Nakitakunaruno, Dakishimetainoni

"Do you understand?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Do not fail me as the others have."

"Never, O Allfather. I will not disappoint you."

People were staring, but she didn't care. Everyone who passed her on the street were wondering what on Earth this little girl was doing walking down the street in such strange clothes, with such strange dolls in her hands. To be perfectly honest, she actually looked as if she were from another world.

A young girl no older than the delicate age of seven, she strode briskly and precisely while weaving her way in and out of the crowded streets of Japan aided by no parent guardian. A fragile frown was plastered across her face, giving the impression that she may have been irritated with everything she saw on the roadside.

And to be quite honest, she was.

But she had no time to dwell on her annoyance, as she was on a very important mission. She must remember the exact details of her duty, for if she failed, she would stare in the face a pain worse than death. Large, deep red eyes searched her surroundings for the sign she was looking for; but instead, she found a park, and made a short decision to walk through it in order to escape the awful hustle and bustle of these Japanese streets.

It was quiet and peaceful in the park, save for the chatter of a few small girls playing with dolls near the pathway.

"D'you wanna play with us?" one of the girls with a cerulean blue ribbon in her hair asked the strange child walking down the path. "Look—We got a geisha Barbie!" She seemed genuinely excited about the plastic toy as she held it up for the red-eyed girl to examine. "What's your name?" her chattering persisted. Obviously, her parents had never taught her to stop at only one question.

After being taken aback for a moment or two, the strange girl smiled a sweet, soft smile. "My name is Skadi. I'm sorry, but I cannot stop, because I have a job I need to finish."

"Hey, do you like kitties?"

"Um… What?"

"'Cause I do. I like 'em a lot. There's one over there," she pointed to the general direction of a rosebush with a paper bag underneath it, "but it doesn't wanna play, either." The girl shrugged. "Maybe you guys can go an' do your job, then come back here to play again!"

The small, red-eyed girl named Skadi turned to look at the paper bag, which shifted slightly, then was still again. "Maybe we could," she stated simply, beginning to head over to see it. To tell the truth, she had no intention of returning to 'play', but the small girl would forget about her in five minutes and go back to prattling on to her friends.

Slowly, Skadi reached inside the bag, but withdrew immediately. It had bitten her, surprisingly roughly for a kitten, and she was bleeding. "Goodness," she said with a tone as if she were running out of patience, ignoring the stinging sensation on her palm. "Hush now, I won't hurt you and you know it."

For the second time her hands reached inside the bag, and were marginally more successful in retrieving the small kitten. Skadi looked it over scrutinizingly.

"My my, you are a special kitten, aren't you?" she murmured to the orphan, who meowed seemingly in response. Her fingers brushed through the fine gray-blue fur of the creature, and it arched its back happily. "Now why in the nine worlds would someone abandon an adorable, sweet little thing like you?" she asked as the kitten began to purr. "Kogata is your name from now on."

Skadi was on the move again, back in the bustling streets which she disliked so much. Humans were so rude these days! Didn't they know that one is supposed to hold the door open for a lady when she enters a building?

Nonetheless, she continued on her way, her mind set once more on her mission. The small gray kitten's soft white booted paws pattered on the ground after her, following the girl wherever she went. Now she seemed like even more of an oddity…

There! There it was!

Finally, Skadi thought with disdain. One would think that they'd be easier to find…

In all reality, she had actually passed by quite a few of the signs with small fish painted on them, but was too busy fretting over the people surrounding her and how awful the pollution was that she had completely ignored them.

The autumn sun was beginning to set in the sky, and Skadi knew that she would have to hurry before the streetlights came on and all sorts of hooligans roamed the streets. So she scooped Kogata up in her arms and walked across the street through the backed-up, very non-mobile automobiles stuck in traffic. She had to remember her mission, it was… Two dozen and half and half, that's right, but… but…

The girl stood stock-still in front of the door to the small shop, trying desperately to remember what she had kept in her mind the entire day. What happened to her?! It was so vitally important to know this! How in all the nine worlds could she have possibly forgotten as cleanly as she had?! She entered the store, hoping something would trigger her memory, a picture, or a word…

And, of course, as her Plan Bs usually went, it worked perfectly.

She addressed the man at the counter. "Sir! I would like two dozen of these," she pointed inside the glass case, "One dozen in vanilla custard, and the others red bean flavored."

"Coming right up, little lady!"

Skadi didn't like being addressed as such, but it would have to do. She hadn't time to argue, as the sun was already lower in the sky than it had been a moment ago. Ten minutes passed as she loitered about the shop, glancing outside every now and then only to see the sun lurk closer and closer to the horizon.

"Hurry up, man! I don't have all night! Can't you see that the sun is about to set?!" she demanded impatiently at the counter, her head barely reaching above the edge of it.

"Yeah, yeah, kid, we've all got places to be, and we had to make a fresh batch of taiyaki." He placed the two large bags of pastries in the conventional plastic containers, then in bags, and handed them to her. "That'll be 1700 yen."

The girl gave him a blank stare. "Yen… currency. Oh. Of course." She paused for a moment, letting Kogata climb into one of the bags to inspect the strange smell emitting from them. "Well sir, just let me get my mother, she's waiting outside with the money…"

And she very stealthily slipped out of the unfortunate taiyaki shop that had just lost 1700 yen, breaking into a run for it.

Kogata wasn't happy at all about being tumbled in such a manner, and made sure to let Skadi know that in full as the girl slowed to a stop in front of an apartment complex. She sat outside the building with the yowling, whining kitten and devoured two of the sweet, delicious pastries while she caught her breath. What an eventful day… and it was about to become more so. Rooting around in her bag of stolen patisseries, she realized that the man had thrown in an extra cup of red bean ice cream for free.

It almost made her feel bad.

"Well, here we go, Kogata, our mission is going to draw to a close right in this very apartment complex," she said to the cat, who gave her an oddly curious look as the girl gathered the two bags and stood up. Kogata stood as well and began to follow her inside, smelling intriguing smells but making sure not to stray too far from Skadi.

"Now Kogata, you must be as stealthy as a shadow, because I don't know if he'll appreciate your presence as much as I do." The cat gave the girl a confused stare but seemed to consent all the same to her request.

Skadi walked down the long and narrow hallway. It seemed nice, like the kind of apartment a person would live in that might have been just a bit short of being able to buy a house. The walls were wallpapered with a soft off-white with a floral design running along the floor, and the floor itself was carpeted in a mahogany color.

It was Skadi's very favorite color, and she thought she might very much like to live here.

She came to a halt in front of a single door no different from the rest in the hallway save for the number imprinted in faux gold upon it. Her pale, delicate hands set down the bags carefully and began to preen her dark red dress, ensuring that there were no crumbs on it, before beginning to comb their way through her straight, white-blonde hair. She inspected herself fully in this manner, occasionally looking through a window behind her to see her reflection, until she was as ready as she'd ever be.

She grabbed the two bags and knocked twice on the door, and for the first time, she wondered just what would happen if nobody was home. But it's late afternoon; of course someone will be here, she comforted herself. The door opened, and she smiled congenially at the boy standing before her.

"Hey, Heimdall! Look, I brought taiyaki!"

"…And who are you?"