Twins

Energy Drink -- Part 2: The Bottle and The Battle

‘Crap, I never thought I’d end up exploring Matsumoto just for a drink, when I only wanted to buy one from a vending machine…’

Shinichi was now a kilometer away from the Sports Dome, but he still couldn’t find the drink he was looking for.

During his quest, he even passed by a public bath, which reminded him of a drama series that Kaito made him watch a few months ago. He wore a twitching smile as he thought, ‘Don’t tell me I have to take a bath like Kenzou just to buy a drink from a public bath?...’

He checked the establishment still, just to make sure he wouldn’t miss out what he was looking for.

Ironically, it was sort of a relief for him not to see a TeaZee green tea bottle in the refrigerator beside the public bath counter.

 

Continuing his journey, he arrived at the next 70-Seven store, but the odds of finding the tea seemed to be so small.

He looked at his watch as soon as he got out of the last store. ‘Only 10 minutes remaining… I guess I’ve lost… I have to go back empty-handed…’

 

‘Not being there to support her would be worse than not finding her energy drink anyway… er, that is if I were REALLY her best friend, which I am quite forgetting.” He chuckled to himself, not knowing that his mere presence as Shinichi was enough to energize Ran for a week already.

 

He sighed as he put his hands inside his pockets while taking the shortest path back to the Sports Dome. ‘Good thing this wasn’t a case where a life depended on finding that drink, otherwise I would have been having a heart attack right now.’

 

‘If only ordering something like that and having it delivered could all be done in just a matter of minutes, then there wasn’t a problem like this to start with…’ He smiled half-heartedly.

 

“Lunch bento for sale!” he suddenly heard a woman announce.

The voice came from the other side of the street, so he crossed to check it out for a TeaZee green tea, his hopes rising again for the nth time this day.  He would seize even the tiniest probability there is, just so he wouldn't fail this small quest that he ended up venturing.

To his utmost surprise, there was a sole bottle of it, standing at the center of the table, surrounded by the bento boxes displayed.

Without any hesitation, he got hold of the bottle and immediately asked “How much is this, obasan?”

However, to his greater surprise – or dismay once again (poor Shinichi) – there was another hand whose fingers are wrapped around that same green tea bottle. The owner of that hand also asked the very same question he did, which made them both look at each other.

She was a tall woman who was roughly around 24, and from her pink jogging attire and her hair tied up, Shinichi could almost sense thirst and hunger from this potential foe.