#i 100% made tsumugi a reserve course student out of spite for saying “plain” 500000000 times

[dansconcepts]

A Day in the Life of a Gamer!Kaede

Or: my talentswap au in a non-despair setting with a focus on Ult. Gamer Kaede and some moments feat. a Reserve Course Tsumugi, Ult. Bartender Shuichi, and an Ult. Magician Kokichi.

Being at Hope's Peak is strange, but in a good way. Of course, she gets to meet all kinds of people that she wouldn't have met unless they were watching her stream or are in the same lobby as her. And they're all with some quirk one way or another, which makes her feel less like a "Gamer Freak" around them.

Experiencing the diverseness of the people in her classes and even outside of it is something she loves dearly. But... of course, there's always going to be something slightly strange...

・┆✦ʚ♡ɞ✦ ┆・

Every so often, she notices a girl with very long blue hair and glasses standing in the doorway. She wears the signature black ribbon and long-sleeved white dress shirt that Reserve Course students wear. While RC students aren't banned from being around Ultimates or anything (how messed up would that be?), their classes are in different areas. It's just inconvenient for them to be walking back and forth unless they've got friends here. And evidently, this girl does, because Rantaro meets her out in the doorway. He always invites her in, but she always rejects it.

Today, she's out there again. She's almost like an NPC, following her designated pathing outside of her class door. Unfortunately for her, Rantaro had stepped out. She must not have known, because she's standing there in her idle animation.

She could:

> Go back to her game [which would probably lead to the girl just standing out there until Rantaro comes back] > Tell her about Rantaro [which would probably lead to more interesting dialogue options]

“Hey, um, Rantaro went to the bathroom, he should be back in a few minutes.”  

The girl looks up at her and quickly looks away. She frowns. Did she do something wrong?

The girl meets the blonde's stare, and her eyes widen considerably. “A-ah, please don’t mind me, I’m just very plain…” 

“Hey!” Kaede pouts. “Don’t say that, I’m sure you’re amazing! You’re very pretty, to start!” 

Tsumugi smiles, pity in her gaze. “That’s very kind of you, but I don’t have a talent. I really am plain boring…”

“No, it makes you the most interesting person here!” She gets a skeptical hmm, and she figures she'll need more interactions with her to convince her. “I’m Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Gamer. Nice to meet you…?” She pauses with a tilt of her head.

“Tsumugi Shirogane, just a plain ol’ person.”

“Yeah, we’ll work on that.” She even sounds like an NPC…

・┆✦ʚ♡ɞ✦ ┆・

She's finished up a map on Project Sekai and about to start a new one, only acutely aware of the familiar purple blur that always comes up to her seatmate when-

“No, Kokichi, I’m cutting you off.” Shuichi frowns, moving a cup with dark liquid away from the boy whose arms are crossed on his desk.

Cutting him off-? 

“But Shumai!” He whines, even crying hysterically.

“A-are you serving Kokichi alcohol?!” Kaede screeches. She believes in Shuichi, but she knows he has drinks in his lab to mix with...

“He is!” Kokichi giggles.

Oh goodness, this is way worse than she thought!

Shuichi only lets out a heavy sigh. Upon catching her highly concerned look, he shakes his head. “No, he’s lying. It’s just Panta with some root beer. I don’t even know how he can drink so much of this stuff…”

She lets out a huge sigh of relief. She couldn't imagine dealing with a temporarily debuffed Ouma, and an inebriated one at that...

“Nishishi~! It's because of your amazing skills!”

“That's very kind of you, Ouma...” The boy flushes.

Kokichi frowns. “Yikes, you really believed me? It was a lie.”

“I doubt it.” She interjects. “You're very talented after all, Shuichi, so-” She yawns. “-don't listen to him.”

“Kay-ay-day, he knows that lie was a lie! Righttt, Shu?”

Shuichi blinks slowly. “...Right.” He turns to her. “You stayed up again, didn't you?”

The reminder has the bags on her eyes feel heavier than ever. “Ah, is it that obvious?” She chuckles sheepishly.

“A little.”

“Ha! More like really obvious!” Kokichi snickers. “Here, I have just the thing!” He hands her a flower. It's a sunflower.

She takes it gratefully. “Thank you Ouma, this is quite pretty.” She holds it up to her face and-

“EEP!”

Drops of water drips down her face.

“Kokichi!” Shuichi gasps.

“Kokichi...” Kaede warns lowly.

“Wow, you really are tired if you fell for the easiest trick in the book.” It comes out as a tease, but Kokichi's frowning. He pulls out some cloths from his sleeve and offers it to her.

She takes them gratefully, wiping her face off.

“Are you alright?” Shuichi asks, his brows furrowed.

She stares down Kokichi, who stares back at her.

She hears Shuichi gulp.

“Ultimate Magician? More like Ultimate Clown.” She grins.

Shuichi sags in relief.

“Heh, you really were worried, weren't you Shuichi? Haven't you dealt with tension between patrons before?”

“I have, but it's more unnerving when it's between friends...”

“Aw, you consider me as a friend, Shumai? How adorable!” Kokichi coos.

“I do too!” She pauses. “Sort of...”

“WAHHHHH! You're so mean Kaede!” Kokichi cries. “Did gaming so often make you forget how to interact with people or something?!”

Oof. She frowns. That was super effective...

She stares back down at her phone and thumbs at it.

“Quit it Kokichi.” Shuichi firmly snaps.

“I guess...” Kokichi sighs dramatically.

Later that day, she finds a tiny Kirby in her dorm. It would make a great charm for her phone.

But how did it get here? Her brows furrow.

Alas, she knows a magician never reveals his secrets.