Chiaki Hoshinomori

Chiaki Hoshinomori is one of the deuteragonists of the GAMERS! series. She is a classmate of Karen Tendō from class 2-A at Otobuki High School and a member of a non-school recognized gamer appreciation group together with Keita Amano and Tasuku Uehara. Chiaki is a teenage girl of average height, whose eyes are tinted with a violet gradient. She is considered attractive by Tasuku Uehara and some other boys. Originally, she had long dark blue hair that nearly covered her eyes but after Keita Amano called her "Seaweed Girl", due to her bangs looking like seaweed and Tasuku commenting that she would look better if she had her hair short, she soon cuts and wears her hair short from then onwards. She's also seen wearing the standard Otobuki High School uniform for girls like Karen but has also been seen wearing causal clothes when outside of school. Chiaki is a shy girl and very reclusive. She did not seem to care about her looks at first until Keita and Tasuku came into her life. She did not socialize much and mostly preferred to play games on her own. She uses two names online: "MONO" as a game player and "Nobe" as a game developer. Though she and Keita got along at first, as they both enjoyed playing games alone and turned down Karen Tendō's offer to join the game club were for the same reason, their opposing views on games caused them bicker over something pointless. Despite their bad standing, when some boys at the pool were trying to flirt with her she quickly ran to Keita for aid, which showed that she still trusted him to an extent. When she discovered that Keita was both "Tsucchi" and "Yama" was her online gaming friend and software supporter, she was very shocked at this revelation and fell into a slump as she processed this new knowledge. After regaining her composure, she pondered on what to do about it as she had met him the day after this event. She was shown to have developed intense feelings for Keita being unable to put up her usual act around him; and was seen acting flustered or blushing when interacting with him. However, she was conflicted to confess her new affection to him as he already had a girlfriend and most likely wanted nothing to do with her because of their previous encounters. She has even resorted to concealing the truth about her online gaming aliases by telling him they were both her sister after he nearly caught onto the truth. When she learned that Keita still valued his association with her, she was very shocked and touched by this despite all they've been through and tried to prevent him from leaving, in order to confess her feelings to him but she stopped herself after realizing her impulsiveness. This act along with the urgings from her sister and her own desires, has caused her to try attracting Keita's attention with a strong determination that surprised her sister. In the light novels, when Karen and Keita broke up, Chiaki tries to catch Keita's attention while having a rivalry with Karen who still retained her feelings for him.