Part 2: An Impromptu Eating Contest

Sure enough, Ryuji's instructions were easy to follow and the journey to Nerima went okay. The three of us talked about Metaverse nonsense for a while; specifically, wild experiments to try, the effect of imagery when casting spells and what it could like to be a Persona compared to a Persona user. The subject then turned to my mystery backers who provided my hacks and cheats. The two girls pulled out all the stops in pleading for information and honestly, it was sort of a miracle that we didn't have too much attention on us. After all, two girls tugging on my arm would make any other man boil with inane jealousy. My pride ensured I stood my ground and kept tight lipped on the Velvet Room and the reward: grumpy, stingy comments. Once we'd gotten there, we made our way out of the station and waited in front of it. Ryuji came through not too long after. He was wearing some grey jeans, an orange t-shirt and white trainers to match.

"Ren! Futaba! Yoshizawa-san! Glad ya made it!" The two girls waved to him as he approached.

"Yo." We fistbumped.

"Afternoon, Sakamoto-senpai!" Sumire greeted.

"As you can see, we've had fun. He needed a wardrobe update so we hooked him up. We also kitted Yoshizawa-san out too!" Futaba summarised.

"Dude, couldn't you have invited me earlier?!"

"Iwai probably doesn't think much of you, Skull." Mona commented.

"What'd you say, monster cat?!" Skull barked, clearly annoyed.

"Don't you think the stand-up routine is pretty much tired out, you two?" Ann admonished, coming out of the station with my lovely lady. Both of them had casual wear on: Ann donned her red leather jacket, a light blue denim skirt, a red turtleneck and her pink-red high tops from last time. Shiho had her hair out today with an olive headband, wore a black dress, tights and some black skate shoes. Shiho contributed a blow to Ryuji.

"It's sad you still don't get that only you look like a weirdo, Ryuji. Hey, Ren." She came over to me, smiling and took my lips.

"And you just go and kiss him after that…" he muttered.

"Hey." Looking down at the bags I had in my hand, she had a shit-eating grin on her face.

"Hmm…it seems you had a lot of fun with the girls, didn't you? Maybe you'll be happy to take me some place next time." She was probably just annoyed at being left out - I probably needed to be careful the next time around.

"Uh…just name a time and place, I guess." Shiho laughed a little.

"You don't have to be so serious about it! I'm not actually that bothered." Scratching my head at that response, the greetings resumed once more.

"Hi, Takamaki-senpai!"

"Sumire. You're looking really chic today."

"Oh no, not at all. I actually threw this together last minute." That was last minute? Imagine how she'd look when she put in a full effort and had all the time in the world.

"Really? It certainly doesn't look it. You sure you're not lying to impress us?" Shiho teased. Sumire seemed stunned that she was now the centre of attention.

"Huh?! I'm serious! I've not worn these for a few months now!" I had to give props to how well she took care of her clothes and outfits if these really were a few months old.

"They really do look new…" Ryuji contemplated.

"I'm telling the truth!" Sumire desperately pleaded.

"Don't push our golden retriever too much. She might cry." I joked.

"You're not funny, Amamiya-senpai!" She barked, stomping her boot on the ground. She's so easy to mess with…As for the other junior, Futaba felt a little alienated - never mind the fact she didn't really have much outside experience that was relevant, she didn't know how or what to contribute. I didn't want to bring any attention to it because she would find it harder to try and fit in with other crowds. She was the type of person who couldn't let something just go…something like this would stay with her forever. Ann picked up on this and invited her into the conversation.

"What do you think, Futaba?" She gently asked.

"You can be as brutal as you like." Shiho added.

"I dunno if I should…" Futaba replied, a little on the fence. I decided to let her overcome this personal battle for herself.

"I consider you a friend, Sa-, no. Futaba. I think you're loads of fun to be around and really, really brave. Far more than I could ever be. Your opinions are always strong and logical but it's thanks to you, not only am I a better cook but I was able to pick out these cute clothes."

"Go on, go for it." Ryuji contributed.

"Any words of encouragement, Ren?" Shiho threw the ball in my way and the others had expectant gazes to my words. Futaba most of all. Anything I did tell her would've been going against why I was happy for her to come today.

"You really need me for this?"

"Come on..." Shiho jibed. With my words, I made it perfectly clear to her that all of the girls valued her as a good friend. She had a worried look on her face but got out her response.

"In all honesty, I don't really know as much about clothing and stuff. I'd really racked my brain on this outfit today. My pretty archaic software's not pulling up any results…I'm due an update, everyone."

"All you had to do was ask. We're all your friends, Futaba!" Ann smiled, ruffling Futaba's hair. See? No need for me. The girls began a conversation without anyone being excluded this time. Happy that my little sis engaged with the others, Ryuji, Mona and I walked slightly ahead.

"...You could've said something." Mona suggested.

"No way. She moved forward with her own two hands and feet - when it comes to bigger and scarier crowds, this victory will be a motivator." I responded quietly.

"That's…logical to say. Anyway, you'll freakin' love this place, dude! No noodles will ever taste as good!"

"I've put my full faith in you, Ramen-sensei."

"Is that all the hell you think of me?!" Ryuji barked, actually annoyed.

"Kuu…" "He hit a sensitive spot, alright…" Shiho and Ann whispered respectively. Ryuji cooled down and got his question:

"Why ramen?"

"Cheap, easy and you can pit your stomach against the others. Let's do an eating contest." I lied. He fell for the bait so easily that it backfired on me just how much he wanted to do this.

"An eating contest?! Fuck yeah!" He yelled, pumping his fist in the air. The girls stopped their conversation at his actions and sure enough, they were curious to what we spoke about.

"What's gotten you all pumped up?"

"We're gonna make today an eating contest! No take backs, everyone!" He declared, extremely confident that he could beat us all.

"Ooh! That sounds fun! Let's do it!" Ann joined in.

"As long as I'm not having to pay for it!" Futaba, cheapness aside, added.

"I think that's a wonderful idea! I'm not going to lose!" Sumire eagerly boasted. Shiho just seemed to accept it. It wasn't long until we found ourselves in a residential district and soon enough, we spotted the place that Ryuji had in mind. This building happened to have two floors and a red sign with write writing on it. It wasn't actually a Japanese place though…that much I could tell. Making our way inside, we'd had an easy time getting a table that could seat us all. There were booths that were positioned right in front of the kitchen area with red stools to sit on but this way, we'd all be facing one another at any point. Ryuji and I were opposite each other on the left edge of the table whilst the girls took the other portion of it. Shiho sat next to me, of course. Futaba was seated on the right edge next to her. Ann and Sumire were on the other side. To my relief, the four girls all conversed with one another and didn't exclude anybody. Collecting everyone's meal preferences, Ryuji and I went to order for the lot of us. Not too long afterwards, everyone's food came and our contest began.

"Let's see who comes out on top!" Ryuji was feeling himself way too much as we began brushing our first bowls off. No words were exchanged between any of us during that time and so it came to seconds. Shiho and I drew the line after then, not wanting to overstuff ourselves in case we ate later on whilst the other hungry hippos got to work on their third bowls. Once reaching the fourth bowl, Ann was next to tap out of the contest leaving the self-proclaimed Ramen King with the two juniors. He sadly met his match on the sixth bowl leaving the two gluttons who brushed off another six bowls of ramen EACH and had warm beams on their faces - were they still looking to eat more or just happy at the taste of their dishes? I would hope it was the latter.

"How do they do it?" Ryuji groaned, clearly overwhelmed at the amount he ate just now.

"It's like they've got bottomless stomachs…" Shiho exclaimed, shocked that such a large amount of food could fit into such petite bodies.

"Ugh…I'm so full I could go on next week without a bite…" Ann moaned, looking ready to hit the sack.

"It's what you get for biting more than you can chew." I chastised.

"Indeed." Shiho affirmed. We high fived one another.

"Here's your bill, patrons." the waiter who put up with us provided.

"¥3-36,360?!" Mona exclaimed at the top of his lungs.

"Don't worry, Mona! Kamoshida's paying for it." Ryuji grinned. Taking out ¥40,000, I tipped the waiter who served us gracefully and put up with us. He'd explained that in this place, it was a common thing to have unofficial chowdowns and that once every three months, there was an official contest to see who could eat the most. The winner would then try out at a national level and so forth. We'd begun walking again, doing our best to burn the calories we took in. Well, in the case of the piggies, it was a battle of keeping the vomit inside their stomachs whilst walking along the road.

"Wanna hang at my place, guys?" Ryuji offered. I personally wanted to head home, place down these bags and call it a day but the others didn't seem bored of each other.

"I don't know…I've not been there in a long time. I wonder if anything's changed at all." Ann reminisced.

"We can prolly bet on Ryuji's room staying the same." Shiho added.

"Eh…you'll see what you see. Besides, we would be more than happy to have ya!" he replied nonchalantly. Convincing the two older girls that it was cool, he now had the job to convince the younger girls.

"It's alright for me to stay?" Sumire questioned to which Ryuji admonished her jokingly.

"Come on, Yoshizawa-san! Of course you're invited. What about you two?" Looking at the time, it was now the late afternoon. Sojiro's probably expecting us back soon…

"We'll have to take our leave, Ryuji. Sojiro's probably waiting for us and we've got Mona too." I stated. Seemed this wasn't a response Futaba liked but at the very least, she wouldn't put up a fight with me.

"Oh…right. Mom's allergens..."

"If I'm a barrier to you, I can hop out of your bag and roam around for a while. I'll find you guys later on anyway." Mona suggested.

"That's that problem solved...can we stay, Ren?" Futaba had a pleading look on her face whilst the others warmly looked by.

"I'll see what Sojiro says."

You: "Is it alright to stay out a little longer? We're visiting Ryuji's home."

Sojiro: typing...While I waited for a response, we made our way to Ryuji's neighbourhood and eventually stopped at a small house in 6-chōme. Ryuji opened up the gates and unlocked the front door to his home. At around the same time, I got a response back from Sojiro who was free to respond.

Sojiro: "If Futaba doesn't come back, neither will you. Sound fair, kid?"

You: "Heard loud and clear. Thanks."

Sojiro: "She doing okay?"

You: "Pretty great, actually."

Sojiro: "Glad to hear it. Enjoy your evening."