cetana | Arrival; Backdated to 8/1

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Arrival; Backdated to 8/1 - OPEN

[Castle]

[Hello there, castle friends. You're getting at least one new buddy today, and for some of you, he might even look familiar.

When Sasuke wakes up, his school uniform - a sailor shirt and black pants - are still dirtied by soil, along with his hands. A thin cord of rope remains loosely circled around his neck, though there's marks on his neck that suggest it was much more snug previously. Unsurprisingly, he looks pretty alarmed at all of this, although a completely black cat soon shoots to his side, investigating him and making sure he's okay.

The sight doesn't calm him entirely, but he does relax enough to pat it on its head, scritching behind the ears.]

Kurou? Where...?

[Hirajiro]

[And then some stuff happens. It's very upsetting. But it's fine. He'll be fine. He's just got to get out of the castle and find the town, which he is capable of, because even if he was terrible at it he still had training all his life in a mountainous forest. He can find his way.

There's just... other problems with that plan. Which is why people in town might find themselves looking at a black cat that, if approached, keeps walking just out of their reach - and yet, it will stop to make sure they keep following it nonetheless.

The reason for this becomes abundantly clear soon enough, because the cat is leading them to a teenager collapsed on the street. There's dirt on him from a forest, though not necessarily this one, and if they look closely enough they might even see a little rope burn on his neck, though he at least had the sense to remove the rope from his shoulders.

He. He probably needs some help. Please help him.]

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[ Kido's walking down the street with a bag over one shoulder and a strip of paper in her other hand when she spots the cat. She stops where she stands, as if giving the cat a chance to bolt, but when it just looks back over at her, she takes a tentative step forward, clicking her tongue softly in an attempt to coax the cat towards her.

It doesn't do much, leading her bit by bit down the street, but the next time the cat turns around, Kido's knelt down with the bag on the ground, pulling the tab off a small can in her hands. ]

I was saving this for somebody else, but... Here, kitty. Are you hungry?

[ It's cat food. This probably isn't the sort of help that Kurou wants to bring to Sasuke, but cat food is meat and it's probably tasty? Maybe Kido has something more fit for human consumption in that bag of hers. ]

[Why must you tempt him like this.

He does take a couple steps towards her... before swerving to get back on track, stopping and looking at her.

Come on. We need to go!!]

[ Damn, and she almost hand him. Kido pushes herself up onto her feet, carefully holding the can upright so none of it spills, but she does follow after the cat, trying to reason to herself that maybe the cat has kittens, and there's no way it can bring a can back to them like it could a mouse.

Alright, alright, she'll play food delivery. ]

[Well.

The cat doesn't have kittens. But it does lead her to this weird kid passed out on the street!!

The cat stops to sniff at him, butting his head against black hair and then looking to Kido. Please help his human!!]

[ Kido breaks into a full run when she sees a person lying on the ground, setting the can of cat food on the ground and then just sort of... hand-hovering over Sasuke because what is she supposed to do in this situation? Should she shake him? Call the hospital? Is he even alive?!

That's probably something she should check first, so she places two fingers on his neck trying to find a pulse. Her hands are weirdly cold, even in the summer heat, so she hopes she can at least feel the warm skin of somebody still alive. ]

[He is alive!! Good job Kido, he definitely has a pulse. Plus there's still marks on his neck because of a rope, but eh, details.

Actually, the touch causes him to stir a little, eyes cracking open blearily. There's no words, but there is a confused sound.]

[ Oh. Oh thank god he's alive, because Kido wouldn't know what to do if he were dead. She withdraws her hand as soon as he stirs, not missing the rope burn on his neck but is more preoccupied with looking him over more thoroughly now that he's conscious, trying to see if there's any blood or something obviously wrong or out of place. ]

Hey. Wake up.

[ She keeps her voice loud and sharp, trying to hide the tremor of nerves behind it, so the boy has something to focus on. ]

Are you hurt anywhere? What do you need me to do for you?

[He's not bleeding, so that's good! But his hands and knees are coated in dirt, almost like he was on the ground and needed to push himself up again? Yet here, he was definitely on a proper street.]

Nn... No, I'm okay.

[This is a blatant lie. A lot of things hurt right now, which is an oddity in itself given he wasn't supposed to feel pain anymore. But then, he didn't need the power of a snake spirit to endure it, either.

He raises the back of his wrist to press against his forehead, since that's probably the cleanest bit of his hand available to do so.]

...Is there somewhere I could get water...?

[Sasuke you. You probably can't even make it there, buddy.]

[ She doesn't have any water bottles on her, but she supposes if Sasuke wants to either wash off his hands or maybe he feels like he has a fever, he can't really complain about what sort of water that he gets. ]

Yeah, just wait a moment.

[ She stands up and turns so her back is to him, pushing up a sleeve and tapping the omamori she'd bound to her wrist like a bracelet. The villagers can't see Personas, so she assumed it'd be the same for him, a flash of light that's barely visible in the daytime and a ghostly cat appearing to stand on top of Kido's head and shoulders. It opens its mouth and after a moment, Kido turns around with her hands cupped, holding little pebbles of ice like hail. ]

Here. Use what you need.

[Even in his current state, his eyes go wide as he watches the ghostly creature appear and...

Did it just spit out ice?]

...What was that?

Uh.

[ Kido glances quickly to the side, her Persona staring right back at her with a lazy flick of its tail. Mmmmmmaybe Sasuke is just surprised she's carrying ice around in the heat? ]

Ice cubes. Are you going to take them or not?

[ They're melting pretty quickly, and her hands already hurt a little for being numb. ]

[It's... not a bakeneko, because he knows what those look like. But. She clearly interacted with it, and it's still there.]

There's a cat spirit?

[The ice can just kind of continue to melt in his hands, that's fine, this is fine.]

[ Again, Kido pauses, giving her Persona another quick glance because she was almost certain he wouldn't be able to see it. She lets the rest of the ice fall off her hands and she wipes her hands clean on the sides of her pants before pushing back the sleeve of her left arm. ]

Do you have one of these?

[ It's her omamori, her family name Kido and The Emperor stitched onto it, that she has bound to her wrist as a bracelet rather than carrying it loose. Sasuke's question goes unanswered. ]

[He honestly still feels sick and awful, but he can keep it together long enough to pull a black and white omamori from his own pocket. It reads Sasuke and The Hermit.]

[ Just seeing the omamori takes a huge weight off Kido's shoulders, and she looks visibly relieved as she sighs and rolls her sleeve back down.

It's either this, or he's one of those people who claim to be able to see ghosts, and she prefers the former over the latter. ]

So you can see this guy, huh? His name's Nekogami.

[ A very ordinary name, not associated with a specific deity, but the cat meows and at the same time makes little pebbles of ice appear in Sasuke's hands. ]

[I.

I mean,,

Anyway though, he gives a tiny nod, and though he stares warily at the ice for a moment, he pops one into his mouth anyway. He needs to hydrate somehow...]

So he just... appears for you like that? [He's familiar with spirits, but not exactly summoning.]

[ Don't tell her anything. Kido, again, doesn't answer his question and instead slaps the ice out of his hands. ]

Don't eat them!

[ With your dirt covered hands!!! she wants to scream ]

Use it to wash off your hands and cool down. If you want something to drink, come with me. The house I'm staying at isn't too far.

[Nooo there goes the ice. Kido, he's thirsty, eating a little dirt to get some water is fine gosh.]

...Okay.

[...That's pretty much it, he's still very tired and very sick and he doesn't think he can say no to her anyway.

Though with that said, even if he does try to stand up properly, it's going to be quickly evident that he's extremely shaky on his feet.]

[ Kido frowns when he stands, and after a huff, goes ahead and takes his arm to throw over her shoulder so she can bear some of the weight. It's not a full piggyback ride, but it's something. ]

Alright, we'll take it slow.

[ Nekogami meows from its perch on Kido's head, casting Dia on Sasuke but it doesn't really do anything. It's trying. ]

[Please, he needs all the help he can get. And he can't even really argue against it either, because he knows at this point that he can barely move.

So he'll go ahead and stumble along with her, Kurou close by - but never in the way.]

[ It's slow going... but with Nekogami out, the air around them is slightly cooler than it would otherwise be, and eventually them come across a rather plain looking house in one of the quieter neighborhoods, front lawn dry and dead.

The inside of the house is quiet too, when Kido unlocks the door and points Sasuke to the kitchen where she trusts he'll be able to walk the last couple of feet on his own and that she won't turn around after getting juice out of the fridge to see him collapsed on the ground.

She pours two cups of juice to set on the table, and also a bowl of water to set on the ground for the cat. ]

[He does make it to the sink, getting his hands nice and clean so he can handle the juice without making even more of a mess. He definitely needs to sit down to drink though, one hand pressed to his forehead. His body is pretty much screaming at him for the lack of care by now, and it's continuing to not feel great.

Kurou watches all of this proceed, but once Sasuke's sitting he'll go ahead and start lapping up water. Cat is thirsty in all this heat, too.]

...Don't drink too fast, or you might throw up. [ And then she'll have to force him to clean it up himself. ]

Are you hungry at all?

I'll be okay.

[He is not okay. But thankfully, at least as far as the juice goes, he's taking it bit by bit, because Kido has a powerful Judging presence.

Food, though...]

...You don't really have to...

[She already dragged him here for something to drink in the first place.]

If you pass out the moment I let you loose onto the streets, it's going to worry people, okay? We've got some dangerous animals around here, so you're lucky I got to you first.

[ What's something easy to eat... Kido finishes off her juice and places the cup in the sink before looking through the fridge. ]

Are you able to drink milk?

Hirajiro

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