No matter how many dazzling games and machines there were in the arcade, the claw machine area was always a popular spot.
Rows of transparent glass cabinets, colorful lights, and various plush toys piled into small mountains inside the machines, as if opening their arms to everyone passing by.
But there was no shortage of people who returned in defeat here. The mechanical claws hung silently at the top of the cabinets, waiting for the next challenger.
Kiana pressed herself against the glass cabinet, her eyes shining.
"So cute—"
Her gaze swept over the claw machines, each containing different plushies, and finally stopped on one specific cabinet.
Inside were yellow cloth sack rabbits with drooping ears, wearing a roguish, wicked grin.
One of them was leaning against the partition right next to the prize chute, looking as if a gentle nudge would send it tumbling down.
"That one!" Kiana pointed at the rabbit. "I want that one!"
Shu took one look at the rabbit and a look of difficulty crossed his face.
A highly saturated yellow color, a face that begged to be punched—it didn't look like a proper rabbit at all.
But Kiana liked it.
He stiffly inserted the tokens, his entire body radiating reluctance.
Kiana couldn't wait to grab the joystick and took a deep breath.
"Watch this!"
Under her control, the mechanical claw began to move. After Kiana calibrated it, she aimed it precisely at the rabbit and decisively pressed the button.
With a mechanical whir, the claw slowly descended and, exactly as Kiana predicted, landed squarely on the yellow rabbit.
Kiana's eyes lit up.
Under Kiana and Shu's watchful eyes, the claw wobbled as it rose, and then, without even pretending to try, simply opened and dropped the yellow rabbit right back down.
"Huh?" Kiana blinked in disbelief. She didn't understand, but she refused to accept it.
"Again!"
Puffing her cheeks, Kiana started a second attempt.
Aimed again, the claw dropped, grabbed the rabbit's head, rose, moved—
Without giving any face whatsoever, the claw dropped the rabbit again.
The rabbit wobbled at the edge of the chute, then tilted sideways and rolled deep into the cabinet.
Kiana stared at the rolling rabbit, completely dumbfounded.
Not only did she fail to grab the rabbit, she had also wasted that perfect position.
"..."
Shu stood beside her, watching the tragedy inside the cabinet with an expressionless face.
Kiana turned her head and looked at him pitifully.
"Um... I didn't do that on purpose..."
Shu was silent for a second.
"I believe in you!"
"..."
Kiana took a deep breath, lifted her hands in a huff, and threw them open toward Shu with a bit of resentment.
"Then you do it!"
Shu hesitated for a moment, stared at Kiana intently for a couple of seconds, and then stepped up to the claw machine and inserted the tokens.
Seeing Shu take over without a word, an image suddenly popped into Kiana's mind—the image of Shu taking over the Abyss run last night and effortlessly slaughtering everything.
Could it be—
The scene was already playing out in Kiana's head.
Shu gripping the joystick, his gaze focused. With a slight flick of his fingers, the claw drops precisely into the perfect position.
One, two, three... Over a dozen plushies drop from the chute in succession, piling into a small mountain.
The surrounding players gather around to watch, exclamations of amazement rising and falling, while Shu just calmly says, "Basic operations"...
Clack.
The claw dropped.
It grabbed empty air.
Shu hadn't even managed to align it with the rabbit.
Kiana's fantasy shattered.
She stared blankly at the motionless rabbit in the cabinet, then looked at Shu.
Shu's expression seemed unchanged, but Kiana noticed the tips of his ears were a little red.
He's sweating a bit...
Kiana couldn't hold it in. She turned around and burst into a pfft of laughter.
Shu's movements paused. He turned his head, lips pressed tightly together, staring at Kiana with a stiff face full of deep regret.
"Shu..." Laughing, Kiana reached out and nudged Shu with her elbow, her voice filled with irrepressible mirth. "So you're a noob too?"
Shu felt like he had been Super Broken.
"...Actually, this is my first time playing," he made an excuse.
"First time?" Kiana raised an eyebrow, then shook her head. "I don't believe you."
Shu didn't speak, but his eyes held the resolve of a man ready to die.
Kiana laughed uproariously, pulling his arm and swinging it back and forth.
"Shu, you're so cute! You clearly don't know how to play either, yet you stood there pretending to be all serious! I thought you were going to show off your divine might and grab a dozen in a row!"
"I didn't think that."
"You definitely did!"
"No."
"Yes, you did!"
The two bantered back and forth, playfully squabbling in front of the claw machine.
Having fooled around enough, Kiana wiped away her tears of laughter and looked back at the plushies in the cabinet.
"So what do we do now?"
Shu looked at the row of claw machines and fell silent for a second.
"I don't believe it either."
He genuinely didn't believe he couldn't grab one.
Twenty minutes later, their final battle result was—zero.
Having made zero progress, Kiana stared at the motionless plushies, her brows tightly knitted together.
"Shu."
"Yeah?"
"Do you think... there might be something wrong with this machine?"
"What kind of wrong?"
"Like..." Kiana gestured, "is that claw too loose?"
Having reaped absolutely nothing, Shu thought for a moment and expressed strong agreement.
"Claw machines are usually adjusted."
"Adjusted?"
"Yeah, the grip strength of the claw, the catch probability—all of these can be adjusted.
"The boss will adjust it to a level that attracts people to play, but won't let them catch anything easily."
Having made zero progress, Kiana was stunned.
"They can do that?!"
"What else?" having reaped absolutely nothing, Shu asked in return.
"That's—that's so mean!"
Kiana puffed out her cheeks, glaring at the claw machine as if glaring at some heinous enemy.
"The boss is too uncool! This is basically a scam!"
Looking at her indignantly righteous face, the corners of Shu's mouth curved up slightly.
"It's normal."
"What do you mean 'normal'!" Kiana turned her head, staring at him with those pure blue eyes. "Aren't you angry?"
"It's alright."
"Why?"
"It's just for fun anyway."
Kiana blinked.
"But we can't catch anything!"
"If we can't catch it, we can't catch it," Shu said. "It's not like we absolutely must have it."
He believed he couldn't catch one, and he accepted it very quickly.
Kiana stared at him for two seconds.
Then, she suddenly smiled.
"Shu, your mindset is really good."
"...If my mindset wasn't good, I would have long since..." Shu smiled somewhat self-deprecatingly, but was interrupted by Kiana.
"Really! Way better than mine!" Kiana said. "If I can't catch it, I'll just keep wanting to catch it. The more I can't catch it, the more unwilling I am to give up, and the more unwilling I am, the more I want to catch it."
Shu fell silent for a second. It seemed Kiana was the one who refused to believe it now.
"So do you still want to catch one now?"
Kiana looked at the surrounding claw machines, then at the last few game tokens in her hand.
"...Yes."
The corners of Shu's mouth curved up again.
"Then let's catch one."
Shu burned through the last few tokens. Kiana operated the joystick while Shu watched from the side.
"A little to the left... a little more to the left... okay! Drop!"
The claw dropped.
It grabbed the ear of a yellow rabbit.
And this time, the claw seemed to have triggered the pity system. It didn't let go, but instead wobbled its way up, carrying the rabbit with it.
"Got it!"
Overjoyed, Kiana immediately fished the yellow rabbit out of the chute and held it up to her eyes.
It was a classic Homu plushie—yellow body, drooping ears, squinting eyes, and a wide mouth displaying a roguish, wicked grin.
Kiana's eyes shone like two little suns.
"It's Homu!"
She hugged Homu to her chest, rubbing her face against it vigorously.
"So cute, so cute, so cute—"
Standing beside her, Shu looked at the yellow rabbit, a look of difficulty crossing his face once again.
"So ugly."
Kiana's movements paused.
"What did you say?"
Shu looked at the Homu and calmly repeated his statement.
"So ugly."
Kiana's mouth formed an O-shape.
"Shu! You actually called Homu ugly!"
Kiana glared at him, scolding playfully:
"You—you don't know how to appreciate things!"
What kind of taste does someone have to not like Homu?!
She was just about to retort regarding Shu's taste, but then she suddenly remembered Shu's wardrobe.
Kiana's train of thought took a sharp turn here.
Shu didn't like Homu.
But Shu "liked" her.
And she was a super beautiful girl.
So... was Shu's taste actually good or bad?
Kiana stared at Shu's face for two seconds, then frowned, falling into deep thought.
Shu's taste—
He drew well, had good fashion sense, had a good eye for picking clothes, and played good games.
Everything was good.
He was just not very good to himself.
Kiana's brow smoothed out. She stuffed the Homu into Shu's arms and took his hand.
"Let's go! I'm hungry!"
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