soul_campaign | [ 03: February 13th

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[ 03: February 13th | Video ]

[The feed switches on to Kanji sitting in a chair facing backward, though the frame only catches the bottom half of his face as he pulled his arm back. He was never good at filming...]

...Yo. Had a lotta shit to do lately, so this entry's kinda late.

[And that was when an odd jingling started from somewhere behind him. The teen ignored it, taking a fist and slapping it against an open palm.]

I partnered up with Tifa! We're livin' in Death City Heights, Building 6, so don't bother lookin' in Murder Manor or Creeping Crypts.

[A lopsided grin.] Heheh... Witches're seriously screwed now!

[And with that, he cuts off the feed to the public, opens up a private message and hesitates, heart pounding. He could do this. He could do this...!]

[Private: Naoto]

[He'd turned his head away before the private feed started, arms tightly folded as clammy hands were balled into fists.]

Y-... y-y'free tomorrow!?

[Did his voice crack? Of course it did.]

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[She sits a little away from him, not pushing it but quietly smiling over how flustered (and cute) he is.]

It is. It's nice to have good news to talk about for a change.

...Shit, ain't that the truth. [He shook his head in disbelief. After two funerals and everything that's happened in just the first week of February, it was nice to have something good going for him for a change.]

[He idly rubbed a cheek.]

Then we gotta roll out to Egypt on Monday.

[He turned to her, still a little pink, but he didn't care at this point.]

After the invasion, I figured out that I was only keepin' the resonance solid. Basic's fine if you're with a Weapon or Meister you ain't been with before, but... we're partners.

I wanna try pushin' it further, see where we're at before we head out. [A firm nod.]

[Tifa raised her eyebrows but returned the nod, smiling faintly. They were to take on harder tasks and missions now, after all.]

We've got to keep stepping up our game, yeah. I think we can get some of the resonance attacks down if we keep training.

[She tilted her head, tone softening.]

There's nothing wrong with taking a day off though.

[It was strange, hearing that. Ever since he'd arrived in Death City, Kanji's mind was set on catching up to the others, doing everything he could. ...But had he ever just sat down, taken a day off that didn't involve some tragedy or some injury? Now that he thought about it, no. No, he didn't.]

...You got a point.

[He pocketed the communicator. If things went well, he'd have that day off tomorrow.]

Got somethin' you're doin' tomorrow?

[She shrugged a little, leaning back more in her chair with a soft smile.]

No, just like any other day. It's kind of a big deal in the world that you come from, right?

[Casually, as casually as she could...]

What about you?

Uh... s-sort of? In Japan, you got girls givin' chocolate to guys tomorrow. There's giri, somethin' you give to friends n' co-workers, that's kinda 'just because' or 'as friends'... but then you got honmei, who you give to someone you're interested in.

[He tried not to look at the little blue box on the counter. He'd been cooking up a whole lot today, but seemed to have been fretting most about the box's contents. With Tifa's question, the pink to his face turned to red.]

...M-maybe. I-I sent a message to try n' see if they're free tomorrow.

[Ugh, he felt queasy.]

[She raised her eyebrows in a pleased way, wondering exactly how much he felt comfortable telling her. They'd gotten pretty close, sure, but Kanji was still pretty tight-lipped about stuff like this.]

Ahh... I hope you get the response you want then.

[He nodded, a little hopeful. He didn't think he'd even go so far as to ask for her availability, and he hoped he could follow through should he get a reply.]

Thanks, Tifa.

[And his stomach was doing too many somersaults to really continue with the subject.]

's it my turn to make dinner tonight? I forget.

[An expert dodge!]

Oh, I think so.

[She got to her feet now, sensing that he'd reached the limits on how much he could talk about a subject like this.]

But I can help if you want. I'm not really doing anything, if you had more stuff you needed to finish.

[She was well aware how hard he'd been working on all his gifts but had no idea how close he was to being done.]

[He got up as well, and went to peek under the sheet he usually had thrown over his worktable and sewing machine. Now that she mentioned it, he'd been working himself up to send that private message so much that he may have forgotten to put some finishing touches on things.]

[He'd learned to work quickly, finish projects during what downtime he had after work, his new social life (imagine that), and training in the morning. There were a few adjustments he needed to make, a few last-minute add-ons he could knock out for one or two of the dolls, though. Kanji scratched the back of his head. Nah... that stuff could wait.]

Nah, I'll finish later. Ever had kitsune udon?

[She shook her head, looking over at him as she made her way to the kitchen.]

Udon, yes, but not kitsune. What makes it different?

[Standing by the kitchen entrance, she waited for him, intending to hang around and learn how it was made, keep him company while he cooked. It surprised her how easily they'd fallen into this--well, domestic lifestyle together. She'd lived with enough guys to be used to what she considered 'guy-habits,' which probably helped, but overall she considered the beginnings of their partnership to be going quite well.]

Y'got aburaage on top. Foxes like fried tofu or somethin'...

[And raccoon-dogs liked tempura, apparently. He scratched his head at that, but stuck his upper body in the open fridge as he grabbed this and that to start dinner prep before setting them on the counter. Sometimes you just wanted noodles, man. And tofu. All The Tofu. Hmm, maybe they should poach an egg in each bowl, too.]

Gonna get the soup started. You take care'a the tofu, a'right?

[The recipe was an easy one, one he learned a few years back, but if she were to fry the tofu, that would shave a good ten minutes or so off the prep time.]

Yeah, no problem.

[It had been a pleasant surprise to find out how well they worked together in the kitchen. Tifa had always been the lone cook, the one making all the meals at 7th Heaven so help was extremely welcome.]

I've never heard of foxes liking something like tofu though... is that a legend?

[He went to grab the pot and rolled up his sleeves before he measured out the dashi, mirin, and sugar, back turned to her.]

Legends, storybooks... personal experience. There's this shrine next to home that's got this fox n' her babies livin' around it. Y'know, like that painting I got on the wall?

I leave 'em food sometimes, but this one time I had some leftover fried tofu, I put it out and the kits were kinda dukin' it out over it. Ended up runnin' home to make more before they killed each other.

[Ugh... it made him kind of homesick, but didn't let that through as he poured the ingredients into the pot and moved to put it on the stove and set it to boil. Iza decided that because both of Her People were home now, one of them was bound to give her an extra treat from the cupboard. For now, she only watched, idly licking a paw.]

[Tifa's attention was drawn to Iza as the cat felt it time to greet them, smiling affectionately her 'adopted' cat. It was nice hearing stories from Kanji's past too--a lot of it sounded so normal to her.]

I never would have thought of that as something they would like... but then again, most of the animals from my world would have probably ate anything. [Or at least, the ones in Section 7, where everyone was starving.]

[To be fair, Kanji's life back home was - all things considered - rather normal compared to most. When you factor in the murders, the world inside the television, and Personae... well, you start delving into territories just as fantastical as the rest.]

What kinda animals?

[Come to think of it, he didn't know too much of her world, and couldn't discern much from her appearance. He knew people from the distant past, the distant future, and one or two who'd actually seen a dragon up close... well, other than the dragon that was living in Death City.]

[He stirred the contents of the pot and went to find the udon noodles in the upper cupboard.]

Well, there's a lot of animals that are here, like cats and dogs, of course. But there's some that people here seem to have never heard of, like the chocobo.

[Glancing over at him, she felt an explanation was in order since he'd probably never heard of them either.]

They're birds, but they're big enough to ride on. People use them for a lot of things like transport and even races, but most live in the wild.

[She considers] And there's lots of creatures that are more monster-like, that attack people.

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[ 03: February 13th | Video ]

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[action] And more of that foreshadowing again, augh. XD

[action] They gotta quit doing that!!

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