Chapter Text
"Hold it, please!" Chisato called out as the elevator door threatened to close.
"Halt the steel giant," Kaoru said as Saya pressed the button quickly. "For Juliet is coming henceforth~!"
"I don't think we have that much space," Misaki said, adjusting the balloons she was carrying as Michelle. "I mean, I can squish over to the side." she then smushed Michelle over to the corner to create as much space as possible.
"Thank you," Chisato said to whoever pressed the button.
"No problem," Saya said, adjusting the paper bag of bread in her hands. "I'm kind of in a rush as well."
The elevator then started to descend for a few seconds, until a large thud suggested it decided not to continue. It stood unmoving above where they were meant to be.
They all stood there until Chisato felt something with a fleeting aura come closer to her.
"Is anything a problem?" she asked.
"No problem at all!" Kaoru said. "It just so happens that we appear to be stuck here together in an elevator. All of us here united..." she paused, putting a hand to her forehead, taking in the surrounding. "It must be fate~!"
"This is not fate," Chisato plainly stated. "The elevator must be working soon, right? I bet it can sense that some people have places to be."
"You're not the only person with some place to be." Yukina muttered under her breath.
"Minato-san?" Chisato said, suddenly noticing another person's presence in this already cramped elevator. Chisato sighed. "You're right, there's no use worrying."
"How tragic! A fleeting little kitten separated from the rest of her pack due to nothing other than-"
"Isn't 'pack' a dog term-?"
"Perhaps the little kitten is independent, strong even! She can make it big against all odds, including that of isolation inside what appears to be a chamber of o-" she coughed a bit to hide her voice cracking "of doom…!"
"You're just being ridiculous," Chisato said. "We're not doomed. We're just standing here in a-" she paused to find the words. "in a chamber of doom." she said before sighing louder creating an awkward silence.
"How about..." Misaki said, remembering how Michelle had to act in these situations. She looked to her hands to see she was holding balloons. "...A balloon for your troubles?"
The girls all looked at Michelle's paws to scour for a balloon fit for their own aesthetics. Chisato did not take a balloon. Kaoru took quite the biggest balloon she saw, and Saya took two for her younger siblings. Yukina on the other hand, seemed to be examining her wares a bit more than the others until her eyes landed on the perfect balloon that matched her aesthetic. She then gladly took a nice purple cat balloon.
"Ah! Such perfection! A kitten for none other than one of my kittens-"
"Where?"
Kaoru paused for a second, surprised that her main trick failed to work on Yukina. "I was referring to you - the little kitten~."
"Well, I'm not little nor am I a kitten, so that is simply incorrect."
The prolonged awkwardness combined with the time spent in the elevator has made it stuffy and the girls are finding it harder to stay put as the elevator gets fixed.
"Um? Michelle?" Saya asked. "If there’s space in that suit, is it possible if you could hold this-” she holds out her bag of bread. “-for the time being? It's getting awfully tight in here."
"Hand it over," Misaki deadpanned as her hand went out of Michelle's mouth. Kaoru, of course, did not see the human arm come out of the suit. Saya handed over the bread and Misaki placed it in the suit. "Now your bread will be warmer when we leave."
"Okusawa-san. How do you practice in that suit?" Yukina asked. "It seems that your mobility is not at its full potential when you are inside the suit."
"Could it be?!" Kaoru yelped. "Misaki is here?! Salvation has arrived~!"
"She's not here," Chisato said, looking at Kaoru with pure exasperation.
“Ah...quite the unfortunate false alarm…!” Kaoru said. "Well, we have been in here quite a while, one could safely assume that salvation could be on the way, wouldn't it?"
Yukina looked down at her watch and scowled at the time. "I have practice with Roselia soon. If we don't get down in a timely manner, I will begin my vocal warmups. This is a threat."
"It can't be that bad," Saya tried to reassure her. "I play the drums. My vocal warmups aren't even humanly possible unless I grow a few more mouths."
"This is a threat not because my vocal warmups are humanly possible, it is a threat because I take technique seriously," Yukina said, gripping her cat balloon tighter.
They all then made sounds of surprise when the elevator moved suddenly.
"That's it!!!" Kaoru exclaimed. "We are about to perish united, yet apart inside of this fleeting elevator shaft~!"
"Don't say ‘shaft’ ever again, please!" Chisato said as if that was the problem. "It means that we're almost safe, right?"
"We're not safe?!" Kaoru yelled louder, prompting Chisato to cover her ears. "What do you mean?!" she moved closer to Chisato making everyone else in the elevator have to move around.
"Kao-chan," Chisato flinched. Kaoru looked up, flustered, at hearing the nickname. "You're moving too much, of course we're not safe."
Kaoru, slightly defeated, retreated back to her original spot in the elevator, leading people to shift around once again.
“Kaoru, I swear if you don’t stop moving-!”
The elevator shifted again but then this time it seemed to be shifting at a constant rate. That meant that the elevator was working again and that they were finally descending.
They all silently cheered as they reached the bottom and the elevator door dinged open for them to finally leave.
Chisato took a breath as she saw the first floor of the mall in front of her before looking back at the rest of the girls. "If you saw any of that, no you didn't." she said before leaving.
"I'll be on my way as well. Thank you for the balloons!" Saya said as she received the bread from Michelle.
"It's nothing really. Michelle is perfect for containment," Misaki tried to walk out but standing in the corner of the elevator for an extended period of time left Michelle with a sharp behind. She went off to return to her work but The Suits intercepted.
"Your suit, is it okay?"
"It's okay. I think the back's a little squished but aside from that we're good."
"Seta-san. Is she okay?"
Misaki looked around for a sign of Kaoru but found nothing.
"She was mostly okay in the elevator."
"You may take a break for a bit while we bring you the replacement suit."
"Thank you."
After leaving the elevator, Yukina took another gander at her watch to make sure that she was not late.
'There is sufficient time to get to CiRCLE,' she thought. 'But it would take too long if I walked. I must speed walk'. She looked at her other hand to see that the cat balloon was still there. 'This would boost morale. This is also not a real cat so I can take it into CiRCLE.'
And that was how Yukina speedwalked, powered by the fire of determination to CiRCLE where luckily, she arrived right on time.
"Minato-san," Sayo said. "It's not like you to be so late."
"I'm sorry. There was an inconvenience at the mall."
"I can see the inconvenience in your hand," Lisa chuckled, pointing at the cat balloon tied to Yukina's wrist.