The first thing to catch her eye when they arrived was the roller coasters—tall, winding tangles of metal that dominated the sky. She could hear the distant joyful shouts and rattling cars as a train dived down from the highest peak and rushed through a loop. The other thing she noticed…

  "There's fewer people than I thought," said Erina as they entered the park. Then again, she didn't have much frame of reference.

  "There was some rain last night," said Yuuta. "And the park only opened a little before we got here. But it looks like we got a little lucky too—the lines don't look bad at all!" Looking over, he asked, "Anywhere you feel like starting?"

  "Oh. Um…" She looked around. Eye-catching lights and colorful buildings greeted her eye. A nice smell emanated from the food stalls as they prepared the first batches of the day. She spotted a small group of students around her age taking shots at an enclosed basketball net. Looking again, there were several attractions that didn't involve getting on a ride. She spotted one in particular and said, "Maybe we can start with that one."

  Yuuta followed her finger. "Let's give it a try! Do you know how it works?"

  "No." Erina only picked it because she saw mock guns mounted on it.

  "Here, I'll show you." A quick exchange of words with the employee working the game, and Yuuta had the gun in his hands. "You get one clip to shoot out the star on that slip of paper over there. Cut it out, and you can take home one of those prizes over there!"

  Yuuta opened fire. The handgun sprayed rapidly, one bullet after another punching through the paper. It flapped and twisted wildly with the shock of so many hits in rapid succession. Yuuta readjusted his aim and loosed another spray of bullets, pelting the red star in the middle of the paper… but by the end of it, the edges of the star were still intact.

  "Aw." Yuuta set down the rifle, dejected. "No good, huh?"

  "I see," said Erina neutrally.

  "You still want to give it a try?" said Yuuta.

  "Yes." Erina brushed a stray hair out of her face and picked up the handgun. She couldn't resist the first hints of a smug smile on her lips. She could nail a headshot on a moving target while sprinting herself, firing from an orb several meters away from her hands with a completely different angle of attack. Shooting a star would be child's play.

  "No prize," said the employee after. "There's still some of the red star right here. See?"

  Erina stared at the mangled bit of red. It was a tiny little piece that had peeled back with the impact of the bullets. She couldn't even see it until after he pulled it down. Now she understood how these games operated.

  "There was too much spray," muttered Erina as they walked away. The gun felt like it was trying to jump out of her hand every time she pulled the trigger. If she was allowed to point two fingers at that star, it'd be nothing but a smoking hole in the blink of an eye.

  "Man, they're tough," said Yuuta. "But guess that's why they keep them around, right? They'd be gone in no time if everyone kept winning."

  They tried one of the park's many roller coasters next. Erina didn't have much reason to found it imposing. After everything she'd been through, a meticulously engineered entertainment device that thousands of people rode on every day was about the farthest thing from scary. It didn't scare her at all. Not at all. Absolutely not.

  No matter how much her conscious mind assured her nothing would happen, Erina couldn't help but feel exposed and helpless in this open-air car. What if something broke for no reason? She couldn't exactly pry these restraints off herself. Now that she was strapped in for the ride, Erina realized she would've been far more comfortable with no restraints at all. At least then she had control over the situation. With this big metal bar keeping her in, everything was out of her hands. When was the last time this ride was inspected? Were the inspectors up to bar or was it some underpaid high schooler ticking off boxes on a checklist? Did they look for rust? Where—

  The screaming pitched around her, and Erina's stomach felt like she left it behind at the top of the hill the whole ride down.

  "Um, Emisane-san?" Yuuta sat beside her as the train pulled back into the stop. His restraints were already lifted, and he was waiting for her so they could both climb out on her side and exit. "The ride's over."

  "Right." Erina's knuckles were bare white on the bar in front of her, wide green eyes locked forward. Her posture didn't change for the entire ride. It took her a few seconds longer to process his words and work on unclenching her death grip on the bar. "I mean, right."

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  "Why don't you try raising your arms and shouting on the way down?" he said. "It's more fun that way. Look, nobody's lined up, we can go around and—"

  "No." Erina noticed her own cold, curt tone and quickly added a warmer, "It's fine, thank you. Rather, I'm more interested in the engineering."

  "The engineering?"

  "It's impressive that these rides are used again and again." She looked up at the coaster behind them as they walked away. "They're designed to stimulate the heart and feel dangerous, when in truth they're designed to be as safe as possible precisely because they seem so dangerous. I think that's interesting."

  "That's a new take on it," said Yuuta. "I'm guessing you're not very amused?"

  "I am."

  He did a small double take. "O-Oh. I thought, since you didn't make a sound, and everything you just said, I figured you might be bored. I guess it wouldn't be that surprising, you must've been through a lot more dangerous things…"

  "The rushing wind, the sound, the pitching—I don't think any human could resist getting a little excited."

  "Huh." Yuuta looked at her face a moment longer, but there was nothing he could read from it. Erina was totally opaque. He just had to assume that was supposed to mean she had fun…?

  The two of them wandered the park, stopping by maps here and there to see what else caught their eye. On Yuuta's suggestion, they opted for the hall of mirrors. Erina's first thought was that it would be easy when she could build a map of it in her head, but she quickly quashed that idea with reminders of how the last two attractions went. Sure enough, she got hopelessly turned around before long. Copies of Erina surrounded her every way she looked, some looking back and others looking around with her. For a moment, it reminded her of Akira's red halls. At least these mirrors were kept in good condition as opposed to vandalized with shards all over the floor.

  "Emisane-san?" Yuuta's voice called out from somewhere else in the maze. "Oh, there you are! I thought we'd lost each—oof!"

  The dull thunk of a face meeting a hard surface rang out all too clear. A trace of a smile flitted across Erina's face for a moment, and then she was back to cautiously picking her way through the labyrinth with one hand extended ahead. The longer she stayed here, the more she kept thinking she saw a stray reflection turning back with the gaze of a certain body-snatching witch in the corner of her eye… wait, no, that was just a stretched-out fun mirror version of herself. Erina didn't realize how long she spent leaning back and forth in front of it, playing with all the goofy ways she could stretch herself out until she heard Yuuta calling for her from the exit.

  The day drew on. The sky took on its proper bright blue hue and the sun rose higher in the sky. More and more people appeared in the park, filling it with lively chatter, childrens' laughter, and the tinny music radiating from the carnival booths now that enough customers were around.

  "…and then he turns to me, and he goes, 'what do you guys mean, questions on the back of the test?'" said Yuuta as they walked along the path, mostly-finished burger in hand.

  "I see." Erina took another small bite of her funnel cake. It was actually pretty funny.

  Yuuta waited, but that was all the reaction she had.

  "Your school life seems very eventful," she said. Her voice quieted as she added, "I envy that."

  "What makes you say that? You still attend school too, right?"

  Erina's footsteps stuttered. A pause that lasted a little too long betrayed the answer before she opened her mouth again. "I work for Akira. I spend each day conducting research, writing reports, and studying outside academia. I wouldn't have time to attend class. And…" She waited a moment longer, and then decided to come out and say it. "You're the first friend I've made from another school—no, from school at all."

  "Oh. Wow. That's, um…" Yuuta felt his cheeks heating up.

  "Takeuchi-san."

  "Y-Yeah? What is it?"

  Erina dropped her wrapper in a nearby garbage can and pointed. "What's that attraction?"

  "Oh, that." The relief was evident in his tone as he sized up the ride in question. "That's the drop tower. But are you sure you want to try it? We just ate."

  "I appreciate your concern. I'll be fine."

  They climbed in and the restraints came down. Erina looked around as the tower crawled up higher and higher. It wasn't quite like the roller coasters. She went higher and higher, further and further away from the ground below.

  "Are we dropping?" she asked. The ride had stopped.

  "Probably not yet," said Yuuta beside her. Sure enough, there was a small bump, and then they resumed their ascent. "I don't think we're going to get any warning—that's part of the fun."

  "This is… exciting," said Erina. "The anticipation of not knowing when we will fall. I wonder if weEEE—"

  Before she knew it, they'd plummeted half the tower in one go. Her hair settling around her, Erina drew a breath and looked around. Her stomach wasn't feeling bad at all. That wasn't so—

  The ride dropped further still and then reversed direction, shaking them up and down. By the time she was back on land, she felt like she understood what it'd be like to become a soda in an oni's hand. She was also trying not to burst like one.

  "Emisane-san, are you really okay?" Yuuta hovered at her side, looking as if he wanted to pat her back but unsure whether that'd be the right move.

  Please don't try to make me respond. Erina waved him away, lips pursed as she held onto the rail and fought to keep her food down. I don't want to open my mouth right now.

  "How are you feeling?" he asked when she finally straightened up on her own.

  Erina took one more deep breath and exhaled. System stabilization complete. Her stomach no longer wanted to eject its contents. "I'm okay."

  "Sorry. I suppose I should've warned you more before we got on…"

  "It was my decision. You're not to blame."

  "Okay. By the way, just now, at the top of the tower… when it came down, did you—?"

  "I did not."

  "…I could've sworn I heard you—"

  "I did not," repeated Erina, in the exact same tone. "You heard someone else. The wind must be playing tricks on you. I did not."

  A bemused smile crossed his face.

  "I did not," she insisted.

  "Okay, I didn't hear anything."