2025-12-25: Reason
- Log: Reason
- Cast: Ririka Kawase, Reiya Aomori
- Where: SEES dormitory, Iwatodai City
- OOC Date: December 25, 2025
- IC Date: Friday August 31, 2012
- Summary: Ririka and Reiya run into each other in the kitchen of the SEES dorm, and Reiya inquires of the answers she seeks. Ririka explains about her brother, and the two start to understand each other a little better.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka's been spending a lot of time either skateboarding to work off stress or holed up in her room presumably practicing music. Today it's the latter, and he's spent most of the morning keeping to herself. Eventually, though, she needs refreshments, and she eventualy emerges to head down to the kitchen.
She's dressed pretty casually, just a black band tee, shorts, and a simple leather bracelet, hair back in a ponytail. She's got her headphnes on, and... she appears to be doing vocal exercises, practicing scales with her voice.
She steps into the kitchen, seeming intnet on making a big thermos of tea to take back up to her room.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Reiya has been up to a lot himself. There's not a lot of time left in the break. There's just one important thing he has to cosnider what to do about... And talk to his mother about. But he's been thinking how best to do that, and she's been busy with extra work since Aigis's reactivation. There's much data to analyze.
However, that's then, and this is now. And Now? Now, Ririka has a problem:
The kettle is in use! Reiya Aomori is already boiling water for more tea. He turns in silence towards RIrika as she approaches, dressed casually for him, which is still in slacks and a button-down.
"Hello," Reiya says.
Then he waits.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka stops short and blinks as she sees Reiya, and then sees the kettle in use. She stops her vocal exercise and then fishes her MP3 player out of her phone, hitting pause. After that, she sets her thermos on a counter and slips her headphones off.
"Oh, hey, Aomori-san," Ririka says, when she can properly have a conversation. "How are you doing?"
She leans against the counter, fingers tapping lightly at her thigh to some rhythm. "Oh, and, when you're done with the kettle, can you leave it out? No rush or anything, though."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Did he plan it??? ...Probably not. That would be paranoid.
Instead, "Kawase-san," he greets in return. "I'm fine." A pause. "Thinking."
He considers elaborating further, but does not for the moment. Instead he notes Ririka having stopped her exercises and tapping to some rhythm...
"And you?" He pauses. "May I ask, what music are you lsteining to?"
It isn't his main question, but he is curious.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Who would ever be paranoid with a ninja around?
Reiya is... thinking. Ririka nods a little. "Oh, cool. Then... I won't bother you." Well, except possibly for the bother of standing there waiting, that is.
"Oh, I'm..." How she is is... kind of a complicated issue. She is a lot of things right now. So instead, she just shrugs a little. "I'm fine. Just... doing some vocal exercises. The voice is an instrument too, you know?"
"Oh, it's... nothing too exciting," Ririka admits, sheepishly. She preses play again, and from the headphone is just the sound of a piano running through some scales--the same scales Ririka was just singing. She hits pause again. "My pitch is pretty good already, but... it helps keep me focused."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"I do not mind," Reiya says of being bothered. "Alternate perspectives might help my thoughts. If I wanted to be alone with them, I would have stayed in my room."
He does have en electric kettle, after all. But using the kitchen is a social endeavor...!
"Yes," he agrees, the voice is an instrument. "And yours is well-tuned. You must work very hard to keep up with the demands of your band."
Focused... Hmmm.
"Exercises, then. Reasonable."
He considers, and then, "...You said before that you were looking for answers, I think."
"Are they answers with which I could assist? I do know more than most in SEES of our business."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
If he wanted to be alone, he'd be in his room. "Well, that's fair enough," Ririka says. "If... you want that alternate perspective, I've got a few minutes free."
She's still waiting her turn, after all.
"Thanks! Yeah, there's Polychord, plus I have a few other things going on..." There's always extra things.
It's part of why her parents worry about her overworking herself.
Ririka pauses as Reiya makes that offer, and her fingers stop tapping for just a moment. "... yeah, I did."
Reiya makes a good point. He is connected... Ririka mulls it over for a moment and decides to start small. Maybe more for her own sake than for Reiya's. The fingers start tapping, and she looks to Reiya. "Know anything about Mental Shutdowns?"
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"Sure," Reiya says. "I may inquire."
But for the moment, the kettle is not quite boiled! It's still going. And Reiya listens and Ririka mentions there's more things going on. "I see. You have many demands on your time."
But answers...
"The Mental Shutdown phenomenon has existed for some two years," Reiya says. "I don't know much about it other than that, unfortunately. I have suspicions, but no facts." He glances to Ririka. "But the Kirijo Group, too, would like to know their source."
"I'm afraid that may not be helpful, but it does give you a place not to look, I suppose."
"For me... it reminds me of Apathy Syndrome. It is about as mysterious, except that I know what causes Apathy Syndrome, and I don't know what causes Mental Shutdowns."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka shrugs a little. "I like to keep busy." Which isn't a total lie. She likes to play music, certainly, but she's also trying to live up to her talent, in a way.
"Two years... yeah, I kinda figured that much already." Ririka sighs a little. It would've been too easy for the Kirijo Group to just have that information, huh?
Still... "I'll take suspicions if you have them."
But Apathy Syndrome... and Ririka remembers Reiya's connection to it. Ririka looks down. "I remember you mentioned Apathy Syndrome before..."
She closes her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "... I think my older brother's death was due to a Mental Shutdown. And... I think someone did it on purpose."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
She likes to keep busy! "It's good to have things to do."
It would've been easier--unfortunately, so far as Reiya knows, they do not. At least, not the corner he knows about.
"I did," Reiya confirms, and shares those suspicions--a similarity. "..."
Ririka speaks it, and Reiya turns completely to her, instead of only partially. "I see," he says. "If that's the case..."
"Then it's all the more important that we find out the source of those, too."
"...You learned it recently, didn't you?" he inquires.
He wasn't in a position to hear the Shadow directly, but...
"My condolences for your brother. But I understand how that feels."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
"Yeah. Always got a project to work on, you know?" Mostly music projects, granted.
"... Yeah. I... I need to find out who did that."
Ririka nods. "Yeah. From Kamiya's Shadow, while we were fighting in the Palace."
"... thanks. I appreciate it." She finally looks up to Reiya. "... yeah, I... kinda thought you might," she admits softly.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Need to find out. "Yes," Reiya says. And from Kamiya's Shadow... "Hm. So it's something a Shadow could know about... That furthers my suspicions that it relates to Shadows."
She appreciates it, and Reiya inclines his head. "...It's difficult," he says. "To lose someone. It's difficult in a different way when you know it wasn't natural."
The kettle is hot--not quite boiling--when Reiya takes it and pours it into his teapot. Just at the right moment.
He looks down, after he sets the kettle back down, and turns to Ririka again. He actually has to look evenly at her; they're about the same height.
"How old was your brother?"
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka doesn't know if it means anything that a Shadow can know about it, but... "I think it was something Kamiya knew about--the real one, I mean. His Shadow said... they threatened to do it to him if he didn't meet his..." Ririka shudders. "... quota."
"He also said..." Something Ririka is still puzzling over. "... that if our father had been better connected, he could have stopped it."
Not natural. "... yeah. I've..." Rirkia slowly shakes her head. "I still can't believe... It's just... after all this time."
Ririka's still tapping at her thigh. "It happened almost two years ago. He was 17. He..." Her voice cracks a little. "... he'd be in his first year of university, if..." She lets the thought trail off.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"...I see. Then the real Kamiya knew, and..." Reiya puts it together. "So this is a weapon of this 'Order'," Reiya reflects. "Something they can use..."
"That makes sense," Reiya says. "Kamiya was involved in a conspiracy, yes? Had your father been a member, his son would not have been targeted. ...It says good things about your father... but very bad things about whoever would do such things to an innocent boy."
He shakes his head. "...I'm sorry," he says. "Most people... aren't prepared to lose someone that way."
"I'll tell you if I learn anything. ...We're teammates. I can do that much."
Then--
He offers a small package (tissues) and turns away, tending to his tea, so as not to pry into her emotional state.
Instead he says, "...It is a good reason."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
"Seems like..." But for the conspiracy... "I think I heard one of the Phtanom Thieves mention the NWO during the fight. That's... about the only other thing I have to go on right now."
But her father... "Yeah. I have a hard time believing he'd be involved in anything like..." Ririka makes a vague gesture in the direction of Eiji's former palace. "... that. He's a doctor, you know?"
But the bad things... "... yeah. And I don't even know why..."
"Thanks. And... do you mind keeping this between us for now? I think... I think I want to tell SEES about this, but... I want more time to process it, first."
Ririka accepts the tissues. She doesn't brake down crying just then--she probably will, later, but she's been doing enough of that recently. Still, she dabs her eyes and takes a moment to regain her composure.
There's a silent nod as she slides the rest of the tissues back. "... thanks," she says of the reason.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"..." Doctors are sometimes pretty terrible. But Reiya has no reason to believe Dr. Kawase is; quite the opposite. Instead, "Then that's a start," as to the NWO.
"That's something to learn, too."
Reiya tends to his tea; he apparently is using something fancier than a few teabags. He does so deftly, without calling attention to it.
When Ririka has composed herself, he looks back, and takes them. "I can do that," he says. "I'll keep pursuing the matter... but not mention your part in why."
"But I recommend..."
5r"Tell them sooner than later. I found when I kept things from SEES, I was denying myself allies when I could have used them."
"But that's just me; this is private, and that's reasonable, too." He steps back, and takes his teapot and tray. "The kettle is free."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
They can be, but Ririka doesn't have any reason to think he's a terrible person in general. "Yeah."
Ririka watches Reiya's tea prep quietly. "... you're really into making tea, huh? That's cool." She still mostly relies on tea bags, herself.
"Thanks, I appreciate it," Ririka says of the privacy. But she nods, at the advice. "I will. Promise. Everyone really came through with helping my sister and investigating Kamiya's palace, after all. I'm just... trying to wrap my head around this before I tell everyone."
Ririka nods, standing upright from where she'd been leaning to move to the kettle. "Thanks. And, Aomori-san. If you want that alternate perspective sometime... let me know?"
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"It's really good when done properly," Reiya says of tea.
But, "You're welcome. And... good. It was important, what we were doing--it would have been had it only been your sister." But it was more than just her, too. For some reason, Reiya doesn't dwell on her for the moment... "It's normal to take time to think of something."
"You're welcome, and... I may just. I'll keep it in mind."
He moves to take his tea and go.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
"Yeah." Helping all the other future victims was importnat, too... hopefully there's something that can be done for the past ones, as well.
Riya might, and Ririka manages a small smile. "Cool."
She lets Reiya go, and puts her headphones back on as she resumes her practice, filling up the kettle for a new batch of tea.