Coos & Ooos

"The world's busy today, huh Hato-kun?" Narue stated, now sporting her gigai as she walked through the streets of the city. Hato-kun clutched in her arms as she decided on her next destination. "We're technically done with our job but this place is full of cool things! Thanks to this free time I have tons of new things to spook the other members of the first with!"

Narue trudged along, her pace a quick skip as she hummed a tune to herself whilst heading into what could only be assumed was the park.

Meanwhile, walking down a street nearby was, in fact, the first espada. She strolled merrily along, having forgotten to some degree why she had come here. She knew it was as a favor for one of the espada, but which one? Hrm... She paused. Okay, shed just got done helping those old people do their laundry. And before that she bought these crazy shades. Which she was in love with. Before that she got lost in the mall... She came to the mall for something right? Hrm...

As the first continued to concentrate, incidentally, her spiritual pressure continued to rise, unbeknownst to her, creating a beacon for any spiritually aware to notice.

"I know! We could go get a bite to ea-huh?" Narue turned her head towards the direction she'd just come. "Hollow?" Tilting her head, she turned around to face the direction behind her. A jingle sounded off in her head, her zanpakutou spirit.

'Stronger?'

Another jingle.

'Humpppph, just when I'd thought of plans.'

"Okay! Let's go, Hato-kun!" Saying that, she ran off back towards the city. From what she'd felt, it seemed to be coming from the mall. "Arrancar shopping spree?" Narue pondered. It sounded a little funny, but it needed to be investigated. As Fukutaicho of the first division these things couldn't go unchecked.


"Hmmmm, I felt it around here...this place is soooo crouded though. Hrm..." She couldn't feel it anymore, she figured the arrancar must be hiding it's reiatsu again. "Hato-kun what you think?" A moment of silence passed. "Ouhh I can't just go on a blind hunt. It'll get us nowhere."

Mali had given up on figuring out what it was. Partially because it was frustrating and partially because they were giving away free cheesecake samples. Girl's gotta have her cheesecake, she thought to herself.with a mental snapping of her fingers. She was now currently standing in a long line to get free bites of cheesecake and becoming frustrated with it. "Ugh... C'mooon. Move, people... " she groaned.

Someone turned to glare at her. "excuse me, miss. Could you be a little less rude?" They had such a condescending tone of their voice, Mali couldn't help but scowl, her spiritual pressure raising. She narrowed her eyes and glared at the man, who would suddenly find his nose bleeding. He dabbled at his nose with his hand before.giving her a frightful look and stepping out of line. Hooray!

"There it was again!" Narue perked up, glad she'd found the source of that reiatsu spike again. "Feels like it's in...the....food court!" Lifting her plush up slightly, Narue was off once more. "Run like the wind, Hato-kunnn~" She let out with a small giggle.

"Ohooo wow wow." The smell coming from the food court smelled amazing. She'd have to try one of these places before the day was done. Maybe that teriyaki joint, it smelled heavenly.

"Ohhhh I know, I know!" Narue responded to another jingle within her mind. "Hmm..." She clutched Hato-kun close, if this was an arrancar things could get ugly...in the mall no less. That certainly wouldn't be good. Narue searched while jumping from free sample food salesmen, hey, she had to look like she was doing something other than searching for someone...

"Mmmm, I was right! That teriyaki place will be good!" She walked on until she reached another line. "Ohoho~? Cheesecake in this one? It smells delicious."

Mali continued to wait patiently for cheesecake. Although, the patiently part became less and less accurate by the minute. She had taken to rocking on her heels and trying to peer up over the people in front of her, waiting for this damn line to end. "Ugh. Why do I have to be short. It's so unfair. A woman like me should be nine feet tall... with like... horns and fire breath and rarrr...." she trailed off, realizing she was speaking out loud. She vaguely noticed something behind her. A spiritual pressure. Obviously this cheesecake was famous in more then the human world. She was more excited then ever, now. She turned to glance back at the girl who spoke. "Cheesecake and misery. I've been in this line for hours now."

"Ma'am, it's been two minutes." The woman in front of her said.

"What she said. Two hours." Mali said, sounding defeated and hungry.

"Oh wow, you've been waiting here a long time then." Narue said in response of hearing their waiting time. "This cake must be realllly good if it's worth that much of a wait. Right, Hato-kun?" She asked the plush, looking down at it with a smile. "Hopefully it's worth everyone's wait."

Narue was so focused on food, she had't even noticed any kind of reiatsu in front of her. "We skipped breakfast today because we woke up late." She added, her attention still on her large plush as if she were talking to it like it would actually respond.

"Yes. It's a very miserable existence. But we do what we must for that which we love. Which in this case is cheesecake." she said, spinning and putting a fist into the air, hoping to see the rest of the line doing so. She did not. Turning back to the girl, she paused, watching her speak to the doll.. She took a step forward, her arms behind her back before she leaned over, peering at the doll from a few angles. "Erm... is your doll... alive?" She asked, "I've had stuffed dolls but they usually aren't interested in my daily status on breakfast... er... n-not that it's not totally normal to talk to your doll!" she said, suddenly smiling awkwardly. "Um, even if it ISN'T alive! Nope! Normal!" Oh dear, if she was going to be in this line for another two hours, she hoped things hadn't just become awkward.

"Huh? Oh, Hato-kun and I do everything together!" Narue responded, a big smile on her face. "He's been with me since I was little. I made him myself!" She added proudly, though in her mind she knew she'd had some help making him. "We've been through thick and thin so even if he doesn't really answer back he's always there to listen." She added, giving a small laugh.

Hrm... Okay... This girl might be crazy... but hey! Maybe she's just quirky! Quirky is good, right? Some of the BEST friends are quirky. "Well! Nice to meet you Hato-Kun and miss.... Hato-Kun's pretty friend!" She politely stuck a hand out. "My name is... Well, my friends call me Mali, and I suppose we're friends now, so let's just skip the long version of the name." She smiled innocently, reaching over to first shake the doll's hand before turning it to the girl.

"I'm Narue." Narue responded with a friendly nod, taking Mali's hand to shake it when it was offered to her. "Narue Ueno. Nice to meet you, Mali-chan!" Narue was used to using cute or affectionate types of honorifics, it was just in her nature.

"Nice to meet you er... Narue... Chan? Kun? Um.." She pursed her lips, looking annoyed with herself. "I could never get the hang of honorifics. Um... which one means what again?" She reached up to scratch her head. Well way to be a doof for your new friend, Mali. "Er... Well whichever it is, it is quite nice to meet you Narue-something!" Hrm. Ueno... She'd heard that name before, hadn't she?

"Hehe, you don't have to use them with me if you don't wanna, Mali-chan." Narue responded, "You can just called me Narue or Rue. If you wanna use honorifics though I don't mind the -chan at the end of it. Heehee."

She nodded along as she listened before shaking her head vigorously. "Nope, I insist. If you would rather be called Narue-Chan, then Narue-Chan it is." She gave a firm nod. "Of course, I'unno what that MEANS, buuuut..." She shrugged. "Either way, Rue-Chan I'm glad to have made friends with you, in this line that will NEVER FRIKKING END!" She exclaimed, turning around to find herself face to face with the cheesecake lady.

"You've been the first person in line for over a minute now, ma'am." She said dryly.

"Oh... Well... Uhh.." She looked around before picking up 4 samples. She turned and handed two to Rue.

"Hey! One per customer?" The cheesecake lady dryly barked.

"Try and stop me!" She said dismissively as she strolled away into the food court.

"OWowww, this cake looks good." Narue said when Mali handed her two of the pieces, not even hearing the woman saying they should only have one as she followed Mali deeper into the food court. "I don't mind. I have friends that call me Rue-chan, or just Rue. The chan honorific is pretty much used for being cute sometimes or mostly used by girls or kids. So I don't mind if people use it for me or not, I just like using it because i've always used it."

She bit into the cheesecake, temporarily drifting off to cheesecake dimension. Ahhh. Cheeeesecaaake~. It was a moment befoe she snapped back to reality. She turned to look back at Rue, surprised she was still there. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised. She immediately began listening intently. It was rude, after all, to be a poor listener. "Hmm.. So you're saying you try to act cute on purpose?" She stuck her tongue out. "Oh, I didn't realize I might have to compete with somebody today for people's attention." She continued with a giggle.

"Huh?" Narue tilted her head. "Oh, I don't do it on purpose...I think? Hrummmm." She looked down at Hato-kun for a moment "I've just used those honorifcs all my life. I never grew out of them I guess. hehehe." Saying that, she bit into the piece of cake she'd been given "Wowwwww, this really is good! I wish I could cook, I'd make delicious stuff like this all time."

"Uh-huh.." she said with a nod, starting to get distracted by the various restaurants in the food court. Hrm... was she hungry? Yes, she was hungry. But where to eat... "I can cook. Erm. Not well. But I can cook." She gave another nod. She looked back. "So! Rue-chan. Are you hungry? You wanna grab a bite to eat? I mean... I don't know what you're here for... Don't want to bother you if you're busy or anything." She gave her new friend an almost doofy grin.

"I can't cook at all, I can make plushies! But I can't cook." She said, still proud she was even able to do that much. "Yeah! Food seems good. I was just thinking about getting a bite, I missed breakfast this morning." When Mali had mentioned being busy, Narue's thoughts immediately went to that reiatsu spike. She tried to feel it, tried to see if it would spike again, but she felt nothing. Perhaps....it was gone? That was probably too much to hope for, as long as she stayed in the area though she felt she should be fine. "Huh-uh. I'm not busy." She added happily.

"Great! I hate eating alone, but... if I go back home, my friend will get all scowly at me, since I was supposed to come here for something. 'blah blah, you're supposed to be more responsible blah blah.' " She sighed. "Narue-chan, do yourself a favor. Never be in charge of anything. It's just a bad waste of cheesecake time." She looked away wistfully for a moment, her face suddenly seeming very mature. It was back to a silly smile a moment later, however. "Oh. By the way, you said you make plushies? Can you make me one of myself? I want to give it to a friend! I can pay you or whatever you would like."

"Ohhh, yeah! Yeah I can!" Narue responded, "I love taking request! You won't have to pay me anything, I love making plushies and then seeing how happy they make the people I give them too. That's all I need out of it." She added. She'd need a day to make it, as that's how long it usually took her when she got into making one. "Do you mind if I take a picture of you with my phone? It'll take a day to make but if we meet up somewhere I can deliver it. You mentioned being in charge of someplace? I guess your work is important and keeps you busy. Mine can be the same, though mine's only kind of a half in charge role. Kind of like an assistant manager, but if we can find a spot in our schedules I wouldn't mind another meet up so I can deliver it."

She nodded. "Yeah! Ohmygosh! That's awesome! You are, without a doubt, THE best, Narue-chan." She shook her forearms in excitement. "And such a great helper! You must make your boss so proud. I know if I had someone even half as helpful at my... work... I'd be a much... well.. I'm happy with my job anyway. But I'd be a much lazier woman. Anyway... uhh... I can actually meet up tomorrow. The only nice thing about being in charge is when it's slow you can do what you want." She laughed a little. "So yeah. I can be here tomorrow. Oh. You need a picture, right?" She, seemingly without thinking anything of it, tugged at the collar of her shirt and winked, her default reaction being to look good for the camera. "Where do you work anyway?" she asked, waiting for the picture.

"Hehehe, I guess I'm a good employee." She said, "I never really thought about it. I usually spend my free time spooking the newer employees with ghost stories." Saying that, she took out her phone and snapped a quick but good photo of her. "That should be good!" She smiled, "Ah, where I work...heheh, I'm mostly on paper-work duty. Office work really."

"And a meetup tomorrow sounds good. I can manage that."

"Ooh... That sounds like such a great idea! Like what do you tell them?" She paused, looking around at the various food places. "Also, where do you wanna eat? I'll treat." She looked back at Narue again. "Ooh. Pencil pushing huh? I don't have to worry about that much at my job. It's a lot more... I dunno... I have to keep a bunch of idiots in line. It's exhausting sometimes." She said with a sigh. "I think if I told them all ghost stories, half of them would tear the place apart to find the ghosts." She gave an exasperated laugh.

"Well, I'm pretty much known around my work as the occult master. I'm into folklore and all of that, so when we get new people I sometimes take a group of them and give them a good story....with an added spook at the end for good fun." She said with a smirk. "The older employees sometimes get in on it too, just to give the new guys a good scare. It's all in good fun. Sort of like a right of passage now, haha."