Days of My Peaceful Life

Chapter 7 - After-School Adventures, Part 2

"So, where do you wanna go now?" I asked Yuki as we exited the ice cream shop.

"Hm, I don't know, got any suggestions?"

"Well, I have some coupons for the arcade near here I got from Yomiuri-senpai. Wanna go there?"

"That sounds good! She sure likes you a lot for giving you those coupons," she laughed.

"Well, she said she won them a while ago, but going to the arcade wasn't really her thing anyway. The coupons expire soon, so she gave them to me so that I can put them to good use."

"I see. Then let's go!"

Arriving at the arcade, I exchanged my coupons at the reception for some tokens. Turns out the coupons gave us quite a lot of tokens. Luckily, they recently digitalized every thing so nowadays you get a card with tokens in it, instead of having a huge box full of tokens. This also meant that you could come back another time and use your remaining tokens if you didn't use them all in one day. I asked for two cards, splitting the tokens in a 50/50 manner, that way Yuki and I both had our own cards.

"Where should we start?"

"Hmm, the claw machines!"

Yeah, I should've guessed that was going to be her first choice. Yuki loves plushies after all. She has a massive collection at her house. Any extra plushies she would give it to her sister Tsubasa. I think if she were to sell her collection, she could absolutely make bank.

"Look Kiyo! That ice cream plushies looks sooo cute~"

I turned my head immediately after hearing the words ice cream.

"Ice cream? Oh, I see. Wanna try and go for that one?"

"Yeah! Let's take turns trying! First one to get it gets a favor from the other person!"

"What happens if nobody gets it? We should probably have a maximum number of tries since we shouldn't use all of our tokens on it."

"Let's say we have a maximum of twenty tries. If we fail, then nothing happens."

"You're on. You can go first."

"Heh, confident, aren't we? Then don't mind if I do~"

Putting her card on the card scanner, the claw activated, and Yuki started moving the claw using the joystick.

"Which one are you going for?"

Like in most claw machines, there were multiple identical plushies. Some were obviously more well-positioned than others.

"That one right there," she said as she pointed to one that was basically right next to the hole, sitting on top of other plushies. You could argue it was in an ideal position.

"Good choice."

"Here I go!" she said as she pressed the button, making the claw lowered itself. It grabbed the plushie, only to let it go before even lifting it up. She was visibly disappointed.

"My turn."

My turn wasn't any better either, it felt as if the claw was extremely light, therefore simply unable to pick up a plushie. These machines are scams, man.

But we kept playing. Gotta use these tokens anyway, am I right?

The next few attempts were all unsuccessful. Until Yuki's 13th attempt.

"Oh?" she was surprised to see the claw pick up the plushie all the way up.

"Come on!" she begged the machine.

The claw moved an inch, but then dropped it. However, it still managed roll into the hole, making it Yuki's win.

13 is an unlucky number, or so they say.