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C     Truthfully, this could be any city, anywhere in the multiverse.

It was relatively modern, from the 21st century. The street bustles, men and women of every stripe going about their lives; businessmen carry their briefcases and wait for the bus, or file into the subway to ride the train, bodega employees man their position wishing dearly that the manager would crank up the AC, people on their day off wander hither and thither in search of entertainment -- everyone here, they were just trying to live their best life.

It's a place that could be anywhere, and that perhaps, is why it attracted the transient sorts without a somewhere to go.

The street is a four-way cross-walk. There's an entrance to the underground mall and subway station, as well as a litney of shops lining the street from a coffee shop, to a cafe, an enthusiast store, a mom'n'pop diner, some kind of fashion store, a convenience chain, and other similar fares. Benches line the sidewalk every so often, and the dimming skyline is littered with bright lights and neon signs that shine bright, as if reaching to the sky above.

    Why is Hibiki Tachibana here? And where was she going?

She blends into the bustling citizenry, almost as if she were just a normal person, instead of a teenager playing at being a superhero.
Hibiki Tachibana     Sometimes, you just need the right place and some time to think by yourself. And here is as good a place as any.

    Maybe exactly because it's nowhere special at all. Different from her home, maybe a bit less advanced, but both familiar enough that she doesn't feel out of place and different enough that anywhere she's going still feels new. It's comforting, in a way, knowing that so many places even across universes are full of people living their boring, everyday but fulfilling lives. As much as saving others in danger, protecting that--and her own, is important to her.

    That said, hers has been anything /but/ normal for a long time now. Even before the unification.

    "...It's starting to get dark," she murmurs to herself, lifting her head to regard the falling sun as she moves through the crowd, crossing the street and taking a turn to the right. "I told them I was just going shopping again, but Miku and Tsubasa will get worried if I'm gone for too long. Hm..."

    She says that, but a part of her also feels bad she hasn't gone to either of them with this latest problem. She'll probably come back with something, but it was mostly just an excuse to go out for a while so neither of them picked up on it. Hands in her jacket pockets, Hibiki stops in front of a bustling clothing shop, stepping just out of the way of civilians going back and forth to glance at the window display. There's a pair of traditional dresses put up, clearly made to match with one another right down to the accessories.

    As she stares at them though, one would get the impression she's not really looking 'at' them. Her thoughts are somewhere else completely.
C Existential pondering is something everyone has to deal with at some point. Some could say that the kind of angst associated with it is just something you expereince on the way to adulthood, and the people flowing around Hibiki as if she were a rock in the water didn't feel like opening that can of worms, even when she was shooting those dresses a thousand-yard stare. Teenagers had teenager problems, they'd figure.

    "What's with the raincloud, sunshine? Mira for your thoughts?"

A small, silver coin with grooved edges is flipped by a gloved thumb before falling back into the hand's palm, closing tightly over it. The owner is also a teenager, with a shock of dull white hair that spills around his head in a messy tangle. His shirt and jacket sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, and the black scarf hanging around his neck was loose to let him breathe in the hot day that was quickly winding down into something more mild.

Pinching the rims of a pair of dark sunglasses with his other hand, he tugs them off his face, considering that the light levels outside no longer called for them, and lopsidedly smirks at Hibiki in a cavalier manner.

He was seated on a bench just to the right from the shop she'd been staring at -- L'Boutique -- and seemed to have been people watching, left to his own thoughts until now.

    "You look like someone got shot."
Hibiki Tachibana     Honestly, Hibiki wasn't expecting anyone to say anything to her. She's used to people walking on by, for better or worse, it's just not something that bothers her quite as much as it used to. And this was a case she actually wanted to be left alone with her thoughts--which makes it very surprising when someone says something that can only be directed to her.

    Enough that she's snapped out of her staring to quickly turn towards the source of it, with surprise replacing her grimace. "Ah--" There's a few seconds of silence as she regards him up and down, with his rougher appearance than most of the other people wandering the streets...and that smirk. She looks wary in the same vein as a startled cat, but then slowly begins standing back straight and pursing her lips, side-glancing back towards the window. Funny coincidence, the way he referred to her. Even though she's almost sure they've never met.

    "I was just..." She starts coming up with an excuse that definitely wouldn't have held up, then stops almost right away while closing her eyes. "...Something like that, maybe," Hibiki admits. "It's complicated. You shouldn't worry too much about it."
C His eyebrows raise ever so slightly, quirking upwards in a mildly concerned waggle before his shoulders tug downwards in a mild shrug, as if to say, 'what can you do?'

    "Complicated, huh."

He seems to consider something, before tucking his coin back into his coat pocket. "Well, if you say so."

The bench squeaks as he gets up, just antoher passerby, or, at least it seemed so before his gloved hand claps her upside her right shoulder -- if she was a startled cat, then his approach was clearly not to respect her personal space. "Then it's pretty clear what you're actually saying is, 'please hang out with me! I'll even go on a date with you if it means I don't have to be alone tonight'. Right?"

His voice heightens in pitch, in a mock-impersonation of her voice that sounded absolutely nothing like her.

"There's this bodega down the way that sells some crazy good fish tacos. I heard a story once that good food in a bad mood keeps stupid thoughts at bay. Isn't that catchy? But I always liked the idea behind it more than anything."

Sometimes when you're troubled, you think too much about it. Or maybe, you think about everything but what you should, you stew and take responsibility for things you shouldn't.

Sometimes, you run away from the problem in your head and tell yourself that you confronted it head-on, even when it hurt so badly you really just gave up and tried to move on, instead.

He was very familiar with that kind of behavior. Maybe not all of it applied to her, but because they were total strangers, it was completely fine to nose in on her business. And what better way to talk her through her issues than over his favorite snack?
Hibiki Tachibana     "...Hah?"

    Her expectations are cut apart when he not only doesn't leave, but approaches to give her a firm shoulderpat - she doesn't even get to process her response to that before the utterly inaccurate copycatting gets her to just stop and look up at him with a furrowed brow and an open mouth, caught somewhere between complete confusion and 's-should I be offended by that?'

    That said, it apparently succeeds in getting her to drop some of her tension, as his continuation gets her to, after a moment, let out a sigh as her shoulders drop a bit. Then, first thing she says after he's finished - "I'm not going on a date with you," delivered as bluntly and straightforward as physically possible like a lance to the chest, while casually brushing his hand off of her. "You're kind of weird, sitting around flipping coins and nosing into people's business."

    She remains looking up at him after though, adding on in the same exact tone, "...But that doesn't sound like a half bad story. Reminds me of something..." Rather than elaborating, she half-turns. There's a subtle shift in her expression, some kind of understanding. Despite being totally honest, she also thinks she 'gets it'. What he's trying to do here. And...maybe pushing herself off, to go through her thoughts on her own, wasn't going to do her any good.

    After all, she told herself before. She wanted to be able to take others' hands, not push them away.

    Ignore the fact she just did that a minute ago. That was different.

    "They better be as good as you're saying if you actually want them to do the job...and if I'm spending money on them." Her free hand, other still shoved in her jacket, gestures down the sideway. "Lead the way."
C     "Ouch."

The hand she shoves off comes up to delicately caress his chest, as if it'd been battered and beaten into like a slab of tenderized meat. An exaggerated look of pity fills his features before shifting into a small smirk with one eye cracked open, "But even though you say that, we're still going out for tacos? How lucky."

    "No take-backs."

Brushing a hand through his hair to move it slightly out of his face, the as-of-yet-to-be-introduced teenager ambles down through the street, and within a few minutes they've come to a street-side Bodega shaped in the form of an L, taking up the walk's curbside corner. There are several stools for customers to eat by the counter if they wished, though most seemed perfectly fine with paying for their fare and bouncing.

The walk there is comfortably silent as the sun dips over the horizon and begins filling the sky with bluish hues, the stars becoming visible. "Looks like we got here just before closing time, huh?"

He holds up two, gloved fingers to the tired looking worker manning the register. "Two fish tacos, yeah?"

    "Sure, coming right up."

The minimum wage hero punches in the order on his ancient looking cash register while another one heads into the back to prepare the food.

Crow, in the meantime, pulls out a stool to saddle up on. "Thanks ... Ssssssteve?" he says, squinting at the nametag. The employee -- evidently named Steve -- nods.

The white-haired teen nods to the stools next to him after looking back to Hibiki, "Get ready for some totally authentic coastal fare. Big cities like this are impressive, aren't they? Even though they don't even live by the sea, they can still get fresh fish like this."
Hibiki Tachibana     "Just don't make me have to consider it."

    Besides that quick comeback, she's more than content to remain quiet the way to the Bodega of Dreams and Tacos. Given her rather standoffish demeanor, maybe that's not too surprising, but she's also using the brief amount of time to try to get a better idea of him. He's not all that far apart from her in age. A few years older, for sure, but when you compare it to the age discussion that came up the other day...and despite that, he was attentive enough - or maybe bored enough - to be the only person to mention anything to her. Hm.

    Leaving him to make the actual order, she hops on the stool beside his and fishes inside her jacket for a bit of money. It's in the form of a relatively advanced-looking card that one could probably equate by appearance to a credit card from a couple decades ahead of this world's technology. But obstensibly, it should still work the same way.

    "Late enough we're probably going to be the last ones here." With a single nod back to Steve, her eyes shift back towards her erstwhile eating companion. "I'm actually from a pretty big one. Bigger than this, and on the sea. But I think anything they make here will be a lot different from what I'm used to. That's one thing I'm still getting used to, since all of...this."

    Hibiki shifts somewhat where she's sitting, leaning forward to rest her elbows and weight on the counter as she elaborates some. "...It's pretty funny. I knew other worlds - other versions of 'me' - existed before, and now there's even more than I ever could have expected out here. I didn't think I'd ever get to visit any of it before, and now I'm here, getting ready to eat like I'm back home."

    She pauses, head tilting down to put her gaze down on the surface. It's hard to tell if she's really talking to him with that, or just vocalizing her thoughts. "It's...nice. But there's also all these other situations I don't know how to deal with..."
C Propping his chin up with one hand, he listens to her monologue as she voices her thoughts, before lightly tilting his head. "Like the one that's got you down in the dumps." he surmises, picking up where she trails off.

"Experiencing new things is nice. It can distract you from your problems and, even if only for a little while, make you feel like you're ... you. Well, of course you're yourself, but ... a you who isn't troubled by whatever you've got going on. You can almost pretend you're just living in another world, and that it's all a bad dream."

But it's not. It's real, and everyone has to wake up eventually -- this went unsaid, as surely, they both understood that much.

    "Let me guess ..."

"Someone you were trying to reach out to got killed on your watch."

The tantalizing sizzle of tilapia fills their nostrils, " ... by someone you thought was on the same page as you. Now you're wondering who has the problem; you, or her?"
Hibiki Tachibana     There's a small nod as he speaks, as she works through what he's saying. She has to admit, she's been getting...more comfortable with it. New people, new places, new experiences. Even back at home, she was still getting used to a 'regular, normal life' once again, something separate from the life of fighting. Something--someone--to go home to...when it comes down to it, it's sort of the same thing as her enjoying these otherwise mundane moments so much.

    But she does know better than anyone how real her problems are. There's no avoiding them. And he wouldn't be able to speak the way he is if he didn't also get it.

    ...And then, he drops that.

    Hibiki doesn't react instantly. Or maybe her reaction is the way she doesn't move at all, eyes locked down on the countertop. Even after he's finished, there's still just the sound of their meal being readied up, and maybe some slightly awkward shuffling on their cashier's part. Then Hibiki swallows loud enough to be heard.

    "...I just didn't try hard enough. With either of them. I didn't say what I should've said. If I did, I could've...I..." Her voice is low and quiet, as if she's struggling to get it out, and her fingers drag along the counter to come together in tight fists. He cut right to the heart of things, so suddenly and unexpectedly that it feels like their conversation from a moment ago might have been the actual dream, and even if that's what she says--it's not hard to tell that she's more messed up on the inside over it than just that. Of course the answer to it wasn't that simple.

    Having trailed off, she only speaks up again when her head tilts enough to look back up at him, eyes narrowing slightly. "...Wait, how did you...?"
C         "Psychic powers."

There's a pregnant pause after his answer to let her digest it, before he snickers, "Actually, we just happen to run in similar circles, is all. I don't know much of the specifics."

Two paper plates, each with a fried tortilla, wrapped around grilled tilapia with rock salt, pepper, fresh lettuce, lemon juice, and a little bit of liquid butter drizzled over it with diced tomatoes and an acerbic dressing made with olive oil and herbs.

Steve, the cashier, uses Hibiki's card to ring the meals up in the meantime. Being a streetside Bodega, it doesn't cost that much; about three dollars per taco.

    They look more like Fish Chalupas, honestly.

"Maybe you could've done better, maybe you did your best. It's not like it's any comfort to the person who died, or yourself to wonder about what ifs."

With a critical eye and an almost cheshire gaze, he straightens up to pick up his food, "But you're not really upset that they died. I mean, you didn't know that person, you're not grieving for them. You're just grieving that you couldn't save them. It's different."

It was the same fine line that existed between a lot of things; like revenge and justice. One is an emotional response, and the other is a motive.

"It was the Grier lady, right? She was off her rocker," he says soothingly, after firing at her chest with such a schathing observation of her demeanor -- it was almost like keeping others off balance was just something that came natural to him, "There's absolutely nothing that you could have said to stop her from doing what she felt like doing. Unless you decided to beat the shit out of her, I guess."

He takes a bite from his taco, savoring it with a small smile before wiping his mouth. "So, are you gonna' 'try harder' in the future?"
Hibiki Tachibana     It says something that she can't tell if he's serious or not when he says that. She's seen more than one person able to poke around in other people's heads. It's actually more common than she thought.

    The much more mundane explanation is one she gets the idea of pretty quickly though...really, there's only one thing it could mean. It puts her from wary to pensive in short order, looking away from him down towards their incoming food, fresh and hot, with an unresistable smell. Expertly prepared, despite this just being a literal corner store. She can't actually tell the difference between a taco and a chalupa. She's never had a chalupa before.

    'You're not grieving for them. You're just grieving that you couldn't save them. It's different.'

    Simply staring down at it as the white-haired youth continues on, there's a visible wince on her face at those specific words. Pain, shock--anger. It all flashes visibly on her, and once again, her voice catches in her throat. Just those few sentences have Tachibana Hibiki locking up in her seat again, struggling to work through the mess of emotions inside of her.

    It lasts even past when he stops to eat, giving her a chance to retort only to remain silent. There really was nothing she could have done...? Liza, as far as the short time she's known her for goes, has always been extreme. But that didn't bother her in the last joint raid on that corporate facility - fighting to put an end to horrible experiments for equally horrible purposes. Of course she'd support that. But now...

    'Now you're wondering who has the problem; you, or her?'

    "...I don't know how right now," Hibiki murmurs, head turning just enough to look off to the side of the meal waiting for her, where her palm is turned up. "Would I even be able to talk to her...? She's--" What comes to mind is 'so much more set in her convictions', as opposed to her right now. But that's not spoken aloud, her trailing off being picked up after a delay with noticeably frustration. "...I'm really useless when it comes to complicated problems like this. What am I supposed to do...whether it's an open palm, or a closed fist?"

    In time with what she says, it closes back, though rather weakly compared to before. She remains glancing away from him even as she adds on quietly, "...What you said before. Do you think that makes me a bad person?"
C Crow, who continues eating his food while she ponders, glances back her way when she finally addresses him directly, "Mmmm ... not really. Maybe a little self-centered, or arrogant, but everyone's like that at least a little bit. But does it really matter what other people think about you?"

"To put it another way .. if I said I thought you were so evil that it could make me puke, would that make it true, to you? At the end of the day, you're the one who has to live with what you've done, what you're doing."

A pause, then, "This should probably be where I impart some kind of wisdom about growing up and maturing onto you, and then you'll think back to it the next time you're in a pickle. Then you'll go, 'oh, I wish I had gotten that guy's phone number! His upperclassmanly advice was so helpful. What a cool guy.' ... but, honestly, if going all in for what you really want to do is a little childish, then be a kid. Being an adult is usually pretty lame, you know."

He deposits his plate in the trash, and wipes his hands off with the paper napkin that the follows. "This is just my personal opinion, but I don't think talking to her will do anything productive. You should still do it, and maybe re-arrange her face for her, for good measure."

It's hard to tell whether or not he's joking when he says that, as he begins to move off into the bustling street, the night sky hanging overhead. The bodega cashier, having flipped the sign to CLOSED, heads back to the cashier to ready Hibiki's receipt.

Crow's gloved hand comes up and waves her goodbye over his shoulder, "Well, it's been real, Hibiki. Catch you on the flipside."

    Steve hands Hibiki her receipt.
    ...It's for two fish tacos.

The other teenager had already blended in with the nightwalkers and disappeared, gone with the wind.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki purses her lips, soaking in the other teenager's thoughts on the matter. Does she care what other people think of her...? Of course she does. Probably more than a lot of people who know her realize. But when he puts it like that, if it gets in the way of what she thinks is the right thing to do...

    'What is Tachibana Hibiki's justice? Why is she fighting?' It's something that came into question and that she had to ask herself during everything involving the Roidmudes and hacked Humagears, fighting alongside Kamen Riders. Her answer was that she wanted to find a way to understand all of the sides and end the fighting, even if it was hard. She doesn't regret coming to that conclusion. Just like she doesn't regret carrying those ideals forward during that excursion into Egypt, in the search for JoJo's missing arrows. Going from enemies to friends with Cantio, even what happened in Ocna and the lesson she learned there, as rough as it was...

    Maybe it's not quite the exact point that her mysterious benefactor here was trying to make, but it helps her realize the answer to his question - maybe her feelings are from arrogance...but what she's been doing hasn't been wrong to her. It hasn't felt wrong, and if she knows that in her heart...

    Still with an entirely untouched plate, Hibiki watches him throw his own away and begin marching off, with a contemplative look on her face contrasting the downcast one from a moment ago. She doesn't try to stop him from leaving, or say anything to him as he goes - it'd probably not do anything to stop him, anyway. And he's said enough. She takes the receipt in silence, gives Steve one last nod, and slides down from her seat to throw her own plate away and pick up her tacochalupa by hand to take with her as she also makes to leave instead of loitering past closing hours. "Whoever you were, you're off the mark about at least one thing."

    'Getting older... well. It's bad to think you'll ever grow out of feelings. Maturity doesn't mean not feeling things anymore.'

    "...Being a kid or an adult doesn't have anything to do with it. It's just who I am. I'm still not entirely sure what I'll do, but..." Her empty hand reaches just inside her jacket, gripping tightly onto the pendant hidden inside of it. Right. One talk might be far from resolving her problems, but it's helped her stopped stewing and spiraling down in her own thoughts and figure out the path to take going forward.

    "...Kanade-san. I'll do right by your Gungnir. I promise."