Once Lisa woke up, the first thing that registered in her mind was that her head hurt really bad for some reason. She blinked, hazy eyes slowly focusing on the ceiling above. Her face scrunched at it, confusion stirring as the ceiling for some reason looked unfamiliar to her. As she slowly sat up, she tried to make sense of the bedroom she was in; it wasn't hers...

...wait, it is hers!

Just, not the one she was familiar with.

"Right... X-Zone..."

She took a stretch, but quickly regretted it when she felt a sting on her shoulder. She groaned in pain, cradling the part where it ached with her hand. She figured it was best to find her brothers to deal with this. She could remember the race, at least, and boy did she want--no, needed some answers.

Lisa got off the bed, but not even two steps out her door creaked open. She watched as someone popped their head in, who happened to be Mantaro.

"Mantaro."

"Oh good, you're awake."

There was evident relief in the boy's voice. Mantaro opened the door more to make his way inside, revealing a tray with water and medicine in his hands.

"Uh, how long was I out?" Lisa asked.

"Not more than a few hours, thankfully."

Lisa took a sleeve of medicine once Mantaro was close to her to read it. It was painkillers, as far as she could tell, and she didn't need to ask why she's being given that. "How long is 'a few hours'?" she asked, turning the sleeve to check for expiry (Gabu once handed her expired medicine while she was sick by complete accident, thankfully Taiga was there to check before she could take it).

Mantaro hummed. "It's just past lunchtime."

Lisa smiled a little. Of course Mantaro would say it like that, she thought in amusement. She quickly took a pill and a swig of water before beelining for the door.

"Where are you going?!"

"To find my brothers, where are they?"

"Just a few hallways out—hey, wait!"

Lisa was powerwalking, but was still keeping in mind of Mantaro catching up to her so she didn't resort to straight up running. "You shouldn't be up right—" she snapped her head back to glare at Mantaro, effectively cutting his warning off.

She continued walking, Mantaro in tow, until she could hear the undoubtable sounds of Gabu and Taiga arguing. From what she could pick up, it was about Gabu going overboard. She hurried her pace, and once her sibling was in her view she didn't even wait a moment to let herself known.

"What the heck was that?!"

Lisa threw her hands up and gave a look once her brothers were looking at her. All fighting immediately ceased at her yell, both of her siblings wide eyed.

"You shouldn't be—"

"Up right now, yeah I get it, and I don't care. I want answers, now!"

Behind her, Mantaro was tapping his index fingers together, head hung low. "Sorry, your Highness, I tried to stop her..." he apologized timidly. Lisa turned around and looked at him incredulously.

"Highness?!" she repeated in confusion, voice nearly squeaking.

"Give us privacy," Gabu ordered.

Mantaro nodded and hurried away. Lisa blinked, still watching him leave as she was still stunned with how he addressed her twin. She slowly turned back to face the two who were looking back at her expectantly.

"I know I'm not supposed to be shocked because you're king, but still what the hell."

Lisa shook her head to get herself back to topic. "I know both of you know whatever Gabu did during the race was not normal, so what gives?!" she said. "I know you guys have a knack for pranking me, we all do to each other, but I don't think something enough to knock me out should be kept from me."

"I already said that," Taiga interjected.

"Lis-"

"Ah! No, nope, nada!"

Lisa raised a finger up at Gabu, stepping back a couple. "Back off," she warned, and Gabu retracted his step. Lisa's golden eyes were wide, he mouth pulled to a tight line. The girl was clearly untrusting, but more than that she was afraid.

Afraid of what she just went through, afraid of her brothers.

Afraid what else this world had in store for her.

"I don't know if your bomb trick is you or the bike, but either way I don't want you getting any closer to me right now. Either of you."

Lisa kept her hand outstretched, brows furrowed. The silence was tense as she kept her eyes trained on Gabu. "Why would you hide that from me?" she asked with a strained breath. She was trying so hard not to falter, to not shake or shudder at the thought of how terrifyingly dangerous her twin became based from that demonstration alone.

"I got carried away," Gabu replied, "I didn't plan on exerting that much power—"

"Not an excuse!" Lisa snapped. "And it still doesn't answer my question."

Taiga raised his hands in a placating gesture. "That power came from Bloody Fang, not Gabu himself, so without that MTB he's not a threat," he assured. This earned a very subtle once over from Gabu, but he let it pass. "First and foremost, if you're thinking this is what you should be expecting with every Idaten Battle, the answer's no. This isn't a normal occurrence."

"Are you comforting me or scaring me, elder brother? Cause if it's the first then it's not working."

"Bloody Fang's a special MTB. We found out not too long ago that it's an Idaten Bike, an MTB imbued with special power. Yes, hiding Bloody Impact from you had terrible results, but we overestimated how much you could handle that kind of races."

"Of course I won't be handling it well!" Lisa snarled, throwing her hands. "What did you think I am, some main character that's suddenly so good at dealing and doing everything on the first try?!"

She then pointed back to Gabu. "And how did he even get this 'Idaten Bike' in the first place? How many more of those are out there?"

"We're not entirely sure, but point still stands that we should've told you beforehand and because of that you got hurt. We're sorry."

Lisa pressed her lips, dropping her hands to cross her arms instead. "No," she huffed. "You're sorry. Gabu's not. If he was, you guys wouldn't be arguing about it in the first place. I wanna hear it from him."

Immediately Gabu's face flushed red. Taiga frowned. "Come on, Lis. We weren't fighting because we were disagreeing on that," the oldest said, but Lisa quirked a brow at him.

"Then what were you fighting about?"

"I, we—"

"Fine, let's just get this over with," Gabu interrupted.

Gabu huffed before fully facing his sister. "'m sorry," he muttered, eyes downcast. Lisa stared at him blankly before the corners of her lips pulled up. "Well, that's as good as I'm going to get out of you," she said.

Though her folded arms stayed put, and if anything it tightened around her some more just slightly. Sure, squeezing out a verbal apology from Gabu felt like a feat, but it didn't erase the fact that learning what he was suddenly so capable of made Lisa afraid.

But she didn't want them to know that.

"Yeah, that's settled for me, then. Water under the bridge?" she offered.

"Water under the bridge."

Lisa's smile grew slightly wider. "Okay, we're all good then," she said before promptly turning away and walking.

"Just like that?"

"Yeah, I'm heading out."

"What?!"

"Yeah, outside!"

"No!"

Lisa stopped and looked behind her. "Why not?" she asked. Gabu and Taiga stared back at her with the same incredulous look.

"Because you're injured!"

"Well, I'm walking upright, aren't I? I'm fine. Just let me go out today, I haven't explored the city yet and I need new sets of clothes if we're here a long time."

"You have all the time in the world to look around, right now you have to rest."

"No, I want to go now. I'm serious about new clothes, I feel so icky wearing my same ones for two days now."

Lisa was once more fully facing her siblings. "I'll be careful and quiet if you're so worried. Take this as compensation for scaring and scarring me earlier today." She then pursed her lips and gave a curious look.

"Or do you guys just miss me that much that you won't let me out?"

Gabu scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You're full of yourself."

"Hey, I think I deserve it for a bit."

Taiga sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before looking back at Lisa. "Fine, you can go. No point in prolonging this otherwise you'd lose daylight," he said.

"But!" he quickly followed after seeing Lisa's excited look, which quickly morphed to a pout. "I have three conditions before we can let you go."

"Alright, shoot it."

"First, you return before dinnertime. Second, you stay out of trouble, and lastly, you put on a cap that you must never remove while in public."

Lisa raised a brow. "I get the first two, but why a cap?"

"For your own safety. Your hair is a dead giveaway that you're related to Gabu, and though no one's contested Shark Tooth on an impactful scale it doesn't mean people who want to take every advantage against us doesn't exist. Since you're new here, they can—"

"Blackmail, I get it. I swear by all three, where's the hat so I can go now."

Lisa made a grabbing motion towards Taiga while her other hand rested on her hip. Taiga calmly placed a hand on Gabu's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze; a silent reassurance that Gabu may not have asked but was appreciated with equal silence.

"Alright, we can find one around the sleeping quarters so follow me."

==========

To say that Lisa was excited to explore X-City was an understatement. Ever since she saw it for the first time she was immediately gravitated towards the place. There was a certain charm to it that she wanted to indulge in as soon as possible, and thankfully her stubbornness gave her the chance to do so.

Adjusting the cap to keep the sun out of her eyes, Lisa scanned the area to gauge where she wanted to go first. She brought a small sling bag that contained her allowance for the afternoon. While she was getting ready Taiga gave her a long rundown on how the trading system works using bike parts, and though it took a while she listened as closely and carefully as her attention span would let her.

If there was one thing she would pay attention to it was about managing money.

She continued looking around, soaking in the bustling noise around her. Yelling merchants, sizzling food, bartering customers, rolling carts. Bright signs, looping audio announcements, sparkly displays. Strong perfumes, sweet candies, savory street foods. Everything of every sensory was mixing together and Lisa loved every second of it. There was a strange sense of relief for her.

Finally, she decided for a quick lunch first. She wanted street food initially, but she decided for a restaurant with an al fresco area instead. If she was gonna walk around for the rest of the afternoon, a nice meal would be a good start (plus, she didn't have to share it for once, a rare opportunity). A brief walk and she spotted a small pizza place with the outdoor seating she was looking for.

The first stop went without a hitch. She went in and ordered a solo pizza of whatever the cashier recommended and an ice cream float before taking a seat outside to gaze. It was midafternoon, yet the sun wasn't as harsh on the skin as she expected, which was nice.

Lisa didn't realize, but she was smiling to herself while waiting. What happened earlier that day was an afterthought, instead her mind was filled with the possibilities of what she could see later on.

The food was great. Now it was time to buy clothes.

Feeling good and bold, Lisa actually went back in the restaurant for suggestions. "Hey, is there any place where I can get some clothes? A thrift shop preferably."

The cashier gave her a look. "New here?"

"In this area, yeah. I wanted to explore a few more blocks out from where I lived, maybe I can find some stuff here my usual store doesn't have."

"I see. Go down the street and take the third turn. That's like the fashion and fabric street here, you should have plenty of options there."

"Thanks!"

Following the directions, Lisa found herself in a lane that the cashier described perfectly. Rows and rows of stalls and stores that had varying clothes, fabrics, and accessories lined the street. There were significantly less people than where she started, but it was still fairly crowded.

She headed down the street, ignoring the more lavish-looking shops and searching for the ones that had the most cluttered displays—the latter ones, as far as she knew, were usually the ones that had the more interesting things for sale.

Lisa didn't have to look for long though before she found a promising store. Brightly painted yellow walls with beige trims and a windowed black door. The display showed mannequin busts that had a mix of leather jackets and flashy patterned coats, and on the floor were toys and unfamiliar board games, and equally unfamiliar items scattered around. It looked perfect.

Walking in, Lisa was greeted by the door chime upon opening the door. The scent of vanilla wafted through her nose, and a faint instrumental was coming from somewhere inside. It felt homey, much to her delight. Wooden and metal shelves were pressed on the walls, categories of each one hung above in a hand-painted wooden sign.

"Good afternoon, little one."

The store clerk looked up from his newspaper to greet Lisa. She was a middle-aged woman whose brown hair was tied to a high bun and wore a patterned sweater. "Where are your parents?" was her first question.

"Not around. Just me and my siblings."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear."

"It's alright. Been that way for a while now, we're used to it but I don't like talking about it. I'm here for some clothes, by any chance there're some my size?"

A pity story, the easiest way for people to stop asking for too much details from a kid. The sympathy could get overbearing, but it wasn't something Lisa couldn't handle. Walking some more into the store, she found that the music was coming from a record player stationed beside the register

"Ah, just the racks over there behind the display window," the clerk answered, her voice much softer. "The dressing rooms are in the hallway beside the counter."

"Appreciated, thank you."

Lisa moved to the racks, scouring for the clothes she wanted. A nice jacket or two, some shirts similar to her current one, socks, and shorts. She scanned the racks some more until she spotted a navy knee-length skirt with two ribbons at the front. She reached out for it, and upon pulling the fabric she realized it was a skort.

She squealed in delight; she always wanted one. Lisa loved dressing up, but she found skirts and dresses a bit of a hassle when biking. Until Makoto informed her that what she wore were skirts with sewn in shorts she wanted to have one too, but it was a surprisingly difficult thing to find.

So obviously she took the item.

A quick trip to the dressing room to check if everything fits (one of the jackets was a size larger but it was all the better) and Lisa was ready to pay. As the clerk checked the items and gauged the value, she spoke up again.

"You can pick out one of the games on the shelf for you and your siblings to play."

"Oh, it's not in my budget, sorry," Lisa replied, faking an apologetic smile.

"Ah, don't worry, little one. It'll be free of charge, you and your siblings deserve a little distraction."

"You sure?"

Normally, Lisa wouldn't be the one to turn down free stuff, but right now she didn't want to come off as an opportunist. "But, I'm not sure if we know how to play these games," she admitted in false shyness. The clerk simply smiled back.

"Well, there's always room to learn, yes? Don't be afraid, alright?"

"Hmm, yeah. That makes sense. Thank you, uhm...?"

"Edith. Mrs. Edith Blythe."

"Thank you Mrs. Blythe."

"Edith is fine."

Lisa placed her payment on the counter before shuffling over to the board games shelf. Just as she assumed, she couldn't recognize any one of it. Though, she kept a hand under her chin while she scanned the shelf. She wanted to ask which one could be played by a large group, but decided against it to keep up with the false subtext of being alone with her siblings. She decided to read through each box until she picked a card game that seemed best to play with Shark Tooth.

After getting her game she returned to the counter to get her bagged clothes and thanking Mrs. Edith for the free stuff. Once she exited the store, she let out a deep sigh.

"Man, that place looked cool and had a lot of stuff but I don't think I can go back there for a while," she said to herself. "Acting pitiful is so exhausting."

Lisa hurried out of the street lane to go back to the more crowded places. She spent a good amount of time wandering around, writing down places she wanted to explore further with a pen and notepad she bought from a pop up stationary store she found earlier ago (the pen was a teal faux feather pen). Some she went in to check herself, sometimes buying an item or two that either caught her eye or she thought either her brothers or one of the Four Kings would like.

Eventually she started looking at the street food like she initially wanted to, and although most she was familiar with there were some that she didn't recognize. She tried the unfamiliar ones, asking first what the food tastes like, and apparently it was enough to recognize her as a newcomer.

"How can you tell?"

"You ask a lot of questions," a vendor pointed out, "which isn't wrong. Making yourself familiar with a new environment is a good thing, especially when you're travelling alone."

Lisa raised a brow. "You're not gonna ask why I'm a kid by myself?"

"Not really. Ever since the increase of bikers being transported into our world, a solo traveler of any age doesn't come off as a surprise nowadays."

Interesting, Lisa thought.

Which suddenly reminded her of Bloody Fang. It's a strange tangent, but an important one at that. She shelved that thought away for now though, figuring it was better to research about it by herself rather than randomly ask the locals. That would be one quick way to draw wrong attention to herself, and she promised Taiga she'd lay low.

Though after finding out that most of the locals weren't too concerned about kids by themselves, Lisa found herself more comfortable chatting up other people. It made her trip so much more enjoyable, and it gave her a little more insight on the nature of the city. So far, they were hospitable, and even gave her some advice when they recognized she was new.

Little did she know though what was coming ahead.

"No way, tanghulu?!"

Indeed, it was a cart of the said candied fruit sticks. There were a lot of people crowded around it, even enough to block up the display cabinet and menu, much to Lisa's dismay. The redhead wanted to see what fruits were available to her, so without much though she was squeezing her way through to see.

"Excuse me, I just want to check the menu!"

People were considerate enough to move for her, but just as she was about to look at what's available she was harshly pulled back by the collar of her jacket.

"Woah! Hey!"

Lisa first made sure she didn't fall completely into the pavement, and next made sure her goods didn't, either. Once she was sure everything was unscathed in the second she recovered, she looked over to the person that yanked her in the first place.

"Hey, what gives?!"

She glared up to the large man that was looking back at her with a similar look. "Give it back," the man demanded. Lisa's look changed to that of confusion.

"Give what back?"

"Don't lie to me, thief!"

Lisa yelped and jumped back just as the man swiped at her. "Hey, hey! I'm clean!" she exclaimed. To prove a point, she set down her bags and emptied the pockets of her shorts and jacket; there wasn't anything there as she was pointing out except from some few wrappers and loose paper. At this point some people were staring, which was only making her antsier.

"Look, I don't have anything else except the stuff I bought. I didn't steal anything."

"I don't believe you. You take off your hat and show me you're not hiding anything at all."

Lisa scrunched her face at him. "I've had my hat on the whole time, there's no way I hid anything here," she defended.

She could hear other people around her either vouching for her or defending her amidst the murmurs, much to her relief. Though that couldn't convince her accuser and instead grew even furious.

"Take off your hat to show me you're not a thief, or I'll take it off of you."

"Uh, no thanks? I didn't even put my hand near you, you jerk. You touched me first!"

Lisa knew very well her statement was true, but it only made the man angrier. He stepped up, and Lisa stepped back with her hands up. She backed up with every step the man took towards her, and she quickly realized that he wasn't stopping. So, she did the best thing she could currently think of and turned to run away.

"Get back here, thief!"

"I'm not a thief, jeez!"

Unlike her yesterday's chase, Lisa didn't try to make a mess behind; this time there were more eyes on her. Instead, she weaved through the crowd, posts, and boxes in hopes to deter the man. She looked back maybe once or twice, and sadly the man seeing red was still in hot pursuit.

Thankfully this chase wouldn't be as lengthy.

Lisa circled a street at least once, and she caught in the corner of her eye a fenced alleyway. She kept that in mind, and once she saw she was nearby that alley she took the risk and turned into it.

It was a chain fence that seemed over 2 meters tall, and although the top wasn't trimmed there wasn't a barbed wire that could hurt her badly.

Good enough, Lisa thought.

She didn't try to check how far back her chaser was. She took a running leap towards the fence, and started scaling it the moment she grabbed hold. It only took her seconds to reach the top, not even feeling the metal poking her hands amidst the adrenaline and panic.

"Get over here!"

Lisa shrieked and dropped down on the other side. She felt the end of her jacket snag on the wires, and though it thankfully didn't hinder her from jumping to safety it did make her fall less than ideal with her having to twist her body to make sure she didn't land on her injured side.

She groaned upon impact, though she only let herself stay at the ground for a second before she hastily sat up. The man stayed at the other end, hands gripped on the fence but showed no signs of attempting to climb over. For a few moments there was only silence and heavy breathing. The fence only led to a dead end, with an apartment fire exit stairs just behind but with the drop down ladder too high up for Lisa to reach.

"Okay," Lisa said through an exhale.

She adjusted herself so that she sat cross-legged. "Look buddy, I didn't steal a single thing from you, and the way you responded to this whole thing has been less than ideal for the both of us," she said, leaning back on her hands.

She quickly switched to just leaning on one hand though after she felt a slight ache on her other shoulder. "Did you even check your own pockets to make sure if you actually lost something, huh?"

The guy just growled at her. "You outsiders are nothing but trouble."

Lisa grimaced at him. "Hey, you're the one that started this!" she hissed, "You're even the one who started escalating the situation, jerk!"

The man rattled the fence, which was enough to make Lisa jump slightly. He looked over to the locked gate, then to the top of the fence, then back at the gate. He quickly went for the gate, violently shaking it in an attempt to break it open. Lisa gulped, now scrambling up. Proving her innocence be damned, she needed to get out of that place ASAP.

Back out the alley wasn't an option, as the guy could just very easily grab her if she climbed out. There wasn't anything she could get to leverage herself to reach the ladder above, and trying to beeline for the door was just failure waiting to happen. She could maybe try to jump on the man (quite literally) to then jump up to her safety...

...except that she didn't have that kind of strength or mobility to pull that off.

Really, it was just her wishful thinking.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Lisa pleaded, "don't try to break that, let's talk this through—"

She backed up against the wall, and truth be told it was the most distance she could get between her and her chaser, but still stood her ground for any hopes of escaping, if there was any. Between her racing heart, panic, and the rattling gate she didn't even notice the wind blowing down.

Not even when it grew stronger.

But she finally did when the gust became so strong it was actually starting to push her against the wall. Immediately she held on her hat with one hand and she quickly squatted down as the wind only became stronger. Dust began to lift around her, and despite the risk of that stinging her eyes Lisa didn't shut them and instead watched as the guy from the other side of the fence had a confused, panicked look. Within a second the air then turned into an incredibly powerful burst, sending the guy literally flying back out of the alley.

Once he was thrown out, the gusts of wind fizzled away. Lisa stood up properly with some caution, looking around in front of her with wide eyes.

Then, a click of a tongue above.

Lisa pushed herself off of the wall to look up at the stairs. At the lowest flight was a familiar figure, hands crossed and an unreadable look on his face.

"Of course you'd find yourself some trouble."

"Koei..?"

Koei huffed before leaping down to meet the girl at the same level. "I shouldn't be surprised, it seems causing a mess runs in your family," he said, almost mockingly. Lisa frowned, patting dust off herself as she straightened up. 

"Hey, the guy started it," she defended, "but I appreciate the help, even if your comment was kind of mean."

She dusted off her hands, but immediately winced when she felt sharp, stinging pains on both her palms upon contact. She glanced down on her hands and saw a row of needle-like pricks across each her palms.

"Right..." she exhaled. She supposed the adrenaline had finally worn down a bit for her to not only start feeling her new injuries but to feel her breathlessness as well.

"Hm?"

"Uh, don't worry about it."

Lisa cleared her throat and then shoved her hands into her pockets. Koei raised a brow at the behavior, but didn't react any further to it. If the kid thought she was sleek, she was wrong. For him, she was hardly hiding that she got hurt during the chase.

He then sighed, and then raised a hand to lightly hit Lisa over her head to scold her for being reckless. Lisa noticed his movement, and immediately shielded the her injured side, which upon her action she felt that was starting to ache as well. Curse the pains suddenly becoming amplified when re-discovered or just found!

"Woah, woah! I'm a little fragile today m'kay?" Lisa said, taking a step back.

"You were hurt in your hands, not your head."

Lisa froze momentarily. She considered for a moment whether or not she should tell Koei what happened earlier with Gabu. She didn't like pity, but then again she didn't take Koei to be much sympathetic, which was she was avoiding in the first place.

"Yeah, by my own stunts. My brother did this one to me."

Instantly Koei made a face, and a beat later Lisa matched his reaction to her own words. "It-it was Gabu. I had an Idaten Battle with him this morning. That's all," she clarified, hands returning into her pockets, but this time out of awkwardness. Koei simply hummed.

"Explains better. Now go back to the tower before you come across any more troublemakers, or be one yourself. Again."

"You're very mean, you know that?"

"Seeing you sets me in a bad mood."

"Oof, okay. Now I'm emotionally hurt too and it's your fault."

Koei rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "Wait, if you don't like me then why'd you help me out?" Lisa followed up the second the thought crossed her mind. Koei was about to answer when another thought came across that Lisa verbalized before he could speak.

"No! The stuff I bought!" Lisa wailed. "I left it behind, I gotta get it back before an actual thief gets it."

"I have it."

"Huh?"

Koei leapt up to the emergency stairs again, grabbing onto the ladder and pulling himself up with relative ease; the movement that Lisa could only imagine herself doing earlier ago. He didn't climb back to the stairs, but instead remained half-hanging on the ladder with one hand while he grabbed something on the stairs with another.

A couple of shopping bags.

"Here."

Lisa didn't even hide her relief and excitement, stretching her hands in a grabbing motion once Koei approached her with her goods. Her actions ultimately revealed the wounds on her hands, but it seemed that it became the least of her concerns now. And with how small the pricks were, they definitely closed up now but would still definitely hurt.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

That seemed enough to dissipate any bad mood from the girl. Lisa quickly looked through to check if she lost anything, and was pleased to see that everything checked out. She looked backed up to Koei, her grin never disappearing, but her next question didn't quite match how she looked.

"So, why did you help? You clearly don't like me, so were you just around this whole time with nothing better to do?"

Koei smirked slightly in amusement. Despite the excited-puppy look, Lisa didn't let her spontaneity distract her from her initial question. "Don't take it personally," he said, placing his hands on his hips, "your brothers hired me to babysit you across the city this afternoon. You weren't supposed to know, according to them."

Lisa looked at him confusedly. Koei could pretty much see the wheels in her brain turn through her face, and once it finally clicked he watched her suddenly snort.

"I told them I can handle myself just fine," Lisa humored to herself, "but I supposed with what happened earlier, the help was warranted."

She straightened up and gave a small smile. "But uh, still thanks for that," she said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. Koei just stared back, unable to really formulate a proper reply towards her.

"You're a very strange kid," he finally said.

"And you're a very mean guy."

Koei shook his head. "Just go back to the tower now. Forget whatever else you want to buy, you can come back to it some other time."

"Will you hold my hand on the way back?"

Lisa pursed her lips and dramatically batted her eyes. Though she was purposely exaggerating, Koei found her response more unnerving than anything.

"No."

Lisa pouted with the same level of exaggeration. "You're very mean."

"I don't plan to be likeable towards you, or your brothers. You're all simply work."

"Chill, I was just joking around. Still, thanks again."

Lisa collected her bags to head out, but as she walked to the fence to go out, she realized she was met with another problem. Slowly, she turned back to Koei.

"Hey, uhh, can you help me get out of this cage?"

==========

The trip back to X-Tower was fairly uneventful, and to Lisa's luck it seemed like no one were curious to as why she'd head in there. Lisa was let in fast too, and she figured to look for everyone else in her self-labelled throne room, which was the place where she first met everyone in Shark Tooth in the X-Zone.

Compared to yesterday, there were now people walking around the hallways. It still felt like there were still hardly any people because of the sheer size of the rooms, but knowing that she wasn't alone in the multiple floors she found herself seemed to put her at ease. Same as outside, she kept the cap on, and this time avoided going through the busier areas and instead beelined for the elevators.

The walk back to the throne room was just as uneventful thankfully, and once she got up the escalator she could really feel the aches in her body even more. As she expected, Taiga and the Four Kings were at the lower level while Gabu sat at the platform above (she wondered last night how one would get up there should the platform she saw Gabu go down on yesterday malfunction.)

"I'm back!"

Lisa skipped towards them, smile wide as she waved with the hand that had much lesser bags. Taiga looked at her direction, amused how much his sister was carrying.

"You seemed to have a lot over there. Help her out, the four of you."

The Four Kings readily went to take some of the bags that Lisa had. Lisa immediately thanked them and pointed out that there were some items in there that were meant for them. She held onto a specific bag.

"Ooh, really? What'd you get us?"

"I mean, we can open them together during dinner if you're all up for that."

"Okay! Maybe put the ones that aren't food back to the bedrooms for me?"

The Four Kings did as told, Lisa shouting them a thanks as they left. Lisa then began to rummage through the bag, spotting Taiga approach her out of the corner of her eye.

"How was your trip outside?"

"Wonderful, elder brother! I didn't get to explore everything, but I figured I can go back some other time since we're going to be here a while. Look what I got!"

Lisa eagerly pulled the bag open, and Taiga peered in. His face scrunched in confusion, reaching in and plucking the sticky note he found lying on top of the items. He took it out to read it, which only confused him even more. He turned the note to Lisa, who was now staring with half-lidded eyes and wearing a small pout.

"'I know what you did', what does this mean?" Taiga asked.

"It means I know you had Koei follow me around the entire afternoon."

Taiga lowered the note, his expression shifting to that of surprise. "Seriously, you guys are so overprotective," Lisa scoffed, dropping the bag to cross her arms. "I did everything as we agreed on, but really? To send a literal ninja to stalk me? A little much."

"Koei's the most discreet to accompany you," Gabu finally piped in.

The screens flickered to show his face, his cheek pressed on his propped hand. "We know you'd freak if we suggested you have a bodyguard, considering that you're injured, but for you to know that Koei was following you means you caused some trouble that he needed to intervene."

Lisa made noises of exasperation, in accompany with flailing her hands. "Wh-hu-seriously?!" she exclaimed, "why'd you immediately accuse me to start it?!"

"Well, what happened then?"

"I wanted to buy tanghulus, but a guy around the cart I didn't even realize I bumped into accused me of stealing something from him even if he won't tell me what I actually stole. Tried to grab me so I stayed away, and he chased me around."

She furrowed her brows, glaring up at Gabu as she waited for his response. "And yet, a small scuffle like that still needed an intervention," her twin finally said. Lisa made an offended look, her jaw dropping.

"Gabu, that wasn't the point," Taiga spoke up.

He looked over to Lisa with a small smile. "Important part is you got back safely," he said. Lisa glanced to him, but her annoyed look never faltered. Instead, she scoffed and rolled her eyes before she turned on her heel.

"Whatever, you're both ridiculously paranoid and then thinking that I started it ruined my mood. Just call me in my room when dinner's ready, I'm gonna take a shower."

And just like that Lisa walked out. There was a few beats of silence before another spoke up. "You're welcome, by the way," Gabu called to her, and he was immediately reprimanded by Taiga via a disapproving hiss. The former rolled his eyes at this, turning off his camera and leaving the screen in static.

==========

Not even the warm bath and clean clothes that she was anticipating since last night helped Lisa alleviate her irritation. She sat on her bed, picking on the lint on the blanket as she mulled over the events earlier. Crazy felt like an understatement; a lot happened in just a few hours than what she experienced her whole life, and that was saying something since she was Gabu's sibling.

"I'm tired," she mumbled.

It was true. Just thinking about how coldly her twin responded to her only added to the headache she was already experiencing. She looked over her palms, which she slapped small bandaids on after her bath after noticing the prickles from the chain link fence earlier ago. Squeezing her hands too hard hurt, so she let them relax as much as possible. Well, as much as her need to fidget would let her.

Maybe it was better to sleep off the emotions for now.

Lisa was about to pull the blanket over herself when she heard a knock on the door. "Not interested," she called out before promptly lying down on her good side, which was conveniently having her back towards the door.

"Hey."

Lisa heard the door open and close, and after a moment of silence she felt a weight settle on the edge of the bed.

"Well, dinner's ready," Taiga said quietly.

Lisa merely hummed at this. More silence.

"Look, I know Gabu's been a bit strict towards you today; in his own weird way. I know you like being independent, and I trust you, but you have to understand it's been months since we last saw you; we really thought we wouldn't see you again.

"What happened earlier ago, Gabu won't admit it, at least to you... or maybe to the majority, but he feels guilty for hurting you earlier."

"So he tells you things now?"

Taiga chuckled softly, but there wasn't any humor tied to it. "Well, you weren't here for a long while, so I was his next best option," he jested. "So having Koei watch over you was his way of apologizing, though I do understand it doesn't change the fact you took offense to that, or that it made you feel incompetent."

Hitting the nail on the head with that one, Lisa thought.

"And what happened earlier after you got back, Gabu's not too happy with how you reacted, but I believe he still feels responsible for causing that as well. You know how he is, he'd want to get anything emotional done as soon as possible."

"Where are you going with this, elder brother?"

"What I'm saying is, join us for dinner tonight. Gabu misses you, and maybe showing your face despite what happened would make him a bit more lenient next time you go out, as his way of saying sorry."

Lisa slowly shifted to lie on her back. She turned her head at the same pace to look at Taiga.

"You're suggesting I take advantage of Gabu while he still feels bad?" she clarified.

Taiga nodded with a hum of confirmation. She scrunched her brows at him, lips tightening just slightly.

"Wow. My oldest brother, Taiga Samejima, suggesting tricking people instead of properly talking. What happened while I was gone?"

Taiga cracked a smile at this. "Hey, I'm trying to put you at an advantage. I know you'd love to explore X-City; it's a large place, after all," he said. "It'd take you a long while to get bored of it."

Lisa huffed.

"You just miss me too, don't you?"

"Was it that obvious?"

"Mmhm."

Lisa rolled her eyes at him, but was still smiling nonetheless. "Fine, I'll join dinner tonight only if you help me convince Gabu to not hover over me so much. There's way too much out there that I don't know for Gabu to stop me from doing that."

Lisa put out her hand from under the blanket, and although Taiga did pause for a second upon seeing the bandaids he reached out for it for a handshake.

"Deal."

==========

Posted: August 29, 2024

For additional context, for those who haven't seen my sketches of Chapter 2, the big reason why Koei often finds himself awkward when interacting with Lisa is because to him she's the more reactive variation of Gabu since he's only met her for 2 days.

Phew, this chapter was sitting on my drafts for far too long. Leaving this out now before I disappear for a long period again;;;