2026-07-15: The Taming of the Shrew
- Log: The Taming of the Shrew
- Cast: Isabeau Fontaine, Shinichi Nagisa, Kanae Fuyuki
- Where: Shujin Academy - Practice Building
- OOC Date: 2026-07-15
- IC Date: Mon, Dec 10 2012
- Summary: Isabeau's noticed something's wrong with Kanae, and she's pissed. Shinichi takes exception to that, and humilitates her in the middle of the girls' locker room in the process. It looks like Isabeau's been tamed -- she's even turned around now and started helping one of her primary victims, Kanae. (Who wasn't able to help Isabeau, despite her efforts.) Talk around school says he 'really sorted the witch out'...
- Content warning: Physical assault, bullying, racism, misogyny, implications of sexual assault
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMtByPKb7lY P!nk - Trouble
Tennis Club practice is fast and furious at the best of times. Their coach frequently has to throw out his two star players -- Isabeau Fontaine and Kanae Fuyuki -- for getting into mischief together; they're winning championships, but they're just plain disruptive.
Usually, Kanae rises to Isabeau's bait, but...
"Oh, what is the matter, Kanae?" Isabeau asks, her lip curling up as she backhands the ball back onto her side of the court. "Has the cat made your tongue?" THWACK!, it bounces against the court, and up, and back --
-- and the way Kanae returns that volley wordlessly only seems to make her angrier. "Where is your anger?!" She demands -- THWACK! -- as she lobs the ball deep into Kanae's side of the court. "ANSWER ME!"
But Kanae doesn't have the vim nor the verve to respond to such an aggressive shot, and, rattle-CLATTER!, it sails all the way into the storage closet and knocks several things off the shelves.
Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! The coach's whistle cuts through her diatribe, a thing that's been building to that eruption all match. "That's it!" He yells, throwing a hand out. "Fontaine-san, you're OUT! Cool your head and come back on Wednesday with a better attitude!"
"What?!" Isabeau snaps, gesturing, angrily, at Kanae. "What about HER?!"
"For once, you're not being a bad influence on Fuyuki-san," their coach grouses, scowling. "She is welcome to stay. Hiroe-san, you're up!" Enami Hiroe takes the court beside Kanae, instead -- and Enami, at least, is friends with Kanae, if not particularly close friends.
As for Isabeau, their star player?
Most members of the club would sooner cut off their little finger than spend a day with her by choice.
She stalks out of the gymnasium angrily, bulling for the lockers. There aren't many people in here, yet -- most of them are still in practice -- but there are a couple of faces from the club, people going back to grab something from their bag or people who have to leave early.
"Seriously?" Kunju Fujikura, one of the boys in Isabeau's class (and one of Tennis Club's most mediocre serves!) asks, as he sees her storming through the hall towards the girls' lockers. "You got kicked out again?"
"Shut UP," Isabeau issues, acidic, glaring at him.
"Hey, at least this time you didn't get Fuyuki-san thrown out, too," he shrugs, raising his hands in mock placation as he does.
Isabeau turns back forward. "That damn Kanae--!"
She's not about to say she's worried.
She's not worried.
She's just pissed off that the only girl who could really challenge her is -- what? Worried about her boyfriend? Probably worried about her boyfriend. Instead of keeping her head in the game!
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
A sensation throughout practice might occur to Isabeau, like the oxygen in Tokyo is more befouled than usual today. And the feeling that someone is watching them. That's not unusual. People come to watch the Tennis Club at play all the time.
Who cares about that? She has bigger things to worry about.
Kanae is more familiar with it by now. She can tell someone is watching her. A glimpse caught, a smile that's a little too wide.
A wave.
Who can worry about Isabeau, when by all appearances, he's here for her?
The gait is nearly casual, in comparison to Isabeau's, the once-prey now predator stalking their own prey. Prickles stand up on her neck as Kunju distracts her- and by the time her resonance tells her to turn around.
There's nothing there.
There's a place to hide around next to every door in the school. He bides his time. Hands in his pockets, within already clinched her hands, having heard her shout at a guy who was just calling her out for something fair? After all, she's such a bad sport.
She obviously doesn't know how things are meant to be.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Where is Kanae's anger? It's buried.
Kanae doesn't have the wherewithal to even be happy she gets to stay. She just nods, dully, and puts up her racquet again. "Right..."
She's withdrawn, closed in on herself, and it's absolutely because that someone is watching her. She felt the awful resonance first--she saw his smiles after.
Then, Isabeau stalks out, and Kanae glances her way, troubled.
"Hey," Enami says, "No need to look after her. You OK?"
Kanae realizes where her face was pointed and glances down instead. "Sorry," Kanae says. "I'm... not feeling great."
"I think I'm going to head to the locker rooms."
"You might run into--"
'I'll walk slow."
But she notices, there--as she starts to walk off--
'Shinichi' is gone. She has a bad feeling about this. ...But he wouldn't go into the girls' locker room, right?
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau's in a foul mood, but isn't that just a day ending in Y? If it's more than usual... there's enough reasons for her to be stressed.
They're already saying she'll come dead last in finals, after all...
She does not notice the boys in the stands, watching Kanae; she makes a specific habit not to. If she wants to be that boy's pretty little ornament, that's hardly her problem. You could not pay her to acknowledge Touma.
(In this way, she does not see: it isn't Touma.)
But Isabeau long since resolved to reverse the stakes on her predators and hunt them herself; her own predation is written into the essence of her, that she is the Hunter and not the Hunted. She whirls --
And sees nothing.
Her green eyes narrow, as she glares at Kunju, as if he's to blame. "Espèce de lâche," she spits, at him, and perhaps in her tone she makes it obvious she thinks him a coward, despite her French. "If you will throw things, throw them at my face!"
"Crazy witch," Kunju mutters, turning away.
"Tchah," Isabeau clicks her teeth to her tongue, as she pushes into the girl's locker room. She is not running, she insists, to herself. Her things are in here. She is -- making ready for this school which hates her, which aggresses her at every turn.
She's as dangerous as they are, she insists, to herself, stubbornly.
... but it's not the girls in class who ran off to Shinjuku because Isabeau was teasing them.
(Oh, yes, everyone is still talking about that.)
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmd-ClpJxA
They're waiting in that hiding place, until the moment Isabeau's hand makes contact with the locker room door. Muscles that were relaxed suddenly spring into action- he has a long stride, and at a fast pace, Isabeau finds herself getting whiplash.
Despite his pace, Kunju doesn't even think to turn around. After all, who would think he's heading right for Isabeau.
As a hand has grabbed her right wrist in a vice-like grip, yanking her off-balance, then spinning her around to press her against the tile wall with his opposite arm at her clavicle.
"Still at it, you fat bitch?"
The door flops close behind them, with that low thud of it being fully back in the frame.
Isabeau Fontaine might be incredibly surprised when she sees its Shinichi Nagisa, the milquetoast who couldn't even fight back when she got all the way up in his space, pushing him around like the coward he was.
Except, her resonance triggers now, up close. Is it really Shinichi? Or is it 'a monster' that had been lying in wait.
"I turn away for two seconds and you're already mouthing off to another guy."
There's no smile, he's not pressing so hard as to keep her from breathing, just to keep her pinned, his hand turning her wrist just enough to cause pain, without it being a full joint lock.
Instead there's a feral anger in those blue eyes of his.
"So why don't we go for a double header? Go on, talk shit to my face. It's what you asked Fujaku-san to do, right?"
His lips part just subtly, like a wolf baring his teeth.
"I dare you."
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Touma does sometimes watch in the stands. He has his own things going, but occasionally time lines up. Not today, though. Today he's busy--and Kanae is glad of that.
But... She does, as she ewalks slowly, catch Isabeau talking to Kunju. He might see her as he turns away, Kanae walking slowly towards the locker room. She spots Shinichi there--
And then he makes his move.
Kanae freezes in place, her breath catching--but Isabeau might see her, where Shinichi probably doesn't.
And if she does, she might just spot the way her breath hasn't quite started back up again by the time she thinks about it.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau wrenches open her locker with all the anger she's carried thus far, but that's not what makes that sound.
Rattle-CLATTER --
It comes from the way her hand is grabbed where it gripped that locker, wrenched away just like she is. The locker door swings, and slams, violently; call it a metaphor for her landing, forced into the wall as she is.
Isabeau has excellent balance, even on a bad day, but...
"H--hé!" She yelps, and it sounds a little like the English interjection, but not nearly close enough. "Arrêtez! Arrêtez!"
And Kanae, at least, understands the meaning behind her panicked demand:
She's telling him to stop.
But despite her build -- which, Shinichi will note, is quite muscular beneath that fat -- Isabeau has never been much of a physical fighter, out here. It will take a little effort to keep her pinned, with the weight she's throwing around, but she has no experience in breaking free of holds like this. "-- what did you say?!" She barks, once she's remembered how the Japanese even say it.
As she turns back to glare at him, the first thing she sees, in that swinging doorframe, her eyes widening...
... her attention is only there for a second, though, before she strains a little further to see who's attacking her. "Eeeuhhhh? Shinichi?!" She gasps, her eyes widening. "What are you --"
but there,
"You!"
Finally, she realises just what that awful feeling is.
She bites down on the inside of her cheek, with a sharp inward breath, as she steels herself against crying out. He's hurting her, wrenching her wrist like that, but -- especially if he's an it -- she can't show him that. Still, there is this creeping fear, a wondering --
She remembers a crumpled flyer, and there is a part of herself which fears that perhaps this is a monster of her own creation after all.
He's so -- angry.
Fine.
She can get mad too. She can get mad better.
"Espèce dimbécile!" She snaps, to him, as she struggles anew to wrench herself free, to face him -- except of course that she is trying to just turn, and he's making sure that's not so easy. Helpfully, she translates the term, venom preserved: "Ba-ka! What do you think you will do?! I will tell my father! I will SINK YOU!"
She throws her weight back, again, in another effort to fight back leverage.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
Certainly as an athlete he knows this. And if it were Shinichi Nagisa, truly, then he'd have nothing but respect for her build.
But Shinichi isn't here right now.
"Me."
He says, with a calm fury to his reply, not even bothering to parse her French.
Isabeau is a pro at getting mad. Very much so- and so he listens to her, eyes seemingly dissecting every word.
Then- as she finishes the words SINK YOU!
The weight comes off of her clavicle, only for her to feel a stinging slap, as he backhands her straight to her left cheek.
"Did no one ever teach you what it means to be a girl?" He asks, sotto voce, words pregnant with menace, as she's still reeling from the blow. "Apparently your Father didn't. So I'll do him a favor."
A girl peeks around the corner and in surprise, she looks- then behind them, as she retreats, Isabeau can hear voices, very much not to her face.
"It's Nagisa-san?"
"Really!? But he's- ...harmless. I've never even heard him raise his voice."
"If Fontaine-san made him mad enough to come at her like this, then..."
"Well obviously she deserves it. Honestly, good for him."
"... Still, it's not great for him to come into the locker room..."
There may be faint hope of someone intervening in that moment, but then another girl chimes in.
"It's not like he's peeping or anything. There's still a whole wall between us."
"... True..."
And unfortunately, the fact that Isabeau is so unpopular- so much of a bully, that it's enough that they're all giving him a pass.
Shinichi keeps his grip on her wrist, but she's at least not fully pinned now. Then again, the reason he isn't, is because that arm is free to slap her again.
"Keep talking shit, if you want. I hear Gaijin are slow learners, so I'll keep tutoring you until you figure out what the lesson is."
He then says more quietly, almost like he's trying to be gentle with her now, "Don't worry, I'm a nice guy. I'm not gonna mess up your face or anything, no matter how much of a bitch you insist on being. You'll still be able to get married... well, once you lose about thirty kilos or so."
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Kanae understands it, all right. She hates to see it. Seeing Isabeau bullied doesn't cheer her on the best of days--but seeing this... It's much, much worse.
Kanae reaches to the wall, and her fingers curl against it. She may not have been spotted by the other girls, yet; she's barely at the entrance, after all. And she watches 'Shinichi' hurt Isabeau for a few moments, swallowing once. She thinks of what she could do. Maybe together, they could...
Or maybe, if she revealed herself, he'd focus on her instead, or--
She flinches visibly when he slaps Isabeau, stepping back immediately.
She hears the others...
'Still be able to get married'.
Kanae forces herself to take a step forward. A silent second. She hasn't intervened yet, but she hasn't run away yet, either.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau lurches forward as that weight lifts --
-- right into his hand.
THWACK, and it's not a tennis ball, this time.
For a moment she is stunned to silence, as her brain reels from the input.
What happened?
Who dares?
Why is this happening?
"You HIT ME!" Isabeau exclaims, when she can put the words together, when she's put his words together. She means for it to be infuriated, yet there's a hint of high whining, to it, which speaks to the tears she's willing away. "My father, he has never hit me! You would dare?!"
But for all her anger -- she can hear those voices, behind her back, as usual.
If she thought anyone was anything more than useless... it's proven wrong, a breath later.
Fine.
That's fine.
She didn't need their help, anyway.
And she sure as hell isn't going to beg for it.
Go away, she thinks, at Kanae, with enough fury that she hopes the spirits do pick it up and pass it along. Except, of course, she thinks it allez-vous-en; she has always thought in French. She doesn't need her help! She can take care of herself!
(And if there's an 'unlike Kanae', in there, she attacks that as surely as every other horrible feeling, bubbling in her chest, bashing at the back of her eyes so fiercely a shred of despair slips into their rage despite herself.)
Maybe that's the wrong word to think, though.
'Bashing'...
Isabeau's mother warned her against getting tied down by men -- but one type of man, in particular.
"... a 'nice guy'?" She spits -- not just metaphorically but literally, though her aim isn't good enough for that to hit his face instead of his uniform. "Pff... t'as une attitude répugnante! Un COCHON!" She yells, and stomps -- aiming for his foot -- as she tries to remember how to translate that. "Woman-hating pig!" Is what she settles on, which is one particularly direct way to translate the repugnant attitude she's accused him of. (She did, of course, also just directly call him a pig.)
"And -- and shut up about my weight!"
... she's a lot more sensitive about that than she likes to let on.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
The Homunculus just gives her a condescending look as she exclaims 'You HIT ME!' "Yeah? Try to keep up." As for what her Father never hitting him, "Explains a lot. This is his fault for not teaching you about cause and effect. You ever heard of it?"
He then starts speaking in Japanese so basic it's like he's talking to a child.
"You. A girl. Came at. A man." He enunciates very, very slowly, "Girls don't do that in this country, Gaijin. They know their limitations. You get me? Try to push a guy around, pick a fight with one, most guys are going to treat you like one."
As he keeps going, in far less basic Japanese, but in that same patronizing tone of voice. "You're lucky I'm not most guys. I'm still going to treat you like a girl, despite what you did."
When she speaks in French, he may not have understood it at first, but he certainly gets that she's cursing at him. Still he doesn't move yet, until she translates. Until she tells him to shut up.
And then, the same hand whips up, swinging across her left cheek again, with greater force, as he holds onto her wrist so that she doesn't get hurt further hitting the wall, or being dropped to the ground.
Though it certainly would be painful, for him to keep tugging on her dominant wrist, of course, holding her up by it.
"Your mouth keeps writing checks that your body can't cash. Let's try this again."
He glares down at her, deadly serious, "Tell me you're sorry you're a fat Gaijin bitch who acts like you're better than everyone else. Say you'll behave from now on. In fact- say it to the whole locker room, not just me. It's not just the guys who are sick of this shit. I see how you talk to the other girls here... and if no one else is gonna hammer down this nail, then it's gonna be me."
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
He's slapped Isabeau. He's slapped Isabeau more than once. And everyone knows it, since she just shouted it. And nobody's going to do anything. Of course, nobody's going to do anything; why would Kanae expect anything different? The other girls like hearing and seeing Isabeau get hers. And while Kanae can appreciate Isabeau being one-upped...
Not like this.
Kanae sees Isabeau's face, but that anger doesn't translate to psychic communication in this world; it just translates to Isabeau hating her, even more than usual. ...But Kanae remembers when they were friends.
She hears Shinichi speak aloud the things she's internalized from other boys. What girls do, and don't do. And how 'lucky' she is...
Kanae bites her lip hard enough for it to turn white.
Then, "I--"
She raises her voice. "Nagisa-kun!" she says, projecting enough that she's sure he can hear her, for all that that's a terrible idea. "I didn't expect to see you in here. ...O-or with her."
"...Guess you... didn't notice..." she can't quite project enough confidence.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Do not -- patronise me!" Isabeau snaps, and the most frustrating thing is that the more upset she gets, the harder it is to remember her vocabulary. "And, you -- you attacked me first," she adds, though...
... somehow, she sounds less sure of that one. A little waver on those last few words.
She calls his bluff, though, and --
THWACK.
There is a part of Isabeau's consciousness, distant to this, which remarks on how much the noise reminds her of a ball hitting the court.
It's a good(?) thing Shinichi's holding her wrist, really; she might have fallen, if he wasn't holding her there. (It still hurts. His grip's so tight.) She does sag, for a moment, and the breath she draws is ragged. All her indomitable will was not built for this, and through the cracks, her tears escape, springing to her eyes as if they could dull the hot, stinging feeling at her cheek. Her ears are ringing, and it takes her a moment, dazed, to process his first sentence.
Her body...?
So, what would he be doing if she wasn't --
Perhaps it's satisfying, the fear in those jealous green eyes, as she looks up to him.
"I..."
What starts with a halting pronoun -- boku, for the record, she's pretty married to her whole tomboy schtick -- ends differently, as Kanae speaks up. "What are you doing?!" Isabeau demands, anger -- and embarrassment -- flooding into her voice again. "Je n'aime pas ce mec! Faites attention, espèce d'abruti, allez-vous-en!"
'I don't like this guy,' she tells her. 'Watch out, you fool, go away!'
"Shinichi!" She demands, yobisute, and she grabs his wrist -- the same one gripping hers. "You are disturbing girls! This place is not for you!"
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"Did I?" He responds quietly, to her attacking him, "Don't you remember the train platform? Just a guy standing around- and you decide to make a big show of tearing him down, getting in his face, pushing him around. What'd I ever do to you... besides exist?"
There's a kernel of humanity in there, it seems- just a smidge. That question. What did he ever do to Isabeau?
He gives a little snort-scoff to her using Boku again, despite this, but doesn't hit her, instead-
"Fuyuki-chan." He says with a smile, "Hey, don't worry your pretty little head off- I'm not with her. I just didn't like the way she was talking to you today. Decided to do something about it."
The way he puts it, it's less like revenge- and more like he's protecting Kanae, isn't it?
"Fontaine-san. This is my girl, alright? You want to beat her on the court? I respect it. Stop shouting at her like you learned how to talk from French whores. Be nice. Or we're going to have another chat."
A beat.
"And I'm pretty sure you're disturbing the girls here more than me."
However, he doesn't let her go, doesn't act like he's done.
"Now about that apology to the room."
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Kanae winces as she sees Isabeau fall, or almost fall, seeing those tears at her eyes. Kanae hates it; her free hand (the one not on the wall) curls again, but there's nothing her fists are going to do about it.
And Isabeau asks what she's doing. "I'm--"
She can't get it out. No one would believe her anyway, and it would be a bad thing even if they did--saving Isabeau? There's not much that's going to do for her reputation.
"Mais il te fait mal!" Kanae calls out, and she sounds upset--but it would be easy to assume she's upset by Isabeau, rather than by the situation here. She hasn't run off; she hasn't gone away.
But he's hurting you, she'd said. Even if Shinichi was the one hurt first, this isn't Shinichi.
'Fuyuki-chan'.
"I--" He's not 'with' her. He's defending her! Defending her like her boyfriend never does against Isabeau (because Kanae asks him to let her handle it).
But 'her girl'. Kanae freezes in place. "I'm--I'm not--"
She doesn't finish the sentence, though. Not when he continues that note about disturbing the girls more.
Tears gather in Kanae's eyes. She must've finally had enough of Isabeau.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"I --" Isabeau stutters, again, hearing that demand. She swallows. "So... so I was taking it out on you," she admits, uncomfortably. "So what? You were the one who was always punishing himself! I was just give this to you! You would not listen to my warning in another way!"
'They will pretend they do not see, and talk badly about you when you cannot hear.'
... everything which might have been helpful in those threats was really drawn from personal experience, huh. Isabeau can hear those girls, even now, whispering about how Kanae's stepping up.
("Huh? Isn't she with Okazaki-kun?" "I mean, she is... you know..." "Ahh, you can't just point to your skin like that!" "Ehhh, but you've heard what they say, right?" "Oh, wow... does he know?" "You're just hoping he'll go back on the market..." "Shh, I want to see if that witch really learns a lesson here!")
Stupid, Isabeau thinks, with venom, as she listens to Kanae say he's hurting her. Stupid. Her face burns with shame; she can't meet her eyes.
There's the pedestal... it's just like the free women always said. Don't get married -- men will fool you.
He talks about those women like --
"You still hold no respect for craft!" Isabeau snaps, in defence of those French whores he dismisses so readily. "Learn ten years from these, filles de joie, and you may have ten words worth hearing!" 'Ladies of the night', she calls them, and it's not derogatory the way some labels are. (It is, if anything, a touch humourous, in the way one dissuades the youth from asking too much about it. Not all bohemians are sex workers, but it is, as it happens, a calling with some overlap, and some of her mother's friends were indeed in the profession. Who knew? ... well, anyone who knows about French culture, probably.)
Unfortunately, being born to an artist hasn't exactly made Isabeau worldly. She doesn't realise what kind of a rake she's stepped on -- and how much easier she's just made it to hurt her.
"That is not your girl," she settles on, instead. "You have not won her. Where is your skin and antlers? Where is your proof? She is a coward! She says euh, ben, hmm, as you say, eh-to, and you boar-ish types," she was calling herself boar-ish, last time, "you say as you like! This is a matter between rivals, and it is not for boys!"
("Do you think the witch knows what she's talking about?" "No way, she hates Fuyuki-san." "Though... she is saying a lot of eto, eto..." "Don't you think she's just embarrassed?" "Well... if a forceful guy like that just decided..." "Eeehhh??? Are you blushing?!")
... even if she says Kanae isn't that kind of girl, Isabeau can hear them whispering.
Who would believe her?
"Wait," she says, then -- meets Kanae's eyes, around him, tries to communicate that she needs to get out of here -- and so, with great effort, bows her head. "I... I really was a, comment dire... bitch. I will apologise with sincerity, so -- please listen." Look at me!, she might as well have cried. Look at me, not at her, look at me...
Tactica's gotta come from somewhere, baby.
"I am... sorry that I am... a fat gaijin bitch, who acts better than everyone else. I will... behave myself, from -- from now on." She takes a breath -- it shudders -- and she raises her voice to echo through the whole locker room: "I am sorry that I am a fat gaijin bitch who acts better than everyone else! I will behave myself from now on!"
Somehow, she manages to bark that out without breaking into tears -- though the worst part is that it doesn't last once the words are out of her mouth.
Stop crying, idiot! You stupid idiot!
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"Pfft-haha..." He laughs at Isabeau's answer, "What a bad liar. Saying that like you thought I was some S&M freak." He pats her cheek lightly this time, the same one he hit, so that it's more cruelly affectionate, "Just so you know. I'm not into that. And given how you're acting right now."
He whispers next to her ear, words pregnant with menace, like he's considering how to punish her for the lie, "I don't think you are either."
Kanae's intervention, saying that in French. He doesn't know what she's saying. But the way she stammers after,
"She's so shy about it that it's adorable, don't you think?" He asks Isabeau, as Kanae stammers.
He furrows his brow as Isabeau actually defends French whores. "Wow. Well if it's such a respectable career move, then maybe jot it down on your survey. Maybe you won't even have to lose weight? Some guys have a fetish for that."
One might expect him to hit her, but it was so unexpected that even his Homunculus is having trouble figuring out whether that insult was more of a burn for him- or one that's like hitting herself in the face.
"Heh." He smirks as she says Kanae isn't his girl, seeming more amused from her broken Japanese there, as she puts together some words in tortured ways. "I think you need to go back to language class. Like skin and antlers? I'm not hunting her down like some doe for supper... if anything, she's hunted me down and 'won' me." He grins.
It may be nauseating for Kanae to think- this is what the creature inside Shinichi Nagisa actually thinks, that she was that aggressively into him... that he's the one who submitted to her.
"Anyhow-" He's about to take another swing, having decided she was disrespectful, but then 'Wait,'
And he keeps the hand held up. Looking at her head on as she says it once- twice. "There, was that so hard?" As he reaches sideways for his bag and then lets go of her wrist, "Here."
Look at him Isabeau. Look at him.
A monster is offering you a package of tissues, the kind touts on the street just hand out for free. Of course he has some, of course he'd have had trouble saying no before.
"Dry your tears- and be a good girl from now on."
His eyes glint, in that strange way- like if they were in the dark, they might shine with an unnatural light.
And in that look she knows what he's saying is really.
'Or I'll find you.'
"No trouble, girls. I'm going to just be going now. Promise I didn't look - or see anything." He then flashes a grin at Kanae, "Want me to wait for you to be done over here? Could walk you home."
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Isabeau stuttering back doesn't make Kanae feel any better. Neither do the whispers she hears from the others. She is with Touma, but...
Of course, they're quick to think such things of her. Because she's different than they are. Because--
Because Isabeau won't meet her eyes anymore, either--and Kanae winces when she makes that defense. It makes it worse, not better. And that's true of so many of Isabeau's defenses. Worse, when Shinichi calls her aorable.
Of course, she hunted 'him'. That's how it looks, isn't it? She decided to reach out to someone, and this is what comes of that. Maybe it was her mistake in the first place--
No. No, this is a monster, not a normal boy. Isabeau challenged him, but--
Kanae meets Isabeau's eyes. Terror has given way to misery for Kanae. Seeing Isabeau apologize to this of all things is worse.
"I--"
He grins at her, and Kanae feels nauseous. She knows exactly what will happen if he walks her home, and he won't even realize he's hurt her when he's done.
So she forces herself up to say, "I'm... I'm not.. feeling so good," Kanae manages instead. "It's why I left practice..."
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
She says she's not feeling well, and the Homunculus' grin fades, "Babe... want me to take you to the nurse's office? I'll carry you even, if you're not up for walking."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Being pet, if anything, is more humiliating than the abject violence. ... at least, in the context of that violence. Isabeau's gut twists, hearing that whisper. Men like that... "You are not my type," she says, but it's weaker than she wants it to be.
(Interestingly, that doesn't mean 'he isn't a girl', though that is the rumour going around school right now...)
"You are not her type," she turns it around, when Shinichi tries to call her adorable, and perhaps she's just forgotten her vocabulary... though she says that version with more fire to her voice.
But he suggests she take the career up, and Isabeau frowns. "I did not say that! What impression do I give that I wish to join a caring profession? And -- and I am not some fetish!"
("What kind of creep calls prostition part of the caring profession...?" "Didn't you hear? She really did go to the Red Light District the other day!" "Maybe I should tell Fujihide-kun... if she's really that kind of a girl, someone like him might even have a chance!" "Fujihide-kun? No way! The only way he'd get a hit is if he paid her! Though..." "Yeah, you see it.")
... that one was definitely a point to the homunculus.
"Pff," Isabeau scowls, when he takes her literally. She hunted HIM? "Baka. She has some taste."
Which is the nicest thing Isabeau's said about her all month --
-- wait, it's still only the 10th --
-- for the last two months.
... she really could have clarified that more, though. Even her will can be worn down to nothing.
Even Isabeau can look at his hand rising, eyes narrowing to pinpricks, and back down from her anger.
Nothing is more humiliating... but it hurts to be hit like that.
It really... it really hurts.
No sooner has she taken her wrist back -- that he's offering her tissues. She looks at him as if he really did slap her a third (fourth? Did that gentle hand count?) time, utterly aghast as she draws breath through her open maw. "Uh -- uhhh --" her breath hitches, even as she recognises, intrinsically, the threat of a dangerous beast.
"... uh-huh," she settles on, taking a tissue, and it is a still greater shame. Snif...
If her eyes squeeze shut, it's just the misery, surely. "Euh," she starts, looking up. "That is, I saw her bag, before the begin... it is... a girl matter, comment dire? A -- a normal thing, each month, euh... I will see to it." She takes a sharp breath. "Please... humour this apology I make. I have been unkind to her. You... have shown I must see to it."
She's the one who needs to go to the damnable nurse's office now. She's liable to throw up.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"I really don't even want to know what your type is." Shinichi says back, certainly more patient now. He doesn't have to be her type, not when she's like this.
He then rolls her eyes on 'not her type,' "Right... and you're the expert. I'm sure you have friendly girl talk all the time about the guys you like."
He snorts again at her calling sex work a 'caring profession' "I always thought the French were more dignified than that. ... Guess not."
It's easy not to need to punish her anymore. After all, he has control, she's been humiliated. And he knows that her statements just make her look more and more ridiculous to every girl int he room.
A shake of his head, as he dismisses her, before- 'She has some taste.'
And Shinichi raises his hand, looking at her in warning, as if he were training a dog that didn't quite get it down yet that they weren't supposed to pee on the rug.
But he doesn't hit her. Not again.
A crying girl shouldn't be hit... unless they're crocodile tears, and he doesn't think they are.
...a girl matter?
He blinks, like the Homunculus is processing this new information and deciding that he's disgusted by 'feminine hygiene'.
"Ah. In that case, I'll leave you both to it." He looks between Kanae and Isabeau instead focusing on something else, "See? Already treating each other so much better. Should have done this ages ago."
He then gives Kanae a sympathetic look, "See you around Babe, hope you're feeling better soon."
He then walks out, not even demanding she say a thing, if she can't. After all, that 'feminine' stuff must be real uncomfortable.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Humiliating is a good word for it. Kanae feels that way, too. Her cheeks sting.
Isabeau even defends her. But of course, it doesn't go for anything. Is that worse? Is it worse that Isabeau of all people wants to defend her?
But Isabeau also... Gives her an excuse. It's a lie; she had her period a couple of weeks ago. But it's a lie she seizes on. "I didn't want to... say it," she settles on, because that's true, too, the idea of discussing periods with boys is intensely embarrassing to her. But it's better than the alternative.
"S-see you..."
'Babe'. Kanae feels herself fill with shame. She couldn't even stick up for Touma, like this.
Kanae looks down as he leaves--and then grabs her bag and starts towards the back of the locker room.
She doesn't want to talk.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
He's -- he's so -- he's so awful!
Isabeau flinches, and does not like that she does, seeing that hand raise. She ducks her head, in silent apology. (She is imagining all the ways she can skin him like a deer.)
"Bye," she issues, quietly.
... it's only after he leaves that her expression grows stormy.
Kanae doesn't want to talk? That is fine, in fact. Neither does she, despite the girls who try to engage her. The worst are the ones who encourage her, tell her that even though he's out of her league now there are other boys.
So she will skin him and throw him over them and let them scream. Damn them!
There may seem to be no kindness to her left at all --
-- but for the way she waits for Kanae to change, and walks her to the train station, and takes her all the way back to Kagurazaka before she stalks off.
... she doesn't say a word, but she does shove a scrawled note at her, as they're getting off the train.
It's her number.