Shiro-san’s return gift—her doing exactly what I had done and whispering those three words a hundred times—packed a truly devastating punch.
Even now that she was finished, my head felt light. I nearly forgot where I was for a moment, but I gave my head a quick shake to snap back to reality.
"Anyway, could you restore the gondola's speed?"
"It has already been restored, has it not?"
"Eh? Oh, you're right."
A considerable amount of time had passed for us, but for the rest of the world, barely a second had ticked by. It seemed she had already released the time she’d been stretching out.
Looking out the window, the scenery was indeed moving again. Time was flowing normally once more. Judging by the view, however, we hadn't traveled far from the boarding platform. It must have only just started moving again a moment ago.
"Wait..."
"Is something wrong?"
"Ah, no... I just feel like something's a bit off. Hmm."
I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but the view below was strange. Since the gondola overlooked the festival grounds, I could see crowds of people, but they all seemed to be staring at us—or rather, up at the sky. Some were even kneeling in prayer, and I thought I saw a few people wiping away tears. Was I just imagining things?
I followed their collective gaze toward the heavens, but I didn't see anything unusual. Perhaps some fireworks or something had gone off while I was busy flirting with Shiro-san.
"Well, it's probably nothing. Regardless, since we're here, why don't we enjoy the view?"
"Good idea. By the way, Kaito-san, I’ve just realized something..."
"Yeah?"
"We haven't kissed yet."
"Excuse me?"
I had no idea why, but I knew for certain she’d started saying something bizarre again. I was genuinely baffled—at what point had a kiss entered the conversation? There was zero connection to anything we had been discussing!
"I see. Your confusion is perfectly reasonable," she said.
"Right? We were talking about the scenery! That was way too sudden, don't you think!?"
"It was."
"..."
"..."
She wasn't going to explain herself, nor was she going to try to bridge the gap naturally. She simply agreed with me and moved on. Wait, what was happening now? Where was this going?
"Kaito-san."
"Yes?"
"We still haven't kissed."
She was brute-forcing it! This Goddess wasn't even going to bother with excuses, logic, or persuasion—she was just going to steamroll her request through! I mean, I could sort of guess how we reached this point. We’d just spent a long time confessing our love, so the mood had been perfect, and she was trying to capitalize on it... but her being this pushy about it completely shattered the romance!
"Wait, the scenery stopped again!?"
This was definitely that. It felt like this ride wouldn't move an inch until I gave her what she wanted.
Serious-senpai: "Second helpings of romance?"
???: "Looks like I’ll be having seconds of stomach pain, too..."