She Comes And Goes As She Pleases

by BrDPirateMan

Neku's life turns upside-down when he falls in love with Eri, the most eccentric girl in Shibuya. He's an everydude with a knack for deadpan snarking. And she's the flirty wisecracker who loves using her sex appeal to tease him 24/7. Odd couple? You bet. Get ready for a fun and sexy romantic comedy where their growing relationship is proof that opposites DO attract! [Ecchi content]

53. The Reapers' Date

She Comes And Goes As She Pleases (Part 53)
by BrDPirateMan

So here I was, catching my breath at the entrance of the skating rink after having run all the way over. I didn't want my Reaper pals to catch sight of me, so like it or not I had to make like a ninja and go undercover. I breathed a heavy sigh into the surgical mask I was wearing.

After a tug or two at my hooded jacket to make sure my frightfully conspicuous hair stayed hidden, I braced myself for the task ahead and went inside. My outfit was quite good if I do say so myself. Not in the fashion sense of course, but if you needed to go someplace incognito then it was perfect.

I tightened the laces on my skates and got to my feet very shakily, like a newborn animal standing up for the first time in the wild. There were quite a few people out and about, zipping or otherwise tripping all over the place. I didn't see Eri right away, but it didn't take long for me to locate Kariya and Uzuki.

Temporarily forgetting about my purpose for coming here, I watched the date play out between them from across the rink. From the looks of it, they've been here for a while. My original mental image of the date had him showing her the ropes on how to skate properly. She might have made a few mistakes here and there, getting a butt full of ice, but he would be a real gentleman about it and help her at every opportunity.

Then a closer look subverted all of my expectations.

"Gah!"

There was an almighty thump as Kariya lost his balance and fell. He rubbed his throbbing behind, braving a dopey smile.

"Come on," said Uzuki, offering her hand. "Up and at 'em. You can do it."

When he grabbed it, I held my breath, afraid that he'd goof up and drag her down to join him on the ice. Instead, she hauled him to his feet gracefully and without the slightest hint of exertion. The tension in my chest went away.

"Skating is hard!" he laughed. "I guess butt-sliding is all I can do, huh?"

For once, she was actually encouraging, albeit in a very subtle, watered-down, sarcastic kind of way. "If you don't mind frostbite on your rump, that's not a bad way to go about it. But you're better off learning some proper techniques."

"Spoken like a true pro. Um, could I take a really short break, though? I need to, uh… tend to my butt for a bit."

"Suit yourself. I'm going to stretch my limbs in the meantime."

"Why not."

Kariya retreated to lean against the wall and nurse his sore muscles. In stark contrast, Uzuki tore up the skating rink doing complex-looking spinning maneuvers and other stunts I couldn't even start to describe. Most of the other people stood around, dumbstruck at her skating prowess. My mouth was left hanging open too… at least it would if I wasn't wearing that surgical mask. But seriously, how did she learn to move like that?! So much for that mental image…

Without thinking, I ambled in their general direction and very quickly discovered how much I sucked at skating. I had been very careful the entire time, moving at a snail's pace, and yet one misstep was all it required for me to go all wobbly and turn into a mess of wild flailing limbs. When I fell, my hip was the first thing that connected with the ice and it hurt the most. It was all I could do not to cry out loud and give myself away from the sound of my voice.

As I struggled to get off the ice, a helpful soul extended his hand to me.

"Ah, thank you," I mumbled.

Right as I was about to take his hand, I saw that it belonged to none other than Kariya. Caught by surprise, I fell onto my back like an upturned beetle, but not before performing a hectic impromptu breakdance (I blame the ice for being slippery). I could feel the stares of people who found humour in my mishap. Good thing no one could see my face and how red it had become.

I eventually stood back up with his help. "You okay, man?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah." I had to deepen my voice by a few octaves. "Thanks."

He squinted at me quizzically. "Dude, have I seen you somewhere before?"

Maybe my voice wasn't as well-disguised as I thought. I shook my head and left in a hurry as best as my clumsy feet could carry me, relief growing with the distance I put between us. The partition along the perimeter of the rink looked like a good place to catch my breath, so that's where I parked myself. Swimming I could handle, but not skating. You wouldn't catch Eri in a bikini at a skating rink, anyway.

Uzuki returned to Kariya shortly afterwards and the two of them resumed skating together. It's cute seeing her leading him by the hands and him taking baby steps at a time. And they seemed to be having fun too; at least, I hoped that was the case.

But where's Eri?

"Boo."

Behind me. I heard that from behind me. Startled, I spun round – taking care not to lose balance again – and saw a girl with her head all wrapped up in a cap and scarf. Her face could not be seen. Puzzled, I just stared at her without saying anything.

She edged closer and pulled down the scarf that was covering half her face.

"Boo," she repeated with a grin. "Hi, Neku."

"Found you at last, Eri," I sighed. "Sure saves me the trouble of having to look for you. Wait… how did you know it was me?"

"From the way you flailed your arms when you fell earlier. Only you can fall down and make it glorious. Hee hee… you were a masterpiece. Truly iconic."

"…I shouldn't have asked."

My quest to locate her was finally over. We stood there, watching the Reapers from afar.

"So," I said, "I seem to recall us having a certain conversation last week about not butting into Kariya and Uzuki's business. And here you are… What happened?"

"Is that an accusation? That's not a very nice thing to say. I've been a good girl!" I could almost see her pouting through her scarf.

"What've you been up to, anyway?"

"Nothing! I've just been watching them, that's all. Or did you not read my note carefully? Did you miss the part where I mentioned I was going to check up on them 'secretly'? Maybe I should have written it in big, bold letters…"

"Let's just say I wanted to be sure you were behaving yourself." I could have added that the word 'secretly' was kind of an oxymoron with her, but I wasn't going to be harsh today.

Satisfied that she wasn't up to anything weird, I accompanied her as we watched the… well, I won't call them full-fledged lovebirds just yet. It feels more like they're testing the waters.

Eri sidled up to me. "Hey, wanna hear something cool?"

"Uh, what?"

"Uzuki used to participate in skating competitions in her younger days! I overheard her telling this to Kariya when he asked why she's so good."

"So that's why she's teaching Kariya how to skate and not the other way around."

"See? I knew it!" she boasted triumphantly. "That's a role reversal right there if ever I saw one! I knew it's practically a foregone conclusion that she's destined to be on top!"

I let out a sigh. "Eri, I forbid you from talking about sex for the next three hours."

"Why are we over here anyway? Let's get closer so we can observe them in all their awkward glory. When we get to the moment where they blush at each other, I want to be able to see every pore on their skin!"

"That's too close."

As I was hopeless at simple locomotion on ice skates, I was left at Eri's mercy as she dragged me around like a kid with a weighted balloon. We settled for a spot about two or three metres away, pretending to play around… and in the process I fell down so much that even the onlookers who had been sniggering at me lost interest. Yeah, I was that bad.

For a long time, not much happened. Uzuki was the teacher and Kariya her student. He could hardly keep up with her, but at least he seemed to be having fun, and for that matter, so was she to an extent. It's honestly hard to tell with her.

"When are we going to see something good?" grumbled an impatient Eri. "Maybe I should give them a nudge in the right direction…"

"No. Don't."

"I'm just kidding. Don't you know how I work by now? I'm not gonna do anything weird to them. That said, if they were to have, say, a little 'accident'…"

Just then, there was an almighty thunk as Kariya landed on his butt for the umpteenth time. Grinning sheepishly, he had to be helped back up.

I shot Eri a wry look. "Did that one count?"

"…Not what I had in mind." And she rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

Her waiting around wasn't in vain. Eventually he had to take his last break for the date and he retreated to his by now-favourite spot near the partition. This time Uzuki gave the acrobatics a rest and talked to him. The usual back-and-forth ribbing was out in full force, but at least it was all goodnatured. Then the conversation took an enlightening turn.

"Has it been that long?" mused Uzuki.

Kariya blinked at her. "What has?"

I perceived a slight reddish tint on her cheeks. "Remind me again when you first confessed to me?"

This time he joined her in the blush department. "Oh… that. Well, that was a long time ago…"

"Seven years isn't a long time."

"Ah… you remembered?"

"Yeah."

Even through her scarf, it was obvious Eri was delighted. It was stretched tightly over her mouth, which was upturned in a smile, and seeing it embossed in the woolen material was creepy.

"Ooh, plot twist!" she squealed. "For at least seven years he's had feelings for her! Amazing!"

I hissed, "Keep it down or they'll hear us."

"Have you been like this," asked Uzuki further, "for the past seven years? As in, you know, all this time you have been in… in… well…"

"In love with you?"

"Uh-huh. Sorry, I haven't been in a relationship before, so you'll have to forgive that I'm… awkward."

"Hey, you and me both," he chuckled. "But yeah, I never gave up on wanting a girlfriend, and I wanted that girlfriend to be you."

Her cheeks reddened even more and he went into a minor episode of panic.

"Whoa, sorry, girl. W-Was I too forward there?"

But she shook her head, dispelling his concerns. "No, I'm glad you're honest. It's just weird for someone to say it right in my face."

"You really haven't got a boyfriend before and it shows."

"Shut up. I could say the same about you."

"You're right. I've never had a boyfriend before in my entire life."

"Heh…" Uzuki cracked the slightest grin. "That's a good one. But really, you were so fidgety this whole time. Never held a girl's hand before?"

"Can't say I have. You've got nice soft hands."

"I'm wearing gloves, idiot."

"And they're warm. Real warm."

"Isn't that the case with everyone's hands?"

He sighed. "Sure, but I was hoping you could see the romantic undertones to that compliment and, I don't know, blush harder or something."

She just snorted, but she wasn't being cruel, just amused. "That's some seriously flawed logic, Kariya."

"Heh… I guess."

Eri was getting dangerously close to blowing up in a shower of confetti and pink hearts.

"They're getting along just fine!" she said happily. "They're even joking around which I totally – "

"Durff!"

"…Neku, would it kill you to not fall over for one second?! You're ruining the mood!"

"It's not like I can help it," I protested, struggling to get back on my toes. "I'm no good with ice skates! If they had training wheels on them I might fare better."

"Nah, you're probably better off in a bobsled. Or a snowmobile."

"Ouch…"

Uzuki fiddled with the hem of her sweater. "Come to think of it, it was a little over seven years ago that I started working alongside you. You were my senpai back then."

"Oh yes, I can't forget the time when you were still a spring chicken. Your hair was longer too! Reached up to the shoulders. But now you had your hair chopped off, and you're my boss too. Funny how things turn out, huh?"

"You flat-out refused promotions… But let's not talk about that. I mean, seven years is practically the whole time I've known you… So was it love at first sight for you or what?"

"Heck no," he laughed. "You up for a little backstory?"

"Sure. Go for it."

"As you know, I've been working this job for longer than you have, and you know how we have to train the new recruits every so often? They're a boring lot. They get the job done, but as people they're as dull as dishwater. 'Yes, boss,' 'no, boss.' Like robots, machines. It's all so uninteresting. You, on the other hand… you're interesting."

"I am?" She folded her arms. "How?"

"When I was assigned as your mentor, I was taken aback at first by how rigid your personality was. Even though I insisted you call me by my name, you still addressed me as senpai. There were times when I wondered if you were in the JSDF or something!"

Uzuki wasn't offended in the very least, simply embarrassed as she came up with ways to justify the temperament of her past self. "I… I was just giving it my all… Plus, for a senpai, you seemed so flippant and unenthusiastic. I felt that I should at least set you straight… or something…"

"It was kinda funny seeing my cute trainee get all hot and bothered about the smallest things."

"Me… c-cute? Uh, no I mean, how's that supposed to explain everything?"

"I was glad to finally be in charge of someone like you. At least you made things fun for me."

"I don't know if that's something I should be happy about…"

"Relax!" he laughed. "Sure, you're cool to hang out with, but that's only half the story."

"Hmmm… go on."

"Shortly after we got you onboard, we got a bunch of new recruits and it fell to me to get the paperwork done. There was a ton of it and you know how much I love paperwork."

"You're not a fan. I'm well aware."

I had no idea Reapers actually had paperwork to do. The thought of them sitting at desks working on forms was a peculiar one, but then again, they're a mysterious bunch. There's a lot about them I still don't know about.

"It was taking the whole day, and there was no one who could take the load off for me. But it had to be done, and because I'd been putting it off I reached a point where it'd piled up to epic proportions and I couldn't ignore it anymore. Then, for whatever reason, you popped by…"

"Uh… I did?"

"Yeah."

Uzuki knitted her brows trying to recall the details, but came up empty. "Really? I can't say I remember. I mean, that was quite a while back, right?"

"Seven years isn't a long time," he chuckled, echoing her words from earlier.

She shrugged. "I need a refresher. Care to share?"

That was his cue to keep going. And thanks to his vivid narration, I was able to see it as an actual living scene in my mind's eye.

XOXOXOXOXO

"Damn," cursed Kariya under his breath. "There's too much to do! How did it get like this? Crud, crud, crud…"

At this hour of the evening, the office was deserted. Everyone had left. He remained, working on his burden of papers.

"I swear," he rambled, "this is the last time I procrastinate. And I also swear, this is the last time that I swear I won't procrastinate only to return to procrastinating the next day!"

"Excuse me?"

That voice jerked him from his trance of endless work and he looked up to see his trusty protégé had wandered into the office, cradling a stack of papers.

"Senpai," a younger, longer-haired Uzuki said wryly, "are you talking to yourself?"

"Huh? Oh, not at all. I'm just practicing a bit of soliloquy. You know, for McDonald's and stuff."

"It's Macbeth, if that's what you're after," she sighed. "And no, what you said just now was not Macbeth by a long shot."

"Oh? Mmm, good to know. I was never a literature expert. So what brings you here, Uzuki?" He saw the papers in her arms and gulped. "Y-You're not going to dump those onto my desk, are you? Please say you're not."

"Sorry, senpai." To his dismay, she added her bundle to the one already on his desk. "Orders from above."

He slumped in his chair and groaned. "Alright, alright, I'll take care of 'em. Thanks, I guess."

He turned back to his work, waving her away with a hand. But she didn't leave. He peered back up at her, straight into her curious gaze.

"Whatcha need?"

"You've been at this for a while now. How long, senpai?"

"Uh, the whole afternoon, starting from 1 pm. Yeah, it's been a while."

"It's nearly seven. Aren't you going home?"

"Not when I have this." He gestured towards the mess on his table. "I'll be here till the cows come home."

"This only happened because you keep putting it off."

"Ugh, don't remind me. Why are you here anyway?"

"I have some reports I needed to submit. Plus I had a discussion with Ms Konishi about my performance thus far."

"She gave you her thumbs up, I'm sure. Ol' Papaya Tits has a fondness for hard workers. It's for that reason she doesn't like me too much, heh."

She ignored his crude wisecracks and asked, "Have you eaten anything yet?"

"Um, I had a rice ball."

"When did you eat?"

"At three…"

"…I see."

Without another word, she left and Kariya was alone once more, scratching his head over her peculiar behaviour.

"Oh well, whatever."

He soldiered on, eyes burning from the strain of looking through dozens of forms. Check these particulars, fill in those blanks, stamp this page. Rinse and repeat. So dull. The evening was getting unbearable, and he wanted nothing more than a bevy of beautiful girls to march into his room, strip down to bikinis and dance on his desk. That would make for a nice, well-deserved break.

Reaching his limit, he stretched his arms and let out a prolonged yawn… which was almost immediately drowned out by the sound of his tummy rumbling.

"Aw, man. Now I'm hungry." He went on another rant, absentmindedly swiveling from side to side in an arc in his chair. "Geez, come on! Where're my bikini-clad angels? When are they gonna dance on my desk? And if I'm going to have some entertainment, shouldn't I have some food too? What's a guy got to do to enjoy some of life's simpler pleasures?"

He spun all the way around and suddenly found himself staring right at Uzuki, who had appeared out of nowhere.

Reeling from the shock, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Oh hi how you doin'?!"

Eyes narrowed in suspicion, she said, "Quoting from Macbeth again, are we?"

"You scared the heck outta me. Wh-When did you get here?"

"I arrived just when you were starting to scream about the 'bikini-clad angels'. Senpai, just what were you doing? And don't tell me it's soliloquy."

"That? Oh, uh… that was – " Then in a flash, he remembered something. "Wait, why do I have to answer to you? I'm your mentor! You're not the boss of me!"

"Then I take it you don't want this bento I bought for you?"

"Huh?"

She placed a plastic bag on Kariya's desk. "Bento inside. Hot. Eat it."

Confused, he slowly opened the bag and scooped out the bento from within. It was store-bought and nothing fancy, but it was comfortably hot and ready to eat. Meanwhile, she had noisily dragged a chair over. She sat on it cross-legged and produced a second bento for herself, opening it up. A puff of steam rose from within, bringing with it a heavenly smell.

She was about to tuck in when she noticed how perplexed he looked. "What?"

Like her, he responded with a single word. "Why?"

"It's time for dinner," she said simply. "You can't work when you're hungry."

The aroma made his mouth water. His stomach growled as through on cue. Like it or not, his starving body was imploring him to eat. He had to obey.

But before that, he had to make sure. "I really can have this? No strings attached?"

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Just eat it already."

"Oh, um, thanks!" But she paid him no heed. She had already started eating.

He uttered a quick prayer and then tore into the bento, wolfing it down like it was the best thing in the world. It vanished down his throat in five minutes flat and he felt like a new man. In fact, he finished so quickly that Uzuki was still eating by the time he was done.

"That hit the spot," he said, patting his stomach contentedly. "The beef cutlets were nice and tender."

In between mouthfuls Uzuki asked him a throwaway question – "You like beef much?" – and in so doing a casual, relaxed conversation between the two Reapers began.

"I'm a fan, yeah. You?"

"It keeps me full, I guess. I'd rather get a ramen or something."

"Oh, what kind? Miso? Shoyu?"

"Tonkotsu."

Kariya chucked his empty bento into the dustbin. "I'm okay with any kind of ramen, but if I need my noodle fix I go to Ramen Don much of the time."

"Yeah, me too. They've been around for years, so the taste is something I know I can depend on."

He suddenly had an idea. "How about I take you out to lunch at Ramen Don tomorrow? You bought me dinner, so this is the least I can do. One good turn deserves another, right?"

His proposal started to get her flustered. "Y-You don't need to go out of your way to do that. I just thought you might need something to eat, is all."

But he'd have none of it. "No objections. I like it when people are nice to me for once, so I say you more than earned a free meal. Besides, eating by myself is boring. Plus, since we're working together, don't you think we should get to know each other better?"

"But you're my senpai – "

"Whoever said trainers and trainees can't be friends? C'mon, don't sweat the small details! We're cool, you and I."

Uzuki hesitated, wondering if it would be a breach of contract to accept lunch from a senior. Ultimately, however…

"Okay, senpai. I'll have lunch with you tomorrow, so… I'll be in your care."

Her lack of flexibility made him laugh. "Ha ha ha! Don't be so uptight! I'm just treating you to ramen!"

"Understood, senpai."

"…Girl, what did I say about being uptight?"

With dinner out of the way, Kariya returned to his work, leaving Uzuki to eat in silence. His mood had improved considerably and the papers he hated working on didn't seem so bad. Things seemed to be looking well for the evening.

Then came a series of forms with very bad handwriting and the headaches returned in full force. No matter how much he squinted, no matter which angle he looked at them from, he couldn't make head or tail of the mess. He even had to hold one of the forms upside-down, which naturally achieved nothing for him.

"What the hell am I looking at?" he grumbled, partly to himself and partly so Uzuki could hear his grievances. To him, it's always better to complain when someone was around to listen. "Is it so hard to write legibly these days?"

She had just finished up with dinner and rolled her chair closer to his side so she could see what was ruffling his feathers. He showed her the form he was holding – a shining example of terrible penmanship. Poorly written words that could make a doctor blush were strung together like a cobweb. And to top it off, there was an ink blot right in the center of the page.

"Wow," was Uzuki's flat response. "That's… bad."

"I know, right?" Kariya shook his head. "It's people like these who make it so hard for us. I don't have time to waste deciphering this crud!"

"Can't we just ask them to resubmit the forms with better handwriting?"

"We've tried, believe me. It doesn't change anything. Bad habits die hard, you know. I mean, can you believe this? What kind of idiot takes something as simple as filling in a form and utterly butchers it?"

She took a closer look at the form he was holding. Amidst the horror, there was one part that popped out.

"This is yours, senpai."

"Huh?"

"You submitted this form. See?"

She tapped on the top section of the page, the only part that could be made out, albeit with great difficulty and a bit of guesswork.

"This is your name, isn't it, senpai?"

He stared at the page, and with growing embarrassment, he realized she was right. In an instant, his attitude changed and he became quite sheepish. It's one thing to write badly. It's another to write so badly you can't even recognize your own handwriting.

"Oh, uh… heh heh. This is awkward…"

"You're hopeless, senpai," said Uzuki bluntly. "I don't know what to think of this, myself."

"C'mon, it's not that bad!" he laughed. "You were able to make out my name. That counts as something."

"Good grief." And she just sighed. "…Hey, gimme half."

Puzzled, he asked, "Half? Half of what?"

She pointed at his stack of unread forms. "You're in a hurry to finish this lot, right? Gimme half and I'll help you out. Just tell me what needs to be done."

His eyes went wide. "You want to help me?"

"Yeah, I figure you're gonna need a hand. Unless you don't want me to?"

Afraid that she was going to retract her offer, he frantically replied, "Oh, no, no. That's not what I meant. I appreciate it, really I do! It'll be a lot easier on me, plus it won't be so boring having someone around to share the pain with."

"You're a strange one, senpai."

"I get that a lot. Come on, let's get to work on this nightmare." They sat closer so he could show her the ropes. "Now, this is actually really easy. It's just time-consuming. You need to check the…"

XOXOXOXOXO

"And that was how our beautiful friendship started," chuckled Kariya. "It all began with a bento and a mountain of paperwork. And after that, it became a tradition of ours to have ramen at least once a week. And, well, somewhere along the line, I saw you for the nice person you really are and fell in love. So… there you have it!"

Uzuki scratched her head, seemingly unimpressed by his tale. But she was surprisingly accommodating.

"Come to think of it," she said, "I do remember helping you out with those forms. And we did have bentos for dinner."

"Yup, we sure did!"

"But… I think it went differently."

"Huh?"

"I swear I – no…" She narrowed her eyes in a moment of realization, and then, with more certainty in her voice, said, "No, I'm positive it went differently. Your version of the events is wrong."

"Wh-What?" Taken aback, he demanded an explanation. "What do you mean, I'm wrong? That's what I remembered…"

"Sorry, I'm afraid your account is a little… incorrect. For starters, while it's true you were rushing to get those forms done and over with, I didn't volunteer to help out. It was you who came to me asking for help."

Stunned by this revelation, he blinked at her stupidly. "What? That's not – "

"Not only that, it was you who asked me to buy bentos. Out of my own pocket money too, since you were broke at the time."

"I… I was broke?!"

"And that part about the 'bikini-clad angels'? You weren't so much talking than you were singing. In perfect rhyme."

"I was singing too?! …Wait, actually, that one isn't so bad."

"Your singing voice made my eardrums bleed."

"Okay, maybe it is." Kariya's shoulders slumped. "Man, I can't catch a break."

"Heh."

"Y-You didn't have to rub it in my face…"

"No doubt you got a lot of facts wrong," she said, cracking the gentlest smile, "but at least there's one part of your story that you got right."

"What's that?"

"You treating me to ramen like you promised."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I just wanted to repay you for helping me. That and I wanted to know you better."

"I'm glad you went through with that at least. If it wasn't for you my trips to the ramen shop would be so dull. You're got some rough edges, but you're still a good friend of mine."

Kariya could scarcely believe his ears. Was Uzuki, who usually pelted him with sarcasm and scathing honesty, saying something good to him for a change?

Part of me expected him to break down in tears of joy or melt into a puddle of goo from the gratitude he must be feeling, but he took it in a cool-headed manner. The problem was he turned on too much of the charm.

"Well now, what's this?" he chuckled. "So even you can't resist the manliness that is Koki Kariya, huh?"

She sighed. "This is one of the rough edges I was talking about."

But he just laughed it off and story time was officially over.

"So, wanna head back? We can grab some snacks on the way back. I know a place where we can get some really good roasted sweet potatoes."

"I'd love that," she said. "Let's go."

They left the rink and I was hoping that would be the end of it so we could go home. But Eri wasn't done yet.

"C'mon!" she pestered, starting to pull me by the wrist. "We gotta catch up to them!"

"How long do you intend to tail them?" I grumbled. "The date went well and they're going home already."

"Yeah, but since we're here, we might as well see it through to the end!"

"There's nothing else to see, Eri. They're just going to buy sweet potatoes and be on their way."

"You never know! Maybe we'll get to see something else…"

"Well, I can't convince you to give up, can I?" Resigning myself to my fate, I took a deep breath and released it in a big sigh. "Looks like I'm stuck with you for the long haul. Fine, if you really must do this, then hurry up and let's get out of here."

We continued to shadow our marks through the streets, keeping our distance and using the pedestrians and camouflage. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Then, without warning, Kariya led his date to the arcade down the street. We couldn't hear what he was saying, but his body language suggested that he wanted to make a quick pit stop there. Eri and I dived in after them. Why the arcade of all places? Uzuki wasn't a fan of video games…

It wasn't easy to find them with people everywhere, and Eri feared for a moment that we lost them.

But her worries were unfounded. "Look," she said, nudging me in the arm. "Over there."

Kariya was wrangling with the controls of a crane game machine, with Uzuki looking on. His sweat-covered face wore an intense expression as he honed his concentration to a fine point. With delicate movements, he positioned the claw above a particular spot and then went for the kill. A smile crept onto his lips when he secured success.

He scooped his prize out from the bottom tray – a soft toy in the shape of a really fat duck – and pressed it into Uzuki's hands.

"Here. For you. Sorry I took longer than expected. The controls were kinda stiff! Heh heh."

Bewildered by the sight of her gift, she was tongue-tied for a second or two before blurting, "Um, uh… th-thanks?"

"Good thing I'm a natural with crane games! Okay, now we get sweet potatoes. Oh, hang on… I need to go to the washroom real quick. Be right back!"

I wasn't sure if I was seeing things, but when he left I could've sworn I saw a skip in his step.

And what of Uzuki?

She examined her toy duck from all angles, amused by its exaggerated features. "So weird…"

Then she looked this way and that, to see if the coast was clear. That toy must be enchanted with some sort of magic spell because it didn't take her more than two seconds for her to cave in to the temptation and give it a big hug. And she had the goofiest smile on her face. It was so uncharacteristic of her.

The sight was too much for Eri to handle. She strangled me out of joy.

"Oh my god!" she squealed. "That's so cute! Cuteness overload! And you said there's nothing to see. I could just die!"

I barely squawked out the words, "I could die too, myself. Please… stop…"

XOXOXOXOXO

Eri's first foray into covert ops was, in her words, a resounding success. To say that she was satisfied with the fruits of her labor was a massive understatement. She was ecstatic.

And I guess, to a certain extent, so was I. It was a nice development seeing Uzuki let her hair down for once and have fun with Kariya. Both of them seemed to enjoy themselves this afternoon, and I was glad to see he pulled it off well. All in all, I was really happy for them.

But I still had this to say to Eri:

"You sure have a lot of time on your hands to want to spy on our friends."

"Oh, enough with that already!" she hissed. "You can't fault a girl for being curious! And I stayed out of their way like you told me to, so quit complaining. What more do you want?"

"Well, we know now that they can handle themselves, so let's leave them alone from now on, alright? You won't like it either if your fan club follows you to the supermarket every Saturday when you just want to buy your groceries in peace."

"Ugh!" Repressed memories came flooding back and she didn't like it. She gripped her mug of tea till her knuckles turned white. "Neku, there are certain things that are not to be dug up. This is one of them. I thought I'd forgotten about all those sweaty fanboys from high school, but nooo… you had to play archaeologist and exhume my buried past."

"Sorry. Shoulda used a better analogy. Will you be alright?"

"Eh, I'll live. The cuteness of Kariya and Uzuki's budding relationship will wash it all away. I'm just lucky they're so adorable together. Oh heyyy, you know what we should do?"

"What?"

"A double date with the two of them. It'll be heaps of fun, and I won't even need to go ninja to be able to observe them!"

I wasn't sure I liked the idea of having multiple people on a date. It's not an uncommon practice, and I can't deny that sometimes the adage 'the more the merrier' rings true, but personally I liked my dates to be just between myself and my girlfriend. Instead of swatting away her suggestion, however, I decided to humour her.

"A double date could be nice. I suppose we could try that at least once. But not now. Later. Much later."

"Yeah, he can't afford another date at this point. He's pretty much broke, right?"

"Not if he's able to con more money out of that poor friend of his."

"I'm sure there'll be lots of opportunities to hang out with them!"

"Let's give it a rest for now. They make a nice couple, but I'd like to do less snooping around, if you don't mind."

She giggled. "We've seen enough to last us a while. We can take a break."

"I didn't know he and Uzuki were like that in the past. Honestly, I still have a hard time picturing him as her mentor. The other way around seems more likely, don't you think?"

"Hee hee… That is kinda weird." She laid her index finger on her bottom finger, thinking deeply. "And he doesn't want to get promoted. She overtook him as his superior too! Gotta say, they've got a really strange working dynamic."

"You don't say."

Eri jabbed a fist high into the air. "Alright! We saw something good either way. Tonight, we celebrate with curry!"

The beginning of their relationship was shaky at best, but at least they were getting somewhere. They still have their own personal issues to work on: him with his massive ego and her being as stiff as a slab of granite. But stranger couples have succeeded; why couldn't they?

This was going to prove interesting…

XOXOXOXOXO

The convenience store right next to our apartment building had, in addition to the usual sundries, fresh bread and buns everyday. It's not a huge selection, but it works if you want a quick snack. With this in mind, I went downstairs the next day hoping to find some noodle buns.

No luck. I did, however, find Uzuki picking out bentos and asking the cashier to microwave them. I went over to greet her.

"This your lunch?" I asked.

"Kariya's."

"You're buying his lunch now?"

"I don't have a choice." She folded her arms across her chest, heaving a sigh. "The fool is broke from splurging on creepy anime dolls. 'Waifus', he calls them. Can you believe it?"

"I see your boyfriend's as reliable as always."

"He's not my – "

She stopped herself mid-sentence. That's her usual knee-jerk reaction whenever someone implied she may be a thing with him. But even she could see there was no merit to such denial anymore.

"W-Well," she coughed, developing a slight blush, "I guess he is now."

"Better get used to it. So I heard from the man himself you went on a date with him… How did it go?" I knew how, of course, but kept quiet about that.

"Honestly, he can never keep things to himself… Anyway, it wasn't too bad, considering. He took me to a skating rink but he kept falling, the idiot."

"Must be a roaring good time."

"You don't know the half of it."

Just then, the microwave oven gave a cheery ding and Uzuki's bentos were done. The cashier placed them in a plastic bag and handed them to her, after which it was time for us to part ways.

"I gotta run," she said. "Gotta play delivery girl for Kariya again and get these bentos to him before he starves to death."

Offhandedly I quipped, "Feels like déjà vu all over again, eh?"

That caused her to stop in her tracks and shoot me a puzzled look.

"Déjà vu?"

I realized too late that I'd mucked up. That's something I would say only if I'd heard about her backstory. I shouldn't know it.

"Uh, I meant to say, 'feels like the shovel all over again!" I had to twist the pronunciation till 'shovel' sounded like 'sho-vool'.

"Wh-What does that even mean?"

"Y-You haven't heard of it?" I bluffed, clutching at straws. "It's this obscure little Japanese idiom that means, uh, w-well… it's used to describe a situation where you have to buy food in someone's stead, especially if it's done begrudgingly! And especially if it's food bought from a convenience store!"

Uzuki just stared at me blankly. Even the freaking cashier was looking at me like I was crazy. For all intents and purposes, I was.

Then she asked, "What's that got to do with the shovel?"

"Um, I don't know… The, uh, original meaning must have gotten lost in the translation or something."

"But you said it's a Japanese idiom."

"S-Sure, that's what I said. But it, um, originates from an Okinawan dialect. Really complicated stuff. Over many years the original phrase got bastardized and became what it is now."

She frowned, incredulous. "…I can't say I've heard of that one. At all."

"I… I did say it was obscure."

"Huh… well, I sure won't use it if I were you."

Me neither!

With a shrug, she said goodbye and was gone. That was too close. My brain was in high gear spinning that tall tale! Heaven knows what would have happened to me if she knew I'd been peeping on her date.

I bought some pudding for myself and Eri and was more than happy to leave the store.

But as I was paying, the cashier – some dude in his thirties – could contain his curiosity no longer.

"Sir," he said, "pardon me, but what's that idiom you said earlier?"

I grabbed my stuff and mumbled, "Uh… I forgot."

Then I vanished before he had the chance to ask any more questions.

...

Author's note: Well, that's a nice start to Kariya and Uzuki's relationship. In later chapters I hope to expand on this a little more. To me, they're just as interesting as our main leads, and I think I'd have a lot of fun fleshing them out further. But that comes later. Anyway, I don't really have a lot to say this time except for you guys to watch this space for Chapter 54. So until then, bye bye!