Performance Review (Kyouka Inai)
| Performance Review (Kyouka Inai) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 06 July 2023 |
| Location: | Radiant Heart Academy - Guidance |
| Synopsis: | Kyouka is visited by Balance, who congratulates her on her early progress. |
| Cast of Characters: | Kyouka Inai |
It's late afternoon in the Guidance Office at Radiant Heart Academy. Kyouka Inai sits at her desk, her final scheduled appointment for the afternoon having just left a few moments before. With the swivel of her chair tilted back so she's leaning in a casual pose, her ash-grey eyes are directed out the window over the athletic fields, watching the students run around in all sorts of patterns both predictable and not. Her expression is pensive, and she's just beginning to consider whether it's late enough for her to grab her coat and escape to the ramen shop down the street when her thoughts are interrupted by a deep, sonorous voice from behind her.
"Inai." The voice seems to come from everywhere at once, with a resonant quality that seems otherworldly.
She doesn't turn immediately, but heaves a large, melancholy sigh before she finally swivels the chair. "Balance." She regards what she sees with a sardonic lack of surprise. The cartoon sun wearing sunglasses, usually resident on the cheesy motivational poster hanging on the wall, has separated itself and no floats animated in the air, its overly wide grin displaying wide, blunt teeth. "Do you /need/ to look like that?"
"It is a convenient reference point for your mortal brain to comprehend." The deep voice seems to issue from the floating, grinning sun, but its mouth doesn't move. "Besides. Do you not wish to 'be the best that you can be'." The voice quotes the phrase printed in cartoon block letters on the poster, and Kyouka rolls her eyes. "Har har. What do you want?"
"I am merely here to compliment you on the swift commencement of your duties. You have thrown yourself into this with a vigor I had hoped for, but not expected given your.. proclivities."
Kyouka makes a sour face. "You mean because I strenuously object to your view that training child soldiers to die in your stupid 'eternal war' is a moral thing to do?"
"Yes. Let me be clear, as I have been in the past, Inai. I do not care what your feelings are. Only that the task is accomplished. If your objection is so strenuous, why do proceed?"
"Because," Kyouka sighs, swiveling her chair back around to look out the window, "I can't stop the war from happening. I can't stop kids from signing up, or being chosen. It's gonna happen whether I'm involved or not. At the very least, you'll just find someone else, maybe someone worse than me. And even if you didn't, it still wouldn't stop. There will still be youma, Dark Energy, Heroes and Puella and all the rest. I can't make it go away. So I figure, at least I can help some of these kids survive it." She shoots a glare at the floating sun over her shoulder. "You get that? I'm /using/ you, Balance. I'm in this because I don't want to see these kids repeat my mistakes, if that's possible. Not because I buy into your bullshit about the 'eternal struggle'."
The sun is still floating exactly where it had been. Still smiling that creepy, big-toothed grin. "Your reasons are interesting, but ultimtely irrelevant. Continue the work. We are approaching a crux point."
Kyouka spins the chair around, eyes narrowed."What does that mean?"
"It means that events are unfolding which will shape the course of the Struggle in this region of time and space. You are but a small part of the war, but not an insignificant one. Remember that."
"You sure know how to make a girl feel special." Kyouka says, with a sour sneer. "I hate it."
"Your feelings on the matter are irrelevant." Balance repeats. "Continue the work." And then it's gone. The sun is back on the poster where it belongs, inanimate and cheesy.
Kyouka stares at it for a long moment. Then she stands, grabbing her coat from the back of her chair. "Just you wait." She mutters, as she turns for the door. "You're not the first to call my feelings irrelevant. But you'll learn the same thing as the rest of 'em. I'm Kyouka Godamned Inai. I find a way." And then it's /really/ time for ramen.
