>I'm sure we'll manage.
>Bidding Kiku good fortune in her research, you break contact with the Tiger miko.
>The easterly wind blows almost continually now, blowing the falling snow past you and Rin, buffeting the rust-red umbrella the kasha had the foresight to bring along with you. Normally you probably wouldn't have bothered, if it was just you yourself. Cold weather has never particularly bothered you, not until it gets down to around a dozen degrees below zero or so, but a bit of extra defense against a possible cold bug, especially given your present circumstances, is most wise.
>More than that, though, the simple thoughtfulness of Rin is rather touching. As a little sign of gratitide, you clasp the kasha's hand with yours. Rin blushes for a moment, but makes no effort to escape the contact.
>The city streets are anything but bare, despite the deteriorating weather, but only twice do vechicles familiar to you cross your path. Crossing your path outside a block of duplexes is the black clad Motormaster, thundering away from you followed by a quartet of rather less sinister but still somehow intimidating bikers. Rin scowls at the dark rider once the group are safely around a corner.
>The next vehicle is much less sinister, though the woman driving it has been referred to as such by a few camera shy models. Aya's ferrari comes past you heading the other way. You are slightly surprised that she stop to give you badger you about a job or two, but Rin informs you that she already had a passenger, your schoolmate and fellow model Kagerou. Two of them probably are already on the way to a job, and Aya's car only carries two. Just as well today, really.
>The transition into the park, at least from the direction you and Rin enter it from, is rather sudden. Buildings and houses on one side of a four lane road give way to long fields of well-cleaned grass beneath trees, the vast majority of which stand naked against the winter wind, save a few stubborn peach and maple leaves clinging desperately to their branches. The path you and she walk down on your way in is paved at first, then yields to a grassy field where children play and young people frequently come to study. Or persue other forms of activity. Presently the field, its benches and other features are all deserted, quite likely due to the weather. Not everyone is as resistant to cold and weather as you, of course. The only life form other than Rin is a very large golden eagle gliding through the cold air at a very casual pace. The huge bird waves one wing up and down as it passes over you. You have the distinct impression it was waving at you.
>"We should probably transform when we get the chance." Rin offers in a quiet voice. "They're expecting Magical Lotus and Magical White Rose after all."
