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It was a warm summer morning, and the citizens in the capital of the Din Republic were going to take advantage of it, but Monika was only walking through the streets out of boredom as Lamplight was on a month-long vacation after their joint mission with Team Avian in Longchon, with them having gotten back two days ago, Monika would have been reading but she had ended up going through all her materials during and on the way back from the mission. She would have just relaxed in, Heat Haze Palaces games room but the rest of her team decided that they have some big competition in there, foiling her plans. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t be down for that kind of thing, definitely if they were making wagers but after their last mission, she doesn't think she has the energy to deal with her team's antics for long.
Monika sighs in boredom. “Oh, Miss Monika '' That was until she heard her name from a familiar voice but even if she didn’t know their voice, she could instantly tell by the way she was addressed. Turning around she found the person the voice belonged to, and it was exactly who she thought, one of her teammates, Sara. Sara was wearing the school uniform that they usually wore when outside of Heat haze, she was also wearing her newsboy hat that she was rarely without. Monika was also wearing her school uniform and her hair done up in its usually asymmetrical style with the ponytail going down the side of shoulder. “Hey Sara, I thought you were with the rest of the team?” “Ah, no I thought that today was beautiful and that I would take Mr. Johnny to the park and do some shopping.” Sara smiled at her as Monika looked down and saw Sara’s dog Johnny next to her, Sara then added “Would you like to join me, Miss Monika?”. Monika was going to decline but then thought that she had nothing better to do other than continuing to aimlessly walk around the streets before returning to the place and dealing with her teammates' antics “Yay, sure why not”.
After Monika agreed to join Sara on a day out in the capital, they arrived at a clothing store. The reason they were there was that Sara thought she could buy a few new outfits for when she would go out. Monika wasn’t exactly the type of person who cared about fashion heck she stripped down any defining physical traits about her except her hair but that doesn't mean she couldn’t help Sara find something good even if this was more Thea and Greta’s area of expertise and she was given Johnny to make sure he didn’t wander off, so it wasn’t too boring. After an hour or so they were able to find Sara some new clothes but while they were walking down the street Sara noticed a stall selling different kinds of jewelry.
Sara was eyeing a necklace with a silver chain and that had a silver centerpiece with a Apple green jade in the center. “What? Is that something you want?” Monika asked curiously as she can’t remember if she has seen Sara wear jewelry by her choosing. “Oh, no I just thought that it would look good on you and pair well with your eyes and hair.” Monika was flustered by this as her cheeks turned red, she didn’t know how to respond but Sara didn’t seem to notice as she turned to the stall owner “Sir, how much for this necklace?” The stall owner thought for a second “Hmm, I’d say hmm… 110 Euros should do”, Sara took out her wallet and paid for the necklace and the stall owner went to box it up. Once Sara was given the box with the necklace, she gave it to Monika “Here” “Thanks I will pay you back later”. Sara looked shocked at this “What no, this is a gift” “But there was no reason for it” “Can’t friends give each other gifts and if you need a reason why, then it’s for everything you’ve done for me, from training me to helping me pick out clothes.” Monika again didn’t know how to respond, she was someone who didn’t have any friends in her Spy Academy or even before that and she never tried to make any but she guessed after everything the members of Lamplight were her friends, but to hear Sara call her that and give her a gift felt special and she felt a emotion that the closest she could think of was her feeling on a certain member of Lamplight but it wasn’t as strong as that so Monika decided to file that away for right now. “Thank you, Sara, but at least let me treat you to a meal” she says as they start walking and she puts on the necklace. As they walked Monika spotted a bookstore and knew she needed new reading material “Hey, Sara can we go here next?” As she points to the store. “Sure”.
When they entered the bookstore, it was quiet, there were a few other patrons but mostly empty, there was an old man at the counter near the front, seemingly the owner. Monika and Sara started pursuing the shelves to find what they were interested in. Sara, holding Johnny in her arms, was looking primarily at animal books, specifically how to better take care of them. It wasn't like she wasn’t already taking great care of her pets; it's just that these books sometimes provided information and ways she hadn’t thought of. After picking up a few books she went over to Monika to get her advice on what books she should get for her training. Monika was also looking for books of similar nature “Ah, Miss Monika can you recommend any books for my training”. “Recommendations?” Monika pondered a bit before picking up a few books about Fend Commonwealth politics, The Lylat Kingdom Revolutions, and a book about the culture of the Republic of Ryuka. “Those should be good for now.” Monika holds them up before something else catches her eyes.
They were near the Romance section of the bookstore and there was a peculiar book that caught her eyes. It was a book with an unassuming title not something that she cared too much about, but Monika has read other books from the same author and knows there's more to these. “Is there something special about that book?” Sara asks, looking down at it. “Well, these types of books are not something you normally find in a bookstore in the capital and definitely not so out in the open.” “Why?” Sara was so confused about what was so special about this book. “Well, the author’s works normally have homosexual leads, primarily female and for those reasons the author and their works are normally ostracized.” After hearing that she understands what Monika meant. “It’s a shame as the author is really talented at displacing these kinds of characters.” Monika sighed “So are you going to pick this up?” Sara asked, “Huh, what?” “Well, it seems like you quite enjoy these if you know so much about them.” “Well, I guess.” “And if you don’t, I might just buy it instead, as I am curious why you like them.” “Okay fine I understand, and I don’t have this one yet.” Monika finally relented but added “If you want to read them, I can lead you to them when we get back, alright?” “Okay then I think I will do something like that.”
After picking up the book they head to the counter, where the old owner starts bagging them up, “Is that all?” The owner asked, “Oh wait, I just remember Miss Erna wanted me to get her something.” Sara remembers as she hurries back towards the shelves to find whatever Erna asked for, Monika just looks at where Sara ran off to. The owner chuckled, making Monika turn her head and saw that he was bagging the romance book, “Make sure you take care of her alright.” The owner says and Monika feels like there's a misunderstanding but didn’t get a chance to clear it up as Sara returns with a book that seemed to be a collection of fairy tales “Is that what Erna asked for?” “Yes, she asked me to get her something and I thought she would quite enjoy it.” Sara gave the owner the book. After paying for their books, they were walking through the streets again, talking about where to eat. As a thief ran past them and grabbed Johnny who was a bit in front of them. Monika and Sara immediately chase after him into an alley.
Monika and Sara were able to catch up to him quickly as he tried nothing to stop them clearly underestimating them. As the thief turns the corner of the alley Monika takes out one of her rubber balls with a metal core that she always keeps on her and throws it at the thief’s legs and stumbles down releasing Johnny who ran to Sara, where she then started hugging him protectively. Five thugs then came out of side alleys surrounding them and seemed to be with the thief.
Monika wasn’t worried even with them being fully adult men, they were nothing to her as she picked up the rubber ball that had rolled back to her and pulled two more just like it. She throws two of them at the men on her left and right heads taking them out, she then pulls out a small mirror and using her incredible calculation skills combined with her special skill Creepshot throws her third rubber ball at a wall with it ricocheting towards one of the guys behind her. That left Monika with two thugs one behind and one in front, Monika rushed forward at the man in front who was swinging a metal pipe at her, she dodges the man’s swing as she punches him directly in the guts causing him to keel over where she kneed him in the face knocking him out. She then heard the man who was behind her rush at her with a knife, but she spun around and with a solid right hook to the face the man went down with ease.
“Don’t move!” A voice yelled as a gun was loaded. Monika turns and sees that the initial thief has gotten back up and is pointing a gun at her, “Don’t move and I won’t shot and hands where I can see him” Monika had no choice to comply as she has nothing to fight with as she only brought three rubber balls and they were on the ground around her and she couldn’t try deflecting the bullet as she didn’t bring her knife, as she was wondering what to do something unexpected happened “Go, Mr. Johnny!” Before the thief could react, Johnny started biting the thief’s ankle, “AHH!” The thief flinched at the pain, letting his guard down long enough that Monika was able to rush up and disarm him before punching directly in the face, taking him out once and for all.
“Thanks for that Sara'' Monika sighs in relief, Johnny barks at her “You too Johnny” as she crouches down to pet him, she then hers sobbing and looks at Sara crying. Johnny rushes over to her where she picks him up and gives him a tight hug but doesn't seem to be able to stop crying. Monika takes Sara out of the alley making sure to take their stuff with them and go over to a nearby pet cafe, as she knew Sara wouldn’t want to be separated from Johnny right now.
When they reached the pet cafe they were quickly seated, and Monika decided to get them some tea. Monika looks at Sara who is looking down at Johnny, even though still very upset she did stop crying, Monika was trying to think of what to do to cheer her up and was going to say something, but Sara beat her to it “I’m sorry Miss Monika” “For what?” Sara stutters a bit before getting out “You had to fight all of them, while I did nothing” Her voice getting quieter after every word. “It was nothing” Monika said without thinking but immediately crushed themselves as Sara looked like she was ready to cry again. “‘It was nothing’ but I did nothing while you fought to protect my pet ““Sara, you aren’t as weak as you think, you saved me at the end there and of course I would protect Johnny'' Monika says knowing she isn’t the best at consoling someone and wishes the rest of her team was here instead.
“Even if you say that, I had done nothing while I let my pet nearly get taken away and I know you would have easily gotten out of that predicament, I am a-” Monika cut Sara off before she could finish “STOP!” Monika raised her voice causing all the patrons and staff to look at their table but after a moment everyone turned away except for Sara who had finally looked at Monika since sitting down, she had red puffy eyes from crying so much, Monika continued. “I don’t want you to finish that sentence, you are not weak, and even if you think you are then you should know that your kindness is more important than how strong you are in a fight.” Sara looked at her with wide eyes as she proceeded to stutter, not able to form any words.
“That kindness made you rush in and protect Johnny, not worrying about yourself” Monika then follows up with “Your Kindness has allowed you to connect with your animals, where they are willing to listen and follow you. It allowed you to connect with the team easily, especially Annett and Erna. Seriously it’s impressive you can keep them behaved, Thea had to manipulate them to get them to cooperate with her at first” Monika then proceeds to finish up with “And even I enjoy spending time with you over the others.”
Sara was completely shocked as her cheeks burned red at Monika’s words “Thank you, Miss Monika -'' was all she could get before Monika interrupted her again “I really do mean it, when I’m with the others it can feel mentally draining and I’m not normally someone who likes spending a day out with someone, but today with you I feel fine, and I have quite enjoyed today. I consider you one of my closest friends, so I hate it when you call yourself weak and a failure. Look, I really care about you, so no matter what, I will protect you, promise ....” Monika finally breathed and then immediately thought about what she just said and felt that she said something wrong as she saw that Sara just looked shocked and started looking anywhere but Sara “I was rambling” “Miss Monika” “That’s not what you wanted to hear” “Miss Monika” “I’m no good at this” “Monika” Shocked to hear Sara say her name without the ‘Miss’, Monika looked up at Sara who was laughing while petting Johnny’s head.
Monika’s cheeks went red in embarrassment, but Sara then smiled “Thank you Miss Monika, I enjoyed today with you too. And I also consider you one of my closest friends, so thank you for promising to protect me but one day I will be strong enough to fight for myself and I will save you, promise.” From her response Sara got to witness one of Monika’s rare genuine smiles. “Well then would you like to have that meal and then go to the park you talked about earlier” “Yes, I would, Miss Monika” “Sara, you don’t have to call me Miss.” Monika Jokes as they look at the menu “It doesn't seem right to call you anything else right now.” Sara smiled at Monika who realized there is no point arguing. “Alright but one day you will call me with just my name.” “Okay, one day, promise.” They both laugh as they order.
After they had finished their meal, they went to the park and played with Johnny for a few hours, Monika making sure to get a lot of photos of them, but eventually they returned to Heat Haze Palace after enjoying a full day out together.