The Late Bird's Tale: A Tale of the Floating World

Part 1 || 10 | Momo | Three Gunslingers, An Empty House I

Written on 2/9/22. Winter Season, February 2022 edition (1st scene).
Written on 2/11/22. Winter Season, February 2022 edition (2nd scene).
Momo Yume (picture reference).

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Part 1 || 10 | Momo

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A Tale of Three Gunslingers

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"It took time setting up a routine to keep Ryder's power in check," Momo said and took another pull of her root beer slurry. "So I worked with the Muse Inspector to help her channel it with our standard-issue sidearms as an outlet. It took a lot of trial and error, but we managed to . . ."

Momo then noticed her younger sister looking down at her empty plate, her face still beet-red after she had told her younger sister about the smooching part.

"You're still hung up over it?" Momo said.

"That was my first kiss!" Sakura said, then at Ryder: "And I was asleep, you perv!"

"Girl, you had it easy," Ryder said and snorted, then took a pull from her own root beer slurry. "I had to kiss seventeen other girls who either bullied me or watched me get bullied. So don't give me any of your lip!"

But then Momo saw an opening to get at Sakura's nerves and leaned over, whispering just loud enough for her sister to hear, and said, "Are you curious about it?"

"I'M NOT!" Sakura said.

"Sure you're not," Momo said.

Several patrons looked towards their table, and some of them told their kids to ignore the three rude girls, warning them in whispers to not be like that when they grow up. But then their warnings backfired on these helicopter parents whose kids asked them what a 'kiss' was or what a 'perv' was or whether or not they could get cooties from doing whatever that was—

Which made Sakura blush—

And made Momo and Ryder grimace.

So to change the subject, Momo looked at her watch (9:24 a.m.) and saw that she had two hours to kill before heading back to the Muse Bureau for those reports. Faced with extra time, she rolled her options through her head before saying, "While we're waiting for the reports, why don't we drop by the target's house? You know where Judy's house is, right?"

Sakura and Ryder traded glances.

"A stakeout?" Ryder said.

"Only if she's there," Momo said.

"And if she's not there," Ryder said, "what then?"

"Then we'll just check the place out for a bit," she said. "And if we still have time, we'll drop by the target's school and poke around there for a bit."

"But why do that, anyway?" Sakura said.

"Because you're going undercover there," Momo said before taking another pull of her root beer slurry.

"As what?" she said.

"Just guess."

Sakura just stared at her before saying, "No way."

"You guessed right," Momo said. "You'll be going there as a transfer student."

Sakura gaped. "You're kidding!"

"I'm not," Momo said.

"But why me?"

"Because you're the same age as Judy," Ryder said and took another pull of her root beer slurry.