The Corona's Madness

Staring at the machine, Shinya was in a bit of awe at all the colors that danced across the screen. As Saraiyu pointed out, there were a method to the colors' madness and after studying it for a few moments alongside her explanation, Shinya was able to figure out what to do. "Seems easy enough.." He mumbled as he stepped up onto the pad and waited for the game to begin.

Shinya soon found that concept and execution were two entirely different entities as he wasn't doing as well as he hoped at the outset. Struggling to keep up with the arrows and hitting them dead on, Shinya may not have looked like he was having that much trouble and was just an intermediate player. But to him, he was frustrated and knew he should be doing better than this. He was quick, he was nimble, yet this game was causing him issues! Well.. he figured it'd be training for later battles.

Small glances told her how well Shinya was doing and while he was doing admirably... It still wasn't anywhere near the Corona's level of skill. She absolutely destroyed the high score, getting perfects, her feet and body moving perfectly in time. There were a few people gathered around her, cheering as she danced, smiling and laughing along with her.

With one final flourish and barely breathing hard, she stepped down as the scores were tallying up. Moving to Shinya, she pulled a bit of his white hair gently and couldn't help laughing. "You'll get better if you want to play more, practice really does make perfect. You should come with me often and get experience."

Shinya knew he shouldn't be upset, but he couldn't help it. He knew she had more practice than him but he still wanted to win! "Tch.." Was all that came out his mouth as he glanced away, blushing at his defeat.

Giving himself a minute to pull himself together, Shinya began to speak. "..It was fun though, harder than it looks." He admitted with a sigh, shaking his head. "So anything else you recommend, Saraiyu?"

Glancing around the arcade, he knew it'd take him a few trips to make his rounds on all the games, but for now he wanted to know what his Corona's favorites are so he can get good at them and not drag her down.

He was so amusing! She couldn't help laughing and patting his head more. Such a little firecracker of hidden feelings. "There there. Plot your revenge and grow great so you may challenge me once again. Its how we do things, remember."

"Well you may have tastes different from me... So I suppose there is nothing to do but play all the games and figure out which ones you like more." Saraiyu placed a finger on her lip and looked up as she spoke. If she had known his thoughts, she might have patted the Tricera more. He was such a sweetheart. Rather loyal too.

"They have a few that you can win physical prizes for... They also have fighting games, where you control a fighter and face someone. Like those. Also there are 'racing' games, where you can pretend to drive one of those vehicles you were so surprised by. My two absolute favorites we tried so now you get to pick. There are others too, ones where you try to place objects and win points."

Shinya hmm'd, then wandered off to try some of the other games. He first gravitated to the race car games and decided to try them out. He wasn't sure if Saraiyu was gonna follow him over there or not, but he wanted to make a decision and go for it. The game itself had a seat, some pedals and a wheel to turn. He watched other players play for a bit before attempting it himself.

"So if I got this right, one of these foot things makes it go while another makes it stop. I turn this to move it left or right.." After reviewing with himself and getting a few chuckles from passerbys, Shinya stuck the coins in the machine and started up the game.

Saraiyu stayed near Shinya, unobtrusively allowing him to figure out what he wanted to do while also pretending to watch other games as if she was unsure of what she wanted to do next. When a spot opened up in the racing game, Sarai followed the young looking arrancar and plopped into the seat next to him with a rather bouncy chest. She put a few coins in, selected her track and then spoke to Shinya.

"Pretty much. Its rather easy in some ways. However be careful, the seats and such vibrate. It can be distracting." With ease of practice, Sarai stretched out her arms and took hold of the wheel. She wasn't really any good at these games but she smiled anyways. It was his turn to choose their fun, so she could go with whatever he wanted.

A green light and waving flag came up as it was time to drive, and Sarai's grin turned to a predator smile. Oh yess.

From what Shinya understood, the object of the game was to go as fast as possible and finish before anyone else. But when Saraiyu sat down in a neighboring seat, he knew this was gonna be insane. Welp, no point in crying about losing! Shinya didn't know what to expect out of this game aside from the Corona's mention that the seats vibrate. Odd. Why would the seats vibrate?

Either way, green meant go as all the cars zoomed off the moment the light hit green and the flag waved. Gunning the gas pedal, Shinya joined them, shooting off like a bat outta hell. This.. this wasn't half bad! All he had to do was follow the road like he saw the others doing and it was good. Already he was catching up and passing the other players thanks to his superior reflexes and it seemed as if he was a natural at driving.. if you could call that driving. He was smashing into other vehicles and knocking them out the way in his innocent fun.

And fun was he having. He also kinda forgot that Saraiyu was playing and was treating her the same way also unknowingly. But, by time the race ended, he had came in third place! "Third huh? Well I am the tricera so that's fine with me!" Shinya smiled.

Saraiyu came in dead last and she grinned at Shinya as she pointed. It may have been due to the fact that she spends most of the driving games attempting to crash the cars, unwillingly. It wasn't that she was a bad driver, it was just she didn't care what happened. She barely followed the road, and sometimes she had caused major pile ups while laughing. There were rarely times when she lasted more than a few seconds on the road before a fireball of death erupted.

Still the Tricera was being adorably happy and she withheld the wish to pat his head like she did when Elly got excited. "Third is a respectable showing. At least one of us can beat these blasted games. Soon you will be number one on the racing games. I'll just...cheer you on from the side in that case."

"I think I am going to play the claw game, I wish to bring back one of those fluffy balls for Sofie. She may like it, it looks like a plant." Standing, she swept her hair to the side as she pointed. "If you want to see how they work you can go ahead or try some other games on your own."

Shinya shrugged to himself and followed Saraiyu over to one of the prize machines to see what they do. He watched someone else mess with one of the machines for a bit before deciding that he didn't care too much about these type of games and went over to one of the fighting games. This one seemed a bit more complex than the previous games, so he took his time to study the way the guys moved and what buttons they pressed to get what effects.

"Hmm.. looks tough." Shinya spoke as he put his coins into the machine. He wasn't sure what character did what, so he chose one that looked interesting. "Sol.. Badguy? Is he a bad person?"

The other player just laughed at him and chose his character. Once the battle began, it was over before he knew it. The other player didn't let him get a hit in edgewise and it was really frustrating! "Haha, noob!" The guy sneered as Shinya walked away, determined not to let himself be angry.

Saraiyu focused intently on that little floofy leaf ball, moving the claw slowly but inexorably towards it. Her first try failed, but the only sign of anger was a slight twitch of her eye brows as she put more coins in for the second. Within seconds the ball was in her arms as she moved over to find Shinya, grinning as she watched him.

An arm shot out. Grabbing the rather rude kid by the collar, the tall amazon-like woman didn't even blink as she lifted him off the ground. Holding him up to eye level and with a small frown, she peered at him. "That was rude. Apologize to my little brother."

Sarai looked nothing like Shinya, but as she flipped the young man's body around, she would brook no argument.

Shinya was just looking around for a new game to play when the guy from before approached him. "Uh hey.." He spoke, glancing behind him at Saraiyu briefly.

"Yes? What do you want?" Shinya replies calmly, crossing his arms. Honestly this guy was the last person he wanted to see again.

"Well uh.. heh hehe.. Umm s-sorry for saying w-what I did, alright?" The guy stammered out, then beat a hasty retreat away from the amazonian girl and the albino young man.

Shinya watched him go, then walked over to meet Saraiyu. "You didn't have to do that, I can take a little name-calling no problem." He says a little crossly, looking away for a moment. He then stares up at her and smiles a little, "Thanks though.."

Saraiyu smiled. There, that was much better. Young humans should be in awe and fear, not rude and obnoxious. Shinya was her third strongest out of all her followers... He deserved some measure of respect even if they had no idea. It might be odd or ridiculous of her to think this, but honestly she cared not at all. They would do it, she willed this.

"I did what I wanted to do. Maybe I can't handle name-calling." With that same smile, she patted Shinya's white hair. "You'll get better if you enjoy those, Elly made me practice and not destroy the machines. Those first few arcades will never let us back in..."

"Now... if you want to stay in here and play things we can. But there are some other sights you should see, less modern ones to be fair."

"Oh? Less modern sights to see? Sure, let's go. After all.. this.. arcade will be around for a while, yes?" Shinya replied as he pocketed the remaining coins for later fun. "By the way.. how DO I get more of these coins? And that paper you gave me earlier to get the coins?"

Shinya seemed to be in a good mood again after noting that his Corona does look out for him, despite his naivete. "So where are we going, anyway?" He asked as he headed for the arcade exit.

"Its called money, and I have a bit stashed away. I can send you some of this country's currency and show you how to use it properly later." Sarai waved off the arcade staying around, heading out of the door and into the nearby alleyway. Shinya could follow or be left behind, though she was making sure to not leave him... "Its possible it could burn down accidentally... But doubtful. There are others though, don't worry."

"I'll tell you in a minute. Its best to be surprised~. Here, lose the gigai. It'll hold us down." One garganta was opened, deep in the back and dark where no one was looking. Sarai pushed her soul out of the object, caught the body and tossed it in the first garganta to a thrall standing there waiting.

"Oh.. Okay.." Shinya had followed her no problem and when she told him to lose the gigai, he nodded and hopped out of his. It was still weird that she had one made without him knowing about it, but thems the breaks. He placed it inside and nodded to Saraiyu. He wondered if Arcades burning down was a common thing, but pushed those thoughts aside as he stretched a bit. It feels more right being in spirit form to him.

Saraiyu was always prepared. For things. Like human world shenanigans. Those she assumed didn't have gigais, had gigais she made just in case she wanted to bother them. She didn't find it creepy at all, considering she wasn't molesting the gigais.

Back to her usual outfit, the Corona played with her chain hanging from her nose and opened another garganta as the first closed. "Now lets see... Which one was currently... Aha!"

Stepping out into the void that was gargantaness, she made a platform for them both as she continued walking. The end would open next to a volcano spewing lava, which Sarai seemed fascinated with. She moved to get close to the lava, despite the heat. Could spirits feel heat? Could they die from lava? Who knows! "They don't have these in hueco mundo, but I want one."

Shinya absently wondered where she was taking him this time as he entered the Garganta, only to emerge above a live volcano. Now these he's only heard of in stories but never saw one actually. So to see one up close was quite the treat! "Waaah..!" Shinya gasped as he listened to his Corona speak. "Volcanoes! I've never gotten to see one in person before!"

"They're said to be very hot.. but I doubt our spirit forms would be affected. Now if we were still in Gigais that'd be different." Shinya comments as he stares down at the wonder of nature. Maybe.. maybe he might dive into it.. but what about his clothing? Wouldn't they burn off? That's probably the only thing stopping him at this point.

"You could try jumping right in." Saraiyu laughed and stuck her arm into the flow. It came out fine with none of her clothing altered. She really wanted one of these for real in her realm. How could she get one? It'd be almost impossible...

His surprised yell had made her grin once again and she was so pleased with his enthusiasm. "We need one in Hueco Mundo. I'd say a bit between my tower and the Castillo Oscuro. That could be fun... We could have Hierro races down the flows. Do you have any ideas on how to make a volcano by chance?"

"Oh! Our clothes are unaffected!" Shinya exclaims upon watching Saraiyu plunge her arm into the molten lava and come out with unsinged clothes. That was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of restraint as he eagerly dove into the lava, going under. A few seconds later he emerged, shaking bits of lava out of his hair. "Ahh.. this heat.. it's like a really hot bath.."

Shinya pursed his lips in thought as he thought about how to make lava. "From.. what I understand, it should be rocks pushed to the melting point.. Sooo, if we generate enough heat around those areas we should be able to maintain it in Hueco Mundo." He explained, letting some of the magma run through his fingers. "So we just need something to generate massive amounts of heat to melt rocks into lava."

"Considering I have no idea how spiritual beings interact with physical objects in the first place it seems like it runs on what we WANT to do. If you don't want your clothes or don't think it will, it seems to not." Saraiyu smirked at Shinya's antics, rather amused. She spent a lot of time in her baths in her tower... She wouldn't stop him at all.

But she continued on after listening to his words. "We do, we also need the mountain part as well. Otherwise whats the point? And if it was in Hueco Mundo we wouldn't be able to do this. I would love to have punishment Hierro races for those who are bad down the lava flows."


(OOC: Yeaaah no matter what I look at in canon it seems to run on Whatever the fuck you want, if you are strong enough to interact in the first place. UGh. So just... I guess we accept this?)