Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 110: A game with only one person operating it is equally fun when two people play it

"Hey, Inoue, this movie must be suspected of fraud, don't you think?" On the last train from Shinjuku back to the rental house, Takeda still had all kinds of dissatisfaction with the breakup movie and asked him.

"From a certain perspective, flowers have different blooming periods and will eventually wither. Flowers that grow on trees can be considered reborn if they bloom again the next year, but flowers that are picked and made into bouquets wither and are withered forever," he said, thinking for a moment.

"Who wants you to say that?" Takeda stepped on him.

After just one day, this action has become Takeda's habitual way of expressing himself. It can be predicted that his shoes will most likely suffer misfortune in the future.

The wireless headphones they exchanged at the end of the movie were still in their ears, playing the songs they had played while shopping.

It sounds like these songs have no stereo effect, and the sound heard by the left and right ears is not much different.

"So what do you want to hear?" he asked bluntly.

"I don't want to hear that either." Takeda responded with a pout.

He fell silent, reflecting in a moment of quiet.

Indeed, such a straightforward way of asking questions will be interpreted as perfunctory and unpleasant if there is even the slightest misunderstanding.

"Hmm... That's why I said before that you were worried about whether you could get a girlfriend before you turned 30." Takeda sighed, feeling helpless. He patiently explained to him, "Humans are not only divided into male and female based on gender, but also divided into emotional animals and rational animals based on their thinking style."

"First time I heard of it."

"I'll use 'dog' to represent emotional animals, and 'kitten' to represent rational animals." Takeda began with a simple analogy to facilitate her argument. "When kittens think about problems, they always have a yardstick and prioritize the correctness of the problem, or objective concepts, just like one plus one always equals two, and kittens only meow. When dogs think about problems, they first consider their own interests. The most important thing is how to view the problem and which problem will bring them the most happiness."

"So..." she finished her explanation, drawing out the last word, as if expecting him to conclude as usual.

"Takeda-san is a 'dog'," he concluded.

This time the force on his foot was even stronger.

"What I want to hear is how you can explain my point of view more reasonably. Do you understand?" Takeda said angrily. With his unremitting efforts, he finally became straightforward.

"How many years has the Earth existed?" he suddenly asked.

"Eh...how would I know? Hundreds of millions of years?"

"How many years has humanity existed?"

"For thousands of years?"

"That tree is probably hundreds of years old, but it blooms only for a few months of the year." He extended the topic to the film's title, saying logically, "And in the future, after humans disappear, other intelligent creatures will be born, exist for thousands or tens of thousands of years, and then disappear again - in the vast span of time on Earth and even the universe, it will be like the blooming and withering of flowers on a centuries-old tree."

"Well……"

"A generation, for the entirety of human civilization, is like the blooming and falling of a flower," he said. "So, rather than lamenting the brevity of a flower's lifespan and its inevitable withering, we should instead interpret the very nature of the blooming and falling of flowers—just as a couple grows old and sick, and lives together until old age, isn't that also the process of flowers blooming and falling?"

Takeda blinked, as if he didn't quite understand.

"So, a breakup-themed movie shouldn't be called 'Love Like a Bouquet,'" he vowed, a stark contrast to his earlier explanation. "It should be called 'Love Like a Trampled Bouquet.'"

Takeda was silent at first, then stared at his face for a long time, smiling like a flower.

"Excellent," she said. "The bouquet and the explanation of life, death, sickness, and aging—very delightful."

"Is it."

"It seems you're not an idiot, Inoue," Takeda continued to praise.

"Never," he declared solemnly.

"Hmm..." But it was obvious that Takeda didn't take her words to heart. "Hey, idiot Inoue, they broke up in the end. Doesn't that mean they didn't actually have the same interests as the plot says?"

The hero and heroine in the movie are a couple who have been together for five years. They first met by chance. During their conversation, the heroine discovered that they had many similar hobbies, so they came together and fell in love.

"Interests always change as life progresses," he thought for a moment and said, "Compared to that, things like one's outlook on life have a much longer shelf life. People with the same interests don't necessarily share the same outlook on life or the same perspective on the world."

"It's too complicated."

"For example, there are many people who enjoy listening to a song or reading a book. You can often see popular songs on video websites accumulating tens of millions of views, but it's impossible for them all to share the same outlook on life."

"I understand a little bit."

"What animal does Taketa like?" he asked.

"Cat, that's the first thing that comes to mind."

"Why do you like cats?"

"The 'meow meow' sound? Hmm... and I like their lifestyle," she said.

"And many girls also like cats," he paused and continued, "but the reason they like them is mostly because they are fluffy, cute, and seem non-aggressive. Therefore, they also like other furry, cute, and non-aggressive animals, such as puppies, hamsters, white rabbits, and otters..."

"I see..." Takeda suddenly realized, "So having the same interests doesn't mean the reasons for them being interested are the same, is that what you mean?"

"almost."

"That's why the male protagonist later said, 'I also want to play games and socialize like you, but now I only have the mood to play community games that can kill time with just a few clicks.'"

He fell into recollection, searching for this scene in his memory of the movie. Fortunately, he still had some impression of it.

"Hey, Inoue, what are community games and that game called 'Zelda' like? Have you played them?"

"Have you seen a pinball machine? And the fishing machines in the arcade." He made a simple analogy based on his understanding of the concept, "Community games are probably of this type. You can have fun as long as you spend money." "It doesn't sound like a good thing..." Takeda frowned.

"Zelda..." He felt that he couldn't explain it clearly, so he took out his mobile phone, found a few game videos on the Internet, and let Takeda understand it himself.

Takeda took his mobile phone and watched several videos again and again. There was no singing in his headphones for a long time.

"Want to play?"

"It looks very complicated. It will take a lot of time."

"If it doesn't take time, the male protagonist in the movie should at least play with the female protagonist for a while," he said.

"I want to give it a try," Takeda said as he returned the phone to him, then began to think about more practical issues. "But it looks like I need to buy a game console, and I have to spend money to activate the game itself..."

"By the way, a reader of a light novel once gave me a set, which I haven't opened yet." While Takeda was talking to himself, he browsed the points store, looked at the prices of Switch and independent game controllers, and made up a story.

"...Really?" Takeda was slightly stunned and hesitated. "The TV was also given to you by the author named Kuroki... Is the illustrator really that popular?"

"I get a lot of gifts every holiday," he finally said honestly. "I get more than a lot of authors."

"Is it……"

"I also have a white T-shirt with 'I Love Humanity' printed on the chest. It was also given to me by a reader. I've never worn it... If you don't mind, would you like to wear it?"

"Ah—never mind, never mind..."

"When you become a famous voice actor, you will receive many gifts." His tone was steady and convincing.

"Even so..."

"I'll lend you my game console. How about you cook breakfast tomorrow?"

"You haven't bought any food yet..." Takeda finally accepted his suggestion, lost in thought, and asked him, "Do you have anything to do tomorrow? Do you need to go out early in the morning?"

"It's okay."

"I'll report to the office tomorrow morning and go to the hospital to chat with my mother in the afternoon, so it's okay if I get up late. If you don't mind, you can wait a little longer in the morning and I'll make breakfast for you."

"I don't mind." He had already figured out a way to ask for leave without going to school. "Besides, I promised you that I would go with you on the day of registration."

"Okay then! It's settled—let me borrow your game console and I'll make you breakfast tomorrow."

"it is good."

"What to eat?"

"You are the most confident." He said so, with a little expectation rising in his heart.

After eating bread for too many days, it’s nice to change the taste occasionally.

"But it would be boring to play alone. Can you play with me?"

"Tonight only."

He looked out the tram window. The night was deep and the boundless night sky spoke of a space as vast as the span of time.

Compared with the entire universe, even the entire earth is just a drop in the ocean, just like human beings exist in the ocean of time.

Grow, bloom, wither, fade...

Bouquet in general.

By the time they got back home, it was almost midnight.

Takeda ran briskly to the front door, turned on the light, took out the key and opened the door. He didn't look like he had just been shopping, watched a movie and finally returned home. He didn't seem tired at all.

After entering the entrance hall and changing into indoor shoes, Takeda went to the bathroom to turn on the water heater. He walked into the bedroom, used points to buy the handheld game console and controller, unpacked them in the living room, connected them to the TV screen, registered an account, purchased the game, and downloaded it.

"Okay, go on." Takeda sat next to him, a sofa pillow closer than before. They could feel each other sitting next to each other, and she kicked his ankle with her toes.

What was handed over were several thousand yen bills.

"You don't have to pay for the game." She insisted stubbornly.

He took a look, pulled out two, and pushed the rest back.

"You don't want me to play?" he asked.

"..." Takeda couldn't help laughing again, "How could that be..."

"After the plot is over, the upper right corner will turn into three hearts. When you die, it will be my turn to play..." He looked at the progress bar of the game download and couldn't help but fall into recollection.

It seemed like a long, long time since he last played a console game.

He might even die faster than Takeda in a while...

"What does Master Mode mean?"

“It’s more difficult.”

"Then let's do this—"

(End of this chapter)