In order to avoid any possible unfortunate misunderstandings, the line with people who were buying the homo game was partitioned off from our line.
After that, a bit more time passed, until the clock read 12:10 AM. By that time, the line behind me had grown quite a bit as well. Seriously, there must have been over a hundred people in this damn line.
A-all these weirdos… once again, I have to say, this country is strange.
I took a glance at the titles of the games on sale tonight, and that impression just grew. It was all stuff like 'Custom Little Sister' or 'Homoge Club' and I couldn't help but think that the demand for homo games and imouto games were that high.
The shopkeeper once again held up the microphone and began to make an announcement.
"The sale will begin in just a moment, so please wait just a bit longer! In addition, please listen carefully to the following list of the final trains leaving from Akihabara Station! For the Soubu Line trains heading towards Chiba, Tsudanuma, twelve thirty-two, and for the trains going towards Mitaka, twelve thirty-eight. Next, for the Yamanote Line…"
In that manner, the shopkeeper began to read out the times corresponding to the last trains. There was certainly quite a large crowd lined up, so there might certainly be those who wouldn't be able to make it to the last train, and the shopkeeper was probably taking them into account.
"And to those of you who are able to go home by train tonight, please be careful."
"Oh?"
When I faced the store, I heard a rustle, and saw that the shutter was being opened.
We were standing in the cold and in the dark, while the interior of the store was bright and warm. So, when the shop interior slowly came into focus, it was quite a scene to behold. The sight of that interior, flooded with magnificent light, reminded me of paradise. I heard gasps of awe around me.
When my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw a mountain of eroge before me. To otaku, you could say that this was heaven. I looked into the shop. Only the first floor of the shop was accessible at this time. There was a mountain of eroge near the entrance, and they were then lined up around the shop in a clockwise fashion.
There were also clear markings near the register that allowed people to get out of the store quickly and efficiently after they were finished paying. The shop employee once again shouted out to us.
"Well then, we're pleased to announce that our late night sale starts riiiiight nooow! We will now be letting people into the store ten at a time, starting from the front."
Ah, I see. There were too many people gathered around here, so they wouldn't all fit at once in the store. That would just devolve into chaos. It made sense that they would try to let only a few people in at a time, and then periodically allow more people to go in once the store had cleared out. However…
"… Crap." Unfortunately, the problem was that this way of doing things took time. Come on, come on, hurry up. At this rate, I'm going to miss the last train. I knew there was no point in grumbling about it, but even then I wanted to grumble.
There also was the annoying problem that I wasn't going to be let in until all the people with reservations were already done. If only I had lined up just a little bit earlier… if I had known it was going to be this crazy…
Well, there was nothing I could do about it, I still hadn't learned my lesson from that time at Summer Comiket. From now on, at otaku events, I would be sure to line up as early as I could, provided it didn't bother the locals.
The noise around me intensified in a crescendo as I approached the store door. Finally, it was my turn to go in. I glanced at the clock on my cell phone. If I remember correctly, the last train was around twelve thirty, right…?
"… Crap, this is going to be close." If I don't do this quickly, I'm going to miss that last train! I have to get this over with and get back as soon as possible!
The mountain of eroge was disappearing before my eyes. With quite a bit of speed. I had been waiting in line for an hour, but if I didn't hurry the things I came here to buy might honestly sell out.
Alright! Let's go!
"Ok… Oniai… Oniai… ah, this one!?"
I pushed my way through the crowd, and desperately grabbed hold of a copy of I'm Definitely Not Love my Oniichan! and 3D Custom Little Sister. Both of them had been nearly sold out.
"That was close… thank god I got there in time…"
After I bought the things I had come for and arrived at the train station, all my worst fears were realized when I saw that the last train had left. I had to run the entire way from the store, but I managed to just miss it.
"Ahhhhhhh! Goddammit!"
I hung my head in despair in front of the ticket gate at Akihabara Station. The rain had not stopped falling from the dark, dreary sky, and even as I stood there the droplets of water continued to sap away my body's warmth.
… What am I going to do…? Walking home from here was out of the question, and it was also too far to call a taxi. But even then, if I stood here dazed and just waited for the first train I would probably freeze to death. I was completely out of good ideas.
I found a light pole nearby and leaned back on it. I fished my cell phone out from my pocket. After all, I had to tell my sister who was waiting eagerly to play these games that I wouldn't be able to get back tonight.
I took a quick glance at the paper bag I was holding in one hand. Ugh… this really sucks… there really was no excuse…
Naruko… she was looking forward so much to playing these games too…
But, there was nothing left to be done. At the end of the day, I could never do anything. I just stared at her number with quite a few confused thoughts running through my head. I dialed the number, and a moment later…
"You bought it!? Where are you!? Right next to the house, right!? Right!?"
It only took a single ring before she picked up. A restless, happy sounding voice bounded from the telephone into my ears.
Geez… this girl… she must have been waiting anxiously for me to call all this time. I thought of the movies I've seen, in which a busy father has to cancel his plans to go to his daughter's school on Parent Visitation Day, even after he had promised to go. This must have been exactly what those fathers felt like.
"… Sorry. I'm actually still at Akiba Station…" I let out a heavy sigh, and steeled myself before spilling the truth. "And I missed the last train."
"Huh? What? What do you mean? When are you getting back?"
"I bought the game you wanted me to buy, but the game shop was really crowded… and the last train already left by the time I got out of there. Sorry… but I think I don't have any choice but to wait out the night at a family restaurant or somewhere, and I'll head back on the first train in the morning."
"… No way… so… so you… so you can't come back tonight?"
"Yeah. Sorry. I mean, at least I managed to get the game…"
"… No way… that's not…" Naruko spoke in a weak, sad sounding voice.
I couldn't believe that this same person had sounded so happy just a moment ago. Hearing her sound like that made my chest feel like it was about to burst open. It was hard to believe that all of this was over a game. But whether it was games or anything else, that girl was always serious. When she was happy, or angry, or having fun, or being sad… she would always put her all into it. It wasn't something I could fully comprehend, but to her, this probably was something that was worthy of getting so upset over.
"… Umm… is it… is it really impossible? Can't you… can't you just find a way… to get back by morning at least?"
She didn't know when to give up. Didn't I already tell her that I had missed the last train? It was only around ten hours. Just be patient. Or rather, buy the damn game yourself. Don't make me go for you…
If this were the usual me, I would be cursing and spouting those complaints immediately. It was just an eroge. It was just around ten hours. However, I just couldn't bring myself to utter the word "just." I had a feeling that it was just something I couldn't say, no matter what.
"Alright… I'll find a way."
"Huh? You'll find a way… what are you going to—"
"Just stay awake and wait a bit longer! I'll find a way to get back home!"
Click.
I hung up, and turned my cell phone off. "Now then…"
How am I going to get back? To be quite honest, I didn't have the slightest idea. However, the feeling that it was my greatest duty to get back as fast as possible burned in my chest. To get a mere eroge to my annoying sister, just a bit faster than its official release date… even though it was for the sake of something as trivial as that… haha… I have to say, I'm rather surprised with how complex a person I really am.
I stopped leaning against the poll, stood back up, and dispelled the feeling of resignation I had been feeling a minute before. First, I had to take account of my situation. It was twelve forty-seven, and my wallet didn't have much money in it. I also didn't have an ATM card. I also didn't know anyone with a car.
Hmm… ah, right. For now, I can try my chances and call out to all the people who missed the last train, and ask if anybody wanted to split a cab with me. Or, rather, I could contact Sun, who seemed to be in a similar situation as I was in, and explain my situation to him and ask for his help. In either case, I had to act quickly.
As I began to think hard about the ways I could get home, I exited the station and faced the main road. At that moment, I saw it. It was the bike. I looked at that bike parked in front of the Radio Kaikan.
That was it. If I had that, I could get home. I thought of that idea right away. But of course, this plan came with its own set of problems. It might have been better than asking random strangers to split a cab even though my wallet was pretty empty, but this new plan was so insane that it normally wouldn't have even been considered. However, that didn't matter to me. I had the sacred duty to get this eroge to my sister, and with a firm determination that blocked out everything else from my line of sight, I momentarily forgot all about everything that was wrong with this plan. Just like Blake had once pointed out in the past, I had once again gone funny in the head, all because of my sister. It seemed that my inner switch had become much easier to flip as of late. And the reason why that was true still escapes me.
So I… I ran up to that bike with the huge anime character drawn on it, and yelled out to the bike's owner who was just about to ride off.
"Excuse me! Please lend me that bike!"
"Huh!?"
The bike owner's reaction was natural, of course. In his place, if some stranger yelled at me to lend him my bike, I would have definitely reacted in the same way. Even more so if my bike was a custom road racing bike like the one he owned. Also, if he lent me his bike, he would suddenly lose his own way of getting back to his home, so no matter what, the idea was just out of the question. However, I didn't give up!
The owner raised his eyebrows suspiciously, and I began to beg him with my hands clasped in front of me.
"Please! I have an emergency! I'll definitely give it back to you after!"
"That's not funny…"
That was also a natural reaction. There was no way he could just lend such an expensive bike to a complete stranger.
"I have to get back as soon as I can to play the games I just bought! You think I can lend you my bike!?"
Seriously, that was the reason? I reacted reflexively and almost shouted that out at him, the time it took me to have that reaction finally gave me a chance to get a good look at the guy.
He was an average build man with long ash-gray hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and he wore a pair of thick, black-rimmed glasses that looked quite out of style. He looked like he was in his early twenties. And now that I actually got the chance to look him over, I saw that the same bishoujo anime character printed on his bicycle was printed huge on his jacket. Wait, this is the guy who was right in front of me back in the line, wasn't he!? N-no wonder he was so hardcore about all this.
"Hm? Wait… aren't you that noisy homo that was standing behind me?"
I'm not a Homo asshole! It seemed that at that moment, he also realized who I was.
It wasn't strange to think that having spent an hour lined up next to each other, he would more or less remember what I looked like and remember me. However… even then… that didn't make this situation any better than it was.
"Ugh… dammit!"
Trying to show as much sincerity as I possibly could, I kneeled down on the ground. Knelt down on that cold asphalt, still wet from the falling rain.
"H-hey… what are you…"
Well, that was obvious. This happened every single time, and I was beginning to get completely fed up with this pattern… but what could I do? I gripped the game Naruko asked me to buy in one hand, put the other hand firmly on the ground, and begged with my head lowered.
"Please, please, please help me! My sister is waiting for me at home! I need that bike for my sister, no matter what! I'll definitely… I'll absolutely give it back to you! If there's something you want from me in return, tell me! I'll do anything! So…"
"… Ugh… that's enough. Just stop it."
Before I could finish my sentence, I felt a strong tug on my arm, the bike owner pulled me to my feet. When I immediately looked at his face in response, I saw that he was still frowning with a troubled expression.
"Well, I'm not sure what it is, but it sounds like you've got an emergency on your hands, right? And the situation involves your sister?"
"Y-yes!"
"Well, then I don't mind."
"Huh?"
For just a moment, what he had said didn't register in my brain, and I stood there sounding like an idiot.
"I said I don't mind."
He lovingly stroked the bike saddle. He then nimbly pulled back his hand, and gave the bike saddle a firm whack.
"I'll lend her to you. Just take her and go."
"R-really!? I can!?"
I had been the one who asked for the bike, but even then I couldn't believe it. How could he so easily trust a complete stranger like this…? As if he could sense my doubts, the bike owner turned his gaze to my hands.
"Well… hmm… it's just that, I caught a glimpse of what you have in that paper bag there…"
He sounded completely sincere.
"To tell you the truth, I bought the same game. I've been buying them since volume 1, and I've been looking forward to this sale for a long, long time. Fans are probably all like this, but you could even say I love this game. For the sake of today, I took off from my part-time job, even though I knew I might get fired for it. I even paid a penalty and withdrew money from a locked account of mine, and had this bike and jacket of Rize-tan custom made. I came here on the day of the sale and stood here in this line in the dead of night, and was planning on turning off my cell phone, getting home without even wasting a second, and enjoying myself to the very last moment, even if the world was ending around me. So… I believe you. If you like this game, you can't be a bad person. I don't know what's going on in your life exactly, but we're comrades. And comrades help each other out."
He gave me an awkward smile and flashed his canines at me.
"… So just go, brother. You have something you'd also be willing to risk your life to do, don't you?"
"… What are you going to do then?"
"Don't worry about it. I didn't see this coming at all, but even then, not all is lost."
He plopped down and sat with his legs crossed in the road, and took a small laptop out from his rucksack, along with a matching battery. He set those things down on his lap, and gently turned the laptop on.
"I'm going to play it here."
"Wha…"
"Why do you look so surprised? I already told you, I'm not going to waste even a second. So there's not a problem at all. And anyways, playing eroge outside is pretty in-fashion nowadays."
When he said there was a way out, he wasn't talking about another way to get home!? Amazing. There's no doubt about it, this guy was an otaku amongst otaku. A true man with a burning spirit. It's seriously been a long time since I've felt this much respect for someone I had only just met.
"Thanks, man. I'll definitely pay you back for this."
"Hmph, you're still here? Just get out of here… here I go."
He already was turned away from me. In the middle of that frozen-over night, he alone sat with his back turned, diverting all his attention into installing his eroge. It was almost as if he was doing battle with an archrival.
I faced this kind stranger, gave him a silent bow, and straddled the bike saddle. I turned back just once before I took off. There I saw an otaku sitting cross-legged and hunched over, busily pushing the enter key without a care in the world about any of the strange looks he might attract. An image of that anime character he held so dear smiled out at me from the back of his thin jacket. Smiled with a hint of pride.
"… Alright."
My breath turned to chilled, white mist in front of me. I kicked off and began to ride. Towards my dear sister, who was waiting for me thirty-two kilometers away.