"Ella! I haven't seen you around in a while! Did you finish your internship?" Keiko approached me with the blue haired grim reaper Botan hot on her heels, a leery smile on her face. I was surprised to see them, but smiled back in return.
"Hello Keiko, Botan. Yeah... my internship went well. I learned a lot." I played along with the story that Kazuma must have told Yusuke's girlfriend. It was impressive for him, really, turning training at a compound into an internship. "How have you been lately? I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before I left; it all happened so suddenly."
"I understand. I've been good, mostly studying. We were just going shopping if you'd like to join us." Keiko offered with a sweet smile on her face. It warmed me up inside and made me feel almost like a girl again.
"I'd love to. What are we looking for?"
"Just something cute to wear around." She blushed, smiling in that cute little way that made her seem like just an innocent little child.
"That sounds lovely." I smiled and hooked my thumbs in my jeans pockets and walked next to them. Keiko stared at me, and stopped partway up the street. "You okay? What's wrong?"
"I've just been curious for a while... why do you walk like that?"
I stared at her, processing the question in my head a few times. I looked down at my feet, inspecting them and trying to find her reason for asking such a question.
"I guess I don't know what you mean."
"You know, backwards." She clarified. "I've never seen you walk forwards. Only ever backwards."
"Now that you mention it, the only time I've seen you walk the right way is when we were running. I don't think I've ever seen you walk forward either." Botan piped up, staring at me now too. I felt heat rush up from my toes all the way up to my ears.
"It isn't that unusual." I grumbled, nibbling on my lip. "Are we looking for dresses or not?"
"You're defensive." Keiko grinned at me. "It's cute. I was just curious, I wasn't meaning to make you upset."
"I think you're absolutely adorable!" Botan linked her arm around mine and spun me the right way forward. "Let's stop in here first Keiko."
Keiko tried on an adorable pink dress as well as a skirt and shirt combo. She decided not to get anything, but we managed to get Botan into a quirky yellow dress and they somehow convinced me into a brown knee length boho dress. I pretended to be a runway model, dancing around the room with Keiko and curtsying to Botan. It was... fun...
We wandered to three more stores before Keiko chose her dress and I picked out two sweaters on sale. Botan shook us off when we insisted she get something as well, insisting that we need to get food of some sort. We went to a small cafe where Keiko insisted on going up to order for us because the line was crazy long and she would be able to get to the front quicker than all three of us sitting there waiting. I stared at Botan, setting my bag down on the ground.
"So you're a grim reaper." I broke the silence. Her eyes widened, and she started fidgeting uncontrollably. I resisted the urge to smile at her discomfort.
"Oh you silly girl! Grim reapers aren't real! Besides, even if they were real, aren't they supposed to be big and scary and wear black clothes and carry around a scythe?" She panicked.
"Except that I trained in a compound in the mountains with a psychic who used to fight demons and have a cousin who can apparently create a sword with his spirit energy." I teased her, letting her off of the hook this time. "I know, Botan. And we're good with the school thing. I get why you couldn't tell me what was going on. I just want to fill in the holes."
She stared at me, her eyes wide and her mouth moving in a shocked kind of smile/laugh/fear state. This had to be her form of shock.
"So you're a grim reaper." I repeated. "Kazuma couldn't tell me many details, just that apparently your boss is some sort of baby?"
She didn't really respond, just looked down at her fingers like she was debating what to say next. In all fairness, it wasn't like she woke up that morning expecting a human cousin of her human coworker to start asking questions.
"His name is Koenma. His appearance may be that of a child but he is far older than any living human, so please be more respectful of him." She wrung her hands and glanced about her like something was going to pop out from the abyss and strike her down as she spoke. "His father rules the spirit world, and it falls on Koenma to rule in his father's absence."
"Why are some humans psychics and while others aren't? Does that have something to do with spirit world?"
"Psychic abilities used to be more commonplace than they are today." She shook her head. "I'm honestly not completely sure about why some humans have a higher spirit awareness than other, just that it tends to run in families. That would explain why you and both your cousins have such high spirit awareness."
"I see." I sighed, sitting back and glancing to see Keiko's progress. "So how did Kazuma get involved in all of this to begin with? From what I've scraped together, he was literally in the right place at the wrong time and his masculinity couldn't be insulted by not going into a situation that might get him killed."
"Bingo." She laughed, her bright blue hair bouncing as her head fell back.
"Did I miss something?" Keiko smiled, setting our tray down in front of us and sitting down with an eager look in her eyes.
"Just talking about my ridiculous older cousin and how he has a death wish." I waved off her question and gave her a side hug, making her tense. "Thank you for the food, Keiko. So tell me, how did you and Yusuke meet?"
She blushed, glancing up and smiling. "We met when we were kids. Our parents used to drop us off for play dates."
"Oh, so play dates turned into real dates, got it. You two are so cute." I teased.
Botan poked Keiko's flushed cheek. "They just need to admit to one another how much they love one another and everything will work out just splendid."
"So you dance." Keiko deflected, suddenly very interested in her muffin. I laughed, taking a bite of my own and nodding. "How long have you been doing that?"
"My whole life, really, but my mom signed me up for lessons when I was about eight. I joined my first team when I was ten and now I'm dancing for Meiu High School on their backup team since I came too late to be on their competitive team. Next year I am hoping to join the real team since our school system doesn't support dancing apparently."
"So you're planning on staying for quite a while then." Keiko's eyes got wide. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that to sound so rude..."
"You're fine, Keiko. We're friends. You don't have to be so formal with me all of the time, I promise. I plan on staying until my mother tells me that I have to go back, which luckily for me will take quite a while. She's very considerate of our feelings."
I felt a familiar pang in my chest. My mother hadn't gotten ahold of me for weeks now. I wondered if she was having fun, if she was thinking about us. And my brothers... what were they up to these days? Had they spoken to mom at all? Were they okay? Were they staying out of trouble?
"So where are we planning on going after we have our fill?" I changed the topic, not wanting to ruin this time together.
Keiko and Botan shared one of those looks that was difficult to decipher because it was gone as soon as I noticed it. Botan flashed a brilliant smile and took a sip of her tea.
"We should go to the beach today. It's so beautiful today."
I smirked, nodding, and glanced outside at the sun shining down. Just a relaxing day... I can't say it hasn't been a long time coming. I could get used to this.