2026-02-03: Seeking Answers
- Log: Seeking Answers
- Cast: Kazusa Motojima, Hazuki Nakao, Wakana Oosaka (Kazuhiro and Wakana played by Kazusa Motojima)
- Where: Shujin Academy, Aoyama-Itchome, Tokyo
- OOC Date: February 03, 2026
- IC Date: Thursday, September 20, 2012 (Lunchtime/After School)
- Summary: The Homunculus that has taken over Kazusa's body is a ticking clock. Kazusa's younger brother Kazuhiro, having been given some information from Tamaki, decides to seek out Hazuki to try and gauge the truth of the situation. They talk, and Hazuki asks Kazuhiro about Kazusa's Threads and Eye. He can get them access to Kazusa's Eye, but for the Threads, they need to go talk to Kazusa's best friend Wakana. Wakana struggles to come to grasps with what's happening and needs to be convinced.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro normally tries to laugh things off, to not take things too seriously, and to just act like one of the guys. It makes certain things... easier.
It means he avoids scrutiny from certain people.
But lately he's been grappling with something serious, trying to keep up the act with his sister-who-may-not-be-his-sister. His parents are thrilled, but... all he can do is smile along and try not to let anything show in his eyes.
Tamaki Uchida had given him some vital pieces of information that... perhaps she shouldn't have. Kazuhiro had been sitting with them for a while, trying to gague whether they were true or not. But he could only take so much.
So at lunch he goes looking for Hazuki. He's about average height, 5'7", with messy black hair and his usual easy smile.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki has an egg sandwich, eating it at her lonely table. She's thinking heavily about the Kazusa incident, more specifically, how she should approach Wakana. Does she tell her straight up what's going on? Try and trick her (that feels bad)? Break into Kazusa's house in the Dark Hour and sneak past the Homunculus in order to recover her Thread to avoid crippling social interaction?
She sighs, staring at her sandwich. "Egg sando of the cafeteria, give me your wisdom..." she says halfheartedly. "...ugh."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
That last option might be more dangerous than you think, Hazuki. ... But it will definitely avoid having to talk to anybody.
... mostly because all of your breath will be spent on running.
Kazuhiro observes Hazuki asking the egg sandwich for advice as he approaches. He's having a similar discussion--made worse by the fact that he knows he's playing with things he doesn't understand. But... only one way to find out.
"Hey, Nakao-senpai," he says breezily as he approaches, wearing his usual carefree grin. "What's got you worried? It's a shame to see a cute girl looking so troubled."
He cringed at himself for that. It had slipped out before he'd even been able to stop himself.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki is snapped out of her egg sandwich reverie, turning to Kazuhiro as he approaches. She does like gender-affirming compliments, but right now she's not in the mood. "...oh, hey, Motojima-san. Uh...thank you."
She questions what to say, briefly, but... she saw the look he gave Kazusa before, and also, if she can't talk to Wakana, she can talk to Kazusa's brother, right? Maybe he'll be able to do something.
"...I'm worried about your sister," she admits. "She's... changed. Too much."
Depending on how canny Kazuhiro is, he might notice that Hazuki pauses between words, almost like she's trying to figure out what's okay to say right now.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro doesn't know he's being affirming... but maybe that's the best affirmation he can give.
He regards Hazuki as she considers what to say, but the smile falters as she mentions his sister, and that she's changed.
And changed too much.
He's silent for a moment himself, eyes glancing sideways to see if there's anybody nearby before looking back to Hazuki. "Mind if I join you?"
Assuming Hazuki says yes, Kaszuhiro sits down, setting a bento box on the table. He looks Hazuki in the eye for a long moment before sighing. "... is she a Homunculus?"
Might as well cut to the chase.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"Go ahead," Hazuki tells Kazuhiro. As he takes a seat, she takes a bite of her egg sando, nearly choking when Kazuhiro says that word. Probably sign one she knows what it means.
"How did you- no, nevermind. Uh..." she grimaces. "...yeah."
She sighs. "You've felt it, haven't you? That itch at your throat. The hairs sticking up at the back of your neck. That... uncanny feeling, right?"
She glances around briefly, before...
"...your sister currently isn't human."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro nods a little, mostly to himself, as he sees that reaction, his boice quieter. "Sorry for just dropping that word on you, but... I kinda wanted to see your reaction."
As for 'how', he shrugs. "... talked to someone who told me more than she probably should've," he admits. "Wasn't really sure if she was scamming me, but..." Well, Hazuki's reaction said it all, there.
"... yeah, I have," he admits, slowly opening his bento box. It's artfully arranged, with lots of vibrant colors. "But even if I hadn't..."
He doesn't start eating.
"... she's my sister. I know what she's like."
He finally looks up when Hazuki says Kazusa isn't human. He takes a deep breath. "... alright. Let's say I believe that. What can we do?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki sighs about someone telling Kazuhiro more than she should've. "...yeah. But..."
She trails off. Kazuhiro says she's her sister, and he knows what she's like, and gets a sympathetic nod.
"...I can help her," Hazuki admits. "There's a way to kill the parasite that's taken over before it... replaces her. But it's dangerous even with a team, and also... I need two things to do so."
Hazuki shifts around, looking again, before raising a finger. "One, I need something that is deeply personal to her. An object, preferably."
She raises a second finger. "Two, I need the location of a lonely place she would consider 'hers'. Anywhere she feels safe or in control, I think."
She sighs. "...I know this probably sounds like a whole lot of nonsense, but I don't want anything in return... I just want her to return to normal. Hate to say it, I miss her bullying me!"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"Parasite... that's the 'Homunculus' thing, then?" he says gravely. He's still a little uncertain, but... he's trying to keep an open mind.
But Hazuki presses on with the requirements. "An item that is deeply personal... so... like what? Jewelry? Old photos?"
The location of a lonely place... that she considers hers. Kazuhiro looks down at his bento for a moment, poking at it with his chopsticks. "... I know where that is," he says finally. "She's got a space that she uses as a studio. Our grandparents pay for it, but it's mostly only her that uses it. Think that'd work?"
Kazuhiro laughs a little. "I... kinda get what you mean, I think. It'd be... more real than whatever's going on now, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"...yeah," Hazuki says. "It's... basically a supernatural parasite."
With the item, she considers. "My friend was possessed by one. We used a gold bracelet he wore everywhere, his 'lucky charm'. I stole it off him, brought it to a place he liked to hang out, and it worked." A pause.
"He's fine now! It shows it works."
But the studio... "I think it would. If I can bring the object there, that's all I need to do."
But Kazuhiro laughs a little, and Hazuki smiles charmingly. "I was there at the convention when your father caught her. I think... that was the last time anyone really saw her before she changed, at least outside your family. She was having so much fun in cosplay, and..."
A sigh.
"I wish I had known she was hurting."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"... sounds pretty nasty."
"Glad to hear your friend is better. My syster's not really the 'lucky charm' type, though..." He frowns as he eats some more of his lunch. "If we're talking 'deeply' personal..."
He's got an inkling, but... he's hesitant.
He pauses when Hazuki says she was there, at the convention. "Oh, damn... I only heard about that through..." He stares down at his lunch, expression pensive. "Um... after."
There was a lot of 'after.' He's not in a rush to get into it.
"... yeah." His voice is a lot more hushed now, something pained in the undercurrent. "She was... pretty much holed up in her room all week and then... one day she just came out, and... was like that."
Kazuhiro shakes his head. "The whole point was for people not to find out. It was easier for her to just... put up a wall."
"But if you saw that... I think I know what the object might be. But, uh... I gotta ask that none of this gets back to our father, okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki nods. She'll let Kazuhiro share at his own pace, but...
"I'm sorry..." she sympathizes, before thinking over. A wall, huh?
"...the masks we wear. I get it... hopefully someday she can get past it, once we save her."
But, he asks that none of it gets back to his father, and her eyes widen. "Oh, of course not. This is between us, okay? And I'll return it once your sister is safe, whatever it is."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Hopefully she can get past it. "... that'd be nice," Kazuhiro says quietly.
But Hazuki promises to keep it safe, and to return it afterewards. "Alright. So..." He hesitates. This is a secret Kazusa has kept, but... if it'll help save her, then...
"Onee-san wants to make video games," he says, stirring the rice in his bento box. "Our father, as you might imagine... does not approve. But if you're looking for something deeply personal to her..."
A tense sigh. "Sadly, I don't have any copies of anything she's made. Too risky to keep anything at home. But I think I do know who has some copies."
If there's anybody Kazusa might trust with such a prized object as the games she's made... it must be the person she trusted to do cosplay with, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki listens closely to what Kazuhiro has to say. She stifles her first impression off her face when she hears what he has to say, even if her eyes briefly light up in excitement.
"Homemade art... that's perfect. That should work. But if you don't have them..."
A pause.
"...Oosaka-san seems happier like this. Do you... think she'll be wiling to help us? If we can get those games, and take them to the studio..."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"Homemade art," Kazuhiro repeats. "It's... been a while since she let me play any, but... I always kinda liked them."
"I don't know," Kazuhiro says of Wakana. "But if we talk to Wakana-senpai together... maybe we can convince her. Either way, I'll need some time to get a key... my grandparents had to change the lock on the studio, and I didn't have a copy to begin with."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki smiles a little bit that Kazuhiro liked her games. Kazusa must have been difference once. But about Wakana...
"Okay! We'll do our best. But... don't take too long on that key. Time is of the essence with this."
Hazuki then moves to devour her egg sando. All this talk of stop Homunculi has made her hungry... wait.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"I won't," Kazuhiro promises about the key. "Just... gotta get it without otou-sama finding out," he says with a wince.
Kazuhiro also moves to eat his own lunch.
LATER THAT DAY
It was easier and more convenient to have Hazuki to ask Wakana to talk after school--they're in the same class,m after all.
Kazuhiro was there already, an out-of-the-way place around the side of the school, schoolbag on the ground, leaning against a wall with his hands in his pockets.
Wakana shows up from practice--gymnast's build, short brown bob with a flower hair clip in it--and draws up short. "Kazuhiro-kun? What are you..."
Kazuhiro gives Wakana an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Wakana-senpai. I... didn't want to deceive you, but... Nakao-senpai and I need to talk. It's important."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki simply asked Wakana if she could talk, once school was done. Leading her out like this sucked, but...
Once she gets to Kazuhiro, she turns, looking at Wakana.
"Sorry if you felt deceived..." Hazuki says apologetically, turning to Wakana. "We...need to talk about Motojima-san."
She gives a shaky frown. "...and what's happened to her after the convention. She's in danger."
Straight to the point, as always. But if she doesn't do this her way, and is indirect, she may push her away from helping them.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Wakana looks between the two of them. She hadn't been suspicious of Hazuki when she asked to talk--they're classmates, after all, it could have been as innocent as asking for a copy of her notes or something else equally mundane.
And despite her defense of Kazusa... she gets it. Even with her new outlook, if people didn't want to talk around her for what she did before, well...
That's fair.
But seeing Kazuhiro here has her concerned. And then Hazuki just comes right out withit. It's about Kazusa.
"Nakao-san, I..." Wakana looks down a little, slowly shaking her head. "... it was very kind of you to speak up for her, considering... but... i-isn't saying she's in danger a bit much...?"
She can't really bring herself to look at either Hazuki or Kazukiro. She's dealing with some complicated feelings of her own.
Kazuhiro is silent for a moment, and then slowly shakes his head. "Wakana-senpai... we both know my sister isn't like that... surely you've felt it, too? How she feels a little bit off?"
Wakana refuses to make eye contact or anwer, which is all the answer Kazuhiro needs. Kazuhiro looks to Hazuki to let her keep going.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki frowns at Wakana's response. "...it's the truth. That feeling, that itch on the back of your neck... it means something's very wrong."
She sighs, trying to figure out how to continue, but Kazuhiro encourages her to keep going.
"...the best way to put it, is she's sick. But... not in a mundane way? A... parasite. It's replaced her personality with a different possibility, and it's going to kill the... original Motojima-san if nothing is done."
A pause. "I know this probably sounds insane. But I've seen it happen with my own two eyes, as have others."
Hazuki sounds *deathly* serious. Her gloominess has faded, even, confidence overtaking, because this is technically Work. And when she's working, she feels on fire.
"Please help us."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"A... a parasite...?" Wakana looks confused for a moment, and then a strange mixture of hurt and upset. "Come on, I know she hasn't been very nice to you, but that's no reason to say something like that about her."
Kazuhiro has heard the word 'Homunculus', but he isn't about to spring that on Wakana. "Think about it, Wakana-senpai," he says softly. "You've spent more time with her than I have... has she slipped at all? Given you any kind of a sign she's just doing this to get our father off her back?"
Wakana opens her mouth, reflexively moving to defend Kazusa. "I..." She looks away. "... she's seemed so much happier, though..." she protests, weakly. "Can't I just... be happy for her?"
There is some anguished guilt written on her face. She's conflicted: she may not be impossible to reach.
Still, she says, "... I can't."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"I'm telling the truth," Hazuki repeats. Kazuhiro backs her up in this weird good cop weirdo cop situation.
Which is why, when Wakana asks if she can't be happy for her, Hazuki frowns. "Are you happy for her for her, though? ...from what I can tell, talking to her, she's no longer the same person."
The frown tightens.
"...Or is she still making games, and wearing costumes, and showing joy for *herself*?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Is she happy for her for her? Wakana looks hurt, and her protest is a bit too strong as she looks to Hazuki. "O-of course I am! She... sh-she wants to change, and I'm just... I-I'm trying to support her, okay?"
It's wrong, it's messed up, of course it is. But no matter how many times Wakana's asked, Kazusa has been insistent she's fine. And... "... she's been treating me better," Wakana asys weakly. "Just like she said she would."
And yet... Wakana has moved from trying to smooth things over for Kazusa to looking out for her--where the new Kazusa's seeming naivete has become something Kazusa has had to protect her from herself on.
So how much has really changed, for Wakana, then?
"I--" She looks struck as Hazuki brings up the games. "H-how did you..."
"Bcause I told her," Kazuhro says gently. "Because that's who I know my sister is. The one who wants to do art, to be creative, to express herself... and I think you know it too."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki sighs. "I'm glad you feel treated better. ...but is this your friend, or someone with her name? Is anything she does the same? Is anything she believes the same? At that point, is she really *the same person*?"
Hazuki is full of determination. Someone needs help. She can't be passive, wait for Wakana, here.
She paces for a second. "...if I lost the things that made me who I really am... I would consider that a problem. I do believe she can change, she can be nicer to you, but is it better if she does it the way she is right now... or does it while keeping the parts of her you always shared? The parts you *knew* were the good parts, instead of something new and different?"
She turns to Kazuhiro, before looking back to Wakana.
"I want to save her from this. She may have bullied me... but I want to see her make her own choices, redeem herself, instead of a miraculous overnight change where I can't even recognize her."
"Don't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
If nothing about her is the same, is she really the same person? Wakana looks down. "... sh-she asked me to help her... to support her. How... how can I go against her...?"
The Homunculus, whether intentionally or not, seems to have been working really hard to get Wakana on her side... and this is making Hazuki's pitch a lot more difficult for her.
She's silent for a long moment, hugging herself a little as she thinks. "... what if things just go back to the way they were before? Could... could you really handle that?"
That question isn't directed entirely at Hazuki.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"...have you asked yourself why she changed so rapidly?" Hazuki asks.
Wakana asks her question. Hazuki breathes deeply, before...
"...yeah. I'd rather see her be genuine than a lie. Even if it hurts me..."
And she gazes back to Wakana. "...but are you asking me, or asking yourself?" Hazuki can be surprisingly observant. "...what were the qualities of Motojima-san you liked, all this time?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Has Wakana asked herself? Once again, the silence from her is damning, in its way.
And she turns her head as Hazuki turns the question on her. "... lots of things," she answers quietly. "She's creative, smart, driven..." It hurts to say it, sionce she knows, deep down, she's none of those things right now.
her expression turns pained. "If you bring her back... I don't know if I..." Whatever she had been about to say she doesn't finish. Instead, she asks, "... can you... really help her?"
Finally she looks to Hazuki. "... what would I have to do?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"...you don't have to forgive her," Hazuki ends up saying with a frown. "...but giving her that chance to live as herself is a kindness, I think."
She looks over to Kazuhiro, before looking back to Wakana, nodding. "I need something of hers with strong emotional resonance to her, as well as a place that is lonely yet still hers. He thinks her homemade games would do the trick, as well as her studio. If I bring the games to the studio... as ridiculous as this sounds, it'll help! May I borrow them?"
The word borrow is enunciated. She does not intend to keep them.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro has been silent, letting Hazuki take charge of the conversation. Partly, since she's going to be doing the hard work, he wants to let her lead. But partly... he's curious, to see how she chooses to act and what to say. He just gives Hazuki an encouraging nod as she l;ooks to him.
Wakana blinks, looking apprehensively at Kazuhiro. "But... can you really be sure...?"
Kazuhiro shrugs a little. "No, but... I think she's telling the truth. And... I want my sister back. Even if she's bossy and demanding... it'll be her, you know?"
"You know how hard she worked on those games," he continues. "It's all she's wanted since we were kids. Do you want to let... whatever that thing is give up on those dreams for her?"
Wakana grows silent for a moment, looking down. "... I... I definitely need those back, okay? But... I don't have a key..."
"I'll take care of that," Kazuhiro says. He looks to Hazuki. "I'll let you know when I can get the keys, okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"...the only thing I can be sure of is that she has a chance that has to be taken now. I plan to take that chance," Hazuki tells Wakana.
"You'll get them back! I just need to borrow them for a bit." Then, she looks to Kazuhiro.
"Yeah. Thank you, both of you. I know this is... a lot. But I feel confident about our chances."
She smiles, trying to be a beacon of hope. "I'll let you go now. I'll also be bringing some of my allies by once you have that key."
What exactly is this girl *up to*?