April 21st, 2012, Fuji-Q Highland (Mundane Side), Afternoon.
The atmosphere on the mundane side of Fuji-Q Highland was a vibrant tapestry of cheerful noise, the scent of popcorn and candied apples, and the bright, swirling colors of the attractions.
For a while, Makoto and Koneko simply existed within it, two quiet figures moving through the boisterous crowd. The tension that had coiled within Koneko during the morning's training seemed to have loosened slightly, replaced by a tentative curiosity.
"Senpai, let's go there," Koneko said, her voice cutting through the ambient noise as she pointed a determined finger toward a brightly lit arcade stall lined with various crane games and grab machines.
'Universe, those are the most infamous traps in every amusement park, hee-ho! Don't go there!' Jack Frost's voice piped up in Makoto's mind, a note of genuine panic in his squeak.
'Oh, I forgot, hee-ho!' he immediately corrected himself, remembering his role was to advise, not to command.
Makoto rolled his eyes internally but followed as Koneko made a beeline for a specific machine: a "Candy Grabber" filled with colorful, wrapped sweets and chocolates.
"Wouldn't you prefer to go to a normal candy shop?" the blue-haired boy asked, eyeing the notoriously difficult-looking machine.
"Fighting for your sweets is more fun," Koneko explained matter-of-factly, already inserting a coin and gripping the control stick with a focus usually reserved for combat.
"If you say so—" Makoto began, but his sentence was abruptly cut short by a sharp crack. Koneko, in her focused intensity, had applied a bit too much force to the joystick, and the plastic handle had snapped clean off in her hand. The metal claw was now stuck in its lowered position amidst the candy, utterly useless.
"Sorry, Senpai... I got too excited," she apologized, her cheeks flushing with a faint hue of embarrassment as she stared at the broken piece of plastic in her hand.
"Don't worry..." Makoto replied, his tone flat as he assessed the damage. He looked at the machine, the control now jammed and immobilized.
'Can we do something about this?' he asked his assembled Personas, hoping for a simple, discreet solution.
'I'm not a mechanic, Universe,' Apollo stated plainly.
'It's kinda fun, hee-ho,' Jack Frost giggled. 'We can destroy cities, revive the dead, resist thousands of attacks, or avert the End of All Times by stopping an almighty being, but we can't fix a simple broken crank, hee-ho!' His joke elicited mental chuckles from Messiah and Apollo.
'Just leave it, Universe. If someone asks, just say it was like that when we found it,' Apollo proposed.
'That's miseducating, hee-ho!' Jack Frost retorted with mock severity.
"Senpai, it's just a grab machine. Let's go somewhere else," Koneko said, her momentary shame already forgotten as her attention was captured by a nearby spinning ride.
Her ability to move on was remarkably efficient.
"Ok," Makoto agreed, and they continued their aimless wandering, drifting from one attraction to another.
The cacophony of the park was a strange backdrop to their shared, comfortable silence. Eventually, they stopped before a quaint souvenir shop, its entrance framed by waving cat figurines.
The sign above read "Neko Nook," and a playful, meowing melody spilled from its doors.
Koneko's eyes immediately lit up with a rare, unguarded fascination. Without a word, she walked inside, drawn in by the overwhelming array of cat-themed trinkets.
The shop was a shrine to feline obsession, filled with everything from pins and keychains to plush toys, costumes, and clothing, all adorned with cats of every breed and expression.
Her gaze, however, quickly locked onto a specific item: a golden hair clip, the last one on a display rack. It was a simple but elegant piece, shaped like a stylized cat's face, strikingly similar to the two silver ones she always wore in her hair.
She reached for it, her fingers just about to close around it when another, smaller hand darted out and grabbed it at the exact same moment.
Koneko looked down to see a blonde young girl, her features cleverly disguised to appear fully human, though a keen eye might catch the faintest shimmer of magic around her.
It was Kunou, the kitsune princess, her eyes wide with determination.
"I saw it first," Koneko stated immediately, her voice low and firm. She did not release her grip.
"It's not right! This hair clip is made for me! Don't you see? My hair matches it perfectly!" Kunou exclaimed, her hold on the clip equally adamant.
The two girls stood frozen, each holding one end of the golden accessory, their eyes locked in a silent, challenging stare. The cheerful cat music in the background felt incongruously absurd.
"I won't leave it," Koneko said, her crimson eyes narrowing slightly.
"Well, me neither!" Kunou shot back, returning the stare with a fiery intensity of her own.
'It looks like the Hanged is fighting over a hair clip with a child kitsune blessed by my daughter, or the counterpart of her in this world,' Izanagi-no-Okami observed calmly as Makoto took in the scene.
'Well, what do you want to do, Universe? We can't leave them fighting over a hair accessory,' Apollo said, his tone laced with amusement and a hint of exasperation.
'And how would you fix this situation, hee-ho? It's a hair clip. There isn't much we can do about it, hee-ho,' Jack Frost pointed out.
Makoto sighed and walked over to the two deadlocked girls. "Koneko, why are you fighting over a hair clip?" he asked, looking down at her with the patient expression of an older brother dealing with a sibling squabble.
"I like it..." Koneko replied quietly, her voice half-muffled by embarrassment but her grip not loosening in the slightest.
"I like it too!" Kunou rebutted instantly, her small hands holding on just as tight.
'We aren't going anywhere with this, Universe,' Apollo commented, growing annoyed by the petty stalemate.
'Can't we just ask if they have other clips like that in stock? Perhaps they merely forgot to refill the shelf,' Messiah's calm, logical voice suggested.
Makoto turned to the shop's cashier, a bored-looking young woman. "Excuse me, do you have any more of those yellow hair clips?" he asked.
"I fear that is the last one, sorry," she said with an apathetic shrug.
'We tried,' Apollo sighed.
'Universe, take the trinket. We will simply create a copy of it,' Izanagi-no-Okami stated, as if proposing the most obvious solution in the world.
'What do you mean by 'create'?' Apollo asked, intrigued.
'I am a god of creation. Fabricating another copy of a hair clip is a trivial matter; it will not even require much effort from the Universe,' the Country Maker explained.
Seeing no other way to resolve the conflict without resorting to literally prying them apart, Makoto acted. He first went to the cashier and paid for two hair clips, ignoring her confused expression when she saw only one on the rack. He then turned back to the girls and, with a swift, gentle motion, plucked the single hair clip from their combined grasp.
"Senpai!" Koneko protested, her hand darting out to try and take it back.
"What are you doing?" Kunou demanded, her lower lip jutting out in a pronounced pout.
Makoto closed his fist around the hair clip. A subtle, divine energy, invisible to all but the most attuned supernatural senses, shimmered for a nanosecond within his palm. When he opened his hand, two identical golden cat clips lay there. He handed one to Koneko and one to Kunou.
"They had another one in the back," he said, his face a perfect mask of blank honesty, blatantly lying and completely ignoring Koneko's deeply suspicious look.
"Thank you so much!" Kunou chirped, her frustration instantly replaced by delight as she immediately fastened the clip into her blonde hair. "Are you a mage? Was that a magic trick?" she asked, her eyes shining with newfound admiration.
"Nothing like that..." Makoto answered, deftly avoiding the topic.
"Oh, you are here! Finally, I found you, Kunou." Cornelian's voice cut through the air as the light elf entered the shop, a look of profound relief on his face. He hurried over and gave the girl a gentle pat on the head.
"I told you to wait for me, girl. But all is well that ends well." He then noticed Makoto. "Oh, my lord! You've met little Kunou," he pointed out.
"Hello, Mr. Cornelian," Kunou giggled, completely ignoring the elf's scolding look.
Cornelian sighed and shook his head before addressing Makoto again. "I have a fantastic idea! Why don't we all go to the best attraction of Fuji-Q together?" he asked, his theatrical smile returning.
"Why are you proposing this?" Koneko asked, her guard immediately going back up, her doubt about the elf's intentions clear in her tone.
"You see, young lady, my job here is to ensure everyone has the best possible time while in my amusement park! What kind of entertainer would I be if I did the contrary?" Cornelian declared with confident flourish.
"It will be fun, please!" Kunou said to Makoto, her eyes adopting a pleading, puppy-dog expression. "And you can stay here, obviously," she added, shooting a challenging glare at Koneko.
Koneko frowned, visibly annoyed by the little kitsune's behavior. "Senpai?" she asked, seeking Makoto's opinion on the sudden invitation.
'We are here to help the Hanged, Universe. Don't forget it, hee-ho,' Jack Frost reminded him.
"Do you want to go with them?" Makoto asked Koneko directly, ignoring Cornelian and Kunou for a moment.
Koneko shook her head almost imperceptibly, too embarrassed to admit her desire to stay with him aloud in front of the others. "Sorry, Senpai..." she mumbled, looking down at her feet.
"Don't worry," Makoto said softly. He then turned to Cornelian. "You heard her. Maybe next time," he stated, politely but firmly refusing the offer.
"Oh, my lord, don't worry! Another time, then! Come on, Kunou. And please, do not wander off again, or I will have to hear your mother's scolding, and I fear not only that," Cornelian said playfully, steering the young kitsune away.
Kunou managed a wave over her shoulder. "Goodbye!"
Once they were gone, Koneko looked up at Makoto. "Senpai, are you sure it's not a problem for you?" she asked, a trace of guilt in her voice.
"We're here for you, Koneko. If you don't want to do something, we don't do it. It's as simple as that," Makoto explained, his words straightforward and devoid of any judgment.
When Makoto said those words, Koneko felt something shift inside her. 'He's here for me...' The thought echoed in her mind.
The feeling was different from what she felt with Rias, or even with the other members of the peerage. Rias's care was genuine, but it was also part of her duty as a King. Koneko's place in the Gremory peerage had originated from Sirzechs's love for his sister, not from Rias actively seeking her out.
This sensation, this simple statement of unwavering support from Makoto, felt different. It felt more personal, more unconditional. It reminded her of the pure, sisterly love Kuroka had for her once, before everything had fallen apart.
A quiet resolve began to solidify within her. The anxiety that had been gnawing at her, the fear of her own heritage and the power she had been avoiding, suddenly seemed less imposing.
'I've been stupid. I dragged Senpai here for nothing. I don't need to find another way alone. I don't need to master Senjutsu to prove my worth. I just need them. I just need my family.'
The internal conflict that had plagued her all afternoon melted away, replaced by a newfound certainty. Resolve filled her small frame, and a secure, confident expression settled on her face, replacing the earlier look of doubt.
"Senpai!" Koneko said, her voice firmer than before, gathering her courage.
"Yes?" Makoto replied.
"I'm ready. We can go back to the others," she declared.
'Oh, it seems the cat is showing her teeth,' Apollo commented, amused by Koneko's sudden surge of confidence.
'Don't mock the Hanged, Apollo, hee-ho!' Jack Frost chastised.
"Are you sure about it? We just arrived after all," Makoto said, though he could see the change in her demeanor.
"I don't want to be left behind by the rest of the peerage. I want to show them I am as capable as them!" she said, a confident, yet still reserved, smile touching her lips. "And I know you will be there in case anything happens," she added, placing her trust not just in the training, but in him personally.
"If that's what you want, we can go back right now," Makoto said, nodding in understanding. The aimless stroll was over. Their purpose, reaffirmed, awaited them back at the manor.