It's a long weekend, and that means big sales at the mall! An, or rather Natsumi Ginga as she is better known in this world, is not a big shopaholic, but big crowded places are often good places to find poor unsuspecting souls to prey on. Besides, she finds this shopping ritual actually rather..Intriguing.
So here she is, wandering from store to store, peering at the many wondrous sights and sounds in the many store displays. "Wow, what a weird place. They all flock to these weird shops, spending money on silly clothing and make up without a care in the world.." She sighs. Must be nice, living such a carefree life.
Seijuro, meanwhile, is not looking at the displays, but focusing his attention on the teenage girls who are. After enough time watching, though, he decides he would like a little attention too. Relaxing on a bench, he brings his flute to his lips and begins to play.
It's not too difficult for that beautiful, haunting tune to slowly start to draw a crowd of observers.
He probably wouldn't be doing this if he'd noticed "Natsumi" was in the vicinity.
Well, Natsumi was tired from all the walking around, and she did actually need a good school bag for all those heavy books. It still seemed like such a bore, having to go to school just to blend in and learn more about this planet, but at least her strategically planted space botany club was causing quite a stir lately.
Finally, she manages to find a good bag shop that sells an assortment of cute anime tote bags, and she ends up buying a cute plant-themed bag before heading towards the food court. Heck, eating the food that humans ate did nothing to revive her energy, but some of it tasted pretty good she had to admit.
However, upon passing a certain bench, she slows down a little as she notices a crowd of girls gathering, some of them looking starry-eyed, others swaying to the beautiful, charming music that plays. "Huh? How strange..What's this all about?" and she slows down, pushing and shoving through the gaggle of girls, trying to see what's going on.
Seijuro smiles as he plays - a trick he had to learn a long time ago or he'd have lost his songs mid-playing all the time. He's looking around at the pretty girls and somewhat basking in the attention, and there's already that rumbling whisper through the crowd of how cute he is and asking if he has a girlfriend.
At this, Seijuro winks and shakes his head no to the who thought she went unheard. There's no way that could soon be a major mistake...
Natsumi Ginga gets closer to the crowd of girls, and when she hears the beautiful flute music playing, and hears that song - THEIR song, she gasps in surprise and anger..Why, how DARE he!? "Ail..." she snarls, but her voice is drowned out by the crowds. How DARE he play them THEIR song?!"
But her words would likely go unnoticed as the crowd grows larger and rowdier. It seems that Ail's music is truly hypnotic.
Unfortunately, all An can think of at the moment is how he's paying all this attention to these girls and totally ignoring her. Gradually confusion turns to jealousy, jealousy turns to anger. She's practically fuming out the ears now as she shoves through the crowds, trying to reach him.
"Seijuro" almost sense An before he notices her in some more normal way. And then he stops playing, midway, moving through some girls - who are far too interested in him for safety - to reach her before someone notices her, or she loses control of her disguise.
"Heyyy!" he says, sauntering through them to end up next to her. "How's my favorite little sister? Or my only little sister."
Indeed, 'Natsumi' looks very close to reverting back to her alien form..And she probably would, give or take a few seconds longer of this..This torment!
Then the music stops, and some of the girls whimper in disappointment, before going back to whatever they were doing before. No doubt, some of them linger on the edges, hoping he might continue to play some more in a bit.
But An will have none of it! She stomps towards him, glaring at him, hands clenched at her sides as she tries hard not to totally blow her cover. After all they ARE supposed to be siblings, of all things!
"Whatcha up to, Seijiru?" she practically snaps with a strange grimace on her face, right eye twitching angrily as she storms up to him.
"Seijuro" knows, to some degree, he's probably in trouble. "It was just such a nice day I wanted to play my flute a little bit before the snows come." he says, and then looks down. Salvage this, Ail. Salvage it...
"Sorry I just saw all of them and I guess I switched songs because I started thinking of you and..." his voice dips lower so as to avoid breaking the 'brother and sister' cover. "How your beauty is unparalleled in the universe."
She glowers at him. Indeed, when they get back to the apartment, he's in a world of trouble! "Oh! Are you sure that's all it was? Because to me, it looked like you were flirting with all those pretty girls!"
Natsumi's talking a bit too loudly now, and some of the nearby girls pause and stare at her funny, whispering among themselves..But of course, Natsumi's somewhat used to being regarded as some sort of weird, exotic transfer student, who blows her top off quite a bit.
She folds her arms now as she glares back at him, and at least has the decency to lower her voice a bit, calming down just a little once he attempts to flatter her. "Oh, do you really mean that?"
Seijuro puts his arm around her and walks her awayyyy from the crowd as best he can, but still keeps talking to her. "Of course I mean it." he says, and on some level that's quite true! "I mean... you're the reason we're here. I wouldn't want to risk trying to find some other place... you need the tree, and I need you, and the tree needs this world."
He leans closer to her. "I was so worried recently when you were ill. I'm glad you got better."
Her cheeks redden just the slightest at the flattery, although she soon frowns softly as attention is drawn away from her, and the topic centers more about the tree than herself. "Hmph. We should be focusing more on healing the Makaiju, rather than on petty silly squabbling, and trying to win the attention of these silly humans. Especially the girls! All that energy could be better spent on the tree!"
She does smile however as she walks away from those annoying girls alongside Seijuro, still looking a bit too jealous for a mere 'sister'.
"I'm feeling better than ever, thanks to you. I've been managing to collect a decent amount of energy from people who visit the greenhouse down by penguin park. And my space plant seems to be growing nicely and it really seems to enjoy feeding off of the silly students who cross its path."
Natsumi frowns a bit however, "Oh, but everything is happening so slowly, and the tree is barely responding. Maybe we just need more energy..Or a better type of energy.."
Seijuro scratches his head a little bit. "Yeah, at first I thought it just might need some time to adjust, but it's still... not doing well. And that's bad. I just don't know how to fix it. But..." he turns to Natumi. "That's where you've always been better at me. You've got that gift, for fortunes and futures and picking out the Cardians."
"What do you think we should do? Because... we have to change plans, or we're going to have to leave this planet, and I don't think the Makaiju can handle another uprooting."
Natsumi sighs, realizing the gravity of their situation. "I know..If the tree dies, WE die! But, what is it that it really wants? Maybe, targetting teenagers isnt the right thing afterall. I mean, they're so tired and stressed all the time with exams, but.."
She peers around the mall, noticing some younger kids playing. "Look at them, so young and carefree! And those little brats are so hyperactive too! I'll bet we could sap tons more energy from younger kids, before they get weighed down by exams and cram school. I dunno, maybe we could target a kindergarten school? It's worth a try.."
"I know, I know." Seijuro says, in a comforting voice. "I wish I knew... the way parts of it are withering... it's made me worry a lot."
"...well, it's worth a try. I'd like to see the Tree make better use of that energy than those human brats, anyways. But it's bound to attract attention if you do it in a big way. So either do it quietly, or try to get as much as you can in one go."
"If you try to drain energy I'm sure you'll end up in a fight, though. So... be careful."
Natsumi smirks, "Dont worry about me, I'll try and draw more young students into the space botany club. One of our members is pretty young, and she's just full of energy. I still havent found a way to transfer the energy from that space plant to the Makaiju..But maybe when it's matured, I can just uproot it and feed IT to the Makaiju!"
She seems a bit more cheerful now, at that potentially promising idea. So far, Natsumi has been unable to figure out how to control the weird space plant. But that doesnt mean she cant use it in other ways!
"As for you, I hope you dont get distracted by pretty girls again..We cant afford to be spending energy on flirting with these silly humans!" Of course, she says nothing of her early attempts to flirt with Mamoru, which of course ended in disaster. Unfortunately, An simply lacks the charm that Ail possesses with his more subtle mannerisms and his flute.
Once they're out of earshot, the arm around her back turns onto a full on embrace and he squeezes her tight. "I will always worry about my Space Princess." he says and suddenly pecks her on the cheek, quick enough nobody else probably noticed. "But I also know that you're strong enough to fight just like I am, and I know you're smarter than I am a lot of the time, too."
"I'll try to be careful, but a life worth living can't be all energy harvesting and panic, either. But... I will."
"Ail.." he draws her near and her eyes widen a bit, cheeks reddening a bit more as he pecks her on the cheek. An still doesnt understand the true extent of his actions or her feelings, but she does like being the center of attention. She smiles sweetly, giving his hands a little squeeze. "As long as we stick together, and trust no one but ourselves, we'll survive this, somehow..I hope."
But he does have a point, and An nods. "Yeah, maybe we can check out that virtual reality arcade that's openning up soon. I suppose we should try to enjoy ourselves once in a while, afterall.."
Ail nods. "We could do both, you know. Something like that is probably bound to draw a lot of people. It's not so bad if we spend our time having fun and getting energy for the tree, right? We can try to grab a lot. Maybe we're just not feeding it enough..."
"If that doesn't work, then you can be in charge of the next attempt, and we can get energy from younger, fresher sources?"
An sighs tiredly, "Yes, I suppose you're right. At least if we can have some fun at the same time, then it wont be so exhausting." she smiles, "I'm sure your next cardian will work! You're pretty talented with your flute. But if it doesn't, I'll do my best to find the perfect meal for the Makaiju!"
But, after such a long day of shopping, An is already feeling exhausted. She yawns, stretching as she peers around, "We should head back and check up on the tree. I could do with an energy boost too."
Seijuro nods. "Yeah, we can't save the Makaiju if we pass out ourselves. Just... always remmeber we have to put more in than we take out or bad things happen. Especially with how it's being now, we gotta be careful."
"We'll make it work and survive. We will. We have to." he says, hugging her again. "Whatever it takes."