2017-10-09 - The Search
| Title: The Search | |
|---|---|
| Summary: What happens to Mikoto, when she disappears to search for her brother? | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Ohtori Academy | |
| OOC - IC Date: 09/10/2017 - 24/02/2015 | |
It is often said that Mikoto Minagi searches for her Lord Brother. She disappears after lunch, or doesn't come home until late, or takes hours to do what should have been a simple errand. It's not unusual, for a magical girl, except that she does not always disappear to fight monsters.
(Or perhaps she is, and the monster she is fighting is the one inside her mind.)
It's easy. She hears a phrase, or a gesture, or a silhouette; a smell which makes her heart ache, or a particular vocal tone. Something which reminds her of her duties, everything still undone. She doesn't live in a world of schedules, of regular hours logged; she can understand, must understand when she lives with Mai, but it is alien to her. She lives in the moment, and when the moment demands she search --
This time it's another student, tall and willow-boned and effortlessly beautiful like everyone in Ohtori seems to be. Mikoto doesn't notice his crisp designer uniform, though; she sees the frame of his hair as he retreats for the day, and her Lord Brother's face flashes through her mind, indistinct and difficult to focus on.
So she doesn't go to Shinjuku, not this afternoon. Later she will remember how she was supposed to meet with Eri, but she won't feel remorse. Eri knows and respects her very first priority. And Mai will understand, if she's out too late. She'll sigh a long-suffering sigh and chastise Mikoto for coming in so weak from hunger that she has to yowl, but she must understand what drives Mikoto to search.
Mikoto eyes the boy's trajectory, and seeing his path, curves around with the flow of students on their way to their dorms. It's simple, really, climbing up onto a window-ledge and leaping to the branch of a shady tree. One hand finds purchase on the bark, and she uses her momentum to swing herself up and over it, snagging the branch with a leg to bring herself alight. It doesn't take long. Some of the students stare, but they're used to Mikoto, these days.
(One girl titters to another about that strange feral girl, looking up as they pass, and Mikoto knows that she is an object of curiosity in the opulent school. It bothers her, sometimes, when she thinks about it. She forces the thought out of her mind immediately.)
But the boy -- the boy she is keeping an eye on, walking slowly, talking with his friends. She watches his face as he draws near, golden eyes narrowed as she tries to place the features. Cheekbones like a scar, long lashes, hard jaw. Mikoto can't remember her Lord Brother's face, not clearly, but she knows he's not the one as soon as he realises he's being watched and shies away. Her Lord Brother is not a coward; her Lord Brother would never shy from a hard stare.
He taught her to study details so intensely, after all.
The tiny flint-spark of hope which struck in her heart is extinguished in an instant, and it hurts as badly as it did the first time. Every time, she believes that she's found him, that she can rest, that her long solitary vigil is done. Every time, she is let down. It always hurts. It always inspires her to search harder.
That boy was not the one. But her grandfather told her that her Lord Brother was here, in the land of Fuuka, where Ohtori now stands. She has expanded her search, at times. She has combed through Tokyo, that crowded-crowded place where train transport is an exercise in a thousand annoyances and the only space is on the rooftops. It's difficult. But today, she does not think she will search Tokyo. She believes he's here, in school grounds. It's not something she thinks about; she just knows, in her heart, that he's here right now. Her heart is her compass, and she obeys.
It will be a long search, today, a troubling search. She will return to Mai with a heart failure-heavy, and when questioned she will say, 'I'm searching for my Lord Brother.' And that is all she'll say, because that is all that needs to be said; she has been set to a task, and she is failing.
She just hopes her Lord Brother forgives her when she finds him.
