CHAPTER IV: Exploring Tokyo - Day 2

ECHIZEN RESIDENCE

Echizen Reina and Karupin were both in deep slumber. The two of them looked adorable, approachable, and helpless when they are sleeping, albeit saying that to their faces will cause one his/her life. Echizen was sleeping in a fetal position, while Karupin was curled up inside the area surrounded by his mistress' body.

Karupin, the smart cat, started moving after a while. He purred here and then with his claws occasionally revealing themselves. He was still asleep, and he was having an unusual dream.

"Squeek squeek"

His eyes dilated as he heard that utterly delicious sound. His stomach suddenly growled. Hungry, he followed the attractive sound eventually finding its source. He noticed that he was actually in a desert because of the beautiful white mouse that was in front of him. It was in a small area of lushness humans call an oasis. It was oddly beautiful, especially with his prey in the middle of it.

He went to approach it but, to his dismay, it ran away. He chased it, unsure if he just wanted to play with his food or if he simply wanted to follow it. Even if it was much smaller than him, it had an unbelievable speed. But, also being quick for his size, he eventually caught up with it. But just when he was about to catch it...

The pretty white mouse disappeared.

"AH!" His mistress shouted in pain as she held one of her hands with the other. He stared at her, worried. Her expression softened, sighed, and petted him. He meowed in delight before seeing why his mistress exclaimed in the first place.

"Did you have a bad dream, Karupin?" Reina asked her cat as she patted his back with her undamaged hands. Karupin sort of retracted his claw in the wrong place at the wrong time. He meowed, but not as a reply but as an inquiry about her left hand. The cat stared at the wound for a while seemingly contemplating if he was the one at fault. She just smiled at her cat's worries. "Don't worry Karupin, its no one's fault." She reassured him as he lifted him and looked at the window.

She looked at her clock; it was already 7:30am. Normally she would be wide awake this time in the morning, but looking again at her window. It was literally pouring water. No wonder she felt even lazier than usual that day.

'And it was so sunny yesterday, darned Global warming.'

She sighed.

"It looks like I'm reading mangas today."

...

Breakfast that day was Japanese. Reina preferred Japanese food more than anything, hence making the dreadful morning a bit better.

"Gochosousama..." She said and went up to her room to take a bath. After her nice warm bath, she slumped on her bed and started reading her favorite manga of all time: One piece.

She even got one of her matching stuffed toys beside her just for the heck of it.

*One hour later*

"W-WHAT?" Reina exclaimed as she looked at the last page of the manga again. She was standing up now. "That's it?" She complained. She checked again. 'Same as before...'

"What the heck - THAT WAS THE BIGGEST CLIFF HANGER IN MANGA HISTORY!" She shouted, unsatisfied.

She lied down on her bed. Rolled all over it, thinking of what would happen next. 'Shikusoooo' She cursed.

Yes. She was obsessed with this particular anime/manga. If her father had his magazines, her mother with her cook books, and her brother his clothes; she had her 'one piece' collection (and Karupin).

It was the reason why her 'weaknesses' are kept under utter secrecy.

Reina, too, always had the latest releases in anime and manga. Her frugality disappear every time she see an amazing replica of one of the characters. She even had a wonderful collection of stuff toys and action figures, located at one side of her room. She didn't buy most of them though- they were too expensive. Her old friend/co-obsessor (No, there is no such word) was responsible for sponsoring this hoarding business. He was the one who, after all, introduced her to the series in the first place.

Still unsettled, she opened her desktop. She wanted to know when the next volume would come out.

And a few clicks later, her eyes started twitching uncharacteristically again.

"Today?" She exclaimed. She looked at the clock. 8:45am.

The shop opens in 15mins. And considered how quickly it gets sold out....

She looked outside. "Seems like the rain has subsided for now..." She said and jumped out of the chair to swiftly put on casual clothing and her glasses before running down stairs and picked up a random umbrella just lying near the door.

'I will get you, latest volume.' She swore. 'I promise.'

...

BOOKSTORE, An hour later

Huff... Huff...

She finally reached the bookstore, panting. 'Darn it! Of all the times to get lost -'She said to herself irritably, as if this was one of the few times she got lost.

She went inside after taking a deep breath and there it there was only one freaking copy left!

She 'walked' as fast as she could to the rack containing the lone comic book without looking around for she didn't want to be distracted. When she finally got a hold of it, she was definitely relieved. Sure, it no longer had a plastic cover, but it definitely still did look good enough.

She excitedly lifted it, but when she was about to pull it towards her... well, she couldn't. It was as if the book refused to go with her. "Do you hate me?"she asked it with a worried face.

Moments later, her sight of reason came back and she realized that it didn't hate her- there was just another hand pulling it away from her. Her eyes twitched.

"Who are you?" She asked the boy with a pretty feminine face as she glared at him. He had a relatively long honey-brown hair, and his eyes looked (almost) closed all the way because of that fake smile stuck on his face. 'Isn't that just uncomfortable?'

"I'm afraid I am not obliged to answer that. And could you please let go of this manga? I saw it first, you know." He answered with a constant expression.

"Are you really a boy?" She asked.

"What makes you ask that?" The boy returned the question.

"Well, shouldn't you be a gentleman and let me, a girl, have it instead. Besides, I don't believe you saw it first. " She stated stoically.

"Ah... But I'm not a boy." He smiled his fake smile. This caught her of guard, she was pretty sure the guy is male. Her hand loosened and the boy quickly took advantage. 'My manga!' She shouted internally in despair as her eyes followed the figure heading towards the counter.

She quickly regained her composure and ran after her. She was really quick, she noted. She even deduced she's probably an athlete, but Reina would not lose when it came to speed. She walked as fast as she could and soon overtook the taller girl. She quickly grabbed money from her wallet and placed it on the counter the other girl just placed the manga in her rush. The oblivious cashier took Reina's money and the next thing the other girl knew, Reina was already out the door giving off a satisfied (and not to mention arrogant) smirk.

Back in the shop, the other girl's eyes were wide open and she stared at the direction Reina went. She was then standing at where Reina was several seconds prior, and watched her go. She could not help but smile in amusement.

"Aiya... She sure got me there."

And after a few minutes of remaining in a daze, she finally gestured to go home. There was nothing to do there, after all. As she walked, she tilted her head up to the sky and smiled at the interesting events that happened to him.

She chuckled mentally at that girl's face.

Fuji Syusuke was not a girl. But he couldn't help himself. It was just so fun playing around with people, especially when you had nothing better to do.

-Flashback-

His day started relatively normal. He woke up at around 8am in the morning, ate breakfast, and took a bath. When he went downstairs, he found his sister and she smiled at him. "Syusuke"

"Yes, nee-chan?" He answered. His sister was taller than him, had curly orange hair, and was said to be one of the most popular girl in her college.

"Are you going out today?" She inquired.

"Hmm... depends. Do you have anything you want me to do?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well, yes." She replied as she gave him a piece of paper. "It's a book I reserved a while back. It seems like they'll be having it today. Mind getting it for me? It's in our favorite bookstore."

"No problem, nee-chan. I'm planning on buying a new book for a past time, anyway." He smiled and went upstairs to get ready.

He walked rather slowly and reached the bookstore in about 30 minutes. He entered and got his sister's book and bought one for himself. He noticed that there was a rack surrounded by people. He watched it for a while and saw that the said shelf contained a very popular manga. Not even an hour after the bookstore opened and there's only one copy left. He liked the anime, but he never thought of reading the manga. So there was no reason to start now.

Well that's what he decided, before he saw her.

She entered the bookstore, looking a bit haggard. She has black hair with length just slightly below her shoulders. She also wore huge opaque glasses which reminded him of his teammate. She looked around the bookstore until her eyes set on the rack. Even though most of her face was covered – particularly her eyes, he still thought that she had a really pretty smile. She walked quickly to her target without looking around. She was definitely fast, Fuji was impressed. And Fuji, being the person that he was, quickly went to the same spot tease the poor girl.

"Do you hate me?" She asked the manga with a seriously sad face. He couldn't not chuckle. He watched her amusingly as she had come to the realization that the manga didn't hate her.

Soon enough, she asked him who he was and even when he couldn't see her eyes, he knew that she was glaring at him. The girl had an unusually strong yet comforting presence. He wouldn't forget about her anytime soon, he knew. So he wanted her to remember him.

"I'm not a boy." He told her, she had an adorable reaction. While she was still dumbstruck, he quickly went for the counter. Along the short way there, for the first time in his life, he doubted his motives. Would he go as far as spending quite a bit of yen to tease a girl he met only 2 minutes prior? Just what did he hope to achieve?

"That'll be 1000 yen, Miss." A woman's voice said. He quickly returned to his senses when he realized that the 'Miss' was that girl with the opaque glasses. She was holding the manga (now on a paper bag) that was in his hand just a moment ago.

And before he knew it she was out the door, turned to look at him through the transparent glass of the door, and smirked.

...

SOMEWHERE IN TOKYO

Reina was walking home for a while now. She didn't want to look at her watch since it'll only stress her out. Experience taught her that knowing the time would not help with her cursed sense of direction.

As she was walking and looking for familiar places, the humidity of the air changed. The smell...

'It's going to rain.' She predicted. Her brother, being a meteorology student, taught her some stuff.

She started walking faster, looking more carefully for familiar spots. She hoped to be home before it rained, but no such luck. Not long after, she felt droplets of water in her skin. She knew that getting wet in the rain nowadays was way unhealthier than during her brother's childhood.

She quickly opened the umbrella she randomly picked up. But when she opened it her eyes widened in despair, again. Most of the stretchers were beyond repair and a hole the size of her palm covered an area near the center. She groaned and then cursed her father. He was the only one in the house idiotic enough to bring this much damage. She growled internally.

'Baka Oyaji! I will soooo make sure too show Mom his secret stash (of you-know-what) I just found.'

She looked at her new bought manga. 'Well, at least I still have you...' she smiled and then it hit her.

It doesn't have the plastic cover anymore!

She walked even faster, trying to cover the package with her head. Unfortunately, all too soon, the rain got heavier. 'My manga!' She uncharacteristically cried in despair. The third friggin' time today... must be a new record or something.

She was now running, desperately looking for a shelter. She couldn't find one... not until one found her...

She looked up. It was blue. The umbrella was blue. It was held a person with an eerily familiar face.

"Hello, there. Long time no see." He smiled at his sarcastic comment.

"You..." Reina glared at the person. "What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same question." The person asked.

Her glare turned to a sad frown. "I'm looking for a shade." She answered and lifted her now-wet manga to his face.

"Oh." The girl expressed emphatically. "I know a good shade, and it's only a few steps away."

"W-What do you mean?" She looked around her. "I don't see anything."

"Ah... See that?" The person said keeping his smile and pointed to the house behind her. She reflexively turned around.

"That's my house."

Silence

"Where is your house, exactly?" She asked, he told her an unfamiliar street name. She just stared, effectively telling the girl/boy that she had no idea where she was. She/He chuckled, and Reina immediately glared at her/him. The androgynous person, being relatively immune to her glares, just smiled.

"Would you like to go inside?"

"I can't. My parents are expecting me to be home by lunch time."

She/He pondered for a second. "Ah... But isn't it already 11:45am?"

Reina's eyes widened at the revelation. "Oh crap."

The boy/girl smiled and she narrowed her eyes. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I just thought of something really nice of me to think of."

...

"You don't have to do this. I don't want to be a bother..." Reina asked a bit guiltily at the guy who introduced himself/herself as Fuji Syusuke. After putting his/her grocery bags inside the house, he/she offered to take her home, seeing her umbrella looked like it was played with by a bear. It was still pouring, so Reina reluctantly agreed.

"Maa.. It's fine. You could say I feel a bit bad about lying to you about me getting my hands on your manga first."

"No surprise there." She smirked. "But, aren't you hungry? It's lunch time already."

"I already ate a huge taco on the way home so I'm not really that hungry." He replied patting his stomach to make his point.

"I'll let you borrow my manga after I read it, then. You know, as payback." Fuji blinked. After years of lying, he became good at it and even became immune to the guilt that accompanied it. So why did he feel so bad about lying to her? He internally shook his head of the disturbing thoughts.

"I'm flattered, but I never really read the manga before. I just thought it'd be fun to make fun of you." He said trying to sound as playful as his usual teasing self.

She just stared at him blankly and asked if there's something else he was lying about... like his real gender. Fuji blinked again. He totally forgot that he said that. 'Why was I lying that time again?' He asked himself trying to think of a good reply.

"I'm actually male." He stated making sure he still had his usual facade on.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed as if she had a bet with herself. He smiled.

"So, I'm a bit curious as to what you were doing during all those hours and how you ended up in front of my house." He blurted out out-of-nowhere.

"I got lost." She said bluntly. He chuckled. Reina stared for an uncomfortably long minute.

"What?" He asked a bit confused and somewhat intimidated at the girl's stare, which was really odd since he couldn't even see her eyes. To be intimidated by eyes you couldn't see was, well, disconcerting.

"It's nothing big, really." She said coolly. "I was just wondering why you put on that fake smile all the time when you had such a nice real one."

He turned away slight, fairly sure how his cheeks was on-fire. "How r-rude. I do not have a fake smile." He denied as composed himself as quickly as he could, even when he knew that what she was saying was true. His fake smile returned, and Reina sighed sadly. They remained quiet for a few minutes after that.

The silence was broken when they encountered a ruff-looking guy with a green bandanna, jogging in the rain. The guy stopped after seeing Fuji and bowed for a moment and mumbled "G-Good afternoon, Senpai..." before looking at her. Then he stared at Fuji again, then it slowly found its way back to her. He blushed, obviously assuming something wrong. Fuji flinched for a mini-second.

"Ne. Kaidoh, if you keep wasting your training time staring at us I'm going to ask Inui to give you his latest drink." He said with a disturbing smirk on his face. Kaidoh shivered as he heard the words 'Inui' and 'juice' in the same sentence. He quickly said goodbye and hurriedly continued his jogging, visibly shaken by Fuji's words.

"Inui's juice...? Who's Inui? And what's so scary about his juice?" Reina asked, curious.

Fuji replied, still maintaining his usual facade, "Inui's juice is healthy for you, I personally like it's taste. But for some reason most people faint after taking a sip..." He grinned evilly. "Ah, and Inui is my partner in sadism at our school."

"Partner in sadism?" She asked looking a bit perplexed. Fuji raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I'm a sadist." He stated.

Reina's eyebrows met almost immediately. "You're a sadist?" She asked... in a way that surprised Fuji getting him open his eyes completely.

'What is with this girl?' he questioned internally. What Reina said was not unusual. It was the tone of her voice that was. It brusquely stated: You're a sadist? No, you're not."

He stopped in his tracks. Reina noticed when she felt raindrops on her skin; she quickly walked backwards til' she reached the cover of the umbrella. She turned around and was supposed to ask why he stopped when she saw him just staring at her with eyes wide open.

"You sound like you don't believe me." He muttered as he stared through her glasses in an attempt to get through to her eyes. Reina stood there frozen at the sight of Fuji's beautiful cerulean eyes.

'How beautiful...So many different emotions I can se-'

"E-Echizen-san. What makes you think I'm not a sadist?" He barely managed to utter. He was dumbstruck, to say the least. This girl who he just met a few hours prior just told him what he wanted to hear- ever since his change all those years ago... since the time his brother started hating him.

"You don't smell like one..." She mumbled as she continued to stare at his eyes, slightly blushing.

Fuji suddenly felt shy of her gaze and immediately closed his eyes. 'Why am I the one getting shy? Isn't it always the other way around?' he asked himself in a worried and confused voice.

"Smell?"

"Yeah, it's a way I have for describing people..."

"You seem confident in your judgment." He spat, trying to sound as if he's mocking her.

"I am. I was never wrong, you know. Besides, I got another proof that you're lying on being a sadist just now, too." She declared.

"W-what..?" He somehow reluctantly asked.

"Your eyes... They're too pretty to be the eyes of a sadist." She stated (as a matter-of-factly) and looked right into his eyes again as if requesting for his eyelids to open completely one more time. He just stood there like a stone for a while, and then started walking once he could manage to do so. Reina went after him.

"You're gonna be late. Your parents are going to worry. Let's just hurry." He muttered under his breath as he bowed his head while he was walking. He was walking in such a hurry that Reina had to concentrate on following him.

She didn't notice the deep red shade of red pasted on Fuji's face.

ECHIZEN RESIDENCE

"You live in a temple?" He asked with a hint of skepticism in his voice.

"What are you being so skeptical about?" She asked, offended.

"Nothing."

"Come in." She gestured as she stood in front of the doorway. He hesitated for a bit, but seeing Reina look at him he suddenly felt like going inside. And upon entering, they immediately heard frantic footsteps.

"REINA! You're an hour late! I was ssoo worried! And don't 'I got lost' me, young lady! You know that you should always a lot at least 2 hours before the agreed time! Your father and brother are in the police station arranging a search party, you kn—" Echizen Rinko suddenly stopped her shouting when she saw someone else besides her Reina on the doorway.

She just stared at them for a while and excused herself. They were walking in the hallway when they heard Rinko talking with someone via phone. With their enhanced hearing they managed to hear her words.

Rinko frowned at the incoherence of her husband's brain. "Yes dear, you should go back now... Tell them to stop then, I told you she's already here!" then a sudden evil smirk crept up her face. "And she's with a boy."

Sil- "NANIIIIIIII?" The person on the other side shouted so loud that even the kids could hear. The two revealed themselves and went closer to her when all-of-a-sudden the door slammed open. Two pairs of heavy stomps went to their direction.

Fuji felt a sudden chill behind his back.

"WHO ARE YOU!" A handsome young-man looking more or less 20 years old shouted as he pointed 'the' finger on the stranger who had his back on them at the moment.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH MY DAUGHTER?" An older not-so-good-looking man in a monk outfit cried.

And then both of them started muttering and shouting and crying incoherent sentences as they went closer and closer to the poor boy cornering him on the wall when a pair of knuckles hit each of them in the head.

"Urusai! What are you doing here so quickly anyway? Weren't you in the police station just a minute ago?" Rinko shouted. They had an even more dramatic reaction than she anticipated. 'Did they teleport or something?'She muttered angrily to herself. She told them Reina's with a boy so they would hurry home, but she thought she'd have some time to talk with them first. She sighed and looked at her daughter.

"So...Start talking."

...

They all ate lunch together as Reina explained to them what happened. A bit of relief came to her over-protective father and brother. She was much too young to have a boyfriend, after all.

"Meow..." A sound Reina adored was suddenly heard in the dining room.

"Ah, Karupin was really worried about you too. I think he went outside to look for you." Reina, touched by her pet's love, immediately stood up to go get the now wet-because-of-the-rain feline.

For some reason, Fuji swiftly stood up at the sight of Reina as she entered with her soaking cat. "Diego!" He shouted, startling everyone around him. He then noticed the spectacle he made, quickly sat down, and muttered an apology.

"Fuj-?" She was about to ask him what happened when Karupin suddenly jumped from her to the table and then to Fuji.

The feline licked him in the face and hugged him as much as a cat could hug. Reina felt annoyed at her precious cat's intimacy with a person who called him by a different name.

Fuji saw her expression and chuckled. "Gomen, Echizen. It's just that I knew this cat from before."

"Really?" She asked skeptically, it's been 6 years since she got her cat and he was in the states the whole time.

He nodded "I was his owner."

The Echizens just stared at him.

"Before we lived in our house here in Tokyo, we lived in an apartment. Pets weren't allowed there." He said as he petted Karupin.

They stared again, telling him to go on.

"He was a stray and I wanted to adopt him. But since I'm not allowed to I found him an abandoned place near our apartment to stay. I visit him every so often." Karupin meowed happily. "But then a transfer student found out about it and he decided to buy it. He moved back to wherever he lived in after a month, so I never got to know what happened to him after that."

He chuckled and looked at the family around him.

"It seems like he found a good home."

...

"Are you sure?" She asked him (with great relief) if he really didn't want to take Karupin (or Diego) back with him since they no longer live in an apartment. They were now outside the door, and Reina was seeing him out.

"He loves you more than he will ever love me." Fuji stated looking at Reina with knowing eyes. "He's happy here. And I'm happy for him." He patted Diego's, who was in Reina's arms, head. Then, he saw a small bad-aid on her left palm.

"You were injured? I didn't notice–" He said with guilt in his voice.

"Of course you didn't. I hid it pretty well. I'd be annoyed if you did. Which is what I'm feeling now..." She replied and he laughed. He abruptly took her left hand. He lifted it up to the level of his chest and gently stripped the band-aid away. He saw claw-marks, and his gaze softened even more.

'Diego did this.' He concluded. He understood how much Diego loved his mistress, and how bad he must have felt for doing this... His mind automatically went to look for a solution to the problem, and something came.

No, it was not a solution. But an impulse. His body moved on it's own, slightly to his chagrin.

For without thinking- he kissed her palm.