[SS] Friendship Is Fate's Craft

“Is this some new method for flirting?”

Guy chuckled, more at her surprising innocence than anything else.

"I don't know if you'd exactly call it new..." He muttered quietly. So close. Normally they just play along with it but this girl seemed lacking in subtlety or guile. Was she the sort of wallflower who had somehow managed to avoid interacting with the opposite sex until now? Or just a bit of an airhead?

"If you're new at this sort of thing I'd be happy to show you the ropes. We can start with a walk in the park, maybe a movie. It'll be fun."

"Please don't corrupt the youth, Guy-sensei." Heaven Canceller intercepted the boy before he could continue any further with his proposal and led him towards the door with a widespread arm.

"I am the youth!" He protested as he was gently but forcibly escorted from the premises.

Despite her attempts to suppress it, Kohaku could only find herself stunned at the end of it all. Again and again she had continued to have herself thrown off balance by the young man going by the name Guy.

She could only stare with both an expression of shock and a blush, signifying her state of compound confusion and embarrassment, as he left an obviously flirty comment and was escorted off the premises of the hospi—

Wait. Wasn’t he supposed to be here for an appointment? Wasn’t he leaving on his own? Why is he—

A moment of single-mindedness took over as she tried to make sense of this weird alternate reality, out of logic space that had formed around this man. Clearly, the laws of the universe and logic had shifted way out of whack in those few minutes.

“It’s probably best not to let that man get to you.”

It was hearing the frog-faced doctor’s voice again that finally brought her out of her trance of pure confusion, leading her to turn her head almost mechanically while maintaining the same expression.

“He’s an odd one.” The doctor seemed to try to give the vaguest statements possible in order to prevent himself from drawing any of Kohaku’s curiosity away from him. “Just go on doing whatever you were doing before you met him. You’ll escape that cognitive dissonance you’re harboring now much more quickly if you do.”

“Ah...right.” Kohaku, struggling to find a proper response, said that lone word and took a bow to the old doctor who had read through her far more accurately than she would care to admit before speed-walking out the hospital’s front door.

Yet despite all that…

There’s no way I’m letting this go.

She could hardly say she was feeling rebellious, but that cognitive dissonance the old doctor had sensed was pulling on her way more than he may have estimated. She just needed to follow him a bit from behind the corners and lampposts of the city.

There's no downside~

Apparently the word ‘stalking’ may have been erased from her vocabulary for that moment.

Today had been a mess. First, he'd gotten involved in a pointless scuffle with some fools who decided they took umbrage to his presence. Or something like that.

Then, after his checkup and a cunning escape that bossy little miss had dragged him back into the hospital.

And then, just to compound his frustration the old doctor with the frog face had gotten in his way when he was this close to scoring a date with said bossy girl and forcibly ejected him from the hospital!

His day had been thoroughly disrupted, but it was finally back on track. Oh well, at least he hadn't had to spend too long in that miserable place.

Still, the suspicious darting movements behind him called his attention to a certain white-haired young lady skulking about at a distance.

Isn't that adorable. She thinks she's being sneaky...

He rounded a corner and waited for Kohaku to follow. When she did she'd find Guy waiting just beyond the corner, leaning against the wall with a welcoming smile.

"Oh, hey! I was hoping I'd run into you again. I didn't think it would be so soon though!"

No downside. Those words Kohaku had dared to let her mind utter came back to bite her almost instantly. While she would let nobody say her attempt at keeping furtive was half-assed, it was plain to see that a girl like her had zero skill in the art of sneaking around.

She had found herself stepping back, flinching at the sound of Guy’s voice addressing her.

After all, she had foolishly not expected herself to be caught so quickly or easily.

“You know...”

Her mind raced as she fumbled around to try and come up with the perfect retort. Though, as time seemed to march ever forward, the girl seemed to be unable to do more than stumble into a wall and come up empty.

“Wouldn’t standard protocol be to lead the stalker on a bit further and mess with them?”

Well, even if it was absolutely terrible, it was something. She gave off a slight scowl as her disappointment began to bubble onto the face from beneath the superficial calm.

“You’re quite silly, you know.”

It wasn’t a perfect save or even an adequate save, but it's not like there was any hope of salvaging it.

“Wouldn’t standard protocol be to lead the stalker on a bit further and mess with them?”

He lowered his head in an appreciative chuckle.

"Ah, I see now..." He spoke as if realising something that had been obvious this whole time. "You're also a fan of the chase. Sorry, I'm not really the type to play hard to get."

“You’re quite silly, you know.”

"I've been told it's one of my better qualities, actually." He shrugged before continuing. "But enough about me. Since you're here I can only assume you're off duty, or are you here to lecture me some more?" He couldn't discount the possibility that Heaven Canceller would send her to harass him some more, knowing that a cute girl would get a more favourable response than an old man like himself. Though come to think of it, that old geezer would be far more likely to keep the pretty nurses to himself...

“Ah, I see now...You’re a fan of the chase. Sorry, I’m not really the type to play hard to get.”

Kohaku tilted her head for a second. While she would count herself as the type who was quick on the uptake, she could not deny that the words that had been spoken to her had been slow to register—as if she had failed to comprehend it.

No, I definitely heard that correctly.

"I've been told it's one of my better qualities, actually. But enough about me. Since you're here I can only assume you're off duty, or are you here to lecture me some more?"

The girl rubbed at her eyes as she took in every single word she heard.

“Are you that paranoid? I’m clearly too young to be working at a hospital. I’m 16.” Curt as ever and still holding onto that ever fading rope of calmness, Kohaku answered him. “Honestly, I can see why everyone seemed so exasperated around you. It probably gets real grating when someone who’s moving around at their own unpredictable pace is a patient.”

Though, medical professionals were generally trained to be able to deal with people like that—not that she would ever admit it to the man before her.

“To be perfectly honest, I’m following you because you’re—” Her eyes darted up as she tried to eke out the right word. “Strange.”

Though not necessarily a stranger.

Scratch that. He was a stranger too.

“Are you that paranoid? I’m clearly too young to be working at a hospital. I’m 16.”

That answer seemed to please him because he nodded agreeably.

"So you are off duty. Perfect."

“To be perfectly honest, I’m following you because you’re— Strange.”

He gave a slight tilt of his head as if conceding the point. "What's wrong with being strange? Better strange than boring." He commented as an aside before returning his thoughts to their original track. "So since you are free, and you're here, how about that offer I mentioned? I can teach you all about flirting if that's what you're interested in."

Kohaku was sure there was some girl out there who would very easily enjoy this kind of talk from the young man before her. She was also quite sure that someone would be able to flow into this kind of talk far more easily than she could.

But, she, unfotunately, was not that girl. She may have prided herself in her ridiculous persistence, but one could only give up on things one had an intent of doing and throughout this little encounter, Kohaku could only question whether she had that intent to begin with.

“I think I’ll just pa—”

She found herself cut off as her phone began to ring. As she pulled it out, she looked to see the number that had interrupted her. It took a moment, but she finally recognized it—it was from the hospital’s set of extensions.

“Hello?”

“Is this Kira Kohaku?” Okay. That clearly wasn’t the old doctor who had access to her phone number in the medical records. The voice was too feminine to be him.

“Who is this and how do you have my number?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but have you seen any sign of Arisawa-san anywhere?”

Though the (likely) nurse had not answered any of her questions something more pertinent came into focus than who she was or where she had gotten ahold of Kohaku’s number. “She’s missing?”

“I take it that means you haven’t seen her. Yes, she’s left the hospital. It’s on he camera footage If you happen to find her, please bring her back.”

“Wait!” That was all she could say before the nurse(?) on the other end hung up on her. Was she just pushing work onto Kohaku because she was the one who last visited Haruka? Granted, being a nurse left her in a busy position, but that was still poor form.

“I’m going to have you help me out here.” Closing the phone, she turned to face Guy who was still there, somehow. “Haruka’s gone missing, so I need some help to comb the city.”

She did not like it, but it was not like she had much choice. Haruka had gone missing and an extra pair of strong hands was definitely something that could be put to good use for the little search mission she had created.

Guy half-listened to Kohaku's end of the conversation as he waited for the opportunity to change her mind.

“She’s missing?”

Missing? This sounded serious. But before he could figure out any more the snow-haired girl had closed her phone and turned to him with a request.

“I’m going to have you help me out here. Haruka’s gone missing, so I need some help to comb the city.”

"Right." Guy didn't even think before he answered, giving a brief nod of agreement and a thumbs up. He paused for a beat. "Who's Haruka?" He asked.

***

"So this Haruka girl, any idea why she might have bolted so suddenly? I'm not a huge fan of hospitals myself, so I can understand, but if you know anything else about her personal life we might be able to narrow down where she'd be headed." He tried to think about it in rational steps. A city this size would be hard to search thoroughly, but people tended to gravitate towards places they knew or had a reason to visit. That said, every moment they took widened the area of their search.

Who’s Haruka?

In retrospect, this should have been an obvious question. She was just asking some random guy she met eloping from the hospital for help, after all.

“So this Haruka girl, any idea why she might have bolted so suddenly? I'm not a huge fan of hospitals myself, so I can understand, but if you know anything else about her personal life we might be able to narrow down where she'd be headed.”

“She’s been in the hospital for a while now. Well over a month at least, though she’s supposed to be discharged next week.”

Normally, people would be out of the hospital far faster than she had been in. But, her hospital course was protracted quite a bit due to various complications.

"She’s a bit of a loner and has her small groups of friends at Kirigaoka like her Occult Club.”

Really, it wasn’t an adequate enough history to cue her on where to go, but it was something.

Guy grimaced in sympathy.

"A month. That's rough. But if she's getting out next week why would she be so desperate to get out now?" He pondered as they made their way in the direction of Kirigaoka. As it was the only place they knew she had any connection to, it was the only real choice for tracking her down other than wandering aimlessly. "You think maybe there's something going on today? Some event perhaps?" It did seem odd, but aside from ascribing it to her just 'snapping' and deciding she couldn't take being cooped up in hospital anymore, it was his only real guess.

"I don't suppose she mentioned anything to you, did she?"