Description: Within a Shadaloo HQ in Thailand, Yurika had a surprise visit from the Psycho-ized Kazama and doesn't take it very well. Kurow finds about this and quickly moves to make sure his hold on the musician is still in place.
Obviously it's been a pretty rough evening for Yurika, but at least her brief violent stint is over. Having woken up in the middle of the day, the musician was slightly worried that Akira hadn't come back, but.. She was probably called back to HQ anyway so it couldn't be helped.
She hadn't left the room, herself, or even left her bed. Her greatest worry was what she was going to do when Kurow returned. Should she pretend she didn't know what happened? If she doesn't pretend what should she do? Though the more she pondered it, the more she realized praying to the porceline gods seemed like a good idea, so she sits up ready to head to the restroom and notices in the mirror across the room she looks absolutly terrible.
.. Kurow would be furious seeing her in this state, so the answer to her is clear: Pretend nothing is wrong. face flushed and feeling hot, she cranks up the air conditioner a bit and fumbles for her brush to quickly redo her hair.
Word doesn't take long to get around. After all -- in a less affluent country, you can find out everything that's been going on with a person in a given locale by dropping a little money in the right waiters' pockets, and Kurow is nothing if not a little paranoid. Originally, he'd intended to just stop in, make sure nothing was falling apart too badly, and go back to his business.
Now, of course, things have changed, and he has to stop in for a far longer period. There is a hard, forceful knock on the door of the hotel room door, twice. "Yurika, are you in?" Kurow asks; his tone, in spite of the situation, is level. After all, he only knows someone who might have been Akira was /here/. He doesn't know what went on.
It's not so much the knock as the voice behind it that causes Yurika to suddenly drop her brush with a light gasp, her dark eyes looking around quickly. She doesn't have long to think or talk, but the first thing she notices is the wall-lamp structure which she quickly kicks under the bed, "O- One moment! I'm half-dressed!"
She quickly regrabs her brush, her little make-up box, and makes a scramble to the bathroom near the entrance door, and twists the nob to let it open just slightly. She is a quick little thing for sure, a quick pirouette lets her slip into the bathroom then where she closes it to the point where it's left open to just a crack. "O- Ok, it's fine now." she calls out, taking her eyedrop container and places in a few drops.
Kurow nods to himself, before opening up the door and slipping into the room. He looks around for a moment, surveying the room -- nothing too out of place, he notices, though something definitely feels as though it's missing. "I heard that Akira came here last night," Kurow says, sitting on the bed and waiting for Yurika to leave the bathroom. "I was hoping to tell you before you saw her. Shadaloo abducted her -- she was thrown into the Psycho Drive. It didn't take, however, so I had to -- correct her."
At least he gets straight to the point.
There's silence of course. If one could see her face it'd definatly be a very uncomfortable pause, the bottle squeezed until all it's contents spill on the floor. Luckily it wasn't over her eyes, she was quite finished at that point. But eventually she does speak,
"Yes it's true, I wasn't certain why. She was acting a little strange, now I see why.." another pause. Really what more should she even add to that? She continues to brush her hair then, ocassionally fanning herself- She knows she turned up the air conditioner, so she's a little puzzled to why she felt so hot. ".. I wasn't expecting that to happen."
"I wasn't either, but sometimes I have a nice present or two dumped into my lap by Lord Vega," Kurow says, with a smirk; now that she's here with him, at least nominally tied to the war, she can know a little more. "Sakura's here too, you know. She's exactly the same... no, that's not true." After a small 'hmm' sounds in his throat, he continues. "I know you wanted something else for her -- but now that's an impossibility. When Vega found her, she was going to fall -somewhere-. Just be grateful that she's subject as much to my delicate touch as Vega's ham-handed manipulations."
A nice present. Of course, it's not suprise to Yurika that Kurow would be ecstatic to be placed in a position to have Akira or Sakura under her wing.
Sakura? She could truely care less about, even if it is suprising news that it's true. The musician stares at her reflection, and notices that it's getting increasingly blurry.
Tears are trickling down her cheeks and she slumps forward, pressing her hands against the sink.
She wants to plead, beg for Kurow to help her, somehow get her home, but she can't do that. That alone is enough to make her want to scream. Instead she just takes a minute to relax and settle down. "I suppose.. It's better she's on our side than against, you're right. It's funny.. When you try to help someone and only hurt them more as a result. Having friends really is foolish, isn't it.."
While Kurow isn't exactly the most genuinely emotionally attuned person (though he can certainly fake it), even he can tell when Yurika is hurting. He moves to look into the bathroom through that crack for the briefest of moments, feeling the risk (horrible un-unseeable things, if only for a fraction of a second) is worth the benefit (knowing Yurika's emotional state). Needless to say, his suspicions are confirmed.
"You invested yourself in her," he says. "You gave her control over your emotions and now you're paying for it. You never /do/ learn, do you?" The youth's tone is harsher now.
Well it's true, harsh as his words are it doesn't make it any less true. She doesn't sense that Kurow is any closer to her when he peeks in the doorway, she brushing her eyes with the back of her hands and slowly shakes her head, "N- No, I just had.. I had something different planned, I was very precise, very careful, I had a wonderful idea." Which.. Was the half-truth at least.
"Things just turned out differently, that's all. I'm uncertain she trusts me anymore." Or.. Something. She opens up her kit, brushing blush onto her cheeks. She's not one to normally wear a lot of make-up, but this was a pretty special situation. "Well what is our plan at this point? What are we going to do?"
Kurow stays not too far from the bathroom door, listening to the wavering in Yurika's voice. She's lying -- he knows /that/ much, that isn't even a question at this point. She cared about Akira and she got burned for it. 'Oh well,' he'd try to shove into her had, if he could force it without being obvious, 'that's life.'
"We're going to make sure that she stays safe, since you seem so obsessed with it -- and that means we're going to fight here," he says, nodding. He can hear Yurika fiddling with her makeup, a gesture that he can't quite figure out; if he thought about it, it'd be obvious that she was trying to put on some sort of social 'armor,' but he doesn't think that far. "We're going to have to keep all those would-be 'saviors' from getting too far into the country."
"..." Yurika glances to the doorway for a moment, not because she suspects Kurow is there, but she's slightly puzzled by what she's heard. She had forgotten she'd secretly accused Kurow of pledging allegiance to Vega, and it wasn't until now she'd realized just how foolish thinking such a thing was either.
Regardless, the bathroom door does open and she steps out looking relativly normal, but the red hasn't left her face. Her dark eyes wide in mild suprise, "O- Of course, I should have known, I suppose I got distracted with other thoughts.." And so the prissy girl walks by then, a slight stagger in her steps as she makes her way to her bed, and reaches under it to take out her violin case, "And you misunderstand, I.. Just don't like to hurt her. That's all. Are we going to head to headquarters then? Or one of the camps? I.. Haven't been following up on the news."
"How has she been hurt?" Kurow asks, narrowing his eyes at Yurika; the question of 'where do we go from here' is all but completely ignored. "She's obedient. There's no chance of her /being/ hurt -- well, physically, there's always a chance to be hurt, but thanks to the Psycho Drive, she may very well have all the capacity for /emotional/ damage of a toaster." He has no idea just how hurtful saying this might be -- after all, to him, this is a positive thing if what Yurika's worried about is Akira getting hurt.
Yurika stands up straight and stares at her younger brother, case held tightly in hand. She shouldn't be shocked, she really shouldn't be, but she is. But she can't fathom that her brother is some sort of monster, because she believes he isn't.
Again she finds herself completely lost, she swallowing hard. What the hell is a psycho drive? Is he lying to her, she saw Akira try to make her feel better! The musician grits her teeth tightly, she trying desperatly to fight back her tears. She's stronger than this, after all.
Yurika drops her violin case onto the floor, almost carelessly, and she sits down on the bed, staring out at nothing.
That was a rare sight, indeed -- seeing Yurika drop her violin case is a sign something is definitely wrong. He doesn't know, though -- /can't/ know, the way he looks at things -- that he's the cause of it in more than a cursory sense. Sitting down next to her, Kurow says, "... you find this troubling?" he asks, gently, moving close. "You loved her, didn't you. Like family -- the way you love me."
The younger Kirishima puts a hand around her shoulder, carefully. See? He's totally not a monster!!
Yurika lowers her head, there are just so many thoughts spinning in her head, and way too many emotions twirling around in her gut. Too many doubts and uncertainties, so when Kurow comes to join her to sit, and makes a comforting motion, Yurika doesn't raise her head.
Is it some sort of trap? Is he setting her up to scold her again? Yurika honestly has no idea how to respond, to tell the truth or lie, and her gloveless hands tighten into fists as her shoulders buckle lightly, ".. Kurow," she gasps weakly, and turns into her younger brother- If she's allowed, she's press her face into his chest, and go into a fit of uncontrollable sobbing. But even as she does so, she'd grip his shirt tightly as she utters what seems to be apologizing and, "I'm not weak!"
This is almost a surprise, though one which Kurow lets happen, keeping his arm around her as she leans into him and starts to cry. He tries ot trace her thoughts back, tries to understand what motivates her -- it's easier when people have been... suppressed. They're more candid -- they can't hide things.
"You have the potential to be very strong," Kurow says to her, gently. "But you don't... /understand/, yet, what that means. You can't let anyone else take hold of your emotions, and you can't just -- expect things to go well. If you wanted her safety so desperately, you should've stayed with her. Kept a silent vigil over her, with or without her knowing. Intervened when they came for her." Unreasonable? Yes. Valid in Kurow's mind? Definitely.
.. Ouch. Wow, at least Kurow is trying to be helpful but geez. But she's pretty much at an emotional point where she can't hurt much more, she's already blamed herself- Having thought being away from her at this time would help protect Akira. So Kurow just has to put up with her crying for a moment longer.
In which she realizes that her younger brother is suprisingly warm. And while his embrace feels so empty, it makes her feel.. Better. Even his words weren't as harsh as they could have been, all in all, she thinks she shouldn't be so miserable at this point. What's done has been done, and all that's left is to try to protect her best friend. Kurow may notice though, that Yurika feels much much warmer than he does, ".. I know. I'm sorry. I've embarassed myself again. Th- Thank you, Kurow."
Yurika is most assuredly not someone Kurow can successfully relate to. She just doesn't make sense in his worldview -- maybe she did once, before Mugen, before everything, but now they're on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. Fortunately, Kurow is at least reasonably patient with his older sister.
"I forgive you. This is how you'll learn," he says. "You're only now ready for the lessons I learned years ago. If you survive this, you'll be able to handle it better next time. Perhaps someday we'll finally have the same understanding of things." Isn't that just a /lovely/, /warming/ thought?
The musician gives a small nod of her head and her hand slips away slowly from her brother. But moments after he mentioned that's how she'll learn, Kurow's words become garbled. She thinks she has a good idea of what she said but now she's just too emotionally exhausted. But the important thing is she's uncertain she wants Kurows mode of thought, even if he doesn't ever seem to hurt.
Why she thought that she has no idea, but as she slips from Kurow, leaving a thin film of sweat on his chest and she drags her feet over to the other bed. "I.. Need to.. Lay down for.. a bit." and she collapses onto the bed once more. She'll be there for a while!
As Yurika collapses, Kurow slips away and looks down at her. "... you'll accept it, in time," he says, as he starts to leave the room. He, of curse, is sure that she'll want to share his orientation -- after all, it means nearly perfect emotional immunity, at least to /hurt/. Frustration, anger -- those are different things entirely, of course.
Log created on 19:27:07 06/12/2007 by Yurika, and last modified on 03:09:02 02/09/2009.