The game began. Both Kaitlyn's Corgo and Ian's CinnaBun loaded onto opposite sides of the stage – a lush, grassy field with platforms floating on clouds above. As soon as they touched ground, they sprang into action.

CinnaBun began to charge up a shuriken, just as Kaitlyn had expected. Her Corgo darted forward with a small hop to fire off two laser pistol shots. The streaks of red light were easily dodged, but they weren't meant to hurt. They just had to disrupt CinnaBun's movement.

Corgo continued his advance, his steps stuttering and interspersed with leaping attacks to control CinnaBun's options and keep her off-balance. But the rabbit was no slouch. She kept herself carefully out of range, blocking the occasional blow and tossing out just enough kicks and shurikens of her own to keep Corgo back.

Kaitlyn felt John return with a new chair, but didn't dare look. Ian would certainly be able to take advantage of the distraction. Despite the match being a friendly, this was her first chance to show what she was made of.

And I do want to win, for once. Winning in tournament is better, but I'll take what I can get.

After a few exchanges, CinnaBun grabbed Corgo by the scruff, slamming the robotic dog into the ground with a heavy impact. Kaitlyn quick-recovered in place, only to get grabbed and slammed again. This time, she rolled to the side, trying to fake Ian out and escape a long series of grabs. But it was no use. She saw CinnaBun dash after Corgo as though she already knew which direction he would head.

But as Corgo rolled to his feet, Kaitlyn had a flash of inspiration. She knew what was about to happen. She'd seen this situation so many times.

This is a bait. He's been conditioning me to expect a grab here. But that's not what he's going for.

In a flash, Corgo had thrown up his shield. Sure enough, a surprise kick from CinnaBun impacted against its side. But if Ian was surprised, he certainly didn't show it. CinnaBun followed up the attack with an instinctive grab, finding only air as Corgo leapt over her outstretched hand. The dog brought down his fist in a punch that sent the rabbit flying back.

In an instant, the tables had turned. Kaitlyn pursued her opponent relentlessly, comboing Ian across the stage. Now that she had an advantage, there was no way she'd give it up so easily. With a final uppercut to the jaw, the ninja rabbit rocketed off the stage.

Kaitlyn had taken the first life of the game.

"Damn! That was sick!"

She finally spared a glance to her side. John sat in a folding metal chair, a wide grin spreading across his face. Evidently, his last loss made him all too happy to enjoy his friend's misfortune. As for Ian, he took the brief reprieve of respawn to crack his neck and straighten slightly. His aquamarine eyes sharpened slightly as he focused in.

Kaitlyn's heart thumped harder in her chest. Right. Ian's getting a bit more serious. Now we're playing for real.

It wasn't his most serious – he still had his hoodie on, after all. Ian saved his most powerful limit break for bracket matches at higher levels, like those against ZoggyWoggy. She'd only managed to push him to that point a few times, but never win. This time, she would.

Turning her attention back to the screen, she repositioned. It was time for phase two.

***

A few minutes later, both her and Ian slumped back in their seats. It hadn't been a long game, exactly – they both had aggressive playstyles that tended to make for quick and decisive engagements. But it had been intense.

Ian glanced toward her with a smile. "Good game. You're pretty good."

Pretty good. But still not good enough.

She'd come close. Closer than ever before, in fact. But it still wasn't quite enough. Ian always seemed to stay one step ahead. It was like he had a knack for bringing impossible situations back from the brink.

Regardless, she smiled back. "Thanks. I've been practicing for a long time. Seems like I still have room to improve, though."

"Apparently! Geez!" John leaned forward to plug his own controller in. "Move over, Ian. The legendary Squeegee senses a worthy opponent."

Ian suppressed a snort of laughter. "Sure, if you're that eager to get your face kicked in. She's gonna smoke you."

"That's what you think." John gave a sinister grin. "But where you specialize in actual skill, I have the cheese on my side."

With a chuckle of her own, Kaitlyn settled back."Sure. Do you mind if I play a different character, though?"

"Of course! I'll still…" John's jaw hung open as she moved her cursor to overlap his on Squeegee. He eyed her with suspicion. "What are you plotting?"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Nothing!" Kaitlyn carefully maintained an innocent expression on her face. "Just thought I'd try something a little different against you. Bring out my 'secret main,' you know?"

John's eyes narrowed further. "Oh, it's on."

As their game started, Kaitlyn found herself far more able to relax. Squeegee wasn't her best character, exactly, but she knew it well enough to pretty comfortably beat John. She also was quite familiar with his particular brand of "strategy", making it easy to dismantle.

"Oh, come on!" John cried. "You're supposed to fall for that!"

"Sorry. I'm pretty used to that particular brand of cheese." Kaitlyn maneuvered her Squeegee forward. "Although, you can still make it work if you do this…"

Ian laughed as she turned John's own strategies against him to great effect. She didn't particularly need to do the guy this dirty. But it was fun.

As the trio continued playing, trading off after each game, they settled into a comfortable routine. Ian and Kaitlyn toned back their matches somewhat, turning them into something more like sparring practice. They even switched characters occasionally to change things up, especially when facing John.

"Alright, alright." The freckled guy eventually stood. "I've gotta go set up brackets. You two beat each other up for a while, yeah?"

John unplugged and headed toward the sign-up table, leaving Kaitlyn and Ian alone. The two continued playing, switching to their mains in order to warm up for the tournament.

This has been going pretty well, Kaitlyn thought. Now that they weren't going at full tilt, she was able to let her mind wander a tiny bit. Is there anything in particular I should ask him about?

She already knew from previous loops what to avoid – any attempt to bring up classes or his personal game project was doomed to make the guy clam up, especially at this stage. The safest topics were Bash Bros, obviously, and other games.

Maybe I'll stick with what's safe for now. Then next time I can start asking about general personal stuff. Normal things, like… I dunno, what kinds of food he likes? Maybe? I'll have to make a list of questions.

Or not. She didn't exactly want to feel like she was interviewing the guy. Hopefully it would come out more naturally, especially since she planned on hanging out with him more this loop.

"So, CinnaBun's your main?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yup." Ian nodded as he juggled her across the stage. "Corgo's yours, I'd guess? That's a hard one to pull off."

"Tell me about it," she nodded in agreement. "It took me ages to get even the basic tech down."

The chestnut-haired student chuckled. "Yeah? I don't blame you. I still haven't put in the time to get that good with him."

"I think you could pull it off. Some of it's really character specific, sure, but most of those skills you've already got down with CinnaBun." She gestured to the screen.

"Yeah, fair. But also, CinnaBun is from one of my favorite games, so I'm kind of biased. It's half the reason I play her."

"Really?" Kaitlyn perked up. Somehow, that particular detail had never come up in either her conversation or her research on this world's games.

"Yup. Pouch Creatures. It's a classic. It basically kickstarted an entire franchise of team-building strategy games. The original is kind of outdated, but the remake is really good."

"Huh." Kaitlyn thought. "What's it for? PlaySphere?"

"The remake is. The original one's for the VPS."

Huh. Maybe I'll have to pick that up if I have extra money. Though there's so many other things I could be doing, I don't know if I'll have time to play…

The thought made her blink. Who cared about that? She was in a time loop. There was infinite time to do anything she wanted. Even if she did decide to take an entire loop off and play games, who could fault her? No one that would remember, at least. Only, when she thought about it, she did care.

Getting good at Bash Bros is one thing – it's got a bunch of other benefits, like making friends and stuff. Not to mention that it's totally going to tie in with an Ian ending. But is it worth investing in other games? What would they even do for me?

They were fun, sure. The hours she'd spent playing Water Insignia at Vinny's proved that she hadn't lost her enjoyment of the things completely. And maybe exploring this world's catalog would give her more things to talk about with Ian. But was that worth sinking days and weeks worth of time into playing them? Especially when she could be improving her cooking, learning music, taking another class, or even socializing?

I guess… I don't like the thought of wasting my time on something that won't help me. Not anymore.

It was strange to think about. She loved video games. It was the whole reason she'd come to the gaming club in the first place. But now? Some part of her felt guilty for even wanting to play them.

She realized that she'd been quiet for a little too long. A well-timed spike from Ian brought her back to reality. "Sorry! Just got distracted. I don't actually have either of those systems, but if I ever get one…"

"You don't have a PlaySphere?" His eyes flicked over with surprise. "Ah, sorry. I just thought you would from how good you are."

"Well, I don't have one on campus. I did have one before. Most of my practice is with other people though."

"Dang. Well, if you ever want a practice partner, let me know. I could use one."

"Of course!" She sat a little straighter. "I'm down! I'll need it to beat some of the monsters in here…"

"Right?" Ian nodded toward a group of the players in question. "Those are the ones to watch out for, according to John. The guy in the black shirt especially. He's also a Corgo main, I think."

I know. Her eyes picked out ZoggyWoggy across the room. And one day, I'm gonna beat him senseless.

"All right!" John's call cut through the room's ambient din. "Start wrapping up your friendlies! Singles will start in five minutes!"

Well. One thing's for sure. She spiked Ian off the edge of a stage. If nothing else, I still like this game a whole lot.