Hello~!
I don't own anything other than the obvious OC's.
3rd Person POV
Sitting on the couch with Mio hugging Suzuki-san playfully, Misaki stared blankly into space from the events that transpired just ten seconds before:
"Chibi-tan~," Isaka Ryuuichirou called out to him as Aikawa Eri pulled a too-stunned-to-be-pissed-off-because-they-just-cam e-out-from-nowhere Akihiko out into the car for a awards ceremony.
Sitting on the couch with Mio hiding under Suzuki-san as he sat on her, Misaki reluctantly replied, "What is it...?"
He stiffened as the Director of Marukawa Publishing smiled at him. "Bring by Mio sometime; Wataru's been looking for a friend."
"Ah... okay..."
Ryuuichirou continues to smile at him.
Suddenly realizing the implications of the exchange, Misaki looks at him in shock. "...Eh?!"
"Well, see you later!"
Misaki continued to stare at nothing while Mio looked at him worriedly. "Mommy?"
His movements were stiff as he turned to her. "Mio-chan, who is Wataru?"
Her eyes brightened at the name. "Wata's like a big sis to all of us! She's really smart, tall, and really pretty."
"...Tall?"
"Well, shorter than Suzu, but taller than all of us."
"Oh, that makes sense... how old is she?"
"She's eleven. She's the 1st doll."
At this, his earlier stiffness became relaxed as he looked at her questionably. "Is the doll number according to age?"
"No... It's the order of who become dolls from 1 to 9. Shio was taken first, but he became a doll after Wata and Haru."
"I see." Misaki looked at the time, "Should we go see Ritsu and Shiori?"
"Yay!" He watched as she got off the couch and tried to reach the door handle to get out of the living room, "Let's go!"
3rd Person POV
Masamune held back some worry as he looks at Ritsu. "You know, if you really can't do this-"
"I-I can do it!" Ritsu says, holding on to one of the front doors for dear life, ready to set foot outside. It honestly scared Masamune when he arrived and saw Ritsu knocked out and pale on the couch.
"You can do it!" cheered Chiemi from the desk sitting next to Shiori. Masamune had decided to bring her along with Sorata, who was currently napping on the couch. He was sure Takafumi wouldn't be that angry that he took both of them without a notice.
"Remember," begins Shiori, "Whatever was holding you back then, it no longer exists to trouble you physically."
Ritsu nods at this, and squeezes his eyes shut as he moves his legs forward. To be careful, Masamune had an umbrella out to block him from the sunlight and save him from extra heat.
Upon feeling the imaginary tacks on his feet Ritsu flinches, and rushes forward, grabbing onto Masamune for support. As he kept whispering to himself the tacks didn't exist, he didn't notice the stares Masamune was giving him. After a few moments though, he realizes. Blushing, he lets go, his eyes averting to the ground.
"I'm sorry..."
"..." Ritsu freezes as Masamune suddenly reaches out to hug him, "I don't mind things like this."
"But we're outside," Ritsu mumbles, feeling embarrassed.
"So?"
Ritsu pushes him away a little, still gripping onto his arm as he tries to stand properly and look around. "People are going to stare..."
"Let them, although," Masamune gazes around, "There's not really anybody around here today."
3rd Person POV
"Is there a problem?" Takafumi asks the bear as they walked close.
The bear simply just stares.
"Hey..." says the girl, and Takafumi turns to her, "I don't think it's human."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
She went up closer and looked front and behind it, touching it at certain places. "I don't feel a person under this, and it has no zippers, or any openings for a person to breathe through."
"Oy, don't just go touching it!" scolds Takafumi, grabbing the girl's arm and pulling her back.
"Sorry-!" Takafumi pulls her away even further as something flashed towards them and the bear jumps back as it avoids the object.
"What the hell..." Takafumi trails off as he sees that the object thrown was a hoop, now stuck in the ground where the bear once was.
"Oh, man," he looked to see a familiar looking doll in a large white T-shirt (big for her) walk up to it along with a young man, "I missed."
"Chiemi?" says Takafumi to the doll.
He watched as she turns to him, a smile forming on her face. "You know Chiemi? Are you her master?" Temporarily forgetting the bear she runs to him, her small hands tugging on his pants. "Are you?"
"Ye-yeah..." Looking closer at the doll, Takafumi can see that this doll, while looking smiliar to Chiemi, has a braid straight down her back instead of Chiemi's side braid.
"That's great!" She looks over at her master, "Guess what? He has Chiemi!"
Takafumi watched as the young man, who had gone to pick up the ring, come to them and hands over the ring to the doll. Then he remembers the girl with him and looks around for her. To his surprise, she was having a stare down with the bear, and it seemed to be at a stalemate.
"Hey," he looks down at the doll again as she tugged for his attention, "Is she a master too?"
"I don't think so..."
"Oh okay... What's your name?"
"Yokozawa Takafumi."
She smiles at him and bows quickly. "I'm Riemi, the 7th doll!" She looks up at her master, "My master is Shinobu."
The blond-brown haired boy nods at him. "Takatsuki Shinobu," he then nods off to the staring contest, "We should go do something, don't you think?"
"Right!" Riemi held up her ring, which is as tall as her, in position for a few seconds before throwing it at the bear. Takafumi watches in shock as it cuts the bear in half, revealing white fluffy stuffing.
"You thought it was a person earlier too, right?" asks Shinobu, seeing his expression.
"Yeah... It's really just a bear?"
Shinobu shrugs. "Sometimes it's a bunny, a bear... And they're just full of stuffing, the dark stuff making them move."
"Dark stuff?"
"Keep watching."
He looks over at the bear again, it's legs having disappeared somehow, but the upper body continues to move.
As Riemi goes over to retrieve her ring, the girl approaches her. "Can I finish it off?"
Riemi looks at her curiously. "Okay..." she looks over at it, "Aim for either the back or the head cause I think that's where it'll come out."
"Got it! Ah, wait..." she picks up Riemi while calling over her dog who has stayed near the trees, "Take her back to those guys." After that she faces the enemy.
"Now," she begins to the bear who tries to lift itself off the ground with its hands and arms, "Let's start!"
Takafumi watches in shock as the girl runs at the bear, lifting it up in the air before throwing at against the tree, and throwing it again to kick it away. As it hits the ground he can see something black coming out before disappearing along with the bear's upper body.
"I wish I can kick like that," Riemi absentmindedly says out loud as they watch, petting the dog carrying her.
"Aren't you afraid of anybody seeing under your dress?" Shinobu asks the girl as she runs up to them, lifting up Riemi up from the dog and into his arms.
"Nope~" she smiles at them, "So, who are you guys? I'm Sumiko. That thing was bad right?"
Shinobu looks at her a tad bit annoyed. "None of your business, and none of your business."
"Oh, come on!" whines Riemi, "She can help us!" She faces Sumiko, "I'm Riemi."
Sumiko giggles. "Nice to meet you. You're so small, like that one girl I met the other day at the store."
Takafumi frowned. 'She met a doll at the store?' he thought.
"I'm not a girl, I mean I was, but I'm a doll now."
"Eh...?" she pokes Riemi's cheek before looking at her limbs and seeing her ball joints. "Weh... I didn't notice that before."
Takafumi prods her on the shoulder. "You saw a doll at the store?"
"Um, yeah... She looked lost wandering around so I asked her where her mom was and helped her."
"They're not even tall enough to be considered little girls," says Shinobu, "You didn't think it was strange?"
"In my defense, I don't really think anything is strange," Sumiko answers, "And she reminded me of a cute fairy child." She giggles, "I think I made a mistake about the mom thing though, because the person with her that she needed to find was this boy. You don't have to be a girl to be a mom though, so it's okay."
"Guys can't be mothers," Takafumi states.
"I don't mean mother like that- I mean," she affectionately pets her dog, "Mitsu's my baby, but I didn't conceive him, you know? I love him to bits as if he were a part of me, like a mom to her kid." She looks at Takafumi, "You look like the mothering type~"
"I-I do not! Anyway, the doll you saw, what did she and her master look like?"
"Him... maybe around my age or a bit younger, brown hair, and green eyes. He was really cute; the little one was too. She also had green eyes-"
"It's Mio," Riemi interrupts knowingly.
Takafumi looks at her in surprise. "How-"
"She's the only one of us girls with green eyes," Riemi shrugs, "Automatic deduction," she says, and high-fives with Shinobu.
Sumiko looks over Riemi a bit as she high-fives Shinobu, especially at the fact that she was wearing a T-shirt. "Is that all you have to wear?"
"Yeah, her other one was torn," replied Shinobu, "So I just gave her one of my shirts."
"I have some clothes in my bag back there near the bench, if you want to choose a outfit." She signals Mitsu to get her bag.
"Why do you have doll outfits?" asks Takafumi as Mitsu comes back with Sumiko's bag.
"Earlier I bumped into this guy who wanted doll clothes for a manga reference or something so I helped him find this shop and we ended up buying some outfits..." Takafumi, Riemi, and Shinobu give her a look. "What? We couldn't help it, they were so adorable and well made!"
They continued to stare at her. "W-what?"
"How exactly do you earn money...?" asks Takafumi.
She staggers back comically from them. "W-What's with that, all of the sudden?"
"It's just that, you don't seem to hold back when shopping..." says Shinobu.
"What does that have to with-" She stopped as a man recognizable to Takafumi approaches them.
"Isaka-san?" says Takafumi, wondering why he was here, while Riemi froze her movements to play doll.
"Ah, Yokozawa! I didn't know you were acquainted with Hirakawa here..."
Sumiko looks at him reluctantly. "H-hi, Ryuu-tan..."
"Huh?" Takafumi looks at Sumiko. "Are you an author?"
"Nope," Ryuuichirou smiles, "She's an actress," he turns towards her as she squeaks in fear, "who is supposed to be attending an awards ceremony for Usami Akihiko's novel, the novel in which is currently being made into a movie that's going to be announced at the awards ceremony, the movie in which she plays the main heroine. Unlike the last novel of his that was also made into a movie a some while ago, this one has the main character singing at certain points before- well, I'm not going to spoil it."
'Ah, that explains it...' Takafumi and Shinobu thought in sync.
"But wait... I haven't seen her around before," says Takafumi.
"She's been in America and Europe most of her life, so it's only natural you haven't seen her a lot," explains Ryuuichirou.
"I thought you were pretty strange for a Japanese person," says Shinobu to Sumiko.
"I'm not that strange! I don't even want to act anymore!" Sumiko complains, "I have enough money, so I don't have to work anymore. Can't I just relax in my home country?"
"Nope~" he says with another smile, "Apparently you've passed auditions and you signed the contract."
"Eeh...?! How?! When?!"
He smiles disturbingly at her. "That doesn't matter. Besides, you're the only one who does the main heroine justice," he loops his arm around one of hers, "And along with the other songs you have to sing, you get to sing the ending theme! Wasn't singing one of your hobbies on your profile? By all means, sing your heart out for this movie!"
She looks at Takafumi and Shinobu helplessly. "Help me..."
"..." Shinobu stares blankly at her before raising a hand to Ryuuichirou. "What about her dog?"
"Oh yeah... Watch him for a few hours, okay?" With that, he pulls her away and they all watch as a car pulls up almost magically to take them away, a deflated Sumiko reluctantly entering it.
"Ah, her bag..." Takafumi says, way too late in the moment.
"Looks like it's your problem," says Riemi, no longer in doll mode as she pats Takafumi's arm.
"What?! My problem?"
"Yeah," says Shinobu, "We have to go meet up with somebody soon, and you're free for the rest of the day."
"But..." Takafumi trails off, and they all look at Mitsu, who simply sits obediently with his tail wagging lazily, wondering why they're giving him stares.
The type of hoop Riemi has is like a gymnastic hoop, if that makes sense.
Reading through this, 10 or 12 times, I tell myself I have to work hard at romance.
But... attempting that feels so embarrassing...
Now that I realize, most of all my stories have been stalling in romance, and I feel very bad...
*facepalms* I... I'll try... But thoughts of the romance are hard and embarrassing to type out...