[Day: Saturday, March 22nd. Time: 7:00 p.m.] [Weather: Cool, slightly cloudy. The sun has set, but the sky is still partially blue to the west.] [Haruko is sweeping the steps of the shrine. Because what else do priests do?] [Mini Start] * Haruko sweeps, frowning for a moment as a bit of refuse on the stairs proves hard to dislodge with her broom. After a few more attacks with her broom, she sighs and bends over and just picks it up. [Haruko's parents come up the stairs of the shrine.] * Haruko smiles and bows. "Hello Mother and Father." She then quickly finishes up the step she's working on as they reach her. Haruko's father nods back to her. "Good evening, child." Her mother, who's less creepy, smiles and says, "Your father came to pick me up after work today. Wasn't that nice?" * Haruko blinks at that and then smiles again. "Yes, it certainly was." She then winces as she overexerts herself with the sweeping and handles the last few steps at a medium pace. Mom: "How was your day, dear?" * Haruko gives a slight smile. "School was fine, I'm feeling better, and my friends in the hospital seem to be healing, if still rather shaken." * Haruko finishes up sweeping and rubs at her side. She's not feeling *that* much better. "That's good." * Haruko watches her parents with a fairly expectent look. ( You're the one who wanted to talk to them >.> ) Dad: "Why don't we go home? It's getting late." * Haruko nods. "I'd like that. And I have something to tell both of you. A lot of something..." Mom: "Hmm? What's wrong, dear?" * Haruko puts away her broom and walks over to her parents. "It's rather a long story. It might be easiest to start once we get home." "Well, okay, dear." [Thirty minutes later, we're at Haruko's home!] * Haruko walks over to the main table and kneels by it. She carefully takes out !Katie's tape recorder, holding it with a piece of fabric and trying not to disturb any existing prints (prolly to late). She also takes out her water bottle and takes off the top. [Haruko's house is in the traditional Japanese style, and fairly small.] [Meanwhile, her mother makes Beef Stroganough (or whatever it's spelled), and her father smokes an old-timey pipe and just looks CREEPY.] * Haruko hits record on the tape recorder and then waits til her mother isn't handling anything hot or liable to drop. "I'm not really sure where to start, but, I can do this." "Do what, dear?" Dad: "You haven't been doing anything we wouldn't approve of, I hope." * Haruko gestures at the bottle and the water rises up out of the bottle and floats in the area. [Haruko's mother screams! Her dad... stops smoking for a sec.] Mom: "What's happening?" * Haruko winces and looks a bit ashamed when her mother screams. "There's more, but I'm still me, and I'm not the only one with powers." Dad: "Hmmm..." Dad: "You're not? Who else has them?" Mom: "Why didn't you ever tell us you could do this? How long have you been able to?" It's some sort of weird gaijin thing involving Tarot cards. ::she takes out her deck:: These things. Most of my recent friends have them, and a fair nunmber of others, mostly my age. And some of them aren't good people at all. Her mom screams again: "Th-those! Those are the things the police are warning everyone about! Oh, Haruko, what have you done?" * Haruko looks down and then looks back up. "Ny main power is to heal people Mom. I don't know what's going on, but there are good people who will get hurt if I don't act to protect them. * Haruko lets the water flow back into the bottle. No need to freak her mother any more than absolutely nececssary. Her mom responds by fainting, but before she falls very far, her dad is over there in a flash and grabs her. "Hnn." * Haruko starts crying and rushes over to her mother. * Dad takes his wife to the next room and lays her down, putting a pillow under her head. Then he turns to Haruko and smokes his pipe some more. "Hnn... You ought to have told me about this, young lady. You're mother's spirit is too weak to be able to absorb such an outrageous thing so suddenly." * Haruko looks down. "I'm sorry father. I should have." * Dad smokes his pipe. "Well, you can't be blamed entirely, I suppose. But try to think of these things in the future, for her sake." * Haruko nods. "I will. And I'm afraid there may be a next time. One of the Tarot powered people, they're called Arcana, goes around erasing people's memories when they find out about it." I know. * Haruko blinks. "You do?" She then looks relieved. "Do you know much more? I've figured out a fair amount, but it's all so complex." * Dad smokes his pipe a while before responding. He's got to be a frusterating dad. Where did you get these powers? * Haruko waits patiently until he asks his next question. "The Arcana have been around since before the war, if not longer. Supposedly the powers are each attached to a card and when someone with the powers dies, a new person reincarnates with them a generation or two later. Mine are that of the Queen of Cups." I know that. It's not what I meant. Where did YOU get your powers. * Haruko tilts her head. "I'm not sure, I think I've been healing people for a while, and ::she quiets a bit:: I think I survived the fire with one of my powers. I've found them when I'm scared, or sad, or angry." * Dad nods and smokes his pipe. "That matches up." So will you be able to remember? Remember what? What you know, what I've told you. * Dad is silent for a while. * Haruko verifies that her dad's eyes are the right color as he waits. Can't be to careful these days. Hard to say. If I keep quiet, probably. * Haruko nods and looks fairly relieved. "It was becoming harder to keep to myself. I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to endanger you." * Dad nods slowly, once. I'd have done the same. The days I've missed school was because of this. ::she gestures at her side:: I.. missed again recently, and we didn't even get the artifact we needed. (Drop the gestures. I rewrote that. ^^;) Artifact? * Haruko then actually has some of the confidence return to her voice. "But it was important, and I'm willing to take responsibility for the consquences." * Dad smokes more, eyes closed. "How big of a thing are you in?" * Haruko sighs. "I don't know, mostly we've just been trying to protect each other, and stop some of the Arcan who abuse their powers." ::She says the last bit with a great deal of distate:: "I think we have a higher purpose, relating to some other gaijin items of magic, one for each suit, but I don't know what it is." Hmmm... I wonder what the gods would say to humans having their powers. * Dad smokes. Smoke smoke smoke. I don't know, but I have tried to act as they would want me to, as you have taught me to. * Dad nods. The reason I ask you about a motorcycle, the first day after I skipped, was that I've figured out how to make one that is compatible with the Arcana magic. I think it may be able to help me in this quest. * Dad chuckles. "Nice try." * Haruko speaks in a slightly desperate tone, but not forcefully. "It's true! I've got diagrams... you see when some of the magic is active, magnetism and electricity don't work, but a diesel bike would! And.. uh, should I tell the government about this? With the magic we can use, someone could easily steal anything they want, probably even a nuclear warhead." She goes from desperate to worried in that laast bit. * Dad glares at Haruko. "Absolutely not. In fact, if I were you, I would be as quiet as possible about this." * Haruko tilts her head. "I will. But why?" Think about what could happen. You'd be approached by many government organizations. They would want you to do all kinds of ditry work for them. Don't think they wouldn't resort to desperate measures to get you to. But even if you did, other countries would want their own piece of the pie. It'd create a third world war. * Haruko 's eyes widen and she nods. And last of all, if you were a country leader who felt you couldn't obtain such a power, what would you do? Make it so nobody else could, either. * Haruko nods again. You'd spend your life running and hiding, always on the move, living in fear. That's not the kind of life I want you to have. * Haruko nods and then sighs, she speaks in a sad tone and doesn't quite make eye contact. "But... how do we deal with the rogues? We aren't a government, we don't have the resources to imprison them, but they don't all deserve death, some may be redeemable." * Dad smokes. And paces. That's not an easy question to answer. * Dad paces in silence for a few minutes more. "Do what you feel, I suppose. You're old enough now to make decisions like that." * Haruko nods and starts crying again. "Thank you father. I'll try to make you proud." * Dad nods. "I know you will. You're my daughter." * Haruko smiles slightly at that, she's still crying but seems fairly relieved. * Dad smokes. [And so Haruko never figured out why her dad knew all of this. Oh well.] [Mini end!]