1118/Convenient Dinner Conversation

Convenient Dinner Conversation
Date of Scene:	14 February 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Kyouka and Kyouko meet at the convenience store and Kyouko gets a run-down of the situation with Corona.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Kyouko Sakura
Tinyplot:	The Game

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't cook much at home. This is partially due to being bad at it and partially due to not having a great kitchen setup for anything other than instant noodles and microwave meals in her tiny apartment. Thankfully Japan is very friendly to people who prefer not to cook- the culture of working late and tiny kitchen-less apartments has led to takeaway meals being relatively cheap and abundant (if not always the healthiest option). So many days on her way home from school, Kyouka can be found picking something up for dinner at the nearby convenience store.

    Today is no different, and the counselor, still in her 'school uniform' of button-down white shirt and black slacks though with her leather jacket worn over the shirt, is selecting something with rice and chicken in sauce from the shelf of pre-packaged meals. She seems fine, physically, though she has a bit of a harried look on her face, more lined and tired-appearing than is usual for her.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Oddly enough, Kyouko also does not cook much at home. Primarily because she doesn't really HAVE a home, per se. Sure, technically she lives in the dorms, and could eat in the cafeteria like the student she ostensibly is. The reality is that she treats the dorm she's been assigned like another in her rotation of crash spaces (this one best for if its especially cold or rainy), and has never been sighted in the cafeteria.

Which is to say that she's also at the convenience store, also in the pre-prepared food aisle. She's looking at stuff that either doesn't need heating, or she can heat up right there and then.

There's a glance to Kyouka and then to her choice and then back to considering her options. "You look like crap."

It's sort of like a greeting.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka, for her part, seems to not even have noticed that she was sharing the aisle with her erstwhile student, another indication that she is not at her best- normally she's very observant about her surroundings. She doesn't startle or anything, but glances over at the statement, packaged meal still in hand, as if only then really processing who it was that was standing a few feet away from her.

    She heaves a faint sigh and rolls her eyes, signs of life at least, as she shakes her head. "It's been a rough couple of days." She tells the younger girl, with a lift of her shoulders as if to say 'what can you do, that's life'.

    "Nothing that can't be fixed." She really, really hopes.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Anyone that needs taking care of?" Kyouko sounds just a little bit hopeful that her mentor might provide someone that might require 'taking care of'. Not y'know.. taking care of them, but rather taking CARE of them.

Apparently even Kyouko has sorted out that offering to stab people while choosing between pork buns and chicken and rice is a poor tactic.

"That fixes a lot of things." Kyouko reaches for the pork buns. They're good anytime.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Not this time." Kyouka says with weary acceptance- indicating that, perhaps, there might yet be other times where 'taking care of' someone would be the appropriate response. Far be it for her to rule out such tactics when required... but this is not one of the times where it's required.

    "In fact it's sort of the opposite." She runs a hand back through her bright red hair, heaving a faint sigh once more. "My best friend is being harassed and accused of murder by an alien wolf with questionable connections to our shared past, and I'm trying to figure out how to stop her from killing it." Well, that's a rather succinct summary of the situation.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Hunh." Kyouko listens to that succinct summary and well.. it is really not much more far fetched than anything that comes out of her life these days.

"If the wolf is a complete harassing jerk, why are you stopping her from killing it?" Kyouko asks.

Kyouko adds another package of BBQ pork buns to her basket. Apparently harassing wolves calls for more steamy buns.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Because," Kyouka says, perhaps a bit more sharply than she intended, "I don't think people deserve to die just for being jerks. If that was true, I'd be dead a long time ago." Her glance says Kyouko might be sharing that fate, if the world were so inclined to parcel out the death penalty for being a jerk, but she stops short of saying that aloud, at least.

    "And... besides. This all has to do with our time as magical girls, you know like ten years ago, and a lot of baggage and.. look, it's a long story." She toys with the bento in her hands, glancing down at it. "Suffice it to say that she is inclined to murder and I am not, and that difference has led to strife between us in the past, and I'm afraid it is going to again. And I'd really really like to avoid that if possible."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Hmmmmph." Is Kyouko's answer at the sharp retort and then a moment later. "Okay, point." She'd absolutely be on death row.. more than she already thinks that she is, merely for being a magical girl.

"And protecting the harassing wolf isn't exactly cool to the friend that its harassing." Kyouko considers that. "Can you just scare it into shaping up?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Look, it's not so much protecting the wolf as it is stopping Fuyuko.. my friend." Kyouka says, supplying the name when she realizes the other girl rightly has no clue who she is talking about. "I honestly don't care that much if the damn wolf lives or dies, I just don't want Fuyuko to kill it. I've had enough of dealing with the consequences of her bad decisions."
    That's a bit mean, and a bit hypocritical, but Fuyuko isn't here to call her on it.

    At the question of scaring said wolf, she just shakes her head. "No, that's not going to work. Trust me."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's a little pause as Kyouko considers that and then nods a little. "Right." She glances over to Kyouka and then back to picking another bento. "I mean.. like.. no offense and stuff. But if she's your bestie, then you're both old, and can she even kill it?" She gives a shrug. "Like without real magic and stuff."

Subtle, very subtle. And tactful.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka gives the younger mahou a Look. "Just because we're old doesn't mean we're helpless." She says, somewhat reproachfully. "And I'll have you know that while it's true that Arbiters are forbidden from using offensive magic there are.." She hesitates, perhaps searching for the right word. "..loopholes."

    She shakes her head a few times, still holding the prepackaged meal in her hands. "Suffice it to say, she'll find a way, if she wants to."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Kyouko gives Kyouka a smirking little look at the mention of loopholes. And a lack of helplessness.

She does get a little more serious at the mention of Fuyuo finding a way if she really wants to. "Sounds like most magical girls, really. We find a way." She considers. "So what are you going to do?"

She looks in her own basket and then reaches for another little packet of snacks.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka considers the question of 'what are you going to do' for a moment. Her expression is pensive, her eyes on the bento in her hand. "I never told you much about how things were when I was your age, did I?" She asks after a moment.

    "What are you doing right now?" She asks. "I mean, after this." She gestures to the basket of food and such. "Do you want to come back to my apartment, so I can tell you a bit more about it? It's kind of a long story for standing in a store aisle."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Kyouko shrugs at the realization from Kyouka that she's not wholly in the loop. She looks down into her basket and then comments. "Lemme grab a couple more things."

Apparently that's all that is going to pass for a 'I'm not busy' and 'yes, I'd be pleased to come over'. Instead, Kyouko has decided that she needs a few more snacks, and some pocky and some sweets.

Where she has the money for this.. that's a question best left unasked really.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka does not ask, nor does she attempt to pay for Kyouko- unless it appears the girl is going to try and steal the stuff, or something. While she's happy to treat her friends occasionally, she's not exactly wealthy herself, and if Kyouko wants to buy half the snack aisle then she can just pay for that herself. Either way, Kyouka pays for her own meal, just the meal itself and a beer. Because its that kind of night.

    Once everything is paid for, she leads Kyouko the short distance back to her modest apartment building. Her apartment is small, but not too bad, and aside from her penchant for 'eh, I'll straighten up later' leading toc lutter, relatively clean. She sets her food down on the kotatsu and then sits herself.

    "I told you you could crash here sometimes if you needed to." She says. "I did mean that, you know."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
It's a quiet trip back to the apartment, and there's no judgement at all as Kyouko looks around the tiny apartment.

Some judgement, perhaps, but in an impressed kinda way. Kyouka has her own space. To be cluttered in. To leave stuff in. All hers. That's viewed with a lens of being impressed.

"Yeah. You said that." Kyouko brings her own bag of food to the kotatsu. "I know." She pauses just a moment and then admits. "I crash in the dorms sometimes. When it's really cold, or soggy." There are some creature comforts that she is growing fond of. Warmth being high on the list.

The pork buns are extracted from her bag and set out in a clear location to expect to share. Along with dumplings. One of the bentos is clearly just for her.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka opens her meal package and presses her hands together over it in a quick blessing, before eyeing the food that Kyouko is setting out in a way which suggests she is willing to allow Kyouka to partake in some of it. "Feeling generous tonight, are we?" She asks, sounding amused and playfully skeptical.

    Then she picks up a piece of chicken from her own bento, eating it before saying, "Anyway.. look, so when I was your age I was a type of mahou called Lux Tenebrous. There were two of us, me and Fuyuko. We were partners, two sides of a coin, and she was my best friend. Things were different back then.. a lot less mahous in general. It was a tough gig but we were good at it."

    She noms another piece of chicken. "But we had a... falling out. About seven years ago."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Clearly you've had a rough week. Eat old, oldie." Kyouko snorts softly. She's quietly respectful during Kyouka's blessing, but she does not do the same.

Collecting up her chopsticks, Kyouko settles to her own nomming as she listens. "There was a lot less mahous /last year/.. there must have been bascially none of you when you were my age."

Because clearly there's been /so much time/.

She arches a brow at the 'we were good at it' but Kyouko doesn't argue. She can believe it, even she doesn't want to say it. "What did you fight over?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka chews on some rich, trying to decide how to explain it without really having to get into it. "She lost someone important to her, and went a little crazy. Like, murder half of downtown crazy. It wasn't.." She hesitates, not wanting to lie, but not wanting to blame Fuyuko either, despite her choices. "She's not a bad person. She was just suffering. I stopped her, and she didn't appreciate that. We fought for years."

    "Anyway,as part of that whole thing, she killed our mascot. Our Kyubey, I guess you could say. She did it because she thought it would help her gain more power. It did, temporarily, but that's not important. The important thing is that she was getting better. We were getting better. Sure, she still works for Obsidian and she's not exactly the most kind-hearted person in the world but you gotta understand, she's like a sister to me."

    There's a hint of desperation in Kyouka's tone, as if she knows what she's saying doesn't make the best of sense, but since when does love (platonic, romantic, or otherwise) need to make sense? "And now this wolf bitch, the same species as the one Fuyuko killed all those years ago, shows up out of nowhere and starts pushing her buttons, seemingly on purpose. It's shitty and the wolf is a bitch but like I said, nobody needs to die over that. But at the same time, if I have to stop Fuyuko again..." She trails off.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's quiet from Kyouko as she listens. She reaches over to snag a dumpling, giving a quiet little nod at going a little off the wall after having lost someone close to you. She gets that. She /really/ gets that.

"So.. you got a /fresh/ Kyubey? That's a raw deal right there." Kyouko comments as she listens. "How did you stop her the first time?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I beat the shit out of her." Kyouka says, dryly. "Over and over again. For years." She pauses, and then says, reluctantly, "She got the better of me a fair few times. It's not like it was that one sided. The point is, with violence."

    "But I don't want it to go that route again. We were getting better, do you understand? It wasn't like old times again but it's been better these past few months than its been in years. I was starting to feel like I had my best friend back."

    "And now.. I don't want to lose that by fighting her again. But I also don't want to let her kill somebody.. well, something. Some entity. Just because it made her angry by being insulting. Or because it might make new mahous in our line. She doesn't like that thought either. I don't really know if I do or not, but I certainly don't think its worth killing over."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Beating the shit out of each other is not usually the hallmark of a super healthy relationship." Kyouko comments dryly. Granted, getting relationship advice from the semi-feral puella .. questionable source at best.

"She works for Obsidian?" Kyouko hits upon something mentioned earlier. "So.. she's probably all hopped up on dumb too. Which doesn't help anything."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Our relationship was not healthy, at that time." Kyouka readily admits. "It probably isn't now. But like I said.. it was getting better. Which is why I don't want to wreck it again."

    She shakes her head. "She's not touched Dark Energy. I know that for a fact. Her dumb is all her own." Ironic, coming out of her mouth, but she manages to say it with a straight face. We all have our own dumb.

    "Anyway, that's why I'm stressed out. I dunno what the right call here is. She claims she's not going to kill the wolf, and I believe she means that, but I also believe all it's gonna take is a few wrong words for her to forget she made that claim." She's steadily working through her bento as she talks.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"It's it just kinda /everywhere/ there?" Kyouko asks with a wave of her chopsticks. A not unreasonable assumption about the miasma that she apparently expects to just surround Obsidian Tower. "Like.. sure she doesnt /mean/ to touch Dark Energy, but does it care?"

Kyouko nudges a pork bun towards Kyouka, because that solves all sorts of stress. "I mean.. I guess you dont want someone else beating the shit out of her either, hunh?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "It doesn't work that way, exactly." Kyouka says with more confidence than she strictly deserves to have. "Like, I'm sure it's not great for you. But you don't just absorb it from the air. If you did we'd be in a lot more trouble than we usually are, let me tell you."

    She glances at the pork bun.. then takes it and eats it. "I don't, but also you don't want to try." She says, giving the girl a look. "You'd lose."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Harumph." Kyouko seems unconvinced by the lack of miasma theory surrounding Dark Energy. It sure does /seem/ that way, more often than not.

"You know us kids aren't all random noobs at this, right?" Kyouko points out. "Some of us are pretty good at what we do, and generally what we do is beat the shit out of things."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I'm not saying you're bad at beating the shit out of things." Kyouka says, eating another bun, placatingly. "And I'm sure you're better at it than most. I don't think you're a noob either.. relatively speaking."

    "But Fuyuko and I have been doing this for a full decade longer than you have. So trust me.. don't test her if you have a choice in the matter." She doesn't bother to say 'or me', since Kyouko isn't threatening to beat her up, but its kind of implied that would have the same result.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Hunh." Kyouko accepts the mollification, at least a little bit. It might be helped by a bun full of red bean paste. The tray nudged to share.

Clearly she is feeling generous today.

"Then you better come up with a differnet plan for getting her to stop that isn't 'beat the shit out of her', if you're taking that one off the table." Kyouko points out, gesturing with the bun at the woman.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka does not hesitate to take a bean bun, either. Because free food is not something you turn your nose up at. And they're tasty.

    "Yeah, I know I need a different plan, thanks Captain Obvious." She says, somewhat acerbically, lending credence to the idea that she is stressed out enough to break her normally nice-to-the-kids demeanor down a little bit. "The problem is I can't figure out what that other plan should be."

    She sighs heavily. "Hopefully she gives me time to come up with one."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"And if she doesn't.." Kyouko gives a little shrug. "We beat some of the shit out of her to at least slow her down."

Chomp on the bean paste bun for emphasis.

"Just not you, cause you're her friend and you dont want to fuck that up more than it already has, but a few of us who are fairly disposable."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I am not sending child soldiers to die in my stead because I want to safeguard my friendship with a murderer." Kyouka says testily, giving Kyouko a look. "Stay away from her unless I tell you otherwise, okay? Promise me."

    She leans back on her arm, pinching the bridge of her nose with her opposite hand. "It won't come to that, anyway. Be optimistic."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I am being optimistic." Kyouko points out. "The first hope is that she gives you enough time to figure something out."

"It's not until that goes to hell that you need more buy more time." Kyouko shrugs. "So run with the first hope, and easy peasy, lemon squeezy."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Kyouko," Kyouka says, giving the girl a level grey-eyed stare. "Promise me you won't antagonize or attempt to beat up my best friend unless I tell you to." She noticed that the girl had deftly avoided actually responding to that part of her previous statement.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There is a distinct disadvantage in having someone who seemed to have an unreasonable ability to see though the devious plots of the teens that she is literally paid to keep track of.

The sigh is full of teenage longsuffering. "/Fine/." Kyouko grudgingly acknowledges that she's been called out. "I won't beat the shit out of your bestie until you tell me to."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Thank you." Says Kyouka, primly. "Now if you don't mind, I would like to not talk about this for a little while, at least until we finish this food. Thank you for sharing, by the way."

    And she proceeds to do just that. And if Kyouko is particularly lucky, she might even break out some of her stash of Pocky before the evening is over.