2019-05-08 - Transition
| Title: Transition | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The Hououji family is on their way out of Tokyo ... but Fuu can't go all the way with them. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Somewhere west of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area | |
| OOC - IC Date: 5-8-2019 - 6-4-2015 | |
Traffic normally flows fairly steadily along the major expressways into, out of, and around Tokyo. There are ebbs and flows and lulls, of course, and sometimes conditions do force the drivers to slow down more than normal. Heavy, driving rain is one of those conditions. So is a massed evacuation out of Tokyo.
Right now, both of those are happening. The approach of the predicted super-storm, heralded by a week of heavy rain before the official emergency was declared, has put the highways' drainage to the test; there's probably more puddle than pavement in the path of their car's tires, but Fuu has little interest in getting out to check.
"Fuu, dear?" Tsubasa inquires, glancing back at her younger daughter. "You've been fidgety ever since the Universes stopped by ... what did happen while you were chatting with them? Did Steven-kun need your help with something again?"
"I'm sorry if it disturbed you," Fuu says quietly. "It's ... it's not just Steven. I wanted to make sure the rest of you would be safely out of Tokyo, so I didn't bring it up -"
"Fuu."
The voice of the family's father stills Fuu's voice, and she looks down at her hands in her lap. Not that Akira is scolding her; his voice is conversationally quiet as usual, with just enough of a stern tone to catch Fuu's attention. "The storm is probably more than just an atypically intense weather system," she explains. "We were warned about a monster ... an uber-Witch, one that could - would manifest in the real world, instead of within a barrier. That thousands of people would die just from this Witch's materialization, that it could obliterate all of Tokyo. I needed to know that you would be safe, out of harm's way."
Fuu looks up again, catching her father's gaze in the corner of the rear-view mirror. "Could you have gone through with evacuating if I wasn't coming with you, Otousan?"
Akira purses his lips, making a thoughtful noise. "Good question. They'll likely be expecting the whole family to check in ... but flip the question around: how are you going to get back into Tokyo? Even if you can magic your way past cordons or perimeters somehow, this is hardly weather you can get around in on foot."
Fuu's gaze shifts out the side window again, focusing initially on her own reflection before she looks at the heavy rain and driving wind. "Whatever I have to do, I guess ..."
"Guessing?" Kuu raises her eyebrows at her little sister. "That's not like you, Fuu-chan. But more importantly, why do you have to be there? You're not the only magical girl who protects Tokyo, and you did say 'we' earlier like there's a group in the loop about this. What can you personally do?"
"I won't know until I do it," replies Fuu. "But I promised, even swore, that I'd be there - that I would do whatever I can to help fight this monster. Even if I have to walk instead of leaping." She bows her head again, closing her eyes. "I guess I've been too frightened to think as clearly as I usually do."
For a few seconds, silence reigns within the car, broken by the noise of wind and rain outside the vehicle. It's Tsubasa who breaks that silence.
"If you have to go, then we'll cover for you as well as we can. But tell me this, Fuu-chan: do you promise, as you promised before, to come home in one piece?"
Fuu nods, lifting her head again. "Yes. I may have trouble keeping that promise this time --"
"Fuu, my darling daughter, you can do better than that," Tsubasa cuts her off, her voice and her smile a pair of silken blades, but still warm and loving even as she chides her younger child. "I only know a little about your past adventures, but you've certainly fought worse than this, haven't you?"
But that question is one to which Fuu doesn't really know the answer. "I promise to come home again, whether it's meeting you at the evacuation center or our family's own house," she says, despite her own doubts. It's easier than it should be; after all, a piece of her is certain that if she falls in this battle, there won't be a Tokyo left, no home for them to return to.
Even if her parents and her sister survive.
