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[hr][right][color=gray]Mods, Asura is pickleposting in the time-bar again.[/color][/right][hr]One could be forgiven for looking upon the dreary sprawl of Utsubyo, with its abundance of quarantinable buildings and seemingly perpetual overcast, with just a little bit of despair. It was justifiable, after all, considering [i]nothing[/i] happened [i]ever[/i] and that, for most of the poor bastards living here, the prospect of ever getting the hell out was abysmally low. 

Really, it was no wonder so many of the kids were clawing each other apart. Highschoolers were animals, and Utsubyo was too small of a cage for all of them. Kanna didn’t blame people like Totsuka for lashing out any more than she sympathized with people like Kenzo for falling victim to it. Being lawless was not the same as being unlawful, and for as boring as this place could be, it was also honest—mostly. Sure, there was a wonderful tangle of intrigue and dirty secrets beneath the surface, but they were all buried in the same soil of listless melancholy. Like scandalous seeds. And that was great. Some of Utsubyo’s tallest trees had the deepest roots, and digging them up was part of the fun. 

And speaking of, as she made her way into the convenience store, she saw a gigantic maple waiting in line. Actually, Genkei Tatsumoto was more like the scion grafted [i]onto[/i] the maple. His wife was principle of the high school, and already had her hands in the affairs of the regional schoolboard. She was as fixed to the Utsubyo locale as its unyielding cloud-cover, but not as reviled—in fact, most people seemed to admire her, Kanna included. She was hard-working, driven, and though they’d hardly ever interacted, she got the sense that Ms. Tatsumoto was an honest woman.

Genkei worked in real estate, and was involved enough in the community that most people knew him. Despite coming from money, he seemed friendly and down to earth. 

Kanna’s mom was fucking him.

She meandered amidst the bentos and mochi until he paid for his shit and left. They’d yet to speak, and Kanna was intent on keeping it that way for as long as was humanly possible. When the coast was clear, she bought a berry ramune and a small tin of tuna and shuffled out into the alley, where she was met by a three-part chorus of meows. A trio of cats emerged from their hidey-holes, crowding around her as she opened her bag and produced a few paper plates. Finagling the can open with one hand was tough, but she managed, and scooped helpings out onto each plate as equally as she could. As the cats dug in, she scratched their ears, and backs, then hopped up onto one of the dumpsters. 

[color=92278f]“Rammstein, hey, you share that with Mastodon, he looks like he lost a few pounds. Thundersteel must be out hunting. Jokes on her, huh? She can eat weasels while you guys get the gourmet shit.”[/color]

Normally she would have flipped through her notebook until they were done, then gone next door to the laundry mat to brainstorm for an hour or so—the near-constant coming and going of people was exactly the kind of comforting white noise she needed. But out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something in the park across the street. Rather, someone—some[i]ones[/i].

Shiori and the Ogre. 

Wow. Utsubyo was small, but that was still a hell of a coincidence. On instinct she pulled the digital from her pack, but as she sighted the pair of them on the screen, she stopped. Shoichi’s warnings returned to her, and with them, a slight tremor in her casted arm. She took a sharp breath, forgetting for a moment that it was daylight, and this was not an alley in Sendai. Maybe this [i]was[/i] a mistake. Maybe she was crossing a line. 

Then she thought about Genkei Tatsumoto, and the stories she would never write about him, and she decided that if there was a line, she wasn’t anywhere near it yet. 

Kanna stuffed the digital back into her pack and replaced it with a ratty old disposable, hanging it from a lanyard around her neck. She gave the cats farewell scritches, tossed the empty plate in the dumpster, and then struck out of the alley, across the street and into the park. Before she got too close, she swapped out the scowl on her face with a winning smile. 

[color=92278f]“Heh-hay! Wow, if it isn’t the school celebrities! Shiori~i—lookin’ good. Totsuka, howdy, almost didn’t recognize you without the lil’ black bar. Hah.”[/color]