Reaching Out [Katsuya]

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Schön knows well the door to Katsuya's world. He ought to, and pauses a moment to admire his handiwork before grasping the serpent-shaped door handle and stepping through. His destination is the precinct station where Katsuya works. A white man stands out in Nippon, snappy dresser or no, so he doesn't go inside, but lingers in the vicinity to wait for the sergeant to come off of a shift.

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[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Schön accepts the cigarette, but declines a light. Instead of smoking it, he rolls and flips it among the fingers of his free hand. "No, no, go on," he encourages, when Katsuya hesitates, "I am here to listen."

[sumarusfinest]

The cigarette isn't the freshest if Schon is a connoisseur. Katsuya doesn't have an addiction to the things yet. The pack is fairly old. Still, he doesn't pull a face or cough, either. It's a habit he's picked up and put down a few times over the years.

"I don't know." Katsuya admits, and the corners of his mouth turn upward around the lit smoke held between his lips. "That's the frustrating part. How much I didn't know." Whether it was kept from him, or whether he'd failed to ask. How much of either, he's got no clue. Both, certainly, but the details are foggy. It's all foggy.

Maybe that was the trouble all along. All the things they never talked about.

Nails scraping on cement. That Katsuya understands. The scent of rotting meat in the air. That Katsuya knows well. Immune to bullets, don't go for the gun. Helios is already coiled behind his shoulder, its golden eyes peering through the darkness, searching for prey. The officer's movements are automatic--his shift from conversational to hunter seamless and practiced. By the time the harpies are lunging he already has two handfulls of fire lobbed in their directions, the golden glow of singed feathers reflecting off of his tinted glasses.

"Kind of sad that this comes easier to me than dealing with women." He comments finally, taking a drag off of his cigarette.

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

"You practice this more," Schön points out, dropping back a half-step. Katsuya is more than welcome to take point with all his heroic impulses. The thin man snaps his wrist, tossing his cane up enough to catch it by the midst of its length, holding it like a ward between himself and the harpies. The ebony wood seems to blend into the shadows of the gathering dusk, but the silver head gleams as bright as ever.

"And there is a cure for not knowing, but it's ever-so-hard." He speaks casually as he fends off any harpies inclined to come after him, as though their present actions were no cause for a break in the conversation.

[sumarusfinest]

Katsuya's not certain he'd qualify this as heroism or cold practiced extermination. He doesn't feel for these creatures unless they show humanity first. If they talk to him, he will attempt negotiation. If they do not, he doesn't hesitate to strike them down. Trying to reason with most ends in disappointment and wounds by letting one's guard down.

"For all the good it does me now, I suppose that's true." Katsuya doesn't respond until the threat has passed, but he didn't forget the comment. He answers while adjusting his suit and glasses once more. "You're unharmed?" He knows Schon is fine, but it's polite to ask. He made sure to cover the other.

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Schön was thinking more of the heroic impulse to walk the darkened streets, fighting monsters, so that other people don't have to.

"It does as little good, or as much, as you make of it," he points out, letting his cane slide through his hand and back to the ground. "I'm untouched, thank you."

[sumarusfinest]

"...I really do appreciate you coming to check on me. Whether your own care or...if Verity asked you to." It wouldn't surprise him if she did. She's kind like that, after all.

"I didn't mean for you to need to get involved. I'm...ashamed this has spread as far as it has. Consider me chastised and intent on speaking with her shortly."

[u_can_have_it_4_a_song]

Schön accepts Katsuya's appreciation with one of his inscrutable expressions and a dip of his head.

"I did not come to chasten you, Katsuya. I came only to see how you are doing. And if, while I am here, you should have some question to pose, what harm?" He shrugs. "And if not, then I shall see what needs seeing, hear what needs hearing, and bid you adieu when all is done."