"What do you think this is?" Emi asked, picking up a book from the sale pile. I shrugged without looking, continuing to read my manga. God this main character is an ignorant bitch, I seethed, turning the page. What she needed was truck-kun to come along and knock some sense into her.
"Kama Sutra of Sapphos," Emi muttered so I could barely hear her. "Those're some hard words to say one after the other like that. Oh, look! There's pic-"She paused in mid-sentence. I glanced up curiously to find her face a mask of mixed wonder, delight and embarrassment spread. "Oh. My. God!"
"What's wrong with you?" I asked as her jaw dropped open.
"It's smut!" Emi exclaimed delightedly, holding the cover of the book open for me to see the photo.
Two rather attractive women lay in the nude, one's leg beneath the other, their vaginas pressed against each other as their hands were clutching the others' legs. Evidently the position was called "scissoring" and there were detailed descriptions on how to get into the position and what to do to safely enjoy it once the optimal location had been achieved. Ah, I thought with interest, you rub your clitorises together. The memory of the previous evening flashed through my mind and I felt my face heat up. I found myself desperately wanting to buy that book. For…research purposes only, of course.
"I didn't know you could…" Emi scowled curiously. "Can you sell this without mosaics?" I shrugged, coming to stand next to her as she excitedly turned the pages.
"Who knew they sold legitimate smut in here," I observed, feeling a flush of warmth rush through my belly as Emi turned the page to expose the same two girls as before in a different position, this one with the short-haired girl lying on her back with the longer-haired one lay on top of her, their faces pressed into each other's crotches, tongues extended.
"How progressive!" Emi marveled.
"Right?" I said appreciatively.
"Sixty-nine!" Emi enthused. "I've heard of this one!"
"I prefer sixty-eight," I sniffed, eyes still locked on the photo.
"Eh?" Emi asked, cocking her head slightly.
"You know, sixty-nine is when you both do each other. Sixty-eight is when you do me and I owe you one," I smiled broadly, wishing for a laugh track at that moment. A wish Emi gleefully fulfilled.
"Jokes! She has jokes!" Emi enthused, giggling, and bouncing excitedly. "I totally should have brought this one to the sleepover instead of the Victoria's Secret thing!"
"Totally," I nodded in agreement. "This is actually sexy, not stick figures in bras."
"I'm buying it!" Emi declared, nodding her head. Yes! I thought. Emi will surely let me borrow it. "Next sleepover we're going over every picture!"
"Sounds fair to me," I nodded, returning to the manga section to search for my other books while Emi thumbed through her newfound treasure with delight.
"Ummm," A voice said from the doorway. I glanced over to find a girl who bore a remarkable resemblance to a small animal. She was slightly taller than Emi and more rounded but her entire bearing, from her long dark hair pulled into twin tails, to her mousey features and her small, deft fingers gave the impression of a small creature more comfortable rushing through the underbrush than standing in a bookstore.
"Saki-chan!" Emi called loudly, closing quickly with her, and folding her in a quick hug before releasing her. "I'm glad you made it!" Saki's deep brown eyes found me for the first time, and she stiffened noticeably. "Ah! This is Kasumi Fujimura."
"Good afternoon," I responded with a nod, leaning down to pick up another manga.
"P-Pleased to meet you!" She exclaimed loudly, bowing to a right angle before snapping back up jarringly. "My name is Saki Hideki."
"I-I see," I replied, taken a bit by surprise. "Ummm, pleased to meet you, too."
"I-I've seen you at school a number of times, S-Senpai" Saki stuttered. She bowed again, causing me to step back a pace in surprise. "A-Always at a distance, though." I looked to Emi for help but she had turned her attention back to the book in her hands.
"You're a first year, then?" I asked, cocking my head slightly as she showed no sign of actually ending her bow anytime soon.
"Y-Yes! I am in class 1-3," the girl replied, still not raising her torso.
"Ah," I muttered, not sure what to say. "So, you're…uh…Emi's cousin's friend?" That seemed far more complex a situation when I said it outright.
"Yes!" She replied enthusiastically.
"I'm hungry!" Emi exclaimed. "We should have food!"
"Yes!" I agreed. "Food!" At the very least Saki would have to stop bowing if she were coming with us.
"Do you want a book before we leave, Saki-chan?" Emi asked, gathering her new how-to book and my three manga choices in her arms.
"Oh, ummm, n-no. No thank you," Saki shook her head, finally standing upright.
"Are you sure? My treat!" Emi said.
"I'm f-fine," Saki waved her hand, bowing again before standing upright finally.
"Want to borrow my dirty book sometime, then?" Emi asked, holding the book out to her with a wide smile on her face.
"Wh-what?" Saki looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"Oh! Well, there's pictures of girls eat-"Emi began.
"Eating barbecue! Filthy food with no napkins! I-It's a cookbook with gravure models," I interrupted the explanation, gathering the backpacks and steering Emi toward the cashier, my free arm on her shoulder.
"Oh," Saki mumbled, trailing after us.
I stared at the blank screen of my phone sadly as Emi talked excitedly to a shell-shocked Saki. How had I let my phone die like that? Of course, it was rather old, and I was using the internet quite a bit the night before. I blushed again and had to admit I was becoming concerned about the amount of time I spent blushing recently. The waitress dropped off our food and retreated to wherever waitresses went when they weren't dealing with customers.
"Say, Saki-chan! You should come over to my house on Saturday for a sleepover!" Emi exclaimed, grabbing Saki's hands tightly in hers and bouncing them up and down excitedly. I had taken out my one of my manga and had begun to read, taking a French fry into my mouth.
"Um, I'm not sure I have a whole lot of time," Saki stared at her hands being shaken wildly up and down in confusion. The poor girl, I thought, she was getting sucked into Emi's event horizon already. There was no escaping it.
"On Friday we're going to karaoke for my birthday! It's going to be so much fun!" Emi rushed onward, an unstoppable river flowing to the sea. "And Aria will be there and Mizuchi and Kasumin, too! Saturday we'll play games and have snacks and tell stories and read my new smut book and everything!"
"Eh?" I asked, glancing up sharply. When did I get sucked into this?
"Kasumi senpai will be there?" Saki's face immediately took on a fierce glow. "It sounds like fun! I'll go!"
"Wait, wait," I protested, pointing my French fry at Emi. "I never said I was going! I have to work on Saturday and Sunday!"
"It's fine!" Emi brushed away my concerns with a smile. "You'll come over after work!"
"I never agreed to that," I growled.
"You said you'd go to karaoke and this is just part of the whole package," Emi replied with a winning smile.
"That was never part of the agreement," I reiterated, ignoring the girl staring at me wide-eyed from across the table as I jabbed the French fry toward Emi for emphasis.
"I have altered the agreement, pray I don't alter it further," Emi intoned deeply.
"You don't have access to the Force," I pointed out to her, letting my inner nerd shine brightly. "You can't just change things and expect me to-"
"You play Valkyrie Front, senpai?" Saki gasped, pointing at the sticker on my purse.
"Huh?" I blinked at her. "Of course, I do. Doesn't everyone?"
"I don't know what that is!" Emi crowed, raising her hand skyward, oddly proud of her ignorance.
"Oh, senpai!" Saki's eyes found Emi and flashed brilliantly with an excitement I knew well. Gacha was a thrill which erupted from the very depths of the human condition. The game was the primordial desire to delve into the unknown with every single pull. It was the unstoppable force of human desire pitted against the unmovable object of the RNG, addicting, thrilling, disappointing, joyful, and tragic all at the same time. "Valkyrie Front is so much fun! It's the best Gacha out there!" Although I much preferred my exploration of the human condition, I supposed Saki nailed it pretty well, too.
"Gacha? Like…" Emi's eyes drifted skyward, searching for a word both witty and insightful and failed mightily. "…I don't know what that means. Like a plushy machine on your phone or something?"
"Exactly!" Saki bounced up and down on the faded red pleather bench. With a practiced motion she whipped out her phone and soon had it held in front of Emi's face, the familiar strains of the music from Valkyrie Front tinkling above the low din of the other diners.
"Oh! They're little chibi girls!" Emi had always been a fan of the humble chibi. Saki grinned in a way I didn't think a small animal would have been capable of doing. It was the smile of a hunter whose prey had suddenly stumbled into camp and asked for a rope to bind them with. Saki practically sweated innocence and childlike wonder but the look on her delicate face was downright sinister. I liked it.
"Not just chibi," Saki tapped the screen and Emi's eyes widened with wonder.
"Ooooh!" Emi grabbed the phone and brought it closer. "I like that outfit!"
"You should see the bondage outfit!" Saki's eyes gleamed with a light I'd never imagined the small animal I'd met at the bookstore thirty minutes before capable of having. It was an almost Jekyll and Hyde type of transformation. This girl was one with her Gachaness and I felt slightly intimidated. I respected her more and more as I nibbled my French fries and watched her explain to Emi about the glory of Valkyrie Front. I glanced down at my black phone screen and felt a searing pang of competitiveness stirring in my bosom. I had at least as much as her. I'd been playing since Beta! That meant something! Hell, I was a server first getting the Archangel Mikkail! I was important, damn it.
"Oh, and this one I just got like two weeks ago! She's my pride and joy. Astrid!"
"What?" My French fry dropped from nerveless fingers; the tone of voice far harsher than intended. Saki's eyes met mine for a brief moment and she was human. Almost immediately, however her dark pupils darted downward, and her face fell. Her small, slim fingers twined together nervously, and she was a small animal once more. What the hell? She's fine with Emi but with me she falls to pieces. Am I that scary? Wait…was I being hated right now?
"I-uh," her eyes searched desperately for something other than me to focus on. She eventually seemed to give up and stared at the napkin on the table in front of her.
"I blew through two weeks' pay trying to get Astrid," I groused, sighing. Jealousy was a terrible thing. Especially over a cartoon character dressed in a nearly sheer gauze toga with an axe bigger than her. Actually, that seemed a rather legitimate thing to get jealous over now that I thought about it.
"Th-the update on Tuesday l-lets someone share a character with…" her cheeks blazed like a sunrise, "someone…uhm…on your f-friend's list. I-I mean we're not f-friends or something. I don't mean you know…friends friends, you know?" No, I thought. I do not know what you're saying. "B-but I mean, I c-could give you an Astrid if…I mean…you know…if you wanted to be on my f-friends list…or…you know?"
"Are you serious? You'd give me an Astrid?" I couldn't believe my luck. I'd been silently cursing Aria since the roof, convinced she'd cost me my chance at Astrid until the replay event next year but here, like a true Valkyrie herself, this small angelic animal had come to offer me solace and one of the most powerful melee characters in the game.
"O-oh, y-yeah! I mean, o-of course! We'd be f-friends, then, right?" I reached across the table with a speed which surprised even me and grabbed her hands in mine. Her already heated adorably round cheeks grew even fierier and she stared at her hands clasped tightly in mine in surprise.
"Sure, friends is good," I smiled reassuringly. Give me Astrid and I'll even do your math homework, I thought. No, I corrected myself. I wouldn't be doing that. I may be a Gacha whore but there were lines even whores wouldn't cross, and math was a bridge too far.
"G-Great!" Saki smiled broadly; her dimples so blindingly adorable I could almost feel my retinas ache from the experience. "I-I'll send you a friend request, then!"
"Ah," I scowled, remembering my dead phone. "My phone's dead so I won't be able to answer until I charge back up."
"O-Oh, that's ok! I'll just send it, now, and you can accept later, then!" Saki's boundless enthusiasm was as adorable as her dimples and I grinned in spite of myself.
"Sounds good, I'm Yokaimiko9," I spelled out for her. It had been a name I'd been given when I started as a shrine maiden because my long hair was frequently unruly and my only recourse had been to pile it up on my head, giving me, in the opinion of my fellow shrine maidens, the look of a rather slovenly demon. Though hardly complimentary it seemed somehow to suit me, so I'd kept it.
"And…sent!" Saki grinned with pride.
"Hey, hey! Hit me up with that, too!" Emi held her phone out as if offering it as a sacrifice. "I'm going to play with you guys, too! We can form the Gacha squad and do…Gacha…stuff together. We can totally play at lunch! You're joining us from now on, Saki!" With that, as forced as Emi seemed to make things, my rather small group of friends grew by one.