1129/The Care And Support Of Brats

The Care And Support Of Brats
Date of Scene:	01 March 2016
Location:	Mitakihara/Pikarigaoka - King Penguin Park
Synopsis:	Kukai is walking off a significant beatdown the day after losing to Utau when he meets the mysterious rapier-wielding girl from the fight. It turns out he knows her and has more in common with her than one would expect.
Cast of Characters:	Kukai Souma, Mikoto Nakajima

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Kukai Souma has posed:
The warm sun of almost spring passes into the horizon, leaving behind the cold wind of still winter, and after being funneled through the long streets of Tokyo it blows through King Penguin Park with strength and fury before passing by.

The evening chill cuts through Kukai, making him stop and pull his jacket closer around himself when he would normally not mind anything but the worst chill. Dozens of tiny painful bruises and cuts, healing quickly but still painful, have all sealed and begun to fade after yesterday's fight, but even so the events of the day are on his mind as he walks through the park, eyes on the pavement.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Tessen has been overflying the city, watching for further signs of X-Eggs' distinctive magical signature. She has perhaps been unfortunate not to find any, yet, but her search continues. After the previous day, she's almost certain that Easter is stepping up their plans, and something bad is happening. To Ikuto.

As she flies over the park, she spots the boy walking alone, and pauses as she recognizes him. Is that... yes, it is. Well then. Let's talk.

She abandons flight to land in a copse of trees nearby, so as not to startle him, and approaches on foot. Making sure not to walk quietly, so as to give him a chance to notice her approach.

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma isn't listening for anything in particular, but his footsteps were the only ones he'd heard for a minute. Hearing another pair makes his head come up, but it's certainly not who he expected to see. It's the mysterious girl from the fight yesterday, the one in the white and blue leotard with the rapier, who'd challenged the scythe-wielding man. He huhs, and then thumps his coat pocket. "Hey, wake up." After a second, Daichi's head pops up and he yawns - he has a single big white bandage across his forehead to indicate his battle damage.

Kukai stops, looking at the girl as she approaches, then nods. "Hi again. Thanks for yesterday. You kept things from going even crazier. We didn't get a chance to say hello, but I guess if you found me when I'm not Sky Jack you know who I am."

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Tessen lifts a hand to wave. "You kids don't exactly hide it," she says. "I've met a few of the others, so I knew what to look for." She falls into step beside you, letting her hood fall down as the wind picks at her cloak.

"You have a few minutes to talk?" She tilts her head slightly and nods to Daichi. "Hey there, little guy. You okay after all that?"

Kukai Souma has posed:
Daichi stretches and hops out out of the pocket. He looks tired but ok. "Yeah, I'm good. My head hurts some but Kukai put a bandaid on it and it doesn't hurt as bad."

Kukai bristles a bit at that 'kid' comment. "I'm fifteen years old. I'm not a little kid anymore. I just... I dunno. I can't hide who I am, and I won't hide Daichi, so it's pretty obvious who I am." He lets out a tired-sounding sigh. "But yeah, I'm just walking around, taking my mind off things. What did you wanna talk about? And what should I call you besides 'flying rapier girl?'

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
"Sorry, sorry. Didn't know you were so touchy about it." She nods politely to Daichi, glad to see he'll be alright. "Call me Tessen, when we're on business."

She walks along with you for a minute or so, before bringing up the topic. "Last night... that girl. You called her 'Utau'."

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma rolls his shoulders as they walk along, Daichi moving up to sit on the one away from Tessen so Kukai can look over at her. When she finally speaks, he nods. "Yeah. Utau Hoshina. I'm..." He shrugs. "I know most of what she did second hand, but she's back in town and up to her old tricks. Kind of."

He stops for a moment in between the light of two streetlights illuminating the path. "If I didn't know better, I'd say she didn't exactly like everything she's doing, but so far I haven't been able to convince her to not do it, or to stop her from getting away with it. I kinda think she may be out of my league in combat. And to be honest I don't want to hurt her, anyway."

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Mikoto files the name away, nodding as she walks along. "Her old tricks... so she's been at this before, then?"

She lets out a soft sigh, and leans against the streetlight-pole. She'd stuff her hands in her pockets if she were wearing pants, but she isn't, so she just crosses her arms over her chest.

"I'd deeply appreciate it if you didn't hurt her, yeah... but the egg thefts do have to stop. The only question is... when did you last see Ikuto?"

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma nods. "I made a promise to protect... a lot of people. Even her. And yeah, apparently she vanished for a while, but came back and is stealing X-Eggs again." He watches her lean against the pole and frowns. She must be tired too. "You wanna sit down somewhere?"

He blinks at the final question. "Ikuto? Her brother? Believe it or not I haven't seen him in a long time, since before she came to town, and then only once while he was talking to someone else."

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
"Sure, maybe somewhere out of the wind?" She looks around for a place, but isn't familiar with the neighborhood. "It's getting kind of chilly." Her Barrier Jacket can handle it easily. But Kukai clearly doesn't hae that advantage.

"Her brother... yes, that fits with what I'd heard. He hasn't been seen in a couple of weeks... some people think he might have gotten into something over his head."

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma is more familiar with the park, and walks down one of the side paths which leads towards the large pond in the park. A little covered picnic stand faces the park, sheltered from the worst of the wind, and Kukai sits down inside with a huff. "Phew."

He shrugs. ".... To be honest? I saw Amu a few weeks ago, too, and talked to her. After that she's been gone too. Maybe Tadase knows where she is. I'm..." He stops, then grins and shrugs. "I'm sure they've got things going on. Maybe Ikuto's the same way?"

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Tessen follows Kukai along the path, trusting his knowledge of the park. At the picnic stand she takes a seat opposite him, positioning herself to block the wind from him, and her cloak spreads out as if on wires, to further shelter the pair.

"I haven't seen Amu or Tadase in quite a while, I have to admit... but neither of them is the type to stick their head in the lion's mouth and yank its tail." She sighs and looks down, then back up to Kukai. "Ikuto is."

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma smiles as her outfit seems to shift at her will. "Thanks." He nods, thinking about his two friends and the one jerk. "Well... To be honest, why do you care about him so much? Everything I've heard about him so far has been 'Ikuto's a jerk, he's working for Easter, he's just doing it for himself...'"

He stops after a moment, mentally listening to his own words, then laughs. "Oh wow. They really are brother and sister. A pair of brats." He leans forward on the table between them, resting his chin in one hand and then wincing, shifting to his other hand. "Do you think he's in the same sort of situation Utau's getting herself into?"

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Tessen sighs softly. "I know he is," she answers. "He's doing it to protect her." She sighs softly. "Please don't tell Amu. She'd overreact. And ... bad things might happen."

She looks down, pausing, then adds, "If they haven't already."

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma huhs a little. "I don't like keeping secrets from my friends. A lot of problems come when people don't openly and honestly talk about things between one another. And Amu has a habit of -not- reacting, of sitting on her hands and not making a choice. Something that made her feel strongly enough to want to make a choice might actually be the best thing for her." Kukai shrugs, just stating things as he sees them.

He sighs. "That's the other half of this. They're both so wrapped up in themselves and each other and Tadase's wrapped up with them and Nadeshiko too..." He shakes his head. "I dunno. I did talk to Amu some time back. She was worried about some choice she had to make. I told her 'just pick one, even if it's the wrong one, it's the right one. Just do something.' I think she made a choice then." He sighs and leans back. "And then she vanished again. I don't even know if her parents have seen her lately."

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Tessen nods, and her fingers grip tight to the table. "I just can't help but feel that something's gone horribly wrong," she murmurs, still looking down at the table.

Then she comes to a decision. There's a sound like breaking glass, and when she looks up again, it's Mikoto in that blue-and-white outfit, cloak still spread to shield against the wind. "He left me a note, you know. A gods-damn note. And the phone I gave him, so our calls wouldn't show up on one they had access to."

And then she produces one of the posters that've been turning up. "This morning I found this." An advertisement for a concert, produced by Easter, starring... Ikuto.

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma thinks for a moment. Certainly something's gone wrong. But what? And then he leans back as the glass shatters, bringing up a hand, only to lower it as he peers in, seeing Mikoto instead of Tessen. "Oh... Hello!" He grins a little, only to lose the grin as she talks. There's real pain in her voice, pain and worry and something else too, something he can't place. "What was the note? I mean, if it wasn't something private between you two."

He looks at the poster she pulls out. He hadn't really paid a lot of attention to them, so this is his first look at Ikuto 'close-up'. "...And he hasn't contacted you at all, and now this?" He scratches his head, thinking. "The real connection here is Easter. Easter's urging Utau to do awful things, and now they're sponsoring Ikuto? Something about them is wrong." He drums his fingers on the table. "So... what can I do to help?"

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
"He said he was going to try... something. Wouldn't say what. Just that it'd either get him free... or in a lot of trouble. That it was too dangerous to say any more." She slams a fist into the table, shaking the whole thing. "On fecking Valentine's Day, of all times. I had plans for that day..."

She shakes her head, biting back the rest of the rant. "Obviously, whatever he tried, it didn't work."

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma thinks. "So, has Tessen considered going up to Easter HQ and knocking politely on the doors until they're down the halls and asking where he is?" He gets the idea about her shaking the table when she mentions Valentine's Day.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Mikoto nods. "You would not believe the temptation. But if I do that, what happens to Ikuto and Utau? And anyone else they may be using that way?"

She shakes her head. "It's too dangerous. I'd love to. Just find the bastrich responsible and wring his neck... give him a Roman Colonoscopy..." She holds herself back from describing further atrocities to be perpetrated on the parties involved, but she's clearly enough thinking about it. (Ratings, alas, will not permit a proper description of the fate she would prefer to inflict upon them.)

"I can't. It's not safe for Ikuto... and how do I tell who there is just an innocent pawn, and who's part of the game?"

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma reaches over and squeezes her hand. It's a simple gesture, but it's enough to tell her Kukai's right there with her, both physically and mentally. "I understand. So. If we can't fight them head on, we have to fight them from the side. I think Tadase would say the word is obscurely." He nods, and then grins. "So we have to work together to fight them every time they send out Utau, or that scythe guy, or if they have any other tricks up their sleeves. Right?"

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
"Right," Mikoto says, squeezing your hand back. "And try to find other ways to inconvenience them. Make their lives difficult."

She pauses for a moment, tilting her head. "I think you mean 'obliquely'. As in, 'from the side', not 'from the shadows'. Although that works, too."

She considers it for a moment. "I have no clue what Amu thinks she's doing. Me... I'm going to fight it. And I'll be glad to have your help."

She flicks her fingers, tapping the air in a couple of places, and what looks like a cellphone made of glowing light appears on the table. "We need to keep in touch..." She starts tapping out a text on its screen.

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma grins. "That's the spirit. This isn't something we can fix in just one fell swoop, yeah? So we gotta put some effort into it whenever we can." He erks, then laughs, shrugging. "I guess so. I'm glad I sort of remembered it at all. And if you're fighting them, I'm fighting alongside you."

He pulls out his smartphone as well to give her whatever information she might need. "Thanks for trusting me with all this, Tessen. Mikoto. We'll get it straightened out somehow."

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
"Tessen, whenever I'm in costume. I'm trusting you with this, Souma-kun. I... I'm glad to know that someone cares about him. Them. That I'm not the only one who worries about them."

Once contacts have been exchanged, the virtual phone shimmers and derezzes, disappearing back into the ether it came from. "I don't care what it takes. I will find a way."

Kukai Souma has posed:
Kukai Souma stands and then reaches over, patting her on the shoulder like the big brother type he is, grinning. "We'll save them. I promise. Even if they think they don't want to be saved. We will find a way."