Draw Again

Chapter 11

"Ah! They have The End," I exclaimed.

I was staring through the tinted window of the arcade we were passing. There were hardly any kids inside since it was still before noon in the middle of the week, so getting a machine would have been easy. But I wasn't just out wandering the city, I had tagged along in a group to do some "patrolling," though I still wasn't clear what we were looking for. I mostly enjoyed the conversation with guys as we walked about.

"Already?" Fujishima questioned. He broke away from the group with his close friend Eric trailing close behind him.

Nodding my head I pointed to the machine on display at the front of the store.

Fujishima's eyes widened as his gaze fell upon the game. "Must be promotional. It's not scheduled to be released until next month," he commented.

"What's the hold up?" Yata called back to us. He was the one leading the group though he was one of the youngest members he was one of the to pranked apparently. He also had a solo reputation on the street as Yatagarasu, which I wasn't sure which was more intimidating -that was if I didn't know the guy personally.

Turning towards the chestnut haired guy I stuck out my bottom lip as I said, "Can we make a small pit stop?"

"What?" Yata muttered as he glanced up at the store we had stopped in front of. "No, we're out working," he said.

"Come on Yata, we can take a short break," Chitose said.

"Yeah, just one game," I smiled.

Clapping my hands together I shuffled toward the beanie wearing guy begging him with a pouting bottom lip and batting eyelashes. Yata leaned away with confusion as I bounced on the balls of my feet.

"Please please please. Please Yata-kun," I begged.

His face turned a light shade of pink as he adverted his gaze to the small group of guys who were also waiting for his answer.

"Fine," Yata groaned. "Twenty minutes, but that's it."

"Yes!" I cheered.

Punching the air with my fist I turned and charged inside the arcade with the others. I smoothly slid into The End's game chair, scanned my phone to pay, and began playing. On the machine across from mine Fujishima was playing which meant we were going head-to-head. At first I thought I had the upper hand since I was dedicated to the series of games, but as we battled I saw that may not have been the case.

"You're pretty good Fujishima-kun," I commented.

"You too, Nao-chan," he said.

Biting the inside of my cheek I focused in on the characters fighting onscreen, leaning in close as my fingers smashed at the buttons.

"Stop healing your butt," I grumbled.

"I'll stop when you quit teleporting yourself," Fujishima countered.

The match lasted another two minutes then the machine timed out ending it.

"No way!" I yelled.

Jumping up from my machine I dashed around to Fujishima's to see if his screen read the same as mine. It did, and I was not happy.

Stomping my foot I whined, "I totally had that match in the bag."

"The game says differently," Fujishima said smugly. His screen flashing victory in yellow and black.

"Again?" I questioned.

"You're on," he grinned.

Returning to my machine we battled in another round, and again I lost. I was about to challenge the carrot top to another match when Yata stepped in to break up the fun.