ITP: Chariots of Fire

[fracta_anima]

Who: Minami, Open
Where: Virgo Ward
Summary: Minami has come to Hinoto-Ri and meets people both old and new.
Warnings: Minami and friends making fools of themselves.


[So there's a young lady in the Virgo Ward who looks a bit lonely, a bit nervous, and obviously trying very hard to look brave. People who know Minako might notice this girl's striking resemblance to her. Though, if one looked closely enough, they might notice she still seems to have some baby fat on her, her face is a bit rounder, and her hair a different shade of red. She's also taken to wearing her hair pins to form XIII rather than XXII. If anyone asks she claims it's due to losing a couple hairpins and not bothering to buy more.

Being in this place is no sweat. She's been to new places practically all her life and Igor had told her she had a new Journey to partake in. Maybe this was it? The big journey she's supposed to partake in now that her brother had taken her place as the Seal? Maybe, just maybe, this is how she can pay him back?

....but did it really have to be by herself?

With that thought in mind, the girl turns a corner onto a street specializing in food vendors. Her stomach growls (loudly) and she tries not to look too embarrassed by it. That's right, she hasn't eaten for a few hours. Not since her brother had....

It's at this time a very familiar face near a fruit stand spots her. Conveniently at the same time the girl spots said face.]

Minami?!

Miki?!

[>Cue Music

The pair run at each other, both a pair of giggly high school girls incredibly happy to see each other in such a strange new place. Both even jump once they're close enough to reach other, intent on tackling each other in a bear hug.

Too bad they wind up headbutting with a loud "THUNK" and a pair of girly shrieks instead. Both wind up on the ground clutching their craniums.]

[OOC: So, yeah, both Miki and Minami will be replying to threads after making idiots out of themselves. Expect threadjacking and don't be afraid to threadjack yourselves!]

Comments

[themortalhalf]

[Virgo is one of the districts Shinjiro isn't entirely familiar with yet. He doesn't have any clear destination in mind this time around. Wandering about the ward, checking out the food markets, trying to get an idea of what place sold the best produce and where.

Eventually, however, he'll round a corner, cutting through a busier part of the ward with every intention to vacate it as soon as possible, and spot Miki just a few feet away, accompanied by a shock of red hair he at first assumes is Minako's, though as he draws closer, begins to revise his assumptions. Because even though it's her it's not. Something was.... off.

What?]

[fracta_anima]

[Minami is still rubbing the ache from her forehead when Shinjiro draws close and she happens to look up at just the right time to get a good look at him. Her heart drops to the pit of her stomach and her eyes go wide. Just like when she first met him, there's a bit of a flutter in her stomach and a warm feeling spreading through her bloodstream. This is shortly followed by her stomach feeling like the butterflies had been shot and then molten lead was dropped into it when she remembered the night he was shot, how hard she'd cried right after and then tried to be strong for Miki afterward.

The crush hadn't gone anywhere. Minami hadn't feel ready to date at the time and had always felt it unfair to be in that kind of relationship with the person one of her best friends considered a brother. What did Junpei call it? 'Bros before hos'? So it'd be more 'Sis before dudes' despite Miki constantly trying to encourage it. No, Minami had been perfectly fine getting chances to spend time with him and be his friend despite her feelings. And then.... he died. And now he was standing in front of her. How....?]

I think I hit my head harder than I thought.

[She turns away from him, tries to compose herself, to will herself to believe she's hallucinating. But he'd been too solid. Too real in a way she can't deny.

When she turns back to him, she waves, her smile a bit too wide and her tone just a little too chirpy and high pitched to be her natural voice.]

Hi, Senpai! Long time, no see!

[themortalhalf]

[No, not her.

But almost like her. Enough. Just similar enough to Minako for him to pick her figure out of a crowd of people, so easy it just might be automatic. Enough that had Minako not been here herself, seeing her almost doppelganger here would hurt. Her hair's a bit different, and her face. Her voice. Even how she's acting. He's smart enough to put two and two together. He could be wrong, but given how complicated this place is turning out to be, he doubts it.

There's not much distance between them anymore, and he stops, staring down at her. He thinks he can see past her false cheeriness, even if he doesn't know her—and that's what makes it hard. He wishes he could say "Yeah, it's been awhile," even though it's probably better for the both of them that he doesn't. He'd only just hurt her more than he probably all ready has. He can't be the Shinjiro this girl obviously remembers. He's probably dead in her eyes, if she's who he thinks she is.

Miki's certainly said enough about her.

He doesn't know how to go about this either. Tch.

Just another dead man walking in a place that's neither hell nor paradise.]

You're... Minami then.

[fracta_anima]

[And that's all it took to prove to her he's not the one she knows. Just hearing him say that, his voice shattering any smattering of an illusion as it washed over her and she felt her heart clench all over again. Not him. Not the guy she'd wanted to get close to, but so much like him it almost hurt to look at the one standing before her.]

Uh, yeah. I take it Miki's mentioned me?

[A link. A common link of some kind to talk about because what else can she say? Minami doesn't know. She just wants to knock him up the head and scream at him why why WHY did he go after that kid from Strega? Why did he go knowing he could be killed and hurt so many people in the process? Why?

Instead she just plays with the cord of her MP3 Player, a nervous tic she's had for as long as she's worn headphones to drown out the world.]

[themortalhalf]

[And there it was. Like watching glass crack into thin, jagged lines. She caught on fast. But it was better this way, because as much as the truth hurt, lies were crueler, and made wounds that were slow to as hell to heal and prone to fester. It would have been wrong for him to allow her to believe that he was the same Shinjiro she remembered, even for a happy moment or two. He couldn't allow that illusion to stay.

He can never hope to replace the person she has in her memories, and doesn't intend to try, but he still is a Shinjiro. He can guess what his other self might have thought, how he might have acted, because they were fundamentally the same at the core. They had to be, or else Miki wouldn't act the way she did. Now he has to figure out what he should do. Puzzle out what this girl had meant to the other him. Wonder how much like Minako this girl was, and wonder how his and Minami's relationship had played out if things were still eerily similar. Perhaps not as far. Which, if so, was for the better. Minami had lived—and has her whole life ahead of her. The sooner she let go of him, the sooner she could live her life properly. For her sake, he hopes all he ever was to her was a good acquaintance. A distant friend at most.

He nods.]

Yeah. She's said a few things.

How much has she explained to you? Anything?

[fracta_anima]

[She would've liked for them to be distant friends. She really would have. It probably would've made it less painful. Definitely didn't help with how much Miki encouraged it and then Minami had mourned by comforting her friend afterward.

She ticks off on her fingers a list of the things covered by Miki during their earlier conversation:]

Alternate worlds, the best places to eat around here, there's other versions of my brother and me here, and basically I got the full rundown from her. She, um, warned me some people I knew would be around, but it didn't really hit me until now.

[Her voice had gone briefly flat at the end, but she forces herself to perk up again:] I hope she said good things about me!

[themortalhalf]

[So most of it. Good. It's better that she hears most of it from Miki, a friend who does remember her, and can be there for her in all the ways he never can. He's just a shadow, after all. Not the real thing. Not to her. He can be that to Miki, maybe, but those ties are different, he guesses.

He nods.]

Mostly good things. [It's as close as he can get injecting a shot of levity into his voice, to try and lighten the mood they're both trying to keep level, though it seems they're both walking on a path of eggshells easily broken. He tries, but his expression sobers again. He's never been good at this, but feels the need to try. He doesn't know her, but he is grateful for her existence. Miki had always needed a friend, and he's glad she's found one—one can that can keep an eye on her now that he's gone.] But that's enough, yeah?

[fracta_anima]

[Very different. To Miki he was family, something Minami would never want to get in the way of. And while this Shinjiro isn't the one she knew she had no doubt he and Miki were doing a lot of catching up.

So just like at home 'Sis before hos'. She'd get over it. Minami had gotten over a lot of things before, though his attempt at lightening the mode made her lips quirk a bit. His sense of humor always did suck.]

Yeah, it's enough. Probably better than how she'd go on and on about our Shinjiro before he joined SEES.

[Seriously, you could hear her through the walls when she'd complain to Mitsuru about what a 'dunderhead' he was after her attempts to get him to rejoin.]

Do you want to get some lunch or are you busy?

[For once, she kind of hopes he's busy. If for no other reason than so she could have some more time to process the fact he's here.]