[Day: Sunday, June 5th. Time: 10:15 p.m.] [At 10:00, MC had bravely rushed to a bar downtown, Amigo's! Except for Makoto. His car stalled. 15 minutes later, though, he gets it working again!] ( Heck yeah! ) (How hard did you have to hit it? ;p) [Makoto is on his way when he spots Chie walking down the sidewalk.] [Mini Start] * Chie shuffles along the sidewalk, head down, hands in her pockets. * Makoto slows his car and pulls over beside Chie. He rolls down the passenger side window and calls out to her. "Hey, Chie!" * Chie looks up, startled. She tenses up for a second, then realizes who just called her name. Makoto? * Makoto nods cheerfully, and reaches over to open the passenger door. "Hop in! I'll take you wherever you're headed." * Chie gets in and shuts the door behind her. "Where's your usual partner in crime and the rest of the Mystery Club caravan?" My car's been acting up on me lately. It stalled out when they went to this place called Amigo's. Archer-boy went with them. That where you're goin'? * Makoto starts driving, but not very fast and in no particular direction. "Well, that was my plan, yes. But something's gone wrong with the car's computer, which is why it didn't start right away, and now it won't give me directions to Amigo's." He taps a little black screen in front of the stick shift, which shows the message 'Radio Off Navi System Down Need Service' (You have a computerized navigation, but you're driving a stick shift? ;p) * Chie sighs and settles back in her seat. "Well... I'm glad you found me. Been having an absolutely shitty day." ( Preference! ^_^_v ) * Makoto wrinkles his nose and changes course to a place he knows well enough, though he doesn't announce it. "Well, you sound pretty bummed. What happened?" Ran into Rei's brother. He tried to kill me. Yeech. I'm glad he failed. He should've. He almost did. Nea pulled off a miracle to save me... and my sword got broken in the process. * Chie fishes the hilt out of her bag and holds it up. Still, better a broken sword and still being alive than the alternative. * Makoto glances over at it, and then takes a gentle turn up a hillside road lined with houses. "Yeah, really. I guess it's too much to hope that that sword of his broke as well?" Nope. And he portaled away before I could try anything. But what really gets me is *why* he said he had to kill me. Why's that? He said I've got some sort of powers. Something that will... "make things difficult for Mr. E," I think he put it. Said that if I found out the truth about myself, it'd ruin Mr. E's precious plans. Wow. Well, it's probably some amazing spirirtual power that you either inherited or picked up or got by chance. Nobody who goes out of his way to mess with demons would be bothered by anything less. * Chie looks down. "I don't know what it is. Not a goddamned clue." A bunch of wackos are trying to kill me over something I don't even know about. ( It's just like Arcana! ) ( Welcome to our life.) (Get out of my head, Brett. ;p) * Makoto steers his car into a sort of driveway with a security arm. He rolls down his window, and punches the button on a little ticket station. Makoto take the ticket and rolls up the window as the security arm raises. "If it makes you feel any better, I kinda know how you feel." Mmm. I just wish I knew what kind of miraculous powers I supposedly have, so I could actually use them. ( The miracle of Kirby attraction! Chie is suddenly burried under a pile of Kirby plushies! ) ( I can live with this. *digs her way out*) * Makoto continues up the driveway into a little urban hillside park. The sparkling city skyline is occasionally visible through the trees. "I wonder where we'd have to go to find out? You don't happen to know anybody who's good at plumbing the depths of the human soul, do you?" * Chie shrugs. "I could call Eoi-sensei, ask him if he ever noticed anything while I was training with him. Of course, I'd really *hope* that if there had been something, he would've told me. Well, it's worth a try. I'll try and do it tomorrow. In between getting a new sword. And a cell phone. I don't want to get caught by myself with no way of contacting anybody again. Not that anyone would've been able to get there in time tonight, but it'd be good to have a way to call for backup if things looked suspicious. Yay. Being dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age. * Chie half-grins. * Makoto drives slowly along the winding road in the nocturnal park, glad for the darkness that will hopefully hide most ravens. The doppelganger chuckles. "There's nothing wrong with the modern age, Chie. It's very comfortable." I dunno. Sometimes I still think I was born at the wrong time. * Makoto glances over at his passenger. "Really? Why?" ( 'Cause nobody likes games set in the future ;_; ) * Chie shrugs. "You can study stuff like the history of rock and roll all you want, but it can't compare to actually being there." I've never been much for electronic stuff. I like working with my hands. ( You woulda hated rock and roll, then. They used Electric Guitars. ) Hrmm. Well, I guess that makes sense. Most of the stuff I'm really into would fit in just about any era, but I figure that's partly because of what I am. Technology can't catch up with some of the stuff that's been around forever. Especially the stuff we've been dealing with. (She makes exceptions. ^_~) Sometimes you just can't beat the classics. And I'm surprised at you, Makoto. Gave you the perfect opening with that "working with my hands comment," and you didn't take it. * Chie grins. Maybe I've underestimated you. * Chie winks at him. (err, move the quote) * Makoto grins cheekily at Chie. "I have to admit I thought about it, but then I realized it might be a bad idea to piss you off when there's nobody around to stop you kicking my ass." A-ha! Very good idea. Because kick your ass, I would. * Makoto keeps grinning and pulls up to a fence at the top of a steep slope. All of downtown is visible through the passenger side window. "I don't doubt it. My parents would probably be very disappointed to hear me say something like that, but it's true." He parks, and cuts the engine before opening the door of his car. "I wanna soak up the view for a while. Feel free to share." There's nothin' wrong with knowing your limitations. * Chie grins at him and gets out of the car. * Chie leans against it and looks down at the city. "Niiiice." * Makoto removes the keys from the ignition and walks around the front of his car to the fence. "Well, it's not that so much as my parents, or at least my -father- was probably quite the ass-kicker himself. Being a born-and-bred killer and all." * Makoto inhales deeply and nods. "Yeah. The beauty of the city without the stink. I like it." * Chie blinks. "Oh. My dad was... an ordinary businessman. I think." * Chie walks up to the fence and stands next to him. * Makoto leans on the fence, elbows against the top rail, and looks out over the city. "Nothing wrong with ordinary. I admit I'm not too keen on trying it out for myself, but there's nothing wrong with it. My aunt and uncle seem very happy with it." So was my family. I hated it. S'why I left. 'Cause they were too ordinary? Yeah. Either that, or I was too weird. Take your pick. Heh. One's about the same as the other, I think. So, did you find Eoi-sensei right away, or how did that happen? Was kind of a lucky accident. After I left, I wandered around for a bit. Ended up moving into a mostly Chinese neighborhood. There was an elderly gentleman who lived there... his granddaughter had died recently. He thought something bad had happened to her, and that her spirit was restless. So he called in Eoi-sensei to see if he could figure out what happened. I just happened to be wandering by that day. I felt the presence of a lot of spiritual energy, so I poked my head in. Huh. So, could you always sense spiritual energy? Since I was six. Since the day... * Chie looks away for a second. The day my parents died. Fourteen years ago exactly. * Makoto blinks, and hesitates for a moment before speaking. "I'm sorry." * Chie looks over at him. "S'okay. No way you could have known. But, yeah, that's where I was earlier tonight, instead of being with you guys. I almost wish I *had* been with you all the whole time." I can still talk to them sometimes. So it's not all terrible. Yeah... from the sound of it, there's nothing any of the rest of us could have done against that sword, either. Rei's afraid--uh, I mean, I -think- Rei's afraid of it. She should be. Especially considering her family's history with it. Hell, *I'm* scared of it, and there are very few things I'm scared of. * Makoto nods, and looks back out at the city again. "There's a lot going on here that has to do with family, and history. I hope my family doesn't get involved in this mess, too. I mean, my parents. Then I'd be scared, too. I'm more afraid of things I know than the ones I don't know, I guess." Almost all of the people I care about are already involved. * Makoto wrinkles his nose and turns away from the city. He leans backwards until his head falls back and he can see the skyline upside down. "That sucks, Chie. Any way to get some of them out of the mess, at least?" * Chie chuckles. "Eoi-sensei's been in this for far too long." And as for the rest... Well. I don't think they'd quit now. [A Kirby plushie falls on Makoto's head.] I guess not. Y'know, I'm onl--augh! * Makoto grabs the plushie as he stands up straight again. * Chie laughs, then stops as she sees what it is. "Oh, no. Not another one of these damn things." What, you don't like Kirby? Kirby's fine. It's what happened the last time we got one that I don't like. [It's a cute little Kirby plushie. It's smiling innocently at Makoto.] * Makoto squeezes the plushie. Well, this one seems harmless enough, except for the bit where it fell out of nothingness and hit me on the head. [The plushie is squeezable.] See? It doesn't even talk or anything. * Chie looks up. "So where did it come from?" [Chie sees nothing above her.] * Chie looks down. [Chie sees nothing. Except the ground :P] I don't know. Maybe it does talk, but it just needs a woman's sens--I mean, touch to activate it. * Chie looks all around. [Chie sees nothing unusual. Except Makoto with a Kirby plushie.] * Makoto holds the Kirby out for the hyper-alert Chie. * Chie smirks at Makoto. "Suuure." * Chie takes the plushie and squeezes it. [The plushie is very squeezable.] Is it feeding the secrets of the universe directly into your mind or anything? I think it's just your basic Kirby. Cute, squeezable, but that's about it. So, no secrets? Nothing quantum or anything? Nope, no secrets. No origin of the universe, no big bang theory, no reason why socks disappear in the wash. * Chie squeezes again just to make sure. [Isn't he cute?] (Yes, he is. ^_^) Oh, well. Toss him in the back seat. It's reasonably safe back there. I guess we should head to wherever we're heading. If you want I can drop you off at your place. * Chie holds onto the Kirby. "We trying for the bar?" Yeah, why not? I have an old paper map at the bottom of the glove box, and I scribbled the address down somewhere... Let's go, then. I'd rather be with everybody else than alone. * Makoto checks his pockets until he comes up with the card. Okay. Here, you navigate. * Chie tucks the Kirby under one arm and takes the card. * Makoto hands the address to Chie and gets back into the car. * Chie takes one last look at the city before getting back into the car. ( The city tries to eat you! Quick, reverse! Reverse! ) (Aiiie!) If you -really- want, you can pretend to be the Navi system. Just talk in a sultry but slightly digital voice, and be receptive to my flirtatious advances. It's really easy. ( Nooooo! ) * Chie eyes Makoto. "I think not." She then grins. * Makoto snaps his fingers before starting up the car and driving back down to the park's gate. It was worth a try. * Chie chuckles. * Makoto pays at the gate on the way out, and heads into the city (and ultimately to Amigo's). [Mini End!]