Maid Extra 82: Even Without Koji-san

The timeline is roughly around the usual time. The perspective is Katori’s.

We play “Tahoiya” with arranged rules.

As for “Tahoiya,” it is covered in “Halloween in the Laboratory,” so if you like, please check it out.

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“When I return to the original world, I’m going to get Koji-san into the library…”

“It sounds like a death flag, Maito-san…”

For some reason, Maito-san seemed down, and it seemed to be because of that.

“If Koji-san was around, we would be able to play Tahoiya…”

Yeah… um, I wanted to play “Tahoiya,” but it seems this school’s library didn’t have a Kojien dictionary.

“Tahoiya” is an analog game with that name. You use paper, pen, and a Japanese dictionary… To put it simply, the rule is to ‘fabricate the meaning of completely unknown words in a way that sounds like a dictionary and compete to see which one seems the most real, while guessing the actual meaning.’

“Does it really have to be Koji-san? Hmm? Isn’t Jirin-san here?”

“It doesn’t feel right with Daijirin…”

It feels a bit rude to Daijirin, but Maito-san seems to have a particular attachment to Kojien. I don’t quite get it…

“I thought there was a Kojien in the library… Maybe the transfer happened when it was on loan?”

“Oh, I know! I saw Takada-sensei from Japanese class carrying a bunch of dictionaries out of the library right before the transfer!”

“I see, that Takada-sensei. The one who told the baseball club members to ‘go run laps’ during club time and then went to dig bamboo shoots in the bamboo grove next to the school’s garbage dump.”

“Suzumoto, where did you get that information?”

“From Maito.”

“I was also aiming for those bamboo shoots…”

“Don’t aim for the school’s bamboo shoots. Are you stupid?”

Well, well, we’ll have to let Takada-sensei reflect on that, but there’s nothing we can do about not having Kojien.

“So, what should we do? Should we play something other than Tahoiya? But I somehow feel like playing Tahoiya now.”

“I get it. I feel like playing Tahoiya too.”

Meanwhile, Toriumi and Hariu seem to be in the mood for Tahoiya already. I wonder what that feeling is…

“Well then… Since we’re here, should we give it a try?”

While we were having that conversation, President quietly stepped forward.

“Let’s see how much we possess unrelated knowledge and the extent of our vocabulary in that area.”

And then, he started saying something ominous. Yay, it sounds fun.

“So, we will now begin ‘Tahoiya without a dictionary.'”

“Isn’t that no longer Tahoiya?”

Following President, we all sat around the table, but playing Tahoiya without a dictionary doesn’t seem like Tahoiya anymore…

“The rules are almost the same as Tahoiya. However, this time, we won’t know ‘who the parent is’ until the end.”

President immediately began explaining the rules… then paused halfway through, thought for a moment… and said.

“Well, let’s confirm the rules while actually playing. We’ll make improvements as needed if there are any unbalanced parts.”

Oh, that’s how it’s going to be. I get it. When we play a new analog game for the first time, we often read the instructions together and play with open roles. ‘Actually playing’ is the easiest way to understand.

“First, write down a word that you think no one else knows the meaning of on the pieces of paper provided and put them in this paper bag.”

“Do such words exist…?”

“You may use words that are definitely not in Kojien. You can also use words from fiction.”

I see. There are many fictions in this world, and we are a group of people who quite like them, but everyone has different fields they’ve studied. Everyone should watch more robot stuff.

“Oh, please change your handwriting as needed.”

We were given a difficult task smoothly. Well, this kind of game is quite common, so every member of this club has the skill to change their handwriting a bit. Still, you can kind of tell, like “This neat handwriting is probably Hagasaki-kun” or “This slightly uneven one is probably Kadomi-kun” or “This strong handwriting is President,” but well, I’ll change my handwriting a bit for flavor.

“Everyone wrote two slips each, right? Now we’ll put them in the paper bag, shuffle them… and draw one out. Draw.”

President took one piece of paper from the bag, looked at it, and quietly placed it on the table.

“Ink Tracking Body. This is our topic this time.”

…Amazing.

This club really has a lot of people with weirdly specific knowledge of words that don’t make any sense…!

“What the heck is Ink Tracking Body?”

“I don’t know…”

“It says ink, so isn’t it related to printing?”

Everyone was saying whatever they liked, but one of us wrote this word. No one can be trusted.

“Now, each of you will present the meaning of the topic word. The only one who knows the meaning of the topic word is the person who wrote it, so everyone else will have to fabricate the meaning of the word and present it.”

“Wait! Give me a moment to think!”

“We need more time… How about 3 minutes?”

“That’s too long. Let’s make it 1 minute.”

“That’s tough…”

This is quite hard. Okay, now I have to fabricate the meaning of “Ink Tracking Body” in one minute. I’ll do my best…

“Let’s start the presentations. The order doesn’t matter, but since we’re here, let’s start with me and go clockwise…”

“Counterclockwise!”

“…Understood. It seems Kadomi-san wants to think until the last moment, so we’ll go counterclockwise.”

Kadomi-kun, who was sitting to President’s left, said that with a desperate look, which didn’t seem very parent-like. He probably really doesn’t know the meaning of this word…

“Alright. The Ink Tracking Body, as the name suggests, follows the ink. When laser printer ink, known as toner, is output onto paper, a part moves to follow the ink on the paper and performs heat processing to fix the ink onto the paper. …That’s it.”

“Wait. The quality is too high.”

Wow, President is amazing. He’s really going all out from the start… I had confidence too, but it pales in comparison to President.

“Next is me? Hariu here. So, the Ink Tracking Body is… a part of the body. It’s an organ that looks like an ink bottle, and it attaches to another organ and works as a support, so it’s called the Ink Tracking Body.”

Listening to Hariu’s made me feel a bit relieved. Yeah. I hope the quality stays at least this high.

“Next, Toriumi here. The Ink Tracking Body was used in printing technology right after movable type printing was invented. If you write on paper with special ink, place a blank sheet on top, and sprinkle the Ink Tracking Body on it, it sticks only where the ink is, like iron filings to a magnet. But it was too cost-ineffective and never became widespread.”

Toriumi’s explanation was quite strong, making mine sound disappointing in comparison.

“Is it my turn? The Ink Tracking Body is the transparent gel-like thing attached behind the ink in gel ink pens or water-based ballpoint pens. It prevents the ink from scattering and drying out.”

Maito-san’s idea seems pretty good. I see, pen ink. I had been thinking about industrial ink, but there’s that too.

“Next, me? It’s an ant or some insects. When ants walk on a line drawn with oil-based ballpoint pen ink, it’s because the scent component in the ink is similar to the pheromone of ants, so insects that follow pheromones react to it, and those particularly responsive to ink are called Ink Tracking Bodies.”

Hagasaki-kun did well, but this seems a bit tough…

“Next is me. The Ink Tracking Body is an astronomical term. Sorry, I don’t remember the exact location, but it’s near Jupiter. There’s a small asteroid named ‘INK,’ and dust that follows its orbit is called the Ink Tracking Body. The asteroid was named ‘INK’ because the dust tail it leaves behind looks like a line drawn with ink.”

Suzumoto used his specialized knowledge well. This seems quite authentic…

“Next is me! Everyone, you’re wrong. The Ink Tracking Body is a terrifying weapon created by an evil organization in a children’s educational program! It secretly follows the ink on a test marked by a teacher and changes the ○ marks to × marks! But it was defeated by the hero, and peace was restored.”

Kariya’s explanation has a certain impact!

“Okay, my turn. The Ink Tracking Body is a component of ink, but not a pigment. It’s used for ink stabilization and such, and it’s the part that appears last in chromatography, like in a paper chromatography experiment where you separate ink on a coffee filter. It’s the thing that appears at the bottom, different from the color components.”

I tried my best, but this might be tough… Maybe I should have gone all out like Kariya. This is pretty difficult.

“Is it my turn…?”

“If you need more time, we can wait a bit longer.”

“No, I’ll manage… um…”

And finally, it’s Kadomi-kun! Go for it, Kadomi-kun!

“… In a fairy tale, inside it.”

… Yeah.

“A little person? A fairy? Um, something like that, and…”

… Uh-huh.

“They walk along ink lines, so if you spill some ink, you can capture them…”

… Yeah.

Uh, what is this feeling of reassurance? What is this feeling?

“Now we’ll enter the voting phase. The difference from the original Tahoiya rules is that each person has one vote. The number of votes becomes the points. Also, those who vote for the correct answer get an extra point. If no one votes for the correct answer, the points are not taken all at once, but distributed equally to the number of people.”

Then comes the voting phase. The rules are different from the original. I see.

“Well, the way of betting with chips becomes too complicated, so this change is good. However, in the original Tahoiya rules, ‘If no one votes for the correct answer, the parent takes all the points.’ Is that also different?”

“Yes. In this rule, whether the word you wrote becomes the topic is completely random.”

“I see… Then why not use the original Tahoiya way, where ‘After the parent announces their chosen word, everyone writes the meaning on paper and submits it, and the parent shuffles and reads them’? That way, there would be less bias towards the parent role and fewer chances for taking all the points.”

“This game decides the topic based on the ‘bias of the parent’s knowledge.’ If you know who the parent is, you can mostly guess the topic.”

Suzumoto questioned a bit, and President explained. Then President looked around a bit…

“For example, if the word comes up when Maito-san is the parent, it’s definitely not related to world history or geography, right?”

He said, looking straight at Maito-san.

“That’s terrible, President! Terrible, President! It’s true, but terrible, President!”

Well, Maito-san is, you know, someone who struggles with all social studies subjects except ethics…

“It’s true, so don’t complain. Well, if that’s the case, I understand. If the parent’s knowledge bias is mostly known, it affects the voting. Also, if you know who the parent is, the fabrications by the children might overlap, causing ‘almost the same fabricated meanings.’ Understood.”

After Suzumoto’s confirmation, we entered the voting phase again…

“Alright, let’s go. Ready, set, go.”

… Okay.

4 votes for President, 1 for Hagasaki-kun, 2 for Maito-san, 1 for Suzumoto, and 1 for Kadomi-kun. By the way, Maito-san voted for Kadomi-kun.

“Now, who wrote the topic word ‘Ink Tracking Body’?”

And the correct answer is…

“Yes, it’s me! So, the correct meaning of Ink Tracking Body is ‘the transparent gel-like thing attached behind the ink in ballpoint pens!'”

Wow, so it was that. I thought it was President since he was quite confident.

So, it’s that gel-like thing behind the ink in gel ink pens. I see…

“Now for the points calculation. Excluding Maito-san’s vote, I get 4 points, Hagasaki gets 1 point, Maito-san gets 2 points, and Suzumoto gets 1 point.”

Oh, Kadomi-kun looks a bit down… B-but trying to score points with ‘a little person following ink’ was a bit much!

“We will continue the game until ‘someone becomes the parent twice.'”

“Huh? So the shortest is 2 games, the longest is 10 games? Why?”

“This time, we wrote two slips each. If the same person becomes the parent twice, we know their words won’t come up again in the remaining games. Conversely, if we play until all slips are used up, we can guess who wrote the topics towards the end.”

“I see. It’s nice not knowing when the game will end, but it can make it hard to predict the duration. I suggest for future games, ‘if your word is used, write a new one before the next game. Play 5 rounds in total.'”

“I see. That’s a good idea. We’ll adjust the game from next time.”

When trying to arrange analog games, the balance is quite tricky.

In the original Tahoiya, winning is determined by ‘taking all the points,’ but the dictionary-free rule makes it more even, I think.

… So, we continued the game.

“Next topic is ‘Amatsura.'”

“Yes! ‘Amatsura’ means ‘Ameno,’ a dialect for a crying face! It’s used mainly in some parts of the Tohoku region!”

“Yes, yes! ‘Amatsura’ means ‘Ameno,’ but it’s a word that describes the spreading ripples when rain falls on a pond! How poetic!”

“Yes, yes, yes! ‘Amatsura’ means ‘Amadzura,’ a dish of quail meat stewed sweetly! It’s eaten in the southern part of Kyushu! Using brown sugar is the secret to its deliciousness!”

“When Mozart was first introduced to Japan, his middle name ‘Amadeus’ spread, but as it reached the regions, it got corrupted into ‘Amatsura.’ It’s documented in Taisho-era literature.”

“‘Amatsura’ means ‘Amakazura,’ which is a sweet vine. It’s a sweetener made from the juice of the vine’s stem, and in Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s ‘Imogayu,’ the yam porridge is made by boiling yam with this sweet vine.”

“‘Amatsura’ is the mask worn by Buddhist nuns! It’s used in Noh theater!”

“‘Amatsura’ is actually the name of a villain in a certain tokusatsu series. He fought another villain, Django, near Tokyo Dome, and they ended up destroying each other. Originally, the two appeared in Kyushu and Hokkaido, and the heroes managed to bring them together to fight each other, solving the problem.”

“Um… it’s the name of a yokai. One with a sweet face…”

“‘Amatsura’ refers to the sky’s appearance, meaning the sky’s condition.”

“Wow, so ‘Amatsura’ means ‘Amakazura.'”

“I thought ‘Imogayu’ was just yam and rice cooked together!”

“‘Imogayu’ and ‘Amakazura’ are listed in the Japanese language handbook. It’s not even porridge, really.”

“Huh? The correct answer wasn’t the tokusatsu villain? I feel cheated.”

“The explanation was so detailed, I thought Katori was telling the truth…”

“The next topic is ‘Almagest.'”

“It’s a move used by the final boss in FF5! A no-defense move, it’s the final boss’s romance!”

“It’s the name of a strategic free game with a space opera theme! My favorites are Yui Lemercier and Reimei Ren!”

“It’s the name of a book written by Ptolemy.”

“Wait! Both Toriumi and Hagasaki-kun got it right! It was my topic, and now it’s a no-game! No-game!”

“In fact, aren’t all the answers so far correct…”

“Polysemous words are a no-go…”

“The next topic is ‘Blue John.'”

“He’s a jazz pianist. His real name is Jonathan Abbey, but he often used a special scale called the blue note scale, so he came to be known as ‘Blue John.'”

“He’s a pet wolf in the movie ‘Howlin’ Wolf,’ which is about surviving with wolves. He’s always sulking, so they call him Blue John.”

“It’s the name of synthetic indigo. John White was the first to successfully synthesize it. Before that, indigo dyeing was done by fermentation and oxidation without understanding the chemistry. With the scientific explanation of indigo’s reactions, Blue John was born, allowing stable indigo dyeing.”

“It’s a song. It became famous when a chanson singer from the Soviet Union sang it in the American West. It’s melancholic and a good song…”

“It’s the name of Job John. He’s well-known for working at White Base, appearing in multiple works. What, you don’t know? Really?”

“Um… it’s a variant of those things you just place in the toilet…”

“‘Blue John’ is a semi-precious stone that can only be mined in the Blue John Cavern in Derbyshire, England. It’s a variety of fluorite with beautiful blue and yellow stripes and transparency, but it’s mostly mined out now, leaving only small crystals. Its hardness is 4. It’s easy to work with but too soft, so it’s often soaked in resin before being processed. It can be made into jewelry, but larger crystals from the past were used to make utensils and candlesticks, which still exist today. That’s all.”

“It’s the name of a weather phenomenon. Sometimes in the evening, the sky turns bluish-purple. This is called ‘Blue John.’ The way clouds form causes the light to refract differently, creating this unique color.”

“The correct answer is me. ‘Blue John’ is a stone that fluorite enthusiasts should see. Its stripes’ beauty, color, and transparency are remarkable.”

“I got it. President was more verbose than usual.”

“President can’t lie in a way.”

“When he talks about something he likes, he can’t help but talk a lot. I get that.”

…So, in conclusion.

“It turns out that Maito’s trivia is quite diverse.”

“Give me more praise.”

“Shut up and die.”

“Hagasaki-kun could be a bit nicer to me.”

The winner was Maito-san. It was a bit surprising.

You see, Maito-san is really good at lying smoothly, making her strong in this game. Her lies are weirdly convincing. Plus, she has a strangely deep knowledge of odd fields, so you think, “Would Maito-san lie about this topic? No way,” and then it turns out she was lying! I was totally fooled!

“Hmm, if I hadn’t gone for the jokes, I might have done better.”

“Toriumi, why did you start a monster compendium in the middle?”

By the way, Toriumi was also quite strong, but he started introducing monsters like flavor text from a certain card game, so his points started stagnating. But he got the most laughs, so he won in that sense.

“I found it funny that Suzumoto was blatantly lying.”

“Of course. It’s a game about lying, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”

Suzumoto had an image of being on the villagers’ side, so this was a fresh experience.

“…I’m not good at this.”

“Kadomi-kun… well, sometimes that happens! Don’t worry!”

It seems Kadomi-kun is really bad at lying on the spot, so games like this are really not his forte. He looked so troubled it was almost pitiful…

“I’ve realized something. This club has people who know a ton of weird stuff, but because of that, they lie about things no one else knows, and tell the truth about things no one else knows, so you can’t tell what’s a lie and what’s true. Except for Kadomi-kun!”

Yeah. I get what Maito-san is saying. Everyone has weird knowledge in different fields, so whether they’re lying or telling the truth, no one else can tell. So, this time, the criteria were based on ‘if it seemed like that person’ or ‘if they explained it smoothly,’ leaning more towards the art of storytelling.

And Kadomi-kun… seems to struggle with this kind of thing. Yeah. We understand that well. But let’s not say that out loud.

“If Kadomi-kun lies smoothly, we know it’s fake.”

“Or a Stand attack!”

“…I want to be able to lie smoothly, even if it’s a Stand attack.”

“It’s okay. Kadomi-kun, you stay just the way you are.”

Yeah. I think Kadomi-kun is fine just the way he is… A Kadomi-kun who lies well doesn’t quite seem right…

“How was the game balance?”

“Well, we don’t really need to make it a points system, right? I think it would be better to decide the winner per game and keep it light.”

“Yeah. Calculating points is a hassle.”

“It’s the same with the original Tahoiya. Since we’ve made it a format that can be played without Koji-san, it might be better to keep it easy.”

“I see. It seems like adjusting it to be lighter might be good. The core system can work as it is, but we could also narrow down the topics to ‘food’ or ‘animals’ to make it easier.”

Finally, we checked the game balance and concluded. It’s quite challenging to adjust the balance when you’re arranging and playing your own games. Especially when it comes to points systems.

“Well, this is good, right? It’s a good opportunity to learn about other people’s strange knowledge.”

“Like, ‘This person knows such things,’ it helps understand the person in a way, and it’s interesting.”

Even without the balance, enjoying weird words and lots of fabrications can make this kind of light-hearted Tahoiya variant fun.

“By the way, I’d like to make and eat real yam porridge with Amakazura, but can someone go look for it?”

“I thought so too! I want to eat it! I want to eat real yam porridge!”

“If it’s a vine-like plant, I think I saw one on the 1st floor.”

“Oh! If it’s a yam-like plant, there was one on the 4th floor! I’m sure!”

“Then I’ll go dig up the yam.”

Well, it’s a different world after all. If you have weird knowledge, you have the chance to use it in weird ways.

In that sense, it might be a perfect game.

So, that day’s snack ended up being yam porridge.

Well, it was… tasty, I guess? To put it simply, it was sweet yam stew. Yeah.