No Title Set

    If there is such a thing in the world as a Kyouko-lure, Saburo seems to have discovered it. She comes wandering into the kitchen from the direction of the rooftop entry, but looks moderately surprised to find this particular person bent over the oven rather than one of the other people she perhaps expected.

    "So lemme ask you," She begins with no preamble, leaning on the wall just inside the door and crossing her arms. "Why are you baking when we have two extremely talented bakists who seem to like nothing better than to shower us with their produce?"

    "Well, you know how I get for apples." Kyouko says, with her own lopsided grin, as she wanders over and peeks into the oven. "I know much more about eating food than making it, but based on my vast experience of what good baked shit is supposed to look like, I think you're on the right track." She straightens up, arching her back with a slight pop before taking a step back in the other direction.

    "Just killin' time today, then? Following YouTube tutorials seems like it could be a dangerous hole to fall into."

    "Leaving things lying around here is a good way to make sure they get eaten." Kyouko confirms, with a smug little smile. "I'll take you up on that." Of course, she'd also literally eaten out of garbage cans so her agreeing to eat something doesn't mean it's good. But in this case, it's probably good.

    She props her butt against the counter again and re-crosses her arms, quirking a brow at the answer she gets. "Somethin' you're trying to distract yourself from?"

    "Excuse me, who are we talking about?" Asks Kyouko, sensitive in the extreme, blinking at Saburo. It's not that she doesn't pay attention to her brother's lives or anything, it's just that it was a secret and she's also not the type to pry. When he says 'Hana' the first thing she thinks of is the super-witch Hana Shiroi, but she's pretty sure that's not who he means given the context. She certainly doesn't seem like she is judging him for confessing this stuff, regardless of what he himself feels about it.

    If there's one thing that's important to Kyouko (other than food, of course) its family. Real or chosen, she thinks that stuff is pretty important. "You might have mentioned it," She admits, "I'm sorry if I didn't remember." It's possible she had sensed his own reluctance to talk about it in the past, and had chosen not to press about it, which had made it fade from her memory. Either way.

    "Why is it bad?" Is her follow-up question, still leaning on the counter, still with a quirked brow. "Was it a bad life? Or are they.." She pauses, perhaps thinking of how to phrase it delicately. "..no longer with us, now?"

    Kyouko makes a little bit of a face. "Well, if it's any consolation, I have a little sister too, and she's a nutcase." She says, then smirks, "But you know that, of course." She shakes her head a little bit, the delicious smell of the baking apples helping any difficult conversation be a little easier to bear. "That's dumb of your parents, but hey, at least your dad wasn't a murdering zealot." She points out, though this is hardly a 'bad family' competition.

    Then, more gently, "Though, I should point out that even if your parents were assholes, that's not really your sisters' fault. Did you get along with them, or were they jerks too?"

    "That's still pretty shitty though." Kyouko points out. "But hey, it's not like you need them. You've got a pretty successful thing going on in life, so if they want to think you're dead, then whatever. But honestly man, if you want to hook back up with your sisters, you should." The corner of her mouth turns up into a slight smile. "Trust me, reconnecting with family, if it's family that you actually care about, can be pretty cathartic. And if they're good kids, then they'd probably be happy to know you're alive, at least."

    She pauses, a brief shadow passing over her expression, before she says, "Though, not to throw a damper on my encouragement.. if they're thirteen year old girls, you might want to consider that contacting them might open them up to being involved in.." She makes a vague gesture. "All the shit we deal with on a regular basis. Hell, I was slaying monsters by my eleventh birthday. I don't really recommend it for a stable teenage life, honestly."

    Kyouko snorts, although her eyes are on the baked apples as they are taken from the oven and moved towards the counter, her nose twitching at the delicious smells filling the kitchen even more directly once the door is open. "Well, you ain't wrong about that." She says, referring to the fact that the quickest way to get a teenager to do something is to tell them not to do it.

    "That's.. not even really what I meant, though." She shifts a little against the counter, looking vaugely uncomfortable. "I just meant.. we have enemies, right? All of us do. It comes with the territory. And I'm sure we'll have more. And if those enemies find out you have family.. mundane family, who can't protect themselves.. well, that could put them in danger." She makes a face. "Like, I'm not trying to tell you not to talk to them. Becaues they are your family and that's important. I just don't want you to make any hasty decisions and regret it later."

    Kyouko makes another face, obviously feeling a little bad since she hadn't meant to make things even more difficult, but she clearly felt that she had a responsibility to tell it like it is, especially when it comes to the important things. She picks up one of the apples, wincing a bit at the heat, but that doesn't stop her. She bites into it, and makes a rather satisfied 'mm' sound as various juices run down her chin. It takes a moment to deal with the situation before she's able to speak again.

    "I know what Mamoru would say," She starts. "He'd say your family is absolutely more important, and we can protect them if anything happens. And he's right- like, we're already doing that for other families. It's pretty much our job. But y'know, things still happen. I just don't want you to leap into this sorta thing without at least considering the possible consequences. It's probably still worth it.. family is one of the most important things in the world. But it's worth at least knowin' what you're getting them into, as well as what you're getting into."

    "By the way, these apples are really effin' good."

    It's not so much that there's no pain, it's more that Kyouko and pain are old friends, and she's not about to let a little bit of pain get in the way of shoving food down her mouth. When she was a Puella, she could literally shut her pain receptors off- not so much these days, but if any part of her is tough, its her mouth, that's for sure. The apple is soon nothing more than a delicious memory.

    "I hate to break it to you, bro, but the average age of magical girls in this city is like twelve or something. It's dumb, I know, but that seems to be the age when magical potential is at it's height, or whatever. Must be the hormones, I dunno. Usagi was like.. fourteen when she started the whole Sailor Moon gig? That's practically middle-aged in the Magical Girl gig. I started out earlier than most, but I've met a few who started even earlier than I did. Just because they're kids doesn't make them any more defenseless than an old guy. Although it does mean you'll have to tell them not to talk to strange white cat-rabbits from space."