Someplace... Cheesy

Shuichi wasn’t entirely sure where he expected Mukuro to take him and Maki, but it definitely was not the place that Mukuro ended up stopping. He thought that she might take him out to the bay, or a fishing spot, or maybe some sort of gun range, but instead… he was greeted by the bright neon lights that decorated the sign of a children’s arcade restaurant.

“Nezumi’s Pizza Castle?” Maki read off the sign that stood next to a large statue of a cartoon mouse. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Yeah; of course I am.” Mukuro didn’t seem to have any irony or hesitation in her voice as she turned off the car and got out. “Isn’t this usually where people go on their birthdays?”

“Maybe when they’re 7 or 8 years old,” Maki replied. “Shuichi might be a little too… big for a place like this.”

“Yeah; plus, would they even let us inside? It’s not like we’re actually accompanying any kids,” Shuichi pointed out as he followed behind Mukuro.

“Of course they’ll let us in; my sisters and I come here every year for our birthdays, and they’ve never stopped us.” Mukuro opened the door and gave a casual wave to the woman sitting behind the front desk. She was wearing an unzipped blue hoodie with a pink backpack over her shoulders, and a black polo with matching pants emblazoned with the mousy logo of the restaurant underneath. Her eyes were closed and there was a visible bubble of snot coming out of her nose as she snored, so at first Shuichi assumed that she was sleeping, but then he noticed that she was playing with a portable video game system as she sat there - and she was doing shockingly well.

“There’s no way that she could actually be that good in her sleep… right?” Shuichi thought silently to himself.

“Excuse me.” Mukuro placed a fist onto the counter and knocked. “I’d like a table for three, please, and 3 unlimited game passes to go with it.”

“Eh?” The girl’s snot bubble popped and she seemed to wake up, though her eyelids were still drooped. “Oh, hello, Mukuro. Is it that time of year again already?”

“No - this is actually for someone else.” Mukuro stood aside to show Shuichi behind her, and the office worker gave the cashier a nervous wave.

“Hmm? Someone new?” The girl stood up from her chair and leaned forward toward Shuichi. Her eyes still remained lazily half-open, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was being heavily scrutinized somehow. “... … … … … ...you’re a bit of a strange guy, aren’t you?”

“W-what’s that supposed to mean?” Shuichi stammered at the accusation.

“Sorry… that didn’t come out quite right.” The woman used her pinky to clean her right ear as she took Mukuro’s credit card. “What I mean is… you do a lot of very strange things, don’t you? I mean, you did let Muku drag you to a place like this, and you’re not even that fazed by it, are you?”

“Well, I’m, uh… a little bit weirded out by being here.” Shuichi turned away from her and blushed.

“And yet, you still came… on your birthday of all days.” The girl sat back down and took out three menus and three magnetic cards from underneath the cashier’s desk. “Don’t worry, I’m not judging. To be honest, I’d want to spend time here even if I wasn’t an employee either.”

“Really?” Shuichi blinked and took a menu. “So, you’ll let us stay? Even without a kid?”

“Yeah; my family’s known Muku and her sisters for as long as I can remember. And while they may be trouble makers, there’s no way we can just turn away someone who’s been supporting our restaurant for so long. Though, if you do wind up doing something bad and anyone asks, I’ll say that you’re all kidnappers who snuck in through the back.”

“Thank you, Ms. Nanami.” Mukuro gave a respectful bow. “Please, give your mother my regards.”

Mukuro then led her two friends to the closest free table and sat Shuichi down firmly into a seat. She then took out a paper crown that she apparently kept in her bag, unfolded it, and placed it onto Shuichi’s head. Then, before Shuichi could react and ask what was going on, Chiaki had walked over to their table and had placed a small chocolate cupcake with a lit candle in front of him.

“Ahem… happy birthday to you… happy birthday to you….” Mukuro began to sing with a shockingly melodious voice, its tone so striking it seemed to drown out the sound of the arcade around them entirely. “Happy birthday, dear Shuichi… happy birthday to you.”

She then clapped her hands together as Maki and Shuichi both looked on in awe.

“There… now you can start to have a proper birthday,” the ex-soldier declared.

“Wow… that was… incredible, Mukuro! I had no idea that you could sing that well,” Shuichi stated.

“Hmm? You thought I was that good? You flatter me,” she replied humbly. “Now, please, blow out your candle before too much wax melts onto the cupcake.”

“Well, this is all very sweet of you to do for him, but… I still can’t help but wonder why you took Shuichi here of all places,” Maki said as Shuichi made his wish, though he didn’t seem to be in the mood to eat it afterward. “You don’t really think this is a normal place for adults to go on their birthday, right?”

“You mean… it isn’t?” Mukuro looked at her two partners curiously. “I suppose I did realize that my family and I stood out when we were here, but… we never really felt like we belonged anywhere, to be honest. But Ryu loved playing the games, eating the food, and seeing the mascots here so much, and Pandora always insisted that this was an essential part to a real birthday, so I never really thought about it that hard. Even during the roughest time in our lives, we always found a little happiness here.”

“Really? That’s delightful… I’m glad you three were able to have fun like that,” Shuichi commented, scratching his face. “It might feel childish for me to say this: I can't help but be a little jealous… my parents didn’t think video games were very good for me, so they never actually took me to an arcade like this when I was a kid.”

“Huh? Are you serious?” Maki turned to Shuichi in confusion. “Even I took kids to places like this from time to time. Did you seriously never go? Not even for someone else’s birthday party?”

“W-well, I didn’t exactly make a lot of friends when I was a kid… and it’s not like I could just invite myself to other people’s birthdays.” Shuichi rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

“You’ve never been to an arcade even once? That is…. unacceptable!” Mukuro declared, slamming her hands onto the table. “It’s an absolute crime that you never got to have fun at the arcade as a kid. By the end of the night, I’ll make sure that you’ve experienced every last ounce of joy this place can give you, from top to bottom. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes ma’am!” Despite how she was talking about having fun, she sounded so serious that Shuichi had to fight the urge to salute her. This was the first time he saw Mukuro with this much enthusiasm and energy about anything.

“Great; then let’s order a small pizza, and we’ll get started,” Mukuro settled down from her declaration, hailing the nearest waiter in an oversized mouse costume.

“Why do I get the feeling that this will be even more tiring than the strip club?” Shuichi wondered to himself as a pizza was placed onto the table they were at.

A few bites of rather unhealthy food later, and the trio began what would prove to be a long night for the three of them. First, they went to the go-karts, zipping past each other through winding neon racetracks in the cool night air as a rock song played in the background. It was a tough race, but Maki’s hair blowing in the breeze proved to be her undoing as it blinded her just long enough for Shuichi to pull ahead - there was no prize, but he felt proud of beating her regardless.

After that came the basketball machines, where the three of them each stood side by side to see who could land the most baskets in one minute. After only thirty seconds, though, it became clear that Shuichi wasn’t going to make any of his shots, while the other two were racking up ticket ribbons so long they twisted and curled on the ground.

“...” Maki paused to look at how poorly Shuichi was doing before making her next shot, which she miraculously missed. “Tch, how clumsy of me… I guess this game isn’t quite as easy as it looks.”

“Heh… thanks, Maki, but you don’t have to take a dive to make me feel better,” Shuichi replied, laughing.

“I agree,” Mukuro said as she landed her one hundredth basket. “I don’t know how you ever expect to defeat me in any contest if you continue to have an attitude like that.”

“Tch… I guess this is what I get for being nice.” Maki picked up a mini basketball with reignited determination. “Well, if you don’t want me to hold back, then I guess I’ll just have to give you everything I’ve got!”

Once the basketball machines had been thoroughly pulverized, the threesome moved onto the air hockey tables. There, Mukuro seemed determined to show no mercy with her powerful gloved hands during her match with Shuichi. The birthday boy tried his best to keep up with her, but when she managed to strike his paddle so hard with the puck that it shattered, Shuichi decided to bow out, much to her disappointment. Maki would have challenged her next, but Shuichi intervened for the sake of the building’s structural integrity before they could start.

After that, they had a three-way contest at the arcade’s dance machines, each doing their best to move their feet to the beat as they tried to follow their on-screen prompts. But then, Shuichi noticed that their three-way battle had suddenly become a four-way as a fourth player icon appeared on his screen. Confused, Shuichi looked to his right and saw that the final player mat had been taken up by that Chiaki girl from earlier.

“Huh? Shouldn’t you, you know… be working right now?” Shuichi asked curiously.

“Nah; it’s past 9 PM, so we don’t let in any new customers now,” she replied. “Besides, it looked like you guys were having fun. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Yeah, I guess there’s no harm in that,” Shuichi said, scratching his face. “Hey, wait a second… How is your score so high already?”

“What do you mean?” Chiaki yawned lazily, her feet a blur as she leaned back onto a metal beam behind her playmat. “It’s not like the game is that hard.”

“R-right, of course not.” Shuichi, in an effort not to seem outdone, tried to increase his pace as fast as Chiaki, but he promptly stepped onto his own foot and fell clumsily onto his face. He tried to pretend not to hear Maki snicker next to him as he pulled himself back up. “I, uh, meant to do that.”

“Of course you did,” Maki replied, smiling subtly.

Even though she started a few minutes later, Chiaki still managed to get the best score out of all of them, her steps nearly perfect the whole time. Her points were so ridiculously high that Shuichi actually expected Chiaki to get the high score on the machine but, to his surprise, there was a set of initials on the high score screen sitting just above hers: RYU.

“Still can’t get to the top, it seems…” Chiaki sighed as she stared at the screen. “I guess I still have a long way to go before I can surpass your sister, Muku.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself; the fact that you can get anywhere close to her is honestly impressive enough,” Mukuro replied. “Now, what should we do next?”

“Hmm… well, there’s a crane game over there we could try,” Maki pointed out. “Are you feeling lucky?”

“I think it would take a bit more than luck to win at one of these, but there’s no harm in trying.” Shuichi put in a few coins and carefully guided the crane claw with the joystick. It took a few tries but, eventually, he managed to get a grasp on a cute stuffed lion.

“Wow, you actually did it? And here I thought this game was rigged,” Mukuro said as she took it out.

“Actually, it was rigged; by your other sister,” Chiaki interjected. “She did that to mess with you and all the other kids, and we only managed to fix it a few years ago.”

“She what?! So that’s why I kept failing…” Mukuro crossed her arms, frustrated. “I tried to win this game so many times… uh, sorry for trying to hit it with a bike when I was eight, Chiaki.”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” Chiaki replied.

“So, what are you going to do with that; put it in your room?” asked Maki. “It would certainly be a better decoration than that statue you had.”

Shuichi hesitated for a moment as he considered giving it to Maki or Mukuro, but stopping as he realized that giving it to one of them meant not giving it to the other. “Yeah, I think I can find a spot for it - and I might as well have a keepsake from tonight.”

“Very well then,” Maki replied. “Does that mean that you’re going to name it?”

“Uh… how about… Paw?” Shuichi replied, looking the stuffed toy in the eyes.

“Paw? Does that mean he’s a father?” Chiaki asked.

“No, it’s because he has paws - you know, because he’s a cat,” Shuichi explained. “I know it’s not the most creative name, but… I think it fits.”

“Well, I think it’s a cute name.” Mukuro gave Paw a few pats on the head before putting it away into her bag for Shuichi to take home later. “Now, let’s keep going; we are going to have to play double-time if we’re going to do everything before the arcade closes.”

The ex-mercenary turned out not to be kidding, as she led the four of them through a fast-paced gauntlet of skee-ball, arcade fighting games, and mini-golf, as well as a slew of too many other arcade games to describe. Chiaki wound up winning most of the video games when they were competitive, but Shuichi was having far too much fun to care. He had to admit, with how he met Maki and Mukuro he never expected to ever have such innocent fun with them, but this was turning out to be even more enjoyable than the time he spent with Kaito.

It was just before 11 when they heard the announcement that the restaurant was closing shop for the day, and that everyone still there needed to leave. Shuichi was playing an Arcade co-op shooter with Mukuro, each of them holding plastic toy guns to shoot at the imaginary bad-guys on screen. However, to Shuichi’s surprise, he was the one carrying their team with his accurate shots rather than the other way around.

“Huh… you actually really suck at this one, don’t you?” Maki brutally observed as she sat on a bench behind Mukuro.

“S-shut up,” Mukuro growled, her voice unusually flustered. “If this was real life, I’d have to compensate for the recoil of the gun and bullet drop-off. The inaccurate physics is throwing off my aim.”

“That’s what she’s said every time she comes in; but she still hasn’t gotten any better,” said Chiaki. “You should both probably call it quits now, though; the final boss takes a while, and my mom wouldn’t be happy if you tried to stay overnight again, Muku.”

“You tried to stay overnight?” Maki looked curiously at Mukuro. “Strange… I didn’t peg you to be that much of a troublemaker, Mukuro.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Chiaki chimed. “Before she got into military stuff, Mukuro was actually even more unruly than her little sister. There was that time with an animatronic where she-”

“T-that is in the past now,” Mukuro interjected, her cheeks tinted rose red. “I was a completely different person back then.”

“Yeah; such a shame that the new you isn’t any better at these games, though,” Chiaki said, though with her flat monotone it was hard to tell if she was being serious or just ribbing Mukuro. “It was nice to meet you, Shuichi. I hope I get to see you all again soon.”

“Of course.” Mukuro bowed. “I promise we’ll be back one day.”

“Hey, Mukuro… thanks so much for taking me here,” Shuichi said as he and Maki followed Mukuro toward the exit. “It was a little exhausting, but… that really was just as fun as you said it’d be.”

“It was nothing, Shuichi; I just wanted you to have a proper birthday,” Mukuro said humbly.

“Still, compared to my other birthday parties - even the one that happened earlier today - I think this might be one of my favorites,” Shuichi said with a wide smile as they almost reached the exit. “Hey, wait a second; is that a photo booth over there?”

“Yeah; what of it?” Maki asked. “Were you thinking of getting a last-minute picture?”

“Of course! I can’t think of a better way to end the night!” Shuich grabbed Maki and Mukuro by their hands and pulled them into the booth, where he quickly inserted a bill into the pay slot.

“Geez, it’s cramped in here,” Maki complained with a grunt as her body was crammed against her friends’. “There’s barely any room to move.”

“Well, this is an attraction designed for children, isn’t it?” Mukuro pointed out. “They must not have counted on so many people our size being inside at once. Though, that never stopped my sisters and I.”

“Really? And how did you all fit?” Shuichi asked as he tried not to elbow Maki in the ribs.

“Like this.” Mukuro grabbed her two lovers and sat them down onto the bench in the booth, with Shuichi going on the bottom and Maki’s petite rear landing right on top. Mukuro then joined them, settling in nicely on Shuichi’s right side as Maki relaxed on his left. “There. Is everyone comfortable?”

“Y-yeah, I guess so,” Shuichi replied. “Ah, the timer! It’s almost time for the pictures! Everyone, get ready!”

Shuichi smiled as wide as he could and the girls followed suit by striking their own poses, with Maki giving a warm half-smile while Mukuro put up two fingers in a victory pose. They kept these poses for the first few photos but, just before the last one was about to take, Shuichi suddenly felt the girls start to shift on his lap. He was about to ask what they were doing, but the question was answered for him as he felt Maki and Mukuro both kiss him on the cheeks.

“W-what was that?” Shuichi asked, blushing as red as a beet as they walked out to collect their pictures.

“Nothing; just one last birthday present for you to remember,” Maki assured him. “Now, shall we head home?”

“R-right, of course.” Shuichi blushed the entire way back to his car. “So, would you like me to take you all to your places, or…?”

“Well… it would be a shame for you to go to bed lonely, right?” asked Mukuro. “I don’t see anything wrong with keeping you company again.”

“Yeah; and it’s not like anyone is waiting for me back at my place,” said Maki. “Just don’t expect me to make you breakfast in the morning; your birthday privileges officially end tomorrow.”

“Heh, don’t worry; I don’t mind.” With that, Shuichi got into his car and turned it on, driving off into the dark and letting the blanket of night welcome them home.