getting_better

Yeah, I guess I am!

[ This is why he eats a lot, he's always making himself hungry. ]

Actually, it was because I got to exeprience those things on missions - even if brief - that really elevated cooking from hobby to passion. There's a lot of things you can learn about a place and their people from their food.

[ A beat. ]

Also the food in the military sucked.

[ It was a very nutrition over flavor thing during his time. He might as well have eaten cardboard and flavorless gelo. ]

On missions, huh...

[She tightens her hold a little on him, not looking at him but up at the sky.]

We never really got to go out and eat on missions. It was more of a "get things done and then go back home" kind of thing. Unless we snuck out.

At BABEL, they fed us really well though. [It's a Michelin-starred chef, many different styles of cuisine type of situation at the BABEL canteen and all throughout her childhood she had gotten as many snacks as she had wanted.]

[ 'That's surprising'. ]

You were sent out on missions too?

[ He wanted to think that was wrong but, he was a a legal child soldier at sixteen years old so who was he to comment. ]

What kind of stuff did you do on missions, if you don't mind me asking?

[ 'Unless it's a very hush hush, if-I-tell-you-I'd-have-to-kill-you sort of deal'. ]

[It is an if-I-tell-you-I'd-have-to-kill-you sort of deal but no one's here to police Shiho and Kaoru certainly isn't going to tell her not to say anything.

Besides, Shiho has also defected right now and become a criminal so it's hardly her responsibility right now to keep the secrets of what is currently Gilliam's BABEL.]

I was. Ever since I was nine years old I've been sent out on missions. [And because she was so powerful it was never on normal missions, but only on ones in which many lives depended on them, or that were just downright too dangerous for anyone less powerful.]

We were usually called in to help out during national disasters, especially if the precog team predicted that there would be something happening. That was before though, now I'm pretty sure I'm an internationally wanted criminal or something.

Oh.

[ Neat, his new girlfriend is an international criminal too. ]

[ 'Wait, what?!' ]

You're an internationally wanted criminal too???

[ They've got more in common that he thought. ]

Too? Wait, you're a criminal too?

[oh wow, this is not what she thought they'd be talking about, nor what she thought they'd have in common???]

Why? What did you do?

[ That's a long story he doesn't think makes easy conversation. ]

Uhhh the short version is, my team was disavowed by my government and they condemned us as criminals so we ran and hid.

[ 'Me being the more wanted one since I know stuff' Too much stuff even by CIA standards. ]

[They really do have a lot in common, huh...]

...Yeah, that's... kind of what happened to us, too. Except we didn't really run, we made a video and called them all out and told them to bring it. Ah, but with our faces blurred out though. I mean, getting to return to being a civilian afterwards would be nice.

[If that asshole Gilliam doesn't mess it all up with his giant eyebrows and his hair that never fits in the frame, that is.]

[ Small world. ]

That was a good idea.

[ Then something just occurred to him. The Japanese government found him the moment he rolled into Tokyo seven odd years ago, but the US never so much as even sent a scout to confirm his sighting. He knows they have spies in Japan, he's not a greenhorn, so why didn't they find him? 'Something to ponder later' he thinks. ]

I take it your friend Kaoru is also of the same situation? [ A beat. ] Actually, what's her full name? I met a Kaoru here on the same day I met you, and I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence.

[Shiho had known through his own admission that he was definitely well-traveled but a part of her had never thought that it could be because he was running away. Still... she couldn't help but think that perhaps his world isn't dissimilar to hers. Many governments had all been bought at this point by Black Phantom and Gilliam and even before then there was always at least one person willing to do terrible things in the name of "the greater good" whether it was using cloned child espers as soldiers, or eliminating a powerful esper if they so much as suspected they could defect to another country. But that's something to think of later, especially because she was supposed to be on a date.]

We left together with Aoi-chan. [Because there's no way any one out of the three of them would leave the others behind.] ...And you probably have. She's about my age, has bright red hair. Her full name is Kaoru Akashi.

[ 'Ah' ]

So it was her.

[ Very small world. ]

Akashi-san...She has a very bold personality, huh?

[ He says with funny and slightly embarrassed smile as he recalls how they first met. ]

She certainly knows how to leave an impression.

[That's usually the kind of impression Kaoru leaves on people and Shiho is laughing when she sees it.]

That's one way of putting it. Kaoru-chan is a force of nature.

[But her expression is fond as she says it because no matter how embarrassing and silly Kaoru may be, Shiho loves her all the same.]

A 'force of nature' she says.

[ Unforgettable and impactful. She's not wrong in that sense. And then he remembered how friends tend to influence each other if they've been around each other long enough, and given she's known her for a very long time- ]

You, uhhh, you aren't going to suddenly hold my arm and say you're robbing me or something like that, right?

[ He actually won't mind, honestly, but how is supposed to answer if she asked him to leave his wallet or dignity, or worse? ]

Am I?

[She... reaches out to hold his arm then, gazing up at him with cheerful mischief... before she bursts out into laughter.]

Hm, but that's not my role in our friend group, so: no.

[Kaoru is the one who says "your wallet or your dignity", Shiho is the one who says "wallet! Take his wallet!" and Aoi would say "dignity can't be exchanged for cold, hard cash".]

Oh. That's great.

[ There's light playful sarcasm in his voice. The implication of her words don't escape him. She has a role in that, what it is he'll maybe find out one day. Good thing he has a secret weapon. He doesn't carry a wallet. ]

Good to know you two have your roles all figured out.

[Shiho can't help laughing when he says that, burying her face against his shoulder for a moment before looking up at him.]

Of course. We've known each other for so many years so we've got practice. [And it's very hard to deny them, especially when all three of them were together.]

But~ I'll protect you. So it'll be fine.

Edited 2020-06-21 03:20 (UTC)

[ That laughter is best song he's heard in a while. ]|

Will you now? I feel safer already.

[ It looks like there'll never be a dull moment with her if she can gags like that. ]

Tell me, will the protecting start before or after you girls have taken my wallet?

[ He can play that game too though. ]

Hm, well... you don't carry a wallet though, do you?

[Besides, Kaoru and Aoi would never hurt him so there really doesn't need to be much protecting in the first place?]

That...well, no not anymore.

[ He lost it in the flood. ]

Does that mean the joke would be on you girls since I don't have a wallet?

[ He is, however, already on her 'prank back' list so. ]

I could find it for you, if you want. [And she probably could, she's good at this type of thing thanks to her psychometry.]

Then after I do, we could try it all again~

[Then he'd definitely, definitely want to protect it, right?]

[ Hold up. ]

Hold on. So you're telling me you'll go look for my missing wallet, return it to me, then proceed to rob me all for the sake of a gag?

[ . . . ]

Your dedication to this joke is astounding.

[ Damn and he thought he was dedicated to silly jokes. He better up his game. ]

[That earns him a bright peal of laughter at the very idea that Shiho "I'm sleeping in until 12pm" Sannomiya could be that dedicated to a joke.]

Well, that and I thought you'd want it back?

Well, ain't that's sweet of you.

[ But the wallet just contained a few crumpled yen, some fake ID's, an expired gym membership card, and ice cream parlor stamp card with eight stamps. Two more visits and he gets a free scoop.

So nothing of value really outside of the stamp card.

All of his money are in offshore accounts and lifetime storage vaults all across his world under fake names with expansive profiles. He could buy five star hotel and still have enough money to rent out a whole ski resort. The perks of being a government black ops agent, too bad he's a criminal. ]

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