Moving Day! Backdated to the 22nd

[bondsofsuffering]

Who: Hizumi Mizushiro, Ayumu Narumi, Hiyono Yuizaki, and Taro Watanabe. OPEN!
Where: Pisces District, around the apartments and the Narumi Detective Agency.
Summary: After working to turn it into a proper living space, the Spiral kids + a tanuki are moving into a detective agency because of lame name jokes.
Warnings: None.

It took some work, but what better way to distract yourself from certain Shadow pains than to get busy with moving? This may or may not be the reason why Hizumi abruptly called up the others and told them to get their stuff moved in if they wanted a bigger place to stay. And yes, even Hiyono was included in that list - even though he doesn't know a whole lot about her, she's Ayumu's friend from home and seems to know a few things, so why not?

Thus, various people can probably be found running between the apartments and the old Detective Agency. Even if they look busy, maybe they'll have time to stop and say hi?

Comments

[bondsofsuffering]

"Or good at making a little extra money?"

He keeps his voice low, still smiling as cheerfully as ever. It seems he'd noticed the lock picks.

[hachitaro]

"Well... yeah. There's not exactly an Underground here to fence goods though. At least, not that I've seen."

He rubs the back of his neck, a bit embarrassed.

"It's not like most people would offer a tanuki a legitimate job at home."

[bondsofsuffering]

"There's plenty of jobs at a training level here - you could always look into those if you wanted." He was more or less hired on the spot, after all. "But that's up to you."

For now at least, Hizumi busies himself with setting out the food.

[hachitaro]

"Well, yeah. I know. It's easier here. I like it here, weird monsters and stuff aside."

If Toshiko were here he could just kick up his feet and totally relax. More than usual.

[bondsofsuffering]

"You had a little experience with that before you came here though, didn't you? Since you were involved with other youkai." They're literally known as strange apparitions after all. "Even I took a while to get adjusted to this place. Devil and God stuff aside, my life didn't have anything supernatural on that level."

[hachitaro]

"True, but most of them weren't trying to kill me. Until recently. Unless I tried to ride an oni."

He grins a little bit. "Though I meant more the big monsters that show up from time to time. And the stuff that's not yokai that shows up. I had some experience, but at least I knew what I was dealing with. Not so much here."

[bondsofsuffering]

"That's still a leg up over me. Powers like this - well, I suppose they could exist in my world." Hizumi's existence alone proved that there were supernatural forces at work, so it may well exist, just outside of his knowledge. Still, he shakes his head.

"But it's not something I've ever encountered before. I wouldn't have believed it if you'd tried to tell me about this in my world. I'd write it off as fiction." Even if that power were used before his eyes, it was something he'd be more interested in testing.

[hachitaro]

"If you took a random person from my world, they'd probably say the same thing. For all you know, they could exist, and just be hiding."

Now that all the eggs are done, he shuts off the heat to the stove before staring a little bit at the pan.

"... I know Toshiko wants to stop hiding. She... she's had a really tough time. She's not the only one. But we don't really have a choice at home. People would panic. And with the gods making shady deals with people... it's just going to make us look worse."

He closes his eyes for a moment and shakes his head, before blinking and taking the pan over to the sink.

"It's better when you don't have to hide."

[bondsofsuffering]

"Well, it's not like we could be out in the open, either."

But that's more of a case of general people really not needing to know. As much as he hates Kiyotaka, he can understand the need to keep the situation as closed as possible.

"Would it even be good for your kind to come out of hiding, though? It seems like it could have a pretty big impact on the world at large, suddenly introducing all of these creatures that humans thought were the stuff of story or legend up until then."

[hachitaro]

"Yeah, that's part of the problem. A lot of people are trying to force that though. The problem is that... well. We can be killed, and humans outnumber us by a lot. In a city of say, a hundred thousand humans, you might have something like... between ten and thirty members of the Underground. The Asian branch, at least. Bigger cities have more, obviously. You get huge chunks in New York and California, for example. The problem is when people get giant egos, they tend to get... dangerous."

He shakes his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"If you try telling someone who's lived longer than a few human lifetimes they can't push people around, they don't take it well. To some, they consider themselves superior to humans, and take it as some kind of divine right to push the limits of what they can get away with. It takes... careful pushing to get them to agree with things."

At least he manages to force out a smile. "Enough of that, though. ... Except for one more thing." He reaches over to ruffle Hizumi's hair a little, as long as the other doesn't move away. "You can come to me if you need advice, you know. I may not always be the best at it, but I'll be there for you. I've been around for a while, so I've picked up a few tips. Don't feel embarrassed about it or anything. I want to help you. That's what friends do."

[bondsofsuffering]

He blinks a couple of times at the sudden hair ruffle. Usually he's the one invading personal space; he's not honestly sure he'll ever get used to it again.

Not that his expression betrays his thoughts on the matter. Smiling away, as usual.

"Yeah, I'll keep it in mind. Thanks, Taro."

Time will have to tell if he actually takes Taro up on that matter, but on the other hand, the tanuki already knows a decent amount of the story as it is. The stuff with the BlaChil isn't really relevant - Taro may well know more about the situation than some of the people who are directly involved.

Friends, though... Even as it is, Taro's a lot closer than he's allowed anyone before, even if the majority of it was unintentional. That, too, will take some getting used to.

"For now though, let's dig in!"

[hachitaro]

"Good." He pulls out some forks and hands one to Hizumi.

"You're right. Time to eat!"

Nom nom.

[bondsofsuffering]

And Hizumi will happily take that.

"Thanks for the food!"

Nom nom indeed.