It was November and the fall weather was apparent in Tokyo, as the grass started to turn brown and the leaves on the trees started to change color. There was no other place in Tokyo to watch the natural beauty of autumn than at the world-renowned Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. What was once an imperial garden available only to royalty is now a national park, but it still hasn't lost its beauty. Next to the Hanami period, the fall time is the best time to visit the park.
As such, Himeko and Chikane were at the park on a cool and crisp late morning, looking at the beautiful scenery surrounded them. The leaves on the trees around them were turning into beautiful rich colors of yellow, red, orange and brown. It was a perfect place for Himeko to take in the scenery like a little kid while taking pictures and enjoying her quality time with Chikane.
"Chikane-chan, thanks for coming with me. I've heard about this place and seen pictures of it, but the pictures can't really capture the true beauty of this place, and I don't think my pictures would either," she said with a bit of disappointment. But Chikane knew she was just kidding, so Chikane chuckled.
"Hehe, nothing beats physical experience, but I'm sure with your aesthetic skills you'll somehow find a way to capture the beauty."
"I hope so," she said with her usual doubt. Chikane looked at her with care and reassured her the best that she can.
"I know you can. Besides, Oogami-sensei was so impressed with your artwork and photos, he wanted to have them at his temple."
"Are you sure that he didn't do it out of charity?" she asked with concern.
"A guy like that don't do things like that for charity," Chikane confirmed. "He's really a no-nonsense type so unless he sees it as beneficial, he won't do it." That did help Himeko fell somewhat better, but that lingering voice was in her making her doubt what Chikane was saying. She remembered what she told her when they were going to the convention, so she just let it continue on and focused on something else.
"I like autumn, it's very beautiful, especially at Mahoroba, but it's somewhat sad as well."
Chikane was a bit puzzled at what Himeko was saying and asked, "Huh? Why you say that?"
"Because it means that it's the end of things. Lots of trees and plants die and it starts to get cold."
"That's true but it's the preparation for the coming spring. Things do die, but something new comes out of it."
"Just like our lives?" she asked?
Chikane didn't quite understand her, so she asked, "Exactly what do you mean?"
"I mean we went through a lot in our lives and maybe now its finally coming to an end. Maybe now we can start looking forward to a brighter future. We may not had a wonderful childhood and right now, we're homeless, but it doesn't mean we will be like this forever."
After she finished, a tear came down Chikane's eyes. Himeko saw it and wiped it off. "I hope so. I don't want to live like this forever," she sniffled, yet trying her best not to cry.
Himeko saw how much the stress in her life took on her lover, so she sat at a nearby bench with her. While having her left arm wrapped around Chikane's abdomen, she brushed Chikane's hair to comfort her.
"This won't last forever. I'm sure we're going to find a permanent place. Maybe if I do find my mama, then we can stay with her."
Chikane wasn't so sure about it. Based on her own life experiences, she can see quite a few problems arising.
"Yeah, but what if we don't find her? What if we actually do find her but she doesn't want to have anything to do with me? What if she doesn't approve our relationship and reports us to the police? What if I get caught and am sent back to that hellhole? What if you get caught and are sent back to your nutcase relatives? What if we never see each other again? I don't even want to think about that one!" Chikane stated with tears running down her eyes. Himeko knew that pain, it was the same pain she had on that night she confessed her love to her.
"Nobody will separate us. If we have to move out of this country, then so be it, but we will never be apart," she reassured to Chikane. Chikane softly laid her head on Himeko's shoulder as tears slowly ran down her face. Himeko put her right hand on Chikane's head and softly caressed it. Himeko had the same fear as Chikane, but she knew it wouldn't do good to let them get to her.
"I hope not, I just want to have some stability in my life. I don't want to live like this forever."
"Neither do I, neither do I," Himeko calmly stated. They didn't say anything for a while, just looked at the colored trees and the pond. Then something came up in Himeko's mind. It was trivial but her curiosity couldn't let her rest on it. "You've only been here for nearly a year, yet you know all these places."
"Well there's a story about that. Just about a week after I got here, I saw an ad in a newspaper for a job to be a so-called 'tourist guide', only that the guides are not for Tokyo's landmarks, monuments, and popular places; but for strip bars, girls services, and massage parlors. All I had to do was to take foreign tourists to those areas and to act as a translator and liaison for them, since most foreigners couldn't go to those places by themselves," she said uneasily.
"Since I knew a good amount of English, and also knew how to fight, they hired me, even though I wasn't familiar with the area. Luckily enough, I was able to get familiar with Tokyo quick enough to show them around. Also perhaps because I'm a woman myself, the workers trusted me more than my male counterparts, and thus I was able to get them to even those high-society massage parlors, brothels, and girls services that usually rejected foreigners. With that, I ended up servicing very rich men, some of them were CEOs of well known companies and nonprofit organizations," Chikane finished.
Himeko was amazed at what Chikane said so far and she can tell that she wasn't lying. "Wow, they must be some very rich people."
"They sure were," Chikane agreed. "If fact let me tell you one of my clients. I don't want anybody else to hear it so come close so I can whisper it to you ear."
Himeko obliged and tilted her head towards Chikane. Being a little bit paranoid, she looked all around to see if anyone was nearby, and then she whispered his name to Himeko. When she heard the name, her eyes widen in total shock.
"Are you serious? I can't believe he would do something like that! He's-"
"Shhh, shh! Lower your voice, I don't want anybody to hear us!" Chikane cautioned.
"Ano, sorry. What I was going to say is that he's the leader of a well-known church."
"Yep, he sure is, and that's only half of the interested part."
"What's the other half?" she asked reluctantly, knowing it wasn't going to sound good.
"He was seeking for young boy services."
Himeko was in total shock. All she could say is, "Oh my."
But Chikane continued, "Eventually I got clients who wanted men instead of women, some of them were openly gay, some of them were closeted, some of them were leaders of a religious organization like that guy I told you, and some of them were high-level executives who were married but were closeted bisexuals. Both conservatives and liberals came to me for men's services."
"But what happened? It sounded like you made a lot of money, but now you're living on the streets?" Himeko asked.
"It lasted for three months. It was during that time that I met Corona. She was working under a madam who promised to help her get into the music business if she worked for her. It was nothing but a total lie, she was going to pimp her for all she barely worth and then throw her away like the garbage she is. Anyways, I took one of my clients to her brothel and he picked her out. He arranged with the madam to have her go to his hotel room, so she came along with us to the hotel and they went up to his room and they did you know what. I was just standing outside, waiting for it to end. He wanted me to join them and Corona had no problem with it but I declined. I've had many offers from clients to have sex with them, but I turned them all down, for obvious reasons..." she said with a small grin. Himeko just giggled.
"However, things didn't go as usually planned. About twelve minutes later, I heard some screaming coming from the room. I had the card key to the room, so I quickly opened it and I saw him on top of her, punching her face. He was screaming to her in English, 'You gonna take it up in your ass whether you like it or not!' So I came from behind and punched him right in his face, he fell off her and the bed, hitting the floor hard. While he was lying on the floor, I stomped on him until Corona pulled me off. Other than a black eye and a busted lip, she was all right. He was more hurt than she was, since I gave him a few cracked ribs."
"You would think that the madam would be happy that I saved one of her workers, but she wasn't. Instead she got angry with the both of us and then she told my boss. He fired me instantly after he got word of what happen."
Himeko was a bit puzzled, so she asked, "But that makes no sense, you saved somebody from getting beaten up by a bad man, why would they fire you?"
"Because, as I found out later, that man was a CEO of a huge multinational corporation who was one of her loyal customers. The madam was having issues with Corona, not surprisingly, and that bastard wanted to do some sick things, so she thought that he could teach her a lesson."
"But what about your boss?"
"He was in it too, so I kind of hurt things for him as well."
"Oh my, but you must have saved a lot of money from it, what happened to it?
"It all went into needles and powders."
Himeko didn't understand what Chikane meant, "Huh?"
"Drugs! That skank blew our money on drugs! After we both got fired, Corona stayed in my apartment so that she could get back on her feet again. I had a nice apartment but within a month, it was gone because she spent all of my money on drugs. Very often she would come home in the middle of the nigh high and/or stoned. I hid my money a few times but somehow she found it and used it to feed into her drug habits. After losing the apartment, I moved to the station."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Himeko said with a great deal of concern.
"It's not a big deal Himeko. I'm still living, that's what really matters. Anyways, let's enjoy the of the day, we might not get this chance very often."
"Okay!" Himeko simply replied and they went back to focus on their quality time together.
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Kuu Shiratori was on her laptop, looking up information of missing and runaway children. She found the Children's Rights Network website. She got the phone number off there and called them.
"Children's Rights Network, how may I help you?"
"Ano, I would like to report a missing teenager."
"Okay, can you tell us the teen's name?"
"Yes, her name is Kurusugawa, Himeko."
"Are you her mother?"
"No, I'm her school teacher."
"Oh, okay ma'am, I'll check our database to see if we have any information on her already."
While the operator was looking her up, Kuu was thinking, "I hope that she's not already in their database." She figured if she was already in the database, then her guardians have already reported her disappearance and that if they find her, they would send her straight to her relatives. That was the last thing she wanted to happen, knowing how much pain Himeko went through.
"We found her. She was already reported. Do you have any new information on her?" She became worried. By then she had to think of a way not to have Himeko sent to her parents while continuing her conversation.
"Actually I do. She sent me an email a few days ago. I just took a look at it a few minutes ago."
"Did she say where she was in the email?"
"Nope, not at all. In fact, it seemed that she used an anonymous email program or website since the email address was kurusugawah@anonymousemail.co.jp"
"Oh, I see. Ma'am, can you forward us the email you got from her?"
"I sure can. But how are you going to find her with it since it seems that she made it anonymous."
"Nothing is 100% anonymous on the web. We'll send it to our tech crew to track it down."
"Oh, okay, thanks."
So the operator gave her the email address and then Kuu sent the email message to her. When she got the email, the operators asked with a very serious tone in her voice, "I just read part of the email you sent me and it seems that she ran away from her relatives because they physically abused her. This happens to be the number one cause of children running away. Do you know anything about it? Did you see any signs of physical abuse on her? This is very serious."
"Yes I have. I have seen her in my class a few times wearing heavy makeup, guessing that she was covering up her scars."
"Have you ever reported this?"
"Yes, I have, quite a few times to the headmaster. All he kept on saying was that he'll take care of it. He never did anything about it. Now I wish I had done more about it," she sniffled, as she was about to cry, feeling that she let Himeko down.
"Ma'am, don't let that get to you. We're glad that you reported this to us and if we find her, we will have her examined for any signs of abuse before her guardians find out. And we will inform you as well."
Kuu was relieved at what she heard, "Oh, thank you very much miss. I'm really concerned for her."
"I understand your concern, we will put our best efforts to locate her. When we do get something, we will contact you immediately."
"Thank you very much," she said and then she hung up the phone. She took a slow and deep breath and said to herself, "I hope nothing happened to Himeko-san."
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Later on during the day, Himeko and Chikane left the park and went back to the station. When they got there, they were surprise to see Kazuki near Chikane's 'spot.'
"What are you doing here?"
"I came here to say thank you for your participation at the exhibition. Both of your music and artwork really impressed the people."
"Why thank you, we really appreciate the opportunity it provided from us and we would like to help you guys out anyway we can in the future," Chikane assured.
"Really, that's good to hear because I really need your help."
"Why? What's the problem," Himeko said.
"The bill for cleaning up and repairing the temple is much more than I thought, so I'm here to ask if you two could donate some money."
One again, Chikane was hesitant but Himeko was sure about giving him some money.
"I don't know if we got enough to spare," Chikane uneasily replied.
"Sure we do!" Himeko noted. Chikane gave her a look that was a wild mixture of surprise and anger. Himeko went into her pocket and pulled out her personal money of 8,000 yen, which was almost all the money she had. That put Chikane on a tight spot. She didn't want to give him any of their hard-earned money but she also didn't want to look bad either, so she gave him 5,120 yen from her pocket.
"Thank you very much for your kind contributions. I assure you that it will not be forgotten," he said as he heads back to the temple. When he finally left, Chikane immediately had a word with Himeko.
"Why did you give him most of your money?"
"Because he needs it more then we do, the damages done to the temple were quiet bad. Also, we can make some more."
"But don't you see how much money we gave him?" she noted with a calm yet a tense and cold tone.
"Its just money. It's the least we can do for him since he made it possible to showcase our talents to others."
"Yeah, and he should have been paying us for that. How are we ever going to leave the streets if you hand out our money to other people?" Himeko couldn't come up with an answer. "Now thanks to you, we are going to have to work again to get back that money. Do you realize how long it took for us to make that money?"
Himeko barely eeked out 'yes' since she was about to cry, but then she added, "Maybe you're just better off without me, since it seems that I can't do anything good enough for you." After that she quickly ran away from Chikane, disappearing within the huge crowd in the station.
Chikane couldn't believe that Himeko would run away like that. She didn't think that she was being that harsh to her, but according to Himeko, she was. So she chased after her through the crowds, shouting her name.
"Himeko, I'm sorry! Please come back! Himeko!"
Unfortunately, a moment later she lost her. She hung her head low in disappointment and took a long walk throughout the station, thinking of what she should do next to repair the situation.
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Back at Hana's place in the alley, Hana was doing his usual dressing up, seeing what piece of clothing looked best on him. He was checking out his makeup when Himeko came to his place with tears on her cheeks.
"Hello there darling, it's nice to see you as always." Then he noticed the flushed eyes and tears on her cheeks. "Huh? What's wrong Hime-chan? Why are you crying?"
"Chikane-chan hates me," she mustered.
"Well what makes you say that?"
"Because she's upset that I gave some of our money to Oogami-sensei so that he can repair his temple."
Hana simply stated, "I see."
"Now she doesn't want to have anything to do with me," Himeko sobbed.
Hana expected it all along, but what she said confirmed his hunch, "Are you two in a relationship?"
"Yes, but it's probably over now."
Hana had to hold his chuckle, thinking that it was a bit trivial but apparently it wasn't to Himeko. "Don't be so melodramatic. I don't think it is, darling. Just because you have one fight doesn't mean it's over. I'm very sure that Chikane-san still loves you. From what I've detect from my gaydar in the past month, I think Chikane really loves you."
"She love's me now, but what if I screw up again? Will she keep on loving me?"
Hana just looked at her gently and said, "Of course she will. She might be upset with you right now, but eventually she will calm down. From the way she defended you against Nekoko the other day, it seems that she's more patient with you than with other people. Besides, did you talk about it with Chikane before handing the money over?"
"No," she muttered while hanging her head down.
"That's probably why she's so mad with you, you made a decision without having her involved in it. Well, now you're in a relationship, you got to work things out together. You can't do anything you please without her knowing about it. A relationship is all about trust. It is also about maturity, thus you can't run away from every problem you cause or have to face. Only kids do that."
Himeko kept her head down and responded, "Yes, you're right. How could I be so stupid?"
Hana lightly chuckled and then he told her, "Don't worry about it, I did that a few stupid things myself with my late husband, Mike. As Chikane-chan, Nekoko-chan, and my girls can attest, I can be rather impulsive myself. But if things go wrong, you got to work it out together, no matter what it takes. Because you never know when your partner will no longer be with you," he said with a sad voice.
Himeko knew about Hana's one-time "husband," Mike and she knew how much he loved him. Though they were not legally married, Hana felt such a strong bond with him, that he considered him to be his husband. They were together for almost five years when he started having pain in his stomach. The doctors diagnosed it as cancer. It had progressed too far to be treated. It left Hana devastated, knowing that his lover wouldn't be around for very long. Six months later, he left the earth, leaving Hana feeling, in his own words, "eternally empty." Hana hasn't been with anyone else since, even though he got a few offers.
As Himeko saw the sadness on his face and tears welling up in his eyes, she realized how much Hana deeply missed him, but she also knew that she still has a chance to make it up with Chikane and that she better do so, or else. Knowing how much Hana was hurting, Himeko came up to him and comfort him, but it was a bit impossible since he was much taller than her, so he got on his knees and put his head on her shoulders. Then Himeko gave him the same advice she gave to Chikane about Otoha.
"I know that he's long gone, but always remember the wonderful times you two had together."
"I know that, but sometimes it's so..." he couldn't complete the sentence and instead he broke down and cry.
"Don't worry, you probably get to see him again in heaven."
Hana smiled at what he perceived to be Himeko's naivety, "Well at least you think I have a chance to get to heaven."
"Everybody has a chance to go to heaven. Nobody can say who gets to go and who doesn't, because nobody can read God's mind."
Hana chuckled at the fact that he realized that she wasn't so naïve after all, "That's so correct Hime-chan, and I think I need to tell that to some people in my church, especially the priest of my church, who is about to unceremoniously resign."
"Huh?"
"Remember the priest that I told you about who didn't want me to be in the church anymore?"
"Yes, I remember very well. I remember you telling me that during one of his sermons, you and a whole bunch of other gay people started singing 'We have a message' on the balcony."
Hana laughed at that one, "Yep, we sure did! Anyways, one of my girls and Sister Miyako found some evidence of him taking some of the money from the church to pay for his cancer treatment. Trust me, I fully understand how much cancer treatment can be, based on what me and Mike went through, but that still doesn't give him the right to take the church's money for his own selfish need."
Himeko shook her head, disapproving the priest's actions, "That's not right."
"No it isn't, and he's going to pay for it. He's set to go to court about a month from now. Now I know that the Lord forgives but he also makes sure that you face the consequences for your sins as well."
"That's very true," she agreed.
"Well you know the old saying, what goes around comes around," he noted. He was about to speak more about the matter but then he noticed something disturbing, "Girl, look at your nails, look how horrible they are! How could you keep them in such a way?" They really weren't horrible, but to him, even a chip on a nail is a sore sight.
Himeko, feeling a bit ashamed, stammered, "Well I-I-I do a lot of drawing and painting. My hands get dirty real quick."
"That's no excuse for a cute princess like you to have dirty nails! Sit down honey and let me paint them for you."
"You're really gonna do that for me?" Himeko said, being thankful at Hana's generosity.
"Of course I will, you little angel. It the least I can do for someone who took some of the most glamorous photos of me and also took some time to comfort me. Besides, I'll make them so pretty, Chikane-chan will lay kisses all over them!" he smiled. That got a chuckle out of Himeko. He was so impressed with her photos that he had her photos all over the place. "Now just take a seat and let me get the stuff and some water to wash your hand."
"Wow, thanks a lot Hana-chan!"
"No problem, Hime-chan," as he pulled out his nail filer and started to work on her nails.
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Life seemed to be normal for Souma. His grades were still good, he was winning his tennis matches for his school, and his relationship with Makoto was going well, but instead he was still hurting. Hurting that his brother doesn't know him anymore. Hurting that he would even try to hurt him. But less apparently, yet most importantly, he was hurting that he believed that his brother didn't love him anymore. Though inside of him, there was still a glimmer of hope in him that things could be back to what it was.
While at home, he was staring outside of his window, wondering where his brother was. The outside fit Souma's state of mind perfectly, partly cloudy with a chance of rain. Sister Miyako was visiting the house when she saw him staring outside.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
"Right now, it's not even worth half of that," he despaired.
"You're still thinking about Tsubasa-chan, aren't you?"
"Yes, very much so. I can't believe that my own brother would want to kill me."
"His mind is not in the right place. He probably still thinks of you as a kid, thus when he see that you're an adult, he didn't believe you. A lot of people with schizophrenia are like that."
"I suppose. I would have never thought that his condition was that bad. Does that mean I lost him forever."
"No, no, nothing like that. When I talked to one of the doctors at the institution, they said that he was on a new experimental drug, since all the others fail. It was like a switch, sometimes it work, sometimes it didn't. I guess it wasn't working when he escaped."
Souma didn't say anything immediately, thinking about what she just said. Finally realizing that things won't be the same, he just got off the wall and was about to walk away, but he got stopped by Miyako.
"I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but I want you to realize how serious his condition is. Things won't be the same like it was before his schizophrenia, but that doesn't mean thing won't be for the better. There is still hope for Tsubasa-san."
"I hope so. I hope so," he simply replied. Just as he was about to go back to his room, Kazuki came into the room and got everybody's attention.
"Souma-kun, Sister Miyako, I need you two to come to my office right away."
"Why something is wrong?" she asked?
"Yes, someone sent me an email, and it's not good."
They quickly went to his office and took a look at his email. It was an anonymous email sent to him saying, "So you decided to run a fund-raiser to save your pathetic shrine? How cute. Well it won't be enough. Thrashing your place was just the beginning. Next time we will do worse."
"How did they get your private email?"
"I don't know but somehow they did."
"So should we report this to the police?"
"Absolutely, I'm not going to let them intimidate us one bit," he ended. Kazuki took out his cell phone and started to call the police.
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It was around evening when Chikane came by Hana's place. He was trying on his new fur coat that he picked up in a dumpster when she came by.
"Hi, Hana-chan."
When he turned around and look at her, he saw sadness and worry on her face.
"Hey there, Chikane-chan? Why you look so bummed out?" He knew the reason but he didn't want to make it look so obvious.
"Its Himeko-chan. She's not happy with me."
Decided not to keep his act, he followed, "I know, she told me everything." Chikane had a surprised look. "Come on girl, my gaydar was on you two since that day with the Snake Clan. I knew for a while that you two were attracted to each other."
"But I didn't think we were that obvious."
"Hey, I don't think anyone else picked it up, but what I want to tell you is that she told me about how she gave away most of your money."
Chikane tried her best not to get upset about it, but Hana could see the disguised anger on her face, "I can't believe that she would give our money away like that. We only have so much. She can be so careless sometimes. I got angry at her and she ran away," she moped.
"No, Chikane, you have every right to be angry with her and I told her that. Hime-chan got the point and I bet when she sees you again, she'll apologize."
"I hope so," Chikane pessimistically noted. "I just hope our relationship won't be like this all the time."
Hana shrugged his shoulders and said, "I can't answer that one, but I know that no relationship is perfect. My relationship with Mike wasn't perfect. We constantly argued about who turn it was to walk the dog!"
"Well, that's true about relationships, it will never be perfect. But I don't want this to be happening too often."
"I don't think you have to worry too much about that. Compared to when I first met her, she seems to be showing signs of growing up."
"That's true indeed. She doesn't cry as often as she used too, and she's starting to come out of her shell a bit. She could still use a bit more growing up. Anyways, I got something for you."
"Really? What is it?"
"Let me pulled it out of my pocket." She reached into her right pants pocket and pulled out the gold necklace with the scratched ruby. Yes, the necklace she robbed from the pawn shop. Hana's eyes bulged as he looked in amazement at the necklace. He knew very well that Chikane didn't get it legally, but he didn't care one bit.
"Wow, is that really for me?"
"Absolutely, it's the least I can do for a dear friend who stuck by me when no one else would," she said as she handed him the necklace. As soon as he got it, he looked in his mirror in his cardboard-box "home" and put it on. He liked how it shined even thought there's a scratch on it.
"This is beautiful, thanks a lot, girlfriend!"
"You're welcome," she responded with a small smile on her face.
"Now how can I repay you?"
Chikane simply stated, "There really is no need, Hana-chan."
"Don't be so modest Chikane-chan, it's not you. I know what I can do for you; I put on some make up for you. Girl, as pale as you are, you need some makeup so that people won't mistaken you for Casper!"
Chikane was taken a bit by his comment and responded, "I am not that pale!"
"Trust me honey, you are. Now come here and let me make you look fabulous."
Chikane knew that he was as bullheaded as she was and that protesting would only make things worse, so she surrendered and let him put on the make up on her face.
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Chikane got to Himeko's tent. She was nervous as hell, thinking things won't go right, but she knew that she couldn't let it get to her, so she had to have a talk with her. She made her presence known to Himeko and then she came out.
"Hey Himeko," she said with a bit of trepidation in her voice. "I need to talk to you. Look Himeko, I'm really-"
"No, Chikane-chan, let me say it first. I really want to apologize for giving our money away without asking you. I thought I was doing the right thing but I never took into account how you would feel. I know that you felt mad, angry, and left out, thus you had every right to be angry. Because of that, I felt guilty and hurt. I want to move on and make things better between us. Next time, we will talk it over and do it together, like a couple should."
Chikane just smiled, and simply responded, "Thanks, I didn't expect something like that from you."
Himeko chucked, "Hehe, I guess its part of me growing up, being accountable of my actions and taking responsibility. Now how can I make it up to you?"
Chikane just smiled and said, "Just don't do things so impulsively next time. When it comes to very important situations like that, we need to talk it over before making a decision."
"I very much understand, Chikane-chan?" Chikane smiled to show her approval, but Himeko had something else to say, "Speaking of important decisions and working together, which one of these paintings should I have framed? The one with Nekoko and her cats, or the one I did on this park?" Chikane shook her head and chuckled, "The one on the park. At least when I look at it I don't have to worry about tearing it up."
Himeko just laughed at her comment, then Chikane joined it. While they were laughing, Himkeo noticed something on Chikane, "Chikane-chan, you look... Different!"
Chikane looked at Himeko and smiled, "Hana-chan put some make-up on me, saying that I need it because I looked like Casper the ghost."
Himeko chucked some more, "Hehehehe, it looks nice but it also looks like he put on a bit too much."
"Well you know Hana-chan, he likes to overdo things."
Himeko smiled, "That's true, but he's still a sweet person." It was starting to appear that the extra make-up was getting on Chikane, so she offered, " How would you like me to put on some make up for you? I won't use as much."
Chikane laughed a bit and said, "I would love it if you do, as long as I don't look like something from the circus!"
Himeko chuckled again, "I won't do that, trust me."
"I do. I don't think you're capable of doing any worse."
So Himeko handed a bowl of water and a washcloth to Chikane to clean her face. Then when she dried her face, Himeko applied the make up to Chikane. While she was putting on the make-up, Chikane noticed her nails.
"You finger nails look pretty, who did them for you?"
"Hana-chan did, do you really like them?"
"Very much. The next time I meet him, I have him do my nails instead of my face."
She didn't kiss them as Hana proclaimed she would, but she noticed how beautiful they were and that was good enough for Himeko.
After she got done, Himeko handed the mirror to Chikane to look her face now. She liked it and it wasn't even half as much as Hana's.
"This is much better! Thanks a lot," she complemented and then gave her partner a soft loving hug. It made Himeko feeling better inside, even though that voice inside told her that it was just a fleeting moment, but she ignored it. After she finished hugging her, Chikane had something in mind. "Hey, right now it's night time, why don't we go and walk around the city. You can take your camera with you and take some pictures. I know you love doing that."
Himeko just happily nodded and grabbed her camera. Then she asked, "Where are we going anyways?" Chikane paused for a minute, thinking of a good place to go but they haven't been yet. That's not hard since Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world. Nevertheless, she had to think it over, figuring what place would be good taking pictures at night, and also what would be best for Himeko's safety. Finally something came in her mind.
"Ah, I know a good place. How about Shiba Park?"
"You mean where Tokyo Tower is at?"
"Yes, exactly."
Himeko loved the idea, "Absolutely! I would love to go there! Can we visit the tower, huh?" she pleaded like a young girl.
Chikane didn't want to burst her bubble, but knowing their financial situation she had no choice but to, "I wish. It cost about 850 yen ($8.70 USD) per person, and that's just for the first deck. To go to the top, it would cost an additional 600 yen ($6.10 USD). That's how they charge things over there." Himeko had a sad look on her face. Chikane reassured her that it wasn't worth it, "Trust me, it's not worth it. Besides, the line for the place is very long, even at night. Also, the Observatory at the Municipal Government building here has just as great of a view and it's much cheaper, as in free!"
Himeko put aside her disappointment and responded, "I understand. But I still want to go and takes some pictures."
"Well then let's get going!" Chikane commanded. So Himeko grabbed her camera and typical of her clumsy self, she tripped over herself on her way out. Luckily enough, the camera didn't break. Chikane just shook head but she had a smile on her face. "Girl... We need to work on your feet coordination. That's the first thing we are going to do tomorrow!" she kidded.
"Sorry," she simply replied.