A Story About a Suicidal Girl Who Attempted Suicide But Got Hindered, and Was Taken Out to Play - Chapter 7: Match.

Chapter 7: Match.

“Where are we going today?”

“I want to go to the other side.”

“I see, so you want to go to the game arcade.”

“Not a single letter is correct.”

This is the second May 18th since I sacrificed my lifespan. Monday. Sunny.

On this day, Ichinose carried out her 17th suicide.

Today was another suicide by jumping off the bridge as usual. She didn’t call me this time nor last time, and the phone card I gave her seemed to have become an ornamental object.

I caught Ichinose before she jumped off the bridge as usual and after granting her wish, we decided to go to the game arcade.

“Even if we go to the game arcade, we won’t be able to do anything you know.”

Ichinose’s beautiful long black hair swayed in the gentle breeze.

“You don’t usually go to the game arcade?”

“I went to arcades several times when I was in elementary school, but I haven’t been there for several years.”

It’s a good place to kill time though, but even if I say that, to the Ichinose who don’t have any money, this can’t really be advice for her.

It was hard to believe that she was getting any allowance from her parents.

And after I stopped her from committing suicide at the train station, I tried to take her sightseeing in a town far away. She told me, “I don’t have any money so I can’t go.” I persuaded her saying I will pay by saying I don’t want anyone to commit suicide because they can’t afford the fare.

There is only a limited range of activities that you can do without money. I know this because I used to be one of those students who didn’t want to stay at home, but it’s hard to pass the time with a student’s wallet.

It’s spring now, so that’s good, but during the summer and winter months, we need to be creative. Christmas was when Ichinose started to commit suicide, so where was she during the winter?

“Where do you go when you don’t usually want to stay at home?”

After thinking for a little bit, Ichinose answered.

“I’m usually in the park or at the hardware store.”

“A hardware storeー? Is it the one near the train station?”

I’ve never been inside one, but there should be one close to the  station. That’s the only place that I could think of around here.

“That’s right. There’s a tropical fish shop in the home center there.”

“I see. So you spend your time by looking at the fish over there.”

I asked her whether she likes fish or not, and she answered “Yes” with a smiling face.

“I like fish, but there’s a really cute axolotl there.”

“Axolotl?”

When I asked her about it, she happily talked  about the axolotl.

The face which can’t tell you what they’re thinking, the fluffy pink gills, 4 toes on the front feet, and 5 toes on the back feet.

Ichinose was a little excited as she enthusiastically talked about the greatness of Axolotl. It was quite unusual.

“You like strange creatures, don’t you?”

To be frank, I couldn’t comprehend the greatness of Axolotl so that was the only thing I could say.

Ichinose refuted that with a pout, “It’s not a strange creature.”

“Doesn’t Aiba-san like snakes or some other weird animals too?”

“Snake? Why do you think I like snakes?”

“The pocket watch you always bring with you, that’s a snake right?”

Aah, so that’s it. It’s not a normal snake though.

“This is not a snake but a mythical creature called the Ouroboros from Greek mythology.”

“Ouroboros?” Ichinose inclined her head.

I researched about Ouroboros  after receiving the pocket watch from the Grim Reaper. 

An ouroboros is a snake or dragon that bites and swallows its own tail, forming a circle. The silver watch is engraved with only one of them, but I saw a picture of two of them eating each other when I was researching.

Ouroboros is said to be a symbol of immortality and eternity.

If that is the case, then the Ouroboros Silver Watch is losing its name. It can only be turned back to a maximum of 24 hours, and once used, it cannot be used for another 36 hours. No matter how you try it, it will still go 12 hours forward.

This silver watch is nowhere near to the Ouroboros which its name was derived from.

Well, even if you could turn back time as much as you want, most of us have to trade our lifespan for it. It was unavoidable because it would make the deal obsolete.

Ichinose didn’t seem too interested after I told her about the Ouroboros. 

Incidentally, when I interfered with her suicide, my aim in bringing Ichinose out to play was to buy some time.

For example, let’s say that I interrupted her suicide 10 hours after I rewinded time. I can’t turn back time until another 26 hours pass by.

What would happen if she decided to commit suicide again within those 2 hours?

Since the silver clock could only rewind time after 26 hours passes, there would be 24 hours left before the clock can be used again which means that her suicide cannot be prevented.

I need to keep an eye on her until this time of no return has passed.

And that’s why I brought her out to play.

When we arrived in front of the arcade, Ichinose stopped.

I asked her what was wrong, and she said, “Wouldn’t it be weird if I go to an arcade this early in the morning on a weekday?”. It seemed like she was worried about being arrested.

“Just act normal and you will be alright. You will be more suspicious if you are nervous.”

“You say, ‘it’s fine,’  but have you ever skipped school to come here before? ”

I replied that I had, and as I entered the arcade, she looked dumbfounded as she followed behind me saying, “You were a delinquent, weren’t you?”

I’ve always been a big fan of video game arcades and movie theaters. It wasn’t as if there was a game I wanted to play or a movie I wanted to see. I just want a place where I could focus on killing time.

To put it briefly, it was escapism.

I needed some time to focus on something else so I could escape from reality. 

I usually skipped school and spent the morning at a sparsely populated game center or movie theater. Like Ichinose, I didn’t get along well with my parents, and I barely got an allowance, so it was difficult for me to go to school every day.

The day I escaped from reality was a special day for me as a student; it was the only day I looked forward to.

I am able to be free thanks to the Silver Watch of Ouroboros. Even though it has lost its name, this silver watch has helped me.

The arcade we entered was a three-story building with a long history.

On the first and second floors, there are a variety of crane games, fighting games, and medal games. If you just look at it from that point of view, it’s a normal game center, but the third floor is a batting center, so the atmosphere is a little different from the other stores. There were only a few customers on a weekday afternoon, which was convenient for us.

The first one that caught my eye was a shooting game. It’s a standard game where you have to fight off the attacking zombies with your gun, and the one I chose was a co-op game.

“I’ll be watching,” I said, inserting coins for both of us in front of Ichinose, who kept her distance. I took out two guns connected to the enclosure and pushed one of them to her, saying, “Here, help me.”

“I’ve never done it even if they gave it to me….”

Ichinose looked at hergun from various angles looking confused.

The game starts despite her.

“What? What? What am I supposed to do!”

Ichinose, realizing that the game had already started, readied his gun.

“I’m new at this, so I don’t know what to expect! You’ll learn as you go!”

I gave her  some advice though it can hardly be called advice. To be honest, I was also upset because I thought there would be an explanation on how to operate it first.

In the beginning, the zombies were weak and even beginners,like us, were able to defeat them easily. We both gradually learned how to play, and the game went smoothly until halfway through, I think.

Until it was game over for me.

“Sorry, I died. Good luck with the rest.”

“Wa-, wait! It’s impossible on my own!”

There were not enough hands for one person, and the zombies were getting closer and closer.

A  zombie on the left is down, shoot the right zombie.

I was laughing beside Ichinose  as I watched her  pointing her gun at the zombie.

“Don’t laugh and help me!”

A desperate voice asks for help, but I have no more hundred yen coins to continue.

I told her I was going to exchange money and left, but as I was putting  a 1,000 yen bill into the machine, I heard her scream, “Don’t come!” and I knew that I wouldn’t make it in time.

“I died because Aiba-san is too slow!”

After I exchanged the money and returned, I was tapped on the shoulders.

Next, we decided to play darts, something I had done many times before. Ichinose had never played it before so I let her throw them first to practice.

“Ei!” She threw the dart with great force, but it missed the target and hit the wall, bouncing artfully and hitting my head directly. I reflexively shouted, “Ouch!” Ichinose said, “I’m sorry. Is everything alright?” She apologized.

I began to worry that this might be a problem before the game.

For the rules of the game, I chose count-up, which is easy to understand even for beginners.

The rules are simple. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

You simply aim for the highest points and compete for points.

If I had really tried, then we wouldn’t have been able to compete, so I aimed for a low score. Even though I have experience, I’m not good enough to hit all the targets. It was a fun way to practice aiming.

Ichinose seems to be aiming for the high-scoring zone in the middle called the bullseye, but no matter how many times she throws it, it hits somewhere else.

However, the stabbing points were all triple rings, where the points are tripled, and the points are increasing rapidly.

If it keeps on going like this, I will lose with a great margin.

I tried to catch up to Ichinose but I threw the darts to the right by mistake.

Every dart I threw only gave me a small amount of points, and Ichinose’s beginner’s luck stabbing showed no signs of stopping.

The game ended without me being able to catch up, and I lost. It was a normal game, a normal loss, and a normal frustration.

On the other hand, Ichinose raises his hands in joy and says, “I did it!”

Today she seems a little more excited than usual. Maybe this is her true self. When I saw her being this happy, the results don’t really matter anymore.

But after that, she started to get carried away by saying things like, “I think I might have a talent for darts,” and “Did you aim and throw properly?” “Don’t get carried away,” is what I said and my true self, which hates to lose, came out.

As expected, losing is frustrating.

“I’m going to die soon, so I’ll get carried away while I still can.”

Ichinose smiled and was proud of her victory. No matter how you see it, I was completely defeated.

I no longer had the energy to aim for revenge and moved to the third floor where there was a batting space. 

I haven’t done much batting and I’m not confident, but it’s the only way to get rid of the frustration of losing at darts.

When I actually tried it, I was relieved that I hit the ball better than I expected. However, I couldn’t get the ball to fly forward and ended up with an incomplete game.

Ichinose seemed to be afraid of the ball flying at him, so she didn’t try it, but she pointed to the struck out game next to it and said, “I think I can do that,” so I gave her a hundred yen coin.

The game is played by throwing a ball and shooting it through a board numbered from one to nine, but the ball released from Ichinose’s slender hand rolled around in front of the board.

No matter how many times I threw the ball, it didn’t reach the board, so I threw it from the middle. In the end, I shot through the whole line and got the prize candy, which I gave to my girlfriend.

We continued to play air field hockey, racing games, and other competitive games. Ichinose seemed to enjoy all of them, and before I knew it, I too was absorbed in them. I almost lost, though.

After playing for a while, I moved to the floor where there were medal games to escape from the competitive games.

We sat down at a medal game, the kind you can find anywhere, where you put medals into the slot on each side and drop them inside the cabinet.

The falling medals accumulate in the central outlet, and I pick them up, put them back in, and silently repeat the process of dropping the medals again.

Ichinose mistakenly grabbed my hand Several times when I tried to take the medal, and she smiled in embarrassment each time.

We were running low on medals in our hands and time was running out as we both begged God for it to fall.

I was able to stick around longer than I expected from the few cards I had left, and by the time I ran out of medals, it was evening so we decided to go home.

On the way home, I thought Ichinose was looking at something, and it was a crepe shop. A sign with a fancy menu listed a variety of crepes.

As we were both hungry from playing without eating anything, we were sucked in.

We were both hungry from playing without eating anything, we were drawn in by that.　

As we were pondering, a group of high school girls came and Ichinose hid behind me.

The high school girls were quicker to make up their minds and they each ordered their favorite flavor, such as strawberry, blueberry or caramel.

After much deliberation, we ordered the regular chocolate whipped cream. Compared to the other high school girls, it seemed to be a typical order for us who were not used to this kind of restaurant.

In front of the shop, high school girls and couples were laughing and chatting with each other as Ichinose remained hidden in the back. I didn’t feel comfortable either, so I decided to eat and leave.

“What’s the thing that you enjoyed the most today?”

I asked Ichinose as she ate her crepe.

“Nnー, everything  was fun.”

“Well, that’s because you won almost every single one of them.”

When I said that, “Aiba-san is just bad at it” is what she replied with.

“I’ll definitely get my revenge. Mark my words.”

“That would be impossible. I’m going to die soon after all.”

She looked normal as she was eating her crepe.

There was whipped cream in her mouth.

“I won’t let you die until I win.”

In addition, when I told her that she had whipped cream on her mouth, Ichinose wiped her mouth and sulked, “I don’t like it when you interfere with a reason like that.”

I asked as I tossed the remaining crepe into my mouth.

“Then what reason would be okay?”

“No matter what reason you have, I’ll still hate it.”

Ichinose laughed impishly.

Her mouth still has some whipped cream on it.

“Be careful on your way home.”

“I will not be careful on my way home.”

I threw the paper from the crepe I had finished into the trash and we went our  separate ways.

I think she was smiling more than usual today.

At this rate, I hope that one day Ichinose will be able to genuinely enjoy herself without thinking about suicide.

After we separated, I visited a book store on my way home. I bought a guidebook about leisure activities. I plan to use it as a reference for choosing a place.

“Where should I bring her next time, what place would make her happy?”

When I think about the plan for the next time I interfere with her suicide, I continued reading until it was late at night.