2025-09-05: Searching Is Self-Care
- Log: 2025-09-03 Searching Is Self-Care
- Cast: Yoko Hirano, Katsuya Suou
- Where: Iwatodai Station
- OOC Date: September 05, 2025
- IC Date: July 06, 2012
- Summary: Yoko meets Katsuya and immediately invites him on a sidequest to find the cat that lives at the station. ...Isn't this kind of familiar, somehow...?
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
There's a cat here, somewhere.
Yoko and Arisato-senpai had fed it the other day, and he had seemed pretty confident that it lived here. Confident enough to buy food to entice it out. And he'd been right! So there's a pretty good chance that the cat must live here, or nearby, and while Yoko could go back to the dorm and do normal evening things, she thinks it'd be a much better use of her time to see the cat instead.
So she follows the established Cat Attraction Protocols as best she's able: peeking behind vending machines, crouching to look underneath benches, moving aside the branches of an ornamental shrub to look down near its roots. Hmmm... nothing. It's time for phase two.
Still crouched to peer into a storm drain, Yoko realizes that she's already hit an obstacle in her search and remains there while she has a think about it.
Where did senpai buy that takoyaki...?
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
When just about the worst thing has happened and all your efforts to address it are met with cold silence, what is it that's best to do?
In Katsuya's case, it's to throw himself further into work. If it were any other situation, he could have talked to someone. In most circumstances, a problem shared is a problem halved! But, in this case... it involves both a betrayal of the fraternity that police officers are meant to share and the effects of the supernatural realm. If he made a few alterations then of course it could be 'safe for most audiences', but then, aye, there's the rub.
Who is he supposed to share even the most pared down version of this narrative with? Even his allies... he's not sure if even then it's appropriate to explain it to Amano and Serizawa. And... he gets the feeling that Baofu wouldn't really care one way or another.
So he's kept his his head down at work. When a request came to have a detective head out to Iwatodai to transfer some documents across jurisdictions in person, he'd signed up for the chance. Now that's come and gone and he's... here again, back at the station. He should probably get the next train back to Sumaru.
Instead, he's availed himself of the vending machine for a canned coffee and uncharacteristically, has lingered. It's starting to inch towards evening. He should get home before the train before night settles in properly.
Still, it's July, and the days are long.
Katsuya sneezes, quite suddenly. Is it a summer cold?
Then he sneezes again. No, this can't be a cold. He knows this feeling. There... must be a cat around here. Fishing in his pockets in the hopes of turning up a packet of tissues (he's not nearly so lucky) he takes a look around himself.
If he has to have allergies from its presence, he hopes he can at least see the cat.
...
Did that child drop something into the storm drain? She's been crouched there for a very long time.
"Excuse me. Did you drop something? Do you need any help?"
He's only gone over to do what comes naturally, in the same way a diver gasps as they break the sea's surface.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
She knows where Wild Duck Burger and Hagakure are located, but Yoko doesn't usually go for street food. The dorm has a kitchen and Gekkoukan's lunches are very good, and there's a nearby convenience store that sells pre-packaged meals and snacks if she wants something else. Probably the cat will come out for different food, especially if it's aromatic, but takoyaki is a known winner. Maybe--
Yoko was so excited to see the cat again that for a short time she forgot 'other people' exist.
She cranes her head around, makes a muffled 'ouch' sound, and then stands up. She's wearing the summer uniform for Gekkoukan High (despite looking a bit young for it) and her hair looks like it could use a bit of a combing. "No..."
Her first instinct says to be polite but reserved, as usual. He's dressed nicely, well-groomed, and probably in his mid-twenties. He's probably just someone fancy, but what if he's a host or something--
Warmth. A sweet smell. Soft white powder dusted on an apron.
What was that?
Yoko blinks once, twice, and looks to the side briefly. "...I'm looking for the cat that lives around here. My senpai and I saw it earlier this week."
He's probably a safe person, after all...
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
The girl looks up at him and stares.
A Gekkoukan student. A little unkempt. Middle school-- no, that's the high school uniform, what is he thinking? She does look young for her years, but there's no mistaking it.
Perhaps if he had more skill with resonance, or more experience, it would be different. But he's not Baofu, however you divvy it up. She looks at him and he doesn't sense anything at all or even anything amiss except--
Except. Can't he feel it? There's a cat here. Yes. Just as she tells him as much. "I see... I hope it is not in the drain--"
Katsuya's nose itches, perhaps ominously.
He's just barely able to bury his face in the crook of his elbow in time. Ah, his suit jacket...
He can't help it. He sniffs. "Yes... It would seem so," he tells her, regaining some middling amount of composure. "It must be close by." Does that mean--
--he has allergies??
There is a Terrible Opportunity for Yoko here. Could she use his allergies to find the cat? Surely, they're stronger near where the cat is lurking. ...Surely.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
"I didn't see it, even though I was very still. Sen--" Katsuya barely manages to cover a sneeze in time, and Yoko frowns. "Senpai lured it out with food, but I don't know where he bought it." Yoko digs into her bag and removes a clean handkerchief, which she holds out toward him. "You should take this."
Maybe he's got a summer cold. Surely he isn't allergic enough to have a reaction like this without even seeing the cat...?!
But that's promising, maybe, because it could mean that the cat is very close!
(For a moment, she actually does consider it.)
"Is there a stall or a restaurant that sells takoyaki? That's what senpai used." Because if she wants to see the cat again, she has to find some way to coax it out of hiding. "And since I know it will eat that, it seems like the best idea."
And if they can't find takoyaki, then Plan C (for Catsuya) is still on the table...!
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"Sempai? Oh, yes," Katsuya both asks and answers himself. Of course. But that helpful upperclassman isn't here today, it would seem. But the girl has something for him. "This--?" he asks, apparently taken aback by the handoff of the handkerchief. "Thank you, but I couldn't. This is nothing to worry about," he affirms, and lifts a hand to fidget with his sunglasses once. Surely he doesn't seem as 'pathetic' as that to need a handkerchief...?
He really should have brought his own. But then, he hadn't expected to encounter a cat.
"A stall or a restaurant that sells takoyaki? Hmm..." he muses, folding his arms over his chest as he considers their surroundings. Truth be told, he hasn't been around here very often since his college days. His work largely keeps him in Sumaru, outside those events that draw him further afield of late. "There should be a stall or a store somewhere around here. Let me think..."
It will only occur to him minutes from now that he's somehow gotten roped into finding a cat.
"Perhaps the mall? I don't see a cart or anything around here. The mall seems to be the most likely place," he says after a moment's consideration of the likely culprits. "But, is takoyaki really the best thing for a cat? I would think some chicken would suffice. Oh, but it couldn't have things like onion or garlic on it, and those are used so frequently in cooking. Would fish really be better?" he wonders aloud, of all things an unknown adult might muse about off the cuff. "No, it would need to be cooked," he concludes, looking in the direction of the sushi restaurant's sign. "A cat shouldn't eat sushi."
Somehere, Morgana is crying...
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
"But you're sneezing," Yoko frowns a little harder, disapproving. Still, she can't make him accept it, so she puts it back in her bag where she got it. If he keeps sneezing she's going to offer it again, though...!
She listens attentively while he ruminates. It's kind of nice that an adult would take this so seriously.
But he's right. If it's not here, it must be somewhere in the strip mall. Yoko knows she can be kind of distracted at times, but... did she really walk past an entire restaurant and never notice it? "Arisato-senpai wasn't gone long. Maybe ten minutes. The combini just beyond it doesn't have takoyaki, either," Yoko thinks out loud, leaving her hand slipped down into the interior of her bag (she can fidget with the things inside of it this way).
"Let's go look," she decides for them. Of course, that's if Katsuya wants to commit so whole-heartedly to the sidequest! He'll probably bow out, Yoko thinks. Adults aren't very curious, much of the time. Unless...? "You know a lot about this. Are you a cat lover?" She's staring at him again. jiiiiiiiii...
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
But he's sneezing.
"I can't deny that, but..." he says, apparently hell-bent on rejecting the handkerchief. For now.
It's the sort of thing that, if he stopped and thought about what he was actually doing, he might have stopped himself or made an excuse. On the flip side, though, perhaps it's just as well: after the last few days (after one day in particular) it's... welcoming to apply himself to a problem that isn't so high stakes, to have a situation where a person's life isn't hanging in the balance. Maybe that's the attraction of it: his unconscious self is of course perfectly aware of what he should be doing for himself right now and has made sure that he can make it happen. It's just that his ego hasn't caught up to reality just yet.
Sometimes, finding a cat is 'self care'.
"Then it can't be far away," Katsuya muses, rubbing at his chin in thought. "The mall over there seems like the most likely place." He nods, at what she has to say. "I'm not surprised. Besides, it would be strange if a cat were interested in conbini takoyaki. Their palates are more refined than that..." Conbini takoyaki isn't terrible, but it's certainly not the same as fresh takoyaki. ...Is he sure he's not just projecting?
'Let's go look'.
He pauses for a moment. He considers her, and considers the request. It would be easy to say 'I have to catch a train' and it's not even a lie. But...
Is it irresponsible, to want to help here and now? Even if it's for a cat? Besides, she seems like she doesn't want to go in there alone. A strange girl. But, he decides, not an unkind girl, if she's worried about a cat. "Alright. It shouldn't take long," he tells her.
Is he a cat lover...?
Another pause. "Well, I do," he admits. "Like cats, that is." He shakes his head, distracted as he considers the area they're in. "I hope that this cat is alright, living here like this. It can be dangerous near the trains," he says with a slight frown. "If it is living off of what people leave behind, too, that can't be good. Even a cat should eat properly..."
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Does he really know this much about cats? Is there really this much to know??
If it were hungry enough, wouldn't a cat eat almost anything? Not that they're unique in that way. Not that food is the only thing to long for.
He agrees, though, and Yoko wasn't entirely expecting it. But it's not disappointing! Two sets of eyes will certainly be better than one. "If senpai could do it in ten minutes, we can do it almost as quickly." Isn't she missing a key set of conditions here...? After all, her senpai probably already knew where the food could be bought! Maybe she's just confident.
Yoko doesn't wait for him to take the lead; apparently since this is her quest, she is the party leader?! She shuts the flap on her bag and starts walking toward the edge of the station that feeds right into the strip mall. But she looks over her shoulder to make sure Katsuya is coming. "It looked healthy. Not thin, and not fat. Senpai named it Enigma, because we don't know what its real name is. ...Do you know the poem that says cats have three names?"
"A name that humans call them, a name that other cats call them, and a secret name that only they know." It's a whimsical kind of poem...
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Honestly, most street cats would just eat up the first thing that was semi-edible, and then some. Beggars, as the saying goes, can't be choosers, and even the pickiest of cats must give it up in the face of, well, what's actually on the menu.
He should be doing other things. That's true. Yet, he tells himself, he still has some time until the train arrives, and even if he were to miss it, all is not lost. Isn't it also his job as an officer to make sure children stay safe? She should get on home after this, and there's no telling how long she could wander about if she were unsupervised.
There, a perfectly Katsuya-acceptable reason to be doing this in the first place, as if he needed a permission slip for himself, from himself.
There's no helping some people, huh.
Besides, it shouldn't take long.
"Yes, it must not be very far inside. They should still be open." They'll likely be open for several hours yet, in fact.
He trails after, following where she leads. He's not falling behind or trying to ditch her, fear not...!
"Not fat or thin, hmm. That's good. So its name is 'Enigma'? That's not a bad name, but..." He pauses, as if thinking it over. "Wouldn't something more, er... well... 'Shippo' isn't a bad name for a cat, is it?"
He thinks cats should have 'cute' names, of course.
Yoko goes on to remark on the names of cats, though, and-- isn't that familiar? "That was... T.S. Elliot, wasn't it? How did he put it..." Katsuya muses, clearly deep in thought. "Was it, a daily name, a dignified name, and a secret name? It has been a long time since I have read those poems."
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Certainly, it's his job as an officer to make sure children are safe. And Yoko is still, technically, a child. Even though she's already in high school and everything!! But maybe he's being a little too strict with himself, even so...?!
She looks over her shoulder again, though this time it's definitely with some consideration. "Isn't it a while yet? People will want to eat dinner for a few more hours..." She hasn't been out here that long!
"If you want to call it Shippo, shouldn't you?" she reasons, looking forward again as they pass the bookstore. "A cat can have lots of names." They've established this already! See, T.S. Elliot said so. "I read it... more than a year ago, anyway." She had read a lot, when she was getting better. "I wonder what other people have named the cat..."
She thinks Shippo would be a good name for a fox, but what a low-hanging fruit that is!
Up ahead are some wooden benches to either side of a nondescript takeout window. There's a delicious smell hanging around, and it gets stronger as they near it. Octopia, the sign declares! And underneath, a short list of prices based on quantity. "It wasn't even upstairs or anything," Yoko realizes. But still, it's good to have found it. "I never noticed..."
But she digs into her bag for a novelty money pouch shaped like a fish, because Enigma is probably hungry and won't care if Yoko walked right by this in the past. "One small and one medium, please," she requests when it's her turn.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
...?
Why is she giving him a look quite like that? Why does he feel like he's just made a child concerned about him? "Well, yes, of course," he hazards, unable to quite shake the sense that something's gone awry. "I only meant..." Meant what?
Speaking of concerns, though-- there's the matter of names. "Well... I haven't seen the cat," Katsuya tells her. "Perhaps there's another name that would suit it better. In, er, any case..." he trails off, feeling oddly foolish about the matter and where this conversation has taken him.
So she's read T.S. Elliot? Was it in class? He doesn't think when he read it it was for class, but the curriculum might have changed -- and likely was different at a school like Gekkoukan, anyway. Don't they take in more foreign exchange students than most other high schools? He thinks he recalls hearing something to that effect.
But into the strip mall they go, and it's practically just inside the door that they find it. What else could a place called Octopia be but a place that sells takoyaki? "There," he says, pointing at the store. Well, that was... almost disappointingly easy. Should he be the one to pitch in for the takoyaki--
But maybe it would be better for her to do it, he decides, waiting outside and gazing up at the ceiling while she does the purchasing. It's during this moment of silence on his part that Katsuya realizes something very, very important, which he mentions the moment she comes back outside:
"Actually... I didn't introduce myself, did I? I'm Sergeant Katsuya Suou, of the Konan Department in Sumaru." Which is to say, he's definitely a cop and not some weird man who thinks too hard about cat nutrition! No! ...He's both.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
It's a teenager's sidequest. Involving feeding takoyaki to a cat. He was always going to end up feeling foolish, somehow...!
She has two paper boats full of steaming battered octopus balls when she returns, with skewers to make eating them easier. (Naturally, Enigma will not need one of those, because he(?) is a superior creature.) "I got it," she informs him unnecessarily, thumbs hooked over the rims of the containers to provide a little extra stability.
He's waiting for her, and Yoko is about to start leading him back to the station when he introduces himself. "Nice to meet you, Officer. My name is Yoko Hirano. ...'Suou', though?" And Katsuya. Isn't that familiar?
She's started walking already when she remembers where she's heard not-quite-that-name before. It would make sense. The same color of hair, the same build. But absolutely different everywhere else! "Do you know a Tatsuya Suou?" she asks, like it's no big deal at all! Maybe they're cousins or brothers or something...!
Katsuya may or may not notice, but... doesn't it feel like the cat followed them to the strip mall...?
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
His nose itches while he waits. Strange, there can't possibly be a cat in here...
She's come back out with two paper boats of takoyaki. "Can a cat eat that much...?" he can't help but wonder aloud. Actually, it's more like 'should it'; he's still not certain that this is the best choice for a cat to eat. "Their tongues can't handle hot things, so you should let it cool down first." Especially since takoyaki can really burn, if you're not careful and it's fresh. Like many people, he's experienced this first-hand.
Is it the shadows in here? It sort of seems like there's another figure standing quite close at hand to Katsuya.
"Hirano... I see." There's the vaguest sense of... something. It was there and gone, water through his hands.
But she mentions a name much closer to his thoughts than any transitory sense of deja vu. "Tatsuya...? You've met Tatsuya?" Perhaps if he hadn't spoken with Umie already, he'd be a little more overeager than this: he's already giving her what seems like his full attention. "What was he doing? Is he alright?"
Maybe she already can guess the answer that Katsuya gives once he composes himself a little more: "...He is my younger brother," he explains.
And then, quite abruptly, he sneezes again.
It's not just the shadows. Not to Yoko's eyes. As Katsuya deals with allergies that seem to have somehow triggered in the absence of an actual cat (dander can be subtle and pervasive), she'll see it caught in the light to his side: a cat! ...Well, it's something shaped very much like a humanoid cat, with a long tail and pointed metallic ears, and large feline eyes. It's wearing a very nice suit. It stares down at her, its expression unreadable, its arms folded over his chest, much like how Katsuya's had been moments ago.
The fuzzy image of Helios blurs further at the margins, as if it were standing amidst a great heat, or before a bonfire.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Can a cat eat that much? "...I don't think so," she decides after a brief moment's consideration. "But the big one is for us, so that's okay." That was how senpai had done it, after all, and Yoko should recreate the summoning ritual as closely as possible for the best chance of success.
The shadows move strangely sometimes, it's normally not much to worry about... but... after seeing the thing that lurked near Aragaki-senpai only a few meters away at the bookstore, it makes sense to be wary of any unusual sights around Iwatodai! Yoko's eyes drift across Katsuya, willing the vague shape at his side to either go away or resolve itself into something, because if she's going to be nervous about something it'd be nice to know exactly what.
"Mm-hmm. At an antique shop in Rengedai Ward." Tatsuya, the brave hero of the hour who had stood stalwart between Yoko and a feral extrovert! "I guess he was looking at clocks...?" And looking for a bathroom but Yoko doesn't think Katsuya wants to know about something that trivial.
They pass by the bookstore, and Yoko can't help but glance through the window. No Aragaki-senpai and no creepy horse thing today. She wonders if he ever found the right present... "He was a little..." annoyed, Yoko was going to say, but that's when the shadows finally resolve into a Real Shape and Yoko forgets about Tatsuya Suou.
It's a cat! ...Sort of? Cattish. With a fancy, Baroque sort of suit. Her fingers itch to sketch it but her hands are full! She'll have to commit the details to memory as best she can before it fades!
Which is why Yoko leads Katsuya back to the bench where she last saw the cat, but she's mostly staring off to his right the entire time.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Can a cat eat that much? No, which is why the rest of the takoyaki are for them. "I... I see. That isn't necessary, you should take care of yourself, first," Katsuya says, uncertain how he feels about this. If he'd known some of this was meant for him, he would have given her his own money! Or at least, told her that it wasn't necessary in the first place. She's probably going to insist.
(Why is it that this, too, feels for an instant like it's happened before? Perhaps he mixed up a memory about someone and something else entirely, instead -- that would make much more sense.)
She tells him as they make their way back outside exactly where she's seen his brother: in Rengedai.
"Why couldn't he have gone home, even for a little while...?" Katsuya can't seem to help but complain aloud. "But, at that antique shop? What in the world was he doing there? Tatsuya doesn't have that kind of money," he goes on. Though, wait, isn't there a rumor on Darkside about that place? That they sell...
Aha. That makes more sense, given what he's been able to piece together about his brother's activities.
He sniffs, still recovering from another attack of his allergies. "He was a little...?" Katsuya prompts then, but Yoko stares at him-- well, no, not at him. To his right. She keeps leading him onward, towards a particular place, her gaze returning to his right.
When he finally gives in to vague paranoia and looks himself, there's nothing there but empty space. At this hour, of course, there shouldn't be anything at all to be concerned about in Iwatodai.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
"This is how senpai did it, so I'm doing it the same way." It's really just that simple! "Plus I would feel bad if I bought something to eat and didn't offer any to my assistant." He's been relegated to sidekick status already?!
The view of the gentleman cat lasts long enough for Yoko to be fairly confident that she could draw it from memory. She might get some details wrong, but the overall impression of it is strong! When they step back out into the brighter afternoon light of the station, it's gone.
Too bad. It was cool-looking, but not scary.
"Are you sure you don't want a handkerchief...?" Or some allergy pills from the combini! "...He seemed a little annoyed at first, but not at us. Me or his underclassman. We met by coincidence." Yoko kneels by the bench and places the small takoyaki boat beneath it. Then she sits down on the other end of the bench, with the medium-sized boat between herself and the next seat. "He seemed kind. He didn't say anything about home or money." Isn't it enough that he'd protected her?
She waits patiently for the cat to appear or Officer Suou to sit down, whichever happens first.