"Someone please help Kuroneko…"

The black-haired cat-girl was slouching forward slightly as she followed the delinquent with pink-streaks in his hair. Earlier, while Kurousagi was watching Izayoi and Otome leave together, she was suddenly dragged off by the collar of her uniform, and was quickly separated from the others. When the tugging stopped, she found herself in the middle of a large crowd with her assigned partner.

"Doesn't look like there's anything interesting around here," Mugen stated as he casually glanced around. The streets looked the same just about everywhere they went, so it seemed kind of redundant to say it now. But at this point, Kuroneko didn't seem to care in the very least. She kept glancing around for something to help her end this awkward situation quickly. It didn't matter whether it was the other problem children, or whether it was some random street event. She just wanted something to help her break the silence.

"Hey, young lady…"

Her ears perked up as she turned to find a couple of werewolves in fancy suits and sunglasses. Although they were werewolves, they looked more human than their storybook counter-parts of an animal on hind legs.

"What's a cute-little thing like you doing all alone?"

"Huh? Er…I'm not…"

"Now now, you understand the rules say that everyone needs to be paired up during the festival, otherwise they'll be forcibly kicked out."

"That's right, so why don't the three of us get along and go somewhere nice?"

"No…I'm not…"

"Don't worry, we know all the best spots around here, so none of us will get lost…"

The both smiled brightly as one of them started to grab her arm.

"W-Wait…"

Suddenly, another arm shot out and clamped onto the wrist of the werewolf that was about to touch her. Their hand suddenly released its grip on Kuroneko as she turned to see Mugen nearby.

"Sorry, but she's already been taken…"

"Mugen-san…"

"Huh? Who's this weirdo?" One of them sneered at the gangster-like child who just stared back with half-eyed interest. The other snickered as if the situation was supposed to be some kind of bad joke.

"C'mon little girl, it's obvious that you don't belong with someone like him. You deserve someone better…"

"Then she obviously doesn't belong to either of you. I don't think she wants men who swing that way…"

"Huh? What's this idiot saying?"

"Obviously the two of you couldn't get a girl before coming, so you decided to try and get one here. Or maybe…you two paired up with each other on purpose?"

"YOU SHITTY LITTLE BRAT!"

Each of them started to transform into their more feral forms, but Mugen gave an uppercut which forced the creature in front of him to rise a couple feet into the air. Just as it was about to touch the ground, Mugen used a roundhouse kick, knocking the werewolf into his partner and forcing the two to soar a short distance and into the fountain nearby, where they ended up soaked and unconscious.

"Hmmm…"

Mugen pondered to himself before taking Kuroneko by the arm and lightly dragging her away from the scene.

"Looks like we didn't get caught…"

The two of them stopped in what appeared to be a small park. Benches and trash cans were set up along the fence that was lined against the pathways leading towards/away from the middle of the park, which held a large fountain with a small garden planted around it. The fountain had markings and patterns lined up against the edge of the outside rim, along with a statue of a man and woman holding each other in an embrace while two angel-like children looked up towards them. Kuroneko was breathing heavily as she recovered from being suddenly dragged around.

"W…What…was that…for?" she wheezed as she took in enormous gasps of air in-between. "Why did…we need…to run…Mugen…and Kuroneko…didn't…do anything…wrong…"

"Are you ok?"

"No! Kuroneko isn't alright! Mugen had just dragged me off, leaving Kuroneko all out of breath and exhausted! Now even Kuroneko's body must smell of sweat and disgust…"

Mugen sighed. "I'm asking if those two did anything do you…"

"Eh? No…those two didn't do anything…"

"I see…" Mugen starts rubbing her hair gently as he grinned. "That's good…"

Kuroneko felt her face go a bit warm. Something about how he rubbed her head just gave her a happy feeling. She shifted her eyes away nervously as he stopped. They went to a nearby bench and sat down to take a break. While Mugen kept his eyes close, as if to try and take a nap, Kuroneko started to look around the park.

Aside from the fountain and the small garden, there were a multitude of couples who were walking around the area. Of course since everyone needed to be paired with someone else, this wasn't surprising. However, all the pairings were boy-girl, and nobody seemed to look uncomfortable in anyway, so it was very unlikely that they were forced into it, like she was. Some of them even happily ate some food that they bought from a nearby food cart, or were getting closer together to the point that they were hugging or snuggling together. Looking closely, Kuroneko could see that one of the couples were even bringing their faces closer…closer…closer…

She shook her head wildly before turning back to Mugen, who appeared to be sleeping. She decided to take advantage of what was probably a rare opportunity, and get a closer look at him.

His body wasn't too muscular, like a body builder or some of the "were-" creatures that she saw before, but he still seemed pretty fit. There weren't any signs of sweat on his body, despite the short sprinting that they did earlier, so he must have been used to physical activities like that. He had bandages wrapped around his hands and arms, but she couldn't tell if they were from some kind of injury, or to help him keep a firm grip on his weapons. She wondered how someone like this could be so problematic to almost everyone he meets, when suddenly…

"Is there something I should know?"

Mugen was awake and looking down at her. She looked up, and finally noticed that she was too close to his chest than she thought. She wildly flailed her arms in place before quickly sitting back in place while laughing nervously. Mugen seemed to have decided not to pursue the matter further, because he stretched his arms before getting up and turning his neck around. He offered a hand to Kuroneko, accepted the offer, and was helped up before they released each other's grip and started walking away. They walked a short distance before Kuroneko spoke up.

"Excuse me…"

Mugen stopped and turned towards his partner, who was starting to fidget nervously.

"What is it?"

"Um…well…" Kuroneko's started playing with her index fingers a bit before continuing. "W…Why…does Mugen-san care about Kuroneko?"

"Huh?"

"Why did…Mugen-san help Kuroneko…when she was in trouble?"

"You're saying that you didn't want help?"

"That's not it!" She took a deep breath before finally getting the courage to ask outright.

"Does…Mugen-san…like…Kuroneko?"

There was a moment of silence before Mugen scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah…yeah I guess so…"

Kuroneko's heart skipped a beat as she saw him smile.

"Yeah, I do like you Kuroneko."

The cat-maid could feel her face start to burn up.

"Why wouldn't I? I mean, you're pretty funny, you're cute, and you've got a pretty interesting personality. Of course I like you."

"T…That's…"

"After all, you seem like you'd be a really interesting toy…"

Something suddenly shattered.

"A…toy?"

"Isn't that what you pretty much are?" Mugen asked in an honest tone. "I mean, it doesn't look like everyone else treats you fairly, and Shiroyasha sounds like she just does whatever the hell she want with you, so it sounds like you're pretty much a toy…"

Kuroneko's head dropped before she started to make a dark laugh.

"He…hehehe….hehehehehe…." Her eyes seemed to turn blood-red as she smiled an otherworldly smile that would send a normal person to tears. Also, all her black hair started to change into a pure white color while her tail started flailing wildly.

"Oh, so Kuroneko can change color too?" Mugen said, oblivious to the danger in front of him.

"You…you dare toy with with Kuroneko's heart?" She clenched onto Mugen's shirt, holding him as rough as she could with one hand.

"That…is…"

She brought her other hand up as far back as she could.

"…UNFORGIVABLE!"

There was a loud *SMACK* that resounded across the area. Kuroneko was breathing heavily as she started nursing her wounded hand. A red, palm-shaped mark was left on Mugen's right cheek, which he didn't seem to mind as he continued to stare at her.

"Your hand alright?"

"Shut up!" Kuroneko shouted as she started walking away. "Let's just go meet up with the others!"

Mugen stood still for a while before chuckling to himself. "Yeah, very interesting…"

Author note: So, it turns out that I decided to split this chapter and the last chapter into two. Don't ask why, it wouldn't make much sense for my answer to be "just because I felt like I should".

Anyways, this is actually my first "romance"-style story in a while (like at least 8 months. Seriously...) so I'd like some feedback on my writing style, as well as your comments on how this "date" turned out. Get your pitchforks and assemble the angry mob to scare me into changing relationships in the future, say it's decent enough to work, or even set up a celebration. Anything goes.

Anyways I hope this works out to you guys for a while, and I'll try to see what I can do for the next two "dates" before the main event...