Failing to listen and failing to understand

[Written]

[What’s written is child-like handwriting. Albeit neater but still resembling that of a child’s and what’s written isn’t directed at anyone. In fact, it’s written like a page in a diary]

April 13th

10:30am I woke up a few minutes ago and I think I'm in a library.  This isn't Grampa's library or the local library.  I have my detective tools with me though.  Where am I?

10:32am There are a lot of books here.  Grampa doesn't have a lot of these.

10:38am I’ve spotted a few people in here. They're all wearing wings and I have some too.  I wonder why?  What’s even stranger is that I can make mine move.

10:40am I tried to take the wings on my back off but it really hurt when I pulled on the feathers. I don't think I should touch them...

10:50am I took a look outside, I don’t think I’ve been here before.  There's a fountain out front and a bunch of buildings but it's raining really hard so I can't go outside to look around.  I guess I'll have to stay here for a little until it stops.

Further details to come as I conduct an investigation, starting here in the library.

[A few minutes pass before she writes:]

11:15am I want to go home. [There’s only a moment to see that before she starts scribbling it out]

[Action]

[For a good few hours, Naoto will be hanging out around the library since 1) it’s raining outside, 2) there are people in here to question and 3) books. So anyone is free to catch her sitting down with a few piles of books sitting around her with her nose stuck in one of them. Also if you happen to be in the library, you might be approached by a small girl and she'll even give a polite "excuse me" to get your attention.

Junior Detective Naoto Shirogane is on the case!

In the late afternoon, Naoto moves out of the library and makes a run to visit the bakery, All Passions and the flower shop to check things out and talk to more people.]

((All responses will come from juniordetective  !!)

[ It's a weird feeling, deja vu is. 

Standing in the doorway of what used to be Rise's room, Naoto staring in at the bareness of it.  The bed is neatly made, no fluffy or frilly pillows resting around it, just white sheets and a single pillow.  Everything the idol once possessed and stored in this room now gone.  Accessories, pictures, books, clothes, you name it, all gone.

It felt as if Luceti just wiped the girl off the face of the earth.  Like she was never even here.  That every moment Naoto spent with her here was a lie.  Much like when Souji left.

Naoto doesn't panic as the reality of the situation sets in nor does she cry.  Instead, she closes the door to the unoccupied room quietly, and walks away from it, sitting herself down on the couch while Kuzunoha stays behind and stares at the door sadly, waiting for his playmate to come out and scream at him.

It takes her a good thirty minutes to pick up the journal, but when she does, she almost decides to try a filter, to try and deny what she knows what's really going on, but she resists.  What would the point be?  She knows it would break.  So she pulls out her pen, in fear that her voice may crack if she speaks, and writes: ]

Rise Kujikawa has been sent home. [ ...She stares down at her own message and frowns, the tears finally well up in her eyes.  It's going to be so much quieter without Rise around.  Without her best friend. ]

[As the normal day presses on at school, Naoto takes her usual elaborate notes on the lessons in her classes, but what continues to go through her head isn't what's going on in class, it's what she plans to do after school ends for the day.  The moment her class lets out, she makes her way down to the empty music room but as she opens the door to the room, she stares inside for a moment, almost as if she's nervous, before slowly inching her way inside to approach the instrument.

It isn't that she hasn't been here before or anything, in fact she's been in this room several times, but now she's actually here to try and play the piano, something she hasn't done in quite a while.  For a moment, she just looks it over, remember how her grandfather and father used to play it.  There's no doubt she isn't going to match up to them, at least not right now since she's been out of practice for nearly a year, but trying to catch up to where she was before won't hurt.

So pulling out a piece of sheet music (that she had gotten from the item shop), from her school bag, she sets it on the piano then places her bag on the floor so it leans against the bench's leg.  She takes her seat on the bench and after a moment she takes a deep breath then calmly places her fingers in the correct starting positions.  To get a beat, she counts in her head and as she gets the tempo down, she begins to press each one in the order that's written down on the paper.  It isn't too hard of a  song, for her at least.  She may be out of practice a little but it's better she test how much she remembers instead of just going easy on herself.  As she continues to play calmly and softly, her lips turn to make a soft smile.  She had almost forgotten how nice it was to play the piano.

Though she tries to play quietly (since she doesn't want to make herself that known), the music can probably be heard down the hall but it's faint, even as Naoto hits crescendos she stays quiet.  For four minutes the song goes on until finally she reaches the end of the page.

As her fingers hit the final few keys gently, she lets the notes die down before sliding her fingers off the smooth surface of the keys to rest her hands on her lap just for a moment, the same smile still on her face.  Even though she only played for a few minutes, she can't help but feel relaxed and quite happy to say the least.  She would always use the piano as a way to calm down, and even as things continue to go on here, it still is able to put her at ease.

Snapping out of her little daze, she realizes it's probably best not to be here for long after hours, and stands up, grabbing the sheet music and her bag, taking her time as she pulls on her jacket and wraps a small white scarf around her neck then proceeds to make her way out of the school.  Once outside, a snowflake slowly flutters down and lands on her nose but it quickly dissolves.] 

Oh. [is all she can say before she stares up at the light gray sky.  Her wings even give a small flap from the pleasant surprise that overcomes her just for a moment.  More little snowflakes flutter down and land on her cheeks, that have slowly begun to turn pink because of the cold air, eyelashes and dark blue hair but she doesn't move to wipe them away, instead she just stares--or rather watches them fall.  This is much better than the time the fog had covered Inaba.  The fog was so dense back then, the snow practically disappeared into it, making it almost impossible to see the little flakes unless they drifted down right in front of your eyes.  It wasn't very pretty really, but at least now it does look graceful like how winter should look.

She blinks once, then twice, shivering a little as she exhales, making a small cloud of her own breath visible for a second.  She just can't stop spacing out today, huh?  Well it's a bit too cold to just be standing out here like this so she continues on her way across the plaza to go to the library. 

She enters the slightly warmer building and she takes off her scarf, placing it on a table along with her school bag.  She then pulls a few books out of her bag,  As she reads over the titles one last time, it dawns on her that she's read each of them at least twice by now... maybe even more but that's not a bad thing!  Some more variety would be nice though, so she takes out the journal that was in her bag and opens it up, writing neatly on the page:]

Do any of you have a novel you would consider to be your favorite?  Or is there a subject any of you may find to be appealing? 

[She's not going to limit suggestions or anything, she likes to learn and read about new things as long as it's actually interesting and not boring though if you tell her about a detective novel she doesn't know about, you get extra points.

So she just leaves the page open and makes her way down the isles to return the books that are in her hand]