Inside a bright arcade store full of neon lights and such, Jin and Mavis walked inside. Since it's currently nighttime. There's no need for Mavis to hide herself under her long hood. So everyone was welcome to see her pale beauty from close.
"W-what is this place? My eyes hurt!" Mavis quickly covered her eyes as despite being only a fluorescent light made by humans, her eyes are still sensitive to anything very bright. Which is the reason why mostly candles are being used on the castle as vampires and some monsters are sensitive to bright light.
Even Dracula himself is no exception to this. Though his resistance to bright lights are obviously much stronger than Mavis's.
"Just squint your eyes and it'll slowly adapt." Jin reminded her.
Mavis did as he told her and squinted her eyes.
Seeing her do that, Jin smiled and grabbed her hand before leading her to the arcade machines. All in the meantime, parents and children alike are staring in their direction. Old people were shaking their heads while muttering the word 'youth'.
Meanwhile, the children were looking at their prize toy and Mavis back and forth before huffing and stomping their way away from Mavis and Jin.
They clearly discovered that there's something much better than their toys.
Feeling smug, Jin removed his hand from Mavis's and before she got confused, he suddenly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her close to him, their bodies sticking to each other.
'W-were so close to each other.' Mavis madly blushed as she could feel the warmth of Jin's body.
The first thing that they tried is the basketball hoop machine, since they're here to have fun. Jin would obviously avoid the obvious rigged arcade machines such as the crane machines.
"Here. You just throw this ball inside that hoop and we'll gain a score, you get it?" After giving Mavis instructions and teaching her the proper posture of shooting, Mavis nodded her head before inserting the coin inside the machine.
Soon, the spalding brand Basketball Balls rolled towards them and Jin took the initiative to grab one and shoot it to the hoop.
*Fwooossh!*
Did Jin fail?
No, he did not. One thing that you should take note of when it comes to playing in an arcade with your date is to show off your skills. Success is a must!
So, the spalding ball went inside the hoop and Mavis clapped her hand in cheer.
"Stop clapping, Mavy. Grab one and shoot too." Jin chuckled at her reaction and grabbed one of the spalding balls and passed it to her.
Mavis nervously held the ball while looking back and forth at the hoop and the ball in her hand. She's clearly afraid of showing failure in front of Jin.
She doesn't want to embarrass herself! Not to mention, there are some curious kids and staff looking in their way.
Mavis gulped her saliva and imitated Jin's earlier shooting posture and threw the ball forward.
*FWOOOSH!*
Unfortunately, Mavis isn't a normal human so her strength isn't suited for this kind of game. And so, she threw the ball too hard and fast.
Seeing this, the kids behind her chuckled while the staff shook their heads, expecting Mavis to fail.
'She's a girl, what did I expect?' They all said inside their minds in unison.
However, would Jin allow Mavis to be embarrassed like that? Not to mention, he heard and chuckles behind them, so Jin quickly used his telekinesis to guide the ball towards the hoop and in order to not show suspicion, Jin manipulated the ball to slam on the rim for a few times before rolling around the inner rim and went inside smoothly.
All of this happened under the shocked gazes of everyone who was watching them.
Even Mavis who was ready to face the embarrassment didn't expect for the ball to go in despite the strong force that she used to shoot.
"Eh?"
Out of all of them, Jin was the only one who had a grin on his face.
'Thankfully, none of them noticed something wrong. I manipulated it enough to be believable.' Jin said to himself with a proud expression.
While Jin was being proud of himself. Mavis was jumping up and down before engulfing Jin in a bear hug.
"I did it!" She excitedly shouted while looking at Jin's face, wanting to see his reaction to her win.
Seeing the smile on Jin's face made Mavis silently squeal inside her mind.
'He's proud of me!' Mavis whispered to herself inside her mind while Jin was smiling because he was able to fool everyone in the arcade.
"Time is ticking, Mavis. Let's continue. Be careful with your shoot this time. Be a bit softer. Control your strength." Jin reminded Mavis with advice this time.
Meanwhile, Mavis nodded her head and they continued their game.
Much to Mavis's surprise, she managed to shoot all of her shots perfectly, without any mistakes thanks to a certain cheater. Making her happy.
Fortunately, her eyes have already adapted from the bright lights, so she was able to see the entire arcade in its full glory.
"It's so....colorful." Mavis muttered with a twinkle in her eyes. Jin who was beside her, can't help but smile at her reaction.
"Let's play more arcades." Jin softly held Mavis's hand and led her throughout the entire arcade games available in the arcade establishment.
Obviously, Jin purposely avoided the crank machines and such. There's no way he's gonna let Mavis experience the horror of that rigged machine.
Sure he could use his power to 'un-rigged' the machine.
But that's cheating, right?
So, Jin abandoned those thoughts and enjoyed the day with Mavis.
*Gurgle!*
While playing a Street Fighter arcade game, Jin's sharp hearing caught the sound of Mavis's stomach gurgling in hunger.
Looking at her, Mavis was biting her lip as she looked down, her cheeks were flushed in red due to the sheer embarrassment.
"What do you want to eat?" Jin chuckled at her face and as much as he wanted to tease her, food is more important, so he asked her instead.
"A-anything is fine. As long as it's made by humans." Despite being embarrassed, Mavis is still determined to fulfill the bucket list that she made before coming here.
And one of those is tasting the food made by humans.
"Do you want the American way or the Asian way?"
"Huh? What's the difference?" Mavis doesn't have any knowledge about the terms that Jin used, so she was confused about what he said.
"Just choose one and you'll see." Jin mysteriously smiled and replied.
"....The American way." After a moment of hesitation and thinking to herself, Mavis finally chose the first one, the American way.
"Welp, pizza it is then." Jin answered quickly before spreading his senses throughout the entire city of Columbus, Ohio.
It didn't take long before he saw the nearest pizza restaurant.
'I should probably go and buy myself a car.' Jin looked at the surroundings and saw several cars that passed by them on the road.
***
"Have you found the ruins of Atlantis?" Thomas was sitting in front of Abraham Van Helsing as he asked.
"Not yet, but I'm close. I could've found it earlier if it wasn't for your incompetent 'experts' as you like to call them." Abraham sneered and replied. Completely disregarding Thomas's status as the President of the United States of America.
However, instead of getting angry at the disrespect, Thomas smiled instead and replied.
"I see. I'll pass this message to them and give them a warning. Hopefully, we'll find that artifact in time." Thomas then continued.
"Why do you even want this artifact to kill Dracula? Do you have any grudges with him?" Abraham, who has lived for the past 100 years in this world, to the point of integrating his own body to a machine just to continue to live, was confused that Thomas shares the same grudge as he has to Dracula.
"It's confidential. Just do your job and I promise that you'll be able to kill Dracula with your own hands." Thomas's face grew cold as he said.
Although deep down, he was afraid and cautious. Now that there's an unknown variable out there that might threaten his existence, his uniqueness in this world is stolen! Now, he must do everything he can to get that back, even if it means killing his way through it.
"....Fine, keep your secrets. Just make sure that Dracula will die by my hands!" The old man clicked his tongue and said before shouting for someone behind him.
"Ericka! Let's go!" Abraham then turned around and left, one of the downsides of having a machine body is mobility.
"Yes, dad." Ericka who has been standing behind him, replied and followed him out.
Thomas didn't move an inch and simply watched their backs leaving his office. Though there was an inexplicable lust flashing before his eyes as his stares at Ericka's back.
'Unfortunately, that old man has invented something that prevents me from controlling their minds. From what I know, in the movie Johnny managed to resist Dracula'smind powers with contact lenses. So, they probably wear that too.' Thomas sighed and said to himself in defeat.
And so, Thomas could do nothing but wait for the old man finish his job of killing Dracula. And once he got his use of him, he could just use force against him and take his daughter away.
'Those curves are killing me.' Thomas licked his lips as he thought about Ericka.
Unknown to him, Abraham has long seen the lust in his eyes the moment they entered his office.
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[Next Chapter: Ch. 150 - The inevitable face-off]
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