9

“I’m going out to eat with a friend tonight.”

“Uh-huh...”

The morning after the otaku meetup, Kokoro and I had already gotten to the point where barely a word was spoken between us.

After school, I went to a family restaurant with Ai. I saw him off at the station, then headed back by myself.

Is she already there? I thought, sighing as I walked. I wasn’t looking forward to getting back home. Finding such a perfect girl at the meetup had made me overwhelmingly happy, but my argument with Kokoro had turned my mood sour pretty quickly.

As I walked, I felt my phone vibrate.

A LINE message? From Nishina? I wondered as I checked my notifications. It wasn’t a LINE message at all—it was a direct message on Twitter... from Mashiro Gojo.

G-Gojo?! Really?!

I’d wanted to reach out to her myself, but I just hadn’t found the courage. Her sending a message to me was enough to make my heart race.

“Hi hi! I had so much fun talking with you yesterday UwU I’d really like to see you again, if you don’t mind! ♡”

“Am I... dreaming?” I asked the empty street. I was beyond shocked.

I read the DM over and over, unable to believe my eyes.

Is she... inviting me on a date?! A cute girl?! She wants to go out on a date with me?!

I immediately replied to her, my hands shaking as I typed.

“Hello! Thanks for the DM! I’d love to meet up with you too!”

I’d only just tapped “Send,” but I was already starting to wonder if my reply was good enough.

If only I could ask Nishina what she thought...

In any case, it felt like I was making it all up. Never in a thousand years would I even dream of an angel like Mashiro asking me out.

I stumbled home faster than before, excited beyond words, alternating my glances from my phone, to see if my Mashiro had sent me another message, and up at the sky, ready to be struck by the lightning that would even out the balance of my luck.

I checked the living room, but Kokoro wasn’t there. She’d probably gone up to bed already.

After taking a bath, I looked at my phone for the billionth time, finally noticing a new Twitter notification. It was my Mashiro again.

“Yaaay! ♡ ♡ I’m so glad you wanna see me. What about... shopping in Akihabara?”

No human being had ever typed the words “that sounds lovely, I’m free this Saturday?” faster than I did.

“Then let’s go on Saturday! ♡ I’m already sooo excited ^o^”

She’s... excited? Excited to see me...?

She was probably still just trying to be polite, but I was too elated to care. Meeting her was my every dream coming true, but getting to go on a date with her? It was nothing short of a miracle.

Why was I even so frustrated before? This is the best day of my life! I told myself as I walked upstairs to my room.

The next morning, I found Kokoro in the living room, already up and making some toast.

“M-Morning...” I said.

“Good morning.”

Saying anything else would have made things even more awkward, so I just kept it at that and started getting ready for the day.

“Ichigaya...” Kokoro appeared at the door behind me while I was brushing my teeth.

I turned around to look at her, but she stared at me silently without continuing.

“It’s nothing,” she then said, and walked away.

What was that?

I still wanted to ask her for advice on my date with Mashiro. Where should I take her? How should I talk to her? It would have probably just been easier to swallow my pride and be the one to apologize...

More days passed by with almost no conversation between the two of us, and it was finally Saturday—time for my date with Mashiro.

I’d set my alarm for ten in the morning. When I came downstairs, I found Kokoro in front of the living room mirror, straightening her hair. I mustered up my courage to talk to her.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Y-Yeah. I’m, er, going out with Bambi...” she said, fumbling for words.

“By going out, you mean just the two of you?! Where?” I asked her.

“Y-Yeah, just us. We’re just going to have some tea in Shinjuku...”

“Meeting that guy alone probably isn’t the best idea,” I said, trying my best to choose words that wouldn’t start another argument.

“Huh?”

“It’s not just him, you know. Remember what I told you the other time? Meeting with a guy you don’t know, just the two of you, could be dangerous.”

It was about him, obviously.

“It’s not like he’s some stranger. I’ve met him once already. He just wants to, like, talk with me about cosplay and stuff,” she said.

If only she knew his true colors! But then, I guess it’s kind of my fault since I still haven’t told her what I heard... Am I worrying too much? She’s not a kid, and she’s not stupid. It’s daytime and there’ll be loads of people around. She’ll be safe... probably.

“Why are you already up anyway? Going somewhere too?” Kokoro asked me.

“Y-Yeah. I’m going out with that girl from the meetup.”

“‘That girl’? You mean the one I warned you about?!”

“Y-Yes.”

“I see.”

Her short response marked the end of our conversation, so we both went back to preparing for our dates.

I didn’t have enough money for any more new clothes, so I had no choice but to wear the exact same outfit as during the meetup. To make up for it, I put as much effort as possible into styling my hair.

In another bizarre coincidence, Kokoro and I ran into each other in the entrance, ready to leave at the exact same moment.

“See you later, then.” she said.

“Yeah... later.”

I thought it’d be better if we didn’t walk to the station together, so I opened the door to leave while Kokoro was still putting on her shoes.

“Ah, Ichigaya,” she stopped me, and I turned back, surprised.

“Your hair looks nice today,” she said with a smile. “Do your best on that date, okay?”

I looked at her, astonished, but she averted her gaze.

“Oh... Thanks,” I replied.

I didn’t see that coming. She was supposed to be mad at me and nervous about her own date. But, coming from her, those words meant a lot.

I reached the Electric Town entrance of Akihabara station five minutes early.

“Oh! I’m sooo sorry I kept you waiting!” Mashiro squeaked as she arrived perfectly on time.

Looking at her now, with the sunlight glinting off her silky black hair, she was even cuter than I’d initially thought. It reached all the way to her chest, framing her beautiful face, with her bright eyes and fair skin adorned with the lightest of makeup. She was wearing a black dress over a frilly blouse with a red ribbon, and black knee-high socks that were shaped like cat ears.

A brown shoulder bag hung from her shoulder. She was kind of small-chested, but the way that strap cut into her cleavage made her chest look way bigger than it probably was.

The otaku dream!

She came closer, accompanied by the faint but pleasant aroma of soap.

“Thank you sooo much for meeting me again! I really, really mean it!” she said with a sweet smile.

“I-I, uh, er... th-thank you!” was the best reply I could muster.

If she asked me out on a date, that means that she likes me, right? I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much, but I couldn’t help it.

We started by strolling through the otaku shops of Electric Town, making our first stop at Animate.

“So, so!” she started excitedly. “I wanted to come here with you first to learn more about your tastes! I wanna know aaall about what anime and characters you like!”

“O-Oh, i-is that so?!” I replied, failing to hide my enthusiasm at my Mashiro being interested in me.

We walked up the stairs to the floor selling anime figures, where she began tugging at my arm.

“Look, look! Ichigaya! It’s Fumiko Sagisawa from IMS!”

Being touched all of a sudden left me dumbstruck and red in the face, and she was now so close that her smell was practically inebriating.

“O-Oh, that’s true! But how do you know that I like Fumiko?!”

“You’re always tweeting about her! So I thought, maybe, you liked her. Right?” she replied.

“G-Gojo, y-you... actually read my tweets?!” I asked, overjoyed.

“Hm, you’re older than me, right? You don’t need to be all polite! You can call me Mashiro!”

“R-Really? Thanks! Anyway, you said you like IMS too, don’t you?”

“I do! The bestest character is Tachibana, but I love Fumiko too!” she grinned.

“You know, most IMS fans are guys, but you’re really into it anyway, huh?”

“I just like cute girls! And female voice actors, they’re cute too!”

A cute girl who likes cute girls... So they really do exist...

“What about girly games? They’re cute, I guess. Are you into those too?” I asked her.

“Hmmm, not really!”

Why?! Why are you so perfect?! I-It’s not like I hate girls’ games or anything, but...

“But all my friends are girls and they only like that kind of stuff, so I have no one to talk to... That’s why I’m so sooo happy I met you!” she explained.

“O-Oh, I see!” I replied, finally understanding why the beautiful Mashiro had asked me out. The more I learned about her, the lovelier she became—if it were even possible to become any more perfect.

As we continued down the Animate aisles, talking about anime and games, it became clearer and clearer how similar our tastes were. But there was more...

“Y-You even play this kind of thing?!” I asked, surprised, after seeing her ogling a tapestry from a well-known eroge.

“Yep... My older brother has a huge collection, so I borrow them sometimes...” she said, looking down at the floor and fidgeting with embarrassment.

“O-Oh, that makes sense.”

The thought of such a pure, innocent, sweet girl playing raunchy games had me way too worked up.

“I like anything that has lots and lots of cute girls!”

I wonder if she realizes she’s my ide— an otaku’s ideal girlfriend...

“Where should we head to next?” I asked Mashiro as we left Animate.

“I don’t know if you’d wanna see,” she mumbled as she tugged as the hem of my hoodie and blinked up at me shyly, “but the café I work at is over there... I’ll show you if you really, reeeally wanna see?”

“Y-Yes! Of course!” I replied, trying not to let the cuteness overload give me a heart attack. Somehow, every single thing she did and said was adorable.

Her sleeves seemed so long on her tiny frame that they almost covered her hands. She even has moe sleeves?! That’s got to make her the number one otaku dream girl.

She led me to the front of a famous maid café. I’d known by looking at her Twitter account that she had a part-time job, but I didn’t know that she was a waitress here of all places.

I bet she looks so cute in a maid outfit... I need to see!

We both chose something to eat from the menu—savory for me, sweet for her—and gave our orders to the waitress/maid.

“I need to go to the girl’s room!” Mashiro politely said as she stood up from her chair.

“Go right ahead!”

Taking the opportunity to get my head out of the clouds, I took a deep breath and thought back over the date so far.

I haven’t screwed up anything, right?

There was no way to be completely sure, but what I could be sure about was Mashiro’s utter perfection. She just had to breathe and I liked her even more. Let’s be honest for a second, I already loved her. I wanted her to become my girlfriend—possibly even my wife... but that made the thought of screwing something up even scarier.

I wonder what she thinks about me. I don’t think I’ve made a bad impression, at least. Maybe I should set up our next date right before we say goodbye. Or confess my love to her... Yeah, no, I’m not doing that.

I checked my phone and noticed that I had a new message. It was from Kokoro.

“Your date going good?”

Sh-She’s worrying about me?! Even though she’s in the middle of a date herself?! She should stop worrying about me and be careful that nothing happens to her! That guy, that Bambi... he wouldn’t try anything funny on her on the first date, would he...?

I was having so much fun with Mashiro that I’d totally forgotten about everything else. But that message had slapped me back to reality, and I started worrying about Kokoro again.

Overcome with my worry, I googled “Bambi cosplayer” to see if I could dig up any dirt about him.

The first results were links to his Twitter and some of his other weird cosplay social media accounts, but as I scrolled further down...

List of Cosplayers Who Are Only in It to Pick up Girls

What?! I thought, but Mashiro was back before I had a chance to click the link.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” she said as she sat back at the table.

I really need to read this...

“Oh, sorry, I’ve got to go to the toilet too!” I said, springing from my chair and leaving her waiting for me. My bladder may not have been full of urine, but my heart was full of concern.

I sat down on the toilet and opened the link. It was a thread on a popular forum.

I scrolled nervously for a few seconds before I finally found Bambi’s name.

That Bambi guy is the worst. He’s always there at events cosplaying some popular character, and he’s only on Twitter to talk to girls. He’s so obvious.

So he’s known for chatting up girls, huh?

Look out for Bambi. He invited me out to talk about cosplaying and kept insisting I go to his house. I managed to refuse because I’m older than him, but I’m scared of what would happen to a younger or more easily influenced girl.

>>632 He did the exact same thing with me. I’m so glad I refused. He’d probably have forced his way into my pants otherwise.

I-If this is true, then he’s going to do the same thing to Nishina! Why didn’t I convince her not to go?! I should have just told her!

I had to warn her.

“Bambi is DANGEROUS. Run away ASAP!”

I waited, but the message wasn’t marked as read.

I even tried calling her. She didn’t pick up.

“Are you all right?” Mashiro asked when I returned from my unnaturally long toilet break.

She’s so considerate, I thought briefly, but I couldn’t stay calm enough to enjoy the moment.

“Er, yeah, sorry I took so long...”

“Are you okay? Are you sick?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Mashiro was my dream girl. I was having so much fun with her that I wanted to stay with her as long as I could. I also wanted to set up our next date before leaving her, and then ask her on date after date until I could finally ask her to be my girlfriend.

But I couldn’t shake off the image of Kokoro’s soft smile as we parted ways that morning. Despite having spent the last few days mad at each other, she still went out of her way to wish me luck. Without her help, I’d never have even managed to get Mashiro to look at me.

It was all thanks to Kokoro. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have gone to that otaku meetup. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have been presentable and fashionable, and I’d never have had the confidence to start a conversation with anyone.

If I left right now, my fairy tale with Mashiro would probably be over. But still...

“I-I’m really sorry, but I have to go! Something urgent came up!” I said.

I couldn’t see her expression as I was lowering my head in apology, and Mashiro didn’t reply.

I glanced up nervously. She was staring at me, expressionless, until our eyes met. Then her smile flickered back like I’d switched it on.

“O-Oh, really?!” she squeaked.

Was it just me or was she angry for a second there?

“I... I had the funnest of fun times today so time just flew by... I maybe would have liked to be with you a little longer...but, if it’s something urgent, I can’t keep you... right?” she asked, melting my insides with puppy eyes and a sad smile.

Is she saying I shouldn’t go?! Did she really just say that she had fun and wants to stay with me longer?!

This was probably the only time in my life that I’d ever hear these words coming from the mouth of such a cute girl. That made this the luckiest day of my life. If I stayed with her, maybe I’d even stand a chance with her. If I left, I’d flush all those dreams away.

But would I be happy? Would I be happy knowing that I’m enjoying myself while Nishina is in danger...?

I wouldn’t. We promised that we’d help each other out, to have each others’ backs! And we’ve already been through so much together!

“I’m sorry. It’s really important!” I said as I left some money on the table, enough to pay for my order and part of Mashiro’s.

“I see... Okay. Please be careful,” she said, a kind smile on her lips.

“Sorry! Thanks!” I told her, and I ran out of the maid café, leaving my dream girl behind me.

“What the hell is your problem?! Jeez!”

＊　＊　＊

Mashiro had smiled at me as I left, but I knew she must have lost all interest in me. That was the last I’d probably ever see of her.

I tried calling Kokoro again while I ran toward the station, but she still didn’t pick up. I took the subway to Shinjuku, since that’s where she’d told me she’d meet him. I texted her again to ask where she was.

Finally, I got a reply.

“Hm... I don’t like where this is going...”

What?! What is going where?! Has something already happened?! As soon as I left the train, I tried calling her again.

“Hello?” she answered after three rings.

“Nishina! Where are you?!”

“Uh? What? I’m at Mister Donut. Bambi’s in the toilet right now.”

“Which Mister Donut?!”

“Oh, sorry, he’s back. See ya,” she said, hanging up the phone.

As fast as I could, I looked up the closest Mister Donut and found that it was right next to the station’s east exit, on Yasukuni Street. I didn’t know if she’d be at that specific store, and, even if she was, I had no idea how I was going to save her. But I had no choice—I had to go. I opened up the maps app and sprinted toward the Mister Donut.

I reached the store and checked inside, but I couldn’t see Kokoro or Bambi.

“Damn... was I too late?!”

I tried calling Kokoro again, and she didn’t pick up, making me even more scared.

I have to find her! I’ve wasted my shot with Mashiro to save her!

I ran down Yasukuni Street, my eyes darting wildly around for a glimpse of Kokoro. She couldn’t have gone too far if she was only here a second a—Finally! I found her.

She was waiting for the light to change at a pedestrian crossing. Bambi was right next to her, and the two were talking.

“Nishina!” I yelled as I ran in her direction.

“Huh? I-Ichigaya?!” she stared at me, surprised. “What are you doing here? Weren’t you supposed to be on a date?”

“Oh, you’re that fellow from the meetup,” Bambi commented.

“W-Wow,” I said, panting and wheezing. “What a coincidence! I just happened to be walking around here...”

I hadn’t thought to come up with an excuse to explain why I was there, so lying was my best option.

“What?” Kokoro said. “You aske—”

“So! Where are the two of you headed?” I quickly interrupted her.

“Back to my place. There’s a few details about cosplaying together that we need to go over,” Bambi said.

Just as I thought! He’s trying to take her home with him!

I looked at Kokoro, who still just appeared shocked to see me.

“S-Sorry, Bambi! I, like, totally forgot I was supposed to meet him today!” she then said, apologizing to her date and walking toward me.

So she really was in trouble!

“Hm? Really? But I wanted to invite you to my next group cosplay. There’ll be lots of well-known cosplayers, you know? Can’t you ditch your friend and come with me anyway?”

Would you look at this sleazy jerk! If I don’t do something right now, he’s never going to let her get away...

“A-At the meetup, I heard the way you were talking about girls in the restroom so, actually... I came here because I can’t trust you around Nishina!” I told him in a single breath, so scared that my voice rose an octave higher than usual.

Kokoro visibly held her breath.

“You eavesdropped on me?” Bambi said, raising his perfectly groomed eyebrows. “That’s not very nice of you. What are you so worried about, anyway...? Oh, I get it! You’re into her, aren’t you?”

“Th-That’s not it! She and I are... We’re helping each other reach our objectives! We’re like... comrades!” I quickly rebutted.

“Comrades? Huh?” Bambi looked at me, confused.

“I’m sorry, Bambi! I’ll have to call it a day!” Kokoro said, bowing to him.

I grabbed her arm and quickly pulled her away.

“What about your date?” Kokoro asked me as we headed back to the station. We’d slowed down now that Bambi was out of sight.

“I said that I had to leave because something urgent came up.”

“What?! You left your dream girl hanging like that?!”

“Forget about what I did! More importantly, what was going on there? What was that ‘I don’t like where this is going’ that you sent me?”

“I... I’m sorry. I totally should have listened to you when you told me to stay away from Bambi,” she told me, sadly. “After we’d talked about cosplay, he invited me back to his place. I said no, but he kept pushing me. He said he wouldn’t do anything to me and he just wanted to show me some cosplay magazines. He really wouldn’t listen no matter how much I said no, so I didn’t know what to do and ended up sending you that text...”

“R-Really?!”

The warnings I found online were true...

“And you told me it’d be dangerous so many times. I’m really, totally sorry.”

I could have said “I told you so,” but I didn’t. If anything, I still felt bad for not giving her the whole picture about Bambi.

“And you even came all the way here for me... I never thought you’d see that text and leave your date just to help me... Sorry!” she said, bowed her head to me over and over.

“Actually, I didn’t come here because of your text.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. During the offline meetup, I heard that asshole Bambi talking to his friend in the toilet. I already knew you shouldn’t trust him...”

“You did say something weird about listening to him in the restroom earlier...”

“Yeah, that’s the one. But you looked so happy about meeting him that I couldn’t get myself to tell you the truth. Also, I didn’t overhear anything that proved he was dangerous back then, just that he was an entitled jerk who looks down on girls.”

“I see... So that’s why you tried to stop me meeting him...”

“And earlier, when I looked his name up, I found a thread of girls that had been on dates with that douchebag, where it said he always tried to persuade them to follow him home. That’s why I was so anxious to come here.”

“A thread?”

“Yeah. Look, this one,” I said, showing her my phone. We were already on the train, sitting side by side.

Kokoro completely absorbed herself in reading the posts.

“This right here!” she finally said, waving my phone at me. “This about being invited home to talk about cosplays! It’s exactly what he did to me!”

“Sounds like it.”

“Ugh! And to think that you’d even warned me! Why am I so bad at judging men?”

“There’s no way you could have known,” I said. “We’re both new to this dating thing. You’ve got to mess up a few times to learn how to judge men, right?”

“I... I guess you’re right,” she said, finally smiling.

“I wonder if anyone ever actually fell for all that though,” she said. “That was a super pushy way to pick up a girl. Like, not smooth at all.”

“I wonder, yeah,” I said. We began scrolling through the rest of the thread out of curiosity.

I’m a cosplayer, and I was invited home by B*mbi. He pressured me so much that I ended up going.

“Oh!” Kokoro and I gasped in unison, our curiosity growing by the second.

I liked him back then, so even if he did make a move on me I wouldn’t have minded. But this guy, I swear... He forced me to be a spectator for his one-man cosplay show. He asked me over and over and OVER which costume looked better on him. He had me take pictures, review his poses, blah blah blah. He was so into his own cosplays that I may as well not have been there. I couldn’t take any more of that self-absorbed narcissist and so I left. He kept texting me day after day but I ignored him after that.

“Pfft,” I choked, stifling a laugh.

“What?! No way! This can’t be true!”

Since we were on the train, Kokoro tried to keep her voice down, but she was bent over with laughter.

“He puts all that effort into picking up girls so that he can just... pose?! That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard!” I said, unable to contain my own laughter anymore. “And you were head over heels for that narcissist! You really suck at judging men, don’t you?!”

“Oh, shut up!” she said, laughing as well.

Relief washed over me, sinking into my heart. Not only was Kokoro safe, but we were laughing together again.

Shortly before reaching our station, I checked my phone again and noticed a notification. It was a message from Mashiro. I opened it nervously, wondering what she could have written.

“Thank you so much for today ♡ ♡ It was the funnest of fun being with you! If it’s okay with you, I’d like to see you again sometime, when we can maybe stay together a bit longer...”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Far from being fed up with me, she... liked me even more?

What’s going on here?! Does this mean I still have a chance?! I have to apologize to my Mashiro and make sure I never do anything so cruel to her ever, ever again!

“Finally home!” Kokoro said, sitting on the couch. “You know, I’m happy that I can, like, finally relax when I get home. The air in here has been sooo tense these past few days!”

So she felt the same way...

“And honestly, I’m also super relieved we made up. If we didn’t have that fight, maybe I would have actually listened to that stuff about Bambi.”

“I-I’m relieved too!” I said. It didn’t take long without Kokoro around for me to realize how much I relied on her.

“So, all forgotten?” she asked.

“All forgotten! I’ll keep teaching you how to become the ideal otaku girlfriend and find that ‘super hot’ otaku guy you want! And I’m counting on your help too!”

“For sure! I won’t hold back! Now things are back to normal, you’ve gotta show me even more cute girl characters and stuff! I need to come up with my next cosplay!”

“Sure!”

“A-And then...” she said, suddenly blushing, “I’ll cook anything you want tonight. Like, anything. What do you want to eat?”

“Hm? What’s this about?”

“You know... You really helped me out today. I felt super grateful and super relieved, and... I wanted to do something to thank you...”

Nishina... She can be harsh sometimes, but deep down she’s really a kind, genuine girl.

I’d lost my most powerful of allies, but thankfully I’d found her again. I felt that, when she was with me, I could push myself harder—I could do things that I could never do on my own.

I’m sure that if she stays by my side, one day I’ll find the perfect otaku girlfriend, I thought to myself.

So... let’s both give it our best.