It was Sunday, a few minutes before noon, and Blade was spacing out beneath the clock tower. The city was bustling, the perfect time for a date.
The appointed hour was drawing near, but Yessica still hadn’t arrived. Soon, though, there was a ticking sound from the clock above, followed by a series of booming rings. It was noon, yet there was still no sign of Yessica.
Normally, Blade would be panicking, thinking, She’s late, and now our plans at twelve-oh-five might be ruined! But Yessica had told him “not like that,” so he’d refrained from making any plans. The schedule in his mind was a blank sheet of paper—and with nothing to worry about, he felt perfectly at peace waiting for Yessica.
Hmm. This is actually pretty nice.
“Hiii, Blaaade! ♡” It took around ten more minutes for Yessica to show up. “Have you been waiting long?”
“What do you think? You’re ten minutes and thirty-seven seconds late.”
He was only giving her the facts. It was rewarded with her pressing a finger against his lips.
“In situations like this, you’re supposed to say something like ‘no, it’s fine; I just got here, too,’ all right?”
“I am?”
“Yes, you are. If you’re a good man.”
“Oh.”
Blade was impressed. He filed this factoid away in the back of his head. An ex-Hero like him was a sponge for knowledge. Clearly, the tactic being played was to give false information to the other party for…some reason.
“No, it’s fine. I just got here myself.” He thought for a bit, then decided to give a fabricated reason for his lateness. “I was so excited about our date, I couldn’t sleep at all last night.”
That was false intelligence. He had actually slept like a rock, just like he usually did.
“Hmm… Okay, you passed,” Yessica said, eyes wide.
She’d given him a passing grade. That made him happy. If he had a stamp card hanging from his neck and Yessica had stamped a big checkmark on it, he would’ve felt even more gratified.
“By the way, Yessica…”
“Yes?”
“You didn’t, um…how do you put it…dress up or anything?”
Blade looked her up and down, but he couldn’t find anything different from usual. He checked all the usual trip-up points, looking for a different belt buckle or a different knee-high sock on one leg, but everything was just the same as always. The color and pattern of her toenail polish had changed, but Yessica did that on a daily basis, so it didn’t really count as “dressing up.” Or…did those changing colors and patterns have some kind of cryptic meaning, and picking up on it would make him seem “fashionable” or whatever? If that was the case, it was too tough a nut to crack, even for an ex-Hero. Code breaking was more the work of intelligence agents, anyway.
“Dress up? No, nothing like that. Did you want me to?”
“No. I mean, I’d love to have seen it, but…”
Once again, Blade said something contrary to the facts, following the example he was given for “correct responses while on a date.” Girls, he knew, dressed up for dates. That was just something he had learned, though; he didn’t exactly know what it meant to “dress up.” He’d assumed Yessica would provide a good example to learn from today.
“You didn’t dress up, either, did you, Blade?”
“Huh? Guys do that, too?”
“Of course they do. If I was the only one who dressed up, you’d stick out like a sore thumb. What would we have done then, huh?”
“Ooh. I sure don’t want that.”
“Right? And a good woman makes sure she doesn’t embarrass her man.”
“I see.” Blade understood now. Yessica was just being considerate.
“Thank you,” he said with a smile.
Yessica looked away for a moment. “S-sure!”
She hurriedly nodded back, as if she had lost her composure for a moment…and that was how Blade and Yessica’s date began.
✦ ✦ ✦
A group watched the two of them from behind as they kicked off their date.
“Ugh, Yessica… They’re just walking side by side now? …Oh! They’re holding hands! She took his arm! She took it!”
“Wh-wh-wh-what is she doing? Wait a minute! Isn’t she being a little too clingy? She’s supposed to just be showing us an example! Stop it! Stop! …What the?!”
“Normally, it’d be Yessica snidely rebuffing you right now. I kind of miss her presence.”
“With my high-spec capabilities, it would be no problem for me to play the role of the joke teller. To do that correctly, however, I would need an ancient weapon known as a ‘punch line.’”
Some of the more interested girls had joined together to engage in what was essentially public stalking. They had secretly followed Sophie during her own date long ago, but the purpose of this one was for Yessica to provide an example to them on how to act. As a result, this “stalking” was agreed upon in advance and factored into all their behavior today. The girls were openly following Yessica, and if they were half hiding behind a streetlight right now, well, they were just having a little fun.
“Here are your rations.”
“Huh? What are these for, Sophie?” Earnest looked at the fried treat being handed to her.
“…Isn’t it standard procedure to be given a snack and some milk when you’re tailing someone?”
“…Huh? Oh, right. We ate something like this last time, didn’t we? …Wait, you saw us?”
Sophie silently nodded as Earnest took the offering.
“Mmm. I really do like this, though. This fried thing with the sweet black stuff in it. You should try this, too, Claire. It’ll help you chill out.”
“Ah! Ahh! Yessica’s practically glued to him! They’re going cheek to cheek! Look, Anna! Her cheek! His cheek! Cheek to cheek! Yessica must love Blade so much— Mmmph!”
Earnest stuffed the snack filled with sweet bean paste into Claire’s mouth, silencing her.
Wait. What? She said something at the end about Blade and Yessica, right? What was it?
No. It can’t be true. If it were, I never would’ve asked Yessica for this demonstration in the first place. Seriously, Claire, what’re you talking about? Like that’s something to celebrate? What if this keeps going or gets even worse? Huh? That’ll be a problem. A big problem.
Mmm… At least this snack’s good, though. Why does everything sweet have to be bad for you? It’s so soothing…
“Whoa! Yessica! She said you shouldn’t go shopping with a guy, but they just went right into that store!”
“Oh, they sure did.”
Earnest came to her senses when Claire pulled on her sleeve. Yessica and Blade were about to enter a clothing store.