Although something unexpected had happened, Tokai Teio returned to the car not long after getting her key.
Contrary to what one might expect, though, after getting in, she did not immediately question the two of them about what she had just seen, nor did she make a scene. She acted no differently than before she had left.
She only spoke a little less. Every so often, she would drift off as if thinking about something. A brief emptiness would flicker through her eyes, and her lips seemed to move in a soundless murmur.
Under normal circumstances, even if Tokai Teio looked fine on the surface, Rudolf should have been able to notice something from those small movements.
Unfortunately, because of what had happened earlier, Rudolf's mind was currently in complete chaos. Forget noticing Tokai Teio's subtle movements—even maintaining a calm facade was already extremely difficult for her.
Although Rudolf had, for once, dropped the ball, Kitahara, who had already gone through this sort of thing several times before, soon calmed down and noticed that something was off with Tokai Teio.
Even so, Kitahara did not bring it up in the car. Instead, he waited until they reached the arcade, and until the three of them had spent a while playing with their own thoughts weighing on them. Then, while Rudolf went to touch up her makeup—her disguise had loosened a little while playing and needed to be fixed—he brought Tokai Teio over to a two-player co-op arcade cabinet, inserted the tokens, started the game, played for a while, and only then spoke slowly.
"Teio, did something happen?"
At Kitahara's sudden question, Tokai Teio stiffened, and the character she was controlling instantly stopped moving.
The moment Tokai Teio's character stopped, the enemy she had just been combo-locking finally got a chance to breathe. It quickly climbed up from the ground, then raised its blade toward her character.
Slash—!
Along with the sound of the blade cutting through the air, Kitahara's character moved in front of Tokai Teio's from an extremely tricky angle, blocking the slash for her. Then he counterattacked and took the enemy out.
"Ooh, made it just in time."
Kitahara kept his eyes on the screen and played seriously, as though he had not been the one who had spoken just now.
After that, because Tokai Teio remained frozen, her in-game character stayed rooted in place as well. Kitahara did not press her. He simply controlled his own character in silence, staying beside Tokai Teio's and protecting her with the weapon in his hand, driving back the enemies that came at them again and again.
During this process, although Kitahara had a good instinct for games, this was still a new one he was playing for the first time. On top of that, it was a two-player game that emphasized cooperation.
So while protecting Tokai Teio's character, Kitahara was also having a somewhat difficult time. His character's health bar kept dropping, and the wounds on his body kept increasing.
Even so, Kitahara did not urge Tokai Teio. He did not ask anything else, nor did he tell her to focus on the game. He simply stayed silently by her side, waiting for her answer.
As for Tokai Teio beside him, after being asked that question, she stared blankly for quite a while. When she came back to her senses, she only gazed dazedly at the screen, watching Kitahara desperately protect her there, and for a time she felt lost.
A while passed like that. As his health bar continued to drop, Kitahara's character began hovering on the edge of death. Tokai Teio's character, by contrast, had been under Kitahara's protection the whole time and had barely taken any damage.
Just then, perhaps because most of the small enemies had already been wiped out, the massive stage boss slowly appeared amid an intense burst of music. It immediately unleashed a barrage and wiped out Kitahara's low-health character in one wave.
Only when Kitahara's character collapsed did Tokai Teio finally come back to herself. No longer caring about answering any questions, she began frantically working the controls.
But as mentioned before, this game placed great emphasis on cooperation, and it was not easy. Even Kitahara would have had trouble winning alone, let alone Tokai Teio.
And so, unsurprisingly, after struggling for a short while, Tokai Teio's character's health bar gradually emptied as well, until she finally fell under another round of the boss's barrage.
They lost...
Along with her character's collapse, Tokai Teio's head slowly lowered as well. All the joy of victory from earlier had vanished from her, replaced by loss and sadness. She looked like a kitten abandoned by the roadside on a rainy day.
Only, before she could be sad for more than a few seconds, a hand landed on her head and gently rubbed it.
"All right, all right. Don't be sad. It's just a game. I still have plenty of tokens. How about we try again?"
Listening to the gentle words by her ear, Tokai Teio's nose stung.
If only what I lost was just a game...
"Trainer-san, I..."
Driven by her emotions, Tokai Teio slowly spoke, but when the words reached her lips, they stuck in her throat.
What was she supposed to say? What could she say? Did she even really have the right to say anything?
She was the one who would not let Kitahara be her Trainer. She was the one who had been willful and unreasonable. Even now, knowing full well that Kitahara was a blockhead and had no such feelings for her, she was still the one who had never told him how she felt.
Although that bit of footage alone was not enough for Tokai Teio to confirm her suspicions, even if something really had happened between the President and her Trainer-san, what could she do about it?
Sadness, confusion, helplessness...
Tokai Teio stood there with her head lowered and fell silent.
Seeing her like that, Kitahara did not question her further. He simply put two more tokens into the machine, then patted the cabinet in front of Tokai Teio and smiled.
"One more round?"
After a moment of silence, Tokai Teio nodded, and the game began again.
Because he had experience from last time, Kitahara played much better this time. And while Tokai Teio's technique was not especially good, at least she no longer went idle, and she helped take some of the pressure off Kitahara.
Under those circumstances, the two of them cleared the first chapter quite easily, smoothly defeated the stage boss, then pushed through the second and third chapters in one breath.
Although they cleared the stages, Tokai Teio did not look particularly happy.
Part of that was naturally because of what had happened earlier. Another part was that, although they had cleared the stages, she realized that her own ability was not actually enough to get through them. Basically, Kitahara had carried her the entire way.
Along the way, she had not only caused him all sorts of trouble and forced him to bail her out again and again, but also taken up most of the resources. In the end, the damage she dealt did not even amount to a fraction of his.
Then, precisely because of Tokai Teio's poor performance, the two of them finally fell to the boss of the fourth chapter. And much like before, Kitahara died once again while helping Tokai Teio block bullets.
This time, after the game ended, before Tokai Teio could react, Kitahara spoke first.
"We lost again..."
As he said that, he turned to look at Tokai Teio.
"What, are you thinking I'll look down on you for being bad at the game and think you dragged me down?"
Under normal circumstances, Tokai Teio should have hesitated for a moment, then nodded and admitted that Kitahara was right.
But after a moment of silence, faced with Kitahara's question, Tokai Teio slowly shook her head.
Seeing her shake her head, Kitahara smiled and reached out to pat her head.
"That's right. If you really thought I'd dislike you over something like this, then I'd be genuinely angry."
"Although I do have to admit, you're a little bad at this game. But compared to skill level, winning, or anything like that, what I care about more is getting to play games with you."
"Or rather, what I care about is you."
"By the same logic, if you don't want to tell me what happened, I won't ask too much. But what I want to tell you is this: no matter what problems or difficulties you run into, I'm willing to stay by your side and face them with you."
"Just like earlier."
After saying that, before Tokai Teio could react, Kitahara suddenly reached out and pulled her into his arms.
"Tra-Trainer-san..."
The sudden embrace left Tokai Teio a little flustered, but before she could react further, Kitahara placed her in his lap, then took her hands and slowly set them on the arcade cabinet's controls.
"All right, Teio. It's okay. I'll teach you how to play. You'll get it soon..."
As he spoke, Kitahara held Tokai Teio like that and began teaching her hand over hand.
In his arms, with her back to him, Tokai Teio was already flustered to the extreme, but she showed no intention of resisting. Instead, she let him guide her, only growing redder and redder.
He'll always stay by my side...?
Remembering Kitahara's words, Tokai Teio blinked. Feeling the warmth around her, and the warmth enveloping both of her hands, she slowly spoke after the lesson had gone on for a while.
"Um, Trainer-san, can you come closer for a second...?"
"Hm? What is it?"
Kitahara lowered his head.
"Well..."
Tokai Teio pretended she was about to say something. Then, after Kitahara lowered his head, she suddenly poked her head out and kissed his cheek.
Feeling the soft warmth against his cheek, Kitahara froze for a moment. But after he came back to himself, he did not dodge. He even looked into the distance, toward Rudolf, who had been idling over there for quite some time.
In truth, Rudolf had finished touching up her makeup a while ago. She simply had not come closer because of Kitahara's signal, and had only been idling off to the side, watching from afar.
Seeing Tokai Teio's little move, Rudolf did not react at all. Instead, after Kitahara looked over, she raised an eyebrow and spread her hands, looking entirely like she was watching the show.
Although Rudolf knew very well that Tokai Teio's purpose in making that little move was probably not so simple.
The problem was that Tokai Teio's threat level was simply too low. Their side had already updated to the point of holding a developer conference, while Tokai Teio was still timid even about kissing his cheek...
How should one put it...
When facing a powerful beast, such as a tiger, its bared fangs and claws would make one tense, or even afraid. But if the one baring its fangs and claws at you was only a kitten, then never mind tension or fear—even knowing that it was threatening you, you would only find it very cute.
Especially since the two of them had just done that sort of thing, and now they had come to the arcade with Tokai Teio. Even if Tokai Teio made a few little moves, it was very hard for Rudolf to feel any jealousy or sense of danger. If anything, she found this family-of-three atmosphere somewhat warm...
Faced with Rudolf's attitude of watching the show, Kitahara very impolitely returned the favor with a middle finger. Then, after Tokai Teio finished kissing him and shyly tucked her head back, he did not think too much about it and continued teaching her hand over hand.
Only this time, during the lesson, because of Rudolf's reaction just now, Kitahara could not help recalling what had happened earlier in the lounge, and muttered a few complaints in his heart.
She was acting like that just now, and now she's already putting on a tough front again...
To be honest, before what happened in the lounge, Kitahara truly had not expected that Rudolf, who had always seemed so outstanding—even perfect—in public, would have that side to her in private.
Although before this, Kitahara had already known that Rudolf, while always presenting herself flawlessly in front of outsiders, had some suspected slacker tendencies in private.
He still had not expected that even that was not her final form.
After he broke through her defenses, the being known as Rudolf no longer had even the slightest trace of "The Emperor" about her. Instead, she looked like a child, sulking at him and acting spoiled in all sorts of ways. While using every method at her disposal, she also clung to him with no regard for her image at all. She was practically a different person from her usual self.
And while her personality had changed drastically, this girl's combat power in certain areas was also absolute small fry. If he had not reacted quickly and stopped in time, then when Tokai Teio returned, what she would have seen would not have been two mutually awkward people, but an awkward him and Rudolf twitching on the sofa...
Crap.
Perhaps because he had gotten too absorbed in his memories, Kitahara's body subconsciously produced a certain physiological reaction, and he was quite certain Tokai Teio had noticed it.
But to his surprise, after noticing something, Tokai Teio merely stiffened slightly, then quickly returned to normal. She even wriggled her little butt, but showed no intention of asking about it.
Then, after another while, seeing that the conversation here had finished, Rudolf, who had been idling over there for ages, finally "finished touching up her makeup" and walked back with a smile.
As for Tokai Teio, although Kitahara's comfort had somewhat eased the emotions in her heart, especially making it impossible for her to feel any hostility toward him—
After seeing Rudolf approach, a dark look still flashed through the depths of her eyes. Although it quickly disappeared, Rudolf still noticed it.
Faced with Tokai Teio's concealment, however, Rudolf did not dwell on it. Instead, she gave her a faint smile, and Tokai Teio, as if nothing had changed, greeted her with a happy face just like before.
Seeing Tokai Teio return to normal, Kitahara also breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile unconsciously appeared on his face.
And so, just like that, the three of them, each with their own thoughts, all smiled. They looked at one another, each making their own calculations inside.
Only, what they did not know was that at the same time as they were smiling here, in another place, the answers Tokai Teio had given earlier...
Were slowly beginning to ferment.
---
bonus chaps
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