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The sun's rays deflected off of Nagi's phone screen, making it nigh impossible to read the words off of it from the angle she viewed it from. 'Twas not her main goal at such a time, however. She simply needed a void to stare into and ponder. She only saw her own reflection in her phone screen, staring back at her.
MIYASHITA Park was particularly quiet today. Nagi drummed one set of fingers against the wood bench she sat upon—the space beside her decidedly empty. Her gaze roved over the seat, and looked at each individual plank of wood and the metal frame holding it all together.
Hmm. Nagi stared back into her reflection on the phone screen.
Sho had been sitting with his legs crossed in her room, on the floor to be exact. His tower of candy and sandwich wrappers had been carefully constructed to be as tall as possible. Nagi had watched him grab a wrapper and begin twisting it to act as a pole to a higher extremity of his art project. With one hand, since, of course, they'd been holding hands the entire duration of his stay.
However, a thought had occurred to her. "Sho. You have spoken very little about your recent stint within another universe."
"Hmph, garbage," Sho had immediately said in response, so quickly Nagi had briefly wondered if it had not been a response to her but rather his natural musing over the trash in his hand. "Zetta boring universes today. Found a matrix where fighting Noise depended on trial testing given variables for a single equation."
Nagi had tapped her chin. "Is that not how all Noise battles go? We use our pins to eliminate the enemy. We experiment with a series of pins in order to examine which are able to deal the most damage."
"Garbage." Sho had rubbed his thumb across the top of the small pole he'd made, folding it into a ninety degree angle.
Thinking of Sho and things in "ninety degrees" made her chuckle a bit.
...Wouldn't be too much longer now, Nagi hoped. Though, one's perception of time certainly affected how long things felt. For example, in this current moment, Nagi knew the anticipation within her tense muscles only made the clock tick ever more slowly.
"Hey, Boss!"
Oh, maybe her perception of her perception of time had been faster than she had thought it had been?
...Either way, Lord Tosai arrived simultaneously faster and slower than Nagi had expected.
Lord Tosai held out a bottle with an orange liquid contained within. "Here, I picked up an Orange Tea Fizz from the vending machine. Want it?"
"Ah, many thanks, Lord Tosai." Nagi grabbed the cool-yet-steadily-heating bottle of fizzy orange tea from his hand, then Lord Tosai spun around to take a seat. She noted the bottle of clear liquid he held in his other hand. "No such drinks for yourself?"
Lord Tosai shrugged with a smile. "It's a watery day today, what can I say?"
"Hmm, it's rather hot and dry, actually." Nagi tapped her chin. Lord Tosai just giggled at her for some reason, and she returned with a small smile of her own. "I am glad you have arrived in a timely manner, Lord Tosai. We must discuss battle strategy."
"Oh? New dungeon in ES giving you some trouble?" Lord Tosai spoke casually as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his personal portal into Yabu. Nagi quickly reached over and clasped his arm within her iron grip, stopping him.
"You need not retrieve your phone; we are not yet going into battle together. That shall be taken care of momentarily." Nagi blinked for a moment. "Also, of course not. Who do you think I am?"
"Hah! You're the Boss! That's who I think you are." Lord Tosai laughed and let go of his phone. He leaned back into the bench. "So, what's up? You seem a little, uh, tense?"
"Hmm. Tense." Nagi turned away from her comrade-in-arms and toward the relatively empty park. Relatively. Was it her own perception that made it so? If she did not perceive the others nearby, then did they exist within her world?
"Boss?" Lord Tosai's words pulled her out of the void-mirror of her phone.
"There is going to be a new EleStra game, Lord Tosai. Set within the same world—not in the same style as EleStra as we know it, however." Nagi took a deep breath.
"That sounds exciting! So, what, is it another fighting game or something?" Lord Tosai's voice oozed with his own brand of anticipation.
"It shall be a visual novel." Nagi adjusted her glasses—looking down at her phone so much had made them slide a bit. "Current theories suggest it is some sort of passion project from one of EleStra's staff."
"Oh, cool!" Lord Tosai leaned forward. "ES's already got a lot of reading in it, so it shouldn't be too bad. Is it gonna have tactics and stuff or just story?"
Ah.
"Well, Lord Tosai, 'tis the main subject I have come to discuss with you..." Nagi stopped for a moment, mentally sheathing her blade to ponder for a moment before revealing her attack. Lord Tosai waited patiently with a smile.
A fluttering leaf, divorced from its tree, fell. It swish-swash-swish-swashed in the air.
It landed on the grass below. "As you know, a large mechanic within EleStra's arsenal is the Emotion Edge system, where the player observes the expression of their conversational partner and responds with their own statement and expression to carry on the conversation. 'Tis a meaningful mechanic."
"Mhm, mhm!" Lord Tosai nodded his head excitedly.
"In comparison, this spinoff..." Nagi gulped with her rather dry mouth, remembered she held an orangey drink within her hands, and chose not to sip and relieve her throat of its dryness just yet. First, words. Then action. "...uses a rather fascinating system of observing the world rather than observing people."
"What's that mean?"
"Hrm, using observations to take note of certain situations and conditions in order to resolve situations that arise as the plot demands..." Nagi closed her eyes for a moment.
Sho had continued as he had reached over and confidently stuck the wrapper into a perfectly made hole. "Trial and error, offset by skill! Right now, any variable will work in the equation—more or less work required. But in that matrix, Noise'll only be trashed with a single correct variable. Solving the same problem over and over with minutely different solutions? Count me out of solving problems I'd find in some garbage schoolwork!"
"Hmm, 'tis a bit below your grade level, indeed. Are there no such clues or hints to which one is able to use to overcome the enemy?" Nagi had leaned her head side to side and had spotted Sho glancing her way as she had done this. The moment she had stopped, his gaze had moved away. His fingers had reached for another wrapper and begun twisting it. "Is it simply trial and error? Surely not."
"Heh, as designed. I watched the variables those yoctograms had inputted, factored out the remainder, and cleaned up the mess that trash had left behind." Sho had grinned to himself, and it had spread onto Nagi's lips as well. "I didn't need their conclusions to prove my theorem, but if the trash is there then I'll add it to the heap."
"Then, perhaps that is that game working as intended."
"Hmph. Those yoctograms still had to test all the variables." Sho had shaken his head and turned back to his creation. "Zetta boring waste of my time."
"So it would seem..."
Nagi's eyes snapped open, and she continued vigorously. "From a large scale: puzzles regarding observing enemy positions and tactically responding in kind. On a smaller scale, aiding a fellow soldier in comprehending what is available to eat in certain locales by gaining information from others and from written works one might find whilst playing." Nagi cleared her throat. Blerhgle, rather dry today indeed. "In a similar vein to Emotion Edge, this system is meant to encourage awareness of one's world and how to connect details and understanding how to gain new knowledge...or so I would presume based on the premise of the mechanics thus far."
"So it's like a puzzle game!" Lord Tosai sat up closer to look into Nagi's eyes. "Where we gotta help people and stuff by figuring it out on our own? Doesn't sound too bad to me!"
"Hrm, agreed, based on the premise." Nagi nodded slowly. Then, carefully, she uncapped the bottle and took a sip to soothe her desert of a throat. "Ahem. Therefore I am attempting to keep note of all things within my perception! Er, I fear I am not keeping the best of track thus far."
"Well, if you aren't, then there's always practice! And besides..." Lord Tosai grinned and jabbed his thumb into his chest. "You've got me! Two sets of eyes are better than one!"
Nagi smiled. "Ah, yes. You are correct, Lord Tosai. 'Tis always easier—and more fun—with a comrade at my side."