2023-08-24: Tsutsujidai is Peaceful Today

• Log: 2023-08-24- Tsutsujidai Is Peaceful Today
• Cast: Akane Shinjo, Gridman
• Where: Junk Shop Aya
• OOC - IC Date: 0097-08-24
• Summary: Gridman and Akane's summer vacations wind to a close. The two of them will both part from the tiny city shoved into a tiny corner of a tiny colony -- but they'll never really be fully away from it, either. They talk about what that'll mean for the two of them.

---

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane settles in at the Junk Shop. It still feels strange to her -- to be here and yet totally separate from Tsutsujidai. The 'city that was her heart' has gotten more and more distant from her -- and with Gridman's help... it really has become part of the world. There's a stability to it that she can feel -- or maybe that's just the stability of her own heart that Gridman has been kind enough to help her rebuild.

It's an opportunity she's so, so grateful for -- and an opportunity that she wouldn't have had without him.

She owes him so much -- and yet...

... it's difficult, either way.

She settles in on one of the couches, and looks to Gridman -- brow a little furrowed, expression serious. "It's kinda hard to imagine you're leaving, still," she admits. "It feels like you only just got here, but it also feels like you've kinda been around my whole life. Most of two years now, huh..." Rubbing at the back of her neck, she says, "I was fifteen when we met. That's kinda wild to me. It feels like such a huge gap!"

It takes her a long time to wind around to her follow-up. "... I'm really glad you found that strength inside you. Not just for me, but..." Her expression turns a little distant. "Everyone deserves that kinda chance." Strictly speaking, it's not her responsibility -- cannot be -- but she's heard about 3G and the Yumi Foundation dealing with the sudden return of some fifty-odd people to the world, missing anywhere from one to two years of time. She knows what that means... and she needs to entrust freeing herself of that burden to them, rather than make it her own problem.

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

Papers stacked. He worked hard enough on this, Yuta may as well get credit. Many subjects, each one the source of boredom and distress. Math, history, English... lined up nicely. It's easy to see where each subject begins and ends.

If Yuta's going to come back into being so suddenly, Gridman can at least have his summer homework done.

Akane settles in, and Gridman gives her a warm smile. "Hey." It seems she's jumping into the tough stuff immediately, so Gridman sets his papers to the side. Joining her on the other end of the couch, the Hyper Agent gives her a sad little shake of his head.

"Think about how I must feel! My entire life took place here, at least that I can remember. It feels so long, and still way too short." Gridman is quiet for a moment, then: "But I get what you mean. I look at the fifteen year olds now, and I'm like 'wow, that's a child'. Did we ever really look so small?"

Gridman laughs. "Not that this body has grown much. I think Yuta is doomed to be the shortest boy in class forever."

A companionable silence stretches between the two. Gridman isn't the first to break it.

Golden, otherworldly eyes look into Akane's. "I'm sorry it took me so long. Believe me, if I knew how to do this, I would have right away. Taking two years to remember such a fundamental ability is... a little embarrassing."

"There's so much I still wanted to do here. Things to see, and learn about. I feel like I'm just getting started." He looks down, tugging a bit at the ever-present red wristband. "How are you doing with everyone coming back? Tonkawa and the others... It was pretty shocking to me, so I can't imagine how you must be feeling."

"I believe in second chances too, but I never thought... I guess, coming back to life is a hell of a second chance." Gridman smiles faintly. "I hope they make the most of it."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

Akane's pretty happy to see that Gridman took that stuff seriously; she was pretty worried for a second about Yuta getting situated again. It probably wouldn't have been the kind of thoughtlessness that would make her drop a kaiju on something...

... but the part of her that dropped a kaiju on Tonkawa over her incidental mistreatment of Yuta is still just as real as anything else. (All told, this has been a more productive way to handle that feeling. She's learning.)

"You still look small, yeah," Akane teases, before adding, "I guess I kinda do too! I don't think I'm ever cracking 160 centimeters." The lighter side of this isn't bad, either. "I guess you do have a bit more adult a face though..." Belaboring the changes in her own body would be a little bit excessively obvious. She wasn't even really presenting as herself when they first met -- but then, that was true of Gridman, too, wasn't it?

Shaking her head, Akane says, "It's not like we had a ton of opportunities to take cracks at trying different ways to fight Alexis. He was pretty good at making that stuff hard." She doesn't want to put too much pressure on Gridman here... Knight taught her, at strain, that it doesn't matter if an action is perfect as long as you're moving forward. She really should pay that forward.

'Two years to remember' gets a slightly embarrassed laugh. "I didn't do any better, did I? It took me two years to remember how to go outside for real!" A hand comes up to her mouth, and she laughs. At his comment about things he wanted to do, though... "I guess no one ever gets enough time to be a kid..."

The topic stays heavy, and Akane thinks about it. "I'm glad, you know? It's a big relief. If I think about it too hard it feels unfair that other people don't get that, but... I guess that's true in everything..."

Nervously, she adds, "I hope the next time we see each other, I'm... stronger than I am now, I guess. I want to live a life you'll be proud of." That reminds her, in turn... "And I guess I'm kinda already started there! I'm pretty close to being certified for everything I need for the Intelligence desk. 3G has a few university partners, too, so as long as I don't blow my entrance exams I'm gonna be a decent chunk of the way into college when I graduate from high school..."

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

Gridman laughs at Akane's tease. "I've noticed a lot of people from Tsutsujidai are pretty short, so I'm not worried about Yuta fitting in or anything. I hope he won't mind his face changing..."

There's nothing Gridman can really do about it, so he may as well try not to worry.

"Vit did shoot him a bunch one time." Gridman says, of Alexis, with a grin. "I hope it at least annoyed Alexis. Maybe he had to get a new cape or something. Thanks though, Akane. It's good to hear I didn't mess up."

"Well!" Gridman can't help but smile at the sound of Akane's laughter. "You're pretty good at going outside now! Yeah, though... I wonder if Hyper Agents even have childhoods? I guess I'll find out soon. I'm sure even the Repli-Compoids feel that childhood passes far too quickly. But you've still got a little while left, right? You should make the most of it!"

What a change, being able to talk to Akane like this. Heavy and light things alike feel so natural between them. Gridman can barely remember what it was like before, the heavy weight of seeing her in class and knowing who she truly was. Now they're comrades. They're bound together.

"I wish I could do more with Fixer Beam. I get the feeling it's not really... like that, though. It can't just undo everything, only create a clean state for new beginnings." Gridman's brows draw together sadly. "All we can do is be thankful for the miracle we got, I guess. And not forget the others..."

"Akane, you're already my strongest friend. You want to get even stronger?" Gridman teases, softly. "You're going to outshine even a Giant of Light like that. I'm already proud of you, prouder than I am of anyone. You don't have anything to prove, at least, not to me."

Golden eyes light up as Akane mentions her almost-certification. "No way! That's so cool! You've decided to go to college for sure, then? I guess if you've already got a bunch of credit, it'd be dumb not to use it. I hope you and Rikka can go to the same place. Somewhere beautiful."

"I'm picturing somewhere with big green lawns and ponds and stuff. Really old-fashioned." Gridman smiles. "Maybe the air will even be as clean as it is here at home."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"I think most people don't notice that kinda stuff... I think he'll be okay." Akane doesn't seem too worried about that one; in the cosmic sense, there's definitely higher-priority things that Yuta's going to have to worry about than a couple years of maturity. She doesn't linger on it, though, because what he says next cracks her straight up.

"God. I don't think he had to do that stuff, but imagining him going shopping is pretty funny... I know he had car insurance, though, so maybe he did."

She breezes along. "That's what I've been trying to do, haha. At first it was like, 'oh, I need to protect it 'cuz everyone worked so hard,' but that was just another excuse, I guess." Bringing a hand up to her dark hair, she sighs dreamily, and then says, "I don't think it was until after everything that happened on the Garuda that I really got a handle on it. I had some moments, but..." She pauses to stand up, stretching out. "'You only get this once' means you need to take the kinda risks you can only take while you're a teenager, too, right?"

She heads over behind the counter, asking, "Do you want anything?" The shop's closed for now, with Rikka and her mom somewhere else for the moment. "I'm kind of feeling some tea..."

She's still feeling chatty, though. "Ahahaha... I think you're grading me on a curve," she replies, with an embarrassed look. "But when we meet again, I hope I won't feel that way." It's as much for her own sake as anything else.

Talk turns to college, and Akane nods. "3G's got university partners, so I might be doing it remote... we'll see how the U-FITS goes and figure it out. I hear there's some developers interested in the rest of this place, too, so who knows -- we might be just on the other side of the pillar!"

That thought's pretty exciting, too. Akane stares off a little, with a dreamy expression and the fridge still open.

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

"He had car insurance?!" Gridman says, incredulously. "No way, that's--"

Gridman breaks into laughter. It's genuine, and cathartic, compared to the little chuckles he's offered so far.

"Then he must've had a driver's license too, right? Imagine Alexis waiting in line for a photograph..." Gridman giggles once more. "I can't believe it. Maybe we should've tried to fight him with a traffic ticket or something."

Gridman nods, watching Akane card through her hair. It looks better like this, he thinks. "I guess that's one way to re-evaluate your life... It must've made you realize what's truly important really fast. You and Rikka have seemed even closer since you got home, I think."

"I'd like some tea as well, thanks! I never really gave it a fair chance. That'll be my risk for the day." Gridman stands as well, carefully putting his pile of summer homework into his backpack. It wouldn't do to get tea on it after working so hard.

Listening to the talk of colleges, Gridman settles back in on the couch. "That'd be so cool! There's a lot of room for Tsutsujidai to expand. Imagine if we got a college of our own! I hope they'd pick a cat for the mascot. Are you and Rikka going to go to the same place for sure? I know it's an old cliche for a high-school couple to break up for college, but I can't imagine that for you two."

"Hey, Akane, wake up!" Gridman laughs. "You're going to let all the cold out of the fridge like that.

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"I never looked at it that closely -- but, uh, huh. You're right, actually." Then again, it's not like that couldn't have been edited into the world by the maintenance kaiju. ... How much of this world really was 'just the way she wanted it'?

"Ehe -- yeah..." She thinks about that closeness, and tries to put her thoughts into words. It takes a little bit. "Yeah, that's about it. It's not just, like, 'oh, I'm afraid of losing her now,' just... I guess I realized how little time we might really have."

If all things are finite, then it's more important to love, not less, right? ... Not that she's quite got it together enough to say that, even as philosophical as she is at the moment.

Snapping back to reality at Gridman's urging, Akane hastily shuts the fridge once she's got two bottles of tea. Returning to the couch and tossing one lazily to Gridman, she says, "I dunno yet! I think we're gonna make it work. Right now we're thinking of going apartment hunting after entrance exams, so I guess things are pretty serious..." Breaking up for university, though. That's... a difficult thought, and one Akane has to turn over a bit in her head.

"Well, like -- the best thing we can do," she reflects, "is study extra hard for the U-FITS together. As long as neither of us blow it, it'll be fine, I think -- I bet we could both get a lot of recommendations, too..." That gets her thinking in turn, though. "What about you? Give any thought to the 'human history teacher' thing?"

I don't understand that.

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

"It's different to 'know' something and 'experience' something, I think." Gridman grabs the tea out of the air. Hyper Agents have excellent reflexes. "So it makes sense your perspective would change."

With a little cracking noise, the tea is opened. Gridman takes a sip.

"Hmmm... It's not sweet enough, still." Another sip. "Not as bad as I remembered though. I definitely like it more than I thought I did."

"Oh wow, apartment hunting!" Gridman angles his drink toward Akane, almost a toast. "That's pretty serious. If you need any help with getting a nice place, the Neon Genesis Junior High Students are loaded. They hacked a bunch of money when we first arrived, somehow. You guys deserve somewhere nice, so just say the word, and I'll have them give you some cash."

Why were the Neon Genesis Junior High Students always bumming around at Aya if they're that rich!? That's a mystery that will soon be lost to the ages...

"I think that's a good idea. You and Rikka are both really smart, so I'm sure it'll be just fine." Gridman smiles. "It's hard to imagine any school turning down someone with as many references as you guys have. You can totally fake one from me, too, if you need to. I have no idea if that'd help or not."

He laughs a little. "Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. I don't know how much preparation Hyper Agents get before they come to this world, but I'm sure it's not enough. Even if I just gave them lessons on how to fit in, I'm sure it'd help make things go more smoothly. Maybe I can win people over on the idea, but who knows. Sigma says there's a lot of desk work."

<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.

"Oh, yeah, this is unsweetened. If that's your whole problem, there's a Britannian brand that you might like better? It's got honey and ginseng in it." It's kind of funny to think that Gridman's got a bit of a child's palate -- not that Akane is exactly better on this point, but there's just something... familiar and warm, in that.

In the end, no one who lives as a human can really be a god.

"Wow. And they were freeloading here in spite of that?" Akane laughs at the image of Calibur having a nice house. "But -- nah. It's not like, 'oh, it's only fair if we do this stuff entirely on our own power,' or anything, just... I wanna see how far we can make it."

A beat passes, and she adds, "It might help to know some people who've already done the house hunting thing, though..." She's aware of scams and stuff, of course.

Gridman suggests faking a reference -- and Akane smiles. It's a little naive, and a little sketchy -- hardly the type of thing she imagines a Hyper Agent encouraging... but that gap is kind of cute.

"I think you'll do great. Wherever you go, whatever you do. You're the person who saved me... and I think you can probably save a lot of other people, too. Whether it's teaching, or fighting guys like Alexis, or whatever."

Letting out a breath through her nose, Akane opens her mouth. Then closes it. Then: "I was going to ask a few other questions, but like... you don't have the answers either, so like -- I guess... all I can really say is, 'good luck,' huh. For both of us!"

<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.

"When I come back, I want to try that tea." Honey and ginseg is a strange, sounding combination, but honey is always good. It's definitely worth trying. For now, he sips another bit of this unsweetened tea. "No wonder Rikka is so healthy, drinking this stuff all the time. It's gotta be full of vitamins and whatever."

If Akane makes note of Gridman's immature palate, he doesn't notice, looking down into the can of tea with a dubious expression. Why wouldn't you add sugar to something, honestly...

"Yeah!" Gridman laughs. "At first, they didn't know how to take their money out of the bank. Once they figured it out, they were so used to hanging around for my sake that they didn't want to leave. At least Max did some dishes in exchange, right? Oh, and, they didn't exactly house-hunt. They just added houses to an empty cul-de-sac at the edge of the city, um, somehow. So I don't know if they'd have good tips..."

Maybe Max could serve as a deterrent for anyone trying to scam the girls? He knows how to look imposing enough.

"Thank you, Akane." Gridman's eyes shimmer, catching the light of Aya's diner lights. "I feel the same way about you. Wherever you go, you're carrying me with you, in spirit. I'll be right there cheering you on -- house hunting, college entrance exams, whatever. I'm always on your side."

Gridman raises his can of tea to 'clink' against Akane's. "Good luck! The next time we meet, we'll impress each other even more!"