InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I am a banana!"

Yamada Kai [山田海] (the_nadeshiko) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2010-10-27 17:19:00

Entry tags:

kai, renju, shadow

WHO: Kai and Renju.
WHAT: A meeting.
WHERE: Anti-Bullying Club room.
WHEN: (WHATEVER I'LL FIGURE OUT THE TIMELINE FOR THESE TWO THREADS LATER).
WHY: That Yamada kid is weird.

This time, Kai was the one waiting on someone else. Renju should be arriving any time now, but he was perfectly content to wait and savor what he was about to do. Finally about to do.

He leaned back against the classroom wall, holding the Shiisaa doll Seiko's Shadow had left for him. That felt like so long ago now, and he scrutinized the doll, remembering the lump it had put in his throat back then. Looking at it now, he finally felt calm. Calm and in control, for the first time since all of this had started.

Kai picked up the bag off the desk beside him, opened it, and chucked the doll inside, eager to be rid of it and everything else in the bag.

After today, there would be no more running away.

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lotus_beyond
2010-10-27 09:27 pm UTC (link)

Renju hadn't managed to get a chance to talk to Kai as she'd hoped to since the last few trips into Paradise. He'd had trouble adjusting, as she was sure much of the team had also noticed, and she was growing increasingly concerned about the matter. She'd spoken to him briefly, but never managed to arrange an actual talk, and the culture festival had left them both too busy to do much else.

Thus she was honestly surprised that he'd approached her. They'd barely spoken, and surely anything he could discuss with her could be discussed with one of the team members he was more comfortable with. It was strange, but not strange enough to put her on her guard.

She arrived at the Butterfly Room fairly quickly, but apparently Kai had nonetheless beaten her there. "Yamada-san?"

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the_nadeshiko
2010-10-27 09:43 pm UTC (link)

Ah, punctual as always. Good ol' Sonozaki.

"Hello~" he said, standing up to greet her, his voice a little too friendly. Sometime between Kouki's house and here, he'd managed to ditch his hat and winter coat, and was now dressed in summer clothes that were completely inappropriate for the weather outside. A head scarf had replaced the hat and been pulled down similarly low over his forehead, as if to hide his red and puffy-looking eyes.

"I'm so glad you're here. I just...had some questions about Paradise, and you're not as scary as Ikeda-san, you know?"

Behind him, the bag wriggled slightly. Without looking, he moved his foot to step on it, and it stopped moving.

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lotus_beyond
2010-10-27 11:53 pm UTC (link)

A combination of things stopped Renju in her tracks: namely, the combination of "Kai", "chipper", and "Paradise". She didn't have the knack that some of the others did for reading social nuances, but one had to learn a certain amount for self-defense given the circumstances, and something about this seemed very, very wrong.

"Most would say the opposite." She stood just within the doorway, her bag close at hand. She was probably just being paranoid, but better safe than sorry, she reasoned. "What do you need?"

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the_nadeshiko
2010-10-28 12:51 am UTC (link)

"Oh, nothing serious. Coping techniques, basically."

He slid his hands into the back pockets of his shorts and leaned back, the picture of relaxation. "Like how do you deal with the knowledge that we're all going to die in Paradise eventually?" His smile is completely blithe. "And how does it feel to know that your only defense in there are a bunch of people who are even crazier than you?"

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lotus_beyond
2010-10-28 01:02 am UTC (link)

One of Renju's hands slipped into a pocket and curled around her phone. If the alarm bells in her head had been muted before, they were going at full blast now. She couldn't quite see his eyes, though, and she wasn't going to do anything till she had absolute confirmation.

Besides, maybe it was purely mundane. Maybe he was just having a bit of a breakdown without Paradise being involved at all. Maybe it really was all just paranoia.

But she doubted it.

"We aren't going to die, Yamada-san." She said it with remarkable force, the same strange conviction she'd found in Reizo's place when it had seemed all but inevitable that they would. "And though the team has its flaws," understatement of the century, "they have all come through when they've needed to."

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the_nadeshiko
2010-10-28 01:31 am UTC (link)

"Of course we're not. There was never an ambush from the angels that almost killed everyone, and a wolf never tore my throat out. With stuff like that, can you blame me for thinking we're only one misstep away?" His eyes narrowed, one hand leaving his back pocket to rest on his hip.

"Flaws." He sounded almost amused. "That's a word for it. A bunch of people who, from what I've seen so far, love nothing more than to tear apart in times of stress and think only of themselves when danger comes. That's a winning team, right there."

Kai didn't miss Renju's hand. He followed the movement with his eyes and his smile turned to a small smirk. "What's that for?"

Suddenly, he brought his hands up, smoothing his scarf off and his hair back from his face to expose his eyes - bright yellow and fixed on her. "You're not worried about me, are you? I'm just Yamada Kai. I can't hurt anyone."

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lotus_beyond
2010-10-28 02:12 am UTC (link)

There it was. Renju felt her breath catch and speed up, a burst of adrenaline in her veins that she'd never felt outside Paradise and--once, what felt like a lifetime ago--never thought she'd feel at all. Was this how Keiichi and Tom felt when they'd faced hers alone?

The temptation was there to reason with the Shadow, but it wouldn't do any good--not without Kai himself there. But was there anything she could do besides let it go and minimize risk to herself and the others? It didn't seem violent, at least, but neither had hers.

If only she'd gotten to him a little sooner... but now wasn't the time to think about that. Since the Shadow had obviously noticed, she pulled the phone out and flipped it open. She could send a text to the others, but perhaps it'd be better to wait and see how this went. There was no guarantee that she'd even get time to do it. Her kama were in her bag and not easily at hand, but...

"You'll forgive me if I'm skeptical."

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the_nadeshiko
2010-10-28 02:30 am UTC (link)

"Of course,"

Then, he grabbed the bag off of the desk and whipped it at Renju hard, not caring if she caught it or not. The bag had some heft to it, as well as something hard that protruded enough to hurt whether she caught it or it struck her. If she were to look, she'd find inside his tonfa, his cell phone, the Shiisaa doll, and even his school uniform.

"This is my formal resignation from the Exploration Team. Take these back, I don't need them anymore."

He walked past her to get to the classroom door, turning the doorknob the wrong way in order to enter Paradise. And then, to himself, he said one more thing with all the fondness in the world:

"I'm going home."

The door slammed shut behind him.

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lotus_beyond
2010-10-28 02:37 am UTC (link)

Too startled to grab it and with her hands mostly full anyway, Renju made a small, pained sound as the bag--and the unfortunately-oriented tonfa inside--knocked the wind out of her. She had just enough presence of mind to grab it before it fell to the ground, but not quite enough to effectively stop the Shadow from pushing past her.

Once she'd recovered, she looked down at it with dismay. Nothing to be done now but warn and gather the team.

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