Zoo Visit~

When I woke up and ventured into the kitchen I saw mom already preparing today's breakfast, I offered to help, it was quite a while since we cooked together. However as I was roaming around the kitchen assisting her, we both abruptly heard the doorbell ring. Dad looked away from his newspaper and was just as stunned.

"Who could be at the door so early?" I asked as it was still a few minutes before seven o'clock.

"It's probably Keisuke, Kazutora mentioned something about him coming early." Wait a moment, so he specifically made it on time to join our breakfast? Why did he act like a homeless person? Seriously. I put down the things I was doing, washed my hands, and waltzed over to the front door.

My first reaction upon seeing his face was.

"Why, just why?" He just snickered.

"Aren't you happy to see me?" I just sighed and made some space to let him inside.

"You're not planning to greet me, like at all?" My brain decided to respond with.

"You spend so much time in our house, it just feels like you're one of its residents." I went back to helping mom as Keisuke took a spot at the table. Once Kazutora waltzed down they were talking about being excited to help me buy this bike. I guess for Keisuke it meant I was just a tad closer to joining Toman.

"Are you gonna talk about it till like 10 o'clock?" Since it was Saturday most stores would open at like ten or eleven.

"Maybe, maybe. We can already do some internet research." I guess that was a possibility, but since I didn't really care that much for a bike and there was a possibility of adjusting it I thought taking something that I struck fancy in the store was good enough.

As we were in the middle of the meal a thought came by, which I decided to voice out loud.

"Keisuke... if you spend so much time in this house, how about requesting adoption from our parents?" They were already treating him like one of their own so.

"No that can't happen, no!" I wasn't expecting such a strong reaction from him.

"Why not?" I asked while taking a sip of the miso soup, thinking he would mention something about his mother not allowing him to.

"Because I won't be able to get married to you otherwise!" His directness shocked me so much that I spit out the soup, right into Kazutora's face who took a seat in front of me. I quickly realized my mistake and stood up and handed over a cloth to wipe it off.

"Oh my, ~ Oh my~" I heard mom say as she elbowed dad that was sitting next to her, his jaw wide open before dad could reject Keisuke because it felt like something he would do. I could totally imagine him saying something along the lines that his daughter was too young to even consider this as an option, so I decided to take the lead.

"Aren't you too young to think about such matters? How about taking the first step of asking someone on a date instead of leaping into the marriage scenario." He didn't move, nor responded, he was probably cursing himself out for having too big of a mouth, but hey teenagers are bound to do some embarrassing stuff in life.

"Forget about what I said!" He soon yelled. We finished breakfast so I decided to go up to my room and change from the pj's. But when I plopped onto the bed to think about what took place I heard a light knock on my door, followed by Keisuke's voice asking.

"Can I come in?" Wasn't his usual tactic just to storm in when he desired.

"Sure." I was curious about what he had to add after that outburst.

"What's up?" I decided to act like normal, even if as of now I couldn't return his feelings I still wanted us to be friends.

"Sorry about it, I wasn't planning to confess in such a way." He sat on the bed, why did it feel like we were bound to have some serious couple talk right now? I was about to convey something but he stopped me.

"I know you will reject me." Was it so obvious?

"But I will not give up!" Wait, what?

"Your mom explained what's going on, so I decided to wait for you to give me a sincere answer." What did mom even tell this dude?

"Hold up, what did she even tell you?" I was happy she was looking out for me, but hey I could resolve it on my own, at least I think I could.

"She mentioned something about you having a lot of things occupying your mind, hence it's not the best time to get a boyfriend." Then a realization struck me, maybe I never even considered giving him a chance because I wasn't ready to get hurt by attaching myself to a person that may have died, this fear may have been irrational because I knew saving this mad lad would be easy, but still.

"So you won't be pestering me for the time being?" Would my life become quieter? Hopefully?

"Won't happen." He seemed so sure about it. So I guess he wasn't one of the guys that would get salty because you happen to 'friendzone' them. It reminded me of this one guy in my previous life, which whom I was friends with. He happen to develop feelings for me, but as soon he realized I didn't return them he dipped, never to be heard from again.

"At least tell Chifuyu and Kazutora to stop playing the wingmen... because if I ever again hear them tell me to date your ass I may actually find a boyfriend out of spite." He gulped.

"No one tells me what to do." He could probably hear the annoyance in my voice.

"Wait, did they tell you that out loud?" I nodded my head and then heard him mutter.

"I told these fuckers to be subtle about it." So he was the main force behind it after all.

'Would you rather put Keisuke Baji in a headlock or step hard on his foot?' I didn't even hesitate just put him in a headlock.

"You have some explaining to do K-e-i-s-u-k-e." He ignored what I said and just fawned about mine newfound muscles in my arms that were brought to me by the modification process from yesterday.

"Amazing Michi! I can tell you become stronger over the 3 months we knew each other!"

"Come on, throw a punch at me I want to feel your progress." I couldn't with him, why was he so excited? When I refused his mood turned sour so he decided to bother me with questions.

"So what's in this box?" Without thinking, I delivered the holy truth.

"Preparations for Devil's Tango I guess." He nodded but soon gasped.

"What?" He turned towards me quickly.

"Ask Kazutora." I thought he would be kind enough to explain why I had a box filled with condoms, but Kazutora must have said something ridiculous since Keisuke came back with a blush on his face.

"Did you become more enlightened or scarred for life?" He refused to answer.

Later he decided to give me all the reasons why he would be the greatest boyfriend, I just went along with it, and while he talked I put my time into drawing.

"Boyfriend scenario number 1, I ask you to prove your love by eating something extremely spicy a dish you can't normally handle, what do you do?" He responded without thinking.

"Eat it!"

"Buzz, wrong answer." He seemed confused.

"Why, why is it wrong?" I just responded with a smile on my face.

"Because you don't need to prove me anything." Got him.

When it was time we left for our Saturday motorcycle trip. We took the car there, agreeing that we would go to Zoo after returning back home.

"This model is really good," Keisuke said pointing at another black motorcycle, I wasn't too sure they all looked the same to me.

"How about you took a stroll around, you don't seem to like any of our recommendations." Kazutora pushed me to have a walk in the store by myself, and that's when a yellow one caught my eye.

"Honda... Hornet." I wasn't a fan of hornets but hey maybe the color choice was the reason it was named as such. Not knowing much about motorcycles either now or in the previous lifetime. I just shrugged called everyone over and pointed at my finding.

"Yellow for the win!" Kazutora yelled as we high-fived.

"I can finally believe in the twin power you talked about." Keisuke voiced.

"We should purchase a yellow helmet too." Yes, aesthetics.

"You sure about it?" Keisuke asked, I could tell he didn't want to voice his own opinion considering how much I liked this vehicle.

"Yep, it looks pleasing to the eyes and that's all it matters. Doesn't need any alteration either." Which probably meant it would be easier to sell it in the future, in its original form.

So we completed our purchase and Kazutora had the honors to drive it first because I chickened out.

"I'm not so sure driving there..." I looked at my new bike and then at my parents that were cheering me on, and then at the system window that made sure I followed thru on my promise to Kazu-chan.

'Would you rather drive on your new motorcycle to the zoo or ask Keisuke Baji for the faster ride he can perform?' I took a few deep breaths before mounting it.

"Let's go before I change my mind." So I was driving behind these two the whole time, and they made sure to look behind once in a while, we drove somehow slow, but not much to anger the other drivers on the road.

The first thing we went to see at the Zoo were tigers.

"Look Tora it's your family, calling over because they want to reconnect." I joked around only for Keisuke to steer this joke of no return.

"Go quickly, I will help you jump the fence." I just stood there frozen in place as these two were really trying to perform just that until a worker noticed their dumbasses and yelled for them to stop. Causing them to run away while laughing.

"I can't believe you just done that." We went to the monkeys as they stared at Kazutora's hair confused.

"They must believe your hair is made out of bananas." He gasped.

"Banana boy," I told him the forbidden nickname. Hold and behold one of the monkeys tried to grab his yellow part of hair when he walked in too close to the closure.

"I'm coming with the rescue!" Keisuke had to offer a real banana with the staff's permission for the monkey to release their banana boy hostage. After making a roundabout trip thru the whole place, we decided it was a perfect opportunity for ice cream.

"So which flavors do you two want?" Keisuke wanted choco and Kazutora vanilla, basic bitches, was my first reaction to their request.

It took me tops 15 minutes after standing in the long line, I purchased pistachio for myself. In this little amount of time these two managed to get into a fight with two other dudes, that looked a little bit older.

"What is even going on?" I decided to give them tops 5 minutes to finish it off but when the ice cream started to melt I concluded this wouldn't end anytime soon because another dude joined in.

"Free real estate." 20 minutes later all three ice creams were gone and finally, the fight was over.

"Why the hell are you picking fights in a freaking zoo of all places?" Kazutora tried to give some vague explanation.

"They were the ones that bumped into us, and demanded your bike as compensation." What kind of scammers did they come across even?

"Where is the ice cream?" Keisuke asked looking around, I bluntly responded.

"No ice cream for you guys, they would have already melted if I didn't eat them myself." This time they were the ones making the trip since I refused, thankfully we didn't get kicked out, but these two received a warning from the manager of the Zoo. The last thing we saw was an ambulance taking away the guys that they beat up, there were not many consequences involved it seemed since these guys were menaces to all other visitors as well. In retrospect, all the victims of their scam thanked Kazutora and Keisuke for beating them up.