The late-afternoon sun is low in the western sky, but still visible above the Uminari skyline. Crowds hustle hither and thither, busily on their way to or from (mostly from) work and school. Snow is evident, heaped in piles where the road-clearing crews have gotten it out of the way of traffic, but it's not terribly cold out, today, to judge from the light coats most of the passersby are wearing. It's one of those days when you get out and get things done, rather than sitting curled up at home with a mug of cocoa and a book, and it sometimes seems like half of Tokyo is trying to get down the same road at the same time.
There's a popular new yattai, recently set up in a clear bit of sidewalk, with a handful of seats and a hand-painted banner. The chef seems to have recently come from somewhere in Latin America, to judge from his looks, tall and tanned and heavily mustachioed. His fare centers around a shredded meat in mole sauce, made from spiced chocolate, of all things, and the novelty has drawn attention.
One of his customers today is young student and witch, Kyra Nygaard, just finishing a small snack. She's dressed in a Seiyou High boys' uniform, being too tall for the junior-high girls', the blue blazer hanging open underneat a light tweed coat. Set beside her, leaning against the counter, is a guitar case, her arm already hooked in its strap as she prepares to move on. She takes a moment to look around, surveying the crowds as they pass: she'd expected to meet a friend here, and they never showed. Maybe she's early. Maybe they're late. She's starting to wonder if she should care.
Mio is, as is her common trade, wandering the streets of Tokyo. It's been some time since she's encountered anyone who really called to her. There had been those who were magical, those who she felt energy from, but nobody she felt... the same way as she did to that boy and his friends.
That changes today, as she happens to pass right by Kyra Nygaard - and she stops. She turns very slowly - it's like prescient jolt of energy that passes between the two of them. Like so many before this, she doesn't know exactly what this all means - but she does feel that connection. It's distinct, it's different than the others.
And so she stops in the sidewalk, turning to stare with her deep purple eyes at the girl. She walks tentatively closer, eyes still firmly affixed.
It's going to be one of those days, or so Kyra has just about decided. It looks like Sora isn't going to make it, and so it's time for her to head home. She leans down to gently hoist the guitar case up onto her shoulder and...
Stops dead. There's something nearby... something catching her senses, like the sweet scent of fresh-baked bread, or the glittering sound of a harp. She pauses, still bent over, to turn her head, curious, and always ready to indulge that curiosity. Yes... definitely something... no, someone. Those eyes...
She starts to speak, to question, but something holds her back. Some instinct, halfway forgotten, stifles her speech, waiting to see what the other girl will do. She straightens, sliding off the yattai stool, and watches. Those lovely violet eyes....
Mio takes another cautious step forward. "I know you." she says, quietly. It's a soft voice, but one that likely sounds quite familiar to Kyra, if she leans in to hear.
It's so hard to place where she knows people from, and she wants to so badly understand why some people call to her like they do - but she simply can't. So all she says is, quietly. "You're magic, too. Like all the others I know. Aren't you?"
Kyra blinks, once, still staring. Something in her wants to recognize this girl. As if she should know her. But ... she can't bring it to mind. She's sure she'd remember eyes like those.
She, too, takes a step closer.
"How do you..." she starts to ask, then bites her lip. Giving away the answer isn't really the impression she wants to make, even though she pretty much already has. "Where do I know you from?" she asks, struggling to remember. Something... something golden... no, it's gone.
Mio shrugs her shoulders. She's painfully, brutally honest in the way she responds, and yet, so simple. "I don't know." she says, quietly. "I just know that I know."
Mio places her hand over her heart. "I feel it. And I know it's true. You feel it too, don't you? I can see it in you." She adds. "But you'll probably deny it like the others." Then her head looks down. "Maybe I am the crazy one."
Kyra considers it, for a moment. "Yes," she finally admits, her eyes roaming briefly to see who might be paying attention to the pair. Fortunately, no one seems to have taken interest. "I feel... something. A connection."
The thought of a romantic 'soul bond' is the first thing that comes to mind, for Kyra, and she actually gives it serious consideration... then mentally shrugs and sets the idea aside. If they're meant to be, then they'll be, and that's all there is to it... she's not going to get upset - or obsessed - over what might not even be real.
She takes another step closer, finally lifting her guitar to sling it over her shoulder. "Crazy is as crazy is," she answers. "I came to this city knowing I ... had to find - someone." She stumbles over the words, having never expected to actually end up telling this particular part of her tale.
Mio stares into Kyra's eyes. She's actively got a finger to her lips now. "I'm not sure if I'm the one you're supposed to find. Maybe?" she adds. "But I'm not... it's..."
Mio's face contorts, and the girl is dragged deep into thought. "Well, I don't know. I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Or where I've came from. Or where I'm going!" She sounds equal parts terrified and highly adventurous. And then instantly settles back down to her almost morose, calm self. The jumps in emotions can be a little disconcerting.
"Well. Maybe it's up to you who you're looking for. Maybe you have to decide that, even."
Kyra returns that gaze, swallowed up by those violet orbs, captivated by beauty, by near-recognition, by the rare feeling that for the once in her life, she is in the right place in the world. The first was a month ago when she arrived in Tokyo, another, a day previous, when she met Kunzite - though she has no idea who he truly was.
There was one brief exception, when the transfer student in her class caught her attention, and she could have sworn that was the moment. But the girl was monopolized by Tsukino and her friends, and it passed too quickly, and the girl vanished as quickly and mysteriously as she'd appeared, and it was too late to act.
But it isn't too late now. Maybe. Just maybe.
"If it's up to me," she finally says, "Then I say, I'm going to enjoy the road there, one way or another." She holds her hand out to the violet-eyed girl. "Call me Kyra," she insists, after introducing herself.
Mio looks up at her. She's back to being very silent, partly because Mio doesn't have any sort of understanding about the world she's lost within - she's just a visitor here, and she's very well aware of that fact.
"I'm Mio Kuroki. You can call me Mio, though." she adds, as an afterthought. The way the girl says her name, it sounds almost like she's saying something that is very foreign to her.
And she pauses. Since Kyra has been less hostile to her than some of the other people she's met, she asks a question. "Kyra... Mio... do you... do you feel like maybe these aren't the right names? For us?"
Kyra waits a few moments, to see if Mio will take her hand, letting it fall to her side when it's ignored. That feeling of rightness is so close... so wonderful...
But Mio's right. There is something jaggedly wrong, not just the names... "I keep wanting to say... something else," she agrees, "Like it's on the tip of my tongue. I just can't quite bring it to mind."
She sighs softly. "This city is the only place that's felt right to me since I was small... but even so, it still isn't really it, either."
It's not that Mio didn't notice the hand, so much as normal human interaction is a bit lost on her. Handshakes, not staring, personal space all are human constructs this girl just does not understand.
"Right. Like there's something so much more than what we're seeing, and we're just unable to reach out and grasp it." she says, softly.
"I like this city, and I can... I can feel something here. I think it's where I'm supposed to be. But it stands to reason that's not true for everyone?" Mio says, looking to her new acquaintance. "Kyra, do you ever have dreams about somewhere else?"
"Somewhere... somehwere golden," is Kyra's eventual reply. "I can't quite see it in m head, or remember its name... but it's there. It's so close." She sighs, softly, getly. "Like the universe itself is hiding it from me. From us."
She shakes her head, and her free hand balls into a fist, clenching suddenly a the thought of the universe being her opponent. "I can almost reach out..."
Mio nods emphatically. This causes her bright red hair to almost nod along too, moving rapidly. "You get it. You understand it." she says, and for a moment, a small smile creeps across her face.
Then it leaves. "But I think that place is gone. I don't feel like it's still here. I just feel like it's all in the past... unless you've picked up on something I haven't."
This is where one of Mamoru's roses would have come in handy, giving the pair concrete proof that the golden haven still exists. But neither, it seems, have had that opportunity. So Kyra can only agree. "It feels like... like something so delicate, it could shatter if I breathed on it," she murmurs. "And yet it's more real than any of this."
She waves her hand at the city around them, the gesture causing her guitar to fall until the strap catches at her elbow. She sighs, shakes her head again, and slides it back up to her shoulder.
"There are others." Mio says, calmly. "Others who feel like you do. But not like you do. But they're like us." She says. She's not /trying/ to be cryptic, it's just that the nature of her knowledge is so flimsy. and these simple phrases explain what she does know as best as she can.
"But I think they're all real. It's all real." she adds, and those deep purple eyes fixate on Kyra. "I think... we both need to look for that thing. That thing we both know we're looking for." More unintentional cryptic speech. "I'm sorry. I know I don't make much sense."
Kyra nods. "Like we need to search... to strive for that golden moment." She could drown in those eyes. Those memories. Not quite real, not quite there, she still craves that contact. "Maybe..." she muses.
"Maybe it is real..." she considers, falling deeper and deeper into those eyes, almost as if finding a long-lost lover. "I think, sometimes... I think it's trying to tell us that it's still there. That we can still find it. That that's why we feel like this place, this time, these people, are so right for us."
Mio leans in. "Golden moment. That sounds so very right. I don't know if this is it or not." she admits. "I think I'm also still looking for... a golden person. I thought I had found him, but he didn't seem to agree. And I would think that someone who would create that kind of feeling... he'd have to feel it back..." she half-mumbles "...so maybe I was wrong."
She turns. Mio, also, doesn't really know how to signal the start or end of a conversation. It's no wonder most people find her somewhat wierd and off-putting. "I'm going to see if I can find the golden person." she says out loud, but mostly to herself. "Maybe I can get him to really talk this time." Mio says, as she begins to slowly walk off.
Kyra nods... "A golden ... person." She pauses for a moment, thinking. "Yes... that sounds right to me, too, except... maybe it was someone different?" She hmms softly. "I keep thinking of a woman." It says something about the tall blonde foreigner. Maybe that's why she was so captivated by Mio's eyes.
And then Mio turns to go. Ooookay. People do what people do, and Kyra... well, yes, she does blame them for it. She's a self-centered little witch, when it comes down to it, and part of her wants to drag Mio home and feed her cookies and make her happy. But she knows she has to at least pretend she cares about the rules normal people live by. And now she knows who the girl is. The ... golden girl? No... that isn't quite right.
"... good luck," she wishes Mio. "I hope you do find him. The right one. I'm ... going to keep looking." She feels a little awkward about the suddenness of it, but there isn't much she can do without grabbing Mio and holding her here.
And then she is the one grabbed, almost tackled, and twirled about, as another girl with an instrument case catches her. This must be the 'Sora' she was waiting for. "Kyra! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Perfect timing... Fate? Destiny? Or just chance?