"Y-yeah, you're, um, you're right . . ." Izumi started off with enthusiasm, but her voice quickly dwindled to a whisper, ". . . it does get pretty lonely here."

But that was no reason for her mood to saunter! Izumi did what she could to cheer herself back up--it wasn't like anyone else was going to do it for her, right? That's what happened in a lonely place like this.

"A-anyways! Um, my boss is real nice, so he'll probably let you have a table to yourself, and I can eat with you on my lunch break, and, um, hmm . . . oh! The waiters and waitresses might come by to talk to you, too, if they know you're my friend--or, at least, they might start to make chit-chat if they see you sitting there for awhile. I know Kayla probably will."

Izumi had went off into her own little world of ranting to herself once again, but it hadn't lasted long. She didn't have enough time to go off into a rant--she had to get to work, and fast.

"Ummmmmm, okay!" Izumi quickly took Dyss's hand, squeezing tight as she moved past him, intending to have him follow closely behind, "I'm going to try and be on time today--"

For once.

"--so, let's, um--er, okay, umm, Dyss? Be careful on the steps, okay? I'll be in front of you, but, um, I don't know if I can support you if you fall . . ."

Not much of what Izumi said really meant much to Dyss... So much of it always seemed topical and beyond what he knew. In any case, he was glad to be going, even if he would mostly be sitting at a table. He could at least hear other people, if not see them...

"I... Okay. Just let me know when we reach the stairs..."

Dyss was wary about traveling down the stairs to get out of the apartment, though it especially made him wonder how she'd brought him up the stairs in the first place. It must have been extremely difficult... If she could navigate up the stairs with him, he could navigate down them blind with some help...

At least, that was what he thought... No matter how much help he had, he couldn't navigate the stairs himself. At least, not yet. After just one step down, Dyss would step incorrectly, his ankle bending sideways with a short yell, and his body quickly following. Dyss wasn't a large guy, thankfully, and he would try to aim himself as close to the wall as possible to keep from dragging Izumi down face first as well...

"A-ah!! H-hold on!" Izumi cried in surprise.

The last thing she needed was the both of them falling and rolling down the stairs. Dyss may not have been a heavy compared to other guys his age, but he was still a great deal heavier than she was, and Izumi wasn't particularly strong enough to hold him up if he took a sudden fall. That concluded, it was for the best that Dyss not fall, else the both of them could get seriously hurt. It didn't matter that she was ahead of him, either. Had she been behind him, she would have still tried fruitlessly to keep him from spilling, and wind up being dragged down with him.

Fortunately, that didn't happen, thanks to Dyss's moving towards the wall, and Izumi trying to stand strong against him, so he'd lean into her back a bit, while she tried to act as a wall with all her strength. Had Dyss not been against the wall, that wouldn't have worked.

"Ummm, okay, how about a different way?" Izumi asked rhetorically as she let go of Dyss's hand.

Instead of holding his hand and hoping he could rely on muscle memory to help him get down the stairs, Izumi was at his side. Dyss would feel her pressing up against his side, wrapping her arms around him from there, and holding onto him tightly. She could go down the stairs side-ways, and still help Dyss keep his balance. In fact, that was the goal.

"Here, just walk when I walk. Feel it out with your foot, and just do it one foot at a time for now . . ." Izumi narrated softly. Even when giving directions and help like this, which should have seemed patronizing, she wasn't patronizing in the least. She really, truly, wanted to help him out.

Dyss would wrap his arms around Izumi as well, his balance still shaky as he traveled down the steps. With her help, though, he would be able to slowly make his way, his body balancing on hers during the all-too-long intervals where Dyss had to move his foot blind down a stair...

"...Thanks..."

Dyss seemed a bit embarrassed, but at the moment, at least, it wasn't for the blindness or his ability to get down the stairs. He was embarrassed by, though not opposed to, the close contact between himself and Izumi. And in fact, he would continue to hold himself close to Izumi for several steps after the end of the stairs...

Izumi, too, continued to hold onto Dyss absentmindedly for several steps after the final stair. It was a subconscious thing, something she didn't give any thought to whatsoever. It wasn't like she was in any sort of dire need of physical contact or anything, right?

There was a point when she had to let go of Dyss, though--and following that, there was a clicking and twisting sound, something metalic, but inconsequential in the total amount of sound it produced. Once again, Izumi began to hold Dyss's hand. Now that they were down the steps, she didn't need to hold onto him to give him balance or anything or the sort--she could just walk beside of him, hand in hand, for support's sake.

She'd lead him forward, where he'd feel not the stagnate air of her house, but the cool breeze of the outside. Izumi let go of his hand only once, and just to close her door behind them.

"Th-that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No..."

It hadn't been bad at all. In fact, it was one of the more enjoyable experiences he'd had in... Ever, really. The sensation of the wind was strange, considering how used to stagnant air he was, between Purgatory and Izumi's apartment... It was pleasant, though. As was holding Izumi's hand. Trying to walk with no idea what the surface looked like was more difficult, but he managed slowly...

"What can you see?"

It was a fairly simple matter: Dyss wanted to know what the world looked like here, at least as Izumi saw it. It wouldn't be the same as Dyss would have seen it... In fact, he only had memories with actual eyes from other people. His own senses were different, and perhaps better in many cases, but they weren't really suited to taking in beauty...

The girl's reply came with an inquisitive, somewhat confused tone of voice: "What can I see? Um, well . . ."

It was a sort of strange question, but as she thought about it, it made more and more sense. Dyss, being blind, may not have seen Galaens at all--or, for that matter, didn't remember what a lot of the outside looked like. Dyss's memory was so weird sometimes. Izumi found herself wondering a few times if Dyss really did have amnesia, or if he had only lost selective memory. He didn't seem to just be acting, though. Dyss genuinely wasn't able to eat until she showed him. That was the strangest part about it.

Regardless, she had no problems answering the question--while they walked. She didn't want to be late for work, so she kept on walking, but at a slow pace, and always at Dyss's side. That way, she wasn't going to pull him along into falling, but she was still making progress towards her place of employment.

"Well, it's my street. Sort of . . . a wide dirt road, with houses on each side. A lot of them are small places. My place behind us is a two story house; an older couple live right under me," Izumi stopped herself before she started on another unrelated rant, "It's still early, so the sun had just risen, putting everything in this orange light. The aren't a lot of clouds in the sky, either, and the morning fog . . . um, I think it actually lifted an hour ago or so. I work just down the adjacent street, I can see it from here; it isn't very far from here at all. The market is actually close to where I work; a lot of people have probably set up for the day, even," Izumi answered Dyss's question to the best of her ability, speaking with a soft, pleasant tone--somewhat different than her usual upbeat, jovial speech.

Dyss was glad to hear the trip was short in one way, but he wanted it to last longer as well. There was less chance of being hurt, but he was likely going to be spending much of the day alone. The moment was enjoyable, hearing Izumi describe what she saw. It wasn't exactly something he could imagine, but it was nice to hear, anyway...

"It sounds... Real..."

Dyss shook his head slightly to clear his brain, lost in thought of how it was different from Purgatory, and what his friends may see when they came through to the real world as well. He hadn't even considered how strange the statement may seem to Izumi, but he hoped it would just be in passing...

Izumi didn't know how to reply to that one, and rummaged thoughts through her head about it. It was mainly the notion of reality that had her confused--if it didn't sound real, then what would it have sounded like?

After a few minutes passed, Izumi exclaimed, "Okay! This is the place."

Dyss would feel a bit of excessive movement, as Izumi let go of his hand, wrapping her arm around his waist, instead. She guided him forward for a few seconds, before finally coming to a stop and turning him a bit. The way she guided him from that point was the same as times when she was helping him sit down somewhere, and indeed, Dyss would find himself seated on a hardwood surface, its back and bottom both comprising wide strips of wood modestly spaced apart, and altogether forming a wide seat with a metal arm rest.

"Could you stay riiiiight here for a minute or two? I need to go primer my boss about this," it was a rhetorical question, as Izumi had rushed off just seconds after she asked.

"...Yes..."

Dyss would answer, but too quietly and late for it to make a difference. He didn't have much of a choice, anyway. Wandering around blind, especially in a crowded area, was unlikely to end well. Izumi was still nearby, at least. Even if he couldn't see anything, he didn't really have anything to worry about...

So, sitting back in the chair, he would try to listen, and smell, and generally get an idea of what the place was like. Even if he couldn't see anything, his hearing was getting better, enough that he could sort of imagine objects...

She had obviously left him outside; the summer morning breeze would have been absent otherwise. The smell of the area hadn't changed completely, but there were a few added fragrances. Namely, food. None of the smells, however slight they were, were going to be familiar to Dyss, but picking them out would be easy enough. After all, with a lack of sight, his other senses were going to become progressively sharper.

Izumi returned less than a couple of minutes later, evident as she cheerfully proclaimed, "All right! My boss said it's okay if you stick around during my shift! C'mon, I'll help you to a seat."

The girl reached out to take Dyss's hand, and would help him up to the best of her ability, as well as provide him balance and support if he needed it. Now the difficulty: should she put him somewhere visible, or somewhere difficult to see, so no one would bother him? Dyss wasn't going to notice one way or the other, though--so it didn't matter too much in the end. Dyss would be escorted by Izumi by hand to a place to sit inside; a table. She'd help him to sit if need be, as well.

"Umm, I should be able to swing by and talk every so often, and I can eat lunch with you, too--some others might talk to you, too. I know Kayla was looking at us weird when we came in . . ."

Dyss would require a bit of help to sit without hitting the table, but not much after that. After all, he would just be sitting... Sitting for quite a while. But at least he could listen. There was more than the empty silence of Izumi's apartment, even if he couldn't really initiate a conversation...

"Okay, thank you. I'll be here..."

Dyss would keep his head raised in an almost eager way, despite the fact that his eyes couldn't see. He didn't want to scare anyone off, after all. Izumi would be around eventually, but she was going to be busy a lot of the time, too...

It didn't take very long at all for the restaurant to be subject to bustle. At first, Dyss would be able to make out various conversations, none of which really referenced him at all--mostly small talk amongst a small number of patrons, sometimes select bits about personal issues (such as an elderly sounding couple of men who were discussing how much the wait for one of their wives to die was abominable, and a young boy and presumably his grandfather discussing advanced history, wherein the boy--who sounded like he was no more than two--knew much more than the grandfather. Of course, none of that would make any sense to Dyss, but the boy seemed to know what he was talking about.), and one particular conversation between Izumi and another girl:

The other girl's voice had a slight whine to it, but at the same time, a seductive twist--and still sounded around the same age as Izumi and Dyss. "Na-cha~n, mornin'!"

"O-oh, good morning, Kayla!"

"How's it goin'?"

"Ummm, not too bad . . . yourself?"

"I'm doin' great! But that's not too important. See, I kinda wanted to take the day off."

"Oh? But . . . um, I don't think anyone could cover your shift at the moment . . . a-and, isn't it too late to look for someone?"

"Psh. I wasn't gonna go out an look--I was gonna ask you."

"M-me? But I'm working the same shift you are . . ."

"Yeeeaaaah, but, see, you could do waitressing today, too!"

"Wh-what? I'm sorry, Kayla, b-but that'd be way too much . . ."

"Awww, c'mon Na-chan! Be a pal! I'll buy you somethin' cute at the market if you do! I know you're in need of clothes and everythin'."

". . . nhh, c-come on, Kayla . . ." Izumi sighed, "All right . . ."

Hours passed, and the bustle around Dyss became too much for him to possibly pick out any particular conversation. Izumi did come back, though--but first the first time since she helped Dyss sit down. She hadn't had the chance to come visit him, and by the time her lunch break came around and she could relax, she felt like her legs were going to break.

"Nff," Izumi let out a muffled groan as she plopped down at the other side of the table, "Hey, Dyss . . ."

Dyss would listen to the exchange between Izumi and Kayla, his face frowning as it occurred, and the other girl gave her work to Izumi. He didn't get a chance to talk to either one of them, but he could hear how tired Izumi was as she practically collapsed into the booth for lunch.

"Hi, Izumi... I heard you talking to that Kayla person. She sounds... Mean..."

Dyss wasn't particularly worried that he might offend. It didn't even occur to him that the relationship might be more complicated than he imagined. He was a direct and simple kind of person...

"E-eh? Mean?"

Firstly, Izumi didn't think that Dyss could hear quite that well to eavesdrop, and secondly, she wasn't expecting him to call Kayla mean. There was probably some right in him doing it, but still . . .

"She's not mean, ummm, she's just, um, she's just really lazy. That's all . . ." Izumi replied, her voice quiet--not necessarily hurt by Dyss's insinuation about the girl, but a little bit . . . sad.

Sad that she couldn't admit that there was a bit of truth in Dyss's statement. That took a little bit more than she was willing to give at the moment. Backbone. She lacked in that category.

"A-anyways, um, I'm starving. What about you?" Izumi asked as a means of fruitfully changing the subject. "I can get us both free lunches and, ummm, they're really, really delicious."