oomori_hill | News Report: Week 1

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News Report: Week 1

The evening news report is hard to miss, with the giant TV screens on some of the larger buildings displaying the report so that even those without a TV or phone to watch on can stay informed. Anyone walking, stuck in traffic or taking the train will likely see the broadcast at least once, if not twice as they head home for the day.

"In tonight's top stories, the trend of bad luck in the mining sector continues as there was yet another explosion in the Quarry. Witnesses reported seeing men covered in black and white spandex wearing masks and ran for cover. Multiple explosions shook the area, but there were no reported casualties, and only minor injuries.

Officials are advising motorists to avoid central downtown and to take public transportation when at all possible as an excess amount of cars on the roads caused yet another major traffic jam. This was compounded by a scuffle between police and an unidentified man that witnesses claim was shooting acid from his hands. Other witnesses claim it was not a man, but a monster, but official police report state it was most likely someone in a costume.

In other news, Specialty Reconstruction Services Group reports that the damage caused by what was most likely a gas explosion on a filming studio lot has been mostly repaired. Overnight work will be required to finish the job, however, and residents in the area are advised to wear earplugs and blindfolds to avoid interrupted sleep.

Cafe owners are putting out a plea to local residents to place be careful when passing by their establishments. Multiple reports of plastic patio furniture being destroyed by what some have called overzealous neighborhood watch efforts have lead to some cafes giving up on outdoor serving all together.'

While the news broadcast may seem rather innocuous, there is one decidedly odd feature. In the upper right hand corner, the placard that shows the time and date seems... strange. The date itself is oddly unreadable, despite looking like it should be able to be read easily. In fact, most people seem to be able to read it just fine, but when they say it aloud, it simply can't be heard. Or at least, not by anyone who can't see the text on the screen....

Meanwhile, back at the Quarry, it would seem that the mooks who'd caused the day's explosion have returned, undeterred to finish the next stage in their big plan. What that plan is is anyone's guess, but whatever it is, it's not likely going to be good. In either definition of the word.

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The keys that had been in the lock about to be turned are utterly forgotten as Tachibana's mind seems to just-- not at all know what to do. It was Sayoko-- but... mad at him? What...

While his brain locks up, his hand moves, almost trembling as he places it over hers.

It was warm.

His breath catches as something deep inside of him all but breaks, and the floodgates of emotion he'd kept locked away so tightly utterly overwhelms him. Hand clinging tightly to hers, he steps forward, vision clouding with forming tears as he pulls her tightly into a hug.

She was warm...

Tachibana's reaction to her outburst is not at all what she had expected. Her reaching out to hold on was because she was sure he would try and turn away again. He'd gotten good at avoiding her, and avoiding the truth, and avoiding everything. The anger in her expression melts away when he places his hand over hers. He's... reaching out for her.

"...Tachibana-kun?"

And then she finds herself being pulled into a very, very emotional hug. Her outburst couldn't have changed his mind that quickly, could it? But then, what was happening? In all her confusion, no answer comes to mind... so she does the only thing that she can think to do. She slips her free arm around him and holds him in kind.

His face is hidden against her shoulder, breath hitching as he simply holds on as if she would vanish if he let go.

There's a long moment before the only words he can think of pass his lips.

"I'm sorry..."

The words are shaky. Emotional. Almost broken as he can't help but think of the last moment they had had together, of the last words he had heard her say before she had gone limp and cold in his arms.

As confusing and not quite right as this is, this is what Sayoko wanted. More or less. Maybe not so dramatically... her good hand slips around him as well, and begins to rub small circles on his back to try and soothe him. Maybe the pain of it all had finally become too much. Maybe the neurotoxic seaweed had unexpected emotional side effects. "Sshh, shhh..."

The thought `You should be sorry` briefly passes through her mind. This has all been so hard, so upsetting, so frightening... and is it even over? But he sounds so genuinely apologetic, so shaken, her heart can't help but to ache in sympathy. She nuzzles gently at his shoulder, trying to give some other sort of comfort from within his grasp. "It's alright, Tachibana-kun. It's alright. You don't have to run away anymore.... shhh."

Slowly, he lets go of her hand to hold her more properly, grip lightening just slightly as his muscles go slowly slack under her attentions.

"If I'd only been stronger... I could have broken through it before--" he breaks off, tensing slightly before his shoulders sag again.

As his embrace relaxes somewhat, she does, too. The moment feels a bit more gentle, and she brings a hand around to lightly rest it upon his chest. "It's alright. You've... shaken it off...? Right?" There is something here that she is not quite catching, but she's not sure what it is. "You're strong enough now." And she smiles up at him encouragingly. She'd always knew that he could be, that he'd find a way through.

Slowly, he looks up to meet her eyes, almost drinking in every detail, heart aching and happy at the same time. It's likely she can finally see the tired lines on his face, the shift in how his hair looks, how beat up his jacket has become.

"...I overcame my fear... by losing the one thing that I still held closely," he explained, voice soft. "The one thing I was afraid to lose-- the life I would have had with you, if the Undead hadn't been released."

Now that she has had a longer chance to look at him, that feeling of something not being quite right grows stronger. He looks so tired, so worn, so... so not like he'd looked just hours before. Curious and unsure, she timidly reaches a hand up to gently touch his cheek.

"I... I don't understand, Tachibana-kun." No, she doesn't. He'd lost... that? By storming away and declaring he didn't need it?

He shifts, putting a hand over hers, gently holding in there.

"Something's happened to the stability of time, making things..." he trailed off, pressing his lips together. No. No he had to tell her properly. If there was at all a chance that the past could be changed....!

"The last time I saw you... was over ten years ago," he explained, voice as gentle as he could make it, as if somehow, it could soften the words that he knew were going to be difficult to hear.

Her brow furrows in an entirely different way, now not just confused but willing to argue about it. "Time? That's not... that's ridiculous." But her retort doesn't hold as much confidence as it should. He looks so odd, he's acting so strangely... her fingers upon his cheek curl softly.

"Ten years? Tachibana-kun, it's just been.. you just stormed off a few hours ago!" And since nothing had happened to her, how can she know what it is that he's trying to warn her away from?

Hours... did-- did that mean...?!

His grip on her hand tightened. "Where were you, last you remember? Was it--" he paused before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. What's important, if you wind up back there, wind up back where you were chasing me, you need to stop, call Kenzaki, and tell him that Isaka is targeting you." There was an almost desperate intensity to his voice.

"Tachibana-kun, I haven't gone anywhere, I'm here-" His urgency goes charging right past her protest, though, and she cuts it off. "I'll... wait, what? Tell Kenzaki?" For she is pretty sure that Isaka was already targeting her, anyway, and was just surging forward heedless of the consequences. But if he's from ten years ahead and trying to warn her..

"What did he do? What happened?" Sure. Yes. Let's... play along.

There was a long, difficult pause, Tachibana pressing his lips together, trying to keep the mess of emotions in his chest in check.

"...he attacked you... on the side of the river, not--- not far from--"

He took a deep breath, looking up again. It was the same day, wasn't it? With an almost shaking hand, he reached out to lightly rest his fingers on the pendant resting on her chest. It was the same. The same as the one he still kept at his apartment, next to the boxed puzzle he'd gotten from her family, after they cleaned out her office.

There was a knot in his throat, choking the words that he needed to say, the warning that he needed to give her...!

If the past could be changed... even if it meant losing everything he had done in the last 10 years. If the past could be changed....

She was attacked. And... he's broken up, he's an emotional mess, it's ten years later, he says that he lost the most important thing to him... it all clicks, though, when he reaches out for her pendant. She died? That Undead... killed her? It is such an awful thought that the awfulness of it isn't even fully registering. Both her hands come to close over his, and hold it tightly.

"Well I'm not dead now. I'm fine. And if... if you're here now, Tachibana-kun, I'll be fine."

His hand shifts to try and curl around hers. "I don't know what's happen, why time--" he trailed off, shaking his head. "But if any of this makes it so that-- so that the past can change..."

Another long, deep breath.

"Sayoko, I..." he hesitated. "...would you still want to run away with me?"

It wasn't how he wanted to ask it. But he was never one to make proper plans, even at the best of times.

The question leaves her briefly speechless. The same thing that she'd asked him so hopefully, only for it to be immediately revealed as impossible... and now he's asking it to her in return? "I... I... can we, even?"

They have their lives, but... but do they? Does she? But then there's even more possible confusion...

"If time isn't even working right, can we run away?"

"I don't know," Tachibana admitted. "I don't really know if I know anything, right now," he added with a faint, almost tired looking hint of a smile. "But... if you'd want to... then... then maybe..."

Sayoko dips her head briefly, thinking it over as best she can. No, she doesn't know anything, either. Just that she wants to be beside him, wherever he might be.

"...what if we try to figure out what's happening, and we do it together?"

Tachibana nodded, some of the tension starting to leach out of him. "As long as we're together."

"Yes. As long as we're together." Which seemed to be something ever-so-slightly out of her reach, up until now. She beams up at him, full of hope.

"Now... what were you looking for, here?" Since they're going to figure out what's happening together, and she really wants to be less confused as soon as possible...

"I was going to see if I could recalibrate the detection system in the lab to pull in as much data as possible to help figure out what might be going on," he explained. "Can give you a limited tour of the building, just through the lobby down to the lab?" he offered with a faint smile.

Sayoko blinks, needing a moment to process just what it is that he's up to. "...you can do that? That would be very useful!" There is so much about Tachibana's life that she needs to catch up on, isn't there? She smiles back faintly, as well. "I'd like a look around. If... if it's safe."

"Should be able to, yeah. Normally Hirose handles that system, but we worked together in creating it and the interface is pretty self explanatory," he assured, bending down to retrieve his keys from where they had fallen to properly unlock the door.

"And it should be safe. Normally there would the night staff on duty, but no one's answered any phone I've dialed, and the building was locked up," he continued with a faint frown. "If something had happened, they wouldn't have locked up and turned out the lights, so I can only assume the temporal abnormalities have affected them as well."

"Here's hoping, then. And hopefully something didn't just... merge into here?" She says it uncertainly, because she's very uncertain about what's going on. Is that even the right term? Whatever the case, she's going to stick close to him. He might need to ask her to move a bit so he can turn the key in the lock.

"If it has, I'll take care of it," Tachibana promised, gently nudging her just enough to snake his hand around to get the key into the lock. "Just stay behind me if anything startles you."

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