"This looks like a great spot for a picnic!" Yasei announced cheerfully as he walked up to the field bordered by a ring of pretty purple and black flowers, a big basket in one hand and a large blanket rolled up under his arm. Sure, there was a sense of dread and foreboding in the air from the nearby tower of crumbling black stone, but he was never one to be easily frightened and he figured neither was his current company.

Kou was quite the energetic and fearless little granny. If she wasn't, she probably never would have befriended the giant Koma-Inu in the first place let alone go travelling with him. Planning the trip had taken a while and they'd had to wait until after the summer festivities were over, but it was going well now that they'd finally taken off. Sort of. The boat ride from the Crescent Isles to Capitol Landing had been short but pleasant. Of course, they'd meant to take a boat to Moonglade and then travel through it toward the Marshflats, but adventure was adventure! No use getting upset over getting on the wrong boat. It was just the wind blowing them in a different direction, to a different place to explore.

And they did plenty of exploring. Sol City was really different from the cities back in the Crescent Isles, but it had its own beauty and charm to it. The culture was also far different, and with different culture came different foods, which they were both eager to sample. What better way to sample some of the local cuisine than a nice picnic accompanied by the distant sounds of anguished howls coming from a big spooky tower?

Yasei stepped over the border of flowers and picked out a nice spot to lay down the blanket they'd packed for the picnic and put down the basket of foods that was too large for Kou to even hope to carry. They'd packed enough for the two of them, which was to say, they'd packed a ton for Yasei to eat and a much more normal sized portion for Kou to eat.

Yasei looked back at Kou to see if she was doing alright. They'd done a fair amount of walking around the city and the trip here had been a bit of a hike. It might have been too much for the grandma to handle, but he knew she wouldn't easily accept being carried around by him unless she was really exhausted. At least now she could take a good rest sitting on the blanket to eat.

"Feeling alright?" Yasei asked, concerned for the old woman's health. She had a lot of energy, but she was still an old woman.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Ring of Flowers
Participants: Exactly Two
Location: One of the listed locations below
Post Requirements: 6 posts per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +2 Renown, 1 Mystical Archive Ticket

Description: Strange things are occurring around these newly formed flower circles and help is needed in understanding why. Unfortunately, as one of the first groups of people to explore these phenomena, we are unaware of any specific strange or weird side effects interacting with these rings may bring, so be careful. Study the flowers, record what you see, hear, or even feel.

Special Requirements:
Your investigations will reveal that these circles are not native to Charon and are coming from some other realm. They are Fae in nature and give off similar magical traces as the Fae creatures that currently live on Charon, although much stronger and more potent.

Upon arriving at the location, you will find that strange things have begun to happen, not only to the environment but to you as well, with prolonged exposure to the circle increasing the effects. Before you begin the quest, you must choose one of the locations listed below to explore, with a specific obstacle attached based on the region. These added effects cannot be ignored and must be applied to your characters during the quest.

Capitol Landing- The Black Spire
A ring of black and purple flowers circle the ruins of the black spire. Howls of pain and anguish can be heard on the wind, with a sense of dread sitting on the air. While investigating the flowers, both members find that they have reverted in age, returning to their teen years. This effect sends an individual back to their adolescent period based on their race. You keep any gear and spells but are now a teenager. Lasts the entire topic.

“Oh, such a lovely spot! Who would have thought that Sol City had such natural greenery…”

Well, far be it from Mama Kou to make any assumptions about Sol City at all! This was her first time in such a busy and bustling place, so foreign to the kind of activity she was used to… where she’d expected this next leg of travel to bring her to humid swamps and wild, untamed lands, the fates (and an inability to read the right sign on the boat) had decided that they would be starting their journey in Sol City instead! What had started as a mistake, both her and her jovial companion Yasei decided was quite the happy accident instead. May as well enjoy the opportunity while they had it!

And Sol City was quite the fascinating place. A diverse locale, a plethora of different cultures and trade, a giant monolith of an obsidian tower that was rumored to be the graveyard for the souls of dead wizards, and of course - the good food! Given their shared interests in the culinary world, they were both determined to try whatever they could! Not to mention most locals were too terrified to get too close to the blackened spire, which meant that they could enjoy a lovely picnic without the added hassle of interruptions!

Of course, like most locals, Kou found the tower a bit… odd, but the anguished wails were more pitiable than anything. For such a grand city with endless resources at their disposal, one might think that they would be able to hire a healer or mage to put those poor, pained spirits to rest. Perhaps they thought it made for a macabre tourist attraction. Either way, the elderly fellblood paid it no mind, hobbling across the field after her friend and travel companion Yasei, at… a considerably slower pace than the larger man. This was par the course. He respected her desire to move on her own but never failed to check on her every once in a while. She truly appreciated that.

She picked up her speed as he stepped over the smattering of flowers poking through the grass - beautiful things, little splashes of purple and black against the green. At this point, she was quite hungry, having worked up a sweat on the walk here. Not hungry enough to stop and smell the roses, though, as it were!

Kou had been quite the taskmaster in her heyday. Running a restaurant and raising a child without and support made one strong, until the moment those foundations brittled with age. Perhaps she had once failed to appreciate making the most of one’s time, but she was hardly the same woman now, was she? All the better to take a moment and indulge in the things that made you smile while you had the chance.

She pressed her weight against her cane, a smile on her face. They smelled rather lovely... fragrant, though in a different way from tropical Isles blossoms. Kou straightened, the bones in her back popping as she did, when Yasei’s query broke her out of her thoughts.

“I’m… fit as a fiddle!” She affirmed, chipper - truthfully, she’d found herself winded from the trek, but activity kept her stamina in check! Stepping over the flowers, careful not to crush anything, she joined him on the other side of the green. As she did, she found herself feeling… well, rejuvenated wasn’t quite the right word, but when one was so accustomed to struggling to move, it often felt strange when it came a little easier. Perhaps she was simply excited for food! Hobbling over to him, Kou held out her hand as if to help with the basket. “Here, let’s spread out the blanket! I’m quite excited to try their crab salad… if their food is as good as well-dressed as the rest of the city seems to be, we’re in for a real treat!”

---

Bringing Pets
Kyan, Candle Golem - Doesn’t count against pet NPC cap

Yasei didn't quite believe Kou's claims as he watched her huff her way over to him. She was definitely winded. But, he wouldn't say anything about it. She was in good spirits and didn't seem like she was in any danger, so he'd just let it go.

"It's amazing how cheap the crab is here!" Yasei said excitedly, thinking about the crab salad now that Kou mentioned it. Those sellers had practically given it to them for free, begging for them to take some of their crab away. This city must be ridiculously wealthy to give away such a delicacy. This amount of crab would've been way too much for Yasei to even hope to afford, unless of course, he killed it himself. Ah, memories of that hotpot still brought a smile to his face.

Yasei opened up the folded blanket in the air and gave it a few good shakes to make sure it was fully unfolded before placing it down on the grass and spreading it out nice and flat. The ground was dry and the grass was soft, though the cooling weather wasn't doing it any favors. The grass might have been starting to turn a bit more yellow than green, but it was still very comfortable to sit on with a nice blanket over it.

The dying grass just made the vibrant flowers stand out more, and the smell they filled the air with was a pleasant addition to the picnic.

Yasei put down the basket that looked big enough for Kou to climb into and started pulling out the different dishes they'd gathered. Most of them were different varieties of crab. It still boggled Yasei's mind how eager all the vendors were to sell this stuff for so little. Crab salad, crabcakes, a pasta dish that included chunks of crab and a lemony sauce, and a dish that had been shouted about as a crab roll but was actually some kind of sandwich full of crab and a creamy sauce instead of the rice and nori Yasei had expected upon hearing the name. Still, it looked tasty.

"I've never seen these kinds of flowers before. Must not be from the Crescent Isles, huh?" Yasei asked, looking at the flowers once he was done laying out all the dishes on the blanket. He curiously picked one and gave it a sniff. He hadn't seen these kinds of flowers anywhere else in the city either. How strange. Maybe they were only able to grow in this one field? But it was odd they were growing in such a perfect circle. It looked like someone had to have deliberately planted them that way. "They smell good though, don't they?"

It was easy to allow herself to get downtrodden at the state of her body, and the things she could and couldn’t do - easy to think back to the time when she took the simple act of being able to walk across a field or bend down and lift up boxes for granted. While ot had taught her to appreciate life, and never overlook the value of every little effort, it could be quite frustrating when she couldn’t do what she wanted. Which was precisely why Kou was bound and determined, with stubbornness and whimsy aplomb, to remain in good spirits. She was here to have a good time with Yasei, and by Solaria-sama, she was going to accomplish that!

“You’re quite right!” Kou noted with no small hint of surprise. The both of them had grown up in a tropical environment, where crab was not uncommon, but it was also not for those who couldn’t afford such fine meat. The vendor had seemed surprised they were interested in his wares at all. A bit ironic for two natives to the Isles had come all this way to Sol City for crab of all things, but so the saying went, when in the Capitol! Perhaps it was, in part, due to the fact that they were close to the docks. She wouldn’t be surprised if they had an overinfestation in the waters.

Whatever the cause, it merely meant more for Kou and Yasei while the locals were sick of such cuisine!

She helped Yasei with what she could of the setting up their picnic… and what a lovely spread it was. The chill in the air made her pull her silken moth-patterned robe - a Winter’s Crown gift from Tarou - tighter around herself, but she wasn’t bothered by the chill. The little wax candle perched on her shoulder served to help keep her warm. Before long, though, she scooped Kyan off of her shoulder and instructed the little fellow to go around and heat up the food that needed to be reheated. Within a matter of minutes, the aromatic smells of warm soup, pasta, bread, and all the crab products one could imagine under the sun filled the air, intermingling with the delicate floral perfume from the wildlife.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life before.” Kou noted, reaching into her bag for some of her own special surprises - her own blend of warm tea, a special sake she’d picked out specifically for Yasei, and a street dessert she’d picked up from a vendor in town, some kind of fried bread puff filled with a sweet pistachio jam. “Look, they even grow in a strange pattern, too! Do you reckon that’s how flowers grow in Sol City?” She asked, fascinated by the peculiar way they seemed to have arranged themselves. She’d never seen such a thing in her life; but you learned something new every day, didn’t you?

She leaned over to sniff the flower Yasei was holding, unsurprised to find that it held quite the strong scent. Perhaps she ought to collect some of those for her concoctions! Edible flowers were all the rage in certain cooking and baking arrangements, not to mention it often added a little extra something special to a recipe. As she did, another wail drifted by on the wind… a haunting sound.

“How lovey! I’m surprised more haven’t flocked this way to admire the scenery, though perhaps the screaming has something to do with it.” She noted jovially, before bending down to pluck a few more flowers. “Oh, Yasei, won’t you let me braid these into your mane? The colors are so lovely, you’d look so dapper!”

Yasei hummed to himself as he looked over the spread. He was especially excited about the bottle of sake. He shrugged to Kou when she asked about the flowers. Really, he had no idea. He didn't know much about flowers from his own home region, let alone flowers from a place he'd visited for the first time in his life. He just continued his cheerful humming and trying to decide what dish he wanted to dig into first.

His humming stopped and his wide smile faltered for a moment once Kou asked to braid some flowers into his hair. He looked at her with surprise and a tinge of sadness. Wanting to braid flowers into his mane, she reminded him of his daughter. She always asked to do the same thing whenever they went out and saw some pretty flowers somewhere. Walking around, having a picnic, even sometimes asking at less convenient times. She looked so disappointed when he said no that he'd sometimes, to the amusement of his fellow guards, arrive for his guard duty late and with flowers in his hair.

"A-ah, sure." Yasei suddenly stammered, breaking out of his reminiscing and trying to put a smile back on his face, but it was still clearly a sad smile. How could this tiny old lady keep reminding him so much of his daughter? She looked older than he did!

Wait, did she look older than him? As he looked at her again, she looked a lot less... wrinkly than he remembered.

In front of Kou, Yasei was also looking a bit different. The giant Koma-Inu was looking a lot less round than usual, like he was slowly deflating. His face looked younger with less wrinkles and bags. His fangs got smaller. His beard and mustache grew shorter like the hair was being pulled back into his face until they completely disappeared. The long mane that flowed down his back grew shorter until it was only a few inches long. The giant puffball of a tail behind him got a little smaller.

Yasei suddenly noticed his robe felt a bit loose and realized something strange was going on. He jumped up and looked down at himself in surprise. He stood just a bit shorter than usual, at seven and a half feet instead of eight, and his face looked much more youthful, like he'd reverted back to a 16 or 17 year old. One thing that looked like it hadn't changed at all though was just how much muscle he had. His belly was completely gone, replaced by a set of abs he hadn't seen in gods knew how long. His arms and legs were less thick, with the layer of fat gone, but now they were far more defined. He looked like a professional bodybuilder with the face of a highschooler. A typical anime protagonist.

"Wha- What the hell!?" Yasei exclaimed in a much higher pitched voice than usual.

Kou, too, was reminded of older times as Yasei hesitantly allowed her to weave flowers into his mane - memories of her son, running into the shop after a day of play by the oceanfront and asking her to weave crushed bits of seashell into his hair so he could pretend to be king of the ocean. Both of them awash in ancient memories, from the times before the present… but there was something beautiful about it, wasn’t there? Both of them had suffered loss in their life, but through the grief and the listlessness, they’d managed to find new memories of happiness rather than remaining stuck in the past.

Kou noticed Yasei’s melancholy, but without having a name to place why it was happening, she was at a loss for what to say or do. So the elderly woman settled for gesturing at Yasei to sit while she settled down, her cane resting beside her, a bundle of flowers in her hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll be very gentle, it won’t hurt your hair at all!” And without further ado, she plucked a couple of strands of Yasei’s curly, colorful beard to start weaving.

Her fingers remembered the motion of braiding, even if said motion didn’t come as easily as it once did. Kou hummed a lullaby under her breath, so absorbed in the motions of what she was doing that the rest of her surroundings faded to a dull hum. She allowed herself to get lost in the rhythm, back and forth, one-two-three curly strands with the flower’s stems interwoven to ensure they would be secure. Why, it was so familiar that the motions felt easier than they usually did, despite the familiar ache of her muscles in her hands! In fact, it didn’t even seem to hurt at all!

Oblivious to the changes occurring in her own body, Kou turned to pluck a few more flowers from the ground - only to startle when she looked back up and found that Yasei looked markedly different than he had only seconds ago! She gasped, a shaky hand pointing at his face, gaping like a fish out of water. “Y…Yasei, your face…!”

And though Kou was not privy to it, her own face was undergoing new changes as well. By the second the wrinkles disappeared from her visage, her vision restoring itself until her spectacles made her surroundings blurry rather than clear. “Oh - these silly glasses-“ Confused, she pried them off, her sight instantly clearing up, allowing her to notice that Yasei had undergone even MORE changes. He looked like he’d undergone a rigorous workout program in the span of seconds! And Kou was no different! Somewhere along the way, her spine had righted itself, magic repairing the decades of abuse that had given her a hunch. Curly horns retracted themselves, until they poked out of her now jet-black hair, the way they had when she was about sixteen or seventeen. All changes that went unnoticed by her for the time being, as she was too busy being flabbergasted by Yasei’s sudden transformation.

“What’s going on? Did - did I do this with my magic?” Her voice cracked in her panic as Kou jolted to her feet, waving her hands frantically in the air. She was aware that her magical inclinations were restorative, but what if she’d gone too far and done something she couldn’t take back? “Don’t worry, I… I can fix this! Just let me try a spell-“

She took a step closer to him, only to freeze in her tracks.

She looked back at her cane, abandoned in the grass where she’d left it.

Kou hadn’t taken a step unaided in nearly thirty years.

Heart hammering in her chest, she finally looked down at her hands. Unwrinkled, unblemished - a few scars that had been accumulated by the folly of youth, but in that instance, it was as if all of her life experience, all of her weariness… it had been scrubbed away. Her body shaking for an entirely different reason, eyes misty with tears, Kou Miyami - now sixteen years of age - turned back to Yasei and screeched,

“ARE YOU SEEING WHAT I’M SEEING?”

Yasei nodded slowly. While Kou seemed to be in a state of panic and moving quickly, Yasei was more in a state of quiet shock. He took slow, careful stock of just what had happened. He looked like he did when he was just a teenager. Even his haircut was the same as it had been then. The only thing that hadn't changed was his clothing and, thankfully, his hair color. Looked like whatever magic had done this didn't recreate the black dye he used to use in his hair when he was still embarrassed by his bright pink hair color. The both of them had become young again!

"Koubaa-chan, now you look like... Koujo-chan." Yasei said, cracking a smile and chuckling.

Whatever the reason for this sudden change in both of them, it wasn't so bad, really. Especially for Kou. Yasei could see her movement looked less pained and she was faster. She didn't even need her cane anymore. But what it did look like she needed was to calm down a little.

Yasei quickly adjusted his now extremely baggy yukata, retightening the belt around his much slimmer waist. It now hung a bit lower, covering more of his legs, but at least it wasn't dragging on the ground. His sandals still fit just fine too. In fact, his hands and feet looked like they hadn't changed at all. They were a little large compared to the rest of him as if he hadn't grown into them yet. Ah, that was right. He'd forgotten about that awkward phase in his teen years. Just before he'd had his growth spurt and started growing a beard.

Ah, thinking of his beard. He lglanced down at all the flowers Kou had been braiding into it that were now lying on the ground. With his beard's disappearance, all of Kou's work had been undone. Well, he'd worry about that later. Right now there was something more important to deal with.

Yasei stepped around their picnic setup over to Kou and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Koujo-chan, calm down! It's all right, just breathe." He said loudly, but calmly, trying to reassure her and help her stop panicking. He could feel her shaking with his hands on her shoulders.

There was a stranger in front of her. A strong, muscular man, with tufts of cotton-candy pink hair and Yasei’s clothing. Where had his beard gone? Where had his figure gone? And why was he so calm about it? Calling her Koujo-chan…

“Now’s not the time for jokes!” She moved to half-heartedly nudge him with her cane, before remembering it wasn’t in her hand, so she was just kind of swatting the air aimlessly. Which only served to remind her that she was currently walking and moving unaided. Something she hadn’t done in thirty years. And despite all her abilities with healing and restoration, Kou had never quite been able to do the same for herself. She’d long since accepted her own limitations, and chosen to walk the path of aging with grace and dignity rather than letting it consume her.

But what kind of magic had done this to them?

Kou straightened, her kimono now considerably more ill-fitting on her than it had been moments ago. Without the decades of abuse that had warped her spine, Kou was back to her full height - not much taller, mind, only about five-foot-one. Still, the extra bit of height, and without the hunch she normally walked with, the robes were now awkward on her. Yasei was right. Kou took a deep breath, his hands grounding on her shoulders, keeping her steady. She took a deep breath, forcing the shakes away. What had happened wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but… strange. Jarring.

“I’m okay, I’m okay…” She murmured, gently tucking her spectacles in her pocket. She wouldn’t be needing those for the time being, that much was for certain. “But what happened?” Her voice cracked again as she spoke. Gosh, it had been so long that she forgot how awkward the teenage years were! “I heard vacations to Sol City were a rejuvenating experience but I didn’t think they meant quite this literally!”

Kou turned around to go collect her cane, but since there wasn’t any particular need for it at the present moment, she juggled it awkwardly in her hands before tucking it in the sash of her robe. It was then she spotted the flowers scattered along the floor, the ones she’d started to braid into Yasei’s beard. “Oh! What a shame, all that hard work, gone to waste…”

She bent down to collect the flowers, brow furrowed. “I guess you could still tuck them in your hair.” She muttered, which seemed like misaligned priorities, considered all that was happening at the moment. “For… as long as this lasts. This isn’t permanent, is it? It’s very welcoming to be able to move without pain again, but I’m not sure how I’d be able to explain to Tarou that his grandmother is suddenly younger than him!” She let out a shaky laugh.

With Kou freaking out about the whole situation a lot less, Yasei was back to laughing and trying to enjoy the strange turn of events. It was an odd sight to see someone who looked like a teenager laughing like an old man. His voice was a lot less deep and gravelly than usual, but his laugh had an undeniable air of someone who had been through a lot more of life than any teenager should have.

"Really rejuvenating! We should have visited here sooner. That beach party might have been more fun like this. I always loved going to the beach as a kid." Yasei joked. He went to run his fingers through his beard, but awkwardly stopped as he remembered his beard was gone.

He looked down at the scattered flowers with a frown, but his smile returned quickly as he kneeled down to pick them up.

"It's okay. I'll just braid them into your hair instead." Yasei said cheerily as he sat down and motioned for Kou to sit down in front of him. He had plenty of experience braiding his daughter's hair. If he hadn't been turned back into a teenager too, braiding Kou's hair would have been just like then. It gave him a sense of nostalgia which was accompanied with a pang of sadness knowing how far behind him those days were, even if they didn't feel so long ago.

"Well, if this isn't permanent, then you won't need to explain." Yasei said with a shrug. "And if it is, then maybe he'll be happy for you."

“Beach party…” Kou muttered to herself, thoughtful. She’d not been able to attend the Queen’s party as Yasei had, but she heard it was a spectacle to behold! She herself had stayed home and spent the day with her grandson, playing board games and spending the time doing things that would be much easier on her weary body. She never usually minded missing out on things, but Yasei’s words gave her an idea.

“Well, you’re a child now, aren’t you?” A small, conspiratorial smile grew on her face; mischief twinkled in her eye. Though the shape of her face was vastly different, and she no longer wore her glasses, there was a gleam in her expression that only a grandmother who was about to get up to something she most definitely shouldn’t could manage. Given that she currently very much looked like a seventeen year old, it probably made her look more like a delinquent than intended.

She sat down and allowed Yasei to start braiding them into her hair. She was rarely on the receiving end of something like this; even when Kou was truly this age, her parents were practical, and exhausted from working long hours. It was foreign to her, to be the one who was given beauty and care and attention. In some ways, Yasei reminded her of her grandson that way. He insisted on taking care of her, spoiling her, stating that she’d taken care of the family for so long that it was his turn to help her.

Of course, he’d never braided flowers into her hair like this!

“I’m certain he would, but… it’s strange, no?” Kou mused to herself, before deciding to drop this line of questioning. “I suppose if it is temporary, there’s no use wasting precious time worrying about the future. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life is far too short not to take advantage of every opportunity! And with that being said…”

She waited until Yasei was done to turn around, the same excited twinkle in her eye.

“I daresay this is the perfect opportunity for us to do whatever we want! If there was one thing that you’d always wished to do in your heyday, anything at all, what would it be?”

"Hmmm, one thing I wanted to do...." Yasei mumbled to himself and put a hand to his chin as he thought about it. What did he wish he'd done when he was younger that he couldn't do as an adult? Nothing immediately came to mind.

If he could actually turn back time instead of just having his body changed like this, he'd have a lot more answers. Changing what happened to him, not getting petrified, living his life with his wife and daughter. Those were the things he wished he could have done most, but even now, those things couldn't be done anymore. It wasn't a matter of his age, but of the world's age, and he doubted some flowers would reverse that.

Unlike Kou, even in his older age, he was still nimble and without aches and pains. He had the abundant ki flowing through him to thank for that. Call him Oji-san as much as anyone wanted, he still felt perfectly young and energetic. Aside from being able to touch his toes, that is. No, this situation seemed like much more of a gift for Kou than it did for him.

Yasei smiled wide and chuckled as he leaned over to the picnic spread and grabbed a crab roll.

"I'm already doing what I wanted to as a kid. I never had the chance to travel out of the Crescent Isles, or have a picnic with a friend, or braid flowers into anyone's hair when I was a kid. So, what do you wish to do right now, Koujo-chan?" He asked before he started eating.

It… made sense that Yasei didn’t particularly have anything that he wanted to try. He was still in the prime of his life, while Kou had already begun facing down the last of her twilight years. But now Kou had reached a conundrum. She’d spent a lifetime doing what others expected of her… now she was being asked what she alone wanted to do.

Kou hummed, tapping at her chin.

“That’s a tough question to answer, because I, too, have always wished to travel the world with friends. And I am!” She’d seen the world’s capitol! She’d tried the food! It had been everything Kou once dreamed about as a young adult -

Except, she wasn’t a young adult right now, was she? Kou was a teenager, which meant she had to think back even further. Kou closed her eyes and concentrated, remembering a time where she’d dreamt of adventure and fun.

“Well, it’s going to seem silly.” She said after a moment of silence.

“I know it’s not necessarily the easiest thing to do, but I’ve always kind of wanted to experience what it’s like to be in a wagon chase. You know, the high speed chase, running from dastardly villains, or even from the law itself! A high-stakes race that really gets your blood pumping, do you know what I mean?”

It was then Yasei might come to the realization that Kou was more than a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Oh, the instinct had died down in her old age, but now there was no excuse to not have a little bit of fun! People had been telling her to slow down for decades. No more. Right now, it was time for her to go as fast as her heart desired…

Even if it meant raising hell in Sol City to do so.

Yasei stared blankly at Kou for a moment before bursting into hysterical laughter. He held his stomach as he doubled over, tears in his eyes. Even with his change in appearance, his laugh was as loud and boisterous as usual albeit somewhat higher pitched and without the shaking belly.

"A wagon chase!" He wheezed through his howling. It took him a few minutes before he could finally breathe again. He took some deep breaths, still letting a chuckle escape his lips every now and then, pulling himself back together.

He gave Kou a serious look for a second before he broke back into a fit of chuckling despite his best efforts. He took some more breaths to calm down, clearing his throat and waving a paw in front of him. Okay, it was time to be serious! He still had a smile as he addressed Kou, but he was at least keeping himself from laughing anymore.

"Ehem, Mmm, hmm. A wagon chase!" He said, nodding like it was a perfectly reasonable wish. He gave a big thumbs up and a confident smile. "Sure! I get it! I've never been in one before, but it sounds exciting. Let's do it!"

A wagon chase wasn't anything like what he'd expected Kou to want to do, but it sounded fun! Really, it was a wonder he'd never been in a wagon chase before. It sounded like exactly the sort of thing someone would expect Yasei to have done before.

"Ooh, let's get disguises too! No one will be able to recognize us with cool masks on and being all young and stuff!" Yasei added, vastly underestimating just how recognizable a giant blue and pink Koma-Inu and red Fellblood were even with a disguise and younger body than usual.

"Let's go as soon as we finish eating. Who knows how long this young thing will last." He finished before starting to scarf down the food spread out around him. How he gained so much weight in his older age really wasn't much of a mystery if this was the same appetite he had when he was young.

… Well, she wasn’t truly sure why Yasei was laughing at her request, but so long as it made him smile! Soon Kou found herself laughing along with him. She couldn’t help it; the situation they’d found themselves in was rather ridiculous. Here they were, teenager’s once more, and Kou’s first response was to do crime about it.

Well, the good news was that he was on board!

“Yes! A wagon chase, the real deal, the kind of thing that gets your blood pumping!” She agreed, getting excited just thinking about it! It was becoming increasingly obvious that while the elder Kou Miyami dreamed of heroics, the younger woman once held dreams of adrenaline and grandeur.

Oh - and Yasei even brought up disguises! Kou hadn’t even thought about it, but it was only natural that they concealed their identities! Never mind that one of them was a big fuzzy komainu and the other one of them was red, but either way, they were different enough from their older selves that… uh, well, they’d cross that bridge when they got to it!

She was so excited that she pulled herself to her feet, ready to sprint towards the nearest wagon, when Yasei reminded her that they still had an entire picnic to eat! Kou wante to deny - they could eat when they were older - but… oh, it would be really nice to eat whatever she wanted without having to worry about her heart. Kou bent down and picked up a bowl and started throwing down food with a ferocity unheard of for the normally serene woman.

Oh, she was going to regret this later, but it was so totally worth it.

Once she’d eaten an entire plate and a half, she grabbed a last piece of toast and shoved it in her mouth, grabbing a second and shoving it in Yasei’s. “No time to dally, clock’s a’ticking! Grab the rest of your food and eat on the way - we’ve got a wagon to borrow!” i.e., steal. And there was no shortage of them along the streets…

By the time Yasei stood she was already making her way towards an empty one parked near the end of the grass, with horses still hitched on it. The perfect crime.

"Mmm eeing a fa a- mmmph!" Yasei spoke, his mouth already full of food when Kou suddenly shoved another piece of toast in. His eyes opened wide as he though he might choke, quickly trying to chew as much as he could before he involuntarily swallowed the huge mouthful all at once. He thumped his chest and coughed after finally getting it all down.

With the last of the picnic spread poured into a single bowl under one arm, he looked around at the remaining plates atop the blanket. Who would steal dirty dishes and a blanket? They could come back for that stuff and clean up later. They had a wagon to steal while they still looked young!

And it looked like Kou was already heading toward a target, the idea of getting disguises forgotten. Wasn't she getting a bit ahead of herself here?

"Oy..." Yasei sighed. Since when was he the responsible one between the two of them? This was reminding him more and more of taking care of his daughter. She'd always been a hand full, but she had never asked him to help her steal a wagon at least. Kou was really a lot more of a trouble maker than Yasei had expected!

He reached down and grabbed the picnic blanket, pulling it up. The empty dishes slid off, piling up on the grass with a clatter. It wasn't much of a disguise, but it was better than nothing and he didn't think Kou was going to wait for them to go find anything better. He threw the blanket over himself like a cloak, tying the front together, and ran after Kou, shoveling handfuls of the rest of the picnic into his mouth.

It didn't take long for him to catch up. Kou was a lot faster now that she was young, but she still couldn't compare to the Koma-Inu who could have outrun her even if he hadn't regained his own youth.

"What's the plan? Do you know how to drive a wagon?" Yasei asked just before throwing the last crabcake into his mouth.

He tossed the empty bowl into the grass behind them and then let out a belch that he stifled with a fist over his mouth. Ugh. He actually felt kind of sick. His stomach really wasn't as big as it had been when he was older. Maybe that last bowl of food was too much. He really had to keep that in mind if he didn't change back to his normal age.