Childhood Part XIV – Shopping Trip – Start
Chiaki blushes at everyone's praises.
"Seriously Chiaki-chan! You look so adorable!" Honoka praises while clasping her hands together. "Isn't that right, Komaru-chan?"
The brunette girl is taken out of her thoughts. "Oh? Yeah, yeah. You look cute." She replies, before looking to the side.
"T-Thanks." The mauve-haired girl replies, before lightly smiling.
Higashi stands by the girl's side. "It was Minako's idea for Chiaki to dress like that." He smiles. "After all, it is quite rare for our girl to hang out outside."
The girl nods, with a soft smile on her face and a tinge of red in her cheeks. "Okaa-san helped me choose those clothes."
Honoka nods. "And I would say she did a amazing job." The older Naegi smiles.
Chiaki blushes even more. "I don't know." She looks down. "I never dressed to go out like this, so I don't know if I look that good… I think."
Makoto is quick to reply. "D-Don't worry about it Chiaki-chan!" He smiles with a deep blush in his cheeks. "You really do look great!"
The two look each other in the eyes, then they quickly turn their heads to the side, blushing even harder.
"T-Thanks Makoto-kun." Chiaki replies, feeling her heart flutter.
"Y-You're welcome, Chiaki-chan." Makoto nods, feeling like butterflies just took flight in his stomach.
Honoka and Hagashi trade knowing glances while smirking to each other.
Komaru on the other hand is quick to grab onto her brother's arm. "W-Well, we should get going, shouldn't we?" She squeezes his arm, making the boy blush even more.
"Oh, yeah, we still need to find costumes for everybody!" Tsumugi turns to her friend.
"Well, you all can go have some fun." Honoka approaches her son and smiles. "Just don't forget the time we're supposed to meet back here, okay?"
"Yep, you can count on me!" The boy replies with a smile, now his blush being way less visible.
The group of friends starts walking away, leaving the two adults behind.
Now walking through the surprisingly uncrowded mall, Makoto turns to his friends and asks. "Well, should we go see the costumes?"
Komaru, who was still holding onto his arm, nods negatively. "I think we should let that for last." She smiles. "How about we drop by the arcade?"
Tsumugi's eyes light up. "There's one here?"
"You didn't know?" Chiaki looks surprised towards the younger girl.
"N-No." The blue-haired otaku nods negatively, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Makoto says with a reassuring smile, making the otaku blush even more. "Let's make sure that it's fun for Tsumugi-san, alright?" He looks to the others.
Chiaki replies with a little 'yeah!' and Komaru just nods.
Tsumugi smiles. "Yeah! Thanks Onii-sama! Everybody!" She locks his other arm with hers and blushes. "If y-you d-don't m-mind?" Now, it's the brunette boy that blushes.
"N-No. I don't." Makoto replies, not noticing Komaru staring.
"Onii-sama?" Chiaki turns to look towards the brunette, who just waves his hand in front of him with a awkward smile.
"I-I'll explain later."
"Now, to the Arcade!" Tsumugi exclaims while pointing forward.
Everybody, except for Komaru, laughs and they get in their way.
"Wow!" Tsumugi's eyes shine in excitement. "It's just like in my anime!" She glances at all the machines like she's never seen one before.
"So, what machine do you girls want to try first?" Makoto asks, looking towards his friends.
"Onii-sama, can we try the dancing ones?" The otaku asks while grabbing onto the boy's arm and pointing to the machines.
The brunette boy blushes. "I-If everyone is okay with it?"
Chiaki nods. "I'm down… I think."
Komaru pouts and holds harder onto her brother's other arm. "I don't mind." She smirks, looking towards Chiaki.
"Okay then, to the DDR machines!" Makoto exclaims.
Luckily for them, there was almost no one on the dancing machines, so they are quickly able to play.
First, Makoto and Tsumugi stepped up, both did fairly okay on a random Sayaka Maizono pop song, although at one point, the blue-haired otaku slipped on her own feet and almost fell to the floor, but Makoto was quickly able to catch her, leaving the girl a blushing mess through the rest of their dance off.
In the end, Makoto come out as the victor, but both played fairly well and the final score was pretty close.
Next up was Komaru and Chiaki.
Choosing one of her favorite pop songs, Komaru started doing pretty well, her moves are swift and precise.
In her eyes, there was a strange look of competitiveness.
Chiaki on the other hand, started slow, missing some of the arrows here and there.
Then at the middle portion of the track, her movements suddenly changed, she had created a strategy on the fly to beat Komaru, and so she did.
By the end of the song, Chiaki had won by a mile.
"That was intense!" Tsumugi says while clasping her hands together. "I really thought Komaru-chan was going to win!"
"She technically did." Chiaki replies, smiling softly. "I just won because I exploited the game's point system." Turning to face Komaru, the older girl shakes her head. "So, in truth, Komaru-chan won… I think."
But the brunette girl crosses her arms and her tongue. "I don't need your pity." She replies in a uncharacteristically harsh tone.
Chiaki is slightly taken aback by that. "Uh, I wasn't-"
Komaru turns around and points to another machine. "How about we try that one next?"
It was a shooting game.
"Sure, do you girls want to try?" Makoto asks, finding his sister's answer to be a little bit weird.
"I don't think I'll do that well, but sure!" Tsumugi replies, oblivious to the tension between the two other girls, she was just happy to be with her friends.
"S-Sure." Chiaki nods, now with her smile gone.
As Tsumugi and Chiaki start walking towards the next machine, Makoto grabs Komaru's hand. "Hey, what's up with tone?"
The brunette girl pull her hand away from his and turns her head to the side. "Sorry, I'm just a little bit mad about losing."
"You shouldn't apologize to me." Makoto sternly replies, before sighing. "Just, don't do that again, okay?"
Komaru nods and they go to the machine where their two friends are waiting for them.
For the shooting game, Chiaki decided not to play, which made Makoto worried, but she just said that she didn't like games like that.
Which Makoto knew was a lie.
But before he could say anything, Komaru had already thrown the lightgun towards him and was about to start the game.
The brunette gulped.
Something wasn't right.
Childhood Part XIV – Shopping Trip – End
Well, here we are with another chapter.
I don't have a lot to say about this one, so yeah, hope y'all enjoyed it.
See you around!
