Chapter 220 – Date (2)

“Amusement room… ?”
“There are many students in this area, so they say that the game room is big.”

After dating Grape, I realized that a place called an arcade could also be a place for a date, so I searched for an arcade date on VisionNet.
After researching it, the arcade date was much more attractive than I thought, and I thought it was enough to make it my first destination on a date with Rapid.

An arcade date is originally a place where people engage in skinship under the pretext of teaching them how to play games.
When playing Tetris, you can hold your hand while telling the key, and when playing a shooting game or basketball game, you can touch your hand or waist.
I found out about it belatedly, and I was determined to go on a date with Rapid.

“Hmm…”
“… Is it not good?”
“Yes? No… Okay, let’s go!”

When asked to go to the arcade, Rapid reacted somewhat ambiguously.
I wondered if Rapid disliked arcades, but fortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case.
I headed to the arcade with Rapid.

The arcade in District 3 was completely different from the ones Grape and I had been to before.
Perhaps because it was aimed at students, the interior is brighter, and countless game characters are drawn on the walls.
As for the types of games, there are more games that are more active and move the body rather than sitting electronic games.

“It’s the same as before…”

As soon as Rapid entered the arcade, he went inside as if he knew the internal structure, took out a card, and put it to the coin changer.
Coins are pouring out, and I take out the coin pouch for the arcade that was placed in an out of sight.
I asked, a little surprised by Rapid’s reaction, which seemed familiar to the Arcade in District 3.

“Have you been there?”
“A little… It used to be! I haven’t been here lately, but in the past… ?”

Rapid is an arcade, and that’s in District 3… I didn’t expect this.
I could confidently say that I knew more about Rapid than anyone else, but I had never heard of such information anywhere.
If it’s a place you’ve never heard of on TV or at Majinsa… It means that Rapid visited secretly privately.

“In the past… ?”
“Hmm… I don’t know if you know, Snowdrop Girls’ School…”
“Oh~”

Snowdrop Girls’ School is a magical girls’ school in District 3.
Information on the reason for establishment, contents of education, and attendees are all treated as special confidential information, but one information is open to the general public.
Snowdrop Girls’ School was a facility created by Ash, Rapid, and Lily to protect underage magical girls.

“You know… ?”
“I have a lot of interest in Rapid… But why is that and the arcade… ?”
“When the facility was under construction, some magical girls visited the academy building to talk about something.”
“If it’s magical girls… At the top?”
“Some of the top, middle, and low ranks came little by little and talked about what they really needed. How to practice magic, what facilities are most needed… The arcade then… There was a time when I secretly came to play with another magical girl.”

It’s an arcade with magical girls… Just thinking about it makes me want to step in.
Even if they were magical girls, after all, if a group of girls were walking down the street and knew there was an arcade nearby, they would have wanted to go in at least once.
It would have been a fun memory just imagining it, but for some reason, Rapid smiled bitterly.

If it’s a bad memory, there’s nothing good about letting it stay in your mind for a long time.
I don’t know what happened, but now it’s not time to reminisce about the past, it’s time to go on a date with me at the arcade.
I tapped the arcade machine with my palm to get Rapid’s attention.

“Then, what games do you like?”
“Yes? Ah… I am… There’s no such thing as a good game… Anyway, Tetris?”
“Uh?”

Hearing the familiar game from Rapid’s mouth, I clenched my fist reflexively in surprise.
To think that Rapid likes Tetris like me…
This is definitely destiny.

“I like Tetris too…”
“Ah, yes… ? Then… Would you like to try Tetris first?”

Rapid and I naturally sat in front of the Tetris game machine.
I never thought I would play Tetris with Rapid following Grape.
Having already crushed Grape with Tetris, I slowly waved the stick while inserting a coin.
No matter how good you are, you won’t be as good as me, so I have to look after you in moderation.

Once you win by a narrow margin… Rapid doesn’t make me feel bad, but it draws attention to me, who is better at the game, and tells me how to do better.
In the process, if you lightly cover your hand and teach… Rapid feels good when you hold his hand, and you can feel the thrill of his natural touch…
It’s the perfect date plan.

“However… Do well?”
“Hmm… I guess I’m just getting along…”

The game starts, blocks fall.
Tetris is an old game in which you drop blocks of various shapes to create layers that fill the screen horizontally.
Blocks fall slowly at first, but over time, they fall faster and faster as the number of points earned by matching blocks increases.

So, at first, it was a good speed for beginners, and this meant that it was a frustrating speed for someone with some skill.
For these people, Tetris has a function that accelerates blocks by moving the stick upwards and falls down in a straight line.
However, I deliberately dropped the block slowly to avoid raising the score out of consideration for Rapid.

“… If you put it on the stick, it will fall quickly.”

Then, Rapid glanced at my screen and gave me advice I didn’t need.
I’m doing this out of consideration for rapid, but to tell me how to do it faster.
I answered while looking at the screen of Rapid with blocks falling slowly like me.

“Don’t you do rapid?”
“… Would it be all right?”

I nodded slowly to Rapid asking a strange question.
Then, Rapid seemed to be thinking about something, and he started lowering the block quickly.
While I was answering Rapid, I spin the blocks to get rid of misplaced blocks.

It is an advanced technique to turn a T-shaped block in a slightly special way and insert a block into a place that cannot be seen.
Seeing that, Rapid’s hand trembled and the block’s acceleration stopped.
Rapid glanced at me and asked the same question as before.

“Are you good at Tetris… ?”
“I’m doing just fine.”
“So so… How much?”
“But wouldn’t it be as good as Rapid?”

I plan to do just that and look at it in moderation.
If it looks like Rapid will lose, they win by a narrow margin.
While I was thinking that, I heard strange words next to me.

“Maybe not to that extent…”
“Yes?”
“Oh, no… Me actually… Tetris is just fine… I do.”
“Is it so… ?”

Looking at Rapid’s screen, he doesn’t look like a good guy.
Blocks piled up from the bottom, or raised up… It is far from neat.
As the blocks fell, a strange gap slowly appeared on Rapid’s screen from the bottom.

“I’m pretty good at it…”
“If it is quite… What level do you go to?”
“A level?”
“You’re worth it, EX? Or not… M?”
“I don’t know about that, but it goes well until level 38… I’ve only been to level 40 once.”
“Ah… Each game has a different rating… Level 38… What was the highest level?”
“Hmm…”

I couldn’t answer Rapid’s question.
My version of Tetris doesn’t have a threshold level.
The speed of the block continues to increase, and enduring the speed itself is a level… In other words, the limit speed I can do is 40, and the level I can come out with confidence is 38.
The record in the Tetris World Championship was 45, and I heard that pro players are around 42, so it’s a level that can be considered semi-professional.

“No matter how badly M… Could it be?”
“M… This is it.”

Rapid muttered in a very strange voice and struck his stick two or three times with his fingers.
Immediately after changing his stance, Rapid began dropping blocks rapidly.
Once a second, no… Blocks fill up quickly, at a rate of about once every 0.5 seconds.

“This much… ?”
“Huh… ?”

I noticed something was wrong and focused on the game.
Rapid drops blocks according to the speed at which I drop them.
If I stack it up in one line to get rid of it, the rapids get rid of it, and if I stack it up and try to get rid of it all at once, the rapids also make layers in a hurry and get rid of the same amount to offset my attack.

I stacked the blocks faster to give Rapid a little bit of attack back, and the more he did, the faster Rapid’s speed increased.
Unlike me, who couldn’t even blink and piled up blocks, Rapid was playing the game while blinking leisurely.
From that attitude and movement, I can feel that Rapid’s current skills are not sincere.

“Kuh… !”
“Ah, sorry, it’s a bit fast… ?”

Rapid made a sudden, sincere apology and slowed down the block.
I purposely pile them up in odd places, and they pile them up a little bit later than I do, giving me some leeway.
I noticed that Rapid was doing this when he saw my block stacking was messy.

Tetris contains my entire school days…
With Tetris, I beat Grape too…
You look at me like that… To think that I could leisurely check the status of my screen and play with it at this level… !