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"I think it's the majority who have the odd tastes," Kirin said. He rolled his eyes. Society on the whole was stupid. They supported girls walking down the streets all but naked, but god forbid someone wanted to dress all in black or in Victorian-style clothes - or dress like the other gender. A person could be decent, but people, in a group, were ignorant, close-minded and judgemental. "Who needs them?" Kirin sniffed.

He kind of knew what Ume meant. Of course, it was his role as a senshi that tied him here and prevented him from thinking about college in other cities or states - or countries, even. Ume wouldn't have that problem, of course, but Kirin could understand being reluctant to try and find something familiar about an entirely foreign place. What if she went to Japan and it didn't feel like home at all? What if she simply felt alienated? Staying here meant no chance of disappointment. In her daydreams, Japan could be as familiar or as foreign as she liked. Kirin could relate to prefering the dream over the reality.

"I suppose," he said, with a quick smile, there then gone. "There is something special about Destiny City, isn't there?"

Kirin chuckled along with Ume. It was true, Destiny City sounded like a strange, exotic place when Ume put it that way. It was just a shame that the people in strange costumes over here got shot at and chased by the police - oh, and some of them were killers, mustn't forget that part. All in all, not the best tourism campaign for the City.

"Who'd want to be the stereotypical American, anyway?" he asked when she mentioned having blond hair and blue eyes. "No one really ever 'fits in', you know. Some people spend all their lives trying, but I bet they still feel out of place and are waiting for things to 'feel natural'. So why bother trying? I much prefer who I am to who others want me to be."

He thought Ume was the same, since she seemed so proud of her lolita fashion and knowledge. They were the smart ones, the ones with the advantage of already knowing who they were and being okay with that. It was the blond bimo cheerleaders who'd be having identity crises when they discovered their first wrinkle or that their size 0 clothes no long fit in a few years time.

"Oh." Kirin paled a little on Ume's behalf. If there was something he knew all about, it was family drama. And 'missing' was a lot like sitting outside a hospital room, he thought. Nothing to do but wait and hope, never sure if that someone you'd built your life around was going to reappear with a huge grin and disappear quietly.

"I'm really sorry," he said. "Do you think she ran away, or..." He didn't want to use the 'pc' media term for senshi, 'terrorists'. It sounded much worse than it might otherwise be. Terrorists killed people. The Negaverse corrupted them, which some might consider worse, but at least they were still alive. And the goddamn Moon Princess was meant to be able to fix that, right? Like the Zodiac's princess had healed them of their zombieness.

Of course, he couldn't give Ume any of that kind of hope without revealing himself as one of those terrorists.

Oh god, Kirin didn't know what to do. Emotional scenes weren't his forte. If Ume broke down crying, then as bad as Kirin felt for her, he was so ******** out of there - he never knew what to do for crying people (and most times didn't care).

He decided to take a risk. Carefully. "Um, you know, there are some Internet groups that think the whole 'terrorist' label for senshi is a coverup. They say the senshi are actually helping us. So, maybe they'll find your sister? I bet there are more of them than there are cops by now."

Of course, that could still backfire spectacularly. Ume might have bought in to the terrorist thing. She might not know anything about the group the senshi were fighting and not understand why the senshi would even care about helping her sister... But it was the best Kirin could do.

Kirin forced out a smile so brittle it was already half cracked. "I guess normal people like us will never know."

He took advantage of the lull in conversation to duck back into the change rooms. The dressing up part of the day had been fun. The accidentally tripping someone into revealing their sister was missing during a giant magical terrorist war? Not so much. It was something of a relief to be back in his own clothes, too. The ruffles and lace and modesty of Ume's lolita fashion was nice, but Kirin kept dreading he'd have a costume malfunction of some kind and, whoops, surprise male.

When he came back out to face Ume, the outfit they'd picked out together was in his basket, ready for purchase. Biting his lip, Kirin said, "If I was the praying sort, I'd pray for your sister. As it is, I feel badly about making you think of it. I hope she comes home safely."

There was a pause before Kirin nodded, pretending he understood sibling bonds at all. Ume's situation made him wonder if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he'd been an only child.

Surprisingly, he didn't need to think too hard about whether he'd enjoyed the day or not. "Yeah, it was fun," he agreed, surprise colouring his voice. Maybe this was the reason girls went shopping in packs, rather than alone. Kirin had previously only thought it must be to annoy as many people as possible, but maybe even the loud, bitchy ones liked to have people along to help and talk to.

Thinking that he was becoming entirely too reachable lately, Kirin reached into his pocket and retrieved his entirely normal, non-senshi cellphone. "What's your number? We can text if we want to do this again sometime."

The corners of Kirin's lips curled up into a smile before he could stop them. People weren't often so enthusiastic at the idea of meeting Kirin again. Admittedly, this had been one of his nicer days, and those who didn't want to see him again usually had very good reason.

"I guess I'll be talking to you later, then," Kirin said when Ume handed back his phone. "Nice is such a banal word... Hmm, pleasant, enjoyable, intriguing? It was very -- insert the adjective of your choice here -- to meet you." Chuckling to himself, Kirin sashayed off in the direction of the cash registers. Nothing like dressing up in lace and frills to make you feel really girly, he decided. He'd have to remember this the next time he needed a pick-me-up.