Get Some Fresh Air [private]

[Takahashi Aki]

Sousuke sat in his personal home office, which to the unseen eye would be described as messy. Walls were plastered with pictures and notes. String could be seen connecting to other pictures and across walls. Sousuke sat in the middle of this on an office chair. He held a stringed instrument in his hand, which he was playing but not with a bow. His fingers were red considering he had been doing this for some time. Dark lines were underneath his eyes, a sign of exhaustion and lack of sleep. His illness mounting with the grid pattern on his face. He was not well.

His eyes narrowed and focused. His eyes shifting between hand drawn pictures of members of the Cabal. His gaze focused and narrowed specifically at the picture of Fuu. He was tracking her with his insect contract. It was what she said that had driven him off the rails. Maddening it was. Absolutely maddening.

Fuu
The Oracle​

"My métier requires that I abnegate my name and my holdings. I have nothing to gain from this brewing war of yours,"</B><i></i> she added. Her words foreboding, 'war' was not a word to be taken lightly but it was not a term she had chosen at random. "They call me Fuu if you must have a nom de plume," the word choice there also significant if they were edified in such was. <B>"I am to chronicle the final days of Sunagakure and relegate what once was to the annals of history,"<i></i> she explained not bothering to await a specific enough question.

Sousuke continued to play his instrument at an increasing pace until the string broke. Sousuke removed from his pockets a new string to replace the one that broke. Underneath the hand drawn picture it read what she had said to him. It bothered him. The Steward then turned to a picture of Kaito. His eyes narrowed. What his father had said to him during council was still on his mind. It was a public confrontation. Yes. His father was an advisor. WHY HAVE YOU NOT ALLOWED KATSUO TO TAKE THE THRONE? HAVE YOU TRULY BECOME INEPT? WHY IS HE GOING ABOUT MAKING FRIENDS OF OUR ENEMIES WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN HANGED.<i></i> While his father spoke to him of this subject before the court, it was not done so with a roaring booming voice. It was done with a mock calmness. Sousuke sat back in his chair and changed tunes. Katsuo has chosen not to taken a throne or crown. He has had his fill of death. If we had killed the Cabal like you or the court desired we would have been given the information to claim the surface. We should support his decision regardless.<i></i> Sousuke continued to play this afternoon's meeting in his mind. Kuro should have ripped the secrets from Kaito's head some had advised. Hundred dead. What were a few more corpses? The Court seemed to want a higher body count and Sousuke had argued what Katuso desired, that there was far too much death. It needed to stop. Then there was Naganisa who was trapped in the hospital. Sousuke had defused her, and he would not apologize for doing so. The truth had its due. The truth was ugly of course. Then there was the Cabal Inuzuka. Urufuu was exiled for a reason. Exiled men who return after were often killed for returning. Was Urufuu as honourless as Shouki? Sousuke wanted to paint each of them with the same brush as Shouki. He did not though. Each of the Cabal were complicated and compromised.

Sousuke sighed. He placed down the instrument, and went to the wall. He removed a large rolled scroll and threw it on the floor. He began to unroll it. It was a blueprint for Project Rebirth. The Steward went and recollected his instrument. He acquired a bow this time and began playing. As he did so he was walking around the room. Music helped him to think... but it was 3:45 in the morning. He was in the basement, so truthfully he shouldn't be bothering anyone.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Katsuo was taking a risk by bringing Naganisa here, he knew that. She was volatile and Sousuke had not been terribly accommodating so far of the new arrangement with the former Cabal agents. He tolerated them to a point but Katsuo knew that his friend would have preferred to simply see them dead and be done with it but to Katsuo that would have been a waste. If he hadn't recruited Kaito then they'd never have learned about the source of the Diamond Maelstrom and they would never have dispersed that storm. Now Sunagakure was poised to return to the surface for the first time in decades and it was thanks in part to the information that they'd gotten from Kaito following the official surrender of the Cabal. And that was to say nothing of the fact that Katsuo thought the Cabal could be powerful allies to Sunagakure if they were shown the error of their ways. They were, as a whole, people who had done terrible things but the same could be said of most of Sunagakure. Even Katsuo had blood on his hands and skeletons in his closet.

"Instead of the hospital, I'm going to let you take my room at the place where I'm staying." Katsuo remarked to Naganisa as they finally arrived before the building which was the Steward's residence. They had not said much to each other during the trip -- really the longest exchange of words between them had been when Katsuo had offered Naganisa his coat to cover up with rather than the sheets of the hospital bed she'd been wearing previously -- but that was fine for now. "It's pretty late tonight but I can take you out tomorrow to get some proper clothing or you can take what you want from mine if you see something you like."

His last statement had been a joke, accompanied by a silly grin which he directed towards Naganisa. He doubted that she was in a particularly light-hearted mood but he hoped that he could raise her spirits a little bit at least. If not, well. Katsuo was nothing if not persistent. Reaching forward, Katsuo wrapped his fingers around the doorknob and with a brisk twist leaned forward into the door to open it. The soft sound of Sousuke's playing echoed up from the basement as Katsuo's perception field poured into the foyer of the home.

"I can take you up to your room to let you rest or I can get you something real to eat if you're hungry, it's up to you." He said, offering Naganisa the choice between the two options. He figured that the hospital staff had not gone out of their way to feed her terribly well and that she might be interested in eating something real at last. "I have it on fairly good authority that I am not a totally inept cook."

 

[Sand Council]

Naganisa​

They left the hospital, it was quite the scene. A disquiet surrounded them as they simply left, muted protests and incised glares that would have burned if they were capable. Naganisa looked like an escaped madwoman, an appearance that was not far from the truth. A twisted, knotted bedsheet that left them with quite a view. She walked three paces behind Katsuo, turned around once her feet traversed the threshold to wave to her admirers and blow them a kiss.

The journey to Sietch Zensunna was not a long one but her legs had atrophied during her capture and the trip was an arduous one indeed. Her legs ached by the time that they reached their apparent destination. Naganisa did not have the same intel as some of her peers, if she had she would have known where or rather what she was getting herself into. She stayed close behind Katsuo, they arrived at a rather substantial household. Woah. While meager in the eyes of the Kazekage, a sign of the disparity of wealth the structure was large enough to house an entire family, several guests and have at least an additional chamber according to first party remarks used by this author to guesstimate the relative height, weight, breadth and girth of the structure.

"Instead of the hospital, I'm going to let you take my room at the place where I'm staying."

Katsuo informed her. Her bare feet slapped the pavement but came to a halt when they reached the front door. "Your room, how romantical," Naganisa rejoiced. "But, I am already in a relationship Mister K." She had just gotten out of a crappy relationship, well almost. It was the kind of relationship where it does not really end until someone gets stabbed. Love hurts like that.

"It's pretty late tonight but I can take you out tomorrow to get some proper clothing or you can take what you want from mine if you see something you like."

While his statement may have been a joke, she took him as literal. "I will wear it better than you," she winked. A fair point to make at this time is the fact that the door to the Takahashi household would have been ajar by now, in time for anyone standing at the other side of the threshold to see this curious scene. Thankfully nobody was in the foyer, music... however sad the plucking sound was seemed distant as it filtered in from the basement.

"I can take you up to your room to let you rest or I can get you something real to eat if you're hungry, it's up to you."

A choice between rest -- something she has had a lack as well as an abundance of. A lack of movement would be considered by some to be 'rest' but it was far from restful. In fact, it was rather the opposite considering the environs she was left in these past several weeks. As for food, she was rather malnourished. She was given enough to be kept alive, but there was no desire to help her maintain her 'best' state.

"I have it on fairly good authority that I am not a totally inept cook."

She smiled. "Let's see this partially inept cooking." Naganisa replied. She did not know the way to the kitchen and would wait for Katsuo to lead the way. While small, she would climb up and sit on one of the vacant counters in Sousuke's kitchen if they in fact ended up in the kitchen. This would likely leave a rather unseemly scene for the Kazekage if he decided to explore his household at this given time. A woman, or rather a known terrorist was not only sitting on a counter in his kitchen clad in a sheet but she was making small talk with the Sunahoshi and apparently Katsuo is an allegedly decent cook to boot.

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Sousuke continued to play music. He turned slightly as he heard the door open. Strange. He blinked. Shiori sometimes had weird hours. His cousin had some very odd habits as of late. She was changing her appearance quite a lot lately. Maybe she just could not decide between red hair and brown hair. As he continued to play the instrument along more and more instruments began to join in the tune. Several metallic clones would raise themselves out of the various metal belongings around the Steward. In hand each of them had the instruments, and each waited their turn to join in. Sousuke's mind returned to the drawing that was on the floor. He was trying to figure out how else to expand the design in question. He could expand upward and form more residential units to get people out of the Grand Palaias which was a hive of scum and villainy.

It was seven minutes later of continual music that this went on for. It was the sort of thing that almost seemed inhumanly. Sousuke's plucking of the strings persisted, amidst a piano playing, a cello, and a flute. The plucking would seemingly drop dead for a moment as the other instruments continued to play. It was a full two minutes later that the plucking would continue, yet the plucking seemed to be less animated this time. The sounds of footsteps would be heard coming up from the stairs as Sousuke would be seen coming up with several scrolls and notebooks in hand. He had a very tired and weary look about him as he walked into the kitchen seemingly ignoring what was before him. With some effort he placed down his books, and blueprints. The small man first went to the drawer and he removed a first aid kit, he sat himself on a bar stool and began applying bandaids to his fingertips which were bleeding and were very very red. His metallic arm worked about as the skeletal construct readily did the task and then seemingly Sousuke was going to bandaid the metallic fingertips too, but he seemed to realize that his opposite hand was metallic and not flesh. He had grown so used to his metallic arm that it was a second flesh for him. He blinked not once but twice as he exchanged looks with Katsuo and Naganisa. His fingers curled up into a fist as his metallic hand wrapped round his wrist. He blinked again, and this time he rubbed his eyes. "I have been working very hard lately on trying to understand high density to integral population structures based on a proper pyramid structure. It is based on accelerated growth. It is very well, in that this particular second, minute, hour, that I am delusional. You two are both figments of my imagination, in which I should very much like to think I have finally snapped due to stress. At the same time I have been playing music to try and keep what I have left of myself prior to madness. Composing and self conducting music to keep my nerves under control given my intense study of the Cabal. Their habits and personal stories based on high theorycrafting outside of the Sage Khan school of thought that we are all good people and that we cast out or attempt to destroy demons or perceived evils that in reality are people who merely work to survive."<i></i> His eyes shifted skyward for a moment. It was a seemingly childish gesture of sorts. He was dealing with fake big people. Supposedly.

"It saddens me that I meet people in terrible fashion. I wish to have met people under better circumstances in which they are not trying to stab me in the face for my supposed evils that I must be punished for in the case of Urufuu. Supposedly I am also under investigation by a woman named Fuu who is chronicling my end days which is a very disturbing thought. Naturally given my lack of sleep, my supposed duel machinations of my mind, it is entirely possible that I have given into the final step into madness. The smell of food is by far perhaps the most telling of my insanity. I will put on the kettle. I will make three cups of tea for my supposed two phantom guests and myself who are merely listening to me as is proper given that this is my bout of insanity."<i></i> Sousuke hopped off the bar stool and went and did what he just said. He prepared the kettle and seemingly picked out a box of teas to be used for later. He eyed Katuso out of the corner of his eye and merely said nothing. With a shaking flesh hand he placed the kettle on the burner, with a steady metallic hand he turned the burner on. He walked back to his bar stool and got back up on it. He crossed his arms and laid his head on his arms across the table. He blinked looking at Naganisa and then he turned his head looking to Katuso. He turned his head back to Naganisa. She was covered up poorly with only a bed sheet. "I am also aware that Neurotoxins are an experimental case of mind control poisons. This could also be in play. You would have to use an inhaler and tamper with a water supply which is difficult, but not outside of the skillset of one such as yourself. Granted Kaito believed you could not cut Magentica open with fine acidic cuts. Entirely possible if you had steady hands, which I think you do considering you need a chemist knowledge in putting together various acids and poisons. Nurotoxins or in the worse case pheromones could be used to assert mind control. There was a lady clad in red and yellow who I knew who could do this sort of thing. She didn't like it, but she used it only when she had to. That being said... Katuso the knife is in the top drawer if you're wanting to throw it at my head."<i></i> He paused slightly. "Equally possible is that this is a very real Lord Katsuo and very real lacking in proper clothing Lady Naganisa in my house due to some fiasco that I have not been told about, like the others involving Kuro and the stranger, in the kitchen with only the desire to merely eat at this late hour. If so I will remove myself from the scene as it is necessary... given that... it is the proper thing to do, and I will simply apologize for my poor timing and inept social ability to meet people at the best time. I merely wanted some band aids for my fingers."<i></i> This was coming from the man who had casted himself in shadows and used plasma and blade to be instrumental in the defeat of the Cabal.