The Search Is On

"God I hate mornings. Fuckin' A. I think the only boyfriend I've had is my bed. Well, he certainly doesn't wanna let me go."

Giselle's thoughts rang within her head as she forced herself to get up. It was a terrible day already—she could tell by the clouds in the skies. Heavy rain shot down from the tainted heavens, as she tossed and turned in her bed.

Naturally, Giselle Mercury was never one to sleep. Of course, she'd just sit in bed with her eyes open until the crack of dawn. She hadn't slept in fifty years—she didn't even know why, but it was more that she couldn't sleep. The exhausted eye bags she possessed were proof of the fact that the ravages of time had gotten to her.

Rubbing her baggy eyes, Giselle sighed in disappointment. It seemed that the group in her charge were certainly an...interesting bunch. "Gah...what an interesting year this year's gonna be. I guess I ain't the best babysitter, though."

As she was struggling to get up, Giselle was rudely interrupted—by a flying, talking bird, none the less. Squawking like it was jacked up on some sort of narcotics, the damn flying chicken screeched at Giselle;

"Hiya! I'm a bird... ...No I'm not! Come on, Giselle!"

No response.

"Hey! What's with that skeptical look? I'm not screwing with you; I screwed up an experiment with Magitech and got combined with my pet parrot, Mr. Crackers! C'mon, give a parrot-man a chance!"

"..."

"No!? Come on, you gotta help a guy in deep trouble! What do you say, Giselle? Please?"

"...Will it help with the goal of destroying the Zodiac Knights?" Giselle's response was as sharp as a blade.

"...Yeah, you could say that! And by the way, I'm Fred Fredson, headmaster of this place, if you remember, so you CAN'T refuse my request!" Fredson squawked, as Giselle took ahold of his feathered body and shook him.

"If you don't flock off, feather-face, allow me to remind you that parrot is delicious with barbeque sauce." Giselle smirked evilly; as the lights from Fredson's eyes dimmed.

"BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?"

Giselle chuckled, "Ahaha, I'm not serious. But I guess it can't be helped. Now, what did you want..."

Fredson whistled, "Yeehah! Thanks, Giselle! I owe you one! Now, here's your instructions. It's to kill two birds with one stone..." Giselle grinned at him evilly, before he backed up on those words. "Ahahaha, you know what I mean, don't take it literally! It's to solve two problems at once!"

"Just get on with it. I'm tempted to just lay here all day, because I'm out of flocks to give to a bird-brain like you." Giselle hissed under her breath.

"Fweeeeeeeek! Do you even know who you're talking to!?"

Giselle pulled on the cheeks of Fredson with a bemused expression. "I got it, bird-brain. Now hurry up and shit all over somebody's car. And by that tell me what the fuck you wanna tell me."

"Well, in order to change me back, and also gain an advantage against the Zodiac Knights, thou shalt inquire from a tiger's child."

Giselle Mercury had given the orders—assigning those under her charge, Team Daybreak, in order to find the "tiger's child". Supposedly, they'd be around Hargeon, so of course, they'd be capable of finding them easily, right?

Wrong.

Giselle sighed as she watched Tsuruko Sejren, Gary Straights, Kaguya Kobayashi, Rosa Dimaggio and Deen Lhant race around the expansive city—even though she was doing her best, she had realized that indeed, Fredson had given her the worst team to go by, teamwork-wise.

"...Gah, why can't I get somebody halfway fucking intelligent on my team? Goddammit, they have trouble fighting monsters because they're too busy fighting against each other; and do NOT get me started on teamwork." She slumped, burying her head in her hands.

Aeris Lugonis, who was not deployed, merely watched on in amusement, chuckling slightly before returning to embedding herself within the expansive world of her book.

After Giselle Mercury had given her orders; Team Daybreak with the exception of Aeris Lugonis had split up to search the city of Hargeon—the Suzaku, Gary Straights, had broken into the Hargeon Zoo; violating all common sense and leaping into the tiger cage.

"H-Hey, what the hell are you doing, you stupid kid!?" The manager of the zoo screamed at the young man, who wasn't paying attention, only prodding the tiger which had snow-white fur, declaring to it loudly;

"Hey. Take me to your leader, oh mighty wise tiger! ALLOW ME TO MEET YOUR BRETHEREN!" The tiger did naught but snarl viciously at Gary's words.

The manager interrupted angrily, "We don't have any tiger cubs! Now get the hell out of there before it tears your intestines out!"

Wandering through an amusement park;

"Pardon me, but do you have any children?"

As if out of nowhere, a small child ran towards the mascot, her needy little hands clutching into the Styrofoam of the suit. "Aaaaah, here's Pantera! He's so cuddly~"

Kaguya raised her left eyebrow slightly—slowly approaching the child as she rested her hand upon the child's shoulder. "Oh, this is your child, right!"

"Don't touch my daughter, you pedophiles!" The child's mother; a shapely woman in her mid-30's came running; snagging her young'un by the hand and sprinting off.

"Kaguya, it's a crime for young adults to abduct young girls, you know." Deen Lhant snarked at Kaguya from afar; having been watching the whole spectacle with an amused expression.

The sight of Deen's raven with pink hair caught the corner of Kaguya's eye—as her expression contorted into one of pure rage as she said something.

Deen couldn't hear her voice, but he understood it from the movements of her mouth.

"I – am – going – to – fucking – kill – you."

Deen Lhant took in what Kaguya had said; as she smiled so it looked like her face was split in two.

"...!!" All of the hairs on Deen's body stood on end.

Tsuruko was also on the case; walking through the hustle-and-bustle of Hargeon, searching far and wide for the child of beasts. Glancing down as she trudged forward, Tsuruko sighed.

"...That guy." She was referring to Gary Straights. "...Why, why is he so familiar? It's like I met him so long ago."

Naturally, as she wasn't paying attention, as she slammed head-first into a solitary figure. Bounding back, she tumbled along the ground, landing on her derrière with a *THUD!*. Slowly standing to her feet, she freaked out...only to see an all-too-familiar face.

"...EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHXCELLEN!?" Tsuruko exclaimed, as Excellen Kilekion extended her hand towards Tsuruko, offering her assistance in standing to her feet. "W-What are you doing here!?"

The gold-haired woman's sparkling sapphire eyes stared into Tsuruko's own purple eyes. "Well, I just heard Giselle and the headmaster talking this whole thing over, and I decided, why the hell not help ya out? That's what friends do, right?"

Tsuruko accepted Excellen's hand as she helped her up. "...But, this tiger's child, I can't find it anywhere...and neither can anyone else...Agh, what do I do nowwwwwwwwwwwwww!?" Tsuruko screamed to the heavens, as Excellen merely tousled her hair.

"Gyahahahahaha, listen, Tsuruko. If something is too far away to ever reach, you just give up. But that ain't the case for us. By stacking everything up, we can make it close enough to grasp the stars in the night sky. It is a bit dangerous, but it's as easy as climbing up on the table and standing up on our tiptoes. Then we can reach the cupboard. There's no need to call in our parents to get it for us." Truly, they were inspirational words. "You know what I'm saying? Don't give up!"

Excellen further continued, as she produced a bag out of nowhere. "Also! You know how cats hate rabbits? Well, I have something that'll draw it out!"

"...That is?" Tsuruko was now skeptical.

"A bunny suit, duh!" Excellen wagged her finger in amusement.

Tsuruko was extremely embarrassed; barely containing her absolute fright as Excellen suggested the notion to her, the shy girl responded with a barely audible, "O-Okay..."

The whole outfit consisted of a black corset, fake bunny ears, a collar with a bowtie, cuffs, a fluffy tail, stockings and high heels. The tights were wrapping around her beautiful thighs; the whole erotic bunny suit was suppressing her breasts—it was made perfect by her wearing bunny ears. It was obvious to the naked eye that Tsuruko Sejren had an erotic body to begin with, and having her in a bunny suit had an impact beyond any imagination.

"Oh, wow! Now, let's goooooooooo!" Excellen cheerily shouted, as she grabbed Tsuruko's hand, dragging her off.

Back at the statue of the Phoenix Knight at La Pucelle, Gary, Deen, Kaguya, Tsuruko, and Excellen regrouped. All in all, there was absolutely no luck in achieving their goal of finding the tiger's child.

"...How'd that tiger rip your stomach without ripping through your shirt?" Kaguya inquired.

"What do I look like, a tailor?" Gary very obviously wasn't paying much attention, merely picking his own nose.

"...Dammit, we're not finding any tiger children..." Deen stomped his foot on the group in annoyance, grumbling over his bad luck.

"There's no tiger child in this city..." Kaguya scowled with an expression that made her seem as if she'd try and gut somebody.

"...Darn it! That Fredson man-parrot-thing...his prophecies are so hard to understand...." Tsuruko lamented; still freezing her ass off in that playboy bunny suit.

"Oi, you guys!" Giselle called over the app, "Gary, send the details of the incident to everyone's communicators."

"Okay, okay." was Gary's halfhearted response; as he took out his communicator and sent the data saved there to the members of Team Daybreak other than Giselle.

All of a sudden, his peers checked the information on their apps.

And what appeared on their screens was a porn video he had downloaded from the MagiNet.

All of the female members immediately snapped their cell phones shut. When they looked at him with scornful eyes, the door of his heart slammed shut. He shut his heart up tight and sent his heart's elevator down to take refuge in his heart's nuclear shelter.

"Dammit, let me redo that! I-I didn't mean to!"

But the three females, Kaguya, Excellen, and Tsuruko responded respectively by…

"So bunny girls are a hit with you, Straights?" Kaguya hissed in a violent tone.

"Don't worry, Gary. I'm rooting for you." Excellen, looked over at Tsuruko still in her bunny suit; making a supportive gesture.

"..." Tsuruko glanced away, burying her face in her hands in embarrassment.

Gary trembled slightly at their mild words and made sure he sent the information on the tiger's child to them all as Excellen finished, "Hey, look. Gary has that reaction." Excellen laughed at Gary; who had his eyes taken away by Tsuruko's outfit; it would be impossible not to be excited looking at Tsuruko in a bunny suit, after all.

Gary's cheeks became a flushed red as he uncharacteristically snapped at Excellen, "W-What are you getting at!?"

Giselle's voice chimed in over the communicators, "She's right, you know. You and Tsuruko are the OTP in the fanfic I call my life."

Gary was still heavily embarrassed; as was Tsuruko, who continued to hide her rosy-red face. Tsuruko couldn't stand seeing the smug look on Giselle's face over the communicator; she thought she caught it sometimes when Giselle spotted her staring at Gary or laughing at his jokes.

"S-S-S-S-S-Stop, everyone!!" Tsuruko yelled out, panting and blushing; she wouldn't take any more of this. "You're all monsters!" There was a pause. "Insinuating that we're an item, I mean."