theshowsover | [Awash] Inbox

[She had left him a brief message about going out into the forest though she had been very sparing with the details except to say she was going on a journey of self discovery and not to look for her.

And a promise to explain when she got back.

The day after she came back, she messaged him again.]

can i come over?

[He was worried about it, considering what happened last time Kaoru left him a message before disappearing, but he decides to give her the benefit of the doubt and wait a bit before alerting everyone this time.

And so his patience is rewarded!]

Sure. Come on in.

[He'll be waiting when she gets there.]

[She's still tired in that way people are after getting over a fever. But she's feeling well enough otherwise.

She arrives and doesn't make a joke of it and just knocks on the door like a normal person. When it opens she's smiling, a little sheepish but trying to be reassuring.]

Hey.

Hey.

[He steps back to let her in, leading them both to the couch. Once fhey’ve sat down, he looks at her again.]

So what happened?

[He’s not mad or judgmental, just wondering.]

[Kaoru sits down and immediately holds both of her hands in her lap. She may be very touchy on most days but somehow it's hard to reach out when she most wants reassurance.]

I've done my best not to get sick my whole life. [Seemed like a good place to start.] I can't afford to get sick because fevers tend to make my powers impossible to control. It was dangerous enough before but now... [She pulls her legs up so her feet are on the couch, so she could cross her arms over her knees and hide her face in them.] Since the end of middle school I've had a twenty minute time limit for using my full power. Minamoto ran a simulation and...if I use my powers at full blast for more than twenty minutes I'd explode and take out a 15km radius with me.

[He sits quietly, listening to her explanation without interruption. Though the more he hears, the more concerned he is, until finally...]

You'd... explode?

[He knows she means literally, even if it's difficult to believe. The idea that her powers could be so strong as to overcome her like that... it's incredible, but then, all of her powers are incredible.

Is it that much of a leap?]

So... you were afraid that's what would happen? It's why you went in the woods?

[She nods.]

If anything happened...I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if the worst happened.

[But now that she's said the worst of it she can finally relax again. She's glad that she hadn't scared him. She's smiling, even though it shouldn't be possible to smile after dropping a bomb like that. But she's accepted this in the same way she's accepted the rest of her powers. There's no helping it.]

Minamoto said this is probably why our metabolism really sped up after middle school. My body is trying to make some kind of change to compensate for this power.

[He's not scared, but he is a little sad. Partly that there's a chance she could blow up, which is definitely sad, but also that she feels like she has to be so on guard that she has to hide herself when she gets sick.]

Huh. I guess that makes sense.

[He looks down at his hands.]

I wish you didn't have to run off, though. You shouldn't be going to the woods when you're sick.

Well, since Shiho wouldn't let me go alone I figured we were safe...but you know what the weirdest thing was? I think the forest was actually helping us.

The forest was helping you?

[Excuse him if he sounds a little skeptical.]

Weird, I know.

[Even now it's hard to wrap her mind around it.]

It tried to stop people from following us and nothing attacked us. Then there was suddenly a cave. It was warm inside and it could withstand the force of my powers going wild.

And there was... [She trailed off, not because she doesn't want to tell him but because she wasn't even sure how to talk about it.] We saw our supervisor. He was reassuring us that that everything would be fine.

[As helpful as that might have been, it also reminds Akira of something much more worrying - way back when they first arrived, and Guren, Akechi, and Ryoji all went inside a cave and encountered demons with the faces of those they knew.]

And nothing happened to you in there?

[She looks like she has all her color still, so...]

No. We were all perfectly safe. It didn't let us out until I was better though.

[Awash] Inbox

#FF8080 BACKDATED TO EARLIER IN THE MONTH BECAUSE I SUCK

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject