Chapter 3: The Case of Chosokabe Motochika Take 1
Chosokabe Motochika lived a very simple life with simple dreams. He always figured he had a good life, as he rarely wanted for anything. He was in his first year of college, had passable grades, a mediocre goal in life, a good group of friends, and an unattainable love. As far as Motochika was concerned, his life was perfect.
In personality, the cheerful Motochika was dedicated and loyal, especially to his friends, which was why he found himself in a rare moment of strife. For the past week, his best friend, Date Masamune, had been missing. Granted, it was normal for him to be missing from class, but usually it was to hang with their gang. Recently, whenever Motochika called Date's cell phone it was always off. In reality, it wasn't rare if Date was hiding from his caretaker, but usually he would call Motochika back eventually. Even texts were being ignored. Date Masamune was an extremely temperamental individual, so Motochika could take this as a sign that he had severely ticked off his friend. Which also wasn't rare. But usually he and Date would beat the hell out of each other and then call it good. It was their thing.
Motochika and Date had been friends since high school. They were troublemakers with similar agendas who enjoyed causing havoc and shirking responsibility and rules. They had met the first day of freshmen year outside the nurse station, which was convenient. Motochika had unintentionally insulted Date by saying that his eye patch was more awesome than the smaller boy's, and Date had bounced back to kick his ass. It had been fun and they were friends ever since. Eternal eye patch buddies.
Date was a weird, quirky guy like Motochika was. It was easy for them to get into trouble and they did so with senseless gumption. No one was sure which boy was the worst influence as they seemed to feed each other's bad habits.
Yet for their years of friendship, this was the first time no one had heard from Date. Yesterday Motochika had gone to Date's place and not even a frazzled Kojuurou knew where his ward was. The fact that Motochika didn't know probably freaked Kojuurou out even more. The gang had been worried as well, all trying in their own ways to discover the secret of their missing leader. They had made posters to put around the school but no news had come of them.
Such troubling events made paying attention in class difficult. Which found Motochika laying face first on his desk in the middle of a math lecture and sighing, his large body awkwardly situated for the position as his thoughts whirled without conclusion. Next to him, wearing an irritated scowl was the love of his life, Mouri Motonari, who usually enjoyed pretending that Motochika didn't exist.
"Will you stop sighing so loudly? Some of us actually pay attention in class!" Mouri quietly hissed without taking his eyes off the teacher. Ah, Mouri, Motochika thought, never change. Your characteristic bitchiness is heartwarming in the face of these perilous and uncertain times.
"Kiss me and I will!" Motochika decided to reply, pointing to his own puckered lips. Mouri turned a dark look at Motochika while swallowing a protest of disgust. Motochika couldn't help but grin as Mouri shifted his chair further away in an attempt to further ignore the man next to him.
Motochika enjoyed being in a class with assigned seating. It allowed Motochika to fawn over Mouri without having to look over people for the small man. He was just so cute when he was angry. Motochika wanted to pick him up, squeeze him tightly, and never let go whenever Mouri made one of his angry faces.
Strange, masochistic affection aside, Motochika was truly convinced that Mouri was the most beautiful man in the world. With a slim, beautiful body and straight, shoulder-length brown hair framing a small face enhanced by bright eyes, Mouri was an unattainable mini-god. And Motochika would happily spend the rest of his life trying to attain him.
The first time Motochika had met Mouri was the first day of this very math class. Date had stolen Motochika's only pencil to pursue his artistic endeavors when Motochika wasn't looking. It didn't matter that Date had his own pencils, he just wanted to see what chaos would occur if he stole Motochika's.
Date liked drawing weird things he dreamed about. Like Motochika being a warrior pirate and surfing with an anchor. Motochika never questioned it, and chose instead to draw inspiration from it. Motochika, who generally had little in the way of life goals, was an avid surfer and had a mission to prove surfboarding with an anchor was possible.
But when the professor, Naoe Kanetsuga, had started passing out a proficiency exam the first day of class, Motochika silently flipped out. Unlike the other students, Motochika hadn't sat close to the front of the class, he had gone to the back corner where he would be capable of not paying attention in peace. Because it was so advanced, the class number was small and Motochika wasn't sitting close enough to anyone so he could ask to borrow a pencil without looking like a fool.
But it was in that moment that an angel in green appeared from late registration. In an instant Motochika's heart exploded as Naoe-sensei, having noticed Motochika's frantic expression and empty hands, pointed Mouri to the empty seat next to Motochika and said with amusement, "Go sit next to that young man. He seems lonely in the back corner". The angel had looked at the teacher and then Motochika with deep consideration before doing as the teacher asked. Motochika kept staring as the angel sat in the seat and organized his essentials on the desk. The angel gazed at him strangely from the corner of his eye but sat as straight as possible. Growing uncomfortable with Motochika's avid gawking, the angel looked him in the eye before proclaiming, "My name is Mouri Motonari, a pleasure. I hope that we can both find success in this class."
"I love you."
Mouri's jaw dropped in extreme bemusement as Motochika stared fixatedly at him.
"Seating partner, my name is Chosokabe Motochika, and could you possibly have a pencil this unfortunate pirate can borrow?"
Mouri opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before sighing and calming himself, "Oh, I see, you are merely reacting to dire straits and found in me likely salvation. That makes sense. Of course. Yes, that makes sense. Here, you can borrow this."
Motochika took the pencil Mouri held out with reverence. It was truly a gift from a mini-god. The test went well enough and the following introductory lecture was as boring as Motochika had assumed it would be. The teacher spent the last hour letting his students work on their first assignment as he looked over the tests. This gave Motochika the perfect time to meMourize his green angel's features and plan. At the end of class, as the teacher passed out the graded tests, Motochika went to return the pencil in order to strike up conversation, but Mouri had already put his things away and waved saying, "Its fine, keep it."
Motochika smiled like a fool, for surely this was good fortune. He watched the teacher hand Mouri his test and Motochika's seating partner arrogantly gave a small, pleased grin at his near perfect score.
"Wow, for such an advanced class as this, your grade is pretty incredible!" Motochika exclaimed while leaning over Mouri's shoulder to peer at the paper. Mouri jumped at his voice and looked a little dumbfounded by having such a large man in his personal space, but recovered enough to give a victorious little smirk.
"Oh, by the way Mouri, I wasn't kidding when I said I loved you," Motochika said in passing, his head still over Mouri's left shoulder and his own left hand sticking out to the side for the teacher to hand him his own test.
"What?" Mouri moved away from him and Motochika leaned back in his own seat.
"I love you. Want to go out with me?"
Mouri made a cute little jaw drop as if trying to process a reply.
This was where fortune smiled on Motochika again as the teacher moved to the front of the class and took this opportunity to declare, "Like I announced in the beginning of class, I hope you like where you are all sitting, because you are stuck there for the rest of the semester."
The students in class laughed politely and shuffled out except for a shocked Mouri and a grinning Motochika.
"Don't you just love three hour classes and the joys of late registration?" Motochika asked, leaning his head on one hand and smiling at Mouri who sat stunned and looked like he was choking.
Mouri then practically exploded from his seat "I refuse to sit next to an idiot! How did you even get into such an advanced course?"
"Oh, the same way I got a higher score than you on this test!" Motochika had thought proving to Mouri he wasn't an idiot would be beneficial to their relationship. Apparently it wasn't. He made a mental note to himself: It's hard trying to become Mouri's friend, it somehow just pisses him off.
Their professor, who was clearing the board and hadn't really been paying attention said, "Yes, congratulations ,Chosokabe-san. I don't think I've ever had anyone get so high a score. Don't let it go to your head though! My normal tests are a lot harder. You are very fortunate to be sitting next to him Mouri-san."
Mouri gaped a little more as if the world had turned against him before bowing to the teacher and exiting the classroom.
Motochika looked at his professor with a keen eye, "You know, you're a good man, Naoe-sensei!"
Naoe-sensei returned the gaze a little confused but replied, "Thank you. Have a good day then, Chosokabe-san," and with that Motochika left the classroom with a dazzling grin on his face, practically skipping to where he knew Date was waiting for him.
Date looked up at a happy Motochika and blandly announced, "I lost your pencil."
Motochika just lunged at Date and hugged him tightly, "That's okay! There is a God! And you are truly and unintentionally my best friend!"
Date patted him on the back and said, "That's nice", before pushing him away. Date began glaring at his sketchbook like it was an incarnation of evil. Poor guy needed a better hobby than drawing…
In the present Motochika sighed happily in the joys of old meMouries before sighing in sorrow as his thoughts returned to Date who was still missing.
"…so…why are you so upset?"
Motochika blinked, truly it couldn't be, but it seemed even now Date was helping his best friend find his way to love.
"Did you just willingly talk to me?" Motochika asked, looking down at Mouri with excitement. Motochika thought he would die from how cute Mouri looked with a light blush dusting his cheeks. "I can't believe it….you actually really care!"
"No, not really. You are just very annoying. Especially when you aren't acting like you normally do. I can handle you well enough usually. I don't know how to act around you like this…"
Motochika mentally frolicked in joy before the sad reality of his circumstances grounded him.
"Mouri…I lost my Date. Have you by chance seen him?"
"…"
"It's been a week and he never answered any of my calls and no one replies to our posters," Motochika explained.
"Those ridiculous posters all over campus were from you? I should have known. Only you and your friends would believe such a horrible drawing of Date wasn't some type of joke," Mouri ran a hand through his hair as he rolled his eyes. "Honestly, you could have just used a picture of the man. He is probably too embarrassed to come to school."
"But Date says that hand drawn pictures have more sentimental value."
"There is a reason Date is a failing art major. Besides…why would you use a picture drawn by amateurs when looking for a missing person?" Mouri's eyebrow ticked as Motochika stared at him blankly. "…oddly enough I do know where he is."
"You do? You know where my Date is?" Motochika would have hugged him if he didn't think Mouri would beat him with a textbook.
"You are so strange. Unfortunately I do. He has been spending his days pestering a friend of mine at The Great Tiger Café."
…Mouri had friends?
"I've heard of that place. It's getting pretty popular. Want to go there after class? We can bother Date, I can meet your mysterious friend, and we can finally have a date!" Motochika thought this was a very good idea.
"I have work after class," Mouri replied, and he didn't sound very sorry at all.
….Mouri works?
Nevertheless, this would be Chosokabe Motochika's first encounter with the unique world that existed inside The Great Tiger Café.
A/N umm yeah same as last chapter... I think I'll stop writing A/N for a while unless something actually comes up that requires an A/N
Nami-la-folle: I'm thinking that's not a problem, but I did forward your review to Her and she'll get back to me/you when she gets it ;3 Thank you for the review!