Blue eyes, mostly hidden under a voluminous sunhat, peeked out from behind the Crown Parlor and scanned the surroundings. An elderly man was helping his wife to stand across the street while a group of school kids were playing on their phones and comparing videos they'd taken of the battle to her left. Everyone else had scattered at the first sign of trouble. Coast clear, Minako exited the alley way, slipping out her iPhone, and pulled up her game of Sailor Moon Drops that she'd put on hold upon spotting the youma. Didn't the bad guys know she had better things to do?
"Good afternoon miss."
Minako switched a ruby around with a sapphire and watched the jewel morph into a prism. Excellent. She only had few more moves, so she'd have to make this one count.
"Miss?"
She swapped a few stripes and watched them explode only to be replaced with a row of bubblegum pink hearts as they dropped next to her prism, a matching heart one swipe away. Finally! She made the match and watched with gleeful eyes as it formed another prism beside her first. After several days she was finally going to clear this cursed round!
"Miss?"
Her thumb moved to make the final swipe when a long tanned finger reached out and beat her to it, swapping an emerald with another ruby to make a simple match of three. The pieces fell down and her turns dropped to zero. A tiny Tuxedo Mask appeared asking her if she wanted to play again.
Minako blinked.
Nope, the little Tuxedo Mask was still there, mocking her, still telling her she had lost. All her hard work for nought.
Her shoulders began to shake.
…
Keisuke waited patiently for the pretty blonde to look up, hand resting on his badge so he could flash it when she finally bothered to acknowledge his presence.
"What. The. Fuck."
He smirked, unable to stop himself and asked, "Do I have your attention now?"
Raging baby blue eyes snapped in his direction and he only had a second to feel alarm before those eyes twisted in anguish and all the rage became a maelstrom of tears.
"My game!" She gasped, chest rising and falling rapidly, "Do you know how long I've been trying to beat that?" she demanded amidst sniffles, a single well manicured finger coming up to prod him in the chest. "Well do you?" Her bottom lip quivered and tears began streaming down her face. "All my efforts, wasted! All because you had to go and be a bully!"
"Wait, no," Keisuke panicked and raised his hands, "that's not what I—"
"Hey leave the lady alone!" yelled a nearby man. Keisuke turned to find the source of this interruption and noted with frustration that the man's shout had caught the attention of some passersby who, taking note of the situation, began to gather in a small semicircle around them. What was worse, a few of them had even decided to pull out their phones and begin recording.
"Don't the police have anything better to do?" yelled the man again. The man, of average height and build, turned to his buddy and made a face while gesturing in Keisuke's direction. The friend snickered while a few members of the crowd nodded their heads in agreement.
This was not going well.
"I have a legitimate reason," Keisuke began before another witness cut him off.
"And what reason could that be? Harassing an innocent girl like that! You should be ashamed of yourself!"
Keisuke pinched the bridge of his nose, aware that he was losing his patience, and growled, "Enough!" The look he shot at them had them all taking a step or two back. "If you all don't cease and desist right now, I'll have you arrested for obstruction of justice." He raised a silver brow questioningly, "Do you want to go to jail?"
The crowd grumbled at the threat and a few took off but the ones who remained grew quiet enough for him to work. Satisfied, Keisuke turned to address the girl again but she was no longer there. He frowned, pulled out a miniature notepad and pen and scribbled the date and location down before slipping both pen and paper back into his vest pocket. Ignoring the crowd he then moved into the alleyway he had seen her depart from.
A quick inspection turned up nothing of note except for a curious oval shaped discoloration against the Crown's exterior brick wall roughly six feet tall. He couldn't tell if the bricks had been exposed to some sort of radiation or chemical but he took a quick swab from the center and then slipped the evidence into a small plastic bag. That done, he did a quick double check of the area and, once again finding nothing, turned to leave but then paused and turned back to the odd discoloration. Ignoring protocol, Keisuke tugged a single glove off and then pressed his bare palm against the brick wall. It was warm, as if the sun's rays had been hitting it all day. Not unusual...except it was barely midmorning and the sun had only just come out within the last ten minutes or so.
Keisuke once again took out his pen and notepad, jotted the small detail and then pocketed it after he had finished. Pleased, he exited the alleyway, hot on the trail of one Aino Minako.