Chameli had picked the game more catered to his skill set as a way to ease him, but it seemed he wanted to experience all that the arcade had to offer, which she would oblige, mentally picking the next game she would take him to, but first the game at hand.

"Well, then I was on purpose, but now I won’t go easy on you!”

She responded eagerly. Chameli would seem to almost perk up to the rest of his answer, as it would be a new fact about him that she had learned and didn’t necessarily expect of him. A drumming swordsman seemed like such an odd concept, but the precise and shifting movements would quickly align and make sense to her. This would be enough to make her think about her own masked activities, and she wondered if he was skilled with perhaps more than just the sword, but this led to other thoughts.

“I wouldn’t have guessed you practice swordsmanship. How often do you teach?”

Her life was never as simple as it seemed from the moment her quirk arose, but she tried her best to keep those two halves of her costumed life and her personal life separate, but this now begged the question: What would happen if she was to become romantically involved with Shō? Even if this was only the first date, if it continued, she would have to tell him, and the thoughts on how he would react would be enough to send her into a bit of a spiral, only being pulled free as Shō grabbed the spoke up again, agreeing to skee-ball as he grabbed the tickets from the wack-a-mole game. She would nod as she grabbed onto the sleeve of his shirt, pulling him a long way to the skee-ball game, only letting go so they could both face their stations at the game.

“Yeah, those tickets are how we’re going to get all those awesome prizes! And there’s going to be a lot more tickets with me at this game.”

She would exclaim happily as she inserted a few tokens into the machine, looking over to him with her warm smile still on. They had just begun, but it was more than clear that Chameli was enjoying herself, enough so that almost all of her troubles had fallen away from her mind. Grabbing one of the balls from the game’s station, her hand would hover over the start button.

“Ready?”

“T-Thank you!”

The combination of both Shō’s smile and compliment was easily enough to leave Chameli feeling a bit flustered, as she would quickly turn her attention back to the arcade floor in hopes of finding somewhere to start. It had been years since she had been inside an arcade, but she would start with something that led more into her strengths, such as a carnival game. Slowly making her way onto the floor with Shō in tow, she walked until she found a small section that seemed much more retro than the rest of the games, although it had been outfitted with a litany of flashing lights, all designed to draw the attention of arcade goers. She wouldn’t go right for her favorite carnival game and instead opt for something much more intro-leveled, Whac-a-mole. It was a simple game that was more of a test of speed and hand-eye coordination than anything else. Looking back at Shō, her smile would still be apparent as she pointed to the game.

“How about we start here?”

It was a simple game, but something that would also reward tickets, and if the duo were lucky, maybe they would be able to get enough at the end of their night to get an amazing prize. The thought of a prize was enough to cause Chameli to boil over with excitement, but she would try her best to contain herself from an outburst. Rushing over, she would grab one of the mallets and gesture eagerly for Shō to take the other station next to her, as she was ready to get started.

Another work week has gone by, and Chameli has once again piled on as many days as she could, picking up extra shifts and helping out extra to earn herself a few favors, one of which was to cover a shift for today. Between busy times during the week in the shop, she spent mentally piecing together an outfit—something nice but not over the top—for their first outing. She had made about three or four possible choices before she finally settled on the one she liked the most, with some input from coworkers and, of course, her mother. Heroics for today were far from her mind; after all, Japan had its fair share of professional heroes, so one night off shouldn’t have been too much to ask.

The destination of their date was an arcade in Shibuya. In a panicked response to an unexpected question, she said she wasn’t the greatest at arcade games but figured it would be a good way for the both of them to have genuine fun. Chameli was admittedly a bit nervous, but as she got ready, a small pep talk with her mother over the phone and the faint sounds of clanging pots and pans seemed to ease her nerves, if only a little.

On her way to the arcade, Chameli could be seen constantly fiddling with her clothing, partially a response to nervousness. The streets of Shibuya were crowded; nothing was different on any other day. She took her time, wading through the people both on the subway carts and through the streets of the city who were also on their own journeys, be that to work, home, or elsewhere. The building was simple to navigate, littered with glowing neon signs, and at the front doors would stand Shō. Chameli would smile as she approached him, giving him a slight wave.

“Hiya! Ready to go in?”

In her moment of distraction, the blade-armed thug would lunge forward, only to have his strike blocked by her shadow-clad companion. This was Chameli’s first time working with another vigilante in combat, and it was working quite well. But just as he would continue to engage his new combatants, she would have to do the same. With the smoke still impeding their vision, she would prepare for her assault. Unlike the other combatants, these two were unarmed, relatively speaking, and although she didn’t have a weapon of her own, she would feel much more comfortable with close-range combat.

As the dust would begin to settle and she could make out the silhouettes of the thugs, she would prepare herself to dart forward, only to be met by a surprise, cutting through the smoke like a net of flames. Acting quickly, she would create and throw another bead-sized bubble at the center of the net. Taking a runner's stance, she would quickly run forward, creating an additional two bubbles and popping them, using the force to aid her movement. And as the bead she had thrown would contract with a net of fire, it would pop, the force easily enough to dispel the flames and leave the perfect opening for Chameli to strike.

Using her momentum and speed from the bubbles she had popped, she would deliver a kick to the sternum, the strike hard enough to send the thugs flying as she would quickly turn, lunging towards the explosive thug, who in the ensuing shuffle had managed to pick up and charge a bit of gravel. Seeing the telltale glow of gravel in his hand, she would act quickly, creating another bubble, but this one was incredibly small, and as he would attempt to throw the gravel into her face, she would throw her bubble just below his elbow. The sudden force from the bubble popping would be enough to force his arm completely up, causing the direction of the gravel to change and throwing it up into the air.

While the thug looked up, she would quickly deliver an overhead axe kick to the head, forcing him down to the ground. There would initially be a faint sign of him struggling to get back up, but it would come to an end quickly with little to no effort, simply her leaning in a bit more. It was clear that he hadn't expected such a strike from her, and with the element of surprise and speed, she was quickly able to dispatch them. Once she was certain he wouldn't get back up, she would turn her attention to her companion and the boss of the thugs.

"You should have gotten the more expensive henchmen; these ones didn't last too long."

With his face shrouded in darkness, the man would turn to face her, giving her a slight nod. This would be enough for her to understand, as she would return his nod before focusing her attention on the group. And as predicted, the group wouldn’t be interested in stopping their antics and would instead move towards the duo as the group stepped forward. He was much larger than the others and spoke as if he were the leader of this group of criminals, which was fine with her; she hadn’t intended on letting any of them walk away with a beating, and it was always so much easier when they wouldn’t run. Her eyes, although hidden by the shadow cast from her makeshift hood, were focused on their leader, who spoke rather arrogantly, but most criminals were. They were so confident that they would even chuckle at the duo's interjection.

The group would begin to demonstrate their quirks almost as a show of force, but she wouldn’t waver. And with a simple command from their leader, the group would break up into two teams of three, which Chameli couldn’t help but find interesting. But she’d have time to review the details later; this was a time for action. The three that approached her were rather interesting, but she only found one out of the group that she would be particularly worried about in close quarters: the large man who seemed to double in size.

"You were warned."

Her hands would quickly emerge from under the makeshift cloak, throwing two of her marble-sized bubbles towards the larger thug with upward swings, and then with a following vertical swing, she would throw the third remaining bubble in her hand towards the one who could spray water from his mouth. For the larger target, she would aim for his sternum and forehead, and for the liquid sprayer, she would aim for between the eyes.

The larger of the group acted quickly, making an ‘x-shaped guard across his chest and leaning into it to guard against the bubble. As the marble-sized bubbles made impact, the force of the burst would be enough to force him backwards, but as he was braced for the strike, it wouldn’t move him much. The water sprayer, however, wasn’t as quick. With the bubble burst at its intended location, the force was enough to launch him backwards, off of his feet, then to the ground below, as he would quickly reel from the blow, using his hands to cover his face. The blade-armed thug would grin as he began to push forward. "Nifty trick, but that won’t work on the rest of us!"

She would respond, giving a valid reason as to why they had never crossed paths, which checked out. As he never sat down to eat, it was highly possible that she would either just miss him at the start of her shift or even already be busy helping cook in the back, in which case she would be far too busy to notice much of anything going on outside of her station. But she wasn’t too surprised that her mother never noticed who he was, as most of her time was spent running the restaurant with either simple dinner music or Hindi tunes playing faintly in the background. And although Chameli had a great love for her culture, she often tended to listen to music from other sources. With the mystery now solved, they would fall into silence as they watched the fireworks continue.

The colors would eventually begin to vary in a multitude of ways, quickly becoming far too much to keep track of. With the sun fully gone, it would be up to the sparks to light the sky, and they did so fairly well. But within the loud, bursting sound of the fireworks hid something much more sinister. It almost went unnoticed as she found herself much to entertain and far too happy to even think that something like that could happen, especially with the heroes who were so close by possibly still lingering.

But with another loud boom of the fireworks, she could hear the sound—the sound of gunfire—and once she had honed in on the sound, it quickly became all she could hear. Her look of amazement was quickly overtaken by a blank stare as she tried to figure out a way to slip away from Sho, if only for a few moments, to deal with the crisis at hand, but it would only bring up more issues, namely her attire. Chameli’s close friends weren’t exactly screaming inconspicuously, which meant she would need to keep herself at a distance. Or find some way to cover herself.

Her eyes scanned the leftover tents from the festival and the free fabric. It wasn’t much, but it would help her cover herself and conceal her identity in a pinch. This only left the matter of slipping away, but the longer she thought, the higher the potential for casualties would be. She opened her mouth with the intention of saying something, anything to slip away, only to have Sho speak first, offering to walk her home after making a quick detour. Chameli couldn’t help but smile, not only at his kind gesture but also at how perfect the opportunity was. She would nod.

"That would be great. I’ll meet you near the stage."

She would respond. She had no idea how long clean-up would take, but moving their meeting point would give her enough leeway to say she had simply taken a detour of her own on the way or claim she was following a cute animal.