“Did you have a good time on the Ferris wheel?”
That was the first thing Yue and the others asked Hajime and Shea the moment they all got off. Aside from Remia and Myu, they were all glaring at the pair of them. However, Shea just grinned and nodded, rubbing her victory in.
There was only one thing Hajime could do to placate the others. Myu had been kind enough to point out that there was another ride that had a much shorter line, could also be ridden in pairs, and made for the perfect photo op—the merry-go-round. In other words, Hajime was about to ride the merry-go-round nine times in a row.
Unsurprisingly, the ride operators and the other people riding the merry-go-round shot him a lot of stares, but Hajime tried to ignore them and focus solely on satisfying Yue and the others. Afterward, Yue and the others all stared gleefully at the pictures they’d gotten with Hajime, so in the end, it was a worthwhile sacrifice.
Next, they went to the bumper cars, where Yue and Kaori got into a heated battle that nearly ended with them destroying each other’s flimsy plastic vehicles. Then, they went into the large maze, where Aiko spotted some other kids who went to their school and immediately tried to find a place to hide. As a result, she ended up getting so lost that she had to leave through the emergency exit with tears in her eyes. Incidentally, Liliana who went back in to search for her, ended up taking a very long time to come back out. After that, they went into the haunted house, where Remia actually got so scared that she reflexively tried to slap one of the people dressed up as a ghost. Fortunately, Tio stepped in to take the hit, but then she started panting excessively which made everything awkward. Once that was done, they went to the carnival games section where Hajime effortlessly won a giant stuffed animal for Shizuku, who accepted it with a beaming smile.
All in all, they had a great time at the amusement park, and before they knew it, the sun was starting to set.
“Daddy, I wanna ride that one next! The one where the boat goes down with a big splash!”
“All right, all right. That’s going to be our last one for the day, though. We need to stop by the gift shop and get some souvenirs before the night parade starts.”
Despite running around all day, Myu was still full of energy. She was riding atop Hajime’s shoulder and pointing to a water raft ride where you passed through a jungle of monsters before splashing down a steep incline. Since it was the middle of winter, the line for the ride was quite short.
The boat’s design was perfectly rugged, with fake rifles attached to the sides with which passengers could ostensibly hunt monsters. Each boat was also quite big, capable of holding up to thirty passengers at once.
Myu jumped off of Hajime’s shoulders, grabbed his hand, and started excitedly leading him over to the front of the boat. Yue and the others followed after them, filing into the same row and the row directly behind. As soon as they were all in, Myu settled into Hajime’s lap.
“Daddy, is this the kind of Search and Destroy game where you have to shoot every enemy you see?”
“Er, something like that, yeah.”
A ride attendant dressed like an explorer gave Myu a shocked look and Hajime looked away awkwardly.
And with that, the final ride of the day began. As soon as all of the other passengers were in, the boat started slowly moving down the river. The ride attendant dressed like an explorer unslung the rifle on her back and started telling everyone about the dangers of the jungle. She was a skilled actress, and she sold the atmosphere perfectly. The adults were enjoying the performance, while the kids glanced around, scared that something might pop out and eat them.
“Pick up your guns, everyone, and look closely into the trees! If you see anything coming out to attack, you make sure you shoot it before it gets you! Like this!”
She swung her gun to the right and shot at a monster—a red-eyed monkey with four eyes—that leaped out of the trees. It seemed this particular attraction had a laser tag-esque mini-game attached to it. The rifles were all laser guns and the “monsters” all had sensors attached to their heads and torsos.
Most of the parents encouraged their frightened children to be brave and to try shooting. For some reason, Myu didn’t pick up her rifle, though. Instead, she stared intently at the ride attendant lady.
Thinking that Myu was scared, the ride attendant smiled encouragingly at her and said, “Don’t worry! You can do it!”
But of course, Myu wasn’t scared in the slightest.
“Heh,” she chuckled and shrugged her shoulders dismissively.
“What?!”
The attendant was so shocked her smile slipped for a second.
“Myu-chan’s totally looking down on that lady, isn’t she?” Shea muttered quietly.
“Mmm... She’s probably comparing her form to Hajime’s,” Yue replied.
“Oh my, I know I taught her better manners than this...” Remia leaned over to scold Myu, but before she could, Myu picked up her rifle. She spread her legs wide and lowered her center of gravity to compensate for the swaying of the boat. She also made sure to nestle the stock of the rifle in the crook of her shoulder and kept her armpits closed tight. In order to get a better aim, she rested her cheek against the stock of the rifle, but she kept her finger off the trigger for now. Keeping her breathing steady, she made sure her line of sight was in line with the direction the muzzle was pointing.
Everyone, including the other kids, looked at her in surprise. It was clear she was experienced in the handling of rifles.
“S-So this is what happens when you teach kids how to shoot from a young age!” Kaori exclaimed.
“I thought I was pretty serious about learning the Yaegashi style even as a kid, but...just how hard has Myu-chan been training?” Shizuku muttered.