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“Wow, you suck,” his tone wasn’t that of mocking. It was the same monotone tone so characteristic of him. It was as if he was stating nothing but the cruel reality.
You sigh as you look down at the ground, there’s music and people yelling and laughing yet they almost go unnoticed whenever he speaks. “I want to see you trying then,” You say, lifting up your face to look at the man next to you.
He looks back at you and then at the machine you just lost ten dollars to. He smiles, “sure.”
You move away and hand him a dollar for him to play. It had been you who invited him to an arcade after all, there was no way Akagi Shigeru would spend his own money on something like that. You aren’t even sure if he has money with him at the moment. His pockets looked empty, not a single sign of a wallet, let alone money.
“This is too easy,” your attention gets taken away from his body to the small plushie being shaken on your face, “you suck.” Akagi pushes the toy onto your hands before walking away from the machine.
He just looks around, trying to find one interesting enough to spend his time on, “what kind of place doesn’t have at least one pachinko machine?”
“This is an arcade,” you say, “for kids.”
He chuckles at your answer. “As if I wasn’t a kid when I started gambling.”
You want to ask more about his youth but you know better than to do it. Akagi isn’t the type of man who talks about the past.
“So what?” He continues, “you just give your money and get nothing back?”
“Just like in pachinko,” you joke.
“What are you talking about? I even got banned from some places for winning too much.”
“Really?”
“No.”
You are not sure whether or not he is lying to you, you never know. It is impossible to read a man such as him. Maybe it is that mysterious air around him that attracted you to him, like flowers to a hummingbird.
“You wanna dance?”
Akagi looks at you in confusion for a moment before his brain remembers the dancing game at the entrance of the arcade, “pass,” he says, “why don’t you tell me if you want a prize and I get it for you?”
Now it is your turn to look at him in confusion, “why?”
“So I can show you these games are easy and because I bet it is the grand prize many little kids want,” he gives a step closer to you, “am I wrong?”
“You knew?”
“Of course,” he places a hand over your hair, “it’s going to be fun seeing them cry. So, what do we need?”
“A thousand tickets.”
Akagi nods to himself as he messes up your hair, “and you got twenty two on your bag, well, this is definitely a challenge.”
It is scary how he was able to know the exact numbers of tickets you have when you hadn’t mentioned them at all, just how good was he at reading people? It was amazing whenever you saw him play mahjong and read the waits of his opponents but seeing him do it on his day to day was a completely different feeling. Just how much of yourself had he been able to read?
Akagi soons starts to walk around the arcade, avoiding running kids and every little obstacle on the floor like nothing, popcorns, empty bottles, cups, plates, wet floor signs. Is as if there is nothing for him to trip on. He sees others play, he checks how many tickets the games give. You can almost see an inner Akagi taking notes on a little pad so fast his hand is on fire.
You follow him in silence, letting him enjoy the arcade in his own way. You try to tattoo on your mind the expression you have seen so many times before. That expression of pure concentration and excitement, one you can’t never get tired of, one you can’t never have enough of.
You don’t complain when he takes your hand and guides you towards the game he chose, you smile when he lets go of you and extend his hand asking for money without saying a thing.
A shooting game.
It is scary how precise he is at aiming at the zombies. Akagi almost seems way too excited about the game, only using one hand to grab the gun, smiling as he shoots more and more zombies. Soon a bunch of kids start gathering around, wooing at seeing Akagi advances in levels many had probably never seen.
You pretend not to laugh at kids yelling at their parents “why can’t you be like that old man?”
It seemed that no matter what Akagi did, he would always end up having people admiring him. You are sure a bunch of kids are going to try to copy the pose Akagi has at the moment. A hand on his pocket while his other hand is fully extended, shooting like it’s nothing.
“It’s not fair if someone who participated in the war comes and plays,” you’re not sure who says that but you can tell Akagi also heard the comment yet he pays no mind, if anything, that just seemed to make him want to win even more.
More minutes pass before no more enemies appear on the screen, “did you finish the game?” You ask him in shock and only then does he put the gun down.
“Did I? I thought it wouldn't end.”
And the kids around probably thought the same. Seconds later, the game starts giving out tickets and some poor worker has to reset the game. Something tells you, the two of you are going to be banned by the end of the day.
“Let’s go,” Akagi tells you as he hands you the tickets to put in your bag, “just how old did that person think I am.”
You laugh. Loud. “Your white hair does that to people.”
He clicks his tongue but doesn’t say anything else, “I hope his kid also wants that damn big prize.”