“Spooky,” Eve said, curious but also unsettled slightly. “What is it?”

“Metroid,” Penny responded while keeping her eyes on the cabinet. “It’s, like, one of the top Nintendo series. You play as a bounty hunter shooting aliens, and you can turn into a ball and roll around.”

“You turn into a ball?” Eve asked Penny, as if unsure of what she had just heard.

“Yeah,” Penny responded matter-of-factly. “You have to roll around to go through tunnels and stuff.”

Eve stopped for a moment as she imagined the two of them turning into balls and rolling through Akihabara together, narrowly avoiding traffic and accidentally knocking over flyer maids.

“It’s so weird that this machine is here,” Penny said, feeling the fabric of the curtain as she looked at it uncertainly. “Metroid is a big adventure game. It’s normally on consoles. There was a pinball game but that was just on 3DS.”

Eve was still thinking about them rolling around as balls.

Penny found the opening in the curtain and entered, finding a single stool within. Eve came to her senses and followed after, standing a bit behind and to the right of Penny, who was already sitting. Eve had to hunch over a bit to stop her head from hitting the cabinet’s low ceiling.

The cabinet’s title screen was, again, very similar to the NES title screen, but rendered in contemporary polygon graphics. The background was a black space scene with bright white stars, with a hint of alien green ground at the bottom. With the black curtain wrapped around them, Eve felt fully immersed in the game’s world.

Penny put her phone away and slotted in a 100-yen coin (these machines were expensive). The girls watched as a small figure, who was dressed in a white spacesuit with black and gold details, headed from left to right. The figure was rendered with enough polygons and such fluid animation that, despite its tiny size onscreen, it appeared to be a real person.

Flutter by Autechre played over the cabinet’s speakers. The figure stopped in the middle of the screen, and, still facing right, removed its helmet, revealing Penny’s face, though this Penny didn’t have her glasses on. The Penny in the game then turned her head to look directly at the Penny on the stool, and gave her a small but friendly smile, as if inviting her into the world onscreen.

“Why does she look like me?” Penny asked, weirded out; her voice trembled ever so slightly.

“It must be a coincidence,” Eve said reassuringly, despite also being weirded out.

Penny put her hands on the controls, made up of a black joystick and two red buttons. She then controlled the Penny in the game, moving her right past the title screen.

Dropping from the sky on the next screen were regular high school students, some of which Penny felt like she recognised from their clothes. They weren’t wearing spacesuits, and their faces were smeared with black shadow. When they landed on the ground, they died instantly.

Penny pressed one of the buttons to jump over the bodies. So far it seemed like the other button didn’t do anything.

“When do you turn into a ball?” Eve asked, clearly unsettled but trying to brighten the mood.

“I don’t know,” Penny said. “It’s usually the first thing you get in these games.”

A hole was coming up. Penny tried to jump over it, and felt like she could’ve easily passed over the opening, but something prevented her from moving forward and the onscreen Penny dropped straight down.

The screen went completely black, and Penny simply sat there, her hands on the controls as she stared unblinkingly at the monitor. She was sweating, and found she didn’t want to play anymore.

Eve noticed Penny’s breathing had suddenly become labored. Confused and concerned for her, she gently pried Penny’s hands away from the controls and helped her out through the curtains. Penny breathed deeply as if tasting air for first time in hours.

“What happened?” Eve asked. “Did the game glitch?”

“I don’t know,” Penny said between audible breaths. “Were you recording?”

Eve put her fingers to her mouth in shock. “I forgot!”

She glanced over at the cabinet. “Should we try again, so we can get it on video?”

Penny looked at the cabinet as if fearful its shadowy black surfaces would swallow her whole.

“We got the vid of you boxing,” she said nervously. “We can put that online instead.”

“Sure,” Eve said cheerfully. “I can’t wait for everyone to see what we’re up to.”

Penny felt like she needed to sit down, so she told Eve that maybe now was a good time to check out that maid café. They took the elevator down to street-level, entering into the spectacle of Akiba at night.

The billboards and store signs, whether small or absolutely massive, were lit brightly against the dark, overcast sky. It was raining a bit more noticeably, but not enough to deter the girls from further adventures in the city. Penny found the raindrops refreshing after spending so much time in the sweaty arcade, and she was able to breathe the night air much more easily.

The bright signs and billboards were reflected in the shallow puddles over the sidewalks and roads, turning the ground into an abstract vision of light and colour. The flyer girls were still lined up, though now all of them were holding umbrellas.

Eve looked at the flyer they had been handed as raindrops dotted its surface. After a bit of guesswork, the girls followed the flyer’s small map to a building with seven floors, each with its own maid café, with large signs featuring the maids running up and down the building.

“Even if it’s not the right place, it doesn’t change the fact we’re going to a maid café!” Eve said to Penny with a big smile.

“This could be where you meet your future wife,” Penny said teasingly.

Eve playfully covered her face with the flyer in embarrassment.

The girls climbed the exposed stairs, which were lit with green lights. The café entrance on the second floor was pink and frilly, while the entrance to the third-floor maid café was much blacker, hinting at something more gothic. Penny and Eve entered, and were cheerfully greeted by a maid at the front counter.

The maids here were dressed in black & pink, and their otherwise traditional outfits were adorned with contemporary touches like stylish chokers and platform shoes wrapped in chains. Eve showed the counter maid the large “10%” printed on the flyer, and the counter maid nodded and proceeded to charge Penny and Eve the entrance fee, which permitted them 30 minutes in the café.

They were startled by the sound of another maid greeting them in English, this one appearing before them as if from a hidden panel. Eve greeted her back in Japanese, though Penny kept accidentally speaking in English when she meant to be practicing the simple Japanese phrases they had been learning.

The maid led them to their small circular table near the back. The café had customers at its other five tables, all of them young women, which relieved Penny a bit, as she had been anticipating a creepier atmosphere. The customers ranged from office workers still in their business attire to the types of girls who would be in a maid café in Akihabara – meaning, girls much like Penny and Eve. These latter girls had shopping bags with them filled with BL manga and detailed figures of their favourite anime characters.

Penny and Eve’s maid gave them English menus, and explained some of the options in English, such as how the omurice came with a personalised message written in ketchup. Eve noted how the picture depicted two cats made of rice tucked into an omelet blanket. The maid told her that that was right, and Eve ordered the omurice.

Penny felt like she wanted more time to look at the menu, but since Eve had ordered so suddenly, she went with the fluffy-looking white pancake with strawberries that also came with a personalised message. The café had a mandatory drink order, so Penny selected a carbonated orange drink. Eve went with coffee; back home their time zone had just entered early morning.

The maid left with their orders, and Penny and Eve looked around, admiring the café’s smaller details, such as black & white stuffed animals set on bracket shelves. There was also framed artwork done in black ballpoint pen of secret mermaid lairs and crumbling towers in dark forests, apparently done by a local artist.

In the back of the café was a small stage, its lights off. Penny and Eve wondered what it could be for.

“Are you feeling better?” Eve asked with a smile. The question surprised Penny, as she assumed they had an unspoken agreement not to comment on what had happened in the arcade.

“I feel great,” Penny responded. She didn’t mean the words, but did wish for them to be true.

The maid returned with their orders. Penny requested “I (heart) Akiba” as her personalised message, which the maid wrote with chocolate syrup, and Eve followed by requesting “I (heart) maids” in ketchup on her omurice. The maid then made a heart shape with her hands, and taught Penny and Eve how to do the same, though Penny couldn’t get it right. The maid then made a combined heart shape by putting her hand to Eve’s and then Penny’s.

“Maybe she’ll be my wife,” Eve joked to Penny after the maid left.

“She might be too old for you,” Penny said, somewhat seriously.

Penny and Eve then took pictures of their food even though the café had “No Photos” signs up on the walls. Before putting away their phones, they noted that it was almost 8PM. They then ate their food, frequently commenting on how delicious it was.

8PM hit, and the lights in the café dimmed, confusing them. The stage was then lit an atmospheric blue mixed with faint white polka dots. An announcement played over the PA system in Japanese, and three maids stepped onto the stage from the side, each waving to the customers with bright smiles. The trio took up their positions, striking magical girl poses while staring forward.

The trio then sprung into a dance routine at the exact instant a song played over the PA: Chemz by Burial. The dance was playful but precise, with each and every movement in its right place.

The maid in the middle flicked knowing glances at Eve, though Eve wondered if she was simply imagining it. Neither Penny nor Eve could shake the feeling that she was strangely familiar.

They then realised it was the flyer girl.