Ah, wow! An arcade!
Oh, it was Ritsuka! They were nice, as far she knew. Then again, all students were nice, with the exception of Ama. Shizuka was grumpy, though.
"Kamata-san! I’m just trying the machines, but…" she sighed in frustration.
Why were those machines so hard? Could people even win prizes in those? Haruna was half-frustrated, half curious.
She shouldn’t be upset over that sort of thing when people were dead, but still… Maybe she was spoiled? She didn’t think she was spoiled but did spoiled people even know they were spoiled? Maybe she was overthinking, but maybe she wasn’t.
"Are you trying out the games too?” her voice was cheerful and full of curiosity. She didn’t think they were the type to like that kind of game, but then again, if the few people she knew were anything to go by, people could be surprising.
They had a point… And why keep an arcade if only a few people were going to play in it? Even she knew those things weren’t cheap.
"So, we might be trapped here for their amusement?" her smile dissolved as she questioned Ritsuka, "They’d spend all that money on a game just for them? Are they that rich?” she bit her upper lip in frustration and then realized she had stopped playing in the crane machine.
"I suppose I came to investigate…" Ritsuka trailed off, glancing around the arcade for a moment. There did seem to be a selection of games here. Maybe they would try going to an arcade someday. If they could. After a short moment of contemplation, they turned their attention back to the matter at hand.
Had Haruna been staring longingly at the bears as well? Tilting their head curiously, Ritsuka approached the machine to try themself while the blonde girl spoke.
After getting a feel for the controls and the angles, Ritsuka carefully and methodically attempted to seek out the best toy to target. They had watched people from afar try and fail at this task, and some who had tried and succeed. Resurfacing the mental notes on those who succeeded and cross-referencing the errors with those who failed had produced results a bit more quickly than they had expected, and Ritsuka watched in envy as the bear dropped from the hook and down in the prize bin below.
Ritsuka retrieved the bear from the bottom of the machine and resurfaced, holding it out for the shorter girl to take.
"Here," Ritsuka offered blankly, staring still at the little bear’s plush fur. It was rather…cute. Cute things had never suited them, though they seemed to rather suit the other. So, in a sense, the bear would be going to the rightful, more suitable owner.
"There are many things about this place that I’ve yet to understand." Ritsuka admitted, letting the bear go as they spoke. There were many things about the world that they had yet to understand, really. They were still sometimes confused by the idea of people coming to them with questions. Questions about their futures, about their loved one’s thoughts and intentions—things that can’t be seen or understood.
"Though I think it’s safe to say that we are dealing with powerful people. Perhaps monetary, or perhaps in influence…" Their mind to Ama and Koneko at these words. Influence over the human mind was a powerful thing indeed. Perhaps even more powerful than they’d anticipated.
It took Haruna a short while to realize what Ritsuka was doing. They sought a logical strategy, instead of trying over and over and hoping for the best. It was more efficient that way, but Haruna wasn't sure wheter it was more fun or not.
She smiled in excitement for the other as they managed to catch a bear. It was really cute and... Next thing she knew, they were offering it to her.
"Are you really sure I can have it?" it sounded a bit like leeching off Ritsuka's efforts, after all, "I don't mean to be rude, Kamata-san, but..."
She picked up the bear and started to poke it out of curiosity. It was a very well made and sturdy bear... Weren't toys from crane machines supposed to be cheap? Unless that bear was cheap.
"Why would anyone do something so horrible, though..." Haruna's smile faded from her face and she clutched the bear, maybe as an attempt to make herself feel better or stronger, nevermind that implied she already saw the toy as hers, "It's kind of hard to believe something like that'd happen in real life..."















