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"A new case?" Ami said with a hint of curiosity in her voice. "It's a Saturday, we're not accepting cases today," she argued.
"I dunno what to tell you," Kyoko shrugged and shook her head. "The client was very, uh, persistent in their e-mail about it being taken today," she said. Ami raised an eyebrow at the woman, still a little suspicious of her explanations. "Hey, I don't make the rules, kid," she said, putting up both hands in defense of Ami's suspicions.
"Well, I mean...technically," Ami began to say.
"Technically this, technically that," Kyoko cut in. "The point is, we always help out clients in need, Ami," she said, pointing towards the bulletin board.
"Do...do I really have to...?" Ami asked, a little put off by Kyoko and her adherence to the formula, with the latter's amused nods only further assisting in that feeling. She rolled her eyes, stepping over to said bulletin board and picking out the only flyer on there. She thought it unusual to see a red pin being used to mark it, surely no case would be that important. Right? Ami pulled down on the flyer, freeing it from underneath the pin, and read over it briefly. She couldn't help but let out an audible gasp as she saw who her client was, and quickly headed for the door without saying a word.
"Oh? I thought the case might be too much for you on your day off," Kyoko teased.
Ami stopped dead in her tracks for a moment. She wasn't 100% sure whether she knew who sent the case in or not but didn't want to play into her teasing regardless. Keeping her back turned to Kyoko, she finally spoke up. "N-nope! Like you said, gotta help out our clients and all, haha...That's me, the helpful Cyber Sleuth, am I right?" she said with a tone that convinced nobody.
"...Right. Well, make sure you do a good job out there kid," Kyoko replied, her answer letting Ami breathe a sigh of relief that her teasing had ended. A feeling that would be short-lived as what Ami called her 'motherly instincts' kicked in. "If he does anything to you though, we'll send him to the Digital World and I'll, uh, 'have a word' or two with him," she said.
Embarrassment turned her face red-hot, but Ami simply nodded in response, refusing to turn around and face Kyoko. "G-got it, I'll let him know," she said exiting the building with haste she didn't know she could muster.
Kyoko chuckled at the state her assistant left in, as she was left staring at the door closing behind her. "Why'd you have to go and get attached to a human?" she asked herself. She shook her head as a smile formed. "Well, at least that human's a good one," she said as she picked up a photo of the pair, with both of them trying to place bunny ears with their fingers behind the others' heads, Kyoko easily outwitting her with her height alone. The smile she had vanished as she sighed while staring at it. "I just...I guess I wish she didn't grow up so fast," she lamented. "But, that's selfish. I will outlive this generation of humans, so I can't stop her from living her life," she said and placed the photo back down. "Just to fulfill a snapshot of mine..." she continued, ending her monologue with a somber tone. "Well, no time to dwell on the maybes, Kyoko. Let's get this place cleaned up for tomorrow," she said, pushing aside her worries, and getting up from behind the desk she made her own. With another gaze to the door, she smiled once again. "But really, good luck out there Ami," she said, turning her attention back to the task at hand.
Outside, Ami looked over the flyer again, now in peace and away from Kyoko's teasing words. "Shibuya, something's going down. Meet up with me there when you get this," she read the note carefully, and with a somewhat quiet tone. "Client..." she said, still caught up in the moment by this particular 'case'. "S-Sanada Arata," saying his name felt like lifting a weight off of her shoulders. Of course, she knew this wasn't an actual case. The pair had been doing this roundabout and complicated method of seeing each other for a few weeks now. Be it because of getting used to the routine, or just as an inside joke between the pair, this way of doing it just felt...right. She looked at his name again, swooning a little as she did, only to stop herself once she realized how ridiculous the situation actually was. She snapped herself out of her love-filled stupor, making her way out of Nakano, catching the first train headed straight for Shibuya.
Ami looked around the scramble for a bit, unsure of exactly where her...client would be. He didn't exactly do her the honor of leaving a location on the case submission, a realization that just made her groan. She took a crosswalk over to the other side, nearest to the subway, and finally found him. She took a moment to watch him as he sat on one of the public seats. She didn't really pay attention to what it was he was doing, it was something on his phone no doubt. She felt herself growing nervous, not something uncharacteristic for her nowadays. Kyoko would probably call it "unbecoming of her" if she saw her like this. Arata must've heard or noticed something, as he suddenly looked up from his screen, catching a glimpse of Ami as soon as he did. He went to wave, but Ami turned away immediately.
Arata rolled his eyes as he stood up from the seat and walked over to her. "C'mon, you're not fooling anyone, I know you were staring at me, stalker," he said.
"Eep!" Ami jumped at the sound of his voice behind her and reluctantly turned to face him. "Ah gee, was it really you that I was looking at? Ahaha..." she said, hiding her increasingly reddening face behind the flyer made for Arata's case.
He took it from her immediately and theatrically. "You're not very convincing, you know?" he delivered in a very monotone voice. Ami could only give an awkward laugh in response. Arata cleared his throat. "W-well, anyway thanks for accepting my case," he said, looking away from her and staring off into the distance.
"You uh...so are we just gonna stand here...in the middle of the scramble or...?" Ami said, pointing out they were kind of in the way of other pedestrians.
"G-good point, let's split," Arata replied, suddenly taking a hold of Ami's hand, much to her surprise, but not to her displeasure as she let him guide the way. That soon ended up being the most...interesting choice she'd make that day, as he ended up walking with her for about 10 minutes, all the way from the crossing to Yoyogi Park. Small talk was shared between the two, but Ami couldn't remember much of what they were talking about, given her mind was occupied focusing on Arata's hand around hers.
"Yoyogi again, huh?" Ami said as the pair began walking slower through the park.
"Urk..." Arata scratched the back of his head. "Y-you liked the park last time, didn't you?" he asked.
"Well yeah of course I did," Ami said. "But I didn't think you liked it enough to come back so soon," she continued.
"These dates aren't just for me, y'know," Arata said.
"Oh? Dates huh?" Ami teased.
"Yep. That's...what these are, right?" Arata said.
Ami smiled. "Of course, of course," she said, all the while containing the urge to giggle at his attempt of stoicism.
"Right. So uh, any...interesting cases this week," Arata asked. "I-if you want to talk about it I mean," he quickly added on.
Ami thought for a moment before answering. "Well let's see...there was a few cases of kids and lost Digimon, so more of the usual I suppose, but in terms of 'interesting', not necessarily," she answered. "What about you, did you do anything interesting this week?" she asked. By this point, both must have been thinking about how pointless it was using this same line of questions every time they met up, leading to them having awkward interactions if one didn't have an answer for the other.
A thought that must've been plaguing Arata, as he suddenly let go of Ami's hand, just a little bit to her disappointment. "We're here," he suddenly said.
"Here?" Ami asked as she looked around. "This...is nice, don't get me wrong, but it's just a bench," she said.
"Exactly. Please wait here for a moment, I'll be right back," Arata replied.
"Wow, ditching a girl on a date? My hero," Ami jokingly said as Arata began walking off in a hurry. He called back some remark, but he was already too far away for her to make it out by the time she'd sat down. Stretching back on the seat, Ami gave a content sigh as the figure of Arata vanished from her view, and closed her eyes for a moment. Of course, he'd do something like this, that's just how he was. He was her Arata, her stupid, sexy Arata. Her eyes shot open as she ran that thought in her mind. Lucky this wasn't cyberspace, who knows what might've happened with a thought like that manifesting. She shook her head at the thought of the embarrassment that would bring and waited impatiently for Arata to return.
Luckily she wasn't left waiting for too long, as the easily-recognizable silhouette of the hoodie-adorned kid made his way back to the bench. "Hey, I'm back," Arata said.
"Now, do you mind explaining why you left such a lovely lady waiting for so long?" Ami questioned. A quick look towards his hand revealed the answer in the form of a bag.
"Here," Arata said, practically pushing the bag into Ami's hands without so much as a thought, turning his head away as he did.
"Uhh..." Ami was a little taken aback by how sudden he was with it but took the bag nonetheless. Opening it up revealed some kind of clothing, and further investigation revealed it was a dress. "Oh my," Ami remarked as she pulled the dress out. It reached all the way to her ankles and was a beautiful blue color with white trimming. "Wait," she said, looking at the dress, and then at Arata. "Arata..." she said.
"W-what?" Arata replied.
"You...did get this so we could...match?" Ami asked.
Immediately brushing it off as her about to make fun of him, Arata shrugged. "N-no, of course not," he said. "That'd be..."
"Sweet? Yeah, I know right?" Ami said suddenly. "But, that's a shame I guess. We'll have to return it," she teased.
"Wait, wait no," Arata said, now facing her. "Y-you can't do that," he said.
Ami took some delight in seeing the normally angsty face of her boyfriend soften up a little and actually get embarrassed. "Oh? And why's that?" she asked, continuing her teasing.
"I..." Arata choked on his words. He cleared his throat and continued. "Fine, I got it to match, I guess," he said in a quieter tone.
Deciding not to poke any further, Ami smiled. "Well, that's really nice of you Arata," she said. "I love it."
"You do?" Arata said, now in his usual tone once more, with definite hints of surprise in his voice. "That's good. That you can wear it, I mean," he said.
"Wear it I shall," Ami said as she placed the dress back into her bag. "Now, how about I take us somewhere? I'm starving," she said.
"Hey, I'm not that lazy, I can take us-" Arata began to say, only to get cut off by Ami placing a finger on his lips to make him stop. A smile finally crept onto his face, and so he nodded, giving in to her lead. "Fine, fine, lead the way Cyber Sleuth," he said.
Ami quickly corrected him. "Nuh-uh, out here it's Ami," she said. "Leave the sleuthing for when it's on a case," she said.
"We are on a case though, remember?" Arata said and sarcastically waved the flyer in front of her. Ami reached for it, but Arata quickly moved it out of her reach, laughing about it as he began to walk away from her.
"Oh...you, get back here," Ami called out.
"Or?" Arata said with his arms out to either side as he began walking backwards from her. "What? Gonna arrest me, Cyber Sleuth?" he called out, his remark being enough to get Ami to chase after him.