[Miyabigaoka] Construction Zone

[Bloodedge]

Upon being offered the gratitude and farewell of the Storm Queen, Kabuto extended his left hand to greet her pinkie finger with his own. "I look forward to it. Be safe," he said just before their fingers separated. With that, his business here was done, and he rolled away to give these two members of the second generation their privacy.

Jun'Ichi only smiled when Chiyo addressed the amount of time he'd been training for. There were many things that had been uncovered by the Rumble King, and many things yet to come. But, that was not a matter that was up for discussion at the moment. What he did mean to discuss, was the slight misinterpretation of his words by the black-haired lass. "Iie. That wasn't the meaning." As he spoke, Jun'Ichi reached out to grab the young woman's right hand and hold it betwixt his own hands, simultaneously taking a knee before her. "This one believes Chi-Chi should come with him."

[Apollymi]

A nod came from the Storm Queen as she heard the parting words from the Thunder King. She couldn't always promise she'd behave or do anything safe, but she understood what he was getting at just the same, and she always felt pretty good about life after hanging out with him and as such she had nothing but good feelings in the moment. Even as the snow continued to fall around them. Soon enough she was left alone with the Rumble King and much to her surprise, said she'd misunderstood. "Oh?" she questioned as he clarified. His statement that she should come with him, sounded a lot more permanent than one would expect from her childhood friend. Beyond that he'd taken to one knee clasping her right hand within his in a way which was much more intimate than her general meetings with friends went. "Ichi-kun..." Chiyo was running through how to address this as it was completely out of the blue and she had no idea what the Rumble King could have been getting at. She opened her mouth several times, closing it because she had a bad habit of just letting things fall out of her mouth in ways which were most disrespectful and right now she wasn't sure she wanted to be that so she tried multiple times before finding the right way to question this situation. "What are you even talking about right now?" she asked very cautiously.

[Bloodedge]

"Everything," was Jun'Ichi's immediate retort. With it, he rose slightly while aiming to pull Chiyo closer to himself; an act that would allow him to speak directly into her face. "The coming parts war. Life. Every possible meaning. The wind is always carrying this one toward Chi-Chi. She can only be the feathers that let his wings be carried. Doesn't she see? It has always been coming to this. This one accepts the wind's guidance toward happiness, but there is a cage that needs to be unlocked, and Chi-Chi is the key." The more Jun'Ichi spoke, the more excitable he seemed to become. In fact, by the end of his tirade, he reached out with one hand to grab Chiyo by the back of the head, aiming to pull her even closer, that he may meet her with a kiss to drive home his purpose in these words.

[Apollymi]

'Everything?' it was such a broad response to the question she'd asked. Chiyo soon found the Rumble King speaking directly into her face about what 'everything' entailed. And that would have caused a weaker willed person to take a step back. But Chiyo had always thought of Jun'Ichi as a nice guy, she didn't fear him. And while she didn't fully understand his excitement in this moment she was willing to hear him out. His words were full of references to her, and how she was somehow the key to his happiness and the future. But she really didn't get it, nor did she actually agree with anything being said. Soon enough though there was another problem, because she was trying to formulate a question to clarify the missing pieces of his statements but soon enough this young man was pushing their faces together forcing a lip lock. It was quite unusual, Chiyo was normally the one to do such a thing, but without it being something she truly desired doing, it did nothing for her in this moment. Her eyes widened and a second after the shock wore off she raised her left hand and pushed it towards the Rumble King's chest while pushing back against her ATs and clearing a reasonable amount of space between them. "Fuck! Ichi-kun. I think you've got the wrong idea about me, I'm not anybody's feathers, or their happiness, and I definitely make cages... I don't unlock them. I don't get it... I really don't." she said. Having no idea what could have prompted such an outburst from the Rumble King nor having any idea of what to actually do about it considering they were friends. His proposition seemed so abstract to her, and from what she understood of it, he wanted her to come with him, but hadn't given any reason beyond his flowery thoughts which apparently all circled around her and to the best of her approximation were all ideologically opposed to who she was right at the moment.

[Bloodedge]

In spite of his little speech, it seemed Jun'Ichi had failed to pull Chiyo on board with his ideals. Of course, this would not deter him, however. When the Storm Queen moved away, he stood, clenching his fist over his chest while offering further explanation; perhaps one that would reveal why this had come about so suddenly. "This one has been thinking since the tower reopened. This parts war... will be entered. This one plans on putting an end to future parts wars, and the suffering of people as a result, through this. ATs should not be weaponized in such a way. But... doing that will be dangerous, so help was needed... and with or without it, if this war should be the end of him, this one thought there was no better time to express himself."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that the push away from the Rumble King and her words wouldn't discourage him from speaking on his intentions. It seemed he'd been thinking about this for quite a while, and had decided to participate in the next parts war, as he hadn't in the one their generation had specifically been part of. She remembered he hadn't joined the previous parts war citing his pacifism on how ATs were used as a reason. She'd respected this at the time, even while having no memory of who he was then. "Sou... ka." she said thinking about it more, it took several more minutes of quiet contemplation for her to sort through the indirectness of the Rumble King's speech. 'If this was just about his participation in the parts war, there'd be no reason for him to come looking for me. It's strange that he thought to come to me just to tell me that, if he wanted to recruit me, it seems he does... But he kissed me so it's something more than that... he said he wanted my companionship and not in the way I assumed which is...' a look of great astonishment and shock came over the young woman's face as she finally came to a conclusion and it feel out of her face with an extreme amount of shock attached to it. She stopped moving completely as if she'd run into an invisible wall."Wait a fucking minute. Are you saying you like me?!" she seemed to be completely stunned by this. But in her mind the only way his participation in the parts war could have any negative effect on his ability to express himself would be if he intended her as his love interest. Such a thing was completely foreign to the Storm Queen and she really didn't understand the sorts of feelings people had for her, in particular the romantic sort that Jun'Ichi seemed to be expressing right at the moment.

[Bloodedge]

After several moments, Chiyo finally caught up to the meaning behind the odd speech pattern of Jun'Ichi, and the fact that she did so brought a smile to the young man's face. However, the amount of surprise she she showed in this moment was among the stranger things he'd ever experienced. "Iie. Things were only that simple and innocent when all of us were in the tower. This one things we've gone far beyond that point now. But..." The Rumble King was soon placing his hands in his pockets and rolling forward. In spite of the smile he still wore, his eyes were devoid of their typical optimism when he continued. "It's not the same, right?"

[Apollymi]

The shock of the Storm Queen was obvious in her face, and with her still active eyes she could see this information processing in the face of the Rumble King. She couldn't help but think this expression was something she'd just not expected, even knowing that he'd liked her as a child, she also knew herself to be quite different now than she was then and only recently had she considered that she wasn't that different after all. Beyond this, as she watched she couldn't help but notice the sullenness of this young man. It was as if he'd had so much hope in this and she'd crushed it with her lack of feeling. It was sort of hard to look at given how much of it she could see, but she figured she owed it to him not to be a coward in this moment and to acknowledge fully that which she was doing. She couldn't help this, she simply didn't feel the same way about Jun'ichi that he felt about her. "Sumimasen." she said, looking directly at the young man. She simply felt inclined to apologize which was quite rare for the sort of person she was, but she knew it wasn't possible to return the feelings he had, and she'd feel bad if she strung him along, when she knew she simply didn't have it in her. It was a cold thing to her, but she felt empty and at peace with this decision.

[Bloodedge]

Jun'Ichi received neither a yes, nor a no, as the answer to his query. Instead, he was given a single apology from the raven-haired lass. This was likely something better than one of the two responses he'd been looking for, as it provided some unspoken level of both certainty and sincerity. Of course, this did nothing to stunt the sharp sting of rejection, but the Rumble King now knew where he stood. "Sou ka. Arigatou gozaimasu," he said with an averted gaze. Afterwards, there was little to no hesitation prior to the Rumble King's departure. It was quick, and obviously rushed. The voice of another male toward Chiyo's hind left, next to a vendor stall prepared for the construction workers, had a single thing to say about this interaction. "That went about as well as telling a child there's no Santa. Please, just don't tell me you need a minute to cry. There's obviously about to be enough of that for the both of you."

[Apollymi]

And just like that, the Rumble King thanked Chiyo for her honesty and ran off. She knew he was going to cry, but there was nothing she could do about this. She'd probably crushed a little part of him, so she didn't want to chase him down and make him deal with it. Sometimes people needed to heal themselves and she didn't really blame him if he never wanted to talk to her again. Moving right along, it seemed there was an observer of this particular interaction. And one she recognized, even before she turned to her hind left to find him. He had a rather blunt and slightly mean disposition about his observations of this situation. The Storm Queen turned to the Tar King and approached him her regalia reverting to its original state. She couldn't really argue with what he had to say, and given this her hands met her hips and her head tilted to the left as she seemed to be quite herself. "What the fuck? Do I look like fucking Mikasa to you? Fuck no I don't need to cry... and obviously I know that didn't go well, but it isn't like I could lie about it." she stated in a minor rant. The words she spoke tasted a bit spiteful and angry and thus normal for the young woman and it set her at ease, even if it meant being mean to the Tar King, if only just a little. That tiny bit of spite was lovely and it tickled something deep within the young woman. "So, you just on a stroll today? Enjoying the weather?" she asked sarcastically as she inspected the damage her released regalia had done to her shorts and sighed knowing she'd be up for an outfit change at some point in the near future.