"Just wait a bit longer... 'kay? This will be the main dish!" exclaimed Keiwa excitedly as he started cutting some fried tofu into smaller pieces. Remembering to set aside a few pieces for Ace, Keiwa dump the rest of it, alongside some chopped bell peppers, mushroom and other ingredients into the frying pan. As soon as the oil started bubbling he started to mix the ingredients all around...

.

"How did you know my name—?"

Somehow Keiwa couldn't stop thinking about the earlier incidents. How did he end up blurting that guy's name out? And it's not just that guy... but that Weather Hearts vocalist and even Neon-chan... for some reason he couldn't help feeling that he knew all of them really well.

Even though today was the first time he met ANY of them! What's happening to him?

"Ah!"

Keiwa hurriedly put the tip of his palm into his mouth as he almost toppled the frying pan (and its content) off the stovetop. He quickly turned the stove off and dashed to the sink to run cold water onto the part of his palm that had touched the hot frying pan by accident.

Noticing the commotion, Sara hurriedly ran to the kitchen. "Keiwa! Did something happen?"

Keiwa just shrugged helplessly at his older sister as he showed her his hand. "I accidentally burned myself just now..."

xxx

"It's not like you to be so careless, Keiwa," Sara commented as Keiwa finished setting the table and placed their dinner in the centre of the table. Sara helped out as well with scooping out the rice for both of them before placing the rice bowls in front of Keiwa and herself respectively.

"As I said," Keiwa sighed exasperatedly. "I was just distracted!"

Keiwa placed a small plate with Ace's food next to his rice bowl as he pulled up an extra stool to let the white fox eat beside him (since he didn't feel it was right to let Ace eat from the floor.)

Sara kept glancing at the white fox as she leaned over towards her brother.

"Hey, Keiwa... are you sure that THAT fox was wild? It looked to me like it was pretty well-trained. And it didn't look like it was scared of humans..."

"Well," Keiwa said as he popped a piece of seasoned fried tofu into his mouth and chewed slowly. "I'll figure it out tomorrow..."

Sara let out a soft sigh as she continued to stare at her brother.

"Ah, was your doctor's appointment scheduled for tomorrow as well? Will you be all right going there by yourself?"

Keiwa just waved his hand at his sister. "I'll be fine. It's not like it was the first time I went there."

Sara swallowed her food hurriedly as she still appeared unconvinced. "Are you sure? Have you informed your office that you'll be taking a day off tomorrow?"

Keiwa just rolled his eyes at his worrywart sister.

"I've already informed them! Even after I managed to get myself promoted to a new position today! My chief had been pretty understanding about it."

Sara started nodding in understanding before jumping out after hearing what Keiwa said. "Wait a min—a promotion?"

"Yeah, as an assistant reporter. In fact, I'll be working with Neon-san for a few days after tomorrow."

Sara just blinked robotically at Keiwa before the realisation hit her. "What? Neon-chan? Why?"

Keiwa just shrugged. "It's just for an article about her and NeonTV. Not to mention the incident involving Kurama Corporation. That was still pretty hot news right now..."

"Ah, yeah..." Sara nodded. "...the missing persons' case that was rumoured to be connected to the company. I heard that there might even be some involvement with some politicians and whatnot." She gasped aloud.

"Wow... that's a pretty big job for a rookie..."

Keiwa just shook his head. "I'm only in charge of the NeonTV article for now... the other big stuff was for the senior reporters. Anyway, I'll gradually be learning the ropes..."

Sara still cheered for her little brother regardless.

"Good for ya, that's my lil bro! I knew you can do it!"

xxx

Keiwa glanced around in his room as he wondered where should he let Ace sleep. Did he have an old shirt or something somewhere to turn into makeshift bedding...?

"Where should I let you sleep, huh... Ace—?"

Before he could even finish, Ace jumped onto his bed and made itself comfortable on the corner of his bed as Keiwa stared at the white fox in amusement.

"You're really acting so spoiled now, eh Ace?" He spoke half-jokingly as Ace let out a short bark, seemingly in response to his words. Keiwa shook his head as he went back to his bed and sat down beside Ace.

"Somehow I felt like I shouldn't let you have your way around me... but it's so hard to refuse your charms."

Ace reacted by snuggling onto Keiwa's stomach. If Keiwa didn't stop him short, the white fox might've even tried to burrow into his shirts as well! What a menace... he really does need to ask if Ace actually had any owner somewhere...

.

"Keiwa... it just struck me. Lately, you kept practising cooking food using fried tofu a lot. And you kept ordering kitsune udon more often as well. Is there any reason for that?"

"Hmm? There's no reason really. I just thought that it's not so bad to try other types of noodles for once. And I thought I wanted to expand my cooking skills..."

"Really? Then what was that about wanting to create a new recipe for a certain someone? I thought I remembered you telling me about it. About trying to combine tanuki soba and kitsune udon into a whole new upgraded recipe. You said that you wanted to make that dish for someone."

"I did? I... I don't... remember."

Keiwa frowned as he thought about what Sara had asked him about while they were cleaning the dishes earlier. Something was off... something was clearly off about him. And it's not just about his strange behaviours lately... but there's that sense that he's forgotten something yet there were some traces of it in his mind. Like how he thought Kurama Neon was very familiar to him... or that Michinaga guy... or that vocalist Hareruya Win.

For some reason, he had this strange feeling that he knows those three people personally. Yet those people didn't really seem to know him. So what's going on actually?

"...tsk!"

Keiwa winced, as the skin where he accidentally burned his hand while cooking started to ache again. Ah, he needed to tend to this before it gets bad—

.

Without warning, Ace suddenly straightened up from his lap and started licking his injured hand. Keiwa was about to stop the fox from doing it... but then something about it somehow kept mesmerising him. And once Ace stopped licking his hand anymore, the stinging feeling was completely gone.

The burn wound on his hand was completely healed.


A/N2: Randomly I realised that I ended up inserting a parallel to Kido by making Keiwa work for an online news portal (which was neat, considering Movie Battle Royale). But that was unintentional lol it was just an excuse to have him interact with Neon! 😂😂