Inky colored coils clouded the girls' vision and leaked into her being, her very soul. They crawled over her legs, arms, anywhere they could reach; yet they behaved in a pacifist way. It felt as if she was floating on a cloud with soft pillows cushioned beneath her. The tendrils soon faded from their intimidating black hue to a dusty pink color. Her restraints abruptly bursted into a thousand little pieces, allowing Giavanni to freefall into nothingness.
___________________
"Hello, earth to Giavanni?" Ryūnosuke asked, waving his hand in front of her eyes.
Giavanni snapped out of her revere at the voice, wincing at the ear-splitting ringing in her ears. He peered at her, confusion gleaming in his eyes.
"If I thought my life was crazy before..." She complained, rubbing her temples fervently and looking around her surroundings. Giavanni came to a pause slowly and dropped her hands to her side. Her eyebrows raised and she gasped once again.
"Where are we?"
Hundreds of architectural buildings and towers pierced the skies with their heavenly height. The sunlight reflected perfectly off their gray surface, producing a slight sheen. The sky seemed to be painted a perfect baby blue color with no clouds in sight. The rosy-petaled trees danced in the temperate breeze. Giavanni and Ryūnosuke were standing in a park filled with the aforementioned trees.
"The Isle of Lannia," He said carefully, yawning afterwards. "Named after the first ruler's son." Ryūnosuke looked down on Giavanni as he explained, raising one of his eyebrows. "So far so good?"
"Yeah..." She shakily replied, her head still reeling from the information. "There's more of you here?" Giavanni asked, emphasizing the 'you'.
"By 'you' I can only assume you mean a kemonomimi. *(獣耳) That's what you humans call us, anyhow." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Ah," He turned to Giavanni with the cap in hand. "You'll need this." Ryūnosuke placed his hat on her head carelessly. His cat ears sprung from their place, twitching.
"Are you sure this will work?" She asked nervously, securing the hat in place. "I don't have a... that, either." She watched his tail swing idly, her eyebrows furrowed.
"If anyone asks, just tell them it's short." He responded nonchalantly. That's a rarity in itself, though. Ryūnosuke bit his lip briefly and continued to speak. "I'm not technically supposed to be seen in public, though." His head tilted up as he gazed the sky, thoughts swarming his mind.
"And what do you mean by that...?" Giavanni inquired, her breath hitching in her throat.
Ryūnosuke let out a huff of laughter, hooking his fingers into the pockets of his pants. "I'm of royal descent, to put it shortly."
When he hadn't received a response, he glanced at Giavanni once more to see that her face had taken on a paler color. Her eyes were wide as she stared up into his.
"There's a royal family that rules over this place?" She said, her voice shrinking. Giavanni thought of the several occurrences when she had sassed him at the drop of a hat and felt her cheeks burn.
He nodded, humming in response as a 'yes'. "That's a long story for a different time, but anyway—" Ryūnosuke paused, taking a subtle sidestep when a passerby looked into the depths of the park.
"...Would you like to know more about our humble abode?" He inquired, a ghost of a smirk gracing his lips.
Reeling from his sudden peaceful nature, she took a step backwards and felt the grass tickle her lower calves. "You're not mad at me? For being, you know, impolite and all..." She dug the tip of her shoe into the soil and clasped her hands behind her back.
"For a brief time, I was." He replied curtly, brushing some of his brunette bangs back. "Until I realized that I was being completely unreasonable with you. I threw my situation at you and expected a normal response. I.. apologize for that." Ryūnosuke explained, muttering the last bit.
Giavanni blinked once, then twice, and cocked her head a bit. "Apology accepted. Again." She thought back to when she'd been pinned in the alley. "So... are we good now? No animosities or anything? No more bickering?"
Ryūnosuke snickered softly at her strange use of vocabulary and shook his head. "I have none if you have none. Friends?" He asked tentatively, holding out his pale hand for her to shake.
"I wouldn't say that just yet!" She jokingly responded, shaking his hand firmly with a goofy smile on her lips. Giavanni quickly retracted her hand from his with a squeak, marveling at her trembling hand. "Your hands are so warm!"
He stayed quiet for a second, raising one of his eyebrows. "And your's are freezing. What is it with humans and cold hands?"
The two shared a genuine laugh, their sound rising to the breeze above and carried off to the sky.
_______________
Ryūnosuke and Giavanni spent most of the day together exploring the bustling city. He acted as a personal tour guide, and thankfully wasn't noticed by too many citizens (thanks to his rather normal looking attire). He showed her the local shops that varied from groceries, business-type buildings, and handmade kemonomimi doll stores (which intrigued Giavanni the most). Ryūnosuke also pointed out the plaza of the town, to which he denied entrance because he "was going to get found out and it would be all her fault."
Finally, when the sun began to set, they reached a monumental castle with two smaller, more intimate-looking castles on the left and right. The main one had a statue of what looked to be a pair of golden wings ejecting from the center. The faux material sparkled gloriously in the evening light, complimenting the waterfalls roaring just below the bridge.
Each castle adorned a luxurious fountain in the front. Vegetation and floral decorations lined up on the exterior of the castles to give it a more homey feel. The view was absolutely stunning.
"And lastly, my home." He said, exhaling a breath of relief. He'd been talking so much that his tongue felt rather dry. "This is where our tour ends, unfortunately."
Giavanni somewhat groaned as a complaint, shaking her head fervently. "You won't at least show me inside?"
"No can do." He answered, stifling a yawn. "I believe my parents just returned from traveling and they'll be looking for me." Ryūnosuke glanced briefly at Giavanni, his odd-eyes glowing with content. "And I'm almost positive that you had something else to do today."
"What do you mean? I was... oh." She said, remembering her original plans for the day. If I could smash my head against a wall, I would. Nitori's been waiting for me this whole time!
Giavanni let out a sad whine, burying her face in her hands.
Ryūnosuke huffed, shaking his head. He reached for something in his pocket just as Giavanni was fretting about how she would get back.
"Take this," He tossed a piece a jewelry to her carefully. "It's how you get back there."
Giavanni frowned, examining the trinket with curiosity. The centerpiece was a white circle with a rosy colored petal painted on it. "Isn't this how you travel to and fro? Here, you take it. I'll find something else—" She reached out to him with the necklace clenched in her grip. Ryunosuke caught her wrist and pushed it back to her chest, laughing.
"I've got another one; it's fine."
"Oh... okay." She looked up into his eyes shortly before turning her attention back to the necklace. "How do I use this?" Giavanni asked, pulling it over her head.
"Simple." Ryūnosuke said. "Close your eyes and just think of your home."
She did as he said and shut her eyes, thinking of that same morning when she had left the house. Giavanni tensed up at the silence that had settled between the two.
When she had done this for about two minutes, her eyes fluttered open to ask for new instructions. Instead, what she saw was her own room and an audible gasp fell from her mouth.
Stunned for a moment, she stared at her fingers and poked at her body randomly. "I'm all here?" She asked to no one in particular, amazed at what she'd just gone through.
Giavanni looked out of her window, confirming that it was way past the morning and late in the evening. Her hands scrambled for her phone in jean pocket, swiftly pulling it out and staring at all thirty-three text messages from her friend.
"Damn it!" Giavanni cursed, setting her phone down on the nightstand and crossing her arms. "If only I hadn't lost track of time."
Sighing languidly, she turned to observe the city of Shizuoka through her window thoughtfully. The towering mountains in the distance, the dark blue ocean gently lapping the beach shore, and the few people that walked here and there differed vastly from The Isle of Lannia, which harbored much more industrial-type buildings and a busy atmosphere.
Giavanni felt the corners of her lips curl up as she thought of her day with Ryūnosuke and how it was full of laughter, awkward and genuine, and how he had been pretty amicable towards her.
She pressed her hands to her cheeks again, and to no surprise they were burning up.
"There's no way I'm..." She couldn't even finish her sentence because of how ridiculous and nonsensical it sounded in her head. Giavanni sighed heavily and fell upon the mattress of her bed.
However, she did have to admit that she wanted to see him again.