Day 75

[from Aishiteru! Hikikomori-san]

"I want do something…"

Ilana was lying on the sofa, bored. Being with Yuuichi was great and all, but she hadn't really done anything in the couple of weeks since her arrival in Japan. She had now reached the point where she not only wanted something to do, she needed something to do, to stop herself going crazy from boredom.

Yuuichi looked up from his computer briefly. "Like what?" he asked.

"Know not what," said Ilana. "Just something. I go crazy just lie here!"

Yuuichi had an idea. He span round in his chair, facing Ilana. "Wanna play some video games?" he asked. He had no idea if Ilana liked video games or not, but it was worth a shot.

Ilana shrugged. "Sure, I guess," she said. "What games you have?"

"Uhh…" Yuuichi tried to think of a game Ilana would be interested in. His various eroge and fanservice-laden fighting games probably weren't going to do the trick. "Oh, right! How about Dario Kart 7? That's a fun multiplayer game!"

"Dario Kart?" repeated Ilana. "What is?"

"You've never heard of it?" asked Yuuichi, surprised. "It's a kart-racing game with various Hyper Dario characters. It's fun… most of the time."

"Most of time?" questioned Ilana.

"Well, when someone throws a Blue Shell at you just as you're about to cross the finish line… yeah, that's not fun at all," admitted Yuuichi. "But when that's not happening, it's great fun!"

Ilana shrugged again, and sat up. "Alright, I play with you," she said. "Is better than do nothing all day."

"Alright, wait here for a moment," said Yuuichi. He headed off to his bedroom, and returned with two clamshell handheld consoles, handing one to Ilana. "Here you go."

"Why you have two consoles?" asked Ilana, confused.

"That way, I can get both Rockymon games and simply trade Rockymon between cartridges, allowing me to complete the Rockydex by myself!" Yuuichi explained. "It's a tactic I've used ever since Rockymon Ruby and Sapphire were released!"

This made absolutely no sense to Ilana, but after a moment she simply nodded. "So you have two of Dario Kart?" she asked.

"Nope," said Yuuichi. "The Clonetendo 3CS has Download Play, so you can play it with me even if you don't have your own copy. Oh, right, should I set up for you?"

Ilana nodded, handing the console back to Yuuichi. "Please. I never use before, I not know how it works."

"Alright then." Yuuichi booted up the two consoles, and a few minutes later, both of them were running Dario Kart 7. "There you go," he said, handing the console back to her. "We're already in a lobby together, so we just need to pick a track and our drivers. I'll let you pick the track, since it's your first time playing. Do you know what the controls are?"

"No," said Ilana, as she started scanning through the tracks.

"Okay," said Yuuichi. "A button is accelerate, B button is brake - you won't be needing that - the analog stick steers, holding R while steering will let you drift to pick up speed boosts, and the L button fires items. Pretty simple."

"Okay, I get," said Ilana, nodding. "Ooh, I like this one. It has, how you say, castle."

"Dario Circuit? Alright then," said Yuuichi. "Who do you want to play as?"

It didn't take Ilana quite as long to decide this one. "Princess Plum," she said, selecting the purple-dressed princess from the menu. "She cute."

"Princess Plum's more like Princess Plain compared to Carolina," quipped Yuuichi, selecting a cute-looking girl whose hair covered one eye. "Alright, good luck."

"Thank you," said Ilana. "You too."

Ilana, Yuuichi, and the six AI drivers lined up at the starting grid, ready to go. After a brief countdown, the word "GO!" appeared on the screen and the race began. Yuuichi quickly accelerated into the lead, with Ilana falling near the back of the pack. She tried drifting through the first sweeping turns as Yuuichi had suggested, but found herself sliding off the track and slowing down. Soon she was at the back. "This hard," she complained, pouting.

"You'll get the hang of it eventually," said Yuuichi. "Come on, I'll go easy on you."

"Okay," said Ilana, nodding. She made her way back onto the track and kept going, concentrating on simply staying on the track and trying to catch up to the other racers. Soon she was up to sixth, and collected her first Item Block. "Ooh, item!" she remarked. "Wonder what I get…?"

It was a Blue Shell. Yuuichi immediately gulped, a bead of sweat forming on his head as Ilana's pout turned into a merciless grin. "I-Ilana… y-you wouldn't dare…" he stammered.

"Do svidaniya, my love," said Ilana, and with a vicious glint in her eye, she pressed the L button.