying.
From the first final exams of my first year onward,
no matter how many teachers called me into their offices to chew me out,
I held firm.
I refused to study.
Then, around the start of summer break in my third year,
the incident occurred.
Hey, Mama.
Have you seen my laptop?
Welcome home, Mio-chan.
Your laptop...
is inside this safe.
Wh-Why? Take it out, Mama.
I know, Mio-chan.
Of course you want me to give it back.
I understand. I really do understand.
Mama?
How does this sound?
If you can meet either of the conditions I'm about to give you, I'll return it.
One is to get accepted to a high school of my choosing.
And the other...
is to defeat me, here and now!
As far as I was concerned,
she might as well have only given me one option.
This takes me back.
You gave up karate lessons after a year and a bit, remember?
You know, even with all my experience, I thought you had potential.
It was the same with violin and ballet.
You were so interested at first, but you got sick of them in no time.
Mama, that's ancient history—
But you know what? That gave me an idea.
I decided to stop forcing you and let you make your own choices.
I thought finding an interest yourself would be the best thing for you.
But... I'm so sorry.
A forward kick?
It changed course.
But it's slow. I can block just in the nick of...
That last hit already...
Mio-chan.
Do you remember when I bought you that thing? Your, um, "gaming laptop"?
You said you'd buy me one if I scored above average on all of my first midterms.
And you did it, Mio-chan.
But then, you got even more obsessed with games than before.
Ever since then, I've been telling myself, "Don't worry."
"Mio-chan is growing at her own pace."
But now, I know better.
If you keep going like this,
you'll become an adult who only knows how to play games.
I started studying for entrance exams after that.
In the end, I got into Kuromi when someone else, uh, "withdrew," I think?
Kuromi is a boarding school that forbids gaming.
But I only found that out a few days later.
Um...
How much of that story were we supposed to take seriously?
I was deadly serious the whole time.
What do you think, Tamateya?
Well, it's, uh, hard to say.
It was all I could do to just follow what was happening.
How about you, Aya-chin?
For me...
it was domestic violence, pure and simple.
But Mio was the one who chose to fight.
Giving your daughter a choice doesn't make it okay to break her dominant arm.
And she must've known her daughter would rather fight than study any day.
A girl who would rather fight than study?
Why does it have to be this way?
Why do I have to study again, after I worked so hard?
If I fail, Mama will suspect I'm gaming again.
I'm only gaming. Is that so wrong?
You sound like a perp pleading innocence after being caught red-handed.
I... I don't want to study anymore!
Okay. So just repeat a year.
It was nice knowing you.
You monsters!
Aya-san.
There, there, Mio. I know you've had it rough.
Aya-san!
Aya-san! You can't be that big a pushover for crying pretty girls!
Mio-san, for now, let's study for our exams.
I don't wanna.
I don't enjoy studying, either, so I know how you feel,
but your mother cares about you. I don't think you should disappoint her.
Besides, you started from zero and got into Kuromi in half a year.
That shows you can do it when you try.
True. Unless her mom took out other applicants to shorten the waiting list.
My mama is the last person who would do something like that.
She sounds more like the first.
You know, if she games her way into failing grades,
don't you think her mom might go after her gaming buddies next?
How about a study session?
Might as well.
How about we turn our local into a late-night study group until exams end?
You wouldn't!
You can't mean we won't do any gaming until after exams, can you?!
That's what I said.
Anyway, you'll be fine with Aya-chin tutoring you.
I-In that case, Yu-san...
If you don't mind, would you help me with physics, math, and English?
Huh? Tamateya?
Study Group, Day 1
You got the first ten problems right.
Nice going, White Lily.
If you call me that again, I'm ignoring you.
See, Mio? You can do it if you try.
I know. I just hate studying.
Okay. That's enough practice problems for now.
We'll pick this up again tomorrow.
For Mio
Classics
Work on memorizing facts in your own time.
I'm going to bed.
Am I the only one who didn't think she'd be this normal about studying?
You have a point.
How is Teya-senpai doing?
Oh, well...
Well what?
Oh, but I don't think she'll fail or anything.
She can do it, as long as she keeps this up.
{\fnGeorgia\b1\shad0\bord1\fs30\fscx90\pos(320,292)\c&H000000&\3c&H000000&\t(30,800,\3c&H302824&\c&HF8F4F3&)}Study Group, Day 8
Or so I thought at first.
A few days from the start of her exams,
the physical symptoms started.
Mio-san, you're shaking like a leaf. Are you all right?
My alcoholic uncle doesn't even shake that bad.
S-Since yesterday, sitting at a desk makes me feel sick and—
Whoa! You're gonna hurl?
Teya-senpai, get a bag!
Huh? Hang on! Mio-san, h-hold it for five more seconds!
*Please wait a moment.
I'll go throw this out.
Mio-san, are you— No, of course you aren't all right.
Seriously?
Sorry, Mio.
I honestly had no idea it was bad enough to make you throw up.
You must need things at a slower pace.
I'm sure she does.
These late-night study sessions aren't—
I won't quit.
But, Mio-san...
I'm fine. I threw up once a week studying for entrance exams, too.
Are you sure that qualifies as "fine"?
Surely the stomach acid made a mess of your throat?
Here, I get to play you all as many times as I want.
I've dreamed of a happy place like this. I won't give it up that easily.
For Mio
I'm going to go for a reset!
Mio-san.
Mio.
After all that, she's still talking about fighting games.
Aya-chin!
Are you on your way to Mio-san's class as well?
We do get our exam grades today.
Did you pass all of yours?
Well, uh, I managed.
Oh, there she is.
White Lily!
Um, Aya-san...
Hang on. Don't tell me...
Look.
I did pretty well in everything.
Aya-san?
S-Sorry, my bad!
You know, um...
Good job.
Aya-san.
Now you see what I can do when I get serious.
Oh, wow.
So you could say I keep my strength in reserve most of the time.
Bragging before you even thank Aya-chin is pretty cringe if you ask me.
Man. We haven't run sets in a while, huh?
How's it going, Tamateya?
I've gotten a lot more consistent at recognizing counter hits.
Of course, I still never get it right in an actual match.
That's good.
While you still have things to work on,
going "lab, lab, match, lab" like that will help you improve the most.
Aya-chin. White Lily. Thanks for the help.
No problem.
I thought I said I'd ignore you if you called me that.
By the way...
Tamateya-senpai, why do you want to get better?
Huh? You're asking now?
Took you long enough to care.
But she has a point. I'm a commoner, and you know how Mio is.
How am I?
And Yu-senpai is an outlier because of her brothers' influence.
But you're a proper Kuromi girl, right, Teya-senpai?
Well, I suppose.
So I don't get why you'd go out of your way to play fighting games,
much less why you'd want to get good!
Aya-chin, is it just me, or do you consider fighting games vulgar?
Your inner creep is showing again.
Why do you want to get better, Aya-san?
M-Me?
No real reason. I just do.
I don't play out of pure, sparkling feelings like you and Mio-san do.
I don't sparkle.
You did give us that gloomy backstory.
There's someone I want to catch up to.
I play fighting games because I want to catch that person's eye.
Besides, there's a tournament coming up.
I wanted to do as well as I could there and have clear results to show for it.
So I devoted myself to playing online,
but the dark side of ranked—
Whoa, whoa. Senpai.
Did you say "tournament" just now?
What? Um, yes.
It's next month, isn't it?
EVO Japan?
EVO Japan?!
Shh! Keep it down.
Of course.
I was getting out of fighting games, so it wasn't on my radar. Just a month to go.
EVO Japan is the big one, right?
You bet. The world's biggest fighting game tournament, EVO! But the Japan one.
Didn't it used to be in Fukuoka?
Yes, years ago.
But it's in Tokyo this year, right?
Were you planning to travel for it?
I have hopelessly few chances to play offline.
And SF6 isn't really in arcades.
I mean, I played SF4 in arcades,
but it was hard to find people unless I went to a busy arcade out of town.
I hear Tokyo has multiple locals a week, but we're out in the country.
I'm impressed you set your sights on EVO Japan, then.
Where will you stay?
I've had my hands full with exams.
Oh, I haven't even entered yet.
Huh? You sure there's still time?
Hang on.
You've got this week. You cut it close.
S-So, um...
H-How about, you know...
The dates work out, and the four of us, uh... Tokyo...
I mean, um...
I'd l-love to keep playing all the sets we want here,
but, uh, we all do want to improve, too,
so this is a golden opportunity...
I mean, what I'm trying to say is...
We'll all practice together until the tournament.
Of course.
We're entering EVO Japan together.
Right!
Translation: William Varteresian Timing: Edgar Cruz Editing: SMR Quality Check: Geoff Mazzolini Translation Check: David Saylor
Illustration: Namori