It's 1991, and arcade video games are the newest fad. Becoming a professional gamer is a pipe dream in an industry that has yet to gain traction. Haruo Yaguchi, a sixth-grader, wants to go down that road. His talent for video games has garnered him reputation in local arcades as well as confidence and pride, all of which are dashed when another student Akira Oono handily defeats him in Street Fighter 2. Akira is wealthy, beautiful, and intelligent—the epitome of a perfect girl. But Haruo had never worried about these things since, despite his many flaws as a person, his dominance in video games was, in his opinion, unrivaled.