1356/Sharing Hell

Sharing Hell
Date of Scene:	27 March 2024
Location:	Penguin Park - Island Shrine
Synopsis:	Kyouka and Kyouko have a chat while walking in the park.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Kyouko Sakura

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Springtime has sprung, at least to some degree. The weather is warm enough that jackets are not required (though perhaps still preferred on some days), and things have begun to bloom. This makes the park a particularly pleasant visit in the early evening, with the sakura trees flowering and the other plants doing their part as well.

    Kyouka may not seem the type to appreciate such things, and perhaps she isn't in the larger scheme of things. Flower viewing or strolls in the park are pretty low down her list of priorities. But sometimes things are just stressful and you need a little bit of peace and quiet.

    It's a cool but not cold springtime evening that finds her wandering down the gravel paths near the island shrine in Penguin Park, leather jacket and shades in place, hands in pockets. She seems to be going somewhere, rather than just wandering aimlessly, but passing through the park on her way to wherever that may be is a pleasant diversion.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
It's still hoodie weather, and that suits Kyouko just fine. She's got her hoodie zipped up against the chill of springtime, and ripped jeans do not provide quite the same insulation, but that's what she's got. If the younger redhead was going somewhere in specific, it seems to be irrelevant, or ignored as she casually just falls into step with Kyouka. She has her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, and there's no backpack with her tonight, so goodness only knows where she's left it.

She walks along in silence, clearly unconcerned about inviting herself along, or where they are going.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka had not been paying particular attention to her surroundings, but it's pretty hard to sneak up on her. In addition to senses honed from years of combat experience, she also has that magic sense which alerts her to any sort of magical shenanigans (or people) in the vicinity. Safe to say, she can smell Kyouko coming.

    She doesn't give any particular reaction as the younger girl falls into step with her, no warm welcome or cold shoulder, just a glance to the side and a brief smile as she says, "Hey kid. Doin' alright?" A casual 'how are you' considering the last time they saw each other Kyouko was not particularly doing alright.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's not even a moment of hestitation before Kyouko declares. "Yeah. Doing alright."

Usually it's bravado that makes such statments an automatic thing, but for the moment, she's not dead. Which is pretty alright. "Still getting the reserves back into shape." She admits after a few more paces. "Hunting is getting better again, though."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Good." Kyouka says, and she doesn't feel like she needs to say a whole lot more than that. If the reserves are getting back into shape, then they will be in shape soon. And hunting being good is... well, it means more Witches, which is never a good thing for most, but from the perspective of a Puella it is a necessary evil.

    She continues to wander down the path in silence for a few more moments, before she says "We used to call it hunting when I was your age too. Only we did it for sport, not sustenance."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I'm more likely to do it for sport when I'm not running low." Kyouko points out with a shrug. "Seems like a waste of magic otherwise." She lets the crunch underfoot highlight that few a few steps and then a few more. "Esepcially if you'r enot getting anything at the end of it." She glances over. "You didn't need to recharge like I do?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Your circumstances are different." Kyouka says, with a shrug. "Besides, I'm not going to sit here and claim fourteen-year-old-me was some kind of role model. I was a... difficult child." She smirks a little bit, as if somehow proclaiming she is any different now.

    "No." She shakes her head to the notion of 'recharging'. "I mean, everyone has limits. But my magic did... does... recover naturally over time. Of course, I also didn't get a wish when I got recruited." She glances at the girl and shrugs. "But the 'getting something at the end of it' part... ostensibly we were saving people. That was the reward. In practice I think we cared more about glory and bragging rights."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
At the mention of 'difficult child', Kyouko audibly snorts and glances sidelong. "Gosh. I can't even imagine it." She drawls with enough sarcasm to line a street.

There's a mostly inaudible mutter from Kyouko at the mention of wishes, although the tone of it is not in any way shape or form positive. There's a reason why Kyubey needs to watch its fuzzy self around the red-headed puella.

"Glory and bragging rights are legit." Kyouko protests a little. "Hunting needs a bit of bragging."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I don't want to hear that tone coming from you." Kyouka says, at Kyouko's sarcastic remark, although there's humor in her voice rather than sharpness. "I'm a well-adjusted and responsible adult now. With a job, even. Mama would be so proud."

    She shrugs at the mention of glory and bragging rights. "I don't disagree. I just think that I've come to realize, over time, that maybe we were a bit too focused on ourselves and not enough on the people we were supposed to be helping. It's different for you- you need to focus on yourself to stay alive. But it wasn't like that for me. I could have retired at any time, in theory. Instead, here I am still hanging onto the game years after I should have been forced out."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Right right. Well adjusted AND responsible. Un hunh." Kyouko manages not to snort at that this time. Progress?

There's a thoughtful pause, letting their steps take them a little further. Kyouko's comments are surprisingly thoughtful when they come. "Yeah. It's a toss up if it's worth it. The staying alive part." Clearly some portion of her thinks that it is. She is here to have this conversation and that was a very near thing only very recently. "Not really doing much else but focusing on ourselves. Or myself, I guess."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't bother to challenge Kyouko's bonus sarcasm. Some things you just have to let slide, especially when you're dealing with teenagers.

    Kyouka glances at the girl walking beside her as they make a leisurely circuit of the island with the shrine on it, heading generally towards the opposite side of the park and the exit back onto the busy streets of Tokyo, but clearly in no particular hurry. "Staying alive is generally worth it. I'm not saying there's nothing out there worth dying for, but in my experience those reasons are few and far between. And hey, even if you're doing it for yourself, you're still helping other people in the process. Every Witch you kill is one that isn't out there preying on regular people, too."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's no hurry at all, and this has become the sort of conversation best done while moving. Or in a car. There's something about car rides that prompt the Big Conversations. Kyouko considers that answer. "I suppose." She doesn't sound convinced as they walk. "Maybe we're all already dead and this is just someone's tortured nightmare of imagination." She speculates, because that is doing a great job of making the conversation cheerier.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka just shrugs at that rather dire notion. "Well, my response to that is if that's the case it doesn't actually matter. Whether we're dead or alive in an absolute sense, it feels real to us and this is the only reality we know." She gives a little smile. "So better to just assume it's the only one that matters and go from there. I'd rather be wrong about that than wrong in the other direction and waste the only chance I've been given."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Yeah." Kyouko agrees after a moment. "I suppose it doesn't really matter all that much, one way or another." She clearly has to wrestle with that idea a bit, or perhaps just sit with it a while longer.

"I mean, I guess you don't know if it's your only chance either, but ." She starts and then shakes her head, dismissing where she was going with that before she ever really gets there. She continues to walk in silence a little while. "If there's like.. non witch stuff. You could call, I guess. If you needed someone to stab things."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Can I?" Kyouka asks, with a little laugh. "You don't exactly have a hotline. Do you keep your phone charged?" She's mostly teasing though, since she's at least aware that Kyouko does have a phone at the very least.

    A moment later she speaks with more genuine feeling. "That's good to know. It's been hard to adjust to not doing it myself, you know. I'm still not really used to it. But having people around who I can rely on to give a good stabbing when things require it is something I've been learning to count on."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I will." Kyouko answers, giving light to the fact that it's been somewhat a questionable point on how often her phone's been charged lately. Or even on.

"Yeah. That would epicly suck." Kyouko sympathizes. "You do still have an epic jump though. That's something at least." She walks further, the pair certainly get their steps in on this conversation. "Thanks for coming."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka shrugs again. "Jumping is, fortunately, still within the magical abilities I'm allowed to have." She reaches out and puts her hand lightly on Kyouko's hoodie-clad shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "No problem, really. I wasn't kidding when I said it was my job, but I would have come even if it wasn't. Despite all my talk about being too focused on myself, I do actually try to help my friends when they need it."

    "Just be grateful I was able to call in the cavalry as well. I'm not sure I'd have been able to handle that Witch on my own, given that you were already at your limit."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Yeah." Kyouko lets that settle a moment.

"I miscalculated going in, but I can't top up wihtout a fight, and I was going to be cutting it close on the fight without topping up." Kyouko informs the ground ahead of him as they walk. "It had to go perfectly, and it didn't." There's no protests that it was a challenging fight, or any other sort of excuses. It was an error on her part, and she's willing to own that.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "You need to understand that you can be perfectly prepared, at the top of your game, and firing on all cylinders and things can still end up going sideways." Kyouka says. Her tone isn't lecturing despite the content being, well, a lecture for all intents and purposes. It's more like she's relating personal experience. "Luck is always a factor. In this line of work all it takes is a bad day for you and a good day for them and suddenly everything else ceases to matter."

    She shrugs, taking her hand back and stuffing it in her pocket. "That's why it pays to have people to watch your back. The chances of you running into shitty luck might be small, but the chances of two, or three people all having that same shitty luck are infinitely smaller still."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I kinda hate luck." Kyouko grumbles, but she isn't arguing exactly. "I can't /plan/ for luck." For all that the girl seems to be an eternal hot mess, there's a lot of strategic planning that goes into that level of hot mess. Or perahps she's just be MORE of a hot mess if she wasn't quite so careful about it all.

"I still don't like sharing my hell with other people." Kyouko points out. "It's not theirs to endure." She gives a small stone in the path a good kick, skittering it off into the grass alongside the path.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "The only people who don't hate luck are the people with absurdly good luck." Kyouka says dryly, "And even they change their tunes once they run out of it. It happens to everyone eventually. Such is the way of life, unfortunately."

    At the comment about the sharing of hells, she shakes her head a little, her smile sympathetic. "I get that. Thing is, everyone's got their own hell, y'know? So it's a give and take. You step into theirs to give them a hand when they need it, they do the same for you. Nobody's life is perfect and peaceful... well, nobody in the mahou game, anyway. Sharing the burden makes it somewhat more tolerable."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I dont know anyone with absurdly good luck." Kyouko counters. "I'm pretty sure that's a myth, or they are lying to themselves."

There is a highly skeptical look from Kyouko to Kyouka at the mention of everyone's got their own hell. Because there is nothing quite like the teen certainty that THEIRS is the worst of it all and clearly no one understands that unmutable fact. "Yeah." She tries for and mostly gets there. "I guess so." She doesn't sound convinced that everyone is sharing their hells around. Nor wants to.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Some would say my luck is pretty good." Kyouka says, with a little bit of a grin. "After all, I fought monsters every day of my life for over a decade and lived, and managed to escape the Fade too." She shrugs. "Of course, I also make crap money and live in a tiny apartment and I can't really fight anymore, 'least not like I used to. So I guess the lesson is luck is all relative."

    She resists the urge to ruffle Kyouko's hair, although barely. "C'mon, I'll buy you dinner." She offers, as they reach the end of the path where it empties back out onto Tokyo's normal sidewalks.