“Awooooooooo!”
I probably didn’t need to explain my shock of hearing that howl from beside me. The somewhat-concerning sound from Eldrid had startled me, but I told myself it was just a thing Tails did and tried to move on. I don’t wanna think about it too much, so I avoided looking directly at her.
“It’s sooo good!” she yelled.
She really loved the chicken legs judging by how she was more enthusiastic than when we’d had burgers earlier.
“This one tastes just like the sandwich from earlier!” she added.
“Yeah, that one’s also teriyaki flavored,” I said.
“Teriyaki, huh. Teriyaki, teriyaki... Okay! I’ll remember that!”
She seemed to be a big fan of teriyaki.
We munched on our food for a while, then Eldrid found something else that caught her interest.
“‘Live shows’? What are those?” she said, gesturing at a bulletin board.
“Huh, looks like something’s happening at that stage,” I said.
On the bulletin board was information about a surprise event happening at the amusement park soon. Details about the actors weren’t included since they were supposed to be surprises, but I figured they’d be local performers. This sort of thing was pretty common.
After we finished eating, we decided to go around checking out the attractions, starting with the go-karts.
“Whoa! Whoooa!”
Eldrid’s showed pure surprise as she got into the two-person go-kart. Go-karts were an easy way for her to get the car-riding experience since she wasn’t allowed to drive without a license. She was nervous at first, but she started ramping up the speed once she realized that she drove pretty well.
“This is so fun!” she squealed.
“H-H-Hey! Careful! Drive safely, please!” I said.
“Woo-hoo!”
Maybe it was because her level was so high, but that little bit of speed didn’t scare her at all. I desperately tried to get her to follow traffic rules, but she calmed down just enough to not bother others and kept driving at a high speed.
She’d ended up loving the go-karts, and we spent a pretty long time riding them before we moved on to the next attraction.
Next up was what I considered the main event: the roller coaster.
“We can’t drive this one, huh?” said Eldrid.
“Nope. It’ll just move along the rail on its own. Make sure you hold on tight,” I said.
“O-Okay!”
And we were off. The roller coaster plummeted, then zoomed around in different directions.
“Whoa!” she yelled.
“Are you okay, El?!”
“Heh, this is nothing compared to fighting a Storm Raider! It’s actually pretty fun!”
“Oh, I see...”
She was talking about the boss monster in the Floating Garden at depth level 48. I wondered what it was like to battle one. Had she jumped on its back and tried to hold on as it’d swung her around like this? Had it been like riding a roller coaster? It must’ve been a difficult fight.
Next, we got off the roller coaster and went to a haunted house, but Eldrid seemed thoroughly unimpressed.
“Huh. That was nothing compared to the City,” she said.
“You shouldn’t compare it to a place where real ghosts appear,” I pointed out.
“I know, but still.”
The haunted house had a theme of an abandoned school, but since Eldrid wasn’t from this world, she was completely unfamiliar with the setting and was having problems getting immersed. To her, the only creepy part about it was that it was set in an abandoned building; there were way more of those in Do-Melta than in Japan.
“The puppets popping out to scare us was one thing, but I could easily sense the humans trying to approach us,” she said.
“That’s right! I forgot about those otherworldly metaphysical powers!”
Some people in Do-Melta, like Eldrid, could sense things like malice and the presence of others. Of course a haunted house wouldn’t be scary for a level 48 Diver with such powers.
“I absolutely hate Haunters though,” I said.
“Don’t talk about those things!” said Eldrid.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t a fan. Haunters were virtually impossible to detect and appeared behind you out of nowhere. Also appearing on the same floor were Slenders, which I hated just as much. I wanted to eradicate every last one of those two monsters.
We left the haunted house, and Eldrid said, “Huh? The chicken leg stall is gone!”
“Oh, that stall moves around the park throughout the day,” I explained.
“I’m gonna go get more,” she said.
“What? Hold on—”
By the time I turned around, Eldrid was gone. She’d sped off like the wind with her breakneck level 48 speed. I waited for a while, but she never came back.
I went to look for her, but all I found was the chicken leg stall. I didn’t find her among the families lining up to buy food, nor did I find her eating on a bench nearby. She was gone, nowhere to be found. She’d gotten completely lost.
§
“Heeey! Akiraaa! Hellooo!” I called out. “No good. I lost him.”
I’d messed up. I’d wanted more chicken legs so badly that I’d gotten separated from Akira and lost sight of him. The temptation of the chicken had been far too strong. It’d been tender and perfectly seasoned; even the bone had had a nice texture to it. I hadn’t been able to help myself. That stuff would be popular in my world too. And if it wasn’t, I’d buy them all for myself.
Well, I guess in the worst-case scenario, I could just wait at the entrance.
Apparently, the people of this world had a method of contacting each other over distance with something called a “cell phone” or a “smartphone.” Only Akira had one though, and it wouldn’t work unless we both did.
I chewed on the chicken leg bone I’d bought earlier as I walked around looking for Akira. That was when I noticed a commotion nearby and walked into a venue where people gathered. There seemed to be some sort of event happening, and the crowd was full of excited kids. They were going on about wanting to see a special move and whether kaijins would appear today or not, but I had no idea what they were talking about.
“Hmm? This must be that show we were talking about earlier,” I said to myself.
The performance did seem to match what I’d seen on the bulletin board. On the stage, there were actors in strange coats talking to the audience.
“Wait, those are the guys I saw on Akira’s TV,” I exclaimed.
Among them, I recognize the small red one who’d blasted the weirdly shaped human with a giant fireball. They were wearing different colored scarves, so it was easy to tell them apart.
The woman with the pink scarf said to the kids, “Thanks for coming to our event about peace today, everyone!”
“Let’s all learn about peace together!” said another.
But the kids seemed completely uninterested in learning about peace.
“I don’t wanna learn,” one complained.
“Do a special move!” said another.
“I wanna see you deploy!”
“We’re not deploying! Sheesh, they all sound like Aki...”
The performers seemed to have been there to speak about peace, but a handful of the boys were complaining to the red-scarfed girl and giving her trouble. She looked like the most popular one out of the group.
I got closer to the back of the audience, then a giant catlike stuffed animal approached me.
“Whoa! What the?!” I blurted.
“I’m Meowdine! Let’s be friends!” it said.
“Huh?”
“I’m Meowdine! Let’s be friends!” it repeated.
Something felt strange about its voice as if it wasn’t coming out of the animal’s throat.
“R-Right...” I said, not sure how to respond.
The animal handed me one of the balloons that was tied to its waist.
“Th-Thanks,” I said.
“Let’s defend peace together, everyone!” it said.
“Uh...”
“Death to modified kaijins!”
Our conversation hadn’t made any sense from start to finish. What was this thing anyway? It looked like it was supposed to be a cat, except it wasn’t cute at all. Kids were gathering around it and saying disturbing things like “Die, Meowdine!” and “Drop dead, you piece of trash!” Soon enough, they started hitting the defenseless stuffed animal too. It seemed kids were rascals no matter what world they were from.
While all that was going on, I stared blankly at the performers on stage and noticed a strange-looking creature approaching from the venue entrance.
The heck is that?
It looked like a monster, but something told me it wasn’t one. It looked like a bipedal cow that was wearing a distinct outfit. This world really was full of the strangest things.
“I’m the beef giblets kaijin, Tripetaur!” it yelled. “Moo! I’ll slaughter you all, heroes!”
Oh, I get it. It’s a pervert, a megapervert that isn’t right in the head.
“Is it real?”
“Seriously? I should post this to TikTak!”
“Yay! We get to see their special moves!”
The crowd was actually enjoying the turn of events. I didn’t know why, but they weren’t acting like they were in any danger at all. I started to wonder if this was part of the show, and I wasn’t sure what I should do. While I was standing there bewildered, the audience started running away toward the edge of the venue with the event staff leading them. It was as if they were all used to it. Maybe this really was part of the performance after all.