I've never been in an arcade before, so I didn't know what to expect. We walked inside the doors and were welcomed with what looked like a million different video game cabinets. The building was pretty dark on the inside, but was alive with flashing lights and various noise, coming from all directions and angles. It felt a little familiar to me, despite never having really seen an arcade before, and I realised it was because the inside of this building wouldn't have looked out of place in Pops' world in Pure Illusion. Hell, if he was here with us right now, he'd probably be going nuts, marveling at all the machines. Can living things that originate from Pure Illusion enter the real world? If they could, that might explain where Uxekull came from, he's the only green rabbit in the world, as far as I know.

Nyunyu looked about ready to wander off and get lost in the sheer maze this place was, but I put a hand on the top of her head, stopping her before she could move. She looked at me, curious.

"Don't run off on your own in here. You'll get lost," I said to her. "Same goes for the rest of y-" so naturally Papika, whose face was lit up with wonder and excitement, grabbed Cocona's hand and ran off at that very instant.

I sighed and we all raced after them.

Okay, it was understandable why Papika was so eager to have a look around, there were so many sights to see in here, way more than in the art shop at least. Maybe even more than Pure Illusion... Well, I guess there's no telling how big Pure Illusion actually is, but if you can get coordinates from there, so in theory, you could map it out, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was just a constantly expanding endless dimension...

I thought I was gonna have to yell at myself to focus and keep an eye on those two, but it turned out not to be a problem. Although Papika was excited, she didn't run off too far. If anything, she got slower as she went, her glances at all the game machines around us becoming longer and longer, and eventually she stopped all together in the middle of a whole bunch of machines, and she was staring at one in particular, called 'House of the Dead'. At first, I thought it was because the images of the zombies and various monsters might have scared her, but she watched as game demo played and the crosshairs danced across the screen before tearing holes open in the zombies, blood spraying from the wounds.

"What's happening?" she asked, clueless. "The monsters are getting defeated, but there's no one to make it happen..."

"The screen is showing an example of what the video game is like when someone plays it. They try and make it look as fun as possible so people will want to spend money and play the game," Cocona explained. I wondered briefly if Papika even knew what a video game was.

"Nyunyu wants to try!" The child exclaimed; hand high in the air.

"Don't you find that scary, Nyunyu?" Cocona asked, concerned. She had to raise her voice to be heard over some of the music and the zombie's growls and moans from the game machine.

"Nope!" She said, approaching the machine and picking out one of the brightly coloured guns from the holders. It was attached to the machine by a thick metal cord, but that didn't stop Nyunyu from trying to spin around, and aim at the people in the arcade, rather than the monsters on the screen, and pulling the trigger. I walked up to her, put my hands on her shoulders and turned her around so she was facing the right way. I definitely can't trust this kid with a real gun...

"Don't do that, kiddo, it'll get you in trouble. Come on, I'll play with you," I said, taking a place next to the gun for player 2, and pulled the weapon out of the holder.

Cocona looked hesitant to put a coin in the machine. "Should she really let her play something like this?" she asked, concerned.

"If she's going to Pure Illusion, she needs to be ready," I said, pointing my gun at the screen. "This is probably the safest way to prepare her for any danger we could face there." Now I think about it, it's probably a good thing the zombies in the game didn't seem to bother her at all. I haven't run into anything like them at all on my adventures, but that didn't mean she wouldn't. "It's probably best she gets used to the idea of seeing and fighting strange things now, rather than in the middle of a life or death situation."

Cocona seemed uncertain for a little longer, before she nodded and inserted enough money to give us a couple of lives each. I told Nyunyu to keep her eyes on the screen, and to aim for the zombies. It was easy at first, the area we were in was a wide-open space, with hardly any obstacles. The few zombies that were there were pretty slow, and didn't pose much of a threat… But it wasn't long before the two of us were struggling. Nyunyu had a pretty decent aim, which I should have expected, but sometimes she shot the civilians that were under attack, and lost some health because of it. If her metal ring has some kinda gun attachment, I'm getting the twins to remove it.

"Nyunyu, shoot the monsters!" I said, struggling to take down the horde in front of me. Thankfully, like every other time I gave orders, Nyunyu obeyed, and immediately went from shooting everything that moved, to only hitting the monsters (although her aim wasn't perfect, she still managed to get a person's head, instead of attacking the zombie about to eat them). My fingers were gripping the gun controller tightly, and I had to try and reload (flicking the controller downwards) at the right time, trying to make sure I wouldn't take a hit when I was exposed. It was a little cumbersome to do though, as the wire made the gun a little hard to handle, or at least the cable would shift slightly and it'd throw my aim off. I would have asked Nyunyu for help, but she'd just lost one of her lives and was only down to a few pieces of health. I ended up putting my other hand on the gun, to try and help my control over where I was aiming.

"Shoot the ones closest to you, they'll hurt you if you don't take them out," I said, trying to give her pointers, while desperately trying to take down the horde, which I swear, targeted me a lot more than it did her. Despite all of that, it was still a while before I lost my first life, and that was just before getting to the first boss, which was a hollow suit of armour, and some kind of imp flying around behind it.

"Take out the imp! That's his weak spot!" Even though the game had just told us that exact thing, I wasn't sure Nyunyu would actually pay attention to that unless I gave her the order. Might need to keep that in mind...

We just about managed to take out the boss with only a couple pieces of health between us, and came to a crossroads. Before I could ask Nyunyu what she wanted to do, she shot one of the directions, and we were taken along that path, which turned out to be a bridge over some dark green water. Monsters that looked like a cross between alligators and zombies leapt out from the water, and roared at us, before charging at the screen. It wasn't long after that we lost our last lives, and 'GAME OVER' appeared on the screen, along with a countdown timer of 10 seconds if we wanted to continue out game.

"Man... That was tough..." I said, feeling a little tired from trying to keep track of so many things at once. If this game had a grenade or a few I might be okay. How the hell does Toto do it...? I turned to face Nyunyu, who'd surprisingly, put the gun back in its holder and was looking up at me.

"Good job!" I said, praising her for her first attempt at fighting something. It wasn't perfect, far from it, but everything takes time to learn, and although she attacked the people rather than the monsters, she got the hang of it eventually, and didn't do too badly. It was kinda fun playing with her.

"Good job!" she repeated back to me. She must have enjoyed herself too, I saw the corner of her lip twitch a fraction, until she had a miniscule half-smile on her face.

"Can I play?" Papika asked. Nyunyu turned to look at her, nodded, and stepped aside, allowing Papika to take her place. She picked up the colourful pistol with ease, and tried pointing it at the screen. The crosshairs didn't react to her movements at all, which I would have expected her to complain about, but she didn't seem bothered in the slightest. Trying to get a feel for the weapon?

"Want to try" Yuyu said, taking my spot, and I handed the gun over to her. It was a little awkward for her to take it from me, with her only having one hand available to use, (even then, my tight grip on the thing earlier made it a little difficult to remove, every finger that wasn't on the trigger was a little stiff), but managed to pass it over eventually. Although the gun was in Yuyu's good hand, it shook a little as she held it, just enough to send tiny shivers through the weapon.

Cocona put more coins in the machine, enough for two lives each, like earlier, and the game restarted. Once again, the zombies in the open space were no problem… for Papika at least. Maybe she'd memorised where they appeared from when me and Nyunyu played, but she took all of them out easily. Yuyu… was having trouble. It's probably because she was used to punching things, being made for close combat, rather than using ranged attacks, and the shake in her good hand didn't seem to help that either. She'd line up a shot fairly well, but the zombie would move just out of range before she could let the shot off. Thankfully, Papika was quite alert and helped Yuyu deal with her zombie problem…

Then when the swarm started to appear, Papika began to struggle a little. She aimed just fine, but she began to focus too much on the zombies attacking Yuyu rather than herself and started to lose health.

"This isn't working…" Papika mumbled.

"Difficult," Yuyu agreed. Her voice seemed a little bit strained, and it was a bit hard to tell with the lights all around the arcade flashing on and off, but I thought I saw Yuyu's hand tighten on the gun a little, which only made the shakes more violent. Yuyu managed to lose a life, despite hers and Papika's best efforts to keep her alive. It wasn't long before Papika lost one of hers either.

"I can do this!" Papika said, trying to pep herself up. She was standing still, but something about those words seemed to give her more energy, although maybe she was working herself up a little too much, as sweat began to bead on her forehead. She was taking out enemies on both sides, but she was still struggling. "I can do this. I need to protect Cocona!" I wasn't sure if I should be amazed with how seriously Papika was treating this situation. She was shooting furiously at the targets onscreen, but as hard as she was trying, it wasn't long before the two of them were getting overwhelmed.

The game became too much for Yuyu, and she had to lower her gun, not to reload, but to give her arm a break. Noticing this, Papika's attention went from the screen, to the gun Yuyu held, and she quickly reached across to take it from her. Yuyu moved the gun so Papika could reach it, and walked away from the machine, unable to play anymore.

"FLIP FLAPPING!" came Papika's war cry, and I knew if we were in Pure Illusion, there's no doubt she would have transformed right then and there. Being the real world, that didn't happen, but the effect here was almost as astonishing. Papika had gone from starting to struggle, only having one weapon to hand, to powering through the game solo. The boss me and Nyunyu managed to defeat before dying might as well have been a regular enemy for her, with how she aimed, taking out stray zombies, and managing to hit the imp pretty well too. She picked the opposite path to the one me and Nyunyu took, so instead of going over a bridge, she went through a stone doorway, into what looked like the courtyard of a castle, and began to take out any new monsters that appeared with no trouble. I was stunned. It took me a second to realise how the hell Papika was doing a lot better with two guns than one, when I made the connection. She has two hand guns when she's transformed. This is what she's used to.

After a while, she'd managed to blast her way through the second and third bosses. I leaned forwards a little, fascinated by Papika's skill. One of the characters died at some point after the third, and called to Cocona to put another life's worth of credit in the machine, so she'd have both weapons up and running again. Papika made it up to the fourth boss, before another character lost their life and turned to Cocona to ask for another one.

"No more after this!" Cocona said. I had no idea if Papika even heard her, the sweat that began as beads, started to drip as Papika became more lost in the game. The sheer concentration and focus in her eyes were almost enough to put holes in the screen where she glared, as if it would somehow help her add to her zombie kill count. Actually, I can guarantee you, if Papika indeed somehow managed to will a third crosshair into existence, everything on that screen would be dead, and the final boss probably would have fled from sheer terror if it could see her. Looking at Papika now, seeing those usually joyful blue eyes wishing death upon every monster in sight, made me pretty grateful she wasn't that hostile towards me whenever we ended up fighting over amorphous in Pure Illusion.

Papika made it to the last boss, when both of her characters were taken out in one fell swoop.

"Cocona!" Papika cried, as if it was a life or death emergency, as the 10 second timer ticked down. How her eyes went from 'I will murder your entire family' to 'innocent puppy' in an instant was kind of incredible. Her puppy-dog act really annoyed me when I first got to know her, but seeing her face now made me wish I hadn't bought the cream bread for myself earlier, so I could give her another try at the game, she was doing crazy well, and if she had another few lives I was certain she could beat the game. This is probably the most excited I've been about something in a long time. It was enthralling, and I wanted to see Papika beat the last boss.

"Cocona…" Papika's voice wavered, as she begged again, the timer ticking down to just 5 seconds left. Cocona tried to stare Papika down, not wanting to turn back on her word… but gave in, and put enough coins in for each character to have another life, just before it timed out entirely.

The smile that lit up Papika's face was contagious, and I found myself grinning as she got a second attempt at the last boss in the game. She only took four hits split over the two characters, before he went down.

"Yeeesss! I won!" She raised both guns in the air and jumped up on the spot, cheering. The guns pulled from her grasp a little, not meant to be able to go quite so high. She quickly realised this, and stuffed them back in the holders on the machine, before dancing around on the spot, celebrating her victory.

"Nice one!" I said, patting her on the shoulder. She was laughing as Toto and Nyunyu congratulated her too (with Nyunyu calling her 'Papika-onee-chan'). Cocona watched the scene from a distance away, with an adoring smile on her face. It wasn't long before Papika realised someone was missing from her little victory party, and she flung her arms around Cocona's shoulders as she kissed her on the cheek, causing Cocona to blush. Cocona turned to ask if Toto wanted to try playing too.

He shook his head. "Watched Papika's victory. Satisfying enough." Yuyu was standing next to him, staring at the ground, and I felt a little guilty at getting so captivated by Papika's game. It started off with Yuyu playing too, and now she's just had to sit at the side and watch, losing her turn at the game she could have been a part of…

I had a look around us, to see if there were any games in the area that she could play, and couldn't really spot anything. None of the others seemed to know where to go next either. Papika was still a little caught up in her victory, and still held Cocona in her arms. Toto and Nyunyu were both staring at me, as if awaiting orders… Yuyu however, seemed to have broken out of her mood, and was staring in the general direction of a bunch of fighting games.

"You wanna have a look, Yuyu?" I asked her. She blinked, maybe a little startled, but eventually nodded. Not really knowing what else to do, the others all came over to us and gathered around the fighting machines. There were a number of them available, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and a few based on popular anime too… Not that I really knew anything about any of that, I've just heard the names a few times around school. I wasn't too sure why Yuyu wanted to have a look at these games, I mean it looked like using two hands was pretty much required to play. Maybe she was just drawn to them because a number of the characters were punching each other. None of them had any kind of powerfist like she does, but it was all I could guess.

Despite seemingly needing two hands it was apparent that Yuyu wanted to play. She looked at Cocona, and held out a hand. Cocona seemed confused as to what Yuyu wanted, so I explained she was asking for coins to try the fighting game.

"Are you sure you're going to play okay, Yuyu?" Cocona asked, her eyes trailing down to Yuyu's cast, voicing the concerns I had. Yuyu's mouth pulled back a little, as if the question annoyed her.

"Toto. Request assistance," she said.

"Will help Yuyu," he said, stepping forward. For a second my mind went back to when we were on separate sides in Pure Illusion, Asclepius verses Flip Flap, and thought about how if those two had said that back then, that it would have likely been meant as a threat towards Cocona and Papika. Thankfully, all being on the same side, I wouldn't need to worry about that being the case… probably. I still remember Yuyu with a sadistic smile on her face as she told Cocona the truth about me. But we're all friends and allies now. Nothing like that will happen again… I had another thought then, but this one amused me a little. Well, if we ever wanted to see who could beat who in a fight, we could all play the fighting games here, rather than actually beating each other up like we could have done back in the day.

Yuyu's fingers twitched, silently asking for money again, and this time Cocona complied, handing some over.

We approached Yuyu's machine of choice, and she ducked down to put the coins in the slot. She had a little trouble because the cast of her arm bumped against the 'shelf' of the machine the controls were attached to. Standing up again, she had a look at the character select screen… and stared for quite a while, before looking down at the controls. She stood to the right, over where the attack buttons were. Toto took a place by her left, where the joystick was.

Yuyu just pressed a button to accept the character the cursor first highlighted, and then it booted up into a game right away. The background for the fight was an airport runway, just a long road stretching into the distance, with a few planes flying in the background up near the health bars. At the edges of the screen were crowds of people standing around with luggage, watching the two people in the middle and cheering. Pretty weird place to have a fight, and even weirder that there'd be people standing around and watching on an airport runway, when a plane could come down and squish them all at any time… But if you had a long wait for a flight and the only thing to entertain you for the next few hours, was watching a guy in a martial arts outfit (the character Yuyu ended up picking) fighting some weird dragon man, then I guess why not stand around and watch?

I wondered at first if the twins were gonna try and play the game without speaking a word out loud. That may well have been the case for a little while, Toto moved the character closer to the enemy, and Yuyu pressed a button to attack, which made the martial arts guy stab forward with a punch. The dragon dude took a hit, but quickly ducked down low, swiping out with its claws. Yuyu looked like she was about to attack again, maybe she'd spotted something she could take advantage of, but before she could really act, the dragon guy jumped over the martial artist, and kicked Yuyu's character in the head. Although they should have both been facing the same side of the screen (the right, as the dragon jumped left to attack Yuyu in the back), both characters ended up looking at each other, without any buttons being pressed. The fact the games did that made me wonder if Yuyu might have been okay to play the game without Toto after all…

"Right" Yuyu said. Her voice was quiet, but there was a force to it. Toto obeyed his sister's command, trying to get their fighter out of range, but it did no good. The dragon guy opened his mouth and a fireball shot out.

"Up!" Yuyu burst out, but it was already too late. Before Toto could move the character and jump out of range of the attack, the fireball hit, knocking the martial artist flat on his back. Toto could probably have dodged that easily, but I'd guess because he was meant to be playing as Yuyu's left hand, rather than acting out himself, he waited for her order before moving.

While I had that thought, the dragon approached, claws outstretched, before it leapt up into a jump kick. Yuyu tried slamming the palm of her hand down on the action buttons, but nothing woke the twin's character up in time, and they took a lot of damage from the dragon's attack.

"Defective…" Yuyu mumbled. It'd sounded like she'd given up already, and going by her half-hearted attempt at tapping buttons, that pretty much summed up her mood, despite her face being as blank as ever.

Even with the twins' bond, it wasn't enough for them to cooperate and defeat the opponent.

Both of them stepped away from the machine, when their character lost, and all of a sudden, the machine yelled 'Round Two… Fight!' Toto turned back, curious, but didn't get any closer to the machine. Yuyu didn't even bother looking back. I stood around, not quite sure what to do for a second, and the dragon guy on the screen started to beat the crap out of the martial artist. I felt kinda bad for Yuyu not being able to play the game she wanted to, but there wasn't really much any of us could do about that…

And it made me mad.

I wasn't entirely sure what at, maybe I was mad forYuyu, annoyed that she only had one arm that she could use normally, and that she couldn't play the piano earlier, had to drop her gun during House of the Dead, and now she couldn't beat this stupid dragon guy either. The few things she's wanted to do today, and she hasn't been able to enjoy any of them…

All I know is, that I ended up approaching the machine, with my newfound fury, and just before the dragon beat the martial artist down to a third of his health bar, I just about managed to move him out of the way, and pressed one of the attack buttons, which turned out to be a kick.

I had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted nothing more at this moment than to beat this stupid computer character up. Buttons were pressed randomly, resulting in the martial arts guy almost doing some kind of war dance. I think I accidentally did a special move, because after a little charging up animation, he ended up shooting lightning at the dragon at one point. The attack fanned out in a blast which was pretty much a guaranteed hit. It didn't do much damage, something like that would potentially be game-breaking if that was the case, and even then, I couldn't remember the sequence I'd pressed at all, so I couldn't do it again.

The fight between the martial arts guy and the dragon ended up being pretty close. I took a couple of slashes to the face, and managed to hop over the tail that swung at me, and then managed to catch the dragon with a few attacks of my own, a punch and a kick. If this martial artist guy was trying to survive in Pure Illusion, he'd tire himself out really quickly with this sort of fighting… I know I was the one controlling him, and making him do all of these moves in the first place, but I couldn't help thinking that as I played.

It came down to both character's last bits of health, so any hit taken would have resulted in instant death. Probably not the smart thing to do, but I charged forward, and managed to end up performing another special move, but this one was a flaming uppercut. It looked cool, sure, and I wished I could remember how to do that again, but it was no good. The attack was too slow, and by the time the animation had finished, the dragon guy had already snuck up behind the martial artist again, and lunged forward in a bite. Maybe it was because it was the second-round victory, but a special winning animation for the dragon guy played, of it ripping off the martial artist's head, blood pouring in a stream from the neck, and flinging it away of screen. If it was real life, the people in the crowed at the airport would have started running and screaming from the monster that'd just decapitated its human opponent, but being a game, they seemed pretty unphased and continued to cheer blindly for the dragon.

"Damnit!" I stomped in annoyance, having come so close to winning that round and losing at the last second. Calm down, Yayaka. Don't get mad here. I took a deep breath, and turned to face the others.

Toto was glaring at the screen, looking a bit like he wanted revenge against the dragon guy for upsetting his sister. Surprisingly, he didn't step up to the machine next. Someone did, and it was the last person I was expecting.

Maybe Cocona was feeling protective of her newfound twin siblings, and that was why she was the one putting the coins in the machine and picking the same character, or maybe she was just getting caught up in the atmosphere of the arcade. All I know is, when the game loaded, and put her against that dragon character again, that she showed no mercy.

She must've been studying both of our matches, because she actually seemed to have a plan for how to go about the fight. It was far from perfect, she took a number of hits, and got a little flustered during the battle, but she'd managed to pull off both of the special moves I did multiple times, and managed to win against the dragon in the first round.

The second round however didn't go as well. It seemed a bit like the dragon character got pissed at Cocona for defeating him, and didn't waste any time. The moment the game said 'Round two… Fight!' the dragon charged the martial artist in a shoulder bash, slamming him against the edge of the screen. Cocona was too shocked by the suddenness of it to do anything. Her fingers hovered over the attack buttons on the arcade console, shakily, thrown off by the sudden action.

"Cocona!" Papika called. It wasn't all that loud, but hearing Papika's voice seemed to snap Cocona out of it. Cocona gasped, becoming alert again, blinked, and retaliated. She managed to use a counter attack, grabbing the dragon, who'd gone in again to swipe with his claws, and the martial artist threw him over his shoulder. As the dragon got up, Cocona made the martial artist lash out with a low kick, before going straight in to the flaming uppercut, winning the fight. Much like how when the dragon won both the rounds last time, the game played a special animation for the martial artist's two wins, and the dragon burst into flames upon Cocona's hit coming into contact with it. Cocona stared in disbelief at the screen, either at the sight of the opponent becoming a pile of ash on the ground, which was blown away by a gust of breeze, or unable to believe she won.

Papika smiled, proud of Cocona, and Toto congratulated her with a 'well done'. When Cocona returned to the group, she was met with Nyunyu holding her hand out. It took a second for Cocona to remember what that meant, before handing the kid a few coins.

"Hold up, Nyunyu! I want to play!" Papika said, going over to join her. Nyunyu put some coins in her half of the machine, before handing them to Papika, who did the same. Both of them ended up picking completely different characters this time, Nyunyu choosing a yellow robot, that made me think a little of Buu, and Papika kept flicking between two characters for a little while, before finally settling on one, a guy with a thin sword, that looked like it was made for stabbing rather than slashing.

"A fencer?" Cocona asked, curious. "I thought you'd pick the one with the guns."

"I wanted to," Papika said, "But you fight with a sword, Cocona, and I wanted to see what it was like."

I was about to tell Papika that playing that game was nothing like fighting with a real close combat weapon, but I wasn't sure there was much point. She'd probably work that one out herself soon enough.

I wasn't really paying attention to the background when Cocona was fighting the dragon, but I'm pretty sure the background the game picked for Nyunyu and Papika was different to the one she had. Now the combatants were fighting in… what looked like a shark tunnel in an aquarium. Yuyu looked away from the screen. I wasn't sure if it was because she had to watch more people enjoying a game she couldn't, or because she'd almost drowned once, trapped beneath the surface of a frozen lake. Either way, she didn't seem too happy about it, and I felt bad.

I want this to be a day where everyone can have fun…

We need to find games Yuyu can play.

I had a look around, and saw a depressing number of games that look like they needed two hands available to be enjoyed properly… Come on, there has to be something here…

"Not fair!" Papika yelled. I found myself turning to look and see what'd happened, and saw Nyunyu's robot character prancing around the screen, having won the first round.

"I'm gonna get you this time!" She said, speaking over the game announcer's declaration of the second round of combat having begun. Nyunyu's robot punched towards Papika's fencer, with a fist that sprung from one of its short arms, but Papika was already in the air, and dodged the attack. She'd landed behind Yuyu's robot, and pressed a button, sending her character lunging forward with their sword… And that was about the only move I bet Papika had planned out, because after that, her hands just sorta flopped around on the console like a dying fish (which might have almost been an appropriate description considering the arena the game had picked for them), as she mashed buttons, trying to defeat Nyunyu. Nyunyu's attacks seemed like they were planned out, but I guess in the end Papika's unpredictability lead to her winning over Nyunyu's robot that time.

With one victory each though, instead of going straight into a third round, the background Papika and Nyunyu were fighting against changed. A number of pillars erupted from the sandy ground in the game, lifting Papika's fencer and Nyunyu's robot into the air. The screen faded to black, before the both of them were on a platform that looked a bit like an old Roman coliseum sliced in half. Maybe Yuyu was still paying attention to the game after all, as she ended up watching the final round alongside the rest of us. Part of me felt a little relieved, as that suggested it was in fact the underwater battleground that bothered her, but I still felt kinda bad about Yuyu not being able to play the fighting game properly. I'll find things she can play in here.

For the moment though…

"Final round… FIGHT!" The machine announced.

Much like before, Papika started off with a direct attack, but I'd guess Nyunyu must have learnt from last time that Papika would try that exact thing. She managed to direct her robot into throwing Papika's fencer over its shoulder, and then wasted to time sending the robot into a couple of low kicks, making Papika take damage before her character could even recover. In Papika's button mashing, she somehow activated a special attack, which sent a beam of light from the fencer's sword shooting across the screen. Looked like it would've been a handy attack to have, but by the time Papika had used it, Nyunyu's robot was pretty much above the fencer, and slammed down into a solid hit that actually made me wince. Having a who-knows-how-heavy robot slam on your back like that, if it didn't break your spine, would probably leave permanent damage, and damn well hurt, in the very least.

Somehow, I guess through game logic, Papika's fencer stood back up after taking the hit, and she managed to stab Nyunyu's robot in the face with a lunge...

And that was the last hit Papika got.

I don't know what it was, but after that, no matter how hard she tried, Papika just couldn't touch Nyunyu's robot. Her attacks were just a little too far away to land, but the spring-loaded fists of Nyunyu's robot didn't have a problem smacking Papika's fencer in the face. That turned out to be the move that won the fight, and a special animation played of the robot's fist leaving its arms, and sending the fencer's head flying off-screen.

Papika folded her arms and her cheeks puffed up with annoyance, as the game declared Nyunyu the winner. It wasn't too long until she perked up again though, and congratulated the kid on her victory, along with everyone else, but Yuyu. Although she'd ended up watching the final match between Nyunyu and Papika, there wasn't really any signs of… well, anything from her. Even though she looked pretty neutral, I'd wonder if watching them play another game she couldn't bothered her.

There's got to be something around that Yuyu can play…

There was one game nearby that looked like it'd be fine for her. Two people were standing at either end of a table, and were using circular plastic pieces (strikers) to try and force a puck into the other person's goal. It didn't look like it'd be quite as chaotic as House of the Dead, or a fighting game, and the people that were playing were both only using one arm. It might not be too exciting, but it was a game Yuyu could play at least.

"We could give this one a try," I suggested, as I moved over to a free table.

"Air hockey?" Cocona asked.

"Yeah. There's two strikers for each end of the table, so we can play in pairs if-"

"I choose Cocona!" Papika declared, taking one of Cocona's hands in her own, and raising her other into the air like Nyunyu would. Toto and Yuyu were also pretty quick to pick up on the idea, and turned to each other and nodded. I looked at Nyunyu.

"Looks like it's you and me again, kiddo. You reckon we can beat these guys?"

"Easy!" Nyunyu said.


It was not easy.

Cocona and Papika went up first, against the twins. There were two minutes on the timer, and the puck fell into the Flip Flapper's end first (I know we're all technically a part of Flip Flap now, but I'm just gonna call Cocona and Papika that as it'll be easier to keep track of teams that way). Papika's arm thrust out in a sudden strike that would have caught anyone off guard...

Anyone but Toto.

Thanks to his heightened processing speed, he anticipated the move, and had already moved himself to defend his and Yuyu's goal. The puck bumped off his striker at an angle, still moving pretty quickly, which Cocona just about managed to block, having to reach halfway across the table to do so (Papika didn't move, probably convinced her first hit would have been a perfect shot, and could only stand, bewildered, when it was deflected).

Yuyu saw the incoming puck and lashed her arm out to try and block it. She managed, successfully, and Toto was quick enough to move to bring it back to the twins' side of the table before Papika could claim it for the Flip Flappers. He put his free hand up to his left eye, and it twitched. His lips pulled backwards a little in a wince, as his hand went back to his side, in a motion that appeared a lot... 'heavier' than how either of the twins would normally move. He can defend, but he can't aim… Yuyu seemed to have picked up on this, and quickly swept her striker over the play area back and forth, giving no indication when she'd lash out.

When she did though, it was a direct hit. Cocona and Papika were prepared for an attack, and they both swiped their strikers to the side, in an attempt to catch her attack and send it harmlessly into the walls of the table, but no luck, Papika was too fast and Cocona was too slow.

One point for the twins.

The Flip Flapper's didn't let that defeat them though. Much like before, when she played House of the Dead, Papika's gaze became focused and a determined smile pulled at her mouth.

"Cocona!" All she had to do was say Cocona's name, and Cocona made her move. Although I had a powerful bond with Papika, and a connection to Cocona, it'd been quite a while since I felt their part of it together alongside mine. Much like when we piloted the mecha in Pops' world and in the fight against Yamimi, the bond between the two of them was powerful. Unbreakable. Just like both of those times, they began to move as if they'd planned all of this out. Not a word was spoken between them, but they both somehow knew what the other was doing, and they tried to cover each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Cocona tried to attack the twin's goal this time, and she came close to a successful hit, but Toto had just managed to stop it at the last second. Like before, Yuyu tried to make up for Toto's lack of aiming and tried again to get to the Flip Flapper's goal.

Standing there, watching them, mine and Nyunyu's heads were going from side to side, as if we were watching a tennis match, watching the puck bounce from end to end.

As hard as the Flip Flappers tried though, and as strong as their bond was, they just couldn't get past Toto's defense. Yuyu had managed to score another couple of hits before the timer buzzed. A tiny smirk appeared on the Toto's face, and the twins high-fived.

Cocona was grinning at the sight, "That was pretty fun" she said.

"Yeah it was!" Papika agreed, smiling despite her team's loss. She turned to me and Nyunyu, and said "beat them for us!" before stepping away from the table.

"You ready, Nyunyu?" I said, taking up the spot that was just vacated.

"Ready!" she said, taking up the striker that'd been used by Papika. I took Cocona's.

Cocona got the game started again, putting another two minutes on the clock.

I was hoping that by having watched the twins for the last match and observing their tactics that me and Nyunyu might have stood a chance. I was pretty sure, much like every other time, that Nyunyu didn't blink once during the whole match (I began to wonder if Asclepius made her for a purpose, like how Yuyu was the close combatant, and Toto was the medic/support unit, that Nyunyu was made for observation purposes.)

Either way, our match started almost identically to the way the twins against the Flip Flapper's did, with the puck falling into our end and Nyunyu using as much force as she could muster to try and get an instant goal. Toto blocked it without a problem, and returned the puck with as much power as Nyunyu did, only this time, he did get a goal against us (although I was fast, I couldn't quite work out when to move, and managed to over-shoot. Nyunyu, as the shortest of the group, what with being a kid, had a little difficulty reaching across to the middle of the table, and couldn't quite defend).

"Nyunyu, get to the back of the table, near the goal, and play defensive," I said. If she can't reach the middle standing at the edges, then that'd be the best place for her on this battlefield. I didn't really like giving my orders out loud, as it meant the twins would know what I was doing, but I had no way to communicate with her silently. Even if I could, they probably would have figured out what I was planning, after all, we've fought together as a team in Pure Illusion for a long time.

With Toto and Nyunyu near the goals, playing defensive, the match ended up being more me against Yuyu, both of us playing offense and trying to catch the other off guard. I wasn't sure if it's because Yuyu's arm was getting tired or something, but her attacks didn't quite seem as enthusiastic against me, like they were against the Flip Flappers. She still managed to score a few goals against the two of us (although Nyunyu was at the back near the goal, a couple of times it looked like she was trying to copy what she saw from the last game that was played, so the goal was open a couple of times).

Yuyu took advantage of this fact, so even though she seemed to be getting a little worn out, it didn't affect her too much. Much like earlier how Papika and Cocona covered each other, the twins worked perfectly together. Toto tried a few attacks himself, but they seemed... half-hearted, for want of a better phrase. I've seen him aim perfectly in the past, but here, he just seemed to be a little lost, just seemingly randomly attacking, rather than taking heavily calculated shots. Remembering his hand going to the empty air where his eyepiece should have been, throughout the day, I began to wonder just how much he relied on it...

As time passed, Nyunyu became better and better at defending the goal, so I'd guess she was learning how to play, or maybe coming up with her own strategies for dealing with the twin's play style. Eventually, it got to the point that even though the twins had already scored more goals against us than we could hope to counter (well, to be fair, even though Toto didn't have his eyepiece, his striker might as well have been a brick wall, we'd lost from their very first goal) we were still pretty damn determined to give the game our best shot.

As hard as we tried though, we ended up losing to them by a few points more than the Flip Flappers did…

When it came to me and Nyunyu against the Flip Flappers though... that's when the competition got really fierce.

The twins stood away from the table, and Cocona and Papika took their place. Neither of us could beat the twins, but there was still a chance we could beat the each other.

"For second place?" Cocona asked. Although she smiled, her voice didn't quite hold the enthusiasm for the game that was written all over Papika's face, but Cocona still seemed to have an air of excitement to her.

"For second place," I said.

Cocona put coins in the machine to get the game started. From the moment the counter displayed two minutes... I don't even quite know how to describe it. If you stepped within the area we were playing in, you would have been smacked in the face with this huge aura of competition.

This time, when the puck came out of the machine, it favoured the Flip Flapper's (previously, twin's) side of the table, and Cocona wasted no time, in whisking away the puck, far from mine and Nyunyu's end of the table. When it was safely out of range of us, Cocona had just about enough time to move her hand out of the way, before Papika smacked it as hard as she could in an attempt to get the first goal of the game.

I was quick enough to catch the incoming attack, but it wasn't quite enough to stop it getting closer to the goal than I would have liked. Nyunyu though, definitely having improved since the first game we played, managed to clip the puck with her striker, just about keeping it away from our goal...

And then she let off an attack of her own.

My jaw actually dropped, when the kid had managed to get a solid hit on the puck, and made it past Cocona and Papika, and scored the first goal for our team.

"Crapping hell..." I couldn't keep myself from cursing, I was just so surprised. "Nice one, Nyunyu!"

"Celebrate while you can, Yayaka..." "...We won't lose!" Papika started and Cocona ended, the bond between them flaring up.

Once again, when the game gave us another puck, it favoured Cocona and Papika, who promptly tried to even the scores. As hard as they tried though, they were really struggling to get past Nyunyu. It was kind of amazing just how much she'd improved in such a short time, going from sort of drifting her striker around a little aimlessly, to almost becoming as solid a defense as Toto.

Almost.

Although she was getting better, it wasn't quite enough to counter one of Cocona's attacks. She'd managed to bounce the puck off the walls carefully, just enough to throw Nyunyu off enough to get a goal.

The Flip Flappers quickly cheered, before turning their attention to the game, just as the puck got into my hands... although they got back to the game quickly, maybe they'd gotten a little cocky in that victory. Papika fumbled her defense and we got another goal in.

Papika was not happy about that.

Suddenly, the pink-haired girl became a lot more intense, and her blue eyes began to burn with a fury that I didn't know she was capable of. The new puck drifted lazily to the Flip Flapper's half of the field and Papika slammed her striker down on top of it, to keep it from moving. The force almost sent shockwaves through the table.

"Now you've done it..." Her voice was quiet, but the anger it held was unrestrained. It was... unsettling.

"Papika?" Cocona sounded worried. She took a step back, as if she was frightened of the pink-haired girl, herself.

"FLIP... FLAPPING!" Papika bellowed her war cry, and withdrew the striker from the puck, before putting it back on the table and ramming it forwards. Neither me or Nyunyu could move to defend our goal. The puck had darted across the table in maybe a second flat, there was no time to move.

We were even now. The air of competition surrounding our table began to give way to tension. I could feel it in my hands and in my teeth. Even Nyunyu seemed a little different with the change in atmosphere.

The new puck spat out of the machine over to our end of the table.

Fine... if that's how Papika wants it...

"Flip... FLAPPING!" I yelled, as loudly as I could, as if that would give me more power behind my next attack. It honestly felt like it did, but Cocona managed to smack the puck out of the way of hers' and Papika's goal, just about, when I was certain my speed would have stopped such a thing happening.

Apparently not.

And apparently, although scared earlier, Cocona was starting to lose herself to the madness too.

"Flip... Flapping!" She cried, as she sent the puck shooting back towards us.

"Flip flapping!" Nyunyu echoed, catching Cocona's attack, and sending it back.

You know, I think I heard the two-minute timer buzz at some point, but I could barely hear it over the blood roaring in my ears. Even though the air from the table died down, and the puck refused to move even a quarter as well as it was a few seconds ago, and the goals had both been blocked, we were still smacking the damn thing around for a long time. I don't even know why any more, I guess we were just so caught up, we didn't even realise it was over until the four of us were panting, worn out from yelling and trying to force the damn thing to the other person's end.

If Toto and Yuyu thought we were acting weird, they gave no indication, and both just stared blankly, as me, Cocona and Papika fell about the place laughing, at how caught up in the game we got, and how ridiculous we probably looked playing.

I didn't care though. This is a day when I get to play and laugh with my friends, and if we all looked like idiots, then we looked like idiots.

It was a while before we calmed down enough to have another look around the arcade and find the next game we could play.


My eyes ended up falling on a dance machine next… You know the ones, there was platform at the base of them, where there were a bunch of directional arrows, and you had to try and stomp on them at the right time, following the directions that scrolled up along the screen. There were a few dance machines all in a row, one of them was occupied, and the people dancing… one of them seemed like they were doing okay, maybe their movements were a little slow, but the machine was giving them 'good's for all their moves, so they can't have been that bad… The person next to them though was a different case entirely. They just sort of seemed to be flailing madly on the spot, trying desperately to keep up with the instructions the machine kept spitting out. It looked chaotic, but you only needed to use your feet for that game, no arms needed. Another game Yuyu could play.

"Why don't we give that a go?" I asked pointing to the row of dance machines. All at once, the amorphous kids' heads tilted to the side as they stared. Toto's head went back to normal not long after, as did Nyunyu's, I'd guess both watching intently, whereas Yuyu still seemed to express a little confusion.

Papika, seemed rather fond of the idea, "That looks like fun! Let's go, Cocona!"

"W-wait! Papika!" Cocona looked like she was about to protest, but Papika paid no attention to it, probably way too close to the machines now to have heard her, even if she shouted. Cocona sighed, and followed the wild pink-haired girl over to the machines, along with the rest of us.

By the time we got there, Papika was already on one of the dance platforms, wiggling where she stood, as if she were an exctied dog that had just seen their owner after a long time apart. Man, she's super excited for this.

"Cocona! Play with me!" Papika's eyes sparkled as she looked at her girlfriend, eager to get going. Cocona looked a little embarrassed to start with, seeing Papika acting like that, but it wasn't long before a chuckle worked its way out her throat, and she held her hand out for Papika to take. Papika smiled as she did so, and carefully pulled Cocona up on to the platform next to her. It was a little strange to see her acting like that, but I found myself grinning (and I admit, pretty jealous) as I watched them.

"What song do you want?" Cocona asked, after putting the coins in the machine.

"I don't know, just pick one!" Papika said. She was standing still now, but was still moving, bouncing on her heels, ready to go.

"Okay," Cocona said. She scrolled through the songs for a while. I wondered if she was choosing one she knew, or if she was just going by the names of the songs and hoping it was something she liked. It was a little while before Cocona finally settled on one, and music began to play. It was just a generic pop song, not too energetic…

Well, not too energetic to be listening to at least. The arrows on the dance machine seemed to have other ideas.

It wasn't long before Cocona was doing a pretty accurate impression of the poor person earlier, who was just flailing frantically. I honestly thought Papika would be doing better than her, and she was… but not by too much. She was quick on her feet, I partly wondered if the fact she never wore shoes helped her in this situation, but she was still thrashing around, in an attempt to keep up with the seemingly endless stream of arrows.

As the game went along though, Papika seemed to pick up a rhythm and eventually her performance went from 'confused thrashing' to passable, and she started to laugh as she danced, enjoying herself. Cocona still seemed kind of lost for how to move around, and she only really got into it, just as the song ended. She stared up at the screen, disappointed, and put another few coins in, ready to try again. She went through the songs again, debating which one to pick, when Papika pointed to one and said "Put that one on, Cocona! I like the name!"

Cocona looked at the pink-haired girl, and nodded, before doing as she was asked.

This song, much like the other one, wasn't too energetic, although the arrows on the screen seemed to be going at a slower pace, and easier to keep track of. Cocona didn't struggle half as much as this one, which she seemed pretty happy about. At one point, she even ended up giggling while she was dancing, enjoying herself a lot more than she probably thought she would, having gotten over her initial hesitance.

"That was pretty fun!" Cocona exclaimed, when the song finally ended, managing to speak around her laughter.

"You guys should give it a go!" Papika said, taking Cocona's hand, and leading her back down to the group.

I figured I'd step up next, as I was the one who pointed the machine out in the first place. That, and I admit I was a little curious about it myself. I remember fighting Papika in the clock tower of the yuri-hell-school, and I was using my speed booster to zip around the place. I thought to myself then, if that's how ballet dancers felt, maybe I should give ballet a go. Well, that idea's kind of gone out of my mind until now, but still, I could give this kind of dancing a try. I'm pretty fast, I reckon I'll be okay at it.

I was about to ask Cocona for some coins, so I could get to dancing right away, but for all the activities we've tried here so far, everyone's been in pairs, and it felt kinda weird standing up here on my own. Even then, I pointed these things out because they were a thing someone else would be able to try…

"Hey, Yuyu, get up here," I said, calling to the silver-haired girl. Her red eyes looked up at me, mostly blank, but with a hint of curiosity. Her good arm was resting on her cast. Is she worried about that?

"It's okay, Yuyu, you don't need to use your arms for this one at all," I held out my hand to her, trying to invite her up to the platform next to me.

She blinked up at me, a little confused, before taking a slow step forward, and another, and then reaching out for my hand. I helped tug her up onto the dance platform (it was slightly raised), and then I turned to Cocona, to ask for a couple of coins. She placed them in the palm of my hand, and I wrapped my fingers around them. I felt a little twinge in the bond between me and Papika, and I turned to the blue-eyed girl to see her smiling at me as if she knew something. She must've worked out I've been trying to find games Yuyu could play… I felt a little embarrassed, and thought I felt my face heat up a little, so I quickly turned around and went back to the dance machine.

I put the coins in the slot, and scrolled through the list of songs. Nothing I recognised, but even then, my music knowledge was extremely limited, to the few scraps of lyrics I heard on the radio once or twice and the few CDs Cocona's played while I was at her house, so chances of me seeing something I knew would have been pretty astronomical. As I had a flick through the list though, I noticed something I don't think Cocona or Papika did: tucked away in the bottom right corner of the screen was a 'difficulty' rating. Curious, I hovered over the two songs the Flip Flappers hand danced to, and saw they were only three stars of five in terms of difficulty. So, about average then… I was tempted to pick another song that was three-star difficulty too, but decided against it. Although I might be up to try that, I should probably pick something a little easier. Yuyu might be built for close combat, and able to spot a weak point from a mile away, but she might struggle to keep her balance, not being able to move the arm in the cast at all.

I went for something that had a two-star difficulty rating, as I figured that would be some kind of middle ground for the both of us. The song started up, and it was pretty slow, but that didn't stop my heart rate from spiking when I saw the arrows pop up on the screen. Not as many as Cocona and Papika had to deal with, but it still looked like a threatening amount. I felt a little surrounded. Why the hell did I choose this? What was I thinking?

My initial panic probably showed as I stepped forwards twice, following the directions, but then came a 'left' and felt my foot slip, almost causing me to fall over. Maybe Papika was on to something, not wearing shoes on here… I managed to correct myself though and missed a step to the right. "Tch…" I can do better than this. I know I can!

Despite that early setback, and seeing how Cocona and Papika struggled pretty bad to start with, I settled in to the beat quite quickly. My heart was still pounding a little fast, but it was more because I was doing exercise now, rather than because I was worried or embarrassed about being on display like this.

I snuck a quick glance at Yuyu while I had a break in the song, and saw she was carefully watching the screen, trying to register which arrow was next. She didn't seem to be struggling like I thought she would. Although the arrows were fairly spread out, beyond falling short once or twice (not quite stepping onto the arrow on the platform enough for the game to record it), she didn't have a problem stepping in time to the music at all, and was moving pretty smoothly. Her face was blank, expressing no emotion. Is she okay with this? Should I have called her up here in the first place? At that last thought, her red eyes flicked to mine, as if she knew what I was just thinking. Once again, like I had a couple of times before, I wondered if she or Toto could read minds. Well, if she could, she didn't answer my question with a reaction of any sort. In fact, the only response I got from her was that she looked at my screen, then back to me, nodded, and returned her attention to the game in front of her.

I looked back at my game and realised I must have spent longer looking at her than I thought. I'd gone from doing pretty well, to being welcomed with a string of 'miss!' pasted all over the screen. I cursed, and tried to recover. Why the hell am I putting so much effort into this?

About thirty seconds later, the song ended. I was kinda glad it didn't show up with a graph or anything, showing how well you did, as mine would have gone from a steady plateau to completely tanking, before jerking back up into a little mountain range. I turned back to face the others, feeling flustered, although not really knowing why. I wanted to demand 'what the hell are you looking at?' to everyone watching… wait a second, there's a couple more people around the dance machines now. Is something going on here?

The instant the song was over, Yuyu did a 180 and walked over to where the others were standing. It was a little while before I joined them. Cocona seemed a little uneasy at the crowd that'd gathered, as did Toto. I thought I saw him glance quickly at someone in the crowd, before he stepped forward. It was then that I realised that all of them were wearing the same school uniforms as Toto and Yuyu. Classmates? I suddenly felt a little worried for them. They've probably never seen them at a place like this… or at all outside really. My hands tightened into fists at my side, as I heard them all whispering amongst each other. If anyone at their school makes fun of the twins for this, I'm borrowing Yuyu's gauntlet, and hunting them down.

"Want to try," Toto said, a little more hurried than he usually spoke. The heck is up with him? I thought with all the people around, he'd want to get out of here as soon as possible, especially if he knew them, but if anything, it seemed to motivate him further.

"Me too!" Nyunyu said, completely unaffected by all the strangers. She held her hand out to Cocona, who gave her a few coins, and then rushed over to the machine. Before anyone else could say anything, Nyunyu went through all the songs and picked one. I just about managed to catch the five-star difficulty rating in the bottom right corner, before the screen changed, the music started blasting and a flood of arrows appeared.

Holy frag…

It didn't look like there was a single gap on the screen at all, or if there was, it was barely an inch long, as if the game expected you to move from one direction to another instantly, but with maybe just a tiny little break to throw you off-beat.

Nyunyu, what the crapping hell were you thinking?

I had no idea what she was thinking, and I'd never find out. Hell, I'd be surprised if I even remembered that was a thought I ever had at all…

Because the very second Toto and Nyunyu moved…

Everyone was shocked into silence.

All you could hear was the song (the beat of which made me wonder if some poor person had chugged every soda, cup of coffee, and every single grain of sugar on the planet, and then just started pressing buttons randomly), and everyone breathing.

Every single step Toto and Nyunyu took was smooth, as if they'd planned for this exact moment their entire lives. Neither of them missed a single step, and every single arrow they hit made the screen flash gold in places with 'perfect!' all over. Hell, it appeared so much, I was surprised it didn't throw them off at all, I'm pretty sure any regular person would have been…

But they're not regular people.

Toto, the red-eyed boy was made from amorphous, was made to process and take into account thousands of objects at once. The sheer amount of 'perfects' began to block the arrows on the screen at points, but Toto had already noted exactly where each arrow was, and exactly where it would be, and would know what time he'd have to move. Hell, if he was facing away from the screen, and only had a reflection in front of him to try and dance to, that probably wouldn't have thrown him off in the slightest. If we ever came back here, I'd be tempted to bring a mirror with me, to see if that would be the case.

I have no idea how Nyunyu was keeping up with all of this. Maybe, if my guess that she was made for observation was correct, and the fact she improved at the air hockey the more she played (and fast), she was made to learn quickly too. Incredibly quickly, if her strings of 'perfect!' and 'great!' were anything to go by (her timing wasn't quite as good as Toto's, but still, the fact she successfully hit the arrows on the screen was pretty damn amazing).

"Go Toto!" a girl in the crowd yelled. I turned my head a little, not quite wanting to turn away from the insane spectacle before us, but wanting to know who spoke. I noted it came from the vauge direction Toto looked in earlier, before he volunteered to step up and dance. After hearing that one person though, it wasn't long before all the people in the crowd had joined in cheering him on, punching the air, and just shouting in general.

From seeming so uncertain of things earlier, because of his missing eyepiece, he seemed to have gained quite a bit more confidence from all the people calling his name, or at least that's what I'd guess from the tiny grin I saw on his face, from when he spun around in a circle on the dance machine.

The song game to a close, what felt like much too soon, and it wasn't long before the whole place was in an uproar of cheers and applause. Nyunyu, who was facing the screen and hadn't seen the arrival of all these new people, blinked, a little startled, to see all the people gathered around. Toto, however, was still smirking, as if he enjoyed the attention… He stepped down from the machine, with Nyunyu in tow, and a number of guys around his age came up to him and patted him on the shoulder, congratulating him on doing an amazing job, and probably even setting a world record. The only response Toto really gave them was a quick nod, as he passed through the group. A couple of them complimented the skills of his 'little sister' too, which Nyunyu also responded to with nods of acknowledgement.

"Toto!" The girl who'd gotten the crowd going in the first place called out. All the people that had approached Toto to praise him took steps back all of a sudden as a girl (who I swear I'd never seen before, but struck me as familiar) rushed up to him and put her arms around him. "Toto, that was fantastic! I didn't know you could dance like that!"

"R-Ruri-chan" Toto stuttered. The main crowd began to disperse, leaving the two of them alone. Yuyu, Cocona and Papika had all gone over to Nyunyu, maybe trying to reassure her, as she still seemed a bit startled by all the people that'd suddenly appeared as she played.

Before Toto could really say or do anything else, the girl had left him and gone over to some of her school friends, and it was then that it hit me where I'd seen her before: she was the person who was standing to Toto's right in the class picture he had. The one he was looking at rather than the camera...

I turned to Toto and I swear his cheeks were a little pink. Is he blushing? My eyebrows raised at that point. Does he have a crush on her? It was possible, but the idea of that struck me as a little strange. I would have thought Asclepius would take away the amorphous kids' ability to feel anything like that... Apparently though, they didn't, and I felt a grin creep along my face.

"So... Ruri-chan, huh?" I asked him. He turned to look at me, his eyes a little wide, maybe because he was flustered from Ruri's attention, or embarrassed as someone had watched the whole exchange. As tempted as I was to tease poor Toto, I got the feeling I probably shouldn't do that, and instead, my grin became a soft smile, and I spoke in a gentle tone of voice I didn't quite think I was capable of (or certainly wouldn't have been capable of if I'd never met Cocona). "You like her, right?"

Toto dipped his head a fraction in a nod. His eyes flicked off in the direction Ruri and her friends went.

"Go talk to her," I said. Toto looked up at me, his eyes still a little wide, and tilted his head to the side like a confused bird. In any other situation I might have laughed at the sight.

"It's okay, Toto. I wanted to take you guys all out today so you could have some fun." Frag knows when we'll get another chance to do so after all, I mean, we're not working for Asclepius any more, but that doesn't mean Flip Flap are gonna let us have as many chances to goof off like this. Especially if Hidaka keeps treating me like he does... Especially if you almost die in Pure Illusion again... I think my smile dropped with that thought. Could he even come with us again? "Don't worry about me or the others," I quickly stepped behind Toto, to try and hide my face, and gently pushed him away from me. "Take this chance while you have it, and go talk to her."

Toto took a couple of hesitant steps forward. I just about had time to force a smile and nod, encouragingly, at him as he turned back to face me. It was a second before he returned my gesture, and wandered off to find Ruri.

Go and be happy, Toto. Tell her what I could never tell Cocona...

"Where'd Toto go?" Papika and the others had approached in time to see him as he left the group.

"There was someone from school he wanted to talk to, he said he'd meet us later" I said, my voice coming out sadder than I'd planned it to. Damn it, Yayaka, you took everyone out to have fun today, didn't you? Don't bring them down like this. I tried to change the subject quickly before anyone could ask why I appeared upset. "He also told me about a really cool arcade game in this place we have to try. Come on!"

I beckoned them as I dashed off in a random direction. What I said was a complete lie ((One of many...)) and I had no idea where the hell I was going ((When do you ever...?)) but I just wanted to try and run these thoughts away. I didn't even know if the others were following me, or if they'd even be able to catch up. ((Telling Toto to be with the one he likes when you can't do it yourself... You can change that though, just switch with me...))

"Never." My voice was quiet and defiant as I spoke, but I needed to say that out loud. To prove I still had control over myself. Cocona's chosen Papika. ((Switch with me...)) I can't destroy that. ((I can make Cocona yours...))

I wasn't looking where I was going, trying desperately not to get caught up in my own damn head and managed to crash into a table, not aware of my surroundings. Pain shot through my legs and I fell to the ground. You're always telling others to be alert, Yayaka, take your own advice!

"Shut up..." I mumbled out loud.

"Yayaka! Are you okay?" I was surprised to hear Cocona's voice so close. She knelt down next to me and tried to wrap one of her arms under my shoulder, to try and help me up. ((Switch with me...))

It took all I had right then, not to shove Cocona away or to yell at her. Instead, I tried to focus on the pain in my legs, and tried to wriggle away from her grasp. My eyes fell on the table I ran into and I realised it wasn't a table at all... It looked more like an electronic drum kit. What the... Further investigation of the area revealed a couple of guitar-shaped controllers, and a microphone stand, all of which had cables connected to a fairly large screen in front of us. The video demo that played for the game showed a rock band on stage, singing and playing their instruments. A... music game? I guess I should have expected something like this to exist after seeing the dance machines, but still.

Papika, Nyunyu and Yuyu's eyes were all glued to the screen, watching in awe.

"That looks fun!" Papika declared.

Fun? I looked at Cocona, into those warm brown eyes I loved so much, and tried to keep a hold on my voice as I told her "This is the game I was looking for. Got so excited I ran right into it..." I got paranoid then if she knew I was lying through my teeth, ((Not the first time you've done that to her...)) and forced myself to take a few steps away from her, not trusting myself to be within physical contact range. She reached out a hand, as if to try and touch my shoulder, or to try and help me stand, but I tried to make it look like I was fine, and not that the reality was that if I ended up on the ground again, I'd probably stay there for an hour pretty happilly. She seemed to accept what I said, and had a closer look at one of the guitar controllers.

"Maybe we could give this game a try then..." she said, as she slung the strap over her shoulder.

"Me too!" Nyunyu said, rushing over to take a seat at the drum kit. I pulled a face, a little annoyed, as that's exactly the instrument I wanted to pick right now (although at the same time, like I said, I don't think I'd plan to get up any time soon if I did sit down or anything), and instead I went over to Yuyu who was still staring at the screen, longingly, her good arm resting on her cast... and my heart sank.

If my mood hadn't been bought down by my thoughts before, it certainly would have taken a nose-dive right then. Even though there's not a piano here, she still wants to play... And she can't... First Yuyu had to go along on a bug hunt she didn't want to be part of, then couldn't play House of the Dead for that long, or the fighting game she wanted to, didn't seem to care for the dance machine, and now the one game she'd probably wanna play more than anything else...

I stamped a foot on the ground in frustration, and winced as pain shot through my legs. I deserve it though. I can't make myself happy, and what was meant to be a day of fun for everyone has ended up in Yuyu being left out more than anyone. She hasn't complained once, but she has to be hating this.

I need to make it up to her...

It was then that I spotted a fifth instrument, hidden just below the screen... and I found a small smile work its way to my face.

I think I can do that.


Yuyu

Very different today. Unusual activities, not normally done before.

Toto playing piano. Can take you to other worlds with only sound. Talent. Toto thought of plan to go to Flip Flap. Can play piano. Assissted Nyunyu with bug hunt... Useful.

Watched video of the game play. Hit buttons in time to create music. Much like real instruments...

Like music. Poetry without voice. Art without sight. Vibrations of strings, drum tops or human voice. Blending, and weaving together in melody. Harmony. Emotion. Strong emotion. Fascinating.

Wonderful.

Want to learn. Want to try...

Dry plaster cast under right hand. Left arm trapped within. Bad arm. Want to play. Want to use arm. Want to be normal. Can't.

Angry. Useless. A burden.

Defective...

"Hey, Yuyu, come here," Yayaka's voice. Turn. Standing next to a keyboard, hand on it. Crooked smile aimed at me. "You wanna play too, right?"

Stunned. Keyboard. Not piano, but similar. Drawn to it. Game says what to press. Follow instructions.

Walked over. Eyes didn't leave keyboard. Might be gone if I look away. ...Illogical thought. Physically impossible. Just... hard to believe.

Took a seat at it. Touched the keys. White. Black. Plastic. Pressed one. No sound. Connected to game probably, but keyboard is playable.

Playable!

"Everyone ready?" Cocona's voice. All answered. Yayaka answered for me. Staying by my side. Found a keyboard. Called me over so I could play. I smiled. She cares.

Yayaka... Keyboard...

Happy...


Yayaka

I'm not gonna lie, I felt pretty good when I found the keyboard. Yuyu seemed mesmerised by the fact it existed. She stared down at it and pressed a key, as if to check it was real. Cocona called out, asking if everyone was ready to go.

"We're good!" I replied, before turning back to see Yuyu sitting there with the corners of her lips turned upwards in a little smile. She wasn't looking at me, but I ended up smiling right at her. It was nice to see her finally enjoying something today.

Cocona had a look through the list of songs, once again, maybe trying to find one she knew. I'd guess Nyuynu was getting inpatient waiting, or she just wanted to play, because she started tapping the drumsticks together in the air. It wasn't too long into Cocona's scrolling, that Papika pointed at the screen, and said "choose that one! I like the name!" Cocona scrolled back up to the song (called 'Over the Rainbow'*) and selected it. There wasn't really an indication of difficulty for the songs themselves this time, unlike the dance machine, but each person could pick their individual difficulty depending on how well they thought they could play the instruments. Cocona ended up going for easy, I'd guess not feeling too confident, Nyunyu began to tap the drum pads (the middle two of which acted as up and down) until she settled on normal, as did Papika.

Yuyu however, hesitated for quite a while. There were two ways to play the keyboard, 'simple' which would only show up 5 keys on the screen to press (which probably would have been okay for Yuyu), but she ended up picking the 'pro' mode. I could see why, as it was more realistic to how you'd play a piano in real life, but all I could think was how that may not have been the best choice for Yuyu. Well, it turns out she wasn't quite thinking of herself.

"Play with me,"

I blinked, shocked, and looked down at her. "What?" I had to check I wasn't just hearing things.

"Play with me," she said again, only a little louder this time. I could barely hear her over the song that'd started up, and by the sounds of it, instruments were being introduced fast. Cocona and Nyunyu were already playing. It probably wouldn't be long before Yuyu and Papika had to join in. I quickly glanced up at the screen, and saw… a lot of things going on. Like the dance machines, there were buttons to press scrolling along the screen that had to be hit in time (Five for Cocona's guitar, but only three colours showed up, I'd guess because of the difficulty she chose, and 4 colours for Nyunyu, with an orange bar for the kick drum), and in the background was a video of a rock band. There was also a horizontal bar at the top, I wondered about, but it wasn't long before the first lyrics of the song showed up on that bar, and I knew Papika would be singing soon… I caught sight of a string of white notes spread out over a very long area of the screen. Is that the keyboard?! Crapping hell, there's no way Yuyu can play this on her own.

I knelt down as quickly as I could, trying to ignore the pain in my legs, and hovered my left hand over the keyboard (I could have used my right as well, but if Yuyu was playing herself, she'd only have two hands to use. I'd feel like I was cheating if I used both my hands right now. I'm not sure Yuyu or Cocona would approve of it if I did), and just about managed to catch some of the notes as they started to dance along the screen.

I'm pretty sure I messed up a lot, I kept getting lost for where my fingers were on the keyboard and kept looking up and down, to the point of if my neck crapped up on me in addition to my legs, I wouldn't have been surprised.

One thing I was surprised to learn though: Papika was a pretty good singer! She sounded pretty close to how the original artist did, it was a little like there was a slight echo in here. Nyunyu's drumming seemed a little erratic to start with, as Nyunyu didn't quite seem to want to follow the directions on the screen, but eventually she began to drum in time, and mixed with Papika's singing, became quite a nice sound. Cocona may not have seemed too confident and picked the easy mode, but she seemed to be getting into it, and I thought I heard her chuckle once or twice, enjoying herself. I would have loved to have seen her face, but turning around would have meant the chaos that was the keyboard segment of the song would… Well, I don't want Yuyu to get a game over, when she has a chance to play an instrument that's pretty close to the one she's always wanted to play, especially if she's had such a bad day until now.

Either way, the music was all coming together, the five of us working as a team to make a song… Okay, the parts of the song that were bound to the keyboard were pretty on-and-off (literally, the song cutting out whenever me or Yuyu missed a note, and starting up again when we hit the next one in the sequence), but I looked over at Yuyu a couple of times while we played and…

She's really in to this… She winced when one of us missed a note, spoiling the song a little, but the other times, when she was hitting the notes and everything was working as it should? There was a light in those ruby eyes, and a smile on Yuyu's face, like I've never seen before. Hell, she was beaming. Her silver hair bobbed a little and caught the lights of the arcade, as she looked between keyboard and screen, making it look like flowing liquid metal.

She looked so… alive. The fact she only had one good arm and was only playing half of the notes wasn't getting to her at all. I thought I felt a little spark or something in my chest as I looked at her, and I found myself grinning.

Actually, playing together like this with everyone… I noticed as the song went along, that my bonds with Papika and Cocona flared. Nyunyu's did as well, although it was pretty weak, I'd guess because it was a pretty new connection… And that spark in my chest? I think that was a bond beginning with me and Yuyu.

Being a part of a team, hanging out with friends, and getting a little closer to these people as we worked together to do all of this…

It felt like a dream.

I ended up bursting into a giggling fit. Feeling everyone together like this… I felt warm. Like I was important, a part of something. I was with friends, and I was enjoying myself…

I was happy. Almost like I could have been floating or something. It was probably the best I'd ever felt in my whole life.

This is great!

… And then it happened.

VWOOOHB!

I guess we were all feeling pretty close to each other at that point. We must have all synched up, because the ground yawned open beneath us, into a huge black void…

A huge black Hole…

I just about had time to grab Yuyu's hand before we fell into Pure Illusion...


Authors note: I didn't have a particular House of the Dead game in mind when writing the arcade scene, I've only played a couple of them once, it was just the first arcade game I could think of that had a gun you'd shoot at a screen, but I think I ended up going for House of the Dead 2. I don't know if there'd still be any arcade machines for that game around at all, but oh well. Also, for the fighting games, I Don't really play them, so I just sorta made one up on the spot for the fic.

*Papika/Cocona's song choice: 'Over the Rainbow': The song that plays at the end of Episode 13 of Flip Flappers. Actually sung by Papika's and Cocona's Japanese voice actresses, so I thought it'd be a good choice. I wanted to refrence it somehow in my last fic in the last chapter, but with the ending I ended up going for, there wouldn't have been a chance to do so.

But yes, the arcade segment of the chapter? The air hockey and the dance machine and the Rock Band/Guitar Hero? Those are the ideas I found myself smiling really hard about on public transport. Anyone who looked over at me must have thought I was a complete weirdo... I just thought it'd be really funny to have all the characters go to an arcade and check things out and play the games there. Hell, I have at least 3 more arcade scenes I've written that didn't make it into the fic because good GOSH at the rate I'm going, the characters would end up friggin' living in there if I kept writing… AND I STILL HAVE IDEAS FOR A FEW MORE ARCADE SCENES! They'll probably be posted in another fic or something... eventually. I'd like to finish this story first.

But yes, I hope you had as much fun reading about the characters in the arcade, as I had thinking up all the ideas and bursting out laughing in the middle of a café while having lunch with a friend, for seemingly no reason.