[Just as promised, Kokoro shows up about 20 minutes later, dressed for her work at the kimono shop. Her half of her hair is tied into a bow, and held in place with a small kanzashi with a red ball on the end. Her kimono is a bright, summery green bamboo print on a white background. Her obi is a soft blue with a light green cord. Soon, she hopes, the weather will turn so she doesn't have to wear a light linen and can be protected again in layers of silk.
Regardless of Jotaro not needing coffee, she offers him a small box of colorful vegetable onigiri and a soft, still-warm omelet.]
Don't worry about it, I made too much. Anyway, you could probably stand to eat more for breakfast. We've been up a while.
[Jotaro is there, except this time rather than pretending he isn't there, he's out waiting for her - and the reason why he told her not to bring coffee is obvious because he's holding two cups in his hands.
Well, this is awkward.
He offers her one of the coffees, ducking his head in lieu of being able to pull at his hat]
. . . you didn't have to . . . but thanks. Here - since I told you not to bring any.
[is this how it's supposed to be when you talk to girls?? He half-expects screaming, still and yet - it's a normal conversation.
With someone who actually gets it.
What the fuck]
I'll eat it after I - walk you to work, I guess. [yes, that's what he was doing. Star, ever present, manifests because Kokoro is his friend too, and he greets her with an enthusiastic "Ora!" and a wave]
I'm used to it? The heat doesn't bother me unless it gets really bad. And it's just - habit, to wear it all the time.
[Kokoro waves back, because she's got manners, by god.]
Morning, Star!
[She has to admit, the oras are ad-ora-ble. And Star's really friendly.]
I'm glad you are. If I didn't feel cold all the time, I'd probably be a puddle. Like the guy from Terminator two. That... came out after you. He turns into a puddle of silver liquid that just zips around and looks like a police man sometimes. We watched it on DVD once.
It was OK, but Ulf-kun was really into American movies.
[Kokoro shudders at the mention of a desert.]
The word 'desert' is even kinda scary. It'd be me, my ten meter squared snow and hopefully not running out of life energy to keep it up. Blegh.
[She sips her coffee and looks at him for a moment. Yeah, she definitely ate something weird last night. Maybe that natto went funny. At least she didn't just find soybeans the last time a time surge went through.]
What was it like? Egypt, I mean. My dad hasn't been there yet.
Gramps is into them - but he lives there, so he sees them all the time.
[he can't help but make a face at the mention of having to explain why Egypt was like, but - he'll try] It was January, so it wasn't . . . as bad as it can get. The city is huge. We were looking for something, so we spent a lot of time walking around.
My - friend, Avdol. He was from there. Tried to tell us a little about things. It wasn't a vacation, but . . . maybe I'll go back one day.
I know we're from different times and places, but send me a postcard. I'd like to say I've gotten something from there.
[The face he pulled meant she didn't need to press on him for details. Kokoro didn't need a camera for that. Maybe when they are closer friends, he'll tell her, but she decides she's not going to insist.]
Avdol sounds pretty nice, actually. I'd like to hear about the little things, someday. Back at home, we've got legit ghosts. Like, I know when we start at school, no one believes in them, but there's a samurai and a princess in the rose garden. The princess is totally good, but the samurai is a nightmare and I'm glad I run faster than it floats.
[he will, because that's the kind of guy he is. Thirty years down the line and "oh, I have to send this girl I met in another world a postcard". He breathes out, head tilting in a faint nod]
He was a good man. Maybe . . . it's rough to talk about. But one day.
[it isn't trust. It's that "I went to Egypt to save my mom" is easier than the details behind it all, the friends he lost. That it makes him fucking livid if he thinks about it too much]
. . . I think I've seen spirits, but - [he shakes his head] Why is the samurai a nightmare?
Ah, it's that kind of thing. OK, you don't have to tell me right now, or ever, if it's easier. I won't press.
[She hums a moment, motioning with her free hand like she's cutting something with a katana.]
Like "will chase you down and cut you in half" nightmare. I'm pretty sure it's why we're not allowed there at night, to be honest.
[And definitely why their gross ass coach was killed, but she decides to keep that little bit of information under her bow. It's big, because of secrets, after all.]
There's a lot of weird things at my school. If I had someone like Star around, I probably wouldn't worry about it as much.
That doesn't sound like how a samurai should act. Unless he's doing it to keep you out - that's different.
[spirits and all that are new to him. he hasn't quite realized that yeah, one day he'll actually meet a real spirit and realize all the times he thought he saw one was, in fact, what he thought it was]
Star would get mistaken for a ghost, maybe, so it could work in your favor.
Well, the legend goes that he was a samurai during the Warring States era, right? And he died guarding the princess, who also ended up dying near the same time. So he goes after people he thinks are disturbing her. Which happens to be "everyone" as far as school lore goes.
[She grins at him when he mentions Star.]
That's true. He can ora ora at them. There's also a legend that Murakami-sensei's aircon is haunted, but I almost never see her.
Rhino. [She nodded.] He does wildlife photography. Sometimes rhinos or hippos happen. Hippos are worse, though. They look cute, but are basically tanks on short, grey legs. And fast? You wouldn't think something that large could be so fast.
I'll be sure to continue avoiding both. I have a very good record for not encountering large land mammals.
[ Carefully, he hands the camera back. It really is a beautiful device. ]
The photography club bought one, back at school, a few months before I left. I never used it myself, but I handled it a little to take the film out of it. Nobody else really liked working in the darkroom, so I developed film as a favour a few times.
Kokoro makes sure it's off, and puts it back in her kimono sleeve. It's safe in the silk, after all.
We didn't have a photography club at my school, but I didn't mind that. It's not a problem when you have your own cameras. [humblebrag] But some people don't like the smell of the chemicals. They're kind of weird, right? [She gave him her best winning smile.]
Well, I'll see you around, Kakyoin-san. I don't want to be late. I'll show what I have when I get them all done!
[With a small bow, she hurried off into the crowd, down a few streets and straight towards where she promised to meet Jotaro. The clack of her zori were comforting noises in the otherwise empty street.]
[he's right where they agreed to meet, leaned against something with his arms crossed and head down, the brim of his hat shadowing his face. The usual "leave me the fuck alone" stance he has in the mornings until Kokoro runs by and ruins it, because he's moved up from ignoring her to sometimes waving back.
He glances up when he hears her zori and pushes off the wall]
Hi! Who are you and what have you done with Kujo-kun?
[It's a joke, and her light tone reflects it. Kokoro fishes her camera from her kimono sleeve and gives her best, "please let me have this" look.]
So, do I get to take a picture of you today, or do I get shut down yet again.
[She holds her viewfinder up to her eye and feels something like a dust mote or maybe a loose eyelash itch her eye. Kokoro is careful to bring her camera down and press at the inner corner of her eye, pointedly avoiding messing up her eyeliner by rubbing her eye like a kid.]
He doesn't have long before she takes the camera away and if he hasn't bmoves between the camera and her eye by then, he'll be visible to the target. And
He was going to think that the target shouldn't know what he looked like, but that it would still be suboptimal, and then he feels the second thought forming that no, he knows.
(Why would he know?)
And so he moves as quickly as he can, less smoothly than he would if he were to take his time. She notices something. Pollen. She thinks it's pollen. Safe.
(Should he be doing this? Isn't that his-?)
Back in his own body, something shifts in his head. It hurts. Forbidden. He's. Something is making him think in forbidden ways. Blasphemous. He grits his teeth. Focusses on his mission. Hierophant crawls through his carrier's body like a poison, working his way between threads of muscle.
Nothing yet. Nothing yet. He just needs to wait for an opportunity. ]
I killed him and buried the body out behind your shop.
[hey look he can be a smartass too, Kokoro, wow. Excuse HIM for trying to be a normal guy.
He doesn't notice what's happening. There's a tug in his gut, a familiar one, but he gets that a lot here. There's family and users everywhere - more than he's probably met so far.
[She manages not to do a victory dance, but in the back of her mind, there's definitely something going on there.]
Just a warning, I'm going to get in your space. [Kokoro takes out her camera and holds her hands up to indicate she means no harm. Jotaro is like a mean stray cat that way. Nothing sudden, after all. Don't move the hat. Her touches are quick and light, chin up, she felt around in the small clutch she kept her Emergency Supplies and avoided the nail file in her bag for a sweet-smelling tinted lip balm that she swiped over his lips to color them (and frankly, make sure they weren't too dry. The last thing she wanted was her One Picture of Jotaro Kujo to be ruined because his lips were flaky.
Her eyebrows drew together as she worked. Apparently this was important to her.]
Hmm... could you look up just a bit, not into your hat. At me.
[this is fate. He said one picture and now he has to suffer the consequences.
At least he holds his complaints until she's done doing . . . whatever the fuck it is she's doing. It isn't as bad as he's making it sound to himself but it's still bad, and it would be embarrassing if he did embarrassing.
(He does. It's hard to tell, but the tips of his ears are slowly going pink and why is she touching his lips)
She wants him to not hide under his hat and - for fuck's sake. He does as he's told, but he's definitely, definitely glaring]
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Great, I'll see you in a bit.
[Just as promised, Kokoro shows up about 20 minutes later, dressed for her work at the kimono shop. Her half of her hair is tied into a bow, and held in place with a small kanzashi with a red ball on the end. Her kimono is a bright, summery green bamboo print on a white background. Her obi is a soft blue with a light green cord. Soon, she hopes, the weather will turn so she doesn't have to wear a light linen and can be protected again in layers of silk.
Regardless of Jotaro not needing coffee, she offers him a small box of colorful vegetable onigiri and a soft, still-warm omelet.]
Don't worry about it, I made too much. Anyway, you could probably stand to eat more for breakfast. We've been up a while.
[Did she though?]
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Well, this is awkward.
He offers her one of the coffees, ducking his head in lieu of being able to pull at his hat]
. . . you didn't have to . . . but thanks. Here - since I told you not to bring any.
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[The magic of omelets.]
And thank you for the coffee. I appreciate it.
[What the FUCK was this throb in her chest. Nothing to be afraid of, right? Just ate her breakfast too fast. That's it.]
I'm going to be so glad when summer's over. How do you manage in your uniform in this weather? That's wool, right? Really nice wool, but still wool.
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With someone who actually gets it.
What the fuck]
I'll eat it after I - walk you to work, I guess. [yes, that's what he was doing. Star, ever present, manifests because Kokoro is his friend too, and he greets her with an enthusiastic "Ora!" and a wave]
I'm used to it? The heat doesn't bother me unless it gets really bad. And it's just - habit, to wear it all the time.
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Morning, Star!
[She has to admit, the oras are ad-ora-ble. And Star's really friendly.]
I'm glad you are. If I didn't feel cold all the time, I'd probably be a puddle. Like the guy from Terminator two. That... came out after you. He turns into a puddle of silver liquid that just zips around and looks like a police man sometimes. We watched it on DVD once.
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There's another Terminator? Huh. [he kind of shrugs] When we traveled to Egypt, I wore this in the desert. It only ever got really bad once.
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[Kokoro shudders at the mention of a desert.]
The word 'desert' is even kinda scary. It'd be me, my ten meter squared snow and hopefully not running out of life energy to keep it up. Blegh.
[She sips her coffee and looks at him for a moment. Yeah, she definitely ate something weird last night. Maybe that natto went funny. At least she didn't just find soybeans the last time a time surge went through.]
What was it like? Egypt, I mean. My dad hasn't been there yet.
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[he can't help but make a face at the mention of having to explain why Egypt was like, but - he'll try] It was January, so it wasn't . . . as bad as it can get. The city is huge. We were looking for something, so we spent a lot of time walking around.
My - friend, Avdol. He was from there. Tried to tell us a little about things. It wasn't a vacation, but . . . maybe I'll go back one day.
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[The face he pulled meant she didn't need to press on him for details. Kokoro didn't need a camera for that. Maybe when they are closer friends, he'll tell her, but she decides she's not going to insist.]
Avdol sounds pretty nice, actually. I'd like to hear about the little things, someday. Back at home, we've got legit ghosts. Like, I know when we start at school, no one believes in them, but there's a samurai and a princess in the rose garden. The princess is totally good, but the samurai is a nightmare and I'm glad I run faster than it floats.
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[he will, because that's the kind of guy he is. Thirty years down the line and
"oh, I have to send this girl I met in another world a postcard". He breathes out, head tilting in a faint nod]
He was a good man. Maybe . . . it's rough to talk about. But one day.
[it isn't trust. It's that "I went to Egypt to save my mom" is easier than the details behind it all, the friends he lost. That it makes him fucking livid if he thinks about it too much]
. . . I think I've seen spirits, but - [he shakes his head] Why is the samurai a nightmare?
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[She hums a moment, motioning with her free hand like she's cutting something with a katana.]
Like "will chase you down and cut you in half" nightmare. I'm pretty sure it's why we're not allowed there at night, to be honest.
[And definitely why their gross ass coach was killed, but she decides to keep that little bit of information under her bow. It's big, because of secrets, after all.]
There's a lot of weird things at my school. If I had someone like Star around, I probably wouldn't worry about it as much.
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[spirits and all that are new to him. he hasn't quite realized that yeah, one day he'll actually meet a real spirit and realize all the times he thought he saw one was, in fact, what he thought it was]
Star would get mistaken for a ghost, maybe, so it could work in your favor.
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[She grins at him when he mentions Star.]
That's true. He can ora ora at them. There's also a legend that Murakami-sensei's aircon is haunted, but I almost never see her.
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Rhino.
[ Rhino. ]
I apologise. I genuinely can't tell if you mean that literally or if it's a metaphor for clumsiness that I'm unfamiliar with.
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[ Carefully, he hands the camera back. It really is a beautiful device. ]
The photography club bought one, back at school, a few months before I left. I never used it myself, but I handled it a little to take the film out of it. Nobody else really liked working in the darkroom, so I developed film as a favour a few times.
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We didn't have a photography club at my school, but I didn't mind that. It's not a problem when you have your own cameras. [humblebrag] But some people don't like the smell of the chemicals. They're kind of weird, right? [She gave him her best winning smile.]
Well, I'll see you around, Kakyoin-san. I don't want to be late. I'll show what I have when I get them all done!
[With a small bow, she hurried off into the crowd, down a few streets and straight towards where she promised to meet Jotaro. The clack of her zori were comforting noises in the otherwise empty street.]
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He glances up when he hears her zori and pushes off the wall]
Hi.
[hell, he's moved up to greetings, wow]
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[It's a joke, and her light tone reflects it. Kokoro fishes her camera from her kimono sleeve and gives her best, "please let me have this" look.]
So, do I get to take a picture of you today, or do I get shut down yet again.
[She holds her viewfinder up to her eye and feels something like a dust mote or maybe a loose eyelash itch her eye. Kokoro is careful to bring her camera down and press at the inner corner of her eye, pointedly avoiding messing up her eyeliner by rubbing her eye like a kid.]
Noo, don't mess up my eye makeup, pollen.
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He doesn't have long before she takes the camera away and if he hasn't bmoves between the camera and her eye by then, he'll be visible to the target. And
He was going to think that the target shouldn't know what he looked like, but that it would still be suboptimal, and then he feels the second thought forming that no, he knows.
(Why would he know?)
And so he moves as quickly as he can, less smoothly than he would if he were to take his time. She notices something. Pollen. She thinks it's pollen. Safe.
(Should he be doing this? Isn't that his-?)
Back in his own body, something shifts in his head. It hurts. Forbidden. He's. Something is making him think in forbidden ways. Blasphemous. He grits his teeth. Focusses on his mission. Hierophant crawls through his carrier's body like a poison, working his way between threads of muscle.
Nothing yet. Nothing yet. He just needs to wait for an opportunity. ]
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[hey look he can be a smartass too, Kokoro, wow. Excuse HIM for trying to be a normal guy.
He doesn't notice what's happening. There's a tug in his gut, a familiar one, but he gets that a lot here. There's family and users everywhere - more than he's probably met so far.
He sighs and turns to face her properly]
Why do you want a picture of me so bad?
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Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? And you've got a novel in those angles.
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[is that a compliment?? He has no idea. But he sighs again and drops his arms and - ugh, he's going to regret this somehow.
(It's just a picture, Jotaro)]
One picture.
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[She manages not to do a victory dance, but in the back of her mind, there's definitely something going on there.]
Just a warning, I'm going to get in your space. [Kokoro takes out her camera and holds her hands up to indicate she means no harm. Jotaro is like a mean stray cat that way. Nothing sudden, after all. Don't move the hat. Her touches are quick and light, chin up, she felt around in the small clutch she kept her Emergency Supplies and avoided the nail file in her bag for a sweet-smelling tinted lip balm that she swiped over his lips to color them (and frankly, make sure they weren't too dry. The last thing she wanted was her One Picture of Jotaro Kujo to be ruined because his lips were flaky.
Her eyebrows drew together as she worked. Apparently this was important to her.]
Hmm... could you look up just a bit, not into your hat. At me.
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At least he holds his complaints until she's done doing . . . whatever the fuck it is she's doing. It isn't as bad as he's making it sound to himself but it's still bad, and it would be embarrassing if he did embarrassing.
(He does. It's hard to tell, but the tips of his ears are slowly going pink and why is she touching his lips)
She wants him to not hide under his hat and - for fuck's sake. He does as he's told, but he's definitely, definitely glaring]
Give me a break, Amamiya, it's a picture.
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