A cool breeze lingered through the air, the sun was already gone and for but a moment, Lei looked up from where she stood and halted. She took it all in, what surrounded her in this moment. The moon was hidden by misty clouds, and most of the stars seemed to be camouflaged, by the lights of the city. Lei sighed.

The black, french and zhongguo woman had very long wine-red hair, which coiled past her hip. Her eyes were of an almost liquid golden colour, but she had a hint of red in one of them, which swirled within her right Iris; it was giving her a hint of heterochromia and mystiqué.

She rarely left her hair open, yet tonight it somehow felt right. The reason behind her usually not doing it was; it was simply too warm, especially during the summer in the south of France.

Everyone possessing such a length of hair inherently knew, it was not only heavy, but each draft of air enjoyed it to the fullest - putting each strand into disorder.

The red-haired woman stood on the sidewalk and unconsciously reached up, to caress over her forehead and by way of doing this, she also readjusted her hair to the other side, and when she looked around, again, she had a bit of a lost expression painted over her beautiful face. She wore a dark green dress with multiple gossamer thin white-gold chains draped on her waist, which were growing into a corset-like structure over her chest.

She was not out of breath, she sighed and bit her lower lip in frustration, though. Her golden gaze fluttering over the trees nearby and the cars that were passing her. She realised that she was not at home in France. And that the moment she had entered the plane, she had known, that she was searching for something.

Lei let go of the breath, she had been holding and then, finally, she heard it again.

A violin was playing in the distance.

She had followed the sound, for a while now; after she had stepped out of the subway. At first, she didn't know where to go, or what to do. Earlier, she had looked at her smartphone to query a search engine for hotspots, clubs or some such, that would chase away her boredom. Even after such a long flight, she was not tired yet, but jittery.

Suddenly, she heard the soft notes of a violin that someone was starting to play. In the beginning, the melody was abrupt, which made it very hard for Lei to follow it. When it arose into a more permanent melody, it was a little easier, still she was unfamiliar with the city, and she took so many lefts and rights; essentially most of them wrong turns that the moment, in which she wanted to locate the sound, she found that the music had stopped all together.

A rush of melancholy overcame her, and it felt like she had lost a piece of herself. ... Maybe this sounded a bit overdramatic or ridiculous, but it was not like a logical deduction, could really stop her internal emotional outburst. Thinking feelings to her grievance never quite helped as much as feeling them did. It felt like a hoax to be honest.

The next melody reaching her slightly pointed ears, made her turn around and realise that she was closer to the mysterious violin melody now, than she had initially thought. So, she followed the slow, high-pitched melody and then faintly could make out a guitar maintaining the rhythm, while the violin sound came to a stop. The violin's dulcet tones were exchanged with a clear and warm voice. This voice sang in Nihongo and it caused Lei's heart to skip a beat.

Never had she heard such a voice that tugged direclty at her heart, similar to some paintings had overwhelmed her visually, this resonating voice overtook her ears and grabbed her acclerating cat muscle.

Finally, near the coast located on a small opening, but of course with this much talent very much surrounded by a crowd of people, stood a woman at 1,65 m tall, daintily holding the violin, whose sounds had grabbed Lei's attention. In this case standing was far from true, because this stunning person was moving with the elegance and cunning of a fox-spirit, a Huli Jing.

Her eyes were mesmerising; everything about her was. It was as if she had stepped out of one of the artbooks and zines, catalogised in her bedroom.

Additionally, her Irises were so dark blue, as if in tribute to the night sky above, so no one knew that they weren't black and in them there were stars shimmering, dancing, captivating and luring Lei in even more. Around the time she was within the circle of spectators, and had finally closed the distance - a new song began.

It was a bit faster this time and due to the joining in of a passing person, who had just unpacked his saxophone, it seemed the song was rather different from the one before.

Was this planned?

Were they two different street or regular musicians, who always performed together, or had the saxophonist just already known this song and had decided to spontaneously join in?

Lei did not know, but the jig reminiscent song, it seemed so much more whole now, as if it was meant to be supplemented by the metallic sound of the unique instrument.

Lei perceived this with her ears, but her eyes were glued to the woman dancing light-footed, while still holding and sometimes playing on her black violin, which had silver strings that reminded Lei of unicorn hair. The woman’s silky hair was open, same as with Lei’s and tossing parallel to her movements.

Her shiny blue waves were; well most would not have been able to see it, as stated earlier, but Lei with her vertically pupilled, draconic eyes, could clearly identify the oceanic shimmer in them that was lured out by the surrounding lights and they were just ethereal. The light also made visible, how it darkens at the tips into a purplish-blue that reminded Lei of a blue zoisite. Especially, when the clouds above finally parted, silhouetting the beauty in silvery moonlight - at first at least.

After a bit, the light and the moon in general consummated in a metamorphosis from white to a muted gray, to eventually accumulate into a shade of bloodred.

It was just about three minutes, but the poppy red light illuminated the songstress, enveloping her.

This gave a dangerous glint to her upturned eyes. Her smile was so broad now that it revealed canines, which also revealed that Lei's guess had been correct. A fox was in front of her, her movements and voice mesmerising the dragon's mind and even though she was within her 10th century, it felt to her, as if she was a hatchling now, having just left her eggshell behind.

Half an hour later the performance had finished and Lei did not know what to do. The woman had definitely noticed her. But was she brave enough to approach her right away?

Technically. she was just one of the crowd, but she could not ignore the magnetic pull, and usually, as far as this kind of magic was concerned, if it was really magic and not an entirely different concoction, or spontaneous occurrences of fate; it was usually reciprocated, and affected more than one person.

Regardless Lei was not so arrogant… or vain…

This had never happened to her, it sure had happend to her father’s, but how likely was it that it would happen to her too?

Due to that she was even more stunned, when she moved away to go elsewhere, just to then discover that she could make out the footsteps of someone behind her - and it was the steps of barefeet.

Unsure, if they really followed her, though. Lei slid into an alley and then turned around. There she stood, with a quirky canine smile, eyes shimmering and reflecting the lights of the city, as well as the starlight that could now blink unhindered.

"Good evening.", the woman greeted in English, but Lei smiled and answered with a 'Good Evening' in Nihongo. "Oh Okay.", the other smiled and seemed a bit more relaxed now, also switching to Nihongo. "My name is Xiu Hong Lei, it is very pleasant to meet you.", Lei introduced herself, she was a bit caught by her widening smile.

"I'm Kuragari Yumeji. It's very nice to meet you, too, even though you feel so familiar.", Yu chuckled and Lei nodded in agreement. Yu felt so familiar to Lei too, even though a sense of danger prickled in the black woman’s accelerated heartbeat.

"Oh, and you may call me Yu. I'm not as dreamy as my teacher's suggested, or as famous as I’d like to be. Oh... Sorry I tend to overshare, when I'm nervous.", a hint of rosé bloomed on her porcelain cheeks, indicating her agitation.

Lei's heart was already fluttering like a hummingbirds, though now it felt more like something in her melted, still her history admonished her to be cautious, regardless all of this seemed irrelevant… Still she needed to not be reckless, not only because she was a fox spirit, but because of Lei's previous blown-up relationships.

"Your voice is amazing.", Lei complemented. "Are you three a band?" - "No. Tachibana-san, the other two and I are in a band. Akamine-kun usually plays at this spot, and he was kind enough to lend it to us, for the duration of the performances. He has been doing that for the last three weeks.", Yu explained with a bit more of a serious expression.

"And how is your band called?", Lei inquired, honestly curious, her eyes were fluttering to the lavender Yukata-style dress, which was patterned with magnolias and nightingales. Beneath that, Yu wore shiny black pants and no shoes, as somewhen, during the performance of the jig, she had gotten rid of them.

"Oh... Eh... That changes too much at the moment, but if we have settled on one, you will be the first to know.", she hesitantly replied, moving a hand into her hair and caressing the back of her head shyly. “If you want to that is..”, she added her voice low, not much louder than a whisper. It caused Lei to laugh, the other was so adorable. It would be such a waste not to get her contact information, and due to that she grabbed her phone and unlocked it. It was also prompted by the hint in Yu's previously uttered sentence. Yu understood the notion and also got her phone out to scan the tag, which would connect them.

Online at least.