You unwrap your popsicle thoughtfully and take an equally thoughtful bite, watching Kyouko try to figure out how to get rid of all the bubbles. You... should probably see about helping out with that.
Kyouko produces a spear, which explodes into chains that rear up like a snake, allowing her to step on the blade and try to fish out the vaguely humanoid blob of bubbles Yuma has become. You can vaguely see a mop of green hair somewhere in there.
You take another bite, letting the cold run over your tongue. Sweet and tangy, nondescript lime flavour. You really
should go help Kyouko, who's currently trying to rescue a non-bubbled towel for Yuma.
Ah well. Sitting half-twisted around on the sofa and craning your neck around is kind of tiring, anyway. You hop to your feet, a cloud of particulate Grief already rolling down the corridor ahead of you. You flood the bathroom with Grief, popping all the bubbles and scooping the water down the drain. For good measure, you pull the plug on the tub to drain it.
"Couldn't have done that earlier?" Kyouko grumbles, wrapping Yuma with a towel.
"Could've," you agree, punctuating that with another bite of your ice lolly.
"Yuma still wants to bathe!" Yuma declares.
"No more bubble foam," Kyouko chides. "Where did you even get that much
this time?"
"Yuma... found it?" Yuma says with a
distinctly shifty look.
"That's what we do," Kyouko says, snorting and nudging Yuma back towards the bathroom. "Now go on. No more bubbles!"
"OK!" Yuma says brightly, beaming at the both of you.
Kyouko shakes her head as the door shuts with a click. "How even..."
"You know, I'm beginning to suspect she does it on purpose," you say, taking another bite of your popsicle. "Has she done this before?"
"Oh, she has," Kyouko says, snorting. "Usually not this much."
"Oh," you say, and shrug. "So much for that idea."
"C'mon, she's seven," Kyouko says. "And a damn smart cookie, but she ain't fucking around with us."
"That you
know of," you say. You have a vague impression that an older Yuma would probably turn out to be the most unexpectedly, deeply scary spymaster, but you're not terribly sure
where that impression comes from.
Kyouko snorts, rolling her eyes as she meanders back to the sofa, vaulting over the back and sprawling out. You follow at a more sedate pace to seat yourself, still snacking on your ice lolly. Kyouko's has long since disappeared, and she fiddles with the stick, staring you down.
"So the thing is," you say. "I'm pretty sure that you
don't know this, but if you were to just... show up on Mami's doorstep tomorrow and say
absolutely nothing at all, the reception you'd get from Mami would be this: repeated, tearful apologies, mixed with offers of food, friendship, and housing."
"Bullshit," Kyouko snaps. Burning eyes snap to yours.
You meet her gaze calmly, despite the danger smoldering in her look. You're
not backing down over this. Kyouko invited the topic. Kyouko
knowingly invited the topic. It's important to you
and Kyouko - and it's important to Mami. You
need to get through to her, and something tells you this is one of very, very few chances you'll ever get.
"Do you know
why you ended up fighting?" you ask. You hold your hand out, gesturing at her with the outstretched palm. "
She doesn't have a problem with you. Mami's problem is that until very recently,
literally everyone in her life eventually
abandoned her or abused her trust."
You laugh, and if there's bitterness in it, well, it's just you and Kyouko - who opens her mouth to say something, but you cut her off with a slice of your hand through the air. Her fist clenches, jaw setting hard, but
you are not backing down. Because she's getting annoyed, she's getting angry, but that's her
defense mechanism.
"You're not special," you say with a razor-sharp smile. "At one point,
I accidentally convinced her I was breaking ties with her, and promptly ended up in a ribbon cocoon. And yet, the only thing I've ever heard from Mami on the topic is how much she
regrets what she'd done that night."
"Bullshit!" Kyouko snarls, before softening her voice and darting a look towards the bathroom door, body taut with tension. She turns a blazing look on you. "She tried to
kill me!"
You laugh in her face.
"If she wanted to hit you, she would have," you say, folding your arms. "No. She didn't."
Kyouko rears back as if struck, eyes burning and fingers twitching.
"You might've fought," you say. "But believe you me. She felt horrible for it, and she holds the pain still. Close to her heart."
And you smile again, wry and thin as you stand and start to pace slowly around the room, more out of having an
outlet for your nervous energy than anything. It also puts you a
bit out of immediate stabbing range. Kyouko's gaze tracks your motion as you brush your fingers over the television, over the curtains at the windows.
"You say I'm a saint or something," you say. "Forgive everyone,
everyone deserves redemption no matter who they are. And that's... eh. There are
some people..." You shake your head, trying not to think about the Soul Gem you're holding locked in Grief. Rionna. "But no. The
relevant fact of the matter is this:
you, Kyouko, are not unforgivable. There's literally
one person who has a problem with you. And that's
you."
You shove your hands into the pockets of your coat, facing Kyouko squarely. You've said your piece, and it's up to her to decide what she wants to make of it. And you watch her face flicker from anger, to dismay, to something else you can't really make out.
"Get out," Kyouko says.
Your heart falls.
"Kyouko, I-"
"I said
get out-" Kyouko snarls. "Shut up, go away, I want to
think. I'll think about it, OK? But I want to
not have you throwing wordswords
words at me while I think!
I'll think about it, now
get out."
"I...," you start, before remembering something very important. "No. Grief Seeds
first."
Kyouko makes a wordless, inarticulate noise, plunging her hand into her pocket and producing a handful of half-filled Grief Seeds you silently refresh.
"Happy?" she demands. "I'll be
fine. Just-
let me think."
"OK, OK," you say. "I'm sorry. Say bye to Yuma for me."
Kyouko's hand twitches, as if clenched around the invisible haft of an invisible spear.
You head out, carefully shutting the door behind you with a quiet click and padding away over the carpet.
Well.
That was...
Probably a success?
You'd definitely gotten through to Kyouko, at any rate.
Some of it penetrated her shell. And she didn't actually chase you out because she was angry with you, not quite. Still. You pull your phone from your pocket - it's a little early, but you could conceivably head to Mitakihara Middle School right about now, and be just a bit early.
[] Lunchtime!
- [] Any particular points to hit?
[] Something quick to do before that?
- [] Check in with the Animators (Masami and Hiroko (and Ono))
- [] Check in with the Shiogama girls (Noriko and Akemi)
- [] Something else?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
A day late on the update. Oops? Aiming for an update Thursday again. (And if you wonder why I do this, it's because having a publicly announced target helps keep me on track, as well as letting you guys know what to expect.)
