An Unplanned, Quick, Trip

“S-Sorry for being late…” Evy apologized as she came to a stop. She breathed heavily, tired from all the running she had to do to get here.

“Don’t worry about it. Anything for TsuTsu’s girlfriend,” Totoro smiled, scratching the back of his cat ear as he did.

“I-I’m not his girlfriend!”

“Hey, that’s the same thing he said.”

Seeing as it was the truth, it’d only make sense he would, but Evy wasn’t there to argue.

“I’m just joking,” he laughed, “I’m just glad to be included in this super-secret birthday party. I hope that helping here gets me an invitation to the main event.”

Evy was pretty certain that Kokoro had already invited him, but she didn’t comment on it.

Right now they were outside a mall that Kokoro had told her about. If her words were to be believed, they should find everything they need here. It was already the day before the party, so time was of the essence.

The building itself was massive but oddly shaped. The main part of the building looked like a doughnut with another building rising out of the middle. That building was square but became pyramid-like until it flattened out. Coming out the top was an extrusion that opened up to another square.

Whatever that top part was, it looked entirely out of place.

“So if I understood correctly, you’re trying to build some kind of contraption to hold a present.”

“Y-Yeah…”

“That seems like a lot more trouble than just putting it in a box, you know?”

“I know…but…”

“Hey, I’m not judging here. If you think that’s for the best, I’m all for it. Tell me what to build and I’ll build it.”

“T-Thanks…”

Evy’s idea was simple in concept but sounded like a nightmare to properly build. The fact that his birthday was tomorrow didn’t make things better.

“Well, there’s no time to waste. Let’s go inside.”

“R-Right,” she let out.

The inside of the mall was just as spectacular as the outside. The high ceiling was beautiful as it ended with a clear view of the sky through the triangular window panels. Bright yellow beams of sunlight reflected off the waxed floor.

It was Evy’s first time going here, but she didn’t have time to be marveled by every detail. Instead, she tried to hyperfocus on the task at hand.

First off came the toy store.

That’s the easiest place they’d find the figure she was looking for.

The mall had a map right at the beginning making it much faster to find. Once they found the store, they entered and browsed to aisles.

“What are we looking for exactly?”

“Um…they’re like…robots and they turn into vehicles, I think.”

“Oh, Transforcons?”

“Y-Yeah, that. Do you know about them?”

Evy had never heard of that series before, so she thought that maybe it wasn’t that well known. Maybe she just wasn’t too well aware of all of those things. She was more of a bookworm herself.

“Of course! I used to love the series…I just haven’t been able to catch up in a while. My brother’s really into it though. I’ve even built him some before…they’re not very good, but they’re something.”

“I-I see.”

“They should be over here,” he stated confidently as he made his way to the aisle over.

There they found boxes upon boxes of figures. They each were different colors and had different names at the bottom.

“Um, do you…know any of these…?”

“Hm…” Totoro looked them over. He scanned them before his eyes stopped on a purple figure, “Oh, I know this one.”

He pulled it off the hook and showed it to Evy.

“…Shockscreen…that’s a weird name.”

“All their names are a little weird. This one is like a scientist who’s all about logic and whatnot. At least that’s what I remember.”

“I think that’ll work…”

But she felt like that wasn’t enough. It might’ve been, but she felt just a figure wasn’t enough.

He never personally told her he liked this so she kind of wished he had given her a proper answer. Instead, all he said is that he liked studying with her…

…unless…

An idea popped into her head. It was a little embarrassing, but maybe she could pull it off.

“Do you know where they could sell movies and stuff like that?”

“That might be a little harder to find, but yeah, I think there’s a place nearby.”

Evy nodded.

Now she felt like she had a full plan in place. After buying the figure and getting her second item at a nearby place, they headed to a hardware store to get some stuff.

“I already have some of the components at home I can use,” Totoro had said.

With that being the case, all he bought was a few more pieces he was missing and some decorative materials.

Getting the items was the easy part, actually building what Evy wanted would be more of a challenge. She kind of felt bad making Totoro build it, but he seemed happy enough to do so.

As someone who wanted to be an engineer, he saw this task as a challenge.

Inside the mall, they took a quick break at a food place. They weren’t going to eat anything, instead, they were there to make the plan for the present Evy was planning.

They pulled out a sheet of paper and a marker.

“Alright, just give me your ideas and I’ll see if I can pull it off.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, just remember the time limit.”

“Right.”

It didn’t take long for Evy to explain her plan. Although she believed it was hard to build, the concept itself wasn’t complex.

All her ideas were accepted by Totoro who quickly drew up a blueprint for how he believed it would work. Evy had no idea what he was drawing, but it looked like he knew what he was doing, so she trusted in his work.

“This thing might be a little big…I hope that’s not a problem.”

“N-Not at all!”

She hoped that the size of the gift didn’t raise his hopes of it being something amazing. Although she felt it might be a good gift, she wasn’t sure if he would like it.

“Well, we should probably get home. The more time I have to work on this, the better.”

“R-Right!”

With all of that out of the way, they made their way out of the mall. Overall, it was a quick trip, but it needed to be as fast as possible.

Maybe if she’d been informed earlier she wouldn’t be in such a panic, but there was no use crying over spilled milk.

“You know, I’d never expect someone like him to be into this kind of stuff,” Totoro commented while they walked home.

“…he doesn’t talk much…about himself…” Evy struggled to answer. She didn’t know Totoro too well, but at the very least, by now, she trusted him. That didn’t take away the nervousness she felt talking to someone she didn’t know well.

“Yeah…that’s why I’m kind of surprised he hangs out with you so much—and Kokoro I guess.”

It’s not like he had much of a choice. He did live with both of them, so he was kind of forced to.

“R-Right.”

Totoro chuckled, “I’ve always wanted to talk to him, but I never had the guts to…but I guess that’s just an excuse. If I really wanted to I would’ve done it earlier.” He smiled weakly, “Well, I guess that doesn’t matter anymore. Now I know all I have to do is be persistent and not let him push me away. I might even earn some points with him by making this contraption.” He lifted his bag filled with materials.

“…do you think you can do it by tomorrow?”

“Hmph, do not even worry. My entire life has led up to this moment. I’m prepared for it.”

Technically he was correct, but it wasn’t as dramatic as that, she thought.

With nothing else she could do, they walked as far as they could together before stopping at an intersection.

“W-Well…” Evy started, “Guess I’ll see you—”

“Actually—” Totoro cut her off, “I wanted to ask for something.” He looked slightly nervous as he spoke.

“W-What is it?”

“I wanted to ask TsuTsu, but I didn’t know how he’d take it,” he took a deep breath, “Could you help me with something?”

“…W-With what…”

“Well…I’ve had a…” he sighed, “Man, it’s really hard to actually admit it to someone…” he took another deep breath before letting it all out. “I’ve had a crush on Kokoro for some time now.”

Evy’s eyes snapped open.

That wasn’t even close to what she was expecting. She didn’t really know what she was expecting, but that was not it.

“Just…you know, if you could help me out with that…” Totoro blushed a bit, “I’ll even help you with TsuTsu.”

“I-I don’t…”

She was about to say the same thing she always said, but for some reason, she stopped herself. This time, she couldn’t wholeheartedly say that same statement.

“…how would I even help?”

“I don’t know, you can try whatever, I don’t really care,” he scratched his cheek. “It’s not like I’m going too far by myself.”

“Tsutsumi could be a much better help.”

“Yeah, but I think I want to ease it in on him. He was already weirded out I knew she was staying after school without her telling me.”

“That is weird.”

“Wait, wait, I swear I’m not a stalker. A friend of mine was in the club Kokoro was helping out in and she told me!”

Evy couldn’t very well prove what he said was true, but from what she knew about him, she was inclined to believe him.

“I’ll do what I can.”

He pumped his fist, “Thanks! Well then, with that settled, see you tomorrow!”

“Y-Yeah, see you.”

Evy turned around and quickly headed back home. Kokoro was trying to keep Araldo busy so he wouldn’t notice she was gone, but that could only work for so long.

She hoped that everything would go perfectly—all she could do now was wait.

---

Totoro painstakingly worked on the machine that Ze’Seki had asked him to build. Although he’d been entirely caught off guard by Kokoro’s sudden message, he saw this as the perfect opportunity to kill multiple birds with one stone.

Not only did he get to flex his engineering muscles, but he also got to make something for TsuTsu’s birthday, learn more about Ze’Seki so he could bring those two together, and finally, he could get Kokoro to notice him a bit more.

At least I hope, he thought.

He turned the lamp on his desk so he could better see the machine. For now, it was nothing but pieces of metal strewn all over with wires sticking out the sides, but for the most part, the important sections were already finished.

“What are you making?” A soft voice came from behind.

“Oh, what are you doing up, Ein?”

Standing there in his pajamas was a small Pantherian boy, his brother Ein. His ears were flattened, and his tail hung weakly. He rubbed his eyes as he replied, “I was thirsty.”

Totoro smiled before serving him a glass of cold water.

“Here you go.”

Ein took a long sip of water before letting out a satisfied sigh. His eyes caught sight of the machine again, and he asked, “What is it?”

“It’s a gift for Tsutsumi—er, you know the guy with the red hair that helped you get back home a while back?”

Ein nodded.

“Yeah, that guy. His birthday is tomorrow, and his girlfriend asked me to help with the gift.”

The boy’s eyes lit up, “Can I give him something too?”

“Um, sure, I don’t think he’ll mind having more gifts.”

He didn’t know what Ein could possibly give him as a gift, but maybe he could put the gift in the machine too—as long as it was small enough to fit.

Ein quickly ran to the kitchen nearby and opened one of the covers. There he found a small bag of chips which he excitedly brought back and handed to Totoro, “This.”

“Chips?” Sea chips to be more specific. He had no doubt TsuTsu would probably like them, but it was a kind of random choice.

“He likes those.”

“How do you know that?”

Well, regardless of why, the bag was at least small enough to fit in the machine. If not, he could just poke a small hole in the bag to let all the air out and make it fit like that.

“I’ll make sure to give it to him,” Totoro ruffled Ein’s small head.

It was already one in the morning. Without much time left, after sending Ein back to bed, he focused back on the problem at hand.