"A date? With me?"

"Yes."

"You don't even know my name. My first one, that is."

"Yes I do."

The illusive Syurp Ruudachi was taken out of the cafe by Ibuki to discuss important business. There was little importance in dates, but this was Ibuki's method of gaining answers to the incident a few days prior. She cursed herself seeing that the same trick won't work twice as Syrup was adverse to her advances.

The light blonde haired fox rushè was bound to her work as the cafe's maid and worked endlessly with Levin to make the agency presentable and not a trash heap like Midare's mind. Ibuki was also caught up in the agency's work so the two rarely spoke or even saw each other because of their differences in positions.

Lines divided the agency into three groups; Royal, Blue Corps, and management and none sought to cross those lines because it was better for no one to get in each other's way to ensure the system the agency had going didn't collapse on itself. But whoever was the traitor crossed these lines thus making the entire agency spiral into chaos. Still those groups kept to themselves with small crossings here and there.

"Is that why you're talking to me?" Syrup stepped forward while Ibuki stepped back.

"W-waitー" Ibuki unknowingly stammered.

"I'm a very cute girl y'know." Syrup practically saw through her plans.

She's cute but now she is being very scary.

"My name is Syrup. Do you think that is very attractive to others?"

Out of back steps to take, Ibuki found herself cornered by a conveniently placed motorbike, unable to find the proper words to answer the questions without pressing the wrong buttons.

"Two girls going out isn't a very appealing sight to society."

"Butー"

Her arm sprung forward like a shark out of water and grabbed Ibuki by the bangs, pushing her down and knocking down the bike behind the girl. Syrup leaned over Ibuki and forcibly kept the girl's head raised so they could see eye to eye.

Stareee…

"How many people have you gone out with? Are you just incredibly perverse?"

Ibuki blinked multiple times trying to keep her eyes set on Syrup's light blue eyes and slit pupils. The maid had her figured out the moment she asked the date question. How many girls has Ibuki dated?

One…

Only one in her whole life, she loved her sister too much. The love she had for her elder sister was pure. Or she was just a huge sis-con.

Syrup then shook Ibuki's head around "You have the innocent look of a child, but even children can be incredibly perverted."

Ibuki gave up and averted her gaze to the open street beside her, "What am I supposed to say to that?"

Syrup released Ibuki from her grasp and turned around. "I'm already taken."

"Hold on Ruudachi." Ibuki quickly said as she stood up.

Syrup's tail swayed from left to right once and she twirled elegantly back to Ibuki. "So you do want something from me."

"We can go somewhere to talk, that's it. With the agency's cases suspended, I thought now is a good time to know more about the other members." Ibuki sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. She prayed for Syrup to not catch on to her innocent lie. The maid wasn't treating being viewed as a suspect well.

Syrup closed her eyes smiling, "I can make an exception." She walked past Ibuki "Give me a moment to change out of my uniform."

Once Ibuki was alone she slouched her shoulders and let out an exhausted sigh. Out of all the things to be called, why a pervert?

────── 〔✿〕──────

"That's how we ended up here." Ibuki said to Hyde sitting across the table with a box of donuts between them. The story she shared left out many key details of Syrup's unusual behavior like her clumsiness, often tripping over herself and outward suspicion towards Ibuki.

"That's unfortunate." Hyde grabbed a donut from the box and took a small bite. He had sympathy for Ibuki's plight since he suffered the same fate on his 'date' with Shiki. He wasn't able to chew properly because of the wound and gauze on his cheek. What made this worse was that the donut only tasted like blood.

In contrast to their damper mood, Shiki and Syrup were having a delightful time eating the various flavored donuts of all different colors and tastes. Jelly filled chocolate donuts, cinnamon and sprinkles, glazed with cheese icing, the flavors were limitless.

"I'm surprised you didn't scream, Hyde." Shiki said before taking a bite of the cinnamon donut she held.

When he collapsed into a ball on the ground he squirmed but didn't scream after the staple pierced his cheek. He figured it was because of that strange feeling he had during the whole event. He was more in his mind rather than the fact Shiki tried to kill him.

"Yeah." Hyde said in a low tone. He wanted to say something cool but putting up that persona didn't feel like the best choice to make. Since he didn't say some cool one liner, he was at a loss of words with what to say. 'Yeah' was the only thing that came to mind. It wasn't embarrassment or nervousness from talking with a girl. Still, it was hard to describe the feeling.

"Cheer up. Aren't you glad that we bumped into your friends on our date?" Shiki questioned.

"We found you in the arcade earlier but Syrup dragged me here after we won some prizes." Ibuki's eyes motioned towards the plush she had one. A girl from an anime she assumed, one with white hair and green eyes. There was another Syrup wanted to win, a fox eared boy, but couldn't due to the odd placement of the plush which made it impossible for the crane to grasp properly.

"I managed to get the rarest of all."Shiki lifted the pink haired plush with antlers, "Her nameーMinty moose."

Did she just make that up on the spot?

"Try one Ibuki." Syrup said, her voice muffled with a mouth filled by a donut. She held up a chocolate filled glaze donut in Ibuki's face.

"I hate sweets."

"Stab." Syrup jabbed her finger on the place in between her eyes causing her to flinch back.

"Gh! That could've been my eyes!" Ibuki cried. This date idea was making collecting information harder than it needed to be. Syrup had a lot more to her than what was shown at the cafe, she was easily captivated by new things she had never seen before like a tourist.

Ibuki suspected she was hiding her true feelings behind her outward annoyance. She along with Levin were taking care of the cafe during the case in Kyoto, but what would be the motive..? The two were grateful to Midare and Yamiko for being hired, going as far to call them 'boss' instead of their name and working overtime to make the cafe spotless. They had the utmost respect; although it could be a fake persona they use to get closer to the heads of the agency. Ibuki knew Midare was not well liked by any means and Yamiko...well she didn't know anything about Yamiko other than her ownership of the dormitory.

Ibuki was snapped out of her thoughts when Syrup forced the donut into her mouth. "It's really good! You like chocolate right? I see you order hot chocolate a lot at the cafe."

"T-thanks." This was really troublesome.

Something welded up in Hyde seeing their cutesy interactions. He couldn't help it but his mouth moved on its own into a smile, forced looking since it wasn't of his own accord but still a smile nonetheless.

"Oh Hyde, I don't think you ever said what the food tastes like." Shiki asked, "Well..?"

"Oh uhh…" the cinnamon was well placed throughout the donut so as to not overwhelm his mouth with a dull spice. It mixed in with the sprinkles on top and the light creamy cheese inside. It was 'flavor dancing inside your mouth'? He believed that was how the phrase went. It was something he saw said on the TV in the cafe while working behind the counter. "Hm, well it doesn't taste like blood."

"You have a funny way of describing things." Shiki nodded with a small smile. "I'm glad you enjoy it. It's one of my favorites here."

────── 〔✿〕──────

"Hmm…" Midare was in an odd predicament. She stared at the tip of her broken pencil and focused on the nearly finished lineart on the canvas. She couldn’t return to the cafe until her shift was over but sitting with nothing to do was just odd. "Maybe I should call Levin." she muttered.

"Um, excuse me miss." A young voice said.

Midare lowered the pencil and turned to face the young ragged girl she had seen before. Pushed around by the wealthy and noble who came to visit Osaka to see Reanne. The pink haired girl looked at the crumpled newspaper then back at Midare and gasped.

"Miss? Are you the 'lazy detective' ?" Her voice was dry yet still contained all the curiosities of a child.

Midare eyed the girl for a few more seconds. Her light red dress was wrinkled and covered with dirt and dust. Her eyes were a dark brown and hair in an unkempt single braid. She wasn't homeless given her appearance at this station many times but her living situation back home was rough, Midare assumed.

She returned her focus to the canvas. "I'm not." She couldn't risk telling everyone her occupation.

"But you look so much like her!"

"I get that a lot."

The girl lowered the newspaper. "Then what is your name?"

Midare cursed herself for not going through the effort of straightening out her curled hair or putting on glasses no matter how much pain it would bring physically. "My name is… Oryou."

The girl giggled. "You sound like you're from Imperia!"

The comment nearly made Midare freak. "Maybe I should've called myself Nancy instead." She cleared her throat. "I'm from a planet of black lizards."

The girl puffed her cheeks, "C'mon don't lie! My mom says liars all go to the coldest circle in hell."

"But it is true. The land I used to reside in is northwest of Mariellir, where the severed continent lies." Said Midare.

"Really? I'm from Mariellir but I've never heard of that place." The girl's eyes brightened up in curiosity. Was this girl a suspect or was it just a coincidence she happened to know a lot more about the past than most usual people..? More importantly, what was a girl from Mariellir doing here?

"I wouldn't recommend visiting it. The skies are enraptured by a permanent dusk and the culture is all about lying. You could call it a hell on Earth." Midare responded bluntly.

"But is there nobillty like in Mariellir? O-or poor people?" The girl nearly bit her tongue trying to pronounce nobility. "Everyone is so mean here. I wouldn't mind it if someone lied for me."

"..." Midare paused, trying to figure out what to tell the girl to improve her situation and get her away so she could focus on tracking down the culprit. It could be that this girl herself was the culprit… no, Midare was starting to grow untrustworthy of everyone around her. Her patience was waning without a clue or hint in sight. Nothing to point her in the right direction to find who was the traitor.

"Can you tell me a story about it there? Do people lie for each other? Is there any hope?" the girl asked eagerly.

The word 'hope' awakened something in Midare. A glint of light flashed across her red eyes and her mind was shocked with a sharp pain that lasted less than a second. Her mouth was left open as her mind prevented her from automatically replying with a dull response. A memory she had forgotten returned despite her being one of the lucky few to have kept the past in mind. Midare asked the same question once before.

"Hope..?" Midare paused briefly, "I will tell you about a girl I met there once. She was a grand fox, and her best friend was a lizard."

Long ago during a time of peace that was rare in this world, there was a young girl, the grand fox she was named. There was no such thing as nobility or royalty where she lived nor did magic decide her social standing. Instead, the country valued intelligence and the crafts of human achievements and excellence with their own hands rather than with the use of magic.

Grand fox had knowledge of the arts, history, mathematics and science. But even with natural talent and skill, she still was empty all the same because no one understood her and she understood it all. She wanted to have fun but she was a soldier in the government, forced to continue the research that would bring a new frontier, a new hope.

Everyday nothing was asked of her, only the results of her work mattered. Her days only changed when she met the lizard on a certain day.

"You're in this office everyday. You never look sad. You never look happy. But I can tell from your eyes that you're searching for something more."

The lizard's assumption was spot on. She extended her hand for grand fox to take and the lizard took her to a place far beyond the confines of the grey world she lived in.

The lizard showed 3 others who felt the same as grand fox. They all would become close friends with bonds that were inseparable.

"We're all on this project to make the world better. That's the dream we all share." The lizard proclaimed, "No matter what despair we face now. No matter how cruel the world may be to us… We will continue forward for the sake of the future!"

There, grand fox started to feel something. A light brightening up in her heart. She finally had the chance to smile with her friends. This wouldn't last long because many questions remained. They all wanted to change the world but how was that going to be achieved? And each of the friends had a different vision of what the future should be.

Should the world be changed? They were in no position to be the divine arbiter.

Did humanity even want the world to change?

The methods they used to achieve this were underhanded and belligerent. Through politics, bribery, blackmail, nothing was off the table because the end result was a world without despair. This only brought more despair and so…

The shared dream shattered like glass and grand fox and the lizard could never look each other in the eyes again.

"Their existence in the world was erased." Midare said.

"That's… so sad…" was all the small girl could say.

Midare stood up and grabbed her canvas. "Do me a favor; tell me if you spot any suspicious behavior in this area."

"S-so you are..!"

Midare scoffed as she packed her things into her suitcase. "I'm just a passing artist. Japan has a unique landscape."

She began to walk away. The story of grand fox and the lizard was all too common.

"I hate it…" Midare thought before focusing on more important matters. "Maybe I should check on Yamiko. If she's not in her hospital bed still then she just might be…"

The days would still be repeating.