Chapter Text
For Ayumu, it’s the same routine every day. Clock in, make sure the game cabinets are in working order, then stand behind the counter for eightish hours in silence. Maybe one or two people will dip in for a few minutes, gawk at a handful of games they’re not interested in, spend a couple dollars on another one, then walk out. Sometimes she might even need to clean a little bit.
It’s a drab and lonely lifestyle, but it pays the bills. Often she wondered how the place stayed open with so few customers - maybe it was a money laundering business she just wasn’t wise on? - but she knew better than to stick her nose in things that weren’t her business. Not everywhere would let an employee rack up as much overtime as she did, and even less places would let her exclusively work a nighttime shift, both aspects of the job she was acutely aware of and thankful for.
Ayumu leaned her elbows onto the counter and let out a deep sigh. It was only 7pm… still had six hours left to go. She grabbed a washcloth and a bottle of cleaning solution that carried the faintest scent of lavender and began to wipe down the counter. She had already done that a few times tonight, but what else was she going to do? Play some of the games there while waiting for people to show up? She had already played them all to death, so there wasn’t much joy in that sort of thing anymore.
As she was wiping away at stains that didn’t exist, she heard the telltale sign of someone entering the arcade: a manly, synthetic voice echoed from the other side of the arcade’s lobby, “welcome to Arcade Alley.” Half heartedly glancing up from the counter, she saw a short girl with long, black haired tied up into loose pigtail braids wearing a woefully color mismatched getup of a zipped down hoodie, a t-shirt, and a short skirt peer into the premises then walk a couple more steps in. After scouting out the place a bit more, the girl walked over to an exchange mission and converted a few dollars into the ever-so-coveted arcade token.
Ayumu started to observe a little more intently, since this was certainly more interesting than cleaning the counter for the umpteenth time. The girl wandered between a couple light gun cabinets and a handful of fighting games, stopping to ponder with unusual intensity at each cabinet. Eventually she settled on, of all things, a crane game, a little glimmer in her eye indicating that something was tucked away in there that she was very interested in.
The girl dropped a token into the machine and gave the crane a try. She jostled the stick a little bit and clicked the button. A little bit of hope illuminated her face, which Ayumu found to be just a little bit cute.
Ayumu’s eyes squinted a bit, curious if she managed to get anything. She knew those games were a little bit rigged and the hand wouldn’t always grip as tightly as you’d want them to.
The crane’s hand descended, paused for a bit, then rose up… with nothing. The girl let out a slight huff, slid another token in, and tried again. Nothing came up again. The girl’s face shifted into a pout as she slid yet another token in… and gained nothing of it. She stood in front of the machine staring into its little treasure pit, ogling the object of her desires.
Ayumu always felt a little guilty watching people throw their money away on the crane games, but she usually opted to keep her mouth shut. If she ever revealed the machine was rigged, who would ever play it and how would the arcade profit off of it? Still… something about this strange girl visibly suffering and looking incredibly determined to get something out of this dastardly game struck Ayumu’s heart in a funny way. She felt as though she wanted to come over and at least help out a little bit, or at least reimburse the girl her tokens.
Ayumu pushed herself off the counter, leaving the rag and bottle behind, and began to walk over to where the girl was. Part of her wondered why she was bothering to interact with a customer in this sort of way, but part of her was willing to recognize how lonely she was. Outside of her roommate, she had no one else to talk to. Was this an act of desperation?
Ayumu stopped at a cabinet adjacent to the crane game, leaned her shoulder against it, trying her best to look cool, and inquired, “hey, need a hand over here?”
The girl looked over to her, the pouty expression she was still holding on her face morphing to that of bewilderment and then excitement over the sight of someone offering help. “There’s a little guy in there that I really want…” she embarrassedly muttered, “...but I just can’t get the hand to grab him.”
Ayumu pushed herself off the cabinet she was leaning on, moved a bit closer, and looked into the confines of the crane game. “Which one?”
The girl pressed her finger onto the glass enclosure, trying her best to point at her desire. “The little… black spiky cougar-y thing! That guy!” She was pointing at a plush of a monster from a popular game that Ayumu knew very well - it was a game she used to play a lot while she was still in school. Ayumu made a mental note of the overlapping interest they shared.
Ayumu cracked her knuckles and bent down to slide a token into the crane. “Alright, let’s see what we can do. I bet we can get him out of there.” She knew a few tokens were pumped into this cabinet, so the chances of getting screwed over were ever so slightly less. It was worth a try and she essentially had an infinite stash of tokens since she worked there, so what was the harm? Helping this girl as a one off thing could be her little secret.
Ayumu took control of the crane’s arm and shifted it out of its neutral state and above the little spiky cougar fella’s tail which was (conveniently enough) sticking straight up into the air. She adjusted the arm a tiny bit more and pushed the button, sending the claw descending downwards. As the claw got a firm grip on the plushie’s soft butt, Ayumu heard the girl let out a slight gasp. Miraculously, the claw lifted the plushie upwards, wiggling and jostling as it rose, and shifted itself to a little hole inside the enclosure, dumping the plush into a chute… and out on the ground in front of the girl.
The girl kneeled down and grabbed the plushie, squeezing it with intense vigor and squealing a little bit before gaining her composure and saying “thank you, miss. He’s one of my favorite monsters! He felt so out of reach to me… the hand just wasn’t cooperating…”
“There’s no need to thank me, I’m just glad we could free the Nargacuga from there.” Ayumu tried her best to subtly slip in that she knew what the little guy was from, but it was hard to be subtle when she flat out said the name of the monster. Internally she winced a little bit - she said too much!
The girl’s face brightened up as she realized Ayumu was in the know. “Oh! Do you like Monster Hunter?”
“Yeah, a little bit. I used to play it with a couple of my friends when I was still in school.”
“Have you tried out the newest one?”
“I can’t say I have… it’s been a while. I don’t really have much time anymore, y’know?” Ayumu knew that was a lie. She had all the time in the world. She stopped playing because she lost touch with those friends when she dropped out.
The girl let out a little “ohhh” of acknowledgement, then paused for a second before saying, “well, thank you again for your help, miss! I can’t overstate how much I appreciate it. I’ve always wanted a plushie of this handsome lad.”
The slightest smile cracked on Ayumu’s face as she took a little portable coin dispenser out of her pocket and pushed a couple of tokens out into her hand. She was a little smitten by how unapologetically dorky this girl was. “It’s no worries. Between you and me, these crane games are rigged. I swear half the time they don’t even try to grip down on anything. I felt bad watching you struggle with it.”
“I thought I was just really bad at them… I’m a little guilty of burning away my money on these machines.”
“That’s how they get you,” replied Ayumu as she held three tokens out to the girl, “here, these ones are on the house.”
The girl’s eyes sparkled a bit as she snatched up the tokens. “Thank you, miss! I won’t let these go to waste.”
Ayumu smiled at her and turned around to walk back to the counter, feeling like she had her fill of social interaction for the night, when the girl spoke up a little bit more. “Wait a second, miss, I didn’t get your name!”
Ayumu’s heart skipped a beat. She’s never had a customer ask her what her name was. It felt unusual… why would they? She’s just there to watch the place, no one needs to know her name or pay her any mind. In the back of her mind, she wondered if letting this girl know her name was a good idea. She was always hesitant to form new connections with people.
Recognizing that it was probably a harmless thing to do, Ayumu spun on her heel and faced the girl again. “Oh, sorry! My name’s Ayumu’s… what’s yours?”
“My name is Nana. I’m sorry if it felt like a weird question to ask, but I didn’t know how to address you.”
“It’s okay, I don’t mind. It beats calling me miss, that’s for sure… that made me feel so old.” Ayumu let out an anxious, half-forced chuckle, then continued, “is there anything else you need from me, Nana?”
“Yeah, I think there is…” Nana looked down at the floor for a second, looking as though she was lost in some sort of deep thought, then glanced back up at Ayumu and continued, “...is there anything here that’s fun for two people? I feel bad taking these tokens for free, and I thought maybe we could play together?”
A mix of anxiety and excitement filled Ayumu’s brain. This felt so unusual to her. Most people just chose to ignore the folk who worked at these sorts of establishments. It was weird for her to feel noticed and she wasn’t quite sure how to process the feeling… but she felt like she could at least try to be happy about this turn of events. She never had anyone to play games with, so maybe it’d be a fun little temporary distraction for her.
Ayumu softly bit the inside of her cheek, then said, “yeah, I think I know a few fun ones we could try out. Do you like light gun games?”
Nana beamed with more excitement than Ayumu’s heart could begin to handle. “I love those! I mean… I’m really bad at them, but they’re really fun!”
“Okay, okay, come with me then, I know something really cool we can check out.”
The two girls walked up to a gritty, old arcade cabinet, the marquee emblazoned with a skull and spooky gothic imagery. Ayumu placed her hand on the cabinet and said “House of the Dead! This one’s a classic, it’s a little spooky in a cheesy way but that’s part of the charm. Do you like spooky, Nana?”
Nana responded with intense enthusiasm, “yes, I love spooky! I love horror! I’m not scared of anything!” Ayumu took mental note of her excitement - no one this excited for horror was actually fearless.
Ayumu smiled at Nana. “Alright, that’s what I like to hear!”
Ayumu and Nana both dumped a token into the cabinet, grabbed the gaudy blue and red light guns from the cabinet’s dashboard, and fired up the game’s two player mode. It was a quaint, noticeably dated little rail shooter. The game handled all the movement for the girls, and all they had to do was shoot the zombies as they appeared on screen.
Ayumu was riding off of muscle memory, having played this game plenty on lonely nights to blow off steam. She had memorized where all the zombies would pop out at and knew the mechanics for every boss encounter, but she relented a bit so Nana could have an actual chance to play.
Nana, on the other hand, looked as though she was fighting for her life. She was bobbing and weaving, yelling whenever a zombie got a little too close for comfort, and lost more than a few lives. When Ayumu became aware of Nana’s apparent lack of skill and how hard she was getting thrashed, she made sure to gun down the zombies right before they’d be close enough to be a threat to Nana.
After a little less than an hour, the final boss was gunned down and the credits began to roll. Nana holstered the gun in the cabinet and wiped some sweat off of her forehead. Ayumu, used to immediately diving in for a second round, kept the gun firmly gripped in her hand as she glanced over to Nana and asked, “did you enjoy the game?”
“It was really, really fun… but super tough! I don’t know how you managed to keep your cool when there were so many zombies rushing at us.”
“Play it enough times and you get used to it, really!”
“Impressive…!! You must really, really play it a lot then! You didn’t break a sweat!” Nana’s face lit up as she looked at Ayumu in awe. Ayumu got a little self conscious and holstered the light gun that she was absent-mindedly still holding. It was a little too obvious that she’s probably played through this game hundreds of times at this point.
Ayumu let out a nervous little laugh. “Maybe so…”
Nana pointed to the cabinet’s screen. “I mean, look! You’re all over the leaderboard! You’re the only person on it!”
Ayumu’s face filled with an uncomfortably warm feeling as she realized the leaderboard was scrolling down the screen since the credits had long since ended. From top to bottom it read “AYM” with progressively larger and larger scores next to the name. It was so embarrassing how obvious it was that she might’ve lived and breathed House of the Dead.
“Oh god, you don’t need to see that. That’s… really humiliating. I swear I do more than play this game.” Ayumu wanted to claw her own face off with how much embarrassment she felt.
“You don’t need to be bashful, I think it’s really cool to be this passionate about something, even if it’s a video game..” Nana’s voice lingered for a second, a slight tinge of melancholy piercing through her cheery persona, then she continued, “not everyone has something they’re passionate about.”
Sensing that the conversation was about to turn surprisingly gloomy, Ayumu tried her best to sound cool and responded, “you might be right. I should try to embrace how good I am at kicking zombie ass.”
Nana giggled, much to Ayumu’s relief. Whatever feeling had crawled into Nana was seemingly expelled. “You should own it! You truly are the best zombie butt kicker.”
Both of the girls fell into laughter. Ayumu couldn’t believe she was getting a pep talk over a video game. More than that, Ayumu couldn’t believe she was letting out genuine laughter. It was cathartic for her in some strange way she couldn’t quite wrap her head around. Were positive feelings really that rare for her?
The girls collected themselves from their small laughing fit. Ayumu, finding herself wanting to see if she could get a little more time with Nana, asked, “is there anything else you’d like to try?
Nana paused for a second to think, checked the time on her phone, then said, “oh, I actually need to start heading home… I didn’t tell my parents I would be out late and I need to walk back home.”
“Makes sense, it’s dark out by now.” Ayumu was a little bit disappointed, but she understood. Nana should get home safely. It’s the responsible thing to do.
“Yeah… will you be here tomorrow though? It’s Saturday. Maybe I could come back and we could play more stuff together? I still have a lot of tokens… I usually go through them a lot faster than I did today.”
“Yeah, I’m here every day.” Ayumu felt a little knot form in her gut. She knew it probably sounded a little off that she worked seven days a week, but it was just how she operated. Never any time to rest, always have to keep moving. “We can burn through those extra tokens you’ve got tomorrow.”
“Ah, great! I can make it tomorrow night then… and maybe even stay a little later than today!”
“Cool, I’ll figure out what neat stuff we can check out ahead of time then.”
“Exciting! Well… I’ll see you tomorrow, Ayumu. Have a good night.”
“You too, Nana.”
Nana began to walk out of the arcade and Ayumu returned to her counter, leaned her elbows against, and let out a big sigh. It was a return to the usual and she had several hours to burn still. She grabbed the cloth and started wiping down the counter again.
A thought kept piercing through Ayumu’s mind the rest of her shift. Would Nana come back tomorrow? She really hoped that Nana would come back. The hour they spent together felt like a blur to her, and she wanted to feel hours blur like that more often.