[She rests her chin in her hand, humming lightly as she thinks it over. There's the tree, of course; it's still sad to look at, but maybe if his friends' names are there too, it's like... it's less lonely? Or more morbid, the more names are left there. She isn't sure.
Music? He's not a composer, though, and besides, his violin is still being worked on in New Aspen. Even she knows music is more her obsession than his.]
Maybe... you could write something? Like how you wrote the poem for me. Or... [she holds a finger up as inspiration strikes.] What's something you guys would do together? We could do that!
I think spending a day doing what Arisato-kun wants to do would be really fun.
[Even if it's just sleeping all day with a break for lunch.]
[ Write something? Hm... He struggled to write anything the first time with Sayori at the sleepover, but the poem for Kaede was easier. Maybe it's easier to write a poem when he has a specific thing to say and an audience in mind. What would he say to everyone in SEES, if he could send a message back to them now? To all the other friends he made since April?
Ah, Kaede's still talking. He'll think about that later. ]
I don't do much...
[ Goro dragged him back to classes when he felt like wasting away was a better use of his time..... And SEES didn't do many group activities. ]
[And one of the things he listed -- staying out of people's ways -- isn't a hobby at all!!]
Did you not get to go out with your friends after school very much...? I didn't, either. At least, I don't think so... if I didn't have a competition or a recital, I was usually going straight home to practice.
[ Well... They would do things individually sometimes. ]
Mitsuru-san would take me to try new things with her. Akihiko-san trained and liked fighting. Yukari-san would take me shopping... Fuuka-san was learning to cook and had me test her food. Junpei-san liked baseball, and the arcade, and slacking off... Aigis-san had a lot of questions about people... I didn't spend much time alone with Ken-san or Shinjiro-san. But Koro-chan liked taking walks at night.
[Oh wow, that's a whole list of people. Kaede's doing her best to commit those names to memory. It sounds like they all invited him to do the things they liked, huh...? Not too much has changed for him, then. He must have been close with all of them to be on a first-name basis, though.
...Hang on.]
Koro-chan? [The familiar choice of suffix stands out compared to the others, and she looks stricken at the thought. Losing Shuichi and her other friends had been bad enough, but losing someone she was dating...?] Was she your girlfriend...?
[There are so many assumptions being made here, and all of them are wrong.]
[She flushes a bright pink and covers her mouth with both of her hands. She just asked if he was dating a dog!!]
S-Sorry... I just assumed...
[Looked like Cocoa, though, huh...? That does make his decision a little easier to understand, too. After all, even before she knew Minato personally, she'd have been willing to do anything for him in a kind of messed-up attempt to atone for what she'd done to Shuichi.]
Ummm... what kind of group is SEES? [she asks instead of following up on whether or not he actually did have a girlfriend. He did say "Sees" right? She thought it was "scene" before.] That you had a dog in it...
[She presses her hand to her heart and sighs with audible relief. She couldn't bear it if Minato was some kind of executioner. Even just going by that name makes her a little uncomfortable, though logically she knows it shouldn't.]
Umm, you're talking about Shadows, right? Goro-kun told me about them.
[Admittedly she probably only understood like half of his explanation, but she at least understands the concept.]
[ He's never heard of it before Kaede brought it up, but it's not that hard to imagine. A title or maybe a program or school or something for people that are very talented. Maybe it comes with a scholarship? Either way... ]
Haha... thanks. Nobody ever really called me by that title anyway, though... usually they just called me a Piano Freak.
[She taps her finger against her lips.]
Come to think of it... Komaeda-san and Tanaka-kun both have that title, but it's different from how I'm used to hearing about it. Like, apparently they went to a whole school full of talented people...? Until I was... trapped in that killing game with the others, I'd never met another Super High School Level.
[ Like hers is earlier, or theirs is earlier, or maybe they're just from similar but distinct worlds. The Director tried explaining this all to him a while ago, and he thinks he's wrapped his head around it... ]
[ Oh god he made a mistake. Though, she has surprised him before by not asking further about other complicated topics. Maybe he won't have to describe this stuff too deeply... Maybe. ]
[Her hand drops from her lips to clutch the front of her shirt, and she leans in more closely, almost pleadingly.]
I-I mean, rescue people from the past, or the future! Does that mean my friends could still be out there?
[It's been half a year already, and she's yet to see any of her friends, or even talk to anyone who's familiar with her ideas of a Super High School Level. She'd been convinced they were dead!
...If it's the past, does that mean Rantaro might still be alive?]
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[She rests her chin in her hand, humming lightly as she thinks it over. There's the tree, of course; it's still sad to look at, but maybe if his friends' names are there too, it's like... it's less lonely? Or more morbid, the more names are left there. She isn't sure.
Music? He's not a composer, though, and besides, his violin is still being worked on in New Aspen. Even she knows music is more her obsession than his.]
Maybe... you could write something? Like how you wrote the poem for me. Or... [she holds a finger up as inspiration strikes.] What's something you guys would do together? We could do that!
I think spending a day doing what Arisato-kun wants to do would be really fun.
[Even if it's just sleeping all day with a break for lunch.]
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Ah, Kaede's still talking. He'll think about that later. ]
I don't do much...
[ Goro dragged him back to classes when he felt like wasting away was a better use of his time..... And SEES didn't do many group activities. ]
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Right... you don't have a lot of hobbies, huh?
[And one of the things he listed -- staying out of people's ways -- isn't a hobby at all!!]
Did you not get to go out with your friends after school very much...? I didn't, either. At least, I don't think so... if I didn't have a competition or a recital, I was usually going straight home to practice.
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Mitsuru-san would take me to try new things with her. Akihiko-san trained and liked fighting. Yukari-san would take me shopping... Fuuka-san was learning to cook and had me test her food. Junpei-san liked baseball, and the arcade, and slacking off... Aigis-san had a lot of questions about people... I didn't spend much time alone with Ken-san or Shinjiro-san. But Koro-chan liked taking walks at night.
... My other friends weren't in SEES.
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[Oh wow, that's a whole list of people. Kaede's doing her best to commit those names to memory. It sounds like they all invited him to do the things they liked, huh...? Not too much has changed for him, then. He must have been close with all of them to be on a first-name basis, though.
...Hang on.]
Koro-chan? [The familiar choice of suffix stands out compared to the others, and she looks stricken at the thought. Losing Shuichi and her other friends had been bad enough, but losing someone she was dating...?] Was she your girlfriend...?
[There are so many assumptions being made here, and all of them are wrong.]
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Koromaru was a dog... He looked a lot like Cocoa-chan.
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[She flushes a bright pink and covers her mouth with both of her hands. She just asked if he was dating a dog!!]
S-Sorry... I just assumed...
[Looked like Cocoa, though, huh...? That does make his decision a little easier to understand, too. After all, even before she knew Minato personally, she'd have been willing to do anything for him in a kind of messed-up attempt to atone for what she'd done to Shuichi.]
Ummm... what kind of group is SEES? [she asks instead of following up on whether or not he actually did have a girlfriend. He did say "Sees" right? She thought it was "scene" before.] That you had a dog in it...
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After school club.
[ IT TECHNICALLY WAS... He kind of wants to see her reaction to that. ]
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[She squints at him uncertainly.]
What kind of after-school club gives out Persona-summoning guns...?
[And has a dog!]
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The Special Extracurricular Execution Squad.
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[She starts to cross her arms, brow furrowing. Hang on. Something seems off here...
Special Extracurricular...]
E-Execution Squad?!!
[That's definitely not a normal after-school club!!]
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...
...
[That's it?!]
You can't just say something like that and not explain it, Arisato-kun!!
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We fought... weird things. That would hurt people at night. That others couldn't see.
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[She presses her hand to her heart and sighs with audible relief. She couldn't bear it if Minato was some kind of executioner. Even just going by that name makes her a little uncomfortable, though logically she knows it shouldn't.]
Umm, you're talking about Shadows, right? Goro-kun told me about them.
[Admittedly she probably only understood like half of his explanation, but she at least understands the concept.]
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SEES was formed to fight them.
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[Like what Qrow told her about where he was from. There's no way a normal school would have a club like that otherwise!]
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[ Well. It turned into a Shadow infested tower at night, and some of the teachers were weird, but it taught normal subjects! ]
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Ah, but you guys don't have Super High School Levels where you're from either, right? So I guess what seems normal to me sounds pretty weird to you.
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Doesn't sound that weird.
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[She taps her finger against her lips.]
Come to think of it... Komaeda-san and Tanaka-kun both have that title, but it's different from how I'm used to hearing about it. Like, apparently they went to a whole school full of talented people...? Until I was... trapped in that killing game with the others, I'd never met another Super High School Level.
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[ Like hers is earlier, or theirs is earlier, or maybe they're just from similar but distinct worlds. The Director tried explaining this all to him a while ago, and he thinks he's wrapped his head around it... ]
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[She pauses with her finger against her lower lip, tilting her head at him with some confusion.]
What do you mean, "different times?"
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Like the past. Or future.
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[Her hand drops from her lips to clutch the front of her shirt, and she leans in more closely, almost pleadingly.]
I-I mean, rescue people from the past, or the future! Does that mean my friends could still be out there?
[It's been half a year already, and she's yet to see any of her friends, or even talk to anyone who's familiar with her ideas of a Super High School Level. She'd been convinced they were dead!
...If it's the past, does that mean Rantaro might still be alive?]
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