Chapter 1: Kasumi
Kida and the girl fall to the ground and drop the toys they were holding.
"Ow!" Kida groaned in pain as he rubs his nose. "Oh God, I'm so sorry!"
The girl groans as well as she rubs her cheek. She turns to the Cherno Alpha figure she has dropped on the floor and gasps in horror. She goes over to it and grabs the toy.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god…" The girl quickly turns the toy around and examines it, making sure the fall didn't damage the toy whatsoever. "Sir! Do you know what you have done?!" The girl exclaims in horror.
"Look, I'm sorry. I…" Kida then looks up and trails off when he sees the girl, her back still facing him.
The girl then sighs in relief after making sure there was no damage to the toy itself.
"This toy I have with me is extremely exquisite. I spent my entire life searching for it!" She turns around and faces Kida. Kida drops his jaw as he sees her face.
"I…I…" Kida murmured, looking dumbfounded. The girl cocks an eyebrow as she sees the dumb expression on Kida's face.
"Um? Hello?" She asked Kida.
"Huh?" Kida snaps out of his thoughts. "Oh right, right. Sorry."
She sighs and extends her hand. "You want me to help you?" She asked. Kida nods his head and smiles. He grabs her hand and the girl pulls him up.
"Thank you." Kida said, smiling at her. "And sorry again."
The girl shrugged. "Doesn't matter." She looks down at the toy that is still lying on the floor. "You going to get that?"
Kida turns to where the girl was facing and said, "Oh right!" He kneels down and grabs the toy from the floor.
"You collect Transformers?" The girl asked.
"Yeah." Kida laughed as he turns to her. "It's part of my childhood, you know?"
The girl smiles and said to him, "I'm not much of a fan, but I'm glad to personally meet someone who is a robot fan."
Kida laughs as he scratches his head. "I see you are too because you are wanting to buy that Pacific Rim figure."
The girl gasps, goes over to Kida and places her finger at his lips. Kida widens his eyes, looking confused. The girl turns her head around and removes her finger. She whispers into his ear.
"Sorry about that. It's just that these figures are rare in Japan and I don't want anyone to be jealous of me that I found them." She said softly.
As the girl backs away, Kida smiles at her. "Sorry."
The girl smiles back at him. "I have to go now. Nice knowing you, acquaintance."
"It's Kida. Masaomi Kida's my name." Kida introduced himself.
"Hi Kida. I'm Kasumi. Kasumi Kinomoto." Kasumi said to him. Kida watches her walk off and heads to the cashier. He continues watching her paying to the cashier and walks out of the store, now holding a plastic bag containing her toy.
"Kida?" Mikado said as he and Anri walk over to Kida, both of them holding hands. Kida just stood there silently. Mikado then goes in front of him and sees that Kida is just staring out dazed into space with a big dumb smile on his face.
"KIDA!" Anri screamed into Kida's ear.
Kida gasped and snaps out of his thoughts. He turns to Anri with his eyes shell-shocked. "Anri! Don't do that!" He yelled at her, breathing heavily.
Anri giggled while Mikado chuckles as he places his hands on the sides of his hip.
Later that night, Kasumi returns back to her home.
"Welcome home Kasumi!" A tall girl said as she walks out of the kitchen area and greets Kasumi. It's a Caucasian girl who is six inches taller than Kasumi and has long orange hair, yellow-green eyes and dressed in a long-sleeved tan school uniform, dark green tie, black skirt, long dark blue socks and black shoes.
"Hello Shirley." Kasumi said to the girl, now known as Shirley Fenette. The two hold up their hands and gave each other a high-five.
"I made your favorite, Chicken Onigiri!" Shirley said as she walks back into the kitchen.
"Great." Kasumi said as she walks over to the couch. She grabs a penknife from the table in front of her and takes out the toy from her plastic bag. As she carefully cuts open the packaging with the penknife, Shirley walks over to her and places the plate of onigiri on the table.
"Oh cool, you have successfully found Cherno Alpha! All you need left is Gipsy Danger and you're done!" Shirley said to her.
"Yup." Kasumi simply said. She then places the penknife down on the table and takes the figure out of the packaging.
"By the way Kasumi, you received a call earlier."
"And whom the call belong to?" Kasumi said as she now removes the wires that are wrapped around the figure.
"Your mom." Kasumi gasped and puts down her toy as Shirley said that. "She asked how you are doing and wonders if she should pay you a visit."
Kasumi remained silent for a moment before saying, "No. I'm not ready to see her again."
"She's just concerned about you, that's all." Shirley said.
"I said I'm not ready." Kasumi yelled as she grabs an onigiri.
As she eats it, Shirley sits next to her and said, "You're still not over your argument with her, aren't you?"
"She'll probably just yell at me when she sees me again. I'm a high school dropout after all."
"You are always readmit yourself back to high school."
"But I'm not interested in studying, Shirley." Kasumi turns to her friend and roommate. "The reason why you are now studying in college is because you're smarter than me. While I'm just dumb." She then swallows the rest of her onigiri.
"Don't say that Kasumi. You're not dumb. Nobody's dumb in this world." Shirley clasps her hands together and smiled. "You're just thinking you're dumb because you are always feeling miserable. I visit a few counselling websites and they say that one of the solutions in curing your misery is to have someone in your life."
Kasumi finished eating and said, "I already have you."
"No." Shirley shakes her head. "I mean…"
Kasumi gasps, realizing what Shirley is talking about. "Boyfriend?" Shirley nods her head. "No! I don't need a boyfriend right now! And seriously, look at me; is there really any boy out there who will be instantly attracted to a tomboyish girl like me?"
"That's still no excuse." Shirley said, shaking her finger.
"Well…I'm not smart…"
"Please refer back to my last statement about you not being dumb."
"Well…aren't you catching up with the news lately that the current young generation is having a very hard time trying to find a boyfriend and girlfriend and get married?"
Shirley narrows her eyes and makes a smug look. "You're just finding excuses not to hook up with somebody, aren't you?"
"Ugh…" Kasumi groaned. "I'm just not interested right now, okay?"
"You can't stay single forever Kasumi. You're still young!" Shirley persisted.
"I'll think about it." Kasumi said. Then, the clock rings. Kasumi and Shirley look up and sees the time is 9 PM.
"Oh God, look what happened to the conversation between us! I'm going to be late!" Kasumi cried.
"Right, your night job." Shirley said. Kasumi grabs the remaining two onigiri and walks off.
"Bye Shirley and thanks for the food!" Kasumi said.
"Bye." Shirley watches Kasumi stuffs an onigiri into her mouth and walks out of the house. Shirley sighs as she sat there.
'She never told me once what her night job is…'
END OF CHAPTER
P.S.: Shirley Fenette is a character from another anime, Code Geass. I always thought she and Kasumi would pair up together very nicely.
