Sadly not... "Teddie" loses "his" head

Teddie was an adept spinner; even at times that made no sense to spin, he could move like a top, a whirlwind, a dynamo! There was no way he'd lose his balance when being spun around by a little girl, let alone his head.

Despite her state of dress, Naoto was not Teddie. She first lost her balance, then her head, as she proved unfit for the challenge being presented to her. On the third spin, the dome-shaped Ted-head came off completely and landed over the little girl's face. "Heeey! Teddie, I can't see!" Nanako complained, feeling around in front around in front of herself for the culprit and instead only grabbing clumps of soft, blue faux-bear fur.

The cigarette fell from Dojima's mouth as he witnessed the true identity of the faker Teddie. His eyes were frozen on her own wide-eyed expression for a moment... before he found himself unable to avoid looking down. With his much greater height, he noticed something far more surprising than the news that the serious detective who'd made friends with Yu was parading around Junes as a bear. The more surprising part was that she was doing it in her underwear... from his taller vantage point, he could see down the very wide circumference of the neck-hole where Naoto's body was visible, all the way from her head down to her bare belly. As someone well outside of Naoto's age group, he felt a little bit like a criminal himself for even looking.

Desperately, the girl detective pressed one finger to her lips, urging him to keep quiet about what had happened. Nanako was going to lose it if she realized she'd accidentally beheaded her beloved Junes mascot.

"Teddie? Speak up if you're still there!"

Naoto clenched her teeth, then put on her fake voice again. It sounded even less convincing coming straight from her lips, with no muffle to it. "Of course! In fact, I gave you a bear-y special gift!" The sweat pouring down her blue-black hair seemed to be a result not just of the overwhelming heat inside the suit, but also, of the taxing predicament she found herself in. Dojima tried very hard not to look at the spots where her white, cotton bra was becoming wet with perspiration. "But there's one condition if you wanna keep this gift, Nana-chan!"

"What is it?" Nanako giggled, getting into it. Unfortunately, at the same time, she tried to pull the fake head from over her eyes. Naoto pat it down with one hand to make sure she couldn't remove it.

"It's your very own Teddie hat! But if you take it off be-fur you get home, you don't get to keep it! So I want you to b-bear it aaaall the way home!"

From the sidelines, Teddie gave a loud, hissing wince, as if **** to tell her that one didn't meet his standard for bear jokes.

At the same time, Dojima wore a stupified expression, shaking his head in confusion with an expression that clearly asked both "how did this happen?" and "why did this happen?" He instead verbalized one question. "Uh... 'Teddie...' How is Nanako supposed to walk home with the Teddie hat?"

Naoto wore a mortified frown and a red face as her superior in the Inaba murders case, a fellow detective, questioned the hole in her logic. She gave the best answer she could come up with. "Bear-fully."

"Of course."

"Yaaay! I'll be bear-y bear-ful!" Nanako answered giving her friend another big hug that Teddie himself was intensely jealous he'd missed out on. "Thanks, Teddie!"

As the two left-- quickly, with Dojima holding his hands on Nanako's shoulders to guide her-- Naoto gave a sigh of relief. Thankfully, it was a slow day for customers, so no one else was around to witness the predicament she'd gotten herself into. With the head removed from the costume, she had two options: keep her arms inside the suit, which would allow the thing to slowly ride down and eventually give everyone a peek of her boobs, or remove her hands from the outfit and hold it up. She opted for the latter, allowing the Teddie arms to flap uselessly and limply at her sides. Doing this covered up the front well, but would allow everyone to see the small of her back from behind due to the wide, circular shape of the hole. "Teddie... I think I've suffered enough. I feel like this isn't getting me any closer to understanding you. On the contrary, it's putting me inside the head of a different person entirely, one who has nothing to do with either you or me. I think what I'm saying is that I'm going to go crazy if I don't dress back soon," she explained, practically begging him to end the exercise.

"I think you may actually be right, Naoto-chan. A headless Teddie's not going to do anybody any good and I don't have a back-up for it. We'll have to get Yosuke to order a new head later," Teddie conceded. Next, he put on a smile almost as sunny as the one Nanako had been wearing. "Thanks for playing along! You really are the best pal a bear could ask for! It actually worked out pretty well in the end; Nana-chan seemed so happy with what you did for her!"

Naoto smiled as warmly as she could under the circumstances. She wondered if the dismaying position she'd just entered with Dojima was worth it, compared to the happiness Teddie and Nanako had gotten. "Now, if you will, please unlock the locker room so I can get my clothing back."