Sachiko's recovery from the coma has been rather typical, for a girl her age. Where at first she required a wheelchair and being pushed around, she has no progressed to a walker, and soon may move on being able to walk relatively normally.
For now, though, the little girl is still stuck in the walker stage, and although her doctors assure the Senator that she is recovering, her progress has slowed to a glacial pace. "It's almost as if she doesn't want to get better," one doctor said to another, as Sachiko allowed herself to be carried back to the car.
In the massive manor, she sits alone at a window on the first floor. What was once a guest room has been converted for her use, since getting up to her third floor bedroom is out of the question, in her present state. And so she sits, and she stares out the window, looking towards a dreary day. It's early afternoon, and Sachiko still hasnt' dressed for the day. While all of her friends are getting out of school, Sachiko remains in her nightgown.
Somewhere in the house, her nanny is busy talking on a cell phone, complaining about how morose her charge has become. Nowhere in the house is the senator; that adoptive father who had at first promised to be doting, but now rarely has time for his 'daughter'.
And so she sits alone, staring out the window at a grey world, feeling very grey and alone inside.
Now. Norie-K imagines Kukai Souma would arrive as Sky Jack via awesome skyboard. But Norie-K doesn't have Dachi. Dachi isn't her dream. Norie-K generally has... a strong hunch what happened to his.. her... heart egg but doesn't think about that too hard right now. So he's arrived. He's knocked on the door. He's asked to see Sachiko-chan and now he's been escorted to the door by either the Nanny or one of the workers here, probably.
He kind of treads into the room, things feel a little different everytime he enters a place he was was Norie because Kukai is taller.
"Sachi-chan?" says Norie-K as he approaches from behind as she stares out the window.
"Sachi-chan." he smiles. "How are you doing? I see you're out of the wheelchair now!" he says.
"That's good!" he says.
The nanny is all too glad to provide Sachiko with a familiar smiling face. Once delivered, she takes her leave again to go about fixing snacks for the pair. Those will come up later, maybe.
At the sound of her name, Sachiko turns and looks up at Kukai for a moment, then looks away again, back towards the window.
"They took it away," she replies quietly, clearly a little disappointed. "It was easier than the walker. I wish I still had it."
Norie-K lets the smile wane, well, it has to because he listens to what Sachiko says. "Sachi-chan..." he says. Nrg. This feeling between. How he feels about Sachiko in this body. And how he feels about Sachiko in his actual body feels so strange. Maybe the lack of a cinnamon scent is throwing him off. Or maybe it's strange worrying about someone for the right reasons instead of the wrong reasons.
"It's important you work on getting stronger. You can only do that by moving around and standing." he says softly. "Uh..."
What would Kukai say.
"It isn't over until the touchdown is gotten in the 11th inning stretch!" he says.
Yes. That's sports. Right? Those are sports words. Those are things Kukai would say, right?
"...right?"
Oh god this was a bad idea. But he didn't want Sachiko upset at 'Kukai' for not visiting.
Sachiko blinks at Kukai confusedly, opens her mouth, and then just stares for a moment. Then she lets it close again and turns away. "I don't think touchdowns have innings or stretches," she says quietly, "but they also don't have walkers."
She sighs a little, then glances back out through the window. A frown, then she admits, "I shouldn't have tried to walk. I wish I had stayed in the wheelchair forever, so that they couldn't keep making me make pretend that it's all okay."
Norie-K kind of freezes. "Oh. They don't? I must have confused. Uh. Baseball. For Cricket. Or Rugby...." a pause. "Hockey?" yeah okay time to stop digging the hole. Shut his mouth. Literarily say anything else, Norie, he thinks.
"But if you don't move forward, you'll never get out of the past, Sachi-chan." he says. "And it's really hard to move forward... I know." he says. "Because. Everything feels wrong. And you feel wrong..."
"...but someday. You'll feel better. It probably won't be tomorrow. or even maybe this year." he says.
"But there are people who care about you. Even if someone of it show it in bizarre ways."
"There's nothing wrong. With showing that things aren't okay..." he says. "I don't think so. At least. Sometimes I wish I could remember that.. uh..." when I'm in my actual body. "Uh. Just remember that." nervous smile.
"H--hey have you seen. Um."
"Norie-san lately?" he asks.
Sachiko makes a disgusted face at the mention of moving forward. "An-chi's in the past," she points out, as if that should provide all the reason required to side with her on whether she has to face the future.
But the question wasn't about Anshi, it was about, "Norie-chan?" She turns her head towards Kukai to ensure she got it right. "I haven't seen her," she says, "but I did see someone at the park pretending to be her. She even drained Sayaka-chan before I stopped her. I don't think it's Norie-chan."
Norie-K kind of ughs lightly under his breath. So Kukai isn't doing a good job of being Norie. And she isn't doing a good job of being Kukai. How long can she and him keep this up? Ugh, part of her wishes she'd looked into disguising applications of the crystal magic she'd be studying.
"Nrg...." he balls his fists up.
No, better not to. Worry Sachiko. With the body switch problem.
"Maybe I outta find out what's up then and um!... kick.. soccer balls. At her." he insists.
"Don't want her acting crazy again. Right?" he says. A pause. "Did it look like she was taking the energy by force, or was Sayaka offering?"
Sachiko blinks at Kukai confusedly. Kick socker balls? She's starting to suspect something is wrong with Kuaki, but she doesn't say so aloud. Not right away, anyways. Instead, she just shrugs and looks away again. "Sayaka-chan offered, but only because she was worried Norie-chan would take my energy. I dunno if she was going to or not. But then she got mad when I said she wasn't a real Norie and she ran off. Hey ... um. Where's Daichi?"
Norie-K isn't being a very convincing Kukai. Not even a little and that worries him. He wants this to be over so bad, but he can't just run away. First she thinks, 'Kukai wouldn't do that, would he? even in her body?' then he thinks 'Barely in-control body + Intoxicating cinnamon = Maybe?'
Nrgggggggg. Kukai. What are you /doing/!?
"Nrrrg..."
"Okay. Sachi-chan. I didn't wanna bother you with this because. You're hurting. And I don't want you to worry?..." he says. "But you should probably know, in case Norie comes by again." he says.
"Basically. Something happened beyond either of our control. And I switched bodies with Kukai. I'm Norie in Kukai's Body... That's Kukai in.. mine.. Norie's body." he says.
"He's not having a good time. He's having all the problems I did."
"Conversely. I'm kind of getting a break from... being unable to feel a lot of things. But I also have to pretend to be Kukai." he says rubbing a hand up his face.
"I also wanted to visit you and make sure you're okay." he says. "I mean. Me as in Norie." he says softly.
"... what ..." Sachiko replies, in perhaps an obvious bout of confusion. She turns, at long last, her legs from the windowsil, and dangles them off the edge of the sil as she stares at Kukai (Norie?) fully. At least that got her attention.
"But ..." she starts to say, then shakes her head, "So wait, you're Norie? And ... she--he--is Kukai?"
There is a long pause where Sachiko comes to terms with this, then smiles a little. "That makes a lot of sense."
Norie-K blinks. She just smiles and says it makes a lot of sense. "Oh. Well. I'm glad you understand then." he says. He says with a sigh and crosses his arms.
"Wait..."
"Did ... 'Norie' and by that I mean. 'Kukai in Norie's Body' visit you?" he asks with concern. "He didn't. Attack you. Or try to drain you. Right?" he asks.
Sachiko squints and reaches up to rub the back of her head, clearly starting to get confused by which he or she they are referring to. After a few moments, she shakes her head. "Nuh uh. Just the park. And I don't think she was looking for me, she just saw me, so she came to ... I dunno. And then she caught me when I fell out of the swing, and she didn't drain me. But then Sayaka yelled at her, and offered to let her drain her, and I was really tired and confused and they were talking about An-chi and ..." she trails off. "And I don't really remember what happened. But she didn't visit me or attack me."
Norie-K takes a relived breath. "Good." he says.
"Sorry. This is confusing you. Obviously." he says.
"This is reversible. And hopefully it'll be reversed soon. Not that I'm in a hurry to get back into that mass of dark energy called a 'body'..."
"But Kukai isn't handling it super well and I miss my family and few friends I do have, as Norie." he says.
"Also it's just awkward being a /boy/." he admits outloud for the first time.
He sighs. "I'm glad you are walking again." he says silently. "Please don't stop." he urges. "There's still people that care for you Sachi-chan." he says.
Oh, they're back to that conversation. Sachiko's face distorts with disapproval, and she looks away again. "Everyone keeps saying that," she mumbles, "but nobody understands." She sighs a little and leans her head back against the windowsil. "Whatever."
Norie-K shakes his head. "It's true. I'm even fond of you in my real body. And it's hard for me to feel stuff like that for other people when you can't even feel happiness. Or connections to other people beyond being... there." he says.
"Sometimes... people aren't going to be there anymore... for some reason or another." he says quietly. "I had to come to terms with that in my own way..." he says. Though he doesn't go into detail. He's had many long talks with Eilam-kun in the past about the nature of immortals.
"What's important is that we don't forgot those people, right?..." he asks.
Sachiko just shrugs. What does she know about what's important? All she knows is the giant gaping hole in her heart that only doesn't hurt when she's asleep.
Sachiko closes her eyes and mumbles, "I can't ever forget her." Which istrue enough.