(GS3) Field: Forest

[OverDrive]

Neu had pulled a stunt that definitely shocked Tsubasa and made his heart race in a frenzy, but what he enjoyed the most was the amount of passion within Neu's kiss, she was able to convey her emotions with her kiss now he wanted to do the same.

Neu kicked the chair that she used away as she wanted to get going before the check up time, so Tsubasa had only one last chance to convey his feelings better than what he said.

With a swift but subtle movement he moves next to her, embracing her in a gentle way, " I'm not intending on one uping you haha...but I wish to convey my feelings in a better way just as you conveyed yours to me.." slowly he let his lips meet hers and allowed the kiss to last as long as he could possibly allow, as he retracted his lips he said, "...I won't leave you Neu...I'll stay by your side."

He helped her to stand upright and walked her towards the table again, " Thank you both for coming...I'll get back to you sometime after I get her back to the hospital safely." He quickly gave Haruto a hug and shook Fei's hand as he helped Neu over to her wheelchair."

"Alright, good luck lover boy! And Happy Birthday!" said Fei, with a devilish smile on his face as Tsubasa took Neu and walked towards her wheelchair setting her down, as he prepared to leave.
"Aniki! Take care of her and let me know when I can see you again!" said Haruto.

"I will Haruto, I will..." he said as left the restaurant with Neu.
__________________________________________________________________
After returning Neu to the hospital and getting her checked up he helped her onto her bed, she had already changed before the check up and was now ready to get some rest as she lied down on her bed. Tsubasa moved closer to her, "..Thank you for an amazing night Neu..I won't forget it." he said as he stepped back and began to leave her room to get back home.

[OverDrive]

Tsubasa was able to catch the bus that would take him to his university, on the route it started to pass the forest area. This reminded him of that beautiful date that he had with Neu yesterday, it was something engraved in his heart. However, as he stared into the forest he noticed something among the trees, a body.

"...No...that can't be a person.." he thought. "...Should I just ignore it...i'm gonna miss my lecture..."

He was very uncertain, leaving someone unconscious in the forest is dangerous, especially if that person is in need of help or is close to having a problem.

"..Why me..." he thought.
"Stop!" he said, causing the bus driver to pull over.

Tsubasa immediately gets off the bus and runs towards the area where he say the body. Upon arriving he notices that it was a young lady's body, so he immediately helps her to a sitting position against a nearby tree. "..Hey, you ok?" he asked, lightly tapping at her arms.

[Cece Lockhart]

What's... happening to me... this city... Vanguard... what's going on...

Join us..

Who are... you...?

In due time... you will join us...

The mysterious and echoish voice starts to fade away.

Wait... where are you?! What's going on?! Someone please! Tell me!

Then slowly within Noel's consciousness, she starts hearing a faint voice getting louder and louder. She soon starts realizing that it is coming from the real world and not in her thoughts.

"..Hey, are you ok?" The voice of a young man was telling to someone, most likely to Noel. She slowly started regaining consciousness with her field of vision slowly going from blurry to normal, clear vision. "Huh...? Where... where am I?" Noel slowly said, still weak from passing out and without any idea what happened. She lays against the tree the young man apparently put her against and she puts her right arm across her face. "How long was I even here?" Noel tried to remember but to no success. She absolutely cannot recall what she did after her fight with Seifer. Her other hand was holding her deck box but with only a few cards inside. The rest of the deck flew out of her deck box when she collapsed, now scattered and damaged from the time they were flown out. Some were even taken away from whatever breeze there was. "NOOO!!" Noel got up and started panicking and got up and tried to collect her cards. "They are all ruined...." Noel's eyes got watery and began to cry to herself that the deck she made all on her own was ruined. Even though she had the money to replace every card, these were special because she worked hard to earn those cards instead of using the easy way out and buying multiple copies via her wealth. However, Ashlei and a few other cards were spared from that fate which relieved Noel a lot. She turns around and sees the young man who appeared to have halted his own plans in order to help her. "Thank you, whoever you are. My name is Noel, what's yours? I know it's sudden but do you think you can help me go back to the hotel I am staying in? Don't get any funny ideas, I just don't want to be alone again in case I pass out!"

[OverDrive]

The girl regained consciousness in a frenzy, it was clear to Tsubasa that she was upset about something upon waking up. Upon further investigation he notices that she is upset over some Vanguard cards. It was clear that her deck was damaged, by whatever caused her to end up in her current state.

"I have no idea how long you were like this I only just saw you now, but it certainly does not look like you just fainted a second ago." he said, handing the girl a tissue.

"Sure I can take you to your hotel, also if I did try anything funny my girlfriend would kill me, besides I don't really see a reason to do anything, name's Tsubasa btw." he said, as he helped her out of the forest.

"Oh..you do know the address to your hotel right?" he asked.

[Beryl]

Satoshi walked up to the restaurant in the woods looking rather dapper in his suit. It had been a while since he had worn it; it was the suit he got long ago that introduced him to Sephirot in the first place. But it still fit him and fit him well. He stepped up to the host and arranged a table.

"I have a guest coming," he said. "One Miss Yugure Espoir." He made sure to use the Chosen Sword's official name, as it was likely recognizable. The host nodded. "Yes, we have served Miss Espoir before. I will direct her to your table once she arrives, Mr. Kurosaki. Until then, right this way."

The host directed Satoshi to a nice table with a view of the skylight. It was a romantic setting...which wasn't exactly what he was intending to present to Yukino, since she and Haruka were still an item, as far as he was aware. But he wasn't about to ask her, "Hey, you want to go to a local cafe?" If asked why, he had an answer, too.

"At least here, they get the upper crust, so seeing unusual people is the norm..." he mumbled to himself, looking over the menu while he waited. He had ordered a nice bottle of chardonnay for the two of them, mostly in the interest of complimenting a meal and sharing with a close friend. A habit that was probably going to bankrupt him again one of these days, but as far as he could tell, there was no stopping now.

[Cherry]

After seeing Tsubasa off, Yugure embarked toward the restaurant of the Forest - where Haruka and she had their first date. The time for pleasant memories wasn't now, and she didn't exactly come here to relax. Recruiting a hero had been successful, next was Satoshi. She would use this evening to gauge him, seeing if he was sound enough to help them directly. That, and she knew getting back in touch with her friends was a must. Haruka was another matter entirely she wanted to approach with a more... open mindset.

"I missed you." Was sent to Haruka. It was so, so late, and it didn't even register in her mind to give him that like she should have. The girl didn't know how to make it sincere either, how to make it sound like she really missed him more than anyone else.

Yugure was directed to Satoshi's table upon arrival.

[Beryl]

Satoshi looked up from drumming his fingers together and gave the best smile he could, which was admittedly a lot weaker than he would've accepted in the past. It was good to see Yukino again, although she was a lot more...it was hard to describe. The first word that came to his head was "rigid." She definitely had the stature of a soldier fully engaged in a mission, which made sense as far as he could tell. But it also felt, based on his prior experiences with her that he could recall, very distant, and honestly a bit off-putting. Still, there she was, seated in front of him.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" He gestured at the menu. "Order whatever you'd like, it's on me tonight."

[Cherry]

Yugure gazed at her beaming friend for a moment, then sat down after a short contemplation. "It has been awhile", the soldier echoed, skimming through the menu for a particular dish. The same meal she had ordered back on her first date was still here, and it made her happy. A content sigh, it was closed, then placed down quickly. Focus was back on the farmboy - member of the "triad" formulated by a distant memory. Hopefully, that wouldn't lead her to bias.

"Has the year been good to you?" The woman inquired, making conversation.

[Beryl]

The responses sounded almost robotic. It wasn't at all what he was expecting. So, maybe saying at least something a little bit deeper would change things. His year was...

Satoshi shook his head. "If I'm being honest, despite the fact that I found good work in America for a year while I was away, despite becoming the face of their agriculture and natural products, despite getting paid numerous sponsorships and somehow becoming wealthier than my wildest dreams..." He looked up at her, chin in his hand. "It kind of sucked." He shook his head again. "I spent so long away from my friends and everyone else because I wanted to get away. I wanted to stop thinking about Cray and all of those problems. Self-imposed exile. It..." He lost himself in thought for a moment, then nodded, affirming what he wanted to say next was correct. "It only half-worked. I got to stop thinking about things like that, but it also put me away from people I cared about deliberately. I didn't message anyone over the summer, and my phone never buzzed except for an ad job. It was like I was a completely different person who wasn't even Satoshi Kurosaki."

He leaned in a little. "Now that I've been back, I've noticed a lot of things, and one of the most significant is that while I was away, people moved on. Anything that used to bug us, used to be part of our lives, things we got recognized for...none of the ones who were regarded for it want to remember it. Seifer, for example." He sipped a bit of chardonnay. "Personally, when I look at things, I didn't either, but it was the only point of contact I could bring to try and converse with him once. Didn't work out at all the way I expected, but I guess that's because I've been away for a while."

He closed his eyes, letting the taste of the chardonnay settle a little more in his mouth as he considered this point. Seifer did seem at the very least wanting to try to be friends, and did give him his number, but it was a bit debatable as to whether they were able to be close in any capacity.

Satoshi sighed, remembering what else he had to say. "On top of that...Haruka and Hana..." He shook his head, correcting himself. "Haruka and Isabella, sorry. Both of them seem to have moved on with their lives rather smoothly as well. It's good for them, but it's an end that feels so...how do I put this..." He scratched his head. "Sudden? It's not that I don't think we could still be friends, but the closeness that I remember, that we all sort of developed is just..." He made a gesture with his hands that mimicked an explosion. "Gone."

He leaned back a bit. "So, yeah. Overall, my year's been a mixed bag where my fortune in business doesn't really match the friendships I used to have and want to have again. It's all kind of worthless if you have no one to share the fortune with, y'know?..."

Admittedly, he wasn't expecting much of a true response to all of this from Yukino. Despite how she chose to handle their last heart-to-heart, a lot more accomodating and gentle, she seemed much more as though she had a plan, as if he was getting observed for something. He didn't want to assume anything, but the curtness of her responses felt very detached to what he was used to.

[Cherry]

"Don't let the chains of the past weigh you down", was almost an immediate response. At the same time, it was heinously hypocritical coming from her of all people. She learned that trying to move on toward the future instead of living in a time that's gone was more beneficial. Mind you, she could relate to the idea of not wanting to let go of it that easily. That wasn't the entire point anyway. Maybe it was her imagination, but people confused her when it came to fortune. As a pampered queen, she still worked and showed off her effort, while still flaunting cash back in the gross days of her endlessly inflating ego. The woman didn't recall sharing said fortune with anyone but family, and didn't feel the same remorse.

Though, it isn't exactly the same case. She had family, which was more than zero people regardless.

"The way you make your time in America sound... You were living two lives, and contact with friends came with the life you stopped living."

Yugure was in no place to speak as if she were a consular. These were just her honest views of his words, not sure what to really do with them for a normal conversation. Why did she ask if she had no coherent answer, but advice? ... Or did he actually want advice? Ugh. Interacting with people normally instead of conjuring up war strategies wasn't this hard before. She gave a visibly annoyed scowl while lightly facepalming.

[Beryl]

Satoshi shook his head, mostly because this was what he had been expecting to hear. "That doesn't make me want to give up that life. I didn't have the money to support myself, but my friends would, no matter what. Sure, I have to take care of me, but being lonely sucks. It's like the life I traded for is worse by comparison. The cost of freedom."

The last phrase that left his mouth hung in his head for a while. The cost of freedom...that held pretty true with Cray, didn't it? Even with the return of the clans, it wasn't exactly the best for everyone. One would argue similarly to what Yukino proposed, which is that what came from moving forward was in the end more helpful than what was ingrained in the past, the one that had the clans sealed away. But the suffering and pain he felt, even for just that moment, told a different story from those that freeing the clans had helped. It forced him to change his ways so abruptly. This wasn't okay.

The waiter came by with their food. Satoshi had ordered steak and potatoes with gravy, as well as a heaping side of grilled asparagus, something he had acquired quite the taste for in America. That and pineapples.

As they left, he shook his head again, having noticed her slight annoyance at having to respond in such a fashion. "Sorry to burden you in any way with it. It's just how things have been. And if you think about it, if I was okay with how things were in America..." His eyes narrowed. "I would've stayed. But I didn't."

[Cherry]

Transforming Furikake Gohan was delivered to the queen. But she wasn't interested in it at the moment. Instead, she kept speaking: "Why didn't you just get a job here in Japan? And there's no need to apologize to me."

[Beryl]

Satoshi frowned. "I got work in America as a result of being recognized as a Hero of Liberation. I was given the job after the ceremony in New York. It's not as if I was planning to have a job while I was there. I would've been content, just sitting on that island in Hawaii, clearing my head."

He gripped his hair a little. This was turning out to be a bit more frustrating than he was expecting for some reason.

[Cherry]

Yugure felt like she wasn't really answered on why he didn't get a job in Japan. As far as she knew, the knowledge of the Liberation Champions and Hero were global. ... As far as she knew. If Satoshi was given a good offer immediately after the ceremony and had no leads in this country, she supposed it wasn't really his fault on jumping for the job...

"I'm sorry", she apologized, taking note of his aggravation.

[Beryl]

Satoshi shook his head for what felt like the millionth time that night. "Don't be. I..." He bit his lip. "I would've been fine working in Japan if it wasn't for what I was trying to avoid, which was bringing back the memories of that day. Seeing you guys...as much as I care about you all, at that time, it wouldn't have been good. I would've wanted to hang myself." He stared at his plate. "Even that stadium...we accepted our awards there, and I know I didn't look it, but I didn't want to be there. It was all coming back, and if I had stayed longer...who knows what would've happened."

He started eating a bit to get his mind off of the thought, but midchew his thoughts settled back to this meetup. This was admittedly a bit out of the ordinary, knowing Yukino. She would rather have guests at the mansion than go out with anyone, let alone anyone not named Haruka Nakahara. He swallowed and proceeded with his own lead-in question:

"Enough about me, though, I've talked a lot. What made you accept my invitation to come here tonight? This isn't something you've done in the past without a reason, y'know."