Ayano gadded about aimlessly the first few minutes of her search. "Kyo-chan, where are youuuuuu?"
The elementary school girl abruptly stopped, concerned. "Oh, no, because I took so long to chase after Kyo-chan, I might not be able to find her now!"
Ayano's lip began to quiver as she was overcome by pestering sentiments of despondency over her dearest pet and friend; however, she shook her head brusquely from side to side and filled herself with motivation and determination. Kyo-chan would not want her to accept defeat so readily.
I'm pretty sure I saw her fly off this way…
As she surveyed her vicinity one more time, she caught sight of two little girls sitting together on a bench by a large tree. One of them, with tiny, yale-blue pigtails, was bawling her eyes out, while the other one, a dirty blonde with feline features, was endeavoring to console her.
"Oh, those two over there… maybe I can try asking them…" Ayano said to herself, cautiously approaching the couple. "U-Um…"—she caught herself before her throat could produce another sound—"B-but one of them is crying… it's kind of hard to go up to them like this… I think I'll wait for a better opportunity…"
"Mmn…buh…waah… the birdie… the birdie has… waah…!"
"Come now, Himawari, there isn't anything we can really do about the bird leaving, y'know?"
"But… but…. It was such a pretty bird, and Sakurako, you took so much care to bring it to me…mmhm…waah!"
"Ah, geez—!" Sakurako's eyes narrowed in irritation—no—in distress. She turned and began to look elsewhere as she heard Himawari sob and sniffle. Finally, the noises emanating from her playmate were just too imposing and began to sharply nag at her sense of compunction.
"Listen, Himawari," she began, scratching the side of her cheek awkwardly, "rather than the bird leaving, seeing you cry makes me sadder."
Himawari ceased to rub her eyes and shyly gazed up at Sakurako.
"So, uh, yeah, stop crying!" Sakurako finished ineptly. "'Cause if you don't, I'm going to start crying, too!" Sakuraoko crossed her arms and huffed as she turned to face the opposite direction from Himawari.
Himawari wiped a tear from her wet, blushing cheek and replied, "But there's nothing for you to cry about…" The girl's now dry cheeks puffed up in a pout. "If you cry, I'm… going to be annoyed!" She turned with a huff, as well.
I can't hear what's going on very well, but those two seem to get along well, Ayano opinioned, watching the scene unfold. If I had a friend like that…Ayano observed the soles of her shiny shoes gloomily. I should probably go now; I can't bother them. Besides, they were talking about a bird just now, so that must be Kyo-chan… there's not mistake about it…
"Kyo-chan, wait for me, I'm coming," Ayano whispered, and turned away from the young tsundere couple crying at the bench.
X X X X
"Wow, I've come pretty far…" Ayano said, glancing about her surroundings in astoundment and curiosity. "Kyo-chan, I wonder where you are…"
She spotted a large water fountain in the area, with the stature of an angel in the center. "Oh, a fountain! Maybe Kyo-chan came here to drink water!"
Before Ayano could even take her first step in the fountain's direction, a voice rang out, "Hold it right there!"
Ayano turned around and was met with the accusing sapphire-blue eyes of a cotton candy pink-haired girl, much shorter than she was, though not by a large extent.
"That fountain is part of Chiina's territory," she aloofly stated.
"Eh? Wh-what do you mean?" Ayano replied, befuddled.
"Like I said," she whined in a tantrum, "that fountain is Chiina's territory! Don't come any closer, just scram!"
Wh-what's with this girl… she's scary… Ayano thought timidly. I-If I apologize here, maybe I can ask her whether or not she saw Kyo-chan and then move on!
Ayano abashedly began to formulate the words to her apology. "I'm… I'm…. s-s-so…so—"
"So…?" Chinatsu repeated, trying to figure out what the girl was trying to communicate.
Ayano was startled by the girl's harsh-sounding words, and wasn't able to think straight.
"I-I'm sorry, okay? Happy?" Ayano snapped. She quickly slapped her hands over her mouth. Why do I always end up saying the wrong thing! ?
Chinatsu was momentarily stunned, but she recovered in a blink.
"This… this is everyone's water fountain!" Ayano said with a sudden touch of courage. "You can't just tell people to go away!"
"…." Chinatsu stared at Ayano impassively.
O-oh, no, I got caught up in the moment, and said something weird, Ayano thought anxiously, meekly struggling to maintain her composure in front of the enemy. W-what should I do? This might turn into a fight…
Chinatsu then muttered something unintelligible. "… away."
"Eh?" Ayano lifted her line of sight to be on par with the other girl's.
"I didn't want you to come any closer, because the birdie might fly away!" Chinatsu snarled out, with an underlying hint of contriteness behind her sharp words.
"The… birdie…" Ayano muttered to herself, staring wide-eyed at the girl before her.
"Y-yeah, now you get it, so stay out of there!" Chinatsu demanded, raising her index finger and pointing at the fountain in question.
"Wa-wait, please, when you say birdie, do you mean—?"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY~—~!
Flap Flap Flap
"Ah."
"…Ah."
The shorter girl regarded the fowl's vanishing figure as it flew farther and farther away. "The birdie… left…"
"That was… Kyo-chan…" Ayano said numbly. I see…. So Kyo-chan was drinking water at the other side of the fountain, and this girl saw and kept people from bothering her while she rested.
"You were so noisy that you scared it away…" Chinatsu accused, imputing the blame onto Ayano. "It was such a pretty bird, too…"
Ayano noted the crestfallen demeanor the girl carried now, as opposed to a few minutes ago, when she was adamantly determined not to let her pass.
"I'm… I'm really sorry!" the purple-haired tsundere apologized, taking a bona fide bow.
But just the fact that I got to see Kyo-chan shows that I've made some progress! This thought gladdened Ayano a tad. I should be able to catch up to Kyo-chan soon!
"U-um…"
Ayano, who had been wrapped up in her thoughts, jumped at hearing the other girl's voice ring out.
"Um… it's okay to go near the fountain now… just so you know…" Chinatsu looked to the side, curling her puffy pigtail awkwardly.
Ayano blinked. "Eh? Ah? Okay…"
Chinatsu found nothing else to say to the strange girl after bird, so she shyly picked at the soil under her feet with her shoe, suddenly finding the ground interesting.
This girl says some pretty harsh things… but she's actually very kind… Ayano was reminded of herself for just a moment. She looked out for Kyo-chan in my absence…
"He…hey…" Ayano piped up, clearing her throat.
Chinatsu looked up from the ground. "Wh-what?"
"Um… thank you so much," Ayano gratefully communicated, sending her best smile.
"Huh…?"
"Ah, uh, I-I got to go now!" Ayano hastily expressed, turning in the opposite direction and taking off. "Bye bye!"
"Huh? Hey, wa-wait, weren't you waiting for the fountain! ?" Chinatsu shouted after her, her question resounding in the park as the girl with the ponytail vanished into the trees.
X X X X X
"If I don't hurry, I might lose sight of Kyo-chan again," Ayano muttered to herself urgently. She should've come through this alley...
"Kyoko~! Where did you go~?"
"Kyoko-cha~n!"
Ayano was startled by the voices she heard echoing in the alley.
Wh-what? There's someone around here… Ayano thought to herself, scanning about herself in search for the origin of the voices. I'm not… very good with people. What should I do—take a detour? But if I do that, then I might lose Kyo-chan…
Just as Ayano was taking her first step in exiting the alley, someone called out to her: "Hey, hold on a moment, you over there!"
"Hyah!" Ayano cried, blenching at the sight of two strangers, who seemed to be about her age.
One of the girls, who seemed to be the most authoritative of the two, wearing shorts and a loose shirt, came up to Ayano, catching her breath. "Hey, have you seen a girl with long, silky blonde hair, a very cute smile, but who might currently be crying?"
"Yui-chan," the other girl voiced, "we don't know whether or not she's crying."
"Akari, do you really think that Kyoko, who hates to be alone, wouldn't be crying by now?"
"Hmm… now that you say so…. she probably is," Akari admitted, sighing.
"Yes, and that's why we have to go find her!" Yui reminded.
"That's my Captain!" Akari praised, bouncing up and down. "She knows everything there is about Kyoko-chan!"
Yui blushed and scratched the cheek abashedly.
"U-uhm… I…. I…" Ayano began, probing her mind for the right words to say.
Yui returned to her. "Hmm?"
Okay, so I'll just kindly tell them, 'I'm sorry, I don't know that girl, but have you by chance seen a pretty bird flying by here?' All right, got it. Now… go, me!
"I don't have time to deal with that trivial stuff. Anyway, have you seen a pretty bird flying around here? Answer me!"
"!"
"!"
The statement surprised the two girls, and above all, Ayano herself.
"Ah…" Ayano's countenance flushed crimson. I… did it again. Why am I … so incompetent? Why can I only say offensive things? It's no wonder I have no friends. I can never make any. Even when I'm all grown up, I won't have any.
Yui was the first to break out of the shock, and said, cautiously, "Uh... Ehem, I'm sorry… we don't know anything… about this bird you mentioned…"
Akari began to bow countless times. "We-we're sorry! We're really, really sorry!"
Eh? They're not mad? Ayano thought to herself, regarding them diffidently.
"Listen," Yui began uneasily, abrading the cement underneath her feet with her right shoe. "I don't know what happened prior to our encounter but sorry for bothering you with questions when you were in a hurry… So…. um… don't cry, okay?"
Ayano blinked, and after she did so, she felt a wet drop leave and trail down her cheek. "Eh…?" She rubbed at her eyes and found her knuckles glistening and wet. She felt the heat rise in her face. "I-I'm not crying! ! !"
Akari ruefully sighed and disapprovingly shook her head, arms crossed. "Captain, you shouldn't make girls cry."
"YO-YOU'RE BLAMING ME?" Yui impotently cried in protest.
"Hyu…nn… wah… buh…" Ayano continued to weep and snivel.
Yui panicked at seeing the girl's disconsolate state, and turned to Akari for help. Akari only smirked in her direction, though. Yui blushed and hastily returned to Ayano.
"Ah, okay, I guess there's no helping it!" Yui stepped closer to the crying girl and pat her head.
Ayano slightly flinched, but soon relaxed into the kind gesture.
"There, there… there, there…" Yui said as she caressed her head.
"…"
"Come on, you were in a hurry, right? Stopping and crying is no good," Yui comforted, awkwardly nodding in agreement with her own statement.
She's… stroking my head, Ayano thought, her emotions stirred. She's doing it rather roughly but… I can sense the kindness behind her actions… she's a nice person.
"I-I already know without you having to tell me so," Ayano stubbornly replied, wiping her tears away.
"Well, if you got the strength to say that, I guess that means you're feeling better now?" Yui queried, amiably grinning at the tsundere.
A girl like her must have lots of friends, Ayano inwardly commented. If I can become more like her… maybe I'll have some too… in the future.
"…Thank you," Ayano gratefully said in a volume no higher than a whisper's, then instantly ran off.
"He-hey, wai… She's gone." Yui sighed. "She left pretty fast… that bird must be really important to her."
"Captain, you're really good at dealing with crying girls," Akari remarked playfully, sprightly sniggering.
"Be-be quiet!" Yui said boisterously, face flushed. "Anyway, let's get back to finding Kyoko!"
"Oh, Captain, look over there!" Akari shouted, pointing at the darkening sky.
"Wah… it's a pretty bird… wait a minute—?"
Akari turned to Yui. "Could it be…?"
"The one that girl was looking for?"
"Birthday! Birthday! Happy Birthday~!"
Akari and Yui both stared at each other and simultaneously repeated: "Birthday?"
X X X X X
Hope you're enjoying it thus far. It's about to get better ;3