Charles Patricius

Ai offered further insight into her way of life, effectively painting herself as less of a shut-in and more a victim of early onset mundanity. If he'd been working since age eight, he'd probably be sick of responsibilities and the like too. "That actually sounds pretty annoying. Can't blame anybody for locking themselves indoors and shutting down after that. I couldn't bring myself to settle though. Still, I totally get the unwinding. I had a three-year adventure through the desert once, and even I didn't leave home for a week after getting back. Basically, I 'sort of' get it," he replied. Hydraulic presses and apple butter were not things he could recall comparable experiences from, but not everything had to be relatable. At times, not relating fully was how bonds were made. One example could be found in Ai's alleged technical knowhow, which Kazu couldn't call himself an expert in... though he was apparently nowhere near Kaguya's very low level in that regard either. "I'll probably need that. Word around town is that DMMORPG tech is almost done. I'm more into cards than video games, but... I can't turn down the thought of being out there on adventures without the looming threat of death and maiming. That just sounds awesome. I'll look your way if it releases and is unnecessarily complex to set up~" he agreed.

The question of the ages may have been a simple matter of seeking Kazuhiko's detailed factoids. Was there anything noteworthy about him besides trading cards, school and adventuring? Frankly, he could hardly think of a thing. "Would it bore you if I said... not really?" he asked while still contemplating the question. "I'd say doing cool stuff, but I'm not sure I'd even count that. That's something I want for everyone. Getting better at things, rising to new challenges ─ all that stuff sounds too basic for an answer. Honestly, I think I'm just a boring guy. If I had a great story, it'd probably be one of those weird ones. You know, like... I'm the protagonist, but acting as the narrator. All the awesome stuff would be about the people I hang out with. Given what I've seen of everyone so far, stick around and you'll get a chapter~" he joked.

It would seem her explanation helped Kazuhiko understand her a bit better. Her job, while introducing her to one of her favorite people and technically her entire group of friends, had made her mentally age a lot faster than everyone else. Being responsible for someone else was indeed quite draining and she was glad she didn't simply look like a slouch. "Three years in a desert and you only took a week for yourself? That's kind of amazing, but I suppose some people go stir crazy pretty easily~" she mused as they approached the theme park. "Still I'm glad you get it. It's good to take a bit of time, and just eat and relax maybe catch up, depending on all the other stuff you have going on~" she expressed of herself. It wasn't at all uncommon for Ai to invite the other girls over to her place for pizza and chats just so she didn't have to leave the comfort of her own bed. Meanwhile, her offering of technical knowhow was met with an interest in the suppose DMMORPG theoretical setups. "That would likely be a complex set up, though if someone like Kaiba Seto is where it starts, I assume it wouldn't be too terrible. Still, I'd help out," she said happily. She was always willing to lend a hand to her less tech savvy friends.

Moving on, she'd asked a bit about Kazuhiko mostly to see if there was anything missing from her understanding. Miko spoke highly of him, and so did Kaguya for not knowing him very long, but what the lad had to say about himself was most interesting. He claimed there wasn't much more to him than she already understood and wondered if it was boring. He went on to explain himself in the form of a trope which he obviously thought was odd. "Sou ka," she said thinking about his words for a few seconds before responding. "I don't think that makes you boring," she offered whimsically. "If anything, I'd say it makes you more interesting. There's a trope associated with that kind of protagonist and you seem to fit the bill pretty well. Definitely a story with binging~" she stated cheekily. "Also that was pretty smooth of you, just slipping that compliment in there like that. I'm still flattered you think the random shut-in might be worth a whole chapter. Arigatou, Kazu-tan~" she offered the lad happily. Soon enough they would find themselves in line to get into the theme park and Ai was scanning the park with a bit of happiness in her eyes. It was odd, going out on a date with someone her own age who also seemed so down to earth, the was uniquely humanizing as an experience.

Indeed, Charlemagne was one who could only sit idly for one week after three years of laboring. He had his reasons for that, though. "Well yeah. But by then, I had already been adventuring for a few hundred years. Even after a thousand, there's so much world left to see that I just have to get back out there!" he announced excitedly. As for the idea of a DMMORPG releasing, Ai brought the name of Kaiba Seto into the discussion. Kazu had his own opinions about that as well. "I have uh... been hoping Industrial Illusions gets it done first... because reasons," he said. In truth, that company being the first to produce the technology would be the easiest route to entering Age of Eternity in its various forms. Kazuhiko always thought that would be the easiest route to seeing his favorite trading card figures realized... though he supposed that was now unnecessary. Hell, the card he appreciated most was his... mother-in-law. That was something else to come to terms with.

While they waited in line for the theme park, Kazu explained his boring self in the best way possible. In response, Ai mentioned a trope associated with such theoretical protagonists in books and the like, claiming he was made more interesting for that outlook. Kazu didn't have much point of reference, but he always enjoyed the idea of being cool in any way. "Eheh... maybe I wouldn't talk about binging that story. It sounds a little... y'know..." he muttered. Kazu had been on quite the tear lately, and still hadn't fully exited that sex-crazed state. Hearing something like that, he took it as a very provocative statement. Regarding his words toward her, they were fated for a disagreement on two fronts. "I wasn't just slipping in a compliment, and a chapter would be light work. First impressions say you could fill a trading card, and those can be up to three paragraphs by themselves," he explained. "Besides, it's not like being a shut-in means you can't be awesome. Well, as long as you're not asking the old folks."

Apparently there was quite a bit of wanderlust applied to Kazuhiko when he was Charlemagne. She watched the lad discuss something he was passionate about and could only appreciate him more for his outlook. There were many different types of people in the world and she couldn't help but find his excitement endearing beyond normal reason. It was definitely obvious to her in this moment why Miko enjoyed his company and how she'd gotten so attached while in the other world. "Sou ka, I envy that type of energy. Though I can always be pulled out of the house for the sake of my own curiosity, I usually leave that kind of excitement to the others..." she said knowing her place within their group dynamic already. Moreover as they talked over technical things, it seemed that Kazuhiko wished for Industrial Illusions to get the jump on the DMMORPG if only for 'reasons'. A cheeky smirk came to her face as she gave him a playful side eye, "Ara? You know you say that like most people call the sketchy things in their browser history, research... Kazu-tan~" she said teasing him gently and hinting that even without specifics she had a pretty good idea of what he wanted out of such an endeavor.

Regardless there was something of a nervous chuckle and talks about how he wouldn't talk about binging the sort of story he had going on currently. There was a certain deviousness appearing in Ai's visage as she leaned forward to look into his face as they stood in line. "Oh? I've definitely written lines like that before... those are the words of the secret hentai in a smutty fanfic~" she whispered cheekily. "Not to worry though, in the spirit of honesty... I will admit to having been around for a thousand or more years myself and I was a married shut-in for all of that time so... yeah, you don't have to worry about that sort of thing around me, Kazu-tan~" she admitted easily. Her own life was likely just the opposite of his in a technical sense. She was starting her adventure, after a life of sex and learning. As they progressed he mentioned her as a trading card, "That sounds like an extra high compliment, given how stoked you were about teaching us the TCG earlier. Teaching us like that was really cool of you, by the way. Girls don't often get to just have fun with stuff like that, without a lot of ulterior motives or snide commentary. You were great for that as an introductory experience..." she offered earnestly. She also took a great deal of solace in the idea that her being a shut-in didn't mean she wasn't awesome. Solomon had told her such, but after getting to know him finding her quirks so personable was near expected. This new guy appreciating her and all her odd flaws while not being weird about it was simply refreshing. Speaking of refreshing, by the time they got near the front Ai had out her phone, ready to pay for their tickets to get in, after all... it was her idea.

On this theme park date, both parties seemed to have cause for envy. Ai spoke of the energy that allowed Kazu to express such wanderlust, but Kazu somewhat wished he could tolerate being more of a shut-in from time to time. In a world ruled by magic, perhaps they would passively help each other in those regards. No matter; that wasn't presently worth much thought. Kazu was busy trying to avoid discussing one of his few degenerate thoughts from his original human life. Alas, it wasn't working. "Hey, research is important too! Research and reasons are completely valid... uh... things! Yeah!" he said. It seemed Kazu wasn't trying to hide himself per se, yet he made light of the situation and moved on without hesitation.

Ah, but what was he moving toward? Another, similar topic. The way he'd taken Ai's previous statement was likened to the behavior of a closet pervert... which he technically fit the bill for now. "Well, honestly, my life is kind of playing out like one of those now. Technically two wives and a... list of other experiences lately, a twin sister I'm not related to who's having my kid without any of the... kid-making... process," he explained. The more Kazu told that story, the more ridiculous it all sounded in his own head. He still had quite a few things to come to terms with, after all. "Anyway, not important! Good to have someone else in the millennium club. And, yeah, I guess that could be a compliment. Nothing to worry about with the game, either. Everyone should be able to enjoy stuff. Though... admittedly I just get a little tunnel vision when stuff like that is involved, so a lot of thoughts I have otherwise just didn't show up. It might have been a little douchebag-y otherwise. . ."

A giggle was escaping Ai. Upon being teased and having the likeness of his statements and those of general degeneracy compared, Kazuhiko doubled down on defending both things. It was simply a hilarious moment for Ai as she realized exactly how normal and funny such a situation could be. "Hehehe~ Dug deep for that one I see..." she commented almost absent-mindedly. Of course, she wasn't the type to hold it against him and overall as far as dates were concerned this one was already shaping up to be quite interesting.

It only became more interesting as a confession of sorts came from more teasing. It would appear that Kazuhiko had at least a reasonable understanding of his situation an dhow it would play out, "Sou ka, isekai harem protag, makes sense~" she claimed as if none of what he had to say broke any deals. The truth was, Ai had a more complete understanding than many, and her emotional balancing was already past the point of not understanding the nature of romantic relationships. But that also made sense as such a place was where she'd started her journey. "You'll find that some things are easier to understand the deeper you go into them~" Ai clarified for the sake of helping his mentality. He still seemed quite young emotionally to have already lived a millennia, but also seemed to be coming to terms with the altered trajectory of his life, even though he still didn't fully understand but that was also fine. She had spoilers and enough knowhow to make sure he understood the details he needed to. Just the same she moved forward and used her phone to pay for two wristbands which would allow them to ride multiple rides and enjoy the park in general while they were present. She'd hand the lad his to be affixed to his wrist while casually speaking on his more endearing qualities. "Iia, I don't think it would have been douchbag-y at all. In truth, I think the tunnel vision is quite endearing as a trait. I like watching people be happily into things they enjoy. I've seen more cool showings of that since coming back here than I managed to observe in my whole life before," she claimed with a smirk. "Now, with the whole park in front of us, and my only requirement being an eventual look from the Ferris Wheel, what strikes your fancy, Kazu-tan?" she asked of the lad.

"Pretty deep, yeah. About a whole centimeter," Kazu replied. As with most things recently, he was very quick to abandon any notion of salvation. The more he tried that before, the stranger things became. It only made sense to preemptively collapse under the oddities and salvage some amount of normalcy as a result. One way his life could be understood was soon spoken by Ai. His existence had become that of a harem protagonist from some modern light novel. It had taken a very long time to reach this point, but he was quickly spiraling down the path of degeneracy.

Kazu wouldn't run from that lifestyle now; not anymore. Since reconciling the matter with Angelica, he'd reached a new level of acceptance. Some discussion still had to occur with Sakura, but that surely wouldn't be so awkward at its base. In detail, though... well, that was always a different story with the purple-haired goddess. Apart from those matters, Ai disagreed with the douchebag nature of Kazu's thoughts. Once more, they would have to disagree. "It doesn't feel any less wrong regardless. It's like... thinking of something, but not acting on it the way the thought appears ─ does that really change what it was from the start? That's the sort of thing I keep wondering. In my head, I'm just doing stuff ─ no consent, no discussion. That whole thing with Totsuka-chan earlier... I took it at pace to be fair, but in my head, she'd already been bent and twisted a thousand different ways before she could even respond," he explained. It felt a bit strange for Kazuhiko to be on a date and discussing recent sexual escapades, but it felt stranger still to admit anything he'd already considered with Ai herself. The lesser of two evils had been chosen. "But, I agree. Seeing people get really into something is more awesome than anything else. That's why I had the tunnel vision. You guys all looked like you were starting to enjoy the game, and I wanted to enable that even more if I could." Realizing he was starting a tangent, Kazu cleared his throat. A question was posed about his interests at this theme park, so as he donned that entry bracelet, he looked ahead and considered some things. "Well if you're not pressed for time, there's only one answer, right? We do it all! If we're running short on time, we just have to make sure we get in line for the Ferris Wheel. Sound cool?"

A centimeter deep. That was a very shallow search for his justification for his 'bad' behavior. Ai could do nothing but laugh more at his current words. He seemed to accept the idea that he was an isekai harem protagonist, which meant he was almost well off enough to completely understand. Still, Ai knew that there were some things that could only be fully understood from the shared human condition. Ah, and he even had questions seemingly philosophical in nature and Ai heard out all of his points seeming to understand how he got to them, his example of his dealings with Totsuka Chika were included in his understanding of his own actions and she could actually commiserate quite a bit with his current state. She'd shared it once, almost a thousand years ago. "I understand your points... I am in a unique situation to understand that part... " she said thinking back on her own experiences. "Consent for people like us, aligned with creation... is given at a spiritual level. It's always a bit difficult to get used to when you were raised as a normal human and just going with it, feels unnatural because of human morality. Still the fact that you make the considerations is important. How you act regardless of what is in your head, is the most important," she said honestly. "Admittedly, Chi-tan is the type to go along with her natural inclinations, her first decision being the one she goes with... consent for those types is acknowledged with their initial desires. You've spent a great deal of time as friends with her twin brother so you fully understand the whimsical nature of those types already," Ai mentioned.

Moving on from that point, she had one more thing to say and it was a bit cheeky. She was also aligned as a 'God of Creation' even though her initial life lived as a human. Still, she'd become very aware of her own inclinations and all the echoes between connected souls. "Also, I'm the Creator aligned one of our group too," she said leaving him to piece together the fact that she could at least a bit feel his desires towards her, whether he spoke of them directly or not. It seemed that Kazuhiko and Ai found themselves a point to stand on. They agreed that watching people get really into something was fun, She found that fairly endearing as a quality, even if he claimed it wsa the reason for his actions in helping them. "That's quite endearing. We had a good time playing, a TCG had been on our list of things we wanted to try, so an opening to do so was exciting. And then you were super supportive. You definitely did a great job enabling our fun~" she expressed of their combined fun. And then there was the matter of their stay within the amusement park. Kazuhiko's idea was to do everything if they had time, but to make sure they got to the Ferris Wheel, in time. "Well, we definitely have time... let's run the gambit. Amusement Park Date Night!~"

It seemed Kazuhiko would be revisiting his days spent in Munetsuchi. As they delved deeper into discussion, he was on the receiving end of another long explanation about magical conditions. He had a baseline of understanding to work with this time, though... and even a bit more that had yet to make sense. One thing he knew for certain, was that he didn't naturally lean toward Creation in any conventional sense. That part, he could probably blame on the god connected to him. Would that information be divulged here and now? No; it was apparently something he had to figure out to greater extent himself before addressing it too freely. Somewhere, there was a key... though he didn't know where it was just yet. "Hmm. I suppose you're right. Well... you're definitely right about being exposed to Astolfo. It was pretty surreal meeting someone else so much like him," was all he said.

Moving on, the plan to do everything possible within the theme park was an acceptable one. Ai seemed excited, so Kazu could only become more excited. Apart from everything else, Kazu realized he hadn't eaten anything since returning to this world. All those years spent missing food from his home world, and he hadn't taken the time for a single bite in days. Hunger didn't register as it normally did for him, but there was still a sense that eating something would be a grand idea. Ah, but that came with its own caveats at an amusement park. "So... I'm pretty sure eating before getting on a roller coaster or something wouldn't be a problem anymore, but it still feels really weird to think of doing that. Wanna start off with the big thrill and take the relaxing route after?"

The fact that he was creator leaning was obviously something caused by the odd circumstances surrounding his spiritual connection to the 'father' god of the world. Of course, she didn't want to bog him down with information. Ai knew there was at least a bit she had to give before they began interacting properly, and given that there would be and beyond that point he narrowed it down to an observation on the nature of Chika's twin. "Yeah, he's always a little crazy though I hear he's way worse now than he was before. Chi-tan is similar," she said seeming to feel a bit nostalgic. "I guess if you only knew one of them, meeting the other would likely feel very strange," she said. "Especially if you didn't know about the twin~" she offered with a chuckle. Still her friend was an oddball of a specific type and Kazuhiko could, do with that one as he pleased and she'd allow it to a greater extent than most.

Even so they moved on to talks of what to do, and Kazuhiko seemed to be interested in trying to eat, but claimed to want to ride something exciting first and then do the general fair type walking around and relaxing afterwards. "Sou ka, that's a pretty good idea..." she offered. "And currently the only thing I've eaten is an order of dango and a bottle of juice so we could catch a bite after some excitement..." she said looking around the park she allowed her eyes to catch sight of something a bit off in the distance. "The Flying Dinosaur? Might as well see what all the fuss is about~" she offered the idea while moving towards a large high roller coaster with people screaming on it as it passed through several loops and falls with everyone in the lying down position. At the very least it'd likely be a bit exciting. "Kazu-tan we can try out flying~" she mused as if she wasn't fully capable of it in her other form.