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.]

[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?"

[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.

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!]