1437/Gachas, tests and friendships

Gachas, tests and friendships
Date of Scene:	22 April 2024
Location:	Sports Pavilion
Synopsis:	Hinoiri and Sachiko meet and the two hit it off like a house on fire. With people screaming for help. And so much destruction. And... it just doesn't go well. At all. Oh dear.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Sachiko Yamashiro

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was sitting out, by herself, near the sports pavillion. She had her phone out and was playing one of those little rhythm games. Her study guide was closed besides her, reviewing more lessons. She'd sooner die than accept just 'tying' with Ami. The girl HAD to mess up eventually... one day. Somehow. The phone game was just to help her relax.

Work was stressful, life was stressful, all of the magical girls who KEPT! GETTING! IN! HER! WAY! Were stressful. It was almost like they didn't understand she was smarter than all of them and they couldn't do anything more than ANNOY her...

... And she kind of liked a lot of them and was so tired of feeling guildy. As if it was HER fault that, despite the fact she warned them they'd get hurt, they kept getting hurt fighting her. The sooner they all learned they couldn't compete with her, the better.

Nevermind the fact she was like... one victory for every ten defeats, she considered the defeats just practice, anyway. So nyeh.

In the end, while the rhythm game wasn't the best way to test herself, it WAS a fairly useful tool for improving her finger coordination. It was still quite rough and, frankly? She had a looooong way to go before they were what she would consider 'acceptable'. Alas, 'Acceptable' to her was 'Perfect'.

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    Sachiko Yamashiro is exiting the sports pavillion, specifically the girl's locker room after a nice practice for Gymnastics Club. Really, there was no better place on campus for her to strut her stoff and show off, possibly the teenagers favorite activity, and it never got old having the younger students in the elevator school coming up to her and complimenting her or asking for help with their form or tips for one exercise or another. Self important as she was she actually eagerly gave out advice, because imitation really is the highest compliment and what better way to improve her reputation than to be seen as a friendly, helpful teammate?

    Freshly showered, because to someone so focused on appearances being anything but would be akin to a crime, she walks along taking a deep breath of the fresh air. Slightly damp ponytail bouncing behind her as she walks with a spring in her step. Things certainly aren't pefect for her, but the difference in stress levels between the gymnast and Hinoiri could hardly be further apart.

    Adept enough at reading body language and facial expressions, when she sees the other girl the first thought that goes through her mind is something along the lines of, 'Wow, what's her problem?'. Of course nothing of the short shows on her placid, slightly upbeat features, long mastering the art of disembling and keeping that slight but winsome smile on her features. A second, less cusory glance notice the study books, but more importantly a phone in hand.

    That's interesting, actually! Maybe she's just had a bad set of pulls on whatever game she favors? Now that's a good reason to look annoyed. So she subtly alters her trajectory so her path takes her behind rather than in front of Hinoiri to give her a perfect glance over her shoulder.

    "Oh! Is that--" She stops speaking mid-sentence, halting in place as well. "...what is that?" she finishes with a tone of mild incredulity. Then it hits her and her eyes widen slightly, "Did... that game come with the phone?" That poor soul. How could she have made it to... whatever age she is, not important, without having found the app store and the glory of high production value Mobage?

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara glanced over at the other girl. Who in the world was this? What was--

"... No? Do these things normally come with games installed? Seems like kind of a waste, I thought they were supposed to just be portable phones. It's called BounceBounceTorta-chan. It's a finger game designed to increase finger dexterity and precision. It's a good way to focus on physical abilities once I need a bit to rest my mind," she said, her focus, once more, on the game as she talked.

"Hinoiri Kirara. Can... I help you?" Pause. "Wait, you're not another one of Adrien's fangirls, are you? Because I am so not in the mood to deal with some jealous brat who doesn't understand basic concepts today..." she muttered.

Hinoiri then glanced up again and... huh. The girl wasn't armed, no book, nothing threatening... maybe not a threat after all. She even looked... well... respectable. "We... haven't met, have we? You look... a little familiar?"

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    Phew! Crisis averted. The world rights itself and things start making sense again.

    "Oh! An exercise game, gotcha." So academically focused and possibly a bit too heavy on spending time on things that will aid personal improvement. Still speculation, but at least this time she has some evidence.

    "Oh they do, but they're either shovelware trash or there to collect your data in the background." Or both, she doesn't bother saying.

    An introduction is made. She shifts to a slightly more formal stance, shifting the strap of a small gymbag on her shoulder, her smile becoming a fraction more genuine, "Nothing like that. I was just wondering if you were playing the new Bomberman Mobage that came out this week. Sounds crazy, I know. I expected it to be a cheap cash in for some old game I'd never heard of but the puzzles are actually really good and the mechanics aren't like anything I've played before. The regional leaderboards are a great idea to. I think I'm 10th on ours-- well, probably more like 15th since it's been a couple hours. And to be honest? The idea of all the different bombs as cute anime girls really hooked me."

    She shifts her posture, weight moving from one foot to the other prattling on like only a teenage girl can, "Gunpowder's smoking hot and a total babe, TNT will never let you down, and you just know even before you unlock her that Nitroglicern is going to be some crazy Yandere that only a real psychopath would invest in and is probably going to stab you good if you invest your daily relationship points into her before switching to somebody else."

    Without missing a beat despite having talked so much she bows, "Sachiko Yamashiro, by the way. We're in the same year I think we share a couple of classes? If you're into the gymnastics scene I came second overall in the National competition a couple years back, so that might be where you recognize me too." It's spoken so dismissively that any proper egotist will recognize the attempt at humblebragging from a mile away. Even as she speaks she slips her phone out of a skirt pocket with her right hand and unlocks it without needing to look, a quick glance opening up the game she was speaking about before stepping closer to turn the screen towards Hinoiri.

    "See? Pretty cute how they curl up into little balls when you place them. You should totally give it a try if your into gacha games. I've got Gunpowder and TNT at level 49 and 50 with implosion mode active, so if you friend me you can borrow one them every other map and wipe the tutorial and first three stages in under an hour." After a short pause she adds, "Oh, and don't worry about the story, they made sure it's super easy to go back and see everything again later if you want to rush progression."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times, staring at the other girl. "... Bomber... man? That sounds violent. So... a puzzle game, then? Sounds interesting. So, what, you solve puzzles and get different... bombs... with faces on them?" she asked.

Oh. Ohhhhhh. But then Sachiko went into detail and Hinoiri just... stared at her.

"... Wait. So you get these bombs and some of them... you date... bombs? And some of them want to murder you? By Sora... And you *want* to do this? I... no. No thank you. Trust me. I have one relationship and it has been chaotic enough, thank you very much. Why... oh. Ohhhh... oh you poor thing..." She sighed and looked up at the girl with a look that could only be... pity. A hand moving up to her mouth. "I'm... not familiar with 'gacha' games. But... if you're really that lonely? There's a really sweet girl named Usagi. Her roommate is Naru. Trust me. They're very, very sweet. And, ummm... you won't need to... invest... points? Into... getting to know them...? But... I'm not really much of a phone game person. I mostly just need the practice because I didn't... have a phone until I came here about." Blink. "Wow... I've been here almost a year now. And... no. I came from a different.... place, than here. Gymnastics wasn't really my focus and I'd hardly notice the second place girl."

Hinoiri cringed. Ironically, she wasn't... even t rying to be a bitch. It just came naturally. "Sorry. Its been a rough week. I'm sure you did your best and... the national... competition was just filled to the brim with too many challenges. I'm sure you're a perfectly good gymnast now!"

She glanced back to the phone and... "Wait... so... there's a story? About... bombs? And... people solve puzzles in order to... and they... do this? People WANT to do this?"

... Humans were very, very confusing to her. More so than she ever imagined.

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    Sachiko wrinkles her nose and wobbles one hand from side to side, "You don't date them, not really? The writing doesn't go that far but it does make it clear your character is very, very, important to the girls after you get to know them better. Pretty standard stuff! So yeah, of course everyone is going to go crazy making up fan theories about just how close the relationship is. The designs are cute but I don't get too invested in characters from any one game myself, right?"

    If Sachiko was less confident the inferrences might get to her, but her near mastery of the subject matter lets her allow the percieved insults roll off her like water off a ducks back. She lifts her hand to her mouth and laughs into it, "Wait, really? You don't actually think I'm one of those losers who actually think they're marrying a bomb or a sword or a ship, do you? I'm outside in the sun and just took a shower, after all." Her smile becomes almost a grin, one of indended shared mockery at the type of person that was just implied she might be.

    "No, no, no. It's just how the mechanics of these types of games work. You can only do so much a day, and the characters get stronger the more points you put into them. There's a real skill to trying to figure out who's going to be strongest in the meta and getting them as strong as possible, especially early on. If you want to get to the top of the leaderboards you have to get all the advantage you can. You're not even guaranteed to get the best characters unless you spend a lot of cash on it. I'll admit it; I whale! You've got to spend to even stand a chance."

    Then a sigh, and the peppiness she'd shown calms a bit. "Yeah. That's how it is, isn't it? Especially here! This school is something else. Second place means nothing; I can't even break into the top percentile in most subjects here. I might have won the vault and the floor competitions but I got outdone on the balance beam and knocked the bar on uneven bars, so that was that." With a shrug she adds, "I'd have had to put the entire rest of my life on hold if I wanted a shot at the Olympics anyway and that's where the real winners are. Gymnastics is a lot of fun, but it wasn't what I wanted to dedicate my whole life to. Second place is first loser, right? I was not going to keep pursuing that and let it define my life."

    She gives a little concileatory smile, "Don't worry about it. It's nothing I haven't had to hear from myself almost every day, right? But yeah, I totally am. I might not compete nationally anymore but nobody here can hold a candle to me. Radiant Heart Academy is going to win the prefecture championship, trust me." The smile briefly flashes as a grin again. Honestly, school level competition is almost beneath her. It's more about the exercise and the fun than anything else for her now.

    She slips closer and taps her phone a few times, moving to the event replay screen. "Oh yeah. These kinds of games always have big important stories. The puzzles honestly don't have much to do with them, but in order to get the whole story you have to keep unlocking them." She holds a finger up, "Those relationship points I talked about? They unlock the personal side stories of the characters. So even if you're not into them you might want to know what makes them tick, especially when their turn to star in the big main story comes in."

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    Now that little grin becomes positively wicked, "That's how they get you. Release a new character with their own story every couple of weeks, with better powers and stats for the competitive types, and a bunch of story content locked behind each character too. Games like this have a proven track record and methodology by now. You think it's a dumb game about girls in pretty dresses, but then you play for a few hours and really want to know why a world would get to a point where they're literally blowing themselves up over and over again to-- well! That'd be telling." She straightens up again, "Even if you don't like it you should definitely try one. It's an experience, trust me."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded and actually did lower her phone, cocking her head to the side and... well. She couldn't help but smile as the other girl went on. However, she looked thoughtful then. "... Huh. So people like that are... common? Fascinating..." she mumbled softly, the cogs of her mind already turning. Could Obsidian run one of these 'gacha' games?

"You're... a whale? I thought you were a bomb in this game?" she asked. "Not a big explosives fan, though. Too many poti-- chemistry experiments gone wrong, I guess," she said in a joking tone.

"And yeah, you're not wrong. In my last school I was top of my class in every subject. Since coming here I can only be top of the class if I really focus on it. Even then that Ami girl keeps tying with me. There's no point in *tying* for first place, it doesn't prove anything unless you actually beat them." She was, obviously, desperate to prove she was ABLE to beat the other girl. "You're not wrong, though. There's really no point in doing something if you aren't going to at least try to be the best. Too many people are just... happy to accept being mediocre. In the end? People should just find the thing they really want to do... then work their hardest to be the best at it. There's a lot of things for people to be good at..."

She then gave an actual genuine smile to the other girl. "And that's good. It sounds like you really have found your calling. You understand these games so well, do you intend to design them yourself in the future? Or more focusing on honing the gameplay aspect itself? Personally... I think the money aspect would mean it's not really for me. I already have a larger income than most of the people at this school, it'd hardly matter if I was only top of the charts because I had money for it. I like my victories to come because *I* was superior, not because I was paid well."

"... So, do you play a lot of those kinds of games? Which would you say is your favorite?" She did, at least, sound interested now. "Maybe I can give it a try, or at least my roommate might enjoy trying them."

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    "You bet! It's either pretty close to the top revenue form of gaming or taking first place itself there. Playing a little bit a day, but feeling like you'll miss out if you don't, then every now and then getting really sucked into the story? It's a great way to keep people engaged. The gacha mechanic itself is the other part; some people can't stop rolling to try to get the best characters or equipment. It's really expensive to ensure you get everything you want, and naturally if you get multiple copies of the same thing it ends up being even more powerful." It might seem like there's no end to the amount of time she might be able to talk about the subject... which might actually be true, given the large number of games she 'actively' plays.

    "Oh! 'Whale' is a term for someone who spends a ridiculous amount of money to get everything they want. For a lot of people deciding how much money they want to spend on rolls or packs or whatever is a really big deal. But, you know, my family is rich!" A small, knowing grin. She's one of those people that take pride in that kind of fact, rather than feeling guilty about it. "I can spend as much as I want on them and it isn't a problem. If I had to budget I couldn't get close to the top, like I said." She looks at the study books beside Hinori, "Like, imagine if you divided up your notebook into ten parts, then ranked them all by how important the information in them was. Then make the important ones harder to get. Give the very most important section a .5 percent chance of appearing. Now charge a buck fifty per chance to get a notebook. Now you've got schoolwork Gacha! Want to get first place on the next test? I hope you're rich, have really good luck, or know someone who can let you borrow theirs! It's like that, but with the characters you can choose." She puts a hand on her hip, "Since I'm paying for the best, I can be that 'someone' for you."

    As Hinoiri mentions trying to compete with Ami in academics Sachiko gives her an sympathic smile. An honest one, too. "Yeah. You go from being a big fish in the lake to getting tossed into the ocean, right? Sounds like you're giving her a run for her money though! If you're actually trying for the top spot in test results it's no wonder you look stressed. I tried every once in a while to prove I could at my old school but it's not really worth trying here. It's like you said earlier, it's a waste of effort if there's no chance of getting first! Better to focus my efforts elsewhere. As long as I do good enough not to bring shame upon my family name," another little grin, "that's good enough for me. Besides, it can be fun seeing how many people I beat who are really trying when I'm just phoning it in too, right?" Gotta get that ego boost one way or another. If you can't beat the best, look at all the scrubs who don't stand a chance!

    She considers then at the idea of designing a game herself, "Well... I don't know. I'm good at playing them but I can't say if I'd be good at designing them." She wrinkles her nose, "To be honest even if I could I'm not sure I'd want to if it meant having to spend too much time with the geeks in the computer labs. They can have their charm points but, well... you know what I mean, right?"

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    She quirks an eyebrow at the mention of having a high income. Not just money, but she's making her own. That's interesting! Something to keep in mind for later. "That's fair, but I don't think of it that way. For the top players it's more of an entry fee. If you can't pay you can't compete! It's like a way of showing your serious. I'll be honest with you; I keep up with a dozen or so at a time, right? But that's almost impossible if I want to keep up. So what do I do? Pay someone else to do the daily grind for me! It might sounds crazy and wasteful and not like a game at all, but a lot of the game design is there to keep people having to put time in to keep them interested. I still make all the important decisions on what stages to grind and where to spend whatever currencies the game has, but someone else can spend the hour poking at the screen. Especially the older games, they don't have nearly as many streamlining features as the new ones. Even if the the animations are nice I don't want to watch them fifty times in a row. I can find much better ways to spend my time."

    She puts on her most winning smile and adds, "Like getting to know you!" There we go. Stroke the succssful, competitive academic's ego. It's the kind of thing she'd like to hear herself, even if she knew it was flattery.

    "Hmmm... Bomberman Cataclysm: -Ascend- has my main focus now since it's new, but if I had to tell you my absolute favorite..?" She pauses to think, but only briefly, "Probably Arcane Apocrypha. It's got a really interesting mix of turn based and action gameplay and the Alchemy system for item creation and stat buffs could probably stand on it's own as a game if they wanted it to. ...honestly, I've always thought it probably ``was`` the main game before they decided to cash in and turn it into a gacha game. I'm not sad that they did, either, the story is great!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times, opening her mouth and...

It was amazing just how intensely she wanted to *punch* this person. It just. BAM. Came out of nowhere. This desire to inflict bodily harm on her. And it wasn't like she really deserved it. Why?

Because the girl had been bragging about being on top of the leaderboards... and she *paid* someone else to do it for her?

She took shortcuts?

And there it was. Disdain.

"So... you work to get on these leaderboards... and you don't even put in the effort yourself? You pay someone else to do it for you? And you're *proud* of that? You know, we had kids like that in my last school as well. Kids who couldn't put in the effort, foals who didn't want to try. Who leaned on their parent's money and thought it could make them special. Who thought it could make them *matter*. But at the end of the day? The only thing that matters is winning. And the only victory worth having is the one you earn yourself. What's even the point of winning some little bomb trophy, if you only have it because you threw money at it? That's worse than the obnoxious sparkles bragging about winning some five on one fight. I'm going to tell you the same thing I told those brats who tried to sidle up to me because I was Sora's protege... you can't *buy* exceptional. All the titles, all the bloodlines, at the end of the day? It's just what was given to you. But at the end of the day, being exceptional, being the best? Isn't something you can buy without putting in the effort."

And it seemed that sachiko managed to push the right/wrong button. She went *full* hostile all at once there. No holding back in the slightest.

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    Sachiko shrugs again while shaking her head, "That's what's so innovative about this one. The other's don't really have leaderboards, it's more about doing your busy work until the next big thing drops. I don't know? Maybe I will pay someone to do maintinance work for me on this one when the hype dies down." She talks on like normal, but something is different. Up until this point she'd kept putting one kind of smile on her face or another. There were insults of one kind or another slung at her, but they were either outrageously off base or mentally resolved.

    True, no one else had ever actually said 'Second place at nationals? Who cares if it's not first.' to her face before, but she'd thought it herself plenty of times. Expected it. She was ready for it. This is different though. It feels like an attack on who she is as much as what she's done.

    At this point she snatches her phone back and stuffs it in her pocket. "Wow though, you're not trying for first place in tact, are you? You must make a lot of friends with accusations like that." It's an understated counterattack, meant to be basic and simple because the sore spot is so wide open a full out assault might cause enough mental defenses to go up to actually lessen the blow by pure deflection or refusing to take the comment in. Being nice it was clear Hinoiri tended to jump to negative conclusions about people. Being mean about it her personality was caustic, and likely repellant.

    Sachiko, on the other hand, buried her own nastiness behind politeness and continual attempts at taking the moral high ground. "Money is a resource, and one I'm going to spend instead of sitting in my room for the fourteen hours a day it'd take me to stay current otherwise. For your information, it's my friends who play for me. They get to check out a lot of the contact they'd never get to see firsthand, and I get to keep up with games I'd have to drop otherwise; and yeah, I pay them, because I can." This time the prod is subtler. Sachiko has enough friends to do this for her. Ten? Twelve? Either way, it's a lot. She's a social butterfly, and even if she isn't at the top of Radiant Heart's social ladder she does have friends. Probably the type of people Hinoiri would consider nobodies, not worth bothering with. But they like Sachiko and benefit from hanging around in her orbit.

tThe hidden message is simple once uncovered: snipe at me all you want, bitter loner, your lack of social graces makes your opinions weak.

    Not that they don't hurt; the counterattack wouldn't be necessary if they didn't.

    Of course, a lot of what Hinoiri is saying goes right over Sachiko's head as well. 'Foals'? Is that some weird regional accent for 'Fools'? She has no idea who Sora is, or how 'sparkles' is an insult.

    On the other hand, she knows there's something about herself that Hinoiri clearly isn't privvy to. She is exceptional. One of a kind. A chosen hero, singled out and selected among so many for her skills and raw talent. "You don't say? You really do like to jump to conclusions, don't you? What makes you think I haven't put the effort in when I really care about something? Didn't I tell you there isn't anyone on this campus who could even come close to me in gymnastics? I put in that work. I exerted myself. I strived, I pushed, I suffered. Have fun wracking your brain to the best of your ability in order to tie with someone else. I haven't practiced my former passion hard enough to seriously push myself in years and the next best behind me is asking for tips."

    She snaps her fingers then smiles again, though there's no friendliness behind it, "Maybe that's what's missing; maybe you should go ask Ami Mizuno for tips on how to study. I hear it really does help when you're having such a hard time playing catchup."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara narrowed her eyes on the other girl, her own phone disappearing into her pocket. "Tact? No, not really. And I tend not to really do friends. At least unless there's a reason. People tend to get upset when you outdo them in everything. I gave up on such things a long time ago..." Oh, but she said that, it wasn't really... true. That remark? It had hit HARD. A lot harder than even Hinoiri would have expected. Though she tried to play it off, analyzing the other girl.

"And that's why I don't do friendships. It's just... a resource to you, isn't it? Like the 'money'. You can use them. Spend them. Make them do your tasks for you, because then you can 'reward' them by making them do more work, is that it?" she asked. "I'd rather be alone for my entire life than serve as some brat's tool."

"And please... nobody could come close to you in gymnastics?" And now there was fire in her eyes. "You *peaked* in it. You came so close to greatness, second place... and you stopped. You *gave up*. It got hard, and you *ran away*. And no, I can't beaten Mizuno-san. Because she keeps getting perfect scores and I have as well. But you know what?"

Hinoiri moved in close, her eyes narrowed, nose a few inches from the other girls. "I don't just *give up* when things get hard. I don't come close to being great, just to cower away when I realize it'll require more work. You talk about how the other girls are asking you for 'tips'... but at the end of the day? You were just a big sea serpent in a small river who got spooked when you came to the ocean and saw just how big the others could be."

There was vitrol in her words, now. Any sense of calm or 'attempted kindness' gone... And so what if she didn't have many friends? She... she had at least two. Maybe three. And they mattered. And she'd NEVER use them like that. If they needed help in a gacha game she'd... she'd help them see the content. Not make them do it for her. Because she'd raise them to her level... Even if it meant she had to drive them back down later.

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    This could be very bad. Hinoiri appears to be seething, and Sachiko can feel the attempts to hurt her in the words. Not carefully chosen barbs, but lances aimed at her heart. If the two had known each other for more than a few minutes there's a chance those could have sunken in deep. But in the end Sachiko is almost... bemused? She tenses somewhat when the other girl gets close and in her face, making the slight differences in their height more apparent, Hinoiri slightly taller.

    The problem for the fierce attacks is that they're miss aimed and, from Sachiko's point of view, simply wrong. Having untrue accusations thrown at you can still hurt, but not so much when a large part of the annoyance she felt was at assumptions being made about her with too little information.

    The first attack rings the most untrue, which sets her entire attitude for the rest. "There you go again. No, I don't see friends like a resource to be used. They're people I like having around me and enjoy the company of. I don't order them around, I give them money to play games they would anyway, so I can do something that would otherwise be impossible for me. It's like paying someone who likes plants to water flowers for me because I love all my gardens, not just the newest one. Get it?"

    She smiles, and again it isn't a pleasant one. It isn't caustic or biting either. It's something in between, possibly annoyingly so. To her it feels almost like victory.

    "Wrong, wrong again. This is your problem; you really have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't stop because it was too hard, I stopped because, you're going to love this, I wanted to spend more time with my friends." She closes her eyes while smiling now, tilting her head to the side in an entirely too precious, intended to be very annoying way. "I could have done it. I could have competed with the best in the world, and maybe even have had a chance at winning. But I would have had to give up everything else in my life for it, and that wasn't something I was willing to do. I didn't want to have no time for any games, no time to spend with any friends, no time even for school. I didn't want to be a foolish, ignorant girl because if I wanted to be the best I'd have to spend 12 hours a day or more in the gym, every day. Call me a quitter if you want, but there's a very important difference between stopping because something's difficult and stopping because it isn't the life you want for yourself. If you don't realize the difference you probably wouldn't have ever faced that kind of challenge."

    She looks up, lifting her finger and tapping her chin, "Except that's clearly not true. You are giving things up to be the best. You said you're giving up friendship." Sachiko pauses for a moment, looking into Hinoiri's narrowed, glaring eyes, "We don't have to do this, you know? You started this and got under my skin so I hit back. But I can forgive you for it. I think I feel something in you that I feel in myself. Passion and ambition. Yours is more focused than mine is right now, but I understand it. What it's like to prove yourself, to know you're better. To feel other's praise and adoration, and their envy."

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    Now she crosses her arms, finger still tapping, this time against her upper arm, "You're right that people can get upset when you outdo them. I've felt that. Especially when someone cares as much as you do; you're upset because you can't win a competition when it's possible for everyone to get perfect marks. But here's the thing? You don't have to give up on friends. You only have to do that because you're doing it wrong. You're lashing out and angry. I bet you shove it in people's faces when you take them down, too. Well, that's how you make enemies. If you want to make friends, you smile and tell them how good they did and how hard they tried. You tell everyone you couldn't possibly have made it where you are without their support."

    She turns breifly serious, leveling her gaze at Hinoiri's. "You know what happens when you do that? You crush them, and they love you for it. That is victory. The true victory. The having your cake and eating it too. Be number one and have everyone love you, adore you, and praise you, and fight each other to be in your presence. Seriously. Why settle for 'best' when you can have your peers raise you up and acchieve glory?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was seething harder and harder. Why? Because...

Sachiko was right. It hurt. It was something Sayaka had said, in not so many words. 'Was this what she really wanted'? No. It wasn't. She.... she desperately wanted to have worth. To have... value. and she couldn't unless she was the best. But it was costing her so much more. Now that she had friends, it got harder every single day when she thought she might lose them.

She was fuming and desperately wanted to wring the other girl's neck. Because a lot of those words found a home in her heart... "Well, I guess you're lucky, then. When greatness chose me I never had any choice but to succeed or be forgotten. I never had friendship and I don't need it now. Buck, you sound like Sora. And why would I shove it in their faces? They tried to keep up with me and they failed, just like everyone else. It's just the natural order of things."

However, that last bit? That made her go still. Then, after a moment, she began to laugh. A hand moving up to cover her mouth, to stifle it. But she couldn't. And there was just a tinge of madness to it. "Do... you think I want their *praise*? That I care what any of them think of me? Do you think I want any of them to *idolize* the things I'm doing to gain what I need? The lines I'll cross to be the best?"

She then just... slowly lowered her hand. "Right... right... I'm getting too worked up. That's... it. Probably because of Sayaka... I'm... whatever. It's not worth it. You're... not worth it. I don't want the idolization of those I crush. I certainly don't deserve it." She turned and grabbed her study book. "When one seeks to dethrone a god they can't take shortcuts or ask others to praise the things they do. They just have to hope, in the end, it's all worth it." A bit melodramatic for a bit of a test rivalry between her and Ami, to be fair...

"I don't need others to lift me up. I don't *want* others to lift me up. I'd rather lift them up once I'm on the top!" she snapped, sneering at her before turning to storm off, barely keeping her anger in check. She could feel the dark energy inside her writhing and coiling, like a snake waiting for her... telling her... to lash out. To strike this girl. How DARE she say those things about her...

Even if a lot of them were true. Especially because a lot of them were true.

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
    "You don't?" It's a surprise to Sachiko, but as she doesn't actually get punched or blasted the amounts of regret she'll have over it will be relatively minor. "I suppose that would make it easier to toss people aside. You really should reconsider it though; it's silly to throw away help that will lift you up if you think it can. I'd think that'd help you lift them up quicker, a two way street."

    It's something Sachiko had thought about. Explicitly going out and finding people to fight alongside. It wasn't that 'five on one' beatdown she was after. It was the fact that the best, the truly very best, always had people following their lead. If Hinoiri wanted to play the anti-hero and shun all aid in favor of acchieving greatness all on her own she can go for it. But to the Glory Seeker that kind of thinking is foolish. Having no one beside you standing at the top is proof of failure in team sports.

    But this is all about gymnastics and academics right?

    "Wouldn't it be better if they thought your hand up was worth taking once you dethroned that god? Sure, some people will follow you for your talent alone, but those aren't the ones that matter the most." She considers another moment, then shrugs. "Oh well! To each their own, I guess."

    It looks like the conversation was over, with Hinoiri leaving. For now Sachiko is content to let her go, having said her piece. "I made the same mistake she did in the end," she says to herself as she heads off herself, "I made an incorrect assumption about her and it took the wind out of my argument. Live and learn!" She'd done some serious phyiscal exercise, followed by some serious social exercise. Time to go do some homework for a while to work the other part of her mind before relaxing with some serious gaming. Number 10 on the leaderboard doesn't feel good enough anymore.

Sachiko Yamashiro has posed:
Sachiko Yamashiro says, "As literally 100% of her scenes (Discounting the 1 on 1 followup after the first XD)"