On an exploration mission, Takumi, Eito, Shouma and Darumi stumble into an arcade. Wanting to make memories with his best friend, Takumi invites Eito to play a game with him.
Contains Route 0 spoilers.
“Wooooow…Takumi, look, look!” Eito called out, with the joy of a child let loose in a toy store.
In dire need of supplies for more Gift-o-Matic shenanigans, Takumi dragged Darumi, Shouma, and Eito out on an expedition. Shouma had only officially joined the team recently, and his lack of experience showed as he panicked whenever the group got dragged into a fight, but Takumi saw this as a good chance for him to develop his skills with long-standing members of the fighting team.
They’d gone a decent way out, but before they reached the beach, Eito had stopped everyone. The sight of electricity powered on in one of the buildings caught his attention, and as they all went to investigate, Eito lit up himself at the sight of the flashy arcade games around them. Somehow still active, despite everything, and all advertising tokens as prizes for a defunct prize counter.
“How is this still functioning? The games don’t take money—does that mean we can play them?” Eito darted about, while Shouma hung around the front door and Darumi slumped against one of the powered-off consoles.
“I—I can keep watch out here,” Shouma said, balling his hands into fists as if trying to grab onto the phantom strings of his backpack. “A worthless maggot like me doesn’t even deserve the one token prizes…or the zero token prizes…”
“Arcades usually don’t have those,” Takumi said.
“What’s the point of playing a game without any candy to win?” Darumi grumbled. Takumi shrugged and looked to Eito.
“We can play one game,” Takumi said as he stuck a finger in the air, “but that’s all. We don’t wanna stick around too long and risk a squad of invaders jumping us.”
“Oh…all right…” Eito looked dejected, but picked himself up as he deliberated between three. “These are all co-op—Takumi, if you wouldn’t mind, do you want to play with me? Being in the hospital for so long, I never got the chance to game with friends.”
“Of course I wouldn’t mind,” Takumi said, a small smile on his face. He knew Eito probably didn’t have it easy, but he couldn’t imagine missing out on such normal activities like going to the arcade. If he could leave Eito with good memories during these hundred days, then a few diversions here and there wouldn’t hurt.
All for his best friend—he gestured to the consoles. “You wanna pick?”
“If you don’t mind,” Eito said.
Darumi raised a hand. “I’ll be the backseat gamer!”
“And,” Shouma said, “I’ll be the seat! If you need it…it’s the best way I can contribute to the team…”
“We—we don’t need that, Ginzaki,” Takumi said.
Eito hummed, looking over the cabinets. His gaze locked onto one in particular: a gorey shooter where you played as a mutated enemy soldier taking revenge on those who changed you by gunning down humans. “How about this one?”
“Huh, I didn’t think you’d be into that,” Takumi said as he approached and picked up a gun. He thought Eito might’ve gone for the puzzle game, but maybe he was the kind of person who preferred presentation? Or he had a secret horror lover side.
Eito laughed as he took the other gun. “You think so? I’m sorry for breaking character, then.”
“Don’t be like that—let’s try to have fun,” Takumi said. Needing no money, Takumi only needed to hit the start button to power up the game. As promised, Darumi watched over their shoulders and provided all the incessant commentary needed, while Shouma occupied himself with the blaster game nearby.
The two started off strong, though Takumi noted (with some bitterness) that Eito had shot ahead of him in terms of score from the start. Takumi wouldn’t consider himself much of a gamer, especially when it came to dark shooters like this. The realistic blood and guts involved didn’t do him any favors. Whenever he shot someone in the head, the way their brains exploded churned his stomach to the point where he deliberately aimed elsewhere to avoid the sight.
Eito always aimed for the spot. In it to win it, Takumi thought, before steeling his resolve and aiming for more headshots as well. He wouldn’t let a weak stomach to gore hold him back from winning.
“Takumi, don’t hesitate,” Eito whispered. “Just think of them as monsters. Doesn’t it make it easier?”
“Hey, it’s not as easy as you make it sound,” Takumi said, looking over to Eito as the game transitioned to the next level. He saw it, then, etched across his face.
A big smile.
A bit too wide, but an all too genuine one. Eito looked back at Takumi, eyes wide with fear and nerves as his grin vanished, but Takumi only smiled back. Even if Eito got shy about it, it meant a lot to Takumi to see him enjoying spending time with a friend like this.
He got to make a memory for Eito, after all. A good one—one that’d be with him even if they lost touch once they got back to the Tokyo Residential Complex.
“Don’t worry,” Takumi said, “I’m glad to see you so happy. Let’s take out more of these humans and get the high score, okay?…in the game. Not in real life.”
Eito laughed, bright and airy. “Of course, Takumi. Ready up—you haven’t seen the best of what Eito Aotsuki has to offer!”
As they get into the harder levels, Takumi checks every so often to see if Eito’s smile returned. The more headshots he pulled off and the higher his combo got, the happier he seemed, almost child-like in his giddiness. If it’d been Darumi or Yugamu, he’d probably start wondering if it was more the content of the game than the experience making him happy, but Takumi knew Eito just enjoyed spending time with his friends.
At the final level, Takumi’s character died, but Eito cleared it flawlessly, and the group earned a bright silver token for their efforts.
“Nice job!” Darumi raised a hand, and with some hesitation, Eito put the gun down and high-fived her, before dusting his hands off. “You’re a beast with that machine gun—good thing it’s not real, huh? Unless…”
She laughed. “Hey, Takumi, maybe we shouldn’t go to school tomorrow.”
“That’s not funny!” Shouma shouted. “But…well…you two looked like you had fun, though.”
“It was a good diversion,” Eito said, wiping sweat off his brow. “Wasn’t it, Takumi?”
Takumi grinned. “Yeah. I’m glad you saw this place.”
“I wish we could take the consoles back,” Shouma said. “I’ve…I’ve never played games with a friend, either.”
“Me either!” Darumi said. “Does that mean I can take Shouma’s co-op virginity?”
“My what!?”
“Maybe,” Eito said, “We can come back another time? I’m surprised, though—I thought I was odd, but…I’m glad I’m not the only one who hasn’t experienced stuff like that before.
Eito looked away. “It makes me feel a little less odd.”
“Oh, you’re not strange at all!” Shouma said. “Compared to something ugly and writhing and horrible to look at like me, I’m sure everyone would want to play games with you!”
“I’m more of a solo player, myself,” Darumi said. “Even in MMOs. Journeying it alone through the wild west of obscure eroges is way more my kinda thing—Unless…you all wanna join me for a play sesh when we get back?”
“We’ll all probably be tired, so let’s not promise anything!” Takumi shouted. The nervous looks on Shouma and Eito’s faces told him all he needed to know about their opinions. Darumi could gripe all she wanted to, but he’d already experienced the horrors enough (once) to know he never wanted to go through that again.
Shouma looked back at the machine he played. “Maybe…next time, if no one minds catching something terrible and incurable from me, we can play this game? It’s one of my favorites…the lore’s about a lone pilot defending his home planet from invading aliens!”
“So, kind of like our day jobs?” Darumi yawned. “Booooring.”
“It…could be fun,” Eito said, and though he smiled as he said so, Takumi thought he caught something else there, too. A brief look of disappointment—no, disinterest. It seemed almost unnerving to see Eito so pointedly against someone’s suggestion.
Unless…Takumi imagined it. Probably. Or maybe the bloody shooter preference threw him off so bad he was starting to have a crisis. Before he could get too deep into the pits, he started for the door, beckoning the team to follow.
“We’ll come back to that later,” Takumi said. “We should get going. The invaders might get the drop on us if we keep yelling in one place.”
“Right! Sorry, my putrid breath must be luring them in as I speak.” Shouma hurried to follow first, Darumi on his heels. Eito followed last, sparing once last glance inside.
Takumi nodded to him. “It’ll be fun to do more stuff like this when we get back to the TRC, if we get the chance.”
“…Yes,” Eito said, still turned away as he spoke. “It would be.”
The group left the arcade behind.
About a hundred days later, Takumi would find himself back at that arcade with a different team, in a different timeline. In that case, he found the machines better scrapped and used for materials than for making more bitter memories with.