831/In Case Of Snack Emergency, Break Kazuo

In Case Of Snack Emergency, Break Kazuo
Date of Scene:	30 November 2023
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	Kazuo checks in on how Makoto is doing, now that she knows she's also Sailor Jupiter. Makoto is doing just fine. Makoto is doing fine enough to get Kazuo to crack up laughing in public...
Cast of Characters:	Kazuo Saitou, Makoto Kino

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Kazuo Saitou has posed:
It's a perfectly ordinary afternoon when Tall, With White Hair flags down Also Tall, But Prettier And A Vastly Better Cook in the flood of rearrangements between school and afterschool.

Also, because he is determinedly invoking normality, it is not in fact a Wednesday.

"Hey," he says to Makoto. "Sorry about not touching base earlier, I wanted to make sure you had some time to get used to Tsukino. And then I added a little more to cut the odds that she'd think I was coming between her and your cooking. You settling in okay?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Hm?"

A perfectly ordinary not-Wednesday afternoon, after class, means Kazuo catches Makoto preoccupied with thoughts of shopping lists and homework. The diversion is a welcome one, the moment it takes her to shift mental gears visible on her face before she smiles.

"Not too bad," she replies."I did get to know Usagi-chan a bit earlier before all that," a vague gesture encompasses a broad range of shenanigans, "at the ball. She's easy to know. But in any case you don't need to apologize." Her smile turns rueful. "It's been a lot to take in, for sure."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Easy to know? Kazuo's grin, for once, nearly sparkles. "You have not lived until you've seen her face when she thinks she's cleverly scheming," he agrees. Best. Ever.

Eyebrows twitch up at the rueful note, but it's in harmony, not in query. "Yeah. I'm still getting used to it, too. I get the feeling it's a little easier if you get to pet a cat, but not a whole lot."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Ohhh, says the lift of Mako's eyebrows in turn. "So, the whole..." another gesture, this time encompassing Kazuo himself. "Suit thing is new to you, too? That makes me feel a little bit less blind. Just a little." She's laughing softly as she says it. "My new roommate is an alien with a magic sword and a tiny flying horse. It's kind of great, actually, as long as I'm okay with basically never having any idea what's going on."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"... a tiny flying ...." Kazuo is utterly distracted from the suit thing. Both his hands lift, indicating a loosely Barbie-scale steed. "Help. Thirty seconds ago I had a brain. Now I'm stuck on 'did it come with accessories?' and 'do they even make sugar cubes that small?'"

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto lifts a hand to try to smother her laughter. It doesn't help. "In order," she says, "'I don't think so' and 'definitely not.' Imagine Usagi-chan meeting a cake the size of a car and that's about how it went when he realized we had a basket of apples in our room."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"... I'm so sorry," Kazuo says, fighting and failing to manage a straight face. "If you need someone to mop the ceiling next time, just give me a call."

Makoto Kino has posed:
"I'll keep it in mind," Mako says cheerfully, "but Adora's almost as tall as me. Which is pretty nice, too, you know? Anyway - life's weird. It's not bad, but it's weird."

She hitches the strap of her bag absently up her shoulder and gives Kazuo a newly considering look. "Usagi-chan and Luna explained what's up with me, more or less, but... How did you end up in all this? With the suit, and all?" Her head cants to the side as she recalls the sight of Kaitou Kamen back at the embassy. "Reincarnation of Arsene Lupin?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
... the noise Kazuo makes in his throat at that is worth the price of admission all by itself. So is the expression on his face. Independently.

At least he manages to unlock for a second and sigh. "That would almost be preferable. At least then I'd have a reason for looking like that. Uh. Do you remember the rock name people? With the half-baked emu monster, and the wobbly kibitzing?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto gets to look pleased with herself for a moment at his reactions. At least until he brings up the emu and sets her rummaging through her memory.

"Yelling across the rooftops at each other, yeah." It was, at least, a memorable occasion. The corners of her mouth turn down slightly as she follows the thread of memory through to the conversation they'd had after. "You said they were trying to recruit you, right?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Yeah." Kazuo's expression is serious without being solemn. "And you were right on the reincarnation. I'm just ... I was one of them. And we're all being very careful around that, because if their current boss figures out there's an extra? That would be the opposite of great. For everybody including them."

A brief pause. "- which means I still have no idea where the suit comes from. Inai says the subconscious. I say that my subconscious does javelins and mythological bird feathers, not white tie."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Mako considers this for several moments, processing. "Maybe that's why?" she ventures after a bit. "You know you don't want their boss to know about you, so... What's the opposite of what they'd be looking for? Like a disguise of a disguise."

She sits on that one another beat before pulling a face. "Not that I know how any of this works."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"I think, for not knowing how any of this works, that's the best idea any of us have had so far." Kazuo does not laugh at her face. Does not. "Anyway, upshot is that on most things I listen to Tsukino anyway," how does he keep using her surname with a straight face, "and mostly I double as a weird stuff detector for her roommate."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Naru-chan," Mako says with an approving nod, as though there were any need at all to confirm that, knowing Usagi, she also knows Usagi's roomie and BFF. "For those times when you have to go find the weird stuff, instead of it finding us?"

She's still smiling, but she lets a breath out in a soft sigh. "I admit, I still don't really get it. The whole reincarnation thing, I mean. It makes sense - or at least, it doesn't not make sense--"

Her train of thought, already struggling, fully derails here. "I told you, didn't I, that I felt like I'd been guided here? That I was supposed to be here. And now I know I was right, it's just... I don't know, it's weird to think about all this being because of some other life I lived fourteen million years ago and don't remember at all."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"It's weird if you think about it," Kazuo admits. "But it's also weird if you think about people who've been friends since they were like three, and don't remember how it started, right?"

He makes a little gesture with one hand, circling a bit of clear space beside him. "And when I'm not thinking about it ... it's like, my whole life, I've been wanting to be able to make a certain kind of joke and have someone get it. Or being in a fight and being outnumbered and feeling like there should be somebody there, I know exactly how he'd move - well, dammit, guess I have to do it myself. There were always empty spaces. That I couldn't even tell were empty. Now I get the chance to meet the people that matched those spaces, that's all. The people that past-me cared about so hard he made room for them in everything. Maybe we'll still match up like that. Maybe not. But it's good to have a hope of finding out, you know?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
She's nodding along, slowly, by the time he's finished, and her expression has become more thoughtful. "When you put it like that," Makoto admits,"it sounds pretty good. Nice to think that there are people who have those kinds of places for me."

She draws in a breath, and relaxes back into a smile that's only slightly self deprecating. "Maybe what I should be taking away is that it's probably better for me not to think about it too hard. I'll just trip myself up unnecessarily."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Pretty sure you've still got a few bouts of deserved 'what even is my life' left before you hit quota," Kazuo assures her cheerfully. "But the rest of it... yeah. Anybody tries to lock you into something stupid, I'll hold your books while you're making them regret their grandparents' life choices."

Makoto Kino has posed:
"I don't know, I think the emu took up a few of them on its own." She shakes her head. "Plus, the school nurse wants me to be part of a magical girl Iron Chef... so that's a thing. What even are any of our lives, at this point?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"... the... school nurse?"

Kazuo's expression says very clearly that he is using one of his what-even quota right now.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto just nods soberly. "I guess you haven't met her. Or maybe you have. She's... a lot."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"No. No, I get sent for counseling, not medical help." A pause. "... maybe she missed her calling. Magical Home Economics. Cooking for energy drain victims. Mending fabrics not of this earth. Food safety for your roommate's tiny horse."

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Well," Mako laughs quietly, "you'll probably manage better than me if you do meet her. She knows Usagi-chan, which is good, because she had me spilling almost everything within like ten minutes when I had to go in to get my records updated."

A brief pause. "She might be working on at least one of those - the other girl she's recruited into the Iron Chef thing is a Culinary Guardian who makes magical sweets. Which, not going to lie, I'm looking forward to seeing her in action."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"I'm increasingly certain that everyone knows her," Kazuo says, possibly seizing gratefully on familiar ground. "It must be the hair. Blonde strands reaching across the hallway and yanking people she hasn't met over so she can try to talk them into feeding her."

... which leads straight into the next thing Makoto says, and Kazuo just starts laughing helplessly, right there in the aisle. "Of course there are Culinary Guardians. Of course."

Makoto Kino has posed:
It's Makoto's turn to make a truly priceless face at the visual Kazuo's description of Usagi creates in her imagination. "If she could do that for real, she'd be wearing it in eight tails instead of two, like a hair octopus. No snacks would be safe." She bites down on a giggle. "Not that she needs to. Usagi-chan has her own gravitational field."

He laughs, and she grins at him, pleased to have scored another point. "Of course," she agrees merrily. "Why wouldn't there be? The only question is why Usagi-chan hasn't already added an emergency call button for them to her communicator in case of a snack emergency. Maybe Luna wouldn't let her."