Norie Okana was staring into the window of the jewerly shop, OSA-P Jewelers. She was eyeing what seemed to be a fancy necklace on a display bust. She almost seemed sad as her fingers played along her own antique necklace of an itallian make, with that ruby teardrop gem on it's end. These things. They were pretty, you know? She liked them a lot, once upon a time.
Then the one she wears turned her into some sort of monster. And she grimaces. Part of her still blamed herself. She was stupid. What a nice necklace for cheap in a second hand store. Of course there was going to be consequences. Of course it was too good to be true.
She should had just saved longer to buy something new.. or.. or on sale. She could sense that other necklace just beyond the window. Magicaless. Normal. Not like hers.
She comes out of her self pity to look around. How long was she staring. Certainly, not that long. No one was giving her strange looks. She took a deep breath and walked along the store line.
She stops in front of a small electronic's shop next. Same as before, she'd peek into the window display. See what's for sale.
Merely window shopping it appeared. She didn't seem overtly busy and mostly botherable by anyone passing by. At least-- there shouldn't be anything in an electronics shop that should dig up old memories like that. Right?
Her parents are still out of town. What makes this worse is the fact that today is Sierra's birthday. This has lead her to be a little on the down side today. She was just going to skip school today. She was going to say forget the whole thing. That is when Kit had the idea to say forget all of this and go get a cake. If they were doomed to be alone today then they were going to have a little fun.
Now, at the shopping strip, Sierra and Kit are just looking around from store to store. As a birthday gift, Her parents sent her some money. Sure its not quite as personal as most would like it but she is at least trying to make the best of it. Her feet carry her to a bakery where she finds a number of different cakes. She sighs and shakes her head, "I'd love to get a bigger cake but its only for two right?" Kit nods and takes a seat on her shoulder. "I'll come back. I need to think about it." Quietly she steps out of the bakery and finds a place to sit down and think.
Kit shutters a little and quickly identifies Norie, "Sierra-chan, Look! Its Norie-san. Ya should talk to her maybe she'd want some cake too?"
Sierra gives a warm smile and waves to Norie, "Hiya! Long time no see!"
It's good to be out in the city again. Being stuck in that hospital room had made Kukai sort of crazy to get free, and even now, a few days after being released, he's still out running around the city, seeing what all he's missed. Trying to find his friends and his aquaintances, though, was proving to be more difficult than it seemed.
This evening he's out exploring the shopping strip, Daichi riding his shoulder - it's good, lively, there's lots of people, and maybe he could find something interesting to pick up. Besides, it helped him not think about some of the other things on his mind. Like where the hell had Sachiko vanished off to.
It's not hard to pick out Kit's voice over the crowd - that distinctive Southern twang speaking in Japanese was remarkably uncommon, and Kukai hadn't seen her since he'd been laid up. He couldn't tell who she was talking to easily, but it only took a minute for him to locate Sierra herself and head over towards her - and see who she was talking to. Well, he needed to thank Norie for visiting him anyway, if she didn't decide to put a dark energy bolt into him or something. "Hey Sierra. ...Hey Norie. How're you two doing?"
Sora Hisakata looks to be in a poor mood. Her family and classmates can tell that's been the case for a past few days. She hears Kukai's voice, and anger... no, hate, fills her eyes. She walks over that way, fists balled, but she restrains herself, she doesn't make any actual attempt to punch. "Hey asshole."
Her shadow, however? Is off. That shadow has longer hair than Sora, and wears a big pointy hat. It's also reaching out for Daichi's shadow, like her shadow is trying to squeeze the life out of that shadow.
Norie Okana has her disguise up. This means Kit doesn't feel that darkness that emenates from her. She feels normal as far as magic is concerned. But that's just part of the disguise-- and keeping a cloak up takes power. That's part of her problem afterall.
"Hello, Sierra-san." she says softly. "Cake...?" she pauses a moment.
Does she feel like cake? She decides. "Maybe A little wouldn't hurt..." she ponders.
Kukai strides up. She faces him and blinks once. "Oh." she says. "You're out already?" she asks. "Hello, Kukai-san." she says softly. "Sierra was just offering me cake. Would you like to come for cake?" she asks in this weird stilted manner. Surely, cake is something that can shared and she only needs enough to taste- it's not like she actually 'gets anything' from eating besides enjoyment nowadays anyways.
Her eyes glance over to Sora though as she arrives with a very pointed 'Hey, Asshole'. She blinks a moment.
"Hello." she says, Sora isn't someone she knows. At least. Not directly as Sora- though she suspects that's Shiniko's given true name given a conversation she's had with Ayana and Ikiko.--- she just doesn't know who that Sora is~
She looks to Kukai with a blink. "Someone you know?"
Sierra gives a warm smile to Norie. "Oh cool! I will go get cake then! I am celebrating and don't wanna do it at home. Celebrating alone is sorta boring ya know?" She looks a little sad over that. "My parents are in the US at the moment. My grandma came down ill and They are helping her."
And then, Oh look! It's Kukai! "Hey Kukai-kun, I've not seen you in a while. Sorry I didn't get to the hospital to visit. Utau-chan told me. I was very worried about it. Its just things have been really chaotic." She blushes a little and she glances to chara. Kit just looks back at her and smirks.
Then there is Sora. Yeesh is this girl mad. "Yikes! Umm, You seem upset, would you like some cake too? I'm about to go get one. You seem like you could use it." She smiles warmly.
Kit looks to Kukai, Norie and then Sierra, "Yeah! Ain't nothin better to ease tensions then some good ol' fashioned sweets. Maybe some soda too cause yikes!"
Kukai nods to Norie. "Yeah. Apparently several people came by to help me out. I wanted to say thank you for visiting with Utau. It was really nice of you." He thinks for a second. "Sure, some cake sounds nice, I guess." He eyes Norie for a moment. No darkness, no anger, but she's still got on her jewel. "...You act like you're doing a lot better."
He looks over at Sierra and winces. "I hope your grandmother is all right. That sounds awful. And what are you celebrating?" He waves off the comment about the hospital. "It was ok. I know not everybody could come and visit. Things happen. We can talk..."
He looks over his shoulder and oh, dear. Sora. "Hey, Sora... Um." He moves more over towards Sierra, letting Sora stay near Norie, sort of keeping the other two girls between him and her. "Y'know..." He looks at the other two. He really wants to have a chance to talk and catch up, but the angry black-haired girl is intimidating. "Yeeaah she's mad at me. It's personal."
Neither Kukai nor Daichi notice the shadows in the street directly, but Daichi lets out an exhausted phew as Sora's shadow grasps ahold of his.
"This asshole is a disgusting pig, and a prime example of why you can't ever trust boys." Sora explains, without much in the way of explaining. At the very least the choice of words and the degree of venom behind them should go a long way towards explaining why she's mad. Broken heart.
"Anyway, yes. I'm Sora Hisakata, star player of the Seishou Middle School volleyball team." Her shadow seems to grow a little bolder, ripping at Daichi's shadow and pulling it towards the shadow's mouth, as though trying to eat the little chara's shadow.
Norie Okana blinks "Celebrating what?" she asks softly. She blinks and looks around and tries to figure out if it's a special day or something. Not to her, it feels. She purses her lips and seems to try to figure this out.
Her attention turns back to Kukai a moment. She purses her lips. "I have my disguise up. I've been doing a lot better. But that's subjective by what could be considered 'better' to you." she says tersely.
Her eyes turn toward's Sora. Then back to Kukai. Then. Back to Sora. "May I ask why you are so upset with Kukai-san?" she asks to Sora. "...did he lie to you too?" she asks, straight up. Yeah that's a good way to start things.
Then a pause and an expression that seems to be someone acting like they have a sympatheic look. "I'm sorry." she says. She looks to Kukai and straightens her lips into a neutral experssion.
Then 'Sora Hisakata' her eyes light up.
"Hisakata...." a pause. "Do you know an Ikiko Hisakata and someone named Ayana?" she asks experimentally. "A relative? Older sister?" she asks curiously.
"Its my birthday today. I will be right back." Sierra gives a warm smile, then moves it to go pick up a cake big enough for everyone present. Kit on the other hand spies the strange shadow and what its doing to Daichi's shadow. Quickly Kit flies at Daichi, pulling him back and hopefully saving his poor shadow.
Kit blushes a little, "Sorry bout that Daichi. Things were getting pretty weird and I wanted t' make sure you're alright."
A few moments later, Sierra returns with a purple and blue birthday cake as well as several different flavored sodas. She quickly leads finds a place to sit, pulls out some plasticware and starts carving the cake up. "I hope you all like marble cake. Its my favorite. Marble with Buttercream icing. Not a fan of that whipped cream stuff." She looks into her bag quick. Still some birthday money left. What to get with that?
Kukai holds up both hands and leans back from Sora. "Hey, hey, now, you're being unduly harsh, aren't you? I didn't make you kiss me, and I'm trying to be nice about things, yeah?" Somewhere inside him he gets this feeling, like he ought to be sorry, but it's stamped down without mercy.
There's a grin from Kukai as he looks at Sierra. "Oh, happy birthday, then! Um.. man, I sort of feel bad about eating somebody's birthday cake. Are you sure?" He digs in his pocket - he hates the idea of her buying the cake and then him eating it. "At least let me help you pay for the cake."
Kukai turns to Norie, then nods a little. "I... well. I don't know what to say. If you're draining less energy and doing better without it, I'm proud of you. Have you thought any about what I said, about focusing on bad people? Or are you still running around with Dickington?"
Daichi blinks, looking sort of tired, his shadow pulled away from Sora's as he looks down at the ground. "What... hey, Kukai, look down!" Kukai blinks, looking down at the floor. "...Sora, what... is with your shadow?"
"Yes, I know them. Ikiko is my cousin and Ayana is pretending to care about her." Apparently her loathing isn't limited to just Kukai. Then, Kit sort of rescues Daichi and Kukai notices. "Huh?" Sora looks confused, glances towards her shadow, then stares at Kukai. "You know, Kukai, you've already made me look like a fool once." She balls her fists again, raising them. "I'm not going to let you make me look like a fool twice, so quit it with the mean jokes." Her eyes glow red for just a moment, then she changes topics, "Happy birthday, Sierra-san. I'd love some cake if you're willing to share. I'm afraid I don't have a gift."
Norie Okana walks over to Sierra and eyes the cake and nods. "Cake is cake. Happy Birthday." she says softly. She eyes over to Kit and Dachi though and blinks. What's happening there now...? Is...
Is that shadow trying to eat Dachi or his shadow? What? She blinks a bit and looks back to Sierra as she waits for cake.
She looks back to Kukai. "Riventon-san is my friend. Please stop calling him nasty names. I still refer to you as 'Kukai'- or the other proper name- when I talk to people about you." she says tersely. "Yes. I've been keeping to people who 'deserve'..." she rolls her eyes. "...to be drained for now." she says. She keeps quiet on her recent endeavors though.
She purses her lips at Sora and blinks once before nodding. "I see. That sounds like what they told me." she says softly, before looking back at Kukai. She frowns. Probably outing her as Shiniko would be a bad thing. Maybe she'll try talking to her later, or after some of these people leave if there's time...
She turns back toward's Sierra apologetically, since she's just trying to feed everyone cake and she has to deal with this garbage.
"Marble cake sounds good, regardless." she insists. Still terse.
Sierra gives a small smile. "Its better then being alone." She comments almost to Kit who just winks to her. She begins cutting up the cake. When Kukai offers to help pay she shakes her head, "Don't worry about it. My parents sent me money for the cake and for a birthday gift. I just didn't want to be alone. It kinda sucks when everyone is away. I've been holding down fort by my lonesome for the past two weeks. I hope they come home soon."
Then things start getting tense. She quickly speaks. "Kit, Change!" They are clearly on the same wavelength as the second she says those words her scrunchie becomes a set of goggles. "Y'all calm down. No need t' get crazy right now. Yall wanna fight or d' ya wanna enjoys some cake and have a good time?" Her accent thickens and she becomes much more outgoing.
Then things calm down a bit. She simply smiles and nods, "Sure thing, theres plenty here. Ain't no thing t' worry about. And thank ya. Don't need no gifts if'n ya got friends right?"
Kukai just... stares at Sora for a long moment. There's no telling what's going on, but if she doesn't want to say anything about it, that's up to her. "No jokes, Sora, but whatever." He looks up at Norie for a moment and shrugs. "OK, ok, fine. You know I don't like the guy, though. And that's good, I guess." Trying to get anywhere else with the two of them may be a fool's game for now. Take what you can get.
Kukai nods, then reaches over, patting Sierra's back. "That sounds really sort of awful. Do you have anybody checking up on you, making sure you're ok?" He blinks as she Chara Changes and the goggles pop down over her eyes. "Hey, hey, nobody's getting worked up just yet. Let's just have some cake." He looks at the cake, then reaches over, using one of the plastic pieces of silverware to cut it into equal slices. "Too much drama going on, and me still not at full form. Good grief."
Sora shoots Sierra a look that says 'I am not impressed' but otherwise doesn't escalate, she had already come to the conclusion to move on, and sits down to wait for cake. "Riventon-san is honest about the kind of guy he is, can't say that about you." Sora mutters, shooting Kukai a dark look.
"Norie-san, right? Stay away frim Ayana, she's just interested in getting people into trouble." Another dark look is sent Kukai's way, implying that whatever is going on between her and Kukai, Ayana is involved.
Norie Okana looks at Sierra and... blinks. Suddenly, chara change!? She kind of taps her bottom lip in thought. Should she feel bad for Sierra? IS she supposed to? Kukai seems to feel bad. So. Maybe she's supposed to. "I'm sorry." she says to Sierra. "Still. Yes. Cake with friends sounds...." she pauses. "fun?" she says in a manner that seems more like a question than a statement.
She looks to Kukai and merely gives another frown. "If you're the cause of Sora's anger then you have only yourself to blame." she insists to Kukai. "I don't intend to fight you over calling my friend names." she says. "Or fight tonight at all. So wether you're at full form or not shouldn't be an issue." she says. "Unless Sora intends to deck you." she says.
She looks to Sora quizzically after that statement, and it seems Sora is in fact, not gonna deck Kukai one right in the snootle.
"Norie. Yes." she says softly. She frowns.
"I still. Need to talk with her. At least one last time. I don't know how it's going to go at least." she says lowly.
She waits for cake. Yes. Give her the cake. Shooooow her the cake!
Cakes gotta be better than this racket, right?
Sierra just eyes Sora for the moment. She didn't change to impress. She changed because one of her few friends she has was just threatened. Finally she just laughs it off. Her goggles become a scrunchie again and she is just fine for now.
"I am alright. No one's been coming by. Its just been me and Kit there. I understand why they went to the states. As much as I'd like to have gone, I couldn't. I'd miss too much school. They trust me though so here I am." The Bluenette just smiles and nods. "Yeah lets eat cake. Cake is more fun and Safer."
"Oh and umm, thank you! Its nice to hear honestly."
Kukai rolls his eyes at that comment about Riventon from Sora, but then chuckles. "Ayana got me in some trouble, yeah." He grins at Sora. "It was fun trouble but I'm paying for it. Which I think is her point - she got a girl she doesn't like and a boy, an entire gender she doesn't like, in trouble at one another." He sits up, looking at Sora for a moment after he finishes talking. "...Why are we fighting, again, when she's the cause of our problems?"
He looks back at Norie. "It's... oh, it's a long, stupid story. I ...Iii'll let Sora tell it if she wants. And I never want to fight. If we could solve all our problems over cake it'd be a lot better for everybody. And if Sora really, really wants to deck me, just aim at the face or the stomach, please not at the ribs, they're not quite done fusing back together."
He lays out the pieces of cake onto little plates for each of them, then sits down, with enough cake left over for Sierra to take home when she wants. "Well if you want I can check up on you from time to time. There's too many people who live alone in Tokyo anyway." Daichi thumps Kukai on the back of the head. "She's not alone, she's got Kit!" He hugs the little pilot Chara, and Kukai grins weakly. "Somebody who can use the phone, chucklehead."
"Just because she encouraged you doesn't mean you're not at fault." Sora answers Kukai with a glare that spells certain doom, or at least close to it. Then, she shrugs and leans back, looking towards the cake. "Being alone sounds good right now. It would give me some damn privacy." She sounds like a negative nancy, doesn't she? "If you talk to her, bring a friend along, someone you can trust."
Norie Okana purses her lips and accepts the cake, which she begins to eat slowly. She savors the taste, because that's when all you get out of food, you savor it for as long as you're able. She takes another slow bite as she looks between Chara, to Kukai, to Sora and gives a soft nod.
She looks to Sora and bites her lip a moment. She kinda of wants to say something-- but she's trying to figure out a way to say something- but.. fails miserably. "I'm sorry, Sora..." she says softly. "I'll try to make sure I'm not alone." she says.
She looks to Kukai and purses her lips as she head tilts. She still doesn't exactly know what happened. She doesn't pry further as she takes another savoring cake bite.
"This is good cake." she says softly to Sierra. "Thank you, again." she says neutrally.
Sierra Earhart frowns a little. Quietly she nibbles at her cake and shares some with Kit. She even puts a little icing on her nose as a joke! At least she's having some fun. "There are times when being alone is good and times when being alone really sucks. For me, it sucks."
Kit giggles and tries to get the icing off her nose. Then she speaks up, "She's been at home alone for the past two weeks. Its really boring." She giggles and noms up some of the cake.
"Yes it is. And you're welcome. I'd rather eat cake with others then eat it alone. Even if it is cake!" She laughs
Kukai sighs and then sits back. If Sora wanted to be alone she'd have never come over to talk to them in the first place. There's more going on than meets the eye. "I've not really been alone alone for my whole life. Even when I'm in my room by myself I can still hear my family outside in the apartment. So..." He shrugs.
He takes a bite or two of cake, and makes sure to share a little piece with Daichi as well. "It's very good cake." He hmms, thinking for a moment, then looks over at Sierra. "So... have you gotten into any fights yet?"
"My apartment building is owned by the family and everyone who lives there is either family or friends of family. I can't get away from them." Sora explains her desire for some proper privacy. Then, she digs into her cake. "It's not like I always want to be alone, but I can't ever be alone when I want to. It's awful. Unlike the cake, which is great" She glances towards Norie, "I'll tag along, if you want me to."
Norie Okana bites her lip. Nrg... that's a toughie. "We'll. Need to. Talk about that. Before. You do." she says in a weird space monotone, as if she was picking her words carefully. "Okay...?" she asks. "I-- I might know. A fix for your privacy situation but... later." she says softly.
She takes another bite of cake, as her eyes glance over to Kukai and she purses her lips. "Not everyone has the same life.. or situation." she says softly.
"That's a problem I have. No one understands some of the things I have to go through-- and--and they act like it's so easy!" she huffs and narrows her eyes. "Sometimes, I wish I could pass this to people who thinks it's so easy. See how easy they think it is to live like that for a month." she snaps.
"Well I'm done worrying. Things are-- are finally making sense!" she insists to Kukai. "I don't feel 'normal' but I'm starting to feel 'right' again!" Well. What's bringing this one. Maybe it's the comparance of living situations!
She takes a deep breath and places her plate down. Why!? Well because there's no more cake on it!
Sierra Earhart finishes off her cake and smiles a little. "Mmmm This was delicious. Hmmm..." She quietly considers what she is going to do now. Her gaze shifts to a few different stores as she ponders what she might get as a birthday gift for herself.
Her attention is stirred by Kukai. "With Kit? Not really. We get along pretty well. If you mean fights in general... Not yet. I've not had a need to fight anyone. I've had a few incidents though. I've been learning how to do stuff and I sorta blew half the leaves off a tree by accident. That was fun. I wanna help Utau-chan rescue Ikuto-san."
The girl blushes a bit as she considers whats all been done so far. Kit giggles and lands on her shoulder again. "You'll do fine in a fight, Sierra-chan.'
Kukai hmms and nods. "Yeah, I remember now. I walked you to the door. I guess I understand - sometimes I want my brothers to not be quite so close. But I've been able to sort of make my own little place. Maybe they just understand, I guess." He looks at Sora and Norie for a moment before taking another bite of cake.
He chuckles. "Yeah. Honestly I guess I wouldn't mind. It might be good for more people to walk a mile in everyone else's shoes. I guess if you're feeling all right, Norie, then I don't see why you can't continue on. Do you want some more cake?" He stands to dish some more out, smaller slices, still wanting to leave some for Sierra for later.
He lets out a long, deep breath. "Eeeeyeah. I gotta help Utau with Ikuto, too, but you..." He thinks. "It might be outta your grade, though. Ikuto's been protected by this crazy, scythe-wielding helmeted guy named Death Rebel. Frankly, he scares the living crap out of me, more than even Riventon. He will kill you if he gets the chance. So... if you do go to help her, you keep all four eyes peeled, yours and Kit's, watching for him, and run if you need to. And if you want to train some, we can work on that." He grins. "It's actually been a while since I've been able to train with somebody. You'd have to keep up."
"We'll talk about it later." Sora can tell Norie doesn't want to go into detail in company, and so is willing to defer the matter. She sits down and goes quiet, listening to the others talk instead, going over things in her mind. Only one remark makes her curious, "If he scares you more than Riventon, maybe I should see if he's open to making friends."
Norie Okana nods at Sora matter of factly. She looks back to Kukai and Sierra. "Death Rebel?" she asks softly. "I think Utau told me something about that. A powerful mahou protecting her brother." she nods matter of factly.
"I wish her luck. I'm not sure I should get involved...I..."
"Care...?" another question that should be a statement. "For her. But. This sounds too personal." she insists.
She looks down and around a bit on the side of the walk in front of the stores.
"I came down here to window shop." she says softly. She scrunches her nose just a moment.
"That's a fun thing to do. Right?" she asks.
"We'll only need two." Sierra smiles to Kit and Kit smiles back. Her attention then goes back to Kukai for the moment. "You just got out of the hospital and are on the mend. Kukai-kun I'm more worried about you right now. Are you sure you want to be in on that rescue. If this Death Rebel is so bad, Maybe you might want to not do this?" She frowns.
She looks at Sora and shakes her head, "When I first met Utau-chan, she threatened to sing me a song. I didn't understand that. I was just a fangirl. I found out that she was threatening to steal my hearts egg. While I view her as a friend, She's trouble. Her brother, works for Easter as well. Tadase-san called him the black cat of misfortune. So these two are trouble and Easter is using this Death Rebel to keep her brother from being removed from their hold. That means Death Rebel is REALLY bad. Are you sure you wanna go make friends with him?"
Kukai tries not to grit his teeth. "Seriously, Sora, don't get involved with him. He's bad." He nods at Sierra as she talks. "What she said. Death Rebel is up there on the serious side of my playfight/serious scale."
He leans on the table and picks up one of the sour sodas, opening it and taking a sip, then wincing slightly. Mm. Tart. "Well it's not like I can just put the world on pause and say 'hey guys, I'm still banged up, let's not do this today'. As long as I don't let anybody kick me in the chest between here and there I should be fine. Really I'm ok except for that. I had plenty of time to rest and quite a bit of magic besides."
He sits back from the table, eyeing the little piece of cake he'd just finished. "Well. I think... this has made me hungry. I need to go find some food." He grins at Sierra. "Do you have my number? If you need anything you can call me and I can come help you out. And happy birthday again."
"Hoshina-san is a friend, I won't listen to you insult her like that." Sora says abrubtly, and gets up from her seat, cake half finished. She glances towards Norie, "I'll find you later, then we can talk more." She starts to walk away, clearly still angry.
Norie Okana blinks and nods at Sora. "Alright." she says softly. She looks back at Kukai and frowns. "I'm going to find out what you did to get her so mad, Kukai-san." she says tersely. "And if I don't like what I hear, I'm coming for you again." she says with that ever present frown.
She looks to Sierra and bows. "Happy Birthday, Sierra-san." she says curtly, but at least more pleasently than she talked at Kukai.
And with that she also begins to leave-- opposite direction than Sora it seems!
Sierra Earhart gathers the cake and smiles to Kukai. She quickly writes her number down and gives it to him. "Thank you. Umm. Be careful is all I'm saying. A lot has happened while you were gone, including stuff we need to talk about." She quickly turns to Norie and smiles, "Thank you! Then finally She turns to Sora, "Chill. I wouldn't say anything here that I wouldn't say to her face. She's a friend I do trust her." She shakes her head. "Come on, Kit, we got stuff to do."
Kukai sighs. "Ask her what her cousin Ayana did to make her mad at me, too, Norie, that'll get you the full story." He watches the two of them walk off, and stands up. "It was nice seeing you again Sierra. We'll catch up and talk soon I hope. Take care."
He watches the three girls walk off, then scoops up Daichi and plops him in a pocket, turning to find a food stall or something nearby. He picks up the number Sierra passed him, sticks a hand into his pocket... and frowns. "....Wait. Where the hell..." He begins searching his pockets, including the internal one on his jacket. "Where the hell is my phone?"