As the couple walked down the warm exhibit pathways, Marry's hair bounced behind her. She excitedly pointed at all of the butterflies, tugged softly on the tall boy's sleeve. Seto chuckled, occasionally having to detangle the girl's long, curly hair from the branches that reached out farther across the walkway or having to release the startled insect that found itself sucked into the fluffy mass.
Seto could count a number of times when her hair seemed to have a mind of its own, eating anything that attempted to approach. This thought caused the boy to laugh softly, remembering times when he would walk into the living room to find Kido struggling to brush or braid Marry's hair.
This quiet sound drew the small girl's attention back to him. She smiled up at him, clinging to his arm as they continued their little adventure together.
In the furthest separated exhibit, Hibiya was surprised when he began to regret his choice of companions and started wishing to be with the frog-prince and the medusa. At least they were aware of their feelings.
The pair he had chosen instead was so obviously in denial, it pained the twelve-year-old to look at them. Weren't they glad that they were both still breathing? The image of Hiyori that he'd desperately tried to bury surfaced again and he sighed loudly. The green haired girl in front of him turned around, her lightly red-tinted irises locked onto his own.
"You okay, Hibiya?" she asked, probably genuinely concerned about him but he didn't really care at the moment if she was sincere or not. He shrugged, glaring at the ground as if it had done some personal offense against him when in reality; he was just very uncomfortable tagging along with the Danchou and her cat-like follower. He didn't notice as she frowned and removed her hand forcefully from the other boy's.
"What… are we too boring?" There was no anger or malice in her voice at all, she was simply curious. "We can find Kisaragi for you, you know…" She meant the best but before she could say anything else, the young boy's face lit brightly in red and he glared at her.
"I don't need Oba-san!" he yelled angrily before adding, in a much softer tone, "You guys aren't boring or anything…"
Kido puffed her cheeks out slightly, decided she would roll with it, and turned back to the blonde who promptly snatched her hand back in his own and pulled her forward to stand beside him. Hibiya watched the two of them, imagining what it'd be like to even be in a complicated relationship like theirs with Hiyori. The idea created a lump in his throat and he swallowed it, shaking the fantasy from his head.
Ahead of him, the deceiver continued to pull Kido with him, holding a tight grip on her so she couldn't fully use her power. It irked her that he thought it necessary to null her power. It was almost as if he had something stupid and embarrassing planned. From the corner of her eye, she saw his smirk grow to an unnatural size and she roughly squeezed his hand.
"Ow! What was that for, Tsubomi?" he whined, sticking his tongue out at her playfully.
"Payback," she stated simply. "You're making it so I can't disappear so I'm making it so you won't lie." She squeezed his hand again when the red started seeping back into the gold. He chuckled and winced a tad at her hold on him. He flashed a genuine smile at her.
No sooner had he done this, there was a tug at their focus from somewhere. She frowned, already suspecting what was happening, and again pulled from his grasp, jogging back to the archway entrance that overlooked the main hall.
Quite a crowd had suddenly gathered, people of all ages pushed and shoved, trying to get something—or someone—'s attention. With a sigh, the green haired girl made her way into the growing crowd, very uncomfortable being this close with strangers. She was nearing the center when a hand latched onto hers and a voice whispered in her ear.
"Got a plan, brave commander~?" She shrugged in reply, knowing that he wouldn't hear her if she spoke. He held onto her as they slipped through the mob with much less ease than she would've hoped for.
As they hit the clearing in the center, they were met by a terrified hikiNEET and a tired-looking idol. When Momo finally locked eyes with the two others members of the Dan, she smiled slightly, obviously relieved that the one girl that could null her power had shown up to rescue her.
The orange haired girl opened her mouth to call out to them but stopped and pulled out her phone, having heard some sort of noise. Ene floated around on her screen, quickly flipping to the camera to survey the surroundings. Momo quickly explained the situation to the cyber girl, who took it upon herself to get rid of the crowd. Swimming off of the screen, her voice overtook the speakers, shutting off the elevator type music that filled the building.
"Testing, testing!" she called out, grabbing the attention of nearly everyone in the room, "Can you hear me?" She giggled and then added, "Of course you can… Might wanna plug your ears~" With that, she let out a screech that grew louder by the second, hands flew to cover ears and many began fleeing from the building. As the chaos ensued, the four congregated members of the Dan scoured the surging mass of people to locate the others. Moving carefully through the mass, they gathered and retreated to the van, Kido's eye ability constantly in use.
Reaching the vehicle, they began to pile in, taking their seats, however, there was a member missing. Kido sighed, grumbled and looked around, and thinking that maybe he was only a few steps behind them. But he wasn't.
"Where's Hibiya?" The green haired girl sprinted back to go look for him, finding it difficult to not bump into anyone as they swerved unpredictably.
Hibiya sat on one of the benches just inside the entrance, watching the mob as they frantically attempted to find their loved ones that they had originally come in with. The cyber girl's scream had long since died down to a low roar. As the minutes on the clock across from him ticked by, he wondered if the Dan were even still looking for him or if they had forgotten and simply left. He sighed deeply, resting his head on his hand.
"Hibiya!" He looked up as a familiar, yet not at all sweet, voice called out his name. However, he didn't see the person he expected. She was nowhere to be found. He cocked his head in confusion, continuing to look in all directions until and hand—and then a tall figure—appeared in front of him. Kido reached her hand out to him, her lips pressed into a tight line.
"We haven't got all day, come on," she yelled, needing to be heard of the ruckus. He nodded, took her hand and stood. As soon as he was on his feet, his arm was wrenched painfully and he had to run to keep even within a few feet of the girl pulling him along. He noticed that she reactivated her red eyes and so he made sure to not slam into anyone.
Finally, upon reaching the van, the two climbed in, the Danchou taking the driver's seat. As she started the car, a voice called from the back.
"What about Ene-chan…?" There was a mutter of explanation from Shintaro about how they didn't need to wait for her and then the white haired android was satisfied.
Momo began profusely apologizing to everyone as they made their way onto the highway. Of course, no one blamed the idol; she couldn't quite control her ability yet so occasionally things like this were expected to happen. The only problem with that was that Kido had to be constantly at her side so no severe accidents would occur, putting strain on the leader. When all the apologies were done being exchanged, the van became rather quiet until the deceiver turned on the radio and the silence was again filled.
It was fine at first, the music was not something she would normally listen to but Kido was initially able to drown it out. However, about halfway to the hotel, her eyes began to burn, the sound magnified, and her eyesight began to waver.
"Crap." It wasn't more than a whisper but it caught Kano's attention, he watched her for a while before turning away, not understanding what she had mumbled for.
They pulled into the hotel parking lot and began filing out, the green haired girl's step wobbling ever so slightly. Her vision became blurry and in a vain attempt, she reached for the sleeve of her companion's black parka. He turned just in time for her to collapse into him, everything going dark.