323 Vol. 6 pt. 9 (2/2)
”Was it too painful?” Ryouta asks.
”Ryouta,” Alice says, looking into his eyes with the eyes of a puppy.
”Ye-yeah?”
”If I buy you a vampire costume, will you please pretend to be my Ryoutula?”
”Ryou… Ryoutula?”
Cassandra has to look away and cover her mouth to not laugh.
”Please, Ryouta? I need this. I know that a vampire and maiden play may be tame compared to most of my fantasies, but it is now the most desired fantasy I have ever had! Please, Ryouta? Please?”
She looks like she is genuinely about to cry.
”Alright, alright. I'll – I'll pretend to be a vampire for you.”
Alice instantly cheers up and claps her hands together. ”Wonderful! Thank you very much, my villain. Ah, and do bite harder next time. I wish for you to bite into my carotid artery.”
”I – you'd have to go to the hospital if I did that.”
”And?” Alice asked, the expression on her face being one that truly does not understand why that would be an issue.
Her greedy desire for the vampiric fantasy is far too strong. It is so strong that it is overwhelming all common sense.
All that matters is that she continues the scene from her Alice Vision.
”You're scary sometimes, Alice,” Ryouta says.
”That is no good! The maiden is supposed to be scared of the villain. Perhaps you should bite the other side of my neck to prove how fearsome you are?”
”I—”
Cassandra pulls out a few more bandages from her purse.
”Alright.”
After giving Alice several more reasons to wear bandages on her neck, there is no way that she does not look suspicious.
No girl would normally be rolling around in a wheelchair, in an amusement park, with five bandages spread out across the most biteable parts of her neck.
Then, of course, Cassandra and Serra were not going to be the only ones left without bandaged necks.
And then there was Ryouta.
Serra made sure that Ryouta has a reason to wear a bandage on his neck. She tried to convince Alice and Cassandra to give his neck reasons for bandages, too, but both prefer to be the bitees rather than the biters.
And so, with each party member having a bandaged neck, they finally resumed giving the amusement park itself some attention.
First came dinner.
Their stomachs were still mostly full from their earlier binging, but they managed to find enough room to get proper dinners at one of the ”classy” restaurants inside of the amusement park.
While the food was not as high-class as a classy restaurant not based inside of an amusement park, and it was on the same tier as McFonalds to Alice, they still enjoyed the meals that they ordered.
It had been too long since Ryouta last ordered a steak. And, of course, he ordered it rare since any steak that is cooked beyond rare is a piece of rubber. Medium-rare is acceptable, but he knows that blue to rare is how steak is meant to be consumed.
This was dangerous for him.
Was it the fact that he was eating a rare steak cooked in an amusement park that was dangerous?
No.
What was dangerous was the fact that he ate a rare steak in front of Alice while she was already in the mood for vampires.
If she was not already addicted to the concept of Ryoutula, her addiction was cemented when she saw ”blood” from the steak drip down his lips.
It was such a shame to her when he wiped it off with a napkin.
At the very least, he could have allowed her to lick it off! To share the blood of a victim between two vampires – what could be more romantic?
Cassandra was the only one to pick up on how obsessively Alice was watching Ryouta eat his steak. Ryouta was too busy enjoying his steak, and Serra was too busy eating her chicken fingers with mac and cheese. She also had a beer to go with it.
Drinking alcohol wasn't allowed in the amusement park… except inside of a couple specifically marked zones, one of which was the restaurant.
What better to have in a classy restaurant than chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, and a beer?
There was something that Cassandra noticed outside of the window they were sat next to.
A small boy walked by with a cone of spiraled ice cream far too tall for him.
Needless to say, they acquired ice cream after dinner.
Now, having experienced most of what the park has to offer in both rides and food, the streetlights have been turned on and the sun is no longer visible in the sky.
The group is now sitting on a blanket that they have rented and placed down over a grass field in front of a grand pond with a flowing fountain at its center. The Ferris wheel in the background is in the process of its final rotations, most of the rides have already closed for the night, and the screams and shouts that filled the park earlier have all but died out save for an occasional few.
It is mostly other couples and families sitting together on the grass. Fortunately, the food that some of them are eating is not enough to tempt Ryouta and his girlfriends to eat any more after how much they have already consumed. Though, the food does lend a delicious scent to the air.
There are even a few fireflies popping up with their glowing rears every now and then. Given how rare fireflies are, most people in attendance—Ryouta and his girlfriends included—have either never seen them before or have not seen them in many years. However, for an amusement park with money to spare, having a farm for them to release them on perfect nights such as these helps to provide an unforgettable night for the guests.
Ryouta and Alice may be on wanted lists now within the park, but they are still valued costumers. For now.
”Have fun?” Ryouta asks Cassandra and Alice.
”I hate myself for how much I ate, but yeah,” Cassandra answers. ”Today was really nice. We should do this again sometime, but… maybe go to a place that doesn't have so much junk food.”
”I agree! Though, I am fine with going to another place with such great selections of food. I am confident in my self-control,” Alice says.
”You didn't have to throw that last part on there.”
”I know, my dear Cassandra, but it is not often that I join in on teasing you. Please forgive me.”
”Fine. You're forgiven.”
”Thank you!”
”What about you?” Cassandra asks Ryouta. ”You have fun?”
”Yeah. A lot. Got to ride the rides, eat the food, grief some assholes – I don't think there's any better way to spend a day at an amusement park,” he answers.
”You could spend it as a vampire!” Alice suggests.
”Maybe for Halloween.”
”Oh?”
”Yeah. Amusement parks usually have special Halloween events where they set up haunted houses, sometimes change the designs of rides to have special props and scares, and people like to dress up for it. I remember going to one with my mom when I was a kid for Halloween. While we were walking, a guy in a butcher's costume with a hockey mask on snuck up behind us and revved a fake chainsaw. I jumped, but my mom screamed, let go of me, and ran away while screaming at the top of her lungs. She apologized to me for the next couple of weeks for abandoning me to a chainsaw killer.”
Serra might not have managed to read his lips for all of that, but that doesn't stop her from joining Cassandra and Alice in smiling from his story.
”Hey, wasn't that… like the first story you've ever told us from your childhood?” Cassandra asks.
”If it was not, it was certainly the first one featuring one of his parents!” Alice adds on.
”Seriously?” Ryouta asks. ”I… guess I just never really thought of telling you stories about them before. Or me as a kid.”
”I would love to hear more of your childhood, my villain. I think your parents would like your memories of them to live on and be shared!”
Cassandra scratches the side of her head while looking away.
It isn't that she doesn't want to hear more stories of Ryouta's youth and his parents as well, but given what happened…
”Sure,” Ryouta says. ”I'll have to dig out the old photo album I have. There are hundreds of pictures of me with my parents in it, and there's probably a story to go with each one.”
All of his girlfriends are now much, much more interested than they were before.
”Hundreds… of pictures of you as a kid?” Cassandra asks.
The three girls lean in closer.
Even Serra is paying full attention now.
”That reminds me,” Ryouta says, pulling out his phone.
Sitting on the blanket that they rented, Ryouta lies down and pulls his girlfriends down with him so that they are shoulder-to-shoulder.
”My mom loved taking pictures, and she always told me to make sure to take pictures of everything and everybody important to me. She said that pictures are what keep memories fresh. We don't take too many pictures together, so… let's start,” he suggests, holding his phone above them.
He assumes that his girlfriends are smiling for the camera.
One picture later and Ryouta checks it to make sure that it came out alright.
”Can – can we redo that one?” Cassandra asks.
”Nope,” Ryouta answers. ”My mom said that retakes aren't as authentic. The first picture is the most real and genuine one.”
”But… alright. It'll remind me that I really need to start losing weight.”
”What? Are you trying to say that you look overweight in the picture or something?”
Cassandra looks away, which results in her turning her head to face Serra, which results in Serra quickly taking a kiss from her with minimal effort needed.
Ryouta looks closer at the picture.
All he can see are his beautiful and flawless girlfriends.
Regardless, the picture is being kept.
Now, thinking back to what he said earlier about being a better boyfriend…
What time would be better than now to try and be just a little bit more smooth?
He knows that his attempts at being smooth usually result in the opposite… but he has a plan that would be extremely hard to mess up.
”Here,” he says, sliding his arms underneath his girlfriends.
With Alice on his right side, then Cassandra and Serra to his left, he has positioned his arms to serve as pillows for each of them.
”The fireworks will begin in one minute!” the announcer says over the speakers. ”The park will be closing afterward. Please deposit all trash in the nearest trash bin once the show is over.”
Ryouta and his girlfriends snuggle up closer to each other as a gust of cool wind brushes by them.
His arms are already falling asleep.
But.
Having asleep arms in uncomfortable positions is one of the costs of being a good boyfriend.
The first firework flies into the sky, exploding into hundreds of burning streaks of various colors.
As nice as taking pictures can be for keeping memories, there is nothing like simply enjoying the present with those that he loves.
No picture could ever capture the joy and love that they all feel.
”I love all of you,” Ryouta says.
”I love you as well, my villain! And you, my dearest Cassandra. And, of course, my hero for the day,” Alice declares.
”I don't know why, but hearing that right now… you're getting me all emotional. What is this, a romance movie? A-anyways… I – I love you all, too,” Cassandra says.
Ryouta makes sure to poke Serra to grab her attention, and then he repeats what he said while she reads his lips.
Serra signs back with a huge smile on her face as the colorful fireworks above illuminate her.
Content and loved, the lovers enjoy the fireworks show.
It does not last forever, but the memory of it will.
Ryouta's arms are finally freed when his girlfriends are forced to get up from a voice over the speaker reminding everybody to clean up and leave.
Together, they head out through the park's main entrance while occasionally bumping into each other from how tired they all are. A cotton candy maker offers discounted cotton candy for the ride home, but Cassandra finally finds the self-control to refuse.
There is still so much that they have to worry about and prepare for in the world of Fantasy Tales Online, but none of that matters right now.
All that matters is the memory that they have spent all day creating together.
Finally, they reach the autocar they rented to bring them here earlier in the day.
Alice, despite moving the least out of all of them, is already asleep when Ryouta helps her out of her wheelchair into the backseat.
Serra joins her in the back as Ryouta and Cassandra sit in the front seats.
After inputting their destination, the autocar joins the traffic in leaving the park. It will handle everything on its own with zero user input, so they may rest easy until they arrive home.
Spotting Cassandra's hand resting between their seats, Ryouta gently holds onto it and says, ”We should go on more dates.”
”Yeah. I really enjoyed today, Ryouta.”
He looks in the rear-view mirror and sees that Serra has already joined Alice in being asleep, and she's using Alice's thighs as a pillow.
”I'd ask you if you want to make out until we're home, but I'm too tired. Can we just hold hands until we're back?” he asks Cassandra who looks just as tired as he is.
”Yeah. That sounds nice to me.”
Turning their heads to face each other, their hands gently holding the other's, the two fall asleep just moments later.
And their hands stay together until they safely make it home.