Ch.388IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (85)

“Hmm.”

“…What?”

When Yuka, who was walking beside me, made a strange nasal sound, I looked over to find her staring at me as if she’d discovered something interesting.

“No, just wondering if you like this kind of stuff.”

“…”

I was momentarily speechless at Yuka’s comment.

I must have been looking around more seriously than I thought. Especially when we entered the secondhand figure shop, I was staring too intently.

Thinking about it again, it might have been better if Souta and Shii were here instead. Souta was supposed to be something of an otaku after all.

Even if it wasn’t explicitly shown, there were descriptions of him going to Akihabara, enjoying games, or reading manga. Though it seems he can’t buy too many risqué books because his younger sister Shii is somewhat strict.

But Yuka… well, that kind of content never came up with her. Did she wear a maid outfit during the school festival? I’m not sure. I might be confusing it with those scenes that typically appear in such novels during that period.

“I do like it.”

After a moment’s hesitation, I answered.

“Huh?”

Yuka seemed a bit taken aback by my straightforward response and asked again.

“Manga and such, I like them.”

When you’re running away, those things aren’t easy to carry. In the 2020s, all you’d need is a smartphone, but in this era, all those media formats were heavy. Even though music had transitioned to CDs, the thought of carrying stacks of them around still meant extra baggage.

We had to make an effort just to carry around the photos we took. There’s no way we could flee with piles of manga.

…I didn’t tell Yuka that much, but somehow she seemed to understand a little. After all, she knows I’ve moved around a lot.

“I see.”

Yuka nodded with a serious expression.

“Then why not buy one? You’re living pretty stably now, aren’t you?”

“That’s true, but…”

I smiled bitterly.

“If I show it to my mom, it might be a bit embarrassing.”

Unfortunately, I’m the type who thinks about ‘at this age.’ Ah, in my previous life, I hardly thought that way, but it’s a habit I developed after coming here.

Just as Kagami was an ideal mother to me, I wanted to be an ideal daughter to Kagami. I should be innocent as a child, mature as a teenager, and a respectable adult in my twenties.

It was a kind of… rule I set for myself.

And the perfect daughter I imagined wouldn’t buy such things.

…

Well, the truth is that feeling genuinely embarrassed was also a reason. Maybe embarrassment was the real reason, and I was just making up plausible excuses to hide it.

“She didn’t seem that scary to me.”

“Mom isn’t scary. I’m just embarrassed.”

When I answered like that, Yuka smiled for some reason.

“You’re really something.”

“…Am I?”

“I couldn’t be like that in front of my dad or grandfather. Despite how I look, I’m quite willful.”

Yuka can be that way.

After all, didn’t she grow up unable to do everything she wanted? I thought it wasn’t a bad thing to do what you want, if only to control the accumulated stress.

“Hmm, okay.”

Yuka nodded and said.

“Then, shall we look around a bit more properly?”

“Huh?”

“Did you really come all the way to Akihabara just to window shop? We should buy something. There’s so much for sale. Let’s eat something and play some games too.”

“You know how to play games?”

“Of course. Don’t you?”

Yuka looked at me with an expression that suggested it was very strange that I wouldn’t.

“I know the theory.”

I answered, feeling a bit wounded in my pride.

Harumi didn’t particularly like games. She preferred running around, sightseeing, and eating various things. Arcade games cost quite a bit of money, and our allowance was somewhat limited.

Yuu was even less interested in games than Harumi. She usually preferred staying quietly at home, and even when she went out, she often rested at a distance, watching us play.

Naturally, in this world, I wasn’t particularly good at games.

“Ah, but I’ve tried crane games before.”

I mentioned as it suddenly occurred to me—

“What have you been doing for fun all this time?”

Yuka asked incredulously.

That’s a bit unfair.

I went to the beach in summer, had Christmas parties in winter, and visited shrines for New Year’s. Even when I moved elsewhere, that pattern hardly changed.

Yet I’m getting this treatment just because I haven’t been to an arcade? Somehow it’s frustrating.

“Alright, follow me.”

Yuka said, patting my shoulder.

“I’ll teach you a thing or two.”

“…”

You know what?

An otaku might tolerate being told that what they watch isn’t interesting, but they can’t tolerate being told they’re bad at games. Even if you lose, it’s proper to fight against such words.

Besides, I spent my childhood during this era. Even if it was in a completely different country, the types of games I played in arcades, the games I played in front of stationery stores, weren’t that different from this world.

I also had a few games I continued playing afterward.

Although too much time has passed, if I could revive the parts I instinctively remember—

*

—I ended up being completely defeated.

“Wow, you’re actually pretty good?”

Yuka peeked her head out beside the arcade machine and said that, but I was trembling with frustration.

It was frustrating.

Losing to a girl much younger than me was frustrating. Even if I had taken such a long break, this body doesn’t have particularly poor dynamic vision…!

“Want to play another round?”

Yuka asked, seeing my expression.

“…Let’s play more.”

For the first time in a long while, I reverted to my taciturn self.

Has my becoming so emotionally expressive been influenced by this body?

“Fine. You’ll still lose anyway.”

No, it’s probably just that Yuka is good at provoking people.

…Right. She must have faced various enemies while fighting with a sword. Among yokai, there are those with extremely strong pride. Making them angry by provoking them might be helpful.

So—

Ah, that’s right.

Thinking about it that way, I’ve fallen for her provocation.

*

After being completely defeated, I simply acknowledged my loss gracefully.

“You’re more persistent than I thought.”

Yuka made a very unfair assessment of me as we left the arcade.

“You get to choose any character, but I can’t choose the one I’m good at. What kind of handicap is that?”

“…”

“And I even taught you the techniques.”

I couldn’t refute Yuka’s words in the end.

“Well, okay… Ah, right! I thought of something worth buying!”

Yuka clapped her hands once and said, then ran ahead arbitrarily.

I followed behind her.

“Ah, there it is, there.”

The place we ended up was a small secondhand game store nestled between buildings. It looked rather shabby, being quite old and narrow on both sides, but strangely, there were many people around.

“I have a somewhat old game console at home. I take it out and play sometimes.”

“I see…”

As I was admiring this newly discovered fact, Yuka entered the store.

And what Yuka selected and handed to me from inside was an old handheld game console. It was a model that didn’t even have a backlight so you had to view it by reflecting light, only had a black and white screen, was incredibly large, and took four batteries.

Yuka bought that game console and a few game cartridges and handed them to me.

“This shouldn’t be embarrassing to have at home, right?”

“Ah, yes… thank you.”

Although it was secondhand, it was quite expensive, but Yuka bought it and handed it over without a second thought.

The game was also the fighting game we had played together. Well, with far fewer buttons, the playing experience would be quite different.

“…”

I looked down at the game console for a while.

A slight smile involuntarily appeared on my face.

A handheld game console. It was something I really wanted as a child. I was too shy to ask for one, so I just never mentioned it.

Even though it’s an old secondhand model, it has its own charm. Maybe that makes it even better.

“Thank you!”

When I exclaimed with a smile, Yuka blinked.

“Oh, well, you don’t need to thank me that much.”

Yuka scratched her cheek a bit awkwardly and looked away.

*

After looking around a bit more and having a light snack, it was almost time for my dad to pick us up.

Standing blankly near the station waiting, I noticed Yuka glancing at me repeatedly.

“What is it?”

When I tilted my head and asked, Yuka thought a bit more seriously, then hung her head and tapped the ground with one foot.

“No, it’s nothing much.”

“Nothing much?”

“Yeah… um, it’s almost dinner time, right? You’re going home to eat.”

“That’s right?”

“Then, maybe, would you like to have dinner together too?”

“…Dinner?”

When I asked with some surprise, Yuka turned her head in another direction.

“Well, you know.”

Yuka said.

“I just thought it would be fun to hang out a bit more. Tomorrow’s a holiday anyway.”

“…”

I stared blankly at Yuka.

“I can… lend you clothes.”

Yuka carefully turned her head again and glanced at me.

“Don’t you want to?”

I blinked and then—

After thinking seriously for a moment—

Finally made up my mind and said.

“I’ll ask my mom.”

That’s right.

Setting everything else aside, in this case, Kagami was my biggest concern.