Part two!

Shizuo

That...that really just happened…!

I shook my head as if I could possibly, just physically, shake off the overwhelming feeling of insecurity. My whole body was trembling. I hadn't expected such a serious chain reaction to follow such a simple question. The flea set me up...He had to've!

"Fuck!" I hissed under my breath between gritted teeth.

How? I asked myself. How did I play into his hands so easily? He planned that whole conversation...

The feeling of the handle turning on the other side of the door under my own had me jumping to the other side of the hall. The raven stepped out, and much to my dismay, had the same smug look plastered on his face as if nothing had ever happened. If I hadn't witnessed it for myself just now, I'd actually believe the never-faltering, cynical act he put on for everyone else to see...Nonetheless, I knew he was just as cruel and heartless as before.

"What are you still loitering around here for?" he scoffed, and there was something more off-putting by his tone instead of his usual cheerful lilt. "Or did you just want to escort me?"

I didn't respond, but my eyes were like daggers. His gaze never did give in, but I knew that we both knew, he had very well crossed a line. There was a moment of silence between us.

"Oh, I see how it is," he continued, canting his head to the side. His grin widened and his eyes narrowed. "You'd prefer me walk in front of you, right? Can't say I blame you, though, it must be a pleasant view~," he chuckled, turning on his heel toward the elevator.

My glare never left him as I followed suit. The more I looked at him, I decided, the more annoyed I got. The way he pretended like things were fine was what pissed me off the most. He walked down the hall acting completely normal with his head still high and overconfidence in his strides. He wanted the world to know that nothing could break him.

We were silent all the way down to the South Wing of the building where the rest of our gang were waiting for us.

"We were just about to come looking for you two…" Shinra slowed down his pace, frowning as he approached us. His expression settling on skepticism, as he looked between me and the flea. "Did something...happen here?"

I supposed the grim cast of my features, versus the flea's jubilant ones spoke for themselves.

"Nothing," I said distastefully.

"Not a thing~," the raven sang, shaking his head with a plastic smile.

"Riiiiight..." There was an amused disbelief in our bespectacled friend's response. A quick smirk flashed as he continued. "Anyway, now that we've waited an extra twenty minutes, which, I guess in your cases was pretty quick—"

"Another word, Shinra!" I gritted, holding back the fumes of my temper.

"—we are all ready to go inside," he clapped.

"Ah," the raven chuckled, "what a sense of humor you have today, Shinra, but please, focus your erotic fantasies on your housekept-woman back home," he said patting the doctor-to-be's shoulder as he walked by.

I followed the crowd into the dim room of the arcade. The only light source came from the flashing bulbs of the entertainment centers, black lighting in the ceiling panels, and a neon-red 'EXIT' sign in the far corner of the large room. The purple illuminating from above distorted the colours around me. Everything seemed like an unrealistic, trippy dream, from all of the bright colours and flashing lights; it was like I had walked into Wonderland.

For example, the violet sweatshirt I was sporting, turned neon, and the white drawstrings and zipper glowed along with my shirt. Everyone around me looked animated from the obscure shadows cast by dim, purple lights. The otherwise ebony walls and roof made everything seemed infinite. It was indeed a spacious room, though, what else should I have expected? There were aisles upon aisles of various consoles and automatons occupied by young gamers and teens. In all the commotion, my eyes didn't know where to start looking first.

Erika came up, tapping me on the shoulder, interrupting my observations. I bent down to listen to what she was saying, but it was hard to hear her with all the bells and buzzing ringing in the background. I was pretty sure she said something along the lines of finding a coin machine, when I read her lips.

There was a fairly long line when we found it, not that we were in any sort of rush. Few words were spoken due to the excessive noise, so I continued watching the bustling from where I stood. I couldn't help but smile to myself at the memories the nostalgic room was bringing back to me. I hadn't been to an arcade since middle school; Kasuka and I always used to stop by the local one for an hour or so on our way home. On Friday nights we would blow our allowance, sometimes staying past dinner, which mom was never happy about. It was an exciting feeling, being able to experience it all over again. I felt the adrenaline start to pump from the recollections, my nerves itching to try out the same games from back in the day.

I let my eyes wander back to the line. I noticed It had shortened some, but I didn't dwell on it for long when my eyes stopped ahead of me.

The flea was standing a few feet away, inserting a bill into the dispenser. The rattle of metal falling against metal quickened my heartbeat, for I knew it was his signal to kneel down and collect his change. I stared bashfully, regretfully, watching him bend over as he reached into the little slot for the coins. I felt a blush creep on my face when his shirt rose ever so slightly, exposing the waistband of ebony, name brand briefs; enough to see the pale, small of his back. I couldn't help but lower my vision, stopping at the roundness of his lower posterior; the perfect curve of his dark jeans hugged his ass perfectly-

Good God, did I really just think that?!

I bit my lip nervously as he casually stood back up to leave, but caught glimpse of me peeking before I could avert my eyes. He winked as he sashayed away with an all too knowing grin. Annoyed, I put a thousand yen bill into the machine and took my pocket full of tokens distainly.

We all split up after that. As I walked around, I saw Kadota and Togusa playing air hockey and Erika and Yumasaki battling it out in Dance Dance Revolution. So far, I hadn't run into the flea, nor Shinra.

I played PacMan, Street Fighter and the other classics. Some middle schoolers on winter holiday asked me if I wanted to play Mortal Kombat with them and I accepted. They were the type of kids that spent their entire break inside playing single games to master them and ask older teens like myself to a match. They were competition, I'll admit, but my skill level took years of experience (and many broken consoles), that I somehow managed to keep all this time.

I continued roaming around, eventually finding myself in a hallway much brighter than the way I had came. My eyes took a moment to adjust to the white LED's paneling the ceiling. The luminescent entryway led to a new room, one in which I was surprised I didn't see any traces of Erika nor Yumasaki's path of destruction.

The well-illuminated chamber was decorated to be an otaku paradise. Anime characters and promotional posters were everywhere, on every wall, window and three-dimensional object. From the roof to the floorboards were pictures of school girls, idols, fantasy weapons, magical creatures and anything else you could possibly imagine related to Japanese animation. Even the music I could make out in the background behind the white noise of consoles were themes to anime. I figured if there was an otaku heaven, it would probably look something on par to this.

This was an entirely new dimension foreign to me. Sure, I had kept up with a few manga throughout my childhood and I would occasionally sit down with Kasuka to watch a series, so I did recognize some of the characters — or had at least seen them around Sunshine City, where all the anime hype was. But this...This was overwhelming.

I found myself walking absentmindedly, in no particular direction, passing hordes of teens surrounding the wall of gachapons, girls reading magazines, and guys fighting over whose turn it was to drive the racing simulator. Everyone was glued to some sort of screen or glass enclosure full of stuffed animals and other prizes. I watched a kid for a straight five minutes insert coin after coin to try to knock down a boxed figurine of Ayanami Rei, crying out about his so-called anime wife. I figured by the time he actually got it — and let's face it, who knew when that would be — he could have probably bought the thing for the same price at the one of those figma stores or Animate.

I realized I had stopped walking; somehow my subconscious had led me to a claw machine full of mini boxed figures of a series I immediately recognized to be one of my brother's favourite series. I supposed it was one of mine too. The iconic black flag with the skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat stood out among the rest of the automatons in it's row. Not to mention, the toggle was replaced with pirate ship wheel made of out cheap plastic, painted to look like real wood. The One Piece appliance was kind of cute, I had to admit...

I hesitantly scanned the premises before putting in one of my gold tokens to start the machine. I used to be a pro at games like these, and wanted to check if I still had that magic touch. I figured if I won, I could surprise Kasuka when I got home. If not, it really wasn't a big deal...I was more curious than anything, and I promised myself I would only give into the temptation one time.

I searched around the glass frame for a prize I could easily reach. If I was lucky, I might be able to even get his favourite character. In the scattered mess of figmas, they all wore different outfits from different arcs in the series. It really didn't matter what clothes she wore, I just had to get him a Nami.

One prize in particular caught my eye, and I noticed it stuck up at just the right angle. I felt confident enough to give it a try. One time only, though.

I carefully moved the metal grabber off center. The awkward wheel felt even more foreign to me as I maneuvered the claw above the small toy, taking a deep breath before pressing the release button. My heart beat loudly in my ears as the clamp descended at a snail's pace. It sunk into the pile of prizes half-assed, but managed to catch onto the box I had my eye on. There was a sigh of relief as the Nami I had captured transcended, and was carried to the corner where the winning slot was. However, I had thanked the gods too soon, when suddenly the little box slipped from the claw's flimsy grasp.

In disbelief, I pressed myself against the transparent barrier, irritably wondering how I hadn't gotten that one. It was right there. I had it!

I huffed in annoyance, digging another coin from my pocket to start up the console once more. I figured if I had gotten it that far, I might as well finish what I started. And so, once again, I calculated my coordinates right to where I knew the claw would precisely fall. I pushed the drop button, knowing that this time I had it for sure!

Only, fate denied my winnings once more.

"What the fuck?!" I hissed under my breath, foraging another coin from pocket. I nearly jammed the thing in the dispenser and impatiently waited for the steering wheel to turn on. It did, not fast enough though, to save me from accidentally hitting the button in the center releasing the clamp.

"FUCK!"

I pretended not to notice the group of strangers passing by giving me strange looks as I got out a fourth token, feeding it to the machine as gently as my trembling hands could manage. I let out another deep breath, moving the controller and aiming for the same box again. This was the last time.

Finally, I captured Nami and brought her the rest of the way to safety, but...why wasn't the clamp letting go.

"Maybe there's a release button?" I mumbled, scratching my head, looking for the different options on the panel. But there wasn't one.

"The hell kind of game is this?"

I thought very carefully about my strength, taking a quick glance around before giving the appliance the most delicate of taps with the toe of my shoe...Not that it mattered, because the cheap thing fucking dented a little anyway.

"Shit shit shit!"

I whipped around to see if anyone saw that — the last thing I needed was to get myself kicked out of here. I hadn't even gotten my prize yet.

I turned back to face the claw machine, looking it dead in the eye, if it had any. "This isn't over," I whispered. I jostled the wheel a little to see if it would shake the crane, but to no avail. I sighed in even more grievance before pulling out my last gold coin, staring at it between my fingers. My only hope left. I sent an under the breath threat to if it didn't work.

I inserted the coin. Waited for the machine to start. My heart was thrumming in my ears, the vein in my temple about ready to pop the minute I blew a fuse. And then—

IT FUCKING RESET BACK TO THE MIDDLE. There it was, just dangling there, taunting me with my Nami! I damn well knew that the game had tricked me into having to push the drop button to open the metal tongs in order for it to go back to the prize slot. It set me up!

No matter how much I moved the crane to get it to move back to the opening, all it did was shake the claw, and if that wasn't enough to drop the box, then the countdown on the timer sure enough would.

"This is why I like Robin more, you hear me?!" I was pressing my forehead against the glass, eyeing the box dangerously as the time hit 0:00 on the clock.

"Who are you even talking to?"

The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up at the sound of his voice. It wasn't accusing, nor taunting, like how I imagined he would approach me next, but rather, he sounded genuinely curious.

I turned to glance over my shoulder, meeting the raven's gaze as he was leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest, standing against the wall. His expression was shown no concern to what I was doing, though I was sure he had been watching me somewhere, witnessing the whole thing.

"What do you want, louse..." I responded equally as monotone.

"Oh, don't mind me, I'm just a bystander."

I turned back to the task at hand, eyeing the timer in the corner.

3...2...1...Drop.

I heaved a defeated sigh, slumping where I stood.

"I'm trying to focus. Can't you be someone else's problem?"

"I'm hurt," he teased with a light chuckle. "Or is it that perhaps you are distracted by me~?"

"Flea-"

"No really, I'm just here to observe. Pretend I'm not here."

"It's hard to do that when I can smell your flea stench from a mile away," I grumbled.

"Strange, because I'm excessively hygienic," he stated matter-of-factually. "Then again, unless someone smells like an ashtray, it doesn't appeal to you." I could sense the annoyed shrug behind me, so I turned.

"No, you don't appeal to me."

"Look, I'll admit that I've been watching you fail miserably at this claw machine for some time now." He pushed himself off the wall and walked over to me, moving me out of the way as he stationed himself in command of the make believe pirate ship. "Which one do you want?"

I had to hold back a laugh at the thought that the louse was actually offering his help. "You're not helping me," I said in disbelief.

"Really? Then what am I doing right now?" After he managed to pull a gold coin out of his pants pocket he inserted it into the machine without hesitation. "Now tell me, which one do you want?"

"You're wasting your money. It doesn't even work anyway."

He rolled his eyes, elbowing me out of the way as he turned the steering wheel around to maneuver the claw. "Shizu-chan, if you don't tell me which one you want you're wasting my money."

"What?! Why is this on me now?!"

"Just pick one!" he said agitatedly, "Or I will for you."

"Ugh, fine! That one."

"Pointing at a pile of toys isn't telling me which one, idiot. You're getting whatever I get."

"Doesn't matter, you won't—"

I wasn't sure what I had done to deserve the figurative slap in the face from the universe, but damn it all, if he didn't manage to pick one up without even batting an eye. I looked down at him, deadpanning. Of course the annoying sing-song chime of automated bells signifying a winner rang from the little machine. A sound I wasn't able to get the stupid appliance to produce myself.

"Here." I felt a palm-sized box being shoved at my chest as it finally hit me that the prize had actually made it out of the dispensary.

Was this karma for getting even with the flea? I wondered. Then why was he being nice to me now?

"Shizu-chan...you can let go now."

"Huh? Oh. S-Sorry...Thanks, I guess." I didn't notice that I had held onto his hand a little longer than necessary in our exchange. "By the way...That was just luck, you know."

"Oh?" he challenged, stopping before he was about to walk away. "Do I need to prove that it wasn't."

I shrugged, looking at the toy in my hand. It was Chopper.

"If you feel like you need to prove something," I nodded towards the machine.

He smirked to himself repositioning once again and inserting a coin. "Fine by me. It was easy, anyway," he drawled out with a sly smile.

"You sure seem awfully confident…"

I watched him play effortlessly, and in record time, before he had randomly selected another prey. He moved it over to the drop box again to see who it was. He eyed it with a frown.

"Ah, this won't do."

"Wait, is that Nami?"

He handed it over to me. "Go wild."

It was Nami, but…

"Damn, I can't give this to him."

"Who?"

"Oh, my brother. I wanted to get one of her, but...This outfit is a little…"

I heard him snicker. "Scandalous?"

She was wearing what couldn't even be considered a real bikini, since it just barely covered her protruding breasts. Not something I would ideally be giving to my younger sibling. I just wasn't that kind of older brother.

"It would just be kind of weird, I think."

"Alright, alright, one more. But just because it's your birthday," he said with a wink.

The next one we got was Luffy, then Law, then Luffy again, Sanji, and finally Zoro. I told him he could stop at any time, that he really needn't spend so much money on little trinkets, but he ignored my protest. I assumed he found the challenge as addictive as I had in the beginning.

"Why Nami?" he asked, after pulling out our third miniature Luffy figure.

"That's Kasuka's favourite character in the show."

"Is that so...Isn't he a little young to be...Ah, well I suppose not."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Young for what?"

"Nothing." The familiar tune sang again as we received a new character. "She's different."

"That's Robin. She's—"

"Your favourite, isn't she?"

"Y-Yeah, how'd you know? I didn't know you liked One Piece too."

"I don't, I just had a feeling…" He responded in a tone I could tell was mixed emotions. "By the way, I almost forgot what I had come here to tell you in the first place. They have laser tagging here. We're supposed to meet up with Shinra in about ten minutes," he said checking the time on his cell phone.

"Laser tagging? They have that here?"

"Apparently." The flea didn't take his eyes away from the metal claw as he spoke.

"What don't they have here?" I asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer, but the flea spoke up.

He shrugged. "I don't know, but there's a lovely young lady at the front desk you can ask, that is, if you ever get the balls to approach a woman~." His sudden change in attitude caught me off guard.

"You realize Erika is a woman, right?" I said grimly after a moment.

"Hmm...but does she really count, though? She doesn't seem like your type," he smiled my way darkly.

"You don't know what my type is, flea."

"I know it's not her."

"Okay, yeah, it isn't her."

He bent down to collect the new prize out of the little pocket. I couldn't help but watch again like before. I cursed myself, looking away, as he stood. I saw in the corner of my eye that he was examining the package more carefully than he had with the others.

"I bet you like really busty girls anyway~," he teased. "All that anger signifies too much testosterone. It would only make sense for you to be attracted to someone with a copious amount of estrogen." He tossed the box for me to catch as he began to walk away. I caught it, looking at it and smiling to myself that he had managed to get a figure of another, less revealing version of Nami wearing Luffy's hat.

"We're not having that conversation," I said pocketing the items in my hands.

"Oh? Is it because I'm right?" He turned to walk backwards with his hands behind his head, grinning like a cheshire cat.

I felt myself warm, not making eye contact. The image to come to mind was the first encounter I had with blonde girl I befriended in our class. "No…"

"Or are you an ass man?" He grinned sadistically at me when my gaze shot up to meet his. "Don't think I didn't catch you checking me out earlier~."

"Don't we have people to meet up with or something?" I asked between the grit of my teeth. I knew my blush was inevitable.

"That wasn't a no, Shizu-chan~, but ah, I suppose we shouldn't keep them waiting again...Shinra might think badly of us again," he snickered.

"Gross."

We didn't say anything else to each other as I followed the raven to the very edge of the arcade into a separate room divided by a neon-green door marked with the words "Laser Room." I wasn't surprised for what was waiting behind it.