Participants:
Scene Title | For Family |
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Synopsis | The reunion of the Nakamura siblings leads to Kimiko promising to aid Hiro in his efforts. |
Date | April 4, 2009 |
The Four Seasons Hotel - Kimiko's Suite
At a late hour the same night that Magnes came to tell Hiro about his sister (and to show him that silly flyer), there is a series of bumps in the night in Kimiko Nakamura's suite. Someone is in the kitchenette, going through the refrigerator and seeing what has been stocked here.
It is with mild surprise that Hiro finds sake. He would never have figured his sister for someone who would keep sake around. Perhaps the Four Seasons put it in here for her, as a housewarming gesture. That's what he's pouring into a shot glass though.
So he might expect that his sister would not react well to someone unexpected loitering about her suite kitchen. But he might not expect the fact that ever-so-silently, Kimiko padded up in her robe, her fingers curled around the grip of the katana brought with her from overseas - the one she kept in her office at the Yamagato Fellowship in fact. As she stealthily approaches the dark figure, something gives her pause, and she cocks her head. "Hiro-san?"
With the shotglass all the way to his lips, Hiro's eyes widen a little to see his sister in her robe with a SWORD coming ready to chop. He downs the sake in one quick gulp and makes a little face because in all this time he still is not much of a drinker. "Hai." he responds simply, if a little hoarsely. Clearing his throat he gestures at his sister's sword, "I did not know you had your own sword, sister. It's cute." And he offers a grin at that.
Kimiko lifts a brow and doesn't deign to reply. "Stay here." is all she says to him - don't go teleporting or time travelling or whatever! She disappears back into her bedroom and puts the sword back in its sheathe, replacing it reverently in its stand before changing into more casual clothes and emerging from the bedroom. She frowns at him for a moment like she's going start wagging her finger and chastizing him, and then abruptly, unexpectedly and perhaps surprising them both, reaches out and hugs him. She always did favor their more affectionate mother in that way. It was only after Ishi's death that she too adopted the more reserved mannerisms of their father.
Hiro only halfways obeys his sister in that he does not teleport away, but he is NOT standing where she told him to when she excused herself. By the time Kimiko returns Hiro is standing amongst the furniture in her den area. And the hug obviously takes him by surprise. He hesitates before gripping her back tightly in a hug. In fact there really isn't anything for him to say, so he lets the silent affection speak for itself.
It's only been after Ando's death that he adopted the more reserved mannerisms of their father.
When this awkward but heartfelt exchange between siblings has ended, Kimiko wordlessly steps back and seats herself on the couch, hands resting in her lap, back straight. She is the picture of reserve that she utterly lacked a moment ago. She studies Hiro solemnly. "He sent me." No need to ask who he is.
Indeed, He is obvious. "Why? What is wrong?" He kind of figured that Kaito sent his sister. Hiro is more interested in the why, and he assumes it's a problem. "I have been busy. I am sorry if it has caused problems."
Kimiko is uncertain as to how to phrase this. If Hiro doesn't like what she has to say, he can readily just flit off to elsewhere, elsewhen, even. "You know what our father can do." she says pointedly, speaking of Kaito's probability based ability. "He said you would need me. And so I am here." Because family first. Above all other things.
"So this is about me." answers Hiro blandly, suddenly looking, well…perhaps disappointed. Because it was nice to entertain for a brief moment that he would be wrong. And that Kimiko would've sought him out because there WAS no problem with Kaito. And maybe he was just missed. But then he's silly that way sometimes. "He didn't say why?" Of course, that would be asking quite a bit. Such predictions are seldom given with clear data.
Silly otouto-san. Of course he was missed. But Nakamuras don't…you know, talk about sentiments. Or their feelings. Not often, anyway. "He did not." she admits with an inclination of her head. "But I was glad for the duty to be bestowed on me, younger brother. I have not seen you in a very long time and I have been worried. Whatever you need of me, I shall provide." A pause. "Unless it involves you managing companies. Because at that you are…how is you would say?" The next words she offers in English with a faint smile. "Epic fail."
This Nakamura does! He's very sentimental. Or used to be, certainly. Hiro manages to look a little sheepish about the management thing and says, "I am NOT "Epic Fail" at business! I know what I'm doing. I just also know that you are better." He sits back, the Kensei sword on his back making it only a little uncomfortable to do so. "One thing you can do for me easily, if you don't mind. There is a townhouse I've been using near the Midtown New York area. I would like to buy it and keep everyone away from it. I am putting something I think is important in the basement there and would like to keep it secret."
Kimiko nods to this. "I have my assets." she affirms. And they are considerable. Not to mention, by doing Kaito's will, she has access to much more, if they have the need. "Will you need this location solely to store this thing, or should I," she makes a vague gesture, "relocate?" There's a pause. "Can you speak of it to me?" The last is tenative.
With a slight smile Hiro says in English, "I can show you." He doesn't bother keeping secrets from people this close to him, as a rule. "I've already gotten started on it so moving it would be hard. You would understand if you saw, but it's a lot of strings stretched from wall to wall, in a map of time. I'm seeing if I can figure out exactly how everything works in the lines of fate. The sort of thing Father does naturally…" If only he could somehow possess the abilities of himself AND his father at once. All would work perfectly.
"A map of time." On instinct, Kimiko speaks in English too. Her accent isn't as good as Hiro's - it's more akin to Kaito's, but she's spent less time in America than Hiro has. "Tell me what I need to take with me." she says. Apparently she's quite ready to leave now, and well aware that he's the means to get there.
Hiro spends a brief second looking Kimiko over and says, "Shoes?" It's not like it's a long journey there or back. Not for him.
Kimiko looks down at her feet. Oh. "Hai." she agrees, rising with a grin and hurrying to put shoes on in her room. She considers the katana for a moment, and then on a whim, grabs it - and the messenger tube she thought might be prudent to keep it in at times. Because one never knows. Add on a jacket, and she's ready to go. "I'm ready." she says solemnly to him once she emerges from her bedroom.
Hiro's already on his feet by the time Kimiko returns, and he grabs her by a shoulder.
In a shift of sensory inputs they suddenly find themselves in a darkened townhouse hallway with no electricity. "I hope you don't need the sword, but I usually carry mine most places just so it isn't left unattended." this because he noticed her brief indecision about what to do with her blade. Opening a door he steps down into the basement and starts switching on battery-powered LED lights stuck to the walls. The kind you just tap and it turns them on. They're cheap at hardware stores.
In the incrementally growing light of the basement the Strings become visible. They're like the ones in Isaac Mendez' loft, though Kimiko likely never saw those. But these have all those same strings slightly adjusted, and with more added. For example, there is a string for Kazimir Volken now. And one for Abigail Beauchamp. "I'll have to make a string for you now, if Father is putting you into events."
"If I am to go where you go now, and you carry one, likely it is wise for me to carry one as well." As if the prospect of a brother-sister action teamup doesn't appeal to Hiro's inner comic-book nerd. They're like Team Rocket, except they're good guys, with less shrieky voices, no stupid gay sidekick Pokemon, and much better animation quality. She peers at various strings, never touching, but sometimes crouching and following a particular line very closely. "Putting me into play. Like on a chessboard. Does this make me a pawn? What color string am I?"
"I guess it is like a chess board." supposes Hiro, tugging at his own string. Which is a cool kind of metallic silver yarn he found. "What color do you want? You and I will be the only ones that choose." Special Nakamura priviledge, after all. "I will show you how I put this together and how I read it, and what I try to use it for. And you can help me keep the information I gather secret. Because many secret events are here. Claire Bennet and Noah Bennet. Peter Petrelli. Nathan Petrelli and the fact he is Evolved and can fly. My whereabouts and the times and places I have seen."
"But you will not leave me here." Kimiko regards Hiro solemnly. "I will not be a priestess left to tend the temple? I will go with you when you travel." Like Ando, but she doesn't say that. She continues to follow the lines for a few moments and then, wordlessly points to a skein of yarn. It's bright teal color.
"Well…sure. I suppose. If you want?" It wasn't that Hiro thought he'd keep Kimiko out of harm's way. It's more like he's always thought her to be way too busy in her own right to even care what he's doing. "So you are not doing anything? Busy with Yamagato?" he asks, picking up the teal yarn. He finds a point on the Kaito string near where the Hiro string diverges and ties the new Kimiko string to it there carefully. That's where she'll begin.
"When I was expected to work for Yamagato Industries, I worked for Yamagato Industries. When Father made me president of the Yamagato Fellowship, I was President of the Yamagato Fellowship. And now I am to aid you, and that is what I will do." Kimiko straightens from studying the knot that Hiro has created, the new skein in which her choices will begin to have an effect. "Besides. This is…infinitely more exciting." Kimiko can't help but smile a little, before leaning back and sort of take in the whole thing. "This is…beautiful in its way, Hiro."
"Kimi-chan." Hiro says, turning to face her briefly and look at his sister with some concern. "I know it is hard to accept this, but a lesson I have learned is that we all must learn to do what makes us happy. I hope that you are not just here because Father has told you to be here. You are a very important woman." It is of course near hypocrisy for Hiro, this Hiro, to tell anyone to do what makes them happy. His happiness has been largely wrapped up in his past. With the Kimiko string he begins looking for other strings that she's touched. His and Ando's, as well as running along the Kaito string for a ways. "Tell me if you know any of the people these strings represent."
"Only yours. And Father's. And your friend Ando-san. I am very sorry about Ando, otouto-san." she tells him solemnly. "I didn't have occaision to know him well, but…" she flusters briefly. She's not entirely unaware he would have liked to know her better. She just didn't have time for such things, and truth be told, Ando didn't really seem like the sort - she shakes her head. //"It is kind of you to say such things, otouto-san. It is. And it may be that in some things, our Father has at last recognized me for certain qualities that he had hoped to carry on. But even as I would strive to show him this, it is you who pointed him to see them. And even as he has found all the qualities of Takezo Kensei in you that he longed to see, do you not understand that just because it was to you he read the stories, I too could hear them?" She taps her chest gently. "In my own small ways Hiro, I too want to bring something better into this world. Only I must work harder, because I am like Mother, not like you and Father. I have no gift. I am not special." This is not said with resentment. It is said with a certain serene acceptance.
Right. The typical acceptance of any Japanese acknowledging their particular part to play in society. It is said without ego, which in itself is seen as a virtue. Hiro doesn't fixate on those words. What he instead fixes on is Ando, and says with a small laugh, "Ando said you were hot. He didn't have the confidence to approach you though. You were out of his league." Affixing the Kimiko string to Hiro and Ando at one point, it goes off back toward the Kaito string and follows it for a while until it intersects again with the Hiro string in the no-mans-land of the present. "You see why this would all be hard to move. I think better to try to secure the building."
Kimiko nods her head at that, quietly flustered at the hot appellation, but dammit, she's not some sixteen year old girl. Water under the bridge now anyway. "What does it lead you to do? This…garden of time, that you must maintain."
"No. This is not like that." Hiro says. He shows Kimiko several strings and the points at which many of them intersect at once. "In time there are shatterpoints. Points at which History changes drastically. They are opportunities for the greatest change in events. Using this map I have been able to find different shatterpoints so that I may try to change History. For the better." He indicates one, the largest by far. It's labelled 'Bomb'. Another is labelled 'Cheerleader'. That would be the one Hiro tried to change by having Peter Petrelli try to save Claire Bennet.
Of course neither of those shatterpoints really did go any differently the way Hiro would've liked.
There are others though that identify themselves in pattern.
"If I find the right one and at the right time, and if I can do the right thing then…" With a sigh Hiro trails off.
"Then?" Kimiko prompts. "You are…trying to prevent something. Yes? Or are you trying to make sure something occurs?"
"I want to prevent this." Hiro says, pointing at 'Bomb'. "And hopefully also this," the termination point of the Ando string, "Not to mention all the other strings that would stop here. If I had that many strings. Because preventing this would also prevent or change all of this other stuff." Volken and the mini-war a few months ago, the Linderman Act, the new shatterpoint of the suicides of the 36. With his back to his sister Hiro says sadly, "Father's gift is to see these things easily, as clearly as you and I see with our eyes. My gift is to be able to change this. Although it is also my curse to be too blind to do so wisely."
"These things have already happened." Kimiko says delicately. "Some might argue this means they should not be undone. Certainly the paths will change if these events do." She's not necessarily arguing against it herself. But she was trained to see all sides of problems, to better attack and resolve them.
Still turned away from Kimiko, Hiro nods, "Things that have already happened. And perhaps no matter what I do I will never see the outcome. You and I. Because we lie here…" Hiro touches his own string in the present time, "But if action is taken there could be another string for each of us from this point," he indicates the Bomb, "and for those people in the other universe this will create, life could be better. It is for those other universes that I must keep trying. I have come to the decision that in this time, we are lost. Nothing will change fate for us."
"Or," Kimiko must feel compelled to point out, "It could be worse. This has occurred to you." Because surely Hiro has considered all the angles.
"Yes. It is possible. But I cannot see how. I really can't." Hiro turns back to Kimiko and waves behind him at the strings, "Anyway, here they are. I would feel better if I knew you were helping me watch and keep them. To keep people from reading them. Because they contain too much information for most people to see. In a day I have a mission to perform and after that I will see you again, and we can make new plans."
"I will help you with this, yes." Kimiko agrees immediately. "But Hiro, I also want to go with you. I can be of help to you, I believe," and here she takes a breath, "As Ando was. I cannot replace him, I know. But I think I can be of help. There is much you do not know about me Hiro, as to what I am capable of."
Part of that statement horrifies Hiro, and it shows on his face. "Be very careful with that wish." he says sternly. "I would much rather you were someone who helped me NOT like Ando, because Ando has NOT helped me!" Anger ekes out of his voice at that as he points back at the strings and the only local presence that is anything of Ando. "Ando has wounded me and made me separate myself from people. Ando has made me mistrustful and angry, and suspicious and mean. Whatever you do and whatever you are capable of, be better than Ando, Kimi-chan."
Kimiko blinks a moment. "You're angry at him." she breathes in realization. "You're angry at him for leaving you, the way I was once angry at Mother for leaving us."
Hiro's answer is in his eyes. He gives no words to confirm or deny it. Instead taking advantage of his unique gift to freeze time so he can turn off all the lights in the basement in an instant and bring Kimiko back to her suite all in one continuous moment. Though after they switch back to being in her home away from home and time resumes, Hiro remains present. "It is too late to bring you into the mission I will be going on. The planning has been going on too long and anyway there are people going along that I do not want to know about you. But I can tell you what the mission is. I will be helping to break Peter Petrelli out of Moab Prison."
Kimiko's eyes go wide at that. She doesn't even protest that he's not taking her. Instead, it's simply, "How long should I wait for you if something should go wrong, before coming to search for you myself?"
"If I am not back that very day, something has gone wrong." No foolish wait around for days thing going on here. Hiro doesn't mess around with that. He steps toward Kimiko again and stops right in front of her. Then he allows himself some of that warmth back. "Thank you for coming, sister. I missed you."
"If something has gone wrong, then I will find you." And neither will consider what she'll do if he's dead. "You know how to reach me. But you need to leave me the information about the timelines so I can guard it and acquire the building." Her brow furrows. "Be careful, 'ro-chan."
Obviously messing with her, Hiro asks, "We were just there. Didn't you pay attention to where we were?" He knows full well that since they teleported she has no way of knowing just from that. But he gives her the street address of the place in the next breath. "You'll know it. And I promise I'll at least call to let you know I'm all right."
Kimiko nods to this. It's honestly better than she expected. She really didn't think Hiro would think her anything more than Kaito's heir to his business savvy. She is suddenly unable to keep from reaching out, putting a hand to his shoulder. "You are so grownup." she says, as if he were not a man in his twenties. "Yesterday I was making fish faces at you so you would laugh and make your cheeks wobble." Yes, when he was five and she was nine. Who remembers that stuff?
Apparently his sister remembers that stuff. Hiro gathers her up into another hug, this one of his own initiating, and squeezes her tight. "I will see you after. I promise."
Kimiko accepts the hug, smiling at him as she steps back to watch him displace himself in time and space.
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