Saturday Morning

[color=f7941d][i]So her name is Akane. I'll have to remember that.[/i][/color] The conversation with Matsuoka and [s]Red Scarf Girl[/s] Akane went pretty well. Matsuoka seemed satisfied enough with the peace offering and Akane apparently enjoys video games enough to at least observe the tournament. [color=f7941d][i]She's smart, she likes games, and she's really cute. Doesn't get much better than that.[/i][/color]

When he finds himself free once more James notices that Mochavine isn't quite as busy as it was when he first arrived and decides to save Shining Kettle for another day. He orders a mocha to go and drinks it on the way home. When he arrives he forgoes lighting a candle and instead gets to work on a few days worth of mango curry. He found the recipe online early during his first year and has been making it frequently ever since. James prefers to cook for several days at once and reheat the food because it saves time. If food didn't spoil so quickly he would probably cook for a full day every few months and fill up the fridge.

James finishes cooking the curry, removes the light scarf he had tied over his nose and mouth (he learned to do that after the first time he made the spicy dish), and starts the rice cooker while he stores the extra. Meal in hand he searches through his list of things to watch and settles on a pair of movies just to pass some time until the tournament starts.

[hr]Saturday Night

[color=f7941d][i]Guess I'm a little bit early.[/i][/color] James gives the arcade a quick once-over. It's a little more packed than usual, but fortunately not terribly so. No red scarf in sight yet, so he checks on the Mecha Saints machine and is welcomed by a leaderboard full of only two names -- 9 entries of Stratus and 11 entries of KeroKero. Whoever they are they managed to claim the top spot again. [color=f7941d][i]Looks like it's theirs now. They must be on cloud nine.[/i][/color] Nothing like a small joke to soften the sting of defeat, not that James is sore. He managed to turn a completely garbage character into stiff competition, and that's enough for him.

As James returns to the tournament he spies ASS at the bottom of the Galaxian leaderboard. [color=f7941d][i]This again.[/i][/color] James spends a fair amount of time trying to keep the leaderboards clean. It's like painting over graffiti, except that normal graffiti looks nice sometimes and this stuff is nothing but tasteless. [color=f7941d][i]Guess I'll take care of this before the tournament picks up.[/i][/color] James pulls some tokens from his bag and starts dishing out a proper ASS-beating, so to speak. He uses his first play to watch for enemy patterns (most of which he already knows) and otherwise remind him of the feel of the game, then plays for score during his second play. It turns out to be a pretty good run thanks to a mix of luck and skill, and near the end he passes the target score. He continues to play for a little while, but he stops just below the second-lowest score and lets the game sit.