This is a unique chapter this time. I write these as I watch the series. Which is why I haven't had new chapters posted as regularly as I would like. No time to watch an episode to plot out the next chapter. Anyway, I finally had a moment to sit down and watch an episode. And I was looking forward to it...only to find that there wasn't a clear path to a story in the setting of the episode proper. So I thought about doing something special here that works with something I have in mind in the future past this story. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Tsukasa eyed Kairi as he clutched a pink hair band off in the corner. The others were talking about what they managed to do that day by not only getting another Lupin Collection piece from the Gangler. But also a new VS Vehicle from Keiichiro with Splash Trigger Machine. She was more worried about the man she saw before her right now.

She had told the Lupinranger about the discovery that art thieves had Splash Trigger Machine. They had worked out what Kairi would do. Keiichiro was pretending to go on a vacation to investigate the art thieves that had the Splash Trigger Machine. All to hide it from Noël. Her plan to use him as the reason to investigate his loyalties was a little too good for Keiichiro. He didn't want to tell him in case he would let it slip to the other Lupins.

So Tsukasa planned with the others and came up with the idea that Kairi would follow and pretend to be doing the same thing. It was believable on many levels. People take vacations all the time. This was how Hilltop managed to sell it to Keiichiro too. She thought it was a perfect plan. Work out where the meeting would happen and steal it from him before he knew what happened.

But ever since he returned he was quiet. Subdued and thinking a lot. She knew something had happened while there and that Kairi wouldn't tell her a thing. So she went to the other person there. The one that he was spying on the whole time. Keiichiro. She asked him about what had happened. Dropped that when she and Noël were getting lunch at the Bistro they found out that Kairi was on vacation in that area too.

He told her about the little girl getting lost looking for a hair ribbon. That Kairi had helped him get the hair ribbon back when he spotted him looking at the shop where her parents had bought the hair clip originally. and that allowed him to try and figure out where she had gone after it. She even pressed him for more and he told her the story Kairi had told her about how he thought he was a selfish person because of something that happened when he was a kid.

But when she was fighting alongside him in LupinKaiser Splash Magic and her in her Auxillary Cyclone Knight. He wasn't acting normally. And now was even more apparent. She walked over to him. He scrunched up his nose a little when she approached him. "Yeah, yeah. I know I smell." Tsukasa sighed. The Gangler Kunks had a smell about him. It was one time she wished that they could destroy the Gangler without taking the collection piece from him beforehand. He had an awful smell.

"What is it?" he said making a face.

"Let's go for a walk. The fresh air might be good for both of us." Tsukasa smiled at him.

"Only because I don't want to spend the next day and a half fumigating the Bistro," he smirked. She chuckled as the two of them left and the other Lupins wondered what they could be doing.

They walked to the spot where they had the last heart-to-heart between the two of them. The pier near the bay where they could look out on the water as they talked. Back when she didn't know he was Lupin Red. "Keiichiro told me about the little girl." He eyed her. "That's a matching hair ribbon?" she asked looking at the pink thing in his hand.

"No a gift for you," he said shoving it into her hand. "Too bad you smelt like a trash can when I gave it to you."

"Funny. He also told me about the story you told him." He looked at her. "You got this hair ribbon for the girl because you wanted to give it to her to help her smile again." He just looked away from her. She sighed. "This isn't about you being selfish, is it?"

"What do you mean?" he asked looking out onto the water, seeing a few ships floating by as they talked.

"You wanted to be like your brother...again." He stared at her. "I looked up your high school basketball career. Which lead me to him. He was the basketball star of the school when you were a kid right?" she said with a small smile as she looked out at the water. "It wasn't for you ya know."

"What wasn't? Basketball? That night made it obvious." He glared out to the water.

"His path." He turned to face her with confusion. "Your BROTHERS' path." She smiled up at him. "You need to find your own path. Today you tried it again. To be your brother. To cheer that little girl up by giving her another hair ribbon like she had lost. But that wasn't you, that was him." Kairi sighed and smirked as the pair looked out at the water again.

"And where is my path then?" Kairi asked.

"You're already on it, baka." She started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

"...Need a shower. Tonight...I was set up on a blind date. Put it off two times already. Hopefully, I can smell less like a trash can by the time he shows up. See ya tomorrow Red."

"Tomorrow, Pink."

People were walking around the plaza. Some were holding hands. Some were laughing. But almost all were couples. Happily in love and looking to have a night of romance and love. Until they all heard a man start to yell as he walked out of a building fuming mad.

"THAT IS THE LAST TIME I LET HIM PICK MY DATES FOR ME!" A guy stormed out of a fancy restaurant angrily. Tsukasa walked out shortly behind him in the best dress she owned rolling her eyes as he stormed off.

"And I thought it was going so well," she mocked. She walked down the street. She was never good at love. She wasn't sure why but every time she went out with someone it ended with them storming off. She spotted a mirror in a display for a clothing shop. She saw her reflection the dress wasn't like some of the ones that she would love to own. But she didn't think she looked bad...but the nagging thought in the back of her mind after all dates she went on lately cropped back up. "Is it me?" she wondered allowed.

"Is what you?" she heard. She turned to see Umika looking at some of the clothes in the other windows.

"What are you doing here?" Tsukasa asked with a sad smile.

"I always come here after a battle." Umika sighed. "I always wanted to be a fashion designer. Ever since I was a kid." She looked at the clothes in the display windows and smirked. "...When I bring her back I am going to follow that dream. Coming here reminds me of MY end goal. To show Shiho the clothes that I designed the same way she showed me her first manga. I will make that happen." Umika said with a determined face.

"Anyway," she sighed then looked at Tsukasa as the two started to walk together with no direction just mindless wondering. "Is what you Tsukasa-san?"

She smiled thoughtfully at her female nakama. "I am never good when it comes to love. Every time, he goes rampaging off. It gets old."

Umika thought about it. "I-I don't understand why...you are very beautiful. And talented. A skilled fighter. And very courageous. I would date you in a minute."

"Really? Do you...ah..." Tsukasa asked her not sure how to phrase it.

"Date women?" Umika asked innocently. Tsukasa nodded with a nervous smile.

Umika thought about it for a minute. "I wouldn't not date a woman. I never thought about it I guess. I was always the oddball kid." Umika chuckled.

"You're not an oddball. You're...unique." Tsukasa smiled thinking about everything that she knew about the woman she was with as they walked and talked. Umika blushed a little at the words of her friend. "I don't know what it is. They always say something and...I guess it sets me off. Tonight he was talking about how useless the GSP are. Oddly he is a Lupinranger fan." Tsukasa chuckled.

"Then what's the problem? You're a Lupinranger." Umika said.

"But I am also a GSP officer," Tsukasa said stopping in her tracks. Umika looked at her.

"Fair I guess. But," Umika smirked. "They still can't figure out who the Lupins are. And we serve them daily."

Tsukasa wanted to look stern but the more she thought about it and the innocent smile Umika had, the harder to keep the smirk off her face was. Then she started to giggle. "That's different." Tsukasa giggled. "He was saying that we never do anything. Completely and totally useless...and I have seen men and women working their butts off for guys like him to say that? It was...annoying."

"I see what you mean. But why did you go out with him in the first place if he knew about your 'day job'?" Umika asked as the two women started to walk again.

"My civilian friends." She sighed again. "They have been trying to set me up for years now. They picked him but didn't tell him about my job probably because he wouldn't go out with me otherwise. You'd think that might be a hint it wouldn't work out." she grumbled.

"Maybe they just want to see you happy?" Umika asked with a smile.

"I know they want to see me happy," Tsukasa smiled at her. "I just don't know what I am looking for when it comes to love."

Umika thought for a minute. "Neither do I." Tsukasa looked at her.

"What about Sakuya?" Tsukasa asked. Umika blushed a little.

"I know he likes me...I just don't know if I like him." Umika said honestly.

"He is sweet." Tsukasa smiled at her.

"I know. And I like that about him." Umika said genuinely. But she nodded to herself. "But..."

"He is a bit annoying at times," Tsukasa said with a knowing smile.

"Yeah." Umika said smiling at her nakama.

"I guess neither of us has met that one that we know is THE one." Tsukasa sighed.

"Maybe we can help each other find them?" Umika said smiling at her.

"Deal!" Tsukasa said brightly. Umika held up her hand with her pinkie finger extended. Tsukasa looked at the young innocent woman.

"Pinkie promise?" Umika asked with a smile.

Tsukasa giggled. "Pinkie promise." Tsukasa connected their pinkies together. She smiled at the innocent woman and treasured this time together. She may not have a boyfriend. But she has a best friend.

"Want to come home and watch some bad movies?" Tsukasa asked with a smile.

"Only if we can have ice cream and junk food," Umika said brightly.

"I can live with that," Tsukasa said clasping her hand in Umika's and rushing off to have a girls' night with her best friend.