Side Story: Tea Kiss.

Jiki was admittedly terrified of the illusion he’d created. He was having trouble getting his own self back to reality. It was affecting him far different than the Varuga that they were trying to defeat.

At the present moment, there had been a bold attack on Circus’ behalf after another one of Kafka’s main headquarters had been discovered. This time, there had been a slip up in Kafka attempting to cover their tracks and there was a high possibility of gathering strong evidence against them if they could take over this property as they had with the Smokey Mansion. That being said, it was another mission where both First and Second Ship had been sent out to handle the situation.

Jiki was happy that he’d just so happened to have joined Tsukumo. It was on accident, really. He was just glad that he was fighting with Iva. He’d managed to avoid both her and Kiichi and he needed a break from them to be quite honest. Not to mention, he just adored Tsukumo, something that seemed like a secret and yet probably wasn’t all at the same time.

As for the present illusion that he was creating, one of the Varuga minions, still in their human form, had managed to ambush Tsukumo. Jiki had made them believe that they caught her. His insides were churning from the sight that he created but it had lasted just long enough for Tsukumo to annihilate the enemy before they were advancing forward.

Watching the pretty blonde fly through the air, Jiki had to force himself to focus. Sure, he was even aware of just how big of a crush he had on her but he was pretty sure that that was the first time he’d felt so terrible about an illusion of his own making. He knew that it wasn’t real but, in the back of his mind, it was bothering him. It partly reminded him of that one performance First and Second Ship did together where mermaid Tsukumo had ended up trapped in her over-sized jar at the theatre. He had felt a bit guilty at first because he hadn’t protected her really. Not that it was his fault. He was happy to find out that it had just been the malfunctioning sheep and he was also glad that he had caught on as quickly as he did, not that there was too much that he could do then anyway.

Shaking his head, he put his focus back on the mission. There was nothing that he could have done and what he’d just done was nothing more than an illusion. Tsukumo was far above just simply being able to handle herself. His golden eyes became sharp and at attention once again as he cracked his whip, snapping multiple Varuga from their path as he continued to follow behind Tsukumo.

---

“Tsukumo-chan, are you okay?”

“I am fine. It’s just a couple of cuts and bruises,” the Second Ship fighter spoke softly before beginning to mumble under her breath about how she should have done a better job.

She done a perfect job but he knew that that’s how Tsukumo was. She always wanted to be better, always wanted to fight better and protect everyone. Jiki honestly wasn’t sure what drove that inside of her, if it were some past experience or just a natural drive to protect the weaker, the innocent, but it was just another thing he admired about her. Now, that they weren’t on the battlefield, he was free to admire her all that he wanted.

“Oh, the tea!”

“Tea?”

He looked at her curiously before their eyes met. Just looking at her sometimes caused him, internally of course, to see nothing but flowers and roses and bubbles and pink. Lots of pink.

“Thank you for the tea.”

After pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, she bowed her head and was soon walking away. Clutching at his chest a little, he had stars in his eyes. His precious Tsukumo-chan. He’d actually gotten a kiss. He knew that was something so incredibly rare since she was always in mission-mode, at least whenever he would run into her; she had a tendency to take just about everything seriously. He couldn’t believe that he had just gotten a kiss among all things.

He cringed when he suddenly felt something make impact with the top of his head.

“What are you doing daydreaming? We have to get back to the First Ship.”

Kiichi’s lovely voice. Who else’s? He sighed and rubbed his head, fixing his glasses as he stood and followed her to leave the Research Tower. Even if no one else had seen it, it didn’t matter. He was just happy that he’d gotten the kiss. Besides, he didn’t want anyone else to know. He was sure that Kiichi and Iva wouldn’t let him go free if they were to find out he’d gotten something like that from Tsukumo.

---

“What is wrong with him?!”

“K-Kiichi…?”

“Tsukumo-senpai, did something happen with you and Jiki?”

“Jiki? I haven’t seen him in weeks. Is something the matter?”

“He’s been in this deep sleep for days but he keeps calling your name.”

Tsukumo stared off into space for a moment, lost in her thoughts before something came to mind.

“Did he have anything to drink before he fell asleep?”

The other end of the line went quiet before shuffling around was heard and Tsukitachi’s voice came up in the background. All that Tsukumo could hear was the word “tea” and she knew exactly what the issue was.

“Please, take that tea away from him. He must have had too much too quickly to be out for days.”

She began mumbling to herself before she suddenly heard Jiki’s voice on the phone.

“Thank you for the kiss, Tsukumo-chan. Pretty, pretty Tsukumo-chan.”

The blonde was quiet before finally speaking up, “Kiichi, please, find a way to wake him up soon…”

“It’ll be Kiichi’s pleasure, senpai!”

The blue-haired girl called into the phone before hearing a bit of crashing and Jiki yelling that he was awake. Even Iva’s voice could be heard before Tsukumo finally hung up.

“What kind of weird things are you doing to our precious Tsukumo-chan in your dreams, you pervert!”

“Hirato-san, we should throw out the rest of the tea,” Tsukumo called quietly to her captain, sitting on the couch across from her.

“I’ll share the rest with Tsukitachi and Akari-san then so that it doesn’t go to waste,” he replied, slight smile turning to an unseen smirk as his subordinate left the room.