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... Could it have been like what happened to me? Being controlled and not realizing it, I mean.

It could have, I don't know. But... She was acting like herself. I mean, she was acting colder than usual, but she might've been doing that on purpose or that might've been the real her, or...

[Ngh. He cuts off into a series of wracking coughs, muffling the sounds with a hand as best he can.]

It's-- sorta funny. [His voice is trembling, perhaps because he's out of breath.] She told me she might stab me in the back before, though I never believed it. I don't want to believe it now.

Hinata... [ she isn't sure what to say, how to reassure him. But... ]

Can I come see you?

Eh...?

[His breaths are wheezing faintly, though he manages a rough laugh, of sorts.] I'm kind of a mess right now... But if you don't mind that, mm, come on over.

But be really careful, okay?

Oh, don't worry! When I have to run for my life, there's no one faster.

[Funny, that really makes me relieved to hear. There's a small, snorted sound like Hinata either dissolved into another coughing fit or he laughed. Maybe a bit of both.]

Good to hear.

Hang on-- I'll be right there!

[ ... and she actually will be knocking on his door within 6-7 minutes, only slightly breathless by then. Noire doesn't waste time. ]

[Hinata's glad that, in the time she hangs up, he decides to go out to the main room of the block. It makes standing up and feeling his way to the door take a little less long. There's a basin of water on the table and a torn bit of cloth he's been using for eyes that haven't stopped watering and streaming.

He hesitates just a moment (wariness that he doesn't like that he has and thus tries to brush aside) before opening up the door a crack, squinting against blurred vision.] Noire?

Mm, it's me. [ wow, he kind of looks horrible... ]

U-um... trauma and watery eyes aside, how are you feeling?

[HE TOLD YOU HE WAS A MESS... But hearing her voice, his tenseness dissipates and he opens up the door for her to come inside.]

I'm... [Hrm. That's a difficult one to answer.] ...tired, I think. [One of his arms is wrapped up with a bandage around his bicep, but he doesn't seem to be favouring it too much as he goes to close the door after her and urge her inside.]

What about you? How're you doing?

I'm worried... [ yeah, she can admit it, stepping inside properly and glancing towards that basin. ] I knew it was bad, but I didn't think people would betray their friends like this.

Aa... Though I don't know if Izumo ever considered me a friend, so much. Even if we'd talk and everything and I think we've known each other a while.

[But the thing is she's done nice things for him. He's kept that fox-shaped doll charm she knit for various people, and she'd sometimes rebuke him but... Even with her attitude, he didn't mind her at all.]

I don't think I hate her. But I hate all of this, this situation. [He sits heavily and waves for Noire to come and have a seat.]

[ She'll join him, momentarily-- she's got a handkerchief that she's going to dip into that basin (hey, he can always use an extra cloth), bringing it over and offering it to him with a nudge against one of his hands. ]

I do, too... things never go well when that man gets involved.

[When that hand nudges his, he pauses before his fingers flex blindly, finding that handkerchief. He makes a thankful sound and lifts it up to his face.]

He's insane. [And he remembers the last time people were taken by him... so he can't help but be afraid.] How are we going to fight him this time?

I could ask Mother to curse him extensively.

[ ACTUALLY CONSIDERING IT... ]

...

Extra extensively, even. [FUCK THAT GUY no seriously he doesn't care what the hell happens to him and if he can be cursed good.]

To the ends of his days.

[ she'll ask. ]

Sounds like we've got a plan.

[He daubs at his eyes carefully, lowering the handkerchief to blink. Still blurry. But less blurry than before, so at least Noire is not just a blob of colours.]

[ ... have a tentative smile that you might not even be able to make out, Hinata. ]

Is that a little better?

[Hinata kinda squints and fancies that he does make out a smile... even if he doesn't, he can guess that she is.]

A little, yeah. Thanks. I really want to be able to see normally, though... [He hesitates and images flicker behind his mind's eye. Images of mobs of people who'd had the same types of tear gas hit them as the kind that hit him. He can't remember who threw the grenades, but perhaps that's for the better.] I guess now I know what this is like...

Was there a lot of it in your world? It seems like a really effective weapon...

[ she'd suffered enough just by Tharja blurring her vision, after all. ]

It is one, yeah.

It was mostly used for rioters, though it was illegal to use in a lot of places. Those who were trying to get them under control would throw a canister in the middle of a group and it'd be a way of taking lots of people out at once.

[He hesitates, bites his lip, and goes on--] After things went bad in my world, they'd use it on groups of innocents or people trying to fight back.

That's horrible.... [ and he already knows that, but Noire is privately thankful that it wasn't a thing in her world. It was bad enough if an enemy dark mage got a curse off. ] And they have it here now, too?

[ ... she was lucky to avoid it, wasn't she? ]

Aa. [It definitely was horrible. A lot of things he recalls from his time as Kamukura are like that...] They were given it by the corporation, I'm guessing... she had knives and a gun as well, and she could've had worse that she didn't use.

[Goodness knows Hinata is glad Noire hasn't had to go through it. He doesn't wish it on anyone.]

... I don't think you should go out for the rest of the day. Your eyes are going to need time to recover, and your other injury...

[ SHE'S REALLY WORRIED. ]

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