Well...yeah, you do!

You wonder the corridors of the arcade in search of an employee who can help you out with your crane game conundrum. Fortunately, it doesn't take too long to find one, but as you approach, you find yourself tensing up as you mentally run through how to explain your situation.

Crane Game...Stuck...Please help. Yeah, they should be able to understand that.

"Erm, excuse me." you call out to the employee to get their intention.

The employee turns around, revealing a young looking male who politely greets you. "Yes? How may I help you today?"

"Weird. For some reason...I half expected to find another female to help me out." You find yourself thinking.

You explain the situation well enough, and the employee follows you back to the Mahō Shōjo machine. A part of you cringes as you realise that you, a young adult male, are trying to win a figure from a show catered towards pre-teen girls, but either the employee failed to make this connection or didn't care to mention it, as he never so much as raises an eyebrow.

"Ah, I see, I see," The employee states. "These machine types are very difficult ones."

He then asks you to get some more tokens for the game (which you had embarrassingly forgotten to do). You return just in time to notice him locking the machine's window. Upon closer inspection, you notice that the employee has moved the figure box to a far more precarious position; it's so close to the edge, a stiff breeze would be able to knock it off!

"Now you just need to tip it over the edge," the employee explains. "The trick is to use the crane to nudge the box..."

He goes on to demonstrate this on the machine proper. Instead of lowering the crane claw around the middle of the box, he instead aims for the corner. As expected, the claw fails to grip the box, but as it rises, the claw lifts the box slightly and it drops ever so slightly closer to the edge!

"Ah, I see!" You comment with amazement.

Unfortunately, despite "seeing" what you were supposed to do, it takes you more tries than you were willing to admit to get the figure to where you wanted to be. It was frustrating; it was as if your mind was unable to process the idea of what you needed the box to do. But finally, after much, much trial and error, the box could defy the laws of gravity no longer and it dropped out of the machine with a satisfying tumbling sound.

"YES! Hell yeah!" You cheer in English. You practically do a little jig while the watching employee claps and congratulates you.

Once the feeling of euphoria dies down a little, you take the time to inspect the figure more properly to make sure it wasn't damaged. Fortunately, it seemed the Japanese were experts at packaging; the box barely appeared to have a scratch on it, let alone the figure. Up close, you were beginning to actually appreciate the craftsmanship of the figure more: how each bow and frill of the dress looked to be painstakingly modeled onto the figure, how there was no painting overlaps that you could see, how well formed the girl's bust is, and the fact that if you tilted the figure at a certain angle, you could look up her skirt and see-

"So what do you think?" The employee asks, snapping you out of your ruminations. "Crane games are fun, right?"

"Oh...yes," you say, hoping the employee hadn't noticed where you were looking. "Yes, very fun."

You graciously thank the employee for his help and advice. Of course, he brushes it off, saying that "it's important to keep the customers happy". He even leads you back to the entrance of the arcade, and gives you a small shopping bag with which to carry your newly won prize with.

"Thank you very much." You thank him again.

"It was our pleasure. Please come again soon!" He says with a graceful bow, before returning into the depths of the building.

You turn to leave as well, but another voice stops you.

"Um...excuse me, sir?" A female voice asks. "Are you...feeling all right?"

It belonged to a female employee, whose job is to stand the entrance to greet or farewell patrons. You had no idea what she was referring to. You felt fine...right?

As you turned to respond, you couldn't help but by the beauty you're greeted with. Though she's wearing the same regular uniform as the other employees of the arcade you've seen so far, she had the kind of face that would look good in any kind of outfit. And that body of hers! The swell of her breasts! The flare of her hips! You bet her ass was awesome as well. If only you could go over there, strip those clothes off, and then-

"Sir?" The employee speaks again. You blink, and flush with embarrassment and frustration when you realise what kinds of thoughts you were thinking.

God damn it! Again?! What's wrong with me? I gotta get out of here quick before I do something I end up regretting.

The female employee looks at you concerned. "You look a bit pale, and you seem flushed. Do you need any help before going home?"

"No, no...I am fine," You say quickly. "I can get home by myself."

The employee looks around you. "There was girl who was with you before when you came in...she left some time ago, didn't she? Has she helped you already?"

"Yes, but it's not a problem. I know how to go home; she told me the directions."

The employee looks unconvinced, but after you manage to stumble out a few more excuses about being fine, she accepts your response and farewells you with a placid "Please come again". With that, you leave the arcade in a hurry and begin the trek back to the train station.

It's now much later in the afternoon and though it's still daylight, the sun is now descending closer and closer towards the tops of the buildings. As the distance between you and the arcade grows, you breathe a sigh of relief to have escaped there without losing control of yourself, though you still burn with shame at your indecent thoughts. That said, at least no one seemed to bring up the-condition-that-shall-not-be-named after you left the train. It was like you were a normal person again!

This fact brightens your mood considerably, and the walk along the relatively quiet streets helps dim your negative thoughts until they were barely a whisper. You couldn't help but walk with a bit of a spring in your step as you continued along. The fact that you were here now still hadn't quite sunk in for you. Japan! The birthplace of your family's lineage, your ethnic heritage, and of course, the media that you consumed daily. You felt on top of the world, and you hoped such peace could last you a lifetime.

Alas, you should have known that it wouldn't.

It was only another hundred meters or so before you noticed. You were beginning to walk a bit...funny; as in, instead of waking straight, you swayed a bit from side to side, almost like you were drunk. On top of that, you felt a bit light-headed too. You decide to stop and take a quick breather. Dimly, you wonder if you had become dehydrated back inside the arcade, and resolve to find something to drink. There's always vending machines around, almost one per building block. You had passed one just a little bit ago, so the next wouldn't be too far. You could make it.

...Is what you thought, but the moment you stand up, you stumble. It feels like there are jackhammers piercing into your brain. Your light-headedness has transformed into a full on dizzy spell. The world is spinning; you slam your body against the wall of a nearby building to prevent yourself from falling over.

What the hell? What's going on?!

You rack your brain trying to think. Something's happening to you; Something you should know about. Something that you do know about, but you can't figure it out; you're drawing blanks!

You squeeze your eyes tight and try to breathe deeply to focus your mind, but the worsening pain distracts you. It's becoming harder to even think, and holding on to thoughts is like navigating through heavy fog.

...Fog?

Something clicks inside you. Ideas and memories begin to connect together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Taking slow, deep breaths, you **** your mind to calm down and think systematically in spite of your skull-splitting headache. Fog...when was the last time you felt like this? It wasn't that long ago; you remember that you were fine at breakfast, and that was after...after...

"You need some Japanese tea and some release, don't you?"

After...Mrs. Fukada had helped you with your Yellow Fever. But then, it again happened later, didn't it? Another woman offered to help you with your fever too, didn't she? What happened then? It was back at the train station...you were getting your IC card, and then the woman...she only stopped when Emiru came along.

Emiru...

And then suddenly, you understood. Like a veil being lifted, the subtext behind the sentences that hadn't made sense to you in the moment all became clear.

"Oh no, it's quite all right. I didn't know he had a dedicated helper for his fever!"

"Please take care of him, young lady!"

"There was girl who was with you before when you came in...she left some time ago, didn't she? Has she helped you already?"

They were talking about your fever. The station clerk, the restaurant waitress, the arcade employee...they must have all assumed that Emiru was actively helping you with your fever. That she was periodically giving you 'release'.

But she hadn't today. You had barely thought about the fever at all since getting to Emiru's school. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that you were celebrating the fact that no one had mentioned it since the station.

And now you're suffering the consequences right after sending your helper away.

The realisation causes your legs give out. You **** yourself against the wall and use it to slide down onto the ground in a sweaty mess of limbs and hair. You feel like something in your brain has popped. Something that sounds like a plastic box clatters besides you, but you don't even know what it is.

Your vision fades. The world blurs and takes on a weird shade of sickly yellow. Where are you? What are you doing here? What's happening to you?

Are you...dying?

As your mind fades to black, the only thing that remains is a voice. A single sentence that echoes even as your senses dim.

"But please, promise you will call me the moment that you're done, OK?"

Whose voice was that? You couldn't say. But you mouth out a single word just as the sea of darkness consumes you.

"Sorry..."