[Miyabigaoka] The Gleaming Crest

[Apollymi]

Jinx thought about what Roze had to say, and Aomine's growth was indeed great, but she'd also seen the young Sky King fully develop his original run as well as a secondary road in a week's time without any real interference from her. "Say what you want, it's more of a seeing is believing sort of thing," Jinx said, when Kurama chimed in to give out the idea that perhaps Suzume should speak with the young Sky King to see what he was actually like, both Jinx and Kurama already knew the likelihood and were willing enough to break even on it, Suzume's input would be enough to sway the vote one way or another. "Oh? We're pushing it off on me then," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Fine, but for the record, this isn't something I'd normally volunteer for," she said, knowing full well why she'd pushed the young Sky King off on Jinx in the first place. He wasn't really the type individual who needed her help. Nor the type to make her soul sing, so it was a wasted effort for her. But, if it'd help out Roze in anyway, she had no problem doing so, if only to see how they'd actually be able to handle the down turn of their other friend later. "Fuck that, me..." whatever Jinx was about to say was lost because something else was occurring.

A young girl who looked to only be about 10 or 11 came barreling into the door. A dirty blonde mop of hair atop her head a small yellow spaghetti strapped shirt and pink and white striped socks made up her outfit along with a pair of fur lined shorts. She seemed to be angry and when she'd arrived here none would know, but her presence would be made know as sparks ebbed in her wake. "ICHI-NII!!!" the young girl cried as she approached in an apparent demand for Kurama's attention. Jinx's eyes widened and then softened immediately as she chuckled and Suzume managed to look just a tiny bit stunned, having never actually laid eyes upon this child before this moment.

[Bloodedge]

"Of course it's not something you'd volunteer for," Kurama said, clarifying the suggestion that Suzume be the one inspecting the Sky King's moral standing as a Storm Rider. "That's why it's being pushed off on you." Since Suzume had agreed to being the one to do this, Kurama cleared his mind of the idea that he could end up doing it. After all, he didn't want too many interactions with the Sky King, lest it become common knowledge that he was involved in the boy's Brain Charger experiment. That was not something he thought would end well in the long-run. Whatever the case, the ordeal they were all going through now seemed to be leaning in Jinx's direction, with her being the first to speak and claim his offer. Her sentence was fated to never see its end, though, as another voice resonated through the specially-designed room. Kurama knew this voice better than almost any other; of his two siblings, it belonged to the only female, Jolyne.

With his Emperor Eye still active, Kurama turned his head to view the girl, who seemed to be dressed very differently from what he'd become accustomed to. "Jojo!?" he questioned, shocked by her appearance in this place and time. "What are you doing here, and..." His questioning came to a brief pause as he looked at the girl's attire. It was very strange to see her dressed this way. "Where did you get those clothes? Those shorts are a bit... nonexistent."

[Apollymi]

There was a scoff from the Storm Queen but it seemed that if she had anything else to say it'd be saved for later. The young dirty blonde girl in her short shorts was acknowledged by her eldest brother and this was what she wanted, but his choice in words made her brows draw together just a little as she crossed her arms over her chest and began to explain. "Oh! I don't see you doing laundry, who cares about my shorts!" she said snidely seeming to be cross for unknown reasons. "They shrank a bit, but it worked out alright. I asked my friends at school and they said they were cute," she said as she quickly explained away her change in attire."I came to see you because you didn't come to see me, it was my birthday and I hadn't seen you in over a month. I came looking for you, and they said you were on vacation," the girl complained in obvious need of some sort of attention. "I needed your help and you didn't come back, and now everything is ruined!" the girl exclaimed in an overly dramatic way. Such wasn't terribly unusual for one of her age, in fact, both Suzume and Jinx looked at each other wide grins behind the girl stifling a chuckle. As women who'd both previously been teenage girls they knew well the world always seemed like it was ending when you were young. The young girl was in the middle of a tantrum the likes of which hadn't been seen by any of these women in quite a while.

[Bloodedge]

When the young lass replied to him, Kurama was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected such a retort to follow his questions, so he was left staring blankly and blinking again and again. "... Okay. Hit a nerve there. Just gonna assume bad mood, and move on," he said, mostly speaking under his breath. He would soon be receiving the reason for Jolyne's arrival. When she gave said reason, his blinking ceased, leaving his eyes in a state of perpetual wideness for the duration of this thought circulating in his mind. "Ah... kuso." Suddenly, Kurama knew exactly what he'd missed. The day of his sister's birthday happened to be the exact date of birth held by Shoichi. He could have made it there. With a sigh, he stepped toward - and eventually knelt before Jolyne to reach eye level. "Gomen. I wasn't really on vacation for that long. I was sealed away for a month to train for a really big fight later. Still, I don't have any excuse to give you. I left that facility on your birthday, so that's still all my fault. I'll do my best to make it up to you however I can, but what's this about everything being ruined? What did you need my help with?"

[Apollymi]

Having said her piece the small girl was in more than a bit of a huffy mood. Her arms remaining crossed over her chest, glare present in her large honey colored eyes as she stared down her older brother, who to his credit managed to look a bit dumbfounded. A pout ensued as the man made his way down to her level, he went on to explain that he hadn't been on vacation but instead had been building his skills for some fight that she didn't know about. And while that was cool and she could understand he did say that he had just accidentally missed her birthday and would make it up to her. The young girl's expression softened immensely by this point and her arms seemed to loosen from their crossed position. "Well, I mean if you're gonna make it up to me, I guess it's fine," said the girl. "I mean, I'm not asking you to or anything," she said seeming to feel strangely about the tantrum she'd just given. When he went on to ask about everything that had apparently been ruined and what she actually needed his help for a massive sigh escaped her.

"My friends..." she started looking down at her feet. "They started a team and they wanted me on it at first. But I said no at first because I was kinda down. In being kinda down they said I wasn't right anymore and that I was shittier now than I was before. But that doesn't seem like it should be right, 'cause I've learned tons of stuff and should be way better. They said didn't have resolve and would get myself killed and they didn't want to deal with it. Mizu-nee was mad even and it was really fucked up," she explained foul language seeping into this explanation as it carried on. "But I really did want to be on the team with them, and only them and I don't want to go back empty handed, but I don't know how to fix it and there was no one to help me and I figured you could help me but you were gone. I didn't know what to do..." she said a light sheen of tears appearing in her eyes as her world seemed to be falling apart. "Ichi-nii, can you help me!" she asked of him, not knowing what to do with her skills to make her friends accept her back into their fold seemed to be the root of her problem.

[Bloodedge]

"It's fine. You don't have to ask; I'm your brother, so it's my job," he said, finally managing to smile before the girl this day. His ears were open as ever as he heard out her story about the troubles she'd been through. Kurama had heard from his brother that there was an exchange involving Jolyne and a Storm Rider team from her generation's tower, but he'd been under the assumption that a simple clash of personalities led to her choosing not to join them. He was apparently quite wrong about this. Jolyne expressed a desire to be a member of only this team, and since his ocular ability was active, Kurama could see the tear ducts in her eyes beginning to produce. Her resolve was obvious - to him at least. By the time moisture began spreading across the girl's open eyes, he was already reaching out to place a gentle hand upon her chin, and lift her head. "First, language. Second, buck up. Remember what I said? You sit at the core of your generation, so you're sure to be the most valuable asset to whatever team you join. You were wrong about one thing, though... You shouldn't have been looking for me," he said, lifting himself off the floor to stand. "Like I said before, I can teach you, but it will only help so much. If you're ever going to be the best Flame Queen you can be, then it'll be a matter between you and your Regalia. Our Roads can never be the same, no matter what."

[Apollymi]

Jojo stood quietly after her brother heard out her explanation. As they moved right along, he seemed to want her to watch her language and settle in and not fall apart. She'd try both of these things and acknowledge them with a simple nod of her head which she then held back to give her tears time to dry. A few seconds thereafter and she was being told once again that she could indeed be an asset to any team she joined, but that it would be between her and her regalia to make this happen and not him, though he could teach her things. "But that doesn't make any sense. How am I supposed to know what is between me and my Regalia?" she said scoffing. She'd spent loads of time on her new ATs as she healed up and it still wasn't 'right' but she couldn't go back to how it was before either. "Ugh, you're basically saying its impossible because I don't know what to do and no one else does either. You can't actually help me," she threw her hands up in the air as the situation seemed way to dire for her own liking. All she wanted was to join the team with her friends and get some help working on how she was. If her big brother who she looked up to couldn't help her, then how was she going to accomplish this task?

[Bloodedge]

Jolyne's question was a normal one. The simple act of trying to think through how one's run was meant to function was a hindrance in its own right. To be fair, though, this was something Kurama likely should have explained long ago. This was just one of many examples as to why the third generation of Gravity Children should not have been released from their tower so early. "Well... I can't exactly help you, but I think I can be of assistance. This is all sort of my fault. I could have let you develop on your own, and you'd probably be fine now, but I couldn't say no when you wanted to learn tricks from my version of the Flame Road. Your body isn't built for those kinds of tricks, though, so they're arguing with your run now. What you need to work out with your Regalia is your own run... which means you need to be freed of what's been holding you back. I know a certain group that knows all about freedom." As he spoke, Kurama pulled his phone from his pocket. The end of his speech marked the moment he began formulating a text message to Akaru Chiyo, the Storm Queen of the second generation. It read: "Busy? I hate to ask, but I need help with something."

[Apollymi]

Another explanation soon left Kurama's mouth and his younger sister pouted while she tried to process the information. It seemed her big brother thought that him teaching her his version of the Flame Road had hindered her in some way, because her body wasn't made for that sort of movement. Beyond that, the rest seemed to be a lot that would fly over the girl's head. That being said, there seemed to be a light at the end of this dark tunnel. "A group that knows about freedom? Freedom from what?" she asked. It seemed like the sort of thing which wouldn't really matter to her in any way until she understood it fully.

Regardless of this, a message would soon find itself on the screen of one Akaru Chiyo's phone. The girl who was up in the air, was travelling between her last activity of the day, a book club meeting to her home. She had nothing else as far as plans were concerned and she was more than pleasantly surprised to be looking at a text message from Kurama. 'Me? Busy? No way, be there in a minute~' was the return text which required only a change in direction before the girl would end up making a bee line for the Gleaming Crest.

[Bloodedge]

The phone vibrating in his hand let Kurama know a response had been sent moments later, prompting him to view the message on his phone with a grin. Only then did he respond to Jolyne's question. "That question is the answer. Our friends will be able to explain it to you better than I can. If you remember our trip to the meeting, I think you'll remember who I've called in to help us out. If she agrees to help out, though, you'll be leaving this place for a bit. You'll probably get to meet some other new people, too. Anything to eat before you go?" he asked. Whether Jolyne agreed or not, Kurama began moving toward the kitchen again, intending to retrieve refills for his peers.