Evergloam
New Member
Conversation
over an
evening meal
- 2,805 -
Evergloam as Kado
Hattrick as Seiji
The noon sky bathed Tokyo in a warm, radiant blanket of light, allowing people to enjoy their day just a little more. Well, except for Kado. He was pretty content just sitting in his favourite restaurant and dining on a little lunch before heading back to Orpheus. Hattrick as Seiji
“Yes, one bowl of my usual with some sweet and sour chicken, Mai-chan,” the tracker stated with a smile to his waitress, earning a simple nod as she jotted down the man’s order. Kado leaned back, slipping a pen out of his vest pocket and beginning to write on a nearby napkin. Words became doodles and doodles became crappy doodles. Repetition was repetition. From coming to his favourite restaurant to drawing crappy chibi faces on a napkin, it was all the same thing as the day before and the day before.
Maybe he could take Choko out on a mission of some sorts later. Change the damn routine a bit. As he finished one chibi head, the ring of the door echoed in the building, eliciting the brief attention of Kado.
Seiji had managed to get away from his hum drum day at home, for once in a while. The sun was out, no clouds as far as the eye could see, which made for an overall good day in the boys eyes. Whilst walking through the rather noisy and overly crowded streets the Quincy eye’d a hole in wall restaurant, which could provide him with a little peace and quiet. Which was just the thing that he had needed.
Reading and rereading, and multiple attempts at deciphering his father’s books had began to grate at his patience, which he seemed to grow shorter in supply of everyday. So, every now and again he had to step out, simply to ease his mind.
The place he was about to enter looked a little small, but none the less well established, which generally meant that they had good food, or so he had hoped. As he entered the building, pushing the door open with his left hand, the plain silver cross charm that adorned his bracelet slipped through the cuffing of his grey suit’s sleeve, and into plain view.
Now, usually, in the quaint little establishment, one would find your average men and women. Your usual 9-to-5 worker and his family, maybe a woman working on a task while enjoying her Udon. Whatever. But this man? Why, this was a treat to see!
In plain view, a silver cross of amazing work, dangling from this man’s wrist. Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps not. But the beautiful, yet simplistic charms were often the sign of a...
Quincy? Kado raised an eyebrow to the young man, hardly an adult. Perhaps someone in high school. So what brought one of the Quincy to this simplistic establishment? Didn’t they have finer tastes? The tracker shrugged off the idea and simply acted out a way to begin a possible conversation with the first Quincy he had the opportunity to meet.
“Mia-chan? I’ll also pay for this young man’s meal, if he’ll allow me. He seems like a nice guy,” he called out to the waitress as she walked past a corner, directing her attention to the new male. With a friendly nod, she agreed to the statement and Kado waved over to Seiji. “C’mon over kid. Not too often a new face shows up in this place.”
The quincy took a quick look about the place, trying to get a look at what people were eating. He had forgotten to read the name of the establishment. But, apparently he had caught someone else’s eye, as some guy waved at him, called out to him.
‘What the hell?’
Seiji glanced around himself, and seeing no one else by him, decided that he must actually be the one being waved at. He gave an awkward single wave back, not really sure what was going on. The green eyed boy felt weird not returning peoples greetings so he made his way over, cautiously.
“Ojii-shi,” he cocked his blond head to the side as he spoke, not noticing that he spoke to him like one would while giving a speech. Suffixes still confused him as he grew up learning both Swedish and Japanese. “Do i know you?”
When he reached the older man’s table, he noticed badly drawn anime-like faces, which made him chuckle before he could catch himself.
‘Great... now i just look like some rude kid... dammit...’
“Nah, I don’t think you do. I’d recognize you if I’d have ever seen you. I have a thing for memorizing faces,” Kado stated with a friendly grin accompanied by a pair of coffee-brown eyes looking at the younger person. “I’m sort of a regular around this joint. Judging by your looking around and how I’ve never seen you around this place, I can only assume this is your first time coming to Tempura Tsunahachi?”
Hearing the chuckle redirected his idle hands back to his little doodles, confiscating them and ruffling them up before placing them to a side. With a sheepish chuckle of his own, he explained. “I get a bit bored waiting for a meal. I could still use a bit of help in my artistry skills.”
Kado was a little awkward and funny; very unlike the adults he had always been around. Seiji was used to having to act mature around everyone he knew, childlike mannerisms at his age only seemed to bring the wrong kind of attention.
Seiji smiled a little, a younger smile, showing his age a little more than he was comfortable with. Of course, being as small as he was didn’t help either. When he acted immature people tended to confuse him for a primary schooler. He was short, he knew that, and wasnt very fond of being reminded of it. So he played an adult mannerism, which helped to keep people from bothering him.
“I can’t say too much for that field, never been the type to try anything artsy.” emerald eyes gestured towards the man’s stash as he spoke. “But, to answer your query, no I’m not new around here. I just never noticed this place before.”
“I’m surprised. Not new and I’ve never seen your face? I must get out more, or something,” he laughed a little. Mia soon came by with a small tray of the food Kado ordered, turning her attention to the young Seiji.
“What can I get for you, young one?” she asked, placing the bowls on the table for Kado.
“Ah, uh, coffee i guess.” Seiji had no clue what he wanted to eat, he just knew that he was hungry. “Black please, and only a little sugar” The blond boy preferred bitter drinks, and something warm if he could help it. Cold drinks were bad for your stomach, or so he had always been told.
Feeling awkward for having stood that whole time, he finally sat down across from the man that waved him over to his table. Seiji had never really been one to hold a conversation with someone he didn’t know, but he figured, what the hell else was he gonna do. Looking for a menu, he finally found one tucked behind a couple of sauces up against the window frame. He perused their selection, unintentionally ignoring the man across from him.
The young Mia nodded her head and scratched down his order, tucking a lock of auburn hair behind her ear. Turning on her heel, she began to head to the kitchen for a mug of warm coffee for the man. Meanwhile, Kado began to take a bit of initiative to speak to Seiji. Perhaps even confirm his thoughts about the young man being a Quincy?
While Seiji skimmed the menu for an afternoon delight to his taste buds, Kado spoke. “So. How old are you? You look like you could be...” there was a brief pause as his thumb and index finger met his freshly shaven chin, narrowing his eyes. “Maybe sixteen? But you look like you’re around eighteen or just around there since you’re in those type of clothes.”
Seiji couldn’t hide his shock from the mans close guess, usually people guessed around twelve or thirteen much to his irritation. “Seven.. Er, seventeen actually.” He ruffled his blond hair as he gleemed a pearly smile.
“That’s a whole lot closer than most people usually guess, thank you!”
Kado smiled a casual smile at the youngster, his brown eyes drifting to the wrist that dangled the plain cross. “Well, you don’t see young ones in suits like yours. They’re prone to wearing casual clothing when in public.”
Tearing another napkin from the dispenser, he began to prod at one of the sweet and sour chicken pieces, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t think I caught your name, did I? Do you mind if I get it?” he asked, finally grasping the chicken with a pair of chopsticks and slipping it into his mouth. A lovely taste, as always, for something so simplistic.
Something about being asked his name put him in business mode, all hand shakes and fake smiles. He hated when that happened, but it had become habitual at this point. Now, with a closed lip smile, the quincy extended his hand out before him, “my name’s Seiji, and yours is?”
“Kado,” he said as he reached out over the table to the shorter man, shaking his hand with a firm grip. Just like Seiji, Kado classified himself as a businessman. Though, at times, the riskier side of his job kept him from shaking hands.
When the handshake was completed, in all business-y goodness, Kado retracted his hand and looked casually towards Seiji’s other hand. Hidden within it’s sleeve was his Quincy charm, at least if he remembered correctly. “Hey, you had a little cross thing on your wrist earlier. Are you Christian or something?” Kado asked, feigning ignorance on what it may have possibly been. Hell, what knowledge did he even have of the Quincy race other than they were few and far between?
Not really all that shocked from the question, as he had heard similar questions from others before. But, he did shove the cross charm back through the cuff of his sleeve, having finally realised it protruding from his clothed arm.
“Ah, no, I’m not christian,” stuttered the boy, “it’s just a memento to remember my late father.” He thumbed the cross, which now laid down the length of his left wrist, his hands resting on either elbow, until the waitress from earlier returned with his coffee. He seen her twitch a little as the boy took a sip of the scalding coffee, long since used to the hot bitter taste of a fresh cup of coffee.
“How about you, are you the religious type?” Asked Seiji, instantly glad that his quincy cross was only a simple cross, making it easy to explain.
Kado pushed the brief conclusion of Quincies out of his mind, taking the words as truth. He couldn’t pester too much, afterall. He just met the kid.
“Well, I’m not sure. I guess not. Religion isn’t too big in my life, never has. I think there’s some higher force keeping me alive, ‘cause I’ve been through some rough stuff, but maybe it’s just luck. Whether it’s a god or the big guy Christians believe in, I’ll never know until I die,” he explained, relaxing a bit in his seat. With a flick of his chopsticks, he captured a single sweet and sour chicken in his mouth and ‘nommed’ on it.
The quincy couldn’t really find anything that interested him, food wise, at the moment so merely resigned to drinking his coffee. Talking with Kado was simple, which was a needed relief to his work at home. Between deciphering the many books and putting the uncovered knowledge to the test, he was always busy, too busy. He was still a child; something he was all too aware of, but he had to uncover any and everything about his father, no matter how hard he had to work. Rest could come later, after he was finally finished.
“I’ve got a question for you Ojii-san,” Seiji spoke up out of the blue. Since Marco was of no help at home, he could very well acquire outside help, provided that he kept the contents secret. “I’ve been studying up on cyphered texts here lately, which of course we have to decipher it ourselves, but I’m stuck at the moment.” scratching his head as if in thought, he spoke with apparent confusion. “I’ve run out of methods to cross check the text with, and i’ve still made no headway. Have you ever been taught how to deal with anything like that?”
Seiji had to hope he didn’t give too much away, but he had to get help if he was going to figure anything out.
The sudden question was a complicated one, at least given their light-hearted conversation before. With a noodle slipping into his mouth, he wiped his lips and scratched what little he had of a five o'clock shadow.
“Deciphering texts isn’t a thing I’m really good with, but I’m not really bad with it. The people at my... job may be able to help you though. There’s some real whiz kids there,” he provided his brief answer, looking at the young man. “Would you happen to have these documents or texts with you right now?”
“Er, only two pages worth.” Seiji didn’t think anything about pulling out the copy of his fathers hidden documents. Kado was a guy that he randomly met in a restaurant, and a human at that. The only way that the guy could know anything about him would be if he were a quincy himself or one of those death dealer people that he read about. If he was the latter, then he was nothing like he would have expected. If he were a fellow quincy, it would only make more sense out of why he gave any thought about his bracelet.
Seiji pulled the hand written copy of his fathers work from his back pocket and unfolded it in front of the man. Filling the pages was what appeared to be gibberish, in swedish. He had forgotten that it was in a different language, as he was so used to reading and speaking it himself. “Crap, I forgot it was written in Swedish. I suppose it doesn’t mean much of anything to you in that case.” he gave an innocent and naive laugh as he pushed the papers forward.
Kado delicately pulled the papers towards him, coffee brown eyes peering down at the scribbles. At first, it wasn’t obvious as to what they were, but once the Quincy mentioned the language, it took a few moments to click.
“Well, I go all over the world. I’ve stayed in all corners of the world at least once. I might’ve picked up scriptures and bits and pieces of the day-to-day lingo here and there,” he chuckled, reading the paper as best as he could. However, despite what he knew of the Swedish language, it wasn’t easily deciphered to him. Perhaps he would have to ask someone in Orpheus if they could cross-match it with something in the world. Or translate it, for starters.
The man chuckled sheepishly, passing the papers back to his acquaintance and smiling. “I can’t read it, but if you could swing by here tomorrow with a copy or something, I could take it back to some friends of mine and see if they can help you figure out what this sort of stuff is. Does that seem cool with you?”
“Hmm, I doubt I'll have the time tomorrow to be honest.” sighed the boy, “I wasn’t really suppose to have the free time i do today!” Seiji cuckled at that a little, knowing that Marco had no clue where the youth was at the moment. “But, if i see you in here again I’ll be sure to say hi.” On that note, he finished his cup of coffee, and began to stand up whilst he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, not aware of Kado’s arrangement with the waitress.
Kado smiled, nodding his head. “I understand. It was a pleasure meeting you, Seiji.”
[/COR]He wiped his lips, ridding himself of the broth from his soup. He reached into his vest pocket, withdrawing his wallet. He took a small amount of tens out and placed it on the table, tip included. “Mai-chan, the money’s on the table. I’m gonna be heading out. Thanks for the meal.” A smile accompanied his thanks as he turned to Seiji, bowing his head to the Quincy. “Thank you for the conversation. It was nice. See ya’ around, kid.”