Chapter 5: The Mysterious Case of the Missing BunBun

A few days before Akira was to leave Japan to go back home for his reunion, he decided to spend some time with the girl he’s had the least interaction with, Lysia.

“Hey, Lysia. You wanna go to the park?” Akira asked quite awkwardly, unsure if she wanted to hang out with him at all.

Lysia’s fox ear headband seemed to perk up, despite them not being real.

“Really?! Can we?” cheered Lysia.

“Sure, we can go right now if you want.”

“Ok, let me go get ready!”

Lysia ran off to go get dressed into her proper clothing. She was still wearing her sleepwear, which was just the same as the other girls, just old clothing Akira didn’t wear anymore.

After a bit of waiting, Lysia returned, adjusting her fox ear headband.

She was wearing A black and white striped skirt, black knee high socks, orange tennis shoes, and an orange tee shirt with a cat face on it.

Lysia skipped into the living room and picked up BunBun.

“Ok, ready!”

“Great. We’re leaving now everyone. Sakura, you’re in charge.”

“Yes Master! Leave it to me.” Sakura said enthusiastically.

Lysia carried BunBun with her, but Akira was worried that other people would be concerned at the sight of a strange creature on the public train.

“Hey, stay out here for a second. Don’t let anyone see BunBun either.” Akira said, stopping to head into a convenience store.

A few short minutes later, Akira exited the store eating a piece of boneless fried chicken. He handed a plastic grocery bag to Lysia.

“Here,” he said with a mouthful of chicken “put BunBun in this so people don’t see him. I don’t want anyone to be freaked out by him or try to take him away.”

“Are there bad people who want to hurt him?” Lysia said worriedly.

“Well, yeah. If people were to find out that there’s some sort of strange creature from another world, that would cause all sorts of problems. Just keep him safe and hidden, ok?”

“Ok! Let’s go to the train now!”

Lysia took off towards the train, and Akira had to rush after her so as to not lose track of her.

After the train had stopped, the two exited the station and headed towards the park. It was the same park Akira and Sakura had gone to previously.

“Wow, so this is where you brought Miss Sakura before?”

“Yeah, how’d you know that?”

“She couldn’t stop talking about it when you got home that day. Can we go see the pretty flowers she talked about? Pleeeease?” Lysia begged.

“Sure, I don’t see why not.” Akira responded.

The two headed to the colorful flower planters that Sakura and Akira had been to before when Akira sold his cards.

“Wow, she was right! The flowers are really pretty!” Lysia cheered.

The young girl’s happiness was infectious, and Akira couldn’t help but feel happy too.

“I’m gonna run around and play now.” Lysia said.

BunBun hopped out of the plastic bag and went over towards Lysia.

“No BunBun, you aren’t supposed to come out of the bag.” Lysia scolded sadly.

“Well,” Akira said looking around, “I don’t really see anyone here since most people are working, so go ahead and play with BunBun.”

Lysia cheered and ran around the area chasing BunBun.

Akira sat on a bench playing a gacha game on his phone. He was trying to pull for the newest character, but didn’t manage to get a single five star.

“Man, I don’t wanna spend more money on her. I’ve already dropped ten thousand yen and still haven’t gotten her. Oh, but I’m so close to pity. Maybe a bit more wouldn’t hurt.” Akira thought to himself, not paying attention to anything else.

“M-master…” Lysia said almost crying, walking over to Akira.

“What’s wrong? Did you get hurt? Are you ok?” Akira asked worriedly.

“I’m ok, but BunBun is missing.” she said, now crying.

Akira picked her up and tried to calm her down.

“Ok, calm down. I’ll help you look for him. Don’t worry, we’ll find him soon.”

The two searched around the park for BunBun.

For over an hour they walked around with no sign of him anywhere.

“We still haven’t found him yet. Is he gone forever?” Lysia said, crying again.

“No, he’s not gone forever. BunBun loves you, and he’d never leave you alone. You two are like best friends. There’s no way that he’s missing on purpose. There must have been some reason why he ran off and hasn’t come back yet.”

Akira spotted a man walking down the sidewalk.

“Excuse me sir, have you seen a… really large rabbit?”

The man looked confused.

“No, I haven’t. Sorry about that.” the man replied.

Just then, he saw a little girl wearing a backpack. There was something fuzzy sticking out of the top of it.

“Lysia, over there. Does that girl have BunBun?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Well, let’s go check just in case.”

The two took off after the little girl, but didn’t run so as to not look suspicious.

The girl took off walking in the direction of the scramble crossing.

“Dang, she’s headed into the busiest area around here. Just our luck isn’t it?”

“We can’t let her get away with BunBun!” said Lysia, now determined to get her beloved pet and friend back.

“Right.”

The two followed the girl to the scramble crossing, where she crossed the street and headed into a large tower.

“Of course she’d go in there.” grumbled Akira.

“What’s wrong with that place?” asked Lysia.

“That’s the 709 building. It’s a massive department store popular with women. It’s where I went with Sakura before to buy the very clothes you’re wearing right now.” Akira explained.

“Oh, so you don’t like it because it’s full of girls and you’re an otaku loser?” wondered Lysia innocently.

“What?! No! I mean, it isn’t my favorite place to be, but that’s not why. Who told you I was an otaku loser anyway?”

“Miss Rose told me you were.”

“Of course she did.” Akira replied in a monotone voice. “Anyway, that isn’t why. It’s because it’s such a large building with so many people. We might not even be able to find her in there.”

Heading into the large building, the two worked their way up the several floors of shops. They passed multiple shops with fancy clothing, shops with kogal and other gyaru girls, and of course, many beautiful store runners wearing tights.

Akira couldn’t help but ogle at the women in tights, forgetting why they were even there.

“Hey, do you think Miss Willow would look nice in this?” Lysia asked, pointing at a set of black lingerie.

“Yeah, she wou- hey, what are you trying to do here?” Akira snapped.

Lysia let out a playful laugh before a kogal caught her eye.

“Wooooow, she’s so pretty! I wanna look like her someday!” 

“Well, maybe when you’re older you can. Hey wait, aren’t we looking for BunBun?”

“Oh yeah! Let’s go!”

The two continue making their way up the floors, passing many stores with mostly black and white clothes, although some have pink clothing, and one shop only sold socks. Upon reaching a higher floor, the pair spotted the girl they were following sitting at a café.

“Hey, there she is!” Lysia said, running over to the girl who was eating soft serve with strawberries.

“Lysia, wait!” Akira shouted.

“Hi there. Can I help you?” the little girl asked.

“Can I see what that fluffy thing in your bag is?” Lysia asked politely.

“Sure!” the girl said, pulling the thing out of her bag.

It was a really fuzzy plush toy of a rabbit. Lysia looked sad, but forced a smile.

“Wow, it’s really cute! Where did you get it?” she asked to make the situation less awkward.

“My big brother won it for me at an arcade he went to after work a few days ago.” the girl said.

“Ok, thank you. Goodbye.” Lysia said. Her smile disappeared as soon as she turned around.

She held her arms out to Akira who picked her up and carried her.

“No luck huh? After we came all this way too. Let’s go back to the park and check one more time.” Akira said, stroking the girl's hair who’s now crying on his shoulder to calm her down.

After about twenty minutes of walking back to the park, the pair searched a bit more for BunBun. After a long search, they still couldn’t find him.

“It’s getting dark. We should go home now.” Akira said, not wanting to stop the search.

“But, we haven’t found BunBun yet.” Lysia said, not shouting because she was extremely tired.

“I know… I don’t want to just leave him behind, but we don’t really have much of a choice right now. I have to leave in a few days, but tomorrow we can come back here and look some more, ok?”

Lysia was too tired to cry.

“Ok… I’m sleepy. Carry me?” she said, barely managing to get her words out.

As soon as Akira had her in his arms, she fell asleep, clinging onto his shirt.

Walking back to the station, Akira couldn’t help but feel bad for the girl. Not only had her best friend gone missing, but now she had to leave him behind.

Back at the station, just before the train arrived, Akira looked around desperately for any sign of BunBun. He hoped that someone hadn’t grabbed him and went off somewhere far away, never to be seen again.

The train ride home felt much longer now. Akira felt guilty, as if this was somehow his fault. He knew deep down that it wasn’t, but that didn’t stop how he felt in that moment.

It was getting late into the night when they returned home. Akira laid Lysia on the couch and covered her with a blanket. He went to the door and opened it again.

“Where are you going? You just got back.” Sakura asked in confusion.

“I’m going back to the park. If Lysia wakes up, distract her until I’m back or something. Just keep her happy. Poor girl’s been through enough today.”

With that, Akira left back to the park.

He looked around using his phone flashlight for over an hour, but saw nothing.

He checked the bushes, the trees, the flower beds, but no sign of BunBun anywhere. Despite wearing his signature pink hoodie, Akira started freezing. Just his luck, it was one of the coldest nights in the past month, and he was out in the middle of it.

Not wanting to miss the last train, and his phone almost being dead, Akira decided to give up and go back home, only to try again tomorrow.

Upon arriving back home, everyone noticed how depressed Akira seemed, except for Lysia who was thankfully still asleep.

He walked limply to his room and threw himself onto his bed, not even closing his door, like he usually did. Sakura came in after him and pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down, petting his head.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked, knowing what was wrong already, but wanting Akira to be able to let out his feelings.

“It’s all my fault. BunBun went missing at the park and it’s all my fault. I was too busy playing this stupid game on my phone instead of watching after Lysia, and BunBun went missing because of how careless I was. Now look at her. I’ve had to see that innocent little girl cry so much today over losing her best friend. Do you know what that does to someone? I’m not a heartless person you know. I might not be the best in social situations because of being a worthless otaku loser, but I still have a conscience. I can still cry over something like this. I can’t help but share in Lysia’s pain. She didn’t deserve to go through any of this, I did. I never change, do I?” Akira said, tears welling up in his eyes, and his voice hoarse from his sore throat.

Sakura laid his head on her lap and kept petting his head to calm him down.

“Shh, it’s all going to be ok. It’s not your fault, she should have been keeping track of him. You didn’t do anything wrong, accidents happen. I don’t know why, but I just have this feeling that tomorrow you’ll find him for sure.” Sakura said in a soft reassuring voice.

Akira fell asleep on her lap, and Sakura fell asleep in the chair.

The next morning, Akira was woken up by Lysia throwing herself on top of him.

“Come on, come on, let’s go!” she shouted.

“I just woke up, calm down. Why’d you let her do that?” he said looking at Sakura, whose lap he was still laying on.

“She just came in unannounced, so I didn’t know.” Sakura responded.

“Alright, go eat breakfast and then we’ll go.”

“I already ate, so let’s go now.”

“Aren’t you going to eat, Master?” Sakura asked.

“I can’t, I’m too upset to eat anything.”

“Well, you should get going now. Don’t want to keep BunBun waiting now.” Sakura said.

“You’re right, let’s go.”

Akira and Lysia took the train back to the park, and looked around some more. Heading back to the flower area, they saw something sitting in one of the planters.

“BunBun?!” Lysia shouted, running over to the object.

A pair of rabbit ears perked up out from the flowers, and a blue slimy creature peaked over the bricks. It was BunBun, who leaped out from the flower planter and into Lysia’s arms.

The girl twirled around with her best friend, cheering at their reunion.

“BunBun! I thought you were gone for good! I’m so glad you’re safe.” she said, tearing up in joy.

Akira couldn’t help but tear up too at the adorable sight.

“Hey, let’s go get ice cream. You’ve been through a lot, and it’s my fault. This is the least I can do to make it up to you.”

“It’s ok, it’s not your fault. I should have been looking after him better.”

“Still, I won’t feel right until I make it better.”

“Ok! Let’s go get ice cream!”

The three, now reunited, went off to get ice cream before heading back home to rest after the long day prior.