Anastasia was glad to run into Kouji, and he was glad to see her too. He was hoping to find the other two at this rate, so that the whole gang could be together again. Meanwhile, the two that had already found him first weren't so happy about this exchange.
"I was getting worried that we might not see each other." Anastasia said as she released her grip on the boy. Waa's plan sounded like it might've been fun based on her belief on how Kouji would handle it. That said, it was a very large convention space, so just running into someone you knew wasn't a guaranteed bet.
"Well, I'm hoping to find everyone before this thing is over. Now that you're here, that makes me more than halfway finished." He was happy to see the Russian girl. Aside from her being one of the kindest people he ever knew. Kouji was always able to relax a little when she was around.
"So where have you been since we separated?" Himawari asked, rather suspicious of the girl. Despite the fact that Anastasia seemed to be a rather normal girl. In fact, probably the most normal out of all of them. She just could figure out the deal with her and Kouji. That girl does like him, right? Why hasn't she made any official moves yet?
Perhaps they've all misunderstood her? Maybe she doesn't hold romantic feelings for the boy, and just acts this way with anyone. After all, she's not from around here. So they can't say for certain how she was raised by her family.
No, that couldn't be the case. She's only ever affectionate with Kouji. It's never been with any of the girls, and certainly not with Moku, who was the only other boy she knew. To most people that would only point to one thing. So what was up with her hesitation?
"Come on, there's no point in sticking to one place." Kouji got a second wind of desire for finding Waa and Yuma. The former was definitely going around this place like she owned it. So she was probably carrying a ton of bags for all her favorite things. The latter, no one could say for certain what she was up to. That girl was never one for public appearances, so she'd be harder to find.
"Yeah, if I spend any more time with this flock. I think their nerdiness might rub off on me." Teru agreed, and everyone went around the convention space, just enjoying the sights.
"So anyway." Himawari asked again. "Where have you been?"
"Oh, it is a funny story..." Anastasia laughed as she told her tale. Originally, she wasn't planning on being alone. The girl wanted to stick with Waa, since that was the person who knew more about this convention than anyone else. Not to mention that Anastasia's definitely still learning how to grasp the country. However, that plan fell through since her target believed following to be against the spirit of this little game.
In other words, she got ditched.
Alone in this mysterious place, she did what most people would do. That being to wander around aimlessly, going towards anything that seemed vaguely interesting. Apparently a lot of people running the booths really wanted to sell things and attempted to get her to desire their products. Being someone who was interested in these things, and also with a fair bit of cash. She bought enough to fill a medium sized bag of figurines and manga. This girl wasn't going to be bored anytime soon, even if she wasn't truly aware of the contents of these stories.
"And then, when I saw all those people playing dress-up. I ended up running into you all." She finished her story.
"Seems like you really picked up a lot of things." Kouji commented as he peered into her bag.
"I got a lot of stuff to read." She got exited over the prospect. "Perhaps we could read them together?" She asked with bright eyes. Kouji flashed back to his regrettable incident. That wasn't something he wanted to repeat, but surely this girl didn't have weird tastes.
"Sure." He answered, much to the dismay of the other two girls. "Looks like you've already bought a few things, and the three of us already ate." Said Kouji, unsure of what they could do for now.
"What about that maid cafe?" Anastasia pointed over to a set promoting some anime none of them had heard of. "I was a little sad to hear that we did not do any of those so-called culture festivals with things like that." She was disappointed the things she had heard of before coming here weren't a thing at Tenfumi academy.
"It's not that we don't have that festival." Himawari corrected. "It's just that most of the girls are not interested in weird things like a cosplay cafe. Probably because those are things that boys want to oogle at."
Either way, they took Anastasia's suggestion and made their way to the maids. Honestly, it wasn't really something that most of them were interested in. The girls for obvious reasons, and Kouji because those girl's probably wouldn't like it if his gaze wondered for too long.
Anastasia was so excited for going though, and she pulled the boy ahead with her. This allowed Teru and Himawari to lag behind and keep an eye on them.
"What's up with that girl?" Teru whispered over to her. "It's like she's attached to the hip with him." Himawari agreed. Though, depending on how one might view their separate ways of acting. One could say that these two girls were the weird ones. Perhaps if they were more open to how they felt about him, things would've gone through a little smoother.
Yet for now, neither of them wanted to admit the truth to any of the other girls. Not while Kouji's decision was still up in the air.
"I know, just look at her." Himawari added more to the conversation. "Who does she think she is, just holding his hand like that."
"Now I'm starting to get those gossipy girls." Teru hated those girls, but she considered her situation different than the idle conversation those people held during lunch. "But I can't hate her."
"Oh don't get me wrong, I quite like that girl. A lot more than I can say for the rest of you." Himawari's only complaint would be both how hyperactive that girl was, and how close she was to Kouji. "Not to say that I hate or even dislike any of you."
"Yeah, I guess you could say she's pretty good at bringing people together." When she said that, Teru came to a sudden realization. "Say, what was she up to before he came to the school anyway?"
"Can't say that I ever saw her in class. The first time I met her… That was the day before Kouji accepted his new role. They were together that day."
"That's weird, same here." It was an odd coincidence, but beyond that. There was nothing else they could tie about her. Perhaps it really was just plain luck. After all, they're suspicious of her, but that shouldn't mean they need to get conspiratorial.
"Okay, okay, we're here." Kouji said, trying to release himself from Anastasia's grip. This girl didn't look it, but she had some level of strength when she wanted to. "The rest of us aren't hungry, but you're free to order whatever you want. We can wait for you to finish." He figured that the other two probably didn't care to walk around this convention space. There simply wasn't anything to interest them.
"Looks like you just ring this bell to order service." Himawari commented as they sat down. So that's what she did for her friends and they waited for someone to take their order.
While they waited, they simply chatted among themselves. Unlike before, there wasn't any of that standoff stuff because of the presence of company. And that Himawari wasn't a stickler anymore thanks to Kouji's intervention. This led to them being so distracted, that no one noticed their server walking up and standing there for an unreasonable amount of time before speaking up.
"May I… Take your order?"
"Eh? Yuma, what are you doing here?"
"And why are you wearing… That?"
For whatever reason, she was here serving people. To add more to the confusion, the girl was also donning the classic bunny girl outfit while doing so.