Today's Tomorrow [Private, Invite Eligible]

As the gunman hit the resistance at the doorway, Toushi felt a 'pull', the indicator that something had hit the 'wall' he had set up to protect Momo and Katherine since he couldn't bring himself to abandon Kido, not knowing if she was dead or just unconscious. It was the only power he could say was his, and he had to admit, it was a useful one. Even if the fact it made him an almost literal human wall did irritate him just a bit. Here though, he couldn't help but smirk as he twisted, firing off two shots in rapid succession at the gunman while he was somewhat distracted by the force that had stopped him.

Katherine had jumped a bit as she could sense their attacker suddenly appearing in the doorway, but was confused by way he just stopped there. She sidled back, away from him as she dragged Momo along in her arms, cradling her protectively.

The man winced, one of Toushi's hastily aimed shots striking him in his arm. In the next moment, he was behind Toushi, bending the man's gun-hand backwards.

Toushi grit his teeth, letting out a hiss of pain as his arm was suddenly bent backward, his grip on his gun loosening. "Son of a..." He jerked his head back suddenly, intending to smash the man's nose in, driving his free elbow back into the man's stomach at the same time. At the very least, he hoped it would stun him just enough to get loose.

When Toushi tried to elbow his stomach, the gunman simply pulled harder on Toushi's arm and flung him into the wall. Before Toushi could recover, he punched him in the solar plexus and tore the gun from his hands, shooting him in the knees with it.

Toushi couldn't help the scream the tore from him then; while the blunt attacks had certainly hurt, being shot in knees with his own gun was a kind of pain he was unused to. He collapsed to the ground, gritting his teeth and struggling to not curl up and cradle his destroyed knees. "You... the hell are you doing this for... they're just kids, you fucking monster!" Toushi knew damn well he wasn't getting out of this alive... and that Katherine wouldn't either. What had caused this? Why had this man done this? It didn't make any sense...

"Isn't it an adult's job to educate children?" The man responded, faux pleasantry in his voice. Without waiting for a response, he shot Toushi in the forehead, and then the heart for good measure. "...this is reality."

Turning to Katherine and Momo, he sneered.

Katherine was trembling, her senses having taken in the entire exchange. Everything was sinking in. Seto was dead. Shintaro was dead. Kano was dead. Kido was most likely dead. Toushi was dead. She wasn't sure what had happened to Marry, but her largest concern at the moment... was that she had to face the reality that Momo was dead as well. Like nothing else, that made Katherine give up. She simply sat there wallowing in fear and clinging to Momo's body like a lifeline as she faced their attacker. "W-why? Why d-d-did you... you k-killed them... a-all of them... why?" Her voice broke at the last word, as tears began to flow down her cheeks freely and she hugged Momo's body more tightly to herself, subconciously turning from the man in a way as if to shield Momo from him.

"Because this is fate." He said simply, shooting Katherine in the forehead without fanfare.

Marry shrieked, and everything turned back.

Katherine woke with a scream, flailing a bit and causing Toushi to struggle to hold onto her. "What the- Katherine, calm down! It was just a nightmare, come on!" Katherine continued to struggle, clearly wanting down, and Toushi hurriedly set her on her feet, where she promptly bolted to Momo's side and hugged her tightly, shivering heavily. Toushi wasn't sure what to make of this. Just what the hell had she been dreaming about?

The group paused, and Momo stumbled as Katherine all but tackled her, catching the girl and awkwardly hugging her back. "H-hey... what's this about now?" As Katherine sobbed, Momo glanced about helplessly like a deer in the light for a moment before sighing, gingerly patting Katherine on the back, "...eto... It's okay. Hey now, everyone's here so... no need to be crying, right?" Internally, Momo worried slightly. Katherine had a nightmare, it seemed... and her response was to rush to her and cling to her like... well, like she used to cling to her own mother. That wasn't normal at all. They'd only met a couple of hours ago.


For once, Kano didn't have a comment to make. He was just as surprised as everyone else at this sudden turn of events.

Eventually, Katherine managed to calm down, wiping her eyes and sniffling as she pulled away a bit. "S-sorry, Momo-san... I just... sorry..." She looked ashamed of herself, but obviously still shaken. She took stock of her surroundings, and found that they were just outside of the apartment. Noting that the door was closed and not ajar made her feel a little better.


"Geeze, kid... don't scare me like that, thought you were having some kind of fit..."

"It's fine, no harm done," Momo assured, putting on a smile even as she worried over Katherine's attachment issues... and what spawned such an intense nightmare. "I mean, I doubt you make a habit of randomly crying out and pulling strangers into hugs, right?"

"If it netted me a hug from a cute girl, I might," Kano quipped, shrugging off a mild elbow-jab from Kido with a smile.

At that point, Seto opened the door, "Is everything alright out here?"

Katherine let out a sigh of relief when she heard Seto's voice, now knowing for sure that everything was okay. "W-Well, you're the first f-friend I've had s-since I was a little girl... and you've led me to m-meet even more... I've... never been so happy before... I'm s-sorry I scared everyone..." She blinked as Toushi placed his hand on her head, and felt strangely irked when he ruffled her hair.

"Don't sweat it kid. Now let's get inside. I reckon we don't have too much more time before you'll have to head back home, after all."

Inside, the door to the back room was cracked open and Marry was peering into it, hiding behind the wall. She turned around as the others entered, blushing at being caught in odd position.

"I put Shintaro in the bed in the back," Seto explained as he led them in, "Like we thought, he wasn't actually hurt. He just fainted."

Before Kano could make a comment, Kido elbowed him lightly and held up the bag containing Katherine's soiled dress, "Before you let your mouth get the better of you, we have a dress to clean." With that, she pulled his ear and mercilessly dragged him into a different room.

Katherine looked around, taking note of everyone's positions, an felt the last traces of her unease fading away as she registered that everyone was safe and sound, and their attacker in the dream was nowhere to be found. 'Just a bad dream... thank god...' She took a deep breath, then took a seat. She had a small smile on her face, but there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. She was so happy to be with everyone... but she also knew she'd have to go home soon, and there was very real danger that her parents wouldn't let her do this again any time soon.

In the meantime, Toushi was deep in thought, thinking over Katherine's situation. Originally, when he'd yet to really interact with her, he just thought she was a shy, sheltered girl, but otherwise fine. As the day had worn on, however, he'd come to seriously question the intelligence and motives of her parents. Katherine was... broken, in his eyes. She didn't have the tools to cope with a lot of things. Surprisingly, her blindness was her least crippling handicap. Far worse was what her parents actions had done to her. Perhaps he could speak with them. Her mother, at least. Elizabeth seemed a bit more willing to listen to the 'help'.

In the back room, Shintaro stirred as the dan settled into the living room. 'Huh? This isn't my cei-...' The events that had unfolded at the mall came back to him, and Shintaro jerked into a sitting position with a start, patting at his sides. 'No blood. Didn't I get shot?' He glanced around the room, searching for answers. It was just a normal apartment bedroom. A queen sized bed (which he was obviously occupying), a bookshelf on one side... a couch? Was it a pull-away? 'Where is this anyway?'

A breeze came in from the window, causing Shintaro to notice he wasn't wearing his jacket. Throwing off the covers, he stepped hastily of the bed, glancing around fervently until he sighted it resting neatly on a side of the couch which he couldn't see from his previous position. Donning the article with a relieved sigh, he listened carefully to the sounds of voices outside. He didn't recognize this room, and was anxious about meeting its owners. Furthermore, given his previous situation, he was still on edge... however, those outside sounded relaxed and... was that Momo's voice?

'...Does this place belong to a friend of Momo's? Since when does she have friends, anyway?'

As he winced at the hypocrisy in that statement, it occurred to Shintaro that his seclusion had left him knowing very little about his little sister's life. She watched Let's Plays in her free time and... she'd become an idol somehow, right? What else? She didn't do very well on her tests if the annual whining from her room was any indication and... What else? She was often late to leave in the mornings, but she was almost always home on time.

With a start, Shintaro realized that, outside of school, Momo barely left the house more than he did... and he hadn't even noticed.


Guilt mixing in with his anxiety, Shintaro allowed himself to fall backwards onto the bed again.

Wasn't he supposed to be a smart guy? So why was it he always felt so stupid when he thought about life, instead of a textbook?


Outside, Marry had left to prepare some drinks (lemonade this time, in normal glasses and a pitcher instead of a ceramic tea set) and Seto had left to help her (replacing the glassware with plasticware), leaving Momo, Katherine, and Toushi alone in the room... with Ene, of course, though one could never quite tell if she was actually paying attention or not. With an exhausted sigh, Momo flopped onto the couch, "Geeze... What a day." She glanced at Katherine and cracked a tired smile, "Just to be sure, that is not what is supposed to happen when you go out with friends... We never did get around to hanging out at the park either. Geeze. What a failure..."

Katherine blinked, turning toward Momo with a confused look. "F-failure? But... I really enjoyed s-spending time with everyone... I... I really want to d-do this again... without the t-t-terrorists though..."

"Oh, I'd like to exclude them from future playdates as well, if possible." Toushi was leaning against the wall at this point, looking rather relaxed.

"Aw, don't be so harsh," Ene chirped, "they made things lively for a while didn't they?"

Momo's eye twitched minutely, but she lacked the energy to do very much more, "...that's easy to say for you, isn't it? You were safe in cyberspace the entire time."

"Nonono," Ene replied, still chipper, "I was really worried about Master for a while there you know?"

"A carefree imp like you couldn't worry about a thing even if you were against a wall with a rifle squad in front of you." Shintaro cut in dryly as he finally worked up the nerve to step through the door.

"O-Onii-chan!" Momo squawked in surprise, rising hastily to her feet... before blinking as she realized she was talking directly to Shintaro and hastily schooling her face into one of perfectly practiced exasperation, "Baka! Why did you pick today of all days to leave the house?!"

"It's not like I wanted to-" Shintaro retorted automatically, "-wait, why do I have to justify myself to you? Just because I don't like to leave the house, am I not allowed to? I should say that to you - you were there too, weren't you? Why didn't you tell your older brother you were going to get held hostage by terrorists?!"

"It's not like I knew they'd be there! Besides, who'd rely on you anyway? You just sit in your room playing around online all day. What would you have done, write angry messages on their I-book page? And they didn't even take me hostage."

As the Kisaragi siblings fought - neither truly as angry or irritated as their words might suggest - Ene looked on from the screen of the Shintaro's phone [which was laying on the coffee table]. She was reclining in place, a bucket of popcorn in hand, and generally appearing to be thoroughly enjoying the show.

Katherine was a rather intelligent young woman. Her lack of knowledge was a direct result of her upbringing and lack of resources, and reflected poorly on her actual capabilities. Furthermore, while the power had spotty control, at best, she was still an empath, and could glean fairly easily that there was far more anger in their voices than they were actually feeling. However, she still didn't like it.

This was, of course, when Momo would learn that Katherine was almost disturbingly good at sneaking up on people. Of course, it didn't help in the slightest that she was likely preoccupied with her worry fueled argument with her brother, Shintaro being the same most likely. Both would feel soft hands taking their's, before Katherine brought there hands together between hers, smiling sweetly, though the blush creeping up her cheeks showed she was not entirely comfortable. "I know n-neither of you really m-m-mean it, but s-s-siblings shouldn't be f-fighting... especially when you s-should just be happy you still h-have each other..." After a pause, she let go of their hands, backing away as she looked toward the ground, bowing. "S-sorry if I overstepped..." In the meantime, Toushi let out a low whistle, impressed that Katherine had actually taken initiative there... even if it wasn't strictly necessary.

Both siblings froze and blinked together in one moment of perfect, unintentional synchronicity, before abruptly pulling their hands out of each others grip. While blushing. Also in synchronicity. Then Momo glanced at Shintaro's face, which was a mirror of her own, and burst out laughing, her blush only intensifying with her mirth.

"Don't worry, Katherine," she said, calming quickly. Enough to speak uninterrupted, at least. "You're fine."

Shintaro, for his part, looked too embarrassed [and baffled] to contribute much of anything to the subject, and was pointedly looking away... which was pretty typical, honestly.

'Tsundere,' Momo thought to herself, mirth intensifying slightly.

"Drinks, everyone," Seto said - perfectly serene, as if the Kisaragi siblings hadn't been verbally clashing swords with each other earlier as he returned holding the tray with the lemonade he'd been preparing for Marry.

Marry herself was hiding behind a the entry to the kitchen, much like she'd been treating the door to the room Shintaro was in earlier. Kido and Kano were still unseen, probably continuing to work on the dress.

Katherine was still rather embarrassed by her own actions, but decided not to dwell on it if possible. She happily accepted a drink, and sat back down to slowly sip at it. After a bit, Toushi spoke up, apparently fed up with silence. "Alright, couple of things. For one, why is Cinderella over there still hiding behind door frames. Second... Momo, Katherine, we do need to come up with a cover story for what you two got up to today. Because her parents WILL demand to know."

"Marry's people shy," Seto responded when the girl in question 'meeped' her way further behind the door-frame, "and hasn't properly met Kisaragi-kun yet."


"And, uh," Momo rubbed at her cheek with a finger uncertainly, "I thought we were just going to say that... you know, we did what we said we'd do?"

Toushi raised a brow. "Which was... what, exactly? I wasn't there for that conversation, and I was pretty much instructed to follow you two. I ask because the stories need to be straight."

"We were just going to go to the park," Momo explained.

Toushi thought about that for a second. "Fair enough, plenty of things to do in the park I guess. Though Elizabeth will probably ask for more details. She's always seemed more interested in that, while her father just kind of... is around, I guess."

"I'm a d-disappointment to him, so I'm sure he's not too fond of dealing with me..." The instant the words came out of Katherine's mouth, Toushi slammed a fist down on the table, causing her to jump and let out a yelp.

"And that is exactly the kind of thinking that should not be going through the mind of a sixteen year old girl in regards to either of her parents! I swear to... boss or not, I'm giving them a piece of my mind later. Pissing me off..." Toushi trailed off into disgruntled mumbling, clearly rather bothered by this. Katherine just sat there with wide eyes. She just didn't understand why it was such a big deal.