first ofuda (action)

[pyreseer]

Outside Crookston academy

[A teenage Japanese girl sits on a bench, just outside the school gates. She's got a book in her hands--it looks like it's in English, in fact by the cover art it looks a lot like Lord of the Flies--and she's scowling at it. She'd quite obviously rather be anywhere than here.]

Little Tokyo

[As it turns out, there's a Books Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo, which is where our girl is just leaving from with the current issues of Ribon, Nakayoshi, Margaret and, oddly enough, Weekly Shonen Magazine now stashed away in her backpack. She'll linger a little on the streets, eying the plastic food in restaurant windows.

More than anything else, she looks homesick.]

Comments

[cardsflippedup]

[???? Tomoki turns to stare at the girl who just ran up to him. He was pretty sure he didn't know her and she was speaking in pretty quick Japanese for him to really catch what she said. He really needed to buckle back down on his language books. This was kind of embarrassing.]

[He offers her an awkward smile.]

Sorry. I do not speak good Japanese. What is i--

[He cuts of mid-sentence cause he finally registered what she called him.]

You think I'm Hino. [Was this going to turn into a trend?]

[pyreseer]

[What the--

This is disconcerting. This is really disconcerting.]

You are not Eiji?

[Her English is thickly accented.]

Why do you look like Eiji?

[cardsflippedup]

[Okay, he was right. He sighs a bit, ruffling his hair.]

That's a really good question and it's not one I have the answer to yet.

[He holds out his hand for her to shake.]

Sorry- My name's Tomoki. Tomoki Chino.

[pyreseer]

[After a moment, she shakes his hand. It feel so weird to shake hands with a guy who looks just like her brother.]

Hino Rei. Rei Hino.

[cardsflippedup]

Nice to meet you.

[He shakes her hand. He blinks at her name, though.]

"Hino". Are you related to ah- Eiji?

[pyreseer]

He's my big brother.

[Yeah. That's right. Hobo clone has a sister.]

[cardsflippedup]

Oh.

[He's actually surprised to hear that. The guy lived in the park. Wait- did she live in the park? He frowns. Chino, don't jump to conclusions.]

Do you have a minute to talk with me?

[pyreseer]

[She frowns.]

I... guess?

[This is all really weird and awkward and why do you look like Eiji, Chino-san, why?]

[cardsflippedup]

[He's trying to figure that out, Miss Rei.]

Your brother can be elusive sometimes and I've been meaning to ask him a few questions about his family. Would you mind giving me some names? If not, it's fine. You don't know me at all, but I'm trying to figure out what exactly might be the cause of our resemblance.

[pyreseer]

Promise this won't go to the newspapers.

[Because she's already in disgrace and doesn't need to be in any more trouble.]

[cardsflippedup]

This is purely for my own sake. I can even put that in writing, if you want.

[pyreseer]

Please.

[While he writes that out she'll say:]

Our father is Takashi Hino. My mother was Risa Hino. I don't know Eiji's mother's name.