WHO: Kaname Chidori and Duo Maxwell.
WHAT: Kaname catches Duo something he shouldn't be.
WHEN: The day after Kaname's return to Japan.
MISSION: Have a normal lunch.
WATCH OUT FOR: Interrogation!

Seconds ticked by, long and drawn out with heady anticipation...the sounds of the bustling hall had faded into a distant buzz, and the view was filled by a digital display of dark green. The machine hummed as it processed, the long array of choice delectful items waiting patiently within the glass reflective case, one had been chosen, one would soon--

*BEEP* "/Please insert credits for item selected, inadequate funds/" Scrolled and sounded in an electronic uncaring heartless voice.

"Son of a-- you stupid machine!" Duo hissed as he leaned over, dark blue eyes glaring daggers at the malfunctioning tincan. "That's the second time! Inadequate funds my..." Frustration was clear in his voice as he grasped the edges of the oblivious vending machine. Duo paused as he cast a yearning glance at the bento box and juice box staring back at him. "That's it, you're going to cough up the lunch I tried to pay for, /one/ way or another." A hawkish look overcame his boyish face, and he started typing on the input board furiously. "You try to be a good citizen, and this is what you get...I tell you, think I want to break into stuff all the time?"

Anyone who passed would see Duo hunched over, busy at something that captured a lot of his attention. Anyone who tried to get by him would get a blunt, 'Try the next one! This one's busted!' and a scowl, enough to make them think it was better than harassing the other teenager.

"That's it...that's the spot right there..." A slow grin started to form.



Kaname Chidori had been out of school for nearly a week and a half now, and her return didn't come entirely unnoticed by her classmates. Between the incident that had occured at her apartment complex two weeks before, the Duo and Johnny fight shortly afterwards, and her eventual return on crutches, Kaname's re-appearance has sparked its fair share of rumors from the Jindai High student body.

Not that Kaname Chidori hasn't noticed.

And it's in part due to the whisperings of those students that student council vice president Kaname Chidori is in a terrible mood.

From the doorway of Class 3-4, she catches sight of him, and almost immediately Kaname's class rep sensors went off.

Duo Maxwell was up to no good.

Kaname barrels down the hallway in her crutches, beforen suddenly drawing to a halt behind Duo Maxwell. Brows narrowed, she looks down at him with the same menacing gaze she does Sousuke when he's preparing a smoke grenade trap.

"What do you think you're doing?! Are you /trying/ to break that machine?"


Just the last couple numbers in the string should do it and he'd have his lunch in no tim--

"/Kaname/!?" Duo almost hit his head against the machine, startled when he saw her figure looming over him moments before she opened her mouth. He had a sixthed sense about danger, and it was screaming all now for him to get /away/. He'd seen the teenaged girl pissed off, and he in no way wanted it firmly directed all at him. Except, from her thundercloud visage, he'd earned it. Turning about quickly, he straightened, backing up as if he might somehow hide any evidence of any wrong doing.

"I heard you were back!" Make no sudden movements, remain calm. Level tone. She can smell fear. "I was looking for you after I heard about what happened." Casual. Yes, very casual, he smiled just barely managing to hide any nervousness. He 'bumped' into the keypad.

"/Administrator command accepted, inventory purging beginning./"

Duo's eyes widened on hearing the voice, you could almost see the thought processes going on behind those charming blues before bento and juice boxes starting /flying/ rapid fire. The last command string was inputted thanks to his rear-end, and instead of the particular items, everything...was being vomitted up onto the floor. "Shit--" As much an admission of guilt as any she was about to get, Duo tried vainly for a few seconds to shove everything back up the shute, but when that was working and others began to notice the wave of food on the corridor floor...


"/Were/ you?" Kaname's voice is sharp, and full of skepticism. Sure, he might have been looking for her after the incident at the apartment complex, but it's clear to her that this is an obvious ploy to change the topic.

"Messing around with the vending machines like that is going to get you in a lot of trouble! Don't you know the school rules against this sort of thing?!" All right, so maybe the rules had been specific to rough-handling the machines, but this was practically the same thing!

And then a mechanical voice is emited from the machine. Blinking, Kaname looks from the machine, to Duo, from Duo to the machine--

Just in time to see the machine spill its contents all over the hallway floor.

"Aghh!"

And from down the hallway, Kaname can hear the rampage begin in the form of Ono-D's husky voice: "Whoa, free snacks!"

"Free snacks? Where?" Shiori's head pops out from the classroom; Maya's head follows suit.

Twitching slightly, Kaname slowly, this movement jaggered with hesitation.

And as she turns, Kaname can only look on in horror as a crowd of students stampede towards them.


"Were I what?" Suddenly all defensive, it was about all he managed to edge out somewhere inbetween his struggle to hold back the indomitable tide. Even he could see a lost cause, when food started to pile up about his feet. What a waste! Or...not. Like vultures to a freshly slewn carcass, some of the other students picked up right away on the torrent. A look of indecision marred his features as he looked at the food, then at Kaname, /then/ at the rush of students. He had to make a decision, and quickly as feet instead of yards seperated them from the onslaught. "I think we should continue this conversation elsewhere!"

Without asking for permission, and risking bodily harm, Duo reached out to grab Kaname's arm to half lift, half drag her off. A crutch may or may not have been lost in this hurried escape down the hall and to the nearest available class room. One they had put some distance between them (Duo conveniently ignored any protests of the class representative earlier) he found a wall to lean on with a large sigh, letting her go. A large rumble in his stomach made him wince, and glance down. "Yeah yeah, look, not my fault ok?" Talking to his complaining innards, he dared to see what kind of funny faces Kaname might be making at him. And by 'funny' it was really threatning. "For the record, it was technically broken before I touched it." The word 'technically' had all manner of suspicious tethered to it. To his credit, he kept a straight face, without any signs of coldsweat or getting ready to bolt out the door.



Kaname lets out a wail of surprise as Duo grabs for her arm. A crutch is lost somewhere in the stampede, leave Kaname flailing with the last remaining crutch as Duo lift/drags her off her feet. "H-hey!" she protests, "L-let go of me!"

And as soon as they're out of harm's way, let go he does; Kaname struggles to maintain her balance for a moment, but once she shifts her remaining crutch to her other arm, stands against the wall alongside him.

"Oh really?" she asks dryly, brow raised. "Well, since the two of us are alone now, do you /mind/ explaining /why/ you and Johnny had a fistfight in the middle of class while I was gone?"


Duo wasn't the strongest pilot of the bunch, but when he needed to heave-too, he could. And Kaname was already off-balanced due to her injuries. Speaking of which, once Duo was finished conversing with his very disgruntled stomach, he frowned and eyed the crutches. He was trying to decide if all of that came about due to the demolishment of her block, or if there was something else he was missing about her absence...

"Ah." Duo made a throat-clearing sound before rubbing his hand at the back of his head with an abashed sort of look. "You heard about that?" Heard? It'd been all over the local school websites and passed from phone to phone! Inspite of any of his intentions, rumours were thick as flies as to what had sparked the intense but short fight. One that had earned them both punishment in detention, having to clean and somehow fence some of the damaged property, along with apologies to the class, written. One thing though they got right, Kaname in some or fashion had been involved.

Plus. She had a new desk and chair waiting on her.

Any of his injuries were already healed for the most part by now, and he had looked far less worse for wear than Johnny. "Look. I'll be honest." Duo started up after a moment, already having run through his mind several possible lies that might have saved his ass a horrible punishment worse than death, "I don't trust him. I left for a few days," more like a week or more, "and when I get back your place was wrecked, you had vanished, and /his/ suit was seen in the area. He's probably got enough enemies with this White Unicorn business, and..." He was an EFA dog? Loyal and blind to the harm his so called military was doing? "You've been recently talking to him, I thought he would have known your wereabouts." Finishing up, "I guess he didn't too care for my bluntness."

He wasn't about to admit that it was his comment that sparked off the violent streak, but he'd landed the first blow either way!


Duo's confession catches Kaname off-guard; because the beginning of the fight had been cut off in the video clip she had scene, any dialogue that implied what they had been fighting over was absent. All she knew was what she heard through whispered hearsay between the other girls of class 3-4: that apparently, Johnny and Duo were somehow fighting over /her/.

And so, Kaname Chidori is placated--/before/ she can manage to bring up how the two had /snapped her desk in half/.

"Back when that AS attacked my apartment complex, Johnny protected me," she explains. "I know he's been up to a lot of things recently, but I don't really think /he's/ the problem."

It's the best explanation she can give without explaining that her next door neighbor was a psychopath who likely had ties to the very organization that was after her, and that someone who was likely /from/ this organization had been the one to attack her apartment complex.


"So it was an Arm Slave...?" A calculating, thoughtful look flicked across his features, the kind that meant Duo was slowly putting together some pieces of a puzzle. He pushed off of the wall and came to stand infront of Kaname, "Why would an AS attack your complex /specifically/?" She'd let a bit too much slip, and the other teenager was far from a slow one. "Is there something that you're involved in thats...dangerous?" Well. One had to only to examine the relationship that she held with Sousuke Sagara. Duo needed no insight to know that there was a lot more to /that/ one than people would be lead to believe. Sousuke was no mere war-nerd. Much like he was no mere business man's son.

"I know I haven't been around much, but if there is something...you can trust me to help you out if I can." Yeaaaaaaaah. No pilot here /at all/. And then he made a face, as if something bitter'd just landed on his tongue. "I'll let that Johnny guy off the hook this time," the grimace falling into a lop-sided smile, "I wont say I'm entirely wrong about him. But." He was still EFA. Loyal EFA. They might yet meet on the battlefield, and none of this would matter...he would do his duty. And be that 'shinigami'.


Kaname urks; Duo Maxwell is certainly coming close to suspecting something closely resembling the truth. If Sousuke were here--

If Sousuke--

If Sousuke were here, he'd probably keep her from saying anything. He'd find some suitable distraction to keep Duo from asking these sorts of questions. A smoke bomb, a flash grenade--/something/.

But the fact of the matter is, Sousuke /isn't/ here. And he hasn't been in awhile.

Kaname looks away, then lets out a small, almost inaudible sigh.

"My next door neighbor was a pilot," she says. "I don't know who he was working for or what he was doing, but he was on some sort of medication." A beat. "It made him unstable."

"When the attack happened, he was already in custody. It's possible that whoever was piloting that red AS was just trying to destroy whatever was left there."


Kaname was a civillian in so many ways, experienced soldiers or fighters wouldn't be letting slip these pieces of information...unless if in some twisted fashion, it was intentional. Somehow he hadn't gotten that impression from Kaname, either she was the greatest actress ever-- or just an 'ordinary' girl stuck in some extraordinary circumstances. Just how far he should stick his neck out here was a dicy thing, but she...was something of a friend. A brief taste of a normal life if ever the wars could subside. "Custody, who has him in custody?" Any bit of hesitation would urge him to lean foward, his hands on his hips with a concerned expression on his typically carefree face.

"I don't mean to sound like a naysayer in this but, there're a lot of different and far easier /ways/ to destroy a building rather than run it through with an AS in public!" Just how much could he get from prodding? How much.../did/ he want to get. "Did all this happen from that incicent?" Glancing at her lone crutch-- uh, crap, he'd have to find the other one before he left else she'd get back all angry. Duo was all too aware of the 'death' he was skirting by this distraction!

"And are you going to tell me his name?" He was watching her, closely. If she didn't give him that last bit, he'd find out on his own. He had his methods.


The barrage of questions come, one after the other. Mouth slightly agape, there's an expression of surprise on her face, as if it had never occured to Kaname that these questions might be asked at all.

"Look, I don't know anything, the people that went into his apartment, they weren't anyone I recognized," she snaps. As far as the his other question was concerned, she'd thought about it, too. It didn't make any sense for him to be next door, ruffling through his things and not just set the place ablaze. Something /had/ to have kept him from finishing whatever he was doing.

"It was raining that night. He /probably/ thought someone had noticed his AS in invisible mode." She had.

She doesn't answer his next question, instead moving on to the last. Before the incident in New York, she might not have said anything. But now--

"Cecil Ciele," she says.


If Duo was hurt by her snappish tone, it didn't show. Infact he was taking some of her earlier suprise instride, and reminded himself to pace his interest...He had several more questions now than he had satisfactory answers, but it was a starting point to do some digging on the side. The networks he had available were afterall useful for this sort of thing, though if those who tossed him his 'orders' got wind...it wouldn't do to have further scruinty on the already beleaguered girl.

"Thank you Kaname." His smile was a winsome one, and utterly genuine in that guiless manner. "I understand it's no simple task to entrust someone with this kind of information, though it's a trust you can rest assured isn't wasted." Cecil Ciele huh? "If it is that Johnny was responsible for seeing you out of that alive...then," not exactly happy to admit this, there was a hint of reluctance, "I would owe him some kind of apology." One more than just messing up her copied work. "It must have messed you up pretty bad to have you still on crutches though?" The question was casual, designed to not alarm...though if she fenced that last, he'd let it slide.

He'd learned quite a bit from Miss Chidori, and her knowledge of AS capabillities aswell.


Kaname's relieved that her explanations seem to have satisfied her classmate, but there's still a question of her own lingering in the back of her head.

"Why did you want to know?"

She looks to Duo for an explanation before continuing with an explanation of her own.

"It wasn't the attack that had me on crutches. After the attack, my dad wanted me to spend more time with him and Ayame, so I went to the United States to stay with them for awhile. I ended up getting mugged while I was there." That explains the injury. "I'll probably be like this for awhile."


It took her long enough to get around to throwing back at home, some questions-- but he was more than ready. "Like I said, I consider you a friend, and I was worried." His reassuring smile never strayed far from his face, "And let's just say I know some people. It wouldn't hurt to have others trying to russel up some more information, right? If it'd set your mind at peace, or prevent another disaster like that from occuring. Whose to say there wont be someone the next time around you can count on?" Not to get her all panicked and so forth, naturally. "And don't worry, they're good enough to make sure there's no papertrail."

Sounded sketchy? Maybe. "You'd be suprised what you can come across in a business!" Winking. Maybe that'd make Kaname rethink some suspicions. "You went to America?" A little suprised at that, "Now that's what I'd call ironic." Giving a little headshake, she went all the way over there after nearly being crushed by a building, only to get mugged and injured badly enough to be on crutches!

The chimes of the school bell indicated an end of lunch and start of the latter half of the day's classes. "Speaking of which...I should probably get you your other crutch." He ignored the fact his stomach was rumbling mournfully for the lack of food sustinance, and he was tempted to break the next period...Though he doubted Kaname would forget his earlier transgression more so, if he was also absent.


It's definitely suspicious, though this isn't the first time her friends have had questionable contacts. But Duo didn't /seem/ like a bad guy, and he seemed to have good intentions, too.

"Yeah, it's where my family lives." Or what's left of it, anyway. "Dad almost made me stay there, though I think the mugging was sort of a wake-up call; I probably would be just as safe /here/ as I would be /there/."

The school bell rings, and Kaname's head reflexively turns at the sound of it. "We'd better get to class." It's only then that she realizes it--she only has one crutch. She'd forgotten about it until just then.

But Duo's on the case. "Speaking of which...I should probably get you your other crutch."

"Thanks."


'Seem' was a word not strong enough to place much faith or hope in. Cecil at a glance, 'seemed' harmless.

"Don't worry about it! If I hadn't hauled you off, I think you might have been able to hang on to it." And then he belatedly realised, that was turning the topic back to what he'd avoided thus far. "Ah, right!" And Duo bolted back outside before she could say another word, swiftly and decisively ending any immeadiate attempt at backtracking. And by then, he'd have something in mind incase of an ambush on his return.