Notes: Episode 161, "Coming Terror! The Dark Queen's Evil Approach" (Or, "The one where the spiderwebs start covering everything.")

Episode 161

Motoki Furuhata loved his job.

There was nothing like working at Crown. All the lights and sounds, all that chaos. Motoki reveled in it. He loved that the arcade had a place for its customers at any time of day. Gatherings began at Crown, or they ended there. People would walk in for a spontaneous game, or plan their entire day there. Every face could change in a half-hour, or it could be that you saw the same people there from open to close.

Those faces were the ones Motoki knew best. He made it a point to know as many customers as he could and to take an interest in their gaming tastes. Like Jirou, currently sitting a console with his back straight and his eyes nearly unblinking, deep in the grips of the latest shooter. Across the arcade was Mai, who was busy defending her reign as champion of light guns. Each of them was his favourite customer.

But even among his favourites, Motoki had favourites. Customers who were more than customers. During their time in the arcade, Motoki came to know them beyond the games they played, and they weren't customers any more, they were friends.

They were little sisters.

"Well if you won't play, Mako-chan, then I guess I just win by default!"

They were TROUBLE.

"Like hell you do. You're on!"

Oh no.

Motoki peered around one of the crane machines and what he saw sent his stomach into his shoes. He was hoping he'd heard wrong, that the voices didn't belong to them, or that there was another Mako-chan being taunted into an unwise situation.

But no. It was exactly the Mako-chan he expected.

Makoto Kino pushed up her sleeves and stretched to work out the kinks in her arms. Her friend and competitor, Minako Aino, was rocking on her heels and running a coin over between her fingers. She looked far too pleased with herself. Motoki hadn't realized that his stomach had gone back to its start position until it plummeted all over again.

"Guys, I'm not sure this is a good idea." Ami looked worriedly between her two friends, and Motoki could've hugged her for trying.

Trying was as far as she got, as Rei appeared next to Ami and flung an arm around her shoulders. "Let them be, Ami-chan," she said with a evil glint in her eye. "Either Mako wins and beats Minako, or Mako loses and Minako gets pounded into the ground and WE win!"

"I don't really think that's winning," Ami replied, but Rei was too busy being delighted with herself to notice.

"Go Mako-chan!" Usagi cheered. Minako glared over her shoulder. "Uh, go Minako-chan!" Mako shot Usagi a wounded look. Usagi floundered. "Go … everybody! Yay?"

"No creepy spiderwebs to get you out of it this time, Mako-chan," Minako said, stepping up to the left-hand controls of the fighting game. "We WILL have a winner."

"And it'll be ME," declared Mako, grasping the joystick on the right and positioning her fingers over the buttons. "I won't go easy on you!"

Minako grinned, relishing the challenge. "I wouldn't have it any other way!"

She pushed the coin into the slot. To Motoki's ears, it sounded like thunder.

He didn't need to wonder about the results. Motoki knew his customers, and he knew this group of girls best of all.

Ten minutes later, Minako had bolted out of the arcade, Rei was laughing so hard she had to use Ami for support, Ami was trying her best to fade into the background to escape the stares of other customers, Usagi was gawking at the arcade machine in unabashed wonder, and Mako was bowing in deep apology to Motoki and promising him a month of dinners and apartment cleaning.

Motoki brushed it off, although he did agree to let Mako come by around 2pm tomorrow to tidy a bit. As the girls left Crown (Mako immediately shouting and waving her fist in the direction Minako had vanished), he slapped an already-prepared "Out of Order" sign on the fighting game and picked up the snapped half of the joystick.

Once the afternoon crowd thinned, Motoki would swap out the broken joystick for one in his secret supply of control panel parts in the back room marked "Kino". Replacing a joystick was a bit time-consuming, but not hard, and he'd had plenty of practice. The machine would be good as new, and nobody would ever be the wiser.

One day, Makoto might even beat Minako! At the very least, he hoped she would never stop trying.

Motoki Furuhata loved his job.