March 21-23, 2022
A summer glare briefly blinded my vision as the escalator carried me to the next level, revealing the sea of people under the sun's embrace. The scorching heat from the radiance of the afternoon sun burned the skin of those who roamed the crowded sidewalks of the city. It wouldn't be a surprise if someone among the crowd would tumble and fall to the piercing heat of the concrete floor, collapsing from a heatstroke. Let's wait under the shades beside the escalators, I thought, letting out a sigh.
Time passed by as I leaned against the wall, immersing myself with the sound of life blooming around me. The jumbled murmurs of people, the laughter between friends, the yelling of those who handed out flyers, the sound of passing vehicles, the jingles blaring outside stores, the sound of the escalators rotating— Ignorance is bliss in a town filled with fleeting pleasure.
As I lended my ears to everything around me, a familiar tune caught my attention. It was a LINE notification. Reaching into my pocket, I tapped at the notification in the lock screen, allowing me to instantly open the app. There were two messages highlighted: one from Maho and one from Hiro. I've been waiting for Maho's reply since last night, so reading her message first wouldn't hurt.
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SUN 12:04 Maho Did you enjoy your time alone with our sweet princess? You Unfortunately, no one upheld the promise. Therefore, I enjoyed my time alone. Maho Hold your horses. Saki didn't go with you? You She said she wasn't going and apologized. Maho I wonder what happened to her. You Who knows Maho Thanks for telling me. I'll contact her immediately. You Tell me what happened when your finished talking RECENT Maho She won't respond to me. I'm worried. I'm gonna visit her house. I'll let you know by then ====================================================== It was strange for Saki to ignore our messages, let alone leave them on read. While I constantly teased her through playful tactics, she would usually react with a weird sticker, followed by a retort. When I went home after the fireworks festival, I already sent a long thread of complaints to her, expecting her to react to it. Yet, days have already passed and she hasn't even read it. It's worrisome. I entrusted her highness' royal maid to resolve this matter, I replied, even sending a cute sticker of a bear saluting. I trust Maho as Saki's friend, she can talk to her about this. After a while, she sent a sticker of the same character putting his fist on his chest with words floating above him saying "leave this to me!" Returning to the application's homescreen, I tapped on Hiro's name. Recent memories of reuniting with a precious friend played back in my mind. The thought of resolving our misunderstandings and mending our broken bond put a smile on my face. We returned to how It was back in middle school: two unbothered friends fooling around. The good ol' times. ====================================================== SUN 18:23 Hiro Wanna hang out tomorrow? You Sure. Where do you wanna go? Hiro I'm thinking Akihabara You Sounds good. Hiro Is 13:00 alright? You I'm free anytime. Hiro Perfect. Let's meet in front of the station. You Roger that. RECENT Hiro I just got off the train ====================================================== Taking a peek at the people riding the escalator, a familiar face with a gray buzzcut loomed from the bottom, blended with the line of people standing on the left side. As he was carried by the escalators and the crowd dispersed, his whole body was unveiled. He wore an amber orange crew-neck t-shirt and blue jeans, outshining my obviously terribly coordinated outfit: a worn out charcoal colored hoodie together with baggy aquamarine pants. Matsui Hiroshi waved his hand, greeting me with a quick "Yo" as he approached me. "Did you wait long?" he asked, reaching out his fist towards me. "I just got here not long ago," I replied, bumping my fist into his. The words from that exchange reminded me of a lovey-dovey couple meeting up for a date. It was so absurd how spot on our lines were. "What are you laughing for?" he asked. Before I knew it, I was laughing under my breath."It's nothing," I said, trying to hold my laughter. He pouted, poking my arm with his index fingers and playfully raising the pitch of his voice into a falsetto saying "Tell me~ Tell me~." A picture of an possessive girlfriend begging her boyfriend to tell her what's in his mind appeared in my head. Because of that, laughter made its way out. Undecided on what to do, we roamed the streets with fascination in our eyes. While I lived close to Akihabara, I did not frequently visit to find my bearings. Everything felt like another world. The city was decorated with advertisements for everything anime-related; reselling volumes of manga or light novels, announcements of upcoming anime adaptations, visuals of upcoming animated films, advertisements of idols holding concerts, cosplaying women handing out flyers for maid cafes, and much more. A haven of otaku culture, the best stop for overseas fans to visit. After traversing through the crowd of people like some kind of childish game and constantly asking for forgiveness for bumping into someone, finally deciding what to do during our walk, we came to the conclusion of browsing a figurine store. Searching for a well known figurine store online, we discovered that the closest one would take another fifteen minutes by foot to reach our destination. Are you kidding me, I thought, glancing at Hiro who is not even breaking a sweat. And thus, we continued our little game of dodging people. Eventually, we arrived at the Akihabara Radio Kaikan, which would have took a few seconds to walk to from the station if we hadn't roamed around aimlessly like children. The crowd persisted inside the building. Squeezing ourselves through the sea of people, we finally made our way to the escalators. There is an unwritten etiquette when using the escalators: stand on the left, walk on the right. Because of this convenience, going up to the fourth floor would only take a second. Still… I cannot forgive myself for forgetting such an important building for the Steins' Gate universe. I fail as an anime fan. Increasing our pace walking up the escalators, finally, we were greeted by various aisles of merchandise and encased figurines from different franchises: From anime characters, to characters from games, to vocaloid singers, to vtubers, — everything you can think of are here. The aisles are bombarded by merchandise like keychains, badges, posters, stuffed toys, phone cases— There's more merch than there are figurines, which is wonderful for my budget. Being able to buy something I want feels fulfilling rather than grazing through the glass casing of a figurine that I couldn't get my hands on. With that said, I wondered what i'm going to buy. "I've never seen this much merchandise in my life," Hiro said as he jumped from aisle to aisle with stars in his eyes. Just how energetic can he be? "Didn't we come here for the figurines?" I said, crossing my arms. Well, since I understand the desire to purchase goods from your favorite anime, I can't really judge him for being excited. "Well, I can't blame yo—" Someone's head bumped into my stomach, interrupting my sentence. I quickly apologized as I instinctively looked down and noticed a curious medium-length wavy ash pink hairstyle. What Is a child doing here? I wondered as I crouched down to match the petite girl's eye level. A sweet fragrance tickled my nose. It smelled exactly like my sister's shampoo. My eyes widened. Instead of being intimidated, she was glaring at me with the same fierce slit eyes as me. "Are you alright? Are you lost?" I beamed, attempting to look friendly. While struggling to maintain my smile, she suddenly kicked my calf with the side of her foot with all her might. Rather than pain, I felt an unpleasant stinging sensation instead. "Piss off, kid." the ash pink haired girl said with a piercing glare. "What happened?" Before I could even utter a retort to the sudden assault of a child, Hiro peeped behind me. "How low of you Seiji." He said with a what-the-hell-are-you-doing face. "You're misunderstanding. I was just—" "Wait a minute," Hiro interrupted, squinting his eyes at the brat in front of me. Question marks formed above my head as I glanced back and forth from him to the girl, wondering whether they knew each other. "Aren't you the mask seller we met during the fireworks festival? The one with the headband that says perseverance?" Looking back, the mask seller also had the same glare as me. And replacing her clothes with a happi coat with the kanji for the word "growth" instead of a jet-black parka over a t-shirt with a graphic of Mount Fuji and a short dark pleated skirt and thigh-high socks, I can definitely see the resemblance between the two. Not to mention, they have the same ash-pink colored hair as well. "It was a pleasure doing business with you," she bowed. "It was nothing," Hiro said, rubbing his hand on the back of his head. "Did you come here to research the upcoming trends for your mask making?" "How perceptive of you, compared to a certain someone," she praised Hiro as she sneered at me like I was garbage. "If I want my masks to sell, I have to cater to a variety of consumers. I occasionally drop by to gather references for my next piece. Although, to be exact, I'm not here today for research, rather I'm here because I'm interested in otaku culture." For someone as young as her to be passionate about honing her craft, even going an extra mile for her customers by carefully studying references to replicate the original, like she did with the boar mask of Inosuke, is unbelievable. Not only that particular mask, everything that was displayed in her booth has been made down to the smallest detail. I wish I had the same innate ability to become passionate about something. "You're amazing," I praised, massaging my calf to ease the discomfort from the lingering stinging sensation. She held her head high with a flushed expression. "That's what I wanted to hear. Praise me more." she said bashfully, adorably crossing her arms. If only she wasn't violent I would believe she's a cute child with a passion for arts. "Setting that aside…" Hiro ignored her demand, changing the stars in her eyes into a n irritated expression. "… Where are your parents?" The ash-pink haired girl had steam coming out of her ears as she kicked the shinbone of Hiro with the tip of her shoes. A yell in pain echoed throughout the fourth floor. Even with a well trained body, a kick to the bone would definitely hurt. I'm lucky she didn't go for mine the first time around. As I tried to stand up from kneeling down for too long, the stinging sensation spontaneously worsened, briefly withdrawing the strength in my legs, which caused me to lose my footing. Grabbing onto the shoulder of Hiro, who was still hopping like a rabbit hugging his leg in agony, I regained my footing in exchange with my friend's quick nagging. "You alright?" he asked with a pained expression, making me titter at the nonsensical comedy of two high school boys, dominated by a single kick of a little girl, no less. "How can you talk to your elders like that?" the little girl who attacked us said with her iconic glare as the sound of knuckles cracking reverberated around my ears. As her mouth stretched into a grin, a mental Image of a red-scaled serpent bearing its fangs manifested behind her. "If you youngsters can't even show respect to those older than you, should I teach you a lesson myself?" "Ms. Mask seller—" "Okuda Katsumi," she interrupted. Such a fitting name for a hard working girl like her. "Okuda-san, may I ask a question before you do anything unnecessary?" I asked. "Unnecessary?" she glared. "I didn't choose my words carefully, for that I apologize. I just wanted to ask you a very important question before you could discipline us." I reasoned. Retracting her ready-to-throw-a-punch-stance by folding her arms, with a nod of her head upwards, I was able to get permission to ask her a question. "How old are you exactly?" As soon as I asked the question, silence ensued. The overlapping rhythms and vocals of several anisons played around the aisles, together with the muffled chatter of the buyers, filled the gaps of silence. Sweat trickled down my friend's temple as the stare-off between the piercing glares of a serpent and a lion dragged on. Finally the little mask seller decided to break the silence with a sigh. "I'm eighteen," Okuda said, placing her hand on her hip. Before I could think of anything else, I could not contain the impulse to tease her. "So Small," I chuckled. Next thing I know, I was punched at the stomach. Her unnatural strength managed to bypass years worth of exercise, landing a direct hit to my vitals. My world was spinning around as I struggled to keep myself together from drifting into unconsciousness. Finding my footing, I caught a glimpse of a red-scaled serpent slithering across the floor towards me. Slowly wrapping itself around me, oxygen was made scarce with its tight grip. "So this is the power of someone with wisdom," I groaned. However, with a snap of a finger, the pain and the snake disappeared. "Like I could throw a punch that powerful, idiot," Okuda chuckled. Her once blazing fury turned into a warm soothing expression. In reality, her punch didn't hurt at all. In fact, the kick from earlier is much more painful. However, by immersing myself in various scenarios playing inside my head, I could act out a convincing performance of a high school student overwhelmed by a punch with the physique of a little girl. An unnecessary measure, which Maho always used, to tease someone. "Call me small but never treat me like a kid, you hear?" Okuda said, to which we both nodded. "Excuse me," a voice said. When we turned our heads to the source of the voice, we saw a person with a sheepish expression, fiddling with his hands, standing behind one of the shelves. Since he was wearing the uniform of a worker, we assumed he was an employee."S-staying in the middle of the aisles might be an inconvenience to those who might browse the products, so m-may I ask you to move somewhere else?" Hiro approached the employee and bowed. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience!" he shouted, a habit of an athlete following the coach's orders. The employee took a step back, overwhelmed by the sudden raise of voice, and waved his hands anxiously. "Y-you don't have to go that far." he said, darting around to see the displeased eyes of the bystanders. After what seemed like an endless game of tennis, returning apologies one after another until one became exhausted, the employee gathered enough courage to scold Hiro for being stubborn, ending the rally. With what seemed like an unresolved competition, Hiro returned to us with a determined face. Just what the hell is this guy doing? I thought. "Now that that's out of the way, how about going to the arcades with this big sister?" Okuda suggested, grinning and revealing a hidden fang. －－－－－－－－－ The chirping of cicadas and the tinkling sound of wind chimes throughout the neighborhood as the scorching heat burned my skin. Despite the serene atmosphere, a lingering feeling of distress wavered my heart. Each step on the sidewalk felt heavy as I approached the porch. Finally, the entrance was within my grasp, which made my heart race even faster. My twitching index finger inches away from the doorbell made me realize how nervous I was. Why are you not responding to us? I thought Playful batter of children diverted my attention away from my thoughts.. Children running on the pavement behind me, laughing and smiling with delight, calmed my nerves with the air of youthfulness around them. Taking a deep breath, the butterflies in my stomach disappeared. With a press of a button, a familiar melody echoed from within the residence. The entrance creaked open. "Who is it?" Mrs. Nakagawa said with a radiant expression. －－－－－－－－－ "Final Round," the announcer said. The dubstep music transitioned from energetic to intense as the word 'Fight' appeared, signaling the start of the round. "Let's make a bet, kid" Okuda Katsumi said, sticking her ash-pink hair out from the side of the arcade cabinet and showing her condescending smirk. Even if her eyes were away from the screen, she moved her character, Asuka Kazama, around the stage like she could predict my every move. "Loser has to treat the winner to some ramen." "Don't expect me to care if you go home empty pockets" I said, returning the smirk. I can't afford to lose now that the stakes are higher. She returned to her seat, moving her character with much more precision. "You're on!" she yelled as she made the first move. Her character dashed in, raising an elbow. I held the back input, expecting to block her assault. Yet, an attack did not come. Instead, she canceled her attack and grabbed me. Even though I inputted the notations to break the grab as soon as I noticed, the animation kept going. Her character launched me into the air and juggled just pixels away from the wall. Before I could even get off the ground, she dashed and performed a spinning kick. Fortunately, I was holding back, which blocked the attack as I was standing up. My back was against the wall. I have the chance to turn this around. Asuka is a character specialized in keep outs. Therefore, If I'm this close, It's over for her. I need to be patient. What could be her next move? A grab? No, she would be at a positional disadvantage whether or not I would break it. A mid? No, her previous attack was blocked, making her next move slower. There's only one answer: a quick low kick. I inputted a special reversal for low kick specifically. Yet, even after all of that assessment, I was launched into the air with a simple uppercut. My character hit the wall, vulnerable to a chain of attacks. After my health bar depleted, the word 'perfect' in seven golden letters appeared and signaled my humiliating defeat. "CONTINUE?" the announcer mocked, showing my character pounding at the ground in frustration. "Who's going home with empty pockets?" Okuda mocked. "Shut up," I said, glaring into her taunting gaze. A LINE notification managed to reach my ears despite the noise throughout the arcade. My eyes winded as soon I took a glimpse of the message. ====================================================== <Maho 13: 10 She won't respond to me I'm worried. I'm gonna visit her house. I'll let you know by then RECENT She locked herself in her room What should I do ======================================================