* Kyon nods, and gives her a hard quick smile. "Yeah." He goes out the doors of the hospital and walks off towards his bike. * Katie walks after Kyon. "Yeah." She looks mildly uncertain. "I've never ridden a motorcycle before." [The other 3 come out of the hospital. Jiro is headed your way.] * Kyon nods tersely. "Just hold on. You'll be fine." He hops on, then reaches into his bike and hands her a helmet. Quick, now. * Katie gets on the bike, puts on a helmet, and holds onto Kyon. She looks over at the group. Her eyes linger on Shingo for a moment, then she turns them away. "Let's go." * Jiro walks towards Kyon and Katie. * Kyon kicks it into gear, and drives off down the street. * Jiro looks around. (How many people are in sight? ) ( A few here, a few there. Not crowded, but not empty either. ) * Kyon talks loudly back over his shoulder. "Any idea where she'd go?" * Jiro takes off after the bike at a run. She's probably in her office at school or at home. She might be eating, but it'd be easier to check the other two spots first. [Jiro does a mighty good job of catching up on foot.] * Kyon nods, and starts to head off faster. "Give me directions to her house." [23:40] Sure. * Jiro shouts after the bike, hoping he can be heard over it's engine. "HEY, KYON!" * Katie gives him the directions, then blinks. She glances back. "I thought someone was following us." [Kyon can see Jiro in the mirror. He's catching up easily.] * Jiro *is* following. ;P * Kyon doesn't take his eyes off the road. He yells back, "Want me to stop?" YES, PLEASE! You'd better. Or Jiro'll keep running and attract enough witnesses to... yeah. * Kyon rolls his eyes in his helmet, and pulls over to the side of the street. * Katie waits for Jiro to stop. * Jiro slows to a stop next to the bike. "Kyon. Where are you going?" * Katie smacks Jiro upside the head. "You idiot!" * Kyon pulls his helmet off and shakes out his hair. "To find Chikako." * Jiro is smacked, but doesn't seem to mind. "Yeah, I know. That's why I wanted to talk to Kyon. He's smart. He knows how to find things out." That's not- * Katie sighs. "Look, Jiro. What did you just do?" I just ran really goddamned fast somewhere where some people could see me. But that's not the point. It's part of the point. We really shouldn't attract more attention than we have to. Or... more of us might get hurt. * Jiro droops as he hears that. "I... I didn't... " * Kyon nods tersely. "Yeah. Keep a low profile, kid." He surveys the street. "I don't think people saw much." * Katie nods and pats Jiro's arm. "It's okay. Just think next time, all right?" * Jiro nods. "Yeah. Look, I'm sorry, it's just... I wanna know who did this." So do we. I think everyone does. I couldn't find out out on my own. I'm not good at that. * Kyon smirks at Jiro. "You want to know who shot her?" He shakes his head. "No idea yet. But I'll find out." * Jiro brightens a bit. "You will?" * Kyon nods firmly. "No one shoots my allies without me doing something about it." * Katie sighs and shakes her head. "Kyon?" * Jiro nods grimly. "But you lemme know, alright? I wanna do somethin' to 'em, too. I ain't gonna let 'em get away with this." * Kyon nods to Jiro, then turns a bit to look at Katie. "Yeah?" Is it really too much work to think of Taki as a friend? * Jiro listens, but doesn't say anything more. Hey. Either of you have somethin' to write on? * Kyon cocks his head, and his eyes flash before he says in staccato fashion, "Friend. Page, I've got very high standards. You ask me? I've had one person I'd consider a friend. If your friend the Knight gets there, I'll call her my friend too." He shakes his head. "Till then, she's an ally." I see. Okay. And yeah, give me a second. * Kyon turns back to Jiro, and says calmly, "In the bag in the small trunk." He hits a button, and it unlocks. ... Or he could do that. Uh... trunk. I guess. * Jiro reaches into the trunk, into the bag, and comes up with a small notepad and a pen. * Jiro scribbles down two numbers. "This's my home number, and my cel phone number. Call me if you find anything, right?" * Kyon reaches a hand out for the paper, and nods. Oh. And call me if you're in trouble, too. I can be there, uh, pretty fast. * Jiro waves. "So, yeah. See ya', I guess." * Katie smiles and waves back. "We'll let you know if we come up with anything." * Kyon nods again, and stuffs the paper in his pocket. "Yeah." He waves back towards Jiro with a quick motion. * Katie gets ready for the motorcycle ride again. * Jiro looks around, and starts walking for him home at a perfectly normal human walking pace. * Kyon reaches for his helmet, and sticks it on again. "Ready?" Yeah. * Kyon presses a button to lock the trunk again, then kicks the bike into gear. He drives according to the directions Katie gave him before. [Boink! They arrive at Chikako's apartment building.] * Katie gets off the bike and glances around. "I've never been here before." * Kyon hops off the bike, and stows his helmet in the trunk. "Me neither." He shrugs. "It's a good time for it, though." * Katie nods and starts towards the building. [The building isn't a bad place to live. It lacks the splendor of Kyon's place, though] * Kyon strides towards the building, next to Katie, looking it over. * Katie heads inside. [It's a very average, non-descript building.] * Katie goes to the receptionist and asks for directions to Chikako's apartment. [The receptionist happily informs Katie.] * Katie smiles and thanks her. * Kyon heads in behind Katie, crouching as he goes in. He goes over to the elevators and waits for Katie. * Katie walks over to Kyon. "Fifth floor." She bites her lip. * Kyon presses the up button, and rocks back on his heels. [The elevator arrives with a *ding!*] * Katie peeks in the elevator. * Katie gulps nervously as she mentally calculates how long it would take her to take the stairs instead. I- I guess... * Katie glances back at Kyon. * Kyon looks down at Katie, and smirks before scanning the area for stairs. * Katie does the same. (Minus the smirking part.) (Awww. Smirk! You know you want to!) (She smirks when she darn well feels like it. :P) [You find the stairs.] * Katie breathes a sigh of relief and heads for the stairs. "It's not funny," she says quietly as she opens the door. * Kyon walks behind her, quietly smirking to himself. * Katie starts climbing. "And I don't need to see you to know you're doing that smirking thing again." But... thanks for not making me take the elevator. * Kyon barks out a quick laugh, warmer than usual. "Yeah. It's fine. I won't make you face your weakness when you don't have to." [They climb and climb. Man, it seems to take forever.] * Katie wrinkles her nose. "My weakness. I guess. " * Kyon climbs without seeming to tire at all. * Katie doesn't seem to mind the climb, either. Kinda like she does this kind of thing a lot. :P [Eventually they get to the top. Well, not the top, but the fifth floor, at least.] * Kyon nods to himself. "Yeah. Facing fear is hard. It's worth doing. But it's hard." He steps out of the stairwell. I try, sometimes. But... * Katie bites her lip and heads towards Chikako's apartment. "It hasn't worked yet." [They reach the apartment!] * Katie knocks on the door. Or rings the doorbell, whichever works around here. * Kyon nods, and waits just to the right of the door, next to Katie. [They both work well, and in a minute the door is opened by Chikako, with a huge grin across her face. ...No, it's not quite Chikako. She's taller and older.] "Yes, can I help... Oh! You're a foreigner, aren't you? That's so neat!" * Katie blinks up at the woman. She smiles a bit. "Yeah. Is Chikako home?" * Kyon steps into view. "We'd like to see her, if that's all right." She nods. "Uh-huh. She came home early today. That's so neat! She's in her room." She stands aside and gestures for you to enter. "It's the one on the right." [The door opens into a living room. There's a door on the left that leads to the kitchen, then two bedrooms on the right. It's kinda like Lucy's and Ricky's apartment in I Love Lucy.] * Katie nods and steps in. "Thank you." She pauses, then has the sense to remove her shoes before she heads over to Chikako's room. * Kyon nods to the woman, as he walks in, takes off his shoes, and walks through the living room towards Chikako's room, looking things over cursorily as he does. [The apartment looks nice, but average.] * Katie knocks on Chikako's door. "Chikako? It's Katie and Kyon." * Kyon nods to himself, and he strides in beside Katie. [A voice says. "Katie? You can come in; it's cool."] Okay. * Katie opens the door and steps in. * Kyon steps into the doorway, and nods at Chikako. "Hey." * Chikako is sitting in her room. There's a number of plushies all over, but besides the usual stuffed animals, there's unusal objects too; plush cans of Pocari Sweat and a plush telephone, for instance. Chikako's holding a plush newspaper. There's also a bookcase with a lot of... well, books. The other furnishings aren't so amazing: two dressers, a mirror, a TV, and a bed (of course). [There's a computer, too. Let's not forget that ^_-] (Plush newspaper? Wow. That's impressive. ^^) ( ^^ ) * Katie takes in the room, then walks over to Chikako. "How are you holding up?" * Chikako looks up. She hasn't been crying nearly as much as Mr. Shimiru, but still looks sad. * Kyon surveys the room, and gives Chikako a small and quiet smile. "Can I come in?" * Chikako nods. * Katie get a bit misty-eyed at Chikako's expression and hugs her. It's been cool, you know? I've been doing a bit better, but... * Kyon walks in, and kneels on the floor next to the bed. He doesn't say anything, but he puts a hand on Chikako's knee. Was it cool to put it in the paper? I wasn't sure if I should... It... it's cool, Chikako. I don't think you hurt Taki by doing that, and I don't think she'd be mad. * Chikako smiles a bit. "Listen to me, I'm worried more about what I said in the paper than what happened to Taki. How uncool is that?" * Katie smiles slightly and lets go of Chikako, taking a seat next to her instead. * Kyon shakes his head, and squeezes her knee. "Everyone knows you care, Chikako. You have a lot of power. It's good to worry about using it right." Sometimes, I think we get through things by trying to think about other things. And Kyon's right. You wouldn't worry about what you said if you didn't care about Taki. They say the media is uncool; that reporters will stomp on anyone to get a story. I don't want to end up like that. * Katie tilts her head. "I don't think you'll end up like that." * Kyon moves onto the bed next to Chikako. "Yeah. You care too much about the people. Not about yourself. You'll be fine." * Chikako blinks. "Think so?" Um... I sent some flowers. Cool looking ones. I was going to visit, but I wasn't sure... She'd like it if you visited. * Chikako nods. * Kyon nods firmly. "Yeah. I think so. You're doing what you can. And you can go visit tomorrow, if you want." * Chikako nods again. That'd be cool. If you want, Kyon or I or both of us can go with you, too. Okay? * Chikako nods. "Cool." * Katie smiles and hugs Chikako again. "It'll be okay." * Kyon nods, and leans away from the hugging girls. "Yeah. She'll get better. She looks like a quick healer." * Chikako nods. "They said it wasn't serious, so that's cool..." ( Hoo boy. You guys have no idea how hard it is to keep using cool when she's depressed like this :P ) (I can guess. ^^;) Yeah. And they know who did it, right? So he'll be caught eventually. * Chikako nods. "Eye-Witnesses and everything." So things'll turn out fine. * Katie looks over at Kyon. * Kyon nods, and avoids squishing plushies as he leans back. "Yeah. She'll get her justice. It'll work out." * Chikako nods. "But in the mean time... What if she misses the dance? That'd be so uncool. Especially since she just bought that cool dress." * Katie considers. "Well, if she misses..." Maybe we can hold our own dance for her. * Kyon raises an eyebrow and looks behind Chikako's back at Katie skeptically. * Chikako smiles. "Really? Cool!" * Katie grins and gives Kyon a work-with-me look. She turns back to Chikako. "Yeah. I mean, we can't afford all that much, but all the important people will be there, right? And she'll get to wear that dress she got and everything." * Chikako nods, grinning. "And we'll force Satoshi along if he doesn't wanna. It'll be so cool!" * Katie laughs. "Yeah." I'd think he'd want to, though. He really likes Taki. * Kyon nods slowly. "Yeah. He'd be the most important one. And we could get him pretty easy." He does? Cool! I wasn't sure. I'm not very good at understanding people, but if he really does, that's so cool! * Katie grins. "Yeah. I think so, anyway." So you'll be okay, Chikako? * Chikako nods. "I think so." * Chikako smiles. "But it was really cool of you to come by." * Katie smiles. "Good. And you were really upset... It seemed like the right thing to do." * Kyon nods. "No problem. Since you ran off before, I wanted to see how you were." He looks across the room at the computer. * Katie flicks her eyes towards Kyon. "So we'll see you at school tomorrow, Chikako?" [It's a Kir-B 2000. Not the most up to date computer, but reliable and better than a lot of other stuff out now.] * Chikako nods. "Of course! I have to give you a copy of the cool newspaper." * Katie giggles. "Of course. See you there, then." She gives Chikako a quick hug and stands. * Kyon looks back to Chikako, and stands. "Yeah. See you later." * Chikako waves. "Cool." * Katie waves and heads out, making sure she puts her shoes on before she leaves. Chikako's mother is in the kitchen preparing food. She looks through the window and waves. "You're leaving? Neat! Come again!" * Kyon walks out, jams his feet in his shoes, zips up his jacket, and walks out, waving to Chikako's mom as he does. * Katie waves at Chikako's mom. "Take care!" She leaves. * Katie starts heading for the stairs. "Kyon?" [You have now left Chikako's apartment.] * Kyon stops and looks back over his shoulder. "Yeah?" * Katie smiles. "Thanks. I mean that." * Kyon turns to half face her, and nods slightly. "Yeah." * Katie keeps walking. "I could tell you exactly what I'm thanking you for, but..." She opens the door to the stairs. "I'm sure you can figure it out." * Kyon walks along behind her, smirking to himself again. "Yeah." [Session End]