manifestations

“You want me to meet the son of a friend of yours this Friday…?” Mafuyu repeated what her mom said.

“Yeah! I was catching up with one of my friends, and she was just talking about how her son was aspiring to be a lawyer… I then asked if I could meet him someday with you! My friend was more than happy to do so.”

“M- mom… I have archery on Fridays, I’m afraid I can’t make it-”

“Oh fret not! I shall give your school a call about that. You should come with me, Mafuyu. This is for your future.”

Mafuyu felt sick in her stomach. This was clearly a blind date.

And Mafuyu had no choice but to attend it.

Little Ena, who had been hiding behind Mafuyu’s open door, heard everything.

Three days later, the dreaded day arrived.

Mafuyu steps felt heavier than usual. She was on the way home from school.

But she didn’t want to go home. It’s still not too late to turn back and run away and hide somewhere for the day. But where should she go? Where could she go?

Her phone buzzed. She opened the Nightcord chat.

Kanade: I finally have a new song idea. Will everyone be free to discuss tonight earlier? I want to start this as soon as possible

Mafuyu: I’m not sure how early I can be. My mom is bringing me out tonight.

Kanade: Oh. It’s alright.

Mizuki: Oh? Where are you going?

Mafuyu: To some restaurant. She wants to meet her friend.

Mafuyu thought that it wasn’t necessary to say that she’s going on a blind date.

She’ll just have to think about how to reject the son’s advances politely, if he was actually interested in her.

Ena just got out of art class.

She had been so busy for the past few days for her drawing assignment, she almost collapsed the moment she stepped out of the classroom. Yukihira-sensei's critiques on everybody’s works were as harsh as usual. Ena passed this time, barely.

There were new messages from Nightcord, and she opened the chat.

She thought nothing much of it. All she wanted was to lie on her bed and sleep today…

Ena: I've been pretty tired from my art class the past few days. Just tell me what was discussed in the chat.

Ena finally reached home. She turned into the entrance, and she almost tripped over a bicycle that was lying down on the pavement.

Ena scoffed before parking it properly at the side. This brother of hers!

“I’m home.” Ena said as she took off her shoes.

The moment she opened the door to her room, she got another fright when something landed right onto her face. She screamed and tried to get whatever that was on her off, but it got off by itself.

Ena looked down to the floor, and it was a tiny bunny creature.

“What is going on?” Akito, who heard the screaming from his own room, poked his head inside Ena’s room.

Little Mafuyu hid behind Ena’s legs.

“Ah hah… nothing! Just saw a bug. It flew out of the window.”

Akito clicked his tongue before going back into his room.

When the coast was clear, Ena turned to find Little Mafuyu.

“You scared me!” Ena picked her up by her collar, and Little Mafuyu’s ears drooped.

Little Mafuyu had been quite jumpy and restless recently whenever she appeared, however Ena was too immersed into her assignment to bother about her. She had a deadline to catch after all. And now Ena was too exhausted to deal with her too. She will after she takes a refreshing shower.

Ena sighed and dropped her on her bed, along with her bag. She went to her closet to get a new set of clothes.
Little Mafuyu hopped down the bed and bounced into Ena’s pocket, squirming inside.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

Ena reached down to her pocket to get her out, and when she did, Little Mafuyu dragged her whole phone out with her. Honestly, Ena was amazed at her strength.

It seemed like Little Mafuyu wanted Ena to unlock her phone. So she did. Little Mafuyu clicked on the Nightcord app, and scrolled up to Mafuyu’s message in the group chat.

Little Mafuyu pointed at herself, then started walking on the spot, pointed at the word “restaurant”, before she crossed her arms into an “X” sign.

Mafuyu. Going. Restaurant. No.

“Mafuyu doesn’t want to go to the restaurant?” Ena tried to word it out. Little Mafuyu nodded her head furiously.

“Why?”

The bunny turned back to Ena’s phone, and opened her DMs with Mafuyu.

Ena hesitated. But Little Mafuyu was very insistent. There must be a reason for it.

Ena: Mafuyu. Did your mother force you to go out with her?

A minute later, Mafuyu came online.

Mafuyu: How did you know?

Ena: What was the reason?

Though she was online, Mafuyu took a while to reply.

Mafuyu: She arranged a blind date for me.

Ena’s heart dropped.

Ena: Send me the address of the restaurant.

Mafuyu: ?

Ena: Just send it!

Ena went offline, and rushed out of her room with her phone tightly gripped in hand. Little Mafuyu jumped out of the way. She wished her the best of luck.

Akito was going out, probably for his singing practice, and he heard stomping from behind him when he was at the door.

Ena slipped into her sliders quickly and shoved Akito out of the way.

“Hey! Watch it!” Akito cried, but Ena ignored him.

Ena flung the door open and she had her eyes on the bicycle that she almost tripped over just now. She kicked the bicycle side stand up, pushed the bicycle forward, and hopped onto the seat all in one swift motion, and took off.

Akito, who was standing at the entrance, watched dumbfoundedly as his sister stole his poor bicycle.

Ena hasn’t rode a bicycle in ages. Heck, she hasn’t exercised in ages, and she could already feel her legs aching 5 minutes in. She was supposed to take a good long nap to make up for her sleep deprivation from the past week too! But she didn’t care about any of that. All she could think about was Mafuyu now.

She swerved at every corner she had to make, at every person she had to avoid, and even cycled past a red pedestrian light.

Thankfully, the restaurant wasn’t somewhere too far, and it wasn’t somewhere Ena has not been to before.

Ena arrived 15 minutes later, and hastily parked her bicycle somewhere near the entrance. There was a long queue outside, and Ena excused her way into the restaurant.

The place was packed like an overfilled can of sardines. Every table was occupied, and every staff member was busy scurrying around taking orders, serving customers, cleaning the tables…

Ena scanned through the sea of chaos, hoping to find her targets. But to no avail.

Ena tried calling Mafuyu, but she didn’t pick up.

Ena started walking around, searching for anyone with a familiar face, when she noticed there was a flight of stairs on the other end.

The private dining area.

Usually there should be a staff stationed upstairs asking for the reservation number, but luckily for Ena, the staff downstairs needed all the help they could get during this hour.

Ena burst into the only occupied private dining room.

She was panting, and her uniform was soaked through and through. 2 new faces and 2 familiar faces stared at the newcomer in the room.

“Ena…?” Mafuyu was dressed in the same outfit when she was at the Shibuya Festa with the rest of Nightcord.

Ena went into the room, grabbed Mafuyu’s hand, and pulled her out with her.

Everything happened so abruptly, the remaining three people in the room were so stunned by the sudden intrusion, they didn’t move an inch from their seats.

Mafuyu’s mother was the first to snap out of her trance, and she quickly apologised to her guests before going after the both of them.

“Where are you taking her?” Mafuyu’s mother shouted at Ena when she was dragging Mafuyu down the stairs.

That only made Ena go faster.

The whole time when they were trying to get out, Ena never let go of Mafuyu. Mafuyu was confused on how this whole situation turned out to be, but… she didn’t hate it.

All she knew was that Ena’s hand felt as warm as she remembered it to be.

At long last, they made it through the bustling place, and Ena got onto her bicycle, gesturing to Mafuyu to sit behind her.

And then it hit Mafuyu. What will her mother say when she has to face her again?

Mafuyu, you have been a bad child-

“Mafuyu!” Ena yelled, disrupting Mafuyu’s train of thoughts.

“It’s okay. Don’t be scared, because I’ll be with you.”