Apathy Now!: Takaya Sakaki teaches Good Little Children about Doom and Gloom.

[OOC] Global: Takaya Sakaki has set the Scene Pose.
Takaya Sakaki [S] has posed.
A Seminar with Question Hour at the end, ran by Takaya Sakaki. Today’s topic? Apathy Syndrome and Takaya’s upcoming book on the subject: ‘Apathy Now!’ He’s dressed no different from normal, despite repeated urging for him to get into something a bit more proper by the University; they couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

As the Seminar starts, Takaya makes a polite bow to the gathered people. “Good evening.” He straightens himself again, “I am Sakaki Takaya, author of Apathy Now! Which is an upcoming treatise on Apathy Syndrome. It is a delight to be here to give you a chance to get a ‘sneak peak’ on the contents of this treatise.”

“As you all know, Apathy Syndrome is known as a dangerous disease that causes a level of complete apathy in the subject. As of yet, there are no known cures for Apathy Syndrome.” He pauses, letting the introduction settle for a moment before going on. “This is in fact wrong. Apathy Syndrome is no disease, not in the traditional sense at least.”

“Apathy Syndrome is a permanent psychological malady caused by a complete understanding of the fact that life has lost meaning and the implications of this, yet achieved by someone unprepared for this understanding.” He inclines his head in a moment of orchestrated respect, “Unfortunately; this has no cure… and this understanding is getting more and more common.”

“However. On the positive side, for life to regain its meaning. Life needs Apathy Syndrome. As society falls apart due to the increase of Apathic people, the facades and games played by the Establishment will likewise fall.” He pauses again, letting his words settle. “This event, the Fall, is a slow, slippery slope that will sadly cause untold deaths, complete societal collapse, and fortunately will also bring a new level of enlightenment.”

“And this enlightenment will bring a new society. A world in which the Apathic will reawaken, and they; together with those who did not fall into Apathy; will build a new society.” Takaya takes a sip of water. “One with meaning. One with purpose. One where everyone will be able to know that there is no need to despair, for they ARE making an impact.”

“This concludes my seminar.” The young man states, taking another sip of water. “If there are any questions, I am now available to answer any you might have.” He looks into the crowd of gathered people to see if there’s any takers.

Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.
Wearing a SumarU Sweater, Fujioka was listening and resting back in one of the seats of the hall. Her hood was down and eyes were closed. Oh. Wait. Maybe she slept through the whole thing. Apathy Syndrome caused by this or that? Rubbish. Kaede almost snored as she leaned against the seat.

She knew what caused Apathy Syndrome. And it was delicious.

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
*Clack, clack, clack*
The sound of well-worn leather shoes on marble floor can be heard echoing softly in the hall as as graying young man wearing a white, short-sleeve, button up shirt and a pair of black cotton slacks makes his way toward the seminar he’d planned to attend after Calculus class. Draping a black leather, designer, book satchel around his neck and across his body, the young man idly raises his right arm to stare at his watch.

“…Almost time.” He says, letting his watch arm relax at his side as he begins to scan the corridor for the door to the lecture hall. Finding the iron placard bearing the room number, he grasps the steel handle to the lecture hall… unnaturally warm due to the many hands that had been upon it, and enters promptly; the heavy wooden door closing behind him with an audible creak.

– Some Time Later –

Yu finds himself sitting behind a slightly unstable old wooden desk up on the third row of the hall, staring silently at the lecturer in puzzlement. … Leaning back slightly against the chair of his desk unconsciously, Yu contemplates the doubtless hidden motives behind this appearance. Was Takaya really here JUST to sell a book? No, it was probably a conveinant means for dispensing propaganda as well. Harmful as that is, what Yu would be slightly more concerned about is… would he cause trouble here today?

This unconscious leaning does, however, inadvertently throw off Yu’s thought processes though – as the desk he’d been sitting in starts to tilt backward awkwardly… surprising him. “Ah!”He shouts, loudly enough for the whole hall to hear, and then slams the desk back to the floor with his weight. Realizing eyes will doubtlessly be upon him soon, he raises his and begins to formulate a question… “…Might I ask a question?” … Provided permission is given, he offers, “What research has been done to confirm the cause of Apathy Syndrome?”

Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.
If Megumi had to condense what she thought about this weird seminar down into a single line, the thing she’d say would be ‘depressing as hell’. At least that’s how it came across while she was listening to it. The other thing that came to mind was how jaded and bitter someone had to be to have seminar all about it. The rest with all the new enlightnment stuff reminded her of doomsday prophets.

She shakes her head slightly and is about to turn towards the door when a familiar voice can be heard not far away. When she looks in that direction, she recognizes the one who’s talking almost immediately. If not for what she’d caught him doing that time, she might’ve forgotten about him by now.

Megumi quickly makes her way to behind Yu, but decides to wait until Takaya has answered Yu’s question. After all it -was- a good question.

Takaya Sakaki [S] has posed.
Takaya nods to Yu, “Of course.” And then the question comes that Takaya knew would be coming. Best to get it over with quickly. “Excellent question, I’m glad you asked it.” He says with a polite smile, “Although your way of gathering my attention might have been a tad excessive.”
He scrapes his throat and takes another sip of water from the glass in front of him. “My research team has done extensive background checks on the Apathic whose family members have given their consent to these background checks for us. This was step one to coming to this conclusion, as it gave us a solid foundation to work with.”

He sighs faintly, “The next step was quite gruelling from a researcher’s perspective, I fear.” He takes another sip of water. “We started to subtly monitor those who we feared were coming close to gathering an understanding of the sad state of the world, and in fact it did come to pass for ninety percent of the test subjects.”

“For more detail, and specifics on our methods and the way we drew our conclusions, I’d strongly urge you to purchase Apathy Now! when it is released.” He gazes over the classroom again, “Next question?”

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu looks more than slightly embarassed as Takaya makes light of his means of ‘getting his attention’, inciting brief laughter from the rest of the hall. Forcing his face into the open palm of his hand momentarily, he sighs softly… mumbling to himself… “This bodes well…” Referring to the incident as if might be some ind of portent of how the rest of his day will go. Due to his momentary facepalm, however, he does not immediately notice the familiar teacher standing behind his person.

Looking up after a moment or so has passed, Yu slowly scans the room in a silent manner with fog gray eyes… catching a hint of Mushikabe-sensei standing behind him in his peripheral vision as his eyes end their journey on his left-hand side. Yu jumps, again, slightly, causing the table’s legs to scrape the floor audibly as the desk travels forward slightly. Staring at her for a moment, he says… “Mushikabe-sensei..?” in a surprised but soft manner…

Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.
/So that’s how he came to his conclusions huh? Interesting claims, but I wonder if he can back it up…/ is what goes through her mind as she raises an eyebrow at the explanation the participants are given. It was an argument she’d heard so many times before that she honestly couldn’t stop herself from being cynical about it.

“I see you still remember me Narukami-san.” Says Megumi and grins, thoroughly amused at his reaction to her presence. The number of people she knew that would react similarly could be counted on one hand as a matter of fact. Because Yu here was the only one…

“At least this time I didn’t catch doing something… unusual.” Adds she in a joking tone.

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu just stares silently at Mushikabe-sensei for several moments, lost in something between shock and paralyzing embarassment. A blonde-haired girl with emerald green eyes sitting adjacent to Yu turns her head just slightly toward the pair – eyeing Yu paricularly – and grins in a amused fashion. She then turns her attention from Yu toward the shirtless, vagrant-seeming, lecturer and raises her hand. She then waves it about in an energetic manner to get his attention, smiling a bit. Provided she is given attention then, she stands, dressed in a white floral blouse and similarly colored casual pants, offering, “Would you mind sharing with us more details about The Fall to which you referred earlier?”

Yu, meanwhile, has begun to snap out of his confusion. Turning a light shade of red, he grates his fingertips along the back of his neckline in mild embarassment. What a thing to say, here of all places! “…I.. uh..” He chuckles softly… “Yeah, I’m not translating today. Just listening to this interesting lecture..” The word interesting is tainted by a bit of sarcasm. It was interesting, but for all the wrong reasons. “Can I help you?”

Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.
Megumi’s eyes turns towards the emerald eyed girl when she asks a question, but then Yu seems to snap out of his shock, causing her to turn her attention back towards him. Right now she almost felt a bit sorry for him.

“This would be a bad place to do translations I’d say, but that aside…” She pauses for a few seconds and looks down towards Takaya. That man had been in Port Island the other day when she met Kaede again. Back then he had only stood out due to the way he was wandering around shirtless. One thing was certain about this guy. Her first impression had been flawed.

“… He reminds me of people I keep hearing about the net. Didn’t think he’d be this type.” Megumi tilts her head slightly, pondering something.

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu’s eyes follow Megumi’s as she turns her gaze toward the blonde girl, and then back to him momentarily, in a silent manner. When she mentions this being a bad place to do translation, he offers a slow, solemn, nod in aggreeance… “Yeah, too distracting.” Yu really needed to pay attention to Takaya, and though he was facing Mushikabe-sensei at the moment.. he was listening. He figured he didn’t have to watch him too much, given the situation.

A look of realization dawns on the silver-haired youth, and he motions toward the empty seat to his immediate left. “Have a seat?” He offered, figuring he can kill two birds with one stone if she’s seated next to him. He can engage her /and/ pay more attention to the lecture. That and, it was kind of rude to make a lady stand… “He’s… a very interesting character, no doubt.” Yu adds, pretending for he moment he possesses less knowledge of Takaya than he does. “Looks can be deceiving.”

Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.
“Why thank you Narukami-san.” She offers him a friendly smile before sitting down on the empty seat. Standing had started to get a bit tiresome so this worked perfectly for now.

“Yes I noticed. I met him in Port Island when I was there on an errand. The guy stood out, but you can see that for yourself so…” Megumi wasn’t one to judge people’s clothing, even when it was weird, but the whole shirtless thing was a bit beyond that. Did he walk around like that in winter too perhaps? Likely not. “His views are definitely odd…. and jaded.”

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Nodding, briefly, Yu offers a brief smile to Megumi as she thanks him for offering her the seat. “You’re very welcome.”
“He does stand out.” Yu agrees, again, with yet another nod. He was also fairly sure it was intentional on Takaya’s part. At the mention of Takaya being odd, Yu thinks to himself ‘you have no idea’. Odd was not a word you would use to describe someone of Takaya’s mental state. It was far too weak of a word for him. “Yeah, is definitely not your average guy…” Laying his hands gently upon the table in front of him, one over the other, Yu leans forward a bit attentively… awaiting Takaya’s response to the blonde-haire girl’s question. “…I wonder if he’s a Doctor..” Yeah… right.

Takaya Sakaki [S] has posed.
“Ahh. Interesting question, indeed.” Takaya answers the girl as he takes another sip; his eyes wandering over the room, and his keen ears noticing the murmering between Yu and Megumi, although he can’t distuingish specifics, he does scrape his throat. “But before I answer that question, I’d like everyone to be paying attention.”

A second later, he starts to answer that particular question. “As Apaths start to outnumber the unaffected people, modern society becomes untenable. Further, it is quite likely that eventually people in positions of power will succumb… politicians, businessmen, judges. And with them falling away, and fewer and fewer people able to take their place, society will become untenable.”

Takaya takes a slight breath, “With society becoming untenable, we will enter the second stage of the Fall… Anarchy. Most people won’t care, because they’re Apaths, but the ones left will start fighting for resources, for a place to sleep. It’ll be a truly Dark Hour in the history of mankind.”

He smiles at the girl who askes the question, “After this stage has passed, humanity will be down to a few hundred million people at least. Worst case scenario we will have dropped to a few million. And this is when societal rebirth can occur, and with it comes purpose as the Apaths reawaken.”

“After all, one can only stand upright after one has fallen.”

Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.
“If he’s a doctor, he sure doesn’t look it…” Megumi narrows her eyes and looks at Takaya. There wasn’t anything about him that’d make her think he was one, but in this region there were a few people who were slightly odd when it came to their clothing. So it wasn’t impossible.

When Takaya asks everyone to pay attention, she closes her mouth and waits for him to finish talking. While listening to what he has to say, a dark thought crosses her mind for a few seconds. The world could after all do without a certain person…

Megumi raises an eyebrow when she hears the phrase ‘Dark Hour’, pondering if that was supposed to mean exactly what it sounded like to her. Though after a minute of pondering, she discards that idea. Still… Now she was tempted to ask about that…

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
The blonde-haired female from earlier clasps her hands neatly in her lap, and bows in a courteous manner toward Takaya, offering a congenial smile. “Thank you.” She then promptly takes her seat again and turns her eyes toward Yu and Mushikabe after Takaya indirectly addresses them. She grins again at the silver haired young man, mischieviously, causing Yu to divert his eyes from her immediately in nervousness.

Somewhere toward the front of the lecture hall, near Takaya, an older man wearing a gray business suit – possibly a professor – raises his hand and waits patiently to be adressed by the speaker. Once he’s been addressed, the older man stands and gazes in Yu and Mushikabe-sensei’s direction. “Putting my young student’s indiscretion aside, I have a question for you myself.” … and turns back toward Takaya. “Your predictions sound rather dire, being a doctorate in psychology myself… I have a bit more faith in humanity’s ability to cope with this ordeal. I would like to ask you, what makes you so certain that this Fall will come and in the exact manner you predict?” Shortly thereafter, he bows shallowly, and offers “Thank you.”

Yu headdesks softly as one of his professors, apparently attending the lecture, speaks ill of his behavior. Bad day indeed. Raising his head, momentarily, Yu then turns his gaze to Mushikabe-sensei and offers knowing look regarding Takaya’s appearance. That’s pretty much all he can do… given he’s been asked to be quiet…

Takaya Sakaki [S] has posed.
“Ah. Abe-Sensei I presume?” Takaya responds to the elderly man. “Well, I’m afraid that time is running short, so I can’t go into too much detail right now. I’ll fill the remainder of this seminar with a brief answer, and encourage you to read the much more detailed explanation in Apathy Now! when it comes out in about a month.”

He finishes his glass of water and looks at the room. “As we all know, if nobody finds a cure for Apathy Syndrome; which according to my observations is impossible, then the amount of Apaths will steadily increase, and it’ll get to the point where there are so few people capable of supporting society’s needs that society will collapse.”

“As for how the results after the Fall. I admit that it is partially conjecture, but I like to be optimistic.” He pauses for a few moments, “The world after the Fall as I feel it would be like is a world that I am unlikely to see for myself, but that would quite likely be a much better world all around.”

Takaya bows again, “Thank you all for attending. I hope I was informative, and don’t forget to pick up the book when it comes out.”

— Shortly afterwards, Yu and Megumi departed… going their separate ways. (Megumi was /tired/.) —

Nanako and Yu: Another Day at Home

Inaba, Dojima Residence —

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
(Ignoring time, for conveinance sake).
 It’s after six’o’clock in Inaba and the moon is high over the small country town. There’s a gentle breeze blowing throughout, and the ambient temperature of the outdoors is just warm enough for it to be comfortable.

Outside the Dojiima residence, with the sliding glass door to the living room ajar, a graying young man in white short sleeved shirt, black cotton slacks, and a well-worn pair of brown leather shoes is squatted by the open door. He appears to be tending to potted plants presently. It’d be more accurate to say, he’s adding a new one.

 Setting a mud colored clay pot besides the sliding glass doorway, Yu stands to his full height and proceeds to look around… for something. “Where did I put the soil..”

<Pose Tracker> Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
   “Big Bro?” Nanako Dojima stands in the living room of the Dojima household, her pigtails drooping from ponytail stress as well as ‘it’s getting late and Nanako cannot be bothered to completely fix them’. She’s holding her school backpack, as well as several pieces of paper – it’s been quiet because she was upstairs doing her homework.
 
   “Are you looking for something?” She continues on. She doesn’t move much, she just watches him rather seriously from underneath her fly-away bangs. Then she points at a spot – “Isn’t that the soil?” She creeps a couple of feet forward. “What are you doing?”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Upon hearing Nanako’s voice, Yu ceases his searching immediately and peeks through the opening of the sliding glass door into the living room… his fog gray eyes fixing upon the much shorter girl. Grasping the edge of the sliding glass door, and pushing it open a bit more, Yu offers a warm smile to her… “Potting a plant. I thought it’d look nice.”

 Taking two steps inside the house, Yu kneels down upon his left knee on the hardwood floor of the residents and eyes Nanako’s ponytails. “Your hair… is a bit messy.” He was kind of surprised at that. Given how careful Nanako is with taking care of the home, while he and Dojima are away, he’d have figured she’d be taking better care of it. “Do you need some help…?” Noticing then the backpack held in her arms, “…With homework or your hair.”, he offers her a playful grin – jesting just a bit.

 Looking back over his shoulder at the bag of soil sitting right behind him, the graying youth facefaults. “I must be getting old…”

<Pose Tracker> Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
   Nanako smiles at Yu. “Oh! That makes sense.” She says, just as sensibly as his reply. When he mentions her ponytails, she unconciously reaches up, and gives a little grimace at the reminder. “I was busy and didn’t want to take a break to put them back in order.” She explains. “Math is kind of hard!” The girl admits.
 
   “No, I finally got it. I wanted to put my backpack by the door with my homework so I wouldn’t forget.” She sets the backpack down and kneels down to file the papers, and when she stands, she takes a moment to re-do her ponytails – she’s gotten much better at it in the three years Yu has been here. “Thank you, though.”
 
   Then she offers, witha straight face, “If you’re old, then daddy must be /ancient/.”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Standing, shortly after Nanako explains her hair situation, Yu chuckles. “Math is pretty hard.” He could remember how he struggled with it when he was younger… “Okay, if you ever do need help I’m here.” Most of the time. At night, at least…

 “Heh…” Yu grins in an amused fashion as Nanako rather nonchalantly calls her father an old fart. Shaking his head a bit, he asides, “Funny that you say that…” … his shoes suddenly in motion, thudding across the living room floor toward the kitchen softly, “…a girl at Aoba Park the other day called me an old timer. She said it was the hair.”

Reaching the kitchen counter after a moment, Yu grabs a white plastic shopping bag off of it, and starts back toward Nanako with it. “Here…” Reaching his hand into the bag and digging around in what sounds to be paper contents, likely the thin artificial dressing stores always throw into bags to add ‘cushioning’ to the merchandise, Yu furrows his brows. Digging… digging… looking down into the bag, slightly annoyed… !!!

 He produces from the bag a handsewn doll with his right hand, upon closer-inspection… it’s a cotton replicate of Jack Frost. “I had to get someone to do drawings of him… because nobody seems to know who this guy is. But here.” He then extends the snow white soft-cotton doll toward the much younger girl. “I hope you enjoy it.”

He then places the bag back on the counter behind him with his left hand. “The rest are just necessities…”

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
“Thank you!” Nanako says. “Sincerely, really.” She follows him across the living room, her backpacks strap drooping in sadness as she deserts it. Why did you go, Nanako? I nestle into your shoulder so snugly and comfort it with my padded strap… Ahem. Back to the actual scene here. “Well it is kind of silvery-gray.” Nanako then says, faithfully, “More silver than gray, though.”

She watches him dig around, then her jaw /drops/. There are many ways to make Nanako act like a six year old again, however, this cute little cotton doll does it in about ten seconds flat. She takes it and speechlessly hugs it tight to her chest, practically emitting heartbubbles. ❤

"Oh, big /bro/…" She finally says. "Thank you!"

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Soon plopping down on the old sofa across from the living room table and TV, or what passes for a table… being so low it could be used as a foot rest, Yu snakes his hands into his pockets and watches as Nanako bubbles over with happiness at his gift. Finding himself staring at the floor a bit red faced at the display, Yu somehow manages to find words despite ‘cuteness overload’, “… You’re welcome.”

After that’s settled with, and Nanako has presumably come down from whatever high placed she’d gone to, Yu adds, “…So, has he been home lately?” He’s referring, of course, to the older Dojima. Even after having lived here for years he still wasn’t sure whether to refer to him as Uncle, Dojima-san, or something else. Often, it ended up being Dojima though…

Eyeing the television set across the way silently in thought for a few moments whilst awaiting Nanako’s response… perhaps thinking… he mutters to himself.. “I wonder if I should cook dinner…”

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
Nanako finally beams at Yu’s slightly red face. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou.” She whispers softly, settling down onto her customary position – er, customary cushion by the table-kotatsu.

“Yes, actually.” Nanako says. “He took me to Junes.” Pause. “I can make dinner.”

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Nodding, as Nanako thanks him again, Yu stands up from the Sofa almost as quickly as he’d sat down and starts across the living room again to close the sliding glass door. He’ll take care of the plant later, it was already potted by the gardner he’d bought it from… just not very well.

Shutting the heavy glass door with an audible *CLACK*, Yu turns the latch beneath the door handle twice to secure the door. Hearing a small click, he turns, forcing his hands into his pockets again and shaking his gray mane from side-to-side. “It’s fine. … Have you eaten? If not, what are you in the mood for?” He turns his eyes questioningly over his shoulder toward the little girl seated by the kotatsu, even whilst continuing to head toward the kitchen to check the fridge for ingredients.

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
Nanako watches him clean up – well, lock up – the pair in the house, and she gives him a little smile that might tremble a little bit around the edges. “Rice, please.” She requests. “Do we have any fish in the fridge? With vegetables?” She’s a growing girl! She needs the food to make Dad twitchy in a few years.

“Are you not going to finish the plant tonight?”

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu nods, silently, as Nanako makes requests. Rice, fish, and vegetables. Japanese staples then. Stopping infront of the refridgerator, and swinging the door wide so he can lean in far enough to gaze inside, Yu’s voice echoes slightly from inside the fridge, “Alright.” Chanpuru then… ~

After probably close to an hour of cooking… after which time the scent of stir fried rice, steamed vegetables, and mackerel practically pervades the entire house… Yu turns off the stove and lifts a pan full of rice from the eye. “Dinner’s ready. … Turn on the news, would you?”

Exiting the kitchen with a large tray, upon which sits several separate dishes, including the main one…. Yu makes his way to the kotatsu and takes a seated position in the floor opposite Nanako. He then gazes at her from across the table, hands folded in his lap, smiling softly. “Let’s eat.”

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
“Ohhh..” Nanako sighs. While she can cook, Yu is a very good cook and he is capable of doing things she at eight years old cannot. She takes – and keeps – her seat across the table from him, her brown eyes bright, her nose actively sniffing as she continues. The yes, that’s mackerel fish, yum/my/, and there’s the vegetables and the rice and Nanako very happily makes her way over to the kotatsu at the end, settling into her typical seat.

“Thank you, big bro!” She says softly, or the proper Japanese equivalent before she goes straight for the fish and the sauce, carefully dipping it before her mouth is occupied by food and a happy ‘mmmm’ noise. Her little Jack Frost doll has attained residence on her shoulder, as well, watching the food and Yu across the table.

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu grins, picking up his chopsticks from the table and breaking them properly. He then situates them on his fingers properly and grabs his rice dish from his lift side… offering a quick and simple nod to the gracious little girl sitting across the table from him. “I don’t mind.” He loved it actually, Cooking… like Origami… was an art he definitely enjoyed indulging in.

Watching the muted TV for several moments in silence as a local weather man mouths his latest forecast before a backdrop of a comically large and shining animaed cartoon sun, Yu places another helping of rice in his mouth mindlessly and wonders when it will rain next…

Turning his gaze from the TV to Nanako after several moments, a pleasant expression crossing his features as he notices the doll, Yu asks, “How have you been lately?” He felt kind of bad being that he’d been so busy lately he hardly knew.

Nanako Dojima [U] has posed.
Nanako says, around her food(which she /is/ eating properly, if a bit quickly – she was really hungry, how about that), “I’m doing well, honestly, big bro!” She says. “I’ve been watching Magical Detective Loveline and doing my homework and stuff and talking to my friends so I keep really busy, just like you!”

Pause.

“Except I’m not allowed to stay out late and daddy checks up on me /far/ more often.” She says. Well, ‘far more often’ being ‘more than never’. … Enoha is really in charge of that, /honestly/. She goes back to eating, but slows down considerably over time- she’s getting a bit sleepy.

Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
“Ah…” LOVELINE! Yu could practically the hear the iconic magical girl detective screaming in his ears. “…That’s great.” His features grew warm and brotherly again, his tone softening to more a friendly one than it had been. He’d kind of forgotten in his tiredness how cute talking to Nanako was… but she was growing fast… “Well…” He replies, in response to what she says about his uncle checking up on her, “He really loves you. … He’s just…” Yu pauses to chuckle softly.. “..really bad with girls?” It was probably true. Now anyway. Dojima didn’t really express himself enough. “I’m glad you’re staying occupied though.”

After dinner is thoroughly done, Yu takes the tray from the kotatsu into the kitchen and sets it by the sink with an audible *clank*. … “You’re looking sleepy…” He says, from half-way across the house… not far enough for her to not be able to hear though. “Why don’t you go get ready for bed. If you like, I’ll come read to you before I start on the dishes.”

…and so, having finished her dinner, Nanako retreated to bed and Yu came to read her a story before she fell asleep. Poor little girl didn’t last half-way through it. Good night Nanako…

KDA Office: Michi, Maki, Haruko, Chiaki, Aki, and Yu walk into a cafe and… (bad joke)

( – Sumaru – Kuzunoha Detective Agency – )

An unassuming location in Kameya Alley, the Kuzunoha Detective Agency’s role in Sumaru’s society – and beyond – far extends past its unimpressive appearance and small amount of allotted space. It is where Chief Todoroki, Tamaki Uchida, and Tadashi Satomi (…when not being chased by assassins) overlook the clerical functions of the agency.
A small office with a slow rotating fan above that needs replacing and two small blue couches in front of two giant stereos hooked up to a flat panel TV, this is not a place for many people to meet at once. It only takes a look at the two desks and the giant bookshelf cases behind them to truly give a hint at what goes on here. With an impressive backlog of information on just about anything, to say they have a finger on just about every popular murmur of Sumaru and beyond is not an understatement. It is here where investigators of all walks of life pool resources and information 
together to determine how to solve the next pressing issue.  A gold lucky cat statue by the entrance talks if spoken to and frequently begs those who come by and visit for money. This must reflect in the owner’s tastes, as a black cat often lounges around the office, making itself at home. Past a small kitchen lies a door to the restroom that refuses to open.
Absolutely no one is allowed back there.

Haruko Fukui [KDA] <Astraea>

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
It’s an average day in Sumaru City, the sun is high above the city at the 12 o’clock position and what clouds there are in the skies are sparse. It’s one of those summer days that isn’t overbearingly hot, but it’s warm enough that many people are choosing to stay inside and turn on the air conditioning. Inside the Kuzunoha Detective Agency’s Sumaru office, on this particular day, it is rather empty – occupied only by a scant few members. Three in fact, at the moment. Narukami Yu and the newest KDA member, Haruko Fukui, and a nondescript KDA agent as well – the last of whom is sitting behind one of the empty desks eyeing some manner of paperwork.
 Yu has taken a seat upon one of the agency’s empty couches, and is presently leaning back into the couch… staring silently into the ceiling fan overhead. Whether he simply enjoying the breeze, or thinking about something particularly important, is anyone’s guess. He’d come here with Haruko today to show her around the place, but could only manage to get so far as the couch thus far.

<Pose Tracker> Haruko Fukui [KDA] has posed.
 Haruko is sitting behind a desk, going over old paperwork; reading reports and mentally filing all this data away. It may be the most boring thing ever, until someone realizes most of this paperwork is /years old./ Then ‘may be’ should be replaced with ‘is.’ Excluding the part where Haruko doesn’t seem to be bored…
 “Hey, Narukami-Sama?” She asks after settling upon a particular report, “Why are there doodles on this report?” Asking the /important/ questions, truly. “Doesn’t seem like they add anything.” She shrugs and places it to the side, moving on to the next report on the stack…

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 The door, it opens. In strides Aomori Michi, intrepid investigator. Today’s ensemble is a dark green sundress and a white button-up sweater, currently unbuttoned. Also a hat of the fedora persuasion: legend has it that Michi never enters the agency proper except when she’s wearing the hat. “I have a new report to turn in! Sorry about the doodles on it,” she says to nobody in particular, “but I got bored writing it.” She tromps up to the desk behind which may be found Haruko, pauses, blinks. “Are you a new secretary? …did we have an old secretary?”

<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura [K] has posed.
Chiaki comes to work at this point. Chiaki is a long story but ultimately, well, Maki’s ‘shadow’ Pandora created a doppleganger of Chie, and she turned out to not be that bad?, and rather than be ‘DoppleChie’ her whole life she took on the name Chiaki largely because Tadashi thought it was her name–and now she works here at the office, collecting rumors and helping out with the less thrilling KDA cases. She presently lives with Yukino.
Yawning as she enters, she spots the various individuals gathered and says, “Woah, busy day, hehe?” She grins.
Maki steps inside a moment after. A young child (Aki) seems to be walking in beside her, too. Judging from her detective cap and magic cape, she seems to be a magical detective (Laureline) today. Aki’s story is also annoyingly complicated.
“A new hire or–well, I guess I don’t come in enough hehe…” Maki admits.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu raises his head, suddenly, as Haruko calls his name. “..Doodles?” He raises an eyebrow and stands up from the couch, promptly moving across the room toward where Haruko is to take a gander at what she’s inquiring about.
 It’s as he’s walking across the room, that Michi and Chiaki – accompanied by Maki – enter the room. Hearing what Michi says about her doodling habit, Yu says to Haruko whilst stil looking in Michi direction, “Well, that explains that.” At this point, though she’d entered, Yu had yet to notice Chie’s odd dopplerganger’s entrance.. but then he does, and he finds it more than a little befuddling. “….Chie?” … upon closer inspection, however, she did not behave like Chie AT ALL. Therefore, he surmised, it must be a coincidence…
 Answering the question about whether that KDA had a new secretary, Yu shakes his head, “No. She’s a new member.” And a dutiful one at that…

<Pose Tracker> Haruko Fukui [KDA] has posed.
 Haruko raises an eyebrow at Michi’s exclamation… and then the question, and she shakes her head with a tinge of amusement in her eyes. “Fukui Haruko. I’m a new member, as Narukami-Sama says.” She smiles faintly and offers a slight bow to Michi.
 Then the other people come in and Haruko watches them enter, she smiles faintly at Maki as well as Chiaka; but doesn’t address them at this point, waiting to be introduced to them first. Haruko smiles sweetly as sin at Michi, “So I heard you like to doodle…” Gaze turning towards the report she had just put aside. “Kind of unprofessional, wouldn’t you think?”

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 “Oh, I’m not a professional.” Michi beams, bowing right back. “Aomori Michi. It’s nice to meet you. I just help out with my free time, doing… you know. Detective things. Detect…ing things. Secrets. Things like that.” She waltzes over to one of the filing cabinets, opens it up and puts the report she’s carrying into it. Michi’s reports go in their own file. It’s because they’re important, you see, and so they only get looked at if the situation is important enough to merit reading her reports. Chiaki, Aki and Maki all get a friendly wave. “Hey guys. How’s it going?” And she pauses, looking over at Yu. “Have we met? I think I should know you.”

<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura [K] has posed.
“A new member huh…” Maki says, “That’s pretty cool. It’d be nice to see the KDA hoppin’ again, it usually seems to, y’know, take it easy since so many rescues have been done but–”
“Hey I’m right here–” Chiaki complains, poking Maki in the nose sharply with a frown. “Nice to meet you!” Chiaki waves over to Haruko. “Chie not in today, I see huh–” Well that pretty much settles that.
“Doodle huh…?” Maki looks towards Michi, grinning widely. “Why didn’t you say that before? Gosh, Michi. You know I’m a professional artist– I could’ve helped you out, y’know!”
“He’s your boss, doofus.” Aki smirks at Michi as Maki sets her down. “Anyway–” Maki begins.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Having realized that people were beginning to come in, and he could no longer lounge around as he had been doing, he moves around the back of the desk Haruko is stationed at and kneels in front of a beige filing cabinet. It would be rude after all, to relax while everyone else is working. Pulling the bottom drawer of the file cabinet open by the silver metallic handle until it rolls to a stop, *KeeerKLUNK*, he reaches into the filing cabinet and begins to go through the documents contained within. Perhaps he could find some information regarding the latest on the murders…
 Hearing Haruko’s rather direct verbal stab at Michi’s professionalism, Yu reaches upward and attempts to grab at the fabric of Haruko’s clothes. Providing he manages too, he’d be giving it a bit of a tug, and silently shaking his head as if to say ‘don’t go there!’ in as friendly a manner as he can.
 When Michi walks over toward the Cabinets and speaks to him, however, he turns toward her… still kneeling at the base of the cabinet he was searching… and looks up. He then offers a polite nod of his head. “I’m sure we have… I come in and out of here pretty often.” Just in case though, he offers, “Yu Narukami. I’m from Inaba.”
 At Aki’s ‘he’s your boss comment…’, Yu rubs the back of his head nervously… “Something like that…” He didn’t really know what else to say. 

…After a few moments, having turned back toward the filing cabinet and found the latest file on the Inaba case.. Yu closes the cabinet and stands to his full height, offering a sidelong glance to Maki and Chiaki. “Nice to see you two, having a good afternoon?”

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 Michi blinks, then blushes. “I have a boss? I thought Kobayashi-senpai was boss? Is there another boss?” Michi stares at Yu for a second, blushing a little redder than before. “Oh. Well. Hi. Aomori Michi. It’s nice to finally meet you. Boss?” The last is said with a crinkled brow, of the ‘not sure if that’s the right mode of address. “But I need to go check on the frogs. I’ll be right back.” She walks off into one of the side-offices of the building.
 Frogs?

<Pose Tracker> Haruko Fukui [KDA] has posed.
 Haruko seems to be quite non-plussed by Michi. Quite so. She shakes her head surprisedly and looks at the others, but whispers something in Yu’s ears. “Is she … broken somehow?” After that question, she looks at the other two. “Nice to meet you as well, but I fear I missed your name…?” It’s directed at Chiaka; her attention soon turning to face Maki, “Is there something we can assist you with today?”

 <Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura [K] has posed.
Maki presses her hand into her forehead. Christ, Michi, she thinks. She also thinks the Japanese equivalent of Christ, Michi. And then the Mexican version. She lowers her hand and says, “Well–no? I mean, all things considered, it looks like my friends got into a lot of rough trouble, and I couldn’t help ’em! So I feel pretty shitty, more or less.” She has trouble lying to Yu so he gets to have the basic truth. “Anyway,” Maki shakes her head. “You might want to keep your eyes open, there’s gonna be more shit over this, maybe for real this time.”
Wait–frogs?
Aki meanwhile examines Haruko, looking over her thoughtfully.
Chiaki on the other hand. “Uhh–Chiaki, you know!! Ha ha– Man we really gotta find that killer right? It’s what I’d say if I was Chie, which I’m not, I’m Chiaki, which is a totally different person! Ha ha ha!” She rushes over to some filing cabinets to busy herself.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Cracking open the file he’d fished out of the cabinet, Yu begins to slowly thumb through the papework contained inside – his eyes scanning pages in a hasty manner. *Flip, … flip, … flip, …* Page after page is examined in this fairly hasty manner for a few moments, as he tries to ascertain which ones were dated most recently.
 Haruko Fukui drawing near enough to whisper in his ear does startle Yu tremendously though, sufficiently enough so that he fumbles and drops whichever page it was that he was holding. The page falls into the folder unneatly, and then skids off of the edge… falling noisily somewhere between Yu and one of the other filing cabinets.
 “Broken…?” He replies shortly, given Haruko a quizzical look. “No… I don’t think so.” He shook his head slightly, and looking toward where the paper fell, adds.. “She’s perfectly healthy. I think.” Of course, being Yu, he assumes she’s referring to the girl’s actual health and not her state of mind.
 Turning his fog gray eyes toward Maki and away from the paper on the floor, almost as soon as he’d looked, Yu takes a moment to process what she’d said and then… smiles in a knowing manner. “I bet.” He says, remembering how he felt when the murders in Inaba began ocurring, “It’s rough… worrying about others.” … All told, Yu appreciated the truth more than pretty lies so this revelation was totally okay with him. Acknowledging Chiaki, indirectly, as he proceeds to go after the paper that got away… he says.. “Yeah. I hope we find him soon too.” Or her. Maybe it was a her. That was a hard idea to swallow but…

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 Michi wanders back into the main room with a satisfied expression. “They’re doing just fine” she declares, appropos of nothing so much as frog. She looks around the room and tilts her head to one side. “Who’s missing?” she asks: her tone is, if not serious, at least aware of the tenor of the idea of ‘someone is missing.’

<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura [K] has posed.
HA HA HA TOTALLY NORMAL.
Chiaki meanwhile wonders if because she has the memory of vowing to find the killer if it’s actually part of her duty to find the killer ahhh no of course not she’s trying to be a new person, after all. That’s what allows her to /be/ a person.
“That’s great!” Aki says cheerfully. “Frogs should be taken care of.” Her eyes narrow. “Permanently.” And then she laughs. “Just kidding, frogs are awesome. So are slugs.”
Maki scratches her head, and glancesr towards–hey where’d she go!? “…I thought you guys only had /one/ ninja.” She complains audibly. It seems Haruko may have some ninja in her. It’s an incredible thing.
“Nevertheless, just wanted to warn you about awll that! It’s nice seeing you again, though!” Headbobble.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu, having gathered the paper off off the floor and placed it back in the folder, turns to face Maki again and smiles. “Yeah, it’s good to see you too. Thanks for the info also.” He nods, slightly, then and closes the folder in his left hand… resealing as well. He was starting to figure out that, as things were getting busy in here, he’d probably not be able to get the tranquil atmosphere he’d need to absorb it just yet.
 Acknowledging Michi as she returns to the room, apparently still on about frogs, Yu decides to finally ask her about that particular issue… “Frogs? What about them?” He then proceeds around the left side of the desk he was behind, and makes his way back to the couch.

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 “I found some frogs. They’re in an aquarium in that other room. I’m going to take them home soon, but I needed to ask my mom and dad first.” She grins, rubbing the back of her neck. “Sorry I didn’t ask permission first. I just needed somewhere to keep them. Would you like to see ’em? They’re really cute.”

<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura [K] has posed.
Maki says, “I’d love to see them!” And she even seems to mean it, smiling brightly as she offers her opinion on the matter. Chiaki meanwhile looks absolutely horrified at the mention of frogs and their slimy slimy slimy–
“Let’s go!” Aki agrees happily.

<Pose Tracker> Haruko Fukui [KDA] has posed.
 “I… I think I’ll stay here, I’ve got these reports; you see?” Haruko tells Michi after she comes back from her sneaksy visit to the toilet. “I don’t have much time left until my parents expect me back home. I know it’s only a short walk, but…” She rolls her shoulders into a faint shrug as she walks back to the desk, continuing to go over the stack of reports she had pulled out…

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Befor having even reached the couch, Yu finds himself stopped abruptly in whatever he was doing for the second time today by something someone had said to him. Turning on his heels with that beige file folder still in hand, the graying youth gives Michi a long… silent… ‘what in the world’ look. Then, cutting through the awkward silence abruptly, comes.. “Huh? … Oh, I see. Well…” How exactly should you respond to that? He knows pretty well that people who run this place will definitely not like the idea that people are using agency property for the storage of their pets. “…Okay, let’s go look.” He kind of, just hitches a ride on Maki’s excitement and decides to make it a non-issue. If she got them out of here before anyone noticed, it was cool right?
 Giving a silent, sidelong, glance to Chiaki complete with pregnant pause – probably evn as the others are walking off – Yu asks, “You alright?”
 He does offer a nod of acknowledgement to Haruko though.. when she mentions that she’ll stay behind, “I’ll be back to help soon.”

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 Michi nods good-naturedly to Haruko. “Okay. It’s nice to meet you, though: welcome aboard!” She leads everyone into the next room over and indeed there’s a little aquarium in the corner with two small frogs in it. She points in turn. “That one’s Kero-chan. That one’s Nyoro-chan.” Croak and wiggle, apparently. “I got them with the money from my last paycheck before I had to quit my part-time jobs. I mean, other than this one. I don’t know if this counts as a job or not, since I’m volunteering. I like to think it’s important.”

<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura [K] has posed.
“I will help with reports!” Chiaki says helpfully. “And I am totally fine and also invincible. Go ahead, Narukami! Ha ha ha!”
OFF TO FROGS.
“Nyoro–that sounds like a cat, hehehe…” Aki snickers.
“Is…naming a frog ‘Kero’ really appropriate–” Maki wonders aloud. “Ah–but they /are/ cute–!!”

<Pose Tracker> Haruko Fukui [KDA] has posed.
 While the others are off looking at frogs, Haruko finishes reading the last report for the day. As she departs, she leaves a small note behind on the desk. ‘Going home –Haruko’ And that’s pretty much it, not saying goodbye today; just slipping out while the others aren’t paying attention…

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Following shortly behind the departing group of people eager to see frogs, Yu takes the time to lay that they each file folder upon the desk that Haruko is working behind before departing. He’ll be back to get them later, after he’s done supervising this… frog show? Offering an affirmative nod to Chiaki after she declares that she’s fine, Yu then proceeds through the doorway into the room where Michi’s frogs are being kept.
 Standing over the aquarium, silently, watching the frogs – still quite young apparently – Yu listens to Michi explain their names and her financial situation. “Ah..” He says finally, “Yeah, they’re pretty cute. … Do you need a job though?” Taking care of oneself, much less pets, was not easy with no income. Lowering his gaze toward Maki then, as he waits for Michi’s response, Yu smiles contentedly at her excitement. He’s kind of glad he didn’t scold Michi now for bringing them here.. “Well, I guess the ‘Ny’ bit does call to mind a cat call.” The ever famous Nyaaaaaaa~ is, of course, what Aki’s referring to he assumes.

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 Michi shakes her head. “My parents said I had to quit my jobs after I did something stupid. They want me to spend more time on my classes.” She doesn’t sound too bummed out about it, merely stating a fact. “But maybe when they say it’s okay again? I’ve got all kinds of uniforms from my old jobs. They’re not stolen,” she adds quickly, “I just always bought them with my first paycheck.” She beams. “I like having fun uniforms.”

<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura [K] has posed.
“Mm, you remind me of someone,” Maki tells Michi. “But you know, it’s pretty weird that they don’t want you having a job–I mean, that’s more responsible than attending classes and is a bit more useful, at least if you’re working your field, but part time work is pretty useful too.” She shrugs her shoulders. “Anyway, if you want to help out at Hiiragi, I wouldn’t mind paying you–keeping it a secret too, though it’d be in Sumaru, so–”
She Chiaki waves after Haruko.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu gets an amused grin on his face as Michi mentions enjoying collecting uniforms. Well, no surprise there. A lot of Japanese girls loved clothes… and cosplay. “I bet.” He says, looking down into the aquarium tank again. “That’s not all that hard to imagine.”
 Yu does, also, listen in to Maki and Michi’s conversation but… as he’s not being addressed he doesn’t interject anything. Instead, he opts to watch the near-tadpoles swim around in the back of their enclosure. Seems they’re avoiding getting too close to the glass everyone is near..
 After a while of being in the room with the frogs, listening to girls talk and watching aquatic creatures swim aimlessly about, Yu heads out toward the desk Haruko was working at to fetch his file and stares silently at the empty space she’d left for a moment before saying, “Oh… I guess she went home.”

<Pose Tracker> Michi Aomori [KDA] has posed.
 Michi offers Maki a smile. “Thank you for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind if I can convince my parents. I really don’t want to go behind their backs, you know.” She stands up, a look of surprise on her face. “Oh. I should get going, actually. I just remembered they wanted me home.” Another sheepish little grin. “It was nice to see you again, Sonomura-san, Sonomura-san. And it was nice to meet you too, Boss.” Grin and wave aaaaand out the door.

… and with that, the scene came to a close. Yu and the two girls, Maki and Chiaki, spent some time at the agency chatting and getting work done. That was all she wrote.

(Never did take care of that darned agent! Oh well, we were all dog dead tired and the scene got broken oddly in tbhe middle and was filled with long pauses. So it was kind of messy anyway. Also I somehow missed Maki NPCing Aki a lot. But that happens with three people plus three NPCs. – Yu)

Sayori and Yu: Junes Food Court Chatter.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
It’s a pleasant afternoon in the sleepy town of Inaba, and a particularly sunny, and nearly cloudless, day to boot. People are out on the streets of the Commercial district, kids playing ball and and games of Oni (Japanese Tag), women standing around chatting to one another and watching the children, and young adults speeding down the road on their bicycles or walking to wherever they might be headed. The concentration of people seems to be especially heavy around Junes Department Store, where many of the aforementioned travelers seem to be heading. Right outside the department store, even more people are gathered – either to grab a bite at the Junes Eaterie or go shopping (or both).

         As such, the area in the immediate vicinity of the Eaterie is alive with the sounds of activity: Children crying out in cheerful voices, making requests of their accompanying parents, and older persons chatting with one another over a bite beneath the heat of the morning sun. Seated beneath a large canopy with trademark Junes colors – yellow, red and white – upon a bench to the side of most of the activity is… a graying youth in casual dress. He appears to be rather absorbed in the pages of a book he’s reading at the moment, almost completely unawares of everything around him.

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

~Everyday is great at your Jun-es~, rings out the familiar jingle of the shopping mall. It is quite a catchy tune to some, to others it’s annoying. As for Sayori, she doesn’t really care about it one way or another and it’s pretty easy to drown out when there is shopping to be done. From her appearance, it seems like the girl has already visited a few stores. There is a small, pink bag and a couple other larger bags in one hand. Pulling out her phone to check the time, she figures she can be here for a bit longer before having to go to work at the rink.

The girl today is dressed in a light pink shirt with a picture of a sakura tree on it. She is wearing a black skirt with pink tights and, of course, the nekohat that Minamo gave her. It is starting to show wear and tear given how much she wears it. If they would let her wear it in school, she totally would! Sayori seems to be pretty happy, humming a nameless tune to herself as she darts in and out of stores.

As she exits one store, Sayori notices the boy sitting off, almost away from everyone else. He is recoginizable to her and, not wanting to pass up the chance to say hi to an acquaintance, the girl makes her way over to him. “Sempai! Long time, no see!” Waving and offering a small bow, Sayori then sets her bags down. She doesn’t seem to think that maybe he didn’t want to be disturbed. Though, she does notice the book in his hand and tilts her head, “Whatcha reading?”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
~Everyday is great at your Jun~es…~ The sound of that familar jingle is, initially, what causes Yu’s foggy gaze to lift from the interior of whatever book he’s reading and settle upon a white loudspeaker situated on a wooden beam almost directly above his head. For quite sometime, he stares at the speaker and then… smiles a little bit. Apparently having thought of something pleasant. “…”

         *WHUMP* Closing the book shut with his right hand, Yu – his attention diverted from his reading – proceeds to scan the area silently with his eyes very quickly and then stands from his seated position. He tucks the book he was reading beneth his right arm then, and proceeds to jam his left hand into the left pocket of his black dress slacks and fish for something. This occurs right as Sayori approaches, causing Yu to cease in his fishing and turn a blank stare in her direction. Recognizing her after a moment, he offers a polite smile… “Hey.”.. and then looks down at the book beneath his arm. “…How to be a Great Man.” It’s an old book, but still his favorite by far.

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

Sayori eyes the book again, she seems to think that it would actually be possible to figure out what the book is about just by staring long enough. Finally, she shakes her head, “Ah. That seems cool.” Not that she read too much in her free time unless it was something really popular among her peers. “So, how has college been? I miss seeing you at Yasogami!” She frowns a little and glances away, looking at a sale sign and briefly seeming mesmerized by it before finally looking back at the older boy.

There is a slight look of disappointment at his lack of bags. “I take it you weren’t shopping?” Which is a tragedy, she thinks. Shrugging, Sayori sits down on the bench, “Ah, my feet are hurting. Too much walking around.” She laughs a little. “How come you haven’t been by the ice-rink?” In fact, now that she thinks of it, Sayori wasn’t sure if he had ever visited it before.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu watches inquisitively as she stares for what seems to be a long time at the book beneath his arm. He eventually does look at the book again, almost as if to ask it what was so interesting. One can almost see the question marks appearing over his head. He’s also still standing there with his hand in his pocket… this must seem quite odd to any nearby spectators. As she snaps out of it, and responds to him, he does offer a quick nod of his head and another friendly half-smile to the girl. “Yeah.” He then remembers his hand is in his pocket and looks down, fishing around inside of it again to eventually produce… gum. Mint gum, apparently, in a fancy white and green themed package. He offers the open end of the package to her then, “Gum?”

         Having done that, he responds to her next question with.. “Fine. It’s challenging. … and actually, I came shopping for clothes… but I got sidetracked.” After giving her ample time to take his offer of gum, he then takes a piece himself and starts to unwrap it slowly. “Oh, I’ve been busy.” He says, referring to her question about the rink.

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

At the offer of gum Sayori smiles, “Sure! Thank you!” Taking a piece, she peels off the wrapper and pops it in her mouth before balling up the paper and, given the lack of trash can near them, throws it into one of her bags. To his response about school, “Ah. That’s what Misaki-chan says too but she said it’s fun also. You both go to Sumaru University right? Have you seen my sister there?” It was a common question for the younger girl to ask students from there. Even if it was a big college, Sayori thought that everyone should know her big sister.

After a few minutes of talking there, Sayori’s stomach rumbles a little. “Say… do you want to go get something to eat? I have to go to work at the rink soon but I could go for some pizza or whatever.” She gestures vaguely. The food court at Junes was a popular place to hang out for students. Picking up her bags, the girl seems to anticipate Yu’s answer. Though, if he declines she wouldn’t mind sitting here too, as long as her presence wasn’t bothering him.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu’s smile widens a bit as she takes the offer of gum and thanks him for the gesture. He rather likes it himself, it was a strong mint flavor but not so strong as to be offputting. The sensation of it reminded him of climbing a mountain or something… but he wasn’t quite sure why. Never the less, he immediately puts the gum away in his pocket, along with the gum wrapper, and promptly turns to look at his acquaintance again. “…Misaki… I have heard a name like that.” He confirms, seeming to stare past her for a few moments as he thinks, “Perhaps I have. It’s a big university though…” …and a fairly common name. Yu also wasn’t usually the type to strike up random conversatons with people so, he might not have met her. Yet.

         To the offer of getting something to eat, Yu offers another afirmative nod and then points to her bags with his right hand.. “Sure. Do you need help with that?”

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

Sayori’s eyes lighten up when Yu seems to have heard the name before. Unfortunately, she knows that the odds of it actually being her sister were low. “She’s like us you know?” Raising an eyebrow, the younger girl seems to indicate a secret. “It’s okay though. I will have to introduce you two sometime!” It was a happy thought for her. Any reason to see her sister more was good. “She invited me to come to Sumaru sometime so I will probably go sometime…when I don’t have work or skating…”

As Yu gestures to her bags, Sayori is already picking them up but nods, “ah, sure… I mean… if you don’t mind.” She hands him the largest of the three bags which holds a couple boxes that seem to be from a shoe place. “I tend to go a little crazy when I come here.” As they near the food court, Sayori looks around. “How about pizza? I could really go for that right now!” She turns to Yu to hear what he wants.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu makes a knowing ‘Ahh’ sound, and bobs his head again as she raises her brow in that ‘You know what I mean’ kind of manner at him. “Yeah, I see.” So her sister was a Persona user, that’d make her easier to identify at least. As she mentions introducing them sometime, he says, “That’d be nice. … I’m sure you’d enjoy Sumaru also. It’s a big campus, very beautiful. Lots to see.”

         Having some of her bags handed to him, he promptly takes them and distributes them across both hands and proceeds to follow her to the food court silently while staring at them. This girl must have a hard time not buying everything she likes, he thought to himself. “Yeah.” He replies at her offer of getting Pizza. “Sure, I’ll treat. If that’s alright.” He wasn’t certain about it, but he felt he probably had more money with him than she did… especially considering her recent expenditures.

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

“I haven’t been to Sumaru much before. The few times I was there I realized that it’s waaaay different than Inaba.” Sayori remarks, thinking that it’s different from Port Island too. “Anyway, it will be fun to go there sometime again.” Of course, they would have to watch out for demons and the like but the younger girl doesn’t really know that much about the demons in Sumaru even if she’s at least heard of what’s going on there.

As Yu takes the bags, Sayori thanks him again, trying to avoid looking at the other stores they pass by too much. Shopping was so addicting for the girl unfortunately. It’s good that she made a good paycheck at the rink and from helping her step mom coach. With Yu’s agreement on pizza and his offer to pay for it, she beams. “Oooh. Thank you sempai!” Reaching out for her bags, “I can take them and find us a table. I like ham and pineapple on my pizza. It’s weird but soooo good.” She smiles and then turns to find a table, picking one the closest to the pizza place.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu listens quietly as Kaizumi-san speaks to him, nodding where appropriate and seeming fairly involved… for Yu. He doesn’t say so very much but anybody who knows Yu even slightly ought to know there’s one thing he isn’t: Rude. He isn’t too particularly talkative either, but that’s mostly habit…

         Regarding ‘fun’ at Sumaru, he recalls the nearby Malls there and grins to himself in an amused fashion. Given what he knows about her, she’d really like Sumaru! They had at least two malls. /At least/. “Yeah, Sumaru itself is a great place. There’s malls and other things..” When she thanks him for offering to pay, his grin grows a bit wider. “Sure. Ham and Pineapple, I’d like to try that.” After she’s taken the bags from him and moved away to find a seat, he then turns to the woman at the ordering window and says, “Large, please.” Assuming she’d heard the discussion..

         After a few moments wait, Yu returns to the seating area carrying a large red and white Pizza box bearing a rather stylish yellow Junes logo. He makes his way to wherever she’s settled and lays their meal on the table gently, setting a paper plate and utensils infront of her that he had been carrying on top of the box. “Hi.”

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

“Malls are good!” Sayori says enthusiastically. “Junes is okay but I like visiting other ones too.” Getting out of Inaba was nice too. Though, she also remembered what came of her last visit to Sumaru and she shakes her head. Stupid rumor shadows and all but at least it was taken care of now. Of course, she would have to watch out if she went to Sumaru and make sure no one was talking behind her back or something.

When Yu returns with the pizza, Sayori seems ready to dig in. She only waits briefly before opening the box, smelling the air. “mmmmm, it smells delicious!” After that, she hesitates to see if Yu is going to grab a piece first. If not, she will gladly grab a piece first. “Thank you again!” There is a slight pause, something is missing… Finally, she looks up at him, “Ah. We need drinks. I can get those! What do you want?”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Having given her a plate and utensils, Yu promptly takes his own from atop the box and sits down on the opposite side of the table. As she opens the pizza box, and the scent of freshly baked cheese, tomato sauce, ham and pineapple wafts through the air towards him… Yu inhales briefly… taking it in. Wow, it smelled really good! Though, at the mention of his having forgotten drinks, Yu facefaults a bit. How in the world could he forget something like that? Yu was usually pretty single-minded, but not that much! “Ah…” He quickly stands again, even at her offer of getting it, and shakes his head. “It’s alright. I need to go back for napkins anyway. What would you like?” He did, too, after all this would be quite messy.

         Provided she tells him what she desires, he does indeed return to the front counter to grab some cups and napkins and proceeds to fill the beverages from a machine sitting by the window. Having filled both cups, he then promptly returns to the seating area… glancing at a couple nearby him who were in a fairly heated argument in public. A rare thing in Japn, though they both looked to be foreign so..

         Setting her beverage upon the table at her left side, he then proceeds to walk by the wooden bench he was sitting on at the opposite side of the table. “Sorry about that.” He chuckles. “A little absent-minded I guess…” Having said, he then places his hands in his lap and watches for clues as to whether she’s going to do ‘it’ or him. It being, the traditional Japanese declaration of ‘Gochisousama’ usually said before a meal.

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

Sayori frowns and almost protests when Yu says that he will take care of it. She backs down quickly though and nods. “Thanks… again.” That’s really nice of him, she thinks. “Um, just a coke is fine.” She smiles and watches as he leaves to get the drinks and napkins. Out of courtesy Sayori will force herself to wait until he gets back before eating.

She may glance slightly at the couple arguing but Sayori doesn’t really think too much about it, even if it’s a rare thing. The smell of the pizza was distracting. When he returns, “Ah. It’s perfectly okay. I am looking forward to this!” She smiles and is about to give in when she remembers… A quiet and quick ‘Gochisousama’ is uttered from the girl and then she takes a bite, ‘mmmming’ a little as she does so.

As they eat, Sayori makes small talk. “So, if you want to and are in town again… come by the rink! I can give you a discount!” She winks at him a little, not really caring to ask if he had skated before. If someone like ‘Yoh’ could skate then surely Yu wouldn’t be too bad at it. “You don’t /have/ to skate but it would be great if you could!” Now that she thinks about it, perhaps another KDA outing would be called for soon.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
“Gocchisousama.” Yu says simply, bowing his head in a sign of respect, and then partaking of the pizza himself… lifting a rather large slice of it from the box. Setting it down gently on his plate, he responds “Sorry.” to his prior rather forceful show of chivalry. “I’m pretty used to doing things. I didn’t mean to slight you in any way.” He smiles, then, in a friendly manner, hoping to disarm any potential tension.

         As the pair proceed to eat, Yu mostly lets Sayori do the talking. He interjects little things here and there, but doesn’t seem particularly talkative until she mentions the rink… and winks at him. Placing his pizza down upon the plate gingerly, Yu dusts the crust off of his fingers onto his plate and finishes chewing before offering a reply. “..Yeah. I’ll have to do that sometime. … I have actually skated before, but that was a long time ago.” Still, anyone who’d been around Yu long enough would know he’s into sports and he’s very athletic. He may not be the greatest ever, but he had the balance for skating. “I’ll come. When do you work, anyway?”

<Pose Tracker> Sayori Kaizumi [KDA] has posed.

“It’s okay sempai!” Sayori smiles at him. It was nice, though perhaps surprising to her. “I didn’t really expect it but I appreciate it!” She didn’t want to seem ungrateful after all. That would be even worse in her mind. Her dad has always taught her to be grateful for what she had even if she is a bit spoiled.

The talk of skating is an instant winner for her. “That’s great! There is an arcade there too and a small snack bar.” Sayori adds. “Anyway, I work after school during the week sometimes and almost every weekend. My schedule kind of changes a lot but…” She pauses briefly to take a sip of the Coke. “…I am almost always there. Of course, you could always call me too.” She figured he still had her number from their previous meetings but if not, she would gladly offer it again.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu seems very gladly to hear that his thoughtlessness didn’t bother her. “I’m glad. I’ll try to rmember next time to let you do it if you want to.” Yu wasn’t anymore accustomed to people not wanting him to do than she was desirous of people doing everything for her. That said, he begins again to lean toward the pizza box to fetch another slice when his phone begins to sound out a ringtone. It was a cutesy theme, oddly enough, or at least it sounded that way coming out of his phone. Looking down at his belt, where the phone was clipped, inquisitively… Yu picks up a napkin and quickly cleans his hands off so he can check it. Grabbing the small yellow flip phone off of his belt, he opens it and stares into the miniature screen for a moment. “I… have to go actually.” He closes the phone, and then offers her a politely apologetic bow, “I just got a reminder I need to be somewhere. It was nice seeing you again.” ..And given she replies to him rather quickly, he turns away from the table with that and proceeds to walk out of the food court in a hurry.

Megumi Mushikabe-Sensei and Yu. Don’t View Porn in the Cafe!

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
It’s a warm, somewhat arid, day in Sumaru and a busy one at that. It’s a cloudless, bright, day out today and ever so inviting for the common person to be out in. There’s a gentle breeze blowing through the sparse trees surrounding a little cafe on Aoba drive, and people are milling about the place. The door of the cafe is semi-permentantly swung wide to receive the gentle breeze, most likely so the penny-penching owner does not have to turn on the air conditioning, and it’s jammed currently by a wooden triangular doorstop at the base.

         Reflected in the clear glass of the window of the cafe on the eastern side is the form of a graying young man, wearing casual dress clothes, and sitting slouched over a dark gray laptop – staring into the screen with fog gray eyes. He appears fairly oblivious to all around him for the moment… transfixed by something on the screen.

<Pose Tracker> Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.

          Megumi looks towards the cafe entrance and smiles. After all the work lately, it felt relaxing to come to this place as it had quickly become one of her favorite cafe’s to visit when she moved here. Why exactly she couldn’t tell, but it was probably the atmosphere. Even that waiter that worked here seemed to add to it despite his less than optimistic attitude.
 
          As she enters the establishment, the first thing that strikes her is that the air seems to be a bit more… hot than she’s used to. It made her wonder if something was wrong with the air condition or if the owner was feeling a bit greedy today. On the internet she’d read about people who did the strangest things just to save some money, but as long as it didn’t do any harm, she didn’t mind.
 
          “Hm… not a lot of available places today…” Mumbles she quietly to herself while looking around for a place to sit. While not crowded per se, there was certainly a fair amount of people present today. Mostly regulars with one or two strangers. The one that stuck out the most was the young gray haired man sitting next to where she was standing. Seeing as she was looking in his direction anyway, she can’t help but sneak a peek at what the teen was looking at on the screen…

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
…To one gazing upon the screen of the young man seated alone at that eastern table, deeply engrossed in its display, several things would be immediately obvious: 1. Several windows open at once, arranged on the screen space to provide roughly even amounts of screen economy, 2. There’s at least two windows filled almsot entirely by Chinese text (or to those unfamiliar with eastern languages, it could be any of them), and 3. The center window appears to be that of a bookstore… but the book being looked at currently looks to be rather… racy – judging by the cover. There are a pair of barely clothed persons, male and female, clutching each other on the edge of a rocky cliff…

         Blinking his tired, unfocused, eyes at the display… the graying youth lets out a bit of an extended sigh. He then brings his right arm to rest upon the surface of the table and promptly rests his chin in the palm of it. “Mm..” Perhaps, he should have gotten coffee on the way here.. it occurs to him. It’s then, that his eyes catch the barest reflection of something in his monitor.. causing him to turn his head toward whatever was behind him. Then… his eyes go wide suddenly. “Can I.. help you?”

<Pose Tracker> Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.

          Far be it for Megumi to judge someone based on the strange things one can find being looked at on a computer screen, but was this teen really looking at what it was coming across as? While it was perfectly natural for people to look at these things, well for those who’d swing that way that is, she would’ve thought that doing it somewhere else than in a cafe would be smarter. The fact that it was in chinese baffled her a bit as well. Surely if one had to go looking at it, one could’ve just looked up a japanese site instead or something…
 
          “Interesting choice of.. uhm…” She’s completely lost for words when she tries to respond. Then realizing that what she was about to say wasn’t really answering the teens question at all, she says the first thing that comes to her mind.
 
          “… Is that seat taken?” Says she and points towards the available seats right next to the two. However regret soon follows as this may have just made it slightly more awkward rather than be helpful.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
…Awkward indeed. Judging by her reaction, Yu’s fears had been realized. She thought he was looking at lewd material. Well, okay, he was! But that’s not really the point of it. Before he can justify himself, however, he turns his eyes to where she’s pointing and processes yet another dilemma: she would like sit here. What comes out of the young man’s mouth, despite his reluctance however is… “..Sure.” He offers a nod of confirmation to that and then promptly waits for her to take a seat before explaining further… taking the time to gather his thoughts so he doesn’t make matters even more awkward.

         “..I-I’m not looking at pornography.” He stammers, and then realizes this sounds even more suspicious, “I’m a translator. … I’m actually translating this to Japanese.” He then takes a deep breathe and leans back in his chair a bit, turning his eyes back toward his monitor once more. He suddenly felt his face burning with a blush his was just barely managing to contain…

<Pose Tracker> Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.

          Megumi feels like walking away before the teen has a chance to answer, but he’s quicker and since her current feeling of laziness wins out over the awkwardness she’s feeling, she walks over to the available seat and sits down. Then she begins to ponder how to undo the awkwardness that both of them must surely be feeling right now.
 
          “Is that so?” Is the only responce she manages to muster when the teen tries his best to explain it to her, while she pulls out her own laptop from a small backpack she’s carrying and places it on the table.
 
          “I’ll take your word for it as I doubt someone your age would look at ‘interesting’ pictures in a place like this without good reason…” She lifts her arms and motions them towards the surroundings. Then her curiousity begins to get the best of her and asks… “Though why are you doing that then…?”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu sighs a prolonged sigh when she finally takes a seat and responds, producing a laptop from the pack she was carrying. Well, at least she wasn’t running away. That probably would’ve made Yu decide to close up shop and take his work home. He does question the wisdom of doing his work here, however… far too late.

         Sitting up straight in his seat again, and leaning slightly forward once more, Yu offers yet another quick nod as she asks him if that is indeed true. “Yes.” He then promptly moves his hand towards the laptop’s touch pad and, with a gliding motion of his index finger, finds the ‘X’ button to that window and closes it as another patron walks by. He then silently turns his gaze toward the person who walked by, perhaps confirming they hadn’t saw anything. To her next question, he offers, “..Is this a bad place to work?” He hadn’t thought so initially… this is where he always came when class let out… to relax and get things done. It was more privacy than his home offered anyway..

<Pose Tracker> Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.

          After quickly booting up the laptop and starting the good ol’ browser, she looks towards the teen again to see if he’s still feeling awkward over the whole thing. Given the situation at hand, it could’ve gone way worse, especially if someone more prudish had seen it. The words ‘think of the children’ sprang to mind.
 
          “That depends entirely on what you intend to work on and -when- you do it.” While there were a fair amount of customers was likely not the best choice however, but everyone had their days when they didn’t think on things as much as they should’ve. As a teacher she was all too familiar with that fact.
 
          “That said, I think you’ve avoided any incidents since I’m by no means a prude. Besides I’ve caught students looking at far worse.” Megumi sighs slightly as she thinks back to those times. The students at her new job were thankfully a bit more mindful of what they were doing.
 
          Once she’s finishes replying, she quickly looks through the darkside newsboard before turning her attention back to the teen.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Whilst waiting for her answer, Yu turns his eyes back toward his monitor and places his index finger on the touchpad again, mousing over to the window containing the bit of script he’d been given as a demo and enlarging it. His eyes then slowly begin to scan the length of the document again, as he muses over whether he should take the job. Without immediately turning his eyes from the document, he replies to her first statement simply, “Yeah.” He then turns his foggy gaze upon the woman seated nearby and offers a bit of a shy smile. “It was kind of thoughtless.” But, Yu could be absent-minded at times. Oh yes he could!

         Having replied to her comments, momentarily, he then turns his gaze toward a nearby vending machine… and stares at it for a while in thought. Standing up suddenly after a few moments of silent pondering, he offers generously, “Do you want anything?” He then points toward the machine with his right hand, in case she wasn’t paying attention. Maybe some momentary kindness would make things less awkward.

<Pose Tracker> Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.

          Megumi decides to quickly check her email, but when it shows that she’s gotten one from a certain someone, her expression darkens and becomes harsh. However she’s snapped out of that when the teen asks her if she wants something, causing her to turn her gaze towards him, offering him a kind smile.
 
          “No thanks, but I appreciate the offer.” She quickly moves the mouse over the mail she reacted to and deletes it, having no interest in even looking at it’s content.
 
          “I don’t think I’ve seen you here before. What brings you to this place?” There is a hint of genuine curiousity in her tone. It is however a bit obvious that this is just an attempt to pull up a topic that’ll diffuse the still lingering awkwardness.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu watches her inquistively for a moment as he processes her reactions to the unseen e-mail. He wondered for a brief moment if the ill gaze was at his offer, but then very quickly realizes this was not so when he receives her reply. “Yu.” He briefly utters at her last question, then realizes she did not request a name! Working quickly to rectify the situation, he adds, “I’m a Sumaru Unversity Student. Yu Narukami.” His heads bobs again every so slightly, again, in confirmation. Seems he has a fetish for nodding maybe. “..I’m from Inaba. Pretty far, right?” Having said that, he then immediately treks off to the nearby vending machine and produces some Yen from, his pocket… sliding it into the machine’s curreny slot. “You don’t want anything?” He inquires again, out of courtesy.

<Pose Tracker> Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.

          Did the teen just give her his name? While she did appreciate the politeness of doing so, she’s a bit surprised as she’d never asked for it. None the less now that he’d done this, it’d be rather impolite to not introduce herself in return.
 
          “My name is Megumi Mushikabe, a teacher working over at Sevens.” Says she in the most polite tone she can muster and puts on a more polite, rather than gentle, smile. “And I know of Inaba. It’s a nice and quiet place that I’ve visited a few times.”
 
          “N-” Megumi doesn’t get the opportunity to finish her polite refusal as she’s interrupted by her cellphone’s ringtone, some sort of european opera tune by the sound of it. After quickly pulling it out and checking who the caller is, she turns the phone off and looks towards the teen.
 
          “Ah the busy life of a teacher… Anyway as I was about say… I’ve no need of anything right now, but once again thanks for the offer.”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
*Kerrrrrrrrrr KLUNK*

         Bending down to retrieve a small snackbar that dropped into the machine’s trapdoor, Yu turns a curious glance towards Miss (Mrs?) Mushikabe as she offers her name to him as well. He then promptly stands from his squatted position at the base of the machine, and proceeds to walk across the carpeted floor back toward their shared table. “..Well..” He says, thinking to himself how to explain his offering his name absent mindedly.. “I wasn’t paying attention, sorry. When I offered my name, I mean.” ..and decides to offer the truth instead. “But it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mushikabe-sensei.”

         Having offered a polite reply, he then takes his seat again at the opposite side of the table and stares silently at the wrapper of his snackfood. “So, you teach?” He turns his head upwards again after a few moments of quietness, leveling those fog gray eyes of his at her again.

<Pose Tracker> Megumi Mushikabe [DS] has posed.

          “Don’t worry about it Narukami-san. There are worse things to do by accident.” Like getting caught watching a racy picture when sitting in a cafe. Granted even then she’d caught people doing worse things so there was that too.
 
          “And it’s a pleasure to meet you as well.” Megumi turns her attention back to the laptop screen and quickly looks over something. Whatever it is, isn’t visible from where Yu is however, but it does seem a bit important as it takes a while for her to realize she was asked a question.
 
          “Yes I do. Started my new position not long ago.” Replies she and pulls something out of her backpack. It seems to be a small bag of snacks. The brand doesn’t appear to be anything particularly special however. “Though I hadn’t expected to run into a student of any sort today.”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
By the time she replies, Yu has already proceeded to peel back the wrapper of what appears to be a generic choclate bar – possibly something akin to a Snickers bar – and proceeding to nibble on it silently as he works on something on his own computer again. Both hands being occupied with the keyboard, the snackbar is left to be suspended in the air between his lips as he gazes at the monitor silently. As she returns his pleasantries, however, he does lift his eyes from the screen once more to gaze at her across from the table. He then grabs the snackbar from his mouth between his right index finger and thumb, removing it and lowering it to just below the screen, and smiles in a friendly manner. “Yes. It’s always nice to meet a new person.”

— the discussion tapered off here, and Yu started making his way home shortly after. (OOCly Yu’s player was head-desking and Mushikabe Sensei was very sleepy at 2 AM. It was a good scene Sensei, rests well!.)

Cat Fight at Aiya Diner.

————————————————————————————————————————–

Chinese Diner Aiya

  Some say that this is the only good eatin’ left in Inaba. It’s
this sort of  recognition that allows the otherwise humble
establishment to maintain a     comfortable cashflow against
nearby competitor Souzai Daigaku and the food   court of Junes.

  The diner itself is quite small, but able to seat thirty
people or so       during the busiest weeks, if uncomfortably,
which includes both seats up at  the bar and individual
four-seat tables. The color red is featured prominently through
its decorations in an attempt to invoke an ethnic flair, despite
the head chef and owner actually being a native of Inaba. This
seems  to have no effect on the quality of the food, as it is
favored quite readily  by the local population when they want to
eat out, and not simply because    it’s basically the last place
in town to do so. Either way, 800 yen is all   one needs for a
good hot, fresh bowl On rainy days, the owner offers a challenge: if a person can
consume a      quintuple-sized meat bowl in a single sitting,
their meal is free.  Otherwise, it is 3000 yen. It is
the Rainy Day Challenge, and nobody has     ever succeeded. Not
even all-star speed eater Mamoru Hayase, or the Gourmet  King
Nozomi Suemitsu himself! This doesn’t stop many others from
trying…   and failing miserably.

————————————————————————————————————————–

 <Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.

                It’s a warm, sunny, afternoon in the Commercial District of Inaba… the kind of day where children get outside and play and adults busy themselves with their daily chores. As such, the streets of the Commercial District are alive with people. As alive as the sleepy town of Inaba can muster anyway…

         Outside of the Chinese Diner Aiya, stand a group of local teens chattering with the door to the establishment swung wide and being held in place by one of the taller males. The strong aroma of Aiya’s famous Beef Bowl is wafting out the door quite strongly today…

         …And standing over the hot stove, cooking up the local delicacy for the customers is a tall, thin, adult male with silver hair and matching eyes wearing a Kiss the Cook apron. Only, it’s written in chinese. he’s staring intently into the searing fires of the stove… with a laser-like focus on his duties despite the racous background noise of people chattering.

<Pose Tracker> Yoh Yamagatani [SEES] has posed.

Well then, seeing as Yoh was recovering from an optional boss in the TV world a couple days ago, putting him on the patrol bench, and feeling like he has not done something nice for a certain HORRIBLE GIRLFRIEND, Yoh decided to call his girl, Kaede, to go somewhere nice! The Aiya Diner is never a bad choice. Maybe he will go down the commercial district and shop or something later.

Having called Kaede, and being chewed out about multiple things suddenly for no reason, Yoh made it a point to meet her outside. There the boy stood, 6 foot, sporting a rather pleasant demeanor as he always did. While tall and STRONG looking, he still seemed quite approachable to anyone. Well, he is known for making the most friends ever!

So now the waiting game ensues. The Chariot is wearing his usual descript outfit, with a bandage or two on his person. His hair is almost back to the glory of yore, you know, before it got burnt off by a Ragnarok to the head a little over a month and a half ago. “Hm, where is she….” he says quietly to himself, watching the doors open to the Diner.

<Pose Tracker> Emi Dennou [NWO] has posed.
Emi Dennou typically goes to Aiya to work–she is a part timer there–and today is no different. But she has come a little early so she could get a meal here too and then get to work without running into her shift. She gets discounts, if she eats there, because she works there–it’s not really much of a discount, of course, but money isn’t just about being economical but also about being efficient for your buck.

She spots Yoh hanging out by the Diner and approaches him. This is a pretty bad place to stage a kidnapping and she hadn’t brought her rifle along, but she waves in his direction as she sees him. She is, presently, oblivious to Yoh’s relationship with the girl who tripped her into a fountain, but she hasn’t forgotten the girl who tripped her into a foutain.

“You have come to Aiya, Dennou states.” She glances towards the alreay open door, she’s not quite IN yet, but she’ll be surprised to see that Yu is doing a shift–perhaps she got her days wrong! OH NO!

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.

         Well. There was a bit of wait for poor Yamagatani. While they had tentatively made plans at a very specific time (much with the yelling and accusations of who Yoh may in fact be sleeping with), Miss Kaede Fujioka had not shown up. Nope.

         Except then she does show up. Wearing a blue dress. With her hair done up. And wearing makeup. And holding her purse before her, as a kind stranger opened the door. She nodded a little, looking so curteous as she steps in. In a countryside nowhere like Inaba, who dressed like that to a beef bowl place?

         She walks right up to her quite easilly located date, giving a little curtsey. “I’m so sorry I was late, darling. I had overslept after being so busy late last night back home. Find it in your heart to forgive me?” she asks, eye up and almost sparkling with tears. Though her hair was worn in curly ringlets, half still tended to fall over the left side of her face. She has yet to notice Third Person Dennou that she had accidentally brain damaged before, or that peculiar greying-haired boy.
<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Yu, meanwhile, is still working with a potent focus on that beef bowl when another order comes in from the far back. The restaurant owner screams over the noisy background chatter, “AIYA!! Two fried rice and shrimp combos! Kuai Yiadian!” in his typical japanese-chinese mish mash manner of speaking. To this, the silver-haired young cook offers a simple nod… to the stove… and begins to empty the contents of a pressure cooker into a china bowl.

         Turning around, a monumental Beef Bowl in hand, Yu lays it gently upon the wooden counter top before a customer and bows slightly. “Please.” … He then promptly turns back toward the kitchen, and begins to walk briskly across the old wood floor through a doorway and into the rear room to fetch more ingredients for cooking.

         Returning several moments later with a tray containing thawed shrimp, rice, vegetables, and other materials – he walks right past the three who have gathered at the diner for a date… offering them perhaps no more than a curious sidelong glance. A glance that is, rather quickly diverted to the stove again upon approach. He then lifts the cooking oil container from the left hand side of the stove and begins to pour a bit into another empty pot. He then winces just slightly and blinks several times as the steam from the oven begins to dry his eyes out.. “Mm…”

<Pose Tracker> Yoh Yamagatani [SEES] has posed.

Yoh, while waiting for his date, moseys on inside, but not before spotting Emi!

It was that girl fro mthe Dark Hour, the one who almost shot him. And is plotting to kidnap him, but he does not know this! “Hi!” Yoh states kindly as he waits. “I remember you from the other night, but… I do not recall your–” Wait yes, narration saves the day! “Dennou-san, never mind! So, how are you? I am here meeting my girl to have an ice meal!” A pause. “What brings you here? I love the food at Aiya. Massive portions.”

Then kaede strolls up and is heavily dolled up! Was this the actual Kaede? He will have to check the eyes later. Yoh looks over to the girl and smiles warmly. “Of course.” Now, he has to remember what Masumi said. She starts acting like her shadow self, just deny her being recognized. “So, where would you like to sit?”

As Yu walks by, Yoh watches him with interest! Hey, isnt that the guy Thora talks about? The guy with grayish hair? He met him once, but was so long ago. Almost a year now. Hum! He will have to ask him his name. “Wonder what specials they have today?”

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.

         Kaede beams all the more pleasant as she leans closer against Yoh, moving to wrap about his arm. This is an entirely new thing for all parties involved, yet she seems to be going all in with the loouuuvvve.

         “Dennou-san, what a wonderful coincidence meeting up with you here!” Kaede says, laying her head against the somewhat burned boy’s shoulder. “I hope you have recovered well after that /dreadful/ fountain incident. Your head is better?” she asks. Then she frowns a touch more. “Oh my, we still are working on it aren’t we?” she asks after hearing the third person. Such is the way of brain damage.

         “Excuse me!” she politely smiles to Yu. “What is your daily special, if we may ask?” she inquires with a positively radiant manner. “and… do they come in EXTRA-large portions? I do believe my love’s hearty appetite needs hearty sustinance. He needs to eat up, to keep up his… ah… stamina.” she almost giggles.

<Pose Tracker> Emi Dennou [NWO] has posed.
Dennou observes for a few moments, notably Kaede (whom she seems to be frowning at). She doesn’t accuse her of BS or otherwise rise to the bait. She does frown at her, though, there is that–but other than that she rapidly comes to a course of action that will no doubt solve every problem ever. No that’s crazy, it’s just going to make things worse, but Dennou is comfortable with this.

Emi Dennou approaches Yoh and says, “Of course you remember me, Dennou informs Yoh with a wink,” She winks. “We spent the whole evening together~, Dennou reminds Yoh.” She is not exactly the best liar but of course she is not strictly speaking lying so much as turning the truth into a pretzel shaped mess. She approaches Yoh’s /other/ side and grabs his arm, possessively, and hugs it tight to her body. “Yoh-Chan, Dennou flirts brazenly. Have you ever been with a hive mind before? It is multiplied pleasure, Dennou notes as she pours on the heat.”

She nods a few times, running an index finger down Yoh’s arm.

She looks up at Yu and says, “It’s a special day for Yoh-Chan~, Dennou hints to the man currently tending the shift.”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
…To Yoh’s question about specials, Yu replies promptly… and without turning away from the stove, “Usuals… Beef Bowls, Shrimp Fried Rice with vegetables, Niku Dofu (Tofu and Beef dish, mushroom, onions, etc..), Suan Cai (fermented cabbage), and Wonton.” He glances over his shoulder at the man just slightly, and lowers his voice a notch… “I don’t reccomend the Suan Cai.” He then makes a discreet, slightly disgusted, face. Apparently Yu heard him over the chatter!

         At Kaede’s comment about ‘stamina’, the graying youth blushes just slightly. It’d be hard to tell though, as he doesn’t seem all too flustered. He then turns around, offering a momentary glance to both ladies, and then simply shakes his head in silence. “What can I get you? … Actually, hold that thought for just a moment…” Having said this, he promptly walks out from behind the bar with the latest order and disappears into the crowd behind them for several moments. Bowing to his ‘honored customers’ whilst placing their orders, and producing a check, he scribbles their order and total in Japanese and then sets it down before the eldest male. He then briskly retreats back to the cooking area, and faces them again… stone faced as usual. “Are you all ready or do you need a moment?”

<Pose Tracker> Yoh Yamagatani [SEES] has posed.

Yoh seems to beam a little more as Kaede curls around one of his arms. But then he suddenly looks to Kaede. “Huh, you know her?” he asks. The Chariot looks between both girls curiously. What Kaede says is… unsettling. Actually everything about her is unsettling right now. She was just telling him off an hour ago on the phone. The teen purses his lips and turns a little red as her last little humorous yarn is spun. It sure is awful nice of her to ask. “Yeah, s-sure. something large sounds good.” THe Beef Bowl of course is always a winner.

Yoh then turns and looks down at Emi, who is… suddenly talking wierd. “Well, I do, I am just bad with names… wait huh?” he lets out. Suddenly Yoh has TWO girls on his arms! WHAT JUST HAPPENED. Unfortunately Emi is not a guy, and therefore cannot push Emi away. That would be mean to a girl. Yoh has no idea what a hivemind is, but the mentioned of pleasure as well as ‘pouring on the heat’ he can unfortunately grasp, even with his simple mind.

“I uh, have no idea what that is… Special?” Oh gods, this evening is about to get terrible. A look to Kaede, wanting to say DO SOMETHING, but she is Possessed, and it may turn out to be something like an attack scene out of an alien movie. Instead a look is given to Yu. Ugh, he cannot beleive this is happening in public in front of people! “Beef Bowl here. And a soda. You?” he asks, looking to Kaede. Aw hell, does this mean he will have to get something for Emi too? He would ask Yu if he knew THora, but he knows that would set Kaede off on a tangent. She does not like her.

EVERYTHING IS SO COMPLICATED.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.

         Yoh’s life is a bad dating sim. Choice #1: Shub-Niggurath. Choice #2: The Borg.

         “…ah. Well.” Kaede says, completely surprised by none of this. Except you know, the hive-mind part. Multiplied pleasure. Thoughts of—. “My, Dennou-san. There’s no need to be uncivil about this.” she says, so ever politely even as she STARES with her eye. As Yoh seems to be totally fine with the weird, brain-damaged girl. “I’ve come to accept my love’s eccentricities.” she says, head tilting just a touch.

         She looks to Yu with a smile, ignoring the situation for the moment. “As big a beef bowl as you can for my love. I’ll have a small please.” she says. “And oh… did you know my love is so kind even to the unfortunate? He once dated a girl with the apathy syndrome.” she says, in a quaint voice. “And after that, a girl who looked like she played with dolls at age 17. And then this grunting mannish-one. Uh Ho hooo hoooooo..” she gives that horrifying mouth-covering laugh.

         Kaede tilts her head back to Emi. “We can share him, Dennou. There’s more than enough for the both of us.”

         Subtitles: Challenge accepted, collective-bitch.

<Pose Tracker> Emi Dennou [NWO] has posed.
Emi Dennou is pretty ruthless sometimes. Nevertheless, she isn’t too well trained in the art of seduction, she has watched television and naturally is a bit too weird to have stumbled upon a relationship. She’s really only in this to cause Kaede grief. If she really wanted a relationship with Yoh, she’d have insisted on bringing her ‘sisters’ along and make comments about a sixsome or something.

Dennou’s face returns to it’s passive neutral after having engaged in Operation: Flirtation. She looks to Kaede and adds, “You are much more magnaminous than I had thought, knowing how to share is a difficult trait to foster, Dennou talks while paying for her own meal (because she has a real job).”

She draws out a small wallet and carefully counts out the money. “Yoh-Chan is truly kind, Dennou explains to the employee who clearly doesn’t wish to know the details (but she brings them up anyway). He would be anybody’s friend, regardless of their personality flaws, Dennou notes that she is hinting that the girl who tripped her is the one with these personality flaws, in case it wasn’t clear.”

She is pulling out the full sassafrass today.

But she can’t help but wonder if the grunting mannish one is Thora. And so she asks, “Did you date Nee-Chan?” Pause. “I mean Thora-Chan, Dennou inquires.”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
…whilst he waits for an order or three out of the convoluted mess that is his latest customers, the graying youth promptly begins to search the pockets of his apron for scrap paper and a pen. After patting himself down sufficiently enough to realize he’s got nothing, he then turns away from the group momentarily to fetch the needed instruments from a nearby overhead cubbard.

         The heavy wooden door of the cubbard creaks audibly as it opens, indicating its need maintenance, and Yu’s right hand disappears into the cubbard to produce a sheet of notebook paper and a royal blue ball-point pen. Closing the door back after finding what he needed, he then proceeds to tear several strips from the sturdy paper and begins to write down their orders — seemingly completely unperturbed by what would be an otherwise strange discussion behind him. “…” He’s also, typical of Yu, nodding silently to himself with every single order as opposed to offering any sort of confirmation.

         When he’s finished, he turns toward the group again and offers another simple bobbing motion with his head. “Right.” He then casts a rather intense, prolonged, sidelong glance to Kaede as she mentions Yoh’s previous lovers. He then notes to himself that something seemed familiar about her demeanor… and averts his eyes silently to look at Yoh again — even as Emi speaks to him indirectly. It’s a look of great pity he gives, and its pretty visible.

         Nodding as Ms. Dennou gives her order, he writes all of it down on the sheet of paper he’s holding and then offers simply… to both girl’s comments, “I’m sure he is. Your orders will be ready in twenty or its free.”. He then promptly retreats back into the kitchen for a few moments before returning with another batch of ingredients, setting Yoh’s soda infront of him on the way out.

<Pose Tracker> Yoh Yamagatani [SEES] has posed.

Yoh lets out the biggest sigh when Kaede decides to not lash out and attempt to destroy Emi. “My ecc… eccen… what?” Yoh asks his girlfriend who is plotting to kill him. SHE IS REALLY. “What is that?” Haha, he does not even know what that word means. The teen just frowns ever so slightly at the mention of dating others. “I uh… I haven’t dated anyone else before you. Those are just people I know.” But he has tried telling her this before; it is not like it will sink in at this point.

That laugh was disconcerting, as well as the fact they are going to SHARE him now. Right about now Yoh wishes his mommy was here. She would be bubbly enough to solve this! YOH NEEDS AN ADULT.

The girls both seem to be taking cheapshots at each other disguised as compliments. Yoh is none the wiser. He is beginning to feel like they are getting along! Emi’s comment on Yoh being kind does make him smile a little! That is good, he wants that noticed by new people! He loves to make friends. Like this? Uh… not so much, but friends are friends! “Actually yeah,” Yoh comments to Emi. “She is my boss in a way. She helps me out a lot. Again, didnt date her, as I know who she really likes, and he’s my friend. But… yes, Kaede-chan is referring to her.”

Yoh sees that look, Yu! It is pretty obvious what is wrong with Kaede. if she is not in control, the one exposed eye is that glistening gold. Everyone knows what that means. Emi, he cannot really explain, as since he has barely met her… but she is odd in her own right, though the narrating is really neat.

“Alrighty,” he says nicely to Yu. Though he hopes he finishes it in less than twenty so he isnt forced to make it free!

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.

         Date Integrity: ======= 70 Percent.

         Kaede seems to watch with an amused look as Emi pays for her own food, and she leans all the more on Yoh. “Right. You’re so funny! I love your sense of humor.” Kaede smiles, giving Yoh a completely light and totally not-hurting punch in the arm.

         “Oh, you know Kobyashi…-san?” Kaede says, eye on Emi with extra interest now. “Yes, we’ve had problems before. You know, incopatible personalities. I’m /sure/ you know how that can be.” she says, nodding simply, looking up to Yu.

         “You’re doing such a great job. I’ll make sure my love leaves a good tip, like what foreigners do.” she magnanimously says.

<Pose Tracker> Emi Dennou [NWO] has posed.
“Your boss?, Dennou inquires.” she has heard, of course, about her sumoning an army of ogres in Mikage Cho, does that mean Yoh is an ogre? Or part ogre? She doesn’t think so. Or an Oni for that matter.

70 percent is a pretty optimistic estimate.

Now Emi wouldn’t blame Yoh for being uninterested in her but she has a hard time figuring out what exactly she’s seeing in this lady. So insincere. So cruel! Emi can be cruel too. She has gone along the indirect battle route so far, but Emi prefers to handle matters directly.

“Who does she like?, Dennou inquires.” It couldn’t still be Shirou, right? That would be pretty wild. He was giving away mementos of her, so it couldn’t still be him, so it must be someone else. She’s very curious about all details regarding her sister.

She is not shadow possessed, though she is pretty odd. Nevertheless, Emi Dennou pays for her own meal (discount!) and adds, “I hear that a lot about Nee-Chan. So you serve her don’t you? That means we are closer than I anticipated, Dennou says seriously this time. That means one day you would be working for Father, after all.” Hope is a wonderful thing.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
Adjusting the temperature of the oven eyes to their appropriate settings, chopping ingredients, dumping them all into various pots and pans after water has been added… all of the things are done very, /very/, quickly. Also, without even the slightest error. These orders will definitely be done in twenty, and not just because Yu is fast… but because a lot of the preparation has already been done by other cooks. Yu basically just has to cut up vegetables, throw in some prepared meat, spices, and other things in and its a done deal really.

         Whilst he’s working several pots and pans at once, Yu offers candidly to Yoh’s question about eccentricities… as if he’d been asked, “Eccentricity: an odd or peculiar habit.”. This was stated rather matter-of-factly, almost robotically… “She’s saying you have strange habits.”. … All of this without even turning his attention from work, as though it were perfectly normal to do right out of the blue! There’s several loud clanking sounds immediately following this, coming from the stove before Yu. Rushing in to Yu’s right, possibly cutting off any immediate replies from the customers, the owner of the establishment practically screams “AIYA!!! We’re filled to capacity now! THREE more beef bowls!” He then promptly runs into the rear of the kitchen screaming the same business, causing three more aids to walk out of the back to help Yu. One might be able to hear a Japanese teen with hair dyed blonde amongst them say, “Man… there goes my smoke break.”

         The cacophony of chatter in the background now has risen to an almost defeaning volume. The ‘customer circus’ might now find themselves flanked on both sides of the bar by lines of customers waiting for a meal. Yu, meanwhile, has managed to produce Yoh’s meal already and promptly carries it over to the counter… setting a rather massive bowl of curried beef before him. He then offers another sidelong look at Kaede and shakes his head slowly, “No, please don’t. It is always an honor to serve our customers.” Of course, this is a customary line Aiya employees ALWAYS offer to foreigners who try to tip. That is, when they actually come. “Your courtesy is… appreciated.” He bobs his head again slowly, this time less of a nod and more of a very shallow bowing gesture.

He then promptly returns to the stove to help the two aids with the cooking duties.

<Pose Tracker> Yoh Yamagatani [SEES] has posed.
And Yoh is praised even more. For being… funny? Okay, something is afoot. Yoh is not supposed to be funny! He is not usually the one to crack a joke. Then Thora is talked about, and thankfully a fight does not break out. It is obvious Kaede is irritated iside. She shares no joy for her at all.

Yoh is indeed a general in her army! The only other human among her tribe! And he has many demon friends as such too! A lot of them are nice too, in their own little… vicious way. “Just this guy. Knew her a while. THey do not get along much these days, but the guy is still my best friend, and I can.. just tell.” That is about as simple of an answer he can give in public. Maybe he will explain it more another time. “I do, in certain locations,” Yoh mentions. Technically Mitsuru is Yoh’s boss, but in Mikage-Cho, Thora is his boss. “Father?”

“Oh. Oh!” Yoh says to Yu’s comment. “Well that does make sense. I do do strange things. Haha. Some of which probably people will not believe.” Besides the contstant training, friend making, and saving the world, he does have his own quirks. Among the yelling in the back, Yoh perks when a /certain voice/ speaks. “Huh, must be that guy.” A look down at the food Yu brings. “Thanks a lot!” he says kindly, and without another work, literally ATTACKS the beef bowl. He will leave a good tip of course. He only does good tips here and at Cafe Chagall. He would tip at the Lucky Seven but… they dont take tips. He has tried.

Yoh is also a very voracious eater. He always has the napkin closeby to clean up his messes he makes.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.

         “Is that what she’s been up to? Must keep you quite busy.” Kaede says, looking with only passing interest at food brought towards her. She picks at it most daintilly. As fitting her current done-up hair and dress. She still was leaning quite a bit of Yoh, even as she watched him voraciously devour his beef with stars in her eye. She just listens for a good bit of the conversation, looking to Yu as he works so dilligently.

         “Dennou-san, I’m so surprised that I haven’t met you long before. You seem to travel in the same circles as we do.” she says, lips just past Yoh’s ear. “No wonder you have such a good working relationship with my darling, right?” seems safe enough.

         “…I mean, just like how Kobayashi and him have a /strong working relationship/. My Yoh’s an ever-/loyal/ minion, and does what he’s told by smarter women. It’s his real weakness, you know.” she smiles again, still having not eaten anything. “Being you know, alone with her, in that terrible and weird place with those scary demons. He’s such a gallant knight. When alone. With her.”

         Date Integrity: ===== 48 Percent.

<Pose Tracker> Emi Dennou [NWO] has posed.
Emi Dennou shakes her head at Kaede’s comment. No, she doesn’t seem to think they are in the same circles. “I have only met my Nee-Chan once, Dennou explains.” She opens up her phone, checking the time briefly, before lowering it again. “Nee-Chan and I share a Father, Dennou adds.” She is comfortable with sharing that much, even to Kaede.

She claps her hands twice, has a bit of her meal–only a bit–because she soon lifts up a napkin and, with practiced care, dabs the sides of Yoh’s mouth with it. She was waiting to use that one.

“I wouldn’t mind sharing with Nee-Chan either, Dennou says. She seems awfully lonely, Dennou laments.” Though of course everybody seems ‘lonely’ to Emi. Individuality is such a horrible thing.

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
…aaand Yu is still cooking. Though, by now, the food he’s been preparing is nearly done. Without error, hopefully… a challenging thing to do in a fully packed diner with a twenty minute policy. It’s times like these, Yu thinks to himself, his manager is slightly crazy. Though, he had to admit… it rarely got this packed. He finds himself thankful the diner has more than one cook… even if he finds himself still doing most of it.

         After a couple more minutes, no more than five, Yu lifts a plastic tray of orders from the counter nearest the stove and turns back toward Yoh and his passive-aggressive duo of quarrelsome females. He watches, briefly, in amusement as they continue to pander to Yoh whilst simultaneously stabbing one other subtly… and shakes his head silently. He then treks off away from the counter toward the door and a pair of lonely tables, and proceeds to dispense with the orders… bowing, clapping hands, dispensing pleasantries to an elderly couple and then picking up the tray and departing for the kitchen with it again.

         Thank god his shift is almost up, he sighs to himself.

<Pose Tracker> Yoh Yamagatani [SEES] has posed.

It is not long before the Beef Bowl is already dwindling. But unfortunately there would be no way to attempt what he did before. A single bowl is good enough. With some still left, he looks up and pats his mouth with a napkin. “Yeah, really busy. It is insane some of the stuff that happens out /there/,” he comments to Kaede. “But knowing how to fight is a big plus there.” A look to Kaede again. “We actually just barely met a day or two ago.”

Yoh makes a rather shriveled up face at Kaedes final comments. He got that. Surprisingly.

Yoh’s eyes suddenly focus on Emi intensely for a few seconds. They share… a father? But Thora was… created. By…! “Oh. really?” he asks, seeming quite surprised. “Small world, I guess.” Yoh’s voice seems too waiving to acually seem calm about it. He is terrible about hiding emotions.

Another wave to Yu as he drops off the ladies’ food. He should cook something for him sometime if indeed this is the guy Thora talks about! Or maybe just hang out somewhere with him. Yoh is a very… bland cook. Doesnt stray from recipes, things taste like they are supposed to and nothing more.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.

         “You only met your sister once?” Kaede asks the curious girl on Yoh’s other side. Her eyebrow is raised at such an acute angle of surprise at that. She nods slowly, before pausing a little in realization. “Oh my! You’re related to Kobayashi?” she says, still not touching her food. Her eye goes wide as a plate at such a realization.

         “…but you’re so much more feminine. I wouldn’t have th—-” she says to Emi of all people, cutting herself off. If she even can be counted as people. Feminimity must be relative. Or recessive or something.

         She leans further on Yoh in that blue dress right after, as if to express HER femininity, watching the cook it would seem more than her boyfriend-apparent. “Isn’t it a small world? For meeting just a day or two ago.” she says to Yoh, then leaning over to peck his cheek and check on his food. “You’ve… eaten a lot.” she says, rather surprised. “Here, have some of mine. We can’t have you running out of steam for our late night ac~ti~vi~ties…” she says, looking right at Emi the whole time with a cheerful smile. She takes half of her bowl, and adds it right to Yoh’s.

         To Yu however, Kaede winks. Or maybe that was a blink. It’s hard to tell with her hairstyles. “Excellent by the way. Absolutely excellent. See the flush on my darling’s face? Surely from your cooking.” she says as Yoh makes another face.

         Date Integrity: ==== 42 Percent.

<Pose Tracker> Emi Dennou [NWO] has posed.
Thora too said they didn’t really look at all alike. “Likely by design, Dennou hypothesizes.”

And then she doesn’t add anything else. Her mind is distracted from disrupting the date at this point, though Yoh might be able to get that progress bar down all on his own. Of course, she DID remember to dab at Yoh’s cheek, purely to be disruptive, but she wonders what it’d like to actually have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend–or, really speaking, a friend friend. She has of course had people agree to be friends but she hasn’t really experienced friendship–maybe with Akari, she thinks, she seems like a nice person but she suspects that while they have been friendly they haven’t, precisely, been friends.

Dennou communicates with her sisters silently for a few moments. It goes something like this.

E: So what would a real date be like, Dennou inquires?
A: It’d be…nice, Dennou mumbles.
O: We don’t have time for this, Dennou rolls her eyes, noting this so Dennou knows it is being done.
U: We could experiment, science! Dennou suggests enthusiastically.
Ooooh Science, the Dennous agree.

“Yoh,” Dennou provides a lesson, “it is alright to have some pride.”

<Pose Tracker> Yu Narukami [KDA] has posed.
As Yu makes his way back toward the kitchen, he offers another quick bow of his head to Yoh’s waving and a silent, hurried, smile. He definitely felt pretty bad for that guy right now. He seemed nice enough, perhaps they can introduce themselves properly some day when he’s not flanked by estrogen-crazed hens. On that note, he immediately disappears into the kitchen again to gather more ingredients for the still-coming-in orders before an even more crazy chinese man comes out of the kitchen after him.

         Returning from the kitchen after a few, very brief, moments… Yu makes a beeline for the stove where the other three employees are working. Working is a subjective word, of course… they’re accomplishing less than half of what Yu does by himself. One can almost hear the blonde japanese teen manning the right side bemoaning the loss of his much needed smoke break earlier.

         As he walks by the threesome again, he does catch Kaede’s following words and gestures at least… though the wink likely goes unnoticed. The half-way, almost nervous, smile he offers in turn… while friendly seeming enough on the surface… arises more out of courtesy (and confusion!) than anything. He doesn’t know whether to blush subtly again or flee the kitchen in the event she might be flirting wih him. Turning his backside to the three again as he nears his space at the stove, he sighs softly. He’ll assume for his sanity’s sake it was just a compliment!

<Pose Tracker> Yoh Yamagatani [SEES] has posed.

Yoh is willing to be it is a recessive gene.

Yoh find Kaede to be rather… warm. But that was obvious due to body heat. Then he gets kissed on the cheek! Yoh turns a bright shade of red. “Well I uh… you sure? Okay then…” Then something strange happens. Yoh eats the offered food much differently. He gently and neatly eats the offered food slowly, a polar opposite of what he did to his. Huh.

The Emi dabs at Yoh’s cheek… cleaning it? The heck? Why is this happening? Yoh was fine with women and ladies until he told some friends ‘I should start dating’. Then BLAM all these ladies and problems with hanging with them. So hard to hold a real relationship! Though he probably could have picked a better girlfriend. But she is a nice person, and Yoh knows what she is really like. “Pride? Hum. Well, prideful people tend to end up selfish too, so I guess I sort of left it behind.” Wait why is he suddenly talking about Pride.

GET OUT OF HIS HEAD.

Another look over to Yu. man the poor fellow seems busy! Yoh hopes he gets off work soon so he can relax. Look at him go! Though Yoh is almost as busy at his job, the Build-A-Jack Workshop.

<Pose Tracker> Kaede Fujioka [S] has posed.

         “Yamagatani has a lot to be proud of.” Kaede adds back in, watching Dennou clean the man’s cheek. She peers only faintly. Two can play at that game. She takes her pair of chopsticks, and dips them into her own bowl to pick up a clump of beef and sticky rice.

         “Oh my dear, you have to try this. I think our chef prepared mine a little different.” she says, waiting for Emi to dab a little more before thrusting the chopsticks forward, as if feeding her beloved.

         Of course, with only one eye probably able to see anything given her haircut, her depth perception is a little off at times. Now is one such time, as it jabs right into his cheek, leaving a smear of sticky rice and beef as it messes up right that spot where Emi had finished dabbing!

         “Oh, my sincere mistake. Dennou-san, why don’t you clean up for him? You’ve done such a fabulous job so far, and are such a loyal friend to Yamagatani.” she professes.

         Yu’s in and out franticness at each appearance is not missed by the girl however. That poor boy must be shocked at Emi’s forwardness and impropriety. The hive-creatures from her planet must surely not have dinner etiquette.
… and the dinner discussion continued in this manner for a time before dying out and all three customers left the Diner. Followed shortly by Yu. (Sorry guys, this scene got LOOOONG and people got tired. The scene literally ended here.  -Yu.)