What Matters Most Is the Courage Not to Hesitate

"Th-this is war."

"Huh?"

Namikawa-senpai's flustered voice lasted only a moment.

"...Right. I understand."

The healing stopped. The sniper rifle swung back around and settled on me, and there was nothing unclear about what she meant to do with it.

"Um, uh, w-well — e-even so, couldn't you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠maybe let me live, j-just this once...?"

But if I died, every material I had stockpiled would be taken from me again. This time, begging forgiveness and slipping past her was the only way through.

"Do I really need to spare someone who, a moment ago, declared she would absolutely kill me? If she's going to be my enemy anyway, I think the correct move is to break her before she can grow. Offer me a logical reason worth hearing, and I'll heal you, Miss Izumi."

"...W-wouldn't it be m-more fun that way?"

That was the answer I managed after all my agonizing. An answer with not a scrap of logic in it.

"Hmmmm.... Fun? Which part?"

Even so, Namikawa-senpai let out a coquettish little hum, as if the answer were still worth hearing, and nudged me onward.

All right. Think.

If she let me live, what fun could Namikawa-senpai actually get out of it? My opponent was Namikawa-senpai, the one they called the scariest in the 1st Generation once she was angry. I had to produce the best possible answer without crossing her mood.

"Uh, um. A w-war, if it's completely one-sided, w-wouldn't be fun for the viewers either, would it...?"

In a spot like this, the move was to insist I was doing it for someone else, not for myself.

Yes. The only reason I want to live is for the viewers' entertainment!

...Probably!

"I-if I die now, all anyone will get is me being chased one-sidedly by you, senpai, so e-everyone is bound to get bored of it right away...."

"Hmm.... What do the Tsubakiz think? I hunt down Miss Izumi, who can't fight back at all, and kill her in a one-sided, terrifying chase. Would that really not be fun?"

"E-everyone would think it's boring, right...? They'd get s-sick of it fast, I'm sure...."

Why.

Why were there no allies on my own stream?

This broadcast was supposed to be a boyish girl who was good at games and ridiculously easygoing — so why were the Iztomo trying, by any means necessary, to make me cry?

...Well, a boyish girl in tears is definitely cute. Even so, isn't the abuse faction way too big?

"The Tsubakiz are all saying it would be fun.... What do the Iztomo think, Miss Izumi?"

"M-most of them think it w-wouldn't be fun...."

Chat went up in flames at my words, but I decided to brazen it out. And no wonder. The thought of being unable to do a thing, terrified of dying to senpai, with nothing ahead of me but the chase — that wasn't a survival game anymore, was it?

...Was it? Was that actually the closest thing to a survival game there was?

I don't know. What matters is that what I need right now is the courage to be shameless.

"A-after all, a w-war is only fun when both sides are at a s-similar level...."

"Is that so? ...If it's too one-sided, it might not be fun after all."

"R-right...?"

"But, Miss Izumi."

"Yes?"

Bang!

She pulled the trigger in the same breath, without a moment's hesitation, and my screen drowned in gray once again as a message rose over it.

"...Waaaaaah!"

And I slammed my hands down on the desk.

"Hmph."

After sending that chat Izumi's way, Tsubaki snorted.

Of course, she had no intention of abandoning everything else just to chase Izumi and no one else. As Izumi herself had said, a scene in which only one person died, one-sidedly, might be fun at the start, but it would get boring just as easily and just as fast. So she would play the game like a normal person, and if Izumi happened to show herself, she would go and kill her. She meant to be satisfied with that much.

"Haha...."

Back at the base, Tsubaki turned the pun over again. Honestly, it was a painfully unfunny joke of the sort only some middle-aged man would tell — but if a cute high school girl was the one saying it, wasn't that a kind of charm all its own? That was what Tsubaki thought.

"Oh, right. Neko-chan definitely said earlier that she was getting ready for a war with Miss Izumi, too."

"...Then should I pull Neko-chan over to our side as well?"

The alliance function in Ashen City was close to meaningless, but it was still better than having none at all. Right now the only person allied with Tsubaki was Rinze, her same-generation peer. Neither Tsubaki nor Rinze was especially good at Ashen City — more precisely, neither of them was especially good at games.

The only reason they had managed to kill Izumi twice was that Nekoto had killed her first, leaving her without a single weapon. If they had met on anything like equal footing, Tsubaki understood by instinct that she herself could not have killed Izumi even once. Which meant an alliance with Nekoto — someone who streamed games about as much as Izumi did, and was actually good at them — would obviously be an enormous advantage.

"Hmm. If I ask in chat, Miss Izumi will see it, so that won't work. I'll have to go find her myself."

Tsubaki put every material she had taken off Izumi into storage, mounted her horse, and rode out of the base.

And that scene—

"Hehehe...."

—was being watched by a girl.

"...Honestly, m-my chances right this second are zero."

I had already died once to Aki, and twice to Namikawa-senpai. Every material I had stockpiled had been taken, too. Aki already seemed to have a decent foundation under her, and Namikawa-senpai had apparently been allied with Yuzuki-senpai, so dying to me probably hadn't hurt her much. In other words, no matter how hard I tried from here, the gap between me and the two of them was not going to close easily.

But.

"I-it's not like there's no way...."

The risk was enormous, of course, but if it worked, it was a method that could flip the whole board in a single stroke. I couldn't say about Aki. I just didn't think the senpais would have prepared for something like this.

"B-be quiet...."

Of course there was no way the Iztomo's chat could carry into the world around me. But I knew perfectly well how precarious this was, so the words slipped out on their own.

"...Just as I thought. Still n-no security."

I was standing in the senpais' base. A door had been installed, naturally, to keep trespassers out, but a wooden door could be broken easily enough with the weapons you were handed at the start. If the senpais had been inside, it would have been a disaster — except both of them must have gone out to gather materials, because the base was completely empty. A rough look around turned up no traps either, so I quietly started rummaging through the storage.

"Ah. These are the m-materials I gathered earlier."

Of course I pocketed the materials that weren't mine, too.

"W-war, by its nature, doesn't pick and choose its methods...."

Senpai took everything I'd gathered after she killed me. I haven't even killed her, so if anything, what I'm doing is mild. They ought to praise ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me for being nice.

"I wonder where the iron is...."

If I was going to wage a war, iron for making weapons was essential. The guns I had crafted at the start had been taken by Aki, and after that I hadn't mined a single piece — I'd been busy putting a house up first — so resupplying here was the only option.

"Maybe it's in this one...?"

I reached for the fifth storage box.

And from behind me, a high, bright voice rang out.