/Translation-thing: Tasukete: "Help me!" or "Save me!"/ -chi: an honorific that people use to imply huge cuteness. Mainly used by high school girls or people who are just plain happy./ Kirsche Affe: Put together, these two German words mean "cherry monkey"./ Guten Tag: "good day" in German./
While all of these fascinating things had been happening to our happy heroine, novelist Eiri Yuki sat in his study by his laptop. Shuichi was gone for a shoot about some sort of cologne and without him there it was rather quiet. Eiri was now turning around in his spinny chair with a cigarette in his mouth. This usually worked whenever he had writer's block, but it just wasn't enough this time.
But what was? He'd already tried pacing around the room, taking a stretch or two or twelve, going out to the balcony and looking down to see the people and how small they were, and even spinning around in his office chair while staring at the ceiling and singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" while thinking about strawberry cheesecake! (A/N: Sorry, that's one of my methods ;) None of them worked! So he finally decided on going into Taisho's room and stealing one of her CDs, the music might help.
Eiri wasn't frightened at all when he saw the state of Taisho's room…though he didn't remember the walls being red or Taisho having a canopy on her bed. But aside from that, he liked the chaos of everything looking like it had just been flung a mile by a tornado. Clothes littered the floor from the t-shirt search Eiri had overheard earlier that day, pictures Taisho had taken were strung across her room on strings and kept on by clothing pins, posters and collages plastered her walls and everything was just a mess…Eiri preferred it. What was it referred to as? Creative clutter? Yes, that was the phrase.
"Now where the hell does she keep her CDs?" Eiri asked himself. Yes, that was the right question, and so he started searching through the piles of items. Was it on her desk? No, the only things on there were finished homework and notes from classes. What a shocker. Perhaps they were near the CD player, makes sense, right? Well, it seemed this place made no sense and all logical thought was left at the door, but Eiri checked anyway. No luck there. Getting a little frustrated he looked by Taisho's bedside table and sure enough, the CD holder was acting as a lift for a picture frame.
Eiri picked it up and smirked at the picture. In the photograph were two men and a small girl no older than five. The taller man had golden hair and matching eyes, he wasn't smiling but the other two in the photo made up for that. The shorter man had bright pink hair and glittering eyes of lavender. He wore a large and calming smile, directed at a little girl with blonde hair that went to her shoulders, eyes closed and smiling wide. This was the first picture the Shindo-Yuki family had taken together.
Just seeing this photo reminded Eiri of a day that would change he and Shuichi's lives forever. It was a warm Summer's day twelve years ago…
"I see, exactly what kind of child are you looking for, Yuki-san?" asked Mrs. Otogiri, a plump woman in her forties. She had brown hair that was pulled into a braid, making it easier to see some streaks of gray. This woman was in charge of a Tokyo children's home on the outskirts of the city.
"Uh," Eiri looked at Shuichi for a moment. Was it mandatory to have one in mind before you came? This woman said nothing like that over the phone. "We were sort of hoping we could talk to the kids and see which one might be best."
"Is that all right?" Shuichi asked innocently. Oh God, he was hoping it was. Eiri was the one who said he was ready for a child and dammit, so was Shuichi. It sounded like the best twentieth birthday present ever, and if one little formality was keeping him from this, then Shuichi would be one unhappy camper… okay, more like raving lunatic, borderline homicidal camper.
"Oh, of course it's all right." Otogiri said with a smile. Yuki and Shuichi both let out big sighs of relief. "The children are having playtime right now, so if you'll just follow me I'll show you to the playground." The two men did as requested and followed her outside.
Never before had Eiri seen so many children in one place. They were running this way and that, playing soccer or jump rope or what other sources of childish amusement they were utilizing (which for a child is nearly endless) and Shuichi almost instantly went to a pair of little girls and asked if he could join their game of hopscotch. Eiri watched them play and felt a sense of peace as he watched Shuichi smile and laugh with all these different children. But occasionally, his eyes would wander away to a young girl on the other side of the playground who was sitting at a table alone, reading a book.
She had short blonde hair that was pulled into tiny braids and glasses; she looked very serious in what she was reading. Eiri could just barely make out "Grimm Brothers' Fairytales" on the cover. She wore a blue jumper over a red tank top with a yellow star on it and her green Converse-encased feet were swinging, not even close to touching the ground. Eiri had to admit he was intrigued by this strange little girl. Feeling a strange urge to know more, he stopped a freckly little brunette girl, kneeled down so the two were eye level and looked at her with the kindest look he could muster, lest he scare the kid off.
"What's your name?"
She blushed for a second, she probably thought he was pretty. "Hiromi."
"That's a pretty name. I'm Eiri." He said in his sweet voice. "Well, Hiromi, could you tell me who that girl over there is?" Eiri pointed in said girl's general direction. The freckled girl looked over to her, and with glee at knowing who it was, looked back at Eiri with a happy expression.
"Oh, that's Taisho." She started. "Taisho's a new girl; only been here a month. She's really smart and really nice, but some boys are jealous of her because she's better than them at everything, she can read chapter books too!"
"Is that so?" Eiri said under his breath. He looked down at Hiromi. "Well thank you for your help, Hiromi. It was very nice of you." Hiromi nodded quickly and ran back to her friends who were giggling like maniacs. It would seem that women were natural gossipers from five to the grave. Eiri looked back at the little girl, Taisho. But then he heard crying and saw that Shuichi had tripped and scratched up his knee something awful.
Eiri walked over and inspected Shuichi's knee…lots of blood, figures, Shuichi was definitely a bleeder. So, just to see Shuichi's expression, Eiri picked him up like a groom does a bride when walking into the honeymoon suite and set him down on the benches. After getting a first aid kit and wrapping up Shuichi's knee, a commotion came out over on the other side of the playground that caught the men's attentions.
"Sit here," Eiri said as he walked over to get a better look at the scene. Three rather large boys stood in a circle and seemed to be tossing something back and forth that looked something like glasses between them, never a good sign. Even worse, the girl in the center much smaller than they were, but instead of crying for them to give back whatever they were throwing, the child stood there throwing glares that could kill at each of them. He thought for a moment but then saw familiar traits on this girl; braided blond hair, blue jumper and green Converse…this was the girl Hiromi told him about, Taisho!
"What cha' gonna do now, huh?" sneered one of the boys who was so freckled he was almost tanned. Or maybe he was just foreign. He threw them across the circle and was caught by a large boy.
"Yeah!" said the biggest boy. And when I say biggest I mean "DAMN!" this kid was husky! "Without your stupid glasses, you can't see, can ya? You can't do nuthin'!"
"First of all, the right word is 'anything' not 'nothing' and next, I only need my glasses to read, I can still kick your butt all the way back to whatever barn in Hokkaido you came out of!" she said viciously, still using an ominous glare.
The first thing that came out of Yuki's mouth was "Wow, quite the vocabulary for a toddler. And she's cynical…awesome."
"What'd you say?" screamed the fat boy.
"I said that I don't need glasses to hit such a big target, Gonta. I'll just pretend your butt's a soccer ball and bend it like I were David Beckham on steroids!" she said with triumph in her voice. Eiri was liking this kid with every passing minute.
"You'll pay!" the kid screamed louder than he had before, and tackled Taisho to the ground. But she wasn't taking this at all, so she scratched and kicked and the two ended up rolling around, kicking the crap out of each other like kamikaze planes. But then for a second, Taisho's arms dropped and the boy found his opening. A punch straight in the chin and another in the stomach, all of this in a second.
"Tasukete!" screamed Taisho.
Eiri felt something in him that he hadn't felt in a long while. Was it righteousness? Pity? No, it was relevance. With only two steps, he had gone to the attacker child, swooped down on him and held up the screaming child by the back of his sweater. Shuichi came hobbling over and saw this act. Sure, he heard that Eiri nearly killed a member of a band whose lead singer had him raped. What was the injured guy's name? Ma-kun? But the fact was, he had never actually seen Eiri defending the weak.
Seeing Shuichi, Eiri dropped the child (who promptly ran away) and looked at his partner, a look of pride on the pink-haired lover's face. But his eyes wandered to the little girl on the ground, who was trying to stand up with a grimace on her face. Eiri walked over to this poor child and did something that Shuichi was (for once) familiar with seeing: the outstretched hand of a golden-haired angel. But this time, the angel was helping a fellow golden comrade, no matter the size. "Do you want some help?" he asked her in a quiet voice.
She looked up at him and saw something so pure and so innocent, he couldn't help but stare for a second or two. Eiri found himself staring into a pair of large eyes the color of lavender and for a second thought this was all a hallucination and that he was looking into Shuichi's eyes. But seeing the blond hair, he realized that these orbs belonged to the injured little girl named Taisho. But there was something strange in these eyes; sure, there was childish curiosity at who this was, but this girl had just been beaten and there were no tears streaming down her now dirty face. Weren't children supposed to cry when stuff like this happened.
Shuichi saw this girl's confusion and went over to her as well. He crouched down on his good knee and looked at her at eye level. "Are you alright?" Now the tiny child couldn't believe her eyes, these men next to her were beautiful beyond compare and wanted to help. It was as if they were angels sent down just for her and strangely felt as though she knew the faces of these two from somewhere. But to answer Shuichi's question, she simply nodded. At this, the younger man smiled brightly. "Well that's good to hear, but I think you might have trouble balancing yourself. Where did that boy hit you?" In a daze she pointed to where she had been punched and both Eiri and Shuichi immediately winced at the thought of himself getting hit there.
"I'm surprised you didn't puke from the stomach hit. Looks like he got you in the liver." Eiri said casually. Okay, maybe it was a little more aloof than casual, but for the sake of making a certain Tokyo romance novelist sound nice, we're going to use "casual".
"You're a very brave little girl. If I was hit the face, I'd probably be crying." Shuichi let out a laugh to show his happy intent. At this, the little girl let out a gasp and buried her face in her hands. A second or so later, she felt them being opened and saw the most gorgeous things she had ever laid eyes on.
Eiri gave her a look. "Don't be embarrassed, there's no need to hide."
"Your eyes are really pretty." Taisho said very quietly as she looked into the golden eyes of Eiri Yuki that looked straight into hers. Taisho snapped out of it quickly and turned her attention to Shuichi and then back to Eiri. "Are you two angels?" The two were stunned at this. Here was this adorable little girl calling them angels! Shuichi looked at Eiri and in response, he shrugged as if to say "Go ahead". Shuichi could barely contain himself, in fact, he didn't. He reached out and picked her up. Hugging her and swinging her around, he was beside himself in glee.
"Yes, we're angels! We're your guardian angels here to help you!" Shuichi exclaimed while dancing around with the little girl, he heard a small whimper and put her down quickly. "Oh sorry! I forgot about the stomach! Sorry!"
Taisho brushed herself off quickly and massaged the spot where it hurt. "That's okay, not your fault. But by "here to help me", do you mean--"
"TAISHO!" screamed Mrs. Otogiri as she jogged toward the three holding the hand of a certain plump troublemaker, Gonta. She, stopped very close to the small group out of breath, but still confronted them. "Gonta here said that you were calling him names and tackled him, explain yourself."
Taisho glared at Gonta as she spoke. "He's lying! He took my glasses and passed them around with Rikuno and Nagi! He was making fun of me, so I said things to him and he was the one who jumped on me!"
"She's lying!" screamed Gonta, fakest tears ever seen welling up in his eyes.
"Oh come on kid," said a cold voice. A quick turn of the head confirmed that it was Eiri Yuki, who was now standing next to Taisho in a defending manner, "that's bullshit and you know it." Mrs. Otogiri looked appalled at Eiri's use of language and so did Gonta but Taisho just looked at him like he were a role model of some sort, more accurately the coolest mother fucker alive. "I saw the entire thing, that little bastard you have next to you took her glasses and jumped her. Sure she said some things, but that was in defense and they don't seem entirely false by the look of things."
Shuichi, suddenly feeling inspired and bold, stood up and looked with a mischievous smirk at the stunned old woman. "If you don't believe him, which I know you should, notice Taisho's dirty and barely standing without aid, not to mention not wearing her glasses." Shuichi kneeled down to Gonta's height and smiled, throwing the boy off. With lightening speed, he whipped a pair of dusty glasses out of the front pocket of his pants.
Taisho stood completely amazed. "How did he do that?" she said in a half-whisper.
"You know those scratch DJ games in arcades? He plays those constantly. I swear that's all he does there, he barely even plays DDR." Taisho thought that over, it made sense to have quick fingers from playing that game all the time.
Shuichi dangled the glasses in front of his face so Mrs. Otogiri could see the proof. "Why those are--," she looked down at Gonta, who looked pretty friggin' scared now. "Gonta! You go to the time-out room!" Obediently, and hastily, he ran as fast as his short legs could carry him to the main building. She looked back at the two men with a worried and embarrassed look on her face. "I'm sorry sirs, this doesn't usually happen and I swear it won't happen again."
"No it won't," Yuki stated bluntly. But then he picked up Taisho and set her on his shoulder. "It won't because we'd like Taisho to be our new daughter."
And so that was how she came to live with the two and how Taisho had met all the people she had befriended now. Yuki put the frame down and took the CD case out of the room. When he returned to the study, he flipped through, popped in Sex Pistols and then realized something…he didn't know what to Shuichi after Eiri tried to have sex with him in his bedroom when the kid had a gotten cold.
"How the hell am I supposed to know this?" Eiri grunted as he ran a hand through his shimmering blond hair. Eiri rattled his brain as he tried to remember if Shuichi had said anything about talking to someone about it…but then a name came to him. "Nakano…he'd know!" Eiri rushed out of the room and looked through Shuichi's address book trying to find "Hiro and Ayaka". Sure enough, it was there with a small heart drawn next to the names Hiro, Ayaka…and Kazuki Nakano.
Way away from the study of the apartment…
Taisho darted through the weekend crowds in Shibuya with ease, for fear that she would be late meeting with Ryuichi and Noriko. She knew how small an attention span Ryu had and didn't want to arrive at the meeting place and not see anyone there or see that Ryu had gathered a crowd. Drooling fangirls were not a good thing right now, or any other time because fangirls meant attention and attention meant photographers and photographers meant reporters who would corrupt the event entirely!
She skidded to a halt at Daikin-yama Cafe, the established meeting place. One glance through the glass doors at who was sitting at the counter gave her the okay that she hadn't been late. Taisho distinctly saw the backs of two familiar head, one with purple hair in pigtails and the other with short, shaggy brown hair. She strode in, trying to hide her exhaustion from all the running and stepped right behind the two she was there to see. "You should get the bread pudding, it rocks." Said a voice behind her. Taisho jumped and turned around, and there were the people she had been waiting to see! What?
Ryuichi was in his mid-forties (you could never tell by the look of him) with shaggy brown hair and sparkling blue eyes filled with joy rivaled only by a child on Christmas morning. The woman next to him was Noriko, also in her forties, and also didn't look it, with hair of light lavender, in which she had recently put golden streaks all throughout it, and calming gray eyes. Before Taisho could even respond, she had been pulled into one of Noriko and Ryuichi's tag team, spine deteriorating hugs. When she was finally released, hardly able to stand she remembered that the people at the counter were now somehow in front of her, though a look over her shoulder told here the people at the counter were still there. "Wha? How?" Taisho had no idea what was going on, same as anyone else in that situation.
The two at the counter quickly turned in their chairs and seemed to rip off their hair! Taisho squeaked, but a look at the so called hair on the floor revealed them to be wigs…really good wigs. "What the hell is going on here!" screamed the little people in Taisho's brain. She turned her attention back to the imposters from the counter and suddenly felt happier than she had when Hiroki gave her the CD earlier, proceeding to pounce on the two. "Uncle Tohma! Uncle Tatsuha!" she cried.
The two embraced her with open arms and warming smiles. Then Noriko and Ryu joined in and then everyone was laughing. They all broke apart after a few seconds, though they had to pry Tatsuha from Ryuichi. "What are you doing here Uncle Tohma? I thought you were in Paris for another four days!"
Tohma chuckled a bit. "Yes, well I took the fastest jet out of Paris this morning after realizing that I'd missed your birthday again. I remember promising you this Summer that I wouldn't miss it." Tohma gave her a kiss on the forehead. "But enough of that," he said finally, "let me get a good look at you." Taisho willfully stood still with a big smile on her face, but the truth was, she was looking him over as well. And dammit, Tohma Seguchi looked exactly the same as he always had from as far back as she could remember.
Tohma Seguchi was in the same situation as Noriko and Ryuichi, was in his forties but didn't look a day over twenty or so. He'd always had that innocent smile reminiscent of a cherub, but on the inside nobody could even fathom the intricacies that went on in there. He could be planning a beauty pageant or the assassination of a political leader and nobody would ever know. He had pale blond hair that looked the color of champagne and eyes of a nice teal, leaning more towards blue.
A glance to the left was all Taisho needed to start this off well, but she spoke anyway. "And what about you, Uncle Tatsuha? Last I heard you were performing a funeral service in Okinawa, hardly in the neighborhood."
Tatsuha Uesugi was a very handsome man with black hair and brown eyes. To put his appearance simply, it was Eiri with a natural Japanese color scheme to him. Tatsuha also seemed to be the opposite of Tohma when standing next to him. Tohma being a perfect little angel and Tatsuha seeming like one of the fallen. A mischievous smile across his face making his personality clear; he was a hooligan, capable of raising all hell if he so wished.
Tatsuha only shrugged. "I dunno, something about the body getting stolen and sent off to sea. And I wanted to see if you really do look different in the first week of being seventeen."
"That has to be, by far, the lamest excuse I've ever heard you come up with. Total bullshit." Taisho said in a convicting tone. "It's alright if you say you came for Ryuichi, I think it's cute."
Ryuichi looked up from the piece of aluminum foil he'd been amusing himself with for the past moments. "What about me being cute?"
"Nothing, just Uncle Tatsuha saying he wanted your hot ass again." Taisho said in a perfectly blunt manner. Tatsuha's jaw nearly hit the floor, Noriko's eyes seemed to bug out of her head and Tohma…well, he just chuckled.
"Oh, okay!" Ryuichi giggled and went back to his little aluminum buddy, deserving of a pat or two on the head. Tatsuha got out of his semi comatose state and took a gigantic sigh of relief. He kept forgetting that Ryuichi, beautiful as he was, was smart as a rock. When certain things were said, there was no cause for alarm.
After ordering some lattes and pie slices for everyone, the misfit group left the café and started on the intended shopping adventure. They decided to pull names out of a hat for where they would go. The first stop was Tohma's choice and that was new wardrobe shopping. Sure, Taisho had enough clothes and things, but she was growing out a lot of them so Tohma volunteered to buy them all new wardrobes just because he could. They all left extremely happy and in the new outfits they bought. Taisho in her usual intellectual punk thing, Tatsuha with tight jeans and a tight black shirt, Noriko in a very happy gal sort of thing, Tohma with his usual boa and trench coat ensemble in different colors and Ryuichi in skater attire (he could've passed for a high school student in his outfit).
Next place: Noriko's choice! All of them went to a theater and saw a horror flick called "Phantom Reign" and all of the boys ended up screaming their pretty little heads off. Taisho and Noriko acted as cling posts for the especially stomach-churning moments. By the end of the film, Tohma was staring off into the distance with his heart pounding out of his chest, Ryuichi was crying and Tatsuha looked thoroughly freaked out. Noriko helped calm Ryuichi down a bit and Taisho…she whipped out her cell and took pictures of these three grown men crying like little bitches. "Movie tickets for five adults: 4500 yen," Taisho said as she was pulling out the little device, "seeing three out of five nearly wetting their pants," she held up the phone and there was a flash, "priceless."
Their next place was Tatsuha's choice, and that was to play the usual game of "Most Phone Numbers Wins" in the plaza. The rules were simple; the person with the most phone numbers gets 1000 yen from each one who participates and you can't ask people you know for their numbers. Taisho, being seventeen, was now allowed to join the game according to the others with Noriko to act as referee. After splitting up and then meeting back at the statue of Hachiko the Dog after an hour of number hunting, they compared the scores.
Tohma: 127 (most from males ;)
Ryuichi: 184
Tatsuha: 180
When they finally got to Taisho, she forked over her cell with an angry look on her face. "Just go into 'recently added' and you'll find it." She grunted. Noriko looked and was completely flabbergasted by the number. And then Tatsuha, Ryuichi and Tohma leaned in to look and all exclaimed the exact…same…thing…
"TWO HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR!" they shouted. Taisho looked at the ground with a big blush on he face. "Why the hell are you so angry? You beat us all by a shit load!" Tatsuha inquired.
She cried and went into a fetal position as she spoke. "Because only twenty of them were boys my age!"
The next destination was Taisho's choice, and that was to go into an arcade. Once stepping in, Ryuichi seemed to be having a seizure with just the sheer excitement of seeing all the flashing lights and hearing the awesome music. After all nodding at each other they all went after the same things. Any game that included the word "mania", "revolution", "extreme" or "paradise". Every one of them a music associated game. Who'd have thought, right? You would never guess that a musician's daughter, a disbanded but no hard feelings at all band and a certain singer's all-time favorite fan boy would play anything related to music, right? After asking if it was possible to plug two DDR machines together and finding it was, Taisho and Tohma went against Ryuichi and Noriko while Tatsuha acted as commentator. Strangely enough, all four tied…for highest score. Way to go choreography!
The final stop would definitely be the highlight of the day: Ryuichi's choice. These were always good, no exceptions, whether it be Shakespearean excerpts on a bench or Insult Scavenger Hunt, it was always entertaining in the end. "Taisho, go limp." Ryuichi said quickly.
"Why?" Taisho inquired.
"Because we're gonna play a new game," he said slyly, "it's called Inconspicuous Corpse, it's an attention game. Since you're the lightest, you're the corpse we carry around like we're trying to find a place to stash you." Taisho cocked an eyebrow at the statement and looked at the others who nodded with evil looking grins. She simply shrugged and did as previously told and went limp before the others could even barely catch her.
And so she was carried through the streets of Shibuya. With Tatsuha and Noriko holding the upper body, Tohma holding up her legs and Ryuichi darting his head this way and that with a pair of Yakuza sunglasses. Taisho could only imagine the looks on people's faces as they went by, what with her eyes closed and her tongue lolling out of her head. A few times they almost dropped her but they made a quick recovery of it and added it to the script. It was rather uncomfortable…being bounced around and being held only by her limbs at certain points. Head bonking into Tatsuha's belt buckle. Her knees feeling like they would bend backwards at other times. But they were all having a grand old time.
After twenty minutes of this, they stood her up on her feet. "Alright! Open your eyes, Tai-kun!" All the adults stated happily in unison. Taisho did as demanded (not asked, mind you!) and as she saw where they were standing, her lovely lavender eyes widened and she immediately knew what it was.
It was a where house, but being a photography buff, Taisho put all things together and realized that a photo shoot was going on inside. She had seen many a scenario like this with Shuichi as well. "Oh. My. God." Seemingly unable to move of her own free will, Tatsuha picked her up and carried her inside even though his arms were tired from carrying her torso for a good amount of time. All the people around her were wearing the happiest smiles anyone would ever see.
Once inside, Taisho was revived by the clicking and flashing of cameras and statements like "Move your chin a little to the left." And things like that. There were three different cameras stationed around the little scene. It was a platform shaped like a cliff edge and there was an entirely green background behind it, for obvious reasons known as a "green screen", which are used for cut and paste backgrounds of absolutely any image desired. One of the people behind the cameras turned as she heard the new footsteps and practically exploded in happiness when her eyes landed on the group. "Ryu-chi!" She practically skipped over to them, her spiky purple and bright red hair bouncing at every step.
"Kirsche-chan!" screamed Ryuichi as he held out his arms to pull her into an embrace. But just a few steps away from his warm arms, she tripped on a cord and her face collided with the cold concrete of the where house floor. Taisho was about to step forward until she saw the strange photographer flip herself into a handstand and then rounded off, her feet only centimeters away from Taisho's nose. She looked at Taisho for a second, complete concentration and stoicism in her eyes but then said eyes went to Ryuichi and the happy was back on.
"Guten Tag!" She said jubilantly as she shot her hand into the air. With a group "hello" from everyone but Ryuichi, Kirsche looked absolutely ecstatic.
Ryuichi put an arm around the foreigner girl and looked at Taisho. "Tai-kun, this is Kirsche Affe." Taisho stifled a giggle at the name's meaning (read translation-thing at the top to understand). "She's an international photographer from Germany and she said that she needed some help for a CD shoot today, so I thought 'Why not Tai-kun?'"
"Seriously, I've never heard such praise before about one person before." Kirsche said plainly, which made Taisho blush furiously. "But he backed up the praise with some pictures you took over the Summer, I must say it's some of the best work I've ever seen in my life!"
"Well…there were so many interesting things to capture, I couldn't h-help it. But I-I'm not all THAT good…" Taisho mumbled modestly.
"Nonsense! What sort of trash are people feeding you!" Kirsche exclaimed. "Definitely really awesome. You're really good and anyone who says otherwise should rot in hell!"
"Well, thank you, Affe-san." Taisho said in a respectfully delighted tone.
"Oh, please call me Kirsche-chan, or something to that extent at least! It has a pleasant ring to it." The crazy German patted her on the shoulder and led her over to the cameras and both had a thorough discussion on the emotion the image was to project to the audience. Considering the band was a gothic visual kei band, they decided that sadness and beauty was the thing to do. When Taisho finally got to the cameras it seemed like no one could stop her. She zoomed in and out and took pictures from all angles and caught the most beautiful images she could. Even to the people she had come with, all of them were completely amazed by the energy she had and the expression on her face as she worked was nothing short of determined enjoyment.
As Taisho worked, she saw Kirsche too and realized she had a sort of boyish charm about her. Noticing the fair eyes and skin was the first thing, but her styled hair and wiry body made her look like the male drama students at her school. She was also extremely tall compared to everyone else in the room and had a sort of unisex beauty that would catch the eye of anyone she walked past.
When the shoot was over, she ended up with the phone numbers of Kirsche, the members of the band she was helping ("Dorian's Portrait"), a girl who was helping with catering and many others. She happily trudged home with a big grin on her face and as she walked though the door to the apartment and collapsed just after opening the door, Eiri came out of his crypt of inspiration, crouched down and just had to ask. "I take it you had fun?"
She looked at him with a tired but still happy expression. "That's putting it on the mildest of terms, Otosan."