The past few days, Sora has been out much, and when in the residences has not come out of her room. She even cancelled the couple tutoring sessions she offers to family, including Ayana, the latter of which may be less cause for concern than the others, but is still noteworthy.
She's coming home late, didn't use to be a pattern of hers to do that, at least, not in the regular. It's the third time this week, and she's dressed all black except for the blood red demonic looking skull on her shirt, she's looking down at the ground, not paying any attention elsewhere.
With the summer heat starting to ramp up, the options for ideal times to do outdoor chores are either in the morning or later in the evening. And since Ikiko has school in the mornings, that leaves just one option...
So it's Ikiko, out sweeping the walkways of the grounds, who spots Sora walking up. "Hi, Sora-chan!" the younger girl waves to her older cousin. "Your parents came by earlier, asking if we knew where you were."
Ikiko tilts her head as she looks at the clothes Sora is wearing. "Say, is that a new outfit? Didn't know you were into that kind of stuff."
"I told them I'd be back after dinner." Sora says in a dour-sounding, clear evasion. That's not an answer to where she's been, at all. In general, her mood looks to be somewhere around 'stop bothering me' and 'awful' but she's trying to be polite, and that shows. "I wanted to try the look, not sure if I'll stick to it." That's a yes, and a partial dodge, once again.
Ikiko Hisakata gives a slight shrug. "From what they were saying, I don't think they expected it to be this long after dinner," she remarks, then pauses sweeping long enough to offer a hug to her cousin. "Anyway, welcome back!"
Sora doesn't respond to the offer of physical comfort, instead, she tries to step past her cousin. "You say that like I've been gone for weeks. I don't want to be rude but it's late and I have homework to do." That sounds like a lie, like it's not her motivation for wanting to move on at all.
"Oh, okay," Ikiko replies, deflating slightly. She takes half a step to the side, then glances at her cousin again. "Y'know, if you're having problems that you don't want to talk to adults about, I'm here to listen," she offers. "I won't even mention them to Ayana. Just one Hisakata to another."
"I'm sure you won't mention them to Ayana." Sora says in a tone of voice that shows she believes she's found the catch. "She's probably hidden around a corner somewhere listening in so you won't need to tell her." Those are the workings of a paranoid mind, which is probably a warning sign in its own right. "So don't give me that crap."
"Last I saw, she was up in our room, working on homework. Chemistry homework, at that," Ikiko replies with a flat stare, a hint of annoyance in her voice. Arguing with her cousin over how much Sora impugns Ayana is not something Ikiko is in the mood for right now, and it's probably not a good sign that she's getting used to Sora hammering on that line of thought.
The paranoia is new, though -- new, and possibly worrying. Shifts of personality can be a symptom of being influenced by a curse, much like a runny nose is a symptom of dozens of medical issues: not a firm indicator on its own, but a hint that there might be more goin on.
"Are you feeling okay, Sora-chan?" Ikiko asks, her expression softening into one of worried concern.
"Last you saw?" Sora's voice betrays ample skepticism, perhaps a little too ample. She doesn't press the point however, and the visible concern does at least soften her enough to admit that, "No, I'm not okay." She looks in the direction of her family's appartment, "And you can blame that girlfriend of yours for it. Can I go now?"
Ikiko Hisakata steps out of the way, a worried frown on her face. She doubts that Ayana is behind this worse-than-previously-normal mood of Sora's... unless the mood is stemming from the utter trainwreck of the Sora/Kukai relationship being even worse than previous incidents had led her to believe! And even if that was the case, Ayana's only involvement was getting them together in the first place, so the blame Sora is placing on the kitsune is rather disportionate.
"Hope you feel better soon, Sora-chan," Ikiko says quietly.
"Thanks." Sora continues on her way, the thanking seems to be a matter of politeness only, but at least it sounds genuine. As she passes, the girl's shadow takes a moment to turn half-way, making obvious movements in the light, and showing her face in profile, then sticks out an elongated and obvious tongue.
Ikiko's eyes narrow at the shadow's movements, but she goes back to sweeping the walkway. An obvious shift in her cousin's personality, and things behaving unnaturally around Sora -- not a sign of something confirmably wrong, but definitely worrying nonetheless.
Maybe she should warn Ayana about it -- after that incident after that one tutoring session, there's definitely concern about something dark lurking around. Of course, if Sora still cancels the tutoring sessions, that means that Ayana's in less danger... but if the darkness is still seeking a target, Sora might be in more danger. Not good.
Hopefully it's just a string of coincidences...