[h2]Aoyama Makiko[/h2]

"Eh? Shiki-kun?"

Makiko paused for a moment. The rather stoney-faced Youth Organization member seemed to be having some trouble... was he already done with his patrol, too? To be right here like that... The black-haired girl approached, cocking her head to one side... and swiftly spotted just what Shiki was having trouble with. A little girl, who seemed quite upset and frightened to the point of tears. Frowning, Makiko quickly sank down into a crouch, leaning down to get on eye height with the girl. Her frown quickly transitioned to a smile.

"Hi there, it looks like you're in trouble!" Makiko began. She had to do her best to try and get the girl to calm down, soothe her worries, so they could get to solving whatever problem she was having. "But don't worry, Makiko-neechan's here to help out! But you gotta let me know what's wrong, okay? Then we'll work everything out in no time!"

The girl was still sniffling, but a more friendly-looking face seemed to help calm her down.

"... A-ah, that guy with the scary face i-is... is..." she trailed off... "... I-I can't find mommy and daddy... th-they were... I don't know what..."

Makiko reached out to pat the girl on her head.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they're looking for you right now! So we're going to have no problem finding them and you'll be reunited in no time!" she replied, giving the little girl the thumbs up. "What's your name?"

"... S... Sayuri..." sniffed the little girl, trying to wipe tears out of her eyes.

"Sayuri-chan, huh? That's a cute name!" declared Makiko, brightly, deciding to try and push in order to help the little girl stop crying, "Cute girls with cute names should smile, okay, Sayuri-chan? Don't you want to give your parents a nice big smile when we find them?"

After a moment, the little girl nodded weakly, and Makiko ruffled her hair before standing and taking her hand.

"Shiki-kun, I'm going to try and find Sayuri-chan's parents," Makiko explained, looking back over her shoulder at the boy, "They're bound to be looking for her somewhere nearby."

It was about then that another familiar sight descended immediately into her view. Makiko was a bit startled for a moment(and so was poor Sayuri), even though she recognized the tenin's appearance.

"Oh, Suzuka-chan! You can help too!" she said, brightly, swiftly recovering from her shock, "Sayuri-chan's lost her parents, but we're going to find them nice and fast!"

The little girl managed another weak, mute nod. She'd clearly never seen a tenin before.

[@AtomicNut][@easy modo]