「Haruna, hm?」 She allows the girl to slip out of her arms, noting Kyouka’s face has returned to its usual hard-to-read expression. Kouyou pauses to think before taking Kyouka’s smaller hand in her own. She can feel a very slight stiffness in the girl’s grip, as if the gesture is unwelcome, but chooses to ignore it. An irrational fear that Kyouka - almost old enough to be in high school now - will be lost forever in the crowd if she lets go lurks in the back of her mind.
She considers using mafia resources to sweep the park, but decides that can wait until after they have made sure the toy isn’t simply on a bench somewhere nearby.「For now, let’s look for her back the way you came, okay?」
◣ ✿ ◥ Any remnants of earlier tears were wiped away by the girl’s sleeve before she glanced around the park, remembering where she had and had not gone. A logical first step, of course, one that hadn’t crossed her mind until the initial anxiety faded. They hadn’t traveled too far, so searching shouldn’t take too long; of course, there was also the possibility that someone else already found it and took it with them, moved it–any number of undesirable outcomes, really.
“Over there,” she pointed not to where they’d just come from, but beyond there to an area obstructed from view where they’d spent a good amount of time, “is where I last saw Haruna.” One hand found Kouyou’s sleeve and gave a slight tug as though the girl meant to lead her over there.
