As the sinking sun started to dye the park crimson, the shadows behind the statues of Tenchido’s famous enemy characters began to stretch. The wind was growing colder, and time seemed to be slowing just a tiny bit. Though there was no change in the child-friendly music in the air, it somehow seemed melancholic all of a sudden.
I looked at Mashiro’s face as she walked beside me. She was quietly sipping at the straw stuck in her cup of the cream soda we bought from a stall earlier. The red hues in the sky complimented her silver hair nicely.
Since reuniting, we went on loads of rides, stopped by several stalls, and interacted with many of the Tenchido characters walking around the park. Even so, when I tried to recall the memories of our time here, all I could remember was Mashiro’s face. There had been this inexplicable seriousness to it this entire time.
She didn’t look like a girl on a date. If I had to describe it, she looked more like a scientist peering through a magnifying glass. I didn’t get the impression she was enjoying the time spent with me at all. Maybe it was rude of me to presume.
“Aki. Why don’t we go on that to finish up?” Mashiro pointed.
An imposing behemoth, the giant ride was enshrined in the most visible part of the park. It was the most common staple of amusement park rides; I doubt you’d ever find a park that didn’t have one. It was the star of any theme park date, one that had brought countless couples together.
“The Ferris wheel?”
“Yeah. The Ferris wheel. It’s the perfect way to end the day.”
“That’s true. Let’s go, then.”
I had no reason to refuse her. Thanks to our LVIP passes, we were shown to the ride right away. The world was just about to slip into evening, and the nightly parade was due to start soon; they say that at this time of day, the crowds in the park are split between those who are hoping to find a good spot to watch it, and those who aren’t interested.
A gondola decorated with faces of Tenchido characters came down in front of us, and an attendant helped Mashiro and me inside. The inside was painted with vivid colors, creating a space that was comfortable and dreamlike—this was the Kingdom of Dreams, after all.
The petite Mashiro settled herself down in the seat across from me. She looked very much like a fairytale princess. She was endlessly pretty—she always had been—like something right out of a painting.
There was a clunk, and the gondola began to move slowly, and soon it felt like we were floating. Outside, the ground was getting gradually farther and farther away, second by second.
“How was it?” Mashiro’s sudden question broke the silence. I looked at her to see she was gazing downward out of the window. As though realizing she hadn’t given much context, she continued. “What did you think of all the places we saw today?”
“Uh...” I sifted through my memories as I looked down on the whole of Eternaland, the whole of this dreamy kingdom, from above. But it didn’t matter how much I tried. Just like before, the only thing I could remember was Mashiro’s face. That, and the intensely terrifying experience I had in Ghost Mansion, and my encounter with Iroha—but those were the only exceptions. “Sorry. I was distracted today, and my mind’s been kinda fuzzy.”
Telling her the truth would be way too embarrassing right now, so I only gave her half the story.
“Huh.” Mashiro narrowed her eyes at me, looking somewhat exasperated. She then gave a resigned sigh and pulled out her phone. “That’s not like the levelheaded producer I know.”
Producer? It was odd to hear Mashiro refer to me like that. Of course she knew I led the 05th Floor Alliance; it was one of the biggest bargaining pieces in the deal I had with Tsukinomori-san. Then there was the time Murasaki Shikibu-sensei had collapsed and Mashiro had stayed up with me all night to work out how to increase Koyagi’s download numbers.
It was quite natural for her to acknowledge me as a producer...so maybe I was wrong to find it weird she actually called me that.
“It’s great I take things so seriously, huh?”
“What are you talking about? Ah...” I was cut off by a buzzing from my pocket.
Mashiro noticed my reaction at once. “Go ahead and look. It’s from me.”
I checked the screen. I had a LIME message from Mashiro—which I checked. “Are these your thoughts on Eternaland? No, wait...”
The entire screen was buried beneath a wall of text. Text that exceeded the limits of one message, so it had been split up into several. There wasn’t a single emoji to be found, nor a single sticker. It was just text, text, and more text, as though it had come from a guy rather than a girl. There was so much of it that the screen was almost pitch black.
It was too much to just be her reflections on our date. Actually, there was a word that described it much more accurately.
“Is this a report?”
“Yeah. I took notes on stuff I noticed, how the park influences where the visitors look and what they want to do, as well as the layout of that haunted house, and other details I thought might be useful for game design. How the characters were put to best use, and all sorts of other stuff. I took some photos of those things too, so I’ll send them over.” Mashiro reeled her spiel off like a proficient secretary, tapping away at her phone all the while.
“O-Oh. Thanks...?”
The phone in my hand buzzed over and over, physical proof of Mashiro’s accomplishments from today.
And then I realized something.
The whole day, there had been this serious expression on Mashiro’s face, and she’d been looking at her phone. It was like she wasn’t having any fun at all on our date, and I’d been worried it had something to do with the fact she’d put an end to our fake relationship.
“Mashiro... Is this...stuff...” I began.
“It’s for the console version of Koyagi. Home gaming is Tenchido’s bread and butter, right? So I’m sure most of what I got down is gonna be useful...”
“You did this for me?”
“Yeah. What else would we be here for?”
“Um, uh... I thought...we were on a date?”
“Huh?” Mashiro’s tone was ice cold.
I wish I’d brought a scarf.
“Well, y’know,” I said quickly, “I was thinking I’d use the class trip to forget about work and create some nice memories. And, um, I wasn’t thinking about work at all ’cause I was so busy looking at you the whole time...”
“Are you... I don’t believe this...” Her face red, Mashiro half rose to her feet. “Do you know how much thought I put into this? Trying to work out what would be best for you...and best for the Alliance! Because it was a lot!” She nearly shouted, and when she was done, she sank back down into her seat like the wind had been knocked from her sails.
Putting her head in her hands, she started muttering, “That’s why he was in a total daze today... After all the effort I put in today to help improve Koyagi... I just don’t get it... He’s always obsessing about work, but today he was actually paying more attention to me? Ugh...”
“I-I’m sorry.” I pocketed my phone again. It would be rude to hold on to it and allow it to monopolize my eyes and attention, and I wanted to get across how grateful I truly was. “This is all really thoughtful of you, and I’m kinda blown away... Thanks, Mashiro.” Her actions had really warmed my heart.