By the way, what attractions await us at this festival? Of course, a festival has to have some fun zones - It's not all food, snacks and sweets. Ouroboras told us the festival celebrates that FRI technology that's supposedly better than WiFi. I don't understand any of those words though, so don't take my explanation to heart. Either way, whilst the food stalls are in-line with what you would expect of a traditional, standard festival, the attractions do indeed have quite the techno style to them. It's almost absurd how much they were leaning into it, even.

"What's that? Hold on, a rifle!?" I jolted, "You guys see that!? That little girl has a gun!"

"It's a shooting game, so it's not a real gun." Issei smirked, "Though with how high teched out it looks, I'm surprised it still shoots corks instead of lasers."

"Corks? Like the ones from bottles?" I took a closer look, "Whoa, would you look at that! So it's not dangerous?"

"Getting hit by it would be undesirable, but survivable." Ouroboras pointed out, "You shoot the prize you want, and if it falls, you get it."

Thus, we had found ourselves our next thing to kill time with. Standing behind and patiently waiting for the girl's turn to finish so that we could take a few shots at it, we had expected her to try once or twice before calling it quits. She'd either win or realize she'd end up wasting all her money if she continued, so we didn't mind waiting around. Surprisingly enough though, she was quite adamant about getting the stuffed rabbit toy, as she kept on pouring her allowance, banking each shot directly at its head, yet the rabbit did not budge. It was almost heartbreaking seeing the poor girl go from excited to angry and then be brought to tears at the face of this furry adversary. I can't take this anymore.

"Oi." I walked up to the stall, "Give it here."

"Mn!" She hid the gun away.

Looks like she doesn't understand me. Makes sense, she's about Cene's age after all. Well, gestures are universal in that case. Pointing at the rabbit and then miming me shooting it for her, she finally understood my intentions before warily handing the gun over as the intrigued worker laughed on.

"Alright, this should be a piece of cake!" I leaned the gun's stock on my shoulder.

"Gasp! That form!" Issei couldn't help but admire it, "This stance... is the stance of a veteran soldier, Lune Grimheart!"

"That's right. I've fought in countless armed battles, assaults and wars! We're not gonna count the one where I got shot and died though, but anyways!" I took aim, "Let's go win that rabb-!"

-it... What the? I definitely shot it straight in the chest though? It should have gone flying! That can't be, I couldn't have missed, could I? No, that's not the case... I hit it, but the lousy cork just bounced off.

"Did we forget to mention that these games are infamous for being unfair?" Ouroboras hid his snarky chuckle, "What now, Lune Grimheart? Are you going to sheepishly hand the toy gun back to this hopeful innocent girl?"

"Grr...! Just wait, I got a plan!" I applied pressure to the gun's barrel with my pinky and ring fingers, "If it needs more firepower, then I'll just add some Sparks into the mix!"

"Oi, Iro Abilities are cheating!" Issei fussed.

"Says who?" I smugly turned around to smirk at him as I pulled the trigger, Eyes completely turned away from the target, "Bin-!"

-go... Oh come on! What the hell happened this time!? Ack, me and my bravado! I couldn't even see what happened this time because I was looking away from the damned target! The booth worker and the little girl look flabbergasted, and Issei and Ouroboras are mockingly laughing their asses off. What in the world...?

"Bah!" Issei slapped his knee, "Spark, was it!? Casting Spark to better propel a wooden cork!? Real genius plan there, Lune!"

"Wait, don't tell me..." I facepalmed at my own stupidity.

"The cork merely burned away mid-flight." Ouroboras confirmed my suspicions.

Damn, this isn't gonna work then. I'm getting that rabbit, you know! It's not even a matter of helping the girl, I just don't wanna give up after going in so confidently! Dammit, think Lune, think! You've got all sorts of sneaky Iro Abilities under your belt, and you're telling me you can't use any of them for this scenario? There's no way, at least Materialize something...!

"Then, let's go with this!" I faked taking the replacement corks the worker handed me, secretly exchanging them for heavier Materialized ones made out of rubber, "Yeah, these should pack a way better punch!"

Plopping them inside the gun before taking aim in the exact same position as the previous two times, I focused all my aim on that damned hare before pulling the trigger.

"Aha!" I slammed my fist on the table in excitement, "It moved! It's like 2 or 3 more shots away from falling!"

"You do realize we could have just bought it for her for way less than what you're paying, right?"

"Shut up, Issei! I'm in too deep now!" I tossed the worker some more coins, "No going back!"

And so, continuously loading the toy gun with my own custom ammo, I pumped the carrot-nibbling sucker full of rubber until it was practically a light gust away from falling to the ground. The little girl next to me looked worried, presumably realizing the inconvenience she had caused someone to undergo for her sake, but I didn't mind at all. Heh, I guess I really am weak to kids in need. What can I say, I'm a father at heart.

"There!" I fistpumped with all my might, "Booyah! There we go!"

"Congrats, you spent way too much time and money on helping some random tyke." Issei clapped for me.

"Thank you." I bowed to the worker as he handed me the rabbit, before immediately passing it on to the little girl, "And here you go."

"Mn... Umm...!" The little girl agonized over something before shakily taking out her little money purse.

"Hahaha! Looks like she thought you were gonna ask for payment!" Issei cackled on.

"Dude, not funny! And quick, I can't speak Japanese - Tell her I'm not evil!"

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"What the hell, that was horrible." I trudged along as we moved on to the next attraction.

"You had it coming, bozo. You walked up to a random little girl who doesn't know you and offered your services in a foreign language. Of course she wouldn't expect you to do it just because."

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"It wasn't just because though." I warmly recalled her bright smile as she hugged the rabbit after Issei had finished explaining everything to her, "I might've just made that kid's festival, you know."

"Highly improbable. The fear of getting charged far exceeded the dopamine rush she felt when you gifted it to her." Ouroboras calculated, "I believe at best she will forget about the encounter, and at worst will forever be scarred by it."

"Oh come on, you're just joking right?" I nudged him a bit, "H-Hold on, you ARE just joshing me... right?"

"I am afraid not."

"Huh!? Well come on, you can see the future!" I begged him, "Tell me what's gonna happen to her!"

"My lips are sealed." He mimed zipping them up like one would a purse, "Well, there is that, but I would also much rather continue to the next attraction."

Damned lazy Sun God...! Ugh, anyways, he's probably talking about that light show booth in front of us. It seems pretty popular, both for adults and children alike. The players are handed sponge-like mallets which they use to whack some mechanical bulbs that jump out and resemble moles in their design. But this is the FRI festival, so it's obviously gotta be overly techy. The mallets produce a zap sound, and the moles actually physically change colors when they get hit. It's over-engineering at its finest, but I guess that's what makes it so Eyecatching.

"This one can be played with up to 4 players." Ouroboras smiled, "Question! If 4 players is assigned as the maximum value of the game in question, and there are 3 players currently, what is the probable chance of us being able to play?"

"Yes!" Issei and I both shouted a grammatically incorrect answer.

Standing in line yet again, I couldn't help but realize just how much of the evening is spent on just waiting your turn. In fact, I had so much time that I began to ponder if life itself was just made up of waiting for your time to shine. The existential question was quickly thrown out the window as we were called up to the front of the machine though. Placing the coins into it instead of paying by hand, the colors lit up again, indicating the game had begun and we could grab our mallets.

"Right, there's a strategy to this." Ouroboras explained, "I shall take the middle rows. Lune, you take the left, and Issei-"

"The strategy is as such!" Issei kept pounding any mole that popped up, "This is a co-op, but just between us, it's a competition! Count for yourselves - Whoever gets the most wins!"

"Ack, no fair!" I hastily slammed the first mole, "You should've said so earlier!"

"Indeed, this is not how you are supposed to play the game!" Ouroboras too growled.

Hitting, slamming, pounding and tapping the moles as soon as they appeared, we hadn't even focused on the total score at all by this point. We just kept track of two things, leaving everything else aside - Our personal scores, and the moles. We would at times have to duel for the mole that appeared, since according to Issei, there isn't a designated "territory" like Ouroboras had wanted. In the end, the loud buzzer signified the end of the match.

"Haah, haahh..." I wiped the sweat from my brow, "31... in a minute."

"30 for me." Ouroboras shook his head.

"What!? I only got 27! I call unfair RNG!" Issei whined.

"Issei, you yourself have declined my plan to split the playing field." Ouroboras laid it on thick, "It is simply a skill issue on your end."

"Eh? I won?" I couldn't help but smile like an idiot when I found out, "But more importantly..."

"It appears we had set a new record." Ouroboras too saw the big number at the top of the screen, "Perhaps this strategy too sufficed."

"Right? It was all part of my master plan!" Issei tried to cover for his lack of skill at the game, "If we worked together, we'd each only have one chance to hit our area's moles. But by pitting all three of us against each other, I managed to make you guys scramble for every mole you saw, effectively giving each of us a chance to hit it because of it! It's the perfect strat!"

"Actually, it is the second most efficient strategy." Ouroboras corrected him, "Because had we gone with mine, we would have ended up with 91, the maximum this round would have given us."

"...Shut it, nerd."

"But hey, this is still great!" I split them up, "That means Issei's plan was only 3 points away from being perfect. Besides, we got the new record, so we did enough!"

"Hm? What are you doing?" They watched as I stood there waiting in front of the machine.

"The prize." I smiled back innocently enough, "We won something, right?"

"You won jack squat, dumbass. Not all games have prizes in them."

"What!? That's unbelievable! I at least wanted to get something for Nelly and Cene! What the hell, what a massive waste of time!"

Just when I had said that, a nervous and uncertain little hand tugged on the sleeve of my yukata. Looking down to find the culprit, I had smiled at the youth looking up at me with those same beady Eyes as before. Would you look at that, it's the little girl whom I gave the rabbit to. Oh, and looks like her older brother's there with her this time. He looks to be around Nelly's age, what a coincidence. Come to think of it, he was watching over her from the sidelines, though I just didn't notice him at the time since I was too busy aiming. They really look alike.

"She, she..." He struggled to find the correct words in Entropic, "She... thank you. Erm..."

"Oh, haha! No worries, we went here to have fun after all." I reassured him.

"No, wait!" He pulled me back as I was about to leave, "Erm... G-Gift! We gift you this!"

With both of them sticking out their hands anxiously to me, I had shrugged and obliged to take whatever it was. Opening my fist to find out, I was taken aback from the surprise.

"These are...!?" I looked at them, "Such cute keychains!"

"She won them after." The boy continued explaining, "I won one too. It is not the same as stuffed toy, but..."

"No, this is just what I needed!" I gave them a thumbs up, "I got two kids back home who'd love to have them! Thank you two so much!"

Seeing my elated reaction, they too had sighed in relief before giggling at each other. Kids, they really are the purity of this world. Well, there are some brats, don't get me wrong, but whenever I see good natured kiddos like these, I just...

"Sniffle..." I felt tears start to form in my Eyes, "Nelly, Cene... I miss you so much...!"