———Jeff———

  <1: 04 pm>

  “You’d thought it was a buffet with how much we’ve ordered together.” Gregori remarked at the pile of junk food in front of us. It is a lot, but Useph is the one who encouraged us to order a lot anyway. Nothing to be ashamed of, he can cover the bill.

  “Just eat, dude. Let’s just enjoy ourselves as a reward for a job well done.” I said before biting into my order. I’m not really sure what the point of Useph using his own money was when we got a decent amount from yesterday’s dungeon diving, but I’m not gonna compin.

  “Really doesn’t feel that way. All we did was just finding you and Jass at floor sixteen.” He replied. I’m surprised we even got that far. It was just two people. “Still have no idea how you two managed it, but if you don’t know, then whatever. It’d be a waste of time to prod further.”

  “What have the others been up to? I wonder.” I threw the question out there, since we have been grouping up like this a few times with no one else from our css.

  “I saw Emmie yesterday, also diving into the dungeon solo. It was after we split up that I saw her enter it.” Gregori gives us some info. “She was active in the group chat an hour back, so she’s fine. Don’t really know about the others. They’re probably doing short dungeon runs for fun or staying home and rexing.”

  “Speaking of which, do you not have any vacation pnned up, Useph?” Malk asked.

  “No. Thanks to everything that has happened, unless you travel for business purposes, you can’t leave the country at all. It’s been over half a year and that is still in effect.” He said with a hint of frustration.

  “Huh. I didn’t know that.” I would’ve thought that’d be talked about a bit more.

  “People have more important things to think about. Like not dying, so I’m not surprised you’re not aware.” Gregori expined the whole deal. I don’t think I ever fear for my life that often since the incident. Maybe others do, and I just haven’t noticed.

  “Guess we’re not going on a trip anytime soon.” I remarked. “It’s been a while since we all went on a grand tour.”

  “Usually it’s only like half of us at once, some people are a homebody, you know?” Useph pointed out. “We never go anywhere with all eighteen of us present.”

  “Feels like a shame, doesn’t it? It’s not like we have another year to spend time together, unless the institute also doubles as a college.” I said, wanting there to be something precious like that.

  “Don’t get sappy now. It’s not like we’re going anywhere. In a small town like this, we’ll bump into each other anyway.” Qyunda chimed in as she took the fries.

  “Yeah. I guess…” Can’t really refute that, though won’t they have more things to be busy with in the future?

  “Hey. Useph. That was my order!” Gregori pointed out as he swatted Useph’s hand away from one of the burgers.

  “Oops.” That’s all he has to say as he picked another burger to chow down on. We still have a lot of food, and I’m pretty sure Useph will order more for him anyway.

  “Wonder what Karra is doing. She didn’t stream the past two days.” I mentioned, just to keep our talk going.

  “Who knows? She was talking about rexing and taking a long nap.” Orrel replied. Did she specify that or something?

  ———Karra———

  <7: 53 pm (9: 53 am)>

  “Just stick close to me, I’ll handle the talking.” Wiina said as we continued walking down the streets of Akihabara. The street is busy, so we will get lost in the crowd if we aren’t careful.

  There are a few eyes that take a gnce at us, but none of them do anything and simply go on their way.

  She has a few pces she wants to go to, so I’m following her along. Not that I don’t find Japan interesting as a pce to visit, but I don’t have anything specific in mind.

  There are many shops and buildings, all in a nguage I can’t read, so I have no idea what they do without referencing the interior and the pictures.

  “Here we are.” Wiina said as we stood in front of a building with a namepte decorated by a pixeted game character. Guess this must be the arcade building. “I want to try out all the games they have, but do you have anything you’d want?”

  “Didn’t we talk about this? Just souvenirs will be fine, and the crane game, I guess.” I contradicted myself at the st moment, but can you bme me? Why wouldn’t I want to get the items that are very rare outside of this pce?

  “Don’t have anything else you want to try?” She asked as she scratched her head and ears. The tter in particur is what is catching people’s eyes alongside her tail.

  “I’ll just say it if there was. Don’t worry about it.” I replied before both of us started exploring the first few floors. We can worry about getting the crane prizes ter, let’s go find some arcade game she wants to py.

  <8: 58 pm (10: 58 am)>

  *Slurp* *Gulp*

  “Haaa… So what are you gonna do next?” I asked as I looked at the bowl of ramen with only the soup left. I probably shouldn’t drink it, but it feels like a waste not to…

  “We’ll go to the mall to get some snacks and other stuff to bring home, then after that, some more sightseeing and souvenirs to buy, and eat stuff at a cafe…” She answered before continuing to eat the sides she ordered. “And then, if you want to go somewhere, just ask. I’ll find it for you.”

  The eyes on us are still there. It’s a bit weird, it’s not like we’re the only demi-humans around. Our appearance shouldn’t be that conspicuous. Did they already figure out we’re tourists? I thought we kept our voices down so no one would pick up that I was speaking English.

  “Alright then. Finished up my portion. Let’s move.” She said before paying and quickly led us out of the small dinky pce. “As expected. You can always expect the rundown shop to have good food. The chain pces are way too safe and boring for a trip anyway.”

  “...But we can come here whenever?” Her words would only really matter if we can’t literally teleport here whenever we want, or rather, when she wants.

  “Semantics…” She replied dismissively as we reached the main street. Follow her to our next destination of the date.

  I followed her into the building and I guess this is where we’ll be doing our shopping…

  “How much money do we have again?” I don’t consider myself a wasteful spender, but I do want to ask. It’s a pretty big pce full of stuff not avaible to me.

  “Just enough, but if you’re scared about buying too much… It’s around… No. It’s exactly one million yen. It’s the budget for this mall trip, by the way, not the whole date.” She expined. Are the people she deals with that wealthy? I know a yen is way less than a dolr, but a million is a big number. “Anyway, let’s go find stuff to buy. Let’s go for your stuff first then.”

  “Alright.” I replied before looking around to see if there’s anything I want on this floor… Hold on. “Where is the floor for…

  <9: 32 pm (11: 32 am)>

  The cashier looks at us with a clear sense of bewilderment. There are two carts. They are both full. And a third cart, which is half full.

  Wiina talked to the cashier as she put stuff on the cash register. Most of it is snacks, admittedly. Not like we buy a lot of heavy stuff, no furniture or anything. Figurines aren’t that heavy, or the stickers. I guess mugs are a bit heavy, but that’s about it. There are also game consoles and game cartridges… And bedsheets… And some other miscelneous stuff.

  Now that I realize it… This is the first time we’ve gone shopping together. We’ve been to restaurants, and that’s the extent of it.

  It’s not like there isn’t a mall close to where we live. Guess we just never thought about it.

  Anyway, she’s dealing with putting stuff on the register while I am just standing around. I would like to help, since it’s not like I’m cking in strength, but she seems pretty concentrated right now, and again, I can only speak English, people might take notice and post about it. I’m not gonna intrude on her without speaking first.

  “Alright, let’s go.” She said to me while gathering the three carts full of the stuff we bought and bringing it to an area with next to no people. She quickly stored them all away into her [Storage] before both of us left the mall.

  It almost feels like a heist even though we didn’t do anything wrong. She paid for the stuff and we store the stuff. The method of storing is the thing that will cause the commotion.

  And with that we quickly left the mall and went for our next destination… Well. It’s more like hers than anything. She wants to buy some souvenirs from a shop selling items reted to her favorite franchises. I wonder if there’s something that would catch my eyes as well.

  We quickly reach the store and there aren't many people around. There are many nice-looking figurines, all quite expensive. Some themed items. Just a bunch of stuff that is more for novelty-sake. Now is there actually anything I want from any of this… Hmm… Oh! Those are some cute cutlery. Let me just pick those… and that… There we go.

  We met up at the cash register, dumped our stuff, paid for it, and got out. I didn’t pay attention to anything they said since I can’t speak Japanese. Would be nice to know, but I don’t need to.

  “So you did buy some stuff.” Wiina remarked as we walked towards our next destination.

  “Yeah. Those were cute, so I bought them.” I replied, not having much to add. I have seen those series, but it wasn’t like I was a hardcore fan.

  We simply walked along the main street until we reached our destination. The streets are filled with people, but it is rather quiet. Even back home where the streets are much less poputed, it feels like this pce is even more quiet than there.

  It feels so alien even though it really isn’t. It’s just a different location. Everyone felt hard to approach and strict even without muttering a single word to any of them. Was it just because of the nguage barrier? Was there more to it? It might be a mix of the inability to converse, and how our cultures are so different. I have heard more than a few times that differences in cultures can cause this strange barrier between people, as well as shock and confusion.

  Am I thinking too much into this? I think I can accommodate if given enough time.

  *Ring*

  The sounds of the bell rang in our ears as Wiina pushed the gss door, and with it the sounds of maid’s greetings. A maid cafe.

  There’s many cute girls walking around in maid outfits. Some of them are demi-humans, some aren’t. They are obviously quite attractive. Obviously the purpose of this kind of pce and the people they employed is novelty and eye candy.

  I don’t want to say this out loud, but the fact that Wiina is right beside me kinda kills the second point in the first pce. I can’t possibly look at anyone with the same kind of gaze I gave Wiina, but I’m not gonna say that now.

  Let’s just order some sweets and enjoy ourselves.

  <10: 11 pm (12: 11 pm)>

  “So where exactly do you want to go? You weren’t that thrilled about the cafe.” Wiina asked once we got to a remote area.

  “Nothing specific. Really.” I said, echoing the thoughts I had before this little trip. It doesn’t even feel like that much of a date at times. It’s more like a regur vacation.

  Nothing wrong with it, it just doesn’t quite set the mood. Should I tell her that? Would it be too harsh?

  Maybe I should say something like…

  “I want to go somewhere… romantic. I guess. Very serene, great scenery to rex to.” That’s what I said. How would she react to that?

  “Hmm…” She took a moment to ponder. “Romantic… Oh! I know a pce!”

  *Zoom*

  Suddenly she teleported the two of us to… Where is this? This pce looks rather untouched by people. There’s a river and somewhat dense foliage.

  “How about a nice boat ride?” Wiina said as she gave her hand. I guess I’ll take it?

  *Spsh*

  Suddenly a small wooden boat appeared out of nowhere and both of us got inside. The boat slowly moved along the current. The water is quite calm, and the wind feels nice.

  It’s… very different to what we’ve been doing so far, which has been a bit extravagant.

  “What do you think?” She asked as she looked at the scenery, her appearance shifted back to her white-haired self, the ears and tails retracted back.

  “It’s quite nice…” I said, getting that sense of romanticism. It’s probably not something super novel, but there is a sense of peace and privacy to it. It’s just the two of us.

  “I wasn’t sure if you would like this very subdued location, but I’m gd you did.” She remarked. I guess she had scouted some locations already, but wasn’t sure if I’m in the mood for it.

  “It’s quite nice and calm. Feels like we could rex here for hours.” I said in response. Just admiring nature and each other, nothing else in the way.

  Staring into her eyes and left to observe each other’s subtlest movement, the boat remains steady as it moves along and we get to see more of the river and the surrounding fauna.

  Without realizing it, I touched her hand. We were on the opposite side of the boat, and at some point, we got closer and closer…