a tale of two Harus

[coolcustomer]

All right. Haru's claimed an apartment, had a couple... interesting conversations, and settled in well enough to raid her father's house for some of her gardening projects. It's time to get her rooftop garden back in order. But first: shopping around for other goodies.

Why this led her to the Inaba door, she couldn't articulate - it just... felt like something she should do. But she's glad it did. There are vegetables here that she hasn't seen before, and all of them look like they'd be useful in the Metaverse. Attack blockers, wheat stalks strong enough to function as lockpicks, status ailment cures - where has this stuff been all her Metaverse career?

She reaches for a pack of eggplant seedlings at the same time as someone else, and looks up to find - herself. Sort of. Maybe a little younger, definitely a little gothier - definitely, if Haru is any judge of her own face, a lot more burned by the world.

Her counterpart smiles, too brief and more amused than genuinely happy. "I really should have expected this, after I heard I was here twice."

"I hadn't heard that," Haru says, wondering who they've both talked to (or more likely, which version of Akechi-kun they've both talked to).

"Lucky me, then. Well, at least we can use our code names for clarity - 'Noir' is a little on the nose, don't you think?"

"That - that was the point." Haru's mind is racing. That answers one question, as she doubts Shujin Akechi or the Ren who helped her apartment-hunt would know that detail offhand, and raises about a million more. She decides to start with a simple and useful one. "What did you choose?"

"Rose," her counterpart says, after a moment too long's hesitation.

"No, you didn't."

"There's a half-dozen versions of my only friend here and none of them are mine. Can you blame me for keeping some information in reserve?"

"...No, I suppose I can't." And that answers several of Haru's unasked questions. Yusuke-kun did say once that any one of them could have taken a dark path, if they'd lacked support. She just tries not to think about how close she came to that.

Well, if their meeting place is any indication, at least her love for plants survived whatever hell her counterpart's father unleashed (even in her complicated feelings, Haru has no doubt he was ultimately responsible; there was a time she would have done anything for his approval).

"It's curious." Rose's attention is back on the rack of seedlings. "Why only four varieties of the paprika, when there are eight elements to shield from?"

"You know, that's a good question. Do you... think we could grow the other four?"

Rose grins, sharp and delighted in equal measure. "I don't see why we shouldn't try."

***

With their shopping done, the girls have decamped to the upturned crates outside Souzai Daigaku, the better to compare notes on their respective experiences. Bother?

Comments

[pancakeboy]

[And Akechi is just happening to Inaba again, as he increasingly does, currying favour as he always did. He does not expect to turn a corner and see not one, but two Haru Okumuras, as good as giggling like schoolgirls. One's dressed dark, and clearly the one whose contacts he got. The other....

Hopefully unseen, he jerks back around the corner, out of sight, looking for a better path. Two of them at once, and one of them that one? It's not that he's quailing, he just... sees no reason to inflict that on either of them.]

[rosemaudite]

['Giggling like schoolgirls.' Please. If Haru's ever done such a thing in her life, that was a lifetime ago, and her conversation with her counterpart isn't following those sorts of lighthearted topics.

She does see Goro duck away, too used to following that sort of peripheral movement, but she leaves him be, not calling attention to it. If he doesn't want to intrude, and Noir probably wouldn't appreciate it, she won't make him.]

[pheasantboy]

But two of them! Not just the one he's already met, in her darker clothes, but....

By the time he reaches them, his steps have slowed, and the wild hope's wilted from his face. Haru would never look at him that way. Not in that way that sends a shiver through him. He comes to rest near enough to make conversation, but not too close, eyes wide and innocent and sad.

"Good afternoon, ladies." He offers a little bow. "I don't suppose you know if there are any more of you, hanging about?"

[rosemaudite]

"Just the two, so far as I'm aware." It's not quite oh gods, you again, but it's perhaps close enough.

Noir, for her part, looks... alarmed, and more than a little baffled. "Why... would you be looking for me?"

[pheasantboy]

And, for all that he tries not to react as though they both slapped him, he wilts a little further, in a profoundly un-Akechi way. "You're not telling me it's that bad? You only just met me."

It's just... the way people look at him. He has noticed. He remembers. He's been trying to work it out, to retain it, and he knows how people feel about him now.

"I was just wondering if perhaps you were... But it's fine. I won't bother you any further. Have a nice day." And he turns to go, ungloved hands slipping into his pockets.

[coolcustomer]

"Wait - Akechi-kun! You don't have to go."

(Rose just sighs. Why is she bothering, he's broken, there's nothing of value from this.)

[pheasantboy]

He turns back, a little mistrustfully. Does she mean it? "I really don't want to get in the way of your conversation. You seem to be getting on quite well."

And he glances to the other one, the one he met, the one who'd clearly prefer him to leave.

[coolcustomer]

It's not... it just hurts, okay. Rose's Goro isn't here and this one is broken. The glimmers of what he should be - what all the others seem to have in common so far... she can only watch those disappear under the weight of whatever he thinks is happening so many times.

"I didn't mean to dismiss you out of hand," Haru says. "I just... truly don't know why you'd be looking for me."

Rose sighs. "I should be going anyway. I'll be in touch about the paprika project."

"If... if you're certain." But Haru doesn't push further, not with I can't do this a second time written all over Rose's face, plain as day.

She's up and gone before Broken Goro can protest, if he was planning to.

[pheasantboy]

He doesn't protest. But he watches her go. He didn't mean to drive her off, but....

"I really do apologise." He turns back to her. "I didn't mean to interrupt the pair of you. It's just that you're the only other one of you I've seen."

[coolcustomer]

"She... finds it difficult having so many people here who aren't quite someone she calls a friend, I think." And Haru can empathize with that, even if she finds the friend in question as odd a choice as it was Rose's only choice.

"You didn't do anything wrong."

It's just surprising that he'd willingly approach her at all.

[pheasantboy]

"It means a lot that you'd say that much." But he thinks about it. It's not the different Harus and Rens that bother him, particularly, is it? It's more that they never know him. Or they look at him as if he's ... well, broken.

"Do you mind if I join you? It's the least I can do, since I've driven off your company."

[coolcustomer]

Well, they do know him, after a fashion. Just... not him specifically.

"I wouldn't mind at all. The steak skewers are an interesting experience, if you're hungry."

[pheasantboy]

"Interesting, you say?" He takes a seat nearby, on one of the crates—not the one other-Haru vacated—and lets his inner food critic show a little.

"Interesting enough to recommend, but not to praise, is that right?"

[aspiringhero]

From behind a corner, a pair of wide, red-brown eyes watches the girls talking. They are significantly lower to the ground than any other such eyes that they may be more used to, and also much rounder and more curious.

[coolcustomer]

Haru's facing the wrong way and is less generally wary, so she doesn't notice at all.

Thankfully, Rose isn't as unaware. "We're being watched."

"We are?" Haru turns in the direction Rose indicates, and gasps. "Is that..."

"He's so tiny."

[aspiringhero]

Goro's been caught—! He straightens up, torn between alarm and embarrassment. And his mom wouldn't want him to be staring at girls, would she...?

He bows low. "I'm really, really sorry," he says, just like his mom taught him.

[coolcustomer]

Oh, he's far too young for it to be anything other than curiosity. (Besides, this is two of the three girls here right now.)

"It's quite all right," Haru says.

Rose smiles, there and gone in a flash. "No need to apologise for curiosity, kiddo."

[aspiringhero]

Goro relaxes a bit, enough to take a couple of tentative steps forward. He knows how to introduce himself, too. He can do it really well, even! Adults are happy, at least until they learn about him and his mom, and then they don't like him as much anymore.

He bows again. "Pleased to meet
you. My name is Goro Akechi."

[coolcustomer]

The girls confer between themselves for a few moments before turning back to him. "It's good to meet you as well. My name is Haru."

"As is mine. You can call me Rose, Goro-kun." (That's what they were sorting out - 'Noir' is a pretty big mouthful to expect a six-year-old who probably hasn't heard much French to handle.)

[aspiringhero]

[ Goro thinks he gets it! He nods seriously. ] We have codenames at home too because there are three of us. Plus the other us that doesn't live there.

[ ...But their name is Haru, right? That's what the one who's not wearing as much black said. ]

[coolcustomer]

"That must get confusing," Haru says. Two of her around is quite enough (a point Rose wholeheartedly agrees on).

[aspiringhero]

"It was confusing before." He finally feels brave enough to close the final bit of distance, so they can have a normal conversation. "Now we have codenames. I'm Hawk. Like Red Hawk."

He smiles as he says it, obviously proud of this fact! His Featherman t-shirt may add to that impression as well. But then he remembers something important he should say, if he says that. "Um. But Crow said it was okay to just use names if there was only one of us."

[coolcustomer]

"Code names are useful like that," Haru says, then frowns briefly. "Which one is Crow, though?"

"The one who goes to Shujin." Rose grins. "The other older one got stuck with Magpie." (By 'the other older one,' she obviously means 'not Broken Goro,' but she doesn't want to confuse the kid in front of her now by implying he's broken. If anything, this little boy is the most whole of all of them.)

"...Oh dear."

contributes to the line of Akechis who see the Harus and go no thank you... but differently!

[paysforall]

[A taller, older Akechi - the one dressed like a goth shop used him for a model - comes around the corner, sees the Harus...

... And vanishes. Just, outright - you know the thing in movies where someone blinks, or something passes by blocking your vision, and the person you were supposed to be watching is gone without a trace?

Apparently at least one Akechi has mastered that trick.

After about thirty seconds, both Harus will experience the impression that he didn't want to deal with both of them at once. The more experienced Haru, in particular, might catch that there's something definitely-cognitive-world flavored about that impression.

And then he's gone for actual. Later ladies! Have a good garden!]

[rosemaudite]

[What the hell was that.

Rest assured, one of the pair will be following up on this sooner than later. After two years of fucking with other people's minds, she's very aware of her own.

But that can wait, at least for a little while.]