The Long Road Up

Hiroshi didn't find the taste bad, he wasn't sure what he was expecting just from what he heard and such it seemed to depend on the person. However, oddly enough he didn't really desire to go all the way with them which surprised himself a bit as well. He had his suspicion as to why but he needed to process it once he wasn't in this situation.

"Someone needed that." Hiroshi teased a bit as he pulled away a bit, having to wipe his face a bit. "So you good for now? I don't think be a good idea to continue all the way, especially with no protection." Other stuff perhaps if she still wanted to since the least he could do was not keep them pent up.

Lara was breathing hard "Yu-yeah. That felt fantastic..." she huffs "No, I don't plan on going all the way. I'm saving that for someone special." she gets up, her knees a bit unsteady "I think I had best take a shower." she says, still covered in Hiroshi's spunk "Wanna come with?" she asks.

Hiroshi thought about it, then nodded. "Sure. Besides I had something else that's been on my mind I wanted to talk to you about." A relaxing shower did make it easier to talk about certain things at times.

Lara wanders over to the bathroom. She brings her Paragon Phone with her (they're water proof, dust proof, space proof) "What's on your mind?" she asks as she turns.on the bath water, then takes a wash cloth to wash the essence of Hiroshi off of her.

Hiroshi went to get a spare rag to clean himself as well, mulling over a bit before he started. "I've been thinking a bit, and given I'm gonna be turning 18 on the soon side a a legal adult, I'm going have to go purely platonic with Taki and everyone else in that age range. Messing with someone that age is going to get me hot water. Right now I'm in this strange in between phase of not quite a legal adult, but not a kid either. So its kind of my last time able to do stuff like this."

It was Japan so there was some leeway compared to other places like the States but it was probably best not to chance it. It was best for him to find people around his age for his outlets, or older as his preference were. In a way Jason's comment of Taki not being ready for a relationship could of been considered a blessing in disguise, perhaps and probably this was part of what they meant.

Lara thinks for a bit "Hiroshi, I'm American, so you know I'm gonna speak my mind, even if it hurts your feeling. You know this, right?" she asks.

"What you Needed to do, was get in a relationship with Fumitsuki, who was still Clearly head over heels for you, but..." she starts "You Kinds ruined any chance with her when you told her you didn't romantically like her that way anymore when she refused to be wished back to spend that Extremely rare chance to be with her real family and said she would come back to you at a later date and she did." she sighs "Only to find rejection and heartbreak."

Lara shakes her head "Neither I nor Taki will hold what happened here, or with Taki, against you, because we were the ones who started things, but you should Really find someone your own age, before people start calling you a lolicon." she finishes.

She walks over to Hiroshi and pats his back "I'm sorry for tearing into you like that." she say "But if it makes you fell better, you're gonna be my masturbation material tonight."

Hiroshi disagreed with her in part, but he let them speak their mind about things. It didn't matter in the end though he agreed with their last part. "Yeah I know. That's why I said what I said. "

He went to finish getting cleaned up; not that it took long. "I should be heading back to Taki's place, I did say to their father I was going to spend the night. Thanks for the talk."

Lara cleaned up, changed into a new pair of pajamas "Don't dismiss what I said so easily. Most people don't recognize a good thing when they see it." she says as she sees him out.

Hiroshi didn't believe in soulmates at least with how some used it definition wise. To him personally it trivialized the word love since it implied some people mystical auto connection. It was something you worked on and that connection could be formed with other people; would concede some had much better chemistry which gave them a leg up over others who had to work harder with their partner at it long term. That was it though. It was why he didn't believe in love at first sight ether, because without knowing them you only loved the image projected on them. Everyone was in love during the honeymoon phase where you didn't want to stab them with a pencil because their snoring was interrupting your sleep after your twelve hour shift.

He was more a believer hard work and copromise you had to work through then a perfect match. Though it made him realize something.

God damn I sound like a old man.

Hiroshi arrived back at Taki's place and headed straight to bed. He had Lot of things to do tomorrow. See about going to Cecil's people for some more information, visit Julius for things, and a few other things he may or may not do depending on what happened.

There was his b-day soon to, but he probably was going to absolutely nothing for it anyway; but it didn't hurt who and wouldn't be able to come. Regardless it wasn't long before he got to sleep.

When morning came, both Kyosuki and Taki were gone. There was a plate of food wrapped in plastic that read "Breakfast." in.Taki's handwriting.

As Taki was walking to school, she had a lot on her mind. She sees Lara and heads over to her friend "Hey you. How are- Whoa! You look tired." she says.

Lara looks over to Taki "Oh yeah? I was up all night, uh, studying. Because of that test." she says.

Taki nods "I have a very good feeling about this test today." she clenches her fist.

Lara chuckles "Bring it on!" she fires back. Something occurs to her "Oh, Hiroshi stopped by last night. He wanted to know why you had been avoiding him recently."

Taki looks over to her friend, surprised "And you Told him?" she asks, her face going a bit red.

Lara nods "Yeah. He's worried about you and I think that you avoiding him hurts him." she says to the young witch "So expect him to want to talk about that night you two had and Honestly? Yeah, you Should talk to him. Because you're very bad at emotional confrontations." she says.

Taki sulks a bit "Y-yeah... I suppose I need to... b-but it's just so... embarrassing... I didn't think I was going to make it past the next day and..." she leans im close to Lara "i didn't want to die a virgin..." she whispers.

Lara chuckles "If all were so lucky." she says "Oh! I have some good news! Mitsuki is coming back for a visit!" she says.

Taki blinks in surprise "Really? That's awesome news!" she says. Finally, some good news that doesn't have any bad or embarrassing news to follow.

The two of them see Tomeko and Sarah. Taki thought Tomeko looked cute enough, for an Oni, but in her school uniform, she looks adorable! Until she starts walking her spider walk using her hair. And Sarah looks just as adorable with her cute little wings and tiny horns poking out of her hair. The four of them catch up to each other and walk to school together.

Hiroshi had noticed he was the only one around, not too surprised. Taki had left him a note and been on their way which put him a good mood. It was a nice reminder she wasn't Really upset at him, just more Taki being Taki.

The talk with Lara did make him think maybe he should talk to Suki. Just because it wasn't the way she wanted didn't mean he didn't care about them. Issue was he didn't know what to say to them and the last thing he wanted was to give them false hope. He'd need to think it over for the day but if he could help them heal and get closure on his end he'd do so. He honestly had just left to Jason without talking to them, and that to him he agree with Lara Was a dick move.

He finished his meal and headed to the HQ to talk to Julius after getting cleaned up.  After this he didn't have Too many things planned. Perhaps he'd see if Musume wanted to hang out outside the HQ for a bit if she wasn't busy and in the mood to. Just as friends of course, he understood that's what she wanted. He was fine with it and honestly? He couldn't ask for a better group of friends.

When he gets to his apartment, there was a small box on his table with a note on it. It was from Ra. It read "Never settle for just 'Good Enough'!" and inside was a silver Necklace.

As he was heading to 'Hunter Land' as many Inhumans have taken to calling it "Hiroshi!" calls out a familiar voice. It was Mitsuki! She looked Exactly the same as she did when she left.

Hiroshi took the necklace, he wondered if it was just a normal one or there was something more to it. He text Ra about it later about the whole thing.

He went, he noticed Mitsuki and smiled. "Well this is a pleasant surprise. Good to see you."

She walks over to him "Indeed." she says "How have you been?" she asks "Lara has said that Sarah has gotten so much better." she says "How is Taki? Is she doing alright without her sister?" she asks. She was really worried about her friends, but could do nothing about it.

"I've been doing all right, just trying to get a few things in order today is all." Hiroshi explained as he started. "Taki is doing ok. She's actually getting training from the Hunters about learning magic spells but doesn't seem to be going as well. How about you?"

Mitsuki breaths a sigh of relief "I'm fine. It takes a lot to hurt me." she says "I wish I could have gotten away sooner. But my training has been, intense, and this was the soonest I could be away." she explains. A reminder that she was something else. Something dark.

"So, has things quieted down now that the Oni Overlord has been taken care of?" she asks "The rumors we've heard say that they have gone back to fighting amongst themselves to take over rule."

Hiroshi suspected another reason for Sarah's improved condition was her new friend she had. Purple probably was sucking all the negative stuff out Jack had said something along those lines.

He nodded a bit. "Compared to before, yeah. Definitely something to keep a eye on though just in case though." Taki was at full power so she should be more then a match for any normal Oni at the moment. It didn't exclude hiring outside help of someone really strong if they wanted Taki gone. Still that was the worse case scenario and he wasn't thinking those.

"I'm going to be doing some extra training myself when I get old enough, the Hunters that is." Hiroshi said, a bit more thinking. "I was honestly pretty skeptical at first, but they aren't the bad guys. Granted no doubt in my mind they have skeletons in their closet, but every governing body does. Only one who probably doesn't is the Unknown Heroes, simply because they're new and their nature of things."

Mitsuki nods slowly "They may not have any, but you can be certain their members do." she says "I have to be going. I have got some things to take care of before I meet up with Taki, Sarah, and Lara." she says "We should meet up later tonight." she starts off, giving Hiroshi a little wave as she heads out.

With that concluded, Hiroshi continued on his way to the HQ, hopefully Julius was actually there at this current time. He was a busy man though so it was hard to say.

The gate guard waves Hiroshi in, as he did with most Hunters and Freelancers. It was busy there, as usual, with Hunters coming and going. As for Julius, he was in his office, drinking tea and looking over reports.

Hiroshi didn't just barge in out of respect and being professional for the most part. He knocked. "It's Hiroshi. I had something I wanted to talk to you about, can I come in?"

Julius sets the reports down "Yeah. Come on in." he says. He was looking every bit the seventy years that he currently was. No longer looking like the mighty warrior who vanquished Dracula for good, but now just an old man. "What can I do for you today?" he asks.

It really did feel strange seeing them considering what they had faced and everything else but he supposed time was something few could defeat long as you were mortal.

"Well.." He started. "I wanted to join the Hunters when I became old enough. I have high expectations for myself one day, even if I'm not much right now. I heard if you aren't a native race you need a word of someone else so I figured its best to talk to someone first before just sending stuff in as well."

Julius nods "That's correct. But you already have many Hunters who've put in many good words for you and say they would stand by your decision to join the Hunters, should you choose to go full time." he says "So finding a sponsor isn't a problem."

He takes out a packet of papers "The application to join the Hunters. Read it, fill it out, but don't date it." he says "I'll sit on it until you turn eighteen, then I'll submit it, it'll get reviewed and accepted with no fuss, since you're already working with us as a Freelancer." he explains "Sound good?"

That part surprised Hiroshi a bit. He did? It was more because he kinda kept mostly to his own circle when around here but that was enough he supposed. It did make him kinda excited, he couldn't wait to tell Musume he'd be working with them, who know maybe they end up in the same cell.

But first thing first.

"Thank you and sounds good." He said. "I do have one question just more curious then anything. After I lost my dark powers, why did you keep me as a free lancer?" He wasn't the strongest or most skilled so the only conclucion he came up with was to keep a eye on Taki by third party but maybe there was something else he missed.