yogen | npc contact.2

[ Meanwhile Rokkun is having bear ptsd, he's had maybe two hours of sleep and none of it restful, and can't understand why they're spying on the shop so early in the morning, besides. ]

There's Rantarou.

[ He sounds grumpy. ]

Are we going to tail them...?

( god, maybe past komaeda should have made rokkun sleep on the floor. why does he sound like when he says amami's name? pale green eyes look towards rokkun, before watching the shopkeeper from a distance. )

...You act like you're an animal hunting its prey, but if that's how you want to do it.

( he moves out the way from the door, bringing himself to the side so they aren't really seen. )

Hm... I believe learning how to track his hope could be useful to you. ( but this isn't what this is about, and he closes his eyes slightly tired himself. ) We have to hide to do this correctly. Hide and seek, is the best way to go about it.

( how unfortunate, maybe he wanted to tell the shopkeeper hi, but he doesn't want to ruin their day. he's been through enough bad luck lately, so there's a small frown as he thinks about this... )

[ Hide and seek in the school would have been fun, but with the other two coming out of the shop and he and Komaeda just around the corner, it's going to be game over very quickly unless they move. ]

Come on, then. We know where they're going, so we'll take the elevator up and meet them there.

[ There's also two sets of stairs going up to the roof, but Rokkun's going to take forever and it'll be night by the time he makes it all the way to the top. ]

( i think aratas should cry together, im casting in my vote.

you think he wants to be told by rokkun what to do, at first he ignores him by staying where he is. maybe it's just because it's the early morning so komaeda's not very receptive. he didn't even get to talk to an ultimate properly today, why is everything going wro—... )

Let's go to the elevator.

( like he wasn't listening to him at all, help, but he does make their way to the elevator, and he'll go and settle in the corner that's further away from the buttons. do NOT click the red one... he thinks as he looks at the various choices that they have, so instead he wants rokkun to click. )

Amami-kun is so kind... he brought food, did you smell it? Hm...

( bet it tastes divine... )

[ It's not like he's never clicked on the red button before, but yeah, he'd still take this, as infuriating as it is, over going down there, so fourth floor it is. ]

I wasn't close enough to smell it, no. Are we here to watch Rantarou? I thought you were going to prove something to me?

Are you unable to use context clues? It's the person that he's with.

( he sighs, sitting down in the corner because listen... he thought rokkun would be normal and walk in, now they're playing some sort of game. )

I wouldn't have agreed to come here if that's the case... ( you know, he forgot he had to give his hand for this, so maybe this is a little stressful for rokkun. he'll be okay. )

Acknowledge the younger party, and listen to the things that they say... maybe Amami-kun will... ah!

( opens pda, click click click.

@ r.amami
Everything you say is vital, and so are their responses. We're close by when you go to the rooftop! )

[ The person he's with is not three, so it's hard to imagine his brother being grown up. Grown up and chatting happily with Amami. Makes his blood boil. He wonders if there's enough time to go back down to the ground floor to buy some coffee before heading back up.

...

... ]

...He looks happy.

[ And Rokkun should be happy about that, in turn. ]

...And they're capable of being sad, too. I've spoken with them from time to time, had conversations that alluded to you... sometimes they said things that made me wonder...

( but he'll bend his legs up to his chest, settle his cheek against his knees as he sighs thoughtfully. truthfully, this is none of his business, and maybe he shouldn't force rokkun to actually take part in this, but he can leave whenever he likes. )

That doesn't matter... hm... While separated, they'd want you to be happy, too. You are family, after all.

( he's not going to get up to stop the elevator, but his stomach does growl... just a bit, just a bit. he's ignoring it, maybe this is luck working out in rokkun's favor... get you some coffee king. )

[ Ugh, there's that unease again at being talked about, and apparently in the context of making their "baby brother" sad at the mention of him, though the way Komaeda trails off makes him wonder too. ]

If you guys were talking about me, I'd say it does matter. Besides, I'm dead to him. I don't think he'd think I'm existing happily in heaven or anything like that.

[ It's not the ground floor, but he does turn to the panel and press the button for the home ec floor. ]

...So you care? You're humoring the idea... It's better than what I expected.

( because he thought rokkun would just shrug his shoulders, commit to the idea that his younger siblings is three, and then move on. yet, here they are having this conversation that makes him blink a few times, and that familiar response makes him close his eyes as he feels the elevator move. )

You both have that annoying way of thinking... ( he clears his throat. ) Finding excuses as to why you can't meet one another if the chance was there.

( does he have to be dead to them? maybe, who knows. )

[ Sorry that his reality is annoying... But he does frown a little at the fact that he's playing along, originally only doing so to humor Komaeda but now blaming him for planting that seed of hope in his heart, that even with how impossible it would be to see his baby brother again, there's that want to see— to see him happy, to see him surrounded by friends, to see him have grown up and moved on and become a person who doesn't need a big brother to hold his hand, who won't look back or reach down.

Instead, he sees the person holding Amami's hand, all but pressed to his side, smiling happily and chatting cheerfully, and he isn't sure what to feel. ]

...He was only three. He's not going to know who I am.

[ And maybe he doesn't want to face the heartbreak of somebody he loves no longer knowing him. He's already had to do that too many times with Komaeda. ]

( *wakes up to this and it makes me sad*

that's such a long time ago, and the many years that passed... would they even be able to recognize him. he could say that's rokkun's own fault for wanting to be a spy, that they should have walked in the shop to browse, searching for trinkets and he could watch from a distance, but things are never that easy. )

...Huh. ( his voice softens, muttering to himself than rokkun. ) Are you truly a butterfly who can watch from afar...

( he sighs, looking up properly now as he smiles softly... he stays in his little corner, thinking back to the previous conversation. )

I don't believe they're against knowing, they may not remember... but... ( saying this almost feels like a slap in the face towards himself, komaeda deals with memory problem, and he accepts his gains and losses because there's nothing else he can do to stop it. perhaps that's why he can speak against his claim, since the problem has always been whether someone knows or remembers... how unfair, when rokkun gets an advantage to wallow in self-pity, he takes it. )

They told me that the dead don't come back as they originally were, but they're capable of finding their way back to... their loved ones... This conversation was about you... do you think that's a want to know...

( the way they look for others to replace their aniki, that's a tell that they miss him, remember his existence. even komaeda has been compared to him a couple of times, and he's never accepted it, and that's because he knows how much this means to rokkun. how far he's willing to go, and now komaeda can't even look at him. )

[ You're right, they're not allowed to browse because Komaeda has a hickey and whether or not that shopkeeper is Rokkun's brother, he's not going to take that chance and have to explain. ]

...You're talking about that story dad used to tell. He told it to me when my grandparents passed away, and he must have told it to my brother when I...

[ ...if only he could return as a butterfly, if it's back to that exact time and place. If only to watch over his brother, to hope to see his smile. If he couldn't physically be there as himself, this would have been more than enough, just being close to somebody he loved again.

Komaeda says he can physically be there as himself. Rokkun looks at the happiness his brother has attained, and doesn't want to shatter it. ]

He'd be right, though. I'm not the person I was back then.

[ The elevator door opens at the second floor. Rokkun jabs the button to close it, so they can make their way up to the roof. ]

( i hate that i laughed and yama said rokkun stayed up all night to get lucky and i hate that, i do. okay, komaeda's like brushing his hair against his neck so he can cover it because out of sight, out of mind, since it's just him and rokkun in here. i realized no, maybe komaeda should be the one suffering so he can blame rokkun and rokkun can't blame him for anything. )

Did you believe that story? ( when komaeda recalls it, the shopkeeper stated that he agreed and smile so that their father wouldn't be upset. perhaps rokkun is a little different. ) Their way of keeping your memory alive, as I was told they couldn't find your body... so a butterfly sounds better than a mangled corpse within the river.

( why can't he say it kinder? he could, but maybe he likes to be honest to rokkun, a little more than what he gives others. komaeda's eyes lift to look towards rokkun, )

That's obvious, you aren't the fifteen year old who died then... you're older, someone with an unstoppable force, a sort of hope that'll cover the school in its blinding light on how you use it... They're not the youth from back then either... a supposedly successful shopkeeper with a goal that keeps them moving forward, a fragile, but budding hope... ( he watches as the door closes, and god rokkun better be lucky he doesn't mind going up and down, but komaeda does stand up properly, and he stares up at the hatch at the top of the elevator... he'll reach up for it, because he wants to undo it... )

I should ask: who do you think you are, what would you tell them? You can practice.

Edited 2021-10-06 08:58 (UTC)

[ Did he believe it? It was so long ago, he's not so sure anymore. Surely he wanted to believe it, in anything that would bring him comfort in times of loss, but he thinks it was more... "I don't believe it. But it would be nice if it were true."

The thought is almost enough to distract them from Komaeda reaching up to the elevator ceiling, but an arm in the way is too obvious and Rokkun moves to bring his hand back down, don't do that, no. ]

I'm not going to practice on you, that'd be weird. But if he really were my brother... I'd tell him I'm proud of him. I'd tell him... I did the best I could with what I had. And that I'm sorry for not coming home.

[ That's probably the one regret he has in his death, leaving behind somebody who needed him. ]

( he's close, he thinks, if he just puts a little more hmmph! into it then he can... and then his arm is taken, and an instant reaction is for him to take his arm back, against his chest like he's surprised rokkun would do such a thing. don't touch him without asking, and he takes a step to the side as he sees that he's not allowed to take that direction up. he goes back to sit in the corner where he feels safest, or maybe that's because it's the same location he found nanami's hairpin, who knows. )

People are normally... happy hearing such words they've wanted all their life, and I'm sure they'd be no different. Your death gave them an opportunity, which you may not like, but... to see they haven't wallowed in their own despair... that tells me you were a good brother.

( he thinks, he doesn't know what it is to have family like that — so he goes off what examples he's seen in yogen like the arisu twins, and then between amami and rika, the list goes on, but half of it still doesn't make sense. )

The way that they mention you... ah... I scared them in the dark once, and they were so intent to kill a ghost... they said something like, "This is for Aniki...!" Can you believe it... I can't place my narration on them, but with the context clues shown... They'd forgive for 10,000,000 yen! ( he pauses, staring like that was supposed to be funny, but he'll quickly look down. ) ...if it was any other person, but maybe... it'll be free for you.

[ He has to wonder about that. He might have been the person who was always there for him, who raised and fed and cared for him, but even he knows there was somebody else who could lift that child up much higher than he ever could. If Kogamo was able to move on after he died, it would have been because of her.

But he can't help the smile that forms despite himself, when he hears that his brother still calls him Aniki, once he gets over the sheer audacity Komaeda has to have scared the kid on purpose, how dare he. ]

...I hope so. I barely have a tenth of that in my college fund. So that's the sort of person he grew up to be, huh?

[ Violent... greedy... Yeah, he sure did a great job raising that kid. ]

Striving towards a goal, being able to communicate with people to sell what they do? Putting the people first because that's normally the thought process of that profession... They're warm, and have the softest cheeks, and they really, really love hugs... they have a bad temper when they don't get their way, but they're only

( might be pushing it a bit, actually, but komaeda can see a bit of that because that sort of job tells a lot about a person, and then given the fact they're at a younger age. though, it's when he looks up to see his smile that komaeda mimics it as best as he can, like his attempt to reassure him. )

...Amami-kun will talk to them, and you can confirm your decision after hearing them. They're honest when it comes to you, even I'm a little jealous.

( he's not, don't worry, but isn't this what people say when they have these discussions. )

[ Why is Komaeda touching his kid brother's cheeks... The more Rokkun hears, though, the more he thinks to himself...

He can remember just how warm a person in his arms could be, how they would toddle in his shadow while he took care of things around the house, how they were inconsolable when they were upset and he never knew what to do besides hold them until they cry themselves asleep. ]

...Kogamo really hasn't changed at—-

[ The elevator car stops its ascent and starts going back down, button to the second floor lit up. ]

( not how rokkun is going to ban komaeda from their sibling, oh my god!!! )

That's what you called them then, too. Is that a name of endearment?

( there's only so much time, he thinks as the elevator goes back down again, and god why do people play on these fucking elevators so much! komaeda will rise to his feet, shuffling over to rokkun's side just in case there's like a couple of people who want to get on — might as well make as much room as he can. unfortunately he's going to crouch down in that spot, lean his back against the wall so he can be hidden from view. )

...I hope whoever it is isn't loud.

( he has hopes right now because he doesn't have time for that, but when the elevator comes to a halt, and opens.

who.

WHO is it. )

-—in the Sawtooth Mountains, and they followed the lives of Akai and Makuyi and the rest of the pack as they have new litters each year, and—-

[ npckun pulls Amami into the elevator and presses the button to the fourth floor and faces the door, chattering on and on about this wolf pack nature documentary they'd been watching.

They don't even see Rokuro and Komaeda back there. ]

( oh, cute, they are having such a time, and amami's pretty sure he remembers this one actually. he's so busy watching them go on that he almost misses the two freaks hiding in the corner of the elevator too — just catches them out of the corner of his eye though, and after a moment of surprise he brightens visibly. there's a smile, and he gives a half-wave of his hand to greet them (mostly rokkun) before glancing back to kamo-kun. can't let them think they're being neglected. )

Right, right, I remember that one. They were named in Siksika and Sioux, yeah? It's a library, so I'd say there's a pretty good chance they'll have some decent documentaries there.

[ WHY IS HE WAVING can't believe Amami's out there stealing his brother and has the audacity to brag about it ]

( komaeda's going to wave back because OO!!! an ultimate, they've been noticed until amami turns away, and komaeda frowns a little because it was so short-lived. he'll look at rokkun...

looks at the red button.

...
...
...
...

brain thinking about it.

there's too many people in here komaeda might go insane, actually. )

I hope they have it! I want to see the part where they finally get close up shots of the wolf pups coming out of the den for the first time and they're soooooo cute!

[ The elevator feels like it's taking forever to go up two floors. ]

2/2

the way this feels like an investigation

the way this feels like stalking

crikey... a wild npckun and rantarou in their natural habitat... get out the camera

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