TomoFlake (Original Tokusatsu-Adjacent Quest)

Thankfully, the trip to the health center wasn't far, and given that you're injured instead of sick, they actually agreed to see you in person.

"Stay here for an hour while we make sure you haven't wrecked anything in your joints," one of the doctors said, brown hair and severe black eyes and freckles from an imagined nisei mother, wrapped in a sterile white coat and a mask. She walked to the front desk, and you and Yagami both watched her.

Yagami smiled behind the mask she'd stolen from the front desk. Or said she'd stolen, anyway. "Ha, don't worry, she knows me."

"Come here often, then?" You asked.

"Used to. The clinic doesn't look it, but this is attached to a research hospital, up that way. She was a student there once upon a time." Yagami paused. "A lifetime ago."

Of a sudden, restrained, clipped orders came through the half-open door. "Inside, now--"

Curious, you got up on sore ankles and knees and protesting hips to see what the issue was.

Yagami put a hand on your shoulder. "What are you doing?"

You looked at Yagami. "Don't you want to see what's more urgent than us?"

For a moment, silence reigns in the room. You saw Yagami's grin growing wilder and wider underneath her mask. "You know what, kid? You're all right."

You looked, and saw first the burns on the skin, the lacerations, deep and pulsing. The bruises and scrapes from falling in the road. The cocky grin. The blue eye contact, and the other eye, a strange, reptilian green, where the other contact had fallen out. A shock of golden roots under brown-black dye.

You knew who it was immediately. "-- Ichigo?"

Yagami raised an eyebrow. "First name basis?"

"His parents took me in at the end of middle school," you explained. "It's a long story."

"I'm sure it is. Maybe we'll get to swap them someday. For now, let's follow your little beau, princess." With that, Yagami exited the room. On the one hand, you needed to heal. On the other hand, you could just imagine the incoming angry calls if you didn't know what happened.

You decided to follow her. Hell, if Yagami liked him enough, maybe you could set them up on a date? That'd be nice. Get him out of your hair, at least, and Yagami was at least as strong as you were, so it'd probably even go well with his parents!

The doctor, sadly, was not so understanding. "What are you two doing here?"

"Ichigo?" You said, looking him dead in the eyes.

All of a sudden, the despair that was on his face shifted to a tired grin. A mask that was all too familiar to you. "Oh, hey! Don't worry, she's a long time friend."

The doctor backed away. "Fine. Talk."

"What happened?" were the first words out of your mouth.

"Oh, you know. The usual," Ichigo said. You didn't buy it then. You don't buy it now. That's one of the reasons you decided to look through your old journal in the first place.

"The usual," you said, with maybe an uncharacteristic edge.

"You know, you get carried away a little in the practice room--"

"With what, a bear!?" That little idiot! No matter what he'd been fighting, he was your meal ticket, dammit. "Really, what happened?"

He and Yagami chuckled at the same time, and Ichigo winced. "It's. It looks worse than it is. Just a bad road spill, honest. I'll be fine in a couple days."

You paused and considered this information. "We'll talk later, Ichigo. Take care of yourself."

Ichigo nodded, and finally leaned back so the doctor could clean up and put in sutures.

You figured this was a good time to drag yourself and Yagami back to the exam room the doctor had left you in.

---

Of course she read you the riot act, afterwards, but it didn't feel nearly so bad with Yagami grinning at you. Even that aside, though, you found yourself more preoccupied with Ichigo's condition than your own.

Those injuries weren't consistent with much of anything you'd ever heard of. What was worse, usually Ichigo was very forthcoming with what had happened those few times he actually managed to get injured. You remembered the time in your first year of high school where he told everyone about the bruises you gave him during training at his parents' home. The rumors had started flying then, too, but when you mentioned your circumstances, they thankfully died down to a dim roar.

Honestly, not getting confessions from awkward boys that whole year felt more like a relief. You and boys just felt… Immiscible, sometimes, except for Ichigo and his occasional friends. Like there was some wild gulf between you and what girls were supposed to be around boys.

Sometimes you would listen to people talking about love letters or Valentine's day and just… Check out. Like it never really applied to you.

You thought you'd stopped letting it bother you. But now Ichigo was starting to be dishonest about what was going on with him, and you didn't know why.

Was that unleapable canyon coming to him, as well?

"What's on yer mind, princess?" Yagami said, grinning that damn grin again.

… You knew that if you told Yagami exactly what was on your mind, she'd probably use it as leverage later. You couldn't afford that. "Just worried about what happened to Ichigo."

Which was the truth, but it wasn't the whole truth, now was it?

Still, Yagami shrugged, her expression a little darker. "Men, huh? I wouldn't know much about that. I figure, if someone's gonna treat you like poison, you might as well be poison."

You blinked at her odd turn of phrase. Was that what she usually did? Still, you nodded. "I think I get that, a little bit. Sometimes you just get… So… Tired."

Yagami puts a hand on your shoulder again. Her hand is warm, and she nods. "Yeah, that's not wrong. Look, I'm… I'm bad at this stuff, but maybe you should talk more with Hanabi. The-- the captain, I mean."

You raise an eyebrow. "Hanabi."

"Quiet. There's a long story for it, probably just as long as your story with Kaneko over there in the next room getting felt up by the doctor."

Your eyes close in disgust at the thought. "Well, that's one way to put it, I guess. Thanks for listening to me."

"Ha! As if I've got anything better to do, princess."

And yet… Wasn't she vice-captain?

[You feel as if you've made a genuine bond with Yagami-senpai. Only time will tell if you see it grow stronger… or if it fades with stress and neglect. You gain 2 Momentum for a Strong Hit.]

[You mark a Bond, and mark progress on your quest to Join the Judo Club.]

---

The next day, April 20th, Sunday. You sat up in Ichigo's apartment, seeing to the wound-dressings he had. The smell of boiling water and alcohol fill the air.

You wanted to at least wash these cloth bandages once, if only to make sure he could use them again tomorrow before his classes.

It was worthy of note, mostly because you had never seen Ichigo get this injured before. Not ever. Not even when he was a little kid in elementary school, snot nosed but full of pride, taking on everyone who gave him a nasty look.

Sometimes, having naturally blond hair was not such a great thing. The day he dyed it black was the day he went from purely angry to merely sullen.

Some of that pure anger was back. You could see it in how he looked out the window.

"No, really. What happened, Ichigo? Who do I need to kill?" You asked, mostly out of a sense of wounded pride.

"I can't tell you, precisely because you would try," Ichigo said.

Your hands gripped the bandages tightly. If he didn't have sutures in, he would be up next for an object demonstration on why he did not need to worry about you in the slightest. As it was, you bottled your resentment and made the replacements as he waited in bed. "I understand."

You knew then, as now, that you did not understand. You did not understand at all.

You were going to get to the bottom of this.

[A Strong Hit on Make Camp for both you and Ichigo allows you both to recover 2 Body. You recover 1 Stress.]



Take one of the following Iron Vows. Unlike our inciting Vow, this Vow will take us a long time and will likely require several lesser sub-Vows or side-quests to fulfill. Expect Journeys and Delves from this point forward.

[] [VOW] I will find out what happened to Ichigo. (Formidable. May involve combat, which as we've already seen, can be risky even at its most basic.)
[] [VOW] I will take down who did this to Ichigo. (Formidable. Will involve combat, several times.)
[] [VOW] I will find the beast mauling people at our university. (Formidable. A bit more cerebral. Combat less likely, but also puts you at a remove to Ichigo.)
[] [VOW] [WRITE-IN] Put down something appropriate, but it MUST involve finding out who did it, why, and bringing them to some version of justice, even if it's only Mei's.

During your free time this week, you will: This is an approval vote. The top three aside from the mandatory task will win.
[X] [FREE TIME] Speak with Raimoto Haru on Monday afternoon. (Mandatory. Completing this task will forge your bond with Raimoto Haru.)
[] [FREE TIME] Talk more with Yagami-senpai.
[] [FREE TIME] Meet some of the other members of the Judo Club.
[] [FREE TIME] Try to get more information out of Ichigo.
[] [FREE TIME] Get advice from Sakaki-senpai, like Yagami-senpai asked.
[] [FREE TIME] Study. You can't let all this building mystery get in the way of your classes; if you flunk out, you're likely to never see any of these people again.
[] [FREE TIME] [WRITE-IN] Introduce a new place or new character. Give them a name and a connection either to one of Mei's bonds, or to her directly.

How do you feel about getting in the Judo Club?
[] [JUDO] Empty. This was a hollow victory, at best.
[] [JUDO] Resolute. You're sure that the key to Ichigo's assault is here, somewhere.
[] [JUDO] Calm. This was the expected result. Now you can focus on other, more important things.
[] [JUDO] Resentful. You hate-- so much-- that you have to do this to keep yourself in Ichigo's parents' good graces.

Vote will begin at 3:00 PDT and last three days.