Haruka's story will continue, but for now let's return to our protagonist.
At the agreed time, Akira, accompanied by Dita and Yami, left the house together.
Today's outfits were simple, but no less impressive. Dita was wearing a one-piece yellow dress and white shoes. Her beautiful, petite figure stood out even more in this outfit, making her look cuter than ever.
On the other hand, Yami wore something similar to Dita but different. Yami had on a yellow T-shirt and an elegant black skirt, honoring her former name, Golden Darkness, and her favorite colors: black and gold. On her delicate feet she wore black high heels that enhanced her already impressive legs. The combination of the black skirt and high heels made Yami's beauty shine with a blinding light.
The three of them, now ready and fully prepared, set off toward the fair. Given the current time — 5:30 PM — it was already starting to get dark, but that didn't overshadow the date or make it any less special. On the contrary, the night made the date even more magical.
When they arrived at the fair, they were amazed. People were walking everywhere, buying food at the stalls, riding different attractions, while others were simply strolling, enjoying the beautiful night and atmosphere.
"Wow, it's impressive!" Dita exclaimed in awe.
"Yeah…" Yami nodded.
Hearing this, Akira was a bit surprised.
"Hmm. Don't fairs exist on other planets?" I asked curiously.
Their expressions of amazement also surprised me. I mean, it's not possible that out of the thousands of civilizations in the galaxy, none of them have fairs. Obviously the names would be different, but the content should be similar.
"They do exist, but… I was always deprived of my freedom due to my status as a noble, and then it got even worse when my father gave me to Murlus," Dita said.
"I… was always wandering around the galaxy, constantly fulfilling missions and with no interest in anything else. It's true that I've been to other fairs before, but not to have fun — it was to… complete my jobs," Yami said.
I see. Fairs existed, but due to various factors neither of them had ever gone to one, so this was their first time at a fair.
"I understand. Then let's have the most fun ever!" I said with a smile.
"Yes!" Dita cheered.
Yami didn't say anything, but she nodded, indicating she agreed with Akira's words.
After that, the date only got better. The trio couldn't be having a better time. They enjoyed the stalls, bought some decorations, and rode numerous attractions until they reached a specific booth. Behind the counter of that booth were numerous bottles, and people were throwing rings trying to land them on the bottles to win one of the prizes visible behind them.
"Oh, that's…" Yami said.
The moment Yami noticed that plushie, her eyes seemed to sparkle.
"Do you like that plushie, Yami?" I asked curiously.
The plushie was a Kyouko plush from Magical Girl Kyouko, the most famous TV show in all of Japan and much of the world. And no, I'm not exaggerating. Unlike the anime and manga, the show was known worldwide. Magical Girl Kyouko wasn't just famous in Japan but in the rest of the world too. Obviously it was aimed at a specific audience, but the show wasn't as childish as it appeared in the manga and anime — it was much more serious, almost seinen I'd dare say.
"It looks like the young lady has a very good eye. That plushie is the grand prize of my booth — a Kyouko plush from the famous TV series Magical Girl Kyouko. But it's not just any plushie. It's a limited edition, and there aren't many copies. Only 1,000 were sold throughout Japan, and this is one of them," the stall owner said.
He was basically a middle-aged man with nothing particularly noteworthy about him.
"No need to say more. If my girl likes it, I'll try to get it for her. Do you want one too, Dita?" I said decisively.
Dita looked at the wide collection of plushies and noticed one very special. It was also from Magical Girl Kyouko, but instead of her normal outfit she was wearing a maid outfit. Unlike Yami's, which had fairly light armor resembling a bikini armor from hentai and some anime.
"I like that one," Dita said.
"Oh, this young lady also has a very good eye. That plushie is also one of the best prizes at my booth. It's a limited edition Magical Girl Kyouko in maid version. They were very popular for a while. Unfortunately, many more copies were sold, so it's not as rare or expensive as the other one, but it's still an exclusive and uncommon version," the stall owner said.
"Alright, I'll try to get them. Please give me 20 throws," I said.
"Alright, that'll be 1,500 yen, please," the man said.
After paying the 1,500 yen, the stall owner gave me 20 rings of different colors.
"Good luck, sir," the stall owner said.
"Good luck, Akira!" Dita said.
"Good luck," Yami nodded.
Well, my girls are counting on me, so I can't lose. I concentrated, stared at the bottles, calculated the force and trajectory, and…
"Too bad, but you still have 19. The odds are high," the stall owner said.
I missed, but I wasn't far off. In fact, I threw it with too much force, going past all the bottles and hitting the plushies behind them. But I didn't get discouraged, because as the stall owner said, I still had 19 more attempts — more than enough to win both plushies.
2, 4, 10, 15… Akira missed every single throw, all because he couldn't control his strength and kept overshooting.
"Come on, Akira! You still have 4 rings left. It's still possible!" Dita said.
"Don't give up…" Yami nodded.
"The young ladies are right. You still have 4 attempts left. I'm sure you can win something," the stall owner said.
The previous attempts were all failures, but not completely. I realized something: in all of them I had never thrown with too little force or aimed badly — I had thrown with so much strength that I overshot. At first I thought it was just because I had bad aim, but after 15 attempts I realized that wasn't the case. The reason for my misses was the Omnitrix. Yes, the Omnitrix constantly remodeled my body, turning the user into the best version of themselves and of the human race in general, pushing all attributes to the limit of what the human race can withstand. Among all those attributes was strength, and because I hadn't trained for several days, I had become unable to control my strength. That was why I had lost until now — because I couldn't control my growing power.
The good thing was that now that I knew the reason, fixing the problem wouldn't be difficult. After all, I had trained before to control my strength and knew exactly what I had to do. It was just a matter of applying it.
Determined, I looked at the bottles, resolved to win. But I noticed something interesting. Hidden in the back and smaller than the others, there were two small bottles of different colors: one golden and one red.
"Damn stall owner, he never mentioned there were two bottles of different colors!" I thought, cursing the man.
You didn't have to be smart to realize that to get the two limited edition plushies you had to land the rings on those two small bottles. But because they were smaller, farther away, and well hidden behind the larger normal bottles, not only was it hard to see them, but it was also difficult to land the rings on both. And on top of that, the stall owner hadn't even warned about the existence of the two special bottles. This was a scam — it was almost impossible to land the rings on these two bottles!
Although it might be impossible for others, it wasn't for me. My enhanced senses and growing strength allowed me to perfectly calculate the angle and force needed to throw the rings accurately. And while before I couldn't control my strength, now it was different. Now I could surely control myself and win.
The stall owner wasn't stupid and realized that Akira had discovered the existence of the two special bottles — the ones that would give the winner the chance to obtain his two treasures, the limited edition plushies. But did it matter? The boy had missed 15 throws, unable to land the rings even on the normal bottles, so naturally he would be unable to hit the more difficult ones, which he had strategically placed to make it impossible for anyone to win — especially someone with such bad aim and poor control of their strength.
Akira aimed and threw the first ring — miss. The second — miss as well. The stall owner was already celebrating internally. With this kid he had made money and lost nothing. It was quite the bargain. But what he didn't know was that Akira had missed on purpose, all to add more suspense. This was proven when he threw the third ring and… with an impossible trajectory, it headed straight for the red bottle and landed perfectly inside.
"Yessss! You did it, Akira! You landed it in the bottle!" Dita cheered.
"Congratulations," Yami said.
The stall owner was stunned. He couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing. Had the boy with terrible aim who hadn't hit a single one managed to land the ring in the red bottle? Impossible!
"Excuse me, but I'd like my prize if you don't mind," I said politely.
Gritting his teeth, the stall owner grabbed the limited edition maid version plushie and gave it to Akira, who immediately handed it to Dita.
"Yay! Thank you, Akira! I love you so much!" Dita said with a huge smile from ear to ear.
Then she planted a small kiss on his lips and stood next to Yami to show off her new plushie.
"Alright, I still have one more. I'll try my luck," I said.
Although surprised, the stall owner calmed down. Okay, he had gotten lucky once, but that was it. With only one ring left it was impossible to hit the golden bottle. But to his surprise, Akira's last ring went straight into the golden bottle. His face paled, but he had no choice but to hand over the most expensive prize at his entire booth.
"Thank you very much. Here, this one's for you, Yami," I said, giving her the plushie.
Yami took it and hugged it to her chest, but she didn't forget to thank Akira, kissing him on the lips.
Normally anyone would have been surprised to see this, but the stall owner was so upset about losing his two treasures that he didn't notice anything.
"Well, we're leaving. We still have more stalls to check out. Thank you very much, sir," I said with a smile.
But inside I was happy. That's what he got for scamming people. Hopefully from now on he'll learn his lesson and warn people about the two special bottles.
He was right. In the future the stall owner learned his lesson, but at the cost of losing two treasures he could never recover or obtain again.
After saying goodbye to the sad stall owner, the three continued with their date. There was still a lot of date left ahead.