Reclusive Findings (Riko)

Everything in the tiny figure's mind screamed that this was completely unacceptable behavior. Someone whose mother worked herself to the bone in order to take care of a leech such as herself shouldn't waste time on frivolous things. Not the least the sort of books that sat on the shelves before her as she shifted nervously from foot to foot. Maybe she should just flee while there was still time to pull herself away from the teasing draw of taboo. Mother might not even have noticed that she'd slipped out rather than dress for a shift. There wasn't much work to be done lately, but Miyu had a habit of just getting dressed when she was at home in case her help was needed. Instead of being a good daughter she'd come here - the very den of inequity - to look at this? Books whose covers were graced by beautiful girls embracing each other in various states of dress. Some were even kissing! All of that was enough to make her nearly steam from the heat of embarrassment which built up inside her.

Heavy as lead her arm nonetheless reached over to the shelf, lifted one of the dangerous comics off the shelf. No! What would The Leader think? Her mind's eye turned the mental portrait of the magical head of state around so that they wouldn't have to see her doing this. Now, time to inspect the goods. Lovey line art, a style she found quite endearing and characters she'd always wanted to see together. Who needed the romantic male lead? These two could be so happy together! Miyu reached up and tipped the brim of her hat up so that she could see the item in question with more clarity. Concerns for what her mother or The Leader would think were pushed away as she dared to allow herself to become excited at the find.

"And then.. they probably end up.." she thought aloud, very quietly, blushed and squeed, "Kyaaa!"

Stunned at her own outburst the girl hugged the book tight to her t-shirt clad chest to hide it from view. She looked around nervously to see if her stupidity had in fact upset any fellow shoppers. Most of them were boys anyway and most had better things to do than be annoyed by a little girl. Even though with her hair down, wearing a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes she looked like one herself. Maybe she should withdraw now, even though other doujinshi on the shelf called out to her with beautiful siren songs. No! She had to stop attracting attention to herself. People had better things to do than be worried about the annoying little brunette in a weird foreign looking baseball cap. Wait.. where'd it go? Miyu reached up to pull it down and suddenly it just wasn't there! Oh no!

"M-m-my.. hat.." she mumbled as she stood frozen in place, fidgeting nervously.

It was as ordinary a day as any. Or at least as ordinary a day as Riko could have hoped for. The day had gone by without a text or a phone call from her boss. They still had work to do on all those missing people, but that didn't mean another case might not pop up. One that Nero would just leave to Riko's devices and not devote much of his thought towards it. Those were often the annoying ones. Ones that Riko would come back with a question and Mr. Ookami would just scoff, grumble a little, then turn his attention back to his plants.

So, she used her day off to go out and be extra productive. Today...she was going to buy manga! There were plenty of mystery comics she could look through, but first, there was a very special little section she couldn't help but peruse.

She was also quite happy with the attire she had put together. A cute denim skirt that went rather well with that pink hoodie she had picked up while investigating the gym. Just remembering that day made the detective blush a little bit. It didn't help that she was scanning over the covers of various yuri doujinshi and replacing some of the characters with herself and...well, probably too many combinations than she cared to admit.

Riko blushed, before a sudden "Kyaaa!" grabbed her attention. Was that a cute girl she had just heard!? She looked around, but only saw a few boys in her immediate vicinity.

'Did...I just hear that?' she thought, wondering if fantasy was starting to bleed into reality. There was what appeared to be a boy, who was quite enthralled with a yuri title he had plucked from the shelves. That couldn't have been the source...could it?

Despite her staring, the fellow patron had noticed Riko, yet. He did have awfully long hair. Actually...now that Riko was paying attention to her fellow customer, "he" didn't seem like much of a boy at all. Riko tapped her chin. 'I think it is!' she thought, grinning to herself. She scooped up the hat from the floor. 'Let's see if I can get to the bottom of this...'

"Excuse me...miss?" she asked, wondering if her hunch was correct. "I think you dropped this?"

The entire world stood still as the unfortunate diminutive girl attempted futiley to locate her hat amongst the throng of mostly male shoppers in the store. Losing it had obviously been her own stupid fault for coming here in the first place. Knowing full well that the products for sale within would excite her to the point where something like this would happen, she'd still gone ahead and come in anyway. For what? Just that momentary rush of adrenaline or whatever when she spied a pair of beautiful girls embracing as prelude to even more beautiful things? Surely The Leader wouldn't have smiled on such hedonistic motivation. Shamed beyond repair she knew that beating a hasty retreat was the only way to salvage anything from the situation. Just forget the hat, pay for the book and get out before she was required to say anything at all. Have the least possible impact on breaking up others' days and be gone with her illicit reading materials! Though she knew full well neither her beleaugered mother nor The Leader would condone ownership of the book there was no way she could place it back on the shelf without ruining the other books there. Having held this one, she'd just devalue the others by association. Best to take this one and be done with it.

Then she found herself being engaged in conversation by another girl who had been.. looking at the yuri? Were there even other girls who did that? Maybe the girl had just been on her way over to the yaoi section or something. Whatever the cause of her presence this girl was for some reason asking her a question. Most likely she'd just gotten in this girl's way, so the girl was probably asking if she could get by or something. No, it appeared that the girl had found her hat. Which immediately filled Miyu with regret that her carelessness had forced someone else to put their own plans on hold so that she might remove the hat from her path. Gulping, Miyu fidgeted a bunch while strategically blushing and averting her eyes from the girl who'd offered her hat back. Dropped wasn't the right word. Miyu had flung it off with her completely unacceptable intentions. Finally she managed to reach out and take the hat with trembling fingers as her other hand still clutched the doujin to her chest. After the cap was safely back on her head Miyu tried to think of how she should respond to the girl. Normally saying nothing would've been the most acceptable option but being engaged in conversation demanded a vocal response. And.. maybe she wanted to talk to her?

"O-oh.. um... I.. y-yes.. th-that's..." she began to fumble her way through social interaction, just as a familiar song could be heard from her pocket. The national anthem!

Miyu fished the phone from her jeans pocket, saw it was an unfamiliar number and dutifully answered it in quiet Korean. After a few exchanges she discovered it was Mr. Seung from next door who wanted her to bring over some of her mother's kimchi when she had the time. The girl agreed, hung up and then realized she'd just made herself an obvious outsider in a country where that was really bad. Blushing even more she put the phone into her pocket and tried to think of some way she could escape further words with this Japanese girl. Retreat! Bugles sounded in her mind as she spun on her heels.. and stumbled backwards, right into the girl instead. Once again Miyu made a fool of herself by falling right on her bottom in the yuri section of a store where she really shouldn't have been in the first place. Her hat had flown off somewhere again. Worst of all she found herself on the floor of the store with her face close to the other girl's, eyes looking into hers as she blushed madly.

"Um... I... I..." she began to speak again, "I'm Miyu..."

Having her instincts proven correct brought a half grin to Riko's face. She knew she had heard a girl's voice in the yuri section! And she was quite a skittish girl, too. Just the very fact that Riko was talking to her, seemed to have her on edge. Never mind the fact that she was only trying to return a lost hat.

And that was something that Riko would never look at as an imposition on her own time. After all, she liked to help people. And if the person she was helping happened to be a cute girl? Well, that was an added bonus! And the strange girl certainly seemed like a cute girl. She smiled at the brunette, when her phone went off. It was a curious choice in a ring tone. Something that was probably a national anthem, but she couldn't quite place it.

At least not until the girl started speaking in Korean. She had heard the language, before, but didn't quite understand it. When she was living in Hong Kong, she had heard a lot of different languages. Riko stood, bemused by the situation unfolding in front of her. The conversation was brief and the detective had no idea what was going on. Well, she could inquire about it, once it was all over.

She was in the middle of debating asking the girl about her Korean background or discussing the finer points of the yuri genre, when the girl decided to make her sudden retreat. Even then, she didn't notice until something had collided with her and sent her spilling down to the ground. The world spun in circles...or maybe it was just her eyes that were spinning.

When her senses returned, Riko was looking right into the girl's eyes. Riko was rather incapable of moving, as the girl was tangled up on top of her and she was flat on her back on the ground of the comic shop's yuri section. Not that this was a bad place to be, necessarily. She could have done without impact and the rough landing. Still, Riko just blushed and looked back up at Miyu as the girl gave a rather awkward introduction.

"Nice to meet you, Miyu..." she said, "My name is Riko."

Just hearing the national anthem blare from her pocket and subsequently speaking in Korean made Miyu feel like she'd die from embarrassment. Her other-ness was painfully obvious every time she went to school. That she was used to by now even though it was a daily reminder of how weird she was. Getting the feeling in public when she was doing something that kind of made her happy was unbearable. How could she even look at herself in the mirror after going through all of this? On top of everything else she'd tripped and landed on some girl who was just trying to help her out of the kindness of her heart.

Their faces were mere centimeters apart, eyes locked on one other as both girls blushed. Were this one of the illicit books Miyu had come to peruse and purchase they would give in and kiss. Right in the middle of the shop. In reality Miyu just stared at the girl with wide eyes that made her look terrified to be in such a compromising position. This was pretty much the truth as her instinct to flee was growing ever stronger. Yet all her body would do in response was stiffen, refusing to yield to her terrified thoughts. At best she managed to try and reposition herself so that their faces weren't quite so close to each other.

"Um.. n-nice to meet you, Riko-san.. um... maybe we should m-move?" she suggested, then felt her hand slip.

Suddenly she fell forward again with those same big scared eyes staring into Riko's. Apparently it could get worse for the poor Korean girl. Instead of behind just over Riko she ended up right on top of the detective, faces brushing against each other. In fact she felt her head resting on the floor.. and her lips were pressed up against the other girl's cheek! This held for a few seconds before she realized really what she was doing and turned beet red. Totally on accident.. in the middle of the yuri section! Miyu pulled back from it and managed to sit up, away from Riko. Now, she would almost certainly die of embarrassment!

She couldn't say that she was entirely disappointed to find herself on the ground. Sure, the landing had been rough, but looking up at Miyu she supposed there were worse places to be. The thought of this situation ending in kiss certainly had crossed Riko's mind. In the middle of the yuri section, it seemed rather appropriate.

But, sometimes reality had to step in and say things like, "...maybe we should m-move?"

"Eh, I suppose --" Riko's thought could not be completed as the girl suddenly fell forward and the dark haired detective felt something on her cheek. Something that felt, very suspiciously, like a kiss! And it lingered. For how long, Riko neither knew nor was she about to complain. That was one thing she could check off her bucket list. Kissing a cute girl in the yuri section of a comic shop. Well..actually, Riko didn't think she had that on any sort of list. Bucket or otherwise.

With a happy sigh, she began to consider the fact that she couldn't lay down on the floor of the shop, all day. Someone was bound to complain. She pushed herself up, cheeks still red with a blush. "My, Miyu-chan." she said, "We should fall into each other, more often."

She winked at the girl, before a question occurred to her, "Are you OK?"

Hopefully the fall hadn't hurt her at all. Although she wasn't sure how it could, as she seemed to have functioned as safety cushion to break the fall.

Fortunately the only thing hurt by the fall had been the shorter girl's pride, though she had very little to speak of in the first place. Unfortunately this seemed to be escalating into territory Miyu was ill-equipped to deal with. Reading stories about girls hugging, falling in love and doing things The Leader would find troubling was one thing. Actually meeting a girl who acted like a character from one of those stories was an entirely different matter. Nothing had prepared her for the day she might actually meet someone who acted this way around her. Granted this was probably just a misunderstanding based entirely on Miyu's clumsiness. Riko did seem as if she were the sort of girl who might be a story character in real life but Miyu was a pessimist.

Her face flushed red as the star on the Fatherland's flag at Riko's daring remarks. Such a forward girl this was! Efforts such as hers were wasted on a boring little thing like her though. Someone who was a terrible burden on a hard working mother, whose existence had driven her father away from home. Every day she worried that The Leader might personally send a letter which expressed his opinion that she was an affront to the people. Or something like it anyway. She couldn't even go shopping for illicit materials without something going unexpectedly wrong. That no store displays of any kind had been harmed was about the biggest blessing she could find in the situation. In her flustered state Miyu didn't even bother to respond to Riko immediately. All she did was shuffle to the cashier's desk, pull out her members' point card and pay for the book she'd removed from the shelf. Only once it was safely in a paper bag did she look to Riko and sigh.

"I'm f-fine.. but The Leader wouldn't be proud of me.. look what I bought.." she responded at last, stepping out the front door of the place, "Um... w-what now?" She really was terrible with these kinds of social interactions.

There were a number of possible responses to the brazen attitude Riko displayed. A coy smile and a similarly flirtatious response. The blushing faux-indignation of a tsundere. Or...well, anything other than just getting up and heading over to the cashier to check out. Riko blinked as Miyu made her way over. Now, the detective was intrigued. What was going on inside the head of that cute girl?

She needed to find answers. And her phone number. But, that was besides the point. Riko popped back to her feet and grabbed a random manga off the rack and marched up to the counter. She would make her purchase and keep an eye on the girl, to observe her further actions. A member's point card showed that this was a frequent customer to this fine establishment. After Miyu made her purchase, it was Riko's turn. She forked over the appropriate amount of money (and added the points to her own card) and followed Miyua back outside.

Where Miyu finally responded to her initial question. "Wouldn't be proud? This leader ought to commend you on your discerning taste." Riko grinned a bit.

"Well, where I come from, if a cute girl kisses you, you should probably take her out on a date!" she said before hooking an arm through the odd girl's, "So, what do you say? Want to grab a bite to eat?"

Speaking up about much of anything was incredibly out of character for the tiny Korean girl. One's voice was bound to attract attention which in turn would be distracting people from more important things in their daily life. She'd already ruined her mother's life by existing, so she absolutely couldn't ruin anyone's moment let alone another life. A woman such as herself was meant to be rarely seen and never heard! Solitary life assisting her mother was the only thing which might redeem her for the miscarriage of justice which had been done to the woman. On one matter alone she couldn't bear to remain quiet though. This strange girl whom she'd accidentally kissed after running into was questioning The Leader's tastes! No true Korean could stand idly by when such a thing occurred.

"The Leader is the all-knowing, all-seeing protector of the True and Pure Fatherland! Wise and kind, with high expectations but loving all the same, fast to act on injustice and undeniably the paragon of physical attractiveness! There is no way that The Leader would approve of materials such as this! No matter how beautiful this pairing of favored fictional characters might be, or how excited it makes you, The Leader couldn't approve of something so... dirty," Miyu protested energetically before coming to the realization that she was just standing there with her fist clinched. She blushed and stared at the ground, "That's.. what I think.. anyway.."

Then somehow the cute girl she was imposing on hooked arms and was heading off somewhere with her. She blushed terribly when being called cute and the idea of a date. A date! As if someone would bother themselves with the idea of going on a date with her. This worthless little girl who couldn't be a real Korean no matter how hard she tried. Too much outside influence. Someone thought she was cute and therefore was either lying or insane. Still.. it felt good to be thought of so well. Maybe for now she could just go with the girl; she had to make up for crashing into her at least. Yes! She'd pay for the lunch to apologize for the collision!

"Um.. okay.. food would be nice..." Miyu nodded in agreement before asking, "You.. actually want to g-go on.. a date.. with me?"

Whoever this "Leader" was, Riko had decided that she didn't really like him all that much.  Anyone who would defame the sacred name of Yuri couldn't possibly be appropriate for any leadership position!  And the fact that he had polluted such a cute girl's mind in an attempt to dissuade her from her fandom?  This was unforgivable.  Riko made a mental note to give this so-called "Leader" a piece of her mind.

She would fight her way up whatever dark tower he had holed himself up in, sword in hand, and give a rousing speech about the how wonderful a genre Yuri was.  Then, Riko take Miyu by the waist and hack at the rope holding the chandelier and let the moment pull her up towards the stairs that would lead them to escape.  And the credits could roll, as Riko and Miyu kissed by a scenic lake.

Her return to reality came when Miyu agreed to go on the date.  Any further conversations could be put on hold.  Riko had a date!  She turned to grin at the girl, before giving an emphatic nod of her head, "Of course I do!" she answered, "I like going on dates with cute girls.  And you are a cute girl.  So, logically, I would want to go on a date with you."

Had she been even remotely aware of Riko's thoughts about The Leader, Miyu would have been aghast. Nobody questioned The Leader's decisions or doctrines! It simply wasn't done that you had someone opposing that almost divine will. Not a religious person, but that was as close to blasphemy as you could get with Miyu. Since she wasn't aware of these thoughts all the girl could do was be horribly embarrassed. There was no way that anyone would be interested in taking her on a date. Yet here it was, happening right after she'd accidentally kissed someone. That sort of thing only really happened in anime or manga, didn't it? Miyu was sure she'd wake up at some point and get back to sweeping her mother's shop again. For now though she'd just let herself enjoy what was going on inside the dreamworld for a while.

"You.. r-really think that?" Miyu chirped with a total lack of conviction, "But.. I'm a h-h-h-hindrance to society. I'll j-just.. g-g-get in the way.."

Then her stomach growled audibly, putting an end to her resistance, "I guess.. it's okay. Even if I'm not cute.."

It was the sort of thing that usually just happened in anime or manga!  Having a cute girl bump into you was one thing.  Having her accidentally kiss you?  Riko could only dream of days like this happening.  In fact, she often did.  Most of the time, she had an attractive classmate she could fantasize about.  Or, certain girls that tended to sneak into bars.  Riko blushed and waved off Miyu's concerns.

"Well, I'm glad it's OK." she said, "But you are cute and I won't hear any more of it!"

She stressed this last bit, with a playful wink at her companion.  "So, no more talk about hindrance-this and get-in-the-way-that." she waved a finger, "It's what I really think.  So!  We need to get us some food!  Now, let's see..."

The first restaurant they came across was a nice enough looking place.  Best of all, the prices were actually reasonable.  Something that the great detective('s assistant) could afford and, at the same time, show a girl like Miyu a rather nice time.  Inside the shop was a well lit and clean looking environment with big windows to offer a nice view of the streets outside.  Riko led the way to a booth, by those very windows.