Chapter 213 – Dating (2)

If you think about it further, it’s a waste of time and emotions.
I checked the time by looking at the clock tower near the meeting place.
Time to get off work… It’s appointment time.

The date spot is in District 9, right next to District 10 where the company is located.
It’s also not too far from where I’ve had cocktails with grapes before.
A place where people from the offices in District 10 often go to dine… It is a busy street created as if it is connected to a district where companies are densely located.
It is also the most crowded place in the city.

I kept my head down, avoiding the eyes of many people.
Looking at the unfocused eyes gives goosebumps.
I keep getting the illusion that surveillance cameras and people are all looking at me.

The outfit is the same shirt and pants as always… However, I was strangely nervous at the thought of a date, so I went out after doing ironing for the first time in a while.
I sprayed a little perfume, touched my hair… When I looked in the mirror, it didn’t show that I had made up at all, but I did pay attention to myself.
Still, if this is enough, she can be said to be out for a date… ?

I checked my face on the vision phone for no reason and checked if there was anything strange.
At that time, a messenger notification sound rang on the vision phone.
It seems Grape sent a message because the appointment time was getting closer.

〈 Done! I’ll go right away!]
[Hmm 〉

I sent Grape a brief reply, then sighed and put the vision phone in my pocket.
Close your eyes to avoid looking at the people around you and slowly calm down.
No need to be nervous, no need to be nervous…

“Anger?”
“Huh?”

After catching my breath for a moment, I heard Grape’s voice and raised his head.
Surprisingly, Grape arrived near the clock tower in that short time and stood right in front of me.
This is an impossible movement speed for an ordinary human.

“Uh… Are you here already?”
“I’m afraid to wait… Have you been waiting long?”

What a long wait… It’s so amazing that he shows up less than a minute after it’s time to leave, so I don’t even think I’ve waited.
Even so, how the heck did he come so quickly…
Even if Rapid teleported from District 10 to District 9, it would be slower than this.

Grape, who came in haste, was standing in front of me, brushing his slightly tousled hair into a ponytail with his hand.
I saw that the employee ID card hanging around Grape’s neck was turned upside down, so I straightened it out.
Come to think of it, Grape looked the same as when he was working at the company, just as he was dressed after work.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to change clothes?”
“Clothes?”
“Yes, this is near the office.”
“So… ?”
“Uh… Strange rumors about the company, I don’t even know?”

Grape is so famous that anyone who works at a company in District 10 will recognize her, even those who don’t know that Grape is a magical girl.
This is District 9, which is full of office workers who go for a drink after work.
It’s not plain clothes in a place like that, it’s the same as when you work… It’s strange that you don’t know

“Ahaha… Do you think it will spread to the company?”
“Wouldn’t it? People from work sometimes drink here. If you even sneak a glance…”
“It’s okay, Anger doesn’t have to worry about that.”
“Okay… ?”

Grape smiled strangely at my concern and reassured me.
Anyway, it’s not me who left the company that’s bothering me because of the rumors, it’s Grape… If Grape is okay, she has nothing more to say about me.
I brushed off Grape’s clothes with my hands to shape them, then put my hand on his waist and said,

“Seeing you dressed like this doesn’t seem like a date…”
“Uh? Doesn’t it sound like a date?”
“No, I’m so used to the way I used to see them at work… It feels like I just went out for a drink after work.”

Thanks to that, it’s good that the tension of dating Grape is gone.

“That, this… Could this be different? That, a couple dating in the office… Or something?”
“Did I resign?”
“So, it won’t look like that… Will it? How do other people see it?”
“It’s a shirt and black pants, so it’s not like an office worker wearing cool biz… Shouldn’t I have something like an employee ID to look like that?”

Grape immediately tore his employee card off his neck and put it in his pocket.
Next, he takes off his jacket and hangs it on his arm, and he wears a white shirt and black pants as if it were tailored to me.

“If there is no Anger, I can take it off!”
“Huh? Uh, um… Aren’t you cold? It’s night, so…”
“I can’t be cold, can I?”
“Ah…”

Well, there’s no way a top-level magical girl feels the cold.
For some reason, I felt a tickle in my chest and turned my head away.
Then the clothes of the people around me come into my eyes.

Everyone is wearing the same shirt and black pants as Grape and me.
But… This is a downtown area near the office… This would be normal attire for everyone.
Having calmed down again, I calmly asked Grape, who was blushing a little.

“But where are you going… ?”
“I’m already drinking… A little bit right? Do you want to go play?
“Play?”
“Oh, I already knew… How is the arcade?”

It’s an arcade… If I go, I want to go, but is that a date? ?
The arcade in my memory is a fighting arena where you fight in real life if something goes wrong while playing a fighting game.
The smell of cigarettes and loud game sounds… Not really a place to go on a date.

“… Is the arcade a date?”
“Date… Wouldn’t it be right?”
“So all couples go on dates at arcades?”
“Uh? That, like that… Will it?”
“You don’t even know Grape?”
“I have no experience…”

The person in question is wrong.
Grape is a beginner in dating who has never had any experience dating a man.
I thought for a moment, then nodded.

“I’m fine…”
“Then shall we go? Not far from here!”
“Hmm… Okay.”

I stood side by side with Grape and started walking to the arcade.
A combination of the clothes I often see at work, a place close to work, and an arcade… Rather than a date, it feels like just hanging out with friends after work.
I’ve never gone out to play with friends after work, but I did anyway.

After a while, when I arrived at the arcade full of people, I was fascinated by the scenery I hadn’t seen in a long time.
The feeling of being completely cut off from the outside world, just like I saw in my childhood…
People who seem to have forgotten about the negatives and went back to the old days are laughing and playing.

When there were no negatives, everyone played like this… No, it’s the same even if there are negatives.
I was captivated by the atmosphere of the arcade and paid for the arcade coin with Grape through the vision phone.
As I walked around looking at the game consoles, wondering which game to play first, people around me glanced at Grape.

“There are a lot of people, so everyone looks at me once.”
“Never mind, what game shall we play first?”
“Hmm… Do you know how to do this?”

The first game I played was Tetris.
It was a game machine with a fighting structure in which obstructive blocks were sent to the opponent whenever a horizontal line was filled by matching blocks that fell from above more and more quickly as time passed.
Sitting down with Grape and starting the game, I quietly killed Grape.

“Wait, why are you so good at Anger?!”
“Why can’t Grape do this… ?”

I spent all three years of my youth in the corner of the classroom playing Tetris during my school days, so I wonder if even the best magical girls are no match for me…
I wondered if she would show her ignorant skills with the reflexes and motor skills of a magical girl, but I’m a little disappointed.
The time Grape can last me with Tetris is 30 seconds… It’s flimsy beyond imagination.

“I think you’d better stop… Grape is no good for me.”
“Joe, please teach me something… It ends too soon.”
“Originally, you learn by losing.”

After accepting Grape’s re-challenge about five times, I shook my head triumphantly and comforted the defeated Grape.
Did Grape say that in her school days she did gymnastics and ballet and then she awakened as a magical girl?
My Tetris won’t lose to someone who lived such a brilliant life faithfully.

“Grape… Tetris is not played with the body, it is played with the head…”
“… Anger, isn’t your personality different from usual?”
“I? Hmm… Isn’t Grape looking at me strangely because of her sense of defeat over me?”
“It’s fun… ?”
“Hmm…”
“I’m glad you like games.”

After triumphantly savoring the feeling of victory, I felt like an idiot myself when I saw Grape with her arm raised on the game console and smiling happily, and went back to my usual routine.
I purposely stacked bricks on the Tetris game machine, which was in single player mode, and set the game over, then stood up.

“Ah, I was watching…”
“Shall we play another game?”
“Uh? Yes…”

I found a game that I could enjoy with Grape in moderation and sat down.
This game is a basketball game… Rather than a game, it is a game machine that uses the body to put a real basketball into the goal.
Unsurprisingly, Grape was overwhelmingly better than me in this game.

Grape turned his head toward me without looking at the basketball hoop and continued to score the ball with one hand.
Even if the goalpost swayed left and right, even if it stopped and moved irregularly, the basketball continued to enter the goalpost as if it were connected by a string.
Grape, who achieved the arcade’s highest record in an instant, froze as he saw the scoreboard of my game machine, which ended with less than half of Grape’s half-and-half of Grape’s after the game was over.

“This… Hey, it’s only natural that Anger is worse than me…”
“What, right? You’re good too.”
“Go, can you teach me?”
“Even if you teach me, you won’t be able to do that… ?”