You give Kirika a thoughtful look, absently checking your bracelets - this
isn't for Kyuubey's weird ear-manipulator appendage things. You can still sense Oriko's perfectly well, back in the kitchen, and your own and Kirika's are just fine.
"I..." you sigh, turning your attention fully to Kirika. "I just want Oriko to believe that there's another... another,
better way for things to go. She seems to feel that there's only one way for this to end, and that it would be...
better that way."
Kirika nods, eyes downcast.
"That isn't true," you say. "It just isn't. I was trying to get her to just...
think about it."
You exhale, flattening your palms on the smooth, lacquered wood of the table. "That's not really what you're asking," you say. "I know. That other Oriko, much like your Oriko, had trouble controlling her magic. Her powers were always activated, always giving her visions."
Kirika nods. "Yeah," she says, chewing on her lip. "Yeah, that's about right. I... Oriko... we were running for a Barrier, when you caught us, that time. Two birds with one stone, Oriko said."
"Huh," you say. That's something, you guess. Not really relevant to the
now, much like your thoughts about how you'd handle word of your exploits spreading, and meguca trickling into Mitakihara. "More than that... Oriko blamed herself for her father's actions. She... carried the blame for what he did."
"I know," Kirika says, shaking her head. The sun to her back shadows her eyes beneath her hair, her lips twisted and unhappy. "She doesn't deserve it. I've told her she doesn't."
"And, I suspect, she thanks you for it," you murmur. There's very little
suspicion about it, truth be told. You
know. "She tells you it means a lot, and it makes her happy. But deep down inside, she has trouble convincing herself. Yeah?"
"Y-yeah," Kirika agrees. "Yeah. That's exactly it."
"She's wrong," you say. Kirika rocks back on the bench at the simple declaration. "You know she is. I know she is. That Oriko fought for
you, and to help Yuma."
Kirika blinks. Consternation gives way to thought, and then... she laughs, weak but real and joyful. "Thanks," she says.
You blink in surprise. "For what?"
"Sometimes I forget," she says, wondering and somehow surprised. "That Oriko can be wrong."
"Heh," you chuckle. "Guess so."
"She's wrong..." Kirika echoes. "Wrong to think she's going to die." Citrine eyes, kindled with eager
hope, flick back up to you. "What else?"
"Her visions," you say. "Well, not the visions themselves, just that she relies on them way too much. Both Orikos. The other Oriko, though... as I said, she faced Sasa Yuuki. She fought for
you, and she realised something."
Kirika leans forward on the table, sharp and alert.
You quote from memory, the words rolling off your tongue in a cadence you assume from Oriko. "'You don't have to be a good girl for anyone. You are who you are. So become someone you,
yourself, want to be.'"
You leave off that last line of hers - 'don't become like me'.
Hah.
Who says you can't do tact?
"Who did she say that to?" Kirika murmurs, eyes lost as she slowly absorbs that. You can tell she hasn't missed the implications - ditzy Kirika might be, but she isn't
stupid, and when it comes to Oriko, you'd imagine she's well and away glad to put in additional effort.
"Yuma," you answer. "And later... she concludes that it was for the best that she could fight wholeheartedly." You grin at Kirika, lopsided and rueful. "
You're what matters to Oriko. That's what I've been trying and failing to get through to her - but it might not be something I
can. I don't think she would hear it from me."
"Love is an infinity of limitations," Kirika mutters, distant and distracted. "Is it that easy?" She shakes her head, denying her own thoughts. "Simple isn't the same as easy."
"No," you agree. "It isn't." You grin at her as a sudden thought flashes through your mind. "Ironic and probably redundant that
I'm telling
you, but -
love her. Maybe I could be wrong, but I do think that that's at least
part of what Oriko needs here. Why her magic's the way it is."
"You're not wrong," Kirika says, something flashing in her eyes. Conviction, raw and intense, written in the set of her eyes and jaw. "You're not wrong."
You let out a slow breath. You weren't... you're not sure yourself. But you seem to have inspired Kirika, at any rate. "You're probably the only person who can get through to her, here and now," you say. "Just... try and talk her through it. Talk about what matters to her, try and get her to-"
"-to see our point of view," Kirika says, continuing past you. "To see that there's a way for her to live, and that it's alright for her to be happy, to live and to
love." A warm smile spreads across her face as she looks past you, to the mansion beyond. "'bout right?"
"Yeah," you agree. "'bout right. Get her to see that she has value for being herself. Get her to
live for herself, don't let her give up."
Kirika's little fang protrudes from her grin. "I think I can do that," she says. "Thanks, Sabrina."
You shake your head. "Don't thank me. What did I do, other than mess up with Oriko? This is all you. Just needed to give you a little push, right?"
"Meeeeeeeh," Kirika complains, supporting herself with her palms flat on the bench as she lets her head flop back and stare up at the sky. "Thank you anyway!"
"So... what now?" you ask. You find yourself smiling - her good mood's infectious.
Kirika tips her head back forward to grin at you. "Love her," she says. "'s that simple."
"Well, I meant me," you say. "I'm... not sure I'm doing this the right way. What do you think?"
"Yeah,
I get to love her, not you," Kirika says, sticking her tongue out at you. "
You have your own oujo."
You shrug. "So... nothing more for me to do?"
Kirika shrugs too. "D'you think you could let us go out sometime?" she asks. "I... I think Oriko would like to do
something sometime."
=====
Thesis crunchtime, whoooo.
