A Devil's Luck

[bondsofsuffering]

Who: Hizumi Mizushiro, Miyako Hotsuin, and YOU
Where: Various places around Hinoto-Ri, most notably Cancer and Pisces districts. Takes place on April 1st for the general open portion and April 6th for the yakiniku dinner because saving log space saves the world.
Summary: Hizumi has obtained a job at a game arcade and is hunting down alternate versions of people both while on and off the job! And later in the week, he treats a certain lady to yakiniku because this is an important dish to experience in your life.
Warnings: Fierce yakiniku parties.

[APRIL 1ST: CANCER DISTRICT]

It's a smaller arcade than most, but that doesn't make its selection any less good. Indeed, some of the more hardcore gamers prefer it, as it has less of those fake gamers with their mainstream games and more of the classics standing side by side with the latest and greatest.

Hizumi's on clerk duty today, but that doesn't stop him from weaving among the customers and generally being friendly and conversational. He doesn't interrupt people during their play of course, but he's quick to crack a joke with anyone around, or even point out flaws in peoples' strategies in the case of a person failing a stage. If you're standing around, he might just end up chatting with you!

"Hey, how's it going?"

[APRIL 1ST: GENERAL]

Once he gets out of work, he'll be wandering around the city, keeping a sharp eye on all of those around him. With all the time he's spent in Hinoto-Ri, he's gotten quite good at telling Visitors from normal civilians, and thus it is these whom he is on the lookout for. If he spots anyone, you can be sure that he'll be casually walking up and greeting them. "Hey! You're a Visitor, right? Think you could help me out a sec?"

[APRIL 6TH: CLOSED TO MIYAKO]

The food is prepared, with slices of various meats and, after much debate, a selection of vegetables on the side. He hasn't begun cooking them on the small table-sized grill, of course - that would have to begin only when his guest had arrived, so that they could enjoy the food when it was at its peak deliciousness.

Which meant that for now, all he could really do was wait for his poor, deprived honored guest to show up.

Comments

let's do this

[capitalbackup]

She have to admit to herself, Miyako's rather curious about yakiniku and did her own research during the two weeks. Despite her initial impressions upon finding out, she refrain from trying them until this evening.

Mizushiro promised her an unforgettable experience, so she honoured it by allowing him to give her that first taste.

After spending the day dragging her brother around for her civilian activities research, Miyako finally allowed her brother to leave before she returned to Pisces's apartment.

Minor timeskip yo

It's now evening when she left her room and walked over to Mizushiro's place. 11-3.

Knock, knock.

aw yeah

[bondsofsuffering]

And there she is! He hurries to the door, opening it and gesturing grandly with his free arm as he moves aside to let her in.

"Welcome to my humble abode. I hope you're hungry!"

[capitalbackup]

She steps inside, briefly glancing around at his room.

"I may be a little hungry."

All that hobby searching can take a lot out of a girl. Probably.

[bondsofsuffering]

"Well, there's still a little time - if you aren't ready yet, the scent will fix that quickly!"

He practically skips over to the table, turning on the grill and letting it heat up as he retrieves rice from the rice cooker, setting it out on plates alongside the other dishes.

As she glances around, she may notice that while there are general household items around (a television, the rice cooker, etc.) the only really personal items are a half-opened closet full of various outfits and a revolver sitting atop a desk. But that's not so strange - this is a teenager we're talking about, so it's not like he's necessarily the type to take photos and stick them in cutesy frames around the place.

[capitalbackup]

The only thing that caught her eyes was the revolver, which she gave a curious but brief look. Miyako turns her attention back at Mizushiro, walking over to the table.

"Oh? Are you waiting for me to arrive before you can start cooking?"

With the rice being the exception, she knows it take time to cook the rice. That just leaves the yakiniku themselves to be prepared.

[bondsofsuffering]

"Of course! It would be a shame if it got overcooked while you were still on your way here. You have to take it off the grill when it looks like it's tastiest!"

Hmm, the grill seems to be heating up nicely. He grabs one of the pairs of chopsticks from the table and begins expertly dropping sliced meat and vegetables onto the grill, grinning at the sound of it all sizzling from the heat. Almost immediately, the aroma of cooking meat and vegetables begins to fill the room.

There also might be a bit of an imbalance between the meat and vegetables, but hey! It's yakiniku, so obviously there should be more meat in there, right?

Cancer District

[hetried]

Daichi didn't really care about all that hardcore, fake, gamer stuff-- he basically picked which arcade to go to at random if he felt like messing around Cancer on any given day.

Right now, he'd been standing around waiting for his turn on one of the machines, but when Hizumi got his attention, he didn't seem all that bothered if he got distracted from his current goal. The opposite in fact, as he turned and greeted him with a smile and a wave.

"Hey! Pretty good; I'm just loitering around against the better judgement of society while waiting for one of the machines to free up. You?"

[bondsofsuffering]

"Oh, not much, just being an ordinary, contributing member of society by taking my place in the workforce and helping the city's economy."

Yep. There is a kid younger than you who is already making himself useful mostly so he can afford nice food again. How does that make you feel, Daichi?

He glances at the nearby machine, even though at this point he's more or less memorized where everything is. "This game though, it's pretty popular. Ever played it before? If you're not prepared, it's going to give you a lot of trouble!"

[hetried]

At least Daichi can profess to helping save the world against an alien invasion and working with a government agency in the past! That's gotta be something.

Possibly blows to the self esteem aside, Daichi can't help a laugh, as he turns his attention to the nearby machine. "Hm, I don't think so. I think there's something like it at the other arcade, but it's always so crowded I haven't gotten a chance to. How've you fared against it?"

[bondsofsuffering]

"Well, it can definitely get tough!" He puts a hand to his chin as though in deep thought. "I mean, there are patterns of course, but they're pretty unorthodox as far as most games go. The system is really good about keeping you on your toes. And even if you do figure it out, either way you'll need fast reflexes to keep up with it."

He then gives a careless shrug. "...But I'm actually really good at that sort of thing, so I've been able to get through all of the levels on my own. Now I'm just aiming to rack up points so I can make the high score list!"

[hetried]

"Augh, the ever-dreadful randomization factor. It's always about luck in the end!"

He sounded exasperated, though the way he shrugged and sighed, it was obviously affected. And he was back to a smile pretty quickly after that. "Heh-- Good luck. I've never been able to make it to the Top Ten on these sorts of things. The people that play them that much are almost insane!"

[bondsofsuffering]

"Ehh, they're not too bad. I already scored high enough on a couple of the other games. I think if I keep at it, I'll be able to have my name on every single machine here in no time!"

He sounds pretty confident in his ability, at least.

/CRASHES THE YAKINIKU PART-- no okay out and about April 1st

[fools_journey]

Minato looks up from the game he was examining and blinks in surprise. "Ah, hello Hizumi." He spies the clerk outfit or nametag or whatever it is that differentiates Hizumi from other patrons. "You're working here?"

GET YOUR OWN YAKINIKU PARTY

[bondsofsuffering]

"I've been avoiding it, but you can only get so far with stinginess." He shrugs. "Besides, I missed having good food. This way, I'll be able to afford whatever I want! And the employee discount isn't too bad, either." He grins mischievously.

"I haven't worked here long enough yet, but in about a week... I think I'll be able to dominate all of the high score lists by then."

April 1st: Cancer District

[frequent_flyer]

It was only a matter of time before Hinata ended up at the arcade. It was a shock he hadn't come sooner, but with keeping Otonashi alive and helping Yuri get settled and familiar with Hinoto-Ri, he'd been busy.

But he'd finally meandered has way inside, taking up residence at a dated zombie game, House of the Dead Guys. The obligatory opening cinematic with the kidnapped girlfriend rolled by, prompting Hinata to take up the red plastic light gun, pointing at the poorly rendered zombies and taking them out like a proper veteran.

...He was also gritting his teeth and holding that gun way too seriously for the difficulty of the game. Relax, champ.

He'd carry on perfectly fine for a little while, until he got to the menagerie stage where the zombie monkeys were throwing themselves at the camera. He put up a good fight, but he wasn't fast enough to take them all out without a second player, getting a game over countdown.

"Damn..."

[bondsofsuffering]

"You'll need a faster reaction time than that if you want to survive that stage." Sage advice from the clerk who has paused to watch, indeed. "That, or a friend. Are you going to give it another shot?"

[frequent_flyer]

Hinata rifled around in his pockets, looking for more money to feed the machine. He eventually came up with his passcard, about to swipe it when a voice came from behind him.

"Haha, yeah... This game gets pretty brutal." He flashed the boy a lighthearted grin, obviously not too downtrodden about his single-player defeat.

"I've got enough for a few more attempts." Lavender eyes flicked to the bright blue light gun, still in its holster on the front of the game case. "...Want to give it a shot?"

[bondsofsuffering]

"I could get behind a game!" He puts on an excited look, only to let his expression fall into one of helplessness. "Or at least, I would if I weren't on the clock. It's kind of hard to provide customer service when you're in the middle of fighting off zombies."

Still, he's leaned against the machine now, his eyes only flicking on occasion towards the door and counter to make sure there isn't anyone who he needs to greet.

[frequent_flyer]

Ahh... I get it. [Wait. You didn't get to actually play the games when you work at an arcade? What's the point!?]

[Hinata glanced back at the screen of the game, taunting him with the flashing mantra of "INSERT COIN". Which in this case meant "swipe your card, idiot". He tapped his fingers against the plastic gun thoughtfully.] ...There's not too many people here today. Sure you can't play a couple rounds? [Hinata. Don't enable him.]

[bondsofsuffering]

Are you trying to get me fired?

[Gee thanks bro.]

I'm the only one working right now. If the boss happened to walk in, I'd be totally screwed.

Arcade

[ineedthemforanalyzing]

The girl in the frilly dress - the uniform of that café a couple blocks over with several Visitor girls working there, actually - nods to his greeting, but continues focusing on her game. It's an old but fairly casual timed shooter, one she could probably talk over without missing much judging by her perfect score so far. She's probably just shy.

[bondsofsuffering]

"Aah, that's a real classic, isn't it?" He watches intently; he hadn't quite gotten around to tackling this game yet, so this is a good opportunity for him to take some notes for when he inevitably attempts to put his name on every high score list he possibly can.

Hey, it just adds to the competition, right?

[ineedthemforanalyzing]

She nods, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"It's not one we have in my world. Full VR is more popular, but being able to focus on one task is nice," she comments, sniping the hat off the stage boss for some bonus points.

[bondsofsuffering]

"You have full VR? Aaah, no fair. We don't have anything like that in my world yet." He pouts for about a full second. "What kinds of games do you have for it?"

[ineedthemforanalyzing]

Latooni pauses for a moment until she finishes the stage boss, letting the ensuing cutscene run so she could turn and talk to the boy.

"The game I usually play is called Burning PT. It's mostly just a simplified combat simulator, but a friend of mine really likes it..."