In spite of the Summer being on its way, the weather still retains a likeness to its clear days - even if the temperature has noticeably dropped. It's therefore a sunny afternoon, and Seth is calmly walking along the paths of the Hikawa Shrine, hands tucked in his pockets. When he sees a board, he produces a sheet of paper from the inside of his coat, and moves to pin it on the board.
Sun is not remotely a guaranteed thing this time of year. These few days are a welcome break between rain, a brief spot of rain, and a return to the usual gentle deluge midweek or so. The sun's bright and golden and...
... really making that much white hair blazingly obvious, on the whole.
It could be worse. One of the girls could have come by with glitter after school. Actually, escaping that very fate might contribute to why Kazuo Takeba is out at the shrine right now, dressed in his usual jeans and button-down. He's left -- something -- by a fox statue, and is in the not particularly hurried process of making his way out. Not quickly. Never run from anything immortal, and never run from the possible notice of psychic shrine maidens, either. No. Slow. Casual.
And glancing aside with a faint frown at a boy pinning something up. He looks vaguely familiar to Kazuo, somehow; a distressing number of people do, really, but he's fairly sure this one isn't one he turned into a youma --
It's a gorgeous day, and one that has involved a lack of school, and explorations that are not at anyone's apartment. Sunshine! Fresh air! Nature! At least tokenly nature, as much nature as one might expect for not actually leaving the city.
Naru walks the path towards the shrine, turning to walk backwards a few steps as she grins to Alex. "Rei, who you met at the barbeque, and her grandfather live here." She's explaining as they approach.
Kazuo's brilliant white hair is eyecatching, indeed, and as Naru turns again, she makes that spot check easily enough and waves. She glances in the direction he's frowning and waves towards Seth as well. "Wow, popular place."
There's a look from Seth as he hears the sound of a familiar voice, Naru's, and once he realizes it's hers, he smiles and offers a quick wave with a small sign that he'll be by her location shortly. Pinning his wish-prayer on the boards, he offers a silent prayer; he doesn't rush things, so to whoever it is, or whatever its about, it must be important.
Kazuo doesn't wave back. Largely because he's tall enough that Naru can see his inclining his head to her wave just as well as she'd be able to see any answering gesture, crowds in the way or not. He changes his course, as well, pacing his way toward her. The people between don't part like the Red Sea or anything similar; they just acquire a tendency not to want to be in his way. He might, after all, just keep walking through them.
He fetches up beside Naru and examines her and company for a moment. Nothing's said aloud. This probably doesn't surprise Naru, at the least.
Naru grins up at Kazuo as he comes up alongside her. "Hi! I wasn't expecting to see you here today." She comments conversationally as he gets close enough for such conversations, one sided or not. "How's things?" A causal question, that can be so many layers of casual and not, depending on the moment.
Naru is in no rush to inturrupt Seth at his mediations or prayers or posting things or any combinations therein, willing to let him enjoy his moment undisturbed for the time being.
A while longer and... All done. Seth finishes with a kiss he applies to the tip of his fingers, and through them transfers to the sheet of paper he placed. He clears his throat, composing himself to face the crowd - well, two or three people, anyways -, and walks in their direction. "Hiya, Naru-chan." He looks between Kazuo and Alexis. "Greetings."
Kazuo shrugs slightly to Naru at the question. "No-one died," he says. "No mysterious lab incidents. No attempted arrests. No loss of any significant bits of architecture." He considers for a moment, as if trying to scrape up some fragment of news Naru hasn't already heard, and then offers, "We finally got through the last of the unexplained pineapple soda."
Trying that hard suggests that there's something he's not telling her, or at least something he's not mentioning in public. Seth's approaching; he turns and inclines his head to the only-slightly-younger-than-Kazuo-looks teenager. "Good afternoon." Even if he can't place the boy, it's an excuse to evade any implied questions on what he's doing at the shrine himself.
"I liked the pineapple soda." Naru smiles just a touch. "It sort of grew on you after a while. Like fungus." Which is perhaps not a glowing soda recommendation.
"Good afternoon Seth." Naru greets as the American boy joins the conversation, offering him a smile as well. "How're things with you?" She asks, extending a very similar question to him as well.
"Oh, I get by", Seth replies. Pointing towards the board, "Came to pay respects to one of my greatest friends in this life, and make a heart-felt wish." He looks at Kazuo, and presents himself, "I'm Seth Katsumoto Locke. Pleased to meet you."
Kazuo eyes Naru as Seth's approaching, and lowers his voice a little. "I'll remember that your taste in sugared drinks is similar to Usagi's in ice cream." Namely, clearly, ALL OF THEM NO MATTER WHAT.
The tall, white-haired boy turns to Seth as Naru greets him. "Kazuo Takeba." Possibly nobody ever taught him the politenesses that go with introductions. Possibly, since he certainly doesn't have an accent from anywhere else, several people taught him and he ignored all of them. After a moment, though, he adds, "I think I might have seen you briefly a week or so ago. We didn't exchange words, though; you were called away rather suddenly."
"I don't like /everything/." Naru protests lightly, well aware of Usagi's opinions upon ice cream are. "Perhaps the pineapple soda and I just ended up with some sort of food varient on stockholme syndrome." She opines with a little laugh.
"Seth was at the barbeque briefly, although I think most of Tokyo's youth were there, so that hardly narrows it down." Naru explains with a littl gesture between the two who tower over her. Her attention settles on Seth a moment and she smiles more gently. "It's a lovely place to leave one's respects and spend some quiet time."
"True enough", Seth replies, "At that 'frat house' barbeque party." He looks at Naru, "Yes, even though it's not really a frat house, I still defend that those posted rules make it a typical frat house party." Back to Kazuo, he shrugs. "But yeah, family stuff and all, so... Family first, right?"r
Looking at Naru, ne nods as his gaze glances around the carefully handled area. "It's beautiful. The place beams with positive energy. The spirits must feel welcome here." Speaking like a Shintoist, here.
Family. Kazuo opts not to speak to that. "I contest the 'typical frat house party.' Alcohol was available, not a challenge." Granted, that's the only part he's actually contesting. Well. That and that typical frat house parties don't tend to be populated by fourteen-year-olds.
Then again, their acquaintances will grow up eventually. Well, most of them, anyway.
The Shrine itself ... that he stays quiet on, too. Rei might appear at any moment, and it's wisest not to have already earned her wrath.
Naru is almost sixteen, thankyouverymuch!
"Family is, as often as not, what you make of it." Naru answers simply enough, with a touch of a shrug and a smile. "We don't really have too many who get stupid drunk on a regular basis." Naru considers that and then shrugs. "It never really occured to me that its might be thought of as unusual."
"I don't visit nearly as often as I should, I dare say." Naru glances around at the quiet area and then back to the conversation at hand. "It is peaceful currently."
Seth Locke looks at Kazuo, "Guns, stabbings... Witch labyrinths, whatever those are..." He shrugs, "Looked like you were expecting a riot or the Spanish Inquisition to storm the place. Alcohol is yesterday's news." He chuckles at that, then looks between them, "So, what're you doing here? Come to offer your prayers and pay respects, as well?
"No," Kazuo says, "those are the normal rules."
Apparently he thinks this helps somehow.
His next shrug, at the actual question, is slightly more awkward. "Inari did me a favor," he says, matter-of-fact as if the deity were a classmate, or maybe lived a couple of floors down. "I don't hold much with gods, but it seems only polite to say thank-you occasionally."
Naru just nods at the mention of the rules, as if puzzled that anyone might view them as not precisely normal. They just are. "Not that guns come up much." She can accept that bit of oddity. Clearly /that/ is the weird bit.
"Respects, prayers, thanks." Naru nods a little at the triumverate of shrinely duties. "When one acquires curses with the regularly that I have in the past, it's prudent to just keep up with the proactive addressing of them."
Kazuo's referencing of 'normal rules' makes Seth frown - so, no help from what the white-haired guy says. "Oh, so that's what you consider 'normal'?" He chuckles to that. "I'd be dying to see those rules in 'hardcore'."
He changes the subject, eyes shifting back to Naru. Whatever frown appeared on Seth's face when speaking about 'normal rules', that was nothing compared to this one, which has a surprised, even intrigued tone, "/Curses/!?" He stares at Naru, "What do you mean, 'curses'?"
Guns? "We frown on those in the apartment, generally. They're not exactly multipurpose tools." Not to mention being highly restricted to wildly illegal. That part is clearly not relevant to Kazuo.
... he does not mention that Homura's are an exception. Because really, who needs to know that? And how much of a pain would that be for Homura?
Seth he shrugs to briefly, at the topic of curses. No touching that one on his part. That's Naru's problem. (A little too often Naru's problem.)
Naru leaves the rules of the apartment to Kazuo, just as he's leaving curses to her.
Naru's smile turns rueful. "I am quite possibly the largest magnet for creepers and weirdos in Tokyo. Not the lovely beloved weirdos who are my friends, but all the rest of them." She shifts a little on her feet. "The speculation on my degree of cursed at any given time tends to come up." She offers a bright smile and a thumbs up. "Currently curse free!"
Seth Locke looks at Kazuo as he replies to his opinion on guns, and nods repeatedly, "Well, of course. At least, here you still got better gun control policies." He chuckles politely, "Besides, a screwdriver and a socket wrench go a long way."
He looks at Naru neutrally, listening to that reply of hers. Then he tilts his head, "I'm sure it's not like you owe the gross revenue of a small nation to a loan shark..." He blinks repeatedly, trying to get what Naru just said around his head.
It's right about then that a very tall black-haired boy reaches the top of the shrine steps and heads unerringly in the direction of the little group. He's wearing a pair of cargo shorts, sandals, sunglasses, and a red t-shirt that says 'this shirt is blue if you run fast enough'. He's not smiling, though he makes a token effort at something resembling one when Naru looks at him.
There's a very cursory bow in Seth's direction when he reaches them, but the teenager's first order of business seems to be sliding his hand into Kunzite's, fingers laced through fingers, squeezing with an almost convulsive little motion, and letting go somewhat nervelessly.
Somehow, Kazuo manaages not to ask Naru how sure she is of that. It might involve actual tongue-biting. He does look faintly longsuffering all the same, at her particular degree of glee.
To Seth's choice of weapons, Kazuo gives a polite nod. "And attract much less attention," he says. "At least beforehand." Hopefully this is a hypothetical situation, but it's a little hard to tell from his voice.
Eyebrows lift a little at Seth's speculation. Kazuo adds to Naru, "I trust you understand that you'd have better options, if --"
And then he breaks off midsentence and steps around Naru, so as not to move between her and Seth; he's a couple of paces toward the stairs when the black-haired boy reaches them. Not out of conversational distance. Just far enough to have his back turned toward the pair for a moment, letting the new arrival take his hand, looking him over quickly as he does so to make sure that the red shirt isn't disguising any bleeding.
"Now?" he asks Mamoru, as if picking up a conversation from somewhere or somewhen else. "Or --" The word is accented into a half-question at the end, and he tilts his head toward one of the shrine's structures.
Naru shakes her head to Seth. "No loan sharks, at least not to the best of my knowledge." She gives a general little wave, ignoring Kazuo's longsuffering look. "It's not important, I'm mostly just joking."
Mamoru does get a glance as he approaches and is intercepted by Kazuo. The quiet query there brings a curious quirk of her brow, but she doesn't ask in specifics.
Returning her attention back to Seth, Naru's voice is apologetic. "Excuse me, I probably should go and figure out where Alexis has gotten off to. Take care, Seth."
The boy Kazuo went to intercept doesn't answer in words, he just leans forward to thunk his forehead miserably into Kazuo's shoulder. And then he breathes in, straightening and trying to compose himself at least a little; he fishes in his pocket and takes Kazuo's hand again -- but this time it's to put a set of car keys in it. Now now now now now.
Seth Locke nods to Naru as she leaves. "Take care, Naru-chan." He looks at the arriving Mamoru, and he gives him a bow.
"I recognize you from the barbeque party. Pleased to meet you, I'm Seth Katsumoto Locke." He receives a message on his phone, which he pulls out...
And he looks at the two boys, "And I'm afraid the same reason I left then in a hurry is partly the reason I have to leave now." He offers a bow, "Kazuo-san... Other dude from the party..." Yes, he doesn't know Mamoru just yet, so it'll have to be this way. "I'll see you around."
That's a great number of words, and while the exhange of thunk-and-straighten-and-keys takes up some of them, Seth is still talking when Kazuo gives him a short nod, and Naru a brief wave of a hand. "Later," he says to one or the other or both of them, and his keyless hand finds the other boy's shoulder to make sure he reorients in the right direction. Without having to focus. Steps: that way. People between them and the steps: once again, somewhat more quickly this time, finding somewhere slightly else to be rather than being in Kazuo's path.
Apparently 'now?' meant 'Going now. Right now.'
The kid who was briefly at the party is saying stuff to him, and Mamoru vaguely registers it, but doesn't think to introduce himself. He just nods to Seth, then is steered -- gratefully -- away. He'll have to remedy it later when he's got his head on straight. For now, down the steps, and Kunzite will drive the Tesla that Kyouko never gets to.