A Forest in a Girl's Heart

Luckily, his action had been quick enough to catch her question. Pushing his damp hair away from his eyes, he considered the possibility. He wasn’t really much of a swimmer, as he had never received any formal lessons, but he could probably manage to venture a little farther out. He turned in order to scrutinize the ocean itself, giving a small nod in confirmation of his guess. He looked back at Mary, who  now had only her head bobbing atop the water. “Ah, if you’re sure…” He wavered. Surely the point of going to the beach with someone was to actually be with them, so he didn’t want to completely leave her and go off on his own.

She just hoped he wouldn't swim too far and get caught up in a big wave or something, that would be bad, right? 

While Natsume went out further to swim, Mary got startled by some things brushing past her pegs underwater. Squeaking, she panicked for a moment until she saw little shadows just below the surface once in a while that looked like fishes. She sighed in relief and played around with them (as much as one could play around with ocean fishes) while the sun burned down on them despite setting slowly but steadily.

To cool her head, she briefly dared to dive her head underwater, although it was too salty for her eyes to open them. Her hair was sopping wet but way cooler than before from the sun heating up her hair and she looked around for any sign of Natsume.

He didn’t see Mary after a quick look around the mass of beachgoers and figured that she was still changing. He took the opportunity to just soak in the sounds and scents of the water. It really was a nice place. He wouldn’t mind coming back again, hopefully at a time when there were less people around. His reverie was broken by a voice that was becoming more familiar.

"No, not really," he said brightly. He didn’t actually know how long it had been, but the passing of that time didn’t feel particularly arduous to him. He agreed with her suggestion with a brief "Yeah." and for a moment both of them stood still, waiting for the other to step toward the water.

The waves of the ocean rolled into the beach with a gentle rush and pulled back out with the sound of wistful faraway adventure. Mary once imagined to be a pirate princess traveling on a ship but she quickly banished that memory.

Natsume was waist-deep in the water until he gave his ok and Mary nodded, looking nervous but determined.

"Yosh...!" she told herself. One step after another she slowly dared to let her skin touch the water. The waves pulled away and she felt like chasing them until she was ankle-deep. The temperature was chilly, like she expected and it made her shiver but only briefly because teh sun was glaring down at them merciless. Step by step she closed teh distance to where Natsume was waiting for her. Her hair floated behind her already, the water covered her belly, going slightly higher and she shivered but smiled at the blond boy.

Moving fast, he is suddenly standing in front of the girl. “I am fine..” Yato studies her before smiling deciding it was nothing. “In matter of fact I’m great! How are you?” The God shines happily holding his bottle closely. “Do you need any help?” 

She blinked a little. The way that young man asked if she needed help sounded almost...commercial, like it was his job asking this. Was he a police person? No, looking at his outfit he was definitely not one. "...I'm Kozakura Mary by the way. Do you...offer people help often?"

“There’s so many phantoms here and I don’t have Yukine,” he bites his the nail on his thumb nervously cursing to himself wondering just how he got himself into this mess. The young God doesn’t even remember entering this place or even hearing about. “Shit, I bet Hyori and Yukine are pissed.” Just the thought of how much pain he’ll go through when they find him caused him to shiver. 

“I should just make the best out of this, It’ll be a while before I can leave so I might as well get some customers.” He smirks devilishly wondering how many humans are now going to swoon towards his feet and toss all their yens at him. This is going to be great. The only problem is how is he going to be able to grant these wishes without his shiki! Now thinking about it, the male feels strange. Nah, it can’t be anything important. It’s not like he just suddenly became human. That’s absurd.

The bus arrived promptly and, as they sped toward to edge of the city, the buildings fanned out and allowed for a nice view of the surrounding area. Her words and a tug on his shirt drew his attention from the greenery toward the slowly coming into view ocean. Though he’d seen expansive lakes and rivers before, they paled in comparison to the sight of the ocean. He easily shared her enthusiasm and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, is it, huh.”

He kept his eyes on the water for the rest of the trip, needing to be reminded to actually get off the bus. As expected for a hot summer day, there were lots of people already there, which made Natsume a bit self-conscious. Aside from school, he’d really never been around a lot of people. But, the atmosphere around the ocean felt pleasant and he had someone with him who wasn’t really a stranger anymore, so the feeling passed.

Eventually it was her turn and she quickly disappeared into the stall that she could use.

Mary was glad she chose one that wasn't too complicated to put on. Tightening the few ribbons she had, she carefully opened the door, peeking outside, suddenly feeling self-conscious again.

Where was Natsume? She didn't see him from this point of view, so she had no choice but to leave the stall. But it wasn't as bad as she was afraid it would be. People didn't really pay attention, the ocean did a good job preoccupying everyone.

"Ah!" There he was. The short blond hair, the somewhat slender stature, she quickly walked up to Natsume's side. "I'm sorry, did you wait long? L-let's try heading into the water?"

"I’m headed to… Tulip apartment. You know where that is?"

Fortunately, Karma had rather good memory. Who knows what would’ve happened if he forgot the apartment name. He might’ve had to sleep on the streets or something. Maybe that was a little dramatic, but still. Why were there SO many apartments? And none of the residents were one of his friends or acquaintances. Of course, maybe he could find someone to talk to occasionally right now.

"Nice to meet you, Mary. I’m Akabane Karma, and yes, I just moved in here."

It was nice to have a rather normal conversation for once. After all, his friends were pretty much a group of oddballs. They were talented in many things, but most of them were not book smart at all. 

"Well, thanks for the welcome. I was craving sweets, so if you can help me, maybe I can treat you to some sweets or whatever for your help. Girls like sweets, don’t they?"

The redhead craved some sweets at the moment, so why not rope this girl in too? That way, he would be able to thank her for her help and eat something at the same time. Genius Akabane Karma strikes again!

That boy seemed nice. There was something that was mischievous about him, as he reminded her a little of the trickster boy of her friends but at the same time he was more level-headed than her friend. Plus, the red hair was unusual but it was a really pretty color, especially under the sun.

"Sweets, yes," she smiled shyly, "I like sweets with a cup of tea. That sounds nice, t-thank you!" Ahh, he was the type to be charismatic and a natural extrovert, it always made Mary feel nervous but she puffed her chest, gathered her courage to appear less timid. 

"It’s nice." Honestly, Natsume knew very little about anything related to swimwear in terms of what suited himself, much less others. Even in his limited knowledge he could see that the girl and the suit matched quite well. Besides, she seemed so happy with it.

Once they left the store, Mary spoke up again. He matched her smile, happy to have been of help. Something he had personally aspired to was being about to help others in the same way those certain people in the past had helped him. Even if this was a small way to help, it was enough to make him content. “You’re welcome. I’m glad it worked out.” As she said, they were now ready to go to the beach.

Toshi's bus stop map wasn't too complicated but it took Mary a while to find their location and their destination. With that done, it was time to look up when the next bus they had to take was scheduled. And at the schedule plan Mary failed, looking at Natsume for help. "T-this is more complicated than I thought..."

Mary really was lucky to be with Natsume. He was kind and helpful, just the type of person Mary needed to get around and she was really glad it was him helping her. The Bus would come soon and so they sat down at the waiting bench until the bus came. They both boarded it and as they seated themselves, Mary looked out of the window, the scenery passing by. "A bus sure is nice...imagine we had to walk all the way to the beach...ahhh Natsume-san, look!"

It was barely 10 minutes of a ride when they could catch a glimpse of the sparkling ocean water in near distance already. She excitedly tugged at the boy's sleeve because to her it was the first time seeing it. She read a lot about it but it wasn't the same. "So pretty...!"

Looking for rumor materials. Yeah. A-ya wasn’t really sure if ‘hard’ would be in his vocabulary in the moment that he would search for materials. Toshi isn’t a place where things are hard to make into a rumor, and A-ya was glad for it. Well…not really, since that the different things that the city does have, might be normal for all the people who live here. So it wouldn’t be something surprising…maybe. Just maybe.

But A-ya didn’t want to think like that. Making rumors was one of his speciality, so exploring new materials would give light to his mind to create things that he never had opportunity for. And that made him excited and motivated to stay searching for something for hours and hours, if it was needed.

…It wouldn’t be needed, though. Easy was to find something acceptable to find a rumor, A-ya thought at first. And easy it was- he didn’t have to walk that much to find something interesting. It was…a fluffy ball. He didn’t know what was it…could it be a walking fluffy ball or something?

Walking closer, taking care to not seem so suspicious, he stared at it. Or better…he stared at her. It was a girl. It didn’t seem like so, though. And that was honestly surprising.

The flowers of a flower shop caught her eyes and she stopped, looking at them with a smile. They reminded her of the boy who led her out of the forest. He also worked at a flower shop and many other part-time jobs...

...did he?

Actually, the boy had been in this city briefly but he never worked in a flower shop. So why did she think that? But the image of him working with flowers was so vibrant...Mary frowned. Was that a memory or a dream...?

She shook her head, no, it had to be a dream, she confused it with one of her nightmares and dreams probably. These silly dreams of another world where her friends kept dying, it was just a dream, a nightmare, this was reality...

As she tried convincing herself, Mary's hair subtly started to wiggle. Her long, curly strands started to wiggle a little like little snakes. She herself did not notice because she was busy forcing her attention back to the flowers, buying some.

Her hair subtly, briefly, wiggled again and Mary caught it in the reflection of the flower shop window. No, that was her imagination again, right? She looked down at her hair, it was still and only moved in the wind. She ran her hand over her locks. No, it was just hair. What a strange thing to imagine, her hair moving...

Deciding to head home, she turned - and stopped. Because there was a boy, probably a little older than her, dark messy hair and...very prominent red eyes (and prominent bags under those eyes too). Red eyes...they reminded her of something. Of her nightmares...

Ahh, but these eyes were wide with curiosity and the boy did not feel any shame looking at her. ...did he see what she thought she saw? The boy was making her feel nervous, may it be because of those red eyes that made her think of her nightmares or the fact that he was staring at her. Or maybe she was still unsure if her hair really moved on its own or if she was just having lack of sleep. Which can't be, she slept so much lately...

He had only bought a swimsuit once, at the insistence of Kitamoto and Nishimura and it had mostly been them buying the swimsuit - Natsume had just ended up paying for it and wearing it. He ended up trailing behind the excited girl, not really sure what to do with himself.

Her feelings rubbed off on him enough that he actually found himself enjoying venturing into a few stores to try things on. He wasn’t very picky or really sure what the differences were aside from the styles, so he bought a pair of plain blue swimming trunks at a manageable price.

Turning around to the direction of Natsume's voice, she was just about to ask for his opinion when her eyes spotted something besides him and she, in her haste to get it, almost crashed into the boy. He did get a light slap of her hair and she bounced back with a big smile.

"This one is okay, right? It should be my size, it's not too expensive and it's cute." Blue and rose colored. It was just her color scheme it seemed. Since Natsume didn't object, she happily purchased it, looking happy.

"This is...the first time I bought a swimsuit, myself even! Usually...I need someone to help me out on deciding or picking things...thanks for coming with me, that alone helped me a lot!" She smiled, hugging the bag with her swimsuit happily. "I'm glad you found one, too! L-let's go to the beach now?"

In all the excitement of finding a swimsuit, the real challenge now lay with visiting the beach. She never had been there before. There would be a lot of people in this summer heat, would she be alright? But a look at the calm Natsume calmed her down a bit.

Karma was strolling around Toshi City, trying to get a good feel for the place. After all, he recently moved and should see what there is in this new place. The wind was blowing, the birds were chirping… It had been a long time ever since he managed to feel so relaxed. Humming a little song, he walked, feeling relaxed. Maybe TOO relaxed, because he ended up not knowing where he was.

Great, he lost his way. Figures. Acting nonchalant, he continued to walk forward, pretending that he knew where he was going. However, he couldn’t see anything familiar. Plus, it felt like the area was deserted. Even if he wanted to ask for directions, he couldn’t. Karma ran around, looking for someone to ask for directions. Finally, he found someone who seemed to know their way.

There wasn't much to do with the recent events put on hold, the mayor missing and the doves going quiet again. Her roommates all had left for some reason, her friends had thinned out, maybe busy somewhere so she felt a bit lonely and the strolls in the city had increased lately.

People were coming and going in this city, people were coming and going in her life, it was part of the flow.

She thought about buying flowers to lighten up her room, when a figure approached her, apparently lost, and she looked up, startled but at least not running behind the next wall to hide. (She was getting better at the interaction part.)

The boy had red hair and red eyes and seemed casual, yet friendly.

"H-hello! I uh...maybe I can help you?" Duh, he came to her to get help. "I-I mean, where are you headed? I recently also got known to these parts s-so I might be of some help." 

"I think so." he wasn’t one much for tales other than the Japanese ones, but it was a famous one worth mentioning.

"We’ll check the Well, and then… there was one more place, wasn’t there?" he knew they were given three choices to look at. It took a bit of walking, but at least it was fun. He wasn’t even tired yet.

"And down they went, down below," Mary recited the riddle, heaving herself onto the edge of the stone well, bending over it to look into it. "Yet you will fall much farther..." Her voice echoed into the well but she wasn't sure if there was anything.

"I’ve never gone either." He, Tanuma, Kitamoto, Nishimura, and Sasada had once gone swimming in the lake that resided in the local forest, but that definitely didn’t count as a beach trip. He doubted there would be quite as much cat involved this time around either. Even so, he remembered enjoying himself in the company of his friends and wouldn’t mind going again.

"Y-yes, let's go shop for swimwear together? Actually, I am not that familiar with the shops here but I am sure we can find some swimwear together!" She got some allowance left and because she never really went out to buy anything, she was sure she could afford a swimsuit. She had to, they wanted to go to the beach, after all!

Heading downtown to the shopping district of the city, Mary's initial worry of not finding the proper shops turned out unnecessary because, itw as in the middle of summer season, the shops offered summer-related things, swimwear for women and men everywhere.