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"Hey. Hey, Sorawo." Toriko nudged me with her elbow and then pointed over at one of the nearby carnival games. It was one of those games where you had to shoot bottles with a toy gun.
"What?" I asked.
"Look at all the plushies you can win. Do you see that big black cat? It's cute, isn't it?"
There were certainly a lot of plushies hanging from the walls of the game's booth, including one very large black cat with enormous eyes and a small little kitty smile. It looked like it was designed with maximum cuteness in mind. I wasn't immune. "It is cute," I admitted.
"Did you know that in a lot of western countries, like Canada and the US, black cats are considered bad luck?" Toriko said then. "I always thought that was kind of weird."
I had heard of that. "Yeah, I think it goes back to European superstitions about witches," I said. "Cats were associated with witches, and black cats in particular. Probably because they're dark, like the night. I can imagine it would be unnerving to come across a black cat when it's already dark out."
"It is silly though, don't you think?" Toriko asked.
"Well, yeah, but it's interesting," I said. "You know, I think some people even believed that witches could turn into black cats."
"You know a lot about old legends and that type of thing, huh?" Toriko said.
"I guess," I said. I mean, it wasn't very difficult to look this type of thing up on Wikipedia or wherever.
"I think I'm going to try to win you the black cat," Toriko said then, suddenly sounding very determined.
"Huh?" I asked.
But Toriko was already walking over to the booth. "Hey, excuse me, I want to play," she said to the person standing there.
Before I could even say anything, he'd handed her the little plastic gun, and Toriko assumed a battle-ready position - the same one she'd used countless times in the Otherside. Honestly it looked a little ridiculous considering she was using a plastic gun.
"Um, don't you think that's a little overkill?" I said.
"This is important," Toriko said through gritted teeth.
Well... okay then...
The game started, and Toriko actually missed the first time. I imagine it's because it wasn't a real gun, so it probably handled differently. But that was all the time Toriko needed to adjust. Then, after that, all the bottles fell one by one. Even the guy at the booth looked stunned. I imagine he wasn't expecting someone as gorgeous as Toriko to be this good with guns. Honestly, that was fair. I wasn't either, the first time she used them. Even though it was a fake gun, I couldn't help but notice how cool she looked standing just like this...
Once all the bottles were gone, Toriko handed the gun back to the game operator. She looked very smug. I saw them exchanging a few words - maybe he wanted to know how she got so good at this game. My eyes started to wander a bit and I noticed all the other cute plushies aside from the black cat. I saw one in particular that I kind of liked.
"Alright, which prize would you like?" The man asked.
Toriko gestured towards the black cat, but that's when I stepped forward. "Um, excuse me. I was actually wondering... if we could get that one." I pointed towards a big fluffy yellow bird plushie.
"Oh! Of course," the man said. He pulled the bird plushie down from the wall and handed it to me. It was huge! I had to wrap both my arms around it to carry it.
Toriko and I began to walk away. Toriko looked at me oddly. She was blushing, but just a little bit. "Hey, what about the cat? Didn't you think it was cute?"
"I want to hug a big yellow bird sometimes," I said. I was teasing her on purpose because I wanted to see her reaction.
Toriko started to blush even more, and then she stopped walking. Had I broken her? "Toriko?" I asked.
She turned around and looked back at the booth we'd just left. She seemed to be looking for something specific, the way her eyes roved around a bit. Then she began walking back. "I'm doing it again," she said with determination.
"Huh? Why?" I ran a few steps to catch up to her, still holding the huge bird plushie in my arms.
"Because," Toriko pointed. "I want that fish plushie."
Oh. I felt myself begin to blush myself. Well, I guess that was fair play.