Act 78 – A Good Friend

Kyoko sighed as she looked at the office work in front of her. Despite having feelings already growing for Ren, she still couldn't understand love at all and her appreciation for Kuon didn't automatically translate into an appreciation for any of those sappy and misguided feelings. She bowed her head as she looked at the amount of paperwork and started to daze off only to come to the realization that she would have to complete the work. She sighed heavily, closing her eyes.

As soon as her eyes closed, she heard a scream of horror and opened them to see Maria standing there in front of her. The little girl was shivering as she watched her as If Kyoko had become the monster out of a classic horror film. "Onee-san," Maria said in a weak voice and Kyoko blinked confused to her reaction.

Maria was shivering and taking a few shaky steps away from Kyoko when Kyoko finally engaged in conversation. "Oh, Maria," she said with a smile, "What are you doing?" she asked before blinking nervously. "Why do you have such a horrified expression?"

The little girl put her hands to her cheeks looking even more horrified as she seemed to shake her head with terror. Kyoko had no idea for what reason she was giving such a response. Had something terrible happened? "Onee-san just now," she said with tears in her eyes. "Just now you did something that can never be made up for!" she announced.

Kyoko leaned forward, looking at the young girl with a blank expression. Had she heard about Ren's anger, had he actually been blabbing about her and that's why Maria was upset. No. As much as Maria loved Ren, Ren wasn't going to go around telling the whole world that she was in Shotaro's music video. Kyoko was worrying too much about truly trivial affairs. "Huh? What?" she asked and Maria's fear seemed to grow in her expression.

"You don't know, Onee-san?" she asked and Kyoko laughed weakly. "In this world, every time you sigh, you lose a bit of happiness and fortune! Onee-san, you're already such an unlucky girl! How can you watch what's left of your happiness and fortune to slowly drift away!" she accused her and Kyoko gave another weak laugh, despite her love for the occult, Maria really was too innocent.

"Geez, Maria," Kyoko said in a casual manner. "You're so superstitious," she said as she started to put away all of the books and papers. "Actually, it doesn't matter if you sigh or not. If happiness and fortune decides to ditch you, it will. And the escape of one will act as a lock effect." Maria put her hands to her open mouth and started shaking. Kyoko looked to her, she would have to hear the truth at some point, wouldn't she?

Kyoko really didn't want Maria to suffer in the way that she had with Shotaro. She had had lot happiness from her childhood when she had believed that she was young and carefree when she had just been a naïve young girl. In fact, up until a number of months ago had she still been naïve and carefree. Fortunately, Kuon had forgiven her for making a mistake for being stupid and for having fate side against her. He had understood and she was fortunate for that one thing because maybe another person wouldn't have been so understanding.

Kyoko wanted to go back to taking on cases that had nothing to do with Shotaro. She wanted to impress Ren and make him never consider the idea of her being an angry little girl with a mind filled with the desire for revenge. She mostly didn't want for her to see her drifting backwards especially now that Corn was back in her possession.

Kyoko sighed and Maria tilted her head to the side, "Onee-san?" she asked with an innocent look on her face, "Is something bothering you?" Kyoko blinked as she looked up at her, she wasn't sure how to answer that. Yes, she had resolved the problem with Ren but there were many more layers to it and she wasn't able to explain all of that without revealing some important facts. She would just have to learn to eliminate all chance of running into Shotaro again in her life.

"Being alone and angry isn't good," Maria continued as she opened up her bag and started taking some strange items out of it, "Why don't you use magic to get rid of your problems?" Maria lifted up two of her items to show Kyoko, "Which kind is better?" she asked, "I'll chant the curses with you."

Kyoko smiled uneasily. Although she respected the fact that Maria had protected her heart against those stupid and foolish feelings of a misunderstood love, she didn't know whether encouraging her to use voodoo was best. It was one of those strange things which they had shared together but should she be acting as a good role model and what even was a good role model?

"Thank you," Kyoko smiled honestly, "But I'm fine. You're such a nice kid."

Kyoko packed up all the boxes of paperwork and put them on a cart, Maria closed her bag and jumped up to join her. As they walked along, Maria approached Kyoko and blinked, studying her until Kyoko slowed down a little. "Onee-san, that reminds me," Maria began and Kyoko tilted her head to the side.

"What?" she asked and Maria hummed.

"I haven't seen Kotonami-san today, is she okay?" Maria asked and Kyoko laughed. That was one topic that she really did love talking about. She liked thinking about her best friend and pretending that they had a closeness like sisters. She would never be disheartened talking about Moko.

"She has to film a drama today," Kyoko replied confidently.

"Really?" Maria gasped, "They've started filming already?"

Kyoko nodded eagerly, "Yeah. She can finally become the actress she always wanted to be," she replied before sighing. That was what Kanae had told her but there was something that felt a little odd about the conversation which the two of them had had. Kanae's tone wasn't very happy and then after that she hadn't really mentioned anything to do with the filming and Kyoko had gone ahead and told her all the details from her shoot. That didn't make her feel good at all. Friends were supposed to reciprocate, it was a give and take relationship after all. This was also Kanae's first proper job as an actress. Why wasn't she sharing any details about it?

Still, it felt incredibly saddening that she could share everything in her life with Kanae and she always felt so happy and refreshed when she did so. More than that, seeing Kanae happy would make her feel better even if she wasn't the one to create that happiness for her. It made Kyoko feel sad to imagine being locked out of another person's heart. Kyoko attempted to stop the sadness from showing on her face. She didn't want to be a burden to Moko-chan or anyone else.

"Ah," Maria said with an eager smile, "Oh yeah! Onee-san, can we have a congratulations party?" she asked eagerly and Kyoko looked at her in surprise. What was she referring to? "A celebration for Kotonami-san," she suggested and Kyoko blinked, her face lighting up as she thought about the idea of doing something special for her treasured friend. She watched Maria, still a little unsure of what the little girl was suggesting but it she could do something that would make Moko smile then she wanted to do it.

"A celebration for Kotonami-san," Maria suggested, "To congratulate her for becoming an actress."

Kyoko felt a light in her heart that was showing itself through her facial expression. She wanted to give Moko-chan the best congratulations possible and prove to her that despite not a romantic love, Moko-chan did have love and support through Kyoko. Doing something special for Kanae was a definite way to prove to her how meaningful her existence was.

There were many ways in which they could celebrate and these fit into Kyoko's vision of the perfect friendship between two girls. They could dance together. She could give Moko a toast. She could pick out a present ideal for Moko. There could be all kinds of flowers and decorations and desserts there. Most of all a celebration meant that they could spend more time together. Yes. A celebration was a perfect idea. Kyoko hugged Maria happily, she was so excited because this meant that only good friends could initiate such an event and she wanted to prove to be the best friend possible.

"That's such a brilliant suggestion, Maria!" Kyoko exclaimed as she hugged the little girl tightly. "You really are a smart child!" she said. Her energy was completely revived and she had something to do, something to celebrate someone who meant so much to her already. This was a chance of improving their friendship score as well.

Kyoko laughed happily with a smile across her face, she tilted her head as she turned to Maria, "So, for such a celebration we need to buy gifts, right?" she asked and Maria nodded with her own laugh.

"You're right. Preferably it's something she likes and always wanted," Maria suggested and Kyoko nodded in agreement.

"You're right," she said with a lot of excitement in her voice but she paused, her mind starting to race. It then dawned upon her that she didn't know what that meant. What did she like? What did she want? There were so many problems with this. There were so many things she hadn't taken into consideration. If she got the wrong gift did that mean that she would lose friendship points. How could she find out what Moko wanted. She never seemed to want anything other than to be an actress and it wasn't as if Kyoko was a director or anyone who could secure a job for her.

Since Kyoko didn't know things like her birthday or her blood type or her family was she even able to be a friend. She felt that she was defeated. She cared about her so much and yet there was so much she didn't know. Kyoko felt her defeat for a long time before she lifted her head. "No, it's all right." Kyoko stood up and smiled. She would have to learn this information on her own. Nobody would have to know how bad of a friend she was. She could tail Kanae like a female officer of the CIA and find out everything about her.

The information which Kyoko needed to collect included her address and for that she needed to sneak a peek at the records. After that she could check out other things that she still didn't know. Soon she would have volumes of knowledge about Kanae and her likes and dislikes. Kyoko would become the ultimate scholar on Kanae Kotonami.

Nobody would dare to call Kyoko a bad friend after she managed to complete her plan.

End of Act 78

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Brennakai, H-Nala, Kaname671, Lita of Jupiter