#artificialhime

artificialhime

     Felix frowned. The tiny plaza filled with applause, a crowd had gathered consisting of people around their teens to young(ish) adulthood and they were cheering. Beneath the yells, he heard the pew pew’s of imitation gunshots, the child-friendly ‘hero’ noises of people who want the thrill of violence without the bloodshed. The applause persisted and he looked on from his spot behind the mob, hands folded behind his head in a casual display. Alright. Strolling forward, Felix threaded through the gaps between the crowd.

     Two kids stood in the center of the crowd, some new game system holding their attention. The two held dual guns, the source of the fake noises, and were shooting at some cutesy monsters displayed on the two screens. Their concentrated faces and the competitive air about them was almost enough to make him laugh. Were they serious? This whole crowd was in awe at these two kids just because they could shoot some plush animals straight out of some toddler’s sugar-induced nightmares. How adorable. He stood, arms crossed, watching the “battle” until suddenly it was over.

     “And the winner is...” He couldn’t help but chuckle. The girl seemed so proud and the other player so defeated. If any of them were on a battlefield, his battlefield, they wouldn’t stand a chance. “Would anyone else want to do battle...” Felix stopped listening to the announcer, whoever it was advertising the new game, and considered his choices. He probably wouldn’t be used to the system. He probably wouldn’t know the tricks of the ‘trade’. But he was experienced in other ways. Felix looked again at the child and shrugged. 

     He raised a lazy hand and spoke with charming nonchalance. “I’ll take a shot.”

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artificialhime

Koi wasn't very exciting to be honest, it had nice things like lots of places to eat at and plenty of them served meat! Yummm! Otherwise there wasn't anything particularly interesting, everyone and everything was really, normal. Not the normal he was used to, no this was a boring kind of normal. Luffy had entered the Belladonna block and someone had tried to mug him, so he thought he'd have a bit of excitement, like maybe they'd be tricky like Nami was. Only they weren't, and Luffy actually beat them up pretty easily. The mugger had dropped something though, it was small rectangular shaped and he hadn't seen anything like it before.

He poked at the buttons marveling at the device as it came to life with a bright light. Another mash of buttons and somehow he managed t get it to play a ring tone. Luffy was astounded! What was this thing!?

"Whoooooaaaaaa! So cool! What else can this thing do!?"

He turned the thing over in his hand and mashed more buttons dropping the phone when it let out a shrill shriek.

     Another strike out; he'd make the worse batter in the world look like a golden boy. The women in this city were far too.. dignified. Even in the Belladonna district, the investigator always had rough luck. When he could manage to hit a home run, the chick would be a six or seven at best. After each score, he'd bench himself at a bar and wait around impatiently, on the prowl for another perfect ten to come about. After the ten rejected him, he'd follow after a nine. Thereafter an eight. Each numeral decline mirrored the decrease of his sobriety level. Speech began to slur and explore the octaves he could reach; a pink hue running across his upper cheeks met at the bridge of his nose.

     With his toxicity level on the rise, he could feel the heat of vexation and impatience rise from the acidic trap of his stomach to the roof of his mouth. The contempt in his veins violently coursing from each dirty glance to his surroundings. The snarl at his lip birthed from the sounds of laughter and drunken piano playing. Angered thoughts whirred around in his mind far more quickly than the walls of the bar. He could feel the pressure between his temples growing with no sign of ceasing until his head burst. 

     Downing the remainder of his drink, his chair gave complaints as it's legs scraped across linoleum floors. A slim tip for the sleazy bartender from his yellow jacket served as his goodbye to the tavern. Heavily shoving the metal door, Adachi took a few steps into the underground district and lifted his hood at the hint of droplets from a moody sky. He could only smirk as a hand cradled half of his features, finding it fitting that in a time of self-pity it would rain.

     The mirth ended soon after he began his disgraceful stride, self-sympathy taking all present awareness from his surroundings. Fortune did not come easy, if at all, to the detective; this he was in full understanding of. What he couldn't understand was how his simple tastes couldn't be met by anyone he thought had those qualities. He wanted his ideal woman, craved her. Someone with a friendly smile and a kind laugh. Someone submissive.

             Someone.. like her.

     A figure in all blue elegantly passed through blurred vision. Legs, long and toned. Eyes bright and cheerful. He loved the way her lips moved when she spoke on her phone. The sight of her was almost intoxicating. Thoughts of doing impurities plagued every thought of her while he trailed her like security. She turned the corner and he followed soon after. After all, girls like her shouldn't be out alone at night. Girls like her shouldn't be in a location like this, especially. Girls like her.. girls like her.

     She turned the corner into an alleyway and as he caught up behind her, impulse lead him to take grasp of her wrist.

                                  Look at me...                                            LOOK AT ME.

The thought that he might one day move out on his own and have to take care of himself was not one that had really occurred to Haruka. He had never really been one to look ahead and make plans for the future, but more important than that was the fact that he couldn't even be sure that this 'future' would actually be coming. And yet here he was. A nineteen year old boy with the whole world at his feet. Ready to go where he wanted, do what he pleased. It was a strange feeling to be honest, and one that he would need a bit of time to get used to; furthermore some part of him didn't dare to hope that this peace and quiet was going to be permanent because he knew far too well that such thoughts were only going to bring disappointment.

That aside, Haruka was stumbling down the road, balancing a massive bag of groceries in his arm - that had been the very first thing to do, acquire food. If he didn't have food he truly did not know what to do. But as Haruka was a boy possessing roughly the strength of a wet noodle this bag was awfully heavy to carry around, and the artist couldn't even see where he was headed. It was bound to go wrong eventually.

And it also did when he suddenly without warning felt resistance from the other side, sending him tumbling and dropping the bag in his arms, groceries rolling everywhere around. "Aah, my food~..." Haruka mourned in a dispirited voice, watching all of his hard work go down the drains. Suddenly realising that this situation had to be caused by him bumping into something, he soon laid eyes on a girl who could be described using one single colour: blue. An astonished expression spread on the boy's face as he took in her appearance.

"You're..." he began vaguely, calling out to her. Blue hair tied into twin tails, blue eyes, blue sweater with baggy sleeves, and those peculiar... ornaments, probably, stuck to her cheeks. Any ordinary person would probably presume her to be either a weirdo or a cosplayer or both. But not Haruka. After all this girl was.... "... so cool...!"

"Master… One contact…? That’s… That’s amazing!! To think one person is willing to share their number with you!"