The ever depressing sound of a game over screen played out from a small handheld game currently in the possession of the Ultimate Gamer, Chiaki Nanami. This was unusual for a number of reason, besides the fact that almost any game was simply fodder for the young woman. This game in particular had been one she had not only beaten but fully managed to complete, getting every hidden unlockable weapon and ability and all of the secret endings, even the one that required someone to beat the game in an almost impossible time frame, one that was basically pixel perfect for each encounter. And yet there she was, looking at the Game Over screen after having her character shot down by a basic enemy. flyer.

The girl gave a small sigh as she looked down at the continue screen, knowing that the secret ending would be impossible if she ever used one, and so simply flicked the game off and then on again to reset the score. In truth it wasn't that the game had become more difficult for the young woman, but simply that her hearts wasn't quite in the pursuit of victory at the moment.

It wasn't that Chiaki had much of a reason to be sad, in her own mind at least. She had friends that cared for her deeply, a supply of games, and the kind of renown that some people hunted after their entire lives. In fact she had never ever imagined being so blessed as to have a life like this. When she had been younger people tended to migrate away from her for being weird. Girls didn't want to play games and boys didn't want to be beaten by a girl at games. So she had gotten use to being alone, it was so much easier then trying and failing to make friends.

But for this very reason the young woman had never learned how to deal with what happened when a friend left. Sure she kept coming back to the same spot, hoping despite knowing it was probably pointless that her friend would come back to play games with her again.

In her darker moments the young woman wondered if it was something she had said to him, something that she hadn't meant to be mean that had pushed him away from her. Every conversation they had played in her mind, but her lack of people skills made it impossible to tell if a comment had been offensive or not.

Of course she had gone to her friends, tried to get their opinions on the matter. Most had been understanding, offering advice in their own unique ways. Some of the girls teased that she had her heart broken by a crush, and upon hearing that the boys wanted to track him down and knock some sense into him. It had taken awhile to get them to calm down after that, but it had taken her mind off her lost friend.

The idea that she had a crush on Hinata hadn't occurred to her, but upon reflection of her feelings she couldn't exactly say that it wasn't true. Being around him had been different from being around other people, and playing games with him was fun in a way that was different from playing with her classmates.

She had talked to her teacher about the matter, but her advice had been rather unhelpful. Apparently her teacher was experienced with a few things, but relationships and dating advice were far beyond her range of skills.

With a sigh the Ultimate Gamer returned to her handheld but couldn't seem to find the energy to actually start the game, even pressing the start button seemed like too much effort. With a sigh the girl collapsed on her side, laying on the bench and looking out at nothing in particular.

However before she could sink into any deep thoughts of depression a sudden shout of frustration pulled her back to reality.

"Oh come on, how does it jump every time I throw a ball at it!" a young man she didn't recognize with a phone held in front of him glared angrily at the device, flicking the screen only to let out another sound of distress. "Come on you dumb thing, just let me catch you." another flick and a loud chirp from the device signaled failure. "That was..." the young man sank to his knees in defeat. "That was my last ball..."

Chiaki blinked and pulled herself up to a sitting position, looking at the young man with a hint of confusion on her face. At first glance she had almost thought the boy was Hinata, but at second glance the two were obviously different. Still she was curious why a boy she had never seen before would come to this place during the short lunch period between classes.

Eventually the boy pulled himself up, brushing the dirt from his pants and noticing Chiaki for the first time. "Oh uh...heh sorry about that," a small blush came over the boys cheeks, embarrassed from the scene he had just made. "I didn't disturb you did I?"

The gamer gave a shake of her head, quietly observing the person in front of her. He didn't exactly have the odd look that many Ultimate students had, in fact if she had been forced to describe him she might have said something like 'he was a perfectly average guy'. And that made him odd in and of itself. People who attended Hope's Peak, even those who were only members of the reserve group, tended to have large personalities and massive ego's. They flaunted themselves either because talent was a cornerstone of their lives or they hoped that something about them would catch talent scouts eye.

Despite the mystery of the situation Chiaki simply brushed it past her and brought her game back up, deciding it was time to get back to it.

"No way!" the young man stepped forward and looked at the device with an awe inspired face. "That's a Joyboy X Gold right?"

"Oh...yes it is." her surprise was obvious by her tone. It was rare to find anyone who even remember the old Joyboy, much less knew about the special tournament only model that had been distributed to players at the companies tenth anniversary showdown.

The smile on his face only grew and he laughed gently. "Man that's awesome, my sister and I used to play all the time, but neither of us were ever good enough to go and compete. I bet it must have been a blast!"

His words struck a cord in Chiaki, as her mind drifted back to that competition, back when she was still a tiny kid. Playing against other people, being challenged, seeing people cheer. But the bad parts were there too, people calling her a cheat, saying others went easy on her, calling her a filthy otaku. Those words had hurt more then the praise had felt nice, and so she wrapped herself in armor and kept other people away to protect herself. "Parts of it," she replied, caught between wanting to start a conversation and getting caught in her own head.

The inner battle didn't escape the young man in front of her, who frowned for a moment. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

She blinked in surprise at the question. It was a public bench, so there wasn't really a reason that he wouldn't be allowed to sit down. But asking permission gave her the choice to deny him, to end the interaction without hurt feelings and without having to try and come up with an excuse. She looked up from her game for a moment, opened her mouth and said. "You can, if you want." she blinked in confusion at her own words, but none the less slid a bit to the side to give the young man some room to sit.

He gave a nod and opened a small puzzle game on his phone, playing it with a look of concentration of his face. Seeing that he was occupying himself Chiaki went back to her own game, starting fresh and blasting down a few of the enemies. It was almost automatic at this point, leaving her room for some reflection on the situation she currently found herself in. At first the idea of getting rid of him had sounded appealing, but as she reflected on the situation she found that the idea of trying to send him away, of going back to playing games by herself, made her sad. Part of her felt bad, as if she had just asked him to stay in order to fill the spot that Hinata had left. Even with her own hopeless social skills she knew that trying to do something like that wasn't healthy.

She glanced over toward him for a moment, as if just by looking at him she would understand the reason he had asked to sit down. There didn't seem to be any ill intent behind the question, after all he wasn't trying to lessen the distance between them, and wasn't saying blatantly perverted things like some of the more questionable members of her class. "You should clear out the three blue blocks on the side, you will be set up for an ultimate combo afterward." she said after having caught a casual glance of his phone.

"Really?" he did as she instructed and the score on his game went wild. "That's the highest score I ever got before!" he smiled brightly toward the girl. "Thank you, I thought I was caught with only small line ups."

She gave a nod and refocused on her own game, narrowly avoiding an enemy ships fire.

The young man put the phone away for a moment and turned toward her. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

She gave a shake of her head, trying to remain focused on her game.

"How come you are sitting out here all by yourself during lunch?" his question was rather direct, but was laced with concern.

She blinked in surprise and winced as her ship was shot down once again. Chiaki didn't know how to answer the question in an honest way, at least not without explaining the whole situation. Maybe she could have gotten away with saying that she just wanted to play games by herself without having a crowd around, but she had offered to let him take a seat next to her, so she couldn't without contradicting herself. Eventually she stumbled upon the most simple explanation she could. "I am waiting for a friend, but he hasn't shown up in awhile."

"How long is...awhile?" the boy questioned gently.

"A...a few months." she admitted, shocking herself. She hadn't really told anyone about Hinata. Of course there was her teacher who already knew about their friendship from having seen their interactions. But she had never told anyone else. "He promised we would play games again someday, but he never showed up again."

"You've been waiting for him for all that time?"

She gave a nod of her head, fully expecting to be called pathetic for holding onto a hope that was so clearly impossible.

The young man closed his eyes for a moment before giving a nod of his head. "You know everyone in my class is usually pretty busy during their lunch breaks, honestly its like everyone gets so wrapped up in things that they forget about each other until some group activity comes up," he gave her an embarrassed grin. "This seems like a really nice spot, so until your friend shows back up do you mind if I spend my breaks out here?"

Chiaki wasn't quite sure what to say in response to a question like that. It didn't seem like he was taking pity on her, or trying to impose himself onto her life. "I don't mind, its a public bench after all."

The bells chimed to bring an end to the lunch period, and the young man stood up with a grin. "Then I guess I will see you tomorrow, okay?"

Chiaki gave a small nod and watched as the other began to take a few steps away. "What is your name?" she suddenly found herself asking.

The boy turned around with a bit of surprise before giving a small bow to her. "Makoto Naegi, Class 78, what about yourself?"

"My name is Chiaki Nanami." she replied, finding a small smile on her lips at the dramatics of his introduction. It was such an average and yet overly formal way to introduce oneself, somehow it seemed fitting.

"Then I will see you tomorrow Nanami!" the boy turned and began to jog toward his school building.

Chiaki simply stood for a moment, before turning and walking back to her own building. Makoto Naegi, she committed the name to memory.

"I wonder what kind of games he likes."

So this is designed to either be a oneshot style fic, or could possibly become more depending on interests. I have an entire alternate timeline in store for those who are interested in seeing it play out. If you want to see more please leave a review (best way to let me know), favorite, and follow the story.

Thank you all for reading.