"Tomo-sama, do you have anyone else on your side? The two of us can't play solo/duo queue, and two flexible queues feel a bit strange."
Rikuo still felt that playing flexible queue with only two people was a bit like overthinking things. Because he met these two good friends not long after starting solo queue, his solo queue rank dropped, making it impossible to queue with Tomo-sama.
"No, none of my friends play this game."
"Alright, I'll ask around. I recently met a friend from a band, so I'll see if anyone plays."
Rikuo opened LINE and started sending messages to his friends. Actually, he didn't have many friends. Aside from Sakiko, who he couldn't message now, there was MyGO (except Taki), then Nyamu, Mutsumi, and the former boss of his part-time job.
"Hmm, I haven't played it. If Rikuo wants me to play with him, I'll download it."
"Forget it, Tomori. If you haven't played, don't. My friend I'm playing with is a pressure monster."
"Okay."
This was Tomori's reply.
"Minami-chan, no, using, computer now."
"Ah, it's fine, Mutsumi, you rest."
This was Mutsumi's reply.
"A game? Rikuo, but I don't really play games. If we're playing with friends against others, I, as a newcomer, probably wouldn't be good enough."
"Alright, sorry to bother you."
This was Soyo's reply.
He didn't send it to Nyamu, as they weren't that close.
"Only Anon is left, huh."
Just then, Anon's LINE reply came.
"Yes, I'm a very strong support!"
"Alright then, wait until I've downloaded the game. Oh, and our teammate for this game plays top lane and is a pressure monster. You can prepare yourself mentally; they don't use curse words when scolding, but every word is piercing."
"It's not that exaggerated! My teammates are always very harmonious when I turn on voice chat."
"...Someone actually uses voice chat?"
...
Rikuo finally finished downloading the game and added Anon as a friend. Her nickname was still so easy to guess: "Anon Tokyo."
"Anon, your nickname is quite cool, Anonymous Tokyo. Is it inspired by something?"
Anon looked at her ID and opened Google Translate...'So, when I was studying abroad in England, the reason people didn't call me Anon was a subtle reminder? Introducing myself as anonymous or something...'
Anon recalled her time studying abroad in England; while some people were mocking her, her roommates and most people were relatively gentle, she just hadn't understood.
'Never mind, I'm back now. I'll see if I can contact my roommates from England later...'
"It's exactly as you think! Your nickname, though, is quite strange, Sudbina? That shouldn't be English, right?"
"It's Latin, meaning 'fate'."
Rikuo then saw Tomo-sama come online and pulled him into the room, but Tomo-sama didn't turn on voice chat.
"This, Anon Tokyo, is my friend. She plays support, she's a girl so she probably plays alright, Tomo-sama, please go easy on her later. I'm playing ADC with her this time."
"Alright, as long as she doesn't feed. And who said girls play just alright? Am I not also a girl?"
"You can lie to your brothers, but don't lie to yourself."
"Sigh, never mind, let's start."
After their exchange ended, Anon finally typed out a greeting.
"Hello."
Rikuo felt that tonight he was probably going to drop ranks.
...
2 hours later.
"I'm out, you guys keep playing. Don't call me again if she's playing."
"Tomo-sama is really direct, huh."
Things indeed went as Rikuo expected. Anon played Yuumi in the first game. Rikuo thought no matter how bad she was, an Ezreal Yuumi could at least farm minions.
But Anon kept trying to dismount to shield, and managed to get perfectly interrupted when trying to remount... Then she wanted to follow the jungler to ward. The jungler predicted someone in the bush and retreated, but she stubbornly insisted on placing a ward and dismounted to go alone. Then the enemy jungler got a double kill.
She then went to help Tomo-sama in the top lane, walking directly through the river, revealing vision, and getting ganked 3v2 by mid and jungle.
Tomo-sama held back in the first game and didn't scold her.
But in the second game, she hooked a large Gnar with Blitzcrank. In the third game, she played Thresh and kept hooking walls. In the fourth game, she played Alistar and kept pushing enemies away with her W.
Tomo-sama finally couldn't hold back and started typing furiously.
"Tomo-sama is even using curse words now? That's rare!"
"Riku, they are saying such mean things! Tomo-sama doesn't understand my intentions at all! With Yuumi, I wanted to set up vision for teamfights early. With Blitzcrank, I saw Gnar was about to get big so I wanted to take him down early..."
"Alright, stop talking, my head hurts."
In reality, Rikuo's ADC suffered the most, getting stomped in lane within 10 minutes every time. The support died on average once every 2 minutes, had too many ideas, and too much initiative. The ADC was still farming, and the Thresh had already gone for a tower dive.
"Anon, promise me, from now on, only play entertainment modes in LoL!"
"Riku, even you're saying that about me! Next time, I won't let you copy my homework!"
"Actually, it's not like I can't make a smurf account to play with you."
"Isn't that still saying I'm bad?"
Rikuo spent half an hour comforting Anon. He fell asleep with the pain of dropping ranks.
...
While Rikuo was playing LoL, Sakiko was messaging her childhood friend on LINE.
"Uika, are you free now?"
Upon seeing this message, Misumi Uika immediately declined a game invitation from a gaming friend.
"Of course, Saki-chan, I'm very free. Is something wrong?"
"Uika, I have a friend, her personality is very difficult. Her friends care about her a lot and want to help her, but she keeps making excuses to refuse."
Misumi Uika felt that Sakiko definitely wasn't talking about herself. How could someone as kind as Sakiko be difficult!
"Saki-chan, then, can you invite your friend to karaoke, lock the door, and then clearly tell her how much you care about her?"
Misumi Uika thought Sakiko wanted to comfort a friend.
"No, that's too direct, isn't it?"
"But, Saki-chan, didn't you say your friend keeps making excuses to refuse? In that case, wouldn't it be impossible without being a bit forceful?"
Sakiko felt things were getting increasingly strange. Her topic was supposed to be about how to respond to a friend's concern, but Uika started by suggesting locking her up.
"It's not like that, Uika. That's not what I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask if you think there's anything about my friend's personality that needs changing?"
"Your friend? Although I don't know the specifics, she must be facing some difficulties, right? If you can't use a more forceful method to make her accept, then you can only secretly help her solve the problem, and then, after everything is completely over, inform her so she can't refuse. That way, your friend won't be able to escape either."
"Is that so? Thank you, Uika, I feel much clearer now."
"I'm happy if I can help Saki-chan."
The two began to chat about recent life and personal experiences. Of course, Sakiko would not mention being driven out by her family, although Uika knew... 'Rikuo-kun seems very busy lately. Uika said that if it were her, she would secretly help her friend solve things. Is Rikuo-kun thinking the same? Knowing that Tomori and the others are friends I hurt, that's why... And Soyo hasn't come to the school gate since that time...'
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