Chapter 60 - It's Not a Date
After settling the bill, I left the shop with Rio.
Since it would look suspicious if customers entered and then immediately vanished, I had deactivated [Concealment].
It meant that a man in his thirties and a minor walking side-by-side were clearly visible to everyone.
I didn't even want to think about how the public would perceive us.
If interpreted favorably, we were siblings with a large age gap; at worst, it was compensated dating.
Should I reapply [Concealment]?
But if I did that, I would have to place restrictions on our movements.
If an invisible person picks up an object, it looks like a poltergeist to those around them.
If we couldn't shop or eat even though we were finally together, Rio might end up feeling even more depressed.
I steeled my resolve, telling myself that I am a man, too.
"Ah... hey, listen."
"What is it?"
"I can't hold you, but I'll do anything else to cheer you up."
"Really? Then, can I hold your hand?"
Would this be seen as suspicious?
I stole a glance at Rio's profile. She had a mature appearance for her age, and she was even wearing makeup.
If I insisted she was nearly twenty, she wouldn't look out of place.
I reached out my hand while praying that we wouldn't be seen as some weird old man dragging a high school girl around.
Rio's slender fingers entwined with mine.
It was for a good cause.
I was strictly trying to cheer up a wounded girl.
Since it wasn't driven by ulterior motives, it was safe, right? I told myself as we moved forward.
"Is there anywhere you want to go?"
"The arcade."
"I see. You're always loitering around places like that."
"Don't say 'loitering.' It makes me sound like a delinquent."
"Well, you are. That group of youths always sitting in front of the convenience store? You're the lone girl among them."
"That's harsh! I mean, I have done that before, but still!"
"You actually did?"
"You really are a delinquent," I teased.
Rio made a fuss, saying, "Is that really the line you use for a high school girl struggling with her interpersonal relationships!?" However, she was smiling.
It felt like we were just a normal, close pair of a boy and a girl, which surprised even me.
"You know, you're better off looking all cheeky and prickly like that."
When Rio made a sulky face, she looked even more like Elsa.
To prevent my own body from making a mistake, she needed to remain bright and feisty at all times.
"Are you a masochist, Nakamoto-san? Like, you like strong women?"
"That's not it."
"It's none of your business," I said, changing the subject.
I threw out random topics, like the weather, or asking what she thought about the trend of eating Ehomaki for Setsubun.
While engaging in aimless chatter, we walked through the winter town.
It didn't matter much to me, but I was a supporter of Ehomaki.
I was on the side that hoped it wouldn't end as a passing fad but would become established throughout Japan.
Rio, however, seemed to be on the side that thought people would get bored of it in a few years.
Our opinions were split down the middle.
Invisible sparks flew as we glared at each other.
"No, no. Ehomaki is delicious. I could eat it all year round. It's definitely going to become a regular event."
"I don't know about that. I heard convenience stores are already throwing out tons of them."
"That's just because they miscalculated the stock. Besides, I'll buy three times as much as anyone else, so it'll be fine."
"There's no way it'll work just with your consumption, Nakamoto-san... Besides, February has Valentine's Day coming up, you know? I think everyone saves their money for that, so there's nothing left to spend on mere seaweed rolls."
"Valentine's Day is the one that looks like it's going to disappear," I countered.
I argued that its scale seemed to be shrinking every year, and that "obligation chocolates" had become completely disliked.
"In the end, it was just a trap set up by chocolate companies. It didn't suit the Japanese people."
"Hah? Valentine's is invincible. It won't disappear. Even if it dies, a second and third Valentine's will emerge."
"Are you a Demon Lord or something?"
Rio puffed out her cheeks and acted childishly stubborn.
I wanted to tell her that doing things like that made her look like nothing more than a high schooler, so she should stop.
"Women really love Valentine's, don't they?"
"Is that a crime?"
"From our perspective, receiving chocolate that isn't for true love isn't even fun. Obligation chocolate is just a waste of resources. It's nothing but a bad custom."
"...But you might be giving 'true love' chocolate while calling it 'obligation'."
It was the bittersweet opinion of an active high school girl.
"...I-I see. I suppose that's possible too."
"Of course. Not many people have the courage to give chocolate to the boy they like while declaring it's for true love, you know?"
"Have you ever given chocolate to someone?"
"..."
She turned red.
I wondered if she had.
"Oh, what's this? To a first love? Or wait, could it be an ex-boyfriend?"
"No! I've never had a boyfriend. But..."
"But?"
Rio took a deep breath and, after prefacing it with "This is embarrassing to tell you," she spoke.
"When my previous-previous stepfather was leaving the house, I once clung to him while crying and giving him chocolate, saying, 'Please don't get a divorce, I'll give you this'."
That's heavy.
It was a diagonal descent from the direction I had imagined.
"Right around that time, Leo was about to enter high school. It would have been bad if we became a single-parent household, right? Like, for tuition and stuff. So I tried my best to give him chocolate to win him over, but everything was ruined by my Mother's host-club obsession."
"Enough, don't say anything else. I'll buy you whatever you want today..."
"Yay!" Rio made a happy face.
This is bad. Her "ill-fated" attribute is overlapping with Elsa's.
I think most men feel this way, but I believe anyone has a desire to save a pitiable woman.
It's like a hero complex. In my younger days, I was practically a mass of that, which is why I fell for Elsa so easily.
As I've aged, that youthful immaturity has waned, but as they say, the soul of a three-year-old lasts until a hundred.
If there were an older-sister type girl who had an aura of misfortune and also felt maternal, I would undoubtedly be defeated.
Like Elsa or Sanae. Given that one of them is a non-existent woman, it's clear that meeting these criteria is not easy.
No matter how much I like Rio's face and circumstances, her personality is too childish.
I am a man of principle, after all.
I won't fall that easily.
While I was busy pretending to be a hard-boiled man, our destination came into view.
A bright red shop, slightly smaller than the ones in front of the station.
It was an arcade.
Even though we were still several meters from the entrance, I could hear noisy sounds.
Electronic tones, the shrieks of children, and announcements by female voice actresses.
Placed next to the automatic door was a life-sized cutout of a 2D beautiful girl.
It was the kind of aesthetic that would make sense if you were told it was an anime shop.
Arcades have changed, haven't they?
In the past, they had the image of being a hangout for delinquents, but now I feel they've become social hubs for otakus.
Customers like Rio are a complete minority.
At most, you might see flashy people loitering around the Purikura corner.
I wonder what the current yankee demographic does for fun in arcades? I decided to ask.
"What kind of games do you usually play?"
To my question, Rio answered with a nonchalant face.
"Something like 'killing things'."
It might be because she has an older brother. Girls like that tend to be knowledgeable about masculine hobbies.
As soon as we entered the shop, we immediately approached a gun shooting game cabinet.
I inserted a hundred-yen coin and picked up the controller that mimicked a light gun.
It was 2P cooperative play.
Exchanging a grin, we started the game.
"Do you usually play these kinds of things, Nakamoto-san?"
"Not at all. I've had a seventeen-year blank."
"...That long?"
"How should I put it, I lived abroad for a long time. There were no arcades over there, and after I came back here, I only used them as a substitute for public restrooms. It's been a while since I've played."
"Heh. Was that how you met that girl, Angelica?"
With unerringly accurate rapid fire, Rio shot through aliens one after another.
A reliable female gunslinger. In contrast, I was a rookie soldier scattering bullets in all the wrong directions.
An enemy bit into me, and my life gauge was being aggressively shaved away.
"Augh...!"
I'm good with swords, though! If it were a sword, I wouldn't lose!
While spitting out immature excuses, I quickly suffered a Game Over.
"Man, I'm totally hopeless."
"...Want me to teach you how?"
This time, the two of us held a single controller, and I shot under Rio's assistance.
"Ohh, amazing. They're hitting perfectly."
"You're so strong with your bare hands, so why are you so bad with guns?"
After we finished annihilating a group of aliens, we headed toward the crane game machines.
It seems I have an aptitude for this. Within a few minutes, I got a mascot character plushie. It was a bear character collaborating with my local area.
I plopped the prize into Rio's hand, who was admiring my skill.
"Eh... are you giving this to me?"
"It's a bit too fancy for an old man to carry around."
"...Thanks. I'll cherish it forever."
She was excessively happy. There were even tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
I couldn't help but smile, thinking she could act like a proper girl after all.
And then I realized the terrifying fact that my current position was exactly that of a boyfriend spoiling his younger girlfriend.
...Wait...?
Aren't we... just casually going on a date...?
Is this okay...?
It's okay, right...?
To calm my head, I decided to step away from Rio for a moment.
"I'm going to buy some drinks, so wait here."
I am not a lolicon, I am not a lolicon, I am not a lolicon.
Chanting it like a mantra, I ran toward the vending machine.
Alright, it's fine, the impure thoughts have vanished.
As expected of a Hero, I am incredibly ascetic.
"If you look at her from a diagonal angle, she looks so much like Elsa and is really cute."
While muttering a self-defeating monologue, I purchased two hot teas. They were the small bottled kind that girls like.
Well, it's no problem. It's innocent to think a younger girl is cute.
This is the same emotion one feels toward a kitten or a puppy; as long as it doesn't involve sexual desire, I'm just a Sugar Daddy.
Clutching the cans in both hands, I returned to Rio.
But she wasn't there.
I waited for a few minutes, but Rio did not appear.
Strange. Is she playing by herself?
Was she always that lacking in cooperativeness?
Feeling suspicious, I searched the shop.
And just as I passed in front of the restroom, I let out a gasp.
Maybe Rio suddenly had to use the restroom. Maybe she was in a huge rush because she was about to leak.
If so, she should come out eventually.
Since waiting outside a toilet is awkward, I decided to return to our original spot.
It was then.