“I can’t believe I’m stuck with a mutt like you.” Akitomo complained as he was led away from the others with Mifuru.

“Normally, I would be destroying you for the constant insults.” Said Mifuru as she literally carried him along. “But the mistress ordered me to also treat you and your partner as allies.”

“Last time I checked, we never asked for that.” He continued his arguing with her, which drew them a fair bit of strange looks from the crowd. Pretty much anyone would think it odd that a girl was carrying what seemed to be a young boy when they didn’t appear to be related. Not to mention that it could hardly be construed as romantic with him yelling the entire time. “And I don’t ever want to consider myself as a possible ally to the likes of you.”

“Listen, will you just be complaining to me, or do you want to check out what these humans call, ‘rides’, around here.”

“Well, Juuto did say that rides are fun to be on.” He quietly admitted. It was already bad enough to have to deal with Marie’s constant teasing, but he really didn’t want the demons to treat him like a child. “And… And I can walk there myself.” At this point, the boy was still being carried by her for no apparent reason other than to embarrass him.

“Sure.” She dropped him without a care of whether the landing wouldn’t hurt him. It did. So after he quickly got up and hastily threw a glare at her, they were able to continue on their way. “I only took you that way to get the mistress and Juuto alone anyway.”

“I see that everyone around here wants them to go make up.” He responded. “I get you, but I don’t see why anyone else wants to care about the demon lord’s personal relationships.”

“I have a hard time explaining it myself.” She replied. “But, she seems to care deeply for that human. And to be honest, I find myself looking at him positively as well.” The girl hadn’t had the best experiences in life with people, so she never thought it was possible for her to have one as a friend. Even if just barely. “Do you not feel the same way?”

“I mean, sure… He’s an okay person.” Akitomo couldn’t deny that it was fun to be able to learn about this place thanks to that man. It was like he was a guide sent to help teach them about the workings of the world they found themselves in. “And, if he’s good with the demon lord again, that means he’ll spend less time with the rest of us.”

“Are you… Jealous?” She asked, but given that this was coming from Mifuru and not say, Marie. It was a question of genuine curiosity and lack of other emotions. Not one in a manner of teasing.

“N-no!” Of course, at this point, the boy had gotten so used to being teased about everything about him. That he immediately went into denial mode and lost composure. It was no wonder he found himself the target of such teasing. “Fine, Juuto’s a fine person and all.” To him, after going around and helping others as a hero all the time on Enatis. It felt like a breath of fresh air to have someone else help him on things. Even if they were nowhere near the same level of danger on most of these cases.

“That’s good we all seem to be on the same page there.” As they had been talking, the pair lined themselves up for one of the rides. It was nice enough that time passed quickly without feeling as if there was much of a wait. The ride they had randomly chosen to go to seemed to be fairly popular, and from the sounds of all the screams passing by them often enough. A rather heart racing ride at that.

“Finally, we’re here.” He commented as they made their way to the front of the line. For the first time in their lives, they were going to learn what it felt to ride in a roller coaster. “Okay, here’s our passes.”

“Sorry kid, but I’ll need you to stand right there.” The person running the booth told him. Akitomo was confused, but did as he was told. “Looks like you’re too short to ride this.” The man pointed over to the cutout of a Robodam, which apparently was the required height one needed to be in order to get on due to safety reasons.

“What!?” He was insulted yet again. “I’ll have you know that I can easily handle riding on here.”

“Sorry, that’s just the rules. I don’t make them, but I gotta follow them.” At this point, the boy was getting a bit upset about this.

“Mifuru.” He attempted to plead with the girl, feeling now what it felt to stoop down to a low level.

“Sorry, but we shouldn’t be causing a scene.” she told him. Disappointed, this was where they separated momentarily as she got on the ride and he walked off to the exit to wait for her. As he sat alone on the best, hearing the cries of those getting the ride of a lifetime. Akitomo had to try his best not to cry.

“Well, how was it?” He asked upon them reuniting.

“Eh.” She shrugged her shoulders in response. While everyone else seemed to have had fun, she didn’t get that heart racing feeling at all. “They even gave me a photo of myself on the ride.” Mifuru handed him the picture, which showed just how deadpan she appeared.

“I totally could’ve ridden on that.” He crossed his arms, still upset about the outcome. “Stupid height requirements.”

Let’s go to a ride that I’m sure they’ll let you on.” While he was initially onboard with that idea, Akitomo quickly lost all enthusiasm as he saw what they lined up for.

“That’s not cool at all.” He commented as they sat inside. It was one of those spinning rides that someone might normally think of those with teacups. But to fit the theme, this one was designed with the heads of popular Robodams instead. “All we’re going to do is spin in circles.”

“Still, at least we both get to ride on it together.” She replied. Then, their ride got started as all the heads started to spin around at a normal safe speed.

“This totally isn’t fun at all.” He said, not feeling the rush that Juuto had described to him.

“We apparently can make it funner at our own pace.” She said, taking note of the others around them spinning the wheel at the middle to spin faster. So the girl did just that as she took hole of the wheel. Perhaps she should’ve asked him if he any speed in mind before beginning. As it turned out, they both had different ideas of what was their limits, and unfortunately for him, she had much higher ones.

“Whoa! Hey wait…” He felt them spinning much faster than before. It was crazy just how much she was able to force out of these machines that there was no way this would be safe for normal humans. At this current rate, even Akitomo questioned if it was safe for someone like him. “Ah! Ah! Ah!” He yelled in fear of his life.

“Sorry.” She realized her mistake, stopping them quickly. However, she stopped them way too quickly that the force of the sudden stop threw him out of the head.

“Ahhh!” Thankfully, the ride had come to its end, but that didn’t stop the pain he felt on falling out at those speeds. The people running the ride rushed over to him in order to check on his health. Admittedly, this was partially out of fear for getting sued by the boy, but there was some worry for his well being.

“Are you all right?” Mifuru asked as he was surrounded by multiple people.

“Owie…” He said quietly, grabbing onto his leg. For there was a pretty bad scrape left on his knee from that tumble.

“Perhaps I was being hypocritical with him…” She muttered to herself, remembering that sled race she had with Asaga. That one ended with her falling head first into snow rather painfully.

“It’s hurts.” He said to the attending staff. According to them, it would be best for the boy to be brought to the medical room as soon as possible.

“I can carry him.” Without a moment’s hesitation, Mifuru picked him up, princess style in front of the entire crowd. “Just lead the way.”

“Wait, you don’t have to carry me. I can walk there myself...” Akitomo felt all eyes on them as she carried him, ignoring the boy’s words. It was so embarrassing that this happened in front of all these people. That the boy’s face couldn’t possibly get any redder from shame.