View source for 2023-01-23 - Magic Food! Science Fools! And We've Got History with Dark Fall, Too?

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! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: Magic Food! Science Fools! And We've Got History with Dark Fall, Too?'''
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|'''Summary''':<br>
''Raiko flees her dorm to go study by the bay, and is found by Mikoto. Raiko takes the chance to open up about her personal connection to Dark Fall, and they bond over making up for past events.''
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| '''Who:'''<br>
[[Raiko Takashima]], [[Mikoto Minagi]]
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| '''Where:'''<br>
Tokyo Bay (Shitamachi Low City)
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| '''OOC - IC Date:'''<br>
1/23/2023 - Thursday, February 12, 2016
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 .**************************** Shitamachi Low City *****************************.
 *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Tokyo Bay +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
   Once known as the "Inner Sea," the shelter Tokyo Bay once provided for        
   merchants and fishermen helped Tokyo develop into the powerhouse that it is   
   today, nor is it less useful today. Japan's largest shipping ports operate    
   out of the Bay, as does its own navy and that of the US Forces. Herculean     
   efforts dredge up its silt to create artificial islands, and factories drink  
   its water to soothe their smoky throats.                                      
                                                                                 
   To most residents, however, the Bay is simply blue water glittering,          
   salt-seasoned breezes, and gently drifting sails. The aptly named Rainbow     
   Bridge crossing the bay enhances rather than damages its beauty, its white    
   towers lit many nights by an artificial rainbow. A provincial visitor might   
   consider Tokyo Bay to be trimmed like a garden hedge; it has a number of      
   oddly geometric islands with arranged greenery, and any land touching the     
   water often makes the best of it with a park, intake valve, or other          
   imposition on nature. To a city-dweller, though, it is a miracle of open      
   space and calm.                                                               

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

It's late afternoon, and Raiko has made her daily exodus to 'anywhere but her dorm' to study. She could have possibly asked to go with Yumi on her trip to commune with nature, but... her older, more experienced magical girl friends were going to be there, and it was going to involve socializing, and all of that was too much for her to handle. Plus, she had studying to do.

She's taken her own trip to commune with nature, in a way, finding one of the many scenic spots overlooking the bay and a picnic table she could use to spread out all of her books on. She's dressed for the cold, her big puffy blue jacket, a woolen hat, leggings, and winter boots. Curiously though, despite all of the books and paperwork spread out, and the quite strong breeze coming in off of the ocean, most of her paperwork seems unperturbed. Nary a page flipping without the guidance of her hand to be found.

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Here's a tragedy in two acts:

It's too cold to swim.

It's too cold to swim, and that means it's too cold to fish!

(But wait, isn't fishing hard when you're --)

Mikoto wandered out here, anyway, to come visit her friend Steven -- but he and his mothers are out, so she's wandered back the ''other'' way, now. Her coat is burnished gold, and buttoned up against the wind-chill of the coastline; her short black hair is hidden from the breeze by her own cap, but it's the braids to either side of her face which whip wildly back and forth. The black case slung about her back, of course, is too heavy to sway.

Rather than fighting the breeze, she's quite content to run along ''with'' it, letting it push her about and spinning and wobbling in the wind. Somehow, she never seems to actually fall ''down.'' But following that breeze, eventually, leads her to --

"Huuuh?" Mikoto blinks, as her spin happens to catch Raiko's study area. "Not flapping..."

She plants her feet, and bounds over to that picnic table, beaming. "Hi!" She chirps, brightly. She pokes at a paper which ''isn't'' flying off in the breeze, and asks, straight out: "What's this magic?"


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko is absorbed in her studies--''too'' absorbed, perhaps, since using magic in public is something she really should be more careful about. But it's blustery and windy and cold, and she was counting on that to keep people away from the somewhat secluded place she'd set herself up at.

She should also be paying attention to be aware of her surroundings in general terms, because Mikoto's sudden bounding over and rather direct question makes Raiko jump and exclaim. "Ahh!" She looks up, clutching at her chest a little as she catches her breath. "O-oh. Um... Minagi-san, right?" It takes her a few moments to regain her composure before she can look at the paper Mikoto is pointing at.

"That's not magic, that's my science homework-- ''Oh''. I see." She picks up a few books, shuffles some papers into a stack, and clears up the middle of the table to reveal an intricately drawn circle, inlaid with runes. "It's... I made a small bubble of air to let the breezes flow past the table. I'm learning how to work with the element of air, because of my staff..."

After explaining she pauses and looks up to Mikoto again as she carefully puts her stuff back, though she leaves a space open for Mikoto to sit. "I'm just studying, but I wanted to do it somewhere outside, so.... here I am. Um... hi. What brings you this way?" After that very tentative hi she looks back down at her lap, though she hasn't gone back to studying.

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mikoto nods, braids bobbing from her motion rather than the wind, for once. "Yup! Raiko?" She addresses her yobisute, without honourfic, but she... doesn't ''seem'' like she means offence, by it.

"Woooow!" Mikoto gasps, beholding the rune, as her eyes grow to the size of metaphorical dinner-plates. (Mikoto, you can't make all your metaphors about dinner...) Personally, she'd think the science homework is pretty magical, too -- never mind that Raiko's grades lower than she is, she'd struggle with some of those questions, too. (Mikoto, that's just because you're bad at this...) "Cool!" She enthuses, and sits down in the place which Raiko leaves clear for her. "I don't know magic, but I help Yumi sometimes! Once we made a potion! It turned me into a cat."

Mikoto, who is evidently a human girl and not a cat, doesn't offer any further explanation.

"I like outside!" Mikoto says, legs swinging, merrily, beneath the bench. "My friend Steven lives near here, but he's not home, so..." She pokes at the science problems on the sheet of paper, and asks: "Hey, why don't Raiko use ''magic'' to get it done? I forgot to ask Yumi last time..."


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko blinks a little bit at the unexpectedly informal manner of address... and after a moment she looks up and nods. "Yes, Raiko Takashima. That's me."

There is a brief smile as Mikoto expresses amazement over her runework, even though she has a sneaking suspicion Mikoto doesn't really know anything about magic--a suspicion confirmed moments later when she admits she doesn't know amgic. Of course, her science homework, considering she's an infinity student, might well give many students of even her own age range pause. "Thanks," she says, then she blinks a little. "... Yumi-chan made a potion to turn you into a cat? Was... that for one of her homework assignments?"

She racks her brain, trying to sift through so many of her ignored or half-completed assignments over the past few years. Was that part of their upcoming curriculum, perhaps?

Raiko nods a little as Mikoto explains about her friend, then frowns at the question. "Use magic to do my homework...?" Raiko shakes her head. "Because first, that's ''cheating''. You're supposed to learn how to do it, that's the whole point of homework. And second, magic doesn't work that way. In order for me to use a spell to finish my homework, I'd have to know what the homework should look like first, in which case I wouldn't need a spell."

Sure, she could... ''probably'' summon something to do the homework for her, but that had an entirely ''different'' set of problems associated with it.

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

"Umm... well, it wasn't done yet, but I wanted to try it, so..."

'Don't drink anything which isn't finshed and tested to be correct' is probably, like, Alchemy Lesson #1, but as Mikoto more-or-less said, she's not a witch! She doesn't take alchemy lessons!

That sign won't stop her because she can't read.

Mikoto pouts, mightily, as Raiko goes on to tell her why her genius plan to subvert magic won't work. "Noooooo," she whines, head ''donking'' onto the table. "So Raiko's gotta do it all by hand..?! But that's so hard!"

Her eyes are all wibbly, as she grasps the edge of the table with her fingers and lifts her face to look to Raiko again. "I gotta do ''remedial'' sciences," she says, "and it's ''still hard.'' It's sad..!"


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko looks up at Mikoto again, mouth agape as she stares at Mikoto. "It was unfinished, and you..."

She can't even form the words to express how terrible of an idea that was. But... seeing how both Mikoto ''and'' Yumi acted on their mission--one blithly rushing into the house without checking for traps, and the other blithly touching a cursed artifact, also without checking for traps...

She thinks she's starting to understand why they might have ended up friends. Although that also makes her worry more for both of their safety.

"I'm... glad you... weren't injured," is all she finally says. "But ''please'' don't do something like that again."

"It's... not ''so'' bad, though. And, um..." She looks down at her books. "Besides, I kind of... ''like'' doing homework. Science is... one of my favorite subjects, in fact."

She makes a pained face as Mikoto confesses to taking remedial classes. "Oh. I'm sorry."

Raiko regards Mikoto silently for a moment. She's been mostly shy and awkward up until this point, but now it seems like she's really considering something. She might even look a little sad.

"I wish I could offer to help tutor you," Raiko says quietly, after finishing her contemplation. "But I have entrance exams, and I'm..." She winces for herself now, "Kind of behind on my own homework."

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

"Yup!" Mikoto agrees, without any regard for Raiko's inability to close her yap. It's only a moment later that she pauses, and asks: "Wait, that bad?"

Her face scrunches up, and her head tilts, cre-eee-eak, to the side. "That bad..." She echoes herself, as Raiko finally finds the words.

(She does not promise never to do anything like that again.)

"Really? Wow!" Mikoto brightens, immediately -- apparently, she's ''very'' labile -- when Raiko reveals that science is her favourite. "Always been hard for me... but I gotta get good at it! I wanna help cats, so I gotta do science! That's what you need to get into vetern... veteraneran... veternerian... cat doctor school!"

Mikoto frowns, though, as she picks up one of the papers. "Everyone's doing entrance exams, huh..." She echoes, to herself.

"Hey, how come these questions are all blank still?" Mikoto points, to the page. "This stuff's hard, but Raiko's real smart, right? So you'll get it! When they say phagocyte, they just mean, ummm, the ones that eat stuff! Like phagobble-gobble-gobble! Right? So..."

Mikoto might be in ''remedial science classes,'' but they're ''year 11'' remedial science classes, and she ''is'' trying very hard.

She might even ''actually be able to help.''


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

"It's... pretty bad, yeah..." confirms Raiko, though... she looks a bit chagrined to be saying it--as if she was trying to avoid sounding like she was scolding Mikoto.

Raiko nods at 'Really?' "Yeah. Math, science, and magic are all my favorites. Though, I get that a lot of people find them hard, and I'm not as good in some other subjects..." A small blink, and she helpfully supplies, "Veterinary school. You want to become a veterinarian? That's really nice," she says, with a timid smile.

"Oh, I just hadn't gotten to those yet, that's all..." Raiko blushes a little as she's called smart. "Well, I like to think I am, though... I've made some pretty stupid decisions, though..." That last part is more muttered to herself, but still loud enough for Mikoto to hear.

The young witch opens her mouth, stops to consider Mikoto's words, and then simply nods. "That's... yes, more or less."

She's silent for a long moment after that--more time to consider and contemplate the other girl. Finally, in a quiet voice, she asks, "Minagi-san, can... I tell you about something?"

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mikoto nods, with a cheerful affirmative noise, when Raiko asks about veterinary school. "Cats are my friends! I want to help them. So I gotta study!" She knows all about cats already, of course, but knowing how they act doesn't mean she knows what they're made of.

"... that's okay," Mikoto assures Raiko, too, because her hearing is very good and her sense of decorum isn't. "Everyone does that." Makes stupid decisions, apparently.

She's nice enough not to dwell on it, at least. Science!

Mikoto cants her head, when Raiko's voice drops. "?" She vocalises a question mark, perfectly, and it sounds like a glottal stop in the back of her throat. "'Kay." Her speech is as casual as ever, but her tone, at least, is more muted. She watches Raiko carefully, listening.


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko nods. "Shiori said she was surprised by how you blinked at her the other day, but I don't think she minded or anything." Confused? Perhaps, but Shiori will hardly turn down someone attempting to be friendly on her own terms.

The familiar is noticeably absent at the moment, however, so Raiko has to convey her thoughts for her.

Raiko sighs--it is a sigh that is too long and weary for one so young, and she deflates a little as she leans forward. She rests her chin on crossed arms, folded over her notebook. She's not looking at Mikoto, but instead looking out at the bay itself. "It's about my grandpa," she says, her voice still quiet. "He's..." she hesitates a moment. She's not used to discussing magic so openly with non-witches and warlocks, but she's never been in the company of magical girls so much before either, and besides, it'll be hard to get around some of this when she's done.

She completes the thought. "... a mage. A pretty powerful one, I think. He's spent a lot of his life trying to thwart The Hungry Queen's plans." She doesn't bother to explain, because she knows Mikoto should recognize that name already.

Her voice cracks a little as she says the next part. "He's missing. He went on a mission and... and... he hasn't come back." She lifts her head a little so she can wipe something away on her cheek. Must be a bit of moisture from the bay that got through her wind bubble. That must be it. But it doesn't look like anymore got caught, at least.

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

"Cats taught me all sorts of stuff," Mikoto says. "Weren't many people around growing up, other than my family, but I knew lots of cats." Which... might explain something. Or a lot of things.

''she caught a bird with her bare hands''

Mikoto listens, though -- and she ''does'' recognise that name. Someone who spent so much time trying to thwart her...

Mikoto surely never met her, but she still shivers.

She reaches out, to pat a hand onto Raiko's arm. "Sorry," she apologises, and means it. "I know there was people who was making it hard for the Hungry Queen's people... but I never heard about any Takashima while I was Dark Fall. I'd say if I knew."

Mikoto pauses, and adds, ''trying'' to be reassuring: "But -- but maybe that's good! It's bad if people like that knows who you are, so it's good I don't know him! Or... maybe it happened after I left, or maybe I just didn't hear about it..." Now it's ''her'' turn to deflate, though she bravely soldiers on: "If he's that strong, he's gotta still be okay, right?"


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko remembers that bird-catching incident. And, talking with Mikoto now, she's starting to get a clearer picture of the other girl. And the truth of what Yumi told her:

'She's been hurt by them, too.'

Raiko doesn't much like that name, either.

There is a brief flicker of a smile as Mikoto pats her arm, and her voice is a bit hoarse as she says "Thanks." Though oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be any reaction to Mikoto admitting she was in Dark Fall. "And thanks, I appreciate it. I... I think he tried to keep his identity a secret, so they couldn't find him. So it makes sense if you never heard his name."

She nods as Mikoto tries to reassure her. "Yeah, I've... I've thought about that a lot, too. We just... don't know what happened. He was really secretive. Shiori tried to find him after he went missing and couldn't. The--" The Magic Association, but ''that's'' not a secret that's hers to divulge. "--I mean, my grandpa has some friends who are looking for him, but so far, no luck."

"Yeah, my grandpa's one of the strongest mages I know. And he's really clever, too, so..." There's that too-weary sigh again. "Hopefully he's okay, wherever he is."

After a moment she sits up, and finally looks at Mikoto directly again. "I was... really worried when you said Conflagria told you about the book. Yumi-chan explained, though. About you and Dark Fall. But she trusts you, and I trust her, and... I wanna trust you too."

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mikoto doesn't exactly make a secret of her family's affiliations. She's asked too many people to keep too many bad secrets, the kind which eat you up all on the inside, and she doesn't want to hurt her friends any more.

(Just because she only met Raiko recently doesn't mean she can't also be a friend.)

She hums consideration through her lips as Raiko tells her about her grandpa, frowning in concern. "Yeah," she agrees, when she voices her hopes, more muted than her previous effusive excitement. "Me, too." She probably means she hopes he's okay. Mikoto doesn't seem like the sort of person to be exact with her words.

Her hands pull back, to clasp in her lap, when Raiko explains ''why'' she's heard that thing which isn't a secret. Her legs have since stopped their idle kicking. "My Lord Brother's a demon king," she explains, quietly, a shade of vulnerability to her tone. Yumi would have told her, she supposes, but Mikoto thinks she deserves to hear it from her, herself. "I was raised to protect him. To fight his enemies. I was searching for him all this time, but he found me... so I fought for Dark Fall, then. That's where I met Conflagria."

Her lips and her good will twist. "I didn't like her," Mikoto scowls, tone growing bitter for a harsh moment. "And I don't."

Mikoto's hand lifts, to press at her chest, at about the place a pendant might have sat, once upon a time. She looks down, and away. "But I didn't really wanna make everyone suffer," she insists, "and Yumi and everyone else helped break the pendant my Lord Brother was using to... make me. So I escaped." Lifting her gaze -- yellow like a beast or a youma or a demon in the night -- she looks to Raiko, again. "My Lord Brother's still there... I want to help him. We grew up together. He was raised for a purpose, too. But I can't challenge him, the way I am now... I need to be lots stronger. And learn better ways, too."

She sighs, shoulders slumping. "Guess I'm in ''remedial classes'' for being good, too... I want to be someone Raiko can trust, but if it's hard, I get it. I'll do my best."


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko would, honestly, be somewhat flattered to know Mikoto considers her a friend. Friends are... something she has in woefully short supply, lately.

The bit about Mikoto's brother being a demon king ''does'' surprise her a bit--her eyes widen a bit but she forces herself to be calm, for Mikoto's sake. She doesn't want to make the other girl feel bad--she did mean what she said about trying to trust her. "Yumi-chan didn't tell me about that part," she admits, quietly. And then she nods a little in agreement when Mikoto says she doesn't like Conflagria.

"I don't like her either," she admits. There is... just a touch of a steely undercurrent under her weak and tired voice, maybe the ever so slightest tensing of her hands where they rest against her arms, but it's fleeting and passes quickly.

"I hope you can free him someday," she says, sincerely. After all, if Mikoto can get out...

She shakes her head, "It's not your fault, it's all me. I'm just... when I think about The Hungry Queen, or Conflagria, I just get..." That thought trails off, as she tries to find exactly the right word, but she's not fighting right at this moment, so it's a little hard to capture.

"Um... if it makes you feel better, I... well, I'm not in remedial classes, but... I got really bad grades for a few years because I got obsessed with something. I'm... I'm trying to fix them now, hence..." she gestures at all of the papers and textbooks. "It's hard trying to fix something after leaving it broken for so long."

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

"Oh," Mikoto blinks. Yumi's real smart, so maybe she knew what she was doing, not saying that part... ".. but I don't wanna keep secrets, neither," she answers her own thoughts, and Raiko, too.

Mikoto hopes she can free him, too. He deserves a better life.

"They're Raiko's enemies," she supplies, with sympathy, as the other girl trails off. And then, she checks: "Is it like that?" It might not be, after all. Mikoto can't remember where she learned that, but it feels important. "Me, I can't think too good when I think someone's an enemy. Sounds like Raiko's family's been fighting Dark Fall for a long time, so..."

Mikoto frowns, and adds: "But if you get too angry," she supplies the emotion from her own experience. "it's easy to control you. Even without pendants. So if it is like that, I think you should be careful, Raiko. Dark Fall's good at that." Controlling her, that is.

Well, that is, controlling people.

Mikoto tilts her head, though, considering Raiko's academic history. "Yeah," she agrees, again. "Me, too." She smiles, though, sliding the paper over towards Raiko. "But broken stuff can still get better, even if it was broken a long time. I know that, 'cause Mai and Eri and Yumi... everyone, was fighting for me, even after I gave up on me. Even if it takes more work, I think it's worth it. 'Cause that's how they felt, and what they did, too."


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

"I'm kind of used to keeping secrets," Raiko admits. "You're not supposed to tell non-witches about witchcraft, after all, but... I guess I'm also a magical girl now, too."

'They're Raiko's enemies.' Raiko nods to that. "... Yeah, I guess that's it. The Hungry Queen is trying to do something bad, and we're trying to stop her." Mikoto's admission about not thinking too good when facing an enemy makes her blink a little bit. Something about that strikes a chord with her. "Huh."

"Yeah... I knew he was doing magic stuff, but I didn't know ''what'' until I learned about the staff. But he's supposed to be really good at what he does..."

But Mikoto elaborates on the topic of anger, and this time, Raiko is left blinking, and then looking down to contemplate at a few things. She doesn't have a response this time.

"Yumi-chan's really nice like that. She listened to my problems when she didn't have to, and... I wasn't sure I wanted to accept responsibility for my staff at first, but she protected me anyway. And I couldn't bear the thought of letting her down.... Yumi-chan makes me feel like it's ''possible'' to fix things, even if I'm not sure how, and now that I have the staff, I'm trying to responsible with it."

She regards Mikoto for a moment, qietly reevaluating a few things. Eventually she holds out her hand and a small box of candy canes appears in it, from nowhere. "Would you like a candy cane? I've got a few saved from Christmas but they should still be good..." She checks the date on the package. "Yeah, still good."

 <Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

"I wasn't supposed to tell, neither," Mikoto says. "But my secrets were bad. They hurt people from the inside... it's not like hiding magic."

Not that Mikoto has ever been ''great'' at maintaining the masquerade, but she can at least appreciate what it's meant to protect better, these days.

The chords she's striking -- the responses she gets, and the ones she doesn't -- they make Mikoto worry. But she just hums, to indicate she's listening, and keeps her eyes on her. She doesn't know enough to know what to say, but she knows not to look away from it, at least.

She brightens, though, when Raiko talks about Yumi. "Yumi's amazing!" She says, without reservation. "She's really reliable," and more and more, Mikoto relies on her. "And really smart, too! If Yumi thinks you can do it, I know you can. Yup!" Mikoto nods, as if it's as simple as that.

And then, Raiko opens her palm, and -- "Waaaoooooh!" Mikoto gasps, eyes widening in delight, as Raiko ''makes food appear from nowhere.'' "Magic food! Magic food! Can I?" She looks to her, eagerly, and then grasps a candy cane. "Magic food..." She repeats, staring down at it, in sheer wonder.

She unwraps it, and --

CHOMP.

Mikoto looks very happy with this turn of events.


 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

"Yeahk, I guess those are kind of two different situations, huh?" Keeping the masquerade is somewhat second nature to her at this point.

Raiko has a lot of jumbled feelings running through her, and it's entirely possible she hasn't had a chance to really analyze all of them fully. She'll be fine. Probably. She's not holding her grandfather's disappearance against Mikoto specifically, in any case.

Mikoto's insistence that if Yumi thinks she can, that she's fully confident that she can, does actually get a smile from her. It's still a bit timid, but it does last a few moments this time. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

She giggles a little at Mikoto's reaction, then realizes she forgot to explain. "Oh, well, ''sort'' of, see I have this..." She pauses a moment. How to explain to a non-witch...? Finally she pulls out her cell phone and sets it on the table. "I have a magical storage spell on my phone. It lets me carry some items inside of it and pull them back out later when I need them. This... is kind of the thing I got obsessed with."

But she sets the box down on the table--between herself and Mikoto, seemingly an invitation for her to take more, and takes one herself, starting to nibble on it.
[[Category: Logs]]