Clear to cloudy

Target 27: "Come back Kotsu!"

Fumie drags Kotsu to the subway much to his own dismay. She's ordered him to go on a date with her which he apparently has no choice but to obey. After they find a seat in the train Kotsu finally decides to speak up. "Um… why're we-?" He starts but Fumie cuts him off.

"Because I want you to go back to the normal Kotsu! You're a really nice person and it's annoying to see you be so down! And you're my friend and when my friend is sad… I help them out!"

Kotsu slightly blushes before he chuckles a little nervously looking at the floor. "Thank you Fumie… but it's alright. I'M… alright… what was I thinking anyway. Me? Be a mafia boss? When there're so many other people who're more fit for the job.

"You're clearly NOT okay Kotsu! You're really sad after that loss against the weird robot-guy!" she says and Kotsu is simply reminded of his horrid loss against NM-5.

"Yeah… I guess you're right… I am a little sad… I thought I'd finally found my purpose… but then it was taken away from me again… realizing you're not cut out for something you wanted to do kinda sucks doesn't it…?"

Fumie doesn't say anything, instead pulling Kotsu up and dragging him out of the train as it stops. "No more moping Kotsu! Let's go have ourselves some fun!" She demands.

Behind them someone else exits the train as well. It's Zaccaria. He begins following after the two making sure to stay far enough back so that he won't be noticed. "Let's hope you can get that boy back on his feet miss…" He says putting on a cap to cover his quite noticeable piercing orange eyes.

-NII-

Fumie pulls Kotsu around town and into various shops starting with a store that sells a variety of clothes. "Well Kotsu… Let's go play dress-up!" She says happily dragging him inside against his own will. "Alright here're the rules Kotsu… We both pick out some outfits for the other to wear… and then we hang them up in one of the dressing rooms! And you're not allowed to see until you have to wear it alright!?" She says before leaving Kotsu to himself as she runs off to the boy's section.

Kotsu really appreciates her trying so damn hard to make him feel better… but… he looks at the women's section which he now has to venture into to find something for Fumie to wear. And he already knows that he'll do a horrible job with his sucky fashion sense. But he gives it his best shot.

Zaccaria walks closely behind him in the next row. As he sees Kotsu picking out various shirts to examine whether they'd look good on Fumie or not he simply sighs before he walks past him tossing some clothes over Kotsu's head which makes him jump. "W-wha…!? Who's there!?" he tries getting it off before looking around but Zaccaria is gone and Kotsu looks at the clothes he was hit with. It all seems quite nice actually…

After Zaccaria subtly fishes out a few more outfits for Kotsu the two friends meet up at the dressing rooms and Fumie giggles seeing Kotsu's red face as he's spent WAY more time in the girls' section than he wanted to. "I see you found some… now you first! I've already put them inside!" She says almost excited as Kotsu enters and changes his clothes into the first off his 'new' outfits.

He comes out in a brown west coat with some light jeans. Under the west is a simple white shirt and he's wearing a cowboy hat on top of it all. "W-what did you dress me in Fumie-san!?" Kotsu frantically says looking at her and she laughs her ass off.

"No no no! Kotsu-kun! You gotta act more like a cowboy! You know…" She holds up her finger like a pistol. "Howdy partner. Ready to go catch some wild stallions eh?" She says and Kotsu can't help but smile.

"Yeah yeah… I'm no good at acting…" he says but tries anyway. "H-howdy f-fine lass… fine weather we're havin' today. Not a sheep in the sky…" He says and Fumie can't hold in her laughter.

"Enough! Enough! I can't take it!" She says and Kotsu just steps out pouting almost.

"W-well… then YOU try on something!" He says and Fumie quickly enters her own booth. Now Kotsu kind of regrets 'picking' normal clothes. She comes out in a long thin light blue dress with some yellow flowers at the bottom accompanied by a large straw hat.

"This is actually really pretty Kotsu-kun…" She says almost surprised as she spins on her heel. "How do I look?" she says looking at him with a tilted head.

Kotsu blushes seeing her look at him like that. "Y-you look… stunning…" He tries and she just giggles seeing that he's forgotten a little bit about the loss.

The two continue to have tons of fun with Kotsu being a little more open to his horrible acting skills as Fumie's other outfits are a vampire and finally some kind of gangster while Kotsu's remaining outfits almost give him a nosebleed to see on Fumie. In fact she ends up buying most of the outfits he picked for her as they leave.

"That was so much fun!" She says and laughs. "You make a really nice gangster Kotsu-kun!" She says laughing as his stoic cold gangster impression was by far the worst and therefore funniest. However saying something like that quickly reminds Kotsu of his loss against the TRUE mafia gangster.

"Yeah… but I think I should be focusing on other things…" He says and Fumie puffs her cheeks.

"Hey! No ruining the mood!" She says grabbing his hand as they walk down the street with her in the lead.

"W-where're we going now!?" He tries and Fumie looks at him.

"Whenever I'M sad it always help getting some good food!" she says and drags him into a junk-food restaurant.

"Um… a-are you sure you want to eat here… this is kinda… greasy isn't it Fumie-san?" However she doesn't listen.

"No worries! We'll just order something that's not greasy in that case!" She says as they order and find a place to sit where Fumie just leans forward on the table laying her head on her hands staring right at Kotsu. "Kotsu-kun… you really loved that game right?" She asks and Kotsu slowly nods.

"It was… something I felt like was meant for me… that's the first time that's happened with anything…"

"T-then why're you giving up so suddenly?! Just because you lost…?" She argues and Kotsu just looks to the side.

"n-not exactly… it's because… the person who beat me… he wasn't… he wasn't the strongest out of them all… and… I've just… never felt so.. humiliated before…" He says laying his head on the table.

Zaccaria sits right behind him at another table listening in. "I… can see why you'd think that's humiliating… but you can always come back from it right!? L-like you did with that Geraldino guy who kidnapped me!?" Fumie tries again.

Kotsu just shakes his head. "This guy's much better than Geraldino… it's a hopeless case…" he adds and Zaccaria snickers to himself a little at the comment as he knows Geraldino at his TRUE full power might match him.

Their food arrives and Fumie keeps trying to make Kotsu get back in the fight with little success. "B-but… even if it was humiliating to lose… i-is there any harm in trying again?"

To this Kotsu nods taking another fry. "Yeah… this time Ren and Tsugemora are in harms way… and Ren doesn't want to fight… and Tsugemora could get seriously hurt…" He adds and Fumie can definitely understand his concern.

-NII-

Fumie is starting to run out of ideas of how to cheer Kotsu up after they ate and she's now dragged him to a park and they're sitting on a bench next to an older man. "You're a tough nut to crack Kotsu-kun! Once you've gotten down it's impossible to get you up…" She says sighing and Kotsu chuckles a bit.

"I guess so… sorry for making you waste time on me," However Fumie jumps up seeing an ice-cream stand nearby.

"ALRIGHT! One final attempt! I'm going to go get us some ice-cream!" She says jumping up before running to the que which is a little bit long.

At this moment Zaccaria is sitting in a tree out of view watching Kotsu. "I guess I should give him a little push…" He says standing up and he's about to jump out to talk to him.

"What's gotten you down young man?" The old man next to Kotsu asks out of nowhere which surprises both Kotsu and Zaccaria. The older man has virtually no hair except a spiky tuft of brown hair in the middle of his head sort of like a horn with another similar one further back. Quite an odd hairstyle…

"Um… excuse me?"

"I asked what troubles you? It cannot be the young lady you are with… she is quite a catch," He says and Kotsu blushes a little looking after Fumie.

"W-wait no! You got it wrong! We're not…!"

"I see. Well that may come later. For now… tell me what troubles you? You are young and should not have much in the way of worries," He says and Kotsu leans forward deciding to tell him but of course he wants to leave out the true nature of it since anyone would simply find him insane.

"W-well… um… it's just… I found something I really thought was for me… that I was really good at it… but now I have to face someone who's so much better that I don't even stand a chance… and I know there's another one who's equally as good… so I'm kind of bummed out about quitting…" He says referring to Zaccaria and Ywan as the two opponents.

The man slowly nods right up until the last part. "You've given up and quit? My boy… listen to an old man… we're all walking on the road of life… there're many bumps and twists we do not see coming but we keep moving forward. However sometimes there appears an obstacle in front of us. It stops us in our tracks but what we choose to do then is what defines us. You can either stop completely or climb over it…" He says making Kotsu imagine the metaphor in front of him with himself having the giant wall of Zaccaria and Ywan in front of him.

"Yeah… but this is a wall to high for me to climb…"

"Indeed it is… not because it is impossible to overcome… but because you're hesitating in even attempting to climb this wall… hesitation is the equivalent of walking away from this wall. And once you do that can you really say you tried…?" He says getting up from his seat stretching a little. "Remember this one thing my boy. He who hesitates has already lost. You must grab any and all opportunities while you're still young or you will simply regret it later. Take it from an old man like me… I have made mistakes… I've lost battles against the world. But I eventually found my way to where I want to be…" He says before walking off and Zaccaria smirks in the tree.

"I guess that might just do it…" He says watching as Kotsu process' everything he just heard.

"If I hesitate I've already lost…" He says letting out a little sigh with a smirk. "I guess he got something right… I really AM hesitating… But I don't hesitate because of me… I just… don't want my friends to get hurt…" He says to himself as Fumie comes back with an ice-cream for them both.

"Here ya go Kotsu-kun!" She says and the two eat their ice-cream. Fumie notes halfway through that it's about time to return to the resort. "We gotta get going Kotsu-kun! Or we'll be home late…" She says and the two get up and start walking with Kotsu looking at her.

He smiles weakly. "Hey Fumie… thanks for today… it was nice of you and all… but I don't think I still need a few days to recover…" He says before he suddenly steps in a crack in a weird way making his foot stuck and he falls forward dropping his ice-cream. "Damn… just… just my luck…" He says trying to pull his foot out. Seems like NOTHING is going his way today. However he finds Fumie sitting at his foot helping him get out. "W-what're you doing?" He asks and Fumie almost glares angrily at him.

"What do you think I'm doing!? You're not alone Kotsu! Don't think you're the only one who cares about you! You have lots of friends! You said you didn't want to involve Ren-senpai and Tsugemora-kun in this game and you quit for their sake right? But whoever said THEY don't want to get involved. It's what makes you happy! We all want to see you happy after all!" She says getting his foot free and Kotsu's honestly stunned.

He slowly gets up now in deep thought. If they want to get involved? The thought never occurred to him… they must've been chosen by Primo because he felt that they would be the most suitable options! "F-Fumie-san… thank you…" He says smiling as he stands up and Fumie gives him a wide toothy grin in return.

"MUCH BETTER! This is the real Kotsu I know and love!" She says grabbing his head and giving him a noogie much to his dismay.

"H-hey! stop!" Kotsu tries and she lets him go before happily skipping towards the station again. Kotsu can clearly see that she's happy, but he still can't help but be a little worried. Even if his guardians want to fight for him, which he doubts in Ren's case at least, it'll STILL be a tough fight… they all need to get a lot stronger to beat both Zaccaria AND Ywan… which worries Kotsu a little… he STILL hasn't met Ywan so he doesn't know how strong he is… but he knows one thing for certain. He looks behind himself seeing Zaccaria walking away, but he doesn't recognize him due to his cap. "Zaccaria… I know you're out there… I will beat you!" He yells into the public much to his own surprise and everyone looks strangely at him, making him embarrassed.

Zaccaria smirks under his cap. "You'd better at least put up a fight," He says walking towards the hotel he's staying at with his own guardians. "I'd like to say you're a weird kid Kotsukiba… but you're as normal as they come… which might be the weirdest thing about you…"