[Jihatsu] Thursday, April 8th 11:20 AM Wataru stumbles barefoot through the apartment, snatching up half-empty mugs of congealed coffee as he goes. Piles them into the small stainless-steel kitchen sink with their many cousins, the result of a long and arduous week of finals. He nudges open the fridge and looks inside - two cans of Asahi, an expired container of tapioca pudding, some goopy spinach in a plastic bag, and an aging row of condiments - and thinks two things: one, that he can't believe finals are actually over, and two, that he really needs to go get some food. But food requires things like taking a shower and putting on clothes; he's had it with showers and clothes for a while, with all the things that society says are required to be a functional human. Wataru doesn't especially feel like being a functional human right now. He feels like being a lump. He's had a ridiculous couple weeks, and he feels like he's getting a cold. He could definitely do with another couple days in bed. He opens the pantry, where only his least-favourite flavour of ramen remains, and he groans. If only delivery was a thing here like it was in the States. Finally, he fishes some crackers out of the back of the shelf, sniffs them, and takes a bite - stale, but still edible. _I'll go on a grocery run tonight._ At least to the conbini downstairs. He can go back into bed afterwards. Wataru pulls open the blinds in the living room and opens the sliding door to the balcony just a crack, and then all the way, when the fresh April air surprises him with its pleasantness. He eats another cracker, scratches his head, and then decides that he might as well open up his computer and see what he's got to catch up on. He opens up the blinds and windows in his bedroom as well before settling in and turning the computer on. Laundry, he really should do laundry too... He tries to remember when he last changed his sheets. Before finals, definitely... The desktop powers on, going through the rigmarole of startup. Wataru stretches and eats three more crackers before the computer's ready to open his email program, and when it finally does, it shows him 23 unread emails. _Ugh, really?_ He sifts through them, deleting the spam, reading through the ones from school - nothing bad, thankfully - and responding to Izumi's increasingly wriggly "what are you gonna do for your birthdayyyyyyyy" ones with a quick _Finals murdered me but I rise anew from the dead, I'll call you later._ And then there are all the encrypted ones. Wataru looks out the window. Maybe he could go to the conbini now rather than later. And that laundry isn't going to do itself... He exhales. It's probably nothing; it's probably smalltalk. (It's never nothing. It's never smalltalk.) He opens the first one, from Haruko. "Wataru, Kaede, and Satoshi, and all The last of our little group has now graduated high school. Congratulations again Taki." Wataru settles in and reads. Within a few paragraphs, he's hunched over in his chair, reading intently, hand over his mouth. He reaches the end of the email, exhales. Inhales, rubs his hand across his face, and reads it again. Yamagata added "if the Council wants to know anything, she'd be happy to answer their questions." Hinako wasn't surprised by this reference to the existance of a council and said "it wouldn't be necessary" Wataru leans back, his vision blurring. Okay. Okay. Breath in, breath out. So there's that confirmed. Better knowing than being in the dark, right...? He exhales roughly and rereads the part where Haruko addresses him directly. He tries not to think about how much his hands are shaking as he whips up a quick reply. (Encrypted email) Date: Midday April 8, Japan Subject: Re: Taki's graduation and Kazuko Yamagata To: Haruko Kinsha Hi Haruko, I'm going through a backlog of emails after finishing up a rough run of finals, but I guess I could come along for moral support with this Ryuji guy if you want? Who is he? Sorry this is so brief, but I have a lot more to read up, sounds like you had a bunch of conversations after Taki's grad. See you, Wataru He presses send and pushes out another long exhale. It's like the air is collecting in his lungs, like it's scared to be released into the big wide boundless world. In. Out. Wataru moves on to the rest of the thread. The next message is from Satoshi - Wataru half-smiles. Satoshi's been keeping him updated on games, and is pretty much the only human he's been in contact with at all over the past week, if only succinctly and via text messages. But now, he reads, Satoshi is troubled. And if Satoshi is troubled.... _If there *is* a Council, I'm pretty fucking sure I know who's on it._ Wataru swallows on a sour stomach. He speeds through the rest of the replies, his brain having a spark of amusement at 'tall and orange and in the spotlight' before settling back down to the low, deep, spreading sense of dread. He pushes his chair back from the desk and runs his hands through his hair. "" he says. "" _No I didn't._ "" Wataru gets up and goes to wash his face. _Everything's going to be fine. There's a Council and Temperance is stalking Satoshi and ..._ He towels his face off, tromping to the bedroom, and throws himself back into his desk chair. "" He looks through the email thread one more time. Only then is it that he notices something that's a whole different kind of alarming. "I'm handing it off to you, Takeuchi-san, rather than suggesting Satoshi but one locally [...] I did check that all the materials are allowed to fly. But you might want to go with check baggage rather than carry on." Baggage and carry on. Bangor Reversed. Holy shit, holy _fucking crap._ Kaede is visiting Satoshi. "" Wataru grumbles to himself. _They're friends anyway, right? So what?_ But he knows exactly so what. _Because it never really occurred to me that visiting Satoshi was a real option._ Wataru sighs. "" He closes his eyes, though, heaving a few slow breaths. "" he chides himself, leaning back in his chair. Worse emails to read. _Or at least, more emails,_ he thinks, eventually opening his eyes and leaning forward again. _They won't necessarily be worse._ He opens up Katie's email with the subject line that seems to be approximately everything. . . . _The war is hard on all of us. You must continue to keep them hidden and safe at all costs. The Council will provide._ Wataru's brow ridge clips the edge of the desk and his hands reach out reflexively, jerking him out of his momentary unconsciousness. He coughs, then squints, adjusting his glasses and frowning as his fingers come back wet. _I'm bleeding,_ he remarks. He reaches up to his eyebrow and winces with pain. Wataru swallows and walks calmly to the bathroom. He groans. His glasses are bent out of shape, the right lens half out of the frame - the frame which has cut into his eyebrow, right beside the bridge of his nose, and caused the enthusiastic trickle of blood that is making its way down his face. "" Wataru croaks. "" he shouts the word and his bath products crash into the mirror, one heavy jar cracking the glass and bleeding Moroccan argan oil down the fractured surface. Wataru pants. He sinks down, and sits on the shower floor. Eventually, Wataru washes his face again, more carefully this time. He's still bleeding, but people say head wounds bleed a lot, right? It's probably fine. It's fine. It's not bleeding that much. He gathers up the jars and bottles, chucking the broken ones in the trash and lining the rest up the way they were. Scowls at the mirror, wondering how to explain to Aunt Midori. Unless he doesn't. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he doesn't need to explain anything to anyone. Bathroom spotless with a cracked mirror, Wataru heaves the heavy trashbag into the communal garbage enclosure. Sure, it's not divided into burnables and nonburnables and glass and whatever other fuckery. But who cares? It's not like he's going to be in the goddamn country when the garbage collectors come anyway. It takes him twenty minutes to pack a bag, and two hours to unpack and repack and unpack it. Wataru sits on his bedroom carpet, and he cries. The lowering sun pours buttercup-yellow light across Katie's drawing in his hands. He works his way through three pocket-sized packs of tissues, coughing and snorting. His stupid fucking stomach reminds him that he hasn't even really eaten today, or yesterday for that matter. He leans back against the sliding door of the wardrobe and moans. Miserably. Wataru goes to the kitchen and retrieves those two cans of Asahi. He wakes up on his bedrom floor with a full bladder and a massive headache. His phone tells him it's 4:14 AM. _Happy Birthday to me._ --- [Jihatsu/Ciara/Ardweden] It is now the morning of the 9th, really super early. Wataru needs food, and he needs to wash up, and he needs a bandage, and he needs to get his life in order. He will go downstairs, probably in his pyjamas with a trenchcoat over, buy like 50$ worth of conbini food, go back to his living room, and eat some of it. Then he will take a long, LONG shower. Then he will get dressed, go back downstairs, go "what the fuck why don't they have bandages," and walk to the nearest drug store. He will return home, shave, and disinfect his wound, then try to close it up with some of those little strip bandages and a regular band-aid on top. It's not a big cut - maybe half an inch, definitely less than an inch. There's also a bit of bruising around it. Maybe it'll leave a little white scar, but it should mostly blend into his eyebrow and/or frown wrinkles eventually. Next on his list is more food, followed by more sleep, but he finds he can't actually sleep. It's around the middle of the day by now, and Izumi is probably blowing up his phone. Around noon, Satoshi sends Wataru a text that says "Happy Birthday, Wataru! Guess who's going to the NCAA finals?" Wataru replies to Satoshi and Izumi. Pretty normally, really, even if there is some level of emotional disconnect there, and he's fine with meeting Izumi for dinner. He plans his story to explain the eyebrow and busted glasses. Wataru's first message to Satoshi: "Wow, congratulations!! When's the big final? And thanks for the birthday wishes." Wataru's second message to Satoshi: "Sorry I didn't text you when I finished my own finals (different kind, way less cool), they turned me into hamburger. But I'm done!" Katie also sends him a text, because she takes birthdays seriously: "happy birthday! are you having cake?" Wataru probably states at Katie's text for a long time, then goes "probably, going out to dinner with a friend tonight. We'll see! Thanks for the well wishes." Katie texts back, "ok. sounds fun." Wataru does not reply to her other text. Maybe he will later, like after dinner. If there is cake, depending on his mood, he might send her a picture of it. Satoshi replies with "Congratulations on being done! And thank you, and you're welcome, and it's Saturday evening for the final." Satoshi's probably out of contact after that text, a combination of elated and exhausted. Wataru meets up with Izumi for dinner. He also does nooooot check his email. They go to an okonomiyaki place, one of the ones where you make it at your own table, and Izumi insists on paying. Wataru's injury story is that he took a shower while exhausted and the exhaustion and heat made him feel faint, and then he jolted to keep himself from falling but THAT sent him off-balance and he slipped and bashed his head on the mirror. He's gonna be all awkward and embarrassed about it, mostly mortified that he needs to replace the mirror and insisting that he's fine. Izumi gives him That Look. That "Oh, Wataru" look. And then says "Here, this should help" and hands him his present. She got him a pair of really comfortable fuzzy socks (because Wataru never buys them himself BUT SHE KNOWS HE LOVES THEM) and a video game he was eyeing (Pokemon Emerald). Wataru *actually* sheds a couple tears at the socks and will confide in Izumi that he is just soooooooo wrecked from studying and stress that he's a total emotional hot mess. Izumi hugs him. She doesn't actually call him out on his injury story during dinner because she's too concerned about him. However... ...Izumi wakes up in the middle of the night. "Wait... Wataru was wearing his glasses in the shower...?" --- [Grysar] Haruko weighs her reply over a day or so. She rewrites her email a few times, shortening it each time, keenly remembering how Wataru has previously responded to oversharing. References to Ryuji being an exception to Male Arcana Syndrome, alongside Satoshi, are one of the first casualties. (Encrypted email) Date: Evening April 9, Japan Subject: Re: Taki's graduation and Kazuko Yamagata To: Wataru Yamada Hey Wataru, Ryuji is the Ace of Swords, had been a fellow student at Sakuragaoka, He's quite skilled at kendo and does his best to live up to the wider standards of that martial art. He'd been in a group with Saki Morikawa and Eriko Miyashita. We've probably mentioned Saki-san before, she'd heroically gone to the other side to close a portal and losing her definitely weighed on Eriko and Ryuji. Eriko-san doesn't actually have powers, but does know about us and holds her own. Ryuji-san's powers seem directed towards his skill with the katakana, but I couldn't really explain further. He was a bit standoffish in our last email exchange, but was willing to meet. So, I do have a habit of falling hard for some aspect of samurai-types like him. He holds himself to high standards, is a breathtakingly hot bishonen, and once helped save Eriko and myself when we were kidnapped. That said, kendo isn't as big of sport in America as hockey or baseball, so hopefully there's no fan intimidation factor there. I could say more here, but I'm still a bit blinkered about him and I fear I've already gotten into too much information territory here already. So instead, let me try to channel my inner Katie to give you a balanced view. This is grounded in some things she's said, but I wasn't taking notes and I don't think I'd want to quote her directly anyways without permission. Please imagine the following passage with about a 50% increase in pith and insight. Katie-in-Haruko's-head: "Ryuji has high standards, but he is able to meet them by often staying passive or reactive. He does help balance out Saki and Eriko (note that Katie-in-my-head has a lot to say about Eriko), but more than half the time Saki would go off on her own without much regard to his rules. That's not really a problem, she did a lot of good, but it makes some of his standards ring hollow. There were a lot of reasons that Haruko and Ryuji didn't work out, and I tease her for how hard she fell for a bland pretty boy (note-that Katie-in-my-head has a lot to say about Haruko). However, Ryuji did not really work through his emotions and avoids interpersonal conflict. There was some torch carrying on his part, but even laying that aside, for a relationship to work you have to be willing to face challenges together, including disagreements." Anyhow, Katie, Kyon, and I have a meeting with Aka Uehara coming up. We can follow up on this afterwards. If you don't want to get involved in my drama, I understand. Haruko --- [Ciara/Jihatsu] Wataru gets a text from Satoshi around noon on the 11th, saying: "We lost. 1- 0." Then another. "Talk more later." Wataru replies to Satoshi's texts as soon as he sees them, with: "Oh Satoshi, I'm so sorry. It's incredible how far you guys made it though, the victories you had so far are something no one will ever be able to take from you." And then, "Let's talk soon. Hugs." Satoshi's text reply comes in on the morning of the 12th, right as Wataru's about to have his morning coffee. It says: "Thanks. Not the outcome I was hoping for, but yeah, it was still pretty amazing just to make it. Kaede got footage and should be uploading it and sending you guys the link soon." This is followed by: "And I'm feeling better now. If you want to video chat this weekend, I'll be available." --- [Jihatsu] On the morning of April 12th, pretty much as Satoshi's texts come in, Wataru sends the following e-mail (encrypted and in English) to Katie: "So, it looks like a hell of a lot happened while I was in finals. Caught up on emails and I've got to say it hit me pretty hard. If you felt like coming over sometime, I would really appreciate comparing notes and stuff to make sure I understand what's going on. We could also talk about where we go from here. I think if we're organized and on the same page we have better odds of working through this, right? I want to talk to everybody too, but if you don't mind just meeting with me first I have to say I would feel more comfortable. Anyway, let me know." --- [Ardweden] E-mail to Wataru is as follows, and happens the evening of the 12th: "Yeah a lot happened. Did you do well on finals? I did okay on mine, but yeah things are distracting. We met with Aka Uehara today & scared him which was probably the most fun part of the whole thing. Also I think Haruko ran up a huge bill under his name which is ACTUALLY the most fun part of the whole thing. She can be pretty great. (Don't tell her I said so.) Anyway found out some good stuff. Will send out an email about it to everyone later. "I'd like to meet up sure. Your place okay or do you want to do mine or somewhere else? And when's good for you? Let me know. "I hope your birthday was good after all. :) "Katie" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru's reply: "I am glad Aka is both scared and broke. Little bit of justice. Good job. Is coming to my place okay? I will provide cheesecake and coffee if you like coffee. It's my mom who taught me that hard conversations are easier with something delicious to share." --- [Ardweden] Ten minutes later: "I love cheesecake be right over! "Just kidding. That sounds good though! Do you want me to bring anything? I'm the worst cook ever but I have jars of peanut butter." [And so, they plan a time to get together! Thread End!]