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Introductions Over Steaming Bowls of Bacon; [Chika, Hanako - Closed]
Topic Started: Nov 25 2013, 07:30 PM (467 Views)
The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"...Who didya say was comin' this time?"

"A friend. Hanako Ito." Whom I have never met, Masumi thought, but did not add. Etsuko didn't need to know that. Apparently Chika Nakadachi was going to visit as well, but Masumi had met her once, but she didn't know much else. As for Chika's connection to Etsuko's apparently monstrous sister...

...Well! She didn't even have a clue, or rather... she did have a clue, she just hadn't thought to connect the dots yet. So Masumi probably should have felt more nervous than she did. As it was, she only knew that Hanako wanted to see Etsuko for herself. So, she had prepared a good meal for everyone! A big, steaming pot of ramen with shredded pork! Masumi wasn't used to being able to make things even vaguely fancy, but now that she could, she'd gotten quite good at it. The cookbook print-out that Kyo had made her was interesting as well, though Masumi wasn't sure she'd be able to try so much as half the recipes in there anytime soon.

But, ramen was easy, the most finicky part had been making the noodles by hand. It was finished now, though, and Masumi had set out three healthy-sized bowls in anticipation of their arrival. Etsuko, dressed in the dark-blue girl's jeans and deep-orange top that Masumi had bought her earlier in the week (she had decided orange was her favorite color, and she would wear it relentlessly, in honor of how orange it was), was making no attempts to pass herself off as Daiki this day--Masumi had told her that this Hanako girl already knew who she was.

So Etsuko sat on the sofa, legs pressed together and fingers tapping atop her knees, staring... staring at the door, waiting for them to arrive. Whether what she felt just then was anticipation or dread, she would never be able to definitely say.

---

Chika had seen Etsuko exactly one time. She hadn't had a chance to say anything on that occasion, because the ring had activated. She was glad it had, but even so, she hadn't had a chance to say anything to the girl, and when she thought about it--she wanted to know. She wanted to understand. If her brother had been killed by this abhorrent woman, she wanted to know why.

The red-haired girl hadn't expressed any of this to Hanako Ito; she merely walked along next to Hanako--the two had met, had taken a bus, and the bus had dropped them off a block and a half away from Masumi Suzuki's rowhome. Chika had donned a gray minijacket, a white shirt, a fairly long skirt, and her white gloves today. As she walked, she kept her head straight, but the way her arms hugged at her middle as she went, the way her face was determinedly fixed in a neutral expression... it might have given away some of the anxiety going on underneath.

You know, just a little bit of it.
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Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
"You know, it's going to be fine. Just a nice pleasant meeting and no reason for it to be anything but that, right?"

Moving to Nagashima had done wonders for Hanako's fashion sense. This time she wore a cream-colored jacket over a white long sleeved shirt and short dark skirt. Tanned tights kept her legs warm, right down to her calf-length boots. Her hands were in her pockets as she walked alongside Chika. She'd experimented with a side-tail and a silver hair clip in her pale hair that day.

"I mean, she's not her sister, right?" Day by day, it got a little less awkward for her to say the reasonable thing. She'd known Masumi as a fortune teller and as a generally kind and helpful person with a sweet disposition.

Etsuko? She'd just heard of her, knew of her relations and not much else. She'd purposely withheld judgement until she got to know her a bit first. "I think this is the place?" She took her hand out of one jacket pocket to point out the row house she felt had the correct address, then she approached it.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"No. No, she's not her sister," Chika said stiffly. She looks almost exactly... exactly the same, though... Chika thought, but didn't say. Chika stopped in front of the rowhome at the end, the one beside that narrow alley out of which Masumi had once given Hanako a reading. Chika ducked her head down, and followed along beside Hanako, focusing on one thought, over and over. Exactly one thought, precisely one thought:

She's not her sister.

She's not her sister.

She is not... her sister...

Nevertheless, Chika could not bring herself to knock on the door. That task fell to Hanako. When she did, there were a few moments of not-quite-silence, during which, if the two listened very closely, they might have heard a woman's voice, followed by a different, quieter voice.

And then, less than ten seconds later, the door opened, and there she stood. Chika looked up, and recognized her immediately, despite the fact that this time her gender was patently obvious. Just about the only things that were immediately different from her older sister were hair length and fashion sense--one was shorter, and the other was just plain sensible.

"H...hello," the girl on the other side of the door said, before stepping back. Her eyes fixed on Chika for a moment. "Oh. I-It's you, from before. Hi..."

Chika stood stock-still, her right hand reflexively moving to cover her left in spite of the limiter ring's absence. She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. And then she looked to Hanako, her expression almost helpless.

Masumi's voice called from further in, and the fortune teller herself could be seen bustling about in the kitchen area from where the two girls stood. "Hanako-san, Chika-san! Come in! I've put some ramen on, I hope you're hungry!"
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Nonsequitur
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Even though it was Hanako who said it to Chika, looking this girl in the face for the first time, it was more true than she ever expected. She had enough presence of mind not to outright stare but her gaze really did linger, and she sucked in air sharply and involuntarily. Just keep going, it was a surprising detail.

She smiled, first to Chika to re-assure her. After that, to Masumi as she responded to her hospitality. "Oh, yes, that'd be really nice of you Suzuki-san!" After she had a moment to really process it, she turned back to Etsuko and looked friendly as she spoke. "I know you must get this a lot. But the family resemblance is very strong. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. My name is Hanako Ito, and it's a pleasure to meet you. I see you've already met Chika?"

She absolutely loathed Etsuko's sister. For good reason, too. Etsuko hasn't done anything bad to anyone as far as she knew. She stepped inside, and gave Chika a look that she hoped to convey that things were indeed fine. For the time being, she'd just have to focus on being a good guest and making a good first impression. Meeting Etsuko was why she was there in the first place after all.
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Chika jolted back to reality with a slight twitch. She had thought she was prepared for it, she had seen it before, but was there any unseeing the face that had taken the last of her family away? She followed Hanako inside, and Etsuko... remained silent, and seemed to grow even quieter when the "family resemblance" came up. Chika's eyes lingered on her face, and there was genuine discomfort there, and in the way Etsuko rubbed at one of her arms and didn't immediately speak...

...But that was probably far more jarring for Hanako, who had spent extended periods of time in Nishiyo's presence. Etsuko turned away, and said in a soft voice, "I've heard. I wouldn't know, though. We ain't seen each other since she was six. My name's Etsuko. Y'can just call me Etsuko."

Chika moved to the table and sat on one of the tatami mats without any further comment, simply a mumbled, "Chika Nakadachi." Masumi busied herself with doling the ramen into bowls and applying the final toppings to make each bowl just right, though, and didn't immediately say anything. For this short space of time, it seemed the ball was entirely in Hanako's ball park.

Etsuko sat down on a mat across from Chika, but not directly across. It seemed her face was a source of distress for more than just Benkei.

"Nishi, what did dad turn ya into while I was gone?" Etsuko whispered. Whether or not Hanako heard this would depend entirely on how close she opted to sit to Etsuko.
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"I see." Just how did she get by in the mean time? She was a runaway right? That in itself must have been difficult to just get by on her own. Hanako wanted to ask about that, but she was already well aware just how awkward the situation was already. Instead she knelt besides Chika, directly opposite from Etsuko.

She normally had excellent hearing. Unnervingly so. But she didn't make out Etsuko's comment of dismay at the life her sister's been leading. She set up her own bowl just as she liked and then she looked back up to Etsuko. This time, when she saw the girl, she wanted to make out what was different not similar. She was younger, of course. Hair shorter, too. But it was her expression, just the way she looked back at her that was like nothing Nishiyo could have even faked.

"So, how did you and Suzuki-san meet? Oh, thanks very much for the hospitality, bu the way!" Obviously she'd have an relatively easy time being Etsuko. She may have loathed her sister, but at the same time she'd not personally wronged Hanako in any way yet. That key difference made it all the easier for her to divorce the feelings of animosity towards the younger sister with her optimism at the younger's character.

Everything Chika didn't even get a chance to. She looked over to the redheaded girl and put her hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" A question more meant to show her well-being was in mind than an honest question of how she was felling. She already knew that, it wasn't really good. It probably wouldn't be that way until she'd stopped having all those disasters hanging over her head like an evil raincloud. But failing that? Perhaps a bit more time to get used to the current situation could have helped.
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Etsuko smiled a bit awkwardly. "We--" Pause. "Ran inta each other."

"That happens a lot in this town, doesn't it?" Masumi said cheerfully, turning around with the first two ramen bowls on a tray in her hands. She walked over to the table, set the tray down, and then placed one bowl in front of both visitors. "Almost like a ceremonial greeting. And you're welcome, Hanako-san, although it isn't much..."

The girl watched her unofficial parent figure curiously. But if Masumi wasn't about to mention the attempted theft of that hairclip, Etsuko wasn't going to mention it either. So she looked back at Hanako and said, "That, um--Shane boy, I hate him, and Officer Maki Yamada were there, too, and Officer Yamada left me in Masumi's care, so... here I am."

Masumi hurried back over to the counter so she could put the other two bowls on the tray. Chika tilted her head up, but instead of looking at Etsuko, she stared at a fixed point over the girl's shoulder. "I ain't here for hospitality or soup," she said in a strained voice. "I came here 'cause I wanted t' ask somethin'."

Etsuko blinked. Masumi froze, frowning. "Well," she said in an even voice, "you'll be getting soup and hospitality as a bonus, then. That's kind of a rude thing to say, don't you think?"

Chika remained still, her left hand twisting inside her right on her lap beneath the table.
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Ran into…oh, yes, she knew all about that. Her hand gave an involuntary twitch at the exact wording of how Etsuko put it.

"Yeah, Shane? I hate him too!" Despite those words, she said them in a jovial 'i-get-that-reference-too' sort of way. Officer Yamada was involved in the issue of her older sister. She knew of her name and she was…read headed lady officer with a Persona, right? Beyond that, a mystery.

But she didn't have much time to contemplate that before out of nowhere Chika rather bluntly got to the point. Her sharp gray eyes were on Chika when she said: "Okay, fine. Chika, if it's so important. Why not just ask it now?" She wasn't angry, though she was doing a fine job pretending otherwise.
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Etsuko looked quickly from Hanako to Chika, and then to Masumi, as if asking for help. Frowning in a put-upon way, the fortune-teller quickly brought the tray back to the table and laid out the other two bowls: one in front of Etsuko, and one in front of herself. The smell was really quite intoxicating--whatever else, Masumi could swing a pretty good bowl of soup.

"I really don't like you putting Etsuko-chan on the spot," Masumi said chidingly. "What's so important that you need to come here just to ask it, exactly?"

Chika's eyes flitted to Masumi, and then back to the space just over Etsuko's shoulder. Her hands twisted more strongly under the table. And then she muttered something, something that only Hanako would hear.

"I wanted t' know why..."

Etsuko tilted her head to the side, and then leaned forward. Chika forced her eyes to Etsuko's. Brown. Brown like hers, but also brown like Nishiyo's. Curious, apprehensive... and a little fearful. Fearful in an innocent way, though. It wasn't a look she expected to see on Nishiyo's face, but there it was, on a face so very like that girl's...

"I wanted... t'know... um... why... you..."

A gulp.

"Why ya ran..."

Etsuko's face went pale, and she looked quickly to Masumi again, almost pleading. Masumi had gone stiff, her chopsticks frozen over the bowl. After a few seconds, the fortune-teller shook her head.

"No," she said sharply. "No. No, you aren't forcing her to talk about that. Do you really have no compassion? No. No. I don't know what it is, but even I'm not heartless enough to interrogate her about it. If that's all you're here for, you can go on home."

Chika flinched, and ducked her head, closing her eyes. Her hands clutched each other all the tighter...
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Hanako was already getting to her feet. She stood and gave a bow to Masumi and Etsuko as she offered an apology.

"Actually, perhaps that's not such a bad idea? Nakadachi-san and I going, I mean." She added as she turned to Chika with a deep frown. "Is it alright if I just come back later alone?"

Whatever she came for, it certainly wasn't to give someone the third degree. She could somewhat see why Chika would have asked that and that was, yes. That was exactly why it was a bad idea not to have come alone. At the same time, she couldn't blame the redhead if she were in the same position…

"Well, come on Nakadachi-san. If we hurry we can catch the next bus and…"
Ugh, everything was just fine moments ago.
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