Chapter 26: Blast From Her Past

189 6 0
                                    

In an abandoned arcade next to a fast food restaurant, bright lights emitted from the cracks of the entrance door. If you listened closely, you could hear the 8-bit music playing from the arcade machines, at least the ones that were still functioning anyway. On one of the arcade machines, you were playing Tikken 2 , a fighting game, with a silver haired girl, the best hacker and gamer the world has ever seen. Despite your skill difference, you seemed to be getting the grip on her.

You were fiddling with the joystick and the buttons like crazy, almost swerving your entire body as you do so. You were determined to defeat your opponent by all means necessary. Meanwhile, Silvie was controlling the joystick and smashing the buttons in a very calm manner, as if there wasn't any trouble at all.

Eventually, after a few blows, you managed to seize your first win against Silvie. You exclaimed in victory.

"Ha ha! Take that, self-proclaimed 'gaming goddess'!"

Silvie smirked. "It's not over yet, it's best out of 3, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I just gotta beat you again, right?" You had a determined smile on your face.

Then, as the second round started, Silvie's voice had a change in tone, as if she just gotten a little bit serious.

"Heh. Well, the first round was just a warm up round..."

"...for you."

Then, Silvie's movements in game were suddenly fast, precise, and concise. Each and every move she made was leading to another hit, and her flow never got interrupted at all. It was like if the game character got possessed by some sort of kung fu demon, and this demon was out for blood, more specifically yours. But before you could process the last hit, 3 more hits already landed. And with that, in just mere seconds, you were already down, with Silvie not taking a single pixel of damage.

You couldn't do anything but just stare in awe of what you just witnessed. Even so, you still had hope.

"Y-You just got really lucky with that one! I'm gonna go all out this time, so be prepared!"

Silvie let out another smirk, as if she was entertained by the thought of you even beating her.

Then, as the round started, you were locked in. You tried to move an inch towards Silvie's character, but before you could even press a single button, Silvie launched an entire wave of hits and combos upon you, rendering you unable to move at all for the next 15 seconds, and 15 seconds was all she needed to win. After the 'PLAYER 2 WIN!' screen came up, you could do nothing but just wallow in pity, with your head down on the arcade machine.

"Well, just like what a certain legend said before: 'If you wish to defeat me, train for another 100,000 years'."

You started fake crying. "huuuuuuuu... Should've known I didn't stand a chance against the world's greatest gamer..."

Silvie started patting you in the back with a smug smile.

"There there, I'm sure you'll beat me someday."

You looked at her eyes with hope while sniffling. "Do you... do you mean that?"

"Nope, not really."

You frowned, then continued fake sobbing. Silvie just looked at you and giggled again.

Then, you and Silvie went and tried out all of the different games in the arcade, at least the ones that still functioned, anyway. You played a bunch of retro games such as Geometric Wars, Odysseus, Star Cheetah, and Battle Wheel 32. At one point, the arcade owner went to the basement to check out what the sound was, and saw both you and Silvie playing games around the arcade. The arcade owner let out a smile, and went back up to her house.

The last game that you played was Pong, the very first game that Silvie played. Even though it was just 2 lines and a dot of light, you had a lot of fun anyway. Did you enjoyed it because it was a fun game? Or maybe it's because you were playing it with someone you cared about? Maybe it was both? Who knows, really.

Then, as you failed to catch the ball that was almost as fast as a 20 pixels per second, a 'GAME OVER' screen flashed on the screen. You let out a scream of frustration, and Silvie patted you on the back. Then, the arcade machine asked you to enter your name. Apparently, your score was high enough to be featured in the leaderboards. With the greatest gamer by your side coaching and guiding you, it would be embarrassing if you didn't even made it into the leaderboards. Then, you entered your in-game name.

"...What is with you and your obsession with calling yourself CALOLO?" Silvie asked.

"What? It sounds cool."

"...I'm just not gonna judge." Silvie judged you silently inside her.

Then, as the arcade machine showed the leaderboards, your name appeared on the 10th slot. You still had a long way to go before you could catch up with the first name on the list, with SIlvie's signature 'SILVWO' with a score of 999,999,999. Then, both of you noticed at 2nd place, there was a familiar name, but only with a score of 4,486,100. Nowhere near Silvie's level, but still an impressive record nonetheless.

"Well...I guess we now know why he didn't trash this place."

Silvie smirked. "Yeah."

Then, you stretched your arms and your back. "Well, we've tried every game in this place already, right?"

"Yup. I guess it's time we went back. Surely someone would've missed us by now."

As you and Silvie were walking towards the exit of the arcade, you suddenly remembered about the arcade owner.

"Should we tell..."

"Nah, the old hag needs her beauty sleep. Her old bones probably can't send us off anyway. I'll just send her a text message."

You smiled. "Alright. But she's not as old as you think, you know. That's what I think, anyway."

Silvie grinned. "Of course, you lived with her for 12 years so you'd know more than me."

"...You know that's not how it works, at least in this context, right?"

"Yeah? So? Does that make me wrong?"

As you continued bantering with Silvie as you leave the arcade, the scoreboard for the Pong game you just played flashed on the arcade machine. Below Silvie's score, the words 'REWIND' were flashing on and off screen.



As both you and Silvie were walking towards your spaceship pods, which were conveniently both located at the garbage heap, Silvie texted back to the arcade owner.

"were leaving now"

"Ok, safe travels."

Then, the arcade owner sent an attachment.

"Tell your friend I said goodbye ;)"

Then, as Silvie tapped into the attachment, she saw a picture of you and Silvie having fun in the arcade. In fact, there were 3 of them. Silvie was smiling in all of them.

Then, Silvie turned off her phone in embarrassment. You noticed her turning off her phone in a quick movement.

"What's wrong?"

Silvie was blushing. "...Nothing. Let's just move faster." Then, she got behind you and pushed you forward.

"H-Hey, alright! Didn't know you were that eager to go back."

Little did you know, Silvie just wanted to hide her blushing face behind your back. As Silvie was blushing, she also let out a small smile.

Intertwined by Fate, Reunited by Destiny (Silver Wolf X Reader(Caelus))Where stories live. Discover now