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Unspoken Words; [Shizuka]
Topic Started: Nov 25 2017, 05:43 PM (242 Views)
Nonsequitur
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Yellow Bubblegum
It was a Friday afternoon, he checked his watch even if there was no concrete meeting time that was agreed upon. He just said that he would meet her 'after school' and suggested they meet at Wild Duck in Tanjiro. Peace Diner was a bit too costly for him and the last time he'd eaten at Big Bang Burger, it felt like a hostile alien life form was going to burst out of his stomach.

Since he'd come straight from school, he was still in his uniform. He saw no reason to wait for her, so he'd just sat down in a conspicuous spot with his meal on a tray. She wanted to speak with him, and he had no doubts as to what she planned to say, he had no desire to invite her back to the dojo to talk, nor did he have any desire to visit wherever she was staying. Some 'neutral ground' was the logical place for him to suffer being berated for being belligerent and antisocial, perhaps he should have kept count.

There was a tap on his shoulder, light and delicate. He looked up, and expected that it was Shizuka. The strange, plain girl wasn't there yet though. To his surprise, the person who got his attention was a compact girl with red hair and green eyes. Her summer uniform was neither Taiyoutono's nor Reitaku's. He couldn't recall any place off the top of his head with white blouses with an embroidered emblem, navy and white stripped ribbons and pleated navy skirts on their students. She also had a rather conspicuous hearing aid over her right ear. She seemed very happy to see him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but he recalled right away there was a more efficient way to catch up with her, holding up his hands he quickly but fluidly signed out a phrase. 'Hello, Midori-chan. Long time no see.'

This seemed to delight the silent girl, who rapidly responded in kind. 'Yuki-kun! Yes! It's been too long! I'm sorry we haven't had a chance to catch up, and my condolences on your brother.'

He shook his head and answered back: 'Thank you for your kind words, and I'm sorry if my signs are sloppy, I haven't had to use them in a while.' Yuki didn't emote much, and he definitely wasn't much of a smiling person. But he was visibly less tense as he was exchanging with Midori. His gaze lost all of its usual sharpness.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Shizuka would normally have been all aflutter with nerves if she were going to meet a boy like this: it was probably a testament to how put-off she had been by Yuki Harada's overly serious manner that she felt no such anxiety as she made her way to Wild Duck Burger that day. She also didn't make much of an effort to dress nice, just showing up in her regular old school uniform with her usual minimum application of make-up, as though this were a club meeting at school and nothing else worth thinking about.

Yuki could probably do better than her anyway, though, she had thought to herself earlier that day as she washed her hands in front of the girl's room mirror. It wasn't a new thing for her to think about a boy; but it also wasn't the depressing thought it had been months before. Life had changed, priorities had shifted, and Shizuka would be much surprised if she angsted much about loneliness against before she was finished college at the rate things were going now. The ruins and Persona-users... those were more important right now.

It wasn't as if she would snub attention from a cute member of the male species, of course. Just that she didn't so much mind not having that in her life just at the moment.

When she stepped into Wild Duck, she looked around for Yuki at the tables immediately, unsurprised when she spotted him with a meal on his plate already. She sighed and smiled: he hadn't seemed like the type to waste time on useless formalities. But then she caught of his plus one and the smile became brighter. He was speaking to a girl? Oh, wait... no, they were signing to each other. Shizuka knew a bit of sign... she'd had a deaf aunt until about half a year before she moved to Nagashima the first time, but Aunt Eriko had died of some sort of liver disease. Shizuka had learned enough sign language to converse with her a bit, but it wasn't fresh enough in her mind for her to follow the conversation between Yuki and his female friend from this distance and probably would have needed several seconds to translate it in her head in any case.

This girl was quite pretty, though. Her earlier thought had been right: Yuki could do quite a lot better than her.

It was strange seeing Yuki so relaxed, so Shizuka was reluctant to interrupt their conversation. Still, she should make herself known, she decided. Stepping around the tables to make her way toward Yuki. She made sure to maneuver herself into the girl's line of sight as she walked, waving to her as she approached and smiling apologetically. Her hands moved in a slightly stiff, awkward way, with little pauses in the middle as she attempted to remember enough to complete a sentence. It would be obvious to anyone who used sign language regularly that while Shizuka knew enough to get by, she had only ever used it very sporadically.

'Hello!' her hands said. 'I am sorry to interrupt. Are you his friend?' A pause, during which she glanced toward Yuki (whose back was toward her at this point). Her signs came out with a bit more energy, and her face displayed good cheer, indicating that an affirmative answer to her next question would have prompted a squeeing sound. 'Are you a couple?'

The idea of grim, stern Yuki Harada cuddling with a girl, any girl, was just too incongruous with his normal attitude not to be cute. It would have been great to learn that he had someone like him in her life. At this point she lowered her hands and said verbally: "Thanks for coming, Harada-san." As amusing as it would be to have a conversation in sign behind Yuki's back, she wasn't about to disrespect him by trying it.
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Nonsequitur
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'No, no! It's quite good! I haven't had any trouble understanding you at all!' Her motions were light, quick and cheerful. Combined with her face and body language it wasn't hard to imagine the non-verbal equivalent of a chirpy happy voice.

Yuki didn't notice her when she approached, but Midori's attention focused on her with a friendly and attentive manner. She didn't mind her lack of fluency at all. 'Yuki-kun is a friend. Not a couple, but I dated his brother. Back in junior high.' Her motions kept their bouncy, happy quality, but lost the rapid fire quality and she kept to easier to digest signs for Shizuka's sake.

Yuki seemed to withdraw back into his usual manner at once when he realized of her presence. Shoulders squared off, with a more pronounced dourness to his face. "Mmmm." He grunted, his usual sort of greeting.

"Pleased to meet you!" She spoke clearly, but there was a monotonous quality and a reduced inflection. Both telltale signs of a speaker who grew up extremely hard of hearing. "I'm Midori Hama. I can speak if that's easier."
Edited by Nonsequitur, Nov 25 2017, 08:33 PM.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Ah, so this girl wasn't Yuki's girlfriend after all. That was too bad. When Yuki retreated back into his shell, Shizuka gave him a look of faint exasperation and then met Midori's eyes again. Perhaps she didn't need sign language to silently communicate her thoughts this time: Yuki's stoic, angsty persona was enough to make anyone think twice about talking to him, and had they not had the common ground that was being a Persona-user, Shizuka probably would never have gotten to know him even as much as she had.

When Midori spoke, Shizuka put on a look of embarrassed apology and looked down at her hands. "Thanks, Midori-san, but I'll manage," she said clearly, and then, signing with her hands again: 'I haven't had any chances to talk like this in almost a year and a half. I could use the practice.'

Her signs were, at least, correct. But between Midori being forced to speak in an uncomfortable way and Shizuka herself signing a bit awkwardly, Shizuka would rather be the one to endure the weight of being the less comfortable speaker. She looked to Yuki, then, and smiled, tilting her head to one side.

"If you want to catch up with Midori-san instead, we can do this another time..." she offered, then turned to Midori and signed: 'Either way, you should make plans. He needs more excuses to relax.' A sideways quirk of her head in Yuki's direction to indicate the dour teenager, plus a small knowing smile. It was obvious that Yuki was the type to keep his guard up around people he wasn't familiar with, so time to hang out with someone he could ease up around would do him good.
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Nonsequitur
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She smiled appreciatively at Shizuka, and reverted back to signing. 'Thank you. I don't think I can stay. I have plans with other friends.' she pointed to a group of girls in the same uniform as her who were chatting away. 'I just wanted to see how Yuki-kun was doing. We haven't seen each other in a while.'

'I'm okay. There's no need to worry.' He felt that was a mistake to say though. Nothing made people worry more than asking them not to. 'Do you have the same phone number? I'll text you later.'

She nodded, beaming. She glanced between Shizuka and Yuki and had a mischievous grin as she asked. 'Actually? do you have a girlfriend, Yuki-kun?'

He blinked. He should have known the question was coming, she always did like that sort of thing. He shrugged. 'I might. I'll tell you later. Promise.'

'It's a promise then! You'd better not forget!' One of the girls in the group was waving over Midori. 'I have to go now. It's nice to see you again, and I'm glad I met…but I don't know your name yet.'
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Shizuka had to pause for several seconds after Midori asked her name, hands suspended in the air and a look of concentration on her face. Then her hands moved, spelling out her name at last: 'Shizuka Setsuko. Pleased to meet you.' She smiled, looking pleased that she had succeeded in introducing herself without resorting to the use of her voice. But she hadn't missed Yuki's answer to Midori's question, and look at him questioningly. She opened her mouth, perhaps to ask what he meant, then closed it, seeming to decide that it was none of her business.

She looked back to Midori, signing once again. 'Don't let me keep you. Have fun with your friends.'
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Nonsequitur
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'Alright. I'll see you again too, Shizuka-chan'

Midori gave them both a final warm smile and then returned to the side of her friends, who all exited the restaurant together. It was though a refreshing zephyr had blown in on a balmy summer day, offering relief for the brief time it was there. Once it was gone, the conditions resumed though.

"My brother learned JSL while they were dating. He didn't have anyone else to practice with, so I learned as well. I remembered more than I thought, apparently." It wasn't unusual for him to cut right to the point, so it was no surprise he offered an explanation for his relationship with Midori Hama before he was even asked.

"Now then. What is this about?"
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Shizuka's good mood faded quite rapidly after Midori went to rejoin her friends. Yuki's attitude had that effect, she was quickly learning. She turned her eyes back to him (she had been watching as Midori left), and took his no-nonsense explanation of how he knew sign language in stride. Like his general manner, it was impersonal and closed-off. He didn't even make mention of whatever personal connection he felt to his brother's former girlfriend. There was control, and then there was whatever Yuki was. And whatever Yuki was, it was "too much."

She sighed when he asked the question. "You know, I wasn't kidding when I told Midori you need more excuses to relax..." she said. "You won't do it on your own unless you have one, or at least that's what it seems like from how you act."

There was only a slight bit of a chiding tone to this observation. She looked up toward the ceiling, whether to center herself or to pray for additional patience she wasn't sure, and then looked to Yuki, squaring her own shoulders and looking seriously back at him.

"When we first met, you were really adamant about teamwork being an impossibility. But you seem very driven to explore the ruins, anyway. And not just to explore it, but to get to the bottom of it. Of everything." She leaned forward a little, frowning at him. She had not yet ordered a meal, of course. Eating could wait until they got the business out of the way, and if Yuki wanted to remain there with her when that happened, then, good. If not, then it seemed she would be ordering food and eating alone.

"I came back to this city because I couldn't stand to leave things alone..." she said. "I have a personal obligation to do everything I can to do exactly that — to solve the ruins, or at least help someone else do it. My mother was taken by the butterfly and didn't make it out, and as long as I know why and am burdened with hiding it, I won't rest until I've seen the threat ended."

She frowned more deeply, turning her serious expression into something more pouty and put out.

"This is the part where I'd ask how serious you are about all this, but I feel like asking you of all people how serious you are would be some kind of bad joke. I guess what I want to ask is how committed you are. I can't do what I need to do alone, and even if you think it's impossible to work as a team... my instincts are telling me that I should work with you, if you'd let me."
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Nonsequitur
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"There really isn't anything for me than putting an end to it. Little else matters." He was miserly with his words as he usually was. Where he imagined someone else could have filled a book with the degree of importance they placed on it. He'd get by just fine with a statement a bit more verbose than he'd normally used.

As he was so tight with words, what he didn't comment on stood out as much as what he did. When she said he needed to relax, he said nothing. But how he sat had a casual disdain for the idea. He didn't say anything either when she shared her reasons, but he didn't do so in a dismissive manner.

"I can't say I'd be thrilled with the prospect, but I won't object either. Do what you want."
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"I wasn't asking you why. I just want to know that you won't give up because things stayed bleak for too long," Shizuka said. The way she said it made it clear that she didn't believe for a moment that the reasons for Yuki's actions were just Well, I just want to end it. People didn't do things for no reason. They either had convictions and strong reasons that those convictions sprang from, or it was personal. The way Yuki had gone at Kyo when they'd sparred hinted enough that Yuki's motivation was personal that Shizuka felt no need to ask for clarification on that point.

But the presence of a personal motivation did not automatically guarantee commitment. Shizuka looked to the left, trying to find words for what she wanted to say, eyes lingering on the first interesting thing she found there as her brain worked (which happened to be violet highlights in the hair of Reitaku girl who was sitting down to eat at the next table with a newly-bought meal on a tray). When she looked back to Yuki, she had set her jaw.

"I want to know you won't spin your wheels about it," she said. "I want to know that you're prepared if something happens that hits you hard enough that your drive to see this through might not survive it. You saw on the forums, didn't you? Now there's a red-eyed thing running around the ruins that might belong to someone who was exploring years ago and gave up... and people are still giving up, just because we haven't been able to make enough progress in a short enough stretch of time. That's why I came back, more than anything: because I realized that if I gave up, there was no way I could have faith that anybody else wouldn't."

She raised a hand, pointing it at Yuki. Out of the corner of her eyes, she thought the violet-highlights girl might have glanced her way, but paid it no mind. That girl was probably too far away to hear anything; the motion of her hand had probably just distracted her daydreams.

"So I'll ask again, are you committed, or are you just going through the motions the same way everyone else in this city already has?" she said. "A lot of people have said what you've said. I can count on one hand the number of people who seem like they'll follow through. Most of them have given up, even if they won't say it out loud."

---

Violet blinked when words drifted over from her far left.

"...red-eyed thing running around..."

A moment later the girl sitting at the next table raised her hand and pointed it. Violet's dull-blue eyes turned to look, and she raised an eyebrow. It looked like there was some serious talk going on at that table, and... wait! She froze slightly like a deer in headlights and stared for just a second. That was Harada. Yuki Harada, the serious kid with the scar and the strong shoulders and... ah, even thinking further along that line felt a little too scandalous for a straight face, so she stopped thinking and looked away.

Oh, if there was one thing Violet was not going to complain about where the move to Japan was concerned, it was the boys. Japanese boys had this way of being either really creepy looking or really goddamn hot without middle ground, and in spite of his constantly dour face, Yuki fell on the red side of that spectrum. Way red. It wasn't like she was crushing on him or anything, but even if she never acted on it, cute boys were a weakness of Violet's. And that scar made her more curious about him than she'd be about the textbook pretty-boy. He was in Class 3-B, right? Or was it 3-C? Near enough to her room that she saw him almost every day since she'd started at Reitaku in April, anyway. And what a heart-stopping sight it was. Meeeee-ow.

She ducked her head and dove into her fries, but couldn't help focusing more on her sense of hearing as they talked. Didn't sound like a date, unless this girl was drilling the boy on the most hardcore version of boyfriendly dedication to being a One-Girl Guy. She was being really melodramatic, if that was the case! She wouldn't chance another glance at them, though. Wouldn't do to make them think she was eavesdropping.

...Even though... that was more or less exactly what she was doing now that she was listening on purpose? Ah, crap. Maybe it would be better to just scarf down her Duck Burger at top speed and leave the shop even quicker, for the sake of her conscience. Forgive me Father, for I have sinned... she thought with a mentally exaggerated tragic head-voice, looking up at the ceiling with tragic, puppy-dog eyes. We're cool, right? Confession accepted? ...No? Shucks, God, you're so strict. But I love ya anyway.
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