Yawning softly she would be laying on the soft yet wet grass. Her eyes would be closed, relaxing. Her bangs of her brown beautiful hair would tickle her forehead. Slowly she would turn away and simply open her lioness eyes to look forward at the people of the streets. She was to meet up with Alice to meet up with someone else for a mission. She hasn't done one in such a long time, but the best way to actually start was to do a lowly one and with her sister. Arisa was waiting for her little sister once more to do things together.

'I should get up... Shouldn't I?' she would think calmly yet cold. Her eyes would corner to look up at the sky as her hands would press against the grass. The grass would stick in the middle of her fingers as she would press up. ''Nnn..'' she would make a simple sound, escaping her soft lips. She was wearing a red kimono-like top and black dress pants. Her shoes were made of wood as they were sandals with a flower in the middle. Gladly it was warm here, no snow or anything besides the sun. 'Wonder if Alice will be there when I get there.' she wondered yet another thing.

Slowly she would walk towards the coffee shop to meet with Dex. Her arms would dangle against her side as her hair tickled alongside her neck. She wouldn't really pay attention to the stares that she would get randomly. As a serpent her eyes would slant and stare forward to then see Dex. He seemed to be quite fine as his day went so why the hell was she here?

Arisa was getting closer to the person that she took the request from. Sadly Alice wasn't there yet and therefore should she wait? She wasn't quite sure as she would lower her gaze to look at the ground as if she was some down-to-earth type. Her medium/longish hair would tickle alongside her neck and bangs be in front of her eyes. The golden brown lioness would then tilt her eyes up to look forward and center. Her arms would wrap around herself as they went against her chest. Finally her head would then look up to see that she was in front of him.

Soon not that far from her she would see Alice. A smile that was well hidden would appear on her face. An arm would slide out to wave at him''. ''Amai, this way.'' she'd say and then went back to having her arms crossed against her chest to then turn around to look at Dex. ''I see you're both here...maybe.'' he'd say suspiciously. He would put his cup back down and looked at the two. ''Mmmm.'' he would say and then walked around. ''Mmmm......Alright. You're the two.'' he'd say snappy-like. ''Follow.'' he would say.

As instructed she would follow and hopefully Alice would follow as well. ''You see here, I shall inspect and you shall watch. Both of you..well you again.'' he would say as he would walk further to where then there were some pictures of people in this room. ''I examined them and found these as my clues.'' he would then say. The pictures were random people as the clues were a toothpick and a paper with nothing on it. There were other things, but what the hell was he thinking? It seemed fake, but was she really going to smash this dudes imagination? He seemed like a child. Her eyes would corner to look at Amai and chuckled. ''Alright.'' she would say simply. ''Would you guys like to become my assistants?'' he would question. ''Sure.'' she would say. Honestly Arisa remembered when her dreams and stuff were smashed into pieces...the outcome of it is still a mystery itself, but she would never tell anyone.

664

Grape? Green apple? Raspberry?

Raspberry.

Yes, raspberry.

Amai smacked her cheeks. The mirror in the bathroom was fairly clean. Despite being a public restroom, it was maintained. Her cheeks stung a little from the smack, the centers of her cheeks appearing slightly rosy in the reflection. She stared at her opposite self in the mirror, seeing just how small she truly was. Black ribbons held up pink twin tails to each side of her head. Her cheeks were pink from the smack, matching in color to her soft lips. Her pink orbs leaked very slightly from the sting, a tear or two managed to stream from her sockets and down her cheeks. The salty drips curved down her chin and dripped onto the countertop. The stoneware was significant, somewhat beautiful markings within the stone-top counter. Swirls from the natural stone itself blended the water stains as though they were natural, too.

Amai tugged down on the back of her skirt, frustrated that it was not going down all the way. At first, she thought that she may have been growing. However, a soft pat over the back of her skirt showed that something specific had grown, not her entire body. She sighed, momentarily questioning many things from her current clothing size to her diet. She tugged down once more on the back of her skirt, making sure the front was balanced, too, and exited the simple bathroom. As she did so, she popped that tasteful raspberry lollipop into her mouth.

Upon exiting the bathroom, Amai saw Arisa. This was a welcomed sight; she desired her sister’s company perhaps to share her current wardrobe situation. Two trains of thought popped up in the small one’s head. Arisa was larger than her in many ways, and so she may have had a wardrobe issue here or there alone the way. It would be the perfect opportunity to bring up such a silly situation, but something else was nagging her. Her sister was voluptuous, and it was irritating to be completely inferior to her older sister. It also felt as though her sister were flaunting it daily. Those clothing choices were not exactly reserved. Ultimately, she decided to keep quiet about such a silly topic. She moved toward her sister in turn.

Amai voluntarily decided to rid her face of any trace of silly thoughts about clothes or body types. Those would not be relevant to the current mission at hand.

Amai followed her sister upon her direct call. Her pink pools followed her sister’s movements, and her feet were soon to follow. Soft footsteps followed the elder sister, taking in her elder sister’s beauty as she walked with her. There was a person who joined them. Was this their client? A person by the name of Dex was whom they were aiding. Arisa seemed confident about this person and felt comfortable, so Amai let down her guard slightly, regarding him as such.

To her sister’s direction, Amai nodded. She followed the elder Rinmizukimi, adopting a thoughtful posture to fit the part. Nodding all the while her sister was talking, she picked up on the fallacy behind it all. This guy was absolutely off his rocker. Frustration was set aside for clarity. She would need to hold onto her patience tightly in order to deal with such a crazy companion. Following Arisa’s lead, she nodded to the ‘detective’ and made peace with her current situation. At the very least, it was a simple way to burn time and earn a little bit of respect in such a dull situation. She needed the reputation, after all, to join a respectable guild.

{607}

She would follow through with this guy who acted like some detective. It was all find and dandy as he wasn't really dangerous. She would continue on to follow as they would leave the little room to go out in the open. Her right hand went up to part ways of her bangs that were in her face. Simply her ears would listen to Alice speak some as she would also listen to Dex. Was this guy serious though? She had to wonder how some people would really think of this guy. Some jester of some sort that would be hanged within moments?

Her lioness eyes would pierce towards the man who acted like another Sherlock Holmes. It didn't matter to her though if she would become a good detective or not as this was just for fun... or even a small amusement to pass the day. Either way she would get to spend time with her sister Alice - like the old days. Her arms would cross against her chest while her longish brown hair would bounce upon each step. Her head turned around to look around. He started to speak randomly about how this person did that or how he figured out this - it was a lame comedy, but she found it funny. Sadly because of this Dex being so serious about it, it made it more funnier, but she couldn't laugh. Arisa didn't want to hurt this guys feelings. Soon her and Alice would have a small break of drinking water. She would order some fruit while the other ordered whatever they wanted.

His hands would flail around as if he was some producer as he explained some past experiences. He spoke of how he supposedly figured out some huge jewel thief - never hearing about it before and will most likely forget about it. No matter how dumb this was, she had to endure it and act as if she cared. Soon he would then nod. ''Yep! You guys will be great at detecting.'' he would say gladly and gave a thumbs up. ''Glad to have ya on my side once again.'' he would lastly say as he slid the reward to them both. ''Cya later.'' he would say and then leave them both alone. After that happened her and Alice would just hang out the rest of the day. '

-exit-

1061

Amai followed the other two involved. The man with the questionable sanity was sure certain that he was a detective, and that was both funny and scary at the same time. On the one hand, it was comical to see someone clearly unqualified to attempt to solve a mystery that was not there. On the other hand, there was a bit of this that was scary. How could someone truly believe such a sloppy lie in his own head?

Oh. I think… Yeah. Never mind, I understand. He has constructed a reality in which he would want to exist, to escape the pains of the reality that plagues him now. He is insane because he needs to be, not because he truly is this way. He’s protecting himself; he has to be. It was just like how I was a decade ago…

Such thoughts tormented Amai. She knew perfectly well how someone could ‘escape reality’ because of an impossible situation psychologically. She suddenly felt bad for the man; she could easily relate to such a tortured soul. She knew that she would not be able to extract the information on just what happened, but she suddenly felt a surge of motivation to help push this toward its completion.

Amai was looking forward to helping this comedy of errs, and she pushed Arisa to take it a little more seriously. However, it was not unreasonable to assume that her sister was just giggling about it the entire time. After all, this guy was completely insane. It was a shame that she felt a moticon of motivation to help him, too, to make him feel better. Maybe he could push past this rut in his life and find his true passions, his true motivations to live and grow as a person. Those were her hopes, at least, but she was not really certain of anything about this man. After all, she had just met him, and she knew nothing about his past except these impossible stories that never were any news. She felt her palm go to her face.

Did I really feel sorry for this crazy bastard? I can’t believe it. This is not right, to lead him on like this.

Just as Amai was about to cut him off to end it, he stopped. His stories were done, and he felt satisfied enough to call them both his apprentice detectives, able to carry on his legacy of detecting. A dumbfounded face came across her eyes.

She stood. She bowed. She walked away with Arisa.

“It sure does feel great to be together like this again, Ari-Nee.”

{436}
{1043}

[ - EXIT - ]