Tea and Dango

[golden_peony]

WHO: Kondou Isami, and possibly you as well~♥
WHAT: Isami is new hereabouts and is just taking tea. Wanna chat her up?
WHERE: Somewhere around the main camp.
WHEN: Early afternoon.
WARNING(S): Just the confusion, hilarity, or possible angst that might ensue.





[Isami not feeling boisterous for the time being, and after being told how it is that she ended up in this world after being in the modern era with modern appliances, she decided that she'd get to it whenever she'd get to it. If there was a battle to be waged, she'd fight and do her part to survive and help out this main camp.

Otherwise, she was now occupying herself with a nice, hot cup of tea and some sweets. Dango to be exact. She has a good pile of it on a large enough dish, and was happily enough munching on some after she had taken a sip of tea.]

Ah~ That sure does taste good~♥

Comments

[hakodate]

[It's kind of uncanny, how she's different enough to be her own person, but how all her reactions are just close enough to what he would've expected from his own Kondou that he'd be reminded every time he looked at her, even if he didn't know her name.

And as much as that reminder hurts, after how things ended for Kondou in their own time...it's the kind of bittersweet hurt that he can't just try to reject and hold away from him, because it's closer than he ever expected to come to having back what he's already lost. Kondou's presence - even in this somewhat different form - it's as comforting as it is painful, and he'd sooner take the combination than give up on the good parts to protect himself from the bad.]

Unlike some assholes I could mention, everyone here seems to have a good idea of talent when they see it. Everyone will be glad to have you, Kondou-san.

[golden_peony]

[She had a shortlist of people in her own past that she could mention as well, but that's what she thinks he's alluding toward. Not unthinkable, and they'd been underestimated before, but they did their best and were able to hold up their heads up high despite all the odds.]

I'm glad that you think so, Toshi. At least in your estimation I'm good enough, but to really come across all these people...

[A hint of "not feeling worthy" there? Perhaps, but she's learned to have enough resolve to deal with all the situations she has come across, and act accordingly.]

I'll have to show them exactly what I can do and prove myself.

[She closed her eyes for a moment, and thought about their situation, and where they had come from.]

Instead of protecting the streets of the Capital, we're doing something greater here aren't we? I know we used to have battles with the Choushuu, Satsuma, the Imperial army... but this is at a completely different level of doing things.

[Despite the difficulties, she had a positive outlook on things. It might be tough going, but it's not something she hasn't come across before. Toshi should know. Whatever all those people from history may think about her, she knows that action is what really counts, and she's had a lot of that with a whole lot more where that came from. She opens her eyes and gives him her most confident smile.]

You'll be fighting by my side when we do have to go to battle, won't you Toshi?

[She knew that her own Toshi would do so without question, because the question itself would have been stupid to begin with. Yet, this man didn't really personally owe her any sort of loyalty aside from her being a shadow of the man he had followed before coming here. It was probably too much to ask of a man that had only met her, but she knew she couldn't do this alone. She needed him, if at least to have some sense of normalcy, even if it wasn't normal for her to begin with. Demons weren't normal. Being a woman in which the people she knew were men wasn't normal, but she needed an anchor, and this man was... essentially it.]

[hakodate]

[And there it is again, that uniquely...Kondou-like attitude. The humility, the determination to prove herself, the mention of Hijikata's faith in her -

It reminds him so much of when they'd made the decision to go to Kyoto. Of standing by the riverbank, telling Kondou not to insult himself - the man Hijikata admired - in front of him, telling him that he wasn't interested in fighting a hopeless war, that if there wasn't a chance for their success in Kyoto then he'd make one, for Kondou's sake.

Of Kondou finally smiling.

I, too, believe in you who believe in me. Let's go to Kyoto.

That's how it always was with them, wasn't it? They both had to be their best because neither of them wanted to let down the other's faith in them.

He has to wonder if it's always been that way for this Kondou and her own Toshi, but...

It probably doesn't matter. What does matter is that she at the very least seems to have faith in him, to fight alongside her...and what matters is that he doesn't let Kondou down. Any Kondou.]

Can't very well leave you to do it yourself, now, can I?