[X] Enetious
The events of earlier today have given you plenty of frustrations to work through, and target shooting with Kirika has so far been a good way to work through them. Only, now there's something else bothering you. You glance over at Kirika's target while you reload; she's getting better, you think, as you attempt to distract your thoughts from what's currently bothering you.
"I believe you, Akemi-san. Your friends will too, in time."
You haven't said anything to Mikuni Oriko yet; so how does she know? Did she long ago poke her thoughts in on you as you were telling your friends? No, that wouldn't make sense. You've already confirmed that she can't see things that happen inside timestop. Was Kirika actually eavesdropping on you that night when you told Madoka everything? Maybe. Does she see you telling the other members of the team some time in the future? Or is the answer something else entirely?
You've had enough of shooting this regular pistol; it's time to test out the results of last night's hard work. And if Archer was wrong about his method having perfectly fixed the barrel, at least you'll have the most competent magical doctor around available to fix you. You put the normal Beretta pistol away, and exchange it for one on whose grip you've placed a piece of blue tape. It's not a perfect way to mark this pistol over all your others, but- "How come that one's got a piece of tape on it?"
"I was playing around with creating Mystic Codes last night," you say to Kirika. "I put a few runes down the barrel of this one, and the tape is to make sure I keep it distinct from all my other pistols."
"So, what does it do?"
"You'll see." You take aim with your enhanced Beretta, and give the trigger a slow, experimental tug, until finally you hear the faint click of the transfer bar tripping the sear. The hammer slams forward into the firing pin, and faint blue sparks are sent flying out as the slide races backwards and ejects the spent casing. You never see the bullet, but the sparking trail of frozen water vapour left in its wake is as visible as the ones left behind by your arrows. As it fades, the frozen trail leads directly to a hole in your target ringed with jagged splashes of ice.
"Cool," Kirika says. You engage the safety as she steps over the firing line to get a closer look, and once she's up close she runs her finger over the frozen splash, and also sticks her finger into the frozen hole. "Can I try it?"
"I want to run the rest of the magazine through it first," you say, wanting to spare her any potential injury in case the first round was just a lucky fluke. "But when I'm done, if it still looks safe to use you can give it a try."
Kirika nods, and goes back to filling her empty magazine as you continue to check the function and safety of your new Mystic Code. Once you've done that, and a total of fifteen frozen bullet holes ring your target, you hand the Beretta Mystic Code over to Kirika. The splash radius is nowhere near as large as your arrows, you think as you stand back and watch as Kirika takes her turn; and the freeing isn't splashing over onto Kirika's target, either. But at least it's safe, and it's enough to at least give you a backup option if you ever need it against a witch.
"Dearest, it's time to do your schoolwork!" Mikuni Oriko calls out just as Kirika is handing the pistol back to you. "Thank Akemi-san for coming over and come inside."
Kirika pouts, but you know she can't disobey her lover. "Thanks for coming over," she says to you as she hands you her pistol to return to your shield.
"Akemi-san, do you want to stay for dinner? I'm making vegetarian lasagna."
"I suppose staying awhile longer wouldn't hurt," you say as you and Kirika take your leave of the garden shooting gallery for the night. "I had been hoping to get the team together to go hunting later tonight, so I guess it would be silly of me to leave just to come back later, wouldn't it?"
Mikuni Oriko smiles, and asks you "Would you like to help me in the kitchen while Kirika does her schoolwork?"
Your eyes look to Kirika first; if anything, your first priority should probably be helping her bring her grades up so she's not constantly flipping her availability and ruining the team's ability to coordinate, but "It's fine," she says, waving you away. "Not like you'd know the stuff I'm working on anyway, since it's a year higher than what you're doing."
"Right," you say; looks like you'll be in the kitchen this evening. "But if you need help, don't hesitate to ask. If not me, then I'm sure Mikuni Oriko would be able to help you if you get stuck." Not that that bothers you, because once it's just you and Mikuni Oriko alone in the kitchen, you can ask her "How did you know?"
Mikuni Oriko stops what she's doing, gathering ingredients and laying out work stations, and turns to you when you ask your question "Beg your pardon, Akemi-san, but how did I know what?"
"You said you believed me, and that my friends would believe me too. There's only one thing you could have possibly meant by that. I was under the impression that you couldn't see things happening while time is frozen, so how did you know what I'd said? Did you see me telling the team some time in the future, or did Kirika tell you what I said to Madoka on Friday night?"
"The truth is, well, I've always known the truth about you." You stop in your tracks, unsure of how to respond to what Mikuni Oriko has just said. "It was hard for me not to figure it out, when a person whom I've never seen before in any of my visions suddenly pops into existence in the middle of March, only to completely vanish again the day of Walpurgisnacht. I didn't know what it meant at first, but every time afterwards that I'd try to look at you, you would always vanish on that day. It took me awhile, but eventually I was able to figure out the meaning behind what I saw when I looked for you."
Your mind is racing. Even back when you and she were enemies, Mikuni Oriko knew the truth about you. There is only one thing you can bring yourself to ask. "Have you told anyone else?"
"No," Mikuni Oriko says. "I've kept your secret safe this entire time."
You breathe easy at those words, and say "Thank you." A part of you wants to ask, to chance the hope that things can return to normal between you, Sayaka, and Hitomi in time; but decide against it. You have more important things to worry about in the days to come. ...And if this timeline fails as well, then it's time wasted spent worrying about them.
Mikuni Oriko smiles, directing your attention to the package of veggie burger patties. "Can you break those up into little chunks and brown them while I chop the vegetables and get the sauce ready?"
You consider making smalltalk with Mikuni Oriko while the two of you work, but she appears so engrossed in what she's doing that you decide against it. It would be wrong to distract her when she actually appears to be happy. Instead, you wait for everything to be just about finished, before saying to her "I know Kirika often talks about wanting to be your housewife; but honestly, you're so much more, well, domestic, than she is."
Mikuni Oriko nods as she takes the finished meal out of the oven. "Kirika is in love with the idea of being my obedient servant, but when it comes down to it she's so much more the boy of our relationship, I guess would be the best way to put it."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Not at all. I love her just the way she is." You've never had vegetarian lasagna before - you've never had any kind of lasagna before - but the scent rolling off of Mikuni Oriko's finished dinner as she plates for three is almost Archer-like. "Though, if she ever wanted to be a bit girly-er, I suppose I wouldn't mind that either."
You carry your own plate as well as a pitcher of water, while Mikuni Oriko carries the plates containing hers and Kirika's dinners. "Dearest, it's time to eat," she says, smiling as she lays dinner out in front of her girlfriend. "I hope you've worked up an appetite."
"I'm always in the mood to eat your cooking."
Maybe hesitant isn't the right word to use, but you're hesitant to dig into dinner, and you don't know why, Are you afraid you'll find something better than Archer's cooking? No, you think, waiting until your hosts have taken their first bites before overcoming your hesitations. It doesn't beat Archer's cooking, but still, "It's quite good," you say, surprised that Mikuni Oriko could have turned vegetable burger patties into an adequate substitute for real meat.
"You think so?" You nod. "The original recipe came from my grandmother; then my mother got hold of it and turned it into an Italian-Japanese fusion; then I made some modifications of my own to accommodate my not being able to eat meat anymore."
"Well, it's quite good." A recipe with as interesting a heritage as the family it comes from. "Thank you for putting up with my request, by the way. I can't imagine it was easy to make a ward against the Incubator, when we're not even really sure exactly what its nature is."
"I'm only about ninety-eight percent certain that it'll work, actually. Lancer gave me the best advice she could, but even after all our experiments I still can't say I'm completely certain of its effectiveness. I can try my hand at an improved ward after Walpurgisnacht is passed, but for the time we have left I've given Kaname-san the best I could achieve."
That Mikuni Oriko isn't completely sure of her ward's effectiveness is somewhat disconcerting, but she is also correct when she says there isn't much time left; and at this stage, anything that can ward the Incubator away from Madoka will be appreciated. "Still, I appreciate the effort you and Lancer put into making your wards." Mikuni Oriko hums her thanks for your appreciation, and you turn your attention to Kirika, who is seated across from you. "I've got a bit of a problem, and I was hoping you could give me some non-romantic relationship advice." Why Kirika? you ask yourself, when Mikuni Oriko is right there at the head of the table and probably could answer you just as well; it's love. Love doesn't just have to be about romantic relationships, and Kirika should be more in tune with all things love than her partner; hence, asking her instead.
"Uh..." Kirika stares at you. "I mean, I don't really know the first thing about having friends I don't want to do girlfriend stuff with- You and Tomoe are, like, the only friend-friends I have, but, sure; I guess I can try to help you out."
"I told Sayaka and Hitomi something... Very personal, about myself, something that I've rarely ever told anyone else, and they reacted... Well, pretty badly to it, to the point where I don't think they really believed me when I said it. I'm worried that I might have accidentally ruined my friendships with them, and I was wondering if you had any advice as to what I should do."
Kirika shrugs. So much for that. "Uh... I guess I'd say to give them their space for awhile, and maybe try to get closer to them again through a proxy, maybe? Pinkie's pretty close to them, right; maybe she'd be willing to go back and forth between you and them until you've patched things up?"
"Maybe."
[ ] Wat do?
