Chapter Text
"Uuuuugh..."
Atari groaned, her face deflating against the countertop she leaned on, her eyes staring straight ahead at the Puyo Quest Café's entrance, occasionally glancing over to the makeshift case board she had hung on the building's wall. She tapped the countertop at a constant pace with a finger, letting out an annoyed hum.
The café was starkly empty, and eerily quiet for a usually busy establishment. The only sounds came from her assistant Towa's notepad scribbling, her other, robotic assistant Puubot's mechanical whirring, her café co-worker Ally's light humming, and her own countertop tapping. Atari's eyes shifted to a Chu Puyo-shaped clock that hung on the wall next to her case board, squinting to check the time. It read "2:04 P.M."
Just then, a bell rang at the café's entrance as the front doors swung slightly open. Atari instantly shot up from her position and slammed her hands on the countertop, causing her assistant to flinch a bit.
"HELLO~!! WELCOME!!" Atari shouted, much to the dismay of her assistant and the new customer. Her inside voice wasn't exactly well-trained.
Her excitement faded quickly as she processed who it was who had just entered. It was the same cyan-haired girl who entered this time of day every day for the past month or so. This individual looked suspiciously similar to her co-worker, Ally, down to the very shape of her eyelashes! Though Atari never had the pleasure of serving with her, the girl always stood at the entrance, ignoring everyone else, until Ally skated over to her side and sat with her at a table in the very back corner, already having food prepared for her. Even when Atari attempted to sit her, the girl simply turned to her and gave out the same "I have reservations" in her quiet monotone. She didn't even know the girl's name!
"Oh, just a minute, Rafisol!" Ally chirped, not even turning around to check if it was Rafisol. At least Atari knew her name now.
Rafisol stood completely still. Atari couldn't even tell if Rafisol even saw her. Atari sighed, knowing she wasn't serving this customer, turning over her shoulder and looking down at Towa, still scribbling away in her small notepad, curled up and leaning against the same countertop from behind.
"What'cha writing?" She asked, tapping the outsole of her skates against the floor.
Towa glanced up at the apprentice detective briefly before continuing to write. "I am currently drafting a report of our case summaries... or lack thereof." The last part came out a bit quieter than the rest.
Atari only replied with a hum of acknowledgement, turning back to Rafisol as Ally skated beside her, food in hand, and led her to the same table they always sat together at. Atari wasn't too thrilled with their lack of cases either. Ms. Seo and Mr. Roquier were away, so she had to pick up the slack somehow! But for the past month, there were crickets in the case department.
Her eyes tracked Ally and Rafisol as they sat. The duo sat in adjacent seats, chatting away at a volume level Atari couldn't pick up from the distance between them. Her mind began to wander. Who even was this person who came around every single day at the exact same time during her co-worker's break? She looked nearly identical to Ally, but who exactly was she? Was she her twin sister? A mirror image? An evil doppelgänger from another dimension?! There had been a lot of those around Pwurp Island lately.
If Rafisol was one of those, she couldn't let her co-worker get herself into danger!
"Hey, Pucchi!" She whispered, somehow.
"Napu~?" Puubot replied, hopping along the ground until it reached Atari's skates.
Atari crouched down to its level, pointing behind her with a thumb. "Go scan that girl over there with Ally and make sure she isn't one of those guys from the Outlands!"
"Napu~! Napu napu!" Puubot beeped, rolling below the swinging gate that separated the seating area from the kitchen. It kept rolling until it knocked into Rafisol's boots, causing her to lean over slightly and glare down at Puubot.
"Napu~!" Puubot turned upwards, as its eyes began to illuminate and traced Rafisol's entire body from head to toe. The beeps and boops caused Ally to look down at Puubot as well, tilting her head to the side.
The tracing around Rafisol soon formed into a solid, light-blue outline, a wireframe of the same color soon after encasing Rafisol entirely. Puubot's systems whirred as a small digital screen began to pop up around it, strings of data and statistics blasting by. Rafisol, still, remained completely stationary, save for the furrowing of her brows and the strange purple aura beginning to emit from her palms.
"H-Hey!" Ally slid off her chair, bending down and picking up Puubot gently. "What are you doing?!" She asked, her voice riddled with concern.
"Napu~!" Puubot simply replied, before its cute digital voice was substituted with a soft, bit-crushed male voice, "Scanning complete."
"Huh?" This only made Ally more confused, and Rafisol more annoyed.
"Subject identified as Rafisol. Origin: Book of Chronicle. Designation: Not of Outlander Doppelgänger variety." Puubot's voice bank spat out.
A loud, audible "phew" rang out from behind the countertop.
Rafisol floated off her seat, gripping Puubot by the top of its head forcefully. "What is this thing...?"
By now, Atari was peaking over the countertop, her eyes widening at the seizure of her dear companion. She vaulted over the countertop, skating over to the table at extreme speeds.
"W-WAIT!!!!!!" She yelled, waving her arms around in a panic, before tripping on a chair and falling flat on her face.
Still, she slid across the ground due to the momentum she gained, slamming headfirst into the base of the table, shaking it a bit due to the sheer density of her head.
"P-PLEASE DON'T HURT DEAR PUCCHI!! IT WAS JUST TRYING TO MAKE SURE YOU WEREN'T GONNA HURT MY CO-WORKER!!" Atari begged, still face-planted on the floor.
Rafisol simply stared downwards, whatever emotion she was experiencing not visible on her expressionless face. She opened her palm slightly, dropping Puubot straight onto Atari's head as they collided with a thunk.
"R-Rafisol!" Ally flinched at the collision, squatting down and grabbing Atari under her arms, pulling her back up. "Are you ok, Ms. Atari?!"
"H-Huh? Me? Of course!" Atari proudly boasted, a large, red bump visible where Puubot had slammed into her.
Ally spun around to her counterpart, gently taking hold of her hands, "You need to watch where you drop things!"
Rafisol stared at Ally for a moment before shifting her attention to Atari, "Your concern is justified."
"Huh?"
Rafisol tightens her grip on Ally's hands, "I am an evil existence. It is natural for you to be concerned."
"Rafisol!" Ally gasps, pressing a finger against Rafisol's lips. "We talked about this! You're-"
"Thinking about it now, perhaps it is improper of me to be here at all." Rafisol talks over her partner, "I do not wish to cause harm to this establishment. I will be leaving."
Instantly, she turns to the front entrance, hovering over and nonchalantly exiting the café.
"Rafisol, wait!" Ally reaches a hand out. She turns to Atari, a pleading look in her eyes. "Please excuse me, Ms. Atari! I promise I'll make up whatever work I miss!" She gives a light bow to the dumbfounded detective before dashing out after her companion.
Atari stood there for a moment, staring out in the direction the girls ran off to. This wasn't exactly what she was expecting to happen, she didn't want to drive off the café's only customer and Ally! Neither of them even paid!
"Napu!" Puubot chirped, snapping Atari back to attention.
She glanced down at Puubot, its ears flapping around every which way as a digital screen popped in front of her. Images of Ally and Rafisol appeared on a poster in the center, with a checkbox centered directly underneath that read "Accept?"
A confident grin spread across the detective's face, thrusting her finger at the checkbox without a second thought. It was the Spacetime Detective Agency's duty to solve people's problems across spacetime, after all! "Efficient execution, Efficient resolution" was the agency's motto! Atari dashed back over to the countertop, vaulting over it once again and sticking the landing with a thud.
"Towa!" Atari spun around to her assistant.
Towa flinched, looking up from her notepad, still writing the first draft of their report. "Eep-! Y-Yes, Atari?"
Atari grabs the V-neck of her café uniform, tossing it clean off, revealing her normal work attire hidden underneath! Her stockings also appeared despite not wearing any with her uniform!
"We've got a case!" Atari declares, pumping a fist in her assistant's direction. "We gotta go now! Go change! Or not! It doesn't matter!"
Towa gives a confident nod, "Er- one moment, though."
She rushes into a side room, quickly taking off her own café uniform and folding it neatly into a spare cupboard in said room, before returning to Atari's side.
"Such a dramatic costume transformation is fit only for great detectives such as yourself! And you did it with such perfection!"
"Uh, thanks!" Atari scratches the back of her head sheepishly. "But we gotta go before they get away!"
"Before who gets away?" Towa asks, oblivious to the entire ordeal that had occurred.
Atari grabs Towa by the arm and Puubot hops up Atari's body and onto her shoulder. "I'll tell you along the way! C'mon!"
Atari grips the countertop with her free hand, pushing against it to vault over it again while clearing half the seating area in the same jump, ramming through the doors with her shoulder and giving chase to Ally and Rafisol. Not before turning the "open" sign to "closed," though!