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

Part 1 || 1 | Momo | Two Sisters, Two Gunslingers I

Quoted on 2/12/22. Winter Season, February 2022 edition.
Written on 1/2/21. Winter Season, January 2021 edition (1st scene).
Written on 1/3/21. Winter Season, January 2021 edition (2nd scene).
Momo Yume (picture reference).

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Part 1 || A Girl's Case

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Valentin smoked frowningly for a few seconds; then, removing his cigarette, he said: "If you know what a man's doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he's doing, keep behind him. Stray when he strays; stop when he stops; travel as slowly as he. Then you may see what he saw and may act as he acted. All we can do is to keep our eyes skinned for a queer thing."

—G. K. Chesterton,
The Innocence of Father Brown,
"The Blue Cross"

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Part 1 || 1 | Momo

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A Tale of Two Sisters

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Muse Second Grade Momo Yume of the Muse Bureau's Special Victims Unit bit her lip when Muse Inspector Nathaniel Coleman wrinkled his forehead as he read their reports. As the morning weighed heavier on her the longer she waited for his superior's response, Momo started to regret changing the training program for Sakura Yume yesterday, turning a routine training case into a traumatic experience. One glance at her younger sister told her enough, from her undone twin tails to her steely gaze on the wall past Nathaniel's shoulder. What's more, Sakura had avoided her during the remaining office hours that day and had given her the cold shoulder at home that night.

Momo reached over to hold her sister's hand, but Sakura brushed it off. Translation: Don't touch me.

Momo bit her lip again and waited for Nathaniel to finish reading the reports. Since Momo had overseen the program that had earned Sakura her sidearm, she wanted to take back putting her sister through such an infamous case file. As such, on entering Nathaniel's office, Momo had tried to break the ice with Sakura, asking her why she undid her twin tails, but wasn't sure how to broach that question.

After Nathaniel finished reading their submitted reports, he told Sakura that what she had experienced was one of the Muse Bureau's worst-case-scenarios, the botched Trevor Waltman case. He said that it was a case in which a pair of muse officers were sent out to investigate a routine disturbance, yet it resulted in the death of one muse officer and Trevor Waltman, while the surviving muse was institutionalized. He added that the Muse Bureau sometimes used this case to prepare the Special Victims Unit's First and Second Grade muse officers for the more serious cases in their pay grades.

"With that said," Nathaniel said, catching Momo's eye with a gleam in his own eye, "why did you use that case for Sakura's training program?"

With Momo on the spot, along with Sakura's glares through sidelong glances, Momo said, "I thought Sakura needed to understand the risks of our profession, so I used the Trevor Waltman training program to expunge her flowery preconceptions of the job before she becomes a liability."

"Break her now," he said, "so she won't break later on?"

"That's the idea, sir," Momo said.

"That's harsh," he said.

"I may have crossed the line, sir," Momo said, "but believe me. I had the best intentions."

"I'm sure you did," Nathaniel said, "but Sakura's only a Fourth Grade muse right now, not a First Grade or a Second Grade. Her cases won't be anywhere near as harrowing as that, till she gets promoted."