[A/N] Is this canon? Probably not. It's just kind of a short, completely inconsequential drabble, really.

The twelve-year-old boy was over it, as he often was. This was one of those annoying days where he had to meet a client in person instead of over the phone, so he'd had to rush from school to home and then to the office. And because of it, he'd had to miss hanging out with his friends. After THAT, he had to change back into his normal, casual clothes and walk all the way BACK home. And it was during this return trip that his luck happened to shift a bit. There, on the sidewalk, an abandoned 100 yen coin. Without so much as a thought, he swept it up and held onto it with an iron grip.

I really should save it, he thought to himself, cause every cent counts and stuff like that. But the less mature part of him that came from, well, being a child kicked in. C'mon, Chimon. The park is free. If you wanna stop anywhere before going home to deal with homework, just go there. After a few moments, his inner child yelled back, Fuck it! And the boy got a devilish grin for but a moment before careening toward the closest arcade, laughing to himself a bit.

He only wanted to spend the 100 yen, which meant he only had enough for a single game. So he wandered the floor, scanning the game selection. He obviously didn't want to waste the money on a crane game-- those things were rigged, and the enjoyment would only last ten seconds at best. Maybe an FPS? Or a driving game? Or... possibly a good ol' fashioned bullet hell or something like PAC-Man.

His eyes lingered on the rhythm games. There were always high-score chasers absolutely owning those types of games. In particular, he took note of this pair of people-- a guy with a sturdy build and a redheaded girl with pigtails. The thing wasn't that they were playing flawlessly, by any means, though it looked to him like they danced regularly as a hobby. The thing that was most intriguing, however, was that they were missing almost the exact same beats, and their scores were practically identical. Chimon couldn't help himself but stop and stare. 

When the game ended, the redhead whipped around. "What are you looking at?" she demanded, raising a sassy eyebrow. Rude, Chimon thought immediately. The guy she was with scowled lightly at her and gripped her shoulder. "What? I know we're awesome, so we grab ALL the attention, but it's not nice to stare," she defended herself.

"Sorry for her."

"Wha--?! Hey, it's not your place to apologize FOR me!" she squealed, flabbergasted. Chimon couldn't even help himself but smirk at this weirdo.

"You do it, then," he retorted bluntly.

After a few tense moments of anger and embarrassment on her part, Chimon felt the atmosphere lift and she began to laugh lightheartedly. "Goddammit, why are you so scary sometimes?" she teased. The guy smiled. "Sorry, kid. I don't mean to be so defensive."

"All good! I just thought it was cool to watch!" he beamed disingenuously. Frankly, he couldn't have cared less about getting snapped at or apologized to by a stranger, but it was certainly entertaining, at the very least.

He eventually decided on a retro bullet hell. He managed to get a decently good score, and it brought some of the tension out of his shoulders. Work hard, play hard, or so they say. All too quickly, however, it was over, so he moved to leave the arcade.

Someone grabbed his shoulder, and he flinched. "Don't touch-- wait, it's you," he calmed down upon seeing the face of the guy. He wordlessly offered Chimon a five hundred yen coin. "Huh? Why are you giving this to me?" the young hypnotist asked.

"Well, you're a little kid," the redhead chimed in, "and you popped in literally to just play a single game. That's kinda sad. We're done for the day, so my friend wanted you to have some of the money he was planning to use up here."

I bet you I'm not much younger than you, he snarked in his head. But he was also considering the situation. He couldn't really understand it. 500 yen was a good amount-- this dude could've used it for ice cream or something like that. And they were strangers. Oh well. Chimon would never deny money, unless he felt like he would wind up indebted to someone. And, since, once again, he didn't even know their names, he felt fairly confident that they wouldn't chase him down and ask to be paid back with interest. "Thank you so much!" he shrieked, bouncing up and down on his toes. 

Was it over the top? Maybe. But he wasn't great at feigning gratitude yet. He wished that wasn't a skill he had to acquire.

The guy gave the younger boy a warm smile before he and the girl left the arcade. And Chimon started planning which games to play-- or whether to save it.

And that was the first time that Kana Omori and Monterio Mukai met Chimon Ueda. Such a small encounter meant almost nothing to all three of them, and, over the course of two and a half years, went entirely forgotten.

But, of course, that's not where their stories end. Far from it. And the initial indifference would quickly be stripped away.