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For being as small as it was, Café Leblanc’s convenient and cozy location within Shizume City nevertheless made it a hotspot favored among students from the nearby university in particular. Incidentally, its close proximity to the university also happened to be how Akira came to be aware of its presence. Being in a tight spot after having just moved here from another city, then, it was only natural that he took up the position posted for help, effectively surrendering many of his evenings to the flimsy whims of customers in exchange for the much-needed yen.

Sundays actually tended to be fairly slow a lot of the time, and today was no exception. The only reason he’d been called in was to cover for the owner, who apparently had something he couldn’t bail out on. So today it was really just Akira manning the shop. Well, Akira and the orange-haired girl, whose name he recalled as Futaba Sakura. He didn’t know very much about her, just that she was the owner’s daughter and as such would happen into here sometimes. That’s what the owner had more or less said of her. She tended to keep to herself, but of course, Akira couldn’t help the burgeoning curiosity, and given that the day had been slow and only getting slower as time dragged on--

The dark-haired man slowly came to, sitting up carefully and rubbing his head, which was pounding so hard, he could’ve sworn it was going to burst right out of his skull. His memories were a bit fuzzy, until he looked around the room. It appeared he was in... a cell? That was a new one. But the circumstances of how he got there began to return to him.

He was minding his own business, as he usually tended to do. He had no reason to engage with others most of the time, but he was forced into interaction when two men in suits approached him and offered him... something. For him to join him. Well, turns out that he had other things on his agenda, so he turned them down. He knew better than to just go with shifty men with no explanation anyway.

And then he woke up here.

But it appeared he wasn’t alone. Movement in his peripheral caught his attention and he looked over to see a girl with long orange hair beginning to stir. Was she in the same situation he was in? It would do well to ask if she knew what was going on, but if she was just as disoriented as he was, then there was no point. He waited until she sat up fully before greeting her.

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Noi stretched her arms above her head as she traversed the streets of Shizume, the people around her paying her no mind. She definitely stood out due to her stature, but that might’ve also been a contributing factor to her being left alone by the citizens of the city. Without the extra distraction of random people accosting her for this reason or that, one would think Noi wouldn’t take too long running errands, but she could distract herself window shopping and checking out street food easily enough.

Regardless of her carefree nature, she was pretty observant of the people around her. It came with her job, after all; she’d made plenty of enemies just by being associated with her boss and nothing more. It didn’t escape her notice when she saw a girl with bright orange hair standing in the middle of the street, looking like she was having a pretty hard time. Maybe she was lost? Noi didn’t have anything better to be doing, so what was the harm in helping this girl out?

LeBlanc served as a fine place to study, at least for a quiet student who could easily eat five portions of curry in a row and show no signs of stopping. Regardless of where he got the money to satisfy his large appetite, he always was able to pay for his multiple servings of both curry and coffee. The the food here was better than any chain, and the service was great too. The owner wasn’t overly friendly or talkative, meaning Minato could slip into a both in the corner, pull his notebooks out, put his headphones on and get to work without being disturbed. He supposed he usually overstayed his welcome...but he ordered at least two things an hour if not more...so he was fine, wasn’t he? He could sit alone and review his material without bothering anyone. Of course, this didn’t prevent him from being bothered.

The dead were always near, of course.

Though LeBlanc in particular was usually free from them...there was only one spirit who he’d call a regular: a woman with jet black hair that stopped above her shoulders, dark eyes, and glasses. She was in her fairly often from what Minato could see, though he had no reason why she chose to hang around in back-alley cafe that served the odd combination of curry and coffee, but it wasn’t as if he paid enough attention to figure out exactly why. This was about his fifth time observing her.