A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol 3, page 5
“Hmm? What’s this about clothes?” Gabrielle seemed confused.
“Ho ho! This is solid gold! Gold, I tell you!” Nicolas turned on his holographic keypad and began typing at a furious pace.
“What the hell are you doing, old man?! Stop typing right this instant! Are you listening to me?! STOP!!”
2
An hour later, a freshly showered Alex and Gabrielle were sitting in front of a buffet of food that had been prepared by Jessica. Spread over the glasteel table was a smorgasbord of danishes, pastries, and other sweets. Nicolas sat across from them. The amused smirk that was plastered on the old man’s face really pissed Alex off.
“Wipe that look off your face, you old fart!”
“I don’t know what look you’re talking about,” Nicolas said innocently—too innocently. Alex wanted to wipe that smug grin off the pervert’s stupid face.
“This is delicious!” Gabrielle, ignoring the tension, or more likely not even noticing it, squealed in delight as she stuffed her face full of several danishes.
Jessica bowed at the compliment. “Thank you. It is nice to know that my baking is appreciated.”
“You made this?”
“That’s right.”
Gabrielle looked at her as if she’d just discovered the truth behind life in the universe. Alex frowned. He knew it wasn’t right to feel jealous of Jessica, but a little green monster had settled into the pit of his stomach at how much Gabrielle was enjoying those danishes. He picked on up, took a bite, and frowned.
This is really good.
That only made him more jealous.
“Right.” Nicolas clapped his hands as they ate. “So, I figured now would be a good time to tell you two how I plan to have you help me. Alex already knows this, but Gabrielle, I’m sure you don’t. I’m a rather famous writer. I write scripts for a particular genre of holodrama.”
“You mean like Titan Girl?” Gabrielle asked, eyes suddenly sparkling.
“Erm, yeah, sort of like Titan Girl.” Nicolas dodged the question.
“Don’t let this old bastard deceive you,” Alex said, giving Nicolas his fiercest glare. “His holodramas are nothing like Titan Girl. It’s just smut disguised by a poorly conceived plot. Nothing more.”
“That’s a hurtful thing to say.” Nicolas held a hand to his heart as though the words physically wounded him. “You clearly don’t understand the greatness of the genre. The tensions that arise between two characters when they fight over the one they love, the passions that spring forth as a couple faces numerous hardships, the—”
“The orgies that happen every other scene,” Jessica offered.
“Yes.” Nicolas nodded, an eager grin on his face. “We mustn’t forget about the orgies.”
“The mere fact that you’re talking about orgies as if it was natural proves my point!” Alex snapped. Meanwhile, Gabrielle had tilted her head and looked at them curiously.
“I wouldn’t expect a young brat who’s never had sex to understand my art.” Nicolas waved a hand back and forth as if warding off a bug. The old man’s dismissive attitude toward Alex’s opinion really made his blood boil.
“Don’t bring my chastity into this!”
“Anyway,” Nicolas quickly got back on track, “my director has told me that he wants to do something different for this script. That’s why I called in a favor from Karen and had you two come over here.”
“Wait, are you telling me that you’re the reason we’re here?” Alex gaped at Nicolas. “What kind of cruel punishment is this?!”
Alex now understood why Karen had sent them here. She knew perfectly well that he hated Nicolas. That was why she made them come all this way when the old pervert requested his presence, because she understood that he’d despise being anywhere near this man, and because she knew that he wouldn’t—or rather, couldn’t—refuse whatever requests Nicolas had for him, no matter how humiliating they might be.
I’ve lost all respect for her.
“Why must you think of this as punishment?” Nicolas asked, heedless of Alex’s thoughts. “Why not think of this as helping out your dear grandfather?”
“Because I don’t have a grandfather,” Alex ground out. There was no way he’d ever acknowledge this man as family.
“Don’t say that. I promise that you two will have fun.”
The pout that Nicolas gave him would have looked cute on, say, Gabrielle. On Nicolas it was just creepy. However, Alex knew that he couldn’t refuse. This was, after all, supposed to be his punishment. Karen had told him explicitly that their job was to help this man with whatever he wanted.
If he asks Gabrielle to do anything perverted, I’ll kill him.
“What are we doing?” asked an effervescent Gabrielle, who, unlike Alex, looked legitimately excited by the prospect of helping Nicolas.
Well, at least one of us is excited…
Nicolas grinned. “That’s simple. I want you two to go around the town and have fun. You can explore, do some shopping, visit the hot springs… whatever you want.”
“Whatever we want?! Really?!”
Alex felt exhaustion seep into his bones when he spotted the way Gabrielle’s eyes were sparkling. Nicolas had already sunk his claws into her, it seemed. While he adored Gabrielle’s personality, she was far too trusting and naive. There was no way what that old fart was asking of them could be so simple.
“Whatever you want,” Nicolas said with a grin.
“And what will you be doing while Gabby and I explore Mars Homespring?” Alex asked, suspicion lacing his tone.
Nicolas’ innocent expression didn’t fool him for a second. “Me? Nothing much. Like I said, I’m having you two do this so I can get inspiration for my next novel. Just go out, have fun, then come back and tell me about your experiences. Simple, right?”
Alex didn’t think it was so simple. There had to be something more to this. Nicolas must have been hiding something from them, though he couldn’t fathom what.
He believed this all the way through breakfast. It wasn’t until Jessica was driving him and Gabrielle into town that he realized something shocking.
W-wait a minute. Gabrielle and I are spending a day at a resort alone. Alex could see the widening of his eyes through his reflection in the tinted windows. Alone with a girl. We’re alone together! Could this be a date?!
Alex had never been on one of those before, but… it all matched up with the articles that he had read. A guy and a girl traveling to a nice place together, just the two them. Yes, this was most assuredly a date.
I’m going on a date with Gabrielle.
Alec sank into the limo’s leather seat. He ignored the concerned look Gabrielle gave him as he groaned and buried his face into his hands.
I am so screwed.
3
Alex couldn’t remember being this nervous before. His palms were clammy, his face was sweaty, and it felt like there was a horde of warships firing off anti-particle beams in his intestines. Unpleasant did nothing to describe how he felt right then.
He and Gabrielle were walking down a street, moving alongside the throng of other people, walking with the flow of traffic. Over there, a young woman and her significant other walked hand in hand. To their left, a pair of parents walked with their young daughter. There were a dozen people in his field of view. All of them wore smiles.
Alex wasn’t quite smiling. Gabrielle had a hold of his arm. While it was nice, it made him unbearably self-conscious.
“Where do you think we should go first?” Gabrielle asked.
Her words managed to knock Alex’s focus back into place. “Um, well, it’s my first time coming here, so I don’t really know.”
Gabrielle hummed. “Then maybe we should just go wherever our feet take us?”
“That’s as good a plan as any.”
“All right! Then let’s go!” Gabrielle shouted, dragging Alex off in her quest to have fun.
4
Nicolas and Jessica followed the pair. They walked several meters behind Alex and Gabrielle, and they made sure that, should either of them look back, they were sufficiently concealed by the crowd that they wouldn’t be noticed. Nicolas was also wearing a disguise—a large mustache and aviator sunglasses. He thought it made him look rather suave.
“They look like they’re having fun,” Jessica said.
“Yeah…”
It did indeed look like they were enjoying themselves. Gabrielle was laughing and smiling as she pulled Alex along, journeying up to a number of food stalls. They would grab all kinds of different foods. The girl seemed to enjoy feeding them to Alex.
Watching the way his grandson smiled as he spoke with Gabrielle was a blessing. It was also amusing. Even from a distance, he could see how red the boy’s cheeks were.
“They look just like a young couple in love, don’t they?”
“Yeah…”
Even though they were estranged, Nicolas had still kept an eye on his grandchildren. He knew a lot about them. While he didn’t know everything, such as their likes and dislikes and hobbies, he knew the important things.
Alex had graduated primary school at the tender age of 14, four years earlier than most students. He then went into the Mars Policy Academy, where he trained to become a police officer, all so he could follow in his father’s footsteps.
He was also an inventor. At the age of five, Alex had won the Young Inventors Award for creating a bipedal robot, which was also how he got his license to create androids. At six, he received his first patent for another robot. At seven, he’d already created several inventions that were currently employed by a number of small companies. He received royalties each month of one hundred thousand credits, which was how he and Alice could survive on their own.
After his father had died, Alex’s inventions stopped being ingenious and started becoming destructive. Everything he made either exploded in his face, or ended up being practical but ultimately useless. Alex, the boy genius, had faded into obscurity after that.
What’s more, Alex had become reckless. He went out of his way to help others, even if it meant getting himself hurt, or blowing up a building or two. The number of accidents he’d caused in his quest to become a hero were too numerous to count. Nicolas had a full microchip filled with various complaints and reports about him.
“Maybe she’ll be the one who revitalizes him,” Nicolas murmured to himself.
“What was that?” asked Jessica.
“Nothing.” Nicolas shook his head. “Come on, let’s keep following them. They’re getting to the first checkpoint, and I want to see what kind of fireworks they light off.”
5
Mars Homespring Resort was like a smorgasbord for tourists. While they were best known for their hot springs that didn’t mean it was all they had. He and Gabrielle visited a number of stalls, which sold everything from food to trinkets to clothing. There were also plenty of game booths. They didn’t have any virtual games, but rather, old-fashioned games like a shooting booth and the ring toss, stuff that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the late 21st Century before the start of the new calendar.
“You there! Boy!” Alex and Gabrielle stopped at the shout. A middle-aged man with pepper hair and a mustache pointed. Alex pointed at himself. “Yes, you! Why don’t you step right up here and test your throwing skills? You can win a prize for your girlfriend!”
Alex’s first notion was to become embarrassed and deny having a girlfriend. He didn’t, though, but only because he and Gabrielle were technically engaged. Even if they weren’t a real couple, he was supposed to be pretending that they were.
“Gabby, do you want something from those prizes?”
The way Gabrielle pursed her lips was unbearably cute. Alex felt his heart race from just looking at her.
“Hmm… Ah! I want that!”
Alex looked at the prize that she was pointing at. It sat on one of several shelves, a figurine of Titan Girl, wearing her standard pink and white magical girl uniform. His lips twitched. He should have known that she would choose Titan Girl over a stuffed animal.
“Okay! Let’s get that prize!”
“Yay!”
Getting pumped up, Alex paid the man the 50-credit fee for a set of three hoops—little rings that couldn’t have been more than several centimeters in diameter. The goal was to throw the hoops onto the thin poles that jutted from the ground. If he got all three hoops through a pole, he’d be able to choose from the list of grand prizes, which the Titan Girl figurine was a part of.
Alex calmed down and steadied his breathing. Eyeballing the distance between himself and the poles, he determined that there was a two-meter space between them. He spent several seconds calculating the trajectory that he would need to toss the ring to get it through one of the hoops.
There are fourteen hoops. Each one is spaced exactly five centimeters apart. The closest to me is 1.89 meters away. If I toss the ring at a velocity of 4.625 meters per second and an angle of sixty degrees, then I’ll be able to make it on the hoop with a .00028 range of accuracy. I’m going to do it!
This was it. The moment of truth. Everything was laid down. He had the trajectory, the angle, and even the total flight time and peak height calculated down to a T. There was no way he could miss.
A bead of sweat trickled down his scalp. Alex moved his arm back, then forward, and then he tossed the ring…
… and missed.
“Huh?”
What had just happened? He missed? That couldn’t be right.
I must have gotten my trajectory off. Yes, that has to be it. Even though I had calculated everything, that doesn’t mean I can throw it accurately according to my calculations. However, now that I understand that, there’s no way I can miss this next toss.
Alex grabbed another ring, aimed, tossed… and missed. Again.
“W-what? That can’t be right!”
He took the last ring, aimed, and tossed. It was another miss.
“Mister! Give me another round of hoops!”
“Of course, sir!” The guy manning the booth was all too happy to comply.
Several more rounds and 500 credits later, Alex was still no closer to winning Gabrielle her grand prize.
“There must be something wrong,” Alex said to himself. “Is my trajectory off? No, my calculations are flawless. There’s no way I could be so erroneous as to make an incorrect calculation.”
“Hey, Alex? Do you mind if I try?” Gabrielle asked.
“Huh? Oh, sure. Here you go.”
Alex handed Gabrielle 50 credits, which she used to get three rings. She studied one of the rings. Her expression reminded Alex of someone who was looking at something under a microscope. When she seemed satisfied, she grabbed all three rings… and threw them at the same time.
Ching ching ching!
All three landed on a pole.
Alex and the booth owner gawked, unable to believe what they had seen.
Gabrielle looked at Alex. “This means I won, right? Right?!”
“Uh… yeah, you won,” Alex said, still in shock.
“Yay! I won! That Titan Girl action figure is now mine!”
Alex and Gabrielle left the game booth with a boxed figurine in hand, which Gabrielle doted on by rubbing her cheek against it. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, pouting. Alex was happy that she got the prize, really, but he wanted to be the one who’d gotten it for her.
“I can’t believe I didn’t win,” he grumbled. “How shameful.”
“Did you say something?”
“… No.”
A puzzled Gabrielle looked at him for a second, then shrugged and grabbed his hand. “Let’s go see what other fun games this place has!”
Before they could get too far, several people suddenly came up to them—a group of adolescent boys around their age. Judging by their upright posture, extravagant clothing, and immaculate appearance, they were probably nobles. They were also staring at Gabrielle with hungry leers.
“Excuse me, Miss,” one of them said, a blond who reminded him a little too much of Jameson. “I couldn’t help but notice your resplendent beauty. Such a magnificent young woman shouldn’t be spending time with the likes of someone who looks like he bathes in trash compactors.”
“What was that?” Alex asked in a low hiss.
“Why don’t you come with my friends and I?” The blond offered his hand. “I assure you that we shall do our utmost to show you the grandest time.”
“Mmm…” Gabrielle seemed to consider the boy, whose victorious grin told Alex that he thought she’d go with him no questions asked. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to spend time with you.”
“W-what?” The boy and his friends looked shocked as though he’d just had someone toss the rotting corpse of a dead fish into his face. “Do you mean to say that you would rather spend time with this peasant than us?”
“Yep!”
Alex took Gabrielle’s hand and gave the other boy a vicious smile. “Come on, Gabby. Let’s go back to having fun.”
“Right!”
As they were about to leave, the boy, apparently feeling humiliated at being turned down, grabbed Gabrielle’s other hand.
Well, he tried to at least.
“Now, wait just a minute here! I won’t let you—GYYAAA!”
Having grown used to perverts making a pass at Gabrielle, Alex acted quickly. He grabbed the other boy’s hand, twisted his arm, and then tossed him into the air. The boy screamed as he flew through the air before slamming into the ground hard enough that everyone present winced at the loud crack! that reverberated through the street.
“Emmanuel!” one of the other boy’s shouted.
That seemed to be their que, as all the other boys suddenly glared at Alex and began shouting.
“How dare you hurt him, you peasant!”
“I challenge you to a duel!”
Alex stared at the group of angry boys. They were shouting and insulting him, but it wasn’t like they were very good at it. There were only so many times a guy could be called a peasant before it became ineffective. Since Jameson called him that every time they met, the effects had worn off long before now.
“Gabby?”
“Yes?”
“Do you have anything that we can use to chase these guys away?”
“Ho ho! This is solid gold! Gold, I tell you!” Nicolas turned on his holographic keypad and began typing at a furious pace.
“What the hell are you doing, old man?! Stop typing right this instant! Are you listening to me?! STOP!!”
2
An hour later, a freshly showered Alex and Gabrielle were sitting in front of a buffet of food that had been prepared by Jessica. Spread over the glasteel table was a smorgasbord of danishes, pastries, and other sweets. Nicolas sat across from them. The amused smirk that was plastered on the old man’s face really pissed Alex off.
“Wipe that look off your face, you old fart!”
“I don’t know what look you’re talking about,” Nicolas said innocently—too innocently. Alex wanted to wipe that smug grin off the pervert’s stupid face.
“This is delicious!” Gabrielle, ignoring the tension, or more likely not even noticing it, squealed in delight as she stuffed her face full of several danishes.
Jessica bowed at the compliment. “Thank you. It is nice to know that my baking is appreciated.”
“You made this?”
“That’s right.”
Gabrielle looked at her as if she’d just discovered the truth behind life in the universe. Alex frowned. He knew it wasn’t right to feel jealous of Jessica, but a little green monster had settled into the pit of his stomach at how much Gabrielle was enjoying those danishes. He picked on up, took a bite, and frowned.
This is really good.
That only made him more jealous.
“Right.” Nicolas clapped his hands as they ate. “So, I figured now would be a good time to tell you two how I plan to have you help me. Alex already knows this, but Gabrielle, I’m sure you don’t. I’m a rather famous writer. I write scripts for a particular genre of holodrama.”
“You mean like Titan Girl?” Gabrielle asked, eyes suddenly sparkling.
“Erm, yeah, sort of like Titan Girl.” Nicolas dodged the question.
“Don’t let this old bastard deceive you,” Alex said, giving Nicolas his fiercest glare. “His holodramas are nothing like Titan Girl. It’s just smut disguised by a poorly conceived plot. Nothing more.”
“That’s a hurtful thing to say.” Nicolas held a hand to his heart as though the words physically wounded him. “You clearly don’t understand the greatness of the genre. The tensions that arise between two characters when they fight over the one they love, the passions that spring forth as a couple faces numerous hardships, the—”
“The orgies that happen every other scene,” Jessica offered.
“Yes.” Nicolas nodded, an eager grin on his face. “We mustn’t forget about the orgies.”
“The mere fact that you’re talking about orgies as if it was natural proves my point!” Alex snapped. Meanwhile, Gabrielle had tilted her head and looked at them curiously.
“I wouldn’t expect a young brat who’s never had sex to understand my art.” Nicolas waved a hand back and forth as if warding off a bug. The old man’s dismissive attitude toward Alex’s opinion really made his blood boil.
“Don’t bring my chastity into this!”
“Anyway,” Nicolas quickly got back on track, “my director has told me that he wants to do something different for this script. That’s why I called in a favor from Karen and had you two come over here.”
“Wait, are you telling me that you’re the reason we’re here?” Alex gaped at Nicolas. “What kind of cruel punishment is this?!”
Alex now understood why Karen had sent them here. She knew perfectly well that he hated Nicolas. That was why she made them come all this way when the old pervert requested his presence, because she understood that he’d despise being anywhere near this man, and because she knew that he wouldn’t—or rather, couldn’t—refuse whatever requests Nicolas had for him, no matter how humiliating they might be.
I’ve lost all respect for her.
“Why must you think of this as punishment?” Nicolas asked, heedless of Alex’s thoughts. “Why not think of this as helping out your dear grandfather?”
“Because I don’t have a grandfather,” Alex ground out. There was no way he’d ever acknowledge this man as family.
“Don’t say that. I promise that you two will have fun.”
The pout that Nicolas gave him would have looked cute on, say, Gabrielle. On Nicolas it was just creepy. However, Alex knew that he couldn’t refuse. This was, after all, supposed to be his punishment. Karen had told him explicitly that their job was to help this man with whatever he wanted.
If he asks Gabrielle to do anything perverted, I’ll kill him.
“What are we doing?” asked an effervescent Gabrielle, who, unlike Alex, looked legitimately excited by the prospect of helping Nicolas.
Well, at least one of us is excited…
Nicolas grinned. “That’s simple. I want you two to go around the town and have fun. You can explore, do some shopping, visit the hot springs… whatever you want.”
“Whatever we want?! Really?!”
Alex felt exhaustion seep into his bones when he spotted the way Gabrielle’s eyes were sparkling. Nicolas had already sunk his claws into her, it seemed. While he adored Gabrielle’s personality, she was far too trusting and naive. There was no way what that old fart was asking of them could be so simple.
“Whatever you want,” Nicolas said with a grin.
“And what will you be doing while Gabby and I explore Mars Homespring?” Alex asked, suspicion lacing his tone.
Nicolas’ innocent expression didn’t fool him for a second. “Me? Nothing much. Like I said, I’m having you two do this so I can get inspiration for my next novel. Just go out, have fun, then come back and tell me about your experiences. Simple, right?”
Alex didn’t think it was so simple. There had to be something more to this. Nicolas must have been hiding something from them, though he couldn’t fathom what.
He believed this all the way through breakfast. It wasn’t until Jessica was driving him and Gabrielle into town that he realized something shocking.
W-wait a minute. Gabrielle and I are spending a day at a resort alone. Alex could see the widening of his eyes through his reflection in the tinted windows. Alone with a girl. We’re alone together! Could this be a date?!
Alex had never been on one of those before, but… it all matched up with the articles that he had read. A guy and a girl traveling to a nice place together, just the two them. Yes, this was most assuredly a date.
I’m going on a date with Gabrielle.
Alec sank into the limo’s leather seat. He ignored the concerned look Gabrielle gave him as he groaned and buried his face into his hands.
I am so screwed.
3
Alex couldn’t remember being this nervous before. His palms were clammy, his face was sweaty, and it felt like there was a horde of warships firing off anti-particle beams in his intestines. Unpleasant did nothing to describe how he felt right then.
He and Gabrielle were walking down a street, moving alongside the throng of other people, walking with the flow of traffic. Over there, a young woman and her significant other walked hand in hand. To their left, a pair of parents walked with their young daughter. There were a dozen people in his field of view. All of them wore smiles.
Alex wasn’t quite smiling. Gabrielle had a hold of his arm. While it was nice, it made him unbearably self-conscious.
“Where do you think we should go first?” Gabrielle asked.
Her words managed to knock Alex’s focus back into place. “Um, well, it’s my first time coming here, so I don’t really know.”
Gabrielle hummed. “Then maybe we should just go wherever our feet take us?”
“That’s as good a plan as any.”
“All right! Then let’s go!” Gabrielle shouted, dragging Alex off in her quest to have fun.
4
Nicolas and Jessica followed the pair. They walked several meters behind Alex and Gabrielle, and they made sure that, should either of them look back, they were sufficiently concealed by the crowd that they wouldn’t be noticed. Nicolas was also wearing a disguise—a large mustache and aviator sunglasses. He thought it made him look rather suave.
“They look like they’re having fun,” Jessica said.
“Yeah…”
It did indeed look like they were enjoying themselves. Gabrielle was laughing and smiling as she pulled Alex along, journeying up to a number of food stalls. They would grab all kinds of different foods. The girl seemed to enjoy feeding them to Alex.
Watching the way his grandson smiled as he spoke with Gabrielle was a blessing. It was also amusing. Even from a distance, he could see how red the boy’s cheeks were.
“They look just like a young couple in love, don’t they?”
“Yeah…”
Even though they were estranged, Nicolas had still kept an eye on his grandchildren. He knew a lot about them. While he didn’t know everything, such as their likes and dislikes and hobbies, he knew the important things.
Alex had graduated primary school at the tender age of 14, four years earlier than most students. He then went into the Mars Policy Academy, where he trained to become a police officer, all so he could follow in his father’s footsteps.
He was also an inventor. At the age of five, Alex had won the Young Inventors Award for creating a bipedal robot, which was also how he got his license to create androids. At six, he received his first patent for another robot. At seven, he’d already created several inventions that were currently employed by a number of small companies. He received royalties each month of one hundred thousand credits, which was how he and Alice could survive on their own.
After his father had died, Alex’s inventions stopped being ingenious and started becoming destructive. Everything he made either exploded in his face, or ended up being practical but ultimately useless. Alex, the boy genius, had faded into obscurity after that.
What’s more, Alex had become reckless. He went out of his way to help others, even if it meant getting himself hurt, or blowing up a building or two. The number of accidents he’d caused in his quest to become a hero were too numerous to count. Nicolas had a full microchip filled with various complaints and reports about him.
“Maybe she’ll be the one who revitalizes him,” Nicolas murmured to himself.
“What was that?” asked Jessica.
“Nothing.” Nicolas shook his head. “Come on, let’s keep following them. They’re getting to the first checkpoint, and I want to see what kind of fireworks they light off.”
5
Mars Homespring Resort was like a smorgasbord for tourists. While they were best known for their hot springs that didn’t mean it was all they had. He and Gabrielle visited a number of stalls, which sold everything from food to trinkets to clothing. There were also plenty of game booths. They didn’t have any virtual games, but rather, old-fashioned games like a shooting booth and the ring toss, stuff that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the late 21st Century before the start of the new calendar.
“You there! Boy!” Alex and Gabrielle stopped at the shout. A middle-aged man with pepper hair and a mustache pointed. Alex pointed at himself. “Yes, you! Why don’t you step right up here and test your throwing skills? You can win a prize for your girlfriend!”
Alex’s first notion was to become embarrassed and deny having a girlfriend. He didn’t, though, but only because he and Gabrielle were technically engaged. Even if they weren’t a real couple, he was supposed to be pretending that they were.
“Gabby, do you want something from those prizes?”
The way Gabrielle pursed her lips was unbearably cute. Alex felt his heart race from just looking at her.
“Hmm… Ah! I want that!”
Alex looked at the prize that she was pointing at. It sat on one of several shelves, a figurine of Titan Girl, wearing her standard pink and white magical girl uniform. His lips twitched. He should have known that she would choose Titan Girl over a stuffed animal.
“Okay! Let’s get that prize!”
“Yay!”
Getting pumped up, Alex paid the man the 50-credit fee for a set of three hoops—little rings that couldn’t have been more than several centimeters in diameter. The goal was to throw the hoops onto the thin poles that jutted from the ground. If he got all three hoops through a pole, he’d be able to choose from the list of grand prizes, which the Titan Girl figurine was a part of.
Alex calmed down and steadied his breathing. Eyeballing the distance between himself and the poles, he determined that there was a two-meter space between them. He spent several seconds calculating the trajectory that he would need to toss the ring to get it through one of the hoops.
There are fourteen hoops. Each one is spaced exactly five centimeters apart. The closest to me is 1.89 meters away. If I toss the ring at a velocity of 4.625 meters per second and an angle of sixty degrees, then I’ll be able to make it on the hoop with a .00028 range of accuracy. I’m going to do it!
This was it. The moment of truth. Everything was laid down. He had the trajectory, the angle, and even the total flight time and peak height calculated down to a T. There was no way he could miss.
A bead of sweat trickled down his scalp. Alex moved his arm back, then forward, and then he tossed the ring…
… and missed.
“Huh?”
What had just happened? He missed? That couldn’t be right.
I must have gotten my trajectory off. Yes, that has to be it. Even though I had calculated everything, that doesn’t mean I can throw it accurately according to my calculations. However, now that I understand that, there’s no way I can miss this next toss.
Alex grabbed another ring, aimed, tossed… and missed. Again.
“W-what? That can’t be right!”
He took the last ring, aimed, and tossed. It was another miss.
“Mister! Give me another round of hoops!”
“Of course, sir!” The guy manning the booth was all too happy to comply.
Several more rounds and 500 credits later, Alex was still no closer to winning Gabrielle her grand prize.
“There must be something wrong,” Alex said to himself. “Is my trajectory off? No, my calculations are flawless. There’s no way I could be so erroneous as to make an incorrect calculation.”
“Hey, Alex? Do you mind if I try?” Gabrielle asked.
“Huh? Oh, sure. Here you go.”
Alex handed Gabrielle 50 credits, which she used to get three rings. She studied one of the rings. Her expression reminded Alex of someone who was looking at something under a microscope. When she seemed satisfied, she grabbed all three rings… and threw them at the same time.
Ching ching ching!
All three landed on a pole.
Alex and the booth owner gawked, unable to believe what they had seen.
Gabrielle looked at Alex. “This means I won, right? Right?!”
“Uh… yeah, you won,” Alex said, still in shock.
“Yay! I won! That Titan Girl action figure is now mine!”
Alex and Gabrielle left the game booth with a boxed figurine in hand, which Gabrielle doted on by rubbing her cheek against it. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, pouting. Alex was happy that she got the prize, really, but he wanted to be the one who’d gotten it for her.
“I can’t believe I didn’t win,” he grumbled. “How shameful.”
“Did you say something?”
“… No.”
A puzzled Gabrielle looked at him for a second, then shrugged and grabbed his hand. “Let’s go see what other fun games this place has!”
Before they could get too far, several people suddenly came up to them—a group of adolescent boys around their age. Judging by their upright posture, extravagant clothing, and immaculate appearance, they were probably nobles. They were also staring at Gabrielle with hungry leers.
“Excuse me, Miss,” one of them said, a blond who reminded him a little too much of Jameson. “I couldn’t help but notice your resplendent beauty. Such a magnificent young woman shouldn’t be spending time with the likes of someone who looks like he bathes in trash compactors.”
“What was that?” Alex asked in a low hiss.
“Why don’t you come with my friends and I?” The blond offered his hand. “I assure you that we shall do our utmost to show you the grandest time.”
“Mmm…” Gabrielle seemed to consider the boy, whose victorious grin told Alex that he thought she’d go with him no questions asked. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to spend time with you.”
“W-what?” The boy and his friends looked shocked as though he’d just had someone toss the rotting corpse of a dead fish into his face. “Do you mean to say that you would rather spend time with this peasant than us?”
“Yep!”
Alex took Gabrielle’s hand and gave the other boy a vicious smile. “Come on, Gabby. Let’s go back to having fun.”
“Right!”
As they were about to leave, the boy, apparently feeling humiliated at being turned down, grabbed Gabrielle’s other hand.
Well, he tried to at least.
“Now, wait just a minute here! I won’t let you—GYYAAA!”
Having grown used to perverts making a pass at Gabrielle, Alex acted quickly. He grabbed the other boy’s hand, twisted his arm, and then tossed him into the air. The boy screamed as he flew through the air before slamming into the ground hard enough that everyone present winced at the loud crack! that reverberated through the street.
“Emmanuel!” one of the other boy’s shouted.
That seemed to be their que, as all the other boys suddenly glared at Alex and began shouting.
“How dare you hurt him, you peasant!”
“I challenge you to a duel!”
Alex stared at the group of angry boys. They were shouting and insulting him, but it wasn’t like they were very good at it. There were only so many times a guy could be called a peasant before it became ineffective. Since Jameson called him that every time they met, the effects had worn off long before now.
“Gabby?”
“Yes?”
“Do you have anything that we can use to chase these guys away?”
