2026-07-09: Unaccompanied Minors
- Log: Unaccompanied Minors
- Cast: Isabeau Fontaine, Hana Fukami
- Where: The Red Light District - Shinjuku
- OOC Date: 2026-07-08
- IC Date: Fri Dec 07 2012
- Summary: Hana catches Isabeau running into the Red Light District after being goaded by her classmates, luckily in time to stop her from getting scooped up by a slimy talent agent. In talking to her, she realises that Isabeau doesn't have a community, either... and she really ought to talk to her father.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"What fault have you find in mysterious? Girls should like a mysterious girl."
"Girls should...? Don't tell me... you're the sort of girl who needs practice?"
"Talk plainly!"
"Ehh, you know... practicing with... another girl..."
"Moron, girls can just like girls!"
"Have you ever seen a girl here who would do something like that?"
"Well, no, but... I just have not found her!"
"That's because you won't find anyone that outrageous at Shujin. Ehhhh, maybe the Red Light District in Shinjuku is more your speed...?"
"'Shinjuku', you say? Fine!"
"H--hey, Fontaine-san! Wait!"
But it's too late -- Isabeau is already bulling away. Looking it up on her phone, she finally figures out that Shinjuku is Shinjuku -- a stop not far from Kagurazaka. Of course, she's furiously embarrassed to have been singled out by her classmates that way, but why shouldn't she go and find the gay scene? Better than this scene.
Of course, running off that fast means she rocks up to the Red Light District... still in her uniform. She's bustling around energetically enough that she's left her jacket open to vent heat, showing the cream turtleneck beneath it; the way her heavy weight settles is called to more attention by those suspenders. She doesn't entirely realise how the precise qualities which have her mocked in the classroom by her more modest peers puts her at so much risk here. She's used to being the outrageous one -- the obvious one -- but 'oblivious' is really a better word.
Not that her expression is nonplussed. She scowls, annoyed by trying to navigate a new neighbourhood with all the unfamiliar signs. Why does she always need to read so much in this stupid city?! "She could've given me better directions," Isabeau mutters, darkly, and in French.
"Ah, is this the Romance language?" The man who steps forward to put himself in his path addresses her in Japanese, but he speaks slowly. "You sound troubled, yet it's beautiful!"
"Hein? Me? Pfa! You could learn this," Isabeau points out, and at first she's still frowning, but seeing the man's interest, she pauses. "Tu sais... it is beautiful," she says, her expression softening. "We say in France, bon après-midi, boh ah-PRAY mee-DEE... that is, to say good afternoon."
"Bo apere mede!" The man makes his attempt, cheerfully. "Ahh, you say it much better... say, would you ever consider taking that French onto the stage?"
There's something a little unsettling about the way he's stopped her, but... he's not looking at her the way that Kamoshida did, so Isabeau thinks that he must really be interested in her voice. (She does not realise it might just be impersonal.) "Pff, what sorry attempt," she has to be offended, first, before she brightens a little, and even smiles. "En fait, I have been seeing the voice coach for months now... are you looking for a singer?"
Taking someone at face value in a place like this...
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Shinjuku is Shinjuku, all right. And some people are accustomed to dealing with it, while some people are not. Hana Fukami is one of those accustomed. The dark-haired woman walks confidently through the red light district on her way from one of the parking areas, her red eyes casting about for danger and interest both. ...She indeed, finds both!
Hana approaches the man and Isabeau all of a sudden. She is stylish, feminine, and dressed in pink. A few people around here are likely to know her; she frequents the area. And one may be this man, and he's lucky if so, because her big smile is turned on him.
"And when is the part where you caution her not to tell her parents?" Hana asks sweetly and smoothly.
A beat before she adds, "Miss, I don't think you'd like the kind of stage he'd put you on. He's more interested in bodies than voices."
"Or am I wrong?"
Then, "I'm Hana Fukami," she introduces herself to Isabeau, and stops again facing the bar up the way, turning her head back towards Isabeau. "You won't get many opportunities you'd like out on the street here--bad contracts are all over."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Hana-chan, hey, we're just in the middle of --"
The recruiter's attempts to get Hana to butt out only end in grief as she skips right to the end of his spiel -- long before he's softened Isabeau up. The effect is quite immediate as suspicion enters her face, her scowl returning. "Hein? What weird thing are you up to?!"
More interested in...
"Weirdo!" Isabeau insults him, and, give her credit: she's at least learned that word hanging around highschool. He calls something about how of course she's wrong, she's got him all wrong, but Isabeau's already hurrying over to catch up to Hana.
"Euh... what do you mean?" She asks her, looking back over her shoulder.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Hana could've been nice about it. But she didn't really want to be. A weird thing, he says. But Hana hopes that Isabeau will follow her instead of stay with him. And that's how it happens! Hana glances back--and shakes her head in his direction, because she has little pity for the guy scouting high schoolers for his AVs.
Instead she looks at Isabeau. "Shinjuku can be a dangerous place for a girl," Hana says to Isabeau. "There are barkers and recruiters all over who are more interested in what they can get out of you than where your talents can take you. Take that man, for instance; he'd have seen you in 'adult' videos faster than on a stage singing."
"...But I think if I give away the game too much out here on the street, we're going to get some harsh words. Would you come with me? I can explain to you what it's like around here somewhere a little safer." She gestures to the bar ahead--Crossroads.
Lala won't be thrilled she brought in a teenager, but what else is she to do?
If Isabeau will come, Hana will lead her.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Sérieusement?!" Isabeau barks, seriously?!, when Hana gets to what he was going for. She lapses into French entirely as she says, "no way! I'm not that kind of modern girl?! What kind of crap is this!" -- and at least her alarmed tone must carry forward what she's saying, even if the words don't make sense.
She at least manages to remember how to speak Japanese to insist: "That is illegal! I am in the high school second!" Second year, she must mean. A foreigner like her looks like a third year student... but that's only an excuse in the eyes of those creepy men.
"Pff, those girls... jerks..." Isabeau mutters, as she glares at the attention they're getting, out on the street. (Those girls...?) Hana suggests she come with her, though -- and Isabeau shows a little more of why she'd struggle out here when she agrees, "Sure, sure."
It's just lucky Hana actually means well. Isabeau goes over to enter into Crossroads, all tucked into the way. Quietly, as she steps into that pink-lit sparkling nest: "oh my god."
Her tone ratchets way up.
"THIS IS A GAY BAR!"
Luckily, at this time in the afternoon, there's no one really here. No one but the broad woman who turns, laboriously slow, to show the theatrical makeup on her face as she wipes down a glass. "Hana-chan," Lala Escargot calls, over Isabeau's head -- which requires a little looking, Isabeau is quite tall, she's five foot six. "Come on, now, you can't be bringing kids in here..."
"H--hey, I am not a kid!" Isabeau protests, bleatingly. (What's another word for a goat...) "I am just like you!"
"Oh, brother," Lala sighs, looking to Hana as if to say, explain yourself.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Hana speaks enough English that she can get some of the similar words, but not nearly eniough French to get more than the feeling. And then, "It is. But the law only gets involved if you can prove it." High school second-year... hm.
Those girls? "Those girls?" Hana echoes her own thought, but Isabeau indeed actually agrees to it, which is all the more reason it's important to get her off of this street.
"Not precisely," Hana starts, because there's actually a proper term that isn't the same...
But, "Lala-chan," Hana says, "It's an emergency. I'll re-up my bottle later, so please?"
Just like her...
Hana sighs. "This girl was on the street talking about her singing lessons to Takai-san." The aforementioned pornographer. "I need to make sure she's safe, and if I keep talking about how the sausage is made out there I don't think I'll be very safe either."
"I just need to talk with her a bit before I'm comfortable sending her on..."
A look to Isabeau, who is taller than she is if not by much, "It'll be all right. But do keep your voice down--we can talk over there, if...?" She puts on the big eyes at Lala.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Tchah... you sound like my mother," Isabeau grouses, hearing Hana disparage the law. And of those girls, she just says, at first, "From school!"
But Hana says it's an emergency when they get into the bar, and Lala, who doesn't object to youth in her bar insomuch as she objects to youth who shouldn't be in the the area to begin with, heaves a great sigh. (Like Isabeau, she's got great lung capacity.) "That Takai-san's a louse," she shakes her head, with a regretful click of her tongue. "All right, all right... sit her down on the lounge," she gestures them past the curtains opposite the bar, to a cushioned karaoke bar. "But if she gets into the sauce, it's on you, Hana-chan."
'WELCOME', a neon sign greets them in that nook, in a big heart, with 'LOVE' tilted at an angle beneath it. There is a disco ball. There are loveheart cushions. The lights are GLITTERY!
Isabeau, mind you, sits herself down. "Euh, quoi... they were teasing me, I guess. Those girls, they just did say there was not a girl who liked a girl in Shujin -- they say they are in the Red District. They were only sending me off to the... the house of old professions!" She looks terribly mad... though it's more complicated than it might sound, as she explains: "There is nothing wrong with that, if it is what a woman wants to do, but I thought this country did not see it so liberally... and it is not a thing you should ask young women, anyway!"
Isabeau, it seems, isn't so much bothered by the idea that someone would ask as she is by the idea that they would ask her.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
"Unfortunately, that's how it is around here," Hana says of the law. "It's easier to maintain 'order' in more 'upright' places."
But from school. Lala sighs, but she dose seem to allow it. "Thanks, Lala-chan!" Hana answers, and if you squint, you can hear her pronounce the <3 that goes with the name, all sparkles in a way that few outside this sort of place tend to see.
"Oh, it'll be fine. I'm sure she won't even try, right?" she asks. It is at least phrased like a question.
But indeed, Isabeau does sit down, and Hana moves to sit with her. She listens! And immediately, Hana's expression is sympathetic. Those girls...
"It's true at least that you could find such here... but you'd be more likely to find trouble, first. Especially as a minor."
But nothing wrong with it? Hmm. That's different from the average high schooler.
"I'm glad you think so," Hana says, "But you're right--it's not appropriate to ask it of you."
"...It's isolating, to be like us in school, isn't it?" Hana asks. "When I was young, I had similar problems... but I was lucky enough to have a supportive family. I didn't make it here to Shinjuku until I was in university."
"But first things first. What's your name?" she asks. "And does anyone but those girls know you came out here?"
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Hana is lucky she's cute.
"The teenagers only have wine on weekends," Isabeau insists, "and it is not dinnertime, anyway! I am not about to flaunt my father's rules!" Oh, they're European... those people do have strange ideas about underage drinking, by the local logic.
(Is it really so weird to do it under supervision??)
"I should have known," Isabeau scowls, when Hana points out that she'd find trouble before lesbians. "This country is so backwards... it is normal!" Isabeau, in the same breath, thinks Japan's the one with the weird ideas...
She hums, rubbing at her arm. "Alors... I think my father would be normal about it..." And it's entirely possible that this foreign girl doesn't even realise the implications of what normal means, in a place like this, when she's just insisted that women loving women is the normal thing. "I, euh, I have not asked him, in exact."
Her hand lifts, to gesture, to herself. "I am Isabeau! Isabeau Fontaine. You were... Madame Fukami, hein?" No honourific, but she might just not get how confronting yobisute address is right out the gate. She's at least using her last name...
... though that has more to do with how she's an adult than anything.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Hana is very cute!
Europeans. "Indeed?" Hana asks. "Then there's nothing to worry about." She's just not going to unpack that part at all. The other part, though...
"To be fair to Japan," Hana says gently, "It's less that the bians aren't here, and more that you don't yet know how to find them." It is normal, though. Hana smiles. "...But I agree that it should be normal."
But she thinks? ...Hmm. "I see." She suspects any father would have something to say about Isabeau coming here... But more because of the danger than because of Crossroads in particular, she assumes, if Isabeau has turned out like this so far.
"Fontaine-chan," Hana ventures. "And that's right! I like being remembered."
Hana is definitely an adult.
"In any case, it's nice to meet you. So..."
"Not all of Shinjuku is the area known for its gay culture; Shinjuku is a large city." And it is a city of its own, within the broader Tokyo area. "Most of it is for adults... but I can look into resources for younger people in the area."
Hana stops to consider something. "Well. The community took care of me when I was young--people like us ought to look out for each other," she says warmly.
"...So how about this: if you have questions about the area and what to find, I'll answer them if I can. And then I might ask a few questions of you, too."
"First, I'll tell you about myself, so you know who you're dealing with. I'm Hana Fukami," she re-introduces, "And I work in television. I love both men and women, though I've been with many more men, and I used to be male myself."
"But I have a lot of good bian friends, and I've been around a time or two in this area."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Bah... si tu veux," Isabeau approximates, dismissively, as Hana urges her to be fair. "Sure." She doesn't entirely sound like she believes that.
(If girls are not cowards, Hana, WHERE ARE THE GIRLS?!)
How much influence, though, has Laurent had over Isabeau? She follows the rules he sets down, certainly, but...
Well, it's a nice idea, saying she's been shaped by him.
Isabeau evidently doesn't remember Hana from television, at least, but... as a second year, she'd be sixteen or seventeen, which means she won't be in Hana's demographic for another four or five years. Maybe she just doesn't talk to her mother much about what she watches while she's at school!
"Mm... I live nearby, actually," Isabeau admits, speaking of Shinjuku. "Quoi, that is... Ka-gu-ra-za-ka?" And she kind of belabours each mora, as if she's a little worried she won't say it right. "I just... do not travel further, much of the time, euh... I did not live in as large the city before this. Mi-ka-ge-ch-oh?" And there's the mistake, in her speaking: thinking ch is, itself, a whole mora. "Before then, Inaba... euh... Ina-ba..." Isabeau scowls, as she realises that overthinking it has led her to making a mistake when she remembers how Inaba clusters more than two letter sounds at once.
"Bref!!" She huffs, dismissing it all at once. Anyway!!
Hana, though, is helpful, and -- "Euh? You are in television?" Isabeau asks, surprised. "You are... oh là là! Transidentité! I would not guess!" (Literally, that's trans-identity; it is, of course, understood to mean transgender identity.) "How do you live in this place? It is drowning, and I am not even of the age to do much!"
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Hana has much to learn about Isabeau, if she's to understand her. She doesn't yet; but she can't just let Japan be completely terrible without comparison... She lives here!
Still--
"Ah! Kagurazaka! That makes sense," Hana answers. "It's a beautiful area. Unfortunately, I don't speak French," she says, and it sounds a little wistful when she says it--it is a pretty area. It's fine if Isabeau doesn't have it all right; Hana knows better than to draw attention overmuch to it, and does not repeat Mikage-cho. "Hmmm, yes..."
Inaba! "Oh, some distance away," she says.
Anyway.
"I am," Hana confirms, and smiles (though it's a small smile, not very effusive) at being told that Isabeau would not guess. Still, she's doing her best, Hana thinks, since she treats it as a positive. "Yes, I am. And yes, I am." To both! "Ahah... Actually, I would say I love Tokyo for the community," she says. "Especially but not exclusively in Shinjuku. I grew up in Iwatodai, you see--and before that, in Aira in Kagoshima."
"...The 'community', such as it was when I was in high school, was a few friends and my Uncle, who mentored me on such things." A beat, "But here, there are so many of us! I found I didn't have to be alone anymore, and it made all the difference."
"I think it's brave of you to be 'out' even to your classmates already. ...I wasn't quite as bold, when I was your age. And it was very lonely." She considers again. "...You say you're training to sing? Is that a dream of yours?"
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau would call the fact that she also lives here unfortunate.
She's not as understanding as Hana is, but then... she's also younger than she is by quite a few years, huh?
"It is easier to get around that place," Isabeau admits, and the fact that Hana thinks first of speaking French when she thinks of it is precisely why.
Isabeau doesn't have enough exposure to that part of the community to realise she should explicitly affirm Hana -- but her tone, at least, is positive. "Iwa... euh... you mean near Tar--" cough, cough, Isabeau feigns a coughing fit, and it's entirely because she's just realised Hana doesn't strike her like the sort of woman who'd know about that in the slightest, "hu-uh -- ah -- pardon, Gekkoukan?"
Ahem. "Euh, the 'Aira'," she adds, with a tilt of her head, "I do not know this place?"
She shakes her head, folding her arms. "... my mother, she and her friends are, comment dire," she wonders how to say it, humming, for a moment, before she just tries, "haute bohéme, euhhh... Bohemian?" She tries just saying it in English, because she still can't think of the Japanese word. (What she loses in translation is the particular connotations of wealth; Fleur's aristocratic artistry was a specific marker, back home.) "She no longer cares for me, though... I have found my father, so with him I stay. Still... I do not like to be told I should not feel this way by girls at school. It only makes me want to be this way even, even louder!"
The counterculturalism of youth... well, it's not unknown in Japan, either. It's just that in Japan, one is expected to get it out of one's system...
She brightens, smiling, as Hana asks about her dreams. "Correct!" She chirps, cheering up. "Papa booked lessons for me, and I train with Madame Bambarina," Guen Bamba, that is, who was a sensational starlet... forty years ago. She retired around thirty years ago, though, as if the pop scene is as harsh as the dating scene on Christmas cake. "She says that I have no hope of 'making it'," Isabeau scowls, "but she does not know anything! If you are good enough, it does not matter if they like you or not!"
That does seem to be this girl's whole philosophy... at least on one level. On another, she's telling all this to the nearest adult who showed any interest...
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
It is easier to get around--it would be, with the French language.
Her tone is positive; that, to Hana, is more important than getting all the manners right, especially for someone young and not connected with the community. She does not know what 'Tar' is but--"Yes," Hana answers. "Gekkoukan's where I went to school, myself."
Aira! "It's in southwest Japan," Hana explains. "It's said that it has been inhabited continually since the Japanese Paleolithic period... But that's not what I remember about it. It's not nearly so large as Tokyo, Aira--and to be honest, I lived there as a child, and don't remember everything about it. But it has strong agriculture, and I had quite an accent when I came to Iwatodai..."
"I'm a city girl now, but I wasn't back then."
But, her friends? Her mother? "Ahhh," Hana understands. It's...
Well, it's not particularly strange to her, actually; she has an artsy friend group that has at least a good chunk of money, after all. But not so much aristocracy. "They shouldn't say such things," Hana agrees. "They don't understand. ...When they get older, some of them will. It's just something we have to live around."
But Hana smiles back at that cheer. "I see!" She does recognize the name, and is thoughtful at that. No chance...
"Hmm." Hana... does not really want to unpack all that. However...
"Well, Fontaine-chan, no one could fault you for passion," she says warmly. "What does your father do?" she wonders. "I think you should tell him about today, incidentally. Just so he knows you're safe."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Oh... so it is historical?" Isabeau wonders, head tilting the other way. "Euh... perhaps, then, papa would like to go there..."
She hums, as she says: "I was born in Paris... but I have been all over. Mom always was finding herself, et tout..." Was? Is? Maybe Isabeau just isn't very good at the language, for all she's mixing those tenses up. "You must have had a hard time," she decides. "Back in, euhhhh, Mikage-cho," and it's easier to say it when she doesn't give herself too long to think about it, "they were very scornful, to know I first came to Inaba. Almost as scornful as the people in Inaba," she adds, at a dark grumble.
... it's not hard to imagine Japanese society reacting coldly to a girl like Isabeau.
"Do not worry," she assures her. "You do not sound like the women in Inaba sound. Your secret is safe!" Is -- is that the secret she wants to keep safe??? Then again, she was pretty open about the other thing...
She puffs her cheeks out, as she huffs: "Living around it is such an annoying idea! I do not want to live in a place which puts up with me!"
Is France really any better than Japan, for that, Isabeau?
Well, don't ask her that.
Isabeau smiles again, though, as she gestures brightly. "He is a Professor of History! His name is Laurent Fontaine -- he studies at the Tokyo University! I found him just this year! He did not know I existed, you see. But he took me in, and now, we are a family, and everything is fine!"
Everything is fine, except that she still gets goaded to dive into the Red Light District despite knowing nothing about it...
"Euh, but..." Isabeau frowns, scratching at a cheek. "I do not want him to think I am... bah... I am embarrassed," she mumbles, at length. "Je veux dire, euhhhh... I should not fall for those things girls say to me so easily. I know they are just being nasty... I should just ignore them."
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
"Most places have at least some history--it's part of the charm of the world!" Hana smiles.
But Isabeau was born in Paris... And her mother was a Bohemian who was always finding herself, and isn't caring for her now. And Isabeau was not liked... anywhere.
No wonder she's such an abrasive girl, if that's the treatment she's been receiving all along.
Hana laughs softly at the assurance. "Thank you," she says. Indeed--she was open about the other... but then, she had reason to demonstrate she was of a kind with Isabeau, too, and ironically enough, in her position a love of women is more of a liability. "I appreciate it."
It is an annoying idea. Hana... doesn't push it at the moment.
Instead, "Oh, so? That's the university I attended!" Hana says it brightly. "I see... Well, congratulations that you were able to find him. I'm so glad. Family is so important, isn't it?"
Everything is not fine, clearly. She should talk to Professor Fontaine if she can...
"It's all right," Hana says. "Sometimes it's important to be honest even when it's embarrassing. ...But you're right; you should ignore those girls. It's not easier done than it is said though, is it?"
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"That is true," Isabeau admits. "Euh, even here, with those temples, hein?" She makes a thoughtful noise, tilting her head. "I heard there is a temple for cats somewhere in Tokyo, too..."
(Gotoku-ji Temple is, indeed, tucked away in Setagaya Ward; row after row of beckoning cat statues are enshrined there, to celebrate a cat who beckoned an ancient lord to a shrine so that he could escape a storm...)
But despite being so abrasive, Isabeau is, at least, kind enough to reassure Hana... even if she doesn't entirely get the respective risk profiles of her secrets.
She smiles, though, hearing that Hana also attended her father's university. "Oh! Do you know him?" Perhaps not -- Laurent only started working in Tokyo a few years back himself, after all -- but Isabeau is still of the age to presume that adults are a little timeless.
You know, when being in one's early twenties feels totally old enough for a character to be an old veteran... and Laurent's even older than that. Don't worry, she's not about to call him or his friends ancient to their faces, that would be rude. Isabeau is only rude to her peers! ... mostly.
"I was searching for a long time," Isabeau admits. "Ever since my step-grandmother was a big jerk about that gas leak in Mikage-cho... I realised I could not survive being put up with. So I started looking, though I only knew his name... I asked everyone, and it took years, but eventually I did find a university student who had had heard him. So I got on the train to Tokyo right away! Ben... it was very late when I arrived, du coup... I did find some of the trouble, but... I also found him!"
Oh, no.
This child HABITUALLY goes off on wild goose chases into danger!
"En fait," Isabeau draws from the well, actually in the froofiest of manners, "I rise to the challenge very much, voilà... maybe I am a person who gets sick with waiting?"
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
"Indeed!" The temples! And more, but also the temples! And there is a cat temple... But Hana doesn't want to claim that discovery for Isabeau. Better a friend she can go with tells her. Or maybe her father!
But Isabeau's kindness does shine through to Hana. It's enough that she is glad she brought her around instead of just rescue and running.
"I don't," Hana answers with a shake of her head. "I don't get back very often since graduation. But perhaps I'll meet him sometime."
Hana... is not an old veteran of the supernatural. She doesn't have any Resonance at all! She clearly doesn't have that going for her. And she isn't looking for it. But searching...
Ah. 'Put up with'.
The story becomes more alarming quickly. Got right on the train?? Hana's red eyes widen in surprise. "You... Yes, I see!"
She does not see. She's never experienced the Dark Hour.
But...
"I think it's natural to be impatient," Hana says instead. "But there is a community, I promise. ...May I give you my number? I'd like to compile those resources for you... and maybe talk to your father about something."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Terrible news: Isabeau's friends are the cats.
"Oh, I guess you do not need to worry much about your school once you are done..." Isabeau muses, thoughtfully. "Bon, that is well! I will not worry about Shujin, either!" That's not the attitude of most students at Shujin, desperate to make connections with each other -- but perhaps it's a more hopeful thought for someone like Isabeau.
Hana would definitely notice the annoying wasp buzzing around Isabeau if she were Awakened, it's true. It's really hard to miss...
Being fair, there's a good amount that Hana can see even without hearing that buzzing, though. Isabeau landing in Tokyo in the middle of the night... when she's innocent enough that hawkers out there almost hooked her?
She's surely very fortunate she found her father, and not anything even more dangerous.
"Ben... I believe you," Isabeau muses, thoughtfully, as she looks around the soft pink lighting of Crossroads. But then she asks to talk to her father, and Isabeau's eyes widen. "Euhhh -- you are not going to get me into the trouble?" She asks, with all the tension of a teenager who has been caught doing something irresponsible!! "Je veux dire, that is... that is fine, just..."
Isabeau glances away. "I do not want to be trouble," she says, despite all the trouble she habitually brings down.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Oh nooo.
"Oh, you get old enough and they'll start asking you for alumna donations," Hana says wryly. "But it's true; you don't stay involved with the day to day of your school when you leave. For better and for worse, you move on to your adult life."
It doesn't always turn out that way--but it did for Hana. Then again, Hana transitioned...
Hana sees many reasons Isabeau needs protecting.
"I am not," Hana assures Isabeau. "But as an adult, there are things I'd need to discuss with your parent about community, safety, and so on. You aren't trouble."
"...But I am going to advise that you try to come here with someone, next time you come--and failing that, that you avoid talking to people who accost you on the street. There are a lot of dangers out here, especially for a girl--especially for a young bian--and..."
"Well, as i said. People like us should look out for each other. My uncle did for me. So think of it as my way of repaying my debt to my elders, rather than you troubling me, hm?"
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
The really interesting thing is that Isabeau mentioned cats to Hana, and that's how you can tell she's an adult: Isabeau wouldn't dream of even insinuating she had that kind of weakness to the youth.
"My adult life..." Isabeau starts, thoughtfully, only to shake her head. "Mais non! Exams are soon, and they are already telling me that I will be deceased at the bottom of that list!" Dead last. She means they're saying she'll come dead last. "It would be different if they examined me in French... bah! Bah!"
She'll obviously get scooped up into an Olympian tennis team! Or become a star performer! Or get a wealthy patron who's in love with her sculpture! Or -- or something! Her adult life will be fine don't even worry about it she doesn't need to get good exam scores!!!
SHE'S NOT WORRIED YOU'RE WORRIED!!!!!!!
"Alors... I guess that makes sense," Isabeau relents, hearing Hana be concerned. "It is kind of rough out there... pff, not like anyone would want to go anywhere with me," an admission which might be even more alarming because does this girl have no friends?! "But... I can give people the cold shoulder just fine!"
She smiles, though it's a touch more muted, this time. "You just saw me out of nowhere and decided to do all that, huh...? I guess you kind of are like my mom. Tu sais... that is not so bad. People should have inspiration, right...? Bref, you have your reasons... sure. Merci beaucoup, Madame Fukami," Isabeau nods, to her. "Ah -- this mean that I thank you very much!"
Finally, she explains one of those phrases she's been dropping down...
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Cats, though!
Exams are soon, and she's going to do that badly? Hana doesn't openly react, but she does add a tally mark to her concerned line for Isabeau. "Yes, you have a while to go before you get there," Hana says encouragingly(?).
Hana is concerned, though!! It's pretty rough. She schools her features so that she doesn't frown too much about that admission, but instead she says, "Good. That's the key here."
Hana smiles back. "I prefer to think of it as 'trusting my instincts'," Hana says, rather than impulsivity. Besides...
"You're welcome," Hana says. "Now... Unless you've more questions, I think it's time we stop imposing on Lala-chan and get you headed home."
French... it is a beautiful language.