Chapter 45: Playing Video Games Again?
"That's just because she was beautiful to begin with," Shirou replied.
Hearing this, Sakura couldn't help but blush. At that moment, Medea's voice drifted over from another area.
"Um, Master, what do you think?"
Hearing this, both Shirou and Rin turned their gazes toward her, seeing Medea having put on a pair of glasses. Her long blue hair was draped over her back and shoulders; her fair, delicate face combined with those slightly pointed ears gave off a sense of an elf-like aesthetic. With the glasses paired with her blue eyes, she looked exactly like a beautiful female teacher giving a lecture.
"Whoa, if you dressed up like this and went to school to impersonate a teacher, absolutely no one would doubt your identity!" Rin said with total certainty.
"Teaching people is too tiring, I don't want to do that!" Medea flatly refused.
Additionally, Scathach gave it a try at Rin's recommendation. Having the natural attribute of a "mentor" herself, once paired with glasses, her mature and intellectual aura was instantly maxed out, making her quite eye-catching.
At this moment, Saber was looking at the rows of glasses placed in the glass cabinets with a blank, dazed expression.
"Compared to glasses, Saber probably prefers gourmet food," Shirou shrugged.
After this, the girls and the Heroic Spirits entered a specialty hosiery shop together. Without hesitation, Shirou intended to follow them in to get a glimpse, but he was stopped at the door by a female shop assistant.
"Um... excuse me!" The assistant stood at the door, looking up at Shirou—who was a full head taller than her—with a face full of nervousness.
"Hmm? What is it?" Shirou frowned slightly.
The assistant was a bit startled and hurriedly bowed to Shirou. Through the neckline of her somewhat loose staff uniform, purple patterns were visible.
"I am very sorry!"
"Tsk, boring."
Seeing that her apology posture and attitude were so sincere, Shirou didn't press the matter and stood at the door waiting for them. Not long after, Rin, Sakura, and the others walked out empty-handed. Seeing that they had spent nearly half an hour browsing only to buy nothing, Shirou felt an indescribably strong urge to complain.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Shirou~ What's wrong? You aren't angry, are you?" Rin flashed a sly smile.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand," Shirou said expressionlessly.
"Eh~ Shirou, it seems your hearing has declined a lot. Have you seen a doctor?"
"I have."
"What did the doctor say?"
"I didn't hear him clearly."
"..."
"Where should the next fun spot be~"
Leaving the hosiery shop, Rin began to think enthusiastically.
"Oh right, how about we go play baseball? None of you have tried it yet, right?!"
"Baseball?" Illya blinked, stunned. "But there are only four of us?"
"Four people is fine. It's the 'batting cage' where a machine pitches the ball. Illya, don't tell me you don't know about that?"
"I don't even know where the edge of the universe is, how would I know that?" Illya retorted.
"Eh... is that so~" Rin seemed a bit disappointed; it appeared few people agreed with the baseball option.
"What then? Should we go to the aquarium? Even though posters for the 'Penguin Army vs. North Sea Seals' are everywhere, you can tell just by looking that it'll be terrible."
"Let's go play video games," Shirou suggested.
"Huh? Does anyone actually want to play video games?" Rin stood with her hands on her hips.
At this moment, Saber looked up and said:
"I would like to try..."
"..." Rin's expression froze.
Then, the group arrived at the arcade together. Scanning the room, the arcade had a dedicated PS2 section. Since the PS3 hadn't been officially released yet in 2004, there were only PS2 games.
"Let's play this!" Rin pointed at the game disc for Mortal Kombat. "I've heard of this game before."
"It looks like a fighting game." Although Sakura hadn't played games before, she knew a little bit about them.
"Saber, come try it with me~" Rin inserted the disc, and the group sat on the sofa, picking up the controllers to start the game.
In the one-on-one duel between Rin and Saber, Saber was easily defeated by Rin's amateur skills at first because she was unfamiliar with the game. However, after Saber gradually mastered the controls, she began stringing together combo after combo, beating Rin until she was wearing a "mask of pain."
"No way... you can even play it like this?" Rin actually had some talent for gaming, or rather, her natural reaction speed was very fast. However, she was facing Saber, whose abilities in all aspects far surpassed hers. As a Heroic Spirit, Saber left Rin far behind in terms of reaction speed.
Furthermore, a bored Shirou harassed Rin from time to time, causing her character to be pummeled by Saber over and over again.
"Dammit, I died! It's all your fault!"
Rin threw the controller onto the sofa, huffing and puffing. After having her potential "internet addiction" nipped in the bud by Saber, she lost interest in the game entirely.
Afterward, they began to rotate. Sakura, Illya, and Medea all went up to play for a while. Shirou also took a turn, but aside from feeling that games of this era were uninteresting, he had no other impressions. Only Scathach stood by watching with great interest; to her, watching the battle seemed more interesting than playing herself.
Leaving the arcade and unsure of what else to play, the group followed Rin to the batting cages. Although it was called "playing baseball," it was actually hitting against a machine, so it counted as a game.
Everyone participated. Rin was considered quite strong among the girls, one could even say she surpassed average adults. The title of "Muscle Rin" didn't come from nowhere. Of course, she couldn't be allowed to know that title, otherwise she would definitely ignore everyone for a long time.
In this kind of game, Saber and Medea—who were not allowed to use magical energy—seemed a bit out of their element. As for Sakura, because she had studied firearms and combat techniques with Maiya Hisau for years, her strength wasn't as high as Rin's, but she was not inferior to an adult.
As for Saber, her physique was the most petite among them. In terms of pure strength, she found it a bit difficult to hit the balls spat out by the machine.
"Ugh... dammit..."
Faced with this situation, Saber was very defiant. To prove that she wouldn't lose to Shirou even without using magical energy, she kept swinging the bat continuously from nine in the morning until after noon.
"Th-that... Shirou, don't look at me with those kinds of eyes..."
Inside a Western-style restaurant, Saber sat in her chair feeling somewhat at a loss. Even the ahoge on her head had wilted at this moment.
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