{♪} Her eyes widened in surprise. He had actually agreed to assist her? It was unexpected — but definitely not unpleasant. After all, she was a mere stranger — a passer-by on the streets — and he didn't seem to have any signs of finding her irksome or a bother. Perhaps he is just that approachable? 

But now that the stranger had agreed to help out, it made her feel even worse. Perhaps she should give him a treat to a restaurant, or something along the line as a symbol of appreciation for his help after he retrieves her purse? Ah, she supposed she would just have to leave that for later. 

"O—Oh, yes. It's down in there." She nodded, as she leaned forward a little to take a better look in the drain. Nozomi had to agree — this was a filthy job. Considering the fact that the drain was flowing with — very obviously — dirty water, and its edges were not exactly the cleanest ones you could find in the city... This was probably the worst thing the male could ask for, right? 

"Thank you once again." She muttered a little too softly, as she bowed her head forward. Thanking him was probably the least she could do at this very moment.  

;; help! — { nozomi + yato}

♚ | Of course, if anyone would ever ask Yato for assistance, he’d probably tell them first if that is ‘the wish they wanted’, and immediately charge them for five yen. But when the girl explained that her purse went down the drain, and that it was far from reach.

Judging by the timid tone from her voice, she seemed to be a bit hesitant to ask—almost indicating a slight sense of shyness. Yato’s pretty easy to approach, and he’s certainly used to strangers ignoring him. However—this girl just so happened to stumble upon him. Of course, it’s only been a week since he first settled in this city himself—but he’s trying to get the hang of it.

He doesn’t say a word, but after a few seconds of silence, the raven took a breath, before nodding his head. “Alright.” Normally it’d cost you, but seeing how your purse is in depths down there— Oh well. He could probably give her his business card once he’s done with that little favor.

Adjusting his scarf, he raised it a little higher, to the point where it covered half of his face—almost like a mask. “It’s a pretty dirty job, but if it hasn’t fallen deep into the sewers, I guess I can reach it.” Yato kneels down, to where the drain on the sidewalk drain gate was located. “It fell down here, right?”

{♪}  Indeed, Nozomi noted the light shade of pink that was forming on the male's cheeks. Of course, she knew that pointing it out would just make this conversation get increasingly awkward and embarrassing, so she proceeded with talking as if she had not seen anything. It was not the first time someone approaching her was flushed with scarlet, anyway. Many of the students back in her school — who happened to be fans of her idol group — always had the same expression on their face when they approached her. Did this boy here, perhaps, know or heard about her and her idol group before this meeting? Well, most probably not — he didn't seem to recognize her at the first glance. 

"Oh, that's right! Pardon my manners." She had forgotten all about introducing herself! Hopefully that did not leave him with a negative impression of her. "My name is Nozomi. Nozomi Tojo. How about yourself?" 

;; collision — { nozomi + yukine }

❅; Her smile was cute, that’s for sure. It just sucked that he kept blushing every time a cute girl talked to him. Damn his hormones for betraying him all the time. Hopefully, the girl didn’t notice the pink that was probably spreading across his cheeks, but if she did, he figured she’d be nice enough not to mention it. Hopefully.

"That’s good! I’m glad you’re alright," he responded, nodding back. The girl reminded him a lot of Hiyori, with her cute smile and happy demeanor. They even looked around the same age, but it was hard to tell. The resemblance made his heart ache a bit, probably because he missed his friend who was still back home. His smile faltered a bit, but he was able to smile once more when the other girl gave him advice. That was nice of her. It’s hard finding people like her, who’s so easygoing and kind. "Thank you… Ah- I’m sorry. I don’t think I caught your name."

{♪} Ah, he wasn't angry at her — that was good to hear, for starters. Nozomi had came across rather rude passer-bys when she travelled down the city, after all. It was nice to hear that this boy here was not those sort of people. Nozomi didn't want her first meeting with someone to be thus unpleasant. "Hm, is that so?" She questioned, tilting her head to the side, and returning his smile. 

"Ah, don't worry about it — I'm fine, thank you for your concern." She replied, nodding her head. It seems like the people around in this city were more outgoing and approachable than she had thought they would be. "Do be more wary of where you're going next time, though!" It was becoming a habit for Nozomi to give advice to people she come across — even to the people she had just happened to meet. It was probably because of the 'vice-president of the student council' bug that was still in her. 

;; collision — { nozomi + yukine }

❅; Adjusting to this new lifestyle had been a pretty hard for Yukine, but with each day passing, it seemed to get better. He still missed everyone from back home, but with Yato here with him, having a recognizable face around made it just a bit easier to get used to the new environment. But of course, he would never admit that he liked having the dork around.

The blond found that little exploration walks would help him. He would walk one route every morning and go a little further every day, mapping out the city in his head and fitting together pieces like a puzzle. Some days would be more interesting that others depending on what he’d find, and today, instead of a what, he found a who.

Yukine hadn’t seen the girl coming since he was too busy looking up and around rather than right in front of him. His eyes widened as tangerine irises met pretty aquamarines, making his cheeks lightly blush.

"You don’t have to apologize! That was my bad… Wasn’t really watching where I was going," he explained, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. "I’m fine, but are you? I bumped into you pretty hard."

{♪} Her turquoise eyes fluttered, as she glanced downwards. "Umm..." Asking a complete stranger for their assistance was already awkward enough for Nozomi — needing them to help her to retrieve her purse from deep down the drain was making this worst. How could she ask for help without feeling bad? 

A part of her was ready for the stranger to reject her plea for help — it was a rather out-of-the-world request, after all. It wasn't everyday you get a random person down the street to ask you something this extreme. Usually, it will probably go like, "Do you know the way to this place?" or "Do you know where we are?", not asking them to climb all the way into a possibly extremely filthy drainage to collect their personal possessions. All this was making it more difficult for Nozomi to continue.

"Well, you see..." She begun — still refusing to make eye contact with the stranger standing before her — bracing herself to, perhaps, get yelled at.  "I dropped my purse into the drain there. And I can't seem to reach for it to get it back..." 

"Could you help me to get it back, please?" 

;; help! — { nozomi + yato}

♚ | Yato was just minding his own business. He hadn’t recieved any calls or requests to do any jobs—and even with his advertisement of writing on bulletin boards, no luck yet. By now, he should be used to this, it takes time and hard working effort for someone to become one of this ‘followers’. And even with Yukine by his side, it seems that there’s still a chance that he could still do this. The dark haired boy doesn’t know why he does all of this to himself—accepting jobs and trying to get recognized—is it all because he doesn’t want to feel left out?

Trying to be well-known, putting yourself to help others in need—that’s something that a god would do, right? Except…Yato himself isn’t a god. He’s only human. His thoughts were in circles—and it doesn’t take long for the boy to snap out of spacing out.

"Hm?’ Blue eyes blink, feeling a hand touch his sleeve. Immediately he turns around, a purple haired girl in twin tails—whom seemed to have eyes locked onto his. Did she…need something? Normally, if anyone were to ask him for help, he’d charge them for five yen. But this girl—it almost feels like she was just new herself.

"What is it?" He responded with a question, turning around to face her. 

{♪} From the light twitch of annoyance on the other girl's features, Nozomi knew that the younger girl was not exactly that pleased with her approaching her. Was it because she had interrupted her from playing her video game? Oh, but it didn't affect her that much, really — as the vice-president of the student council in her previous school, she was already used to the different types of people around. She — more or less — knew how to deal with them. 

"Ah, is that so?" She nodded her head in acknowledgement, the smile still pursed on her face. "Thank you, then, hmm." If the girl had offered to lend Nozomi her assistance, there was no reason to reject her offer, was there? Even though the girl may be a tiny bit displeased with her. 

It was then her eyes came across the school logo that was imprinted on the other girl's blouse — ah, so she was a middle school student. Was she, perhaps, waiting for someone? Her parents, maybe? That could explain why she was playing with her game console — to kill time. Her chain of thoughts were broken when she saw the girl whip out her phone — and a pretty-expensive looking one at that. Was it one of the latest models? Nozomi didn't know — she had always been too busy with either the student council or her idol group to catch up with such things. Standing at the side, she decided to wait for the girl to give her further directions before continuing on with her journey. 

;; lost — { nozomi + ciel }

In all the world there were few things Ciel found more irritating than an interruption to one of her video games. Unfortunately for this smiling stranger, the timing couldn’t have been worse. That clueless question caused her to break her chain of flawlessly executed commands, spoiling her perfect score and drawing a sharp sigh from her lips.

Pulling off her noise-cancelling headphones, Ciel closed the app and glanced up at this girl with an expertly contained scowl, looking less than pleased but not so much as to scare anyone away. For once in her life she wasn’t in a particularly sour mood, but there was something about this girl that vexed her— something apart from the sabotage of her high score. Of course, given her own personality, Ciel never had gotten along with people who smiled so much; those sunny dispositions were just so draining.

"Toshi Academy?" she echoed, wondering whether the uniform she was wearing had somehow escaped this girl’s notice. She’d heard of Toshi City’s most prevalent high school, but as a middle school student she’d never actually visited the campus. It didn’t help that she was relatively new to the city herself, either, though she’d already done more than her share of exploring. In any case, this girl was clearly lost, and Ciel happened to be holding a swift solution to her problem. “I can look it up if you want.”

Without waiting for an answer, she opened the map function on her phone and began to enter the name of the academy into the search bar. In a few seconds, with any luck, the girl would be on her way, and Ciel would be left to wait for her chauffeur in peace.

;; coins & ice creams — { nozomi + kyouya }

{♪} Ice cream. That was all Nozomi could think about under the blistering hot sun — it felt as if the entire city had been converted into some sauna. Imagine the relief on the idol's face when she saw the ever-so-lovely ice cream shop under the shade up ahead! 

Standing before the ice cream store, her turquoise eyes scanned the list of ice cream she could be able to savour — she absolutely could not wait for it. As she opened up her purse, she was greeted by a shocking sight — she was short of fifty cents to purchasing her ice cream. 

What exactly was the meaning of this? Of course, Nozomi could only blame herself for not having enough cash. But now — imagine how she felt when she saw a one-dollar coin slip out of someone's pocket and fall on the ground, towards her direction. 

Nozomi's first instinct was to pick up the coin, pretend nothing happened and pay for the ice cream with the money. After all, no one would knew, right? But her conscious got the better of her — she knew this was wrong. If she took even a single coin away, wouldn't it make her no different from a thief? Nozomi definitely didn't want to end up feeling guilty for the next few months because of an ice cream. She decided to pick up the coin, and chase after the male whom had dropped his one-dollar coin. 

"Hello — you dropped some money!" 

;; collision — { nozomi + yukine }

{♪} Nozomi surveyed the shops that was aligned at the sides of the road, her bag slung over her right shoulder. For the day, she had decided to go around the city to do some exploring and sight-seeing. Besides, it was nice to take in some fresh air from the outside, instead of being confined in a closed space everyday.

This city was definitely larger than she had expected it to be. At least, it was larger than the city which she had originally came from. Nozomi especially liked the living pace in the city — it was not too rushed, nor was it too slow. In fact, she thought that she was going to like this new change more than she was going to dislike it. 

Just as she was lost in her own thoughts, she felt a rather forceful bump against her shoulder. Snapping back to reality, she realized that she had crashed into a male — with rather striking blonde hair. Though he was a little taller than Nozomi herself, he didn't exactly seem to be older than her. 

"Oh! My apologies — I wasn't looking at where I was going!" 

"Are you alright?" 

;; help! — { nozomi + yato}

{♪} There it was. Her purse. All the way down at the bottom of the drain along the sidewalk. How could she have been so unlucky to have dropped her personal belongings into such a place? She had many of her credit cards and her all-important identification card in her purse, after all. Though, she wasn't exactly that surprised that something thus unlucky happened to her — her tarot cards did mention that something unfortunate was about to befall her, after all. She could only blame it on Lady Luck not being by her side. 

The idol stretched forward, trying to reach out for her purse. Of course, she was unable to retrieve it back, considering how deep the drain was. Being utterly powerless at the moment, Nozomi could only look at her purse — now soaked with muddy water. If only someone could lend her a hand... 

She immediately turned towards the person that was the closest to where she was standing — a certain raven-haired male. In a state of anxiety and confusion, the idol pulled his sleeve rather abruptly to be able to get his attention. 

"I'm very sorry for intruding, but could you assist me with something?" 

;; lost — { nozomi + ciel }

{♪} How do you get to the renowned Toshi Academy — again? Nozomi had been circling round and round the city, only to find herself ending up in the same place again and again. Every inch in the city appeared to be identical to her, anyway. With a map clutched in her hand, she glanced around at the buildings that towered over her. 

Nozomi Tojo was lost. 

She peered up from her map, watching the many different faces flash past her. Everyone was busy going about their day — would it be alright to approach one of them to ask for directions? At that moment, a female — who appeared to be younger than Nozomi herself — caught the idol's eye. Perhaps she knew the way around here? From the way she stood, she did not appear to be in a rush or whatsoever. Well, it definitely won't hurt to ask her for a little assistance, right?

"Hmm, excuse me," she called out, making her way towards the female, a smile plastered on her face. "Do you happen to know the way to a place known as 'Toshi Academy'?" 

Would anyone be interested in threading with Nozomi? I just finished setting everything up and all — so do like this post if you'd like a starter and I'll write one up!

Love Live! School Idol Project

μ’s member Nozomi