[color=#E34234][b]Takumi Minamoto - Kokoro[/b][/color]
[i]Third Ward, Sakura Clinic, Fourth Floor[/i]
[hr]
[color=#E34234]“Okay then,”[/color] he nodded, looking back at Hana and then back to Miyako. Quieter, he said: [color=#E34234]“I’m Takumi and, for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re completely lying.”[/color]

For now, there was nothing Takumi could do but that - give words of encouragement and an introduction. But even though he’d said he believed her, there was a pervasive wrongness about Miyako, different from the wrongness surrounding Itsuki. A beating drum on the edge of perception, rather than a high tide that becomes a tempest. Nevertheless, he was inclined to believe her; she didn’t seem to be lying to him. At least not to his face. But the Garden wasn’t supposed to interview witnesses or gather evidence; they were supposed to assess the information, and clean up the mess. 

And by his assessment, nothing she’d said necessarily contradicted anything he’d seen thus far; ergo, he would trust her for now. 

Not that it particularly mattered; all of the responsibility of determining what was to happen fell on the shoulder’s of Hana, regardless of what he, personally, thought. It was her home, so it was only right that she be allowed to make the call for whatever happened. But although this was not the CCG by any respects, Takumi was feeling vaguely disgruntled, like an Investigator who’d just gotten their ownership rights redacted by a superior.

[color=#E34234]“Huh?”[/color]

From out of nowhere, Rin had decided to rest her head on Takumi’s shoulder, which turned his attention away and was very cute, but unpleasant in a [i]very[/i] specific way. 

He crinkled his nose at her stench in such close proximity. Still, he gently patted her on the head, and leaned against her in kind. [color=#E34234]“Oh. Hey Rin. Yeah that's fine. Just go ahead and take a nap now, because you...”[/color] Takumi said, before whispering conspiratorially in a tone firm and cheerfully stern. [color=#E34234]“...Are getting a shower later, even if I have to throw you there myself!”[/color]

He patted her on the head again, and let her slink off to rest in the back of the room. A momentary respite that he was sure she deserved. If not for anything she’d done earlier, then for what was to come later. Because that was almost as smelly as Itsuki, with none of the acceptable excuses he had. 

Not that Itsuki would be any better off if Takumi had the authority to make it happen. Curses, to be a younger brother more self-conscious (not in that way) than the older one…! Maybe he could get Hana to help him out - call it a security issue or something.

Though that implied Itsuki was allowed to stay, but he’d been... acceptable. Too quick to kill, too much of a threat, but Takumi’s heart went out to the guy. If he was in the same situation - seeing his family all bloodied by a former enemy - he’d probably be the same way. He blinked a few times, and stared at the wallpaper. 

[color=#E34234][i]’Maybe that family,’[/i][/color] he thought, before shaking even the barest concept of that thought from his head. There were other things he had to think about; that was not a top priority. That was one of his bottommost priorities at the time. He turned to the scene, where Hana was finally giving her adjudication on the most pressing issue at hand. 

First sentence in, and Takumi figured that it could’ve gone worse. But it could also have gone a whole lot better. It was worrying, dismissing the girl’s words as outright lies, but he would wait, see, and hope for the best above all. The problem here was that he couldn’t find anything empirically wrong about what Hana had said. Miyako did, in fact, do all of those things. But she wasn’t in the right mind? No, the mind was different, subjective and unknowable. She could have been lying, but… Beh, this introspection wasn’t getting him anywhere. Continue watching. 

And then he heard something which made his blood run cold, his breathing hitch, and a sudden deathly stillness pervade his being. But it wasn’t the fact that she’d mentioned the fact his own kin were hunting him. No, he’d gotten over that quickly - even if it hadn’t helped the issue. What got him was the diction, the word choice, the maddened rambling. And at that point, Takumi knew he had to speak.

[color=#E34234]“Hana,”[/color] he said with a surprising adamancy, even going so far as to omit the honorific, [color=#E34234]“I think you need to calm down. You’re getting a bit heavy on the absolutes there. If she’s anything like Itsuki, I’m sure she’s more capable than she seems.”[/color] He looked over his shoulder at Rin, Itsuki, and finally Hana, who seemed to him even madder than when she’d attacked Miyako. A thought in the back of his head realized comparing her to Itsuki was probably not the best decision, but he pushed that aside.

[color=#E34234]“...Besides people who dehumanize others and talk about masterpieces and pride and righting a corrupt world with science are usually the same that...”[/color] Takumi shook his head, his resolve vanishing as his urge to ignore the past grew. [color=#E34234]“Eugh. Sorry, sorry. Just... Yeah. It’s just rhetoric. Sorry. Don’t worry about me I’m... I’m good.”[/color] He didn’t want to think Hana was anything like that. She could see the path her intentions were leading her, right? 

[color=#E34234]"Don't get me wrong I agree we should help her with her kakuja problem,"[/color] he blurted, then pursed his lips, intent on staying silent until he could be silent no longer. Which was only a second or two.

[color=#E34234]“...But, ehh, [i]I’m[/i] still worried. About [i]you[/i]. You might go off the deep end if you start seeing ghouls and people as tools, and it’s just revenge in general isn’t a super good motivation insofar as reasons for helping others goes,”[/color] he warned, nervously wringing his hands together. He suddenly raised his hands up, trying to just move past it all with nary a breath in his lungs. [color=#E34234]“Okay. Ignore. Dropping the issue now. Dropping the issue. Your house. Hotel. Clinic. Your rules.”[/color]

He paused, realizing the greater meaning behind her statement, just as he tried to cast it from his mind.

[color=#E34234]“Wait a sec... Does that mean we’re keeping her around? Does that mean we’re helping her with her problem, too?”[/color] he looked to the girl, [color=#E34234]“Erm. What [i]is[/i] your problem?”[/color] He realized the connotations behind that statement, and began backpedaling immediately. [color=#E34234]“What I [i]mean[/i] to say is: what is the problem by which you attempted to go here to find help for? Because that’s important, yeah?"[/color]