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Higuchi Ichiyou sighed, rolling up the sleeves on her button-up shirt as she walked. It was still winter, but it was unseasonably warm. The sun shone bright in the sky, blue except for the scattered, wispy clouds. Water from the snowmelt ran along the gutters and gathered in puddles, but still the streets in town were fairly busy. Perhaps given false hope by the few warm days, small animals hopped and chittered among the brown grass and still-leafless trees.
Ichiyou herself had felt the need to get out too, but she instead walked on the university campus. It was less busy on the weekends, after all. She used a pair of wired earbuds, turned to low volume so as to not be completely oblivious to the world around her.
There was a sound, something like keys or coins jingling. She checked her pockets, to see what might have caused it, until the source of the noise sprinted past her. *Not keys or coins,* she thought, pausing her music. *Dog tags.* A little black and tan critter, sending birds and rodents fleeing, trailed a torn half-leash behind it.
She heard a soft voice and footsteps, less soft, behind her. “Momo-chan--!” The half-yell did little to catch the dog’s attention. It wasn’t a second before the stranger had sped past her, a flash of black hair and pale overcoat.
By the time Ichiyou had looked up ahead, the person had reached the dog and wrangled it, crouching on the ground with thin fingers wrapped tight around the animal’s collar, the unattached half of the leash lying on the ground next to the two. Making her way over, she noticed the stranger’s eyes widen, almost in apprehension.
“Oh, I’m sorry--” the stranger said. “Are you okay?” That nice voice again, from someone who’d flown by Ichiyou like some sort of phantom.
The girl’s dark hair was sleek and long, a few locks in her face. Her eyes were dark, too, and so were the stockings -- maybe tights? -- she wore. And the firm grip she had on the collar, well, there could be strength in delicate fingers like those too, maybe.
Ichiyou blinked. “...Huh?” She shook her head. “Oh, oh my gosh, yeah. I’m totally fine.” She waved her hands. “I thought I’d, uh, ask if you wanted help, actually.” A pause. “I’m being rude, aren’t I? Um, it’s Higuchi Ichiyou,” she introduced herself with a polite bow. “Nice to meet you.”
The dog, a Shiba Inu, seemed to have calmed down. It sat, panting, looking up at her with its open-mouthed smile, seemingly satisfied with the chaos it had wrought.
The stranger glanced up at her too, as if surprised. “I’d...appreciate some help, Higuchi-san. Akutagawa Gin. I usually go by my given name,” she introduced in return, smiling then. “And this is Momo-chan. Ah-- she belongs to a friend.”
“Well, she’s cute,” said Ichiyou, crouching down, ruffling the critter’s fur. “Good thing, too, if she makes a lot of mischief like this?” She raised an eyebrow, hoping to lighten things. Hoping to get another smile out of the woman.
“Mm. She’s a little spoiled.” Gin sighed, the corner of her lip quirking up, voice low like she was telling a secret. “She gets away with a lot, I think.”
Ichiyou smiled too, amused. “Looks like she, uh, chewed through the leash or something, this time?”
Gin looked down at the little dog, a little frustrated, but fond too. “Mhm. Looks like it.”
Eager to get moving, do something, somehow, Ichiyou picked up the free end of the leash and eyed the frayed end. “Okay, Gin-san, I’ll tell you what. I can tie the two parts of the leash together, if you hold Momo-chan still just like that?” She really did want to help, too.
With a nod, Gin kept one hand on Momo’s collar and the other on the dog’s back, soothing her, while Ichiyou went to work with the leash.